Happy Father’s Day! This morning, as we look at Romans 13, we find some incredibly helpful instruction. These verses weren’t written “specifically” for men. But since its Father’s Day, let’s consider what the Spirit of God might say to us.
One of the signs that was given in the Old Testament for the coming of God’s Kingdom, was that men would be transformed. In the last book of the Bible, Malachi speaks of God “turning the hearts of fathers back to their children” Of there once again “being a distinction between the righteous and the wicked…”
So “Men! How are you doing?” Is God turning your heart around, toward what’s good? Do you hunger for God’s work in your life? Does Christ life [his death, burial, resurrection] captivate your thoughts and imagination? Are you taking on the holy character of God, demonstrating a changed life with changed behavior? Are you becoming more whole, spiritually? When you stand alongside everyone you know in the world, do they notice anything distinctive about your life? Do you stand out?
Some men feel “stuck.” Maybe you feel your life is in an irreversible nose dive. If something doesn’t change soon, your whole world is going to come crashing down. Maybe you feel your life already crashed and burned, and that there isn’t anything salvageable. “You’ve lost this, you’ve lost that, you regret this, you regret that… you should have, could have, would have, but you didn’t.” Maybe you spend days sorting through the wreckage, wondering, “What now… How do I move forward?”
Maybe what bothers you isn’t anything I’ve described. Maybe you feel your life is stuck on autopilot. And what’s bothering you is the sheer monotony of it all! You’re doing the marriage thing, the parent thing, the work thing, the sports thing, the hobby thing, the fun things, the church thing… and it all just feels hollow.
God has a way of meeting us where we’re at… and inviting us to a place of richness, depth, and substance. One invitation in Rom. 13 is to become a man of love…
Become a Man of Love…
Romans 13:8-10, “8 Let 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,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.”
If ever we had a character flaw, it’s our compulsion to accumulate debt. It’s our tendency to take short-cuts instead of toughing things out! Who can’t relate to going deeper in debt? It takes no effort to spiral deeper into debt. You’re at a store, you see something you want, you pull out the credit card and whatever you want is all yours!
One pastor defines debt as a “dumb excuse to buy things.” Debt is a funny thing, and I’m speaking as a guilty party here. It’s not like we sit and rationally think through purchases. Because we don’t feel the immediate effects of debt, we’re willing to rack up all the debt in the world. And even when were confronted with debt, we shrug our shoulders. We’d rather “manage” debt, than “eliminate” debt in our life.
But Paul isn’t talking about our personal finances in Romans 13! He is talking about a deeper spiritual principle. In our spiritual life, we have a deep character flaw… we have this tendency to take short-cuts instead of toughing things out. What do I mean?
Look at all the short-cuts Paul mentions in Romans 13:9 alone! “Adultery. Murder. Stealing. Coveting.” Are these not all shortcuts? Okay, maybe you have never committed adultery, but do you struggle with lust? Maybe you’ve never murdered, but you do you struggle with anger? Maybe you don’t steal, but do you exploit people/situations for maximum personal gain? And as the Old Testament says… do you not covet the neighbor’s home, and wife, and donkey, and…
Most men don’t think of “eliminating” sin in their life, we’re content “managing” the sin in the life. So we think, “What’s the harm of a little anger and rage? What’s the harm of a little lust, a click here, a peek there, a leering eye, a little flirting? What’s the harm of getting ahead at the expense of others—its business. But what is Paul saying? Every time we sin we’re accumulating a little more debt. And isn’t it easy to get blindsided by debt? You can become as indebted to power of sin/death as some bank.
But Paul’s point here is, why not indebt yourself to love? If you’re wise, you’ve learned that just as debt can accumulate exponentially… so can your investments. If you invest just $50 a month as a twenty-year-old, you will have millions later in life. What is $50 a month? A tank of gas? But for every five years you wait to invest, you have to double what you invest to get the same return. To get to a million, you have to invest $100 month at 25, $200 a month at 30, $400 month at 35, etc. When it comes to investing the best time to start is RIGHT NOW.
This is how it is with Love. Those who commit adultery don’t accumulate love, they lose love. Those who murder, steal, and covet don’t accumulate more, they lose everything they have. So many men are always chasing the mirage of something, and never experience the thirst-quenching reality they hope to find… Love is the reality!
The alternative to adultery is love. If you love your wife, she’ll become the woman of your dreams. The alternative to murder is love. If you love your enemies, they won’t remain your enemies long. The alternative to steal is generosity. If you give to others, you’ll experience unprecedented abundance in your life. The alternative to coveting is worship. When your eyes are filled with God, he blesses you in the heavenly realms, with every spiritual blessing in Christ. You find true joy.
Managing sin will never satisfy you, no more than managing debt. Eliminating sin doesn’t go far enough either. We must positively invest ourselves in loving others. Love accumulate eternal treasure. Love builds up our balance. One invitation in Romans 13 is to become a man of love… Another is to become a man of perspective!
Become a Man of Perspective (11-12)
Romans 13:11-12, “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.
These verses are telling us not to take time for granted. The night is nearly over, the day is always here! Wake up from your slumber! Be sober minded! Gain an eternal perspective on things!
Most of you know this, but some of you are new to Lakeside and don’t know this… but last September my dad passed away. It happened very suddenly. I got a phone call that Dad was having some kind of seizure, and had collapsed… and before I could even got on the road I received a second phone call from a hospital chaplain. Before she said a word I already knew what had happened.
If you were to ask me what has changed most for me in the last year… and yes it’s been far harder for others (like mom) … but what’s changed most is my perspective. I never felt I was taking time for granted before, but now that’s exponentially true. I never realized how fleeting life, health, and material things truly are… but now that’s exponentially true. And I hope this is good… a year ago I was far more willing to suffer the foolishness of people than I am today. Because time is short, we need to get sober, and learn what it means to live life beyond “right now.”
I know it’s not Romans 13, but I’ve always been struck by Paul’s words in Philippians 3: “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
Perspective changes everything about the way we live today. One invitation in Romans 13 is to become a man of love… Another invitation in Romans 13 is to become a man of perspective! A third invitation is to become a man of character.
Become a Man of Character (13-14)
Romans 13:13-14, “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.”
Maybe you’ve noticed this language of daytime and nighttime? In Romans 13:12 Paul says, “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.” Paul is urging us to develop a “day-time” character and lifestyle and put to death a “night-time” character and lifestyle.
This language relates back to Jesus, in John 3. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
What does it mean to live in the light? It means to live a life of truth. What does it mean to live a life of truth? It means living a life of accountability… living a life of accountability before men and before God! When are we most apt to sin? When are we most prone to “carousing, drunkenness, sexual immorality, debauchery, dissension, and jealousy?” It’s in the darkness. It’s in the night. It’s when we think no one is watching, or no one cares. Our mentality should be that it’s always daytime. That people are always watching our life… and that most importantly, God is watching.
Paul gives two excellent pieces of advice. Positively he says, “cloth yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” Everyone likes the idea of being transformed… but transformed into what? I really enjoy wood carving. You can literally take any block of wood (even dirty old drift wood from the lake) and transform it into something amazing.
Sometimes my imagination and creativity is a little limited… (1) so I go onto Pinterest and look for inspiration. (2) Most often, I go to the store and buy a model of whatever I want to carve. (3) But best approach is using a real life living model… this is what I did with our Schnauzer Rudy! Having a model… or even better a living model, is invaluable! We have the living Christ (and his love) to model our lives upon. Fix your eyes on Him!
But then Paul also says, “do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” So positively our focus is on Christ. But then, Paul urges us to guard what we give our time/energy toward. Not just sin, but the fallout from sin (adultery, murder, stealing, coveting) …. can consume every ounce of your energy.
If I asked you to audit your thinking you would struggle. But if I asked you to audit how you use your time/energy you could make a list. What do you give your best energies to? Is it our Lord? Is it your wife, and family? Is it love?
My dad liked to write. He wrote lots of letters, emails, and Facebook posts. Now dad wasn’t a poet, but one night he couldn’t sleep. His mind was racing back and forth, he was reflecting on the past, his childhood, and the kind of person he was taught to be. But then he thought about the kind of man he was becoming… as a father, a grandfather, and a Christian man. So in the middle of the night, he got up, and wrote a poem that came to mind. He never shared it with any of us… he’d sent it to an English high school teacher, he’d known since childhood. The teacher marked up his poem with a ton of red ink. Dad saw the red ink and threw the poem aside. Dad could be quite hard on himself! But after dad died, we found the poem. All the teacher’s suggestions were purely cosmetic, small grammatical errors. She didn’t suggest he change a single word! The poem is what my dad learned throughout his lifetime about becoming a man… it’s about how he became a man of love… of perspective… and character. My dad’s poem takes us right to the cross, so after I read this, we will celebrate communion.