Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, why does accountability matter? Now, this is taken from a New York Times opinion piece by Michelle Cottle called have these People Learned Nothing? What she was talking about is the, recent implosion of Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell's political career. Let me give you a little background. Swalwell is a representative in California who recently declared his candidacy for California's soon to be open gubernatorial position. And he was a rising star. Many people thought he was the presumptive nominee for the Democrats in California, which usually means you're gonna be the governor of California. but just about the time his kind of fever pitch, reached its climax, stories started coming out about sexual misconduct. And in fact, it turns out he's been accused of multiple. By multiple women. Of, assault. Of, just conduct unbecoming. Late, night text, unwanted advances. You've heard the story before. Anyways, what Cottle is talking about is how does this keep happening? Like, how do leaders keep thinking that they can do this kind of thing and get away with it? In the era of social media, in the post me too era, why would a, Congressman not only think as a congressman he could do this without getting caught? How did he think he could run for governor and it still wouldn't come out? That's what she's asking. Haven't they learned anything? But of course, here's what I want you to think about. Let's use this question and story as an opportunity to look inwardly, because sin is like a mold. This is what you have to understand. This is what God is telling Cain, by the way, in Genesis 4 when he says, cain, be careful. Sin is crouching at your door, and its desire is for you to destroy you. What God is saying to Cain is that we think of sin as something we pick up and put down, and every time we put it down, it poses no threat to us. We are in the driver's seat. But God is telling Cain. No, actually it's the opposite. He actually assigns to sin some predatorial, some animalistic kind of rational thinking, properties. Where he says to Cain, sin is actually thinking about how it can pounce, how it can destroy. And I think this is what God is saying. He's saying that sin is never benign. It's always malignant. Where it's allowed to fester allowed to grow. It will grow and grow and grow and grow until you can't see straight anymore, you can't see. Think clearly, and you'll find yourself in some pretty dark places. I've sat with men before who are looking at pornography that is teetering on illegal. And when I ask them, how did you get started? They never thought they would end up there. That's how sin goes. I imagine you've said and done some things I know I have, that you think, well, how could I have ever said and done that? Well, the answer is, you left sin unchecked. The. That's my point here. How many people around Swalwell were actually challenging his behavior? How many people were holding him accountable? It sure doesn't seem like the answer is very many. It seems like other people were turning a blind eye at best, and at worst, were covering it up. Look, Paul says this in Galatians 6:1 to Christians. He says, brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. What he's saying is, you never let sin linger. You never turn a blind eye. You never excuse it. To love someone is to point out when they're headed in the wrong direction. Now, look, he says, do it gently. He says, do it with the end goal of restoration in mind. Nobody's talking about a flamethrower or a bulldozer. But part of confronting sin in the lives of people you care about is understanding that if it isn't dealt with, it will always become worse. There are no small sins. There's no sin we put put down that poses no threat to us. It is crouching at our door. Its desire is to destroy us. When Swalwell looks back at what was once a promising political career and asks himself, how did I get here? He's gonna have to go back a long way to some very beginning choices that he made. And unfortunately, look, it's his responsibility. But I think there are a lot of people who cared about him who are gonna have to look back at choices they made as well. Let's not let that be us. Grab some coffee, sit down with a friend. Share with them the troubling pattern that's starting to emerge. The sin you see in their life. Share it with gentleness. Share it with restoration as your goal. But share it, because otherwise the next headline could be about them. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!