A Model for Serving

Winston Churchill used to say, we earn a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. If I were to summarize Romans chapter 15 in one word it would be the word serving, serving. Really what that chapter is all about Paul uses a form of the word four times in Romans chapter 15, the word for serving or ministering. And he gives us in this chapter two examples, two models of serventhood, of what it means to serve others. Model number one, we looked at last week in the first 13 verses and it's the Lord Jesus. Our Savior, Jesus himself, is a model of serventhood in the fact that he was selfless and impartial in the way he served and ministered to the needs of others. We saw that before. This morning we look at the second model for serventhood or a serving spirit and that is Paul himself. In the remainder of the chapter Paul does not set out to present himself as a model. He's not saying, okay we've looked at Jesus. Now let's look at the real model for serventhood. Let's look at me. He's not doing that. What Paul is doing in the last part of Romans chapter 15 is he is beginning the conclusion to his letter. Now like most preachers it will take him a while to finish up the letter. Actually this is the longest of Paul's conclusions in all of his letters. He spends almost two whole chapters concluding, telling about his plans, saying hello, saying goodbye, signing off in the grace of God. But in chapter 15 what Paul is doing is explaining to the Roman church his plans for ministry. What he has in mind to do, what God's putting his heart to do, what his plans are including coming to see them. So he's kind of wrapping up some personal details here. But in the very essence of his explanation of his own ministry plans he becomes a model, a model of serving. He opens up his heart. He shows his passion. His heart can't help but be seen. And as we look at his plans and is talking about what he's going to be doing, what he hopes to do, what God's laid up on his heart to do, he really does become a model for servanthood. So in this passage Paul illustrates for us a model for serving. And we're going to look at that model today. He's finishing up his letter, this grand letter that has to do with a righteousness from God. And we've made our way through the book of Romans for over the past year. And as we have seen what God teaches us in Romans we've seen that righteousness from God is needed because we are sinners. Chapters one through three. It is given by the grace of God, a free gift of God's salvation. Being declared righteous, chapters three through five. That righteousness from God then grows in us through a process called sanctification. God making us more like the Lord Jesus, chapter six through eight. That righteousness is rejected by the nation of Israel. But they will receive it again in the future. God has a purpose and plan for them. Chapters nine through eleven. And then that righteousness from God is practiced. It is lived out in the rubber meets the road kind of everyday living. Chapters twelve through fifteen. Paul has finished the major argument of his book. Now he's wrapping things up and saying goodbye. And as he describes his ministry plans he illustrates for us a model of serving that is first of all personal. I want you to look first of all at the personal nature of Paul's servant, heart and spirit in verses fourteen through seventeen. Paul describes first of all how he is a servant of people. Would you look at it in verse fourteen. Paul says, I myself am convinced my brothers that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. I have written you quite boldly on some points as if to remind you of them again because of the grace God gave me. He's writing a very personal note here to Roman believers, to believers in the church at Rome. And what he's demonstrating is that as a servant, his servanthood is very personal in the sense that he is a servant of people, very real people living in Rome, a part of the church at Rome. People he's never seen before. And so he describes he's never visited Rome. And so he describes, you know, I'm not writing this letter. I haven't written it because of any deficiency that you have. In fact, he compliments them spiritually in verse fourteen by saying, you're full of goodness. The word there is moral goodness, moral quality, moral character, godliness. You're full of that. You're great there. And he also says, you are complete in knowledge. You know your Bible's well. And you know your Bible's well enough to where his third compliment comes into play here. You are competent to instruct one another. You can take the word of God because of your knowledge of it and help each other and struct one another, warn each other, challenge each other. So he gives them some spiritual compliments here. I'm not writing, he says, because of any deficiency in your moral character or your knowledge or your ability to use the Bible to help each other. Not writing because of any deficiency. I'm writing verse fifteen just to remind you of those great truths again. And he has spent fifteen chapters doing that to people he's never seen, which says something to me. It says that Paul loves people. People that God has called out of this world to be his people. Paul loves those people. He's never visited them. He doesn't know them personally, but he loves them. And he writes his longest epistle to these people that he's never seen. His ministry was about people. Ministry is people centered. Now all of us are in ministry. I want to clear that up right near the beginning of this message. Paul will use the word minister here in a few moments as a noun for his position and service. And sometimes we use that in the same way today. We talk about people who are ministers and typically we're thinking of pastors of churches. But in a biblical philosophy of ministry we are all ministers. We are all ministers. We are all servants of Jesus Christ. God has called every one of us to minister to serve in some way. Maybe not vocationally. Maybe you're a teacher or a shopwoman, but God has still called you to minister to serve. Even in that vocation to bring glory to him by serving him well there and shining as a light in that atmosphere. You are ultimately a servant of others and a servant of Christ. And so Paul's talking about I'm serving others. You know we all marveled here a few weeks ago when the Navy Seals carried out that covert operation in Pakistan which led to the death of Osama bin Laden. And much of what they do is is veiled in secrecy. But there was a report in the Wall Street Journal by a former Navy seal by the name of Eric Gritons who described what being a Navy seal is like. I want to read part of that description to you. He says the rigors that seals go through begin on the day they walk into basic underwater demolition and seal training in Coronada, California. Universally recognized as the hardest military training in the world. It takes six months to complain the basic or to complete the basic training. Classes include large contingents of high school and college track and football stars. National champion swimmers and top ranked wrestlers in the world. He goes on to say what kind of man makes it through a particular kind of week which he describes with a word that I cannot use from this pulpit. What kind of man makes it through this kind of training. That's hard to say but I do know generally who won't make it. There are a dozen types that fail. The weightlifting meatheads who think the size of their biceps are an indication of their strength. The preening leaders who don't want to get dirty. The look at me former athletes who have always been told their stars in short those who fail are the ones who focus on show. Some men who seemed impossibly weak at the beginning of seal training, men who puked on runs had trouble with pull-ups, made it. Some men who were skinny and short and whose teeth chatter just looking at the ocean also made it. Some men who were visibly afraid sometimes to the point of shaking made it too. Almost all the men who survived and I'm quoting him exactly. Almost all the men who survived possessed one common quality even in great pain faced with the test of their lives. They had the ability to step outside of their own pain, put aside their own fear and asked how can I help the guy next to me. They had more than the fist of courage and physical strength. They also had a heart large enough to think about others to dedicate themselves to a higher purpose. Those are the guys who make it in seal training. Those are the people who make it in ministry. It's not the people who have the greatest intellect, it's not the people who have the greatest passion even. It's the people who have a heart for others who serve, who will say, what about the people next to me? What about someone else? You see the Christian life in ministry is not about you, it's not about me, it's about others, it's about people who have needs, it's about getting involved in the lives of others and Paul did that from a distance with people in Rome that he had never seen takes the time, energy, effort to pin this masterful theological treatise of the book of Romans. He is serving others, but notice he goes on to describe this personal service not only as serving others, but also being a servant of Christ. You see it there in verse 15, he says, I've written you quite boldly on some points as if to remind you of them again. Here it is because of the grace God gave me for 16 to be a minister, a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty. I want you to see how he phrases this with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Now this is how Paul views his ministry. He is a servant of others, yes, but he's first and foremost a servant of Jesus Christ. That's very fascinating to me the word he uses for being a servant of Christ. He does not use the word du-los, bond slave of Christ. In servitude to Christ as a bond slave doesn't use that word, doesn't use the word we get our word deacon from, deaconos, which means to basically serve others. He uses a rare word, rarely used in New Testament for service, but it's the word late-tourgon which means priestly service in the temple, liturgical, we get our word liturgical from it. It's the word which means to serve in the temple as a priest. Paul saw himself and everything he did in the holy garments of a priest offering up sacrifices to God. And so when he proclaimed the gospel of God and Gentiles got saved, what he's talking about there in verse 16, they actually became an offering of this priest offering them to God acceptable to God. I love the way Paul saw himself in ministry as he walked the dusty roads of the Roman Empire as he got dirty and sweaty and worked hard to support himself so he would not be a burden to the churches as he was sometimes persecuted and ridiculed driven out of towns, suffering, pouring himself into this, but he sees himself every step of the way clothed in priestly garments making sacrifices to God. He sees himself in a holy place of worship and everything he does is an offering a sacrifice to God. If you see your ministry that way it will revolutionize what you do. For Paul it was the preaching of the gospel. He says every time I proclaim the gospel of God I see myself as a temple priest, a believer priest who is making an offering acceptable to God. Now that would change our lives if we would see everything we do in the course of a day as an offering to God as a service to him. I mean everything you do if everything we do is to be given as an offering to him as a service to him no matter what it is taking a pie to a neighbor becomes an offering to God. Taking out a gallbladder in the hospital becomes a sacrifice to God. Sacrifice of the person giving the gallbladder and the person taking it as well. Holding a child in the nursery and loving that little child tenderly is an act of service to God lifted up as a sacrifice to him. Singing a song teaching a Bible fellowship helping a neighbor with his yard. All of that is an offering lifted up to God acceptable to him. Everything we do in life should be seen as an act of service to God so that we can glorify him by all that we do not just on Sunday but on Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning and it all should be seen as an offering that we bring into his temple and we offer up to him a sacrifice that is acceptable to him. It will revolutionize the way you look at your work and the way you look at your duties around the house and the way you look at helping others and serving in ministries in this church. If you will see them all as a priestly duty Paul says making an offering to God and it's for that reason in verse 17 he says I can glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. You see we are servants of Jesus Christ and everything we do is an offering that we lift up to him. God I'm doing this for you. Are you pleased with this sacrifice? Are you pleased with this offering? It's given to you. Paul's ministry was personal. He was serving others and he was serving mostly the Lord Jesus by serving others. It was a personal ministry but notice also Paul says my ministry is not only personal it's powerful. There was a power to his ministry in verses 18 through 21. He speaks of that. Let's pick it up in verse 17. He says therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. You follow us up that saying I glory in Christ by saying in verse 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done. See what he has said and done is at the end of the sentence. He's not going to talk about anything except what God has done through him. What Christ has accomplished through him in leading the Gentiles to obey God. The first element ingredient of a powerful ministry is humility and every one of us that serve in any fashion must learn that the praise and the glory does not come to us and yet how we struggle with that because this is exactly the opposite of the world's concept. Whenever the world does something it's an accomplishment it's an achievement that deserves praise promotion advance in rank recognition banquet in my honor. That's just the way the world operates and God's kingdom doesn't operate that way. God's kingdom operates when all the praise and glory goes to Jesus Christ and we recognize we are servants of his and we want all the praise and glory to go to him. So sometimes I think I remind myself of the little 60 pound little leager who got his first hit in little league baseball. This 60 pound slugger took a mighty swing and the ball grazed the bottom of the bat and trickled out toward the pitcher a few feet and the mighty slugger takes off the first base. The pitcher had to run up to get the ball. Finally got it had plenty of time to throw the guy out but he's thrilled to sail over the first baseman's head and so the mighty ferocious slugger rounded first base and headed to second. Someone finally remembered they needed to pick up the ball and throw it the second base but that throw sailed out into left field and so the ferocious slugger rounded second base headed for third. By the time the left field realized the ball was even near him and was out there and picked it up and made a week throw into the infield the ferocious slugger was rounding third and headed toward home and as he crossed home plate he jumped high in the air. I hit a home run. I hit a home run. So often in our weakness with God's enablement and help something gets accomplished for him. We cross home plate and we want to take all the credit. We want to take all the glory. Do you realize how overbearing Paul could have been if he had wanted to be? He's telling us here I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. You tell you you talk about the stories Paul could tell. I mean he had some fantastic stories he could have told and he could have embellished them in a way that would really make him look great. We struggle with that. I struggle with that. It's an element of our simple pride. Paul could have said you people in Rome you remember you remember my list of experience? Time when I got stoned for standing up for God. Yeah they dragged me out of the city and started throwing rocks at me. I was one of always got the stoning. Barnabas always was able to save his pretty face but I always got the stoning. So they started throwing rocks at me. It was getting pretty tough. It was getting pretty hard. Everybody else panicked. Everybody else didn't know what to do. Not me. I took it. Finally one guy picks up a big rock and throws it at me. It'd be enough to kill most men. Not me. And everybody else was praying and panicking and not knowing what to do and they thought I was dead but I got up. I guess God just needs more men. You realize how overbearing Paul could have been telling his own stories about ministry. But he said I'm not going to venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished. Yes through me as I preached the gospel to the Gentiles but it's about what Christ has done. It's about what God has done. Not what I've done. Whenever we angle for the spotlight, whenever we want the recognition, whenever pride takes over the power of God is gone. Power of God is gone. Now we may continue to do what we do with our own natural skill. The power of God will not rest upon those who want the glory for themselves. That is a reminder to me and all of us. The moment pride enters, ministry loses its power. Powerful ministry is accomplished through humility. First of all, wanting to praise genuinely to go to God and Him alone. Secondly, powerful ministry is done by the power of the Spirit. It's driven by the power of the Spirit. Look at verse 19. Paul says what I've said and done finishing up verse 18, verse 19, by the power of signs and miracles through the power of the Spirit. Twice he talks about power in these verses and this is miraculous power. He says by the power of signs and miracles, the word for miracles is literally the word for wonders. Now what Paul is saying is that God granted Him as he did all the first century apostles. Certain miraculous powers which are described in the New Testament as being the signs of an apostle. So they were designed to be given to the apostles as the apostles laid the foundation of the church. They were not permanent. They were designed for that time period for a specific purpose to be signs and Paul uses the word signs here. A sign is something which gives confirming credentials to the message. The important thing is the message and as the apostles preach the message of the gospel, God gave them miraculous ability which served as signs or credentials for them. And then they were wonders. They produced amazement and a response of recognition that this is God's work. These miraculous signs were designed only for that time period. There are at least three passages that make that pretty clear. Designed only for that time period of the apostles. But notice at the end of the verse Paul says what he had done was through the power of the spirit. And the power of the spirit was not designed for just any particular purpose early in the church's history. The power of the spirit is still available to all of us today. So let me ask you whenever you hold that baby in the nursery, whenever you serve someone on Mercer Street who has a need. Whenever you teach a Bible fellowship or sing a song, whenever you go to the Abel Center to serve over there, whenever you package food with heaven sent, whatever you do in serving Christ, what is what are you depending on for success? What are you leaning on? What are you depending on for success? Because if we depend upon ourselves, our skill, our experience, our eloquence, our personality, that's all the flesh. It's all the flesh. We must recognize that we are children in the hands of our mighty God, who cannot do what he asks us to do on our own. And we are totally dependent upon his power. If anything is going to be done of eternal value, it's got to be his power, the power of the spirit. And so we find ourselves, we must find ourselves no matter what we're doing. Continually crying out to the Lord, I need your power, I need your strength. I cannot do this on my own. I dare not do this on my own. If there's going to be anything of eternity happen here, anything of eternal value, your spirit has to be involved. It's got to be by his power. Powerful ministry is characterized by humility, it's characterized by the power of the spirit, but then notice thirdly, it's characterized by holy ambition. This is what fuels a powerful ministry. Holy ambition. Did you know ambition is good? Ambition is great. It just needs to be holy ambition. Paul talks about what his ambition is, uses that word. Notice he says there at the end of verse 19. So from Jerusalem, all the way around to Aliricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ, starting with the home base in Jerusalem, moving all the way north through Asia, minor and through Greece and all of that all the way up to Aliricum, which is modern day Albania, and what used to be Yugoslavia. There's no indication in the book of Acts that Paul ever ministered in those areas. He may have been talking about just hitting up against the border of those as he went through Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonica, those places, or he may have actually gone into and ministered those places and we just don't have a record of it. But he says, I've gone to all these places with this ambition, look at it, verse 20, it has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation, rather as it is written, those who were not told about him will see and those who have not heard will understand, quoting from Isaiah 52. What he's saying is I have an ambition in ministry. It's a holy ambition, nothing wrong with ambition as long as it's holy, as long as it's geared toward God's purposes and fulfilling what he wants us to do. And Paul's ambition, he tells us, was pioneer work. I want to go where nobody else has gone. I want to take the gospel where nobody else has gone. That's not everybody's ambition. I've heard this passage preach before, like everybody else ought to have this ambition too, that if you're not a missionary, you're not out of the will of God. Well, that wasn't Timothy's ambition, it wasn't Titus's ambition. In fact, Paul told Timothy in first Timothy 1, you stay in Ephesus, you got a job to do there and building up that church and he told Titus, you stay in Crete, you got a job to do in building that church up there. I know your ministry's not like mine. I go to the beach heads. I plant the churches. Now you guys stay there and build them up. So not everybody's ambition is the same, nor should it be. But every one of us needs a holy ambition. Every one of us needs something that lights our fire, gets us up in the morning, keeps us going through the day and will not let us go. Something that grabs our passion in heart and drives us. I know what mine is. I know what it is. I claimed it years ago when I sensed God calling me to preach. And I claimed that verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, 2nd Corinthians chapter 9, where Paul says, whoa is me if I preach not the gospel of Christ. I preach it willingly. There's a reward. If I don't, I'm still under compulsion because whoa is me if I preach not the gospel of Christ. Mine's preaching and teaching the word. That's my passions. What gets me up in the morning. That's what drives me. What fuels me. That's what will keep me going. I hope until the day I die. What's your holy ambition for not everybody's not everybody's going to be preaching. Not everybody was like Paul, pioneer missionary ministry. But what is it that God has placed in your heart? You say, I don't know. I don't have any passion. Then get on your face before God and ask him, what is your passion? Is it for children? Get involved in children's ministries. Is it for high school students? See pastor Kevin's got place for you. Is your passion for music? Get involved in music. Ministers, your passion for prayer. You have a holy ambition to lift up things in prayer, people in ministry in missions in prayer. Then do it. Not everybody's holy ambition is the same. We have a lady in this church. I'm sure several, but I'm thinking of one in particular whose passion is nursery. You say the lady must be loony. She's got a passion for nursery ministry. She loves it. And oftentimes I'll thank her for what she's doing. She says, I love it. I wouldn't do anything else. We have some people have a passion for music and I'm glad they serve with all the holy ambition they have to give us good music in that way. We have people who love teaching and they're involved in Bible fellowships. We have people who provide fellowship opportunities for believers to help encourage them and strengthen them. We have a couple of ladies in this church and some of you will know exactly who I'm talking about because they do the same for you. Come up to the every week without fail. How can I pray for you this week? They have a passion for prayer. That's their holy ambition. Now they may not be able to go on mission trips and they may not be able to do physical work around the building, but they lift up people in prayer. That's the passion. That's the ambition God's given them. If you don't have some kind of passion to serve, some kind of holy ambition, you need to get on your face before God and then you just need to open your eyes. There are opportunities all around us. There's some in the bulletin today. And so there's no need to just kind of wait around. There's something you can do. There's something God's put in your heart to do. Holy ambition fuels the ministry that God's given us to do and gives it power. It gives it power. Powerful ministry is practiced, is lived out in humility. It is carried out in the power of the spirit. It is driven by holy ambition. Ministry is powerful. But notice Paul is a model in ministry and illustrates this model in the third way. Not only was his ministry personal. Not only was it powerful. It was also purposeful. Paul had purpose in his ministry. He had plans. He had places he wanted to go and things he wanted to do and he had it all mapped out. He was thinking ahead. He tells us that. This is a beautiful description of the inner workings of Paul's heart and mind as he fleshed out ministry. There's nothing wrong with planning. In fact, it's essential. And Paul describes his own ministry plans. He made plans. He shared them with the Romans here. He had purpose and direction. Let's let him open up his mind and heart and see what it was. Would you notice, first of all, in verse 22, he says, this is why I've often been hindered from coming to you. Because, my holy ambition to preach the gospel where he's not known. So that's the reason it hadn't been a high priority to come to Rome. Verse 23, but now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, there is no more in this area at least new territory to take the gospel to. And middle of us, and since I have been longing for many years to see you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there after I have enjoyed your company for a while. Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there for Macedonia and Decayah were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Verse 27, they were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ. This is a wonderful window into Paul's heart and mind as he made plans for ministry, as he thought strategically, as he thought about the future. What am I going to do? How am I going to do it? And what order? What are my goals? What are my priorities? Now, there are three things that I see here about Paul's plans. First of all, the necessity of plans. Paul set goals. Paul charted a course. It was not half-hazard with Paul. It was not just, oh, go up in the morning and just, no, just see what happens. No. Paul made plans. He knew where he wanted to go. He knew what order he wanted to go there in. He knew exactly what he wanted to do. What was the first thing he needed to do? What was the next thing he wanted to do? Paul was making plans. He had things he wanted to do, places he wanted to go. The importance of vision and dreams and thinking ahead and planning is highlighted here. There's nothing anti-spiritual about making plans. That's exactly what Paul's talking about. You know, it is for the lack of vision and dreams and planning how to get there that many ministries falter and sputter and die out. I read one time about a bishop of a particular denomination who was traveling to the Midwest. He was from the east. He was traveling to the Midwest to visit a college in the Midwest. State at the home of the college president who also happened to serve as the professor for physics and chemistry, small college, in that particular town. After dinner with the bishop and the college president, we're talking about things that we're going on in the world and the bishop made this prediction. I think Christ is going to come very soon. The millennium will start before long because everything that can be discovered has been discovered and all inventions that could be conceived have been invented. This was in the late 1800s. And the young college president politely disagreed and said, you know, I think there will be a lot more discoveries and the pompous bishop derided him thinking he was unspiritual in these thinking. Certainly, everything that's ever been could be discovered has been discovered. And Christ is coming soon and set up his kingdom nonsense. The outraged bishop sputtered. Only the angels can do what you're suggesting because this college president that said, you know, one of the things I think men will eventually do is fly. And that bishop said, only angels can fly. Men are not designed to fly. You know what that bishop's name was? His last name was right and he had two sons, Orville and Wilbur. God has a sense of humor, doesn't he? Without vision, without dreams, without thinking ahead, everything sputters and dies out. You know, someone said the Walt Disney or someone said about Walt Disney in 1971 when Disney World in Florida opened Walt Disney had died five years previous to that 1966 and someone said, well, isn't it sad that Walt Disney wasn't here to see his dream come true? And one of the guys who had led the engineering in that effort said he did see it. That's why it's here. He did see it. Visionary thinking, dreaming ahead, thinking, planning, how we're going to get there? That's what Paul was doing, the necessity of plans in ministry. You know, I used to read this verse and quite honestly think that maybe you shouldn't make plans for the future. Proverbs 27 and 1, which says, boast knot or do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. You know, I used to think that verse and I had had it told to me this way too, that this verse means that you shouldn't talk about tomorrow. I shouldn't think about, don't waste time on tomorrow. Don't think about planning for tomorrow or you're boasting about having a day you don't know it's going to be there. You don't know what a day is going to bring forth. Actually, that verse says nothing about planning. There are lots of verses that do in Proverbs, but that verse is just saying, don't presume you have tomorrow in a sense. It's saying, don't put off your thinking about the future till tomorrow because you don't know what a day is going to bring. So use every opportunity you have today to make plans for the future, prepare for the future. There are a lot of verses that talk about that. The necessity of plans, but I want you to see what Paul says about the making of plans. How did Paul make his plans? How did he set goals? How did he think about the future? It's quite clear from this description in these verses that we read, he has three places he wants to go. He wants to go to Rome, he wants to go to Spain, he wants to go to Jerusalem. How does he decide where he wants to go? How does he decide the order in which he wants to do them? What did he do? Did he pray for a sign? God give me some sign. Help me to see, help me to dream a dream of the temple. That'll mean, yeah, gotta go to Jerusalem. Help me to be able to dream about the Rockage of Rolter. And I'll know I'm going to Spain. The ask for some kind of sign that he opened his Bible, put his finger on a verse and said, okay, this is God's will. Did he put out a fleece? Lord, if you want me to go make this happen. If you don't want me to go, make something else happen. Then I'll know. How did Paul plan? How did he make his plans? To me, this is very instructive. There are three things that quite clearly come out of this text that shows the mind of Paul and how he planned for his ministry. The first is priority. Paul planned on the basis of priority. And that's what leads him to say, I got to go to Jerusalem first. Okay, Paul made plans. First of all, weighing out what's the priority? What's the most important thing for me to do right now? And he's told the people, I really have long for years to come see you in Rome. It's obvious though that's not at the top of the priority list, but I've wanted to do that for years. And I'm planning to go to Spain, but he says in verse 25, now however, I'm on my way to Jerusalem. In other words, that's top priority. That takes precedent where everything else, why? Because he's taking an offering from Gentile churches to Jewish believers and Paul's told us in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, for instance, he's told us this is a very important thing for him because it's a symbol of the unity between Jew and Gentile and the body of Christ. And he talks about it here. He says Gentiles have been blessed with spiritual privileges from the Jews, so it's good that they share their material blessings as well. And he saw this as highlighting the unity of the church, Jew and Gentile. So this is very important to him. It's a priority issue, so the first thing he's going to do is go to Jerusalem and take this offering. So he made decisions based on priority. What's the most important thing for me to do with my time right now today? And by the way, the most important thing for you may not always be the most urgent thing. If you don't think carefully about what the most important things are in your life, you'll leave out the most important things because of all the urgent things that come your way, that somebody, somebody ought to this, that, got to jump here and do this, and you'll leave out the important things. Priority issues are not always the things that are urgent. Sometimes are more long-range. Things you need to do to be able to get to where God wants you to be. You made his decisions by priority. Secondly, you made his decisions by desire. It's very clear in this passage, isn't it? He says, I have a longing for many years to see at a desire to go to Rome. And he talks twice about going to Spain. And Spain fits with his ministry purpose, doesn't it, of preaching the gospel where nobody's gone yet? So he has this overwhelming desire to go to Spain. You see, you have to understand Spain in Paul's day was like the American West in 1840. Booming, growing, but largely undeveloped and pretty wild. It was on the frontier of the Roman Empire. The Romans had conquered Spain by this time and Paul saw great potential. And there was great potential. Two Roman generals and one Roman emperor would come from Spain eventually. And Paul saw that this was going to be a key player in Rome in the future. And he wanted to get the gospel there. Now this is a tremendous ambition for Paul because if he does indeed go to Spain, this is going to be bigger than all three of his missionary trips that he's done put together. It's a longer trip and it's a bigger territory than anything he's ever done, but he's not quit. He's got a driving passion, a desire in his heart to go to Spain. Now listen, there is nothing wrong with desire. As long as your life is focused on the Lord and you're desiring to please him first, then he will put in you desires he wants you to fulfill in life and ministry. He really will. One of the verses that I love in the book of Psalms on 37 verse 4 and is one of the verses that I like to think through and pray every morning as I'm washing my face and waking up. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. And the next verse is when I also love and pray every morning. Commit everything you do to the Lord, trust in him and he will help you. The verse 4 says, delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. As long as my delight, the focus of my life, my heart ambition is centered on the Lord and it's not on self and personal ambition and sinful desires. As long as my delight is in the Lord, then he will give me the desires of my heart. And I think that's too full. I think it means he will place the desires he wants in my heart and then he will fulfill those desires in his own time and in his own way. And so I pray that every morning, God, keep my focus on you, keep my delight in you so that the desires that come into my heart will be your desires and then you'll fulfill them when you want to. There's nothing wrong with desire. Paul told Timothy, any man who desires the office of a bishop, desires a good work. How do you know you're called to ministry, to pastoral ministry? Has God placed a burning desire there? A desire you can't get away from, not just a passing whim and fancy. I like to try that sometime. No, no. But a burning desire, a desire that consumes you, a desire you can't, you can't burn out, a desire, that's the kind of desire that Paul had to go to Spain and God uses those kinds of desires to push us in the direction he wants us to go. Nothing wrong with desire as long as your delight is in the Lord. So Paul made decisions on what he wanted to do. There's nothing mystical here. There's no putting your finger on a Bible verse. There's no throwing out fleeces. There's no signs. It's just what do I want to do? I want to go to Spain. And as long as your delight is in the Lord, what you want to do will be in line with his purposes for you. So you can trust your desires as long as your heart is delighting in the Lord. So make decisions based upon holy desires. Third way Paul made his decisions was by wisdom. It was his priority that caused him to realize he needed to go to Jerusalem. It was his desire that made him want to go to Spain. It was wisdom that said, you know, on my way to Spain be a great time to stop off and see you people in Rome. Now that's wise. And there's another reason for that is he tells us in the passage, I want to encourage you to help me on my way. It's going to be a long trip. It's going to require a lot of provision. God has blessed you. You can help me get to Spain. And he's not ashamed to ask for that. He's a good missionary. Not ashamed to ask for help and support. He needs it. So it just makes sense. It's wisdom. It's a piece of wisdom for him to stop in Rome as he goes to Spain. That's how Paul made his plans. Priority, desire, wisdom. No magic here, no spiritual pixie dust. It is simply a matter of priority, desire, and wisdom. And when we pray and ask God along these lines, he will show us exactly what to do. But I want you to see quickly the changing of plans. Verse 29, look at what Paul says. He says, I know that when I come to you, he's talking about coming to Rome, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ. Paul had no idea what lay ahead of him when he wrote those words. Now I believe that was fulfilled. I believe he did come in the blessing of Christ. Paul just did not know at this time that he would not go to Rome as he hoped. He would go to Rome, but not as he had planned, not as he had hoped. Every time you make plans, you need to submit them to the sovereign will of God because God may change your plans and that's his prerogative. He can do that. And you know, Paul seems quite content with that. Paul had no idea at this point that when he got to Jerusalem, which is what he's talking about here in Romans 15, he's going to Jerusalem deliver this offering. He had no idea at that time. Actually, he knew he was in some danger because the spirit of God was telling me along the way that he would suffer some danger when he got to, but he had no idea what all would happen. He would be arrested in the temple. He would eventually, short of being beaten of his life, taking his life there in Jerusalem. He would eventually be shuttled off to Cessaria and spend two years in prison in Cessaria. And finally, through a series of God ordained circumstances, appeal to Rome to avoid a plot to take his life and he would be taken on a prison or ship to Rome to stand trial. He got to Rome, just not in the way he thought he would. But you know, Paul saw that still as coming in the blessing of Christ. Look at what he said to the Philippians after he's in prison in Rome. After all this has happened, he says, now I want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. So I'm satisfied. Is all in God's will? God just had a little different plan than I did when you make your plans be willing to submit them to God's plan. And if he changes your plans, that's his prerogative. Be content with that. Looking back on it, you'll see he had a purpose for that too. It's wise to make plans. It's essential that we make plans. We can make them based upon priority that God has placed in our lives, desires he puts in our hearts and wisdom as we think those through and then submit them to God and say, so after you're changing, if you want to, that's fine. I'm good with that. Paul's ministry was purposeful. Quickly, Paul's ministry was prayerful. Would you notice in verses 30 through 33, his ministry was prayerful. First of all, in verse 30, he enlisted prayer support. He says, I urge you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Intense word, the word struggles, the word we get our word agony from. Join me in this agony, this pushing forward with sweat and tears and blood sometimes. You're joining hands with me and hearts with me in this ministry as you pray for me. Do you realize the importance of prayer for missionaries, for other Christian workers, for each other as we serve the Lord and whatever capacity God gives us as we pray for each other? We're joining hands and hearts in the struggle and ministry in the fight for our captain and our Lord Jesus. He enlisted prayer support, but notice he was also very specific in his requests. He made three requests for the Roman church. He said, verse 31, here's number one, pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea. Paul had been warned on his travels through the book of Acts that danger awaited him. He did not know all the details, but he had been warned and he knew that it was difficult and it was dangerous to be in Jerusalem. He asked him to pray that I'll be rescued from unbelievers and our first thought might be well, that one didn't get answered. Oh, yet did. Paul asked to be delivered. That doesn't mean he wasn't arrested. He was arrested, but they tried to kill him in the temple and God delivered him from that. The Roman guards when they got him into the Antonio fortress tried to scourge him and God delivered him from that. Then they were going to have him tried by the Jews and there was a plot to take his life and God delivered him from that. Then after he'd been in prison in Cessaria for two years, they wanted to take after a new governor came to power, didn't understand the dynamics of the story. The Jewish leaders wanted to take him back to Jerusalem all the while. They were going to ambush on the way and kill him and God delivered him from that. So he got sent to Rome, got in a shipwreck, God delivered him from that, God delivered him from all the unbelievers who tried to take his life. He got to Rome. Yeah, he was arrested, he went as a prisoner, but he got there and he was delivered. God answered that prayer. Second request, verse 31, that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there. Paul knew that he was not dearly loved in Jerusalem by many because of his ministry to the Gentiles and he wants the ministry of the offering to be a blessing, to heal wounds. If you read Acts 21, it did just that. The Bible says they received him warmly, heard about his ministry, the Gentiles and rejoiced in what God was doing. God answered that prayer. It was specific and God answered it. Third request verse 32, so that by God's will, I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed. They say, well, they went as a prisoner, but read the account in Acts 28, when he's being taken up toward Rome, the Roman believers are so anxious to see him, they come out of the city and meeting 30 miles away. And they rejoice with Paul. They love Paul. They want to see Paul so bad, they go to meeting before he gets there. And then he's put in kind of a house confinement, house where he's free to entertain people who come to him and preach the gospel to whoever comes, get out responsibility to others for ministry and his heart was refreshed with the Roman church. Yes, prayer was answered. Sometimes we never know when our prayers are answered because we're not specific enough. Sometimes we're not specific enough in our request because we're afraid if it isn't answered will look like we haven't prayed well. There to ask God for whatever's in your heart, don't dictate his answer, but you'll never know when God's working if you're not specific enough in your request for him. And when you ask others to pray for you, be specific in requests. Chuck Swindall tells this story. Young camel, baby camel had dipped its head to drink in a pool of water. As he looked at his reflection there, he turned to his mother and said, Mama, why do we have such long eyelashes? And the mother camel with great dignity and pride said, because we have to be able to see our way through sandstorms in the desert. That's why we have long eyelashes. Baby camel dipped its head again to drink it from that pool of water. Saw its feet, looked at its mother's feet, said, Mama, why do we have such big feet? Mama camel again with pride and dignity said so that we can traverse the shifting sands of the desert without sinking in our feet spread wide. Baby camel began drinking again in a moment, asked a third question, why do we have such large humps on our back? Mama camel again with pride and dignity said so that we can go miles and days through the desert without needing a drink of water. It's all stored there. There was a moment of silence. And then the baby camel said, Mama, if all that's true, why are we in a zoo in Cleveland? There are a lot of you who've never gotten out of the zoo. God designed you for ministry. God designed you for serving him. You will not be in full maturity and completeness, a follower of Christ, until you're serving him in some way. It's not enough just to come to church on Sunday morning. It is not enough just to be in a group that will help you grow, a Bible fellowship, or some Bible study group that will help you grow. If you're not putting into practice what you're learning, you're actually stumping your own growth and you're not glorifying Christ in your worship. You need to be serving. And yet there are a lot of Christians, even though God has designed us to serve. There are many who are still content in their cages. You've never gotten out of your cage. You're in a zoo in Cleveland somewhere and God wants you to be out serving him. Please, by all means, find somewhere to serve Christ. You are a minister. You are a servant. Serve him in some way. Do it in a personal way, serving others and serving Christ. Do it in a powerful way. Do it in a purposeful way. Do it in a prayerful way. But by all means, serve. Get involved in ministry. You say, I don't know what to do. Open your eyes. There are needs all around you. Every week in the bulletin, there are needs presented for ministry, for serving. You say, well, it's kind of a big church. You've got everybody you need. Nothing could be further from the truth because we have such a wide variety of ministries. There are always places to serve. And even if there isn't a place open available right now for you in your area of desire and giftedness in this church, there are many needs across our community and our state and our world where you can get involved. You can serve. You can do anything. You can pray. Whatever God's put on your heart. Don't stay in the cage. Do what God designed you to do. He built you to serve him. Find some way to do it. Get out there and serve him. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for Paul's model of a servant life and heart and spirit. Thank you, Father, for how he describes his passion, his heart, his desire, even at an old age as frail and infirm as he was in his sight. He still had a drive to serve you. And I pray, Father, that we will be like that, that we will always have that commitment and drive to serve you, to be your ministers, to be your servants. And in serving you, serve others. Help us to follow that model. Paul has so wonderfully laid out for us. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.