Lessons for Living (Audio)

Do you ever think about guys like Billy Graham or Greg Laurie? It’s pretty amazing what they do with God’s help. Being able to present the Gospel in a clear, concise way is truly a gift. The fact of the matter, though, is that most people who come to Christ do so because they were spoken to one-on-one by a friend. Pastor Mark will be teaching about your need to be willing to learn how to tell someone else how they can get saved. You’ll learn what you need to know – and how to learn it – and then how to share it with someone else. You’ll be reminded that this is something Jesus told all His disciples to do.

God has always wanted to have a relationship with mankind. He had it in the beginning with Adam and Eve, but they chose to break it off. He went to the trouble of providing the solution, having Jesus pay the price of sin with His life, so that God and man could have fellowship again. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the role of the church in bringing people back into relationship with God through Jesus. You’ll be told that God’s chosen to use the church to be His ambassador to the unsaved world. You’ll learn that it’s your job to model Christlikeness to a lost world, making God look good.

America’s an amazing country. It was built by people who were willing to go against the conventional wisdom of the time, and were prepared to risk everything they had – even their lives. This attitude of independence, however, isn’t how God intended His kingdom to be built. Pastor Mark will be teaching about God’s hierarchy, the way He has structured His kingdom. You’ll find out that God’s very organized, and He has given people abilities that suit them for particular positions in the church. You’ll discover that God’s given you gifts and abilities to fit in this church, as well.

These days, people are all about redefining terms. Words such as ‘gender’, ‘male’, and ‘female’ have very different meanings than they did fifty years ago. The same thing is being attempted in the church. What it means to be a ‘Christian’ is far different for some people than it was in the days of Jesus. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the only definition for a Christian that matters: what God says in the Bible. You might discover that what you’ve been led to think a Christian is, isn’t what Jesus said it is. This will be an opportunity to examine your own walk, and adjust what needs to be fixed in it.

The church in America looks at the success of the church in the book of Acts, and wishes that the power displayed in those times was more evident today. The healings and other miracles create a sense of longing to see God do those amazing things now. In Pastor Mark’s teaching today, he’ll be giving you reasons that you might not see God working in your life to the degree you’d like Him to. Although it might be unpleasant to hear, he’s going to be talking about things that – if you take them to heart – will narrow the gap between where you are and where you want to be as a Christ follower.

Have you ever been at a point in your Christian walk where you were frustrated because you didn’t feel like you were maturing? It kind of felt like you were in a rut, or stuck in the same old place? Many people have experienced this – it’s not unusual for this to happen. Pastor Mark will be teaching about this kind of situation today. He’s going to be talking about the Christ follower who hasn’t really gone beyond making a profession of faith, and the danger they’re in of not making it into heaven. He’ll show you how you can begin to advance in your spiritual life, and to live like God wants you to.

It’s easy to forget that as a Christ follower you’re in a battle, a war. Every day, every minute, there’s an organized effort to get you to reduce your devotion to Jesus. The world you live in hates God – hates everything about God. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the need for you to stay aware of this, and to strengthen your resistance to the world’s efforts to influence you. He’ll tell you how you can start to become a more devoted Christ follower, beginning to influence those around you and showing people that there’s a viable lifestyle option to how they’re currently living.

Most Christians in America have grown up with the idea that all they have to do to be right with God is to do something like pray the Sinner’s Prayer, and then it’s all good. But they might be frustrated because they don’t see any real change in their lives – the issues that bothered them prior to salvation haven’t gone away; in fact, they might be worse. Pastor Mark will be teaching today that this is because they haven’t really done what Jesus told them to do. You’ll discover that being a Christ follower is more than just saying words; there are actions and activities that you’re to do as well.

The world is full of people who are dying without Jesus. They’re following false religions of many types, just living their lives the best they know how. And in America, young people who’ve grown up in the church reject Christianity as adults. Why is that? Pastor Mark will be teaching the reasons for these happenings. He’ll be talking about the failure of Christ followers to actually be Christ followers. You’ll find out what it is you as a believer in Jesus should be doing, as well as how to do it. He’ll be showing you how to become obedient to the commands of Jesus to reach out to the world with the truth that can save them.

People in the world are so lost. They’re trying all kinds of ideas, hoping to find an anchor for their souls to keep them from being completely shipwrecked on the shores of life. They’re trying to think of something that will help them make sense of the world and their place in it. Pastor Mark will be teaching about Jesus, the solution to their problem. You’ll hear about the state of man spiritually and how Jesus came to remedy the situation. You’ll learn that just hearing about Jesus isn’t enough – you have to put what you’ve learned into practice every day, to make you a stronger Christ follower.