One of the most important resolutions we should all have this year is to have a deep and vibrant prayer life.

Prayer is an essential means to developing a more intimate relationship with God, which is the most important thing in life.

So how is your prayer life? Is it deep and vibrant? Is it consistent and full of passion? 

Or is it inconsistent, dry, and lifeless?

What we’ll see in today’s passage is that prayer is not optional. It is absolutely crucial for our spiritual health.

For some of us, Christmas has been joyful and amazing. For others, it might have been heavy. Reminders of loss, strained relationships possibly, or simply exhaustion from trying to hold everything together.And for many of us, it’s probably both. But Christmas has passed and life has gone back to normal. So then what should be the impact of Christmas? Because if something really matters, it should make a big difference in our lives. But in life, that is often not how the most important things work.Some of the most powerful changes tends to begin quietly, and almost insignificant at first. That idea helps us understand something about Christmas. Because Christmas doesn’t begin with power or spectacle. It begins quietly, humbly, with a child laying in a manger, born to ordinary parents, and seen first by lowly shepherds.So if Christmas is truly from God, why does it begin so small? And if Christmas really matters, why does life look so ordinary afterwards? In the Gospel of Luke, we see the Christmas story ends by showing us what happens after the angels leave, after the proclamation fades, and after ordinary life resumes.

A lot of us feel like we need rest. But true rest for our soul only comes in the love of God and in the presence of his love. But for all of us today, we constantly turn away to worship false gods. We love, worship, trust, pursue, devote all of our energy and our emotions into anything other than God.For the final week of Advent this year, we turn to the book of Zephaniah. And at the end this short book, we see one of the most beautiful passages on God’s love in all of Scripture.

There's a big difference between the joy we get from Christ and the joy the world offers.

Worldly joys are always based on circumstances. We feel joyful only when our lives are going well. If you got a great job, a big house, tight relationships, entertainment at your disposal, comfort and security, good health, then we're joyful.

But worldly joys are also temporary, and often fleeting with diminishing returns. That includes career and financial success, luxury entertainment experiences, and even our relationships and our health: We need constant renewal of all these things to even sustain the same level of joy as before.

These worldly joys aren’t bad in themselves but if you’re looking to get complete satisfaction and joy in life from it, you’ll be sorely disappointed at best, or utterly devastated at worst.

But the good news is that there is such a joy that exists, which can completely satisfy.

It’s a joy that only Jesus can give us, and more than that, he tells us in His Word, that we can fully experience it today.

There’s a lot of conflict in our world. Nations fight over land. Spouses fight over money. Young children fight over toys.Conflicts arise because we allow our sin nature to rule. We let our desires overshadow relationship. We insist on our own way. But there is good news. God has not left us alone in a world of conflict, division, and brokenness. He sent His Son, the Prince of Peace, into the world to bring true peace.When the angels announced his birth, they declared glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace among those with whom He is pleased. Jesus came not to only bring us peace with God, but make a way to have peace with others.

We all hope for good things to happen for us. 

We might hope for success in life, or our hopes can be for our comfort, security, and pleasure. 

Our hopes can also be relational to be well liked and praised. 

We all need hope because without hope, we would live in despair and pessimism. We might even lack direction in our life if there’s nothing to hope for.

Hopelessness can also lead to depression and anxiety. We need hope to live.

So what are we hoping for these days?

If someone came to you and claimed that he had something for free that could make you truly happy and that no one would be able to take it away fromm you, what would you think? Most of us would assume it’s a scam or it’s too good to be true.But Jesus made this promise to his disciples and he through his word is speaking the same promise to us today.He has something for you that is deeper than momentary hoppiness and stronger than circumstance.

If someone came to you and claimed that he had something for free that could make you truly happy and that no one would be able to take it away fromm you, what would you think? 

Most of us would assume it’s a scam or it’s too good to be true.

But Jesus made this promise to his disciples and he through his word is speaking the same promise to us today.

He has something for you that is deeper than momentary hoppiness and stronger than circumstance. 

Pastor Joshua McKaye of Fellowship Pickering was the guest speaker on Nov. 9, 2025 preaching on how our congregational witness is marked by unity, love, and boldness.

Christ is our ultimate example and the mind of Christ is available to us because of his Spirit that lives inside of us.So we are to be like Christ, and we have the hope of becoming like Christ because of his Spirit who is conforming us into the image of Christ.His mind, his humility, his servant attitude, his selfless love is truly in us through his Spirit. Therefore all we need to do is to walk by the Spirit.

Friendship is invaluable in our lives. To have someone to share both our joys and sorrows with, to care and be cared for, to not feel alone in this world, it’s a wonderful thing to have true friends. But studies show the number of friendships we have declines as we get older and it’s for a number of reasons. There are shifting priorities in life, or having less time and energy to invest in new friendships, or just being more cautious and selective of who we let into our lives possibly due to past relationship struggles. We soon find that our social circles get smaller and smaller. Perhaps, some of us have already felt, or are currently feeling loneliness, as a consequence of not having many real, lasting friendships. Maybe some of you have said to yourself, that you actually prefer to keep your social circle incredibly small. But because we’re created in the image of God, we still yearn and desire to be in loving relationships, genuine relationships, as God the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit have been with one another for all of eternity. As we go through John 15:9-17, we’ll see the need for gospel-centered friendships and how a healthy church should be a place where people can come to find them.But more importantly, first and foremost, we must be able to see how Jesus is the true and ultimate friend we all need and we can forever depend on.

It is much easier to look only to your own interests. But that would be a major hindrance to having unity in the church. So in light of the cross of Christ and the grace of God, may we humble ourselves to serve others, to think about others, to talk to others and get to know others.Get to know their hopes, dreams, fears, struggles, and their needs, and then love them. Not in our own strength, or wisdom, but in the power of the spirit for the glory of God.

A familiar Thanksgiving question is: What are you thankful for?

You might hear, I'm thankful for my family, for my health, for this church, for my work, for a new friend. These are good.

But the Bible invites us to go deeper. It not only asks, "What are you thankful for?"

But it also asks, "Who are you thankful to...and why?"

The Apostle Paul says in the first chapter of Philippians that he’s already joyful because of the Philippians’ partnership in the gospel. He is joyful because Christ is being proclaimed despite him being in prison. But in this passage, Paul makes a personal plea for his joy to be complete. And it’s by doing this one thing: Being truly unified.

When Ezra opened the Word of God in Nehemiah 8, as he read, something incredible happened.

People started to weep.

The Word of God cut through the noise, cut through the excuses, and pierced their hearts

Spiritual renewal often begins that way: Not with laughter, but rather in tears.

But it does not end with weeping. God moves HIs people from tears to joy.

If we are truly citizens of heaven, we are to conduct ourselves in a manner that is worthy of the Gospel of Christ.So how are we to live as citizens of heaven?First, by standing firm in one spirit, one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel (Part 1 of the sermon).And two, from this week’s passage, by not being frightened in anything by your opponents.

You cannot go long without food before it starts to affect your body.Eventually hunger catches up to you. It’s also true spiritually. Many of us try to live without feeding on God’s Word. We rush into our day, we fill our schedules, there's endless entertainment and constant scrolling on our phones.We think we’re okay but then life shakes us. We find ourselves empty, weak, restless, worn down. That’s when we begin to feel for something deeper. We need renewal. Because the truth is we cannot go long without God’s Word before it starts to negatively affect our lives. What we need most is the renewing power of God through his Word.

It’s easy to notice cultural differences between two groups of people from two different countries. But do you notice any cultural difference between the people of this world and the people of God?We know how people of this world behave, but how are we to live and act as citizens of heaven?

Everyone knows what it feels like when life doesn’t go the way we expect it. Perhaps it’s a job interview that didn’t go well. Or words from a doctor that you didn’t want to hear. In these situations, we often just go numb and don’t know what to do next. It’s how the two disciples in Luke 24 must have felt after following Christ and believing that He would make all things right. But when He was crucified, it felt like the story was over. Their hope collapsed.On that Sunday afternoon, these two disciples walked away from Jerusalem. But the good news is that Jesus was not done. The story was not over.

Imagine if a young millionaire who earned much success at work and in life passed away early at the age of 32. All the wealth he’s earned, the plans he’s made, the goals he’s set would all be left behind. His tombstone might read, “To live is success, to die is loss.”From this man’s perspective, what good could possibly come from dying? But from today’s passage, we see an entirely different perspective where even death is seen as gain.