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Seeking God’s Ways: From Scarcity to Abundance

April 3, 2022 – Jesus is lying low at his friends’ house in the suburbs around Jerusalem when one of his hostesses Mary anoints his feet with expensive perfume, a deeply meaningful gesture. Judas’s protest invites us to ask ourselves, “What is most needed in this moment?” How do we choose between conflicting priorities? We dive into Week 5 of our Lenten series “Seeking God’s Ways” with the theme “From Scarcity to Abundance.”

Scripture: John 12:1–8

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Seeking God's Ways: From Scarcity to Abundance
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Seeking God’s Ways: From Earning to Receiving

March 20, 2022 – How do we make sense of senseless suffering? Jesus doesn’t give us a straight answer, but he does rule out a very common one. One of the consequences of that, though, is recognizing how many of our blessings are ones we haven’t earned but instead are graces we’ve received. The question is… what do we do with it all?

Scripture: Luke 13:1–9

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Seeking God's Ways: From Earning to Receiving
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Seeking God’s Ways: From Fear to Compassion

March 13, 2022 – Foxes have been preying on hens for as long as there have been foxes and hens. So perhaps it catches our attention when a hen hands the fox their itinerary…? For this second week of Lent, we’re invited to boldly go from fear to compassion.

Scripture: Luke 13:31-35

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Seeking God's Ways: From Fear to Compassion
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Seeking God’s Ways: From Security to Generosity

March 6, 2022 – Lent—the season leading up to Easter—has begun! This week, we follow Jesus into the wilderness to peel back the layers of our lives and ask ourselves what we root our sense of security in. Is our tight grip on feeling secure keeping us from living with Jesus-like generosity?

Scripture: Luke 4:1-13 (CEB)

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Seeking God's Ways: From Security to Generosity
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Who Knows? Glass Ceilings and Genocide

February 27, 2022 – Amidst the life-or-death drama of political intrigue in this suspenseful tale, God remains conspicuously absent. Stuck between a glass ceiling and a genocide, Esther is paralyzed until something finally clicks. Who knows what God might be up to behind the scenes to keep hope alive…

Scripture: Esther 4:11-5:1

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Who Knows? Glass Ceilings and Genocide
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Faithfulness in All Times

February 20, 2022 – Craig Oury, Co-Pastor at Shalom Mennonite brings the sermon.

“End times, pulpit-thumping, repent the end is here!” Okay, maybe not… As I interpret these verses, I hear Peter saying, “The end of all things is near, but so what?” We’re called to follow Christ no matter what is going on, and that is to be prayerful, love each other, love the stranger, and be service-oriented.

Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7-11

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Faithfulness in All Times
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Art as a Spiritual Practice

February 13, 2022 – Our very own Maggie Girard closes out our series on spiritual practices by teaching us about the artistic process—process art, specifically—and how it can overlap with our spirituality. She led us in a hands-on meditation as we mold and sculpt portions of quick-drying modeling clay.

Scripture: Psalm 139:13-18

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Art as a Spiritual Practice
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Stewardship Expresses What We Believe

February 6, 2022 – The sermon this week come from Steve Bustos, Stewardship Consultant with Everence. Christian Stewardship is embracing the notion that everything we have been entrusted with including our time, talent, wealth, and much more is meant to draw us closer to Jesus. Stewardship as a spiritual practice is then the life-long journey of saying YES to Jesus through the ordinary as well as the significant decisions we make throughout our lives. These countless decisions we make are not only about how to best manage, develop and grow the resources entrusted to us; it’s about unleashing generosity with these resources to make a Kingdom impact.

Scripture: Exodus 36:2–7

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Stewardship Expresses What We Believe
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Confession

January 30, 2022 – There’s pain in the world, and some of it is our fault. Naming and taking responsibility for how we make mistakes frees us to change, rather than closing our eyes and allowing hurt to continue. God takes hurt seriously… and there’s a way forward toward reconciliation.

Scripture: 1 John 1:5-2:2

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Confession
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God’s Sabbath Yoke

January 23, 2022 – What does observing the Sabbath as a spiritual practice have to do with non-exploitation, restorative non-work, and nonviolent resistance?

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:12–15, Matthew 11:28–30

Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
Sermons from First Mennonite Church, Indianapolis
God's Sabbath Yoke
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