Piece of Work: Philippians 2:19-30 (Devoted To Joy)

Well, good morning.

If we have not gotten the chance to personally meet each other, my name is Derek Spencer.

I get the honor of being the student pastor here at RLC.

Hi, yeah, shout out.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

I have been the student pastor here for seven years.

And so uh the average youth pastor stays uh at an at a church for 18 months, typically.

And so I really feel like I'm beating the odds, you know.

So if mom, if you're watching, thank you, thank you.

Uh I love being a youth pastor because a lot of the conversations that I have outside of church are typically really awkward for me.

Um, typically uh how it kind of works is I I introduce myself, I tell them what I do for a living, and then it's typically somewhere along the lines of, well, bless your heart, sir.

You must really struggle working with teenagers.

Uh, just the other day I actually went to the doctor's office and I was telling them what I do for a job and how many years I've been doing being a youth pastor, and my doctor straight up asked me, so what's your like long-term gameplay with this being a youth pastor?

I was like, this is it.

Like, I got nothing else.

Like, if the Lord tells me to do something else, I'll do it, but this is all I got.

And so I love being a youth pastor.

Um, we have student life every single Wednesday for sixth through 12th graders uh here at RLC uh at 6:30 at 8 o'clock.

And so I absolutely love it.

Our students are growing here.

So if you have a student in that age, please get them connected because we want to get them uh loving the Lord.

So today we're gonna be in the text called uh Philippians chapter two.

Uh we're continuing our series of piece of work.

Um so if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn there.

Um I jokingly told Pastor Brandon when I saw this text uh that I was kind of upset with him actually, because uh this whole section here is kind of a biographical update of Paul just saying, hey, this is what I'm doing.

These are my buddies, I'll talk to you later, type of thing.

And so I love the book of Philippians so much, and I'm sure a lot of you in here are this way too, and you'll have a lot of different sections underlined and highlighted.

And I got to this section right here, and I'm like, there's nothing highlighted, Pastor Brandon.

I don't know what to preach on this.

So this is a one-time sermon for you guys this morning, and I hope you guys get something from the Lord because when I first read it, I was like, I don't know, God.

And so I'm excited to preach it this morning, and uh, this is gonna be a lot of fun.

So I hope you guys have your Bibles.

I hope you guys have your notes.

Sorry I didn't have any notes uh this morning.

I tried getting them done for the very first time this week, and I just I don't know how Pastor Brandon does it.

He just he's awesome at what he does and he makes it look easy.

And so uh, if you have your uh your worship guides and everything, there's some notes in there that you can fill in as well.

So I want to go ahead and jump in.

I did something kind of fun this week where kind of looking at this text, I uh kind of had this idea of like, when I think of the Bible, I think of how I like to look at the Bible where like Jesus is obviously like the greatest of all time, right?

But then like we all kind of have like our personal favorites when it comes to the Bible.

Some people really like Abraham, some people really like uh Mary, some people really like Noah.

And I was like, you know, if I were to think of the greatest four people in the Bible, like the Mount Rushmore, what would they be?

And so this was my Mount Rushmore.

I think uh when it comes to the Bible, uh yeah, this this is a newly updated version of the Mount Rushmore, by the way.

Forget the presidents, we got Bible characters, and so uh we have uh this is my personal Mount Rushmore here.

We got King David, we got Moses, we got Paul, and I got John the Baptist.

Those are my top four favorites when it comes to the Bible.

And I went to the internet just to ask some different people what people were thinking of their Mount Rushmore as well.

And people in our church went ahead and answered as well.

Our friend Rosalind said David, Moses, Paul, and Elijah.

And uh I would say Elijah's an honorable mention for me as well.

Uh Marie Flood, I love this one.

When it comes to Bible characters, it's Pastor Brandon, Chris Durham, Brandon Gillam, and myself.

I was like, man, what a list.

What a list.

Uh Glenn Gross, he said, uh Abraham, Moses, David, and also Noah.

If we didn't, if we if for Noah did not listen and build the ark, where would we be?

And I thought that was a great point, Glenn.

Great point.

Uh Sue Cox said, Joseph, Daniel, Jeremiah, Esther, Ruth, uh, all of mine, and all of the others, basically all of the Bible, right, Suth?

I'm with you on that one.

Uh Samantha also said David, Apostle, Paul, Moses, and John the Baptist.

And so I just think when I think about uh the Bible and the characters in the Bible, there's so many amazing people.

And if if I were to meet any of these people individually, I think that there could be a lot of wisdom that we can learn from these people and a lot of knowledge along the way.

And so um, if they had friends that they would recommend, I would want to listen to those friends as well.

And so uh this morning we get to read in this passage about two friends that Paul is really kind of hyping up and just being like, these are my guys.

Like, there's no one greater than these guys that I've worked alongside with who have helped me in this time of my need.

And if Paul is saying this, who's in my Mount Rushmore, then these two guys should probably be important as well.

But the thing about it is there's a guy in here that's only mentioned in the Bible two times, and it's today and in a couple weeks when we read Philippians chapter four.

And it's a guy named Timothy, and a guy named, I've been working on this name literally all week.

Epaphoritis.

Okay, sounds like a disease.

I don't know about you.

Paul, Timothy, and epaphyritis, okay?

And so today we're gonna be talking about these two guys a lot, and Paul's gonna be giving an update to the church of Philippi, basically saying uh what's going on in their life, uh, how he's doing, how Timothy's doing, how epaphyritis is doing, and just giving us an encouraging update.

So let's go ahead and get into the text.

Philippians chapter 2, verse 19.

Philippians 2:19

It says, If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit.

Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along.

I have no one else like Timothy who genuinely cares about your welfare.

All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ.

But you know how Timothy has proved himself like a son with his father.

He has served with me in preaching the good news.

I hope to send them to you just as soon as I find out what is going to happen with to me here.

And I have the confidence from the Lord that I myself will come to see you soon.

Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphoritis back to you.

He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier, and he was your messenger to help me in my need.

I am sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was ill.

And he certainly was ill.

In fact, he almost died, but God had mercy on him, and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another.

So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you.

Welcome him in the Lord's love with a great joy, and give him the honor that people like him deserve.

For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from far away.

Thank you for that update, Paul.

Let's go ahead and pray, and we're gonna go ahead and dismiss this morning.

Just kidding.

Uh, this is Paul, Timothy and Epaphyridis.

This is the life that they were in at the moment.

Reminder that they are in prison here.

And so they're just trying to update the church of what exactly is going on.

And that would be as if literally someone was reading a letter and explained to everyone, people that they love, what exactly is going on.

And so I want to give a little bit of background real quick about Timothy and Epaphyritis, um, specifically Epaphyritis, since there's not a ton of information about him.

First off, with Timothy, it says his mother was a Jew and the father was a Greek.

And we read that in Acts chapter 16, where Paul also arranged Timothy to be circumcised before leaving.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Now, I don't know about you, but there's a mission trip coming up, church.

And if that's the requirement, and Pastor Brandon's pulling us aside, and that's it, I don't know.

I'd have some questions.

But this was what Paul was asking Timothy to do.

And so Paul sent uh Timothy to the Corinth church, and he also wrote Philippians, Colossians, 1st, and 2 Thessalonians uh together.

And so this is a little bit of background of Timothy.

This was his right-hand man.

They did life together, they loved each other like a father and son, and it says in the text.

And so this is the background of Timothy and the epaphyritis.

Um, it's mentioned twice in the Bible, like I've said, both in Philippians.

Most scholars believe that he was a soldier for Rome before becoming a believer and getting connected to the church of Philippi.

And uh he was sent by the church of Philippi to Paul with a care package, basically.

When Paul was in need, this was the guy.

And so uh hopefully that if there was ever a church in need, you would see yourself in the same way.

If if there was someone that was needing help, that we would be those people.

And so uh today we're kind of basing off this whole uh series on this idea of what is joy exactly?

Uh, when it comes to being God's piece of work, uh, what is joy and what is what is this really meaning when it comes to the text?

And this has kind of been the definition that Pastor Brandon's been going off of.

It's a sigh of contentment because he is in control.

And when I think about these two backgrounds, I think about how that's exactly how Timothy and Epaphritis are when it comes to this.

They they understand the life that they lived, they understand the life that they're going forward with, and they just have a sigh of contentment of just whatever, whatever you do, God, wherever you leave me, whatever you want me to do, Lord, I have the sigh of contentment because I know that you're in control.

And so that's kind of been the definition that we've been going off of.

And I kind of want to add not necessarily an addendum to it, but more of when I was a kid, what joy was kind of broken down to me was uh basically a simple breakdown of it.

And when you see joy, you should see Jesus, others, and yourself in that order every single time.

And I think that makes sense for me as a kid, and it's gone with me my entire life because if you put others above Jesus or you above Jesus, or you don't have Jesus, then things just aren't adding up when it comes to joy.

And I think there's a lot of us in our life where we oftentimes put ourselves above Jesus and our own ideas, or we put others, unfortunately, above Jesus, so saying that we're caring for others, uh kind of like the example of Mary and Martha, but the the whole joy comes with Jesus first, serving others, and then yourself every single time.

And I found that in my life, and I hope you have seen that in your life as well.

That true joy comes from this.

And so today's lesson, I'm titling it That We're Devoted to Joy.

In everything that we do, we can see from these examples from Timothy and Epaphritis and even Paul that they were men that were devoted to joy.

And so I would like to say the same thing to us.

Are we people that are devoted to joy?

Are we people that are devoted to Jesus more than anything else?

Are we people that are devoted to others more than anything else?

And then last on the list, devoted to ourselves, devoted to joy.

So I want to break down exactly what that means to be devoted to joy.

And a couple weeks ago, Pastor Brandon jokingly said uh that he was a uh preacher with three points.

Nah, that ain't me.

You don't get three points from me.

I got five points this morning.

I got five points.

Originally it was four, but it's five.

Literally, guys, I I was working on this on Monday and I told Pastor Brandon that I made like two or three different sermons for this because I was like, here we go.

I'm not sure what to preach on, but here we go.

So I took all three of them and put them in one.

So we got five points this morning.

And so this is this is what we're gonna be talking about.

Devoted to joy.

What does it mean to be devoted to joy?

And so the very first thing is that we serve together.

When you are devoted to joy, it means you serve together.

It's sir, you serve together.

In verse 19, it says, If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit.

And I want to just emphasize this scripture right here because it sounds like Paul is sending him to a trip to the grocery store.

But where he's sending him to is an 800-mile trip.

I hope to send Timothy to you soon.

That's a couple months, brother.

If you see here, this is where they're at in prison, and all the way on the other side over there is where the church of Philippi is at.

And so this is an 800-mile trip that would probably take weeks to months to get there.

And so when Paul is saying, I hope to send Timothy to you soon, it's not for a one-time quick thing, it's to send you soon there so that they can have fellowship together.

And so we keep reading in this text it says, if the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit, then he can cheer me up by telling how you are getting along.

Now, can we truly say that with our churches here in America?

That scripture, cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along.

Church, can I tell you we struggled to get along when it comes to the halftime show?

This is Paul's like, I want to be cheered up just to know that that church is getting along.

Are you are you are you having fellowship together?

Are you living life together?

I have no one else like Timothy who genuinely cares about your welfare.

All the others care only for themselves and not what for matters to Jesus Christ.

But you know how Timothy has proved himself.

He has served with me in preaching the good news.

Now, the very first thing that you should highlight underlined in your Bible is the word with.

It's really important that he wrote served with me.

And he didn't write serve for me.

He didn't tell Timothy, I need you to serve for me.

I need you to go do this because I'm afraid to do this.

I need you to serve me in this capacity.

He's telling Timothy, and he's telling this church that Timothy is a type of person that he has served with me.

I believe that this is really important when it comes to serving with instead of serving for, because I believe pride says, Serve me, serve for me.

But humility says, serve with me.

Are we serving with each other or are we serving for people today?

And I'm grateful we have a pastor in a church that we believe in serving with each other rather than serving for a person in here.

Because the person that we're serving for is Jesus, and that we should be serving with each other to accomplish that mission, to actually bring unity to our community and say, in everything that we do, we're gonna serve together.

Because when we're devoted to joy, that's what it looks like.

And so that's why it says in Philippians 20, I have no one else like Timothy.

There's literally no one else.

And I love how the the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to be like, yeah, keep that in there.

It says, all the others care only for themselves and not what for mat for what matters to Jesus Christ.

And I feel like that's kind of passive aggressive, but at the same time, I absolutely love it because he's probably true, and you've probably seen it in your life as well, where you're probably frustrated saying, Why aren't people serving and doing these things alongside?

Why isn't the great commission moving forward?

Why aren't we doing this?

Why, why, why?

But the whole idea is that we come alongside people and we serve with people for the greater mission.

And so I'd love to ask you a question every single week when it comes to Wednesday nights.

I always like to bring my main points to questions at the very end so that you can think about it as well.

Are you known for being so for serving or being served?

If you asked your closest friends in your life, if you're a giver or a taker, what would they honestly say?

And you have to be honest with yourself, and hopefully the Holy Spirit will speak to you that as well.

Are you known for serving people or are you known for being served?

I hope it's that you're known for serving people.

But only you can truly answer that.

And so, if you're gonna be devoted to joy, it means that you are serving together.

Number two.

Let me go back.

Oh my, oh my.

Being devoted to joy means you have a spiritual family, you have a spiritual family.

Not only do you serve together, but you have a spiritual family that you serve together.

And I love how he breaks it down in the text in verse 22.

It says, But you know how Timothy has proved himself like a son with his father.

He has served with me in preaching the good news.

Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphyritis back to you.

He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier.

He was your messenger to help me in my need.

And I love how he was giving so many descriptions of each of these men, saying what they are and saying how they've made a difference in his life.

These are characteristics that we see in families.

We see this in our everyday life.

We see brothers, we see co-workers, we see spiritual soldiers along the way as well.

And I believe when it comes to being connected to a local church, it's the same exact way that we can look around this room and know that we have brothers and sisters and soldiers and co-workers of the faith doing the things that we should be doing together.

That's why I personally believe that one of the best things anyone can do is get plugged into a local church.

One of the very best things that anyone can do is get plugged into a local church.

Now, is there is there church hurt along the way?

Absolutely.

You will never find a perfect church.

And if you do, once you walk into those doors, it's no longer a perfect church.

I was listening to something last night between two pastors, and they were talking about the idea of a local church as well.

And they were saying, in what area of our world right now, do you go somewhere for an hour and a half?

You don't pick the music, you don't pick the topic that you're gonna listen to, you sometimes sit by strangers.

A lot of times you put down your phones for a good amount of time.

Sometimes people don't, but most people do.

What place in life does that happen these days?

Nowhere.

It really doesn't happen anywhere these days.

And not only that, but you see the mental and emotional and spiritual growth with the local church as well when you're plugged into it.

And so I truly believe from the bottom of my heart, one of the best things that you could ever do is truly get connected and plugged into a local church.

And I know I'm kind of preaching to the choir since you're here right now, but at the same time, I want to emphasize this because of how important it is.

Now, I have a physical family as well, and I'm very close with my extended family.

This is a beautiful picture my wife took a couple years ago.

Um, my youngest daughter was not in this picture, so it was a couple years ago.

And when I think about a spiritual family and how it relates to a physical family as well, I think about how my conversations look different based on the person that I'm talking with.

If I'm talking to my grandfather, it looks very different than how I talk to my cousin.

And how I talk to my cousin, it looks very different than how I talk to my aunt and uncles.

And how I talk to my aunt and uncles is different than how I talk to my parents.

And it should be different.

And I think a lot of times we look at the local church that we're supposed to come in here and everyone's supposed to be on the same wavelength, on the same conversations, same experiences, same perspective.

And if that's not how it is in the physical family, there's no way that's how it is in the spiritual family as well.

But I think that's the beautiful thing about a family.

Because when you get connected to a family, can I tell you there's people in this picture that make me more mad in life than anyone else?

And if you're watching online, I still love you, but my goodness.

And I'm sure your family is the same way, if we're honest.

But that's the beautiful thing about a family because I can tell you this, they make me so mad, but at the end of the day, if they needed something, I'm there for them.

I'm there for them.

I'm gonna encourage them if they need encouragement.

I'm gonna pray for them if they need prayer.

Even if they need money, I'm gonna give them money.

And I'm sure you're that way with your family as well.

And I think about how it's supposed to be with the local church, it should be the same way.

We're doing life together.

Some of y'all make me so mad.

No, I mean, I'm next service.

I'm talking about next service.

But you see what I'm saying?

Hopefully, as a church, when we're serving together and we're devoted to joy, we can come together and say, you know what?

I will do anything for you because I want to see you grow in God.

I want to see you do the things that God has for you in every area of your life.

And so there's an expression when it comes to um leadership that some of you have probably heard before, but it's everyone needs a Paul in their life, everyone needs a Barnabas, and everyone needs a Timothy.

And the idea is that everyone needs a mentor, everyone needs a friend, and everyone needs a mentee.

And can I tell you, you can find these three in the local church.

I kind of jokingly said with our college students uh last Wednesday, when it comes to where do you find your friends outside of a local church?

You can find them in a lot of different places, but when it comes to spiritual growing and connection and relationship, I'm sure it's hard to find friends out there.

Some of my closest friends in life have come in the local church.

Some of my best mentors have come in the local church.

Some of the people I've gotten the opportunity to be a be a have mentees for have been in the local church.

This is what it's all about when you're connected to a local church.

You're devoted to joy, and now you have a spiritual family.

And guess what?

You can't leave a family unless you know that'd be bad.

So I'd love to ask you a question of do you have a mentor?

Do you have a friend?

Do you have a mentee?

These three things right here, I I 100% believe are in the local church.

My seasoned people, can I tell you we need you?

I'm not saying old people, I'm saying seasoned people.

We need your wisdom in this world.

We need to know how to live righteous with sin all around us.

You are so needed for the local church.

Your time has not come to an end, but right now you can still make a difference.

And can I tell you, young people, you don't know everything.

You just don't.

But at the end of the day, there's people in the church that have gone before you that want to come alongside of you and help you, but you gotta be willing to take the help.

And can I tell you, there's friends right now in the church that can become some of you the closest friends of your life.

You just gotta put yourself out there.

And that can be vulnerable and uncomfortable, but that's what it's all about.

And so you have to honestly ask yourself the question do you have a mentor, do you have a friend, and do you have a mentee in our everyday life?

And that's what it means to be devoted to joy and being connected to a spiritual family.

Number three.

Not only does devoted to joy mean you're serving with people, you're serving together, not only does it mean that you have a spiritual family, but it also means that you encourage in the sorrow.

Encourage in the sorrow.

It says, I am sending him epaphyritis because he has been longing to see you.

And he was very distressed that you heard he was ill.

And I want to emphasize this because it doesn't say that he was distressed that he was ill.

It says that he was distressed that you heard he was ill.

And certainly he was ill.

In fact, he almost died.

But God had mercy on him and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another.

So I am all the more anxious.

And I wanted to point out the word anxious here because this word right here in the Greek is the only place in the New Testament that this word is used, and it basically means free from grief.

And it's important that we say this because we have to remember that we're looking at an 800-mile gap between where his home is to where he is now.

Think about his family.

Think about his relationships back home and where he is now.

And all of a sudden he's sick and he's distressed that they found out and he put worry into their heart.

And so Paul is so anxious and wanting to be free from grief because he wants to send his brother back to his family.

He didn't want him to be taken care of for that long.

He just needed a care package and the church sent it, and now he got sick.

Man, he just wants to be free from the grief.

And so that's why I want to emphasize these scriptures here because in these moments right here, Epaphyritis goes from the church of Philippi to Paul with a care package to go and make a difference.

All of a sudden, he's got a family, all of a sudden he's serving together with Paul, and now he's sick.

Why, God?

Why would you make him sick?

Almost where he died.

That's sorrow.

And some of you have been in that same place in life as well where you serve God and you're trying to do the good things, and then all of a sudden something bad happens to you, and you're like, God, where even are you right now?

Following God is not protection from sorrow, but it's protection through sorrow.

Can I tell you life is hard and there's gonna be sorrow.

But coming to Christ does not mean that you're gonna be removed from sorrow.

Sometimes it actually means you might have more because some of us have more flesh than others that we gotta get off.

But following Christ is not protection from sorrow, but protection through sorrow.

That the way that we live life, that we understand that we have a mission in front of us and say, you know what, God, whatever you put in front of me, whatever I do in life, I will do it even until death.

And that's what we see from epaphyritis here, even until almost dying.

But the Lord showed mercy on him.

And so we have to understand, church, that we live by faith, not by feelings.

Can I tell you your feelings may be true, but your truth is not your feelings?

Your feelings may be true, but your truth is not your feelings.

Well, I feel like this, I feel like God's leading me here, I feel like doing this, and I feel like getting into this relationship.

I don't care how you feel.

What does God say about you?

What is God's word speaking to your life?

If we don't have a GPS in our everyday life, then we can go and do and be whoever we want.

But ultimately, we don't live by how we feel.

We live by faith alone in who Jesus says.

So I can now have an understanding that even if bad things come, it doesn't matter how I feel.

I know that God's leading me somewhere through this.

God's gonna use me in some way.

I may not understand the full picture, I may not see what's in front of me, I may not see what's gonna be going on behind me, but I know that I can follow God because of the faith that I have and not by how I feel.

Who in your life, though, has put their feelings aside to make a difference?

Can I tell you, epaphyritis did not have to go to Paul?

Sometimes we lead these, read these scriptures as if like, wow, that's amazing.

But like, he had feelings.

Timothy did not have to go with that arrangement to Paul to get on these missions.

He has feelings, but they put their feelings aside to follow faith and what God is calling them to do.

And everybody in this room is here right now because someone put their feelings aside and said, I'm gonna step into faith and I'm gonna do something to make a difference.

How many of you had Sunday school teachers growing up?

You know, one of my Sunday school teachers, her name was Holly Jackson.

I don't even know where she is in the world right now, honestly.

But can I tell you, every single Sunday, she was there and she made a difference in my life.

She taught the word of God.

It was probably early, but it didn't matter to her because she taught the word of God.

There was another family named Doug and Rich.

I know where they are in life, and they're still following God to this day.

And they were Sunday school teachers for me when I was a young kid in elementary and middle school.

Everybody has stories like that where people have made sacrifices and said, you know what, right now I'm gonna put my feelings aside to make a difference moving forward.

Another one was my basketball coach.

He decided he had this business, but he wanted to make a difference in the young men in our area, and he moved forward with them to make a difference.

He didn't have to do that.

Nobody has to do anything.

But they wanted to to make a difference because they believed God was calling them to do something greater than the things that they had for themselves.

Because when you're devoted to joy, encouraging through the sorrow and doing life together typically go hand in hand.

But we have to understand that when hard times come, it doesn't mean that God's all of a sudden saying, that's it.

Sometimes it means we got to press through because God has something greater on the other side, church.

This is what it's all about.

Being devoted to joy does not mean happiness, but it means Jesus, others, and yourself.

And when you're devoted to joy, it means that you honor.

Now remember, I got five points, so save some space, okay?

I got five points.

Being devoted to joy means that you honor.

You serve together, you got a spiritual family, you encourage through sorrow.

When you're devoted to joy, man, we gotta honor some people.

I absolutely love our dream team celebration because I love getting the opportunity to honor the people that serve here in our church.

It's a beautiful thing.

I've never been a part of a church that does it the way that we do it, and it's beautiful.

The scripture says, welcome him in the Lord's love with great joy and give him the honor that people like him deserve.

For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from afar.

Now, reminder, who is Paul writing to here?

Is he writing to you, Epaphyritis?

No, he's not saying Ephyritis, you deserve honor.

He's writing to the church of Philippi saying, hey, you need to honor this man.

And Paul says this for the sake of the congregation rather than epaphyritis.

We have to understand that.

Because here's the thing the profit of doing good is greater than receiving the reward.

Can I tell you there's people in this room that you have done good stuff?

Some stuff that people have never seen, and you will one day receive a reward for those kind of things.

But if there are things that you know in people's lives that you have seen, you should honor them.

You should honor those people.

What good does it do if we see something in other people's lives, but we don't encourage them of the good that they've done?

We should encourage them.

There's a quote that I read from a theologian who has now passed away.

He says, None of this automatically is true of Christians.

We do not always love one another, nor are we always ready to acknowledge one another as fellow workers and fellow soldiers.

We sometimes look on each other with suspicion.

We hold aloof, fearful of guilt by association with those purchased by the same precious blood.

We refuse to pray with those who call upon the same precious name.

There are Christians who begrudge the gift God has given to others and are afraid that praise deserved by a fellow Christian might threaten their own prestige.

All too often our self-concerns dull our hearts to the needs of the local church.

Church, can I tell you or ask you a question?

Is there people in your life you need to honor?

Is there people in your life you need to honor?

And if there are people in your life, and I guarantee you there are, you should tell them.

You should tell them.

Because I can guarantee you, if you encourage them, it'll make them feel good, and it'll make you also feel good.

That's what it's all about, and that's why Paul's writing this about a apaphyritis.

You try to say it.

That's why he's saying this.

He's trying to remind the church this guy's amazing.

You should honor him, you should love on him when he gets back.

He's gone through this, he's gone through sorrow.

You should love him.

You should let him know how awesome he is, how great of a person he is, how thankful you are of him.

We all have people in that life.

And number five, last point being devoted to joy means you live differently, church.

Means you live differently.

Can I tell you, man?

I sometimes hate the internet right now.

I'm sure you do too.

And uh, I think there's a conversation that me and Pastor Chris have a lot of times where this phrase of Christian seems so loosely thrown around these days because everyone has a different definition of what a Christian really is.

And uh, I just wanted to read this scripture to you in John chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

He says, So now I am giving you a new commandment.

Love each other just as I have loved you.

You should love each other.

Your love for an atheist, your love for non-denominational Baptist, Methodist church, your love for that family member you're sick of.

No, it says for one another, believers, your love for one another, believers will prove to the world that you are my disciple.

Can I tell you we've gotten so far away from that?

It saddens me, man.

We don't got love anymore for people just because we bel we have a little bit of different beliefs here or there.

And I love this passage the more that I've looked at it because that's exactly what Paul was doing with his buddies.

He's like, Man, I love you guys.

I love you guys.

Timothy, I know you're younger than me, and I know you got different ideas of life, and I know you have different dreams than I do, but I love you, man.

Epaphyritis, I hate saying your name, but you're my guy.

You're my guy.

And I appreciate you sending this care package for me.

I really needed it.

I love you, dude.

I appreciate you.

Timothy and Epaphyritis live differently, church.

They lived differently.

Timothy, his mother was a Jew, his father was a Greek.

Can I tell you how complicated that would be in that time?

That would be so complicated to come from two different cultures and have no place of knowing where to go in life.

Do I go this way with my mom?

Do I go this way with my dad?

Well, he believes this kind of stuff, but she believes this kind of stuff.

I don't know what to do, I don't know what party to stand for, I don't know what religion to speak for, I don't know.

But Jesus met him where he was and says, you don't have to be devoted to either side.

You can be devoted to Jesus and everything that you do.

And I feel like right now in our world, right now, it seems like we have to choose sides and play the game that the world around us is saying.

But Jesus is speaking to you right now, saying, You don't got to choose a side.

You can choose Jesus, you can choose joy because when you're devoted to joy, everything else might be counterculture.

It's about the kingdom of God, not the culture around us, guys, that we would stand firm with joy and be devoted to it in everything that we do.

Not only Timothy was like this, but Epaphyritis was the same way.

I thought this was really interesting.

Epaphyritis, his name actually meant belonged/slash devoted to Aphorite, which was a Greek goddess.

Aphorite was a symbol of desire, the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and desire.

This was the exact opposite of what we're seeing in the text of Epaphyritis right now.

He didn't have a desire for himself, he didn't have a desire for the things of this world, but when he was devoted to joy, can I tell you, church, his whole life was different because he didn't care if he was with Paul even until death.

He was with him till death and still worried about his church knowing that he was almost dying.

He was so devoted to joy that the way that he used to live looks nothing like the way that he's living right now.

And Jesus stepped into his life and says, You don't gotta be devoted to the ways of this world anymore, but you can be devoted to me, and I'll give you every desire you've ever been looking for.

Are you tired of playing the fence like Timothy?

Or are you tired looking for desires of this world?

Because you can find both in Jesus.

Church, your past has not defined you when you surrender your life to joy.

Your past doesn't defined you.

We've just seen a beautiful text here of a little update from Paul that a lot of us will just skip right over in Philippians.

But we see two men, three men really, that their lives looked totally different before coming to Jesus.

And when they came to Jesus, we put people like Paul in the Mount Rushmore.

If we only knew him before he came to Jesus, you wouldn't be saying that.

Can I tell you if you only seen me before Jesus, I'd be shocked even standing up on the stage right now.

And the story's probably the same for you as well.

What would your life look like without Jesus?

What was your life before Jesus?

What kind of joy do you have in your life now that now you are with Jesus?

Your past has not defined you when you surrender your life to do, your life to joy.

And what is joy?

Joy is simply Jesus, others, and yourself.

In every area, in every way.

May we make our life as simple as epaphyritis, Timothy, and Paul and say, you know what?

I don't got it all figured out.

I don't got all the answers.

But you know what I do have?

I have joy.

Isn't that what you want, church?

Don't you just want joy?

There's so many things that are offering us a counterfeit in this world right now.

But the only place that we can truly find joy is in his presence.

In his presence, church.

Don't be searching for anything else.

Don't be trying to ride the fence of culture.

Don't be trying to ride the fence of desire from this world.

But live a life that looks differently so we can make an impact with people all around us.

Let's pray this morning, church.

Holy Spirit, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you for your word, God, where we get to learn about our buddies, Timothy and Epaphyritis.

Lord, you know them and we're thankful for them in the text, God.

And God, you know us and you see us right where we are, Lord, and we're thankful for that as well, God.

So, Holy Spirit, thank you that when we start devoting our life to joy, we should see things differently, Lord.

We should walk differently, we should act differently.

And so, Lord, I just thank you for your word.

Thank you for the examples of faith, Lord, that you've given to us this morning.

So, Holy Spirit, right now, if there's people in this room that don't even know about this joy, Lord, that they would they would come to you this morning, they would realize they won't be able to find anything in this world except through you.

So, God, we just thank you for your word.

We thank you for your presence.

We thank you that you see us right where we are, God, and that we can look different in every area of our life.

In Jesus' mighty name.

Amen.

Church, let's go ahead and stand up on our feet this morning.

You know, we talked about this on Wednesday nights with our college students.

It was the phrase: God doesn't just care about your identity, but he also cares about your activity as well.

God wants to change everything about you.

The way that you talk, the way that you see life, the way that you express love to others as well.

God cares about everything in your life and he sees you right where you are.

And I don't know where you are this morning, but if you're in a place where you're like, I don't know this joy that you're talking about.

I can't imagine a life where I put Jesus above myself or I put others above myself.

Jesus wants to meet you right where you are.

And so if you want to, we have a place right here in the altar.

You can come and pray.

Or if you'd like to go in the back, we have an area as well that people are waiting.

We have Timothy's and Epaphyritis basically sitting in the back wanting to pray with you.

How amazing is that?

They're putting their feelings aside and they want to see faith come alive in your life as well.

And so this morning we're gonna get into our last song, and I just pray that the Holy Spirit speaks to you at this time and moves in a mighty way so that you can be devoted to joy in every area of your life.

Let's worship this morning, church.