Being Responsible

Introduction

Like to say good morning to everyone. All right, just seeing if you’re paying attention. That’s great. Like to say good evening to everyone. Once again, God has seen fit according to his own purpose and grace that we gather together in disassembly to hear and to study another portion of his holy and divine word. To those of you who may be visiting with us on this evening and you’re not members of churches of Christ, we just want you to know that here at the Church of Christ, we love to have visitors, and we pray that it shows. Because there were many places you could have been on a Friday night, but you made the choice to come to the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

I already know that this congregation is a very friendly congregation because you allow Johnny Douglas to walk in here on this evening. So that means that you all truly, truly love the Lord. Good to see you, brother. And it’s so good to see everyone out here on tonight. Like to thank the elders of this congregation for inviting me to come and do this series of lessons on the life of Jacob. And also like to thank Josh as well. I’m getting to know him. I had the opportunity the first for the first time to meet him last year at the Florida College lectures in which we both uh spoke on these lectures. And uh I was quite nervous, and I guess when Josh saw me do it, he got over his fears and said, if this guy can do it, then anybody can do it.

So it’s just so good to see everyone out here on tonight. I trust and pray that everyone has brought their Bibles on this evening. If you have your Bibles, raise them high. All right, we’re going to call you sheep. If you didn’t bring your Bible, we’re going to call you a goat, but you get to redeem yourself on tomorrow and the next day and the next day. So make sure that you bring your personal copy of God’s word, because this is the engrafted word, which is able to save the souls of men. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me, if you will, to the book of Genesis. The chapter is twenty-nine. And we’re going to look at verses four through ten on this evening.

Genesis chapter twenty-nine. And we’re going to look at verses four through ten on this evening. If you have it, let it be known by saying amen. There you will find these words. And I’m reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. The book says, Jacob said to them, My brothers, where do you come from? They said, We are from Haran. He said to them, Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? They said, We know him. He said to them, It is well with him. They said, It is well. And see, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep. He said, Behold, it is still high day. It is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and goat, pasture them.

But they said, We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we watered the sheep. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. Now, as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother’s brother. Throughout this weekend, we’re going to be investigating the life of Jacob. And the reason why this text was chosen on this evening is because we’re going to start off with an introduction of all the things that we’re going to talk about, and you’re going to see this theme over the next two days.

And what I want to talk about on this evening is being responsible. Being responsible. Being responsible is very important. Something that we have to learn from a very young age.

1. Jacob Was Responsible at the Well

And we see that he had moments of responsibility, but we also see that he had moments of irresponsibility. But this text was chosen because we see him being responsible.

No, he went over there and he moved the stone away from the well so that they could water the sheep, so that they could so that the sheep can have water so that they can have something to drink. He was responsible. And this is something that as Christians and even as young people, we have to learn from a very early age. When we read the story of the Good Samaritan in the New Testament, Jesus is teaching a story about accountability and responsibility. We see that a Levite saw a man beaten and left on the road half dead, and the Levite saw him and walked over on the other side, then a priest walked by, passed him, walked over on the other side. But a Samaritan, somebody that would have been his enemy, saw a man in need, stopped, didn’t care about anything else, and helped this man and provide the care that was necessary for this individual.

And one of the things that we learn from this particular parable, and one of the things that we have to even learn throughout the life of Jacob, is that whenever we see any situation, a person in need of salvation, a person in need, somebody that needs help, doesn’t we never we should never ask the question, what’s going to happen to me if I help this person? We should always ask the question, what’s going to happen to this person if we don’t help them? That’s what it means to be responsible. It’s the Apsidi principle. Many of you are probably looking at me and saying, Apsidi, how do you spell that? A B C D E. And it’s an acronym for going above and beyond the call of duty effectively.

2. Who Is Jacob?

And that’s what we’re called upon to do. That’s what it means to be responsible. So let’s take a look at Jacob. Who is Jacob? What makes him so important? Why is he even in this book? Well, Jacob, as we read throughout the scriptures, we know that he is the son of Isaac and Rebekah. And young people, please be taking notes because you will be quizzed on this on Sunday morning. Jacob is the son of Isaac and Rebekah. He is the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. He is also the twin brother of Esau. Jacob is the husband of both Leah and Rachel. And through his wives and their two handmaidens, Jacob became the father of 13 children. He had 12 boys and he had one girteen. But most importantly, the reason why we’re talking about Jacob is because he’s in the Bible and because he is a man of God.

Now, in dealing with responsibility, responsibility is the thought that should come to mind when we read Genesis chapter 25, all the way to Genesis chapter 50. Because it’s in these 26 chapters, is that there’s 50 chapters in the book of Genesis, and then right in the middle it begins to talk about Jacob, and then it ends with his death. This is the book of Genesis. These verses deal with the life of Jacob from birth to death. And Jacob was born, but not only was he born, but he stole Esau’s birthright. And we read about that in Genesis chapter 25. We also learn something else about Jacob, that Isaac, his father, unintentionally blesses Jacob by giving Jacob Esau’s blessing because he thought that Jacob was Esau. And that’s a lesson there because again, the Bible teaches that Isaac was losing his sight.

He could barely see, and he had asked Esau to go kill some game for him and come back and prepare it. And when he comes back, he will bless him. But what happened is that Rebecca heard this and she told Jacob, this is what you need to do. I’m going to fix up some bittles, and I want you to give it to your father, and he’s going to bless you. He said, But you know what? Dad’s not an idiot. He’s going to feel me and recognize that I’m not Esau because Jacob was a smooth man, but Esau was a hairy man. And what eventually happened is that they gave him some clothing. Rebecca gave him some clothing, some fur to put on him, so that when he went to serve the food when Isaac would feel him, he will feel like Esau.

And Isaac, even when he was talking to Jacob at that moment, he said, now you sound like Jacob. But you feel like Esau. You see the difference? He said, You sound like Jacob, but you feel like Esau. Don’t you know that if if Isaac had just gone by what he heard rather than how he felt, then he would have blessed the right child. And this is something that we have to learn in religion today. There are many people who are always doing things based upon how they feel. Well, I would obey the gospel, but it just doesn’t feel right. Stop going by how you feel. Stop going by what you read, by what you hear, because it’s the word of God and constantly hearing it is what produces faith.

And it is this faith that pleases God, according to Romans chapter 10, verse 17 in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6. As we continue to read, is as a result of this situation in Genesis chapter 27, that Jacob is forced to leave home. And not only does he leave home, but he has a dream in Genesis chapter 28. And also Jacob gets married and starts a family in Genesis chapter 29 and also Genesis chapter 30. We also read in Genesis chapter 30 that Jacob becomes a very prosperous man, a very wealthy man. But then as a result of this wealth, Jacob finds himself running away from his uncle Laban in Genesis chapter 31. And also, we have to understand also that Jacob had made some enemies along the way.

He had made an enemy with his brother. His brother had vowed to take his life. But now there comes a moment in which they’re about to come face to face with one another. So when Jacob feared his brother Esau after all these years, Jacob did something. And it’s something that we should always be in the practice of doing. And that is in Genesis chapter 32. Jacob prayed about it. He went to God in prayer about it. We should not allow our fears to conquer us. But we should take our fears, our doubts, our unbelief, our concerns, our situations, our circumstances, our burdens, and turn them over to the Lord. This is why we talk to God, to pray to God. My grandmother used to always tell me when I was a little boy, she said, Now Twan, I want you to know something.

Jesus is on the main line. Tell him what you want. Now I didn’t quite understand that because we had phones in which you could just, you know, put your finger in the hole and then go around with it and so forth. But I guess during her day, you had to call an operator, and then there was full-time operators that would take a plug, you know, or a wire and plug it into something else. That was considered the main line. So that if you just simply call the operator, you were going to get a response. And this is the God that we serve. If you are faithful, if you do his will, if you are a worshiper of him, then he will hear you, and you will get a response.

So Jacob prays to God in Genesis 32. And in Genesis chapter 32, verses 22 through 32, Jacob is said to have wrestled with God, and it was during this encounter that he is given a new name. And the name that he is given is Israel. Jacob reunites with his brother Esau in Genesis chapter 33. And Jacob had trouble in his home because after all, he’s married. He now has a family, and we begin to see some of the things that parents have to deal with in raising young people. He had one daughter, and this daughter was defiled in Genesis chapter 34. But also in the same chapter, his two older boys, Reuben was the oldest, but underneath him he had two other sons named Simeon and Levi.

And these men became murderers to actually kill the prince and the people that were under his oversight for having defiled their sister. Also, we see that he was confronted with Joseph’s ambitions. There are going to come a time which, as parents, our children are going to come to us with dreams and ideas, and how we handle that will determine which direction they go in. I mean, one day your child may come up to you and say, Hey, I decide that in life I’m not going to go to college. I’m going to go to New York and I’m going to become a rapper. You know, okay, that’s your dream today. All right, that’s fine, not a problem. We’re going to talk about it. We’re going to pray about it.

We’re going to deal with that. We’re going to talk about that. You know, yeah, you know what? I think I want to be a dancer. You know, or you know what? I think I want to be a cheerleader. You know, or I think I want to be a football player. You know, all kinds of things. Well, Joseph was saying, hey, listen, dad, I’m having these dreams. And in these dreams, you’re all going to submit to me. And his brothers hated him for that. And even Jacob began to question Joseph, but yet he kept these things in his heart because he loved Joseph. And Joseph was his child. We also see as we continue to go further, that Judah, another one of his sons, his fourth oldest son, found himself in some turmoil and in some drama in Genesis chapter 38.

He heard about Reuben’s fornication in Genesis chapter 35 and 22. He had to lead his household and head his household through a famine that had conquered the land. Jacob had to deal with the deaths of his parents. He had to deal with the deaths of his wife. And he also had to deal with the alleged death of his son Joseph. He lost his parents. He lost his spouses. He even thought he had lost a son. These are things that he had to deal with throughout his entire life. And at times we will find ourselves having to deal with the same things. When we look at the life of Joseph, what do we see? We see that his life was like a roller coaster. He had many ups and he had many downs.

3. Total Dependence Upon God

Nevertheless, it is through this theme park ride in life that teaches us two things. Number one, total dependence upon God. We know that time and chance can happen to any one of us. We can perceive to do everything right and things still go wrong. But if you have God on your side, he will never let you down. He will always be that constant friend that will stick closer to you than a brother. He will always be that individual that you can turn to in good times as well as in bad times. We see this in the life of Jacob. No matter what was going through his life, and we’re going to deal with this on Sunday. He always took time and found time to worship God.

4. The Necessity of Being Responsible

Quite different from many Christians in the world today that when times get bad, we decide to miss Sunday and we decide to not worship God because I’m too depressed to come and meet with my brethren. I’m too upset and angry to worship my God. Once things get better and I get some things straight, then you will see me again. Well, if you can get your life straight without Jesus, why do you need Jesus in the first place? Never abandon the Lord. This is something that Jacob never did. He never abandoned God, no matter what was going through with his life. But the second thing we’re to learn is the necessity of being responsible. And that’s what we’re talking about on this evening. The word responsibility is defined as the state of being answerable or accountable for one’s power, control, or management.

Let me say that again. The word responsibility is defined as the state of being answerable or accountable for one’s power, one’s control, or one’s management. The best definition of this is in an example. Many of you all probably seen the movie Spider-Man. Now, Spider-Man had a movie many, many years ago, and then they had a trilogy, and then I guess they couldn’t work things out with Toby McGuire, so they decided to just rerun the series again in a different light with a new character with a new origin and everything. But in both of the beginning movies, Peter Parker recognizes that he’s been bitten by this spider, and now he has this power. He can climb walls. He got webbing coming out of his wrist and he can swing from building to building, and he has all of this strength.

He has this spider sense in which things slow up for him. And he’s just faster and quicker and stronger than everybody. And there was a situation in which his Uncle Ben comes to him and says, Now, Peter, son, with great power comes great responsibility. Another definition of responsibility is that the word responsibility is a compound word. It’s two words, if you will. The word response and the word ability.

If we have the ability to respond, then God holds us responsible. Now, now understand on this evening that the responsible person does not blame other people for their failures and shortcomings. If I am responsible, then no matter whether the thing goes right or whether the thing goes wrong, I don’t blame others for things going against the plan. If I’m responsible, then I have to take personal responsibility. I have to take personal accountability. This is something that we are constantly trying to educate people about. If you know you’re supposed to, for example, I have a little girl at home. She’s 11 years old, and we have a routine in which they all have to be at school by 8:30. But then in the county where I live, they don’t have after-school activities.

They have before school activities. So that means that if you get involved in these extracurricular activities, your child has to be at school an hour earlier than everybody else to participate in these activities. Well, one child doesn’t participate in extracurricular activities. So I have to make two trips to the school, but I’m not thinking that when I wake up in the morning, I’m thinking both children are going to get in the car and they’re going to go to school at the same time, whether they like it or not. But somebody has to tell me something. So what happens is that I wake up and then it’s 7 30 and then it’s 7 45 and then it’s 8 o’clock, and my daughter looks at me and I look at her and I smile and she smiles back and she says, uh, Daddy, I’m late for school.

What do you mean you late for school? You go to school at 8 30. No, I have Spanish club this morning. Well, when were you going to tell me? So when we started holding her responsible, you could tell me when I’m late. Can’t you also tell me when I need to be on time? So now it’s one of those things now is that the night before, my children, uh, Victoria Olivia always comes up to me. Daddy, I have Spanish in the morning. Thank you for the 110th time. You know, or I got course this morning. I I I know I’m well aware of that. You know, but guess what? She decided to take responsibility. She has the ability to respond. And when she realized that because she was not responding, that she was no longer going to participate in these things, she took responsibility and started to do these things.

She started to speak up. This is what it means to be responsible. Yes, I may be the one driving her, but this is her class, her education. She has the ability to respond, so she has to be responsible. If she doesn’t get the course, it’s not my fault, it’s her fault. If she doesn’t get to school on time, it’s not my fault, it’s her fault. She has to be responsible. Just like I have to be responsible. You know, we all have responsibility. The responsible person, again, does not blame other people for their failures and shortcomings at home. Don’t you know that we have the responsibility to be obedient children? You can’t blame your siblings for why things go wrong. You know, why didn’t you dump the trash?

Well, you know, so-and-so had the chair in front of the trash can. I asked them to move, they wouldn’t move. Listen, you have a responsibility to be obedient. You have a responsibility at school to do all the schoolwork that is assigned. Ah, yeah, I couldn’t do the assignment because Johnny over here was talking. Well, then take your assignment and move to another table. Tell the teacher on Johnny. Tell, you know, whatever you need to do because you have the responsibility to finish that assignment. No more than you can stand before God and say the reason why I was unfaithful is because the elders didn’t call me, or the preacher didn’t preach right, or so-and-so didn’t shake my hand. You can’t go before the school board, or you can’t go before your teachers and say, Well, I would have passed this class if I had a different teacher.

I would have passed this class if I had better classmates. I would have passed this class if you had surrounded me a bun around a better network. No, you get that report card. It’s your grade. You’re not going to be able to go before a college board and say, Well, listen, if you invite this person to school, I’ll succeed. No, it’s your transcript that’s under investigation. It’s your GPA, it’s your grades, it’s your extracurricular activities that’s under investigation. We have to take responsibility. At worship, we have the responsibility of bringing our Bibles and opening our Bibles and listening to the scriptural message and singing with joy in our hearts to the Lord. We have that responsibility. We can’t say, well, the reason I didn’t sing is because I didn’t know the song.

Okay, learn the song. You still have a responsibility to sing. You know, well, the reason why I didn’t listen to the sermon tonight is because that guy tonight was boring. Or I didn’t like the suit he was wearing. I mean, you know, what listen, you still have a responsibility to listen to what’s being preached. You know, we have a responsibility to worship the blessed creator. In each stage of Jacob’s life, we see him taking responsibility. But as we stated earlier, unfortunately, there were moments in which he was irresponsible. He was irresponsible to hustle his brother out of his birthright. He was irresponsible to steal his brother’s blessing. He was irresponsible, or maybe he was responsible because I don’t know. If I work seven years for a woman and then I wake up in the morning next to the sister, uh, Laban would probably be a dead man.

So I think he practiced responsibility by not taking his uncle’s life and actually working another seven years to be with the woman that he loves. So again, you know, we see moments of responsibility as well as irresponsibility in the life of Jacob. Jacob lived up to his name. Don’t you know that his name means supplantter? You know, he received that name because as they were pulling out Esau from his mother’s womb, Jacob is holding on to the heel. In other words, I’m going to avoid you from succeeding. I’m going to hold you back. And you know, there’s going to be people that are going to try to supplant you in life because you’re doing the right thing. They’re going to do everything in their power to try to bring you down.

Well, those are not the type of people that you want to surround yourself around. You want to surround yourself among people that’s going to build you up, not tear you down, not try to draw you back. He also had the name Trickster. His name was Deceiver. And don’t you know this is something that Jacob did throughout his life? He deceived, and there were moments in which what goes around comes around, and he was deceived. But this was his name. But because he had the relationship with God and because he was responsible, he experienced a name change. And his name was changed from Deceiver to Israel. Young people, one day understand that you will leave your parents’ home to start a life on your own. Some of you are going to leave home to actually join our armed forces and fight for our country.

Some of you are going to leave home. You’re going to get a job because you’ve learned a trade. Some of you are going to leave home to go to college. But understand that notice that throughout this whole situation while we’re talking about this, you’re going to leave home. You’re going to leave home. You can’t stay there forever. You gotta go. Your parents probably won’t tell you that, but I’m telling you that you gotta go. You gotta leave. Don’t you know what eagles do what the mother eagle does with her children? They have this big old nest at the top of the mountain. And when the mother eagle feels that the child is ready to fly on his own, whether the child think it’s ready or not, each day the mother eagle will just take away straw and poke holes at the bottom of the nest to the extent that the waste of the weight of the babies causes them to fall out of the bottom.

And they have two options fly or die. And guess what? They fly. Because the parents know that they’re ready. Mama knows when you’re ready. Daddy knows when you’re ready. One day you’re going to leave the house. You’re going to go to college. You’re going to join the military. You’re going to get a job. Even within the five years after you leave the home, some of you are going to further your education by going to graduate school. Some of you are going to actually get the job that you want because you have the degree that you want, or you get the promotion that you want because you have the job experience that you want. Some of you are going to join yourselves to somebody of the opposite sex in marriage.

5. Responsibility Begins With Wisdom

Or you may end up doing all of the above. And even five to ten years after that, some of you are going to be blessed enough to actually own your own home. That takes responsibility. Some of you may own your own businesses. That takes responsibility. Some of you are going to start a family or have a family. Some of you are going to have children. And guess what? Raising children is a responsibility. We see this throughout Jacob’s life. And in each stage of what’s next, God calls each and every one of you to be responsible. I only have one point on this evening, so I want us to take a look at three verses, and then the lesson will be yours to respond to. The first verse is found in Proverbs chapter 3 and the verses 13.

Proverbs chapter 3 and the verses 13. The Bible reads Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding. Remember that as we go now to Proverbs chapter 4, verse 7. In Proverbs, the chapters 4 and the verses 7. The book says, the beginning of wisdom is this. Get wisdom. And whatever you get, get insight. Finally, let’s take a look at Proverbs chapter 19, verse 8. Proverbs chapter 19 and the verses 8. Listen to what the book says. The book says, Whoever gets sense loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding will discover good. If you get nothing else out of this message on this evening, understand this. Responsibility begins with wisdom. Responsibility begins with wisdom. When it comes to wisdom, we must get it.

What is wisdom? Wisdom is insightful understanding of what is right. It’s insightful understanding of what is true. It’s insightful understanding of what’s enduring. Wisdom is good judgment. It’s knowledge, it’s discretion. Wisdom is having skill in the management of affairs. So when we’re talking about responsibility, understand what responsibility demands of each and every one of us. Responsibility demands that we acknowledge wisdom as the principal thing. Responsibility demands that we possess wisdom in all that we do. And not only do we possess it, but we must use it. A failure to do so is irresponsible. Let us not have the words of King David when he said in Psalms 25, verse 7, remember not the sins of my youth. See, as young people, your parents are training you up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord right here, right now.

Why? So that you don’t have that confession. I’ve done some foolish things in my lifetime. Your parents don’t want you to have to say that because that’s their testimony. They don’t want it to be your testimony. That’s why they raise you the way that they’re raising you. That’s the reason why you’re here on a Friday night. Because your parents love you. They want you to grow up. They want you to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul. And the simple fact that you’re here and even listen attentively tells me that you have a mind for spiritual things. That you desire to make heaven your home. That you desire to be leaders and not followers. David said, Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions according to your steadfast love.

Remember me for the sake of your goodness, O Lord. As a result of that reading, remember that responsibility demands that we be filled with the wisdom of God according to Colossians chapter 1, verse 9. Responsibility demands that we should be wiser today than we were on yesterday because of growth and because of experience. We need to recognize that wisdom is a key element for succeeding in life. We need wisdom to find a good job, but we must be responsible to hold on to that job. We need wisdom to find a good spouse, and you need to be responsible in order to keep that good spouse. We need wisdom to find a great worship environment, but we need to be responsible to stay within and growing in that environment.

We need wisdom to have a good home, but we need to be responsible to keep that good home and to save that good home. Be responsible and listen to those who have traveled this road before you.

Conclusion

He’s the one who educates us. Remember that to acquire knowledge, one must study. But to acquire wisdom, one must observe. Look at your parents. Look at those who have lived before you, who have done what you’re trying to accomplish. That’s responsibility. Admitting that you don’t know the way. And someone has to help you find that way. As we close on this evening, we don’t want you to leave here without the opportunity of making Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. The problem with the world is sin. And that’s a responsibility problem. It’s a responsibility problem. We have the responsibility to listen to God and to obey God. And when we listen to God and we obey God, we’re called responsible. But the reason why people are still living in sin today is because they’re being irresponsible.

The Bible goes throughout from the beginning to the end to define eloquently what sin is. When we read Proverbs chapter 1 verse 4, the Bible teaches us that to allow arrogance and conceit to control us, that’s sin. Have you allowed arrogance and conceit to control you? Have you allowed wickedness to influence you? The Bible calls that sin. And when you allow that to happen, that’s called being irresponsible. Be responsible. Choose to believe God’s word. Choose to repent of your sins. Choose to confess Christ to be the Son of the living God. Choose to be baptized in water on tonight. Choose to remain faithful to Christ to the very end. And God will save your soul. Do you have thoughts of foolishness? Proverbs chapter 24, verse 9.

If you do, and you give in to those thoughts, that’s called being irresponsible. Abandon those thoughts on tonight. Have you transgressed God’s law? 1 John chapter 3, verse 4. Make a choice, a wise-hearted decision, a responsible decision to give up sin on tonight. Have you done some unrighteous things? See, we have to understand that righteousness is doing the right thing the right way for the right reasons. Unrighteousness is the total opposite. We must be right with God. 1 John chapter 5, verse 17. Do you lack faith? Do you know to do good, but you fail to do it because you don’t see other people doing it? That’s called being irresponsible. James chapter 4, verse 17. Be responsible on tonight. Do the right thing. Give your life to Christ.

Be the best son you could be. Be the best daughter you could be. Be the best worshiper you can be. Be the best student you can be. Be the best neighbor you can be. Be responsible. Make a wise hearted decision while together we stand and sing the song that has been selected.