Page 61 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

So when he comes to teaching Romans 12:1-2 (Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of
God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and
proper worship) or I Corinthians 6 (Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who
is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?) He would have a difficult time
standing before the class and teaching them to present their bodies as a living sacrifice to God, when he
is killing his own body with his habit.

None of us is perfect, that’s for sure. As a teacher, you will come to a passage of Scripture and find that
you have not been obedient to it. You may have to tell your class that the Holy Spirit has used this
lesson to convict you of sin and to make some changes in your life. Just because you don’t have it all
dialed in does not mean you cannot teach the truth to your class. But you had better not stand up like a
Pharisee of Bible times and present yourself as a Holy Man of God when you are disobedient on the
inside!

Paul set some goals in his life about his teaching. Here they are:

Acts 26: 29 Paul replied, "Short time or long--I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to
me today may become what I am, except for these chains."

Romans 15: 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me
in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—

Do you see what his goals were? He wanted to make sure that He was living the passage before he
asked others to do the same. He asked his class to become just like him!

Do you want your disciple to become just like you? Most of us would have to say, in some ways, “yes,”
but in a lot of ways, “no.”

So, when you come to a portion of Scripture that you have not mastered in your life, you have one of
two options. Admit where you are, seek the Lord to apply the lesson in your life BEFORE you teach and
be honest with your disciple. The other option, which I have taken many times, is to skip the passage
and move on. That’s not the best plan, but it works.

If you really want to be a discipler like Christ, walk with Jesus. Become like Him. Then you can stand as
an example to your students and say, “Be like me as I am like Christ!”

2. Bath your teaching event with prayer

Prayer is one of the most important things a teacher can do. It is a time you are communicating with
God and it should be taken very seriously. While there is deep theological meaning in prayer, it doesn’t
have to be something that is complicated and difficult. It’s something anyone can do anywhere at any
time.

I have been teaching the Bible for over 50 years. I have taught literally hundreds of lessons. Some of
them, I taught. Some of them the Holy Spirit taught and used me as a teaching instrument. The lessons
that changed hearts were the latter. I have discovered that if I spend time with God in prayer, the Holy
Spirit moves through the lessons into the hearts of the students. Otherwise, my lessons fall on deaf
ears.

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