Feast and Follow with Knollwood

Here is part two of Church History 101! Tonight we look at the Gnostics, Polycarp, and everyone's favorite heretic, Marcion! 

Thus far in our series, there has been a lot of talk about Who worship is for (God), and how that is directed (God's Word). We've seen the Word visualized in the sacraments, and declared in the sermon. In other words, we've covered in depth the things that are declared to you. We have to have these as our starting points. We have to know what has been said to us before we can respond. And that is what we are going to talk about today, how do we as a congregation, as worshipers, properly respond to God's Word and work. We will be looking at this in three parts by covering the last three elements of our worship: praying, singing, and giving.  Now, as before, each of these elements themselves are ordered by the Word of God and find their content in the word of God. So how does that work for praying? Does that mean that we are only allowed to follow scripted, word for word prayers from the Bible? While that in itself would be a lot to pray through, that isn't what we are told to do, nor is what we see in the Bible itself. Scriptural figures didn't only pray Psalms, but they lifted up their requests to God. As we see in our text, we are to pray about everything. Yet the Scriptures can guide what those prayers can look like, and in those times where we just don't know what to pray, we have a deep well to draw from in the Bible. 

Welcome back to our Sunday Night Lecture series! This semester we will be looking at Church History! In this episode we look at how God used three different cultures to build the world of the New Testament! 

Is there ever a time on Sunday where it feels like the worship stops? Many would assume that occurs right about now. This was an assumption that was hammered out of us at seminary. Someone from a church would talk about how we would "have a time of worship AND THEN we will hear the sermon." Did you catch what is being assumed there? Worship is all about the singing, because that is when we are *feeling* it. People's hands don't go up during the sermon. If they did, I would think you are asking a question. It looks instead like maybe this is the *pastor's* turn to worship, and the people will join back in at the closing song, but that isn't what the sermon is meant to be. It isn't *just* me worshiping up here. You are worshiping here, in this moment, as well. 

In our worship services, you may notice that there isn't much to look at. There are no elaborate stain-glass pictures of Jesus. There isn't much choreography to my movements. There aren't a lot of mysterious symbols and rites. But should there be? After all, is that not what many people are looking for these days? A return to older, embodied, dare I say, *enchanted* ways of doing things?  God knows this, for He knows our frame, which is why He has given us those things in two pictures of the Word that are right in front of you: The Lord's Supper and Baptism. Wonderfully, these aren't symbols that you just sit there and watch. You didn't not come here to watch *me* worship with my body while you spectate. These are acts of worship that you *equally* participate in with your senses. These acts of worship are loaded with meaning that fully informed by the gospel. Yet these  elements contain mystery to them, too. Not because they are unexplained. But because it takes a lifetime to fully comprehend what these elements do in your life.  The mystery that is there is that these elements aren't just show pieces to point you back to the Bible. These also, through the Word preached and by faith believed, are a means of grace for your soul. Your soul is grown by baptism and the Lord's Supper when they are taken alongside the preached word faithfully believed. 

Before I was a pastor, I was a photographer. I remember one of my first weddings I did, I was assisting a friend. The wedding was to take place on this beautiful outdoor venue looking out over a mountainside. Lovely location in the middle of a state park. There was one issue, however. The GPS didn't know where it was. We had no clue what it looked like. The wedding was starting in 45 minutes. And we were lost. Thanks to my friends confident driving (and his beautiful Chevy Camaro's roaring engine), we finally came across it (in time!). But we would have much rather had a guide.  While missing a wedding would have had consequences for us, there are far higher stakes when it comes to worship. Displeasing a bride on her wedding day is a sad thing, but it is a sadder thing, and actually much scarier thing to displease God.  As you know we are in the midst of a series on worship. We saw that worship simply defined is bowing down in awe and joy before God. Having felt that awe and joy, what should we do with it when we are all gathered together? That was the question we left off with last time. 

If you could improve one thing in your life right now to make your life so much better what would it be? I think for many this time of year, the answer to that question is health related. If we could just lose weight, moving and pain would be eased. Or maybe it is financially related. If only I could make/save more money live would be easier. But even if we do those things it only does that, makes life a little easier. It doesn't make it a life worth living. What makes life worth living?  Have you ever resolved to become a better worshiper in the new year? I'm not talking about being busier at religious things, reading more chapters, attending more small groups, adding Sunday Night, per se. I am talking becoming better at worship. How does one do that? In order to answer that question, we have to remind ourselves what worship actually is, a question we will explore in a moment. 

The decade thus far hasn't been known for its predictability. With everything changing around us every day is there something that stays the same?  On this episode of Feast and Follow, we explore exactly what this one constant is out of Lamentations 3. 

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the various, individual offices of Jesus. We have seen Him as Prophet, Priest, and King. But there is a more common title that we use for Him that in some way wraps all of these titles together, Savior. Now, like all church terms we have some sense as to what they mean, but if we are actually stopped in the street and asked to give a definition, we might have to think about it for a minute. Once we have supplied that definition, we are then given the task of saying what precisely we mean. A great example of this is the word “Holy.” I think if you were to ask your average church goer what “holy” means, you'll get something like “sin free” because we know that God is Holy, Holy, Holy, because that is how the song goes! It actually means, “separate.” God is “different” from us. Certainly that includes not sinning, but that is only part of it.   The same thing I think applies to the word “Savior.” What that word means and how we are supposed to respond to it will be the focus of our time together here.   Our main point is Jesus, Our Savior, delivers us from sin.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus came so long after Genesis 3? “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” has the line “late in time, behold him come.” We know that Jesus isn't one of those folks who has a hard time getting out the door on time. So why wait? Could it be that Jesus coming down was Plan B? Let's think about that possibility. I mean we do see this elaborate system of worship in the Old Testament. Worship was done in a particular place and in a particular way. Leviticus is an entire book dedicated to outlining Sabbath as well as daily worship. There were daily sacrifices, thanksgiving offerings, sin offerings, vows, things that took place, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, as well as a litany of health regulations and prescriptions for daily life. All of this was meant to guide and maintain a relationship with God. There was an entire tribe of people who's sole job was to help the people maintain that relationship, helping them sacrifice, teaching them, maintaining their temple, and even helping them with some of their physical disease as well.   Why have this entire system that, at the end of the day, according to verse 11 of our text, “can never take away sins?” Was this a system that if the people just did it a little bit more faithfully it would have worked but since they didn't Jesus swoops down and just does it? Is Jesus like a parent trying to let their child do something on their own, realize it is never going to happen, and just does it for them?   No. God knows everything. God plans everything from before the beginning of the world. Acts 2:23 tells us this: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” It was always the plan that Jesus would die for the sins of the world. But in order for us to understand what that actually means we need the Old Testament to compare Jesus' sacrifice to. It is like trying to point out the difference between a million and a billion. A million seconds is 11.5 days. That's a while! But a billion seconds? Why that's over 31 years! I've only been alive for a little bit longer than a billion seconds.   In the same way, we look at Jesus' ministry and ultimately dying on the cross and ask, “What am I really seeing here?” The Old Testament is the background to that answer, and for today, we will look at the office of Old Testament priests. That is what we are going to look at today when we see that Jesus is the ultimate priest. Jesus as priest makes us perfect.

Jesus as King is probably the hardest part of Jesus' identity for Americans to understand, much less submit to. The only king we ever had we threw off with a cup of Boston Harbor tea. Ever since, we've built our national identity on the concept of self-rule, by the people, for the people, able to swap leaders every four years, potentially handicap their authority every two, and, at least in theory, impeach at any time. Since the only permanent authority we must pay homage to is the electric company, it will be helpful to remind ourselves what a king even does. Or at least we will remind ourselves of what a king was supposed to do. No king but One ever fulfilled the royal law perfectly.   Our main point is Jesus as King Rules All of Life with Care

Who is Jesus? Who is he fully? There has been a recent survey that's gone out.  It's called the State of Theology Survey, where they're asking people, both your average everyday Americans and even your regular churchgoing folk, a series of questions as to what is the Bible? Who is Jesus and this sort of thing. And one of the things that was amazing is when they asked the question, who is Jesus?    Is he just a great teacher? And what we found was that at least, I think it was 20% of even church going folks, would say that yes, he's just a teacher. He's not God. But is meant to give us an example as to what we're to follow. Well, like most lies that are damaging, there is a bit of truth. Yes, Jesus has given us an example.    Yes, he was a great teacher, but that's not all he was either. We can also make the mistake, especially when we come to our seasons of Advent, when we see little manger scenes everywhere that we see Jesus as the baby. The harmless little thing that we've all come to worship and adore.  And we forget that there is a lot more to this baby as well. In theology, there is a term that's given that Christ occupies three offices, which is just a fancy way of saying that God has the Son of God Jesus, has three titles, three things about him, three jobs that he occupies to help us in our Christian life, to show us the way. And those three offices are prophet, priest, and king. 

What do we think about saying, "Thank you"? Is it just something that we are expected to do, or is there more to it than that? As we look at 1 Thess. 5, we will see that thanksgiving is an essential foundation of the Christian life. 

The more modern the world gets, the more relevant passages like this are. I know it doesn't seem that way at first reading, but if you follow along with me, I think you will see that this is a very interesting passage with a critical concept for us to grasp. That concept is regular times of celebration before the Lord.   One of the challenges of modern life is a loss of the sense of time. I don't mean we are all so busy now, I mean that we live as if we aren't as bound to it anymore. Let me give an example. When our phones could get email, a little over 15 years ago, suddenly we could be working anywhere, anytime. The idea of “office hours” vanished and suddenly all of life could look the same. Any day could became Monday just in the time it takes for your phone to chime. This is just an extension of what has happened in the last 50 or so years when a lot of people's work stopped being dependent on what time of the year it is. Farming is very dependent on the month of the year. Email works the same whether it is June or January, so many have lost the connection to the natural rhythms of the world.   I came across a quote from Dr. Ross, my old Hebrew teacher, that sums up what I'm hoping to preach about today: “Only when worshippers begin to see how creation and redemption inform their use of time will they fully appreciate what it means to enter into the Lord's rest and enjoy fellowship with the holy God, and with one another in Christ.” (Recalling the Hope of Glory, 240). Let's unpack that.   In this section of Scripture, and in other places in the Old Testament, we see feasts or celebrations to God that correspond to certain seasons of the year, the creation. They were times that called for everyone to stop and remember the past, recognize the present, and rejoice for the future. Each one is filled with meaning not only when it comes to what is happening in the world, but even more so what is happening in redemption.   Our main point is to embrace the opportunity to celebrate, knowing that you always have reason to do so.

Today, we look at the final passage in Genesis. It has been quite a journey. We've watched God create a world, see Adam ruin it, yet a promise of care in the very same chapter. We've watched the world flooded yet out of that a sign of the covenant written in the sky to this day. We've seen the rise and fall of Babel, divine blood oaths, and stairways to heaven. Yet we've also seen the humdrum waiting. Yet in each one of these chapters, we have been exposed to yet another demonstration of the sovereignty of God.   It all wraps up here with yet another reminder of God's sovereign control of the world. Though here, we have a unique application of that doctrine. It is one thing to flatly say, “God is in control.” That's good and true, but has been said so often we begin to become overly familiar with it. This passage says, “Since God is in control, there is an obligation on your part: forgiveness.” We will see how this occurs in our passage and our main point: God's sovereignty requires us not to seek revenge.

What do you want the end of your life to be like? Or to put it in a slightly more morbid way, how do you hope you will behave at your death? I know those sound like odd questions, but really of all things that we can prepare for in life, this is the one certain thing. Only the Christian has the answer for how to prepare oneself for such an event. Only the Christian can view death for what it is, a hated friend. What do I mean by that? How can one be a hated friend? Death is hated because it is a result of sin. The reason why we die is because of sin. Yet death can be a friend in its capacity to deliver us to heaven, something only Jesus could accomplish.   Today we are going to look at two points today The Christian faces death with hope yet Christians rightly grieve death.

As we celebrate the Reformation, we will take a brief pause on our journey through Genesis to take a look at another hard won recovery of the the doctrine of the Lord's Supper 

This is an important question that a surprising amount of the American church gets incorrect! 

Don't you wish you could know the future? I think all of us if given the chance would love even a glimpse or a hint of what is to come in our lives. But as many popular stories tell us, how that future gets to us is often very confusing. Israel is about to die, but before he does, he is going to place his blessing on all of his sons. The last verse of our passage is going to reiterate that each blessing is “suitable” for each one, and we are going to see how that plays out for many of them here this morning. We will see that some of them, like Reuben, are getting “blessings” that are a result of what they have done. Some are getting blessings seemingly despite what they've done, like Judah. Others get blessings, but seemingly not the right ones, like Joseph. What are we to make of these things, how did they play out in history, and what does this mean for us today? We will tackle those questions as we look at our main point today: God's blessings are suitable yet still need to be trusted.

In light of recent events, there has been a robust online discussion about whether Mormons are really Christians. In this episode, we examine some of the basic beliefs of the Mormons and see that they are not compatible with Christianity. 

How do you think about God's promises? For Christians, they are the central hope of our lives, because God's promises can't be stopped even by death itself. Because of this, we want to be able to pass on these promises to our children, and a big part of our ability to do that is because of this passage right here. Abraham has been promised that there will be a seed that will bless the nations. Ultimately, that is Christ. The promise is going to outlive Jacob, and we will see the transfer of that blessing here. Now, our passing on of the blessing looks different. In this passage, the blessing comes ultimately from the Lord but only *through* Jacob. As we will see, the blessing is going to be extended to the rest of the nation of Israel with the tribes forming their own contribution to God's plan. Today, the blessing ultimately comes from Christ but is shared through every Christian that opens their mouth for the kingdom.

Last week, we saw that there is a certain restlessness amongst the people of God. The family of Abraham has been wandering the entire book of Genesis, knowing that they will eventually settle in the land that God has promised them. We also, in our own way, are wandering through a strange land waiting for our final, promised inheritance as well. But what do we do in the meantime? Are we just sitting around for 80 to 100 years just waiting to for our lives to really begin? How does God settle His people when they are waiting? Our main point that we will consider is how God Faithfully Settles His separate people in a Strange Land

One thing that often isn't mentioned in Christian circles is fasting. With the great help of Don Whitney and his book The Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life, we will attempt to fix that! 

Do you feel unsettled where you are? That's normal. There is a feeling of something missing here in this world. We aren't settled here. We shouldn't be. The world actually isn't our home, and we are wanderers within it, journeying towards our final destination. Sometimes it can feel aimless, inefficient, and looping. A lot of “Why did we spend so much time there?” But we aren't charting our own course. The Christian life isn't a choose your own adventure. It is being led, no matter how much it doesn't feel that way sometimes, by the Good Shepherd Himself. God is a journeying God, a God of the wilderness, the desert, the strange land far off, but not because He's a gypsy. Not because He has commitment issues. It is because He is seeking the lost sheep, the wanderers, to bring them home. And He will wander with them all the way. Indeed, not all who wander are lost. In fact, only the wanderers after Jesus are saved. In this passage we will see that God leads His people on a journey home.

After discussing prayer, Bible reading, and meditation, we might wonder if we are falling into a trap about seeing ourselves as "brains on a stick." How are we to address that? With some help from Matthew Bingham and his book A Hearth Aflame for God we will answer that question! 

Some circumstances can seem impossible for God to work with much less bless through. The people of Israel needed to be reminded of this. Genesis was originally written to recently freed slaves, slaves who have known nothing but forced service for 400 years. They have just been let go, and are now wandering through the desert looking to one day enter the promised land. Now it is hard to have hope in a desert. There's not much food or water. Everything is hard in a desert, and some might be tempted to believe that even God has a hard time working in the desert. Is He able to provide in hard circumstances? Joseph's brothers are likely wondering this as well in this moment. They have been shocked to hear that Joseph has forgiven them, but as we will see from this text, the reason that they are about to be blessed is because God has been the one watching over them. We will look at some of these things as we look at our main point: God promises to provide for His people more than they could deserve to point to Himself.

In the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk, how is the Christian supposed to respond? There is a lot of advice online, most of it unhelpful. How do we sort through this? That is what we wanted to tackle in this edition of our Sunday Night lecture series. 

In the wake of the very public murders of Charlie Kirk, Iryna Zarutska, and Julie Gard Schnuelle, we took a break from Genesis to remind ourselves of the Kingship of Jesus out of Psalm 2. 

Tonight, we continue our look at studying the Bible by examining the lost arts of memorization and meditation! 

Do you know how forgiveness works when there is some real offense committed against you? It's one thing to forgive a misunderstanding or a hurtful action that was well-intended. What I want us to know today is how do we forgive someone when the offender did what they did in order to hurt you. There is hate in their heart towards you. What if they, I don't know, sold you into slavery, on purpose? How do you find it in your heart to forgive things that actually changed the course of your life? That is what this chapter is going to be revealing to us today.   What we are going to encounter is some deep theology about God's control of all things, including His ability to work through human sin. This is where an understanding of these fine points will actually make a real difference in your life. Because unless you understand what God is revealing to us here, you are going to find it nearly impossible to forgive much less reconcile with your offender.   Today we are going to see that you are able to forgive because God works through your hurts.

We continue our series on the Spiritual Gifts! Our topic this time is Bible Reading to actually change your life!  

In a day and age with GPS, I've grown so used to it that using verbal directions given by someone else spikes my anxiety. You know those directions: keep going until you see the hot dog place, turn right at the gas station, and it'll be the big building on your right. Can't miss it (yes, I can)! If you see the grocery store you've gone too far! The longer I drive without seeing the hot dog place, the unrest in my soul grows steadily. But then! The joy when I see the landmark, just as my guide said, comfort floods my soul; I'm on the right track. How do you know you are on the right track with your Christian life? What are the landmarks that indicate you are indeed on the road of salvation? How do you know the faith you have in Christ is a real faith that is having an impact on your life? While there will be peaks and valleys, good days and bad days, looking at the whole of your life, do you see evidence of repentance from sin? Are you turning from sin to Christ? We saw Joseph not sin but what if you're more like Judah? The passage that is before us gives us a remarkable demonstration of what it looks like to have repented. We will look at the person of Judah and see the remarkable change that has occurred in his life, and what we can expect from our own. Today we will see that Repentance requires you to change what you love and how you live.

On this episode, we finish our walk through the book If God Already Knows, Why Pray? by Doug Kelly! 

What are you waiting for in your life? Really sit back and think about it for a second. Maybe you are in the midst of a family situation or physical pain that you would say you are waiting for it to stop. Maybe you are waiting for kids to get a bit older, or have a bit more money in the old account, or hit a certain level of your career. Why are you looking forward to these things? If I could venture a guess, based on my own mind, we're really looking for peace. It's not really looking for nothing happening in our lives, just the ability to move through life only thinking about what is in front of you.   The characters in our passage this story have many things occupying their minds. We've got a famine, a grave concern we've not had to feel; we have lingering guilt from a two decade's old betrayal; we have a family conflict stemming from favoritism strengthened from loss; most severely, we have the crushing parental dread of a child potentially in harms way. Where on earth does this family find peace? They are so far in the hole. We can say that they need to trust God, and we find evidence here that they do, but it is pretty buried in a lot of other motivations? Can they find peace, and if they can, can we?   Today, our main point is this: God can use even fear-filled obedience to bring peace to His people.

We begin a new series in our Sunday Night Lectures looking at the Spiritual Disciplines in the Christian Life. We start by looking through the book by Doug Kelly If God Already Knows, Why Pray? 

How can we use our fear to grow spiritually? What do your fears tell you about yourself? Have you ever gotten an out of the blue or late night call from someone who doesn't normally call you like that? There is often a sense of fear at least wondering what might be wrong or what might suddenly be expected of you. The cryptic “We need to talk…” text is even worse! The three dots means you did something! The worst case scenario is when you know, or at least are pretty sure you know, what those three dots mean. You know what you did, and now you have been discovered.   Now, it is one thing to receive that communication from a friend or parent, but what if on the caller ID it read, “God”? What comes to your mind? “Did He see what happened the other night? What is He going to ask me to do? What topic do I need to make sure we stay FAAARR away from?” When we feel the twinge in our conscience, that is something like getting that phone call. Or when we feel our chest tighten up when thinking about a worry of ours, it is an invitation to consider what God might have to say about those emotions.   Today we are going to consider our main point: God prods our fears to shape our faith.   We are going to see these next few chapters develop our characters in some pretty profound ways. There will be many echos of what we have seen before in Genesis that will resolve in some interesting ways. I invite you over these next few weeks as new semesters start, as we approach the back half of the year, to consider along with these characters how God may be calling you to grow. This week, we will see how God lays His hand on them and in the coming weeks, we will see how God shapes them.

On this episode, we finish our series on the Apostles' Creed looking at what the eternal state is going to be after we die! 

What is God doing? It's a question we ask from time to time, and what we are really asking is how do we find out? How does God speak today?   Joseph's life is about to take a radical turn. God is about to reveal the reason why everything has gone the way that it has and give another generation deep confidence in his ability to work through all circumstances, including through some rare means.   Central to this passage are these two dreams of Pharaoh and Joseph's ability, with God's help, to reveal the interpretations of them. We will see this pop up again in the Old Testament when we get to the prophet Daniel of Lion's Den fame. These are the only two occasions where we will see a Hebrew practice dream interpretation, so this is a rare moment in Scripture (Matthews). Both times are strange visions with no real obvious interpretation. We know that God can speak very clearly, even with pagan rulers, through dreams. We have even seen that in Genesis when God warns Abimelech in a dream not to touch Sarah, Abraham's wife: Genesis 20:3 “But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” No ambiguity there, huh? God was able to protect Sarah even when Abraham wasn't.   So why not just do that here with Joseph? Couldn't God have intervened on Joseph's behalf through a very clear dream like that to Pharaoh? Couldn't he have just spoken to Pharaoh plainly about a famine coming and, oh by the way, you need to use Joseph as your administrator? He could have. So why? Let's explore that as we tackle our main point today: God's control is comprehensive, and God's control is good

Why does God bother with our bodies? What happens to them when Christ returns, and what does this mean for how we treat them now? Find out in this edition of our Sunday Evening lectures on the Apostles' Creed! 

Could you have predicted what the last five years of your life would contain? I can tell you that there is at least one year none of us saw coming. The number of jokes about 20/20 vision, seeing clearly the way forward in a new decade were made viciously ironic in arguably one of the most confusing years of our generation. Even here locally, we could never have guessed exactly who we would lose and when, leaving us astonished year after year.   But we also couldn't have predicted the joys of the last five years either. Who would have guessed the number of children that now sit in our midst! Many of them didn't even exist five years ago! We've added many new families, grown our school, and seen our denomination grow and stay faithful to God.   As much as things have indeed changed in the last five years, most day to day operations felt like, well, day to day operations. It seemed like many weeks or months would go by where we just waited. That great theologian Dr. Seuss once weighed in on waiting in his book, Oh, the Places You'll Go. In the midst of a lifetime of travels, the great doctor said, you will find one place that will fill you with dread, the waiting place. It is a place where everyone is just waiting, waiting for a phone call or a train to come in, and he calls this “a most useless place.” Instead, he says, you should be going where the boom bands are playing, where things are happening.   Now, the venerable doctor is onto something, but his emphasis isn't quite right. Though waiting is often seen as a blight, and stirs our minds to see it not right, it isn't the wait that is useless, you see, it is often the means God forms you to be. Things aren't only happening with the boom bands. Things are always happening, even in the waiting place, because our God is always at work, not in fits and starts, but never slumbering or sleeping.   We will see our two points today God is working even when you don't see it and God's return motivates our faithful working.

Tonight, we come to a most critical part of the creed. This is critical for a number of reasons, not the least of which because this is the gospel. The good news is that sins can be forgiven. This is our message that we preach to the world, and we are the only ones able to proclaim it. Political organizations can preach help, but they can't preach forgiveness.  Getting the gospel wrong has led to just about every problem that the church has. We can so easily misunderstand it because we are sinners. We are born with a bias against understanding it. So we need to take the time to walk through this carefully. Some of these things are going to (hopefully) not be news to you, but this is a great opportunity to see where you heart might have missed the comfort and encouragement you are entitled to or where it has gained undue complacency that you are not entitled to.

You have heard it said that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. I'm here to add a third certainty to life: temptation. Temptation exists everywhere because we still have sin within us. Its power has been broken by our putting our faith in Christ and having the Spirit living inside us. This means that we don't have to sin every time temptation comes along like we did before Christ. But we aren't away from sin's presence yet. And if there is anything we learn about temptation is that it is persistent, usually more so than we are. Joseph's case turned out to be different than a lot of ours. Despite the constant temptation, Joseph, quite impressively, resisted it. One theologian thought that Joesph's ability to rule himself was more impressive than running the country of Egypt (Matthews). How do temptations actually work? How did Joseph resist them so well? How can we learn how to resist temptations better? Do things always go better when you resist temptation? We will try to answer those questions as we look at our two points today: Temptations want your loyalty, yet only God will be loyal to you.

In this episode, we cover the doctrine of the Church. Once again, special thanks to Third Mil Ministries for the outline I am teaching from. 

The recording starts abruptly, but I was in the middle of explaining that all of these lectures have been adapted from some other curriculum from Third Mill ministries. This one is about the Holy Spirit!  

Our series continues this time looking at the Son! Note: I got the Day of Atonement sacrifices mixed up with the Sin offering in this lecture. Sending out the goat into the wilderness is the Day of Atonement offering procedure, not the sin offering! 

Our continuing study on the Apostles' Creed, this evening focused on the section on God the Father. 

We've added a Sunday time of study together going through the Apostles' Creed. In this introductory episode, we explore the Creed as a whole and define why we should study it.  

What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase, “God will be with you”? For many, I think, this is a phrase that has been heard so many times, it has lost its meaning. It has become part of the Christian language that we actually stopped thinking about a long time ago. What does it really mean for God to be with you? How does that make a difference to your life, particularly when things are going well? What difference might it make in other people's lives that God is with you? We will explore these questions as we take a look at this chapter over the next two weeks. Today I hope that you will be convinced of our main point, that God's presence in you impacts your world right where you are.

Genesis 38 doesn't get nearly the respect and love it should. Many look at this chapter as an unnecessary and disturbing interruption to the story of Joesph, a generally positive story of redemption. Looking at the content of the story, it is easy to see why people think that. We all have some section of our lives we regret, and it would seem that we are looking at Judah's season of regret here. Why dwell on the gross sins of one of the brothers when we could be focusing on the more positive portrait of Joseph? After all, this doesn't describe most of our lives as good Presbyterians, so what is there even to learn from here?   But this is actually a critical chapter for the story of Genesis, our Christian lives generally, and even contributes to the overall story of Jesus.   Genesis 38 is critical to the book as a whole because Joseph is not the only character in this section of Genesis. Judah's roles is arguably equally important. Rather than just focus on God's redemption of Joseph's circumstances, we are seeing in this chapter, the beginnings of God's redemption of Judah's character (Matthews). We can't see how far God brings him if we don't know where he started from, and this chapter shows us that sinful starting line. Hopefully, this will give you hope for what God can do in your life.   This chapter is critical because of what it has to say for your Christian life today. Because of the sexual misadventures aplenty we see here, we tend to focus on those and not look at all the foundational sins that actually lead to those moments. There are many “smaller” sins that are actually quite common to us all shot through this passage that we can learn a great deal from. Hopefully, this will make us more grateful for Jesus' sacrifice for those sins after seeing them in their proper light.   Finally, this chapter is critical because of what it tells us about Jesus' family.   We are going to tie all of this together under our two points, Little sins are big obstacles to family commitments, yet Jesus has died for the little sins, too.    

We have come to the final turn in our story of Genesis. We've been on quite a journey. We have seen how God has been faithful to three generations of Abraham's family, and now we turn the corner to see how the story of Genesis concludes.  At first glance, it would seem that now we are going to look at the life of Joseph as the main character going forward, but that would be a mistake. For sure, Joseph is going to be featured prominently in the chapters to follow, but the story really is about three men, not one. By keeping that fact in mind, we are going to have a much better idea why God includes the details that He does in the upcoming chapters.  Today, we are going to take an overview of the section ahead of us, and because it is Father's Day, we are going to look at it through the lens of three fathers, Jacob, Judah, and Joseph. They are going to compare and contrast in general, and we will see deeper details as we much through in the coming weeks. We are going to look at two points today that while addressing fathers in particular are nonetheless applicable to everyone. Fathers have a deep impact on their children yet Our impact is not beyond God's mercy and control.

How do you think about your enemies? It can be a complex question. On the one hand we are to be kind to our enemies, bless those who curse you and all of that. But how do you get to that point? How are you able to bless your enemies, even if they come from your own family? This passage doesn't directly answer that question, but the rest of the story that this chapter sets up, does.   We will look at two points today: Your enemies are under God's control and Your enemies can be made family in Christ.