Spiritually Eliminating the Blame Game

Well, this is the first Sabbath of a brand new calendar year. I haven't talked to you for a whole year. That was last year. In a few weeks. Really looking forward to bringing you this message today. I hope in a sense that it will be more than a game changer, but that it can be a life changer. When I'm giving this message, please understand I'm going to be giving it to myself. So I'm just talking to myself up here, and hopefully some people are listening in. I'm going to be doing a lesson that I'm continuing to learn and trying to internalize and to incorporate in my life. And to recognize that, of course, we have the Holy Calendar Year. We have a physical calendar year. And so we have different ways of measuring different markers. Sometimes what we might call different start overs. 2019 is gone. Those 12 months, those 365 days, etc. And we have a brand new calendar year. And here we are in the first Sabbath of that calendar year, 2020. So I am looking forward to bringing this message. I was thinking back there for a moment with the turn of a calendar and a new year. I didn't want to use the word resolution, or it'll just jinx it, because people don't keep resolutions that well.

But I hope that we will have resolve and stay tuned with me as I give you this message. And hopefully it'll be a blessing to you, and not only you, but those that you love, that you love and come into contact with on a regular basis. It has been said that to err is human, but to forgive is divine. To err is to human, but to forgive is divine. But what I'd like to do is I'd like to rewind that for a moment and add one more important element before moving to the divine. And it's simply this. To err is human, and to blame someone else is even more human.

That's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about the blame game.

Can we talk? Let's talk about the blame game for the minutes that are ahead of us.

So often we want to play the blame game because, after all, just as has been said, it is very, very human. Do I dare say, are you with me? It's not even second nature. It is the nature of human beings to not take responsibility for their own lives, and it must be somebody else. And what we're going to do for a moment, if you'll join me, we're just going to kind of stroll and wander through the scriptures real quickly, not center on anything, but we're going to find from Genesis to the New Testament that this is the case. Genesis means in the beginning. So let's just go right to the very beginning. Genesis 2, if you'll come with me there, please. Genesis 2.

That's not actually what I wanted. I'm sorry. Let me come back a second here. I'm going to find it here. Yeah, okay. That's good. Let's go to Genesis 3. It's in the Bible 2.

Verse 9, then the Lord God called to Adam and said, Where are you?

God is strolling through the garden. Can't find the two inhabitants. And he says, Well, where are you? And so he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, God speaking, Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? Then notice what the man said. He owned up to it. He took it upon himself. He said, Then the man said, The woman, that woman that you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate it. Now I know, ladies, this is no unfamiliar territory with all of you, with your man.

But here is the first man with the first woman. And he basically says, It's her fault. And he adds a caveat. And he says, And by the way, who created her? You did. First man. Some of the first words that are in the Bible. Now, now let's notice the rest of the story. And verse 13, The Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate it. So the man blamed the woman. The woman blames the serpent. This is how it all began.

Not taking responsibility, not raising your hand said, It's me. Now today, if you want to jot down a word, just it'll keep us kind of in sync together. It's going to be kind of a GPS word to move us forward. That assembly this we're going to be dealing with a lot of what I call pronoun personality. Pronoun personality is very, very important to understanding the Christian experience.

Me, I, you, they, us. So we'll be getting into that later on. Now with that background, let's understand something for a moment. That's just the foundation. And we recognize that acorns don't fall far from the oak tree. At least they don't in California. And to recognize that let's go to the next generation. We go to Genesis four. And the only thing that Cain has done is murdered his brother in the next chapter. And notice what happens here in verse 13. And Cain said to the Lord after he had murdered his brother, my punishment is greater than I can bear.

He didn't own up to it. He didn't ask for forgiveness.

He didn't say it's all about me. And Cain said, Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Surely you have driven me out of this day from the face of the ground. I shall be hidden from your face. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. And it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me again. He's not taking ownership. He's not taking responsibility. He's blaming God for being too mean, for killing a part of his creation.

One thing I want to kind of share with you that I said again, blaming others is part and parcel of human nature. And it can also be a family way that is passed down amongst families.

Monkey see, monkey do. An acorn doesn't fall from the oak tree. And it will recognize sometimes we see a family way of not taking responsibility for your actions. Again, one of the great ones is in Exodus 32. Join me if you would over in Exodus 32. Love this story, because there's a big lesson in it. It's the story of the golden calf, Exodus 32. Moses is up on the mountain.

Moses, what goes up, must come down. Moses comes down out of the mountain. He's looking. He's not happy. He sees all these people. All of those are rising up to play. Now notice this. And Moses said to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have brought, you have brought so great a sin upon them? Moses tried to stick it on Aaron. Let's see what Aaron does. So Aaron said, do not let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know the people that they are set on evil for. They said to me, make us gods that shall go before us. As for this, Moses, the man who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know whatever became of him. And I said to them, whoever has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me. They gave their gold after they broke it off. And I cast it into the fire. And notice Moses, this calf came out just like that. Earrings go in, calf comes out.

And it's all the people's problem.

Blaming others. Another story that we find over in Numbers 14-15. You can just jot that down. Look at it later. It's a story of Korah, Mr. K himself. Mr. K who said, you know, Moses and Aaron, you know, you are really taking too much upon yourself, seeing that all of the... It's number 16. All of the people are holy. Korah was blaming Moses for having too much. See, Korah kind of remembered what it was like in Egypt and how the priest had their warehouses full of grain and how the priest had Easy Street and they had all of the possessions and, you know, kind of, let's...

Moses, let's kind of break it up here, okay? Let's, you know, come to Daddy. I want some of this.

He was blaming Moses. He was projecting and Moses comes back and says, I haven't even done anything. I haven't even taken a donkey. What's going on here? But he was blaming, projecting on Moses what he wanted himself. That's going to be a big word. You might want to jot it down. We're going to build upon that. The word projecting that's used a lot these days, where we project on others. He was saying that Moses was after the wealth when he himself was the one that wanted to become richer by the increase by serving God. Another one that's very interesting is, let's jot down Jonah.

Jonah blamed God. And I was really interested in how Jonah blamed God. Join me if you would in the book of Jonah. Come with me to Jonah. Second, Jonah in my Bible is on page 1067, if you don't know where it is. I don't know if it's going to match your Bible. But we notice this story here about Jonah, and we pick it up here. Verse 1, chapter 4. But this is Nineveh, and Nineveh is in the process of repenting. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.

So he prayed to the Lord and said, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish. For I know that you are gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents from doing harm.

Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

Then the Lord simply asked a question. The answer is actually in the question, is it right for you to be angry? Now, what was Jonah in the process of doing?

Jonah was in the process of blaming God for being too merciful and too gracious.

See, Jonah was going to Nineveh, and he thought he was just going to do some preaching. And then he was going to do the countdown. He was going to be on the outside. And, you know, rather than Cape Canaveral, Cape Kennedy, he was going to be there in the sands outside in Nineveh, 10, 9, 8, 7. He was ready for God to let him have it, and he didn't. And then he said, well, this is why I fled in the first place. He blamed God for being too generous, too merciful, and too kind. Interesting.

Another story we find in John 11, and we'll conclude with this one. John 11. This is just to warm us up, to let us know that even with people that God has touched and God has walked with, inspired to prophesy, to lead nations, that blaming others is central, not marginal to human nature. Join me if you would in the book of John. Interesting story. It's the story of Lazarus, and Jesus did not come immediately, even though he'd been petitioned by the sisters to come just as quickly as possible. He did not come immediately. He waited for four days. Why did he wait for four days? Because in the Jewish cultural tradition, that is when the Spirit left the body altogether.

The body was now dead like Rover, dead all over. This is what enhances the miracle that Jesus did there in John 11 with Lazarus. And notice what it says here in verse 11 and verse 20.

Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Mary said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, where were you? My brother would not have died. Blame, blame, blame, blame, blame. But that was going to give her an opportunity to grow.

And one thing I want to share out of all of this is we stay tuned to what God and what Jesus Christ are doing, even when we start with blame. If we can deal with it, if we can own it, if we can extricate it, if we can extinguish that characteristic of human nature, God can use us to teach others, even as Martha's words teach us. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Now let's bring it up to today in this age. You've got to share something.

For anybody that's ever done a lot of sports or a lot of athletics, and ladies, I'm on your side on this one. You're going to kind of like this for a moment. But watching a lot of sports growing up right here in Pasadena, played a lot of ball, played a lot of basketball, played a lot of ping pong, played a lot of racquetball. And it's always amazing. Ladies, have you ever noticed when men, it's not going real well in their sports and things aren't happening for them? You know, they're out there in center field and they miss the ball. And what do they look at? They're looking at their met. They're looking at their met. There must be something wrong with this met. And or if you're playing racquetball, what happens is, you know, you go to do a kill shot, it doesn't work. And so what's the man doing? He kind of twirls his racquet for a moment and kind of, what strings are broken? Oh, there's no strings that are broken. It might have been me.

Maybe I did something wrong. Or they look at their shoes. There's always this, what is it besides myself where I need to improve, where I need to be better? It must be the met. It must be the paddle. It must be the racquet. It must be the shoes. Maybe these shorts just aren't elastic enough. I can't kind of run. And it's always looking at something else and or and I do have to, confession is good for the soul. I'm not really good when I've either lost my wallet or lost my keys. I get a little nervous. I get a little antsy. And Susan, where have you put them? Of course, she's been gone all day. Where have you put them?

It does not go over real well. So we look at this and we recognize that this is it.

You know, when we look at this, we call it projecting. We're not taking responsibility.

And one thing this year, as we move forward into this year, is we want to take responsibility for our own actions. Because until we take responsibility for our own actions, we're not going to grow spiritually. We're not going to be able to glorify God completely. We're not going to be able to be a blessing to other people. We're actually going to be kind of a high endurance when we just settle for playing the blame game. Let's talk about some excuses that people make when it comes to blaming others. You might want to jot these down. First of all, it's the other person's fault. Couldn't be mine. And or I couldn't help it. Just I couldn't help it. Because of other forces outside of myself. Kind of like the story of the Beaver and the Scorpion. Maybe I've told that one here before, but you know the the Scorpion comes up to the water side and says, hey, Beev, how you doing? He says, fine. He says, well, I'd like to hop on if you can get me. Can you kind of ferry me across this stream? And the Beaver looks at him and says, no, no, no, no, no, no, Mr. Scorpion. We're not going to do that, because this is not going to end well. I know exactly what you're going to do. I'm going to get out there and you're going to just, whoop, sting me, and we're going to both drown. Oh! Scorpion says, if you wouldn't do that, I don't want to drown. I just want to get over to the other side of the shoreline. Can you take me? And Beaver finally says, fine, chop on and we'll go. And you know, they're going along. I like to beaver. I'm not going to do my full beaver imitation, but you know the beaver is kind of going like this. Little, little tail going like, you know, going across. And all of a sudden the Scorpion just goes, pow! Beaver, before he goes into paralytic shocks, turns around, so sadly said, why did you do that? You said you weren't going to do that. Now we're both going to drown. Why did you do that? He says, oh, it's just second nature.

And that's how blaming other people is. It is second nature. We find it throughout all of the scripture. We find it in our own lives. Now, some people do not go with everybody else who's doing it. We think of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego stand up people that took responsibility for their lives. There's a very important story. Let's jot this one down. You can explore it later. David and Azzah. Remember, David wanted to bring the tabernacle, excuse me, he wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Jerusalem had already become the capital of the United Kingdom of Judah and Israel. And now he thought, well, I'm going to bring the Ark, and what a really great idea. And so he went to the house, and then one of the drivers to bring the Ark to Jerusalem was a man named Azzah. But, not to go into full story, but they did they have a good desire, yes he did, to bring the Ark. But he did it all of the wrong way. And if you'll join me for just a second here, we find the story in 1 Chronicles 1311. This is one that we need to look at for a moment. 1 Chronicles 1311. In 1 Chronicles 1311, what happens is Azzah is slain. He didn't know, know the Ark was beginning to fall off the cart, of which it should never have been on the cart, because that's not how God instructed to carry the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was to be carried by two Poles, right? Two Poles. God knows best. Father knows best. Two Poles. And number two, they were to be carried by the Levites. So we have what we call in Hebrew, and oh, oh, this is not going to end up well. Now, David was in charge. David was the one that was insistent. Notice what happened. And David became angry because of the Lord's outbreak against Azzah. He initially did not take responsibility for his actions. Didn't take responsibility.

Then David was afraid of God that day, saying, how can I bring the Ark of God to me? Well, in the Bible, God tells you exactly how to worship him and to care for the holy things of God. Just when in doubt, read the book. Use Poles, Levites, because if you're being led by oxen or donkeys or mules, and you're on a cart, you're going downhill, it's not going to wind up good.

God knows best. So he gets angry, and he blames God. A lot of what happens, even in the lives of spiritual people, do I dare say this, dear friends? We wind up. We don't think we are.

Whittingly but unwittingly, we can ultimately blame God for how our lives are going. And, of course, then out of the 60s and out of the 70s, for us that are a little bit older, remember the famous line, the devil made me do it. The devil made me do it. Always very easy to blame the serpent. After all, he's right in the beginning of the book, and he's at the end of the book. So we'll just blame the devil. Or I was pressured into it, just like Aaron's lame excuse.

And, or, I didn't know it was wrong. I didn't know it was wrong. I didn't get the memo.

I didn't get the memo.

Again, all of these show us that blaming others is not marginal to human nature. It's central to human nature, and it continues to be a topic that we have to grapple with as Christians.

The last one is simply this, that we simply say, well, God is tempting me. God is tempting me. Let's just go right for it. Well, again, God's responsible. God is tempting me. Hold it right there. Join me, if you would, in James. We didn't get to this today in James 1, verse 13. In James 1, verse 13. Let's notice what this book, the Proverbs of the New Testament, tells us in verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted that I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. That kind of makes sense. After all, in the Lord's Prayer, it says, and lead us not into temptation.

So why would God then lead somebody into temptation when we're praying to him to lead us out of temptation? So we look at this, and we see this, and yet we do.

I drew a line that I think is kind of cute, especially because this term is being used a lot these days, snowflake. But just think this through for a minute. We can blame others. We do.

Think about this for a minute. No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Okay, you can release the snow up on the second floor. Here we go. Okay, just joking. No snowflake.

No snowflake ever does that. Let's understand something. Projection is rejection of personal responsibility. And what happens is this. A couple things here on our famous whiteboard.

It was fun teaching this morning and this afternoon in the Bible class. Let's understand something. What happens is when we get into what we call the blame game. Are you with me? Blame game. You know what happens is we kind of go all over the place, you know, and we go in circles just like ancient Israel. Ancient Israel is always blaming God or blaming Moses.

Sometimes when they ran, I'll blame you. Those two, they got into Aaron. And so, you know, when you're blaming everybody, you're really going in circles. Rather than recognizing, are you with me?

Any potential growth in emulating the example of Christ and having that holy righteous character in us goes like this. X marks the spot. X. Not all these circles. And when we spend our time blaming this person and blaming that person and blaming this person, we're not going to grow because we have not taken responsibility for our own actions. We're wandering in the wilderness of blame rather than this X. X marks the spot of responsibility. I want to show you something else here. No, I'm not going to blame this eraser seeing I'm giving. Okay, here we go. There we go.

Last time I noticed blame is spelled this way, right? Blame. B-L-A-M-E. Did I do all right, Paul? You're a teacher. Okay. What happens when you cross out B?

This came to me in prayer last week before I gave this message somewhere else.

When you're blaming everybody else, you really have basically lame excuses and you are going to live a lame, unprofitable, non-going life. It's that simple. Are we going to knock out this whole word this year and work and take responsibility for our lives?

What does a Christian do? I want to give you three specific points for the remainder of this message on how to spiritually eliminate the blame game. Spiritually eliminate the blame game.

That's the specific purpose statement, and I'm going to give you three specific takeaways to put into your life because God wants us to take responsibility for our lives because we're precious to Him and He loves us. And He gives us wonderful, wonderful guidance and examples in the Scripture. The first point is simply this. Let's go for it. Accept responsibility for your actions. Remember the pronouns? Accept responsibility for your actions. They are yours alone.

Take responsibility for your actions. Do you remember many, many, many years ago? Happy Days. When Happy Days used to be on the sitcom with Ronnie Howard and the guy that played the fonts. His name's not coming to me right now, but remember that one episode, the time when the fonts had to admit that he was wrong? Did any of you see that, or am I the only one that was tuned in that night? And fonts, you know, he was kind of the cool guy. Had the leather jacket and had the hair slicked back, and I didn't dress for it. I'm sorry, but anyway, you know, the fonts always go like this, and he has to admit that he's wrong. And Henry Winkler, Henry Winkler, the actor, and he's like this, and he's going, don't worry, I'm feeling okay. No nurses, okay, but you know, he's still trying to get this out.

That's how we are sometimes when we don't take responsibility. That was fun. When we don't take We need to make responsibility for our lives. It's really hard to get that out of us and to admit that we are the ones that God is working on, that we need to go to work, and we need to eliminate some things that earn our lives. Let's be honest. Remember back in kindergarten, kind of where it began, when there would always be the proverbial tattle-tailer person, snitch, that's Hebrew for tattle-tailer. And the guy would go like this, teacher, teacher, he did it! This is the PowerPoint. This is what we call a still PowerPoint. This is it. It's a living still. And we notice that the one finger is going out, right? Like this. But how many fingers are going back? Because we're projecting. And when we project on others, we are rejecting personal responsibility to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's the big point here that we need to learn.

So we need to take full responsibility. Share another story with you. It's personal. Confession is good for the soul. I remember many years ago when we lived in Pasadena, and it was a Sunday morning. And it had been a rather busy week, so I was really looking forward to relaxing on Sunday morning. I had my good cup of coffee. Most of you know how much I enjoy coffee. And I had the LA Times when it weighed 10 pounds on a Sunday morning.

I think it's down to a diet of about one pound. And I'm going to read, and I'm going to relax, and then Susie comes in, and she brings up something that, guess what? Moi had done.

But I wasn't ready to take responsibility for it yet. I thought, oh, Sunday morning it's 8.30. I really want to relax. So I thought, I know what I'm going to say. I'm going to be very valiant. I'm going to be very noble. And I'm going to own up to this. And I said, because I thought then I could go back to reading page 13 on the first section, I said, I'll take the blame. I was thinking that was going to solve everything. It did not solve everything. Heated up like a Bunsen burner.

She said, that's what's wrong, Robin. It's not a matter of taking the blame. You are to blame. You are that man.

That had a tremendous impact upon me, and it continues to do so because it's still a lesson that I'm learning. Not to take blame, but to admit that I am to blame that unlike the Fonz, to get to it quicker than I used to, I am wrong. I made the mistake. I couldn't find the wallet that I lay down in a place that I'm not familiar with. No, I left the keys in the car overnight in the driveway with the car unlocked. Not that you've ever done that. It's me.

So what do we do about this?

James 1, 13. Again, a book of wisdom.

Brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

So a thought.

So a thought. You reap an action. Sow an action. You reap a habit. Sow a habit. You reap either blessings or cursings based upon the seed that you planted. I want to share a story with you that's a powerful story. Join me if you would in 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel, under this, of accepting responsibility for your own actions. In 2 Samuel 12 and verse 1.

If you do not know where 2 Samuel is, it's right after 1 Samuel. Okay? 2 Samuel 12, 7. Let's notice what it says here.

Actually, I want to start. Yeah, first one.

Then the Lord said Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him, There were two men in one city and one rich and the other poor, and the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had brought and nourished, and he grew up together with him and with his children, and ate of his own food, and drank from his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd, to prepare one for the wayfarer man who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

So David's anger was greatly aroused against that man. And he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die, and he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Then Nathan said to David, You are that man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have also given you much more. Why then have you then despised the commandment? You are that man. Well, we have to recognize how God works with us. Sometimes he will send a prophet like Nathan, and he'll say that you are that man. And yes, you are that woman. But he will also convict us. Are you with me, dear brethren? He will also convict us by his spirit, or he will convict us by his word, or he will bring the human tool into our lives, be it a wife, be it a neighbor, be it a minister, be it a fellow church member, be it somebody at work.

You are that man. You are responsible. You are the one. And that's how it begins. Why does God do that? In Jeremiah 10 and verse 23, you can jot it down. It says, there is not a man who walks, who knows to direct his own steps. Sometimes we do not see ourselves for how we come across. Sometimes we don't know this. Perhaps it's in our subconscious of blaming others. Perhaps it's unwittingly that we do it. Perhaps it's not wittingly. It's not out front. It's not on a billboard on two legs as we walk down. But there is something where we are not taking responsibility. What is it in our lives, as we go into 2020, that we are dodging? That we think our Teflon coding, it will not stick. Where God is wanting it to stick, is he wants us to grow up spiritually. He wants us to mature in Christ. He wants us to become complete. And yet we are not owning it. When you do that, things can happen. Join me if you would in Psalm 51. It's the famous prayer that David gave after this incident, after Bathsheba, and with the situation with the loss of child. In Psalm 51, let's pick up the thought in verse 1. Have mercy, O God, according to your love and kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my pronoun personality, my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me, not the other guy. Me, from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions. Nowhere in here do I see Flip Wilson. The devil may be doing it. Sometimes we see the three antagonists in this world that we walk through as self, society, and Satan. But even if we didn't have Satan and or society, can I share something with you? There's still a lot of self out there to tangle with. And sometimes we can do a Flip Wilson and blame it on the devil, rather than taking our own personal responsibility, where we want to play like Parcheesi, like war, cards, monopoly. We play the blame game. God says, don't put it up in the closet, get rid of it. It's not working. Did it work in 2019? Are we ready to eradicate that? Are we ready to extinguish it? To eliminate it spiritually? Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, you will make me to no wisdom.

See, there are a lot of decisions that are hard decisions to make, but when you make the big decision, all the rest of the little decisions will fall in line. Are you with me? You make the big decision to take responsibility for your actions, to man up, to woman up, to Christian up, then all the rest of the decisions will fall in line responsibly.

Robert Browning, a famous British poet out of the 19th century, said this, When the fight begins within himself, when the fight begins within himself, a man is worth something. A man is worth something. It's a fight worth having. When you're fighting yourself, when you're wrestling yourself, rather than like a gatling gun, growing up in the 50s, you used to always have those Western movies. Some of you probably don't see it, but, you know, they'd have the gat... Somehow, always in one wagon train, they'd haul out the gatling gun. And you know what a gatling gun does? You know...

Like that. We have our own form of gatling gun sometimes, because we don't want our actions, our thoughts, to stick to ourselves. Remember, blaming others, blaming God, blaming our mate, blaming something else, is not marginal. It is central, central to the Bible story and to our human nature. Take responsibility for yourself. Point number two, action. Confess them. Confess your faults. Take responsibility. We talked about the powerful story of David and Nathan, and the story of Abashaba, where he said, against you only have I send. This is going to come into play in Luke 15. Join me if you would there, about confession.

In Luke 15, it's a wonderful story. It's actually three stories in this chapter that build upon one another. But we're going to just deal with the third story, which is the story of the prodigal son. We recognize that it is the younger son that took his inheritance up front. It's not that he couldn't take it, but it's how he took it, and then what he did with it in what we call prodigal, lasciviousness, living, is that he just kind of blew it.

It's like he had all the stocks, and he blew it. And then we notice this beautiful section here in Luke 15 and verse 17. Luke 15 verse 17, it says this, But when he came to himself, you might want to circle that if you're daring enough, but when he came to himself, there's been a book that's been written, called When a Man Comes to Himself. This is one of the great, great lines out of the Bible. This is Marquis. But when he came to himself, and I know that you've had that experience, and I've had that experience in my life, and will continue to have that experience in my life, when I come to myself, and I'm no longer trying to blame others, projecting, but injecting into me my responsibility.

And notice how he does that. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and despair, and I perish with hunger? I will arise, I will arise, and go forth to my father. And I'll say to him, Father, I have I, not them, not they, not those people over there, but I have sinned against heaven and before you.

And I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. He confessed that he had not only trespassed and met sins against his father, but he started where it needs to start. Are you with me? He started at the top. His sin was against heaven. It was against God what he had done. And then he came down to his father. That's important. Sometimes what we want to do, we kind of want to deal with the middle of the mountain, the middle of the mountain. We want to deal with the people that are around us.

The event that has just come up, rather than recognizing until we go to the highest level, to the highest level, the gravy of responsibility is not going to come down to those down below. You start at the top. Too often we either start with ourselves or we try to project just at the middle level of the mountain, rather than climbing to the top of the mountain and saying, it is against you, Father, that I have sinned.

I am wrong. I stand alone. I take responsibility. I confess. But notice what he does here as we go down further, verse 20. This is a tufur. He did it twice. And he arose. He came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to the servants, Bring out that best robe. My son is not only going to be reconciled, he is going to be restored. He is not only repented, he is going to be reconciled, he is going to be restored. He is going to get the cloak, he is going to get the ring, he is going to get the shoes.

This shows a truly converted pattern here. It wasn't simply an event, it wasn't simply an incident. This was going to be his existence. During World War II, there would be somebody on a destroyer, some tin can out in the South Pacific, and all of a sudden the Kamikaze attack would come, and here is a 1920-year-old boy from Missouri.

Oh, God, if you'll just get me out of here, I'll be good for the rest of my life. And I'm going to go the way of the Lord and just get me out of this one. This is all I'm asking for. Next week he is walking up and down Broadway to the bars, once he gets back to San Diego. Not good. I grew up in San Diego.

Not good. We can say something for the moment. This shows a permanence, a resolution, not only of the first week of the year, or the second week of the year, but where we're going to put our attention, and how we're going to develop, and how we're going to grow. Proverbs 16, verse 3. Join me if you will there for a second. Proverbs 16, verse 3. When you go to the top of the mountaintop, things are going to happen. When you recognize that when we sin, and when we stop blaming others and take responsibility for our lives, things are going to happen. The preparations of the heart belong to a man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes. That's why God at times sins a Nathan, inspires our wife, inspires our husband, and inspires our child. Sometimes inspires infants out of the mouth of babes. Sometimes donkeys talking to prophets who don't take responsibility for their own actions. Verse 3. Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established. That is an ironclad promise.

When you commit your life, you will be responsible for God Almighty. Don't blame him for your life. Thank him. He gave his own son's life for us. Even in our quicksand of self, we could be rescued and have a new life. And recognize that we don't walk alone, but that he is with us. Number 3. Kind of linked, but I'm going to put it as a separate point. First point was what? Number 1. Take responsibility for your own actions. Number 2. Confess them. Number 3. Ask God for forgiveness. Why? Psalms 86 and verse 5. Notice who we approach. Notice the God that that son that was prodigal prayed to.

In Psalms 86 and verse 5, For you, Lord, you're good and ready to forgive, ready to bring into the fold a man, a woman, a teenager, a young adult, that is going to take responsibility for their life. And quit pointing at everybody else. And you're abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you, for you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive.

Let me put it this way. Just as much as the the father of the prodigal son. Let's think of our father above. Are you with me? Our father is leaning forward. This is a throne of heaven.

We have a God that is poised. He's leaning forward. He's not leaning back. Oh, here we go again. He's leaning forward. It says that he is ready to forgive. He is the that that story of the father at the door of the prodigal son. That's talking about God the Father. That he's leaning his his his his. That he's leaning his his motion. His divine uncreated energy is is leaning forward.

And Christ is probably standing up by him. Come on, go go go. Christ has a lot of standing in heaven. He's cheering us on to finally come to an understanding of ourselves. To stop blaming other people because we will never grow. We will never go anywhere in life until we take responsibility for our actions. And the beautiful point finishing up Psalm 51 again. The end, the end of David's psalm about repentance.

What happens when we do this? When he does forgive us, he purges us with hyssop. And I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice. And hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. Create in me. I want to share a thought with you. You'll be bold enough when you go home this afternoon or this week. Just duplicate Psalm 51 on a copier. And get out your little red pencil and circle all of the pronouns. Circle all the pronouns.

The me's, the my's, the I's. And use that as a GPS. Don't make a paper airplane out of it and throw it away. You use that as a GPS as to where you're going this year to own up and to be responsible for your actions both in heaven and on earth. Both for those that you know dearly and those that you don't even know.

That you might glorify God and that you might be a blessing to other people. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Then let's just go down here for a moment at the very end, verse 13. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. For some of us that have been in the blame game too long and come out of it, we can help others when they start blaming somebody. And you just kind of look at them with those eyeballs. And what you're saying with your eyeballs and your body language is, Really? Really? Is that the path that you want to go down?

Do you want to live a life of circles? No, life is short. It's getting shorter for me. I only have so much shelf life. So do I just want to keep on going in circles? Almost looks like a Picasso. Okay, circles. Or do I X marks the spot? Me. I. Whoops! That is great! You know why? Because I have nobody else to blame. That was inspired! Isn't that cool? I love it! I love it! Oh, God is good! I'll talk to you later. I think that says it all. And you will always remember, now they can blame one another.

I loved it! What a way! God will always out-plan us. There's just no way. When you pray that God will inspire the service, you never know how He's going to do it. That was not in my notes. I just think that's great. Next week, I want to see what Ted's going to do. Are you up next week, Ted? Oh, he is! Okay, good. Well, listen, it's been wonderful being... On a very serious note, I am serious. Think about it as we move into this year. Okay? Think about it this year. Take responsibility for your actions.