Solomon asked God for a listening heart, and the Bible tells us he became the wisest king who ever lived. Then the story keeps going. In this sermon on 1 Kings 3:4-28, we look at the over the top way Scripture introduces Solomon and ask why it sounds so much like a campaign ad. We also look at what happens when the bill for all that excess comes due. With Election Day tomorrow and the anxiety so many of us are carrying, this message asks where our hope really rests. It points to a King who will never be on a ballot, who forgave the empire that killed him and gives himself away. Take a listen, and bring your questions with you.

The story of Naaman starts with a shock. God blesses the enemy general, the man with a stolen Israelite girl working in his house. Then it keeps flipping the script. Two kings with all their money and power can’t do a thing. A little slave girl with no name knows where healing is found. Naaman’s servants talk him into stepping down into a muddy river. In a week of red and blue maps and people turned into cartoons, this old story asks us to look again at who God sees, and who God uses. Spoiler: it’s usually the ones nobody expected. The sermon is based on 2 Kings 5:1-15a.

We usually call the story of David and Bathsheba an affair or about adultery. The Bible tells a darker story. A king on his palace roof looks down, takes a woman who cannot say no, and has her loyal husband killed to cover it up. In this Reformation Sunday sermon on 2 Samuel 11–12 and Psalm 51, Pastor Matthew Best looks at what power does to people, how abuse gets protected by those around it, and how the church has sometimes been part of that pattern. He also looks at how God hears the voices the powerful try to silence, and how Jesus came down from the roof to make us fully human again.