The Right Attitude Pt 3

Those of you who have cancer, this is an opportunity to come and worship you in sisters, teaching them that you can be ushers as they do their ushering and the business that they have. The nursery workers, Lord, as they look after those. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to gather this morning, Lord, to worship you, Lord. We come just as we are. And as we are, there are different ways for each of us.

Depends on what's up in our life at a particular time. We can look to you and trust you. What time we are afraid, what time we're not afraid, you're there, you're with us. We can trust you. And so, Lord, we look to you this morning and we sing to you this morning. That's what's so awesome.

You don't leave. You're right there in this world in which we're living. We can fall into all kinds of concerns and thoughts and fears and get tired and all, but you're so faithful. You're faithful. You're faithful. You're worthy of our praise. You make the way for everything we have to face. You are the way maker. You are the way, the truth, and the life, Lord.

We give you praise and thanks, Lord.

Hearts to perceive and hearts to obey. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's have some fellowship. Start this way. It's just special for you.

We should do Easter early, but we're doing Easter early this year. And so, different services that will go on throughout the community that week. But for us here. All right. So, as you know, we have a mission strip coming up at the end of May. And so, we want to help kind of raise some funds for those that are going on this mission strip. So, we are doing CCAC's own version of March Madness, because it is the most wonderful time of the year.

Food, fun, and fellowship. When? Saturday, March 23rd from 6 to 9 p.m. Cost? Well, it's the donations towards the Guatemala mission strip. Where? Glad you asked. Arc City Recreation Center, Jim South. Enter on the east side of the building. Bring the family for a taco salad. Ooh, that does sound good. A taco salad supper. And then stay to cheer on our CCAC men's basketball team as they scrimmage.

There will be some fun audience participation games during every quarter break. And what about dessert, you ask? And I did. Ladies, this is your chance to be crowned CCAC baking champion. And I can't wait to help judge this. That's all I'm saying. I plan to be there, not playing basketball. But judging the bakery. Sign up to participate and bring as many desserts as you want.

Ross, you helped plan this, didn't you? There will also be the concession stand for the late comers. The baker with the most donations at the end of the night wins. In other words, whoever has all of mine and Ross's money will win the competition. So make plans to join us for that. It sounds like it's going to be a great time. And we're going to be raising some money to help send these guys down to Guatemala.

So those are the things that are going. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 70. For this part of the service, we will be using the New American Standard Bible. If you don't have a copy of the New American Standard, there should be one in the row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 70, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Glenn in the even verses. Psalm 70. For the choir director, a psalm of David for a memorial. Oh, God, hasten to deliver me. Oh, Lord, hasten to my help. Let those be ashamed and humiliated who seek my life. Let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my hurt. Let those be turned back because of their shame who say, aha, aha.

Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. And let those who love your salvation say, continue. Let God be magnified. And if you'd read verse five with me. But I am afflicted and needy. Hasten to me, oh, God. You are my help and my deliverer. Oh, Lord, do not delay. And, Father, we do love your salvation. And so, Lord, we do say, God, be magnified. Father, we praise you for who you are, for the great love that you have for us.

And, Lord, for your word that teaches us exactly what we're supposed to do. And exactly how to respond to this great love that you've shown to us. And so, Father, speak to us now through your word, by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Philippians, chapter 2.

Philippians, chapter 2. It's always good to be back home. Had a great time down in Arizona at the conference down there. And if you want to check out any of those sessions, you can go to Calvary Tucson's YouTube channel. And all of the sessions are available on there. And I would encourage you to do so because they were really, really good. Very encouraging.

But one of the things that we got to do while we were down there is they, Franklin Graham was having a crusade that same week in Tucson. And so they had contacted Calvary Tucson for them to help out. And they said, I'll tell you what we'll do. We will end our pastor's conference earlier and we'll just come and join and be a part. And we didn't help with any of the counseling.

We were just there as support. And it was really, really, it was really great. Lots of wonderful worship that was played there. And it was a fascinating thing. The girl that sings Oceans, her name is Taya, usually sings with Hillsong United down in Australia. She was there and she was singing. And the most fascinating thing I've ever seen happen is she sang Oceans.

And there were points in time where, because it's on the border, it was the fronteras tour, all of the border cities, that's what they were doing the outreach to. And so in the middle of her song, she would switch back and forth between English and Spanish. I was like, I can barely switch back and forth between Kansas English and California English, let alone English and Spanish. And there she was doing it.

It was really cool because her and this other guy joined together. And he was a Spanish speaking guy. And they joined together. And he said, isn't it great? It doesn't matter what language you sing God's praises in, because this is just practice for what it's going to be like in heaven when people from every tribe and tongue will praise God together. So it was really cool.

And at the end, Franklin Graham gave the invitation. And it was at a college baseball stadium. And the entire infield was just filled with people coming forward to receive Christ as their Savior. So it was just amazing to watch the Holy Spirit move through that. And so that, coupled with all the things that we heard, it was just a real encouragement, real blessing to be down there.

But I am excited to be back. So Philippians chapter 2. Now, the theme, as we've mentioned before, of Philippians is joy. And we said that every chapter, every chapter in Philippians taught us a lesson about joy. We said that chapter 1 taught us that joy comes from having the right perspective. We said that chapter 2 is teaching us that joy comes from having the right attitude.

And we said that there were three aspects of the right attitude that we needed to pay attention to. Number 1 was that we were to have an attitude of humility. And the ultimate example of that attitude of humility was none other than Jesus Christ himself. And then we saw that we were to have an attitude of obedience. As Paul said, you obeyed in my presence. Now also, even more so, in my absence.

And he told us some things that we needed to do to live a life of obedience. That we were to work out or to live out our salvation as God is at work in us, both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure. That we are to do nothing with grumbling and, that we are to do all things without grumbling and complaining. And that we are to hold fast to the word.

Because holding fast to the word would guarantee to him, that he had not run his race in vain. And so now we come to the last part of the right attitude. And that is examples of having the right attitude. And there's three examples that we're going to see. We're going to see the example of Paul. We're going to see the example of Timothy. And we're going to see the example of Epaphroditus.

So let's start by simply reading through the text. Starting in verse 17 of chapter 2, it says this. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering, upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and I share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way, and share your joy with me. But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly,

so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit, who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, but not those of Christ. But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel, like a child his father. Therefore I hope to send him immediately,

as soon as I see how things go with you. And I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly. But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, my fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need. Because he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.

For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, not on him only, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less concerned, and I may be less concerned about you. Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. Now Paul takes a moment, kind of in the middle of Philippians, to give sort of a personal message to the Philippian people about himself, about Timothy, and about Epaphroditus.

But what I saw in this ultimately is some examples of some men who lived out having the right attitude, and some things that we should pay attention to. And so again I want to look at these three. The first one we'll look at is Paul, because Paul gives us the example of rejoicing in the midst of suffering. Rejoicing in the midst of suffering. Paul in verse 17 says,

But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith. After saying he wanted them to hold fast to the word because he didn't want them to, he didn't want to think that he had run his race in vain, knowing that the potential was there of him coming towards the end of his race, he says, But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering. Paul uses an image that was familiar to both pagans and Jewish people of that time, because they all understood the offerings. You see, in pagan offerings, when they would offer their sacrifice to their gods, they would take wine and they would pour it upon the sacrifice and it would be burned to their gods.

And interestingly enough, when Jewish people would offer sacrifices, some would be offered with angels, some would be offered with a drink offering that would be poured around the sacrifice and it would be burned to the Lord. The sacrifice was what was important. The drink offering is what was added to it. And Paul said that that's kind of what he viewed his own sacrifice for Christ as.

He viewed it as a drink offering. The sacrifice is Christ. His life was just simply poured upon the life of Christ as a sweet-smelling aroma unto the Lord. And so with him being in prison while writing this, knowing that he was going to stand trial before Caesar, and not knowing how that trial was going to turn out, it could either turn out for his deliverance or it could turn out in his death, he was ready.

Remember, he had already said for me to live as Christ and to die. Well, that's gain. And he says, If I am in the process of being poured out as a drink offering to the Lord, why then, I rejoice. Now, I've never actually suffered a great deal before the faith. I've been through hard times in life. I've been through difficult things in the ministry. But I've never suffered in the way that Paul has.

And so, to be quite honest with you, for him to be able to say, If I am even being poured out as a drink offering, I rejoice, I find that foreign to my humanistic mind. I find that foreign to my fleshly mind that simply wants convenience and comfort in just about everything that I do. And yet, Paul viewed life very differently. He viewed the sacrifice of the sacrifice and the suffering that he makes to actually be something that brought great joy to his life.

Why? Because it was for the, middle of verse 17, sacrifice and service of your faith. The New Living Translation put it like this, for the preaching of the message of salvation. You see, Paul viewed it as joy. He could rejoice in it because he knew the entire reason he was suffering these things is because he had given his life to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And now he says, not only do I rejoice in these things, but in verse 18, you too, I urge, rejoice in the same way. Share your joy with me. He says, I'm rejoicing that I'm in this process of suffering. I'm rejoicing that this suffering may ultimately end in me losing my life, but it's the greatest joy that I can imagine. And all I want you to do is to rejoice with me.

Now, I have asked myself a question in reading this, how on earth can he have this kind of a heart? How on earth can you do this? As a matter of fact, I've kind of wrestled with this a little bit this week. One of the sessions on Monday afternoon was actually Ed Taylor teaching on this exact thing, on leading in the midst of suffering. And the only thing that I've come up with

is the very thing that he opened up the book with, and that's that Paul viewed him about this correctly. And so I look back on the definition of a bondservant, and I want to read that to you right now. It says, A bondservant is one that is devoted to another at the disregard of one's own interests. Let me read that to you again. It is one who is devoted to another

at the disregard of his own interests. In other words, it is a living sacrifice. That's the way Paul viewed his life. Interestingly enough, in the book of Romans, that's what he told us that we were to do. He said, In light of the mercies of God, that you would present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Present your life as a living sacrifice. Serve God at the complete lack of interest of yourself.

In other words, put yourself to death and serve God with everything that you have in you. You're like, but then I won't ever do what I want to do. Exactly. And then you will actually find joy. You will actually find joy. Because there is joy in the suffering. Paul's life was wrapped up in the service of his master. His life was wrapped up in the service of Jesus Christ.

David Guzik had a great quote on this in his commentary. I'd like to read it to you. It says, Again, the theme of joy. Joy that is not based on circumstances, but is based in the fact of a life that is totally committed to Christ. Because that ultimately is where our greatest joy comes from. How can you be one who rejoices in the face of suffering if you view your life as being wrapped up

in the life of your master, serving him at the complete disregard of your own interests? It's foreign to our way of thinking, but it's absolutely what it means to follow Christ with all of our hearts. And so Paul gives us the very first example, the example of rejoicing in the midst of suffering. The second example that's given to us is that of Timothy. And Timothy's example is one of faithfulness.

I would like you to notice what it says. It says, But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. If you don't know who Timothy was, let me take just a couple of moments to explain Paul's relationship with Timothy. On Paul's second missionary journey, they were traveling along and they arrived at a certain city.

And when they arrived there, they were preaching the gospel. And it says, He came across a young man who was well spoken of by the elders of the church, and his name was Timothy. He had been discipled by his mother and by his grandmother and really brought to the faith by them, but really became rock solid in his faith when Paul took him on the missionary journey. Paul said, Timothy, I'd like for you to join me on this missionary journey, and let's just see what God wants to do.

And so he joined Paul. And the very first place that Timothy went to with Paul was a city called Philippi. And it was in Philippi that Timothy really understood what it meant to serve the Lord. Because remember, in Philippi is where Paul and Silas had been arrested. They were beaten. They were put in stocks. And in the nighttime, while they were praising the Lord,

God opened the prison doors. Rather than escaping, they preached the gospel to their captor. He and his entire family got saved, and a great revival broke out in Philippi, and the church of the Philippians was established. And so Timothy knew what it was like to suffer. He knew what it was like to face hardship. He knew what it was like to serve one who required really a lot.

And Paul said, I'm going to send Timothy to you. Because remember, Timothy is with Paul while he's in prison writing this letter to the Philippians. He said, Because I want to know about your condition. I want to know how you guys are really doing. My heart yearns for you Philippian people, and I want to know how you're doing. But why did Paul choose to send Timothy?

I'd like for you to take note of what it says in verse 20. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. There's two things I'd like to point out about that verse that are kind of interesting. A couple of phrases and words. The first phrase I would like to point out to you is the phrase kindred spirit. Perhaps some of your translations say,

I have no one of like heart or of like mind. Literally in the Greek what that says is same souled or like souled. In other words, he didn't have anyone that he had that same bond with that he had with Timothy. Timothy was different for Paul because they just worked well together. Every good minister needs a Timothy. And every Timothy needs a Paul. That can work together towards the mission of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul said, I've never come across anybody that I'm as like-minded with as Timothy. And so I'm going to send Timothy to you. Because not only is he like-minded, is he kindred spirited with me like no one else, but there's no one else who will, the second word I want to point out, genuinely be concerned for your welfare. The word genuinely can also be translated sincerely or faithfully.

In other words, Timothy was not only genuine and sincere in his concern for the people, but he was faithful in his concern for the people. It wasn't just something that he felt and did nothing about. When Timothy cared about people, he was faithful in the way that he handled it. And so his concern moved him to action. His concern moved him to do something and not just do something once and then give up.

But continue to faithfully serve the people that were in front of him. Paul said there's no one else as genuine as Timothy. And what was he genuine in? His concern for the people. I'd like to take a quick sidebar here and just give a little bit of a challenge to us. And this is going to be a little bit of a challenging message that I'm going to keep giving to us today

because I feel like God is telling me to bring some challenging words this morning. I love how concerned Timothy was for people. And I love that. And I think it's something that we should pay attention to because we live in a very self-centered world right now. And this is where I'm not going to talk about all the people out there. And I'm going to do this two or three times in this message.

I'm going to talk about everybody in here too. Because as soon as we start saying all the people out there aren't always that concerned about people, then I don't ever apply it to my life and allow God's Holy Spirit to do what needs to be done in my own heart. And I'm seeing this a lot in the world today. I saw it most clearly, best illustrated on an airplane.

Right? So on an airplane when you're flying right now, and I'm guilty of this, okay? I was one of the people doing this. But I took note of it while I was doing it. So don't think I'm all that spiritual. I just saw it in myself. I have these sweet noise canceling headphones, right? And I love to put these headphones on and turn a show on on my phone because it absolutely blocks out all of the rest of the world

and I only hear this. Now this came in incredibly handy on the second leg of our last flight home. Because right behind me, and this happens on most planes I get into, right behind me sat a tiny baby. Cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. Just, right? Just want to pinch those little cheeks. And apparently someone did the entire flight because that baby cried and cried and cried.

And so I went, because that's the noise it makes when I turn my noise canceling headphones on. And I turned on a movie on my phone and I had no idea anyone else was on the plane besides me. But you know what happened? I started to look around. I did this on every flight that I was on. I started to look around at all the other people on the plane. You know what everybody else did on the plane?

The exact same thing. Here you've got, whatever, 100 people on this plane. I don't know, maybe 50 people on this plane. I don't know how many it held. 35 rows times 6. A bunch of people, right? I can't do math that fast. I'm a preacher, not a mathematician. So all of a sudden, we all got our headphones on, right? And we're all looking at our phones. Do you know what I used to do when I get on a plane?

Talk to people. And I loved it. And I still do this sometimes. But you know, you get that vibe from people that they're like, don't talk to me. And usually that's my cue to go, tell me more, right? But I didn't do that this time. I used to talk to people on planes. I wanted to know where they were going. I wanted to know their background. I wanted to know everything about them.

And sometimes they ask everything about me. And sometimes they give me one-word answers like, yes, what's your name? Yes, yes. No, you don't want to talk, right? We used to be concerned about each other. But now, everywhere I go, I see this exact same phenomenon. Everybody walks around with their headphones in their ears. Because all we care about is me. And my world.

And we care about what's in front of me right now. And I just want to block out everything else and not care about that. And brothers and sisters, that makes it really hard to show the love of Jesus to people, doesn't it? It makes it really hard to care about the people around us when all we do is shut them out. And so I would tell you, would exhort you, would you faithfully be concerned about the

people that are around you? Because there are people that need things around you. And until you stop and care long enough to pay attention, you'll never be able to reach them with the love of Jesus. Paul said, I'm sending you Timothy because he is of kindred spirit with me and he is genuinely, faithfully, a faithful man in his concern for your faith. For they all, meaning all of the other people around him in Rome, they all seek their own

interests, not those of Christ. But you know his, verse 22, proven worth. Served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. That's another great phrase, proven worth. The word proven means character which has been proven after having been tested. Character which has been proven after having been tested. See, Timothy had been put to the test.

He'd been put to the test throughout his entire life in ministry. And bear in mind, Timothy is still a pretty young dude at this point in time. He's only in his 40s. So as a young guy. He's been proven because he's been through the ringer. And Paul says, he's proven himself faithful because I've put him to the test. And as I've put him to the test, he has passed the test.

And he's a man of proven character. And I know that he's going to care for you guys because he has served with me like a child serving his father. And he wraps this section up by saying, therefore, I hope to send him immediately as soon as I see how things go with me. And I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly. Well, I ask myself another question.

I hope you always ask questions like this too. What does faithfulness look like? How do I begin to live that out in my life? And I wrote one simple line. Nothing earth shattering. All I wrote was, faithfulness begins in the small things. Faithfulness begins in the small things. We all think that we need to, first of all, take this really giant leap, right? And God says, I don't want you to do that.

And God says, I don't want you to take a giant leap. I just want you to take a small step. Take a small step in faithfulness. I would tell you, you know where the best place to start with faithfulness in your life is? A daily reading. Daily being in God's word. I did this this morning. I don't remember where we are again. So if you don't know, this is our reading plan that's in this bulletin right here.

It pops up on our Facebook page too. And we've been endeavoring to read through God's word together. Starting tomorrow, we're going to be in Mark chapter 12. I'm doing great there. And Deuteronomy 15. I'm not doing great there, right? I'm in Deuteronomy 5 right now. Now, if you're anything like me, when you set a goal for yourself, you hit March and you give yourself a little bit of a quarter of a year review, like sometime in the middle

of March, right? And you go, okay, how am I doing in life? How am I doing with my goals? Well, the beautiful thing about social media is that when you set goals for yourself, it reminds you. And then sometimes things come up later, years later with like, hey, remember when you said this? Well, a few years ago, I set a goal for myself. I set a goal for myself to get fit in whatever year that was.

And this is what I wrote in March. I gave myself a quarter of a year review. I wrote, I'm working out, but I'm also eating bad. So I'm gaining muscle, but I'm also getting fat. That's multitasking. I'm putting it in the win column, right? Now, here's what happens. We set goals for ourselves, and then you'll have a bad week. It's impossible to not have a bad week.

Nobody's going to have one where you didn't do what you set out to do. You didn't work out. I went to a pastor's conference this week. I didn't work out, and I ate a lot, right? I ate. I sat. I listened. I glutted myself on In and Out and God's Word, and it was a beautiful thing. And so you go, okay, well, now I'm just going to give up, right? Because I can't do it every day.

I've already failed. Why try now? Many of you have probably done that with God's Word. Many of you have maybe done that with your reading plan. You're like, I'm so far behind. I'm just going to give up. I'm not even going to try. No, no. You know what you need to do? Tomorrow, you need to start in Mark 12 and Deuteronomy 14. Start there. And now be faithful every day after that because you need to be faithful in the little things.

Because if you can't be faithful in the little things, you can never be trusted with the big things. Some of you need to be faithful to show up every day to work even though you don't want to, even though everything in you says, the odds are stacked against you, girl. Get back in bed, right? You need to keep going to work. Some of you need to faithfully keep caring for your families.

You need to continue to love your wife even though sometimes you don't feel like it. Wives, you need to continue to support your husband even though sometimes he's a knucklehead because you need to be faithful in the little things. Kids, you need to be faithful in your classes. You need to be faithful in school. I used to get on to college kids about this all the time.

They're like, yeah, I skip classes. They're like, yeah, I skip class all the time. I'm like, don't do it. Be faithful in the little things. It doesn't matter. I can just go online, get the notes, and then take the test. I'm like, yeah, but you're not being faithful, and you will carry that into the rest of your life. Do you know how I know that? Because we have trouble getting people to show up to work today.

You know what those people did when they were in college? They didn't go to class. Ryan, I'm serious. I will guarantee, doggone to you, that's the case. You have to be faithful in the little things. And before we start saying, yeah, all those people out there need to be faithful, we need to understand something. Everybody in here, you need to learn to be faithful because we have to quit thinking it's everybody else's problem,

all the rest of the church's problem, all the rest of the world's problem, and realize that it's your problem because we all struggle with faithfulness. We all struggle with being faithful in the little things. Therefore, we're not faithful in the big things. Therefore, the world looks at the church and says they're just a bunch of hypocrites. Again, this isn't the beat the sheep morning.

It's my desire to see us be who God wants us to be. He loves us so much. He wants to see you be faithful in your life. And so Paul gives us the example of rejoicing in the midst of suffering. Timothy gives us the example of faithfulness. And then the third one is Epaphroditus. He gives us the example of sacrificial service. Notice what it says. But I thought it necessary to send to you, Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker

and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need. Epaphroditus, many think, was the pastor of the church in Philippi. And he was sent with an offering to Paul while he was in prison. Once the Philippians learned that Paul was in prison, they sent an offering to him, perhaps financial, perhaps simply food, maybe even just as Paul would call it, the parchments.

In other words, portions of the Old Testament for him to read. But he brings this to Paul. And Paul says, I'm going to be sending back to you Epaphroditus. Fun fact, sidebar. You know what the name Epaphroditus means? It means charming. Isn't that great? Charming. And so Paul refers to him in several ways. And these are pretty high words from Paul. He refers to him as my brother.

Somebody that I'm as close to as a brother. He refers to him as my coworker. Now, I found that to be kind of interesting that he couples those two words together. Because if you've ever had a job where you put in lots and lots of effort, you put in lots and lots of hours, those coworkers become really, really important. Because they become almost as close as brothers.

The summer before I moved down here, we were remodeling Blue Valley High School. And we found out that some things had to be changed. And so the day after July the 4th, or the July the 4th weekend is either July 5th or 6th, because I think the 4th fell on a Saturday. The day after the July 4th weekend, we worked from that day until the middle of August and we didn't take a day off.

Seven days a week, ten hours a day. I'm here to tell you right now, I got really close to the guys that I worked with. Because I saw them way more than I would ever think about seeing my family. And they became the people that I trusted the most at that point in time, because I knew I could trust them because they were my coworkers. And that's what Paul refers to Epaphroditus as.

He says, he's not only my brother, he's my coworker. But then third, he refers to him as my fellow soldier. Because we need to remember, we're in a battle, right? Paul knew he was in a battle. It wasn't a question to him. And he said, he's not just my brother and my coworker, he's in the foxhole with me, right? He's fighting alongside me every day and I can trust him with my life.

That's who Epaphroditus is. Not only that, but he's also your minister, or your messenger and minister to my need. Let me read this to you out of the Amplified Bible. He says, That's Epaphroditus. He goes on to say something else about him that is where I got the idea of sacrificial service. Because notice what it says, verse 26. Because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.

For indeed, he was sick to the point of death. So Paul describes a situation that took place with Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus had found himself in a place where he was deathly ill. One of the commentaries I read pointed something out. He said, we need to remember, he was not deathly ill. He was not sick because of persecution. He was sick because of overexertion.

Because he had served God so sacrificially. Now I want you to understand something. God does not want us to serve to the point where we get sick. I don't want anybody to walk away from here and go, okay, got to serve till I just drop. No, no, that's not the case. God gave us the Sabbath day for a reason. God gave us a day off for a reason. But I don't know that that's really a problem in the Western culture church.

I don't think there's too many people that are serving till they drop in the Western culture church right now. Sorry. But in the midst of his sickness, do you know what Epaphroditus was concerned about? The people in Philippi. Why? Because they had heard he was sick. And he knew they were going to be concerned for him. That's a whole different way of thinking, isn't it?

That in the midst of his sickness, he's not going, woe is me. He's going, man, I hope the people in Philippi are okay because I know, they know that I'm sick. And I don't want them to be worried about me. Right? As he's just about to die. I don't want them to be worried about me. Right? Like that's a whole different way of thinking. That's a whole different way to live your life.

That's serving sacrificially. Because now no longer are you concerned about the needs of yourself. You're only concerned about others. You're only concerned about how their lives are going. And that's the way Epaphroditus served. Why could he be called Paul's coworker, Paul's brother, Paul's fellow soldier, the ambassador of the Philippians to Paul? Why could he be called that?

Because he was someone who served so sacrificially that all he cared about was the people back home knowing that he was sick, concerned for their well-being. You understand how that sacrificial service? He goes on to say, for indeed, verse 27, he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him. And not on him only, but also on me. So that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

Therefore, I've sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him, you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. Paul goes on in verse 29 to say, receive him then in the Lord with all joy and hold men like him in high regard. Paul says, receive him with joy. What does he mean by that? Receive him with open arms. Man, welcome that guy back in. Because that guy deserves some respect.

As a matter of fact, men like him should be held in high regard. Let me read this to you out of the New Living Translation. Appreciate and honor men like him. What does that mean for us? Well, if you really appreciate and honor someone, first of all, you let them know that their sacrificial service was appreciated. But second of all, you seek to emulate that in your own life.

The greatest form of compliment is emulation. When you want to act like that person because you think they are so amazing in the way that they handle themselves, in the way that they handle their service. Paul says, honor men like that. You be men like that who serve sacrificially. He says, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.

I love that phrase. He came close to death for the work of Christ. I phrased it just a little bit. I put it in the Ryan Translation. He risked his life for the gospel. He risked his life for the gospel. And Epaphroditus gives us this beautiful example of sacrificial service. As usual, I ask myself a question. What does that mean for us? What does that mean for the way that we live our lives?

How do we begin to live a life of sacrificial service? Again, I just wrote a simple sentence. Sacrificial service comes down to making decisions. Sacrificial service comes down to making decisions about what's important. Sacrificial service comes down to making decisions about what's important. And here's where I have to get a little challenging again. We live in a world right now that rather than serving sacrificially, serves conveniently.

We have a tendency to serve when it's really convenient for us. Well, I've got time. Yeah, I could probably help you with that. Yeah, I wasn't doing anything else anyway. I can do that. While it's service, I don't want to say anything bad about that. That's great. If you've got time and you can do it, that's an awesome thing. But you know, there's really a step beyond that that we're supposed to go as believers in Jesus Christ.

We're supposed to step into that aspect of sacrifice. We're supposed to step into that aspect of not just serving when it's convenient for us. Because listen, I watch this happen. And again, I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to be rude. But I don't just watch it happen in other churches. I watch it happen in this church. I watch people say, yes, I'll help with that.

Unless something else comes up better. Now, they don't ever say those words. But it's shown in the way that they live their life. Because when something else better comes up, they opt out of serving. And I watch it happen. And again, the easy tendency for us to say is, yep, that's how those teenagers are. I just want you to know something. It's the adults. And I'm just being honest right now.

I'm just being honest. I don't just see this in kids. I see this in adults. In our church. In every church. In every prayer that I've ever seen. Is that people will choose to do what's convenient for them. But once it becomes a sacrifice, they don't make that choice anymore. Now, again, I'm not trying to come down hard on you. I'm trying to teach you the way of joy.

And the way of joy is the way of sacrifice. Right? It doesn't sound very joyful to me. Oh, no, no, no. We live in a culture right now. And I want you to follow me on this. We live in a culture right now that lives by the philosophy of do what feels good to you. Only what's going on in our culture right now? In our culture right now, nobody's happy. Have you noticed that?

Have you noticed that depression is on the rise? Suicide is on the rise. People are on more antidepressants than they've ever been on before. Hopelessness is on the rise. I actually printed off an article a couple of weeks ago that says the hopeless pandemic of our youth. Do you know why that's the case? Because they have lived their lives out of convenience.

All of us have lived our lives saying, what makes me happy today? And I will drop everything else to make me happy today. And I'm here to tell you right now, Paul said the greatest joy I have is to be poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice of the service that I made for you. So if he says that and our world is incredibly unhappy, what's the difference?

He lived a life of sacrificial service, not a life of service and convenience. Too many of us in our culture are living the what makes me happy today. What makes me happy today mentality. And because of it, nobody's happy. And nobody has joy. I want you to live a life of joy. I can tell you from experience that when I make the choice to make the sacrifice, the joy that comes out of it is greater than anything that I can imagine.

Anything that I can imagine. Because God always gives more than we ever give to him. And God wants us to live in that kind of joy. God wants us to have that kind of joy in our lives. And so let's wrap this up here. Okay, let's put a neat little bow on it. Give you to use a little gift. How can we live this way? How can we live a life of rejoicing and suffering?

How can we live a life of faithfulness even in the small things? How can we live a life of sacrificial service and decide what is and is not important? Well, it's always going to start in one place. And it's the same place I will take you back to in every aspect of our lives. Because it is the secret. The secret to living a life in Christ. And that's to have an abiding relationship with none other than Jesus Christ himself.

I only know that because that's what Jesus told us. You see, how can I be a bondservant of Christ and rejoice in suffering? Well, if I am living a life abiding in the suffering servant himself. Do you know that's what Jesus is referred to as in the Old Testament? He's referred to as the suffering servant. As a matter of fact, that encapsulates everything that he did in his life.

We even read about it in Philippians chapter 2. When it says that he laid aside his glory to become obedient to the point of death. Even the death on the cross. Therefore, if I want to live a life of rejoicing and suffering. Then the best thing that I can do is live a life constantly abiding in. In relationship with the suffering servant himself. Who we are told in the book of Hebrews said.

For the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Brothers and sisters, that's where it comes from. How do we live a life of faithfulness? How do we become faithful people? Do I just have to try harder? Do I just have to work harder? Do I just have to try to be more? No, because the more that you do that, the more that you're going to fail. Instead, get into an abiding relationship with the one who is faithful.

Because Paul, no, no, I did this first service too. Because John in the epistles that he wrote said. Even when we are faithless, he remains faithful. So if I am in relationship with, if I am abiding in the faithful God. Then faithfulness is what will be produced in my life. After all, the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness.

Faithfulness. Gentleness and self-control. All I have to do is remain connected to the vine. By having an abiding relationship with God. By having an active and living relationship with Jesus Christ. An active and living relationship with Jesus Christ. And he produces that faithfulness in me. As I submit myself to him. How do I live a life of sacrificial service?

I follow and remain abiding in the God who laid aside his glory. And came down and dwelt among us. And lived a life of sacrificial service. Friends, in our flesh, who we are naturally, are people who don't like to suffer. People who aren't very faithful. Who only serve out of convenience. If we want to follow these examples. It will require the Holy Spirit at work in us.

As we abide and respond to the God who loves us so much. That he came down to die for us. Amen. Isn't God good? Alright friends, it's Communion Sunday. And I'm looking to see if we've got any kids coming down the hallway. And I don't see any kids coming down the hallway. I see Glen running. He looks good while he's running. So while they're coming in. Let me explain what Communion is.

Let me explain what we're about to do. So, inside of each of these trays are the Communion elements. There will be two cups that are stacked together. Wait, wait. They're coming. Never mind. Hang tight. If your kid's coming through the door. Please help track them down as they come through. Hi kids. Oh, we've got like ten of them. Whoops. Okay, there's more marchers.

Here they come. Yeah, if you see your child and they look confused. There we go. Okay, got it. Okay, we're tracking them down. We're making it. Tracked him down. Okay. Good? Is that all of them? Sweet action. Okay. Meanwhile. All right, kids. We're talking about Communion this morning. Okay? So, inside of this tray are a couple of elements. There are two cups that are stacked together.

The bottom cup has the cracker. The top cup has the juice. So, in just a moment, the ushers are going to come and they're going to hand that out to everyone. And then we'll partake together. But let's take a look. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's talk about what these elements mean real quick. On that last great night of the feast, Jesus took that bread and He broke it.

And He said, This is My body, which is broken for you. Wait, I lied. We have more kids coming. Oops! She's back there, big guy. See her? There you go. A lot of excitement right there. So, Jesus took the bread and He broke it. He said, This is My body which is broken for you. And so, we are reminded. This bread reminds us. It is representative of the body. of Christ that was broken for us. It was the body of Christ that bore the stripes. It was the body

of Christ that took the crown of thorns on his head. It was the body of Christ that took the nails in his hands and his feet. It was the body of Christ that was broken when it was pierced with the spear in the side. And so every time we partake of this, we are reminded that the body of Jesus Christ was broken for us. And then he took the cup and he said, this is the cup of the new

covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. And while we don't actually eat the body of Christ or drink the blood of Christ, the juice reminds us of that blood that was shed for us. The blood that is enough to cover all of our sins. The blood that ran down his cheeks as they beat that crown of thorns into his forehead. The blood that ran down his back as he was being whipped. The blood that

flowed from his side when it was pierced with that spear. And the blood of Jesus Christ is enough to cover our sins. And we're told that every time we partake in this, we declare the death of Jesus Christ. We declare that the one place of salvation that we have is that sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for us. And so we're told to do so in a worthy manner. And so again, I'll remind us what that looks like. If you're here this

morning, you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Maybe you got drugged to church this morning. Maybe you got talked into coming to church this morning. Maybe you've been coming here for 20 years and you've never really given your heart to Jesus. And the way that you prepare your heart is by accepting him as your Lord and Savior. By understanding that this

sacrifice was enough to cover the sins that are separating you from God. And saying, Lord, I know that I'm a sinner and I just need you to be my Savior. Scripture tells us he comes in, makes you brand new, cleanses you from all of your sin, and makes his home inside of you. And you become born again. So I would encourage you, if that's you this morning, that you make that decision while the worship team sings the last song. If you're here this

morning, and you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and the way that you partake in a worthy manner, is that you need to make sure that your heart is right with the Lord. Because while your heart belongs to him, we can break fellowship with him by our sin. And so we are told that as Jesus shows us sins in our lives, we confess those sins and he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. And so I would encourage you that as we sing this last song, that you would ask God to serve you. And if you're here this morning, and you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and the way that you partake in a

sin, and you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and the way that you partake in a sin, that you would ask God to serve you. And so I would encourage you to search your heart and see if there's any wicked way in you. See if there's anything in you that's keeping you from Jesus. And confess those things to the Lord. And allow God to do the business that only his Holy Spirit can do in your heart. And so I'm going to ask the ushers to

come down and start handing out the elements. And as they do so, when you receive your elements, please stand and then we'll partake together. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you. I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, broken for the sins of the world. Father, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, broken for the sins of the world. Father, I thank you for

your blood that was shed for us. Shed for the remission of sins. And Lord, I thank you for this sacrifice. May we always keep in mind exactly what it cost to pay for our sin. And Lord, may we respond with wholehearted love and devotion to you. Lord, I thank you for our family. Lord, I thank you for Jesus. I pray that you would just continue to do the good work that you've done in our hearts. In Jesus' name,

let's partake. And if you would bow with me one last time. Father, we come to you and we thank you that you have blessed us to be able to come together as your body this morning. I pray that your word would continue to do its work in our heart and in our lives. And Lord, may only the things of you remain. And Lord, just continue to draw us close to you, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. One thing I failed to announce is that if you are interested in helping out with the

event on the 23rd, baking or lots of other areas where we need some help, there's going to be a meeting down at the other end of the hall right after church. So go see it. Go see Ross and Jana back there. Lord bless.