Trinity Church of Portland Sermons

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  The Public Reading of Scripture: God Addresses His People 19.07.2026

  { "description": "In this sermon, Pastor Jared Pulliam explores the vital role of Scripture in the public worship life of the church, focusing on 1 Timothy 4:14. Drawing from the Apostle Paul's instructions to Timothy, Jared emphasizes the pastoral priority of the public reading, exhortation, and teaching of God's Word as central to Sunday gatherings. He highlights how this practice, rooted in Jewish synagogue tradition and early Christian worship, remains essential for grounding believers in the truth of the gospel amid a world saturated with competing voices and ideologies.\n\nPastor Jared reflects on the unique significance of Sunday worship as a corporate expression of praise and spiritual formation, where the Word of God is proclaimed to reorient hearts and minds toward Jesus Christ. He underscores the necessity of regular, faithful engagement with Scripture to combat forgetfulness and spiritual drift, encouraging the congregation to embrace the public reading and teaching of the Bible as a means of grace that refreshes, convicts, and transforms. The sermon invites listeners to recognize the power of God's Word to sustain faith, foster godliness, and prepare believers to live faithfully in a challenging cultural context.", "transcript": "Good morning, Trinity Church. My name is Samuel. I'm a member of Trinity, and I also serve as one of the pastors to the members that make up Trinity Church. This morning, I'm here to introduce to you someone who some of you may know. Many of you may not know Jared, but we have Jared Pulliam with us this morning, and Jared Pulliam has a long history with Trinity. In 2013, Jared was serving as an elder to the members of Trinity Church, and at that time, out of Trinity Church, he was the founding pastor of Christ Church Selwood. Jared has served faithfully as a staff pastor at Christ Church Selwood since then, and he is here this morning to faithfully bring God's Word to us. So, Jared, thank you for your many years of faithful ministry in Portland, and thank you for bringing God's Word to us this morning. Let me pray for you and for us, and then please do that very thing.\n\nFather God, we come before you, Lord, and we praise you for the fact that you are not a distant or far-off God. You have revealed yourself to us. You have made yourself known to us through your Son, Jesus Christ, and through your Word that you have given to us, Lord. We pray for Jared this morning as he brings us your Word. Would you empower him through your Spirit? May he speak that which is of you, Lord. May you use your Word to penetrate, to convict, to transform our lives, to be more like Christ for your glory. In your Son's name we pray, amen.\n\nThank you, Jared.\n\nWell, good morning, everybody. It's good to be with you today. Last time I was at Trinity, I didn't need reading glasses. This time I do, so time marches on. But we're going to begin this morning, we're going to focus our attention for our study today on 1 Timothy 4:13, but I think what I'll do just to start with is I'll read all of chapter 4, and then we'll have a prayer, and then we'll study that together. So let's hear God's Word from 1 Timothy chapter 4.\n\n\"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from food that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the Word of God and prayer. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with the irreverent silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. While I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching, persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.\"\n\nThis is the word of the Lord.\n\nThanks be to God.\n\nLet's go before God just for a brief prayer and then we'll study together.\n\nOur Father in heaven, as we come unto your word this morning, we trust that by the ministry of your Holy Spirit, your truth permeates our hearts. We need that this morning, Lord. We need to hear you, we need to hear you speak to us, we need to hear your word point us in a direction that exalts the Lord Jesus. And so as we come unto your truth today, we pray that by the ministry of the Spirit, you would do that work in us. We depend upon you for that, in Jesus' name, amen.\n\nWell, this morning, our purpose is to continue in the series that you've begun here at Trinity, which I've been told by Samuel is one of thinking about various aspects of Christian worship, particularly focusing on aspects of what worship means for our gathering on the Lord's Day. So focusing on Sunday morning public worship.\n\nNow in thinking about this, we know, as I'm sure has been mentioned already, that as those who are following Jesus, the totality of our lives is marked out by worship. In fact, even in this section we just read from 1 Timothy, we have hints of this where Paul says things like, \"everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it's received with thanksgiving.\" So even in what Paul's saying there, thanksgiving, that's a worship word. Everything received with thanksgiving. Our whole life as Christian believers is worship. Our whole life is lived in a posture of grateful acknowledging of the glorious godness of God. Our whole life as Christian believers is lived in a posture of worship.\n\nIn fact, about a week ago, I was with a group of friends and we took a few day motorcycle trip down Highway 101 into the beginning of the Redwoods. And as you're going down 101, especially in that Southern Oregon portion, you're coming over these hills and going around these amazing corners and the Pacific Ocean is opened up there before you. And it's just amazing enough to leave you singing the doxology in your motorcycle helmet a couple different times, which would have been fine, except in one particular instance I've left my intercom on. And so the other guy in the group, after hearing me, didn't have the same reasons to be thankful that I had to be thankful.\n\nBut as you view the enormity of the landscape out there and then the enormous trees that you get into in the Northern California geography, it's just a cause for praise. And we realize that the totality of our life is lived in honor of this God who made everything and who saved us.\n\nBut that whole Highway 101 experience, while it was doxological and while the totality of our life is lived in worship and that's something we embrace as part of our Christian experience, we also recognize that there is something uniquely special about Sunday morning worship. So while the totality of our lives is lived in worship, how I engage in my marriage is a matter of worship, how I engage in my parenting is a matter of worship, how I engage in my work and my professional life, even in my suffering, how I engage in hardship. All these things function out of a posture of worship before the Lord who's great and greatly to be praised.\n\nThere is something special about Sunday morning worship as we gather together with the people of Christ to sing His praises, as we gather together with the people of Christ to hear His Word read and preached, as we gather together with the people of Christ to witness baptisms as people are professing their faith in the Lord Jesus's cleansing power, as we gather on Sunday morning to remember Jesus's sacrifice in the Lord's Supper like we'll do later on.\n\nThere is something special and unique in the way we come together on the Lord's Day, as the Apostle John calls it, the day Jesus rose from the dead. There's something special and unique about the Lord's Day as we gather to climactically express the fact that this is the Lord we serve and worship.\n\nAnd that something special is actually there for us in so many different ways in the Scriptures, but there's a fairly obscure lyric in a psalm that speaks to this. It's in Psalm 87 where the psalmist says, \"The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.\" And that strikes us as kind of a strange thing to say. \"The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.\" That strikes us as strange until we think more about the context of that line and realize that what the psalmist is highlighting there is that while all the dwelling places of Jacob, while all the places that the people of Israel live and as they're spread out throughout the land, while they're all there as a product of God's providential care and love and promise-keeping power, still there's something about those gates of Jerusalem, the gates of the holy city of God, that expresses something unique about the Lord's affection in that that holy city, those gates, are the gates through which people will enter as they come to those worship festivals that were part of Israel's corporate worship life together.\n\n\"The Lord loves those gates more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.\" The psalmist is saying, in effect, the Lord loves in a special kind of way His people gathering for His praise, coming through those gates to praise Him. Something of course that points to the glorious gathering on our final day when the people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will gather around the throne and praise the Lamb who is our Redeemer.\n\nSo while all of life is worship, the Lord particularly loves His people's expression of worship as we're gathered together for that purpose. So that's something we do now on Sunday mornings.\n\nAnd so it's this unique expression of Sunday morning worship, as I understand it, that is your current focus of study. And so this morning we're going to continue along these lines, focusing our attention on 1 Timothy 4:13, where the Apostle Paul is directing his pastoral understudy, Timothy. He's directing him, saying, \"Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.\"\n\nNow we know from the book of Acts and from other New Testament letters that Paul was unceasingly and very faithfully engaged in his apostolic ministry, bringing the good news of Christ to the world. And with that, we also know that Paul was not engaged in that ministry alone. He had gospel partners to help him. He had lots of gospel partners to help him. And Timothy was one of those gospel partners who was alongside Paul in a number of his missionary endeavors.\n\nAnd along with that, Timothy was also given particular assignments by Paul, one of them being the temporary post of pastoral ministry in the town of Ephesus. So we read back in 1 Timothy 1, where this letter starts, that Paul says this to Timothy. He says, \"As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus.\"\n\nSo as we drop into Paul and Timothy's ministry lives in the letter of 1 Timothy, we have Paul on a missionary excursion, and we have Timothy left in Ephesus to help build up the church there. And as Paul makes it clear in this letter that the ministry that Timothy is left to work out, that ministry has some particular facets.\n\nSo on the one hand, in the church at this time, there's a primary concern around dealing with some false teaching that's troubling the church. So part of the reason Timothy's there is Timothy's going to need to deal with that. He's going to need to help sort that out. And then there's instruction from Paul around appointing qualified elders and deacons in the church. So that's part of what Timothy's there to do. That's part of the work he has before him.\n\nBut right at the center of all this, and in a way, in a kind of summation of all this, is Paul's concern that he expresses in chapter 3, where he says that he wants Timothy to remain in Ephesus so that Timothy would promote proper gospel behavior in the household of God. Proper gospel behavior in the household of God. That's 1 Timothy 3.\n\nSo Timothy's work is centered on, here's how it looks for us to live as faithful gospel people in the household of faith, in the community of the church, in a way that properly glorifies Christ. That's Timothy's job. That's what he's there to promote.\n\nAnd while that reality of living as God's people touches on all of life, again, everything from how we think about marriage to how we think about meals we eat, like chapter 4 speaks about both of those things, the reality of who Jesus is affects everything.\n\nWith that being true, one thing it affects in a primary way is how we navigate public worship. What does it look like for us as the people of God to gather in our local fellowship and respond properly, responding in a way that the Lord approves through Christ? How do we respond to the God of our salvation? Which is a huge question, and it's no surprise that Paul has a great deal to say about this all throughout his letter to Timothy, not least of all as we think about what he has to say here in our verse for this morning.\n\n\"Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.\"\n\nSo here in our verse, Paul gives Timothy specific instructions about the place of Scripture in the public worship life of the church. And so that's what we're going to think through in some detail this morning, the place of Scripture in our public worship. What does it look like for the Bible to be properly present in our corporate gatherings on the Lord's Day?\n\nAnd while there's certainly more to say about this than time will allow this morning, we can be helped to think about this aspect of our worship from this verse.\n\nNow before we get into the deeper specifics of what's here, it does seem like it would be helpful just to provide a little background to Paul's directive that he gives here in verse 13. So we're reading from our English Bibles this morning, but in the original Greek text of this passage, it reads in an even more succinct way, really, but that does require some clarification for us.\n\nSo if you're following along, which I hope you are, you have your Bibles open, if you look at verse 13, I'm going to give you just a little bit more of a literal translation where Paul says, \"Until I come, devote yourself,\" and then he just says, \"to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.\"\n\nDevote yourself to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.\n\nNow you notice how our English Bibles are helping get the sense of what the text means by adding \"to the public reading of Scripture.\" The original text doesn't have that, it just says \"to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.\"\n\nNow our English translations add some words in to, quite helpfully, bring some clarity to what that statement does mean. Those are helpful translation additions there.\n\nBecause if we just read that phrase with our contemporary culture reading glasses on, if we just have \"devote yourself to reading,\" we would immediately ask, devote ourselves to the reading of what? What are you talking about, Paul? The reading of a certain book, the reading of a specific passage every Sunday morning, what is this exact reading that you speak of? That would be a natural question for us.\n\nBut that wouldn't have been a question for Paul's original audience, not least of all Timothy, that wouldn't have been a question for Timothy at all, simply because the threefold expression that's there would be very familiar to them.\n\nWhen Paul speaks to reading, and to exhortation, and to teaching, he has something specific and quite recognizable in mind. And that specific and recognizable element that would be very present in the minds of his first readers has to do with what would traditionally be reflected in a synagogue worship service, and then that which was adopted into Christian worship services.\n\nYou can read about it in Luke chapter 4, where Jesus is in the synagogue, there's examples of this in Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 15. When there would be a gathering for synagogue worship, and then as Christianity grew and modeled its worship service in the historic practice of God's people, when there was a service, a part of that service would include the reading, so a reading from the Scriptures, it would include the exhortation, so a call to respond to that reading, and then it would include a teaching, which would clarify what we need to believe based on what Scripture was read.\n\nAnd we'll talk about each of those parts in a moment, but in that sense, what you have here is Paul promoting one formal aspect of the corporate worship service. This isn't all there is to a corporate worship service. We know he speaks about praying and a number of other things in different places, but he's speaking to one formal aspect of the worship service, and it's an aspect that's grounded in the historical practice of the people of God, and it's something then that's continuing on in the life of the New Testament church.\n\nPart of what a worship service is going to prioritize is reading, exhortation, and teaching from the Bible.\n\nSo in that sense, this three-fold Scripture focus is something that Timothy wouldn't just recognize, but it's actually something that Timothy would already be promoting. Paul's just encouraging him to continue to do this. Timothy would know exactly what Paul meant, \"devote yourself to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.\"\n\nTimothy would be all about this business, and in fact, this practice carries on down through history. So just as an example from the early church apologist, Justin Martyr, he comments on church practices in his day, which might have been maybe 60 years after Timothy. He makes this comment. He says, \"On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read. Then when the reader has ceased, the leader verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.\"\n\nSo that's first century Christianity. Timothy's day, that's what was happening. In about 100 AD or so, this is what's happening, and it continues in our own day, doesn't it? We have our scripture reading and our call to respond to that scripture and the teaching that helps us learn the truth, that it's part and parcel of that scripture that's been read. That's what we're doing right now. We're doing that right now.\n\nAnd so it helps us just to have that background behind what Paul says here, but it does beg the question, why bother mentioning it? Why bring it up? Why mention it to Timothy if he would be more than familiar and comfortable with this practice? And how about for us? Why bring this up for us?\n\nClearly, you at Trinity Church are committed to the reading of scripture, the exhortation, and the teaching of scripture. We're committed to this at Christ Church Selwa. This is what we do as gospel people under the word of God. This is a main and basic Christian practice for the people of God, which extends back to the tune of thousands of years. You can read back in Nehemiah 8 and see ancient Israel gathering, and what are they gathering for? Well, they're gathering for the reading, and the exhortation, and the instruction from the law.\n\nSo why, Paul, take the time to mention this to Timothy? Not only mention it, but exhort to this devotion toward this task. Why take the time with it for Timothy? Why take the time with it for us this morning?\n\nWell, I'll give you one reason, one reason. As humans, we are prone to have leaky minds and hearts. We're prone to leak.\n\nIn my role at Christ Church, one of the things that I regularly engage in is premarital counseling, which can basically be summed up by saying you think you're compatible, but you're not, and Jesus is sufficient for these things. So we engage in premarital counseling, and I do this with my wife, Julia. She comes along with me, and every time Julia and I are done with the sessions with a couple, and we've done this countless times, it seems like, at this point, but every time we're done, maybe with a session or even a whole course of study, we always comment to ourselves, \"I think we needed this more than they did. I think we needed to go through this more than they did.\"\n\nJulia and I will have been married 26 years next week, but a few months ago, we just finished going through premarital again with another couple in our church, and again, we realized just how much we needed that refresher. Not because our marriage was going south or anything like that, but because our minds and hearts leak. We forget about the significance of what it means to be husband and wife to each other. Right? Maybe because we have leaky minds and hearts as humans.\n\nIn fact, this is something that the Apostle Peter recognizes when he writes his second letter. And he speaks to the churches as he writes to them. And he says, \"I write to stir you up by way of, do you know the text? By way of reminder.\"\n\nBy way of reminder. It's not that you don't know the Gospel. It's just that you need to remember the significance of these things. They need to be brought to mind again and again. And he's reteaching them old main elements of Gospel truth.\n\nSo C.S. Lewis, he makes that comment where he says we need to be reminded more often than we need to be instructed. Because we're leaky.\n\nAnd part of what refreshes us in truth that might be taken for granted or even forgotten is to come again and again to truth already known.\n\nSo there's good reason for thinking about what Paul will say here today. There was good reason for Timothy. And there's good reason for us to think about this. Because we don't want how corporate worship is done properly to the glory of God. We don't want that to leak out of us.\n\nOne writer gives a word of caution saying, \"It is a solemn fact that any given church can depart from the faith in less than a generation. To imagine otherwise is to be so inflated with the helium of naive pride that we imagine we are above the human condition.\"\n\nSo all that helps give some background to what's here and frame some purpose for why Paul even brings this subject matter up. Timothy knew this stuff, but he needed the reminder. We know this stuff, but we need the reminder.\n\nSo that having been said, let's think about the content of what's here now. Looking specifically at this exhortation from Paul.\n\nSo in the first part of verse 13, let's notice that the place of scripture in public worship is first of all a matter of pastoral priority. It's a matter of pastoral priority. We hear it in Paul's words where he's saying to Timothy, \"Until I come, devote yourself to this. Devote yourself, occupy yourself, apply yourself to the public reading of scripture in corporate worship.\"\n\nIt's worth noting here, and we mentioned it in passing already, but the church in Ephesus is currently facing some trouble from teaching that's contrary to the gospel. And we can actually notice that this word Paul uses here translated as devoted in relationship to Timothy's scriptural commitment. This word is used back in chapter 1 verse 4 to speak to people in the church who are in danger of devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies. And then the word is used again in the beginning of our chapter where Paul talks about days coming when people will devote themselves to deceitful spirits and the teaching of demons.\n\nSo devotion, being very committed to a certain kind of teaching, that's not the present problem in Ephesus. There's devotion. The present problem, the present threat is what kind of content are you devoting yourself to, you see.\n\nAnd then Paul's charge to Timothy is to devote himself to the public practice of putting the word of God before the people of God as they gather on Sunday mornings.\n\nAs the church comes together, devote yourself to this, Timothy, the public reading, exhortation and teaching of the word of God.\n\nAnd that's something that doesn't just help frame Timothy's pastoral priority, and that's something that doesn't just help frame the priority for those of us engaged in pastoral leadership in the church today, but that's something that helps frame congregational expectations.\n\nAnd if it frames our expectations as those in the church, not only as those who are in pastoral ministry, but it's an expectation that those in pastoral ministry do what your elders are doing here, do what your pastors are doing here, and that is set the scriptures robustly and regularly before you as the centerpiece of the service as you come to worship.\n\nSo as a member of the church on Sunday morning, I should have an expectation set that the priority word in this service is not going to be, you know, some pontifications of the person leading the singing, and it's not going to be some personal reflections of a person who's standing up to give some kind of encouraging talk, no, no, I should have the Christian expectation that the word of God is going to be in the paramount place of focus in the context of this worship service.\n\nAnd when that's there, I rejoice in the fact that the pastors in the church are responding to this apostolic imperative from Paul, I can rejoice that the worship service isn't being moved along by matters of mere personal preference, our worship isn't being moved along by a kind of contemporary human innovation sort of thing, or any kind of cultural concession, no, the Lord's Day worship is moved by the word of the God whom we worship, who speaks to us, and in hearing His voice, new life the dead receive.\n\nYour pastors here at Trinity, they have this priority. I didn't pick this text to preach, Samuel called and told me what I was supposed to preach, this is their priority, and that should be a cause for your rejoicing as a church, because that means the primary word in your midst is not the word of the world around us but it's the word of the Redeemer who lives.\n\nSo the high place of Scripture in public worship is a pastoral priority, that's critical.\n\nAnd then we go on, we see that Paul works this priority out in those three ways we already mentioned, reading, exhorting, teaching. So we're going to take each of those three in turn, we'll spend a little bit more time with the reading than the other two, but we'll get there.\n\nSo reading, or as our English Bible smooths things out, the public reading of Scripture.\n\nNow when Paul called for reading like this, he would have had primarily the Old Testament in mind. We know that, there was no New Testament Scriptures in their final collected form when Paul wrote this letter, however Paul would also have had in mind his own letters as his apostolic authority was recognized by the churches and Paul's letters along with others would eventually be gathered as part of the New Testament Scripture.\n\nSo for example, Paul says in Colossians 4, he says, \"And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read to the Laodiceans.\" And we have examples of that kind of instruction in other places, like in First Thessalonians 5, we have it in Revelation chapter 1.\n\nSo Paul's directive to read here would have appropriately, initially included all the Old Testament, but then it would also include all that would eventually be recognized as the New Testament, which we have now as that process took place.\n\nAnd this public reading would have been important for one thing, because the people of the early church didn't have the same ready access to the Bible like we have today. So in many cases, the Lord's Day may be a primary and it may even be their singular opportunity to hear the Scriptures.\n\nBut even more than that, this public Lord's Day reading of the Bible provides that central place to have the high focus of Scripture emphasized in the lives of believers.\n\nWe gather on the first day of the week and we hear the Word of God read.\n\nWe remember in Timothy's context that there was a variety of unhelpful teaching going on, and in that context, the re-centering that was necessary came, as in the midst of all those other words, words that might even bring great harm, doctrines of demons he calls them, right?\n\nIn the midst of all those other words, it was God's Word that needed to be heard.\n\nThat applied in the context of false teaching in Ephesus, and no doubt, no doubt, the benefit of the primary place of the Word of God read for us Sunday by Sunday by Sunday, that applies to us just as much, if not more so, even in our own day.\n\nWe need the reader to stand up on Sunday morning, open the Bible, and read the truth to us.\n\nBecause what are our weeks like? What are our days like? We live in a world where the words we take in are just endless. Aren't the words endless? The words of political opinion, they're endless. The advertising slogans, they're endless. We know them all by heart. The catechism has been very, very well done with that. There's some things money can't buy for everything else, there's MasterCard. We know that.\n\nWe're catechized continually by the words around us, the social agendas, the way our friends and co-workers speak about their worldview, the way the company we work for frames their mission statement and vision for success, the ways our news feeds and social media feeds drop these tidy lines to inform us how we should interpret the world around us.\n\nWe live in a world of words.\n\nBut in the midst of all those words, there is a Word that is over and above them all.\n\nAnd we come in on the Lord's day from a week filled with words, and whose word do we really need? We need God to speak to us. We need to hear what God says to us through His inspired scripture. We need the Bible opened, and we need the Spirit of God to humble our hearts, and we need to hear the Word of God as the totality of the scripture points us to the significance of Jesus our Savior.\n\nSo we sit here on Sunday morning and the Bible is open, and the reader walks up and starts to read, and what do our hearts start taking in? What do we begin digesting? Is it slogans? Is it social rhetoric? No, no. No, we start hearing this Word that orients us and reorients us to a person, to Jesus who's the King of glory.\n\nAnd as the scriptures are read, we corporately hear what it means to know this person, Jesus, and to know the hope and purpose and meaning in life that only Jesus can bring, extending to life eternal.\n\nSo the scriptures are open and the reading begins, and if that reading is from the Old Testament, we have the person of Jesus anticipated, don't we? So the Old Testament in its entirety helps to fill out our proper sense of need for the ultimate salvation that God promised through Jesus.\n\nJesus is the better prophet, Jesus is the better priest, He's the better king, the better sacrifice, the better shepherd, the better temple, the better wise man, and on and on and on we go.\n\nAnd in the Old Testament, we're brought to feel our need for Jesus coming.\n\nThe passage from the Old Testament is read, and in that, Jesus is anticipated, and our hopes for the life He brings are kindled.\n\nAnd then maybe we read from the New Testament and we hear that in the Gospels, Jesus is revealed. We need to be able to hear the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We need to hear the truth of who Jesus is, and why He came, and what it means to follow Him as the crucified and resurrected One.\n\nOr maybe the reading is from the book of Acts, and in Acts we hear how Jesus is proclaimed. In Acts, Jesus ascends to heaven and the new covenant promise of the Holy Spirit is realized, and the word about Jesus spreads from Jerusalem to the ends of the known world. We need to hear about how the word of Jesus spreads in Acts, Jesus is proclaimed.\n\nAnd then in the epistles, in the letters, we hear how Jesus is explained. So we have writings in the New Testament letters, like we're studying this morning, that help us understand rich theological truth about God's plan for His people presently and eternally as we're purified by Christ and His cross, and united with Christ and with one another in the church, and then as we're continually transformed more and more into the image of Christ, looking forward to resurrection glory through the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.\n\nWhen the epistles are read, we have that truth explained to us.\n\nAnd then Revelation. In Revelation, we hear Jesus expected. Revelation is read and we hear how Jesus is the only one worthy of exercising God's divine and cosmic purposes for the ages beginning to end.\n\nAnd while history cycles round and round, and earthly powers and dominions rise and fall, and while spiritual powers battle and rage, there is this one victor, Jesus Christ, the Lion and the Lamb, the Alpha and the Omega, the faithful and true, the rider on the white horse whose name is King of kings and Lord of lords, who will vanquish evil forever, and bring His people into the presence of God and the city of God to praise Him world without end.\n\nIn Revelation, we hear how our hope in Jesus is expanded cosmically. Jesus is expected.\n\nAnd so for all the voices that we might have dominating our weeks, on the Lord's day, we're all of a sudden brought to this place of worship, and we hear the word that is above all words, revealing the name that is above all names, to whom every knee will bow. We hear that.\n\nAnd all of a sudden, what happens? Well, the wars of this world grow a little less hopeless. The politics grows a little less desperate. The social pressure grows a little less potent. And the anxiety and the fear and the unknowns and the guilt begins to fade away in light of this word of the Lord who brings us life through His truth.\n\nThe place of scripture in public worship. Devote yourself to the reading.\n\nOn Sunday morning, we come together for a number of things, and right at the center, we expect to hear the word of the Lord, reading, reading.\n\nAnd then we have these elements that flow from the reading, these next two, exhortation and teaching.\n\nNow, I'm not going to take too much time with these, since I understand you also have a week in this series devoted to the subject of preaching, which is really what's going on here with exhortation and teaching. So I won't say much about this, but I'm going to say just a little, just a little bit.\n\nExhortation, let's do that first.\n\nThis exhortation language indicates encouragement that flows from the scripture reading, which functionally calls for a response to scriptural truth, right? Exhortation is, how am I to be in light of this? That's what exhortation comes and does.\n\nThe Greek word here is translated in different ways in the New Testament, sometimes just as preaching. In fact, I think if you're reading from an NIV this morning, I think they just translate it as preaching, but it's also translated as encouragement or comfort or appeal. It's just that kind of word.\n\nThe point here is that when scripture is read, our behavior is not left where it was, but how we are is then encouraged forward in Christ-centered progress, right?\n\nSo our Sunday morning reading may be something like Psalm 23, and we hear the reading, and in hearing that, there's comfort as I'm hearing the truth of God's word about the Lord as my shepherd, and then the exhortation might follow.\n\nSomething like, do you feel alone and lost in your life of faith and struggle? The Lord Jesus here, who's the good shepherd who goes ahead of you, guiding you, who's the good shepherd who walks next to you through the valleys of darkest shadows, and who follows close behind you, assuring you of your heavenly home.\n\nThat's exhortation.\n\nIt could be an exhortation to repentance. Under this word read, do you see where your life needs to do an about-face if you're really going to be following Jesus? It could be an exhortation to repentance.\n\nIt could be an exhortation to honesty in your spiritual life. You know, the psalmist in Psalm 77, maybe it's Psalm 77 read in the course of the service, and we get to that point where the psalmist says, \"When I remember God, I moan.\"\n\nI moan, and the exhortation comes. Are you honest with God like that in your prayers on the hardest day? Can you say to him in prayer, \"When I think about you, I'm actually not immediately helped, but I'm immediately troubled.\" Are you honest in your spirituality and your prayers before the Lord?\n\nThat's exhortation.\n\nIt could be an exhortation to rest. You know, maybe you hear the Lord Jesus' words, \"Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,\" and the exhortation goes something like, maybe you've been trying to get yourself right before coming to Jesus. You know, if I could just have all my ducks in a row, have my life looking like I think my life is supposed to look, make sure all the buttons are done up on my shirt and
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  Regulated by the Word: How God Tells us to Worship 12.07.2026

  In this sermon titled "Regulated by the Word: How God Tells Us to Worship," Pastor Sean Jim explores the biblical foundation and practical implications of the regulative principle of worship, grounded in Deuteronomy 12:32: "Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it." Sean emphasizes that true worship must be conducted according to God's explicit commands rather than human imagination or innovation. Drawing from a range of Old and New Testament examples—including Cain and Abel, the golden calf incident, Nadab and Abihu, King Saul, Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees, and the Corinthian church—he illustrates that God cares deeply about how He is worshipped and that there are serious consequences for worshiping Him incorrectly. The sermon also addresses common misunderstandings about the regulative principle, clarifying that it applies primarily to corporate worship and that there is freedom within the boundaries God sets. Sean highlights the importance of not binding consciences with man-made traditions and stresses that worship elements such as reading Scripture, preaching, singing, praying, baptism, and the Lord's Supper are clearly commanded by Scripture. Ultimately, the sermon calls the church to submit to God's authority in worship, recognizing that only through Christ's perfect mediation and the Spirit's work can we truly worship God in spirit and truth. This message invites believers to reflect on their worship practices and encourages non-believers to embrace the gospel that enables genuine worship.
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  The Call to Worship: God Speaks First 05.07.2026

  In this sermon titled "The Call to Worship: God Speaks First," Pastor Andrey Gorban explores the profound invitation God extends to His people to enter into worship, as revealed in Psalm 95:1-7. Opening a new series on worship called Living Liturgy, Pastor Gorban emphasizes that worship is not merely a Sunday activity or a musical style but the entire Christian life lived in joyful, grateful, and reverent response to God’s greatness. He highlights that worship begins with God’s call—"O come"—underscoring that we cannot approach God on our own terms but only as He invites us. The psalmist’s call to worship is both exuberant and humble, combining joyful singing with reverent bowing, reflecting the tension of worshiping a God who is both our loving Shepherd and the sovereign Creator of all.
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  Death to Life 28.06.2026

  In this sermon titled "Death to Life," Pastor Samuel Nagel explores the profound theological truths found in Romans 5:18-21, focusing on the contrast between the consequences of Adam's disobedience and the redemptive work of Christ's obedience. Pastor Nagel begins by reflecting on his personal journey and deepening appreciation for the local church, setting the stage for a heartfelt examination of justification and grace. He emphasizes the doctrine of original sin, explaining how all humanity inherits a sinful nature from Adam, resulting in condemnation and spiritual death. The sermon then turns to the hope and assurance offered through Jesus Christ, whose one act of righteousness leads to justification and eternal life for all who receive Him by faith. Pastor Nagel carefully unpacks the biblical meaning of justification as a legal declaration of righteousness credited to believers, contrasting it with the condemnation inherited from Adam. He also addresses common misunderstandings about universalism and highlights the necessity of faith in Christ. Finally, the sermon considers the role of the law in revealing sin and the overwhelming abundance of God's grace that reigns through righteousness, empowering believers to live transformed lives now and looking forward to eternal life. Throughout, Pastor Nagel encourages both believers and seekers to respond to the gospel with faith, assurance, and a commitment to live in the freedom Christ provides.
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  Either the First or the Last Adam 21.06.2026

  In Romans 5:12-17, Cody Cannon traces Paul’s contrast between Adam and Christ. Through the first Adam, sin and death entered the world and spread to all humanity. But through Jesus, the true and final Adam, grace abounds, righteousness is given, and life reigns. This sermon considers the doctrine of original sin, the reality of death, and the greater hope found in union with Christ.
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  Christ Died for the Ungodly 14.06.2026 43мин

  In this sermon from Romans 5:6-11, Andrey Gorban proclaims the astonishing love of God shown in Christ's death for the ungodly. Paul does not present salvation as a reward for the strong, righteous, or worthy, but as God's gracious rescue of sinners who were weak, guilty, and even enemies of God. Andrey walks through the rich gospel realities of justification, reconciliation, and salvation from wrath, showing how each rests entirely on the finished work of Jesus. The sermon invites believers to rejoice in the God who loved them at their worst and to rest in the confidence that the One who has already reconciled them by Christ's death will surely save them by Christ's life.
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  Foundation of Faith 07.06.2026

  In this brief but heartfelt introduction to the sermon "Foundation of Faith," Paul Hoffman prepares the congregation to receive the Word of God from Romans 5:1-5. The passage explores the profound truths of justification by faith, peace with God, and the hope that does not disappoint because of the love of God poured into believers' hearts through the Holy Spirit. Pastor Hoffman emphasizes the importance of God’s Word as the foundation for faith and the source of boldness and transformation in the believer’s life. He prays for the Spirit’s guidance both in the preaching and in the hearts of the listeners, highlighting the communal and spiritual nature of receiving Scripture. This sermon invites the church to trust deeply in the promises of God revealed in Romans and to allow the Holy Spirit to work powerfully through the message to strengthen faith and hope.
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  Set Apart For The Work 31.05.2026

  In this sermon titled "Set Apart For The Work," Pastor Kris Castro explores the pivotal moment in Acts 13:1-3 when the church at Antioch, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, commissions Barnabas and Saul (Paul) for missionary work. Pastor Castro emphasizes that the mission of God advances not through random events or individual efforts but through the ordered, Spirit-led worship, prayer, and sending of the local church. He highlights the significance of Antioch as a diverse, gospel-shaped community that faithfully nurtures and sends out workers for the gospel, underscoring the church’s central role in God’s mission to the nations. The sermon unpacks three key movements in the passage: mission arises from a worshiping church, is directed by the Holy Spirit, and is confirmed and sent through the church. Pastor Castro challenges believers to see their weekly worship and faithfulness as vital participation in God’s global mission. He also reflects on the unity and diversity within the Antioch church as a powerful testimony to the reconciling work of Christ. Ultimately, this message calls the Trinity Church family to embrace their identity as a worshiping, praying, and sending church, trusting the Spirit to empower them for the work of proclaiming the gospel both locally and to the ends of the earth.
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  God's Wrath on Idolatry 24.05.2026

  { "description": "In this sermon, Elder Sean Jim explores the sobering reality of God's wrath against idolatry and unrighteousness as revealed in Romans 1:18-25. He begins by illustrating how humanity often makes unwise exchanges, trading something valuable for something far less worthy—paralleling this with the spiritual exchange of worshiping the Creator for created things. Sean emphasizes that understanding God's wrath is essential to grasping the gospel's power and necessity. He explains that God's wrath is not only a just response to sin but also a vital aspect of His character, revealing the seriousness of our rebellion and our desperate need for salvation through Jesus Christ.\n\nSean unpacks Paul's message that all people suppress the truth about God despite clear evidence of His existence through creation (general revelation). This suppression leads to idolatry—exchanging the glory of God for images and created things—and results in moral and spiritual futility. The sermon highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in illuminating hearts to receive the gospel, underscoring that evangelism is about proclaiming Christ's saving work rather than merely persuading others of a moral worldview. Finally, Sean calls listeners to self-examination, urging them to identify and repent of idols in their lives and to embrace the gospel's transformative power, which replaces our sin and idolatry with Christ's righteousness.", "transcript": "Good morning. My name is Sean. I'm a member and one of the elders here.\n\nThis Friday commemorates what the internet refers to as Bitcoin Pizza Day. On May 22nd, 2010, the first ever recorded transaction with Bitcoin took place. A programmer, through an online forum, received two Papa John's pizzas in exchange for 10,000 Bitcoin. Ten thousand. Let me just tell you right now that 10,000 Bitcoin today is worth about $790 million. This might actually be one of the worst trade deals in the history of trade deals.\n\nNow, this is a bit of a silly example, but we're probably all guilty of the same thing to varying degrees. We make trades without thinking of the consequences. When I was eight, I traded away one of my favorite stuffed animals for some information about a video game cheat code with my brother. I learned that day a lesson about the accessibility of knowledge and the value of actually owning something.\n\nYou could think of Esau in Genesis 25 who traded away his birthright, his extra portion of inheritance, his standing in his household for stew. Or David, who in his lust took Bathsheba and received in exchange a dead child, fractured relationships, and a torn kingdom.\n\nWhat might you be trading right now without knowledge of its consequences? Maybe you're trading healthy patterns of sleep and rest for productivity without thinking of its long-term effects. Maybe you're giving extra hours at a job or career in exchange for watching your children grow, in exchange for being present as a parent. Maybe it's a hangover from poor decisions the night before, debt in exchange for financial irresponsibility.\n\nWhat about when the exchange is less tangible? When it involves our sin or our relationship with God? What happens when we trade the worship of God for that of idols? What are we blind to when we exchange the glory of God for that which is created? He tells us it's wrath—God's wrath revealed both now and in the future.\n\nTurn with me to Romans chapter 1. This morning we'll be looking at verses 18 to 25, and Lord willing, we will finish the chapter next week.\n\nLet me provide some context for where we are and where we're going. As Thomas pointed out last week, Paul is writing to a church that's comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, or non-Jews. And in this book as a whole, Paul is writing to expound a gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus that is unbound by ethnicity so that the obedient family of God can be a witness to all nations.\n\nWhether it's in first-century Rome or 21st-century Portland, God has purposed His church to be a light for His glory. And so we need to have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the gospel and how it affects all of our lives and our relationships.\n\nPaul in Romans 1:16 and 17 has just laid the foundational truth that he's going to unpack. Because the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, both Jew and Greek, because the gospel reveals the righteousness of God, we who live by faith in this gospel should not be ashamed of it.\n\nAnd in order to see the beauty and power of this gospel, in order to even see our need for it, we must first understand our sin, our standing before God, and that His just wrath hangs over us. And that brings us to our passage this morning.\n\nPaul in chapter 1 is focusing on sin and the unrighteousness of the pagan Gentile world before he turns to the Jews in chapter 2. And I think this is helpful for us to know, especially for next week when we address some of the context and contemporary cultural issues surrounding our passage, Paul is highlighting the totality of sin and its effects.\n\nWhile he might be addressing one party or another, if we are to believe that the inspired word of God is sufficient for everything that we need pertaining to life and godliness, if it's sufficient to bring us teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, then there are timeless truths in this text about sin, humanity, and God's wrath that we have to apply in our lives and in our churches today.\n\nWhy do we need the gospel? Why do we need salvation and righteousness that Jesus alone can provide us by faith? Because all of us are guilty. All of us have misplaced our worship. All of us have traded the divine for the ungodly, both in our hearts and with our actions. And it's only when we understand our sin, our foolishness, our unrighteous state that we can receive the gospel.\n\nIt's only when we see the folly of our first exchange, of the Creator for the created, that we can see the beauty of the greatest exchange, Christ's righteousness for our sin.\n\nHere's the main point that Paul is communicating in this passage: We need the gospel because God's wrath is revealed against our idolatry and our immorality. We need the gospel because God's wrath is revealed against our idolatry and our immorality.\n\nThis idea is going to span both this Sunday and next Sunday. Today we'll focus on that first part. We need the gospel because God's wrath is revealed against our idolatry.\n\nWe need to see our sin for what it truly is before we can receive the good news of the gospel. Look with me at Romans 1. I'll read the whole section to give us the full picture, starting in verse 18:\n\n“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became foolish in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”\n\nThis morning we'll look at verses 18 to 25 and we'll see how God's wrath is revealed against our idolatry, our misplaced worship in three sections: wrath revealed, truth suppressed, and worship exchanged.\n\nLet's begin by looking at God's wrath revealed. Look again at verse 18:\n\n“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”\n\nA Pew Research study from 2019, after analyzing 50,000 sermons across different Christian traditions, reported that in Protestant evangelical churches, much like this one, fewer than 10% of the sermons mention words and phrases relating to sin and punishment. Contrast that with a 99% chance to hear the word love.\n\nIt's not just a modern phenomenon. Christians throughout history have long recognized a drought when it comes to speaking about hard truths in God's word.\n\nPaul makes it clear, even from the very beginning of his explanation of the gospel, God is a God of wrath and sin has severe consequences.\n\nIf we're to be faithful to know and understand the whole counsel of God's word, we must not shy away from uncomfortable truths like sin, hell, wrath, and judgment.\n\nLet me make three arguments for why understanding God's wrath and our sin is necessary.\n\nFirst, understanding God's wrath and our sin is necessary in order for us to become and live as Christians. It's part of the gospel message. In order for us to see our need for salvation in the gospel, we must understand God's wrath.\n\nPaul points out in Romans 1:17 that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. And then in the next verse, he says, the wrath of God is revealed. We call this a linguistic connection. He's linking these two ideas together with the idea of God revealing an aspect of himself.\n\nHe's making a point that the gospel message requires both wrath and righteousness, judgment and salvation.\n\nAt the core of the gospel is a legal demand. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. Our debt of sin means that we're deserving the punishment of God, the wrath of God, the just anger of God against our unrighteousness.\n\nIn fact, the very term salvation or its synonym deliverance has a dramatic implication. We're saved from something. We are delivered from something.\n\nWhat are you saved from? We're saved from the wrath of God.\n\nRomans 5:9 says, “Since therefore you have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”\n\nIn 1 Thessalonians 1:10, we're told that Jesus, who was raised from the dead, delivers us from the wrath to come.\n\nColossians 1:13 talks of deliverance from the domain of darkness, and I'll argue next week that our bondage to sin and darkness is in fact a present expression of God's wrath to us.\n\nYes, in the gospel we find freedom from sin, but the primary purpose of the atonement is to restore us to a right relationship with God. God cannot dwell with us while we're under just condemnation for our sin.\n\nUnless we see our sin for what it is, unless we understand His wrath, we can't receive the salvation that God offers. Instead, we'll receive a cheap gospel, cheap grace, and that will never result in the kind of obedience and holiness that He demands of His people.\n\nWe must understand God's wrath and our sin in order to see our true need for the gospel.\n\nSecond, understanding God's wrath is necessary because the wrath of God is part of His character. If we're to truly know God, it's to know God as He has revealed Himself to us.\n\nWe don't get to decide what God is like any more than we get to decide what other people are like. We have to approach God on His terms.\n\nTo say that God is in any way different than how He's revealed Himself is to reject God and set up for ourselves an idol. It is idolatry.\n\nScripture is very clear on the wrath of God on sin and idolatry.\n\nNahum 1:2 says, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord will by no means clear the guilty. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.”\n\nEzekiel 16 equates the idolatry of Israel to adultery and prostitution:\n\n“Thus says the Lord God, because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers and with all your abominable idols, I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath, and jealousy. So I will satisfy my wrath on you and my jealousy shall depart from you.”\n\nUnless we think that this anger of God is limited to the Old Testament, Ephesians 2 says that by nature we are children of wrath.\n\nHere in Romans, God's wrath is revealed against all unrighteousness, all ungodliness.\n\n2 Thessalonians 1 speaks of Jesus who will return to inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of God and from the glory of His might.\n\nRevelation 19 gives us another picture of Jesus who is going to finally and fully bring the wrath of God, the judgment of God on those who oppose Him:\n\n“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is the Word of God. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”\n\nThe real and imminent presence of God's wrath is meant to show the severity of our sin so that we might turn and repent.\n\nEven after trusting in Jesus, God's wrath on our sin means to spur us on towards obedience.\n\nWe need to see the great cost that Jesus bore in our place, the atonement. The fact that Jesus took the penalty of my sin, your sin on the cross makes no sense unless we see the wrath of God.\n\nIf there's no wrath, if God can just overlook our sins, He's no longer an all-powerful, just God, and there's no more gospel.\n\nAnd we know this instinctively, like Noah even gave us an example for, whether it's a child tattling on misbehaving classmates or members of society protesting with indignation against every form of injustice, whether it's a teacher, a parent, the government, any authority we turn to, for them to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing will provoke outrage in our hearts.\n\nIt's an unjust thing for iniquity to go unpunished. And the punishment must match the crime in severity.\n\nSo why are we tempted to think differently about God?\n\nHow do you respond then to the character of God revealed in His wrath? Do you, as He commands us, submit to Christ alone to save us from His wrath? Or do you minimize or even redefine your sin in order to justify yourself before God?\n\nDo you compare yourselves to others? Do you judge others with a morality that's invented? Are you replacing or exchanging the truth of God for a lie and replacing Him with a created being who exists for your own purposes?\n\nGod's wrath is necessary because it's built into His justice and His very character.\n\nThird, understanding God's wrath is necessary for our comfort, for our reliance on God to right every wrong.\n\nYes, we need to see the seriousness of our sin in light of God's wrath, but God's wrath is a good and powerful thing.\n\nNotice the language that His wrath is revealed from heaven. God's wrath is divine. It is distinct. It is unstained from sin and it is not cruel. It is judicial.\n\nWe're meant to take comfort in this, especially when we can compare our own vengeance to that of God's.\n\nAll of our attempts to pursue justice, all of our attempts for vindication apart from God are polluted by our sin.\n\nBut God is not only all-powerful, He is the perfect judge. He will right every wrong.\n\nVengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.\n\nSo we can with confidence echo Psalm 10:\n\n“O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.”\n\nWe can be sure that the perfectly just God of the universe is more aware than we are of the unrighteousness and pain that sin causes. And He will one day judge all sin and make all things right.\n\nSo trust in the character of God. His wrath, His divine retribution, is comfort for the anxious heart.\n\nThat if you have been mistreated, oppressed, scorned, or abused, God will bring justice to you.\n\nListen to Isaiah 35:\n\n“Be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, He will come and save you.”\n\nFor those who have been wronged, the wrath of God against sin is an expression of His love and tender care for us.\n\nBut make no mistake, God's wrath is comprehensive. It is thorough. It is absolute.\n\nSo for God to right every wrong, even the wrongs done against you, is just punishment that will involve the wrongs that you commit.\n\nAccording to His holy law, no one escapes. His wrath is revealed against all unrighteousness, including yours.\n\nNo one is righteous, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.\n\nSo if we're to rely on God to punish sin and unrighteousness, we must find a way to deal with our own sin.\n\nGod is a God of wrath. His wrath will be revealed against our idolatry.\n\nAnd we're going to turn second to that which is expressed in our suppression of truth.\n\nLook again at verse 18:\n\n“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”\n\n“For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.”\n\nWhat does Paul mean here when he says that by our unrighteousness we suppress the truth?\n\nWell, there's a sense that in our sin and unrighteousness, our perspective on reality itself is distorted.\n\nIt might be that what we believe to be true isn't true, or it's not the whole truth.\n\nIs this not at the heart of what happened in the Garden of Eden and continues in our hearts today?\n\nWe question what God has said in His word. We reject what God has revealed in His character. We deny what He has commanded for us by His law.\n\nWe say and ask, “Did God really say?” And so our suppression of truth begins to look like what is described in Isaiah 5:\n\n“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight.”\n\nI think it's passages like these that show us how important our doctrine really is, how even outside of commands and imperatives in Scripture, all of Scripture comes to bear on our lives.\n\nAnd so there are two doctrines that are at play here, and I think both have a big impact on how we think about evangelism in particular.\n\nFirst, the doctrine of illumination.\n\nBy nature, we are opposed to God. Our perspective of sin and truth itself is distorted. We need the Holy Spirit to turn the lights on in our hearts, to even allow us to understand and believe the truths of God's word.\n\nWithout the Spirit's work in us, we have a warped view of what is true and what is good in the eyes of God.\n\nAnd this is the core of what idolatry is. We reject God as the divine and absolute authority over life, and we set ourselves as God in His place.\n\nWe decide for ourselves what right and wrong is. We call evil good and good evil. We become fools in our claims to wisdom.\n\n1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”\n\nAnd later in our passage, Paul warns that some of the effects of idolatry are futility of thinking, darkening of hearts.\n\nOur natural state, because we've rejected the truths of God, is foolishness.\n\nAnd Paul continues to argue in 1 Corinthians 2 that in order to understand that which is spiritual, in order to discern truths of God, we need the Spirit who is from God.\n\nWithout the Spirit interpreting that which is spiritual to us, we're worse than groping around in the darkness. We define that darkness as truth itself.\n\nHere's the point that I'm trying to make: Without the Holy Spirit, we're unable to understand the truths of God. It's foolishness to us. It's folly.\n\nHere at Trinity, we teach that regeneration or the new birth of the Holy Spirit precedes faith.\n\nWe hear the gospel and through the work of the Holy Spirit, He transforms our hearts and we respond in faith.\n\nIn our natural state, left to ourselves, we suppress the truth.\n\nFamily, I think this should change our perspective on evangelism.\n\nWhen we're talking with unbelievers, what's needed first is for the Holy Spirit to turn the lights on, to give eyes to see what truth is.\n\nThe Spirit needs to do the work of regeneration in someone's heart through the preaching of the gospel.\n\nWhat does this mean? It means evangelism is not convincing somebody of a Christian worldview. It's not convincing somebody of something that aligns with our politics or our values.\n\nIt's not correcting morals and behavior because that's worthless when somebody is condemned to hell.\n\nApart from Christ, we can do nothing. No amount of good works, no amount of correct philosophy or accurate theology, however important they are to the Christian, will save us.\n\nOnly the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel truth in the Word of God, can regenerate someone who's dead in their sin and allow them to see what truth is.\n\nGod's truth, God's Word, the gospel that Paul says is the power of God for salvation. That's what we need to put before unbelievers, not primarily a Christian ethic or worldview.\n\nThis means that in our evangelism, we're exercising faith in God. We're doing the opposite of suppressing the truth. We are encouraging the truth in our hearts when we trust that as Isaiah 55 says, the Word of God does not return empty. It accomplishes that which He purposes.\n\nWe're obeying Romans 10:17 as it says, “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.”\n\nRather than defining for ourselves what truth is, rather than trying to manufacture the Holy Spirit's work in a person's heart through argumentation or persuasion, we're believing what God says to be true about the power of His Word in the gospel.\n\nWe're living contrary to how the world lives in relation to the truth.\n\nSo as we're addressing specific sins or even cultural issues like we'll do next week, we must keep this in mind.\n\nJust because people have truth doesn't mean anything. It's foolishness to them. It is suppressed by a heart that does not honor God and turns away from Him.\n\nThe world doesn't need generic truth. It needs truth of the gospel and through faith in that gospel, the Spirit can begin the work of transforming hearts.\n\nIt can then sanctify, it can then mold that heart into conformity to God's Word.\n\nAnd then we can begin to agree on what God actually says good and evil are.\n\nSo as you evangelize your friends and family and neighbors and coworkers and children, pray that the Holy Spirit would illuminate truth to them, that He would open their hearts to receive the gospel and give them that gospel as truth.\n\nSecond, we'll see how the suppression of truth expresses itself in the doctrine of revelation.\n\nLet me reread verses 19 and 20:\n\n“For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.”\n\nWhat's described here is commonly known as general revelation, the idea that God has revealed Himself in creation.\n\nThis is different from special revelation, which is the intervening work of God in history. When He reveals Himself to Abraham or Moses, when He speaks through the prophets, when He performs great acts like splitting the Red Sea or raising the dead, and when He comes in the person of Jesus Christ.\n\nAll of these are examples of His special revelation, the kind of things that can only be known about God when He reveals Himself to us.\n\nGeneral revelation is different. And what we see here are aspects of God's character, His nature, His power and His divinity that are known to all people simply through creation.\n\nWhat does this general revelation teach us?\n\nFirst, God does in fact exist. All of creation speaks to the fact that He made it.\n\nVerse 19 says that His invisible attributes have been clearly perceived and they are without excuse.\n\nPsalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky above proclaims His handiwork.”\n\nActs 14 says, “God did not leave Himself without witness, but He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your heart with food and gladness.”\n\nEven in Genesis 1, we see the clearest picture of God's general revelation in humanity itself. Mankind is an image, a reflection of God's character.\n\nSecond, general revelation is enough to know something of God's character and His moral law.\n\nHere in Romans 1:32, it talks of a person who has been given over to all kinds of idolatry and immorality that they still know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die.\n\nAgain in Romans 2:14-16, “For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”\n\nObviously, the extent to which a person's moral laws are in line with what God has decreed in His word will vary depending on the amount that they are rejecting and suppressing His truth, but what Paul is communicating is that there does exist a moral law. There is some standard of right and wrong regardless of if they're actively suppressing that truth in unrighteousness.\n\nAnd this is an example of God's common grace to all people. It allows for some structure in our society. It allows the prevention of wickedness of men from pursuing its most extreme forms.\n\nBut here is where general revelation has its limits. Simply acknowledging that God exists is not necessary for our salvation. It is necessary for our salvation. It is not sufficient for our salvation.\n\nAnd so we're left with these damning words: They are without excuse.\n\nBecause we're created with the purpose of worshipping God, because we're created to glorify and image His character and attributes to all creation, there's no such thing as ignorance as bliss.\n\nTo simply be in contact with God's creation and to fail to acknowledge Him, to fail to live according to His law will condemn us to hell.\n\nAnd without God's grace in special revelation, we're left there.\n\nWhat does this mean? Without the word of God about Jesus Christ, we cannot be saved.\n\nScripture and God's word is necessary in order for us to be saved.\n\nWe need special revelation. We need God to intervene.\n\nListen to Romans 10:13-15:\n\n“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have never believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.”\n\nBut they have not all obeyed the gospel. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.\n\nFamily, we need to understand this for the sake of our evangelism and missions.\n\nOur verbal proclamation of the gospel message of salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for people to be saved.\n\nLeft with only God's general revelation, people are under His judgment.\n\nAs He says in John 3, “Whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”\n\nThose people that live in parts of the world that don't have access to the name of Jesus, how are they to believe in Him unless someone preaches the good news to them?\n\nI'm going to be bold for a second. God's plan is not to reveal Himself to people in remote parts of the earth through dreams or visions. It's not to overlook their sin and give them free entrance into His kingdom.\n\nThey are without excuse.\n\nGod's plan is not for us to sit around and pray that He would descend through visions on an unsuspecting African tribe. He commands us to go.\n\nGod's plan is to use His people to carry His special revelation to the ends of the earth and call people to repentance.\n\nFour points of application for the Christian:\n\nFirst, pray and consider if God might be sending you to preach the gospel to those who have never heard. Start a conversation about it with another member of this church or with one of the elders. We would love to see members of this church giving their lives away for the gospel in this way.\n\nSecond, evangelize. Tell people around you right now about the gospel. Our hope is that as we see the power of God more clearly in the gospel, we would not be ashamed of it. Instead, that we would be the beautiful feet of those who carry the gospel, who obey it and preach the good news. People all around us are just as in need of the gospel as anywhere else.\n\nThird, praise and thank God for revealing Himself to you in Jesus Christ. Praise and thank God for the illumination of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Acknowledge the work of God in our salvation. Apart from Him, we're completely lost. We're unable to discern the truth. We are without excuse.\n\nWorship Him for giving you a new heart, causing you to be born again to a living hope, granting you faith and eyes to see and behold Christ, adopting you into His family, the church, and for the ongoing work of the Spirit in teaching you and shaping you into the image of Christ.\n\nFourth, fill your mind with Scripture and the truth of God. Pray that the Spirit would illuminate it to you. Sin is deceitful. It seeks to distort what is true and right in our eyes. It presents itself as appealing. It presents holiness as foreign. And as we live in this world, we constantly need the truth of God to direct our lives lest we fall into sin's deception.\n\nAnd for those of you who don't consider yourself a Christian, there's no claim to ignorance on the day of judgment. You're without excuse. And so you must decide who will take the penalty of sin.\n\nWill you drink the cup of God's wrath for eternity or will you by faith receive that Jesus bore your sins on the cross?\n\nThis brings us to Paul's final indictment against the Gentile world and us.\n\nIn our suppression of truth, in our sin nature, we have exchanged our worship of God for that of idols.\n\nLook at verse 21:\n\n“For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.”\n\nHere we begin to see some indication that the wrath of God is being revealed in the present tense. It's not just referring to final judgment.\n\nIn our omission of proper worship, the expression of unrighteousness in our lives that begins to move us further and further away from God is an expression of His wrath.\n\nWe become futile in our thinking. We become fools who think that we're wise.\n\nAnd what's so striking here is that these terms are set in contrast with the many forms of revelation, of knowledge of God's word being plain, clearly perceived.\n\nGod gives us over to our depravity. In our rejection of Him, He allows us to be further and further blinded to the truth even though He has made it so clear to us.\n\nAnd what we begin to see is that at the root of any physical manifestation of sin, at the root of any sinful act, is a heart that has already set up an idol in its place.\n\nIt's a heart that rejects the command of God in Exodus 20, that you shall have no other gods before me.\n\nWhy must we understand our idolatrous hearts and exchanged worship? Because sin begins with our hearts, with our desires, with our object of worship, and then it expresses itself outwards.\n\nOur actions and behavior are not simply the result of decisions that we make, whether good or bad, they are the outworking of what is simmering beneath the surface.\n\nThis is why Jesus says in Matthew 12 that a tree is known by its fruit. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.\n\nJames chapter 3 tells us a spring cannot bring forth both fresh and salt water. A fig tree cannot bear olives.\n\nEach that manifests itself outwardly in resentment and bitterness towards others reveals a heart of envy, reveals a heart that has made an idol out of something that you don't have.\n\nAnxiety about the future, a lack of trust in God's provision, a lack of generosity or greed manifest themselves out of a love for money or what it can provide.\n\nOur immorality flows out of our idolatry. Likewise, our obedience, our holiness, our good works proceed from a heart that loves and worships God.\n\nWe were created as worshiping beings. We were created to worship something.\n\nI used to think that worship was some binary concept, that either we worship God or we don't.\n\nInstead, much like a river current, we never stop worshiping; we simply misdirect it.\n\nRather than acknowledging God, rather than ascribing to God what He's worth, rather than submitting to, obeying, revering, honoring, and thanking God, we replace the target of all of those things.\n\nAs Tim Keller puts it, we have created counterfeit gods that make empty promises that will never deliver, replacements for the Creator that consume our time, our imaginations, our resources, our energy.\n\nThese counterfeit gods in no way bring about the same level of joy and satisfaction that we were designed to have with the God of the universe.\n\nAnd this is the exchange that all of us have made in our hearts, this trade that results in God's wrath expressed.\n\nSo we must identify the idols, the objects of worship that we have exchanged the immortal God with, and we must replace them.\n\nHere are just some practical suggestions for introspection. I would encourage you to pray and continually ask that the Spirit of God would bring them to light in your heart. Ask that He would reveal hidden forms of idolatry to you.\n\nFirst, what occupies your imagination, your thought life? What do you find yourself daydreaming about in the quiet of your heart? Is your family an idol, your children, your spouse, maybe a desire for family? What about entertainment, work, your hobbies? What do you find yourself talking about most often?\n\nSecond, where do you spend your money? Jesus clearly says in Matthew 6, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Are you storing up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, or are you storing up treasures in heaven?\n\nThird, what frustrates you when you don't receive it? Specifically for us who belong to Christ, what can tempt you towards disappointment with God when He doesn't answer your prayers the ways that you want Him to? Are we in danger of making an idol out of life circumstances that God has not ordained for us and for our good? Or what has God graciously given to you that you would be unwilling to give up if He were to demand it from you?\n\nLastly, what triggers your uncontrolled emotions? Anger, anxiety, despair, guilt, bitterness. These emotions that we suppress and regulate tend to overflow when we're under pressure. And they often display deeper parts of our hearts.\n\nAgain, I found Tim Keller to be very helpful. He writes, “When you pull your emotions up by the roots, you will often find your idols clinging to them.”\n\nWhether we want to admit it or not, all of us are guilty of idolatry in one form or another.\n\nYou don't have to be a Christian for very long to learn that when we try to root out our idols or patterns of sin, something grows in its place. It may be
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  God's Wrath on Immorality 17.05.2026

  In this sermon titled 'God's Wrath on Immorality', Pastor Sean Jim preaches from Romans 1:26-32, addressing the profound reality of human sinfulness and God's righteous judgment. He explores how humanity's rejection of God's truth leads to idolatry and immorality, culminating in God 'giving us over' to the consequences of our sin. Sean emphasizes that this divine giving over is both a manifestation of God's wrath and an opportunity for repentance, revealing the depth of our need for the gospel. The sermon highlights the brokenness of human identity apart from God, contrasting cultural notions of self-fulfillment and expressive individualism with the biblical call to find our true identity in Christ alone. Sean also confronts the specific issue of sexual immorality, including homosexuality, within the broader context of sin and idolatry. He affirms the historic Christian teaching on sexuality, underscoring the seriousness of sexual sin and the necessity of repentance and transformation through the gospel. The sermon offers pastoral encouragement to those struggling with same-sex attraction, reminding the congregation of the hope and new identity found in Christ. Throughout, Sean calls the church to respond with both truth and grace, living counter-culturally while extending the love of Christ to all. Ultimately, this message challenges believers to reject sinful identities and live out their new life in Christ, empowered by the Spirit to mortify sin and display holiness.
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  Beginning Romans 10.05.2026

  In this opening sermon of a new series on Romans, Pastor Thomas Terry explores Romans 1:1-17, setting the stage for the entire letter by focusing on the author, the audience, and the aim of the gospel. He introduces the Apostle Paul not merely as a historical figure but as a transformed servant of Christ, whose life was radically changed from persecutor to preacher by the power of the gospel. Pastor Terry emphasizes that the gospel Paul proclaims is not a new invention but the fulfillment of ancient promises, centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ—fully God and fully man, crucified and resurrected, now reigning as Lord. This gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, breaking down barriers between Jews and Gentiles and calling all to live by faith.\n\nPastor Terry also vividly portrays the original audience of Romans: a diverse and tension-filled church in the imperial city of Rome, facing external pressures from a pagan culture that worshipped Caesar as Lord and internal struggles between Jewish and Gentile believers. Against this backdrop, Paul’s declaration, \"I am not ashamed of the gospel,\" challenges believers today to rediscover the gospel’s power amid cultural hostility and personal familiarity that can dull our awe and boldness. The sermon closes with heartfelt invitations to embrace the gospel anew, to be reminded of its sustaining breath, and to boldly proclaim it in everyday life, trusting in God’s power to save and transform.
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  The Salt and the Light 03.05.2026

  In this sermon, Pastor Andrey Gorban explores Jesus’ famous metaphors of salt and light from Matthew 5:13-16, inviting listeners to consider the profound calling placed upon every follower of Christ. Drawing from the context of the Sermon on the Mount, Pastor Andrey reminds the congregation that Jesus’ teaching is not merely about private piety but about a public, transformative presence in the world. The Beatitudes, which precede this passage, describe the character of those blessed by God; the call to be salt and light describes their influence—how Christians are to bring flavor, preservation, and illumination to a world in need. Pastor Andrey unpacks the historical and theological significance of salt as both a source of zest and a preservative, and light as a beacon that cannot be hidden. He challenges the church to resist apathy and cultural conformity, instead living lives that provoke spiritual thirst and point others to Christ. The sermon emphasizes that this influence is not rooted in personal strength but in the life and light of Jesus himself, reflected through his people. Even amid suffering and hardship, Christians are called to rejoice and shine, demonstrating the hope and joy found in Christ. Ultimately, the message is a call to intentional, visible discipleship that glorifies God and blesses the world.
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  The Things Jesus Did 26.04.2026

  Pastor Andrey Gorban concludes Trinity's study of John's Gospel with a reflection on the final verses of John 21:20-25. This sermon explores two key themes: the will of Jesus and the works of Jesus. Pastor Gorban examines Peter's tendency to compare himself to others even moments after his restoration, highlighting how Christians often struggle with similar distractions from following Jesus wholeheartedly. He emphasizes that God's plan for each believer is unique and calls for trusting obedience rather than comparison with others. The sermon then turns to John's testimony about the countless deeds of Jesus that could never be fully recorded, demonstrating both the trustworthiness of the Gospel account and the inexhaustible nature of Christ's works. Pastor Gorban concludes by noting that Jesus continues to work today—saving, healing, and transforming lives—and that even eternity will not be sufficient to fully praise the one who has done so much for his people.
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  The One Who Redeems and Restores 19.04.2026

  Pastor Andrey Gorban explores the profound themes of redemption and restoration in John 21:1-14, examining Jesus' gracious response to his disciples' failures. After initially acknowledging that Pastor Thomas had recently preached on the same passage, Pastor Gorban demonstrates how Scripture's richness allows for multiple faithful treatments of the same text. The sermon focuses on two key movements: from empty nets to abundant provision, and from failure to restored calling. Pastor Gorban emphasizes that God's plan has always been to use imperfect, failing people like Peter and the other disciples—not despite their weaknesses, but through them, bringing glory to God alone. The message powerfully illustrates how Jesus seeks out his failed disciples, feeds them, and recommissions them to ministry, showing that restoration requires acknowledging failure while being grounded in love for Christ. This sermon offers hope to anyone who feels disqualified by past failures, demonstrating that our God specializes in redeeming the broken and using the weak for his purposes.
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  Holding Back on Hope 12.04.2026

  Pastor Thomas Terry preaches on John 20:24-31, exploring the story of Thomas's encounter with the risen Jesus. This sermon examines how past disappointments can train us to hold back from hope, making Thomas's demand for physical proof deeply relatable to modern believers who have experienced crushed expectations. Pastor Thomas traces Thomas's journey from loyalty to confusion to defiance, showing how unbelief often stems not from lack of evidence but from fear of being hurt again. The sermon unfolds in three scenes: Thomas's demand for proof, Jesus's gracious response by showing his wounds, and Thomas's profound confession "My Lord and my God" - which becomes the theological climax of John's Gospel. Pastor Thomas emphasizes that Jesus pursued Thomas rather than abandoning him, meeting him exactly where he drew the line. The message concludes by highlighting Jesus's blessing on those who believe without seeing, affirming that modern believers are not second-class disciples but are pronounced blessed by Christ himself for trusting the written testimony of Scripture."
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  Read Receipts 05.04.2026

  Pastor Thomas Terry preaches on John 20:1-23, exploring the resurrection of Jesus through the metaphor of \"read receipts\" - those notifications that tell you when someone has read your text message. He argues that Mary Magdalene and the disciples initially misread the silence of the empty tomb as absence and loss, when it was actually evidence of Christ's presence and victory. The sermon traces three scenes: the evidence (the empty tomb and grave clothes), the encounter (Jesus appearing to Mary and then to the disciples), and the effect (the transformation from fear to peace through Christ's presence). Thomas emphasizes that the resurrection is not just a historical event to believe in, but a present reality to live in - Christ meets us in our grief, fear, and confusion, calling us by name and breathing his Spirit into us for new life and mission."
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  Beauty Marks 03.04.2026

  Pastor Thomas Terry preaches on the profound beauty found in the ugliness of Christ's crucifixion, drawing from Isaiah 53:3-5. In our culture obsessed with curated beauty and polished appearances, Thomas argues that we have been trained to see beauty only in the obvious places, causing us to miss the deeper beauty found in the ordinary, messy, and even broken aspects of life. This sermon explores how Isaiah's prophecy, written 700 years before the crucifixion, reveals the stunning paradox of the cross: the most gruesome and shameful event in human history is simultaneously the most comprehensively beautiful. Terry walks through Isaiah's description of the suffering servant who was despised and rejected, showing how the crowd saw only ugliness while missing the substitutionary beauty underneath. The cross is beautiful not because it is pleasant to look at, but because it represents perfect justice and perfect love intersecting as Christ bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, and was pierced for our transgressions. The wounds of Christ are not regrettable scars but eternal beauty marks that prove the price of our redemption.
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  The Lamb, Slain Part 2 29.03.2026

  Pastor Andrey Gorban continues his exposition of John's crucifixion account, focusing on the completion of Christ's atoning work in John 19:28-42. This sermon explores the profound significance of Jesus' final words "It is finished" (tetelestai), demonstrating how these words represent the complete accomplishment of salvation rather than merely the end of Christ's earthly life. Pastor Gorban examines the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in every detail of Christ's death, from his thirst being quenched with sour wine on a hyssop branch to his side being pierced while his bones remained unbroken. The message also highlights the remarkable transformation seen in Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two previously secret disciples who courageously emerged to honor Christ in his burial, illustrating how the cross changes hearts and compels bold discipleship.
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  The Lamb, Slain Part 1 22.03.2026 40мин

  Andrey Gorban preaches on John 19:17-27, walking us through the crucifixion scene with reverence and unflinching honesty about what the cross cost Jesus. From the physical horror of Roman crucifixion to the shame of hanging naked before the world, John's account reveals a Savior who bore suffering, humiliation, and abandonment — and yet still turned in compassion to care for his mother. Gorban draws out the stunning biblical thread that the naked One on the tree is the very One who clothes his people in garments of salvation, connecting Eden's shame to Calvary's grace. This sermon invites you to marvel again at the Lamb who took the cross meant for Barabbas — and meant for us.
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  The True and Better Story About Power and Authority 15.03.2026

  Paul Hoffman preaches on John 19:1-16, exploring how stories shape our values and how Jesus confronts our narratives about power and authority. The passage reveals the striking irony of religious leaders abandoning their allegiance to Yahweh for Caesar, while Jesus demonstrates true kingship through self-sacrificial love rather than political manipulation. Hoffman challenges the church to resist trading allegiance to Christ for temporary political security.