River Church NOLA

Christmas is fun, and it's especially fun to watch kids at this time of year. I did always wonder why parents would take their young children to Toys are Us during this time. But kids are fun. Joke - A little boy was praying a few weeks before Christmas. He prayed, “Lord, if you will give me a new bicycle…

What is your best Christmas memory or gift ever? While you think about that, here are some of mine growing up. Our church Live nativity scene . If it was cold, the ladies would have some wonderful hot chocolate ready in the fellowship hall. It was fun. Then on Christmas eve we would all go out of the…

We often talk about following Christ and that if we do that it will change our lives. You may not understand why it is good to follow Christ and his teachings, but today I want to give you some reasons to follow Jesus Christ. The love of God and His acceptance of us are based on grace. It's not based…

Intro Have you ever had one of those days when everything went wrong? You begin to think that maybe you shouldn't have gotten out of bed today? When making a smoothie, you forget to put the top on the blender and … ended up wearing his smoothie. There was a guy who jumped off the overpass to kill himself……

Intro There are times in our lives when what God gives us to do looks too small… too simple… too insignificant … to possibly become anything meaningful. Sometimes our dream is big, but the start is tiny … David was anointed King but began service to the king playing a harp. It was 15 years before he…

Intro One of the simplest, but very powerful ways we can serve and glorify the Lord is by doing good. Peter described the life of Jesus in these words. Acts 10:38 “ And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all…

One of the things that I have noticed over the years is how quickly people can flip you from being happy to angry. Have you ever noticed that? You could be having a great day… the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming… You feel great. And then some crazy-person walks into your life and in about…

Intro How many of you shudder at the thought of all the family gatherings during the holidays? During the holiday season we all spend more time than usual with family than we do the rest of the year. Someone said, but I'll claim it… It's good to see them come and it's good to see them go! Most of the…

Intro We are continuing the Series, God's Incredible Promises. There are over 7,000 promises in the Bible that God makes. Today, I want to talk about God's Promises to you when you are afraid of failing. Now you may not htink this is a big deal, so let me give you a little test. Do you ever worry about…

Lessons from Noah's Life: Genesis 6-9 Intro For the past weeks we have been looking at How God Turns Setbacks into Comebacks. We have looked at Business or work setbacks… at how after fishing all night the disciples caught nothing, but how Jesus turned it around for them. We have looked at How God Turns…

Intro Take out your notes. Tonight we will look at when we have a setback that seems irreversible. On your outline I have defined what a setback is. Setback: A loss of progress, a defeat of a plan, or a reversal of good fortune. Anything that sets you back. So today we will look at what do you need to…

Intro We have been a series about God's Incredible Promises. I have stated this before but there are over 7000 promises in the Bible that God makes for you and me. We have looked at God's promise about Heaven, about giving and generosity (some may have decided to begin tithing) , and the Holy Spirit.…

Intro We are in the 6th message on How God turns setbacks into comebacks . Tonight we will talk about How God turns a setback into a comeback when it looks too late for a come back. Now as soon as I say it's too late, you probably think about sports when it's too late for a comeback. In football when…

Intro A couple of Wednesdays ago, we used the story of Nehemiah to illustrate how a setback can make us feel like giving up or quitting. For those who attend our really good Wednesday services, you will remember that the Israelites began rebuilding the wall and built it to about half way but then something…

Replacing my fears with Faith For the last 4 weeks we have been teaching a series on how God turns setback into comebacks. Everybody loves a comeback. ( Saints game - Looked like it was going to be 0-5, but they came back) During the series, we have looked at several important points about setbacks and…

Intro This is #2 in our series, God's Incredible Promises. Last week, we looked at God's incredible promises about heaven. We will be looking at His promises about guidance. There are actually over 8,000 promises in the Bible for you and I from God. God always keeps His promises. I said last week that…

Much of Joseph's life included a series of painful setbacks from his dream to do great things with his life. But God used them to position Joseph for a spectacular comeback that saved 2 nations: Israel and Egypt. Intro Today we're going to look at the life of one of the most important characters in the…

Intro Funny church Signs One writer wrote that there are over 8,000 promises in the Bible for you and me. And for the next few weeks we will look at some of these promises to you… promises of direction… hope… healing… blessing… guidance and direction. God's promises are like a divine insurance policy…

Intro Maybe you will agree with me that it's always easier to start something, than it is to finish it, right ? It's easier to get into something, than it is to get out. It's easier to get into trouble than it is to get out of trouble. (Kelly's Heroes) It's easier to fill your schedule, than it is to…

EG: Little Jack - Pray people Pray! “ To Be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. ” Martin Luther Prayer is Vital to the Christian Life. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for…

Intro We have all experienced setbacks in our lives. Some of us are going through them now. Maybe your setback is financial… relational… emotional… health issue… job setback… personal setback… spiritual setback… many differnt kinds of setbacks. One of the common side effects of setbacks is that can drain…

Intro We are in a series, The World Outside Our Window… So far we have learned that God has a plan for our world, and that plan is you and I living on mission for Him every day. We also learned that we are ambassadors for the Lord. We learned last week why we share our faith We are ambassadors for Jesus…

Intro America was built with this idea of rugged individualism. We are a group of tough people… or were. Many of us grew up with the idea that no matter what was going on, you didn't cry, certainly not in front of people. The trouble is that this has followed us into the church. No matter what is going…

Intro 9 years today. Week 3 of a series called World Outside of Our Window. We don't just build church for us. We believe we are on a mission to be better ourselves, but to touch the world outside of us. There is a natural gravitational pull towards selfishness so we have to intentionally focus outside…

Intro Welcome to River Church tonight… we will continue the series, How God Turns Setback into Comebacks . How many of you have needed a comeback before? LW we looked at What to do when you have a work setback. We looked a Peter, who made a living fishing, but spent all night fishing and caught nothing.…

Intro We have a Serve Day coming up … it's called Fall Festival . At the Fall Festival, the World outside our window will come to us and we have an opportunity to serve them, provide a safe place for their families to eat, have fun and take home some candy… all the while showing them the love of Jesus.…

Intro Welcome to River church this evening. It is so good to be back with you. PK and I had a great time on our vacation, but it's always good to get back home. Tonight, I want to begin a series I will call, How God Turns Setbacks into Comebacks. We live on a broken planet, everybody has problems, trials,…

Tonight we are going to look at human kinds oldest problem… temptation. It goes all the way back to Adam. We all will face it. Jesus faced it. And here's the thing. Sometimes eventhough you know it's wrong, you are tempted to say yes to it instead of no. It's difficult. Someone once said, I can resist…

Intro We are coming into Fall, my favorite season, and we have some great stuff coming up. We have the 9 year anniversary, Back To Church Sunday, and Fall Festival coming up in the Fall. People are hungry for something. They may not know it, but they are hungry for God. People are searching for spiritual…

Introduction . Flourish and Thrive in spiritual life, our Vocation, our finances, our health, our relationships, and our character. Today we will talk about happiness… or really joy which goes beyond happiness. We have been having VBS all week and some of the kids have been doing this seated wall thing…

We're approaching the end of our Flourish & Thrive series, and this week, we look at an aspect that holds everything together: character . So far, we've discussed how we can thrive spiritually , in our vocations , financially , in our health , and through our relationships . This week, we consider how…

We have been in the series, Flourish and Thrive. It's a series on seven specific areas of life that God has designed for us to flourish in as His people: Spiritual Growth, Vocation, Finances, Health, Relationships, Character, and Happiness. This evening I want us to look at Relationships… “ How To Enjoy…

We're at the midpoint of our Flourish & Thrive series, and we've been exploring what it means to truly thrive in every aspect of life. We began by grounding ourselves spiritually , centering on seeking God first. We then explored how our work—our vocation —becomes a way to serve and honor Him. Last week,…

Welcome back to our Flourish & Thrive series , where we've been exploring how a robust faith impacts every area of our lives. If you missed the last two messages, we just started a new 7-part series called Flourish & Thrive . It's a series on seven specific areas of life that God has designed for us…

Welcome back, everybody! If you missed Sunday we just started a new 7-week series called Flourish & Thrive . It's a series on seven specific areas of life that God has designed for us to flourish in as His people: Spiritual growth, Vocation, Finances, Health, Relationships, Character, and Happiness.…

Friday is July 4th… Independence Day. It's a Holiday that's more than a day off, a cook out, hot dogs icecream and apple pie. It's more than an opportunity to burn a month's salary on fireworks. The 4th of July is about celebrating our independence as a nation… and when that happened, we were founded,…

Today we will begin a new series I am calling Flourish and Thrive. hopefully you understand I am talking about flourishing spiritually and thriving in our faith and life. When you think of “ flourishing ,” many images might come to your mind. For some, it's a success, achieving dreams, or finding a place…

We will finish our quick study of Ephesians tonight, and I am excited as always for what the Lord will teach us. Paul has already tuaght us that God's love surpasses all knowledge ( Eph 3:19 ), meaning it's not a doctrine to learn and understand, but an actual presence in our lives that heals us and…

When you travel, do you tend to over pack or under pack? Some people under pack. Many people even refuse to check bags at all. They cram everything into a carry on… mo matter how long they will be gone. Others over pack. They may take 2 to 3 suitcases even for an overnight trip. We tend to try to take…

We have been on a Journey from Eastr to Pentecost and now 1 week past. The book of Acts is a great book to read an watch the incredible work of the Holy Spirit though early believers. This week, as we continue, the church is born and Peter stands up to speak. The disciples have now accepted the call…

How many of you know what a trade secret is? In the business world, trade secrets are real and important to get ahead of your competition. They are confidential pieces of information that give a company an edge over their competition. It might be a formula like Coke . Coke kept their formula in a vault…

We have been in a journey these last few weeks we have called A Journey from Easter to Pentecost. We have learned about how God told Abraham that the world would be blessed by his descendants. We have learned houw our mighty God delivered His people out of slavery in Egypt. We have seen that through…

We live in a world that doesn't like to wait … Which is kind of the understatement of the year. How many of you like to wait in traffic? in line? We're surrounded by instant gratification —Microwaves, fast food, same-day shipping, and answers at our fingertips. Waiting feels like a waste of time. It's…

Good evening River Church!!! We are looking at teachings from Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus or the book of Ephesians. Tonight, we will look at Paul's teachings from Ephesians 3 where he talks about being Rooted and Grounded in Love. This is important because God's nature is self-sacrificing…