Douglas Mennonite Church

March 15: The Father Who Runs Scripture: Luke 15:11–32 Speaker: Paul Walker Jesus tells a striking parable about two sons and a father whose love refuses to be bound by human expectations. The younger son demands his inheritance early—a shocking and disrespectful act, as it’s akin to saying, “I wish you were dead.” He cashes out, ignoring his responsibilities, and squanders everything in a far cou...

So often people think the important thing is to have the right ideas about Jesus. Jesus flips the script on this sort of thinking when he closes his Sermon on the Mount with the parable of the wise and foolish builders. Jesus says, “Anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (v24)” The central question of this parable is thi...

March 1 — It’s More Than Words Scripture: Matthew 7:15-23, Galatians 5 Speaker: Pastor Joe Welty In our day, we sometimes conflate appearance and reality. If someone tweets the right things, or has the right appearance on Instagram— we might assume a reality that is true of that person. But curiously Jesus says, ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but onl...

February 22— The Two Paths Scripture: Matthew 7:13-14 (1 Corinthians 3:12-15) Jesus is nearing the end of his Sermon on the Mount. And as all good preachers do— Jesus begins to describe what is at stake if we choose to not to put into practice his teaching. There are two paths, one that is wide and easy and the other difficult. The narrow way is the way of walking with the person of Jesus. Jesus i...

February 15— The Golden Rule Scripture: Matthew 7:12—- James 2:8; Romans 13:10; Gal 5:14 The Golden Rule sums up the whole ethic of Jesus: our calling as followers of Jesus, from morning to night, is to do to others what you would have them do to you. Jesus tells us that this sums up— it fulfills— the purpose and intention of the Law & Prophets. Jesus does not abolish the law (5:17–20) but est...

February 8—Ask, Seek, Knock Scripture: Matthew 7:7-11, James 4:3 In the Gentile world, the gods were seen as distant and indifferent to the needs of humanity. Pagan practices of prayer largely centred around a quid pro quo approach to deity management. The thought was if you said enough words or did the right ritual the gods would be appeased and compelled to move on your behalf. Jesus has previou...

Pearls Before Swine Speaker: Lorelle Perry Scripture: Matthew 7:6, 1 Corinthians 5:12 We tend to think that if we have life changing information, it should be shouted from the rooftops or be trending on Twitter. This is especially the case when have formed a judgement about an issue or topic. But curiously, Jesus says “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, t...

January 25— Quitting the Judgement Game Speaker: Pastor Paul Walker Scripture: Matthew 7:1-5; James 4:11-12 If there is one thing we do as humans, it is judge others. Research tells us that it takes just  one-tenth of a second for people to judge someone and make a first impression.3 We then use our  judgements to form how we engage a person. We live in a system in which everyone judges themselves...

Sermon: O Worrier, Consider The Lillies  Date: January 18, 2026  Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34  Speaker: George Veith  We live in an age of worry. Studies from Statistics Canada tell us that 1 in 4 Canadians report to have moderate to severe anxiety. Gen Z and Millennial Canadians between 18 and 39 years old reported the highest levels of anxiety, loneliness, depression and stress of any age group (3...

Sermon: Two Masters  Date: January 11  Scripture: Matthew 6:19-24  Speaker: Paul Walker  We who live in consumeristic cultures must remain aware that we live in a context that is perpetually trying to get us to be discontent with what we have. We are conditioned to chase after more. We are trained to get our value from money, possessions, and material gains. Jesus tells us that “You cannot serve b...

Sermon: Prepare the Way  Date: January 4, 2026  Scripture: Matthew 3  Speaker: George Veith  In Matthew 3 we meet Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. John the Baptist’s role was to prepare the way for Jesus. He was the embodiment of Isaiah’s vision of a “voice calling in the desert to prepare the way of the Lord”. (Is 40:3) John called the people of Israel to repentance and enacted this through bapti...

Sermon: Sing In Exaltation  Date: December 28  Scripture: Luke 2:8-20  Speaker: Paul Walker  Worship is not just something that happens at church. Worship is a state of your heart— which is expressed in our thoughts, words, and deeds. Look at the Christmas narrative and see how the central characters expressed their worship in a variety of ways: Mary was moved to sing a song of gratitude to God. J...

Christmas Eve Candle-light service  Sermon: Joy Of Every Longing Heart  Date: December 24  Scripture: Selected Scripture Passages from Luke 1-2  Speaker: Paul Walker  At the heart of the Christmas story is longing. Elizabeth and Zechariah long for a child in their old age (Lk 1:5-25). Mary longs to be the servant of the Lord (Lk 1:38) as she sings about her God and Saviour whose mercy extends “fro...

Blue Christmas Evening Service  Sermon: Far As The Curse Is Found  Date: December 21  Scripture: Matthew 2:13-23 Speaker: Paul Walker  The Magi do not return to Herod. The response from Herod is to eliminate any possible challenge to his power-hold over Israel. Herod commands that all male baby boys under two years old be put to death. It is a tragedy. Perhaps no event in the gospels challenges ou...

Sermon: The Unexpected Worshipers  Date: December 14  Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12  Speaker: George Veith  We often picture the Magi as three Kings or three wise men who arrive alongside the shepherds in an epic Nativity evening of worship on an O Holy Night. The story that Scripture tells us is far more complicated. For starters, the Magi arrive on the scene after the birth of Jesus— likely years af...

Sermon: A Life Interrupted  Date: December 7   Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25  Speaker: Paul Walker  Joseph was pledged to be married to Mary. As was the Jewish custom during the betrothal period, Joseph was probably away building a home and preparing for his marriage to Mary. Joseph surely had plans and dreams about what his future would look like. However, God had other plans for Joseph. Joseph’s li...

Sermon: Bad Blood  Date: November 30  Scripture: Matthew 1:1-17  Speaker: Paul Walker  The Gospel of Matthew opens with a genealogy— or a family tree— of Jesus the Messiah. In our modern day, we tend not to care too much about genealogies and long family trees. We might even view genealogies as incidental information, but this list of Jesus’ family tree tells a story about Israel, a story about us...

Sermon: What do you see?  Date: November 23  Scripture: Matthew 6:22-23, Matthew 9:27-31  Speaker: Paul Walker  Jesus taught us that what we see is shaped by how our eyes are trained to see the world. If our eye is bad, our sight will be corrupted. We need good eyes to see the world rightly. When we see things, we project our own biases upon what we are seeing. What we see out there is interpreted...

Sermon: The Heart of the Matter  Date: November 16  Scripture: Matthew 6:19-24 Speaker: George Veith One of the ingrained messages we receive in our culture is to do all you can do to get rich and stay rich. We spend a majority of our lives in the workforce earning and storing up wealth in the hope of an eventual retirement. Into our modern day consumeristic context we hear an invitation from Jesu...

Sermon: “And When You Fast…”  Date: November 9  Scripture: Matthew 6:16-18 Speaker: Paul Walker  Jesus comes out of teaching on prayer and begins to talk about another spiritual practice. “When you fast…”. Jesus doesn’t say, “IF you fast” but rather he assumes that people will be regularly fasting. This might strike us as odd in our modern North American context that tends to disparage the idea of...

Sermon: Deliver Us  Date: November 2  Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13  Speaker: Paul Walker  This last line of Jesus’ prayer reminds us of our own frailty and the reality that evil is a force from which we need deliverance. We live in a broken world and have an enemy —the satan— which tempts us to fall. God does not tempt (James 1:12-13), but God does allow us to be tested and go through trials to refin...

Sermon: Forgive Us  Date: October 26, 2025  Scripture: Matthew 6:9-15  Speaker: Hans Boge Sr.  The Lord’s Prayer contains, at this point, a most unusual thing: a clause which commits the prayer to actions which back up the petition just offered. ‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ Prayer and life are here locked indissolubly together. This isn’t saying that we...

Sermon: Give us this day, our daily bread  Date: October 19  Scripture: Matthew 6:11, Mathew 7:9-11  Speaker: George Veith  There many ways you can focus your prayer i.e., worship, thanksgiving, confession, consecration. Jesus teaches us that we should focus at least a part of our prayer time in petitioning or asking God to meet our needs, referring to the phrase ”daily bread.” In the historical c...

Sermon: Your Kingdom Come Date: October 12 Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13 Speaker: George Veith Jesus came announcing and enacting the Kingdom of God. Every parable, every teaching, and every personal encounter recorded in the Gospel’s ultimately tells us about King Jesus and his arriving Kingdom. It is perhaps surprising that Jesus asks his disciples to pray for the Kingdom to come, and the will of Go...

Sermon: Hallowed Be Your Name    Date: October 5        Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13 Speaker: Paul Walker Of all the lines in the Lord’s prayer, the phrase “Hallowed be Your Name” is one of the more confusing statements. We rarely use the word “hallowed” in our common day vocabulary— which means to honour, sanctify, set apart, and treat with the highest of respect. And even if we do, we might misinte...