Category: Stand Alone

Posted on

Called Out of Darkness

Summary of my sermon, based on 1 Peter 2:9-11. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto (Family Camp) on July 20, 2025.

Being chosen by God is not like being the best option in a lineup. It is not like a trainer in a game looking for the strongest fighter. We often think of choice as selecting what is most valuable or most useful. That is how life usually works—we look for the best job, the best school, the best home, and we teach our children to make good choices. But when we read passages like 1 Peter 2:9, we have to be careful. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…” It sounds like we must be special. It sounds like we are chosen because we are better. But then Peter explains why God chooses: “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The choosing is not because of what we are; it is about what he does.

We are called out of darkness, not because we were shining gems hidden in a cave, but because we needed mercy. Verse 10 says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Mercy means we are not getting what we deserve. And grace—the other side of salvation—means we are receiving what we do not deserve. We needed mercy because before a perfectly holy God, none of us measures up. Even our best efforts fall short. Isaiah 64:6 describes our righteous deeds as polluted garments. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and Romans 6:23 adds, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God’s choosing is not about our worth. It is about his grace. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who met God’s perfect standard and then took the punishment we deserved. Isaiah 53:5 says, “he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” Romans 5:8 reminds us, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” That is what it means to be chosen. It means we are loved despite our failures, saved by mercy, and transformed by grace.

If that is true, then being chosen changes how we live. We cannot claim God’s mercy and then live as though nothing has changed. Peter calls believers “sojourners and exiles” because this world is no longer our home. We are passing through, heading toward eternity with Christ. While we are here, we are called to “abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). Sin still surrounds us and tempts us, but sanctification—the ongoing work of God in us—calls us to fight against it. We will not be perfect in this life, but we are expected to grow. Our choices reveal who we belong to—sin, or Christ.

And as we live as sojourners, we are not meant to hide from the world. Verse 12 says, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.” We are called to live visibly, to show mercy because we have received mercy, to demonstrate grace because grace was given to us. We are not chosen to boast about ourselves. We are chosen to proclaim his excellencies, to be witnesses in a world that still needs the same mercy we were given.

Posted on

Being Mothers of the Word

Summary of my sermon, based on Deuteronomy 6:6-7. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto on May 11, 2025 (Mother’s Day).

Last week, Elder John Greg preached on God’s call to Moses from the burning bush and described it as Moses’s origin story. But today, I want to rewind even further and look at the very beginning of that story—Moses’s birth and childhood. I want us to see how someone like Moses grew up to become a man of such faith that he would rather be mistreated with the people of God than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. That’s what Hebrews 11:24–25 tells us: “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God.” But where did that faith come from? How did Moses even know he wasn’t Egyptian? How did he know enough about the God of Israel to make such a costly choice?

To answer that, we go back to Exodus 1. Pharaoh had commanded that every Hebrew baby boy be killed, but the Hebrew midwives, Shiprah and Puah, feared God and refused. Then in Exodus 2, Moses is born. His mother hides him for three months, and when she can no longer hide him, she places him in a basket and sends him down the Nile—technically obeying Pharaoh’s command to cast him into the river. His sister follows the basket, watching over it until Pharaoh’s daughter finds it. And when the princess opens the basket, she knows immediately that this is one of the Hebrew babies. That’s when Miriam, Moses’s sister, bravely steps forward and suggests finding a Hebrew woman to nurse the child—and of course, she goes and gets their mother, Jochebed.

That’s where everything changes. Pharaoh’s daughter not only agrees but offers to pay Jochebed to raise her own son. God’s providence is so evident here. And although Jochebed is not named in Exodus 2, we find her name later in Exodus 6:20. It’s Jochebed who gets to nurse Moses, to raise him in his earliest years, and to teach him who he really is. Before he ever returns to Pharaoh’s household and receives an Egyptian education, Moses learns that he is a child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He learns to trust in the God of Israel. And those early lessons are what shaped his identity and formed the faith we see described in Hebrews 11.

Even though Moses eventually returns to the palace, he never forgets who he is. Exodus 2:11 says, “One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens.” Did you catch that? His people. Jochebed planted that in his heart. That’s why, later in life, he chose to suffer with his people rather than enjoy the palace’s comforts. That’s also why Hebrews 11:23 says, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents… they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” She’s not named here either, but we know who that was. That was Jochebed. She’s part of the Hall of Faith.

And today, on Mother’s Day, we tell this story not just to honour biological mothers like Jochebed but also the many women who act as motherly figures in the lives of others. Women like the midwives Shiprah and Puah, who feared God. Women like Miriam, who watched over her baby brother and spoke up boldly. Even Pharaoh’s daughter, who took a Hebrew baby as her own, defying her father’s deadly command. God used each of them to raise up the man who would lead Israel out of slavery.

And so we turn to our passage this morning from Deuteronomy 6:6–7: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children…” These verses were given to all of Israel, not just to mothers. But Proverbs 6:20 reminds us, “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.” Mothers and spiritual mothers alike have a high calling. We are to store God’s word in our hearts like Psalm 119:11 says, teach it diligently like Deuteronomy commands, and display it prominently in our lives and homes. Because the faith that leads someone like Moses to make the hard choice begins in the home.

Posted on

Sweeter Than Honey: Delighting in God’s Word

Summary of my sermon, based on Psalm 19-7-11. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Peel on March 30, 2025.

Wes Huff’s appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast earlier this year was nothing short of remarkable. A Ph.D. student at Wycliffe College and part of Apologetics Canada, Wes went toe-to-toe with Joe Rogan for three hours, defending the Christian faith and clearly articulating the Gospel to an audience of millions. It’s hard to grasp the sheer size of that platform—over six million views on YouTube alone, and similar numbers on Spotify. To put it in perspective, that’s more than a hundred Skydomes full of people, all hearing a clear, thoughtful, and respectful explanation of the Christian faith. In a time when Christians have been increasingly mocked in the public square—like when Richard Dawkins told a crowd to “mock them, ridicule them, in public”—this was a powerful moment.

What made the interview even more compelling was the focus on one of the most commonly criticized aspects of Christianity: the reliability of the Bible. Critics like Dawkins often argue that the Bible can’t be trusted because we don’t have the original manuscripts and because the copies we do have contain hundreds of thousands of “errors.” That’s not something we need to deny—it’s true. We don’t have the originals. What we have are thousands of copies, and among those are an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 textual variants. That might sound alarming until you understand what those variants actually are and why they exist.

The truth is, most of those differences are tiny—spelling errors, word order changes, skipped or duplicated words. Back then, everything was copied by hand. Imagine trying to copy the entire Gospel of Mark by hand without making a single mistake. You’d probably miss a word or two. And yet, despite all that, none of these variants impact the core doctrines of our faith. The teachings about Jesus, the nature of God, salvation, and the Church remain absolutely intact. Even the few major variants—like the debated ending of Mark’s Gospel—are well documented and clearly noted in most Bibles today. They’re not hidden, and they don’t undermine the central truths of Christianity.

And here’s where things get even more fascinating. The reason we have so many variants is because we have so many manuscripts. Thousands of them. The New Testament is, by far, the best-attested work of ancient literature in human history. We have around 5,800 Greek manuscripts, and if you include Latin and other translations, that number climbs to about 24,000. By comparison, we have only 210 copies of Plato’s works, with the oldest one dating 1,300 years after the original was written. Homer’s Iliad has about 1,700 copies, and the oldest is from 400 years after the original. But with the New Testament, the earliest manuscript fragment—called P52—is from just 30 years after the Gospel of John was written. That’s extraordinary.

Wes Huff actually gave Joe Rogan a replica of P52 during the interview. It’s just a small scrap of papyrus with a few lines from John’s Gospel, but it’s hugely important because it helps scholars confirm the accuracy of other, later manuscripts. Think of it like polling a few thousand people to predict an election—the sample is small, but if it matches the broader data, you can trust the results. P52 isn’t alone, either. We have other early fragments like P104, a piece of Matthew’s Gospel dated to around 150 AD. Then there’s the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete New Testament we have, from around 330 AD. Even that is only about 240 years removed from the originals, which is still incredibly close by ancient standards.

But all this evidence—the variants, the sheer volume of manuscripts, the early dating—it doesn’t just prove reliability. It also shows just how valued the Bible was. Psalm 19:7–8 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul… the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart… the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” That’s why there were so many copies. People wanted to read the Scriptures. They used them, shared them, traveled with them. Just like my old, worn-out Bible I carried with me during a summer at Capernwray Harbour—eventually it just fell apart from use. That’s likely what happened to the original writings of Paul, Peter, and the rest. They were passed around so much, used so heavily, they simply didn’t survive. But before they wore out, they were copied again and again.

Even Paul encouraged this. In Colossians 4:16, he tells the church, “Have this letter read also in the church of the Laodiceans.” The Word was meant to be shared. And God, in His wisdom, chose to preserve His Word not through a single pristine original locked away in a vault, but through an abundance of handwritten manuscripts, lovingly copied and spread across the ancient world. That’s not a weakness—it’s a miracle.

Posted on

Thanks and Giving – From Gratitude to Generosity

Summary of my sermon, based on Colossians 3:15-17. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto on October 13, 2024.

Gratitude isn’t just about saying “thank you” and moving on—it’s an active response that shapes our actions. I’ve been thinking about this while remembering a particular flight I took many years ago. Normally, I’m the type to wear shorts on a flight, even in the middle of winter, as I did when I used to fly from the frozen streets of Fort McMurray to tropical destinations. But on one flight back from a mission trip in the Philippines, my attire changed thanks to an unexpected upgrade to business class. Out of gratitude for the experience, I swapped my casual shorts for proper pants. It was a small action, but it reflected my appreciation for the generosity I’d received.

This story reminds me of what Paul teaches in Colossians 3:15-17, where he connects gratitude to specific actions three times. First, he writes, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:15, ESV). The “peace of Christ” isn’t just about individual calm or the absence of conflict. It’s much deeper—rooted in the biblical concept of shalom, which encompasses welfare, harmony, and completeness. This peace comes from Jesus, who reconciled us to God through His sacrifice, as Paul explains in Ephesians 2:13-14: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace.”

Knowing this, how can we not feel gratitude? But more importantly, what does that gratitude inspire in us? Paul says this peace should unite us, binding us together as one body. Gratitude for salvation isn’t a passive emotion—it motivates us to live in harmony with others, reflecting the unity Christ calls us to.

Paul goes further in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Gratitude should also lead us to immerse ourselves in Scripture, not just for our own sake but to share it with others. This sharing happens through teaching, correcting, and even worshiping together in song. It’s a communal expression of thanksgiving, as we gather in unity, centered on the Word of Christ.

Finally, Paul sums it up in Colossians 3:17: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” This is where gratitude transforms everything—our words, actions, and even our attitude. It’s no longer about obligation but about joyfully responding to God’s grace. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:7-8, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you.”

True gratitude is more than a polite acknowledgment; it’s a life-altering force. It moves us to unity, to immerse ourselves in God’s Word, and to act generously in all that we do. If we truly understand the peace and salvation Jesus has given us, then our gratitude will be visible—not just in our words but in the way we live each day.

Posted on

Renewal & Discernment

Summary of my sermon, based on Romans 12:2. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto (Family Camp) on July 7, 2024.

This morning, our focus is on Romans 12:2, a verse that challenges us with a powerful command: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2, ESV). The theme of “Renewal” is not just for today but for the entire year at GCF Toronto. Yesterday, Pastor Ed spoke on the transformation of our minds and how this leads to a distinct Christian community. He emphasized the importance of the Fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—as markers of this distinction.

Today, I want to back up a little and focus on the beginning of verse 2: “Do not be conformed to this world.” This phrase directs us to what we, as believers, should be distinct from. But what does it mean to “not be conformed to this world”?

To answer this, let’s consider the concept of the “Zeitgeist,” a term rooted in 18th-century German philosophy. The word “Zeitgeist” is defined as “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.” It is the prevailing attitude that shapes how most people in society think, act, and believe at a given moment.

Now, if the Zeitgeist is what motivates the world, it is precisely what should not motivate us as followers of Christ. The Apostle John warns us in 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

This passage serves as a biblical definition of the Zeitgeist—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. These worldly motivations stand in stark contrast to what comes from the Father and are fleeting, destined to pass away with this world.

So, what is the Zeitgeist of our time? What is it that we should not love? The answer may surprise you—it’s individualism. While you might have expected me to point to hot-button issues like abortion, medical aid in dying, or gender and sexuality, the truth is that these issues are manifestations of a deeper, underlying sin: individualism.

Individualism is self-idolatry, the love of self above all else. It is the driving force behind many of the societal issues we face today. For example, the argument for abortion often hinges on the idea that a woman has the right to choose what happens to her body, prioritizing individual choice over the sanctity of life. Similarly, medical aid in dying is framed as an individual’s right to choose the time and manner of their death, often at the expense of valuing life itself. The debates around gender and sexuality frequently center on the belief that one’s personal identity and choices should be upheld above any external moral standard.

A telling example of this mindset is a debate I recently watched on YouTube. A self-identified Christian argued that personal experience with God trumps Scripture, even going so far as to accuse another believer of idolatry for quoting the Bible. This individual elevated personal belief above the Word of God, illustrating the essence of individualism—placing self above all else.

The Apostle Paul foresaw this in 2 Timothy 3:2: “For people will be lovers of self.” This love of self is at the heart of individualism and is a primary motivator behind the issues we face today.

However, individualism doesn’t just influence these societal debates; it can also creep into our own lives in subtle ways. We must guard against allowing our responses to these issues to become idolatrous, driven by pride or self-righteousness rather than humility and love for God.

Paul’s command in Romans 12:2 to “not be conformed to this world” is a call to reject the Zeitgeist of individualism and instead be transformed by the renewal of our minds. This transformation enables us to discern God’s will, which is “good and acceptable and perfect.”

When it comes to discerning God’s will in our personal lives, especially in major decisions like choosing a spouse or a career, we often overcomplicate things. We might wish for a clear, supernatural sign like the one my friend Tyler experienced when he dreamed God told him he would marry Michelle. But discerning God’s will usually involves using the wisdom, desires, and boundaries He has already given us.

For example, in choosing a spouse, God has provided clear guidelines such as 2 Corinthians 6:14: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” This verse warns us against marrying someone who does not share our faith, emphasizing the importance of spiritual compatibility.

Similarly, in choosing a career, we are to use our God-given talents and passions while adhering to biblical principles like 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Whatever path we choose, it should ultimately bring glory to God.

In conclusion, the call to “not be conformed to this world” is a call to reject individualism and embrace a life transformed by the renewal of our minds. This transformation allows us to discern and follow God’s will, leading lives that are distinct from the world and aligned with what is good, acceptable, and perfect in His sight.