TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Jeremiah 29:4-14  For the people of God, “exile” is their current but not their ultimate status. While they are to seek the shalom of their cities (be it Babylon or NYC), they must not forget that their “citizen...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Jeremiah 29:1-9 God tells his people in Babylon to seek the shalom of their city (29v7). One of our values at RWS is pursuing and promoting a flourishing city. This sermon explores not only what shalom is, but s...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Jeremiah 29:1-9 An “exile” is someone who’s been displaced from their homeland, having undergone an experience of disruption/disorientation. The theme of “exile” runs throughout the Bible. The apostle Peter desc...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:19-28 What does it mean to live in light of Christmas? Christians, like John the Baptist, are called to use their “voice” to proclaim the “Word”. Jesus must increase, we must decrease.

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:14-18  In our polarized and polarizing society, people who live with both grace and truth are rare and beautiful. As FD Bruner points out, at Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation of deep grace and...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:14  In Eugene Peterson’s The Message, he paraphrased this verse by saying, “The word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.” The more the message of Christmas grabs our hearts and changes our ...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:6-13  The Advent season is a remarkable promise: Jesus was born of Mary so that all who receive him can be born of God—can become part of God’s family. This sermon can explore the reality of what the new ...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | John 1:1-5 Christ’s incarnation reminds us that what Jesus did for us what he now calls us — in his power — to do for others: move towards brokenness with good news of grace and healing. Jesus, the Word, didn’t ...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Acts 16:11-15; Romans 12:9-13  One of the signs that your heart has been opened to the gospel is that you open your life to others: your home, your possessions, your time, and so on. Being a hospitable chur...

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE | Acts 4:32-37 God’s grace at work in the earliest church brought about a remarkable kind of generosity, in which the members of the church cared for each other in practical ways. When members of the church care f...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Acts 4:23-31 One sign of life in a church is that they pray together. This sermon will explore what we can learn from the first Christians about how and why we must pray together as a church.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Acts 4:1-22  The revival that broke forth in the early church disrupted and angered the religious establishment. When the church was persecuted, they responded with humble, Christ-focused courage. This serm...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Acts 1:1-11 The book of Acts records the history of the first Christian church. Acts presents the people of God as a church alive for the glory of God and the good of their cities. The church in Acts wasn’t perf...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 15:9-17  God gives his people commands because he longs for their joy. Every “law” from God is a manifestation of his love for his people and the world he made. Growing in maturity as a follower of Jesus me...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 15:1-8  The heart of the Christian life is abiding in Jesus, living in union with him. This sermon explores what it means to abide in Jesus as well as what are some of the challenges to abiding in him....

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 1:35-42When Jesus met his first disciples, he asked them: “What do you want?” By asking this simple yet revealing question, Jesus was surfacing the desires and longings of these would-be disciples. As we look at...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 12:1-6  Anyone who meets with God through the gospel inevitably finds a life-shaping, life-altering joy bubbling in their soul. Many scholars rightly see this passage as the conclusion of Isaiah’s call be...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 6:1-10  How can you know if you’ve really met with the living God? One sign is that you surrender your life to God. Like Isaiah, you say to him, “Here am I. Send me”. Notice that Isaiah commits to se...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 6:1-8  It’s no coincidence that Isaiah meets God in the temple, the place where heaven touches earth. This sermon will offer a brief biblical theology of “temple”, noting things like the pervasivenes...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 6:1-8  A vision of God as holy, confession of sin, and cleansing through sacrifice: Isaiah’s call serves as a kind of case study for what a real encounter with the living God consists of. Isaiah enco...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | John 2:1-11  John calls Jesus’ miracle at Cana the archetype sign (v11): as we look at this story, we have a picture of who Jesus is and what he came into the world to do. 

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Luke 18:9-14  The gospel reverses our image of righteousness. Jesus' message is clear: true righteousness comes not from self-promotion but from a humble recognition of our need for God's grace. The Pharise...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Luke 15:11-23  “Am I enough? Will I ever be? How will I even know?” In this parable of a father and his two sons, Jesus challenges our views of status, identity, and self-worth as he shows us the depths of ...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Matthew 13:44-46  Jesus has come to give us a life that is better than we could have ever wanted or imagined. For many, the surpassing worth of this life remains hidden and unseen. But for those who find it...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43  In this parable, Jesus teaches us that evil is more deeply rooted than we know, both in our hearts and in the world. At the same time, God is actively sowing and cultivating good things, and wil...