The Ascent Podcast

This week at The Ascent we talk about denominations and discuss how can Christianity be true when there are so many denominations with different values, theology, and traditions. 

We live under the new covenant, which means that we do not need to give sacrifices to repent from our sins or gain salvation. However, all throughout Scripture, God calls us to live a life of sacrifice as we turn away from the things of this world and live a life fully surrendered to Jesus.

Confession is uncomfortable, and because of that, we often avoid it, downplay it, or justify our way around it. But when we bring our hidden struggles into the light and speak them out loud, the enemy loses his grip on our hearts. Confession isn’t just about guilt; it’s about freedom. This week, we’re diving into what it means to confess and repent to God, as well as one another, and how that honesty leads to healing, wholeness, and deep spiritual growth.

We all wrestle with unwanted thoughts, whether it's anxiety, anger, jealousy, or lust. In this series, we’ll explore how to take those thoughts captive and bring them under the authority of Christ, using biblical wisdom and practical tools to renew our minds and walk the freedom Christ offers. 

Our minds shape the course of our lives, but strongholds of lies and negative patterns can keep us stuck. In this sermon, we explore comparison, and how we can break free from the stronghold of jealousy, envy, and bitterness that threaten to harm us. 

Our minds shape the course of our lives, but strongholds of lies and negative patterns can keep us stuck. In this sermon, we explore how God calls us to intentionally identify these thoughts, bring them under Christ’s authority, and daily train our minds to follow His truth. Learn practical steps to break free from the ruts of old thinking and experience real transformation from the inside out.

While God may seem distant or unapproachable in the Old Testament, speaking from mountains, fire, and cloud, His heart has always been to dwell with His people, ultimately fulfilled in the person of Jesus.

In the Old Testament, God’s judgment can seem severe with many consequences for disobedience. Then, in the New Testament, we meet Jesus who is full of grace, forgiveness, and compassion. At first glance, they can feel like different Gods. But this week, we’ll explore how God’s justice and grace have always gone hand in hand. The God who judged sin is the same God who made a way for redemption both in the Old Testament and today. 

For many of us we work hard during the week and our “down time” is a time to forget responsibility and do whatever we want. This week we want to talk about surrendering the parts of life we claim as “mine” (sex, partying, money, and lifestyle) to the life God actually designed us for.

What we say, whether online or in person, has power. God calls us to speak words that build up, not tear down, and to reflect Jesus with our tone, humour, and honesty.

In our study of Galatians 2:20, we dive into the declaration that when we decide to follow Jesus, it's not us who lives, but Jesus who lives in us. 

Following Jesus was never meant to be easy and Jesus himself warns us that it is going to be hard. Yet as we commit to a year as a community to Do Hard Things, we recognize that we don't do it on our own strength but on the strength of Him who calls us to follow Him.

At some point in life, most of us experience the ache of feeling unseen, a deep longing to be noticed and known. While it's natural to hope that others will reach out first, there are moments when we’re called to take the first step. This message explores the challenge of living in the shadows and offers insight into how we can love others with bold, courageous compassion, even when we feel overlooked ourselves.

Have you ever wanted something so bad but unable to get it? In this last week of our series, Gifted, we dive into what it means to eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, what happens when we don't receive them, and look at some of the less understood gifts including speaking in tongues, prophesy, interpretation, and healing.

Every believer has spiritual gifts, and they can be discovered, developed, and stewarded well. This week we dive into what the gifts of the Spirit are, and what that means for your life.

As we begin our series on spiritual gifts, we're setting a theological foundation for how we receive these gifts, why we receive these gifts, and the difference between spiritual gifts and talents.

In a special one-off message on discerning calling, we dive into Isaiah 6 to explore what is calling, how to hear from God, and how to know if God is calling you into vocational ministry.

We all want to find the “right” person, but maybe there isn’t actually a perfect person for us. Despite there not being a perfect person, this week we want to talk about what does make two people compatible and what to look for in a potential partner.

Love is complicated and it can be hard to navigate the intense feelings with wisdom. This week we want to talk about how to navigate the emotions that come up when dating and how to discern them with wisdom and truth.

This week Rhythm and Nathan sat down to have a conversation about cultivating a life in Scripture. Through sharing personal stories and practical advice we learned how to go deeper in our relationship with God through reading His word. 

Understanding the Bible can feel overwhelming, especially when certain passages don’t seem to make sense. Together let's explore how to approach Scripture with wisdom, avoid common misunderstandings, and discover the clarity and life-changing truth God intends for us through His Word.

Can you trust the Bible? This message dives into the bold claims of Scripture and challenges some of the biggest objections against it. Together we’ll explore why this ancient text might hold more truth—and relevance—than you ever imagined.

We talk a lot about love, but what if our idea of it is completely backwards? In this episode, we’ll explore what it means that God is love—a love that’s uncaused, unreasonable, and unlike anything we’ve ever known. Could redefining love through God's perspective change everything?

In this episode, we dive into the tension between our emotions and God’s unchanging heart for us, exploring 1 John 3's powerful truth: "God is greater than our hearts." Discover how to stay anchored in God, even when your feelings are telling you otherwise.

In this episode, we explore what it means that "God is light" in a world drawn to darkness. Diving into 1 John 1-2 we explore the themes of holiness, sin, and the fight for genuine joy. Join us as we uncover the path to freedom.

We’re wrapping up our Growing Pains series with a special Q&A session, diving into your questions on navigating adulthood! Listen in as we tackle real-life challenges around decision-making, time management, boundaries, finances, and more.

Boundaries are essential for creating order and maintaining healthy relationships. In this message, we’ll explore what boundaries are, how to set them, and how God's design for boundaries helps us protect our well-being, foster respect, and live with greater freedom. By following His wisdom, we can establish balance and peace in our lives.

The young adult years can feel like a paradox: having both the most money you've ever had and it not ever feeling like enough. With bills to pay, school to fund, and countless opportunities to explore, how do you know where to spend your money? This week, we'll discuss how to manage your finances in a way that honours God and sets you up for success.

School, work, friends, family, church, romance—each demands so much from us! It can feel overwhelming to balance these expectations and decide where to invest our time, yet Jesus gives us some time management guidelines that will engage both our hearts and our minds.

Which school should I attend? Where should I work? What career path should I pursue? Should I buy or rent? Who should I ask out? How many kids should I have? The young adult years come with so many decisions, it can make our heads spin trying to figure out all the answers. Yet through biblical truths, we can learn to make these big decisions with confidence and discern where God is leading us.

We are all being formed by something. Whether our habits, other people, experiences, our upbringing, or culture, we are being influenced. The question is, are we being influenced more by Jesus or the world? In this series, we’ll explore what it looks like follow the way of Jesus and learn practical tools for practicing them in our daily lives.

Whether we realize it or not, all of us are being formed — by our habits, relationships, the stories we believe, and our environment. In this session we explore the six primary forces shaping individuals: habits, relationships, stories, environment, time, and experience.

The last two weeks we've looked at receiving love from the Lord and giving love back to the Lord. This week we look at the importance of loving people from the place of being filled by the Father's love. 

We continue in the second week of "Heart, Soul, and Mind". Last week we talked about receiving the love of God before we can distribute it, this week we're talking about how to respond to His overwhelming love once we've received it! Why would Jesus say this is our greatest command? What is the character of the One we're called to love? And how exactly do we love Him?

Welcome to the third week of our series "Chasing Freedom"! This week Lydia Brunelle leads us in how to gain freedom in the Lord in the midst of difficult and trying circumstances. 

Everyone desires freedom, but how do we attain it? In this message we'll talk about how waiting with the Lord in patience leads to obedience, which ultimately leads us into freedom. We also look at the Israelites in Exodus 16 and Exodus 32, were they patient? How did their patience (or lack of) influence their relationship with God? 

The first scene in Exodus is of the Israelites crying to God for freedom. Enslaved and ensnared in the oppressive culture of Egypt they find themselves utterly helpless, yearning for God to rescue them. The story of the Israelites is really the story of humanity, how we are all in bondage to our sin. Yet, as the Israelites cry out, so do we, and God, in His infinite mercy, answers our cries for freedom. This week we’ll explore the foreshadowing this does to the story of Jesus, and how God answers when we cry out to him.

Doug and Carolin Sadler join us for week three of our series through the book of Proverbs! Doug and Carolin equip us on what it looks like to receive promptings and affirmation from the Lord - and then the fruit that comes out of obedience. 

Do you believe you can hear the voice of God? Has your head submitted to your heart? Is it about the gifts of God, or relationship with God Himself? These are all questions Cheryl McMillan poses as she joins us for week two of our newest series through the book of Proverbs.

We all experience anxiety on some level ranging from paralyzing for some, intermittent for others, or triggered by certain events, thoughts, or emotions for others. And we've come to treat anxiety as noise that needs to be quieted, but what we don't always realize is that it's actually an alarm trying to tell us that something else in our life isn't right. In the first week of this series, we look to the Bible and professional counsellors to learn practical tools for building a non-anxious life.

In the last week of our series on worship, we look at the moment when Jesus left the throne room in heaven and came to earth as a baby, and the way that the angels responded by declaring "Glory to God in the Highest!"

This week as we continue our series, In the Words of Angels, we dive into Revelation 5:12 and explore the praises of the angels exclaiming "Worthy is the Lamb"

In the first week of our series on worship, Pastor Brittany walks us through Isaiah 6 and explores how the angels worship and how Isaiah responds.

We often wonder why it feels so hard to encounter God in a deep and profound way. We wish there was just a formula, a set of steps to help us experience God in powerful ways. Luckily, Jesus actually gives us this formula! John 15:5 says, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit…” Let’s explore this idea together and we hope you will feel encouraged knowing that Jesus loves you regardless of your past and how he longs to be with you after hearing this message.

“In Jesus’ Name” Most of us have used it at some point during a prayer, but often it’s out of habit or simply used as a tagline, and we don’t fully understand what it means to pray in Jesus’ name. Jesus’ name isn’t a magic word and there is no power in the phrase itself, but recognizes the authority and character of Jesus, and the relationship he invites us into. 

Spiritual apathy is when we experience a prolonged dampening of motivation, effort, and emotion, as well as resistance to the things that would bring flourishing in our faith. But if we can identify the cause of our apathy, perhaps we can wake ourselves up and build a vibrant relationship with God.

In the first week of our series, Losing Faith…And Finding It, we sat down to talk with Dr. Jonathan McLatchie, founder of TalkAboutDoubts.com. In our discussion, Dr. McLatchie explained the difference between questions and objections, high-stake objections vs. low-stake objections, the heart and mind issues of deconstruction, and how to address your doubts and others in a way that helps you grow your faith.

This week we sat down with Dunstan and Jessica Gomes to hear stories about their relationship, learn lessons from their marriage, and explore what God means when Scripture talks about "becoming one flesh" and "submitting to one another".

Whether you grew up in the church or not, you've probably been taught many lessons about purity that have damaged a bit of what you have thought about physical intimacy and relationships. In this week's message, we'll be looking at 4 lies that purity culture taught us and what the bible actually says about it.