River of Life Church - St Joseph

This week we turn our attention to the Holy Spirit, who Jesus repeatedly brings up in his final words with his disciples before his death (John 14-17). Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as our comforter, advocate, and guide who will lead us more clearly to him. Too often the Holy Spirit's name is misused in the name of weirdness or worse, but that is not how Jesus presented him. If it was important...

This week we shift to the second half of John. From John 12 on, the book switches to covering the final week of Jesus's life including four chapters covering Jesus's final discourse to his disciples at that Last Supper. This week we look at what Jesus felt he needed to communicate in these vital final moments, including him starting off this final meal with a shocking twist: washing the disciples...

This week we go to John 11 where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Throughout the story, even though people in the crowd believe in Jesus, they put artificial limits on him and his power. They did not believe that Jesus could fully fix the situation once Lazarus died. In our lives, we have to be careful that we do not put artificial limits on Jesus that cause us to resist him when he tries to mo...

This week we continue our Gospel of John by covering John 8 where Jesus tries to correct some of his followers, but they reject his leadings. We talk about the fact that our lives have to directionally be moving towards Jesus rather than trying to check off some religious benchmarks. The word for this is repentance, and it's a lifestyle of moving towards God and his ways. This sermon is about how...

This week we venture into John 6 and talk about Jesus being the bread of life. This story highlights the miracle-working power of Jesus, the power of a small sacrifice, and the importance of responding to Jesus positively. This sermon highlights all three point as we work through the entire chapter of John 6. 

This week we are back to the Gospel of John and looking at what to do when we experience spiritual frustration. All of us have moments where we are frustrated with God and our spiritual growth. How do we respond in that? We look at the story of Jesus healing the invalid man in John 5:1-9 for some great answers on how to respond in those moments.

This week features a guest speaker: Bobby Loukinen. Bobby served as a youth pastor for 18 years before transitioning to being a US home missionary. He serves by helping organize missions trips for MN churches and by helping with Youth Alive that reaches teen students on middle school, jr. high, and high school campuses throughout our state. He gives a great message from Acts 8 about Philip and the...

This week we venture into John 4 where Jesus has his famous conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well where he chooses to defy cultural expectations so that he can offer this woman the soul-quenching help she desperately needed. Just like in this story, wherever we find ourselves Jesus is already there waiting for us! 

This week we dig into John 3 which covers one of the greatest conversations ever recorded. We key in on the idea of coming to Jesus the same way that Nicodemus does in this chapter and how that can be difficult for people who don't know Jesus yet, but it's always worth it! 

This week we dive into John 2 where Jesus does his first ever miracle (turning water into wine) and then proceeds to clear out the corrupt moneychangers at the Temple. The focus of this sermon is on the power of Jesus and how Jesus's power is the greatest proof of who he is. When people experience the power of Jesus, they become open to the person of Jesus. 

This week we take a look at John the Baptist and his response to recognizing Jesus as the Son of God. John leaves a powerful example of what it means to put Jesus first in our lives--forcing all of us to stop and ask the question: Am I simply trying to use Jesus for my own personal gain? 

This week we begin our summer series on the Gospel of John. This sermon focuses in on introducing this book of the Bible and the main point that the author is making. John is hyper-focused on one major idea: that Jesus is the Son of God and through him alone we can have eternal life. This is an idea that we all have to reckon with at some point. Are we going to accept Jesus as he claims to be--the...

This is a standalone sermon exploring the topic of identity and not allowing false identities to stick to us. Using the story of David + Goliath we explore what it means to be secure in our God-given identity and how our callings flow from our identity, not the other way around. 

This week we turn our attention to being healthy in our physical bodies. This is not something churches often talk about, but everything we do in life and everything we experience happens through our physical bodies. If we are to be healthy, then stewarding the body God has given us is vital! We want to be the healthiest we can be so God can do the most in us and through us that he possibly can. 

This week we get back to our Holy Healthy series by talking about how Christians should be healthy in our minds. When we believe, internalize, and build our lives on God's truth, then the result is that we experience health and wholeness in our minds! Because of Jesus you can win the war in your mind, and in this sermon we discuss how to do just that. 

This week we take a one-week pause in our Holy Healthy series to discuss our Global Focus Month at RLC. God's heart is for lost people, both locally and globally! This sermon invites all of us to take a pause and ask ourselves what God would have us do in response to the massive amounts of people in the world who do not yet know Jesus. 

This week was a special Sunday at RLC! We did our first ever Story Sunday where we interviewed people about the stories of what God had done in their life. You will notice that it's more of a conversational interview format rather than our normal sermon format.  This Sunday featured three individuals: Sephra Kinser, Jackie Leedahl, and John Caughlin. We start with Sephra and Jackie both sharing ab...

Happy Easter! This week we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Because he is alive, we can have health in our souls! This sermon focuses in both on explaining what Jesus did on Easter and how, because of this, Jesus is the only way that we can achieve true health in our souls. 

This week we look at what the Bible has to say about Christians being healthy in their emotions. It may surprise you, but the Bible has a lot to say on the topic! Healthy Christians process through their emotions in a god-honoring way, and in this sermon we discuss what that looks like. It's a great look at what it means to be an emotionally healthy follower of Jesus.  

This week we begin a new series based on this idea: you cannot be healthy in your spiritual life if you are unhealthy in other areas. We are not segmented people. God has created us as fully embodied people with bodies, brains, emotions, and spirits, and he cares so much about us that he wants us to be healthy in every area. This series will explore how we can be healthy in areas that we might not...

This week we held a family service where all the kids were also in service with the adults!* In this sermon we talk about the power of words, how we can use our words for good, and how words are a reflection of our hearts. What we say matters! We need to use our words to bring life. (This sermon is both for kids and adults! Each point has explanations appropriate for each age group.) *Also, please...

This sermon closes out our In The Beginning series as we look at Genesis 11 and the story of the Tower of Babel. This story speaks powerfully to our culture today as we can easily fall for the same lie that the people of Babel believed. We talk about how to avoid the pitfalls of Babel and put our hope in Jesus. 

This week, due to health issues during the week, Pastor Tyler called in a guest speaker! Pastor Sue Kollman is the Administrative Pastor for River of Life. She delivers a powerful message about Freedom in Christ. A level of freedom comes when we are saved, but there is a whole other level of freedom in Christ that comes through God redeeming our inner life after we are saved. You are going to want...

Noah and the Flood are the topic at hand this week! We are nearing the end of our series on Genesis 1-11, and everything so far culminates in the flood narrative of Genesis 6-9. We look at what God was doing in this story, why he chose Noah, and what we can learn from it. 

Cain and Abel is one of the tragic stories in scripture. The writers of Genesis use the story to show how sin has begun to spread after the choices of Adam and Eve caused the Fall. This week we lean into this story to see what it can teach us about the Bible and our own personal lives.