Trinity Evangel Church

# Introduction A good story doesn't give everything away on the first page, not even in chapter 3. As Scripture records God's dealings with man, even as Scripture records God’s promise that He will send a Man, the revelation progresses. We're in a blessed position, and can work our way back (and forward) from many spots on the timeline. We know more about the Christ in Christmas than anyone in the...

# Introduction I can tell you everything that's wrong with Christmas. There is an explanation for tiny-terrorist present-demanding children, there is an explanation for holiday season loneliness, there is an explanation for passive aggressive, or even just directly critical extended family members, there is an explanation for why Scrooges exist as well as for the same sentimental seasonal stories...

# Introduction Romans 8:29-30 are sometimes called the Golden Chain of salvation. God Himself chose a people to love. He loves those rebels out of hostility into righteousness and peace; those who were in the chaos of sin He calls into conformity to Christ. He brings the broken into glory, the dying to eternal life. Is there a more potent reality in time and space than God's love? Jesus is the Son...

# Introduction As you read God's Word in the quiet of the morning you may not always hear the author’s intended tone of the passage in your mind, and fine. I imagine that the first person who read Paul's letter to the Romans for the first time didn’t realize in real-time how dramatic the rhetoric and argument and theology really are here at the halfway point; did he say, “Wait, let me read that ag...

# Introduction There are so many things to say about these verses that one might be tempted to abandon hope of doing them justice; will you dare to breaststroke across the Pacific? But one must try! One might also be tempted to fear the possible reactions of those who want the engine of hope to work another way. But one must step on those toes with love. Should we use theological labels as we work...

# Introduction I am *thankful*(!) for the PUD, usually and especially these last few days, and while fully understandable, the one piece of information that everyone signs in to the outage center to see hasn't been available after this last storm: Estimated Time to Restoring service. *That's what we really want to know.* I don't have the answer to that this morning, nor is the sermon threading a t...

# Introduction The Lord renews our minds so that we can live according to true standards. We look around and we see things that need explaining. Those who live according to the flesh invent some explanations, though their thoughts are more like riddles and riddled with inconsistency. They have trouble putting all the pieces together, which is actually a piece that believers have an explanation for...

# Introduction Is it hard or easy to be a Christian? It is *good*, but so is fighting on the right side in a just war. That is “easier” than trying to convince yourself to fight knowing you’re on the wrong side, and “easier” than dealing with the guilt of sitting out the battle on the right sideline. But no one would call the good fight *easy*. In Romans 8:12-17 there are not only a buffet of doct...

# Introduction As often found in this world of binaries, we come to another one or the other. These two categories go by other names in addition to what’s found in Romans 8, but these divisions are important to bear in mind when it comes to how people relate in the world. The line is between flesh and Spirit. There is a world of difference between the two. That is not exaggeration. It’s less like...

# Introduction I can’t recommend everything in the heist movie of course, but in _Ocean’s 11_ Danny Ocean shows up unexpectedly to his ex-wife and in their conversation she says, “You know what your problem is?” And he replies, “I only have one?” If I only had one problem it would be *anger*. It developed, I wouldn’t say “matured,” in my early 20s. Not that I was never angry before that, but my da...

# Introduction Do you exalt more in any other verse in Romans than 8:1? Maybe 5:1 comes close. But even there, as good as it is, it doesn’t lift up from as low down as the last half of chapter 7. Wretched man! Nothing good in me dwells! There is a law of isn that keeps pulling me back to sin when I know it’s no good. Now, though, *no condemnation!* This is what our justification means. The peace i...

# Introduction I am not a professional psychologist, but I am an amateur, in that I love the *souls*, the *psyche*, of people. As a pastor/shepherd, discipler, and as a practicing disciple of Christ myself who walks the road of sanctification every day, I can also say that identity of soul is vital and internal conflict about identity is destructive and paralyzing. For example, the misery of young...

# Introduction If the previous paragraph belongs among those vital to anthropology—that is, what makes men and their cultures tick, the second half of Romans 7 belongs among the do-not-ignore passages for Christian anthropology and discipleship. There is a change in tenses, from past to present, as Paul continues to use his own experience as representative of the kind of internal battle to be expe...

# Introduction This paragraph should be among those first pulled off the shelf when beginning to explain why men act the way they do. The implications of these truths spread out slowly like maple syrup from an overturned semi-truck coming from Canada. We see some of what’s wrong with us, and in particular how we can be expected to respond to external fixes. We are not tomato plants; tying us to st...

# Introduction In _The Pilgrim’s Progress_ Christian ignored the counsel of Evangelist and turned toward the house of Mr. Legality who lived in the village of Morality. > So Christian turned out of his way to go to Mr. Legality’s house for help: but behold, when he was got now hard by the hill, it seemed so high, and also that side of it that was the next way side, did hang so much over, that Chri...

# Introduction The gravity between grace and obedience is like that between the earth and the moon. As the earth constantly throws and catches the moon, so obedience is propelled by and tethered to grace. There have been some who tried to make the earth revolve around the moon, who make obedience central and grace in second place, which is wrong and deadly. But the fix is not to sever the connecti...

# Introduction "Yahweh is my pastor, I have everything I need." That’s an alternative way to start Psalm 23, a song whose words are so well-known, it sounds wrong to say it a different way. Perhaps there’s some rhetorical benefit to our mediation by hearing the same truth stated differently. John Wycliffe (1395) had it as, "The Lord governeth me, and no thing to me shall lack." William Tyndale did...

# Introduction It is one thing to have trouble, it is another thing to have trouble *and* feel as if God isn't near. It's different when you are in a trial with strong faith then when the trial is a test of faith. Pain and persecution of the outer man doesn't feel good, but when the inner man feels forsaken by God, that is a kind of consuming discomfort. Psalm 22 is a song of faith for those who f...

# Introduction How many Christians turn to the Psalms for comfort when they are feeling low compared to those who seek courage when the battle is hot? There is indeed much comfort, there is also much more. Singing Psalms is biblical, it’s devotional, it’s beneficial. Singing Psalms requires some doctrinal work, singing Psalms affects some political views. Most of the Bible-readers I’ve heard talk...

# Introduction This is the last paragraph in 2 Corinthians 4, and the last paragraph we’ll consider in this short series on the Heart of TEC. Though it’s the end of the chapter, these are the verses that first drew me into the chapter a dozen years ago. This paragraph is on my emergency text list. In fact, I turned us to this passage on what turned out to be the last Sunday for our in-person assem...

# Introduction It has always been the case that God's people have opportunities to bring Him praise especially in times of affliction. When His people are beaten up and used up, and yet continue to look up and speak up, God's worth is lifted up above all else. We saw last Lord’s Day that we have the "treasure (of gospel ministry) in jars of clay" (4:7), that the process will wear us out in weaknes...

# Introduction When we’re talking about *the heart of TEC*, that’s drawn from 2 Corinthians 4:1 and 4:16 where Paul says, “we do not lose heart.” The opposite of losing heart is *having* heart. These are paragraphs that explain the heart. The heart is related to glory. Beholding the glory of the Lord we come to share in His glory (3:18). His glory keeps us going (4:4, 6), thanksgiving for grace sp...