TOPIC:‌"Where Have All the Workers Gone?"

                 by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Haggai 1:1-14

 

‌‌"They came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God" (1:14).

 

‌One of the most disastrous things taking place today is the almost total neglect of individual responsibility when it comes to service in the church of Jesus Christ. Scores of people who profess to be Christians are sitting in the pews while the faithful few are doing most of the work. Now when only a small segment of people are doing most of the work instead of the many, then that church is in danger of not fulfilling the purpose for which it came into existence - that of evangelizing the lost and the edification of believers.

 

‌Not only that, but if the church continues to drift in that direction it will eventually cease to exist and pass from the scene. I have seen this happen to a number of churches across this country. That is why it is vitally important for each one of us to realize that if we are part of a church family then it is our sacred responsibility to make certain that we are using our gifts and talents each week for the glory of God and promotion of His Kingdom. And if you as a Christian have not yet identified your gift or gifts, let us help you make that discovery.

 

‌Paul S. Rees, well-known pastor of First Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota for many years, wrote some words we need to grasp. He declared: "Leadership, we need to see, does not come about by our being elected to something, or appointed to something, or wearing an official title to something. Here is where the thinking of many of us has gone clear off the track." He continues: "In the Christian sense leadership is what you have, no matter who you are, and you use what you have in service under the impulse of Christ's love and the guiding of His Holy Spirit."

 

‌Now in light of the truth of those words we must begin to realize that the greatest need of our churches is not an increase of more members but the involvement of more helpers. More workers are needed like those men of Judah long ago who started to rebuild the Temple of God. Seldom did a prophet's message result in such a quick response. It took just twenty-three days for the message of Haggai the prophet to produce action. Hear again the words of our text: "They came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God" (v. 14).

 

I.

 

‌Let's begin, first of all, with this: The AVOIDING of responsibility as we behold it at first in the lives of these returning Jews from Babylon. Listen to the prophet's words in verse 2: "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying: This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's . . .