The opening message in a study of Haggai. The people had come back from exile and then left the house of God unfinished while they finished their own paneled houses. Pastor Robert Rohlin traces the four problems that came with those misplaced priorities, which were never enough supply, never any satisfaction, no eye for anyone else's needs, and constant squabbling. Then he turns to the cure in Haggai 1:8, three plain commands: go, bring, build. He spends real time on prayer as the place where strength and direction actually come from, quoting Hudson Taylor's line that you can work without praying, but it is a bad plan.

A message on praying for other people, drawn from Paul's prayer in Colossians 1:9-12. Pastor Robert Rohlin points out that most of us pray for others only when there is an emergency, an accident, an illness, or a lost job, while Scripture calls for steady intercession all the time. He walks through the four kinds of prayer named in 1 Timothy 2:1, then through what Paul actually asked God to give the Colossians: knowledge of His will, a walk worthy of the Lord, fruit in every good work, strength for patience, and thankfulness. The practical part is a challenge to pick three people and pray Paul's own list over them for the next thirty days. If your praying for others has gone thin, this message hands you the words to use.

Part one of a message on standing firm under pressure, from 1 Thessalonians 3:2-4. Paul had warned the Thessalonians in advance that affliction was coming, so that when it came no one would be shaken by it. Pastor Robert Rohlin makes the point that most American Christians have not yet faced serious opposition, which is exactly why the decision has to be settled before the test arrives. He points to Richard Wurmbrand, imprisoned and tortured for Christ in Communist Romania, who warned that nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand. The first step is simple to say and hard to do: determine now to stand for the truth.

A message on what suffering for Christ actually produces in a believer. Pastor Robert Rohlin begins with our natural reaction to being attacked for our faith, which is anger and the urge to hit back, and sets it beside how the early Christians answered the same treatment. They took suffering as something granted to them, exactly as Paul told the Philippians it was. From there he walks the side effects one at a time: character shaped toward Christ, courage under opposition, proof that the faith is genuine, joy in the middle of trouble, and reward that outlasts this life. He keeps it current rather than theoretical, including the August 2025 shooting outside a church youth event in Seattle.

Paul told the Thessalonians plainly that they were destined for affliction, and he sent Timothy so that no one would be shaken when it came. Pastor Robert Rohlin uses that as the frame for a message about getting ready before the fire arrives. He lays out three preparations: decide now to stand for the truth, expect the peer pressure that demands compromise, and have your testimony ready to give with courtesy and respect. The long illustration is William Tyndale, who fled England to finish translating the Bible into English and was executed for it, after telling a clergyman he would make a plowboy know more of Scripture than he did. If you have ever wondered whether you would hold up, this message argues the answer is settled long before the moment comes.

A message defining what Christian persecution actually is and how it builds. Pastor Robert Rohlin begins with Paul's flat statement that everyone who wants to live in a godly manner in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, then separates real persecution from ordinary hardship, because suffering for righteousness' sake is not the same as trouble we brought on ourselves. He walks through the numbers, including conservative estimates of more than 4,400 Christians killed and a similar number jailed every year, and where in the world it is worst. He also describes the squeeze believers feel in five areas of life: private, family, community, national, and church. The message puts a face on all of it with Yusuf, a Syrian believer who counts the days since his son was kidnapped.

Lesson one in a study of Haggai. Pastor Robert Rohlin opens with the danger of apathy, citing the observation that nineteen of twenty-one civilizations died from within, quietly, with no bands playing and no flags waving. He sets the history in place: Jerusalem destroyed in 586 BC, Cyrus decreeing the return in 539, and the temple foundation laid in Ezra 3 amid both shouting and weeping. Then the work stopped. The problem in Haggai 1 is not opposition but indifference, a people busy finishing their own houses while the house of God sat unfinished, and if your own walk with God has gone quiet rather than rebellious, this message names what happened.

The Christian life is a worthwhile but difficult one. Sin can suck the life out of our joy and energy. Years ago the Shell Oil Company published inserts that came inside the Reader's Digest magazine and provided useful tips to drivers. One of these booklets was about things you could do to get better gas mileage. Pastor Robert Rohlin reads each of these insights to show how their spiritual application comes directly from David's prayer in Psalm 51

A message from 1 Timothy 1:11-17, where Paul describes what he used to be: a blasphemer, a persecutor, and by his own reckoning the chief of sinners. Pastor Robert Rohlin sets that testimony beside a modern one, Reza Safa, a former radical Shi'ite Muslim who came to faith in Christ, and gives a good portion of the message to the origins and early history of Islam. The point he keeps driving at is that no one is beyond reach. Paul said he obtained mercy so that Christ could display all longsuffering in him as a pattern for everyone who would believe afterward. If you have written someone off, or written yourself off, this message argues that God has not.