The Mount MKE - sermons

In Jesus' kingdom, greatness looks nothing like what we expect. When James and John's mother asked for places of honor, Jesus offered a radical way of thinking about our life together: the greatest is the servant, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

In this message from Matthew 20:20-28, Pastor Nate Bourman explores what ministry really is: humble service carried out in love. Jesus' service for us frees us to serve one another.

🎵 Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

Think of the person who shows up without being asked. No agenda, no expectation of return — just love. That's the love 1 John 4 calls us to.

In Week 3 of our "Life Together" series, we turn to 1 John 4:7–21 and ask what it looks like to love one another the way Christ has already loved us — not love for our own comfort or sake, but love that serves the other person for Christ's sake, even when it costs us something.

We are, and always will be, a community for the community.

🎵 Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

Community isn't an ideal to be pursued — it's a reality to be enjoyed. That's the heart of "Shattering the Vision," our Week 2 message in the Life Together series. From 1 Corinthians 1:1-10, we look at how Paul calls a divided, sin-marked church back to the community they already have in Christ, and what that means for us at Mount Lebanon as we continue exploring life together.

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Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

We begin a new series on what it means to live together as the body of Christ. Grounded in Scripture — with Psalm 133 as our anchor — we explore how Christian community is not something we build, earn, or perfect, but a gift we receive in Christ. It is a community gathered by grace from above, from below, and from beside — and this is just a taste of what is yet to come. Come as you are. We are a community for the community.

🎵 Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

You have a conscience — that's the good news. But your conscience isn't God, and it can be wrong. It can excuse what it shouldn't, or accuse you long after you've been forgiven. In Genesis 20, Abimelech insists on his own clear conscience — and finds out that's not the same as a right one.

This week, Pastor Nate shows us where a pained, accusing conscience finds real comfort: not in convincing ourselves we're clear, but in the blood of Jesus. He's the priest who offered Himself so that your conscience can be healed — so you can lay your head down and actually sleep with a clean conscience, not because of what you've kept, but because of what He's given.

Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

Lot is called a righteous man in Scripture — and yet Sodom had clearly shaped him. When judgment finally comes, he escapes with fire at his heels, pulled from the city he'd made his home. In this message from our Father Abraham series, we consider Lot's account not to dwell on Sodom's sin, but to ask a harder question: how do we live faithfully in the kingdom of God while still living inside a kingdom that presses on us every day? The stakes in Lot's story are as high as they get — and they're just as high for us.

Genesis 19:1-3, 12-17

Series: Father Abraham

🎵 Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

God draws Abraham into His own counsel — friend to friend — and Abraham dares to pray boldly for Sodom. He doesn't appeal to Sodom's worthiness, but to God's own character: "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

That's the kind of prayer we're called to this week — one that calls out to God based on who He is, not on what we or our city deserve. This Is Us Sunday: same God, same invitation to pray boldly.

A sermon on Genesis 18:16-33

🎵 Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

Sarah had given up on God's promise. After decades of waiting, despair felt safer than hope — so when three strangers repeat the promise she's heard for years, she laughs behind the curtain, not because it's funny, but because she's given up.

God doesn't scold her for it. He shows up as a friend and speaks the promise again, in person. In this sermon, we look at three truths we must know and believe in order to hope — the same truths that gave Abraham a secure hope, and that met Sarah in her despair.

🎵 Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

So much noise. The voice in our own head, narrating our worth and our circumstances. The voices around us, all with a take. And somewhere in the middle, our own voice talking to God — and God's voice trying to get a word in.

In Genesis 17, God does the talking. Thirteen years since His last word, and when He speaks again, Abram is mostly quiet — listening, receiving a sign, receiving a promise he didn't write himself. We could use more of that: quick to listen, slow to speak, especially with God.

This message looks at how God continues to speak to us — through Word and Sacrament, through signs and the sermons preached through them — quieting our own noise long enough to hear what's actually true.

A sermon on Genesis 17.

🎵 Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com

Sarai took control. Abram stayed silent. Hagar was used and cast out into the wilderness. Then a fourth figure appears — the angel of the LORD, showing up in Scripture for the very first time — not for Sarai, not for Abram, but for Hagar. He finds her. He names her. He sends her back with a promise.

Most of us have been more than one of these people at different points in our lives. God has something to say to all of us, no matter who we are: I see you, and I hear you. This is a word of warning. This is a word of comfort and consolation.

Part of our Father Abraham series, working through Genesis 11-24.

#FatherAbraham

🎵 Music: "Summer" by Benjamin Tissot (Bensound) | Used under a Royalty-Free License | https://www.bensound.com