Determined Discipleship

Pray – (1/2 minutes)

Read – (2 1/2 minutes) – “When the days drew near for Him to be take up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)
   Passage: Psalm 50:7-15

‍ ‍On any given Sunday in America, less than half of the members of Baptist churches attend worship. Dr. Thom Rainer, past President of Lifeway Resources, once did a survey and asked for excuses minister’s have heard about not attending. How do these sound? “We were out of peanut butter.” “My wife cooked bacon for breakfast and we all smelled like bacon.” “We got burned out and we’ve been taking a break the past seven years.” We may tend to laugh, but every person who is a member of a local Baptist church began with a public commitment to Christ. The ultimate reason they drop out is a loss of determination to follow Jesus as they once committed to do.

When Jesus left heaven to come to earth, He came with the determination to fulfill His purpose to pay the penalty of sin for the whole world. The place where that would be fulfilled was Jerusalem. Luke describes how people could see the determination in His very face. Nothing would keep Him from doing what He came to do. As a believer, you have Jesus in you through the Holy Spirit. You don’t earn salvation or keep your salvation by any work you do, but God will give you His grace to live a life of determined discipleship that follows Jesus no matter how you may feel, what others may say or what happens in life.

‍Apply - (2 1/2 minutes)
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Pray - (1 1/2 minutes)