Sanctus Church Audio Sermons

Real Talk: Honest Prayer - Week 3 - Zeal that Consumes

Speaker: Angela Mason

Scripture: Psalm 69

Description:
Psalms can help us deal with our emotions of doubt, sadness and fear but what about anger? When is anger worth it? We need to evaluate ourselves based on how our Loving, Holy God gets angry. It’s in His presence where He transforms our anger to zeal, our hate to love and brings us closer to saying back to Him, zeal for your house consumes me.

Real Talk: Honest Prayer - Week 2: Life is About One Thing!

Have you found yourself both confident and anxious, trusting and fearful? Welcome to the paradox of human life. Psalm 27 clearly talks about this paradox and it gives us lots of clarity on how to navigate the battles of life. At the end of the journey, it's all about one thing. What's the one thing in your life?

Real Talk: Honest Prayer - Week 1: Presence Changes Perspective

Speaker: Nathan Veley

We can come into the presence of God and pour out our honest prayers before him. As we do, His presence shifts and changes our perspective, giving us both an eternal view for this life, and an understanding of what the good life really is.  In this message, we'll be digging in Psalm 73.

Break the Cycle - Philemon: Week 4

Break the Cycle - Philemon: Week 3

Break the Cycle - Philemon: Week 2

Philemon 1:4-7

Break the Cycle - Philemon: Week 1

Jesus is our Model

If Jesus is our model, how do we become more like Him in everyday life and ministry? We finish our conversation on convergence by looking at how spiritual gifts and disciplines provide the means and methods for becoming more like Jesus in our own lives.

Making Sense of Revival

The Bible describes many dramatic encounters with God. Do these intense moves of God still happen today? We continue our series on convergence by distinguishing between renewal, revival, and awakening. By establishing healthy expectations for spiritual encounters, we are able to find contentment in the practice of common faithfulness without diminishing our hope and prayers for divine revival in our current cultural crisis.

How to Thrive in a Post-Christian World

We live in a post-Christian world that’s struggling to accommodate two opposing value systems: militant secularism and violent religious fundamentalism. How should the Church respond? At Sanctus Church, we believe the answer lies in what we call “convergence”. Using Jesus as our model, let’s explore how it’s possible to thrive in our uncertain and dynamic times.

God is our Banner

Transitions are when we're most vulnerable. If opposition is inevitable, how do we prepare ourselves for seasons of change? As believers, we begin by remembering that the God who saves is also the God who sustains. Through His presence and provision, God will lead us into victory.

Trusting God During Transitions

Transitions are difficult. In our pursuit of the new, we sometimes find ourselves missing the old. How do we remain focused and unified in our pursuit of God's vision for our church? The answer lies in remembering the nature of the One who called us in the first place.

The Gift of Jesus

Jesus is the greatest gift we'll ever receive. Born in a manger, the light of the world invaded the darkness to give us hope in a time of hardship and disappointment.

Christmas didn't begin at a mall, but rather in an obscure corner of the Roman empire where life was cheap and uncertain. Yet God moved, and everything changed. Let's remember why we celebrate Christmas. King Jesus is here. You never have to be alone again.

The Star

The Christmas story is filled with symbols that help us understand the significance of this holy invasion. God is here for everyone. Like the magi who saw and followed the star, we all face the same decisions: Will we pursue God? And what will we do when we meet Him in Jesus?

The Manger

The time had come. Christmas marks the moment God stepped into the human story by showing up in an unexpected place — not a temple, but a manger. Even at birth, Jesus reveals the depth of God’s love for us. There’s nothing He won’t do to provide His children with a way back home.

The Myth of the Lone Ranger Christian

God designed us for relationships. It’s why Paul uses his final words to recognize and bless those who walked alongside him throughout his ministry. What is God trying to teach us through these deeply personal and too often skimmed verses? Perhaps even in the face of death, God’s love, experienced through community and the Holy Spirit, is all we need.

Making Peace and Finding Hope

Imprisoned, deserted, opposed — Paul details the extent of his hardship to Timothy. Yet through his personal remarks, Paul reveals that he's made peace with the past and found joyful anticipation about the future. By following the way of Christ, Paul models how to cultivate an unshakeable sense of peace and joy through the trials we face.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus

In his final charge to Timothy, Paul reminds us that Jesus' resurrection gave the world hope, unlike anything it had ever seen. When we build our life on this hope, we find peace and power that overrides our present circumstances — even in the face of death.

How to Prepare for Persecution

Following Jesus involves risk and sacrifice. If some form of persecution is inevitable, how do we prepare for that future? Paul points us to the Bible. The scriptures are designed to be read for formation. They have the power to shape us into the image of Jesus. When we actively love the scriptures, we allow the Author to transform us into people who can withstand anything that comes our way.

Living in a Fallen World

How do we navigate a broken world? In times of amplified chaos, we tend to feel discouraged and vulnerable to doubt. The culprit is unrealistic expectations. As he prepares his final charge, Paul moves from encouragement to warning, describing the grim nature of the world in which we find ourselves. By recalibrating our expectations, Paul helps us replace our wishful thinking with real hope, which empowers us to endure the "now and not yet".

Dealing with False Teachers

The world is a confusing place. From propaganda to censorship, the truth is constantly under threat — including inside the church. False teaching is like a landmine; it’s subtle, dangerous, and difficult to remove. With time running out, Paul outlines how to detect and confront false teaching without losing sight of the objective. The goal isn’t to win an argument; it’s to see salvation.

How to Endure Hardship

Trials forge our faith. When difficulties arise, Paul encourages us to ground ourselves in the faithfulness of Jesus. Even when we struggle with doubt, Jesus remains faithful to us. That's the secret — it's not about you. The strength to endure comes from the One who has already defeated death.

Suffering for the Gospel

From the series "2 Timothy: The Good Fight". Facing imminent death, Paul encourages Timothy to join him in suffering for the gospel. Is this the selfish desire of a lonely prisoner? Or is there a deeper meaning to the suffering that leads us into more security and strength than we can even imagine?

The Power to Persevere

From the series "2 Timothy: The Good Fight". As crises mount, one thing becomes clear: we can’t do it alone. Imprisoned and awaiting execution, Paul writes a letter to Timothy about the power of the gospel and the cost of discipleship. If we’re going to live on mission, we need to understand where our power comes from.

Fully Devoted: Discipleship at Sanctus Church

What does Sanctus Church believe about discipleship? What does it look like to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus in the middle of a pandemic? In the midst of disruptions, there are always opportunities for growth and impact.

Vision Sunday

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the past and cast vision for the future. This is a conversation about how we, as fully devoted followers of Jesus, may continue building for the future with hopeful anticipation because we trust that our God is with us and for us. Our strategies may change, but God’s promises for our church and region remain the same.

Following God into the Unknown

In times of uncertainty, we tend to use our lack of foresight as an excuse for inaction or disobedience. What if there’s an alternative way forward? God uses seemingly impossible situations to help us see our need for Him. The invitation isn’t to certainty, but to trust. 

The King Above All Gods

There’s always a battle before the victory. Just as Moses and Aaron partnered with God to liberate Israel from slavery, we too must follow God and trust that He’ll provide a way forward regardless of who or what we face.

Commissioned for Boldness

How do we live with faith, courage, and freedom? You are commissioned to live out the gospel in the middle of suffering. This boldness has nothing to do with personality, and everything to do with God.

Welcome to the Family

Is Jesus really our brother? Many of us know Jesus as Saviour, Shepherd, Lord, King—but when's the last time you thought about the Son of God as your sibling? Understanding our relationship to Jesus after we're adopted into the family of God impacts how we see ourselves and our purpose.

Set Free to Love Freely

Jesus came to set you free from sin and death so that you may experience the fullness of life—both now and forever. Recognizing the significance of this freedom helps us cultivate gratitude that fuels our ability to love freely in the face of any challenge.

Risking Your Destiny

We all want to achieve our full potential, but what if the cultural vision for your life can’t get you to where you actually want to go? God offers an alternative path, but following Jesus will cost you the compromise of comfort. 

As followers of Jesus, we are called to be people of his presence that help bring God’s kingdom into the present. It's a calling that changes how we view ourselves and everything we do in this life.

Live What You Believe

To know who you are, you must know who you're not. The truth depends on distinctions—and knowing our limitations leads us into a deeper relationship with the only One who is capable of helping us become everything we're meant to be. It's time for us to live what we believe.

Reflect What You've Received

How you define yourself matters. Our beliefs influence our behaviour—and the story of Ruth exemplifies how God weaves our decisions and actions into his unfolding plan of redemption. Simply put, God redeemed you for a reason: to reflect the lovingkindness that you first received. So ask yourself: am I ready to impact the world by living as a child of God?

Friend of God

God wants to connect with you on a deeper level—so much so that He calls you His friend. The heart of friendship is to know the heart of the one who befriends you. God wants to transform your heart by revealing his own, but great friendships take time and effort. Learn how investing in this one relationship will transform how you relate to everything and everyone else—including yourself.

The Fruit of Favour

What does it mean to be favoured by God? There's a significant difference between the favour we achieve through our own efforts and the favour we receive as a gift from God. One provides an edge, the other develops our character. God's favour is always about the bigger picture—are you ready to trust him during the process?

Found and Formed Through Faith

Where do you find your identity? Many of us root our sense of self and sense of worth in what we own, what we do, and what others say about us—yet the Gospel reveals that our identity is based on what's already been done through Jesus.

Who will we trust?

God's inviting you to join the family—but this identity must be received, not achieved.

Celebration & Rest

Celebration and rest are essential aspects of one's spiritual life. They produce a divine joy that fuels everything else we are called to do as believers. So how do we celebrate and rest in the midst of pain, suffering, and urgency?

Service

Serve others: easy to say, hard to do—especially when it comes at a personal cost. Jesus calls us to actively will the good of others, including those who we'd rather ignore (or perhaps even harm). This is radical love. This is reconciliation. This is the way through which the Kingdom of God flips our cultural models upside-down and begins to emerge in the here and now.

We weren't created and saved to sit on the sidelines. It's time for us to love boldly and find Jesus at the middle of it all.

Simplicity & Sacrifice

Are you paying attention to what really matters? Nothing is more valuable than our personal time and attention, and yet we rarely create space to ask ourselves whether our choices are leading us into deeper relationship with God.

In a culture obsessed with complexity and accumulation, Jesus calls us to practice simplicity and sacrifice. Why? Because these disciplines, when done as acts of worship, lead us to the One who is able to free us from the tireless cycle of never feeling like we have (or are) enough.

Racism, Reconciliation, and The Gospel

Chris Chase and Cheryl Nembhard join Pastor Jon Thompson for an honest conversation about the reality of racism, the hope of reconciliation, and the role of the Gospel in our pursuit of justice.

Study

What is the Bible? How do we engage with this strange and ancient collection of writings today?

The Bible reveals the ultimate story of reality—one that weaves our personal stories into a grand narrative that leads to Jesus.

As is often the case with Jesus, this is about both the head and the heart.

Chastity

Why does God care about what I do with my body? Come learn how our sexuality relates to discipleship—and how Jesus wants to help us discover a whole new way to be human in what he calls "The Kingdom of God".

This is a conversation about relationship and trust. Will you accept that Jesus knows what's best for our hearts and bodies?

Fasting & Secrecy

Fasting might be the most abused and neglected spiritual practice—yet Jesus expected his followers to fast regularly. When it comes to spiritual disciplines, our motives determine the fruit. Join us as we explore how fasting, when rightly practiced, leads to freedom and transformation.

Solitude & Silence

How often do you spend time in the quiet alone with God?

Solitude and silence were at the heart of Jesus' life and ministry. He often withdrew to the "lonely place" before engaging with the crowds and challenges that lay before him. If we treat Jesus as our model, learning how to minimize the noise and increase our attentiveness to God may be the secret to thriving within the chaos of our modern age.

Confession

Confession is an integral part of our walk with Jesus. It's through the practice of confession that we move out of our hiddenness and into God's inexhaustible grace and mercy. Simply put, confession leads to true freedom—so how do we do it?

Prayer

“To pray is to accept that we are, and always will be, wholly dependent on God for everything.”

—Timothy Keller

 

How do we talk to God? The disciples asked Jesus this very question; He answered by giving them the Lord’s Prayer. Using this ancient prayer as our framework, join us as we learn how to converse with the Father today.

An Introduction to Spiritual Practices

To become like Jesus, we must spend time with Jesus. We do this through spiritual practices.

If spiritual gifts are a guaranteed place of power, spiritual practices are a guaranteed place of transformation. They lead us into the presence of God after we’ve encountered him through Jesus so that he may transform us from the inside out.

Speaker: Jon Thompson
Series: Spiritual Practices: The Holy Habits of Faith

Easter Sunday: On the Road to Emmaus

"Many of us have at times walked the Emmaus road, wondering where God is...when all along He walks beside us." — Randy Alcorn

Jesus is risen. He is alive. He defeated death, rescuing us from the consequences of our sin, forging a way for the lost to be found.

The resurrection of Jesus is the point at which the history of the world turns. No longer are we destined to travel alone. Jesus meets us on our journey. Through your pain and doubt, wrestling and wandering, he walks beside you—patiently waiting for you to open your heart and see that the Living God is ready to welcome you home.

Speaker: Jon Thompson
Series: Lost & Found

Good Friday

The idea of death haunts most of humanity. And understandably so—if we imagine a future without Jesus.

Jesus' death defeated the reign of darkness. The finality of death was replaced with a semi-colon. For believers, we are freed from the suffocating weight of death's empty threats of loneliness and isolation. Jesus has found us. His death has made a way for the lost to come home.

As we mourn and reflect this Good Friday, may we take heaven's perspective on the matter: this was not a mistake; it was the start of a revolution.

It is finished—but it's not over.

Speaker: Jon Thompson
Series: Lost & Found