Romans 15:14-21

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, 21 but as it is written,

“Those who have never been told of him will see,
    and those who have never heard will understand.”

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Paul has stated again and again that he is a minister to the Gentiles and not just to the Jews. In this passage he spends more time describing in detail on the how. Today we're going to break things down verse by verse because the way that Paul describes his ministry to Gentiles is something we can model in our ministry anywhere. 

In verses 15-16 Paul talks about how his goal is to minister to the Gentiles so that they themselves may present worthy sacrifices. In Young Life we try to accomplish the same to the ones we minister to. We want to equip them to so they themselves have a relationship with God. 

Verse 17 Paul vocalizes the proper pride that all ministers of the faith should have. In ministry one can often be in a position of authority and it is an easy temptation to let the power you have lead to pride. Although pride in this regard is wrong and damaging, it doesn't mean we shouldn't have pride at all, it just needs to be put in the right place. Christ Jesus, Paul states, is our reason to be proud. As ministers, there are times where it can be tiring, but lift your head up! Be proud of the God we serve and on whose behalf we present this Gospel. Yes it can be tiring work but it is work that we should be proud of because it is work done for God. 

In ministry there's also the temptation to mix in our own or outside thoughts into the Gospel when we present it to others. Although contextualizing and presenting the Gospel in our voice in a way others can understand is important, we have to be cautious because of the danger of diluting or even corrupting the Gospel presentation. Paul in verse 18-19 says simply that he presents nothing more than what Christ has presented to him. 

Finally in ministry you unfortunately too often see churches or fellowships stepping on each others toes, fighting for the same group of people or stealing members from others. Paul says in the last 2 verses and even quotes scripture that we actively tries to preach where others haven't so avoid this conflict. 

In these few verses, Paul just states some seemingly simple steps he takes in his ministry. Unfortunately as simple as it all seems, these truths are some of the most commonly forgotten and lead to some of the most common pitfalls in ministry. While these are not explicit warnings, we need to pray that we can emulate Paul's ministry to the Gentiles as we minister to whomever God has called us to minister to and never forget these truths.