What Prayer Is About (and How Not to Pray)

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What Prayer Is About (and How Not to Pray)

Grown Up Prayers (Message 1 of 4)

July 9, 2023 • Pastor Mark Reynolds • Matthew 6:5–10

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In this new series, Grown Up Prayers, we look at the meaning and practice of prayer to help us mature in our prayer life. The focus is on Jesus' teaching of the Lord's Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount. In this first message, we reflect on how common misconceptions of prayer can lead us to think that prayer doesn't work.

Flexibility In Faith: How We Are Sometimes Wrong and Need To Change Our Minds

August 6, 2023 • Pastor Mark Reynolds • Micah 6:8, John 3:1–21, Luke 7:36–50, John 8:31–36, Luke 18:18–42

Sometimes we hold our religious and moral beliefs so tightly that we cannot imagine the possibility of being wrong. When someone questions these beliefs, we feel compelled to defend them and confuse strength of conviction with dogmatic inflexibility. This stunts our spiritual growth, makes us more judgmental, and damages important relationships. In this message, Pastor Mark gives numerous examples in the New Testament and early church where followers of Jesus could not see the truth because of what they thought they already knew. What is required to get unstuck is humility, which builds a new kind of strength that is gracious, tolerant, responsive, gentle, loving, openminded, and flexible. Empowered in this way, we can consider the possibility that we may be wrong, and when we are admit the mistake and move in a different direction. Like the blind man in Luke 18:35-42, pray, "Lord I want to see!" Recommended Reading: Peter Enns, "The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our 'Correct' Beliefs."

Lead Us Not: Pray for Protection

July 30, 2023 • Pastor Mark Reynolds • John 3:16, Matthew 16:24–25, Hebrews 4:15–16, Matthew 7:24–27, Matthew 6:9–13

The third petition in the Lord's Prayer, ". . . lead us not into temptation," gets us to reflect on where we are vulnerable to sin, and what we need from God to remain faithful. It also raises the question, who or what are we following? In this message, Pastor Mark talks about the importance of following Jesus if we want protection from temptation and deliverance from evil. Unfortunately, some churches have changed his invitation "Follow me" to "Believe in me," making it possible to call yourself a Christian for believing "the right things" while following yourself, your political party, your bank account, etc. As long as you change your mind you don't need to change your life. But belief without following is a false gospel that will inevitably lead us into temptation and cause us to fall away.

Give Us: Pray for Provision and Pardon

July 23, 2023 • Pastor Mark Reynolds • Matthew 6:9–13, Proverbs 30:8–9

In this message, we continue with the series, "Grown-Up Prayers." In the first message of the series, we learned that prayer is not about looking good in front of others or trying to convince God to give us all the things we want. Rather, prayer is about aligning our will with God's will and assuming a posture of surrender. In this message, we will ask the questions, should I ask God for anything in prayer, and if so, what?