Living With Urgency
Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsIt’s time for the church to wake up and live with a sense of urgency. We are busy and working our fingers to the bone, but getting nothing accomplished. It’s time we start getting God’s work done on earth.
Notes
Transcript
I. Introduction
I. Introduction
Tonight we’re talking about living with urgency.
That’s the theme here in Roma chapter 13 versus 11 through 14. What the apostle Paul is trying to get us to understand is that Jesus’s return is imminent, which means it’s gonna come at any time. And he’s he’s hard-pressed to get this information out because he has a recognition that in churches today, that people today, are just kinda just tarrying on. They’re kind of just living the life. I mean we get so bogged down in business, but we really forgotten to live our life with with urgency.
Urgency vs. Busyness
And what’s the difference between business and urgency?
Well you can be busy all day long, and you can be working quickly at things, but that doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily urgent about accomplishing task.
The difference between urgency and business, is that urgency is working with the intent to get something of value done. Business can be a lot of things. You go to school, and sometimes what they did to keep you quiet was they gave you busy work. You’re not really accomplishing anything. You’re just kind of going around in circles and getting nothing of substance done.
And we think about that in context of our life, but we realize that most things that we do, we’re really just busy. We’re really just going around in circles not really accomplishing anything.
You can be busy in the church. You can be busy planning the colors of the auditorium. You can be busy planning different ministry opportunities. You can be busy planning ministry programs, but the most important part about all those things is, what is our motivation for doing those things. Living a life with urgency means to work with the intent to accomplish something for Jesus Christ.
So what we see in our life is that we have cast off the the purpose of our Christian life and we’ve put back on the purpose of our own life.
If we’re honest with ourselves, a lot of things that we do, whether it’s in the church or in our life, is to appease our self and to make our self happy. It’s to make our self feel good.
And there’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing morally, but we’re putting back on the pews.
If your motivation for putting backs on the pews is so that will be more comfortable for you, instead of we want people that are lost to come into our auditorium and feel comfortable, then we’re not working with urgency. We’re just we’re just creating an endless, vicious cycle of busyness.
We’re just getting the latest and the newest thing. Things that bring us comfort. Not things that bring a sanctification, not things that bring people salvation.
So, what we’ve got to do in our life is, we’ve got to change our minds to going from what makes us feel good to accomplishing God’s will.
What is the whole purpose of what Paul is talking about here? Is that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent. That doesn’t mean that it’s immediate, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to come right now, it means that it can come at any time. The truth is that we don’t know when Jesus is gonna come back. The truth is is that we have gotten far to relaxed living our life because we have forgotten that God promised that His Son is coming back.
We’ve gotten comfortable. If you don’t believe that we’ve gotten comfortable, think about what you did today think about the things you did this week. Have you with any sense of urgency accomplished anything for the kingdom of God?
If your answers no, then that’s a good indication that you are living busy, but you’re not living urgently. And we’ve got to make a distinction between these two things. The apostle Paul tells us how to make the distinction between busyness and urgency right here in these verses, so let’s open up let’s read verses 11 through 14.
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. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
II. Live Intentionally
II. Live Intentionally
This is the first key in living urgently.
Define Urgency
Now I have already defined urgency. Urgency doesn’t mean running around with your hair on fire looking for something to accomplish. Urgency means living intentionally.
Intentional in accomplishing God’s Will
That means we have to intentionally live every single day trying to accomplish the will of God not only in our own personal life, but to accomplish God’s general will here on the Earth.
Do not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
If we don’t do those things, if we are not accomplishing God’s will daily then we are living for busyness. We are living, fulfilling the lust of the flesh, and we have forgotten that Jesus is coming back at any time.
This is a serious charge that the apostle Paul on the church at Rome. It’s a serious charge of the apostle Paul on our life. Jesus said it many times. Nobody knows the day or the hour in which I am coming.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
Now watch this,
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
What does Paul say in v. 11? “Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”
Our Ultimate Salvation
What is our ultimate salvation? What is the ultimate goal of the Christian life?
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
The whole purpose of our Christian existence is to become more like Jesus Christ.
What was Jesus like?
The Focus of Jesus
Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?
Jesus existed on this earth as a worker and a servant for God. He did not get tangled in the affairs of men beyond what would lead them to repentance and salvation.
Read with me Romans 13:11 again.
And do this, knowing the time
What is the time Paul is talking about?
This is that Greek word kairos. It is not the word chronos. It means that we are in a distinct age in the existence of the world. It’s not talking about a chronological time, but it is talking about an age in which we live that has been established by God.
And what is that age? We are living now in what is called the church age.
Now, look what Paul says.
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;
Paul is calling us to sobriety. He is calling us to urgency. He is calling us to live with the eternal in mind. With the reality that we are living in an age that is serving as a buffer between a time of great darkness and reclaiming of the earth by Jesus.
It is time to wake up!
Now, ya’ll know that I’ve been coaching baseball, and we had a game last night, and, to me, every play is urgent. With sports, you know it only takes one play to either make or break a team. And what’s one thing that you think I have to tell a bunch of 8 year old boys constantly while they’re on the field?
WATCH! PAY ATTENTION! WAKE UP OUT THERE! THE BALL COULD COME YOUR WAY ANY MINUTE!
The play goes on, and the ball doesn’t come their way…and guess what…there they go again…dancing around, day dreaming about making a game winning throw to home, picking their nose, or just digging in the dirt.
You know how we are? We’re like those 8 year old boys.
Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”
We’re supposed to be paying attention! We are supposed to be watching, we are supposed to be living with urgency….and instead we are down here doing what amounts to dancing, daydreaming, picking our nose, and diggin in the dirt.
Busyness does not impress God
God’s not going to care about how packed your daily schedule was. He’s not going to care that you woke up at 5am to work. He’s not going to care if you die with the most stuff. Busy work does not impress God.
Urgency Impresses God
What is God going to care about? He is going to care if you were about His business. He is going to care if you carried out His commands and His will with intentionality and urgency.
My first job was for a grocery store. I actually like working for the grocery store. I eventually learned how to work in all the departments and the regional manager took me aside and said, “How would you like to start working in produce and eventually manage the produce at another location?”
I was honest with him and told him that I really didn’t want to but I’d help in produce if they needed it, so the manager of the store put me in the produce department.
I was there working and the manager over the produce was very direct with me and said, “The last person I had working with me didn’t cut it. She would spend all day making these cute little fruit cups, and always put up big displays, and always made sure the flowers were pristine, and she would say, ‘isn’t all of this so beautiful?’
The produce manager would say, “Yeah, it’s nice, but when I came in this morning there were no bananas on display, the tomatoes hadn’t been rotated, the produce room was a wreck, the boxes were piled high, and the only thing that looked good was fruit cups.
What this employee was doing was working all day focusing on the wrong things. Yeah, she was getting stuff done, it just wasn’t the right stuff.
That’s how we are in life. We are getting so many things done, but when our Master comes back, He is going to see that we were not living soberly, that we were not paying attention, that we were not about His business, but about our own business.
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.
There is that reality of imminence. That our salvation is nearer now than it was yesterday.
The Meaning of Salvation
Think about the meaning of salvation this way.
We were saved from sin, to do good works, and to become like Christ.
What we have there is past, present, and future.
from sin, that’s past; to do good works, that present; to become like Christ, that’s future.
Salvation is Nearer
So, when Paul is saying that our salvation is nearer, he is saying that Jesus is closer to returning now than when we first believed. And if Jesus was close to returning in Paul’s day, how much closer is He to returning in this day?
Don’t Fall Asleep
What a tragedy would it be for our Master to come back and find this church, or find you, sleeping or distracted instead of doing His will. Being carried off by this and that, filling up your schedule with making fruit cups or out there dancing in center field.
How do I stay awake? How do you stay alert and live with urgency and intentionality about God’s will?
III. Live Soberly
III. Live Soberly
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
Wearing the armor of God equates to sober living.
Think about your salvation…
Once, your mind was darkened by sin, then you came to the light and were able to understand the world clearly.
Think of it like drunkeness.
A drunk cannot see clearly, he’s impaired, he’s not sober.
He cannot function properly.
To be sinful, to be void of God’s word, is to be without truth. It is to be without the capacity for sober living.
That’s why Paul gives the command, “cast off the works of darkness.”
The Works of Darkness
We know the works of darkness well. I wish it weren’t so, but it is. We know them because we have committed them.
Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
A Call to Live Soberly
So, he is giving us a call to live soberly. That is, to live according to the truth.
Now figure this, if we’re out in the field dancing, or diggin in the dirt, if we’re putting up big displays, organizing fruit cups, instead of doing the necessary job, we are not living soberly, but we are living like the sinner.
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
What were the days of Noah like?
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
What were these evil works?
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals;
It is the same evil work that captivates the earth, even perverting the nation Israel, and that is the worship of sexuality, prosperity, and self. The worship of the Baals
“Well, Dylan, I don’t worship sexuality, I’m way past those days.”
Ok, what about prosperity?
Do you feel diminished because you don’t have, you don’t go, you don’t experience what others have, where others go, and what others experience? That’s the false God of prosperity.
We like to take verses like Jeremiah 29:11 and apply that to our own lives.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
And we equate that with earthly prosperity. But the future and hope that God is talking about in Jeremiah is the same future and hope that we are talking about in Romans, it is the future and hope of our salvation in Jesus. It’s not about earthly prosperity. It’s about heavenly completion. It’s about being like Jesus and living out the commands of God.
Now there’s nothing wrong with prosperity, so long as we are using our prosperity to further God’s kingdom and not our own. So long as we are faithful to give and to love and to be a resource for the work of God. But to focus on stuff and money instead of God is to worship prosperity.
What about self?
When our schedules are so packed that we never spend time with God, then we are worshipping ourself. We cannot possibly know what God wants from us if we never talk to Him, if we never hear from Him.
Every church has this problem, that people are taking leadership roles and making decisions that don’t have a close relationship with God.
You see, what happens at churches is we begin to turn inward. We begin to do things that make us more comfortable, that make us feel better, that make us feel important, that make us feel loved, that we completely forget about people outside these walls dying and going to Hell.
Sometimes, there is nothing more useless than a church meeting. Sometimes, there is nothing more useless than a Sunday School class. Sometimes, there is nothing more useless than a ministry in the church. Why?
Because its not done with the urgency to make ourselves or others more like Jesus Christ…its done with the intent to make ourselves happy. It’s the worship of self, and it plagues the church, and God help us if it plagues this church.
Living Soberly Instead
Instead, we need to live soberly. We need to live with the realization that the day of our salvation is nearer than when we first believed, and we don’t want our Master coming to find us so involved in the affairs of the church and in this life that we haven’t done any of the work He assigned us.
IV. Live Accordingly
IV. Live Accordingly
Live according to what?
Romans 13:14
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
That is, that the mission and the person of Jesus Christ, ought to consume you to the point that it is pouring out of you.
It ought to be so engrained in your life, that you don’t have to try and live for Jesus, it’s just who you become.
Think about where we are in the Book of Acts. We walked through the gospel Mark where the disciples were struggling and living defeated lives. And what we are about see is that their lives are about to be so covered by Jesus, that even death did not stop them from preaching His name.
Those lusts that Paul talks about in v. 14 is that longing for prosperity and for appeasement. It’s that desire we have to get what we want instead of giving Christ what He wants. It’s void, its useless, its the lust of the flesh that we have seen played out since the very beginning.
V. What do we need to do with this?
V. What do we need to do with this?
What you need to do with these verses, with this message, is you need to take an account of your life, and ensure that you are:
living intentionally, not just wasting your days with the status quo.
Living soberly, that you are not living like you used to where you are motivated by earthly prosperity, or by self-gain.
Living accordingly, that inwardly you are seeking to be so conformed to the image of Jesus, that it comes spilling out of you.
How can you accomplish these things? Go back to v. 10 and think about the fulfillment of the law. You should love God with all your heart, soul and mind, spending time with Him, thinking of Him, praising Him…using that renewed relationship between you and God to love others by living intentionally, soberly, and according to God’s commands.
Only by a deep and sincere relationship with God can you live urgently in this life.
