We’re Gonna Get “Deep” on Sundays in April

New Sermon Series

Today I took my daughter, True to Barnes and Noble.  My daughter thinks that she’s a coffee connoisseur; but, really, she just loves double chocolate chip frappuccinos.   Of course, she promises that she’ll share it with me; but, really she inhales it before I even get a single sip  (& then she has the guts to complain that her throat is all frozen!)  Good Riddance.

But I’m here today trying to read as much of the O.T. as I can.  In fact, believe it or not, it only takes about 3 hours to read the entire book of Genesis (about 50 chapters).  Of course, I’ve read it before; but, I was surprised by how much good stuff is really in here!  Of course there are a few wild / unrelatable cultural  issues as well.  I mean,  sometimes the Bible feels painfully relevant; and other times, I feel keenly aware that this document is easily over 4000 years old.

But, speaking of that kind of stuff, that’s the whole point of our new teaching series at Substance.  It’s called:   “I Can’t Believe I Didn’t Know That!”  The Bible is filled with Ancient Near Eastern cultural stuff that, once you know it, makes the Bible more relatable.  So, as I dug into all of the classic Easter texts (leading up to the passion of the Christ), I realized, “Wow, there’s a lot of Jewish cultural stuff in here” that would be hard for the average person to understand. 

Many of you know that I learned Hebrew back at the University of Minnesota.  So, you’d think I’d have an advantage in unpacking some of this cultural stuff.  But NO… the Bible is just as complex for me.  So, I thought it’d be fun to stop and really dig into this stuff in the next couple weeks.  So, get ready to take notes.  We’re gonna have some fun.  And “Yes”… although we’re gonna get deep as the series goes on, we will do it with the typical crazy Substance spin.  And hopefully, by the time we’re done, we’ll have you saying:  “I Can’t Believe I Didn’t Know That!”

She slirps scandelously fast