I ask you to take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 15. The title of the message is Two Great Concerns. It's taken from Romans 15 verses 20 to 29. Verse 20 says, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has 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. 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've enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for 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 to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I've completed this and I've 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 the fullness of the blessings of Christ." Two great concerns of the Apostle Paul. This message is really about what can we learn from the Apostle Paul's approach to life? And maybe a follow-up question to that would be, why do I care? Lamar talked about dead presidents on money. There's some reason to care about money. Why do I care about what the Apostle Paul learned? Well, one of the reasons to care is found in Ephesians 2, 19-22, where it says, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So why do I care? If you are part of the church, If you are part of this building that God is building, you need to understand that the Apostle Paul was one of the foundations that was laid, and so we better understand how he approached life, what concerned him, because what concerned him should concern us if we claim to be followers of Christ. If you don't claim to be a follower of Christ, maybe you can zone out and say, well, you know, I really don't care. I will say to you, it won't go well with you in this life, and particularly in the next, if that's the approach that you take. The apostles and the prophets, they provide the foundation for our faith. When Pastor Eric was doing the previous message, I asked him if he was going to unpack things in verse 16, where it talks about Him being a minister of Christ Jesus to Gentiles, the priestly service, and he hit some parts of it, but one part that was skipped was, he's a minister of Christ Jesus to Gentiles. And I expected when I studied that the word would be servant. It's not. It's a word that's only used two times in the New Testament, and it's talking about a public servant or an officiant, being an official role. If you know me at all, I don't love, oh, he's the pastor. I don't love that at all. But some churches, they'll say, oh, he's the minister. Well, here, that's actually accurate. He's the official representative Like you might say, us as elders, we're official representatives. We've been placed into a place to officiate, right? It's a role, and it's a very accountable role. And it's another reason that you might wanna consider why the things that concern Paul were important, because he was a public servant serving the church. In that way, maybe I could say, well, in doing this, I'm a public servant serving the church. I'm not an apostle. The apostles were uniquely gifted by God to build the foundation. I'm trying to build on top of that foundation. Right? You with me so far? That's just a little bit of introduction, but these two concerns. The first concern is the expansion of the gospel, and verses 20 to 24 unpack that. And you might say it this way, it's ministry to the lost. This is one of the great concerns the Apostle Paul had. And he quotes from Isaiah 52, 15, when he says, those who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. And it's talking about Christ. And right after that, you have Isaiah 53, and talking about all that Christ did on the cross for us. I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has been named. This calling that the Apostle Paul had was to go to those regions beyond. Some people are called to reach those areas that the name of Christ had not been named. Missionaries in general are called to keep reaching out. Don't settle down. When we lived in Haiti, we lived literally at the end of the road. I mean, the road stopped there, but then there was trails. And then there was this mountain path that Chris and I and the two little kids would go up. It took 45 minutes to get there, and it was six miles. I'll give you a picture of what that was like. And a friend of mine came from the States, and we were working on that church building up there, and I was telling him about all of the mountain churches we were working with all around, and he said, Do you never stop reaching out? No, because that's the call of a missionary. That's the call. Just keep reaching out until everybody hears. That's the call. And some people need to keep reaching out, and that's what the Apostle Paul was doing. And it wasn't to negate the other ministries, because in Ephesus, he's going to send Timothy back there, and he's going to say, there's no more need for me in these regions. I'm going over here. Right? That's part of the call. After the message, we're going to spend some time praying for the unreached and understanding. Last night, I went and looked through the Joshua Project, the 100 most unreached groups in the world. By the way, if you have an interest in that, you probably should learn either Arabic, Hindi, or Japanese, because most of them are in one of those three language groups, two billion people in the world today who still are on reach, have no gospel witness. Well, the Apostle Paul, in this time, he's writing the Book of Romans from Corinth. And the map kind of gives you the idea of this third missionary journey of Paul's. And he traveled all around and currently, from everything we can tell, he's in Corinth. He's planning to go to Jerusalem, but he's in Corinth when he writes this, and we know this a little bit by who carries the letter. Phoebe carries the letter, and she lived close to the port, close to Corinth, and Gaius is his host, and so it seems that he's in Corinth. He writes this letter to Rome, And then he's going on to Jerusalem. But he says this, from Jerusalem and all the way around to, I never can say this word right, Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. It's amazing to think about this. Yep, there's no more place for me. I have fully preached. It's the only place the New Testament is used. I've fully preached in that whole area. It doesn't mean every person's heard the gospel. but churches are planted and people can reach out. So his work is done and he's moving on. We need to understand that to accomplish the great concerns of God, this is one of the things that has to happen. There's gotta be some people that do that. David Livingston in Africa, if you ever read a story like that, just kept moving, kept moving, kept moving. Some people God calls to do that. Most people he doesn't, but some people he does. The church needs both. But he says, this mission is completed. And then he says, my next mission is Spain. I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, to be helped on my journey there by you, once I've enjoyed your company for a while. There's conjecture as to whether Paul ever got there or not. We have nothing recorded in scripture that tells us he did. Some church traditions say he did. We don't know for sure, but this was his plan. That other mission, for me, that's done. He'll keep writing letters and things, but he's not going to go back there anymore. And he's planning to go on to Spain. And this is one of the reasons he's writing this letter to the Romans. Think about it. He started in Antioch. God sent him out. He went through all of these regions. Now he believes God's calling him to Spain. Well, Spain is too far from Antioch He's starting a new base of operations in Rome, in the center of the Roman Empire. Just think about what has happened with the gospel in the 30 years recorded in the book of Acts. Starting as this little group of people in Jerusalem, and then spreading to Antioch and then to all of these regions. And now he's writing 20 to 30 years later and saying, OK, now that's done. Let's move on. Let's keep moving. We need to understand the church is built on the foundation of global outreach. A question for you, a question for us. In what ways are you involved in contributing to the global outreach of The Church of Jesus Christ? I'm part of the missions team. We have to think about these kinds of things. As I said, we'll be praying about some of the groups that we work among. We need to understand that the majority of Christian work is done among reached people, and rightly so. Rightly so, because you need ministry among people. Most of the New Testament is about that. The letters to the various churches, it's about that, but we can't have just one concern. We need to have two concerns. We need to have concerns for reaching the lost, the least, and also then a care for the saints. The next portion is about care for the saints. Ministry among the found. We have ministry among the lost, and we have ministry among the found. When babies are born, anyone who's raised children knows that's when the work starts. When people come to Christ, in some ways, that's when the work starts. And that's what, as I said, most of the New Testament is about, ministry, care for the saints. He says, at present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints. He had this big vision for reaching Spain, but he also had this vision for caring for the saints. We need to unpack this word, saints, because you might have a wrong understanding of what that word means. In our culture, sainthood is something that's given to dead people because they've lived so well. But that's not what the Bible says. It's used 19 times to describe living people. Romans 1-7 says, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, set apart, sacred, holy. If you are in Christ today, if you've placed your faith and trust in Christ, God calls you and me saints. I remember when I first grasped this, and by the way, you know, the church at Corinth, I mean, we see these terrible things in Corinth, and it says, the church in Corinth, to those sanctified in Jesus Christ, called to be saints together with all those who have ever placed Every place called upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, called to be saints. It's something God calls you to. He places you in Christ, He sets you apart, and He sees you as a saint. So I could look over at the Eichmanns and I could say, Saint James, you know. You know, St. Amy, you know, I could look at my wife, St. Chris, you know, this is legitimate to say. I remember the first time I grasped that, and we were in this church, and this one guy had just come to Christ, and he was really struggling. His name was Charles, and I wrote him a note, and I started out by saying, St. Charles. And he brought it, he said, now wait a minute, I'm not that good. I said, according to the Bible, you are, right? According to the Bible, you are. That's how God sees you, as set apart Do you see yourself as set apart, called to be holy? That's who Paul says, this is a group of people that I'm getting ready to go to Jerusalem to help, to bring aid to the saints. The care for the church. So you have to ask a question if we're learning from Paul, in what ways did Paul care for the saints? Well, it says in verse 24, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I've enjoyed your company for a while. I love that. Once I've enjoyed your company for a while. If you've ever been in situations where you were alone, where you've been embattled, and you think about what Paul went through, And now he gets to hang out with like-minded, precious saints. There's an enjoyment there. These particular people, most of them he has not yet met face-to-face, a few of them. One of the ways you care for the saints is by enjoying being with them. Right? That's one of the ways. Enjoying being with them. But if you go back to Romans 1, he gave some other ways he planned. He wanted to strengthen the saints. For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gifts to strengthen you. You know, it's very easy to become beaten down, weakened, on this message. Hopefully this message is part of strengthening you. It's funny, it strengthens me when I work on it. It's kind of like what they say about guys who build houses. Builders build houses and houses build builders. The process of building the building makes you stronger. The process of me studying makes me stronger and thinking about, how in the world can I say this in such a way that it's actually helpful to the people who are listening? We need to be strengthening one another by the Word of God, by spending time together, enjoying fellowship. In verse 12, he says, mutual encouragement among the saints, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. Now think about Paul, whether he had ever been married and his wife died or whatever, he's single, he's traveling, he's been beaten, he's been stoned, he's been in prison, all of these things. Mutual encouragement. Don't ever look at any of us, no matter what realm we have within the body of Christ, and think that we don't need encouragement, and that it's to be reciprocal. Last week at the Deacon Retreat, Marshall led on Sunday, and he talked about, tell me stories about when you've been encouraged. Yeah, it was really a neat time just to listen and talk about ways other people have encouraged us, and it caused me to reflect on a couple of really difficult times in my life, and someone coming alongside and encouraging me. That's part of what the body of Christ is to be about. This is what it means to care for the saints, to enjoy fellowship, to be strengthened, to have mutual encouragement, but then also to meet pressing needs. The Apostle Paul, he's gathering money to take to the poor believers in Jerusalem. That's what he's doing. And there's kind of a history of that and the church taking care of those who were struggling. But I want you to hear this for all of us. The Apostle Paul wrote this to Titus in setting up churches. He said, let our people learn to devote themselves to good works. so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful. One of the great cares and concerns is we should be about meeting urgent needs. That should be a priority for us as individuals, for us as a church. What are we about? It's not about self-focus. It's about meeting pressing needs. Now, several times the believers in Jerusalem faced difficult times, and the Apostle Paul took up contributions and took them for the people in Jerusalem. It was one of his meeting pressing needs. But listen to this from 2 Corinthians 9, 12 to 14, when he talks about the results of meeting these pressing needs and these people giving. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but it's also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ. And the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others will they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. The meeting of pressing needs. We have a sister church relationship with a church called Mon Chretien in the northwest of Haiti. By God's grace, hopefully in August, they'll be able to get into their new building and get out of the heat and the dust and everything that they've put up with for the last 20 years after their building was destroyed. The UN built a road and destroyed their building because of where it directed the water for the last 20 years. I would call that a pressing need. Those people pray for us regularly. And they know how to live by faith and they know how to pray. Getting involved in meeting pressing needs builds a reciprocal relationship that we may not fully understand until eternity, right? Meeting pressing needs, but pressing needs, they can be something as simple as, okay, my neighbor's dying. How do I help them? That was a conversation I had with a guy yesterday. I've got two neighbors who are dying. Can you tell me how to talk to them? Meeting pressing needs. They come in many different ways. As I was preparing this message, I was thinking about these two great concerns. If you look at our core values, they're woven. These two great concerns are woven through these core values, and they lead to the greatest concern, greatest goal of all. To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Christ Jesus. The celebrating and worship. These two great concerns woven together in our core values lead us to worshiping God through our Lord Jesus Christ, celebrating Christ in worship. In what ways? Are you caring for the saints of the church of Jesus Christ? The care of the saints is central to the building up, right? It's absolutely central to the building of the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And that includes outreach, but it definitely includes a lot of ministry one to another. In what ways are you caring for the saints of the church of Jesus Christ? Well, these are the two great concerns that Paul had, and he had plans. When you look at the latter part, he says, When therefore I've completed this and delivered to them what has been collected, I'll leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. So he had these plans. This next map, it's the map you saw earlier. His plans are, okay, I'm over here in Corinth, and I'm gonna travel back, and I'm gonna get there, and I'm gonna get to Jerusalem. And the latter part of the book of Acts records that. He has plans. Oh, it sounds all nice and neat. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. What can you learn from the Apostle Paul? You make your plans, but God's going to establish your steps. This map shows you how his steps were established. Oh, a couple years in prison. Oh, shipwrecked. Prisoner taken to Rome. I'm pretty sure that's not how he envisioned his plans going. But he was not upset by it long-term. I was thinking about this, what is it about us making our plans and then God establishing our steps that very often upsets us? Very often takes us into downward spirals. What is it about that that often impacts us in that way? I was talking to someone recently, I said, you know, the character of God is clearly revealed in Scripture. I mean, if you don't understand the character of God, you're not reading your Bible, or you're not believing it or something. I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. All these verses about the character of God, but God's direction in our lives, now we see in a mirror dimly. We don't see God's direction in our lives clearly like we see the character of God. You know, Apostle Paul, he's trying to go into Bithynia and these various places, and the Lord keeps him from going there in Acts 16 and said, oh, I want you to go over here. Okay, you know, these plans here, they aren't going to happen at all like this. My wife and I were discussing what we've experienced in that, and we kind of have this saying. In Haiti, about 10% of what you plan actually happens. It's just a really, really difficult place. You know what a key phrase we learned in Haiti was? Lord willing. Lord willing. In Guyana, it was maybe 50%, right? So we had a lot of years we kind of were used to, yeah, we make our plans, but you know, there'll be a change of plans, right? You know, the plans have changed. Okay, get over it. Get over it. I think one of our problems as Americans is about 95% of what you plan happens. It's a very well-ordered society and praise God for that, but you can start to think like something terrible has happened if your plans change. It didn't. God just redirected your steps. How long does it take you to get there? When you think about the Apostle Paul, he has this change of plans, several years of imprisonment. You know what we got from that? The prison epistles. We got from that what Pastor Eric finished with two weeks ago, double joy. That's what we got. That's the kind of things he wrote when his plans changed. It probably took him a bit of time to adjust, right? Probably took him a bit of a time to adjust. But adjust he did. He didn't go into, oh, poorest me, and oh, it's a terrible thing. He didn't go in. You don't see any of that, which you often see with American Christians. Not so much with Haitian Christians. Just to point that out. People who've lived with great difficulty tend to be more joyful. What can we learn from the Apostle Paul? What can we learn from Haitian Christians? How long does it take you? Do you ever align your mindset to align with the mind of Christ? What can you learn from the Apostle Paul's approach to life?