Sermons on Discipleship

[1Timothy 4:7-8] For better or for worse, we are creatures of habit. I learned this early when I was a newspaper delivery boy. A customer would tell me he was going to be on vacation for a week and not need a paper. Nevertheless, out of sheer habit, I would fling a paper up on his porch each day and have to pay for that paper myself.

What does it mean to be His disciple in this world? Before we figure out what it is to be faithful ministers we better know what it is to be faithful Christians! The Book of Mark is a good place to go for both.

This ordeal left him blind in one eye so he could not take part in contact sports. Miraculously he suffered no brain damage and was fearfully aware that his abductor was still at large. He struggled with his appearance, but at the tender of age of 13 he began to change. He realized his injuries could have been much worse—he could have died. He also realized he could not stay angry forever. He decided to turn his back on animosity, revenge and self-pity forever.

The oceans, forests, plains, rivers, lakes—all of that—it all belongs to God. You heard the old hymn earlier, "This Is My Father's World." In the early chapters of Genesis, God gives instructions as to how we're supposed to take care of this planet. There are really four key instructions that He delivered. He said He wanted us to subdue it, rule over it, work it and take care of it.

Are you excited about your life? Or do you feel as if you are merely existing? Are you moving with confidence toward a desired goal? Or do you feel as if you are drifting along from day to day without any sense of purpose or direction?

Before you leave today, I am praying that God will give you a new identity: I am a minister.

Have you ever made a decision to obey God as a way of life?

God expects training to be in place for ministers and in fact for all of God’s people.

The world has rejected the very source for our own wisdom because such wisdom seems foolish to common sense.

When I was in high school a new music teacher came to town. He was fresh out of college and full of ambition. But here he was, stuck in a very rural community where people didn’t put up with (as they called it) “long-haired music,” either from the Beatles or Beethoven. Still, he was determined to teach us good music. We were going to sing selections from Handel’s Messiah for our Christmas concert. Most of us had never heard of Georg Frederic Handel, and when we first tried to sight-read through the...