Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

<p>Preacher: Ben Zornes<br>Texts: Eph. 3:14–15, Gal. 4:26<br><br>The US Congress recently introduced the rules for their new legislative session. They struck gendered familial terminology (i.e. father, mother, son, daughter, etc.) from the House’s rules for legislators. The recent events of our nation reveal our void of fathers and mothers. This is just one more effort by the godless to further erode the biblical structure for families.</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br><br>The thing that drives our militance is joy. The joy of the Lord is literally our strength. The cash value of all of this is that we want to be a community known not merely for militance, but for a militant joy. We want our homes to be places of fellowship, our tables places of laughter, our community a place of forgiveness, our social media posts to be overflowing with good humor.</p>

<p>This excerpt is from Pastor Doug's sermon, 'State of the Church 2021.'<br><br>1. Worship<br>2. Honesty about sin<br>3. Marriage<br>4. Music<br>5. Hospitality/community<br>6. Christian Education<br>7. Debt-free<br>8. Joviality, cheerfulness, laughter<br>9. Family dinners/sabbath<br>10. Study/read<br>11. Work<br>12. Stories</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br>Text: John 12:20–33<br><br>It has sometimes been said that people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good, but that is actually a slander and a lie. In fact, C.S. Lewis said rightly, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.” Likewise, Lewis said, “Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you get neither.”</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br><br>So this is the exhortation: if you’re new here, you are most welcome. If you’d like to really dig in and be part of this crazy blessing, the most important thing you can do is confess your sins to God and anyone you’ve sinned against. And not just one time, but regularly, daily, weekly. Don’t let any bitterness or guilt build up. That will only get in the way. And if you’ve been here for a while, don’t put on airs. Check your hearts: Are they clean? Don’t get lazy. Remember where you came from.</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br>Text: 2 Cor. 10:3–5<br><br>We are living in a time of great uncertainty and turmoil, and in such times, men turn naturally to their gods. In the case of many Americans, jack-secularists, they have resorted to long-neglected temples, only to find that their gods have toppled over like Dagon. They are therefore governed by fear and anger, both right and left. We are not in their position, and so whatever we do, we must not copy or imitate them.</p>

<p>Preacher: Chase Fluhart<br>Text: 1 Pet. 2:4–10</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br>Text: Luke 18:1–8<br><br>The year behind us, 2020, has been quite a year, and it may have occurred to some of you that when 20 turns 21, it might start drinking, and then what shall we do? Of course, we shall pray about it, but there is a particular kind of prayer that we need to understand in times like these.</p>

<p>Preacher: Dr. Ben Merkle<br>Text: Psalm 2</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br>Text: Luke 1:26–35<br><br>One of the more obvious things about the Christmas story as Scripture records it would be prevalence of angels in it. The angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah to tell him about the birth of the forerunner of the Christ (Luke 1:11). Six months later Gabriel again appears to Mary, to tell her that she will give birth to the Son of the Highest (Luke 1:26-27). An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream in order to tell him that Mary had not been unfaithful to him (Matt. 1:20). The angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, and then the entire heavenly host appeared as well (Luke 2:9, 13). An angel in the form of a star summons the wise men to come to Jerusalem in the first place, and that same angel identifies the right house in Bethlehem for them (Matt. 2:2, 10). And Joseph was warned in a dream by an angel to flee down to Egypt, in order to escape from Herod’s wrath (Matt. 2:13). Angels all over the place. What is the significance of this for us?</p>

<p>Preacher: Ty Knight<br><br>God's peace does not come with the absence of trials, but rather God's peace emerges in the midst of trials. This is demonstrated clearly at Christmas.</p>

<p>Preacher: Dr. Ben Merkle<br>Text: Psalm 2</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br>Text: Luke 2:15–20<br><br>We sometimes glide over the stupefying doctrines that are entailed by the Christmas miracle. We are accustomed to the story, and so we simply nod our heads at the familiar words and phrases. But if we are listening, actually listening, the whole thing should bring us up short. “Wait, what?”</p>

<p>Preacher: Shawn Paterson</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson.<br><br>It is our usual custom to recite the Apostles Creed at this point in the service, but several times a year we break from that custom, and recite the Nicene Creed or the Definition of Chalcedon. During Advent season, it is Chalcedon, and so there are a few things for use to consider.</p>

<p>Preacher: Ben Zornes.<br>Text: Psalm 132<br><br>The season of Advent is often painted in the dark hues of solemnity. Advent is a season of waiting, hoping, longing. But this longing, as our fellow saints of the Old Testament demonstrate, need not have too much starch in the collar. The expectation of Israel was jovial, and thus gilded with glistening gold and silver, clothed in royal red and priestly white, vigorously dancing.</p>

<p>A genuine biblical faith is one that knows how to climb mountains, and how to not get lost in the valleys. In the flesh we know how to get used to what happens to us all the time. But it takes a true spirit of Christian character to deal with the fluctuations.</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br><br>This union of God and man in Jesus underlines what we are celebrating in Advent. The chasm between Creator and creature is an infinite chasm. Man cannot cross it. Nothing in all of creation can leap from some finite point and arrive at infinite. Infinite, by definition, doesn’t ever really arrive. And this is why if there is to be a bridge between God and man, it must come from the other side. The finite cannot reach the infinite, but the infinite can reach the finite. And this is what God has done in Jesus Christ</p>

<p>Preacher: Aaron Ventura</p>

<p>Preacher: Ben Zornes.<br>Text: Psalm 40<br><br>This Psalm has three layers to it. The first is the one on the surface. David recounts a deliverance from one of his many trials, and his response of praise. The second layer is that David’s sufferings reflect the common plight of Israel as whole. Her history of exiles and returns, persecutions and deliverances, separation from and the reunion with Jehovah lie just beneath the surface of David’s story. But as we go deeper we see that David’s story, which is Israel’s story, is really the Messiah’s story.</p>

<p>Over time, holidays take on a certain patina. Long usage and custom make this necessary, but it remains our responsibility to not allow such later accretions to overthrow or to reverse the actual import or meaning of the festival. In the case of Christmas, we have, quite obviously, the scriptural story of the birth of the Messiah, but we also have—do we not?—silver bells, softly falling snow, Hallmark movies, caramel popcorn, miracles on 34th street, fireplaces aglow, and various sorts of festive jello dishes. What are we to do with all of that? Well, enjoy them... but don’t let them become your teachers.</p>

<p>Preacher: Ben Zornes.<br><br>Discontentment makes the turkey dry, the gravy bland, and the pies dull. Worse yet, it makes the fellowship frigid, the conversation barbed, and the relationships strained. Contentment, on the other hand, can make a meager meal a feast, it can make enemies into friends, it can turn hardships into joys. It does this because it is rooted in the fact that God is on the throne.</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br><br>The world of men, with their wars, and their politics, and their elections, and their controversies, is a turbulent sea. The disciples of the Lord were once in the boat with Him under challenging conditions, but it took them a while to learn what kind of authority the Lord Jesus actually has in the affairs of men. Even from within a vulnerable boat, He speaks to the wind and the waves, and they obey Him. If He can speak this way to the waters, how much more can he speak to the nations, who are, like Reuben, as unstable as water (Gen. 49:4)?</p>

<p>Preacher: Aaron Ventura.<br>Text: Deuteronomy 21:1–9</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson.<br><br>This psalm contains a marked contrast between the eyes of faith, which look to the Lord, the God of heaven, and the blind eyes of insolent unbelief, which see nothing as they ought to. Unbelief and pride are the chains that anchor the soul to this earth, such that the entire globe becomes the great ball in their ball and chain. From this benighted position, they heap abuse on the faithful, who feel it acutely.</p>

<p>Preacher: Ben Zornes<br><br>The solution to all our various authority anarchy is to first acknowledge Christ’s authority over all things.</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br><br>God sent His own Son into the world in the fullness of time, and that means the time was exactly right for the mission. Everything had been leading up to that moment, according to God’s perfect plan. Not one thing was out of place. Every blessing, every calamity, every gift, every heartbreak, every detail made that moment pregnant for God to redeem the world.<br><br>But that perfect timing was not a one-off event. We serve the God who rules every time and every season...</p>

<p>Preacher: Matt Meyer<br><br>We need to remember that we are debtors that have been, and daily are, forgiven much.</p>

<p>The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at <a href="https://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.graceagenda.com/donate</a> to help cover conference costs.</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br><br>This psalm is not exactly a pilgrimage psalm, but is more like a psalm that anticipates great rejoicing upon arriving at the destination of the pilgrimage. “Our feet shall stand within thy gates . . .” (v. 2). Whether or not the pilgrimage has already occurred, the focus of the psalm is on arrival.</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br><br>The Reformation was all about the kindness of God. In the midst of massive human failure, the good news of Jesus is that God has made a plan to have mercy on the world and save the human race. The law of God shuts every mouth in guilt and shame, but the kindness of God makes every mouth gape open with astonishment.</p>

<p>The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at <a href="https://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.graceagenda.com/donate</a> to help cover conference costs.</p>

<p>Christ’s supremacy over this world which He purchased should inform us as we head to the polls, as we brace for whatever the god-haters do whether in victory or defeat, and as we go about our daily work. We know that our Lord Jesus holds the scepter of the universe. Which is why we will continue to proclaim through our worship each Lord’s Day and throughout our weekly duties: Christ is King. Christ is King. Christ is King.</p>

<p>The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at <a href="https://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://</a><a href="http://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">www.graceagenda.com/donate</a> to help cover conference costs.</p><p><br></p><p>Doug Gary Gordon ND Toby</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br><br>This psalm is a brief word of great encouragement. God’s providential care is true help, and it is a help that is promised to everyone who has the faith to receive it. And who has the faith to receive it? Anyone who lifts up his eyes to the hills, looking for God to undertake on his behalf.<br><br>Every time God is named in this psalm, He is called by His personal name YHWH, or Jehovah—the covenant name of Israel’s covenant God.</p>

<p>Speaker: Douglas Wilson</p>

<p>A little over a week from now, we will be selecting our next president. In preparation for this, because Christ is Lord of everything we do, we need to consider the adverbs that will need to accompany our application of the infinitive of that verb to vote.<br><br>This year such caution is more far necessary than it usually is. I am not old yet, but I think I can see old from here. And over all these decades of active political interest, I do not recall any political season that even remotely resembles this one. These are indeed tumultuous times, but God never abandons His people during such times. He shakes what can be shaken (and which needed to be shaken) so that what cannot be shaken might remain. And we are in fact receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:27-29). And that is why we should consider these times to be the times of our tumultuous mercies.</p>

<p>Speaker: Dr. Ben Merkle<br><br>The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at <a href="https://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.graceagenda.com/donate</a> to help cover conference costs.</p>

<p>Preacher: Ben Zornes<br><br>Apostasy doesn't happen overnight.</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br><br>Jesus said that the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is the servant of all.</p>

<p>Speaker: Nancy Wilson<br><br>The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at <a href="https://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.graceagenda.com/donate</a> to help cover conference costs.</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br><br>God does it this way because it is a good way to prevent us from trusting in ourselves—that perennial temptation. God does it this way so that He might display His resurrection authority to every generation. And it appears that the time is coming for our generation to see it.</p>

<p>Speaker: Gary DeMar<br><br>The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at <a href="https://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.graceagenda.com/donate</a> to help cover conference costs.</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br>Text: Isaiah 58:13–14<br><br>In the beginning God created everything as sheer gift, and He made the man and the woman at the tail end of that project and gave them work to do. But the first full day that Adam and Eve enjoyed together was the seventh day, the day God rested from all of His labors (Gen. 2:1-3). While Adam and Eve had no sins to be justified for on that first Sabbath day, it still functions as a type of what God is like, what His grace is like, and where Christian work always comes from.</p>

<p>"The temptations you face may morph and change as you grow and mature, but the need for restraint on your sinful desires will not and cannot be outgrown." – Ben Zornes</p>

<p>The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at <a href="https://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.graceagenda.com/donate</a> to help cover conference costs.</p>

<p>The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at <a href="https://www.graceagenda.com/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.graceagenda.com/donate</a> to help cover conference costs.</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br><br>Guilt is what makes us afraid, and fear of God’s judgment keeps us locked in a cage. But Jesus was crucified to take all of our guilt. He was crucified to break us out of that prison. Therefore, God is for us. And we cannot be afraid anymore.</p>

<p>Preacher: Douglas Wilson<br>Text: Eph. 6:19–20<br><br>One of our generation’s hackneyed cliches is the one about “speaking truth to power.” The problem with it is that we almost always get everything backwards, and use the phrase to describe anyone who says something that you agree with. But despite our misapplication of it, there really is an important truth there, and it is one we need to learn. What is boldness when it counts?</p>

<p>Preacher: Toby Sumpter<br>Text: Job 28:12–29:2<br><br>It has become increasingly common to hear Christians refer to “wisdom” as though it were some esoteric, mystical quality, as though it were subjective, relative, or simply some kind of Zen power. But while the wisdom of God does confound the wisdom of men, it is not irrational or incoherent. Wisdom is the art of obedient building. In the beginning God built the world out of nothing with wisdom (Prov. 8:22ff). Wisdom builds her house (Prov. 9:1), and by wisdom a house is built (Prov. 24:3). The queen of Sheba was amazed by Solomon’s wisdom and the house he had built (1 Kgs. 10:4, 2 Chron. 9:3). The wise man hears the words of Jesus and obeys and so builds his house on the rock (Mt. 7:24, Lk. 6:48).</p>