Beginnings
Part 3 – Hardwired to Haywired
I. Introduction
We are examining the beginning. Lessons that will enable us to begin this new year off right.
I have challenged you to put God in the right order. He is before all things and all others. What visible indicators let people know that God is first in your life?
I told you last week that you need to hear God Talk because His word sustains you, brings peace, brings healing, provision, it prunes, it brings purpose, and it pardons. So do you have a Word? I trust you have been purposely and diligently trying to find a word this week.
Now I will need to apologize to you today. I had intended to keep moving through the beginning in order. I wanted to talk to you about Day 7 today. However, I really sensed in study that this was the time for me to bring this message to you. So chances are we are going to back track next week. Today, I want us to go forward.
II. Text
Genesis 3:1-13
1The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: "Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?" 2-3The Woman said to the serpent, "Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It's only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'Don't eat from it; don't even touch it or you'll die.'" 4-5 The serpent told the Woman, "You won't die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil." 6When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate. 7Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves. 8When they heard the sound of God (how many of you know it is better to hear God Talk before you sin than after you sin?) strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God. 9God called to the Man: "Where are you?" 10He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid." 11God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?" 12The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it." God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?" 13"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."
III. Blame
It only took about 7 days of existence for Adam to blame Eve (in reality He blames God . . . the woman You gave to me) and then for Eve to blame the serpent (the first instance in the history of the “devil made me do it” excuse and we have worn that excuse out ever since).
The lesson we learn from the beginning is that (Slide 28) blame is hard wired into us! If you don’t believe that, then you don’t have children and you haven’t been accused of anything lately. Don’t we immediately deflect to someone else?
The man that has an affair blames the coldness of his wife.
The man who steals and kills blames his father for no love when he was a kid. The person who gets burned by spilling the hot coffee they just purchased blames the restaurant for giving them what they asked for.
Gregory Rhymes, 15, has eaten at McDonald's almost every day since the age of six. His Macaholic addiction has taken his weight to 400lbs, although he is only 5ft 6in tall. 'I normally order the Big Mac, fries, ice cream or shake - I like to Super Size my orders,' he said. Gregory has developed diabetes. Rhymes' mother, Ruth, claims that she would not have let her son gorge himself if she had known the food contained such high levels of fat, cholesterol and salt. 'I always believed McDonald's food was healthy for my son,' she said.
Most of the folks in our society, and yes as bad I as I hate to admit it some of you sitting here now, suffer from the victim mentality. I was wronged. I was dealt a bad hand. I am just a victim. When we buy into that mentality then it is logical that we buy the next lie of society which is since I am a victim I no longer need to take responsibility for my actions.
We gotten to the place where everyone has a right, but no one has a responsibility. We have moved from hardwired to haywired!
So I want to challenge you at the beginning of this year. You are hardwired for blame. Most of us have become experts in placing blame. Most of us have become so used to pointing fingers at everyone else that we just do it without any thought. However, at the beginning of this year I challenge you to cut the hardwire before we find ourselves haywired (which means not functioning properly; disorganized or erratic or crazy). Let’s break the blame game. How?
IV. Cut the Wire
a. Quit passing the buck.
Your excuse would be valid if no one else had ever been dealt the hand you have been dealt and rose above it. You are dealing with death and it is killing you, immobilizing you. You are dealing with abandonment and rejection and you are in a tail spin, depressed. You feel forgotten and unloved. Your physical health is failing. You are battling an addiction. I give you freedom and the right to blame everyone and everything. I give you permission to wallow in your misery and to expect everyone around you to treat you as a victim! I grant you that right IF everyone else who dealt with death, abandonment, rejection, has been forgotten, and is unloved have also unable to rise about those things. If Elizabeth Elliott can rise about the brutal murder of her missionary husband Jim and then go and win the very tribe that murdered him, if a John and Tracy Whitacker can stand helplessly by and watch their 10 year old son die of cancer can keep living, then you should be able to get up and go to work. If a Bob and Edith Ely, whose dad’s abandoned them when they were young, can grow up and create a healthy family and become successful, then you should be able to find fulfillment in life too. If Joni Erickson can turn a tragedy as teenage in which she broke her neck and has spent her entire adult life trapped in a wheelchair into a platform to share God’s love, then your sickness doesn’t have to become a prison.
Quit blaming circumstances, people, hardships, sickness or anything or anyone else for your condition and move forward. One of the most powerful things about Jesus is the truth found in Hebrews 4:15-16, “15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
We have a savior that understands our circumstance, but is willing to help us rise above it. We have to quit passing off blame to everyone else!
b. Change the question.
In order to quit passing the buck you must change the question. Those that are caught up in the blame game usually ask this “Who is wrong?” So the answer becomes, “It isn’t me.” Someone else is wrong. Someone else did something wrong. Someone made that decision and now I am enduring the results. If you are going to break the blame game and cut the wires you have to ask the right question. The right question is “What is wrong?”
That question assigns no blame and puts the responsibility back on us to fix what is wrong.
Instead of “whose fault was it that the marriage failed” if I ask “What caused the marriage to fail?” then I have the ability to work on the cause.
Instead of “Who used the credit card too much?” if we ask “What got us to the point that we are relying on these card?” the we begin to work on a solution.
Instead of asking “Who stole my joy?” if we ask “What caused me to place the source of joy in them rather than Jesus in the first place?” we can restructure our lives to work properly.
If the young man who ate at McDonalds every day would quit asking “Who is wrong?” and dealt with “What is wrong?” he would have to go to a gym rather than to a lawyer!
If someone is wrong you are off the hook. If something is wrong you have the ability and responsibility to make a change!
c. Guard your eyes.
To break the blame game you better guard your eyes. Eve learned a powerful lesson. Pleasing doesn’t mean beneficial. She saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye. Our eyes lie! Advertisers know that. They know if they make the beer look fun, cool, sexy that our eyes will lie and cause us to forget the results. If they didn’t know that they would show you video of someone hugging a toilet the next morning.
Paul clearly states that everything is lawful, but not everything is expedient. In other words, just because something is pleasing to the eye doesn’t mean it will be beneficial to your spiritual condition or to God.
Too often we are like Eve. We give in to what looks good and then want to blame everybody else when what looked good leaves a bad taste in our mouths.
Yeah, she looks good, but what about what that will do to your wife and kids? Yeah, it feels good, but what will that do to your witness and your call?
Our eyes can lead us into things that blame can’t get us out of!
Our eyes can get us into debt. Our eyes can get us into divorce court. Our eyes can take us into unhealthy places. Our eyes can lead us into addictions. Our eyes can lead us down paths we will regret later!
Your eyes are directly linked to the hardwire that makes you go haywire!
d. Accept Responsibility.
Blame separates while ownership reconciles. Would there have been a difference in the results of Adam and Eve’s actions if one of them would have stepped up to the plate and accepted responsibility? I am not sure except I can read forward hundreds of years to the example of David. David eats from the forbidden tree too. David’s apple is adultery and then murder to cover it up. He is confronted with his error and could have laid blame. He could have blamed Bathsheba for bathing in plain view. He could have blamed God for making her so hot or for making him king so that his balcony provided the view. He could have blamed the servant that carried out his orders to move Bathsheba’s husband to the front line. But instead, unlike Adam and Eve, David owned up and manned up. He broke the blame game with this simple response, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Were there consequences? Yes, accepting responsibility doesn’t remove the consequences, but it does allow you to move forward. The baby dies. David doesn’t!
Blame is easier than growing up and accepting responsibility. Accepting responsibility is a foreign concept to this generation! However, here is the truth from the beginning:
We know the rules. (Again this is why reading Word is so important and listening to conscience.)
We know the consequences. (Wages of sin is still death.)
We have a choice.
We know the rules and we still break them and marvel at the outcome. I can’t believe I am reaping that. Really? Then we will blame everyone or everything else. It is time to quit playing the blame game and own up to our own actions.
I am broke because I didn’t manage my finances well.
My marriage is in shambles because I haven’t worked on me much less us.
I am out of shape because I drank too many Cokes since January 1st.
I am lonely because I have waited on someone else to initiate relationship and I have put up walls that held folks at a distance. Therefore, since I am not friendly I have no friends!
She is pregnant because I wasn’t man enough to follow the law of God and put a ring on her finger first!
I am depressed because I have allowed the acceptance and opinions of others to dictate to me who I am!
My life is haywired because I have refuse to cut the hardwire!
Are you playing the blame game? You will never find victory, freedom or be able to live the full life that God has for you until you cut the wire!
