Trinity United Presbyterian Church

One of the biggest questions we ever face is how to get right with God. Spoiler alert: YOU can't do it. On this Reformation Sunday, we'll look at why human effort falls short and why God's solution is so much better. 

In the miracle of feeding the 5,000, Jesus demonstrates how God can multiply what we offer when we trust Him and participate in His work. Motivated by compassion for others and gratitude for what we have received, we are invited to respond generously.

Two desperate people — a synagogue ruler and a nameless, suffering woman — reach out to Jesus from completely different places, and He stops for both of them. Faith doesn't require the right credentials; it simply requires turning toward Jesus in our need.

Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of God doesn't arrive with fanfare — it begins small, hidden, and almost invisible, like a mustard seed pressed into soil. Yet what God starts, God faithfully grows into something that shelters and sustains.

Jesus enters the synagogue and finds a man with a withered hand — and a crowd watching to see if He'll break the rules. He heals anyway, revealing that genuine love for people will always outrank rigid religious performance.

Jesus calls a despised tax collector to be His disciple and then crashes a party to eat with sinners, signaling that His kingdom has no VIP list. The old wineskins of religious tradition cannot contain the new, living movement He is launching.

From the very first verse, Mark declares that Jesus is the Son of God — and everything that follows is an invitation to decide what we'll do with that claim. His baptism and temptation reveal a Messiah who is both fully divine and fully committed to walking the human road alongside us.

As the final message in our series, we turn our gaze outward — beyond the walls of our church and into the community God has called Trinity to serve with purpose and presence in this new ministry year. This message explores what it looks like to be intentionally present with those outside our church family, meeting people where they are with the love, compassion, and hope that only Christ can offer. We will also cast a vision for what God is stirring at Trinity in the year ahead, rallying together around a shared calling to make a lasting impact in the lives of those who need to experience His presence most.

In a world that is more connected than ever yet increasingly isolated, God calls us to something countercultural: to be truly and fully present with one another as His family. Authentic Christian community requires more than proximity or connection—it requires love that listens, notices, shows up, and stays.

We'll explore what it means to move beyond surface-level relationships and into the kind of intentional, attentive community that reflects the love of Christ and strengthens the body of the church. Together, we'll ask: What does the way we spend our time reveal about what we love? And how might God be inviting us to reorder our lives so that we have greater capacity to love, listen, serve, and walk faithfully with one another?

Because real love costs us something—our comfort, our preferences, our distractions, and our tendency to put ourselves first. Being present is one way we choose to love.

In this series, we'll look at what it means to be fully present in a distracted world. Present with God, present with one other, and finally present with the world and its needs. We'll talk about disciplines and habits that can get us there, have the option of receiving daily devotional reminders, and encourage one another on the journey.

This message, we'll look at the problem of finding time to connect with God in a busy and distracted world. We'll also look at some different spiritual pathways, because what works for someone else in connecting with God, may not work for you.