Feast and Follow with Knollwood

Don't Steal What You Already Own

Organized people talk about the power of habits, the things that you do everyday without having to really think about them. Most of us don't have to have a check list that includes brushing your teeth at night because that is (hopefully) an established habit! Using the power of habit can be an amazing force for good if you have developed good habits. A habit of exercise, Bible reading, and prayer will make for an incredibly healthy life. 

But the power of habits can work in the opposite direction as well. What is your habit when you are scared? Do you jump into over planning mode? Do the opposite and run and hide? Distract yourself? Indulge in a sin? Do you steal what you already own in Christ? 

Hope for the ICU

We are going to talk about hope today. We are going to do that today because we are Christians, and it is the one thing that we truly have that the rest of the world does not. I am not talking about hope as some sort of wish or platitude that you put on a coffee mug. But I am talking about *real* hope. Hope that follows you into the ICU and beyond. This is the sort of hope that cannot be bought or earned. It is a hope that can only be given to you as a gift, because the promise of this sort of hope would be utterly outrageous to offer unless it comes from God Himself. Because, as it turns out, the hope we have isn't a silver lining or a place we will live in someday. Our hope is Christ Himself, and I hope that our time together will be one of worshipping Him and reveling in that hope together. 

I've chosen this passage today because it reflects where I think all of us to some degree where we are today. We lost a great man this week. My task here isn't to try to get us to stop grieving. That's not what this passage calls us to do. This passage calls us not to grieve, *"as those do who have no hope.*" We do have a hope, so our grief is different. It is with sobs and smiles. Tears of joy and pain.

Sin Doesn't Share, Part 2

Have you ever told someone how to do a particular task but they insist on doing it some other way? Even though no other way exists to do that task, they insist on relentlessly attempting to do that which isn't right. Kids do this all the time, don't they? We have sayings like, "If at first you don't succeed, do it the way mom told you to do it." How much easier our lives would be, eh? 

But we can't judge them too harshly because we often find ourselves in the same boat, don't we? God tells us explicitly how to live and even what to do when we don't do it right and still we resist Him. We can see this on full display here with Lot on his way out of Sodom. 

Last week, we took a deep, hard look at how Lot got into the situation that he got into. We found that even a man given the grace of God can still get terrifyingly used to evil such that he would use it himself. God is merciful, however, and is still committed to not sweep away Lot with the rest of the city. God begins the extraction process, but Lot seems to be doing his best to not cooperate with the process. This is extremely frustrating to watch, but there is a lot that we can learn here as we finish our sermon from last week. 

Sin Doesn't Share

in is a great trapper. Do you know what a trapper does? A trapper hunts in a seemingly passive way. It would seem that all they do is place traps down and hope animals walk into them, but there is a lot more to it than that. They observe animal tracks, place the trap in such as way that it is disguised. Food is carefully chosen to attract the animal. The prey is sized up to be sure to get the right cage, and of course the trapper places it when they know they won't be seen. It is a very active and effective process. Get the animal to go where it wouldn't go normally by offering it something it wants in a place that looks perfectly safe. 

Sin works the same way. Sin offers you something that looks good and useful. It seems safe, without consequence, and entirely reversible. It's like the mechanic who got addicted to drinking break fluid; he can stop whenever he wants. But this is the fundamental lie of sin. It can give you want you want, no, what you *need* without consequences. Sin doesn't share. It only takes. And that is what we are going to see today as we focus on the fate of Lot in this chapter. We will look at two points: Sin will imprison you, so don't accommodate it. and God's Grace will free you, so embrace it.  

LGBT and the Inspiration of Scripture

Sexual identity is a rising concern in our world that has left many Christians unsure of how to respond. What does it look like to faithfully love those who base their identity in homosexual practices? 

In this message, we will look at how the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture informs how we should think and speak about this issue to friends, family, and the wider world who participate in homosexuality in a hopeful way. 

Calling Out to My Father

This week we welcome guest preacher Theodore Woo, a seminary student preparing to go into the ministry. He brought to us a message out of Matthew 6 about the Fatherhood of God. 

Judge of All the Earth, Part 2

Today, we finish up last week's message by looking now at how personally involved God is in judgment as well as blessing.

The Judge of All the Earth, Part 1

For a God who never gets hungry, He sure eats a lot. This isn't because God has been dishonest with us about His needs. God doesn't get hungry or need anything from us. Psalm 50:12-13 put it this way "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?" The expected answer is, "No." God doesn't need to eat something because He doesn't have a body. Even if He did need to eat, He wouldn't be waiting around for us to feed Him because He already owns everything in the earth. 

So why is He eating here? He doesn't need it. This is meant to draw our attention when God does something He doesn't have to do. It means that God is making a point. He doesn't want us to walk away from this passage to say that God has a taste for beef. He is showing Abraham, and us, something special by coming down to eat with Abraham. 

We are only going to get to our first point today: God is personally involved in blessing and judgment. 

In our tour of Genesis, I want us to stare at this point for a minute, namely, the imminence of God, His closeness, His intimacy. This was a point that I had missed in my initial study of this passage, so I greatly owe Dr. Allen Ross for pointing me in this direction for this sermon. It is easy to miss the closeness and intimacy with God in Genesis so far because of all the big things He does. He sets up the world, and then He floods the whole thing. He separates all the peoples by introducing different languages. He brings a plague on all of Egypt. He helps Abraham defeat close to half a dozen kingdoms in battle. He is promising that Abraham will have descendants outnumbering the stars! In the next chapter, He turns the green, fertile fields of Sodom into the Dead Sea with flaming brimstone launched from heaven! 

And then there’s this chapter where He stops by for lunch. 

The Sign

Symbols are important things. They aren't just images that are nice to have. They are essential to our memory. We have rings for marriage because they are meant to remind us to stay faithful. I don't need reminding that I am married; I need reminding that that marriage makes a difference in how I live. I am no longer just me. I am married to my wife. That doesn't just change what I do in any given bedroom. It changes how I take out the trash, how I spend money, and it even changes things for descendants. My children are greatly affected by my covenant with my wife. Their lives are different because of it. 

Today, we are going to be looking at a symbol for a covenant that has effect even unto today, circumcision. Modern life has made this awkward to talk about, but I think precisely because it is such an intimate symbol, it really strikes a cord that this is what was used by God in the Old Testament. Now, just to clarify at the start, circumcision is not required today (Acts 15). You do not need to undergo this process to be saved. There is nothing that saves you but the blood of Christ. 

That being said, we will see that there are some elements of this covenant that continue. We will see that though this promise is made to Abraham and Isaac, Ishmael will receive the sign, too. We will see that God works in households, not just individuals. Circumcision gives blessing to all in that covenant, but the full enjoyment of the blessings of that covenant are for those who are circumcised in heart and thus obey the will of God (Redd, 142 *Covenant Theology*).  

Today we will explore our two points: God provides a sign of His covenant and We are called to apply and remember His sign.  

The God Who Sees

What does it mean to believe? When we tell people that they need to "believe in Jesus," what are we actually telling them? This is a key question to answer, because whatever it means to believe is how Abram was counted as righteous before God. And according to Paul, whatever it means to believe in Jesus is how *we* are counted righteous as well, is how we get to heaven—or not. This passage is mentioned many times in the New Testament, so if they saw it as important, we must see it as important. I will give you the answer up front, and then we will develop it as we go. To believe, simply enough, is to see something as dependable (Ross, 310) or "place trust in someone with confidence..." (Matthews, 166). To believe in God is to see Him as dependable and then live in light of that (Ross, 310)!  

This should be a pretty understandable concept because W]we depend on things all the time. Whenever a dad is loading up a trailer and needs to secure the load, what does he reach for? The ratchet straps! After expertly crisscrossing the trailer, tightening it down, what is he practically *required* to say after giving it a tap? "That's not going anywhere." Why does he say that (every time)? It is because he sees those straps as dependable. While the rest of us nervously look back at the load over each bounce, eyes are forward because he knows what those straps will do. Do you depend on God to at least the same degree your dad depends on those ratchet straps? If not, I encourage you to listen in to what Genesis 15 has to say. 

We will unpack this more as we uncover our two points today:  God promises what only He can deliver and God gives signs so we won't forget His promises.