(NOTE: This sermon is based on a Bible Study Bill Hybels led at Willow Creek Community Church’s believer service in 1988)
Have you ever thought about the effect that the SIGHT of the finish line has on a marathon runner? Early on in the race the marathoner establishes a pace—sometimes 10MPH or more and I, for one, can’t imagine running that fast for that long but the discipline of months of training enables these athletes to keep that staggering pace for hours—all throughout that 26.2 mile race—that is, until he nears the FINISH LINE. At that point something happens. The moment the finish line comes into full view the runner suddenly speeds up. Even after hours of running at full tilt, when he sees that finish line he quickens his pace…by digging down deep somewhere inside for his last reserve of strength. For the last quarter or half mile of the race he puts on that final kick…that final burst of power—and as he crosses the finish line, he may collapse into a pile, PHYSICALLY rung out but EMOTIONALLY he is very fulfilled…because he knows he gave it his best on the home stretch.
The finish line has a powerful effect indeed when it comes into full view. You look at these long distance runners and can clearly see that they are exhausted. You think there is no way they can do any more than they have been doing all these miles—but when the finish line comes into view they kick it into high gear.
We see the same sort of thing every SPRING toward the end of the NBA season. Many times by then there are several teams in contention for the championship and when they get to this final “home stretch” of the season the players on each of these teams play their very best ball games knowing they have to do that if they want to beat everyone else and come out as the number 1 team.
If you’ve seen ROCKY or THE CINDERELLA MAN,or an actual boxing match, then you know that professional boxers do the same sort of thing when their fights are about to come to an end.
They unleash a final flurry of punches during the waning moments of the 15th round. There may be a few boring moments in the 6th or 7th or 8th rounds but not in the 15th. No—in those final seconds leading up to the bell, both fighters are giving it everything they have.
Now—these are just a few examples that show the effects of the final buzzer or the finish line when it comes to athletic competition.
But even if we’re not athletes, I think we can all relate in one way or another to this “finish line principle of life.”
For example, at work—when you know that deadline is coming—in those last few days or hours that you have to finish the contract or the proposal don’t you sort of kick into high gear and do whatever it takes to get the job done? And, in school, when the due date on a paper is right around the corner or when you have a big exam…you stop messing around and begin to really get serious about your studies—don’t you?! Often our finest efforts—our best strivings—come when we know we are on the home stretch. It seems like our motivation tends to increase when the “finish line” comes into full view.
Now, if you’ve read Paul’s letters then you know that he uses athletic imagery all the time. He talks about needing to TRAIN diligently as a Christian and he talks about the Christian life as a RACE we must run to win. He talks about winning TROPHIES or donning victory WREATHS—and he was obviously familiar with the motivational effect of a finish line. We see this very clearly in Philippians 3:13-14 when he writes: “Forgetting what is behind—forget the part of the race that I’ve already run—and straining toward what is ahead—there it is—I see the finish line! I press on toward the goal to WIN…the price for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Well, in our text for this morning Paul uses this word picture again—but before we look at that let’s review a bit. At this point in our study of Romans, let’s stop and REMEMBER what is behind!
We’ve been “racing” through Romans for almost seven months now. I hate to disappoint you but after today we only have two sermons to go. Now—as I told you about, oh…four sermons back…the book of Romans changes when you get to Chapter 12. For the entire first eleven chapters Paul reminds his readers about all that God has done. He says, “God has saved you from sin. He has adopted you into His family. He is sanctifying you; He is sustaining you; He is protecting you. In the power of His indwelling Spirit, He is enabling you to resist sin and do His work.” Then in chapter 12 he says, “In light of all that God has done and is doing for you, I urge you, I beseech you to do the RIGHT THING in RESPONSE and that right thing is to embrace TOTAL DEVOTION TO GOD…absolute allegiance to our Heavenly Father.”
Paul says that anything less than that—makes a mockery of what Jesus Christ has done for you and me. Do you remember the “word picture” he uses to help us to understand just how TOTAL the devotion is that he’s talking about? You should because I’ve thrown it at you over and over again. Remember? He says, “Crawl up on the altar and present your entire LIFE as a LIVING SACRIFICE.” I like how THE MESSAGE paraphrase puts it, “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” In other words, we are to worship God with the way we work at the office—the way we raise our kids—the way we do our school work. I mean, in light of all that God has done for us, the only response we can possibly give—is to worship Him with the way we live every moment of every day. You may remember my saying that to embrace this RIGHT response to all God has done, each of us needs to make this kind of absolute commitment DAILY in our own private times of worship where we say, “God my life is Yours—so take this day and use it.”
Well, the NEXT thing Paul does in his letter is to explain exactly what that commitment entails. and he does this by citing several practical examples of ways that we put our day to day lives on the altar and give them to God.
We’ve been studying these examples one at a time for the past month. We’ve learned that Paul says if you really want your everyday life to be sacrifice of worship to God…
- Discover your SPIRITUAL GIFTS and TALENTS and get to work using them in the context of a local church.
- And then, strive to have RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS with one another.
- Last week we said that a third form of acceptable worship is right relationships with our GOVERNMENTAL LEADERS.
- We learned that God is proud of us when we apply our Christian faith to our politics. He is pleased when we respect and pray for the leaders He puts over us.
Well, as I have said, each of these are practical, positive ways that we can give God day to day worship. These are some of the ways we can demonstrate to God that we really love Him…ways we can prove that we are not just blowing smoke but are earnest in our attempt to return thanks to Him for all He has done and is doing for us.
Okay—with our memories refreshed, turn with me now to our text for this morning: Romans 13:8-14.
8 – Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.
9 – The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 – Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11 – And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has 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 orgies 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 sinful nature.
Now in this morning’s section Paul gives two main principles as sort of a summary of everything he has been saying since he made his big change back at the beginning of chapter 12. And—the FIRST principle I want us to note—is something he talks about at the END of our text.
(1) In verses 12-14 Paul says that to make our lives into an offering of worship that is holy and acceptable to God—we must learn to put HIS PLEASURE first.
Listen to these verses once again. Paul says, “Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
The principle of worship that Paul is getting at here is the fact that if we really love God and if we sincerely want to worship Him with our day to day life we have to shut the door to desires that lead to sin. And he leaves no doubt as to what he means by this. He gets very specific. He says we must stop the sexual sins, the drunkenness and partying…the petty jealousies and the strife that goes on among us at times. We must shut the door to all that kind of stuff. Instead, we are to do all we can to be like Jesus—we are to CLOTHE ourselves with His attitudes and actions. I think J. B. Philips’ paraphrase of 14 puts it well when it says:
“Let us be Christ’s men from head to foot, and give no chance for the flesh to have its fling.”
I mention this LAST principle FIRST because it is so very foundational when it comes to our understanding the ESSENCE of true worship. You see, authentic day-to-day worship is built around our putting God’s pleasure above our pleasure—His desires above our own. I mean, we can get all theological about what it really means to give God worship…but when you strip all the excess baggage away this what genuine worship is. REAL worship is putting God’s PLEASURE above our pleasure. It’s putting God’s PURPOSES above our own. It’s putting God’s GLORY above our own—His INTERESTS before ours.
And I want to tell you friends—that is not an easy thing for sinful people like you and me to do!
Do you remember our study of chapter 7 a few months back? In case you don’t let me refresh your memory. In that text the Apostle Paul himself, one of the greatest Christians of all time says,
“Listen, it is not easy for ME to put God first. In fact, over and over again I find myself doing the things I know I shouldn’t do. I know what GOD wants me to do—but I don’t do it. I know I should put His desires first—but I end up putting my own first. It’s like there is a WAR raging in my body. And, on my own, I lose the war every single time! Oh! wretched man that I am!”
When we studied that section of Paul’s letter we learned that when we become Christians…when we ask for God’s amazing grace and forgiveness, He gives it. As Paul said in Romans 10:13, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” When we become Christians—when we call on Jesus’ name and are saved God’s Holy Spirit takes up residency inside of us but in the corners of our being the smoldering coals of our old sin nature with it’s sinful desires are still lurking. And if we are not very careful—if we don’t learn to rely on the power of God’s Spirit moment by moment, those smoldering coals will start a “fire” and our old nature will burn to life. We’ll do things we will regret later.
Bill Hybels tells of a time when he was speaking at a conference somewhere in the mid west and as is his custom at the start of every day he went out for his morning run—and near the trail he saw a barn that had burned down. The ruins were smoking and he could feel the heat of the smoldering coals of that fire from 10 yards away. He said that three weeks later he had to go back to speak in that same area—and he went for his morning run down the same road and that barn was still smoking—and three weeks later he could still feel the heat of those coals.
This is a perfect illustration of what happens when we become Christians. Under the surface, our old nature is still active—and we learn the hard way that it doesn’t take much to turn the smoldering coals of our sinful desires into a raging bonfire of sin.
As a pastor or youth worker, there have been several times over the years when people have said they needed to talk to me and when we sat down in my office they said something like this: “I thought I could handle it….but I couldn’t and I did something I wish I had never done.”
Well here in Romans 13 Paul tells us how to prevent this kind of thing. He says,
“Listen, foundational to every thing I have told you about becoming a living sacrifice is this: You must learn to love God enough to put His pleasure above your own. Renew your private worship pact with God every day. Start each day by saying, ‘Not my agenda—but Yours God—not my purposes but Yours!”
Now this is hard work! Like running a marathon, it requires discipline. It means DAILY time with God all by yourself where you say to Him, “I love You Lord and with Your help I’m going to live for You today.” And I do mean DAILY! I mean, I don’t know how any Christian can be CONSISTENT in living in ways that show their love for God without sometime ALONE with Him in the 24 hour cycle of the day. The pile of smoldering coals in our lives is too hot…for us to handle on our own. We’re just too WEAK to control it without God’s constant help.
This past week I had to have a colonoscopy—and if you’ve ever had one you know that as part of the prep for that test you have to starve yourself. You have to be on a liquid diet for 24 hours. And you get hungrier and hungrier until all you feel like doing is laying around watching TV—which is full of food commercials by the way! Well, do you want to know the first thing I did when the 24 hours passed and the test was finally over and I left the doc’s office? I went to the closest fast food place to get something to eat! I needed food to give me strength! Well similarly—you will be a weak Christian—unable to please God with the way you live your day to day lives—too weak to resist temptation without the nourishment that comes from reading His book and communing with Him in prayer. To finish the race…to put God’s pleasure first, we need daily time with Him. In fact, I would say that we need to discipline ourselves such that we get to the point that we are in CONSTANT communion with Him—conversing with Him—hearing His thoughts—asking for His guidance and help as we go through our days. This discipline enables us to put GOD’S PLEASURE first in our attitudes and actions—living each day as a sacrifice of worship to Him.
(2) A second summarizing principle Paul gives us is this. He says that to be a living sacrifice we must learn to put God’s LOVE first.
And the way do that—the way we live in such a way that we prove our love for God means more to us than anything else is when we OBEY His commands. In John 14:23 Jesus said as much: “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My commands.” Well, at the beginning of our text, to represent all of God’s loving laws, Paul QUOTES some of God’s commands—specifically a portion of the ten commandments. Look back at verses 8-10:
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,”
“Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Now, let me stop and chase a quick but relevant rabbit here. Some people say that when Paul says “Owe nothing” here in verse 8, he means we should never borrow money for any reason—they say that to do so..to be in debt…is a sin. But, that is really stretching the meaning of this text. You see, the Bible doesn’t teach that it is wrong for us to borrow money. A good proof text of this fact is found in Matthew 5:42 where Jesus said, “Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow.” Well, if it was wrong to OWE someone money, Jesus would not have said it was okay for us to LOAN money to them—and there are other texts like this. The literal Greek here in Romans 13 is, “Stop continuing to owe” — or “Don’t borrow and not pay back” Don’t default on your debts. It means, pay your obligations—but does not preclude responsible forms of borrowing or debt.
In any case, Paul is not talking about financial obligation here—this is just a segue—a word picture—that he uses to help us see our obligation to love others as God has loved us. He’s saying THAT obligation should be first and foremost in our minds.
You know, back when we actually had kids living at home—sometimes they would come back from a game or something and tell me that a friend’s parent had taken them to get pizza on the way home…and that they had borrowed money from that parent to pay for their food. The next time I saw that parent the first thing that came into my mind was my debt…the money I owed them. Well, Paul is saying that whenever we meet anyone—the first thing that should pop into our minds is the debt of love we owe them…our obligation to love them. And we ARE obligated to love them because this is God’s command. In fact as Paul reminds us, all His commands can be condensed into one: Love your neighbor as yourself.
You’re thinking—ALL the commands pastor? Are you sure?
Well, YES—I’m sure. Think about it. Would any of the other laws really be tough to obey if we loved other people the way that we should? If we really loved other people the way God tells us to love other people would we need a law about not stealing other people’s stuff? Would there need to be a law about not lying to people? Would there need to be a law about murdering…about taking someone’s spouse or about drooling over their house or car or boat or clothes or I-PHONE? Paul is saying that moral and civil laws would be absolutely unnecessary if we loved people the way Christ would have us love them. True love for other people would fulfill the intent and concern of all God’s laws. I like how the great preacher of yesteryear, C. Campbell Morgan once put it. He said, “Every breach of the decalogue is a violation of love.”
And—the fact is God loves it when we obey His command and love one another. He feels proud of us when we behave that way. When we get our relationships right He accepts that as worship!
Last week I visited little Kyle Sullivan in the hospital and right on my heels was Julie Naninni. Julie had taken care of Kyle’s little sister for the day so that Kristen could be at the hospital with her son. A few minutes later the Hortons came in to visit and see how Kyle was doing. I heard later that Brian and Carrie Lagas were bringing supper that night. And I must say, it was so fulfilling to see these young couples joyfully obeying God’s command to love one another in tangible ways. When we go out of our way to serve one another like this, we fulfill the law, and God says, “That is worship to Me and I love it! I love it when you love Me such that it spills all over other people!”
So to summarize—in this week’s text Paul gives us two principles. To be a living sacrifice of worship to God…to live every day as an offering to Him we must put His pleasure first—and we must put His love first. We must constantly put His purposes above our own. We must strive to put on Christ every moment of every day which of course involves LOVING all people.
Now Paul is aware that, given our humanness and given all of what he has instructed believers to do in chapters 12 and 13…all of these different ways to worship God. Well, he is aware that these kinds of challenges might be overwhelming to us.
He’s concerned that some brothers and sisters might lose heart and cave-in to the pressures of the world and say, “I can’t do it. I can’t love God enough. I can’t love others enough. I can’t be faithful with my spiritual gift. I can’t be faithful in right relationships. I can’t put a bridle on my physical desires.” Paul is concerned that some of us just might say, “I’m going to fail on all of the challenges you’ve given in your letter.” So in vs 11 and 12 he puts this whole thing in perspective by saying, “Don’t despair—don’t give up now—because the finish line of the race is in full view! Listen, we’re on the home stretch. This is the 15th round. So, don’t despair…give it your all! It’s time to give it the final stretch kick.”
Look at verse 11.
“Do all these things—make your life a living sacrifice in all the practical ways I’ve mentioned. Do this knowing what time it is in the race. It is already the hour for you to wake up from sleeping because now salvation is nearer than it was when we first believed. The night is almost gone….the day is at hand. Therefore DO THIS STUFF! Pick up the pace! Pull out all the stops…love and worship God like you never have before and love and serve people like you never have before. Because the finish line is not far away. You don’t have to hold out that much longer.”
Now some of you have done a little thinking in the past 30 seconds have wondered, “Well, let’s see Mark, Paul wrote these words 2000 years ago. This is one whale of a home stretch! This is the longest 4th quarter in history. This 15th round is taking forever!” What DID Paul mean when he said, “The night is almost over and the day is at hand…nearer now than we first believed?” Well, for one thing Paul was trying to help the Roman believers see that all of the cataclysmic events of history—in terms of God interrupting and breaking in to the human cycle of things—all of the cataclysmic events of history, starting with creation…and going to the fall..and then the flood ….formation of Israel…the Exodus…and then all the way into the exile….all the announcements of Christ’s coming…His birth life, death, resurrection, and ascension…Pentecost… the launching of the church..All these crucial parts of His working in history are past tense now. They are done. You can check them off the list when you do you’ll see that only one great event remains before history as we know it is going to end—and that is the return of Christ in power.
Remember one of the last things Jesus said before He ascended to Heaven was this: “One day I am going to return to this earth…but not as a baby…as a king triumphant in majesty and I’m going to claim My family and judge those who refuse grace…and I’m going to bring an end to history as history has been known.” So Paul is saying, “Listen! Nothing else has to happen before Jesus comes back to take us home so in that sense, this is ‘the final quarter.’ This is the last stretch. We’re in the final stage of history. We’re really just waiting for the bell. The finish line is right up there! Jesus could come back at any moment.”
And because this is true if we are to mature, we will learn to live with a heightened sense of the passing of time.
You see, careless half-hearted believers have no concept of time. All they do is sort of muddle around and say their half prayers and they demonstrate their half commitment. But mature, courageous soldiers in God’s army—they have a sense of destiny! They have a heightened awareness of time and the fact that it is running out.
Watch some of the best professional football and basketball coaches. All throughout the game they are glancing at the clock…making mental tabulations all the time. If they are behind they look at the clock. If the score is close they look at the clock. If they are way ahead they look at the clock. They always know how many more time outs they have. They are always calculating how many more plays they could run. Great players are always conscious of the game clock…ALWAYS. They can tell you within a second or two..all the time…how much time is still on the board. IT affects their strategy. It affects their energy level. It inspires a tenacity—a kind of concentration that motivates them. And as the end of the game approaches their awareness of time increases…and the players are all giving the last ounce of their energy. They know they have all night and the next day to recuperate, so why not give it all in these final moments!
Do you understand what Paul is saying to mature believers? He’s saying, “Look at the clock! In fact, look at it in two ways.” FIRST, look at the grand clock of all of human history and realize that as I said, we are in the last stage from the standpoint that there is only one great event left to occur…the return of Christ. All the rest has already happened. And then SECOND, look at the clock another way. Realize that even if the return of Christ is a thousand years away—and it might be. It could be tonight or whenever. Your guess is as good as mine. But even if it is a thousand years a way. You still only have a limited number of days with which to love the Lord your God with all your mind soul and strength…and you, as an individual, you only have a limited number of days to love your neighbor. I only have a limited number of days to love Christ and to make my life count by loving people the way God has told me to.
The fact is, time is ALWAYS short. In this life, time is not a limitless commodity. The coming of Christ IS getting closer and closer—AND—each of us are getting closer and closer to the day we die. Listen! Mature believers understand these facts. They know that time is short—that, as 2nd Peter 3:11-12 says, “We should live holy lives and serve God, as we wait for and look forward to the coming of the day of God.”
A little boy lived in a home where there was a grandfather clock that broke. One day as they were getting ready to leave for church the clock went crazy and struck about 20 times. The little boy ran into the room and said, “Mommy Daddy, it’s later than its ever been before!” Well, it is….it’s closer to the end of time or the end of lives than it has ever been before. Time is indeed running out for you and time is running out for me. Every day that passes brings you and me one day closer to the end of the game.
So Paul is saying, “WAKE UP! LOOK AT THE CLOCK.! BE AWARE OF THE TIME! PLAY YOUR BEST GAME….because time is running out for all of us.” As he puts it in Ephesians 5:11,“Be careful, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.”
You know, there was a time I could not see the finish line of my life. I SAID I believed I would die some day—but I didn’t really believe that. The truth is none of us do when we are young. We think we have so much time! Death is what happens to old people…not us! And that’s what I thought. That was my mind set. But then years passed SO QUICKLY and things happened that forced me to wake up from that nonchalance. Kids began to grow up. This body of mine started to break down…except my spiritual eyes…because now I can see—the finish line is out there. It’s getting closer every day. In fact, the truth is my race is way more than half done. And this motivates me to kick it into high gear. Now I know that I have to make every step count. I have to keep my eye fixed on the finish line and watch the clock..and love God with my mind soul and strength…because then when I cross the finish line I can look back and feel good about my life.
What about you? We just started the month of October. Looking back would you say you loved God with all your mind soul and strength in September? Did you? Did you worship Him with your spiritual gifts, right relationships, your involvement in government? If you DID, good! Nobody can ever take that away from you. It’s in the record books sealed forever—but if you DIDN’T DO THAT it’s forever Gone. It is wasted. You can’t make up for lost opportunities…but take heart. We’re in OCTOBER now and you CAN make every day count. But, remember, “Only one life—twill soon be past—only what’s done for Christ will last!”
In closing—not to be morbid—but to truthful to the text, take the figure 70 as the average life span. Be truthful about your own age and think how much of your race is already run? Are you a third way there? Halfway? Is 75% of your race already run? Well, whatever fraction you came up with the fact is time is running out! Every day that passes brings you closer to the finish line.
So, what kind of race are you running on the home stretch? Listen, pull out the stops! Kick up the pace! Wear yourself out by loving God and others in every way you can! When you cross the finish line of your life make sure you are running flat out! You’ll have all eternity to recuperate! And when you cross that line you’ll hear Jesus say, “Great race! Well, done!” Don’t you want to hear Him say those words?! I do!
LET US PRAY
Father God,
This morning I ask that in the convicting power of Your Spirit—You would nudge us—shake us—do whatever it takes to WAKE US from our slumber so that we get serious about our lives. Open our eyes so we can see the finish line—and then empower us to pick up the pace and get more serious about our part in furthering Your kingdom. Make us better parents and spouses—better citizens…better witnesses. Help us live every day as if it were our last. I ask this in JESUS’ name. AMEN
Picking up the pace in your life might involve your coming down this aisle and joining this church…if God leads you to do that…then come! But perhaps you are here and this is the day you realized your need to accept Jesus. Your race begins right today…if that’s you then come. Come as God leads.