How Do We Minister the Gospel?

It is good to be back with all of you. most of you may know who I am. My name is Vincent Greene. I'm, like Mike said, one of the missionaries that's being sent out to the Philippines from the church.

And, if you've come to this church in the last year, you may not know me, because we've been gone for about 1 year. we moved back to South Carolina. We were here for about 4 years, lived right across from the Starbucks up here, and we would walk to church a lot and, People would offer us rides, but we would just walk sometimes. But anyway, we were here for 4 years, but then last year we moved back to South Carolina closer to our families, and also there are churches back there that I can connect with and partner with in terms of trying to raise some of the support that we need to go to the Philippines, and we've been on a 2.5 month trip.

We left the day after Labor Day. Got our family all packed into a van and we've been crisscrossing the country. We, we went to DC, Washington DC, the first weekend of, or the second weekend of September, and we were able to go to Liberty and actually see a couple of students who were there, who are also church members here, and that worked well. And we went to DC, stayed a few days.

I presented at a church there, and then we went to Minneapolis. We worked our way to Minneapolis for the 3rd weekend of the month. And so we were there for 3 days, and then we went from Minneapolis all the way through South Dakota to Wyoming, Missouri, all the way out to Seattle. And that was an interesting trip because I've never driven through Seattle or never driven through Washington state or even Idaho.

So I got to see some parts of that. And one of the highlights in Seattle was I got to see the original Starbucks. That's a phrase. I didn't go in because there was a line.

If you want to go to the original Starbucks to get a cup of coffee, you have to wait maybe 2 hours, the line's that long. And, anyways, but we saw that and, and then came south into through Oregon into northern part of California and we, we stopped at a church in a place called Gilroy. And presented there and Gilroy is south of San Francisco, so I got to do another thing I've always wanted to do, drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. So it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was enjoyable, especially when you have to pay coming across, coming back across.

So, a week after that, or, we were a few days after that, we entered into the Los Angeles area and, we've been here for, for about 2 weeks now, a little over 2 weeks, and we've got a couple more weeks left until we leave to go back to South Carolina. And we're going to stop and see some church, a couple of churches in St. Louis, one in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and then South Carolina. So we're going to go this way up and then south and, so it's a trip that we're able to connect with churches, but at the same time, we wanted to come out here and be able to come and visit and so it's good to be with you.

My wife and our two youngest children are not here today. you heard about Bethany. Adam, our youngest boy, also got a fever. he did not react the same way, but, he was sick yesterday.

And so we just kept both of them home. Bethany's doing better. I just talked to my wife in between services and she said that she's doing much better and that at least we think the fever may be gone. So her seizures can happen because of fever related.

It happened, the first time it ever happened was we were in South Carolina. I was actually holding her and, it's scary to say the least if it's never, if you've never been around anything like that. And so, they told us it could happen again, so it did. But praise the Lord that she's doing well and she's talkative as ever, so that's a, that's a good thing.

But what our plan is next week we're gonna be here. the pressure will be off. I will not have to preach. I'll just be able to visit.

That'll be nice. But, we're also planning on bringing maybe some more of our brochures, prayer cards, whatever we have, if you want one of those. There may be some in the, information booth. I don't know what, Level of, that exists there, how many exist there, but we're gonna try to replenish the stock a little bit, but we, I am here today and then we're gonna be here next weekend, as well.

And so, we, we do appreciate being able to come back. The passage that we're going to look at this morning is Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15. We're gonna look specifically at verses 14 through verse 21.

Romans 15:14 through 21. I've entitled this message, how do we minister the gospel? How do we minister the gospel? Let me read these verses to you, to give you a setting for our sermon this morning.

Paul writes in Romans 15:14, I myself am satisfied about you. He's writing to this church. I am satisfied myself I 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, 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 around to a lyric hymn, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard, will understand.

Going to the Philippines has been a very eventful time for me. The first time I ever went to the Philippines, I've been there 4 times. The second time I went, I took my family. I went in 2008, 2009.

2009 is when my family went there. We stayed for a month and then I've been able to go 2011, 2012. And the last two times I have gone, I've been there for 3 weeks and then come back home. Every time I've gone, it's been very eventful.

The first time I ever went to the Philippines, it was a shock to the system because I had never been in a country, an Asian country before. I flew into Tokyo, flew into Japan, but never left the airport. But really being in an Asian country, the Philippines was the first one. And cultures are different.

Things are a lot different there than here in America. And so it was, it was a shock to see the difference and see how people live, because when you, when you first see something like that, it, it, it's, it's different. So it becomes not a shock in a bad way, but it's just, you see the distinction. This last time I was there, I had the privilege of experiencing two things that I never thought would ever happen.

When I go to the Philippines, I'm usually going there to be a part of training pastors in some venue. There are pastors around the country that we go visit and we'll schedule a weeklong module training with them and We'll teach a class on hermeneutics, Old Testament survey, New Testament survey, Bible doctrine, some class like that, and we'll have these pastors in a room for about a week and we'll teach them every day and we interact with them and fellowship with them, and it's a good time, and that's what I've usually done, but this last trip was a little bit unique because of two things that happened.

one was we were with a, a pastor and his family down in Batongas. And Mike Barry came with the team, also to the Philippines while I was there.

And, and so Mike and I would do some training. Mike would go one day and teach in another city, about 20 miles north of where we were and teach these pastors and, and individuals who came for the training class. On the, the next day, I would teach, so we, we kept switching. I was hoping I could get Mike to do it every day.

That way I could have a week off, but that didn't work. So we would, we would rotate. On one of the days that Mike went up and taught, I stayed with the team. And I thought, this is going to be great.

I don't have to teach today. Mike's doing that. I'm able to be with the team and, and they're going to do the ministry that they are to do. They, we had a couple of things for them to do.

and one was we were going to go to a women's correctional facility. Well, I was under the assumption I had heard something about the ladies in our group we're going to do a Bible study. And I thought, OK, they're going to do a Bible study for the women in this woman's correctional facility. And I thought, well, this is gonna be great.

I just sat there, listen, see how things go, and maybe interact a little bit afterwards. I thought this is going to be nice. No preparing to teach, no preparing to do anything. And so we went and we got into the place and it's like a little community there and there was a service that's held every Wednesday, I think, and this one lady leads it.

She goes in there every week and ministers to the women. And, and so they're singing some songs and I'm just sitting there and enjoying it. And then all of a sudden the lady says something like this. Well, after this song, the pastor's going to preach.

And I went, Pastor's gonna preach. Now, the, the guy who there was a guy with us, another pastor, Filipino pastor, and I thought, well, maybe she's talking about him. And he looks at me and like, you ready? And I went, What?

And I thought, Oh, no, here we go. I got to preach, and I didn't prepare anything. I had no idea. Totally threw me by a loop.

I found out later that the Bible study, the ladies were preparing was for the afternoon's children's service, not for the Women's Correctional Facility. And so I'm thinking, oh no, what do I, what do I say. Usually I prepare these things, I don't just wing it and And the only thing I could think of was I didn't know any of these ladies. I didn't know why they were incarcerated, why they were there, what had happened.

I knew nothing. None of us knew anything just going in. I didn't know any of their history. But the one thing I did know.

And the only thing I thought, well, this is what I got to do somehow, someway, Lord, just move my mouth and make sure the right words come out. I got to give the gospel. At least I know that. And, and literally what was happening is I would say something, the pastor would translate.

He would try to actually, if I moved my hand this way, he would try to do the same. It was interesting. Sometimes I just came up with a new hand motion to see what he would do. and so I thought if I started doing jumping jacks, that would really mess him up.

But anyway, I, I, literally, I was thinking of the next sentence to say as he was translating what I just said and And, and did my best to present the gospel, but I'll never forget that. Because maybe of the uniqueness of it and how I was surprised that I had to preach, but how God could work in a situation like that and just in a place like that, women being incarcerated for crimes that may or may not have committed. And how God can still meet them there. The other happened when I was leaving the country.

I was with the Ransom family, the other missionaries who were in the Philippines, and they had to leave on Sunday night at 12 midnight from Manila to go to Greece because that was where a missions conference was being held that, I, I will be eventually required to go to these missions conferences, but not yet, not until we actually get on the field, but they were leaving to go to the missions conference and their flight left at 12 midnight. So we went to Manila Airport because my flight left at 6:30, just six hours later.

So we thought, OK, it's Sunday night. My flight leaves Monday morning, Manila time, and so we go there and Jessica Ransom, the wife, was, you want to get a hotel?

I'm like, No, I can check in at 3:30. I know I can check in around 3:30 in the morning. Flight leaves at 6:30 in the morning. I'll just, I'll just hang out at the airport.

it's only 3 or 4 hours. And sure enough, by the time we got there, they got situated, they went to the immigration line. I said bye to them. It was like 10 o'clock at night.

I thought, OK, I've got about 5 hours before Delta sets up their terminal thing or their desk to get ready to check in. I thought, OK, I've got 5 hours. I'm going to do this. I'm going to stay awake all night because if I sleep all my stuff is gone.

OK? You've got to stay awake to keep an eye on your stuff, your baggage, and So I told myself to stay awake. Well, I, I did well for 2 hours. By midnight, I'm starting to, doze.

And I'm like, Lord, I got to stay awake, I got to stay awake. And this man walks in, he's an American, I can, I can tell. he walks in and he sits down beside me, and he's waiting for the same flight that I'm going to leave on, because he lives in Michigan and our flight went from Manila to Detroit. that was the first leg of the journey.

So, I asked him, I said, what, what are you doing here? Well, what brought you to the Philippines or how long you've been here? He said, I've been here for about a week. And I'm leaving, going back home.

I said, OK. And he goes, I said, well, what were you, what'd you come for? He said, well, I had some people to visit, see in Cebu, which is in the central part of the, of the country. And I said, OK.

So then he asked, Well, what, what are you here for? I said, well, I've been here for about 3 weeks. I'm going home as well. And he said, Well, what'd you do?

I said, well, I trained pastors, my missionary, missionary work. Oh, he said, He said, There was a friend of mine back in Michigan, who said he became a Christian. Oh, and he said he became a believer in Jesus. Mhm.

I know what that means. he said, I tried to get him to explain it to me. But he really, I don't think he could explain it to me because I was asking what happened to you? Why are you different?

He said, I got a question for you. Now this was midnight, and I'm like ready to doze, right? He asked me, could you tell me what it means to be a Christian? And I'm like, Lord, I prayed to keep awake for 3 hours.

Here we go. It was an opportunity that I couldn't miss, right? that I had to seize upon. And for the next 3 hours, somehow, I was able to give the guy the gospel, try to tell him everything I knew, and talked about sin, talked about all the issues.

And don't know whatever happened to the man. He got on the plane, he thanked me and, and, I got his name and number and I I need to give him a call, I guess. But, that event changed, affected me. I, I won't forget that because number one, I needed to stay awake and I did.

By the time we finished, I could go check in for the flight and we continued to talk more in the line. But it was that God gave an opportunity. I never expected. I figured I'd get on my computer, do some work or something, do something to stay awake, go drink some more coffee or something.

I never realized that what God would do would be put in my path, an opportunity to minister the gospel. And that was the 2nd time that it happened, just on that trip in ways that I never even planned. Sometimes God will give you an opportunity to minister the gospel in unique ways. But by and large, you are called upon, you are required to, it is your duty, it's your responsibility to minister the gospel in, in, in the area, in the location in the place that God has equipped you and placed you.

You are a minister. When Paul writes this letter of Romans, he's, he's addressing the gospel in all of its detail. In all of its fullness, no stone left unturned. But in the beginning of the book, he, he prefaces before he actually gets into the issue of God's wrath in chapter one, he gives some remarks about himself, personal remarks about some of the things that are affecting him and some of the things that he's doing before he launches into the actual message of the gospel.

Chapter 15, verse 14 is the conclusion to the book. He wraps up what he's been saying since chapter 1 and chapter 15, verse 13. And in chapter 15, verse 14, he transitions to conclude the book in a more personal way. And what we're going to look at is just verse 14 to 21.

But the phrase that rings in here that, that's that you can focus on that you can see is really what drives what Paul says here. It's in verse 16. Paul talks about being a minister of Christ Jesus. Now some would say, well, that's, he's a minister.

Yeah, he's, he's an apostle. He, he was Paul God had called him to be a minister. And so this passage is really only speaking about pastors. It's only for the pastor.

Well, if that was the case, I wouldn't be preaching it to you. I'd be preaching it at a pastor's conference. But this message, this word here, this phrase, a minister of Christ Jesus, that applies to all of us. If Christ has saved you, if you have been saved by the blood of the Lamb, if your life has been transformed, you are a minister.

You may not be a pastor in the vocational sense, but you're a minister, you're a minister to in your home. You're a minister of Christ to your workplace. You're a minister of Christ in your school. You represent Jesus everywhere you go.

It's not, do I have a ministry? That's not the question. The question is, I have a ministry. How am I going to fulfill it?

How am I going to do it? We all have been saved. If, if, if the Lord has saved you, you have been transformed by, by Christ to be his emissary in this world. You have a responsibility.

And it's also a joy, besides being a duty. to give the gospel to others, to communicate, to talk about Christ, to talk about his love, to talk about why he came and died on the cross, to point people to Jesus. That is all of our responsibilities. And what Paul does in this passage, is he tries to illustrate that he's really talking more personal, personally or personal on a personal level to this church, and he's trying to illustrate I think what comes out, he really illustrates or exemplifies what it means to minister the gospel.

In this lost and dying world. How do you be a minister of the gospel? That's really what he's focusing on. But let's start in verse 14.

He's addressing the church and he says, what, I've, I've told you about all these things regarding the gospel, but I am myself satisfied about you, my brothers, as a term of that we're in relationship with each other. We have the same faith, we're united in Christ. I'm satisfied about you, that you're full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and that you're even able to instruct one another. The church at Rome, he views it as a healthy church.

It's not like Corinth that had all kinds of problems. This was a church that he viewed as being full of goodness. They had knowledge, they understood spiritual things, and they understood spiritual things to the level where they could actually instruct one another. They had good faithful teachers in their congregation.

So you would wonder, wait a minute, Paul, if that's how you view this church, why did you spend this entire letter talking about every aspect of the gospel message? Don't you think they already get it? So why, why do this? He says in verse 15, even though I feel this way, and know this about you, on some points, I have written to you very boldly.

Because I wanted to remind you of some things by way of reminder. Listen, he's saying, look, I know you're, what, you got, things, spiritual truth, you're doing well in my book. But I have to make sure, I have to make sure that you really know the every detail that I can give you about the gospel. I want you to understand about sin, about what it means to be justified, what it means to be sanctified.

I want you to understand how God's work in this world relates to Israel. And you read Romans 9:10, 11, that stuff's deep. And how knowing the gospel and being a believer, what it means to be a believer in this world, how your life should look. That's Romans 12 and following.

I, I had to give you this stuff. I had to give you this truth. I had to remind you of this in print. You wanna know why?

So I'll tell you why. Is it that I think you don't really know these things? No. You're full of knowledge.

I is it that I think you don't have the ability or the capability of teaching each other these things? No, you're able to instruct one another. It's just because God has called me to be his minister and I have to make sure that I do what God's called me to do. I just got to remind you of these things.

It's important to me because it's a part of who I am. My life is filled, he says, with preaching and teaching God's word wherever I go. No matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter what, how their, what their language is, no matter how they talk, no matter how they dress, I am here. God has placed me, he says, to be a minister of the gospel, and I have to do it.

And I love to do it. This is my life, this is who I am. And what he does in the preceding or the following verses, is you get to see a little bit of how Paul does the ministry that God has called him to do. How does he accomplish it?

How does he minister the gospel? What, what drives him? How does this work for him? And I think by looking at this, we can glean some of these truths for our life.

We can glean some of these truths for how we minister the gospel. We can pattern our life, in a sense like this, have the same mindset, the same view by what he says here, in a sense through illustration. You won't find commands here. He's really just sharing his heart.

But there's something we can take from it. I think there's, as we look through this, I found 3 ways. That we should minister the gospel. 3 ways that we can minister the gospel.

They relate with each other. But if you take this to heart, I think it will help you in focusing on focusing better on doing what God has called you to do. No matter what your ministry looks like, these are principles that over guard or overshadow all of this and that you can apply to your life. Way number one, I did towel it that way.

Yes, way. I love doing it that way. We should minister the gospel. Paul says as a priest, right?

If you think about that, you say, wait a minute. Are you telling me I got to put on a robe, fancy robe, and, and go hold confessional somewhere? Is that what you're telling me? And, do some, do some incense waving and all kinds of stuff.

Is that what Paul's talking about? Well, he says here, I've written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by God. God has graced me, God saved me, he transformed me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God. The priestly service of the gospel of God.

So he mentions this idea of priestly work. I is that Paul saying that he's a priest? In one sense he is, because we all are. First Peter 2, talks about us being a kingdom of priests.

When there's, there's only one mediator and that between God and man, that's Jesus. Paul's not talking about him being a priest like that. But in a sense, you have to view your ministry, like you are a priest, that you have a priestly function. So, what, what's he getting at here?

What's this all about? Paul says that he writes these things, right as reminders because first of all, God has graced me. God has given me grace. Think about Paul's life before he became a child of God, he was a hater of Christians, right?

He would kill every Christian he could find. He wanted to put down the name of Christ. He wanted to put down the gospel. He didn't want anybody preaching about Jesus, to him, Jesus was someone who had died and needed to stay dead.

That's how he felt. But God on the Damascus road, changed his life forever. And with the hatred that he once had for Christians, now he had a love, the hatred that he had for Jesus, now he had a strong passion for, and his life had totally changed. The old was gone, the new had come, his heart had been changed, his life had been changed.

And now he had been given a ministry to go to Gentiles. To go into outermost parts of the world wherever he could go, and wherever he would go preach Jesus, tell people about Jesus. So when you go to a place like Thessalonica, that had, that was a city of 100 to 200,000, he would walk in there and, and, and be given opportunities to preach and he would proclaim Jesus. He did it openly and boldly.

He saw his life. that God had given him. as being responsible for taking a dear truth that changed his life, the truth about who Jesus is, the truth of the gospel, and he saw that that was who I am now. I am a minister of this gospel.

And when I go and Preach to the Gentiles, and tell them about Jesus, and, and speak to crowds of people or speak to one woman by a river. It is as though what I'm trying to do is get people to God. I want to get people in touch with the true God of heaven. That was a priestly function.

The prophet, the the prophets took God to man. They spoke God's word to man. Paul did that too, in a sense. But he also was like a priest, and that he tried to bring people to God.

He saw his life, As a way in which God could use him to, to introduce people to himself. Paul was an instrument in his hands, in God's hands. So that he says, I'm a priestly in this priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. what brought them joy was to see God, convict the sinner of their sin and save them and transform them.

Paul didn't have the ability to say, Anybody, but what Paul could do was be used by God to communicate the gospel of lost souls, lost people, and God could work in those people's hearts and minds and bring them to salvation. And Paul saw his life as a way of God getting that done, God using him. Paul knew that God didn't need him. To do that, But that's what God wanted to do.

And he says, I have to view myself as like a priest. When you minister around people, when you're around people, maybe your job or, and you're talk or your school, and you're talking about Jesus, or someone asked you, what does it mean to be a Christian? You have the wonderful privilege of introducing that person to Christ. You have to view it that way.

If you're going to really be an effective minister for Christ, in whatever location or place he's put you, you have to view it as you have a responsibility to introduce people to Jesus. They're not going to try to, they're not going to get it on their own. They're dead in their trespasses and sins, they don't seek for God. God has to supernaturally work in their hearts.

And what God does, is he puts you into their path. He will use you as an instrument and his redemption plan to bring the gospel to people. So you have to view yourself like a priest. You're, you're trying to take people to God.

That's one way. There's another. We should minister the gospel. In God's power.

In God's power. He says in verse 17, in Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God. You say, what is this? Is this Paul getting on an ego trip?

Is that what this is? No. It's really the word proud there goes with the idea of the word accomplished in verse 18, and the word fulfilled down in verse 19. Is that in Christ Jesus, it's really, it's not about me at all.

It has nothing to do with me. If it's all about me, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. I'd be out vacationing. But it's really about Christ and what he changed my life and this is what I really love to do.

I'd love to minister for him. And in that sense, in Christ, I have reason to be prouder to feel a sense of accomplishment for the work. than I do for God. God has changed me.

He set me on the right path. Left to myself, if I was still lost in my sins, I wouldn't be doing anything like this. But God changed me, saved me, equipped me, totally changed my life. And now, I minister for him.

And in that, I can boast. I can rejoice. Because I, I realized something. I realize I'm not doing this in my own strength and my own power.

I am doing this in God's power. He talks about that in verse 18, and verse 19. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. You see, I'm not talking about oh, myself and lifting myself up.

What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to lift up Jesus. That's what I'm gonna speak about. What you're gonna hear me say is, is talk about Jesus and what he has done in my life and what he continues to do in the places where I go, how I've seen lives transformed by the gospel of Christ, how I've seen how God can touch a person. It's unreal.

And I will speak of those things. That's what I will speak about what Christ has accomplished through me, to bring the Gentiles to obedience. I will, I will, it's what Christ has done. He it's, God is working in me to do his will and his pleasure.

I know that. It doesn't mean I'm perfect, doesn't mean I do everything right. But I know God is working. I've seen it, he says, I've seen it, and that's what I'll boast about.

You wanna know why I give you the gospel, Romans, the Church of Rome? You wanna know why I give you this? I wrote these pages on the scroll? It's because I realized that God is doing a work, and he is powerful, and he's actually working through me.

I can't stay quiet. I have to speak. That's what I will venture to speak about and I'll always speak about it. And what did God called me to do?

To bring the Gentiles to obedience. That when it talks about bringing the Gentiles to obedience, is that that's the goal of the gospel. You see, you can't before you're a believer, when you're dead, you're trespassing sins, you can't obey. You do not have the ability to obey.

All you can do is do what your fleshly desires want you to do. You're doing your trespasses and sins. Paul describes that in Ephesians chapter 2. The only way you can obey Christ, and live a life of obedience is your life has to be changed.

It has to be transformed. And what the gospel is, the gospel is a call to obedience in Christ, not work salvation, not that you earn it up, drum it up enough and God's gonna look at you and see you as a good person, so he's going to save you. No, it's that you bow your knee to him, you realize that you are a sinner, that you are lost, that you have nothing to commend yourself to God. And you cry out in mercy to Him, trusting Him, turning to Him, focusing on him because he is the sacrifice for your sin, committing your life to Him, repenting from your sin and having faith in Him.

And your life has changed. And your, your world changes. And you can obey, and you will obey, may not obey perfectly, but you will obey. Paul knew what the gospel was about.

So he says, that's what I'm going to talk about what Christ has done through me, either by word and deed, that's by my life, By what I say, it's implied there, I'm going to make sure that what I say is backed up by my life. I'm not a flip flopper. I'm not riding the fence. I don't agree with the age of tolerance that says you can have your truth, you can have your truth and don't bother me with your truth.

Paul was a postmodern. He backed up what he said by word and deed. It was backed up, verified by also the powers of signs and wonders that were operating in that day. You can read about that in the Book of Acts.

By the power of the Spirit of God, God used what we call sign gifts back in that day to verify that the message of the preacher was accurate, because the Word of God was still being written. But you don't need that today. That doesn't need to go happen today in that sense, because the Word of God is complete. You can listen to any preacher on the radio, TV or internet, and you can determine if what he's saying is true or not, because if it's, if it's accurate, it'll square with the scriptures.

You can be like a noble Berean, and that's what they did, even though it was the apostle Paul, you think Paul can't do any wrong. When he went to Berea, and he preached, they verified that what he said was true. How do they verify it? They had access to the same scriptures that he preached from.

And they studied to see that what he was saying was true. Paul is like, I know God is working because I've seen him work in in miraculous ways. I've seen the power of the Holy Spirit work in the lives of people. And that is what I'm going to talk about, because I've learned something that the ministry that God has given you to do, you don't do it in your own strength, you do it in God's power.

That's how this works So that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyrium, the lyrics like, If I get my map right, modern day, well, what used to be called Yugoslavia area. From all Jerusalem all the way around to Illyria, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. what, I've done what I've been called to do. And I've done it in God's way.

I've done it depending on his power., when I think about that time in the airport, I couldn't have orchestrated anything like that. All I know is I was going to the airport, just gonna try to stay awake, stay alert, stay sensible at least to somebody so that I can at least get my ticket verified and get on the right plane and go to the right country. If I didn't, I thought I may, if I didn't, keep my senses, I may be somewhere totally around the world from where I was. I just wanted to stay awake and stay alert and, and, and I couldn't have orchestrated that man showing up and wanting to know all about that.

He had been dying to know about this stuff. That's what he told me. I've been wanting to know what it means to be a Christian. Can you tell me?

Nobody can tell me. Can you tell me? I said, well, I, I, I tried not to act too surprised by it and they just said, well, yeah, I think I do. But I never, never even thought that, you could tell God did something to bring that man there.

And it was just a privilege to be able to give the gospel. I think I can relate to what Paul's talking about here. There will be times in your life where God will just bring the opportunity to your door. And you have to meet it.

Just rely upon God and His power. But there's one final way here of ministering the gospel. Minister gospel with a purpose. He talks about here in verse 20.

So, thus, I make it my ambition. I have an ambition. Well, sometimes we think ambition is wrong. you shouldn't be ambitious, shouldn't have any ambition.

I know people who frown upon having ambition. Well, the ambition that Paul's talking about here is a good ambition. He says, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel. Now, he's gonna spell that out a little bit more in just a minute here.

But he has an ambition. He has a purpose. He does what he does, because there is a purpose behind it all. He has a focus.

Now, the focus that he has for his ministry may not be the same for yours. But it illustrates this idea of ministering the gospel with a purpose. I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named. Lest I build on someone else's foundation.

He says, listen, what, you want to know what drives me? what my heart, what my heart is beating? It's beating to take the gospel to people who have never heard, who have never heard the name of Jesus. Now some people today even have that same passion, that same focus.

But if you don't have that, if that's not the focus of your ministry, it's not that that's a bad thing. I don't think this is everybody's purpose. if everybody was going to Non-reach places around the world, then they would not even be anybody here to meet today. I would not be preaching to anybody.

You'd all be gone, right? God doesn't call everybody to do this specific ministry. But what it highlights is that Paul had a purpose, he had a vision, he understood, specifically, specifics of how God wanted him to minister in this world, to minister the gospel. And you have to ask yourself, what is the purpose, the specific purpose that God has called you?

And I think how you can help know these things, is by having godly men and women around you, who can help you, who can shepherd you and lead you and guide you. And God may use those individuals in your life to help you see better why you are called to the ministry that God has called you to. But you have to have a purpose. Paul did.

He said, listen, I want to go to places where Christ's name has not already Been named where Christ has not been preached. He says there's, there's a verse in the Old Testament that backs me up here. It says those who have never heard, never been told of him will see. Those who have never heard will understand.

He says, I know that there are those out there who have never heard that will have the opportunity to hear, and I want to be a part of that. God's calling me to be a part of that. And that's why he would say later that he wanted to go to Spain, from Rome. Some say he actually made it to Spain, some say he didn't.

But you see that he had drive, he had passion. I've been, I've been asked, why are you going to the Philippines? Why the Philippines? And I, I sometimes somebody says, I go, oh, is there somewhere else I can go?

I, I wanna know why they're asking the question. And one relative in our family, asked, well, how long are you gonna stay there? And I said, they said, 1 or 2 years. I said, keep going.

34? Keep going. I said, God wills the rest of my life. They had a spasm.

They actually said, you're gonna take your family to us, to what they feel is a third world country. You're gonna take your family to a third world country for the rest of their life, for the rest of your life? I said, if God wills it, yes. That's where we go.

That's where God has called us. I don't wanna go anywhere else but that. Whatever God, whatever your ministry is, know the purpose behind it. The specific purpose for why God has called you to the ministry he's given you and and where he's placed you.

I tell the Sean Ransom in the Philippines, the other missionary, I said, hey, I don't have a plan B. I don't know what Plan B looks like. It's Philippines or bust, and I have no idea what bust is. Unless God would direct otherwise, this is where we're going.

And it's, it's good that I know that and, and it's, it's, it, it helps. I guess make it more passionate. I can relate to this. One of the reasons I was drew, drew to this passage in the first place was because, or drawn to it, was because This is my world.

I can relate to this in some way. But I think there's principles here for all of us. We're all ministers of the gospel. We've all been called to a ministry.

I may not know what yours looks like specifically, and it may be very unique. You may reach a part of this city that nobody else can reach. And you may be in a specific unique situation, or you may not be, but the ministry that God has given you is for a reason, and you want to minister the gospel in the right way. So, Minister the gospel, like you'd be a priest, taking people, introducing people to Christ.

Minister the gospel in God's power, fully depending on him, fully depending that he can do the work and that he has called you to do, and that he will work through you. He will make a way. And third, do it with a purpose. Know specifically why God has placed you where he has, and what he's equipped you to do.

And if you can do these things, know these things, apply, I think these principles are these ways to your life and to your ministry, your personal ministry for the gospel. I think you will be like Paul here, and you'll have a greater confidence in doing the work God has called you to do. Does that make sense? I think it does.

Let's close our time in prayer, and as we close, we'll have the ushers come for the offering. Lord, we are so blessed by this passage that you have relayed to us through the apostle Paul, of just how he viewed his personal ministry. Lord, we have that ministry as well. It may not be an apostle.

Planting churches everywhere. We may not stand in front of dignitaries. The Lord, you have called us and equipped us to reach our world for Christ, to reach our world for you. And Lord, you've planted us in a specific place with a specific ministry in mind.

And Lord, we pray that we would be faithful in that task, and that we would depend on you for each and everything that we need to do the work you've called us to do. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.