Clergy VS Layman

for those testimonies. Good to see all of you here this morning. We'll sing the last few.

But I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13. I am going to share a message this morning that Brother Wolfe had called, Brother Wolfe's not here. Oh, there he is.

He had called me Friday night and we were talking about some things regarding the ordination. And at the end of the conversation, I'd ask him, is there anything that you think we should teach on before we have the ordination? And then he said, well, give me some time to think about it. It didn't take him long, but he texted and said that maybe a message on accountability would be good.

And so immediately that night, I started to ponder that. And occasionally I'm laying in my bed and I like to have pieces of paper and pens right beside the bed there. And I'll lay there and start pondering and have notes coming or things coming to my mind and writing them down and up and down and up and down.

And it didn't take long before we had a full message. And so I'm glad for that, that that was an easy one. But I will say this, this morning, I'm gonna preach to myself and you all can listen.

And if you think Brother Jerry needs it, then you can say, amen. So let's do that. I'd like to preach here on this subject of accountability.

Now, as a teacher, when I think about preaching on a subject and the subject was asked there regarding accountability from Wolfe, my mind starts to wander through the Bible and try to pick out the word accountability. Where is it? And so I'm thinking if there's a subject on accountability or we're gonna preach on accountability, the word ought to be somewhere. Unfortunately, the word is not anywhere in the New Testament.

That doesn't mean it's the principle is not there, but the word accountability is not there. However, there is a word that is the root word of accountability, which is mentioned a couple of times in the scriptures. I'll just read a few examples.

Matthew 12, 36 says, every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. And that means that you will have a reckoning. You will have to give an account.

You are accountable. The Lord will require accountability. And so we get this idea of being accountable.

And usually the word account in the scriptures refers to your accountability before God. In Romans 14, 12, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God, everyone. And so we are accountable to him.

And so most of the accounting references in the scripture have to do with you standing before God and God saying to you, give account of your life or give account of your stewardship. I've made you a steward. It's time to reckon with that stewardship.

And so I would like to bring up this subject of accountability. I looked it up in the dictionary. The word means to subject yourself to giving an account.

We think of it in the brotherhood as, yeah, if you ask me a question, I'll give an account. I will be accountable to you. Here's how I'm doing accountability.

It's an obligation or a willingness to take responsibility for one's actions. We talk about keeping each other accountable, checking in on the actions of others, being accountable one with another. I believe, and I'll get to the end of the message here and we'll talk about this.

I believe the biblical word or phrase that is used many times that teaches accountability is this phrase, one another, one another. That is the phrase that I would pull out and put the word accountability in there or the concept of accountability, all the phrases. And by the way, there's, I counted 41 of them.

41 times the Bible tells it. It's always in the setting of church letters, letters to the churches. It's not in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, it's not in the book of Acts.

But once you get to Romans and all the church letters, you begin to see this one another. And we're gonna talk about those here a little bit later on in the message, but I wanna cover a number of ideas about accountability. And so let's look here at Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17.

Hebrews 13, verse 17 says, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account. There's that word. This is the first verse that came to my mind when I thought about accountability, that they must give an account and that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you.

Now, first of all, I want you to realize this, that the elders of the congregation, the local church, have an accountability to God, an accountability to God. Someday the Lord will say to us, and I believe maybe even he says it to our hearts now, give an account of those individuals that I've placed underneath your oversight. I want you to be accountable for them.

And so we see these words here, for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account. So I'm gonna have to be accountable for each one of you all. That's an amazing thought.

And I oftentimes think about that. You know, when God gives responsibility to men, he also requires accountability. He requires accountability.

Give account of thy stewardship. I gave you a responsibility. Give an account of what you've done with the things that I have given you.

We're all gonna have that accountability. The Bible says that someday you're gonna give an account of the grace that was given to you. Therefore, you're to be a good steward of the grace of God.

And so there is the idea here of accountability. It says that they can give this accountability with joy and not with grief. So think about me standing before God and God says, okay, of those 80 or 90 people that you're accountable for, let's start off one by one.

And he starts giving names. I don't know what's gonna happen this way, but, and I have to give an account. Or those of you who are gonna be ordained have to give an account for everyone that is here.

And by the way, just throwing this out, you know, that's why we encourage you to give a testimony and to share. I want to be under the authority and under the counsel and direction of the elders here. So that number one, we know who you are and you also know who we are.

That this is where I'm accountable before God. So it's important that the elders are able to give that with joy. And how do you think that would happen? Well, you know, Lord, they were easy to comply with the word of God.

You know, I counseled with them and they were very easy. They were cheerful. They were willing.

There was so many good things. And it was a good experience with sister so-and-so and with brother so-and-so. It's, I have nothing but positive things to say.

Then sometimes it's with grief. And you can imagine what that would be. Well, Lord, you know, there was oftentimes resistance.

There was oftentimes divisiveness and offenses. And there was just speaking behind the backs and all the things that, oh yeah, it was a grief. It was a struggle in dealing with individuals, certain individuals.

And I thought about it as I went through these notes, brothers who are thinking about being ordained, have you thought about that? Do you want to be accountable to God for these people? That someday he'll say, give account of the congregation. And that's something that we need to consider. And I realized today that not a lot of people want accountability because that requires responsibility.

I need to be responsible for something like that. Turn with me. I'm going to flip back and forth here.

Turn with me to first Peter chapter five. You might want to put a bookmark in Hebrews here because we're coming back here in a minute. But first Peter chapter five, starting in verse number one.

I like this passage here. It says, the elders, which are among you, I exhort to them also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.

And then verse four, it says, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Now, when God gives a responsibility, he requires accountability. Now, I realize that can be kind of fearful.

I have to give an account of these individuals and probably an account of how I responded, although he'll probably tell me how I did in that regard. But there's also reward. There's also reward.

It says here, when the chief shepherds appears, he's talking to the elders, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. And a lot of times we say, well, I want to be rewarded in heaven for eternity. That right there is a eternal reward, a crown of glory.

I don't know what all that's going to mean, but I would like to wear a crown of glory throughout all eternity, that which fadeth not away. And so that's an exhortation, an encouragement to those who are placed in that position of responsibility, that there is a reward for those things. Now, what will we be accountable for? Well, it says here in verse number two, first of all, you'll be accountable for feeding the flock of God.

And we've talked about that before, feeding the flock of God. You know, if you leave your children, if you leave your children with a babysitter for a week and take care of my kids, and you come back and find out that the kids have been eating soda pop, ice cream, candy bars, and cookies all week, you're probably not gonna be real happy. You're expecting them to feed them well.

And so that's one of the responsibilities of an elder, feed my children. These are God's children here. Don't feed them cookies and candy bars, feed them milk, meat, and the things that they need to survive.

The second thing is to be an overseer. So if you had come back and you'd leave your children with someone for a week and you see marks and bite marks and all kinds of scratches all over them, and what happened to my children? Oh, they were just out running around. They got out and got bit by some wild dogs and fell into some pits and got all scratched up.

Well, weren't you overseeing them? And so that's where our responsibility lies. Something else here we can learn before we get into this more here about accountability, but verse three talks about the method of our leadership. And this is important.

It says in verse three, "'Neither as being Lords over God's heritage, but being examples and samples to the flock.'" This is our method of leadership. For those of you who are gonna be ordained, your authority is an example. Your authority is an example.

And the congregation ought to say, I want to be like that person. Well, that's a high calling there, isn't it? I want to be like that person. That person is an example and I would like to follow in his steps.

I would like to follow in his marriage relationship. I would like to follow in his home life. I would like to follow this individual as an example.

I think of the Lord Jesus, when he said, follow me, he did not force anyone to follow him. He did not Lord over them. He just laid out a beautiful life, an amazing life, a life of power and compassion and humility and all the wonderful things that you saw in Jesus.

And the people said, I want to be like him. So they followed him. Oh, to be like the blessed redeemer.

You know that heart. I want to be like him. And so as we follow the Lord Jesus, those who are underneath him, those who are leading the congregation ought to be people that we say, I want to follow them too.

So when you think of elders, you think of people that I want to be like that and follow their example. The authority of the elder is their example, not by force. I want to read to you here in a bad example of this.

And in Matthew chapter 23, you don't have to turn there, but listen to what it says about the scribes. The scribes and the Pharisees stood in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do you not after their works or do not follow their example.

For they say and do not, for they bind heavy burdens and grievance to be born and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. In other words, these people are not good examples. And yes, follow their words because they are teachers for the time, but do not follow their examples.

And you know, this is the truth. When you don't have a good example, you need to then put force upon people. Most people, if they're not an example for people to be as a leader, they are required then to say, let us bind heavy burdens upon them.

And so our leadership ought to be a leadership of example. If you look at Hebrews chapter 13, verse number seven, it says that very thing. Let's go back there again, Hebrews 13, verse seven.

It says, remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow. It's talking about those who are in leadership, considering the end of their conversation, considering where they're heading, the direction they're heading. They're heading to a life of eternity, an eternal life.

They're heading to a life of reward, a life of blessing. Follow them whose faith follow. And that would include their words, their belief, their profession.

And it would also include their example. And so an example is the authority that we have in church life. And I realized that when we don't have the example, then we try to use force and it's forced upon people.

But let's be leaders by example. Now look again at first Peter chapter five. Let's keep reading because we're gonna get into accountability here.

First Peter chapter five in verse number three, it says, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. So he's just given the elders their responsibilities, their accountability before God.

And that the Lord, the chief shepherd is gonna reward them when he returns. Now, verse number five, the first word says likewise, and that's an important word, likewise. Meaning what he's about to say here is the same thing or in the same context that he's just said.

Likewise, you younger submit yourselves unto the elder in the very same way that an elder is submitted to the chief shepherd and is doing the will of God. I want you to submit yourself younger to the elder. And here it's not referring so much to elders ordained, but to the older brothers and sisters.

That the younger are to submit themselves unto the elder. And so the elder is accountable. There's a pecking order here.

The elder is accountable to the chief shepherd. And then in verse five, the younger are to submit themselves unto the elder. Likewise, you younger be accountable to those that are older.

Why is that? Natural, because they're more experienced. Because they've gone through much more. They have learned much more.

There's more wisdom usually in people who have walked with God, who experienced life, who God has brought them through many different trials and tribulations, there's experience. Younger people, wisdom, submit yourselves unto the elder. That's not me.

That's the word of God. So you're standing before a huge jungle in Africa, and you've never been to Africa. You don't have any idea where you're going, and you got to go 20 miles through a jungle.

And you got some older man here that's maybe 75 years old, and he looks pretty frail and pretty weak. And he's got a staff in his hand, and he tells you that he's been doing this daily for the last 30 years, taking people through this jungle. And you look at him and you say, well, you just don't look like very strong fellow, but that's good.

You've got some experiences. And then there's another young man is 20, strong, a lot of muscle, a lot of energy. And he says to you, I can take you through this jungle also.

Never been through it, but I'm sure I can get through it. Now, if your life depended on it, and you need someone to take you through that jungle, who are you going to choose? I know I'm going to choose the old man. He's been through it many times.

He knows where the pitfalls are. He knows where the serpent's dens are. He knows all the things.

I've taken people through this for 30 years. And so I put my trust in him. Strong fellow over here.

Young guy, he's got a lot of energy, but he doesn't have the experience. He doesn't have the wisdom. I learned this when I was in Bolivia.

I've been there a couple of times. And I go back to a mission way back in the mountains. It's way back.

And it's a six-hour bus ride. You have to take about a 10-hour bus ride down to this location where you head back into the Andes Mountains. And it's a very harrowing experience.

The first time I was there, I couldn't believe it. Just it's unbelievable. The cliffs and the edges, and sometimes it's only one lane.

It's cut out of the side of the mountain. Many, many dangerous places. Sometimes the road is collapsing.

But there's places where if you go over, they don't even bother looking for you. It's just gorgeous down there. And there's no reason to even look for you.

And so they have these bus drivers, older men. A lot of times they're drinking. They got the bottle.

And a lot of times they're half drunk. And Steve, brother Steve, forgot his last name, Mast. Yeah, he's been a missionary for many years.

And yeah, he says, half the time they're drunk. And, but they've been doing it for most of their life, 30, 40 years. And I thought to myself, maybe if brother Chris here and I went to Bolivia and we were gonna get on all these buses, take a six-hour trip down these dangerous places.

And we saw this guy who's drinking and someone told us, he does this all the time. I said, he's an alcoholic. But he's been driving these buses for 30 years.

Well, it's one good thing he's still alive. Amen. I'll be honest with you.

Let him drive it. I don't wanna drive it. I'm sober.

I'm a good driver. I would trust him far more than I would even trust myself. And you know why? The only reason why I trust him, experience.

He's an experienced individual. And so here it says that the younger are to submit yourselves unto the elder. And that references the elders of the church.

And it's just only a common sense to submit yourself unto those who are older. And so you'll be held accountable for how you submit to the elders of the local church. And the encouragement is that they might do it with joy and not with grief.

Amen. And that also includes those who are older, not just ordained elders. And I wanna be able to do it with joy, not with grief.

You know, Joseph Frost here a number of years ago was leaving us and going to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And one of the brothers out there called me and he said, you know, I'd like you to give me, give a testimony of Joseph, you know, when he's coming out here, we wanna know what kind of a young man he is. So I just basically said, here's what I'll tell you.

I mean, he's just nothing but positive. I don't have anything negative to say, it's all positive. I just fully recommend him.

And if you don't like him, please send him back. And so, you know, if my heart is like, yes, Joseph, everything's good. And that would be my testimony for the Lord.

Same with Isabel. They called me and said, how is this young lady Isabel? Oh, you're gonna love her, you're gonna love her. And so from an elder's perspective, give an account of how that person is in their responses under authority.

So help the elders that they might give their account with joy and not with grief. I'm gonna read to you here, 1 Corinthians. We're getting to this accountability here in just a minute, but you don't have to turn there.

1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'm trying to give some thoughts regarding our ordination coming up here. 1 Corinthians 15 says this.

I beseech you, brethren, Paul is writing, you know the house of Stephanus, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints that you submit yourselves unto such and to everyone that helpeth with us and laboreth. Now that's Paul writing to the church of Corinth. He says, there's a household there, the household of Stephanus, and they are addicted.

I like that kind of addiction. You wanna be addicted to something, be addicted to the ministry of the saints. Like, I just gotta have it.

I remember Brother Denny asking one time, we were talking about preaching. He said, you know, if I couldn't preach, I don't know what I'd do. You could tell he was addicted to it.

And that's a good place to be, addicted to the ministry. And Paul recognizes this household as a household that's addicted to ministry, to the saints. And he also goes on to say that you follow and submit yourselves unto such.

It's good to be an addict, not a pornography addict, not a drug addict, not an alcoholic, but someone who's addicted to the ministry of the saints. Find an addict and submit to them. That's a good, that's good counsel.

That's the counsel Paul gave. Find an addict and submit to them. Well, how do you submit to the elders? I want you to look again at Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13 and verse number seven. Here's what it says. Hebrews 13, verse seven.

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow. And here's the most important thing for you. An elder is to teach you.

An elder is to feed you. Feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof. The way to submit to the elders is to follow the teaching of the elders.

And I want to encourage all of us here, and me particularly, because as I said, this message is gonna be for me. We're gonna get to the part here for me in just a minute, but follow the teaching. Submit to the faith of those elders and what they're communicating to you.

I thought about this passage here in Ezekiel chapter 33. I want to read it to you. It says, also thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls.

This is God talking to Ezekiel. And in the doors of the houses, don't do this kind of stuff, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. Hey, come to our church and hear what's coming forth, the word of the Lord.

And they come unto thee as the people come, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth, they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, but for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

Great sermon, Ezekiel. That was a good one today. I'm not gonna do it.

And you know what, Christianity, someone's told us before, Christianity can become entertainment. You know, we don't go to the movies per se, we don't do all the things, go to the sporting events, but entertainment can be common. Hear the message this Sunday.

This individual plays or preaches like he's got an instrument, it's entertainment, and he's a singer, and it's entertaining. You just don't have to do it. You just get some entertainment value out of it.

And that's not a good place to be. And so submitting to the elders is to say amen. And I wanna just encourage you along with myself here this morning to say amen.

Amen. And let me just share with you a principle. You know, we can, like a little seed, a little seed there, a little corn seed, once you grow up to be a full grown corn plant with some ears on the side, it can be like this far out of the ground.

And oh, I just long for the time when I can be a full grown corn stalk with nice ears on my stalk. And that's probably the groaning in every seed as it bursts forth. I wanna be mature.

I wanna be fruitful. And you know, we can all be that way, amen. That'll be our desire.

I want to be like Jesus. I want to be mature. I want to be fruitful.

But that doesn't happen overnight, does it? And it never happens in nature overnight. And even though the desire is there, we need not to be so discouraged that we're not quite there yet. But I wanna encourage all of us, what you can do is take one step.

And, you know, thinking about this this morning, I thought, wow, this is overwhelming for me personally. But again, just reminded, I can just take one step forward and grow a little bit. So I'm not asking you to be perfect or for me to be perfect, but to grow.

So let's look at it this way. Elders are accountable to God. They'll give an account.

And then those who are younger are to submit themselves unto the elder. And now I like to bring out here where church life, I think, falls down and we have our troubles. And that is back here in 1 Peter 5. Let's go back there again, 1 Peter 5. There is a succession here.

And here's where I fall down. And I believe that perhaps a lot of us fall in this area. In 1 Peter 5, it says there in verse 5, "'Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another.'" So here we have this progression.

As an elder, I am accountable and subject unto the Lord in church life. Those that are younger are subject to those that are elder. And those in the congregation along with, it says all of you, along with the elders are subject one to another.

Subject one to another. We are accountable. There's where you get the idea of accountability.

We are accountable one to another. Submit yourselves one to another. In the fear of God.

So there's a lot of accountability here. And look at verse number five, what it says at the end. What it says here in the middle, "'Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility.'" By the way, this only works when you're clothed with humility.

It's all progression. Elders, you're accountable to the Lord. Younger ones, you're accountable to the elders.

And everybody be accountable to each other. But it's only gonna work if you're clothed with humility, not wearing a hat of humility, not having a scarf of humility, but being clothed with humility. You're not gonna tell me what to do, brother.

Right? Who are you to speak into my life? Ah! That's not being clothed with humility. Thank you. Thank you, brother.

Even if I don't agree with it, thank you. I will say this, and it's basically my fault as a leader, but as one of the elders here, if we err in our congregation, it's erring because we don't speak into people's lives enough. Do I get an amen for that? And so we ought to welcome, we ought to welcome it.

But all of these things can only be accomplished when we clothe it with humility. Humility is the oil that greases everything. If James here knows this, if there's no oil in the engine, the engine seizes up.

And if there's no humility here and there's no clothing ourselves in humility, the church will seize up. And let me tell you this, talking about experience, since 1989, 1990, I've seen, and brother John here probably remembers, there's a lot of churches that were established in the charity movement overall. I was in Texas and California and Florida and Maine, all over the place in the country.

They were planting churches. They were spreading up all over the place. But I look back and my, probably 60, 70% of them no longer exist, no longer exist.

Places I once preached in revival meetings where things were no longer exist. You know why? It's seized up. And humility.

Humility is the oil that runs the whole situation. What does the Bible say? All contentions come of what? Pride, pride. You're not gonna talk into my life.

You're not gonna tell me what to do. So we have to have that humility. If we're going to encourage accountability, you have to say, thank you, brother.

I appreciate your concern in speaking into my life. That's humility. And you don't walk away from it.

You hear what he said to me, I can't believe it. Yeah, humility from the heart. So we as individuals here are accountable to each other.

Be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. And that includes here the elders. And look at verse number five.

It says, likewise, you younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you, all of you. Here's the last thing I want you to do.

All of you, elders included, submit yourselves to each other or subject yourselves one to another. Now, I believe one of the errors in our thought process, and this is something that is the whole clergy laity principle is that accountability at this level is not something that the elders do for the congregants, but something that congregants do for one another. And that's where you get this one another.

In the Bible, one another, one another, one another. You know, oftentimes places are we hire this preacher and he's supposed to do all these things. And we have this great divide between the elder or the pastor and the people.

So I'm going to challenge myself and I'm not just going to challenge myself. I'm going to change myself in small increments as I can. I would encourage you to do the same.

Look at verse number five here again, this phrase. It says here, likewise, you younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you.

I like that. Yea. It's like, wait a minute.

Let all of you be subject one to another. Here's this phrase, one to another. It happens or it's given to us over 40 times in the New Testament.

And this is the summation of it. First Corinthians 12, 25 says, the members should have the same care one for another. This kind of accountability is a body function.

Now I have on the board here a picture and I want to show you kind of in a picture how there is error in our thoughts and sometimes in the way we go about it. But Christ is the head of the church. I'm going to write the word Lord up there with a capital L. He's the head of the church.

We all understand that. And we are the members of the body. But what some people think and it's common in many places is that there's some sort of an under head here.

There's a little, you can see it in most of you, there's a little knob coming out of your chin down here. There's a little, another kind of a head growing. Can you see it in all of us? You say, yeah, I can't see that.

That's right, there's only one head. There's no under head there. But there's the idea that Christ is the head of the church, but the elders are kind of like the under head.

And so when there's a problem in the church, the elders are sent to take care of all these problems. But this is not actually the way the church is to function. That's where you get this idea of the elders not lording.

It's a little L, big head, little head, not lording over God's heritage. This has caused this whole idea of clergy laity. There's a separation and this whole air and it's caused the people to sit and not understand what they're to be doing and how to function as a body.

Brother Wolf's here. And God made the church to resemble a body that we can look at our bodies and we can understand how the church is to function. So if my body is bruised or my body is hurt or is a bone broken, what comes to help in the situation? If one member suffers, what happens? All the members suffer.

And our bodies even are built all over the body when there's something hurt, parts of our bodies send things to aid. It's not something where some elder group takes care of all the issues. That's how the body functions.

So when the body hurts or when the body is sick, the whole body supports it. I like this one. When one member suffers, all the members, doesn't say the elders, it says all the members suffer with it.

This is what's called in the Bible, one anothering. And this is accountability. This is where accountability ought to be in one anothering.

And that includes the elders and also the congregation. The members of the body, including the elders caring for itself. And I love this verse here, listen to it.

You don't have to turn there, but Paul writes to the Ephesians these words. He says, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. There's a couple of phrases there.

It says the whole body, every joint, every part, which means that every one of you have a very important part in this whole situation. Notice it doesn't say half the parts or half the joints. It says every joint and every part, the whole, edifying itself in love.

One of the biggest lies that hinders church life and the accountability process is the clergy lady idea, meaning it's top down, top down. The truth of the matter is it's from the bottom up. So let's look at these one another's.

I'm going to kind of go down through these rather quickly, but these are the accountability principles in the scriptures and you don't have to turn to them. I'm not going to read all of them, but I'd like to comment on a few of them. And there's a lot.

One brother used to say there's enough for every day of the month. That'd be a great exercise for us to take these one another's and list them about 40 of them and just do one every day of the month. Find a brother or a sister and say, I'm going to do this one another and start practicing accountability.

I'm going to read down through some of them here. Here's a good one in Romans chapter 15, Paul writes to the church in verse 14, he says, and I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that you also are a full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. So Paul's writing, I know you people are filled with goodness and knowledge that you're able to admonish one another.

Admonish means to warn your brother. It means to caution or reprove your brother. Paul says, I know you can do this, all of you.

If my brother trespass against thee, what's the next word? Rebuke him, let's admonish him. Oh boy, you start admonishing each other. Brother, it's going to take some humility, isn't it? I think one of the reasons why maybe we don't do that is because we get a pie in our face or we get cursed because you try to speak into someone's life.

I've had to struggle with this thing. This is probably my greatest struggle throughout my ministry is trying to encourage people when they see something in the church that's maybe wrong and sinful to not come to me. Amen? If thy brother sinned against thee, go to who? Him, amen.

And tell him his fault between thee and him alone. And so I keep encouraging people, don't come to me. The grace of God is with you if you go.

And I think we all ought to just accept what I'm going to say here in this one sentence, just accept it as truth. If you cannot speak face-to-face with an individual, don't speak it at all. If you can speak face-to-face with your brother and share with your brother your concern, don't speak it to anyone at all.

You're a coward, you're a coward. So cowardly to speak about someone negatively in the church when you haven't even given them the chance to face you alone and to hear it from you. Should the elders be the only one who admonish? No.

Galatians 5.13, you don't have to turn there. It says to serve one another. We're going to ordain some elders, Lord willing.

And so now that we've ordained elders, nobody has to serve anybody. They're going to do all the serving. Well, that's not true.

For brethren, you have been called into liberty, only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. And I think a lot of people think that we have this pastor, we've paying him good money, he ought to do all the serving. That's what we're paying him for, right? First Thessalonians 5.11, wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another.

This is talking to the church, even as you also do. How about this one? Teaching one another in Psalms and hymns. It's another one another.

First Thessalonians 4.18, comforting one another. Hebrews 3.13, exhorting one another. Every joint supplying, exhorting one another.

That's not written to the elders, it's written to every member, exhorting one another. Here's a good one, Hebrews 10.24, and I'm not able to list all of them, but provoke one another unto love and to good works. Pushing people unto love and good works.

That's the preacher's responsibility. He's supposed to get up and have a sermon and push everybody to get to work. Now it says you are to provoke them to love and good works.

Come on, brother, come with me. Let's go out and let's evangelize together. Come with me.

Let's go out and serve a widow together. Come with me. Provoke your brother and sister to love and to good works.

Use hospitality one to another. That's something good for all of us, amen. By the way, the elder is supposed to be given to hospitality.

Someone who likes to have people over. And if you really look at the true meaning of that, it means a stranger, not just a brother and sister in the church. The Lord says, when you call a feast, don't invite your neighbors and friends and your brethren, but invite who? The poor, the blind, those that cannot recompense you.

Lovers of hospitality. They didn't have Airbnbs back then. They didn't have places like we have.

And many people traveled. You saw them on the road in front of your house. And hey, come on in and spend the night.

You washed their feet, you gave them a meal, and you talked to them about the Lord. Hospitable. Romans 12, 10, preferring one another.

You know, you go first. You speak first. Romans 13, 8, and this one is mentioned more than any other.

I think it's mentioned about 10 times to love one another. Romans 16, salute one another and greet one another with a holy kiss. First Corinthians 11, tarry one for another.

Ephesians 4, 2, forbear one another. Ephesians 4, 32. 4, 32, be kind one to another.

See this one another stuff is a body function. And elders are very much included in that. They should be an example of those things.

Accountability in the body is summed up in one verse in First Corinthians 12, that the members should have the same care one for another. Phil, you're a member here. You should have the same care one for another.

So elders have an accountability to God. You see this kind of a pecking order. Elders have an accountability to God.

The congregants have an accountability to the elders. And then the congregants have accountability one to another. Submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Let me ask you here this morning, as I've already asked myself here early this morning while I was putting this together, are you admonishing one another? And don't make the tragic mistake of looking at someone and saying, I have a concern about their life and I'm gonna talk to so-and-so about them. If you have a concern about someone, go right to them. And as Paul said, he warned men day and night with tears, admonish them with a heart that's concerned and speak to them and hold them accountable and expect maybe someone to hold you accountable.

Are you serving one another? Are you comforting one another? Doesn't the pastor go to the hospital when people get sick? And that's what we pay him for, right? Do we edify one another? Are we exhorting one another? Are we provoking one another to good works? You know, I think we will feel a whole lot more comfortable in the body that each member is concerned about me if we can start doing these things one to another. And I know it's not something, you know, my experience is not something that you can just try to say, I'm gonna make a decision, try on my own strength to do it. But I do know that God is working in us to will and to do of all these things, his good pleasure.

So why don't we do this? Why don't we go and get on our knees and we'll just ask the Lord to help us to bring not only ourselves into accountability, but also to help bring others into a real biblical accountability here at Remnant Christian Fellowship. I'm gonna do my best to change. Can I get a show of hands? How many of you will do your best to change? And it's not gonna be, you don't have to, you know, overnight, oh God, if he would give you an overnight one and you'd be just doing all these things, it'd be great.

But take one or two. And, you know, look today for someone that you can comfort one another, someone that you can serve today and show up on their doorstep. I just wanna serve you and help you.

Here's what I brought. And I know many of you are doing those things. God bless you.

I know I have a great need to do more of these things. Let's go to our knees, have a word of prayer, and then we'll silently pray. And then I'll close this with a word of prayer and then we'll open it up for anyone to share this morning.

Heavenly Father, we do humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and acknowledge that none of these things work without some humility, true humility in the heart. And so we, first of all, ask you to, as a whole in this congregation, to make us humble. We may truly be humbled in your sight, humble before the Lord that you might lift us up.

And Lord, all these things that we have seen, that the grace of God is, I believe, working in us. Lord, we desire that our church could be a church where we're accountable to one another, that every member would show the same care one to another, that people would feel cared for, and that others are concerned about where they are, where their life is, where their spiritual life is. So Lord, we invite you to minister grace and grace.

And work in each one of our hearts. I do pray that you would work in my heart, first and foremost, as one who stands here as to be an example in how I have failed in so many of these areas. Lord, have mercy upon me.

And so Lord, make us a congregation that is joyful in thy sight, that pleases you. I pray for each heart here that you would work in us, Lord, to grow us up a little bit, more and more into the image of your son. We give you that liberty in Jesus' name, amen.