Acts 2: Spirit-filled Community

The end is near!!!Encouraging start to this description, huh? But have you wondered if the end actually is near? Have you looked at our world situation, our national situation and wondered if Jesus is coming soon? If you have, you're not alone. I've heard people speculate about it a lot lately, especially given the tumult in our world and nation in the last few years. Musings about the end times have been a part of Christian discussion, and especially evangelical belief, for a long time. Remember how popular the Left Behind series was? The Left Behind series was an attempt to dramatize what it would be like if the end times happened in our world. The first novel was published on December 31, 1995. 15 novels later, the series concluded in 2007. It also spawned a load of kids' books and three movies. The end times were a fascination, however, long before the Left Behind series began. Larry Norman's popular song about the rapture, “I Wish We'd All Been Ready” came out amid the turmoil of 1969. Keep traveling backward in history. Imagine how Christians living through the World Wars must have felt about the end times. They had a far better case for believing that they were living in the end times than just about any other time in history. Now travel back further in time to the 1860s, and our American Civil War was another awful period that sure looked like end times. Globally, speaking there are plenty of other examples. Genocides, Holocausts, terrible disasters, war, and displacement. All seem like end times.The original proclamation of “The end is near!” goes back way further still. Millenia further! 600 years before the time of Jesus, Ezekiel boldly declares not that “The end is near,” but that “The end has come!” While he may have heard the prophet Amos say this years earlier (see Amos 8:2), Ezekiel is simply declaring what God told him to say about the times he lived in. So what end had come during Ezekiel's lifetime? More importantly, why was God saying that had the end come? Though the end has not come for us, meaning that Jesus has not returned, we can learn much from the end times that had come upon the Israelites in Ezekiel's day. God has important principles to share with us through the message he gives to the prophet Ezekiel. As I studied the passage this week, it struck me how relevant it is to our current situation of American Christianity in 2021. Check out Ezekiel chapter 7 ahead of time to see for yourself, then listen to the podcast!

Earlier this year in one of the Current Events sermons, I talked about Ravi Zacharias and his moral failure, which came to light over the last few years. (You can read the sermon blog posts starting at joelkime.com.) He was deeply abusive to many women, and there was a leadership culture in his organization that did not adequately hold Zacharias accountable. He passed away before the investigation revealed the extent of his abuse. I was stunned and deeply saddened by the news of Zacharias' abuse. He was such a gifted thinker, writer and preacher who God used to strengthen the faith of many, including me. Maybe you've experienced a shock like that, when a Christian you respect and hold in high esteem fails. It hurts, doesn't it?Certainly, the moral failure of anyone is serious, and we should be concerned about it. But there are times when a Christian leader fails and it rocks our worlds emotionally and sometimes spiritually, to the point where we can have a deep ongoing struggle. Have you experienced anything like that? I suspect that our appreciation for Christian celebrities is mostly good and helpful. We enjoy their music because it points us to a deeper relationship with Jesus. We read their books because they help us know God better and live more in line with his Kingdom. We listen to their TV shows and podcasts because they inform us about God's word. At the same time, are we evaluating if our appreciation for such Christian celebrities has crossed a line into idol worship? I wonder that about my admiration of Ravi Zacharias and other so-called Christian celebrities. What I also wonder is whether our celebrity culture has so impacted evangelicalism that it can lead to idol worship during our worship services. I think it is possible. And we'll talk about that on Sunday. Last week in our ongoing study of the prophet Ezekiel, we talked about American Christian idols, and this week we'll talk about how idolatry might be happening inside the church, even in our worship services. Yes, even in Faith Church's worship service. As you can imagine, it concerns me greatly. Check out Ezekiel chapter 6 ahead of time to see for yourself, then listen to the podcast.

Do you worship idols?Of course not, right?Or do you?When I was in seminary for my Master's degree I took a course called “American Idols.” It wasn't about the famous singing competition! Instead it was about the various ideas or objects that we Americans idolize. There are a number of really good possibilities for the category of “American Idol.” What possible idols do you think we studied in that class? Take a moment and make a list. What tempts you? Is there anything that usurps the role or focus that God should have in your life?As you think about that list, let me repeat the question I started with, “Do you worship idols?”I can't answer that question for you personally. But I feel pretty confident in saying that American Christians are often tempted and actually succumb to idol worship. I'm not talking about statues made of metal or wood. I'm talking about other American idols, and it wouldn't surprise me if we, the people of the family of Faith Church, are also tempted to and actually do worship idols. I say this because I know myself, and I know the pressures we American Christians face in our society. Idol worship is alive and well, even among Christians. Idol worship can infect a church, including church worship services.This coming Sunday we continue our study of the prophet Ezekiel, and we will learn that Israel was worshipping idols. They were practicing idolatry, and God will ask Ezekiel to call it out. That means we'll need to talk about what idolatry was like for Israel in that day and age, as well as what it might be like in our day. In order to be followers of Jesus who have hearts becoming more and more like his, we will want to avoid idolatry. What we will find in this next section of Ezekiel is that when God asks Ezekiel to call out Israel's idolatry, he asks Ezekiel to do so in a very bizarre way. Check out Ezekiel chapters 4 & 5 ahead of time to see for yourself, then listen to the podcast.

In my sophomore year of Bible college, my dorm section Resident Assistant (older student in charge of the dorm section, which included about 20 guys) asked me if he and I could become accountability partners. I had heard of such a thing, but didn't really know much about it. The Resident Assistant, Chris, was a senior, and I looked up to him, so I was interested in what this accountability partnership would mean. He explained that it came up in one of his classes, or maybe in a book he was reading, and he wanted to try it. What it would look like is that we would each write a list of questions that we wanted the other person to ask us weekly. Then when we would meet, we go through the lists and pray together, seeking to encourage one another to be more faithful disciples of Jesus.At the time, I was newly seeking to know Jesus better and follow his ways in my life, so I was 100% on board. We each wrote out questions on paper, trying to focus on areas of life that are important to all disciples, as well as areas that were unique areas of struggle for each of us. The list included questions about how we were doing with having consistent Bible study, prayer, and how we were doing academically. We added questions about how we were handling our finances, our dating relationships, about lust and pornography, and about media like TV. In other words, we were seeking to live a life of purity, flowing with the Fruits of the Spirit? I think each list had 15-20 questions, and we would ask them to each other one by one every week. The listed concluded with the same final question: Did you lie to me about anything? Then we kept the other person's list in our Bibles as a bookmark reminder to pray for the other each day.That kind of deep, relational accountability has been so meaningful and formative in my life. In fact, Chris and I continue to meet for accountability and prayer to this day, nearly 30 years later. We don't meet every week, and we don't have lists anymore. Instead, the Q & A is incorporated in our discussion. Chris shares his joys and struggles with me, and I share mine with him. Then we pray, right there in the car, usually in the parking lot of the restaurant we met at. We also text frequently between face-to-face meetings, which are now about once every other month. As you read that story of Chris and me, how does that sound to you? Do you need that kind of accountability in your life? Do you think maybe you don't need that? In this sermon, we continue our study of the prophet Ezekiel, and I will attempt to make the case that we all need accountability in our lives. Open a Bible to Ezekiel 3:16-27 and play the sermon.

Do you tell the truth? Of course you do…or do you? Are there times when you might fudge a bit on the truth? I suspect that all of us struggle with lying here and there, but for the most part we are committed to telling the truth. I ask the question, though, because there are times when telling the truth is very tricky. For example, what do you do when a friend or spouse asks, “How do I look?” and you think their outfit doesn't look so great? Worse, what do you do when a spouse says, “Do you think I've gained weight?” You know they have gained weight, but red flags are flying, saying, “LIE! LIE! LIE! Get yourself out of this trap. Tell them they don't look like they've gained even an ounce.” Harder still can be those situations in life when a person in your life is behaving badly, and you know need to talk with them, but you are afraid of alienating them or offending them. Should you speak truth to them? What if you lose them? What if they stop talking to you? It's complicated, emotional and we can clam up, while the person continues their bad behavior. These are difficult situations, and while we might not tell outright lies in those scenarios, we can avoid the truth. Does that resonate with you? What do we do about it?As we continue studying Ezekiel, the next passage describes God's commissioning of Ezekiel to that very role, the role of a professional truth-teller. There will be much we can learn from God's commissioning of Ezekiel that will help us as we consider the oftentimes difficult task of truth-telling. Open a Bible to Ezekiel 2:1-3:15, then listen to the sermon.

In this sermon we study Ezekiel chapter 1, and it is wild. I don't believe I can exaggerate how fascinating is this chapter of the Bible. Before you view the sermon, open your Bible and read Ezekiel 1 and see for yourselves. Try to figure out what is going on. It might be tempting to think that it is a chapter of the Bible that has absolutely nothing to do with our lives in 2021. Think again. What I found as I studied this convinced me that this bizarre chapter of the Bible is meaningful and practical for us in a very important way. Now I invite you to listen to the sermon!

We are starting a new sermon series on the book of Ezekiel! My normal pattern is to preach through a book in one testament, and then move to a book in the other testament. Since we just finished Colossians in the New Testament, I started thinking and praying about which Old Testament book would be a good fit. I also talk it over with Michelle. She suggested Ezekiel. Immediately I thought, “Ezekiel? Really? I don't know…” Why was I hesitant?First of all, it is loooooong. Very long. Take a guess at where Ezekiel ranks if you list the books longest to shortest. 4th place! In fact, it is only 229 words shorter than Psalms. Ezekiel has 29,918 words. (Trivia question: What are the two longest books of the Bible? Find the answer in the PS below.) Second, Ezekiel is fairly unfamiliar to me. I looked in my files and I had only preached one sermon on it previously. If I selected Ezekiel, I'd have some learning to do. Who was this guy, Ezekiel, anyway? Third, I feel intimidated by prophecy, and Ezekiel is one of the Old Testament prophets. The 12 short books at the end of the Old Testament are a bit more manageable because they are so small. Ezekiel is a whole different ballgame, as it is a big long prophetic tome. Could I handle it? Furthermore, prophecy can get really odd. How will people receive it? Does it relate to Faith Church in 2021? But, I was intrigued. When I considered all the books of the Bible I have preached since I became pastor 13 years ago, I had to admit that other than a 12-part overview series on the Minor Prophets, I had rarely preached from the prophets. That means preaching through Ezekiel, given its genre and length, would be like nothing I'd preached before. I found that uniqueness appealing. So I opened up the book of Ezekiel to see what I would find.As I mentioned above, if you would have asked me last week to describe Ezekiel, before I started reading, I wouldn't have been able to tell you much. How about you? Without reading it, what do you know about Ezekiel? I was familiar with his vision of God in chapter 1, with his theme about Israel needing a new heart, with his prophecy about a foreign king that sounds like it might have a double-meaning describing Satan, and finally with his famous vision of the valley of dry bones. That's it. And that's not much.So one night last week as I started reading Ezekiel, I outlined it to see how it might work as a sermon series. It didn't take me long to confirm that I did not know much about Ezekiel. I'm sure I must have read it sometime, but if I did, it was long gone from my memory. What I was reading was mostly new to me, and what's more, it is WILD! I kid you not, Ezekiel is unique, and it is wonderfully weird. But all the way through the bizarro stuff we're going to discover in the book, Ezekiel's prophetic message is powerful, and I think very applicable to us. Even though I was reading for a while, I couldn't put it down. I worked through the whole book that night, and I came away from it excited about this sermon series. In this podcast I'm going to introduce the book, and then the following week we'll start with chapter 1. Then we'll continue working our way through the book in a series that will finish sometime in 2022. The introduction will set the context and help us understand the scope and themes. My prayer is that our study through Ezekiel will be lifechanging. From what I read and studied so far, if we take heart to Ezekiel's prophecy, I don't think we can help but be changed by the Spirit of God.PS – Answer to the Trivia question: the 2nd longest book of the Bible is Genesis (32,046 words) and the longest is Jeremiah (33,002 words).

We've arrived at the end of Colossians. This week we welcome guest teacher David Hundert who will be teaching us about this P.S., this postscript. Get ready for the writer, the Apostle Paul, to mention all sorts of names. We're going to meet people who were some of the earliest Christians, people who were his ministry associates. More than that, we'll learn how their lives as disciples of Jesus in their day can help us become more faithful disciples of Jesus in our day.

How do you measure the health of a church family? I’m not talking about medical health. I’m talking about our discipleship to Jesus. When it comes to our belief about and practice of discipleship to Jesus, are we healthy? I know Faith Church isn’t perfect. No church is perfect. Because of that we don’t want to assume that we are doing just fine. Instead we should strive to maintain a humble, teachable posture, welcoming evaluation of ourselves. As difficult as it can be to learn that we have a problem, we need to know if we have unhealthy discipleship in our church family. We do not want to shrug off potential issues as if they are no big deal. So again I ask, how do you measure the discipleship health of a church family? Our Vision Team (comprised of our Leadership Team members, Serve Team chairpersons, and our staff) is reading Reggie McNeal’s book Missional Renaissance, in which he argues that churches need to start using a new scorecard. For too long, McNeal says, churches have been focused on the metrics of “bigger is better.” In other words, if a church family is gaining more worship attenders who give more money so they can build ever larger buildings, that church was considered to be healthy. Another metric has been applied to smaller churches, and that is their ability to keep offering worship services week in and week out. If they are continuing to pay their bills and hold worship services, they were considered to be healthy. Whether big or small, worship attendance, buildings and budgets rarely give us an accurate diagnosis of discipleship health. So what measurements do give us a picture of our health as disciples of Jesus? As we continue our sermon series through Colossians, Paul has written quite a bit about what a healthy church looks like. In chapter three he said that a healthy church focuses on things above, by removing the dirty clothes of the sinful nature, and putting on the clean clothes of new life in Christ. This coming Sunday he will teach us two practices that healthy church families make a consistent, intentional part of their lives, as they seek to be disciples of Jesus who put on those new clothes, focusing on things above. Open your Bible to Colossians 4:2-6 and then follow along with the sermon.

Two weeks ago, in our study through Colossians, we learned, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col. 3:17) Last week we looked at how Paul applied that principle to families. Now this week in Colossians 3:22-4:1, we are going to learn how he applies the principle to work. Students, we’ll also learn how this relates to your academic career. Not a student or a worker? Retirees, the principle will also relate to how you spend your retirement.Check out Colossians 3:22-4:1 ahead of time, then listen to the podcast as we talk about it.

How do you spend your time in an average week?There are 168 hours in a week. Let’s tally up how we use those hours. I’m going to list averages, so you can adjust the numbers a bit to align with your life, as we humans have a lot of variety in our use of time. First of all, sleep. We sleep on average 7 hours per night. Add in naps, and that works out to about 50 hours per week. Second, eating. This one is probably all over the place. 21 meals, plus snacks…let’s go with 10 hours per week. Third, personal hygiene. Think bathroom tasks. Probably another 10 hours per week. Fourth, cleaning and chores, another 10. Fifth, school or work. We work about 8 hours per day, five days per week. Or if you are a student, you are in school about that much. That’s another 40 hours. Where’s our total so far? 120 hours. That leaves 48 hours for commuting, volunteering, church, family time and personal time that could include hobbies, exercise, media, etc. How do you spend that remaining 48 hours? My point in asking us to examine how we use our time each week is that we rarely do this kind of self-evaluation. In other words, are you using your 168 hours the way you want to?More than likely, you are in a routine, and we allow that routine to guide us week after week, month after month, year after year. When is the last time your evaluated your routines? While there may be needed course corrections in how we spend our time, my guess is that most of us have established routines because those routines are useful to us. Routines are not bad. In fact, we can rely on a routine for decades, and it may serve us quite well. Handled rightly, routine can actually be a very good thing. What we heard last week in our study through Colossians is this, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col. 3:17) Are your routines in line with "do all in the name of Jesus"? Looking at your 168 hours per week, are you using them in line with "do all in the name of Jesus"?As we continue our study in Colossians, the writer, Paul explains in more detail just how it is that we do all in the name of Jesus, especially looking at those places where we spend most of our time. At home and at work. Or for students, at school. And for retirees, where you volunteer. We're going to look at family this coming week, and then work (or school or volunteering) the next week. Check out Colossians 3:18-21 ahead of time, then listen to the podcast!

I recently read some articles that surveyed people who stopped going to church. Their answers about why they chose to stop going to church revealed a trend. While there is no doubt that Jesus is a “stumbling block,” as his teaching will naturally turn some people away, the vast majority of the people who stop going to church do so because Christians in the church were acting unlike Jesus. Over the years we’ve heard this before, right? One hundred years ago Ghandi, the famous leader of India, said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Take a moment and consider what Jesus must have been like. Even for atheists or believers in other faiths, it is hard to argue against the idea that Jesus was amazing. He was filled with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, love, peace, and truth. No wonder crowds numbering in the thousands flocked to hear him. I’m sure the miraculous healings also helped his popularity soar. But there is no doubt that Jesus was compelling. Not just the miracles, and not just the teaching, but how he lived his life was astounding. He was not in a hurry. He cared deeply about all people. He practiced what he preached. He lived a consistent life. He was hilarious, sincere, fun and serious when he needed to be. He was selfless.Now consider what people see when they observe us. Can it be said that we are drawing people to Jesus because our lives look more and more like his? I’m not suggesting that you have to be perfectly like Jesus. I’m getting at what we’ve heard the Apostle Paul writing about in Colossians 3, that we are people who have been raised with Christ to new life, so we seek with our hearts and we ponder with our minds the way of the Jesus, which is sometimes called a Kingdom mindset. Last week in Colossians 3:5-11, we began a two-part miniseries in which Paul describes how to have that Kingdom mindset, using the metaphor of laundry. In that passage, part one was “take off the dirty clothes” of the old sinful nature. This week in part two is “put on the clean clothes” of the new way of Jesus. I invite you to open a Bible to Colossians 3:12-17 and then follow along with the podcast.

How long do you typically wear a pair of jeans before you wash them? Unless I get them sweaty or so dirty they are unpresentable, I will wear a pair of jeans for multiple days because I want to preserve water as well as avoid wear and tear on the denim. But after a couple days, natural skin oils leave my jeans feeling grimy. Also the normal motion of my daily activity stretches them out, and they feel too loose. For me, the sweet spot is three days, but no more than that. After day three, the jeans go in the dirty laundry bin. How about you? Are you a single-use person? Maybe two days? How many days do wear them?Believe it or not, the CEO of Levis, Chip Bergh, said that you should never wash a pair of jeans. He meant it, claiming that he does not ever wash his jeans. Washing them, he said, does damage to the denim. Instead he spots cleans with a toothbrush, as needed. How do you feel about that?I love the feeling of newly-washed jeans, either crisp from being line dried, or softer from the dryer. Admittedly, Mr. Bergh is right; over time, washing jeans will fade their fabric. Mine always thin in the knees, inevitably leading to holes. But I can’t imagine never washing my jeans. Wouldn’t they start to stink? They would! Anti-washers have solutions for that. Put your jeans in the freezer overnight to kill the bacteria creating the odor, or hang them out in the sunlight, or spray them with a deodorizer. Again, I ask, how do you feel about that?I’m talking about laundry because over the next two weeks, in this week sermon in our series through Colossians, the writer of the letter of Colossians, the Apostle Paul, talks about laundry. This week is part 1, taking off the dirty clothes, and next week, part 2, will be about putting clean clothes on. When it comes to the kind of laundry Paul is talking about, it seems he would differ from the CEO of Levis. But what kind of laundry is Paul talking about? Check out Colossians 3:5-11 and then listen to the podcast as we talk about it further!

Have you heard of autostereograms? If you are a child or teen of the 1990s, you are likely quite familiar with autostereograms, but maybe you don’t know them by that name. Let’s see if you recognize them when I give you the name of the most famous commercialized version of autostereograms: Magic Eye pictures. Now do you know what I’m talking about? In the 1990s these 3D computer-generated images were so popular that Magic Eye books were on the New York Times bestseller lists for a combined 73 weeks. I was delighted to learn today that all these years later, they have a website!Magic Eye pictures are actually random dot autostereograms, three-dimensional pictures on two-dimensional surfaces, created by artists using computer-generated imaging. Look at the example here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostereogram It looks like a pattern of colorful dots, but there is actually a 3D image of a shark as well. Can you see it? I promise you...it's there. I made sure of it! I remember looking at these images, agonizing as I failed to find whatever 3D image was supposed to be hidden in plain sight. Maybe you remember the feeling too? It could be exceedingly frustrating. I would cross my eyes. I would stare. I would look up, down and all around. What did I see? Nothing but those colorful dots. There was no 3D image! Was this all just a grand prank? The instructions in the books said you had to look "behind" the image, whatever that meant. I tried and I tried, and then one day, all of a sudden, there it was! A 3D image was, and it seemed magic.When I say, “all of a sudden,” and add that with the word “magic,” it gives the impression that the ability to see the hidden image is not something that we can control. But that is entirely not true. In fact, the trick to seeing the 3D image in these autostereograms is all about focus. Once you learn to focus your eyes “behind” the image, you will see the 3D picture quite easily. When it comes to Magic Eye pictures, there is nothing magical about it. Focus is everything. More specifically, learning to focus the right way is everything.The same can be said for being a disciple of Jesus. Learning to focus on Jesus is everything. Just like Magic Eye pictures, if we want to see Jesus properly, we have to focus on the right thing, in the right way. Also like Magic Eye pictures, learning to have the right kind of focus can be difficult, especially as we live in a world that draws our focus elsewhere. As we resume our series through Colossians, we’re going to be talking about how to focus on Jesus in the middle of our sometimes busy and confusing lives. It is possible to focus on Jesus, and when you learn to do so, what you will see is amazing. In this video we study Colossians 3:1-4 as learn how to focus on God!

This is my 13th year in a row preaching an Easter sermon. To be honest with you, when I considered that, I felt we needed a change. If I rotate through the four Gospel accounts of the resurrection each year, that means I would be starting my fourth rotation. The Gospel accounts of the resurrection aren’t all that different. Sure, they each have their nuances, and those are important. That’s why I rotate through them. But this year, I felt the need for something different. Don’t worry, we’re still going to talk about the resurrection! But we’re going to talk about it differently. In fact, we’re not going to study one of the four Gospel accounts.My concern is that Easter can be the same year after year after year, and we can allow ourselves to tune out. We shouldn’t tune out though. The resurrection of Jesus is so momentous, so important, that we should be able to talk about it every day and not get sick of it. But that kind of excitement about the resurrection doesn’t describe our real world experience, does it? How many of you can’t stop talking every day about the resurrection because you are so excited about it? If you’re like me, while you believe the resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in history, you probably don’t think about it or talk about it much. So this year, rather than review the story of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospels, for fear of all of us just tuning it out, we’re doing something different, something I hope will renew in us a wonderment for the resurrection. Let me ask you: if you didn’t want to use one of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection, but you still wanted to talk about the resurrection, what would you do? Would there be a passage of scripture you would turn to? Listen in to find out!

Let’s have a little fun with some potential new rules for being a part of our church family. See what you think. Do you think these rules are any good? Or are they bad?Rule #1 - A Dress Code! Men, you have to wear a suit and tie to worship. Women, you must wear a dress. No pants. Kids have to follow the dress code too. Our new worship attire enforcement team will meet you at the doors of the church to verify you are following the rules. If you do not follow the dress code and try to enter the building while violating the attire rule, team members will direct you to a room in the back hallway where they will have a selection of worship-appropriate items you can change into. Or you can go home. Think you’ll get around it by just worshipping via Zoom? Think again. We will verify that every person on Zoom is also following the new worship attire rule. If you are on Zoom, you will be required to turn on your video feed, and a member of our worship attire enforcement team will visually verify that you are dressed appropriately. If not, they will deny you access to the Zoom gathering.Rule #2 - Tithing. You are also required to give 10% of your gross income to the church, before you do anything else with your money. Concerned you won’t have enough to pay your bills? Trust in God. Our Stewards have set up a tithe verification team, and they will assist everyone with getting your bank accounts and credit cards set up to automatically transfer your 10% gross to our church account.Rule #3 - Mandatory Attendance. You must attend worship every week, except for the weeks you are on vacation or sick, but then you still have to attend by Zoom. You are forbidden to watch TV preachers or other churches in place of Faith Church's worship. You must also stay for Sunday School, because that is the backbone of the church. Concerned we don’t have children’s Sunday School or nursery yet? Make it work. You’ll be teaching your kids an important lesson, and we'll all respect you for it. Our new Sunday School mandatory attendance enforcement team will block all exits, preventing anyone from leaving until Sunday School is over.Rule #4 - Prayer Meeting. When we restart prayer meeting, you must all attend every week. Shame on those Leadership Team members who don’t attend, because prayer is also the backbone of the church. Yes, our church has two backbones. Do you believe any of this? Wipe the sweat off your brow, because these rules are not real. I made up those rules! Actually, I didn’t fully make those rules up, because I exaggerated old rules. There was a time in the history of the evangelical church when people believed and followed less-restrictive versions of each of those rules. Do we have rules now? Of course we don’t have rules! Or do we? A couple years ago on a Sunday morning, a visitor to Faith Church walked into the lobby on their first visit. The visitor held an iced coffee, intending to bring it into the sanctuary and partake of the beverage throughout the worship service. In the middle of their short walk from the lobby’s exterior doors to the sanctuary doors, a member of our congregation cut the visitor off at the pass, ushering them to the kitchen where they helped the visitor put their drink in the church fridge! That well-meaning person from our congregation took that action based on what they perceived to be a church rule: “No food and drink in the sanctuary.” Is that even a real thing? Do we allow food and drink in our sanctuary during worship? I can tell you there is no such rule in our church by-laws. As you’re reading this, my guess is that some of you think it is a good rule not to have food and beverage in the sanctuary, while others of you think it is not necessary. We all agree that there is at least one Sunday per month when we are just fine with food and drink in the sanctuary, don’t we? The reality is that we do have rules, many of which are unwritten, and many rules which people in our church family have differing opinions about. This week as we continue studying Colossians, we will find that Paul, as he has been addressing heresy in the Colossian church, is very concerned about rules in the church. He is especially concerned about false rules. Does Faith Church have false rules? Do you abide by any false rules? Read Colossians 2:16-23, and see what Paul has to say. Then listen to this sermon as we talk about it!

Easter is just a few weeks away, and that means we once again celebrate Holy Week which is listed in the Upcoming Events section below. Imagine with me the scene from the darkest day of Holy Week, Good Friday, when the Roman governor Pilate questions Jesus. Pilate is the most powerful man in the land, representing the authority and wishes of the Roman Emperor. Up until that day, it seemed that Jesus was also quite powerful. Crowds numbering in the tens of thousands swarmed around him, straining to hear his authoritative teaching and witness his astounding miracles. As we well know, Jesus was truly far more powerful than Pilate. In that moment at the Governor’s palace , though, Pilate wields the immense influence and might of the Roman military, and Jesus seems to be a mere criminal about to be chewed up the system. Think about that power dynamic when you read the account of Jesus’ and Pilate’s conversation in John 18:28-19:16. In John 18:37, in the midst of their discussion about Jesus’ identity, Jesus says, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” This comment from Jesus is something we’d expect him to say, right? We’re used to Jesus talking about himself as truth. Pilate, though, seems confused or frustrated by Jesus’s statement. Look at Pilate’s response in verse 38: “What is truth?” Have you ever asked that question? I have. It can be hard to know what the truth is or if the truth matters in a world where falsehood reigns. In the trial of Jesus, truth didn’t matter at all. Pilate knows Jesus is innocent, but what did that matter? It didn’t. He allowed Jesus to be killed anyway. Or maybe Pilate is asking, “How do we know what truth is?” If Pilate is asking this, he is joining a conversation that has been going on for millennia, from the minds of the great philosophers to the regular conversations of people like us who wonder if something is fake news. As we continue studying Colossians, we will find that Paul is deeply concerned about truth. Read Colossians 2:8-15, and see what Paul has to say. Then watch the video as we talk about it!

As we continue our study through the book of Colossians, please read ahead to our passage for this Sunday, Colossians 2:6-7. Look over these verses and consider if you can identify with the lifestyle that Paul is describing. If you can't, you're not alone. Join us as Emerald Scaffe teaches how the Lord plans to do amazing things through you, for his Kingdom.

This sermon is a mystery! Not in the sense that “it’s a mystery to me,” as in, "I don’t know what we’re going to talk about." Instead the sermon topic is literally a mystery. The Scripture calls it a mystery. Do you like mysteries? You might remember that last week I said that the section of Colossians we’re studying has enough significant teaching that I didn’t feel I could do it justice in one week. So I decided to do something that I don’t believe I’ve ever done before. I’m preaching the same passage of Scripture two weeks in a row. But the sermon theme is very different from one week to the other.Last week we looked at how Paul, in Colossians 1:24-2:5, describes his apostolic mission of suffering selflessness, in which he actually rejoiced that he endured physical persecution so that he could fully proclaim the message of Jesus, thus resulting in people being presented perfect in Christ. If you didn’t hear that sermon or read the blog posts, I encourage you to do so because it will help you see the context of what we’re going to be talking about in this sermon: the mystery. Paul literally talks about a mystery. And then he reveals the mystery. What is the mystery? As you listen, I think you'll find that this mystery is actually incredibly important and meaningful in our lives today.

If I told you that Jesus taught that his expectation for you is perfection, what would you think? Impossible, right? Or maybe you’d think, “Wait a minute, Joel. During last week’s sermon about Ravi Zacharias, didn’t you make it very clear that Jesus does not expect us to be perfect?” Good point. Yes, I did say that. Twice in that sermon, in fact. Well, I’m writing today to tell you that maybe I spoke too soon in that sermon. I really don’t want to lead anyone astray. I thought what I said in last week’s sermon was correct. But as I’ve been studying for my sermon this week, I wonder if I should be changing my tune? Are you wondering if I’m serious? Are you wondering if I’m really suggesting that Jesus expects perfection of his followers? If I were you, at this point I’d be thinking, “Jesus can’t possibly expect perfection, because then no one would ever meet his expectation!” I hear you. Those thoughts and others are going through my mind, too, even as I type. And yet as we continue our study of Colossians, we’re coming to a passage that might contradict what I said in my sermon last week. If you want to read the passage ahead of time and see what I’m referring to, check out Colossians 1:24-2:5. This passage includes a verse about perfection that has historically been a major teaching of our denomination, the Evangelical Congregational Church. “Joel, are you saying that the EC Church believes Jesus expects us to be perfect? I don’t remember that from church membership class.” Yes…I think I am saying that…and I’ll talk about that in the sermon. (Can you tell I’m trying to be cautious?) Christian perfection is a teaching that is still “on the books,” the official creedal statements of the EC Church, but it has basically been swept into the theological dustbin of history. The more important question is this: what does the Bible have to say about what Jesus expects of us? Will I have to issue a retraction of what I said last week? Listen in to find out.

Once per quarter Faith Church takes a pause from our regular sermon series, and we have a sermon about current events. Listen in as Joel Kime speaks about the moral failure of Ravi Zacharias and how it matters to us all.

Love and intimacy. Two things that come into focus every Valentine’s day. What about God? We hear that the Lord loves us. We are taught that He loves us so much, that He sent His only Son to die in our place, but do we really understand the depth of the love that He feels for us, that lead up to His decision to send His only Son? In this sermon, we look at Psalm 139 and reflect with the Psalmist about the level of detail that makes up God’s love for us.

We welcome our Bishop Bruce Hill, who joined us by Zoom today, as we canceled in-person worship today, February 7, 2021, due to a snow storm.

What has the difficulty of the last twelve months taught you? I suspect there have been multiple lessons to learn, new ideas to gain, or maybe some re-evaluation of old ideas that haven't stood the test of time and crisis. Perhaps the most obvious lesson is an old one that became very apparent this past year: ours is a fractured world. The brokenness we have seen in plain view is nothing new, but maybe we have seen it in a new way. What do we do about the sharp divide in our land? In our community? In our hearts and minds? Clearly what we have been trying hasn't succeeded.Our new president, in his Inaugural Address, called for a renewal of unity. We badly need unity. But is it possible to make progress toward unity when our disagreements are so deep, our worldviews so opposite, the anger and vitriol erupting constantly, fueled by misinformation. Is there any hope for us? Of course, there is always hope, and we believe that hope becomes a reality when Christians live out in our real worlds an important Christian teaching which we learn about in our next section of Colossians, chapter 1:20-23.

Do you think you know Jesus? I mean really know him. Try something for a moment to see how well you know Jesus. Grab a pen and paper, or open a blank document on your computer word processor. Now write a description of Jesus. Maybe a list of the first ten words that come to mind. Maybe a few sentences that you think best explain him. What is essential? When describing Jesus, what do you have to include? Try it out. Then come back to this description.Alright, you're back. What did you come up with? Did stories about Jesus come to mind? Did you think about Christmas and Easter, his birth and death? If so, you're probably in good company, because those are easily to the two most famous days in the life of Jesus, and clearly the two days we Christians make the biggest deal about. What else did you list? Maybe his miracles? Walking on water, turning water to win, feeding the 5,000, and then think about all the healings. There must have been hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands, of healings. Making the blind to see, the lame to walk, and most dramatically of all, a couple times raising the dead. Or did you focus on his teachings. Think about the famous parables, or the sermons, the confrontations with the religious leaders, and the discussions with his disciples and friends. There is so much to talk about. But as we will see in our study of the next section of Colossians, chapter 1, verses 15-20, Paul focuses on Jesus, but he barely mentions anything that I just listed. Paul goes in a very different direction, and thus Paul presents to us a very different side of Jesus that we rarely hear about. It's a side of Jesus, though, that we need. Desperately. Want to see what Paul says about Jesus? Want to check your description against his? See how they compare! Now enjoy this study of Colossians 1:15-20.

God’s will and God’s power. Don’t you wish you knew God’s will and were filled with his power to do his will? Theoretically, that would enable you to live the best possible life, right? Imagine what it would be like! You would always know what God wants you to do in any situation, and you would have the ability to do what he wants you to do! Think about how different that is from what we normally experience in life. Either we know what God wants us to do, but we don’t have the ability to do it, or we want to do something, but we don’t know what God wants. The result is frustration, confusion or consternation about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Does that describe you, even, in some small way? If so, you’re not alone. Remember the Matthew 7 line that we talk about in our church logo? It’s right there above. It’s the center line in the middle of the row of four squares. Starting from the left, the first square represents loving God through Worship. The next square symbolizes loving people through Fellowship, and then we come to a vertical line. On the other side of the line is the darker green square which stands for loving God through Discipleship, and finally the last square is for loving people through Outreach. But what about that center line? It is the difference between just being worshippers and fellowshippers, and being disciples of Jesus. The reason why we call it the Matthew 7 line is that it points us to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:21-23. Go ahead and reread that. To summarize, Jesus depicts people doing all sorts of religious activity, for which you’d think Jesus would be so proud, but he says to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” Yikes, right? This is why I said above, “You’re not alone.” Jesus points out that there are people who are convinced they are doing God’s will, and yet they are very wrong. As I’ve mentioned over the years, I don’t want a single person who is a part of the family of Faith Church hearing Jesus say to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” This leads to a critical question: How can we know God’s will? And then there is an important follow-up question: once we know God’s will, how will we have the ability to actually do his will? If you’ve ever wondered that, and I think all Christians should probably wonder about that quite frequently, then I have good news for you! Listen in as we study what Paul has to say about knowing and doing God’s will in Colossians 1:9-14

I’m excited to begin a new sermon series, Paul’s letter to the Colossians. I selected Colossians because I sensed that we would do well to spend time getting to know Jesus in a new way. Paul writes to the Christians in the Greco-Roman town of Colosse because he has been hearing things about them, and he is concerned. He can’t visit them, though, as he is in prison. So he writes them a letter, desiring to communicate the truth about Jesus. What we’ll find over the next few months that we study Colossians on Sunday mornings, is that this letter could have been written yesterday, to us! As I watched the terrible events unfolding at the US Capitol this past Wednesday (1/6), I thought, “We need the message of Colossians!” My hope and prayer is that you’ll clearly see what I mean. So hear what Paul has to say in the letter's introduction, Colossians 1:1-8.

Imagine a scenario in which you are given one sentence to share wisdom with your children. I’m not so much interested in the particulars of the scenario. It might be that you’re on your death bed. It might be that you are saying goodbye as you drop off your child at college. What I’m really interested in is what you would say to them. You’ve lived longer than they have, and you’ve learned a lot. You’ve had life-shaping experiences, and you love your kids and want them to know what you’ve learned. Just maybe, you think, it will help them. What do they need to know? What wisdom would you share? Would you talk about finances? Would you talk about relationships? Spirituality? Here’s the catch: you have to contain your final words to one sentence. One memorable sentence. You want your kids to not only hear your wisdom, you also want it to be unforgettable. You want them to remember your wisdom long after you are gone, long after you say goodbye. Choose your words very carefully! We conclude our sermon series through the book of Ecclesiastes in this sermon. What final words of wisdom does the Teacher have for us? While he says more than one sentence, in the final section of Ecclesiastes, he writes a very memorable phrase that could be called his final words of wisdom. I think you’ll find what he has to say is very important, with the potential to impact you significantly. See if you can discover the Teacher’s final wise saying by reading Ecclesiastes 12:9-14, then listen in as we talk about it further.

What. A. Year. Are you ready for 2021? Of course! I don’t need to ask that question, do I? After the year we just lived through, at least those of us who actually did live through it considering that so many passed away, I suspect just about all of us, if not every single one of us, is ready for 2021. I recently watched a video of a talk show host who built a giant structure in a quarry, and the structure was in the shape of the numbers 2020. Each number was probably three or four stories high, and laced with explosives. The talk show host walked out of a door built in the front of one of the numbers, and as he walked away from the structure, holding a remote control of some kind, he listed off the ways that 2020 was terrible. Then when he was far enough away, he hit a button on the remote, and the entire structure behind him shuddered in a blast that tore it apart, sending shards flying. It was impressive and satisfying. But while it can be fun to blow stuff up, I don’t think we should blow up 2020. Obviously we can’t blow it up. In fact, it will likely remain indelibly stamped in our minds for the rest of our lives. Yes, 2020 was that intense. As we continue our series through the book of Ecclesiastes this coming Sunday, we’ve arrived a passage near the end of the book that implores us not to blow up 2020, but to stare it in the face. Before we head off into the unknowns of 2021, we just might have some learning to do. See what you think by opening your Bible to Ecclesiastes 11:1-12:8 and listening to the sermon.

What does it mean to be human? It is all we know, of course, and yet how often do we think about the fact that we are humans? Since my family got our dog, Bentley, right around this time of year four years ago, I’ve had the opportunity to think about my human-ness a bit differently because I compare it to my dog’s canine-ness. Sometimes he does things that seem quite human. For example, when he just wants to play or to cuddle, you know there is a part of his genetic make-up that drives him much like human genes drive us. Then there are times when he is altogether different. Like yesterday. In the morning I took him outside to play in the snow, and he found an injured bird flapping aimlessly in our yard. In a flash he scooped up the bird in his mouth, bit down and refused to let go. I tried prying his jaws open with my hands, to no avail. Michelle had the brilliant idea of distracting him by playing catch with one of his favorite toys, a small rubber tire, and it worked! I threw the tire out into the snow, he dropped the now lifeless bird, and I snatched it up, and ran it to the trash can. Our dog had committed a most unhuman act. He did, however, behave like a dog through and through. It reminded me of that classic question: Will there be animals in heaven? Animals are so different from us, right? In particular, they are different in the spirit realm. Or at least the Scriptures don’t give us any clear indication that animals have a spirituality. I know I’m treading on thin ice with those of you who are convinced you’ll be reunited with your beloved animals in heaven. Maybe you’re right. I can’t say for sure one way or the other, and I’ve actually read theological works arguing for each perspective, believe it or not. What I know for sure is that we humans are unique in our human-ness, and at Christmas God entered our humanity. He became like us. Embodied. That important fact about Christmas is the next gift that we are going to study this coming Sunday, which is the Fourth Sunday of Advent.This Advent season, we are following the themes of the book Honest Advent by Scott Erickson, which is guiding us in thinking about what gifts we could give Jesus. So far we learned that we give him our vulnerability, love and our identity. How can we give Jesus the gift of embodiment? Listen in as we talk about it!

I think it's safe to say that 2020 has been a year of unknowns. How do you stay safe? Will your business be able to keep its doors open? Will our country continue its steady divide? And the list goes on. Now as heavy as these questions are, there is one that is the foundation of how we respond to all the rest: who are you? This is the question that we will be considering this week.In the same way you would turn on a light to find something in a dark room, so Jesus shines a light to help us discover who we are. Join us, this Sunday as we explore the third gift that we have received from Jesus, our identity.This Advent season, we are following the themes of the book Honest Advent by Scott Erickson, which is guiding us in thinking about what gifts we could give Jesus. First, we learned that we give him our vulnerability. Second, we give him the gift of love when we express love to others. What other gifts do you think Jesus might want, gifts that he first gave to us? Listen in as Faith Church's Ministry Coordinator Emerald Scaffe teaches us about the next gift we could give him.

What gifts does Jesus want for Christmas? What gifts have you been planning on giving him? We don’t often think about giving Jesus gifts for Christmas do we? Because Christmas is the celebration of his birth, though, it only makes sense to give him birthday gifts! So if Jesus made a list of what he would want for his birthday, what do you think he would put on the list? What do you get the God of the Universe who already has all things? I’ll give you a clue: Jesus wants gifts that he himself already gave us. That might sound like he is being selfish, taking back what he first gave us! Instead, when Jesus gives us a gift, and then he asks us to give that gift back to him, rather than removing it from us so that we no longer possess it, the gifts multiply and expand so we both have the gifts! For example, last week we learned how to give Jesus the gift of our faithful vulnerability. We saw how Jesus gave us his vulnerability first, by becoming human, born as a baby, into poverty, then as a refugee, then eventually living most of his life in obscurity as a peasant, and then years later giving his life on the cross. Talk about vulnerability! He embodies vulnerability, and then calls us to do the same with him, to enter into a real, faithful, vulnerable relationship with him. Nothing is taken from either person in the relationship. Instead both experience the benefits of vulnerability, enhancing the relationship together. The same goes for the other gifts Jesus wants! This Advent season, we are following the themes of the book Honest Advent by Scott Erickson, which is guiding us in thinking about what gifts we could give Jesus. What other gifts do you think Jesus might want, gifts that he first gave to us? Listen as we learn about the next gift we could give him. Hint: the gift we’ll be talking about is related to God’s core identity.

Our Advent sermon series will follow the main themes of the book Honest Advent by Scott Erickson. Erickson writes about the humanity of the birth of Jesus, removing the cultural trappings of Christmas that have turned this momentous event into something far different than it was originally. For those of you who have experienced birth, you know birth often involves morning sickness, weight gain, hours of painful labor cramps, amniotic fluid, difficult pushing, maybe surgery and swirling emotion. Birth is so much more than the picture of the happy couple holding their sleeping newborn baby. Honest Advent seeks to capture that human reality, and then relate it to the messiness of the lives we lead, so that we can pursue greater faithfulness to Jesus and the mission of his Kingdom. Honest Advent includes 25 devotions that you can read each day during Advent. Then on Sundays, our Advent sermons will focus on the wider themes of the book: vulnerability, love, identity, embodiment, and on Christmas Eve, participation.

In our world, wisdom can seem hard to come by. Is it just a matter of getting a lot of education? If so, what about academics who have little common sense, or who, through foolish behavior, make a mess of their lives? Maybe the only way to gain wisdom is to advance in years and have many life experiences. But aren’t there older people who act foolishly? It doesn’t seem like growing older has benefited them.What is wisdom, and how do we get it? To complicate the matter even more, what do we do when people differ about what is wise? We see this play out in American society in 2020, with people holding wildly divergent views on what wise for our country. Each of the two major parties calls their view wise, and they call the other view foolish.In this next section of Ecclesiastes, 9:11-10:20, the Teacher (the writer of Ecclesiastes) shares with us many proverbs about wisdom and foolishness. I think you’ll find that in these proverbs, the Teacher makes the identity of wisdom and foolishness abundantly clear! So listen in and see if you can discover his proverbs.

As we continue our study of Ecclesiastes, the author of Ecclesiastes, The Teacher, returns to one of his first themes, that of death. How are we to live when we are faced with the fact that we will all die? How should we respond? With hopelessness? Despair? Our world has been faced with extreme amounts of death this year as the Covid-19 pandemic has affect hundreds of thousands here and around the globe. What wisdom does the Teacher have for us? As it turns out, he has some profound wisdom!

We return to Ecclesiastes this week, chapter 8, verses 9-15, where the Teacher points out grave injustices in the world. What does God think about this? As the Teacher addresses this thorny question, he concludes with a powerful teaching that will help us have joy in uncertain times.

It's coming. The 2020 US Presidential election is two days after this sermon, but we might not know the results for days or weeks after that. So this is an Election Sermon, but instead of talking about how to vote, Joel Kime talks about how to live in the aftermath of the election.

On a recent morning I ran five miles with my dog. I use a phone app to track all my runs. That day, as we finished the run by entering our driveway, I opened the phone with my fingerprint, hit “stop” on the app, and to my surprise my app said I had just run 5.00 miles in 40 minutes 00 seconds, for a pace of 8:00 minutes per mile. 5.00, 40:00, 8:00. All those wonderfully even numbers! That had never happened before! Every other time, something was slightly off. It doesn’t take much for the mileage or pace to be off. But this was…perfection. How about you? Do you have any similar desire in your life for perfection? Does it get under your skin when you don’t achieve that perfection? This week in our ongoing study through Ecclesiastes, the Teacher has more practical wisdom for us. I was surprised to read that the Teacher has a bone to pick with perfectionism. See for yourselves in Ecclesiastes 7:15-8:8. Then play the podcast as we study this further.

How many of you long for a better life?Maybe you want to lose weight. Maybe you want to pay off debt. Maybe you want a meaningful relationship. A "better life" can also be for your community, for the world. How do we make progress in achieving a better life? As we continue our study through Ecclesiastes, the Teacher in chapter 7:1-14 guides us how to have a better life. So open up your Bible, hit play on the podcast, and follow along.

"I can't wait..." How would you complete that sentence? Whether is a longing for a happy experience or the cessation of a painful one, there is so much that our hearts desire. Have you noticed that our longings can feel like a bottomless pit? It's called the Empty Self, and we humans all have it. But that doesn't mean we're doomed to dissatisfaction. As the Teacher continues exploring the meaning of life in Ecclesiastes, he shows us how to have deep, lasting satisfaction in the next section, Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12. So open up a Bible and follow along.

We continue our series in Ecclesiastes, now at the center section of the book, 5:1-7, which is about worship. How should we go to worship? The Teacher gives some important advice and teaching.

David Hundert continues our series through Ecclesiastes, looking at how the Teacher shows the importance of gaining the proper perspective in the difficulties of life. This section is Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:16, the first of three sermons on the central section of the book.

“Time is a cruel master.” Have you heard that quote, or a variation of it? Even if you’ve never heard it before, you likely know what it means because the passage of time includes the aging process that is the human experience. Over the years many of you have told me, “Don’t get old,” as you discussed your health concerns, or maybe just the aches and pains. Years ago when Michelle and my two youngest kids were little, I would watch they playing happily and say to them, “You aren’t allowed to grow up!” Of course that got a big reaction, because what young child doesn’t want to grow up? And the two little ones had their big brothers to catch up to. Catching up they are! Recently our third got his driver’s permit and has been driving us all over Lancaster County. Guess what his sister, still 14 years old, has started saying? “I want to drive too!” While there are fun parts to growing up, like learning to drive, time truly can be a cruel master. But do we have to look at it that way? Do we have to take a negative viewpoint about the passage of time? How would God want us to approach the passage of time? How would he want us to grow old? As we continue our study through the ancient wisdom book of Ecclesiastes, in this podcast we’ll study chapter 3 verses 1-15, which includes a famous poem about time. We’ll see if we can learn how to live through the passage of time in a way that honors God

As we continue learning the ancient wisdom from the Teacher in Ecclesiastes, he introduces us to seven people. These 7 are roles that he, the Teacher, played, as he sought the meaning of life. We invite you to listen and see if any of these 7 are like you!

This week we start a new sermon series on another book of the Bible with a strange-sounding name. Ecclesiastes. (Did you ever notice that there are some bizarre names of books of the Bible? Remember Deuteronomy?) What does Ecclesiastes mean? We’re going to find out. And what comes to mind when you think of the book of Ecclesiastes? It’s most famous phrase is probably “Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity.” You’ll find that right out the gate in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 2. Doesn’t that phrase sound kind of gloomy? Many people through the ages have considered Ecclesiastes to be so depressing that they debated whether or not it should be included in the Bible. They felt this way mostly because Ecclesiastes includes phrases like “vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” and that fact that vanity is repeated frequently. If that’s all there was to the message of Ecclesiastes, I would agree with them. Thankfully, there’s so much more to this interesting book of ancient wisdom. And, as I hinted at last week, even that word “vanity,” or its contemporary cousin, “meaningless,” really isn’t in the message of Ecclesiastes. If you open a Bible or Bible app to Ecclesiastes chapter 1, you’ll see it right there in verse 2, so what do I mean when I say it really isn’t there? I’ll explain on Sunday!What’s more, though Ecclesiastes is considered (wrongly) to be a depressing book, it has more references to joy than the oft-called “Joy book of the Bible,” Philippians. To be fair, Ecclesiastes is a lot longer than Philippians, but the point remains that maybe people through the centuries have gotten the message of Ecclesiastes all wrong! So we’re starting a study through this curious book that will carry us through the fall, helping us view our topsy-turvy world of 2020 from a much-needed perspective, a perspective that maybe we’ve lost amidst the turmoil. In this podcast we start with Ecclesiastes 1:1-11.

This week we welcome Paul Mannino to the blog, and he will be discussing Acts 28. If you want to watch the sermon, it’s posted on Paul’s YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCziJEahDSPMe-4To6sGjpEg). My wife, Michelle, and I met Paul and his wife, Mary Kate, at the Evangelical Congregational Church’s Pastoral Assessment Center this past January. There they not only got the green light for pastoral ministry, but we began a friendship. After 20 years in local church ministry, the Manninos are pursuing church-planting. I’m excited for you all to hear how Paul communicates God’s Word. If you want to learn more about the Mannino’s ministry, click here to contact them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mannino

Have you been hearing reports of increased struggles with mental health across our nation? It’s true. Maybe you are feeling it yourself. Maybe you’ve felt more exhausted, or a vague sense of dread. If so, you’re not alone. 2020 has been a nonstop thrillfest, and we’re all dealing with it. You don't need me to tell you about 2020, because you know it. You’re living it, and you have been living it every day. What’s more, it could go on for months. I say that not to be discouraging, but simply to admit the reality that we’ve been facing a storm that hasn’t stopped for a very long time. Day in, day out, we’re pounded by the wind and waves of the many traumas in our world, and the likelihood is that it could go on for months. The result is that we’re stressed out, or maybe fearful. Maybe not all of us. And maybe those that are feeling it, you are feeling it in a variety of ways. Emotionally, physically, relationally, spiritually. Does any of this resonate with you? Maybe a little? If so, our next sermon in the series through Acts is for you. Chapter 27. The storm. What should a Christian do when the storm will not let up, and the future seems dim?

When you talk about Jesus, what do you say? Does it feel awkward or difficult? How should we talk about Jesus? In our continuing study through the book of Acts, Paul talks with some Roman leaders about Jesus, and he has a very distinct method. Grab a Bible or open a Bible app, and turn to Acts 24, and listen along as we learn how Paul talked about Jesus. May you find it helpful!

We return to our study of Acts, having left Paul, at the end of chapter 21, on the steps of the Roman military barracks in the city of Jerusalem, under protective custody from the hostile Jewish crowd that was trying to kill. Surprisingly, Paul gets permission from the Roman commander to address the crowd, and the Jews quiet down to listen to him. What will Paul say? In Acts chapters 22-23, Paul will have not only this opportunity to speak to the Jews, but another in front of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. What we will see is how Paul views every opportunity to tell the story of Jesus' work in his life. Christians, you have a story too. Whether you think your story is worthy or not, you have a story, so listen in and learn from Paul how to be on the ready to tell it!

It's time for another quarterly current events sermon, and this time, instead of focusing on just one current event, we'll be looking at how Christians can interact with all current events. Jesus and the writers of the New Testament used a phrase over 50 times that can help us: "one another." What did they have to say about "one another"? Listen to find out.

"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." Yikes. Is that true? In this sermon on Acts 21, we'll find out who said this, why they said it, and whether or not it is true. The Apostle Paul's 3rd Missionary Journey comes to a riotous conclusion in the city of Jerusalem, and what Paul has to say will help us evaluate that quote. Through our study of Acts 21, we'll learn what how to love Jesus and love his church in 2020 and beyond.