Accountability

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Intro

I absolutely love sports. I dont really care what kind of sport it is, I pretty much enjoy it. Well every sport except for golf. Im absolutely terrible at golf, and to me a day playing golf is about as stressful as a trip to the dentist.

But one thing that I do love about sports, and it goes along with music as well is the accountability that teams have to hold themselves to. If a team is just out playing for themselves, and not caring about the man in the huddle next to them, then that team is not going to be very successful. The same can be said for our Christian faith.

Take a look at this behind the scenes footage of the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles.

Play Philadelphia Eagles video.

There were a couple of things that stood out to me in that video.

First it showed that even as professional athletes they were willing to open themselves up to each other to make sure that they were staying in God’s Word. These men understood what it meant to train and perform at a high level, and they understood that same discipline was needed for their spiritual lives as well.

Also I love how it ended there. He was speaking about sharing his faith with his teammates on the football team. Even as a professional football player they cared enough about their teammates to share the Gospel, but they didnt just bash them over the head with it. No they lived the Gospel out in front of them, and that gave them opportunities to share.

That is the same type of lifestyle I hope you have at your school.

But tonight our focus is going to be on the accountability that we should have with one another.

But you may be thinking but as a Christian we are all forgiven so we shouldnt have to be held accountable for our actions if we are going to be forgiven anyway right… wrong.

Romans 6:1–2 NIV

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Instead Paul mentions this in Galatians

Galatians 6:1–5 NIV

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.

So Paul is telling us here that if we see a believe that is trapped in sin, it is actually our responsibility to try to bring that person back into a proper relationship with Christ.

Now you may be thinking, but Todd that sounds a lot like judging, and we are not supposed to judge others.

Matthew 7:1–2 NIV

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

This passage isnt talking about never telling someone that they are in sin, its talking about not being a hypocrite. Make sure that you are not doing the same things that they are as you lovingly talk to them about their sin.

Accountable friendships bring healing

Now hear is the deal, we probably shouldnt just go around on the internet yelling SINNER. Or my favorite are the people with megaphones at a Christian concert yelling we are going to Hell.

We have to be in relationship with people to effectively call them back to Christ.

Accountable friendships can bring healing.

Galatians 6:1 NIV

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

If we are wanting to truly help someone we have to make sure that we are doing it lovingly, and that they are willing to listen. Otherwise you are wasting your breath. So just like the Players from the Eagles, you have to make sure that you are living it out, before they will be willing to listen.

Accountable friendships require humility

Not only do accountable friendships bring healing, but they also require humility.

There is very little that is more humiliating then watching a video of yourself making mistakes. And athletes do it every day in order to get better. And it takes a certain level of trust and humility to be able to do that.

In the same way in order for us to hold each other accountable, it is going to require humility from everyone involved. It takes humility to be willing to change and listen when someone tells you that you could in fact be wrong.

It also takes humility to make sure that you are going to that person in a loving manner to try to bring them to repentance, because it is by nothing but the grace of God that you are not making the same mistakes as they are.

The basics of humility can be found in Philippians

Philippians 2:3–4 NIV

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

This shows us that humility is basically thinking of others as better than ourselves, which means we look out for them as much as if not more than we look out for ourselves.

Accountable friendships are a team sport

It is this mindset that brings us to the last point, not only does acountability bring healing, and require humility, but it also requires a team.

Accountability is indeed a team sport.

Can you imagine if the drummer of a band decided he didnt want to play the slow song quietly, and instead he was going to go off on his own drum solo. Or if the QB of the football team decided he didnt need his teammates and was going to win the game by himself. Or if the team decided that they werent going to listen to the coaches anymore and were going to do what they wanted on their own.

None of those things end well.

Even sports or hobbies that dont seem like team sports or hobbies require someone to come along side you to push you to be your best. someone to convince you to train or work out when you really dont want to. They have a mentor or a friend that comes along side them to help encourage them to keep going when they just want to quit.

Our spiritual lives are no different. We need someone in our corner that will be pushing us forward when we want to give up. Accountability isnt just helping each other after we mess up, but they are there to be a support structure to help you achieve things you never thought you could.

Conclusion

So how do we live this out. How can we have these friendships that can help hold us accountable?

Choose your accountability friends carefully

This will be one of your closest and most trusted friends that you have. So we need to be careful that we know the people well that we are choosing to enter into this type of a friendship with.

Make sure they share your values.

Its hard to hold someone accountable to values that you dont agree with, so you will want to make sure the friend you choose shares the same values that you are asking them to hold you accountable to

Make sure they can be trusted

This person is someone that you will let in to all the deep and dark corners of your life, so you dont want it to be just anyone. You want to make sure this person wont just go out and share all the details that you share with them.

Make sure you will listen to them.

This person has to be someone you are willing to take advice from. If you are not willing to change based on their advice then you are just wasting everyones time.

Choose to commit to accountable relationships

This is not something that will be easy. It will take hard work. Just like the Philadelphia Eagles winning the championship in 2017 it took a lot of hard work. But if you are willing to put in the work it is completely worth it.

You may not be ready for this type of relationship right now, and thats ok, but we need to be working toward finding someone that can have that relationship with you. We need people to hold us accountable and ask us the difficult questions.