God Will Allow Me to do Evangelism and Missions Through My Talents (Romans 16)
Romans 16 is the last part of Paul’s letter to the church of Rome and he wrote down the names of all the church officers, and God was planning to do world evangelization through the nation of Rome. All the people’s names recorded in this chapter are the people who found the plan and mission for their lives from God for being in Rome.
Romans 16:1 says, “I comment to you your sister Phoebe” and I believe Phoebe might have been the woman who first delivered this message to Paul. Paul said to receive her in the Lord that is worthy of his people, so she is running the errand of the messenger. “Give her any help she may need, for she has been the benefactor of many people including me.”
If we say that we live a good walk of faith, what’s the standard? God is invisible to our eyes, however, God reveals His will through the Word, through His messenger. In this day and age of the Bible, they didn’t have broadcasting so they couldn’t receive messages immediately but they had to deliver the letters to messengers like Phoebe, so Paul asked them to help this lady and when you help this lady, it’s actually what you’re doing for God, because the way God works is through delivering His Word.
Brb be really boring?
“Give her anything she may need in the work of delivering God’s Word,” because she had been a protector for Paul and many other people. You must be a protector. You must stand as the protector of the evangelists and many messengers. Benefactor has many different meanings, but you protect people from wrongdoing, and you protect them so that anything that may disturb them from proclaiming the proper, correct word. And it captures everything. The protector so that the word may properly go into the many members of the church. Among your missions, you might say you are the protector of the church. I must be a protector of the evangelist. That is what you are doing for God.
In Romans 16:3, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus.” They were coworkers with Paul. Paul raised up the church of Corinth with the help of Priscilla and Aquila. He said, “They risked their lives for me.” We need people like this. Even when you fight a war, the war will be won because of people like this. People who simply go, knowing they may die, because if they do not do this, we cannot be victorious in this war. Even if it’s people who are necessary in the spiritual battle for world evangelization, but these people exist. God prepared these people in the age of Rome as well as the present age as well, those who will work alongside the evangelists.
Paul says, “Not only I, but all the churches and Gentiles are grateful for them,” Paul is grateful but the Gentile churches was grateful as well as all of the Greeks. This couple actually fled to Corinth because the Jews were kicked out of that region that didn’t allow any more Jews, so as Paul was leaving Macedonia he met them in Corinth. Paul started doing the evangelism movement as they did the work of making tents together, and from that point on, they kept following Paul around; wherever Paul went, they went. These were people whose profession was to make tents, and they proclaimed the gospel until the very end. When he went to Rome, they went to Rome as well.
Today, Paul is sending this letter to the church in Rome. Later on, Paul was martyred. The reason why the churches of the Gentiles were thankful to Priscilla and Acquila was that they gave their entire profession for the gospel. These are people who received that much grace and received the economy of light. Because, even if they gave everything, God kept on pairing more upon them because there were people who were to be saved through them. If you look at Romans 16:5, “Greet .also the church that meets at their house,” which means they used their house as a church; they just gave everything completely to the gospel movement. In our terms, they used their home as a mission home. They gave their house over in the work of raising up the next generation and multiethnic people.
A lot of multiethnic people have to come and receive training but there is no place for them to stay, and they gave up their house for that evangelism movement, and they gave up their business as well, but did they fail because of that? No. They were recorded as great, wealthy people. Age by age, there are wealthy people whom God has prepared, and what’s the characteristic of that? They use everything they have for God’s mission and evangelism, and that’s why God continues to pour out more of His economy.
You don’t give when God pours it upon you, but already from the beginning they had that heart, and as they continue to give God continued to work. They were protectors of the evangelists, and they raised up many missions and churches in their mission fields with their money. They even gave up their own home to worship and to save many people. There are people like this prepared for world evangelization. It’s not something you can calculate, such people cannot do world evangelization and they will be taken in by the devil because they’re living their walk of faith by manipulating their minds and the reason they are taken in by the devil is because they get lost in their own thoughts.
There is no such thing as your thoughts; your thoughts must change into the Word of God. The reason why you destroy yourself is because your thoughts are destroying you. Everybody thinks. Even as you guys are listening to me, you’re thinking, and those thoughts determine who you are. Where do your thoughts come from? If they came from the Word of God, you would hold onto God’s word; if you receive your thoughts from the word then you’ll go according to your thoughts. The characteristic of those who are victorious is that, without a doubt, they follow after God’s word not their own thoughts. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, if you fall into your own thoughts you will be seized by Satan.
It’s not about your things. How can my possessions be my own? You’re being taken in by Satan later on because you think they’re your own. Everything will be stolen away by the world, do you know how? They are going to be taken away by strange circumstances, through diseases, through your children, through all the circumstances that take place because it’s not yours; it belongs to God. It’s not yours.
If you hold onto it and pray thinking it belongs to you, it will be stolen away. It is used to fulfill God’s mission. You are living with the mission God has given you, and what’s that? Evangelism and missions. You use everything for evangelism and missions, and you use them to fulfill that mission. That’s what Priscilla and Aquila did.
How did they risk their lives for Paul? They thought they had to do that. They did that because the circumstance called for that in order for Paul to proclaim the gospel, so those thoughts were given to them by the Word of God. It’s not about what I want. If you live in America, you shouldn’t live the life you want; it must be the life where God’s will is fulfilled. Why do people fail in their walk of faith? We fail because of “me,” but where did this “me” come from? You fail because the “me” comes from the 12 problems of Satan.
“I am scarred.” think about it carefully, when did it become a scar? If you think about it carefully, it was your pride that was scarred, your very righteous thoughts, bound up by yourself, and when that is touched, you say that’s a scar. It’s not because someone touched you, but it’s because you’re so wrapped up by yourself that, so you have no choice but to be hurt because someone said that. If someone is healthy and someone touches them, it doesn’t hurt them, but if you are so wrapped up by yourself then it will hurt, it must be God’s word. Then, everything becomes an answer, it becomes God’s Word and a blessing of meeting. You have to change all the scars and all the things that hurt that you’re interpreting by yourself.
You don’t just get swindled but you have a standard in you that have no choice but to be swindled. Not everyone gets swindled. I didn’t because I don’t have greed of making money, so there’s no way to swindle me. One time a elder tried to con me, and I didn’t know at the time, and 100% of you guys would get caught by that. Do you know what he said? “Pastor, there’s a new engine oil from Japan, and if you swipe this card once, you can go 50,000 or 100,000 miles.” It sounds great because normally you’d have to change out your engine oil every few months back then, and if you swamped your card once you didn’t have to do that. Do you know what he said after that? “I have to invest in this.” I thought, “Why would he tell me this?” I found out later on, if I have the inner nature of trying to make money really quickly, “This is going to make a lot of money so I’m going to invest in that,” but not only did I have any money, but I was interested in doing missions and evangelism, so I had no interest in that. Nobody said anything to me, but if I had a heart that said, “oh this can make me a lot of money quickly,” I would get caught up in it myself, without doing any research at all, just because of my greed, “I’m going to make it big,” and that’s how everyone gets caught. This person will still say, “I was conned.”
But on the other hand, this person was already carrying inside of them that had no choice but to con. Think about it very carefully. How much do you think they lost money on things like this? A lot of people don’t give any offering but get their money stolen away on things like this, and the reason is because you have a nature within you that is very cunning and you say it’s all swindled away. If that person had a little bit of skill, they would be a conman, and they have no choice but to keep getting caught into things like “my things.”
I was going to my job very well, and my coworker said he wouldn’t work anymore. “I came from a very high position, then I was getting spun around in circles and couldn’t handle the adjustment anymore.” He spoke about electric blankets which were trendy in Korea back then, and he kept telling me to buy this to make money, so even when I was an unbeliever, I wasn’t interested in that. I never had an interest in making a lot of money. Because I was so afflicted with the answer of life I had no choice to worry about money. If someone’s interested in money, then that person is fine, but that person left the company and I don’t know what happened to him.
So, he was not satisfied with the working life, but everybody has this futile, overblown sense of success inside of them. We live completely trapped within Satan’s frame. Success is important, and if you want to proclaim the gospel, you have to be successful in some area. Success means you must have something so no one will be able to at least compete with you in that one area of specialty. Even if I’m not good at studying, I must have one area of specialty that other people can’t fight against me. I can do that, and even if you can’t study, you can do that.
Let’s say I’m cleaning. Then I have to be so good at cleaning that people can’t compete with me even if I cannot study. You must have that. That is how you can do the evangelism movement but you don’t think that way. People think very overblown, futile thoughts, they think studying is everything even though only 1% of the population can study well. Then do 99% of the population have to collapse? It means you’ve been programmed that’s something from the world not from God.
People who are good at studying must be in a position of studying that other people cannot touch you but nowadays, that’s very difficult. If you’re running a restaurant, you must be in a position where people can’t compete with you. You can do that’s, you don’t have to study, that is your studies. If you’re unemployed, you have to play so much that other people can’t compete with you. Just because you can dance a little bit doesn’t mean you should be arrogant and try out in idol groups; you have to make it so that other people cannot follow you.
My brother is five years older than me, and he was different. Instead of studying, he kept asking my mom for a drum set, and even from my young age, I thought he was very immature. He was only in 8th grade; why did he need a drum set? This was in the 1970s. Nowadays, you can buy a drum set, but back then in Korea, where would you get a drumset? Not even the churches had drumsets. But he was so arrogant, “I’m gonna become a singer, because I can sing a little bit.” It’s very difficult like that.
At that point, if there was an adult who was able to guide him correctly, he would be good, but we were living in a non-believer family and they didn’t know any better so my mom said “No,” because it seemed unnecessary and immature but they didn’t guide him properly. Later on, after spinning in circles many, many times, he finally found something that was fitting for him. So, people keep calling him saying they need him, because his occupation fits him perfectly. Everyone has something like that. There are remnants here, but it’s the same for church officers; even now, it’s not too late.
The way you have to think is that it’s not for your success but it’s for missions and evangelism that you go into the 0%. No matter what you do, hold onto it and put it towards missions and evangelism. That’s the standard; nothing else is the standard. If you criticize other people saying, “Why are you like this?” Then you’re finished. You pray for them again and research for missions and evangelism.
It’s the same for the church and any work you’ve been given for the church. You pray and do it again, it’s the same no matter what. You need to have that to be used for missions and evangelism. That’s a professional thought. It’s very necessary. In other words, you must have very professional thinking. If you say you’re going to barely get by then I’m sorry it’s not gonna work out because God didn’t call us to just get by. In the area you’ve been given, you must be such a specialist that nobody can compete with you, and you use that as a weapon for missions and world evangelization. You have to know that to pray properly.
What happens if you do everything haphazardly? You’ll be looked down on. When you go out into the world like that, people will laugh at you. You’ve been called for missions and evangelism, but people in the world will look down on you. I’m not telling you to not make mistakes, people in theory make mistakes too, but I’m saying it’s important to have the right thoughts. Overcoming success. It’s the same no matter what you do. It’s great in America because even those who don’t have any jobs can help the elderly, but people do it so haphazardly, why? Because it’s so comfortable to do things haphazardly. That’s my life.
You live your lives haphazardly. You research this person and help this person so surely so that no one else can criticize what you’re doing, because you have to use it for missions and evangelism for saving people. “Oh, but it takes so much time,” then just do it for however long it takes. “Then how would I do everything?” You just do things as you normally do until they say, “You’re doing it too much,” and they tell you not to come anymore.
If you’ve been given a task, do it to that extent, why? For missions and evangelism. I think this is very important. As I was doing missions and evangelism, I thought, “Isn’t this something we can just do?” That’s not true, because first and foremost, if you just do things haphazardly, you’re going to starve. The church can’t teach you this; the church teaches you what God desires, that’s how you’ll have a prayer topic and you’ll able to draw an image, but if you don’t even know about image, and you go haphazardly your life becomes haphazard.
I think Priscilla and Aquila did not live like that. I think Phoebe delivered Paul’s message, and I don’t think she was haphazard. I think, without a doubt, she had a mission from God and staked her life on her mission. But if that doesn’t take place, then the people of the church will be pushed aside by the people of the world. That’s why kids come from the world, and they see that everybody here is cutting corners and it’s so haphazard that they look down on the church.
When they come to the church, they think churches are always like this but the church is meant to save the world, so realistically speaking, we need to have a very professional mindset, why? For missions and evangelism. I think that’s correct. It was the truth even when I was in the world. If you cut corners and do things haphazardly, then even if I am not a foolish person people still look down on you. And I think it’s very important to instill this thinking and standard, because if we don’t do that, we’ll all be cutting corners, doing our best, or whatever it takes. That’s not right; we must go to the highest place, to the summit, and that’s how we have missions and evangelism.
If people look down on you, how are you going to do missions and evangelism? If people are looking down on you how are you gonna do missions and evangelism? Jesus is inside of you, that’s true, but what are you not allowed to teach? The church doesn’t teach you what is the standard for which you are working and studying that is the standard, and if the church does teach that, it’s always the standard for worldly success. That’s why there’s a lady who talked to me from a church in one of the mission fields I went to she said, “As soon as these kids get into college, they always leave the church.” It’s because the messages were always about success, and so especially if they go to a good college, they don’t come back because the sermons are about success and they’ve attained success which is the reason they go to church.
This lady was also going to the schools to evangelize, but there was something deeply imprinted in her. When she went to University Bible Fellowship, she was seized by success. Honestly speaking, she went to the colleges to evangelize because it was a habit that was instilled in her when she went to UBF. You have to meet with the college students and and plant the value into them, but instead of planting the value of the gospel, she’s plating the value of success and that’s why students in Ivy Leagues never come back, because this is the reason why they lived their walk of faith.
They said, “I believe so that I can succeed, and now that I’ve succeeded, I don’t have to do this anymore,” so that’s why our goal is not success but world evangelization. That’s aligned with God and it must be aligned with God to receive answers. That is how you’ll be able to see the things that God has prepared. There’s no doubt about it.
Because of the church officers in Romans 16, Rome evangelization was possible. If there weren’t these certain and sturdy church officers in the church of Rome, do you think that in 313 years, the Roman empire would have changed to Christianity? These people were stationed in the churches and that’s why it was relayed to the future generations, so simply speaking, the Christians in Rome are inspirational. If anything, they go in as slaves but they completely change the hearts of the royalty. In reality, they were not there as slaves; they went in as missionaries to proclaim the Gospel to the royal family. They did all the work of bathing, feeding, and changing the kids and sending them off to schools, then what do you think they did?
What do you think Joseph did as a slave? Do you think he lived a haphazard life, cutting corners and making sure nobody was looking? Did he think, “What’s the point of working hard when I’m not going to get compensated anyways?” Daniel was a smart kid, but do you think he went to Babylon and said, “this isn’t even my nation what’s the point of trying hard and do things haphazardly?” that’s not true. I am a missionary, and whatever work I’m doing is the work that God has given me, and the way he did it was to make everything to the 0%, he was a complete professional, so God didn’t stay still. God gave blessings through Joseph, because Joseph had this thinking.
If Joseph was thinking, “Well, I guess I’m a slave now, so I just have to do things haphazardly and make sure my boss doesn’t catch me,” then why would God give blessings to him? Age by age, the Bible-preaching believers were always the same. Even in the Roman era they went in as slaves but they weren’t doing things haphazard but in 0%. Even if the master was looking, they did things so surely that no one could criticize what they were doing and people were inspired by that. In reality, they were slaves but all the kids respected them so much that they planted the word into them. Whenever the kids were rude to their parents, the slaves would give them the words of God and the kids began to change. The kids were changing to very respectful children. Because the children were changing, the parents couldn’t say whatever they wanted even though the person was a slave.
It’s the same for your job. If people are treating you rudely, it means that you are doing something wrong. Your position isn’t what’s important, but God has prepared all the blessings for you to be like this. There are some remnants who graduated from high school and are working part time. I hope you’ll be very certain. What comes later isn’t important, but whatever work you’re doing right now, be sure about it. Be sure to what extent? To the point that other people have nothing to criticize about. You have to be so sure in your work that other people will look and say, “Wow.” You have to receive that answer, and such a person will not be mocked and missions and evangelism will take place through that person.
That’s the standard, no matter what specialty you’re in, whether you’re doing work in the church, the family, or the world, it doesn’t matter. I hope you will have that standard and receive those answers, then these people have no choice but to do world evangelization, so your thinking is very important. What’s important is what comprises your thinking, then it doesn’t matter whether your job is good or bad because you just go in and save everybody. You have to think about this very well.
In order for the world and nation to move, they have to have all these positions. If there’s even one job missing, then it’s not going to work. Let’s say everyone who was making this mic just left, “All I do is make the head of a mic,” then life is going to be difficult for us. Instead, they say, “I’m going to make the best mic ever,” Then what’s going to happen? Everywhere the mic is used, the proper message is relayed, so making a mic is not a bad job at all. People do make money by building mics, so your thinking is very important.
I’m not just telling you to just succeed, no, but there’s a blessing God has given us, such as this. As you pray and research, God will raise you to the seat where you influence other people. That’s what Rev. Ryu means when he speaks of the 10 mysteries and going into the desert.
If you look at Europe, the Christians were so persecuted that they scattered. They were persecuted and spread all over, to the Netherlands, Greece, Switzerland, and everywhere they went, what did they do? They went to Switzerland and made watches. How can you make things the best? They went into Germany, “How can we make the greatest cars here?” All of these places the Christians went to create, do you think they made these things just to eat and survive?
In the 1500s, after the Religious Reformation, the message through Luther is that whatever job your doing is your mission in life, and that was the Reformation in their lives. In the medieval age, the Catholic church was so strong, and this was the time when the Christian minority was persecuted and scattered, but everything that these Christians were doing became the icon of that nation. These people didn’t go and learn it somewhere, but they went into the desert and made it themselves. So they went and made it into something like a plaza where everyone could go.
They didn’t go to where things already existed but they were kicked out where nobody was, and they created it like that. They created one coffee shop and it was very good. They made one bread store and it was very good, and people would come to eat the bread. How good did they make it? They didn’t make it to just make money; they understood that this was their calling and mission from God, so they did this as a way of missions praying before God. Because people were pouring in to try the bread, shops would open up next door.
Because people kept flocking into that region, all of the people wanting to make money knew that this was a place to invest their business, so they made hotels, and made a shopping mall around it. So, not only did they restore the gospel, but they saved the entire economy, and it was through people like this that Europe became such a fortified place, and that was the Christians of that generation. There’s a name for those people but I forget because I didn’t study well (Huguenots, yes.)
It’s the same. Wherever you go, you’re not borrowing money from people, but you make it there. You’re making a river in the desert, why? Because of missions and evangelism. So, everywhere you go, you have no choice but to make masterpieces because you have the skills. Even now, I listen to the testimonies of missionaries. They went into Cambodia during the middle of the genocide. They taught Korean and English, and Chinese and Indonesian. As these kids are growing up, they had no hope for the future, all of these kids had really long nails, and when they ate the food, bacteria gets in their system get sick they cut their nails because they didn’t even have nail clippers.
Kids were running around naked so they brought clothes from Korea to clothes the children, too, and in order to teach them praises Bible messages, they have to teach them languages as well, and they went into this empty place and these kids graduated so the missionaries had no choice but to make schools and those who graduated from that school had no choice but to become elites.
So, this evangelist really established things there because these kids from this places will graduate and get jobs because they were able to speak and read the language, but these people didn’t know the gospel or religion, but they knew the missionary was of a benefit to their nation. Because they educate the kids and teach the kids how to read and write, and so when the companies come and work diligently imagine how much they are saving everybody. Then there are even some Cambodians who are in America, and they are able to get married because they can communicate in the same language, so if the gospel properly goes in, everything comes to life.
It’s not that they went into places that things already exist; this is a completely empty nation. And the missionaries tried to run away as much as they could but God blocked them so they couldn’t. They created this from a place that had nothing. Even in America, the mentality was that there was nothing here and they created a nation from it, but you and I have this blessing. 237 nations, 5000 unreached people groups, there’s no way to reach them so we have to create this. God promised He prepared this for us in Matthew 28. If it already exists, everybody can do it. Go to the places where nothing exists because the people who say it’s not here are the people who don’t have anything.
Of all the thoughts you could think, why would you think that? There are even demon-worshiping temples, why would you not think this way? That’s a very fallen thought; you must change your thinking. “I must leave behind a spiritual platform for the future generations to fight the spiritual battle.” The demon-worshiping temples are doing it, so why aren’t we? That is an elite thought. Elite isn’t someone who studies well, but that thought in itself is elite. That’s how you will lead the society and lead world evangelization.
Elite is not someone who follows people, an elite isn’t someone who just studies well. If your thoughts are completely rotten, if you’re just trying to get an easy handout, or you try to crush the people below you, that’s not an elite. You might be a little bit smarter, but that’s not an elite. A true Christian, making it in the desert, in the wilderness, then you need to have the thoughts of an elite. Even if you’re last place ins studies they have elite thoughts. Because even if you’re in the last place in your school, if you’re doing elite things, that’s an elite. God has given us all His own talents fairly. It’s just the kids are getting foolish because their parents put stupid, foolish things in them.
“You have to become a doctor,” there was a church officer who said “I heard you told Fanny to become a doctor,” it’s not that I told her to be a doctor, but she likes working with kids “Do whatever takes place for you,” and I told her to become whatever. It seemed as if the church officer looking at me critically, “oh the pastor you told us not to aim for success but you told this to your kid” you can imagine whatever you want, and that person has a lot of scars. They have to change for them to overcome that.
If I wanted to become a doctor, I would become a doctor but there is something God desires. That’s what I’m saying; I’m not telling them to do anything. The parent looks at their kids to see what their talent may be, and you just keep praying for them and pushing them forward, but every single person has a talent given by God. No matter what you’re doing, the most important thing is that you take it to the greatest summit because success is not your greatest motive, it is mission and evangelism you have to give good influence. Of course, you can be very half-hearted and very weak and deliver the gospel in a very shameful way. Sure, it’s true, you can always be a drunkard and give the gospel to drunkard friends, but it’s hard to give good influence because this is not a society that’s built on drinking.
Many unbelievers are so well off, and we need to be able to evangelize to them in a proper and upright way. Of course, it’s possible for you to become sick and proclaim the gospel in the hospital, but not everyone in the world is a patient. There’s always a way for you to proclaim the gospel, no matter what but what I’m talking about is to go into the 0% so that you do what you can no by else can do and you do it there. It’s not a simple feat, but that’s the thinking you must have.
To save people, not just saving people, but to give great influence to the entire region. I believe this blessing has been prepared by God for us, and all we have to do is start praying because that’s how God will guide us. All you have to do is escape from the demon’s thoughts that you cannot do this. What can someone like me do? You have to just escape from that kind of thinking. “This is all I’m doing, how could I do this?” You do whatever you do to the greatest level. “I’m just going to do this for a little bit, and not do it anymore” do your best, and that’s how it will be related to other things. I hope you will enjoy this blessing and relay it to the next generations, too. Let us pray holding onto the Word we have received.
Prayers
Let us pray for missions. God has promised that He has prepared missions for us just like He promised Abraham and I desire for us to go into that. I desire for my life, my possessions, my business, and my life to go into missions. I desire for the church to go into that. There are many nations we pray for, and we participate in that with our prayers, money, and personally, directly, so let us pray for missions.
Let us pray for the Sunday message. God raised up the church and relays His Word according to His time schedule. We don’t need words that fit with ourselves, I may like it because it’s a word that fits with me, but what’s more important is that it’s a word that aligns with God, because it must be a word that God desires for the Word to come to me, and that’s why we pray. We don’t know what we will face in the coming week, so God gives us the Word so that we can prepare. Let us pray for the Sunday message.
There’s an intensive camp Sunday-Monday for the youth. There wasn’t a church officer who was invited, they didn’t invite us, so all we can do is pray. These kids are wandering around, and there needs to be a male young adult there. I was nervous at first because I heard the female young adults were going, but that’s about their physical safety, but I pray they may have the imprint, root, and nature in the proper gospel.
We have a few multiethnic people as well as people who are sick in the church, and because they are sick they cannot come to church, so I hope you will pray for them. I hope that you can pray for those who are suffering mentally and physically, and pray for their families as well.