Church Responsibility in Foreign Missions

[00:00:00] But if you could turn to Romans chapter 15 and as you're turning there, I just kind of want to give a bit of a lead up here. And we've talked a lot about this. You know, it's a missions conference, so we're going to cover some territory that's kind of been covered a little bit before. But I want to give an overview of the mission trips that Paul has taken. And I'm going to. Well, I can move over and show off this high tech pulpit. [00:00:31] So that way I'm kind of in the middle and I'm going to wave my hands around. If you've got a map in the back of your Bible, it's more accurate than what I'm about to do, but I'm probably more entertaining. And we're going to look at say here is Jerusalem and then here would be Antioch. And Antioch is where Paul and Barnabas get called out from. And they go on their first missions trip over into Cyprus and then they head back up into the mainland in areas of Galatia like Lystra, Derbe, a different Antioch. And they plant churches in this area before they return back to the Antioch of Syria where they were called out of. And this is the first missions trip that Paul took before his second missions trip, they go back to Jerusalem for the council, come back up, and then Paul takes Silas on the next missions trip where he does come back up and confirm the churches in Galatia. And then he wants to head into Asia, which we heard about, and he was prevented by the Spirit until he gets the Macedonian call and he comes up here into Macedonia and he plants churches through Macedonia and then he comes back down through Achaia and ends in Corinth and he comes back over to Antioch and reports to ascending church. And then in his third missions trip, he's able to get into Asia. And he does so mainly by sitting in Ephesus. But it says in the two years that he spent in Ephesus, the entire region of Asia heard the Gospel. [00:01:57] And when he's done with his time in Asia, he heads back up through Macedonia and Achaia and he stops in Corinth, which is where the book to Rome was written from. And Rome is about here. [00:02:11] And he's writing to them in chapter 15 about a missions trip he plans on taking to Spain. Spain. [00:02:19] Now when he was in this area, he kind of went everywhere on foot for the most part, and he was able to communicate with churches that he had been to and been from. And if he had a need or somebody wanted to give to him, they would give to him. But as he goes to Spain, he's got a plan ahead to be able to get there and go there. And as I was looking at this, I realized that Paul was writing to people he had never been to see. He knew some people and had known some people in the church, but most people in Rome he had never met, never seen before. And he was talking to them about supporting him as he took his next missions trip. And I thought, that's what I do. [00:03:00] I go to places that I, for the most part, not met anybody in. And we talked to them about partnering with us as we go on a foreign trip to missions. [00:03:11] And as I was looking at that, I just kind of looked at Romans 15 in a completely different way than I had seen it before. [00:03:20] And as I was looking through it, I saw that there are three responsibilities Paul gives to this church in Rome as it pertains to them fulfilling the Great Commission in foreign missions. [00:03:34] The first is, though, you need to be sure of the calling of a missionary. [00:03:39] In verse nine, Paul writes, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written, for this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. And again he saith, rejoice, ye Gentiles with his people. And again praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud him all ye people. And again Isaiah saith, there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. [00:04:04] And what Paul's doing is he's quoting these Old Testament verses that says that God wants the Gentiles to be his people. Is he saying, hey, I'm not going out and having this ministry to the Gentiles Because I thought it was a great idea. What I'm doing is I'm following the will of God found in the Word of God. His life was shaped by the Word of God. And probably what is the most famous verse or well known verse in Romans 15 would be verse 20 says, Yea, so if I strive to preach the gospel not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation. [00:04:41] And he's saying he wants to go and he wants to tell people who have never heard about Christ that he is God and that is his goal and his ambition in life. But even that was shaped by the Word of God, because in the very next verse he says, but as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall See? And they that have not heard shall understand. [00:05:03] It is important as a church that you know the missionary is a man of the word, that he has the right doctrine, that he's doing things by the book. You have to have an imagination and you have to have creativity as a missionary. But as you come up with ideas and do anything, you have to make sure that it is by the Word, that it does not conflict with the word. And that is important for a church to know that a missionary is a man of the word and is going out and doing things by the word. But more important, not more important, it's not just that the missionary has a right doctrine. You also have to know he's called to where he's going. [00:05:45] And Paul gives them proof of his calling. In verse 17, he says, I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God, for I will not dare to speak any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. So that from Jerusalem and roundabout unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ, he basically tells them the proof of his callings in the Puddin. [00:06:17] Not only did he do signs and wonders, but when he said that from Jerusalem it's roundabout unto Illyricum that this entire region had heard of Christ, not because Paul was anything special, but because Paul was used especially by God to reach these people and to get his name out there. And he says, hey, look, I am called by God to this service and it is important that we know that a missionary is called. [00:06:44] I know of many missionaries who come home quickly. They said, I have a burden for these people. [00:06:53] But they found out that the burden wasn't enough. They didn't have a calling for them. [00:06:58] I recently heard a podcast and an interview of a guy who's now head over, I don't remember which missions agency, but he said, if you just have a burden, one cold night in Alaska can knock that burden right out of you. You need a calling. [00:07:18] And so it is important that a church is sure of the calling of a missionary. [00:07:25] And then if you've been in church any amount of time, I'm going to guess that you will not be surprised by the next responsibility a church has, which is in giving that you would support a missionary financially. And while the majority of missions messages I've heard probably have to do with giving, Paul kind of barely mentions it. [00:07:51] This is what he says about it in verse 24, for I trust to see you in my journey and to be brought on my way, that the word by you. [00:07:59] That was it. [00:08:01] Now he does talk more to them about how there was an example of the Macedonian and Achaian churches that they had given sacrificially and as an example to the Romans of how they might give. But the only time he ever even asks for money is right there. And for Paul, it was a given that a church would give financially to missions. [00:08:26] But I've been to enough churches that, well, first of all, I know if I'm in a church that the pastor believes in giving to missions. But I've been in enough churches to know that not every church member always agrees. [00:08:39] And mostly in at least our flavor of churches, people will say, well, Paul worked for a living and that should be the model that missionaries go out and they work for a living. And I just have a few things to say about that. [00:08:55] One is, if a missionary can work for a living and that's what God wants them to do, that is wonderful. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. But it has nothing to do with the church's responsibility in giving to missions. [00:09:07] There only is one place that we're sure that Paul worked for a living. And it was in Corinth where he's writing this letter from. [00:09:16] And yet we know that in Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11:18, he writes to them, I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service. [00:09:25] And once Silas and Timothy, who he had sent back up to churches in Macedonia, returned to him and joined him back up in Corinth. [00:09:36] It says that in Acts 18:5 that he was pressed in the Spirit. And from that time he moved out of the tent makers camp, and he moves to the one who's joined hard against the synagogue. And he works full time for the Gospel and he's determined to know nothing among them save Christ and him crucified. And I think that they brought the money back with them that he had gone on without it, or that the churches did give to enable him to work full time in the ministry. And then as he goes on to Ephesus after he had planted his church in Corinth, and he writes back From Ephesus in 1st Corinthians 16:17, I am glad of the coming of Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achaias, for that which was lacking on your part have they supplied or in other words, this church that he supposedly worked for a living and that should be the model, then supported him as he went out on his next missionary journey and planted his next church. It is a biblical responsibility of a church to support a missionary. [00:10:37] He then talks about as he is, I believe, giving them an example of what sacrificial giving looks like. He talks to them about as he went out of Asia and came through Macedonia and Achaia, he was taking up a love offering to take to Jerusalem because there was a famine in Jerusalem and he wanted to relieve the suffering of the saints who were in Jerusalem. And these poor churches through Macedonia, as well as the more rich church down here in Corinth, all gave to support those Christians who were suffering in another place. [00:11:14] And I believe that that is a responsibility of a church, not to give to just general humanitarian aid, but when God lays it on your heart, as he clearly did for the Macedonian church, which I'm sure you've had missions, conferences and been through Second Corinthians, chapter 8, and it says that they gave. God gave them the grace to give. [00:11:37] And when God lays it on your heart, whether you know, you know a lot about hurricanes, I'm assuming in this area, did it hit you guys? I've seen a lot of downed trees. I kind of assume that that was the hurricanes. And I know churches really across the country, as I'm contacting pastor and I asked for prayer requests that they said, hey, pray for us. We're taking a trailer down to go and help not just the general area, but churches that were affected. And it is a biblical responsibility to help out when God gives you that burden to do so of other suffering Christians in other places. [00:12:18] And while Paul goes through these responsibilities and spends the majority of Romans 15 talking to them about these things, that is not what Paul comes to that he thinks really was important. [00:12:31] It was certainly a biblical responsibility. But what he found most important we find starting in verse 30, he says, Now, I beseech you. [00:12:41] He's no longer telling them something. Now he is beseeching them. And beseech is a more emphatic way to ask something. And I don't think every time that you see the word beseech that it means this. But in this case, I want you to think of Paul on his knees begging. [00:13:00] And you might think that preachers like to exaggerate, to make points, but I think you're going to see that I'm not exaggerating here. As I say that he's begging. It's not just because he uses besieged beseech and that more forceful language, but he doesn't just say, I beseech you, and then proceed to tell them what he's beseeching them for. He says, I beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. [00:13:24] Now, if you're anything like me, you have this ability to read your Bible and there are words on the page, and you move on to the next one and you don't really think about why they're there. Anybody? Just me. Okay, but let's stop for a minute. [00:13:41] Well, you said it wouldn't have a problem if I put it around behind my back, but, well, I have to tuck it over here because it keeps falling under. All right, so let's stop and think about why that's there. Why would you do something for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake? How about we start with he created all things. You wouldn't exist without Him. [00:14:11] Without him, there was nothing made that was made. All things were made by him and for Him. [00:14:17] And he made mankind not just for fun. He made mankind to have somebody who would choose to love him and to serve Him. [00:14:27] And yet, as mankind went on and decided to turn their backs on God, that all of mankind was separated from God, and our iniquities have separated between us and our God, so that we cannot have that fellowship he desires with us. And our righteousnesses are as nothing but filthy rags. And no matter how hard we might try to clean ourselves, there's nothing that we can do to ever restore that relationship that God desires with us. [00:14:54] And so, rather than looking down on this and saying, well, that was a failed experiment and just wiping us all out, God decides instead to leave the perfection of his home in heaven, to come and not be worshiped and adored, but to be mocked and despised. [00:15:12] That he came down to this filthy world to be tortured and beaten, to be rejected by those that he came to save. [00:15:23] He came to pay a penalty that you could never pay. [00:15:29] And with his death on the cross, he saved you from hell. [00:15:33] He made it so that you didn't have to pay that penalty yourself. But he didn't come to keep you from hell. That wasn't his end goal. He wants to live with you forever in heaven. And so when he rose again the third day, defeating death, hell and the grave, he did that for you, so that you could spend eternity with him in heaven, where he's right now in the right hand of the Father, making intercession for you for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. [00:16:03] And while you might think, well, he invoked the name of Christ, I understand He's Kind of serious about this. [00:16:10] He didn't think that maybe they quite understood how important what he was about to ask them for was. And so he didn't just stop there, but he also said, for the love of the Spirit. [00:16:21] I have a personal soapbox that I think the Holy Spirit is largely ignored in many churches today. And I don't know, that's because we don't want to sound Pentecostal, but we've allowed the Holy Spirit to be taken from us. [00:16:36] The Holy Spirit should be the lifeblood of any Christian. There's nothing that you can do in this life of any eternal worth or significance without the Holy Spirit doing it through you. [00:16:49] The Holy Spirit is God living in you. [00:16:56] As Jesus was getting ready to leave and he's trying to prepare his disciples, and he gives the farewell address that you find in John, he comes back to the same point multiple times as he says, hey, it's more needful that I leave. It's more needful for you that I would leave, that the comforter would come, that having the Holy Spirit in us is better than if we had Jesus Christ here himself. [00:17:23] I used to get really honestly kind of confused. I memorized Romans 6 through 8. I didn't think we had time. Honestly, I memorized it a few years ago, and I probably couldn't do it again right now. But I memorized Romans 6 through 8, and I honestly was kind of confused about it. Because you have in Romans 6, this great victory. And you find out that you have been crucified with Christ and you have also been resurrected with Him. This isn't something you're waiting for in the future. You can live that resurrection life now, and you no longer need to serve sin. And you have this victory. That is Romans 6. [00:17:59] And then there's Romans 7. [00:18:03] He says that which I would, I do, not that which I would not that I do. I said that wrong. This is. I couldn't have. [00:18:11] And he says that he tries to do good. And he finds out that when he tries to do good, that there's evil in him. [00:18:19] And he comes to the end of Romans 7. He says, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [00:18:29] And I didn't know how Romans 6 came with Romans 7. [00:18:35] How is there all this victory and then there is this defeat? [00:18:41] And I came to realize that Romans 7 isn't the normal Christian life, no matter what your Bible might label that section. That is when you try to serve God with your own might and power. When he says, at the end of Romans 7. He says, so then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God. Or in other words, when you try really hard and you want to buckle down and you want to serve God in your own power, that is the result that you find defeat. [00:19:12] And he says, but I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. [00:19:16] You say, well, huh, where is thanking God? Here? The thanking God is as you move into Romans chapter 8 and you find the law of the Spirit of life, Christ Jesus, that law of the Spirit of life, and all of Romans 8, which is like the pinnacle of the cathedral, that would be Romans and maybe even the Bible. You can't help if you are saved reading Romans chapter 8 and not just having your heart sing where you find that you have righteousness, you have peace, you're able to mortify the deeds of the body, so you're able to kill the sin that's within you. Not because you buckle down and try hard and you really, you know, put your effort into it, but because you have the Holy Spirit in you who you can kill it through. [00:20:01] You're able to cry, abba, Father, through the Spirit. [00:20:07] The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers you in this life to live the Christian life. [00:20:15] He's God in you. [00:20:20] You see how he's not just asking them for something, he's begging them. [00:20:25] He's begging them in the name of all that is holy. And he does not beg them for their money. [00:20:32] He begs them that they would strive together with him in their prayers to God for him. [00:20:40] He begs them for prayer, and he doesn't beg them that they would say a quickie prayer for him. Oh, Lord, bless Paul. Amen. [00:20:49] He says, strive together with me. Me. [00:20:54] That in the Greek is one word, and it's the only place it's used in the Bible. But elsewhere in Greek literature, it refers to either an entire army going out, that they all have different roles or responsibilities, but they're all with one accord pressing towards that mark. They are fighting for the life of themselves and those around him as they are trying to accomplish one goal. [00:21:20] The other place that it's used is in Olympic sporting events where there are teams that they would strive together not just to go out and play a good game and not keep score like we do today, but they were with all their might trying to win. And to do that, they strove together to do that. [00:21:38] He said, strive together with me. He's not talking about that quickie prayer. He's talking about the effectual and fervent prayer of a Righteous man, man. [00:21:49] It reminds me of what Paul wrote about Epaphras in Colossians. If I was on my notes, I would know Colossians 4:12. [00:21:59] He said that he had been laboring fervently in prayer on behalf of the Church of Colossae. The word laboring fervently literally means that he had been wrestling in prayer. [00:22:11] I think that we forget that we are not in a physical battle, that we're not here to, you know, put in some extra overtime to do things. But we are in a spiritual battle and in spiritual warfare. And we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places. [00:22:36] He doesn't merely ask them for support. [00:22:43] He begs them for their prayer. [00:22:49] And it's not just that. He says, pray for me. He said, strive together with me. [00:22:58] We have this wrong idea of missions. That a missionary comes to the field and he has this ministry out here, and a church supports that ministry. [00:23:08] That's the way that we think about it. But first of all, all the ministry is God's. And we partner with him as we go out. But as we go to churches, we're not looking for people to support us and send us money. We're looking for people who will partner with us as we go and fulfill God's will for our lives. [00:23:26] We partner with churches as we go and as we go out. We are not just going there for ourselves. We are going there with. You don't have any idea if this church will be able to support us. But you support all these people back here. Those don't just represent places where your money goes. Those aren't people that you've subcontracted to fulfill your responsibility of missions in other places. [00:23:54] Those are families that you have partnered with. Those are souls who are partly your responsibility. Those represent nations that you have said, we are going to help you in reaching the lost. [00:24:09] That's what those pictures up there are. [00:24:17] As you look at them and you see those prayer letters below there, you know we call them prayer letters. [00:24:28] You know why we call them prayer letters? [00:24:31] Because we need your prayers. [00:24:35] They're not reports. [00:24:41] And Paul was no different. [00:24:44] If you read those prayer letters, I'm pretty sure you're going to find in them prayer requests. [00:24:50] And as Paul begs them for their prayers, he doesn't just say, hey, pray for me. Generally, he gives them three specific prayer requests that he needs right now. [00:25:01] He says that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea. Or in other words, as he's heading down to Jerusalem, he knows the Jews hate him and want to kill him, and he prays for safety. He actually doesn't even make it out of Corinth before he has to get rerouted because the Jews try to kill him in Corinth. [00:25:21] Then he says, and that my service, which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints. Or in other words, even though they're saved Jews in Jerusalem, they're still bigoted and hate Gentiles. And he's not sure because these Gentile churches took up this love offering for them that they're going to accept it. [00:25:39] And then he asks that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. [00:25:46] He asked that he'll be able to come and see them in Rome. [00:25:50] And while the three requests here are not all that important for us today, it is pretty cool to know they all get answered. [00:25:59] He didn't die. [00:26:03] It was a close thing, but he made it and they accepted the love offering and he made it to Rome. [00:26:12] But here's the real question. [00:26:14] How well do you know the needs of your missionaries? [00:26:19] In our church in Colorado, we would have the prayer letters read every Wednesday night. And I loved coming and I said, I love missions. I gave sacrificially to missions. And I really loved hearing the prayer letters, partially because I didn't read the names, it was somebody else. [00:26:35] But I just loved hearing those letters. And it came to a point where we were taking over a class on a Wednesday night for the kids, and I wasn't going to be able to hear those letters anymore. And I decided I was going to make the class about missions, and we were going to read a letter and we're going to talk about the letter, not just read it and what is different about that country versus America and see if they could even figure out on a map where it was. And found out that kids don't know the difference between countries and continents, even when you've taught them. [00:27:08] And so in order to do that, I had to have all the prayer letters sent to me. [00:27:12] And for somebody, I mean, I love missions. I was the guy who they were turning the lights out on because I was talking to them too late and they said, hey, the restaurant's gonna close. You gotta stop. [00:27:24] Then we supported 50 missionaries. And I quickly found out that of the 50 missionaries that we supported, on any given day, I probably would have been able to name five of them. [00:27:38] There's no way I was Striving together with them. [00:27:42] I would hear these prayer requests and say a prayer that night for them, but I wouldn't take them home. I wouldn't beg God on their behalf. [00:27:53] How well do you know your missionaries? [00:27:59] Do you know what countries they're in? [00:28:04] Do you know their names? How about the wife's names or the kids names? [00:28:12] One of the biggest reasons that a missionary comes home is because of the wife or children, and they can't handle it. [00:28:19] Are you praying for them? [00:28:26] We're in a pretty bad state when it comes to missions in this country. [00:28:31] There's actually only a quarter of the missionaries today as there were in 1970. [00:28:37] There's definitely not a quarter of the need. [00:28:41] The statistics say that of missionaries today who start deputation, only one out of four of them will go back for a second term. [00:28:52] Missionary kids are leaving the church in droves after leaving their parents house. [00:28:59] And while there's a lot of responsibility on missionaries for, you know, their part in that, where are those who are supposed to be begging God on our behalf? [00:29:08] Where are those who are supposed to be partnering with us? Where are those who are to be encouraging us and checking on us? [00:29:18] It's supposed to be a partnership we've heard about. Oh, wow, I just lost the name. The. The Father of Modern Missions. Was that Carrie? Okay, I was about to say it and then it sounded wrong. And I'm terrible with names, but when we started called the Father of Modern Missions, he was kind of the first to go out specifically and raising support kind of the way that we do. There had been missionaries kind of throughout the years, but when. When the church realized. I hate saying the church like there's a global one, but they realized that there was this need and to send them back out. The model that he set forward was that the missionary will go and he'll go to the deepest, darkest pit, wherever it is that God has called him to go. As long as the church is back here holding the rope. Have you guys heard that before? Holding the rope in missions? [00:30:15] I'm afraid as Americans, we've interpreted holding the rope as writing a check. [00:30:21] And that's kind of what we're good at. We see a problem, we throw some money at it and call it solved. [00:30:29] Paul doesn't beg them for their money. [00:30:33] He begs them for their prayers. [00:30:38] I don't know how we can pray for those who we don't know effectively. [00:30:46] I heard a story about a missionary who was in India century ago. I'm not exactly sure when, but we're talking about, you know, passage on boat back in a time where, you know, obviously no Facebook, no. No social media, no emailing prayer letters. And frankly, when you couldn't send a prayer letter back, reliable and reliably hope for it to get to every church. And it would be cost prohibitive to do that. [00:31:17] And he had spent years and years. He actually. His wife died, he married a native, and then as he was on the passage back to America to report to his churches, his second wife died. [00:31:30] But he wrote in his memoirs that as he went to churches across America, in every single church, without fail, when he went to that church, they asked about his children by name. [00:31:44] I think we used to know what it meant to strive together. [00:31:50] I tell you what, we don't anymore. [00:31:55] I don't know why we've left aside prayer, but it is the most powerful thing that we have. [00:32:05] It's when we get the very ear of God. [00:32:12] And yet we're okay with just a quickie and think that we've done our job well. Come close to closing. You know, a preacher, he says he's going to close and he thinks it's something else. But I had a man tell me, and I give this as a disclaimer because I don't have firsthand knowledge of this, but a man told me that he was told this story, and I have no reason to believe it's false. And I've actually heard others that were very similar anyhow that I could use if it turned out to be false. [00:32:54] But there is a missionary who is in a. I don't even want to call it Third World, because you can usually drive places in Third World country. This is the kind of place where you have to walk from village to village, and it can take mult days to get from village to village. And he was on one of these treks, and at night by the side of the path, he went to sleep. And when he got up in the morning, he was surrounded by armed men. [00:33:21] And he wasn't real happy about it. And then one of the armed men approached him and told him, hey, last night we just planned on killing you and taking everything you had. [00:33:32] But all night there were 10 men who were surrounding you and guarding you. [00:33:37] And the missionary just said, just me, but thanks. And he went on his way. And as he came back to the States to report to churches, as any good missionary would, he's telling this story everywhere he goes until he gets to this one church and he tells the story and a man stands up and he says, what day was that? [00:33:59] And he tells them what day it was. And the man says, would the other nine men who came in and prayed with me all night please stand up? [00:34:09] The power your prayers can have. [00:34:16] We may be small, but we serve a God who isn't. [00:34:21] And yet we try to buckle down and serve him when he's given us the Holy Spirit and access to his throne room. [00:34:34] And I just want to add my voice to Paul's for those who you already support. [00:34:43] Know them. [00:34:45] Don't just send your money. Don't just put in the offering plate. There are probably ways you can contact every single one of them. [00:34:53] Some of them are restricted access nations. It might be a little harder. [00:34:58] Know their prayer needs. [00:35:02] They don't need to live in isolation anymore. [00:35:07] Partner together with them, especially in prayer, because that is where the difference happens.