Lessons for Living (Audio)

This story seems to contradict everything that Jesus stands for. Rewarding and commending a dishonest man for being dishonest? It goes against everything we’re taught about how to behave! Jesus, however, has a deeper point to make and Pastor Mark will be teaching about that. Jesus’ point is to focus on the man’s honesty with his condition. he knew what he could do and was willing to do, and he came up with a solution for his long-term financial care. Pastor Mark will be teaching how this man’s story relates to our long-term spiritual care.

“It all seemed so good at the time”, we often think. After making a poor decision, life choice, whatever. Sin is so enticing but as scripture says, it leads to death in the end. The story of the prodigal that Pastor Mark is sharing today contains one of those instances. Many times for us we don’t see the folly of our sin until after we are in ruin. Hopefully our decision doesn’t include damage to someone else. Thankfully, our heavenly Father is always waiting for us to come back home. Like the father in the story, He is patiently awaiting our return, full of grace, mercy and forgiveness.

“It all seemed so good at the time”, we often think. After making a poor decision, life choice, whatever. Sin is so enticing but as scripture says, it leads to death in the end. The story of the prodigal that Pastor Mark is sharing today contains one of those instances. Many times for us we don’t see the folly of our sin until after we are in ruin. Hopefully our decision doesn’t include damage to someone else. Thankfully, our heavenly Father is always waiting for us to come back home. Like the father in the story, He is patiently awaiting our return, full of grace, mercy and forgiveness.

One of the hardest things for anyone to do is to admit that they messed up. Especially when they mistreated the one they ended up wronging, swallowing one’s pride is tough. In the story of the prodigal, Pastor Mark will be explaining the process the son went through from arrogance to humility. He’ll teach about the thing that confirms true repentance – action. We all know people who talk about being sorry but don’t demonstrate actions that confirm their sorrow. This is indeed a warning for us that when God convicts us of sin, we need to put action with our words of repentance.

One of the hardest things for anyone to do is to admit that they messed up. Especially when they mistreated the one they ended up wronging, swallowing one’s pride is tough. In the story of the prodigal, Pastor Mark will be explaining the process the son went through from arrogance to humility. He’ll teach about the thing that confirms true repentance – action. We all know people who talk about being sorry but don’t demonstrate actions that confirm their sorrow. This is indeed a warning for us that when God convicts us of sin, we need to put action with our words of repentance.

The Bible refers to “the deceitfulness of sin”. Many of us know the truth of that statement by our own histories. Sin certainly is fun and pleasurable – otherwise we wouldn’t be tempted by it. We know, though, that there’s a point when the fun ends and we find ourselves chained to a habit or lifestyle that we can’t get away from. The prodigal was in the same situation, and he needed a way out. Pastor Mark will be teaching that just like his father was always waiting for his return, our Heavenly Father is doing just the same. All we need to do is to decide to return to Him again.

The Bible refers to “the deceitfulness of sin”. Many of us know the truth of that statement by our own histories. Sin certainly is fun and pleasurable – otherwise we wouldn’t be tempted by it. We know, though, that there’s a point when the fun ends and we find ourselves chained to a habit or lifestyle that we can’t get away from. The prodigal was in the same situation, and he needed a way out. Pastor Mark will be teaching that just like his father was always waiting for his return, our Heavenly Father is doing just the same. All we need to do is to decide to return to Him again.

It totally doesn’t make sense to us to try to find life by losing our lives.. It is tough to let loose of the reins of our life and allow God to take control. Pastor Mark will be teaching about our need to do this, this giving up of our lives. For those of us who have done this, we have found there’s an excitement that we could not have anticipated or imagined. Although our lives may have gone in a direction not foreseen before our salvation, we have found a satisfaction we couldn’t have known before. Hopefully, we’ll be understanding better how much God really loves us and cares for us.

It totally doesn’t make sense to us to try to find life by losing our lives.. It is tough to let loose of the reins of our life and allow God to take control. Pastor Mark will be teaching about our need to do this, this giving up of our lives. For those of us who have done this, we have found there’s an excitement that we could not have anticipated or imagined. Although our lives may have gone in a direction not foreseen before our salvation, we have found a satisfaction we couldn’t have known before. Hopefully, we’ll be understanding better how much God really loves us and cares for us.

If we think about Jesus’ torturing, crucifixion and death, it is difficult to think of ourselves as being worthy enough for Him to go through all that. Pastor Mark will be reminding us that we don’t understand our value to God. He will be helping us to comprehend that our value is not based on what we do or our winning personality – it’s based on the valuation God has given us. His desire to reestablish the relationship that through Adam we broke was so great that He would do the unthinkable. He would sacrifice His own Son in our place so that we would be able to commune with Him again.