We... Embrace God's Way

We Honor and We Love - Romans 12:9-21.

Relationships with Fellow Christians and Non-Christians

We Trust God’s Plan - Romans 13:1-7.

We don’t get sucked in to the consuming rhetoric of Politics

We trust God when we are subject to governing authorities.

We show trust in God when we are good citizens - regardless of who takes office.

We show trust towards God when we pay our taxes

We trust in God’s plan when we pay off debts, give respect and honor to others.

We Embrace God’s Way - Romans 13:8-14.

Learning to look at life with His lens.

In the past two weeks we have been in a series called We… Responding to Political Reality. This is a series that was intentionally held after the election. We wanted to be in Hebrews leading up to the election as a way of continually exalting Jesus. Not getting distracted, not losing sight of what is most important.

I know that many of us are ready to be done talking about politics. That there was this sense of relief after the election, the drama of the time had come to an end. For some, this series may have felt like an extension of something you were ready to be done with; for that I do apologize. In these last two weeks, there may be others, who heard pieces that were hard to digest. It is not our desire to weed out, push out, or be antagonistic towards any political view. In fact, in the time of Jesus, there were six different, major political views among the Jewish people. But it is the unified focus on Christ that is illuminated when we learn to live together well even though there may be disagreement about politics. Here at Grace, we want to be clear, we are here to exalt Jesus, pointing people to Him. Which is why Paul calls us to live as model citizens. We are here to build rich biblical community, reflecting God’s creativity in unifying our diversity.

The goal last week, was to recognize that in election cycles, we have a tendency to give too much emphasis to government. That we have a propensity of becoming subservient to candidates or political ideologies instead of remaining focused on the Lord. Whenever we give too much emphasis to the things of this world it will stir up all kinds of responses in us. What is interesting about Romans 12 -13 is that though the role of government is addressed - everything is talked about in the light of horizontal relationship. Perhaps you noticed that in the first week of the series we considered how we are to interact with other believers as well as non-believers. Then in week two, we looked at what Romans 13 has to say about government and how we as believers should aim to be rooted in the teaching of Jesus so that we dont get caught up in the dramatic rhetoric that surfaces during an election cycle. We are to trust that God has put them in office, we are to be subject to their authority, functioning as a good citizen, paying taxes, doing, good, showing honor and respect to others.

Then in verses 8-14, which we will cover today, go back to where we left off last week.

That we should aim to be a church that chooses to be unified. To embrace the wisdom of Jesus, is to care more about each other, not getting distracted from serving others, finding ways to continue to stand on truth with kindness as we live on mission for Jesus.

We only have so much time to build a rich community of faith, one that exalts Jesus and reaches the lost. We need all believers to join in to build a vibrant community of faith - where we trust in the Lord to provide, to enrich, and to bless, as we continue to bless the broader community as servants of Christ.

We also need to understand that this section of teaching, Romans 12-13 is only a section of the broader topic that goes from chapter 12 through the end of 15. The topic being Christian Living. And Paul keeps that focus of Christian living in the context of community.

Meaning that the entire structure of how Paul speaks about our response to political reality, has an undertone that refuses to exalt things of this world like our view of government. He keeps it short and to the point saying “trust God with that.” But he also uses it to point to how we as the church should be purposeful as a community of faith that is not impacted by culture, but rather impacts culture - which will have effect on the political scope in time.

If we are going to build God’s Kingdom, we must embrace biblical correction that helps us to live in light of God’s point of view. We do that by fixating on Jesus, His teaching and His life as a model. And we do it by studying His word, aiming to receive and apply correction that will bring about spiritual depth in your soul.

So let me leave the whole political discussion behind with one final question for you. As you reflect on sensitive nerves that were poked during the past two weeks, a valuable question for you to ask yourself may be, “What is the root cause of my sensitivity?” Is it a sensitivity based on scripture and prompted by the Holy Spirit? Or, is there something in me that is a little off and as it was exposed I became uncomfortable.

I want to leave that question with you and trust that you will spend time before God’s throne, being intentional to differentiate between spiritual truth and personal conviction.

Let’s pray that we would be open to receiving from God in this way.

Lets Stand as we receive from the Word of God together this morning.

Romans 13:8–14 “8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments,

“You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,”

and any other commandment, are summed up in this word:

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

Let’s get the love thing right:

Joel Johnson - “If we could only get the love thing right, there’s no end to what we could be or do for God’s glory. But we just don’t always get the love thing right as much as we want.”

How do we aim to get the love thing right? According to Romans, we make sure that we:

Owe no one anything

Some have come to believe that this verse means that Christians can never take on debt. But if you start looking at all the cross references on this subject we find that is not quiet accurate. Instead we find that the Bible does not forbid borrowing or legal financial transactions. The Bible does forbid charging unreasonable interest, any form of dishonest gain, and failing to pay our debts (Ex. 22:25-27, Neh. 5:1-11). Between believers particularly we are called to deal generously and kindly with one another, not taking advantage.

The way we handle our money matters. The way we respond to each other regarding money matters.

What we find is the larger point within the Bible is that we are to be diligent, good stewards of what God has given us.

Proverbs 3:9–10 “9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”

Matthew 25 - Parable of the talents which encourages us not only to steward but to aim to build on what we have been given.

This means, we should be really cautious about taking on large forms of debt. You can take it on, if you can pay for it. But know all too often we are willing to take on too much debt. We buy too nice of home, too nice of car, we slowly rack up credit card debt.... whatever the case may be. This is not what the Lord has for you.

I once heard a pastor say, “we too often try to buy things God has for us, but they were not meant for today, they were meant for our future.”

Did you know that almost half of all Americans would need to barrow money or use a form of credit if they had an unexpected $1,000 expense?

We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world and yet we are so eager to have and to experience that we live with tighter margins in our accounts.

Here is why this matters biblically and is aligned with Paul’s point.

As the people of God, we are aiming to “Get the love thing right.” The essence of love is that it is giving where nothing is owed.

Culturally, we live in a time where we often aim to balance out what we have been given. Meaning, we get caught up in giving as a response to what others have given me. Always aiming to give enough to balance out their gift while internally aiming or hoping to get a little more than we give.

As Christians, we are blessed to be a blessing. If we are going to get the love thing right, we need to steward our money, living with discipline -

First because it is honoring to God.

Secondly, so that we are always prepared to bless others with what God has given us. Giving to them, not to bring balance, but simply because we want to be loving. Giving where nothing is owed.

Paul really believes in getting the love thing right and continues to express its value. “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1752) was a German Theologian who said, “To love is liberty” - It is when we reject our selfish motivations and embrace cultivating and building others up that we enter into a form of freedom we have never known.

Origen of Alexandria was a third century scholar who said, “The debt of charity is permanent, and we are never quit of it; for we must pay it daily and yet always owe it.” We can never love others too much. Because the moment we stop making investments of love is the same moment that we turn and give in to some form a selfishness.

There are all kinds of people we could read who have very insightful things to say about love.

But scripture says, Love does no wrong to a neighbor

It is interesting to think that if we could get the love thing right with one another, there would be no need for the biblical law. It seems like a strong statement and it is. It reveals something about us and communicates a truth about God.

It reveals that we as humans are incredibly selfish creatures. That we will take advantage of each other, use and abuse until we get what we want. It’s loving other to a end or loving others so that we are even. Because of our sinfulness will always creep in to our relationships. However slight it may be, we will always have ways in which we will take advantage of others.

Which is why we desperately need the Lord.

So it reveals our brokenness while communicating this truth about God. That He is so good, merciful, gracious to us. You see God is so powerful that when we earnestly pursue Him, He transforms us. The only way to have right relationship with other people, where we truly love them in a way that reflects God’s love for them, is when we have right relationship with Him.

Romans 5:5 “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Therefore, if we are going to get the love thing right, we must “Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

Because we must work at righting our relationship with God. It is by living in right relationship with Him. It is by studying the person and teaching of Jesus. Aiming to apply everything to my own life. It’s when I live in this place with the Lord that I learn how to invest in my horizontal relationships. It’s where I learn about deep and rich community.

Learning that meaningful rich communities of faith enter into some practices and reject others. They reject some because they are toxic, damaging the person and the community around them. Things like Orgies - which in the Bible is not sexual in nature but is concerned with revelry - meaning drinking while being loud and obnoxious, it could be thought of as a loud party or someone who is drawing attention to themselves at a restaurant or bar. Healthy communities reject such things as orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, sensuality which is elevating sexual desire too much. That even within the confines of marriage, sex can become an idol or practiced in a way that is wrong, or even be too high of a priority.

Rich communities of faith, where people live in right relationship with one another do not practice these things. They do no give into arguing or jealousy. Because all of these are driven by selfish ambition.

You see, as we learn to reject selfish ambition and grab hold to embracing the correction and wisdom of Jesus, He gives me a taste for what He is wanting to do with me and through me. That as I see Him caring for me, leading me, being patient, merciful, and providing for me, I now know how to care for others.

People who focus on others more than themselves rarely struggle with low self-esteem. They have learned how to love others well and they have a form of strength because of confidence in knowing that what they are doing is right before God and therefore, right before others.

Therefore, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ”

Notice it does not say, “So follow the law.” Paul doesn’t say to go back and memorize every detail of the Dueteronic, or levitical law - carry it out before God and you will be righteous. He doesn’t say “If you just stop doing these selfish things.”

He simply says, “Put on Jesus.” Take your sin, your temptation seriously, put up strong guard rails, refuse to take part in gratifying those desires, instead put on Jesus.

I can’t tell you how many times in my life I have been tempted and had to turn to Jesus. Times where the temptation was unrelenting. I could not distract myself from it, I could not simply just go somewhere else. It was right in front of me and would not leave. So I would pray. Then I would pray more. As it came back around I would pray again.

Temptation is a very real struggle. Many of us have known the pull of addiction. That it is not as simple as quitting cold turkey. So how do we respond?

We run to Jesus in prayer. Not wasting time, not pretending we have the strength to resist. We call a friend and tell them so they can pray. We run to God’s word and meditate on what is true.

One of the things Jesus consistency demonstrated in His teach is that He cares about our attitudes as much as our actions. Because attitudes lead to actions. Hate leads to murder. Lust leads to Adultery.

You see a rich community of faith is purposeful about attitude, recognizing how our attitude affects the way we do the love thing. Additionally, a rich community of faith is willing to be held accountable. Willing to share temptations and ask for prayer coverage. We recognize that our relationship with Christ is too valuable to ignore.

My hope and prayer for us as a church, is that we will wake up. That we will stop tinkering with sin, making allowance for it in our lives. That we would reject it and do everything we can to put on Jesus. Because when we live in right relationship with Him, we will build a richer community of faith that will care for and love their community with the love of God.

This week, many of you will sit at a table filled with political controversy. If that is you, I want to encourage you to ask others around your for prayer. That the Lord would give you wisdom, not to get lost in political debates. But to lovingly bless while pointing to Jesus.