Sermons by Matt Heerema (Page 7)
Matt serves as lead pastor, and focuses on teaching, leadership, and theological development. He and his wife Nancy have four daughters. He is a musician and led in Stonebrook’s music ministry for 15 years before putting the guitar down. Matt is an avid reader and massive sci-fi geek.
The Rock of Offense
Introduction Reformation Sunday [Sola Gratia, Sola Fide] Review Romans 9:19-23 Isaiah 29:13-16 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall…
The Justice and Mercy of God
I hope you were able to catch Dave’s sermon last week. If you missed it, I highly recommend that you give it a listen on our Web site. Dave laid out a very very helpful overview of what is going on with Romans 9. I am excited to continue that discussion today. As Dave mentioned, Romans 9-11 are perhaps some of the most intimidating, and contested passages in the entire Bible. I thought it was amazing that in a 40…
Grace Trains Us
Grace Saves Us and Trains Us Titus 2:11-15 Stonebrook Church – 9/18/2016 – Matt Heerema Titus 2:11–15 (ESV) 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from…
For the Sake of the Faith, Knowledge, and Godliness
Today we are beginning a series on the book of Titus, which will take us through September when we will get back in to Romans. I’m very much looking forward to getting back to Romans, but glad for the opportunity to walk through another book here with you. So please open your Bibles to Titus, and we’ll start at the beginning of the letter. But before we do, I thought it would be helpful to give us some background information…
Sin and Obedience
Intro: Sabbatical reflection Good morning, again! For those of you who started attending Stonebrook since May, you might not recognize me, as I’ve been away on Sabbatical for the Summer. My name is Matt, and I am still one of the pastors here. It is good to be back. I was only mildly worried over the summer when I learned that almost as soon as I went on Sabbatical, the deacons had the church re-keyed. Fortunately though, I was allowed…
What is the Gospel?
INTRO Pop quiz time! 🙂 Take a minute and write out a summary of the Gospel message. Don’t worry, there will be no grades. I’m not going to ask you to share with anyone. And just to defuse any of you who are more like me, I can imagine myself in your seat, with Brad or Paul asking us to do this, and being a little grumpy and eye-roll-ish about it. So lets just get that out of the way.…
This Body of Death
Dave did an excellent job of reviewing Romans 1 through 6, so I suggest that you go back and review his message on the Web site. This week we will be back in chapter seven, so if you would open your Bibles with me and turn there, page _____________ in the house bibles if you don’t have one with you. I also wanted to mention that in a few weeks here, we are planning on spending a Sunday morning with…
The Weight of Worship
What we are trying to do here We are starting off the semester with a few weeks on the topic of stewardship. Last week, Paul spoke about stewarding money (with a very nice title “The Worth of Wealth”.) This week I’d like to talk about stewarding our spiritual disciplines, with a focus on our various gatherings. I’d like to talk about “The Weight of Worship.” So Paul and I are looking at Brad for next week and wondering what his…
What Fruit Were You Getting?
Romans so far. Romans 1-3: God’s righteousness is revealed in The Gospel through his wrath at unrighteousnesses and ungodliness of every single individual of mankind. And through His free gift of grace and mercy offered in Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice, which leads to eternal life. Romans 4: This promised eternal life comes only through faith in Jesus’s work for us, and not through any work of our own. Romans 5 All those with faith in Christ’s work are now at…
Sons of Abraham
Review – Paul’s message so far The core message of Romans, and everything that we’ve been talking about so far is that God’s righteousness is revealed in The Gospel message. It is necessary, both because it is such a familiar term to those with a long-history as Christians, and such a foreign term to those who are new to the teachings of the Christian faith, to briefly define “God’s righteousness.” Both its familiarity and its foreignness make it difficult to…
The Advantage The Jew Has
“THIS IS HARD TO UNDERSTAND” – COMPLEXITY IN THE BIBLE. A warning from the Apostle Peter: 2 Peter 3: 15-17 “And count the patience of the Lord as salvation, just as your beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own…
God Shows No Partiality
INTRO AND RECAP – picking up Paul’s argument Today we’re picking up our series from the book of Romans in chapter 2, so if you’d all turn there with me, we’ll be working our way through the whole chapter, but with special focus on verses 1 through 16. As you are turning, I just wanted to comment on the difficulty of a series like this. Romans is one of the longest letters in the New Testament, and it is a…
Don’t Waste It. Part 2: The Gospel Lens
Last week, this week and next week, Brad, Paul, we are taking some time to talk big-picture. Like really big picture: all of life. Our theme for these weeks: “Don’t Waste It. God’s Glory & Your Life”. So you know, very specific and easily applicable. So, two big concepts, often spoken of in the church. So familiar, in fact, that we need to take time this morning and define both of them. Defining Glory Last week, Pastor Paul showed us…
Don't Waste It. Part 2: The Gospel Lens
Last week, this week and next week, Brad, Paul, we are taking some time to talk big-picture. Like really big picture: all of life. Our theme for these weeks: “Don’t Waste It. God’s Glory & Your Life”. So you know, very specific and easily applicable. So, two big concepts, often spoken of in the church. So familiar, in fact, that we need to take time this morning and define both of them. Defining Glory Last week, Pastor Paul showed us…
Lamentations
Today we’re continuing our series on “The Forgotten Books” with everyone’s favorite devotional read: Lamentations. I don’t know about you but I haven’t typically considered Lamentations a “go-to” book when I’m looking for some encouragement from the scriptures. In my bible reading plans, Lamentations is one of those that I tend to just kinda coast through without much engagement because frankly I have a hard time relating to its contents. Anyone else? There are a few verses here and…
Job
Introductory thoughts. Today we are beginning an 8-week series overviewing often neglected books of the Bible, the ones we don’t typically get around to when we’re thinking through sermon series. I get to kick us off with a single sermon on 42 chapters of the book of Job. A large task, and one that I’ve really enjoyed digging into in the last couple of months. Of course 40 minutes on this book is going to be totally insufficient for an…
Evangelistic Expectations
In the scriptures, we do not see a clear evangelism “how to” for believers. But there seems to be a clear backdrop that the churches were evangelizing prolifically. Yet I think most of us would feel that we don’t evangelize as often as we should. Most of us tend to be very hesitant to speak here. There are many reasons for this, it will probably always be the case. Tom Short, a campus preacher with our church association told…
The Reality of Resurrecton
Easter is that time in the Christian calendar when we set our sights on the very foundation, roots, essence, and core message of our faith: the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Messiah, from the dead. It is very easy, with all the cultural and religious trappings of the holiday, to turn Jesus and his resurrection from the dead into another mere myth. I want to say emphatically that the Gospel Message that Christians proclaim, is not good…
The Life of a Sojourner and an Exile
Why Should We Obey God’s Commands? Have you ever wondered why we should obey God’s commands? “Well that’s a silly question, Matt! God is God, therefore we should obey Him!” Yes, yes, of course. But really though, have you wondered why? Christians believe that we are not saved by what we do. Rather we are saved by faith in the free grace of God, through the work of His son Jesus, alone. We do not add to this by anything…