You Are Past Due

Rom 1:13-17 

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.  I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.  So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

 

Paul says, that he has intended to come to Rome to preach the gospel. But up to this point he has not done it. Up to this point he has been hindered.      Every time he decides that he is going to go, something else comes up.  Have you ever been there?  You look around you and you see people who need Jesus, And you have every intent of sharing truth with them, but it seems like something is always coming up.  There is always an excuse as to why we never get around to it.  There are too many people around. The timing isn’t right. The grass needs mowed, the house needs painted, the laundry needs washed, the kids have ballgames, mom is sick, dad is sick, the dog needed a bath, and the list goes on and on.  To excuse means to make an apology, or to remove blame.  Thus making excuses is our attempt to justify our failure; to remove our blame.  Excuses may make us feel better about failing to fulfill our duty, but they do not remove our obligations.

In the above passage, Paul recognizes his failure to do what he knows he should be doing, namely to preach the gospel.  In verse fourteen he says “I am debtor”.  The word translated debtor literally means “delinquent”, or past due.  Here Paul is admitting that he is past due to come to Rome and preach the gospel to the people there.   As Christians we have an obligation to preach the Gospel as well. We have been commissioned to go into the world and preach the gospel; to set the captives free, and expand the kingdom of God.  But we often allow our excuses to keep us from fulfilling that obligation.  The result is groups of people going to Hell, because we were delinquent in telling them about Jesus.  The Bible is clear that as we have been given the opportunity to believe, we are to give others that same opportunity.  Failure to do so not only hinders others from believing, it may even cause us to forfeit our own salvation.  God expects us to take what we have been given and multiply it.  The scriptures make it clear that being debtor, is cause for us to have what we have been given taken away, and we ourselves be cast out (Matthew 25:14-30).  Make no mistake, fruitless branches are will be cut away and burned.

God is not just concerned about us being faithful, he wants us to be fruitful.  Typically when we speak of fruit we think of the fruit of the Spirit; Love, joy, peace, patience, etc.  But here the fruit Paul is talking about the adding souls to the kingdom, the fruit of his labor.  Paul says the reason he wanted to come to Rome was so that he might have fruit among them, even as he had among other gentiles. Paul had been preaching the gospel to others, and his ministry had produced new believers (fruit).   God is expecting us to plant seed, so that fruit can be reaped.  God is looking for us to go forth and make disciples.  Unfortunately too often our own excuses keep us from performing our duty.  It is time that we stop with the excuses, and realize that we have a duty to act.  And we must purpose to not allow other things to hinder us from fulfilling our obligation.  Paul puts it this way in verse fifteen, “I am ready to preach the Gospel to you”.  We too have to be ready to preach the Gospel to everyone we contact. 

Paul admits that he has been delinquent in preaching to both the Greeks and the Barbarians, the wise and the unwise.  Our obligation to preach the gospel spans across gender, race, social category, economic status, sexual orientation, criminal background, or religious affiliation.  We are to preach the gospel to every creature, not just the ones we are comfortable with, or with whom we are close.  We are obligated to sow the seed upon every type of soil.  We are not responsible for the soil, but we must scatter the seed.  The bible tells us to be ready always to give an answer for the hope that is in us; ready to speak the truth in love.  We live in a society that has tried to shame us into not speaking.  They paint Christians as mean, hateful and intolerant.  And by doing so they create so much opposition that Christians will find it easier to just be silent.  But being silent makes us debtor.

 
Rom 10:13-14 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”  We have an obligation to give people the opportunity to believe.  But how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how can they hear without a preacher?  News flash, we are the preachers.  We are all called to be preachers of the gospel, It is our duty, it is our obligation.  And we have no excuse not to do it.  If there are people that God has placed on your heart to talk to about Christ, and you have failed to do it, realize that you are debtor; you are past due.  Don’t waste any more time, and don’t allow any other excuses hinder you from fulfilling your obligation to preach the gospel. 

Passion

For the last week and a half this word, "Passion", has been burning in my heart and my mind.  What is it about passion that drives people?  We move toward the things about which we are passionate. It is passion that motivates us, and without it there is no action.  So as I was preparing for my Sunday sermon, I decided to do a word study on "Passion".  I discovered that in the KJV, out of the 66 books of the Bible, the 1189 chapters, and 31,103 verses, the word "passion" only appears once.  In Acts 1:3

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

 “Passion” only appears once, and it is used to describe Christ's suffering. 

 

For many, passion means something they love to do.  They are passionate about painting, or hunting and fishing. For others they see passion as an overwhelming desire.  However, Christ did not love to be crucified.   put to death was not an overwhelming desire he had.  In fact the opposite was true.  As he prayed in the garden he struggled with his reluctance to drink of the cup.  "Father, if there  be any other way, let this cup pass from me."  This does not sound like the passion to which we are accustomed.  While the word "passion" only appears once, the Greek word translated as passion in Acts 1:3 appears many times.  It is the word you see every time you read of Jesus speaking about how the son of man must "suffer".  When you read that he must "suffer" many things, he is speaking of passion.  Passion is not about overwhelming desire, or a love of something, it is in reality an unbearable suffering. It means to experience a painful sensation or impression.

It means to be tormented, troubled, plagued, or distressed. 

This truth brings a whole new understanding to the word "passion".  Passion is not something I desire to do, or love to do, it is something that I must do, because the suffering is too great to bear.  As Jesus looked around at the people and there condition it caused him heartache, it caused him internal torment.  It is for this reason that as he entered into Jerusalem he wept.  His stress in the garden was a result of his passion for the people.  He did not want to die, he did not desire the cross, but the suffering that he felt for the people was so great within him that he had to do something to change their situation.  That meant drinking the cup, accepting the mockery, taking the beating, carrying the cross, and allowing himself to be crucified.  He was driven by passion.

I believe this is one reason that the church is not making an impact in today's society.  Christians are sitting in church buildings all across the nation with no passion.  Meanwhile leaders are trying to get them involved by building excitement and trying to convince people that they will love getting involved.  If only we would realize that passion is more powerful than excitement.  Excitement wears off, but passion does not fade.  We may not realize it, or we may not want to admit it, but we are designed to function on a system of negative feedback.  When you breathe it is a response to a negative stimulus.  As your body builds up with too much toxic carbon dioxide, your body gets the message to breath it out.  Touching a hot stove causes a quick and powerful response that lasts you an entire lifetime.  In fact it is the positive euphoria of excitement that leads to destructive behaviors such as addition.  If your breathing was based on this kind of positive reinforcement then your body would crave oxygen so much that you would be in a constant state of hyperventilation in an attempt to get as much oxygen as possible.  Passion is not different.  The negative impact of internal suffering drives us to correct the situation.

 

For me personally it is an apathetic church.  When I see what the church has become, I am distressed.  When I see God's people living so far below their blessing, and failing to realize the kingdom that is available to them, I am grieved. When I see Christians destroyed for a lack of knowledge, I am pained.  When I see people living out their Christian life as if it is a drudgery; with no joy or victory, I suffer.  When I see a church that has given up, I am tormented.  This is my passion.  This is what keeps me up at night.  It is what wakes me in the morning. It is what I think of throughout the day.  It is what drives me to do what I do.   It is why I preach.  It is why I read and study.  It is why I try to live out passion.  It is why I try to ignite passion, instead of build excitement.  It is why I try to think up new ways of getting people to stop and look around at the world around them.  

 

If you were to ask most people what keeps them awake at night you would be hard pressed to find many that could respond with anything that didn't involve their problems.  We have become numb to the people around us.  Nothing keeps us awake at night. Nothing causes us torment or distress. We have no passions.  The problem is we are often in too big of a hurry, too self centered, to see the needs around us.  We are too busy rushing from place to place, trying to stay on our schedule that we fail to see the family living in their car.  We miss the child abandoned to the street.  We don't notice the elderly left alone, or the woman abused.  We ignore the people going to hell.  We don't see it, and thus it does not burden us.  It does not become a passion.  The result is a people with no drive to do anything about it.  

 

As followers of Christ this should not be.  Christ was a man of passion, and that passion was evidenced in his life.  The burden he carried led him to leave home to share about the kingdom.  The grief he had for others caused him to touch the leper, embrace the sinner, feed the hungry, and welcome the outcast.  It was this passion that caused him to take up his cross.  As his followers, we too should be people of passion.  In fact I would go as far as to say we must be people of passion because without it we will never be driven to take up our cross and follow him.  And Jesus made it clear, that if we will not do that, we can not be his disciple.  We must allow God to give us a passion.  It begins with a willingness to slow down, and start to look at the world around us.  Start seeing those people who are in need.  As we do, we will start to concern us.  It will no doubt cause us to pray about it.  But it will become a passion when we reach the place where we no longer ask God to do something about it, and start asking God what we can do about it.  When we have passion it will drive us to action.  It will cause us to get out of bed.  It will drive us to our knees.  It will cause us to put our hand to the plow.  It will cause us lay down our lives.  It will cause us to be like Christ. 

 

Your passion may not be my passion, and that is okay.  Truth be told the more passion is diversified, the more people will be reached.  A healthy church is one that has many passions working in unity to accomplish a kingdom purpose.  So, if you have a passion for teens or children, and someone else has a passion for the elderly then that is good.  If one person is passionate about evangelism and another about discipleship, that is healthy.   After all the hand does not have the same burden as the foot, nor does the ear bear the same burden as the eye,  but they all work together.  The bottom line is this; you have been created for a purpose.  There is a reason you are here; a reason you have the skills you have, live where you live, work where you work.  There are people all around you that are in need.  They need you to take action, but that will take you having an unbearable suffering within yourself, that causes you to intervene to change their situation.  It will require passion.