Romans 1:1-6 MAKING AN IMPACT
Intro.- Question: Does your life make an impact? Does our lives make a difference? Do we have significance? I think all of us are looking for that. Yesterday I heard that my Pastor who led me to Christ passed away at 92. I thought this morning: If I could impact one life in the way Pastor Paul Sitton impacted my life, my life will have made a difference.
The job of the church is not to impact the church, but to impact the world. It’s like a huddle in a football game. 67,000 people at Century Link Stadium, don’t pay an average of $466.00 a ticket to watch the Seahawks huddle. (If you want to park, that’s another $175.) What if you went to a Seahawks game and for 2 ½ hours you watched 11 men stand in a circle and talk? That’s not what you pay for!! 67,000 people pay an average of $466.00 a ticket to see what difference the huddle makes. What they want to know is, having called the play in secret, does it work in public? The challenge for the church is not what we do when we call our Sunday morning huddle, but what we do when we break our huddle and head to our Sunday morning assignment. When Satan lines up against us, what difference does it make that we are Christians?
Our theme this year is “Impact”. We want to make an impact for the cause of Christ throughout our area, throughout the year. In fact, for a life time, we want our lives and our Church to make an impact for Christ around this world. BUT, this is nothing new for a believer. The apostle Paul was used of God to make an IMPACT for Christ that still resonates 1900 years later. In the next few weeks, we will be looking at Romans 1:1-16 for this series: Making An Impact.
Read Romans 1:1-8 and Pray:
A quiet forest dweller lived high above an Austrian village along the eastern slopes of the Alps. The old gentleman had been hired many years ago by a young town council to clear away the debris from the pools of water up in the mountain crevices that fed the lovely spring flowing through their town. With faithful, silent regularity, he patrolled the hills, removed the leaves and branches, and wiped away the silt that would otherwise choke and contaminate the fresh flow of water. By and by, the village became a popular attraction for vacationers. Swans floated along the crystal clear spring, mill wheels of various businesses located along the water, farmlands were naturally irrigated, and the view from restaurants was picturesque beyond description.
Years passed. One evening the town council met for its semiannual meeting. As they reviewed the budget, one man's eye caught the salary figure being paid the obscure keeper of the spring. Said the keeper of the purse, "Who is the old man? Why do we keep him on year after year? No one ever sees him. For all we know the strange ranger of the hills is doing us no good. He isn't necessary any longer!" By a unanimous vote, they dispensed with the old man's services.
For several weeks nothing changed. By early autumn the trees began to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparkling water. One afternoon someone noticed a slight yellowish-brown tint in the spring. A couple of days later the water was much darker. Within another week, a slimy film covered sections of the water along the banks and a foul odor was soon detected. The mill wheels moved slower, some finally ground to a halt. Swans left, as did the tourists. Clammy fingers of disease and sickness reached deeply into the village.
Quickly, the embarrassed council called a special meeting. Realizing their gross error in judgment, they hired back the old keeper of the spring. Within a few weeks the veritable river of life began to clear up. The wheels started to turn, and new life returned to the hamlet in the Alps once again.
This story is more than an idle tale. It carries with it a vivid relevant analogy directly related to the times in which we live. What the keeper of the springs meant to the Swiss village, Christians mean to the world. We Christians may seem feeble, needless, unimportant, and small to the vast world, but God help any society that attempts to exist without our influence.
We, Christ's ambassadors, are assigned the position of influencing and impacting our world not unlike the old gentleman in the Alps.
Jesus called his followers to be a front-line militia. Nowhere do we get the impression that Jesus wanted us to live in isolation, separated from the world. It is impossible to live, truly live, for the kingdom in private. We are called to a social agenda and an outward expression of God's principles. We are called to make a difference by influencing and impacting the world around us.
I. A PERSON WITH A PURPOSE vs. 1-2
(God has a purpose for every Believer)
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
A. A lowly person (Saul=full of self; Paul=little one)
“a servant of Jesus Christ” -- He is not lofty, but lowly!
**Lowly gets used!!
B. A purposed position “call to be an apostle”
*God has lofty purpose for every lowly believer!!
**The KEY is to remain lowly, even IF God uses you mightily.
II. THE PRE-EMINENCE OF CHRIST vs. 3-6
(Putting Christ first impacts your life and the life of others.)
Philippians 2:9-11 “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
A. We need a proper focus- “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ”
Hebrews 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” *The Central Person of Christianity, must be our Central Focus!
B. We need a power filled focus- “declared to be the Son of God with power”
1 Cor 4:20 “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”
1. The Holy Spirit’s Involvement – “spirit of holiness”
Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
2. The Resurrections Proof- “by the resurrection from the dead”
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:”
C. We need a Grace & Faith filled focus-
“we have received grace” Titus 2:11 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,”
“obedience to the faith” Jamison, Fauset, & Brown— rather, “for the obedience of faith” - that is, in order to men’s yielding themselves to the belief of God’s saving message, which is the highest of all obedience.”
**The Grace of God calls, and the Faith of man responds!! (have you?)
III. THE POTENTIAL OF A LIFE vs. 7,8
(We are empowered to influence others for Christ.)
“your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world”
*As a young man of 17, God called me to preach. I knew I wanted my life to make a difference! I knew that life was very brief. (a vapour that appeareth for a little time, then vanisheth away.) I knew to live for self was to throw it away. (he that saveth his life shall lose it.) AND, I knew that to put it into the hands of Christ was the ONLY hope I had of making any difference.
**YOU HAVE THE SAME POTENTIAL THIS MORNING!!
I read of a man at sea who was very sea-sick. If there is a time when a man feels that he cannot do any work for the Lord it is then -- in my opinion. While this man was sick he heard that a man had fallen overboard. He was wondering if he could do anything to help to save him. He laid hold of a light, and held it up on the port-hole.
The drowning man was saved. When this man got over his attack of sickness he was up on deck one day, and was talking to the man who was rescued. The saved man gave this testimony. He said he had gone down the second time, and was just going down again for the last time, when he put out his hand. Just then, he said, some one held a light at the port-hole, and the light fell on his hand. A man caught him by the hand and pulled him into the lifeboat.
It seemed a small thing to do to hold up the light; yet it saved the man's life. If you cannot do some great thing you can hold the light for some poor, perishing drunkard, who may be won to Christ and delivered from destruction. Let us take the torch of salvation and go into these dark homes, and hold up Christ to the people as the Savior of the world.