River of Life Church Long Prairie (Audio)

We are continuing in our series called, "Glory." This week Pastor Josiah challenges us with a passage from Luke 14, where Jesus says that following Him has a cost. When we think about the freedoms, and the wealth that we have, have we become complacent about our faith because it hasn't really cost us anything?

In the second week of our series Glory, we begin to dig deep into asking ourselves, "Am I fully living out my walk with Jesus in a way He has called me to do." We should have tension, if not why? Pastor Josiah talks about one of the reasons we don't feel that tension....Pride. What is Pride? How does it show up in our lives, and understanding that it looks different for each one of us. How do we begin to eradicate pride from our lives?

What does it look like to live out our faith? Have we been approaching how to do this all wrong? Pastor Josiah walks us through the tension we should be feeling as we live our lives to glorify God rather than ourselves.

In the 2nd and final week of the series, "To & Through", what does it look like to give Through the church. Pastor Josiah begins by helping us to understand the phrase Kingdom of God we see so many times in the gospels. What does that mean and what is our role in it? We walk through what it looks like to be a Kingdom Builder and see we all have a part to play. We walk through the vision of River of Life Church, celebrate what we as a church have done to expand God's Kingdom and cast vision for the year ahead.

This week we begin a 2 week series, To & Through. In the next two weeks we look at giving To the church and Through the Church. This week we take a close look at giving To the church, talking about the principle of tithing. We see this principle throughout scripture and we talk about God's purpose and plan in it. When it comes to tithing we see that it is a matter of trust and in what direction our hearts are going. Are we willing to say God I trust you with everything....including my finances?

This week we begin a 2 week series, To & Through. In the next two weeks we look at giving To the church and Through the Church. This week we take a close look at giving To the church, talking about the principle of tithing. We see this principle throughout scripture and we talk about God's purpose and plan in it. When it comes to tithing we see that it is a matter of trust and in what direction our hearts are going. Are we willing to say God I trust you with everything....including my finances?

This week as we are at the beginning of a new year we take a look at Prayer and Fasting. Specifically fasting. What is fasting? Why do we fast? When and why did people in the Bible fast? Pastor Josiah takes us through some of the biblical accounts of fasting and challenges us with an approach to fasting that isn't just for a specific time or result. But in following scripture that we begin to fast more as a response to God and to make fasting a more regular part of our lifestyle in 2023.

As we begin a new year, we are always looking for ways to improve ourselves. Whether it is how we eat, how we spend our money, etc. But what if we asked a deeper question going into the new year. A question that can not only change this upcoming year but how we will live our lives. We look at the story of Nehemiah, we see what broke his heart and his response to it. So what breaks your heart? Is it lined up with what breaks God's heart and are we choosing to act on it and ask God what role we play in it?

In our final week of the series, "The Gift," we look at the third gift given to Jesus. The gift of gold. Pastor Josiah talks about how easy we can associate this gift to Jesus because we see him as king. But what we can easily miss is that in order for him to be king he had to take on the other roles we looked at earlier. The role of priest and suffering servant. What does this mean for us as followers of Jesus? In following Him are we willing to take on all the roles and responsibilities?

In our second week of the series, "The Gifts" we look at the gift of Myrrh. We see how Myrrh was had many common uses in the Bible, but one of the main uses was for burial. We see how the gift of Myrrh foreshadowed Jesus death. We talk about the impact of how He lived his life as a suffering servant and the brutal death He would face in order to bring us life.