//Matthew 16:13-28 | Andrew Lundy

The fourth of nine essentials doctrines every Christian should know from our series "Nine-ologies"

**Keep in mind that our third "ology", Soteriology (the study of Salvation)has been consolidated into week 3 (Anthropology) and week 4 (Christology).

What historical evidence is there for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

//Psalm 8 | Andrew Lundy

The second of nine essential doctrines that every Christian should know from our series "Nine-ologies".

**Keep in mind that our third "ology", Soteriology (the study of Salvation)has been consolidated into week 3 (Anthropology) and week 4 (Christology).

//Psalm 145 | Andrew Lundy

The first of nine essential doctrines that every Christian should know from our series "Nine-ologies".

//Acts 17:16-34 | Andrew Lundy

The first of nine essential doctrines that every Christian should know from our series "Nine-ologies".

//2 Timothy 3:16-17 | Russ Kyff

//Luke 11:1-4 | Andrew Lundy

(Pt. 4 from the series "Teach Us To Pray")

Surprisingly, one of the most difficult things to know how to pray for is ourselves. Many of us do pray for ourselves, but we pray for the wrong things or from a wrong motive. Some do not want to pray for themselves because they feel their problems are too small, or they are not worthy of God’s help. This is why this last section of the Lord’s Prayer is so important, where Jesus teaches us how to pray for our own real needs. Pastor Andrew broke down these last three personal petitions into three categories: the body, the soul, and the spirit. First we ask for material provision (body). Asking God for our daily needs acknowledges that He is the source of all we have. Sometimes we have so much that we think we no longer need Him, or so little that we think there’s no point in asking. But our Father knows what we really need before we even ask, and simply wants us to actively pray for our provisions. This is not a passive prayer, but one that requires our effort to actualize it. We also ask for relational preservation (soul). Receiving forgiveness of sins from our Father will change our relationships with others, allowing us to then extend forgiveness to them. And we truly NEED His forgiveness -- something we sometimes neglect because we either only see His love and not His holiness, or see His holiness but not His love. We have been forgiven so much more than any offense anyone has given us, so how much more should we be forgiving others? Finally, we ask for spiritual protection (spirit). There is a real spiritual brokenness behind our world that is based on evil, and God can give us protection from it. He never tempts us, but will use our temptations for His greater good. Through this prayer, we recognize our spiritual vulnerability and our need for the Lord’s deliverance.

//Luke 11:1-4 | Andrew Lundy

(Pt. 3 from the series "Teach Us To Pray")

The way our prayers are answered depends heavily on what we’re asking for -- our petitions. The majority of our prayers are spent asking the Lord for help, which is not a bad request! But the Lord Jesus helps us to prioritize our petitions to the Father so that we can pray according to His will, rather than trying to bend Him to our will. There are three petitions Pastor Andrew showed us in Verse 2 this past Sunday that must be prioritized. These petitions are intercessory, done on our behalf to change things. And they also center us back on Jesus, changing us so that WE can change things! The first of these petitions is for His Name to be worshipfully acknowledged. Praying for His name to be hallowed means we want it set apart as holy, and that we want our world to do the same. We pray that His reputation and character is rightfully proclaimed and understood in our community. The second petition for His Kingdom to be powerfully advanced. Our earthly kingdoms are limited in duration and distance, making them foolish foundations to build upon. But Jesus Christ brought Heaven back to Earth with Him, reversing the effects of our sin upon the world. He did not come to take His kingdom by force, but to give His life to see it displayed. The third petition is for His Will to be delightfully accomplished. In Heaven, God’s will is done perfectly. But on Earth, it is only done permissively. He accomplishes His will in our world through our surrendered lives. In the end, it comes down to either our will, or His will, being done. And even if our petitions are not answered as expected, we can trust that our Father knows best.

//Luke 11:1-4 | Andrew Lundy

(Pt. 2 from the series "Teach Us To Pray")

Think about the way you open your prayers. All of us tend to do it a little differently. But Jesus used very specific words in the opening of the Lord’s Prayer that has deep meaning attached to it: “Our Father in Heaven”. This opening is not a strict formality, nor some secret formula, but a spiritual foundation for our prayers. Our prayer life is fundamentally connected to what we believe about the truth that God is our FATHER. This is a fact based on theological truth, not a feeling. We were once children of wrath, but have now been born again as children of God. He became man in the form of Jesus Christ, that we might be enabled to be sons and daughters of God. This important truth is the foundation of our formation. It informs why we pray. Not to get the attention of man or the affection of God, as the hypocrites and heathens do in Matthew 6. We already have God’s attention and affection in abundance as His beloved children, and we pray knowing that truth. It also transforms how we pray. We must become like children to enter the Kingdom, something the world tends to beat out of us. We should pray to our Father thankfully for all He’s done, confidently because of His character, dependently in our need, and honestly as we are. And it also reforms what we pray. We don’t always know what to pray as we should, so the Spirit makes intercession for us. The Lord Jesus balances out our petitions to God with praise for Him and forgiveness from Him. When we pray knowing God as our Father, we are home with Him.

//Luke 11:1-4 | Andrew Lundy

(Pt. 1 from the series "Teach Us To Pray")

Jesus received more requests during His time here on Earth than we could count. Requests for healing, provision, and teaching. But in Luke 11, the disciples had a specific request about which Jesus was particularly passionate: “teach us to pray.” Pastor Andrew explained how we must first resonate with this request and make it our own before we can learn the intricacies of the Lord’s Prayer. We must first acknowledge the necessity of prayer. If communication with God the Father was so central to the life and ministry of Jesus, how much more do we need this to be central in our own lives! To truly know God and see Him move to revive His church, we must pray. Second, we also acknowledge the difficulty of prayer. So many things keep us from prayer, such as our perceived independence from God, our easy distractibility, and the anxiety of our prayer’s outcome. We are steeped in a secular culture that believes we don’t need prayer, but only action. Finally, we acknowledge the specialty of prayer. If you truly want to learn a skill, you need to see the specialist -- someone who excels at it. Prayer is the specialty of Jesus, as He currently sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. We may feel like our prayer lives are weak, but we must allow that weakness to drive us to the Lord Jesus with this request: “teach us to pray”. In our weakness, His power is made perfect.