Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

Maturity in ministry means recognizing some of the common pitfalls in evaluating what Christ is calling us to do. The Spirit that knits us together into the body of Christ knows what He is doing, and we can rest in Him. His way of remaking the world is the best way.

We have now come to the conclusion of the first cycle of Micah’s prophecy. Here we find a brief word of consolation, which, given what has come before, stands out in sharp relief.

This world is a vast orchard, filled with all variety of fruit bearing trees. But it’s an orchard whose tenants are an unruly and greedy lot. The trees are laden with abundant blessings. The inhabitants, however, continue to harvest the fruits well before they’re ripe.

The suffering of God’s people is not always correlated to their unfaithfulness toward Him. The afflictions we experience do not necessarily tell us that we are sinning in some way.

We have been indoctrinated by our culture in two great lies when it comes to creativity and the arts. The first lie is that there is no standard — beauty is purely in the eye of the beholder. The second lie is the flip side of the first one — you can create anything. But both lies deny God.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Preacher: Ben Zornes One of Scripture’s most poignant statements is: “fear hath torment (1 Jn. 4:18).” Fear is perhaps the most visceral sensation we humans experience. It chokes us with its force in the dark of midnight. It freezes us with its presence in the midst of hardships. It paralyzes us with its threats when surrounded by the might of wicked men.

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Text: Lk. 12:32 Our attitude toward the future reveals, as few others things do, our actual doctrine of God, our actual theology. It is perilously to have our catechism truths down pat, there on the paper, but then to have the slightest threat or disturbance or turmoil or ominous cloud unsettle everything for us. We can’t sleep, it wrecks our appetite, and so our worries c...

Preacher: Toby Sumpter Text: Isa. 65:17 The theme of creation and new creation is a significant one in Scripture, but sometimes we may forget where God has determined to begin that new work. The new birth is not merely a significant improvement of who we are. It is a new creation; it is heaven breaking into this world. And this is what makes the Christian Church tick. This is what makes Moscow tic...

Preacher: Ben Zornes True repentance can be described as grace restoring nature. We are fallen, but by grace God is restoring us–both male and female–to His created design. So whether it be the sins of men or the sins of women, grace is not only the washing of those sins away, but it is also the restoration of us as male and female to God’s purpose for us as male and female.

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Sermon: The Prophecy of Micah #1 The worst it gets the harder it is to see what’s going on. Our culture is standing on the lip of an abyss and we don’t know where we are.

Preacher: Toby Sumpter Text: 1 Thess. 4:9–12 Another one of the ways God is blessing our community immensely is through the explosion of businesses and industry. As this grows, the opportunity for business bumps will increase. Of course it’s often a great gift to be able to do business together as believers, but there is no guarantee that Christians will not sin, make mistakes, or botch projects....

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Text: Micah 1 Remember that the book of Micah can be loosely grouped as three sections that each follow the same three-part pattern—and that internal pattern is warning, judgment, and hope. The text this morning is the first part of the first group. This passage is therefore one of warning.

Preacher: Ben Zornes The gospel, however, is more than just an aid for you to cope better with life’s ebbs and flows. The gospel makes dead men live. Not only that, it takes those dead men and makes them more than conquerors in Christ.

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Sermon: The Prophecy of Micah #1 Loving your nation is not inconsistent with pointing out that your nation deserves the judgment of God.

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Sermon: Permit the Children It's the responsibility of our elders to guard the purity of the Word and the integrity of the sacraments.

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Text: Micah 6:8 Micah was a younger contemporary to the prophet Isaiah, and he ministered across the reigns of Jotham (c. 740 B.C.) and Hezekiah of Judah (who died in 687 B.C.). Other contemporaries would be Amos and Hosea, which accounts for the similar themes of those prophets—they were all confronting the same kinds of cultural problems. The two great issues were idolat...

Preacher: Aaron Ventura Text: Acts 19:21–41

Preacher: Shawn Paterson Do not shy away from exhorting one another, speaking the truth in love. And be receptive to the admonishment and encouragement of a brother or sister, as we all together walk this ancient path to that same Celestial City.

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Sermon: Permit the Children

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Sermon: Permit the Children Your children are most welcome, fidgets and all.

Preacher: Douglas Wilson Sermon: Permit the Children We want to have a place where evangelical fire burns hot. But we want all the coals to be burning, including the little ones.

Preacher: Ben Zornes Pride wears a thousand faces. But regardless of which face it wears, it is an affront to God. The birthmark of pride is defiance. Defiance of who God is and what God has said. Pride won’t acknowledge that God is Most High, nor will it heed what God tells us about ourselves.

Preacher: Toby Sumpter Text: Luke 8:19–21 We continue our series on Christian maturity and the pursuit of excellence, and we turn to what the Bible teaches about political maturity. In the midst of the mud-slinging of much political discourse, it can be easy to lose sight of basic Biblical principles, much less, long term goals. Apathy, perfectionism, and compromise are all enemies of political ma...

Preacher: Aaron Ventura Text: Acts 19:8–20