Sermons

Sermon: A Good Kind of Dependence

Sermon: “A Good Kind of Dependence” (the Lord’s prayer part 5)
by Matt Kennedy
August 29th, 2010
text: Luke 11:3

Let’s briefly recap the lessons learned so far in our discussion of prayer in Luke 11…

Sermon: When God says No

Sermon: “When God says ‘No’”
Part 4 of a sermon series on prayer
Sunday, August 22, 2010
by Matt Kennedy

Sermon: Does God have time for our Prayers? (What kind of Father is he?—prayer part 3)

Sermon: Does God Have Time for Our Prayers? (What Kind of Father is He?) prayer part III
August 15th, 2010
Texts: Luke 11:2; Leviticus 10:1-4; Acts 5:1-5; Romans 5:1-3
by Matt Kennedy

Sermon: Does Prayer Change Anything? (Prayer part 2)

Sermon by Matt Kennedy
August 8th, 2010
Texts: Luke 11:1-13; Genesis 18:22-33; 2nd Kings 20:1-7

Sermon: The Meaning of Life

Matt Tuttle, president of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and senior at Binghamton University, was the guest preacher on Sunday August 1st, 2010. Matt has been attending Good Shepherd since his freshman year and God has done many great things through him both in this congregation and on campus. His sermon was based on the first and second chapters of the Book of Ecclesiastes.

The text is available below…

Sermon: Jesus’ teaching on Prayer part 1

Many Christians have been taught that for prayer to be “sincere” it must arise spontaneously and unrehearsed from the emotional well of the heart. This is a very modern way of thinking that would have been very strange to first century Jews like Jesus and his disciples who would have recited memorized prayers in synagogue every Sabbath. There is no need to pit liturgical prayer against free form prayer. Sincerity and authenticity can mark both or they can be lacking from both…the difference has nothing to do with the form of prayer and everything to do with the will and intention of the heart

Text: Luke 11:1-13
Title: Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer part 1
by Matt Kennedy

Sermon: How to Welcome the Lord

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon: Showing Up for the Harvest

Sermon on Sunday July 4th, 2010
by Matt Kennedy
text: Luke 10:1-12

High resolution version

Sermon: Grace and the Sinful Woman part 2

The text will be posted soon

Text: Luke 7:36-50 (the woman in Nain)

(editors note: the video cuts out the first thirty seconds of the sermon)

High resolution available here

Sermon: Grace and the Sinful Woman part 1

text: Luke 7:36-50

Jesus is in the town of Nain which is in Galilee, just a short walk from his hometown Nazareth.  In Nain Jesus has already raised a widow’s only son from the dead and, Luke tells us in chapter 7 v. 2, “...Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.”

But also in Nain, as always, Jesus meets with skepticism from the Pharisees and experts in the law.
In verses 29-30, Luke gives us the reason for their disbelief:

Sermon: The Holy Spirit and the Word part 2

by Anne Kennedy
Sunday June 6th, 2010

It has become increasingly common
both in mainline denominations
and in some (not all) radical charismatically inclined bodies
to blame just about everything on the Holy Spirit.
For all the contemporary talk of spiritual gifts
(and there are indeed spiritual gifts)
and spiritual power (which is real)
and claims of being spirit-filled
(every believer is filled with the Spirit)
the Holy Spirit is often reduced to a religious euphemism for
“what we want to do.”

Sermon: God’s self Disclosure

So let me start out by saying two things: 1. The Trinity is not something we made up. Concepts humans make up are very tidy. They may be complex like the combustion engine or the personal computer, but once you get the system everything falls into place. The Trinity is not tidy. It is not a practical, relevant, human-friendly system that once understood will make everything fall into place. That’s because the Trinity is not a human concept thought up by humans for humans. It’s the word humans use for God’s own nature that he has revealed to us. Everyone here can understand the basic facts about the Trinity because God has revealed it to us, but we’ll never “get God” like we might “get” computers or mechanics, because God is infinite and we’re not.

Sermon: The Holy Spirit and the Word

Acts 2:1-11

Sermon by Matt Kennedy
Pentecost Sunday 2010

Sermon: Sympathy for Thomas

Sermon by Matt Kennedy
texts: Hebrews 11:1 and John 20:24-31

The Author of Hebrews writes: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (11:1)

What do those words mean?
    
I once had dinner with a Mormon bishop. Mormons believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet who spoke with an Angel named Maroni, the guardian of buried golden plates written in a language called reformed Egyptian. The angel was once a man, the last survivor of a white Native American civilization descended from the Israelite patriarch Lehi, who crossed the Atlantic in 600 BC. All Native Americans are descendants of Lehi. After his resurrection Jesus visited them and preached a gospel that promised all men could, through righteous works, become gods of their own planets and populate them with children born of their many wives. But they sinned and the descendants of Lehi were cursed which is why, said Joseph Smith, they are dark skinned. All of this history was written on the golden plates which, when Joseph Smith translated them, would later become the Book of Mormon.

Now, here are some facts

Sermon: Truth and The Resurrection

Usually around this time of year, the History Channel/Discovery Channel/National Geographic wheel out some kind of special investigative report on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, advertised with trumpets and fanfare weeks in advance. You’ll be innocently watching the history of the deisel engine and then, suddenly, eerie, mystical music…“All of the Christian gospels claim that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning, but Now newly uncovered evidence sheds fresh light on these ancient stories, threatening to undermine Christianity’s most cherished article of faith”
    
I’ve watched way too many of these specials. 
    
In 2006, National Geographic unleashed startling news of the “Lost Gospel of Judas”.

Great Vigil of Easter: He is Risen

I imagine imagine the resulting Sabbath would have been unbearable. They couldn’t do any work, they couldn’t create any order in the absence of order. They couldn’t clean, they couldn’t cook food all day, they couldn’t go anywhere. Some of them were probably very far away from their homes, making do in Jerusalem over the Passover. The solace of work was forbidden to them…

Sermon: the Death of Sin (Good Friday 2010)

When God in Christ offered his own body on the cross, human and demonic hatred, rebellion, weakness cowardice, injustice all of it reached its climax and all of it was unleashed on him. He bore it. He took it. He received the full cup of foaming wine and drained it. He consumed it it and paid the penalty for it. And then he killed it. He gave up his life and crushed sin and the power of sin into the grave.

Maundy Thursday Sermon: Jesus the Passover Lamb

I read a really interesting blog every day written by a young Jewish woman living in Israel. To get ready for Pesech, or Passover, she has to deep clean her house on a level I can only dream of, and she has to wash all the clothes and scrub every pocket and corner and inch of her house getting rid of, can anyone guess?

Sermon: Taking on the Form of a Servant

The tape cuts off the first minute or so of Anne's sermon and the sound quality for the first three minutes is poor because we were having mike problems.

Our text this morning will be Philippians 2:5-11. One thing that always strikes me when I read any of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ last hours is how spare they are. Unlike so much of my own writing, or the way we communicate in general, there is not one word extra. It is written as matter-of-factly, as undramatically as possible. The lines are so spare so bare, so restrained, like if you started to add more a dam would break and you would never be able to contain it all on one piece of paper.

Because this is the case, it is possible that we might quickly pass over this account of Jesus’ death. We’re so used to big signals, like sad or majestic or sinister music and fancy camera angles that we might miss that something so bare, so spare could be important.

Sermon: The Vineyard of the Lord

Jesus is in Jerusalem. It’s the week leading up to his crucifixion on Friday. On Sunday he’d entered Jerusalem as king and very soon afterwards entered the Temple. In the Temple he discovers that the place set aside for gentiles to worship has been given to money changers…

Sermon: Behavior Modification v. The Gospel (text and video)

Sermon by Matt Kennedy delivered March 7th, 2010

Text: 1st Thessalonians 5:23-24:

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.