2 Corinthians 9:10-15 Matthew 20:25-28 A magician accidently turned his family, his wife and his two children, into a couch and two arm chairs. Try as he could, he couldn't get them back to be human again. So he dialed 911, sent them off to the hospital and shortly after, he followed in his car. When he got there, the doctor came out and he asked the doctor how they were. The doctor said, “Comfortable.” Sometimes we preachers turn Christians, accidently of course, into couches and arm chairs and we make them comfortable.

I've heard a good definition of a minister. It is a person who disturbs the comfortable and comforts the disturbed. So that is our task. We want to challenge you rather than make you comfortable. We want to comfort you in any times when you have things going on in your life that are disturbing you. It is a big task and often I fail with it. But I keep trying.

This morning, we are still talking about discipleship. Remember the word discipleship is defined as a learner. So the learning this morning is that God wants us to serve. He doesn't want us to be comfortable, those of us who are in the faith. He wants us to be uncomfortable, to have a holy discontent and therefore use this discontent to motivate us to go out and serve other people. What is a holy discontent? I recently heard Bill Hybels define it as identifying something you can't stand, then using that as a motivation for you to find your ministry in this world. When I think about that, I think about the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers for example, where a woman had a child killed by a drunk driver. From that moment on, she had a holy discontent about drunk drivers and created the organization called MADD which has changed laws in almost every state now, making stiffer penalties for drunk driving and getting many drunk drivers off the highways. So it was her holy discontent which got her to serve. We challenge you this morning as to what is it that you can't stand and what would you be passionate about? There is a scripture where Jesus said, “If you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth.” That is kind of a gross saying of Jesus when you think about it. But He says, “I'd rather you be hot or cold than lukewarm.” What does He mean by that? He means that He wants passionate followers. When He said, “Pick up your cross and follow me,” He didn't say, “Do it in a lackadaisical comfortable way. “Ho Hum. This Christianity stuff is easy.” No. He said become on fire about something. Let it burn inside your heart so that you become a follower in the real sense of the word. He gave His life. Can we do anything less as we follow Him, to give our life to something that we are passionate about?

It is very easy as Christians to make excuses why we aren't going to be passionate. Probably the greatest example of an excuse-maker is Moses in the Old Testament. When God confronted Moses through the burning bush, Moses came up with all kinds of excuses why he shouldn't be the one to lead the Israelites out of slavery from the Egyptians. He would say, “They won't pay any attention to me.” God said, “Pick up your staff and when you get in front of the Pharaoh, throw it down. So he did that and the staff became a snake. God equips us so we don't need to have excuses. Of course, magicians also pulled that one off. So it didn't work with the Pharaoh. Moses went back to God and complained, “God, I can't do this. I don't have the ability to do this. I am not eloquent. I can't speak.” God said, “I'll let your brother, Aaron, be your spokesperson. He can do the speaking and you be the power behind him.” God didn't accept any excuses for inactivity and inaction. In fact, in supporting Aaron, he brought about the plague of locusts. He brought about the death of the first born child. He brought about the river that turned into blood. God equips us for service when there is a need to serve. That is what the epistle said that Joanie read this morning, that God's equipping will be sufficient for all of us when we are called to service. So figure out what it is that you can't stand and how you can turn that into a ministry. Those of you who have been members of Pilgrim Church since before I came here probably don't know that each time I take in new members when I have a new member's class, I challenge those new members to at least do one service project each year. I tell them that can be in the church or it can be out side of the church. They might want to volunteer for Children's Hospital, for example, or Habitat for Humanity, or something else external, or they might want to serve on a committee or a board or something internal in the church. I challenge each new member to take up something, preferably take up something that they feel passionate about. Now I challenge all of you&if you feel passionate about serving children, then maybe you'd become one of our Sunday School teachers. If you feel passionate about an external ministry, you could join our discipleship group that now meets every other week (on the first and third Sundays of the month) and learn how to become equipped for external ministry as well. There is something that can be done and that you can do. What is your passion?

There is an interesting story in the Bible about a woman named Tabitha. It is a story that we almost always overlook. I've seen it probably a hundred times and never given much thought to it but the other day I was alerted to call your attention to it. It is short so I will read it. “In Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha which is translated Dorcas.” (Some translation! That helped a lot, didn't it? Actually, the two names, one is Greek and one is Hebrew, in English mean gazelle. Clearly, names of the Bible describe function. So this was a woman who would dash around doing things for people.) It goes on to say, “She was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time, she became sick and died and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him to come at once. Peter went with them and when he arrived, he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him crying and showing him the robes and the clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.” (So one of the ways she served was as a seamstress and made clothing for those in need.) “Peter sent them all out of the room. Then he got down on his knees and prayed, turning toward the dead woman. He said, 'Tabitha, get up.' She opened her eyes and seeing Peter, she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and widows and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Lydda and Joppa.”

Imagine that! Here was a lay woman who is called a disciple and she was so important in the towns of Lydda and Joppa, in doing her ministry, that Peter would call upon God to have her resurrected so she could continue her service. Here was a person who was passionate about serving God and had developed a substantial ministry to serve Him and it was premature for her to die. So God restored her to life. We often miss that little passage that speaks of this lay woman in the church who was identified as a faithful disciple, worthy of a long life and ministry. This passage highlights the importance of women in the ministry of the church.

There are others in the Bible of course. We talked about Moses. How about Nathaniel? Do you know anything about him? We don't know much. He was one of the disciples. But we understand that even though very little is written about him, he went and founded new churches in Asia Minor. He had a passion about introducing people to Christ and creating new church structures so that people would be on fire with Christ as he was. We don't know much about him but we do know that he was very effective in creating new churches.

I always look for contemporary examples. I found one. How many of you remember Tom Landry? Do you remember who he was? He was a football coach. Tom had two careers actually. His first career was a career in which he totally gave himself to pursuing excellence in football. He achieved it. He took his team to the Super Bowl. Then he decided he had achieved everything that he wanted so he resigned as a coach and began a second career in secular life. He had received a degree in 1954 as an engineer so he tried to do engineering. He hated it. It wasn't his passion. He was trained for it but apparently he had gone to college to prepare for it for he had to study something while he played football! But football was his real passion. During this time period while he was attempting to be a business man and do engineering, someone invited him to a prayer group at a local hotel, a businessman's prayer breakfast. Reluctantly he went but the speaker that particular morning really appealed to him. He caught Tom off guard actually. Tom began to think, “There is something more here about serving God that I have missed. If I serve God, it would give me far more purpose and meaning than simply coaching a football team or being an engineer. So he began to delve into the Bible and joined a church Bible study. He began to master the Bible for himself. Then he began to have a holy discontent within him. “I know I can do more. I know where my talents and abilities are. I know I am called to go back into football.” So he went back to his first career, he went back to football and he coached the Dallas Cowboys. You know that story. The Cowboys had the longest string of victories of any team at that time period and won several Super Bowls. Now he put God first, his family second and his coaching third. He did some fascinating things with the Cowboys. He created an optional religious service before each game. His team could attend if they wanted to or not if they didn't want to. Most did. He also created an in-home Bible study for his team and their wives and invited as many of them who wanted to to come and study the Bible with him in his home or in one of the other players' homes. This became the driving force behind the incredible success of the Cowboys during that time period. Some of you will remember this. It was in the 60's or the early 70's. I know that is when I became fascinated with the NFL, the National Football League. The Cowboys were just an exciting team back then.

Like Tom Landry, Nathaniel, Tabitha and Moses, all of us are challenged to find our ministry. All of us are asked to go deep within ourselves and figure out what it is that we can't stand and how we can turn that into our ministry, how we can serve God with that. It is given to us as a motivator. It is given to us to help us to do something purposeful with our lives, to turn our lives into something that gives glory to God. After all, it is not our own reputation that we are working for. It is God's.