S05E059, Accountably Accountable… Andy B 2 Minute Video

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We all see change and can get a bit freaked out. Losing control is another one that can make us very uncomfortable.

Perhaps I’m more unique though, because I really do enjoy change! I’m not daft enough to think that some change doesn’t infuriate me. But that’s because a lot of change is utterly unnecessary.

Here’s the thing for those of us who have decided to become Christians – change, and losing control, is at the very core of being a Christian!

When we say sorry for the things we’ve done in our life, that we know God was not happy with; when we choose heaven and peace on earth, over hell and hell on earth, we are choosing two things at that very moment. One of those is change, and one of those is losing control.

Both are heavily rewarded. Actually, there is nothing that God can ask us us to place in His control; in His hands, that will not be a greater blessing than however important that ‘thing’ may have been to us.

So what does accountability have to do with that? It’s really simple.

When we become Christians we are, at one level, simply admitting that we can’t do this life on our own – that we need God’s help.

But God loves us so much He puts people in our path who can help us become ever more like Jesus – those people will help hold us to account, and we need that.

Watch a high calibre race and you’ll see the runners held to account – by someone setting the pace they need to run at.

We need those pace setters too – people who hold us to account and pushing us to our absolute best.

Just a thought...

Andy B

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[00:00:00] So another Andy B Two Minute Video. Now, this is all about accountability. 

[00:00:13] What do I mean by accountability? It's really simply this. It's the method, the ability, the place of having other people who can hold you accountable. And what I mean by that is not just to advise us, that's great. We need people who can advise us. But we need people who can't just advise us, but actually who can kind of force us into doing things in a righteous way. 

[00:00:36] What am I talking about? We're not talking about some sort of weird controlling thing, I'm saying it's really important to have accountability. 

[00:00:43] Because I've got lots of people who can give all sorts of input and some of that is just friendly advice. Ooh, have you thought about doing this? Double glazing salesman. They can give you. But I'm not necessarily gonna listen to that advice for two reasons. One, I don't own the home, [00:01:00] so the landlord will get a bit upset. And two, it's already done. So if they came around and saying, you need to get this, then it's really important, I'm just gonna ignore that advice cuz it's not helpful and it's not appropriate. 

[00:01:10] But there is advice that we need to take which is important,. Let's call it righteous advice or accountability.

[00:01:18] Because in life as Christians, we're not meant to go through this thing alone. We're not supposed to just think, oh yeah, thanks, thanks for that. 

[00:01:24] If we are listening to a sermon, the difference between teaching and preaching, preaching is speaking in authority over a congregation. When I preach, I take that very much to mind because God, far more, is gonna question those who are speaking over others in a biblical, righteous way. 

[00:01:43] Teaching is simply sharing what you know.

[00:01:45] Preaching is speaking into the lives of people on behalf of God. 

[00:01:49] They're both important. Two things. Both important, both very different. But we need accountability. 

[00:01:57] Once, once every so often we meet as [00:02:00] the BerryBunch. We have a, a, an advisory group, but they're more than an advisory group because if these three men of God, who we've got at the moment, if they said altogether, look, we believe you should do this, we're going to do that. Because we've chosen them carefully, because they're godly men, because it's righteous to have others who can speak into our lives.

[00:02:16] If you are a parent, don't let your children grow up. Help them grow up. They need boundaries. Sometimes you need to force 'em to do what they don't want to do. That's helpful, righteous, appropriate, and it's a good setup for the rest of lives. 

[00:02:30] It's really good to have friends who can advise us. It's even better to have people who will hold us to account and ,as Christians, we should make ourselves accountable to others, and we should expect to hold others to account as well.

[00:02:43] You've got friends who can do that. Try and get some, pray for some.

[00:02:58] Just a thought.[00:03:00] [00:04:00]