The River Church Sermons

I've been pondering two words that keep coming up in my conversations and reading: Contingency and Agency. They are two words that we can hold in tension for a healthy, thriving life. When out of balance, they can lead to hardship, even tragedy. Contingency partially means that our life is dependent on certain circumstances and behavior, and ultimately on God. We are not in complete control of our...

How many of you have started "the Bible in a year," read through Genesis and Exodus, and have gotten lost somewhere in Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy? If that's you: Hi, me too. Also... you're in for a treat because the next part of the story is one of the most action-packed, jaw-dropping, wild-ride adventures in Scripture and many of us have never read all of it. Join us as we trace the rise...

Who do you have for the November fight: Mike Tyson or Jake Paul? Paul, a young gun who specializes in hubris, vs. Tyson, a tried and true fighter. It will be an epic showdown that will be one of the most watched fights in history. Thanks Netflix! It will be fun to watch! This week we are going to watch an even greater showdown - one of the greatest fights in history: The LORD vs. Pharaoh. The LORD...

Our voyage as a church through the big, beautiful biblical story has thus far been like every long road trip I’ve ever been on: the very first part is a thrill! You cross the city limits, begin to feel like you’re on vacation, out of the same-old, same-old, and your eyes look to the horizon with optimism and energy as you consider the grand journey you are undertaking. Then, after a couple hours,...

Who do you have for the November fight: Mike Tyson or Jake Paul? Paul, a young gun who specializes in hubris, vs. Tyson, a tried and true fighter. It will be an epic showdown that will be one of the most watched fights in history. Thanks Netflix! It will be fun to watch! This week we are going to watch an even greater showdown - one of the greatest fights in history: The LORD vs. Pharaoh. The LORD...

We are continuing our fly-over look at the unifying story of the Bible, in a series we are calling “You Are Here.” Join us in Genesis 12, location... Abraham. If we trace our ancestors back far enough, each of us will likely find a pivotal moment when a decision was made to uproot the family, leave behind the familiar, and venture into a land they knew little about. Their decision had consequences...

We have started a very fast pace through the Bible narrative. We are telling the grand story of the Bible, from creation, to the fall, and God’s plan of redemption. We are in phase two, the fall, on Fathers Day of all days. Dads, do not despair, it’s not all your fault. So the fall. A traumatic sob story of utter failure. All that God created as good now has been lost. Milton is right, paradise lo...

What is really, really, real (ultimate reality)? Is there a Creator and, if so, what is that Creator like? What is that Creator into? Why did the Creator create? Who are you? Why are you? Where are you? Why does any of it matter? Questions like these have been asked and answered by humans for tens of thousands of years with almost every generation asking them afresh. This Sunday we are going to po...

Whether we're conscious of it or not, each of us lives from a story on the nature of things--a story of what is true and good and worth living for. Which begs the questions: What story am I really living from? Is that story true? The 66 books of the Bible form a unified true story of creation, fall, redemption and coming new creation all centered on Jesus and the process of following Jesus is a li...

We live in an age of punditry and “posting” that encourages us to evaluate everything in real time. Is this decision good or bad? Is this person right or wrong? Is this effort worthwhile or wasteful? Kendrick or Drake? Tell me! Quick! Make up your mind! Opine! Post! Now before the news cycle/trend/fashion/cause-of-the-day changes! Wisdom, and biblical wisdom in particular, warns against such haste...

So, we have established that David is a man after God‘s own heart, yes, the David that swayed from the path. Let’s talk more about the heart. Are our hearts, corrupt and get a complete makeover when we meet Jesus and then everything is hunky-dory? Or are there factors that contribute to a healthy heart? Heart disease is the number one killer in America. Take care of your heart is the word of advic...

It’s Mother’s Day and we don’t want to miss the moment. We plan to honor our moms that make us all who we are today. Count on that. As we talked, it might be nice to have one of our women teachers focus on motherhood, but we are not sure if we can pull that off. I had planned to teach introducing us to the life of David, King David, the young David who became king. He was described as a person aft...

This work series has been one of my all time favorites, but it felt like something was missing for me. What about the work I do that takes my greatest focus, the most patience, the longest time, all of the energy, and has the highest stakes? RAISING KIDS. For many of us, there's a big old chunk of life that (has been, is, or will be) spent waking up in the middle of the night, making lunches, medi...

I love trees. Their grandeur as they reach for the sky paints a beautiful picture of how we, and the whole creation, were made to worship the Creator. Two trees stand out among the many described in our Scriptures. They are both called “the tree of life,” and one starts the Bible story, and the other emerges at the very end, both in a Garden. We can tell and begin to understand the big arc of our...

Here’s an interesting question. So what’s the difference between the Christ follower and the non Christ follower as it relates to our work? Is there such a difference as a Christian baker, a non Christian lawyer, a Christian plumber, and a non Christian surgeon? I hope not. Especially when it comes to law and medicine. John Wesley said, do good, and do no harm along the way. Maybe the one mark tha...

Join us as we venture further into our exploration of that thing we spend so much of our lives in, on, and around: work. Last week we examined the scriptural prescription for a healthy posture toward work. We dreamed about being workers who, in our various fields and occupations, go about our business with a quiet confidence, bringing a calm and peace to our respective work atmospheres (1 Thessalo...

Often, one of the biggest chasms in the life of a modern follower of Jesus is the great canyon between Sunday and Monday. Sunday, you gather with your brothers and sisters in Christ, do Christian things like sing worship songs, pray, or hear from scripture, and maybe you go home with a little more spiritual fuel in your tank and some inspiration to listen to the Holy Spirit more attentively in the...

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the confluence of two powerful realties. Both are like strong rivers that flow together to form headwaters that we call the Resurrection. As rivers collide, a stronger one emerges, bringing even wilder, more powerful forces upon nature. So the Resurrection does in our lives. It moves like rushing waters over our souls and brings a greater experience of abundance...

As the River Church walks together towards Easter Sunday, we are pondering the manifold relevancies of the resurrection. Last Sunday, Brooke powerfully brought us into a conversation between Jesus and Martha about resurrection. We took time in our gathering to reflect on the implications of the resurrection for our past, present, and future. This week, we are going to listen in on a conversation b...

Easter's coming up (it's in March this year?!) and so is that big Christian word we talk about every Easter... the "resurrection." Many of us who have spent time in the church know what the resurrection was and even what it means, but I've been wondering... are our lives any different because of it? We are going to take a little time and make a little space to respond to the truth and to invite th...

Marco Polo met the great Kahn, Gengis Kahn, the leader of the Mongol Empire during the early 1100’s. He asked the secret to his military might. He said he trains his officers to take care of their men before they take care of themselves. And my generals take care of their horse before themselves. Officers lead by doing. Generals lead by example. Two important truths about leadership and mentorship...

We often describe The River Church as “highly (hopelessly) relational.” Is this true? I think so. But, it can easily come across as trite, just another marketing cliché. We are bombarded with immense content, endless notifications, and soul-sucking and bending algorithms. The River Church is a local church, made up of real, if not flawed, humans, and we are learning to love each other, by followin...

Having spent the majority of his medical career serving disenfranchised communities in India, the doctor Paul Brand made this striking observation after his return to the United States: "Patients [in the U.S.] lived at a greater comfort level than any I had previously treated, but they seemed far less equipped to handle suffering and far more traumatized by it.” This statement is not meant to sham...

Peter wants us to be ready to make a defense of the hope that lies within us. Yet, with gentleness and reverence. For a non religious person, the idea that Jesus came from heaven as God, died on a cross for our sins and rose again so we might have new life seems to be utterly ridiculous. Paul says we are fools for Christ. Madness. And yet, we are to get across to them what it is we believe most pr...

It's not hard to see how life with Jesus gives personal comfort and purpose, but what resources does life with Jesus give for our actual day to day in the real world? What does the way of Jesus have to do with our romantic life, or building a career, or going out with friends, or changing diapers, or being a neighbor, or participating as a citizen? How does it shape the way we navigate a world tha...