Lessons for Living (Audio)

As a parent, figuring out where to set boundaries and create appropriate and effective consequences for violations of those boundaries may be the hardest part of being a parent. Especially if you have more than one child, there will be differences in both boundaries and consequences. But the good thing about having God as your heavenly Father, as Pastor Mark will teach today, is that He knows what’s best for you. The challenge for you will be to trust Him to show you the boundaries, and to accept His discipline.

When you’re a Christ-follower, you’re fighting a battle on three fronts. It’s you against your own sinful nature, the world system, and the forces of the devil. Wow – no wonder living a godly life so often seems like a grind! God didn’t candy-coat what you’re up against, though; He let you know how it was going to be from the beginning. And as Pastor Mark will be reminding you in his teaching today, God’s already defeated all three of those enemies for you. You just have to live your life in that victory.

You know what it’s like to be caught up in sin, right? You know, that one thing that you just can’t seem to let go of? It’s terribly frustrating. You feel like a failure, like a second-class Christian. And the voice of your enemy tells you that you’re never going to overcome that sin; if you were better at obeying God, you’d have beaten it, and on it goes. Well, Pastor Mark – in his teaching today – will remind you that the life of a Christ-follower is a marathon and that success is in letting God help you to overcome.

Military leaders know that the best way to protect their people is to get your adversary to fear you. If your enemy thinks that there’s no way they can win, they’re more likely to stay home and not attack. The devil’s been playing this game for thousands of years. He’s gotten people to fear change, to fear becoming a Christ-follower. As Pastor Mark will be teaching today, he even gets Christ-followers to fear changes God wants to make in their lives. You’ll find out how to overcome those fears and serve God with your whole being.

Did you ever try to run in work boots? Not very fun. And ladies, how about running in high heels? It’s very hard to do. You become very aware of your feet and how they’re being hindered from doing what you’re trying to do. Well, in Pastor Mark’s teaching today you’ll find out that there are things in your life that weigh you down and keep you from advancing in your walk with Jesus. You’ll hear about what some of those are and, more importantly, how you can put them aside so that you can run like God wants you to.

When you’re young, you think that everything that happens to you for the first time is the first time these things have ever happened in history. As you get older, you realize that many other people have experienced the things you’ve gone through, too. Pastor Mark’s teaching today will show you that it’s the same in your spiritual life, too. As hard as it might get sometimes to follow God, and how much you might be tempted to turn away, others before you have faced the same temptations and God got them through.

The main theme of the book of Hebrews is, “better than”. The people that Hebrews was written to were going through some extremely difficult times and were thinking about bailing on the faith. The writer of Hebrews is trying to show them what a big mistake that would be and what they’d be missing out on. Pastor Mark’s teaching today is going to talk about people in Jewish history. All of these people went through hard times. Some recovered while on earth; others died. You’ll find out how they were rewarded.

It’s fair to say that almost everyone’s lives are made up of a series of ups and downs. Good times and bad. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Christ-follower, Buddhist, or atheist – great things happen, and awful things happen to you. There are those in the church who say that if you’re really full of faith that nothing bad will happen in your life, and you’ll be healthy and wealthy. Pastor Mark will teach today that even the most devout, full-of-faith believers in God had hard times, and God got them through – one way or another.

God is always pushing those who follow Him to follow Him more deeply. You know that the desired mode for people is ‘coast’ mode. Where your life’s just flowing along with no bumps or bruises. The Israelites were no different from you – they’d have preferred a cushy life with no troubles. But as Pastor Mark will be teaching today, that cushy life wouldn’t get them into the land that God had promised them. So, they had to get out of their comfort zone and trust God, just like you have to do to get to where God wants you to be.

Out-of-wedlock births have always had some sort of negative stigma. Somehow, the child that’s born in this situation is treated as if they’ve done something wrong. Trying to improve their lot in life is a struggle, and they always seem to have a ‘second-class’ status no matter what they do. But as Pastor Mark will teach today, God values each person equally. He has a plan for every life, and sometimes He has big plans. Jephthah’s life started out poor, but trusting God turned his life around.