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Pastor Paul continues the series on Anchors, spending this Sunday on the topic of prayer.

We long for God to form us into a people who love and belong as we Live in Community, and keep us rooted in Jesus as we Be Faithfully Present wherever God has placed us. But when the Bible has been used against people, or we find it hard to understand, how do me make it an anchor in our lives? As Pastor Paul Morgun continues to take us through the Anchors series, we continue to discuss why the Bible is an important anchor to ground us in the truth and practices that help us Grow Spiritually. We are invited to wrestle with what that entails and how we make it a practice and foundation for our lives.

The anchor is one of the earliest symbols Christians used to express their faith, a picture of hope, steadfastness, and a life held secure in Jesus. Pastor Paul Morgun starts by reminding us of the importance of God the Trinity as one of the anchors in our lives and walks with God.

Pastor Curtis Anderson takes us through the final movement regarding embodying the love of Jesus wherever God has placed us. Jesus continually noticed the people around Him. He ate with outsiders, touched those others avoided, welcomed children, dignified the forgotten, cared for the poor, and moved toward people with compassion. To be faithfully present means learning to live with that same posture. This Movement is about learning to be faithfully present to the people and places God has already given us, paying attention to where God is at work and joining Him there. We embody the gospel through ordinary, tangible acts of presence, hospitality, love, and generosity in our neighbourhoods and networks, while intentionally moving toward those who are vulnerable. Cultivating relationships, sharing life, extending compassion, and seeking justice together.

Pastor Paul Morgun uses this movement to remind us that the Christian life was never intended to be lived alone. From the beginning, Jesus formed a community around Himself. The early church did not simply gather for teaching once a week; they shared meals, prayed together, cared for one another, practiced generosity, carried one another's burdens, and opened their lives to each other. This Movement is reflected in nurturing a culture of connection, where people are known and relationships can form, and cultivating communities of trust and belonging, where deeper relationships allow us to be vulnerable and grow together. There is a difference between attending a church and belonging to a community.

Spiritual growth is not primarily about knowing more about God, becoming more religious, or simply trying harder to be a better person. At its heart, spiritual formation is about learning to live with God, receiving His love, becoming increasingly attentive to His presence, and allowing the Spirit to form the life of Jesus in us.This Movement is reflected in practicing rhythms of life, embracing spiritual practices that ground us in God's presence, and we pursue spiritual maturity, cooperating with God's Spirit as we are continually transformed into the likeness of Jesus. Spiritual formation, then, is not measured primarily by how many practices we maintain, but by the kind of people we are becoming through them.

Kick-Off Sunday is a celebration of a new season at Lakeview, a chance to gather, reconnect, and look with anticipation toward what God has for us in the year ahead. And as we step into this new season, we are introducing some new language that we hope will help give shape to how we live our mission together: Our Movements. At the heart of these Movements is the invitation Jesus has always given: “Follow me.” Jesus invites us to find our whole lives in Him, to allow His presence, His way, and His love to shape who we are becoming, how we relate to one another, and how we live in the world.

Dr. Santosh Ninan takes us through our final sermon in our Exodus summer series. Throughout Exodus, God rescues, provides, guides, forgives, and forms Israel so that He might dwell in the midst of them. The tabernacle becomes a kind of new Eden, a sacred space where heaven and earth overlap and God’s presence is with humanity once again.Jesus ultimately becomes the fulfillment of this story. In Him, God does not merely dwell in a tent or temple, but takes on flesh and moves into the neighbourhood. Jesus is God among people, and through His death, resurrection, and the gift of the Spirit, the presence of God now dwells within His people as a living temple. The story of Exodus ultimately points toward God’s desire to restore His presence to all creation.

Dr. Santosh Ninan takes us through the events after the golden calf. Where God reveals His character at the very moment Israel least deserves it. After the rebellion of the golden calf, Yahweh describes Himself as “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love and truth.” God’s holiness is not separated from His mercy; His justice and compassion exist together within His covenant love.This moment becomes one of the defining descriptions of God in the entire Bible, echoed again and again throughout Scripture. God is revealing not only what He does, but who He is. Jesus ultimately mirrors and fulfills this revelation perfectly. In Jesus, we see the fullest expression of God’s character, compassion toward sinners, mercy toward the broken, patience with failures, and faithful love.

Pastor Darlene Klassen takes us through Exodus 32, discussing how we often make idols that are more manageable when God feels distant. Israel does not outright reject Yahweh; instead, they reshape Him into something visible, familiar, and controllable. The golden calf becomes a tragic picture of the human tendency to trade trust, surrender, and faithful waiting for gods we can predict, manipulate, and manage. The story reveals how quickly liberated people can return to old patterns of fear, control, and false worship. Rather than trusting the unseen God who brought them out of Egypt, Israel reaches for something immediate and tangible. We  too still do the same today, placing our hope in power, success, certainty, comfort, politics, money, or even distorted images of God that feel safer and easier to control.Where Israel failed in the wilderness through fear and distrust, Jesus remained faithful. He resisted the temptation to grasp for power, control, and self-protection, and instead revealed the true heart of God not a god we manipulate, but a Father who can be fully trusted.

Amy Bratton goes through the detailed instructions surrounding the priesthood, the garments, and the tabernacle are not random religious rituals, but part of God’s desire is to dwell among His people and make Israel into a “kingdom of priests” for the sake of the world. The priests were meant to represent humanity before God and represent God before humanity,  bearing responsibility, holiness, reconciliation, and blessing. What may seem strange or overly detailed at first is actually one of the Bible’s deepest themes: God partnering with humans to reflect His presence into the world. And ultimately, this story points forward to Jesus, the true High Priest, who fully reveals God’s presence and opens the way for all people to become a royal priesthood, a people called to embody God’s wisdom, holiness, mercy, and healing in the world.

Today, Krista-Dawn Kimsey leads us in the service, to remind us that liberation takes longer than escape. In Exodus 17–19, Israel may be out of Egypt, but Egypt is still shaping their fears, desires, and imagination. In the wilderness, God desires to form them into a different kind of people, teaching them trust instead of fear, dependence instead of self-preservation, and community instead of slavery. The Exodus story is not just about getting people out of bondage; it is about God forming a people who can live in freedom and reflect His character in the world.

Randy Klassen begins August with this discussion that the God who delivers His people is also the God who sustains them. In Exodus 16, Yahweh not only feeds Israel in the wilderness, but begins reshaping their hearts and imagination. Every day, they are invited to trust that God will provide enough for today, learning dependence instead of control, generosity instead of hoarding, and community instead of scarcity. And in many ways, this becomes an early glimpse of the kind of King God is and the kind of Kingdom He is forming, a people shaped by trust, daily bread, shared provision, and dependence on the presence of God. Jesus the Bread of Life.

Matt Stovall takes us through one of the most famous stories in Exodus at the shores of the Red Sea. Here, God reveals Himself as the One who makes a way where we can't see one. Trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the waters, Israel discovers that deliverance will not come through their own strength, but through the intervention and provision of God. And in many ways, the Red Sea becomes a picture pointing forward to Jesus. Humanity, trapped in sin and death, could not rescue itself, so Jesus became the way through. What Israel experienced as dry ground through the waters points toward the salvation and freedom God would one day offer fully through Christ. God is still the Provider, is still making a way, still meeting people in impossible situations, and still inviting us to trust Him in the middle of our own “Red Sea” moments.

Pastor Aeden Chan takes a break from the worship team to bring us our fourth sermon in the Exodus series. Discussing the plagues on Egypt and how Yahweh exists in ways that are hard, humbling, and deeply beautiful. At the same time, the plagues become a powerful declaration of God’s authority over creation and his unwavering commitment to lead and guide His people.