#blessed - Matt 5:9: There's a famous story of George Bush Sr. making a trip to Australia and greeting the onlookers with making a "V" for Victory with his fingers. I'm sure he meant it in a good way, unfortunately for him, that's not what that sign means in Australia. Interesting how humanity interprets words and meaning differently. I would argue that peace is another one of those multi-faceted concepts. In Matthew, Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers. What is peace? Does it mean the same for me as it does for you? How are we supposed to do that if it has different meanings across the board? This week we'll look to God's kingdom to give us some insight on what it means for apprentices of Jesus and how it affects the day to day.

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Peace

#blessed - Matt. 5:5: “Everybody hurts sometimes” (REM). We all suffer and will suffer loss. Add the ongoing woes of a global pandemic to the ordinary losses of life and no one is a stranger to grief these days. This weekend we land on the 2nd  beatitude from Matthew 5; the one which pairs “good” and “grief” in the same sentence. “Blessed are the those who mourn, for you shall be comforted in ways you would never dream of.” If you find yourself fighting back tears of sorrow over personal loss, loneliness, Covid nightmares, alienation, isolation, or you name it, Jesus says, “I have good news for you today—you are going to find comfort and consolation and healing in My Kingdom. Mourners, come on in and I will give you rest and reprieve. My kingdom doors are swung wide open for you”. Please join us in person or livestream as we combine the comfort and hope of this Beatitude with the Table of the Lord’s suffering (Communion) that brought us our hope. You will leave #blessed.  

Good Grief

#blessed: Jesus begins his first-ever talk by announcing a great surprise — that the people who have nothing but empty hands and a broken heart, are precisely the ones who receive the honour to be first called into the Kingdom of God. By culture’s standards, it makes no sense. But Jesus is adamant: “O the bliss of the person who has realized her own utter helplessness, and through her brokenness, has put her whole trust in God, for hers is the kingdom of heaven.” Join us as in person or livestream this weekend as we continue our series #blessed by rehearsing and celebrating the forever truth and beauty of “Amazing Grace!"  

Amazing Grace

#blessed - None: A browser search for #blessed looks a lot different today than it would have 2000 years ago! Jesus, in his first sermon (Mathew 5), shocked everyone with eight uncommon, mind-bending #blessings that sent huge ripples through the crowd, ripples of an unsuspecting and unusual road to happiness. Jesus caught everyone off guard, contradicting everything culture was saying about how to achieve happiness and connect meaningfully with God. Like today, many people had given up on religion, thinking they could never qualify or measure up. But here he was, throwing the doors of his eternal Kingdom wide open to the spiritually bankrupt, the sorrowing, the fragile, the hungry, rejected, neglected and persecuted. And the message remains the same today — everyone can find forgiveness, consolation, hope, joy and strength. And all Jesus asks is for you to come. This Sunday, join us in person or livestream as we begin our series in the Beatitudes with a “Heartbreak Gospel.”  

Heartbreak Gospel

Blessed Beyond Belief - Matthew 25:14-29: This is the weekend we historically pause and give thanks to God for his goodness to us personally and nationally. As believers, we talk about living with an ‘attitude of gratitude’ and insist that thanksgiving means ‘thanks living.’ This weekend, as we look into God’s Word, we will dig deep into the heart of God and find a source of endless blessing of which we are the recipients -- his dearly loved children. From the opening pages of Genesis to the book of the Revelation, over 500 times God is described as one who blessing. Here’s the biblical impact of receiving a blessing from God: we are expected to pass it on to others in the manner we have received it. Matthew’s parable will provide practical application for what it means to live a life that is ‘blessed beyond belief!’

Blessed Beyond Belief

Belonging - None: Do you ever consider yourself as being ‘gifted’ by God? It’s true! When we come to faith in Jesus, our sinful past is wiped clean and God’s Spirit comes to take up permanent residence within us. Like any celebration of ‘new birth,’ the Spirit brings a spiritual gift from God that he chose specifically for you! Like any gift, there is the expectation it will not only be received, but it will also be put to use. With spiritual gifts, they are to be used within his body, the church. This week we will understand how to discover, develop and deploy the spiritual gift(s) God has entrusted us for the building up of his body and for the unity of our faith community. Understanding spiritual gifts is central to our understanding of what it means to belong to God and his church, the faith community at Foothills.

God Has A Gift For You

Belonging - Ephesians 4:11-16: There is something unique and special that occurs when believers in Jesus connect and lean together in the same direction. There is a sense of belonging that isn’t found anywhere else this side of heaven. The common thread in our connection is found in the person of Jesus. Paul describes Jesus as the ‘head’ of the church which gets one to thinking … what does our ‘church body’ look when Jesus is seen as the head over our church? Are we a body that is fit to serve our Master, or do we limp along because we have never learned how to walk in step with him and with each other. Our study in God’s word this weekend will find us exploring another dimension of what it means to belong to Jesus and each other.

The Power of Togetherness

Belonging - 1 Kings 19: Do frantic thoughts keep you awake at night? Overwhelming emotions that consume you and leave you feeling powerless and all alone? Has the pandemic taken a toll on your sanity? Has it ever gotten so bad you weren’t sure you even wanted to live anymore, wondering — Why isn’t my faith strong enough to handle life right now? Where is God in the dark? Elijah was a man of deep faith, beloved by God, yet in 2 Kings we find him so down, so filled with despair, that he prayed for God to take his life. The Bible is a book about real people and real people hurt. And even when we are walking closely with God, we can still get lost in a wilderness of tangled emotions and hopelessness. But in the darkness of our depression, God can meet us still.  

God In The Dark

Belonging - Luke19 v 1-10: Okay, admittedly this sermon title is a bit of click bait. But now that I have your attention, what is the first few words that come to mind when you hear the words: “the church?” Were they positive? Negative? Why? Now I want you to do the same only with the word: “belonging.” Were any of the words that came to mind the same as what you thought with “the church?” There are few characteristics of a compelling community (aka, communities that people want to be a part of and are accessible). Is the church functioning how it should? Do we live out some of those characteristics? I think this is worth talking about. See you this weekend!  

How To Make Friends

Belonging - None: If you’ve been around Foothills, you’ve likely seen the sign on the wall or heard us say, “We’re better together.” And if we ever doubted that, these last 18 months confirmed it. In the face of worldwide disconnection and seasons of unwanted isolation, we’ve discovered how essential relationship is. Our God has known this all along. So, it’s not surprising his restoration plan for broken people and a broken world is knitting us together in loving relationship with himself and each other, as his church.  This relationship isn’t easy, and church can be complicated and messy; even more so amidst COVID-19. So how do we live into all God calls us to as his church? Join us this weekend as we explore God’s Word and ask for his grace to answer that call.  

Better Together

If Jesus Was Serious - Mat 7:24-29: Have you ever considered the ‘scariest’ verse in the Bible? Well, this week we will learn of those who appeal to Jesus as having done great things for him in His name, only to learn that Jesus says he never knew them!! How can this be? Was Jesus serious in this? Apparently, somewhere along the way they made a poor choice when they came to, what I call, the Fork in the Road. Throughout God’s Word we are confronted continuously with the need to make wise choices concerning the path we will travel. Jesus challenges us at these ‘fork in the road’ experiences to ensure we make decisions that lead to a hope and a future found only through a faith relationship with him, rather than travelling towards a dead-end experience trying to earn Jesus’ love and favour by ‘doing’ good things for him.  

The Fork In The Road

If Jesus Was Serious - Matthew 7:1-5: This week Jesus confronts us with the practice of judging others. It’s a timely word, because from time to time we all find ourselves falling into this harmful practice that can lead to prejudice against others for no reason other than they are different from us. Our time in God’s Word will find us learning the difference between discernment and judgement and how to learn to practice self-awareness rather than self-righteousness.   The bottom line is this … if Jesus was serious in this matter, we learn that we cannot judge and love people at the same time. With the apostle Paul, we need to align ourselves with his conviction that from now on  we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  What a timely lesson as judgement of  others has become a far too common practice in our culture, and in our relationships with others.  

You Be The Judge

If Jesus Was Serious - Matt 7:1-5: One of the grandest privileges on my life has been being your pastor at Foothills Alliance Church over the last 20 years. I can hardly believe this will be my last Sunday at church preaching as your lead pastor. You have been so kind, so encouraging, so honest, so gracious and I am beyond grateful for your influence in my life. This weekend we will look at Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus, and I will share my prayer for you. We will have a great time in worship that will make us all smile and remember the goodness of God. I so look forward to being with you in church or online. Have a blessed weekend Be safe, be kind and be well. Pastor Ian

Specks and Planks

If Jesus Was Serious - Matt 6:25-33: J.I. Packer defines the kingdom of God as the place "wherever the lordship of Jesus is acknowledged in repentance, faith and new obedience." The whole of the sermon on the mount is not just talk for Jesus, nor should it be for us. If Jesus is serious, and he is who he says he is, then what we've been looking at should shake us to our core. As we look at Matthew 6v25-33, there are a few things that we'll hit. One, there are a lot of things that take us "out of sway of the kingdom." And two, that needs to change. But how? Jesus being the good teacher he is, shows us that the key lies in our priorities. The kingdom cannot be buried in ours. See you this weekend!  

Primary Concern

If Jesus Was Serious - Matt 6:5-14: There are moments in life when God feels so close that I am overwhelmed with his presence. Last week, floating on a northern Saskatchewan lake surrounded by blue sky and water, green forest and bright sunshine I had one of those moments. I turned my heart towards God in peaceful praise and felt the embrace of his love. But what about those other moments when life is full, demands are pressing, and stress is rising? How do we meet God then? In this week’s teaching, Jesus calls us to the secret place to meet with God and gives us a guide to follow as we come away to pray. And you know what, I think he was serious. He said, “pray this way” because he wants us to “pray this way.” And as we do, we receive the reward of his intimate transforming presence amidst everyday life. This Sunday, come hear and answer his call.  

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Foothills Alliance Church | Video

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