River of Life Church - St Joseph

This week we continue in our Story of the Bible series talking about the conflict in the story: sin. We cover chapters 3-11 in Genesis as they lay out how humanity chooses to let sin into the story and how sin then gets out of control with humanity powerless to stop it. Only God can step into the story to fix it at this point. While that may seem like an ancient story, the truths of this still aff...

This week we continue our series about the story of the Bible by digging into the beginning: Genesis 1. The opening chapter of scripture is so monumental for understanding the rest of the story. Genesis 1 introduces the main character, launches the plot of the story, reveals the setting, and establishes themes that will be developed throughout scripture. Our understanding of this chapter is vital...

This week we launch into our summer series about the Story of the Bible. God's Word is meant to be a blessing to us, but many struggle with how to properly engage with it. The Bible is not meant to be a collection of one-liner or a simple rulebook for morality. It is telling a unified story about how God is redeeming the world and us included. When we understand the grand story of the Bible, we ca...

The is the final week of our Who We Are series. This week our main idea is this: "We are the Church always." We focus in on Ephesians 2:19-22 where Paul presents a great description of what the church should be, and it's much more than simply meeting together for a service once a week. We are meant to embody what it means to be the Church at all times, not just on Sunday mornings. When we embrace...

This week we are doing part two of being Shaped by the Spirit. In scripture, there are always clear markers of the Holy Spirit moving in individuals and in the church: the Fruit of the Spirit, spiritual gifts, and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. If we are a church that is Shaped by the Spirit, then we will see all three of those things happening regularly in our congregation. We tackle each of tho...

This week we continue our series talking about the truth that we are shaped by the Spirit as a church. Every single part of the life of faith is enabled by God's Spirit moving in us and the same is true for our church as a whole. We can only do what we do because of the Holy Spirit's work. In this sermon we discuss who the Spirit is, what he does, and our part in being shaped by the Spirit. When w...

This week, Pastor Tyler was ill, so Tim Bueckers brought the word. He talks in this sermon about the love of God and how that love not only should shape our identity, but it should also empower us to be who God created us to be. With God's love serving as the foundation of who we are, how we think about ourselves, and how we live following God, we can know that we are secure in him! From that secu...

This week we continue in our series Who We Are by highlighting the truth that we radically follow Jesus. In our society today, the word "Christian" is throw around for many things and in some cases seems to have lost all meaning; however, that's not how it should be. To be a Christian means that a person is following Jesus. We talk about what that means to actually follow Jesus and how that is liv...

This week we continue our Who We Are series talking about having generational impact as a church.* We look at the death of Moses and how God allows him to see a vision for God's people that was bigger than what Moses or his generation could accomplish in their lifetimes. God always has a plan for generational impact for his Church, and we get to be a part of it now where we are at. The Church is f...

This week we continue in our Who We Are series talking about the idea that we serve a God that is infinitely more than we could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:14-21). When we grasp the power of that idea, things change--especially how we live in our day-to-day lives. These verses contain a powerful truth that God is infinitely more than anything else that we could seek, accomplish, or follow. 

This week we begin a new series called Who We Are looking at the character and values of our church. We recently passed the two-year mark for our church being in existence! Now is the time to evaluate remind ourselves of who we are as a church and highlight where we are going. The topic for this week is that we absolutely need to be people of God's presence. His presence is what sets the church ap...

Happy Easter! This week we round out our On The Road series by celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and covering the story of him walking on the Road to Emmaus with two of his disciples. Jesus interrupts their story and brings new life and redemption to them in their place of difficulty. If the grave is empty, then we always have hope!

This week we look at the Triumphant Entry of Jesus.** In that story, people celebrate Jesus and his next three major actions are to cry, curse a tree, and flip tables in the Temple. What caused Jesus to have that reaction? We look to answer that question and figure out how we can apply the truths of these scriptures to our lives. (Hint: Jesus cares more about our hearts than our outward actions.) ...

This week we start a new series called On The Road with Jesus where we will take a few stories of Jesus traveling on different roads and what we can learn from them. This first sermon keys in on a man named Jairus who desperately needed a miracle from Jesus, but who also found himself seeing his faith tested on the road to his miracle. This story is a strong reminder that sometimes there are mirac...

This week we round out our Fighter series talking about the story of the Good Samaritan and how this highlights what we should do to fight for the Kingdom of God. This is a powerful story that highlights that God often uses "neighbors" to change the world rather than those who are powerful or influential. That's great news for us because all of us are neighbors already! We all have the opportunity...

This week we have a guest speaker, Tim Bueckers, who is an awesome member of our church! Tim talks about what it means to truly trust God in the world that we are faced with today. How do we trust God in all things, even when the world is going crazy? It starts with us truly leaning on God rather than leaning on our own strength, skills, understanding, or perspectives. When we understand that, it...

This week we continue our Fighter series talking about the idea of not using Jesus as a tool or weapon to push our own agendas forward. Both in Bible times and in our world today, people will often try to use Jesus as a means to their end. Jesus always resisted this. The call of Christianity has always been for us to follow Jesus rather than trying to get Jesus to follow our ways. As we look at Jo...

This week we continue our Fighter series by talking about the idea that we cannot put non-biblical prerequisites or expectations on what it means to be a Christian. In the time of the early church, they struggled with a controversy over this same type of idea. There was a group going around saying that people had to do extra things in order to be able to accept Christ or to be a "real" Christian....

This week we begin a new series talking about how Christians should engage with the culture around us. We aim to answer the question: How should Christians act in a world that is so divisive, politically charged, and filled with conflict? Too often the reactions of Christians seem to add fuel to the fires of culture rather than speaking hope to it. In this sermon, we look at the fight that God had...

This week we wrap up our mini-series, For, by talking about the fact that every one of us is saved for the Great Commission. As a part of us accepting Jesus and joining the Body of Christ, God has called each of us to reach both our neighbors and the nations. This sermon discusses that point and then moves to how we can practically live out the Great Commission by praying, giving, and going. 

This week we start a new mini-series called "For" where we are going to be talking about what we are saved FOR. Many Christians know and can articulate what God has saved them FROM, but sometimes Christians can struggle to understand what God has saved the FOR. For us to mature in our faith, we have to move fully into what God has saved us FOR. In this series we will get into what that means for u...

This week we talk about maturing in our seeking process. Using the idea of a pyramid that we move from lower levels to higher levels, Pastor Tyler highlights that there are different levels of maturity that our seeking needs to move through. The story of the rich young ruler in Mark 10 serves as the backbone for today's message as we wrap up our series on seeking God. 

This week we dive into the idea of seeking God first in our lives. What does it mean to seek him first like it talks about in Matthew 6:33? We break down that idea to show that Jesus was talking both about seeking God first in priority and in the process of our lives--both of which have strong implications for how we live out our faith day to day. 

This week we continue our series on seeking God by talking about some characteristics of truly seeking him. There can be various aspects of our lives that can either hold us back from seeking God or that can hinder us from seeking him the right way. We dive into the story of 1 Kings 19 where Elijah seeks God after receiving some distressing news. In the middle of that mess, he is able to press thr...

What does it mean to seek God and why should we seek him? In this series, we are going to look at the answers to those questions. This week we begin by showing that we have the responsibility and joy to seek God with all our hearts, and that he shows up when we do. Then we transition to talking about a very specific way to seek God: fasting. It's a great way to kick off our new year by giving effo...