Lessons for Living (Audio)

It seems that the mindset among many people, particularly in the West, is to have as easy a life as possible. To work just enough to take care of the stuff you want to and to have enough left over to have the fun you want to have. The problem with that, as Pastor Mark will teach today, is that that’s not how God intended you to live. His plan from the beginning was for you to be productive in all aspects of your life. And so, He’s given gifts to His body to help motivate people to love and good works.

When you hear someone talk about the teaching process, it’s easy to flashback to some level of school, usually with the worst teacher you had. Although that’s the tendency, you’ve probably found that teaching can happen in many different ways. Pastor Mark will be sharing today about God’s gift of teaching and all the different ways that can be shown. Hearing about this just might open your eyes to the possibility that you could be used to illustrate and demonstrate God’s truth to people.

Everybody has had good teachers, and not so good teachers. Good teachers help you understand the subject they’re teaching about, even if you weren’t initially interested. Poor teachers can ruin your favorite subject. Pastor Mark will teach today about the spiritual gift of teaching. You’ll find out how this is different from the teaching profession, and how sometimes they overlap. Pastor Mark will tell you what the characteristics are of someone with the gift of teaching, and where they’re useful in the church.

God’s word is amazingly powerful. It’s able – with the Holy Spirit – to bring people from spiritual death to abundant spiritual life. But if it’s not used, it’s just words on a page. So, how do those static words become the useful instrument God intended them to be? By someone with the gift of teaching bringing those words to life. Pastor Mark’s message today will focus on the gift of teaching. You’ll hear about what a teacher is and does, and the personal character traits that you can expect to see in a person that God’s gifted this way.

As a rabbi – a Jewish religious teacher – Jesus could have required His disciples to do a lot of things, reminding them of His position as a teacher. But instead, He spent His time talking about the service He was sent to provide to them. In Pastor Mark’s teaching today, he will be showing how Jesus continued to show the disciples through action – not just words – what the qualities of a true leader are supposed to be. You’ll be reminded that these character qualities are for all of Jesus’ followers to copy.

As a Christ-follower, it’s hard sometimes to take in the information and attitudes you’re bombarded with every day. Lots of times it might even make you feel, well, dirty. As someone who has the Spirit of God living in you, this is a normal reaction. In Pastor Mark’s teaching today you’ll hear as Jesus tries to illustrate this daily dirtiness to His disciples. Jesus will lay out for them how He has provided the daily cleansing for their souls just as He’s going to provide for the redemption of their souls on the cross.

Life would be so much easier if everyone would just agree with your decisions and opinions, right? It would eliminate discussions and especially fighting. Well, obviously that’s not how things go. And it gets even trickier when God’s thrown into the mix. Pastor Mark will be reminding you in his teaching today that if you really want to serve God to the best of your ability that you have to let God be in charge. Giving up your wants, and trusting that God knows what’s best for you is hard, but when you do, it’s the best.

Serving in or for the Body of Christ is quite a tricky thing to do, mentally. You want to be recognized for the work you do, but you don’t want to do the work only to be praised by those you’re serving. And then when people do recognize you and thank you for your service, you’ve got the challenge of remaining humble, thanking them for the recognition but remembering you’re ultimately serving God. Whew! Well, Pastor Mark’s teaching today will help you navigate these minefields to get to the goal of Biblical servanthood.

Most people in the church seem to take it for granted that the pastor takes care of everything. All of the spiritual needs of the church – counseling of all kinds, all of the praying, and of course all of the preaching and teaching. Maybe this is why there’s such a high burnout rate for pastors. Pastor Mark will be teaching today about the gift of service, and how vital it is to the healthy operation of the local church. You’ll hear what the traits of someone with this gift are. Who knows – he could be talking about you!

There’s a tendency – possibly fueled by Old Testament images of them – to think of prophets as people especially gifted by God and on a different, higher level than the rest of humanity. The problem with this thinking is that it’s not how God thinks of them. Pastor Mark will be teaching today about the humanity of prophets, and how they’re just as likely to mess up as anyone else. You’ll be learning that the important thing, no matter what your gift is, is to be sure you’re listening to and obeying God.