Thursday, May 20, 2021

Sermon Recap for May 16th

I’m a little late, but here we are!

for the YouTube video


for the same video on Facebook



If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is coming soon! Search "Doug Hibbard" to see if it's there yet

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: hhttps://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

On having many books

The writer of Ecclesiastes comments that “of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Having just moved, I can agree that many books definitely weary the body. Overall, I think the book box count was somewhere in the high 70s between the office and the house.

And that was after two hard looks through everything to consider what needed to be given away before we moved it all.

Why do we have so many books? This is a question we asked ourselves every time we found another box of books. We had already asked it every time we packed another box of books. Why?

Here are a few of the reasons:

1. We spent money on those books and we’re not throwing them away. It’s not a flashy reason, but it’s a reality: books aren’t cheap. Unless a book is bad—and by bad, I mean, bad in theology or result, like some books that endorse abuse, racism, or others like that—we don’t just toss it. (and a book from the 1700s would be treated differently than, say, the nonsense that comes out of some camps RIGHT NOW, given its historical setting). We’ll give it away to someone or, if it’s a basic fiction paperback, give it to Goodwill, etc., but we hate to throw books away or just to neglect them. Trees died for us to have that book.

2. Books represent opportunities to learn. We have books on the shelf that help with math—even parts of math we don’t expect to use, like Calculus or addition! (mainly Calculus) The more I read, the more my family reads, the more we know, but also the more we are aware of our “knowledge differential.”

What’s a “knowledge differential”? It’s the difference between how much you know and how much you know that you don’t know. For example, as I’ve said several times in the COVID mess, I know enough about infectious disease to know that I don’t know enough about infectious disease. Knowledge differential is both empowering and humbling at the same time: it’s what drives us to know more and also to listen to others, realizing that they may know more as well.

3. Books represent what we already know: why do I have so many history books? I am a historian. I’m a pastor, too, and have lots of pastor-y books. It’s helpful to remember what we’ve already learned. There are some books that I can simply pull of the shelf and remember what I learned from it.

4. Books represent the accumulated wisdom of years gone by. Sometimes, there is the presence of error from years gone by that we can then learn from even now, like the assumptions about race or gender from centuries past that need to be revisited. Even so, people learned, grew, and passed on what they had learned. Life without books is like suggesting that we do not need anything from those before us, which risks buying into the myth that we are fully self-made. There may be one or two out there who taught themselves everything—but usually self-made folks did a lot with books and the wisdom of days gone by.

And lest we forget: all the authors, even the bad ones, were made in the image of the Almighty God. The God who causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust may have also left wisdom in the hands of many. Should we neglect His gifts?

5. Books are just fun. Honestly, they’re heavy, take up space, but books are well-worth the lifting, sorting, and reflecting.


Now, if I just could find the right organizational scheme for the ones in my office…

Monday, May 3, 2021

Sermon Recap for May 2 (and a bit before)

So, I’ve been offline and non-communicative since….February.


Oops. In that time, we have relocated and taken on a new church ministry assignment. There’s more to be said about that, later, but for now, we have relocated to Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Crossett, Arkansas. More on that in a few days.

For now, I wanted to share sermon and service audio and video. The video links to either the church’s Facebook page (where the backlog of content is and will stay, though we will be working to develop more) or to my YouTube page as in days past. Audio is a fresh feed to the podcast system.

Facebook link (no FB account should be necessary, but we all know they want you to have one):


Audio player:


Now, you may not know it but Ann and I have done daily videos (of varying quality, she’s always awesome, me…not so much) since last March. They’re a peek into our daily mornings. I drink coffee, she tries to get me to be reasonable and intelligent. Here’s a starter link:



Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is coming soon! Search "Doug Hibbard" to see if it's there yet

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

Sermon Add-on for March 10

 Continuing the use of Artificial Intelligence to try and generate discussion questions from the sermon, here's what it gave me this wee...