Series: HomeTeam
Sermon: Ring Chasers
Scripture: Galatians 6
ICE BREAKER: What is your favorite inspiring sports movie and why?
REVIEW:
This week we kicked off our Home Team series!
All series long we are talking about community and its critical role in our lives. APPLICATION HAPPENS IN COMMUNITY!
This matters because MetaChurch is always focused on applying the truth of God in our everyday lives. We Meet Together in order to Move Together in the real world and make a difference in the lives of people around us.
Application requires ACCOUNTABILITY, Authenticity, and Alliance with like-minded people. This Sunday we focused on the idea of accountability.
As humans, we naturally shun accountability. We don't like being held to an expectation. We see this more and more in the sports world as the star athletes have become Ring Chasers! The great sports icons of the past would stay with a team for a LONG time. If they did leave, it was often because they were traded as they got a little older. These days, athletes will jump ship as soon as things don't get their way! The biggest stars leave their Home Team to form a Super Team and take the easiest route possible to a Championship Ring.
Now, we can't really blame them - that is their job and they are doing what they think is best for themselves. However, we can't help but feel like those Rings are Cheap. They were not earned by sticking with, and being accountable to, a community for the long-haul!
This isn't just something in sports. We can become Ring Chasers in on our own lives. Anytime we take the easy way out of work, relationships, goals, habits, etc., in order to avoid accountability we are doing the same thing! We want to WIN but we don't want the hard WORK of being accountable to others.
Where have you seen this attitude in the world around you?
Where have you seen a tendency to avoid accountability in your own life?
The Apostle Paul had started a Church where this same mentality had crept into the Congregation.They were looking for the easy way to look more spiritual than anyone else - to be the Church Champions! One group had decided they were superior to everyone else. They were creating division and disrupting the community. Paul called their Ring Chasing attitude CONCEITED. In the greek, that word literally means EMPTY GLORY!
When we win ALONE, the glory is empty. When we take the easy way out, the glory is empty. When we refuse to do life in community the glory is empty!
Paul then outlines the 3 pieces of accountability that produce true greatness in our lives. First is COMMUNAL ACCOUNTABILITY.
Galatians 6
2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
We are called to play an active role helping each other navigate the complexities of life! Self-sufficiency is not a mark of character, it's a deception! We need each other and to fully find fulfillment in your OWN life, you must begin engaging with the lives of those around you. However, there is also PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY.
4 Let each person examine his own work, and then he can take pride in himself alone, and not compare himself with someone else.
We are called to Carry one another's burdens, but not to use community as an excuse to judge or gossip. Community should cause us to take a closer look at ourselves! Paul was telling the Ring Chasers in the church that, instead of spending their time judging others, they needed to do an inventory of their own life!
WHEN YOU ARE LIVING LIFE AS A RING-CHASER, IT CREATES A DECEITFUL PRIDE THAT BELIEVES IF YOU STOP to help those down and out, if you get down in the mud and mire with sinners stuck in the world’s grasp, if you help off-load the suffering and anguish of those carrying burden - you will only dirty yourself and impede progress toward the EMPTY GLORY ahead!
Finally, there is ETERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY.
7 Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap,
Someday, we will all stand before Jesus! The two questions we will have to answer are:
-Did you Carry Your own load? In other words, did you examine your own life and ensure you were doing what you could to live out your purpose and passions.
-Did you Carry other's burdens? How did you use who you are and what you have to make a difference in your community?
APPLY:
What is ONE WAY you have been avoiding stepping up and Carrying Someone else's burdens and what is ONE WAY you can take on that accountability this week?
PRAY:
Ask God to give you an honoring your heart when it comes to the topic of accountability. Allow the Holy Spirit to search you and show you where you need to carry other's burdens.
