Lessons for Living (Audio)

Prayer is such a mysterious thing. You wonder how it is God does what He does, and why He does it. Will He even be interested in your prayers? And if He is, who gets to determine if the prayer was answered or not? It’s hard to avoid being disappointed when it seems your prayers aren’t answered. Well, Pastor Mark’s teaching today will be about an important aspect of prayer that many people won’t admit to - failure to ask. You’ll learn the reason that God wants you to ask, even though He already knows.

Hard times and tragedies tend to cause one to reflect on life. Some people decide that they’re going to be mad about what happened, while others begin to think more seriously about things like life, death, and what – if anything – is beyond. As Pastor Mark will be teaching today, events like these can cause people to want to know more about God. You’ll learn more about the basics of prayer – what you do, how you do it, and what to say. You’ll discover that it’s a lot simpler than some people make it out to be.

A couple thousand years can take something that’s vibrant and alive and make it into a fossil. Or a zombie. One of the things that has in many ways become formula-ridden is prayer. You see these pictures of Jesus praying, and it’s like He did this pose – it just looks unreal to life. And in Pastor Mark’s teaching on prayer today, you’ll hear about the common-sense way God intends prayer to be. You’ll find out how to make it a natural act that fits who you are and how you talk, without it becoming a ritual.

Think of how society’s changed over the last hundred years or so. From horse and buggy to the automobile, from telegraph or even letters to the telephone and email. As a result, some people look at those “outdated” things with contempt, and the people of those times as lesser humans. Pastor Mark will be teaching about prayer, which predates email by thousands of years, yet is as effective today as it ever was. You’ll learn why you should be praying, what to pray for, and the right attitude to have when praying.

Christ followers in America have been protected in many ways from the reality of what their brothers and sisters around the world have to deal with. As a result, many of them have become complacent, trusting in their prosperity rather than in Jesus. This, as Pastor Mark will teach today, has resulted in a plague of prayerlessness. To try to remedy this problem, Pastor Mark will be teaching on prayer. You’ll learn what it is, why you need to cultivate this habit in your life, and the benefits that result from the routine of prayer.

The world’s in a mess, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. Despite some people’s claims, it’s easy to see that the bad guys seem to be winning. Some Christ-followers seem to want to throw in the towel and hide behind their church walls, waiting for Jesus to take them away. But as Pastor Mark will be teaching today, that’s not how God planned for the church to interact with the world. He’s given the Church gifts and the power to use those gifts to impact the world, and Pastor Mark will tell you how to use them.

You may have run into the professing Christian who acts like they don’t want to be around other Christ-followers. They have kind of a sour attitude and aren’t very complimentary. You might yourself wonder if they’ve actually had an authentic encounter with Jesus. This is a sad situation to see someone in, and this might be the kind of person Pastor Mark will be talking about in his teaching today. He’s going to be talking about using your spiritual gifts, and the mindset the Bible says you should have.

People outside the church – and some people inside it – complain of the lack of love shown toward people who fall short. While the Church isn’t supposed to be accepting of sinful lifestyles, many times Christ-followers are not as forgiving of lapses as they should be. As Pastor Mark will be teaching today, this is an area that all Christ-followers can improve in. You’ll hear the Scripture’s instructions in this area, which will help build unity and allow for better expressions of the gifts God’s given His people.

The system of the world that’s ruled by Satan and those who want to do things his way, says that to be satisfied in life you have to grab all that you can. It doesn’t matter who you hurt or step over (or on) to get what you want. Pastor Mark will be teaching that God’s kingdom works very differently. It doesn’t make sense to the human mind; that might be because God’s ways are based on His mind. You’ll learn what Christ-followers are to do so that people can see the love of Jesus through you.

It’s hard to watch someone go through hard times, especially if it’s a family member or somebody you’re close to. Even though many times the person learns the lesson that their hardship was helping them learn, the natural instinct for the person with the gift of mercy hates not being able to help. Pastor Mark will be teaching today about the limits of people. They need to understand that there’s a time for them to step back and let God do what He needs to do. That’s the best for all concerned.