Trinity Church of Portland - Sermons

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.

This morning we began a new series titled, The Twelfth Chapter expositing Romans 12. This sermon titled “A Life Of Worship” was preached by one of our faithful members, Andrey Gorban and is from Romans 12:1-2.This sermon focused us on how Christians are to live lives of sacrificial worship by presenting ourselves in totality to God. In addition to worship we learned that we are to avoid conformity to the world but instead we are to renew our minds and be people who love what Jesus loves and to seek his will in all things.

This morning Pastor Thomas Terry brought to a conclusion our series “The Word of God and the People of God”. This concluding sermon is titled “Every Member Ministry” and is from Ephesians 4:7-16.This sermon focused us on how God gives us grace to serve in His church. He has given us the gifts of offices in the church to equip the people of the church to serve with the goal that the members grow into maturity and find protection from false doctrine and the worldly deceit that comes against us. Ultimately this is equips the members to do the work of the ministry.

This morning our sermon titled “Every Member Holy" is from Matthew 18:15-20 & 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 and was preached by Pastor Greg Taylor and part of our series “The People of God & the Word of God.”This sermon focused on the subject of church discipline which is found in our two main texts where we see that church discipline is a necessary device the Lord has given us to maintain purity and order in the church when members stumble or fall in such a way it requires the other members to get involved. We practice church discipline for the sake of the person who has stumbled, always with the goal of seeking that person to be restored to a right place with Christ as well as with all of us, in the church. 

The podcast explores the significance of the keys of the kingdom, Peter's confession, the foundation of the church, the church advancing and overcoming evil, dealing with unrepentant sinners, the importance of church discipline and restoration, and the importance of membership and commitment in the church.

This morning our sermon titled “Gardeners In The Garden” is from Genesis 1:27-28 was preached by Pastor Thomas Terry as part of our series “The Word of God & The People of God.”This sermon focused us on the church and the role of church members. By going back to the beginning we see Adam and Eve were commissioned to work and garden as part of God’s covenant. Similarly, these are the things we are commissioned to do in the church as we seek to glorify God, work, guard, and live within the new covenant community as chosen people who are saved by the person and work of the Lord Jesus. So, as a local assembly of the new covenant community, this church is our garden and it is the job of each and every member to glorify God in unity by reflecting the very image of God so that those outside the covenant might peer in and see what God is like. We are to seek to grow the church through evangelism, and we are to guard and protect the church to ensure that those who come into the church are in fact regenerate people so we can ultimately keep the church sacred and holy.