Philippians chapter 2. I normally begin a sermon with a brief reminder of our context, but I feel like the past day has probably already given you a great understanding of the context here of Philippians 2, so we'll just begin by reading chapter 2 in its entirety. The Word of the Lord says, If there be, therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but look every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of the things in heaven and the things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all for the same cause also do you joy and rejoice with me. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I may also be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. But you know the proof of him that as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel. Him, therefore, I hope to send presently. so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. Yet I suppose it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger. and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness, because that you had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more carefully that when ye see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation. Because of the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once again. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this passage. We thank you for this church and this opportunity that we have to focus in on this book and to study it together here this week. I pray that you would use my words, that I would not add or subtract anything from the message that you have for us here this evening from this text. Speak to our hearts, help us be those who would receive in humility and live out in faithfulness the things that we receive from your word here tonight. And we ask these things in your name, amen. Well, the title of the message this evening is The Marks of Faithful Laborers. And I must admit at the onset that I am assuming a couple of things as we begin here tonight. First of all, I'm assuming that I'm talking primarily to believers this evening. There's an unbeliever here. We are certainly glad that you're here. And the gospel will certainly be here in our message tonight. But I'm going to assume that I'm speaking primarily to believers. Also, since you're here at 7.40 on a Monday evening, especially after seeing how late we went last night, you must have some desire for the things of the Lord. Therefore, the thrust of this message is not to show you why you should be a faithful servant, but we will focus on how to be faithful servants. I'm going to forego, for the most part, the sales pitch, in other words, for faithfulness, to avoid preaching to the choir what they already know, because you're here. And we're very glad for that. We have three points here this evening. First of all, I want to show or demonstrate from God's word here that faithfulness begins as a matter of conviction. Faithfulness begins as a matter of conviction. Secondly, we'll see that faithfulness produces action. And finally, that faithfulness delights in godly companions. As we begin here, with faithfulness begins as a matter of conviction. We read in verses one and two, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels of mercies, and by the way, this is not Paul asking a question if these things are true, but because they are true, his argument stems from them. In verse two, fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. We see unity in conviction. As we consider Christian unity, we must begin by acknowledging that unity in Christ is not merely an ideal to which we aspire, but through Christ, it is a present reality. The true body of Jesus Christ is united in him. We simply fail to live out that unity in practical ways. many times. A faithful laborer will seek to live out this unity in relation to his fellow believers. And it's important to note here that this is not simply unity for the sake of unity. Many churches strive for unity behind a certain mission or in a specific ministry, often fueled by the vision of what's achievable if we just all get together and work in unison. We think that if we just find our little niche, then we'll start to see success. Maybe it's the bus ministry, maybe it's the Sunday school program. We just need to find the thing that we have that the church across the street doesn't have, and then we'll start to see God work. No, that's not what we mean when we talk about Christian unity. Many have united around men, maybe it's a popular Politician, I will just second pastor's words about tomorrow night. You know, if you stay home and you watch the debate, you might hear something true, maybe. But if you come here, you will be sure to hear the truth of God's word. Sans much fluff or shall we say deceit. a politician, a famous celebrity, maybe even an ambitious pastor. Many have united around these men only to realize all too late the one they were following was leading them over the cliff, away from truth. We're not called to unite around an idea, an institution, or a human preacher. We're called to unite around Jesus Christ and his word. Second thing that we see here is humility in verses three and following. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Paul begins this thought with two contrasts here in verses three and four. You know, we've all met people before who seem to be completely self-absorbed. As the joke goes, if you haven't, then look in the mirror, right? No, but we really don't even have to say that in this case, because even those of us who are most self-centered Notice it, and it looks real ugly on somebody else. It's very natural for us to be self-centered. After all, you spend most of your time with you. You know your own needs and desires better than just about anyone else. As my children right now are very young, there's a sense in which I'm responsible for their well-being even more than they are, but that will not always be the case. If I read for you a story about a child dying after a parent left him in the back seat on a hot summer day, you would naturally assume the parent was negligent. But if I added the detail that it was an able-bodied 17-year-old, you'd probably assume there was more to the story and expect a different outcome. My daughter isn't even three yet, but she's already figured out how to press the button to open the door on our minivan, or, tonight, close it before Grandma was able to get out of the car. Very early on, we have to start learning how to do things for ourselves. And it's good for us to take care of ourselves, to acquire, through our own labor, the provisions that we need So Paul is not telling us here to neglect our own needs, nor is he telling us to always prioritize the needs of others above our own. Sometimes we tend to change a word here in verse four. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. We say, look not every man on his own things, but every man instead on the things of others. That's not what the verse says. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. You should look out for yourself. You shouldn't only look out for yourself. You should take care of your own needs to the extent that you're able. But you should be able to go beyond that to meet the needs of those around you as much as you are able as well. You should strive to provide for your own needs but faithful laborers of the Lord don't stop there. Faithful servants don't just rise to society's low bar of self-sufficiency. In fact, they leave it in the dust. We should also note here that looking out for the needs of others does not mean enabling them as they live a life of sin and laziness. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul wrote, For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. So Paul is not contradicting himself in these two passages, and neither is the Holy Spirit as the ultimate author of both texts. So what does it mean to look out for the things of others? The fact that there is no contradiction here is actually extremely important theologically. because Paul turns next to Christ as the premier example of this selflessness and to link Jesus' death on the cross for our sins with superfluous and unnecessary enablement would completely undermine the gospel. Fundamental to the Christian faith is the recognition that Jesus, as he suffered and died on the cross, accomplished something that you and I could not accomplish for ourselves. He didn't die to give us something we could have earned for ourselves if we had just worked a little bit harder. No, Jesus paid the penalty of sin for us because we could never do so for ourselves. This is why the hymnist writes, oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. It is a debt. We will never pay off. And it is a debt. That is no debt at all. Because salvation is a gift from God. This. Is the picture that Paul gives us. of Christ. Though he was our superior in every way, Jesus humbled himself and became a sacrifice on our behalf to save us from the wrath of God on our sin. You know, I don't care how important you think you are. You are far less important than the son of God. So follow his example and be willing to sacrifice and provide for others what they cannot provide for themselves. The third thing that we see here under the conviction of a faithful servant. Unity in Christ, humility in Christ, and purpose. that his purpose will be Christ. In verse nine, we begin in verse eight, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. We don't have time to delve too deeply into this topic this evening, but understand that at the center of the gospel, the focal point to which all things point, you will not find the sinner's need of salvation. As we consider the fact that God sent his son to die for sinners, the answer to the ultimate question why is not because we needed it. What is the root motivation? What is the absolute centerpiece of what God is doing in the gospel? It's not me and my need. That is certainly a piece of the puzzle, but it is not the centerpiece of redemption. The answer to the question, why did God do this? Why did God send his son to die on the cross for sinners? Why was this the plan ever since the Garden of Eden? God sent the son. The son obeyed to honor the father. The father sent the son to die. So that he could exalt the son. The son's root motivation in coming to earth. Is to honor the father through his obedience and the father's root desire in sending the son is to exalt the son. In the eyes of his creation. And this is exactly what verses nine through 12 state. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. To the glory of God the Father. Jesus humbled himself and became our servant, but God the Father did not let him stay there. Jesus rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, and when he returns, he will not be the lamb dying in sacrifice, but the king conquering in all of his glory. At the center of the gospel, we see the triune God of heaven displaying his power and glory. And we as humble servants are honored to have the privilege of bowing low and crying out, oh Lord, how great thou art. And if that's not the gospel you believe, if your gospel centers around you and God is only there because you need him, I urge you to examine whether you serve Christ or whether you think he serves you. Our purpose in all of our convictions must be to point everyone to our Lord Jesus Christ, and in doing so, we will glorify our Heavenly Father. This is why I've repeatedly said to our people, we don't go out and evangelize primarily because lost people need Christ. Because when that's your motivation and you get the door slammed in your face, forget this. We go out and evangelize primarily because Christ is our Lord and he said, take the gospel to the nation. And if we go and they slam the door in our face, we've been obedient. We exist to glorify Christ. Even as Brother Mess mentioned already, John the Baptist in John chapter three said it so well. These words might be the perfect motto for Christian service. He must increase, but I must decrease. Faithfulness begins as a matter of conviction. Unity with my fellow brothers in Christ, humility in Christ, and my purpose is to exalt Jesus Christ. Secondly, we see that faithfulness produces action. Verses 12 and 13, we read this, wherefore, my beloved, As you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We see three things here as well. The first being obedience. True conviction will always reveal itself through action. specifically here, obedience to Christ. If the church truly believes that they are united in Christ and led by him, if the members are truly pursuing humility and seeking to help one another, and if our purpose is truly the exaltation of Jesus Christ for the glory of God, obedience to God's commands will be the evidence of these convictions. Now, you can manufacture obedience for a season. You can't fake it till you make it, but you can fake it for a while. We're in the middle of election season right now. And there are plenty of politicians that want you to believe they have strong convictions on certain issues, even though they're on film promoting the opposite position just a few years ago. But while you can manufacture a false obedience aimed only at deceiving other people, you can't have genuine convictions without obedience. James goes so far as to say that if you're looking at a professing Christian with no action behind his profession, you're looking at a spiritual corpse. He says, Chapter 2, verse 26, as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. When you're at a funeral, you know that the person in the casket is no longer with us. And just as you know that once the soul leaves the body, that person isn't there anymore, when obedience to Christ is absent, you know that no faith is present in that person. Outward obedience doesn't prove the presence of faith, but no outward obedience proves the absence of that faith. Paul, however, here in our passage, speaking of the Philippians, assumes the opposite to be true of his readers, because he has witnessed their faithfulness. The phrase, work out your own salvation, has been used to confuse and manipulate many against the biblical truth that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ. Well, if we're called to work out our salvation, clearly salvation is of works, right? No. This is why we have to have some understanding of the whole of scripture, right? By the way, this is just free, but the pastor said I could have some liberty here. If you delve into finding spiritual influencers online, may I encourage you to stay away from the guys who are always talking about the same or the same two topics? They beat their hobby horse to death, but they know very little of the rest of Scripture, or at least give little evidence that they know what they're talking about. I trust of your pastor, and I saw it on Sermon Audio, that he goes through the Bible and doesn't park on the same passage every week. At some point you'd get sick of it, right? Now, you may say, well, he doesn't move very fast if he's going verse by verse, but he's going through it, right? And that's good. You need that. Because when we just preach what we want to preach and we jump around a lot, what we end up doing is giving you what we think you need to hear instead of what Christ thinks you need to hear. Which is why I really like a conference like this where we're taking the whole book of Philippians. But this work out your own salvation is not talking about earning your salvation through works. How do you know that? Well, because Paul wrote these words and Paul also wrote Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. To understand Paul's words here, we must begin by acknowledging he can't be claiming that we can earn our salvation through works. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, very popular verses, right? For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So either we throw out inerrancy here or there's another explanation. Paul's intent More importantly, the Holy Spirit's intent here is to say that as believers, our works must demonstrate that we belong to Christ. These are Paul's beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, and Paul is encouraging them to continue in the same obedience that he witnessed before when he was with them. The fear and trembling then is not fear of judgment and eternal condemnation, but a desire to achieve excellence. If you are perhaps doing a project, some handyman thing around your house for your wife, you want to do it well. Not because you're afraid of the consequences when you don't, though perhaps that plays into it to some degree. But the fear and trembling here is that It's done in a steady way to achieve excellence. It's not a nervousness that, oh no, God's going to condemn me if I don't work out my salvation the perfect way. But it's that my salvation, my works, my obedience reflects Christ. Joseph Excel states of verse 12, in regard to its spirit, fear and trembling is divested of the stern and depressing character it wears in the Old Testament. In the New, it is always used in connection with obedience and always to signify vehement eagerness to do well. And by the way, that's exactly how it can fit with verse 13. Paul reminds us here that God is the one accomplishing this work in us according to his own purpose. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. So which is it? Do I work out my own salvation or does God work it out? Well, if we're talking about your justification, there's a right answer to that question. If we're talking about sanctification and salvation as a whole, the process of bringing you from here to glory, the answer is both. You know, it's interesting. This is the same truth that Paul points to following Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. I'm often discouraged by how little emphasis we give to Ephesians 2.10 in most of our Bible studies or memorization programs. The whole of that passage is, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. You see, God didn't just save you so you could receive a get-out-of-hell-free card. He saved you so that you would live for Him. Secondly, here we see the witness. Obedience and our witness. In verse 14, Paul says, "...do all things without murmuring and disputings." that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. There's an element here of understanding how we are representing Christ in the world. Griping and complaining. are sins in and of themselves, and we should not gripe and complain. We should not murmur and dispute. But Paul here makes the point that these must specifically be avoided for the sake of our testimony for Christ. We are Christ's ambassadors in this world. If you're a Christian, you bear Christ's name. But do your words and actions portray an accurate picture of who Jesus Christ is? There are many. I mean, we could say most, but we could maybe be honest and say all of us at times. But there are many in this world who bear the name of Christ, whose beliefs and whose actions do not reflect what He taught at all. But it's hard to obey the things I disagree with. If you will indulge me here as we go into a little bit more practical side here. Being blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. There's a lot of applications to that. But I think one that can perhaps illustrate it well is following lesser authorities. There are lesser authorities that we're supposed to follow. Children, obey your parents. Be subject unto the governors and rulers, right? And we all love the exception clauses, but most of the stuff we're called to obey doesn't fall under the exception clauses, okay? And as I would encourage my students, because you'll hear things in a Christian school, whether it's Bible college, this was true when I was in Bible college, it's still true, I'm sure, right? It's true at a Christian high school. You'll hear students at times say, well, that's a dumb rule. Well, I don't worry about that because, you know, that's a silly rule. That doesn't really make any sense, right? We do the same thing with laws, don't we? Well, you know, that's the posted speed limit. But they won't write you a ticket as long as you're within eight or nine miles of it, right? Or depending on who you are, 15 or 20 miles of it. Well, you know, I mean, I'm not going very far. I don't need to put on my seatbelt. whatever goofy law, and I'm not denying that there are goofy laws that don't make any sense, but who made us the judge to decide which laws we're gonna obey? You see, when you only obey the rules, or you only obey the laws that you agree with, you don't really obey at all. You're just as disobedient as the next person. You do what you want, and some of it happens to overlap with the rule book. How many Christians approach scripture that way? Far too many. You see this in something as simple as a dress code, right? I'll pick on the guys, because how often do you pick on the guys with the dress code? That's pretty rare, so we'll have to do it. I'm stretching a little bit here. But one of the rules that you'd have is how short Your hair had to be. That's dumb, that's not in the Bible, where'd they get in this rule? You're right, it's not in the Bible. Where's the passage that says it has to be off your ears and above your collar? It's not there. But where's the passage that says you're allowed to disobey a lesser authority on something as simple as your appearance. It's not there. But, I don't like it. So I don't obey it. What does Jesus say? If you're not faithful in the little things, you won't be faithful in much. Why do we forfeit obedience on such simple things? It hurts our testimony for Christ. It really does. It makes it so we are not different. So we do not stand out in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. among whom we are supposed to shine as lights in this world. Next we see joyfulness. Verse 16, holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do you joy and rejoice with me. There's two sources from which Paul finds joy that he mentions here. He begins with the lesser source. This lesser source of Paul's joy is the continued faithfulness of those to whom he has ministered. It is a great joy to see those whose lives we have invested our time and energy into when we see them make right choices and live faithfully for God. Unfortunately, we often see the opposite, and it grieves us when those whom we have had great opportunities to minister to squander their potential by turning to lives of indulging the carnal desires and vices of their sinful hearts. even greater than the faithfulness of the next generation in the church. Paul's primary joy is that he has been faithful to do the work which God called him to undertake. Paul says here, in essence, I want to rejoice and boast in all that Christ does in you. But even if my ministry to you leaves no meaningful impact on you, I rejoice to have been given the opportunity to serve Jesus Christ. You know, it's easy to get discouraged when we don't see visible growth in the church. When the numbers dwindle, commitment decreases, and various ministries no longer are sustainable because nobody shows up. It's very easy to become disheartened. If the attendance is low on Sunday morning, you feel it, and your pastor feels it. I remember hearing a pastor say that he was once at a conference where somebody asked the speaker who was there that day if he had ever contemplated leaving the ministry. The pastor telling the story didn't remember how the speaker had answered, but he said, I know what my answer would have been. Yeah, every Sunday night. Your pastor pours his time into his study of the word. He pours his heart out in prayer for you throughout the week, and he comes to the pulpit on Sunday morning and Sunday evening to give you the word of God. And most weeks, there's very little encouragement, very little appreciation, and very little evidence of any growth in the flock. I've only been a pastor for a couple of years. But I can tell you, that's true, many a Sunday. You start the day off excited because God has been using this passage in your life all week. And you preach your heart out. And you trust Christ. that his word never returns void because every appearance that you have is it accomplished nothing. And you go home and you lay on your pillow and pray, Lord, I pray it did something. Because you don't see it every day. Now, there are joyous times when you see it on display, but it's not every week. Thank God for your pastor who's only here when it's fun, when there's joy in the response. Now, maybe you say, Pastor, here, that's every week. I imagine, though, it's probably not always the case. I remember sitting in our sanctuary alone one evening after a service when just one other couple had attended. The questions naturally coming into your mind, Lord, what are we doing here? Are there not more people in this town you want to hear your word? You go out, knock on doors in the town, but nobody else shows up the next Sunday. It's easy to become discouraged. We ask God, what are you doing here? You know, I think at least in my own life, so often, he's really showing me how much I judge my own success on temporal results. You know, I can say, and I can even think and believe that my goal is faithfulness, but so often, that's not how I feel. Paul here has learned that the minister's joy needn't be tethered to visible metrics of success. If it's joined instead to faithful obedience to the Lord's commands. When we get a hold of that. We can preach. And yes, it's great. when there's visible fruit, and people are saved, and others come forward and get right with God on different things. But we can also preach to what appear to be dead corpses, dry bones. We can take the gospel and get the door slammed in our face, and we can be joyous. Because today, I obeyed my Savior. I was faithful to his command. Paul's learned that lesson. And he's sitting in jail as he writes this. It'd be pretty easy to think, boy, my ministry's pretty much washed up at this point. Sure, there's a few prison guards here, He had preached to thousands, and now he's relegated to whoever happens to be there next to him. God has created us, saved us, and commissioned us to service. Your labors may look as fruitful as Jonah's in Nineveh or as fruitless as Jeremiah's in Israel. Jonah's heart wasn't right. Jeremiah's typically was. Jonah saw the whole city of pagans repent. Believe in Yahweh. Jeremiah couldn't even get the Israelites to leave their idols. We won't even get started about Hosea. Don't get focused on the externals, whether good or bad. Focus on Christ and the work to which he has called you to dedicate your life through faithfulness to Christ, our joy, our joyful obedience can become a testimony for him in this world, even to people you'll never meet. Not this side of heaven. I've been encouraged, I know you have been to. By people who died long before you were born. Because you've read what they went through. You've seen the struggles in their lives. You've been encouraged even from the biblical authors here. And many others throughout church history. You never know who's watching. Or how God is going to use your faithfulness. But he won't use your faithfulness if you're not faithful. Finally this evening, faithfulness, delights, and godly companions. Verses 19 and following. Paul says, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. But you know the proof of him that as a son with the father, he hath served me in the gospel. Him, therefore, I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also, myself, shall come shortly." We see here that faithfulness, delights, and godly companions, our first sub-point is the scarcity of faithful laborers. The marks of faithful laborers unfortunately, is that there are very few of them. They stand out when they're present. In verse 19, Paul mentions Timothy. This is Timothy, his beloved son in the faith, the Timothy to whom two of Paul's pastoral epistles have been written. One who has become far more than just a brother and pastoral apprentice. Timothy has become to Paul a fellow soldier for the gospel of Christ, a man with whom Paul was not only willing to entrust his own life, but one to whom he could entrust the furtherance of the gospel and the ministry to the Philippian church. If Timothy went to Philippi and reported all is well, Paul could rest confident that all is well, that the church was healthy and faithful. And if Timothy found things in chaos, Paul trusted Timothy could do the work of a faithful shepherd and lead them back to sound doctrine and faithful living. But notice what Paul says in verse 20. For I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. No one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for you. Verse 21, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. Paul is telling the Philippians, I want to send Timothy. I must send Timothy. It has to be Timothy because there is no one else who can do it. Throughout years of ministry, Paul had invested his life not only in planting churches, but in training pastors and those who traveled with him. But as he is now in the later years of his life, only Timothy has remained as this lifelong companion in battle. I'm reminded of Paul's comments to Timothy in his second letter to him. Chapter four, verse nine, and following, Paul says, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed unto Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. There are many who had been saved under Paul's ministry. Many churches that supported him, the Church of Philippi was one such church, even the premier supporter of Paul's ministry. It is not that Paul has no other believers around him. But he has none other like Timothy. Timothy held a unique place in Paul's esteem because of his unequaled faithfulness. I haven't been around all that long. Plenty of you remember me as a little guy, as small as some of my little ones now. I'm not quite 30 years old, but I'm like my dad. In appearance, I'll go from 30 to 50 in about two years, when the hair changes color. And it was before 50 that that happened. I'm sure that is what awaits me, but I've already seen far too many fall away. You have as well. Faithful laborers of Jesus Christ are far too few, and if you will faithfully stand for Christ, you will often experience extreme loneliness for Christ's sake. Be faithful to Christ. You'll lose friends. Family members might despise you, your own children might resent you. It's easy for me to say. But it's 15, 20, 25 years off in the future. But I think it still needs to be said. Because I've seen several follow their children away from the faith. You can play this back in my face when I get there someday if I do that. I hope you will. If for no other reason than for the sake of others. Your greatest concern must be your faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Your greatest love must be your savior. This is what Jesus said in Matthew 10. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth me is not worthy of me. Christ must be who you would choose. Over self. and over your closest relationships here on earth. Unfortunately, as the pressures increase, very few remain faithful. But we shouldn't be surprised that the words of scripture ring true in every generation. We see the scarcity of faithful laborers, but we see also here the friendship between faithful laborers. Paul says in verse 25, yet I suppose it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my once. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that you had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not only him, or not him only, but on me also. lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more carefully that when you see him again, you may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation because for the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me. Epaphroditus evidently had been sent by the church at Philippi to go minister unto Paul, to bring to him whatever they were providing for him. And in the process, he had become very sick and nearly died, which is not what you want when the guest pastor or whoever comes on the mission strip to your mission field. You don't want him to go back home sick or to be so sick he can't go. That's what had happened here, but now he was better. God had healed him and he was returning back to the Philippian church so that they could rejoice in this fellow laborer just as Paul had been able to upon his arrival. It is the scarcity of faithful laborers that makes the fellowship between them so sweet. There's joy in fellowship with true believers, and there's joy in fellowship with those who faithfully persevere to the end. 1 John 3, we read in verse 14, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. You know, non-Christians shouldn't feel very comfortable here in church for very long. Too many of our churches, we try to make the unbeliever feel comfortable so they'll stick around. You know what can destroy a church faster than anything? A whole bunch of unbelievers here in your business meetings voting on what your church does. Because you know, the unregenerate soul does not desire the things of God. Obviously, the goal is for them to come and hear the gospel and be saved. But if they're rejecting Christ, they shouldn't feel very comfortable in their rejection of Him in His house. You know, I'm always a bit nervous about these Christians that can't stand to talk about theology. It just bores them to death. If you love Christ, don't you want to know what he has said in his word, who he is, and what he's done for you? Now, yeah, you may not love it when somebody just starts reading Greek to you, right? But you should have some desire to learn and know what the scriptures say. We love talking about politics, we love talking about sports, but Christ is a bore. Really? It shouldn't be that way. Now, I'm not saying your church is mostly unregenerate. I don't believe that for a moment. I said at the beginning, I'm assuming we have mostly Christians here because of the fact that you come out to a service like this. You didn't come to a rock concert tonight. I assume you didn't think you were coming to a rock concert tonight. You know, sometimes we as Christians are so distracted and absorbed by the concerns of this world that a faithful pastor can quickly become extremely lonely, even in his local church. Now, I grew up in ministry. My parents were in ministry. And I was at Camp Assurance on Saturday mornings after everyone else had gone home. And we spent many Sundays in very small churches, where if there were any other kids, I didn't know them at all. It might surprise you, not if you've known me for very long, I was pretty shy. That's still my nature, unfortunately, well, I shouldn't say unfortunately, but the job that I'm in requires me to break out of that shyness a little bit. which is good. A professor of mine at Bob Jones received this advice when he entered his first pastorate and he passed it on to us students, have a big heart and thicker skin. In other words, love your people but don't expect that love to be reciprocated. Because if you go into pastoral ministry, if you go into ministry of any kind, expecting everyone to love and appreciate you, you're going to be greatly disappointed. You're hosting a pastor's fellowship tomorrow morning. And I've come to find that some pastors will drive hours to these things and stay late afterward, just talking to one another. And you know, some pastors love these times so much because they're some of the only times where they get to fellowship with fellow soldiers in the fight for Christ. I trust I'm speaking primarily to Christians tonight, but as believers and followers of Christ, I wonder this evening, are you focused and faithful or distracted and faltering. I hope this message has both challenged and encouraged you to be a faithful laborer for Christ. Perhaps you've realized tonight you don't have genuine convictions to live for Christ. It's all fake. Any obedience is you trying to muster up the ability to look good on the outside. If that's the case, I humbly encourage you to examine yourself and beg Christ to redeem you and transform your calloused heart. Maybe you're a Christian this evening and you've realized there's far too little obedience accompanying your profession. Isn't it time to get right with God, to get rid of that pet sin, to get serious about his calling on your life? Or perhaps you'd say tonight, preacher, I realized. I need to be a Timothy. I need to become a faithful labor, I need to come alongside my pastor, my fellow church members and be a faithful companion in Christ. I know enough about this church. Not a ton, but enough. It doesn't take long to learn this. to know that Brother Claxton here is surrounded by some other very godly men. Praise God for that. But if we're honest, very similar to our situation in Watsika, those faithful men who have served this church for years have seen their hair turn colors as those years have gone by. If this church is going to continue and grow over the next 50 years, God is going to have to raise up a new generation of leaders to carry that mantle forward. We need to be praying to that end. Perhaps there are even some here who will be God's answer to those prayers. They about have to be in the nursery. If they're going to be here 50 years from now, leading God's church. By the way. You'll know them. Or you'll know him. And if we're talking about pastors and deacons, it will be a him, by the way. I'll toss that in there for free. You will know them by their marks of faithful service to our King. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I trust that you have used this text through an all too limited preacher. I pray that you have brought us to a faithful understanding of this text this evening. And I ask that as we go forth from here, first, if there is one here who is not a believer, that they would understand the need of Christ in their life. Lord, for those of us who are your children, may we be encouraged and emboldened to faithfully follow you no matter the costs. And we ask these things in your precious name, amen. Pastor. I'd like everybody to have their heads bowed, eyes closed. I want you really to reflect on this message. Are you a faithful laborer? Not asking about the person sitting next to you, Are you a faithful laborer? Of course, the first foundational question is, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? I do wonder if I'm speaking to some this evening that you're playing a game. You don't really know the Lord. You come into church, you think it's all about you. It's not about you, it's about him. Friend it is needful for you tonight to turn from your sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ His judgment his wrath abides on you even this moment