Ottawa Valley Vineyard Sermons

The season of Lent is about preparing our hearts for Easter. As we move through this time, we are looking at John 14-17, in which Jesus prepares his disciples for his death and continuing on the mission without him. For the first part of this series, Ahren breaks down John 14:1-6. Here, Jesus begins to address the concerns of his disciples as they realize that they are about to lose their Messiah, and he assures them that he has a mission and a place for them.

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." (1 Corinthians 1:25) Although God's wisdom may seem like foolishness to the world (1 Cor 1:18), our human understanding can never compare. We need spiritual discernment. In this week's talk, Ivan reminds us not to rely on the knowledge and wisdom of this world, but to seek the wisdom of God instead.

What is Lent? Depending on your church background, you may not be too familiar with this practice. This week, Ivan dives into the history of this traditional time of fasting, and the heart behind this season of sacrifice and reflection. By giving something up, we refocus our minds and make space to spend time with God. If, like Ivan, you have never entered into Lent before, you are invited to take part in this time of repentance, renewal, and restoration with us.

Does the Gospel cease being relevant or necessary once we're saved? Absolutely not! No matter how mature our faith, or how many times we've heard it, we will never outgrow our need for the Gospel. Ahren reminds us that, in all circumstances, we must preach the Gospel to ourselves and have it preached to us because it is our anchor and our source of hope.

What is the significance of baptism? In this week's sermon, Ahren talks about the identity piece behind baptism. While baptism is an act of obedience and a public expression of faith, it is also representative of the Christian's choice to lay down their own identity and take up the identity of Christ.

We all have bad days. No matter who you are, you will have faced troubling circumstances. And for many, the scariest part of that is the unknown: not knowing how things will turn out or if we will be okay. But God calls us to continue walking by faith. Whenever God brings us to a place of struggle or uncertainty, we can learn from the example of Job that God is trustworthy, He is in control, and He will deliver us.

We all experience anxieties and stress from time to time. But, in our current climate of cultural anxiety, those feelings can be heightened. As the Church, we are called to be a place of refuge, security, and peace in the midst of this turmoil. Yet, many of us would admit that we have felt these anxieties as well. The problem is not that we have fear, but what we are fearing. God is above it all, and He is the only one whose power is worthy of our fear, awe, and respect.

God does want His people to prosper, but not at the expense of their souls. That's why, in 3 John verse 2, he prays that Gaius would see prosperity in all areas of life in accordance with the prosperity of his soul. Guest speaker Ian Dunn reminds us that we must be worshipping properly if we want to see God's blessings poured out in all areas of our lives. And so, our top priority should always be the prosperity (the growth and wellbeing) of our souls.

If a new year is a blank book, then the question we must ask is, "Who will write our story this year?" It can be easy to focus on what others say about us, or what we want our lives to look like, but the best stories are those that God writes. Ivan's challenge to us for 2023 is to let God have the ultimate control of our lives and to look ahead to where He is leading us. So, will you make Jesus the LORD of your life this year?

In subconscious ways, we, like Herod, perceive Jesus as a threat to our autonomy, but this is the wrong way to see Him. He is our long-awaited Messiah. He is our King who came to deliver us and set us free to establish His kingdom in us first and then in His world. Will We Bow? (Sermon Text: Matthew 2:1-12)

Some ideas are meant to be struggled with. Some things are never meant to be fully understood. But the divinity of Christ is one thing we should know with certainty. That is why the gospel of Luke begins by explaining that rigorous research and interviews were conducted to confirm what we have been told about Jesus. That is also why, in this third week of Advent, Ahren is taking us through the facts of Jesus' birth to remind us of the significance of His death.

No other god recorded throughout all of history did what our God and Saviour did. On this second Sunday of Advent, Ivan talks about how Jesus came near to us and became like one of us so that we could draw closer in relationship to Him. Jesus lived a life of vulnerability, temptation, grief, and suffering so that we could know that we have a Saviour who understands us and identifies intimately with us.

The world is in need of a Saviour, whether they know it or not. On this first Sunday of Advent, Ahren speaks on the hope that Jesus can bring to all areas of our life. The place where Jesus lived and began His ministry was full of gloom and darkness, idol worship, and suffering. But Jesus brought light and hope into that gloom. And he does the same with any areas of our lives where we experience gloom, pain, and despair.

The purpose of church isn't just for us to be ministered to, but for us to minister to others. As members of God's kingdom here on earth, we are called to be part of bringing healing, restoration, and salvation. And, in order to do that, we have to choose to fully surrender our lives to God. Only then can the kingdom come in us and through us.

In the third part of the series "But It's Not My Dream," Ivan discusses the importance of humility in our relationship with God, both for individuals and the collective body of Christ. If we want to see change in our lives and grow closer to God, we have to be willing to let go of our pride and place ourselves under God's mission and serve His will instead of our own.

To be effective in this world, we have to be like Jesus. One person we see in the Bible who mirrors Jesus in many ways is Joseph. In the second part of the sermon series, "But It's Not My Dream: The Heart of a Servant," Ivan looks at the ways that Joseph's life parallels Jesus' and what we can learn from those commonalities.

As the body of Christ, we (the members of the church) are to be imitators of Christ. The life of the church should closely resemble the life of Jesus. But we've come short over and over again because we have neglected our commitments to one another. We've made church about what we take away from it, rather than what we bring to it. How can we shift our approach away from an individualized experience and towards a community built around caring for and ministering to one another?

Periods of hardship and change often reveal us to be people of attraction rather than commitment. But when we entered into a covenantal relationship with God, we also entered into a covenantal relationship with the church. As Christians, we are connected to other believers in our church congregation, in our local area, and around the world. What happens when we don't take that commitment seriously?

Even if we get nothing out of our worship experience, we are still fulfilling our purpose of reflecting God's glory back to Him. It can be easy to approach our church gatherings as activities and ministries that are meant to serve us: to teach us, to make us feel good, to offer us a chance to socialize. And God can certainly use these experiences to reveal Himself to us and draw us closer to Him. But our true motivation for gathering and worshipping should be to glorify God.

Do you know who you REALLY are? Or do you feel insecure? Perhaps you need to stop basing your worth on earthly value systems and start seeing yourself through God's perspective. If you have had a born-again experience, then you hold high status as a child of God! You have been adopted into God's family. You are a chosen child.