ROMANS: Ministry

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We know that your your burden is easy and light as we read last week.

And as you take our burden, as you lead us, as you cover us, you also call us.

And so this morning, it's our desire to wrap our head and our understanding around this calling.

Amen.

Well, good morning.

My name is Wade Collier, and I have the joy of being the missions and outreach pastor here at Grand Parkway.

Let me be the first to say welcome to our Seattle campus.

We are glad that you are here at our extension.

I appreciate you guys braving the weather this morning.

If you're a guest, let me let me say this.

Sometimes this gets tacked on at the end, and I think it's something that gets rushed, and we always say we'll do next week as visitors.

I've been in that spot before.

You were handed a worship folder when you walked in, it has a red cover on there.

It says everything.

There's a tear-off portion on the bottom of that.

The way that we come alongside you as a pastoral staff as a church and just say, hey, we'd love to answer any questions you have is you is by you filling that out.

And then as you walk out any of the doors in the sanctuary, they're tall brown boxes, and you can just drop that off in there.

We'd love to follow up with a phone call, an email, take you to coffee if you're so willing.

We'd love to do that because we don't want to just stand up here and preach.

We also want to be your pastor, and we also want to help you find a church home if this is it.

So that being said, um I mentioned on the front of that worship folder, it says everything.

There's a whole lot of everything on there.

That comes into play as a church, we've been going through the book of Romans.

Um, and we we we found ourselves in the last few weeks in a part of that series we're calling everything.

Um so this morning we're gonna pick up in Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Um last week Neil left off in uh in verse 13.

This morning I'm gonna pick up in verse 14.

If you don't have a Bible, if you look to your left and your right, maybe on the floor there are Black Pew Bibles, hardcover pew Bibles.

I think we're on page 949, somewhere around there in that Black Pew Bible.

Um it won't work in your own Bible.

You can't turn to page 949 in your Bible.

If it does work, raise your hand.

That'd be amazing.

Nobody?

It worked?

Nine.

Oh, you got the same Bible.

That doesn't count.

All right.

That's cheating.

Uh but we'll be uh starting in verse 14.

It says this I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given to me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

In Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way to Ilir Ichum, there you go, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and thus I made it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.

This morning we're we're going to take up this series of everything and talk about the call on every believer in Jesus Christ.

Everyone who claims to be a Christian, everyone who has been redeemed by Christ, the call on their life for ministry.

And so I have titled this sermon very creatively, ministry.

That's right.

They don't give these gigs to anybody.

Ministry.

I think it's funny and fitting that on the Sunday we talk about everyone's call to ministry.

Um you have one of our lay people leading worship, starting his month of leading worship here, not one of the professional pastors leading worship, and and also the guy who who preaches maybe a handful of times of the year.

Um it's because it's because we're all called, and so what we're going to learn is we're all called and we're all equipped.

Um what do I mean?

Look back in verse 14.

He says this I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

When you read that, know that Paul is not flattering the church at Rome.

He's not us, he's not me.

As I I had to send an email last night, we were we were supposed to go to a wedding, my wife came down sick as a dog.

Um, and and so I wrote in the email, and the first thing I wrote, just out of habit, was a compliment to the person I was writing the email to.

Um after we had RSVP'd late to the wedding, bless you, after we had RSVP'd late to the wedding, now we were telling I was telling them the day of the wedding that we weren't coming.

And so Paul isn't being like us and flattering people, man, you're really good at that.

Now let me drop a bomb on you.

And man, you sure are pretty.

I quit.

It's not that.

What Paul is doing is he is telling them the truth.

He's telling us the truth.

He's saying, as a Christian, you are in the ministry.

What do I mean?

Paul infirms that the entire Roman church, not just the pastors, notice he doesn't say pastors are full of goodness and knowledge.

He says, I am encouraged to tell you that you're all full of goodness and you're all full of knowledge.

Full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able to instruct one another.

Some of your translations might say, able to admonish one another.

Well, how?

How?

If you're like me, you grew up in church and you heard your whole life that you're not good, there's nothing good in you, and if not for Christ, you you would have no goodness.

Look at me.

That's true.

But it's not in spite of, it's because of that we find this goodness.

It's because of, Paul can say, it's because of this that rather that Paul can say to the church in Rome and the church that meets at Grand Parkway, that you are full of goodness and you are full of knowledge.

These two words are key.

They're key in understanding this call on our lives.

And in the key as we begin to unpack this call to ministry, you have to understand, and here's our first the first point is goodness and knowledge.

Goodness and knowledge.

You have to understand that goodness and knowledge have to go together.

So, what does it mean that Paul says the church is full of goodness?

He uses a word in here, one of two words that I want to address this morning, that I think if you spend any time in church or Christian culture, these words that you take on that we might use and we might even proclaim and we might pray, but if we're gonna be honest, myself being the first one, that maybe we don't always understand the full weight of what these words mean and what they mean as Christ sees us.

And the reason that Paul can say, and this isn't just me, even if you read on in the text that's gonna use this word, the reason that Paul can say that they are full of goodness and knowledge, the reason that we are full of goodness and knowledge, and therefore called to ministry, every one of us, is because we've been sanctified.

It's because we've been sanctified.

Sanctified's that word.

We hear that and we're like, man, I just feel more spiritual saying that word, right?

But to begin to understand what it is if we're not good, if we're in need of a savior, because if we were good and we were able to do all this on our own, then there was no reason for Jesus to come.

Right?

Are we all on the same page?

But we did need Jesus, and he did come, and because he did come, Paul can say of them, and he can say of us as believers in Jesus Christ, that we are full of goodness and knowledge.

And so to be sanctified, this allows me to break out my three years of high school Latin, which was one of the worst decisions I ever made in my life.

High schoolers, if you're here, don't take Latin.

It sounds cool, you get to watch good movies, take field trips.

And then you get to college and you feel like the biggest moron ever.

I got to college, I was the biggest moron ever.

It was only amplified by when I sat in freshman English.

I mean freshman English.

See, told you.

When I frat when I sat in freshman Spanish, rather.

When you're in high school Spanish, the teacher speaks in English and then she'll talk in Spanish.

When you get to college Spanish, it's just all Spanish.

And I look around and I'm like, I'm in the wrong class, clearly.

I look at my syllabus and it says Spanish one, and she is speaking in Spanish, and everybody in the class is just nodding.

And I'm thinking, oh yeah, this was three years of Latin in high school when I should have taken Spanish.

But now, finally, 20 years later, I get to use my Latin.

Sanctification finds its root in two Latin words, prepare to be impressed.

Sanctus, which means holy, and facar, which means to make.

To make holy.

Now I have more than one sentence in Latin.

Up till this point, I could have told you the dog is in the garden drinking wine.

That was it! Three years old.

You want to hear it?

See me after the service.

Canis estin hortu bibitwinum.

Huh?

Come on.

But now, but now we have sanctification, sanctus, which means to make.

I mean sanctus, which means holy, and fakar, which means to make.

And so why are we filled with goodness?

Why are we filled with knowledge?

Because God's made us holy.

And so it's no mistake.

Every one of you.

Not just the paid ones.

Everybody has a call on their life.

And you do and you can because you're filled with goodness and you're filled with knowledge.

If you remember the fruits of the Spirit, Galatians 5.22, it says that goodness is one of those.

It's only deliverable from God.

And because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit delivers it, he also uses it through you in the ministry that you're called to.

But it doesn't stop there.

He doesn't just stop with goodness, he also talks about knowledge.

John Wesley defines knowledge as this filled with all knowledge, by long experience of the things of God.

Notice what it doesn't say.

It doesn't say by long experience of memorizing scripture that you can use as a weapon to make other people feel stupid.

We alright in here.

That's not what it says.

Because you you can and and please know that, and I can speak for everyone who gets behind this pulpit who's a pastor at this church.

When we preach, we're preaching to ourselves.

And so we don't get up here and get all liquored up on religion and text and then come here and try to condemn you.

What we're doing is we're preaching the text to ourselves first, and then to you as well.

And so it's easy to fall off one side of this fence and just be just be all knowledge and just be all all uh memorization and all trying to be a lawyer and filling our mind and our thoughts with bullet points, so then when we encounter a conversation about kingdom things, about religion, about Christ, or about other people's belief, our whole agenda is to prove other people wrong and prove ourselves right.

But that's not the ministry of Christ.

Because if we're filled, if the only reason that we are good and the only reason that we are knowledgeable is that Jesus living within us, are we on the same page there?

Then why would our ministry look anything other than like Jesus?

You don't see Jesus doing that.

You see Jesus being patient, you see Jesus being gracious, you see Jesus never compromising, you see Jesus never compromising the truth, but you see him doing it with love.

When I think about graciousness and when I think about knowledge, I think about this great theologian named Beverly Collier, who is my mom, who is full of great southeastern Oklahoma sayings.

Um and I'm about to impart a lot of wisdom.

Get your pins ready from my mom.

One of those, when when she talks um about things that that we should be subtle in, one of those is knowledge.

My mom is a brilliant lady, um, and and retired teacher, and just just just off the charts smart.

Um, but she said that it's not it's not a weapon, it's a tool.

And she said, Your knowledge, this is great, you're right, you ready?

Your knowledge, much like cologne, should be discovered, not announced.

Some of you.

That goes for perfume too, ladies.

And and and I'm not as in my mom's my mom's words aren't scripture, but man, what how how beautiful is we we see, and I don't want to get too far ahead in the sermon here, we we see we see the deeds of Jesus, but also just flavor with the beautiful truth, the uncompromising truths, right?

And my mom would say, if she was here, and I'm not gonna try to do her accent because she adds extra syllables, it's an art form, I'm not sure how she does it.

But she would say that if we miss what what what Paul is saying here, and the fact that we're filled with both goodness and knowledge, and if we fall too much on goodness or we fall too much on knowledge, she'd say, You're one of the dumbest smart people I've ever met.

Because we've missed it.

If if if all it is is about us, then we've missed it.

We filled our own ego, we filled our own reputation and missed God's reputation.

But luckily, this ministry that we're called to is all about God.

The sanctification, all about God.

These two qualities of knowledge and goodness must run together.

There are morally good people who have no understanding of biblical truth, and so they cannot minister effectively to others.

And there are people who know impressive amounts of biblical truth, but they don't apply it personally.

Their lives are not marked by godly conduct or unselfish loving behavior, so they're not able to minister effectively.

But if you know God's truth and you're applying it personally, then you're able to instruct and admonish others.

Your life backs up your message, and both are grounded in God's word.

I read that because we have to remember um that that God is better than us.

And and it what's interesting and can't be missed is Paul's writing um to this letter the letter to this church.

This church is primarily self-taught.

Where do I get that?

It's gonna be on the screen, um, I think in in Romans chapter six, beginning in verse 17.

You'll have to turn there.

But just look.

It says, But thanks be to God that you who are once slaves of sins, sin, have become obedient from the heart to the knowledge, I mean to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Why why why do I read this to you?

As you read that up there, I I want to just I want to invite you to think that this says exactly the same thing as verse 14 of chapter 15.

It says this, but thanks be to God that you were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart, full of goodness.

You're full of God, and you're obedient to what God has put in your heart, to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, full of knowledge, full of goodness, full of knowledge, both from God, not from a pastor standing in front of you and teaching you, but by committing yourself to God's truth and his goodness, which he's put inside of you, by God making you holy.

I'm not saying don't go to church.

I don't know if Neil's in here, I'll get in trouble.

I'm not saying don't come to church.

What I'm saying is that God is teaching you and he's working in you, and you don't have to wait till someone stands behind this pulpit and tells you to go do ministry.

Because God's word is already telling you to go do ministry.

God Himself working in you, stirring in you, making things uh uh making impressions on your brain of things that you you can't get beyond because you know that God is calling you to go talk to those or act in those.

God's calling you into ministry.

So how?

How do we do the ministry?

Brings us to our second point, which is posture.

Posture.

We have to have the posture of those who believe that we're called to minister.

And look at me, church.

And in in most cases, this is gonna hurt my job security, in most cases, you're you're much more qualified ministers than the guys who stand behind this pulpit.

Because you know lives.

And you know people.

You know the people that God's calling you to minister to.

Great moment in my life and my ministry when someone put a book in my hand and it was called The Contemplative Pastor.

It's written by this guy named Eugene Peterson.

If you've ever seen the message translation of the Bible, it's uh it's written by Eugene Peterson.

Eugene Peterson was um great author, he's written over 30 books.

Um he speaks, he was a seminary professor, he's retired now, I think, at 82 or 83, but his retirement looks a lot different than I think a lot of our retirements would be.

I still see him preaching all over the world, but um he wrote this book, he started this book, Contemplative Pastor, when he was on his sabbatical after 30 years.

So the Grand Parkway staff is no longer allowed to complain about having to wait seven years, as he waited 30 years to go on sabbatical.

And he's on sabbatical, I think, in Oregon or Montana, I can't remember.

Um and he's on sabbatical in the cabin, and he um begins this book, I think it's in the first or second chapter, um, with talking um in an incredibly vulnerable posture, and um and says what a lot of pastors feel but wouldn't say, and it's man, when I went on sabbatical, I was really hoping my church would miss me, and there would be reason for them to miss me, like things would fall apart, maybe, and they'd have to call me for advice.

And he said, So I called to check in a few weeks into my sabbatical, and the church was growing in my absence.

And he said, also when I was on sabbatical, our church went through a season of um of a lot of death, and um, and the church stepped up and they handled the services without me, without calling me.

People got sick, they went to the hospitals, people needed counseling, but the church did that.

You're the church, you're called to do ministry.

You're full and filled with goodness and knowledge to do ministry.

So, what does this posture look like?

Verse 15.

But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given to me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles and the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

In Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work.

So, what do I mean posture?

What do I mean posture as it relates to this?

I know this is gonna surprise many of you, but when I played um football in high school, I was not one of the pretty athletic guys that got to throw, catch, and run the ball.

I know that's a shocker.

Um I was one of uh the grunts, one of the hogs, as a coach used to say, that was in charge of hitting people, um, and usually in charge of hitting the guy, one of the pretty boys with the ball.

Um and uh I had a coach one time, his name was uh John Steffenhauer, who was just um an eloquent speaker um full of romantic Shakespearean uh soliloquies, um things like I want you um to run like a cat hitting the butt with a meat cleaver.

Are there any coaches in here right now?

No?

I just want to do the coach is that part of a conference that you go to?

Like they have a list?

Do you sit at home and dream those things up?

I don't under.

But I remember one time he said, if uh if one of you gorillas ever ends up in the end zone with the ball, I want you to act like you've been there before and don't embarrass me.

And there was a certain Friday night where I did find myself in the end zone with the ball.

I did not act like I had been there before.

I did not refrain from embarrassing Coach Steffenhauer.

Um but it was uh I I I don't remember, but the details of the story don't remember don't really matter.

But I remember there was it was the end of the game and we were kind of game of the week.

It was this thing that was on TV, and if we're old Houston folks, Giff Nielsen was there, it was a really big deal.

He came into practice on his helicopter, we felt important.

Um and he was at the game and uh it was near the end, and I think we need to score.

And the coach said, I need I need I need one of you hogs that can run.

And so my coach kind of sent me over there and he said he just grabbed me by the face mask.

He said, Son, do you know who refrigerator Perry is?

And I said, Yes, sir.

He said, I want you to do that into the end zone.

Refrigerator Perry was a giant defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears.

Usually they put him in a fullback and he would just blow people away.

And so um I was excited.

This was my one chance to carry the ball, and I got in there and I just handed the ball, and in my mind, this is how it played out.

I got the ball very, very graciously, very, very gracefully, rather, um, and very athletically, as two guys fell in front of me.

I planted one foot and I leaped over them, doing that thing you see on Sports Center, and then I tucked and rolled, popped right back up to my feet.

It was beautiful.

In my mind, that's exactly how it happened.

And because in my mind that's exactly how it happened, and I knew it was going to be on TV later at night when they were playing the highlights at 10 30, I called on my friends to come over, and I also told my mom.

Mom, hey mom, bust out.

Now, teenagers used me to this thing called a VCR.

I said, Mom, it's time to record over Young and the Restless.

Your son is a hero.

And so we recorded it, and my buddies came over, and in my mind, how that looked was not how it looked in reality.

Because as I tripped over my own feet, even getting to the ball, I was still tripping and stumbling and bumbling as two guys fell in front of me and I hooked my toe in one of their face masks.

And just because of the sheer weight of this Sasquatch build you see before you that was much larger back then, I just fell into the end zone.

I think if there was a replay, the fumble would have disqualified the touchdown.

But I then picked up the ball and stood there holding the ball like this.

Not making my call.

I don't know why.

I don't remember doing that.

Why, and other than embarrassing myself, do I share the story with you?

Because Paul is saying, you've got this goodness and you've got this posture, you've got this goodness and you have this knowledge in you.

And so you need to have this posture of you've been there before.

And here's what I mean by that.

If you believe the Bible, Jesus says that he has completed the work.

It was one sacrifice that was needed for you.

He's paid the price.

And if we believe the Bible and we believe that the only way we have goodness and knowledge in us is because of Jesus Christ, then we have the power of the one who's been there before, who's calling us to ministry and equipping us to ministry.

And so this posture, it looks like obedience.

Obedience is one of those words we don't like.

It's like commandment.

But what does obedience look like?

Obedience makes opportunities clear.

If you're walking in obedience, you're saying, God, I'm only good because of you.

I only have knowledge because of you.

And so I want to be obedient to what you want to do with this knowledge and this goodness.

Look what it says again in verse 15.

But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given to me by God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles and the priestly service of the gospel of God.

So that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Right there, we have our two words that I mentioned.

We already talked about one.

Sanctified is one of those words that we need to begin to ask God to allow us to understand what it is to make us holy in sanctification.

The other one is priesthood.

If you've been around here any amount of time, you've probably heard that word a lot.

We say that we believe in your priesthood.

We believe that God has given you gifts that need to be used.

And we might even pray it.

And I just feel even more spiritual saying priesthood right now.

Let's just take a moment.

Okay, no, I'm good.

But what is what is uh what is priesthood all about?

Ron Rhodes describes it better than I can.

I want to read this to you.

It's gonna be on the screen as well.

It says this Christ, our high priest, has made one sacrifice for sin for all time.

And there is no more sacrifice for sin that can be made.

But as priests once offered other kinds of sacrifices in the temple, so it is clear from Scripture that God has chosen Christians to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The Bible speaks of two aspects of the priesthood of the believer.

The first is that believers are privileged.

To be chosen by God to be a priest was a privilege.

All believers have been chosen by God.

All believers have been chosen by God, a chosen generation of priests.

I don't say that, I don't repeat that to push some political, I mean some uh uh theological agenda.

So all of you are thinking that, get back online with this.

The reason I repeat that is so that you know and you hear and you believe that God chose you, he chose you with a purpose, and he chose you to be a priest, to give you priesthood.

The second aspect of the believer's priesthood is that we are chosen for a purpose, to offer a spiritual sacrifice and to proclaim to offer up spiritual sacrifices and to proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Thus, by both our deeds and by words, our purpose is to serve God, offering our lives as living sacrifices.

He calls us to live holy lives that we might be a holy priesthood.

Remember, Paul is writing to this group, this church in Rome, most of whom have just been taught by gathering together, reading the scriptures, embracing God's call on their life.

And there are some in this audience that Paul probably and most likely is speaking to when he says priesthood, and those are the Jews that are there.

Because the Jews have lived with the only sacrifice that they could have, the only sacrifice, the only way that they could come close to God was through the sacrifice of a priest.

A priest taking a clean sacrifice into the holiest of holies behind the veil and making a sacrifice as an atonement for the sins of many.

But what Jesus did on the cross, the one and final sacrifice for our sins.

Remember when Jesus died, he said, it is finished, and there was something that was torn.

Do you remember the veil on the holiest of holies, and he says, I have made the atoning sacrifice.

And with that atoning sacrifice, I have filled you with goodness and knowledge, and I have called you to ministry, and I'm asking that you obey me.

And obeying me, you embrace this call of a priesthood.

So it's not only the people, the men and women that are paid to do ministry that are called to ministry.

We're all called to ministry.

And we're all called to tell the story we've been talking about all morning.

And the way and the reason we do this is we're also called the boldness.

We're called the priesthood, but we're also called the boldness.

In Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God because of Christ.

Because of Christ, in Christ.

That's the only reason.

Paul, Paul, who goes down in the hall of fame when it goes to the Bible in faith, says, only because of Jesus do I have goodness, only because of Jesus do I have knowledge, only because of Jesus do I obey, only because of Jesus am I called to do ministry.

So what is this ministry that we're called to?

And it's preach the gospel.

It's our third point.

Preach the gospel.

Now, what do I mean by preach the gospel?

There's a picture of an old friar that's gonna pop up on the screen, but it's the wrong friar.

There's the right friar.

I thought I might have lost you at the priesthood explanation, so I had to make sure that I got you back.

That's Lance Williams, not that, but the other one is Lance Williams, our spiritual formation pastor.

Halloween, all Halloween falls on the same day as Reformation Day, Martin Luther, in the thesis.

And so out of uh honor of Reformation Day, one of his favorite holidays, Lance dresses up and parades through his neighborhood as Martin Luther.

You're welcome.

All right.

Back back to this is uh this is Francis Assisi.

And the reason I said this poor friar is this guy has been misquoted for over 800 years.

Um and I and I think in being misquoted for over 800 years, uh that is a big disservice to his legacy.

Um but more than that, because we're not all about our reputation and legacy, we're about God's reputation and God's legacy.

Um I think I think God's reputation and legacy have been not not that we have the ability to tarnish God's legacy, but in our minds and and and in our and in our in our sinful desires to make the gospel more about us and make us the central part of the story instead of God.

We can take things like you're about to read that have been misquoted to Francis of Assisi, and we we um we we make them a mantra or we make them a lifestyle.

How many of you have seen this quote that pops up on the screen?

Preach the gospel at all times, use words of necessary.

Raise your hand if you heard that before.

You're not in trouble.

You didn't write it.

Here's the problem He didn't say this.

He never said this.

Because uh mainly it's it's not the gospel, it's not the Bible.

It's not honoring to God.

That's completely contrary to everything we've read.

It's completely contrary to everything that Jesus came for.

It's completely contrary to what we've been called to.

Here's what he really said.

This is what most theologians believe that the the the false quoting, the misquoting of uh the friar came from.

No brother should preach contrary to the form and regulations of the Holy Church, nor unless he has been permitted by his minister.

All the friars should preach by their deeds.

He's not saying just do deeds and don't talk.

What he's saying is make sure your deeds and your words match up and use both.

Because you you you can't use one or the other, and then you become the dumbest smart person you know.

I had the opportunity to hang out with a pastor from Grapevine, his name is J.R.

Vassar.

I emailed him last night, told him I was gonna quote him well, um, and he said that um he said, here's the problem if we want to choose um faith, just doing just doing works or just using words.

He said, if if if you just do works, it's confusing.

It's confusing to those you were supposed to minister to.

And if you just say words, then you're a Pharisee.

Because there's nothing to back it up.

It's contrary to Scripture, it's contrary to what Jesus came for.

And Jesus came to fill us, to save us, to redeem us, to sanctify us, so that we might be ministers of his gospel by deed and by word.

So how do we do this?

How do we preach the gospel and you words, use words?

You still with me?

Let's finish this out.

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed.

Huh?

By word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way to Eerla E I even put it phonetically in my notes because I stumbled over it so many times.

Let's try that again.

Eler ichum.

There we go.

I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, so thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation.

But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.

Paul again, time and time again, recognizes as you read that it is only through the sanctification, it is only through God making him holy through Christ that he is able to accomplish any aspect of the priesthood ministry which he's called.

Same as of.

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience.

But also keep reading, because he also confirms this call to do ministry, to be the gospel, to preach the gospel, to present the gospel through word and deed.

He says, by word and deed.

So how big is this call?

How pivotal is this?

Why am I beating this into the ground that these two have to be synonymous in understanding the knowledge and the goodness that God has poured on us?

The call to be obedient in the call to ministry, that it has to be done in word and deed.

Paul talks about the ministry that we're called to.

He says it in the very sixteen, he says, to be a minister of Christ, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God.

But to what extent?

Look in the text.

He says, all the way from Jerusalem to a town we've never even heard of.

Why?

Why does he include that?

If we cheat and we read ahead, and I don't want to go too far in the Neil sermon, but I want to read these verses.

I got permission.

All right.

I want to read these verses, and starting in verse 22, it says this This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.

Paul has a desire to go and see this church at Rome, and he says, But so often I've been hindered from coming to you.

But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and be helped on my journey there by you.

Once I have enjoyed your company for a while, but at present, verse 25, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints.

Why do I read that to you?

Why what is what does verse 22 through 25 say in light of this verse 19?

It's this is Paul is so committed to the call of ministry.

He's so committed to the fact that God has filled him with goodness and knowledge to obey this call to ministry as he's willing to take a 2,000-mile detour.

What do I mean by a 2,000-mile detour?

I grew up in the generation where we did not do geography.

Told you my mom is a retired teacher.

It drives her crazy.

Probably if you had a gun to my head, I couldn't name all 50 states.

I know it's a shame, but Texas forever.

I just won you all back.

Paul is so committed to this call.

Here's I I wanna, because I'm not uh uh a geographical wizard, I wanna rely on my notes here a little bit.

So bear with me.

Most theologians, most theologians believe that when Paul writes this letter to Rome, he's in Corinth.

Corinth is about 800 miles from Rome.

It takes about 19 hours to drive in a car.

Give or take.

Depends who's driving.

Depends if my wife's in the car or I have to obey the speed limit, how many bathroom breaks, but give or take, 19 hours.

I know we're not all Bible scholars in here, but they didn't have cars in the Bible.

All right?

So you're hoofing.

800 miles.

Taking a boat.

So Paul is saying that although he went to Rome, although he wants to go to Rome on his way to Spain, he first needs to go to Jerusalem.

So now you have 800 miles to Rome, but instead of going 800 miles, what he's saying is there is a call on my life to obey God, so I'm gonna go 800 miles back to Jerusalem.

Now I know none of you would do this, but if I'm in Corinth and it's a straight shot to go to Rome, and I really want to go there, I'm gonna be like, God, I just need a little vacation.

I've earned this.

How about I go to Jerusalem via Rome?

But there's a call to obey, there's a call to answer the gift of righteousness and all knowledge.

And so he says he leaves for Jerusalem, basically doubling the trip.

To go to Jerusalem and then swing back around.

You're looking at 1,500 to 1,600 miles.

Hoofing it.

But don't miss this.

There's some people, there's some historians that believe that he actually did make it to Spain.

So if he was to go Corinth to Rome, I'm sorry, Corinth to Jerusalem, Jerusalem to Rome, then that trip from Rome to Spain, you're looking at another thousand miles, depending where he goes in the country.

To answer the call to do ministry.

So why the geography lesson?

I'm done.

Why the geography lesson?

To ask this question.

What carries more weight in our lives?

Is it the call or is it our convenience?

Is it the call to do ministry at no matter what cost?

That every believer in Jesus Christ is called to do ministry.

Or the convenience of this is how I want to live my life.

Now look at me.

We don't do guilt.

This would be if I if I did do guilt, this would be the opportune time as the missions pastor to sign you all up for something.

It's not what we're here for.

It's not what I'm about.

And it's definitely not what God's about.

But here's what we're gonna do is I'm gonna invite Bo to come back up.

If you're a visitor with us, this is this is how we um typically do our response.

We don't do pressure.

Um you've been around here any amount of time, you've heard the words be the sermon.

And so I want to invite you.

God wants to invite us into the first step of being the sermon.

Before you start putting everything away, hang with me here.

I mean you're even gonna get out early.

You're so early you're not even gonna believe it.

Is I want you to ask God two questions.

Bo's gonna play that song, The Stand, that we sang, that we sang earlier.

She's gonna sing a verse and a chorus over us.

Um and I want you to ask God, God, what are you calling me to?

And am I doing it?

What are you calling me to and am I doing it?

For some of you, it's who are you calling me to?

And am I responding?

Am I ministering to that person the way you've called me to do it?

Now I can't stand up here and and and be a hypocrite because I I can't stand up here and say, man, I want to be the best dad that I can.

If my kids don't say that I'm a good dad, then I'm not doing it.

I'm not answering the call the way that God has called me to.

I can't stand up here and say, I want to be the most romantic, serving husband to my wife, but then if she comes up here and I leave the room and she doesn't say that about me, then I'm not doing what God has called me to do.

I'm not doing ministry.

My neighbors, my friends, my finances, I'm not honoring God.

There was a time about two years ago where I had allowed myself to become so busy and fall into such a deep pity party that I would have been embarrassed if any of my neighbors knew that I was a pastor.

Because I was so closed off to interacting with them.

I had convinced myself that I deserved to come home and unplug because I was off the clock.

Missing the fact that God has called us all to do ministry, not just when we're on the clock.

What is God calling me to?

Am I doing it?

Put your hands out like this.

God calls you precious and called.

Go now and enjoy his goodness and his knowledge.

Amen.