I’m sure many people these days have stories to tell about their experience during 2020, and how that year changed things in their lives, or how it shaped their perceptions of things like the size of the world, the capabilities of the government, and the way that news is reported (or not reported). Some people lost jobs, and many people lost family members – both during the pandemic, and in the aftermath of it. There’s a lot of debate about this, still today… I think that’s because our individual experiences of what happened are all somewhat unique, despite the same set of general circumstances being unexpectedly hoisted on everyone at the same time. People responded differently to the global, national, and regional circumstances, based on their own set of personal circumstances. What I mean is, people in New York City were compelled to respond a certain way, given the number of people there, the population density, and the fact that it’s an international hub of travel, trade, and commerce, on the northeastern border of the country. People in Los Angeles were compelled to respond another way, for similar reasons. And people in the small town of Clinton, Indiana, responded a completely different way.

Sure, there were elderly people, those with other serious health issues, those with compromised immune systems, and so on, who took extra precautions. But still, I remember quite vividly, going out to get gas on the first day of the “lock down,” (partly because I thought the price of gas might skyrocket, and partly because I was curious about what other people were doing) and realizing on that sunny, breezy day in mid-March, whilst waiting for my tank to fill and looking around, that absolutely nothing was different in the middle of town.

The same stuff was happening that day that would naturally be happening on any day in Clinton with that kind of weather – people walking their dogs, young couples walking down the sidewalk hand-in-hand, mothers strolling their babies, drunks stumbling in and out of the liquor store, the IGA buzzing with activity, the Dairy Queen drive-thru at full capacity, and the smell of carne asada wafting through the air from Taco Tequila’s. Nothing was really different, at least outside in the open air. But of course, indoors, everyone’s lives were still changed in some way, or at least impacted – either temporarily or permanently.

And my life changed a little bit too. But not in a bad way.

I was in my fifth year as the preacher for my small, country church – Dailey Chapel Christian Church. And that was the year I finally realized how to preach a halfway decent sermon. I have a lot of people to thank for this realization, the Lord most of all, of course. But the pandemic actually helped me in this regard too.

I had an epiphany of sorts, that Spring.

You see, despite having degrees from Bible college and seminary, I had never taken preaching classes, because I didn’t want to be a preacher. I had explored a few other areas of vocational ministry prior to serving Dailey Chapel, but nothing lasted. But God slowly closed all the other doors I was trying to walk through, until preaching behind a pulpit was the only one still open.

So, quite reluctantly, I walked through that door, and began the process of stumbling and bumbling my way through one sermon after another, in front of my congregation. Dailey Chapel proved, immediately, to be a group of people that, despite my difficulties and struggles, were willing to encourage me, support me, love me, and allow me the time and space to learn.

And eventually, in the Spring of 2020, I realized something about preaching that is probably quite obvious to most other preachers… I could actually write my entire sermon out, word for word. Moreover, I also learned that there is even a name for this style of preaching – “manuscript style.” I’d always been a decent writer, but not that good of a speaker. And having grown up watching other preachers, and seeing other preachers on TV or on podcasts, I thought I had to have a basic outline of what I was going to say, and then just “let the Spirit speak through me.” But that never seemed to work. God’s Spirit grants all Christians specific gifts, and one of mine is writing… once I realized I could preach what I wrote, everything changed.

2020 helped me figure that out.

Our church responded to the COVID lock downs by having people stay outside in the parking lot, while I preached from the side porch of the church building. But even so, I still wanted to reach people that weren’t going to be there at all, and we weren’t interested (like many other churches) in doing a video livestream. But I did discover that I could record the audio of my sermons, and upload them to a website called SoundCloud – which would enable me to post links to the sermon on our church’s Facebook page, or even send the links to individuals via text message. But the prospect of recording my sermons, caused me to realize that I had to have them all written out beforehand – every single word. You can’t say, “um” a lot, or have long pauses………………….. when you’re recording something. Thus, I began using my writing gift to craft sermons.

About a year later, as I was struggling to come to terms with a new set of medical circumstances in my life – a condition known as atrial fibrillation – which is relatively common among people over the age of 60, but less so for those in my age range, I was compelled to start thinking of my longer term plans in regards to preaching. When your heart starts to beat wonky, and they put the paddles on you to shock you back into normal heart rhythm… well, that tends to cause a person to think about their mortality, and what they are going to leave behind when the Lord calls them home. Well, that’s what I started thinking about a lot more anyway. What was I doing with my life, and how was I doing it, and how could I do it better by utilizing the gifts that God has given me?

I had always been teaching through individual books of the Bible, since first coming to Dailey Chapel. And I wanted to continue doing that. But having just finished Matthew’s Gospel at the time, I was ready to look ahead, and begin a new sermons series. For this one, I would be starting fresh. It was while preaching through the last four chapters of Matthew that I had begun writing out my sermons. Whatever new series I began, with a new book of the Bible, would have completely written out sermons from the get go.

After praying about which book of the Bible to preach through, I felt a strong pull toward Paul’s letter to the Romans. I had read through Romans several times, since my early 20s, and of course, there are many great one-liners in the letter which I had heard many many times since I was a kid:

“…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (8:16). “…our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (8:18). “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (8:28). “…If God is for us, who can be against us?” (8:31). “…we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:37-39).

And that’s just from Chapter 8!

But I really wanted to go through the entire letter, verse by verse, and understand it in its entirety, while sharing the fruits of my study, with the congregation that has given me so much over the years.

And well, it took about three and a half years – nearly four – but I eventually made it all the way through Romans, by the Lord’s grace.

And now, I have published the first volume of these sermons, which total 150.

This is the first of a three-volume series comprising these 150 expository sermons on the Letter of Romans.

Again, these are fully written, manuscript style messages, that I delivered to my congregation – Dailey Chapel Christian Church – over the course of almost four years.

Volume One contains the first 49 sermons and covers Romans 1 through 4, with significant detours into the Book of Genesis.

I’m currently editing the next two volumes, which will be available in the coming months. But Volume One is available here, in hardback and Kindle ebook:

https://a.co/d/am7InFr