Jordan Rimmer Sermons

As we come into a New Year, I reflect on how we as Christians should approach our plans. Do we wait for God or do we set goals and plan our lives? I talk about 4 kinds of people in the world- driftwood, docked boats, motor boats, and sail boats. As Christians we should be sail boats--setting goals and following the wind of the Spirit.

In this sermon I look at the power and importance of church music including carols, hymns, and praise music. I begin with why God's presence in the Bible is accompanied with singing and then move into why singing and music is so important to our faith.

There are 2 things I have never noticed about the story of the shepherds.  1.) The angel are not shiny. It is the glory of the Lord that shines.  2.) The angel does not tell them to go to see the Bible. The angel just tells   them where to find the baby an they decide to go.  in this sermon, I unpack these 2 insights and suggest that they point to 2 related thing that people long for--the glory of God and a sense of wonder.

Here I continue my sermon series on what we really long for. In this sermon I take a look at COMFORT. The sermon is left a little open ended because it set up an experience where church members decorated a tree with ornaments memorializing family and friends that are not with them for Christmas.

For Advent I am preaching about what people are "longing" for. I don't mean what do we want. What do we long for in our gut that we may not even be aware of that influenced the decisions we make. In this sermon I take a look at peace. But when the Bible talks about peace, it means way more than just simply peace. The lesson about peace is the same lesson that breaking bricks teaches to martial artists.  

  In this sermon I take a look at the image of darkness. Why do we fear the dark? What does the Bible say about darkness? What do we do when we face dark times in our lives or see the darkness of our world in events like the attacks in Paris? This sermon was inspired by the book Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor though it is not based on the book.

In this sermon I take a look at how stress works in our lives and how faith, hope, and love can help us deal with stress.

   In this sermon I take a hard look at death. We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to deal with it. But it is part of life. In fact, Christians have lots of reasons for it to not sting near as badly.

 This year for Reformation Sunday I did a biography of John Knox. He is one of the bravest men I have ever read out and is the father not only of the Scottish Reformation but also of Presbyterianism.

This sermon wraps up my series on the parables of Jesus. It comes from Luke 16 and is described in many commentaries as one of the most difficult parables to understand and apply. Sorry about the beginning of the scripture. I jumped in only to realize that I forgot to push record.

  Five of the 10 bridesmaids from Matthew 25 were considered foolish, but why were they not ready for the groom to come? What can we learn from these virgins?

  This sermon comes from Matthew 25. Jesus separates the sheep from the goats in the final judgment. But what gets you in? It may be as surprising for us as it would have been for those listening.

The passage is from Matthew 7. Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" and does great things for God will get into heaven. This is a terrifying thought! But we have an opportunity to build our lives on the rock...

This sermon looks at the parables of Luke 14 that are about banquets and happen at a dinner. I preached it from a banquet table and then served communion at that table.

This sermon is about the parable of 10 midas. This parable is often overlooked in favor of the more familiar parable of the talents, but this is a rich and interesting parable.

This parable from Matthew 20 is one of the most frustrating parables that Jesus taught. It is just so unfair that all the workers get paid the same. It is outrageous. But perhaps that is the point... And maybe there are some practical implications for this parable instead of just the spiritual insights that are often taught...

This sermon is on the parable of the unjust judge and the tenacious widow of Luke 18. This is a difficult parable because Luke gives and intro about the meaning of the parable and Jesus teaches after he parable and these two "hints" don't exactly line up. This is a simple story with riches of meaning that many people have never heard and many pastors have never preached. Bring it.

In this sermon I look at how Jesus talks about his kingdom using parables in Matthew 13. These have real world applications for us, because we are part of this kingdom, even though it does not always feel like we are or we don't always live like we are.

    This is one of my favorite passages of scriptures. It is so overly familiar to most people that they miss the depth of the parable. I even think that calling this the parable of the prodigal son is a misleading but you will have to listen to understand why.

   In this sermon I launch a series about the Parables of Jesus. I begin with some introductory comments on what parables are and how we need to interpret them. I then tackle the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example.