Trinity Evangelical Church | North Reading, MA episodes:

• March 28, 2022Kingdom Come Now

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• March 21, 2022Kingdom People

  1. God always intended His people, the Church, to be a colony of heaven in the world.
  2. Jesus, the better Moses, taught us who His kingdom people are to be and what they do.
  3. The beatitudes are a description of who Jesus is.
  4. While Moses gave us God’s Law, our King Jesus fulfilled God’s Law on our behalf.
  5. Since Jesus isn’t like any other king, His people won’t be like other kingdoms.
  6. The poor in spirit are those who recognize their spiritual bankruptcy without God.
  7. When we see the reality of sin in ourselves and others, it causes us to mourn.
  8. When we have a true view of ourselves, sin, and God’s grace, we become meek.
  9. Kingdom people don’t only grieve over sin but crave God’s righteousness.
  10. If we crave things to be made right, we work to show mercy to those in need.
  11. We’re less concerned about being pretty on the outside as much as pure on the inside.
  12. Kingdom people work for peace even when people refuse to live at peace with us.
  13. Blessed are those who embody the way of King Jesus, for they will experience His kingdom come among them.
  14. We cannot become like Jesus with our strength but in recognizing our weakness.
  15. Every time we as the Church do not look like Jesus, it’s evidence that we’re trying to be the Church without Him.

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• March 14, 2022The Expansion of the Kingdom

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• March 07, 2022The Gospel of the Kingdom

  1. The kingdom that arrived in Christ is the same one promised in the Scriptures long before.
  2. The Kingdom of Heaven is the “realm in which God’s reign may be experienced.” - George Elden Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom
  3. Even though we failed to give our Creator and King the allegiance that’s due Him, He didn’t give up on us. He promised His kingdom would come again.
  4. In Jesus, God’s kingdom has come and is coming.
  5. When Christ’s kingdom comes, it demands we pledge our hearts to Him and Him alone.
  6. Repentance isn’t just about a change in what we do but who we love.
  7. Jesus declares that in light of the kingdom, now is the time to decide who we will love and who you will follow because we can’t serve two Kings.
  8. The challenge of the Kingdom is not just to believe in God, but to pledge the allegiance of our entire heart to Him.
  9. The question of the kingdom to us personally: ‘is there some relationship, purpose or security in my life that when threatened or taken away causes me to question whether I can trust God?’
  10. As we gaze on the cross where the King of glory died in love for us, it dawns on us that He is the only King worthy of our whole lives.
  11. Why do we withhold part of our lives or heart from our Creator and King?
  12. I don’t trust God will do what I think is best.
  13. I’m ashamed of what God might show me if I opened my heart to Him.
  14. Christ is called the Light in the dark 1) because He was radiantly different.
  15. Christ was also called the Light 2) because He overpowered the dark.
  16. The one, true King has come. Step out from the shadows. His Light has dawned.

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• February 28, 2022Jonah's Anger vs. God's Relentless Grace

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• February 28, 2022Jonah's Obedience and Nineveh's Repentance

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• February 14, 2022From Death to Life

  1. If we insist on trusting in ourselves first, God will allow us to reach the end of ourselves.
  2. Since the Garden of Eden, each of us have lived under a warped version of reality that it is smarter to trust in ourselves than God.
  3. If we trust in ourselves first, we learn to depend on our power and abilities, not God’s.
  4. As we become more self-absorbed, we close our hearts to God and His love.
  5. In the end, if we insist on trusting ourselves, God will allow us to experience the consequences of the path we choose.
  6. In the deepest of pits, the Lord hears you, still loves you, and has the power to save you.
  7. But even though Jonah made his own grave, God was waiting there to rescue him.
  8. God Himself already went ahead of us into death to make a way for all of us to life.
  9. Jesus descended to the pit of hell and came back with the keys, so that all who call to Him may know that salvation comes from the Lord.
  10. When God’s grace overwhelms our guilt, our hearts overflow with gratitude.
  11. Even though his circumstances still stink, his heart is full of gratitude.
  12. When we realize that none of what we have is what we deserve, it opens our hearts to the joy of gratitude.
  13. “Gratitude is a sort of laughter of the heart that comes about after some surprising kindness.” - David Brooks, New York Times columnist 

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• February 07, 2022Running into Mercy

  1. When God speaks to us, His word disrupts our lives to lead us toward greater freedom.
  2. If our self-prescribed loyalties or fears are keeping us back from what God’s doing, He will confront them so we can move beyond them.
  3. When God moves toward us, it is to move us closer to Him and to those He loves.
  4. When God’s word sounds like a threat to our lives, we naturally want to resist and run.
  5. When we insist on trying to run our own lives, we will try to run from God.
  6. We may like the idea of God’s purpose for our lives, but we cannot fulfill His purpose and keep our throne. 
  7. Fear tries to convince us we’ll be happier running our own lives, but without God, it’s really a slow death.
  8. Even when we try to run away from God, He doesn’t stop running toward us.
  9. Signs of God’s mercy to Jonah…
  10. When Jonah was asleep to God’s voice, He used the storm to wake him up.
  11. God used an ‘unbeliever’ to convict the heart of the ‘believer.’
  12. When Jonah deserved death for his rebellion, God provided the rescue.
  13. What does the fish symbolize? God’s endless mercy.
  14. Even when we run from God like He’s a threat, His mercy pursues us like a Father.

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• January 24, 2022The Burden of Greed and Unfulfillment

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• January 17, 2022The Burden of Darkness

  1. When darkness appears to be winning, it leaves us feeling hopelessly alone and looking for the quickest way out.
  2. When adrenaline subsides, tiredness hits, or loneliness sets in, the lies often come.
  3. Satan waits until we’re weak and susceptible so he can either entice us to sin or overwhelm us with fear of the darkness.
  4. Because we live in a society where sin has been normalized, it’s easy to ask ‘what’s the point in believing anything can be different?’
  5. God’s grace meets us in our discouragement so His truth can untangle the lies.
  6. First, God in His love addresses Elijah’s practical needs.
  7. Second, God invites him to untangle His fear.
  8. Third, God speaks truth to Elijah in the language of grace not judgment.
  9. Although darkness appears to be winning at times, God is still on the throne, we are not alone, and His purposes still stand for us and the coming generations.
  10. No matter what kings say or do, God is on the throne.
  11. We are not alone.
  12. God’s purposes still stand for us and the coming generations.
  13. When the darkness seems to have won, the still voice of God invites us to step out in the light because He’s not done.

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