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,
• Argue the distinctives of their doctrine,
• Quote, in chronological order, events of the end time.
• Read the Greek language fluently,
• Tell you what the Hebrew means as well,
• Define correctly all the theological terms,
• Show you their degrees from highly reputable seminaries,
However, they have never won a soul to Christ.
They are SMART, but they are NOT WISE.
Illus: That is like a young person going through med school to learn everything there is to learn about medicine and then not using any of that knowledge to help others.
Proverb 11:30 says, "...he that winneth souls is wise."
God Gives knowledge for two reasons:
1. In order to WORSHIP Him we have to KNOW HIM.
2. In order TO DO HIS WILL we have to KNOW HIS WILL.
God has never given anyone knowledge for any other reason.
Our society today places a tremendous emphasis on learning and wisdom and that is good if we try to obtain it for the right reasons. If it is only so we can hang degrees on the wall to show everyone how smart we are, then that is for the wrong reason. If it is only for the purpose of demonstrating how smart we are by being able to debate certain issues, then that is also the wrong purpose.
Knowledge which is "...Approved unto God..." is knowledge THAT DRIVES US TO ACCEPT OUR RESPONSIBILITY.
You see, RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S WORD. If you do not have this knowledge, you can not do the will of God as a responsible Christian and many suffer as a result of your lack of responsibility!
Illus: Dr. Lee. R. Scarborough said, "Let us evangelize our education and educationalize our evangelism."
Illus: Every now and then we read of someone who has been charged with a crime who denies his guilt. Perhaps ten years later that man who had been convicted still claims he is not guilty. Later on we hear of a convicted criminal who is about to be executed who does not want to meet God in his condition, knowing he has done this other crime also, and has not confessed. He confesses and the other man, who had claimed innocence all along, is set free. But, for ten years the truth was withheld and an innocent man suffered greatly because the other man suppressed the truth. Listen. before you and I point our finger at such a man, we need to recognize we are as guilty as he is because we have the TRUTH that sets men free for eternity and we suppress it.
Illus: Suppose a man is about to face the electric chair. Many come to the governor to beg for his life and ask the governor to pardon him. The governor agrees and he calls you to be the one to deliver the pardon to set the man free. The governor asks you, "Do you understand what you are to do?" You assure him that you understand fully. You take the pardon and place it in your pocket. Soon you find yourself busy doing a number of things and you forget to take the pardon to the man who is about to be executed. The next morning you pick up the newspaper and you read that that man was executed. How would you feel? You would feel terrible because you would be the blame for that man's death!
This is what many professing Christians are doing. When they pick up the newspaper and they read that a friend, neighbor has died and they know that God had been dealing with their heart about witnessing to that person. They know that person went to a Christless eternity, and probably would not have gone there if they had been told that Jesus died to pardon them from their sins.
In II Corin. 5:11 We read, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade mem..."
This knowledge of the terror of the Lord drove the apostle Paul, and others, to CONSTANTLY and CONTINUALLY to carry this gospel to lost mankind. OUR KNOWLEDGE MAKES US RESPONSIBLE. We are going to be without excuse as we stand before the Lord if we do not share this gospel. We also find in the Word of God that...
II. RESPONSIBLITY COMES FROM OUR BLESSINGS.
Psalm 107:2 says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord SAY SO, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy."
Illus: Today we live in a country where there is a wide-spread fear of the disease called AIDS. But, just suppose someone had discovered a cure for this disease but they witheld the cure until they were offered enough money to release it. That person would be regarded as the most dispicable person on this earth. We would all rise up and say, "How could anyone only think of money when so many are dying?" Well, before we are so hard on such an individual, we, as Christians, need to consider the fact that lost mankind is doomed. Not a man alive today can help him in his condition. His only hope is that you and I share with him the cure that we have discovered in the gospel of Christ. But we have those who have this "cure" and souls are perishing all around them and they, week after week, refuse to tell them that Christ can save them from this deadly disease called "sin."
Now we could announce from the pulpit, to those same ones who will not freely share the gospel, "Everyone of you Christians who show up next Saturday for visitation, and share the gospel with those who are perishing, we will write you out a check for one thousand dollars." How many do you suppose would show up? Let me ask you something, those who would show up for money, are they any better than the man who discovered the cure for AIDS and witheld it until he was offered money to release it.
The fact is, Christians who would witness for money, but would not do it freely because God has so richly blessed their lives, are far worse. Why? Because when Christians withold their discovery of this great Savior they sentence sinners to eternal sufferings!
Illus: The naturalists tell us that when the honey bee finds a field from which he can harvest what he needs to make honey he immediately finds his buddies and they all return to share the discovery and take advantage of it together.
Should not we, as Christians, at least have the courtesy of the honey bees?
Illus: We find a good story about sharing in II Kings 7. We are told of four lepers who were outside of the camp of the Syrians. The Lord caused a great noise in the camp and the Syrians fled. They were about to starve to death. Yet they knew to enter the camp would be certain death. They decided they had nothing to loose so they went into the camp, not knowing what God had done. As they were eating and enjoying all that had provided for them, verses 9-10 tell us, "Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we HOLD OUR PEACE: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household. So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were."
We need to be like those four lepers. They recognized they had discovered food and were willing to share it. Christians have discovered spiritual food and should want to share it with others who are starving spiritually.
In Romans 1:14, Paul said, "I am debtor..." Every Christian is a debtor.
We have too many dead-beat Christians who are not paying their spiritual debt.
We who have experienced the BLESSINGS OF GOD, need to recognize BLESSINGS BRING RESPONSIBILITY.
God has not blessed us the way He has for personal satisfaction and amusement. He has blessed us the way He has so that we might glorify Him! What glorifies Him?
We read the answer in John 15:8, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit..."
III. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR COMMISSION.
Matthew 28:18-20 says, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." God has commanded every Christian to be a soul winner.
Illus: William Carey, that great soul winner, would not live up to his responsibility until he was reading the great commission that is given to us as Christians. He read it and then he reread it until it became all he could think about. He said the thought began to occur, "Does Christ really mean it: He must mean it!" That is, when God told us to go, did He really mean it or not? He concluded that God meant what He said and he then accepted the challenge to obey God's Word and set out to win every soul he could in India.
Let me ask you something: "Do you really think Christ means it when He says, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..." These are our marching orders.
Illus: Suppose one of our soldiers received his marching order and his attitude was, "Well, I really do not believe Uncle Sam really means it. I think I will sit right here and not do a thing." He would soon find himself in big trouble because he got his marching orders and he was not willing to march.
One day a lot of Christians are going to find themselves in big trouble because they had their marching orders and they were not willing to march. Christ did not give us a CHOICE, He gave us a COMMAND. To refuse to go is high treason and that is inexcusable!
Illus: Dr. R. A. Torrey said, "I would like to ask what right any man has to call himself a follower of Jesus Christ if he is not a soul winner?
It is the responsibility of us Christians to share this gospel. He has commanded us to go.
Illus: A 20-year-old girl was hired to take care of two little girls. Rather than carry out her responsibility, the young lady locked the two little girls up in the house while she went shopping. While she was gone the house caught fire and both of the little girls were burned to death. When she returned she saw the ashes and realized what a serious thing she had done. She had not taken her responsibility seriously.
What a terrible thing she did. How costly the price of her neglecting her responsibility. God has commanded us to GO and our COMMISSION MAKES US RESPONSIBLE.
Conclusion/Summary:
I. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR
KNOWLEDGE.
II. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR
BLESSINGS.
III. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR
COMMISSION.
