Irresponsibility: Freedom's Deadliest Enemy

Genesis chapter 1

Today we are walking in: Irresponsibility: Freedom's Deadliest Enemy

 In the beginning Yah created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Yah moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And Yah said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And Yah saw the light, that it was good: and Yah divided the light from the darkness.

5 And Yah called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 And Yah said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And Yah made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And Yah called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And Yah said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And Yah called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and Yah saw that it was good.

11 And Yah said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And Yah said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And Yah made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And Yah set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Yah saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And Yah said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And Yah created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.

22 And Yah blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And Yah said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And Yah made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.

26 And Yah said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So Yah created man in his own image, in the image of Yah created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And Yah blessed them, and Yah said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And Yah said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And Yah saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Irresponsibility: Freedom's Deadliest Enemy

You are where you are because that is where you have subconsciously chosen to be.

Nothing in society is more destructive than irresponsibility. The mismanagement of Adam has affected every generation of mankind since he partook of the forbidden fruit with his wife and tried to cover it up. Today, because of Adam's six-thousand-year-old transgression, the world in which we live is under the spell of this irresponsible spirit. Because of this, it is on a immovable collision course to its own self-destruction.

The reason we have such conflicts and debilitating experiences in the world today is because the world is filled with people infected by the irresponsible spirit. The word irresponsibility means "not answerable to authority." Does that sound familiar? Many people in the world today don't want anyone telling them what to do. They want to do what they feel like doing, and they want to do it as long as they want to do it.

Irresponsibility also means "lacking a sense of accountability or not liable or able to answer for consequences." Many people don't want to be accountable to anyone,including God's household of faith. When sin is confronted, the message is too often transferred to the next person. Our defensive line of thought is, I pray for forgiveness, and He forgives me every time, so get off my back. Few want to hear a pastoral rebuke. Many Bible-toting, pew-warming people are living unclean lives; they don't want anyone to reprove or correct them. This is the spirit of irresponsibility.

The word irresponsibility also carries with it the meaning of "lacking conscience" or "unable or unwilling to respond to conscience." It is mankind's conscience that allows us to distinguish between right and wrong. When a lifestyle of irresponsibility is allowed to increase, the voice of conscience is progressively silenced. Some people are doing unbelievable things, yet they have no sense of guilt or remorse after they've finished. People are shooting each other. Husbands are beating their wives. Fathers sleep with their daughters, wake up, shower, eat breakfast and go off to work as if nothing has happened. Conscience has died throughout much of the world's society because we have inherited a spirit of irresponsibility.

To be irresponsible also means to be "fickle and changeable." Irresponsible people can be flighty, thoughtless, rash, undependable, unstable, loose, laxand immoral. They can have an unpredictable, unreliable and untrustworthy character. And it's not just the "world's problem"; this spirit is also wild today in the Hebrew ministry.

The Blame Game

Irresponsible people are experts at transferring blame for their own irresponsible actions. Remember Adam's defense: "God, the woman You gave me ... remember, it was You who gave her to me ... she gave me the fruit, and because You gave her to me, and she gave me the fruit ... both of You ... NOT ME ... made me eat it! I'm innocent, God! Leave me alone!"

Everyone in our world today is an expert at blaming society for our own problems. People are caught in the mentality that takes no responsibility for their behaviors,decisions or the situations in which they find themselves. It all goes back to Adam's mismanagement in the Garden.

As we look at these definitions of irresponsibility, we see many of our communities in full disastrous bloom. The entire world is suffering under the destructive influence of an irresponsible humanity. We live in an irresponsible generation that believes the world owes it something. People refuse to take personal responsibility for their lives, decisions and actions. Can they turn to the ministry to help them find their responsible purpose in life? Yes, but the ministry must be established in her own responsible life.

THE ORIGIN OF IRRESPONSIBILITY

When did this spirit of irresponsibility enter our society? Again, the answer is simple. This destructive spirit was released in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis we find that the first man-who carried all men in his loins-violated his stewardship. Adam was given trust and responsibility for the entire earth. He had the responsibility to maintain the righteousness and holy standards of Creator Yah on this planet through obedience.

And Yah blessed them, and Yah said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

-GENESIS 1:28, KJV

The word dominion literally means "to lead, to manage, to control, to keep under and to be a steward over." God's command to Adam makes it plain that mankind was created to be managers over the earth. We were given responsibility to manage from the beginning. So we must look back at what happened in the Garden of Eden to understand where man's current plight began. Each of God's instructions to Adam fulfilled a specific purpose for mankind. Let's look at them.

BE FRUITFUL THROUGH WORK

When Yah gave Adam the Garden of Eden, the first thing He told Adam to do was to work.

The LORD Yah took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

-GENESIS 2:15

Yah didn't tell Adam exactly what to do. He just told him to be productive. When Yah spoke to Adam, He was speaking to every generation of human descendants in his loins. When Yah said, "Adam, work," He was telling everyone to work. This indicates that work is a natural result of God's endowed responsibility.

Work is not a curse. It existed in the Garden when man was in perfect relationship with God. Therefore, if you don't like to work, you are resisting God's natural will for your life.

When Eve met Adam, he already had a job. So the first thing a man needs is not a wife, but a job. And a woman should never marry a man who doesn't want to work.

The word fruitful means "to produce results; profitable." To be fruitful, one must take out that which is hidden in a seed to let it flourish and grow. God's instruction to be fruitful wasn't limited to having children. Yah wanted Adam and Eve to be fruitful in everything. He placed "fruit" in the seed on the planet and commanded them to get the "fruit" out. The same is true for us. "And Yah blessed them, and Yah said unto them, Be fruitful" (Gen. 1:28, KJv).

This is why Yah never made a chair for Adam. Instead, He hid the chair in the tree. He never made a table for Adam; He put the table in the tree. He never made a car for Adam; He put the car in mountain ore and left the rest up to us. Yah simply gave Adam the raw materials, but it took Adam's ingenuity and productivity to be fruitful with the raw stuff.

Then Yah told Adam to name the animals (Gen. 2:19). He knew this would activate Adam's mental ability. Adam had a brain that had never been used, so Yah wanted Adam to try it out by naming all the animals. Can you imagine? There are millions of animals, and Adam's brain named every one of them. Before long, the first man began to realize he had potential that hadn't yet been tapped. This is management-maximizing the resources under your care.

This is why Yah always gives you something to do-so you can discover what you are able to do. Responsibility is the "ability to respond" to your God-given ability. So the only way to find out what you are able to do is to give yourself something to do.

Multiply

To be fruitful in filling the earth, there had to be human reproduction. So Yah put Adam, who was the source of all humans, to sleep.

So the LORD Yah caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD Yah made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

-GENESIS 2:21-22

Then Yah took Eve out of Adam's side, and He told them both to multiply and fill the whole earth.

Multiply means "to take what you produce and duplicate it so it can be disseminated." Replenish means "to be full of and accomplished." It also carries the meaning of"to distribute." To do this, Adam was to take what he did in the Garden and reproduce it in other places. That was God's plan.

Yah put Adam and Eve in Eden. The word Eden means "a location" or "spot." Yah took a spot on the earth and made it perfect. He also put His presence there, and everything in it was perfect. Then He told Adam to duplicate his spot all over the planet until the whole world looked like it. If man had succeeded, he would have dominated the earth. This is what Yah wanted. Yah wanted man to replenish the earth by filling it with what was entrusted to his care. Yah wanted Adam to multiply the Garden so it would fill the earth.

Have Dominion

Yah blessed our human parents and said, "Have dominion." He gave them responsibility to rule over the earth: "And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:28, KJV).

This is the process of God, and it is no different for you or me. In God's management perspective, you don't dominate until you first become fruitful and productive. After you are fruitful, you have to reproduce or multiply what you produce. Then, after you multiply, you have to duplicate or distribute it until it fills your home, town and region-until it fills the whole earth. It is then that you have dominion.

The best way to keep people poor is to restrict their fruitfulness or productivity and to make sure they can't duplicate what they produce. The spirit of poverty causes people to be stripped of the power Yah gave them to multiply and to replenish the earth with their gifts. Greedy people will try to steal your idea to keep you from multiplying it. And when you are not being fruitful, productive and multiplying, you will be poor. Remember, when the Israelites were in Egypt, they produced only what the Egyptians said they could. So any creative gifts they might have had were oppressed.

MAN-THE FOUNDATION OF THE HOME

Man is the foundation of the home because Yah began the human race with him alone. He was first, and he was created with every human descendent who was ever going to be born in his loins. This is why Yah didn't return to the soil when creating woman; woman was already made within Adam's being. Yah made one man from the soil and never went back to the soil.

Once Adam was formed, Yah instructed him about the tree. The "No Trespassing" sign was posted for his eyes alone. So get ready, men, because here comes a heavy burden of truth- Yah never told Eve about the tree. When the command about the tree was given, Eve hadn't even been fashioned fromAdam yet. Yeh Instructed the male, which meansYah laid the foundation of the family in the male. It was the male who was responsible to keep his family away from that tree and to teach them about the commands of God.

If you want to destroy a building, do you break a window? No, you can break the window, but the building will stay intact. Can you knock a building into rubble by pulling a plank from the wall? No. Can you do it by tearing the roof off? No, that won't do it either. The only way you can effectively destroy a building is by wrecking its foundation, and the foundation of mankind's family is the first made human-the male-man.

So if the foundation is faulty, the rest of the house will come tumbling down. Millions of women have suffered because Satan has always known that the male was the secret to the home. That's why the devil will try to keep the husband away from his wife. He will send the husband off or tempt him to abandon his wife and family. Why? Because as long as the male is not in place, the house is in despair. The mismanagement of the male factor is the source of our family crisis.

Over the years as I have counseled families I have learned that if you want to heal the family, you must reach the man. Women are often the first to make their family problems known. But the answer for healing lies in the man of the home, because he is the foundation of the family.

Yah gave the male all the instructions because He wanted the male to be the responsible manager and head of the home. Head does not mean "boss"; it means "the one who is responsible." When you are in charge of something it doesn't mean you created it; it means you are responsible for the management of it. If your home falls apart, as a male you are responsible for it. It is in this way that Adam was responsible for his family. But Adam stood there and watched as Eve fell prey to the tempter's snares. He should have stood up for his assignment and commanded the serpent to leave.

The man is responsible for sustaining whatever comes out of him. This is why the Bible never tells the wife to support or sustain the husband. It consistently instructs the husband to sustain the wife.

The Transfer Of Responsibility

Adam didn't sustain his wife; he irresponsibly neglected his position of leadership. Satan was then able to creep in and negotiate with Eve, thus successfully tempting her.

 But it wasn't Eve that Satan was after. He was after the foundation of the human race-Adam. Wait, you say, Satan went after Eve. Oh, really? Let's look carefully at what the Bible says in Genesis 3:6.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

When Eve picked the fruit-nothing happened. When she ate the fruit-nothing happened. When she swallowed the fruit- nothing happened. So, when the woman sinned-nothing happened.

But then the Bible says she took the fruit and gave it to her husband, who was the foundation. And when Adam ate of it, death and all of mankind's mortal judgments entered in.

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

-GENESIS 3:6-7, EMPHASIS ADDED

When Adam ate the fruit, suddenly everything fell apart. Death entered in. Their purity and holiness were gone.

But the LORD Yah called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

-GENESIS 3:9-11

Please note, Yah did not ask for Eve. He asked for Adam. Yeh Demanded accountability in His questioning of Adam, just as He questions us today when we fall down in life: "Did you do what I told you not to do, Adam?" "Did you do what I told you to do, Robert?" Yah makes a demand on the delegated responsibility He gives to His children. He wants to know if we have obeyed His directives or if we did our own thing. If we obey, there will be no need to run and hide.

Today, all men and women outside of Hamachiach are hiding in fear from God. So are many Hebrews who are mismanaging their daily affairs. When most people break the law, they hide from authority as Adam did. Have you ever run a red light, then quickly glanced in the rearview mirror to see if a policeman saw you? When you broke the law-even if it was through oversight-what did you do? You checked for an authority. Fear came upon you. When you fail to keep the law, you condemn yourself. Yah never asked Adam if he was afraid. Adam volunteered the information before Yah Questioned him on his obedience: "Did you eat from the tree, Adam? All this time I have been coming into the Garden you have never hidden from Me. You never ran. Yet all of a sudden you are afraid. Did you act irresponsibly?"

It was then, when Adam started blaming everyone but himself, that the spirit of irresponsibility and blame entered the human race. "The man said, `The woman you put here with me- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it"' (Gen. 3:12).

Not only had Adam neglected to establish and uphold God's "No Trespassing" command, but after he watched Eve, Adam transferred the responsibility for his fruit-eating decision to the woman, who had offered the fruit. "God, the woman You gave me... remember, it was You who gave her to me ... she gave me the fruit. And because You gave her to me, and she gave me the fruit,both of you-NOT ME-are responsible for my decisions and actions!"

Now, if the woman had knocked him out, shoved the fruit in his mouth, pushed it down his esophagus into his stomach and made sure it got digested, then he could say she was responsible. But she didn't; it was Adam's choice.

I see people go to restaurants, eat all they can and then ask for a diet soda. I wonder, Why drink a diet soda? You've already stuffed yourself. It seems as if they're saying all that food jumped off the plate into their stomachs without their permission, so they're going to punish that food by giving it a diet soda.

Responsibility is a serious issue, but it's transferred too easily. "The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (v. 12). Adam even shifted the blame to God. In essence he was saying to God, "Why did You have to give her to me, God? Everything would have been OK if You had left things as they were. Now look what You've both done to me!" This pathetic transfer of responsibility has echoed throughout the human race for thousands of years since.

The Blame Game

Yah told Adam to be the dominator of the earth. When Adam failed in that responsibility, his first reaction was to blame someone else. Ever since that day, man has transferred blame to someone else. All of us are professional blamers. No one wants to take responsibility for his actions, decisions, situations or circumstances. We blame others for our predicaments. Americans have ridiculous " Blame Game " television shows, on which the most abominable people appear a n d blame everyone but themselves for their miserable mistakes.

Today, more than ever, we are experts at blaming the past for our present. We are experts at blaming our parents for our habits. We are experts at blaming our preachers for our ignorance. Those of us who can't work algebra blame the educational system. When we had an opportunity to learn, we quit school or played hooky. Now we're algebra-ignorant, and we blame the teachers for our ignorance.

We love to blame sickness (instead of our poor judgment and eating habits) for our health problems. We eat poorly for thirty years, get high blood pressure and blame the devil because we don't feel well.

We blame our children for social problems. We say, "The youth do this, and the youth do that." But whose youth are they? If we as irresponsible adults produce irresponsible children, how can we blame our children for the problems in society? They are our children. So if our children are rotten fruit, we are the rotten trees from which they came.

We blame cigarettes and the tobacco companies for our cancer. I was shocked to hear a news story recently in which a woman sued a tobacco company because she acquired cancer through smoking their product. I can't understand that. She decided to smoke. She sucked that stuff into her lungs and got cancer all by herself. She chose to suck cancerettes when she was a teenager-she decided to do it! No company came to her door, tied her up and jammed a cigarette in her mouth!

Yet she cried, "The tobacco manufacturer made the cigarette, and now look at me. It's all their fault!" How can someone who has the power of choice-the ability to refuse to smoke-remove the responsibility from herself and put it on the company that manufactured the product? Ask Adam! What an irresponsible lawsuit. And there are many other legal blame-game suits today in which the actions of the plaintiff are responsible for his or her own damage.

I've never seen a cigarette walk up to a guy and say, "Hey, buddy, smoke me." It's a decision that we make. Tobacco plants aren't the problem. The spirit of irresponsibility is what causes us to transfer our negative experience to the plant. If we could only get rid of that filthy plant, we say, then we could solve the nicotine problem. But the plant is not responsible for the problem. The human heart is the problem.

A drunk may blame the company, store or tavern that sold him the alcohol for his alcohol addiction. Yet if this same man never took a drink, he never would have become an alcoholic. It's amazing how alcohol jumps out of a bottle into a person's stomach. Some people spend twenty years guzzling the stuff, and finally end up in the doctor's office to get their liver fixed.

Then they blame the doctor and sue him for malpractice when he fails.

How many men have been unfaithful and completely irresponsible with their families-then blame their wives' poor cooking for her grouchiness? Listen, brother, if she is grouchy, it is your fault because you have been a bad husband. Don't blame your wife for your irresponsibility.

Many men blame their wives for their waywardness.They say, "If you don't treat me right, I'll run around." And when they do, it's all their wife's fault. "She didn't do this right, or this enough. . . " And the reality of the situation is that the man allowed the spirit of irresponsibility to lure him away from his own responsibility, and he destroyed the foundation of his home.

Irresponsibility is freedom's deadliest enemy. People in every walk of life and from every ethnic background fall prey to it. Black people blame White people for their problems, just as White people blame Black people. The poor blame the rich. Citizens blame their government for unemployment. But can a government stop us from being productive if it allows the free choice of its people? So instead of waiting for the government to supply a job, why don't we use the brains between our ears? Yah gave us each five billion brain cells. It doesn't matter if you live in the ghetto of a Third World country. Even if the people in power are trying to restrict your productivity, one thing they can never do is rob you of your ability to think. When you submit your mind to Yah and put on your management cap, He will give you abilities, creative ideas and concepts that will astound your countrymen.

The government's job is not to provide employment.The Bible says government's function is to carry the sword of protection so the righteous can be productive.(See Romans 13:3-4; 1 Timothy 2:1-2.) Yah expects us to be in an environment where we can be productive without having to depend on the government to provide us with jobs.

The criminal blames society for his behavior. The homosexual blames his or her hormones for their perversion. Citizens blame their representatives for their nation's corruption. But if leaders are corrupt in a democratic republic,the people are at fault because they voted them into power. We produce after our kind.

We are experts at blaming our leaders. If your leader is blind, don't fall in his muddy hole and ask, "Why did you lead me here?" Don't blame the leader for the way you follow him; just stop following him.

How many people say they aren't going to be a Hebrew because they have seen too many hypocrites? So the sinner blames the hypocritical preacher for his own personal damnation. But blaming one's damnation to hell on a hypocritical preacher is foolish and irresponsible, because Yah never tells anyone to follow a hypocritical preacher. He tells us to follow Yahusha. We must be responsible for following Him.

LETS TAKE CHARGE OF OUR LIVES

A new day has dawned for the twenty-first-century believer and for every human to rise up to the task of taking our responsibility. So many people have become lazy because of the charismatic faith message that contends that if we say a certain prayer, Yah must "ante up"regardless of whether we are managing our assignment properly or not. Divorce is running rampant, and many are being told that simple ministry attendance will make them rich. But Yah isn't making pew-sitting, faith movement people rich because many have been mismanaging God's affairs in the home and on the job. Yah is not a game show host with a jackpot prize for religious contestants.

Yah is saying, "Irresponsibility is freedom's greatest enemy. Get back to responsibility. Men, take your place in the home. Manage My affairs and serve equally with your wife in My organizational structure. Organize your family according to My Word, and then increase your garden spot throughout the earth."

No matter what has happened in the past, we can take charge of our futures right now. Today is a new season of responsibility in which Yah is saying to each of us, whether you are poor, Black, White, rich, Indian-no matter who or where you are-"Stop blaming the system.Stop blaming the authorities. Stop blaming your parents.Stop blaming your pastor. Stop blaming your past. Get your act together, and become responsible managers, because this is God's will for you."

We can't change the past, but we can determine the quality of our future. We might not like the family into which we were born, but we sure can determine the kind of home in which we rear our children. The responsible choice is always ours, and when we choose to obey the ways of God, when we choose to nurture and obey His perfect spot of salvation in our hearts to replenish and fill the earth, He will back us up. The spirit of oppression produces the spirit of irresponsibility. Freedom demands responsibility.

Freedom-understanding its principles and the costs involved in irresponsibly mismanaging it-is what life is truly all about. In the next few chapters we are going back to the children of Israel's infamous days in the wilderness to examine the difference between deliverance and freedom from God's point of view. Let's begin by taking a closer look at how important it is to learn to manage the freedom that Yah wants each of us to experience in our own life.

Today, more than ever, we are experts at blaming the past for our present.

IRRESPONSIBILITY: FREEDOMS DEADLIEST ENEMY

1. The entire world is suffering under the destructive influence of an irresponsible humanity.

2. Work is not a curse.

3. This is management-maximizing the resources under your care.

4. The best way to keep people poor is to restrict their fruitfulness or productivity and to make sure they can't duplicate what they produce.

5. The mismanagement of the male factor is the source of our family crisis.

6. Today, more than ever, we are experts at blaming the past for our present.

7. Irresponsibility is freedom's deadliest enemy.