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prayer power outage part 3

cbrakke — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:56:08 +0000

Pastor John concludes his message on “Prayer Power Outage.” Jesus never grew tired of praying. God the Son was always talking to God the Father. Prayer is what allowed Jesus to tap into the Power Source that enabled Him to live perfectly, the will of the Father. And He was constantly inviting His followers to join in those conversations. But it wasn’t always easy for the disciples to pray back then, just as it isn’t always easy for us to pray today. There are hindrances & obstacles to prayer that can cause a power outage in our lives spiritually. So far we’ve looked at five such “prayer busters.” Today we want to learn about five more so we can avoid them and be free to truly experience a mighty life of prayer.

prayer breakdown part 2

cbrakke — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:46:46 +0000

Pastor John teaches part 2 of his message on “Prayer Breakdown”. We were all vividly reminded quite recently, when the electrical grids went out, that without power, life quickly gets messy. Not only is this true in our physical environment, but it is equally true spiritually. To experience the energy and enjoyment of the Christian life we must stay connected to our power source – the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. That requires a vibrant prayer life! But as we started to see in our previous study, the world is full of hindrances to prayer. We called them “prayer busters.” Let’s continue to identify them and ask God to enable us to avoid any power shortage with Him.

prayer breakdown

cbrakke — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:00:26 +0000

Pastor John continues his series on prayer with the message entitled “Prayer Breakdown.” This past week has been quite a crazy time for much of the greater Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia area. Widespread power outages have made life difficult & frustrating while shutting down businesses and schools across the region. Like the weather, Christians and churches everywhere are constantly experiencing an ongoing spiritual power outage in their walk with God. And why is that? Because for many, our prayers (which is how we access God’s power) are being dramatically weakened by serious hindrances that are short-circuiting the steady flow of God’s energy into our lives. Without a strong prayer life, being a Christian is a drag. It becomes powerless and lacks the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It can be little more than religious routine. Sort of like trying to follow Jesus in the dark and blindly bumping into walls. Totally different than the life Christ wants us to enjoy by walking with Him in the light. How can we correct this situation? Simply put, we have to know what those hindrances are and then protect against them at all times. As we do, the power gets “turned back on” and our lives can once again be energized by our Lord who is Almighty & All-wise.

prayer refocus

cbrakke — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:05:16 +0000

Pastor John Nagle preaches another sermon on Prayer, “Prayer Refocus” Today I want to continue forward in our Sunday teaching series on Prayer – The Language of Faith. However, there is a bit of a problem. What with the four holiday messages, some vacation time thrown in on Becky’s & my part, and last week’s 2012 perspective sermon on God’s desired INCREASE for Faith … it has been six weeks since we have actually looked at what the Bible says about prayer. So, I’m thinking the best way to really “rev back up” on prayer is to take some time today and refocus. And we’ll do that, by reviewing a few of the major truths we have already learned about prayer from the Word in anticipation of the new truths we will discover in the weeks ahead.

increase our faith

cbrakke — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:54:13 +0000

Happy New Year Faith! Becky and I were gone last Sunday (January 1st) to spend some holiday time with our family in Portland. So, this Sunday is my first opportunity to share with you my perspective on where I believe God is wanting to take our church family during 2012. In Luke 17:5 the disciples said to Jesus, Increase our faith. Borrowing those three words to express what I sense the Holy Spirit wants to do this year in our congregation, I believe His plan is for “our Faith” to see significant increase in the year ahead. Of course this begs the question: Increase in what ways? That’s what I would like to share with you this morning … pastor to people … heart to hearts. Allow me then to layout, for all of us, a challenge to let God to bring His increase to Faith in three very significant ways. I am convinced that, if we follow His will in these key areas over the course of the next 12 months, Jesus will astound us with the release of His power in our midst unlike anything we’ve seen!

the never ending story of God

cbrakke — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:15:47 +0000

Pastor Gary teaches on “The Never Ending Story of God.” Many people love the Lord, go to church regularly and try to live according to the Bible, but have never read the entire Bible! They’ve read portions of it, studied chapters or books, and listened to a LOT of sermons. They’ve seen the movie but they’ve never read the book! Why Not? Maybe it doesn’t get read because it’s a BIG book … maybe because it doesn’t seem like a novel with a simple plot … maybe because when they tried they got lost among the genealogies or descriptions of the temple. They may have given up trying to pronounce the names of people and places, or to understand the prophesies concerning far away lands. Many people have never understood that the Bible is one story with one set of characters and one simple plot! Today we hope to change that by hearing the story, the entire story, in one brief sitting … yes I said brief!

love found a way

aaronb — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:01:02 +0000

Pastor John Nagle preaches a message at our Christmas Eve Service, “Love Found a Way.”

that baby wasn’t just any kid

cbrakke — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:02:05 +0000

Pastor John preaches a Christmas sermon from Isaiah, “That Baby Wasn’t Just Any Kid.” No doubt about it, all babies are precious. But when it came to baby Jesus, well He was something special … something unique. He truly was in a class all by Himself. Honestly, if you know the story, then you have to say about the Christ Child, that baby wasn’t just any kid. The Old Testament writer Isaiah was one of many Jewish prophets who foretold the coming of Israel’s Messiah, the Savior of the world. Today we look at one of Isaiah’s prophecies that focused on why this little boy would prove to be the most extraordinary, one-of-a-kind baby ever born.

making sense of the season

aaronb — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:10:11 +0000

Pastor John Nagle preaches a Christmas sermon. “Making Sense of the Season” Tons of food to eat. Heartburn and fat calories to the max. Truckloads of gifts to buy. Debt overload on the credit card. Hectic schedules crowded with a million things to do. Not enough energy to enjoy half of it. People and more people to see. No time to really visit. Party on. Sleep deprived. Music in the air. Too tired to listen. What are we talking about? Why, Christmas of course. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say … Christmas at its craziest. So crazy, in fact, that the season doesn’t make sense anymore. Unless, that is, we are willing to get our focus onto the way Jesus views Christmas. So, with the big day just two weeks out, let’s allow Jesus’ sense of Christmas to bring a renewed sense of peace, joy and eternal purpose to our Christmas celebrations.

trusting God for the wayward

aaronb — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:55:20 +0000

Pastor John preaches another sermon in his series on prayer – “Trusting God for the Wayward” Just about very Christian has close friends and dear family members who have never followed Jesus or, if they did, have wandered away from Him. We pray and we pray for these precious people yet it appears that they just aren’t going to turn their lives over to Christ. Indeed, in many cases, they wander even further away! At Christmas time especially, the fact that these loved ones of ours aren’t growing in a love relationship with the Lord can cause our hearts to despair. Two questions arise from the depths of our souls. The first: How can we have God’s peaceful contentment when these loved ones, for whom we desperately pray, are far from Jesus? And the second: What can I do to help them discover Christ as their Savior and follow Him as their Lord? The Bible teaches that the answers to these two questions are one in the same. Take hope … Because Jesus does hear your prayers for the spiritual condition of those wanderers that mean so much to you. Jesus is working, whether you see it or not, to bring them to Himself. And yes, there are things that you can do, in partnership with Jesus, to help them come to faith in Him. Now what does this look like? How does this work? That’s what we are about to discover from the Word of God.