Accountability

Intro

It is often not very long that we can get away with living a lie, or getting away with a lie. There are many examples of this. One humerous but sad example is of a guy named Gregor MacGregor.

Born: December 24, 1786, in Glengyle, Scotland.MacGregor served as a soldier in the British Army and later joined various revolutionary movements in South America. In the early 1820s, MacGregor claimed he was the Cazique (Prince) of Poyais, a fictional country he invented, supposedly located in Central America along the Mosquito Coast (modern-day Nicaragua and Honduras).He described Poyais as a lush, prosperous land with fertile soil, gold deposits, and a developed infrastructure. He claimed to have been granted the land by local indigenous leaders. MacGregor published promotional materials, including a book titled Sketch of the Mosquito Shore, Including the Territory of Poyais, which depicted Poyais as a utopian paradise.He sold land grants to investors and settlers, promising them profitable opportunities and a better life.He also issued Poyaisian bonds and sought loans in European financial markets, raising significant sums of money. In 1822–1823, two ships carrying around 250 settlers departed for Poyais. When they arrived, they discovered there was no developed infrastructure or support, and the land was inhospitable jungle.Many settlers died from disease and starvation. Survivors were eventually rescued by the British Navy. Despite the failure of the Poyais settlement and the exposure of his fraud, MacGregor evaded serious consequences.He continued promoting Poyais to new investors in France and other countries, though these efforts were less successful as his reputation declined.He faced trials for fraud in France but was acquitted, likely due to his charisma and skillful self-defense. But then you also have guys like Bernie Madhoff who cheated people out of Billions and went to jail for the rest of His life.

There is usually only so long you can live a lie before you are found out and have to face the consequences. but accountability works in a different way as well.

How does accountability work. For it to work well, those who are keeping each other accountable need to be willing to held each other to a high standard. the standard that we are holding each other to is to live according to the gospel. To hold someone accountable we need to have consequences for when we fail. I am not saying we need to get angry at our accountability partner, crack down on them. But we need to be real with them, help them up, let them know what they did was wrong but also let them know there is a way out and you will help them through it.

The bible speaks of us being held accountable. Because of who Jesus is, He was born the king of kings and lord of Lords. Because of what Jesus has done, we must listen to what He has said to us. We are told throughout the NT that we must hear the word of God, We must know the truth and we must abide in the truth.

But there is a consequence for those that refuse to follow God, that refuse to listen to His message and refuse to abide by His laws. God will hold accountable those who refuse to follow Him. Because of the birth of the messiah we must hear the word of God and abide by the word of God or be cut off from God.

Holds Accountable the Listeners

Lets go through a journey here of what this looks like. It started with a warning from Moses in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 18:19 CSB

19 I will hold accountable whoever does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name.

Moses warned the people that he was speaking on behalf of God, that the next prophets after Him would be sent by God as well. We must listen to them for they speak the word of God.

Now this is not prophecy like what you hear talked about now. This was different, this was special. It was what we call special revelation. God spoke to them and we have there words here as the written word of God. There is nothing new being added to the word of God. The people that claim prophecy these days, their word does not hold the same standard as it did back then.

Even then, even though this was God’s word given to them through God’s messengers they struggled with this, they struggled with listening. Take the book of Judges for example, which we are going to go through in the new year. The Israelite always seemed to be struggling with falling to sin and risking the judgement of God.

They would have to face the judgement for their sins and then they would cry out to God and He would send a judge to save them and the cycle went on and on.

Being held accountable for their sin is what we see happen throughout the OT. They where warned that if they keep it up, they would be punished. But even in the OT God still promised to be patient even though Judgement was immenantley promised to those who disobeyed. Or at least consequences of the actions of the people.

Psalm 103:8 CSB

8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.

Though the Lord is slow to anger and abounding in Grace His grace will not last forever, nor should it.

So what we must do in response to this is to hear the word of God. They heard the word of God, they where told what the word of God was and what they where to do and they where told they would be held accountable if the disobeyed. The purpose of this was to draw them back to God. Sometimes they needed to be reminded who it was that they served.

So once they hear the word of God they must know the word of God. To hear and to know the word of God are two different things. To know the word of God you must dwell on the word of God. You must commit it to your heart daily.

That means we will be living the truth. Like the Israelites we are to be living in the truth of the word of God. We will get into these things in a bit.

God still does keep us accountable for living according to His word. Though it may look different then what it did back in the OT sometimes God allows things to happen in our lives to draw us back to Himself. Let us continue this journey into the NT.

Keep my Commands

for that we go first to the book of John.

This is for followers of Jesus, saying that we need to continue in the word of God. The consequences we see of sin are clearly marked out in the book of Romans.

Romans 6:23 CSB

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Acts 3:23 CSB

23 And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people.

Wages are a fun thing. They are something we earn for the work that we put in at a company. I have had many different jobs with many different wages. As a teen I worked on my parents farm and asked once If I could have a job so I could get paid. They said no (they needed my help) and asked if they could pay me then, and they said the food you eat and clothes on your back is your pay, or something along those lines. I could be a bit of an insolent teen.

We have been talking about being held accountable to the word of God through the prophets and the apostles. God is patient wishing none would perish. When Jesus was born the judgement was going to be withheld till people died and went to heaven.

Sometimes then what you see is people saying stuff like “If God really is God then He will strike me dead right here”. But that is not the way that it works anymore.

The wages that we earn from a life lived in sin apart from God is Death, or being cut off as it says in Acts. We will be held accountable for how we live this life if we live it apart from God.

But what about those that are followers of Jesus, are we going to be held accountable for our actions? will we be held accountable as well?

2 Corinthians 5:9 CSB

9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.

2 Corinthians 5:10 CSB

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

in this passage it is talking about our goal of heaven as followers of Jesus. How this earth is not our home. How we where given the HS as kind of a down payment in a sense of our eternal inheritance. A guarantee of our future inheritance in heaven.

But with that being said, as followers of Jesus we need to remember that our actions are going to be held into account when we go to see Jesus. As leaders in the church, you board members, and me, we will be held to a higher standard yet because of the role God has entrusted us with.

So then when you go to see Jesus what is he going to say about the way that you live for Him here on earth? so what do we do about this, how can we make sure that when we go to see Jesus our good will outweigh he bad in a sense.

Let me be clear here, we are saved by grace through faith. It is not of works that we are saved. But a faith with nothing to show for it is a dead faith. The bible says over and over again that if we really say that we love Jesus we will live for Him. We are not saved by what we do, but what we do is a direct result of the saviour that has changed our life.

1 John 5:3 CSB

3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,

It is possible to live your life on this earth and give it to Jesus the day you die never having lived a life for Jesus. But do not be that person. So what do we do to make sure that we are living our lives for the Glory of the Lord? So that when we are held accountable by the Lord Jesus we will be seen as striving to live a life for Him.

John 8:31 CSB

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.

John 8:32 CSB

32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

we must hear the word of God, We must know the truth and we must abide in the truth.

If you want to abide by the word of God and know the word of God then you first must be hearing the word of God. If you are not hearing the word of God, and committing the word of God to your heart, how do you expect to abide by the word of God. we went over the fact that we will be held accountable to be rewarded fro how we treat the word of God as followers of Jesus and those that aren't followers will be held liable for not following the word of God then we really need to make sure we are in the word of God.

This means that we need to know the word of God. This means more then just having knowledge of it but actually committing it to our hearts. To know your wife means more then just living with her and sleeping in the same bed but getting to know here likes and dislikes, getting to know her on an intimate level. Yoyu must get to know the word of God on a more intimate level.

You must abide in the word of God. Or as I read it earlier you must continue in the word of God. This means that the word of God will affect the way that we live our lives. Our actions do not save us but our actions show that we are followers of Jesus. To continue in the word of God we must be living for the word of God. This does not mean perfection but striving to live a life for Jesus.

So What?

We went on this journey to see a point. It started with being held accountable. Moses spoke of someone that was to come, who would be a prophet, someone who would speak to God on our behalf, someone who was going to hold us accountable to God’s word. We must listen to this person we are told for what He speaks comes from the Lord God. We learned how the Israelites where held accountable through Judgement because of their failure to listen and live by the word of God. We went to the life of Jesus. He was born as a human baby and spoke the word of God and warned people they must listen to the word of God.

The hope that we live for, that we celebrate this Christmas season shows that we need to live according to the word of God because we will be held accountable to the way that we handle the word of God in our lives. So then

we must hear the word of God, We must know the truth and we must abide in the truth.

We must also learn to hold each other accountable.

The birth of the messiah as we know means all of these things. If we will one day be held accountable to how we treat the word of God, either by judgement or reward, Then why do we not do all we can to hold each other accountable here on earth while we can.

Why wait until it is to late. We must deal with our sin in our lives and help others on their walk with God. I have tried it on my own before, it does not work. In my 3 years at Millar and now starting my masters degree one thing that they prize highly is the mentorship program. There is a reason for that. Because they know that you will have a hard time living your life for God in the world without someone to help you.

As it says in proverbs. As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another mans face. At least that is the direct translation.

So with the birth of Jesus remember that we are to walk together, as we live out the word of God in our actions. let each other hold each other accountable. Let the way that you live point others to Jesus so that they may be found in Jesus as well.