From the beginning, Christians have been tempted to live within the boundaries of a first-mile Christianity: having a personal and private faith. But Jesus, the early church leaders, and countless Christians through time have invited us to go a second-mile, to have an unusual interest and enthusiasm for a deeper, Christian life. Today we'll discuss that invitation as we begin a four-part series about what a second-mile type of the Christian life looks like at Ridgepoint Church.

Reading the Bible won't make your life worse! And if you do read it and consistently obey it, your life will be better. Guaranteed.

God so loved the world that He GAVE the best gift of all time. That love is good news, and it offers us hope today.

A lot of the songs we sing around Christmas time talk about joy. We often think of joy as "happiness," but true, biblical joy is a lot deeper than that. This week Pastor Andy talks about joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, and our responsibility to put it on display to the world.

The Bible describes three types of peace: relationship peace, fellowship peace, and situational peace. Throughout Scripture, God promises to give us peace, but sometimes that calm, tranquil feeling can be very elusive. What does it mean for Jesus to be the Prince of Peace, and how can we actually experience it in our day-to-day lives?

Kicking off our Advent teaching series, Pastor Brent focuses on the theme of hope. We all wish for things, but biblical hope is confidently anchored in God and His perfect plan. By definition, hope requires waiting. But while we wait, we can rest in the promises of Scripture.

In this final message of the "Words Matter" series, Pastor Brent reminds us of the importance of backing up our words with genuine action. We shouldn't be hypocrites who merely pay lip service to God (and others); we need to walk the narrow road and ensure our words match our deeds.

Jesus gave us the Golden Rule as a starting point for relating to others. We'd all love encouragement from others, so we might as well decide to be as kind and encouraging as possible. As we continue our Words Matter series, we'll be reminded of the opportunity to be kind and encouraging.

When those around us sin or hurt us, should we confront them? There seems to be biblical support for confronting AND not confronting... so what should we do? Generally, wise people confront with love, honor, and humility--and they're also open to correction themselves.

We all get angry. Jesus did too. There's a difference between righteous anger about injustice and inappropriate anger about trivial matters. Good anger leads to constructive action, while bad anger only hurts others. How can we distinguish between the two, and how can we increase our self-control to handle anger the way Jesus taught?