Jordan Rimmer Sermons

This year for Reformation Sunday I looked at the key beliefs of the reformation by looking at the 5 Solas of the Reformation-“Sola Scriptura” (Scripture Alone); “Sola Gratia” (Grace Alone); “Sola Fide” (Faith Alone); “Solus Christus” (Christ Alone); and “Soli Deo Gloria” (To God Alone Be Glory).

This is the sermon from the celebration of Westminster's 50th anniversary in its current location.  In it I tell the history of the church since well before we moved to Oak Hill in New Brighton.  It is amazing to me how much of this history shapes the spiritual DNA of our church to this day even with members who were not connected personally or in their family with the church until recently.  I also at the end of my sermon turn the attention to the future of the church in anticipation of the collection of commitment cards for a capital campaign that began this Sunday.

What happens when an idea, movement, or organization get's off of its original vision and purpose?  How does it find its way back? This is the question the prophets ask in the Old Testament as Israel goes into exile.  Where did we go wrong?  And as Ezekiel dreams of a new temple and Ezra rebuilds the temple, they wonder how to do it differently now.  What can our church today learn from this time in history?

   This week I continue building toward our anniversary celebration and capital campaign by looking at the building of the temple by Solomon.  Why is it built?  Why doesn't David build it?  What problems are there once it is built?  What does this tell us about being a church today?  

As I build up to a capital campaign in the next few weeks, I am looking at the building of the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament.  What were their purposes?  Why was it important that the people give to help them be built? For this sermon, I built a replica of the Ark of the Covenant and rearranged furniture in the sanctuary to be more accurate to the set up of the tabernacle.  I walk around a lot, so I had to have my phone set on the first pew to record.  

                                       In 2 Corinthians Paul gives a list of all kinds of difficult things he has been through.  He is trying to show just how crazy he was for Jesus.  If you think about it, that kinds of abuse would have made Paul look very different.  What does it mean that Paul had all these scars and that Jesus has scars?  Do we live lives that are scared for Jesus?    

This sermon is inspired by the book "Ruthless Trust" by Brennan Manning.  In this sermon I propose that the primary response to His love and grace that God desires from us is trust--daily trusting God for everything.  

I am preaching some sermons inspired by the work of Brennan Manning.  In this sermon I look at Isaiah 64 and talk about how we are all ragamuffins.  We are all sinners in need of God's grace, but we are also radically loved by God.  We should therefore start to look at ourselves differently.  There is no room for self-hatred in the Christian life.

Last year author and speaker Brennan Manning passed away.  I got to meet him once for just a few moments, but I have been greatly influenced through his books and talks.  I have decided to take a few weeks to read his work again and preach out of what God is showing me. This sermon is about the love of God.  Do you really believe that God loves you just as you are and not as you should be?  When you pray to the Father as Jesus taught his disciples, do you see God as your daddy?

This is the conclusion to my summer series looking at food in the Bible.  This sermon is not on the general image of meat in the Bible but rather on the specific issue of meat offered to idols in 1 Corinthians 8-10.  The people are allowed to eat the meat offered to idols, but should they?  This sermon gets into some big and important issues for us today:  How do we relate to the world?  What do we do with the messy nature of sin?  How do we deal with diversity when we disagree about these things?

This is a sermon about banquets and festivals in the Bible.  When you understand banquets in Biblical times then the Bible starts to make more sense. Jesus uses banquets in several parables, shares a table with His disciples for the Last Supper, and according to Revelation will someday host an eternal banquet.

This is a sermon on milk in the Bible.  Milk is used to show God's blessing and to show God's expectation.  God blesses us, and expects us to respond with purity and maturity.  It is time to lay off the bottle and move on to some steak.

This is a continuation of a sermon series on food in the Bible.  This sermon is on Water--how it was different in ancient days, what it was used to symbolize, how Jesus related to water, and how water relates to use through our baptism.

Famine does not mean much to most people today, but for generations famine was a crisis felt by the entire community.  We see many famines throughout the Bible.  How do we understand dry and difficult times in our lives?  

This sermon is a survey of the use of Bread as a metaphor in the Bible.  It begins with the importance of bread in ancient cultures and then moves through the Bible to look at Jesus as the Bread of Life.  It was also done on a communion Sunday so the conclusion sets the stage for the sacrament.

In this sermon I talk about the Passover Lamb and ask the congregation to think about it from the perspective of a child participating in the process.  I asked the congregants to discuss what I was speaking about a few times.  It makes for a choppy recording, but I liked the way the story of Passover and the connections with Jesus came out. 

This is a sermon on the dietary laws of Leviticus.  Why are they in the Bible?  Why don't we follow them as Christians?  If we don't follow them, then why do we hold to other Old Testament laws?  What can this discussion tell us about Jesus?

Sermon on the provision of Manna for the Israelites in the wilderness.  God provides for us and gives us grace, but so often we are less than grateful.  Sometimes we even choose slavery over freedom.

Starting a summer sermon series on Food in the Bible.  We will be using food as a lens to look at some of the major themes of the Bible. In this sermon we look at the fall story.  Adam and Eve could have eaten from any tree in the garden without effort.  Why did they eat from that particular tree?  I think we eat from the same tree every day--even in our  churches.  Listen to find out what I mean.

This is a sermon that I did based on the work of Simon Sinek.  Sinek suggests that highly effective people and organization think and communicate differently.  They start with a sense of why they are doing what they are doing.  I think that Sinek's though is very Biblical.  I believe Christianity is a Why-based faith. You can watch Sinek's Ted Talk that got wildly popular below.