Do you want to experience the power of the Gospel?

Join us for a four-week crash course on understanding and applying the Gospel to our lives. This course is for everyone, whether someone brand new to Christianity, or someone who has been a Christian for 80 years.

Time: 12:30 to 2:00 p.m.
Bring Your Own Lunch!

April 6: The Essence of Sin
April 13: Three Ways to Live
April 27: Understanding the Gospel
May 4: Applying the Gospel to Everyday Life

Sign up at the Information Centre, or call the church office (416-247-8701) to attend.

We never "get beyond the gospel" in our Christian life to something more "advanced"...The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom. (Tim Keller)

The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine...Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into [our] heads continually." (Martin Luther)

Every day we face dozens of decisions. Some of them are relatively unimportant, like where should we eat for lunch? Or should I wear by blue pants or my black pants today? Some of them are incredibly important, but it's pretty clear what we should do, like should I pad my expense account? Or should I flirt with this person who isn't my spouse? We may not do the right thing, but at least we know what the right thing is.

But there's a third type of decision that we face every day. These decisions are important, and which choice we make can change our lives. But the answers aren't always very clear. They're questions like:

• Which university should I go too out of all the ones that have accepted me?
• Should I take the job in Calgary or stick with the one I have here?
• How do I handle the guy at work who drives me crazy?
• How do I handle my own bad temper?

There are tons of decisions that we face just like these in which the answers aren't obvious. There's no "Thou shalt" or "Thou shalt not" about some of these choices. Yet we need to be able to make these decisions, and many more like them, and the choices that we make with these decisions will ultimately change our lives.

That's why I'm really excited to begin a series from the book of Proverbs today, because Proverbs is written to address this category of decisions which are important, and yet for which there is not always a black and white answer. It's absolutely critical that we gain the skill we need in order to live wisely, and Proverbs is designed to help us gain this skill that we need.

Sermon from March 23, 2008 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

There are many decisions we face that are important, but for which there is no clear black and white answer. They're too small to be covered by the law and the prophets, and yet they're big enough to be crucial.

What do we do with these decisions? Join us this Sunday at 10:30 a.m. as we begin to look at what the book of Proverbs says about gaining the skill to live wisely.

The March newsletter is now online in PDF (requires the free Adobe Reader).

Sermon from March 21, 2008 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

Sermon from March 9 2008 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

Sermon from March 3, 2009 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

Of all the stories out there, my favorite is one that involves a reversal of fortunes at the end. All seems lost, but at the very last minute something unexpected happens, and the day is saved, and everything bad that happened is undone.

So near the end of The Lord of the Rings - the book, not the movie - Sam realizes that he and Frodo have survived, and that Gandalf has returned from the dead. Sam says, "It wasn't a dream?" When he realizes it isn't, he lays back with both joy and bewilderment and asks, "Is everything sad going to come untrue?" A great question. Is everything sad going to come untrue?

Out of all of the stories of reversal, the one that we just read beats them all. And what's more, it claims to be true. This morning I want to do three things, nothing more. I want to look at why it's hard to believe, how we can believe it, and what difference it makes when we do believe it.

The Gospel of Luke records the death of Jesus Christ in just a few words, which we’ve just read. Yet it’s packed with the significance of what took place on that Friday. When we look at this passage, we’ll understand that the death of Jesus was cosmic, unjust, and voluntary. We’ll also see that it’s part of a bigger picture, a picture that includes you.

Our Good Friday service will take place at 10:30 AM. We will celebrate Communion at this service.

On Easter Sunday, we will be meeting at 10:30 AM for a celebration of the resurrection, along with a baptism.

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and a family service. Our children's ministry will bring a presentation to the church.

You're invited to stay afterwards for a potluck lunch. If your last name begins with a letter between A-K, please bring veggies and dip. If your last name starts with L-Z, please bring sandwiches. The seniors ministry will provide dessert.

It's the time of the year that churches all over the world are looking at the last days of Jesus before his death. We are now at the point in which Jesus has been condemned to die, and is being led to be crucified.

Our Bibles have four different accounts of this event. Each account is similar, but calls attention to different details. The Gospel writer Luke has a number of details that don't appear in any of the other accounts. One of them is the well-known prayer that Jesus offered when he was on the cross, found in Luke 23:34: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Normally we focus on the first part of this prayer: "Father, forgive them." That's an important thing to do, because forgiveness is at the heart of the cross. But we can't overlook the second part of this prayer: "for they do not know what they are doing." As Jesus walked to the cross, and as he looked around him, he recognized that the people around him really had no idea what was going on. They think that they understand, but they really don't. Jesus asks God to forgive them, recognizing that they don't understand the significance of what's happening as he goes to the cross.

A couple of thousand years later, things aren't that different. The apostle Paul called the message of the cross "foolishness to those who are perishing" (1 Corinthians 1:18). I know someone who got talking about the gospel to the person sitting beside him on an airplane. "What does the execution of a Jewish man by Romans two thousand years ago have to do with me?" In a sense, he's right. What could this have to do with us? Missing the significance of the cross is just as easy today as it was two thousand years ago.

The death of Christ on the cross is the central event of Christian history, yet it's not immediately easy to understand. This Sunday at 10:30, we'll be looking at what the Luke's account of Jesus on the cross teaches us about the meaning of the cross.

Do you want to experience the power of the Gospel?

Join us for a four-week crash course on understanding and applying the Gospel to our lives. This course is for everyone, whether someone brand new to Christianity, or someone who has been a Christian for 80 years.

April 6: The Essence of Sin
April 13: Three Ways to Live
April 27: Understanding the Gospel
May 4: Applying the Gospel to Everyday Life

Sign up at the Information Centre, or call the church office (416-247-8701) to attend.

We never "get beyond the gospel" in our Christian life to something more "advanced"...The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom. (Tim Keller)

The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine...Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into [our] heads continually." (Martin Luther)

• March 7: Regular Club 
• March 14: March Break (NO Club)    
• March 21: Easter Weekend (NO Club)  
• March 28: Regular Club

All over the world, churches are preparing for Easter by looking at the events that took place in the days before Jesus' death almost two thousand years ago. Today we're coming to a section that describes what happened after Jesus' arrest and in his trials before he was condemned to die.

It's popular for people to say that they like Jesus, but they're not really sure that they believe that he's the Son of God. A lot of people respect Jesus, and they think that he was a prophet or a great moral teacher, but they're not sure if they can accept that he was God or the Savior of the world. Today we're going to see that there are four ways to think about Jesus, and all of us fit into one of these four ways, but only one way makes sense.

What are the four ways of responding to Jesus?

Thoughts from the Elders:

Over the last few months, the Elder’s board has been challenged to discuss and seek the Lord about a number of challenges for RBC. Some of these remain items for thought an prayer while others have already resulted in some preliminary action. For the purpose of this report, we’ll pose the challenges in the form of questions and then give our current thoughts and musings to date. Hopefully it will give you some idea of what we are thinking about and give you an opportunity to engage with us in considering them…

An addendum to the 2007 Annual Report is now online in PDF (requires the free Acrobat Reader).

Richview's Annual Meeting takes place on Saturday, March 1 at 6:00 p.m. Please plan to attend. Ice cream will be served after the meeting.