The River Church Sermons

People and crisis will invariably bring out the worst of you or the best of you depending on your emotional health. What leaks out are emotions somewhere on the spectrum caused by jumping into the chasm of relational messiness. What do we do with these emotions? Is it OK for Christians to have emotions? Which ones? In John 11 Jesus enters into an emotional firestorm. He does not come out unscathed...

In the last few weeks, we've been leaning into a fundamental element of the River Church and, for that matter, of human flourishing-enjoying relationships. In a constellation of messages, we've eagerly reminded ourselves that part of our core design as a species is to live full lives beautifully-immersed in healthy community. We've made our case with a blessed avalanche of biblical, theological, h...

A supplemental message to the sermon on Sunday, February 23rd.

What I witnessed last Sunday when we were all together, well I just want more of that. I saw people joining together to pray for others they don’t even know who need our prayers. We have people in our community that need us to pray for a miracle. We have many who need our support. We have global issues that need our concentrated prayer. It’s our duty. It’s what the church does or should do well. T...

Let's talk about the church a minute. As flawed and filled with imperfect people as it is, (or even led by a pastor you don't like or respect) the church is the only institution on the planet that has been God ordained to bring Christ followers together for a common cause. Do you believe that? Maybe you do. Maybe you don't because you have been hurt by someone in the church. Maybe a leader or past...

Thursday night was one of my favorite evenings all year. The Peninsula high school and Palos Verdes high school basketball teams squared off in their rival basketball games. In a packed house of rowdy students, parents, teachers, administrators, and youth pastors, both teams competed for pride and "hill dominance." Perhaps one of my favorite moments came after the boy's game, which saw the Panther...

This Sunday marks the 13th anniversary of the River Church! To celebrate we're starting a brand-new series. To start the series I'm asking a very not-new question: "What is the meaning of life?" Let's launch this promising new decade with an inspired and inspiring ancient answer! James

We can look at the world today and say, "What a mess it's in" or we can say, "God what is our role in all this?" Romans 8:14-28 is the perfect spot to be enlightened and challenged to play a role in the final redemptive plan of God for the whole of creation. You've heard the expression, "It's all going to hell in a hand basket." Is it? Ultimately it is not. Sufferings and groanings may last the ni...

When I was at college, a group of us used to share our faith with a yellow booklet called the four spiritual laws. Yep, that's what I did at college besides classes and rugby practice. It was a little book to help a believer lead someone to Christ. if that person indicated they already had received Christ, we'd share a blue booklet, "Have You Made the Wonderful Discovery of the Spirit Filled Life?...

2020 is now well under way, and if you are like me, you have probably experienced both hopeful optimism for the future, yet also the familiar reality that you dragged your former 2019 self into the new year and decade. How does change actually happen? Better, how does spiritual transformation take root in the depths of our soul, renewing our minds, and forming new healthy habits? I’ve been pouring...

Message from Kelly Kosky of World Outreach Ministries. www.kellykoskyministries.com

Shame. That life-choking reality taking so many hideous forms. It’s a phycological prison, a social poison, a spiritual infection. It insists that we hide. Hide from God; from those closest to us; from ourselves. It traps us in our past and blinds us to our future. But what if you could be free of its stench in 2020? What if in the next chapter of your life you could live more shame-free than you’...

Christmas Eve at The River.

Do you remember the story of the Count of Monte Cristo? A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous friend, escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge? Dantes and Fernand were best of friends. Whenever one would act in a heroic way or win the upper hand, the other would throw the king piece of a chess board to the other and say, "Kings to you" while the other says, "Kings to me". T...

"Hopefully." It's one of the most misused terms in our English vocabulary. For those betting on God's faithfulness in the dark forests, rocky trials, and plummeting cliffs of life, this modifier captures our audacious posture of heart. Join us this Sunday as we gather, sing Christmas carols, and open Isaiah 11 to celebrate afresh the reason why this adverb is truly ours this season. Hopefully we'l...

New research on mental health and the church indicates one of the main causes of depression and anxiety is lack of hope. When we have no hope in something that is more powerful than our current existential angst, we become fearful, depressed, anxious. This Christmas season. It's supposed to be the season of joy. It's the season of being close with family and friends. Yet what I often personally ex...

You're only young once. When you hear those words, what do you think of? Live it up. Right? Go for it! Make the most of your youthfulness. Get what you can out of life. Travel the world. Come skydiving with us. Let's go cave diving. Peter was a young man. He had the rest of his life ahead of him when he met the Resurrected Lord in John 21. He could have gone back to his fishing business. He could...

What if this weekend you came to one of the River worship gatherings only to discover that this Sunday's main teacher is Jesus?! That's right, what if Jesus of Nazareth himself is speaking at the River Church? It's not the second coming, but sort of like the first-and-a-half coming. On what topic would you want him to teach? Think about it. You could have Jesus's perspective on anything this Sunda...

After scaling the fifty-foot rock face in Joshua Tree, I had to get back down. My guide up top instructed me to step back and lean perpendicular to the rock face, trusting my future to the climbing rope and my 15-year-old belayer. The coaching, the safety of the belay, and the inspiring shouts of encouragement from the crowd below made the journey up and down a thrill and super satisfying. This is...

What could Jesus do that is so scandalous, so wrought with the possibility of being misinterpreted that the gospel writers would be hesitant to include it in the gospel narratives? Oh, I don't know. How about John 7:53-8:11? It's the passage where Jesus tells the Pharisees who have brought a woman caught in adultery, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."...

Distracted? Disconnected? Discouraged? Experiencing any of these? The three D’s of a broken relationship. It happens to the best of us, to even the best marriages, the best of friends, the best of partnerships. Life happens. Things go awry. How do we go back to the way it was at the beginning? Remember when...? Remember that commitment, that vitality, that love, that respect, that honor you once h...

The greatest command is to love God, with all our heart, and our soul, and our mind. I'll be honest ... sometimes I bottle up this impulse inside my head, turning love of God into an idea easily evaporating into private feelings. I need a guide, someone tangible who can show me, even apprentice me into what love looks like with skin on. This weekend, we continue our Conversations with Jesus series...

The highly anticipated fall series has arrived: Conversations with Jesus. This is no insta pot recipe. We've been stewing this one for a long time. Remember Walter Cronkite - CBS anchor man who was legendary for his human interest pieces and signing off with "And that's the way it is"? Google him. He was known as the most trusted man in America. What he said stuck. That's Jesus. What he said stuck...

Ever preached a sermon and as soon as you finished realized, Oh my, there's more to that than I thought? Of course not. You're not a preacher. What am I thinking? I have. Just the other week. I'm seriously thinking of re-preaching my last message- Thoughts on a Garden, a well, and a Table, from Genesis 1-2, John 4, and Matthew 9. It's a new way of looking at the church. I think God was speaking to...

When doing for Jesus eclipses being with Jesus, we have a problem called religion; Jesus wants to reveal it and call us back to relationship with him. This is a game changer. Karl Martin