Sermon Archive - 2016
A Psalm for the New Year
January 3, 2016 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
Happy New Year! 2016 is upon us, but the Christmas season is still here. Join us this Sunday as we celebrate the 10th day of Christmas and gather for one final week to sing Christmas carols together. On this second Sunday after Christmas I will be preaching from Psalm 8, a psalm traditionally and liturgically read on the first day of each new year. To best prepare for this Sunday, keep the Christmas music playing in your homes, while also taking a few minutes to read Psalm 8 through the filter of a new year and your planned resolutions. I look forward to worshiping and celebrating Christmas and the New Year together this Sunday! Pastor Adam
A Psalm for Epiphany
January 10, 2016 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
Happy Epiphany! The twelve days of Christmas have ended (you can take down your tree) and the Church has now entered into the season of Epiphany. Epiphany is celebrated from January 6th through Ash Wednesday. It is a season to help transition the Church from the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas to his death and resurrection during Lent & Easter. It is a time to intentionally focus on the life and ministry of Jesus and how that applies to our daily and ordinary lives. This Sunday I will be preaching from Psalm 27, a psalm closely related to the themes of Epiphany. To best prepare for this Sunday, take 5 minutes to read Psalm 27 and reflect over the themes of light, beauty, and confidence. Then ask yourself how they relate to the life of Jesus Christ and our daily and ordinary lives. I look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday! Pastor Adam
Whom to Trust?
January 17, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
Where can we find a stable place to stand, a secure place on which to build our lives? Whether it’s the roller coaster volatility of our stock markets, the rancor and confusion of our political races, the lurking threat of terror, or even just the pressure of our daily responsibilities, it is clear that the world is not safe and that there is much at stake. This Sunday we start a sermon series on the Gospel of Luke. Luke is writing to a people in desperate need of confidence in the face of great struggle. Their concerns are the same as our concerns. Their questions are our questions. In a world seemingly out of control and dangerous, with overwhelming pressure to make the right decisions regarding whom we should trust, the Gospel of Luke offers us certainty and confidence. God inspired Luke to write his Gospel to show us where we can find security, stability, and hope. To show us in whom we can trust. Pastor David
Trust, Wait, Watch
January 24, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
Things just don’t go how we plan them. Life is surprising and not always pleasantly surprising. Where is God when things seem to be falling apart or at least stuck in a dead-end? This week I want to share with you an extended quote from Jon Bloom who is the board chair and co-founder of Desire God Ministries: “The Holy Family’s first few years were not tranquil. They were filled with grueling travel during the hardest part of pregnancy, a birth in worse than a barn, no steady income, an assassination attempt, two desert crossings on foot with an infant, living in a foreign country, waiting on God for guidance and provisions just in the nick of time. It was difficult, expensive, time-consuming, career-delaying and full of uncertainty. And it was God’s will. The unplanned, inefficient detours of our lives are planned by God. They are common for disciples, and they commonly don’t make sense in the moment. But God’s ways are not our ways because our lives are about him, not about us. He is orchestrating far more than we know in every unexpected event and delay. So when you find yourself suddenly moving in a direction you had not planned, take heart, hold tight, and trust God’s navigation.” To prepare for God to speak to us this Sunday, set aside some time and slowly read and pray through Luke 1:1-38. There is so much to learn from this passage. What is the Spirit of God showing you? I can’t wait to worship together this Sunday. Pastor David
Uninhibited Joy
January 31, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
Happiness is tricky. We all want it, but how do we get it? How do we keep it when we have it? How do we get it back when we lose it? This Sunday we will listen together to one of the most revered and well known songs of rejoicing, a hymn now over two thousand years old. The world’s best musicians have crafted their own compositions for these famous words and it has been performed constantly for generations. Mary’s song, or the Magnificat, is a psalm of happiness and joy, and offers tried and true wisdom about how to live a life of joy. We would do well to listen close. Take a few moments to read Luke 1:39-56. Read it slowly and pray through it. Consider listening to Bach’s musical setting of the Magnificat, one of his most beloved vocal pieces, and pay close attention to the emotional weight of the music. It is possible to live a life of joy, of rejoicing, no matter what circumstances we face. Mary is going to show us how. Pastor David
Learning the Hard Way
February 7, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
No one wants to learn the hard way, but sometimes that is just what it takes. Luke tells the story of Jesus beginning with a series of parallel events: two visits from the same angel, two announcements about God’s renewed work of redemption, two miraculous births, and two dramatically different responses from two very different people. Luke is getting his readers, us, ready to respond as well. A few weeks ago we began the story of Zechariah. He did not respond to God’s messenger with trust, but instead demanded to be shown a sign, a reason to trust. So God disciplined him by taking away his ability to speak and hear for nine months. Does God really do stuff like that? Does he really cause that kind of hardship and suffering? How is that loving? This week we will bring to close the story of Zechariah and hear the sobering, but profoundly hopeful message, that God does indeed bring correcting hardship to those he loves. Two questions: Do we need to learn the hard way? And if we do, how will we respond when God loves us enough to actually do it? Prepare to worship and hear from our God this Sunday. Pray for me. I am praying for you. Pastor David
God’s Wild Pursuit
February 14, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
Yawn. Click. Yawn. What’s on next? I’m bored. Even the most magnificent of experiences can fall victim to familiarity. Folks, it is time to fight! Read the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2. Apparently the angels think what is happening is a pretty big deal. I am afraid that for many of us much of the splendor and magnificence is lost. Luke 2 is like alarm bells going off. Something massive is happening! Everyone take notice! Everything is different now! Yes. That was three exclamation points. I almost wrote it in all caps. But that would have been obnoxious. This Sunday we will look together at not only what happened surrounding the incarnation, but also what it means for us. We often say at Redeemer that Jesus is the center point of history and that all of life is meant to revolve around him. Well, Luke 2 is when he shows up. Pray for me. I will pray for you. May the Spirit of God open our eyes to what the angels saw, to what caused them to stop all they were doing to praise God. Pastor David
A Psalm for Lent
February 21, 2016 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
“Lent” is an old English word that means spring. This season of the church calendar prepares us for the bright joy of Easter by slowing us down to remember the preceding darkness of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. Join me this Sunday, the Second Sunday in Lent, as we study Psalm 130, one of the six Penitential Psalms, and remind ourselves what Christ endured and suffered on our behalf, as we prepare for the joy of Easter. You can best get ready for this Sunday by reading Psalm 130 (only 8 verses), contemplating over your daily habits, and then using the psalm as a model for your own time of prayer. I look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday. Pastor Adam
Where to Start
March 13, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
It was a big moment. What would he say first? The crowd was gathered. Expectations were high. How would he start? “You brood of vipers!” (Luke 3:7) Yikes. He starts by insulting the crowd? That’s one way to do it. The ministry of John the Baptist starts with a bang; a scary dude yelling at people in the wilderness about their sin. We have looked together at the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel, but those are more like a prequel to the main story. The main story starts here with a scraggily scary prophet screaming, calling all who would listen to repentance, aggressively confronting them on their failure and sin. Surprisingly, the bible summarizes John the Baptist’s message this way, “with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.” Good news!?! How is this message of repentance good news? This is what we will focus on this Sunday: the truly good news of an invitation to repent. When we see it correctly, repentance is honest, hopeful, and really just the beginning of the beautiful life we all long for. Repentance is where we should start… with everything. I can’t wait to worship together. Pastor David
A Victory Given
March 20, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
Kings are scary. I don’t mean the contemporary “kings” and “princes” whom we see on the cover of magazines. They may have royal titles but they seem more like figureheads and global celebrities. The scary kings are the ones with real power and real authority. Who can tell you what to do and don’t take no for an answer, or else. Jesus is a real king. No question. Our passage for this Sunday is the first time in the gospel of Luke that we see Jesus in action. It is our first window into the kind of king Jesus is going to be. We started the series on the Gospel of Luke recognizing that the most fundamental question Luke is attempting to answer for his readers is this: Should we entrust our whole lives, every part, to Jesus? Is he capable of that? Is he worthy of it? Our passage this Sunday will help us decide. Pastor David
The Resurrection of Hope
March 27, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
Have you ever seen a sunrise? The darkness of night chased away by explosions of color. Easter is a celebration where the darkness of death is chased away by the bursting forth of new life. If our Easter service is the sunrise, our Maundy Thursday service tonight is the darkness before the dawn. Maundy Thursday is a beautiful and solemn service that will focus your mind and grip your heart. After singing, silence, and a short meditation on John 13, we take the Lord’s Supper, prayerfully and seated at tables. For many this is one of the most powerful and rich communion experiences. At the conclusion of the service, the communion tables are ceremonially stripped and we leave in silence and darkness. Symbolically this darkness and silence is broken with the shout of “He is risen!” at the opening of our Easter worship service. See you tonight (March 24th) at 8:00pm for our Maundy Thursday service and then this Sunday for our Easter worship service at 8:45am or 11:00am. I can’t wait to worship together. Pastor David
Jesus’ Authority
April 3, 2016 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
Authority. We all love it, right?! If we are honest, we seem to only like certain authorities as long as they don’t threaten our own personal authority. Jesus threatens our personal authority. He threatens it, but also teaches us that we don’t really want to be our own authority and that we need a final authority outside of ourselves to trust in. This Sunday we will continue our study of the Gospel of Luke by looking at the second half of chapter 4, verses 31-44. In preparation for our teaching, spend 5 to 10 minutes reading these verses and reflect on the goodness of Jesus’ authority over your life. See how other people and groups react to Jesus’ authority, and then see how Jesus’ authority can be something that doesn’t restrict you, but something that can bring you freedom. I look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday! Pastor Adam
New Shepherds for a New Community
April 17, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
This Sunday is the fourth Sunday in the season of Easter. Pastor Greg Thompson reminds us of the significance this season holds for the Christian, “This is the time when the church around the world joins together, having longed for Jesus’ coming in Advent, celebrated his coming at Christmas, benefited from his ministry during epiphany, and entered into his suffering and death during lent, now we get to celebrate his resurrection together. It is the great season. We are an Easter people and now we get to contemplate what is really the very heart of the Christian faith which is the resurrection of Jesus.” For us at Redeemer, three things are converging in this season: our celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, our current study of the Gospel of Luke, and a period of officer nominations for our church, more elders and deacons, that are needed desperately to serve and care for the Redeemer community. In our passage for this Sunday Jesus calls his first disciples. Jesus is founding a new community that will now and forever be centered around him. For this new community to thrive it needs new shepherds to serve and lead. To prepare for Sunday read and pray through Luke 5:1-11. Also find some time this weekend to download and read the officer nomination document from the link below. Read through the document and consider whom you might nominate for elder or deacon. The nominating period opens on May 1st and closes on May 15th. It is the season of Resurrection! Rejoice in it! Pastor David
Deacons
April 24, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
A full and equal order. This is the subtitle to James Monroe Barnett’s book on the diaconate. It is a helpful corrective for us. It is not uncommon for some church communities to mistakenly think that deacons are a second class office. That the “real” ministry and influence rests with the elders and pastors. That way of thinking is unbiblical and just plain wrong on several levels. I hope to expose and correct this thinking in my sermon on Sunday. The truth is that the health and future of Redeemer rests in large part on the shoulders of our team of deacons. This is all the more critical for our church because at present we only have one deacon, Mike Maxwell. Mike is a tremendous example of a deacon, a shepherd, a leader, a man willing to provide both comfort and counsel in the hardest seasons and details of our lives. He embodies well the biblical vision of a deacon and we need more men like him willing to shepherd the people of Redeemer as deacons. As you prepare for worship this Sunday read, pray through, and reflect on these passages: Philippians 1:1–2, 1 Timothy 3:8–13, Acts 6, and Matthew 25:31-46. Allow these passages to guide you in your nominations for new deacons. I look forward to worshiping together this Sunday. Pastor David
Elders
May 1, 2016 • Rev. David Juelfs
“You can’t tell me what to do!” I wonder how many in the Corinthian church back in A.D. 55 responded that way when they read this section of Paul’s letter, chapter 5 of 1Corinthians. It really is a tough passage. Take some time this weekend to read and pray through 1Corinthinas 5. As I have been repeating each week, when we decide to become a Christian we follow a new leader (King Jesus), we adopt a new lifestyle (the kingdom lifestyle), and we embrace a new mission (the mission of the king to renew all his things). God is transforming our very identity at the deepest level; conforming us to the image of Christ. What happens when one of us rejects some aspect of this new lifestyle, and stops listening to the church instruct and encourage them to follow Jesus in that area? 1Corinthinas 5 gives us a window into how Jesus expected the Corinthian church to answer that question. This Sunday opens the nomination period for new officers at Redeemer, new elders and deacons. Last week I preached on the office of deacon and this Sunday I will preach on the office of elders. On first glance 1Corinthians 5 might not look like it has much to say about elders. It doesn’t even mention them. However, what it does show us is how every member of the church is supposed to respond when the elders are forced to make a judgment regarding church discipline. Not only will this passage make clear how careful we must be in choosing our elders, but it will show us that while the elders are uniquely responsible for protecting the local church, ever member of the church is responsible for playing their part in that protection as well. Our elders must be those ready, willing, and competent to make hard, often complicated, biblical judgments for the protection of the church, and then lead the church in living out the kingdom lifestyle. Nominate your elders carefully and prayerfully. Pastor David