God's Word preached.

Text: Ecclesiastes 9:8 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Rejoicing in Christ does not mean pretending that grief, uncertainty, and sin don't exist. It means learning to face those realities with confidence in a Savior who never changes. Joyful faith is a God-given means of contentment and comes as we stake our lives on a few simple realities: God is sovereign; He is for us in Christ; His discipli...

Text: Acts 6:1–7 -- Speaker: Troy McMillan -- When a serious need and a threat to unity arose in the first local church, its leaders saw the urgency of the situation. Why did the church exist, and what were the responsibilities of the apostles? The issue was one of priorities, and the apostles saw that nothing could be allowed to supplant the prayer and the ministry of God’s Word. Their solution w...

Text: Ecclesiastes 9:7 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- How can Christians be content when the world is marked by sin, uncertainty, and death? Surprisingly, Scripture's answer to that is a command: Go—enjoy the ordinary gifts of God all around you in everyday life. Food, family, home, work, celebration, and daily pleasures—all are to be received as opportunities to worship Christ, never as objec...

Text: Ecclesiastes 9:1–6 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- There are three basic facts of life—three invincible and tragic realities that no one can escape: an unpredictable life, the certainty of death, and the corruption of sin within every human heart. Faith in Christ doesn't exempt people from the hardships of a fallen world. Success never comes without its losses and disappointments. No poli...

Text: Acts 6:1–7 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- The first major conflict in church history forced the church to deal with the matter of priorities. Unquestionably, the needs of its widows were real and urgent, and the church was obligated to help meet them. But is that because the church is fundamentally a charity or a social safety net? What does God want the church to be about? That first confli...

Text: Psalm 45 -- Guest speaker: Rick Anderson, Pastor at Faith Community Church (Oxnard, CA) -- In Psalm 45, we have a divine song of love that lifts our eyes to the beauty, majesty, and victory of Jesus Christ—the King who is fully God, full of grace, and worthy of all our affection. It isn't enough to merely observe Christ from a distance. We must behold Him as He is: the Savior who gave Hi...

Text: Mark 8:27–38 -- Guest speaker: Brett Nelson -- Who is Jesus, and why follow him? Jesus' response to Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ reveals how easily human expectations can distort the meaning of discipleship. Surprisingly, Jesus responds by telling Peter that the Son of Man must suffer, die, and rise again—and that everyone who follows Him must deny himself, take up his c...

Text: Acts 6:1–7 -- Speaker: Don Sharp -- How did the early church face its first serious internal challenge without losing sight of its mission? Cultural tensions and overlooked needs threatened the church's unity, but the apostles protected it by clarifying the priorities of its leaders and entrusting responsibility to wise, godly servants. This foundational passage calls every believer to p...

Text: Selected Scriptures -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- In our final Q&A message this summer, we discuss the covenants—how they fit together and why God has done things the way he has. If God's intent was always to save us in Christ, why did he establish the covenants with Abraham, Moses, and others? We also talk about "free will," what it means, and how it relates to God's...

Text: Selected Scriptures -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- What does it mean to be “in Christ?” How should believers respond to guilt or doubt? What about aliens—do they really exist? When we consider the Bible's answers to those questions, what becomes clear is that the believer is secure in Christ—no matter how they feel from day to day or whatever life forms might or might not exist "out...

Text: Selected Scriptures -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- How does the Holy Spirit guide believers, and how do I find the will of God? These are common questions that many Christians have. The Bible's answer is that the Holy Spirit's “leading” is tied to regeneration and to Scripture—not to inner impressions or mystical signs—and that God’s Word and God's providence reveal God's wil...

Text: Selected Scriptures -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Is the Holy Spirit a force or an energy, or is he actually a person? What is his role in our lives? Does he "lead us" by giving us a sense of peace, or feelings about what God wants us to do—and if not, then what exactly does he do? Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit and his work is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Christia...

Text: Matthew 18:20 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- What does Jesus mean when He says that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there among them? Is this a promise about casual get-togethers, or is it about something more specific? This well-known and often-misquoted text means that Jesus reigns among churches that honor His Word, and that His presence and authority are in biblical lo...

Text: 1 Kings 19:12 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Most people today are looking for God in spectacular and extraordinary experiences, but Scripture teaches that God's work is quiet work. In the midst of Elijah's discouragement, isolation, and exhaustion, God was not absent at all—He was working quietly and faithfully in Israel all along. An examination of 1 Kings 19:12 in its context chal...

Text: Matthew 28:16–20 -- Speaker: Troy McMillan -- What exactly did Jesus leave His church to do? In Matthew 28, the risen Christ gives His people their marching orders: worship Him as the all-authoritative King, make disciples of all nations, and carry out that mission with the confidence that He is with us always. God commands the church to take Christ’s commission seriously—not as a suggestion...

Text: Philippians 4:13 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Philippians 4:13 is often treated like a promise of personal success. But in the context, Paul is talking specifically about the ability to be content in every circumstance and the grace to honor Christ whether in plenty or in need. He can do that, he says, because he can do “all things”—he can be obedient, patient, humble, thankful, selfless,...

Text: 1 Corinthians 10:31 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- It's common to hear 1 Corinthians 10:31 quoted as an altruistic, abstract goal. Sometimes it's even used as a justification for any and every practice—both in the church and in the lives of individual Christians. As long as we think that we're glorifying God, then whatever we're doing must be good. But what does 1 Corinthians...

Text: Matthew 7:1–5 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- What does Jesus actually mean when He says, “Do not judge”? Is He forbidding all moral discernment, or is He exposing the hypocrisy of people who—to borrow the words of puritan Richard Sibbes—are severe on others but gentle with themselves? When Jesus' actual words are considered, it's clear that He's not at all forbidding every moral...

Text: Psalm 42 -- Speaker: Lloyd Murphy -- What do you do when grief makes Romans 8:28 sound empty and your soul feels like it's either drying up or drowning? Psalm 42 gives the wounded believer words for both the pain and the answer: honest lament, the grit of self-exhortation, and renewed hope in God. The fight of faith is often fought by simply preaching truth to your own heart and waiting...

Text: Matthew 28:18–20 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Jeremiah 29:11 can be found everywhere nowadays—from stickers to notebooks to 'girl-boss' Instagram account feeds. But what does it actually mean? Is it a blanket promise of personal success, or something else? When Jeremiah is allowed to speak for himself, the message is clear: God loves mercy, but he will not compromise his character...

Text: Jeremiah 29:11 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Jeremiah 29:11 can be found everywhere nowadays—from stickers to notebooks to 'girl-boss' Instagram account feeds. But what does it actually mean? Is it a blanket promise of personal success, or something else? When Jeremiah is allowed to speak for himself, the message is clear: God loves mercy, but he will not compromise his character fo...

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- The answer to life’s meaning cannot be found within the created order—not under a microscope, not in self-discovery, not in human wisdom, not in self-created spirituality. This is not to say that meaning doesn't exist, but it  is  to say that God has intentionally blocked our natural access to it. If fallen humanity is going to find mea...

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- God has put the question of eternity in our hearts, but He has not put the answer there. As a result, we are restless, relentless meaning-makers—always asking, always searching, always seeking, never finding. Man's endless search for meaning is taken as proof that truth doesn't exist. In reality, it's the proof that we're li...

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:15 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Wait a minute… God commands an attitude of joy in the midst of a world where sin keeps succeeding, injustice is the norm, and life is full of disappointment and frustration? That's outrageous! And yet, that's exactly what He does. The believer is not called to deny the pain of life "under the sun," but to receive God’s provid...

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:12–14 -- Speaker: Tony de la Riva -- Job is the very first book of the Bible to be written. Surprisingly, its message is that God is not karma. God is not simply handing out good and bad results according to what we do. The reality is much deeper: God is sovereign, just, and good. The good things in the world are the proof of that—but shockingly, so is the evil. God uses suffe...