Jordan Rimmer Sermons

It's a Wonderful Life Sometimes '18

One of the challenges of life is that joy and suffering often go together. Love involves risk. The wonderful part of life are not offset by the painful parts, but they go together. I take a look at the testimonies of Simeon and Anna, what this all must have been like for Mary, and what we can learn from them.

My Big Fat Dysfunctional Family Christmas '18

I take a look at the families of the Christmas story- Zechariah and Elizabeth with John the Baptist and Mary and Joseph with Jesus. Through them I reflect on the struggles that we often feel in our families and relationships during the holidays. Maybe this gives us insight into what it means that Christ brings peace.

How the Grinch Stole Advent '18

This sermon starts my 2018 Advent sermon series. Here I rework a sermon from a few years ago to talk about the importance of Advent and why I think it is so bad that we are losing it.

My Yoke is Easy

I take a look at what the image of a Yoke entails and use the words of Jesus to describe the essence of grace.

A Theology of Stewardship

This is my stewardship Sunday sermon. I try to change the conversation about what it means that we are stewards.

Reformed, Presbyterian, and Celtic

In this sermon given for Reformation Sunday 2018, I take a look at my churches history, especially focused on how we are reformed, Presbyterian, and Celtic. I take a look at Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and our Celtic roots.

The Soldier's Psalm

This sermon was delivered for Veteran's Day in 2018. It was a build up to a special communion experience using my father's used field communion kits.

The Story Pastor

This is a keynote I gave at a conference recently. It is an introduction to my ideas about being a Story Pastor. Enjoy.

The Way Part 6: The Last Week

This sermon series is last sermon in The Way series. I take a look at the last week of Jesus' earthly life to consider waht kind of savior Jesus is and what it means to follow in the Way of Jesus.

The Way Part 5: Sinners, Outcasts, and the Poor

This sermon series is part of a 6 week emphasis at Northminster which includes personal reading, Sunday school at all levels, and sermons. The series follows along the book The Way by Adam Hamilton.

In this sermon, I look at the Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. I preach the last 3/4 of my sermon from a well that I had made.

The Way Part 4: The Calming of the Storms

This sermon series is part of a 6 week emphasis at Northminster which includes personal reading, Sunday school at all levels, and sermons. The series follows along the book The Way by Adam Hamilton.
In this sermon, I look at the Jesus calming two storms on the Sea of Galilee and what that means for storms in our lives today.

The Way Part 3: The Kingdom of God

This sermon series is part of a 6 week emphasis at Northminster which includes personal reading, Sunday school at all levels, and sermons. The series follows along the book The Way by Adam Hamilton.

In this sermon, I look at the teaching ministry of Jesus, especially at the most important theme--the Kingdom of God.

The Way Part 2: THe Healing Ministry

This sermon series is part of a 6 week emphasis at Northminster which includes personal reading, Sunday school at all levels, and sermons. The series follows along the book The Way by Adam Hamilton.

In this sermon, I look at the healing ministry of Jesus, particlarly the healing of the mand that was lowered throught he roof to Jesus.

The Way Part 1: The Baptism and Temptation

This sermon series is part of a 6 week emphasis at Northminster which includes personal reading, Sunday school at all levels, and sermons. The series follows along the book The Way by Adam Hamilton.

In this sermon, I take a look at the baptism and temptation of Jesus and reflect on what a 1st century Jew might see in these stories.

Getting to Know God

This sermon is from kickoff Sunday where Sunday school begins for the new year. In this sermon, I take a look at what it means to know God and how important the mind is in our faith. I then look at the history and development of the doctrine of the Trinity and use that to consider how we go about doing theology today. I realize that description makes this sermon sound nerdy, but the point was to show the importance of exercising our mind not for our mind's sake but for our heart's sake.

The Blessing of Tingling Ears

In this sermon I look at the call of Samuel and especially at the idea of "tingling ears." I then ponder how we hear, discern, and follow God's leading in our own lives.

The 4-Chapter Gospel: Chapter 4 Restoration

This is the final sermon in my 4-Chapter Gospel series. I must say this has been a very rewarding sermon for me. It has pushed my theology and my way of explaining the gospel, and it seems to have helped others do the same. In this final chapter, I look at how it is not enough for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and take us to heaven. The story requires the restoration and consummation of all things.

The 4-Chapter Gospel: Chapter 3 Redemption

After a recap, I look at the redemption chapter. While we often say that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, I show that the story is so much bigger. It is not just our sins that have to be redeemed, but the whole world must be redeemed. Further, it is not just the death of Jesus that is saving, but his life, teachings, miracles, healings, resurrection, and ascension that all play part in the salvation, salving, or salvaging work of Christ.

The 4-Chapter Gospel: Chapter 2 Fall

In this sermon, I recap the 4-chapter gospel and my main points about creation. Then I look at the Fall, and how humanity (and creation with them) has missed the mark and fallen short of God's glory. This impacts our lives every day.

The 4-Chapter Gospel: Chapter 1 Creation

In this sermon, I follow up my introduction to the 4-chapter gospel by looking at creation. I emphasize that everything is God's, everything is good, that we order and fill in the image of God, and we rest becasue we are not God.

The 4-Chapter Gospel: Introduction

Here I begin a sermon series on what has been called the 4-chapter gospel. It is a model of talking aobut the grand narrative of the Bible and our faith as Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. Many Christians, unfortunately, only have a small understanding of 2 of the chapters. We need a robust and full picture of what the good news really is.

God-Words: Psalm 23

This wraps up my sermon series on the Psalms. I take a look at the most familiar and beloved Psalm, but there is a lot more going on here than most people realize. Some of the problem is that this text is overly familiar. Some of the problem is that we are reading figuritive language that is 2,000-3,500 years old in the Bible and we have to do some work to understand them. Particularly, we have to understand what 1st Century shepherds were really like.

God-Words: Psalms of Reorientation

In this sermon, I continue to look at the Psalms through Walter Brueggemann's scheme of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. I take a look at Psalms written for after the storms and the wisdom that they have for us.

In my conclusion, I read some pieces from a lecture that Charles Spurgeon did. You can read it at

http://www.the-highway.com/articleSept99.html

God-Words: Psalms of Disorientation

This sermon continues my series on the Psalms inspired by the work of Walter Brueggemann. In this one, I look at Psalms for those times in our lives where we are disoriented and dislocated.

God-Words: Psalms of Orientation

In this sermon I use the structure of story to introduce a paradigm for reading the Psalms. I use Walter Bruggemann's concept of Psalms of Orientation, Psalms of Disorientation, and Psalms of Reorientation. I then look quickly at Psalm 8 as an example of a Psalm of Orientation.

God-Words: Intro to the Psalms

This is the beginning of a sermon series on the Psalms. In this sermon, I introduce how the Psalms work and what the Psalms are like. Along the way, I try to make the argument that we miss something when we don't use the Psalms as a cornerstone of our spiritual lives.

Being Church: Personal Practices

In this sermon, insired by Diana Butler Bass and Harvey Cox, I talk about the order of our faith. I think that the Jewish faith and the early Christian faith began with belonging, then moved to behavior, and then finally beliefs were developed to give langauge to what the people were feeling and experiencing. Somewhere along the line, we reversed the order, and we have prioritized belief. What we have tended to neglect in our faith is our behaviors--the practices of the faith that build our belonging and make our beliefs alive. In this sermon, I talk specifically about Sabbath, Scripture, and Prayer.

Being Church: The Sermon

In this sermon, I take a look at what a sermon does, how I approach sermon, and how to listen to a sermon.

Being Church: The Worship Service

In this sermon, I break down the Reformed order of worship. Why do we worship the way we do, and what does that tell us about the meaning of worship?

Being Church: Worship Space (Children's Sermon)

This is actually an extended children's sermon that I did on our church worship space. I decided to include it on the podcast because a lot of people found it helpful to learn about our sanctuary as a Tabernacle or Temple. Enjoy.