July 19

July 19

by Rev. Mark Gaskin https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/22220536/July-19-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/22220536/July-19-Sermon.mp3] ISAIAH 44:6-8 THE LORD, NOT IDOLS 6 “This is what the Lord says—     Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last;     apart from me there is no God. 7 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.     Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people,     and what is yet to come—     yes, let them foretell what will come. 8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid.     Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me?     No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”   ROMANS 12:17 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. MATTHEW 13:24-30 THE PARABLE OF THE WEEDS 24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Three passages of scripture to share with you this morning. An Old Testament reading from Isaiah, and then a short verse from Paul’s letter to the Romans, and then a passage from the New Testament on which the sermon will focus. From the 44th chapter of Isaiah, this is what the Lord says, Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty. I am the first and the last, apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come. Yes, let them foretell what will come. Do not tremble. Do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other rock. I know not one. Two short verses from the 12th chapter of Romans. Do not repay anyone for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. And from the 13th chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells a parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while everyone was sleeping, the enemy came and sowed seeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, Sir, didn’t you sow good seeds in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked, do you want us to go and pull them out? No, he answered, because while you are pulling out the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn. Then he left the crowd and went into the house. Amen. Let us pray. God of wisdom, your thoughts are not our thoughts and your ways are not our ways. As we listen to the scriptures, send your Holy Spirit to grant us understanding of what you desire and fresh resolve to do your will. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. I may have mentioned this in past years. Much of the mid to end part of June, so last month, you will find me in a strawberry field. From mid-June to the end of June, I make four to five trips to Brantwood Farms. It used to be their old location on Linden Road, now their new setup on German School Road. I go out there four or five times, pick the strawberries. Sometimes I have a grandchild with me to help, so it takes longer. I take those berries home, clean them, and then make freezer jam, strawberry freezer jam. It’s really good. Now I’m pausing here to look out there and say, how many of you are thinking, oh no, he’s going to bring out a trophy and talk about it. No, no, I have never won a trophy for my strawberry jam. Now you’re thinking, well, is it placed in the top 10? No, no, I’m, is it the people’s choice? Yes, people who are related to me really think it is wonderful strawberry jam. And in July, this month, from about the beginning of July to now and maybe another week, I’ll go out to Jerry’s Berries. I love that out in Cope Town, Jerry’s Berries. It’s part of lots of hostas. And I pick my raspberries there and I take that home and I make raspberry freezer jam. And I know some of you are thinking, oh, now he’s going to bring out the trophy for No, no, no, no trophies, no top 10. But again, it’s definitely the people’s choice amongst people who are related to me. The strawberry field on Old German School Road and the raspberry patch in Cope Town are beautifully well-maintained fields. Tom and his family at Brantwood Farms and Glenda and her family in Jerry’s Berries, clearly it’s work that begins the previous fall, obviously not so much during the winter, but in the spring, the fields are, well, you do whatever you do to those patches. Because when I go out to pick that fruit, it’s beautiful. The berries are beautiful. It’s just wonderful to be out there. But there are still weeds. Even though all that has been done to prevent it, you still see some weeds in amongst the bushes or off to the side. It’s part of growing things. Any vegetable gardener, any flower gardener will tell you that. Where you’re growing things, weeds show up. And that’s one reason I like this parable. Because even in a perfect strawberry field, even in a perfect raspberry, even in a perfect flower garden, even in a perfect vegetable garden, weeds are still there. You don’t want them there. You did everything to prevent them from being there. They’re still there. That’s why I like this parable. Because it seems to me to answer a question that Christians, especially when we get old enough to ask this question, why in a perfect, why in the world that God designed, why in a world where God loves us, why is there evil in this world? You and I aren’t evil people. God wants no one to be an evil person. God has given us everything we need in this world. What are good, God-fearing people supposed to do about all the evil in the world? That may not be the question that was asked directly to Jesus. And it may not be the question Jesus is answering directly. But it is the question behind the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Jesus tells this story. A farmer sowed good feed in a field. But while everyone was asleep, an enemy, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and slipped away. When the wheat sprouted and produced grain, the weeds appeared as well. The servants came and asked the owner of the field, sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did all these weeds come from? That is a good question. Later in the chapter, Jesus explains the parable. I didn’t read that part. I knew you saw where this was going. He explains the parable. He says the field represents the world. And the world is weedy. It’s corrupt. It’s not the way God intended it to be. No one has to convince us of that. We watch cable news. We listen to the radio. We scroll through social media. And we hear more stories than we want to hear about violence and war, abuse and greed, injustice, poverty, hatred, discrimination. We shake our heads at the enormous gap between the way the world ought to be and the way the world is. Where does all this evil come from? That’s a question answered in other stories in other parts. But what we are to do about that, that’s what this parable answers. Now we might think, as the servants did, well, let’s get out into the field and pull up all those weeds by its roots. That’ll get rid of it. It seems like a practical suggestion. And it is one, I’m pretty sure speaking to the gardeners in the group, it is one you actively employ in your vegetable garden and in your flower garden. But not in this parable and not in this field. Because the owner of the field says, no, no, we’re not going to pull them out. Let both grow together until the harvest. In this story about evil in the world and God’s response to it, Jesus is telling us something that might be difficult to hear. For now, God does not intend to uproot every evil thing immediately. God is not asking us to uproot every evil thing that we see immediately. God’s plan, at least for the present, is to let the wheat and the weeds grow together. That’s the parable. That’s the parable Jesus tells. That is not easy to accept. But that’s the lesson of the parable. Even though the world is full of weeds, even though there is corruption and wickedness, it is not our calling to pull out every evil weed ourselves. Why? Well, we remember what the owner told the servants. Do not pull up the weeds, because while you are pulling up weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Oh, okay. We are reminded that there is always a chance that we will do more harm than good. However unintended, there are situations where we might do more harm than good. The part of the reason, and the listeners would have understood this in Jesus’ time, they would have got this right away because of their, because it’s a small villages and connected to the rural area around them. If they weren’t farmers, they had they had family members who were farmers. They knew that Jesus was talking about a specific kind of weed and wheat. The Latin name is here. I don’t know why I put it here. I can’t pronounce it. So I’ll just, the, the weed is commonly called Darnell. And it’s an unusual grass that looks remarkably like wheat in its early growing stages. It’s easy to mistake this weed for wheat as it’s growing. And that’s why Jesus used this parable and this example, because it fits into the life that you and I live. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference between good and evil in the early stages. Oh, I know later there’s lots of times we can tell what’s evil, but I’m talking about those times when we don’t have all the information and we, we don’t really understand what’s going on. Sometimes in trying to pull up with what we think is a weed, we discover too late that we’ve damaged the wheat. There’s another part of this story that’s always intrigued me. And again, it’s one of those parts of the story. It’s just, it’s barely a sentence. It’s said, and then there’s no more comment on it, but it’s there for a reason. The enemy sows the weeds and then slips away, leaves. The enemy is no longer part of the story. We, we, the enemy doesn’t feel the necessity to come back and sow more weeds, water the weeds to do anything else. The enemy only had to plant the weeds. The damage is already done. There’s no need to stay around. Scatter a few seeds of darkness, scatter a few seeds of fear, scatter a few seeds of misunderstandings, and let good people give in to fear and give in to darkness and give in to misunderstandings. And they’ll do the damage as they pull up the weeds and harm the wheat. Scatter enough weeds so that we become anxious, fearful, angry, impulsive enough, and then see what happens. That’s why the enemy slips away, doesn’t have to do anything more. Unless, unless the owner says, wait, be still, trust me, let them grow together until the harvest. Let them grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to gather the weeds to be burned and gather the wheat and put it in to my barn. The owner doesn’t like having weeds in the field. What, what farmer, what grower, what person who’s trying to nurture seeds into, into beauty and growth and fulfilment, what, what grower would want weeds in their field? No, no, no grower. The farmer, the owner simply has a different way of dealing with them. He has a different plan. And that’s, that’s sometimes frustrating to servants who want to act now, who want to be impulsive. And the owner says, wait, be patient. I have a plan. Jesus wants us to understand that this is God’s way of dealing with evil. Not always immediately, but he will deal with it finally. This is way, God’s way of dealing with evil. Not partially, but God’s plan is to deal with it completely. And Jesus would know. It’s not like the world that he came into was any better or worse than the world that you and I are living in right now. His world was full of weeds. The disciples saw that. He saw that. His disciples saw that. They were witnesses to poverty and injustice, oppression, disease, prejudice, violence. They saw it all. They experienced it. Jesus and his disciples, they experienced everything that you and I have to deal with. The problems were real. Yet Jesus did not call on his followers to wage war against every weed. Instead, he called them to live faithfully as wheat. And perhaps that’s, not perhaps, that is still our calling today. In a world full of weeds, perhaps the best strategy that we can adopt is the one that Paul said in the 12th chapter of Romans. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The field is still full of weeds. I admit there’s some days that that’s all it seems to be full of. It’s not true, but that’s what it feels like sometimes. But it’s also full of wheat. There is in fact more wheat than weeds. The weeds just get our attention. God has not abandoned the field, nor has God forgotten the harvest. So let us live as children of the kingdom, trusting the gardener, sowing the good seed wherever we can, and waiting in hope for the day when Christ will make all things new. Until that day, we overcome evil, not by fear or hatred, but by lives shaped by the love of God. Amen. And so be it.

July 12

by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/14130359/July-12-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/14130359/July-12-Sermon.mp3] GENESIS 25:21-34 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb,     and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other,     and the older will serve the younger.” 24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2025%3A21-34&version=NIV#fen-NIV-684a]] 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.[b [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2025%3A21-34&version=NIV#fen-NIV-685b]] Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. 27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. 29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.[c [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2025%3A21-34&version=NIV#fen-NIV-689c]]) 31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” 32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” 33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.   MATTHEW 13:1-9 THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER 13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.” TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Well, thank you, Alexander, and thank you for all those who make me feel welcome on a Sunday morning in your own special way. I mentioned this last week. There’s a lot of good natured teasing that goes on, and that’s simply because, as Alexander shared, I’ve known the congregation a long time. I guess it was 2009, I came to what was then St. Andrew’s Church, just up the hill, and a few years later, St. Andrew’s and St. Giles amalgamated and became Westside Presbyterian Church, and stayed for several, well, more than some years after that, and retired, I think it would be about four years ago, but still active in ministry. I enjoy attending churches, church services on those Sundays. I’m not preaching elsewhere, but one of the things I look forward to is being here for a few weeks in the summer. So, again, thank you to Aubrey and the session for the invitation. Two readings this morning, from the book of Genesis and then from Matthew. Let us hear God’s word. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebecca became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, why is this happening to me? So she went to enquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, quick, let me have some of that red stew. I am famished. That is why he is also called Edom. Jacob replied, first sell me your birthright. Look, I’m about to die, Esau said. What good is a birthright to me? But Jacob answered, swear to me first. So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. From Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 13, that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying a farmer went out to sow his seed, and as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, but because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. And still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear. Amen. In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer. Amen. We are told earlier in Genesis that for twenty years Isaac and Rebekah had prayed for a child. Finally their prayers are answered, and the miracle of conception came. But it wasn’t smooth sailing. Even in the womb, the twins were struggling with one another. It’s a foreshadowing of what would continue on throughout their whole lives. It leads Rebekah to ask, while the twins are still in the room, it leads Rebekah to ask, why is this happening to me? And God answers, two nations are in your womb. One people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger. We’re not told within the text how Rebekah would have received this news. It helps us understand what is about to unfold in foreshadows what’s taking place. But it wouldn’t have been immediate help at that time, and especially that latter phrase, the elder shall serve the younger. As I say, it’s not said in the text, but Rebekah must have said to herself, oh this does not bode well, because that’s not the culture. That’s not the custom. Firstborn, the elder, that’s the head, and the younger siblings serve the elder, but that’s not what Rebekah is told. Esau is born first. Jacob falls close behind, grasping at his brother’s heel. Even that small detail foreshadows the life that Jacob will lead, always grabbing and holding on. In fewer than 15 verses, the twins grow from newborns to young men, yet very little has changed in their lives or in their personalities. They were different in the womb, and they are different outside. Esau is impulsive. He’s driven by the moment, never thinking things all the way through. Jacob is patient, calculating, and as we see, he’s very opportunistic. With that understanding of who these twins were and their personalities, we come to the latter part of the story that I read to you. Esau comes in from the field, exhausted and starving. Let me have some of that red stew, I am famished. Jacob replies, sure. First, sell me your birthright. Sell. You’re firstborn. I’m to serve you. Sell it. Not even give it. Sell it to me. Esau, again, in the moment, not thinking it through. I’m about to die. What good is a birthright to me? And just like that, Esau gives away the birthright over a bowl of lentil stew. Now, I know something about the persuasive power of a good bowl of food. I know I’ve mentioned, I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. After all, I’ve been coming here for some years. I’m sure I’ve mentioned the trophy I received for cooking chilli. Just happen to have it here. I have it at home, but if there’s a display case, I’m happy to leave it later. Yes, the People’s Choice Award from 2003. Okay, a few years ago. The Rotary Club of Brantford Sunrise, the ninth annual chilli cook-off, June 21st, 2003. The People’s Choice. Not just awarded by, the people spoke and gave me and my team this, I know the power of a good bowl of food. Now, some of you are saying, wait a minute, 2003, anything more recent? Funny you should ask. I thought I heard somebody ask. 2020, just before the world changed, we had in February of 2020, we had our annual Super Bowl contest up at Westside. Super, S-O-U-P-E-R. And yes, if you are asking, I placed in the top 10 of that competition. There were nine of us in entry, but that still places me in the top 10. A good bowl of chilli, soup, stew, that can certainly be tempting. But it’s probably not worth however good it is. It’s not worth your inheritance, your birthright. Neither brother comes out of this encounter looking particularly good. Esau acts impulsively with little thought for the future. Jacob sees his brother’s weakness. He sees it and he exploits it. Neither brother comes out looking good. And let us not completely overlook the parents. It says within the text, the father favoured one child and the mother favoured the other. It’s not just the brothers are not looking good. The family is not looking particularly good. Later in the book of Genesis, Jacob will deceive his own ageing father as well. So where does this ancient family story, and I know many of you would be familiar with this story, where does that ancient story about a long ago family meet us today in our circumstances? With our families. Well, when we think about our families, most of us still feel the pressure to convince the world that everything’s fine. Most often that’s certainly the image we would like to project in a natural way, that everything is okay. Family is normal. Everything’s under control. But when we’re honest, and we can be honest with each other at times and with good friends, when we’re speaking a little more honestly and it feels safe to do so, we know better. We know families can be complicated. We know relationships can be strained. Old wounds can linger. Misunderstandings happen, and sometimes as they’re explained, the situation does not get better. I’ve offered enough explanations over a misunderstanding that I have successfully made the situation worse with my explanations. Sometimes the people we love the most are the ones who can hurt us the most. And yet, let’s get to this, and yet God is still present. God is still there in the midst of that, in the midst of the strain, and the misunderstanding, and the friction, and the tension. That’s one of the great gifts of the stories in the book of Genesis. The very first book, the book that not only emphasises our ongoing, our original and ongoing relationship with God, but also talks about the families that are within that relationship with God. The Bible never pretends that God’s people are flawless. The Bible never pretends that families are not without their challenges. Quite the opposite. Again and again, God chooses to work through people. Again and again, God chooses to work through families that are imperfect. At the heart of Genesis is the inspiring truth that God accomplishes God’s purpose through some of the strangest, most awkward, most hard-to-understand families imaginable. When God looked across the world for people through whom to bless the nations, that’s where that phrase comes from Genesis, when God looked for people through whom to bless the nations, God did not choose people who seemed to have it all together, who had no flaws, that had never known challenges. Sometimes it looks like God would choose the B team, that God would choose not the best and the brightest, but God would still choose them. Families that argue, families that failed, people who doubted, people who made terrible decisions. God would still use them, people just like us. Many of the stories in Genesis make the very first book, as I said, of God’s story with God’s people. Many of the stories make this wonderfully clear. We do not have to be perfect before God can use us. We do not have to have everything figured out before God can bless us. We do not have to belong to a flawless family before God can call us to be a blessing to others. The good news is that God does not wait for perfect people. The good news is that God is faithful even when we are not. If God could work through Isaac and Rebecca, if God could work through Esau and Jacob, if God could bring blessings to people, to nations, to the world through that family, then surely God can work through us and ours. You’ve heard me say in the past, and I mean it with the utmost sincerity, Central Church has a lot going for it. And I hope this doesn’t shock you. But it’s not because you’re perfect. I’ve never heard anyone claim that about Central Church. What I have heard, it’s a group of people who care about each other, who care about the neighbourhood they’re in, who care about the community that you’re part of. Not perfect, but perfectly caring people. This is a church that God has, that God can, and God will continue to work through. Because by the grace of God, we are exactly the kind of people that God has always used and loved to use. People, people just like us. Amen, and so be it.

July 5

by Rev. Mark Gaskin https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/08152605/July-5-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/08152605/July-5-Sermon.mp3] PSALM 16 A MIKTAM OF DAVID. 1 Keep me safe, my God,     for in you I take refuge. 2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;     apart from you I have no good thing.” 3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,     “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” 4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.     I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods     or take up their names on my lips. 5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;     you make my lot secure. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;     surely I have a delightful inheritance. 7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;     even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.     With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;     my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,     nor will you let your faithful one see decay. 11 You make known to me the path of life;     you will fill me with joy in your presence,     with eternal pleasures at your right hand.   LUKE 9:51-56 SAMARITAN OPPOSITION 51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%209%3A51-56&version=NIV#fen-NIV-25356a]]?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56 Then he and his disciples went to another village. TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Guest Speaker – Rev. Mark Gaskin No, Alexander, it was all, it was all done in in good humour, and I appreciate this time of rebuttal. When I was here previously, actually what I’ll do is follow up on an announcement that that Alexander made. You’re watching online, that’s wonderful. I hope you feel part of the worshipping community today. If you are watching us because you’re looking for a church to attend, this is a great church to come to. The worship service begins at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning. You can show up a few minutes after that, but as a courtesy to the production team and to the praise band, you may want to show up, especially if you’re the preacher. You may want to show up a little bit before that, but you will be, no matter what time you show up, you will be warmly greeted and made to feel welcome by this wonderful community of believers. Our first reading is Psalm 16, some selected verses. Protect me, O God. I trust in you for safety. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. All the good things I have come from you. You, Lord, are all I have, and you give me all I need. My future is in your hands. How wonderful are your gifts to me, how good they are. I praise the Lord because he guides me, and in the night my conscience warns me. I am always aware of the Lord’s presence. He is near, and nothing can shake me. And so I am thankful and glad, and I feel completely secure because you protect me from the power of death. I have served you faithfully, and you will not abandon me to the world of the dead. You will show me the path that leads to life. Your presence fills me with joy and brings me pleasure forever. And from the New Testament, from the Gospel according to Luke, Chapter 9, a story that is unique to Luke. Matthew and Mark and John do not record this event. And I think I partly understand why. It is very low-key. There’s no healing. There’s no miracle. There’s no parable. There’s no teaching. But I believe, clearly, I believe it delivers a very strong message, which I will develop in the sermon from Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 9. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. But the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples, James and John, saw this, they asked, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village. Amen. In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer. Amen. I will let the production team know I’m just walking over here. I’ll be back to where I’m supposed to be in a minute. I think they’re just happy to see that I’m here. But it’s within the nature of human beings that we have conflicts with each other, disagreements. There’s lots of adjectives for it. Fights, conflicts, disagreements, friction with each other. Some say it’s innate, part of our psyche. We are animals and animals fight. Some say it’s learned behaviour, that if we see violence around us and it becomes normalised, then, and this can happen even when we see that it’s harmful to others and even harmful to ourselves, we still see it as a part of life. So this is the old debate, right? Nature versus nurture when it comes to conflict. We’re not settling that debate this morning, but we’re going to look at it because we see it in the ninth chapter of Luke near the end of that chapter. What do we fight about? Well, we can fight about everything and anything, right? We can have disagreements over politics, religion. I’m trying to think about, for a moment there, I was trying to think, what don’t we fight about? That list is shorter. We have disagreements about lots of things. Our differences can be racial, religious, nationality. We know that there are long standing disagreements between the ancient religions of our world. Jews versus Muslims, Muslims versus Christians, Christians versus, it goes on. Even within a Christian community, there can be disagreements. There are long historical disagreements between nations of the world. You can’t look really at any part of the world that hasn’t, isn’t currently facing some kind of conflict or does not have conflict in its past, a non-ancient past. As a country, we’ve had conflicts even within North America. So, conflict, fight. We do it everywhere. It can be about anything. It can happen at any time. But all these conflicts have one thing in common, as different as the cause where they take place, as different as they are, they still have one thing in common. Somebody is the bad guy. Some group of people are the bad people. They are wrong. I am right. That’s always at the source of the conflict, regardless of what it’s about, where it takes place, when it takes place. Somebody’s wrong, somebody’s the bad guy, and somebody’s right, the good guy. It’s interesting how I’m doing it that way, isn’t it? Somebody there is the bad guy, and somebody is the good guy. So it is with this awareness that we approach today’s gospel. It’s not a well-known story in the New Testament, as I said earlier, that it’s unique to Luke. It’s the kind of story that can be forgotten, as I said, no miracles, no parable, no teaching. The story goes like this. Jesus is up north in Galilee. He’s getting ready to go south to Jerusalem, and he had to pass through the land of Samaria. The Jews and Samaritans did not like each other, and that dispute, conflict, fight went back hundreds of years, long before Jesus was even born. They did not talk to one another. They didn’t intermingle. They did not intermarry. So who’s the bad guy in this conflict between Jews and Samaritans? Well, it’s James and John, to make it very clear. It’s the other guys. It is the Samaritans. Jesus is going south, going through Samaria. He had sent people ahead of him to make arrangements. They were not welcomed, and then Jesus, as he came into the village, was not made to feel welcomed. The two brothers, James and John, who are part of the Twelve, when they came to realise this, they got upset, to say the least. We’re not surprised that James and John are the two disciples that act this way. They are called Sons of Thunder. We hear that designation about them earlier in the Gospels. They have thunderous personalities. They have thunderous prejudices, and they clearly have thunderous tempers. They go to Jesus, who is in the village now, and say, Master, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them? That seems like an overreaction. They were just not made to feel welcome. They weren’t threatened. They weren’t mocked, ridiculed, but clearly hundreds of years of prejudice and hatred are coming to the forefront, and this slight, this disrespect, this unwelcome attitude has just sent James and John right over the edge. Lord, let’s call down fire from heaven so it’s coming from the right place. Let’s call down fire from heaven and not warn them, not teach them a lesson, destroy them. What happens next is remarkable. It’s subtle. It’s one of the reasons I think this passage is not amongst the best known. Jesus rebukes them. That’s all that’s in the Gospel. Jesus rebuked them, and then what happens next is even more remarkable. Jesus and his disciples went to another village. That’s how the story ends. Jesus rebukes, and then he and the disciples went on to another village. I have some sympathy for the disciples. I’ve been angry in my past. I got upset and angry as a kid, as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult, as my middle age, as a senior. I think there is a little more calmness in my senior years, but I can still get upset and angry. But when I look back at all those years and look at the present time, I know there is not one time when I made a good decision when I was angry. I made decisions when I was angry, and I regretted every one of them. I never made a good decision when I was angry. In the confidentiality of the Central Sanctuary and our online community, I will admit, maybe once or twice or ten times, I thought, you know what would teach these guys a lesson or this guy a lesson? Let’s bring down a little fire from heaven and, well, not destroy them. I have some conscience. Singe them just around the edges just so they know who’s on my side. But that’s not what Jesus wants from us. Jesus doesn’t want us to seek revenge. Jesus doesn’t want us to seek punishment, to see them destroyed or singed. So what are we supposed to do with that feeling that’s in us? They’ve done us wrong. He’s done it. She’s done it. They’ve hurt. I’m disappointed. I’m angry. What am I supposed to do with those feelings? Jesus wants you and I to go to another village. That’s what he did. That’s what he asked his disciples to do. Going to another village is not an act of defeat. It’s not giving in. Going to another village is an act of faith. The psalmist said, you will show me the path that leads to life. The path that leads to life is not a path that allows bitterness to determine the direction of our lives. The path that leads to life does not allow old wounds, old hurts, old arguments, old prejudices to keep us captive, to keep us where we are. The path that leads to life sometimes leads to another village. The path that leads to life trusts that God can do more with forgiveness than we could do with retaliation. Jesus could have called down judgement. That certainly was within his power. And that is what James and John wanted him to do. But Jesus chose a different path. He chose compassion. He chose mercy. He chose peace. He chose to keep moving toward the work that God had given him to do. And that’s his invitation to us. It was his invitation to the disciples. Let us go on to another village, to the next village, to a place where we will be welcomed. That they’ll hear us, listen to us. So there may be somebody in your life today that you’ve thought for days or weeks, months, sometimes years, but that’s the other guy. That’s the person who hurt you or disappointed you, offended you, opposed you. Jesus asks us to lay down the desire for revenge, to let go of the burden of resentment, and continue to walk towards the path that leads to life. The world teaches us to ask, who’s the bad guy? Who’s hurt me? Who’s made me angry? The world teaches us to ask that question and to stay there looking for the answer. Jesus asks us, how can I love my neighbour? The world says, destroy your enemies. Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for them. The world keeps score. Jesus offers grace. My prayer for you this morning, the week, months to come, is the same prayer I’m saying for me right now. Give me the courage to move on to another village. Give me the courage to seek peace rather than punishment. Give me the courage to see that I’m being asked to turn enemies into people I have compassion for. In doing any of that, there is a possibility that that changes the other person, but it definitely changes us. Amen, and so be it.

June 28

by Jim Hetherington https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/01220654/June-28-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/01220654/June-28-Sermon.mp3] GENESIS 50:20 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 1 SAMUEL 17:47 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” LUKE 24:16 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. ROMANS 8:18-28 PRESENT SUFFERING AND FUTURE GLORY 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A18-28&version=NIV#fen-NIV-28138a]] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[b [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A18-28&version=NIV#fen-NIV-28145b]] have been called according to his purpose. TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Our speaker this morning is Jim Hetherington. He needs no introduction and we are so glad to have him as part of our congregation, um, and wherever Jim is. Regrets will come to each and every one of us at some point or time, and they seem to speak the loudest when it’s silent. When things are quiet, that’s when the voices of regret seem to speak the loudest. And regrets can come in small things and come in big things. It can be something small and simple like, I meant to bring some cereal and contribute to the food bank, I just kept forgetting. I meant to take a casserole to my neighbour to support and encourage them, but I just ran out of time. I got busy. Because we get busy, don’t we? And we can use busyness as an excuse for not doing things. Regrets can come in big things. Could be a decision that we made, a financial decision, an investment that we didn’t take advantage of. You come in a career choice, a relationship choice. Regrets can come in all kinds of shapes and forms. The thing they say about regret is that discipline, you know, doing something to encourage, to support, to grow, costs very little. The invoice that we get from regrets is huge, and oftentimes regret hits us when we can’t do anything else about it. I know that many people on their deathbed may be faced with regrets. I guarantee you that they’re not regretting that they can’t get up and go into the office and work on another deal. It’s likely a relationship. It’s likely someone close to them that they regret not investing the time. We just finished a series with Aubrey where he talked about Joseph. Now Joseph, he probably had a few regrets during that course of time. He probably regretted the way he shared that dream, that vision with his brothers. He probably regretted getting himself in a position where he was caught with Potiphar’s wife. There may have been a few regrets because the truth is it took a couple of decades for that entire process from the time he got that dream and shared it to the time that it actually came fulfilled. It was a couple decades. Would you agree that that’s a long time? That’s a long time to hold on to something. That’s a long time to be going through the process, to be going through the stuff. In Genesis 50 verses 20, we read this. Joseph said, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. He recognised that through that process, it wasn’t just the circumstances that he found himself in. He could see that God had a bigger picture. God had a bigger plan. So oftentimes we get caught up in circumstances, don’t we? Like I said, you know, we have good intentions of going and supporting and encouraging a friend or a neighbour, but we get busy. Life gets busy. But sometimes those excuses can get in the way and cause even more regret. I know for me, about 15, 16 years ago, I was going through a very busy part and a very busy time in my life and I wasn’t looking after myself. I had the excuse of I’m just too tired at the end of the day to look after myself, to go exercise. I’m too tired. I’m too busy to really eat well and to prepare extra meals. And we can use those excuses. I’m too tired. I’ve been chasing the kids or the grandkids all day long. I’m too tired to spend time reading. I’m too tired to spend time with my husband or with my wife. And we can use excuse after excuse, but all it does is pile up even more regret. Joseph found himself betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and forgotten in prison. Yet he recognised that God was using those circumstances. In 1 Samuel 17 47, we read another familiar story of David and Goliath. David heard about the battle that was about to ensue with the Israelites and the Philistines gathered on the front lines. And as was a custom in that day, they would send out their best warriors and they would duke it out to see who would win. And if it needed, they would go into a full-blown battle. But if it could be resolved just with the two very best from each side, that’s how they handled it. So Goliath came out. This big beast of a man came out, said, send out your best. And everybody quivered and shook and shaked. And I’m sure there was some regrets with some of those men in the army, thinking, I didn’t train hard enough. I wish I was stronger. I wish I was better equipped. I wish I would have bought that better Nike equipment last week when it was on sale. Here I am on the front lines with this poor equipment. But David heard of this and he wasn’t going to live with regret. He was going to stand and face the giant. And he went to Saul. He went to his brothers. He went to everyone and they’re like, you’re crazy. You can’t do that. You’re not equipped. You’re not trained. You’re not anything. They tried to put Saul’s armour on him. It didn’t fit. It’d be kind of like wearing, you know, clothes that are 10 sizes too big for you and trying to function in them. So he stripped it off. He said, no, he said, I know a sling. I know stones and that’s what I’m going to use. And when we read 1 Samuel 17, it said, all those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give all of you into our hands. That’s a pretty bold declaration to be making in front of a big beast of a man, a huge army. Here’s this guy with just his basic clothes on and a sling and a few stones. But the thing that David recognised is that it wasn’t the stone. We could gather scientists. We could gather all kinds of mathematicians. We could gather all kinds of smart people. And they could probably give us 20 reasons why that stone could not have done what it did. And we would all probably agree with it, right? The math is wrong. The angle was wrong. The trajectory was. The fact that it was just a small stone, it’s impossible. I mean, that stone would have to get past the shield bearer, right? Goliath, he was well equipped, but he had his own guy holding a shield in front of him. So it would have to get past that. It would have to get through that helmet. You’ve seen those helmets with the little pointy thing that comes down between the eyes, right? That stone would have to project through that. But David knew something. He knew that it wasn’t a stone that he was throwing. It was a name that he was throwing. It was the name that he knew that was behind that stone that was going to accomplish what he declared it would accomplish. And it did. He wasn’t focused on the circumstances. He didn’t care how big Goliath was. He didn’t care how much armour he had on. He didn’t care about any of those things because he knew behind him was a name that was greater than any other name. And sometimes we can forget that, can’t we? We can forget that. We’re on this side of glory. We know historically we see all of these stories we read. And we’re going to look at a few more, but we know all of these stories. It’d be kind of like, you know, I was thinking about that movie Back to the Future. You’ve seen that movie Back to the Future? It was about a young guy that was transported back into time and he got to see all the stuff that happened and then came back into the future, into time, and was able to live out things differently. But one of the guys got this almanack and the almanack had every sports team that ever won a championship. Everything that was ever anything it happened. And so he knew what was going to happen. And so being transported back, he knew what was going to happen in that time. And so this guy used the book incorrectly and bet on things and was very successful because he knew what the outcome was going to be. We already know what the outcome is going to be, yet sometimes we forget. Sometimes we forget and we just get so focused on circumstances, don’t we? And it’s hard not to get focused on circumstances. When politically we hear all things, you know, things going on crazily, we hear of robberies, we hear of murders, we hear of thefts, we hear of the economy, you know, tanking and all the different things that we hear. It’s easy to get stuck on circumstances. My challenge is, can we get to the place of getting our focus off of the circumstances and onto God’s perspective? Because that’s really what counts. And David saw that in 1 Samuel. Others were focused on their skills, their strength and ability, the circumstances, but David saw God’s perspective. He didn’t throw a stone, he threw a name. The rest of the army was fearful. I was thinking of Helen Keller. One of her favourite, her famous quotes is, fear, the best way out is through. Do you know what fear stands for? Fear stands for false evidence appearing real. But it can paralyse us until we become like Helen Keller and go through it. And then all of a sudden we realise, oh, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. It’s kind of like, it’s kind of like the boogeyman, you know, when we’re little. Boogeyman never showed up when the lights were on, always showed up when the lights were off. Never showed up when our parents were home or when friends were over hanging out with us. It was always when it was quiet, nobody was around, right? The boogeyman never showed up when there was busyness going on, but when things were silent and quiet, all of a sudden. And it’s the same with our regrets. It’s the same with things, situations and times and points in our life. All of a sudden when there’s silence, all of those voices start to rise up. I know people that cannot go a day, they cannot be in their home and not have a television going, have some music playing, some background noise. Why? Because when it’s silent, those voices of regret, the voices of indecision, those voices seem to come up. Similar to the boogeyman when the lights go out. But the truth is that they’re false evidence appearing real. They’re just fears that we need to go through and face. In Luke 24, we read an account of a couple of people walking down the road. This is after Jesus was crucified, dead, buried. They thought it was over, right? The disciples had invested everything believing that Jesus was who he said he was. But when he was killed, crucified, and all of a sudden his body’s missing, they didn’t know what was going on. They said, well, we better just go back to what we know. And so many of the disciples, they went back to fishing because fishing is what they knew. These two were heading back to Damascus, and they’re just walking, just thinking about the circumstances, thinking about what’s going on. And Jesus comes alongside and walks along them, but the scripture tells us in verse 16, it says, but they were kept from recognising him. Interesting. They were so focused on the circumstances, they didn’t even realise that it was Jesus walking alongside with them, having a conversation. Sometimes we can get so focused on our circumstances that we don’t think our prayers are effective. Sometimes we can get so focused on our circumstances that if somebody says an encouraging word, it just goes in one ear and out the other, because we’re so focused on the circumstances. We’re looking at our bank balances. We’re looking at our broken down car in the driveway. We’re looking at the broken relationships that are around us. We’re looking at the economy and the positions that we’re in. We’re so focused on the circumstances, we don’t think that there’s any way that God could possibly use that for good. But yet when we look at it historically, we see over and over and over again how God has used things for good. And as they were walking along the road, they came to their location, and Jesus pretended that he was going to continue on down the road. And they go, wait a minute, wait a minute. It’s getting late. It’s getting dark. Why don’t you come and just hang out with us for the night? Let’s just have a meal together, and then you can set off in the morning. So Jesus agreed, and he goes in, and they sit down, and they have a meal together. And he took the bread, and he broke the bread. And then all of a sudden they looked at each other and went, wait a second. Something’s happening here. Something looks eerily familiar. My spidey senses are starting to tingle. There’s something about this guy that is familiar. And they recognised, and God opened their eyes, and they saw who he was. And then instantly he was gone. But he got their eyes off of the circumstances and onto his perspective. Jesus was right there, but they couldn’t see him because they were so focused on the circumstances rather than his perspective. Just because we can’t see God doesn’t mean that he isn’t working. Sometimes we just feel that, don’t we? I mean, we’re human. We can be real. We can be honest. Sometimes we just don’t feel that God is working. We don’t believe that God’s working because we’re so fixated, so focused. I was thinking about Jonah. I didn’t get a scripture for this, but don’t worry. There’s no scripture verse for this one. But I was just thinking about Jonah. I’m sure he had some regrets, right? God met him, said, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh. He said, no way. I’m going this way. I’m out of here. I’m not going down there. And he completely disobeyed, went the wrong way, hopped on a ship, tried to take a cruise to get away from it all, gets thrown off overboard, and gets swallowed up by a big fish. Spends three days in a big fish. How many here, if you spent three days in a big fish, would have some regrets of your decisions? Right? Those would be huge regrets. I’m stuck in the belly of a fish. There would be huge regrets. But he gets a chance for redemption. He gets spit out onto the shore, and God says, head to Nineveh. I’m heading to Nineveh. And off he goes, and he does what he’s told. How about the woman that had the issue of blood? For 12 years, it said, she suffered with this issue. She spent everything that she had, all the doctors, all the specialists, everybody, and she didn’t get any relief. Nothing changed over 12 years. Then she heard about Jesus coming through. She knew of his reputation. She had heard the story. She had heard about the healing. She had heard about all the different things. And she said, this is my moment. I’m not going to regret and allow that to go by without taking my healing, without taking a miracle. And she crept up behind him and touched the hem of his garment just to get a healing. How many of us today, that if Jesus came walking in through that door, came down through all these aisles and went out through that back door, would get out of our pew and ask him for a miracle? Or would we just sit there quietly, wave, nod, you know, just be a little starstruck, and then regret that we didn’t step up, that we didn’t shout out what we wanted, what we needed, what we were asking for. Sometimes it’s our own dignity that keeps us locked in place. Sometimes just looking a little bit foolish keeps us locked in place, fearful of speaking out in that business meeting, fearful of speaking out in that church meeting, fearful of saying something to our children or to our spouse or to a neighbour or to a friend. We just sit with regret and just let the moment go by. In Romans 8, 18 to 28, this is the big one. We’re going to read this one together. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself would be liberated from the bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, but the hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So what’s Paul really saying here? It seems a whole lot, but really what he’s offering here is a message of hope. Paul is reassuring the believers that the present sufferings cannot compare to the eternal glory awaiting them. He explains that creation eagerly awaits this redemption. The Holy Spirit intercedes in our weakness, and God uses all circumstances for the of his people. That’s what Paul is saying here. Regrets come in all shapes and sizes, and the way to regret can be heavy, and it can be a real burden and a real struggle. The difficulty is getting our eyes off of our circumstances and viewing and looking at God’s perspective, because God can see through to the other side. It’s kind of like being in an aeroplane, an aeroplane over a highway, right? Imagine yourself in a car driving along the highway, and you’re trying to pass somebody on the highway, and you inch out a little bit, and another car comes the other way, and you zip back in again, right? And then you go a little bit further, and you go, okay, maybe I can try it again. You move out a little bit to see, and then, bam, another car comes down. And it’s like God is in a plane, and he can see the highway as long as it can possibly go, and he knows when we can pass. But we’re so focused on our circumstances that we can’t see his perspective. If we could tune into his perspective, he would say, okay, Alexander, it’s clear to pass. Go. And we could go. It’s the same in life. We get so focused on the circumstances, and we lose connection with God’s perspective. We think, well, I made that choice. I made that decision. I made my bed. I got to lay in it. There’s nothing God can do, nothing God will do. With that kind of attitude, you’re right. You’re right. If we focus on our circumstances and say, oh, it’s too big for God, you’re right. There’s nothing that can change. Nothing can happen. Nothing can ever change. You’re right. We could stay focused on that, and nothing would ever change. But if we will shift our perspective, anything is possible. How many believe that God is a God of the possible? Right? He is. He’s not the God of impossible. He’s the God of possible. We’re praying for a new leader in our church. It’s possible. We know that God is going to bring the right person at the right time, but it’s hard not to get stuck on the circumstances. I don’t see any clear candidates. I don’t see any clear thing, but when we change our perspective, it all shifts. If you take notes, I want you to write down these five words. If you don’t take notes, I want you to write down these five words. I want to encourage you. This is a side note. I want to encourage you to take notes. I’ve got a little black book, and no, it doesn’t have addresses and mean things about people. It’s a black book that I keep notes on, and I want to encourage you to have something, even if it’s a small little notepad that you can slip in your pocket. Women, you’ve got a guy’s beat. You’ve got purses. You can carry things in your purses. Just a little notepad. Back in the day, I used to write on anything and everything, especially when I was in the construction world. You could ask my wife. The collection of stuff that I had up in my office, I would have pieces of two by twelve, right? Just a chunk, two-foot piece of two by twelve, and with a marker, and I would mark down a note or a thought that I had. I would take it home with me. I would be scrambling around, couldn’t find anything. I’d rip open a paper bag and just pencil inside this thing. Cedar shims, anything I could get my hands on, too. You know, little children running by. Right, are you coming home with… No, I wouldn’t do that. But I would just write notes on everything, and I kept that collection for the longest time because I thought it was the funniest thing, and I thought, dummy, just get a little book. Carry a book with you. So that’s what I do, and I carry that with me, and I carry it until I fill it up. Then I put it on my shelf, and then I get another one, and I work on that one until I fill it up. So now I’ve got a collection of these little books that I just put little note things. And it’s a great time, you know, with laptops and iPads and all these different things. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t. This thing in between our ears is the greatest invention in the world. I mean, the capacity that we have in here is fantastic, but you can’t trust it all the time. Anyone notice that? How many have made a list, gone to the grocery store, forgot the list at home, tried to recall everything on the list? Did you forget at least one or two things on that list? Almost every time, right? We know that we can’t trust that thing, but if we write it down, we can trust that thing. So you can trust what you’ve written, but you can’t trust to remember everything. So I want to encourage you to write these things down. The first is regrets. Know that they’re going to happen. They’re going to happen. There’s going to be times where we don’t do the thing. As Paul says, you know, the very thing I want to do or don’t want to do, I do. The thing I know that I should do, the thing that I shouldn’t do is right there all the time. So we know that these things are going to happen. Regrets are going to happen regardless of how young we are, how old we are, how smart we are, how not so smart we are. See how politely I said that? But it’s going to happen. Here’s the thing about regrets. The second word that I want you to write down is repent. Just say, God, I blew it. I forgot to take that casserole. I forgot to bring the cereal again. I forgot to do this again. I forgot to put my tithe in. I forgot to pay that bill. I forgot to do this. I forgot to do that. I didn’t, you know, I didn’t train hard enough. I didn’t do anything. Just confess it. Say, God, I blew it. The next one is redemption. Trust is redeeming grace. Trust that he can use all things together for good. And trust that redemptive work that he’s doing. The fourth one is restoration. Know that he’s going to restore you. Know that as we confess those things, now we’ve gotten rid of the fear that it’s going to happen again. Now we can walk through it as Helen Keller says. And now we’ve, as we confess it, we can walk through in a different way. We’ve shifted our perspective off of circumstances onto God’s perspective. So trust in the restoration. And then the fifth and final one is rejoice. Just give thanks. Just be happy that you can and will get over those things. So that’s a simple formula to get over regret. Is that a good formula? Will you use that formula? I know we’re only human, and it’s going to happen. But here’s what I don’t want to happen, have happen. I don’t want us to be on our last breath, regretting all those regrets that have just piled up over the years, over time. Because the compound interest is not a good interest. It’s not something that you want to compound. Dealing with those things as you’ve done, maybe there’s some broken relationships that need to be restored in your life. Confess that now. Ask for God’s redemptive work. Allow that restoration to happen. Allow the rejoicing to happen while you’re still walking, living, and breathing. While there’s still breath in our lungs, we have the ability to change anything. As we confess it and give it over to God, shift our circumstances, shift out of the circumstances, and shift into his perspective. Does that make sense? So that’s what I want to encourage us with. I knew that today was going to be a challenging day because of the waft of barbecue coming in through the door. Anybody getting a whiff of that? I see that hand back there. Mr. I could eat six hamburgers. One of the things that’s challenging these days as a speaker, as a presenter, is the attention span is a little bit shorter. Attention span is a little bit shorter. Did I say that already? It is, but it’s just gotten shorter and shorter, hasn’t it? Those squirrel moments happen quicker, more frequent. Even for people that never suffered from squirrel syndrome, it happens. We get caught up in those moments, right? It’s just happened. But what you cannot compete with is a group of people that are salivating because they know a picnic is coming. They know a barbecue is coming, and then you get the aroma of that coming in through the building. That is unfair. That is unfair. So I’m going to finish so that we can get out and enjoy those burgers. Who wants to get out and enjoy a burger? All right. Now, while I got some hands moving, who’s going to begin to confess regrets? Not right now. This isn’t confession time, but I want to encourage you to look at those moments when those moments come up and say, okay, I know how to deal with that. All I got to do is confess it, and I can allow God’s work to begin in my life. That’s the start. That’s the beginning. And to begin to accelerate, or begin to propel, or begin to build momentum until everything that you do, God will begin to and continue to use it for good.

June 21

by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/24232925/June-21-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/24232925/June-21-Sermon.mp3] GENESIS 41:57 (NLT) 57 And people from all around came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe throughout the world.   GENESIS 42:1-20 (NLT) JOSEPH’S BROTHERS GO TO EGYPT 42 When Jacob heard that grain was available in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you standing around looking at one another? 2 I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy enough grain to keep us alive. Otherwise we’ll die.” 3 So Joseph’s ten older brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain. 4 But Jacob wouldn’t let Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin, go with them, for fear some harm might come to him. 5 So Jacob’s[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2042%3A1-20&version=NLT#fen-NLT-1258a]] sons arrived in Egypt along with others to buy food, for the famine was in Canaan as well. 6 Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came. When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground. 7 Joseph recognized his brothers instantly, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where are you from?” he demanded. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied. “We have come to buy food.” 8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn’t recognize him. 9 And he remembered the dreams he’d had about them many years before. He said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.” 10 “No, my lord!” they exclaimed. “Your servants have simply come to buy food. 11 We are all brothers—members of the same family. We are honest men, sir! We are not spies!” 12 “Yes, you are!” Joseph insisted. “You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.” 13 “Sir,” they said, “there are actually twelve of us. We, your servants, are all brothers, sons of a man living in the land of Canaan. Our youngest brother is back there with our father right now, and one of our brothers is no longer with us.” 14 But Joseph insisted, “As I said, you are spies! 15 This is how I will test your story. I swear by the life of Pharaoh that you will never leave Egypt unless your youngest brother comes here! 16 One of you must go and get your brother. I’ll keep the rest of you here in prison. Then we’ll find out whether or not your story is true. By the life of Pharaoh, if it turns out that you don’t have a younger brother, then I’ll know you are spies.” 17 So Joseph put them all in prison for three days. 18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live. 19 If you really are honest men, choose one of your brothers to remain in prison. The rest of you may go home with grain for your starving families. 20 But you must bring your youngest brother back to me. This will prove that you are telling the truth, and you will not die.” To this they agreed. ROMANS 12:17A (TLB) 17 Never pay back evil for evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honest clear through. ROMANS 12:19 (TLB) 19 Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, for he has said that he will repay those who deserve it. Don’t take the law into your own hands.[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2012%3A19&version=TLB#fen-TLB-25323a]] TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe)