The Gathering Windsor Podcast

The best defense against everything that wages war against your soul is a strong offense. The best way to defend your spiritual life, and protect your heart, is to make sure you are growing in grace.

This passage in 1 Peter tells us that if we have come to faith in Jesus Christ, we have experienced the same birth, we express the same love, and we enjoy the same nourishment as members of the same spiritual family. And then Peter goes on to describe this supernatural phenomenon called the church! It’s amazing…and encouraging.

Believers are born again through God’s eternal word, the gospel, and then nourished by the same Gospel to help them grow up into maturity. The apostle Peter also speaks to the issue of loving one another and growing together as the family of God as we grow.

How do we advance spiritually in a world that is full of stress and pressure and pain? How do we live a life full of hope in a world full of problems? Peter makes several suggestions in this challenging but inspirational passage in 1 Peter 1:13-21.

Peter’s aim in 1:10-12 is to intensify our gratitude for the infinite value of this great salvation that we enjoy. He does this by giving us 4 amazing facts concerning this salvation that fill us with hope and expectation and praise.

Suffering and pain are key themes that Peter deals with in his first letter. But so is hope. We can be full of hope even in the midst of turmoil and suffering and personal pain. Pastor Garth launches the first message in our new series on 1 Peter called FULL OF HOPE.

As we look back on the last year of our lives, and our journey with The Gathering, we can hardly believe all the great things God has done for us. Through Ps. 126 we trace the blueprint God has drawn for our new church.

January 1 of every New Year is ground zero for us. As we stand on the starting line of another New Year let’s make sure we have our priorities straight!

With a great sense of urgency and excitement, the shepherds said, “Let’s get to Bethlehem as fast as we can! We have to see this thing the Lord has told us about.” That was the first Christmas rush, and Pastor Garth helps us to see the urgency of sharing the good news with others at Christmas.

Pastor Garth unpacks the two-line Christmas carol sung by the angels on the night Jesus was born. It may surprise you to hear what this carol really means for us.

The very first Christmas greeting was not a Christmas card delivered by Canada Post or UPS. It was a greeting of 59 words, spoken by an angel, to a bunch of shepherds, who lingered in the presence of the angels long enough to hear the Good News announcement!

Global News estimates that holiday sales in Canada will reach $53 Billion this year. Much of that will be spent in the week before Christmas. But the best gift has already been given by God, his precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ascribing to God his supreme worth – that’s what is missing in many churches today. We’ve made worship to be more about us and less about Him. Isaiah’s experience helps us return to a biblical priority on worship.

Put to the test, Abraham displays remarkable trust in God in Genesis 22, especially when the death of Isaac would appear to contradict all that God had promised to Abraham. Alin Patularu, who is part of The Gathering family, unravels the text to help us understand the importance of trusting God in all things.

Sin breaks fellowship with God, but repentance and confession restore it. Pastor Tyler walks us through this penitential psalm to show us how God has provided for our forgiveness and fresh hope in spite of our sin.

Moral failure does not just happen overnight. Occasionally, a temptation may broadside us. But more often, a series of slow, unattended leaks seeping from the lining of our character eventually weakens us to the point of a blowout.

We live in a culture awash in talk about happiness. But notice this phenomenon: People shoot for happiness but feel formed through suffering. Join us for this powerful talk by Pastor Garth using Job 1-2:10 as a text.

In this final message in the Jonah series, Alin Patularu discusses the anger of the misguided evangelist and the compassion of God from Jonah 4.

When Jonah cried out to God from inside the great fish, God gave him a second chance. But the deal didn’t change: He was called by God to be a missionary to Ninevah… the most reluctant missionary ever!

Jonah had an unusual “educational experience.” He attended the School of Hard Knocks where he learned some important principles about life – principles that he now passes on to us.

As we consider the beginning of Jonah’s sad story, remember that we can run but we can’t hide. God was with Jonah every step of the way. Though Jonah ran away from God, the Lord never left him. That’s good news and that’s the gospel for us.

Obedience flows from believing, and believing in Jesus usually happens after you start to follow him. In this final segment of the three-part series, Pastor Garth talk about the Great Omission: obedience to everything Jesus commanded.

Developing a relationship with God is not rocket science. It does not require university training or a Ph. D. But it does require one to believe in Jesus. Pastor Garth helps us understand what it means to believe in Christ and put our trust in Him.

The reality is that the Christian life is more about a relationship with Jesus than it is about religious rules and regulations. At the heart of that relationship with Jesus is an invitation to follow. It’s that simple.

In this communion meditation on Romans 5:1-11 our Pastor explains how the One at the top took responsibility for the ones at the bottom. Before the war began, Christ forgave. Before a mistake could be made, forgiveness was offered. Before blame could be given, grace was provided.