RESPONSIBILITIES
Sunday 27th
October 2013
“All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” 2Ti 3:16 We
begin our message today in the light of the above scripture. It talks about all
scripture not a portion or some. All scripture in its entirety is inspired by God
and is profitable and useful for teaching
that which is sound teaching and
practice, or
conviction, for setting aright and for instruction
in righteousness. We at all times in our interaction with scripture need to
be ready to embrace all these aspects to avoid undue inclination or to be sided
towards one given side. This therefore
means that as a Christian, you need to be ready at all times to be reproved,
corrected, instructed in righteousness unlike many quarters where many people may
naturally only want to hear the soothing messages even when there is need for
correction or rebuke.
Getting back to
the subject of our message today, ‘Responsibilities’; this entails performing
duties at the work place, at home, community and even at church. At this stage,
it’s imperative that we cluster this message into three main segments that is; Youth, Women and Men. This
therefore makes this message a trans-generational message that transverses across
the entire divide of age groups.
1. YOUTH
a)
Church and the
community.
…I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the
wicked one…. 1 John 2:13. Young people are strong physically. This
strength is a very crucial component in life and especially for young people. Sadly
though, this strength which is meant to serve God wholly, has been diverted into
wrong uses. The enemy looks for young people to hook into and use in many cults
and even in devil worship. These are just a few wrong uses to which the
strength of the youth is put to. We all have a responsibility as young people
to heed this wake up call and rise up and put the God-given strength to its legitimate
use and thus overcome the wicked one as the above scripture notes. However, the
youth can also effectively serve the Lord. In Psalms 119:9 the scripture says “How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word.” (NLT) This scripture begins with a question
and immediately responds to the same question with an answer. The young people
have the great responsibility of hiding or taking heed to the word of God. This
way, their energy can be consolidated directed and effectively used for the
advancement of the Kingdom of God. David
raises a prayer in verse 10 saying I have
tried hard to find you–– don’t let me
wander from your commands. This should be the desire and prayer of every young
person. That is, to yearn for and pursue
God and Godliness. The ultimate goal of this
is the realization and recognition of the fact that you are created for God and
that your life entirely revolves around Him. It is true saying that, any life
lived and programmed outside God is doomed.
Don’t be part of this unfortunate state of affairs.
b)
Respect to the elderly and humility
“In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely. 7
And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind.
Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. 8
Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized. Then those who
oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us.” (Titus 2:6-8 6). In this
scripture, Paul is writing to Titus as a young leader in the church. As we were
beginning, we looked at a scripture that states that all scripture is from God
and is profitable to all. Based on this scripture, Paul is instructing Titus to
encourage young people to have self control as this is crucial and will help
him to be an example to the other young people. The scripture exhorts young
people to also exercise the word of the Lord. 1 Timothy 5:1 states that “Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; 2
The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity. 3 ¶ Honour widows that are widows indeed.”
With all due
respect, I wish to submit to you that we are grateful for the advancement in
knowledge and technology. There may be people who in our contemporary world are
called ‘Analogue’ meaning the old
folk and the word ‘Digital’ made to
represent the young in the society. I wish to throw some caution to young
people. It’s not prudent to despise your parents or older people in the
community and family viewing them as yesterday material ‘analogue’ as you may put it. The older people are very important to
you so never ever despise them. They may not be doing things your way but they
still deserve their respect. The scripture warns young people to honour parents
in the Lord. This includes both physical and spiritual parents and all the
other authorities regardless of your position. They may not always be right so heed
the warning, do not rebuke the elderly or treat them in a manner likely to
demean them their societal status. It’s a very unfortunate turn of events that
if a young person can lay hands on the parents or the elderly with an intention
of beating them up!
c)
Flee youthful lusts
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace,
with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. There has
cropped in our society a very warped morality situation where irresponsible
sexual behavior amongst the youth is a welcome practice. This has lead many
young people to backslide. It has its genesis in irresponsibility and lack of
discipline in schools and other learning institutions. This unfortunate
behavior has even infiltrated into the body of believers. Illicit sexual
activity is a very tragic activity that leads to the defilement of young
people. The Bible regards your body as a temple of the Lord. Its crucial to every young person to take a categorical
and clear position in this matter not to defile themselves. This does not
therefore mean that you don’t have friends of the opposite sex but rather you
are expected to stay within the confines of morality in all your relationships.
It’s even sadder to note that this behavior has its genesis in some families. Those
parents who notice wrong association of their children especially with opposite
sex yet don’t seem to see something is wrong either with their son or daughter
are courting disaster. Sexual relationship outside marriage is Sin and an
abomination before God. If you are or have been involved, turn to the Lord in
repentance. Some even go as far as cohabiting in colleges as husband and wife
yet they are not legally married. The worst of the abomination is taking place
where we find gayism practiced! God have mercy on young people. They are a
target and sadly enough some have already been entangled and ensnared by the
devil into this unethical and warped immoral activities. That is why I implore
you to do what David says in Psalms, hide the word of the Lord in your heart to
keep you pure and away from sin. Take responsibility and lead a responsible
life. Immorality will deprive you of your destiny in God. Many have already
been entangled and ended up in very unfortunate circumstances like the so
called unwanted pregnancies, contracting deadly diseases like HIV which leads
to AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, dropping out of school while others have
ended up in jail.
2. Women
“3 the older women
likewise, that they be reverent in
behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things––4 that
they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own
husbands, that the word of God may
not be blasphemed.” Titus 2:3-5. Older women have a responsibility of guiding,
training and instructing younger women and girls in the way they should go
according to the word of the Lord. There are certain dress codes that breach
the confines of moral dress code and even go against the word of God. These should
be shunned. It is a responsibility of
the older women to instruct the younger women to dress in a manner that is not
provocative to others. Dress in a descent manner, in a way that neither you nor
others around you are made to feel uncomfortable. There is need to display
Godliness in the way you do things and how you live. Its not expressly the role
of the Pastor to do all these. Older women should also be able to teach the
younger women to live Godly lives and not become slanderous or wrong instructors.
It is therefore crucial that they be sound in the word of the Lord in order to be
able to have the right influence on the younger women.
Women also have
the responsibility of knowing whereabouts of their own husband and also take
care of them.
3. Men
Helping the Pastor in Ministry
What is the
role of men in the church and in the society? In Exodus 18:13-26, we find an
account of Moses doing the priestly work with the Israelites. His father-in-law
visited and found him doing very tedious work of judging the Israelites from
dawn to dusk. He (father-in-law) therefore advised him to delegate most of that
responsibility and only handle the major ones. What do we learn from this? The men
have a responsibility of assisting the Pastor in the ministry. As the Pastors
help the other Pastor in the Ministry, the elders too have a responsibility of doing
conflict resolution in the church. Only difficult matters or issues that the
men or elders can’t handle should be handed on to the pastor. This will help bring
order and also bring about a fair sharing of responsibility in the church. Its
time everyone takes their position and relieve the servants of God of the heavy
work of doing just about everything. When this is done, there will be greater breakthroughs
and much ease leaving the pastor with more
time to seek the Lord and disseminate his biblical duties “of devotion to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4)
Men should
therefore be very wise according to the wisdom based on the word of God and not
according to the tribal traditions, ethnic, customs or worldly cultures. That will
go a long way into making the word of the Lord in the body of Christ to
prevail. Men should also serve as mediators.
At Home
The man is the
head of the family. Thus the man has a priestly role of praying for the family
and leading worship at the family altar. The man should love his wife and
support her at home too. Do not love your children to an extend that you ignore
and abandon your wife. Remember before the children, your wife was, and after
the children have gone, you will remain alone with your wife. A man should
encourage and support his wife. In 1 Timothy 5: 6 But she that liveth in
pleasure is dead while she liveth. 7 And
these things give in charge, that they may be blameless.
8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for
those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel
(unbeliever). From the above
scriptures, it’s very important that every man takes care of and provides for
his family lest he be regarded by the scripture as worse than an infidel (a non-believer).
In conclusion, everyone
should rise up to his or her position and take responsibility thus subsequently
execute their mandate. The young people should take their rightful
responsibility, the Women too and men should attend to their responsibilities
in the church as well. They are meant to help the Pastor perform his duties. A
state in the church where everything is left to the Pastor is a very unfortunate
state of affairs that needs to be addressed urgently and proper direction taken
in accordance with the word of God. This when done, our families, community and
the church will be a better place to live and work.
