Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

1. Confess your wrong thinking

2. Confess your wrong doing

3. Confess your warped nature

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

Roots of Unbelief:

1. Jesus isn't who you want Him to be

2. You judge by appearance of perceived value and not truth

3. You underestimate sin and Jesus' needing to come

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

1. The Successful Servant: Take comfort in Him

2. The Suffering Servant: Stand amazed by Him

3. The Stunning Servant: Tell the world about Him

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

A word to the believer, the seeker, and the skeptic from John 20.

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

"O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer…” (What a Friend We Have in Jesus)

- Prayer can’t just be part of our life… prayer is our life.

- Self-sufficiency doesn’t glorify God— it glorifies us. God is glorified when He is the source and supplier of everything we need. 

- A superhuman battle requires a superhuman measure to deal against it.

8 Facets In Your Prayer Life To Make Your Spiritual Defenses Impenetrable:

1. Pray continually (v.18a)

a. Engage with God constantly throughout your day

b. The spiritual battle is ongoing— so should prayer be

2. Pray in the Spirit (v.18b)

a. Prayer is a matter of delighting in the Lord.

b. Romans 8:26-27 — "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

3. Pray diversely (v.18c)

a. Preparing to pray is an important discipline to prayer

b. Pray specifically

4. Pray watchfully (v.18d)

a. Matthew 26:41 — "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

b. Is prayer in your life a prevantive measure or a last reponse to a crisis in your life? 

5. Pray persistantly (v.18e)

a. Luke 18:1-8 (parable of the persistent widow)

b. Praying isn’t based on you, but on God who can accomplish everything. 

6. Pray selflessly

a. Self-sufficiency is killing prayer life in our culture, fooling us into believing we don’t need God.

b. Prayer gets us to see beyond our circumstances to see Christ.

c. "Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.” -- John Calvin

d. Prayer is the most powerful and practical way that we can express our love for one another.

7. Pray missionally (vv.19-20)

a.  Paul first and foremost concern is that the Gospel should go out and asks prayer for the Good News to be fully proclaimed.

8. Pray specifically (v.21) 

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;” — Ephesians 6:10-17

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

"Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with Him.” — Ephesians 6:5–9

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

Big Idea: Marriages need God’s grace. Marriage is meant to be a picture of the Gospel.

Preacher: Guest Speaker

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” — Ephesians 6:1-4

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of His body. 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” — Ephesians 5:25–33