Gospel for life with Nathaniel Timmermann

A common problem with Christianity is that it ruins the fun in people's lives. Whether intentional or not, it becomes something of a "straitjacket" that people simply have to put up with. What do we do about this? Why does Christianity take all the fun out of life? A sermon from Acts 11 and other lessons on May 18th 2025

The first Christians dealt with some of the hardest questions. One of them - what do we do about suffering? They faced so much. Then they healed. Acts Answers - a sermon on May 11th 2025.

There are plenty of arguments that Christianity does good things in the world. See Confronting Christianity or Alvin Schmidt How Christianity Changed the World. But Jesus doesn't say Christianity is good because it makes the world a better place or because people do good things because of Christianity. Rather, he says Christianity is good because Jesus died and rose. A sermon on Acts 9:1-22 on May 4, 2025

We still ask a lot of questions of Christianity, and so did the ancient people. Acts answered a lot of the same questions. Lets find out what they said. First study - is Christianity legitimate? is it valid? Should we keep it around? Acts 5:17-34

Peeps. Crème filled eggs. Chocolate. Bunnies. Chicks. Lambs. Lilies. Tulips. Daffodils. They're all fun things that are part of spring. But they actually take us back to the real Easter. While the religions of the East speak of dissolving into the ocean of being, and while Islam and the Christian cults portray an otherworldly future, the Bible promises resurrection. This is different. It's this life laid hold of and turned around. Resurrection is Jesus taking us through the valley of the shadow and out into a happily ever after, complete with best wedding ever. Without Jesus, life ends with a funeral. With him, there is a never-ending feast. A sermon on Easter Sunday April 20th, 2025

Repentance can be difficult, almost terrifying. Yet it is renewing, and God is desperate to renew us. A sermon on Psalm 51:10-13

Don't murder - protect human life. But we can't imagine our desire for violence. We've got to see the incredible value and worth we have from the one who gave up his life for us. The 5th Commandment.

Do we really know ourselves well enough to tell the truth? Death and resurrection can firmly ground us and give us a place to build from. Sermon on April 6th, 2025 on the 8th Commandment

We've been convinced that consumption is the way of life. It is a spiritual practice that fills our souls. The 7th Commandment points us to a different way. We stop living off the backs of others and consuming everything we can get, and start constructing lives. A sermon on the 7th Commandment on March 30, 2025.

If sexuality is something sacred to be stewarded, how do we steward it? How do we manage it and care for it and let it be something that leads to flourishing? We have to begin by not just expressing our sexuality. A sermon on the 6th Commandment, March 23, 2025

There are a couple of different stories you and I can choose to live with our sexuality - and we should choose a good one, because it is an incredibly powerful force. Which are you living? A sermon on March 16, 2025

To modern ears, "honor your father and mother" and it's implications sound crazy. 'I owe someone respect not because of their accomplishments or their status?" That's what the gospel wants from us because Jesus gave up his authority. We can respect people who stand in God's place. A sermon on the 4th Commandment, March 9th, 2025

There are a lot of questions to ask about repentance. One place to start: do we even need it? Do we need to practice repentance? This isn't a great answer, but part of the answer comes from the Great King David. He models repentance in Psalm 51.

Have we lost glory as we've closed down our world? How has that hurt us? Let's reclaim glory for our lives. Sermon on Luke 9:28-36

We've got a lot of different games and rules that we can play to prove our worth and value. There were at least two specific ones in the Bible - ethnicity and obedience. Those are still popular today. Jesus sets up a different system in the sermon on the plain, one were we can still get a win. Luke 6:17-26 on February 16th, 2025

We rarely feel wanted in life. It turns out that a lot of people aren't actually wanted in life. It makes sense that we wouldn't feel wanted. It's quite rare. It testifies to the fact that we are sinners. But Jesus wants sinners. A sermon on Luke 5:1-11, February 9 2025

It's really hard to get our beliefs and behavior to come together. Some people might say it doesn't matter, but it shows up in so many ways. Why? Jesus gets at the root problems and brings our life back together today. Sermon on Luke 4:38-44.

We've all been rejected at some point. We were all rejected from Eden, our eternal home. But Jesus was kicked out of his hometown so he could make us the favorites. We are the chosen. We are the outsiders he has made insiders. A sermon on January 19, 2025 based on Luke 4:14-30.

What's your identity? How do you identify? Look at the baptism of Jesus and see how he identifies himself. A sermon on Luke 3:21-22, January 12 2025

What does it mean to really have life? Christmas gives us life. A sermon on John 1:1-5 for Christmas Day, 2025.

Do you feel like Christmas and the holidays are chaotic? You are on to something. God captured the chaos of our lives with his Christmas invasion. But Christmas also remakes the chaos through his creativity.  A Christmas sermon on Philippians 2:6-8, December 24, 2024. 

Christmas is wonderful, but it definitely makes us ask if we're doing enough - do I have enough gifts, nice enough gifts, have I given enough. John makes us ask the same question and points to a different answer - making the fruit of a new person. A sermon based on Luke 3:7-18

Somehow, Christmas manages to bring out some of the most romantic stories of our lives. How? Check out the source of love. A sermon on December 8th 2024 based on Philippians 1:3-11

For Christmas to be real for you and me, we have to see we lack. We might want all kinds of things. But the fact that God sent his Son, not a pot of money, not a new set of laws, and not a new family, means that we don't just want all kinds of things. We need something that we have no idea what it is. Real Christmas means you say I lack. I lack and only God can give what I need. A sermon on December 1, 2024 based on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

It can be easy to be thankful for the good and easy people in our lives. Most of us have to plenty of project people - imperfect people who we work and live with. Can we be thankful for them too? Sermon on November 27, 2024 for Thanksgiving 2024

Whether we know it or not, recognize it or not, we want to be right. We are desperate to be right. We are eager for the day when we will be right forever and shine. A sermon on November 17th, 2024

Do I actually want to go to heaven? For so many people, heaven doesn't actually seem like a good place to be. We have to learn to long for a distant country that we've never been to and have no idea what it is like. If it is a great place, you can learn to like it. Sermon on Isaiah 35:1-10 on November 10th, 2024

We need to know that the real path to ruling is the one who came to serve. We will place ourselves beneath others because there is a throne waiting for us.  We need to be prepared for that throne someday. The only way to be shaped and made into that person who can sit and rule on that throne is that we are ruled today.  A sermon on Revelation 20:4-6. 

Whatever job or work we do, we can't just do kingdom work some of the time or part time. We have a high and holy calling. We have a vocation to help fight sin. A sermon on Mark 10:32-45 on October 20th 2024

I've seen plenty of examples of the destructive effect of marriage. Nevertheless, God says and shows that marriage is the path to flourishing, for most people. A sermon on genesis 2:18-25 on October 13.

Every believer should work for the good of neighbor. Through the work of Jesus, we have been made priests of God. That doesn't minimize or eliminate the work of pastors. We benefit each other when we work together in love. Sermon on September 29th, 2024.

Being loved does some great things for us. But it isn't easy to be someone who can be loved. It means being vulnerable and dependent. That's what someone else has done exactly right for us. Sermon on Sept 22, 2024, 1 John 4 and others.

Christianity has something to give. Whether you know it or not, feel it or not, or even have the right thing, whatever sickness, hardship, or trial you run up against in life, the gospel gives you something to give. A sermon on Act 3:1-10 on September 8th, 2024.

Kids know the importance of giving honor and glory to someone else. They boast about their parents at school. We give glory and honor to things to by our lives - perhaps to money, or family, or our career. But do we honor good things? Do we glorify the right things? And what could it do for us if we honored someone else who honored us first! A sermon on Deuteronomy 4:1-9 on September 1, 2024.

Our age pressures us simultaneously to be both filled with faith and to turn away from faith. We aren't going to get away from that pressure. The only thing we can do is press into it. We can do that because Jesus pressed on to push back against sin, death, and the devil. A sermon on Hebrews 11:24-28 on August 25, 2024

The solution for days of wild weather is not to try to tame it, control it, or somehow think we are gods. It is to get a king who is truly as wild as the weather is. A sermon on Mark 4:35-41.

All of these things are part of our reality. We know that the world is loved and loved to death. * We know that such love is the very essence of God himself. We know that behind history there is the witness who is the great witness of all things right. We know that the above the values that we hold to is the one who values us. There's something that you and I can say in every situation. And that's the resurrection reality that God wants for you and I today. An Easter sermon on March 31, 2024 based on John 20:1-18

A good life has to navigate the stages and transitions of life. Relationships are central to both the stages and the transitions. One relationship needs to stay at the center. June 25, 2023, Sermon 2

We say good things about the importance of relationships, but we're wired personally and culturally, in so many ways, to resist relationships. In order to love, we will rebelieve relationships. Matthew 19 June 11, 2023

There are a number of practical reasons to be part of a local congregation. It is frequently difficult to be part of congregation and go through the experiences, on a regular basis, that will really form us into God's people. But Jesus was crushed so that even if we are hard pressed, we will never be crushed and destroyed. He is a foundation so we are better built. 1 Peter 2:4-10

There are so many good things in our world, but there is plenty too that we'd like to be rescued from. There is an offer to make us new people in this world; and there is an offer to give us a new world. But Christian salvation offers us salvation as a new person into a new world. It's better than we could imagine. Acts 2:32-41

After the disciples thought they saw Jesus dead and risen, the whole thing almost came to a halt for various reasons. They were stuck in the mess of their time. They were changed, and they went forward with fresh confidence and boldness. Will we get past all the mess of our time, or we will be stuck for our own reasons? Peter assures we can receive the mark of "genuine". We can pass the test. 1 Peter 1:3--9

Everything in life has results and consequences. Some we like, some we don't. If we go to school, we can probably get a job and make a living. If we find a spouse, we can have kids. One action had more consequences than anything else in life - the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus lives, _____________. How do you fill in that blank? John 20:1-18

The struggle with evil, with pain, with difficulty, with challenge is real. We sit and wait for deliverance, freedom, and liberation. While we sit, we eat. This is food for the fight. Not burgers, but the food of Christ, the true Passover Lamb. Mark 14:12-17 Maundy Thursday 2023

Even the Bible does not always seem to tell the truth or the facts. Did Jesus tell the truth? There is a lot that we need to investigate and search out. But there is a depth to the truth that we cannot imagine. Darkness fell on Jesus so we can always have the light of truth. John 8:12-20

Life is filled with tough questions and difficult, dangerous situations. God provided a tabernacle for the people to provide security and safety for their difficult journey. Jesus is the true tabernacle for safety and security on our trip. Ask the tough questions and find that every path in life leads to him. John 7:1-52

Jesus meets a man paralyzed for 38 years. He doesn't just heal him. He stops sin in its tracks. Will we? If he has stopped sin, will run the other way and keep away from sin? John 5:1-15

I marvel that the woman talked to Jesus about so many problems in her life and still went away saying, Come and see. That's not how we tend to feel. Jesus might not always make us feel good. But he will give us something different than we can get anywhere else. The gospel will fill us up, even if we don't always like the fact that we need it. John 4:1-26

Religious people often have the impression and give the impression that God wants better people. It's true Jesus teaches basic principles and truths to live better lives. That isn't the main thing. Chiefly, Jesus wants us to have a new life. A different life. John 3:1-17

The temple was established by God as a way to get near God. Jesus came in and rejected the conveniences it offered in an attempt to help people get God's gifts. None of it could get people close to the holy, consuming God. What are we relying on to get us close to God? Do we have anything better to keep us in the presence of the holy, good God? Jesus offers a better temple in John 2:13-22.