DON’T BLAME ME!
James 1:12-15

This morning’s sermon is entitled; DON’T BLAME ME.  I came across this story which tells about the manager of a minor league baseball team who was so disgusted with the center fielder's performance he ordered him to the dugout and assume the position himself.

The first ball that came into center field took a bad hop and hit the manager in the mouth! Now, Remember he's trying to show the player how to do it correctly.The next one was a high fly ball which he lost in the glare of the sun until it bounced off his forehead.

And the third was a hard line drive that he charged with his outstretched arms. Unfortunately, it flew right between his arms and smacked him right in the eye.Furious he ran back to the dugout grabbed the center fielder by the uniform and shouted, “See what you have done. You've got centerfield so messed up that even I can't do a thing with it.”

This attitude is all too often seen in the world around us which is what I believe the reason is that there are so many posters.

When we look around we can often see posters that remind us of the following three ways to fail.

You can spend your entire life blaming the world but your success or your failures are entirely your own responsibility. Or when you blame and criticize others you are in essence avoiding some truth about yourself.

Picture Adam one day out hunting with his two boys and they come up to the Garden of Eden where he and Eve had been kicked out for eating the forbidden fruit.

I can picture Adam staring at the garden and one of his boys saying HEY DAD? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WHY ARE YOU CRYING.
Adam wipes a tear and says boys that is the Garden of Eden right there. That's where we used to live until your mother ate us out of house and home.

To cover the subject of right and wrong, of good and evil we must go way back to creation, back before the beginning of time. The first two verses of Genesis tells us that in the beginning our road was formless it was empty. It was dark.
Then God stepped in and gave it shape. He gave shape to that formlessness. He filled the emptiness with life and brought light into the darkness.

In other words God took the chaos and created order out of it. We know that the Bible records the days of creation. It tells us that God looked upon everything he had made and what did he say.

It is good.  BUT not everybody was happy. The Bible also tells us about Satan the angel of God who rebelled and because of that he was evicted from heaven and banished to Earth.

Satan learned that he could not overcome God so Satan focused his attack on his next target mankind to whom God had given authority over the earth. Satan's goal is to put chaos back into our world.

It doesn't take a very acute observer to realize that he has been successful in MANY AREAS of our world today. You look around and you can see how confused we have become.

For instance there is confusion about the roles of men and women husband and wife, mother and father. We seem no longer sure what these roles should be. Young people are confused about their place in the family and are often in various stages of rebellion against the authority of their parents.

The rise of homosexuality and transgenders have even ADDED more CONFUSION TO THE SEXUAL ROLES GOD HAD CREATED. There is so much confusion today that We are sometimes asked our biological sex at BIRTH. Abortion tells us that life is not really all that valuable and that euthanasia may become the next big issue that we will probably have to face in this country because we are no longer sure about the value of life.

Satan is bringing chaos into our lives. When we think about what Satan got for a few bites of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. You realize that he really got a lot. It ruined the lives of Adam and Eve and got control of the world just for a couple bites of a forbidden fruit.

Sounds ridiculous doesn't it. Long after the flavor of that fruit was forgotten Adam and Eve are still paying that price for the stupid decision they made. Satan depends upon us making unwise decisions also.

HE depends upon us having a distorted sense of value. He never really offers us very much and in exchange he wants everything from us.

I would like to read from Joshua 7:19-20 - " Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honor him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.” Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done:"

Achan traded his life for a wedge of gold, and a Babylonian garment. We know that Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup to satisfy his temporary hunger.

For one sensual moment with Bathsheba we know David NOT ONLY opened himself up BUT ALSO his family TO GENERATIONS OF MISERY.

Satan is always doing things like this… never offering much.We think we're getting a great deal, a moment of pleasure, a little economic gain, or the applause of the crowd. In reaching for it we discover that we have given up everything. That is how Satan works and when that happens we try to find someone else to blame.

In the third chapter of Genesis we see God coming back into the Garden of Eden following the temptation following the sin of Adam and Eve. Versus 8-13 tell us that the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord among the trees in the garden.

But the Lord called to them. Where are you? Adam answers, I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. GOD asked, who told you that you were naked. Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? What does the man say? The woman you put here with me she gave me some of that fruit and I ate it.

Then the Lord God said to the woman what is it that you have done? The woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate. If we listen closely, don't blame me says Adam. It wasn't my fault. It was the woman you gave me she enticed me to eat of the forbidden fruit.

Eve says don’t blame me. It was a serpent who turned from you he deceived me and I ate.

Most of us when our sins are found out look for a scapegoat, don’t we? It wasn't my fault. It was someone or something else that caused me to become involved in this sin.

Let's look this morning at some ways that we may use to blame someone else for our sins. That's just the way I am. That's how God made me. Have you ever heard someone say that?

A man might have a violent temper. He says I can't help it that's just the way I am, but his whole family ends up suffering from the verbal abuse and maybe even the physical abuse. He says it's not my fault. He has a hurt wife. He has children who run for cover every time he loses his temper, There's nothing that I can do about it.

BUT God constantly reminds us that we are responsible for our own words. We are responsible for our own actions and we will be held accountable for that. We can't pass the buck by saying that's just the way I am. Sometimes we even use that excuse to justify being quiet about things.Maybe we don't want to get involved. That's somebody else's problem. As long as they leave me alone, I'm fine with it. When you finally do break the silence and someone to ask why you acted that way.You answer I can’t help it. I was born that way. That's just the way I am. In other words don't blame me… blame God. God gave me this personality. You just have to accept the fact that this is the way I am.

We oftentimes see in society and don't get me wrong I do feel sorry for individuals that have grown up maybe not knowing what a real family situation would look like not knowing the love their mother or father could give them yet too often we look and try to blame society.

We blame somebody else. Many try to blame some dark family past as an excuse for their own weaknesses and bad decisions. The Bible doesn't allow us to give that kind of excuse, does it? It always says be responsible for yourself.

When Bad events happen in our society we often are told that the one doing the offense can hardly be blamed for his actions since he was only doing what he was compelled to do by outside forces over which he had no influence. The devil or something made him do it. So, the man cannot really be blamed.

I want you to notice that the Bible never teaches that sin comes from GOD.

1John 3:5
You know that He appeared [in visible form as a man] in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin

1Peter 2:22-23
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

We are told that the Devil is the father of lies. He lies to us. He deceives us. He manipulates us and he tempts us. But why? Why does he deceive? Why does he tempt? Why does he manipulate. The answer is because he can't force. If he could force you to sin there wouldn’t be any temptation that we could avoid. He would just force you to do it.

But he cannot force us to sin. We must choose. It must be a choice of ourselves. We know in James it talks about where this sin comes from. It comes from our own personal desires. You see nobody tied Eve down and forced to eat the forbidden fruit. Nobody forced you to take that first drink. Nobody forced us to be tempted by whatever temptation we have in our life. That temptation that forces us to sin. It's our choice. WAIT! WHAT?If it's our choice then we are responsible for our actions.

When we find that we can't blame the devil Many then try to place the blame on God.  After all God is responsible for everything, isn't he? He is the one who gave me the awful family that I have. He's the one who surrounded me with friends who have led me astray. He's the one who made it impossible for me to have the willpower to say no therefore all too often people say it is God's fault.

What does James say? God never tempts us. It's entirely up to us.

James 1:12-15 tells us "12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

2^nd Corinthians 5:9-10 Paul says "9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

In other words God says I hold you accountable for your sins. Don't blame someone or something else You… yourself… personally are accountable. That is the bad news.
We also have good news. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus Christ loved me that Jesus died for me and that his blood can cover my sin.

If I make the right choices the first step is being covered by the blood of Jesus. It is to accept responsibility for my own actions.

As long as I try to find someone or something else to blame then I'll never come to grips with the fact that I am a sinner. I have to come to the place where I will pray God be merciful to me a sinner Jesus taught this in the example of the two that went down to pray

Luke 18:13-14 "
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”"

A man tells of a time when a prairie fire swept across his father's land and burned everything the house… the buildings… the crops… everything.  Later on his dad was walking across the burned ground kicking this object and that. Finally came to a charred piece of something that looked like a stump from a tree. He kicked at it. When he did little baby chicks started running in all directions. He bent over to look and discovered that the charred lump was the old hen, Mama, who had covered her chickens to protect them from the fire. The chicks were still alive, but in the process Mama had given her life for them.

IN A WAY BROADER SENSE That is what Jesus did for each one of us. Jesus tells us in Matthew 23:37 - "37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chicks but you would not come!"

He looked at the masses and said they are like sheep without a shepherd. If only they would come, but Jesus will never force us to come. He is always available.

We know Jesus said come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

We know that we are always welcome to come unto him. He will not turn anyone away. The song most everyone has learned when they were younger
Jesus Loves Me This I know.
Why?
For the Bible Tells Me So
little ones to him belong
they are weak but He is strong.

He is always available and right now he waits for you to open the door to invite him to come in.

If there is anyone in need of the invitation this evening will you not come forward as together we stand and sing.