Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Romans chapter 15, verses 23 and 24.

But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions,

and since I've longed for many years to come to you,

I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there

by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while."

So this is Paul describing why he wrote the book of Romans, this letter to the church at

Rome.

He says, there's no more work for me to do

in these regions, in all the places he's been traveling, where he's been sharing the gospel

and planting churches. But I want you to think about that statement with me for a second. No more work

to do in those regions? Like, he's writing this letter from the city of Corinth,

which was a totally messed up place. Like, there were so much need for more gospel work to happen

in Corinth. So how can Paul say, there's no more work for me to do here? Or in all these other

places where he had been, cities where he'd planted the church. But that's the point. Paul is saying,

by God's grace, the gospel has come to these cities. There's Christians in these cities now. There's

churches in these cities. And I'm coming to you because I need help from you to keep going to Spain.

Why Spain? Because they had never heard the gospel in Spain. Because there were no Christians and

no churches in Spain. And the command of Jesus for his church is to keep pressing on and making

disciples until all the nations, until all the peoples, all the tribes, all the languages

have been reached with the gospel,

which means the church's mission is not finished while there are still more places that

...