Jordan Rimmer Sermons

This sermon is about the Parable of the Sower.  Most people want to talk about this as the Parable of the Soils, since that is the part of the story that Jesus explains.  Here I focus on the Sower and how sloppy his sowing work is.  In fact, many of Jesus' stories and actions include things that do not economically or logically add up.  Perhaps this is on purpose. Perhaps Jesus' kingdom does not work like our world.  Perhaps that is why Jesus speaks so often in parables.  I apologize for the varying sound quality.  I walked around a lot and the microphone (my iPhone) was stationary.

For Reformation Sunday, I did this biographical sermon about John Calvin.  I found his story so interesting as I dove into it.  I had been sick the week before and had lost my voice so you may hear my voice crack at times.

How do we handle difficulties in our lives?  We understand that God is with us, but how do we live that out when we do not feel that God is close? This sermon was given on the 50 year anniversary of the fire which burned down the building that we previously held.  It is an amazing story of God's presence through difficulty.  I weave the story of the fire with the story of the fiery furnace in Daniel 3.

In this sermon I reflect on how we make decisions in our lives.  While we analyze our options, the Biblical characters discern God's will.  What is the difference and how do you discern God's will?

For World Communion Sunday this year I preached on the state of the church around the world and what Western Christianity needs to learn from them.

Pittsburgh Steeler great and Superbowl Champion Jon Kolb was our guest preacher on September 29.  He brought a challenging and engaging message on living out your faith.   Sorry about the quality.  I recorded it from my phone but Jon walked around and the sanctuary echoes so the recording is not super clear.

This is the third and final sermon in my series called "Who do you Think you are?"  I look at Paul's view of church and Christians from Ephesians 3.  He expects that the gospel has so much power that it changes people.  He expects that the church has so much power that it can change the world.  He expects Christians to sometimes suffer.  I used farming to help the people connect with Paul's vision.  I wore overalls and barn boots to get into character.

Who do you think you are?  How do you think about yourself and your life?  In the book of Ephesians we see that we are reconciled to God and Christ.  We must, therefore, be reconciled to one another.  What does that look like?

This is a sermon about our identity.  How do we look at ourselves?  I used a little character in a jar to talk about what it means that we are "in Christ."

I finish off the sermon series on stories of the Bible with the story of the Golden Calf from Exodus 32. I wrestle in this sermon with Idols today.  How do texts about idols speak to us today?  What does idolatry look like today?  What do we do about our idols?  I owe much in this sermon to Pastor Mark Driscoll and Pastor Timothy Keller.

Today I had a well and a bed up front as I compared the story of the woman at the well in John 4 with the story of Nicodemus in John 3.  I added at the conclusion to worship that we believe that Nicodemus does become a believer later, though I held onto that information during the sermon.

This is part 1 of 2 sermons on the woman at the well.  In this sermon, I try to open up our view of who this woman is and why she asks her question about worship.

This sermon is about the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den from Daniel 6.  I also tie it into communion for the day.

This sermon is on the all too familiar story of Zacchaeus.  The text is really about 2 conversations- one between Jesus and Zacchaeus, the other between Jesus and the crowd.  What can we learn from these conversations?

This is a sermon to get past the "children's sermon knowledge" that many of us have of the the story of David and Goliath.  I read the entire passage from The Message and then look at the story from the perspective of Goliath.

This is the story of the call of Samuel.  Are we ready for God to do something that will make the ears of all who hear about it tingle?  Are we ready to boldly obey?

Here I continue the summer of story series with the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000.  I was inspired by and borrowed at several points from Dr. Barnes now of Princeton Seminary who preached this text at the Festival of Homiletics.  Also included in the recording is my benediction.

I seek in this sermon to get past the children's story of the flood and wrestle with it as adults.  How could God do this?  How could Noah follow God so faithfully when it was so difficult?

Today, in our summer of story series, we look at Jesus calming the storm.  Such a fun and intriguing story.

This Sunday (June 2) I did short homilies instead of one longer sermon.  In this first sermon, I looked at the story of Mary and Martha and what we can learn from them.