Rice Community Church

you can’t finish what you don’t start, God cant answer a prayer you don’t pray. what we see is how you do anything, is how you will do everything. Dream God sized dream and then start where you are and watch God work it out.

we all have 24 hours each day that God has given us and what I want to look at today is of those are we cultivating good habits, are we making the most of our time, talents and treasure that God has given us. We pray like it depends on God, and work like it depends on us.

Don’t look at the obstacles as the problem but that obstacle is the way to the other side. Sometimes in life we want God split the Seas when God is waiting for us to take a leap of faith. Today we look at Exodus 14.

If you let culture it will try and name you and tame you, it will label you, it will define you, You have to know who you are and Whose you are, in Ephesians we are called blessed, chosen, blameless, adopted, redeemed, sealed, stamped that is who you are that is your name.

We have a choice. We can play it safe or we can seize the life God has in mind for us. What’s it going to be? Come explore what can happen when we become Bold.

Join us for an Easter message as we look at the last 7 sayings Jesus made at the cross and how they are important for us today.

Tonight as we finish off our series on Loving Like Jesus we must ask ourselves the question, am I living a life of more - a life of radical kingdom love? Do we only love those who agree with us and are likable or are we loving with more, praying for those different than us and displaying radical love to all those we come in contact with.

Tonight we refocus our attention on loving people like Jesus, when we truly understand that Jesus died on the cross for our sin and in your place, it changes how we address the brokenness going on around us. You want to love in a fractured world? Represent Jesus and his kingdom well.

Have you ever felt like you didnt measure up, or always seemed to left out or ignored? How as followers of Jesus do we love those who seem to be marginalized? Jesus did not just love marginalized people, Jesus moved the margins, His heart moved with compassion. Scripture we are looking at is Matthew 20:30-34

It just seems like anger is on the rise. You turn on the TV and its pundits yelling at each other. You go on the internet and its people dissing and demonizing each other. It just seems like we're more divided, we're more polarized, we're more fractious and fractured than in a long, long time. How are we supposed to react to that as believers, as followers of Jesus Christ? In a fractured world, how are we to be agents of love, agents of unity, agents of harmony and peace?

Tonight we are going to look at the differences between Jesus arrival at the first Christmas and His returning as King of kings.

Tonight in our message we are going to challenge ourselves instead of looking down on the inn keeper in the Christmas story and ask am I too busy or will I make room for Jesus in my life?

We have all heard someone at sometime say, "you can't judge me, only God can," it's one of our favorite verses to use to live how we want tonight we look at Matthew 7:1 "' “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ' and see that how we look and love people is sometimes a reflection of our own hearts and we have to use discernment and repent first then help out our brothers and sisters.

A favorite coffee mug verse, but when we read the surrounding verses, we see a nation in exile, going through some stuff, the Gospel isn't about an easy life, but a life of peace found in our true hope Jesus. Just like gold must be refined to be pure and more precious our lives have to be refined and defined by obedience and repentance as those two characteristics grow so will our peace and our joy because we are walking into the purpose that God ultimately has for us Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. '

Tonight we look at John 3:16 its been called the Gospel in a nutshell or a miniature Gospel, but as we break this down and look at the context of what was going on, our prayer is that the depth of this verse opens our hearts to see the extravagant loved God gave to show His love for us, so that we can go out and share that love with those around us.

Today we are discussing how to be grateful when things aren't going great, what steps can we take when everything seems to be going wrong. Our main verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

How do we love those who proclaim one thing, but inwardly they're living something way way different? Our goal isn't to be right, but to help people become right with God, our job isn't to judge but guide people back to the One who makes things right Jesus.

in todays message we discuss how to love and help needy people. through prayer we will see how to give people a hand up and not a hand out, not always giving them what they want and what is easy but giving them what they need and in the process we may come to find out they are helping us fill a need as well.

When look at culture, look at what is going on in the world around us, at the brokenness, the pain, politics, our community and even sadly in a lot of families today what seems to be broken at the core? Our relationships, but what if the our relationships are the very ingredients to God's wonder-working power?

Today we wrap our series up for the question "What's Next?" We look at Matthew 5:3-4, "When we come to end of ourselves, that's where Jesus will meet us. We are made whole because He was broken.” And its only after being broken that we’re really ready to fulfill our purpose to be used by God.