Over the years, I’ve done some events with an organization called GORUCK. One of these in particular is called GORUCK Light, which is five to six hours with a special forces instructor, doing whatever physical exercise they tell you to do. You also do some silly stuff along the way, which makes it fun.
In 2014, I did my first GORUCK Light with a U. S. Army Special Forces Green Beret named Joe Warner.
Most GORUCK events are not individual events. Rather, they are team events focused on everyone finishing together. You help each other, and you hold each other accountable.
Well, I was chosen at one point to be the PL; the platoon leader. At one particular time, we stopped at a gas station to get some drinks and had a little break. I didn’t want to get in trouble with the instructor by leaving a bunch of trash around, so as platoon leader, I took some trash around the corner to throw away. It was at that moment that the instructor started calling for the PL. Since I couldn’t hear him, I didn’t respond, which was a problem. Our instructor punished the entire team because I didn’t respond. The reason he punished everyone was that were a team. He said that the rest of my team should have helped make it very clear that he was calling for me. So, we all had to drop and do pushups. This is a picture of me, wondering how many more pushups the entire team has to do because of me.
You see, our entire team was better when we helped each other and when we held each other accountable to do what we were supposed to do. We successfully finished the event and earned our GORUCK Light patches.
Listen, brothers and sisters: God has a good design for His church, Amen? One of the aspects of that good design is that we would make each other better by holding each other accountable.
We’re continuing our series called “Difficult Topics for Our Day,” and today, we’re talking about “Mutual Accountability.”
Before we go any further, would you join me in prayer as we ask God to speak to us?
(prayer)
A predominant theme in our culture is that you don’t want to get too much into other people’s business. The idea is that you kind of leave people alone to do their own thing.
However, is that what the Bible teaches? Maybe we should be in each other’s business.
Well, let’s see. Let’s look at three biblical truths that we can learn from the Bible about mutual accountability.
Before we do that, I want to clarify what accountability is.
Accountability means taking responsibility for your actions and letting someone help keep you on track.
So, let’s learn what the Bible says about us being responsible to one another and answering to one another.
First, let’s see . . .
Biblical Truth #1 – God loves the church.
Friends, we must start by understanding that the church is precious to God; He loves the church.
Of course, the church is the people who belong to Jesus Christ; not a building, not a religion, but a people.
God loves His people.
Romans 5:8 says:
“But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God not only says that He loves His church, He proves it by sending His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins so that we might know God and become His children.
1 John 3:1 says:
“See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children . . . ”
God loves us so much that He calls us His children. In our sins, we were His enemies, but now, through Jesus, we are His children.
What a blessing! God loves us!
Also, Ephesians 5:25 says:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her . . . ”
When the Apostle Paul is speaking to the church in Ephesus about the great love that husbands should have for their wives, he says to model their love after the love that Jesus has for the church.
How much does Jesus love the church? So much so that He gave His life for the church.
God loves the church so much that He sent His Son to die for it.
God loves the church so much that He calls us His children.
Jesus loves the church so much that He gave His life for us.
That’s pretty incredible, isn’t it? We are loved greatly by God.
Since God loves the church so much, don’t you think the church is very important to Him?
Don’t you think God wants to provide for and protect the church?
Don’t you think that God probably has a good design for the church?
You see, God is not passive or apathetic about His church. He’s not just hands-off about His church. He’s not one who doesn’t care about His church.
God loves the church. That’s where we need to begin.
Second, . . .
Biblical Truth #2 – The church is designed to be holy.
We’re learning in this series on difficult topics that God has a good design for His creation, doesn’t He? Likewise, God has a good design for His church.
God designed the church to be a body of believers in Jesus Christ.
God designed the church to be united and loving to one another.
God designed the church to reach and love others.
God designed the church to be led by pastors.
God designed the church to be served by deacons.
God designed the church to function with its members working together in ministry.
God designed the church to plant more churches and send out missionaries.
Also, God designed the church to be holy.
We looked at Ephesians 5 a moment ago. Let’s look at it again. Look at Ephesians 5:25-27:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.”
What was the motivation for why Jesus gave His life for the church? Because He loved her.
What was the result of Jesus giving His life for the church? To make her holy.
1 Peter 2:9-10 says:
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
God chose you to make you holy, you belong to Him, He wants you to proclaim Him, you were taken from the darkness and put in the light, and you were once lost but now you are found as God’s people who have received mercy.
The church is created and called to be holy. This is God’s design for us.
Listen, friends: When we sin, that is against God’s design for us, both as individuals and as a church.
God did not call us out of darkness so that we could go back to darkness.
God did not send His Son to die so that we could return to that which caused Him to die.
God did not give us new life, only for us to return to that which brought us death.
Brothers and sisters, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is designed to be holy.
Ask yourself this question right now: How are we doing as a church? Are we holy?
Let’s not stop there, look at . . .
Biblical Truth #3 – The church is designed to hold each other to holiness.
Part of God’s design for the church is that we would help each other achieve holiness.
We’re not supposed to watch each other struggle in our sin and think (well, I hope they figure it out).
We’re not supposed to sit by and tolerate unrepentant sin.
It’s just like in the GORUCK event that I told you about earlier. We’re supposed to work together to be better together and to discover and achieve all who God designed us to be.
Listen to what the Bible says about this reality:
Philippians 2:4 says:
“Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.”
Sometimes we think, “Well, I’m just going to worry about myself. I don’t want to get involved in other people’s business.”
Well, that might be the modern culture’s way, but that’s not God’s way.
God says to get in each other’s business! Look to the interest of others!
Paul gets more specific in Galatians 6:1-2. He says:
“Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted. Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
We have a duty to help those in sin. We’re not coming down on them with condemnation. Rather, we’re coming to them with love.
We want to restore them with a gentle spirit. We want to help them carry the burden of their sin by taking them to Jesus so they can be set free from their sin.
Paul gets very specific in 1 Corinthians 5:1-2. He says:
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you . . . And you are arrogant! Shouldn’t you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this?”
You see, Paul tells the Church in Corinth that they are arrogant because they apparently didn’t do anything about this immorality that was in their church. They didn’t really seem to care that much.
Paul says rather than arrogance, they should be in grief over this sin. Not only that, if this person refuses to turn away from their sin, they should be removed from the church.
Now, you might think, “Pastor, are we really supposed to remove people from the church if they don’t turn away from sin?”
You better believe it. We are called to be a holy people. We cannot be a holy people if we are still living openly and unashamedly in sin.
You might say, “Well, that’s kind of harsh.”
Well, I say to you, take that up with God, because that’s His design.
Also, let me ask you this: Is it really harsh?
Which is worse, calling people to turn from their sin who have already stated that they are followers of Jesus, or allowing the body of Christ to be poisoned with sin?
By the way, we wouldn’t tolerate this in other scenarios.
Imagine a workplace with an employee who was continually a problem. They were rude, insubordinate, foolish, and lazy. You would say, “They gotta go!”
Imagine a sports team with a player who continually didn’t show up to practice, disobeyed the coaches, slacked off on the field, and argued with the other teammates. No one would want them around, right?
Well, why would we tolerate anything differently in the most important organization in the world, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ?
By the way, God’s design also includes that we deal with these matters with gentleness, humility, prayer, and love.
If you want to write this passage down for further study, you can write down Matthew 18:15-20. This passage gives us God’s specific plan for how to deal with someone in sin. I’ll summarize it for you quickly:
First, we should approach people in sin one-on-one. We should personally call them to repentance.
Second, if that person does not repent, you should take one or two others with you and call him or her to repentance.
Third, if that person still does not turn from his or her sin, you should bring the matter to the church family.
Finally, if that person does still not repent of his or her sin, you should treat them like an unbeliever and put them out of the church.
Here’s why God designed it this way: If someone is unwilling to follow Christ, they should not be part of the body of Christ.
By the way, if that person turns from their sin at any point in the process, then you welcome them back with love and warmth.
The church should not take any joy in this process, that is, unless the person turns from their sin and turns to Jesus; we should take joy in that!
We should take joy in holding each other accountable to be more like Jesus every day.
Let this bottom line summarize what we are learning today.Bottom Line: The church must pursue mutual accountability.
Church, we must follow God’s design for us.
What are we communicating to God if we don’t hold each other accountable?
We’re saying, “We don’t really care what you want, we’d rather do it our way.”
Or, we’re saying, “We’re not quite sure that your way still works for the church.”
That’s crazy, isn’t it? No one knows better what we need than God.
His way for us is mutual accountability.
You help me be more like Jesus, I’ll help you be more like Jesus, and we’ll help each other be more like Jesus.
Let’s not shy away from God’s design for mutual accountability; let us press into it.
Challenge yourself this week in these two ways:
Weekly Challenge #1 – Commit to accountability.
You can’t control everyone else, can you?
However, you can control yourself. If all of the “yourselves” in the room commit to accountability, then we’ll have a church committed to accountability.
“WE” are made up of a bunch of “YOUs.”
So, will YOU commit to accountability?
Weekly Challenge #2 – Pray for our church.
Listen, friends: We have some work to do here as a church.
I want to come before you as your pastor and tell you that I need to do better here. I want to ask you to forgive me for not leading better in this regard.
We have dealt with some sin in our church, particularly when it comes to gossip and lies.
However, there are some other sins that we need to deal with, and I have not done well in leading in this charge.
I’m going to do better. Would you pray for me, and would you pray for our church?
Don’t you want us to be all who God called and created us to be? I know I do.
Let’s commit to pray for our church, together.
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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