From the Pulpit

Join Dr. Jim Rennie as he shares a message on the third Sunday of Advent: Hope.  Speaker: Dr. Jim Rennie

According to the 2020 Global Peace Index, Canada is currently the sixth-most peaceful nation in the world as it enjoys both positive peace, “the attitudes, institutions, and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies,” and negative peace, “the absence of violence or fear of violence.” In other words,  Canada has peace because it has cultural building blocks in place that  disc...

Everybody wants to be happy, a desire that’s understandable and expected when we remember what Scripture teaches about human origins. In the beginning we were made good creatures by a good God to enjoy his goodness unendingly. Certainly a joy-filled start! But when Adam and Eve believed the lie that something greater existed outside of what had been provided, they turned their backs on the source...

In the book of Job, we read how God removes his hand of protection from Job, opens him up to attacks of Satan, and then seemingly leaves Job hanging in the dark, without an explanation for why God does this. And from chapters 3 until 32, Job and his three friends wrestle, argue, and debate. Job’s friends are convinced that Job must have done something terrible that deserves God’s judgment. Job dou...

Join Lew as he walks through the Book of Deuteronomy to study and observe Moses.  Key Passage: Selected passages from Deuteronomy Speaker: Lew Worrad

Join Lew as he walks through the story of Balaam. Key Passage: Numbers 22-24 Speaker: Lew Worrad

Whether we realize it or not, whether we understand it or not, and whether we believe it or not, we are all at war (Eph 6:10–11). This particular war is not over territory, money, or national peace. This is a war for the human heart and it has been raging for millennia with countless casualties. The Creator God wants our hearts—our reciprocated love, our unwavering loyalty, our undiluted adoration...

Most cellphones today come equipped with passcodes, facial recognition software, fingerprint scanning capabilities, and multistep-step user  verification. Why? It’s all for the purpose of ensuring that whoever is accessing the information stored inside the device is the person who should be accessing all the information stored inside the device! We understand that failure to identify—or mis i...

As one reads the gospel according to Matthew, a pattern can be identified in how the author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, presents his account of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, alternating between  stories about Jesus and teachings of Jesus. The book opens with the story about Jesus’s birth and ministry preparation (chs. 1–4) followed by a robust teaching on kingdom principles (chs. 5...

Anyone walking into a church baptism service might be confused about what was happening. Hot tubs are for back yards or for spas, but in a church? “What is going on?”, they would ask in their confusion, and understandably so. But some believers who should know what is going on may have a shaky understanding as well. They might know that all believers are commanded by Christ to be baptized, and tha...

The thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s gospel records an abrupt shift in Jesus’s teaching ministry. Responding to his formal rejection as messianic King by Israel’s leadership (12:24), the Lord pivots from a clear declaration of the nearness of the kingdom of heaven to seemingly simple stories that, as he explains to his disciples, are meant to reveal new kingdom truths to some and, at the very same...

Up to this point in Matthew’s gospel there has been a consistent and clear proclamation of the nearness of the kingdom of heaven (see 3:2; 4:17; 10:7). Jesus’s ministry had been  one characterized by urgency and excitement, rebuke and invitation. However, opposition had been brewing and, in chapters 11 and 12, it came to a head as Israel’s leadership looked Jesus in the eyes and declared on b...

When I was a kid, I used to hate going on road trips. I would get really bored, and even when there were things like books I wanted to read or video games I wanted to play, I used to have fairly significant motion sickness, so those options weren’t usually viable for more than a few minutes. So whenever we were going on a trip, my mom would take some steps and make preparations to try and make it...

It’s been said that failures are like a compost heap — they stink but are the most fertile part of the garden! We’ve all experienced failure to varying degrees of severity and publicity, making mistakes in things we’ve thought, said, and done. Sometimes the blunders are containable, rectifiable, and forgettable. Other times, however, they’re not. At those times, failures do , indeed, stink. But th...

Please note there were technical difficulties with the audio during the recording of this sermon. Matthew 12 reads like the transcript of the final scenes of a long courtroom drama— The People v. Jesus of Nazareth . It’s a trial that as arrested the attention of the entire nation of Israel. This otherwise nondescript Rabbi burst onto the scene claiming to be the long-awaited messianic king and bol...

Join Lew Worrad as he dives into the book of Esther on August 29th, 2021 Key Passage: Book of Esther Speaker: Lew Worrad

It’s amazing how the physical presence of an employer can impact the work of their employees. When the boss shows up frivolity fades, laziness  vanishes, focus sharpens, and productivity increases. The mere presence of one with authority over jobs and power to sign paycheques causes a change in behaviour. As Christ followers, we believe that God, as Creator and Sustainer of all things, i...

On July  23, the Canadian women’s eight rowing crew won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The team is made up of athletes ranging in age from 24 to 35. They’re from different hometowns, represent different sport clubs, have been shaped by different coaches, different families,  different hobbies, and different preferences. How does a group of people that differ so significa...

In our study of the seven churches of Revelation we have come to the  last church. Laodicea was a big town, a rich town. People loved their  leisure, living in the lap of luxury. Laodicea reminds us of our own  community, affluent and living the good life, but neglecting the Lord. However, the church is called to resist the influence of the world  around it. But the Laodicean C...

Christianity asserts a number of seemingly counter intuitive truths. For example, wealth comes through poverty, maturity through childlikeness, exaltation by submission, life via death, glory by suffering, and freedom through enslavement.* Truths like these are difficult for us to grasp because our sinful nature screams rebellion and our ignorant world preaches their opposites. Another such realit...

This sermon was preached by Pastor Josiah to Stone Ridge Bible Chapel in Hamilton, ON on July 18, 2021. Key Passage: Ecclesiastes 5:10–20 Series: N/A Speaker: Josiah Boyd

A  common practice for many sport teams is to watch film from previous  games. Oftentimes a coach will lead these viewings, stopping the tape  from time to time to point out successes and failures, strengths and  weaknesses, areas to be applauded and areas to improve. The purpose  behind these sessions isn’t humiliation or confrontation but, rather, refinement, motivation,...

For the past several weeks we have been studying the letters to the Seven Churches found in the second and third chapters of the Book of  Revelation. There are two bed rock things we must keep in mind as we study these churches: First, they were  historical churches , that is they existed as  real churches with real pastors and real buildings and, second, they are at the same t...

Avid  hikers are used to receiving warnings before setting off on their  favourite trails—“beware loose stones,” “watch for bears,” “look out for  falling trees.” However, in 2021, apparently there’s a new hazard that  demands caution: The selfie. Says one New York news outlet, “what many  people don't think about is that every year dozens of people across the  countr...

Polycarp (AD 70–155), the bishop of Smyrna, was urged by the Roman proconsul to publicly renounce his faith in Jesus or face execution for the amusement of the anti-Christian culture of the day. In response to the deadly ultimatum, the man of God said: “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me any injury. How then can I blaspheme my King and my  Saviour?” Thus, the fire was...