Today, we are launching a brand new series entitled The Responsibles.
This series. This is going to be so exciting. This is actually an invitation to join a select group of literally superheroes. They're the they're super citizens. They're super family members. They're super they're, employers and employees. It's men, it's women, it's students, it's college students. It's singles. It's married. It's adults.
Everybody's invited to be this kind of superhero. And what makes these people super and what makes them amazing is they are taking responsibility for their lives, their past, their future. What's going on currently, their internal life we're going to talk about and their external life, these, these incredible people. They refuse to make excuses. They refuse to blame and they understand.
And this is why this is so important. This is why you need to become a responsible. They understand that their irresponsibility eventually becomes someone else's responsability. And the responsibles, They're not having it. That's not who they are. They consider they consider that an epic fail. Now they don't just consider that irresponsibility, they consider it a fail. The responsible is these are the people that clean up what they mess up.
These are the people that look around to make sure they're fully carried. They're carrying their weight. They're carrying their load that nobody else is having to take responsibility for their irresponsibility. This is just who they are. They're the best neighbors or the best friends or the best bosses. They're the best employees. They're the best sons and daughters and husbands and wives and all of us every.
This is not a religious thing or a Christian thing. This is just a general invitation for all of us to join this elite group of people. So for the next few weeks, this is a four part series, We're going to come back to this question over and over and over.And here's the question. And it's not the question you think it is, and it doesn't mean exactly what you think it means.
So we're going to kind of tease it out a little bit. But here's the question. Am I taking responsibility for my life? Am I taking responsibility for my life? For my actions, for my reactions, for my obligations and for my future obligations. And I know the answer to the question for you. As soon as you ask it out loud internally, you said, well, yes, I am. I'm taking responsibility for my life. But, you know, people who aren't and you are not one of those people.
But before you check out, before you decide this series isn't for you, this is super important. Our question is not… the question is not are you a responsible person? That's a different question. You are. But but the focus of of our question, the focus of this series is not do you pay your bills and do you show up for work, and do you show up for school and even do you show up for church?
Yes you do. In other words, you follow through on what's expected of you because in most cases, what's expected of you, there is an immediate penalty if you don't do what's expected of you. But our question, our question is different. Our question is broader. Our question requires all of us to look back. And as we're going to see, look ahead.
Are you owning or are you taking responsibility for the things left unattended in your past? And are you preparing for the eventualities of the future, the things that you know are going to eventually show up in your life? And this is a very challenging question for all of us, me included.
And this is going to be a challenging series for all of us because, if it hasn't already, it's going to make us it's going to makes most of us feel bad about ourselves. And we've been taught that the worst thing in the world is to feel bad about ourselves. Because when you feel bad about yourself, it hurts your feelings, and this series is going to hurt your feelings.
And if you're honest and if I'm honest, we're going to hurt our own feelings. But there is something worse than feeling bad about yourself. And maybe no one's told you that before, but they have. Or you'll figure it out as an adult, right? There's something worse than feeling bad about yourself, namely refusing to acknowledge and address something bad about ourselves.
That's worse than feeling bad about yourself. Because if we're not willing to acknowledge and address the things that are bad about ourselves, we will continue to stay in the same doom loop. And same habits and same ways of thinking that penalize us and eventually penalize other people, and that's bad and that's bad for you. So our question, our question, am I taking responsibility for my life requires an honest look in the mirror.
And let's just be honest about an honest look in the mirror. The easiest person in the world for you to deceive is the person in the mirror, because you have a little salesperson in your head. Like I have a little salesperson in my head and the salesperson in my head. That person's voice sounds exactly like mine, and my voice can sell me on the worst ideas.
And your little voice in your head is sold. You on your worst ideas. You've bought some ridiculous stuff you've borrowed money on for some. I mean, there's no running. But within the context of this particular series, that little voice in your head will defend you and defend you and defend you and excuse you and excuse you and excuse you to the point of never taking responsibility for your past and refusing to plan and take responsibility for your future.
So this requires an honest look in the mirror, and it requires us to be honest with ourselves. Really, because there's so much at stake, and it's easy to see what's at stake when you look at other people around you who haven't taken responsibility for their lives. But somehow we all think we're going to be the exception. And to be honest, and this is where we kind of lose all of our excuses, whether you're a religious person or not, to refuse to address our irresponsibility.
You know what it makes us? It doesn't just make us irresponsible. This is a little bit harsh, okay? It makes us hypocrites. Don't answer out loud. Do you want to be a hypocrite? In fact, if you're not a religious person or a Christian person, one of the things you would say you don't like about Christian people or church people or religious people is the church is full of hypocrites.
And that's true. It is full of hypocrites. But that just means you think being a hypocrite is bad. So just let me ask you, if you're not a religious person or a Christian person, do you want to be a hypocrite? I thought I should define it for us, in case we don't know what a hypocrite is. Anyway, here's I made this definition up and may not even be right.
Someone who pretends to do but doesn't do what they expect others around them to do, and that what a hypocrite is. Someone who pretends to do looks like you know, on the outside I get it all, but someone who pretends to do but doesn't actually do what they expect others around them to do. And here's what I know about you.
We've never met. You expect the people around you to take responsibility for their life, right? You expect the people around you to take responsible for their actions. If they do something, they need to admit they did it and then fix it. Clean up the mess, not leave you with the mess. You expect them to take responsibility for their reactions.
So if you don't do what you expect other people to do, that makes you a hypocrite and you don't want to be a hypocrite. And I don't want to be a hypocrite, and I've hurt your feelings.
I told you we're good. We're all going to get our feelings hurt. But there's things worse than feeling bad about yourself. It's knowing something. There's bad about yourself and refusing to do something about it. So we're going to do something about it. Because living responsibly and taking responsibility for your life is the will of your father in heaven. That's going to become abundantly clear throughout this series, including in this first episode, that it is God's will for you, is we're going to see in a minute because of how you're designed.
It is God's will for you to take responsibility, not just live responsible responsibly, but to take responsibility for your life. And if you're a Jesus follower, in other words, if it's you're going to you're more than just the Christian who believes a bunch of stuff, then you absolutely have to take responsibility for your life. Because as you walk Jesus through the Gospels and he walks you through his life and you read the, what the his apostles wrote later on, it's so very clear that living responsibly and taking responsibility for our life is where your King will lead you. If you decide to follow.
And why would this be the will of your Heavenly Father? And why would your King care? Two reasons. Number one, it's good for you, and it's good for the people around you. And if God is love, and if God really loves you, then he cares for you. And he cares what you do, and he cares about the things that you do that negatively impact you.
And because he cares about the people around you, and because as followers of Jesus, we're to let our light shine in such a way that people see our good works, not imagine our good thoughts, but see our good works, and connect our good works and our deeds to our father in heaven. Then, of course, it's good for the people around you that we take responsibility for our lives, because when we don't, it eventually dings somebody else.
It eventually dumps something on somebody else. We penalize other people eventually if we don't take responsibility for our life. So of course, your heavenly father would care. And of course, Jesus would want his people to be the most responsible citizens in any community, and would want his followers to be the most responsible people on the planet. Because taking responsibility for our lives is part of what it means not simply to be a Jesus follower, but what it means to be human.
Here's why I say that you were created in the image of God, which means you were created for responsibility and you were created with responsibility that you're. This is important, that your responsibility isn't just something you have. Your responsibility is something that you are. It is baked into what it means to be human. Because we are all part of a community.
Whether you want to be in a community or not, you can't exist. You can't survive without community and part of being in a healthy community are for the people in those communities to take responsibility for their lives and to take responsibility for their actions. We were designed this way. And here's the thing. You can think about this later if you don't believe me.
When you dodge, when you avoid, when you duck, when you duck out of, when you turn your back on what you are responsible for, you lose a piece of you. You literally, literally, you leave a piece of you behind. Now let me tell you who is most aware of this, or parents or grandparents. Or if you can just remember growing up in the home you grew up in.
Maybe you can relate to this as well, but if I can just speak it for as a parent for just a minute, when a every parent experiences, when a child refuses to take responsibility for their actions, whether they're, you know, you know, 11 years old or they're middle school or high school or college doesn't matter when when a parent sees one of their children refusing to take responsibility for something they've done, whether it's in school, at work, at home, when a parent sees that, do you know what the parent feels?
The parent feels like, wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. You can't just move on. Wait, honey. What? You gotta you gotta come back and you gotta go. You gotta call her. You've got to go next door and. And apologize. You you can't. You can't just move on. You've got to come back. You've gotta come back and pick this up.
You've gotta come back and clean this up. Yeah. You know, honey, you've got to take responsibility. And as a parent, when we see one of our kids just kind of move on, like it doesn't matter and refuse to look back, it scares us. Because here's what we know as adults that if they are irresponsible and if this becomes a habit or a pattern, irresponsibility reduces them.
And and it reduces their potential for the rest of their life. Because we know what happens to irresponsible people. But what's true of our kids or grandkids, or the kids that live next door to you is true for you as well. Your irresponsibility reduces you as well. You literally leave a piece of you behind. That irresponsibility makes you small and it makes you smaller, and the estimation of other people, and eventually it makes you small in your own estimation, because you begin to believe the narrative, you begin to believe the lies, you begin to believe the excuses.
But there's something in you and you know you aren't telling. You are other people the truth. And there's a piece of you you've left behind. It forces you to hide behind your excuses. And all the time you're getting smaller and smaller and smaller. If you don't believe me, just turn it around. Isn't it true that when somebody steps up and takes responsibility for their past, when somebody steps up and takes responsibility for something they've said, isn't it true they get bigger and they grow in our estimation?
Taking responsibility for our actions, reactions, and lack of action is what keeps us whole. It's what keeps us healthy. It was what keeps us complete. If you're single, let's just listen me for a minute, okay? College student, single. Adult. Doesn't matter. Single again. Listen, listen. Taking responsibility for your past.
Taking responsibility for your life. This is how you ensure that you can bring all of you, not just part of you, to a relationship. This is how you ensure that you're able to bring all of you, not just part of you, to a relationship. Taking responsibility for our lives frees us. It frees us from the lies we tell ourselves and it.
And it frees us from the excuses that we sell ourselves. But as I said, there are two reasons our Heavenly Father cares about this. There are two reasons that Jesus, our King, cares about this. Being responsible is good for you, but it's also good for the people around you. Because again, we're not the only people affected by our irresponsibility.
And this is why. This is why this is imperative. This is not an add on. This isn't a you know, you get extra credit for this. This is this is absolutely imperative for Jesus followers, because, again, our irresponsibility eventually robs someone of something that they deserve to keep, that we ding their life. They're left to clean up our mess.
It cost them financially. It cost them relationally, right? Our irresponsibility eventually robs other people. Eventually. Your ”ir-”, your ”ir-“, your irresponsibility becomes somebody ”re-“. Every single time it trickles down, it shows up.
Somewhere, your irresponsibility will become somebody's responsibility. And perhaps it already is. Perhaps it already has happened. And this is why this is why irresponsibility 100% of the time, somewhere along the way creates conflict.
It creates conflict inside of us, and it creates conflict with the people around us, which creates conflict between us and our heavenly father. Jesus was so clear about this, and we talk about it all the time. And the reason we talk about it all the time is this is something we weren't necessarily told if we were raised in church and if you weren't raised in church, here's something you should know about Christians that we've let slide off the table that we shouldn't have allowed slide off to slide off the table.
Because Jesus was so clear about this, Jesus was so clear. He said, you can't be right with your father in heaven if you're not right with the people. Your father in heaven is put in your life and put in your path because your heavenly father cares about them like he cares about you. You can't just confess your sins to God and not confess the sins that you've committed against other people.
You can't dump your irresponsibility and the results of your irresponsibility in somebody's lap and never go back to them and address it and be right with your father in heaven. That's not how it works, but because he cares for them like he cares for you. Taking responsibility for me is how I love the people around me. Taking responsibility for you is how you love the people around you.
Now that's the set up. You ready for this? With all that in mind, this is this is so amazing. This is why I want everybody you should read your Bibles. You should read your Bibles. And if you're not a Christian, goodness, if you if you're not a Jesus follower, a Christian, you have a reason not to be. If I heard your story, I'd be like, yeah, I don't blame you a bit, I get that, but here's what I just can't emphasize enough.
And I come back to this over and over, and I will continue to the teaching of the New Testament in particular, and the teaching of Jesus, the teaching of the Apostle Paul, who teases out the teaching of Jesus for Gentiles. There are so many one liners. There are so many nuggets, that if people in our community would just do one of these things consistently, it literally would change everything.
And what we're about to read that the Apostle Paul wrote is one of those things that would change everything. He he wraps, he wraps some words around this entire idea. He he kind of summarizes it in one statement. Again, this would change everything. Listen to this ready? I'm just going to read a couple of statements at a time, kind of build this.
Here's what he says to first century Christians. And if we just stopped with this first statement and left, it's enough. Give to everyone what you owe them. Give to everyone what you owe them. The people from your past that you never gave them, what you owe them, the people in your life now, whether it's an apology or fidelity or money or child support or discipline.
If you're married, did you know you owe your spouse discipline? If you're married or in an important relationship, you owe that person time. Give to everyone what you owe them. Then he continues, and he gets so practical. Some of you are you going to thinking I made this part up and just stuck it in the Bible here, listen. Listen to it.
He's going to give some illustrations of what it means to give to people what you owe them. Here's his first illustration to first century Christians. Give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay your taxes. It's like, whoa, wait wait wait wait wait wait. We're in church. We should be talking about prayer, okay? And Jesus stuff.
You know, in God seven and he talk about stuff we can't really understand or do anything about. Okay, but why so practical? Because we're Jesus followers. We're supposed to be the best of the best because we follow a king that loves the people around us and loves our community. So Paul says, let's start with something practical. If you if you owe taxes, pay your taxes.
I mean, Jesus, your king paid a debt. He didn't know those the least we can do is pay the debts that we owe, and then it doesn't get any better. Ready. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue money again, why? Because Jesus followers are part of that elite group of the responsible. You don't have to come looking for us.
You don't have to ask us twice. You don't have to send us. Send it to us again. This is what we do because we don't want anybody or any organization having to make up for what we messed up and carry a load or carry a responsibility, whether there's financial, anything else that ultimately belongs to us. Then he finally gets relational.
And this is so powerful. I mean, this this would revolutionize just about any damaged or difficult relationship. This is what you wish your parents had done. Many of you. He goes on, he says, give to everyone what you owe them. If respect, then respect. If honor, then honor high school students, college students. You owe your parents honor and respect.
You go, yeah, but they're not always respectable. Look up here. Neither are you. That's not the point, okay? They are your parents. You owe this to them. Yeah, but no no no no no no no. Okay, if you're Jesus followers, there are no excuses. You you, he says in your listen, this is what he's saying in your role.
Whatever your role is and whatever relationship you want to think about, you have an obligation in that relationship. And as a Jesus follower, you pay what you owe, whether it's honor or respect. Own your obligation. If you said you're going to be there at eight, you show up at eight. If you promise to be ready by Tuesday, it should be ready by Tuesday.
And if you're not going to make the Tuesday deadline, you tell him Thursday the week before and you don't wait until Tuesday morning because honor and respect, this is what we do. If you're married, we all take responsibility for your physical health. Look, and this is oftentimes more a guy thing than a female thing. But I'll say I'll just pick on the guys.
Look, men, do you know why you need to take care of your health? Not just so you look great? Because if you don't take care of your health, chances are your wife is going to have to take care of your irresponsibility and your bad health. So this isn't just about diet and exercise for now. This is a this is how you love your spouse in the future.
And it goes both ways. You say, is this why are we talking about this in church? Because it's so practical and you have a king, right? Your financial habits, men, your financial habits, women, they impact your entire family. So give to people what you owe and you owe them financial responsible. It's what you owe. You owe fidelity in body and mind.
It's your responsibility. And then the Apostle Paul punctuates this with this amazing statement. I mean, it's just so rich. He says this, I love this. He says, let me just make it really easy for you. Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing present tense. Every day, every day, every morning, every night, every afternoon. This is this is constant.
You're never done. You never put this to rest. You don't ever retire. This he says let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. In other words, he says, if there are any relational gaps that you've created through your irresponsibility, not doing what you're supposed to do, you need to fill those gaps. You need to step up.
And then he finishes it with this for in other words, he says, because let me explain. For whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. This is why this is this is why following Jesus is so powerful. He didn't bring ten commandments or 600 commandments. He said, I'm going to give you one commandment.
It's so simple. The problem with this commandment is because there's only one. There's no space between, there's just one. There are no loopholes. There are no workarounds. You are to love as your father in heaven is loved you. You are to love as Christ loved you. Which means the last thing you're going to do is dump the consequences of your irresponsibility on somebody else.
And if you've done that as a Jesus follower, you go into apologize and you do what you can to clean it up and make up what you can make up for what. It goes back to this question we ask all the time, what does love require me? That's with his verses. Well, what does love require of me? The only debt that should remain outstanding is the continuing daily debt to love the people around me, especially the people that love me, especially the people closest to me.
What does love require of you? What does love require of me? What love requires of me is to take responsibility.
That's what love does. That's what following Jesus looks like. That's what the responsible is, this elite group of superheroes, as we're referring to them. That's what this looks like. That's what they do, and that's the here. That's what you were created to do. You were created for this because you were made in the image of your extraordinarily responsible, community minded God, is how you ensure that you don't leave parts of you behind.
So here's what I want you to think about next few weeks. And again, don't lie to yourself, okay? You have a narrative. You tell yourself it's the same story you've told for years and years. Maybe. But maybe just in this moment, would you be willing to be honest with the person in the mirror? Has your irresponsibility? Has your irresponsibility become someone's responsibility? In other words, is there somebody you've penalized financially?
You penalized their time. You've penalized their childhood? Is there someone that your irresponsibility has become someone's responsibility?
And you can't go back in time and you can't reverse the past, but just owning up to the fact that I left you with a mess. And if there's anything I can do, I'm willing to do it now. And I owe you. I owe you, and I'm a Jesus follower. And I don't want to owe anybody anything except a debt of love.
And love requires me to come to you and take responsibility for what I've done. Because you've left him shouldering a burden that you should be carrying. Then the flip side of this.
Are you currently engaged in something or neglecting something that will, in all likelihood, create a future mess for someone else to clean up? You see it coming. They see it coming. Other people have warned you and you're like, I'm not worrying about tomorrow. Jesus said, don't worry about tomorrow. That's not what he's talking about. I'm not. I'm just going to worry about today.
They're like, hey, I need you to worry about me today by making sure you're ready and we're ready for tomorrow. Is there any are you currently engaged in something or neglecting something that will, in all likelihood, create a future mess for somebody else to clean up? Are you willing to step up, own up and do something about it and take responsibility for what's coming?
These are the questions Jesus followers ask. These are the questions that the responsible says. These are the questions we've been invited to ask.
And here's the thing. It sounds so negative, but it's a privilege. This is our opportunity going to be the best we can possibly be, the best citizens we can possibly be, members and members and participants in the Kingdom of God. To participate in the Kingdom of God is to recognize the reign and the rule of God, the rain and the rule of our Savior.
And we're saying, I want to get up under the authority of my Savior and live in such a way that I'm participating in the Kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. And this is what the Kingdom of God members do. This is how they live. That's what the responsibles do. That's what you were created to do.
.png?width=176&height=73&name=YMwAS_Vertical_WhiteBlue%20(1).png)
.png?width=118&height=49&name=YMwAS_Vertical_WhiteBlue%20(1).png){kind=small}
%20copy.jpg)
