A Sermon For You
A Ministry of Huckaby’s Evangelism
Today’s Sermon Title
Duty
By-Evangelist Gary Huckaby
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 11:13.
The words of our text, were written by one of the wisest men who ever lived. They were written by king Solomon, the son of king David. He also wrote, the Proverbs, and The Songs of Solomon.
The wise man in this verse is telling us that the whole conclusion of the matter of life is to Fear God and obey God’s commandments. This is the whole duty of man.
Eight verses in the Bible tell us of this word Duty.
Exodus 21:10; -her duty of marriage,
Deuteronomy 25:5; -the duty of an husband’s brother .
Deuteronomy 25:7; -the duty of my husband’s brother.
2Chronicles 8:14; -as the duty of every day required:
Ezra 3:4; -the duty of every day required;
Ecc 12:13;- the whole duty of man.
Luke 17:10; -we have done that which was our duty to do.
Romans 15:27; - their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
Inspiration or Obligation
Do you remember when you were first saved? The joy that you experienced in knowing that your sins were forgiven? I remember my day of salvation, and the change that took place in my heart and life. It was like when I first met my wife, we were only teenagers, I couldn’t see her enough, touch her enough, be with her enough. The same is true with my new birth. I couldn’t get enough teaching on the Bible, or spiritual things, but as time passed, that hunger and thirst began to grow smaller. After several years as a Christian, it seemed I had no desire to read the Bible as much, nor pray as much. This is when I realized that something had to replace the initial excitement that I experienced as a new believer.
Then during a "Sword of The Lord" conference in 1976, I heard Dr. Jack Hyles preach on our text from Ecclesiastes. I remember his remarks well, as he repeatedly cried out, "When you read the Bible because God tells you to; even when you don’t want to, then you are becoming a pretty good Christian. When you pray, when it doesn’t make you tingle, but you pray because God tells you to pray; then you are becoming a pretty good Christian. Obligation, must drive us, not inspiration, for inspiration is a temporary state; but obligation is a continual state. It is our duty, to obey God and keep His commandments. It is your duty!
The late Fanny Cosby, wrote the song; "Rescue The Perishing" and I would like to begin by giving you the rest of verse four:
"Rescue the perishing, Duty demands it; Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide; Back from the narrow way Patiently win them; tell the poor wander a Savior has died."Duty demands it! To become a soul winner, we must make it a part of our duty and obligation to do. Many think they must wait for some sign, before they go and witness,but this is wrong. When we receive Christ, we are commanded to go and witness for Him.
The great commission, given by Jesus was; "Go ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15.
Feelings, are a natural inborn desire, we all want to feel good, but feelings should come after we do our duty, not before. If you are waiting for a feeling before you go and witness, you may never go; but if you go and tell someone what Christ has done for you, more often than not, feelings will follow that obedience to obligation to duty. If it is inspiration, that drives you to witness, it won’t last until you have the first door slammed in your face. Or someone says, "Don’t give me that junk." Then
your inspiration is gone, and you may never be the soul winner that duty will cause you to be. I personally, never want to go soul winning, but when I start because I am commanded to, then I want to go and win more to Christ.
"Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Daily Duty
"And he appointed, according to the order of David his father, the courses of the priest to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise and minister before the priest, as the DUTY of everyday required: the porters also by their courses at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded." 2 Chronicles 8:14
Next we look to a portion of scripture which points to the daily duty of the offices of the priest. King Solomon is the one here who is appointing the daily duty of the offices of the Old Testament priest, and the Levites. They were to praise and minister before the priest,as David, God’s man had commanded them.
There are not many things I do each day that I want to do.
First, I have to get out of bed, I never want hit the deck each morning, but it is my duty to get up and the to work. I seldom want to go to work, but work I must, for how shall things in life get accomplished if I don’t work? So it is my daily duty to get up and go to work. Another daily duty I do each day is bathe, I don’t want to bathe, because I don’t like to do just one thing at a time, and when you bathe, you can only bathe. You can’t write a book when you bathe, nor build a building, nor teach a class, you can only bathe, (and maybe sing) when you bathe. So why do I bathe? To keep clean and to smell good, I must daily bathe. It is my duty to be clean each day. It adds to my testimony for the Lord, to be the best that I can. Each day I must drive to the office, I would rather stay at home, but my duty can’t be done fully unless I go to the office and work. This is a daily duty of my life, therefore I do my duty each day. Often I must start my duty in studying and writing, before my feelings and desires catch up, and I feel and want to do them. This is a part of the work I have been called to do, so I daily, do my duty and work even when I don’t feel like it. Someone once said; "Don’t call in sick, crawl in sick." Referring to those who stay out of work for any little sickness.
If you have a job, do your job, If you are working for the Lord, keep working, nothing in this world can be allowed to get in the way of DUTY.
Romans 15:27; - their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
The Bible has quite a lot to say about giving. If we are blessed with spiritual things, then we must do our duty and
minister to others in carnal (physical, or material) things. Far too often, many have been blessed by a man of God, preaching
life giving truths to us, and we never so much as even say thank you. We should bless those who minister to us spiritual things
with material things.
An example of this happened to me personally in one of the Churches which I was led to Pastor for a couple of years. Often
I wear my suite’s until they are completely worn out, (I try to get the most out of my clothing) One of my favorite dress shirt’s
was becoming ragged around the collar, and on a special surprise birthday celebration given me by the faithful of our Church one Wednesday night following our prayer service and Bible study, was the gift of a new dress shirt and tie, and a new pair of
dress shoe’s. This Pastor was rewarded with material things for his ministry to these faithful members of spiritual things.
Many of these people had children, and young men and women whom I had won to the Lord while at this Church, and they were glad to give of material things because I had given them spiritual things. How often we forget to give back to those who have blessed and helped us. We should also give of our money, to the true work ofGod. It is our DUTY to obey God, in this. So let us begin to do our DUTY, in giving.
Before us is a verse from the parable about service, read verses 7-10 to see the whole parable if you will. In our text verse, we see that the servant when he or she has done all of their duty. Every child of God is called a servant of the Lord, and every Christian has a duty of service in God’s work. God has something for each of us to do. Not everyone is called to be a minister, Evangelist, Pastor, or teacher, but everyone is called to do something.
You may be called to be a Deacon of a local Church, if you are then do your duty to be threw best that you can .If you are an usher in your Church, then ush. Do your duty of service to the work of God. Maybe you are a Sunday School teacher, if so then it is your duty to be the best that you can.If you keep the Nursery at your Church then it is your duty to do your best. Everyone has a duty to do it, it is up to you as to what you are to do,
If you don’t know your calling, then start right now asking and seeking God right now. Ask Him to show you what His will is for you life. Duty is only a small four letter word, but it carries great weight in our service to God Almighty, and His great work. If we are to ever be in God’s perfect will in our lives here on earth, we must set our heart and mind to do our DUTY. What ever that duty maybe.
Do you know Christ as your Saviour today? If not, please receive Him into your heart and life right now.
Huckaby’s Evangelism
PO.Box 1011
Pine Mountain, Ga. 31822
glhuckaby@excite.com
glhuck@earthlink.net
