Over the past quarter, our sermonic theme has been how we can connect and get closer to God. We looked at topics like prayer and how it’s a real connection with God. Expectations and how we may need to re-evaluate some of our own but that God’s expectation for us is to love each other as He loves us. Trials and how God can use them to help us grow and mature spiritually. And our topic last time was on understanding what God is like by exploring the story of the flood. Today is our final part in this series and the topic is on forgiveness. I chose forgiveness because we are celebrating communion today and I believe what Jesus did in the upper room the night before He was crucified paints for us a beautiful picture of God’s forgiveness. We all stumble at times but today we will learn that no matter how many times we stumble, God pursues us and freely offers a fresh start if we want it. I challenge each of you, including myself, to use this occasion not only to ask for forgiveness but to open your heart to allow the God who pursues to change you. May you realize that although we were learning how to connect with God this quarter, it is God’s greatest desire is to connect and come close to you.”

Today, as part of this year’s vision of Disicpliship for the Seventh-day Adventist Conference in Ontario, they’re holding a ministries convention in Richmond Hill called DiscipleSHIFT. Some of our ministry leaders along with myself are attending the various seminars which are designed to educate and train leaders in different ministries about what discipleship means or looks like in our churches and the 21st century. What do you think of when you hear the word discipleship? Do you think of discipline or following Jesus or something else? When I think of discipleship, of being a follower of Jesus, one common theme always comes to mind. It is found in Jesus’ words in Luke 9:23, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” To me, this is the essence of discipleship. This week during prayer meeting we had a great discussion about what it means to be consumed by Christ and it got me thinking about what we understand when we think of the term disciple. Luke 9 is both a reality check and a litmus test for the Christian and lets us know that perhaps there needs to be a “shift” in our understanding of discipleship. Our speaker today is one of our own members who recently became a father, Ken Urizar. He’s a very gifted Sabbath school teacher and I’m sure his sermon will challenge and inspire us as we discover the topic of “Sonship”