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Weekend Preview – Greater Than Angels / Small Groups

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We are anticipating a great weekend at Crestview, Lord willing.

In the AM, we will continue working through Hebrews, looking at Hebrews 1:4-14 and how Jesus is superior to angels. I’m sure, like me, you’ve received all those weird forwards like “you’re an angel, forward this to 13 people and something magical will happen to you.” Honestly, though, we don’t understand a lot about angels and forget that even they are subservient to Christ. These will be the themes we’ll be engaging with on Sunday.

In the PM, we will meet in small groups and continue our discussions through Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins. This week, we are discussing chapter 3.

I hope you’ll plan to join us and pray that Jesus will be exalted in all we say and do.

Oh, and don’t forget to review our church’s Scripture memory verses from the past 4 weeks, they will help orient you to worship. (Hebrews 1:1-4)

Weekend Recap – Great Christ and Great Task…

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A full day is complete at Crestview…

In the AM, I preached on Greater Than Prophets from Hebrews 1:2b-3. In that sermon, I sought to show how supreme and great Jesus Christ is compared to so much stuff of this world. For me, it truly was an amazing moment to watch God exalt Himself through His Word.

In the PM, the sermon On Children was from Psalm 127:3-5. God has shown His providential care for families by giving children to parents, calling them to the parenting task and blessing their pursuit of it.

I’m full from all of these blessings. Hope your Lord’s day was rich and blessed as well.

Weekend Recap – God Speaking, Sin Disappearing…

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Just finally getting around to reviewing the happenings of the weekend at Crestview. It’s always a joy to look back on Monday mornings.

In the Sunday School hour, Tom Dixon is wrapping up Marks of a Messenger by Mack Stiles and I am reviewing Paul Tripp’s Getting to the Heart of Parenting in the adult classes. In my class, we looked at parenting by Targeting the Heart.

In AM Worship, we got into Hebrews finally, noticing how God Has Spoken in Hebrews 1:1-2 (unfortunately there will be no audio available on this sermon due to a problem in the capturing process). This sermon highlighted how God has spoken conclusively and specifically in Jesus Christ.

After a restful afternoon and absorbing KU’s defeat, we gathered in small groups for the evening. We are working our way through Jerry Bridges book Respectable Sins. We read chapter 2-The Disappearance of Sin.

All in all, it was a full day. Some applications for me:
— Don’t look for more of a revelation than the full and final revelation we have in Christ.

— Is sin disappearing from my life? Sure, we bemoan the lax stand of culture, but am I growing lax in my fight with sin, tolerating things God hates?

— How can I get after my children’s hearts better? By not being so driven to quick fix moments and taking time to apply the Gospel to their hearts (not merely behavior).

Hope your Lord’s Day was rich and full, as well.

Weekend Recap – Hebrews and God…

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Great Lord’s Day at Crestview today.

In the AM, we started on the book of Hebrews with a sermon entitled Introductory Matters, which looks at the big themes that we see in the book of Hebrews. Great time around those truths.

In the PM, my sermon Marriage Foundation: God, sought to counter our culture’s view of marriage by looking at how God loved us in Christ as the foundation for marriage.

On Brotherly Love

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Here’s the newsletter article I wrote for our church’s newsletter, the Edifier, coming out this weekend:

I love the book of Hebrews. Much like Colossians (which we are currently going through on Sunday mornings) the book of Hebrews is on a campaign to demonstrate how Jesus is better than anything. He’s better than angels, Moses, Melchizedek, the Old Covenant and anything else we could dream up. The truth that Jesus is better than everything is easy for us to mouth a confession to in the church. What becomes really difficult is living out the ramifications of what that means.

In Hebrews, for example, after a compelling picture of Jesus’ greatness for twelve chapters, chapter 13 begins by saying: “Let brotherly love continue.” In the bigger context, we read in Hebrews 12:24, of Jesus, who is the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. You remember that story don’t you? Abel and his brother Cain both were children of Adam and Eve. Abel kept sheep; Cain was a worker of the ground. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock as an offering to God. Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but not Cain’s. Cain was angry and his face fell. And God said to him, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:6-7). It is on the heels of this that Cain and Abel go the fields and Cain kills his brother.

Back to Hebrews, when the writer says “Let brotherly love continue” there must be something that would provoke this urging. In the immediate context of Hebrews 13:1, at the end of chapter 12, we read that we should “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). What is all of this getting at? Here are some things…

To continue in brotherly love, we must fight sin. Sin is in all of us. We all have sinful tendencies. Maybe some are more outrageous or easily seen than others, but we are all tempted with sin. It’s easy for us to hate our brother because they seem to be “blessed” with something more than we are. When we get in this trap, we are skidding down the slippery slope Cain experienced. Therefore, let’s fight sin. Sin is crouching at the door to pounce on us and master us. But we must rule over it. By God’s grace, let’s fight sin.

To continue in brotherly love, we must worship God properly. We forget that we are always before the face of God (we live coram deo). If we understood who God is and thought more about Him than our selfish desires, we wouldn’t drift into hateful attitudes and actions towards others. When the vertical relationship is proper, horizontal relationships will be right. Remember who God is and let that inspire your love for others.

Finally, to continue in brotherly love, believe in Jesus. We are so quick to forget who we are in Christ. We forget the sin that characterized our life before Him and how we have been rescued. Remember in Hebrews 12:24 & Genesis 4 that God was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice, but Jesus’ blood speaks a better word than Abel’s. If God was pleased with Abel, using the logic of the writer of Hebrews, He is ecstatic with the sacrifice of Jesus. To continue loving people as God intended we must center who we are in Jesus and the Gospel.

Therefore, let’s glorify and enjoy God, forever, by continuing in brotherly love.