The River Church Sermons

The Christian faith is the largest faith in the world right now. According to Wikipedia, which never lies, there were 2.382 billion people who adhere to the Christian faith in 2020. That is around 1/3 of the worlds population. Incredible! Have you ever wondered how this came to be? How did the Kingdom grow in numbers? How did it go from a small group of disciples to the largest faith in the world?...

We live in a noisy world. For instance, every day we generate 294 billion emails, we upload 720,000 hours of new YouTube content, and we watch more than 1 billion TikTok videos. That’s a lot of content to wade through. Jesus is speaking, he is the Word made flesh, but in an increasingly crowded world, we may not hear him; we might not even be listening. We are forced to decide, to discern, and to...

I am in my third trimester of pregnancy with our third baby. August is almost four and Clara is almost two. There is a lot going on at our house. The range of thoughts and emotions I have around my children in a day is the FULL spectrum. Amusement over silly things they pick up and repeat(August thanked God for Potiphar last night as I was putting him to sleep - LOL!), exasperation as they throw f...

Summer, and especially our 4th of July vacation weekend, give relief from the all too common competitive and dog-eat-dog work world. We once again experience the fresh wind of freedom that marks our beautiful country. This is part of the beauty of Sabbath rest—stepping back and checking attitudes and actions. Competition often leads to comparison ending badly in jealousy, ranking, and hurtful envy...

When was the last time you were absolutely captivated by something or someone? So enchanted that you could do nothing but remain in the glow of the moment? The older I get (I’m 40 now; Barb Bonesteele encourages me to regularly remind y’all), the easier it is to lose the luster of life. So many elements of reality that once enthralled have, with years of exposure, been demoted to “Meh.” Imaginatio...

By the 4th century, many historians, Rodney Stark, Roger Bagnall, and Shiley Jackson Case and others have argued that the spread of Christianity was nothing short of miraculous. By the early part of the 4th century, some estimate that over half of the Roman Empire had converted. They were actually running out of people to convert! Seriously? And yet today, we seem to be in a decline. A century ago...

Our River Sunday worship gatherings are jumping into a new summer series we are calling, “Stories from Another World: the parables of Jesus.” A parable of Jesus is a story about life in the kingdom and what the king is like. Jesus told them on purpose to comfort, to describe, and to provoke. I like what Malcolm Muggeridge said, “All happenings, great and small, are parables whereby God speaks. The...

We are winding up a study from the 3 middle chapters in Romans, 6-8, all about how to live our new life in Christ. Just because we have been resurrected to new life does not mean we actually enjoy the fruit of it. Romans 6:1 begins, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" The rest of chapters 6-8...

In a world filled with "shoulds," how can we actually live free of shame? Our typical approaches to our problem with shame usually involve either trying harder to keep the rules or trying to care less about expectations, but neither really address the problem at its root. Join us as we learn from Romans 8:1-11, about how finding ourselves in what God has done for us in Jesus not only brings the se...

It’s time to demolish those rusty, crusty, heavy, ugly, weighted shackles that you’ve been dragging—and dragged by—for far too long. Let’s let God shred the labels, lies, and overturned laws that we’ve been told and tell ourselves! As Paul of Tarsus eloquently puts it: Let’s re-entrust ourselves to “the God who delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25).

Romans 7 reveals the famous internal dialogue Paul has in his mind about failing to keep the law. I do what I don’t want to do. I actually hate what I do since it is contrary to what I know I want to do. If that does not describe the most common area of disappointment for most Christ followers. I do what I don’t want to do. It sounds like something within him is working against his true desires as...

We had the pleasure of hearing from Josh White, Pastor of Door of Hope Church in the heart of Portland Oregon... what a treat! He’s going be famous really soon (and it won’t go to his head as is way too common). Seriously. He’s twice as smart as me, and that is a compliment to him. He’s relevant, edgy, compassionate and just plain brilliant. He’s writing a book, Stumbling Toward Eternity and will...

We are back in Romans chapter 6 again. Last week we looked at the first 14 verses and learned that we have a new nature. We don’t have to give in to desires that are contrary to who we are in Christ. This week we’ll learn that we really don’t want to give in, once we realize the harm it causes. Now properly informed and properly motivated, new life in Christ awaits us.

Bob Dylan once said, “you gotta serve somebody.” Here are a few of the lyrics. "You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side, You may be workin' in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair, You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir,But you're gonna have to serve somebody, Yes, you're gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebo...

Listen in and hear from James on an overview of the book of Romans. We will jump into our new sermon series next week!

Happy Easter! What a fantastic time of the year it is. We get the amazing privilege to gather together and celebrate as a church our wonderful savior, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. He has defeated death. We have nothing to fear. God’s perfect love, displayed on the cross has come to life so that we do not have to fear anything. But wait, there’s more! I feel like Bob Barker. Wait, with that a...

As we draw near to the cross, we encounter Jesus' quiet. This spring of ultimate wisdom, this unflinching prophetic voice, this citadel of truth, quiet. Given the unimaginable grit and gravity of Messiah’s final act—scorning the shame of the cross, bearing the weight of human sin, struggling to breath—this silence is not a surprise. When Jesus musters the physical and psychological power to speak,...

We have been focusing on Holy Week this month as we prepare for Good Friday and Easter. We have called the series, the Passion of Jesus, or his suffering. Jesus experienced a great deal of suffering during his final week on earth. He says it in Luke 22:15, “I earnestly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. The suffering just kept getting worse. Here, we will examine his betrayal. T...

For years, the Lord’s supper was a very deep and spiritual experience for me. I remember sitting quietly contemplating Jesus' death often internally moved wondering what it must have been like for Jesus to be abandoned by his friends, hated by others, yet filled with compassion and love. In years since, I feel I’ve needed to re-vist this holy moment with new vigor, searching for new meaning and si...

Behind our every decision and our every day is a set of assumptions about why we're living and where we're going, a lens through which we see our lives. All of which begs the question for a follower of Jesus: through what lens does Jesus call me to view my life? As we begin our new teaching series, The Passion Week, we'll begin our exploration of the final days before Jesus' crucifixion by learnin...

I often think about the gospel as a really amazing gift for people who need and don’t yet have the hope of Jesus. After all, it leads to salvation! But the Gospel is not just about salvation. It saves sinners but it also sanctifies saints. The gospel motivates us in our pursuit of Jesus. It keeps us from being discouraged when we fail. It leads to obedience… and godliness… and transformation… and...

I want to tell a personal story that goes back to my college days. I was mentored by a man that had a deep faith in Christ. It’s impact on my life changed the course of my life. As I think about I and II Timothy, Paul had the same impact on a young believer named Timothy. It’s the story of the future of the church. For the church to survive the storms of our current modern culture, it needs more P...

The program you were running starts to glitch. Things aren’t saving correctly; the pages aren’t loading right; the spinning wheel of death taunts you with its unspoken announcement: “I won’t tell you exactly what, but something is definitely wrong!” Do you continue fiddling with the program? Closing and reopening windows with the hope that things magically resolve on their own? Or do you take the...

“Church When it Breaks Your Heart.” This is what I want us to soberly and honestly consider. Have you ever been hurt in or by the one place that should be a bastion of care and encouragement? Does your history with the network of people we call “the church” include scars, regrets, or disappointments? What do you do when a church breaks your heart? This week, I want to invite us to process this que...

Humans are beings who worship. It is natural to who we are. We express praise, amazement, gratitude, and awe at things we consider "higher" than ourselves. Superbowl Sunday is a great example of this - we will automatically throw our hands up in amazement and praise when Stafford throws a TD to OBJ. (Let's go Rams!) We worship the superstars of our favorite sports. For me, because I married a Cana...