Southside@Main | Sunday Morning Services

November 29, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Luke 1.67-80 In this time of heaviness of spirit we'll rekindle the message of Advent. The Gospel narrative of Luke describes the waiting and fulfillment of Messiah's first coming in Zechariah's "Benediction" along with Mary's "Magnificat," the Angels' "Gloria" and Simeon's "Nunc Dimittis."

November 22, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 1.1-5 Have you ever heard someone remark "well, that says it all?" As we consider the third New Testament hymn we come across something that does "say it all." The most important question a person could ever ponder is to ask "Who is Jesus?" Here is the answer. The final answer.

Sunday, November 15, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Colossians 1.15-20 The second New Testament hymn we'll study is the beautiful Colossian ode to Christ about the meaning of everything. We're told that folks today are searching for meaning. This hymn explains all!

November 8, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalms, Hymns, Spiritual Songs Phil 2.1-11 The New Testament contains sections of text that were probably hymn quotes as the Christians used the familiar approach of writing and singing psalms to deities. We'll have a look at three of these excerpts in the next few Sundays. Have you ever asked someone "what were you thinking?" or had someone asked you the sam...

November 1, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Ephesians 5.25 What does it mean to "fall in love?" As we think about the third kind of love in Greek we'll perhaps rush in as fools where angels fear to tread! Why is Christ's love for the church an example of this love?

Sunday October 25, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 16.26-27 The second word used in the New Testament for love is philei - which means brotherly love, and gives us the city name Philadelphia. In a remarkable statement Jesus tells his disciples that God loves them with this kind of love and mentions that they have loved Him with this kind of love. How is this different from the agape love we should...

October 11, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Corinthians 3.3-13 "How do I love thee? let me count the ways" says Elizabeth Barrett Browning. As we consider the 3 kinds of love in the Bible we'll start with the famous agape term (which is the New Testament rendering of the Hebrew chesed from last Sunday,) and the classic Corinthian list of the ways that love is shown by our behaviour.

October 11, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalm 92.1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord! What a poignant statement this is in the midst of an unsettling time. How can we practice this incredibly pertinent encouragement from the psalms? How is it good? How can it echo our longings?

October 4, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Acts 17.16-34 If we were looking for a situation in the Bible that most closely resembles our days and times we might be impressed by the striking parallels in Paul's lecture at a place called Mars Hill. We'll see how we can be guided in our understanding of our times by this classic talk.

September 27, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Ephesians 5.19; 1 Corinthians 14.15 One of the great challenges in CoVid times for worship is the prohibition of singing! We understand the reason but we find it hard not to sing, don't we? And there are those people we know who sing their way through life. The Apostle Paul encourages us to speak to one another, to communicate with one another and he cites...

September 20, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Luke 9.1 “Law and Order will be right back.” was my favourite segue from commercials to a long running T.V. show. The two are indeed a pair and one without the other is incomplete. This is true in a grand scheme as we sort out our lives and deeper truths of what is beyond this life and this world. Power is one of the broken signposts that we will have a loo...

September 13, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 18.38 "What is truth?" asked Pilate, a probing philosophical and religious question. "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?" asks the court, a question of facts and evidence. Another broken signpost in our assortment of longings that point us forward.

September 6, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 8.36 "Freedom" is a cry of humanity. But what exactly does it mean? Do we really long to be free? Free to do what? Free to be what? Jesus piques our interest by saying that if He sets us free we will be free indeed. Let's expose that longing.

August 30, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalm 65 Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Just so! But where does the beholding come from? Beauty is one of the human Longings that point forward as this one actually points in all directions.

August 23, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Micah 6.8 We're turning this week to signposts to the future that we find in the human experience. These longings are Creator placed and together point to some time future when we feel they must be realized. The first of these is the longing for justice. We hear it first from the Old Testament prophet Micah.

August 9, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Romans 1.1-7 C.S. Lewis describes our longings as "not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.” We long for Good News. And this is the very theme of the Bible - it's called "Gospel." But is the Gospel what we thought? There's a provocative quest...

August 2, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Mark 2.23-28 As the days of the week typically go we have become familiar with this acronym: "Thank God it's Friday." Is it just about getting finished with work and enjoying the weekend to come or is there something human about the rhythm of work and rest that is one of the longing experiences that pull us forward? Let's look at the longing of Sabbath this wee...

July 19 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 1.13-14 I don't suppose you have ever actually longed for a Tabernacle, have you? But tucked away in this story of camping old school is a lesson that changes everything for us. Honestly everything. We've often been saying for the past while that it's not about us going to heaven but about heaven coming to earth. This week's teaching should be the realizatio...

July 12 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Genesis 2 Does something in us long for Eden and the unspoiled original Creation? What are we longing for then, and what story seems true to us while saddened? Is that a story that will come true? Will its sadness come untrue? How and When?

July 5 2020 Speaker" Ian Campbell To view the video referred to in the sermon watch to 9min 40 sec at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoAE15gtEzg&list=PLwVwXuskVqrMkS7RgQ8BhNQy7XYYqeYTZ&index=2&t=0s “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?” So asked Sam Gamgee (The Return of the King.) What a beautiful question. Ecclesiastes 3.11 tell...

June 28 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 2 Peter 3.10 Is it.. the end of the world? Peter tells us that the end of the world will come spectacularly. What do we know about how and when the end will come? Will it be soon?

June 21 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Peter 3.13-18 When we disagree.. As we embark on a study on “end times” we can acknowledge that we have some differences of opinion as in several areas of understanding of the Scriptures. What do we do about that? What is critical for us to agree on and what can we “agree to disagree” about? Let’s sort this out a bit as we get going.

June 14 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Before we take a deep dive into the broad Biblical themes of longing and hoping in the summer months we'll take a quick look at one more passage from Peter. This time it's his second letter and we'll get our feet wet on future things as we study chapter three. 2 Peter 3.1-2; 13 The end of the world as we know it? Peter reminds us that we are looking for new heave...

June 7 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Peter 5.7-10 Is there a more appropriate term to use describing the spirit of our times than Peter's word "anxiety"? And his simple words for how we deal with this along with a powerful Biblical truth - he tells us to care our anxiety on God because He cares for us! Wouldn't this be a wonderful prayer for our brothers and sisters who, given even this week's even...

May 31 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Acts 19.1-7 On this Pentecost Sunday (50 days after Passover) we step aside from Peter for the moment and yet we stay with the subject "Living Hope." One of the critical aspects of our Christian faith and hope is the understanding that Jesus' presence and power is continued by the Holy Spirit. Paul encountered some Christians who responded to his questions about t...