Blessings of the Saviour

Good morning, brothers and sisters! We’re grateful for you.

We continue to face difficult times as a church family. And we continue to take hope and comfort in the same unchanging truths: God is sovereign, and what He decides is right. God is with us and He is good. Our circumstances change, but God does not.

Pastor Bodner continues his look at what answers scripture offer for the future of the local church when faced with uncertainty.

Pastor Bodner writes, “With the blessings of the saviour, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.” The message this morning will take us through the source, scope, and seal of blessing.

May God grant us blessing and comfort as only He is able as we worship today.

First Song: My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: Christ Our Sure and Steady Anchor

Message

Pastor John Bodner (itinerant minister affiliated with Calvary)
(Filmed February 27, 2021)

Scripture readings

1 Thessalonians 5:25-28

Third Song: Grace That is Greater Than All Our Sin

Closing thought

He who counts the stars, and calls them by their names is in no danger of forgetting His own children.

C.H. Spurgeon

Brotherhood

Good morning, church. It’s a blessing to spend this time together each week.

It has been a trying week for our church family, friends, and community. As we contend with the gravity of Pastor Ralph’s illness and the uncertainty that lies ahead, two truths take on renewed beauty:

  1. Heaven rules. God is sovereign over all things and for those who trust in Him, He works every circumstance — pleasant and painful — for good (Rom. 8:28). This “good” is about more than ourselves and extends far beyond our experience of the moment. A Crossway commentary notes, “The ‘good’ in this context does not refer to earthly comfort but conformity to Christ (Rom. 8:29), closer fellowship with God, bearing good fruit for the kingdom, and final glorification (Rom. 8:30).”
  2. Death for someone who has put their trust in God is a promotion to Heaven, where there is no more suffering but the ultimate, unfathomable joy of intimate fellowship with God (Phil. 3).

Facing uncertainty is nothing new for believers. In our message this week, Pastor John Bodner looks at how Paul advised local churches to function amidst uncertainty and the pressures of change, focusing on 1 Thessalonians. One of the keys laid out for perservering through such times is the brotherhood of saints. In practical terms, this profound community relationship (or “brotherhood”) between believers (“saints”) is rooted in mutual prayer, grounded in loving fellowship, and nurtured in Biblical truth.

It’s our prayer that you’ll guard your heart with these truths and experience the peace they bring in the depths of uncertainty, for this week and all the weeks to come.

May God bless our meeting and encourage your heart today.

First Song: Christ Our Hope in Life and Death

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: Whate’er My God Ordains is Right

Message: The Brotherhood of Saints

Pastor John Bodner

Scripture readings

1 Thessalonians 5:25-28

Third Song: How Firm a Foundation

Closing thought

“If you ask, ‘Why is this happening?’ no light may come, but if you ask, ‘How am I to glorify God now?’ there will always be an answer.”

— J. I. Packer

God’s Grace and Justice

Happy Sunday, church. It’s good to share this time with you.

This week, we’re look at the balancing of God’s justice and undeserved love in the form of saving grace. Pastor Ralph explains, “Saving grace generates both the ability to admit to [your] need of it as well as willingness to receive God’s gift by repentance and faith — faith in Jesus as the only One who can save [you].”

If you recognise yourself in that statement, please don’t delay in acting. There is nothing more important you could do today for the sake of eternity.

First Song: His Mercy is More

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: I Will Wait For You

Message

Scripture readings

Romans 3:19-31
Romans 5:1

Third Song: Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

Closing thought

Grace abounds not through our continuing in sin, but through our spirit-empowered, ongoing liberation.

David Mathis

God’s Grace: Indispensable

Happy Valentine’s Day! We’re thankful for the opportunity to reflect on the immeasurable gift of love.

Today, we’re look at a particular facet of God’s love towards us: grace (undeserved favour).

Grace is as essential (indispensable!) to gospel history as it is to our daily lives, and its ultimate expression is God’s perfect gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. After defining the nature and aspects of grace (common grace vs. saving grace), our message today shows the escalation of grace in the Old Testament and its proliferation through the New Testament.

We hope you’ll be edified today as we marvel at this vital element of saving faith together.

First Song: The Lord is my Salvation

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: Whate’er My God Ordains is Right

Message

Scripture readings

Colossians 1:15-20

Third Song: To The Praise of His Glorious Grace

Closing thought

Choose to love, even when you don’t feel like it. Obedience often precedes affection.

Jackie Hill Perry

God’s Grace

Good morning. We’re glad to worship with you today.

A sad symptom of our fallen human nature is our tendency to notice inconvenience, adversity, and want more readily than the multiplicity of blessings that feature daily in our lives. Aspects of God’s love are examined today, namely His mercy (just punishment withheld), grace (undeserved favour shown), and kindness (sovereignly-dispensed happy events).

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of learning from Your Word, and for the technology that connects us to the truth of the Bible and to each other in these days.

First Song: God the Uncreated One

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow

Message

Scripture readings

Ephesians 1:16-19
Ephesians 3:14-19

Third Song: Grace That is Greater Than All Our Sin

Closing thought

God appoints every day’s troubles. And God appoints every day’s mercies. In the life of his children, they are perfectly appointed.

John Piper

The Greatest Little Words

Good morning, church! We’re grateful for another day to learn about the greatness of our God, and we’re thankful for you as we praise Him together.

Today we savour the infinite implications and endless richness tucked into some of the smallest words that frame the gospel, words like “God,” “grace,” and “so” (“God so loved the world”). It’s these smallest words that require the greatest Bible-nourished imagination to begin to fully apprecite the scale of the gift that is redemption in Jesus Christ.

First Song: How Great Thou Art

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: God The Uncreated One

Message

Scripture readings

1 John 4:8
John 3:16-18

Third Song: Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace Lyrics

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

Source: Timeless Truths Free Online Library

Closing thought

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is who He is. There is no development in God. No progress. Absolute perfection cannot be improved.

John Piper

Parakletos

We’re thankful to worship with you again this morning, Calvary!

Today we’re continuing to consider the history of redemption (the Christ crescendo). The focus of the next few sermons will be Jesus preparing his disciples for his departure (death, resurrection, ascension) by telling them about what will come after him — the Holy Spirit, described as a parakletos, “one called to come alongside” them (John 16:7). We’ll delve this week into the scriptural context, looking at selections from the book of John chapters 13 to 16.

May God bless you as we worship together apart.

First Song: Ten Thousand Reasons

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: How Firm A Foundation

Message

Scripture readings

Selections from John 13-16

Third Song: My Heart is Filled With Thankfulness

Closing thought

“…The gospel offers eternal life as a free gift. But we are such proud creatures that we don’t want a free gift. We would do anything to be able to earn our salvation, or at least be able to contribute to it. To be told that we cannot is almost unbearably humiliating.”

— John Stott, Basic Christian Leadership

Guilt Problem Solved

Good morning, Calvary. It’s a good day to worship.

Our message this week takes us deeply into the matter of guilt — why we feel it, why it can be good for us to feel it, and why our guilt should terrify us.

Thankfully, that’s not where the message ends!

There’s good news too, and the message will look at how we can escape our guilt before God. Those who have already received saving faith and forgiveness in Christ are reminded about the importance of trusting in the sufficiency of Jesus’s sacrifice in order to keep feelings of guilt for past sins in a godly perspective.

If you haven’t yet sought forgiveness in Christ, we pray you will. If you have, we pray you’ll continue faithfully. Wherever you are today, geographically and spiritually, we pray you’ll be encouraged and enriched by this message from God’s Word, the Bible.

First Song: Psalm 150 (Praise the Lord)

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: His Mercy is More

Message

Scripture readings

Romans 5:1-21
Romans 8:1 (focusing on this passage)
Isaiah 6:1-5
Isaiah 53:2-3

Third Song: And Can it Be

Closing thought

To know Jesus is the shortest description of true grace; to know him better is the surest mark of growth in grace; to know him perfectly is eternal life.

John Newton

The Jesus Crescendo, Part 2

Good morning! We’re glad you’re here. It’s a privilege and blessing to worship with you.

We’ve just passed out of a difficult year, and these first breaths of 2021 have scarcely been less turbulent. Rampant disease, political turmoil, crime, tragedy — as we look upon the history we’ve just lived and the history we are making even now, light can be difficult to see. For such times as these, we’re called to set our minds on things that are above, and we can hardly do better than to consider our place in an infinite history that flows through eternity, untouched by the evils, heartbreaks, and frustrations of the moment: the history of redemption.

In continuing to consider the Christ crescendo through redemption history, we’ll focus on the expansion of the church after Jesus’ death, both in Judea and throughout the world. We are still in this period now, and will be until His return. The vital hope of every true believer in Jesus is that that day will come soon (though it’s not for us to know when), and that while we wait, we might be used of the Holy Spirit to prepare as many souls as possible for a restored relationship with God.

May we see revival and reformation in our lifetime, and may God bless us as we meet together virtually today.

First Song: Christ Our Hope in Life and Death

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: Amazing Grace

Message

Scripture readings

Acts 1:3-8
Acts 2:1-41
Joel 2:28-32
Romans 1:18-23

Third Song: Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor

Closing thought

God is that which nothing greater can be conceived.

Saint Anselm of Canterbury

The Jesus Crescendo, Part 1

Good morning, Calvary, and Happy New Year!

It’s a privilege to worship with you.

We’re continuing our theme on the connections between Christmas and Easter. The message this week aims to trace the Christ crescendo through the history of redemption, beginning with prophecies of Jesus’ birth and building up to Pentecost. We consider that Christ continues to live in each and every true believer, and we haven’t yet even reached the height of the Jesus crescendo: his return.

First Song: Ten Thousand Reasons

Offering

Online giving information is available here.

Second Song: The Solid Rock

Message

Scripture readings

From Acts 1 and 2

Third Song: The Light of the World is Jesus

Closing thought

“When your perceptions tell you something different than God’s promises, always trust his promises over your perceptions.”

Jon Bloom