The Joy of the Gospel | The Joy of Family

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I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you, for I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you for you all, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.

Indeed he was ill, near to death, but God has mer had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious.

So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

Well, good morning, Carterville Christian Church.

I'm I'm uh very honored and grateful to be a part of this sermon series through Paul's letter to the Philippian Church.

Uh for those of us who haven't had the chance to meet, my name's Damian.

I get to serve as a teaching minister uh here at C3.

And I really have been enjoying this series.

And Jordan just read uh our passage this morning.

And uh for those who may not be aware, we're actually gonna end up reading every every chapter, every verse, every word of Philippians out loud uh throughout this series, and and I think that that is uh such a good thing for our hearts uh to experience.

Today's also a special, special Sunday for a lot of different reasons, an opportunity for us to worship together.

It's always special to just be able to do that.

Can I get an oh yeah on that?

Absolutely.

Uh but also today is a special day because it's senior recognition Sunday.

So in just a moment, Jordan will lead us through a time for us to recognize our graduating, our high school graduating seniors, as well as give us an opportunity to pray for them, which takes me back to my senior year of high school.

It was in my senior year of high school that I actually became a Christian, that I became a follower of Jesus.

I started attending a church about a mile down the road from where I lived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that's my hometown.

And I started going to this church by myself.

My family didn't come.

And you some of you have heard me tell the story before, but the reason why I started going to this church was actually to play basketball.

I was invited to play on the church league basketball team, which, as somebody who did not grow up going to church, thought that was the strangest thing in the world, a church league basketball team.

And I was invited to play basketball, and I love playing basketball.

And so I said yes, in order to play on this team, you had to go to church.

In order to play, you had to pray.

That's what I used to say.

And so I started going to this church, and it was there at this church that I heard the gospel for the first time.

That was the end of my junior year.

It took several months of conversations and me asking lots of questions and meeting with my youth minister, but finally at the beginning of my senior year of high school, made the decision to get baptized by my youth minister.

Very similar to what we experience here.

In fact, during the first service, we had two baptisms, which I think is worth celebrating this morning.

It was really awesome.

One of our students, one of our children in our children's ministry got baptized, and then we had a high schooler who also got baptized during the first service.

Very similar to what we experience here when somebody gets baptized in our baptistry over here, they come up out of the water and we celebrate that, of course.

The difference, though, was that at this church, like many churches at that time, they had a tradition that whenever somebody got baptized and they came up out of the water, it didn't matter where they got baptized, whether it was in the baptistry, in the in the auditorium, or out at camp somewhere or in the ocean, didn't matter where, whoever was in attendance, they didn't need a worship leader or anybody to prompt them.

As soon as they came up out of the water, they would sing an old hymn, a particular old hymn.

And the words went something like this I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God.

I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by his blood, joint heirs with Jesus as we travel the sod, for I'm a part of the family, the family of God.

Now I considered singing it for you, but that would be a mistake.

You don't want to hear that.

It was a nice tradition.

It was in many ways a reminder to everyone in attendance that sometimes water is thicker than blood.

And so as we walk through Philippians talking about the joy of the gospel, what we specifically want to talk about today is the joy of family.

The joy of family.

And I'm not so much talking about the joy of our biological family, though that's a worthy subject for us to explore.

And there's a lot of good wisdom and teaching that we could draw from in the scriptures on this topic of being a good husband and wife and mother, father, brother and sister, son and daughter.

I'm talking about the joy of our spiritual family, the joy of having brothers and sisters in Christ, spiritual aunts and uncles and grandparents, spiritual mothers and fathers, the joy of being a part of the family of God.

As I mentioned already, today is our senior recognition Sunday.

Particularly meaningful for our household, our family.

We've got four kids.

One of our kids is graduating from college next year, and so that's a lot of fun.

And our youngest is graduating from high school, from Webb City High School.

We've been a part of this church for 21 years.

We started coming here July 2005, and so our four kids have been through station 419 and junior high ministry and senior high ministry, and we have experienced small group leaders and youth sponsors and trips to camp and move and station 419, fun nights, serious nights, everything in between.

This past Wednesday night was the last youth group of the year.

So it was our last kids' last youth group.

Does that make sense?

It was pretty, pretty meaningful, pretty emotional.

And as you're kind of watching, parents were invited to be a part of it as we're watching the worship and the recognition and the time of prayer and sharing.

How could we not think about the scores of spiritual aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas who've slipped$20 bills into our kids' hands, who have encouraged our kids and provided for them, corrected them, rebuked them at times, guided them, steered them towards love and knowledge of the Lord.

So my experience, our experience, and what we read in Scripture leads me to the following statement, my sermon in a sentence, if you will.

Life as a follower of Jesus is meant to be lived as family.

It's meant to be lived as family.

We were never intended to do this alone.

Now, throughout the New Testament, there are lots of different metaphors that are used to describe the church, who we are to be for one another and who we are to be for the Lord.

Lots of great metaphors that teach us something different, that provide a unique angle and perspective.

For example, there are frequent references to the church as the body of Christ.

You think about 1 Corinthians chapter 11, where Paul talks about us as being one body, made up of many parts.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

Whenever I read that language and those descriptions that Paul uses, I can't help but think of the old toy, uh, Mr.

Potato Head.

Anyone with me on that?

You remember that?

So the arms and the legs and the nose and the eyes and all of that business.

And, you know, so imagine Mr.

Potato Head and what Paul is writing in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

It's as if he's saying, the leg can't say to the arm, I'm more important than you, and the arm can't say to the nose, I'm more important than you.

No, all of us are necessary and needed, and we're an important part of this one body that is made up of many parts.

It's a helpful metaphor.

There's another metaphor for the church in the New Testament.

Oftentimes we're described as the bride of Christ, the bride of Christ who is patiently and faithfully waiting for Jesus to return.

Whenever I see that metaphor, I can't help but think of my friend Brent, who got married uh later in life.

Uh, he met his eventual wife and they fell in love and got married while they were both working at a senior citizen residential facility.

And so they were like royalty on that premises whenever they got engaged and we're gonna get married.

In fact, they decided to pick a venue, a church that was right next to the residential center, so that everybody uh at the residency could come to the wedding because it was like Taylor and Travis getting married, is kind of what it was for them.

And so they all came and in their and they walked there, literally, walked there with their walkers.

And our job as groomsmen, we were to park the walkers.

That was our job in the in the back of the auditorium.

There were like hundreds of them just lining against the wall, and we would slowly usher them to their seats, and uh, they were just so happy to be there.

There was one gentleman in particular, I'll never forget, his hearing aids weren't adjusted properly.

And so when he spoke, it was really loud, and everybody could hear him.

And that moment in the ceremony when the bride appeared in the back, you could hear him over everybody.

Wow, oh wow, she's so beautiful, she's so beautiful, just kept going on and on.

I think about that story when I think about this metaphor that we as the church are waiting patiently, faithfully waiting for the appearance of Christ.

Lots of great metaphors for the church in the New Testament.

Those are pretty good.

There are others, like we as believers are described as a flock of sheep under his care, and he is our shepherd, who both takes care of us and also prods us along upon the right path.

Peter says that we are the temple of God, the very temple of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit no longer lives or resides in a building, but resides in all of us as believers and followers of Jesus.

That's a pretty good metaphor.

I like this metaphor.

It's found in Ephesians 2.10.

Paul says that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared long in advance for us to do.

Now, when Paul says we are his workmanship, the Greek word for workmanship is actually the word poema, which is where we get the word poem from.

So what Paul is literally saying is that we as the church, as the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, that we are God's masterpiece, carefully, meticulously crafted for his purpose.

And when he says, for you are God's workmanship, the word you there in the original language is not singular, it's plural.

Paul is saying, all of you together as the body of Christ are my masterpiece.

These are all so helpful in different ways.

They teach us different things about who we are in relationship to the Lord and who we are to be in relationship to one another.

But the one of the most common, most prevalent metaphors to describe who we are as the church is family.

That's who we are.

We are family.

For example, in Ephesians 2.19, Paul says we are no longer foreigners and strangers, but we are fellow citizens.

He's mixing metaphors.

We are fellow citizens with God's people.

And we are now members of God's household, is what he says.

God's household.

He uses that same imagery in 1 Timothy 2.

Paul tells Timothy how we are to conduct ourselves as members of God's household, which is the church of the living God.

And then we come to this interesting teaching of Jesus, this interesting moment in Jesus' ministry.

Jesus is very popular.

There's crowds of people pressing in to hear every word that he speaks.

They're in a building, they're in a home, and Jesus is teaching the crowds of people, and they're so enamored by every word that Jesus says, that nobody can make their way to Jesus, and his popularity, the frenzy is rising, and they want to anoint him as Messiah.

And his mother and his brothers find out about this, and they actually think he's kind of losing his marbles.

Like he's kind of going crazy.

Like, what has happened?

This is craziness.

Whatever these people are thinking about my son or my brother.

He's just Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son.

So they come to take Jesus away from the crowds of people, but they're so frenzied and they're so pressed in, they can't get to him.

They can't reach him.

And so they have a messenger kind of work his way through the crowd, and this particular messenger finds Jesus and says to Jesus, Mark chapter 3, hey Jesus, your mother Mary and your brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude, they are outside looking for you.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

They're looking for you.

Now, if this happened to you or if this happened to me, we would probably say something like, Oh, yeah, yeah, I know, I know that they're there.

I'll be there in just a moment.

Just tell them to hold their horses, I'll be right there.

Right?

That's probably what I would do.

Just tell them to be patient.

But that's not what Jesus does.

Jesus sees this as a teachable moment.

And he looks at the crowd and he asks them, You tell me, who is my mother?

And who are my brothers?

And just like you had nothing to say, they had nothing to say.

There was no response, no answer, nobody wants to give the wrong.

It's like that kid in school who doesn't want to say the wrong thing, you know, doesn't want to sound stupid.

So everybody just kind of hears Jesus ask the question: Who is my mother?

Who are my brothers?

And nobody responds to Jesus.

Nobody has an answer for him.

And so then Jesus speaks up and he says, and he points to his disciples, and he says, Here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

Jesus is redefining what it means to be family.

Jesus is saying to every single one of us here in this room who has a desire to know the Lord, to follow the Lord, to do the will of God in our heart, even if we don't do it perfectly all of the time, but if there's a desire in our heart to serve him and to follow him and to know him, Jesus is saying, You are my mother and brother and father.

You are family.

Because life as a follower of Jesus is meant to be lived as family.

First John chapter 3, verse 1.

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God.

And that is what we are.

Such good news this morning.

Why don't you go ahead and look at somebody right now beside you, in front of you, behind you, and say to them, we are family.

You can sing it if you want to.

And so we want to get a little practical this morning.

We want to kind of turn our attention into our reading.

Jordan read to us from Philippians 2, verses 19 through 30.

Philippians 2:19–30

Two paragraphs, two names, and these two names teach us what it means to live as the family of God, what it means to live as family.

So in the first paragraph, we read about Timothy.

And from Timothy, we learn that we experience joy as the family of God.

Joy is experienced as family, as brothers and sisters in Christ, when we first of all take care of each other.

Look again at what Paul says about Timothy.

Verse 19.

Underline that phrase, I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

For they all seek their own interests and not those of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps Paul is referring back to chapter one, where he talks about those who are preaching Christ out of vain conceit and selfish ambition.

Timothy is not like them, he's saying.

But you instead know Timothy's proven worth.

And here comes that family metaphor, that family imagery.

How as a son with a father, he has served with me in the gospel.

We know that when Paul writes these words, when he writes the letter of Philippians, he's in prison.

And from this paragraph, we know that Timothy is there in Rome with Paul, taking care of him by his side.

And Paul gives him the highest of recommendations.

I recently read about someone who applied for a job, and when they filled out the application, they listed references.

And so the hiring employer called one of those references and asked the reference, would you hire this person again?

And the reference said, sure.

As a librarian, the employer laughed a little bit, thought he was kidding.

The reference said, No, I mean it.

If you hire this guy, he needs to be put in a building by himself because he doesn't get along with anybody.

Not a glowing recommendation.

But if Timothy applied for a job, and if Timothy listed Paul as a reference, Paul would say, I have no one like him.

It's incredible.

Can you imagine the Apostle Paul saying that about you?

I have no one like him.

He is genuinely concerned for your welfare.

And he takes care of me like a son that takes care of his father.

Life as a follower of Jesus is meant to be lived as family, a family that takes care of each other.

I think about that description of the early church in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

There were no needy persons among them.

Why?

Because they took care of each other.

One of my favorite preachers is a guy named Fred Craddock.

He tells a story about a woman who sang in a choir at a particular church, and every Sunday they would have a choir special, a special song.

And so the choir would be on the stage and they would sing to the congregation.

And she did this for a long time.

Week after week, she would stand on the stage with this choir, would sing and look at the congregation at the church.

Did this for a long time.

And on one particular Sunday, the the choir sang and the service was over.

And the choir director went up to her and said, Oh, you did a great job today.

You sounded amazing.

She said, Well, that's good because that's it.

He said, Well, what do you mean that's it?

She said, I'm done.

I'm finished.

He said, Well, why what do you mean you're finished?

She said, I'm I quit.

Well, I know I re I understand what you're saying, but why?

Why are you quitting after all these years of doing this?

Why are you quitting now?

And she finally gave an honest answer.

She said, Because week after week, I stand up there on that stage and I look out at the faces of everybody in the church, in the congregation, and finally I ask myself the question who cares?

Could we give her your name?

What does it mean for us to care for each other?

Well, can I be very practical?

It's a simple application.

It's a simple phrase.

What does it mean for us to take care of each other?

It's as simple as this.

See a need, meet a need.

You see a need, you meet a need.

Both phrases require intentionality, right?

It takes intentionality to see a need.

It takes intentionality to walk into this place or to see each other in the community and to take the blinders off, the myopic blinders that we so often put on, where we are so focused, so self-absorbed, so self-interested that we fail to even see the needs, see the pain, see the hurt, see the anxiety and the worry and the stress and the struggle of those around us.

It takes intentionality to take the blinders off.

And to just through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, have a willing spirit, a willing desire to hear the needs of other people.

We see a need, and then obviously it takes intentionality to meet that need.

To do whatever we can within our power, within our ability, even the smallest of gestures, to alleviate the stress and the strain, the hurt and the pain of other people.

Both require intentionality.

Seeing a need, meeting a need.

Taking care of each other, that's when we experience joy as a family.

Which brings us to our second paragraph and our second name.

From Ephroditus, we learn that we don't just take care of each other when it's convenient, but we have to be willing to sacrifice for each other.

There is joy experienced as the family of God when we sacrifice for each other.

Of course, the second name, Epaphroditus.

Everybody say Aphroditus.

That's a fun name to say, right?

An unusual name, Epaphroditus.

We don't know a lot about this guy.

The only place in the New Testament that Epaphroditus is mentioned is actually here in Philippians.

He's mentioned two times here in chapter two, and then again in chapter four, but Paul has some pretty high commendation for Epaphroditus as well.

And I want you to notice as I read, as we look at these words again, notice the sacrificial life that Epaphroditus is living.

He says, I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother.

There's that family language again, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier and your messenger and a minister to my need.

For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.

Indeed, he was ill, near to death.

But then we read that God had mercy on Epaphroditus, healed him from his illness.

And not only did God have mercy on Epaphroditus by healing him, but God had mercy on Paul so that he might be spared.

And I love the beautiful language that Paul writes with, he might be spared sorrow upon sorrow.

And I'm eager to send him back to you, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious.

So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

As I mentioned, there's not a lot known about Epaphroditus, but two things I would point out.

First of all, his hometown.

It does appear that Ephroditus' hometown is Philippi, that that's where he's from, that Epaphroditus is a son of Philippi, that he became a follower of Jesus as a part of the ministry of the church in Philippi, became a Christian, and somewhere along his journey, the church in Philippi sends Epaphroditus from Philippi in Greece to Rome in Italy with a gift to minister to Paul.

And either on his journey or when he arrives in Rome, Epaphroditus becomes deathly sick.

Left what was comfortable and secure, his hometown to minister to Paul and for the sake of the gospel, his hometown.

Secondly, interesting thing to know about him is his name, Apaphroditus.

If you're looking for a baby name, perhaps you can consider Aphroditus.

It's an interesting one.

Or maybe not, because the name actually means belonging to Aphrodite.

I'm not sure if that's what you want your child's name to mean, belonging to Aphrodite.

Now, Aphrodite to us is Greek mythology.

But if you were a first century person living in Philippi in Greece, this is not mythology.

This is an object of worship, a Greek goddess representing imperial power.

It's very likely, very probable, that Aphroditus, or at least his family, they were worshipers of Aphrodite.

But somewhere in his life, Aphroditus heard the gospel and he came to believe that Jesus sacrificed his life for him.

And so he became a follower of Jesus.

He once belonged to Aphrodite, but now he belonged to Jesus.

And he was willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of the gospel.

Life as a follower of Jesus is meant to be lived as family, a family that cares for each other, but a family that sacrifices for each other as well.

Now let me give you some application.

Just kind of an opportunity for you to reflect upon your life and your priorities, your habits, and your choices.

There are at least three ways that we can sacrifice for one another.

First, we can sacrifice our time.

Second, our talents.

Andor third, our treasures.

Now you can see each of those uh sacrificial opportunities up on the screen.

I just want to kind of slow down here, kind of pause for a moment.

I want you to think about each of those three things, and I want you to reflect upon your life.

Which one of these do you need to lean into?

Which one do you need to sacrifice for the sake of the Lord and for the sake of other people?

Maybe it's your time.

Maybe you need to slow down, maybe you need to resist the tyranny of the urgent.

You need to slow down and have a listening, hearing ear for the people in your life.

Open up your home.

Practice hospitality.

Sacrifice time.

Or number two, maybe you need to sacrifice your talents.

Maybe you've been resistant, you've been hesitant to step in, maybe you've been coming to church here on the sidelines, but you're ready to step on to the field and you're ready to participate.

Use your gifts, your abilities, your talents to serve other people in tangible ways.

If that's you this morning, if if you're ready to volunteer and to serve in a tangible way, I want to encourage you to go onto our website or visit C3 Central after service is over and fill out a connection card.

We'd love to connect with you and get you serving somewhere.

Or maybe, maybe what you need to sacrifice are your treasures.

You need to financially invest in what the Lord is doing here at Carterville Christian Church.

We're about three-quarters of the year way through the year right now, our fiscal year.

And if you look at your bulletin, you'll see that we're behind in our giving and we need to catch up by the end of the year.

So maybe those of us who consider this our place and we are your people and you're a member of this church, maybe we need to all reflect upon the sacrificial giving that we need to step into.

Or another way, you heard Jordan talk about it earlier in the service, but we've been encouraging the church family to support our students as they go to CIY Move this summer by taking these sponsorship cards.

And so maybe that's a compelling way for you to sacrifice your treasures.

In fact, I have a couple of cards here belonging to Carter Tandy.

I don't know if you know Carter, but Carter's a great kid.

He plays guitar.

He was standing right here just not too long ago.

He'll be back up there again.

I've known Carter for a long time.

Uh, there are four cards per student,$50 for each card,$200 in total.

Two of his cards have already been taken.

I've got two left to make Carter whole.

Okay, so if that's you, if you feel like, yeah, I'm gonna sponsor Carter, then come see me after the service is over.

Now I will tell you, one of the cards was taken during the first service by another high schooler.

Another high schooler heard this appeal, came forward, reached into his pocket, pulled out cash.

Who carries cash anymore?

High school kid at cash and handed me 50 bucks to pray for and to sponsor Carter Tandy.

Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young, but set an example for the believers.

Well, that young man has set an example for us.

So let's follow his example.

This is one way that you might be able to sacrifice your treasures this morning.

Leads me to this story I heard recently about a single mom in our church, and she's given me permission to share this story anonymously.

Single mom in our church who has struggled financially as so many have.

More recently, she was struggling to do her taxes.

Anybody ever struggle with that, right?

Trying to figure it out, and there's been some changes, and she couldn't quite nail it all down, couldn't figure it out.

So through a mutual connection, she was able to meet with a brother in Christ, a member of this church who used his talents and his time to sit down with her and to help her do her taxes.

And sure enough, when when they were all done, she had a bit of a tax return, which is always a joyful thing.

But I love that one of the first things that she did was she reached out to a staff member and she said, Is there still a student I could sponsor?

She said, I've always wanted to do that, and now I can.

She was willing to sacrifice her treasure for the Lord and for others.

And there's such joy in that it is more blessed to give than it is to receive, Jesus says.

In fact, she went on to say that she wanted to do this.

She wanted to do this because it was something that wasn't done for her when she was that age.

I love stories like that.

I love simple, everyday ways that people are sacrificing their time, their talents, their treasures for other people, for each other.

That's what it means to be family.

We take care of each other.

We sacrifice for one another.

That's what it means to live as family.

I'll finish with this.

I'm reading through a book right now called The Missing Messiah.

Uh, in the book, the authors tell the story about a young preacher in a small town in southern Tennessee.

On his first Easter Sunday at this church, he discovered that they had an unusual tradition on Easter Sunday.

Every Easter in the afternoon, all of the church members went to a lake where they baptized people.

And then later in the evening, after the baptisms were over, they would build a fire and they would sing songs.

They would, they would, then they would gather together in a circle with the new Christians in the center of the circle.

And one by one, the people on the outer rim, on the outer edge, would go around the circle and they would introduce themselves to the new members, to the new family members.

And they would say, Hi, my name is Damien.

And if you ever need anything, give me a call.

Hi, my name is Johnny.

And and if you ever need ironing or if you ever need someone to watch your kids, well, I wouldn't ask Johnny to watch your kids, but then give me a call.

Let me know.

My name is if you ever need anybody to drive you to the grocery store or to the doctor, then you can call me.

My name is, and and if you ever need anybody to babysit, I'd be glad to help.

My name is, and I I can work on cars.

So if you ever have any trouble with your car, I I'd love to do some mechanical work for you.

My my name is, and and I'm a plumber.

If you have any trouble in that way, then feel free to give me a call, and one by one, they would go around the circle until everybody had gone.

And then they would sing another song or two, and they would eat some more and play games.

And finally, after it was dark, one of the deacons would say, Well, folks, it's time to go home.

Young preacher said that the first year he hung around after everyone had gone.

The only person left was the deacon who had said it was time to go home.

He he was over at the fire pit and he kicked out the fire with his size 13.

The deacon said to the preacher, Well, preacher, it doesn't get any better than this.

People don't get much closer than this.

They've got a name for what you were a part of tonight.

It's called church.

Friends, the church is many things.

It's many things.

But I would say that we are at our very best when we take care of each other, when we sacrifice for each other as family.

Thanks again for listening to the Carterville Christian Church podcast.

Our prayer is that today's message has encouraged you and drawn you closer to Jesus.

To learn more or get connected with our church family, visit Carterville Christian.com.

We'd love to walk alongside you in your journey of faith.