Thinking Like a Missionary?

Father, we ask that you help us to know you,

that you help us to love you,

that you help us to trust you.

We ask, Father, that...

Father, we confess before you

that we regularly face things

that look really, really big,

and they look so big they make you look small.

We ask, Father, that you would help us to remember

that you are bigger than anything

that we will ever come across other than yourself,

that everything is small compared to you.

So we ask, Father, that you help us to trust

in your greatness, in your glory,

that you are the creator,

that you are the sustainer,

that you are sovereign.

Help us to trust, Father,

your means and your provision

for us to be made right with you.

Father, help us to trust you and long for you.

Open our minds and our hearts to receive your word.

And this we ask in Jesus' name,

your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Missionaries have been a force of great evil in the world.

Missionaries have been a force for great evil in the world.

And right-thinking Christians will stop sending missionaries

and apologize for all the harm they've done.

Now, that's not actually something that I believe,

but I think if I was to say that in Starbucks

or in Tim Hortons,

people would nod.

Yeah.

Missionaries have been a force for great evil in the world.

If I was to say that,

probably at the University of Ottawa or Carleton,

if I was to say it in many, many, many places,

it would just be part of the common things

that right-thinking people know and understand.

That Christian missionaries have been a force for evil in the world

and that Christians should apologize for it

and they should stop.

And in fact,

denominations and churches that,

in a sense,

come to accept

that common view of Canada

and of probably not only Canada,

but the West,

as that sort of seeps into our consciousness,

there are many denominations

that have stopped, in fact,

sending any missionaries at all.

In fact, the Anglican Church of Canada

no longer,

not as a denomination,

sends missionaries

as it would have been traditionally understood

where part of the primary obligation or role

was the sharing of the gospel

and the teaching of the Christian faith.

And so it's a very, very common thing.

And unfortunately,

or fortunately as the case might be,

today we have to talk about thinking like a missionary

because that's where the Bible leads us.

It's actually one of those hard texts,

in a sense,

just as certain texts around money

or sexuality or politics

or some other things in our culture.

It's one of those parts where,

you know,

in my heart of hearts,

I'd like to have a sermon and a service

that really, in a sense,

is touching the needs of people

who are not yet Christians

and also addresses the needs of Christians.

But nobody outside of the walls of this church,

and maybe some of you in here,

are thinking to themselves,

I really would like to understand

how to think like a missionary.

Like, it's not one of those questions

that we're really conscious of even,

even Christians often don't really,

they're not even interested at all

in trying to think like a missionary

or have a missionary view of the world.

So we have a text here today,

which is a classic missionary text.

It's all about Paul wanting to go.

I mean, Star Trek said,

boldly go where no man has gone before.

That's really just taking from Paul.

I want to boldly go

where nobody has gone before

to tell about Jesus.

And so we have a text,

which is not what really most Christians

and definitely no non-Christians

are even remotely interested in.

And that's what we're going to look at today.

So get your Bibles out.

We're going to look at it.

And I think, I mean,

it will be no surprise to any of you

that I actually think that this,

this biblical text is really, really important

around some of the biggest cultural

and social issues that we face.

It addresses actually profound human problems

and that it's a text

that Christians don't know they need,

but we really do need

because a lot of the spiritual fatality

and vigor that congregations,

that get ebbed away from congregations

or from individuals' lives

and they don't understand why.

And part of it is going back

to this failure to be gripped

by how the gospel propels us

to have a concern,

to go to hard people groups

and places to the ends of the earth

and to share the gospel.

So the text that Nora read,

it was Romans chapter 15,

Romans 15 · chapter mention

and she began reading at verse 14,

but we're going to start verse 8

because really verse 14

follows upon what Paul is talking about

in Romans,

beginning at Romans 15, verse 8.

Romans 15:8

And it goes like this,

for I tell you that Christ became a servant

to the circumcised

to show God's truthfulness.

Now just pause there.

What it means is that

the circumcised,

just one way of referring to the Jewish people,

the promised people,

the ancient covenant people,

and Jesus came as a servant to them

because he is going to be the means,

he's going to be the suffering servant

by which they are reconciled to God.

I'll start with verse 8 again.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant

to the circumcised

to show God's truthfulness

in order to confirm the promises

given to the patriarchs,

and verse 9 is the dynamite.

Okay?

In fact, if you get nothing else

out of this entire sermon in verse 9,

then that's a good thing.

If you leave and you forget about verse 9,

I failed.

Verse 9 is the dynamite.

And it says this,

And in order,

why did Christ come?

In order that the Gentiles

might glorify God for his mercy.

Why is it that Jesus came?

He wanted pagans

from every people group

on the planet

to receive mercy from him

that makes them right with him

so that they could glorify God

and enjoy him forever.

And that's why Jesus came.

When we look at the transgendered communities,

when we look at the gay communities,

when we look at the artistic communities,

when we look at

the hard-left political communities

that seem to be so opposed

to much in the Christian faith,

when we look at the people

who are profoundly pro-choice

and find Christians

very, very threatening and hateful,

when we look into Asian communities

and African-American,

African-Canadian communities,

when we look to China

and we look to Japan

and we look to South Korea,

we are not to see people

that we should be frightened of,

that we should treat as other,

or that we should hate

or be afraid of.

We should look at them

and have to know

that it's the heart of God

that people from every one

of those people groups

would glorify him.

That's his heart.

That people from every one

of those groups,

with no exception,

would come to glorify him

for his mercy.

That's the motivation for missions.

And to lose that motivation

is to start to shrivel and die

as a Christian and as a church.

Verse 9 again,

and then we'll keep going,

and then I'm going to put it up

on the screen

just so you get this,

this sort of this big thing

at the beginning,

and all of the rest of the stuff

in verse 14,

and it only makes any sense

if this has sort of gripped

your heart in some way at all.

Verse 9 again,

in order that the Gentiles,

that's the pagans,

might glorify God for his mercy.

And then he's going to quote the Bible

as it is written,

therefore I will praise you

among the pagans

and sing to your name.

And again it is said,

rejoice, O pagans,

with his people.

And again,

praise the Lord,

all you pagans,

and let all the peoples

extol him.

And again Isaiah says,

the root of Jesse will come,

even he who arises

to rule the pagans,

in him will the pagans hope.

Now here's this prayer,

a prayer that God writes

for us to pray.

May the God of hope

fill you with all joy

and peace in believing,

so that by the power

of the Holy Spirit

you may abound in hope.

Andrew, could you put the,

I've just taken the scripture text,

I've just sort of put basically

the beginning and the end together.

I've not done anything

to take it out of context,

but could you,

could you all say this with me

because this is the heart,

all the things that are going to follow,

this is the heart of the text,

this is the missionary heart

of the gospel.

Could you say it with me out loud?

For I tell you

that Christ became a servant

to the circumcisions

to show God's truthfulness

in order that the Gentiles

might glorify God

for his mercy.

May the God of hope

fill you with all joy

and peace in believing,

so that by the power

of the Holy Spirit

you may abound in hope.

That's Paul's message.

And in fact,

Andrew, could you just put up

my summary,

or Rebecca,

my summary point?

The living God

desires men and women

from every people group

on the planet

to enter together

into the joy,

peace,

and hope

of glorifying him

for his saving mercy

in Jesus Christ

crucified and risen.

See, the book of Romans is,

we're going to look at Romans 1,

16 to 17 in a moment,

but the whole book of Romans

begins with Paul's,

you know,

he's unashamed of the gospel.

The gospel is what God has done.

The gospel is power

that comes from God,

that's a right power,

that's a just power,

that's a merciful power,

that comes from God.

It's the news that God

has provided a powerful means

by which,

when we put our faith and trust,

faith in God,

in his power,

his means,

that he will make us

right with himself.

And that's the gospel.

And then Paul has spent

all of Romans 15,

all of Romans,

the book of Romans,

just trying to help us

to understand that

so that we would be

gripped by it.

And now as the book of Romans

is coming to an end,

and his concern

is once again

to just drive into us

that as we receive

this gospel ourselves,

as we receive this power

from God ourselves,

that it would naturally

compel us,

as we're gripped by it,

to have a changed view

of every people group

in the world,

and to have a heart

for every people group

in the world,

with no exception.

And so that's why

I've tried to put it here,

summarizing this scripture text.

Could you put it

in the scripture text again,

Rebecca?

Can you flip back to it?

Could you say it all

out loud with me?

Remember, this is the whole,

you know,

if you're going to fall asleep

after this,

then I guess at least

you'll remember the part here

that's the important part

at the beginning,

not the end.

But could you say this

with me out loud again?

For I tell you that Christ

became a servant

to the circumcised

to show God's truthfulness

in order that the Gentiles

may glorify God

for his mercy.

May the God of hope

fill you with all joy

and peace in believing,

so that by the power

of the Holy Spirit

you may abound in hope.

And then, Rebecca,

if you could flip that first point

back up on the screen.

The living God desires

men and women

from every people group

on the planet

to enter together

into the joy, peace,

and hope of glorifying him

for his saving mercy

in Jesus Christ,

crucified and risen.

Now, there's no question

that some missionaries

have done great evil

throughout the history.

I'm not going to say

that every missionary

was perfect,

that he or she

did a spectacular job

that they were

self-effacing

and humble

and sacrificial.

Nobody can make

that type of claim

about anybody

or any group.

But, you know,

it's really, really,

you know,

I think if you actually

were to study

the history of missionaries

in terms of what

they've done,

and then you compare it

to what armed forces

have done,

business people have done,

academics,

aid groups,

the United Nations,

Christians,

I actually think

Christians don't have

to hold their head low.

I really don't.

It's not as if

somehow or another

the United Nations,

for instance,

has done such a

spectacular job

throughout the world

that it's putting

Christians to shame.

I don't think it's the case.

And I think

it's a lot of time,

a lot of the criticism

of missions

is really a criticism

of just of the gospel

in general,

but it's not really

a fair type of thing.

And in fact,

actually,

and here's the human problem,

in our culture,

it would be widely

accepted in our culture

that we shouldn't be

ethnocentric.

And in fact,

one of the dangers

of some missionary movements

throughout the past

is that they didn't

just share the gospel,

but they also were trying

to share British culture

or Canadian culture

or American culture.

And there's no denying

that sometimes missionaries

would get that

quite confused

or not be able

to necessarily understand

the difference

between a cultural thing

and a biblical thing.

But it's a common

human problem

if you think about it

for a second.

And it's,

on one hand,

at least in our culture,

because many cultures

think there's nothing wrong

with ethnocentrism.

They would just say that,

I don't know,

our culture is the best culture.

I mean,

that would be,

the whole idea

of actually being critical

of our culture

is really a Christian idea

because it's a Christian idea

because the power

of the gospel

is that the gospel

does not emerge

out of any culture.

The gospel is something

that comes from God.

And the culture

is going to come,

the gospel is going to come

from God

just as the Bible

doesn't in a sense

really emerge

out of any particular culture,

but that the Bible

is ultimately God's word.

And as a result,

every culture,

there's going to be

some things in the culture

that resonate with the gospel

and resonate with God's word.

And there's always going to be

in every single culture

something which is offended

by God's word

and is offended

by the gospel.

There's not going to be

as if there's a culture

that perfectly aligns

with the Bible

and with the gospel.

So, you know,

at the very, very heart

of this Christian faith

is this idea

that there's always

something a little bit

limited

about every particular culture.

And, you know,

so it is in our modern age,

we, you know,

accuse people

of the dangers

of ethnocentrism.

Yet, you know,

if you think about it,

when it comes to things

like abortion

or same-sex rights

or transgendered rights,

our culture,

the leading progressive edges

of our culture

are quite willing

to transgress

and step all over

other cultures

in pushing that.

But isn't that ethnocentrism?

Like, why isn't that

ethnocentrism?

Like, why isn't it?

I don't understand

why that isn't

ethnocentrism.

And, like,

where is it

within the culture

that you can find,

like the leading

progressive edges

of our culture,

that you can find

some type of

self-critical approach

to understanding

what it is

that's going on

in the Western cultures,

whether it's

through business

or whether it's

through the media

or whether it's

through social action,

where is it

within a culture

outside of

the Christian faith,

any type of

self-critical reflection

upon what's being done.

You see,

I actually think

that texts like this

and the biblical mandate,

that the understanding

that the Bible

is coming,

something that's

a word from God,

that Jesus,

actually,

why don't we put up

Romans 1,

16 to 17.

Can you put that up

for me, Rebecca?

Can we all say this together?

For I am not ashamed

of the gospel,

for it is the power

of God

for salvation

to everyone

who believes,

to the Jew first

and also to the Greek.

For the righteousness

of God

is revealed

from faith to faith

as it is written,

the righteous

shall live by faith.

So here we see

that the gospel,

that means good news,

not good religion,

not good advice,

not good culture,

not good techniques,

but good news

and it's good news

that God

has revealed

a type of power

that God has revealed,

not that sort of

somehow human beings

have discovered,

but that God has revealed,

God has done something

and God has done something

that breaks into

our human order

and it's something

that he does

which is right,

it's his power,

it will make people

right with him

and it's a way

that will make people

right with him

that's completely right,

it's completely just

and it's completely

and utterly,

it fits with who we are

and who God is

and it's completely

and utterly received

by faith

and it's a power

that comes from God.

And so even if we Christians

don't always get it,

we at least understand

that there has to always

be a bit of a self-critical

perception of our culture

and our practices

just as there should be

a heart for other people.

This was very, very,

very powerfully illustrated to me

about 13 years ago

when I went,

I was one of four Canadians

that was invited

to go to this

international consultation

of Anglican evangelicals,

an international consultation

and it was in Kenya,

Limuru, Kenya

and I was one of four Canadians

who got to go.

Most of the people

who were there

are from the two-thirds world

and one of the things

that went on

in the conference

was that we spent

most of the time,

about half the time

with about the same group

of about 15 people

discussing some theological issues

to try to come

to a common mind

and the one

that I was in

was one of the most

theological issues.

Some of them were more

missiological or economic

but it was around

the uniqueness of Christ

and there were three guys

there from England.

They all had PhDs

from Oxford or Cambridge.

From their point of view,

I'm a guy from third-rate universities

and only a master's degree

and there was Sri Lanka,

India, Singapore.

There was lots of Christians

from Africa.

There was somebody

from one of the indigenous tribes

in South America

and I went into this conference

excited, a bit nervous

because as I've shared

in other times,

it was a time

when there was some

significant violence

and most airlines

weren't flying into Kenya

but I decided

that I would go.

My wife and I prayed.

We decided I would still go.

Anyway, I really wanted

to try to honor

this distinction

about not importing

my Canadian way

of doing Christianity

and talking about

the Christian faith.

I really wanted to sit

and listen deeply

to how a Nigerian

or a Kenyan

or somebody from Sri Lanka

would articulate

these theological things.

Anyway, we go into this

and we get talking about this

in our group

of about 15 people

and lo and behold,

to my complete

and utter surprise,

the three people

from England

with their doctorates

were basically trying

to change the doctrines

of the uniqueness of Christ

to make it compatible

with fashionable

post-modernism

in England.

And I'm really

taken aback by this.

At first, I'm just sort of

giving them the benefit

of the doubt

but they just keep

wanting to change

the doctrines,

changing the wordings

and everything

and I know

because of my background

that they're just

wanting to make

this doctrine

acceptable

to post-modern

narrative and discourse

in the West.

So I start to go after them

and I start to challenge them

and it really,

you know,

I go after them

and they're also making

all these really negative,

you know,

they're making these

like dismissive comments

about the idea of demons

and stuff like that.

Dismissing it is

like a type of myth.

I'm going after them,

going after them.

For two days,

I'm the only one

going after them

and I'm getting tired

and nobody else,

the other 11

are just silent.

At the end of two days,

I say,

well,

I'm tired of doing this.

I'm just going to be silent

from now on.

You know,

whatever.

I just got the worst group.

Like,

why is it always me

that I get the worst group?

And then just,

this doesn't always happen

this way in life

but this is one of those times

where it happened to me

in life this way.

That after I had made

this decision,

I was going to speak out anymore.

the very next day

at breakfast,

three brothers,

one from Sri Lanka,

one from Singapore

and one from Nigeria.

They said,

can we talk to you?

And I said,

sure,

let's talk.

And then,

they said to me,

you know,

a guy from Sri Lanka,

a guy from Singapore

and a guy from Nigeria,

they said,

when we came to this conference,

we didn't want to mistake

our cultural practices

in our countries

for what's in the gospel.

We really wanted to learn

from each other.

That's what they said to me.

And so,

at first,

when these three guys

from England

start talking,

we just think,

well,

okay,

this just must be something

the way they talk

in England.

But then they said to me,

you're white.

You're from the West.

And you start

disagreeing with them.

And everything you say,

we agree with.

And everything that they say,

we completely disagree with.

And it's taken us two days

because we wanted

to be really patient,

but we came to understand

that it's not a cultural difference.

They're wrong.

That they're not being faithful

to the gospel

and they're not being faithful

to the Bible.

We want to thank you

for revealing that to us

and to keep it up.

After that,

they went after them,

by the way.

It's one of those funny things.

I could just sit back

and they went after them.

And that really made them squirm,

the three people

from England,

because they did not want

to be ethnocentric.

And now all of a sudden,

it's not just the rube

from Canada

who's going after them.

But what do they do

when all of the rest

are going after them

to challenge them

as to whether they're being

faithful to the Bible?

You see,

what I'm trying to get at

is that there's something

inherent to this message

that both draws us

in love to the world

and acts,

if we have a conscience at all

or a heart at all,

to make us challenge

and try to understand

the difference

between our cultural practices,

our personal likes

and dislikes,

and what's God's heart.

And the true and living God

is the true and living God

for every person

who is on the planet.

There is only one

true and living God.

There is only one creator.

There is only one sustainer.

There is only one

who is sovereign.

And he does not

pick and choose

and say that America

is his favorite

and he hates South Korea

or North Korea

or China.

He doesn't pick

any favorites like that.

Every nation,

every people group

is under God's judgment

and every people group,

every person

in every people group

needs the gospel.

There is both something here

which is universal,

which we can share.

And at the same time,

as we go deeper

into the gospel

and deeper into the scriptures,

provides a mechanism

by which we can be

self-critical

about our culture.

Could you go back

to the point number one?

Could you put that up again,

Rebecca?

I'm really making it

work hard today.

The living God

desires men and women

from every people group

on the planet

to enter together

into the joy,

peace,

and hope

of glorifying him

for his saving mercy

in Jesus Christ

crucified and risen.

Now here's the big challenge.

We're not going to look

at verses 14

and follow.

We're going to go through

them very, very quickly.

And I'm going to do something,

any of you who've studied

how you do public speaking

or if you listen

to Andy Stanley,

they'd all go,

oh my good grief,

this is the wrong way

to do it.

I'm going to have

lots of points.

It's really just,

what I'm going to try

to do for the rest of it,

I'm going to help you

to pray the scriptures.

That's what I just want to do.

I just want to help you

to pray the scriptures.

To take a text

and say,

how do we pray it?

But here's the thing,

you know,

this is a huge challenge

for me

because I can be

very, very shy

about sharing the gospel.

I really can.

Like, it's not something

natural that I do.

This past week,

there's a man

that I've been praying for

at one of the Starbucks

that I regularly go to.

I've been praying for him

off and on

for several years.

He's about my age.

He's very, very fit.

Drives a really,

really, really high,

I mean,

a really expensive vehicle.

He just,

he's,

I don't want to say

anything more about him

in case I give away

some identity things,

but he's obviously

very, very, very,

very successful

and he seems

very, very confident.

And I have to confess,

I just think that people

who are very successful

and very confident,

often they can be

very far from God

and not know

they realize

and they don't,

maybe they can be like

the story of the rich man

not knowing

that they need God.

So I started to,

I've been praying

for him off and on.

So this week,

I think it was Thursday,

I'm there

working on my sermon.

He comes up to me

and he says,

because we've been

nodding at each other

for a while,

hi, hi, hi.

And he comes up to me

and he says,

whoa, I see you

working here all the time.

Are you working on a book?

Now, okay,

here's what goes on

in my mind, okay?

Because here,

I'm being honest,

I'm not a natural evangelist.

I really,

I get terrified, okay?

In our culture,

saying that you're a pastor

goes, boo.

Saying you write a book

goes, whoa.

Whoa, you're working

on a book, buddy,

you know, whoa.

Pastor, boo.

Book, whoa.

Okay, so you,

this is going through my mind,

right, very, very,

very quickly,

you know,

I could say,

yeah, yeah,

you know,

I'm doing some writing

and thinking

and, you know, etc.

You know,

I could probably

even turn it about,

yeah, you know,

the meaning of life

and deep questions

and I could answer

that question

in such a way

that he'd go,

whoa.

All flashes quickly

before my tired

little mind

and I say to him,

this is one of those

good stories for me,

not one of the bad times

when I failed, okay?

But I said to him,

well, actually,

I'm not working on a book.

I'm a pastor of a church.

I'm working on a sermon.

And I'm reading the Bible

and I'm working on a sermon.

And he goes,

oh,

well, that's interesting.

Then he said to me,

I thought that's

what you were doing.

I thought that's

what you were doing

because I've seen you

with your Bible open,

pounding away at it.

Anyway,

it turns out

that he goes to

one of the better-known

evangelical churches

and has been a Christian

for 40 years.

I've been praying

for the wrong guy.

I didn't tell him

I was praying

for his salvation

for the last two years.

But I,

you know,

the angels laugh,

right?

And here's the whole thing

because I,

you know,

I have shared times

where I do share something

about like I'm a pastor

and people go,

oh,

like that,

you know.

But this is one of those times

that he became

even more friendly,

right?

And he'd noticed

that I was reading the Bible,

that I wasn't just writing a book.

I don't know why

he asked me the question

in that way,

but anyway,

it was all from God,

I guess,

right?

So,

there's a reason

why I was telling you

this story.

I can't remember

what the reason is now.

Anyway,

oh,

that's it.

That's it.

This text

is so important

for us.

If we understand

that the reason

that God,

Jesus came,

not only to show

God's truthfulness,

his faithfulness

and his truthfulness,

but it's his heart

that people

from every people group

would glorify God

for his mercy,

that they'd enter

into hope,

that they'd be filled

with joy,

that they'd have peace,

that they'd know

the power of the Holy Spirit,

that they'd abound

in hope,

that that's why

Jesus came.

That's why he came.

And so my neighbors,

I shouldn't look at it.

I should look at it

that this is what

God wants for them.

And he's put me

in my neighborhood

to pray for them.

And that when I go to,

whether it's a Tim Hortons

or a restaurant

or a Starbucks,

part of the reason

that God has put you

in that restaurant

is that you can pray

that those people,

you don't know

if they're Christians or not,

but if they're not Christians,

that God wants them

to have joy.

It's not all about you.

It's not all about

your experience.

It's not all about

how successful you are.

It's not all about

your problems.

It's not all about

how perfect you are.

It's all about the fact

that God has done something

and he desires.

Human beings were made

to glorify God

and enjoy him forever.

And we share the gospel

so people can enjoy God

and worship him.

we're to pray

for that opportunity.

Let's go through this,

the rest of the book

very, very quickly.

Verse 14.

I myself am satisfied

about you, my brothers,

that you yourself

are full of goodness,

filled with all knowledge

and able to instruct

one another.

Now just pause.

Isn't that sort of

a neat thing?

Paul's done a lot of rebuking

throughout the book,

but at the end of the day,

he believes that,

you know,

goodness is one of the fruits

of the Spirit.

Did you know that?

Look in Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

What are the fruits

of the Spirit?

Love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control.

Could you put up

the prayer, please, Rebecca?

Can you,

I'm going to ask you

to say these prayers

with me.

This is the really

powerful thing.

At the end of the day,

Paul, this is what

Paul believes.

That because it's a power

that comes from God

and God,

the gospel still works

and the Holy Spirit

still works.

And that means,

could we pray this together?

Lord,

please help me

to trust

that you can work

in and through

ordinary Christ followers.

So we need to pray

that God,

God does work

through ordinary people.

He uses ordinary people

to instruct others.

The gospel works.

verse 15.

But in some points,

I have written

to you very boldly

by way of reminder

because of the grace

given me by God

to be a minister

of Christ Jesus

to the Gentiles,

to the pagans

in the priestly service

of the gospel of God

so that the offering

of the Gentiles

may be acceptable.

In other words,

that as the pagans

come to faith

and they offer

themselves to God,

that it will be

acceptable,

sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

in Christ Jesus,

then,

this is verse 17,

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

around to Illyricum,

I have fulfilled

the ministry

of the gospel of Christ.

I'll just sort of

pause there

for a second.

Could you put up

the next point,

please?

This is what we're being

asked to pray for here,

is that Paul was able

by word and deed,

and when it says here

by signs and miracles,

that's not something,

like you can't go out

and say,

well,

if you do,

you know,

400 push-ups,

God will do a miracle,

or if you run the marathon,

God will do a miracle.

You can't engineer that.

There's no technique

to accomplish that.

What you do is you ask.

You say,

Lord,

I need a miracle here.

We don't have any money.

We need money, Lord.

We need a miracle.

Every conversion

is a miracle.

Lord,

that man,

that woman,

looks like they could,

they hate God,

or they don't need God,

or that man or woman,

look,

they're far more educated

than I am.

They're far more powerful.

They're far more successful.

How can they ever

possibly need the gospel?

You know,

we look at the world

and we see all these

big things,

and we don't realize

that they're small

and that God is bigger

and we've got to call out

to God in prayer,

and God does do miracles sometimes.

Some of us can testify

to different miracles

that God has done

in our lives,

but we accomplish them

by prayer.

And so what the challenge

here is for us

to pray the scriptures

is this.

Could you pray this

with me, please?

Lord,

please help me

to bear witness

to the gospel

with words,

to live a life

that is gripped

by the gospel,

and to pray

with persistence

and hope

for the lost.

And I put down

the word the lost.

I know that's very

politically incorrect,

but it's a Bible word.

Not right here,

but it's a Bible word

in the book of Romans.

And that's what this,

this is a challenge

for us.

Is,

you don't have to explain

the whole,

I got into a conversation

yesterday

with two Jehovah Witnesses

in one of my Starbucks.

20 minutes.

one of them is

the mom,

a very, very active

witnesser in Ottawa,

and her daughter

just come back

on furlough

as a missionary

to another part

of the world

who's a Jehovah Witness.

And, you know,

at the end of the day,

I just shared

with her,

with them,

you know,

you don't normally

get to have

a longer conversation

like this.

Most of the time,

you don't.

Most of the time,

just bearing witness.

I'm a pastor.

I go to church

on Sunday.

Will I actually pray?

I actually believe

the Bible.

It's just a small

word of witness.

That's most of the time

all that we have to do.

You never know

when it will be like

the Jehovah Witnesses

that had seen me there

with the Bible

many times

and they finally

initiate a conversation.

We have a 20-minute

conversation

about how

unless you understand

the Trinity,

there's no understanding

of God's true love

and unless Jesus

is actually God

and man,

there's no way

he could possibly

be your Savior.

And that you need

God to do everything

to make you right

with him.

If you're depending

upon your own efforts

and that's how

our conversation went.

A Jewish man

at the same Starbucks

that I've talked to

for several years now,

just after Easter,

he said to me,

these are these times

when you get

these opportunities.

I don't know

what happens to them.

All I can do

is pray.

And I'd had lots

of very small conversations.

It just began

with the fact

that I was reading

a Bible in public.

It just began

with very simple things

about the fact

that I'm a Christian.

And he came up to me

about three weeks

after Easter

and he said,

he's from Israel,

he said,

George,

I've been asking

many Canadians

this question

and none of them

can give me

a good answer

but I think

maybe you can.

He said,

you believe

that Jesus

is the Messiah?

Yes.

You believe

that he came

from God?

Yes.

And you believe

he died on the cross?

Yes.

Why do you call it

Good Friday?

So I said to him,

well listen,

I'm working on my sermon,

I don't have time to talk.

No,

I didn't say that.

I got this

20 minute opportunity

just to talk to him

about the Old Testament law,

about Passover,

about the whole thing,

about Jesus.

You know,

I fail many,

many opportunities.

There's,

I share with you

some of the times

I walk away

wishing I'd said something

and,

but sometimes

all you're asked for

is to bear witness

with words.

And all you're asked for

as well

is as much as possible

to try to,

by deeds,

to live a life

that reflects

the glory of God.

And to not say

people's no for them

but to not only pray

for your loved ones

that they would come

to a saving faith

in Jesus

but to pray

for hard people.

Pray for the Orthodox Jew

that you know.

Pray for the devout Muslim.

that you know.

Pray for the transsexual activist

that you know.

Pray for people

who are hard as well.

God has put them

on your heart

or in your path

for a reason.

It might be

that you are the only one

on the planet

who will pray for them.

verses,

let's continue reading

verse,

where am I?

Verse 22.

How are we doing?

Yeah, we're doing fine.

Verse 22.

For this reason,

sorry,

this is the reason

why I have so often

been hindered

from coming to you.

But now,

because he's been hindered

because he's been working

in all these other areas.

Okay?

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 to be helped

on my journey

there by you

once I have enjoyed

your company

for a while.

At present,

however,

I am going to Jerusalem

bringing aid

to the saints.

Now just sort of

pause there.

It's beyond the scope

of this text,

but for internal reasons

in the book,

this book was probably

written when Paul

was in Corinth

and he's writing it

to Rome

and he says he wants

to go there

and he says,

but first I'm going

to go to Jerusalem.

That's the opposite direction.

And the reason

he's going

the opposite direction

is because

the poor

need help.

Because he's been

raising money

for the poor.

Could you put up

the next point,

please?

Oh, sorry,

I've missed a point.

Never mind.

Let's,

that's the two points

down.

Lord,

there we go.

That's the one.

Could you say this

with me?

Lord,

please help me

to remember

the poor.

That's a good

prayer to pray.

Lord,

please help me

to remember

the poor.

I don't know

what's going to happen

when you pray

these prayers,

but you see

how all of a sudden

this is all connected

to the missionary

endeavor.

You see how so many

things in this text

are connected

to being a vital

Christian life

is to have this heart

that God has the heart

for the world

and if we lose

our heart

for the world,

then we,

other things

go too.

Could you go back

to the earlier point

that I skipped over?

This was the,

this is the thing

from the fact

that Paul had gone

to Alaricum

and he's gone here

and he's gone there

and he's gone there

and he's gone there

and this for Paul

is just the normal

Christian life.

Could you pray this

with me please?

Lord,

please help me

to be a local

Christian

and a world

Christian.

Like we not only

have to have a heart

for Ottawa,

we have to have

a heart for the world.

It should excite us

to hear what's going

on in the world.

We don't want to just

be caught up

in our own little thing.

Let's just continue

reading.

We're almost done.

Verse 26.

For Macedonia

and Achaia

have been pleased

to make some

contribution for the poor

among the saints

at Jerusalem.

For they were

pleased to do it

and indeed

they owe it

to them.

For if the Gentiles

have come to share

in their spiritual blessings,

they ought also

to be of service

to them

in material blessings.

Could you put up

the,

I think it's

prayer number six,

please?

Could you pray

this with me?

Lord,

please help me

to grow

in generosity.

That's what happened here.

As the gospel

touched their hearts,

generosity grew.

Generosity in terms

of their finances.

And so they

willingly gave

not only for Paul

to be able to

preach the gospel

without charge,

but they gave

so that the poor

would be helped.

And so that's why

this prayer,

this Paul

is just teaching us

that if we want

to pray the scriptures,

this text is asking us,

asking us,

asking God

to help us

to become

more generous

with our financial resources.

Verse 28,

when therefore

I have completed this

and have delivered

to them

what has been collected,

I will leave

for Spain

by way of you.

I know that

when I come to you,

I will come

in the fullness

of the blessing

of Christ.

Now just pause,

second to last,

almost done.

a church father

who wrote

around the year

a little bit

after this,

a letter of his

has been found

and he claims

that Paul

did go to Spain.

After his Roman

imprisonment,

he did go to Spain.

But Paul,

in desiring to go

to Spain,

wanted to go

to a hard place.

Why is that

a hard place?

They didn't speak

the language

that Paul spoke.

There's no record

at that time

of any Jewish

settlements in Spain.

So that meant

that Paul

would have to go

to a place

where he couldn't

first go to his

Jewish brothers

and sisters

and speak the gospel

and use maybe

having the first

converts be Jewish

people.

But he was going

to go to a place,

obviously some of them

would have known

Latin and Greek,

Paul would have

known that,

but they had their

own local

indigenous languages

that he wouldn't

have known.

Paul wanted to go

to a hard place.

That's where he

wanted to go.

Now this text

isn't telling all

of us to individually

go to hard places,

but what it's telling

us is that we

should have a heart

that God is always

raising up people

from our midst

who will go to

hard people

and share the gospel

with them

and go to hard places.

That's part of

healthy Christianity.

Could you put up

the prayer,

please?

Could you pray

this with me?

Lord,

please raise up

people to go

to hard places

and hard people

groups,

and please help

us to support

them with our

prayers and time

and resources.

Because Paul says

when he's going to

Spain,

to Rome first,

he's hoping that

they'll financially

support him,

he's hoping for

logistic advice,

and he's probably

hoping and praying

that maybe one

person there was

originally from Spain,