TRC Chattanooga Podcast

Luke 14:25-35 has some very difficult words from our Lord for us to hear. Not everything in Holy Scripture is easily digestible. Our Lord helps us to keep our priorities straight with respect to the relationships we have in our lives. But then Jesus offers us some unexpected advice about the business of setting out to be his disciple. Is it possible that if we try to follow Christ and fail, we may actually end up worse off? Listen ...

God is hospitality. We show hospitality to one another because God first showed it to us. At Trinity Reformed Church hospitality is central to our life as a congregation and it creates the context and viability for building one another up in the faith and using the gifts God has graciously given to each of us. If you want to better understand this doctrine and how it applies to us in 2025, consider the words of Christ in Luke's Gos...

We live in a world with almost unlimited danger. Multiple hot wars are taking place right now, a third is always threatening to break out, and we have rampant violence in our cities. It’s easy to see why someone would be fearful. But as Christians, that’s not an option that is available to us. The Christian is to live without fear, and be confident before the Lord - because the God we worship is the true God and he is...

Our entire lives are worship to God, whether we act like it or not. We serve the Lord in all that we do…and not ourselves. In Psalm 63, David tells us that he will remember God when he is on his bed, and meditate on him in the watches of the night. We should do likewise. As Christians, we need to make it a regular practice to worship God in our home, as well as on Sunday in the Lord’s Day worship. Exactly how we do it...

One of the more painful things for parents to deal with is a child that departs from the faith. Many parents have raised their children in a godly way, doing the best they knew how to do. Yet, when the child grew up, they were dragged away by other forces. Parents can end up blaming themselves. But Christ came to bring a fire upon the earth. How can we understand the inevitable divisions that will happen? Listen as Rev. David Beckm...

The Holy Scripture addresses many hard things about this life, especially how to understand suffering and evil. When suffering comes our way, even as a result of someone else's sin or our own sin, there is encouragement to be had for God's work in the Christian's life. God's discipline comes to us, not to drive us away, but to make us more like him. This teaches us that we are his children and that he loves us and earnestly desires...

It is with eyes of faith that we behold that which is as of yet invisible, that we hope for the things not yet realized. In Hebrews, Paul gives us several examples of faithful saints of old. We need to understand what faith is and what faith is not. Once we have done that, we need to understand that faith in the life of the Christian is always lived out in one way or another. Faith is not inert. What will you do when your faith is ...

You have heard it said “home is where the heart is”, and the saying is true. The location of your heart says something about what you value, trust in, and are comforted by. But our Lord says: “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”.  So if we understand what our Lord is telling us, then we need to consider carefully what we treasure. We invest money in all kinds of things, but money and profits can’t be our treasure...

The wisdom of Solomon was greatly desired among the ancient nations of the world and it has lasted, as the very word of God inspired by the Spirit, throughout all generations. But what Solomon concluded about the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge teaches us that those very things themselves are fleeting, like smoke in the wind. True wisdom, as Solomon taught, counts for nothing unless we obey God's word and walk faithfully before him...

If you ask people to describe their qualities, very few would put “impudent” on their list of adjectives. We’ve been taught that being impudent is wrong. But what does Holy Scripture tell us? And if being impudent before God is something the Christian actually can and should do, then what would that look like, and what examples can we find in Holy Scripture to model our prayers after? Listen as Elder Wes Keene preaches this sermon ...

Being a Christian isn’t always easy. The Christian will face many temptations throughout his earthly life. One, perhaps, surprising temptation is to add to the law of God. In fact, others will attempt to force us to do that, as well. But in Colossians, Paul tells us to see to it that no one takes us captive. If other people want to give us a new law and a new gospel, how can we resist? Listen as Elder Wes Keene delivers this exhort...

Christian, will you be shaken to abandon your faith in God one day? King David wrote Psalm 15 as both a warning and a charge to the people of God to live honorable lives, despising what is vile while being genuine worshippers of God in his kingdom. This psalm teaches us what it means to be a faithful covenant member and warns against doing the things that make you vile in the site of God. Listen as Elder Glenn Jones preaches the se...

Sometimes people get confused about the kind of gifts God hands out to his children. Particularly in our modern American context, we have been taught to focus on what could be called “soft gifts”, rather than the tangible, physical gifts God even promises in his own word. There are common errors people make when they read passages like Deuteronomy 30:9-14, and we need to avoid them. Listen as Elder Wes Keene preaches this week’s se...