January 19. Build an Ark. A modern-day application of an old, old story that has profound implications to today's families. Jim and Bonnie Epperson are members of Markham Woods Church. However, because of Jim’s role as Florida Conference’s Vice-President for Education, they’re often at other churches, fulfilling other assignments. So we appreciate his willingness to be our speaker today. Jim grew up in Colorado and has served the church in a variety of places and in a variety of capacities. We welcome him to our pulpit.                                 Guest Speaker: Jim Epperson.

January 26. Hebrews 1. Ultimate Revelation, Ultimate Being. In Old Testament times, God communicated with humanity in a variety of ways. He sent messages via the prophets. He wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger. He put the rainbow in the sky. But the clearest communication God has had with humanity came when He sent His Son to live among us.   Speaker: Owen Vazquez

February 2. Hebrews 2. Jesus: Proof that God Understands. God didn’t learn anything new when Jesus came to live among humans as one of us. Rather, it was for the sake of humans that He came. We needed to know that He knew what it was like to go through the ups and downs of human existence. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

February 9. Love Factor. There’s much talk about love these days. People fall in and out of love often. Can true love be found? It’s been said that there’s a thin line between love and hate. But in reality, there’s a thin line between love and fear. Jesus’ disciples experienced how quick fear creeps-in when we lose our focus. What lessons can we learn from the disciples’ experience? Speaker: Owen Vazquez

February 16. Hebrews 3. Moses the Servant, Jesus the Lord.  Moses and Jesus were commissioned to fulfill similar roles: Both were deliverers. Moses sought to provide freedom from physical bondage. Jesus came to bring deliverance from the bondage of sin. Moses played an impressive role for God, as God’s servant. Jesus also played an impressive role––but Jesus actually was God. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

February 23. Hebrews 4. The Sabbath that's Yet to Come. At creation, God rested on the seventh day. At Sinai, God invited His people to rest as a memorial of creation. But He also asked them to keep the Sabbath as a memorial of deliverance. Since our deliverance from the bondage of sin still remains incomplete, there awaits a Sabbath rest that we still haven’t experienced in its fullness.                           Speaker: Owen Vazquez.

March 1. Hebrews 5. Jesus: Son, Brother, Priest. Jesus is many things. To God, His relationship is most like that of a son. Humans are invited to view Him as a brother. But more than that, He’s also our high priest "who is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray." Speaker: Jim Coffin.

March 8. Running For Office. What do people think about you? Should you even care? Somewhere between hippy celebrities and presidential hopefuls there is a balance of caring too little and caring too much. In the life of Jesus of Nazareth we find that balance. Today we'll discuss how to live that balance in our lives. Speaker: Rey Descalso

March 15. Hebrews 6. God's Oath: Swearing by His Own Name.  In a court of law, people take an oath to affirm the seriousness of their intention to tell the truth. In times past, such oaths were done in the name of God, or with one’s hand on a Bible. When God made promises about what He wants to do for humanity, He took an oath in His own name to show how serious He was about following through. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

March 21. Communion by Candlelight. (Friday night, 7:30 pm) For much of its history, Markham Woods Church has celebrated a Communion by Candlelight on the Friday before Easter. It’s a wonderful time to reflect on what Christ did for us by coming to this world to live and die––that we might be saved. Come and enjoy this God-ordained celebration, carried out in a setting slightly different from the Communion services typically celebrated during our regular worship services.

March 22. Easter. Christ the Lord Is Risen Today!  We don’t know the date of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. But we do know that His resurrection made a huge impact on a group of followers whose hopes had been dashed. And the resurrection is the great hope of the Christian. What God did for His Son in the resurrection He can do for all of His spiritual children.         Speaker: Jim Coffin.

March 29. Hebrews 7. Priests: Good, Better, Best. Aaron the Levite was appointed by God as high priest of Israel. Melchizedek, king of Salem, was a high priest of an even higher order. But Jesus, the writer of Hebrews tells us, is a perfect High Priest who’s without fault and who’ll occupy His high-priestly role forever.                        Speaker: Owen Vazquez.

April 5. Hebrews 8. A Better Way, A New Covenant. Jesus came to show a better way of escape from the human predicament of sin than had been understood before His arrival. He came to create a better arrangement––a better covenant. For starters, He promised to indelibly stamp His expectations in the hearts and minds of His followers. And success wouldn’t be measured by human performance. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

April 12. Give to Caesar; Live to God. According to Ben Franklin, life's only certainties are death and taxes. Unfortunately, you can't cheat on either. In His life and teachings, Jesus gives us a way to embrace both. Speaker: Rey Descalso

April 19. Hebrews 9. Sanctuary: Earthly, Heavenly; Time, Eternity. In the Old Testament sanctuary service, priests ministered daily. Then, once a year, the high priest entered the Most Holy Place to intercede on behalf of the people. Jesus, the Priest-of-a-different-order, needed to enter the heavenly equivalent of the Most Holy Place only once. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

April 26. Hebrews 10. A Different Kind of Sacrifice. In the sanctuary built by Moses, sacrifices were offered repeatedly. But the sacrifice made by Jesus obviated the need for repeated animal slayings. In fact, all along the animal sacrifices had been to bring people into a right relationship with God. What Jesus did on the cross couldn’t be improved upon.               Speaker: Owen Vazquez.

May 3. Hebrews 11. From Faith, to Faith, through Faith. We are saved by grace, through faith. And despite the seeming works emphasis of the Old Testament, all those people were saved by grace, through faith, as well. And what a list of the faithful we find in Hebrews 11!               Speaker: Jim Coffin.

May 10. One Mother Long Ago. Motherhood was the main claim to fame for women in Bible times. Barren women and childless widows were considered cursed of God. But one Old Testament woman––Ruth––not only overcame those obstacles and had a son but will one day discover that she was actually a forebear of Israel’s royal lineage and the long-awaited Messiah.         Speaker: Jim Coffin.

May 17. Hebrews 12. Hardship as Discipline. There’s a saying that if something doesn’t kill us, it will make us stronger. We all face hardship in life. Since adversity seems inevitable, the writer of Hebrews suggests that it’s helpful for us to think of this as a kind of spiritual discipline that will make us stronger in the long run.                Speaker: Jim Coffin.

May 24. Hebrews 13. How Should We Then Live?  It’s good to talk about salvation and all the issues related to it. But in the final analysis, spirituality isn’t just about winning heaven and avoiding hell. It’s about living the kind of life God designed for us––right now, right here. Hebrews 13 leaves us with a few reminders of what it’s really all about. Speaker: Jim Coffin..

May 31. Lest We Forget.  As individuals, as families, as communities, as nations, we seek to memorialize people, values and events so their significance won’t be lost sight of. The Bible is full of examples of God trying to ensure that His followers not forget the big things He has done––things that have shaped who and what we are. Speaker: Owen Vazquez.

June 7. Education: Cradle to the Grave.  At this time of year young people are "graduating" from various educational institutions. But education isn’t something from which we graduate. It should be a lifelong process. In fact, the formal part––the schooling––is merely to equip us so we can engage in a decades-long self-directed course of study. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

June 14. The Risk and Reward of Calling God Father. Some words are ruined by their association with pervasively negative experiences. Some words are made beautiful by their association with the positive. When God calls Himself our Father, it makes him attractive to some and unattractive to others. Which puts a rather heavy responsibility on fathers to ensure the right reaction to the title they carry.               Speaker: Jim Coffin.

 June 21. A Leader Is Born.  When Joseph invited his brothers and their families to come to Egypt, it seemed a good idea. When a few generations later the Hebrews were slaves of the Egyptians, the picture looked quite different. But God was just as capable of leading the Hebrews out of Egypt as in leading them into Egypt in the first place. But He needed a leader. And that leader came in the form of a baby boy named Moses. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

June 28. A Leader Is Chosen.  God had big plans for Moses, the young Hebrew-turned-Egyptian-prince. But Moses wasn’t so sure. It took a fire-resistant bush to convince him that God was involved. And it took a fair bit of debating before he accepted the task for which God was calling him. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

July 5. Take That! And That! And THAT!. Some people are hard to persuade. Others are nearly impossible. And then there was Pharaoh! Try as they might, Moses couldn’t seem to get through. Nor did the plagues seem to faze the Egyptian king all that much. Eventually, however, he decided he’d had enough. When Moses said, "Let my people go," Pharaoh said, "Be gone!"  Speaker: Jim Coffin.

July 12. Remembering God's Great Acts. Most Christians celebrate a religious ritual called Communion, which consists of a ceremonial consumption of bread and wine. But the roots of this practice go back much further than the time of Christ. They have their origins in the Hebrews’ exodus from Egypt. As the congregation celebrates Communion today, let’s remember the freedom from bondage God effected for the Hebrews. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

July 19. Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Things looked pretty good when Pharaoh finally decided to give the Hebrews the little vacation they’d requested. But when they found themselves wedged between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s approaching army, they weren’t so sure. They weren’t prepared for what happened next. Speaker: Rey Descalso.

July 26. Living Like Saved People.  God didn’t give the Ten Commandments as salvation prerequisites; He gave them to show a saved people how to live. In essence, He said, "As your Designer, I can tell you that this is how you need to live if you’re going to experience life to the full. Those who hate God’s law clearly misunderstand this. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

August 2. The Gods We Can See.  Unfortunately, it’s always easier to worship a god that’s visible and tangible––even if that god is a stone, a tree or some animal. Despite having "seen" the power of God in delivering them from Egypt, the Hebrews at Sinai wanted something more "real" to worship. A calf of gold seem like a good start. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

August 9. That I May Dwell Among You.  Children like stories, especially when they’re acted out. God seems to think that adults likewise understand better when things are acted out. Thus He provided the Hebrews with a sanctuary––not only where He would dwell but where the daily and yearly ritual would teach some big lessons about God Himself. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

August 16. Of Lambs and Bulls.  To the Hebrew mind, sin meant separation from God. The separation was so total that reconciliation could be effected only by a dramatic act of sacrifice, usually a lamb. God says that the need for sacrifices has been taken care of by Jesus. Full reconciliation has been effected, once and for all. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

August 23. Rules and Regulations 101.  Not only did God give the Ten Commandments through Moses, He also gave a long list of other rules and regulations to govern the daily life of the Hebrews. Those rules make a fascinating study because of the wisdom they demonstrate. Speaker: Luis Gracia.

August 30. The Year of Freedom.  One of the most radical social ideas ever put forward is the Year of Jubilee––when all debts are canceled, all slaves go free and all land is returned to the families who originally owned it. It provided both a safeguard for those who had fallen on hard times and a chance to demonstrate charity on the part of the wealthy. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

September 6. Revolt at the Border.  One would think that after finally arriving at the Promised Land, the Hebrews would have rejoiced that their journey was over. Instead, they declared themselves and their mission to have been failures. Despite their string of past successes, they viewed the conquest of the land as too big a challenge. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

September 13. Speaker: Rey Descalso.

September 20. Malachi 1. How About A Little Respect?  Children respect parents. Servants respect masters. So why doesn’t Israel respect its God? And, by the way, God’s the One asking the question. Somewhere, someone has something badly turned around. God wants to see it sorted out and set right. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

September 27. Malachi 2. When Leaders Don't Lead.  Priests are humans like everyone else. But priests have a sacred role to play in instructing and encouraging the people. When they cease to do it, they’re abdicating their responsibility. And God gets rather perturbed. So perturbed, in fact, that He outlines some rather dire consequences if things don’t change. Speaker: Luis Gracia

October 4. Malachi 3. The Day of Reckoning.  The prophet Malachi declares that we can’t abdicate our spiritual/moral responsibilities indefinitely. Eventually a day of reckoning is coming. There will be a judgment. Justice will be done. So how might we ensure that we’re on the right side when placed on the judicial balance scales? Speaker: Jim Coffin.

October 11. Speaker: Rey Descalso

October 18. Malachi 4. The Day of the Lord. The New Testament ends with a focus on the coming of Jesus, the return of our God and Savior. The Old Testament ends in a similar way, describing the "Day of the Lord" and the wonderful things that will happen at that time.              Speaker: Jim Coffin.

October 25. Church Retreat at Wekiva Springs State Park. Each year the Markham Woods Church "retreats" from the normal round of worship and fellowship and seeks a different kind of spiritual experience in a more natural setting. Services will still be conducted at Markham Woods Church at the usual times, but attendance will be small because most members will attend the retreat. Church and Retreat.                     Speaker: To Be Announced.

November 1. Ecclesiates Revisited.  The raw realism of Ecclesiastes means it isn’t the most quoted book of the Bible. But it makes some of the most astute observations one can find in literature anywhere. Those observations contain wisdom that we can’t afford to ignore. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

November 8. Speaker: Rey Descalso

November 15. Lessons We Can Learn from the News.  We’ve just gone through an election. Candidates have lambasted each other in their attempts to win the vote. Feelings have reached fever pitch. What spiritual lessons can we draw from the drama that has just transpired in the field of U.S. politics? Speaker: Jim Coffin.

November 22. Learning to Say Thanks. On the fourth Thursday of each year, our nation collectively celebrates a holiday we call Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, too many of us lose sight of what this special day is really all about. And even more of us forget that "thanksgiving" should be a daily event. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

November 29. Thanking God for Jesus. What better time than Thanksgiving to say thanks to God for what He did by sending Jesus to this world to rescue us from sin. As we participate in today’s Communion service, we not only acknowledge our need of a Savior, we also celebrate the salvation we’ve been given because of what Jesus did. And we look forward to the grand finale of the whole plan of salvation. Speaker: Jim Coffin

December 6. Christmas Drama. When God gave the Ten Commandments to explain how humans should live, He used words written on stone. When Jesus came in human form, He acted out before our very eyes how humans should live. Typically, sermons are all about hearing. But today, seeing will play a greater role as the spiritual message of Christ’s birth is acted out. Moderator: Jim Coffin.

December 13. Praise Him in the Highest. The angels sang at the birth of Jesus. And few Christian songs have both the musical and lyrical beauty of Christmas music. Today’s sermon will be short to create space for the heart-warming, life-changing story of Christ’s first advent that will be presented as performed music. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

December 20. Scriptures and Carols,  The most beautiful, most singable, most inspiring of all Christian music may well be the carols commemorating the birth of Jesus. And some of the most beautiful texts of scripture are those describing His coming to earth as a baby. Today, we’ll be blessed both by hearing Scriptures read and by joining with the congregation to sing about this blessed event. Speaker: Jim Coffin.

December 27. A Good Time Was Had by All? At the end of the year, it’s good to review what has transpired during the preceding 365 days––366 days this year! What is there to celebrate? What is there to lament? What lessons have been learned to equip us to better face the future? Speaker: Luis Gracia.