River of Life Church - St Joseph

This week we continue our Story of the Bible series by jumping into the poetic Wisdom Literature of the Bible. These books show us God’s good plan for how to live in every area of life and show that we have a God that cares about every part of our lives, not just “spiritual” things. He wants us to experience his goodness in every area. 

This week we continue our series talking about the Old Testament era where Israel was ruled by judges and then kings. This era covers the books of the Bible from Joshua - 2 Chronicles. Israel repeatedly goes through cycles of unfaithfulness to God, but he remains faithful to them. We talk about how we can learn from these cycles and how to avoid them in our spiritual lives. 

This week we continue in our series talking about the era of Moses in the Old Testament and focusing on the major themes: the Exodus and the Law. These are important biblical themes that help us understand what God does in our lives and what he is doing in throughout scripture. These can be notoriously difficult passages to read, so we also cover how to understand what you are reading when you are reading about Old Testament laws. 

This week we continue in our Story of the Bible series talking about the conflict in the story: sin. We cover chapters 3-11 in Genesis as they lay out how humanity chooses to let sin into the story and how sin then gets out of control with humanity powerless to stop it. Only God can step into the story to fix it at this point. While that may seem like an ancient story, the truths of this still affect our lives today. We all struggle with sin and the desire to choose for ourselves what is right and wrong. The Bible shows us that whenever we choose to rebel against God, it ends in disaster for us. Thankfully we have a God who still enters the story to offer us a different way. 

This week we continue our series about the story of the Bible by digging into the beginning: Genesis 1. The opening chapter of scripture is so monumental for understanding the rest of the story. Genesis 1 introduces the main character, launches the plot of the story, reveals the setting, and establishes themes that will be developed throughout scripture. Our understanding of this chapter is vital to us understanding the whole Bible and our place in the world today. 

This week we launch into our summer series about the Story of the Bible. God's Word is meant to be a blessing to us, but many struggle with how to properly engage with it. The Bible is not meant to be a collection of one-liner or a simple rulebook for morality. It is telling a unified story about how God is redeeming the world and us included. When we understand the grand story of the Bible, we can understand the individual parts of the Bible so much more. That leads to greater opportunities for God to speak to us through his Word. This week we lay out the introduction for this whole series and make the case that you should begin engaging with God's Word yourself. 

The is the final week of our Who We Are series. This week our main idea is this: "We are the Church always." We focus in on Ephesians 2:19-22 where Paul presents a great description of what the church should be, and it's much more than simply meeting together for a service once a week. We are meant to embody what it means to be the Church at all times, not just on Sunday mornings. When we embrace that idea, the Church becomes the gigantic blessing that God intended it to be. 

This week we are doing part two of being Shaped by the Spirit. In scripture, there are always clear markers of the Holy Spirit moving in individuals and in the church: the Fruit of the Spirit, spiritual gifts, and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. If we are a church that is Shaped by the Spirit, then we will see all three of those things happening regularly in our congregation. We tackle each of those three markers, explain them, and talk about how to lean into what the Spirit is doing through each of those in our church. 

This week we continue our series talking about the truth that we are shaped by the Spirit as a church. Every single part of the life of faith is enabled by God's Spirit moving in us and the same is true for our church as a whole. We can only do what we do because of the Holy Spirit's work. In this sermon we discuss who the Spirit is, what he does, and our part in being shaped by the Spirit. When we realize that God's Spirit is the main character rather than us, it frees us to chase God with all that we are!

This week, Pastor Tyler was ill, so Tim Bueckers brought the word. He talks in this sermon about the love of God and how that love not only should shape our identity, but it should also empower us to be who God created us to be. With God's love serving as the foundation of who we are, how we think about ourselves, and how we live following God, we can know that we are secure in him! From that security, God empowers us to step forward into life with him and towards all that he has called us to be.