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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!

Listening To Sermons Better…

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…can be done in better and useful ways by taking some of these tips from this recent post from The Blazing Center: How To Listen To A Sermon. Among other things, they encourage us to:

Remember Who Is Speaking
Listen Intently
Listen With Humility
Listen With Application in View

I commend the entire post. Think: What is one thing you could do to improve your intake of the Word through sermons you listen to? Well, jump over and get the creative juices flowing.

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.

Loving My Wife…

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In light of Pastor Mark’s recent post Loving the Pastor’s Wife and my sermon last night on marriage being something God has done to point to the Gospel, I thought I should say something about what a blessing my wife is. I’ve been enormously encouraged by her in recent days through some internal struggles I was facing. She is definitely a “helper fit for me.” What I appreciate about her is her willingness to fly behind the scenes and devote herself to me and our family. Her life is given to serve in the church in ways, but her priority is to the Lord and, as such, the ministry we have been knit together to enjoy.

Even today, I got continual encouragements from her on a pretty consistent basis. So, thank God for the gift that He has given me and pray that Meg will love the Savior first and in so doing continue to be a gift to me (and Crestview).

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.

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.