God's Word preached.

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:11 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- When there is no punishment for crime, people commit more of it. Those are the cold, hard facts about fallen human nature. It also shows God's design for government. Civil government 'bears the sword' for the sole purpose of punishing crime and protecting its citizens (Romans 13:1–5). When it fails to do that, people are encouraged...

Text: Matthew 28:16–20 -- Speaker: Don Sharp -- The Great Commission is not an optional extra for a few especially zealous Christians. It is Christ’s command to His whole church. Jesus sends His people into the world to make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey everything He commanded, and do it all with confidence in His ongoing presence. The church is called not merely to gather but to go...

Text: Hebrews 12:1–2 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Salvation does not exempt Christians from the common troubles of life. When believers are weighed down by trials, what we need is not positive thinking or self-determination. We need a Savior who has endured the cross, who sees the glory on the other side, and who reigns at God’s right hand, always praying for us. Because Jesus will finish the fa...

Text: John 3:16 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- John 3:16 is often thought to be about who Jesus died for or about man's ability to believe. In reality, it doesn't talk about either of those ideas, but what it does talk about is the love of God and what it accomplishes. God loved the world in this way: he gave his Son with the result that believing sinners receive eternal life. What John 3:...

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:10 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Counterfeits always look and feel like the real thing. This is why false faith is so dangerous. Jesus warned that many who call him “Lord, Lord!” today will be exposed as strangers to him on the Day of his appearing. Genuine salvation is not measured by religious activity or experiences, but by a changed life that bears lasting fruit—such as f...

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:2–9 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- God has designed government to do one thing: punish evil and protect life. The reality, however, is that sin has turned this good institution into one of the most common sources of violence and oppression. As our culture shifts, our laws shift, and the Christian increasingly faces a hard question: When do we submit to government, and when doe...

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:2–9 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- God has designed government to do one thing: punish evil and protect life. The reality, however, is that sin has turned this good institution into one of the most common sources of violence and oppression. As our culture shifts, our laws shift, and the Christian increasingly faces a hard question: When do we submit to government, and when doe...

Text: Titus 1:1–3 -- Guest speaker: Chanton Petersen -- Why should we come to the fellowship of the saints when they gather corporately? If God is both glorious and satisfied in Himself, why does He call us out to spend eternity with Him? Why does God intensely pursue our holiness? The answer to these questions is ultimately found in the promise made by the Father to the Son before the foundations...

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:1 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Some people see life with true clarity, yet are crushed by what they see. Others love Christ but still think and react like the world around them. True wisdom is something different altogether. When faith in Jesus and a thoroughly biblical way of thinking meet, a person not only sees reality as God sees it, but they walk through it with steady,...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:27–29 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Explanations abound for what’s wrong with the world: bad systems, bad leaders, or some particular group—maybe liberals, or Christians, or Jews, or men in general. The real reason, however, is that people are sinners, and that includes all of us. No fact in existence is more obvious, yet none is as ignored or as unacceptable. God made human bei...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:25–26 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Sexual immorality has become the air we breathe in the culture today. Finding it requires no effort; it's avoiding it that takes work. Scripture warns that slavery to sexual sin is “more bitter than death,” because it erodes life, hollows out the mind and the soul, and ends in eternal destruction. Jesus exposes the monstrosity of sexual im...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:21–24 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Do you really see yourself clearly? According to God's Word, our biggest problem is not “out there” but in the mirror. You and I are fallen, finite, and deeply sinful. When we understand this the way God wants to, the result is not humiliation, but humility and patience toward others, who are no different than we are. A realistic view of s...

Text: Ephesians 2:13 Speaker: Troy McMillan -- Sinners who were once far from God can draw near to God through the blood of Christ. That is Paul's message. By His sacrifice, Jesus breaks down every barrier between God and man and unites His people in one body. The contrast between our former hopelessness apart from Christ and our new life in Christ magnifies the riches of God’s mercy, grace, a...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:20 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Is Christianity about becoming a better person or finding personal fulfillment? Not according to God. Scripture confronts us with the sobering truth that no one is righteous before a holy God. No one's efforts or supposed "goodness" can solve that problem. This is why we need Jesus: He suffered instead of sinners to give forgiveness...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:19 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- The problems we see in the state of California should cause us to ask ourselves: what shapes a society—politicians and policies, or the deep, presupposed, unexamined worldviews that drive them? God never gives us quick political fixes, but he does provide real solutions in the form of regular, faithful Christians. One believer with a mind shaped...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:17 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Why do some people—sometimes even professing believers—seem to wreck their lives long before their time, while others grow into full maturity in Christ? There is a danger in willful, habitual, unrepentant sin. It invites catastrophic consequences, both in this life and in the life to come. The solution is the fear of the Lord—a true, saving, grow...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:16 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- What does real Christianity look like, and what does true spirituality consist of? While man-made standards and external add-ons might seem spiritual, they can't change the heart. In fact, most of the time, externalism does far more harm in the believer's life than good. It hinders our growth in Christ-likeness, robs the authority of Scri...

Text: Matthew 1:18–25 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- The claim that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin is one of the hardest pills for the natural human mind to swallow, and rightly so. If God is not God, then it's both impossible and unreasonable. Of course, in that case, Jesus is just another religious teacher, and sinners are without a Savior. But if God the Son was miraculously conceived by th...

Text: Romans 1:1–6 Speaker: Steve Black -- Much confusion and mystery surrounds the origins of Christmas. Even so, what has always stood at the center of Christmas as we understand it is the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is not merely about a baby in a manger. It's about the Savior who was born to die to reconcile God and sinners. In the coming of Christ—promised beforehand and declared in...

Text: Isaiah 9:6 Speaker: Don Sharp -- Seven-hundred years before Christ ever walked the earth, Isaiah foretold the birth of a Savior who would bring light into a dark world. This promise found its beautiful fulfillment in the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem—the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Through this precious gift we have hope, peace, and redemption. --...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:16–18 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Life is rarely “balanced.” But God never called us to balance—He called us to be centered. In today's message, we learn that Solomon warns everyone to avoid two spiritual ditches that run alongside all of us: on the one hand, unbelief, and on the other, defective righteousness. In a culture filled with counterfeit versions of Christianity, the...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:13–15 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- It's common to hear Christians say that “God is in control”—but what does that mean? Does it mean that God controls inanimate objects, and possibly the weather and the animals as well? Does it mean merely that God reacts better than any human being to the unexpected? Or is it possible that God is actually the Planner and the Architect behi...

Text: 1 Timothy 2:3–4 Guest Speaker: Brett Nelson -- When fear, awkwardness, or feelings of inadequacy keep us silent, how will those around us ever hear the only message that can save them from eternal judgment? God’s answer to that question is not gimmicks or a watered-down, man-centered message, but a renewed love for the lost, a clear grasp of the Gospel, and a willingness to share the truth i...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:11–12 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Is money really the answer to our biggest problems? Or, could it be that it's the root of our problems? Society seems to believe that the answer to both of those questions is 'Yes.' But could it be that our entire perspective on money is wrong? In today's passage, Solomon rejects the assumptions that money is evil and that mate...

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:7–10 Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Why are we so quick to let anger get the best of us, and why do we long for the “good ol’ days,” imagining that they held more joy than what the Lord is doing today? In this second of two messages on the 'four wise and better pearls' found in these verses, we consider Solomon's assaults the roots of bitterness and nostalgia—and how...