Stay in Your Lane, but Know What Your Lane Is

Hi, my name is Rick Bloodworth. This is the Common Sense Christian channel. And today we want to talk about staying in your lane, or maybe even more accurately, we want to talk about understanding what your lane is. and understanding when there's a need to expand your lane. Now, what do we mean by staying in your lane? We've all probably heard this, this phrase. There's a lot of examples you could use in football on a kickoff return. The defense has a certain alignment that they have when they kick the ball off and the men are spread all the way across the field. And one of the things that you'll hear the coach yelling at. Them from the sidelines is a reminder stay in your lane. The idea is each one of'em has a certain section of the field, a lane, if you will, and if the runner comes over towards them, they're responsible for tackling them. If they get out of their lane then it's gonna open up the, the whole field perhaps for a touchdown for the other side. Now, on the other hand, there comes a point in that kickoff return. where your lane expands. Maybe the runner is now starting to run way away from you and starting to get away from his defender and you have an opportunity to get the angle and cut him off. Well, at that point, your lane is no longer a restriction to you. Now you can get outside of your lane and take care of the obligations that you have. And that's really what I want to talk about today is taking care of the obligations. that you have, even at times when other people think that you might be getting out of your lane. If you have a responsibility in life, you have that that obligation to make sure that you meet that responsibility before God as well as you can. There's a, there's a great example of this in Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 3, God is about to send the prophet to the people and he tells him he's going to make him a watchman. And so here's what he says in Ezekiel chapter three, and we'll start in verse 17, son of man, I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel. So hear the word I speak and give them warning. When I say to a wicked man, you will surely die and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sins. And I'll hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he doesn't turn from his wickedness or his evil ways, he'll die for his sin, but you'll have saved yourself. But now look at this in verse 20 again. When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil. And I put a stumbling block before him. He will die. Since you did not warn him, he'll die for that sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself. There, there are times when in our circle of influence. We see people who are not doing the things that they should be doing. Things that will endanger their soul. And in God's eyes, He's made us a watchman. Again, I'm not talking about those outside of our circle of influence. I'm not talking about going and preaching against drunkenness by going to a bar and telling everybody there that they're sinning. I'm not saying that at all, but you have a teenage son or a teenage daughter walk into your house drunk, well at that point you have an obligation. They're within your circle of influence and they're your responsibility and you better warn them and you better make sure that that warning is a good warning, a proper warning. And so when we talk about staying in our lane, that's very much going to depend upon our opportunities and our obligations that have been given to us by God. It takes a little wisdom sometimes to figure out exactly what our lane is, I suppose, when it comes to serving God, but a wise person will figure this out. Now, let's look at another situation that's very similar to this. Or at least is related to this in a certain way. We find it in Proverbs the 24th chapter. And in Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 11, this is what God has Solomon write. Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering towards the slaughter. It's the idea of somebody caught up in sinful behavior that's just determined to do that. And Solomon, through inspiration, says you need to rescue them. You need to hold them back. In verse, in verse 12, it says, If you say, but we knew nothing about this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he's done? You remember when Cain killed his brother Abel, and God asked Cain where Abel was, and Abel gave that famous reply, Am I my brother's keeper? Think about the absolute level of disrespect that Cain was showing to God by, by being surly. when, when God questioned him. God had made it very clear that, that Abel was Cain's responsibility in this instance, and Cain knew full well why. He had killed him. Am I my brother's keeper? Well, in this instance, he certainly was. So when it says, if you say we knew nothing about this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? The fact is that God knows when we see an obligation, but we pretend that it's not there. And again, there are going to be times when people don't appreciate this. There are going to be times when people think in a manner of speaking that you're getting outside of your lane. Years ago, we, we came to a new school and in that school I believe it was in the 6th grade class, they were going to be showing a, a film on sex education for our 11 year old son and, and his classmates. And so they sent a note home saying if anybody wanted to watch that before they showed it, they were more than welcome to. So, so my wife and I Carolyn and I sat down, we watched that, that video. And there are some parts about the video there's nothing at all wrong with. It may have been a little bit age inappropriate. But 6th grade being what it is in modern times, I can see how some would think it was appropriate for that age group. What really disturbed me was a comment during that, after they had showed them how to have sex. Remember, we're talking about 11 and 12 year olds. After they had showed them how to have sex, they had a comment. Nobody has the right to make this decision for you, but you. Not your parents, no adult, just you have that right. And so in this, in this video that they had intended to show the entire class, they were telling them, here's how you have sex, and your parents just need to mind their own business on that if you decide you want to go ahead and do that. Our son's mother and I did not agree with that. And we went in and we talked with the administrator that was in charge of that. And he said, there'd be no problem to, to pull our son from the class. And I talked to him about the, the difficulties that that would cause. We were going to, and we in fact did, pull him from the class. But then all of his classmates would know that he wasn't there. Give him a hard time. Now these 11 year olds and 12 year olds had a knowledge that, that perhaps he didn't. There are times where you have to make difficult calls. But it is your responsibility. To that administrator's credit, he did recognize the fact that we had the privilege of determining what our children were taught, especially when it came to these elective things that they were teaching. Now, to their credit, within a year or two, they pulled this video from their curriculum and they left that to the parents to take care of. Whether you agree with that or not, I don't know. But, but I can tell you this, there are times when the school will not be as agreeable as this administrator was. They will force things upon your children, and then they will let you know it's not your business, that there's something wrong with you for thinking that it is. They're going to think that you're getting outside of your lane, but you have to hold firm. You can go before God on Judgment Day and say, well, they told me to mind my own business and see how that works for you, especially if they have misled your son or your daughter into a life of sin. But the fact is, God gave children parents for a reason, and they are our responsibility, and we need to understand what our lanes are in situations like that in, in the business world things seem to have changed in, in, in modern times. It used to be that when somebody was hired. for a job that curiosity and inquisitiveness was encouraged. If they had some questions about what was gonna happen after they were through with the product they were working on, they were given that information. It was, it was considered a benefit by the, by management and by, by the owners of the business that they had somebody that was interested enough to want to expand their horizons when it came to, to their employment. But now very, it's very much different in certain jobs. There are some manage managers who are highly efficient. at any kind of a question. I realize we can ask inappropriate questions. We can ask questions like, are you out of your mind? What makes you think you can do it this way? I'm not, not talking about being disrespectful or inappropriate, but there are some managers who have such an arrogance and, and such a misunderstanding of what their role is. in that supervisor capacity is that they feel threatened if anybody shows any curiosity or starts asking questions beyond their immediate job. And so it's this, it's this idea of you stay in your lane, you do what you're told, you don't ask questions, you don't need to know about anything else. Well, this has really set back in many areas a number of companies because it's actually discouraged those workers who had a little bit of extra ambition, who had the intellectual curiosity to want to, to, to want to become a better employee and what it, what it ended up having was a, a workforce that didn't want to know anything. They just wanted to do their job and, and go home. And so this staying in your lane in that instance has, to a certain degree, set back companies through the years. And those who have encouraged the curiosity, those who have encouraged that inquisitiveness, have usually done pretty well. Same thing in religion. There, there are some so called churches that you will attend, where you might have some questions. And again, you don't go and ask those questions in a surly or arrogant manner, but, but there's nothing wrong with, with asking a question. Why do we do this, this way? What about this scripture that seems to say something different than what we're doing? And sometimes the answer from the leadership will be, Well, you don't need to bother your head with these things. We, we have a lot of education in this, years of study. Are you, are you thinking that somehow you're better than we are? And we have this obligation, and, and so we'll just tell you what you need to know, and you just need to accept it. Well, when it comes to your eternal soul, your lane is a lot broader than some people will give you credit for it being. You're going to answer to God on Judgment Day someday. Someday you'll kneel before God. You'll give an account for the things you've done while in this, in this world, in this body. If you're absolutely determined just to blindly follow religious leaders rather than explore the scriptures for yourself, You might find that the Day of Judgment is something that's very unpleasant for you, and you might, you might want to blame it on, on your religious leaders, and certainly in that type of an instance, they would have Some blame to go around, but they may not make it either is the point. You need to make sure that when it comes to your service to God, that you stay in the lane that you're supposed to stay in, and that lane is exceedingly it has a lot of responsibility to it way more than just following the, the, the line of whatever religious group you're with, you need to dig into it for yourself. And when you find things that, that are contradictory where you're worshiping and your leaders don't want to change, well, maybe you, you need to change where you're going and seek out a church that is in accord with the new Testament teachings. don't act as if you have no responsibility with your eternal soul. And then there's something else. We, we, we looked at a passage as far as the warnings that we're supposed to give, but there's also a very good passage on the help that we're supposed to give. And it's found in Matthew chapter 25. It's, Jesus is giving people a picture of what the judgment will be like. And in verse 41, Then he will say to those on his left, this is talking about God depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Do you see that? Hell is made for the devil and his angels? People are gonna go there by their own actions, but it wasn't designed for them. It was designed as a punishment for the devil and for those. Demons that followed him, but there's going to be a lot of people there as well. Why? For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, you did not invite me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. They will also answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you? And he'll reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me. And so we see from the words of Jesus himself. That we have an obligation to take care of those whom we have an opportunity to take care of. We might pretend like we didn't see it, but we have an obligation to have our eyes open and help where we can help. You can't feed every hungry person in the world, but you can, you can help some. And, and so here Jesus is just pointing out that, that when you see somebody in need and you have the opportunity to help them and you don't, well, the consequences for that are, are severe. If we don't repent of that before we go to judgment, before we die, they're going to be eternal. And so make sure that you are. Very much aware of what your lane is when it comes to helping people. It's probably a lot broader than you think it is. And then there's the area of politics, the area that everybody thinks that, that, that good Christians or many people think good Christians shouldn't even involve themselves with, but we have an obligation for that as well. We're blessed to live in a nation, those of us who live in America, that's under a constitution. The leaders are chosen by the people. The leaders are supposed to be servants of the people. Our leaders have very often forgotten that. But we the people don't need to forget our obligation to that. If we see something that's wrong, if we see something that's sinful, well, we need to contact our leaders. We need to be voting for ones that'll support the right in the first place, but if they go outside of that, we need to hold them accountable. You can call them up, you can, you can send them an email, but you have an obligation. Too many people feel that, that our nation is, is on a destructive path who are not willing to do anything to, to, to halt that march down that path. We do have an obligation to speak up when we have the opportunity to do so. We do need to be informed when we vote. We need to be praying for our leaders that they that they will do what is pleasing to God. And when they don't, we need to hold them accountable. But this idea of just voting as if it's some kind of a a faith only function where I believe this is the guy, I'm going to vote for him, I don't want to know anything about him. If he's doing bad, I don't care, the other guy is just as bad. That's a pretty crummy way to live. Would you choose a babysitter like that for your children? Why, why would we choose leaders like that? Yet many do. We have an obligation to get involved with the direction of our nation as we have opportunity, just as we have an obligation to get involved in the lives of those who are in our circle of influence who may need help or who may need a warning. We have our families that we need to be taking care of in the right way and guiding in the right way. We need to stop acting as if we need to stay in our lane means that we just mind our own business and we never ever venture outside and open our eyes up to see if anybody needs help or who might. Be going in the wrong direction and needs a kind warning. You and I, I'm convinced are going to kneel before God someday at the judgment. And we are going to give an account for the things that we've done. We've all made a lot of mistakes. We need to repent of those sins before it's too late, but then we need to get very serious about figuring out what our responsibility is and then doing it. When it comes to staying in your lane, it's not so much what other people feel like your lane is. It's what you see your responsibility before God is. And then staying in accord with his word by doing the things that he has commanded you to do. We've got a good life here, if we'll live it well. Part of that life comes with challenges, obligations, responsibilities. And these things very much are our lane. There are people who really are our brothers, of whom, which we are their keepers. And we need to be aware of that. And we need to do our best to help them. And if we love them, why would we do anything else? Have you been staying in your lane thinking it's been an admirable thing by minding your own business even to the detriment of others? Well, if you have, welcome to the club. We all, I think, to a certain degree, just want to be left alone, don't we? We want to mind our own business and we want people to mind theirs as well. And when it comes to that which truly isn't our business, we need to stay out of that. But when it comes to those areas which we can help in, which we can enhance the situation, we need to do that. And again, I want to say this, if we love others, we're going to be looking for those opportunities. And if we love God, we'll obey his commandments in that. After all, why would we want to do anything else? Are you staying in your lane? I hope you are, but I hope you're not limiting it, narrowing it down to something that it was never intended to be. That's the lesson for today. I hope it helps. I hope it gives you something to think about. But until next time, I pray that God will bless you richly as you seek to serve him to the best of your ability.