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Weekend Recap – Faith’s Homeland

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My 5/13/12AM (Mother’s Day) sermon from Hebrews 11:13-16 is now online.  It was entitled Faith’s Homeland and dealt with faith and the future.  Specifically, faith prepares for the future by persevering in the present.  Part of this perseverance means we confess that we are strangers and exiles here.  Why?  Because faith seeks a homeland, specifically, a heavenly one.  So, we persevere in the present with our eye on eternity.  This has all kinds of applications for mothers, daughters, women, men, sons and fathers, as well as anyone else.  We shrink our lives to the here and now and put that in an ultimate category.  But, in Christ, we have reason to hope for the future.  Faith’s homeland is eternity with Christ in heaven.  Let’s live this week in light of this.

Weekend Recap – Trusting God In The Impossible…

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My sermon from 5/6/12AM is online.  The sermon was entitled Faith Trusts God In The Impossible from Hebrews 11:11-12.  The sermon unpacked the second big foundational, formational event of Abraham’s life (last week’s being the call to move to a land God would show him and this week focused on the barrenness of Sarah and God’s promise of offspring).  God overcame an impossible situation (as we humans see it at least) to keep His promise to Abraham.  Both Abraham and Sarah believed God in the midst of this and, as Romans 4:19-22 points out, it was credited to them as righteousness.  The righteous truly live by faith.

I hope people who heard this message found their faith inspired to trust God in the midst of their impossible situations of life.  Let’s be characterized by having faith in God.

Weekend Recap – Collision Course on Inescapable Headship

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On Sunday PM, 4/22/12, our Men met to discuss issues of manhood.  We watched a video entitled Inescapable Headship.  Here it is:

Here’s a transcript:
Scott Anderson: Doug, you’ve written, in your book on Reforming Marriage, you’ve talked about the nature of headship and authority in the home and I think the phrase that you use is that there’s inescapable leadership in that if you understand the indicative nature of what’s being said about man being the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Talk a little bit about that and how does that relate, how does that transfer over to the realm of pastor in the church and so on.
Doug Wilson: Right, it’s interesting that Paul, for example, doesn’t tell husbands to be the head of their wives. They are the head of the wife. The husband is the head of the wife, he says. The command is to love your wives. Husbands can love their wives or not. When a man disobeys, he is unloving and when a man is obedient, he is loving. But a man can’t disobey in such a way as to not be the head. He’s inescapably the head. So if he abdicates or if he runs away, he runs off with another woman, the empty seat at the dinner table in that family is dominating that whole family it becomes that family’s story. His headship, his abdication, his infidelity are all examples of twisted or bent headship, but it’s headship. It’s really influential. It has a huge impact on his wife, kids and so forth. So he can’t opt out. He can’t shrink away and say, well, I’m going to be a nullity in this family, I’m going to be inconsequential. He can’t do that. He can say I will not love, I will not praise, I will not sacrifice. He can be disobedient. But he can’t be disobedient to the point of ceasing to be the man, ceasing to the husband, ceasing to be the father.
By way of Application, we looked at these Scriptures: 

1 Corinthians 11:3 –But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
Ephesians 5:23 –
For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Here’s some further questions to consider:
• What does it mean for the husband to be “head”?
• How do these texts understand our headship will be practiced?
• What is one area in which you can be more effective in headship?
• Pray about these things at your table.

Weekend Recap – Noah’s Faith

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My 4/22/12AM sermon from Hebrews 11:7 entitled Faith Obeys is online.  The sermon sought to draw some application from Noah’s faith.  Specifically, faith takes God’s Word seriously before an unbelieving world in light of the inheritance that is ours in Christ.  I hope you have a good week reveling in these and other truths from God’s Word.

Weekend Recap – Faith Pleases God

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We enjoyed another great Lord’s Day at Crestview yesterday.  My sermon, Faith Pleases God, from Hebrews 11:5-6, got at Enoch’s example of faith and how faith must draw near to God, who exists and rewards those who seek Him.  Another big takeaway is that it is impossible to please God without faith.  One who draws near to God must believe.  Faith is vital.  Or, to put it another way, faith is our pathway to pleasing God.

In the PM, my small group got together and discussed faith.  All in all, it was a great day.

Easter Weekend Recap – Jesus Christ Our Lord

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You can’t get away from Jesus at Easter.  Yesterday, at Crestview, my sermon was entitled Jesus Christ Our Lord from Romans 1:3-4.  In this sermon, I tried to give an overview of who Jesus is and how this relates to the special nature of Easter.  Specifically, we saw that Jesus is God’s Son, fully man and declared powerful in His resurrection.  Hope you had a great Easter Sunday.

Weekend Recap – Sheep

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Yes, we are all like sheep, at least that’s what Isaiah 53:6 says.  This means that we are weak, prone to go astray and Isaiah says we’ve actually done it — we’ve turned every one to his/her own way.  But, our great hope this week (and every day) is that on Christ was laid all of our iniquities.  My sermon from 4/1/12AM entitled Like Sheep from Isaiah 53:6 reveled in these truths.

In the evening, my small group finished Jerry Bridges’ book Respectable Sins.  To say this book affected us is an understatement.  God used this to not only reveal sin, but to deepen our dependence on the Gospel.  There are so many good elements and fruit that my group shared.  If any of you are interested, Bridges kept pointing to Thomas Chalmers’ Expulsive Power of A New Affection.  Click that link and digest that content to see what Chalmers (and Bridges) were driving at.

Have a great Holy Week this week.

Weekend Recap – Abel’s Faith

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Our weekend at Crestview was filled with excitement, as always. In the AM, we took the Lord’s Supper together and looked to Abel’s Faith from Hebrews 11:4.  Abel’s example helps us see how faith is tied to worship, our righteousness and our witness.

In the evening, we met in Small Groups.  My small group discussed the respectable sins of immorality and idolatry.

Hope you had a great day.

Weekend Recap – Pursuing Endurance

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We enjoyed a great Lord’s Day at Crestview yesterday.  My AM sermon from Hebrews 10:36-39 entitled Pursuing Endurance is now online.  The sermon sought to unpack the amazing call to endure found for these early believers.  Specifically, because of the promises of God and the urgency of Christ’s return, we should pursue God’s will for us: endurance.  I hope it was helpful to you.

We didn’t have any PM activities on the night of 3/4.

Hope you have a great week.

Weekend Recap – Fair Warning

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My sermon from 2/19/12AM was entitled Be Warned from Hebrews 10:26-31.  The sermon sought to unpack the warning we have in this heavy part of Scripture.  Simply put, God seeks to inspire our perseverance in the Gospel by warning us of the consequences that will be ours if we abandon the Gospel.  It was full of rich application and awesome insight.  I hope you’re helped by it, too.