When You Feel Unworthy to Follow Jesus*

Have you ever felt like your past disqualifies you from following Jesus? In this heartfelt message based on Luke 5:27–32, Pastor Chris shares how Jesus calls the most unlikely people to follow Him—and how your story, no matter how broken, can be used for God’s glory. Discover what it means to answer Jesus’ call, leave your past behind, and live as a fully devoted disciple.

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/16335665

Key Points:

1. Jesus Calls Us to Follow Him – Luke 5:27–28. Despite Levi’s reputation as a tax collector and outcast, Jesus personally invited him to become a disciple, offering a permanent appointment to a new life.
2. Following Jesus Requires Leaving Behind What Holds You Back – Luke 5:28. Levi left everything—wealth, status, security—to follow Jesus. True discipleship requires full commitment.
3. Following Jesus Should Be Publicly Celebrated – Luke 5:29. Levi hosted a banquet to introduce his friends to Jesus, showing us the importance of celebrating spiritual transformation.
4. Expect Criticism When You Follow Jesus – Luke 5:30. Religious leaders criticized Jesus for associating with sinners. Being faithful sometimes means being misunderstood.
5. We Must Have Compassion for Those Who Need Jesus – Luke 5:31–32. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance, not the self-righteous. We are called to reach out with love and hope to a broken world.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:

• Honest reflection on struggling with feeling "unworthy" for ministry because of a rough upbringing and family challenges.
• Relatable story about ignoring house phone calls unless expecting something important, illustrating how people respond to God’s call based on felt need.
• Encouragement from personal ministry experiences where messy lives were transformed by Jesus’ grace.

Notable Quotes:

• "Jesus doesn’t just tolerate you—He invites you to transform your life with Him."
• "Your past doesn’t cancel your future when Jesus calls you to follow."
• "Real disciples don’t just follow Jesus privately—they throw a party and invite others to meet Him."

Actionable Takeaways:

1. Reflect on what you need to leave behind to follow Jesus more fully.
2. If you haven’t, consider being baptized as a public confession of faith.
3. Celebrate the spiritual growth and salvation of others instead of judging their starting point.
4. Ask God to give you compassion for those who feel far from Him.

Scripture References:

• Luke 5:27–32 – The call of Levi and Jesus’ mission to sinners
• Matthew 28:18–20 – The call to make disciples
• James 1:5 – God gives wisdom generously
• 2 Timothy 2:2 – Reproducing disciples
• Acts 18:8 – Believers’ baptism
• Titus 3:5–6 – Salvation by grace, not works

Keywords:
 Luke 5, following Jesus, discipleship, unworthiness, God’s call, grace, spiritual transformation, Christian compassion, evangelism, baptism

Challenge:
 You don't have to be perfect to follow Jesus—you just have to be willing. Step out in faith, leave the past behind, and trust that God has a purpose for your life greater than anything you could imagine.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:00

I wanted to talk to you about following Jesus today. And that seems to be such an easy thing to really think about following Jesus, but do you really follow Jesus in the way that he wants you to follow him? Do you follow Jesus in the way that he's called you to follow him? So if you were in your Bible in Luke chapter 5, you would hear about the call of Levi, who also is known as Matthew, who wrote the Gospel of Matthew. And he was the least likely of characters to be called by Jesus. He didn't qualify. He wasn't seen as good enough. He had a bad reputation. And so in the Kenneth Wuist New Testament, which he's a Greek scholar who has taken the words and made his own paraphrase. I'll read what he wrote. Luke 5.27. After these things, talking about Jesus, after these things, he, Jesus, went forth, and he saw a collector of internal revenue named Levi seated at his desk in the collector's office, and he attentively contemplated him. And he said to him, Come and join me as one of my disciples, and consider it a permanent appointment. And having abandoned all and having arisen, he joined him, Capital H I wouldn't join Jesus, as Jesus' permanent disciple. And Levi gave a great reception for Jesus in his home, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others of a like nature who were reclining at the table with him, and the Pharisees and their men, they were learned in the scriptures, went grumbling in a low undertone, conferring secretly together, and discontentedly complaining to his disciples, Jesus' disciples, saying, For what reason would the tax collectors and sinners stained with vice and crime are you all eating and drinking? And Jesus answered, Jesus answering, said to them, Those who are sound in body do not have need of a doctor, but those who are in a miserable condition so far as their health is concerned, I have not come to call righteous persons but sinners to repentance. So if you think about this, okay, tax collectors were not people that you would want to associate with. It just wasn't a good thing. And when you think about the call of God in your life, and you think about what Jesus wants to do in your life, and you think about the people that the Lord is calling to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, to follow Him, it can make a huge difference in your life. So I'm going to show this quick video clip, and then we're going to talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

One call has the power to change our life forever. It can transform us from the inside out and lead us into a new future. Whether or not we answer the call is up to us. God calls each of us to something greater than ourselves. We're called to impact our world with the message and love of Jesus Christ. Equipping us all with gifts and talents, God gives us the tools necessary to accomplish his will. For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. Hearing God's voice can be challenging. It doesn't always come as a loud ring, but it can come as a whisper. Even when we don't feel God is speaking to us, He's there. Be the change you wish to see in the world. This statement is true, but an even greater truth is be the change that God calls you to be in the world. Will you answer the call?

Chris T 3:41

There are people all around us that need Jesus. And sometimes you need to share the message and they're not ready to respond. They're not ready to answer the call because they don't feel the need. It's like my house phone in my house. So my wife and I and my kid, we all use our cell phones. We have the house phone. We've tried to get rid of the house phone, but the company that has the house phone wants us to keep it. It's free. Please keep it. We beg you to keep it. So we have it. And the only people that call it usually are people that are trying to sell things or that recording that says that it's Jade Smith from the IRS, and I'm going to be go to jail if I don't pay my back taxes, and I need to go to Target and buy gift cards so that I can pay my back taxes through them. I actually turned one of those recordings into the police department and they thanked me. So they said it's next to impossible to trace the numbers, but they add it to their catalog of fraud calls. But I don't answer those calls when the phone rings because I don't really care, because I don't think there's anything in it for me. However, there was something that I needed from somebody, and I knew they had my home phone. So whenever that phone would ring, then I would run to it to see if it was that call that I needed. I had a need and they had what I the solution. So I was waiting for on that phone that I never answered, I don't like, that I'd love to get rid of, that is right there. So if you call me on my house phone and I don't answer it, it's not you. So it's just so inconvenient to answer that phone that it's it's never for me. That's why I never answer it. But God is calling people all around, and sometimes they're waiting for that call. And they are just there. They're like, What must I do to be saved? Have you ever had anybody ask you that question where they're in such a pro their life is such a mess that they just come to you and they like say, My mass, my mess is just so overwhelming. How can I what do you have? How are you so peaceful? What is it that you have? And then they ask you, and then they say, What must I do to be saved? I wish that it happened to me all the time. It has happened to me before, but not as often as I would like. But people are waiting to hear the call. Sometimes when tragedy comes, they're ready to answer the call when they have a need. There are many needs. Sometimes it's a moral failure, sometimes it's a difficulty, sometimes it's a sickness, sometimes it's a hardship, sometimes it's overwhelming guilt for sins or things that they've done that they just know are wrong, that they don't know what to do with. Sometimes, sometimes it's a feeling of despair or a feeling of just a life that doesn't seem to matter. Some people reach certain ages. For some, you hit 40 or or 50 or 60 or whatever, and you like have a crisis and try to figure out does your life matter? I hear that you hit 60, 70, and you're trying to figure out, you know, what you can do with the rest of your life to make a difference and how you can pass things on, how you can build a legacy, all those things. And sometimes people are like, my life is a mess. I need Jesus. And they want to follow Jesus, they answer God's call. There are other people, young people, who hear God's call and they say, Well, not now. Not now. I'm having too much fun, want to do my own thing. I know that the Bible, God's Word, said I shouldn't do these things, but I really want to do these things. So I'm gonna do these things, and then when I'm older, maybe I'll I'll check into answering God's call. So there are people that need Jesus all around us, people that need to hear the message of the gospel, people that need to become followers of Jesus, that will experience life and peace and gain the wisdom of God. James 1, 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. And when they answer that call, when they come to Christ, then they receive that wisdom. They experience self-control, discipline. Usually their relationships get better. A lot of people that come to Christ become better workers, they are more moral, they have friendships with other Christians, they become good at serving in the church and serving God, their marriages become stronger, their families more nurturing. Biblical virtues of integrity, honesty, hard work can become part of their life. They often grow to become pillars in their church and communities. However, sometimes instead of truly following Christ, they followed the Christian rules or guides or subculture, and they do all those things, but they're faking it. They're not truly following Christ. They just learn how to say the right things and not say those words and use these Christian idioms and use, you know, so they seem like they're following Christ, but they're faking it. It's a fake, it's a facade. And sometimes when we're in the church, maybe we were sinners a long time ago, and Christ has gotten a hold of our life, and we're not those people anymore. We totally lose the compassion for those people that are messed up, like we used to be messed up or messed up, but their life is a mess, they're into sin and everything like that. We totally forget that we used to be that way. We don't want to have anything to do with them. We are just going through life without any compassion like the Pharisees did at the time of Jesus. So let me just talk about the call of Jesus and what it means to be a disciple of Christ in this time. Number one, we are called to follow Jesus. So again, later as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth. Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him. So as I was reading the Bible commentaries and thinking about this, there's a lot to be said about being a tax collector. It was the lowest of the low. You get kicked out of your synagogue if you were a tax collector. Basically, you were a Jewish person who was working for the Roman government to extract and even extort money from your fellow countrymen. Let me just read this. Levi was a tax collector for the Roman government. The Romans collected their taxes through a system called tax farming. They assessed a district, a fixed tax figure, and then sold the right to collect taxes to the highest bidder. The buyer then had to hand over the assessed figure at the end of the year and could keep whatever he gathered above that amount. Such a system invited extortion. The potential for abuse was further aided by both the primitive record keeping and the limited means of communication in the ancient world, both of which made it difficult for people to verify when they were being exploited or to appeal it. First, there were two categories of taxes. Fixed taxes left little room for extortion. These included the poll tax, which all men and women paid simply because they were alive, the ground tax, which was which required one-tenth of all grain, wine, and oil, and the income tax, which was one percent of earnings. There was the second area of taxes, namely duties and tolls, that allowed the tax collectors to rob others. The people paid separate taxes for using roads and for docking in harbors, and also import and export duties, and even a sales tax on certain items. There was even a cart tax in which each wheel was taxed. The system was a breeding ground for draft and exploitation. A tax collector could stop anyone on the road, make them unpack his bundles, and charge just about anything his larcenous heart desired. If the traveler could not pay, the tax collector would offer to loan him money at an exorbitant rate. Such men were skilled extortionists. The Talmud classified them as robbers, and not surprisingly, they often allied themselves with thugs and enforcers, the scum of Jewish society. So rare was honesty in the profession that a Roman writer remarked in amazement that he once saw a monument to an honest tax collector. Alright, so these are the most hated people in Hebrew society. Despicable, rich vermin. They're classified with robbers, evildoers, and adulterers and prostitutes in the Bible. So this is Levi. This is the guy that Jesus is going to call. For what reason would Jesus call anybody like that? And then also when Jesus comes and calls him, according to what I've been reading from the Bible commentaries and things like that, it wasn't like Jesus just came up and said, Hey, you don't know me, but do you want to quit your job and come work for me? It wasn't like that at all. Probably Levi saw Jesus' teaching. I mean, every time Jesus was moving through the gate, he as a tax collector was probably there. So everybody knew Levi, probably didn't like him, but he probably heard what Jesus was saying, probably, probably wished that there was some way that he wasn't who he was, that he would be able to serve Jesus, some way that he would be able to like change his life and become available, to become good enough, to become clean enough to be able to serve and follow somebody like Jesus. It was his heart desire. And I'm sure that he thought there was no way that he could do it. Have you ever felt like that way before? Have you ever felt unworthy? Have you ever felt that your past totally cancels out whatever future God has for you because you're that person or you had that experience or you did that thing, therefore you no longer qualify? I'll share with you that I got saved. I went to Bible college, I graduated from two Bible colleges with honors, and then I got the opportunity for the first ministry job as a youth and family pastor at a fast-growing church. And all of a sudden I had a crisis of me not being good enough. After the pastor basically said, You got the job and everything, I said, Can I ask you a question? I said, So when I was a kid, my life was kind of messed up, and my family was kind of messed up, and I wasn't like the best kid. And I like lived in a boys' ranch for three years. And does that disqualify me at all? He's like, Well, what's your life like now? What has Christ done in your life? What is your family like? What has God done in your life? He said it doesn't disqualify you, it actually makes you more equipped to understand and have compassion and know what people are going through, and more equipped to minister to people that have gone through hard things too, and everybody's gone through hard things or will be going through hard things. But so many times we feel unworthy to follow Jesus. We feel afraid to follow Jesus. We feel afraid of what people are going to say about us. So we say, we can't, we can't do that. We can't we can't serve Jesus because people know who I am or was, or I can't follow Jesus because I'm just not good enough. I don't have it, I'm not smart enough. Why would Jesus want me? So Jesus comes to Levi. He comes to Levi and he says, Follow me. It's a long-term commitment. Are you willing to do that? And he like, I don't think that he just dropped everything and walked away. I think he told Jesus, I'm in. And then he probably went to who's ever in charge of taxes and said, Here's the money, here's the books, I'm gonna he probably quit on good terms so that he'd be freely able to not be a criminal, too, freely able to be with Jesus and have good reputation. So my guess is that he said, I'm in, let me just go take care of this. He took care of the matters that were important, and then he followed Jesus. Not only did he follow Jesus as a disciple, but he also wrote the book of Matthew. He was able to do many great things for God because he followed Jesus. And it's just so amazing that in the next verse, verse 28, Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. He was totally committed to follow Jesus. And are you totally committed to follow Jesus? To say that, okay, Jesus is going to take me. He wants me to be on his team, he wants me to serve him. Have you ever had that? I graduated from high school when I was like 16, so sports was tough. In high school, when people were getting like bigger, faster, stronger, and I was still scrawny, waiting for my opportunity to become bigger, faster, stronger, which unfortunately happened basically after I was done with high school. I know what it's like, like that West King song, to be second string. What does the song say? Something like to sit on the bench and just watch your friends play and wonder why you're even on the team, kind of thing, you know, to be picked last, to be standing out there with a mug with a group of guys picking teams, and I guess I'll take Chris. It's like, gee, thanks. Sometimes we feel that way with Jesus. Sometimes we feel like we just don't measure up. And if you're faithful to show up, if you're faithful to answer the call, I promise you that between the Holy Spirit's power in you and God's faithfulness, that you can do great things through Christ if you just get up and leave what it is that He's calling you to leave and follow Him. So I'm not saying that tomorrow you go quit your job and say, I'm just gonna go hang out at church now. So we're gonna walk through the streets and pray and lead people to Christ, which would be awesome if you actually are independently wealthy and can do that. That's a good thing. But Levi got up, left everything, and followed Jesus. And we need to do that. We need to, what is it that's holding people back? What is it that's holding you back from fully following Jesus? Sometimes it's our love of things, sometimes it's our love of people, sometimes we're terrified of what people will think. Sometimes I've come across some people in our community or area that say, I would love to come to your church, but I can't because my mother would be so mad. It's like, dude, you're like 35 years old. You can make your own decisions. Oh, my mom would be mad though if I didn't go to the church, our church. So, okay. Or it's maybe it's not even church, maybe it's some religious organization that we wouldn't really totally classify church. But there's things that hold you back. You know, what people think, possessions, things that you find more important. And then you come to the end of your life and you're like, man, I wish I would have followed Jesus. Can you imagine if Levi would have said, you know what, Jesus, thank you. I'm honored that you would choose me, but I've got some more taxes to collect, I've got this job here, maybe in the future, maybe once I've made enough money off of this gig to be self-supporting. But no, he followed Jesus. But not only did he follow Jesus, or number three, but he confessed that he was the follower of Jesus by throwing a party for all of his other tax collector buddies. What a great thing. If you're gonna follow Jesus, throw a party. If you're gonna be baptized, invite everybody. If you're going to make a change in your life, let everybody know. So later Levi held the banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor, and many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with him. So Levi took his money and hired extra servants or caterers or whatever, had a big party in his home with Jesus there for the rest of his tax collectors so that they could meet Jesus, hear Jesus, hear Jesus' message, so that they would know, hey guys, I know I've been part of the part of the tax group for a while and everything, and I appreciate all of your friendships and everything, but I just want you to know I'm moving on. So I'm I'm making a change. I'm gonna follow this guy. And boy, did that make the Pharisees upset. But he chose to follow Jesus, and he chose to let everybody know. Do we see people come to Christ and celebrate them? Say, Man, you you prayed to receive Christ? You are really messed up. I can't wait to see what Jesus is gonna do with you, because I sure hope he doesn't leave you like that. Because as long as you're like that, I don't want you around my kids. Just sound like a sailor. But Life Application Bible commentary talks about AA and says, people who are involved with Alcoholics Anonymous say the group is at a turning point of sorts. In many chapters, people would be scandalized if a quote sloppy drunk, unquote, walked into a meeting and made a scene. Those chapters have apparently become too respectable for such behavior. Imagine an organization dedicated to helping alcoholics offended by drunken behavior, and yet the church faces a similar dilemma. What would happen if a hardcore, quote, sinner, unquote, came to your fellowship and made a spectacle of himself, sobbing, crying out for forgiveness, and interrupting your routine? So we have this opportunity to lead people to Christ. And they will be in a process, and hopefully they will be growing in Christ, and their life will be changing, and they may do things that we don't necessarily appreciate, or things that they don't even know that Christians don't do it. And so, but we love them and reach out to them, help them grow, care for them, and are excited for what God is doing in their life. Even invite them to the party. We go to their party. It is a good thing. So Levi, through a party, had all of his friends, all of this what the Pharisees would call sinners and tax collectors, scum. That's the next verse, actually. Verse 30. Criticized for following Jesus. But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples. Why do you eat and drink with such scum? So which the tax collectors and sinners. So where are we when it comes to wanting people to follow Jesus and helping them grow and being involved in people's lives? Let's be prayerful about who we can reach into, what lives we can reach into and how we can live lives, because maybe Jesus is going to call us to reach out to some people that you know are difficult or undesirable, or just pray about it because we're we're serving for eternity. Eternity matters, and we should do all that we can to follow Jesus. I know there's going to be criticism, even criticism of us. Criticism for the way that we do things or the way that we live our lives for Jesus. There'll be all sorts of people that think that we're naive, that we don't know anything about the world, that we're chasing a fantasy. It can be difficult and sometimes disheartening to think that we are the only ones that are following Jesus. I saw this article here from Christianity Today a couple years ago that talked about contemporary scientists argue that science and Christianity are completely incompatible. So in this interview from 2013, the atheist scientist Richard Dawkins said that he'll keep showing hostility to any alternative to science, such as religion of any kind, because, in his words, faith or religion is sapping education and depriving young people of the true glory of the scientific worldview. And he says it's tragic to see children being led into dark, pokey little corners of medieval superstition. According to this viewpoint, scientists are people of reason but not faith. So they did a survey of all these different scientists, Americans' views on science. It turned out that 17% of the scientists said the term evangelical describes them somewhat or very well. Compared to 23% of all respondents. In all, two million out of nearly 12 million scientists are evangelical Christians. If you were to bring all the evangelical scientists together, they could populate the city of Houston, Texas, it says. So when you're being criticized, know that you're not alone. Know that you're not the only one. There are so many followers of Jesus Christ who are criticized, persecuted, misunderstood. And just know that we're in a spiritual battle. And one of the things that happens in the spiritual battle is that Satan wants to make us be quiet, so he tries to make us feel uncomfortable. Don't fall for that. Don't fall into that. Number five, we need compassion for those who need to follow Jesus. Jesus says, Jesus answered them, healthy people don't need a doctor. Sick people do. I've come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent. You know, when people are sick, do we well sometimes people are sick with certain things they could have avoided, but when certain people get sick, we we have compassion on them. We try to get them to the doctor. That's what I do is I try to see if I can get them anything like to help them feel better, see if I can take them to the doctor, do something to help fix them. My wife would also add in many words of sympathy and compassion, which I try, so, but I want to fix things. I also think I hope I don't get it. But I wash my hands all the time. But what can I do to help? I have compassion. I care. And the same thing is true with those who need to follow Jesus. Do we have a broken heart for people that are lost without Jesus? Those who know that God is calling but they haven't answered. We need to encourage them to answer. We need to encourage them to follow Jesus. For those who have explored Christianity but they don't understand, they need someone to come along and answer the questions for them to help them to understand. We need compassion for those who need to follow Jesus. And show them how. Show them the way. Tell them that works, show them examples of other people that we know that have followed after Jesus. So the Bible says that disciples are fully devoted followers of Christ, and that disciples are, when they're fully functioning, are disciplers. They reproduce. Matthew 28, 18 to 20. Jesus came and told his disciples, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples. So he told his disciples to go and make disciples, to reproduce, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this. I am with you always to the end of the age. So it says we're supposed to be making disciples. Also says we're supposed to be baptizing. We're having a baptism service next Sunday. You could be baptized. So as you know, baptism is an example set by Jesus. We should be baptized. Christ commands it. We just read that verse that He told us, told us to be baptized. It demonstrates that I really am a believer. In Acts 18 8, many of the people who heard and believed and were baptized. So the meaning of baptism illustrates the burial and resurrection of Christ. Christ died for our sins. He was buried and he rose again. It illustrates my new life as a Christian. And it's an outward sign of an inward commitment. Like my wedding ring doesn't make me married, but it's an outward sign of my inward commitment to my wife in marriage. Baptism is an outward sign of your inward commitment to Christ. So be baptized by immersion because Jesus was baptized that way. And every baptism in the Bible was by immersion. We have this in the brochure too. Baptize means to immerse or to dip under. And every person who has believed in Christ should be baptized. Baptism doesn't save you, but all saved people should be baptized. And it's different than infant baptism because that was the parent's choice to baptize the infant where we're talking about believers' baptism here. And I have a great chapter from a book that can explain the history of infant baptism. So we only baptize those who have made a decision to believe in Christ's death as the payment for their sin and to follow him. So and we have child dedications to pray for the parents and the child to dedicate them to the Lord instead of infant baptisms. At a child's dedication, parents commit to raising him or her in the ways of the Lord so that when the child is old enough to understand, he or she will choose to trust in Jesus Christ personally. So when should you be baptized? As soon as you have believed. Now I'm going to finish with this. So just give me a couple more minutes. I'll be real quick on this. But so Jesus said we should be baptized and that we should be disciples that make disciples. So if you wanted to be a fully devoted follower of Christ and you really wanted to do it well, you looked at it and you said, Jesus, how can I do this well? You know, it's kind of like if you're on a soccer team and no one put a gun to your head and said, You play soccer or else. It's like you're on the team and you're like, I want to be good at this. What how can I be the best team player? How can I do this the best? What is the best things that I can do? And we have an acrostic for discipler, which I learned at Moody Bible Institute. So I'm stealing it word for word from them. The discipler, number one, is disciplined. So disciplined, disciples must practice restraint and self-control in every area of life in order to properly represent their master. So they are disciplined. They are disciplined with their Christian life. It is great to have a scheduled prayer life and scheduled devotions. They are disciplined, self-controlled. They are able to carry out the things that God wants them to do in a respectable, disciplined way. The disciples, as we look into scripture, were disciplined. So they are industrious. Disciples must be active, diligent, and hardworking in their service for the master. It's hard work to lead people to Christ, to help them to grow in their faith, to teach them how to live the Christian life, to answer their questions. And they need to be servants. Disciples must be willing and prepared to serve and minister to others in order to effectively disciple others. The ministry requires the heart of a servant, and Jesus set the example of being a servant. They know disciples need to recognize that they have been divinely selected and commissioned to represent and serve their master, to know that they have been called by Jesus. Jesus promises to equip and enable those he calls to this ministry. Integrity. Disciples must be honest, fair, and partial, and upright in their service for the Master. So the leader should be above reproach. He must have a good reputation with those outside the church. They should be persevering. Disciples must be resolute, determined, steadfast, and enduring in serving and representing the Master. So as we try to help other people grow in their faith, and we keep growing in our faith, we got to keep persevering. We've got to keep doing it. We've got to keep coming back and trying again and again and not giving up easy. Need to be learners. Disciples must be continually and consistently learning about the Lord and his word. The disciple must be distinguished by the same characteristics as Paul. Paul made it clear that he has yet not arrived, that he had not yet laid hold of it, he continued to press on toward the goal. The disciple needs to realize that they are empowered through the Holy Spirit, that they can't do anything on their own. Disciples must be filled with and empowered by the Spirit of God in order to live the life of God. This ministry is a spiritual ministry and can only be accomplished in the power of the Holy Spirit. Be like if you had a sailboat and you were out on the water and you had read all sorts of books on how to make your sailboat work and how to navigate your sailboat, watch YouTube videos, even had like an instructor come out and everything about the sailboat, you were ready to go sailing, but you had no wind. No wind means no sailing. It's not going to happen. I mean, you can have a little motor on your boat, but that's not sailing. So without the spirit, Pneuma wind pushing you along, there's no living the Christian life. There's no serving in the way that you're supposed to. There's no making an eternal difference in the world. We need to realize that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Yield ourselves to the Spirit, be empowered by the Spirit. And finally, we need to be reliable. Disciples must be characterized by the qualities of dependability, responsibility, loyalty, and trustworthiness. That would put you on the path to being a high quality discipler. So, what is a discipler? It's a disciple, a fully devoted follower of Jesus who is helping someone else grow in their Christian faith. And if you want to learn more about that, I would love to give you some resources and teach you how to become an effective discipler. Or if you would like to grow in a discipling relationship, let me know, and we will find someone to come alongside you and to help you to grow. With that, I am out of time. So let me pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much that you call unworthy people to follow you. We thank you that you take people who are messed up, people who are unworthy, people who have bad reputations, and you can totally transform them when they come into a relationship with you. For us today, we can do that by asking you, Lord, by praying something like this, Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me of my sin and come into my life and save me and make me the person you created me to be. And if you do that, God's word says that you'll be saved, you'll become a child of God. Jesus, I pray that you would help us to be fully devoted followers, that we would be disciples that make disciples, and Lord, that we would be excited about it. Even throwing parties for people around us so that they could meet Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.