Trinity Church of Portland - Sermons

This morning we continued in our current series, Christian Living In The Current of Culture, an exposition of 1 Corinthians. This sermon titled “Church Unity Through Church Identity” is from from 1 Corinthians 3:10-23 and was preached by a frequent guest preacher at Trinity Church, Pastor Cody Cannon who is the Lead Pastor of Life Pointe Church in Woodland, CA.In this text the apostle Paul reminds the local church who they are and encourages them that they will find unity when they realize their identity in Christ. This unity is worth fighting for because it honors God and glorifies Jesus and it is God's will for the church.

This morning we arrived at our fifth sermon in our current series, Christian Living In The Current of Culture. This sermon titled “Big Babies” was preached by Pastor Thomas Terry from 1 Corinthians 3:1-9.Because the Corinthians were living with an attitude of spiritual superiority, Paul starts this section with a reproof telling the Corinthians he could not affirm them as spiritual people but rather as people of the flesh. They were spiritual babies living as people who were spiritually immature without an appetite for the deeper things of God. Many Christians in our context have no appetite for the things of God, instead they substitute worldly wisdom and are apathetic toward God’s wisdom.If you are not growing in spiritual maturity receive this reproof and lay aside your worldliness, apathy, and stop feeding your flesh and instead turn to the Lord—ask him to help you change, and build you up in his word.

This morning we continued in our series Christian Living In The Current of Culture, preaching through Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. This sermon titled “God's Better Wisdom” was preached by Andrey Gorban from 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.This sermon text teaches us the great importance of God's wisdom versus human wisdom. We must not allow ourselves to prefer human wisdom over God's wisdom because human wisdom is incomplete and always changing. God's wisdom does not change and is made effectual by the Holy Spirit to equip us for service through His scriptures to bring glory to Christ.

This morning we celebrated Resurrection Sunday and continued our series Christian Living In The Current of Culture, preaching through Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. This sermon titled “The Message of the Cross” was preached by Pastor Thomas Terry from 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5.This sermon text helps us see the power in the preaching of the cross of Christ—the gospel, which Paul brought to Corinth and preached to both Jews and Greeks. Despite the fact that many in Corinth and in our own day view this message as foolishness, it is the wisdom of God which he uses to save people. God also calls people to salvation through this message who are seemingly unimpressive according to the world’s standards. This must cause us to boast only in God—never can we boast in ourselves or anything we have done.

This morning, we continued in our series Christian Living In The Current of Culture, preaching through Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. This sermon titled “The Key To Dealing With A Divided Church” and was preached by Pastor Thomas Terry from 1 Corinthians 1:10-17.This sermon text points us to the importance of church unity in order that the mystery of God's glory to be made known. Jesus prayed for this unity and Paul prioritized correcting disunity in the Corinthian church. This sermon considered the struggle with unity present in Corinth in two areas, divided doctrine and divided leadership. The local church must be united in doctrine that is Biblical as well as by leaders who are unified in teaching and accepting that doctrine.

This morning we continued in our series Christian Living In The Current of Culture, preaching through Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. This sermon titled “The Key To Dealing With Difficult Christians” was preached by Pastor Thomas Terry from 1 Corinthians 1:4-9.This sermon continued to unpack the initial greeting of Paul to the Corinthians. In this text Paul reveals the key to dealing with difficult Christians which is to be thankful to God for the things that God has done in His people. Paul acknowledges that God had enriched this church with gifts related to speech and knowledge, the very things that were being misused and over emphasized by some of the Corinthians Christians. This is so often a problem for Christians because we take good gifts from God and misuse them and even sin with them. Nevertheless, God in his infinite wisdom sustains us to wait for the return of Christ, and while we wait we are to work, love, worship, evangelize, and maintain faithfulness and thankfulness to God, all the while remembering our salvation is because of His grace, not our faithfulness. In fact this entire letter represents God’s faithfulness to Christians who often times were not faithful. Let us remember His faithfulness and rely on His grace and look forward to Christ’s imminent return.

This morning we began a new series titled, Christian Living In The Current of Culture, preaching expositionally through Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. This sermon titled “The People, Paul, & the Purpose For It All.” was preached by Pastor Thomas Terry from 1 Corinthians 1:1-3.This sermon laid the groundwork for coming months we will be preaching through the letter of First Corinthians. Corinth was the Roman gateway to Greece and a crossroads for people traveling all directions. This made Corinth a city and in turn made the church one that was wealthy and gifted. Even though this church was full of sin and messiness they were still God’s church. Paul focused closely on preaching Christ to move the Corinthian Christians from the culture of Corinth to the cross of Christ. Paul was telling the Corinthians, you are members of God’s church called to be different, called out from the world. As you approach this letter ask yourself whether your life looks like a Christian should look? And does your life reflect the truth of your identity, focused on remembering who you are and whose you are?

This morning our sermon titled “Walking In The Truth" was preached by Pastor Greg Taylor from 3 John 1-15.This letter showed us the importance of walking in Biblical truth because truth is inextricably connected to love and how we live the Christian life. We also saw that we are to support people who do gospel ministry—especially missionaries. This helps fulfill the mission of the church to go and preach the gospel and make disciples. Finally, we learned that when we stand firm for Biblical truth we will face opposition. 

This morning we completed our short series titled, The Twelfth Chapter, expositing Romans 12. This sermon titled “A Transformed And A Renewed Mind In Action” was preached by one of our faithful members, Andrey Gorban from Romans 12:9-21.This text unpacks how we are to live for Christ once He has changed us. This section is often referred to as the marks of a true Christian. These marks God has called us to are not legalistic, they are the outworking of God’s inward work in our lives so we can then outwardly live out the Christian faith with each other. This cannot be done in our own strength, but must be done in the power God provides. 

This morning we continued our series titled, The Twelfth Chapter, expositing Romans 12. This sermon titled “Gifted For The Good Of Others” was preached by one of our faithful members, Andrey Gorban from Romans 12:3-8.This text points us toward the spiritual gifts God gives to all of his people. We are told not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, but rather we are to use our gifts to serve each other in the church. It should also be noted that the gifts God gives are diverse and vary according to the grace God gives. So, let us deeply consider how it is God has gifted us and how we may contribute to the needs of the saints.