The Sermon
Have you ever bought a greatest hits album or CD? If so, who was it? While you think about it, let me tell the younger people what we are talking about since every song is now streamed, we no longer need greatest hits albums—especially when you can make your own greatest hits playlists on Apple Music or Spotify. But those of us of a certain age, we loved a greatest hits album. So is anyone willing to share who it was? When my wife and I were dating, we had a Chicago’s Greatest Hits cassette tape that we played constantly as we rode down the road together. We loved it and it is about the extent of my romantic ability.
I remind you of the greatest hits album because for the next few weeks we are going to deal with some of the Apostle Paul’s greatest verses. Hopefully just like a Chicago song, these passages will bring back good memories and hope. The first one is Romans 13:8. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. What a powerful word. But for our sermon purposes, we need to read the rest of the passage to understand its context. So let’s read Romans 13:8-14. By the way, this will be a participatory sermon where we will ask three questions for you to discuss with those around you. Hear the Word of the Lord.
8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
“Time is about up!” That statement can either bring a sense of relief or panic depending on the circumstance. If you are a kid sitting in time out, those words are so sweet to hear. If you are at work on a Friday and you are looking forward to a long weekend, it is wonderful when the boss utters those words. But if you are a student taking a test, that statement from your teacher is the last thing you want to hear. Or if you are a patient, you certainly don’t want the doctor to utter those words.
Paul basically tells the Romans their “time is almost up” in verse 11 we don’t know how they reacted to it whether it was relief or panic. Listen to how he puts it. And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. I highlight this verse because it is the key for the verses before and after.
Whether we like it or not, our time is almost up as Christians! When we look at the events of our day, it won’t be long before Jesus is coming back. If ever there is a time for us to wake up from the slumber because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed it is now. Jesus is coming back and we need to make sure we are ready.
And so, being ready for His coming means we love everyone all the time. That is not an easy ask. We agree in theory with Paul that we should not let any debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. It is putting it into practice that is the problem which leads me to our first participatory question: “Who are the most difficult people to love?” Please don’t point. That is rude. Don’t name names. But what are the general characteristics of a person who is hard to love? I will give you one minute to discuss it.
From the original sermon presentation · Slide 5
Preaching preparation — possible answers: The arrogant; the angry; the know-it-all; are all good answers. But God wants us to love these people no matter what. Paul put no qualifications on this outstanding debt of love we owe. If they are breathing, we are to love them. And for some people who rub us the wrong way, we are going to need God’s help. His Spirit is going to have to enable us to love.
The good news is if we love everyone all the time we fulfill the law. Love is not merely a feeling. Love has behavior attached to it. If I say I love you while harming you, using you, lying about you, stealing from you, or violating you, Paul says I don’t understand love. Consider your kids if you are a parent. Would you ever gossip about them, slander them or needlessly cause them pain? Absolutely not! We just have to extend that love to everyone else.
The other benefit to loving is it will help us fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus told us before He went back to heaven, “Go and make disciples in all the nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that Jesus’ commanded.” This wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command! And it is love that reaches people for Jesus. I wish it was preaching! Then all we would have to do is invite people to church or give them my sermons to read. I wish it were acts of kindness. Then all we would have to do is be nice. But the truth is others come to know Christ when we love them unconditionally. They will want to continue in the faith when they are involved in a caring community of believers. They will obey the teachings of Jesus with supportive friends who can speak the truth in love. Love helps us fulfill the great commission.
But we haven’t answered the most important question. “How do we love people that drive us crazy?” We have to be loved first. Some of us find it easier to love others because of the wonderful parents we had. Ever since we took our first breath, we were the center of their universe. We have never known what it was like to not have someone unconditionally love us. And because of these awesome parents, it made it easier to love other people. Unfortunately not everyone had this type of parent. Some parents are distant, harsh, absent or broken themselves. Their love was transactional. We had to do something to receive it. Loving others can be especially difficult when we have never experienced that kind of unconditional love we deserved.
But here is the good news, whether we had amazing parents or not so good ones, when we come to Jesus, God will pour out His love into our hearts. But it is not just a one-time occurrence, every day, if we spend time with Him, we can experience that unconditional love which will enable us to pass it on to other people, even those who drive us crazy. Amen.
Paul also says in verses 12-13 that because time is almost up we need to behave ourselves which leads to the second question: Why is it so difficult to behave? You have one minute to discuss this question that has plagued most parents to this very day.
From the original sermon presentation · Slide 9
Preaching preparation — possible answers: We are selfish… we want our way… it is fun.. We are made that way.. I was raised that way… Good answers
But hopefully we all realize that there is no excuse for our bad behavior. There are plenty of explanations but there is no excuse. We misbehave because there is something inside us that wants what I want, when I want it, the way I want it. Christianity isn’t simply Jesus telling badly behaved people, ‘Behave yourselves!’ Christianity is Jesus giving us His Spirit so that sin no longer has to run our lives. Jesus didn’t go to the cross to leave us powerless in our fight with sin. We can live victorious lives over our sin. Now I am not saying we will never sin. All Christians live a life of confession. I missed the mark here. I should have done this there. But those who are in Christ are no longer slaves to sin.
Behaving ourselves means leaving behind the deeds of darkness or as modern-day people might say, our “dirty deeds”. There is no place in the Christian’s life for drunkenness and debauchery. I realize it is football season and there are people getting together each week to watch the game and consume alcohol and do some other crazy stuff. But for the believer, the time is almost up and we can’t behave like that. For some of us, it might mean finding different people to party with where we won’t be tempted.
Behaving ourselves also means living differently than the world. Society says you can have sexual relations before you are married with as many people as you want. God calls that sexual immorality. The world celebrates people who are jealous and fight others. Probably all of us have seen at least the commercials for the thousand “Housewives of some city”, and all they do is fight and cause trouble. And if our lives mirror them, there is a problem. God calls us to be different. By His Spirit we can live holy and pure lives in a very vulgar and violent world.
Time is almost up so lastly we need to clothe ourselves with Jesus. So the last and maybe most important question is, “How does one put on Jesus?” One minute to discuss it.
From the original sermon presentation · Slide 14
Preaching preparation — possible answers: Spend time with Him; Know His Word; Listen to His music; Praise Him all day long; Pray to Him all day long;
To clothe ourselves with Jesus means we have to first take off our dirty clothes. Some of us want to continue to wear the coat of resentment and revenge for what others have done. It is time to take it off and give it to God. Can’t you see that anger is burning you up inside? But every morning, you feel obligated to put it back on. It is time to stop that.
Some of us keep putting on the pants of victimhood. Something terrible really did happen to us. Somebody really did hurt us. And I’m not minimizing what they did. But what they did to us does not get to define who we are for the rest of our lives. We belong to Jesus. We are more than what happened to us. Through Christ, we can overcome what others have done. We may have been victimized, but victim is not our identity. Our identity is in Christ. Hallelujah!
To clothe ourselves with Jesus we have to stop shopping at Satan’s stores. Paul puts it this way, do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. If we have our eyes on the things that are sensual and sinful that is what we will end up wearing. Please understand the algorithms. Social media companies are counting the seconds we gaze at an ad so they can give us twenty more of those ads coming as we scroll down social media. If we continually fill our minds with entertainment that glorifies lust, revenge, drunkenness, greed, cruelty, and vulgarity, don’t be surprised when those things start showing up in our closet. What we continually look at, listen to, laugh at, and dwell upon eventually begins dressing our souls.
Every morning we have to get dressed. No matter how much we would like to wear our pajamas all day, we can’t. Tomorrow morning each of us will decide what shirt we’re going to wear, what pants we’re going to put on, what shoes we’re going to wear. Hopefully we will match. But before we walk out that door, there is a far more important decision we should ask ourselves. What am I going to wear spiritually today?
Am I going to put that old coat of resentment back on? Am I going to put those dirty clothes of sin back on? Am I going to dress myself in jealousy, anger, lust or selfishness? Or am I going to put on Jesus?
Because church, time is almost up. The night is nearly over. The day is almost here. Jesus is coming back. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
So let’s love everyone all the time—because God keeps pouring His love into us.
Let’s live differently—because God’s Spirit gives us the power to say no to sin.
And let’s put on Jesus—because we’ve worn those dirty clothes long enough.
The night is nearly over. The day is almost here. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
Time is almost up.
Are you ready?
