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Let God Make the Most of Your Life
The Book of Romans
Romans 13:10-14; Ephesians 6:10-17
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared October 28, 2021)
BACKGROUND:
*Here in Romans 13, God's Word has been telling us how to live the Christian life.
We have seen that God wants us to obey man-made laws, -- unless they conflict with His Law.
God also wants us to pay both our public and our private debts.
In vs. 7, He wants us to give respect to whom respect is due, and honor to whom honor is due.
But most of all, in vs. 8-10, God wants us to love other people with the same kind of love that He has for us.
*Now, as we close out this chapter, God's Word shows us how to make the most of our lives.
Please think about this as we read vs. 10-14.
MESSAGE:
*One of the great ways of God is that He often uses simple things to help us understand spiritual things.
He uses earthly things to help us understand eternal things.
God's Word talks about the Bread of life, the fruit of the Spirit, rivers of living water, the Good Shepherd searching for His sheep, God as our Heavenly Father, and more.
God uses simple things to help us understand spiritual things, and that's what He does in this Scripture.
*His goal is to help us make the most of our lives, and it's very simple.
It's not always easy.
Sometimes it's very hard.
But God makes it simple.
1. FIRST: HE TELLS US TO WAKE-UP.
*In vs. 10-12, Paul said:
10.
Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11.
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
12.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. . .
*When do we need to wake-up spiritually?
-- Right now!
And why do we need to wake up?
[1] ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS WHY IS BECAUSE WE TEND TO FALL SLEEP SPIRITUALLY.
*Now, sometimes people get sleepy in church.
But a much bigger problem is Christians falling asleep in our spiritual lives.
We definitely have a tendency to drift off.
And we know that this is a risk, because if it wasn't, then, God wouldn't have put these verses in His Word.
*Gerald Flury explained: "We are living at a time when many believers are spiritually asleep.
They are sleeping the slumber of indifference.
Larry Crabb said, 'The core problem is not that we are too passionate about bad things, but that we are not passionate enough about good things.'"
(1)
*That's spiritual sleep, and one preacher pointed out: "You can walk in your sleep.
You can talk in your sleep.
But you cannot work in your sleep."
And God wants all of His people to wake up for His work in our world.
(2)
*Church: we need to wake up because we tend to fall asleep spiritually.
[2] WE ALSO NEED TO WAKE UP BECAUSE SPIRITUAL SLEEPING WILL GET US INTO SERIOUS TROUBLE.
*Steve Shepherd told about a 77-year-old man from Palm Harbor, Florida.
His name was James Currens, and he definitely got into trouble walking in his sleep.
*One night, James sleepwalked out of his house, and stumbled through the yard.
Poor Mr. Currens didn't wake up until he was in the middle of an alligator pond!
A neighbor heard him hollering for help, and called the police around 5 a.m.
They found Mr. Currens fighting off 8 alligators with his walking cane!
He almost turned into alligator breakfast!
(3)
*Sleepwalking can get us into serious trouble.
But spiritual sleeping will get us into worse trouble, even worse than winding up in an alligator pond!
[3] CHURCH: WE ALSO NEED TO WAKE UP BECAUSE WE ARE SHORT OF TIME.
*Paul made this truth clear in vs. 11 when he said we should be "knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed."
*We need to know that when Paul said, "our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed," he was talking about the ultimate fulfillment of our salvation.
That's either when we die and go to be with Jesus, or when the Lord returns to earth.
Either way, -- our time in this world is quickly running out.
*Then in vs. 12, Paul said, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand."
That could be talking about the fact that usually, the daytime is the time to get up and get busy.
But again, Paul could have been talking about the day of the Lord's return.
And either way, we need to wake up, because we're short of time.
*Life in this world is much shorter than we think.
The Civil War in our country ended in 1865, and that seems like a long, long time ago.
But my grandmother was born just 31 years after that, and Mary's grandfather was born just 3 years after that!
Our time in this world is much shorter than we think.
That's why God tells us to wake-up!
2. CHURCH: HE ALSO TELLS US HOW TO WALK.
*In vs. 13, Paul said, "Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy."
Here Paul was talking about our life-walk as followers of Jesus Christ.
Paul used this same original word over 30 times in his letters, including 5 times here in the Book of Romans.
*You see, the Christian life is a spiritual walk with Jesus Christ.
William Ritter explained, "I recently found 382 biblical references to various forms of the word 'walk.'
There are a multitude of references that suggest how we are supposed to walk as Christians: Walk in love.
Walk in wisdom.
Walk in the light.
Walk in the path.
Walk in the Spirit.
Walk in the law of the Lord.
Walk in the way of the Lord.
Walk in the fear of the Lord.
Walk in the peace of the Lord.
Walk honestly, forthrightly, courageously, worthily and humbly."
(4)
*Think about the countless blessings of getting to walk through life with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
We have the best fellowship with the best friend in the universe!
In John 15:13 Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
The Lord made that statement on the night before the cross, and a few hours later, Jesus made the greatest sacrifice in history when He died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins.
*When we walk through life with Jesus, we also have the greatest guide we can ever have.
He always knows exactly where we are, and exactly where we need to go next.
And Jesus will always get us safely home.
*Anthony DeMello told about a family that moved into a new neighborhood.
Soon, one of the grandfathers came for a visit.
Grandpa took his little granddaughter for a walk in the new neighborhood.
*They walked for around 15 minutes.
Then Grandpa asked, "About how far do you think we are from home?"
The little girl said she didn't know.
"Well, what direction do you think we should take to get back?"
Grandpa asked.
She said: "I don't know!"
*Then with a twinkle in his eye, Grandpa said, "Sounds to me like you're lost."
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