Downriver Church

Our culture tells us that we should be masters of our empire, in control at all times. The counter-culture message of the Bible is that we need to willing to submit to authorities, to the government, to each other, and most importantly, to God.

Our culture tells us that all roads lead to heaven. The counter-culture message of the Bible is that only Jesus has an eternal impact, for those who believe and for those who don't.

Our culture tells us that our lives are our own to do with as we please. The counter-culture message of God's word is that we were bought with a price, and as a result, we have an obligation to live our lives in pursuit of the holy, in ways that please God.

Our culture tells us we are hopeless, or that we should put our hope in our own efforts. The counter-culture message of the Bible tells us that our hope is in the inheritance of God that results in the salvation of our souls.

God is an emotional God, and that’s not a bad thing. We are called to express ourselves emotionally, in response to Go as we worship, regardless of our circumstance.

The Bible talks about money in more than 2000 verses, but we still have misconceptions about how to be financially healthy.

Social health means having healthy relationships. As Christians, being socially healthy means having healthy relationships that honor God. Are you honoring God with your relationships?

Big Idea: Spiritual health has to be more than just doing the things we know we are supposed to do. It has to flow from the belief that God is able to do immeasurably more than we could imagine, and out of the hope that he will.

Sometimes our poor mental health leaves us feeling like we are underwater, or in a pit, or in the dark. But Jesus is with us, and he knows our sufferings, and he shines light into dark places. We just need to keep looking for the light.

Does physical fitness really matter when we are talking about faith? According to the Bible, it is of at least some importance.

Big Idea: Traditional mentoring usually takes place over a long period of time, with meetings and coffee, and conversations built around a whole lot of trust. But that’s not the only way we can put ourselves in the position of finding God’s wisdom through mentoring. We all have people in our lives who have authority or influence. We all probably are people who have authority or influence over some other people. When we look for what God has to say through the influence of others, and when we try to say the things that God would have us say as influencers, we are seeing God’s wisdom made available through non-traditional mentoring.

Big Idea: The mentoring relationships that usually mean the most to us are the ones that take place over a long period of time, and are built on deep foundations of trust, with a determined pursuit toward increasing our faith, like we see between Naomi and Ruth. Ruth trusted Naomi, and was determined to follow her and her advice to the grave and beyond. Naomi recognized Ruth’s determination, and she was deeply encouraged by Ruth. And because of their commitment to God and to one another, they were able to jointly experience redemption as God blessed their pursuit of him.

Big Idea: Mentoring, in the Christian sense, is about learning to be who God has called each of us to be; but we rarely grasp all that we need to all at once. Often it takes a long period of progression. Moses invested in Joshua when he was very young, and continued to invest in him as he grew up in age and in responsibility. As we mentor we need to build mentors who succeed us, and as we are led we need to desire to ascend to greater heights, to honor our mentors.

Big Idea: There’s no greater example of a mentoring relationship spanning as many years, places, and topics as the one between Paul and Timothy. But they didn’t have a lot in common. Yet, As different as they were from each other, they were united in their pursuit of the same God. When we are looking for people to be in mentoring relationships with, let’s remember that God works in a variety of ways, through people in all sorts of circumstances. We just need to keep our focus on him.

Series: Has & IsTitle: Every Member A MentorScripture: 1 Cor 11:1

Big Idea: Church happens outside Sunday * Help others outside church * You have to live for Jesus Monday to Saturday * Jesus needs to invade every part of your life

Big Idea: Jesus is wild Jesus wants you to live a wild life  following Jesus is not safe  Jesus called us to a wildly different life than those around us  No Risky No Bisky (gotta risk it for the biscuit)  Jesus wildly hates sin  he wildly hates religion  Table flipping Jesus  Remember when someone says “WWJD” flipping tables and whipping people is an option  Jesus wildly loves you  Jesus doesn’t hate you  Jesus hates boring  Jesus hates religion  Jesus hates that you are controlled by your feelings

Big Idea: How much time do we spend thinking about our lives–our stuff, our burdens, our jobs, our family and friends–compared to the time we spend living out our freedom in Christ? Christ died for freedom, to set us free from the things of the world, yet we often choose to dive right back in. Freedom in Christ doesn’t mean we won’t have burdens and obstacles, or all sorts of choices to make that require us to plan and to act. But our freedom in Christ means that we don’t have to bear the weight of those things alone.

Big Idea: Are we under the law, or are we under the Spirit? Paul urges the Galatian people to pursue the Spirit, through faith, because the Spirit is all about freedom. If we pursue the law, we are subject to the requirements of the law, and that means that they only way to be saved by the law is through perfection. That’s impossible, which is why Paul so desperately urged the Galatian people–as well as you and me–to submit ourselves to God’s grace instead. Legalism leads to slavery, but faith in Christ leads to freedom.

Big Idea: Paul has invested a lot into the Galatian people, but when they choose legalism over liberty through Christ, he isn’t mad that he’s somehow wasted his efforts. He isn’t upset that they have been disobedient, because their choices aren’t about him. But he is disappointed that they are choosing the law over faith, because unless we are perfect, the law can only condemn, and never save us. God’s Spirit, received through faith, is the only way to experience true freedom.

Big Idea: It is time to grow up and act your age and live in the fullness of life that being a child of God guarantees us.

Big Idea: You can choose to follow the rules or follow Jesus, but only one leads to life and freedom!

Big Idea: When we begin a relationship–a friendship, a romantic relationship, a relationship with new family–it’s usually easy in the beginning. You focus on what you like, and enjoying each other’s company. Unfortunately, as relationships grow they often require more from us, and we can become weighed down by our obligations. God wants us to continue to enjoy him! No amount of work is going to earn us more of God’s love. But choosing to enjoy God more will help us experience more of his love in our lives!

Big Idea: We all want to be loved. And we are willing to go to great lengths sometimes to earn the approval of others. But more than anything else, we should be willing to compromise our need for the approval of others in pursuit of God’s approval.

Big Idea: We are going to come across other people in the church who think or do things a little differently than we do. How do we respond as brothers and sisters in Christ to someone who has a different method or who has been called to a different purpose than we are?

Big Idea: The Bible teaches us the importance of following the law. As Christians we need to be obedient to God; but our obedience can never be a replacement for the free gift of grace that God gave us when He sent Jesus to this world and to the cross. Let’s not let our opinions, our traditions, or even the rules that God once allowed to be the way that people interacted with Him to distract us from the entire message of His word: that He loves us so much that He sent Jesus as our redeemer, our restorer, our savior. The law condemns us, but Jesus sets us free.

Big Idea: We combat uncertainty by trusting in what we are certain of through our faith in Jesus. If we increase our faith in God, our emotional responses to feelings like anger, guilt, fear, and uncertainty will begin to be more aligned with His will for us, helping others to feel His presence.

Big Idea: We all get angry sometimes. Where we get into trouble is when our expression of anger doesn’t line up with God’s design for how we express our anger. It’s ok to be angry, but we need to be certain that we are angry about things falling short of God’s expectations, not our own expectations; otherwise we are sinning in our anger. We need to identify what angers God, and move quickly toward him and slowly toward expressions of anger; we need to be grieved before we respond, and seek God’s guidance every time our actions are due to anger. Only then will we be modeling the grace of God founded in an understanding of his righteous anger.

Big Idea: Life doesn’t turn out like we thing it should sometimes, and the emotions of pain, loneliness, and suffering can enter in. But when Jesus enters the story, the emotions of pain, loneliness, and suffering can have meaning; and your story can end even better.

Big Idea: We all feel tired sometimes. But if we talked about how sometimes we feel angry or guilty or uncertain in the same way we talk about being tired, people close to us would probably show a lot more concern! We have normalized being busy; but our job as Christians is to make sure that the things we are doing are honoring God above all else. We need to be willing to take inventory of the things we are doing, stop doing the things we aren’t supposed to be doing, and make an investment into rest and refueling, and into identifying people who can help us be busy in the right ways–the ways that imitate Jesus.

Big Idea: There are a lot of ways we can experience and demonstrate love–practical acts of love, physical acts of love, acts of love reserved for married people, and demonstrations of love that can only exist between a mother and her child. But all of these manifestations of love come second to the compelling, agape love that God demonstrated for us when he sent his son Jesus into the world. We love others because God first loved us.

Big Idea: Our fear is about our focus. Whether we are afraid of something rational or irrational, our fear is always a direct result of what we focus on. When we focus on what we don’t know–what lurks in the dark, what the new boss will do when he takes over, what it will feel like when we die–it can make us afraid. But when we focus on what we know–that through God all things are possible–we have nothing at all to fear!

Big Idea: When we are guilty, it means we have done something wrong. When we feel guilty, it means we know we have done something wrong. Guilt can lead us toward conviction, where we choose to not do the wrong thing any longer, or toward shame, which is a lie that tells us that because of our guilt there’s nothing we can do to ever be good. The Bible tells us that through Jesus, not only does he take away the guilt that we feel, he takes away the verdict of our guilt! We are set free from our guilt because of God’s grace.

Big Idea: We tell ourselves that nothing lasts forever. Not buildings made of brick or stone, not our highs or lows, not the good times we hope will never end or the bad times that leave scars on us until the day we die and that we wish we could forget. But there are two things that will last forever: you, and God. Because of God’s grace, he lets us experience his presence, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And because if Christ’s sacrifice, we get to experience forever with him the moment we believe what he’s done for us.

Big Idea: We all want to belong to something, because there is power and comfort in belonging. For people who believe that God created everything, it’s easy to believe that we belong to the creator–and we do; but the Bible is pretty clear that authority and ownership doesn’t necessarily equate to adoption. God is the owner and will be the authority for all things, but to be a child of God means that we accept him as our Father, and let our life look like the one he wants for us to live. God’s children do the things that their Father says to do, and if we aren’t living the way the Father wants us to live, we are rejecting the gift of adoption into the family of God.

Big Idea: The road to hell isn't paved with good intentions… but it is paved. Simply, it’s easier to travel in the ways of the world. It’s more comfortable, and there are less bumps, and we can travel at whatever speed we wish. But the Bible tells us that the road to heaven is narrow, and the slower, bumpier, often more uncomfortable journey is worth it in the end. We should intend to do good, and we should also do what we intend to do. When we intend to do and do good, and when we are willing to be a little uncomfortable for the sake of God’s goodness, we grow in our relationship with God, and we help others experience his goodness too.

Big Idea: Truth is like the temperature. It is objective, absolute, and even if you don’t like what the thermometer says, it doesn’t change the weather. Our conscience is more like a thermostat–we are allowed to affect the temperature in a specific place, in a specific way, to temporarily replace the objective temperature with one that is more to our liking. Our conscience doesn’t create the temperature, it just interprets it and allows you to adjust based on how you feel, which gives it the possibility of being a very bad guide, depending on where you have set it. Our conscience tells us when we are violating our own standards, not God’s. We need to work to be comfortable to align the thermostat of our conscience with God’s thermometer of right and wrong.

Big Idea: There’s nowhere in the Bible that talks about us getting our wings when we die. Death is mysterious, so people tend to fill in the blanks between what we know and what we don’t, and they start to believe things that aren’t true but make them comfortable. We don’t know for sure that our loved ones aren’t looking down on us from heaven, but we do know that heaven is a place filled with the joy of God, and there’s no room for pain because God has vanquished it. We know that we get to spend time in the presence of God when we die, and we know that this world is full of pain. Maybe we do have loved ones looking down on us, but I hope not. I’d rather have them staring at Jesus, worshiping him, and celebrating their time with him until we get there too.

Big Idea: Many people believe God won’t give them more than they can handle–and that’s not entirely true. God won’t lead you to sin, or allow you to be overcome by temptation IF you are willing to let him lead you through whatever it is that you are facing. Your trial, your temptation, your test… nothing is too big for God to guide you through; but it does take faith. Without faith, we can surely be overwhelmed by this world and by sin; but through faith, we make God the source of our strength and our hope in the midst of tough and trying times.

Big Idea: Hard work pays off. We see it when we challenge ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally… but what about spiritually? Is our relationship with all God all about working hard to earn joy or happiness, a blessing from God, or even an inheritance? The fact is, God appreciates out hard work; but we could never do enough to earn our way to heaven, because of our sin. Instead, we are thankful that God helps those who CAN’T help themselves, you and me. We can’t earn our way into a relationship with God or into heaven–and we don’t have to–thanks to God’s grace.

Big Idea: The Bible doesn’t say that money is the root of all evil. It says that when we love our money, and pursue contentment through financial means over the contentment that God provides when we pursue him, we are disregarding the blessings God has in store for us. When we are generous, and hold loosely to things that bring about financial gain, God gives us true peace and contentment. It’s the only topic in the Bible where God challenges us to test him as we give and watch him return unfathomable returns on our investment. May we all be willing to set our financial pursuits aside for the exponential blessings promised by God!

Big Idea: Jesus has harsh words for people who have been divorced. In fact, it would be easy to think that your divorce may be enough to separate you from God. And it does… but not any more than any other sin. God doesn’t want our marriages to end any more than he wants sin to separate us from him. So he has made a way–through Jesus–for us to experience freedom from our sin and our guilt and our shame, and to be restored to a right relationship with Him. In a sense, Jesus’ blood divorces us from our sin so that we can experience true redemption with God the Father.

Series: Let’s Talk About SexTitle: Let’s Talk About Sex - Part 2 w/Jason Soucinek

Series: Let’s Talk About SexTitle: Let’s Talk About Sex Intro w/Jason Soucinek

Big Idea: When we realize that Jesus has made us a new creation, we begin to live differently. We begin to see the things God has gifted us with, and we want to use them to help others experience God’s grace too. One of the best ways we can do that is to share the valuable gift of time that each of us has been given with others, to grow our understanding of God’s will for our lives together. When we spend time sharing our lives–the good, bad, and the ugly–with other people who share our goal of growing closer to Jesus, we are participating in a mentoring relationship. Mentoring strengthens us in Jesus, and "spurs us toward love" that can lead others into a new relationship with Jesus too.

Big Idea: When people experience something new it changes their perspective. When we realize we are new–new creations through the sacrifice of Jesus–we should be eager to live out our new identity in new ways, by using the gifts God has given us. We shouldn’t be enticed by the patterns of the past, living to serve an outdated image of who we once were. Our new identity and our new lives as people who belong to Jesus should guide us as we do new things for new reasons, living lives that please God and draw others in as we share his grace and love through our actions.

Big Idea: It’s a new year, which means new goals, new resolutions, new habits, and new routines. As good as it is to do new things and improve ourselves, if we are only trying to be a better version of what we already are, it’s just playing dress up. If we do that with our spiritual lives, we are trading the vibrancy of a relationship with Jesus for dusty old religion. As Christians, we are made new in Jesus–not just improved–we are entirely new creations! We should be growing our spiritual understanding of who God is and what he wants us to do because it’s almost inconceivable how much God loves us, and what he’s done to craft us anew in his own image.

Big Idea: We all face difficulties and painful experiences in life. We have been taught to cover our weaknesses and pain, and hide them. What we must do is let Jesus use those weaknesses, to show His strength and point others, in their weaknesses and struggles, to Him.

Big Idea: Genealogies are boring. But the genealogy in Matthew is the first thing he writes about, before the wise men, before the shepherds, before the star and the gifts and the manger. That means it must be terribly important. Matthew–along with Luke in his own account–lays out a legal, biological, historical claim that Jesus is who he says he is, which frames everything we know about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; and it helps us see that these stories are so much more than myths and legends… they are true! Jesus’ birth ushered in the gift of grace, and regardless of where you have come from or what you have done, God’s grace is for you, and God wants nothing more than to write you into his family tree as one of his children.

Big Idea: Expectation is about certainty. Anticipation is about hope. When we read about Simeon, we see a man who expected God to do the things he said he’d do; and who was hopeful that today would be the day God would choose to do them. When we expect God to move, we see him more clearly. But when we hope in the promises of God, it affects every part of our lives; from how we live, to what we do, to our attitude, and how we respond to the unexpected. Simeon probably wasn’t expecting the Messiah to come in the form of a child, but Simeon’s certainty in God’s promises, coupled with his hopefulness, allowed him to continue to watch God work with eagerness and anticipation. We need to expect God to move, and hope he moves in and through us as we serve him.

Big Idea: What do you expect of Jesus, our Messiah? Do you expect him to be a ragamuffin prophet, wandering through the wilderness? An uptight priest, judging all of those for whom he offers sacrifice? A heavy-handed king, ruling with fear and power? The truth is, Jesus is all three and more, in the most perfect of ways. Jesus doesn’t fit into a nice little box that we can always fully comprehend; but we must not make the mistake of setting our expectations of what he is able to do too low simply because we don’t understand. After all, God used the birth of a child at Christmas to begin our redemption story, and his love is capable of even more than we could imagine. Let’s expect the unexpected through God’s gift of grace.