Sanctuary Church: Recent Episodes
Sanctuary Church
These are recordings from the Sunday messages at Sanctuary Church Chilliwack. Thank you for listening to these messages and we hope these will encourage you in your journey with Jesus. Find out more about Sanctuary Church on FB and Instagram @sanctuarychurch.life
This week, Greg challenged our thinking in The Guest, as he examined the humility and humanity that Jesus modelled for us as the way we are to engage with the world.
In her final sermon as pastor of Sanctuary Church, Alynne delivers a timely and essential message about the history of the church and how that informs the way we engage in our church communities today.
In this week's instalment in our series on prayer, Greg reminds us that our prayers are intended to draw us closer to God.
As we continue our series on prayer, Mike examines the petitions embedded in The Lord's Prayer.
In the second instalment of our series on prayer, Scott invites us to examine our understanding of prayer.
Alynne Shinness introduces our new series on Prayer. She explains how we structure our sermon series, and opens the topic with a discussion of Ephesians 1:15-17.
Hannah Mackie leads us through the stations of Resurrection, and sheds a profound light on the bread and wine of communion.
Scott Gaglardi concludes our series on the Farewell Discourses of Jesus found in the book of John chapters 13:31 to chapter 17. At the Last Supper, Judas leaves the dinner. Jesus then turns to his eleven remaining disciples and gives them his last instructions before his crucifixion. Then he prays for his disciples - us included - that we would be a united and loving community.
Based on John 17:1-8, Ken teaches us about the glory of God, and how we can reflect that glory into our world. Ken reminds us "It is so easy to read the passages about God's love; it's an entirely different thing to experience the love that God has for you."
"There's battles going on. That doesn't mean the world stops hurting, but it does mean hurt doesn't get the last word. Pain isn't the final chapter."
"Jesus didn't promise the absence of trouble, but He did promise victory over it."
Greg Smith shows us how we can experience the 'peace that passes understanding' especially in difficult times.
In this episode, Mike talks about the painful of experience of feeling all alone, and how God dwells with us so that we are never alone. This episode also includes our communion time and closing hymn, so that you, the listener, can be a part of our worship service.
Guest speaker Graham McMahon uses the comparison between digital and analog in comparing the Kingdom from above to the kingdom of this world. In his gripping personal story we understand how pain and joy are both part of the birth of a new life and a new kingdom.
It's not about the hate that the world sends our way; it's about the love of God that we are privileged to reflect to the world. In this season of division and weaponization of words, Jesus gives us a better way.
"Chilliwack doesn't need a church that mirrors the divisions that exist in it already. It needs a church that mirrors the cross." May we love well.
The Farewell Discourses is the title given to Jesus' remarks to his eleven remaining disciples, after Judas left the Last Supper. Hannah examines the New Commandment, and how that affects the disciples of Jesus from that day until this.
Based on John 16:1-11, Jesus tells his eleven remaining disciples that he must go to his father so that the Holy Spirit can come and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus particularly named three pillars of this Kingdom: to prove the world is in the wrong about sin (belief) and righteousness (justice) and judgment (decision making). This recording cuts out too early so Alynne's remarks on justice and judgment are missing. Here are passages from Alynne's notes:
Justice: The disciples had seen Jesus treat people rightly. He spoke often that the vulnerable - widows, orphans, prisoners, the poor - particularly needed the care that they deserved. Are we 'just' to the vulnerable around us? Our students, clients, employees, the broken?
Decision making: there were no law courts in Jesus' day. Folks brought their disagreements to the gates of the city, and the elders listened and then made wise decisions to resolve the issues. The Holy Spirit will advocate on our behalf and apply the wise decisions that God has already made concerning his Kingdom.
In John 14, Jesus comforts his disciples as he reminds them (and us) that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life as he comforts and challenges his disciples just before his betrayal and crucifixion.
In this introduction, pastor Alynne Shinness explores the life of John, author of the Gospel of John, and discusses how John's life can inspire us in our walk with Jesus.
Using examples from her own life and practice as a clinical counsellor, Christina Lueck how Jesus teaches us to be human; that trauma, our bodies, faith and psychology belong together in our healing journey.
David Shinness uses visual images to challenge our perspectives. We need to allow God to change our perspectives to become more compassionate life long learners.
Ruth Maccan traces her journey as a child born in Africa to missionary parents to becoming a woman growing in grace and understanding of God's love. Ruth also examines the powerful meaning in the bread and wine that represent Christ's sacrifice for us.
Dave describes some of the difficulties he has gone through, how he discovered the teachings Jesus gave to overcome fear and anxiety, and how he experienced freedom through obedience to God's word.
We kick off our Summer Sermon Series this week with Greg Smith, a former Southern Baptist pastor from Virginia, USA. This sermon shows us how the many names for God reflect how we interact with God on a personal level. Greg ends this sermon with a beautiful example from his own life.
This sermon by pastor Alynne Shinness wraps up our series on the founding values of Sanctuary Church. Keeping it simple, Alynne goes back to basics, examining how Jesus explained the Holy Spirit to his own disciples, and how that applies to us today.
Hannah Mackie shows us from the Bible how Jesus moved toward people. We tend to isolate with things get murky, but Jesus did the opposite. Here, Jesu shows us how to love people like he does.
Hannah Mackie teaches on what it means to put Jesus first in our lives and in our church.
Scott Gaglardi gives an in-depth explanation of the hope we have in Jesus, and how we can bring hope to others.
This episode is the first of a new series revisiting the founding values of Sanctuary Church in 2019. We'll take a fresh look at each value, and answer some questions to evaluate how we are inculcating each value into our everyday lives.
Alynne Shinness accepts a new role at Sanctuary Church and outlines spiritual and practical goals in this new season.
Scott Gaglardi, founder and pastor of Sanctuary Church in Chilliwack BC Canada describes how God has ordained a change of leader for the church.
Hannah continues our Sermon on the Mount looking at Matthew 7:15-23 and highlights Jesus' call to caring for the vulnerable, marginalized, and oppressed. We hope you will be encouraged in your apprenticeship to Jesus with this practical message.
"Prayer is an invitation to come to God's table." Hannah looked at the Lord's Prayer and invited us to consider some different perspectives on prayer that we might have as well as what might keep us from prayer. We learned that humility is the antidote to those obstacles and we can come to the table often, always, and in a variety of ways. We hope you will be encouraged by this message.
As we continue our journey through the Sermon on the Mount, Matt came to Jesus' teaching on lust and divorce. He led us through a brilliant examination of the scriptures where we saw God's heart that we not use people for our own gain but instead view everyone as beloved by God and marked with His image, as well as God's heart to protect and lift up women.
We trust you will be encouraged by this message as you respond to Jesus' invitation to follow Him.
This morning we looked at Matthew 5:21-26 where Jesus teaches us about anger, and the horrible place settled resentment and harboured animosity will take us. We hope this message will encourage you in your walk with Jesus.
In a world full of darkness, decay, and pain Jesus tells us that we are salt and light. These statements not only tell us who we are, but they are invitations to join Jesus in His good work of restoring all things, and instructions to guide our posture in the world. We hope this message will encourage you.
'It is all a matter of perspective, and Jesus is our perspective point.'
This morning Hannah continued our series through the Sermon on the Mount. We looked together at Jesus' teaching about the Law in Matthew 5:17-20. We are learning together to walk in the way of Jesus and we hope you will be encouraged by this service.
"Many think Jesus came to earth so you and I can have a special kind of spiritual experience and then go merrily along, as long as we pray and read our Bibles and develop intimacy with the unseen God but ignore the others-oriented life of justice and love and peace that Jesus embodied." Scot McKnight
Hannah challenged us to not adopt a 'peace' that is found in disengaging from community and the world but stepping fully into those arenas and working to bring the Shalom of heaven to earth. We hope you will be encouraged and challenged by this practical message.
"A pure heart is one without cynicism."
This morning Hannah led us on an exploration of the 6th Beatitude - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. She showed us how this applies to our 'today' instead of 'someday' and asked us to consider what we allow to disciple us in our disappointment.
We hope you will be encouraged by this message.
We continued our look at the Beatitudes this morning as Matt led us on an exploration of what mercy is, and some practical applications for us to daily grow in mercy. We saw that mercy was bigger, richer, and with far broader implications than we may have previously considered.
‘Mercy dares us to believe that the truest thing about us is not that we are broken, or flawed, but that we are beloved.’
We continued our look at the Beatitudes, focusing on Jesus' statement about humility. In an increasingly polarized world where differences are viewed as threats toward us rather than teachers for us, we are invited to lower our defenses and walk in humility.
We hope you will be encouraged by this message as together we live into the way of Jesus.
This Sunday Hannah started our series on the Beatitudes looking at 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.'' We were brilliantly invited to 'follow the thread' as she explored the blessing that is ours as we live into this life Jesus calls us to. We hope you will be encouraged by this practical, life giving word.
This morning we talked about the seasons of waiting that we've all experienced. Waiting for something to change, waiting for a resolution or reconciliation, waiting for a miracle, waiting for an answered prayer, waiting. We drew some lessons from Abraham and Sarah's 25-year wait for a child and reminded ourselves that God is always WITH us in our waiting. We pray you will be encouraged by this message.
Today we wrapped up our series on the Holy Spirit. We reviewed the ground we have covered and then looked at Jesus' promise to send us a Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Our natural disposition is to seek comfort and live comfortably, but in doing so we can miss out on the comfort that Holy Spirit comes to bring us. We asked ourselves, where are we stepping out of our comfort zones in response to Jesus' invitation to follow Him? In stretching, in our relationships and associations, and our service, we have the opportunity to embrace the discomfort and experience the Comforter.
We pray you will be encouraged by this message.
We continued our series on the Holy Spirit this morning, and Matt invited us to look at the creative work of the Holy Spirit, and recognize the closeness of the Spirit to us. We were encouraged to stop and listen to our breath, and be aware that the Spirit is closer to us than our breath.
We pray you will be encouraged as you listen to the message to partner with the Holy Spirit in the creative, and restorative work He is doing in the world.
We continued our series on the Holy Spirit this morning. We started by recapping the last three messages in this series, and then we talked about Spiritual Gifts. What is the context they are to operate in, and why they are given. Paul invites us to 'eagerly desire' spiritual gifts (1 Cor 14:1), and we hope this message will encourage you and increase your desire to make yourself available to be used by Holy Spirit to operate in the gifts.
We're continuing on with our series on the Holy Spirit, and this morning Hannah spoke about the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. It was a great message with practical tools for engaging daily with the Holy Spirit and partnering with Him in the work of Jesus.
"...the Holy Spirit shows us the generosity of God..." Hannah Mackie
This morning we looked at what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit. One of our values as a community is, 'We live Spirit-empowered.' But how do we do that, and what does a Holy Spirit-led life look like? Please join us as we look to the scriptures to answer these and other questions about following the Holy Spirit.
We hope this message will encourage you as you follow Jesus.
Today we begin a several-week series looking at the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit do, and how can we partner with Him in the activity of God? One of our values is, 'We live Spirit empowered.' and we pray as we take these weeks and focus on the Holy Spirit that our understanding of the Holy Spirit will increase but even more so will our love for and partnership with Holy Spirit grow.
We pray you are encouraged by this message.
Brad Jersak was with us again this morning to finish up his 'More Christlike' messages. He taught us about the Emmaus Way of looking at scripture and how, as Jesus told us, all scripture points to Him. We hope this message will not only encourage you but deepen your love for the scriptures and Jesus - the Word of God.
Q&R included at end of message.
Brad Jersak was back with us again teaching us about the way of Jesus and how Jesus shows us what it is like to be fully human. Walking us through the Beatitudes we saw the life and character of Jesus described in these beautiful qualities that we spend our lives growing in.
Brad also shared about the benefits, and dangers of deconstruction depending on the voices we listen to. While it can be good to strip away some of the manmade constructs that have been added to our faith over time, we never want to lose sight of Jesus. Like art restoration, we want to remove the grime and layers that have accumulated so that we can grasp a more beautiful picture of Jesus.
We hope you enjoy the service and are encouraged in your journey of following Jesus.
This Sunday we wrapped up our series on Neighbouring. We looked at two of the barriers that can stand in the way of us participating in what Jesus considers our top priority - time and fear. Fear has the potential to paralyze and isolate us. Because of the powerful influence it can have on our lives the most often repeated encouragement in the scriptures is, 'don't be afraid!'
We hope you will be encouraged by the message as you continue responding to Jesus' beautiful invitation to follow Him.
We had guest speaker Brad Jersak teaching us about what God is like (hint: look at Jesus). We looked at the truth that God’s very nature is love, most perfectly displayed as Jesus hung on the cross. The more we grasp God’s love, the more we realize it is wider, longer, higher, and deeper than we could ever grasp (Ephesians 3:14-21).
For more information on this topic please consider reading Brad’s book - A More Christlike God .
Neighbouring is a way of life far more than it is an event. This Sunday we looked at a very familiar story Jesus told about neighbouring to learn what a lifestyle of neighbouring looks like, and why this is priority one for Jesus.
Discussion Questions:
1. How is neighbouring more of a lifestyle than it is an event?
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How can neighbouring increase our dependence on the Holy Spirit?
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How is neighbouring an issue of discipleship that forms Jesus in us?
This week we had Fr Chad Block from Via Church Langley join us. He shared a teaching about the Eucharist and then led us in participating in the Table together. It was a beautiful and powerful reminder of the presence of Jesus with us.
What if when Jesus called us to love our neighbours He meant our actual neighbours? This Sunday we began a series on Neighbouring and saw that believing and saying the right things is not enough, Jesus calls us to actually DO something. We all have the capacity to justify or rationalize our inaction in responding to Jesus but as we respond we learn to live by the Spirit and become more like Jesus.
Please join us in learning to live out Jesus' priority on loving our neighbours.
The Resurrection of Jesus is the validation of His life, ministry, message, and example. Just before He was betrayed and arrested He gave His followers a mandate - love one another in the same way that I have loved you (John 13:34) - and then He displayed was perfect love looks like on the Cross.
During His life, one of the ways Jesus constantly showed love was His love-motivated propensity to move through barriers and cross established lines. This Sunday we looked at some of the lines He crossed, how that was carried on by the early church, and the invitation we have to extend His example.
We finished up our Deeply Formed series looking at Jesus’ invitation to join Him in the work He is doing. All of our lives are sacred and can be ministry as we approach it with, and for Jesus.
"On the Cross, Jesus didn't change God's disposition towards us, He revealed God's disposition towards us."
On the Cross, Jesus eradicated the sin barrier, conquered the power of death and sin, and reconciled us to God. This is called atonement, which can easily be understood by breaking down the word - 'at one ment' - making us one with God again.
There are many theories as to how Jesus did this on the Cross and they are called Atonement Theories. They are humans' best efforts to explain HOW Jesus was able to accomplish what He did. It is very important to keep in mind that it is Jesus that saves, not a particular theory.
But, the atonement theory that we believe does have a significant influence on our perspective of God, and how we see ourselves and others. Today we looked at 5 atonement theories and considered the implications of each. We hope that as you listen to this message your understanding of God's love will be magnified.