St. Pete's on Repeat

Do you love where you live? I would guess that you do, even if you complain about it. In fact, complaining can be evidence that you care! So, whether you gush about your city or groan about it, chances are pretty good that you feel pretty strongly about it. But do you really "love" it? God has a different definition for love than we normally do, and in the example of Jonah we ese the importance of...

Why don't people say, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to ____," anymore? I suspect it has a lot to do with "virtue signaling." Most people don't care what you pray about, unless they see what you care about by what you spend your time doing. Christians can be especially susceptible to "virtue signaling," and that's exactly what the Apostle James addresses in chapter 2 of his letter. Listen to thi...

Can you be a Christian without going to church or being a member of a congregation? Technically, yes. But the ceiling of your personal, spiritual growth and the service you can offer to God gets exponentially smaller without it. God created us to be in relationship with others, not least of all with fellow believers. That's why we have a strong desire to cultivate genuine relationships with each o...

What if Jesus never rose from the dead? What would the world look like? What would your life look like? Spoiler alert: it wouldn't be pretty. There'd be unresolved guilt and unmitigated fear. There'd be an aimlessness and purposelessness that would make this life hardly worth living. But Jesus has been raised from the dead, just as he said! Listen to this week's sermon to hear what a difference Je...

Have you ever wanted to learn the guitar? Brace yourself for pain! Your fingertips are going to hurt - maybe even bleed! That is, until you develop calluses. Do you want to train to run a half marathon? Then brace yourself for pain! Your muscles and joints will ache. But after a few weeks (or months) you'll be able to run 5 miles without wanting to die. Do you want to be a stronger Christian? Be c...

I suffer from debilitating arachnophobia and thalaassophobia - the fears of spiders and deep water (It's a good thing I live in Alberta...). What phobias do you have? Fear of heights? Fear of public speaking? What about the fear of Jesus? In this week's sermon, I argue that even Christians suffer from a fear of Jesus and what he means for our lives. Nicodemus is a great example of it - not only th...

Forget UFC, MMA, WWE, this is the fight I would pay to see. Jesus was in a one-on-one dogfight with the devil, and did what you and I consistently failed to do - he won! Listen to this week's sermon to learn what Jesus' victory means for you.

Lent is tricky. There are so many mechanisms in place to make us feel bad about ourselves. But if regret and guilt and shame are the only things you take away from this season, then we have missed the point of this season. Listen to this week's sermon to hear what Lent is all about.

Have you ever heard the expression, "You are the only Bible some people will ever read"? It is so true. There are so many people in your life who have never bothered to crack open the Bible, but who nevertheless form their impressions about Jesus entirely based on what they see and hear from you. Is that scary? Intimidating? Daunting? It should be! We can't even begin to live up to Jesus' perfect...

Did you know that we don't go to church to become better people? We don't go to church to serve our community either. We don't even go to church to get to know the Bible better. The number one reason we gather every week has everything to do with what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus: "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Listen to this week's sermon to hear the heart...

Do you know what baptism and biathlon have in common? In a word: sin. Sin is missing the mark - anything short of a perfect bullseye. It is not enough to get close. It is not enough to hit the target. God demands perfection. Not even world-class biathletes are perfect on the range. But in spiritual matters, we don't get 3 misses; we don't have the option of skiing a circle of shame to make up for...

There are so many unanswered - and unanswerable - questions when it comes to the Wise Men: Who were they? Where did they come from? What did they see in the sky? How could a star single out Jesus' exact house? The story is so compelling that it would make for a great movie. While there may be mystery surrounding the Magi, there is no mystery about the most important part of their story - what moti...

Whatever your problem, God promises that he can and will make it all go away. He has one answer for all that ails you, and even our Sunday School students could tell you his name. It’s Jesus, the long-promised Saviour of the world, our Messiah. The question that challenges our faith is, "How can this be true when my life doesn't look like Isaiah 35?" Listen to this week's sermon to learn the answe...

In the days leading up to Christmas, it is not uncommon to see inflatable Santas strewn across the neighbourhood, or to hear Santa's name in jingles on the radio. On the surface, there may be some superficial similarities between Santa and Jesus, but it doesn't take too long to see some significant differences. Isaiah tells us what the Saviour came to be - the best kind of Judge for you and me.

Sometimes in the season of Advent we like to pretend as if we are still waiting for Jesus to come. We try to scrub our brains of the memory of his birth and relive the excitement again. There’s something to that. There’s value in understanding what Jesus’ birth meant in the moment. But that’s not what Advent means for you and me today, 2,000 years after Christ. Listen to this week's sermon to lear...

Hebrews 11 is often referred to as the "Hall of Faith." It is filled with legends in Christian tradition. It is both inspirational and humbling. As much as I may want to be like these people, I can't help but realize that my name doesn't belong next to theirs. Or does it? At the end of Hebrews 11 - after listing out a litany of legends - the writer to the Hebrews says something amazing: God planne...

Which is more likely - a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, or a rich person to go to heaven? As harsh as it may sound, especially coming from our Saviour, Jesus says that it's harder to do anything to get into heaven. In fact, he says it is impossible... with man. But what is impossible for us is made possible by Jesus. We will never be able to do anything to earn eternal life, but that w...

Would you rather hope that you’ll have chicken wings for dinner tonight, or know that you will? Would you rather wish that your mother would get better and come home from the hospital, or know that she will? Of course, you’d rather know! There is certainty with knowledge. Knowledge can give you conviction and courage and confidence. Knowledge can empower and embolden you. But it all depends on wha...

We don't often think about Noah at Thanksgiving, but his reaction to leaving the ark - after a year and 17 days cooped up inside! - can teach us a thing or two about gratitude.

Your service to God doesn’t have match David’s piles of precious metals and stones, but your service to God can equal or exceed even his thankfulness and praise, because of all the good that God has done for you, whether that’s material wealth, physical health, professional success, personal happiness, or none of the above. Even if you have none of those things, you still have a God who gave his S...

If you had 100 sheep and lost 1, would you leave the 99 in the open country to chase after the 1 wayward one? We are often comfortable with a certain margin of error. Some losses, while unfortunate, are nevertheless acceptable. 1 loss, let alone 1% is usually not a big deal. But it is to God. Listen to this week's sermon to hear what God does because he thinks you're worth it.

Why do we end every prayer the same way? What does "Amen" mean anyway? It's more than just a churchy way to say, "The end." It's actually a confident way to pray, "Yes! I believe!" Listen to this week's sermon to hear what gives us the confidence to pray to God with such certainty.

What would a world without evil look like? It'd be heaven on earth - a modern-day Garden of Eden. Of course, that's not the world we live in. There are many evils that we face day after day. Listen to this week's sermon to learn how God answers our prayer, "Deliver us from evil."

How are temptations like magpies? There are so many of them. They're everywhere. At just about any moment in time you can look out your window and count 1 or 2 or 19 of them. And, while you may successfully scare them off one day, they'll inevitably be back the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. Listen to this week's sermon to hear what God did about temptation and what he w...

What does God want? How could we possibly know? It's not like we can read his mind. Thankfully, he reveals, at least portions of, his will to us in his Word, and there he also teaches us how his will gets done in our lives.