Sermon quotes on responsibility

William Barclay

Love always involves responsibility, and love always involves sacrifice. And we do not really love Christ unless we are prepared to face His task and to take up His Cross.

 

Anne Frank

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.

Viktor E. Frankl

I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.

Charles Hodge

All moral obligation resolves itself into the obligation of conformity to the will of God.

Ronald A. Heifetz

You stay alive in the practice of leadership by reducing the extent to which you become the target of people’s frustrations. The best way to stay out of range is to think constantly about giving the work back to the people who need to take responsibility. Place the work within and between the factions who are faced with the challenge, and tailor your interventions so they are unambiguous and have a context.

 

Jack Hyles

A little person in a little place can use a little thing, perform a little task, and receive a great reward.

Helen Keller

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other’s welfare, social justice can never be attained.

Martin Luther

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

 

Alexander MacLaren

Ability involves responsibility; power, to its last particle, is duty.

Andrew Murray

God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.

William Shakespeare

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

Julius Caesar

John Stott

Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbor.

 

Peter Ustinov

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.

 

Rick Warren

Jesus did not die on the cross just so we could live comfortable, well adjusted lives. His purpose is far deeper: He wants to make us like himself before he takes us to heaven. This is our greatest privilege, our immediate responsibility, and our ultimate destiny.

 

John Quincy Adams

Duty is ours; results are God’s.

Gary Badcock

A theology of response does not need to be Pelagian; it need only be a theology in which the reality of the human is taken seriously.

The Way of Life, Eerdmans.

Martin Luther

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

John C. Maxwell

When you become a leader, you must focus more on your responsibilities than on your rights.

Good Leaders Ask Great Questions, Center Street.

John Stott

Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbor.

Vaclev Havel

Whenever I have encountered any kind of deep problem with civilization anywhere in the world—be it the logging of rain forests, ethnic or religious intolerance or the brutal destruction of a cultural landscape that has taken centuries to develop—somewhere at the end of the long chain of events that gave rise to the problem at issue I have always found one and the same cause: a lack of accountability to and responsibility for the world.

Civilization

Fred (Mr.) Rogers

We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. it’s easy to say ‘it’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ then there are those who see the need and respond. i consider those people my heroes.

Quoted in His Obituary, Pitsburgh Gazette

Allen Tappe

Change will happen whether you like it or not. Positive change, however, requires choice. You can choose to accept natural change or you can choose to fight it. . . . The power to choose is yours. The responsibility for choice is yours. You have no one else to blame for the way you choose to respond to life. It is your deal.

The Power of Purposed Performance: Choosing to Live Your Life on Purpose, 2nd ed. (Arlington, TX: Institute for Purposed Performance, 2003), 31.

Still Looking for inspiration?

Consider checking out our illustrations page on Responsibility. 

Follow us on social media: