Responsibility
Heb 6:11, Matt 5:41, Rom 1:20
August 16, 2003
I. Last year our family went to San Antonio. Our kids were excited about seeing Sea World and Fiesta Texas, and Donna wanted to see the River Walk, but there was only one thing that I really wanted to see, and that was the Alamo.
A. Even though I wasn’t born in Texas the Alamo had always had some kind of pull on me. I remember watching John Wayne in the movie "The Alamo" when I was a kid, and from that time on it tugged at me.
B. When I watched that movie as a kid I got this feeling inside that I couldn’t explain, and when we went to San Antonio, it was the one thing that I had to see.
C. I’ve tried to figure out for a long time why I was so drawn to the Alamo, and I am not sure that I have figured it out yet. I am and always have been a history nut, but there is more to it than that.
D. I think watching that movie touched something inside of me that’s been there since birth, and when I look now at what happened at the Alamo I get as close to understanding it as possible.
E. In late 1835, a group of Texas rebels lay siege to the mission called The Alamo, and by the end of the year, the Mexican soldiers surrendered and left for Mexico, leaving the Mission in the hands of Texans.
F. That set the stage for what was going to be one of the greatest heroic events in the history of the United States.
G. The battle was inevitable, for twenty-five years the citizens of Texas had tried to gain their independence from Mexico, and each time the Mexican troops had been sent in to squelch the rebellion.
H. But this time it was different. The Alamo was manned by 183 volunteers, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and there motto was, "Victory or Death".
I. In late February several thousand Mexican soldiers under the command of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna marched on San Antonio and lay siege to the Alamo.
J. When Santa Anna offered them terms for surrender, the men in the Alamo refused. When they were told that if the fought no prisoners would be taken, and that all that stayed inside the walls would die the Americans would not be moved.
K. When they knew that a battle was inevitable the Texans sent a young man named James Bonham to get reinforcements from the Texas Army.
L. He slipped out of the mission at night and rode ninety-five miles to Goliad, but when he got there he was told that no troops were available.
M. For Eleven days Santa Anna pounded away at the Alamo, and on the morning of March 6, 1836 the Mexican army stormed the walls, and not a single man the in Alamo lived, but they had managed to take over six hundred Mexican soldiers with them, but they did a lot more than that.
N. The battle of the Alamo was the turning point in the war. It gave Sam Houston time to get an army ready, and when the story of what was done in the Alamo got around people began to rally, and from that time on the battle cry was "remember the Alamo!"
O. Less than two months later Texas had its Independence!
P. But what happened to James Bonham, the messenger that had been sent to Goliad? It would have been easy for him to have just ridden away or stayed with the army in Goliad, but his sense of responsibility was too great.
Q. The movie was wrong here. It shows him getting back to the Alamo in time to help the women who were left alone, but what really happened was that he rode back to the Alamo, made his way through enemy lines and joined his friends so that he could fight and die with them.
II. It is a rare thing for us to see the kind of responsibility displayed by James Bonham and the men of the Alamo in our culture today.
A. People today focus more on their rights than their responsibilities.
B. Haddon Robinson says, "If you want to get rich, invest in victimization. It is America’s fastest growing industry."
C. He points out that millions of people are getting rich by identifying, representing, interviewing, treating, insuring, and counseling victims.
D. That’s really a scary thing, because it is proven in history that the people that come after the ones that have fought and sacrificed to conquer a land or build something in any culture, usually don’t have the sense of responsibility for maintaining what they have, as much as the ones who fought and died for it, because it came easy to those who came later.
E. It happened in Spain, and France, and it is happening in America, and even more frightening it is happening in the Church.
F. People stood for what they believed in, and died for their faith so that we could inherit the heritage that we have as Christians, and if we are not responsible enough with what we have been given to take care of it and be as devoted as the ones who came before us then we run the risk of letting what it is that we have been given, fizzle and die.
G. As I have said before, every one of us is a leader and surely every one of us who is a Christian is a leader, and good leaders never live by a victim mentality. They realize who they are and where their responsibility lies, They don’t blame their parents, their spouses, their children, the government, their bosses, or their co-workers for their situation, but take responsibility for their own lives.
H. Good leaders face whatever life throws at them and give it their best, because they know that they will only get the opportunity to lead the team if they are willing to carry the ball.
III. So with that said let’s look at some characteristics of some people who take responsibility.
A. THEY GET THE JOB DONE!
1. Dr. Thomas Stanley of the University of Georgia did a study of self-made Millionaires and found that they all have one thing in common: They work hard!
2. One Millionaire was asked why he worked twelve to fourteen hours a day. He answered, "It took me fifteen years, working for a large organization, to realize that in our society you work eight hours a day for survival, and if you work only eight hours a day all you do is survive,...Everything over eight hours is an investment in your future."
3. As Christians we have to realize that our work in our profession has to be balanced with our service to God, but the principle is the same. NO ONE CAN DO THE MINIMUM AND REACH THEIR MAXIMUM POTENTIAL!
4. How do people maintain a get it done attitude? They think of themselves as self-employed no matter what they are doing. No matter who you work for what you get from it depends on what you put INTO it, and it is the same way with our relationship with God.
5. If we just try to get by and don’t put anything into our relationship with God, and our service to God. then we LESSEN what we get out of it.
6. If we make what we get out of our relationship with God dependent on what other people do, then we cripple ourselves, and if we make what we get out of our service to God dependent on what others do, then we cripple a church.
(Heb 6:11 NIV) We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.
B. People who take responsibility ARE WILLING TO GO THE EXTRA MILE!.
1. That saying comes from the bible. Any citizen in the Roman empire at the time the New Testament was written was required to carry the armor of a Roman soldier one mile if the soldier told them to, and Jesus took it a little farther.
(Mat 5:41 NIV) If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
2. Responsible people never say "that’s not my job" They are willing to do whatever it takes to get the work DONE.
3. If you want to succeed at home, be willing to put what needs to be done ahead of your agenda. If you want to succeed at work be willing to put what needs to be done ahead of your agenda. If you want to succeed in you relationship with God, put your relationship with God ahead of EVERYTHING.
C. People who take responsibility ARE DRIVEN BY EXCELLENCE.
1. Excellence is a great MOTIVATOR.
2. People who want excellence and work hard to achieve it are almost always RESPONSIBLE. And when they give their all they live at PEACE.
3. That is especially true with our relationship with God. When we know that we are giving God our all we are at peace with ourselves in a way that nothing else will bring.
4. Success experts say, "Stress comes from doing less than you can."
5. If you make high quality a priority in all areas of your life, responsibility will FOLLOW.
D. People who take responsibility, PRODUCE REGARDLESS OF THE SITUATION!
1. The ultimate quality of a responsible person is to FINISH what they start!.
2. In his book "An Open Road" Richard L. Evans writes, "It is priceless to find a person who will take responsibility, who will finish and follow through to the final detail- to know when someone has accepted and assignment that it will be effectively, conscientiously completed."
3. If you want to be the leader that you should be, you have to PRODUCE!
4. Gilbert Arland offers this advice: "When the archer misses the mark he turns and looks for the fault in himself. Failure to hit the bull’s-eye is never the fault of the target.
5. To improve you aim, improve YOURSELF.
IV. So what are some areas that we can look to, to try to improve our responsibility.
A. I think the first thing is something I talked about a couple of weeks ago, we need to get PASSIONATE about what we do and hold on to a POSITIVE attitude.
B. We also have to keep HANGING in there. Sometimes the inability to deliver is due to a persistence problem.
1. The next time you find yourself in a place where you know that you are going to miss the mark, think outside the lines.
a. Can you work HARDER?
b. Can you get some HELP from someone else?
c. Can you think of a better WAY to do it?
2. Creativity can help bring more responsibility to life.
C. Admit what’s not GOOD enough.
1. If you have trouble achieving excellence maybe you have lowered you standards.
2. Look for places in your life where you have let things slip and accepted less than BEST.
3. Make the changes that will help you set higher standards for yourself.
D. Find better TOOLS.
1. If your standards are high, and you have a passion for what you do, and you consistently work hard, and you still don’t achieve the way you would like, get better EQUIPPED.
2. Take classes, read books, listen to tapes. Find someone who will help you and be a mentor.
3. But the bottom line is do what you have to get BETTER!
E. Are you on target when it comes to RESPONSIBILITY?
1. Do others see you as a finisher, can they give you something to do and know that they can forget it because it will get DONE?
2. Do people look to you to carry the ball in pressure situations?
3. Are you known for excellence?
4. If you haven’t been giving all you’ve got and performing at the highest level maybe you need to cultivate a stronger sense of RESPONSIBILITY.
F. And most of all, have you been giving ALL you have to your relationship and service to God?
1. Is your relationship to God a priority in your life ABOVE all others?
2. Are you doing all that you can to align your life with God’s WILL?
3. Do you know that there are areas in your life that are not PLEASING to God?
4. Do you SERVE God the way you should?
5. Are there things that you know He wants you doing that you are NOT doing?
6. Do you need to raise the STANDARD in your spiritual life?
G. There are two things that are definite where that is concerned.
1. If those who say they are Christians are not wiling to put as much into their service to God as those who passed the heritage on to them Christianity will fizzle out in our country.
2. And it is only in knowing that we are giving our all to God in our relationship to Him, and in our service to Him, that we can find real, lasting, and eternal peace.
H. We can all make excuses for why we don’t make God a priority and take responsibility for the great things that God has given us, but none of those excuses hold water.
1. An inmate at the Butte County Jail explained his absence from jail to Sheriff’s deputies like this: I was playing Pole Vault and I got too close to the wall and fell over the wall. When I regained my senses, I ran around trying to find a way back in, but being unfamiliar with the area, got lost. The next thing I knew I was in Chico.
2. People seldom realize how weak their excuses sound until they hear some from others.
3. And all of our excuses sound even weaker to God!
4. It is time for us as Christians to take responsibility for what we have been given.
(Rom 1:20 NIV) For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
I. What would our country look like today if all Christians had the same sense of responsibility to their relationship with God that James Bonham had to the Independence of Texas.
J. Maybe it would be a good idea for us to make our battle cry in life "Remember the Cross".
K. I hope that today you will examine how responsible you have been with the heritage that you have been given by others, who have taken responsibility and passed on to you a the gift of a heritage that makes God a priority in life.
