WEBVTT 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:10.480 Many of us came to church this morning with one thing on our minds, uh namely outsourcing. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:12.480 Wait, what? 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:13.199 Okay. 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:19.679 If if you didn't come to church this morning with outsourcing on your minds, then I hope you leave with outsourcing on your minds. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:25.440 Um The Economist, which is a well-known re resource that covers the economy. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:26.719 Are we tracking so far? 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:27.199 All right. 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:32.159 The Economist, uh, they had some interesting statistics I saw the other day that caught my eye. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:40.079 The average manufacturer globally outsources today 70 to 80 percent of their finished product. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:41.119 I wouldn't have thought that. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:41.840 That's remarkable. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:51.280 70 to 80 percent of what goes on the shelf is outsourced from larger, more well-to-do countries to poorer countries that are able to do the work cheaper. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:58.479 This has, according to The Economist, um shown to increase productivity and competitiveness 10 to 100 fold. 00:00:58.960 --> 00:00:59.600 Wow. 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:16.000 For example, if uh British Airways sends 1,000 jobs to India, 1,000 jobs it had been for uh Englishmen and women, uh they send it to India, they save$23 million because of the difference in wage disparity. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:22.560 Outsourcing is increasingly becoming simply what it takes to remain competitive in a global economy. 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:30.239 Of course, we um we often see the closure of small businesses and you see the dark side of all this, but it's sort of the day in which we live. 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:39.280 We as Christians today can sadly take this same approach to Christian ministry, to the church. 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:48.480 And we can actually begin to look at in default to outsourcing to other people what God has called us to do. 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:58.480 Outsourcing to people who are the professionals or people that seem to have more time or more energy, what God has called and gifted us to do. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:13.199 But when we open the pages of scripture, we learn very soon that following Jesus in the details of life and growing in our understanding and in our obedience to him and helping each other do the same, this is something we might call basic to the Christian life. 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:20.080 Basic meaning it's so fundamental you can't not do it and not forfeit the whole enterprise. 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:34.960 So even though British Airlines can can uh outsource certain, maybe their um their customer service line to India, they can't outsource their employees in England eating and drinking adequately and getting enough sleep. 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:45.840 There's certain things so basic to what it means to be human, or in this analogy, to be a Christian, you simply can't outsource it without forfeiting the entire enterprise. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:58.879 So here's our thesis this morning: that although some Christians are what we call specialists, or some Christians are people who are vocational ministers, some people are professionals, which is a bad term to use in terms of ministry, but we get that. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:09.840 But when it comes to Christian life and discipleship, every Christian, every single Christian is called to some sort of ministry or the other. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:16.080 And we see this clearly in our text today in Romans chapter 15, verses 14 through 21. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:21.280 The title of our passage in our message this morning is Every Member a Minister. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:22.560 That's what we're going to talk about. 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:25.039 Every member a minister. 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:37.520 This part of our passage in Romans, we've been traveling through Romans for the last year plus, and what we've learned, or actually towards the beginning of the year, we've learned a lot from the pen of the Apostle Paul. 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:42.479 And what we now have in chapter 15, verse 14, is the beginning of the end of the book. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:48.000 Verse 14 is the beginning of the conclusion, a pretty lengthy conclusion to this entire letter. 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:52.000 And Paul's going to do something very important for us here, as we'll see. 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:59.199 To help us at the very beginning understand, sort of get a big picture view of this passage, we need to think about this passage in three uh phases. 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:05.919 The first, in verses 14 and 15, Paul's going to express his confidence in the Romans' ability to minister. 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:13.919 So he's already told them all this stuff, and now he's going to say, I'm now going to express that I'm confident that you're going to understand this, you're going to put it into practice. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:24.800 The next two sections, the Apostle Paul's going to sort of defend his right to be so bold with them, defend his right as an apostle to be telling them all these things, because that would be the next question. 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:32.560 If Paul is being so dogmatic about so many things in the book of Romans, the next question is, well, who is Paul that we should even believe what he's saying? 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:42.399 And so he defends, as he does in seven of his eight epistles to the, or seven of nine, I think, epistles to the churches in the New Testament, he's going to give what we call an apostolic defense. 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:44.480 And so that's part of our passage as well. 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:53.680 The first part of that is that Paul is going to tell us about his commission to be an apostle, and then tell us about his calling as a global missionary. 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:57.439 So let's begin with that very first part in verses 14 and 15. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:04:59.439 Let's read that again together again. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:01.680 Romans 15, verse 14. 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:18.000 Paul says, 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. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:22.079 But even though he's going to compliment them, he's sort of like a parent would do. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:32.000 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, just trying to remind you, because of the grace of God given to me. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:39.759 We would summarize these first two verses is Paul's confidence in the Romans' ability to minister. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:46.800 Most of us, I imagine, in the room here have experienced uh the joy and the responsibility of getting our driver's license. 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:52.800 For some of you, it's been so long that you now you're now the parent who's sort of having to do that with your children. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:06:01.279 And for others of you, it's been so long you can hardly remember what it was like to climb into that Model T and hear that thing putt-putt down the road. 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:05.439 Not gonna ask for a show of hands now. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:13.199 Um it's really interesting, this phenomenon of getting your driver's license, because getting a driver's license is nothing short of a rite of passage, right? 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:19.519 Because you have parents who chauffeur their children around from the time they're literally a baby in arms coming from the hospital. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:30.720 They've been chauffeured around by their parents, but then they get to a point in time of maturity that the parent grows in confidence to the point where they're able to take them to go get their driver's license. 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:36.720 Maybe you can remember the joy as a 16 or 17 or 24-year-old, depending on your story. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:43.199 Going in and passing the written test and then surviving the driving test. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:07:00.399 But the best part of it, at least in my remembrance, the best part of it was when your mom or your dad extended their hands and they dropped the keys into your hands and they expressed their confidence in your ability to safely get from here to there and back again legally. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:05.279 Because I'm sure most of us probably did drive before that point when we shouldn't have. 00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:08.240 This is largely what is happening in our text this morning. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:20.480 Paul is concluding this long letter to the church at Rome by affirming his confidence that the Roman believers are ready to take the keys and are ready to drive the car for themselves. 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:26.560 In verse 14, he lists three specific things that he is satisfied about or confident in. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:30.240 Number one, they are full of goodness. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:33.120 Number two, they are filled with all knowledge. 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.639 And number three, they are able to instruct one another. 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:41.920 Goodness, knowledge, that is, they have the right motives and they're in the right place towards each other. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:43.600 They love and they genuinely care. 00:07:43.839 --> 00:07:47.680 They have enough knowledge and competency, and then they're actually able. 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:53.199 They have the authority and they have the ability to instruct one another. 00:07:53.439 --> 00:08:01.040 Goodness here describes a desirable moral quality characterized by genuine interest in the welfare of other people. 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:05.439 You see, if you're part of a church and you don't actually care for anybody else, this probably doesn't qualify. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:09.920 There's been days I get out of bed and I don't really care about my spouse like I should. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.079 Well, I need to check my heart before I start and start uh admonishing her, right? 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:24.160 So Paul is talking about being in a position as a church member to where you're filled with all goodness, your heart's in the right place, your motives there, and then secondly, knowledge. 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:30.560 In Paul's epistles, this idea of knowledge carries the idea of insight into God's saving purposes. 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:35.519 We might just shorthand this and say this is a basic grasp of the gospel. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:40.879 The ability also to apply it to your life, into other people's lives. 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:53.840 Those of you who are here who are members of Sacred Mission Church, you know that if you join in the last couple years at least, you remember you had an interview with one of the pastors, and one of the questions that was posed to you was, What is the gospel? 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:55.840 What is the gospel in your own words? 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:12.159 And of course, what one of the pastors is is desiring to hear is not some dissertation, not some you know uh regurgitation of a systematic theology, but rather a basic understanding that God has a righteous standard and a way of life and a design for humankind, and we have fallen so short of it. 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:25.679 We've broken his laws, we've we've profaned his name, his purposes, his designs for us, but he has provided in Jesus Christ redemption and righteousness and renewal and transformation. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:30.480 We're looking for you to understand that God has sent his spirit into your heart and made you a new creature. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:37.360 Now you have new desires and new capacities to follow Jesus Christ and to believe in him and his sufficient sacrifice. 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:44.559 And we're looking for you to believe that and affirm that Jesus is going to come again, that he's ruling the world and he's gonna come again to take us home. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:54.320 And so if you have this basic understanding of the gospel, Paul is saying you're filled with enough knowledge to be a blessing to those around you, to minister to those around you. 00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:56.720 Finally, we come to the word instruct. 00:09:56.879 --> 00:09:59.919 He says you are able to instruct one another. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:08.559 This word involves the act of counseling or of urging other people to avoid or to stop an improper course of conduct. 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:10.080 That's an actual definition. 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.679 It's a word that the Apostle Paul uses several times in the New Testament. 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:16.240 It's a word neutheteo. 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:29.519 And the reason that's important is because in the early 1970s the biblical counseling movement uh was given rise, and they actually called it the newhetic counseling movement because of this Greek word newtheteo. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:43.759 It's a word that means to appeal to the mind, to put pressure, a positive pressure on someone's mind and their reasoning, so that they will, from the mind and then through the heart to the actions, align themselves with God's word. 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:48.960 This is what we see also in Colossians chapter 3, verse 16, where the apostle Paul says this. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:55.600 This tells us the source of this nuthateo. 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:00.559 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and, here's the word, admonishing. 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:08.480 Same word, nuthateo, one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:14.480 So while in Romans 15, 14, it sort of seems the negative side of the spectrum, you're able to warn each other. 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:19.679 Here in Colossians 3.16, we see that there's a more well-rounded idea with this Nutheteo. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:36.320 You are urging, you are coming alongside one another on a daily basis or as often as you see each other, and your the net impact of your presence and your in your friendship is to bring each other along, to shepherd each other along towards Jesus Christ and the ways that God has called us to live. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:53.600 In his classical book, Competent to Counsel, the late biblical uh counseling movement leader Jay Adams pointed out that one of the fruits of the Protestant Reformation itself is something we call the doctrine of the priesthood of believers, the priesthood of believers. 00:11:53.840 --> 00:12:08.559 And by this we understand scripture teach that all believers are adequately equipped by God to be a blessing to other people, to mediate the presence of God, and to understand scripture for themselves. 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:11.279 Because in the Catholic understanding, you need a priest. 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:19.360 You need someone between you and God to mediate God's presence, to mediate God's blessing, and to mediate God's word. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:25.759 And the priesthood of believers says, no, we actually through Christ and through the Spirit have been made priests. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.879 We can come directly to God through Jesus Christ, our high priest. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:47.679 The reformers, in fact, would call regular pastors, we think of as pastors, they'd call them pastor pastorum or pastors of pastors, shepherds of shepherds, underscoring the idea that every member of the church is meant to shepherd one another and to be shepherded by one another. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:49.840 Paul seems to believe this here. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:13:01.200 He says you are filled with the right motives, adequate knowledge, and you're actually able and given the responsibility to admonish, to warn, to encourage, to minister to one another. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:15.759 And so we're thankful for organizations like ACBC, which is the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, who offer certification programs where believers can be equipped to counsel their peers by the sufficient word of God. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.720 A quick note ACBC is not to be misunderstood as or confused with ACDC. 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:27.440 That's a quite a different band of people from the 70s that also accentuated people's need for biblical counseling. 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:33.120 Verse 16. 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:39.360 The Apostle Paul says, Grace was given him by God to be a minister of Jesus Christ. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:46.320 So we just saw that he talked about their ministry, what God expects of them, but now he's going to sort of say, and here's why I'm telling you all this. 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:47.759 This is why I'm being so pushy. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:52.000 This is why I'm being so so parental and so pastoral. 00:13:52.240 --> 00:14:09.679 Because, verse 16, God has given me grace to be a minister of Jesus Christ 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. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:15.039 The summary of this is namely, this is Paul's commission as a minister. 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:15.919 Paul's commission. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:25.519 He's pointing the Romans, based on his admonition towards their ministry, to for just a moment look at his ministry and understand that his authority comes from God. 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:30.960 As I mentioned a few moments ago, in seven of his nine letters, Paul offered something very similar to this. 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:38.879 And some, and in 2 Corinthians, he offered a chapter or two defending his apostolic authority because there were people in the church that were saying, Don't listen to Paul. 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:43.759 This guy, yeah, he writes all these weighty letters, but then when he shows up, he's not an impressive speaker. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:44.799 He's pretty pathetic. 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:46.720 This is literally what they said in 2 Corinthians. 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:49.840 And so Paul had to spend a lot of time saying, No, here's my story. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:51.440 This is where my authority comes from. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:53.679 This is why I'm telling you these things for your good. 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:57.120 He does the same thing in just a couple verses to the Romans. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:04.799 What's interesting to me is that the Apostle Paul sees the nature of his apostolic ministry as being a priest. 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:12.799 I don't really think of the Apostle Paul as being a priest, but he says he's been called to, commissioned to enter the priestly service of the gospel. 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:14.240 What do priests do? 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:18.720 Well, in the Jewish times, I mean in the Jewish believers among the Roman church would understand this very well. 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:38.480 They were really familiar with the idea of a priest, because God instituted the Levitical priesthood in the Old Testament to basically be mediators between God and man, to take the offerings of the people and make them acceptable to God, to make sure they were fulfilling all the rules so that offering would be acceptable, and to offer sacrifices and offerings on behalf of the people. 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:39.919 That's what priests did. 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:45.360 Well, Paul here uses the same idea of being called to the priestly service of the gospel. 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:56.720 And he says this he's called to take the offerings of the Gentiles and to facilitate them to be acceptable to God. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:03.039 Now we should not understand Paul here calling himself a priest to be a priest above non-priests. 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:06.879 Paul's the priest and all of us are non-priests, right? 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:09.759 Or a pastor is a priest and the congregants are non-priests. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:14.320 That would be sort of the sacerdotal episcopal Catholic type of mentality. 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:19.759 Paul is a priest among priests, under Christ the high priest. 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:24.879 The Apostle Peter would say in his first epistle that we are a kingdom of priests. 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:32.639 That all believers who've been saved from their sins and have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit who have the all-sufficient word of God in their hearts, we are a kingdom of priests. 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:33.840 We're like kings and priests. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:35.519 It's pretty impressive, isn't it? 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:38.559 We don't feel that way very often, but that's our calling. 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:43.600 So Paul here uses three phrases that highlight this priestly service he's involved in. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:45.360 He says he's a priest, number one. 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:55.440 Secondly, he mentions the offering of the Gentiles, which is calling our attention back to the Old Testament, all those millions and millions of sacrifices and offerings that were given to God by Israel. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:59.759 And then thirdly, he says he wants this offering to be acceptable or sanctified. 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:08.880 You see, under the ceremonial system, an offering was worthless if it wasn't acceptable, if it wasn't purified, if it wasn't ceremonially clean. 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:14.400 For example, if you um if you had a baby, you needed to go dedicate that baby to the Lord, and you would offer a sacrifice to God. 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:17.599 You would take a lamb, the best lamb in your flock, and you would go offer it. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:23.680 If you were a poor person, God made a provision where you could just take two little birds and offer them to God, whatever you had. 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:26.799 And by two little birds, I'm not talking about two of your other children. 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:28.160 Not a little bird, he told me. 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:36.079 I'll talk about two actual birds, and God would require them to be offered as an offering to God as a thanksgiving and a dedication of that child. 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:41.759 The priest would take those little birds or that lamb and he would sacrifice them. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:43.759 Because of sin. 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:47.440 If there were no sin, there would be no need for sacrifices. 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:55.839 He was trained and he was called and he was equipped to sacrifice those little birds in order to mediate God's blessing to that new child. 00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:03.119 Well, Paul is now seeing himself as someone who facilitates the acceptance of the offerings of the Gentiles. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:04.079 This is amazing. 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:09.440 Paul is envisioning all of humankind as being fundamentally worshipers. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:21.119 Every day, though the buzz of traffic on I-75 and 71 and people go into the big buildings, people go into the rurals and cranking up their tractors, everything we do is an offering to some deity. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:36.319 Whether that God is self, whether that God is the bank account, whether that God is the boss who's going to be writing your letter of recommendation, whether that is just the approval of your peers, every day, everything we do, this buzz of humanity every day is just constant offerings. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:52.799 And the Apostle Paul sees himself as someone who is turning people in faith to Jesus Christ so that all these offerings of their entire lives are not worthless, not unacceptable, but are now made acceptable to God through the Holy Spirit. 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:57.119 This is exactly the same language, just so you don't think that this is a one-off comment from Paul. 00:18:57.279 --> 00:18:59.920 This is fundamental to his understanding of his ministry. 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:08.799 We see this in Acts chapter 26, where Paul was standing before a Roman king by the name of Agrippa, who was holding Paul as a potential enemy of the state. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:11.200 The Jews were in an uproar about the Apostle Paul. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:13.680 They were trying to kill him, and so he was taken into captivity. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:15.519 And while he was there, they're like, What's the big deal? 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:16.480 Why does everyone hate you? 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:20.720 And Paul gives is given the opportunity to give a defense of his ministry. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:25.039 And here's what he says in Acts 26, verses 16 through 18. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.720 The context is that Jesus Christ had appeared to him personally. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:37.200 Paul was riding on from Jerusalem to Damascus to throw men, women, and children and put him in prison because they were Christians, and God interrupted his course. 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:44.559 And Jesus says to him in verse 16, Rise and stand on your feet, because he'd knocked him down off his horse. 00:19:44.799 --> 00:20:03.519 For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as his servant and a witness in the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people, there's the Jews, and from the Gentiles, the Romans, to whom I am sending you. 00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:04.240 Why? 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:11.440 To open their eyes, so that they may receive, may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:12.000 Why? 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:19.680 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:21.839 Here's this idea of being sanctified. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:32.400 Here's the idea of this, the massive humanity fallen and under judgment, all of us worshiping false gods, worshiping idols of our imagination, all of us in revolt against our Creator. 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:43.920 And the ministry of the Apostle Paul was to take the gospel to the ends of the earth so that the offerings of the Gentiles, of the pagans, of the godless and hopeless ones would now be acceptable to their Creator and Lord. 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:51.839 And here he says their lives are sanctified, are purified, are made clean by faith in Jesus Christ. 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:58.240 Romans, uh Paul would tell us in Romans 10 and verse 17, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:07.279 So when people are believing in Jesus and being and being purified, it's by them hearing the gospel and believing it and trusting in Jesus. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:10.480 But Paul's not done describing his apostolic ministry. 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:14.000 We see in verses 17 through 21, he says this. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:17.759 Back in Romans 15, verse 17. 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:23.680 In Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:30.160 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:35.119 In other words, he's not going to take any credit for anyone else's labors. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:40.079 He's saying, let me just tell you what God has done through me to highlight God's goodness and power through me. 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:42.880 Remember, he's defending his authority here. 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:59.599 And so he says, To bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, 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 God. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:01.519 Of Christ. 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:12.000 And this, 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. 00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:13.279 But as it is written. 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:16.079 And this verse was something that was inspirational to Paul. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:23.359 Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand. 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:26.079 That was like a personal life verse for Paul. 00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:32.160 So here we see a summary of verses 17 to 21, namely Paul's calling as a minister. 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:43.279 And by calling we mean his specific niche or niche, if you're from the South, his methodology, his modus operandi, his characteristic manner of life. 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:43.920 What was it? 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.359 It was a pioneering frontier missionary. 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:49.119 This was Paul's calling. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:56.319 And he's going to tell the Romans that he's been faithful in that, even as he is encouraging them to be faithful in their ministry. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:08.480 Wish there was we had more time to kind of dig into the details here, but basically what we have here is Paul is reminding them of the source of his ministry, that he was called by God, that his power is through the Holy Spirit. 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:16.079 Signs and wonders were not because of Paul's fingertips were powerful, but because the Holy Spirit was through Paul performing miracles. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:18.079 Secondly, the scope of his ministry. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:22.000 He went from Jerusalem all the way up to Illyricum, as we'll see in just a moment. 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.480 And then lastly, he tells us a little bit about the strategy of his ministry. 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:29.519 He intentionally went where the gospel had never been preached. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:31.759 He said, I didn't want to build on anyone's foundation. 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:35.759 I want to be a foundation layer. 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:40.720 And so we see this map here, if we can pull the map up. 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:45.039 If you see in the bottom right hand of the screen is Judea. 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:47.680 Judea is right there, Jerusalem's in Judea. 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:52.640 That's where the church had its start, and that's where the Apostle Paul started his missionary journeys. 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:56.960 This map shows Paul's three missionary journeys plus his voyage to Rome. 00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:07.039 And so you see, if you follow that red line up all the way towards that circle at the sort of top left-ish corner, that circle is over Illyricum. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:12.480 Illyricum was a region, it's not labeled here, but it's a region north of the Adriatic Sea. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:19.039 And you can see that we have a record of Paul going to Berea and Thessalonica, which are the closest points to Illyricum. 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:22.400 So really when he mentions Illyricum, he's talking about he went to the border, basically. 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:31.839 Tradition has it that Paul actually did go on some excursions into Illyricum, some cities, but in terms of biblical record, we have him going to the edge of it. 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:38.880 So Paul is basically retracing his steps, saying, This was my plan to go as far as I could into the Roman Empire and then back again. 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:47.680 And I guess before he could make other trips, he was imprisoned, taken to Rome, eventually beheaded for his testimony for Jesus Christ. 00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:55.680 It's evident from just even looking at the map at Paul's extensive journeys, which would be the equivalent of traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast of the U.S. 00:24:55.839 --> 00:24:57.920 like three and a half times or something dramatic. 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:03.119 Paul spent a lot of miles taking the gospel where he had never been known. 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:14.400 And Paul here says he had made it his ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ had been named, lest someone else, lest he build on someone else's foundation. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:17.519 Paul is a trailblazer. 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:19.599 He was a frontier missionary and church planner. 00:25:19.759 --> 00:25:24.640 Now, why is it important that we understand that that's what Paul was called to in this text? 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:33.200 It's because the majority of Christians, both now and then, are not called to be little apostle Paul's. 00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:38.640 We're not called to be and to replicate the ministry of the Apostle Paul by and large. 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:58.319 Thank the Lord, we still have men and women who are sensing the call to be frontier missionaries and that are going to the ends of the earth and that are joining being trained as translators and video makers and church planters and humanitarian uh mission workers that facilitate gospel proclamation in the four corners of the earth and unreached people groups. 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:04.880 But by and large, including the people to whom Paul was writing, they didn't have Paul's ministry. 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:11.440 And I'll just say this if someone here this morning does actually feel like that, you are called to be a frontier person. 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:12.480 Come talk to us. 00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:14.559 We want to help you in that endeavor. 00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:17.519 But statistically, that is a minority. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:23.680 We ought to send, uh pray that God would send laborers into the harvest. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:36.640 But it is evident that the ministry described in verse 14, which is what I want us to take home for ourselves today, it looks quite different than the ministry of the Apostle Paul in his own ministry. 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:44.160 In his book, Surprise the World, Pastor Michael Frost, he describes what he calls living questionable lives. 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:46.400 That Christians ought to live questionable lives. 00:26:46.480 --> 00:27:03.599 We ought to live lives that are so fundamentally based on different priorities and values, a different sense of treasure, not this earthly world, but but being a part of the kingdom of God, that it plays itself out in ways that are rather different from the world around us. 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:09.279 And when you live different enough, because you're living for different enough things, people are going to ask, like, what's the deal? 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:12.799 Why are you giving up vacation to go uh serve the poor here or there? 00:27:13.119 --> 00:27:15.519 Why are you why are you having people into your home so often? 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:18.079 Or why do you go to church so much or whatever? 00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:24.079 When your values are really gospel-based, it prompts you to live questionable lives. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:28.640 And he says, this is how every Christian should expect evangelistic encounters to take place. 00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:34.799 Not by standing outside of Walmart necessarily with a bullhorn and handing out tracts or maybe two cities pizza. 00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:40.880 You know, I would be tempted to actually do that if people would be angry and throw like fresh pizza at me around lunchtime. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.200 I might do a little open-air preaching. 00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:45.519 Like a bag right here, buddy. 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.880 Um large Chicago. 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:56.160 The fact is, all believers are called to minister, but not necessarily like Paul did. 00:27:56.400 --> 00:28:22.400 We are all called to minister in sacrificial, in practical, in thoughtful ways that demonstrate that our priorities, our hope, our reason for living is radically different than, let's say, a godless neighbor or someone who doesn't have the hope of the resurrection, or someone who doesn't know that when they die, they're going to lose everything they worked for except stuff that contributed to the kingdom of God. 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:33.359 And so Paul, I think, is calling our attention both to the Romans' readiness to minister in their context and to his own unique apostolic ministry. 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:35.279 And so, what's the main idea here? 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:41.359 The main idea is this every believer has a ministry to fulfill. 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:43.519 Let me say it personally. 00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:47.519 Every single one of you has a ministry to fulfill. 00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:52.960 If you name the name of Jesus, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a ministry to fulfill. 00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:58.559 We see this also reflected in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, where the apostle Paul says this. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:08.160 He says, And Christ gave to the churches the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:09.759 Now those are the leaders, right? 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.400 Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers. 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:14.240 Those are the guys sort of up front. 00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:17.440 He gives those in the churches, why? 00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:25.359 To equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up of the body of Christ. 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:48.559 You see, it's it's so common in religious circles for a select few that tend to be up front or tend to be leading in the organization or in some way or that way, for all this ministry to be consolidated on a few, and for everyone else to be either a fan or a spectator or to be someone who is just getting their weekly dose of Jesus or something and is right on the fringes of ministry. 00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:50.720 But that's not the biblical model. 00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:57.920 All the leaders in the church are given in order to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:01.359 We all are called to fulfill a ministry. 00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:03.519 And that's such empowering stuff. 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:09.119 The keys are being handed over to every single member of the church. 00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:20.720 And it's time for the saints, for each of us, to catch a vision for personally having a ministry and not just supporting someone else's ministry, but of fulfilling our ministry. 00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:33.759 Ministering is so foundational to the Christian life, we cannot outsource this to pastors, to teachers, to youth group leaders, or to mission kids volunteers, or to mission group leaders. 00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:37.519 Ministry is meant to involve 100% of us. 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:40.400 We all have a ministry to fulfill. 00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:42.640 But here's the bad news. 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:48.720 Our story is that this has isn't how it's gone and often how it doesn't go. 00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:53.039 Our story is that we we often feel like we have no ministry. 00:30:53.839 --> 00:30:59.839 Many of us feel like we don't have something that God has really called us to, and so we're just here to kind of watch other people. 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:05.839 It's like we turn on the TV and watch the Reds play baseball and miss their playoff chances. 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:08.319 We're not out there playing, we're not the ones sweating. 00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:08.799 Hopefully not. 00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:10.160 Turn the AC on, goodness. 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:14.960 But hopefully, we're sitting there enjoying and watching someone else labor, but that's not how the church is meant to be. 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:18.720 We don't just turn on the preacher for a little bit, get a big gulp. 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:20.000 That's not Christianity. 00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:22.240 That's that's spectator sports. 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:28.559 And so while I'm uh I'm convinced that there are many people that feel like they have a ministry. 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:48.240 For example, maybe there's a wife or a mother here, or maybe many of you here who are tempted to get caught up in all the sort of the tedious parts of being a mother and a wife, and and you maybe you look wistfully over the head of your children and your and your husband and wonder what kind of ministry God would call you to. 00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:54.240 Not realizing that you're engaged every day in a ministry He has called you to. 00:31:54.319 --> 00:32:01.359 And I'm I'm convinced that that Christian women can have ministry much bigger than their home, but it must not be smaller than your home. 00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:06.640 You must be faithful in your first calling if you are a wife, if you are a mother. 00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:12.240 No one can disciple your children better than you. 00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:22.079 A God-fearing mother who is in love with Jesus, who is filled with God's word, who serves her family well, the words are as true today as they were when they were first pinned. 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:25.440 The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. 00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:27.839 Don't underestimate your calling. 00:32:28.720 --> 00:33:07.519 There are many men today who are so caught up in the boredom of life, they're just looking for some escape, something to take their minds off of the nine to five, and so they turn to fantasy football, or hitting a little white ball down a fairway as often as they can, or putting a headset on in video gaming, that they're spending 10 or 100 times more minutes and hours of their precious time investing in DraftKings or something else, than praying with, having conversation with, talking with their children, their wife, their classmates, their cousins about the most important things of life because they're just looking for a temporary escape. 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:12.480 Not investing in ministry, they're escaping responsibility. 00:33:12.720 --> 00:33:24.559 We here at Sacred Mission Church like to call men to renew their responsibility, to be pastors, providers, and protectors in their homes who take redemptive responsibility for the people and things under their care. 00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:26.720 God has called you to that ministry, brothers. 00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:32.160 The question is, are you fulfilling that ministry or are you abdicating your responsibility? 00:33:34.559 --> 00:33:36.000 We have a ministry. 00:33:36.559 --> 00:33:40.559 Last weekend, David Haysen, and I didn't get his permission, but it's nothing incriminating. 00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:46.799 David Haysen gave us his testimony at the men's event we had last weekend, and something really stuck out to me. 00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:47.599 I really appreciated it. 00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:53.920 He said that, you know, he grew up sort of around the church, but that wasn't really personal until college. 00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:00.240 And God really started to work in his life, and he started having a desire to, and he believed the gospel and that sort of thing. 00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:16.639 But he had this mentality in the back of his mind that if he got too close to Jesus, if he started reading his Bible too much, if he started being too committed to praying, to meeting with other brothers, um, then God was gonna turn him into a priest or a pastor or some kind of leader, and he didn't want to be that. 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:19.519 He didn't feel called, he didn't have any desire to be that guy. 00:34:19.679 --> 00:34:25.519 And so he had this misunderstanding that if he got too close to Jesus, he was gonna have to become a preacher. 00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:33.199 Until, after college, he said, he met a few men who convinced him through their lives. 00:34:33.519 --> 00:34:45.840 Men who were not career missionaries, who were not pastors, but who were nonetheless men of God and active ministers in the church because they just lived ministerial lives in their families and relationships. 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:57.920 They convinced him that there is as much work to be done outside the pulpit, outside of paid staff leadership, by people in the pew as there is by those in those positions. 00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:02.079 Now maybe you're here today and you don't know what your ministry is yet. 00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:03.440 That's okay. 00:35:03.760 --> 00:35:08.639 If you can't put your finger on, I believe this is what God's called me to do right now in this season of my life. 00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:11.519 But don't rest until you do know. 00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:22.880 Make this a matter of concerted prayer, of searching, that you would determine, God, what kind of offering do you want out of me with my short life on earth? 00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:25.679 So some of us feel like we have no ministry. 00:35:26.559 --> 00:35:30.320 Others of us, we feel like we have Paul's ministry. 00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:34.639 Or excuse me, we feel like we should have Paul's ministry, but we don't. 00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:36.400 I've experienced this. 00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:47.599 I remember growing up in a home where there were lots of magazines around that depicted the Christian life as sort of looking at the Apostle Paul as being a normative expression of Christian existence. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:57.519 That every conversation you have, like Jim Elliott was someone who was definitely kind of like this, he was the Apostle Paul and he, or an Apostle Paul in our generation. 00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:04.880 Jim Elliott, reading his journals, and he said every conversation he ever had with someone, he wanted it to be a fork in the road where they had to choose Jesus. 00:36:05.119 --> 00:36:06.800 Talk about a lot of pressure. 00:36:07.199 --> 00:36:08.639 Poor lady at the grocery store. 00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:13.519 She's just, you know, helping you with trying to find the cereal, and you're like, excuse me, ma'am, uh, can I issue a question? 00:36:13.679 --> 00:36:14.480 She's like, no. 00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:17.840 The Bible under the arm gave it away. 00:36:18.480 --> 00:36:24.000 Some of us feel like we have the Apostle Paul's ministry, and so we live because we're not the Apostle Paul. 00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:25.119 We actually have a family. 00:36:25.280 --> 00:36:25.920 Paul didn't. 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:28.000 Uh we're not vocational missionaries. 00:36:28.239 --> 00:36:42.079 We feel guilty because we're not outside of, we're not uh picketing outside of an abortion clinic or or witnessing at a local mosque or open-air preaching at UC or handing out tracts to your neighbors. 00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:49.519 But the fact is, Paul's lifestyle was something that simply couldn't be done if he had a family. 00:36:49.599 --> 00:37:03.519 And he even in 1 Corinthians 7 uh encouraged people, he says, hey, because of the situation right now, the instability in our in our day and time, I encourage you, single people, don't get married so that you can really devote yourself to the service of the Lord in ways like I am. 00:37:03.760 --> 00:37:09.679 But he says, if you can't, if you can't contain yourself, go ahead and get married, and then you serve your family first and foremost. 00:37:09.840 --> 00:37:18.719 Paul would write in 1 Timothy that a man who doesn't provide for his own, and not just physically, but but emotionally, spiritually, who doesn't invest in his family, he's worse than an unbeliever. 00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:25.440 There's lots of unbelievers out there, much better men than that man, even if he professes to be a Christian, who doesn't provide for his family. 00:37:27.199 --> 00:37:27.599 Right? 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:29.679 So, or at least try to. 00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:39.840 So we should be inspired by Paul's ministry and his zeal, but we shouldn't make the mistake of using him as the standard by which to judge ourselves. 00:37:41.280 --> 00:37:45.440 Living with that low-grade guilt because you're not Paul. 00:37:47.039 --> 00:37:49.599 I remember a little widow lady in our church where I grew up. 00:37:49.679 --> 00:37:51.360 Her name was Christine Robinson. 00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:56.079 And uh Christine Robinson was about five foot eleven, and she was, excuse me, four foot eleven. 00:37:56.239 --> 00:37:57.840 Five's eleven is pretty tall. 00:37:58.320 --> 00:38:00.480 She was a big lady, tell you what. 00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:04.239 You should have seen her in her prime. 00:38:05.280 --> 00:38:06.480 She was like a milkmaid. 00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:08.639 No, but um, so four foot eleven, a little different. 00:38:08.800 --> 00:38:09.840 Four foot eleven. 00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:12.000 Um she was on home oxygen when I knew her. 00:38:12.079 --> 00:38:17.519 She was about 80 years old, and um she had a heart for world evangelism. 00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:19.519 But there was no way she could travel. 00:38:19.679 --> 00:38:25.039 If you were to even just get her to somewhere on the other side of the globe, she wouldn't be a resource with her little oxygen tank. 00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:26.480 She called it oxygen. 00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:29.360 A little oxygen, I'm not mugging that up. 00:38:29.599 --> 00:38:30.639 A little oxygen tank. 00:38:30.719 --> 00:38:34.239 Uh, she wouldn't be much of a resource on the mission field, but you know what she did? 00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:36.400 She could sew quilts. 00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:39.280 And she would sew quilts every time you went to her house. 00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:40.880 And I went to her house probably a hundred times. 00:38:41.039 --> 00:38:42.800 My dad visited her every week. 00:38:42.880 --> 00:38:47.039 She was a precious old lady and older lady. 00:38:47.280 --> 00:38:53.519 Um, and every time you went there, she had this quilt that was sitting about three feet above the floor, and it was let down from the ceiling. 00:38:53.599 --> 00:38:56.320 When you'd come in the door, she would wrap it up and raise it up. 00:38:56.400 --> 00:39:02.320 She had this old timey system there because her little house was so tiny, when the quilt was down, you couldn't hardly sit in the room. 00:39:02.480 --> 00:39:14.559 And so she would raise it up, or you'd raise it up for her, and she made numerous, countless quilts for people, like all of her family members, all of her friends, many people in the church, anyone who was getting married, anyone who graduated high school or college would get a quilt. 00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:26.400 And she ended up making 40 quilts for the mission fund in our church, and she would sell it completely free of charge to her and donate all the proceeds to missions. 00:39:26.559 --> 00:39:32.159 She was no Apostle Paul, but she was no less a minister of Jesus Christ. 00:39:33.760 --> 00:39:40.239 Our gospel conviction this morning is that Christ ministered to make us ministers. 00:39:40.960 --> 00:39:43.920 Christ ministered to make us ministers. 00:39:44.159 --> 00:39:47.280 Our gospel conviction comes straight from our text this morning in verse 16. 00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:54.880 The Apostle Paul says this He's a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God. 00:39:55.039 --> 00:39:57.360 There's a phrase there that we easily pass over. 00:39:57.679 --> 00:40:06.639 He was a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, to facilitate their offerings being made acceptable to God. 00:40:06.800 --> 00:40:09.599 Why would he say he's a minister of Jesus Christ in this? 00:40:10.719 --> 00:40:20.320 It's because Paul's own ministry was in, was an extension of the ministry Jesus Christ came, sent on mission from the Father to accomplish. 00:40:20.559 --> 00:40:26.880 Paul was a minister of Jesus because this was the very reason Jesus came to earth himself. 00:40:27.280 --> 00:40:30.559 Paul's ministry was to make the offerings of the Gentiles acceptable to God. 00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:35.280 That was Jesus' ministry when he came to earth as our high priest. 00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:49.679 In John Piper's helpful little book, 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, number 36 on his list of 50 reasons the Bible tells us Jesus came to die was this: to create a people passionate for good works. 00:40:50.480 --> 00:40:54.079 Jesus came so that we'd be ministers. 00:40:54.320 --> 00:40:59.840