Dear friend.
On this particular Sunday I told you that a small group will hold you accountable. I said it quickly and moved on. I want to slow down, because I don’t think I was honest enough about the cost.
Being known is lovely in theory. In practice it hurts.
Here is what I mean. Most of us have a Sunday self. It’s not a lie exactly. It’s just the tidied version. We arrive on time, we sing, we shake hands, we say we’re fine. And because a congregation is large, the tidied version is all anyone ever needs to see. You can carry a Sunday self for thirty years and nobody will ever ask a second question.
A small group takes that away from you. Not straight away. But somewhere around week nine, when your guard is down and you’re tired, the real thing slips out. The sharpness in your voice. The thing you keep going back to. The prayer you’ve stopped praying because you no longer believe God will answer it.
And there it sits, in someone’s front room, with the tea going cold.
That moment is the whole point. Peter writes, “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” Notice what love is covering. Not vague, tidy, general sin. A multitude. Yours. Specific, named, and now visible to people who will still be there next Tuesday.
We often read that verse as though love means politely looking away. I don’t think Peter meant that. Covering is not pretending. Covering is what happens when someone sees the worst of you and stays anyway. You cannot be covered by people who have never seen you.
So the accountability I mentioned on Sunday isn’t really a system. It isn’t a checklist or a rota. It’s the slow, uncomfortable, healing work of letting a few people watch you fail and keep loving you.
That’s why it grows holiness when a thousand sermons cannot. Sermons speak to the self you brought to church. Small groups meet the self you actually are.
My honest confession: I have preached this for weeks, and I still find it easier to lead a group than to be known in one. Pray for me on that, and I’ll pray for you.
Sunday Rewind - each week I share a sermon from the Battle Ready Sermons archive. My role has shifted to training the next generation of Salvation Army officers at William Booth College, so I’m no longer preaching every Sunday, but God’s word doesn’t go out of date. These messages are here to encourage, challenge, and point you to Jesus, whenever you need them.
This week’s sermon was originally preached 15 August 2021.
Find your few. Start this week.
With love, Rob
Scripture: New Living Translation (third edition).