The Idols We Don't Recognize

Sunday, June 26, 2026

Scriptures: Acts 19

• Sermon Summary

  This week Jeremy wraps up our series on the book of Acts. We look at chapter 19. The question posed to us is this - What if the greatest idols in our lives aren't statues—but fear, security, money, and the stories we tell to protect them?
  In Acts 19, Paul arrives in Ephesus and unintentionally sparks a city-wide riot. On the surface, it's a conflict over religion. But beneath the shouting lies something far more familiar: economic anxiety, fear of outsiders, and the temptation to use spiritual language to defend our own interests.
  As we conclude our series in Acts, we explore how the earliest followers of Jesus weren't called to conquer culture, but to become a different kind of people—people whose security wasn't rooted in wealth, power, or identity, but in the story of Christ.

• Discussion Guide

  Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.
  
  Summer Discussion Guide 2026

  If your group is meeting this summer and wants to talk about the sermons, here are a few questions that you could use to engage with our teaching. 

  • What specific part of the message resonated with you the most? Why do you think that particular part, or idea, or story caught your attention? 

  • Did the sermon speak into a particular struggle or question in your life or your faith journey right now?

  • How did the message challenge or encourage you personally?
    And what do you think the application could be for our church community? Was there anything that could strengthen or stretch us as a church? 

  • How did the exposition of the scriptures used in the sermon provide you with a new perspective of deeper understanding?

  ——
  It is good to remember that the conversation experience in the group is shaped by the personal stories of those who participate in it and how willing the people are to be open and vulnerable in the group.

  So if you’re leading the discussion, feel free to model and encourage person-centred and story-centred sharing by reflecting on how some parts of the sermon resonate with you personally.
  ——

  Additionally, what contributes to a more authentic group discussion is when people can share not about the abstract and theoretical applications, but one or two practical things they are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion. 

  So, you can end your time together with this question: 

  • What is one thing you are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion we’ve just had?

• Service Songs & Prayers

  CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 96

  MUSIC Curated by Curt M.
  Chris Tomlin - Holy Forever
  All Sons & Daughters - Great Are You Lord
  Brooke Ligertwood - Looking
  Bethel Music - Heaven Come
  
  PRAYER FOR STUDENTS GRADUATING
  Written by Ben Hsu-Chan
  
  God of hope and joy,

  Thank you for this time of graduation, which is a signpost for years of hard work, friendships made, and character-building choices. May the students in this room look back with pride in how they have grown, and gratitude for everyone and everything that has helped them along the way. 

  May the summer be a time of recovered rest. Calm each student’s mind and give them the ability to look forward with hope. Guide their intentions for where they choose to spend their energy: may they invest in life-giving friendships, in the satisfaction of hard-work, and how they can make the world a more loving place. 

  I pray a special blessing of peace over the grade 12 graduates in this room: Annie, Brandon, Elliot, Joe, Kaleb, Soul. May they move forward into the world with dedication, creativity, wisdom, and adventure. Anchor them in the truth that they are deeply, incontestably loved by the Creator of the universe. 

  Bless the families that are supporting their kids through graduation. Give them peace as they watch their children venture out into new stages of independence and physical distance. The feelings of delight and grief are so closely intertwined in these times of change. I pray they would find comfort knowing that they and their children are held by the same Divine love.

  Thank you God, for every child and teenager and young adult in this room. May we be a community that tirelessly celebrates them.

  Amen.
  
  SERIES BUMPER
  The Way Forward: Wider World Series