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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)

The Family’s Foundation This Sunday PM

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This Sunday night, I plan to preach on Genesis 2:18-25 and point to God’s desire for our marriages. To put it simply, we are to center on Him.

To open the message, I will allude to this quote on the Girl Talk site on An Ideal Marriage:

What do you want from your marriage? What would you change if you could?

No doubt something, or many things, come to mind. In one way or another marriage has probably fallen short of your expectations. But we must consider: where does our definition of “the ideal marriage” come from?

Do we get our cues from the culture and its illusive ideal of a mutually satisfying relationship? Do we compare our marriage to our friends’ marriages, to our everlasting disappointment? Or are we myopically focused on our husband’s weaknesses as the cause of our less than ideal marriage?

We need to ask: What does God want from my marriage? What does He want to change? What is His ideal?

Would it surprise you to know that His goal is not for you and your husband to have a “mutually satisfying relationship”, or to have a marriage that’s as good as or better than your friends, or to finally change that husband of yours?

His goal is far greater than that. His agenda far more glorious, far more satisfying.

What does God’s ideal marriage look like?

The answer begins with a story. A long story. A beautiful story. The story of marriage in the Bible.

I hope to see you this Sunday PM and hope you find encouragement for your marriage and your lofty ideals.

Weekend Preview – Lead Us Not/Deliver Us

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Tomorrow, 2/20, we plan to spent some time in Matthew 6:13, wrapping up the Lord’s prayer. The basic idea is that the same God we trust for physical needs (daily bread) and ultimate spiritual needs (forgiveness) needs to be the One we rely on as we face temptation and evil. The sermon will highlight 3 ways that God provides for us in prayer.

As you prepare to come, what is the greatest underdog moment you can imagine? Maybe you think of the greatest upsets in sports history, biggest oversight, or something to that effect? Why did this really take place? What did it show? Might it be the case for us, too, that we fail to recognize our true Helper in facing temptation and evil?

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow…dv.

Snarky?

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As believers, the words we use are to be characterized by letting: “no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29). In some interaction with others recently, I’ve noticed my own words are rather snarky. I confessed this to some fellow leaders and they wondered what it meant.

Wiktionary defines snarky as “Snide and sarcastic; usually out of irritation; often humorously.” It’s easy to speak words like this when wronged or when we seem to be more righteous than someone else. We can act as if we are better than our brothers or sisters. This can’t be. Let’s be loving and forgiving towards them, especially when they sin.

As we think this weekend about forgiveness and having a forgiving spirit towards others, let’s wage war on our tongues, seeking to make sure that no corrupting (snarky) talk comes out of our mouths.

Weekend Preview – Forgiveness

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This coming Lord’s Day (2/13/11) we will be honing in on Matthew 6:12 (…and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.) This will be my opening illustration from Rick Reilly on Aaron Rodgers’ unforgettable forgiveness. Summarized as:

To err is human. To forgive is divine.

To forgive in the Super Bowl, even better.

There are so many lessons for us to learn from what Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:12. Join us this Sunday as we explore these truths.

Daily Bread (from Proverbs 30:7-9)…

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This video from Francis Chan gets at the truth we will be looking at this coming Lord’s Day. What does it mean to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”? Here’s the question from Chan:I hope this challenges you and you come ready to hear what God’s Word has to teach us. To review, why not read through Matthew 6:9-13 (these are also the church’s memory verses for January).