Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

The world is only a complicated place when we are drifting lazily into the confusion wrought by sin. Think about it for a moment. There are two kinds of people in the world—sons of God and sons of the devil. There are two destinations, and only two, toward which we are all traveling—the resurrection of life and the resurrection to death. There are only two ways of living—clean and dirty. There are only two gospels—one from man that will collapse under the weight of your sins, and one from God that will cause your sins to collapse beneath the weight of God’s grace.

As you know, it is our custom to present a “state of the church” message every year around this time. Sometimes the message addresses the state of the church generally, as in, across the nation. Other times, like today, the message concerns particular issues that pertain to our congregation.

How would you answer this? “Christmas is a season of…” Gifts, joy, eggnog, perhaps. I’d suggest that Christmas is a season of courage. Because Jesus Christ has entered into his world, Christians should have courage. This courage is not primarily to wade boldly into opening presents Christmas morning, rather courage directed toward the world and God’s work in the world. Here in this story, we have the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, rejoicing that the Christ has come. Because Christ has come, these women become courageous. What produces Christmas courage? These women know and believe God’s word about Christ’s incarnation. Both are humble. And in their belief and humility, these women become courageous because Jesus Christ has come.

1. Why does John give this warning to the elect lady?2. What is the content of this heresy?3. How do we fight the spirit of antichrist?

This Sunday begins the season of Advent. Advent is a season of waiting and anticipation for the arrival of Jesus at Christmas. Two traditions that have developed during Advent are writing wish lists and then waiting for those wishes. “What do you want for Christmas?” is often answered by writing a wishlist. But then follows the long wait for those hope for gifts. At Advent, we have an annual opportunity to want and wait. How do we do this? We need to learn how to want and to wait like Simeon. Simeon was a man waiting for the consolation of Israel and was led by the Spirit to Jesus Christ.

We come to the conclusion of Moses’s charge to Israel and to the last sermon in the series Faithfulness for the Next Generation. An appropriate question to ask is what does God want from his people? Faithfulness. Even with the majority of the book devoted to explaining the Ten Commandments, God does not want a nation a box-checkers. The Law reveals God’s desire for the hearts of his people. Faithfulness to God begins with loving God with your whole heart. That is what the law reveals about God. But the law also reveals man and his unfaithful heart.In his final sermon, Moses expounds the gospel truths that God is faithful even when his people are not. And God will do for his people what they can not do for themselves––circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their children. This is possible because the word, the Word, is very near to them and to you.

As we worship Jehovah for His infinite wisdom, right at the peak of our praises must be the recognition that His mercyto us is altogether holy. How He managed to do that is beyond all finite calculation. But fortunately, it is not beyond our ability to adore and praise.

Ecclesiastes tells us in a number of different ways that ending well matters. in fact the implication running through the book is that starting well is easy; ending well is much more of a challenge: “The end of a matter is better than its beginning; the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”1 Samuel 16 is a transition point in the history of Israel. Samuel's life and ministry is coming to an end and David's kingship and the Davidic kingdom is just beginning. 1 Samuel 16 is an ideal lens to look closely at the end of a matter (Samuel's life and ministry) and the beginning of a matter (David and his rule).

As we dig into this passage on the renewing of the covenant of the children of Israel with God, I want you to remind you that we don’t want to miss important parallels with our own experience. Why?  Because what we are doing his this morning is also a form of covenant renewal.  These folks are preparing for the invasion of Canaan, we are preparing for the expansion of the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When we sing the psalms back to God, one of the things we are learning how to do is how to address Him as He would like to be addressed. Instead of cooking up our idea of pious noises and a liturgical shuffling around, we can read the script, commune with the librettist, and follow the stage directions.