Gospel Living

In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2  “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3  And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4  And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5  And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6  And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7  And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8  And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets f...

A temptation Christians face is to view pastors as those who serve God full-time, while the rest of us are somehow only "part-time" servants in the ministry.  While the pastorate indeed demands unique responsibilities, all Christians are full-time servants of God , regardless of their humanly employment.  How can pastors and church leaders impress this on their congregations?  Listen to Mark Tatlock explain how to equip people to be witnesses at work: Download MP3 .

Here is the video from my sermon on Philippians 4:6-9 at Lynton Missionary Church in Lynwood, CA, on June 17, 2012. Unfortunately, the recorder gave out about thirty minutes into the message, but don't be anxious: you can get the lost fifteen minutes from the manuscript below. od comforts us in the fact that our heroes in the faith are human.  We only need to think of David, who Scripture records was a man after God’s own heart—someone who stood up to Goliath’s bullying with the strength and faith unlike any of his countrymen.  Even so, he was human.  We remember his failures as a father.  We remember his failures in leadership.  We remember his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.  We remember his murder of her husband.  If after all of this he is remembered as a man after God’s own heart in Acts 13:22, God’s grace provides hope for us all. There is another time when he stumbled in his faith.  Before Saul died in batt...

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