Stonebrook Church, Ames, Iowa, Sermons

Please turn with me to Acts, chapter 2. Last week and today, we are hitting on two points of what we could consider to be some of the core DNA of our church. Namely personal ownership of your faith.  What we mean by that is that as a church, we want to be more than just “Sunday Christians.” The Bible describes a way of life that lasts Sunday through Saturday. It influences every decision we make,...

Please open your bibles to Matthew chapter 6. If you’re new with us in the past couple months, my name is Matt Heerema, and I am one of the pastors here. I’ve been out of the pulpit since the beginning of May so that we could allow some other voices to preach, and so that I could focus on a few other areas in ministry. I’m grateful for that time off, but I’m even more grateful to be back, and […]

Not long ago I heard a report about my extended family. One family member had deeply hurt another family member years ago. An abuse situation. When I heard about this recently, I had three responses: When you see or experience extreme injustice, do you know HOW and WHAT to pray? Here’s a prayer from the Bible, King David, where he is essentially cursing some people. Psalm 58:3–8 CSBThe wicked go a...

Guest speaker Dave Lennander shares from his experience of God’s faithfulness.

A year and a half ago my wife and I were struggling with health trials.  So I wrote out my thoughts like a prayer to God. I’m going to read you a portion of my raw and unfiltered prayer from 20 months ago. “Lord, you know my heart and my weaknesses.  I am sick and tired of this trial.  I am losing heart.  I want relief and rest and comfort.  But where is it?  Where is my rest?  You’re not […]

This summer we are going through a series of teachings about praying the scripture. And today we are going to talk about praying for God’s deliverance using psalms, specifically using psalm 34 as an example. Talking about God’s deliverance, we often think of praying for God to end our trials or protect us from life dangers, which is good and necessary in our prayers. The question is, is there anyt...

What has been your experience with prayer? Has prayer for you been positive, negative, or just neutral? How might you like to change your attitude and relationship with prayer?  My name is Dave Bovenmyer and I’m a pastor here at Stonebrook, currently coaching several community groups and doing pastoral counseling.  Having served as a pastor for almost 50 years, I’ve learned a few things about pray...

Philippians 1:1-11 Welcome & Prayer Text Background As we prepare to dive in, let me give you a little historical context. Paul wrote this letter to the church at Philippi from prison in Rome (AD 60). This was the first church that he planted in Europe, and was composed primarily of Gentiles. He planted this church 10 years earlier (AD 51) on his second missionary journey. This church was full of...

If you and I were to sit down one-on-one, I would like to ask you this:  “If you could ask God in prayer for only five things, what are those five?” Please know God is not limiting us in any way in our prayers.  Nothing is too big or too small for him to help and to care.  My question about asking for five things is to find out what is most important to you. This morning, I propose one […]

As a teenager, though I had very little spiritual interest, I remember a few times praying to God. But the only times I prayed was when I was in trouble, and I distinctly remember feeling guilty about that. It seemed wrong to pray only when I needed something. But beyond that, I didn’t know much about prayer or how and what to pray. In my pre-teen years as a young boy, my Mom was a God-fearing wom...

Two weeks ago, my wife and I were traveling, and we listened to a biography of a man who is an adventure racer. Adventure racing consists of teams of four people competing in very long, almost non-stop race that can last for 6-7 days, covering 400 miles, biking on trails, climbing steep cliffs, kayaking on rivers, hiking through muddy jungles.   The most they sleep over these six days is two hours...

We are nearing the end of a 16-week series on a book in the Bible called Hebrews.   As much as any NT book, Hebrews is one long theme from beginning to end.  One challenge, then, in teaching through this each week is that we want to ensure we understand the text that has come before. Same is true for our text today, which is chapter 11.  This chapter 11 is all about the theme of faith.  Particular...

Please turn with me to Hebrews, chapter 10. We are now in the home stretch of our series through Hebrews. Four more sermons left after today covering three more chapters. What we’re seeing in the book of Hebrews is a rather long sermon. (I wonder how you’d react if I stood up and gave a thirteen chapter long sermon some day?) And today, in the second half chapter 10 we are finally coming to the co...

Please open your Bibles to Hebrews, Chapter 10.  I’d like to offer a special welcome to those of you joining us this morning for the first time. Easter is a very significant day for Christians, and I’m glad you were able to be here this morning. We are studying through the book of Hebrews together this spring. It’s providential that we are arriving at chapter 10 just in time for Easter, as today’s...

Today is Palm Sunday, a celebration of an important day in biblical history.  This day marks the story in the Gospels when Jesus was entering into Jerusalem on Sunday, five days before his crucifixion. About 1/3 of the Gospels are devoted to this last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  Surely this is the most important week in human history, for if Christ is who he says he is—and the Book of Hebrew...

Please find a Bible and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8.  When we are trying to understand what the Bible says to us, our primary task is to try to figure out what the original author was trying to communicate to the original audience. What point was he trying to get across to them? Once we know that, our next task is to try to figure out what relevance that message has for us today.  Sometimes...

Welcome & Prayer A. The Important Characters We’re going to look at Hebrews 7 today, but before we dive in, I want to let you know that this is not the easiest passage to immediately understand for two reasons. First, it is written to a 1st-century audience that the author expects will have a significant understanding of the history and spiritual culture and customs found in the Old Testament. And...

From our passage today, three themes will come out: Hebrews 5:11-6:12 Let’s read the first portion of our passage for today.  The first two themes will come out:  Warning and Assurance. Hebrews 5:11–6:12 (CSB) 5:11 We have a great deal to say about this, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand. 12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone...

Please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4.  Two weeks ago during the Superbowl, a Christian organization aired two commercials with the tagline “He Gets Us”—attempting to convey a message that Jesus understands everyone, and has a message for everyone. This is the second year in a row this organization aired commercials during the Superbowl, and they have racked up close to a million views on YouTu...

Last Wednesday there was a senseless, evil shooting in Kansas City.  Last month there was murder at a high school in Perry, Iowa, just 45 miles from here.  There is war in the Middle East and Ukraine.  In all these things, we wonder, Where is peace?  Where is the rest?  Why is everyone so angry? But even closer to home, we find ourselves longing for rest in our own little world.   Family disputes....

Please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 3.  In today’s passage, we come across the first of several warning passages in the book of Hebrews. The passage warns us to “watch out, in case any of us has an evil and unbelieving heart”, and to not “harden our hearts” when God commands us. It seems to warn us that if we don’t hang on to the end we will not be considered part of God’s house, and that there...

Today is National Big Word Sermon Day.  We’re going to talk about some big words, so you may need access to Dictionary.com. We are going through a sermon series on a book in the NT called “Hebrews.”   The name “Hebrews” likely comes from the recipients of the book, who were probably Christians from Jewish ancestry.  So they were “Hebrew” Christians. And we typically call Hebrews a “letter” or “epi...

Please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1. We get very curious about angels, don’t we? They make their appearances throughout the Bible at very important times, bringing messages (in fact “angel” just means “messenger”), we see them interacting with humans, sometimes fighting battles, which means they are capable of interacting with the physical world, including fighting (and protecting!).  There a...