In the Christmas series Expecting, Tyler Lynde shares a message titled “Feel God,” inviting you to move beyond getting through songs and into a real encounter with God that changes what you carry. Tracing Mary’s journey in Luke 1, Tyler shows how worship follows a holy progression: revelation leads to response, and response deepens relationship. Mary’s first feeling is fear at Gabriel’s greeting, and Tyler reminds us from Hebrews 12:28–29 that a healthy fear of the Lord—reverence and awe for a consuming fire—isn’t a relic but a necessity. Her second feeling is uncertainty—How will this be?—met by a precise promise of presence: the Holy Spirit will overshadow you. Tyler ties this overshadowing to the cloud of glory in 2 Chronicles 5, where worship fills the house until the priests cannot stand, showing that God’s nearness doesn’t merely inform; it transforms.

From there, Tyler unpacks the P.R.I.M.E. rhythm—prepare, repent, invest, minister to God, enter in quickly—so worship becomes a weeklong posture rather than a Sunday-only habit. He encourages starting the conversation with God before you enter the room so you arrive already aligned, not waiting on the third song to wake your heart. Sincerity matters more than volume. Some respond to God’s presence with quiet peace, warmth, and prayer; others with tears, laughter, kneeling, raised hands, shouts, or even dance. Scripture makes space for both. What matters is the great exchange: heaviness for hope, anxiety for awe, confusion for clarity.

When Mary visits Elizabeth, John leaps in the womb and faith is confirmed—nothing is impossible with God. Mary’s third feeling becomes faith—Let it be to me according to your word—and her fourth is joy, bursting into the Magnificat: My soul magnifies the Lord. Tyler highlights three anchors in her song for modern worshipers: humility that God exalts, holiness that restores wonder, and mercy that spans generations. Christmas hope points beyond the manger to the cross, where cost and joy meet, and resurrection has the final word.

If you’ve been longing for worship that feels honest, reverent, and alive, Tyler’s message will help you enter in quickly—whether you’re in the car or in the pew—with a heart ready for the great exchange. Watch or listen and let Mary’s revelation, response, and relationship become your rhythm this week.

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

In Song Of Simeon, part two of the Expecting series, Mark Medley opens Luke 2:21–35 and shows why one elderly worshiper could hear God in a long silence, recognize the Messiah at first sight, and die satisfied. When Simeon lifts the infant Jesus and sings of a salvation prepared “in the presence of all peoples,” he also names the tension at the center of worship: this child will be a cornerstone for some and a stumbling stone for others. Mark frames that paradox honestly—Jesus is a sure foundation to those who trust him and an offense to those who resist his way.

Mark traces Simeon’s life of devotion—righteous, Spirit-led, grounded in Scripture—and honors Anna, the prophetess whose perseverance kept her near the presence of God. Their quiet faithfulness far from the spotlight is a template for us: corporate worship overflows with strength when private worship has already done its deep work. Simeon didn’t come to the temple to “get” the Spirit; he came in the Spirit. That posture still opens doors.

The message also names a thief of worship: offense. Unmet expectations, confusing seasons, and delayed promises can cool our praise. Mark walks through the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 to show what persistent faith looks like when faced with a hard word—she climbs over the stumbling stone and finds mercy on the other side. God is not cruel; he is revealing what rules our hearts so he can heal it.

To help us bring a true sacrifice of praise, Mark offers a simple framework he calls PRIME. Prepare throughout the week so Sunday isn’t culture shock. Repent quickly, standing in the cleansing of 1 John 1:9, so accusation can’t mute your voice. Invest your whole self—voice, body, attention, encouragement, even your broken heart. Minister to God by fixing your attention on Jesus and starving audience distraction. Enter in quickly from the first note; don’t wait for your favorite song.

Mark closes with the deepest contrast of all: Lucifer grasping upward—“I will ascend”—and Jesus pouring himself out in humility to death on a cross. That is the heartbeat of Christmas and the reason heaven exalts the Lamb. We don’t bring sacrifices to earn acceptance; we bring them because we are already accepted in Christ. If you’re ready to move from spectator to participant and guard your praise from distraction and offense, watch and step in with courage and joy.

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

What if the name of your city, your home, your inner life could be rewritten with one promise: The Lord is there? In this closing session of our Names of God study, we step into Ezekiel’s world—exile, rubble, and everything in between—to discover why Jehovah Shammah still lands like hope for people navigating wilderness seasons of their own.

We trace Ezekiel’s startling prophetic sign-acts and sweeping visions: the chariot-throne where God’s glory lifts from a corrupted temple, the valley where dry bones rattle back into living community, and the new sanctuary from which a river flows outward, deepening and healing the land as it goes. These scenes expose the sobering reason God’s presence once departed—idols dragged into holy courts—and they reveal the fierce mercy that follows: restoration, renewal, and a people shaped again by grace. This isn’t dusty ancient history; it’s a blueprint for understanding how God rebuilds what exile and idolatry have broken.

Then comes the turn that reframes everything. Paul declares that we are now the temple of the living God. His presence is not confined behind curtains or limited to geography; it indwells ordinary people who welcome the Spirit. Together we explore what that means for daily choices, how to identify the subtle idols that quietly occupy the heart, and how to live as carriers of a river that brings life to dry places. From Daniel in the lions’ den to Stephen before the council, from the upper room to your morning commute, Jehovah Shammah means you are not abandoned, not unseen, and not powerless.

Throughout the session, we work through practical reflection prompts and cross-Scripture connections designed to help you host God’s presence with integrity, repentance, and joy. The promise that “the Lord is there” becomes not just a title for a future city but a present-tense reality for believers learning to walk with God in the ordinary and the overwhelming.

If you’ve felt spiritually displaced, stuck in a long night, or unsure where God has gone in the middle of your own story, this teaching invites you to pay attention again—to the God who restores, who returns, and who dwells with His people. Come see what it means to bear the name Jehovah Shammah over your life, your home, and your community.

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