Romans 13:1-14
Getting on The Same Page as God about How We Should Act
Introduction
A. When your growing up it seems like everybody is trying to teach you how to act
B. Your parents, your teacher, your Sunday School teacher, your boss at your first job, your professors at college, every were you go people want to tell you what to do and what to say
C. However, the question that I want to know, and I hope it is the question that you want to know, is how does God want me to act?
D. What does God expect of me?
E. I¡¦m I suppose to be a some sort of radical political activist? I am supposed to be a doormat? I am supposed to let someone else do whatever he or she want? I am supposed to wear just one uniform?
F. How should we act?
G. Today we are going to take a look at the Behavior God expects
H. We are going to look at how we should act in
a. Politics
b. In Privacy
c. In Public
I. (1-7) Politics
A. Explanation
1. God is Sovereign, He knows all and is in control of all, nothing has ever happened that God did not know was going to happen
2. God has established all forms of government
3. Therefore, to rebels against the authority of the government is rebelling against God
4. If there was no authority, no government, there would be absolute anarchy
5. I am sorry to say that anarchy would not be good for anyone, there would be no standard of behavior, it is impossible to remain at and anarchy state
6. Therefore we have various forms of government, we have people who are in authority over us
7. Now if we refuse to follow the authority, look at 2nd part of verse 4, ¡§He is God¡¦s servant, and agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer¡¨
8. Starting with verse 6 Paul talks about everyone¡¦s favorite subject, taxes
9. Note what Paul says here, we are to pay taxes, tolls, and everything that we are told to pay
10. We have the authorities which are God¡¦s servants according to verse 6 giver their full time to governing,
11. They should be pay, by us, the tax payer
12. It does not say, it would be nice to pay them, it says it is due to them
B. Application
1. Let¡¦s apply all of this to our lives
2. Government is needed
3. There is not way that we would be able to have roads, phones, water, sewer, electricity, security, protection, without a government
4. Now there will be times when the government makes a decision that you do not agree with, I guarantee it
5. When that happens, you do have a right to express your disagreement, you do have a right to say you think something is wrong
6. However, you do not have any right to bomb an abortion clinic, you do not have a right to start a violent rebellion.
7. Daily we should be in prayer for our leaders of this country, we should be praying that God will give them the courage to make the right choices, that God will change their hearts if their hearts need to be changed.
8. If we are going to live in this country, we enjoy certain privileges this privileges are not free
9. Someone has to pay for the roads, someone has to pay for the police and fire department, someone has to pay for the court system
10. You might not agree with how they are handling their income, you might think that there are spending to much
11. However, that does not give you any reason not to pay your taxes.
12. If you think things are not being run right what should you do? Get involved, offer possible solutions, but you still must pay the taxes that you owe because you are a citizen of this country
C. Illustration
1. Understand something here; I am not saying that you should not try to pay as little as legally possible. For example if there is a deduction that you can take, by all means take it.
2. The problem comes when we fail to report income, and when we falsely try qualifying for a deduction we do not qualify for. I knew someone in Georgia who has 4 dogs, all 4 dogs a social security number, he called him his ¡§children¡¨ That is wrong
3. There is nothing wrong with taking as many deductions as possible, as long as your not lying about the deduction
II. (8-10) Privately
A. Explanation
1. Paul moves from Politics, to talking about how we should live our lives privately
2. The Lord¡¦s prayer towards the end of it has the phrase ¡§forgive of our debts as we forgive our debtors
3. This is no way saying that way should not have to repay our loans, that is just twisting something that is not there
4. However, Paul goes on and tells us there is one debt that we should always owe,
5. A debt of love!
6. If we are honesty acting in love, we will fulfill all the commands
a) If we are honestly acting in love, we will not commit adultery.
b) When tow people allow their physical passions to sweep them away, the reason is, not that they love each other too much, but they love each other too little. In real love there is at once respect and restraint which saves us from sin
c) If we are honestly acting in love, we will not kill. For love never seeks to destroy, but always to build up. Love can never hate, for love is always kind. Love will never seek to destroy its enemy by killing him, but always by seeking to make him a friend
d) If we are honestly acting in love, we will not steal. For love is always more concerned with giving than getting.
B. Application
1. What should we apply to our lives?
2. Love
3. Love, imagine with me for a second if we started making decisions based on love rather then anything else
4. If we were to treat people with love instead of greed
5. If we were more concerned about paying our debt of love rather then receiving their debt of love
6. If we were more concerned about paying our debt of love rather then worrying about how much debt of love the other person owes
C. Illustration
1. As you all know I just bought a house, Obviously I did not have Cash to pay for it so I had to take out a mortgage, I owe on this mortgage at the beginning of every month for the next thirty years. This is not an optional payment, if I do not pay this, they will take my house away from me
2. Paying our debt of love is not an option either, it is required
3. I feel indebted to Edinboro Camp. It has been a place of great growth in my life. Therefore, I figured I owed it my debt of love. I figured I better serve with love for a couple of years to pay my debt off. Unfortunately for me, every time I am their I rack up a greater debt, so I owe more, so year after year I have to pay my debt of Love, I will be there this year June 20-26. Maybe after this year I will have paid it off? Don¡¦t count on it ƒº
4. That is what happens when we try and pay our debt of love off,
5. We end up with more debt, that debt is ok, just continue to try and pay it off
III. (11-14) Publicly
A. Explanation
1. So how are we to act in public then?
2. Well verse 11-14 do a beautiful job at answering the question
3. Paul begins off by telling us that we do not have much time left
a) When the Romans was written the prevailing thought was that Jesus was going to return before the end of their generation
b) Rest assure Jesus will return, however, no one knows the day or the time, one thing that we can be sure of however is that it is one day closer then yesterday
4. Because of this fact we are to at verse 12 put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light
a) By this Paul is referring to another letter that he wrote in Ephesians. This letter we get the classic illustration of the Armor of God and what it looks like.
b) Often when we think about the armor of God we get the idea of Romans Soldiers and what they wore. Let me give you an updated idea
c) Think about a police officer in Riot Geer. There the sword of the spirit becomes the club, the breastplate of righteousness is the vest, the belt of truth buckled around your waist is the belt you have your gun and ammo in, shield of faith is the clear shield that you duck behind. Helmet of Salvation is the helmet you would wear. Just and updated way to think about it
5. Paul also goes on to tell us what we should not do in public
6. (Read 13)
B. Application
1. Ok then, then how should we act?
2. Lately every week I have been finding one verse in the passage that stands out to me and because the verse of the week
3. It happened to me again this week
4. (Read 14)
C. Illustration
1. Many companies will go out of their way to make sure their employees look good
2. Have you ever seen a football jersey on Steelers before the game begins? They are spotless, now you know and I know that after the game they will be dirty but come next week spotless
3. Why do they go to such lengths to make sure that the Uniform is clean?
4. They want to make sure they look their best
5. Paul is telling us t do the same thing, if we were to realize the fact that we are representing Christ would we not make sure our uniforms were clean?
6. Would we not want to make sure that we are free from the sin, the stains that we just got done talking about?
7. Do not gratify the desires of the sinful nature
8. If you are clothed with Jesus, would you want to make you clothing dirty?
9. No, you want to keep it clean, therefore, do not step in the mud,
10. We all know what the mud is, it is the desires of our sinful nature
11. The ugly junk that verse 13 tells us to avoid
Conclusion
A. All of this is not me telling you how to live your life, this is not me giving you the rules of conduct
B. This is what God communicated to Paul to write.
C. Allow me a couple of concluding thoughts
a. #1: Support your Government: pray for them and be fair about your taxes
b. #2: Be indebt to Love: Always try and repay love, you will find out you can¡¦t
c. #3: Clothe Yourself with Jesus: You are representing Him, make sure your uniform is clean
D. What about you? Are you Acting the way you should act?
a. Have you been supportive of your government?
b. Have you been indebt with Love?
c. Whose Clothes are you wearing and do they need clean?
E. If you need to work on any of those answers please come forward to the straighten out my relationship rail. And go straight to God.
F. The question is our you on the same page as God about how you should act
