Nobody Cares Until You Do: Accountability
Robert Hunt
I wrote this book about accountability a couple years ago called Nobody Cares Until You Do.
And the whole premise behind it is that in our world,
we've really lost the vision of what real accountability looks like,
especially those of us who follow Jesus.
We're going to be accountable for the life we live. At some point, we're going to stand before the Father, and whatever we've done, good or bad, from the time that we accepted the gift of salvation through faith in Christ, we will be accountable for that life.
Jesus talked about it in parables about the parable of the talents. And he talked about, you know, chasing down to get that. That place where they found gold in the ground. They sold everything to get it, or to find that pearl of great price. You know, there's always these things that he talks about, choosing wisely and using your resources wisely and staying focused on what he wants.
And so we've become kind of selfish and complainers as a church because we don't like the sound of the music that the choir puts out, or we don't like the air conditioning, or we don't like the chairs, or we don't like this pastor.
And we forgot that it's really all about worshiping God, serving the Lord and serving others.
And so I really want to encourage people to think about your life in this way. You have been given so much, and you are accountable to God for what you do with it.
Do you really know what accountability means? Accountability, in the simplest terms, means you own it. That means you are the one who will be looked at and judged according to what you do. And so you can blame your parents, you can blame the church, you can blame everything, but nothing will change the fact that you are going to be standing before God someday and he'll ask you, what did you do with the resources I gave you?
And so I really want to inspire people to look at life that way.
There's four things that hold us back from being victorious in Christ.
We blame
we make excuses
we say we can't
we wait and hope.
Go do something about it!
And those four things keep us from being productive. And God rewards obedience. He rewards the fact that we do what he calls us to do.
But too many times we make excuses for why we don't do something God's called us to do. Or we blame the church or someone. I don't go to church anymore because it's full of hypocrites. Of course it's full of hypocrites. That's why we go to church. We're trying to unhypocrite.
And so we all get together and people will say things that. It's like a blank check to not do what God's called you to do.
But you can make all the excuses you want or blame or say, I can't. I can't do that. Well, yes, you can. You can.
We can do all things through Christ, who gives us strength. That's in the Bible. And with the power of God living inside of us, there's nothing we can't do.
But we wait and hope that, well, maybe something will come along. Maybe someone else will do this. This is where God is saying, I brought this opportunity to you. I fed it to you right in front of you, and you did nothing about it. And you looked around waiting for someone else to do it, but it was yours.
So I really want people to understand those traps that if you're blaming, you're making excuse, you're saying you can't, or you're just waiting and hope it gets better. You are not being accountable for the life that God gave you.
Jan: How do you recognize God's voice telling you what things to do?
If you really want to know what to do, start by understanding who God is. And the way we understand that is by reading His Word and spending time thinking about what does that mean.
Listen to pastors who help you understand it. They're taking it and they're making it in ways you can understand.
Talk about it with other people in your world. Take this faith that God has given you and talk about it and practice it. See how it works. See it doesn't work.
So you start to learn enough about the way to do things, that the things to do become easier to understand.
How do I spend God's money? You know that 10% you give to him leaves you 90%, but that 90% still belongs to Him. He just let you use it. And he's going to hold you accountable for how you spent the money he gave you. So if you take all the money he gives you and you spend it all and then you spend more and get into debt, you not only say, hey, that wasn't enough, God, I'm not going to live contently.
I'm going to now go get into debt, which causes me stress and worry. Jesus says, don't worry. Well, you have to do things proactively to not worry. If you do things that make you in a stressful, difficult place, you're going to worry.
Don't do those things that are going to cause you to disobey God by the behavior.
So I think making decisions is a lot easier once we understand who we are in light of who God is.
How do I become accountable with my money?
Accountability is different. than responsibility. Accountability is proactively creating a way that I can live my life available for God. That is accountability to him. Responsible means when something comes up, I deal with it.
But am I dealing with it in the way that God created me for or am I just getting by? And I think we get by far too often and we put God in a little box where, well, if I get a chance, I'll do this for God. If you get a chance, I'll go serve one Sunday a year and at the parking patrol at our church.
You know that that's not a life full of joy and rich blessings because of obedience to God. And then you look at your relationship with God and you go, this is no fun. There's nothing here. Well, it's because you didn't give him any room, that you didn't leave any room for God to be a part of your life. So no wonder it's boring and drab and empty. You kicked them out and you kept them out.
If you really, really want to have an amazing relationship with God, you have got to be accountable to what he asked us to do with our life,
which is to be a good steward and be available to him and to others.
The problem is you don't see that because you're so absorbed with your own junk, you can't see other people. There are times where God will bring someone in your life and you may be entertaining angels unaware, but because you're so wrapped up in your own junk, you have no room to look around at the world around you.
And I'm telling you, when I'm in the zone in my walk with the Lord and I'm thinking about him and listening to him and enjoying him, things come up all around me, all around me all the time.
Someone at a, at a convenience store where I'm checking out who's having a bad day and I get to say, I'm sorry you're having a bad day. I'm going to pray you have a better day. And I move on.
Everyone at the office, all my clients, my neighbors, there's always something going on. But if I'm not so self-absorbed in my own junk that I created in, most cases that I created, then I can see around me to all the great things that God is doing, and I get to be a part of that. That is exciting. That is a rich life full of God using you for the purpose he created you for. That's fun.
We blame
we make excuses
we say we can't
we wait and hope.
Wow! We need to take inventory of our lives, right?
I know I do….
I want to share these scriptures with you.
Romans 14:12
"So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God."
2 Corinthians 5:10
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."
Matthew 12:36
"But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken."
If you value all life, this book is for you!
Available now in print and ebook.
Order your FREE download HERE NOV 16,17,2024
I’m pretty excited because I’ll have some of my kiddos visiting!
