Jordan Rimmer Sermons

This is is not a sermon, but is an interview that I did with Dr. Andrew Purves about his teacher TF Torrance.  I and a number of other pastors are reading some of Torrance's work throughout this year.  I did this interview for those who are reading. This is a very theological discussion so you might find yourself swimming in deep water if you are a regular sermon listener. Sorry also about how quiet it is.  I recorded it in Dr. Purves' living room on my phone and it is clear but quiet.

This sermon is on the story of Balaam.  I am a bit playful with the story, but also really work to get at what the story is all about.  What does it mean for us as Christians to have God's words in our mouths?  How might this story challenge us for this new year?

Here is my Christmas Eve sermon.  Why did Jesus come?  Why a manger and swaddling clothes? 

This sermon is an exploration of the Genealogies of Jesus.  For the most part, we ignore these passages because they are just a bunch of names to us--and different names in Matthew and Luke.  But they same some important things about Jesus...and about us.

This sermon is about Isaiah 59 and our need to acknowledge our need for the Christmas message.  Part of an Advent spirituality and part of taking back Christmas from our culture may be a personal journey like Scrooge had to go through.

In this sermon I take a look at the great divide between the message of Christmas and the message of Black Friday.  I propose an Advent spirituality as an answer to the craziness that most of us face every December.

This is a sermon that I gave at a community Thanksgiving Service.  I preached about how the Bible encourages us to be thankful in all circumstances.  Is this foolish optimism, or is something else going on?

For Christ the King Sunday I preached my own thoughts from the book Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian Tchividjian.  If we had Jesus and nothing else it would still be everything we need.  Do we really believe that?

In this sermon I take a Biblical look at financial stewardship and share my own journey in this area.

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.