Everything in the world you’re told, everything you read or see on TV, is designed to foster discontentment in you. That’s the way of the world system. It wants you to pursue more and more things in the false hope that those things will satisfy. This also leads you further and further from God and His desires for your life. Pastor Mark will be teaching that it is possible to become content no matter your circumstances. Using the apostle Paul as an example, he is illustrating that if you’re plugged in to God and being obedient to Him, you can find comfort and rest whatever your situation in life might be.

Do you get frustrated with the struggles in your Christian walk? If so, take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone. Everyone who is trying to become more like Jesus experiences struggles, successes and failures – that’s part of living life on this earth. While there’s no magic formula for success, the key to growth as a Christ follower is to be stubborn. Stubborn in your reliance on God. Stubborn in regularly reading the Bible. Pastor Mark will be teaching about this process you’re going through. He’s talking about how to get closer to God and how to succeed more and fail less.

All throughout scripture God encourages you to know His word. His followers are to spend time contemplating what He has communicated. You are to ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to apply the teachings and principles of the Bible to your life. There is another side to this education, though. Pastor Mark will be sharing the necessity of practical implementation of God’s word in your life. If you’re not living out what you’re learning you’re only doing half of what God has commanded you to do. Knowing God’s word without putting it into action is failing as far as God is concerned.

There was a kid’s show that would give little tidbits of information. They would close the segment with the phrase, “Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.” The apostle Paul is kind of saying the same thing in this scripture passage but, as Pastor Mark will be teaching, you have to put the teachings into action for the words to have any benefit to your life. God doesn’t just want to provide knowledge or information; He knows that for His words to have any effect in your life, you have to act those words out in your life, every day. Only then will you see the benefit to your life that God wants to impart.

The scriptures say that the Devil’s only desires are to steal, kill and destroy. Whatever it is – no matter how enticing it may appear – if it isn’t from God it has Satan’s steal/kill/destroy motivation behind it. Anything he can do to keep you separated from God’s best for your life, he will do. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the importance of being sure you’re playing on the correct team. After that, you need to begin reading from your new playbook, the Bible. Then God will give you all the strength you need to resist the Devil, and God will change your thinking so you’ll become less interested in what Satan’s selling.

You’ve heard the saying, “You are what you eat”, right? Well, there’s a similar saying that you are what you think. The Bible says that however a person thinks, that’s how they’ll turn out. The world system tries to permeate your thoughts with what it wants you to think about, without your consciously taking it in. God wants you to be a participant, not a spectator, in how your thinking turns out. Pastor Mark will be teaching you why you’re supposed to make this transformation happen as well as how it’s done, using the principles that God has given you in the Bible.

Many people live their lives in an unthinking manner. They don’t consider what they’re being told by those in charge of their country. They don’t think about what advertisers are really trying to get them to do. It’s a very passive way of living and thinking. The Bible, in contrast, tells you to be intentional about your thinking as well as your living. Pastor Mark will be teaching about this active way of thinking and living. He’ll be telling you the importance of finding out what God wants from you and wants to do for you. The only way to discover God’s will is by reading and thinking about God’s word.

A person’s view of right or wrong is initially shaped by how they were raised. If you weren’t raised with a knowledge of God’s laws and His love for you, your growing up would have been far different than someone raised knowing about God and Jesus’ love for them. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the importance of Christ followers’ working at getting their thinking aligned with that of God and Jesus. It’s so vital for you to become familiar with God’s message to you, the Bible, so that you can stop being fooled by Satan and begin to resist the allure of the world’s way of living.

Like it or not, you’re in a battle for your eternal soul as well as for your usefulness to God on earth. Satan wants to ruin your eternal life and will use your human nature against you to do it. Since he controls the world system and its messaging, that’s two powerful forces trying to keep you from God’s best for your life. Pastor Mark, in his teaching, will be showing you how to understand what God wants for your life and to provide you with tools for achieving the knowledge of God. Reading the word, meditating on what you read and prayer are tools to unlock the wisdom and power of God.

In many places in the Bible, God tells you that His thinking process is quite different from your thinking process. What you think is important many times is of no consequence to God. Because He can see the entire range of what could happen, He’s in the perfect position to know what the best course of action is. Pastor Mark will be reminding you in his teaching of this important fact. He’s also teaching about the need for you to learn to know how God thinks. This is done by reading the Bible and spending time contemplating what’s being said. This way you can be sure to be aligned with what God’s will is for your life.