Riverway Church Sermon Podcast

God showed us His Love by giving us His Son, Jesus. Through Jesus, God’s love arrived in a powerful, real way that brought us hope, peace, joy, forgiveness, and renewed relationship with God. Our world changed because Jesus came to give ALL of Himself to us. That was His sacrificial gift of Love!

As Jesus has come to us, He asks that we follow Him and allow Him to guide & direct our lives. He is our Lord and leader. He’s the one who has promised to forgive us of what we’ve done wrong and give us new life in Him. And He’s the friend who wants to be near us, so that He might continuously show how great His love for us is.

Receiving Jesus as our Lord means we have a relationship with Him, and it means we get to experience all that He wants to give us, through His perfect Love.

How often do we consider the Joy in our lives? Is it the same as happiness, or is there something special to Joy? Something that comes from deeper within us?

Circumstances will surely come our way that have the potential to drain the happiness from us. The hard parts of life: interruptions, challenges, and difficulties, can leave us feeling anxious, afraid, or even lost. Jesus came to us, right in the middle of the hard parts in life, to give us His Joy. This Joy is not just a one-time thing; It’s a spiritual condition that He continually renews in us.

As we focus on staying close to Jesus, He promises to make our Joy complete in Him. Hard circumstances are not the end for us, because we have HOPE through Jesus as Emmanuel, “God with us”. We know that He will see us through any situation in life, as His LOVE guide us, directs us, and fills us with Joy.

Christmas is one of the most cherished and special times of the year, but it can also bring extra stress, pressure, and chaos into our already busy lives. - When Jesus was born, this world was no less busy and chaotic than it is today. In the middle of our mess, Jesus came to fulfill a promise that God made to us: His promise to bring Peace to our confusing and painful world. 


The Peace that God gives us doesn’t simply mean a lack of conflict in our lives, it’s all about Him bringing COMPLETENESS & WHOLENESS to us. Jesus brought us Peace by restoring us to God, so that we could be close to Him again. He also restored us to each other, because Peace is never meant to be kept to ourselves; we’re meant to share it, and to extend it to others.

God’s promises were fulfilled when He gave us Jesus as our Savior, and those promises are still being fulfilled in us today. Even with all the crazy in our lives, God wants to grow something miraculous inside of us; the powerful blessing of Peace that can only come from Him.

Giving and receiving gifts can bring us so many emotions: Excitement, Hope, Anticipation, and genuine Joy! There is a great expression of love that comes through the giving of a thoughtful, timely gift. That’s what makes gifts so special. It’s not just about the gift, but about the GIVING.



We’ve been given a great gift that expresses God’s love to us: He sent Jesus to this world FOR US. He has saved us from our sin, our failures, from our debt of wrongdoings that we could never begin to repay, and GIFTED us NEW LIFE in Him! Jesus is the greatest gift ever given; He is a gift available to all of us! Will we choose to receive Him?

Everyone needs Hope - it’s essential to life. The challenges, disappointments, & surprises of daily life have a way of slowly draining the Hope out of us. Are circumstances in your life giving you Hope or draining it from you? Do you feel lost simply trying to figure life out?

We all trust in something or someone as our source of hope, but people & things can often fail us. God promises that He will never fail us, and the Bible is filled with evidence of the Hope He has promised to us. Christmas is a reflection of that Hope; a sign that even in the most difficult times of life, God is with us and He will never leave us on our own. He is continually in the process of bringing Hope to our lives.

The goodness of God touches our lives in many ways. His blessings faithfully follow us, protecting and providing for us. How often do we pause to recognize all of the blessings that God continually shows us; Do we regularly give thanks to God for what has given us and done for us?



Expressing our gratitude & appreciation to God leads us closer to Him. It keeps our heart open, and reminds us that in all times of our life He is always faithful - and He is always good.

God’s character is built on love & faithfulness. His goodness to us is not dependent upon how we behave or what we do, but is based on Jesus’ sacrifice which paid the price for every sin we have committed.

In the midst of our sin, God has a perfect plan of redemption. God isn’t tolerant with sin, but through His love He continuously invites us into a new start with Him. He is faithful, and his forgiveness sets us free. God can take our BAD and bring about something GOOD, and in that He proves to us that He is good.

Pain is something we all will experience in life. Whether the pain we face is emotional or physical, it can leave us feeling helpless. Painful circumstances & situations can cause us to feel like our life is out of control. We might wonder if God is still good, and if He really sees us.

Remembering God’s past goodness will help reassure us that He is not absent from our lives. We must hold on to the hope that He is still bigger than our circumstance, and trust that He has not lost control of our situation. Even in our pain, God has the power to extend us His grace and show us that He is good.

Each of us has felt the pain of negative words. Whether through an emotional attack or someone's brutal honesty, we are hit with emotional weight as those negative words pierce into us. It shows us that words are more powerful than we often think they are.

God desires to heal us from scars of negativity, because his promises for us are greater than the negative words of others. - Even if others have spoken negatively to us, we have the opportunity to control our response and ask God to provide the solution to our situation. Our greatest approval comes from what He says about us.

Our words are like construction tools. They can be used to build relationships & connections that are healthy and strong, or they can corrupt and destroy. We either build others up or tear them down.

All words we speak have the power to impact others, either positively or negatively. However, every word is not equal; we all need to receive more encouragement than criticism to continue growing in a healthy manner. We can choose to become encouragers that help lead others towards their best.