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Jesus Is on the Move

Scripture: Luke 10:1-11 Luke 10:16-20 Isaiah 66:10-14

One of the hidden features of my iPhone that I use fairly often is the Find Friends app. With my Find Friends app, I can link to people close to me, and, as long as they are connected to the internet, get a glimpse of where they are. At any moment, I can find out what adventures my brother might be up, where my mom currently is, and so on. This works for my wife, Yunkyong, too - so if I tell her I am stopping at Target on the way home, she could theoretically check to see if I am...

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(posted 7/28/19)

Look What God Can Do

Scripture: Luke 8:26-39

One of the movies that the family and I went to see recently was Toy Story 4 - and there was a narrative that ran throughout this film that I found pretty fascinating: Forky repeats a refrain - "I’m trash." He asks constantly, does he have value? Do he have worth? Forky believes he belongs in the trash. He is not a toy. He does not have value. His purpose is something other than bringing joy to this world. For the little girl, Bonnie, who delights in all of her creations and her imagination, even trash...

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(posted 7/16/19)

Dealing With Droughts

Scripture: 1 Kings 17:8-16, 19:15-16, 19-21

I grew up in a fairly large family - mom, dad, one older brother, and two sisters. So, I always remember that dinner and lunch time, gathered around our family table in the kitchen, could often be a race - especially between my brother and I on who could finish our plate first and get to seconds. I remember aways being hungry as a kid - I was a growing boy and I still am, eating to live and living to eat. So, with 6 people around the table, we didn’t always have many leftovers after everyone ate their fill. And...

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(posted 7/1/19)

Stoking the Fire

Scripture: 1 Kings 18

At the beginning of this month, the Hill family piled up our tent and sleeping bags and went out on our first official campout with my son’s Cub Scout pack. One of the first challenges you face on a camp out, after you get your gear setup, is getting a fire going. But not for my family. While one other scout family was carefully collecting twigs, leaves, old newspaper, dry logs, and so on, piling them up, bending down, blowing and blowing and blowing, praying, hoping, and longing for the spark to take hold and the fire to roar so they can enjoy...

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(posted 6/24/19)

God's Restful Community

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

Of the people I have a lot of respect for in day to day life, it has be to immigrants - those among us who leave one culture and society behind and make their way successfully into a new one. Especially many of you right here in this church. Of the many challenges one faces when moving to a new country, language is the hardest. And not just language - but the little pieces of specific cultural context that can’t be taught. For example, my wife, Yunkyong, shared with me that two of the hardest places to figure out in America were...

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(posted 6/13/19)

You Deserve a Break

Scripture: Acts 16:16-34

After a long month in life and here in the church, this past week, I hit a wall. Yes, after two incredible memorial services, after a stewardship campaign, after working on our vision of where we are going, after preaching and hospital visits and meetings and connections out in the community, my body finally said, “That’s enough.” And even though I stumbled in here last Sunday and shared my message, I was sick and tired, quite literally. What happens when I get sick is that this negative spirit comes over me - telling me that I should be ashamed that I...

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(posted 6/2/19)

60 Is the New 20 - a sermon for our 60th anniversary

You may have heard it said, age is just a number. More than a few of you have told me, “Pastor, I may be 60, but I still feel 30 on the inside.” And I know there are at least a few youngsters in this church who may be 9 or 10 but act like they are 18. With the advance of new medical treatments or more information about how to live healthy, our life expectancy has grown over the past 60 years. We are able to do more later in life than we might have thought was possible. 60 is not necessarily...

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(posted 5/23/19)

Good Works

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10

Right now, the number one movie in America is the three hour superhero blockbuster, Avengers: Endgame. And while I don’t won’t to spoil it if you haven’t seen it, Endgame finishes a long developing plot line that peaked in the previous Avengers movie, Infinity War. Thanos, an evil cosmic villain, fought through space and time to gain six infinity stones representing all of reality, time, and space - and once together, he was able to do the unthinkable with this immense power. He snapped his fingers - and half of all living things across all of the universe disappeared. Vanished. Dead....

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(posted 5/7/19)

When Empty Is Good

Scripture: John 20:1-18

Have you ever experienced emptiness? I remember the first and only time I ever ran out of gas (fingers crossed). I grew up in the kind of family that couldn’t afford newer cars, so when we kids got older and were able to drive, we got to drive the old beat up hand me down vehicles that had a lot of miles and a lot of… issues. Dents, dings, non-functional windows and broken air conditioning. And in particular, I remember this ’84 cream colored Buick with a broken gas gauge. Fill up the gas tank, and the gauge would sort of...

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(posted 4/21/19)

Worshipful Words from Lent

In this past Lent, I intentionally took time to write some special Call to Worship words that invited us to start our worship time in the same space - with a sense of how welcome we are and how much God loves us. Our theme for Lent was "come to the table", so I hope these invitations capture a bit of that divine hospitality. Feel free to use them in your church setting if you would like. -- Rev. Nathan Hill Come to the Table | Call to Worship Series Week One: One: Is it true that there is a table big enough, grand...

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(posted 4/16/19)

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