Redeemer Weekend Sermons

The Kingdom of God
Christmas Eve • December 31, 2023
Teacher: Dave Brown

O Holy Night
Christmas Eve • December 24, 2023
Teacher: Adam Barnett

> Let all within us praise His holy name!

\_Luke 2:8-20_\

> “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

> The shepherds glorified and praised God for all the things they had heard and seen.

> And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share, as we tarry there… none other has ever known.

\_Isaiah 9:6_\
> “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

O Holy Night
Advent • December 17, 2023
Teacher: Adam Barnett

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**O Holy Night**  

"In His name, all oppression shall cease." • December 17, 2023  

_Teacher:_ **Adam Barnett**

> In His name, all oppression shall cease.

\_Luke 4:18-19_\

> “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

> 1. The prisoner will be released.

> 2. The blind will see.

> 3. The oppressed will be set free.

\_Revelation 21:4_\

> "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

> Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.
Amen.

O Holy Night
Joy • December 10, 2023
Teacher: Adam Barnett

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**O Holy Night**  

Joy • December 10, 2023  

_Teacher:_ **Adam Barnett**

Chains Shall He Break, for the Slave is Our Brother – Philemon

> American Christianity is consumer focused. Therefore, it is me-focused.

> Jesus is making things right - in all people, for all people, and between all people.

> Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother.

**Philemon 1:1-16**

> 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker—2 also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. 7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people. 8 Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, 9 yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— 10 that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. 11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. 12 I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. 13 I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. 15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

**Colossians 3:22**

> Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.

**Colossians 4:1**

> Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

**Max Anders**

> “Slavery mocks Christian compassion and brotherhood. It assaults the biblical principle of equity before God. Through forced subjection and inhumane practices, slavery tramples on God’s creation. But rather than attacking social structures and relationships, Christianity works within the human conscience. In this way, a more thorough and lasting change occurs. When Christian ethics and cultural practices conflict, the Christian response is reformation of the heart and mind rather than revolution over social institutions.”

> When the human heart is captured by love, truth, and compassion, social evils disappear.

>What unjust rights or privileges do we enjoy that God calls us to renounce with acts of grace?

> The incarnation breaks the chains of our captivity.

O Holy Night
Peace • December 3, 2023
Teacher: Adam Barnett

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His law is love and His gospel is peace

Luke 10:25-28 NIV

“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Augustine

“All who do not love God are strangers and antichrists. The fountain of life does not belong to them. But if you have love, that fountain is yours. The Spirit of God exhorts you to drink from it, and in doing so, to drink from himself.”

Bob Goff

“Love is never stationary. In the end, love doesn’t just keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does.”

Isaiah 9:6-7

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end."

Jesus is making things right - in all people, for all people, and between all people.

Lt. Kurt Zehmisch

“How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way. Christmas, the celebration of love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”

If love is coming, let’s love now.
If peace is coming, let’s be peaceful now.
If justice is coming, let’s be just now.

Love One Another
Through • November 26, 2023
Teacher: Dave Brown

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Truly He Taught Us to Love One Another

John 13:34-35 NIV

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

David Kinnaman

One crucial insight kept popping up in our exploration.  In studying thousands of outsiders’ impressions, it is clear that Christians are primarily perceived for what they stand against.  We have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.

Unchristian

Christianity has become bloated with blind followers who would rather repeat slogans than actually feel true compassion and care.  Christianity has become marketed and streamlined into a juggernaut of fear mongering that has lost its own heart.

Unchristian

Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.

1. Evangelicals care more about being right, than they care about acting right.
2. They spend more time caring about what a person believes, then they spend caring for the person.
3. They are often more indoctrinated than they are biblically literate.

How do we go about loving one another?
Our love for one another must look like Jesus’ love for us.

Jesus’ love was humble.

Rick Warren

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; It is thinking of yourself less.

N.T. Wright

At the heart of Christian ethic is humility; at the heart of its parodies, pride. Different roads with different destinations, and the destinations color the character of those who travel by them.

Jesus’ love was other focused.

American Christianity is consumer focused. In this way, it is me focused.

Eugene Peterson

If people are not satisfied, we’ll find a way to woo them back with better publicity and glossier advertising.  We’ll repackage church under fresh brand names.  Since Americans are the world’s champion consumers, let’s offer the gospel on consumer terms, reinterpreting it as a way to satisfy their addiction to More and Better and Sexier.  The huge irony is that the more the gospel is offered in consumer terms, the more the consumers are disappointed. The gospel is not a consumer product; it doesn’t satisfy what we think of as our “needs.”

A Purpose for my Pain
Through • November 19, 2023
Teacher: Adam Barnett

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Our pain connects us to people.

2 Corinthians 1:3-6 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

The comforted are to be comforters.

Comforting others is a form of evangelism.

2 Corinthians 11:30, 12:9-10 NIV

“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. [The Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you; my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

My pain is a platform to share the gospel!

Philippians 1:12 NIV

I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News.

Getting through with intentional stages of grief
Through • November 12, 2023
Teacher: Adam Barnett, Melanie Fell, Leanne Benton, Dave Brown, Alison Myers, and Garland Tackett

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Leanne Benton:

Rick Warren

There is no life without change. There is no change without loss. There is no loss without pain. But grief is a choice.

John 11:33-35 NIV

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?’ He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept.

Psalm 34:18 NIV

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

1 Peter 5:10:
Restore
Confirm
Strengthen
Establish

Psalm 23:4 NIV

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV

Praise be to the God… of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

Dave Brown:

Romans 8:18-22 NIV

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Alison Myers:

Matthew 26:36-39 NLT

Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Surrender became my pathway to peace.

The Serenity Prayer

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Getting Through With the Help of Community
Through • November 5, 2023
Teacher: Adam Barnett

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1.  Receiving help during a tough time.
2. Giving help during a tough time.  

1 Corinthians 12:12, 27 NIV

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Saint Basil

“The Creator arranged things so that we need each other.”

Ephesians 4:25 NIV

“… we are members of one another.”

I am not meant to walk through _____________ alone.

Henri Nouwen

"No one person can fulfill all your needs. But a community can truly hold you. The community can let you experience the fact that, beyond your anguish, there are human hands that hold you and show you God’s faithful love.”

Dan Meyer

“Life is hard. Do it in groups.”

Galatians 6:2 NIV

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 MSG

“Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law.”

Romans 12:15b NIV

“… weep (mourn, lament, or sob) with those who weep.”

“… give helpful advice to those who weep.”  - Romans 12:15
“… offer an opinion or explanation to those who weep.”  - Romans 12:15
“… cheer up those who weep.”  - Romans 12:15

To bear a burden is to make someone else’s struggle or sorrow your own.

Hopeful Expectation
Through • October 29, 2023
Teacher: Adam Barnett

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Isaiah 43:1-2 NIV

But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFTRwD85AQ4

The Stockdale Paradox: confronting the brutal facts of our reality with the hope that we will prevail.

To lament is to groan under the burden of sorrow; to mourn.

1.  Lament for lost loved ones.
2. Lament for a destroyed city or temple.
3. Lament for a crisis in the community.
4. Lament for one’s sin.
5. Lament for devastating circumstances.

a. Sickness and pain– Psalm 38:7-8, Jeremiah 15:18

Michael John Cusick

“Lament is a posture and way of being that engages with God with our truest self.”

b. Complaint – Job 3:11  

c.  Questioning.– Psalm 22:1-2

d. A plea for help. - Psalm 31:1-2

Matthew 5:4 NIV

Blessed are those who mourn,for they will be comforted.

Lament is not a failure of faith, but an act of faith.

Soong-Chan Rah

“The American church avoids lament. The power of lament is minimized and the underlying narrative of suffering that requires lament is lost. But absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. Absence makes the heart forget. The absence of lament in the liturgy of the American church results in a loss of memory. We forget the necessity of lamenting over suffering and pain. We forget the reality of suffering and pain.”