As Pastor Mark continues his teaching series through the book of Genesis, he’ll be challenging you to spend intimate time with the Lord on a daily basis. Living in this world is difficult, the only way you can properly serve the Lord is by being in the Word and in prayer along with fellowshipping with other Christians. When people encounter you, do they sense the Spirit of the Lord? When you open your mouth and speak, is it seasoned with grace? You should stand out as a bright light in this very dark and wicked world. Don’t allow the enemy to mold you into another hypocritical Christian. Be molded into the image of Jesus!  

Today, Pastor Mark will be encouraging you to serve the Lord with your children and to allow them to see God working in and through your life. Children mostly catch the Bible from their parents, not always by being taught. You have to practice what you preach so that your kids don’t think hypocrisy is normal. One of the most angering things to the Lord is religious hypocrisy. The Lord would rather you be honest about your shortcomings, seek His help, and be cleansed than put on a mask and hide your sin. When you fall, run to the Lord and ask for His power and strength to move forward.   

As Pastor Mark continues his teaching series, he’ll be reminding you that it’s the kindness of God that draws men unto repentance. Yes, for some, it’s the fear of Hell and the fear of God’s punishment that gets their attention, but ultimately it’s God’s kindness that causes people to repent and be saved. Don’t allow the enemy to influence you to hit people over the head with the Bible, because that's a good way to cause people to withdraw from you. When you preach the Gospel, always remember that people don’t care what you know, until they know you care.  

Today, Pastor Mark will be challenging you to seek after the Lord when trials come your way, running from your problems is not the answer. As a Christian, you have the power of the Holy Spirit to get you through all aspects of this temporal life on Earth. All you have to do is cooperate with Him and follow His lead. Don’t be discouraged when you face hardships or persecutions, because Jesus Himself was persecuted and ultimately tortured and crucified. A servant is not greater than his Master, so if the world hated and persecuted Jesus, they will hate and persecute you. Always remember, God is a God of comfort and peace through it all.

Sin can feel good in the moment when you give in to it. It might even seem like the logical thing to do, and it’s definitely the easy choice to make most of the time. However, as Pastor Mark’s going to point out to you today, it always leads to regret. It leads to suffering and missing out on the blessings God has for you. God has such amazing blessings in store for you and plans to work through your life. But you have to let Him. You have to choose Him. He wants you to make the decisions daily to not give in to the pleasures of the world that go against Him so He can fully work in your life and do amazing things through you.

Everyone has a choice of what they put their focus on. Do you focus on God, or on the world? The answer is simple in words but can be more difficult than we think in deeds. Today, Pastor Mark is going to show you the example of two brothers who each chose differently for themselves, and what happened as a result. To choose God as the focus of your life over the world is a life of blessing and joy: a joy the world can’t take away. When you focus on the world, you’ll always be in want and always in search of something to fill the void you feel that only God can fill. He’s the one Source of joy that’s eternal and never fades.

When God makes you a promise, He’s going to keep it. He made a promise to Abraham, as you’ll see today with Pastor Mark, that Abraham’s son Isaac would be the father of the nation of Israel. Even when God tested Abraham’s faithfulness to Him to see if he would kill Isaac if he was commanded to, Abraham didn’t fail. No matter what, Abraham trusted God. Despite odds that seem impossible, God proved Himself faithful to Abraham because Abraham didn’t waver in his faith. And just like with Abraham, God will stay faithful to you if you guard your heart and keep your focus and your faith in God in your life, too.

Even when God’s will isn’t clear at the moment, when you put your trust in Him that He’ll work through whatever situation you’re in, you have nothing to fear. He’ll never leave you alone to fight your battles. All He wants is for you to stay faithful to Him, so He can be faithful to you, too, and work in and through your life. When you keep your focus on God, there’s nothing you have to fear. When you’re spiritually weak, look to Him. When your finances begin to worry you, look to Him. When your relationships are failing, grow in your relationship with Him. Today, Pastor Mark’s going to encourage you to keep your eyes on God.

Do you know that as Christians, we are called the bride of Christ? Thats right! In today’s message, Pastor Mark talks about how Jesus loves us so much that He came to earth to take us as His bride. He died on the cross and rose again three days later so that we could be with Him forever in heaven. Just like a bride prepares herself for her wedding day, you too should be preparing yourself for the day when we will be with our Savior. You should be living our lives in a way that honors Him and brings glory to His name. As the bride of Christ, you have a beautiful and eternal love story with our Savior. 

Do you ever feel like serving the Lord is a chore? Like you're just going through the motions without truly feeling it in your heart? Truth is, as Pastor Mark details in today’s message, we are called to serve the Lord with a good heart. It's not enough to just do the right thing; we must do it with the right attitude as well. In fact, the Bible says that it's not obedient if you do something with a bad heart. So how can you cultivate a heart that is joyful and willing to serve? It starts with prayer and seeking God's will. When you align your heart with God's, you can serve with joy and purpose. You can serve not out of obligation, but out of love for your Savior.