He That Winneth Souls Is Wise No. 1

It is absolutely amazing how and when we use that word, "responsibility."

Illus: That word used to be used when a child was attending school. On one side of the report card all the grades for the subjects, such as math, English, science and social studies were listed so you could tell if your child's mind was developing as it should. Then, on the back side, was a list of some other aspects of the child's development, like honesty, kindness, cooperative, and responsible. Parents could look and see how their child was doing in academics and could turn the card over and see how their child was doing in his character development. Actually, the back side of the report card was as important, if not more important, than the front side.

Families and schools today are placing very little emphasis on character building. This is one of the reasons that our schools are no longer institutions of LEARNING, but have become jungles of SURVIVAL. Why? Because of the lack of responsibility and of character building we, as a nation, are paying a tremendous price.

For example, there are employees all over this country that want a pay check, but do not want the responsibility that goes with the check.

Illus: One businessman was telling how devastating it has become to his business since they have passed the Family Leave Act. He said, "ALREADY, in order to keep my company going, I have to hire a third more employees than I would need because I never know what day some of them might decide to go fishing instead of coming to work and when they do this I have to have someone who can fill their positions. Of course, the more people he has to hire because employees will not accept the responsibility of the job, the more he has to raise his prices for the merchandise. Guess who pays for the employees' lack of responsibility? We do!

When will we learn that when a man takes a job, he is taking on responsibility.

The same goes for the spiritual life. When we take on a job in the church we are taking on responsibility. If you are not willing to take the responsibility when you ask to take the job you should have CHARACTER enough to say, "I am not going to be able to be faithful to that job so I am not going to take the job." The church is paying a tremendous price because Christians are not willing to accept their responsibility.

For example:

• If you join the CHOIR, you are accepting responsibility. When it comes time for choir practice the choir director should not have to wonder where you are. You should be a responsible Christian and be there, ready to practice.

• If you accept the job of being an USHER you should accept the responsibility of the duties of an usher.

• If you accept the job of being a Sunday school TEACHER you need to accept the responsibility of studying, being creative, visiting, praying, and being faithful to your class. Oh how the Lord's work suffers in churches when the students show up, but the teacher is nowhere to be found.

Because of our lack of accepting responsibility our NATION and our CHURCHES are paying a tremendous price. All that could be cured if we would place fulfilling RESPONSIBILITY at the top of all the agendas in our lives.

Illus: Someone said, "We cannot do everything we want to do, but we should do everything God wants us to do."

If there is any hope for this nation and for our churches, it will be because we, as individuals and as Christians, learn to accept our responsibility.

A very important responsibility the Bible teaches we have is found in Acts 1:8, "...Ye shall be witnesses unto me..." You agree, "Yes, I know I should witness, but..." and you continue week after week, not carrying out your responsibility.

Christians will not carry out this responsibility until they discover THREE things from God's Word.

I. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM KNOWLEDGE.

II Timothy 2:15 says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Why does God want us not to just read His Word, but to STUDY His Word? Because this is the only way we can know God and know what He would have us do. We have two kinds of people in God's church today:

(1.) Those who do not know the slightest thing about God's Word, and

(2.) Those who do know His Word, but are not practicing what His Word tells them they should be doing.

Illus: They can intellectually debate God's Word with anyone. They can:

• Tell you how they stand dispensationally,