River Church NOLA
2026 May 31 Sunday
  • Counting On God
  • Set A Fire
  • Overcome
  • Trust In God
  • Introduction
    We are living in a culture that has perfected the art of blame.
    People blame their parents…
    People blame their past …
    People blame their spouse…
    People blame their kids…
    People blame the government …
    People blame their boss…
    People blame their enemies…
    And some even blame God.
    But here is the truth we need to ehar this morning. While excuses may explain where we are, they will never move us forward.

    God never called us to live as victims. He called us to live as responsible followers of Jesus.

    The apostle Paul, writiing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, lays it out pretty clear in Eph 5:15
    Ephesians 5:15 NLT
    15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
    Notice what Paul doesn’t say here…
    He does not say, “See what others did to you.” He does not say, “Your circumstances are so unfair.”
    He said, be careful how you live
    To live carefully, wisely, and intentionally is to live responsibly. And today, we are going to look at five areas where God is calling every one of us to step up and accept responsibility.

    A wise person accepts responsibility. A foolish person avoids it.

    You can’t control everything that happens to you. But you are fully responsible for how you respond to it.

    1. Accept Responsibility for Your Direction.

    Ephesians 5:15 NLT
    15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
    Paul opens up with a sobering command. Be careful in how you live. IOW, pay attention to where you are going.
    Nobody else can walk your walk for you.
    Your mama can’t.
    Your spouse can’t.
    Your closest friend can’t.
    No one can. At some point you have to look yourself int he mirror and make a declaration.

    I am responsible for the direction of my life.

    Too many people are sitting in the pew Sunday after Sunday, waiting for somebody else to fix what only they can surrender to God and change.
    The Bible is clear about this principle of direction:
    Proverbs 14:12 NLT
    12 There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.
    You are always moving in the directions of your decisions. Your life tomorrow is being shaped by the choices you make today.
    Think about a ship at sea. It may face storms, powerful currents, and strong winds — but if the captain refuses to take the wheel, the ship will drift wherever the tide pushes it.
    Many of us are drifting spiritually — not because God has abandoned us, but because we have surrendered the wheel. We've handed responsibility for our direction over to circumstances, to other people, to laziness.
    But God says,

    Take the wheel. Life carefully. Walk wisely.

    Application
    Ask yourself…
    Where is my current direction leading me?
    Are my habits moving me closer to God or farther away?
    Am I drifting through life — or walking deliberately?

    2. Accept Responsibility for Your Decisions.

    Paul draws a sharp line between two kinds of people.
    Ephesians 5:15 NLT
    15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
    Foolish people live impulsively — reacting to every emotion, every temptation, every passing desire.
    Wise people live intentionally — thinking ahead, counting the cost, and making decisions that align with God's Word.
    One of the marks of genuine spiritual maturity is arriving at this realization: my decisions have consequences. Paul put’s it in straightforward terms…
    Galatians 6:7 NLT
    7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.
    This is the law of the harvest — and it does not take days off.
    ■  You cannot sow irresponsibility and reap stability.
    ■  You cannot sow laziness and reap success.
    ■  You cannot sow sin and reap peace.
    What does Responsibility look like?
    ■  Owning your mistakes without deflecting them onto others
    ■  Admitting when you are wrong — quickly and completely
    ■  Refusing to make your failures someone else's fault
    ■  Learning from your failures instead of repeating them
    ■  Making godly choices even when it is costly
    Remember the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15? He wasted everything — his inheritance, his dignity, his future — in reckless living. He ended up in a pig pen, hungry and broken.
    But do you remember the turning point? The Scripture says he "came to his senses." He stopped blaming the far country, stopped blaming the people who had taken his money, and accepted responsibility for where his decisions had taken him.

    Before restoration came responsibility.

    Many people today want God to change their circumstances while they refuse to change their choices. But healing begins when the excuses end. It doesn’t work that way.

    You cannot change what you refuse to confront.

    3. Accept Responsibility for Your Time

    Ephesians 5:16 NLT
    16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
    Paul is not just talking about the direction of your life or the quality of your decisions — he is talking about the raw material of your days: your time.
    "Make the most of every opportunity" — or as the King James Version says, "redeeming the time." The Greek word used here means to buy back, to rescue, to recover.
    Paul is saying: Time is slipping away. The days are evil. Don't waste what God has given you.
    A Hard Truth About Time:
    We are remarkably careful with money. We budget it, save it, track it, and protect it. Yet we are shockingly careless with time — even though time is infinitely more valuable than money. You can earn more money. You cannot earn more time. Once an hour is spent, it never returns.
    Application — Ask Yourself:
    ■  What am I doing with my life?
    ■  What is consuming my attention and energy?
    ■  Am I investing in things that will matter in eternity?
    Some people spend years procrastinating. Delaying their obedience. Avoiding growth. Waiting for someday.

    But someday has a way of quietly becoming too late.

    A farmer cannot wait until harvest season to decide he should have planted seed. The harvest is determined long before harvest day arrives. What you do — or fail to do — in the planting season defines what you hold in the harvest season.
    In the same way, what you do with your days right now is determining who you will become. The person you are five years from now is being built — or neglected — today.

    4. Accept Responsibility for Your Spiritual Life.

    The Non-Negotiable Truth:
    No one can maintain your relationship with God except you. Your spiritual condition is your responsibility — not your pastor's, not your spouse's, not your parents'.
    You cannot survive spiritually on:
    ■  Your spouse's prayer life
    ■  Your pastor's weekly sermon
    ■  Your parents' faith and history with God
    ■  Or yesterday's spiritual experience
    Borrowed faith will not carry you through your own storms.
    Philippians 2:12 NLT
    12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.
    Now hear me — this verse is not saying that we earn our salvation. Salvation is a gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. But Paul is saying: once you have received that salvation, actively pursue your spiritual growth. Don't be passive. Don't be lazy. Work it out.
    Responsible Christians Are Known By Consistent Practice:
    ■  They pray — not just in emergencies, but consistently and daily
    ■  They read and study God's Word with intention
    ■  They repent quickly when they fall short
    ■  They serve the body of Christ faithfully
    ■  They pursue holiness not out of duty, but out of love for God
    Illustration:
    Here is a thought: a person could sit in a garage every single day for twenty years — and at the end of those twenty years, they would still not be a car. Proximity does not produce transformation.
    In the same way, sitting in a church pew does not automatically produce spiritual maturity. Attendance is not the same as growth. Familiarity with the Bible is not the same as walking in it.

    Growth requires responsibility. Spiritual maturity is not given to the passive — it is pursued by the intentional.

    5. Accept Responsibility for Your Response

    The Honest Reality:
    Life is not always fair. People will hurt you. Disappointments will come. Storms will arise that you did not cause and did not deserve. That is the honest reality of living in a fallen world.
    But here is what Scripture makes undeniably clear: even when you cannot control what happens to you, you are still responsible for your response.

    You may not be able to control what happened to you, but you can control what grows in you.

    You have a choice about what this season produces in your life. You can become:
    ■  Bitter — or better
    ■  Angry — or healed
    ■  Resentful — or restored
    ■  A victim of your past — or a victor through Christ
    A Powerful Human Witness:
    Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Nazi death camps of World War II. He lost nearly everything — his family, his freedom, his possessions. But he wrote these remarkable words afterward:

    "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."

    — Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
    If a man in a concentration camp could hold onto the freedom of his response — how much more can we, who have been given the Spirit of the living God?
    Romans 8:28 is not a cute slogan to put on a coffee mug. It is a foundational promise of the Christian life:
    Romans 8:28 NLT
    28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
    This promise does not say everything that happens to you is good. It says God can work all of it — even the painful, unjust, and heartbreaking things — together for good in the life of someone who loves Him.
    But to receive that promise, you must accept responsibility for your response. You must stop asking, "Whose fault is this?" and start asking:

    "Lord, what do You want me to do now?"

    Conclusion
    Eph 5:15 is not merely a verse, it’s a call to an entirely different way of living. Eph 5:15
    Ephesians 5:15 NLT
    15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
    God is calling each of us — today, in this moment — to accept responsibility:
    ■  For our direction
    ■  For our decisions
    ■  For our time
    ■  For our spiritual life
    ■  And for our response to what life brings
    The Contrast Paul Draws:
    The foolish blame. The wise build.
    The foolish drift. The wise walk carefully.
    The foolish make excuses. The wise make changes.
    Final Challenge:
    Stop waiting for someone else to rescue you. Stop waiting for circumstances to change on their own. Stop waiting for motivation to magically appear.
    Ask God for wisdom. Take ownership of your life. And walk carefully before Him.

    The moment you accept responsibility is the moment God begins to release growth, healing, and transformation in your life

    The grace of God is not a license to be passive — it is the power to be responsible. And when you choose to walk in that responsibility, surrendered to Him, you will discover that He has been waiting for exactly that moment to move in your life in ways you have never seen before.
    CLOSING PRAYER
    "Lord, forgive us for the excuses we have made and the responsibilities we have avoided. Help us to live carefully and intentionally before You. Give us courage to own our decisions, discipline to redeem our time, and faith to follow You wholeheartedly. Teach us to stop blaming and start growing. We surrender our direction, our decisions, our time, our spiritual lives, and our responses into Your hands. Do what only You can do when we finally stop drifting and start walking wisely. In the name of Jesus, Amen."

      • Ephesians 5:15NIV2011

      • Ephesians 5:15NIV2011

      • Proverbs 14:12NIV2011

      • Ephesians 5:15NIV2011

      • Galatians 6:7NIV2011

      • Ephesians 5:16NIV2011

      • Philippians 2:12NIV2011

      • Romans 8:28NIV2011

      • Ephesians 5:15NIV2011

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
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