Summit Drive Church

Religious hypocrisy. It's one of the most serious critiques levelled against Christians. But interestingly, surprisingly, the most significant critique of religious hypocrisy comes from within Christianity itself. And James addresses the issue head on in our text. But he's not just in ‘negative mode,' he's also clear about what to do about that inconsistency; about building a better way: the way of wholeness, of consistency between God's word and our lives.

James teaches us to avoid the pitfalls of turning to money and blaming God when things get tough. Instead, we are called to persevere, trusting our Good Father who gives us every 'good and maturing gift.'

James knows we often struggle with consistency; that we are often a fractured people. Saying one thing but doing another. But he also knows that God's goal is to heal our fractured lives and form us into those who are mature and complete: People of integrity. In the first part of our James series, we'll see that it is even, maybe especially, through the trials we face that God forms us.

Jesus says: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). And this story, this day, is all about that fullness. Today, we'll see that because the tomb is empty, we can be filled full. Filled full of Joy, of Hope, of Assurance, of Purpose, and of God's very Presence. But that starts with seeing the Seismic Shift – God's shaking out the old and opening a new set of possibilities through Jesus' resurrection.

Matthew's passion narrative and the prophecy of Isaiah frame Jesus' death as accepting a cup filled with the worst of us and the worst in us. A cup that is drained to the dregs to begin to form a new creation.

As we begin this short Holy Week series, we focus in on Jesus' coming to the city of Jerusalem. And we discover that Jesus is the ultimate hometown hero, and a whole lot more. He is the Messiah who has come to fulfill deeper longings of our hearts than we realized, and we have more to celebrate than we imagined!

Praying together is putting our arms around each other and coming to the presence of the Almighty One who loves us. The most powerful questions you can ask another person: "Can I pray for you?" and, "Can you pray for me?"We are called to live out our ‘priestly-ministry' of prayer with and for each other.

Prayer is turning to our Saviour to deliver us from the evil within ourselves, the troubles of the world, and the wiles of the evil one.

Jesus invites us to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors." In this message, we'll explore why these two phrases need to be stuck together, and how praying this way can transform our lives.

By teaching us to pray "give us this day our daily bread", Jesus is teaching us that prayer is asking for what we need every day.

Join us as we explore what it truly means to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We live in a time where we have an app or AI to solve so many of our problems—but the serious problems of the world cannot be cured by an app. In this sermon, we discuss what God's will is. We'll explore the struggles of surrendering our own plans and embracing God's will, even when the world seems to be spinning out of control. Discover how messy, heartfelt prayers of surrender and lament can enrich your journey of faith and guide you through life's toughest situations.

By teaching us to pray 'your kingdom come,' Jesus is showing us that prayer is a powerful place we participate in and, in which, we are formed by the Kingdom of God.

Jesus invites us to pray “Our Father in heaven,” which begs the question of what “in heaven” means and why it matters. In this message, we'll dive deeper into the meaning of addressing Our Father in heaven, and what it means to bring our requests with audacious faith.Reflect and Pray:1. What are you facing today that calls for renewed trust in your Father?2. What is holding you back from asking God for what you need with audacious faith?3. If there is one or two things you want to bring to “Our Father in heaven,” knowing that he hears and cares, what is it?

Jesus begins The Lord's Prayer by teaching his followers to address God as "Our Father." What is significant about that? Who is "Our Father"? Who is He not? Today, we explore the connection between our thinking and beliefs about God and how that connects to our prayer life.

The Lord's Prayer is a great gift of Jesus to all his followers that enables us to step inside Jesus' own way of connecting with God the Father. As we begin our new series, “Our Father: The Necessity and Wonder of Prayer,” we'll see how this prayer is a gift and we'll look at the question of our motives for prayer.

In his prayer for us, Jesus emphasizes how the way we live as a community reveals the truth of the Gospel. We'll explore the importance of unity as we participate together in God's mission.

Why do we gather on Sunday mornings? In this message, we'll explore some of our big reasons for why we gather in the first place and why our church services are structured in the way that they are. We'll talk about what it means to be a community that gathers around Jesus.

As followers of Jesus, we are apprenticing our lives to him – adopting his overall way of life. And, that way values and embraces community, all the way down to the most intimate level of friendship. In this message, we'll see how Jesus makes us his friends and what he means by friendship. We'll then get practical about how to be friends like Jesus, and friends for him too – to bear fruit that will last.

Jesus has given us to each other. It is his preferred method for our growth that we grow through deep relationships with one another. If you want to be like Jesus, you need to be around people who are like Jesus.

We, as a local church, are not like a family, we are family. We are God's Home. Which, like any home, can be complicated, messy, but beautiful all at once. Today, we'll look at Mark 3 and Mark 10 in particular to see how Jesus is making us into a family around himself, and how we can lean into that form of life together, even when it's scary.

Modern life is consumed by anxiety about many things. Jesus tells us few are necessary, indeed only one. What is that one thing? How will it help us with all this stress?

We are gathering to celebrate that God has truly come to be “with us” in the birth of Jesus. And, like the Magi we read of in Matthew 2:1-12, when we posture ourselves before the one born as “King of the Jews,” we will bow our knees in adoration, and bring our best gifts. Because, ultimately, we are given the greatest gift of all; the very presence of God, and promise of never-ending love. Special thanks to Anna and Noah for reading scripture and to Joel Wiest for His song "A Manger His Throne."

If Jesus is King, Herod is not. More to the point: if Jesus is King, I am not. Matthew presents Jesus as the True King, and his rule is a claim to spans all of creation, including my own heart. We'll explore what it would look like for us to move from “disturbed” by Jesus' kingship, to “overjoyed,” as the Magi are when they encounter Jesus.

This week, we will hear from our children as they tell the Christmas story by putting on a play ‘Our Beautiful Christmas Tree.' This play is about a family that tells the Christmas story as they put ornaments on their Christmas tree, reminding us that Christmas is about Jesus coming for you and me.

The story of Jesus' coming, as explored from Joseph's experience, shows us what it means to live with faith "in the dark," and faith that is enacted. We see how God asks Joseph to take on a very specific job–one that will lead to misunderstanding and criticism. And we see the faithfulness of Joseph in response, a portrait for us of what it looks like to give our "yes" to God in difficult situations.

Expectations often breed disappointments, even in faith. This week, we will learn from Mary about letting the story of God recorded in the Scriptures shape our expectations of God.

The phrase “God's Judgment” probably doesn't have a very positive vibe in most people's minds, but, in this message, we'll see how God's just judgment is ultimately very good news. Believing in God's final judgment enables us to pursue justice without resorting to violence and assures us that, as we join God's mission, what we do in life really matters. And that is good news.

We all wonder at some point: Why doesn't God do something about the evil and injustice of the world? The answer that the Bible gives us is: He has. God gives us, not a philosophical answer, but himself. These week, we will look at the trial of Jesus before Pilate in John 18:28-19:7, and the meaning of the cross.

This week, we will explore how the Sabbath is a command given to promote justice by keeping us from being slaves. We'll also see how Sabbath keeping can keep us from enslaving ourselves anew to the good things we think we should be doing.

In this message, our BCBA Executive Minister, Dave Mohr, reminds us that a life with God is a life of sacrifice, a living one! Because of God's mercy, we are transformed and now participate in his ministry of mercy in the world.

As we explore God's call on his people to “do justly,” we inevitably bump up against the question of the relationship between God's authority and human ‘authorities', that is, the political realm. We will be exploring the relationship that Christians are to have with the state and discern what it looks like to pursue justice in reference to the public sphere.

There is a tight, never-ending connection in the Bible between the true worship of the Living God and true justice. As we look at the prophet Amos, and then the work of Jesus, we'll see how all injustice is ultimately about worship—about loving something other than God. We'll then see how all true worship must be accompanied by actions of justice in the real world.

Our fragmented lives can find holistic flourishing when we are wholly devoted to a holy God. This is the message of the book of Leviticus, which calls us to be holy as God is holy—a holiness that is being distinct, pure, and just.

The Bible is not an economics textbook – for which we are truly grateful. But God has given us some key ideas that relate to how we connect questions about justice and the economy. We often carry with us several unexamined assumptions about “how the world works,” but we don't often hold those up to the light of God's revelation in Scripture. This week, we'll dive into three major assumptions, and the three major correctives that help us to live more thoughtfully, and justly.

Jesus begins his public ministry by citing from the prophet Isaiah and standing squarely within the prophetic tradition of enacting God's justice. But what is justice really all about? Here, in Luke 4, we see how Jesus' ministry is “good news to the poor” in the spiritual and physical and social sense.

To love God means, among other things, loving what God loves, and God loves the world he made. So “Jesus is coming – plant a tree!” That might sound like a bit of a paradox, but this essay title gets to an important part of Christian faith: the reality that God calls humans, as his “image,” to care for this good world, even as we anticipate God's coming future. In this message, we'll explore those connections and what it will mean for us to “do justly” in regard to the environment.

This week, we explore the inextricable connection between justice and the Image of God. We will see that the image of God gives all people an inherent, indelible and humbling dignity. But, it also gives us a responsibility to work for flourishing of each other and creation.

Jesus begins his public ministry by citing from the prophet Isaiah and standing squarely within the prophetic tradition of enacting God's justice. But what is justice really all about? Here, in Luke 4, we see how Jesus' ministry is “good news to the poor” in the spiritual and physical and social sense.

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells us a surprising story about what it means to be a true neighbour and about who has the potential to show neighbourly love.

Jesus' parable of “The Unforgiving Servant” addresses the common human problem with forgiveness. Jesus teaches that his kingdom was to be marked by being forgiven and offering forgiveness. In this talk, we look at what forgiveness is and what it isn't, and apply the test of forgiveness that Jesus lays out for us.

Jesus' parable of “The Prodigal Son” (which should probably be called something like “the two lost sons”) is probably the most well-known, and well-loved of all his parables – and for good reason. In it, we see God's heart of compassion, we see ourselves and the true nature of humanity, and we hear an invitation to come home, come to the feast, and to join God's pursuit of those who are lost. It begs us to answer the question: What will you do with the God of compassion?

Anxiety is a common human problem, and one of the most common forms of anxiety is money. In the parable of the rich fool, and the teaching that follows, Jesus shows us that trusting in God's provision frees us from worry and helps us to make generosity a habit.

This week, we're looking at Luke 16:19-31, where Jesus tells the parable of "The Rich Man and Lazarus," and how the fierce love and justice of Jesus are both found in this beautiful and alarming parable.

In Matthew 13, Jesus gives us these parables, these “portraits of the kingdom,” to confront our false expectations and help us reimagine what the kingdom of heaven is really like and how it is coming. Why? To get us on board with God and his ways.

This week, we will explore Jesus' parable of the weeds and the wheat and the question, "Why does evil persist?" We'll see that God graciously allows good and evil to grow together until Jesus' return so that as many as possible can be saved. Then, we will be invited to shift our identity from those who 'pull weeds' to those who 'sow seeds.'

This week, we explore how our actions speak louder than our words as we look at the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21. We will see that there is "work" to be done but that the "work" has to do with enjoying and glorifying God.

As we begin our series on the Parables of Jesus, the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4) introduces us to the fact that parables are not cute stories, meant to simplify complex spiritual ideas, but they perplex. They subvert. They get behind our defences and gives us a new imagination for seeing the realities of God's kingdom. In this parable, we see how Jesus is deeply concerned about our commitment to hearing what he has to say – which is, in the end, a function of our hearts' openness to Jesus.

This week, we finish Ephesians by exploring the armour of God. We will discuss the realities of evil spirits in some technical detail and then see how, for most of us, most of the time, our spiritual warfare is what we have come to see as normal Christian discipleship.

Paul describes the reality of a spiritual struggle against spiritual opponents, which is not often how we envision the world. This text opens us up to see more clearly that the nature of reality, our true opponents, the real struggle, and finally, how to be equipped to “stand” firm.

This week, we continue our look at Paul's household codes and approach some lessons for how we can be spirit-filled in our family and working relationships.

The Spirit is the power we need to fuel the Christian community to live in a revolutionary way: to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Over the next two weeks, we'll see how Paul offers a revolutionary word on how that kind of mutual submission works within a household. This week, we'll key in on Christian marriage.