Pastor Luke Simmons continues our new series, “How to Pray,” by walking slowly through the simple yet deep opening of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in heaven.”

In this message, Luke explores what it means that God invites us to relate to Him as Father, how that identity shapes our status and confidence before Him, and why understanding God as Father can make prayer feel more natural and less forced.

You’ll also hear practical help on “praying like a child”—coming to God with honesty, boldness, and dependence in everyday life. This sermon is based in Matthew 6:9 and connects to themes from passages like John 1, Galatians 4, Ephesians 1, and Matthew 6.

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Pastor Seth Troutt opens our new series, “How to Pray,” by looking at Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6 on how *not* to pray.

Many of us know prayer is important but feel distant from God or disappointed with our prayer lives. In this message, Pastor Seth contrasts performative, manipulative, and “magical” views of prayer with the simple, honest, and secure approach Jesus invites us into—talking to God as our Father.

You’ll learn:
- The assumption Jesus makes: Christians *will* pray
- Two common distortions of prayer (hypocritical religion and pagan “many words”)
- Why God already knowing your needs changes how you pray
- The importance of secrecy and a private prayer life
- Practical ideas for what to do in daily prayer

This is Part 1 of our “How to Pray” series through the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. Join us as we learn to move from going through the motions to enjoying real communion with our Father in heaven.

00:00 - Introduction
07:19 - The Assumption: when you pray
14:14 - The Antithesis: manipulative religion
28:27 - The Answer: security & secrecy

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Pastor Luke Simmons closes out our “The Blessed Life” series by teaching on the final Beatitude: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”

In this message, he explains the call to live the way of Jesus, what we should expect when we do (including opposition and persecution), and how to respond by reframing our suffering with eternal perspective and rejoicing.

Luke also shares the powerful story of Hakan, a Turkish pastor who has endured real persecution and continues to serve Christ with hope.

The Hakan video is available at: https://youtu.be/BP7IKBruZsM

00:00 - Introduction
04:32 - Call to Action: Live the Way of Jesus
08:16 - What to Expect: Opposition and Persecution
16:11 - How to Handle It: Reframe with Rejoicing

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Pastor Seth Troutt continues our series, **“The Blessed Life,”** by unpacking Jesus’ words, *“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”* (Matthew 5:9). In a world filled with conflict, gossip, and division, what does it actually mean to resemble our Father in heaven by making peace?

Drawing from Scripture and everyday life, Pastor Seth explores how true peacemaking begins with peace with God through Christ and then flows into our relationships—with friends, family, enemies, and even those who have deeply hurt us. He also contrasts real, costly peacemaking with both destructive conflict and a shallow “peace, peace” that ignores reality.

Whether you struggle with conflict avoidance, anger, gossip, or just feel overwhelmed by broken relationships, this message will help you see both the hope and the responsibility of living as a peacemaker.

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⏱️ **Message Outline**

**00:00 – Introduction**
Seth opens with a personal story about resembling his earthly father and connects it to how followers of Jesus are called to resemble their Father in heaven. He introduces Matthew 5:9 and frames the sermon around what it means to be a peacemaker in a fractured world.

**03:54 – Anti-peace Makers**
Before defining biblical peacemaking, Seth looks at its opposites: gossip, slander, division, faction-building, and false “peace.” He shows how our culture often celebrates these patterns, and how even Christians can justify them. He also explains the danger of saying “peace, peace” when there is no peace, and how Jesus disrupts false peace in order to bring true reconciliation.

**25:58 – The Ultimate Peacemaker**
Here Seth turns to Jesus as the model and source of all peacemaking. He walks through how Christ makes peace between God and people through the cross, and how Jesus brings peace to surprising groups: sellouts, outcasts, oppressors, obvious sinners, judgmental religious people, and even close friends who have failed Him. From 2 Corinthians 5, he explains our calling as ambassadors of reconciliation.

**34:30 – Wisdom for Peacemaking**
In this final section, Seth offers practical, biblical wisdom for living as peacemakers: seeking first to understand, refusing one-sided narratives, resisting gossip, and doing “as far as it depends on you” to live at peace with others (Romans 12:18). He also addresses why we often struggle to make peace—our insecurity before God—and calls us back to the grace and security we have in Christ as the foundation for real peacemaking.

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This message is part of **“The Blessed Life”** series through the Beatitudes, exploring what it truly means to live under the blessing of Jesus in everyday life.

00:00 - Introduction
03:54 - Anti-peace Makers
25:58 - The Ultimate peacemaker
34:30 - Wisdom for peacemaking

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Pastor Luke Simmons explores what Jesus means when he says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). In this message from our series “A Blessed Life,” Luke unpacks what the Bible means by “heart,” why purity of heart matters, and how it clears or clouds our vision of God. He also shows how we can pursue a pure heart through trusting Christ and guarding what we allow to shape our inner life.

BOOKMARKS:
00:00 - Introduction: Until Initiative update & breaking ground
05:39 - Big Idea: Your vision of God is clarified or clouded by your heart
06:46 - Your Heart: What the Bible actually means by “heart”
11:14 - Pure in Heart: Internal vs. external and the single-minded heart
15:59 - Seeing God: What it means to “see” God now and in eternity
24:25 - Pursue Purity of Heart: Put your hope in Jesus and guard your heart

**HOW TO FIND US***
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Pastor Luke Simmons continues our series, “The Blessed Life,” by teaching on Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). In this message, Luke explains what mercy is, why it is central to God’s character and to our own experience of salvation, and how followers of Christ are called to live merciful lives.

Looking at parables like the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18) and the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), we see that mercy is compassion in action—expressed through forgiveness and practical care for those who are hurting. As people who have received an unpayable debt of mercy from God, we are invited to extend that same mercy to others.

00:00 - Introduction
07:19 - What does it mean to be merciful?
10:37 - Why are Christ’s people to be merciful?
19:31 - What does it look like to be merciful?

**HOW TO FIND US***
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Pastor Seth Troutt continues our series, “The Blessed Life,” teaching on Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

In this message, Pastor Seth explores:
- Why our deepest desires are often unsatisfied
- The difference between righteousness and self-righteousness
- How our longing for “things to be right” ultimately leads us to God himself
- Practical ways to train our desires through comparison to God, fasting, and feasting on his Word

Discover how Jesus reframes desire, disappointment, and true satisfaction in the Christian life.

00:00 - Introduction
03:46 - Desire
11:53 - Disappointment
15:37 - Dikaiosunē
23:53 - Discipline

**HOW TO FIND US***
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Pastor Seth Troutt continues our series, “The Good Life,” by unpacking what Jesus means when he says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” In a world that celebrates aggression, self-promotion, and getting even, meekness can sound like weakness or irrelevance. But Jesus presents meekness as a Spirit-shaped strength: the steadiness of a “heavy bag” that absorbs insult without lashing out, and the yielded power of a “broken and bridled” horse led by its rider.

In this message, Pastor Seth:
- Explores the nature of biblical meekness (or gentleness)
- Looks at examples of meekness in Moses, Paul, and Jesus
- Talks about how daily, deliberate discipleship forms meekness in us
- Points us to the staggering promise that the meek will inherit not just the land, but the whole earth in Christ

This sermon is part of our Beatitudes study in “The Good Life,” where we learn how Jesus turns the values of the world upside down and invites us into a better way to live.

00:00 - Introduction
08:30 - The Nature of Meekness
14:12 - The Meekness of Moses
16:51 - The Meekness of Paul
19:25 - The Meekness of Jesus
28:16 - How We Become Meek
34:10 - What the Meek Inherit

**HOW TO FIND US***
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