Well, in early 2021, I was hired here at Trinity Streetsville.
And of course, it's been awesome.
Trinity is, I think, in a recent poll of Canadians,
the greatest church in the world.
I've won it hurt.
That's what I've heard.
I'm just telling you whatever.
Yeah.
But actually, starting at Trinity in 2021 was a little tricky
because it was in the middle of the pandemic.
And although we are super excited, there was this whole thing
about, do we sell our house, do we buy our house,
do we do that now, or how do we navigate that?
And really, really, really glad that Dave Toycen
who's here today, who was the warden at the time
and a big help to us on the parish selection committee,
said, Rob, don't worry about it.
The church actually already owns a house
that one of the previous ministers was living in.
And you can just move into that.
And I said, Sally, what do you think about that?
She was like, it sounds like a good idea,
but of course, because it's a house,
it is going to be your home.
You want to take a look at it first,
and you want to make sure, because this is your home.
You're going to be living there, right?
And so Dave said, no problem, no problem.
You can come by, you can take a look at it, walk through,
and then you can decide what you want to do.
I was super, super appreciative of that.
So we agreed on a time.
And a few days later, Sally and I were driving to Mississauga.
And we wanted to get there a little ahead of Dave
because we thought maybe be good for us
just to get our own look at it first.
And Dave had given us the address.
He said it was 21 Amity Road, 21 Amity Road,
and he would bring the keys.
And so we drove, the GPS, we pulled up,
we pulled up to 21 Amity Road, you guys.
And our jaws dropped.
Because this is 21 Amity Road.
It was beautiful.
It was gorgeous.
It was landscaped lawns, beautiful rockery,
two car garage, just a beautiful,
is everything about it was so lovely.
And not only that, do you know that 21 Amity Road
backs onto the credit river?
You have private access to the credit river.
In fact, it has this big backyard.
In fact, I peaked in the backyard.
And there were unicorns running around in the backyard.
And Sally and I, we were just like, oh my gosh,
we only had two thoughts.
The first thought was, this church is loaded.
This church is absolutely loaded.
And then our second thought was,
we even cares about the church.
I would take this job just for the house,
just for the house alone.
And so we were just, we were so enthralled.
I think if I remember correctly,
I scoop Sally up in my arms.
And I said, welcome home, Melady.
And we started walking up the steps,
started carrying her over the threshold.
And it was at that moment that Dave Toyson
pulled in behind us on the curb.
And we're like, hey, Dave, I was going,
he's like, great, great.
And then in a way that only Dave can say, he said, oh,
I made a bit of a mistake.
And it's not 21, Amity Road.
It's 26 Amity Road.
26, 26.
So we turned.
And we looked across the street.
I think I just dropped Sally on the ground at that point.
Because this is what we saw across the street.
Now, OK, it didn't look quite like this.
But that's how I remember it.
That's how I remember the moments now, listen,
don't get me, don't get me wrong.
26 Amity Road was also a very fine house.
It's the kind of house that a real estate agent would say.
It's got good bowls, right?
Or it's got potential.
Or you know, just a little bit of a fixer
proper.
Just needs a little bit of TLC.
And I got to tell you, for all that though, it was no 21.
It wasn't the dream house we had hoped.
There was no private access to the river unless you count
the gigantic flood in the basement, right?
And there were no unicorns in the backyard.
Although we did find the remnants of some sort of pet
cemetery back there that was a little bit creepy.
But you know what, 20, 6 Amity Road has been a great place
to call home.
You know what?
It did have good bones.
It does have good bones.
It does have potential.
And we've even started to a few renovations there of our own
already.
But I have to tell you, still every morning, when I walk out
the door, to go to work, and I look across the street,
two thoughts count in mind.
The first thing I say is, darn you, Dave Toyson.
And the second thing that I say is, hi, to my neighbor over there
at 26.
And he's like, hello Rob, how are you?
I'm like, I'm great.
He says, oh, the river looks beautiful today.
And I'm like, I'll have to take your word for it.
That's nice.
Have a great day, friend.
Have a good day.
Oh gosh, you know, I hope I'm not the only one who sometimes
gets a little bit carried away when you start to think
of your dream home.
I don't know.
You could be renting an apartment right now.
You could be trying to save up to your first mortgage,
or you got your first place, or wherever.
I think all of us still do think of what the dream home would
look like.
The big kitchen with the double island,
and the bedrooms with the walk-in closet,
and the pool, and the backyard, and all these things
that games room downstairs, all of that stuff.
But I think the reason that we call it a dream home
is just that it's a dream.
It's not reality.
We don't actually ever expect to live in a home like that.
But today, today what we heard about is not about the home
that you live in, or the place you call home.
We're talking about, instead, your spiritual host, spiritual
host, you will say, I've never heard of such a thing.
Actually, yes, that's true.
You might not realize this, but you actually live in two
different homes.
There's the home or the apartment that you're in right now.
That's your physical home.
But then all of us also are a spiritual home.
We are a spiritual host.
And you say, Rob, you've lost me, you've lost me on this.
Well, this is where we need to just remember what Paul said.
Paul said, hey, surely you guys know.
You know this, right?
Trinity that your body is actually a temple
where the Holy Spirit lives.
You understand you are a spiritual host that God lives in you.
And the Bible talks all about this spiritual life,
this spiritual home that you are.
And actually, it's the Bible's like a real turd that's really
desperate trying to like sell this on people,
because the pictures of the spiritual home that you can have,
the Bible talks about just seems so like amazing
and such a dream house.
Like, for example, Jesus says, hey, whoever believes in me
as the scripture has said, there will be rivers,
just rivers of living water flowing from within them.
And you think, man, that's even better
than the backing onto the credit river.
That sounds absolutely amazing.
Or Paul's prayer, he says, I pray that you guys
will be filled to the fullness of God,
accomplishing far more than you could ask or imagine.
That sounds amazing.
What a spiritual life that is, or Peter, Peter says,
just, he says inside of you, that life inside of you
just rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
pouring out of your hearts.
I mean, you read stuff like that.
And you say, gosh, that is too good to be true.
That is not where I live.
That is not the spiritual home I live in, living water.
No, no, no, no, my spiritual life's more like a puddle
in the basement, right?
That is not me.
That this sounds like 21 amity.
I live over at 26 amity.
I'm not filled with indescribable and glorious joy.
Actually, I'm kind of filled with anxiety and fear.
And I have all these uncertainties and discontentment
and pain and boredom in my life.
And so we may be tempted to say, all right, fine.
It's a dream.
That spiritual life is like a dream home.
You're never going to live there.
It's great.
Thanks, Bible, for showing me that picture.
But that is not my reality and it never will be.
And when we think that, then we say, basically,
that we're only only three choices left at that point.
You can just, it's resignation.
You can say, this is just the reality of my spiritual life.
I have to just suck it up and get used to it.
There's no changing it.
This is where I live.
This is my life.
Deal with it.
Right?
Or some people, they're not just, they don't just resign themselves.
But they actually say, the one day, I'll be able to relocate to that great spiritual
home when I die, when I die and go to heaven, that will be the day.
When all these things, this glorious joy, this indescribable abundance, that will be
the day when I'll actually be able to experience that.
So a resignation or relocation, a lot of us kind of just put it down to those two options.
But there is a third option.
And the third option is Renovation.
We can, believe it or not, Renovate our spiritual life.
Renovation means to make new again.
So if your spiritual house is in shambles and if the walls are crooked and the ceiling
is caving in, it doesn't have to be that way.
And you don't have to wait till you're dead and in heaven before you experience something
better and an amazing spiritual life does not have to be your dream home.
It can be your real home here and now.
But you don't get there through resignation or relocation.
You get there through Renovation.
And perhaps the most important scripture that we're going to come back to again and again
over these next five weeks is this that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation,
the old has gone and the new has come.
Now Paul had a couple different words he could choose when he came to that Greek word
for new.
He could have chosen the word Neos which basically means to kind of refer a bit or touch
up or he said he chose a different word, Kynos.
Kynos is more like the jaw dropping.
Look at what you've done with the place kind of knownness.
And that's possible for you and me.
Do you understand what that means?
Real spiritual change.
Okay, it's doable for you and me.
And it's not just for special saints or celebrity Christians that can experience this kind
of thing.
Look at the first word.
If anyone is in Christ, anyone can be made new.
But the question is how, how does this renovation take place in our hearts?
Well that is exactly why Jesus came.
Jesus came to accomplish the renovation of human hearts.
I find it very interesting that Jesus' occupation, human occupation when he was on earth,
was he was a builder, a renovator or the Bible would call him a Greek attack time.
That's what his human job was.
But of course, Jesus didn't come to renovate homes in first century Palestine 2000 years ago.
No, he came primarily to renovate the hearts of people.
You see, when Jesus wanted to change the world, he didn't start by going and trying to change
the social structures and change the politics and change the big problems that the world was
facing that day.
As if somehow, then he could, you know, force change these things through like some kind
of imposing a better world order.
No, no, Jesus knew that the goal was instead to renovate hearts and it was out of
renovated hearts that the world would be changed.
And that means that the changing of the world and the changing of your life is an inside
job.
It is not an outside job.
Now many people even sitting here today, some of you be like, I don't, I don't like
teaching series like this.
Because this is going to be way too spiritual.
It's all about the inside, the inside.
But Rob, I'm passionate about making a difference in the outside.
I'm passionate about making a difference in the community and writing the wrongs of society
and confronting injustice and transforming the world and helping kids and helping kids
and Honduras.
That's the kind of thing that gets me excited.
That's the kind of thing I want to do.
I don't really want to spend five weeks talking about all this spiritual stuff going on
inside of me.
But don't you understand.
We live our lives from our hearts.
That's where it all starts.
The way that the world is now and the way that the world will be in the future is to a large
degree what comes out of the depths of our being, what comes out of our hearts and our
spirits.
It's from our hearts that we make choices.
It's from our hearts that our actions are spring.
So it all starts with the hearts.
So as you can look, the world has got famines and war and bigotry and prejudice and all
starts suffering, but all of those things, maybe not all.
Many of those things are the outcome of human choices which sprang from the human heart.
That's why Dallas Willard writes, since he says, the greatest need that you and I have,
in fact, the greatest need of all collective humanity is the Res renovation of our hearts.
That spiritual place within you from which outlook and choices and actions come.
That's been formed for so long by a world away from God, but now it must be transformed.
So yes, this is going to be kind of a more spiritual teaching series, but that's exactly
what the world needs, that's how the world is changed.
And when we talk about renovated hearts, just to kind of make sure we're all on the same
page, we're actually really talking about an ancient, an ancient process that has for
millennia been known as spiritual formation. Spiritual formations, the process by which
our inner life is remodeled and reshaped into something.
It's reshaped into something, spiritual formation, but this is where it's really important,
because not all renovations are the same.
Not all remodeling are the same.
In fact, you know this in real life, like, look at this, someone installs a faucet right
over top of an electrical outlet.
That's not a great renovation.
Or how about this one, the shower that shoots into the toilet?
I don't understand that one either, right?
This is one that I would do, that the drawers that are like, kind of useless because you
can't pull one or the other out.
Or I found this famous one on the internet that somebody put shutters on their house.
This is the famous poop house of Omaha, Nebraska, right?
So there are good renovations and there are bad renovations.
There is good spiritual formation that you can have, and there is some pretty nasty spiritual
formation that you can have.
This is the thing we have to get at.
Every single person has been spiritually formed.
The most wonderful and admirable people you know have been spiritually formed, and the
most despicable people you know have also been spiritually formed that way.
Terrorists have gone through a spiritual formation, but so have saints.
So the question is not, you know, can we have a spiritual formation?
The question is, we need a certain person to do this formation, and we need it to be to a certain
end.
So we don't just need our renovation done by anyone.
We need it done by God himself.
God himself, the spirit of God working in our hearts as the general contractor, if you
will.
And we don't just want to be formed into anything.
We actually, the goal of spiritual formation is to be remodeled into the likeness of Jesus
Christ himself.
Here's where we often stumble though, because when I say the goal is to be remodeled into
the life of Jesus, so you look more like Jesus, we think of just doing a big patch job.
Here's your wall.
The wall's got a great big crack in it, so you think, okay, we'll just wall paper over
that.
There's a lot better, but of course that doesn't get to the problem.
We really wanted to get to the problem.
You're going to have to rip down the wall, rip down the drywall, figure out what the problem
was in the first place, and then rebuild the whole thing.
And in the same way, spiritual renovation cannot just be like wall papering over our lives
and acting a certain way or saying things a certain way, behaving a certain way, praying
a certain way, and think, now I'm more like Jesus.
It's just wall papering over the problem.
And Jesus warned people again and again, this is not how spiritual formation works.
In fact, once when he was talking to the Pharisees, he said, you know what you guys are like?
You guys are just like, you're like a cup or a saucer, and you're really good at cleaning
the outside of the cup or saucer, but inside it's filthy.
And no one would ever want to drink anything out of it.
Or he does, again, he says, you know what you guys are like, you guys are like a tomb,
but it's been painted up so very nice on the outside.
It looks beautiful, but it's a tomb.
And inside it is full of bones and it is full of filth.
It is no good Jesus says to just look good on the outside.
Oh, it made full people and you may even fool yourself that look, I have been spiritually
formed.
I'm doing really, really good, but I'll tell you, there's only a matter of time to those
pipes in the wall, burst, and the wall crumbles down, and we are all exposed for what
is really going on inside of us.
Jesus, Jesus is an interested in behavioral modification.
He's interested in spiritual renovation.
So this summer, I got a bit of reading for you.
You've heard me mention Dallas Willard already once or twice.
He's written a lot of great books in his life.
He passed away, but this one is kind of an category of its own.
It's called, wouldn't you know it, renovation of the heart.
And we're going to be referring to this book a lot throughout the summer, over the next
throughout the next few weeks, I shouldn't say all summer.
So I would encourage you to grab a copy of this, you can get an audio book, you know,
get the one for your co-bow or your Kindle or whatever that case may be and read along.
Because here's where we're going.
We are going to move into your hearts, into my hearts, and we are going to go through
our hearts almost like room by room and see the renovating work that needs to take place
inside of us.
So for example, in a couple of weeks, we're going to start by moving into one room, and
that's our minds and our thoughts.
Because the way we think and the way the images we have in our minds and the ideas that
we build our life on as a huge part of who we are spiritually.
And sometimes those ideas need to be blown up and rebuilt, we need to renew our minds.
Secondly, we're going to move into another room where we're going to start to deal with
our feelings.
And you might say, Rob, there's no changing feelings.
The way I feel is the way I feel it.
Can't be changed, actually not true.
Spiriously speaking, our even our feelings can be renovated and need to be renovated.
And then we're going to move into another room.
And this is the room that, as all involved with our will and the choices that we make in life,
we need to realize that the choices we make have a big impact on the people we become spiritually
speaking.
And then, of course, relationships have another huge bearing on our spiritual life.
So we'll move into another room later on down now, we're in July by the time we get here.
But we're going to talk about how to restore relationships and how those can just make
our spiritual life thrive.
And of course, though next week, Eric Han's going to be preaching.
And she's going to remind us that, hey, renovations are expensive.
Any home renovations expensive, as many of you will know, and the renovation of our hearts also
has a cost to it.
Are you willing to pay the cost?
And so we're going to talk about counting the cost of renovations.
Just a fun little side thing.
As we're doing this series, at the very same time, Scott and Libby, so Libby are worshiped
with your Scott, who is on drums this morning, are actually in the middle of a massive
renovation in their own home right now.
And we thought it'd be fun to, as we go through these weeks, to keep checking in with them.
And so I just want to show you a little video.
We went down there just as they were getting started.
A bunch of church friends showed up.
I must say, I seem to be the only one who dressed for the park.
But anyways, here's where their renovation got started.
Alright everybody, so here I am with a proud home owner.
Libby, my grass.
Libby, how are you feeling today?
I excited, excited.
Yeah, and well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well what kind
it comes here?
Well, I think it's a good opportunity for our families to be able to just share this space together
To be good for my dad
Is good to get for us and pretty kids first all be able to be together
This project kind of overwhelmed you to get stressed out by this oh
Yeah, we said it with the idea of the house and I'm stressed out with the reality of the house
It's a lot of work. We have another house. We have kids who are in school and programs and what is it that you really love to
I just love that there's room for everybody here and that we can throw into it
So as we move into different stages that are coming in the future, right?
That we'll be able to handle those things in the house. We'll support that right now
I'm standing here with the homeowner himself, Mr. Scott McLeod
You got yourself a bit of a fixer up right here a little bit more of a tear down or yeah
Yeah, so tell me what's the plan of attack?
That's right Peter start somewhere and pull stuff out
Okay, and so what room are you working on here? This is gonna be this will be my parents sweet
So this will be one of their spaces
Okay, we touched that yeah, so how long do you think a job like this is gonna take the pads?
Yeah, 10 so many volunteers from the church we got
Some big job
Let's get robbed to take down some
She's right, so already for you rock. Absolutely. Here we go. All right
Take the camera
All right
Here we go, I can just go right through here
Load bearing wall to gonna get my hands dirty a little bit today
Gonna show you some proper technique for the taking down of dry wall and demolition. Here we go
Fun
That is how we do that
There you go
So
Just I just an ending today. Here's a few takeaways. I think we can take away from Scott and Libby's renovation
That will help us with our own heart renovation the first is this the biggest step to make in a home renovation is making the decision
Committing to actually doing it you may dream about doing it you may talk about doing it
You may really want to do it, but until you actually pick up that sledjamer and start swinging you haven't really got going or you may
Been procrastinating doing this say one day will get around to the kitchen one day will get around to doing this bathroom
But we never get around to it. So so the thing is as this video made clear
You've got to commit and believe me Scott and Libby they pass the point of no return
They are all in they have committed it to this process and the same thing happens in your heart
There it begins with a commitment in your heart to say Jesus Jesus begin this renovation
It begins with almost a prayer like this from Psalm 37 commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he will do it
Do you know how you tell if somebody on your street is serious about a renovation?
Right the dumpster shows up on the driveway and then the safety fence goes up and then the porta potty gets plunked in the front yard
And it's then that the neighbors say, oh
Ooh, they're serious about this. They're gonna do something over there and the same is true in our lives
Certain things just indicate that we're getting serious
We commit to prayer and to study and to being in worship and to confession and to being part of a community and when people see that in your life
They say, ooh, ooh, they're serious about this spiritual renovation
So don't just talk about it. Don't just put it off. Are you ready to commit to a heart renovation?
If so please just join us over these next five weeks and begin that process
The second thing that we learned from Libby and Scott's video there is that we need to ask for help
I mean you saw all the the folks from Trinity running around there helping them out
I mean there have been many home renovation DIY people who have said oh my gosh
I realize now I cannot do this alone
Spiritual renovation is not a DIY project. We cannot do it alone
We need help from each other. That's why here at Trinity. We're always encouraging people be part of a group
Be part of a life group because the spiritual work that God wants to do in our lives best
Happens when we're in community together, but we also need to ask help from God because God is the one doing that
renovation work with in us. It's a spirit driven
Process so again
Renovation of the heart begins with a prayer where we're inviting God to do this work
Search me God
No my heart test me. No my thoughts God point out anything in here that
Offends you and lead me in the way of ever lasting life. Are you ready to pray a prayer like this?
Can you pray a prayer like this?
Trust Jesus the master builder, but but it begins with
Inviting people into that process and inviting a God into that process. The third thing is is actually I think to prepare for the
worst now having asked Scott and Libby how things are going down there, but my hunch is that once they got into it
They realized that things were not quite as simple as they thought there's always a surprise
There's always something that it's it's probably worse than it looks is the way it goes with renovations and the problems are probably bigger than you think and
When we undertake a spiritual renovation in our lives we may
We need to be ready. It's gonna be worse than it looks in many ways
The problems inside of us are bigger than we first think you might want to minimize those sins in your life
You might want to overlook the problems or you know, oh my anger issues. I don't really that that's that's easy
We can do that later or my insecurity. That's an easy fix or it's no big deal my addiction
But chances are it's worse. It's worse than it looks and it's gonna require more work than you think
Tim Keller that amazing pastor who passed away just a couple weeks ago
Said this the gospel is this we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves
Then we ever dared believe and yet at the very same time
We are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared
Imagine prepare for the worst go deep go deep and
Finally take your time, you know these are renovations we're talking about and very rarely does a renovation finish on time
Our finish on schedule usually it takes way longer than you think
I don't know when Scott and Libya are anticipating theirs will be done by my hunches
It'll take longer than they thought and they'll probably still be working on things long after they've moved into the house
Still working on it and renovating our lives takes a lifetime
We decide to begin this work today, but we'll be doing it until the day we die and yet here's the wonderful thing
Every day
The restored beauty of our lives will become more evident to us and
To others as our heart becomes a more beautiful dwelling place for God's spirit
So on that note
We're all fix our upper
But real transformation is possible your dream house doesn't have to be a dream it can be a reality the old is gone the new has come
So why not begin today?
Jesus comes to you today with the blue prints in hand
Already to teach us new ways of thinking new ways of choosing new ways of feeling new attitudes
So make the decision ask for help
Be prepared to go deep and take your time because yes renovations like this are lengthy and they can sometimes be painful
But in the end nothing is more rewarding
So thanks be to God, Amen