River of Life Church Long Prairie (Audio)

Baptism Sunday, one of the most powerful services we have. This week celebrate with us and hear the powerful stories of what God has done and is continuing to do in the lives of our church family.

This week we begin a new series, "Foundational." For the next few weeks we are going to be looking at some things that are core, or foundational to our faith, our walk with Jesus, and our ability to be a witness to the world. As we begin Pastor Josiah talks about how we grow as followers of Jesus. What does that look like? Are we growing in our faith, and are will growing with the people around us?

Most of us have read through the story of the resurrection of Jesus. But do we truly understand the significance for us? It is more than celebrating Him rising from the dead, what Jesus did was so much more. Pastor Josiah unpacks what that truly means for each one of us.

Going through the story of Jesus's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Pastor Josiah walks us through 3 different groups of people and their perspective of the event. 3 different perspectives full of emotions, thoughts ideas and plans all clashing together at once. What does this mean for us? Are we busy telling God what He should do, or are we asking Him to reveal his will and plans to us?

We all have asked the question, "What is my purpose." Whether you are a follower of Jesus or not we have all at some point asked this question. What is God's plan for our lives, is there one specific thing or is there more to it?

In our final week of our Global series, Pastor Josiah challenges us with how it is not by numbers, or our strategies that will make a massive impact when it comes to reaching the ends of the earth with the gospel. But it is in the power of prayer. Are we only praying for those in our own circle, for our own needs? Are we aware of the responsibility to partner with God in praying for the nations as well?

The most critical thing we can do to reach those around the world that need Jesus is pray. Mark Durene, a life long missionary to Thailand, shares his heart for the Buddhist world and invites us to pray for those in spiritual darkness.

This week we begin a series simply titled, "Global." Pastor Corey begins this series by helping us understand who the unreached are, and where they are. He shares his experiences in Thailand and Buddhist world. He shares his personal experience in coming to the understanding that we have an important part to play in moving God's kingdom forward. Specifically through prayer. He challenges us to participate in God's will by partnering with God through prayer for the Buddhist world and all mankind.

We have a vision of reaching EVERYONE in our community.  As a community with different cultural backgrounds, we want to bring our cultures together.  Not to just tolerate one another,but to truly learn and appreciate our differences and bring them together to bring hope, joy and peace to our community.  This week we have guest speaker, Pastor Victor sharing with us on what it looks like to be an overflowing, multicultural church. 

In our final week of the series, "Glory" Pastor Josiah challenges us with the thought of pressing on. Over the last few weeks we have been challenged with the question, why does my faith look different than the faith of those in different parts of the world. Understanding that we should feel tension, challenging ourselves in asking the question, "Am I earnestly, passionately, desperately pursuing Jesus with everything that I have." In that, understanding we will never fully get there but we are not to become complacent when it comes to living out our faith, we are to press on!