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  1. 5d ago

    July 26

    by Mark Gaskin https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/29112723/July-26-Sermon-1.mp3 1 Kings 3:5-12(NIV) 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” 6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. 7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” 10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Matthew 15: 21–28 The Faith of a Canaanite Woman 21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. Transcript (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Alexander: Our speaker this morning is the Reverend Mark Richardson. Mark is a long-term friend of Central. We’re so glad that you’re here, Mark. Mark is retired from Westside Galt and from Central Church in Brantford, and we are so glad that he’s here. No, no, we don’t have to correct Alexander. I’ve messed up his name several times. Mark Gaskin: And, you know, if I had to be confused with somebody, Richardson is the one I’d want to be confused with. He’s a great guy, the other Mark. I don’t blame him. There’s something about this presbytery, and Lynn Pennington knows, for a while, there were four, there were at least four ordained ministers in the presbytery of Waterloo West. Mark Lewis, Kitchener, Mark Gedke, also in Kitchener, Mark Richardson, and Mark Gaskin. And the clerk of the presbytery started to give us nicknames. I have no desire to share with you what my nickname was. So Richardson is fine, Alexander, fine. I did also want to mention that I’m wearing my Camp Kintail shirt. They’re coming to get Alexander. When you confuse me, that’s when I, 911. I’m wearing my Camp Kintail shirt because I know this congregation has a deep relationship with Camp Kintail on Lake Huron. I know Jonathan and Teresa, the co-executive directors of the camp, have worshipped with you, have led worship. Every time I’m up at camp, and I go up several times a year, there is their Sunday suppers. There are also, it’s also Kirk and the Cedars. In fact, there’s one today, four o’clock, they worship in the chapel. And then there is a gathering in McDonald Lodge, afterwards a meal in McDonald Lodge. We often go up, myself and our adult children and their children, will have for several years gone up for family camp held in August. And when I mention to Jonathan and Teresa that I have preached at Central Cambridge or will be preaching at Central Church in Cambridge, they always say to me, please say thank you. They are deeply grateful for the support they receive, monetary and otherwise, especially the men’s ministry, that goes up in, is it twice a year or else, spring and fall, and just does the work that needs to be done on that acreage. There’s always something, and especially, it used to be that they would close down for the winter. So there was this spring cleanup and the fall shutdown. It’s a year-round camp now. So there’s always, there’s more to be done. And I know Jonathan and Teresa and the board at Camp Kintail very much are grateful for the support they receive from Central Church Cambridge. Our first reading is from 1 Kings 3, beginning at verse 5. King David has passed and his son, King Solomon, has come to the throne. It’s been a few months. And this is the dream that King Solomon has. At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, ask for whatever you want me to give to you. Solomon answered, you have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. Now, Lord, my God, you have made your servant King in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours? The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have you asked for the death of your enemies, but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. And our good news reading for this morning from the gospel according to Matthew, and this is what I’ll be basing the message on today. Matthew tells us that Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman came from that vicinity, came to him crying out, Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. Your daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession. Jesus did not say a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, send him away for she keeps crying out after us. He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. The woman came and knelt before him. Lord, help me, she said. He replied, it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, she said. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered, woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Amen. In the name of the creator, the redeemer, and the sustainer. Amen. Once upon a time, a woman came to a Presbyterian church. Let’s call it Knox St. Andrews on the Speedy Grand River. And she asked him, would you do a funeral for my dog? I’ve had this dog many, many years. A wonderful companion to me. I would like to have a funeral for my faithful dog. Well, the minister was more than a little taken aback. And he replied with a certain tone to his voice, well, I couldn’t possibly conduct a funeral for a dog. Perhaps you should try one of the other churches in town. The woman was polite, thanked him, and started to leave. And then turned back and she said, oh, just so you can help me when I visit these other churches. Is $500 enough of an honorarium for this type of funeral? And would I make that out to the minister or to the church? There was a pause. And the minister says, you didn’t say that the dog was Presbyterian. I’d be happy to help. I’m glad you laughed. And I am quite sure that many of you have heard that joke before. But it’s easier to tell that joke than it is to deal with this passage. We’re hearing Jesus speak in a way that we have not heard before. And we don’t hear very often. Because there’s nothing funny about these words. It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. Those words land with a thud. They sound harsh. They sound insulting. And if we’re honest, they don’t sound very much like the Jesus that you and I like to talk about. And it really comes down to that one word. Dog. Now, today, in our culture, in our time, dogs are beloved companions. They sleep on our couches. They have birthday parties. We sentimentalise our dogs in ways that would have seemed very strange to the ancient world. And let’s not just think about the companionship that dogs offer. Let’s think about service dogs. And how that area has expanded over the years. To include that they once helped disabled or impaired individuals. And now they do a host of activities with that population. And let’s think about the working dogs. That search for explosives or drugs. Canine dogs that protect you and I. That was not the role of dogs in Jesus’ time. They weren’t pets. They didn’t do anything. They were scavengers, mostly. Wild, dirty animals that wandered the streets. Feeding on refuse and garbage. To call someone a dog, even in our time, it’s not really a compliment. But we have a different understanding. But to call someone a dog in Jesus’ time was an absolute insult. No compliment whatsoever. Scripture reflects this attitude over and over again. The prophet Isaiah says, Israel’s

  2. Jul 23

    July 19

    by Rev. Mark Gaskin 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

  3. Jul 17

    July 12

    by Mark Gaskin 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] 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.[b] 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]) 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

  4. Jul 8

    July 5

    by Rev. Mark Gaskin 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]?” 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

  5. Jul 2

    June 28

    by Jim Hetherington 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] 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] 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. Sometim

  6. Jun 25

    June 21

    by Aubrey Botha 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] 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] Transcript (Transcribed by TurboScribe)

  7. Jun 16

    June 14

    by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/16100747/June-14-Sermon.mp3 Genesis 39:19-21 Joseph Put in Prison 19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. Genesis 40:14-15 14 And please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let me out of this place. 15 For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in prison, but I did nothing to deserve it.” Genesis 40:23 23 Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.   Genesis 41:1 Pharaoh’s Dreams 41 Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River. Genesis 41:9-16 9 Finally, the king’s chief cup-bearer spoke up. “Today I have been reminded of my failure,” he told Pharaoh. 10 “Some time ago, you were angry with the chief baker and me, and you imprisoned us in the palace of the captain of the guard. 11 One night the chief baker and I each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. 12 There was a young Hebrew man with us in the prison who was a slave of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he told us what each of our dreams meant. 13 And everything happened just as he had predicted. I was restored to my position as cup-bearer, and the chief baker was executed and impaled on a pole.” 14 Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once, and he was quickly brought from the prison. After he shaved and changed his clothes, he went in and stood before Pharaoh. 15 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream last night, and no one here can tell me what it means. But I have heard that when you hear about a dream you can interpret it.” 16 “It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replied. “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.” Psalm 37:7 7 Be still before the Lord     and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways,     when they carry out their wicked schemes. Isaiah 40:31 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.     They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary.     They will walk and not faint. Transcript (Transcribed by TurboScribe) This is one of my favourite worship songs. I just sang it last night. Again, I often do that. Just before I go to bed, I’ll listen to a few of these, and this was the one last night I just put on, and I was just taking some time with the Lord. I trust in God. Do we do that? Sometimes we forget that, right? When life gets a little tough, we kind of grab to all kinds of straws, and they don’t last that long, but the Lord is always there. He starts the song with blessed assurance. Remember how the words went in the old song? For Jesus is mine. Lord, thank you for the series on Joseph. Thank you for the lessons we learned. Help us, Lord, to take those and make them part of our lives, especially this morning. It’s a big one. Thank you for that. May we ask, as we always do, that we can see Jesus and only Jesus. So I’m sitting in the doctor’s office in the waiting room. Jay nearly choked on his coffee now. Let me go back. I’m sitting in the doctor’s office in the waiting room. The receptionist checked me in, and she said, take a seat and wait. The nurse will call you when the doctor is ready to see you. I’m not alone in this room. There’s other people with me, and we all know our task. It’s in the name of the room. Wait. We don’t tweet each other. We don’t take blood pressure. We don’t write prescriptions. Our job is to wait. Now, we don’t like that because we’re this kind of giddy-up generation, right? We weave through the traffic to get to the fastest lane just to stop at the traffic light at the same time as everyone else. We get really upset when someone brings 11 items into the 10-item express checkout, and we drum our fingers when we watch Netflix, and it takes a little while for that video to download. We don’t like waiting, not for the traffic, not for the doctor, not for God. Can we take a moment and just think about this for a moment? Where are we sitting? Not today in the church. Every day as we live in this world, where are we sitting? We’re sitting in God’s waiting room. See the young couple sitting there? They’ve been waiting for a long time, trying to get pregnant. See the gentleman there with a briefcase on his lap? He’s been sending out resume after resume, waiting, waiting to find a job. See the elderly lady, just widowed? She’s been waiting for one day without waking up crying. Here’s the thing. We live in a land between prayer offered and prayer answered, in the land of waiting, in God’s waiting room. Now, if there’s someone that knows every piece of furniture, who’s read every notice on that bulletin board in God’s waiting room, it was Joseph. He spent hours down in a cistern, waiting that someone might just take him out. Months walking about 750 kilometres to get to Egypt. Days, if not weeks, on that auction block. A decade in the household of Potiphar, the captain of the guard. Time moves slowly in a foreign land, and time stops in prison. And that’s where we pick up his story today. Can I just give you a little backstory before we read, and we’re going to start reading chapter 39 verse 19. So Joseph works for Potiphar, and things are wonderful. People love him, everyone loves him, and Potiphar’s wife wants to love him even more. She invites him into her bedroom, and he says, no thank you. She did not take that kindly. So she decided that she was going to get him back for that. So she goes to her husband, and she lies, and she tells him that Joseph tried to sexually assault her. And that’s where we pick up our story. Potiphar was so furious when he heard his wife’s story about Joseph, how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph, and he threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. Do I need to say this? But the Lord, this is about God even better. But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison, and he showed him his faithful love. But the Lord was with Joseph even there where time stood still. And then, and I’m going to use strange words which I will explain in a second. I’m using them specifically. It just so happened that the baker and the butler, not the candlestick maker, only the baker and the butler, they messed up, and Pharaoh got really angry at them, and he dumped them in jail with Joseph. They became friends. And it just so happened that they both had a dream. And it just so happened that God allowed Joseph to understand the dreams and tell them what the dreams meant. If I was the baker, I wish I never had that dream for him. It didn’t end that well. He lost his head. The butler or the cupbearer, as the translation calls him, the butler, he got really good news. You’re not going to stay in here for long, buddy. You go right back, and they’re going to put you back in your job, and you’re going to live happily ever after working for the king. But as Joseph tells him that, he asks him a favour. Chapter 40, verse 14. He said to him, please remember me. Do me a favour when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh so he might let me out of this place, for I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in prison. But I did nothing to deserve it. And then verse 23. Pharaoh’s cupbearer, butler, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought. For two years, not a single word. Enough time for Joseph to forget about God, to kind of push his beliefs to one side and say, it’s all done. There’s nothing more. I’m just stuck in this prison. But he never did, because Joseph knows all about last week’s sermon. About the one who weaves. Sometimes the world weaves, but God is the amazing re-weaver. And he knew all about that. Never gave up. And then it happened. Pharaoh had this dream. Actually, two dreams. One about cows and one about grain. It upset him really, because he didn’t understand what this was all about. So he got all of his wise people and all of his counsellors together. And he said, explain this to me, because I’m really concerned about what this might mean. They had no clue. And then that moment, chapter 41, verse 9. Finally, the king’s cupbearer spoke up, the butler. Today, I have been reminded of my failure, he told Pharaoh. Some time ago, you were angry with the chief baker and me, and you imprisoned us in the palace of the captain of the guard. That is Potiphar. One night, the chief baker and I each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. And there was a young Hebrew man with us in the prison who was a slave of the captain of the guard. And we told him our dreams. And he told us what each of our dreams meant. And everything happened just as he had predicted. I was restored to my position as cupbearer, and the chief baker was executed and impaled on a pole. Sandy Barry, I just told you about that this week. Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once, and he was quickly brought from the prison. And after he shaved and changed his clothes, he went in and stood before Pharaoh. This would be the first time that Pharaoh and Joseph would come face to face, and they would look at each other. Wouldn’t be the last. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream last night, and no one here can tell me what it means. But I’ve heard that when you hear about a dream, you can interpre

  8. Jun 10

    June 7

    by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/10121328/June-7-Sermon.mp3 Genesis 37:5-11 (NLT) 5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!” 8 His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. 9 Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!” 10 This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” 11 But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant. Genesis 37:25-28 25 Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. 26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime.[a] 27 Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. 28 So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces[b] of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.   Romans 11:29 (MSG) A Complete Israel 25-29 I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what’s going on and arrogantly assume that you’re royalty and they’re just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that’s not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it’s all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written, A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion;     he’ll clean house in Jacob. And this is my commitment to my people:     removal of their sins. From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God’s enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God’s overall purpose, they remain God’s oldest friends. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.   Transcript (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Thank you, Praise Team. What a wonderful morning of worship again. I missed you on the piano though. 6:10, not 6:07, 6:10. We really want you to do that. Alexander had a little fun with you this morning, but please go do that. 6:10 in the morning or 6:10 in the evening or afternoon, whatever you want to call it. Take a few moments, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and pray. Pray for our search team in the work that they are doing, finding the next minister for this church. Pray for the person that God is preparing for this position. But also pray for another team because we’ve been struggling for a long time. We’re looking for someone for our youth, and we just do not have folks that are applying, and it’s not just us. It’s all over that we’re struggling with that. Pray for us too. Pray for folks that feel that call to do that. With God’s grace, I think there might be two people. That’ll be good news for those on the team that we might see apply and that we might be able to sit down and talk to. So 6.10 until we find people, take time. Five minutes is all we’re asking. Be quiet, and that’s all you pray for, nothing else. That’s what you pray for. Lord, as we continue our journey with Joseph, not an easy journey, Lord, because it starts in a home, goes to a pit, ends in slavery, but also in the end, it ends in war, more than that. But as we walk this path, help us, Lord, to see you as Joseph did, to see your hand in every moment, even there in the deepest pit, as we said last week. And every day as we walk, and in these moments, may we see Jesus, and only Jesus. I think you got it right, Alexander. Now I moved it, and now it’s all oblong. It started, the trouble started when Joseph’s mouth started. He walked into breakfast that morning, and he was blabbing about this dream that he had. Read with me. I’m going to do the verses little by little. It’s a little bit of fun. One night, Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. Remember I told you verse five last week? Listen to this dream, he said. We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain, and suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine. I do not know what Joseph was thinking. Was he really thinking that his brothers were going to just slap him on the back and say, baby brother, that’s amazing. We can’t wait to bow down before you. Well, they didn’t. They kicked dirt in his face, and they told him to take a hike. Verse nine, verse eight. His brothers responded, so you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you’ll reign over us? And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. Now you’d think he would take a hint, but he didn’t. So he just comes right back, and this time with a dream even more elaborate than the first one, verse nine. Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. Listen, I’ve had another dream, he said. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me. This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. What kind of dream is that? He asked, will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you? But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dream was. He should have kept those dreams to himself, and I think that’s what he was thinking if you think back to last week’s sermon when he was sitting there right at the bottom of that dark pit, heard the brothers up there laughing and having fun. And then all of a sudden, it’s not just their voices, there are other voices too. So let’s go to verse 25. Then just as they were sitting down to eat, the brothers, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders after all. He’s our brother, our own flesh and blood. And his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites who were Midianite traders came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for 20 pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. Just like that. Brothers pulled him out, took the money, grabbed the garment, left, and Joseph had no choice. He was on his way to Egypt to be a slave. Can I just stop the story there for a second? Because I want to set the scene for you for what this sermon is all about. Not too long ago, Joseph had everything going his way. He was hanging out at home. Brothers had to work. He was the loved son and everything was going to him. He had his own tailor who made his own special garment for him. He had these wonderful lofty dreams. But like the old saying goes, what goes up must come down. And Joseph’s life came down with a crash. Down, down, down. Put down by the brothers, thrown down into a cistern, sold down the river of slavery, led down the road to Egypt. Stripped of everything. His name, his status, his position, everything he had, everything he hoped to have, it all went down the drain. Down to Egypt. And this is what the sermon is all about. Because here’s the thing. Life sometimes can do that. It can get us down. We even have sayings for that. I’m down to my last dollar. Just yesterday, this was not written in the sermon, but it gave me in a moment. As I was driving to Zehrs to pick up something, I saw this young lady come to the place where she always stands at the traffic light. And she had this cardboard and she was writing her cardboard again. And as I came back from Zehrs, she was ready and she stood there and she had a down on there. Down on my luck. Because that’s where she is. She’s down. Down to my last penny. Down on my back. Down and out. All of a sudden life takes us down. Boy, that’s a downer this morning. That’s not where I’m going. It takes us down. Now let’s go back to Joseph. Hold on to that. Joseph. When he arrives in Egypt, he has nothing. It’s all taken away. His family, his home, his country. Everything. He has lost everything. But the one thing he didn’t lose was his belief in God’s plan for his life. Joseph never stopped believing that. Never mind how down he went. Down into the pit. Down with the Ishmaelites. Down to Egypt. Down into the dungeon of the jail there. He never stopped believing in the fact that this was God’s plan for his life and nothing would change that. And he was going to hold on to that plan because he knew. Remember last week, Genesis 50 verse 20. You weaved evil. But God is the amazing weaver and God re-weaved, re-wove those plans. And they became pla

  9. Jun 3

    May 31

    by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/03152102/May-31-Sermon.mp3 Genesis 37:12-13 12 Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers went to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. 13 When they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them.” “I’m ready to go,” Joseph replied. Genesis 37:18-24 Joseph Sold into Slavery 18 When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. 19 “Here comes the dreamer!” they said. 20 “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’ Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!” 21 But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. 22 “Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness. Then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him.” Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. 23 So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. 24 Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.  Genesis 50:20 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.   Transcript (Transcribed by TurboScribe) I think this simple little song is one of my all-time favourites. Laura, you outdid yourself this morning. I don’t know what happened to you, but it happened to me. As you were playing, I was just overwhelmed. I still am. My emotions were just all over the place, and I just see that as the spirit that was doing that. So, thank you for your gift that became God’s gift to us. Thank you. Sorry, old man’s emotions get to him a little bit. We’re starting a new series. By the way, it’s written by Darlene Czech. She didn’t write too many, and the last song we’re singing was also written by Darlene, so it’s a Darlene morning, this morning. Starting a new series today called At the Right Time. Sorry about Joseph, but we’ll get to Joseph in a moment. Father, help me to breathe in this moment. Thank you that you breathe your breath into each one of us, that living breath of your Holy Spirit. May your breath just cover this place today as you blow the wind of your Holy Spirit. And as always, we pray, Lord Jesus, that we may see you and only you. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. This painting that I have here this morning is an original oil painting. I got this as a gift in my first congregation in 1988, so that made me 30 years old. When I received this from the artist that made this, a young woman by the name, sorry, my bladder is leaking. I got this from a young woman called Tia Barnard in 1988 because of something that we shared in 1987. So, I’m saying the age because I want you to understand a little bit of the impact, because I still carry the impact of that to this day. I was 29 years old. It was about 9, 9.30 in the evening. Elsie and I were sitting. We still had a manse in those days. We were sitting in the manse. The kids, two of the three were born. They were in bed, and we were having a cup of tea. And the phone rang in my office. Now, remember those days we did not have cell phones. We still had phones that had tails on them. Phone rang in the office. I went to the office. I picked up the phone, and the voice on the other side, it was just this deadly, shocked, couldn’t really speak voice, was Tia. She just said, Aubrey, you need to come to my house immediately. Something terrible has happened. You need to come to my house. Tia’s kids were about the same age as ours. Her little girl was five. Her little boy was three. I said to Elsie, something’s really wrong at Tia’s house. I need to get there. So, I jump in the car, and I drive as fast as I can, and I get there. She’s waiting at the door, and this woman is shaking. Got two little kids clinging to her legs. I come in there. I said, Tia, what’s going on? She said, just come in, and we walk into the living room, and I’m stunned, because there on the floor lies her husband, dead with a gunshot wound in his head. He committed suicide in front of her and those two little kids. That leaves a mark in your life forever. The cops came, sorry, the police came a few minutes later. The ambulance folks came a few minutes later, and it was chaos. So, they wanted to talk to Tia. So, I took the two little ones. Good thing we knew each other. So, I took the two little ones, and we went to their bedroom, and I tried to settle them down, and when all the stuff was done, I helped Tia put the little ones to bed, and we just sat there, and I cried with her, and I was stunned with her, because you do not have too many words in moments like those. It was early morning when I left. I did call Elsie from her house just to say, I’m okay, don’t worry, I’m going to be there late. Go to bed. I left in the early hours of the morning to go back home. As we stood at the door, Tia just held on to me. She didn’t want to let go, and I said to her, Tia, I know you don’t want to hear this right now, and I know it’s going to sound really crazy, but you will get through this. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be really hard and really tough. It’s not going to be quick. It’s going to take an awful long time. There’s going to be a lot of frustration, a lot of questions, a lot of hurt, but don’t despair. You will get through this. A little audacious of me, right? Where do I get the right to speak such a promise into such tragedy? Well, actually, I got it in a pit, a really deep, dark pit, and the young boy who was in the bottom of that pit could not get out of that pit even if he wanted to, and if he tried, his brothers would kick him right down back into the pit. But don’t let me tell you the story. Let’s read the story. Genesis chapter 37, verse 12. Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers went to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. When they’d been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them. I’m ready to go, Joseph replied. When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognised him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. Here comes the dreamer, they said. Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father a wild animal has eaten him, and then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams. But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. Let’s not kill him, he said. Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness, and then you’ll die without our laying a hand on him. Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. Now note this verse. So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty. There was no water in it. He didn’t land with a splash. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he’s our brother, our own flesh and blood. His brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for 20 pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. Can you imagine being Joseph? He’s crying out for help and his brothers care more about their lunch than they do about their little brother or helping him. They despised the boy. Why? A little family background in this. Jacob, Joseph’s father and the brother’s father, treated Joseph differently from all of the other kids. Why? Well, there’s a reason. Remember, Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel, but only one love. Rachel. And when Rachel died, giving birth to her second son, Ben-Oni, or as we know him, Benjamin, Jacob just poured out all of his love on his son, Joseph. The other boys would work outside. Joseph played inside. They got their clothes from Value Village. Joseph had a coat that was handmade, hand-stitched with long sleeves, specifically for him. No, it wasn’t a coat of multi-colours. Never says that ever in the Bible. I don’t know where they got that. The Hebrew is actually a kind of difficult word. It actually, that word is the same word that is used for the robe that a young prince would wear, but never said anything about amazing technicolour twinkle. I was dreamed out by a man called Andrew. Sorry about that. The brothers would work. Joseph would play. The brothers would be out in the field, we read. Joseph would hang out at home. Jacob treated his 11th-born son like he was the firstborn. So to say that his brothers didn’t like him was a little bit of a understatement. If I take you back in this chapter to verse 4, 5, and 8, verse 4 says, they hated him. Verse 5 says, they hated him even more. Verse 8 says, they hated him more and more. So do you get it? They hated him. They really hated him. So when Joseph shows up where they’re working in the field, they go ballistic on this boy. They ripped the robe off him. They grabbed him and they threw him in the cistern. Angry words. Rip, grab, throw. An

  10. May 27

    May 24

    by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/27003503/May-24-Sermon.mp3 Ezekiel 37:1-14 The Valley of Dry Bones 37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. 11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”   Transcript (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Father, you are good. I need help. They need help. Thank you that we may stand before you in the name of Jesus. May we see Jesus and only Jesus. Amen. So last week I made a little mistake. I said we’re starting a new series today. I actually meant after Pentecost. Today is Pentecost and then next week we’ll start a new series. It’s going to be fun. The series is called At the Right Time and we’re going to talk a little bit about the life of a man called Joseph and see what God says to our lives about that. But today is the day of Pentecost where we celebrate the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now I don’t know if you have ever noticed as you read scripture that it does not only have God’s answers to many of our life questions that we have. Many of the things that we go through in life that God gives us answers to those where we ask for that. But it also has God’s questions. Questions that God asks us about our lives, about who we are, about how we live, about how life around us looks like. Let me give you a few examples because these questions are meant for us to stop, take stock, look at our own lives. Ask, what is God asking of me? Way back when in the garden when Adam and Eve messed up and God came looking for them, they went and they hid. And what was God’s question? Where are you? Having them think for a moment, why are we hiding? What did we do? And God asks, where are you? And often he asks us, where are you? When Moses was reluctant when God called him to go and free his people from Egypt and Moses had all of these excuses one after the other, God asked him a question. What was the question? What do you have in your hand? There was only a staff, but that staff became a snake. That staff became that which changed the Nile into blood. That staff became that which parted the sea. That staff became that which hit the rock and the water came from the rock. And often God asks us, what do you have in your hand? There was this guy called Jacob, the heel grabber, the deceiver. When he came back to the land and there at the Jabbok, he wrestled with God and God asked him a question. Can you remember what the question was? What is your name? And he had to say the name out loud, Jacob, deceiver, the one who deceived my father, my brother, my father-in-law, who deceived them all. I am Jacob and now you will be Isaac. No, Israel. You will be Israel, the one that I have called. And then there was this man called Peter. Peter, the old loud mouth. Peter said, Lord, they’ll all deceive you and they’ll all turn their backs on you and all. I’ll never do that. Peter stands there at the fire and they said, ah, you were one of them. And he said, I don’t know who you’re talking about. I don’t know this man. And then Jesus meets up with him, John 21, at the sea of Galilee and Jesus asks him a question. Can you remember the question? Do you love me? Often God will ask. One more and then we’ll go to our question of the day. There was this man, Paul. He was on his way to Damascus on this road and the Lord stopped him and he asked him a question. Why are you persecuting me? The questions God asks us. They’re meant to stop me in my tracks and let me look at myself and say, why are you asking me the question, Lord? What do you mean by asking me the question? It makes me embark on that journey to look at my relationship with God and ask, when am I with you, Lord? It takes me on another journey where it asks me to look at this relationship with these loved ones that God puts all around me. How are you doing with them? What is your relationship? The questions God asks us. So on this Pentecost Sunday, there is a question for us and what better place to go than the book of Ezekiel chapter 37. I’m going to read verses 1 to 14. The hand of the Lord was on me and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, and here is the question for today. Son of man, can these bones live? And I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know. And then he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones. I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you and you will come to life. And then you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together bone to bone. And I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them. But, there’s the but, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to it, this is what the sovereign Lord says, come breath from the four winds and breathe into these slain that they may live. Can I just stop there for one second? The one thing that we miss when we read English and not Hebrew is that sometimes there are words that are used that have more meaning. The word spirit, the word breath, and the word wind in Hebrew are all exactly the same word. It’s difficult for Canadian tongue to say because there’s a rrr in there and there’s a rrr in there. Ruach, the spirit, the breath, the wind of the Lord. So look how the Lord uses those. The spirit brings him, then he prays for the breath to the wind and the wind brings the breath. Verse 10, so I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them and they came to life, stood up on their feet, a vast army. And then he said to me, son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone and we’re cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says. My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will bring you back to the land of Israel and then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them. And I will put my spirit, my wind, my breath in you and you will live. And I will settle you in your own land and then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and I have done it, declares the Lord. So God takes Ezekiel, and this is in a time when God’s people are in Babylonian exile, when they’ve lost everything. God takes Ezekiel and he puts him in this dry valley through the spirit, looks at the valley and there’s the skeleton bones of people lying there, dead, dried out, and it represents how God’s people feel about themselves. Dry, hopeless, dead, just there’s nothing left. They’re sitting in this situation and they’re going nowhere. And in this moment, God asks the question, can these bones live? What a profoundly poignant question, not just for people who are in exile and have lost everything, but a question for today and for each one of us. Can these bones live? Because so many of us struggle with the dry bones syndrome in this world. People struggling with their lives, people struggling with things around them. This world’s struggling with itself right now. It is quite dry and dead and desolate despite the fact that we have AI and all kinds of other jazz going on. So many people struggle with a dry bone syndrome, but also in our faith walk, many folks struggle with dry bones. They go through the motions. We read, we pray, we sing, but it’s dry and it’s empty and there’s nothing. And the question is, can these bones live? Let me

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