Redemption Hill Church

This Sunday we begin at the beginning, with Hebrews 1:1-4. It is profound that we worship a God who speaks. God has spoken, continued to speak now, and will speak into eternity, and God’s Word has power. We will take a look at the context for the book of Hebrews, the major themes throughout, and we will look into the different ways that God speaks. Ultimately, God has spoken in and through Jesus Christ, the true Word of God.

This Sunday we will bring our series, Ecclesiastes: Life is a Vapor, to a close. As we look into Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:8 gives us the final teachings of Qoheleth that bring a kind of summary to the entire book. 12:9-14 bring back the voice of our narrator. Ecclesiastes closes with an evaluation of Qoheleth’s teaching, a final word on the fullness of human knowledge and wisdom under the sun. The goal of Ecclesiastes is to serve as a goad, poking us and prodding us, making us address uncomfortable truths and go down paths we otherwise might never choose to explore. I hope it has done so for you, and that this final sermon will bring one final push to impress deeper truths into your heart.

This is the penultimate sermon in our series. So, our journey with Qoheleth comes to a close next week. This Sunday we will cover Ecclesiastes 9:18-11:6. It’s an extended section that includes a lot of practical wisdom and proverbs to help us better work, speak, lead, invest, and live life. We will work our way through the Preacher’s advice as we consider what it is to live this life under the sun in a way that sees past the vanity of it and clings to what is more secure. 

We celebrated Easter Sunday in the book of Mark this year. Pastor Bill walked us through the historicity, significance, and response of the resurrection and how we are invited to live in the newness of life. 

This Sunday we will continue our series with Ecclesiastes 9. This chapter challenges us to consider whose glory we are seeking in our lives. We rely on building our own reputations and listing our accomplishments as the pathways to glory and leaving our mark on this world. Qoheleth has challenging truths to confront us. We will see on Sunday, though, that our pursuit of glory ought not be limited to what we can accomplish before death. We have a greater King to whom we cry, “Hosanna!” 

On Sunday we will dig into Ecclesiastes 8:1-15 where we see the Preacher’s roaming path touch on our approach to kings and rulers, teaching on government and power. In this sermon I will work to accomplish the following: provide a theological foundation for understanding the varying roles and responsibilities of the Church and the State get underneath current partisan narratives and to expose deeper, more lasting realities and foundations for truth cast a vision for the place of the church gathered and the calling of individual Christians as the church scattered.

Chapter 7 is a curious one. The first half is a series of proverbs that seem upside down from the reason or wisdom we might typically have – a funeral is better than a party?! The second half of the chapter is widely regarded as the most difficult section to interpret in Ecclesiastes, one of the most difficult books of the Bible to interpret. So, this will be fun! In our exploration of the text we will see that there is a way to find straight thinking in a crooked world.

These two stories show what it looks like to trust in God's promises and God's character when obstacles seem insurmountable, and the way forward is unknown. How do we respond when we come to places in our own lives where we can’t see a way out or a way forward? Do we trust God with our lives and story? Join us as we explore both the faithfulness and power of God who works on behalf of His people to accomplish His good purposes, and the role of faith in the response of obedience for God's people as we walk through life. In all things, we'll find our hope and our peace in Jesus.

This Sunday is Commitment Sunday for the Dwell Midpoint Refresh. I hope you have been prayerfully considering what God asking you to commit to in the year ahead. We’re all in this together and I’m excited to see what God has for us as we all commit to join Him in His good work as we Dwell: An Enduring & Faithful Presence.  Over the past two months, we have asked you to prayerfully consider two kinds of commitment:  Church Engagement – our goal is to have 100% of the church engaged in some way. We provided a self-assessment to ask you to use as a tool to evaluate what God might be asking you to step into with Redemption Hill in the coming year.  Financial – When a church is our home, we commit to invest our time and talent in engagement as well as our treasure, investing into God’s work in and through us. We would love for all who call RHC home to make a commitment this Sunday, whether you are adjusting your previous commitment, continuing at your current rate of giving and commit to finish strong, or God may be leading you to increase your commitment.  This Sunday’s sermon will be based in Ephesians 2:17-22 as we explore together what makes a church a church. We will look through the New Testament to learn what a church is, and what a church does. Even if you’re brand new to Redemption Hill and not quite ready to make a commitment to this church, I think this Sunday will encourage you with a recasting of the beautiful vision for what God’s people can are and can be in the church and what we look to as foundational to our understanding of church at RHC. 

This chapter starts the third major section and a shifting focus to life under the sun in light of God’s sovereignty over all things. Our time in chapter 6 will be specifically spent looking into the issue of money, how we use it and how it uses us. Why is it so often the case that when we get exactly what we want, the joy from it fades quickly? We will see on Sunday that there is hope for true joy in our lives, and that freedom is when we can say, “I don’t care too much for money, cuz money can’t buy me love.”

This Sunday we resume our study in Ecclesiastes together. Among the topics raised in Ecclesiastes 5, we will focus our attention on the cautions about how we approach God. The Preacher, Qoheleth, warns us to guard our steps before God. Sunday will provide us the opportunity to explore true and false religiosity. Why is it that our approach to God and our spiritual lives can feel like a drag? Many of us have had moments of the overwhelming sense of God’s presence and power at some point in our lives, why doesn’t that stick around perpetually? What will it take for a church to be filled with joy and be a life-giving pursuit as we work together for the glory of God and the good of all people? We will work to answer those questions and more as we gather together on Sunday. 

One year ago, we started a journey together to pursue God’s call to us as a church to Dwell as An Enduring & Faithful Presence in DC. The Dwell initiative is really an extension of what we have always wanted to be about – joining God in His good work in our city and throughout the DMV. We are in the midst of a Midpoint Refresh of that journey. Here's what we covered on Sunday: - The chance to gather, sing, pray, hear God’s Word, and share in the Lord’s Supper. - A sermon rooted in 1 Peter 2:4-12. We will see the calling of all Christians as sojourners and exiles, worshiping together as God’s people and living lives in community that make an impact wherever we are. - Clarity on the vision for our church in the days ahead. - A better understanding of the Dwell Initiative. What do we mean by 100% Engagement? Why did we set the financial goals we did?

This Sunday we continue our series with Ecclesiastes 4:4-16. This chapter raises the problem of loneliness and the importance of companionship. We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic in our nation. The Surgeon General has issued warnings, HHS is doing studies, and it’s all being reported across news outlets. Loneliness is crushing and can become legitimately life-threatening. As we have seen so far, Ecclesiastes won’t allow us to look away from the truth of human existence and experience. Qoheleth, the author, will continue to poke at us an make us uncomfortable. On Sunday we will address loneliness. We need to take a realistic look at our world and our own lives, and then look for signs and pathways of hope. God’s Word can guide us there.

This Sunday we continue our series with Ecclesiastes 3:1-22. This chapter starts the second section of the book of Ecclesiastes. Section 1 focuses on life under the sun, pursuing the fullness of the end of human wisdom and experience, and that it all is a vapor, a mist, a chasing after the wind. The next few chapters shift to focus on God’s design for the world as He created it. Chapter 3 might be the most well-known passage in the whole of Ecclesiastes. All because The Birds recorded their song Turn! Turn! Turn! in 1965. You’re welcome for having that stuck in your head throughout the weekend now. There is a season for everything, and our lives will turn through season after season, eventually bringing us in the full cycle and reminder that we are dust, and to dust we will return. As we immerse ourselves in God’s Word on Sunday, we will work to find the secret of joy and purpose in every season of our lives, and in the midst of every circumstance under heaven. 

This Sunday we continue in our series with Ecclesiastes 2:1-26. Last week we were introduced to Qoheleth, the Preacher, and an overview of the book that highlights his teaching concerning the extent of human experience and wisdom under the sun. This week we will see him explore specific pursuits, assessing the ultimate value and end-goals of pleasure, wisdom, and work. Our teacher has had a full life and limitless resources and opportunities to push to the fullest end of each pursuit, trying to find meaning and purpose. We will follow him down those paths to see where they end. By the end of the chapter we have already come to the end of section 1 of the book, and verses 24-26 give us the conclusion of the matter. It is possible to find joy and purpose even in the midst of the vaporous reality of our lives. 

I love the book of Ecclesiastes. Reading through it feels like it could have been written directly to DC in 2024. With the uncertainty of the year ahead, anxiety that many are already carrying into another election year, and the difficulty of navigating life in general, we all long for something solid to stand on, something that is unmoving that we can trust. Ecclesiastes helps us by exposing the fullest measure of every pursuit under the sun. This Sunday we begin with Ecclesiastes 1:1-18.The sermon title is Everything is Meaningless. If you read chapter 1 you will catch why that’s the title! I’ll take some time to introduce the book, talk about who the Preacher might be, and then we will jump right into what amounts to be a summary of the Preacher’s teaching. The Preacher shows us that all things under the sun, in the end, are a vapor, a mist, a chasing after the wind. In the end we will also see what is fixed like nails for us to hold onto in the end.

As we close our series, Abraham: Journey of Faith, we come to Genesis 25:1-11, Abraham’s death. Like Sarah’s death, it feels kind of sudden after so much story and time together. There are some interesting details in the passage that we will look into. Most of our time, though, will be spent looking at Abraham’s life. We will look at his importance and place in Redemptive History, God’s plan for redeeming humanity and renewing and restoring all things. And we will see how Abraham points us to Advent, the longing, waiting, and anticipation of what God would ultimately accomplish in the coming of Christ.

This is a long chapter, but we’re going to cover it in one go. I encourage you to take the time to read it between now and Sunday so you can come in with some familiarity. After Sarah’s death, Abraham realized that it was time to find a wife for his son, Isaac. He sent his servant on a journey that led to an intriguing encounter at a well with a young girl name Rebekah.  The chapter shows us something of God’s care and will for us. In Abraham’s Journey of Faith there have been a lot of ups and downs. He finally came to the point of complete surrender and God was faithful to provide exactly what was needed. Everyone else in the story shows steps of faith as well, showing us the beauty and freedom we can have in self-surrender. 

This chapter details the legal negotiations and contract for a piece of land containing a cave in Hebron. At first reading it might feel boring to most. With a closer look, though, we can come to realize that this is the first piece of the land God promised to Abraham that was secured as Abraham’s own, and at a high price. Our focus on Sunday, though, will be Sarah. The reason Abraham bought the land with the cave was to bury his wife, the Matriarch of the Promise, after her death. On Sunday we will take a look at Sarah’s life as a whole, and lessons we can learn from her, in a kind of Eulogy for Sarah. 

On Sunday, Pastor Eric walked us through Titus 1:5-9 and walked us through the ecclesiastical need for shepherds in the church, the distinctives of qualified, godly shepherds, the source of empowerment for every godly leader, and the response as God’s people.