The Higher You Stand

Two Sundays ago we closed the Whose God? series by raising an Ebenezer together - இம்மட்டும் கர்த்தர் உதவிசெய்தார், thus far the LORD has helped us. Today we begin a new series: Giving Account · கணக்கு ஒப்புவித்தல் - five Sundays on one question, to whom do you answer?

Everyone answers to somebody. The worker answers to the supervisor, the student to the teacher, the child to the parent. But the higher a man climbs, the fewer people are left who can tell him no.

Our Sunday evening groups have been working through the parables, and the morning began with a simple question: who learned something new last week? A few hands went up on the men's side, a few on the women's side, and the rest sat quiet. It would be easy to start demanding accounts of one another over that - and we should not, because the asking is not ours to do. There is One who will ask. That is this week's title. The Lord will ask you for an account. You are accountable to God. Our own Tamil Bible has carried this word all along - கணக்கொப்புவிப்பான். This is not a foreigner's business idea. It is the language of Scripture.

"So then each of us shall give account of himself to God." - Romans 14:12 (NKJV)

"ஆதலால் நம்மில் ஒவ்வொருவனும் தன்னைக்குறித்து தேவனுக்குக் கணக்கொப்புவிப்பான்." - ரோமர் 14:12 (TAOVBSI)

The two readings set the frame before the message began. In Genesis 3:8-13 the first question தேவன் ever asks fallen man is an audit: நீ எங்கே இருக்கிறாய்? - where are you? - and the first answer man ever gives is an excuse. In 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 Paul writes that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The account is the oldest business between தேவன் and man, and it is still open.

The Higher You Stand - உயரம் விலக்கு அல்ல. Position never shortens the ledger. It lengthens it. And the cross has already settled it.

The Master Came Back · எஜமான் திரும்பி வந்தான்

Matthew 25 and Luke 12 carry the story. A landowner is leaving on a long journey. He calls three servants and puts his property into their hands - five talents, two, one - each according to his ability (திறமை). He is gone a long time. Then one sentence turns the whole story: the master came back, and he settled accounts (கணக்குக் கேட்டான்).

Two of the servants had doubled what they were given, and the master praised them. The third had been afraid - afraid of the master, afraid the money would be lost somewhere - so he kept it safely hidden and handed back exactly what he received. The master did not call that safety. What that man had was taken from him and given to the ones who had traded well, and he himself was thrown out.

Notice what the account looked like. Not one servant was asked about the others. Each was asked about what had been placed in his own hand. The man with five and the man with one were both called in. The size of the trust changed the ledger. It never changed the summons.

In the parable the talent is money; that is what the word meant in the old world. But what the Lord has placed in our hands is ability. Nobody in the room could honestly claim to have no talent at all - and more than a few admitted that the talent they do have is lying unused. Parents see it, brothers and sisters see it, teachers keep saying it, and we listen and walk on. But a day comes when the Lord Himself settles accounts, and at that place there is no walking on. You cannot pass beyond it without rendering the account; which way you go from there is decided at the place where accounts are given. Today, if someone questions us, we can shrug and move along. On that day there will be no reason left to offer.

Every One of Us · ஒவ்வொருவனும்

"But why do you judge your brother? ... For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. ... So then each of us shall give account of himself to God." - Romans 14:10, 12 (NKJV)

"இப்படியிருக்க, நீ உன் சகோதரனைக் குற்றவாளியென்று தீர்க்கிறதென்ன? நீ உன் சகோதரனை அற்பமாய் எண்ணுகிறதென்ன? நாமெல்லாரும் கிறிஸ்துவினுடைய நியாயாசனத்திற்கு முன்பாக நிற்போமே. ... ஆதலால் நம்மில் ஒவ்வொருவனும் தன்னைக்குறித்து தேவனுக்குக் கணக்கொப்புவிப்பான்." - ரோமர் 14:10, 12 (TAOVBSI)

Paul writes to a church busy judging one another. The quarrels were over food and holy days - this one eats meat, that one eats only vegetables, this one keeps the festival on the wrong day - each side measuring the other against the word and finding them short. Paul's answer is not stop having opinions. It is you are about to stand in front of Someone. All of us will stand there: the ones who lead the church, the elders, the newcomers, even the ones who come in quietly, doze through the service, and go home. ἕκαστος (hekastos), each one (ஒவ்வொருவனும்) - no category is exempt.

And notice what we render: each of us gives account of himself. Not of his brother. Ask a man for an account of his younger brother and he will fill two or three books without stopping for breath. Ask him for an account of himself and the pen goes still. We are all quick to prepare other people's ledgers (கணக்கு). This morning தேவன் asks for yours. A man can know every fault in his neighbour's house and never once have opened his own books - if all our accounting has been about other people, it means our own account book is still new, not one line drawn in it.

Height Does Not Exempt. It Enlarges. · உயரம் விலக்கு அல்ல

"For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." - Luke 12:48 (NKJV)  |  "My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment." - James 3:1 (NKJV)

"அறியாதவனாயிருந்து, அடிகளுக்கு ஏதுவானவைகளைச் செய்தவனோ, சில அடிகள் அடிக்கப்படுவான். எவனிடத்தில் அதிகங்கொடுக்கப்படுகிறதோ அவனிடத்தில் அதிகங்கேட்கப்படும்; மனுஷர் எவனிடத்தில் அதிகமாய் ஒப்புவிக்கிறார்களோ அவனிடத்தில் அதிகமாய்க் கேட்பார்கள்." - லூக்கா 12:48 (TAOVBSI)  |  "என் சகோதரரே, அதிக ஆக்கினையை அடைவோம் என்று அறிந்து, உங்களில் அநேகர் போதகராகாதிருப்பீர்களாக." - யாக்கோபு 3:1 (TAOVBSI)

Here is the question people are really asking: what about the man at the top? The one nobody supervises, nobody appraises, nobody can dismiss? At the bottom of any ladder you answer to many people; climb, and the answering thins out, until at the top you can do as you please and no one can question it. The Lord's answer is the opposite of what we expect - position does not shorten the ledger, it lengthens it. The servant who did not know takes few blows; the one who knew takes many. The higher you go, the harder the account falls if it is wrong.

Take a small test from our own church life. We are preparing for the dedication festival on September 4. Suppose one of the youngest men in the congregation stood up and said: do not put up the pandals outside, this much spending is enough, stop there. How many would accept it? He would be told to go and sit at the side. Now suppose I stand here and say the very same thing - most people would privately think it foolish, and not one would say so out loud. That is the whole matter in one scene: the higher the chair, the quieter the room. The higher a man stands, the fewer the people who can rebuke him or point out his fault - which is exactly why the man who stands high must walk the most carefully.

The higher you climb, the easier sin becomes to hide. When you are a nobody and you slip, the whole street gathers to talk about it. When there is money and position, things can be done and no one ever knows. Scripture does not leave this as theory; it gives us two kings side by side. Saul was found wandering after his father's donkeys, and தேவன் made him a king. When he went wrong, he gripped the throne and let go of the Lord - and he kept the throne, right up to his death. That is the sobering part: தேவன் did not come and strip the palace from him. He simply left him. The Lord rarely snatches back what He has blessed you with. He gave the car; if you go wrong He will not come and tow it away. He will leave - you keep the car, and He goes. So the question must be faced: is it the Lord being with us that matters, or sitting comfortably with the goods and the income He once blessed?

David was taken from behind the sheep and made king, and his fall was worse than Saul's - he took another man's wife and had her husband killed to cover it, even sending the death letter in the hand of the man who was to die. Put the two kings in a row and we would pass the death sentence on David; what did Saul really do except hold a sacrifice the wrong way? But when Nathan stood in front of David and said you are the man, David did not negotiate. He could have said: Nathan, this stays between the two of us; take some money; what happened has happened. Kings can arrange such things - that is what height makes possible. Instead his heart broke on the spot: I have sinned against the LORD (2 Samuel 12:13). David knew exactly what had happened to Saul - the man who went looking for donkeys was set aside, and David could count how quickly the man who followed sheep could be set aside too. He knew the height was dangerous, and still he did not run from it.

James writes the same way. He does not say you teachers. He says we shall receive a stricter judgment. He puts himself inside the warning before he lays it on anyone else. That is the pattern for every leader in the room, and I will keep it here, with my own name first. Church ministry was never something I went looking for; honestly, I had no taste for it and no ambition in it, and the Lord said you will do it and placed it in my hands. And I feel the weight of this point in my own life more than in any verse. I know how I was four or five years ago, and I know the height the Lord has given me since. In today's circumstances I can take many decisions entirely on my own, and I know very well there is no one left who can question me. That is exactly why, standing in that place, I keep telling the Lord: do not let me take a wrong path.

Hebrews 13:17 belongs here, and it must be read whole. It is the verse quoted at congregations to demand obedience - obey those who rule over you, and be submissive. But read the rest of the sentence: they watch over your souls as those who must give account (கணக்கொப்புவிக்கிறவர்களாக). The verse that binds you to your leaders is the same verse that binds your leaders to தேவன். So this never runs in one direction only. Elders answer to the flock they were given, husbands to wives, the முதலாளி to the worker. And தேவன் has built the guard into life itself: it is not good for man to be alone. He saw how gladly we would climb out of everyone's reach, and in marriage He joined two into one flesh - so that however high a man rises, wherever he travels, he carries with him at least one person who is allowed to question him.

The Handwriting Nailed to the Cross · சிலுவையில் ஆணியடிக்கப்பட்ட கையெழுத்து

If the message ended at the second point, the wise response would be to hide better - or to do what many do with James 3:1, and simply refuse the height, refuse the responsibility, stay small so that the account stays small. Every one of us has a ledger we would rather nobody opened. But flight is not the believer's answer. This is why:

"...having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." - Colossians 2:14 (NKJV)

"நமக்கு எதிரிடையாகவும் கட்டளைகளால் நமக்கு விரோதமாகவும் இருந்த கையெழுத்தைக் குலைத்து, அதை நடுவிலிராதபடிக்கு எடுத்து, சிலுவையின்மேல் ஆணியடித்து;" - கொலோசெயர் 2:14 (TAOVBSI)

There was a written case against us. In Tamil we would call it a மனு - a petition. The accuser has been filing them without rest: every wrong recorded, the message sent from behind a closed door, the words typed inside a game where no parent could see - noted, written out, signed, and carried up before தேவன், clause by clause, the way a lawyer cites sections of the penal code: by Your own statutes, this one has done all of this.

The word Paul uses is χειρόγραφον (cheirographon) - a note of debt written in the debtor's own hand. Our Tamil says it exactly: கையெழுத்து. The case against us is not slander; the handwriting on the debt note is ours. And தேவன் did not lose the record. He did not pretend it was never written. He took the paper with our own handwriting on it and drove a nail through it.

So the reckoning is real, and the reckoning is already answered. We do not render account to a stranger; we render it to the One who paid it. This is why a believer can afford to be accountable. Accountability is not the fear of being found out. It is the freedom of the already forgiven.

Conclusion · முடிவுரை

Every one of us renders account. Height enlarges it. The cross has settled it.

So the question this morning is not whether you will give account. It is whether you will give it now, while it can still change you. A reckoning delayed is not a reckoning avoided; it is only a reckoning that arrives too late to do you any good. The Lord is gracious with us now the way a father smiles at a child who is slow to answer - but once this life is over, there is no excuse left to speak before Him. While He is still smiling, speak.

Declaration Prayer · அறிக்கை ஜெபம்

பிதாவே, என் கணக்கு உம்முடையது. நான் ஒன்றையும் மறைக்கமாட்டேன். எனக்கு அறிவுரை சொல்ல ஒருவரைத் தாரும்; அவர் சொல்வதைக் கேட்கிற இருதயத்தையும் தாரும். இயேசுவின் நாமத்தினாலே, ஆமென்.

Father, my account is Yours. I will hide nothing. Give me one person to speak counsel into my life, and give me a heart that listens. In Jesus' name, Amen.

One Thing This Week · இந்த வாரம் ஒன்று மட்டும்

Name one person who is allowed to ask you anything. One name - not a group, and not a principle. We will need that name next Sunday.

Next week - Part 2 of கணக்கு ஒப்புவித்தல் (Giving Account). The memory verse to carry in: Romans 14:12 - ஆதலால் நம்மில் ஒவ்வொருவனும் தன்னைக்குறித்து தேவனுக்குக் கணக்கொப்புவிப்பான்.