Christ Church

Christ Church Downtown Exhortation

Ben Zornes on

The holidays are rife with a temptation to let down your guard. Drinking to drunkenness. Lowering entertainment standards. Snapping in irritation at family members. Wandering down an internet rabbit hole of folly, envy, or lust. Being slothful and calling it rest.

As Christians, our celebrations are to be glorious. But the glory of our celebrations doesn’t come from reckless self-indulgence. Rather, the glory only comes from being a forgiven people. And, forgiven people ought to be marked as loving people. The equation which Christ gave us is that those who are forgiven much love much. But love isn’t the mushy slop of subjective feelings. The definition for love is found in the deep ocean of God’s attributes. 

The love of God which we are to imitate cannot be divorced from the holiness of God which we receive through Christ by the Spirit who dwells in us. Being forgiven is like getting rid the furniture of sin (the musty couch of envy, the chair of arrogance with a missing leg, the creaky bed-frame of lust, and so on). But a barren house, void of the comfort of lovely furniture and the beauty of attractive decor is not a pleasant place for celebration. Pursuing holiness is how the Spirit works in us to bring into our lives the pleasant furnishings of God’s love.

Holiness is loving what God loves and hating what God hates. This maxim holds true at all times, including our celebrations and holidays. The glory of our jollification comes from being forgiven and being holy by the Spirit’s power in us.

So be vigilant during your celebrations. Don’t put down the sword. Don’t fold your hands in sloth when it comes to vigilantly watching for sin. Don’t leave a chink in your armor. For godly celebration is a lethal weapon in overthrowing the darkness of our age.

Our times of leisure are a blessing from God’s hand, a gift of His grace, and a foretaste of the everlasting peace purchased for us through Christ’s blood. As such, we must not neglect to put on Christ in our times of celebration. We must not forsake our duties of righteousness which God has commanded for us. And we certainly must not toy with our temptations instead of slitting their throats. May God give you vigilance in your merry-making, that you may be a clear and vivid testimony of the glory of His forgiveness and the potency of His holiness in us.

Finally, true rejoicing and celebration only from flows from the knowledge that God is merciful to sinners. This mercy was made manifest in the cross of our Lord Jesus, through whom the world was crucified to you and you to the world. So let all your rejoicing this month be grounded upon this everlasting glory, that your sins, which are scarlet, He has washed whiter than snow.

Ben Zornes – November 26, 2023

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Christ Church Exhortation – The Dirty Trough

Jared Longshore on

One of the reasons we don’t do greater things for the Lord is because we are too afraid of dirt. You can’t get much of anything done in the world without making a mess. Anyone who has cooked a meal knows this. Anyone who has played a football game knows it, too. There will be pots to clean and counters to wipe in the first instance. In the second, there will be shoulders to pop back into sockets. This is simply how the world works. Proverbs 14:4 says, “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: But much increase is by the strength of the ox.”

We are to produce fruit. So don’t be disabled by the mud, the grime, or the trouble that comes while you’re farming. Sure, I can tell you how you can do less laundry. Don’t let your kids do anything. No sweating, no running, no eating of any kind; we can’t afford stains. But abundant crops come by the strength of those little oxen. 

There are bumps to doing business: The deal gone bad, the troubled relationship, the stripped-out screw that you’re now going to have to rip out of the drywall, these are all production costs. See them for what they are and laugh at them. The man who can only see the dirty oxen trough is worse than near-sighted; he is blind. He’s doomed to servile fear and despair. But God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound mind.

One of the dirtiest jobs you’ll ever face up to is straightforward, unqualified confession of sin. Why in the world would you go looking for your own muck and then, when you find it, hold it up to the Lord with an apology? You do it because you see beyond this particular ox trough. Get it clean so you can stand up on the other side and produce greater fruit for the Lord.

Jared Longshore – November 26, 2023

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Grace & Peace: Proverbs 16:32

Douglas Wilson on

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city”

Proverbs 16:32

The Scriptures do not teach that anger is necessarily a sin. But for us, steeped in sin, anger that operates on a hair trigger, anger that is sharp and sudden, anger that erupts in a flash, is almost certainly sin. 

Paul says in Ephesians that we are to “be angry, and sin not” (Eph. 4:26). He says this, quoting from the Psalms (Ps. 4:4). 

One of the ways we avoid sinning in our anger is by making a point to walk toward the occasions of anger slowly. A godly man is not one who is never angry. He is one who is slow to anger. We are told this by the Lord’s own brother. “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19). He says “slow to wrath.” He immediately adds that the wrath of man does not bring about the righteousness of God (Jas. 1:20). What this means is that the wrath of man is sudden and impulsive. 

An angry man stirs up trouble and strife, but a man slow to anger appeases strife (Prov. 15:18). 

When we set ourselves to learn what it means to be slow to anger, we are imitating God Himself. God is slow to anger, and plentiful in mercy (Ps. 103:8).

God is slow to anger, and is gracious, full of compassion (Ps. 145:8). 

God is slow to anger, ready to pardon (Neh. 9:17).

As we set ourselves to the task of learning this, our proverb teaches us that a man who can govern his own temper is greater than a mighty warrior. A man who can accomplish this feat of self-conquest is greater than a man who conquers a city. It is the true test.

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CCT Exhortation

Zach Browning on

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19-20 

Jesus continues expounding the meaning and application of the law here in this passage which is in the beginning of the sermon on the mount. He is driving home the point that there are no harmless sins. There is no such thing as a little sin that doesn’t matter. The law not only applies to your actions but applies to your thoughts. A little whining, a little discontent, a lustful thought may seem harmless in the moment, but it has eternal consequence. And the way you act and the way you think both will come across to those who are around you. You are teaching all the time, especially to your family. 

But likewise here, Jesus promises real blessing and real reward for those who follow God’s commands all the way down into the minor details. All the way down into your toes. 

This goes against what I would call country music Gospel or down-home nominal Christianity. The kind who believes in the good Lord up above, but doesn’t make it into church, that hasn’t been praying like he knows he should. That doesn’t know or work to know much past John 3:16

That is not Christianity. That is a false religion. For true religion, true conversion and true faith has real fruit. The tree is known by its fruit. Real Faith is obedient Faith, real faith is working faith.

But the instruction is not left off here. Yes, obeying God matters in the smallest command, to the very smallest detail. And yet Christianity is not legalism. Why? Well, because you following the rules cannot save you. You can’t be that Holy. The Pharisees strained the gnat, but we would need to strain the amoeba. But that still wouldn’t get us there. The only righteousness that saves is perfect righteousness. Which is only found in Christ. 

And that righteousness has been placed upon us in our justification. This gift we have already received by grace. Our duty is to act like it.

Zach Browning – November 19, 2023

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Reasonable Sacrifice – CCD Exhortation

Ben Zornes on

Sacrifice is reasonable (Rom. 12:1). But the mindset of most people is that self-preservation is more reasonable. We think that sparing ourselves difficulty & discomfort is sensible. We’ve built a framework that incentivizes selfishness. From the smorgasbord of the entertainment industry, to the twisting of the medical field to drug and carve and indulge the patient’s imagined vision for themselves, we are a culture consumed with self. But this is unreasonable; like trying to grow a crop of corn by planting popcorn.

Both Moses’ Law and throughout the Psalms we see that thanksgiving is expressed through sacrifice. The sacrificial system was the way in which Israelites demonstrated their gratitude for God’s covenant mercies. The Psalms further revealed the ethical reality that thankfulness is demonstrated by sacrifice (Ps. 116:17). 

If we put this together with Paul’s instruction to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice we can see the necessity of the material discomfort of obedience. Thankfulness ought not to be merely in an inwardly felt affection; but rather it is to be manifested in the actions of obedient sacrifice. Preparing a feast, raising children, supporting a ministry financially, caring for aging parents, protecting your nation from invasion, and feeding the impoverished all require your material expense and physical exertion.

If you insist on self-preservation you are insisting on self-ruination. That’s just how God made the world. He made it such that sacrifice reaps glory. Scattering seeds in the soil looks momentarily like wastefulness; but in the harvest those seeds have multiplied. So, in the end, selfishness, in all its forms, is the truly unreasonable ethic. The Lord’s wisdom turns our sensibilities upside down. True reasonableness is to sacrifice yourself. As you celebrate Thanksgiving this week, decide beforehand to not begrudge the physical, financial, and relational sacrifices you must make. Those sacrifices will soon become glories. 

Ben Zornes – November 19, 2023

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