Riverside Church

A Paradigm of Earnest Prayer

Read: Psalm 85 Luke 18:1-8 Text: Psalm 85

The Receptive Heart of Christ

Read: Leviticus 14:1-20 Matthew 8:1-17 Text: Matthew 8:1-4

The Ninth Commandment (3) Loving with Our Words

Read: Exodus 20:16 Ephesians 4:17-32 Text: verse 29 “God’s desire is for people to live together in harmony and love and a big part of that picture is people using their words to bless and serve one another rather than to hate and to harm one another. And this is something that he is working towards by means of his great plan of salvation. The words of our text are an exhortation that is addressed to followers of Jesus – to those who have been and are being saved from their sins.” — Re...

The Future of God’s Kingdom, and Today

Read: Micah 4:1-5

What the Gospel Is

Read: 1 John 1:1-4

The Ninth Commandment (2) Speak the Truth

Read: Exodus 20:16 Ephesians 4:17-32 “This is one of the things that it means to be a Christian. As the outworking of the new life in Christ, Christians are to put off their old self and put on the new self and the new self is like God. One of the things that the new life in Christ enables us to do is to begin to reflect the character of God in our lives. One of the great goals of our salvation is that we will reflect the character of God in the way that we live our lives. This is perfe...

Troubler of Israel?

Read: 1 Kings 18:1-19 Text: Verse 17 “The word of the Lord is a profoundly disturbing word to those who are unwilling to submit to the authority of God. The word of God promises peace and fulness of life to those who believe in Jesus and submit to him as Lord, but that is always on the far side of submission to the authority of God, repentance for sin and dying to self. And the call to repentance is offensive to those who think they have nothing to repent of. And so there will always be...

He Ever Lives to Make Intercession

Read: John 17 Hebrews 7:22-28

Asking Crumbs

Read: Matthew 15:21-28

The Lord’s Supper

Read: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 “The Lord’s Supper is about Jesus reassuring us of his love and his grace by the repetition of these simple words and actions. “This is my body, which is for you.” Do not forget this! This is at the center. This is at the core of our spiritual wellbeing. This is what Jesus wants us to be reminded of again and again and again. This is what we are prone to forget. This is what the devil wants us to forget. The natural drift of our hearts is to forget this trut...

Profession of Faith and Church Membership

Read: Romans 10:5-13 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 “Church membership is not intended to be a peripheral part of our lives. It is not intended to take up a few hours of our lives each week. That is very clear from the biblical teaching and that is what is reflected in the vowed for profession of faith and the explanation of them in our Form of Government. One verse that sums this all up is all up is 2 Corinthians 5:15 which says that Jesus “died for all that those who live might no longer live ...

How to Give Thanks for Greig’s 54 Years of Service as an Elder

Read: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Hebrews 13:7 “It is right and proper for us to give thanks to God for the graces he has worked in other people’s lives. It is right and proper to give thanks to God for the service people have rendered to the church. But we do this in such a way as to exult in the grace of God in the gospel. Leaders are a gift to the church. God enables leaders and others in the church to serve with zeal and self-denial and love and faithfulness. But we are all sinners saved by g...

Obey Your Leaders

Read: Hebrews 13 Text: verse 17 “You can make your elders rejoice. Or you can make them groan. How you respond to their care can make their hearts sing or it can make their hearts heavy. God is giving you the responsibility to make your elders happy. Not by gifts or flattery or over-the-top respect. But by being diligent and serious about living the Christian life, by cooperating with their leadership and by complying with the word of God as they bring it to you. ” — Rev. Jerry Hamstr...

The Ninth Commandment (1) “Do not bear false witness”

Read: Exodus 20:16 Deuteronomy 19:15-21 “This is at the heart of what Jesus did to bring about the prophecies of a world of justice and wellbeing for all. To bring about that vision for the future of the world, Jesus began with the heart of the matter – he dealt with the root problem of all the selfishness and cruelty and injustice in the world. He dealt with sin. He broke the power of sin. And he called men and women and children to believe on him, repent of their sins and live out of...

An Assignment for Obadiah

Read: 1 Kings 18:1-16 Text: verses 7-16 “What we need to fear is disobeying God. If we are doing what God tells us to do, there is no reason to fear and the Bible makes is clear that God expects his people to have the kind of trust in God that excludes fear. As Psalm 118:6 expresses it, “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Jesus speaks of this as well in his farewell message to his disciples. In John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you m...

The Eighth Commandment (3) Money and the Christian Life

Read: Exodus 20:15 1 Timothy 6:2-10 1 Timothy 6:17-19 “How much should we give? Enough so that it can be described as being rich in good works, as being generous and as being ready to share. Enough so that it can be described as fleeing the love of money, and pursuing righteous, godliness, faith and love. Enough so that it consistent with godliness with contentment. Enough so that it can qualify as “storing up treasure … as a good foundation for the future, so that [we] may take hold of...

Famine, Rain and Ahab

Read: 1 Kings 17:1 1 Kings 18:1-6 “Ahab did not care for the sheep that had been entrusted to his care. They were perishing because of his stubborn sinfulness, and Ahab was more concerned about his horses. But Jesus was and is the opposite. He leads his sheep in paths of righteousness. He gives his life for his sheep and he is committed to see to it that not one of his sheep will perish. See the great contrast between King Ahab and parched and barren land under his rule, and King Jesus ...

The Eighth Commandment (2) Property and Wealth

Read: Exodus 20:15 Psalm 112:1-3 1 Timothy 6:17-19 “What that means in practice is that our use and enjoyment of our possessions will nurture our relationship with God rather than diminish our relationship with God. If we receive God’s gifts with thanksgiving it will increase our love for God and our respect for God. If we receive God’s gifts without thanksgiving it will be a barrier in our relationship with God. So there is a way that our enjoyment of our possession contributes to havi...

A Dead Boy Brought to Life

Read: 1 Kings 17:8-24 “God is revealing something of himself to us in this story and in similar stories. He does not act according to our expectations. There is much about God and his way with the world and with his people which is incomprehensible. There is much about God and his way with the world that is counter-comprehensible – it is the opposite of what seems to make sense. God’s ways with his people are often the last thing that you would expect. They often seem to be the opposite...

The Eighth Commandment (1) “You shall not Steal”

Read: Exodus 20:15 Deuteronomy 25:13-16 “Now in connection with the Eighth Commandment we see that we the sin behind the sin of stealing is greed, an excessive desire for money and things – a desire that is stronger than our desire for the worship and pleasure of God. And here we come to the place where we are all guilty of breaking the Eighth Commandment. The word greed may not resonate with our experience, but excessive desire for money and things describes all of our experience to so...

The Widow of Zarephath

Read: 1 Kings 17:8-16 “This is how the good news comes in the Bible. It comes with a summons to surrender everything to God, and to trust that he will keep his word to give all that is necessary in return. The good news that Elijah brought to this Gentile woman included a demand to offer all that she had to God and to trust that God would be true to his promise to provide all that she needed. And then we are told, “And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household at...

The Seventh Commandment (6) Flee Sexual Immorality

Read: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 “Again it is important to remember that self-control does not come easily. It is not that the gift of self-control makes it possible for us to exercise self-control with ease. It can be a long battle. For some people it is harder than others. People struggle for self-control in different areas. And yet here again, there is hope for progress because of the good news that Jesus died and rose again so that we might be enabled to live self-controlled lives.” — R...

Ahab’s Sin, Elijah’s Prayer, and God’s Word

Read: 1 Kings 16:29 - 17:7 “For a time, God was no longer speaking to Israel. That was a greater judgment than the famine. For as we read in Deuteronomy 8:3, “[M]an does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” We cannot live without bread. But at a deeper level, we cannot live without the word of the Lord.” — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Sermon Series: The Message of Elijah

The Resurrection, the Gospel and the Christian Life

Read: 2 Timothy 1:1-14 Text: Verses 8-14 “The Christian message is surprising and counter-intuitive in many ways. There are many things about it that are difficult to take. On the one hand, it is the most glorious message possible – a message of the forgiveness of sins, of acceptance with God, of eternal life, of the satisfaction of our deepest longings. But on the other hand, it is a call to suffering and death. Jesus himself tells us to count the cost. Jesus himself tells us that foll...

Jesus’ Victory Over Death

Read: 2 Timothy 1:1-14 Text: Verse 10b “The hope of eternal life is not the natural desire that most people have to escape death. It is not more of the same of this life. It is to enter into the fullness of life which is the enjoyment of worshipping and serving God. What that means is that if there is not something of that now already, we are not partakers of the eternal life that that we celebrate when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the defeat of death that he accomplished....

But You Shall Receive Power

Read: Psalm 60 Acts 1:8

The Ends of the Earth

Read: Matthew 18:10-14 Acts 1:4-11

You Shall Be Witnesses Unto Me

Read: Acts 1

History of Missions in the Canadian Presbyterian Church

CPM Information Session

Canadian Presbyterian Missions Spring Conference 2019

Canadian Presbyterian Missions is a committee of the Canadian Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was formed by the Canadian Presbytery in 2016 and is charged with the implementation and coordination of mission projects and the care of any missionaries that serve under its structure.

The Pilgrim’s Way of Life

Read: Psalm 5

Have a Purpose Firm

Read: Daniel 1

The Seventh Commandment (5) Homosexuality

Read: Exodus 20:14 1 Corinthians 6:9-20 “We are not defined by our desires. We are made by God and for God. The way to life and blessedness is the way of salvation in Jesus Christ, and the way of being, renewed in the image of Christ. That involves dying to self. It involves that for all of us, no matter what our particular struggles and inclinations are. Just giving into our desires is the way of death. One of the great themes of the New Testament is that in Christ it is possible to li...

“As the LORD, the God of Israel lives.”

Read: 1 Kings 16:29 - 17:7 “There are a lot of warnings in Scripture. But these warnings are motivated by God’s grace and mercy and they all anticipate Jesus and his mission because it is in him that we escape the punishments that are the consequences of sin.” — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Sermon Series: The Message of Elijah

The Message of Elijah

Elijah brought the word of the Lord during a time in history that is like ours in many ways. The society into which he spoke was a godless and idol-worshiping society that was heading for God’s judgment. But as long as God is calling people to repentance there is hope. This series will consider the message that Elijah brought in the light of its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

The Seventh Commandment (4) Pornography

Read: Exodus 20:14 Matthew 5:27-30 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 “Fighting against sin is a multifaceted thing – it is about putting off sinful attitudes and actions and putting on godly attitudes and actions. It is about drawing on the resources that God has given us in the gospel. It is about being part of the body of Christ and receiving rebuke and encouragement from the other members of the body, and it is about nurturing love for God and our fellow man through the nourishment of the means ...

Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (9) Cultural Marxism

Read: Psalm 19:7-11 Micah 6:6-8 Matthew 5:10-12 “The greatest oppression that human beings experience is the oppression of their own sin and the tyranny of the devil. Jesus came to set us free from that and as Jesus himself said in John 8:36. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”” — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Sermon Series: Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs

The Seventh Commandment (3) Singleness (2)

Read: Exodus 20:14 1 Corinthians 7:25-40 “The deep joy and satisfaction that is possible for us as human beings does not come from seeking joy and happiness directly but by seeking God and his kingdom. It is when our focus is not on ourselves, but outside of ourselves on enjoying our relationship with God and giving ourselves in his service that the result of that is the profound joy and happiness that we are designed to enjoy. This is why the Bible focuses on obedience rather than the ...

Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (8) The Psychological Man

Read: Philippians 4:10-20 Hebrews 11:32-40 “The great assumption of the Psychological Man is that it is possible to be psychologically whole apart from God, while the great truth from the beginning to the end of the Bible is that to live apart from God is death. Man’s wellbeing depends entirely and completely and utterly on being in a state of reconciliation with God – being accepted by God – loving God and being loved by God and living for the glory of God.” — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Down...

The Seventh Commandment (2) Singleness

Read: Exodus 20:14 Isaiah 62:1-5 1 Corinthians 7:1-8 “The only way that the things of earth can truly satisfy us is if they point us to God and satisfaction in him. And one of the points of all the pleasures and satisfactions in life is that they are not enough. We cannot be complete without God. Our hearts cannot right rest apart from God. And so marriage and sex make the point that they are not enough. They can never be what God must be in our lives.” — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download M...

Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (7) Expressive Individualism

Read: Genesis 2:15-17 Matthew 16:24-28 “Our happiness and greatest wellbeing come from living for God rather than living for ourselves. We were not designed to find our deepest happiness by focusing on ourselves. We are designed to find our deepest happiness in God. The Bible is actually very concerned with man’s happiness, but as a result of living for God rather than living for ourselves. The picture that the Bible paints of a life in the service of God is a wonderful picture of fulfi...

The Seventh Commandment (1) The Protection of Marriage

Read: Exodus 20:14 Genesis 2:18-25 Hebrews 13:4 “The mysterious intimacy of marriage is used by God to describe our relationship with God which is also described in the New Testament as the relationship between Christ and the church. One of the great purposes of marriage is to point to and help us to understand and to long for the intimacy between God and man and between Christ and his church that is the ultimate fulfillment of human life.” — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Se...

Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (6) Postmodernism

Read: Ephesians 6:10-20 Hebrews 1:1-4 “The problem as the Bible expresses it is not that man is unable to find the truth apart from revelation from God, but rather that mankind is not looking for the truth in the first place. The biblical approach to the whole subject of mankind and the truth is that we know the truth about God and the world but by nature we suppress what we know to be true. The problem is not that we cannot find the truth. The problem is that the truth is all around us...

The Sixth Commandment (4) Preserving and Nurturing Human Life

Read: Exodus 20:13 John 10:10-11 Luke 10:25-37 “This is really a wonderful subject to think about because it is rooted in the fact that God is very prolife. He has life in himself and he has given life to us and he has made us in his image so that we have the capacity to experience life at a very deep level. We are spiritual beings and we are psychological beings and we are physical beings and the life that we are given to live is experienced at all of these levels.” — Rev. Jerry Hamst...

How Much Should We Give?

Read: Genesis 28:18-22 Matthew 23:23-24 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 “So, if we take everything together, we find that 10 percent is a number to give us an idea of what is appropriate and how well off we are financially will influence whether we give more than that or less than that. But the pressure that comes to us from the Bible is towards stretching ourselves and making sacrifices. Certain people are held out before us as examples to inspire us. And if we consider our ...

The Sixth Commandment (3) Jesus and the Sixth Commandment

Read: Exodus 20:13 Matthew 5:21-26 “Clearly Jesus is passionate about relationships between people. Clearly relationships are a priority for God. The Sixth Commandment speaks directly about murder, but it addresses us long before it comes to murder. The Six Commandment is about living at peace with all men. What Paul wrote in Romans 12:8 summarizes what Jesus is teaching in these verses, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”” — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Downloa...

Stewardship

Read: Matthew 25:14-30 “The life of stewardship is not a life of asceticism where the focus is mostly on self-denial and sacrifice. But neither is it a life which is all about ourselves and our pleasures without any self-denial and sacrifice. We are saved to love. Love is other-centered. Love involves doing things for other people. Love involves putting others before ourselves. And it involves being engaged in building the body of Christ – supporting the work of the kingdom, contributin...

The Sixth Commandment (2) Different Kinds of Killing

Read: Exodus 20:13 Numbers 35:9-34 “The Bible is the story of how God is overcoming death. The great plan of salvation that the Bible describes is about God’s victory over death. That victory was not painless for God. It required him to absorb the penalty for sin himself in Jesus Christ. While it is not true to say that God died when Jesus died, the close relationship between Jesus’ divine and human natures means that there is a sense in which death came close to the very heart of God w...

Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (5) The Meaning of Life

Read: Genesis 1:26-31 Revelation 21:1-4 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 “These are just a few aspects of the biblical teaching about the meaning of life. It begins with being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Apart from salvation, we only live for ourselves rather than living for God and the Bible teaches that that is the way of death. But it also teaches that those who believe in Jesus and follow him find their purpose in pleasing God and enjoying fellowship with him. And it insists that li...