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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
We Belong Together
In We Belong Together, Pastor Tyler Lynde explores how each of us can embrace meaningful community within the family of God. Drawing on Hebrews 10:19-25, Tyler paints a vivid picture of believers who choose to journey side by side, encouraging each other to grow deeper in faith so we can reach farther in love. At the core is the idea that we were created for relationship—first with God, then with one another—and that sin may have fractured those bonds, but Jesus’ sacrifice restores them.
Tyler begins by reminding us of God’s design for humanity. From the earliest moments in Genesis, community was part of God’s plan; we’re not meant to navigate life alone. When sin entered the world, it severed our ties with God and introduced division into our relationships. But Jesus stepped in to heal what was broken. As His body was broken on the cross, the temple veil tore, signifying direct access to God and a fresh unity among believers. Tyler highlights how this reconnection is not just vertical between us and the Father, but horizontal between fellow Christians.
Throughout this message, three practical exhortations stand out: draw near in faith, draw near in hope, and draw near in love. Drawing near in faith means living with confidence in Christ’s work on our behalf. Drawing near in hope focuses on trusting that God, who began a good work in us, will bring it to completion. Drawing near in love calls us to reflect God’s heart to one another, letting genuine care and compassion guide every interaction. These steps are more than ideals; they’re vital practices that help us resist loneliness and complacency in our spiritual walk.
Tyler also addresses the importance of commitment to regular fellowship—“not giving up meeting together.” Whether it’s participating in small groups, sharing testimonies, or joining in prayer, these gatherings become lifelines of faith and hope. We learn to celebrate the good, grieve the hard, and endure trials as a community strengthened by Christ’s presence. By investing in others’ lives and letting them invest in ours, we discover that our faith deepens and our reach expands.
Ultimately, We Belong Together challenges us to reimagine what it looks like to be part of a church. It’s an invitation to belong, grow, and serve in unity with brothers and sisters in Christ. When we stand together, leaning on God’s love, we embody His vision for a people who shine brightest in a world hungry for genuine connection and grace.
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So the overarching theme that the elders received from the Lord for this year, first of all, was that we needed to get some things.
Tyler Lynde:We needed to grow within our own team, and so be praying for us, asking the Lord to help us as we long to be greater examples of what it looks like to be followers of Jesus Christ as we lead this church according to the grace of God. So be praying for us. But also, we felt like the Lord spoke something to us for the entire church, and it can be summed up in a simple sentence together, growing deeper so that we can reach farther, together, growing deeper so that we can reach farther. And that's what we believe is kind of the overarching theme for this entire year and what we believe that God wants us, as a church, to experience. Now, if we're going to experience it as a church, where does it have to start? With individuals? It starts with individuals, and then it goes to families, and then it goes to community groups, and on and on and on, and eventually the church itself will also experience it together, right? So let's get into this. Over the next few weeks, we'll be breaking this idea down into segments that just happen to coincide with belong, grow and serve.
Tyler Lynde:If you've ever been a part of Trinity for any length of time, you know that you've heard these three words, and these aren't just it's not just a mantra, it's just not words on a wall in the lobby. These are words that we believe, that God is asking us, as a church, to participate in, and so the first word is belong, and the title of today's message is we belong together. We belong together. Let's look in our Bibles to Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 19 through 25. And I'm actually using the NIV version today Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 19 through 25. Please, as we read this, pay attention to all of the plural words that are used we, us and so on. Right Hebrews 10, 19 through 25.
Tyler Lynde:Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for your matchless word and I thank you, lord, that you've been working this word in my heart and in my mind and my soul, in my spirit, over this last couple of weeks. And, father, I pray that the work that you've done in my life would be translated and that I would speak the words that you desire to be spoken today and that you would touch each and every person that is listening to this message. And, father, that you would do the work that only you can do of transforming hearts and minds. Father, we want you, we need you and we need each other, and we ask that you'd help us to recognize that even more today. In Jesus name, amen.
Tyler Lynde:So I wanted just to start with this simple thought we were created to be a part of God's family. We were created by God to be a part of his family. Can you travel with me through the cosmos to To eternity past. You have father, son and spirit who, by the way, are the perfect picture of unity and togethering. And they're having a staff meeting right and as they're having the staff meeting, they're having a discussion About what they may want to do over the next few days or weeks. And guess what they said? Why don't we create something? Why don't we make something brand new? Why don't we speak something? Why doesn't something come from the Father's heart and Jesus speak it out of his mouth and the Holy Spirit take the words and form? That Wouldn't that be amazing. Let's do that.
Tyler Lynde:And so we see in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26,. It says let us make man in our image. Verse 26, it says let us make man in our image, after our likeness, after God had created everything and said that it was good, then he created man and he said it is very good. It is very good. Why did God create us? Because he wanted us to be a part of his family. It's as if the father looked at the son and said I want to give my son the very best gift that I could ever give him, and so I want to give him a bride. And it's like the son looked at the father and said I want to give him the very best gift that I can give him, and so I want to give him children. And so the Holy Spirit took that and caused it to come to being here in this earth as God created Adam.
Tyler Lynde:And the first not good found in scripture is found when God says what it is not good for man to be alone. Now, several of you men in this room just missed a divine opportunity. I laid it out for you on a platter and you remain silent it is not good for man to be alone. Thank you, thank you All. Right, I'm going to be praying for your wives even more, even more now. But it is true, it's not good for man to be alone. God created Adam and he realized that Adam needed other people, another person in his life and other people in his life. And so God formed Eve out of Adam's rib and brought her to Adam, and the two enjoyed their relationship with each other, and part of the fruit of their relationship together was that they bore children. Right, but how many of you know that's not the end of the story.
Tyler Lynde:This story takes an unfortunate turn and, by the way, this isn't just a story in a book. This really happened. This is real. And so what did they do? They sinned, and sin broke our relationship with God. Adam and Eve broke God's commandment and in so doing they were removed from the presence of God and from the Garden of Eden, and they were doomed to eventually die. But even in the middle of that devastating scene if you can picture it in your head and we've just read about this in our Bible reading plan since the beginning of January God promised that there would be redemption. That would come. God had a plan that was bigger than man's sin and man's mistake. Now we can blame Adam and Eve all we want, but here's the reality. Every person ever born, including myself, have been born what Condemned. We have been born in sin and death. We have been born opposed to God. We have been born dead in our trespasses and sins, and if you want proof of that, here's the proof. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, every single one of us. We are in desperate need of rescue.
Tyler Lynde:Not only was our relationship with God affected by the fall, but so was our relationship with each other. What was the second sin that was recorded in the Bible. You see, sin broke our relationship with each other, and we see that as the second sin recorded in the Bible was when Cain killed his brother Abel. Why? Because he was jealous that God accepted his brother's sacrifice and not his own. He killed his brother over that. And from then on we see regurgitation of these kinds of cycles, where mankind grew further and further away from any knowledge of God and gave in more and more to their own fleshly desires, hatred and anger and malice and destruction and murder and sexual sin, all of the things that you can name, all of the things that you can name, all of the things that remove us in our relationship with God and also remove us in our relationship with each other. So how did God respond? He responded in the Old Testament, with sweeping judgments, like the flood and then the fire that fell as brimstone, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. God grew weary of all of this, and so what did he do? He began to enact a plan of redemption Wherein he would restore his family back to himself and to each other, and that's the premise of this whole message this morning. That's the premise, I believe, of this passage of scripture. So let's dig in First point is that Jesus' sacrifice made a way for us to be restored to right relationship with our Father God. The passage reads therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, open for us through the curtain that is his body, jesus' sacrifice. By the way, jesus was the only one born, who wasn't born condemned by sin and death Because his father was not of this earth. His father was our father in heaven.
Tyler Lynde:In Old Testament times, people were kept at a distance from God. This was a part of the tabernacle and temple motif. Only once a year, during Yom Kippur, which is the day of atonement, the high priest would be allowed to go past the veil that guarded the Holy of Holies, where the presence of God was kept and was to be found, and he would go in as a representative of his own family and of the people of God, the Jewish nation, and he would stand there before the Ark of the Covenant, before the altar, and he would sprinkle upon it the blood of animals who had been sacrificed for the sins of the altar, and he would sprinkle upon it the blood of animals who had been sacrificed for the sins of the people. The book of Hebrews teaches us that, as important as that old covenant was and it was it was just a shadow. It was a shadow of the substance, which is the new covenant which Jesus enacted by dying for us. Jesus replaced the old covenant with a new covenant, and he did this with his own body. Christ's death created a new and living way. The veil in the temple, if you think about it, when Jesus died, when he breathed his last breath and he said it is finished.
Tyler Lynde:The Bible says that the veil of the temple rent from top to bottom. Wasn't one of Jesus's followers, like Peter, that got excited and ripped it from the bottom to the top? God ripped it from the top to the bottom and he said let me out. I will no longer be contained in vessels made by man. And because of this, as Jesus' body was being broken, the veil separating man from God was torn. It was a symbol. It represented this new covenant, this new life that we can have. We can now come confidently into the presence of our father. We don't need a human mediator, we don't need a high priest other than Jesus. We can come boldly into the throne of grace. This is good news. Our relationship with him has been restored. If we do what? If we place our faith, hope and trust on Jesus Christ, that's what opens the door. So Jesus' sacrifice made a way for us to be restored to right relationship with our father God, but it also made a way for us to be restored to right relationship with each other. Did you catch this? As I was reading it the first time? And since we have a great priest over the what?
Tyler Lynde:The house of God, the house of God, plural. Jesus didn't die just to save one person. Jesus didn't die just to save one person. Jesus died to save an entire household. That's why he came. That's why he died, that's why the new covenant was cut, that's why he did what he did. In other words, he came to save all of those who belong to him, all of those who are called to be a part of his family. He did it once and for all. We are made alive under God so that we can also be made right with each other. And the Bible refers to this house of God in a lot of different ways. It refers to it as a family, a body, a building and the bride of Christ, just to name a few. But make no mistake, the church is God's idea. It's not man-made, somebody didn't come up with it as a great idea. Jesus died so that the church could be made alive and we could have right relationship with God and with each other.
Tyler Lynde:I know it isn't popular to say this in today's world. How many of you know, there's a lot of people who love to hate the church. There's a lot of people who love to hate the church. And don't get me wrong, there are things that I see happening within the churches, especially in our own nation, that grieve me, that cause me deep sorrow, that cause me to cry out to God to bring about revival and restoration and reformation. Absolutely, do you know? So many people say the church ain't what it once was. I'm here to tell you the church ain't what it's going to be yet either. God's not done with his church yet, and if he's not done with it, how dare we say that we're done with it?
Tyler Lynde:I choose to believe that the best is yet to come for the church of Jesus Christ. We know we're definitely a work in progress and the Ephesians 5 tells us that so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. God, by the work of his Holy Spirit, is doing a work on the inside of each of us as individuals and he's brought us together as families and he continues to cultivate holiness within our lives. And when Jesus returns to this planet, we will all be made like him. Returns to this planet, we will all be made like him and we will be a church that will be without spot or wrinkle or blemish.
Tyler Lynde:Some of us need to repent for the attitude that we've had concerning the church. Jesus gave his very life to establish the kingdom of God, and part of the function of the kingdom of God, or the vehicle that God uses within the kingdom of God, is the church. Let's pray for her. Let's be the very best church members that we can be. Let's make sure that we're representing Christ in our own lives and within our church family.
Tyler Lynde:So there are three exhortations here that are found in this passage and we're going to just dive into these for a few minutes and these are given to those who have been restored to right relationship with God and with each other. Think about it like this the vertical plank of the cross represents the relationship with God that has been restored, and the horizontal plank of the cross represents the relationship with each other that's been restored. Jesus died for both, for both, for both. So let's look at this and let's think about these three exhortations. Personally, how should I live these things out? But then let's look at it as a family as well.
Tyler Lynde:First of all, draw near in faith. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let's not linger back. Let's not wait for ourselves to get to a certain place so that we feel like we have it together enough where we can approach God. My friends, jesus paid the price for us to be able to approach God. In our current state, whatever we find that state to be, we can come boldly into the presence of God. That doesn't mean arrogantly or filled with pride or look at who I am, but it's a realization that God paved the way. God made the way, and to not enter into his presence is to say that it wasn't enough. We should approach God with utter sincerity and with full assurance that faith provides in the finished work of Christ. The finished work of Christ is what we should focus on when it comes to us drawing near to God. So how can we do this as individuals?
Tyler Lynde:Let's talk about this for a minute. How about personal devotions? How about reading your Bible? How many of you know it's hard to know somebody unless you understand who they are and what they're about. Aren't you glad that God gave us such a thick Bible to give us such detailed information about who he is, what he does, what his thoughts are, what his heart's like, what his characteristics are, how we should obey him, what his commandments are? All of those things are found in the word of God. Read your Bible, and I'm so thankful. There's over 130 people who have joined us in the reading plan for this year, and I just encourage you to continue it.
Tyler Lynde:Let this not just be a New Year's resolution that comes and goes right. Let's stick with it. Let's let the word of God read us as much as we're reading it. How about prayer? Remember, prayer is a two-way street. It's me talking to God and it's me listening to God. That's why Bible reading and prayer goes so well together, because a lot of times God chooses to speak to us through his word. Spend time in prayer with God, worship, worshiping God, glorifying him, lifting his name up, acknowledging who he is, fasting. We won't linger there, but fasting is a real, legitimate way to develop and to grow your relationship with God, and this one, hopefully, we can all embrace. This Resting. Hopefully we can all embrace this Resting If you want to get to know God.
Tyler Lynde:You know, the seventh day what God did after he'd worked for six days, he rested Doesn't mean that he ate Cheetos all day and watched reruns of whatever, but it means that he enjoyed life, he breathed, he took it all in, he smelled the roses. When's the last time you took time to smell the roses? Now, here's the danger in all of these things that I've just said. We can easily make these transactional. We can make them like God's our boss and we're his employees, and so these are the things that we need to do in order for him to pay us what we need in this life. Don't act like I'm crazy. All of us have had those thoughts, maybe even this week.
Tyler Lynde:God wants a relationship with us. He wants our heart's desire to be, to be with him, reminded of the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was busy getting the dinner ready and we know Jesus loved to eat Martha's food, right? So it wasn't that she was wrong, necessarily, but Mary sat at Jesus's feet and listened to his words and connected with him and related to him. Martha interrupts the scene and says Jesus, tell Mary to help me, she's being lazy. And Jesus says to Martha Martha, martha, mary's chosen the better thing right now. There'll be time for making dinner, there'll be time for making the bed, there'll be time for doing this or for doing that. This is our time for connection and for relationship, amen.
Tyler Lynde:So we need to draw near to God as individuals. We also need to draw near to God as a church family. What does that look like? It looks like husbands and wives praying together. It looks like families having devotions together. It looks like times of corporate prayer and worship, just like we've just experienced. It looks like taking communion together. In this very passage it says having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. One of the things that we do when we take communion is remind ourselves of what Jesus did. This very thing. It's powerful when we do this as a community.
Tyler Lynde:How about celebrating water baptisms. It goes on in the same passage to say having our bodies washed with pure water. Baptism is an example. It's an outward expression of something that's happened on the inside and it's meant to be done together to celebrate Once this person was lost and now they've been found. I pray to God that we have twice as many baptisms this year as we had in 2024. True converts, true people who have been radically changed and saved by the grace of God. So many other ways that we can draw near to God together. These are not exhaustive lists, obviously.
Tyler Lynde:The second exhortation given here is to draw near in hope. In hope. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we professed, for he who promised is faithful. How many of you have ever felt hopeless, discouraged, despondent? I know what it's like, I have experienced those things. But how many of you know our hope is found in Christ alone? He is the anchor of our souls. God can be thoroughly relied upon. If he makes a promise, he will fulfill it. There's no questions to ask. There's no reason to doubt. If God says it, that settles it, and he's the only one who can do the good work that needs to get done in our lives.
Tyler Lynde:We can't behavior, modify ourselves enough. We cannot put our hope in our own strength or our own will or our own courage. Thank God when those things align with God's will and God's strength and God's courage. But, friends, we cannot do it on our own. And how many times have we fallen on our face because we've tried to put our hope in anything else in governments, in marriage, in families, in finances, whatever you could put, whatever you want to put in there. But our hope, our unswerving hope and dying devotion, needs to be in Christ.
Tyler Lynde:Philippians 1, 6 gives us this promise, and I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. God's not finished with us yet, but he hasn't stopped working either, and we can put our hope in him. Here's the thing. The grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ is simply this, and this is where our hope is found Jesus did it all. He did it all, he did it all, and he gives us the ability, by the Holy Spirit that lives on the inside of us, to do what he's asking us to do. We're not alone on this journey. So, even when you feel alone and you don't have that sense of community around you or belonging, how many of you know, we can find our hope and trust and anchor in Jesus himself.
Tyler Lynde:The final exhortation is all about what it looks like to belong together as redeemed children of God, and it is simply this draw near in love, draw near in love. Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. What day are we talking about? What day are we talking about the return of Jesus, the return of Christ? And how many of you know every day that goes by on this green earth gets us one day closer to the day when he will return. And he is going to return, and he's coming again for a church that's prepared, that's ready, that's longing for his return. The reality of the first two draws that we talked about is that one may practice faith or hope alone, but you can't practice love alone, you cannot obey the commands of Scripture fully by yourself. We need each other, we belong together. It's interesting the words that are used here. Christians are to spur one another to love and good deeds.
Tyler Lynde:Now I'm a cowboy from Wyoming. I'm not a cowboy. I should tell the truth. Speak the truth in love. I am not a cowboy. I should tell the truth, speak the truth in love. I am not a cowboy. My dad was a cowboy and he used to wear spurs on his cowboy boots. And what were those spurs about? They're about when that horse needed to giddy up and get moving. My dad would gently give a little kick to the side of that horse and it would get that horse to move in the direction that he wanted to and at the pace that he wanted him to. Right Now, some of us are like sign me up, if I can be a spur to somebody else, I want to do it.
Tyler Lynde:Okay, sarcasm and annoyance are not spiritual gifts. At least they're not spiritual gifts from God. They may be spiritual gifts from the other, the enemy right. So we're not talking about looking forward to tearing somebody down or breaking them apart. It should hurt us, like it hurts us when we correct our children To lovingly speak the truth to somebody else. But it should also. We should also love somebody else enough to be honest, to speak the truth to them and friends, when Satan can get us isolated and individualized, just like a pack of wolves, he attempts to pursue us, to isolate us and to eliminate us. That's why God, in his foreknowledge and understanding and plan, put the idea of the church together so that we could watch each other's backs, so that we could help each other's backs, so that we could help each other to continue to walk in the truth and in the light.
Tyler Lynde:Before we start using those spurs, let's look at 1 John 4, verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, god abides in us and his love is perfected in us If you want to encourage somebody else in love and toward love and toward good works and good deeds.
Tyler Lynde:Ask yourself this question am I loving them the way I want God to love me? And as long as the answer is yes to that question, you're probably in a good space. You're probably in a good space. You're probably in a good place. But if you're just trying to make a point or drive a certain agenda home, then ask yourself the question do I need to regather? Do I need to pray about this some more? Do I need to make sure that my heart is right? We can love other people because God first loved us. Jesus' love actually enables us to love each other, but I don't like them. Where in the Bible does it say you have to like each other? I mean, we have to be tenderhearted and kind and all of those things, but we need to love each other.
Tyler Lynde:Love sees past all kinds of things that would keep us apart. How many of you love every person in your family? Now, let's be honest. You love them, right, but do you like them? Or on the way to their house, are you grumbling? I hope they don't give me that jello again. You know Well, that's the least of the worries, right? You think Aunt so-and-so is going to mention my mole. You know, there's all of these things, these things that we have that try to keep us apart. My friends, most of it is so childish, it's so trivial. There's so much more that binds us together than tries to pull us apart. Let's walk like that, let's live like that. We belong together. We are commanded to love. Therefore, it's something we can and must do. Love is the root, good works are the fruit. Love is the root and good works are the fruit.
Tyler Lynde:By our example and by our teaching, we should stir up other believers to this kind of life. This is a most important Christian responsibility, and believers are to help one another attain it. Let's talk about some ways to show love as the family of God. How about helping those in crisis? Nobody does this better than the body of Christ. When we're doing it right, we have relegated most of this to the governments of this world. Shame on us. We are the spiritual hospital that people need and the church of Jesus Christ, and we're believing this year that we're going to be raised back up and reformed so that we can help people truly help people in their time of need.
Tyler Lynde:How about rejoicing with those who rejoice? I now know of nine women within our congregation who are pregnant, and I know you want me to name all of their names. Some of them don't even know that I know, so I can't do that and besides, I might miss one. We should rejoice when babies are born and when marriages happen, and when people get new vehicles and when, you know, most importantly, when a lost person comes to know Jesus Christ. We have a lot to rejoice together about. Let's not miss those opportunities. But just as strongly as we should party with those who are partying and I mean that in.
Tyler Lynde:Do I need to explain myself? Okay, we also need to be prepared to weep with those who weep, to mourn with those who mourn. There's no greater love, it seems to me, at times, than when somebody just provides an ounce of comfort. My family and I went through the loss of my mother-in-law, kathy, this last year. I just want to publicly thank each and every one of you that showed your kindness and love and compassion toward us and prayed for us. It's still hard. Every holiday that goes by it's hard, but, man, you have made it so much easier than it would have been or could have been, just by being the body of Christ and a family. You can show love by listening first before speaking. You can show love by praying for each other, spending time together, screen free, speaking the truth in love, encouraging each other and simply doing life together.
Tyler Lynde:And again, there's a gazillion other things that I could mention here. You see, we belong to a body of believers at TCC that is committed to living out our Christian walk with others through vital relationships characterized by honesty and genuine care for each other. We need accountability in our lives. We need others that are watching over us to help us, to encourage us, to correct us at times, and we also need people to hug us, hold us, walk with us, pick us, us up and carry us sometimes. This is what we mean by we belong together. And finally, it says don't give up meeting together. Now, it's funny because I was supposed to give this message last week. You can see the internal struggle that I had as we made the decision to cancel services last Sunday. I'm like Lord, forgive me because I'm reading this passage. Obviously, there's grace, right and safety is of the Lord as well, but we should miss each other when we're not together. Mark's gone out of the country six months out of the year now, and every time he comes back he communicates how grateful he is to be back, to be a part of this family.
Tyler Lynde:While Christians many Christians view their faith as a private matter, the author of Hebrews reminds believers the importance of not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. There are many ways and places in which Christians can encourage and strengthen each other, but the most natural and effective setting for this is within the local church, during these occasions that believers have an ideal opportunity to minister to one another and to exercise their spiritual gifts. What would happen if all of us as a church, as individuals, came together each week with the mindset what do you want me to give today, lord? How do you want me to be a blessing to somebody? Who can I pray for? Who can I give a hug to that needs a hug? Who can I spend time listening to today? Can you imagine and what does God in all of his goodness know, that if the church lives like this and it's real the world around us is going to pay attention and say I want some of that, because the world has none of that. The world gets a hug when a hug is given. The world is loved based upon the performance that is given. We as a church have a chance to do it right and to be an example to the world around us. Without question we find strength, comfort, nourishment and joy when we're together.
Tyler Lynde:It's interesting to me when I was young we went to church when how often? Three times a week and we considered ourselves faithful Christians if we went to church three times a week, or at least let's say two out of three. Right, If you made two out of three. Now the new mantra is if I make it to three Sunday morning services a month, I am all in. I'm not saying that to bring condemnation. I'm just saying it's interesting how, in one generation, the mindset has shifted so drastically away from us being together. Let me give you just a quick I'm almost out of time a quick exhortation. We live in a world where we're surrounded by talking heads.
Tyler Lynde:I know that there are many preachers that you could listen to today. That would be more eloquent than I am. That would have their points just jump off of their lips. That would look better than I am. That would have their points just jump off of their lips. That would look better than I do. That would have all of these different gifts and strengths, and it's not wrong to listen to podcasts or YouTube, and some of them are really good and they sound real good.
Tyler Lynde:Jesus, by the work of the Holy Spirit, is the only one who places people in churches where they belong. It's his work. You think that you decided to become a part of Trinity Community Church? Yeah, you aligned your will, but God was the one who chose you. We believe that you can always subsidize your learning by listening to others, but please, please, don't stop paying attention to what God is saying and doing in your local church. God still desires to use his local church really as a primary source of life and community. There's no way that I have time to unpack all the ways that TCC attempts to create an atmosphere of community I'm representing today. Some of the ways that we want to do this is by encouraging healthy marriages, loving families, being family for those who don't have family, baby dedications, triads, community groups, community dinners, 24-7 prayer partnership, which we're going to talk about in just a few minutes.
Tyler Lynde:A little extra plug Please come to lunch Coffee bar. You know why we spent so much money on that coffee bar. It's for you to be together. I don't mean to blow your minds or to make you think we're trying to trick you. Let's be completely honest. We want you guys to spend time together. You know a lot of churches beg their congregation to come to church on time. I'm asking you not to come on time. I'm asking you to come 30 minutes early and stay 30 minutes late so that you can encounter the body of Christ. It's more than just what you hear from up here. Let's engage each other, let's spend time together, and obviously Sunday morning is just one expression of that.
Tyler Lynde:Weddings and funerals, biblical counseling, ministry teams all of these things are in place and configured for the sole purpose of making sure that we belong together. Would you stand to your feet with me? Thank you, lord. Thank you, lord. Father, we thank you for the amazing work that Jesus did, the sacrifice that he made so that we could be made right with you. That's primary, that's of first importance. But, lord, we know that you desire for us to not only be in relationship with you, but to be related to the rest of your children. You want your family to get along and so, father, we pray that, especially for those who feel like outsiders or who feel hopeless today or feel wounded.
Tyler Lynde:Father, I pray in Jesus' name, for your divine mercy and grace, that your spirit would bring healing and restoration. And, father, for those who might be here, who are not yet a part of your family, I ask that today would be the day that they would acknowledge their need for a Savior, that they would repent of their sins and turn their heart and soul and trust to Jesus Christ and the work that he did. We ask you for salvation this day and, father, we pray for the weeks and days ahead, ahead in 2025. We ask that you would help us, lord, to live out our lives in such a way that we would, at the end of this year, be able to say together more than more than we can today. We belong together. We ask you for this great work and great grace. And, lord, I ask that you would bless each and every one. Pray that you would cause your face to shine upon them and be gracious to them. Pray that you would lift up your countenance upon them and give them peace In Jesus' mighty name, amen, amen.
