00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 647 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Heather hymen from sweet tea, social marketing. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to reach others is key. And one way to be inspired to do just that is to listen to this,
00:00:31 the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader, By holding each other accountable and lifting each other up by challenging each other, by doing the hard work together, that we all are able to do things that God has called us to do things that are way bigger than any of us could do alone. So I ask you this, are you holding yourself accountable?
00:01:06 Not just to God, but to each other. Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world In today's spiritual foundation episode about developing your influence.
00:01:43 I talk with you about accountability in the Bible. I share something about Romans 14, 12 Proverbs 27, 23 first Corinthians chapter four, verse two, and my favorite Proverbs 27 17. And I share why all of this fits together into a picture of accountability for all of us. We've talked before about that word, accountability and how all too often, we tend to look at it as kind of a negative thing.
00:02:11 You know, someone's holding me accountable to something is a bad thing. So I decided to do a little bit of research. One of my friends was talking about how in the Bible, the only thing it says about accountability is that we will be held accountable to God. You know, the, the idea of at judgment day or at the end of times,
00:02:32 we'll be held accountable to God. And I agreed with him and I said, that's definitely in the Bible. But I said, I think there's a little bit more than that. And so I just picked a couple of passages and there are literally hundreds to kind of illustrate what I was thinking about it. And I mean the first one, Matthew chapter 12,
00:02:52 verse 36, as an example says, but I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. This falls very closely into that attitude that, that I was talking about, where it talks about. We are held accountable to God, Romans chapter 14, verse 12. So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
00:03:15 And that truly is one of the types of accountability that's in the Bible. And it's a very important one. This idea that at, at the end of the time, whether it's when we die, whether it's at, you know, some judgment day that we will be held accountable to what we've done, what we've said, what we've thought, and we will be held accountable to what we've done in terms of stewarding our resources by God,
00:03:41 we'll be asked questions and challenged on that. Now the truth is though there's some other kinds of accountability that are also in the Bible, I just mentioned will be held accountable to how we steward our resources, how, how God has given us the gift of certain resources and talents and abilities and what we've done with them, we will be questioned about, for example,
00:04:08 in Proverbs chapter 27, verse 23, it says, no. Well, the conditions of your flocks and pay attention to your herds. Now, obviously this is a, an agrarian reference, but this idea of the things that you have been given dominion over the things that you have been blessed with, the things that you have been given that you have that are yours are really gods,
00:04:33 but we're supposed to know their condition and pay attention to them because we're supposed to take good care of those things. You know, first Corinthians chapter four, verse two says in this case, morever, it is required of stewards. That one be found trust worthy to be a good steward. We are asked to hold ourselves to a higher standard. As Christians we're asked to hold ourselves to a higher standard,
00:05:03 to do things in a way that is above question, that can be hard to do sometimes, especially in today's world. You know, when we think about this being held accountable to God, that's a scary concept for me because I'll tell you the truth. I know each and every day I fall way short of being able to do what I think God is calling me to do.
00:05:28 There are times that I am selfish with my resources. There are times that I wonder if what I'm doing is the right thing. There are times that I really want to do the right thing, but I find myself challenged by it. I found myself unable to do it scared or frightened or angry or tired and unable to step up and do the things that I know God is calling for me to do,
00:05:55 because oftentimes I'm trying to do it under my own power instead of leaning on the power of God and the powers of others. See Proverbs chapter 27, verse 17 is one of my favorite in all time. And it says iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens. Another. That Bible verse is one of my two favorite. The other being Micah chapter six,
00:06:21 eight, that idea of iron sharpening iron one person holding up another person and holding them accountable to doing things and being a little better today than they were yesterday is a powerful, powerful form of accountability in the Bible. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we answer to men before we answer to God. No, in fact, however, what I am saying is it's in answering to men and to each other,
00:06:53 that we can be held accountable by people who we allow into our life who are good examples of being good stewards, who are good examples of living out their calling, who are good examples of doing the hard things that God calls us to do. And by letting those people hold us accountable, we end up doing a little better each and every day, it's together in community that we build the kingdom of God on earth,
00:07:20 as it is in heaven. It's only by holding each other accountable and lifting each other up by challenging each other, by doing the hard work together that we all are able to do things that God has called us to do things that are way bigger than any of us could do alone. So I ask you this, are you holding yourself accountable? Not just to God,
00:07:48 but to each other. Are you holding yourself accountable to being a good steward? Are you holding yourself accountable to doing the hard work that you're called to do? And if not, what can you do to increase your accountability to others? Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
00:08:23 but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time,
00:08:57 invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact the world.