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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)

Men…Don’t Forget…

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We have 7 in ’11 tomorrow, Saturday April 9th, at 7AM at the church.

We continue our series on the seven deadly sins and how they are fought with the Gospel by hearing Kevin Evenson teach about Lust. We will keep our basic format of brief breakfast and fellowship time, followed by teaching and prayer. Join us.

Just in Time for Spring…

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…The GirlTalkers recommend giving C.J.’s series on modesty a listen. It was recently re-aired on Family Life Today. Here are the three sessions:

Allegiance – Audio / Transcript
Appearance – Audio / Transcript
Attitude – Audio / Transcript

In the interview, C.J. references a Modesty Checklist, which can be found as a PDF document called Modesty Heart Check, written by C.J.’s wife and daughters.

2 New Great Albums…

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In recent days, 2 outstanding worship projects have been released:

God Of Victory is the new worship project from The Village Church, where Matt Chandler pastors. This has been an amazing project for me to pick up. I’ve probably listened to it about 15 times in the past week and specifically, have enjoyed the song “Only The Blood.” The chords charts, chords with capo and story behind the songs, as well as other things are available on the album page.

Another outstanding album I’ve enjoyed has been:

Risen by Sovereign Grace Ministries. I love the opening track, which just makes my heart beat and specifically praise rise as I think about what God has accomplished for me in His resurrection. They have an album page as well as chords available on Bob Kauflin’s site, Worship Matters.

Check out these projects as you grow to sing a new song to the Lord.

My Favorite Quote from @DailyKeller’s King’s Cross…

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Just finished Keller’s recent book, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, which was really an experience of worship in preparing for another Passion Week. I’m wondering if I ought to re-read this book every year around this time. Keller’s lets Mark’s Gospel communicate why Jesus came and who He was.

My favorite quote came on p.41, which was eye-opening in helping me see how easily people in the church can fall prey to the shackles of religion…

In religion the purpose of obeying the law is to assure you that you’re all right with God. As a result, when you come to the law, what you’re most concerned about is detail. You want to know exactly what you’ve got to do, because you have to push all the right buttons. You won’t gravitate toward seeking out the intent of the law; rather, you’ll tend to write into the law all sorts of details of observance so you can assure yourself that you’re obeying it. But in the life of Christians the law of God–though still binding on them–functions in a completely different way. It shows you the life of love you want to live before the God who has done so much for you. God’s law takes you out of yourself; it shows you how to serve God and others instead of being absorbed with yourself. You study and obey the law of God in order to discover the kind of life you should live in order to please and resemble the one who created and redeemed you, delivering you from the consequences of sin. And you don’t violate it or whittle it down to manageable portions by adding man-made details to it.

This is just one of many gems in this book. Enjoy.

Maybe You Should Order TableTalk…

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I really enjoy reading Tabletalk, the devotional magazine of Ligonier Ministries. As you can see from the picture to the left, this month’s magazine is on Christ in the Old Testament and features articles from Sproul, Piper, Mohler, and Elyse Fitzpatrick, among others (many of which can be read online). Tabletalk has a Bible reading plan, which I have used in the past. But, I really appreciate the day by day Bible lessons through books of the Bible each month. I think you would appreciate them as well.

Their website gives: Six Reasons to Subscribe to Tabletalk

1. A Bible Study For Each Day
Tabletalk’s daily Bible studies offer structure for your devotional life. Bringing the best in biblical scholarship together with down-to-earth writing, Tabletalk helps you understand the Bible and apply it to daily living.

2. Great Authors, Thought-Provoking Topics
Each issue contains challenging, stimulating articles on a wide variety of issues related to theology and Christian living, written by eminently trustworthy authors—names like Sinclair Ferguson, John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul.

3. True to Historic Christian Faith
Tabletalk avoids trends, shallow doctrine and popular movements to present biblical truth simply and clearly, in keeping with historical Christian faith and orthodoxy.

4. Friendly, Approachable and Convenient
Readers find Tabletalk approachable and inviting, with many saying it’s like having coffee each morning with their favorite teachers. Its compact size means it fits right in your Bible.

5. A Valuable Guide
Beyond the daily Bible studies, Tabletalk includes carefully selected daily readings to take you through the Bible in a year.

6. It’s Affordable
An annual subscription is just $23 ($37 international), more than 36% off the cover price and only $1.92 per month. And you can try it out for three months absolutely free.

Why not subscribe today?

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.

Great Questions for Targeting Our Children’s Hearts…

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from Paul Tripp’s Getting To the Heart of Parenting. We’ve been teaching a class of young adults this material. We worked through each of the 10 sessions, now, we are using the rest of the quarter to review the sessions 2 at a time. Last Sunday, we reviewed the sessions entitled “Targeting the Heart.” Here are questions Tripp recommended using to get the heart and motive of your children:

What was going on?
What were you thinking and feeling as it was happening?
What did you do in response?
Why did you do it? or What were you seeking to accomplish?
What was the result?

To encourage younger parents, Tripp said he first used these when his 4 yr. old took a toy from his 2 yr. old brother. This is applicable stuff and can give us a grid to work from in engaging our children’s hearts with the Gospel. Only Jesus can help these to do what is right and honorable to God!