INTRO.- ILL.- A church member of John Henry Jowett’s church said that he heard Jowett preach every Sunday and a friend responded with: "WHAT A TERRIBLE RESPONSIBILITY!"
It is terrible to have to listen to some preachers and I may well be one of those! But we are supposed to be responsible when it comes to worship on the Lord’s Day and listening to His Word preached. AND I AM SUPPOSED TO BE RESPONSIBILE IN MY PREPARATION AND PREACHING OF GOD’S WORD! That makes us all responsible to the Lord! You’re responsible and I am too!
ILL.- CNN correspondent, Glenn Beck, wrote an interesting article about responsibility. LISTEN. What do these stories all have in common?
- A woman who says she lost more $1 million gambling in Atlantic City sues some casinos for $20 million, claiming they should’ve stopped her compulsive gambling.
- People who bought houses they couldn’t afford with loans they didn’t understand want their lenders to change the terms.
- Congress authorizes a war and then tries everything it can think of to get out of it.
- Our country gets addicted to oil and then blames OPEC when it doesn’t like the price.
These stories prove how personal responsibility has all but vanished in America, and our government is leading the way. Remember the kid from that 1980s commercial whose father caught him using drugs? The father asked, "Who taught you how to do this stuff?" and the kid responded, "You did, alright? I learned it by watching you." OUCH!
I’ve always heard it said that whatever we parents do our children may do in excess, be that drugs or whatever! If a parent smokes then chances are the child may smoke something stronger. If a parent drinks beer, a child may drink something else.
Beck goes on: Well, we are that kid and our government is that drug-using father who doesn’t think that anyone notices his bad habits.
Our government is leading us by example, and I don’t mean that in a good way. For years, it has spent us into oblivion, mortgaging our future for programs we can’t afford, and Americans have happily followed suit, running up credit card bills and home equity loans for things they never should’ve bought. Unfortunately, we’re also learning something else from our government: how to avoid taking responsibility for our actions.
From Eliot Spitzer’s alleged hooker craze to the revelation that Arnold Schwarzenegger commutes to work in a large private jet even as he preaches the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions, there’s never been a shortage of "do what I say, not what I do" hypocrites in politics. THANK YOU, GLENN BECK.
Don Henley, Singer/Songwriter, said: "In the old days, words like sin and Satan had a moral certainity. Today, they’re replaced with self-help jargon, words like dysfunction and antisocial behavior, discouraging any responsibility for one’s actions."
George Washington Carver said, "Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses."
Instead of making excuses when it comes to living for Christ, going to church, witnessing, etc. we must take our responsibility serious! If Easter and the resurrection is true, we must get responsible!
PROP.- In our text from Acts 18 I see the responsibility of witnessing for Christ.
1- We must preach Christ even though we are tentmakers
2- We must continue to preach until people stop listening
I. WE MUST PREACH CHRIST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE TENTMAKERS
1After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
ILL.- A guy came in late for work three days in a row. The boss said to him, "Don’t you know what time we start to work around here?" He said, "No, everybody is already at work when I get here."
Have you noticed that some people are always late for work? Why is that? It is because they really don’t want to work or are they too lazy to get up so they can be on time for work? Either way, it’s not good.
Paul was a tentmaker. Doesn’t sound like an inviting job to me, but in a sense, we’re all tentmakers. What am I talking about? We all have jobs. You have a chosen profession where you have to go to work every day and make a living. God understands this very well. He wants His people to work and realizes that not everyone can preach the gospel.
And it’s you tentmakers who are rubbing shoulders with the people of the world and can make contacts for Christ. YOU SEE FAR MORE PEOPLE AND HAVE MORE ASSOCIATIIONS THAN MOST PREACHERS! Consequently, you have a grand opportunity to point people to Christ and the church!
ILL.- I am reminded of the story about the two professing Christians who worked in the same office for over 10 years and neither of them knew that the other was a Christian. They never talked about Christ or Christianity.
One of them was speaking to his minister about this and said, "Wasn’t it funny that Bill and I were working together all those years and yet neither of us knew the other was a Christian?" The minister replied, "FUNNY! THAT’S NOT FUNNY. THAT’S TRAGIC! In my opinion neither of you have ever experienced a new life in Christ!"
Brothers and sisters, I wouldn’t go so far as to say what he did, but there is something wrong with our faith if after a period of time we can’t open the door to a conversation with others about Christ and Christianity. WE NEED TO GET MORE RESPONSIBLE WHEN IT COMES TO SHARING THE MESSAGE! God give us fire!
Even though Paul was a tentmaker he devoted himself exclusively to preaching Jesus. Someone needs to devote themselves exclusively to preaching of the Word! Some tentmakers need to stop making tents and start preaching!
Seriously, I’ve seen some mighty talented people in churches that I thought should be preaching instead of doing what they were doing. I’ve sat in some SS classes taught by working class people who did a better job of teaching than most preachers! And I thought, "They should be preaching!" Some people need to devote themselves exclusively to preaching.
ILL.- Let me tell you about my friend, Truman Brady, who lives in Seneca, MO, and preaches at the Fairland Christian Church, Fairland, OK, (1010 pop.) which is 17 miles from his home. He stopped tentmaking to start preaching after many years. Here’s his story and how it happened. Here’s a little background, which you may recall. Truman and Tina Brady’s daughter, Tiffany, married Micah Griffin. Micah and Tiffany have visited our church at least once or twice.
Truman told me that he has no college eduction except for 10 credit hours at Crowder College in MO and one of his classes was boxing, which he said probably qualified him to preach! He worked for Dillion’s Food Store for 15 years. Some of that was as a meat cutter and some as a store manager. He was the manager of the store in Fayetteville, AR, for two years. He said that he and his wife purchased their own little grocery store in Seneca, MO, and ran it for 8 years and then finally sold out.
Truman said his home church in Seneca, MO, offered to let Truman preach one Sunday night and he said he loved it! Now I don’t know whatever possessed him in the first place to want to preach. Perhaps the preaching of God’s Word got to His heart! I BELIEVE IT MUST HAVE, because I have not had many people ask me to preach! "Brother Steve, can I preach some time? Will you let me fill in some time?" Austin Sandy is the only one person who’s been eager enough to ask and show enough interest. And we’ll let him.
Truman preached that Sunday night and he said it was pretty sorry. Recently, he said he found those old sermon notes and he said they were pretty bad. He said if those folks hadn’t fibbed to him he might not have wanted to pursue the possibility of preaching.
The Fairland Christian Church, OK, asked Truman to fill in on a Sunday morning one time and after the church service was over, they asked him if he was interested in being their full-time preacher. I think Truman was somewhat shocked by their offer, but he took them up on it and said, "Yes."
How did Truman and I become acquainted? Since he was going to preach full time he decided to get busy and do his homework. He was told about sermoncentral.com. Apparently, it wasn’t long before he found my sermons and loved them. Not only loved them but started preaching them. He’d print them off and go through them and cross out what he couldn’t use and paste in his own stories, etc. and make them usable. He said his people love the sermons!
When he started there they were running 70 people and in a matter of months they were running almost 140. Now they are consistently running 150 or more people every Sunday. As E J said, "He does better with your sermons than you do!"
Of course, some of these people are people who are simply coming back to the church after leaving. They were still in the area but had eventually drifted away for one reason or another. One of the reasons was their former preacher was a gifted man but he spoke too eloquently or over their heads. And Truman is just a "down-to-earth" guy who doesn’t know a stranger. He’s friendly. He’s been in the grocery business for many years and he relates to people. He’s not a stuffed-shirt. He’s very outgoing.
Truman Brady is a man who has found his calling and apparently, it’s preaching the Word even if he doesn’t know how to prepare a sermon yet. If he can use my material, make sense out of it and use it to God’s glory, then so be it! Of course, he’s threatened me, saying, "Don’t you die on me or retire!" Elaine threatens me in other ways, however, and for other reasons. She’s not nearly as interested in my sermons as Truman is.
Anyway, you look at it, we all need to get serious and responsible about spreading the Gospel of Christ to others somehow; from the pulpit and/or on a one-to-one basis. As tentmakers or as preachers. But we all preach something and it needs to be Jesus!
7Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.
Paul went next door and evangelized. That’s house to house evangelism. Some believed and were baptized. We need to do the same thing today. Talk to anybody who will listen: at work, next door neighbor, friend, family member, social acquaintance, etc. But the job will never get done if we don’t serious about it! And the job is not just exclusively for those who preach the Word!
The work is for everyone who claims Christ as their Savior! If we believe that Jesus is the Savior and He is truth of all truths, then we need to be telling others!
II. WE MUST CONTINUE TO PREACH UNTIL PEOPLE STOP LISTENING
5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
ILL.- The story is told about an atheist who confronted a preacher, saying, "Do you believe in eternal life?" "Well, its a load of rubbish!" shouted the atheist. "I believe in science, evolution, survival of the fittest, and when we die, that’s it! No eternal life, no great judgment, and no God!"
The atheist continued his assault against the preacher repetitiously and tirelessly. "Eternal life! Eternal life! Ha! "Its all pie in the sky when you die. When I die that’s it, the end, no eternal life, no nothing."
He continued on, "And I will be buried six feet under when I die and that’s it! Nothing! Caput! When I die I am utterly convinced that that will be the end of me!" The preacher replied, "Well thank God for that!"
Brothers and sisters, if you are willing to take a stand and speak for Christ and the church there will be some who will oppose you, perhaps not to the extent of this particular atheist.
ILL.- For example, Elaine and I were in Walmart one day looking for a particular product on the paint aisle. We asked a man who worked in that department if he could help us. He was very helpful and mentioned something about living in Jonesboro only a short period of time. We asked him where he came from. He had moved into this area from northern California to be near his grandchildren. The conversation went on and on about his life and suddenly Elaine asked him, "Do you go to church?" Guess what his immediate reply was?! He said, "No, I’m not a Christian." Elaine said, "I didn’t ask if you were a Christian. I just wondered if you went to church."
Apparently, he related going to church with being a Christian follower and that was the end of that conversation. It was obvious he was not interested. He was not unkind but he just wasn’t interested. At least, he had the idea that a Christian should go to church!
What do you when you encounter someone like that? You preach until they stop listening! If someone is tuned into you and listening, you keep talking, witnessing, etc. Otherwise, if it’s obvious they are not interested then you drop the conversation and part in a nice way. You always want to exit gracefully and perhaps leave the door open.
6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
Acts 19:8-9 "Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them."
There is point where some people stop listening and start opposing you and that’s the time to stop and/or turn away. I’m not sure I would say to them, "your blood be on your heads," however. I would just leave and find someone who would listen.
ILL.- My friend Truman Brady has an uncle named Bill that he’s been trying to lead to Christ. Others had tried to lead him to Christ and got nowhere with him. In fact, most of the time he just blows up at people and doesn’t do want to have anything do with these people or Christ.
Apparently, the guy is well known and well-educated and lives in Seneca. His wife passed away probably 18 years ago and has no children at all. This is Truman’s fathers brother. He claimed to have gone to church when he was kid but has only gone to church recently for funerals or weddings. But any time anybody approaches him about Christ or the church, he refuses to listen and not only refuses but also gets very hostile. In fact, Truman and a lady from his church who is about 85 years old, and perhaps 4’ 9" were in his car and they saw Truman’s uncle and she invited him to church and he said, "You just mind your own business and you worry about your own self..." And he actually screamed at her! Truman said his uncle flipped out and acted evil or devilish, and that he had a strange look in his eyes. Truman went immediately to apologize to that lady afterwards.
Now obviously, when you get someone like that you are wasting your time trying to talk to them about Christ. Their blood will be on their own heads.
CONCLUSION------------------------
Someone said: It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about important things.
Brothers and sisters, Christianity is serious business because life and death is a serious matter. And the only way people are going to be saved and go to heaven is by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to get serious about spreading this message!
This is not a "take or leave" proposition, it’s a "do or die" proposition for the souls of men and women! And many souls depend on us! I’ll guarantee you that if we knew certain people were going to die next week we’d be talking to them about Christ. No one is guaranteed another day on planet earth. We need to be talking to people about Christ and preparing them for the next life, which will last forever!
