Fort Garry MB Church - Winnipeg, Canada Fort Garry MB Church

As we open our Advent season, Pastor Carl Heppner offers us a meditation on Hope and Praise.

In the final message of our Whatever You Do series, Pastor Carl brings the entire series to its end, recapping some of the important points that came up during the series.  Following that, Pastor Ruth leads the congregation in communion as we anticipate the arrival of the Christ child through the Advent series.

This is God's world, we're just living in it.  Money, sex, and politics have had universal draw on humans throughout all time.  Paul recognized that in the Corinthians, and Jesse, in his sermon drawn from 1 Corinthians 10, challenges us to see how these things have almost an idolatrous hold on us in the 21st century.

Freedom in Christ does not mean freedom to do whatever we want, rather, it means freedom to serve others in a way that brings others to Christ.  Christians must be mindful of our witness at all times and in all things.  Pastor Carl unpacks 1 Corinthians 8 & 9 to these ends.  

Edit Note:  At 30:35, Pastor Carl misspoke.  The edited video includes a necessary clarification on this.  (Original video was unlisted on Friday, November 4; this clarification was filmed and uploaded on the same day).  

As we continue our journey through 1 Corinthians, Pastor Carl approaches the difficult passages with honesty and frames the conversation around marriage and singleness from the perspective of the Mennonite Brethren Church.

Pastor Carl acknowledges that our verses today introduce a difficult conversation.  In recent history, these verses have been used to bludgeon and ostracize fellow believers from communities of faith.

Tactfully, Pastor Carl addresses the weight of these verses, and their importance, and has listeners consider these verses anew.