Romans 13_11-12 Christian Time Management
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Summary
In Romans 13:13, Paul reminds us that we owe no one anything except to love one another. He says, "He who loves one another has fulfilled the law." What does that mean? Is this a debt to civil governments or to one another? And what does it mean that we are in debt?
Transcript
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Amen. We'll open up your Bibles to Romans 13. We are going to finish. This is the last two
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sermons on this passage of Scripture. And then we're going to shift from Romans 13 to an eight
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week section on eschatology. And eschatology is the doctrine of end things and times. And
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we're going to really give an overview of the three prominent views and the view that our
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church holds and why you could spend a year or two talking about eschatology. But we're going
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to just do a small primer. And we'll do that for a few weeks, about two months. And then I'll get
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back into Romans 14, 15, and 16, and we will be done with Romans after, I started Romans
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over two years ago when we started in a house down in Cottonwood. And so it's a real wonder
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that we're this far along in this book of the Bible. And so it's a real blessing to get to
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preach the rest of Romans 13. If you look at Romans 13 today, we've covered a lot of ground.
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It's the famous government chapter that we turn to when we're speaking about civil government.
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It was a very popular passage of Scripture during the COVID era.
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We've discussed the intersection of family, the church, and the state, how those relate to one another properly.
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We saw how, when I did a sermon on the theology of authority, talking about how Christ reclaimed the authority that Adam lost in the fall.
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and why we should submit to the governing authorities now, because essentially all
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authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. And we also talked about when it's
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appropriate to rebel against authority that has turned into tyranny. And so we talked about all
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of those matters in the first section of Romans 13. Now, the section on submitting to civil
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authorities, it ended with a variety of obligations that we owe to the civil government.
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We owed these rulers honor and taxes and reverence.
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But last week we shifted, we saw Paul shift from the obligations to civil governments
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And Paul said, owe no one anything except to love one another.
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For he who loves one another has fulfilled the law.
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Now, as we discussed last week, Paul is not forbidding lending or borrowing or going into debt.
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And the only exception is the debt of love, which you can never pay back.
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that was the expositional we pulled out of that particular text and so it wasn't talking about
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you can't borrow we know that jesus affirms borrowing and lending he tells us to lend when
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we have opportunity to do so no it was really talking about have integrity when you do borrow
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and when you do lend and two that the only exception of a debt that you cannot repay
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is the debt of love, which you will never be able to repay. In other words, debts like honor or
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reverence or taxation are, these are owed to the civil authorities and they can be completely
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settled. You can settle accounts with the civil government, but the debt of love that we owe to
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one another because of the gospel that's been given to us in Christ can never be completely
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settled. It's something that we cannot settle. It will always be in debt because of the great love
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that's been extended to us in Christ. Now, our fallen nature, because we're, again, saints who
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sin, it prevents us from completely fulfilling that obligation of love to one another.
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and so as a result the debt remains an ongoing duty for us to pay now paul connects this debt
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of love with fulfilling the law that love fulfills the law well we talked about the first and second
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tables of the law right the first four commandments of the ten commandments are how we relate to god
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and the the last six commandments are how we relate to one another and all of them will be
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kept if you love them. If you love God and you love others, you'll keep every law because you
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won't steal. You won't lie. You won't commit adultery. You won't take the Lord's name in
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vain. You'll honor your parents. Why? Because you love. If you love people, you'll fulfill the law.
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Now, again, we cannot fulfill the law on a macro level.
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Our love is not sufficient for that, but we can fulfill the law on a micro level. Let me explain
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that. Christ has fulfilled the law on our behalf on a macro level. The love of God, the perfect
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love of God that has fulfilled the law to love God and love neighbor perfectly has been imputed
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to us. It's given to us. It's transferred to us. And we receive that by faith. Romans 13, 10 said,
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love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is the fulfilling of the law.
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If you want to fulfill the law, love people, love God, love neighbor, and then all the Ten
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Commandments follow after that. And as a result, we're able to love one another.
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And the way we can love one another is only because, 1 John 4, 19 says, we love because
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he first loved us. Why do you love people? It's because Christ has given his love to
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you. And why does a particular person not love? It's because they haven't experienced
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the love of God. When you look at some sort of perverted or twisted relationship that's
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pagan, and they say that they love one another, they don't love one another. They have an
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affection, a lust for one another. But love requires an
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eternal perspective. Love requires a care for God and a
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care for one another. It's a holy love. So what they're
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experiencing is maybe a worldly love or a perverted or
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distorted form of love, but it's not love. The whole kind of
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mantra, love is love. No, that's not true. God is love. God
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has defined love and how we are to love as a result of a relationship with God. Our love
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on its own cannot fulfill the law or make us righteous, as we've talked about. It's merely
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a response to the love of God in Christ. Now, His love enables us to live in a way that reflects
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the love of God. Whenever you love, you don't say, oh, pat on the back. No, whenever you do
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righteousness, you don't say pat on the back. There's an old
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phrase in the business world. It's when your company succeeds,
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you look out the window. And when your company fails, you look in the mirror.
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is that when you obey, you go, praise be to God.
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All glory be to Christ for the obedience, for the conviction of sin that you've given to me.
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And when you fail, you get to look in the mirror.
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If you want to be able to say all glory be to Christ, then when you love someone unconditionally,
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when you extend that love to another, then you get to thank God.
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Because without the love of God, you would not be able to do that in another person's life.
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Just like a lamp can only shine when it's connected to a power source, to electricity,
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We can only fulfill the law when we're connected to Christ because we have the currency of love.
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Now, I know it can be difficult to follow the outline of Paul's letters,
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but we're not going to be immature believers that don't know how to study our Bibles.
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We're going to learn how to follow along grammatically, historically, culturally, contextually.
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It can seem like Paul is maybe shifting through unrelated or independent topics.
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in the same way that he shifted from calling for obedience to the civil servants
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to the obedience of love toward one another, now he's making another shift.
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Today, we're going to see him shift from the obligation of obedience
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He says in verse 11, actually I'll read verse 11 and 12.
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and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to wake up out of sleep
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for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed the night is far spent the day
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is at hand therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light
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now interestingly esv new king james nasb have translated this start off of this passage all
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differently um one says do this another one says besides this and one says and for this
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so in the greek it says and this okay and this so it could say and this knowing the time
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that now it is high time to wake up out of sleep.
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I want to take a minute just to look at the grammar, okay?
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We are going to be smart Bible interpreters in this church,
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and I think if we have the foundation of that here while we're small,
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then in a couple years, Lord willing, we have another hundred people here,
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we will have a robust community where our kids and our grandkids
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because the parents understood basic fundamentals of grammar.
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now I want you to look at this word this this word this it's a demonstrative pronoun
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if you're a homeschool mom you've probably sung the song this that these those this that right
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okay this is a demonstrative pronoun and demonstrative pronouns are talking about
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near and far. This, that, this, that, right? Now, one of the key principles of interpretation
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of the Bible or any text is determining the object of a pronoun.
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What is the object? What is the this that he's talking about? If I said, John ran down the street
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and he went and got it, or if I say, you know, John hit the ball and he went and got the ball.
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So we want to assign who or what is being represented by the pronoun.
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So this, what is the this in this particular sentence?
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I know this because I study a lot of Pauline writing but Paul does this quite often and I
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think the most famous or notable example of it is Ephesians 2 8 through 9 I want you to turn
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there in your Bible if you have a second Ephesians 2 8 through 9 Paul says for by grace you have been
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saved through faith. And this, your Bible might say, and that, it's the same Greek word, and this
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is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no man may boast.
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Okay, in both passages, we're dealing with the same Greek word, tuta. Paul uses this term as a
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packaging term, a packaging term. For example, in this Ephesians passage, when Paul says,
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and this is not of your own doing, is he talking about the grace or is he talking about the faith?
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What is not of our own doing? Is it the grace not of our own doing? Is it the faith not of
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our own doing? What is it? Well, if you're an Arminian, you're going to say, well, it's just
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the grace. The faith is ours. We have our own faith. And so it can't be that God gave
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us faith. No, no. That's what the Arminian would say. But the grammatical pattern of
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Paul's writings and the literary rules of Greek tell us that it's the grace and the
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faith. It's the grace and the faith that is not of your own doing. All of it is a gift
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of God. The entire package. None of it isn't from you.
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Isn't that amazing? Just think about it for a second.
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Why do you have faith? You have faith because God gifted
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it is the grace and the faith. And so, Paul is packaging multiple objects into one pronoun.
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And so, when we apply that grammatical pattern to the passage that we have here in Romans 13, 11,
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we see that the this is not just referring to the previous sentence, to the previous
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clause, but it's actually referring to the previous section. What is the this that we're
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supposed to do? Do this. Time is running out. Do this. Well, what? I want to know what it is.
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What am I supposed to be doing? Now, the vast majority of theologians believe that
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the this is basically a summing up of all the things that he just talked about from Romans 12.1
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all the way to Romans 13.10. And I would agree. So when Paul says do this, he's saying if we go
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to 12.1, give up your bodies as a living sacrifice. Don't be conformed to this world. Use your
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spiritual gifts for the edification of others. Apply the marks of the Christian life. Obey
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authorities. Keep the law through love. All of that. All of that is what he's saying. Do this.
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All of that. Do all of this now because time is short and the kingdom is upon us.
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Now, the term knowing the time, I think it's about making a proper estimation of time, a proper estimation of time.
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Don't sleep on faithfulness or obedience to God.
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What makes it so interesting to me is that we're obsessed with time.
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Like, what's the first thing you do when you wake up?
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In other words, we're not ignorant to time or the moment.
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of time. We know what time it is and what is most important to accomplish in that period of time.
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Every one of us can do that. We're not unable. Each of us are able to accomplish and understand
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the time. But for some reason, the awareness, the diligence, the estimation of time when it comes
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to our spiritual life, all of our ability just kind of floats out the window. We lose track of
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time. We don't know how to keep time or recognize the moment anymore. We'll make time to watch a
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movie, but we won't make time to pray. We'll give an enormous amount of time to scrolling,
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like the average teenager scrolls a quarter mile on their phone a day.
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You have come from darkness to light in your understanding, and you are to reflect that in the actions and your schedules and your estimation of time.
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For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
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Children of the day, we are not of the night or of the darkness, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
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Ultimately, this is a call to stop sleepwalking through your spiritual life.
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Now, you know what? There's nothing like a life-changing crisis that'll make you wake up.
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About five years ago, I got sick, real sick, almost died sick.
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As a pastor, I often hear about people who are dying more than the average person.
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I get messages from other pastors, people that follow me on social media asking me to pray for them.
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Paul says, for now, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
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Again, I want you to be a competent Bible interpreter,
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and I want you to notice that this phrase starts with the word for.
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I've said this probably 50 times since we planted this church.
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When you see the word for, it's a signal that it's a term of explanation.
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You could almost change it out with the word because or consequently.
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That is that this is dealing with the reason we ought to know the time to do those things which Paul commands.
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He's giving you the reason why, why we, why should we do those things?
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Because our salvation, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
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We're closer to the kingdom standing before God than when we first believed.
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It might've been last year, but for a lot of us, it's been a while and we're nearer.
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to that full redemption than we were when we first believed.
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When we're far from the finish line, we kind of move slower.
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But when we get close to the finish line, we pick up speed.
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We know the end is near. For example, when a deadline is looming, the awareness of time
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becomes pretty critical. I got five hours to finish this test or to work this paper or to
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get this turned in. People cram. They sprint to meet quotas. They scramble to finish. This is
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true of every one of our lives. When the deadline's there, you run out of time. People that get a
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diagnosis that may end to their death, they go, I have a limited amount of time and I'm going to do
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more. I'm going to care and be effective with my time. Yet when it comes to kingdom work, many
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Christians just stroll as if they have endless time, endless time. They're blind to the fact
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that their days are slipping away. There's no rush to praise or to pray or to write or to study or
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to give or to disciple your children or to serve. You just kind of throw it on the back burner
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because you've got time. One day, one day when I have the time, then I'll study, then I'll pray,
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Then I'll work through that discipleship with my children.
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And I believe if we grasp how near we truly are to the finish, we'd run harder.
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Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
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number them there's actually a couple groups online you may have seen them that'll show you
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exactly how many days the average person has left at a particular age when you realize how much time
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you spend sleeping how much time you spend eating how much time you spend doing mundane things
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your time block gets shorter and shorter and shorter
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life is very short from the cradle to the grave is a brief journey the length of our days is 70
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years or 80 if we have the strength yet their span is but trouble and sorrow for they quickly
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pass and we fly away that's psalm 90 verse 10 it continues and it says between 15 and 20 percent
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of people who die, die before they are 40. Even when people lived for many hundreds of years,
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it was still a short life, a moment compared to eternity. Methuselah lived 969 years and he died.
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Had he not been mentioned in the Bible, not one soul would remember him.
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The rich and beautiful are like the flower of the field, a little brighter and more delicate.
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But the apostle continues saying, the grass withers and the flower fades because the spirit of the Lord blows upon it.
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It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
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You know how swiftly a weaver's shuttle flies, but your life flies more swiftly.
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Job 7 verse 6 says, quote, my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle.
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He goes on to say, quote, my days are swifter than a runner.
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they pass away as the swift ships and as the eagle that hastens to the prey.
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Most believers spent their early days serving sin.
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Many gave their best years to wickedness and to the world.
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Numerous among you have only the years of age, sickness, and tiredness to give to God.
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The time that remains is already numbered for you.
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Your weeks are like sand in an hourglass that drops them like rain.
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The number of sermons you will hear is numbered.
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In fact, the last sermon you will ever hear is already fixed in your future.
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If you're age 40, you have approximately 15,000 days remaining.
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and the average person sleeps 24 years of their lifetime.
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For some, it is the last year that you will ever see this world.
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You will celebrate your next new year in glory.
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The disease is now in your body in some of you.
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In a little while, your body will be lying quietly there.
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It's good to hear because we know that to be absent of the body is to be present with the Lord.
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We know that in the face of all types of conflict and consequences and turmoil and trials,
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that Paul and Peter can sit there in chains and sing psalms and hymns.
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We know that in the face of tragedy and diagnosis and sickness,
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that we are closer to Christ than we've ever been before.
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We throw time away like we're throwing rocks into a pond.
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no don't waste your time the lord has given you every single minute it's a gift of the lord
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use it for his glory we've all heard the phrases the days are long but the years are short or time
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flies just yesterday veronica said oh my goodness it's already march and i thought and it's going
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to be April like that. These are not popular idioms for no
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reason. Your time is short. Know the time. We have work to do
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as a church. Paul goes on to say, verse 12, the night is far
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spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the
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works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. The Bible speaks of time in two distinct
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eras. In the Old Testament, it was the present age and the age to come. Those are the two eras.
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Eschatologically, Christ's birth was viewed as the dawn of time,
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the end of darkness, and the start of light. It's why Scripture calls Jesus the light of the world.
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Jesus in John 12, 46 says, I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness.
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This has created what theologians have called the already and not yet or the already and not fully.
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There's an overlapping of eras that's happening right now.
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The darkness era is fading away and the dawn of the new era has come with Christ.
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The incarnation of Christ brought the inauguration of the kingdom.
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It was light entering the dark world that while it entered in, it did not completely eliminate the darkness.
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first john 2 8 says the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining
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there's a crossover between two different eras john stott says on this passage he says
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for the time being two ages overlap unbelievers belong to the old age and are still in the
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darkness but those who belong to jesus christ have been transferred into the new age into the
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light. Only when Christ comes in glory will the present overlap end. The transition period will
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be over. The old age will finally vanish, and those who belong to it will be destroyed. The
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new age will be consummated, and those who belong to it will be fully and finally redeemed.
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Ultimately, this passage of Scripture, verse 12 here, it's a call to holiness. It's a call to
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vigilance. It's a call to readiness. I'm not talking about readiness for the return of Christ.
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I don't think that's what this passage is talking about at all. I'm talking about the readiness
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that you might be before the Lord tomorrow. All of us are going to die.
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Some might be there before us, but I won't be far behind. You won't be far behind.
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Paul closes with a concluding command he says therefore cast off the works of darkness
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and let us put on the armor of light this is a military metaphor
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it's the image of taking off the weighty sin that slows us down and put on the weightless
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And it's not, again, it's not just a form of removal.
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It's a turning away from sin and a turning toward God.
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When I look to heaven, all my busy thoughts shrink into nothing, and I wonder at my own dullness that I should love so little and labor so faintly for that which is so great.
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If the saints knew what a little while it would be before they came to the enjoyment of that blissful presence of the Lord, they would be more heavenly minded and less entangled with the world.
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The sight of Christ and his glory will make them wonder why they ever could be so cold in their love,
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slow in their obedience, or weak in their faith.
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Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset, yet how little we labor for it.
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We shall one day in the courts of heaven wonder why we prayed so little, trusted so little,
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you want to see Prescott become a Christianized town
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that raise up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
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that have great marriages and obedient children,
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Lord, that you would teach us to number our days.
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and father that you would work in us and through us by your power to do great and mighty things
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in this church in this town lord that we would lay the groundwork
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for generations for our kids and for our grandkids and for our great-grandkids in this town
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lord we ask that you would bless us with conviction and hope
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lord that you have every single one of our days in your hands
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and that we would not worry or live in anxiety be anxious for nothing your apostle says
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but we ask that you would bless us with that wisdom in jesus name amen