Life At The Ridge

Over and over we are told in Scripture that God does answer prayer. When we pray we are coming together with God to accomplish His plan, His purposes in this world in us and through us. Prayer changes things, but unfortunately many prayers go up, but yet actually accomplish anything. There are many that have said “prayer doesn’t work” I’ve prayed and prayed, but nothing has changed. So what is the problem. We know it can’t be God, because God is Holy, righteous, powerful. He is loving and good and it’s his desire to hear us and as we saw last week, since he didn’t spare his own son, he will graciously give us all things. There are hindrances to prayer, I’m sure we all could come up with a list of things that may hinder prayers, but we will focus on the big three and we need to be aware of them so we can make sure our prayers are getting through to God.

Prayer is important for those who know Christ as their savior. Last week we looked at the habit of Jesus’ prayer life. He prayed often and through his life we can be challenged that we too need to devote ourselves to prayer. Questions however may arise in what is the purpose of praying? What does it accomplish and How does prayer work? Does prayer work? There are some misunderstandings of prayer and how it works because we have a very unbiblical thinking of who God is and what He says. Your theology (what you believe about who God is and what he says) will affect your philosophy (how you live out your life).

For the month of October we are going to examine the Scriptures as what they teach us about prayer. We find throughout all of Scripture the importance of prayer, all the way through from Genesis to Revelation we find prayer as the outlet of power that puts us in connection with the spiritual realm to accomplish God’s work, God’s way. In the New Testament we see Jesus as the example of prayer and how it should look in our lives. We see these examples all throughout the Gospel accounts. Jesus had a habit of prayer. What is a habit? It is an act repeated so often as to be done involuntarily; that is, without a new decision of the mind each time it is done. This was the prayer life of Jesus. Jesus prayed, He loved to pray. Sometimes praying was His way of resting. He prayed so much and so often that it became a part of his life.

This has been a topic of much discussion ever since our Lord talked with His disciples which is known in Scripture as the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. It's important that we focus on Christ’s return and not so much as the timeline of the events.

Why does Jesus need to return? Wouldn’t it be easier to just take Christians out of this world allow the world to self destruct and just go on with life? Or maybe even you have talked with people who feel as if this world is just going to go on and on. Always continuing the way that it’s always been. Interesting enough, Peter writes about these types of people in the last days and calls them scoffers who follow their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” So why is it important that Jesus needs to return? When we understand the "Why?" it will help us understand God's plan of redemption.

We have been spending a few weeks on the second coming of Jesus Christ. It’s not a matter of if Jesus will return but a matter of when Jesus will return. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ then you need to be focusing on what the Scriptures teach about our Lord’s return and not be so focused on the other events. After all Jesus is the main event. He is to be center stage and what we need to be looking for. We find throughout Scripture in the Old Testament and New references of Jesus' second return. It is something that is going to happen but How does the Bile teach that He will return?

What will Jesus do when He returns? God's Word gives us some very specific things that we can expect at His return? What does this mean for the beliver in Christ? How does this affect our outlook on this life and what's to come? Ready or Not Jesus Christ is returning and will fulfill all of His promises.

Ever since our Lord Jesus resurrected and spent 40 days with his disciples and then was taken out of their sight as he ascended into Heaven, we are reminded of the words of how Acts 1:9-11 describes the scene “And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Since our Lord’s ascension there has been an expectation of His return. The Apostles believed Jesus was going to return, the early Christians lived and died in expectation of His return for centuries, the church has been proclaiming the return of Jesus Christ.

Today we are going to look at the last 3 verses of his letter to the Philippian church. The things that he speaks about is dealing with the relationship within the body of Christ The Church and these last few words are instructions for the saints. One of the things that we have to learn is how to live together within the body of Christ. All of us who know Christ have been redeemed by Him and have had our sins forgiven and so all of us are equal at the foot of the cross. Just as Paul says in Galatians 3:23 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” The difficult thing in our lives is because we still struggle with sin, and since the church the body of Christ is not perfect yet, we are growing in sanctification, we have to work at our relationships within the body of Christ. The things Paul is going to remind us here in these last few verses will be helpful for us to remember.

When we think of Paul’s situation he was very content. As we just spent a couple months on contentment, Paul had just stated earlier that in whatever situation he had found himself in he had learned to be content. The verses that flow out of his contentment is this thankfulness that he expresses towards the Philippian church. One of the things that we see when we are faced with difficult circumstances is that it allows the church, the body of Christ , you and me to be a help and provide a need to someone else. When we do this we grow in our worship to God.

Message on giving given by one of our Elders, Geff Fisher

Can you be content in any situation? Paul the writer of the letter to the Philippian church could. It wasn't because he was some super Christian. It was simply because he had learned the secret to being content "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13. We have been discussing contentment over the past couple weeks and now we want to put legs to what we have been studying and seeing how we can be content in ANY situation. We will cover a wide range of situations and learn some biblical principles in contentment.

Can you be content in any situation? Paul the writer of the letter to the Philippian church could. It wasn't because he was some super Christian. It was simply because he had learned the secret to being content "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13. We have been discussing contentment over the past couple weeks and now we want to put legs to what we have been studying and seeing how we can be content in ANY situation. We will cover a wide range of situations and learn some biblical principles in contentment.

Can you be content in any situation? Paul the writer of the letter to the Philippian church could. It wasn't because he was some super Christian. It was simply because he had learned the secret to being content "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13. We have been discussing contentment over the past couple weeks and now we want to put legs to what we have been studying and seeing how we can be content in ANY situation. We will cover a wide range of situations and learn some biblical principles in contentment.

Are you content? Right now are you content with the situation and where you are in life? Contentment defined according to Gods Word means to be "self-sufficient". Does your life need outside means to make you content? Paul says in Philippians 4:10-19 that he has "learned to be content" How did he learn this? What is the secret to contentment? How can we practice this secret in our lives?

The command to rejoice always should be obeyed and lived out regardless of our circumstances. We have already discussed how we act reveals what we have been thinking about, and in order for us to have peace and joy and be able to rise above our circumstances we need to be thinking rightly. In connection with that thought Paul tells us that he has modeled this and lived that out. (Vs 9) Paul picks up that thought and adds to it that he himself has learned the secret of contentment. What ever situation he has found himself in he has learned how to be content. Are you content as a follower of Jesus Christ? When things don't go the way you thought, are you content?

Fathers Day message: Guest Speaker Todd Wilson

"Think on these things" Paul's words are a command of what we need to be thinking about in order to fulfill the command to "rejoice always". Last week we covered 4 of the 8 virtues we are to be thinking about. "whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise." As a follower of Christ we must think biblically and change our thinking in order to fulfill these commands of "Rejoicing always" and "Do not be anxious about anything"

What do you think about? What we do reveals how we think. The command that Paul has been stressing in Philippians 4 is to "rejoice always" and within that command he tells us that we should "not be anxious about anything" but rather "pray about everything" and to "think on these things" What things? We are given 8 things that we are to be renewing our minds on in Philippians 4:8-9.

What controls your thinking? Why do you do the things that you do? What we do reveals what we think about. God's Word tells us in Philippians 4 that we need to be rejoicing always, and as we looked at last week the answer to our anxiety and peace in our hearts and minds is through proper prayer. Paul continues his thought in vs 7-8 about what we think about and how that thinking does affect the outworking of how we live and what we do. So what should we think about? How can we have the proper thinking?