In this message from the In Christ series, Scott Wiens opens Ephesians 5:3–10 to draw a clear line between darkness and light. He addresses the way darkness often disguises itself as “it’s not that big a deal,” “everyone does it,” or “that verse doesn’t apply anymore,” and he invites you to see how the gospel reshapes what we desire, how we speak, and how we live. Scott grounds the text in its original setting—Ephesus, a city saturated with pagan worship and sexual permissiveness—and shows why Paul’s words were aimed at the church. The call isn’t to outrage at the culture, but to personal holiness, integrity, and a community life that is above reproach.

Scott defines the four sins Paul names—sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, and corrupt speech—and explains why they’re more than behavior problems. Sexual immorality is any sexual activity outside God’s design of one man and one woman in a marriage covenant. Impurity points to a mind that celebrates what God forbids, proving you can’t separate body and heart. Covetousness is greed turned into worship, which is why Paul calls it idolatry. Then Paul moves to our words—filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking—and gives a surprising replacement: thanksgiving. When we stay close to the gospel and remember the gift of redemption, gratitude becomes our new default, and over time it reorients our vocabulary and our choices.

Scott also names the “empty words” that try to excuse sin—cultural permission, selective theology, the claim that biblical ethics are outdated—and contrasts them with the conviction of the Holy Spirit, who will not be silenced in a true believer. He makes a crucial distinction between stumbling and making sin your identity, and he offers the pastoral help we need for real change: do not participate, learn to discern what pleases the Lord, and expose the works of darkness—beginning with our own hearts—through confession and accountability. Along the way, he cautions against “living on the edge,” reminds us that what we focus on is what we reflect, and shows why a life of gratitude leads to freedom and joy.

If you’re ready to stop partnering with darkness and to walk as a child of light, this message will help you take honest, practical steps. Watch or listen, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and ask yourself: where do you need clearer discernment this week?

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Hope collapses fast when it’s built on what can change. Money shrinks, plans unravel, people disappoint, and emotions swing. In A Living Hope, Tyler Lynde opens 1 Peter 1:3–9 to name a different kind of confidence: a living hope rooted in the Father’s mercy and anchored in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is not vague optimism or denial; it is a confident expectation based on God’s promises, not our mood, status, or circumstances.

Tyler traces the source and motive of living hope—God the Father and his great mercy—and explains the miracle of new birth. Before Christ, we were spiritually dead and unable to bridge the gap to a holy God. But God, rich in mercy, makes us alive with Christ. This is regeneration, the Holy Spirit imparting spiritual life to a dead heart and creating a new capacity to trust Jesus. Living hope is not self-improvement; it is rescue, restoration, and right standing with God through the new covenant.

He then slows down on the name of “our Lord Jesus Christ,” unfolding how Jesus is Lord (the Sovereign with the right to rule our lives), Jesus (the Savior who saves from sin), and Christ (God’s anointed, exalted to the highest place). From the cross to the empty tomb, Tyler shows why the resurrection is the Father’s public “Amen” to Jesus’ “It is finished”—the sacrifice accepted and the victory secured. Because Jesus lives, we can live now in newness of life and forever in the age to come.

This living hope also reframes suffering and the future. Trials refine faith like fire refines gold, producing joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. The Holy Spirit walks with believers, helping us persevere. Peter’s promise of an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading points us ahead: whether we pass into God’s presence or welcome the return of Christ, death is swallowed up in victory.

Tyler speaks tenderly to those who have drifted, reminding us that the Father welcomes prodigals home. The message closes with a clear invitation to trust or return to Christ and with communion as a tangible reminder that we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

If you need durable hope for what you’re facing, watch and share this message. What do you need living hope for right now?

We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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In this message from the In Christ series, Tyler Lynde opens Ephesians 5:1–2 and invites us to hear the call to imitate God “as beloved children” and to “walk in love” the way Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us. Tyler frames Christian living not as behavior modification but as family resemblance. When we know whose we are, what we do begins to change. That identity shift makes sense of the “put off/put on” contrasts from the previous weeks: put off lying and put on truth, put off anger and put on peace, put off stealing and put on generosity, put off destructive words and put on life‑giving speech. These are not random moral upgrades; they flow from being made new in Christ.

Tracing the story back to Genesis, Tyler reminds us that humanity was created in God’s image to reflect His heart in the world. Sin fractured that purpose, sowing distrust, shame, and distance from God. Tyler exposes the enemy’s oldest tactic—the lie that the Father doesn’t really love us—and shows how that lie still fuels fear, self‑protection, judgment, and striving. Against that backdrop, he brings us to the center of the gospel: Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. At the cross, Christ carried our sin, guilt, and shame so we no longer have to hide. Repentance, Tyler explains, is a change of mind and direction—turning from self‑rule to trust in Jesus’ finished work.

From there, Tyler draws on 1 John 4:7–21 to show that love is both the evidence of knowing God and the antidote to fear, because perfect love casts out fear. If we claim to love God while withholding love from one another, something is broken in our witness. But when we live loved—secure in the Father’s heart—truth replaces lying, peace quiets rage, generosity loosens our grip, and our words begin to heal. This is the family trait of those who are In Christ.

Tyler closes with a clear invitation to receive forgiveness, new life, and the Spirit’s power, and to step into daily practices of love at home, at work, and in conflict. What would change in your life if you truly believed the Father loves you? Watch and be encouraged to move from brittle performance to the steady joy of family resemblance.

We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Subscribe to our Podcast & YouTube channel to find past sermons, classes, interviews, and more!
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