Sermons & Worship Audio

Sermon on the Mount #9 (Conclusion): Living Into Dying, and Dying Into Living  November 26th, 2006 Gary Harder  Text:   Matthew 7:13-28   IntroductionWe come today to the end of our series of sermons on the Sermon on the Mount. The section for today, Matthew 7:13-28 is often called the “Epilogue”. We come today also to the last Sunday of the old church year. Next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, begins the new church year. This last Sunday is called “Eternity…

Sermon on the Mount #8: Fakes Exposed  November 19th, 2006  Gary Harder    Texts:   Romans 2:1-4 Matthew 7:1-12   Introduction The Matthew text for today divides neatly into two chunks, but then each chunk has an awkward appendix.  Part one is about a critical spirit. Part two is about trusting in God.   1) Judging others Jesus hits us between the eyes on this one. For two whole chapters of Matthew, of this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been…

Sermon on the Mount #7: Turning the Other Cheek: The Doormat Jesus  November 12th, 2006  Tim Schmucker    Text:   Matthew 5:38-48   “Hit ‘em in the face. Come on, you gotta hit ‘em in the face” the boys standing around us impatiently shouted at me.   It was the first real fight I had ever been in, with the real use of fists. Not just a smack or a shove. My enemy at the moment was my friend Ricky, the…

Sermon on the Mount #6: Don’t Worry, Be Happy  November 5th, 2006  Jonathan Slater    Text:   Matthew 6:19-34 Romans 4:16-25   A young woman brings home her fiancé to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother tells her father to find out about the young man. The father invites the fiancée to his study for a drink.  “So what are your plans?” the father asks the young man. “I am a Torah scholar,” he replies. “A Torah scholar. Hmmm,” the…

Sermon on the Mount #5: Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth  October 29th, 2006  Gary Harder    Text:   Matthew 6:1-16   Introduction “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name”   Awed to heaven. (A prayer by Walter Brueggemann, “Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth”, p. 85)   We are the ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. We flip off this series of words too readily. But they are precious words to us because they tell the whole tale of…

  Sermon on the Mount #3: The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth  October 22nd, 2006  Jeremy Bergen    Text:   Matthew 5:33-37   When I was about 18 I went to court. Now I was not bringing a lawsuit to force some company to live up to its ethical obligations, nor was I fighting the government on some unjust law. I was not a victim of a crime, nor was I accused of anything. At least not anything too…

Sermon on the Mount #3: Writing “The Law” On Our Hearts  October 15th, 2006  Gary Harder    Texts:   Jeremiah 31:31-34 Matthew 5:17-31   Introduction   We are in the third week of preaching through the Sermon on the Mount. This week I felt rather overwhelmed by the texts in front of me. I had moments of almost despair as I tried to sort out what these texts meant for me, and what I might say about them. I would write…

  Sermon on the Mount #2: Count Your Blessings!  October 8th, 2006  Lydia Harder    I have never really liked the song, “Count your blessings, name them one by one.” As a child, when I would complain about something, my mother would say, “Count your blessings and you will feel better!” But that never seemed to work for me. What it did do was make me feel very guilty for complaining about anything. And sometimes I felt like I had…

Sermon on the Mount #1: The Good News of the Upside-Down Kingdom  October 1st, 2006  Gary Harder    Texts:   Matthew 4:23-5:3 Matthew 7:28-8:3   Introduction   I am excited about this series of sermons on The Sermon On The Mount. It felt very good to meet with our preaching team a few weeks ago to study this section of Matthew and to plan this series of sermons. The last time we preached through the entire sermon on the mount here…

  Onesimus: A Runaway Slave  September 24th  Tim Schmucker   Text:   Philemon 1:10-21   Two years ago Derek became completely captivated with a book that turned out to be the first in a series of 6 books. Then came the sequel series, another 6 books. Upon arriving at the end of each book, it’s been excruciatingly agonizing for Derek to wait for the next one to be published. Part of the problem is that he reads each one in a…