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.

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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.

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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.

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Advent isn’t just about counting down; it’s about cultivating expectancy. In this first message of the Expecting series, Mark Medley opens Luke 1:57–80 and lingers with Zechariah, the aging priest whose silenced voice is restored in a rush of praise and prophecy. Mark shows how God remembers the prayers we forget, and how worship becomes the space where His covenant faithfulness turns personal. Zechariah blesses the God of Israel for visiting and redeeming His people—and then, mid-song, hears a Spirit-given word over his newborn son: “And you, child…” Praise turns prophetic, and purpose is unveiled.

Mark frames worship with a simple, weighty pattern: revelation, response, and relationship. God, in mercy, discloses Himself; we respond with heart, mind, body, and voice; and that response reshapes our lives with Him. The size of our worship mirrors the size of our view of God. That’s why pondering His attributes—holiness, mercy, wisdom, sovereignty—matters. Steeping in Scripture through the week makes Sunday sing; truth inside us resonates with truth we declare. Worship, Mark insists, is not about what I like—it’s about who I love.

Drawing a thread through Scripture, Mark connects Paul’s call to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:18–19; Colossians 3:16) with the pattern in Exodus 15. Israel celebrates what God has done, moves into adoration to God, and then declares what God will do—a Spirit-led word that never contradicts the Bible. The same dynamic appears in Zechariah’s song. We sing about God, we sing to God, and then, filled with the Word and the Spirit, we receive from God. Zephaniah 3:17 reminds us that He is a singing God; as we lift our voices, He rejoices over us with singing.

Along the way, Mark offers practical ways to lean in during Advent: choose one attribute each week and saturate your mind with Scripture; expect your worship to move from celebration to intimacy to timely, biblically faithful encouragement. Parents can expect God to speak about their children. All of us can expect Him to give hope, correction, and direction as we gather at home and in church. If you’re at a low point, take courage—Zechariah’s silence ended in a song that shaped history. Emmanuel means God with us, and worship helps us notice.

If this message helps you reframe Advent, share it with a friend and stay with us for the rest of Expecting. What is God inviting you to expect from Him this week?

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Neil Silverberg continues the In Christ series by taking us into Paul’s soaring prayer in Ephesians 3:14–21. Rather than asking God to change circumstances first, Neil shows how Paul prays people into the truth—beginning with the Father, aiming at the inner life, and expecting the Spirit to work from the inside out. What if our first prayer was for power in the inner being, for Christ to truly make a home in us, for roots that go down into love, and for nothing less than the fullness of God?

Walking phrase by phrase, Neil traces Paul’s four cascading requests. First is inner strength—real resilience that holds when the outer self is wasting away. Second is faith that welcomes Jesus into every “room” of life, not as a guest but as the owner with the keys. Drawing on the beloved picture from My Heart—Christ’s Home, he invites us to let Christ rearrange the mind’s library, the appetites’ dining room, the living room of friendships, and even the closet of secrets. Third comes being rooted and grounded in love—not striving to love God more, but receiving strength to grasp the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love with all the saints. Neil weaves in a memorable window from church history—the Puritans’ “kisses of God”—to illustrate how doctrine is meant to be felt as well as understood. Finally, Paul asks that we be filled with all the fullness of God, a Spirit-given saturation that displaces self-rule with holy desire and satisfaction in God.

The message crescendos with Paul’s doxology: God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, and he does it according to the power at work within us. Neil anchors this in God’s sovereignty, omnipotence, and glory, and shows how Scripture lifts our expectations—from the Red Sea to the storm on Galilee. Along the way, he calls us to kneel before the Father, invite Christ’s lordship over our thoughts and appetites, lean into the church to comprehend love together, and worship with confidence that God’s power is not a force we wield but a Person who lovingly rules us.

If your prayers have grown small or tired, let this teaching in the In Christ series expand your frame. Listen, let the words wash over you, and then try praying Ephesians 3:14–21 over someone you love this week.

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When leaders fracture and communities lose their way, the question becomes painfully simple: where can we find a righteousness that actually holds? In this session, we open Jeremiah 23 and trace a golden thread through Israel’s story—Abraham’s faith, Moses’ covenant, David’s throne—until it resolves in a name that reorders everything: Jehovah Tsidkenu, “The Lord Our Righteousness.”

We walk through Jeremiah’s sharp indictment of failed shepherds and his tender promise to a scattered people. His prophetic rhythm—commands to do justice, warnings about covenant drift, and assurances of future restoration—builds toward the coming of a Righteous Branch who will reign with wisdom. That promise is not abstract; it points directly to a person. In Jesus, justice and mercy meet without compromise. The New Testament’s language of justification brings this home: our sin imputed to Christ, Christ’s righteousness imputed to us, and peace with God established as our new, unshakeable standing. From that standing grows a transformed life—one that seeks the good of the vulnerable, speaks truth in a world of tempting idols, and holds hope even when kingdoms tremble.

This session also brings the theme down to street level. If you’re anxious about the world your children are growing up in, worn down by constant outrage, or numb from the headlines, Jeremiah’s hope reaches into that exhaustion. The Good Shepherd doesn’t just comfort; He clothes His people in a righteousness they could never earn. That gift frees us to repent without fear, act justly without despair, and rest in the faithfulness of a King whose rule isn’t shaken by human failure.

“The Lord Our Righteousness” is more than a title—it is a shelter for weary hearts, a summons to integrity, and a steady joy for those who trust in the One who makes sinners whole and fractured communities new again.

We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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What if God’s call on your life is closer than you think—and what if He’s already given you the power to live it? In this In Christ message, Scott Wiens walks through Ephesians 3:1–13 and traces two gracious steps God took with Paul—and still takes with us today: commissioning and empowering. Scott opens with a memorable story about a former coworker named Steve, whose steady kindness and quiet faith helped steer him back to Jesus. That picture becomes the frame for the day: God doesn’t just call pastors and missionaries; He gives every believer a “commission of grace.”

Scott shows how Paul owned his specific call to preach to the Gentiles, then turns the question toward us. Beyond titles and platforms, what are we owning? The commission of grace is the mandate given to all Christians to reflect the power of the gospel in everyday life—at a checkout line, in a cubicle, at the dinner table. It’s not performance; it’s a new nature that shines through habits, speech, and choices. Drawing from Romans 12:1–2, Scott challenges halfway Christianity and calls us to present our whole selves to God. When belief and behavior align, people see a sermon rather than just hear one.

From there, the message gets practical: three simple ways to carry this commission. Live a holy life that matches your confession. Serve, because Jesus defined greatness with a towel over His arm and His eyes on “the least of these.” And share your testimony. Many will argue with a verse; few can dismiss a changed life. Scott urges us to be ready with gracious words (1 Peter 3:15; Colossians 4:5–6) and a renewed life (Ephesians 4:20–24) that makes the gospel plausible.

Then comes the hope we all need: when God commissions, He empowers. Paul ministered “by the working of God’s power” (Ephesians 3:7). The promised Spirit gives a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26–27), brings life to mortal bodies (Romans 8:11), and pours out grace richly (Titus 3:5–6). This is not self-help. It’s the living Christ at work within us, breaking chains and reshaping desires so our light isn’t hidden under a basket but lifted for others to find the way home.

Scott closes with an urgent invitation to walk in the light (1 John 1:5–7): confess what’s holding you back, ask for prayer, and begin again. Grace commissions you. The Spirit empowers you. Someone nearby needs your light. If you’re ready to be all in, this message will help you take your next step.

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Holiness isn’t a self-help project; it’s a relationship sustained by God’s own power. In this session, we explore what it means for the Lord to be our Sanctifier, tracing the theme from Exodus and Leviticus all the way to the clarity of 1 Thessalonians 4, Romans 12, and Hebrews 10. Throughout Scripture, sanctification carries a twofold reality: God sets us apart in Christ once for all, and then He continually makes us holy by the Spirit’s ongoing work—reshaping our desires, our habits, and the hopes that steer our lives.

Matthew leads us into honest territory where sanctification becomes deeply practical—sexual integrity, pride, lust, dishonesty, and the way our bodies themselves are treated as places of worship rather than shame. We explore how surrender becomes the doorway to real transformation, how renewing the mind rewires our reflexes over time, and how Christ’s finished work secures our identity even while we continue growing. The biblical paradox that we are “perfected” while “being sanctified” frees us from condemnation and fuels a steady, hopeful pursuit of obedience.

We also look at tangible ways to cooperate with God’s grace: presenting every part of life to Him as an offering, beginning each day clothed in the armor of God, and using tools like journaling to trace the quiet, faithful progress the Spirit produces in us—progress we might otherwise overlook. Sanctification becomes less about pressure and more about partnership with the God who delights to finish what He starts.

This session invites you to run your race with courage, to finish well, and to rest in the faithfulness of the One who began the good work in you and has promised to bring it to completion. Come discover the freedom, hope, and steady maturity that flow from knowing the Lord as the God who sanctifies His people.

We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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