The River Church Sermons

This work series has been one of my all time favorites, but it felt like something was missing for me. What about the work I do that takes my greatest focus, the most patience, the longest time, all of the energy, and has the highest stakes? RAISING KIDS. For many of us, there's a big old chunk of life that (has been, is, or will be) spent waking up in the middle of the night, making lunches, medi...

I love trees. Their grandeur as they reach for the sky paints a beautiful picture of how we, and the whole creation, were made to worship the Creator. Two trees stand out among the many described in our Scriptures. They are both called “the tree of life,” and one starts the Bible story, and the other emerges at the very end, both in a Garden. We can tell and begin to understand the big arc of our...

Here’s an interesting question. So what’s the difference between the Christ follower and the non Christ follower as it relates to our work? Is there such a difference as a Christian baker, a non Christian lawyer, a Christian plumber, and a non Christian surgeon? I hope not. Especially when it comes to law and medicine. John Wesley said, do good, and do no harm along the way. Maybe the one mark tha...

Join us as we venture further into our exploration of that thing we spend so much of our lives in, on, and around: work. Last week we examined the scriptural prescription for a healthy posture toward work. We dreamed about being workers who, in our various fields and occupations, go about our business with a quiet confidence, bringing a calm and peace to our respective work atmospheres (1 Thessalo...

Often, one of the biggest chasms in the life of a modern follower of Jesus is the great canyon between Sunday and Monday. Sunday, you gather with your brothers and sisters in Christ, do Christian things like sing worship songs, pray, or hear from scripture, and maybe you go home with a little more spiritual fuel in your tank and some inspiration to listen to the Holy Spirit more attentively in the...

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the confluence of two powerful realties. Both are like strong rivers that flow together to form headwaters that we call the Resurrection. As rivers collide, a stronger one emerges, bringing even wilder, more powerful forces upon nature. So the Resurrection does in our lives. It moves like rushing waters over our souls and brings a greater experience of abundance...

As the River Church walks together towards Easter Sunday, we are pondering the manifold relevancies of the resurrection. Last Sunday, Brooke powerfully brought us into a conversation between Jesus and Martha about resurrection. We took time in our gathering to reflect on the implications of the resurrection for our past, present, and future. This week, we are going to listen in on a conversation b...

Easter's coming up (it's in March this year?!) and so is that big Christian word we talk about every Easter... the "resurrection." Many of us who have spent time in the church know what the resurrection was and even what it means, but I've been wondering... are our lives any different because of it? We are going to take a little time and make a little space to respond to the truth and to invite th...

Marco Polo met the great Kahn, Gengis Kahn, the leader of the Mongol Empire during the early 1100’s. He asked the secret to his military might. He said he trains his officers to take care of their men before they take care of themselves. And my generals take care of their horse before themselves. Officers lead by doing. Generals lead by example. Two important truths about leadership and mentorship...

We often describe The River Church as “highly (hopelessly) relational.” Is this true? I think so. But, it can easily come across as trite, just another marketing cliché. We are bombarded with immense content, endless notifications, and soul-sucking and bending algorithms. The River Church is a local church, made up of real, if not flawed, humans, and we are learning to love each other, by followin...

Having spent the majority of his medical career serving disenfranchised communities in India, the doctor Paul Brand made this striking observation after his return to the United States: "Patients [in the U.S.] lived at a greater comfort level than any I had previously treated, but they seemed far less equipped to handle suffering and far more traumatized by it.” This statement is not meant to sham...

Peter wants us to be ready to make a defense of the hope that lies within us. Yet, with gentleness and reverence. For a non religious person, the idea that Jesus came from heaven as God, died on a cross for our sins and rose again so we might have new life seems to be utterly ridiculous. Paul says we are fools for Christ. Madness. And yet, we are to get across to them what it is we believe most pr...

It's not hard to see how life with Jesus gives personal comfort and purpose, but what resources does life with Jesus give for our actual day to day in the real world? What does the way of Jesus have to do with our romantic life, or building a career, or going out with friends, or changing diapers, or being a neighbor, or participating as a citizen? How does it shape the way we navigate a world tha...

Someone needs to. The world is in desperate need of someone to do the right thing. We have become a world of bad news. But, so much good is happening, it’s just not making the headlines. And most of it by good people, many who are followers of Christ who chose to do something good in the world as opposed to those who cause problems. Peter tells us in our passage what it takes. Three things. The Wo...

Dr. W Gruden writes in his systematic theology, “Because there is sin that still remains in our hearts even though we have become Christians (Rom. 6:12-13; I John 1:8), our sanctification (fancy work for spiritual growth) will never be completed in this life.” Yet, Peter says to us straight up, “Be holy in all your conduct.” (I Peter 1:15). And to add to this haunting task, “You shall be holy, for...

The born again movement began in the mid 70s with three important events. Chuck Colson’s prison born again conversion post watergate, President Jimmy Carter’s self identification as a born again Christian and Billy Graham’s book, How to be Born Again. This movement changed the landscape of the Christian religion and catapulted it out of the dark ages. Hippies were coming to Jesus. Can you imagine...

There's an important framework from both our life with Jesus and--in God's good design--the psychology of motivation: our identity directs our energy. How we think of ourselves tends to shape how we actually live. So what kind of identity will lead to the most flourishing? More to the point for those committed to following Jesus: who does God say that we are? And what implications does that have f...

As we turn the corner into another calendar year, my first instinct as an optimistic preacher is to celebrate the high points of 2023 and anticipate the graces and glories of 2024. But, what about all the hard parts? What do we do with the pains and disappointments? Join us as we have an honest, year-ending conversation with the scriptures about putting pain in its proper place.

“Oh, come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.” This line from a timeless Christmas hymn captures exactly our posture for the entire service at the River Church of the South Bay. Whether in the afterglow of the children’s play at 10:30 or following a few worship songs sung with the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean at 8:30, let’s adore the King of it all! Let us recognize what those shepherds, magi, an...

If someone were to ask you, why did Jesus come to earth, what would you say? To save the world from their sins? To guide us as a moral teacher? To turn things around on earth? We’ve established that Jesus came to be king and bring God’s kingdom to earth through his followers, both Jewish converts and Gentiles. I want to look at Matthew 1, John 1:14 and John 3:16 and answer this question specifical...

Here’s how I landed on that title for our Christmas series - Finally Jesus. Jesus was not plan B in God’s way of thinking. He didn’t have a plan A, the garden and then something went wrong and he had to think of another plan. “Oh, I know, I’ll send Jesus and see if that works". Jesus was not some additive in a string of historical events. We have creation, then fall, then Israel, then exile, then,...

This week we are going to explore a well known parable about a compassionate Samaritan. You are probably well aware of the story, especially if you grew up in a church environment. But, we are going to let it speak to us afresh as we are invited to see if we are truly the type of person that exerts themselves generously in care for others. This parable is deeply convicting and compelling, and ulti...

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Plans are underway for how we’ll gather with family to express gratitude for God’s gifts of abundance. Many of us brought our Hunger Heroes grocery bags, donating needed food for the Watts Powerhouse community. This is what Jesus wants us to do. He knows we can be part of the overwhelming and complex problem of ending world hunger. The world currently produces enough foo...

It’s another not so rare moment where Jesus interacts with someone outside of his countrymen. Jesus, the Rabbi, the Jew, the Messiah, the rightful King of the true kingdom leaves his own country of origin and enters the land of the final remnant of the Phoenician civilization and affirms the faith of a syrophonecian woman and her demon possessed daughter. A loaded situation. He crossed multiple ba...

"Ugh... I find Christianity to be deeply uninspiring." My new acquaintance meant no insult as her voice carried authentic frustration with her experience of Christianity. Though she had intellectual questions about faith, her main issue with the Christian message she had heard to that point in her life was not that she found it rationally unconvincing; her main issue is that she found it personall...