Your Role in God's Mission (Romans 15:14-23)

Resource by Peter Park

If God said he’d answer one question…What would you ask? Younger: What will I be when I grow up? Where will I go to university? Who will I marry? How many kids will I have? For our more morbid friends, when or how will I die? Life is hard: Will my life get any easier? If we had the answer to any one of these questions, we would get a lot of clarity and perspective about our life.

But there’s another question that everyone has asked or wondered: What’s my purpose? It’s the question that makes all other questions fall into place. What’s my purpose, my role in this life? Is it just to study to get a job, maybe get married and have kids, work, sleep, work, sleep, maybe retire, and then die. And that’s it. Kind of depressing.

Last weekend, we covered the GC to make disciples of all nations, Jesus’ ascension into heaven, and Pentecost, the coming of the HS. So what does all that mean for us today? We’re going to get really practical and look at Romans 15 to see how the apostle Paul found his purpose in life and his role in God’s mission – how we can do the same.

Text: Romans 15:14-23 14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. (This right here is my hope for this church. I want the members of this church to be so mature that you’re not dependent on me as a pastor, though pastors have a role to play. A church where the members are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and are able to instruct one another! That’s amazing.)

15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (Paul here is talking about the Gentiles, non-Jews, coming to faith in Christ.) 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 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, 21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. (23 … I no longer have any room for work in these regions…)

Quickly: Who was Paul? Saul. Was a Pharisee, the best of the best when it came to being a Jew, and an enemy of the church. He used to imprison and kill Christians. That was his life’s mission. But Jesus saves him and commissions him for the mission. Paul would go on to plant churches and raise up pastors all over the region. Write much of the NT. And in the process of living for Jesus’ mission, he would be beaten, stoned, imprisoned, starved, and suffer greatly.

See, here’s what Paul understood and what we need to also understand. – If you are going to find your purpose in life, you first have to know…

God’s Purpose in the World – What is he up to? Is he just chillin’ in heaven? Disconnected with everything that’s going on down here? TWS. Ge. 1-2, 3. Ever since the Fall, God has been on a rescue plan to save us from our sin and death and to bring us back to him.

See, God’s will is not lost. 2 Pe. 3:9 – The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. It’s why he sent his Son, Jesus, to be the savior of the world. Think about the magnitude of what Jesus did in dying for us, the Creator God suffering and dying to save his creation. If it wasn’t that important, God wouldn’t have done it. But there’s nothing more important. If there was another way, he would have done it. But there wasn’t. So Jesus had to die for us in our place so we could be restored back to God. And it’s by this redemption of his people that God is glorified.

What God is doing through this mission is restoring his original created order and intention – That his creation, made in his image, would know him and be restored to a loving relationship with him through his son, Jesus. (1 Thess. 4:13. 1 Pe. 2) This is God’s purpose in the world.

This understanding of what God is doing to save the world and the grace Paul received in Jesus changed his life. Paul would now align his purpose and life’s mission with God’s.

Ro. 1:14 I am under obligation both to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. “Obligation” = “Debtor” to the Gentiles. He owed the gospel to them. So Paul found his specific role within God’s mission to take the gospel to the Gentiles where it hadn’t been named. And you can see from the verses in chp. 15 that the mission was personal to Paul.

v. 15-16 because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles

v. 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.

v. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplish through me

v. 19 I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ

V. 20 thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named

Ask: Is the mission of God that personal to you like it was for Paul? Or let’s take a couple steps back – Do you understand God’s purpose in the world? What are you living for – your life, your kingdom, or Jesus’?

Easy way to tell: How are you leveraging your time, your talent, your treasure? It would be really easy for me to take a look at how you spend your time, what you use your gift and talents for, and how you use your money and to give you a 99.9% accurate assessment of what you really value and what you’re living for.

Let me ask this another way. – How do your life goals line up with Scripture? Maybe you…

-Want a successful career

-You want to take nice holidays and travel the world

-You want to make money to get nice things

-You want to have a spouse and two kids (Perfect family. Why 4?)

-You want to be able to retire early and enjoy life

And you have to ask yourself – Why? To what end do I want these things? None of these are necessarily bad. They’re good things. But do I want them because I think they will make me happy or fulfilled?

Our purpose and joy are only found in God. So if you’re trying to find your place in life, your purpose, apart from God’s purpose and mission you will never be happy. You’ll never be fulfilled. It doesn’t matter how good your life is or how much money you make. You will never feel at rest. You’ll always be striving and restless. It is only when your purpose is in God’s purpose that you are living.

And God’s purpose for your life is not your happiness, at least not apart from him. If that’s what you’re looking for from God, I’m sorry. But when you live for him, then you will truly have joy and also be able to enjoy his gifts to you. Ps. 16:11 – You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. In Him – Quality and quantity.

So if you’ve ever wondered what God’s desire for your life is or what his place for you is, it’s not a mystery. It’s not hidden. It’s that we have a loving relationship with him and that we tell others about how they can have the same. But let’s get specific…

Your Purpose – What is your part in God’s purpose? What is your role in God’s mission?

Our callings and assignments are not all the same… Paul’s role in the mission was to take the gospel to new places and plant churches there. But I don’t have that same call. I hope that out of our church we will plant many churches, but my call is not to go on missionary journeys and establish churches in those places. My main focus is here. Leading one is enough for me.

And my primary job as a pastor is not to do the mission myself. I’m not on staff to do something that all believers are supposed to be doing. The mission belongs to the church, every single believer. My job as a pastor is to make sure you all are equipped to do the mission. And I as a disciple, first and foremost, am part of engaging in the mission too.

…But we have the same mission. If you are a follower of Jesus, then his mission to save people from their sin and bring them back to him is your primary mission in life. Now, many believers are called to work in fields like medicine, banking, tech, construction, or teaching for the good of people and society in this life. And you are living out the imago dei through your creativity, helping the sick, and caring for others. You should pursue excellence in all arenas of your life cause all that we do we do for God. They are just not the end themselves.

What’s your role in God’s mission? How do you discover where you fit in?

1. What are your giftings? Everyone has gifts given to them by the Spirit for the building up of the church and the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. That’s pretty cool isn’t it? But everyone doesn’t have the same gifts. That wouldn’t make sense. (Body – Mouths)

What are some of these gifts? Administration, service, teaching, encouragement, discernment, singing, playing instruments, hospitality, evangelism, generosity, etc.

How do you discover what your gifts are? There are tests/surveys you can take that may be helpful. But sometimes we don’t always answer the questions honestly. We answer aspirationally so they spit out the gifts we wish we had. But one easy way is to just look at the scriptures, honestly point out the ones that you think you have, and ask other people what they think your gifts are – to affirm if they see it too.

Having other people affirm your gifts is important. I tell our worship team, I may really love to worship and think I have the gift of singing but if I can’t sing on key, then I don’t know that I’m going to be encouraging or building up the church by being part of the worship team. Probably the opposite would happen. It’s not loving for you to tell me that I have a great voice. We have to be able to tell each other the truth in love.

Now, it’s also important for the person giving you feedback to also know what they’re talking about. (One of my good friends was tone deaf but man did he worship with all of his heart and voice. I’ll be honest, it was hard to worship next to him sometimes. We’d stand on the front row together so I’d try to leave a couple chairs and stand a little behind him. And one day he came up to me complaining about a person singing their heart out off key. And I was like bro, #1 how would you know they were off key since you’re tone deaf and #2 that person was singing the harmony.)

Now there are things that regardless of your gift, we are all called to. Meaning, your involvement in the mission is not limited to your primary giftings. You may not be called to preach like me…but you are… Giving. There are things we do because we are believers growing up in every way into Christlikeness and because in a family we are to serve one another. (I don’t feel like I have the spiritual gift of washing dishes.)

2. What are your interests? If you don’t like kids, we’re not going to put you in Kids ministry cause they probably don’t like you either. Seriously – In a room this size, I bet there are fifty different interests we have. Beauty in diversity. And these interests put us in places with unique reach. If you’re interested in mahjong or golf, that puts you around others who don’t know Jesus but also enjoy mahjong or golf.

3. Where are you sent? – Work, Neighborhood, School, Places of leisure. Derrick DeLain – Who is far from God but close to you? I used to tell university students all the time, you have unique access to other uni students that I don’t have access to. I went to a school called University of North Carolina, the best of the best. And my wife went to Duke University. We went to rival schools. We hated each other. (Not Grace and I. The only reason we got married is because of the gospel. Jesus brought Grace to the light to see she needed to marry someone from the better school. And in God’s humor, Grace worked for a UNC hospital and he had me do ministry with Duke students. I was basically a missionary to the devils, that was their mascot. It’s no wonder God opposes them.) But because I wasn’t an insider at Duke, it was hard for me to get access to students there. But these Christian Duke students lived and ate and went to class with them.

Listen, the place where you work and live and study, you’re not in those places just to work and live and study. God has orchestrated things in your life so that you have unique access to and are sent to those places to develop relationships, love your neighbor, and share the gospel.

Good exercise – List out all the places you’ve been sent and write down the names of people God has around you. In Bible. Pray for them.

Home. Kids. Our first mission field. Our kids ministry is not childcare. It’s raising the next generation to love Jesus, his church, and his mission. (Could be your next step. Connect Table.)

4. Where are the needs? In our church and in our city. As a church we’ve identified the refugee community as a place where there are great needs. We can’t do everything for everyone. But we want to do what we can to love them and reach them with the gospel.

Unreached people groups. Where are there people in our city and around the world that have no access to the gospel? As Christian, this should be completely unacceptable to us. So how can you, how can our church, be a part of taking the gospel to them? As Paul would say, we have an obligation to share the gospel with them.

5. Where is the Spirit moving? The Spirit of God is real. He speaks. How do you discern? Not everything is for you, you’re not called to do everything, but there is something for you. Careful – Many terrible things have been done in the name of God because someone thought the Spirit told them something. (Inappropriate – Dating. The Spirit of God told me to ask you out. Creepy.) Test: It will always be in line with the Scriptures. The church, brothers and sisters, need to affirm.

God may hinder you, as he did with Paul (v.22), from doing something or going somewhere, to keep you where you’re supposed to be to fulfill your role in the mission in each season of your life. (Lizard/Gecko)

The place where these five things come together may be a good place to start looking for your role in God’s mission.. PJD – The question is not whether you are called, but where and how. Applies to the church too…

We want to be a church for all people. A place where anyone can come and make this their home. But we also understand that we won’t be the church for everyone. One Aspect: We are an international church. That’s who we are. We aren’t just going to try and reach one people group or just the rich or poor, or young or old. We want everyone and diversity of every kind that reflects the beauty of the nations that Jesus is worthy of.

So if you want this church to be a place where you are comfortable with everything and everything is to your liking and reflective of just your culture, you may not like it here very much. Example – I’m Korean American. Koreans think I’m Chinese, Chinese think I’m Chinese. Anyways, just because I’m Korean doesn’t mean this is going to become a Korean speaking church. If we did that, lots of people would leave because they wouldn’t understand what’s going on, including me.

Note. Listen – If you feel like you’re a nobody, you’re not that special, you don’t really have much to offer…I have both good and bad news for you. The bad news is, you’re right! You’re not that special! But the good news is, that’s exactly the people God loves to use! He fills you with his Spirit, his power, to preach his gospel to bring his salvation so that he gets the glory. It’s not about who you are. But who God is.

Here’s the thing with all this: You’ll never think it’s worth it, for you to live your life this way, if you don’t truly understand what Christ has done for you. His mission to save you came at a great cost. He suffered and died to save you but he was under no obligation to. He did it with joy because he loved you. Has that captivated you? It will if you truly understand his grace to you.

Is it so unreasonable, then, for those who have been saved by grace to give up their lives and for Jesus to commission them to his mission so others might also know the life and joy that’s only found in him?

Let me make very clear what our mission is and what it isn’t. Our mission is not to judge and condemn other people. Our mission is not to just love people no matter what, approving whatever they think or do. Our mission is also not just to do good works. Because good works, as important as they are, aren’t sufficient to save people. We have to preach the gospel in both word and deed.

Romans 10:8-17 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The gospel message is for the salvation of all peoples. There’s no other way to be saved and that includes any and all other religions. There’s only one way, and that’s through faith in Jesus.

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” … 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Our mission is to preach the gospel, the good news that Jesus came to rescue us from our sin, and call people to repent, to turn from living their own way, and turn back to God, to believe in Jesus’ sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins and restoration back to the Father.

I’ve shared this many times and I’ll keep saying it until you’re tired of hearing it: Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. (CT Studd) What are you living for? What is your life’s mission? For some of you, it’s been your life, your kingdom, your mission. And you need to surrender to Jesus’ call on your life to advance his kingdom and his mission. People’s eternity is at stake.

Here’s our confidence. V. 18-19. Who did the work? That Christ has accomplished. By what power? By the power of the Spirit of God.

And I pray we get to the point where the gospel has so saturated this city that we will feel like Paul, that there’s no more work to be done here and we’ve got to go to other places with the gospel.

If you’re here this morning and you haven’t put your faith in Jesus, you need to know that your sin has separated you from your Creator, the God of life. And what you decide to do about believing in Jesus or not will determine not just the rest of your life here on earth, but for all eternity. Apart from Jesus, you’re dead in your sin and there’s nothing you can do to clean or save yourself. But Jesus, in his great love for you, made a way for you to be forgiven through his sacrifice. And all you have to do is receive it. That’s the gospel message we desperately want you to hear and receive. You can do that right now.

Your Role in God’s Mission (Romans 15:14-23)

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