Riverside Church Sunday Message

Sarah Auger and Nathanael Ballew speaks on Judges 2:6-19 as part of our Escaping the Cycle series.  At Riverside we are on a journey together to help people get to know Jesus and grow as his followers across Birmingham and beyond. Whoever you are, whatever you believe, you're so welcome in this community. Find out more about Riverside Church & plan your visit: riverside-church.org.uk  

Judy Moore speaks on Judges 6:1-16 as part of our Escaping the Cycle series.  When we're ashamed of who we've become, hiding can feel like the safest option. We shrink our expectations, keep our heads down and convince ourselves that we're not the person we once hoped to be.  Gideon is hiding when God calls him a “mighty warrior”. The contrast is almost comical - Gideon certainly doesn...

“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Judges 21:25 "To concentrate on our rebellion, defection, and folly is to forget that the centre of the Christian religion is not our sin but our Saviour.” Cornelius Plantinga Jr Why do we keep doing the things we don't want to do? We promise ourselves we'll change, we try harder, we start again - and somehow end up bac...

Sarah Auger speaks on Luke 24:36-49 as part of our Did not our hearts burn? series.  The disciples have seen Jesus alive, but the story isn't finished. When Jesus appears among them again, he speaks peace into their fear and promises power for what comes next.  Luke 24 ends not with the disciples settling into a comfortable faith, but with a community being prepared for a new chapter - one in...

Nathanael Ballew speaks on Luke 24:33-35 as part of our Did not our hearts burn? series.  An encounter with Jesus is difficult to keep to yourself. When the two disciples finally realise who has been walking beside them, they don't sit around discussing it - they get up and go!  Their journey takes an unexpected turn, from disappointment to excitement, from walking away to running back.  What...

Tim Chilvers speaks on Romans 6:3–11 as part of our Did not our hearts burn? series. Is change really possible today? Baptism says yes, it is! At Riverside we are on a journey together to help people get to know Jesus and grow as his followers across Birmingham and beyond. Whoever you are, whatever you believe, you're so welcome in this community. Find out more about Riverside Church & pla...

Judy Moore speaks on Luke 24:25-32 as part of our Did not our hearts burn? series. Have you ever realised something that had been right in front of you all along? A moment when the pieces suddenly come together and you see everything differently? As Jesus walks with the disciples, he opens the Scriptures and reveals a story they thought they already understood - but now from a deeper, truer perspe...

Tim Chilvers speaks on Luke 24:13-24 as part of our Did not our hearts burn? series. “We had hoped…” Sometimes disappointment can make it hard to see what’s right in front of us.  In Luke 24, two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem, carrying broken hopes and unanswered questions - while Jesus himself walks beside them.  This is a story about disappointment, longing and the possibility that w...

Nathanael Ballew speaks on Titus 3:12-15 as part of our Unconventional series. Some of the most important people in God's kingdom are the ones whose names we barely know. They quietly help, faithfully serve, generously give, and simply go wherever they're needed. That's how Paul ends his letter to Titus. Not with a grand finale, but with ordinary people living extraordinary lives becau...

John Goodliff speaks on Titus 3:1-11 as part of our Unconventional series. It's easy to see the world as 'us' and 'them'. We can become frustrated by people who think differently, live differently, or reject what we believe. Paul offers a remarkably unconventional alternative. In Titus 3, he reminds us where we all started - not with our achievements, but with God's mercy....

Judy Moore speaks on Titus 2:1-15 as part of our Unconventional series. Most people won't experience the gospel first through a sermon or a debate. They'll experience it through the lives of those who follow Jesus.  In Titus 2, Paul paints a vision of ordinary Christians living in extraordinary ways - not through perfection, but through lives continually shaped by God's grace. It's...

Andy Worthington speaks on Titus 1:5-16 as part of our Unconventional series.  It's easy to separate our lives into compartments. We can be one person on a Sunday, another at work, and someone else entirely at home. But Paul paints a very different picture in Titus 1.  Before he says anything about influence or leadership, he begins with character. Before public ministry comes private integrity. I...

Sarah Auger speaks on Titus 1:1-4 as part of our Unconventional series. It's possible to know the truth without ever being changed by it. But the kind of knowledge Paul writes about in Titus isn't simply about learning more- it has the power to reshape the way we live. In the opening of his letter, Paul introduces a hope that transforms the present, a God whose timing is always perfect, an...

Nathanael Ballew & Joel Pumphrey speak on Psalm 40 as part of our Wait for it series. Waiting can feel like losing control. We want answers, movement, and certainty - but God often invites us into something deeper: trust. In Psalm 40, David looks back on a season of waiting and discovers that God meets him there. He doesn’t come away with a perfect explanation or a plan to manage the future, b...

Tim Chilvers speaks on Psalm 130 as part of our Wait for it series.  Do you remember the excitement of waiting for something you knew was coming? The anticipation of Christmas morning, a special day, or a long-awaited moment? You weren’t wondering whether it would arrive - you were watching for it.  In Psalm 130, the psalmist describes waiting for God in the same way. Like a watchman looking for t...

Judy Moore speaks on Psalm 77 as part of our Wait for it series.  Sometimes the hardest part of waiting isn’t the waiting itself - it’s what it does to our hearts. When things take longer than we hoped, disappointment can slowly turn into doubt, and doubt can quietly become cynicism.  But what if waiting could look different? What if we could learn to wait with expectation, hope, and even enthusia...

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.’ Psalm 27:14 ‘The only thing worse than waiting for God, is wishing you had.’ Anonymous ‘Day after day, as we wait for the things we desire, we become different people.’ Jason Farman No one likes waiting. But, what if waiting is actually good for us? What if the act of waiting is even more important than the thing we’re waiting for...

Tim Chilvers speaks on Joshua 24:29-33 as part of our A Story and a Legacy series.  What if success isn't finishing the work, but faithfully passing it on?  As the book of Joshua closes, we're reminded that every generation stands on the shoulders of those who came before. Some plant, some build, some carry, and some harvest - but none of us are the whole story.  The invitation is not to d...

Tim Chilvers speaks on Joshua 24:14-28 as part of our A Story and a Legacy series.  Most defining moments don't feel dramatic at first. They often begin with a decision - a quiet but significant choice about who we will trust and what we will build our lives around.  In Joshua 24, God's people are challenged to respond to the faithfulness they've experienced. Not with guilt or obligati...

Tim Chilvers speaks on Joshua 24:1-13 as part of our A Story and a Legacy series. None of us starts from scratch. We all stand on ground prepared by someone else's prayers, sacrifices, faithfulness, and vision.  In Joshua 24, God reminds his people of a remarkable reality: they are enjoying the fruit of work they did not do and receiving blessings they did not create. But this isn't merely...

Judy Moore speaks on Luke 12:15-21 and 1 John 5:21 as part of our The Miracle of Generosity series. Some idols are easy to spot. Others sit quietly in our bank accounts, our ambitions, and our sense of security. Jesus' warning in Luke 12 isn't aimed at the obviously greedy - it is aimed at anyone tempted to find life, worth, or safety in what they possess. The rich fool had plenty of wealt...

Tim Chilvers speaks on 2 Corinthians 8-9  as part of our The Miracle of Generosity series. Generosity isn't an idea, it's something you can hold in your hands. It shows itself in budgets, bank accounts, decisions, and priorities. In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul paints a picture of people whose lives were so shaped by God's grace that it changed what they did with their resources. Their...

Sarah Auger speaks on John 6:1-14 as part of our Strange Things series. A problem too big to solve. Not enough to go around. And a question hanging in the air - what now? In John 6, the disciples are faced with an impossible situation. But what seems like a lack might not be the real issue after all. Because what follows isn’t just about provision - it’s about trust. And as the story unfolds, it b...

Some miracles don’t look like miracles at all. No crowds, no spectacle - just a quiet, unexpected moment that’s easy to miss. In John 13, Jesus does something surprising. Not dramatic, not distant - but deeply personal. And it raises a question about what we think a miracle really is. Because sometimes the most extraordinary things aren’t the ones that draw attention… but the ones that come close,...

Tim Chilvers speaks on John 20:24-29 as part of our Strange Things series. Doubt gets a bad reputation. But in John 20, we meet someone who asks honest questions - and ends up somewhere unexpected. This isn’t a story about having all the answers, or ignoring the hard questions. It’s about what happens when doubt is met, not dismissed. Because sometimes the difference isn’t between doubt and faith…...