The Model For A Minister | Romans 15:14 - 21 (June 5) Ian Hales

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Good morning, church.

I'm only going to take a few seconds to talk about the service today and then uh invite Pastor Ian Hales up.

But today is a very exciting and important day in the life of this church.

The Lord's provided for us a new lead pastor.

And Lord Jehovah Jyra has provided.

That meaning means the Lord has provided us.

Ian, not Ian, I would be good too.

Miles Miles enambered to be with us as our pastor and our elder.

So this is an exciting day as we get to celebrate what Jehovah Viber has done.

Ian's laughing now, he's getting me going.

Exciting day.

Jehovah Jaire has been very good to us in this time.

And we praise God for that and for his supplying of miles for our new lead pastor.

And he will supply every need.

This is her church, and he will build it.

Philippians 4 19.

And my God will supply every need according to his riches and glory in Jesus Christ.

He will provide every need for this church.

So we praise God.

We look forward to this installation service as we install our new lead pastor, Elder.

And we have a few guests to join us today in this, and we praise the Lord, and they will be joining us as we lay hands on Miles and Amber.

So first I'll introduce Paul and Sue Whittingstall.

They are no uh strangers to this church, as Paul was the senior pastor of the church that planted this church, and where Durham came out of too, which makes us kind of sister churches with the same name and from the same parent church.

So Paul now is a Canadian director of GCC.

GCC is a great uh commission collective, and they're the fellowship that we belong to.

We also have Pastor Brian Raby and his wife Paulie with us back here, joining us from Redemption Durham as well.

So welcome Brian and Polly, and Pastor Ian and his wife, oh, and whole family, uh Sarah and their whole family are here as well to join us, so we praise God for that.

Uh Ian is a senior pastor at Redemption Durham, and he's no stranger to us either.

And Ian, I remember late February, probably a cold day here, calling.

I called Ian, and as the senior pastor of the church, Miles came from and said, Hey Ian, as Dave, like, how are you?

Blah, blah, blah.

And I said, calling you to get permission to speak to Miles to be our lead pastor.

And he didn't hang up on me.

Praise the Lord.

I don't think that was his main plan at the time, but he just said, Hey, let me talk to Miles and the elders and get back to you.

And very quickly he got back, and they've been so loving and so gracious and so helping through this process.

So we really appreciate uh your partnership with us, your love for this church, and and your help.

So I'm gonna ask Ian to come up and preach the word the Lord has prayed on his heart for us today.

Welcome, Ian.

Thank you.

Thanks, Dave.

It's very kind, and uh it really is an honor to be here with you.

And it's it's really sweet.

I uh see so many familiar faces, which is encouraging to me, and uh many I don't know, which is equally as encouraging to me.

And um um Dave is right that I was a bit of a shock when he called me initially to talk about Miles.

Um a shock in one sense, but no surprise.

Um, and I'm really, really encouraged by how all of this has transpired, and you can see the hand of God in it all, I think.

As you step back, you can see God's providence, his kindness, his faithfulness, and it really has been a blessing to kind of watch uh how God has really brought this all about.

And I know this is a really special Sunday for you as a church who's welcoming a new lead pastor.

It's an important Sunday for you, and you and it should be a special Sunday, but I want you to know this is really a special Sunday for me as well.

Um in many ways, I kind of feel like um a father whose son is getting married.

Um let me explain.

Um but but yeah, I kind of have that sense where I've seen Miles kind of grow up at our church for eight years.

I've watched him pastor and minister, and I've watched him grow and thrive and flourish, and um and it kind of feels like he's he's almost almost, this is not to be condescending in any way, but almost like you know, like a little bird in the nest.

And instead of me having to push him out, he kind of jumped out, and your elders swooped in and grabbed him very quickly, and um, which I which is which is very wise of them, by the way.

Uh, you are getting um one of our best, and you are getting um a man who loves the Lord so deeply and is so faithful, and you're getting a couple and a family who is so precious, and uh I I'm really really encouraged for you.

So you kind of feel like that father who's giving his, you know, you know, he's watching his son kind of step into something new.

But Miles is more than just a son to me.

He's not really a son, he's more like a brother.

Um, and that's better, that's the better really analogy here.

Miles is very much like a brother to me, um, a younger brother, not not the annoying younger brother that you want nothing to do with.

I've already got two of those.

He's he's the I'm just kidding, I love them too.

He's like the younger brother that that um that you watch grow up and you you you admire and respect, and you you you love deeply and you learn much from, and you're honored to call them a brother.

And that's the way I feel about Miles and we feel about Amber and their family.

We're so grateful for them.

Um we're thankful that he's a partner in ministry, that you as a church are partners in ministry.

And and this is a unique message, it's an installation message.

You can see by the title that I put there, the model for a minister.

And and you can open your Bibles, by the way, to Romans 15 if you haven't already.

And this message, really, as an installation message, is very much directed towards Miles.

So I'm gonna kind of get that out of the way.

Um, it's it's it's in a sense as if I'm preaching to Miles today, but I want you to know that this message is not just for Miles.

You will see that it will be directly applicable to you as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Everything that I have to say to Miles will absolutely have application for your life.

And in fact, one of the things you need to know is that a pastor or an elder is simply another follower of Jesus Christ who has a level of maturity and a calling upon their life from God, and they actually are called to stand before the people of God as an example to the flock.

And Paul actually, in the book of Romans, serves to us as an example of a faithful minister and as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.

And what's interesting is as you read through Paul's letters, he's not afraid to use this language of follow me or imitate me as I follow Christ.

It's important that the minister of the gospel be an example and a model.

The book of Hebrews says that we should look to our leaders as examples in the faith.

Peter calls elders in 1 Peter chapter 5 to be examples to the flock.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

This is an important role for a minister of the gospel, so you should be able to look at your leaders and say, I want to follow them as they follow Christ.

I want my faith to look like their faith.

I want my life to look like their life as much as it is in line with the life of Jesus Christ.

Paul is really, in many ways, a supreme model of what it looks like to follow Jesus Christ, to be a faithful minister.

And so I simply want to look to him in this letter and use him as a model for ministry and a model for the Christian life.

A little bit of context, Paul is ending the book of Romans.

He's getting to his conclusion.

It's a masterful letter.

It's one of the most theologically rich and precious letters.

Some have argued that it's the greatest letter ever written to the church.

But as he ends this letter, he's given all this theology, he's given all this practical application in the last half of the book, especially in the book of Romans.

But now he he begins to conclude his letter, and what he does is he describes his ministry to the church in Rome that he's writing to.

And from this, we can not only see an example, we can glean some principles that we can apply to our lives.

So here's what I want us to learn today.

This is what you and I must learn.

You must be a healthy Christian with a holy ambition.

That's the main point today, okay?

You must be a healthy Christian with a holy ambition.

And I simply want to take that phrase and I want to drive it into your hearts from the scriptures.

And here's how I want to do that.

I want to break that phrase up into two separate points, and then I want to unpack them for us with a little bit of subpoints.

So the first point for us is this you must be first a healthy Christian.

You must be a healthy Christian.

This is the calling upon your life, and for a pastor, this is certainly Miles the calling on your life.

Now, what Paul does here is he begins by highlighting two things in this section, the maturity of the church and the ministry of the church.

Let's look at Romans 15, beginning at verse 14, and let's read it together.

Paul says, 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 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 around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel.

Now 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 of him will understand.

Again, Paul really begins by describing what it means to be a healthy Christian and a healthy minister of the gospel.

And I want to just draw out three ways we can apply this to our lives.

What does it look like, in other words, to be a healthy Christian?

The first is this a healthy Christian or a healthy pastor encourages others regularly.

And that's what God wants for you and for me as a healthy Christian.

He's calling you to be an encourager, to make this a regular part of your life and ministry.

Verse 14, you'll notice he speaks to the church and he tells them that he's satisfied about them.

He's actually encouraged by them.

He calls them his brothers, a reminder that the church is a family.

I love this because he takes a moment to simply praise the church for their faithfulness.

He wants to recognize and commend their maturity.

And I want you to notice that he commends three specific things about the church.

First is this that they are full of goodness.

Now, a little bit of context again is helpful here.

Paul has never been to this church.

Paul didn't plant this church, he didn't start this, he's never visited this church.

It's actually one of the desires of his heart to come to this church.

But he knows some things about the church because he's heard about them.

People have communicated to him.

He's got friendships there, he's got relationships, and everything he's heard about them is overwhelmingly positive and encouraging.

And he tells them first that he's heard of their goodness.

In other words, there are people who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit.

There are people who love the gospel, they love the Lord, they're faithfully pursuing Jesus Christ in every way.

Not only that, he commends them on this.

Secondly, they're filled with knowledge, all knowledge, he says.

He says, in other words, listen, I know I've been writing this letter to you, expounding the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I want you to know, I know that you know and believe the gospel.

I know that you know the riches and the beauty of the gospel of Jesus.

You don't know everything about the gospel, you know, you know, and all of its depths and wonders, but you know it, and you're striving to know it more and more.

That's the implication here.

There are people who love the gospel.

And then lastly, look at this.

He says they're able to instruct one another.

Listen, they know the gospel well enough to be able to come alongside one another, to build one another up in the faith, to instruct them.

This word actually is the word that we get this idea of counseling, of biblical counseling from.

They're able to make disciples with one another, to grow each other up in the faith.

This is the way the church ought to operate.

And I just I just want you to know, church.

I know I don't know most of you.

Um Mike has asked me numerous times to come and preach at this church, and every single time I've had to send miles.

And I didn't understand why before, but I do now.

But uh all I know is this.

Everything I've heard, I I I know your your previous pastor, uh Mike, and I know Ange, and and uh and I know this.

We've had years of doing life and ministry together.

We actually go way back.

I know that everything I've heard about you from him is has been overwhelmingly positive.

I know how grateful they are, how much they they love you.

I know how how much or how highly they speak of you in the Lord.

I know speaking to Miles, and I know speaking to especially Dave Locke, your elder, I know how much uh they they look at you and they see evidences of God's grace at work in your lives, and they praise God for it.

And I just want you to know that this this is so encouraging to me.

But I want you to know this too, that this ministry of encouraging one another is supposed to be a part of the life of the church.

Miles, in your pastoral ministry, in your preaching ministry, you will spend much time exhorting the family of God, and rightly so.

I mean, in chapter 12 alone, Paul has given 40 commands to the Christian about how to apply the gospel to their lives.

You're going to do much correcting, much rebuking, but I want to encourage you, like Paul, to strive to do much encouraging.

It's so important that you look at the people of God and that you you are aware of, you can see and acknowledge and celebrate the gospel growth and the gospel grace that's so evident in their lives.

It's easy for us, especially in a Bible-believing church, to be heavy on the truth and heavy on exhortation, always looking for ways that people can grow and do better and excel still more, and that's right and that's good, but but we need to also be reminded that constant exhortation can be exhausting and regular encouragement is refreshing.

Church, let me just encourage you, this is the mark of a healthy church.

This is not just the job of a pastor, this is the job of believers to look for the evidence of grace in the lives of fellow believers, to acknowledge it, to point it out, to celebrate it, to praise God for the way he's working in the lives of people.

And I'll just acknowledge to you, this isn't always easy.

It's very easy to point out flaws in people, to kind of press into people and challenge people.

It's a lot easier for some of us to do that.

And it's harder to kind of pause and look for evidence of grace.

Some of us really struggle with it.

We're like, I'm looking and I just don't see anything.

Well, here's the problem, you're probably just not looking hard enough.

And if this is a real struggle for you, you're like, what do I do to get better at this?

Here's what I want to encourage you to do.

I want you to look at the evidence of God's grace in your own life.

Okay?

To pause and to simply look and to acknowledge, listen, I'm a sinner, and the grace of God has been has saved me, has been changing me, and I can see God working in these particular ways.

It's all an act of God's grace.

And when you become fixated upon the grace of God in your own life, I promise you this, you will begin to see it more and more in the lives of others.

It's so important that as the people of God, we encourage one another.

Encouragement, listen, it stifles criticism, it stifles condemnation that so many people live under.

Be a church that encourages one another regularly.

In fact, maybe one of the ways you can apply this is by going home and encouraging your spouse.

Or maybe this week, thinking about some other believers in this church and sending them a text or an email, just acknowledging where you're seeing the grace of God at work in their lives, see how God blesses that and uses that and fosters a deeper friendship and relationship in the life of this church.

Next, look at this.

Verse 15 says, but on some points, Paul says, I've written to you very boldly.

And he says he's done that by way, notice, by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God.

What does he mean by that?

He simply means that by the grace of God, he has been given this apostolic ministry.

He has been called by God to speak the truth of God to the people of God, to advance the gospel of God.

And sometimes this comes with a degree of strength, of boldness.

Here he makes appeals in this letter.

You can read through this book and you can see this.

He makes appeals in this letter.

He urges people, he exhorts them.

At times he rebukes them.

He's not afraid to go after the difficult doctrines, the hard things that a lot of people shy away from.

I mean, if you read through this letter, you only get three chapters in, and you're kind of like, you feel the weight of sin.

All he's been talking about for three chapters of the book of Romans is how everybody's a sinner, the Jews a sinner, the Gentiles a sinner, the wrath of God abides upon all of us, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That's the first three chapters.

He's leveling the playing field when it comes to humanity, speaking of the depths of sin and what sinners truly deserve.

And he's reminding them over and over of who they are apart from God and apart from his saving work and what they deserve.

And then he's reminding them of the grace of the gospel, the fact that God loved them even when they were sinners, that he sent his one and only Son to die in their place, to rise victoriously from the grave in order to give them new life and the power of the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life.

This requires boldness.

It requires boldness.

It's not easy to faithfully preach the gospel week in and week out.

It's not easy to tell sinners of their condition and the grace they need in the gospel.

The world doesn't like to hear that.

The world resists it.

Many of our own hearts resist it, but this is why Paul began his letter by saying that he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

You see, boldness when it comes to the truth is necessary.

Listen, because this is the only message that saves.

Amen, church?

This is no other hope for the world.

There's no other hope for sinners.

And that's why it's a joy that, as Christians, listen, I love how he says this, that he's saying this by way of reminder.

I've often been told, and I try to communicate regularly to the people, you know, the ministry of a pastor is really just the ministry of reminding people.

That's all we do.

There's just not much new that, you know, like if you're coming to our church or you come here and you sit under Miles' ministry, you're just not gonna hear a lot new.

You're gonna hear the same old stuff, you know, maybe repackaged and hitting you at different ways, but it's the gospel over and over and over.

How does the gospel tell me who I am?

How does the gospel tell me what I need?

How does the gospel intersect with every area and corner of my life?

How do I be faithful to the gospel because of the gospel?

It's a ministry of reminder.

Miles Paul calls you to be bold in your ministry.

He said to his young protege in the faith, Timothy, to be ready in season and out of season to preach the word.

Miles, I just want you to know, and church, I need you to know that I've watched, I've watched you do this so faithfully over the years.

My family is here, as Dave noted, and I have two kids who have sat under your ministry for uh years now and have been blessed tremendously by the way you handle the word of God, by the way you speak with boldness and courage, by the way you constantly press the gospel into their lives.

You've made it your objective to put Christ first, to speak the truth boldly.

And church, I want you to know that's exactly what you uh need, and it's exactly what you should want out of a minister of the gospel.

And this is what you ought to do with one another.

Speak the truth with boldness.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, the scriptures say.

This is not, by the way, an excuse to lack grace or tact.

But we need to be gentle and we need to be humble, but we need to speak with boldness.

You say, Well, why why don't we?

What's the struggle in most of our hearts in this?

Here's one of the reasons why.

I think we fear speaking truth because we love ourselves more than we love others in God so often.

And it ultimately reveals who or what we worship, which is why a healthy Christian must secondly worship God continually.

The mark of a healthy Christian, the mark of a healthy minister is someone who sees all of life as worship.

Every part of life is an opportunity.

To offer worship to God that is pleasing, that is holy, that is acceptable to him.

In verse 15 and 16, we see Paul describe his own ministry in terms of worship.

He says that he's written to the boldly because of the grace that's been given to him, and then he says this what's this grace?

To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.

Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.

But then look at how he describes his ministry in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Hear what Paul is doing here.

Paul is reaching back into the Old Testament, and he's grabbing Old Testament worship language and imagery in order to help us not only understand his ministry, but the very ministry that each one of us as Christians is called to.

So he kind of transports us back into this Jewish mindset, and he wants you to envision the temple and the sacrificial system and the priesthood.

And if you're not too familiar with that, the basic gist of the priest was this: the priest was called by God to, in many ways, represent the people before God and represent God to the people.

And so for people to offer worship in the Old Testament, they actually had to bring a sacrifice, an animal sacrifice, prescribed by the Word of God.

They had to bring it to the temple priest, and the temple priest was the one who was responsible ultimately for making that sacrifice and offering it up to God the way that he had designed.

The priest was a mediator between God and man.

But in the new covenant, Jesus had come and he'd fulfilled that priestly ministry.

We know that.

Just read through the book of Hebrews.

He's not only the great high priest, he is also the perfect sacrificial lamb.

He fulfills the entire sacrificial system.

He now becomes the one mediator between God and man.

But the priestly ministry is now given over to those who believe in Jesus Christ.

We now, in an analogous way, have a priestly sort of ministry.

But instead of offering animals and those kind of sacrifices to God, I want you to see how Paul viewed his ministry.

Do you see what Paul offers unto God?

It's people.

He offers people who have been saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ through his preaching ministry.

They've been saved by the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God who takes the word of God and applies it to the heart, breaks open the heart of a sinner, and allows them to see their need for a savior.

I love that he views people as an offering of worship unto God, made acceptable by the Holy Spirit.

You know, that's the only way that people can be made acceptable to God.

It's not by their own merit, it's not by their own effort.

They must be sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Sanctified means made holy, purified.

Your issue, apart from Christ, is that sin prevents you from access to God.

You have no ability to have a relationship with God.

You have no ability to be pleasing to God.

You can't be acceptable in any way to God.

But listen, through faith in Jesus Christ, you are cleansed of all your sins because Jesus comes and pays the price for your sin.

All of your sin is washed away.

You become white as snow if you believe in Jesus Christ.

But it's better than that.

It's not just that you have no more sin, you actually get all of the righteousness of Jesus Christ deposited into your account so that when you stand before God, not only do you stand before God perfect as if you've never sinned, you stand before God perfect as if you've always obeyed everything all the time with the right motivation.

This is given to you.

This is the Spirit's work in the life of a believer.

And I love this because Paul understands that while he is responsible to proclaim the gospel, the saving message of Jesus, only God does the saving.

Only God does the saving.

By an act of God's grace alone, people are set free from their bondage to sin to present themselves then to God day after day for his service.

And you know what Paul's doing here?

Paul is simply, in saying what he's saying about this life of worship, he's actually, in a sense, also reaching back to chapter 12, verse 1.

Just flip back in your Bible and look at it.

Because of the gospel, Paul tells believers that this is their life.

He says in verse 1, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that's the gospel.

Look at this language again, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

So you see, what Paul is saying is this he offers these Gentile believers now up to God as an act of worship.

And those Gentile believers now offer their lives up to God day after day after day as an act of worship unto God.

This is so important to understand that Paul sees both his life and ministry as an act of worship unto God.

And Christian, listen, every part of your life is supposed to be lived the exact same way.

Nothing is divorced from your worship of God.

And this language he uses of priest and worship, this minister of the gospel, you know, why is it so important for us to grasp?

How should I be viewing myself?

Well, listen to this.

The scriptures actually tell us that we too are now a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests.

And here's why this is important because identity drives activity.

Okay?

Identity drives activity.

The way you think about yourself is going to impact how you live your life.

And if you see how God describes you as a priest, then you can see how your life now is to be lived as an act of worship.

So why don't we worship more?

Why is this such a struggle in the Christian life?

There's a lot of reasons.

Let me just give you one that I think is helpful.

I think we worship little in life because in our life we think little of God.

It's hard to worship God if we don't give much thought to God, isn't it?

But but let me let me frame it like this the mind, the heart that thinks much of God produces a life of continuous worship unto God.

If your mind is always thinking about God and how much you love Him and how much you want to please Him, then you know what that means?

If your mind is always there, then everything in your life gets filtered through that one thing.

Your decisions, your speech, your actions, every part of your life is filtered through like what would be pleasing to God?

What would bring honor and glory to God?

Because that's how I want to live my life.

That's what it means to worship Him.

That's what a healthy Christian looks like.

That's what a healthy minister looks like.

Like Paul, you must be a healthy Christian.

And that's that's why, secondly, you need to understand this.

You must be a healthy Christian with a holy ambition.

Paul, in the last half of this section, he begins to talk about two aspects of his own ministry.

He talks about his gospel success, and then he talks, secondly, about his gospel strategy.

And again, both of these really describe and define his ministry, but they also teach us about our ministry as individuals and the calling that God has placed upon you and your ministry as a church.

So, like Paul, I want to encourage you to make this your holy ambition.

I want to give you three ways to develop and cultivate a holy ambition.

Here's what it looks like, in other words.

The first thing is this boast in Christ.

Paul makes this abundantly clear that this drives him in his life and ministry.

He says in verse 17, 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.

Paul attributes the success of his ministry to Christ.

He sees all of the success.

And by the way, it's remarkable.

If you just think about the ministry of the Apostle Paul and the success he experienced in his life, it is phenomenal.

Few other people have had the kind of impact on this world that the Apostle Paul has had.

I mean, just think about a little bit about his life and ministry.

Paul has become a famous speaker.

He's become a famous author.

He helped write the world's bestseller.

It's a pretty big deal.

He has become a well-known, recognized leader.

He's become a successful church planter.

I mean, he's become a missionary who's going to the unreached parts of the world.

I mean, his spiritual resume is huge and it's powerful.

And I want you to think now about Paul and the temptation he might have towards boasting in self.

Oh, by the way, combine 2 Corinthians chapter 12 with that, because he was also transported into heaven and saw things that he wasn't even allowed to describe, and God had to give him a thorn in the flesh to prevent him from boasting.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

The temptation towards boasting was real in the life of Paul because of all the success he'd experienced in ministry.

But as somebody uh once said, he who sings his own praise is usually off key.

Paul knew that any success he experienced in his life and ministry was the result of God and his grace, and that was it.

He wanted to be faithful.

Yes, he saw his responsibility, you know, to be faithful to the calling that God had placed on his life, but every bit of success that he experienced was attributed only to God.

Listen, Paul was not afraid to acknowledge success, but I'll tell you this, and this is a good principle for us as Christians.

He was terrified.

He was terrified of claiming responsibility for it.

Some plant, some water, but God gives the growth.

Amen, church?

God gives the growth.

Church, listen, you're getting a great pastor.

You have a great pastor who's who's leaving in Mike, but you're getting a great pastor who's come in miles.

Miles, we we talk about miles all the time in our church.

He's kind of the total package.

He's like a drack of all trades and a master at all of them.

He's incredibly gifted.

He can lead, he can preach, he can even sing and play guitar.

So one Sunday, if you walk in and he's leading worship, preaching, and greeting you at the front door, just don't be surprised.

I mean, he can run games like nobody else.

Trust me, he's our games go-to guy at our church.

It's a big deal.

You'll be thankful for it, trust me.

He's tech savvy and he can act.

I have video evidence of this.

Turn to the screen right here, please.

I'm just kidding, I wouldn't do that to you.

I'm saving that for blackmail later.

Listen, he's smart, he's funny, he's capable.

There's much to boast in from a human perspective, but here's what I can tell you about Miles.

Miles have always loved this about you.

You never boast in yourself, you always point to Christ, you always boast in Christ, and let me encourage you to always, always point people to the glory of Christ.

Every success is a mark of his kindness and grace, and that is it.

Church, make it your holy ambition to boast in Christ.

To say, listen, this is all God's grace, this is all God's kindness, it's all his faithfulness.

Next, make it your ambition to bring people to obedience.

The mark of Paul's success wasn't what many churches identify or want to go to to determine their success.

There's three things typically churches go to bodies, bucks, and buildings.

And that's how the world wants to define success, especially even in the life of the church.

But I want you to see here that when Paul looks at success in his life and ministry, this is how he is measuring it.

He talks about boasting only in Christ, what Christ has accomplished through him.

Listen to this, 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.

Paul measured the success of his ministry by the impact of the gospel through him by the grace of God.

The obedience of the people of God.

And it's more, by the way, obedience here, it's more than just conversion.

It's not like Paul was just sitting there tallying, oh, this person came to the front, this person raised their hand, this person filled out a card, this person made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

It wasn't about that for the Apostle Paul.

Paul wasn't concerned with the amount of people who said they were going to follow Christ.

He was only concerned about the people who were actually learning and growing as disciples of Jesus Christ.

He didn't care what people said.

He wanted to look at their life and watch it be conformed by the power of the Spirit of God to testify to the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Modern-day evangelicalism is consumed with the spectacle, and it often produces, listen, superficial signs of success, the flash in the pan, professions of faith without any lasting or demonstrable life change.

See, why does it happen?

Here's why.

Because there hasn't ever been, perhaps, any genuine conversion or there's never been any meaningful discipleship.

But the Great Commission teaches us that God is concerned about making disciples.

This is at the heart of our church, right?

This is the mission that God has called us to.

And part of what Jesus said was not just to baptize people, but to teach them to observe everything that I've commanded.

There's a process, an ongoing pattern where believers are matured and strengthened in the faith, growing into obedience.

You see, why is this so important?

Listen, because Paul assumes, and the Spirit of God assumes, that you, as healthy Christians, will have a holy ambition to drive or dive, excuse me, into the church, that you will become thriving, healthy, mature disciples.

Not sitting on the periphery, not just sitting on a bench or warming a seat, but actually engaging in meaningful discipleship in the life of the church.

That's what God wants for you.

Paul modeled this in his life and ministry, by the way.

You know, but Paul met with people every time everywhere he went, he didn't just kind of preach a great message and then on to the next town.

You know what he did?

He preached messages everywhere he went in that town, in the synagogues first, and then he gathered believers and he poured his life into them.

Sometimes he spent up to one to three years in a place, investing in them, growing them up, establishing leaders in the church and appointing them into positions of ministry.

Paul was not interested in remaining a spiritual infant, and he was not interested in leaving people in spiritual infancy.

Church, you must be a people of obedience.

You must want this.

This must be an ambition of your life.

If you're a follower of Christ, this has to be present in your life.

You have to want to grow into maturity.

You must be a people of obedience in order to bring a people to obedience.

Miles, this this is your job description.

You're being called by God to make disciples, who will then go out and make disciples.

Church, it's not just Miles' job description, it's yours too.

This holy ambition is a tall order.

It's so tall that Paul knows he can't do it in his own strength.

And so look what he does.

He points us to the resources that are necessary to do this.

Look, Paul brought Gentiles to obedience.

How?

Look, by word indeed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.

You see, church, our success will not be true success without the power of the Holy Spirit.

We were sitting as as some elders in pre-service meeting, and Dave Locke prayed that exact same thing.

He said, We will have no success.

Nothing good will happen unless the power of God, the power of the Spirit shows up and moves.

Christ works by the powers of signs and wonders.

See, what does this mean exactly?

Well, it's interesting because Paul uses the same language, the exact same things he says about his own apostolic ministry in 2 Corinthians 12, 2, where he writes this the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.

And all you have to do is read the book of Acts to see the kind of mighty works that Paul did.

I mean, he's he's healing the sick and the ill, he's raising people from the dead.

People are taking his handkerchief and they're bringing it and letting it touch people because it's healing them.

I don't know the last time you sneezed in a Kleenex and touched somebody with it and they were healed, but but here's what you need to know that the ministry of the Apostle Paul was unique.

The manifestation of the Spirit was different in the life of Paul because of his unique role as an apostle and the time period that he was in.

But these signs God was using to confirm both the message and the messenger.

And listen, while we are not the Apostle Paul and we can't do everything he did, we too are given the same Spirit of God and are called to strive in the Spirit of God and the power of God's Spirit.

And we see God's Holy Spirit at work now more than ever, both in words and deeds.

When we speak the words of God, the power of God's voice rings loudly to everybody who hears it.

When the word of God is proclaimed faithfully and boldly with love, when it rings out, you want to know what happens in the life of an unbeliever?

God can take the hardest heart, the person trapped in the deepest darkness, and he can shine the light of the gospel into their heart.

He can radically transform them, he can open the eyes of the blind.

He can bring the dead to life spiritually.

Listen, God is still working miracles every day in the hearts of people who hear the gospel and believe in faith upon Jesus Christ.

Amen.

This is why we do what we do.

This is why we are called to this ministry.

Submit yourselves to this word.

Obey this word because the Spirit of God works mightily through this word.

And he does so by bringing people to obedience to the gospel and saving them and sanctifying them.

And one day he will regenerate them, or sorry, he will glorify them in heaven.

The transformation will be complete.

Holy ambition is seen when we we lastly do this proclaim the gospel.

And we've kind of just touched upon it, but make no mistake about it, this was the heart and soul of the ministry of the Apostle Paul.

I know it's been the heart and soul of the ministry of this church.

Paul says this.

So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

I love this.

Look, if you're an underliner, man, underline this.

This is so good.

And thus he says, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel.

He says, 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's ministry was a priestly ministry, it was a powerful ministry, but we see here too that it was a pioneering ministry.

Paul was tasked to take the gospel to the unbelieving Gentile world.

He was called by God to see it spread from Jerusalem to Judea to all Samaria to the ends of the earth.

And his ambition here is so clear.

He uses this construction metaphor of building on another's foundation.

Paul often laid the foundation in different cities, and then he did appoint others and raised them up to lead.

Paul's not opposed, by the way, to others building on another's foundation.

That just wasn't his ministry.

His ministry was unique.

He was a pioneer going to the places the gospel had never gone.

I mean, your pastor, Mike, laid the foundation here.

He laid the foundation of the gospel faithfully, year after year, ministering to you faithfully from the Word of God.

And Miles is now going to come and build on that foundation.

And that's the calling that God has given to you.

Miles to come and to take the baton from Mike and to continue the ministry that he began, a ministry that was founded upon the Word of God, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone.

Church, you are going to be called by God to go to the unreached.

Some of you may be called specifically.

You may just be called as a church to support those who are on the front lines of bringing the gospel to the world.

But regardless of where God calls you, you need to see that you are indeed called.

If you're a Christian, you are called to this ministry of the gospel, to proclaim the gospel and to fulfilling the gospel ministry that He has entrusted to you.

Paul here quotes from the Old Testament.

It's fascinating.

He quotes from Isaiah 52, verse 15.

Isaiah 52:15

If you know anything about Isaiah 52 and 53, this is the servant's song.

It's the ministry really of Jesus that's being described there, but Paul sees his own life and ministry as the extension of the ministry of Jesus.

It's the ministry that we continue to move forward in the Great Commission.

It is his ambition to reach the lost.

This was his calling, and he's not only embraced it wholeheartedly, he did fulfill it joyfully.

So, church, let me just say to you as we close our time here that while God is calling you to help seek and reach the unreached with the gospel, I don't know who's going to go.

I don't know if some of you may be called into full-time ministry, some of you may be called overseas as missionaries, but I do know this.

I do know this.

If you're here now, if this is the place God has called you, God has called you to a mission field.

God has placed this church here in this community.

God has called you to be a part of it because God has a plan for this local church to reach the lost world around you.

There are people around you in this community, there are people around you in your neighborhood, there are people around you in your school, in your place of work, maybe even in your own family who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, who've never surrendered and submitted their lives to Him, who are dead in their trespasses and sins.

They're without God and they're without hope.

And God has entrusted to you the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God has placed you here and wherever you live your life, in order for you to let your light shine before all people so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

This is the ministry God has given to every one of us.

The question is, is will we fulfill the ministry?

And I think it's really important, listen, that you just pause right now and you just ask yourself this question.

Am I being faithful to the ministry God has called me to?

If you know and love the gospel, are you being faithful with the gospel that God has entrusted to you?

Are you telling people about Jesus?

Are you showing them Christ in your life?

You may not have been called into full-time vocational ministry, but you have been called to a healthy, to be a healthy Christian with a holy ambition.

You are called to join with Paul and say, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel.

And to one day join with Paul and say, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

Miles, you have been called to this ministry here at Redemption New Market.

Not only by the inner working of the Spirit of God, but by the affirmation of us, your sending church, and the affirmation of the elders in this church.

May God strengthen you and sustain you and sanctify you in this great gospel calling.

May He bless you as you strive to be a faithful minister, faithfully proclaiming the gospel of Christ and making disciples.

We want to encourage and affirm that calling of God on your life today by laying hands on you, praying for you, and formally installing you into the office of the lead pastor here at Redemption New Market.

So I want to invite you and Amber to come on up here.

And I'm going to invite the men who are a part of this as well to come on up.

And church, this is a really precious moment that we're really thankful for.

And um, and and I don't I don't want you to have the sense that you're not participating in this.

If this is your church, this is something that you are actually taking part in as well.

And so, in order to maybe demonstrate that, demonstrate that symbolically, I'm gonna invite you just to stand.

And uh three of these men here are gonna pray as we lay hands on them, but I want to encourage you to be praying along with them as we offer them up to the Lord and ask for his favor upon them.

So we're gonna begin.

Where are we going here?

Brian, over there he is.

Brian, go ahead.

Heavenly Father, um, we know that every good gift comes from you.

And as we bow our heads here this morning, we want to give you thanks.

Lord, we want to thank you for Miles and for Amber, for their girls, Lord, and just for who you have raised them up to be as a family, and for Miles as the leader of this home.

Lord, we thank you for him and even just thinking, God, about the many years that I have uh been able to be blessed by him in ministry partnership together.

He is a faithful minister of the gospel, and I thank you for him, Lord.

I thank you for the way that he leads, especially the way that he leads his wife, and the way that he leads Mia and Perry and Eden.

I thank you for the ways I've seen this and for the ways, God, that I know you will faithfully help him to continue to lead his family as he ministers here in this church.

God, we pray for them.

We pray, God, that you would help Miles in his foremost ministry to Amber and the girls, that you would help him, Lord, to lead them in pointing them to Jesus.

Use him, Lord, in their lives.

Use this family in the life of this church, God, to be a blessing here.

And we pray, God, that this church family would be a blessing to them as well as they are united together as one big family in Christ.

We pray this in his name.

Amen.

Father, I want to continue to pray and uh pray for Miles and for Amber and for their family.

Father, we uh heard in the message that Ian preached about the effect and the impact that uh Miles had on his own kids.

And Lord, I pray that the folks of uh Redemption Newmarket would have that impact upon uh the Holmes family as well.

As others will reach out and serve them, Lord.

We pray that you would encourage the church and strengthen them for the task.

Father, I want to pray for Emiles as he will, as an under-shepherd, lead in your church for your glory.

Father, you are the chief shepherd, and this is not his church, this is your church.

You care for this church more than he ever can or ever will.

But Lord, you've called him here for this time.

Father, we stand here today in awe and surprise, God, in how you work and what you do.

And yet, Lord, uh, you know about all this.

You know about all this.

You have uh prepared him, and you've prepared him, or you are preparing their family.

And God, we're asking, God, that you would just do a work through them.

But the only way that we could ever explain it is look what the Lord has done to you.

Father, I pray for the church.

I pray that as he leads, you would give the people of this church hearts to listen to the shepherd as he opens your word, as he preaches it faithfully, that your spirit would work.

And as we've already heard of foundation, it's gonna make you build on that.

We believe there are great days ahead.

Why?

Because this is not our idea.

This church is your idea.

This church is founded in, and it was begun by you for your glory.

And so, Lord, we pray that you would continue to do that work in this place, and that you would use your servant wives in doing that, that you would protect his family, Father, you would help them in the hard times, in the difficult times to lean in and trust you and believe and watch and see what you have done and rejoice in it and continue to move forward, God, for your fame and for your glory.

I pray for Miles and for Dave Grant and Dave Long as they serve, as the elders here, Father, that you would give them a unity in Jesus Christ, Father.

Not something that's fake or put on for the church, but truly you would knit them together over these next days and weeks.

And God, that you would use them and others who will come along and serve in those offices as well.

Again, for the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Father, this is not to us, not to us, but to your name be the glory.

We give them to you.

Ask for your protection on them, your care for them in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And Lord, just as we prepare to close here, I just focus our prayers now on the rest of us, the congregation, the people that Miles is going to serve and lead.

Just prepare our hearts, as Ian said today, just may the gospel just shape every thought we have.

Shape how we start each day, what we say, what we do in our jobs, what we do in our families.

We just pray that you change lives.

We just thank you for your provision.

And we just remain awestruck in what you're doing and are going to do in our community.

May the gospel flood the streets in Newmarket and the surrounding towns from this church.

In your precious name.

And church, if you agree, give a mighty amen.

Amen.

Amen.