Philippians again, I know that you were not expecting that For the visitors we've been dealing with the Philippians for quite some time and last week You didn't hear from me on Philippians. You heard a great word from Jordan and that was exciting. So I'm excited to get him back up here again soon and Because I like to get fed too. Amen All right, so as we've been looking through the book of Philippians, Paul is writing from Rome, he's writing from prison, just to keep reminding you, your repetition is good. And he is writing to a church that was the first church that he planted in Europe, in the town or the city of Philippi. And since that time, he has been incarcerated in Rome. And he's a prisoner and waiting to find out what's going to happen, whether he's going to be executed or whether he's going to be set free. So I don't know if you've ever thought about what would you, how would you deal with being in some place where you were waiting to just hear your fate and not knowing. How would you, how would you prepare yourself for that? What would you do to get ready for the news, be it good or bad? How would you prepare your friends, your family, people that knew you for that event? A number of years ago, this is completely off topic where we are, and it's not. A number of years ago, I felt like the Lord wanted us to do a day where we looked at planning for the future as far as our families. Be sure that we have things in place that if something happens to us, they're provided for. I don't know how many of you have a will. I don't know how many of you have made arrangements, how many of you have documents that are readily available to your family members. But I would encourage you to do that. So many times I hear of people who suddenly are taken in death and the family doesn't know what to do, where to go, who to get hold of, how to handle it. And I would encourage you, it's not a morbid thing, it's simply being prepared. And I would encourage you to prepare yourself for that. Unless the Lord comes, we're all gonna Yeah, we don't like that word. I know people don't like to go to funerals because they don't want to be reminded about it. But the fact is we will face death. And along that line, are you ready to meet God? So it's not just preparing yourself for physical life, physical death, but what about eternal life? I trust that everybody in here, you're prepared to meet God. that you have forgiveness through Jesus Christ, that you know you're forgiven, that you know you have life eternal, and that there's no doubt in your mind that should you die today, that you would be with God, just like the thief on the cross knew that he would be in paradise with Jesus because Jesus told him, you'll be with me today. So there's an assurance that we can have of our salvation in terms of knowing where we're going. But, I would encourage you if you've not made plans for your departure, either spiritual or financial and emotional, I would encourage you to do business, get ready. So with that in mind, now we started off with the grim reaper this morning. I'm really up on it today, aren't I? Honey, you wanna get up here and cheer him up again? But Paul's writing to this church that he's founded. And last week or the week before, we dealt with Timothy. He's gonna speak about two men. One was Timothy. We talked about Timothy the week before. And some of the things that we learned about Timothy is the places that Paul sent him that you wouldn't think he would send a guy like Timothy. And yet he was placed in situations that were extremely difficult. Paul sent him to Corinth. We talked about that with a letter that was a letter of rebuke. It was a letter to basically to straighten out the church at Corinth who was in all kinds of problems and sinful issues. And he sent Timothy with a letter to go there and to straighten them out. And I asked that question, how would you have liked to have been Timothy? How would you like to take on the responsibility of having to bring that letter to a church and not knowing how they might accept it? He was also sent to Thessalonica to try to straighten out some things there. So Timothy was a young man that sometimes we only think of him as being a young guy who's a pastor at one particular place, but he pastored in Ephesus. He was quite a young man, even though he had some issues in his life, some timidity at times. And the lesson I think we learned in that is God can use people, even though it goes against their bent, you might be of a certain bent, a certain personality. And you may say, well, you know, that's just not me to do this particular thing. Well, God doesn't use you because of your personality. He uses you because He's God and He can equip you to do what He calls you to do. That's the wonder of it. That's the beauty of it. God doesn't call you because you're all ready for it. And He doesn't call you because you're so gifted for it. He gifts you for it. He equips you for it. He takes the foolish things to confound the wise. And so when God called Timothy to do the things He did, it didn't make sense to a lot of people, I'm sure. Um, when, when the Lord called me to preach, I ran from it like, I mean, I was a sprinter. I was not only a sprinter. I was a, I mean, I really sprinted to run away from the call of God because I felt like, you know, God, I can't do what you're calling me to do. And I know some of you in here, you felt the same way that the Lord's called you to do something and you, you've thought to yourself, I can't accomplish that. And you're right. because the scripture says it's not by a might nor power, but it's by his spirit. It's not by your might or your power or your ingenuity or your abilities. It's in spite of those things. That's why God gets the glory. God gets the glory. He uses weak things and foolish things to confound those that seem like they're strong in the world. He uses this thing called the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. The news of a man hanging on the cross, dying, which is foolishness to men, but it's the power of God to salvation to those who believe. So we looked at Timothy, and I'm not going to retrace all of that, but I wanted to refresh your mind. But now he's going to look at another man. His name is Epaphroditus. How'd you like to have that for a handle? What would they call you? Hey, Epaph. Paphro, whatever. So look at verse 25 of chapter 2 of Philippians. Chapter 2 verse 25. And Paul has just finished saying in verses 23 and 24, let me read them because it will flow into 25. Therefore, I hope to send him, speaking of Timothy, at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me. What he's talking about there is he's, as soon as he finds out, am I going to live? Am I going to die? As soon as I find out I'm sending Timothy to you. And so then he says, but I trust in the Lord that I myself shall come to you shortly. So Paul had this A sense of confidence that he was going to be able to return to Philippi. Yet, I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need. Now, when he calls, he says, I considered it necessary. Some things are needed, some things are necessary. There's some things around your house that you might need, you think, well, you might think you need, right? But there's some things that are necessary. If the electric's off and you got a basement that can tend to flood, it's good to have a sub pump with a battery backup. That's a necessary thing. It's not necessarily a needed thing to have the basement decorated. You might want that. You might want a nice basement that's all laid out and decorated and carpeted, but that's not necessary. Right? So there's a difference between necessary and needed. Needed is something you want. Maybe you think you can not live without, but you could. For instance, oxygen is necessary and it's also needed if you're going to live. But Paul said, I thought it necessary, or I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus. Now, why? Why was it necessary? Well, we're gonna find that out in just a minute. Epaphroditus, by the way, his name, who can you think of that would have a name like Epaphroditus? Huh? The what? Greek man. Well, he was a Greek man. He was well, at least he wasn't he wasn't Jewish, but his name comes from the root from Aphrodite Aphrodite Which was one of the Greek goddesses also known as Venus to the Romans But his name comes from that. It's a root for his name So we know that he wasn't Jewish and he wasn't like Timothy Timothy was half Jewish His father was a Greek, but his mother and grandmother were Jews. So Epaphroditus, Paul wants them to know something about him. He's going to send him. And then he describes Epaphroditus. And I want you to look at what he says about Epaphroditus. He says, he's my brother. Now that means something to them as well. He's talking about a family relationship. He's my brother. He's talking about we have the same heritage from the Father, God. He's speaking about God. He's not his brother in the physical, but he's his brother in the spiritual. And Paul always places, in God's word, always places the spiritual above the physical when it comes to relationships. Always. And so he says, he's my brother. But he's beyond that, he's my fellow worker. He's a fellow laborer, some of your versions may say. He's somebody who's labored for the kingdom. He's worked with Paul for the cause of Christ. Now there's a lot of people that can be our brother in the Lord or our sister in the Lord. Well, you can only be a brother if you're a man, you can only be a sister if you're a woman, we know that, right? Don't look at me that way, baby. How many of you are workers? Some are wannabe workers. No, wannabes, they wanna be workers, but they never quite get around to it. I have in my office a little round thing, it says on it, to it. It's a little piece of wood. It's around to it. And if anybody ever tells me, whenever I get around to it, I'll get it done. I hand it to him. Now you've got around to it. Do it. But no, this is significant. We may, we read over words like this. We just, we don't take in what Paul's saying. Paul's saying he's not just a brother. He's not just a Christian. He's somebody who labors for the cause of Christ. He works for the gospel. Now he doesn't work for his salvation. He works because Jesus is worthy of it. He is a laborer in the vineyard of God. And he gives himself to that. And so Paul says, he's my fellow worker and fellow soldier. He sees that he's in a war. He knows that he lives in an environment that is opposed to the gospel message. He knows that and he stands for the truth. He is, if you would sharpen his spiritual sword, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. He knows how to take a stand for Christ. Now, there are many people who will call themselves Christians, and they are. Many people are Christian people. They've trusted Jesus, but they're not workers. They're not laborers. They'll let somebody else do it. Now, if I'm hitting on your toes, don't get mad at me. Don't get mad at me. If you sit in church, and hear messages, which are, it's great to do that. But God has not called us to sit and stay in one place and do nothing. He has called us to labor in the fields. The fields, Jesus said, are white unto harvest. Pray therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he'll send forth labors into the fields. But when you pray, listen folks, when you pray, you had better be prepared to answer the prayer. If you're praying, God send forth laborers into your harvest, but you're not willing to be one of the laborers, that's hypocrisy. So he's a brother, he's a fellow worker, and he's a fellow soldier. He knows how to take a stand. He knows how to defend the faith. He knows that when opposition comes, He knows that he's in a war against the world, the flesh, and the devil. He knows what to do. When the enemy comes in like a flood, he knows God will raise up a standard, but God raises up a standard through his people, by his spirit. And so Epaphroditus, this man, he's very dear to Paul's heart, and he's also dear to the church at Philippi. So he's my fellow soldier, but he's your messenger. Epaphroditus was sent to Paul with a gift from the Philippian church. And that gift was to minister to him and help meet his needs while he was in Rome. And so he's, your messenger, the word messenger there is the word apostolos. We get the word apostle. It simply means one sent forth. So he's not like one of the apostles of Jesus that Jesus sent forth, but he is sent forth by the church to represent the church. And he goes in their authority. He doesn't go on his own. He doesn't just decide, I'm gonna do this. He's a man that's under authority and he's been given an authority and he goes under that authority. He is their messenger, your messenger, and one who ministered to my need. Now, that word ministered is an unusual word. I'm not gonna give you all the Greek and all that stuff to it, but the word itself basically means one who's like a benefactor in liturgy. means somebody in worship that gives something into worship but it was used in a broader sense in the in the Roman culture and in the Greek culture. What the word meant is it it was similar to somebody who gives funds out of their own resources. They give funds to something that is charitable for somebody else. For instance, some of you are familiar with Williamsburg, Virginia. Sherry and I go there when we go on vacation. But how many of you know who it was that really got Williamsburg going as a historical place? Rockefeller. Rockefeller, I mean, it's a historical place, he didn't start it, but it was dilapidated, run down, the buildings were all beat up and there was hardly anything there. But John D. Rockefeller thought that it was worthwhile to have a historical place that was reconstructed and as much authenticity as possible. And so he funded the majority of that when it first started. What it means is somebody that's a benefactor that gives out of their own resource and their own abilities for the betterment of somebody else. It's one thing if you earn money and you buy your new yacht. It's another thing if you earn money and buy somebody else a new yacht. I mean, especially if you're the one getting the yacht, right? You want a yacht? Sure, okay. Harley, when he makes the money, I guarantee he'll think about getting you one. He's praying for you now, bro. I shouldn't even put those things out there like that. But he says, and the one who ministered to my need, there it was a necessity. It was not just need, it was a necessity. Paul had some real, real, real needs. But so this idea of who, not Barnabas, Epaphroditus was, let's go to the next verse. Now, Paul says, since he was, longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard he was sick. Here's the deal. Paul's in Rome. Epaphroditus has come. Epaphroditus got sick. Word went back to Philippi. By the way, how many of you know how far it is from Philippi to Rome? Yeah, it's just a hop, skip and a jump, 600 miles. Yeah, you see when we're talking about these places, it's a distance. And they had to go there and hazard their lives just to make the journey many times. So here's Epaphroditus, he comes to Rome. Turns out he gets sick. News goes back to Philippi. Hey, Epaphroditus is sick. How bad is he? Let's find out. They send news back to find out how's he doing. So you can imagine how much time this takes, right? You know, no text. So, because you had heard he was sick, go to the next verse. For indeed, he was sick, almost unto death. Now I want to just stop here for a minute and ask a question. Why didn't Paul just pray that Epaphroditus be healed? I mean, he's an apostle, right? I think he probably did pray for it. Paproditus. See sometimes when we hear preachers preach about healing, healing is in the atonement. Well, healing is in the atonement. But is it always, in every circumstance, all the time, regardless of anything? Or is it within the will of God? Sometimes we hear preachers, and I'm not putting anybody down, I'm really not, please hear me. But sometimes if you're not well, it's because you don't have enough faith. Or if you just have brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so pray for you, then you'd be healed, no questions asked. Well, my question when I look at the scripture is, duh. That may not be a question, but it's legitimate. Why? Why had Epaphroditus been sick for this extended period of time, almost unto death? He was sick almost unto death. Why didn't Paul just snap his finger and say in Jesus' name? It's because God works in the way God wants to work. We have to always exercise faith and trust and confidence in God, but also exercise confidence in his answers to prayer. and how he does things. So if for some reason you've been ill or sick and somebody said to you, well, you just don't have enough faith. Now it could be, don't don't get me wrong, it could be that you don't trust God in some things. You really don't. And it may be an issue that God's trying to work in your life, faith and a fortitude. But Don't just hear somebody say to you things like you don't have enough faith and then you go out and feel like you're a wretched worm. Look to God. Trust the Lord. Trust what he says. Yes, call upon the name of the Lord. That's a good thing to do. We need to do that. First thing we should always do when we're sick is we should pray. First thing is if somebody in our home is sick, we should pray. You're the God who heals. We lay this person before you and say, please, Lord. So I want you to see, indeed, he was sick, but God had mercy on him. And what else? And not only on him, but also on me. Paul's saying that when Papardias was sick, he was almost at the very point of death, but God had mercy on him. And he had mercy on me. Why did he have, I mean, how is this mercy to Paul? Well, for one thing, he's a brother that Paul loves. He's a fellow worker that's labored with Paul. He's a fellow soldier. He's somebody that's dear to the heart of Paul. And for his life to be extended, it was a point of mercy towards not only Epaphroditus, but also to Paul. By the way, when the Lord spares somebody, many times we're quick to pray for healing. We're quick to pray for restoration, whether it's in health or whether it's in relationships. Many times we're quick to pray for those things. But then sometimes when God answers, we're very slow to acknowledge. We're slow to give him the honor that he is due. What's worse is sometimes things don't go the way we think they should go. We've asked God to do such and such, but he does so and so. And then we start to either get upset with God, angry with God, why didn't you hear me? God heard you. God has reasons that we can never begin to fathom the depth of his wisdom. We can never know how high above us his thoughts are and why he does what he does. It's an issue of faith to be able to say, God, I trust you because you're trustworthy. You've proven yourself trustworthy. You gave your own son that I might be forgiven of my sin. He went to a cross and suffered incalculable suffering that I might be with you and enjoy your presence forever. The thing is, are we willing when God doesn't answer the prayer we think he should, do we still say, God, I thank you. You're the Lord. I yield my life to you completely because you're worthy and you deserve it, Lord. That's the thing that God is always trying to work into our lives. Remember, what is the thing that God wants to work in every Christian's life? To conform us to the likeness of his son, Jesus Christ. God causes all things to work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose. What's his purpose? To conform us to the likeness of Jesus. to where we think like Jesus thought, to where we act like Jesus acted, to where we love like Jesus loved, to where we bear sorrow like Jesus bore sorrow. Everything God is working out for good to those who love him. And so when God doesn't answer the prayers that we lift up the way we think, if he's whatever he's done we should still say God you are God and I will serve you I will love you because you first loved me. So Paul says lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow therefore I sent him the more eagerly that when you see him again, you may rejoice. And what's this book all about? Remember, rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. The book of Philippians is the book of rejoicing. And so Paul says, therefore, I send him more eagerly that when you see him again, you may rejoice and I may be less sorrowful. So what's Paul concerned about? Now, think about this. Here he is. He's in Rome. He's chained to a guard. And here's Epaphroditus who's been sick. He's been concerned about him. Now he's well, but he knows that the Philippians are hurting because they don't know what's happened to their brother. It would have been easy for Paul just to say, hey, you know, he's okay. Send a letter to him. He's okay. He's staying here with me to minister to me. Paul gave of himself. He sent Epaphroditus back because he knew it would be a blessing to the church, even though it might cost him the benefit of somebody who was ministering to him and meeting the needs that he had. Now that's love. That's doing what Paul talks about earlier when he talks about Jesus, let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He humbled himself and he humbled himself for the benefit of others. Paul is living out what he's preaching. So go on to the next verse 29. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such men in esteem. Now, Paul's saying what? Hold such men. People like Epaphroditus recognize recognize their service, pay attention to it. It doesn't mean just gush over them, but it does mean recognize those who faithfully serve among you. Because for the work of Christ, he came close to death, not regarding his life. Now that little verse, not regarding his life, is an interesting little phrase. not regarding his life. Do you know what that means? No? Well, he is thinking about others. Not regarding his life comes from a term that means to roll the dice. It means, it means to gamble. He didn't regard his life, in other words, he was, I'll use it this way, he was taking chances. Now you say, oh, well, I don't believe in gambling or taking chances. What he was doing is he, instead of regarding his life, he was not regarding his life. He was laying it all out there and just saying, I'm doing this and whatever God wants to do with my life, I'm gambling that God's going to come through. Sometimes we don't pick those things up in the English language. And I'm not endorsing gambling by the way, okay, just so you know. But what he's saying is when he had no regard, it's like, and you have to understand what Paul's talking about here. In the Roman culture, if you were in prison and somebody came to visit you, guess what? You could be considered a co-conspirator because whatever they were guilty of, you could be implicated in it and you could be put in the same place with them. So when it says he hazard or risk or threw the dice, he was basically putting himself in a position where he could be in big, big trouble with Rome. But beyond that, something else is meant. In the early Christian church, and this is, Well, actually about 252 AD, I think it was, in Carthage, there was a tremendous plague that broke out. And this happened in Rome earlier as well. And do you know what the people would do? There were so many dead bodies, they'd just take the bodies and they'd take them out and either burn them or throw them in ditches. But you know what the Christians did? People who had the plague, They went and cared for them. They went and took care of them while they were sick and nursed many of them back to health. And if they died, they took them out and they buried them with a proper burial, honoring the body of that person, honoring the life of that person. The pagans didn't do that. They just got rid of them any way they could. Stayed as far away as you can from these people because the plague, But Christians didn't do that. And in Carthage, I think it was in 252, the Bishop of Carthage was known for taking those people who were part of the plague, bringing, not only going and caring for them himself, but his people went there all over the city and cared for the people who had. Now think about this. What was it like when COVID was around? Was there a lot of fear going on all over the place? See, the church has always had a place of mercy. We've received mercy. We're supposed to be givers of mercy. And the church has always believed that, that you care for, as Jordan was preaching last week, you care for the widow, the orphan. You care for those who are destitute. You provide for them. You do all that you can to minister to them so that they might know the love of God. And so when Paul says this, not regarding his life, that has more than just, well, he didn't regard his life. It meant far more than that. He cared about what God thought more than he cared about what people thought or what his own fears might've been. to supply what is lacking in your service toward me. Now, that almost sounds like the Philippians were lacking in their service towards Paul. And that's not what it means. He's not putting them down. What he's saying basically is you were not able to do more because of where you were. You're over there. You're not able to all be with me right now. So they couldn't do it. Epaphroditus could. So what they couldn't do, he was doing as their representative. So, gives you a little bit of a look at Epaphroditus. A role model, an ordinary person, a Christian, a fellow labor and a fellow soldier. I think a good example and a model for us. something to teach our children about. I was talking with somebody just, actually it was just the other day, and Paul's gonna get into this and Philippians about some disagreement that's going on in the church. And I was talking with somebody just the other day about how in their family somebody had gotten angry about something. with somebody because of something they did. And for, I think it's a number of years, more than seven years, I think, they haven't spoken to this other member of their family. I think it was a brother-sister relationship. And I'm thinking, how sad. How sad that here's a family that is a physical family, but they don't interact. But sadder than that, how sad it is sometimes in churches where there's people that are brothers and sisters in Christ that have become offended or hurt and they don't work things out. It just brought to mind what Paul's gonna be talking about later on about bringing peace within the congregation. So that's a little bit of Philippians. We'll continue on, Lord willing, as God gives direction. So I hope that you'll take these little tidbits and apply them to your own life. Okay, let's stand together. Lord, I would pray that you would help us to be people like Epaphroditus. Lord, I know he was not reckless, but he was willing to entrust himself totally to you, regardless of what might happen to him, willing to risk it all. So Lord, you're calling us to be a people with that kind of a heart. Would you enable us by the power of your spirit to live out what your word calls us to do, to do it with joy, to do it with a sense of deep purpose to our lives. Lord, you have given us a mission that is impossible for us. We can't do it, Lord, without you. But with you, oh God, nothing is impossible. With you, Lord, all things are possible. And you've told us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. to preach Jesus to every person, to make disciples. Lord, would you help us to do that? Each one of us individually, Lord, in our circle, where we are, the people that we know, that we touch base with, Lord, would you help us to be disciple makers, to be lovers of other people, to represent you well? Lord, would you do that in us? Do that in me, Lord. I pray that for every brother and sister here. And Father, if there's anyone in our midst that doesn't know Jesus, I pray, Lord, that you would just open their eyes, help them to see your great love for them. Lord, we commit ourselves to you. We pray that you'll bless the food back in the back for a time of refreshment. And wherever we may go today, Lord, may we go with joy in our hearts, a song on our lips, and praise to you in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you, there are refreshments as I mentioned, so stick around, have some fellowship.