"Everyone will die for his own sin." That is one of the most frightening things I have ever read in all of my life. Several years ago when I was serving in another church in another city, one of our finest families came to me and asked, "Pastor, will you come and talk to our son?"

"Happily," I said.

When I got there, I found that it was not a happy situation. He was sitting in his bedroom where he stayed most all of the time. It was difficult talking to him because he could not put together a coherent sentence. He could not work. He had no future. He told me that his sister, who lived right down the hall, had a machine and when she wished, she could turn up the heat inside his mind. She, with this machine, could inflict pain upon him whenever she wished.

He was one of the most sad and tragic persons I have ever seen. In his early twenties, he was the victim of self-afflicted drug abuse. It wasn't his sister, was it? It wasn't his sister who was the blame. He was.

A young boy comes bouncing in to his father and says, "Dad, the fish are biting down at the river and they're all going. Can I go?"

"Well, son, you know that this afternoon you are supposed to set out the butter beans."

"Yeah, but the fish are biting!"

"You set out the butter beans and you can fish as long as you want."

"Yeah, but ...."

"Set out the butter beans, son, two to a hill just like we always do."

"All right."

The first row went well; two to a hill, straight as it could be. Second row; the supply of seed beans was not decreasing as rapidly as he wished. So, when he reached the end of the second row, you know what he did. He just dug a hole, put all of the beans in the hole, covered them up and ran off to go fishing.

A few weeks later, you also know what happened. His father brought him to the garden and said, "Look son, little bean, little bean, lotta beans!" Then the father did a very strange thing. He said, "Son, bow down here." They both got down on their knees and the father prayed, "Lord, I care not about a bucket of beans, but I thank you that you have taught my son that what he sows, he shall reap."

"Everyone will die for his own sin." We are accountable, we are responsible for what we do and what we say. We are responsible for our attitudes, every idle word, every deed, even the things that we leave undone, and that scares me to death! Is there a way out? Will any excuse stand up?

"Oh well, I'm the result of imperfect parents," won't cut it! "Well, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." No! No! "It was my environment that caused me to act this way," won't make it! "You know it's an unfinished and imperfect universe and I just happened to be caught among all of these evil forces and I really...." No! "The Devil made me do it."

"Bad gene pool..." No! It just won't happen! I am responsible! You are responsible! No excuse will stand up. We hear those words and we feel their impact and we begin to think, "I'm just a failure."

I played on a baseball team once that set records for failure (Record 0-20). We expected to lose. We were beaten before we ever went out on the field. We anticipated losing. We played like losers and sure enough, we lost. It's just like some people who go through life having failed in so many things, rejected in so many ways that they behave in such a way that they fail or are rejected. Then the payoff comes in the end when they get to say, "Aha! I told you I'd fail. I told you I'd be rejected." It becomes a vicious cycle, a life pattern, if you will. I'm a sinner and there's no way out.