Kingdom Living: Embracing Accountability as a Core Value (4)
Notes
Transcript
ac·count·a·bil·i·ty/əˌkoun(t)əˈbilədē/noun
the fact or condition of being accountable; responsibility.
A Person who is completely responsible for what they do and must be able to give a satisfactory reason for it.
Answerable to God
As we look at core values of Bridge of Faith, we are reminded that this is a set of values that want to hold ourselves to. Holding to these core values will be how we thrive at Bridge of Faith.
At Bridge of Faith, we want real community. We want to know the good, the bad and the ugly and keep pressing in to community.
We believe that real community is when you know these things and we still press in to community.
We want community with accountability.
We believe that intimacy happens when we encounter problems and know how to handle these problems. Problems between each other grow us closer together as long as we know how to use them.
So to thrive at Bridge of Faith, we must be committed to accountability. One of the biggest things I have said throughout this series of messages is the importance of getting connected to a small group. This will help with success of this core value.
Another thing I want to encourage is take advantage of training opportunities at Bridge of Faith. You may feel like you are missing out on some things and that is because you missed a training night. Don’t do this. We value accountability and so plug in and be held accountable and hold others accountable.
Today we wrap up this core value.
2 Accept us. We have wronged no one, corrupted no one, defrauded no one.
3 I don’t say this to condemn you, for I have already said that you are in our hearts, to live together and to die together.
4 I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you. I am filled with encouragement; I am overcome with joy in all our afflictions.
In accountability, we have talked about working to deliver the right message with the right method.
Accept us…
I don’t say this to condemn you…
I have great confidence in you…
5 In fact, when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. Instead, we were troubled in every way: conflicts on the outside, fears inside.
6 But God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,
7 and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he received from you. He told us about your deep longing, your sorrow, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.
We had no rest…
We were troubled in every way
Perhaps sharing in the persecution the Macedonian churches were in
or
It was disputes with unbelievers or Christian opponents
v.6 The arrival of Titus
v.7 Not only his arrival
The comfort he received from you.
He told us about
your deep longing
Your sorrow
Your zeal for me
8 For even if I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it—even though I did regret it since I saw that the letter grieved you, yet only for a little while.
Accountability can bring grief or sorrow.
I do not regret it
even though I did regret it
His heart is in the right place. He regretted that the letter brought sorrow to the Corinthians. He did not long for them to stay in their sorrow.
This is another way you can tell that your heart is in the right place to have an accountability conversation is that you don’t long for them to stay in their sorrow but you want them to be restored.
Pastor Chambers said last week during wrap up that we often treat Matthew 18 as here are the steps to do before you kick someone out of the church. The goal is how to restore an individual.
In accountability, do you long for the person to stay in sorrow? Do you hope they stay in a place of regret?
From a parent stand point, discipline is not to leave your child stay in a place of sorrow from your discipline. You long for them to hear the lesson, learn the lesson and then move on and change.
If someone is holding you accountable, then it is important that the goal is not to keep you in a constant state of sorrow.
Regret the action you did. Own it, walk through repentance, and then move on.
More on this in a minute…
9 Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us.
I rejoice, Not because you were grieved
again Paul does not find joy in causing sorrow. This is opposite of the world. The world often delights in causing others sorrow.
He delights in that their sorrow led to repentance.
Repentance:
a change of mind and heart and a willingness to change behavior
You were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us.
Godly grief brought sorrow that led to repentance and produced a positive result.
2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary m. Paul’s Joy after a Crisis Resolved (7:5–16)
What loss Paul thought they might have experienced is not specified. However, he uses the same verb (zēmioō) in
10 For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death.
Godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted
Godly grief leads to repentance and does not have regret/shame
It leads to salvation
Worldly grief produces death
Worldly grief stays in remorse
deep regret or guilt for a wrong committed.
2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary m. Paul’s Joy after a Crisis Resolved (7:5–16)
worldly grief does not progress beyond remorse. There are deep regrets over what has happened, but there is no accompanying change of mind and heart, nor any willingness to change behaviour, nor any faith in God. The result is not salvation, but death
11 For consider how much diligence this very thing—this grieving as God wills—has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter.
1 So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him: There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.
2 The rich man had a large number of sheep and cattle,
3 but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up, living with him and his children. It shared his meager food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.
4 Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.
5 David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die!
6 Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”
7 Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8 I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.
9 Why then have you despised the command of the Lord by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword.
10 Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.’
11 “This is what the Lord says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them publicly.
12 You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.’ ”
13 David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Then Nathan replied to David, “The Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die.
3 Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Imagine in a community that values accountability there is a rebuking and forgiving. Imagine a space where wrong happens but guilt is set free.
Imagine no regrets.
