August 24, 2003    Spiritual Blackout?   Rom. 1:13-17

By Ronald E. George Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church

 

A recent blackout in the northeast has left 50 million people in the USA and without power.  The result of this power failure was astounding.  Million’s of people were stranded without any way to go home.  Stuck in the dark, in elevators, and in subways these people were caught in the dark.  Thousands had to abandon their automobiles and walk home.  Everything came to a stand still.  This blackout has shown us just how much we rely on electric power.  The problem is reported to have started with a lightening strike at the source of power at a Niagara Falls power station. 

            An even greater disaster has overtaken our country, but it has gone almost completely unnoticed.  We have a spiritual blackout in our country.  So many of our churches are empty and many have closed their doors for good.  Pastors are dropping like flies out of the ministry.  No one is coming to Lord.  No one is giving his or her life to Christ.  No one is serving God.  Few are worshiping God in Spirit and in truth.  Many who call themselves Christians could care less.  This apathy of the spirit has lead to a Spiritual Blackout of massive proportions. 

            What can we do to get the power back on in our churches?  What needs to happen before the spiritual lights can come back on in our churches?  We must first realize that there is a need or a problem.  Then we must decide that we want to discover what is the source of the problem and begin to correct the situation.  If we aren’t successful in this endeavor, we must realize that this problem will bring disastrous results.  The stakes are very high.

            Paul wrote to the church at Rome and described his desire to come to them to turn on the spiritual power.  Paul and associates turned on the power of God wherever they went.  People were being saved.  People were turning from their idols and lives of sin to a life dedicated to the worship of the one true God through Jesus Christ the Savior.   Here is part of what he said.

 

Scripture Text:  Rom. 1:13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. 14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

 

How can we turn on the light of God in a world of darkness?

 

1.  Christians must begin again to care.  V. 13  Those who are currently attending church have to become concerned again about the spiritual state of the people of their world.  We have to get a burden for the eternal life of those in our neighborhoods.  We have to be concerned enough to go. 

 

2.  Christians have to remember to keep our obligations.  V. 14  We are obligated to preach to everyone.  The gospel must be offered to people of all classes and nationalities.  Have you accepted your responsibility to spread the gospel?  Mat. 28:19

 

3.  Christians have to begin to preach the gospel to the world.  V. 15  This is the power of God.  John 3:16 says that this gospel is for the whole world.  God has chosen the believers to spread the word that God is alive and that He wants them to be his children.  Turn on the light of the Spirit.  Who is the Light of the world? 

John 9:5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

Matt 5:14  "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

 

4.  Christians have to be bold in our faith and proud of our Savior.  V. 16  Turn on the power.  When you turn on the light everyone will notice.  You have to be willing to take a risk and tell others that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.   No one can come to the father except through Jesus.  He is the Way.  Paul said that he wasn’t ashamed of the gospel.  How many people in your life have you told about Jesus?  How many people have you invited to church?  It is time to preach the gospel.  John Wesley White once preached a message at a Billy Graham crusade in titled: “It is time to preach the gospel.”  In this message he emphasized this point from A to Z.  It is time for us to preach the gospel.  

   “Many believers are "rabbit hole" Christians. In the morning they pop out of their safe Christian homes, hold their breath at work, scurry home to their families and then off to their Bible studies, and finally end the day praying for the unbelievers they safely avoided all day.”   -- Jan Johnson in Moody Monthly (Nov. 1987).  Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no. 8

 

5.  Christians must live the gospel to be successful in revealing the righteousness of God.  V. 17.  Before we can effectively preach the gospel we must realize that the true preaching of the gospel lies in living the gospel.  To live the gospel is to allow God to live through your life.  This is the righteousness of God that is seen through lives that are lived in faith.  This is a quote from Craig Keener’s Bible Background on the New Testament on Biblical faith:

 

(Biblical saving faith was not passive assent but actively staking one’s life on the claims of God. It was a certainty sufficient to affect one’s lifestyle; cf. Rom 1:5 .)^[1]

 

  “It has been said that separating faith and works is like separating the heat and light from a candle. You know both are produced by the candle. You know they are not the same thing. You also know you cannot separate them.”   -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).

 

Are you ready to turn on the power?  This is the power of the Lord that shows us the way to eternal life.  Will you come to turn on the light?  Come to pray for your loved ones and friends.  Come to give your life to Christ.  Come to follow the Lord.  Come to the light.  Follow the light that God has given you.  He is showing you the way.