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Reading – Ex 32:1-6, 21-24
Reading – Ex 32:1-6, 21-24
As Christians we
must faithfully identify, accept, and fulfill our God-given roles and tasks,
for which we alone will answer to God. Yet there is a point at which our
responsibility ends and that of others begins. Where is that line? How can we
handle what is on our own plate without blaming ourselves for others’
decisions and actions, over which we have no control?
Government
Shutdown of 2018
Quick question: Who
was to blame for the government shutdown? So far all are 100% agreed that it
was “someone else’s fault!” Who gets the credit for ending the shutdown? So far
all are agreed that they themselves deserve the praise for fixing others’ mess!
So … who can prevent the next shutdown February 8? Again, 100% agreement. “I
can prevent it, if you’ll just wise up, do everything exactly as I say, and
give me the praise!”
Basic idea: there is a line. On this side is your
responsibility. On the other side is the other person’s responsibility.
Like the fence that separates your yard from your
neighbor’s. You know what’s on your side. You own it. You choose what to put
there (as long as your HOA permits it, of course!). You pay the taxes on it.
From
Genesis to Revelation
Ge 3:1-19 Adam, Eve, the
serpent, and God.
Ge 4:1-16 Cain, Abel, and
God.
Ex 32:1-35 Israelites, Aaron,
Moses, and God.
2 Sa 11-12 King David,
Bathsheba, and Uriah.
Mt 7 The two roads; the
two foundations.
Mt 13 The sower, the seed,
and the 4 responses.
Mt 25 Ten virgins,
talents, sheep and goats.
A rich ruler. A
blind beggar. Judas, Pilate, Peter.
Ac 13:44-48 All who heard the
gospel.
Re 21:7-8 Overcomers and lost
sinners.
Adam, Eve,
and the Serpent
Ge 3:12 The man said, “The
woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the
woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Cain and
Abel
Ge 4:6 Then the Lord said
to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 “If
you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well,
sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master
it.” 8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in
the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do
not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Aaron, the
Israelites, and the Golden Calf
Ex 32:1 Now when the people
saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled
about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for
this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know
what has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings
which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring
them to me.” 3 Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in
their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took this from their hand,
and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they
said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 5
Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a
proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 So the
next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace
offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Ex 32:21 Then Moses said to
Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin
upon them?” 22 Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you
know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. 23 “For they said
to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who
brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24
“I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it
to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
Moses delayed.
People approached Aaron.
Aaron called for
gold. He took it, fashioned it, made the calf.
Aaron rationalized.
“Do not be angry. You know how people are, prone to evil.” He implied, “They
pressured me into this.” He admitted, “I said …”
“Out came this
calf!”
Other Scriptures
on responsibility:
MATTHEW 25 PARABLES
Ten Maidens:
responsible to...
Servants with
Talents: responsible to...
Sheep and Goats:
responsible to...
LUKE 12:42-48 To
whom much is given, from him much will be required.
1 COR 4:2 It is
required of stewards ... faithful.
HEB 4:13 No creature
hidden; all things open, laid bare
MATT 11:20-24 More
opportunity means more responsibility
MATT 12:36-37 Render
account for every careless word
2 COR 5:10 All
appear before the judgment seat of Christ ...
1 PET 4:5 They shall
give account to Him.
GAL 6:3-5, 7-10
Carry own load; reap what you sow. No one can bear your responsibilities but
you.
REV 20:11-15
Judgment from the books of deeds.
ROM 3:19 Whole world
accountable, mouth closed.
Ro 14:10 But you, why do you
judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt?
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is
written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every
tongue shall give praise to God.” 12 So then each one of us will give an
account of himself to God.
SAUL The people
insisted (1 SAM 15:20-21).
DAVID sent Uriah
home to sleep with Bathsheba
2 Sam 12:1-10 Nathan to David: “You are the
man!”
JONAH fled from his
call to go to Nineveh
JUDAS threw down the
30 silver coins.
PILATE washed his
hands publicly.
Responsibility is knowledge
+ ability + opportunity. If you know it’s right, you are able
to do it, and you have the chance to do it, then you are responsible to
do it.
Jas 4:17 Therefore, to one
who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Matt 11:20-24 Cities in Jesus’ day to receive
greater judgment.
Matt 28:11-15 Jewish elders to guards: “We will
keep you out of trouble.”
Jn 19:11 Jesus answered,
“You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above;
for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
Responsibility
needs to be taught and enforced from the earliest age.
Little boy. “My
parents and teachers tell me I’m a very responsible young man. Every time
something goes wrong, they say, ‘Billy, you’re responsible!’”
Smokey the Bear –
“Only YOU can prevent forest fires!”
Age of
accountability.
Choices – Each individual is responsible for the
choices he makes. If this concept was not taught to you as a child, then please
save yourself much heartache and learn it now before you age another minute.
Let’s repeat: Each individual is responsible for the choices he makes. He can
choose where he goes (to church or to follow a friend to a questionable place)
and how he spends time (more work or time with his family). He also can choose
to stay estranged from a family member or to reconcile, to overspend or to
budget, to make inappropriate flirtatious overtures or to conduct himself with
respect and purity.
The troubling issue in choice-making comes when an
individual expects someone else to take responsibility for that individual’s
choices.
When my
grandchildren were younger, one of the first things they did in visiting our house
was to pull off their shoes and socks and run around the house barefoot. Being
shoeless did not usually cause a problem unless we had to go out of the house
to run an errand. We were then delayed while socks and shoes were located and
put on.
On one of their
visits we were in a hurry to get to the library before it closed. My grandson
who was then about five or six years old could not find his socks and shoes. He asked, “Nana, where are my shoes?” I
replied, “I don’t know. Where did you take them off?”
If he hadn’t been so
serious, I probably would have laughed at his next responses. He said, “They
were by the door, but where did you put them?” I replied, “I didn’t put your
shoes anywhere. They are probably in the place where you took them off.”
“No, Nana,” he said,
“I took them off by the door, but you must have moved them because they aren’t
there. Now tell me where they are.”
Hiding a smile, I
reflected on the lesson in personal responsibility that his mother had been
working to teach him. She usually asked him three questions, “Who do the shoes
belong to?” “Who wore them here today?” “Who took them off?” After each
question, he confessed that he was the one who owned the shoes, who wore the
shoes, and who took off the shoes. Then the usual fourth question came. “Then
whose responsibility do you think it is to keep up with the shoes?”
He was and is a
smart boy, so he could see the logical conclusion. If he owned the shoes, wore
them, and took them off, then the responsibility for finding them was his. On
that day at my house, when I hesitated to answer, and was about to ask the
first question, he said, “I know, I know. They’re my re-spon-si-bi-li-ty. I’ll
find them.”
Daniel was young and
still learning about responsibility, but many adults act in the same manner.
They expect others to take care of their personal circumstances, choices, and
emotions. They want someone else to relieve them of their own responsibilities.
Many do not come to the same conclusion that Daniel did, “They’re my responsibility.”
People frequently expect someone else to take
responsibility for choices that they themselves actually made. Let’s
illustrate.
Suppose a high school student chooses not to
study for a test because he would rather play computer games than read the textbook
chapters and put in the work to learn the material. When he receives a poor
grade on the test, he may say the test was too hard or the teacher had never
liked him. He is asking the teacher to take responsibility for his own choice
not to study.
Suppose a woman chooses to have an affair with
someone she “friends” on a social media site. When her marriage breaks up, she
then may tell others that her husband “never understood” her and that her
friends “would understand if they really knew him (husband).” She is asking her
husband to take responsibility for her poor choice.
Suppose a college student sleeps late because
she stayed up until 2:00 a.m. watching a movie and misses a test in her 8:00
a.m. class the next morning. When her roommate comes in from the same class,
the student gets angry and tells “roomie” she should have made sure the student
was awake before she left. The student is asking her roommate to take
responsibility for the student’s own choice.
Suppose a husband chooses to use physical violence
to express his emotions instead of choosing to learn to communicate in
appropriate verbal terms. He then blames his wife for saying something that
provoked him to hit her. He is asking his wife to take responsibility for his
own choice.
These individuals are responsible for their own choices.
But they expect another (the one who is blamed) to step over the fence that
defines the chooser’s own responsibilities. They want that person to pick up
the responsibility that rightfully belongs to the chooser.
The game-playing teen expects the teacher
to step over the fence and take away his responsibility to study. The adulterous wife wants her husband to
cross over the fence and pick up the burden of responsibility. The tardy college student tries to badger her
roommate to put on her shoulders what rightfully belongs to the late sleeper.
The violent husband refuses to admit
that his choice belongs within his own fence. The responsibility of his choice
and its natural consequences does not belong to his wife.
Fences are in place
because they are an appropriate way to define what belongs to you and what
belongs to another. Fences around property designate where the responsibility
for maintaining your own home ends and your neighbor’s responsibility begins.
The same concept helps us see more clearly the emotional responsibilities that
belong to us and those that belong to someone else.
No More Back-Seat Car Fights: Triplets’ Father “Builds
the Wall!”
The Line that Separates “Mine” from “Not Mine” – Responsibility
The
Watchman: Ezekiel 33:1-9
Sees the danger,
blows the trumpet to warn all.
If not, their
death is his responsibility.
However, his
responsibility has a limit.
Eze 33:1 And the word of the
Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people
and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land
take one man from among them and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees
the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, 4
then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a
sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. 5 ‘He
heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on
himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. 6
‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and
the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he
is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s
hand.’ 7 “Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman
for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them
warning from Me. 8 “When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will
surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked
man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. 9
“But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not
turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your
life.
The
Citizens: Ezekiel 33:1-9
Hear the trumpet
blast, flee the city and escape.
If not, their death
is only their responsibility.
In that case, the
watchman is not at fault.
You Answer
for Your Stuff.
Others
Answer for Theirs.
Choices (sowing) and
consequences (reaping).
Attitudes and
emotions. Actions and reactions.
Faith and
motivation. Submission and obedience.
Worship and
involvement. Bible study and prayer.
Schedule and
assignments. Habits and routines.
Treatment of others,
whether friends or not.
Self-control, moral
purity, and sobriety.
Promise-keeping and
follow-through.
If you made the
choice, you are responsible for it.
You Must
Not …
Cross the line of
responsibility.
Blame others for
your own choices and actions.
Blame yourself for
others’ choices and actions.
Allow others to
blame you for their behavior.
Bail out others and
enable them to do wrong.
Consider who is on one side of the responsibility line, and who is on the other. Here are some examples.
Consider who is on one side of the responsibility line, and who is on the other. Here are some examples.
Watchmen Citizens
Parents
Shepherds
Teachers
Preachers
Leaders
Employers
The Savior
You set appropriate
fences.
You monitor and
maintain those fences.
You let others know
what and where they are.
You know when they
are violated.
You restore them
when they are crossed.
You take care of all
that is inside them.
You do not blame
others for your fences.
You respect others’
fences and do not cross them.
Individual responsibility – my fences are my
responsibility: setting appropriate ones, maintaining them, knowing when they
are violated, restoring them when they are crossed, and taking care of whatever
is within the fences.
You and
Your Emotions
Events do not
determine your emotions. You do.
Whatever happens,
you choose your response.
Will you pout and
give the silent treatment?
Will you envy and
resent your coworker?
Will you become
bitter and fault the church, its members, or its leaders?
Will you be the
skunk that sprays others?
Will you be the
turtle that pulls into its shell?
You and
Your Children
Eze 18:19 “Yet you say, ‘Why
should the son not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity?’ When the son
has practiced justice and righteousness and has observed all My statutes and
done them, he shall surely live. 20 “The person who sins will die. The
son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father
bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous
will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.
To My Child
Things I Can and Cannot Do
I can share your
life, but I cannot live it for you.
I can teach you
things, but I cannot make you learn.
I can give you
directions, but I cannot always lead you.
I can allow you
freedom, but I cannot account for it.
I can take you to
church, but I cannot make you believe.
I can teach you
right from wrong, but I cannot decide for you.
I can give you love,
but I cannot force it upon you.
I can teach you to
share, but I cannot make you unselfish.
I can teach you
respect, but I cannot force you to show honor.
I can tell you the
facts of life, but I cannot build your reputation.
I can tell you about
lofty goals, but I cannot achieve them for you.
I can teach you to
obey, but I cannot answer for your actions.
I can warn you about
sin, but I cannot make your morals.
I can love you as my
child, but I cannot place you in God’s family.
I can pray for you,
but I cannot make you walk with God.
I can teach you about
Jesus, but I cannot make Him your Savior.
I can teach you
about prayer, but I cannot make you pray.
I can tell you how
to live, but I cannot give you eternal life.
Author Unknown
