The sermon by Scott Brown, titled 'Holy Ambition for the Will of God,' explores Apostle Paul's identity and mission as a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Paul sees himself as a priest, emphasizing that all believers are part of a kingdom of priests with a shared responsibility to minister. The sermon stresses the importance of maintaining a 'Holy Ambition' focused on preaching the Gospel and ensuring that personal identity aligns with God's calling above social or cultural identities. The sermon also highlights the significance of obedience in the Christian message, urging believers to conform to God's will. It underscores the role of community and fellowship in the church, emphasizing the need for mutual support, hope, and enjoyment of each other's company. Financial duty is discussed, with an emphasis on supporting those who minister to us, based on the principle of being spiritual debtors. Finally, the sermon calls for fervent prayer, illustrating Paul's reliance on prayer for his ministry's success and urging believers to stay focused on their divine mission.

I'm going to start at verse 14. Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient in many signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ.

And so I have made it my aim to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. But as it is written, to whom he was not announced, they shall see, and to those who have not heard shall understand. For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now, no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.

But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, for it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Therefore, When I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, please bless the preaching of your word.

As we heard from Isaiah that you said your word would accomplish its purpose and into that that we say amen so be it may may you receive all the glory as as As your word has preached us this morning, may we... In Jesus' precious name I pray, Amen. Let's pray. And now Lord, you have given us words on a page for our own help, for our direction. And Lord, these are holy, holy words that we will be reading.

And Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand them, that you would come and edify your church today. Amen. Well, one of the wonderful things about what we're doing here and reading the book of Romans is that we are able to listen in to a conversation. The Apostle Paul is instructing the Romans, and we're the bystanders. We're listening to a conversation that's happening with someone else.

And it's like those moments for us where you're listening into a conversation, someone is saying something to someone else, not even related directly to you, but it's so helpful and it's so important. I think we can look at the book of Romans or any of the letters of the Apostle like that, that we're listening into authoritative words from God toward his people. And as it applies to the Romans, it also applies to us. And so we're listening into the Apostle Paul's explaining something in this section. He's explaining to the Romans why he didn't come there yet.

And In this conversation, we learn so much about our own lives before God. We learn about the life of the Apostle Paul and what motivated him. We learn about a number of things that are related to normal fellowship in the church and our callings together. And so Paul here in this text is explaining that he's not traveled to visit the saints in Rome. And so in doing so we learn many things from which we can gain wisdom for our own lives.

And so in this final section in Romans 15, we'll see a number of lessons for how to apply the gospel in our lives in the church and the ministry that God has given us. We'll learn about the ministry of the Apostle Paul. He's made it clear already that ministry in the church is diverse, that we all don't have the same calling, but Here we'll learn about His calling and how we can apply the wisdom that's there. We've already read in 12.4, for we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministry he who teaches in teaching he who exhorts in exhortation he who gives with liberality he who leads with diligence he who shows mercy with cheerfulness So let's begin there and you have an outline before you it you can see the things that the Apostle Paul is explaining and the first thing that he explains is his ministry his mission as a minister We see that in verses 16 and 17. He says that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God. So he speaks of himself as a minister and the language that he uses here is the language of priesthood.

A dedicated life to particular priestly purposes is what he's implying. The Bible says that we all are a kingdom of priests. In 1 Peter 2 verses 4 and 5 we read the Apostle saying, Coming to him as to a living stone, as rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious, You also as living stones are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Peter also said in 2.9, he said, but you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. This is a theme that we see elsewhere in scripture.

But what we learn from the apostle here is this, that the whole aim, the whole aim of this priestly service is to see to it that the Gentiles make an acceptable offering to God. And so when we talk about the priesthood of believers, which the Apostle is bringing up, he's saying that he is a priest, and we know that we too are priests as well, that salvation has made us all ministers. There's no priestly class. There are no orders that are more holy than others in the church. Men like to make it up that way, but that's not the way that it was ever intended to be.

There are no holier than thou in terms of their role and their responsibility. And so the Apostle brings to us first of all in this conversation with the Romans that he is a minister, he is a priest and he is one of the kingdom of priests. So you might think of it this way, the Apostle Paul has a particular identity in his life. His identity is the identity of a priest, a minister. That's his identity.

Now living in this world we are so tempted to get caught up in dozens of different identities. In fact, if you were go to a local high school you would find a number of identities raging. You would find the Goths, you'd find the Jochs, you'd find the intellectuals, you'd find all these different identities that are being formed. People form themselves to appear to the world in a certain way. But the Apostle Paul says, my identity is the identity of a minister, a priest of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you join the Kingdom of God, it means that you abandon the culture, many of the cultural categories that you've loved so much all your life. And instead of becoming a businessman, you are a priest, you are a minister. And in all, in the midst of all of your activities and in business or in whatever kind of life that you're involved in, your responsibility, overwhelmingly, is to be a minister. And if to be a minister means that you can no longer be that thing that you've identified with all of your life, then you should abandon it. But the Apostle is speaking here of this issue of identity and function in the world.

Why am I alive? I am alive to be a minister. And this is such a critical principle in Scripture that we in the Church see ourselves as ministers and priests of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that we find ourselves fulfilling that functional role first in all that we do. That means that no matter where we go, what are we?

We are priests. We are the holy nation of God. We are ministers. And so we come into the church and we identify with the people of God as ministers. The idea of your identity is so critical today as we think through how to conduct our lives and how do we conduct our churches.

Let me just give you a couple of illustrations. One of the fastest growing sectors of the church, I understand, is the sector of the church that's called the cowboy church. And then there are biker churches and there are surfer churches. And these are churches that take a particular identity, and they exalt the identity. But it's contrary to the gospel because it submerges our true identity as ministers.

We are not cowboys first. We are not bikers first. We are ministers first. In fact, the church is an array of ministers from every tongue, tribe, and nation. We take all of the diversity out in the world, and we bring it into the church, and we become one.

So it's not appropriate to have a church based on a functional human identity. It's not appropriate to have a church based on a demographical niche or an age group that you're targeting. That is totally inappropriate. The gospel brings everyone together and makes them all ministers. And Paul has identified the Christian life that we are all ministers and that we come into submission to Christ, and our overwhelming identity is that we are ministers, wherever we go throughout the whole world.

And so Paul is identifying himself by this term, minister, and he explains his mission as a minister. Now what does that mean for us? I think it means for us that that the Lord would continually work with us to transform us so that we would know who we are wherever we go. We walk about in this world and we're engaged in business, we're on the telephone, we're sending emails. In every moment of life our identity should be known in our own hearts that we are ministers.

We have a responsibility in everything that we do. We're not to call to say whatever we want, do whatever we want, go wherever we want to go. We're not called to that. We are called to be ministers, and that's our identity. So Paul, you know, we're listening, Paul is saying these things to the Romans.

We're listening in, and we're learning something so wonderful about life, that we're listening to Paul say, I am a minister. And we listen, we say, oh, Lord, let me be a minister like that. Let my worldview be like the apostle Paul. Let me be less like I am now and more like that. And God has given us this example in scripture.

What a wonderful thing that God has allowed us to look into a conversation like this. And then the second thing that we see, not only are we ministers, but we also have a message. And Paul explains the message that he has that should also help us to understand our own life and message. Verses 18 and 19, he says this, for I will dare not speak, now we're talking about his message, I will dare not speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient." And then verse 19, "'In mighty signs and wonders and by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." So Paul is explaining the nature of his message and just simply his message is the gospel and how the gospel of Christ has worked in his own life. That's his message.

And so it's interesting, there's so many things to bring out here just in these two verses. Let me just touch lightly on a couple of them. First, Paul is making it clear that God, only God, can accomplish anything in our lives. He says, those things which Christ has not accomplished through me. In other words, he's really expressing his dependence on Christ to accomplish anything through him.

And that the accomplishments that we so long for are completely in the hands of a sovereign God who does all things after the counsel of his own will. You know, we get frustrated with ourselves. We think, oh Lord, if I could change in this area, if I could make this never come back into my thinking again, oh Lord, help me. Well, this is the beginning of change, but we need to understand that we are completely dependent on the grace of God to change us. Only, what would you like to have accomplished through you?

Well, you are completely dependent upon God. A man can receive nothing unless it's given him from heaven. And would it be for us that we would be a very humble and dependent people crying out personally to God that He would sanctify us, that He would make us by His own power. We realize that we're so sinful, we are so dull, we are so intellectually backward, we really don't get so many things. And we have many problems that have been developed over the years, how could we ever, ever be acceptable to God?

Here's how. By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from all unrighteousness and the power of the Holy Spirit accomplishing a work in us. You know, we're in a lifelong journey with the Lord Jesus Christ, and He picks us up at wherever He picks us up on in life, and then He takes us year by year to care for us, to sanctify us in truth, and he does it through his word and through the power of the Holy Spirit. And then we come to this statement about Paul's teaching, because remember Paul's explaining his message. There's a statement that reveals a great deal about Paul's teaching method.

And here it is. Paul says that he is speaking of the things that Christ has accomplished in him. In other words, his teaching was authentic. It was about real things that have happened. The Apostle recounts the work of the gospel in his life.

If you would explain the gospel to someone, you would need to be like the apostle and explain what Christ has done in you. Explain where he picked you up. Explain what he did. Explain his work. Explain what he's taught you.

And so his teaching is not academic. It is authentic. And his admonitions come from firsthand experience. He's speaking from the heart of the things that Christ has done in him. And we're speaking about this in our family this week and we were talking about how do we apply this and my mother said, well one thing I think this means for us is that if God has not transformed us or if he is not continually transforming us, we have nothing to say.

And that's really true because we are testifying to the grace of God, not just in an intellectual, academic way, but we're talking about the grace of God that has come upon us specifically and what He has done for us. And So this message that he has is an authentic message. We learn more about it. We learn about the goal of the message. The message that Paul is bringing has a goal, and this should be our goal as well, as we speak to one another and speak to those who don't know the gospel.

And the purpose is to make the Gentiles obedient. And here we learn that the message of the Apostle Paul included that nasty word, obedience. The Apostle Paul's message included obedience. You know, obedience is not really very popular. Well, first of all, it's not popular in our hearts, because we really only want to be obedient to our own passions.

We don't want to be obedient to an external source. We want everything to be inward and sweetly pleasing to our own disposition. But God has actually called us to go beyond our own disposition and to conform ourselves to His will. And in conforming ourselves to his will it means that we have to be obedient. There's a brand of Christianity, there's a preaching out there today that says that obedience is irrelevant.

That is just absolutely insane When you compare it to what the Apostle Paul is saying here, he says that he is saying these things so that there would be obedience in the Gentiles. And then we learn about the delivery of the message. His message is delivered through preaching. He says, so that from Jerusalem and roundabout to Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And so this is Paul's great aim in all of his life, and that is that in his ministry, in his serving God, that it is the gospel that is the center of all of his message.

And this is something we should constantly be aware of because in our own souls we're tempted to speak of things that are interesting but not as effective and helpful as the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So We've seen that Paul explains his mission. He's a minister. That's his identity in the world. Then his message, that he is speaking of the things that God has accomplished in him.

And then thirdly, he explains his particular calling in verses 20 through 21. And so the apostle is speaking now again to the Romans and he's continuing to expand on what his ministry is all about. And now he really gets into something that explains the details to his calling. So in verse 20 he says, And so I made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named. Now, before we read on, look at the, I have made it my aim, or I've made it my ambition.

Take note of that. Because he's speaking of an ambition, an aim. Just take note. We'll keep reading. I should build on another man's foundation.

And that's another aspect of his ministry that we're going to learn more about. But as it is written, to whom he was not announced they shall see and those who have not heard shall understand. So in verse 20 the apostle reveals something that's going on in his soul, and that is that he has an aim. He has an ambition. I've titled this sermon Paul's holy ambition for the will of God.

But here we come to this principle of his aim, his ambition. Paul has a burning ambition. We've read elsewhere where he says, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel of Christ. And so the apostle is giving us some wisdom about how he is living from this time that he's writing until judgment day and until then he's making it his aim to do something you might think of it this way what is my aim now in my life between this moment and Judgment Day? What is my overwhelming aim and ambition in life?" This is the question that Christians should ask themselves.

This is a Christian-like question And the apostle is answering the question. And we run into this principle in Scripture in a number of places. In 2 Corinthians 5, 9, the apostle says to the Corinthians, he says, therefore, we make it our aim. That has to do with the strategic intention of life. May it be so that we, each one of us, have a strategic intention.

And I mean even to the littlest child needs to have a strategic intention and fathers and mothers should help them to understand what their strategic intention is. When they wake up in the morning they need to know why they are alive and that they have this aim before them. And then he continues, Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. That's one thing. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he was done whether good or bad." Oh, we're back to obedience again, aren't we?

"...knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, but we are well known to God and I also trust We are well known in your consciences. Now Paul here in 2 Corinthians is revealing many things about the ambition, the aim. There are three places that this word ambition or aim is used. In 2 Corinthians 5, 9 is one of those three. And we learn about his aim to be pleasing to the Lord, to recognize that we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, because there's judgment coming, things done in the body, and that this should be a certain kind of terror for us.

It should cause us some uncomfortability. It should jerk us out of some patterns and some occupations that we've been engaging in because they don't fit, they don't prepare us, they don't make us ready for the judgment seat of Christ. And the apostle is pressing on this so hard, he says, I trust you are well known in your consciences. He's saying, I wish that in your conscience, this would dog you, that you would not waste your life. So there's this whole principle of aim that he's bringing up here.

And so we must, as believers, as Christians in this world, not to live without aim, not to just be flowing along the stream of this culture of our friends or our associates, but that we have an aim that we are convinced is holy and is right before the Lord. And this has to do with becoming a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so passion here is on the table. So the Apostle has spoken of his particular calling and before he reveals that calling to us, he has said that it is an ambition that drives him. And then he reveals more about that calling And he says that he is determined to preach the gospel where it's not been preached before, and that he's determined not to build on another man's foundation, but that he's going to go to those who have never heard.

Perhaps you've heard of the 1040 window, that swath of the world between these longitudinal lines, latitudinal lines that contain, you know, I think three billion people who've not heard the gospel or something like that. But Paul was going to those who have not heard. That was his aim and his ambition. And Paul says that he will not build on another's foundation. And now what does that mean?

Does that mean that we can't build on another man's foundation? No. That's absolutely what the Apostle Paul is not saying. In fact, he gives us an example how he how how Apollos builds on his foundation. I planted but Apollos watered.

So there's this principle though that there's a legitimate focus of ministry in which one goes to those who have not heard. And that's what the Apostle is saying. And he says that he's really a trailblazer. He's striking out among unreached people who have no viable witness. And so this was the driving motivation of his life.

This brings up the whole issue of missionary activity to those who have never heard and those who have a specific focus on those who have never heard. This is absolutely a legitimate important category in the kingdom of heaven. Now we think of some of the great missionaries of the past when we read what the Apostle Paul says. We read, we think about William Carey, who's called, you know, the father of modern missions, who preached the sermon in 1792, in which he was preaching on Isaiah 54, 2, and 3. It was called the deathless, the deathless sermon, is what he called it.

He preached the sermon. It only had two points, and the points were, expect great things from God and attempt great things from God. Those were his only points. He wore himself out and the congregation was deadpan. And even though it was so, it was that sermon that launched a missionary movement that reached throughout the world.

He was preaching on Isaiah 54. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." Well William Carey had had the same passion that the Apostle Paul had. And so this is the particular calling that the Apostle had. I had a very interesting experience a few weeks ago.

I was in a very small bookstore in the island of Iona and one of the girls, one of the young girls from our church, Elizabeth Daening, from across the bookstore which was only a few feet but you could barely move in it. She said, oh Mr. Brown, you have to have this book. I said, well okay, let me see it. So she holds up this book right here, and it's called The Home Preacher.

And it's a fascinating book, and it's a tool for fathers to use on Sundays. On Sunday afternoons, if a father would open up this book, he would read the text of scripture, sing the song that is here, and there are these beautiful prayers in this book as well. And so here on the island of Iona was this book called The Home Preacher. Articles in it by Charles Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle, it's fascinating and really neat.

So I open up, I open, I bring the book home to our hotel room and I open up, I open up this and here is a watercolor painting of South Africa. This book was printed in around 1890 And here is Table Rock in South Africa. And right next to it is this tract, A Plea for Missionary Advance, Church of Scotland, 1898. This book was owned by someone who had a passion for missions. Not only a passion for the church and the worship of God on the Sabbath, the bringing of the people together, for the preaching of the Word of God, and then the fathers of the households taking their children and their families home and then continuing to preach the gospel and to enjoy the gospel by reading scripture and singing together in the homes on Sunday afternoon.

This book is a Sunday afternoon book, but also contained this tract from the Church of Scotland. A plea for missionary advance. Let me read this to you. According to Christ, missions are born of the church, but born and promoted through the church, and planting his church on the earth, Christ said to her, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, that the deliverance of no ecclesiastical court or human authority can accomplish. It came direct from the great love of God's missionary heart through Christ's missionary lips to his missionary church.

Therefore in dealing with missions we are not merely dealing with the church recommendation but with a solemn deliverance of divine will. It is cheap and easy to sneer at the cause of Christian missions. But according to Christ, the promotion of missions is part of the church's, is part of the church is, I'm sorry, according to Christ, the promotion of missions on the part of the church is not permissive, it is imperative. It is not a work the church may do, it is one the church must do, or lie under the reproach of disobedience, unfaithfulness and disloyalty. These are the things of divine origin that are permissive, not imperative, holy marriages and ordinance of divine appointment, but every man is not bound to marry.

But the promotion of missions to the heathen And the Jew is a binding duty from which there is no escape on the part of the Christian Church or the Christian man without blame and shame. When Christ speaks of missionary prayer, of missionary money, and of the whole realm of missionary enterprise. He always speaks with imperative emphasis." And so it was fascinating to open up this book and see really the whole range of ministry of the church. And the Apostle Paul was very well aware of that. Here he is proclaiming that he is that missionary, like William Carey, like those who went from this great missionary society from the Church of Scotland.

So here the Apostle is ordering his life, he is ordering his life with an aim, he has an ambition and this should help us to cry out to God. If we have no ambition, if we have no aim, that we would not take another step until God has helped us to know what is this great ambition in life that we should have every day when we wake up in the morning and you know every husband, every wife, every child should know why they are waking up in the morning and for what they have been born. And it really, honestly, is for the fathers and mothers to help their children understand this. It's for you to help them get it. And if you don't get it, then take time.

Cry out to God. Get on your knees and don't get up until God has helped you to know how you might have a great aim and that it would be an aim that promotes the gospel of Christ. And so the apostle has explained his ambition, his particular calling, And then he explains his reasons for not visiting Rome. And here again, we're listening into this conversation and we're learning. We're learning about the Christian life.

We're learning that We are ministers. We are learning that our message is the gospel. We're learning that there is an issue of a particular calling. And Paul's was very clear and distinct in his mind. Now, we listen to Paul explaining his reasons for not visiting Rome.

And in doing so, he's illustrating his mission. He's talked about his aim and now he's going to give the Romans an illustration for why He didn't come to Rome. Because he didn't come to Rome because of his aim. He was on a mission. And going to Rome wasn't in the mission.

That's what he's saying. So the question, why, Paul, have you not come here yet? You say you love us, but you're not here. And he says that he was hindered, even though he had a great desire. You see that in the text.

He said, I have great desire, yet I am hindered. So first, of course, we see Paul applying his ambition to preaching those who have never heard. So he knew his mission and he had clarity about it. And so the Apostle is saying, I didn't go to Rome because I need to go to Spain. And on the way to Spain, that's my goal.

Rome is not my goal. Because there are people in Spain that have not heard. So that's why he hasn't gone to Rome. And you know the Apollo there are many things that the Apostle Paul could do. There are many good places he could go, but he determined to focus his energy.

And this is the glory of God working in a person's life, that he sets different people aside for different things. All of us won't do the exact same work, and we should also be a blessing to one another in the work that God has called the other person to do. Because the Apostle has been called to do one thing doesn't mean that we are called to do the exact same thing. We may be, but we should promote him in his ministry, and we should promote the other in their ministry as well. And so after explaining why he's not visited, he asked them for help on his way to Spain.

And in doing so, he reveals to us, I think, some really beautiful things about life in the church. He's asking the Church of Rome to assist him on his missionary objective, and he's preparing them for a short stay. So he says, I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way by you. If first I may enjoy your company for a while." Here in this simple sentence are three wonderful qualities about Christian fellowship that I trust will be in operation here today. First is hope, hoping to see one another.

There is a desire, an inclination, a love for one another, where there's anticipation to see one another and be with one another. This is one of the blessed aspects of being in the church. We long to see one another as the apostle said in chapter one toward the Romans. There is hope to see one another and then there is help. He asks for their help.

When we are in the fellowship of believers, we should not only be giving help, but we should also be ready to receive it. And when we are especially in need of help, we should make it known. If we're struggling with anything, we should ask those to help us. Now, Paul is saying, I want you to help me when I come. He's making it known.

He's telling them, I want you to help me. And then there's the last, and that is enjoyment, that I may enjoy your company for a while. These are just the beautiful aspects of life in the church, the hope of seeing one another, the help that's given to us, and then the enjoyment of one another's company. What a blessing it is to converse and enjoy one another's company. And here, you know, God has established a regular day specifically for that to happen, not the only day that we should be seeing each other, but definitely a blessed day where all of us are together and All of the ages and all of the gifts are together.

And so there's a multiplied help here in the church. I'm so grateful for that today. I pray that God would give us a tremendous sweetness of these three things, hope, and then help, and then enjoyment of one another. And so his ministry in Jerusalem is explained here. And in verses 25 to 28, he reveals to us some, I think, really critical principles.

And when we get these principles, as he's speaking about this offering that he's taking to Jerusalem. And so remember, Paul is on his way to Jerusalem taking this offering from Macedonia. He writes the letter to Rome, I think in like 54 AD or something like that. And then he wants to move on after he goes to Jerusalem, he wants to move on to Spain and go through Rome. That's his intended track.

That's his intended track. And in this set of verses here, we find some help in thinking biblically about our finances. Here we are, we're listening into this conversation. Paul is explaining why he's not going to go to Rome and we learn something about giving and finances as we overhear this conversation. And so first of all he's establishing the pattern of one church or a group of churches giving money to those far away.

So in this case a gift was taken from churches far away because of the collapse and the famine that was going on in Jerusalem. And the brothers and the sisters there in Jerusalem were languishing and men like Barnabas were selling their lands and giving their funds to feed the people, but it wasn't enough. And other churches were needed to help in the crisis that was there. And so it establishes a good pattern of helping churches beyond our region. We shouldn't just be concerned about our own church, But we should also be concerned about churches who are in need and if there are, and if they're particularly starving people in churches who have need.

And then secondly, there's another principle of financial duty to those who minister to us. We have a, We have a financial duty to those who minister to us. If we've received benefit, we ought to help them. He says in verse 27, if I am a partaker, you see this? If I'm a partaker, then I am a debtor.

And if I'm a debtor, I have a duty to minister to them in material things." That's verse 27. So if you're wondering how you should give your money away, and you should, how should you do it? How do you decide? There are thousands of worthy places to give your funds. And here the apostle is establishing a principle that you should add into your thinking when you're thinking through where you should give your money.

Of course, obviously you should be giving it to your local church, your local assembly, but if you're wondering how to give your money, this principle will help you think clearly. You can't give your money to every worthy work. You can't support all there is. So where do you start? And one way to start is to prioritize and ask the question, to whom am I a debtor?

To whom am I a debtor in spiritual things? And when you answer that question, who has benefited me spiritually, then you say, then if I am a debtor, I have a duty to minister to them in material things. That's just a principle. I don't think it's the only principle of giving, but it's one that you should always figure in, because it helps us to keep from being confused by the thousands of opportunities that are out there. So we think about what has benefited us and then we bless materially.

You know there are hundreds of millions of poor. There are so many organizations that minister to people at different levels. And so one of the questions that we should ask is who has helped me in my walk with the Lord? And then who has blessed me spiritually? Then consider that this might be an indication of the direction of your giving.

And so then Paul, he concludes by restating his priorities. And he says, therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. So there's the priority. The priority is this. Bring the gift of Jerusalem.

Go to Spain. Stop in Rome. That's the priority. And so Paul is explaining through this practical application why he has not gone to Rome. And it's because he's on a mission.

He has an aim. And let it be so of us that we have a clear understanding of the aim that God has appointed for us. And then, fifthly, lastly, Paul requests their prayers for the ministry in verse 30 to the end. And it's interesting that the Apostle Paul is not retiring in his request, And he says, I beg you. Now I beg you.

Now when was the last time you had someone beg you to pray for them, to grab you by the collar and shake you? It's as if he's doing that. This is strong language that he's using here. And you can feel the passion and the desire for prayer. You can feel his own sense of bankruptcy and need for help.

And so he, in figurative terms, grabs them by the lapels and says, I beg you, brethren. He calls them brethren. He connects with them as family. And he says, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you. Now the God of peace be with you all." And so The apostle ends this great section by crying out for prayer that his ministry would be a blessing.

And he, in the midst of his crying out for prayer, he speaks of the pleasure that he has in those who are in Rome as he considers them and as he anticipates his visit there while he is on his way to greater objectives that the Lord Jesus has laid upon him. So here we find in the apostle his explaining to us his one great aim and how critical it is that we stay on mission in what God has given us to do and that We don't let even good things get in the way of this mission that God has called us to. So where do we all end up here? Well, I think we can end up with a number of conclusions and critical questions. Number one, God has called all of us as ministers.

That's a conclusion. This is our identity. This is our life in the world. It doesn't matter what we do for a living, but it does matter that we are a kingdom of priests set aside for the gospel. And then, it should also beg some questions and questions like this, is my aim clear and is it godly and is it a biblical aim?

And then this, is there anything, even a good thing, that's distracting me from the aim of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as it is expressed through me? And if there is anything, then we should pitch it over the side and sail on for Spain. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, thank you for giving us words again to guide us, to help us to recalibrate and to rethink all of what we're doing. And I trust that you would help us with that now through the power of the Holy Spirit that you would come and work with us in this church and that you would help us to be more focused than we ever were.

Lord, I pray that you'd help me to be focused, to pitch the things over, to be coming down the line of that laser beam that you would have me. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.