Lessons for Living (Audio)

How many of you parents have children who listen perfectly to you when you try to get their attention? How many of you listened perfectly to your parents when they called you? Well, it’s kind of the same thing with you hearing God speak, isn’t it? If you’re honest, God probably talks to you a lot more than you want to admit. Pastor Mark will be teaching about this tendency to ignore God, and the blessings that are missed because of this behavior. You’ll hear about God’s reaching out to Moses in a most unique way, Moses’ response, and the benefit to millions of people that resulted from Moses listening to God.

Do you ever look back on your life and regret decisions you either made or didn’t make? It’s easy to do that. It’s easy to sink into remorse for what you consider not to have been the best choices for your life or your relationship with God. Pastor Mark will be teaching about such decisions. He’ll be using the life of Moses as examples of what it looks like to make both good and bad choices. You’ll hear about how God took even the bad decisions that Moses made and wove those into Moses’ character. You’ll learn the ways that God can do the same kind of thing in your life.

Are you an impatient person? If you are, do you find yourself chomping at the bit to get things done? Sometimes it’s easy to think that you know the best way to get tasks completed – and besides, they need to get done right now! Once in a while when you look back, you realize that it might’ve been better to wait just a little longer to complete a task, because it would’ve been done better. Pastor Mark will be teaching about God’s timing in the life of Moses. You’ll learn that while Moses had an idea about God’s calling on his life, Moses’ timing and methods were in need of God’s direction.

There’s no one – not a single person – who’s ever lived their life without making a mistake. Some are small, some are major. The challenge is what to do after the mistake’s been made. Can you fix it, or do you have to deal with the consequences of the decision and hope to clean the mess up later? Pastor Mark will be teaching about the life of Moses. Moses did a lot of good things and was used by God in amazing ways. But, he did have a few slipups. One was really big and cost him a chance to go into the Promised Land. You’ll learn about handling mistakes from a biblical perspective.

Have you ever had what seemed like an urgent need that you asked God for the answer to, and you didn’t hear…and didn’t hear…anything? You probably got kinda uptight about that, didn’t you? Well, Pastor Mark will be teaching about Abram, who was in a similar situation. He’d actually gotten a promise directly from God Himself! This promise seemed to Abram to be a time-sensitive one, so he was expressing his anxiety to God. You’ll hear from Pastor Mark about the importance of hanging on with God even when you can't see the way clear, because God’s always in control of the situation.

Have you ever heard clearly from God to do something but…kinda…did it? It probably didn’t work out so well. You found out that just doing what God said to do, the way that God said to do it, had great results, didn’t you? Pastor Mark will be teaching about the plans that God has for your life. He’ll be using the example of Abraham, showing that when Abraham did things God’s way that his life was pretty smooth. But you’ll also discover the things that went wrong for Abraham when he decided to do things his own way instead of following the plans that God had made clear to him.

As you get older and older, and see the world become more corrupt than you’d thought would be possible, it’s tempting to look at it all and wonder why you’re even here in the first place. Even as a follower of Jesus, the sheer weight of evil and sadness in the world can make it a challenge to be positive about life. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the plan of God for your life. He’ll be showing you that there is a plan for you while on the earth besides just waiting to die and go to heaven. You’ll find out that you can do good here and how you can be a light, shining in this dark world.

There are lots of gods that can be worshipped today. Money, power, fame, celebrity, and many, many others. Ultimately, though, the worship and pursuit of these things really are about the attempt to make yourself god. Pastor Mark will teach about the origin of this way of thinking. You’ll hear the lies and deceptions that had to happen for this self-worship to begin. You’ll be reminded about the breathtaking amount of power you have to either serve God or to serve Satan under the guise of “doing your own thing”. You’ll learn that there’s a way out of that trap of serving yourself rather than serving God.

Most children are raised with the ultimate goal of being able to chart their own path. Where to go to college, what kind of career path to pursue, where to live; all of these are decisions people are raised to be able to make on their own. For better or worse, that’s the way of things. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the problem that this me-oriented living causes. You’ll hear about God’s sovereignty and His desire to partner with you to show you what success looks like on His terms. You’ll find out about the advantages that happen when you decide to let God lead and direct your life.

One of the challenging things about God for people who think of themselves as intellectual is the aspect of faith. Because they rightly understand that God requires belief prior to His giving them proof, and because they’re really unwilling to give up control of what they think is “their” life, they reject God. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the God who’s revealed Himself to all men and women. You’ll hear about how God’s done everything He can to make His existence clear to every man and woman throughout history. The problem is that they have made a conscious decision to reject God’s offer to know Him.