Tabor Baptist Church

Introduction

• v22-33
• Making decisions in life
• Key: seeking to do the will of God
• Paul's desire was to minister with the people of Rome (v32)
• Until this point he was hindered
• We need to know what God's will is
• Principles in Scripture
• v22-33
• Paul is making plans
• His original purpose is to preach to the unconverted
• He planned to go to Spain
• He did end up in Rome (but not as he thought)
• Overview:
• Priorities
• Providence
• Purposefulness
• Prayer

Priorities

• His burden was to reach the unreached
• v20
• Where there were no churches or converts
• v11 - the Gentiles were to praise God
• His desire was to evangelize the whole world
• He took the Great Commission seriously
• He desired to go to Spain (and Portugal)
• How does this priority influence our (big) decisions?
• Example of Spurgeon
• As a church - where are we most useful?
• Examples
• Personal example
• Example of holidays and university

Providence

• God opens doors and closes doors - He orders all our circumstances
• v23-24
• Did he have a sense his work was complete?
• Resistance to himself and the gospel
• Seeing the church sufficiently planted
• Having prayed and thought about it - he believed it was right "no longer having a place in these parts"
• Personal example
• Prov 16:9

Purposefulness

• Things can be done spontaneously
• The usual way is: Plan, Pray, Prepare and then act
• Paul had goals in his life
• Go to Rome
• Go to Spain
• Go to Jerusalem (first)
• Jerusalem (v25-26)
• This was the base church
• It had suffered terrible persecution and famine
• There were many widows in the Church
• Not just the preaching of the gospel but to support the needy saints
• To unite the Church
• It was owed to the Jewish Church (v27)
• How concerned are we for the unity of the local church?
• We meet three times a year
• Pray that this would increase
• Paul was not shy to ask Rome for financial help
• "For I hope ... to be helped"
• He wanted to impart a spiritual gift to them (Rom 1:11)
• The blessings of mutual encouragement
• v24 - we are to individual in our culture
• v29, 32 - he wanted to be blessed by them
• Example of the burning coal

Prayer

• He solicited prayer from them (v30-31)
• To be kept from evil
• That he would be a blessing to the Church in Jerusalem
• We must ask others for prayer
• Prov 19:21

Closing Remarks