There are a few words that were written on a tombstone in England. This is how it reads: "Beneath this stone, a lump of clay, lies Annabella Young who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue." Presumably May 24 is the day that she died. The tombstone reflects something of the struggle that we face in controlling our words, using our words for good purposes. Someone once asked, "If someone paid you $10 for every kind word that you spoke about other people and they also collected $5 for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?" Today, out of the book of James 3, I want to think with you about how we can make our words count.

Extra reading: Proverbs 26:18-28

Preacher: Bill Dyck

We don't like things that are false. We don't like spam emails or calls. We don't like people trying to sell us things that are not the real thing. We don't like getting duped and we learn to be guarded because it seems like all those things are on the rise. I was thinking that that may be how many people in our world think and feel about the Church and about Christians in general. There have been many fakes, they say, who aren't real. They're not authentic and what they say and do doesn't match. It understandably bothers people, it seems like hypocrisy of the highest order. We can't change what's out there. But we can make sure that our faith is real, to make sure that we are real. That's what I want to talk about here today. Out of James 2. It's just a question: Is your faith for real.

Extra reading: Isaiah 49:1-7

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Preacher: Andrew Hubbard

Extra reading: Deuteronomy 16:18-20

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Isaiah 55:6-13

I know a woman who got really sick and thought it was an issue with her stomach. It got so bad she had to go to the hospital. It turned out to be nothing serious and dissipated shortly after going to the hospital, but not before the doctors had taken all kinds of images. They found that everything was dissipating, but they said, "we see a couple spots on your lungs that you really should get checked out". They sent her home because her other symptoms just vanished, which in fact turned out to be lung cancer in its early stages which they were able to catch and treat. I think we really are probably consistently poor at figuring out the trials and negative circumstances in our lives. We see with such limited vision. but God is bigger. I want to talk today about why trials are the greatest thing of all, out of James. We will walk through the book of James in coming weeks and will call this series "keeping it real".

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-10

We find ourselves sometimes in waiting rooms. What's interesting about the waiting room is that nobody is in a waiting room any longer than they have to be. Toronto General Hospital has a very nice waiting room, nice coaches, nice reading material. But nobody is in that waiting room one minute longer than they have to be. Nobody comes in from the streets and just sits there and reads the good magazines. I find the same in my dentist's office. I find the same at my mechanic. Nobody comes to a waiting room just to hang out. We find ourselves as God's people in a waiting room. And there are whispers that come to us from God in the waiting room. I wanna read out of Matthew 24.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Isaiah 43:7-13

We've been going through different themes through this year's advent Sundays. Today's theme is Peace. What comes to your mind, what issues, what situations are in need of peace? Where are you longing for peace? Today I will preach from Isaiah 9:1-7 on the things that make for peace.

Extra reading: Luke 1:67-79

Preacher: Andrew Hubbard

I want to talk about good news. Good news is hard to find these days. There's big issues that everybody faces. Economic uncertainty, the reality of wars, and everybody feels it. People have to push a little harder through the messaging just to find good news. But everybody wants good news. Sometimes we're scraping the bottom of the barrel for good news. We get happy about Apple bringing out their 15th iPhone, or Taylor Swift coming to Toronto in 2024. This is not life-changing news. It might bring heart palpitations for a few moments. But what we need is life changing good news. That's what everybody needs and longs for it. So on this third Sunday of advent I wanna talk about dying for good news. Not just for us, but I see a world that is lost, longing for good news and really struggling to find it.

Extra reading: Micah 5:2-5a

Preacher: Bill Dyck

People use the word "freedom" to describe many different things. The word "freedom" can be used when you find a better place to rent, or entering retirement. Children who grow up say that, or those fleeing persecuting government. It's a word that's used in many different ways. When you look at what God says about that word, though, our own description of "freedom" is kind of shallow. We use it to describe real experiences and things we look forward to. But what God describes goes deeper, reaches further, is more promising. On this second Sunday of advent, we want to really think more about this important word, freedom, that the Christ child brings us. So may the Lord just apply this to our hearts out of Isaiah 61:1-4.

Extra reading: Isaiah 9:1-7

Preacher: Bill Dyck

God has created us for a purpose. We are created with something specific in mind. This is the last sermon in our series about living faithfully amid spiritual decline. In such an environment, thoughts of God's purpose for us aren't as common as doing what I want. But walking in the purposes of God, we do the greatest and most desirable things that we can with our life, bearing eternal fruit. In Revelation, at the end of all time, an angel declares through the whole earth, "Fear God and give him glory for his hour of judgment has come." Just one more opportunity at the 12th hour for people to yield to the purposes of God. The heart of God for every one of us is to yield to his purposes. That verse begins with, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. They enter into rest and their works will follow them." Only the deeds we do in Christ are eternal and put that up against other pursuits in our life. So we will read from 2 Kings 8.

Extra reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

Preacher: Bill Dyck