Marks of an Honorable Life
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
If you have your Bibles please turn to Romans 13,
Illustration:
Police Chief asked what was the most important quality in recruiting new police officers. Strength, intelligence, experience?
The Chief stated that they can train officers with skills that they need, teach them the proper procedures to follow, but what they couldn’t teach was honor and trustworthiness.”
He lifted a badge up and said this badge only truly shines if the life behind it is one that stays clean.
Living an honorable life for the Lord requires a lfie transformation that produces honorable living in the child of God. This morning we will be looking at
Three marks of an honorable life before the Lord from Romans 13.
Read Romans 13
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
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.
1. Conduct Yourself Under Authority (13:1–7)
1. Conduct Yourself Under Authority (13:1–7)
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Illustration:
In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened as the strongest suspension bridge of its time. What most people don’t realize is that its strength comes from tension working in harmony.
The cables pull, the towers stand firm, the anchors bear weight—each structure submits to its role. If one piece refused authority, the whole bridge would collapse.
Submission does not weaken — it stabilizes.
God has established authority like the beams and cables of society.
Honor grows when we respect the structure God designed, not when we try to tear it down.
2. Care for Others Through Love (13:8–10)
2. Care for Others Through Love (13:8–10)
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.
Illustration — The Phone Call That Changed an Ambulance Route
A paramedic shared that when responding to emergencies, they sometimes receive calls back—
“Actually, don’t go to that address—there’s a more urgent case nearby.”
One day, a call redirected them from a minor injury to a scene where a young child had stopped breathing.
Their immediate change saved a life.
Love is that redirect.
We may be on our own schedule, heading our own way, but God calls us to reroute toward the need right in front of us.
Love pays what’s owed not with money, but with presence, compassion, and sacrifice.
3. Clothe Yourself with Christ (13:11–14)
3. Clothe Yourself with Christ (13:11–14)
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.
Illustration — The Night Watchman Who Changed at Dawn
A security guard works all night, fighting fatigue, waiting for dawn. But when the sunlight breaks, everything changes:
He stands straighter, alert, awake — because morning demands it.
Paul says, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand.”
You don’t wear pajamas to a battlefield. You don’t wear darkness into daylight.
When the sun rises, you change what you wear.
To put on Christ means:
Turn off the old life like a lamp in a dark room
Step fully into the new morning of grace
Live awake, armored, intentional
The world needs to see Jesus on us like clothing.
CLOSING
The Uniform on the Chair
A young firefighter recalled the night he almost slept through an alarm.
He heard the faint siren in his dream—but he didn’t move.
Then he remembered something his captain said on his very first day:
“Keep your gear at the foot of your bed. When the call comes, you don’t have time to go searching for what you should have already been wearing.”
He jumped up, dressed in seconds, and arrived just in time to carry a child out of a burning home.
Church, the alarm is sounding.
The night is ending. The day is at hand.
There is no time to fumble for Christ only when crisis strikes.
No time to run back for love once the moment has passed.
No time to learn honor when obedience is required now.
Today the Lord calls us to:
Submit with honor
Love without delay
Wear Christ without hesitation
Respond:
Are you wearing Him?
Are you loving like Him?
Are you living under His authority?
Because the world is on fire —
and the children inside cannot wait.
