When I was at college, a group of us used to share our faith with a yellow booklet called the four spiritual laws. Yep, that's what I did at college besides classes and rugby practice. It was a little book to help a believer lead someone to Christ. if that person indicated they already had received Christ, we'd share a blue booklet, "Have You Made the Wonderful Discovery of the Spirit Filled Life?" I love it, a booklet for any response. OK, This one always intrigued me. I ran into so many that had been exposed to the gospel of Christ and had made an indication of faith at some point in their life but never knew what it meant to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. The way I saw it was that Christians were living below their means. Any financial advisor will tell you (I have one for a son in law) that it is financially inadvisable for you to live above your means. But that does not apply to our faith. Many of us are living way below our potential, our means, as it were. You were given so much more. Welcome Holy Spirit.

For those of you who want a short synopsis, stop here and we'll see you Sunday. For those intrigued, keep reading.

Some how, our Western theology has made it all about Jesus and what Jesus has done for us, for me, a privatized view of salvation just for me. We've missed an important discovery. He doesn't work alone. The Holy Spirit is God as much as the Father is God and Jesus is God. As the Father gives new life, the Son lovingly sacrifices his life so we may have new life, the Spirit empowers us to live this new life, here, now. I want to clear up one big misnomer about the Christian life and get us back on track. What we have been given in Christ is new life now, not later. Our job is learning how to steward it.

Todd

2020 is now well under way, and if you are like me, you have probably experienced both hopeful optimism for the future, yet also the familiar reality that you dragged your former 2019 self into the new year and decade. How does change actually happen? Better, how does spiritual transformation take root in the depths of our soul, renewing our minds, and forming new healthy habits? I’ve been pouring over the Scriptures, consulting my heroes of faith, and agonizing over my own sluggish ways, looking for help. There is insightful wisdom in Ephesians 4:17-24 which will serve as the core of a [mostly one-way] conversation I want to engage with you this Sunday.

Bill

Message from Kelly Kosky of World Outreach Ministries.

www.kellykoskyministries.com

Shame. That life-choking reality taking so many hideous forms. It’s a phycological prison, a social poison, a spiritual infection. It insists that we hide. Hide from God; from those closest to us; from ourselves. It traps us in our past and blinds us to our future. But what if you could be free of its stench in 2020? What if in the next chapter of your life you could live more shame-free than you’ve ever dreamed possible? Join us on the beach on December 29th for a stand-alone sermon in which we will open John’s Gospel and watch Jesus powerfully free three individuals desperately imprisoned in shame. Let’s dare to imagine a shame-free 2020.

James

Christmas Eve at The River.

Do you remember the story of the Count of Monte Cristo? A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous friend, escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge? Dantes and Fernand were best of friends. Whenever one would act in a heroic way or win the upper hand, the other would throw the king piece of a chess board to the other and say, "Kings to you" while the other says, "Kings to me". This probably went on their whole life until...Until human greed and jealousy and all the rest of the ugly stuff of un-kingly like behavior got to one of them. Fernand double-crossed his friend Dantes. Dantes spent years in prison planning an escape and revenge. Neither of them acted like kings to me. So what should a king be like? Isaiah gives us a picture of a king who is coming that will be unlike all finite human kings. Isaiah has prophesied that this One is coming as a child, in human form so that he can, for a brief moment in time, relate to us and so we can relate to him. As Dorothy Sayers said, he understands us because, "He took his own medicine". Isaiah also says, this One is also the shoot, the tender green shoot that grows out of a disaster, the felling of an entire forest. He is hopefulness to a fallen hopeless world. Now we find in Isaiah 42 and in 49, he is a king like no other. He does not exact revenge. This king is different. It's the kind of king we can desperately need. It's the kind of king we all want to be like. This Christmas, believe that God has sent this king for you.

Todd

"Hopefully." It's one of the most misused terms in our English vocabulary. For those betting on God's faithfulness in the dark forests, rocky trials, and plummeting cliffs of life, this modifier captures our audacious posture of heart. Join us this Sunday as we gather, sing Christmas carols, and open Isaiah 11 to celebrate afresh the reason why this adverb is truly ours this season. Hopefully we'll make it through this Christmas.

James

New research on mental health and the church indicates one of the main causes of depression and anxiety is lack of hope. When we have no hope in something that is more powerful than our current existential angst, we become fearful, depressed, anxious. This Christmas season. It's supposed to be the season of joy. It's the season of being close with family and friends. Yet what I often personally experience and observe is an undercurrent of angst. We want something deeper but we don't have it. We search for it in all the glitter but it's something that shines brighter than glitter. It's the source of our joy. It's the answer to our question, where is our hope? Jesus our King is our new holiday series that will run through December, exploring the Old Testament Isaiah prophecies concerning the coming of a new king, King Jesus. In the midst of war and uncertainty, king pitted against king, kingdom against kingdom, God gave the people of Israel the answer to their angst - a hope of a king who will restore justice, end wars, unite, love. A king like no other king. We often think that our faith starts with Jesus birth. It began thousands of years before that. Hope will arise as we see Jesus in the Old Testament and learn why God's plan was that he was to be born a child on this earth.

Todd

You're only young once. When you hear those words, what do you think of? Live it up. Right? Go for it! Make the most of your youthfulness. Get what you can out of life. Travel the world. Come skydiving with us. Let's go cave diving. Peter was a young man. He had the rest of his life ahead of him when he met the Resurrected Lord in John 21. He could have gone back to his fishing business. He could have written a book on his experiences with Jesus. What a book that would have been. But, Jesus shows up on the shore of his life and calls him in. "Peter, what are you going to do with the rest of your life?", Jesus asks. "You know I love you Lord," Peter said. "Well then, let's get started." And that's where it all begins.

Todd

What if this weekend you came to one of the River worship gatherings only to discover that this Sunday's main teacher is Jesus?! That's right, what if Jesus of Nazareth himself is speaking at the River Church? It's not the second coming, but sort of like the first-and-a-half coming. On what topic would you want him to teach? Think about it. You could have Jesus's perspective on anything this Sunday. What would it be? Well, that we know of, Jesus is not preaching this weekend. Nevertheless, we are going to open up the Gospels, sit at Jesus's feet, and behold Jesus conversing on his absolutely, hands down, without comparison all-time favorite teaching topic. As it turns out, not only is Jesus going to be teaching on his favorite teaching topic, but he's going to be inviting you to consider, "What's your favorite?" (As I write this, all I hear in my head is Buddy the Elf saying "I like to smile. Smiling's my favorite!") This Sunday, let's ponder infatuation, in love, in conversation with Jesus!

James