In Douglas Campbell's sermon 'The Center of God's Will,' he explores Apostle Paul's mission to preach the Gospel where Christ is not yet known, as outlined in Romans 15:20-24. Campbell emphasizes that understanding and aligning with God's will is a clear and attainable goal for all believers, not just a mystery. He highlights that Paul's ambition to proclaim the Gospel was specific to his apostolic calling, but every Christian is tasked with sharing the Gospel. Campbell discusses the importance of distinguishing between personal desires and divine duty, urging believers to prioritize duty over desire in their lives. He points out that pastors and church leaders have specific roles, primarily to teach and equip others for ministry, but every church member also has a responsibility to minister and serve. The sermon calls for believers to take initiative in their faith, not waiting passively for divine direction but actively engaging in God's work and being adaptable when plans change. Campbell concludes with a call to action for Christians to live in a way that aligns with God's will, emphasizing a life of service and evangelism as central to the Christian faith.

Well, good morning. If you would turn with me to Romans chapter 15. This morning we're going to look specifically at verses 20 through 24, but to give it context, I'd like to read from 20 to 33. So that's Romans 15 verses 20 through 33. The Word of God says, 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's written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints, for Macedonia and Archaea have been pleased to make some contribution to the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.

For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings. They ought also be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I will come in fullness of the blessing of Christ. I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you today, has every day, has every Sunday, thank you, new Father, for your special revelation to us, your Word. Father, I pray this morning that it wouldn't just be words upon our ears, but that, God, they would go to the very depths of our soul, that we would understand rightly Father and we would be changed by your word.

Father today I ask that you would draw hearts, that God we would glorify you as the world sees that we are changed by you. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Well, this morning as we come to, I'm getting my notes all spread around here. As we come to, again, the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul, we understand that his journey or the Book of Romans is drawing to an end, that he is starting to button things up. And this morning we find something out about Paul that I believe would be very—to understand even this Scripture rightly, but to understand the entire book of Romans rightly, we must look specifically at Romans 15 verse 32. It says, So that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

The Apostle Paul saw himself and was in fact in the center of God's will for his life. There's so often I hear people say, well I don't know what God's will for my life is. And when I was younger, I really wrestled with it. I watched many false teachers talk about this subject on the Christian television station. I listened to other people talk about the subject, and still I came out with I never really understood what God's will for my life was or how I might attain it or understand it.

But if there is God's will for our life, which I believe there is, I believe that God wants us to understand it. He wants us to know what that is. He wants us to be in the center of that will. I don't believe that God intends to keep it a mystery. I believe oftentimes if we don't know what His will is, we either don't know Scripture or we don't seek God to understand it.

So this morning we have to understand or we have to see that the Apostle Paul knows, he is a hundred percent certain that he is in the center of God's will for his life. With that understanding, we come back to Romans 15, 20 through 21. It says, And thus I make my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation. But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. Paul's ambition was to preach the gospel.

This morning, if you are a born-again believer in Christ, this is no mystery. In fact, I didn't put it on the board, but if you go to Mark 16, 15, you find God's will for your life. It's a very basic understanding or a very surface level, but God's will for your life is go into the world and proclaim the gospel to all creation. This wasn't specific to Paul. This command is specific to anyone who is born again who is in Christ.

And of such, this was Paul's ambition. It was his ambition to share the gospel, to proclaim the gospel. But we also find that Paul is limited in scope because of his role as an apostle. And that's why we find at the end of that verse that he clarifies what his position is. It says, 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.

So the Apostle Paul is saying this, his ambition, God's will for his life, is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. But specifically inside of that is to people whom have never heard this proclaimed before. That doesn't mean that that is your God's will for your life. It is God's will for your life to proclaim the gospel, but it doesn't mean that you can only share it with those who have never heard. It doesn't mean that you must go to the depths of Siberia and find a town that has never heard of Christ and proclaim the word of God there.

Potentially, maybe that is true of you. But more normally on how God works is God in His sovereignty already knows the town that you live in. He's already guided your steps to that spot. Oftentimes, it's not that we need to raise lots and lots of funds to go somewhere where we aren't right now, but God has put us in a place to be used right where you're at. There's nothing wrong with proclaiming the gospel to an area that has already heard it, but this is simply the specific role that Paul has for his life.

He backs it up with Isaiah 52.15. He says, So shall he sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told them, they see, and that which they have not heard, they understand." This is specific to the apostle Paul, specifically because he's an apostle. This isn't every Christian's calling. Some are called to build on someone else's foundation.

And in fact, as the apostle Paul went to places where that have never heard of Christ, and he proclaimed Christ, he proclaimed the Word of God, and what did Paul do next? He set up a church in that town. And within that church he would set up the biblical offices of elders and deacons, and it's those offices which specifically build upon someone else's foundation. If you see your pastor here this morning, I'm typically not building my own foundation. There was a pastor here before I was, and there was a pastor here before he was.

And at some point in history, there was someone who cared enough about the gospel of Jesus Christ to share it all throughout the community and to share it with their friends and have so many who have come to know Christ that they come to the conclusion that we must form a church that we might worship together. It's upon those people's foundation of which I build today. So it's not wrong to build upon another's foundation. It's just a different role that God has assigned for us. Now within that, obviously, we want to extend our foundation.

Within the congregation, as you go and share your faith. We also make the foundation stronger or build the building taller as the foundation is Christ. In Ephesians 4, 11 through 12, we find these offices. It says, And then he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. It's actually very good to build upon another's foundation unless God has called you to not do that.

Amen? If God has called you to be an evangelist, then I would believe you are to go to places where Christ is not proclaimed, and you are to go and proclaim the gospel, and you are to go as people come to know Christ to set up a church of whom which you will then pass the baton to a shepherd and teacher who will build upon the foundation that you built. So this morning the question isn't Is it God's will for my life to share the gospel? That's true of every one of us. The question specifically for Paul was, where has God directed me specifically?

Romans 15, 22-23, it says, This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you… And that's where the verse ends. But we find in this verse that Paul is hindered by the will of God. In essence, it's God's will. That Paul has desires to go other places.

Paul has desires to come back to the Church of Rome, to see the believers, to fellowship with them, to be encouraged by them. But Paul, in a sense, is hindered in that because he desires God's will more than his will. We have to understand as we go through Scripture, as we are believers, that duty must come before desire. We live in a world where it's the exact opposite. Typically, desire overcoming duty typically only happens a majority of the time in first world nations.

You and I have so much time at our disposal. We have, our lives are extremely easy. And with that we are, I'm speaking of myself too, so don't be offended. We are, we become spoiled children. We don't appreciate the time that we have.

We only desire more. We only desire more entertainment, more fun things. And if we have to work, I'm here with you. If we are called to work and we have to work overtime, we're frustrated, we're upset because we're going to miss out on something that we were going to really enjoy. That's only a problem of the First World Nation.

On the Third World Nation, even a hundred years ago, I was very blessed when we moved to the house that we live in, that we found a diary of my great-grandmother. And when you read her diary, if you read one page, and this is the thing that we commented on the most, You could read one page and be like, that would take me two weeks to do all of what she accomplished in one day. Like just overwhelming. How would you possibly accomplish all of this? And it was work.

She woke up and she went to work and she got done working and she went to sleep There is a I don't want to go down that road But a funny quote in a movie is these guys were looking for a job and they come in and they said, there's no jobs we found anywhere in this whole town. And the other guy says, yeah, unless you want to work 40 hours a week. That's a problem. I mean, that's a spoiled brat culture. Paul shows here that duty comes before desire.

We find in the scripture that he has done what he was called to do, that God called him to go throughout this area of the world, and it seems that God called him to go to the major cities of that area to spend much time there proclaiming Christ, to set up a church that would have elders and deacons who would take over the work of Paul, and Paul would go on to the next place to where he would repeat the process over again. And he has come to what seems at this point is he has accomplished this in every major city of that area, and so he has done what he was called to do. So now it's time to go to the extreme western part of the world, which is Spain. In Romans 15-24 it says, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while." One thing that we also must note about this scripture is that Paul was also busy—he was in the middle of the will of God—but He was also busy planning.

But Paul had his plans. He planned to go here and he planned to go there. And we find that even as he accomplished all this, his desire was to go to Spain, the extreme western part of the world. This is before Christopher Columbus, so this would be the edge of the known world at that time. Paul's plans were busy.

Paul was, I would say he is a working machine. Not only did he go and proclaim the gospel and pour his life into churches, but at times he was also a tent maker. He was also working a part side job that the church wouldn't have to support him. Paul was busy. Paul had plans.

There's nothing wrong with having plans. But what you will find in Scripture is, as we take the initiative, we use that word initiative. And that, young people, that word is extremely important for you. Because even within our work as young men, initiative, initiative means that you take upon yourself to do what you ought to do. Right?

Your mom and dad don't have to tell you to clean your room you take the initiative and do it before they ask right Can I tell you I Reward my kids greatly for initiative It speaks way more to me than me having to bug them to do what they ought to do? Amen? Now, you adults, you would understand that being told to the children, But what about your initiative with Christ? Do you take the initiative? See, the danger in seeking God's will for our life and spending lots of time there is that if we never take the initiative, if we never make plans, we typically never do anything.

We just sit there. Now obviously we search scripture, we pray, we seek God, but at some point we must take the initiative. And Paul, this is what Paul did. Paul laid out his plans. He said, this is what I'm going to do, this is where I'm going to go.

And there were times in Paul's ministry where God would shut doors. And in fact, we see in this that within the Greek words, we even find the shutting of doors would be like a big trench that people would dig in a battle to make it so you couldn't get past. Like that's what it would mean like when the door was shut. It was, it was, I just, I just couldn't get there. And Paul said, I know if things aren't working out, if I've made my plans for Christ, and things, it just seems like a big trench in front of me, and I'm prohibited from going further, that God has something else for me.

In fact, John MacArthur shared a story of a time that he was going to speak at a youth group. And it was about an hour's flight away, and he got to the airport just in the nick of time, and he got out of the car, and his son dropped, or somebody dropped him off, and he rushes through and gets to the counter, and they say, oh, sorry, Mr. MacArthur, your flight is canceled. And his son had already left and he tried to work it around, and essentially, at some point, he realized he was not going to make it to preach at this event. So he goes home, his family is surprised to see him, he explains the situation, And he said a week or two later, he happened to be with another preacher friend that he knows.

And this friend told him that he went to this event that John MacArthur was going to preach at. And he remembers, because he was very disappointed that he wasn't there. He said, but when I got there, I came into the back of the church and the people notified me that that you weren't going to be there to preach, that the flight was cancelled, and that you were elected to fill His spot." And he said, and I preached, and at the end of it, God did change lives. Their repeat lives changed. That in essence, this was not a mistake.

That you had plans to come preach at this, but God used other means, God had other plans, and God made those plans known. And so my question is to you for your life, If you're taking initiative, if you're saying, I'm going to serve God by doing this, this, and this, and the doors close, that's nothing to be discouraged about. Amen? It's God who opens and closes doors. But I would tell you, and just as we see the Apostle Paul, when a door was shut, he didn't stop.

He simply went on to the next thing. He simply went to where he felt he saw God working. So when doors shut in your life, don't give up. It just means that this isn't God's will, potentially even for just right now. The next thing that I've noticed in that verse is it ends with, I haven't once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

A couple years ago I had an opportunity to go to Rome and it just didn't work out, but as I thought about going to Rome for a ministry opportunity, I found myself looking and searching the internet for all the cool things that I could see. That was my flesh. You notice Paul isn't interested. Paul isn't interested in the aqueducts or whatever room he might have. He's interested in the church.

He's interested in the people. Amen? Is that our hearts? On Sunday morning, are we interested in the people? Are we interested in our brothers and sisters?

And finally, he needs their help to get to Rome. It seems Paul at this point is transitioning his base of support to Rome, which is, which we'll go into more later. So how does this apply? Number one, just as Paul, our ambition should be to preach or proclaim the gospel. In the early church, in Paul's time, Christianity spread like fire.

It just spread all over the world. And there was, I can't remember his name, but there was a secular leader or a ruler, a politician or not politician, whatever, at that time that was confounded by Christianity. He was, specifically, that this isn't like anything that we have ever seen before. And he pointed out the difference is this, that in other religions and other belief systems, they have their, I don't know what to call it, they have their teacher, or guru, or whatever they call it, and this person will travel from place to place, and they will share their new ideas, or their new faith, and it will work for a time, but eventually it snuffs out, whether by just just burning out or whether by the government putting it out. But that wasn't Christianity.

And this morning it's important to know that that's not Christianity today. You don't come to church this morning to listen to the teacher, who then spends his week going to share with others. But this morning you come with a fellow believer who has a fellow assignment, the same assignment that you have, each and every one of you who are in Christ, and that is to proclaim Christ. In Christianity, it isn't just the leader that's doing it. It is all who have come to know Christ.

Why? Because in Christianity, you are truly forgiven. You are truly given something miraculous. God has paid your debt. Christ took the punishment for your crime upon the cross.

You have been given something of great value. And anytime that we're given something of great value, we immediately go and we share. We say, look at this. I'll share that story for later. Christianity is not like any other religion.

This morning you are commanded to share your faith. If you're not sharing the gospel, it's a very, It's a fruit, it's a sign that something is not right. There are three reasons that we can think of. You either don't understand salvation of which you're not saved. If you don't share it, it's because you don't understand the gravity or the magnitude of the gift that you've been given.

And if you don't understand it, if you don't understand your sin, and if you don't understand that Christ paid for your sin, and if you don't Understand that you must turn from your sin and trust in Christ. You are not saved It does not matter how much you believe that there is a God You're right. There is a God but he is just and he will punish sin where he finds it To you have an experience salvation which of which you cannot be saved if you are not born again your flesh will never tell you to do what you don't want to do. No one wants to seemingly what our flesh tells us. If you go share Christ, you're going to make a fool of yourself.

Everybody at your job is going to think you're that guy. You're going to be one of those people. Only a born again, a regenerate heart, says, I don't care what people think. I care what Christ thinks. And three, the other option is you practice the sin of omission, of which the Apostle John says you haven't seen Christ or come to know Him.

You make it a practice. Day after day after day, you know you should share your faith, but you simply refuse. You make it a practice of sin. In 1 John 3, 6 it says, no one who abides in him keeps on sinning, and no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Charles Spurgeon, In one of his quotes, he says, have you no wish for others to be saved?

Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that. Proclaiming the gospel is a command for each of us. It is God's will for our life. If we are not, we are rejecting His will. Two, we must know our role in the kingdom.

You notice the Apostle Paul, although he desired to do other things, his role was not that. His role was to proclaim Christ where he has not been proclaimed before. And even though he wanted to do other things, he was constrained. He constrained himself to only do what God has called him to do. That's very hard in our culture.

It's very hard to constrain ourselves to our role, even as your pastor. It's very hard to constrain myself to my role inside of the church. What is my role as an elder in the church? It's to teach and to shepherd and to equip you for ministry. Within the shepherding there is praying, which is also very prevalent or very called out by Scripture in my role, but in essence, that is the limit of my role.

That is why you give to the church. That is why the church supports me financially. It is for those specific reasons. It's to teach, to shepherd, and to equip. Everything outside of that is simply because I love you and I want to get it taken care of.

But the problem in American Christianity is we sent—after the Reformation, we started to understand how unhealthy this was, but throughout time we've pulled ourselves back into it again, where we believe that the pastor is the—we wouldn't say this, and it's not right—but the pastor is the priest. He takes care of everything at the church. We show up and participate and go back about our way. That is extremely unbiblical. It's it's not only damaging to the church, it's damaging to you.

This morning, it's a blessing for me to do many other things. But just as the Apostle Paul, and the danger for me is that I can get so consumed with other things that I'm not doing what I'm called to do. Amen? Many in American Christianity today bear through teaching. They resent many aspects of shepherding, and they have no interest in ministry.

It's because we have fallen away from Scripture in that aspect. They prefer their pastor to be a spiritual wilderness paramedic. And what I mean by that is, They prefer to go on their own trip, to do their own thing, to go deep into the back country. And as long as everything is well, everything is good. But as soon as they fall off the edge of a rock and they break their leg, all of a sudden they need help and they need it immediately.

And they call for help, and the paramedics fly in on a helicopter, and a couple of them will either come down a rope or get out to where they can assess and help you until more help arrives through other means. Much of America has turned the position of pastor into this position, that we do our own thing, we do whatever we want, And only when the time comes where we're hurting, do we then summon the pastor who must come in and fix our problems so we can get back to doing what we like to do. This is not only destructive to the church, it's destructive to you. What is your role as a member of this local church? First off, it's to desire sound teaching.

It's the desire to be shepherded. It's the desire to be equipped and used in ministry. Your role as a member of the church is to be ministers. Just as in salvation, it's not one person's job to evangelize. It's all of our jobs.

So in your role in the church, it's not one person's job to minister, but all who are in Christ, it's your job to minister. And thirdly, Duty comes before desire. Again look at Romans 15, 22-24. This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have long for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped in my journey there by you, once I've enjoyed your company for a while." Part of why the position of the shepherd teacher has become that of a spiritual wilderness paramedic is because our culture teaches that desire comes before duty.

If church becomes a spectator sport, you simply endure the sermon and then get back to your life. And dads, when something bad happens in your life, when there's a spiritual crisis in your home? I'm going to go down this road in a later sermon, but understand this. If something spiritually happens in your home, something bad happens, husbands, your wife's first instinct should not be to call the pastor. Now, don't get me wrong, I love you.

I love your wife, but it's not healthy for her. It's not healthy for your pastor. I love you guys, and so I'm very more patient and permissive with you in this aspect, but I've had people on the internet whom I know ask me questions about the Bible. And my real response is this. That is a question for your husband, and if he doesn't know, it's a question for him to ask his pastor.

It's not my position to answer this question. I will tell you about Christ, but it's not my job to spend my time wrestling with deep issues of people whom I'm not responsible for. And that's the response of the apostle Paul here. Men, you might say, but I don't know the Bible well enough to answer my wife's questions. That's because of number three.

Our desire has superseded our duty. When I was trained as an EMT, I spent several months, two nights a week, training. And now it seems very short. Husbands, you are the spiritual paramedic for your house. When your child is hurt, when they have a question about God, their first response should be to come to dad.

Maybe come to mom if dad's not home, and if she doesn't know it's to come to dad, and dad it's your job to figure it out. Train yourself. You're trying to be an EMT with no training. You're trying to be a paramedic with no training. And understand this.

I'm not telling you this because I want you to leave me alone. That's not the case. But you know when Believers or non-believers, when they come to me with a very big problem in their life, do you know what my response is? It's simply to teach, teach you what the Word of God says about that, most of which, I'm repeating what I'm already saying on Sunday morning, and two, to hold you accountable to follow through. Husbands, if there's a problem in your family, the answer is to know this, to understand it, and apply it.

This is my medical bag. This is your medical bag. This is your answers. Your family needs you. They need you more than they need their pastor.

You have more influence on your family than your pastor does. Now with that, your pastor's desire to train you, to teach you, to help you in this, to build you up, to equip you for your ministry. Amen? And that's the same throughout the church. There's lots of things you can do within inside of the church for ministry.

There are lots of people who are a part of our church, who are lonely, who need people to visit, who need help with things. But if your pastor is the one who does all of that, I'll play videos on Sunday morning because I won't have anything to say. And that would be extremely simple. Amen? Amen.

Recap. Number one, preach the gospel. It's God's will for your life. Number two, know your role inside of the church and inside of your family. And three, we must put duty before desire.

It's okay to have fun. It's not okay to be consumed with it. Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, help us to know what it means to be in the center of your will. For all those who know you, put that desire within their hearts to not waste their life, but Father, to serve you with everything that they have, to be in the center of your will, to be motivated by the day which we will stand before you and hear, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Father, let that be our chief desire. And Father, if there are those here who don't know you. Father, there are lots of hard things here.

This has more to do with us growing in Christ than it is coming to know Him. Father, help us to understand if we come to You in repentance and faith, that You change our hearts to desire you, to desire your word, to desire to live for you. And so Father, I pray that you would draw people above all of that, Father. If there are those here who don't know you, they will stand and they will pay for their sin. Sin that's against the King and creator of the universe.

The God who has given us everything that we have, every breath that we take, if we're not forgiven, He will administer perfect punishment for eternity. The message of the gospel is that though God is just, though he is perfectly just, he is also perfectly kind. And He will pour out His wrath upon His own Son on our behalf if we would simply turn from our sin and trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. It's that treasure that motivates us to serve you, Father. So help us today to keep that in our sight.

In Jesus name, Amen.