Back to Ephesus...But God | Ephesians 2:1-10

Incompatible Realities | 1 Peter 1:3-12

Have you ever had an experience that seemed incompatible with your expectations? This often happens in Christianity. Many people often decide to follow Jesus hoping that this decision will improve our circumstances. We find ourselves expecting to experience Heaven while we are still living in a fallen world. Eventually, the realities of a world filled with sin, brokenness, and death begin to rattle those who simply wanted a life with joy that was found in Jesus. Peter writes this letter of encouragement to a group of believers who have been scattered across Asia. They have been displaced from their homes in the midst of severe persecution. However, Peter writes them this letter to not only acknowledge the realities they are facing, but to also remind them of what is true for them in Christ. The realities of 1 Peter 1 tell us that the healthy believer is compelled to live a life filled with complexities that seem almost contradictory. They are elect exiles. They are to live lives marked by joy and grief. Their citizenship is in Heaven, but they are living in a fallen world.

The Macedonian Call - When Christ Closes the Door | Acts 16:6-10

Everyone under thirty knows the word, and everyone over sixty has heard it but isn’t quite sure about it: ghosting. It’s what happens when someone simply disappears — no explanation, no goodbye, no returned texts. One day the conversation is alive, and the next day, silence. Sometimes life with God can feel strangely similar. You pray. You make a plan. You believe you’re following him — and instead of the next door opening, heaven seems to go quiet. The opportunity disappears. The job never comes. The ministry stalls. And you’re left asking, “God, if you wanted me to go there, why did you shut the door?” That question is the heart of this Sunday’s text. In Acts 16:6–10, the apostle Paul — the greatest missionary in the history of the church — isn’t fighting persecution. He’s fighting closed doors. Again, and again, and again. But what looks like divine silence turns out to be divine guidance, and what feels like rejection becomes the greatest redirection in the history of the gospel. Because here’s the good news we’ll see together: God does not ghost his people. In this passage he is not absent — he is relentlessly, personally active, simply doing his guiding through closed doors instead of open ones. We’ll trace four movements straight out of the text — closed doors, quiet trust, clear vision, and gospel advance — and learn to read the shut doors of our own lives through new eyes. Big Idea: When the risen Christ closes your doors, he is not stopping your mission — he is taking it out of your hands and putting it into his, because he sees the need you cannot see.

Back to Ephesus...But God | Ephesians 2:1-10

As we continue our tour of the churches in Asia, our Pastoral Resident, Ben Woolbright, will take us back to Ephesus. Have you ever faced an identity crisis of some kind? An identity crisis usually occurs when something important to us is now missing, or at least threatened. For example, if your identity is placed in something that will one day leave, such as, your age, your health, or your appearance, one common antidote would be to do something radical to keep it. Perhaps doing something like purchasing a new car or getting plastic surgery. However, anytime our identity is placed in something other than God, we are trusting in something that is fleeting. For Christians, one of the more difficult obstacles to navigate in an identity crisis is the fact that it typically happens slowly, without us realizing it. One day, we just look up and realize that something changed along the way. Between Ephesians 6:24 and Revelation 2:4, the Ephesian Church found themselves facing an identity crisis. Jesus directly called them out on it. In a span of 35 years, this once flourishing community of believers took their eyes off of Jesus and started focusing on all their efforts and knowledge. Ministry success was no longer gauged by love for Jesus. The love for Jesus, that Paul commended them for at the end of Ephesians, was absent in Revelation. Throughout Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he is constantly reminding these believers of the plan and purpose of God for them. In doing so, he is kindling their love for Jesus that he is simultaneously commending them for having. When the plan and purpose of God is prominent within our midst, a deep love for Him is sure to follow. This week, we are camping in a well-known passage, Ephesians 2:1-10. In this passage, Paul is communicating the gospel very clearly to those within the Ephesian Church. It's a passage that we would benefit from in our context as well. In this passage, Paul reminds us that our biggest problem isn't believing the wrong things about God, but rather the inability to follow Jesus properly. He emphasizes that we are saved by grace, freeing us from the internal and external pressures to justify ourselves. Finally, we are also reminded that God works in us, not just to save us, but so that we will demonstrate His work in us to others.

On to Antioch: The Church that Grace Built - Acts 11:19-30

You can usually tell what a building is for the moment you walk in. A courthouse speaks authority. A hospital is built to keep people alive. A cathedral lifts your eyes upward before you've decided to look. The structure reveals the purpose. The same is true of a church. Every church is building something—around a personality, a program, a preference, a tradition—and if you stay long enough, what it's truly built for becomes obvious. You can read it in the architecture. This Sunday we continue our summer tour of one of the most remarkable churches in the New Testament: Antioch. When the believers in Jerusalem heard what was happening there, they sent Barnabas to investigate. And when he arrived and saw this strange, diverse, generous, unexplainable community, Luke tells us he didn't see a strategy or a program. He "saw the grace of God." He saw the Architect's fingerprints all over the building. Together we'll walk through Antioch the way Barnabas did and find those fingerprints at every turn: grace that scatters the seed, grace that becomes visible, grace that forms a new people, and grace that opens the hand. We'll discover how a scattered, suffering church became the place where believers were first called "Christians"—and what that means for who we are becoming at Trinity. Come ask the question Antioch puts to us all: What does a church look like when Jesus is the Architect?

To the Church in Ephesus | Revelation 2:1-7

For our first Sunday we have the privilege to hear from Ben Wood. Ben and Mandi Wood and their children Elliana, Jonathan and Noah have been with Trinity Church for the last 4 years. Originally from Ohio, they served as missionaries in the Middle East before coming to Orlando. Ben serves on the theological development team with Cru and Mandi cares for staff as part of the HR team. Our journey to the ends of Asia begins this week with a message to the church in Ephesus. Apollos and Paul had been part of establishing this church 40 years before. The Gospel message had gone out powerfully from it, creating quite a stir in the region. How is it doing now? What message did God have for them about their works and motivation? Through both encouragement and rebuke God had a message for them and has one for us today.