Isaiah 43:18

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new

thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the

wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

There may be things in your

past you would like to forget. God is willing to forgive and forget them.

Because of this, you can be rid of your guilt, while still retaining the

lessons you learned by making the mistake. Also, because of this, we are

reminded that the good things we did in the past are noted, but life is not

over and there are new good things to be done today.  God would have us to

focus on the future, while appreciating the past. He is not finished using you

to make life better for those around you. Neither is He finished blessing your

life.

As we ask forgiveness for the

wrongs in our past, He gives it. As we express appreciation for His blessings

of the past, He inhabits our praise. But as we move forward, it is our true act

of worship to discover His present direction and be an effective worker in that

mission.

This week’s message will bring

relief to those who are wrongly carrying guilt for things that God wants to

forgive. It will give inspiration to those who are living in the past and

motivate them to move into God’s current mission. Finally, it will cause us to

be grateful and aware that God is not finished with us yet.

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The anticipation that

something MIGHT happen in our lives can cause us to experience stress and

discomfort as though it IS happening. The other side of that is that sometimes

we suffer for days about a negative thing never happens. That is called “living

in fear” and many people do that. They wake up in the morning in dread of the

day, rather than in anticipation of the blessings and victories that God has in

store. The scripture makes it quite clear that God doesn’t want us to live in

paranoia and fear, but the reality is that many of us do that anyway.

This message will speak logic

and hope to those of you who live in fear of failure, finances, rejection,

health, death, relationship breakups, and all of those other things that Satan

likes to bring to us. We can march into this new year as a child of God whose

Father has our future in His hands.

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When the impossible becomes

possible, one of three things are true. Either it wasn’t impossible in the

first place, new technology and developments have MADE something possible that

didn’t used to be… or GOD DID IT! When God does it, it is called a MIRACLE!

This Sunday’s message will celebrate the greatest miracle of all time. Why the

greatest? Because this miracle affects every single person in existence insofar

as their power-to-become more than they are now. That means YOU! Come and you

may experience the greatest miracle of all time.

John 14:12 Very

truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing,

and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the

Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be

glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do

it.

Matthew 19:26 Jesus

looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things

are possible.”

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How

does a person know that he or she is lost? Many people go out in the woods and

just wander. They aren’t aiming at a destination. They are just exploring. Yet,

even the early explorers took a compass with them or gauged their journey by

the stars.

Today,

a lot of people are just wandering with their lives. They have no plan or goal

for their future, they don’t aim at a career and apply themselves to

preparation. They are just wandering in life without direction and wonder why

they end up in a place they don’t want to be.

Well,

our spiritual life is like that. We need direction and a goal to make right

choices toward those goals. If not, we are just wandering and perhaps we might

realize we are LOST! So we can be lost and not even realize it until we end up

in a place we don’t want to be. Maybe even hell. Jesus says He is the way, the

truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by Him (John 14:6).

The question is, do you want to eventually go to the Father… home… in heaven?

If not, you may be surprised by ending up in a place where you don’t want to

be.

This

message will help you to determine whether you are lost or on track toward a

destination that you get to choose.

The post Coming Home appeared first on Riverside Church.

Did you know that Jesus existed long before Christmas? Did you know that He was there at the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth? This Sunday we will go back-to-the-beginning to see how God created man and then pursued His rebellious and sometimes selfish creation in order to have a right relationship with mankind. As we study, we’ll realize how diligently God has pursued us through the ages, in spite of our rejections and unfaithfulness. When we arrive at the final plan, when the “word became flesh”, we will better-understand the enormity of God’s love for us and the fact that heaven celebrates our new birth, even as we celebrate Christ’s birth.

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From First Corinthians 13, the Word says that all the miracles and gifts, sent to bring people to Christ, will pass away and three things will remain. Those three things are faith, hope, and love. Come and discover what kind of love this scripture is talking about, how to develop a great faith, where hope comes from and how our example of hope during trials ministers to others. This message will be really practical as we enter the Christmas season.

The post Faith….Hope….and Love appeared first on Riverside Church.

It is fortunate that it is our salvation experience and our

walk with Him that bring us into fellowship Together. It is NOT our complete

agreement on every doctrinal issue. The Holy Spirit is an important teaching of

the word, but we know that many different churches perceive the Holy Spirit in

different ways. At the same time, the bible makes it clear what the Holy Spirit

empowers us to do. It is not the issue of how the Spirit makes us

“FEEL”, but how the Spirit motivates and empowers us to accomplish

His mission that matters. The “FEELING” is a wonderful fringe benefit

that we enjoy.

In this message, we will look at what the Bible says, what

Jesus says about the Holy Spirit and His roles in our life.

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Ephesians 2:8 For it is by

grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is

the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

I am hoping that the question in

this sermon title will be well-answered when I have delivered this message. The

same guy (Paul) who wrote this scripture in a letter to the church at Ephesus,

also clarified God’s intent in several letters to other churches. At first

glance, this scripture sounds like we can make a casual attempt to obey God and

accomplish His purpose and that grace makes it OK. As the Ephesian church and

others abused grace, Paul expounded to clarify that we are not excused from

giving our best to the Master, just because we have grace. Neither are we to

consider ourselves better than someone else because of our works, because

without grace, there is no salvation.

This message will emerge from scriptures

that make it very clear that we are saved by grace, yet called to works. None

of our works are great enough or pure enough to deserve forgiveness and

salvation. Yet, God still calls each of us to our ministry in His kingdom.

Grace is the reason that each one of us should live in gratitude and commitment

to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

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If you were newly born, but

didn’t change, people would notice. If you stayed the same in size, never

learned to roll over, never laughed or cried… there would be something wrong.

How much have your life, your behavior, you attitudes, your conversation, and

your thinking changed since you accepted Christ? If you were honest, would you

say that you’ve STOPPED changing?

So many of us have said, in

our lifetime, “I wish I could start all over.” Jesus offers a do-over to all of

us from the inside-out. We can regret or even repent of the past, but we can’t

change it. But, when we surrender to Jesus, the present and future destinations

and behavior change. The outlook on life and the values and goals change. Why?

Because God has a plan for your life and until you are born-again, you’re not

FOLLOWING IT. In fact, you may not even KNOW IT!

Read Jesus’ encounter with a

good man named Nicodemus, in the gospel of John, chapter three, verse 1 through

15 in preparation for this message. Some other good scriptures to read before this

message are 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Philippians 3:7-9.

Has your life changed since

you’ve been born again? If not, have you BEEN born again? Do you understand

what Jesus is teaching in John 3? I truly believe you will have a greater

understanding after this message.

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