Whitten Q & A - Ep. 10 - What is Accountability?

What Accountability Means and Why It Matters

Good evening, everybody. Tonight, we are going to talk about what is accountability. And before we get started, let's do some introductions. My name is Andrew Cook, and I am the music.

Minister here. And this is... I am Rebecca Dillon, and I am the church secretary here.

At Whitman Baptist Church. So we're going to be talking to you guys tonight about what is accountability. So we're going to do we're going to focus on three main things. One, what on earth is it? Two, is it in the Bible at all?

And how has it affected what we personally have gone through in our time? So we're going to give... would you call them testimonies? Sort of kind of... mine, I know mine is basically testimony. And so we'll get into that at the end.

But so let's do the first part is what on earth is accountability? How do we define it? So Rebecca, would you like to do the Webster Dictionary or would you like to do.

The Bible verse? I'll do the Webster Dictionary. So the Webster Dictionary defines the accountability as the quality of state of being accountable. Accountable means subject to giving an account or answer or capable of being explained or explainable.

So basically what that means.

Is if you are being held... if you are in accountability with something, that means that you are able to... you are answerable or explainable to whoever it may be. So that's the Webster's Dictionary. You can go on, you can Google it.

That's what's going to pop up. Now, one of the verses that Rebecca and I found that we thought was a great example of it being biblical, which answers the second question, is Galatians 6, 1 through 5.

And it says, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each other test his own work. Then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each will have to bear his own load.

So we think, focusing mainly on verse 1 and 2, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, anything, any sin, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

So there's two... automatically we see there's two sides to the coin. There is the person who did the transgression, and the person who is helping that person with the transgression. Because if they start falling into the same thing, how are you going to hold someone accountable if you can't do it yourself, right?

Right. Yeah, so if you can't... let's say that someone comes up to you, a brother in Christ comes up and says, hey, I'm having problems with a drink too much. I'm an alcoholic. And you say, oh man, I'll help you, but then you go to the bar and you get plastered.

You're not going to be a good witness. You're not going.

To be a good accountability partner for that person. Or you always have that one friend that encourages your behavior and it's like, I know that's totally wrong, but why? I mean, maybe they're uncomfortable and they just don't know what to say, but you always want.

To seek godly accountability. Absolutely. So with that, we're going to jump into the is it biblical? And if so, prove it. So the first one really is a good piggyback. Sorry, one of our deacons would say the pig gets too much credit, so he always says chickenback.

So we're going to chickenback. He's going to watch this and catch that. He'll be like, oh man, they courted me. But so to chickenback off of that, Rebecca, would you read Proverbs.

27, 17? To prove that it is biblical. Right. Okay. Proverbs 27, 17. Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

So that was three.

Different translations of the same verse. But if we look at, if we go back to Galatians 6, 1, and we read where it says, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you be tempted.

I think there's a perfect parallel, and we can contest this if we need to, but I think it's a perfect parallel between Proverbs 27, 17. Iron sharpens iron. Should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself lest you be tempted. Iron has to sharpen iron. The only way that we can refine like an axe, if we take an axe, the only way to get that sharp, to get it refined,.

Is to take another piece of iron and literally get rid of it. Which goes back to the Christian.

Seeking godly counsel or godly accountability. Yeah. So there's one verse. That's one other verse to prove it. So let's keep going. Or even if you're not a Christian. Even if you're not a Christian, right.

Yes. Which we'll, yep, get there in a minute. So 1 Peter 5, 1 through 7, says this. Now, when we read this, we're reading it in context, so that way we know everything around the specific verse. The first part, the first four verses is talking specifically about the role of an elder or a pastor.

And then once we get to, the focus is going to be 6 and 7, but we want contextually everybody to know what's going on. So it says, So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but equally, not domineering over those who are in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to elders. Clothe yourself, all of you, with humility towards one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

So here's the focus verse. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. I have a question.

Okay. So it says here you're supposed to humble yourself. So if someone, if we approach someone and say, Hey, I noticed that you are doing something you shouldn't be doing. And that person says, No, I've got it figured out.

Would you consider that person being humble or prideful? That would be prideful. Okay. So I asked the question, does a person who is prideful want accountability? No. No. No, they do not. They don't. Which goes back.

To a person has to take a responsibility in accountability to be able to be held accountable.

I like it. Yeah. See, that should be a quote right there. Say that one more time. A person.

Has to take responsibility and accountability in order to be held accountable. It has to be their decision and their, I mean, we can go to somebody and tell them, Hey, look, you're not doing right. We need to talk about it.

But that person has to have a willingness.

To be able to be held accountable. They have to humble themselves. Yes. So there's another, there's a, there's a characteristic of accountability is you have to be humble. You, the person who is being held accountable needs to be humble.

And then the person who is holding you accountable also must be humble. They can't be prideful in their own work because.

There's nothing to be ashamed of. Right. We don't just want to be like, Oh, you did this and you did this and you did this. And we have to remember God's grace and God's, you.

Know, and looking back at the, at that verse, it says, um, in a spirit of gentle, right? That's what I was trying to say. Yeah. So it's not like we have to, exactly. It's not like the person you'd be like, Oh, you did this and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

That's not.

How it works. You have to do it in such a way that it's not like, um, necessarily public, but you take your brother or sister aside and you tell them and you know, you talk to.

Them respectfully. Exactly. Gentle, gentle. All right, Rebecca, I'm gonna let you read the next one. James chapter five verses 13 through 16. There's kind of a glare there.

Okay. Is anyone among you suffering? Question mark. Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing. Praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power.

As it is working. There's a lot in this, um, but we're going to focus on 16. Therefore confess your sins once another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power or yeah, has great power as it is working.

So not only are we to, not only does it say we need accountability or say that accountability is important, but it says kind of like we need it. Um, because who are you going to confess your sins to.

Other than God? It's like saying, Oh, I can worship God out on the lake. Well, I mean you can, but you need to be with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And then you've.

Got, I mean, you've got a proof right there. Confess your sins one, uh, one to another. And that's that right there is, is pretty clear cut. Who are you supposed, I mean, obviously you confess your sins to God and you ask for his forgiveness, but at the same time you're supposed to also do it to each other.

Uh, back to Proverbs 27, iron sharpens iron. Um, and then we get to and pray. So it's not only just, it's not only accountability through confessing your faults, it's also praying. So within your accountability group, and I.

Don't know, I know you're in accountability. We're fixing to start a new one. Oh, okay.

So I have been on one. You've been in one before. I'm in one now. Rebecca's about to.

Start. I've been in several, but I'm fixing to start a new one. She's about to start a.

New one. Um, so I know one of the things that we do to end our, our time together is we pray. Uh, we pray for each other and we pray for, you know, our weeks and everything that's coming up and being good examples to our family and all that stuff and all the, all the stuff that we need to.

Uh, but I think, uh, one of the reasons why we started in 13 was to see how powerful that prayer is. And that's a totally different question for a totally different day. But it is also part of accountability is praying for her is, uh,.

Committing. Don't just say like, Oh, I'm going to pray for you. Like really do it. I was caught doing that. I mean, I'm sure everybody has, unless you're just perfect, but you know, yeah, I'll pray for you.

I'll pray for you, but really pray for your brother and sister in Christ and really pray for the lost because they need to come to Christ and understand accountability. And what better way to understand accountability than to, for somebody to teach.

Them. And, and to, to chicken back off that I'm going to use it. Um, to, to jump off that, um, we, you know, we say, Oh, well I'll pray. Or when someone posts something like on Facebook, like, Oh, I need prayer for this or that.

And you say, you, you type in the comments, yeah, I'm going to pray for you. And then what do you do? You go get an iced coffee or you go watch a YouTube video or something. You'd go to someone else. You say, I'm going to pray for you.

And maybe you're going to do it later, but maybe that later becomes, Oh, I'll do it tomorrow. Or that then becomes, I'll do it next week. Or, uh, forgot about it. Um, so one thing that is challenging here is it's saying confess your faults and pray for one another.

It doesn't say pray later. It says pray right there, like pray for them. So that might be another thing. Accountability wise that we want to look at is praying right when we say we're going to pray for somebody.

Actually, you know, uh, let your yes be yes and your no be no as it says in James. So, um, anyway, should we move on to the next verse? Sure. All right. Did you read James or I read James? You read James.

All right. It happened what? 15 seconds ago and I forgot. All right. I'll read. Uh, next one is chicken back. Uh, first Thessalonians five, nine through 11. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you were doing. Another point towards, uh, it being biblical and proving it is encourage one another accountability, um, encouraging. We're not just to point out faults and say, oh, well you suck because you do this and you need to do better, but it's also to encourage one another, build each other up.

Um, just as you're doing now, the church in, uh, Thessalonica, big word, the church in Thessalonica was, uh, was a pretty good example for the other churches around and that's where this is coming from.

But, um, so go ahead. I was just going to ask, um, you, you were in an.

Accountability group. What did that look like for me? I, when I first started my first accountability group, I was more hesitant. Like I was like, I mean, I knew people wanted me to be in there and I knew they like, you know, but I wasn't really full on into being receptive of accountability.

Gotcha. The first time I went in. So I just kind of like, and that's okay. Like, you know, everything is not always, um, you're not going to be great at everything the first time, but taking that step to even put yourself in that position of being held accountable is important, even if you're not fully in, because you can learn a lot from your, for us, it was strictly women.

So we, I can learn a lot from my sisters in Christ. And what I learned was, is that several other women were going through some of the similar things that I was going through. And to put those things in biblical perspective was a huge part of sanctification for me.

So to be able to grow spiritually with the iron sharpens iron, um, was a huge part of accountability for me. And just being able to be like, um, Hey, I'm struggling with this. And that's okay. Cause oftentimes people take us as Christians.

Oh, we're perfect. We don't make any, you know, we don't do anything wrong or, you know, or you're a hypocrite. If you do that, well, we're all hypocrites, including us Christians. And we do do things wrong.

The difference is, is there's an accountability and a repentance that comes along with doing wrong and, and, um, uh, turning away from the sin that you're involved in and moving towards Christ. So, um, that's what accountability really did for me.

And, um, I thank God for it. I mean, it teaches us to grow spiritually and.

Closer to God very much. So we've got one more verse and, um, this is Hebrews three, 12 and 13.

And Rebecca, I'll let you read this. Okay. Cause chicken back chicken back. Okay. Hebrews three, three, 12 through 13, take care of brothers. Lest there be in any of you, an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day.

As long as it is called today that no, that none of you, of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Pastor Ben actually gave us that one. Don't that oftentimes even happen to us as we, um, we go along our everyday life and we may forget to be in the word, or we may not attend church as often as we should, or especially during the COVID, like we're just like out doing our own thing and you kind of get lost and you have to go.

I mean, you really need to come back to a fellowship of Christ and stay in the word and be guarded against the world and the sin that is surrounding us. It's so easy to get caught up in the ideas that the social media is just like trying to flood you with all the time, but they're not always necessarily the truth.

They're just.

Perspective. Is that the truth? Oh, better not say that word. It's a bad word. Um, and to, to go off this, um, uh, personal story about accountability for me is, uh, very, very much part of this, this verse.

Um, I was actually in accountability before I was a converted Christian. Um, I had, I had been converted when I was, you know, like five or six and didn't really know what it meant. Uh, and then I got a friend of mine that was going here, um, said, Hey, I want to start an accountability group.

Would you be one of the heads? And I was like, well, sure. I don't, I can do that. That's not a big deal. Um, so we got together and, uh, we got, we were in that accountability group for a couple, at least five to six years.

And as time went on, uh, you know, the stuff I was being held accountable for reading the Bible every day and not doing things I shouldn't be doing it, it just, the Holy spirit started knocking like, Hey, are you sure that you actually believe what you believe?

Do you have proof? Can you, can you defend what you're doing? What, what, why, why are you relying so much on conviction? Right. Are you, is this conviction or is this guilt? And as I started really studying and really getting into it, I realized that this was not guilt.

This was conviction. This was, uh, I didn't, I didn't feel bad for myself. I felt bad because I knew I was doing the wrong thing. And, uh, and through the account, I mean, through the scripture and through study, but also through being guided by my brothers that I had, the helping me out with that, it, uh, it, it opened my eyes to, Hey, you need to actually, uh, trust and obey and do what you're supposed to do.

You really need to pay attention to what you're doing. Um, so it was through, through biblical study and through, uh, just accountability that I came to Christ. Um, well, I shouldn't say I came to Christ, uh, Christ found me before the foundation of the world, but, um, that I accepted the call and, uh, have, uh, been a Christian ever since.

So I really find comfort in, uh, Hebrews three through, uh, three, 12 through 13. I want to read it one more time. Uh, take care brothers, lest there be any, uh, of you. I'm sorry. Lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, which is where I was, uh, leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another.

And they did every day. We got, we texted each other every day. We were always in communication with each other. Um, as long as it is called today, uh, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

And that was just, I mean, through the accountability group, God used that to just ship away at that hardened, deceitful heart that I had. Um, and just, he renewed and restored me into an actual believer.

And it was, it was, it was pretty cool. And you had a willingness. Yes. And a humbleness. And it, that did not come overnight. That was not a, uh, I was not humble when I first started. I was like, what?

Okay. I don't want to tell you things. What? I don't want you to know about my week, my day. How are you talking about? But, um, so anyway, that is, uh, what is accountability? So Rebecca, let's real quick, sum it up.

What is accountability? Accountability is being.

Held accountable by someone else, um, through our willingness to edit that. No, that's fine.

So it's accountable. So accountability is someone else who is stronger in an area than we are holding us to something, whether it be reading our Bible, whether it be not doing something we shouldn't be doing, tithing, that's a big one.

Or giving, we should say giving. Giving. Yeah. Giving. Um, one has an obligation. One has a, uh, servant's right. Um, so someone's going to hold you to it that is stronger than you. So we have to humble ourselves if we want it.

And what was the, we're going to take a responsibility. That's it. Yeah.

In our accountability. And we're going to, um, just be, be, be purposeful. Like,.

Yeah. So it sounds like accountability is where you humble yourself. And I want you to say that.

One more time. I want that to stick. Take responsibility in your accountability. So.

You're going to humble yourself and you're going to take responsibility in that accountability. In humility. In humility. So man, we got a whole sentence now. All right, here we go. So accountability is humility and taking personal responsibility in that accountability through humility.

There we go. So that is, uh, that is accountability. And, uh, again, this has been,.

Oh, well, I was going to say an accountability always turns you towards God. Yes. Yes. Always. If it turns you away from God, it's not the proper accountability. Right. So if you, and yeah,.

If, if you're an accountability group and you find that you're trying to please one person in that group, probably not or a coworker or a coworker or a friend, if you're trying to please a person and not please your heavenly father, you're probably not doing it for the right reason.

You're doing it to honor someone who is not, uh, it's not the, uh, the father of the entire universe. Let's just say it that way. Um, so what accountability, accountability is, is humility, accountability, uh, humility and, uh, oh man, taking responsibility, taking responsibility, taking responsibility in your accountability and humility there.

That's Rebecca. She figured that out all of ourselves. Um, but it's not, it's not trying to please someone who is not God. Um, you're not trying to please an idol. You're trying to do as the Lord says, as we've talked about with all these verses today is you're trying to sharpen each other.

You're trying to.

Sharpen that iron, make that pure. Well, and accountability is something that you seek out and you want. Um, even though you're taking a responsibility in your accountability, responsibilities are given to you.

Accountability is something you take on. Yes. So don't get the.

Mixed up even though there is a responsibility and accountability. Yes. Oh, that's interesting. It works. It works. Well, this has been a Witten Q and A. What is accountability?