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Weekend Preview – Psalm 34

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For the next couple of Sundays, Crestview will be looking at Psalm 34.  This coming Lord’s Day, in particular, we will be thinking about prayer in this Psalm.  Those who cry to the Lord are heard.  We are called to praise. There is so much for us.  Over on Twitter, I’ve been tweeting meditations on these verses.  I would encourage you to read this Psalm and think about what it means for your prayer life.  If you are interested in some of our Week of Prayer resources, they are available here.

Receive Him!

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This coming Lord’s Day, we plan to continue to work through John’s Advent account and specifically hone in on John 1:11-13. In these verses, we are told something shocking on one level: Jesus’ own people rejected Him. Humanly speaking, it is almost unfathomable that the Creator of all things could come to His people and they would reject Him, but that is precisely what happened. But, Jesus was received. He was received by those who believed in His name and lest those who believe start to puff themselves up in self-righteous thinking, John reminds those believers that it wasn’t some magic decision they did of their own will, but it happened because they were born of God. This holiday season, have you received Jesus or rejected Him. Receive Him by believing in His name and in so doing prove that you are born of God.

True Light – Weekend Preview 12/11/11

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This coming Lord’s Day, 12/11, we hope to continue our movement toward Christmas by celebrating Advent Week #3.  Our text will be John 1:9-10, which speaks of Jesus being the true light and one who must be responded to.  What do you think of Jesus?  Who do you say that He is?

I think Charles Simeon said it best when he asked these two questions about Jesus the True Light:
1) What light have you received from the Lord Jesus Christ?
2) How far are you reflecting this light to those around you?

Think on this and come expecting God to be glorified in our corporate worship this coming Lord’s Day.

Weekend Preview – Word & Creation

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This coming Lord’s Day, 12/4, we hope to return to John 1:3-5 and pick up where we left off last week.   Last week, we saw in John 1:1-2 that the Eternal Word is God and has existed in a personal relationship to the Father forever.  This week, though, we transition to see how this Word came near to us.  Specifically, if He was there in creation, how does He relate us.  The sermon will unfold how Jesus is related to creation as Creator, Life-Giver and Evil-Conquering Head.

There’s a reason that Revelation 3:14 announces that the message to that church was from “The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.”  We all owe our existence to Christ. We truly live to the degree that we function in this reality.  Come hungry this Sunday to see the greatness of Jesus Christ, the Word, as He relates to His creation.

Sunday Preview – 11/27/11

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This coming Lord’s Day, we will jumping into John 1:1-2 and seeing 3 truths about Jesus.  In prepping this sermon, I was remembering how well-served we have been through Athanasius.  Here’s some background articles on him and a link to the Athanasian Creed.  We come this Sunday to worship Jesus, fully God and fully man, born to save us from our sins.  Come ready to look heavenward.

Weekend Preview – Faith/Gratitude

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This coming Lord’s Day, we plan to move to a Thanksgiving emphasis and I hope to preach from Luke 17:11-19.  We know the story.  10 lepers are healed but only one returns to give thanks.  I want to marinade in this passage Sunday so that we can see how faith and gratitude work together.

Here’s Bridges commenting in Respectable Sins on this, which led me to go after this text again:

We read this story (Luke 17:11-19) and we think, “How could those nine men be so ungrateful as to not even turn back and say a word of thanks to Jesus?” And yet far too many of us are guilty of the same sin of unthankfulness.

Maybe this is you (I know I’m included).  Let’s embrace God’s Word for the means of grace it is, receive the Holy Spirit’s ministry of exalting Christ and let our faith demonstrate gratitude, to the glory of God.

Weekend Preview – Hebrews 1-9

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This coming Lord’s Day, 11/13, we hope to gather and review what we’ve seen in Hebrews 1-9.  (We plan to get into a message for Thanksgiving and John 1 during Advent.)  I love doing these overview messages every so often so that people don’t lose sight of the big picture in the minutiae of verse by verse exposition.  Related to this big picture, I found this post by Tony Reinke (and this picture) very helpful.

This picture shows how verses in the OT relate to the NT.  We have an amazing God, who has given us His Word for good and helpful reasons to point to His grandeur and glory.

Weekend Preview – Perfect Sacrifice

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As we think about approaching God in corporate worship this coming Lord’s Day, 11/6/11, we will be looking at Hebrews 9:23-28 (read this if you can carve out time this week).  This passage brings together many of the big themes we’ve found in these first nine chapters.  Specifically, we will again see the temporal nature of earth and the eternal work done in heaven by Jesus.  It is quite staggering really.  One truth that stands out is at the end:

“Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him” (Hebrews 9:27-28).

You’ve maybe heard it said that Jesus came the first time to save, but next time He’s coming as King.  This is clearly taught in our passage for Sunday.  Come expecting to worship your Savior and King this Lord’s Day.

Weekend Preview – Hebrews 9:15-22

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This coming Sunday, we hope to return to Hebrews 9:15-22 and look at our New Covenant Mediator Jesus.  There are lots of tremendous truths in this passage.  We’ll see what Jesus did as our Mediator, why death was necessary and (closely) related why all this blood?  Oh, there will be blood.  Just read the text and see.  Blood cleanses and without the shedding of blood there’s no forgiveness of sins.

As I thought about this text and what Jesus has done to reconcile to God, I’ve realize how futile my own efforts at achieving righteousness fall short.  I need a Savior like this.  Come and see God’s plan through Jesus, our Mediator this Sunday.

We plan to gather back in the evening for corporate prayer.

Weekend Preview for 10/23/11

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We anticipate a great weekend at church this weekend.  First off, on Saturday, October 22nd, our Ladies have a Prayer Retreat.  Always a great time for them.

I’m really excited, though, for Sunday when we have Dan Dumas from Southern Seminary and author of Guide to Biblical Manhood in to speak.  He will preach in the morning and speak, specifically, to our men at the Men & Boys Chili Feed, Sunday night at 6PM.

The Gospel changes everything, especially how you act as a male and female in the unique hardwiring God created for you.  Come this weekend expecting this glorious Gospel to be on full display as we flesh out what being a man and woman is all about.