St. John's Franklin Podcast

Kenny Benge preached a sermon entitled “With Gladness and Singleness of Heart” on January 28, 2012.  Motivation is an issue that concerns each of us.  Why do we get out of bed each morning?  The Christian understanding of motivation is expressed most fully in the biblical understanding of vocation.

The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done...The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

Frederick Buechner

Direct download: With_Gladness_and_Singleness_of_Heart.mp3
Category:Sermons -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT

Kenny Benge preached a sermon entitled “For the Sake of Others” based on Jonah 3:1-10 on January 21, 2012.  God does not save us for our own sake alone, but also for the sake of others—we are called to be channels of God’s grace as well as recipients of it—He calls us to participate in his plan to redeem the world and make it new.

Direct download: For_the_Sake_of_Others.mp3
Category:Sermons -- posted at: 10:52am CDT

Kenny Benge preached a sermon entitled “Living Out Our Baptism” based on Mark 1:4-11 for the The Baptism of Jesus Sunday on January 14, 2012.  To be baptized is to be incorporated into the dying of Jesus so as to become a participant in His risen life, and so to share his ongoing mission to the world. It is to baptized into His mission.

Direct download: Living_Out_Our_Baptism.mp3
Category:Sermons -- posted at: 8:36am CDT

Kenny Benge preached a sermon entitled “Parables of Grace” based on Ephesians 3:1-13 for the Feast of Epiphany on January 7, 2012.  The Feast of the Epiphany—we celebrate a major turn in the history of salvation—the story of God’s redeeming activity in the world.  Epiphany celebrates the coming of the Gospel, the good news concerning Jesus Christ, to the Gentiles.

Direct download: Parables_of_Grace.mp3
Category:Sermons -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT

Kenny Benge preached a sermon entitled “He Came Down” based on Luke 2:22-40 for the First Sunday of Christmastide on December 31, 2011.  Each week we profess "for us and for our salvation, He came down from heaven." Both physical presence and place continue to matter to us, but neither of them matter as much as they once did.  New technologies of information, communication, and mobility are clearly one of the sources of this cultural change. In contrast, the Incarnation, God becoming flesh and blood in the birth of Christ, tells us that physical presence and place matter decisively for God.

Direct download: For_Us_and_For_Our_Salvation.mp3
Category:Sermons -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT