Responsibility

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, September 11, 2011

There are three phrases that I’ve been known to say to my children. Each one of them usually makes them roll their eyes and give at least a sigh. The first one is this: “I didn’t ask whether you made the mess. I asked you to clean up the mess.” This usually leads me to the second phrase that they don’t want to hear because usually that will mean they started to grumble and mumble something about, “Well, that’s not fair,” and almost when they say it, they know what’s going to come next because my next words are, “You’re right, that’s not fair. I’m preparing you for life because life’s not fair.”

Now if it just so happened on the very rare occasion that they still don’t do what I’ve asked them to do and say it’s hours or days later and the mess is still there and I call it to their attention and I ask them, “Why is the mess still there,” if per chance, they made the mistake of starting to give me all the reasons and all the excuses, I will stop them mid-sentence and say, “Just take responsibility.” There’s a corollary to that which they’ve often heard, too, which is, “If you just own up to it, if you just admit what you’ve done, I guarantee you the consequences, the punishment will be far less.”

Little did I know that I have been teaching my children one of the pillars of Character Counts, responsibility, taking responsibility for your actions, being accountable for the things that you’ve done. This now is the third week as we’ve looked at each of those pillars, all of the qualities we see of a person of character and each week we’ve seen they’re deeply embedded in Scripture itself and Jesus Himself embodies those qualities.

We discovered the importance that is for us because since Jesus embodies that quality, that impacts our relationship with Him. And then we toyed with the idea that if we could follow in our Savior’s footsteps, if we also could take on the character of Christ, we could have an impact, an impact on our community and even an impact on our world.

This week is no different, as we look at the quality of taking responsibility. As I looked at the quality of taking responsibility, I kind of boiled it down to three things, three characteristics of a person who takes responsibility. They’re reliable. They’re accountable. And they’re controllable.

They’re reliable. That means it’s someone you can count on. They do what they say they’re going to do. They have follow through. They’re the goto person. You don’t have any questions or worries if they say they’re going to do something. You’re confident you know the job will get done. It’s someone you can count on. It involves a little bit of self discipline because sometimes, to get the job done, to do what you’ve said you’re going to do, it isn’t always that easy and sometimes, it’s really not even all that fair.

So we ask ourselves, are we a person who takes responsibility? Would we be considered a person who is reliable? It should be something as simple as always being on time or something more important, as far as completing your job at work or keeping your commitment to your kids.

So I thought, for a little bit of self evaluation, there are some questions we could ask ourselves. For instance, when your friends plan something that’s going to begin at 4:30, do they tell you it starts at 4:00? Is the running joke that you’re going to be late to your own funeral? And most people kind of chuckle a little bit about it, but is there something a little bit underneath that because you’re perpetually late at everything?

How about when your kids or your grandkids call you over and say, “Hey, I need some help,” and you say these words, “I’ll be there in just a minute.” Do they translate that, “Looks like we’re on our own again.” If you say, “You know what, honey, I’ll fix the sink on Sunday,” does that mean she’s calling the plumber on Monday?

These seem like simple, small, insignificant things but if you add them up and if they happen time and time again and they’re perpetual, then what kind of reputation do we have and what kind of reputation are we building? Are we someone who is reliable, someone who you can count on, someone who has follow through even when it isn’t pleasant, even when it’s tough, even when there are times when for you to complete your task, you have to clean up somebody else’s mess, you have to do twice the work because your coworkers haven’t done what they’re supposed to do, but are you the go-to person that people have the confidence they can rely on you?

If you look at Jesus, it’s important to know we can rely on Him, we can count on Him. Listen again to what John records for us. Now Jesus, in this whole section, is starting to imply the fact that He’s going to die. He’s getting His disciples ready for the fact that He’s not going to be here forever. He’s going to have to give His life as a ransom. He’s got that on His heart. He’s got that on His mind and He says these words, “Now my heart is troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No. it was for this very reason that I came to this hour.” Now talk about having to come in and clean up a mess. Talk about it not being fair. Jesus isn’t responsible for the sin of the world. Jesus isn’t responsible for the pain and the sorrow and the struggles we have, yet it’s His job to come in and clean it up. It’s His job to come in and make it right. Is it going to be easy? Hardly.

When He says, “My heart is troubled,” that’s the same phrase that’s translated a little bit differently when Jesus is speaking to His disciples at the Garden of Gethsemane. You may recall He’s invited them to pray with Him and He says, “My soul is overcome with sorrow to the point of death.” Same phrase. That’s how heavy it’s laying on Him. As He looks to the cross and the spiritual and the physical pain that’s going to be there, Jesus says, “Should I walk away?” Not a chance. “You can count on me. This is why I came. This is my mission.” He says, “And I will complete it.”

To take responsibility means that we’re reliable. People can count on us. There is follow through there. To take responsibility means that we’re accountable. To be accountable means we accept responsibility for our actions. We accept the consequences of our actions. Sometimes the consequences are good but I think, in this case, what I’m really referring to are when the consequences are bad, taking accountability, owning up to the fact when we mess up, when we don’t follow through, when we don’t keep our promises, when we do something wrong. Taking the bullet for it, saying, “Yep,” own it, admit it.

But from what I see throughout history, as a human race, we’re allergic to accountability. All of us are allergic to accountability and we want to dodge the bullet. We want to give excuses. We want to give circumstances, reasons why, “Well, there are extenuating things that are happening.” I can trace it all the way back to the very beginning of time.

Let’s go all the way back to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve. They’re put into paradise, right? Everything is perfect. They do the one thing that God asked them not to do, so God comes down to the garden and He says, “Adam, buddy, what happened?” Adam says, “Uh, it was her. Yep. The woman, she gave me the fruit to eat and that’s why I ate it. It wasn’t my fault. She did it to me.” God plays along for a few minutes. “Eve, what’s up?” She says, “It was the snake. It was the snake. The snake deceived me and that’s why I ate the fruit.” Little did they know what they’re really saying is, “God, it’s your fault.” Logical conclusion, “God, it’s your fault. God, if you wouldn’t have put the woman here, I wouldn’t be in trouble.” I’m not even going to touch that with a joke. The woman says, “If you wouldn’t have created the snake, I wouldn’t be here.” They’re dodging the bullet. They don’t want to be accountable for their actions.

And it is traced all the way down through history. One small example: When you’re asked a question, just a simple question, do you give a simple answer or is it a narrative? Do you simply answer the question or do you need to tell a story? Do you need to explain the circumstances? It’s like the father who says to his son, “Son, did you fill up the car with gas?” “Oh, Dad, listen. Last night, wow, you should have been there. We were having a good time. I couldn’t hear my phone. Bobby couldn’t hear his phone. Finally, we went outside and his parents called and, wow, were they mad. They wanted him home. We thought he was supposed to be home at 10:00. They wanted him home at 9:00. It’s now 10:15. You know, he lives a mile north of the mile long bridge and I took him up there and then, by the time I was coming back, I looked at my watch and I didn’t want to be late for curfew because, you know, I respect you, Father, and I respect the curfew you have set.” “Son, did you fill up the car?”

“Will the presentation be ready for Tuesday?” “Do you know what it’s like trying to work interdepartmentally in this company? It’s ridiculous. People don’t answer phone calls. They don’t respond to e-mails. Did you know the network was down for most of the day on Thursday and the internet connection has been incredibly slow?” “Will it be ready?”

Do you see what I’m saying? If we have to answer with a narrative, if we have to tell a story to a simple question, just be accountable. Just own it. That’s what a person of character does. That’s what it means to take responsibility, to accept the responsibility for our actions.

Now I need to tell you, I started looking at Jesus on accountability and I got a little bit worried because I was thinking maybe I found a character flaw because I went through all of Scripture and not once could I find where Jesus owned up to one of His mistakes. It’s like the guy thought He was perfect. Alright, Saturday night through it was funnier. It doesn’t mean Scripture is silent on this point. In fact, it’s no joke that Scripture is very pointed about accountability.

Take a look at 1 John 1. We read it a few moments ago. John writes to us, “If we claim to be without sin,” if we try to dodge the bullet, if we try to offer excuses, if we try to talk about the circumstances, “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Now skip Verse 9 and go to Verse 10 because it gets more serious. “If we claim that we haven’t sinned,” it wasn’t our fault, I didn’t do it, it was the woman, it was the snake, it was the time of day, it was my friends who were around me, “if we claim we haven’t sinned, we make Him, that is, God, to be a liar and His Word has no place in our lives.”

My friends, God takes accountability very, very seriously. He says, “If you’re trying to claim to me that you’re without guilt, you’re without sin, that you never mess up, first of all, you’re fooling yourself but the one that cuts to me is you’re saying I’m a liar.” We’re claiming that God’s a liar.

Now the verse that I skipped there is where God says, “Now if you own it up, if you admit it,” well then He promises something to us, He says, “If we confess our sins,” if we own it, if we claim it, accept responsibility,” if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

God’s saying just be honest with yourself and be honest with Him. All of us mess up. All of us fail. God says just own it. And when you own it, He says, “I’m going to remove that burden from you.” I don’t know about you but I think it is more work to come up with an excuse. I think it’s a lot harder. It’s more difficult to try to explain the circumstances and all the reasons why I didn’t do something. On those occasions, when I just finally said, “Yep, you’ve got me dead on. I was wrong,” to me, it feels like a burden’s been lifted.

That’s what a person of character does. They’re accountable. They’re accountable for their actions.

They’re also controllable. Let me explain that. Controllable. What I mean by that is that we exercise self control. We do not allow our passions, our drives, our desire to control us. We’re willing to delay gratification if it means we’re going to keep our commitments, we’re going to be a person you can count on. We can have some self control in our lives. That’s counter culture because we live in a world that says, “Win at all costs.” No matter what it takes, you want to win. Now whether that’s in school or whether that’s at work or whether that’s on the playing field, it’s win at all costs. So that means, yeah, if you have to do something that isn’t quite right, if you have to cheat on the test, do it because you have to win at all costs.

Football season is now. You guys had a full day of that yesterday. Sooner or later, you’re going to see somebody who’s going to grab a helmet and do a facemask and just about rip the guy’s head off, right? And I can guarantee you at one of the games, the commentator is going to make an excuse for that. The commentator’s going to say, “Yeah, you know, these boys just get into the heat of the moment. They have such a passion for the game. They just don’t stop at anything.” That doesn’t make it right.

Controllable, execising self control, no matter how much you want to win, no matter how much drive you have, no matter how much passion you have, you exercise self control. That’s what a responsible person does.

Certainly, that’s what Jesus did. Jesus could have short-cut it. Right? Anytime He wanted to, He could have short-cut it. He has the weight of the cross, it’s hanging, it’s in front of Him. He knows it’s coming. He says, “Am I going to say, ‘Father, save me?’ No.” Nope. He delayed the glory that He will have so that He can complete His responsibility, complete His mission. It means the salvation for all of us and glory to His Father in heaven.

He’s the embodiment of what it is to take responsibility. He is the go-to guy. He is the person that we can count on. It’s what it means to take responsibility, to be reliable, accountable, controllable and Jesus is all of that and more. It means that we had somebody guarantee more than anyone else that we can count on.

The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, Chapter 13, He says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” So that means the Jesus we read about in Scripture is the same Jesus for today and He’ll be the same forever. The same words He spoke to His disciples, He still speaks to us today and it would be the same word that He speaks forever. The promises He made to His disciples He makes to you today and those promises will remain forever. We can count on Jesus. He’s always going to be there for us.

Jesus says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden and I’ll give you rest.” Have you had a rough week? Is the pressure of life just bearing down on you right now? Maybe it’s at work. Maybe it’s at home. Maybe it’s with health. You can believe Jesus’ word. He says, “I’ll give you rest. I’ll give you a reprieve.” He’ll give you that boost, the strength that you need.

When Jesus says, “I am with you always to the end of the ages,” when you’re in your darkest hour and you feel like everyone’s abandoned you and you’re all alone, you can count on the fact that Jesus has not left you. He’s walking beside you. He’s sitting next to you. He has His arm around you. You can count on Him. He’s reliable.

Jesus says, “I have come to give my life as a ransom.” When it’s 3:00 in the morning and you keep playing the scenario again and again in your head of the things you said and you’ve run out of tears, Jesus says, “I gave my life for you,” and you can count on it and you can believe it and the burden of sin can be removed from you.

That’s why this is so important. As we look at the character of Jesus and He embodies what it is to be a person of character, someone who we can count on, He is the go-to person, He embodies these qualities, it translates directly into our lives. It translates directly into our relationship with Him.

And as Jesus lives this out, brings glory to His Father in heaven, if we can follow suit, if we can take on the character of our Savior, then we bring glory to Him and this is where I believe we can have the impact. This is where I believe we can be the shining light in the darkness of our world. From my chair, we live in a world that doesn’t want to take responsibility, that wants to fill us with excuses, that wants to fill us with circumstances and reasons why things are the way the they are. Nobody wants to take the bullet.

But we can be different. Christians can lead the way. Gloria Dei can lead the way. You can lead the way. By the power of God’s spirit in you, you can say, “No, I want to live my life differently. I want to live my life as my Savior lived it. I want to be a person who takes responsibility, who’s reliable, who people can count on. When I mess up, I’m going to own up and I’m going to impose self control in my life so just maybe, as people see me, they see Jesus.”

And as Jesus brought glory to His Father, we might have the honor of bringing glory to Him. Being a person of character, taking responsibility, reliable, accountable, controllable. Amen.