St Timothy Presbyterian Church

Scripture Passage Isaiah 43:16-21 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Anniversary! Today is the 25th Anniversary of this church. God has been good as I look back. We didn't even have the church building when we started. But God has given this beautiful building. We were renting Victoria Royce church at Annete and Keele and we used to come to West Deane Park and had a picnic after the service. I could see this church on the hill from the park and it was so beautiful. I just thought to myself, how nice it would be if that were our church. Who would have expected that we are worshipping right here? God has been good. You all worked so hard to build this community. I remember all those who did so much for the church. Together we have built a beautiful history. As we look back our own personal lives, God has been so good. There were times when we didn't know what to do. There were times when our future was so uncertain. There were times when we felt lost. God didn't give up on us. God never abandoned us.

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Scripture Passage Mark 10:46-52 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script A Doorway to Faith Desperation! That is a doorway to faith. No one can come to faith through intellectual reasoning. Faith is not something you choose or conclude as a result of your intellectual exploration. Unless we have a desperate need, faith is hard to come by. So, when everything is going all right, faith is pretty hard to get. Even if we have faith, it is a kind of faith that remains on the surface level. It is something that you merely choose to believe. This blind beggar, Bartimaeus was desperate. As soon as he heard the name, Jesus, he began to cry out. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' (Mark 10:47) No one could stop him. People tried to stop him because he was so loud and it was unpleasant to hear him. The outcry from desperation is not pleasant to hear. It is raw. Not only is it loud, but it is also mixed with a lot of raw emotions. So, it

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Scripture Passage Job 38:1-7 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Job, a Man of Suffering We all know about Job and heard about him. We remember him as a man of suffering. We need to know a little bit of his background to understand about his suffering. Job was a righteous man. Even God recognized his righteousness. This was what God said, The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.' (Job 1:8) This was the beginning of all his problems. Satan asked this question to God. Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.' (Job 1:9-11) There is an important question this raised. Is there a person who loves Go

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Scripture Passage Job 1:1, 2:1-10 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Why Do We Suffer? Suffering is a reality of life. That is the truth of life that Buddhists recognize. People either live with suffering, or they live in fear of suffering. That is the truth that Satan in today's passage recognized. He saw this truth about people: All that people have they will give to save their lives. (Job 2:4) In other words, people live in fear of suffering and will do anything they can to avoid it. Religious and upright people like Job appear faithful because deep down they fear the suffering that can come upon their lives. He takes that further when he says this: But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face. (Job 2:5) He is exposing how fragile and weak our faith is. He is wagering with God that once suffering hits us, we will turn away from God. The issue posed by this passage is: how do we respond to suffering? How should we respond? The question of wh

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Scripture Passage James 1:22-27 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Conflicting Desires  We struggle with double mindedness. We have two sides: one positive and the other negative. Sometimes our positive side can be also our negative side. We have a bright side and a dark side. Within us, we have these TWO CONFLICTING DESIRES. We want to be good for others and live more wholesome life. We want to be pleasant, kind and loving. We want to stand up for what is good and right. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, we see ourselves being easily angry, negative, lazy, timid, and not care. We are sometimes dark, cynical, and critical. Jesus asked the disciples to stay with him when he was praying in Gethsemane, probably the most difficult time in his life. The disciples could not be with Jesus. Jesus said, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41) The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak! This description is so true. Yes, we have a conflict between the spirit and the flesh. Here the flesh does

Scripture Passage Ephesians 6:10-20 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Strength We have to be strong to survive. We have to be strong to deal with challenges of life. We have to be strong to live a good life. We have to be strong to live out our calling. We have to be strong to be happy. St. Paul said in today's passage, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. (Ephesians 6:10) Be strong in the Lord What does it mean to be strong in the Lord? Be strong in the Lord means NOT TO BE SHAKEN. No matter what situation we may encounter, we have to be solid like a rock. That is what it means to be strong. We need to have a solid existence. We cannot be like chaff that the wind drives away. We should be like a tree planted and deeply rooted by streams of water. To live a fruitful life, we should be strong. To be strong means to be CONSTANTLY positive, thankful, joyful, and hopeful. The key word is constantly. We have to be consistent. It is easy to be positive once in a while, t

Scripture Passage Mark 6:14-29 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Power What is the most important power that we should have? I asked myself this question. What is the most important power that I need? What is the power that makes my life happy and meaningful. What is the power that I need to follow Jesus? My conclusion is that I need the power that CAN DEFEAT MY FEAR. We need the power that helps us overcome our fear. This PANDEMIC killed many lives and it drove many people into fear. This virus has gripped the whole world with fear. It has affected our life in the most profound way. It was real fear, not just imaginary paranoid. As of July 9, it killed 4,025,765 people worldwide. Real Fears But it is NOT JUST THIS VIRUS that causes fear within us. Fear is what we experience every day in our lives. Fear is very much A PART OF OUR LIFE. Of course, there are also neurotic fears, I admit. That's why we have all these phobias: acrophobia, aerophobia, arachnophobia, claustrophobia, and so on. But fear is

Scripture Passage Mark 4:26-34 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script The Key Jesus gave us a wonderful parable. The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the  ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would  sprout and grow, he does not know how. (Mark 4:26, 27) He does not know how. This phrase strikes me. It inspires me. It gives me a sense of freedom. I don't need to know everything. I don't need to control the result. I am not talking about not preparing thoroughly and expecting a  good result. I am not talking about that kind of laziness. But we all know that we cannot control the result in everything that  we do. We are trying to live a good life that builds the kingdom of God  but we don't know how the kingdom of God is established in  our life. Nobody knows. What Jesus is trying to say is that we are not the ones who build life  that reflects the kingdom of God. It is ultimately God who builds the kingdom of God. The key is God, not us. That's why St. Paul said

Scripture Passage John 15:9-17 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Love Today is Mother's Day. At our church, we celebrate it as Parents Day. The first word that comes to my mind when I think about mothers or parents is LOVE. We all received tremendous love from them. We thank them for their love, their sacrifice, and their many tears for us. They took care of us. They prayed for us and they always worried about us. They taught us what it means to suffer because they love. I saw my mother suffer more when I was suffering. So whenever we think about our parents, it makes us emotional. Because our parents did so much for us. During this Covid period, we heard many sad stories. So many seniors died at nursing homes during this Covid period. Some of them died alone without being able to say a proper goodbye. People could not even visit their parents in a nursing home and spend time with them. They had to meet their parents in the nursing home from outside of their room. Not being able to take care of lone

Scripture Passage John 12:20-33 Sermon Video Sermon Audio   Sermon Script Suffering is Part of Existence Suffering or pain is not something that we can choose or not to choose. Is it? We don't have an option on this matter. Suffering is a very much part of our existence. Suffering and pain will always be there. I am not talking about a huge, dramatic suffering. I am talking about what we experience in our daily living. We get hurt. We get disappointed. There are things that frustrate us and annoy us. Worries and Anxiety. Illness. Lack of confidence. Guilt Difficulties in relationships. All of these are what cause suffering in us. Suffering is not something we can avoid. It always comes to us like an uninvited guest. It intrudes our lives. It takes away joy from us. When we Suffer Suffering makes us weak. When we suffer, we question, Why do these things happen to me? Did I do something wrong? We wonder whether God loves us. When we suffer, we feel lonely. We feel distant from people. Maybe it's not them.

Scripture Passage Genesis 9:8-17 Worship Video Worship Audio   Sermon Script After the Flood What we see in today's Scripture is God's aching heart. God felt so bad after the flood. Aching heart comes from love. Where there is no love, there is no suffering. We suffer because we love. We become desperate because we love. What we see in today's passage is God's pain and his anguish. Who am I that God is so brokenhearted about my fate? Am I that important to him? God saw how evil human beings were. Their wickedness was destroying them. God saw that and felt so desperate. He didn't know what to do. But after the flood, God changed his mind. He said he would never destroy the earth with water. He repeated this word never a few times. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.' (Genesis 9:11) and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 9:15) Describing Go

Scripture Passage Mark 9:2-9 Worship Video Worship Audio   Sermon Script A Glorious Scene We see a beautiful and glorious scene in today's Scripture. I love it. It is surreal. Jesus' clothes became dazzling white. It was radian. There appeared Elijah and Moses who died long time ago. Their appearance was not like a hologram. They talked with Jesus. And a cloud overshadowed them and the disciples heard a voice that came from the cloud. It was not something we experience in our mundane life. The disciples experienced something very special. They could not explain what they experienced with their language or logic. Much later, Peter recounted what he experienced on this mountain but he had hard time to describe it. The words he used were Honour , Glory , Majestic glory. He tried his best to describe what he experienced. Unfortunately, his words could not fully capture what he experienced. They didn't just feel that it was wonderful. They were terrified. Peter said, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; le

Scripture Passage 1 Corinthians 8: 1-3 Worship Video Sermon Audio   Congregational Prayer Click here to read this week’s congregational prayer!   Sermon E-book Click here to read the sermon e-book The post Knowledge and Love appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Scripture Passage Jonah 3: 1-10 Worship Video Sermon Audio   Congregational Prayer Click here to read this week’s congregational prayer!   Sermon E-book   Click here to read the sermon e-book The post A Second Time appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.