Tyndale Chapel Podcast

Well. Here we are again, beginning of 24/25 another academic term, and to gather together as a community of believers, of brothers and sisters together in this spectacular space, cross, mosaic-coloured windows, pews, the shape of the cross, the Stations of the Cross surrounding us. It's good to be together, and this is central to who we are, isn't it? Tyndale University. This is why we gather together as students, as faculty, as staff, because this is the centrality of who we are as people of Christ. Week after week, we'll do this together, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays, an opportunity to raise our voices in joy and hope, to be challenged and inspired by the word of God, to pray together, to open his word so welcome, welcome again to the start of our community chapels and our chapel series for this year and today we're really pleased to have with us. Perry, sorry pastor Terry Sanderson, who is the lead pastor at Bayview Glen church, just around the corner from here. Terry was born and raised in southwestern Ontario on a dairy farm and finished his first degree at Western. Went on from Western to Dallas Theological Seminary, where he completed a theological degree in pastoral ministry, and from there, returned to Canada, where he pastored in London, Ontario for about 20 years. Moved from there to St. Louis, just in the suburbs of St. Louis. I don't think he's a blues fan, but we'll see. And he pastored there for 13 years, and only two years ago, he returned to Canada and began his tenure at Bayview Glen. I know from my own daughter in law how beloved pastor Terry is, and I'm sure you will be enriched by the words that he brings us this morning. So just before he comes, let me pray for him, God, we are so grateful for this morning, for these people who have gathered together, for Pastor Sanderson, for the word that you've given to him, for us just this morning. May those words be a meditation onto our hearts, and that will propel us into service for the sake of Your kingdom. We pray these things in Jesus name Amen.

Well, thank you very much, George. This was a really tough weekend because the St Louis Cardinals were in town playing the Blue Jays. That just messes with someone's loyalties. Tyndale, it is good to be with you. I have one of the reasons I came back to Toronto and to Bayview Glen was because of its proximity to Tyndale, and the opportunity we have to work together and minister together and learn and grow together. And I know many of you are part of our Bayview family and Minsu Tang, who's our young adults pastor, he's got a table at the back, and we have a young adults group that meets regularly. And if you're interested in joining or finding out more, Minsu will be there, and would love to share with you all that's going on. And we invite you to be part of our family. And we have an amazing residency program too, that as you journey through Tyndale you may want to be a part of, and an opportunity to really combine academics with some practical ministry, one of the questions I often get as a pastor is, how can I be used by God? How can I step into what I believe God has for me, and I think all of us, and my guess is, the reason you're here is that you want God to somehow use you. You want to do something more than just the normal life in our society. How can God really use me? And so I invite you to turn to Mark chapter six, and I want to look at a very familiar passage. In fact, this is one of the most familiar of all of Jesus' miracles. It's the miracle of feeding 5000, this is the only miracle, apart from the resurrection, that we find in all four Gospels. And so when the Holy Spirit's directing the writers and saying, Hey, make sure you put this in here, there must be something about this miracle that Jesus wants us to know. It's also a very different miracle for the disciples, because they're not the recipients of the miracle, like when the storm was stilled. It's like, Oh, good. Jesus did something for us. They're not observers of the miracle, like when they saw Jesus heal people. This is very different. They were participants in the miracle. Jesus is using them to accomplish his work. And of course, later, just before he goes to the cross, Jesus says to these same guys, he says, When I'm gone, it's better that the Holy Spirit come, because you're going to do even greater things. And I think this miracle is in preparation of that. And we have an opportunity here to see, how does God use us? How do we step in and be used by God? And many times, how do we take ideas, you know, we're like, maybe God wants me to do this, or I've been thinking about this, and how do we turn that into influence and impact? We want to see four quick things that we see that God says here so Mark chapter six, beginning at verse 30, says the apostles gathered around Jesus, reported to Him all that they had done and taught then, because so many people were coming and going that they didn't even have a chance to eat. Jesus said to them, come with me by yourself to a quiet place and let's get some rest. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them. Ran on foot from all the towns got there ahead of them, and when Jesus landed and saw such a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. And so this was during a very busy time in Jesus' life, actually a very sorrowful time. Just before this, not long, he finds out his cousin, John the Baptist, has been beheaded. He's trying to grieve this family situation. The disciples have been sent out to try to do miracles and to teach, and they were coming back and trying to share with Jesus all that they had learned and experiences, their successes, their failures. But Jesus was kind of busy, because all these people were cramming around him, wanting a miracle, wanting some words of advice, and Jesus says, like any good leader, he's like, hey, team, we kind of need a little spiritual retreat. Why don't we head across, get in a boat, go to the other side. Have just some quiet time. We can reflect. We can hear one another, and they get in, and they move across, but all of a sudden, the crowd realizes where they're going. They run around, and they get there before Jesus. Jesus' disciples get off the boat ready for a spiritual retreat, and there's a mass of people, and Jesus looks at them, and he says, There's something about them, they're like sheep without a shepherd. There are people going in many different directions. They're trying to sort life out. They have all sorts of needs. And we're told it says he had compassion upon them. Here he was trying to have some time with His disciples. I'm sure they probably weren't too happy that there was a crowd there says Jesus had compassion on them, and this is the first thing we learn. If we want to be used by God, we have to care about what God cares about. God's not going to use us to do things that he doesn't care about, but notice that he has compassion. We're going to see in a moment the disciples develop some compassion. What are you compassionate about? In Greek, the word for compassion, it kind of comes from the gut and I can't pronounce it right. It was too long ago I took my Greek. But in in the ancient world, the heart was the seat of motivation, the gut, the bowels were the seed of emotion, of compassion, and so friends, I would say, as you're starting, even your school year, as you're getting here, ask God. Show me where I should have compassion. Show me your heart. God, what is your heart for people? As you get to meet people here, God, show me your heart for them as you understand our city, as you understand your neighborhood. What are the needs? Where's your heart? Because God's going to use us. He wants to use us to accomplish his heart, his desires, his things. Where's God? Say God help me see with your eyes and when you're frustrated in class, when you're frustrated in the dorm, when you're frustrated in traffic, when you're frustrated with your family, say, hey, God, give me your eyes of compassion. Help me to see what's going on. And as Jesus continues to teach, the disciples get more frustrated. We see in verse 35 it says, By this time it was late in the day. So the disciples came to Jesus, and they said, you know, this is a remote place, and it's already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to surrounding countryside and villages buy themselves something to eat. But Jesus answered. You give them something to eat. And they said to him, Well, that would take more than a half a year's wages. Are we going to go and spend that much on bread and give it away people to eat? Well, what do you have? How many loaves do you have? Yes, go and see. And when they found out, they said, five and two fish. And so the day is going on, Jesus was just going to have a chapel service. That's what the disciples thought. And all of a sudden, it's now getting late in the day, and a bunch of them sidle up to Jesus and they're like, hey, Jesus, you know this chapel service you're doing. Like, it's really good. Like, this is a good message, but we're here for a chapel service. This is not a conference, and it's getting late, and the people are hungry, they're getting hangry. Can you just kind of wrap it up so they can go? And Jesus says, you care about these people. Oh, yeah, Jesus, we really care about them. Notice now Jesus is feeding them spiritually, they're beginning to care about their needs. And you get this sense the disciples, probably part of them just wanted the day over. Wanted to spend time with Jesus. Now my guess is they had some compassion for these people, and Jesus here says, You care for them. Oh yeah, Jesus, we really do care for them. This is not good for them. And notice what Jesus is. You feed them. Now Jesus never really said this to them before, right? All of a sudden, you feed them. And so where do their minds originally go? To their minds go to what they do not have. Their minds originally go to what they lack. They're like Jesus. It's going to take a half a year's wage. We don't have that. Even if we did, we don't want to spend it on that. And probably, if we had a half a year's wages, there's not a longos nearby that we could go to and buy anything. And this is our challenge. When we want to be used by God. Typically, what we look at is what we don't have, right? We look at our lack, we look at the scarcity. We think, well, I need more money, I need more time, I need more people, I need more talent. I need more education. I need more influence. Our natural default situation is to look at what we do not have. And you see this all the time in business, they talk about this. Now you can have an abundance mindset or a scarcity mindset, and I think often as followers of Jesus, we're stuck in our scarcity mindset. If God has given us a burden, if there's something burning in our heart, what do we have? And so notice what Jesus says. He says, well, really, what do you have? How much do you have? And here's the second thing, instead of grumbling about what we do not have, surrender to God what we do have. How do we be used by God? Stop grumbling about what we do not have. And I will tell you many of us in the work world, we wish we were students again, because when we were students, somehow we felt we had more time, more disposable income, more opportunities. And you probably look at me and you think, that's crazy. I don't have much money. I don't have much time. Trust me, five years from now, you'll come into my office and you'll say, Pastor, you know when you said that we had more time, or money I didn't believe you, but you do, we always look at what we do not have, and God really isn't interested in our grumbling about what we do not have. He wants us to use what we do have. He said, What do you have? God does this with Moses in the Old Testament, Moses at the burning bush. God gives Moses an assignment. I want you to lead my people. And Moses like, Oh, you got the wrong guy. I can't speak. I can't do it. And what does God say? God looks at him, look it up and exodus. He said, What's in your hand? Moses, you know what was in his hand? A stick, a shepherd staff. What was said, that's all I got. I got a shepherd staff. I'll use that. And it was the shepherd staff that became a snake. It was a shepherd staff that parted a sea. It was a shepherd staff raised in prayer when Israel won, God wants us to use what we have. And so as they look around, they find they don't have much. They see this little boy who somehow got a take home bag from Red Lobster and has a couple fish sticks and a few of those Cheddar Bay Biscuits that are in there, really good Cheddar Bay and he's got that. And my guess is they're going to have to almost pry it out of his hands. But all they have a few fish and barley loaves. John's gospel tells us that they were barley loaves. Now you eat what? Oatmeal. You don't eat barley meal. You eat cream of wheat. You don't eat cream of barley. Barley wasn't something people normally ate. Barley was animal food. It was given to the animals. John's gospel tells us these were barley loaves. What's that mean? It's like this kid was the poorest of the poor. This was not someone who had much, this was someone who had very little and was subsisting on a little bit of barley. And here, this is all they have, and the disciples take it to Jesus, and Jesus going to do something with it. What do you have this year as you begin school, as you look at your career, as you start a job, as you look at a ministry, it's so easy to say, well, if I had more money, if I had more opportunity, if we had more people, I had more. If I had more we stop ourselves. No church grows, no ministry starts when people look at what they do not have, it's what they do have. And the disciples said, hey, here's what we got. And Jesus says great. I can do something with it. And so as they take it, the next thing they do, it's the third thing, is that they begin to put themselves in a place where God can use them. They take a risk. You have a heart for what God has a heart for. You don't complain about what you don't have, but give to God what you do have. And you take a step of faith. You put yourself where God can use you. You take a risk. And it says in verse 39 then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds 50s, taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves, and then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and he also divided the two fish among them all, and they ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish, and the number at the man who had eaten were 5000 and so here, all of a sudden, both the little boy and the disciples, they begin to take a risk. They put themselves in a place where God can use them. Because who was the one person that day that didn't need a miracle? There was one person didn't need a miracle. It was the little boy? Right? He had food. He had his lunch. He didn't need a miracle. But what did he do? He put himself in a place where God can use it. He said, hey, you take this. What did the disciples do? They're taking baskets of broken bread and fish, little bit, five loaves, two fish, and they're beginning to serve them. Can you imagine? It's like, you've got 1000s of people, and they're like, Okay, God, we're going to do this. We're going to serve, and friends every ministry starts with a risk. Every ministry starts with a step of faith. And sometimes we wonder, why isn't God using me? Like I'm standing here, I'm waiting, God, you use me. He's waiting for us to take a step of faith, just to step out. We see this in the Old Testament. It's always a step of faith. That's what initiates it when, when God says to Joshua and the people of Israel, I want you to cross the Jordan, they're like, it's a rushing river, just step in. And they took one step of faith into the water and it parted. And friends no church grows without steps of faith. No ministry begins without steps of faith. No great things are done without steps of faith. And so I would encourage you what is a step of faith you can take? This is an amazing time in your life, you will never have a time like this where you've got some opportunity to take more risks, to step out in faith. Hey, God, I'm going to try something. So you try something not quite what you wanted. You try something and you fail. God has lessons in that. This is the prime opportunity to really take some steps of faith with God. There's a survey taken a number of years ago of people over 80, and they just said, what do you wish as you look back over your life, that you had done more? What do you wish? The number one thing they wish is that they had taken more risks. Looking back at my life, I think, why didn't I take more risks? Why didn't I trust God, I knew what my heart was saying. I had something I could use, but I didn't want to take a risk. And there's no better time in your life to take a risk. And then finally, what these guys learned is to keep looking at the supplier, not the supply. We tend to look at the supply. These guys looked at the supplier. Jesus takes this little bit of food, these loaves and fish, and it's noticed that he gives thanks and he's breaking it. It's a picture, really, what's going to happen at communion, where Jesus body, Jesus' body is broken, but it's gonna provide the payment for the whole world. One person, the whole world, it starts breaking this bread, and breaking this bread, putting it in 12 baskets. There's the miracle, five loaves, a little bit of fish, in 12 baskets already, and these disciples go and they start passing them out. Now, I don't know, have you ever been to a dinner? Maybe, maybe it's your own family. Maybe it's a backyard barbecue. And, you know, there's a big crowd of people, and what do they typically say? Well, just take one, you know, like take one piece of pizza. You can come back for more. Take one hamburger, one hot dog. If there's more, you can have it left. Can you imagine these disciples going around to the groups of 50 or 100 and say, Hey, can you take just a little piece? Like, don't take too much. I guess we don't know if it's going to last. And if you're looking at the supply, that's what you're going to say, right? There was no sense that these guys are like, Oh, we're giving it. We're trying to look back. Where's the table? Jesus got more of the other disciples got more. If I run out, they're not looking at the supply, what they have. They're fixated on God, the supplier. And this is the principle God tries to teach us throughout all of Scripture, we want to look at the supply. Jesus teaches the most outrageous thing in the Sermon on the Mount. When he talks about prayer, he says, what? Pray that God would give you what? Your daily bread. Most of us don't pray that. Oh, that's a nice prayer. We don't pray that. We want our weekly bread. We want a monthly bread. We want our yearly bread, don't we want to know that there's enough in the bank account right to get us through the year. You want enough in your bank account to get you through school. You're not waiting on your daily bread. A lotto Max, $80 million I was thinking this morning as I was listening to that on the news, what could I do with 80 million? God, wouldn't that be nice to have 80 million? We want to look at the supply. God, is there enough? Do I have enough talent, enough people? When I look around, God, is there enough that I don't have to sweat it, I don't have to have faith. But Jesus always teaches us look to the supplier. And I'll tell you in ministry in life, you will always be discouraged and disheartened if you just look at the supply here. Here's what we have. I think we're going to lose like we've got to use it very carefully, and we have to be wise, good stewards. Of course we do. But Jesus here says, look to the supplier. I think Peter and John picked this up one of the first miracles they did in the book of Acts. As they're walking in the city of Jerusalem, and they see a man that has been there for a number of years, can't walk. And I’m often struck by this guy, because I think Jesus probably walked by him many times, did not heal him, because this was a miracle for Peter and John. And the guy's like, hey, help me and Peter and John, what they have compassion on him? And then what did they do? They say, well, silver and gold we don't have, but here's what I have in the name of Jesus. Get up. They weren't focused and grumbling about what they don't have, but they looked at what they do have. They took a step of faith and prayed for this guy, and they watched God do it. So as you begin this year, as you begin this journey, maybe at Tyndale, I would just encourage you, God wants to use you. One of the most often answered prayers is, hey, God use me. And how does that happen when we are concerned about the things God's concerned about when we focus not on what we do have, but give to God what we have, when we take a risk, step out in faith, let God use us. And then when we keep focused on God.
Let's pray together, our Heavenly Father, It's so easy for us in this world and in our economy and when there's food insecurity and housing insecurity, and to look at what we do not have, because we trust the supply more than the supplier. But God, help us to live differently, to trust you, to trust the supplier. And Lord, I just pray that in this room of people, that you would take all our ideas, all our desires for ministry, you would bring them into impact and influence and Lord, that You would use this mighty army of people for your kingdom and your glory in Jesus name Amen. God bless.

Let's pray together. God, everything feels new. Papers are still weeks away. Midterms won't happen till October, and many of us are still learning new names and recognizing new faces, even today. September 17, spread out before us is oceans Horizon, a year of academic fundamentals, character formation, deep friendships, and we hope only the occasion of failure and in all of this, God, you will be here. You are present. You will care. We know that you are present even now, and yet even as the vista of newness excites and inspires us to begin and resume our passages today, most significantly today, we look back at your wake of faithfulness and acknowledge that you have been present during this remarkable journey of Tyndale University. We remember, Lord, that for 130 years you have gathered men and women from across this nation and around the world's globe to Toronto to study, prepare and engage a vision birthed by President Harris so many years ago and then sustained by hundreds of women and men over a century that has brought us to today, in this morning, as we behold your beauty in the magnificence of the sanctuary, a place of word worship and wonder. We are deeply humbled by your provisions. We are keenly aware of your grace. We are acutely grateful for your love. God, we can't thank you enough for building and fortifying the foundation of strong shoulders of 1000s of saints who have stood side by side through the good of many years and some not so good years. God, this place, this place that means so much to so many, for all sorts of reasons, is a witness to your fidelity and sustenance, and we are grateful for your faithfulness. What a taste of heaven, God, students, staff, faculty, drawn from around the world, here in person, there online, to celebrate your goodness and grace. Thank you, God, but Father, this is a new as this new year begins, we are mindful that Tyndale is a way station, a terminal for destinations, some only steps away, and for others, many miles from here, a place for most to pass through and to move on. We know the power of your gospel and the glory of Your kingdom shines through our students and those who have come before, both near to Bayview and far away in places like Australia, Cambodia and Ghana, God in your grace. May you our influence in you continue to span the globe for your sake and your love. And now God in front of us are days of rich work in deep learning, months of challenging questions and exhilarating formation, a year of worship calls and vocations refined and realized and God, we pray by your spirit that we will abide in you through all that you have in store for us. We so look forward to this coming year. God, we pray may the next 130 years of Tyndale university be as beautiful as the past had been. In this year, we stand both patiently and with toe tapping anxiety at a critical intersection of our life, transition, change, political, social realities, they all swirl around us. There are so much unknown, so much mystery, and yet, God, you have carried us, and your love is greater, your hope is wider, your power is higher. So we trust in you for this year and for our very future, and may we, as a community of faithful disciples, revel in your enduring presence this year, and may our hearts be filled with joy because all of that and all of you that you have in store for us. And now God, may we, here in this space and around the world, pray the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray Our Father.