Trinity Sunday

Scripture: Romans 5:1-5

Romans 5:1–5 NIV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6/15/2025

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Standard

Opening Prayer:

God of heaven and earth,

before the foundation of the universe and the beginning of time

you are the triune God:

the Author of creation,

the eternal Word of salvation,

and the life-giving Spirit of wisdom.

Guide us to all truth by your Spirit,

that we may proclaim all that Christ revealed

and rejoice in the glory he shared with us.

Glory and praise to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

now and for ever. Amen.

Trinity Sunday

Peace and Jesus

We've been exploring how Jesus transforms our lives for some time now. Our journey began this year during Lent on Ash Wednesday, roughly 101 days ago. We've traveled with Jesus across various landscapes and celebrated His victory over death at Easter. In recent weeks, we've witnessed the ongoing impact of His resurrection, which continues to transform us even after His ascension.

Last week, we celebrated Pentecost and how Jesus pours out His Holy Spirit into us daily. The grace, power, and goodness of God are unending. They grow each day, filling us and encouraging us to extend that grace to others. Often, all we need to do is let go. God has a plan and the power to fulfill it. He desires to fill our lives with His love, grace, and Spirit, making us witnesses and living testimonies of His care for His people.

We've discussed transformation extensively and seen how Jesus moves in and around our lives. However, one topic that hasn't been frequently addressed directly in our scriptures this year is peace. Reviewing the scriptures from Lent and Easter, we see the disciples' journey from excitement about Jesus' power to confusion, fear, and persecution. This path sometimes seems to lead away from peace.

Some Bible teachers suggest that Jesus focused more on teaching us to have a relationship with God than on teaching us to live in peace with each other. We often separate our relationship with God from our relationships with people, as if issues in one do not affect the other. But this separation is misleading and contrary to Jesus' teachings.

One of Jesus' most memorable teachings is about not criticizing someone for a speck in their eye when you have a log in your own. This is an exaggeration, but it highlights how we often overlook our own faults while focusing on others'. I've experienced this myself, especially while driving. I sometimes catch others making mistakes and feel irritated, only to remember I've made similar errors. Occasionally, I see actions I would never consider, and I feel a sense of superiority. This is the attitude Jesus addressed when he spoke of specks in others' eyes.

Jesus also taught about judging and forgiving others, always linking these teachings back to our relationship with God. Even if we haven't committed the same sins as others, our actions towards God are often far worse in comparison. Our earthly conflicts usually involve minor faults, but when we consider what God has done for us and how little we return to Him, our faults are much greater.

The gospel helps us recognize and struggle with our shortcomings, pleading with God to help us remove them and live joyfully in obedience. When we embrace this, conflicts between us dissipate quickly like specks of dust in the wind of the Holy Spirit. God transforms our lives, brings us peace, and does so much more. Today, we celebrate all the work He does as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Holy Trinity

In the first four chapters of his letter to the Romans, Paul explains that we have all inherited the problem of sin. We have added to it with our own actions. None of us are exempt from the guilt and power of sin, which drags us down into death. None of us deserve better based on our merit. This is why we need a Savior, and this is why Jesus came to save us.

Our sinful nature and actions put us at war with God, living in ways that oppose His rule in our lives and the loving relationship He desires with us. Jesus came as our mediator, negotiating peace between us and God the Father, and then paying the cost with His life. This is why we need a Savior, and this is why Jesus came to save us.

In today's world, leaders of nations are often surrounded by armed guards and layers of administrative staff that handle most of their communications. Very few individuals get to communicate directly with these world leaders. This practice has existed for thousands of years. You may recall from the story of Esther in the Old Testament that anyone who entered the king's courtroom without an invitation was executed immediately. It was considered dishonorable, criminal, and perhaps even sinful to assume you could just walk in and talk.

How much more so would this be true for the God of the heavens who created all things! We have no ability to call Him down from the heavens to speak with us, nor do we have the right to demand His attention. But God the Father wants that connection, that relationship with us. So, He sent Jesus to pay the price, to extend that invitation, and to mediate on our behalf so that we could have access to Him. Without peace, you really can't have a growing relationship.

Peace begins with the action of God the Father. Through Jesus, His Son, peace is extended to us from God the Father like an olive branch, waiting for us to reciprocate, lay down our arms, confess our sins, and surrender so we can start that relationship over again. Jesus is the mediator for us. The Holy Spirit, the third part of the Holy Trinity, is the messenger that shares that communication and love between us and God.

Many people have tried to explain the Holy Trinity using various illustrations. One example is the three leaves of a clover, each distinct yet part of the same plant. Another analogy is water, which can exist as liquid, steam, or ice, but remains fundamentally the same substance.

We can also consider the multiple roles a single person can hold simultaneously. A person who is a father is also someone's son. Similarly, a mother is also a daughter. Additionally, they might be a friend, brother, sister, cousin, or co-worker. Despite these various roles, they remain the same individual.

These examples, however, do not fully capture the essence of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We experience God in these three persons through our relationships with them. God the Father loves us, sends Jesus the Son to save and redeem us, and together they share the Holy Spirit with us. This empowers us and enables us to grow in a relationship with them that we could not achieve on our own.

This is just a glimpse of the depth of this concept. But here is what you can be sure of when it comes to the Trinity. When you get access to one part of God, you get access to all parts of God.

Suffering

There comes a point for all of us as we grow in faith when the spiritual infant inside us begins to crawl, walk, and delight in the good news of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Eventually, we hit a kind of spiritual puberty—growing pains start to show. We tend to grow rapidly in those early stages and celebrate every step. But the aches of growth come later, often lingering even after it seems like the growing should be done. In those early years, we live off the good news, often one Sunday at a time. Our spiritual lives are nourished week by week in worship. So when suffering arrives, it feels out of place. It challenges our expectations of how faith should work.

Peter wrote about this, and so did Paul—how suffering shaped their faith. All the disciples went through hardship and were changed by it. Some days were filled with struggle. Other days, God carried them. Just as we don’t save ourselves, we don’t endure suffering alone. So what do we do with it? Paul says we glory in our suffering, just as we boast in the hope of God's glory—rooted in the Father’s love, Jesus’ sacrifice, and the Spirit’s daily strength. We glory in it because suffering produces perseverance. Though perseverance isn’t named directly as a fruit of the Spirit, it’s a blend of patience, faithfulness, and more—a fruit bowl of praise offered to God. It’s not the easiest offering, but it’s one of the most precious.

It’s easy to give God joy when life is good. It’s easy to love when we’re being loved. Peace feels natural when no one is picking fights with us. But when we’re hurting—because of sin, betrayal, or pain we can’t explain—it gets harder. Even on good days, when no one’s done anything wrong, we can still feel that ache and wonder why.

That’s when the questions come: Is the system broken? Am I broken? Are God’s promises broken? These questions aren’t wrong to ask. But when we run from God, we shut ourselves off from the answers. And when we disconnect from our faith community—the people God gave us for these exact moments—we lose a vital source of encouragement, prayer, and perspective. Cutting ourselves off from God and His people leads to spiritual numbness. We distract and deceive ourselves until that’s who we become: distractors and deceivers. And what begins in us eventually flows out of us. We become the very people we once came to Jesus to be saved from becoming. If we cut ourselves off from one part of God, we cut ourselves off from all of Him. Perseverance grows when we stick with God through the pain and stick with each other through the questions. It doesn’t make the suffering disappear. But it leaves a different kind of mark.

You who have been through it—you know where those scars are. They stay with you. But over time, you find they hold a place in your life. Your suffering may be deeply personal, even unique. And yet you know you're not alone. Jesus understands. He came out of the tomb alive, but with scars on His hands and side. Because somewhere, someone was struggling with doubt and pain—and needed to see those scars. Perseverance produces character. It shapes us. God sees the innocent spiritual infant in each of us—loved from the beginning, even as we wandered. But He doesn’t want us to stay that way. He wants us to grow into His image—to become more like Jesus.

Hope

Suffering produces perseverance, which creates character and leads us to hope.

About 30 years ago, the comic Calvin and Hobbes had a recurring joke. Calvin's dad would hand him a snow shovel and say, “Go clear the sidewalk—it builds character.” Calvin, a young boy, would always ask why he had to suffer in the cold, and his dad always gave the same answer. It was funny because it reflected something true. We've all handed down that kind of character-building suffering to the next generation. But the same idea carries into adulthood. Later in life, imagine a grown Calvin visiting his father in the hospital—now the one suffering—and his son telling him he’s going through it because, “It builds character.” That may no longer be amusing, but it remains true, because aging doesn't necessarily guarantee maturity. Paul reminds us that it is suffering, especially when walked through with God and His people, that deepens our character. But what Calvin and Hobbes missed is this: suffering doesn’t just build character—it leads to hope.

As character grows, hope grows too. Not because the suffering stops, but because we’ve developed a faith memory. We’ve seen storms before. God has carried us through. So we say, “This storm will pass, too. The sun will shine again. Just like last time.”

We see this in the Israelites. When they were freed from Egypt, they were amazed when God parted the Red Sea and saved them. Many believed that was the end of their journey. But it was only day one. Of all those freed, only two—Joshua and Caleb—made it to the Promised Land. The rest died wandering. For forty years, they suffered, persevered, and were shaped in the wilderness. They were homeless, jobless, landless—fed daily by God. Through it all, God was building their trust, forming their character, and nurturing their hope. Finally, when they were ready—not just to receive the Promised Land but to represent God to the world—He brought them in. Not for comfort, but to be a light. Their story was meant to tell the world who God is.

And so is ours.

God works in us the way He worked through His Son—through love, through suffering, and hope. Jesus suffered to the point of death to show us that God keeps His promises, even in the darkest valleys. And that means God has hope in us, too—that we’ll follow Him through our valleys. That we’ll grow in character. That our hope will deepen. That we’ll become more like Christ, reflecting His peace to one another and a world longing for it. A day is coming when the church will fully mature into the people God made us to be—so filled with His Spirit, so confident in His love, that His peace flows between us and overflows into the world.

So, brothers and sisters—

Where are you suffering today?

Where are you doubting, struggling, or questioning?

Can you look at your scars?

I’ve got a small one on the bridge of my nose from an injury a few weeks ago. When I touch it, I don’t remember the pain—I remember the healing. I remember what God saved me from, and what could’ve been worse.

Do your scars remind you of healing, too?

Do they sing a quiet song of hope?

Let them. Join in their song. Even in the midst of suffering.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for creating us and this world with love. We know we have rebelled against that love in times when we did not understand it, on days we did not trust it, and through seasons where we followed the passions and desires of our hearts instead of following You. Thank you for sending Jesus to part the waters of sin and death for us and to show us what it means to live for you, surrendering ourselves entirely to You and trusting You to lead us to and through suffering, into perseverance, character, maturity, and the hope of life with You as the people You created us, saved us, and are redeeming and shaping us to be. Thank you for Your Holy Spirit that never leaves or forsakes us and brings us into Your presence every moment we call upon Your name. We love you and want to get to know you better, so we can grow to love you even more. In Jesus' Holy name we pray. Amen.