{"podcast":{"title":"Old things New Podcast","slug":"old-things-new-podcast-7097890","podcast_index_feed_id":7097890,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/2655777.rss","website_url":"https://rcbhpastor.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/2655777/c2a5766d22ee9a6df594f2e7da6b9793.jpg","author":"Reformed devotions from all of scripture.","episode_count":152,"summary":"The modern Church has a problem with Old Testament literacy. I'm on a mission to fix that one post at a time. Tune in for regular, reformed Bible devotions to go deeper with Christ.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/old-things-new-podcast-7097890"},"episode":{"title":"Ep 135: The Sin of Individualism (Ecc 4:4-8).","slug":"ep-135-the-sin-of-individualism-ecc-4-4-8","published_at":"2026-02-05T19:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/old-things-new-podcast-7097890/ep-135-the-sin-of-individualism-ecc-4-4-8","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/old-things-new-podcast-7097890","url":"https://rcbhpastor.substack.com/p/ep-135-the-sin-of-individualism-ecc","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/186940391/fcd342c10d4f838745caf00d9b2ed003.mp3","summary":"Pray Read: Ecc 4:4-8. Meditation There is a prevailing sickness in our culture today. You will find this sickness quarantined behind closed suburban doors and high fences. You will see its symptoms in next door neighbours avoiding eye contact and a friendly wave. There are train carriages full of this disease all across our major cities each day. You notice it when you look up from your phone and realise that almost everyone on board is glued to their screen. This disease leaves people bedridden night after night as they sit alone, watching an endless stream of episodes on flickering screens. And worse still, we might even find symptoms of this disease in our own hearts if we look closely, in our tendencies to avoid other people and to close ourselves off. You see it sometimes in churches as well. People standing after church by themselves for awkward minutes on end. Closed circles of people who know each other well and talk to no one else. People not knowing each other’s names. The sickness I am talking about is the disease of individualism, the compulsive tendency that we each have to be self-oriented and self-contained. This disease has always existed among sinful people, and it is something we will all need to fight against, even as Christians. And even if you are “a social person”, you will probably still find that you are not immune to this sickness. As we will see in our passage, it is possible to be surrounded by people and yet still live in a radically individualistic way. It is possible to interact with others and yet still be almost entirely self-absorbed, self-focused and self-contained, with other people becoming a means to an end for our own goals. As Solomon continues to lead us through the vast labyrinth of life, in our passage he notices something else…","meta_description":"Pray Read: Ecc 4:4-8. Meditation There is a prevailing sickness in our culture today. You will find this sickness quarantined behind closed suburban doors…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":788,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/old-things-new-podcast-7097890/episodes/ep-135-the-sin-of-individualism-ecc-4-4-8/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/old-things-new-podcast-7097890/ep-135-the-sin-of-individualism-ecc-4-4-8.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}