How Do You Want to Be Remembered?

Many of you still don't have power.

Oh, we shall pray extra for y'all.

Um, how many of you lost power at some point this week?

Wow, okay.

We're gonna start with that journal exercise.

So if you got this piece of paper on the way in, you can pull it out.

This is where we'll start as we start week three of you belong here.

We're starting deep, and it might sound morbid, but I want you to imagine the end of your life.

I want you to imagine people gathering to have coffee to talk about you.

What are they saying?

How do you want to be remembered?

What are some things that come to mind?

This is an exercise called begin with the end in mind.

So we're thinking about the end, and then we're gonna think about how do we get there.

But for a few minutes, I would like you to take this journal entry.

If you're online, you can pause this, go get a notebook or your actual journal, and write.

This is a prompt.

When all I am is a memory, I want people to remember.

So take a few minutes and fill that out for yourself, and then we'll continue.

So maybe you've written one thing, maybe a couple, and you can keep journaling as the Lord prompts you in our conversation today.

But we're gonna be in Philippians 2.

So if you have a Bible, you can turn to it.

Philippians is in the New Testament, it'll also be on the screens.

And we started Philippians 2 last week, but even before that, we started with the idea of belonging, starts with belonging to Jesus.

If we know who we are in Jesus, if our identity is secure there, that's where belonging to others begins.

Belonging to Jesus.

And last week we started Philippians 2, and there's a beautiful poem in Philippians 2 about what Jesus did, how he came from heaven, giving up that he is God, pouring himself out, being a servant, and then dying, and then not just dying, but death on a cross.

And it's this picture of lower, lower, lower, lower humility, radical humility.

And we started talking about how community is really difficult without humility.

That that humility is at the at the root of having authentic biblical community.

And today we'll continue with that thought.

And Paul, the author of Philippians, a book we've been sitting in, talks about a couple men who stand out.

And last week we we talked about how Paul said, When you live like this, you will shine like stars in a crooked and depraved generation.

And we'll look at these two men who shone like stars, who, how they were remembered is how we want to be remembered.

So turn with me to Philippians 2, and we'll start at verse 19.

I'll read it all and then I'll pray and we'll dive deeper.

There'll be a couple more times we'll pull this out and write some thoughts, but let's read Philippians 2, 19 through 30 together.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.

I have no one else like him who will show genuine concern for your welfare.

For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel.

I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, and I'm confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

But I think it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.

For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.

Indeed, he was ill and almost died.

But God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but also on me to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.

Therefore, I'm all the more eager to send him so that when you see him again, you may be glad, and I may have less anxiety.

So then welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor people like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ.

He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we sit in your word, I pray that your spirit would stir us, that you would reveal to us ways we can live like this, ways that we we can be changed by the gospel and how we relate to others and how we serve each other.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

So starting with Timothy.

Timothy is the first example.

Paul illustrates of someone who is living in a way that shines like stars, that is countercultural.

This is not normal how Timothy is living.

So in verse 19, he says, I hope to send Timothy to you soon, and I also will be cheered when I receive news about you.

You have to remember that these are days way before texting.

That to hear of someone's news, you have to send a person to give a letter, and it took a long time, and then you waited, and this is what he's thinking.

Like, I want to be cheered when I hear about you.

So I have to send this person, Timothy.

I have no one else like him.

Imagine that description, that resume.

I have no one else like him.

Why?

He will show genuine concern for your welfare.

We live in a time where comfort and self-preservation are the highest thing we're trying to protect.

I was laughing with my family when we went out of power.

The biggest issue was how are we gonna recline the electric chair?

You know, first of all, problems.

This is where we are, we're like comfortable and we look out for our interests.

That's what's normal.

And Paul says, Well, this guy's different.

He shows genuine concern for your welfare.

Everyone else looks out for their own interests, but not Timothy.

When Paul meets Timothy, Paul is the kind of guy who would go from one town to another, talk about Jesus.

When communities of faith would build, he would like strengthen them and then go and plant another church.

And how he meets Timothy is he hears about him, his reputation precedes him.

And then he meets him and he thinks, I have to work with you.

And he becomes like a son.

Friendship is too shallow to describe their relationship.

And Timothy goes through this journey with Paul of going to tell people about Jesus.

And Paul went through quite dramatic journeys in his life.

His journey of obedience and serving the Lord was costly.

He got beat up, he got thrown in jail, he got accused of stuff.

So for Timothy, a kid, probably a teenager, to say, I'm with you, was costly.

It was not an easy path that he chose to follow Paul.

And Timothy is the guy who is with him.

It says in verse 22, you know that Timothy has proved himself.

For him to be with me through all this, he has to have proved himself.

As a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel.

As I think about what the journey of obedience looks like in the work of the gospel, sometimes it's costly.

And it's so much sweeter in community.

With others who have decided, I'm in this journey of the gospel.

I'm allowing my identity in Jesus to permeate every fiber of my being, and I will say yes to the Lord, whatever it costs.

Are you with me?

If you have another human like that, if if your small group, your community, your family, your friends, if that becomes what the bond is, it's so much deeper than just regular friendship.

This is biblical community, defined by the gospel.

Verse 23, I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, and I'm confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

This is like so deep for Paul to think, I love this kid and I will send him to you.

It's Paul saying, I love you guys so much that I'm willing to give up this companion, this son, so that I can show my love for you.

All these are an illustration of what biblical community could look like.

So let's pull out our card again and let's think about what are the things Timothy has embodied that we want to be remembered for?

How can we show genuine concern for someone?

How can we look out for others' interests in a way that's countercultural, in a way that doesn't make sense?

And how can we serve Jesus alongside someone?

How is God calling us to sacrifice and preach the gospel in our worlds in ways that may be costly?

Or maybe he's already called a Paul in your life, someone who's radical and cracky, and they're willing to stand up in the schoolyard, I don't know, and talk about Jesus and you're like their companion.

Like I'm here with you.

We're doing this together.

So think about it for a moment.

How can Timothy help his example help form us?

So that's Timothy, and what we can learn from him.

And there is another man that Paul talks about in Philippians too, and his name is Epaphroditus.

I really want to make fun of his name, but he seems like such a nice guy.

I was thinking, like, who's having a baby?

How about Ephroditas?

And then she stood up with a baby.

Maybe Epaphroditus, I don't know what you call him for short, but anyway, he's too nice to make fun of.

So Timothy is like my son.

I can't send him to you right now, but I'm thinking about it, I will.

But this guy, I think it's necessary that I send him my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger.

This was your expression of love to me.

You sent him to take care of my needs.

Now I want you to imagine, we can't, but I want you to imagine a first century Roman prison.

You are on your own.

If you got beaten on your way in, nobody's nursing your wounds.

If you need food, if you need to be cared for, you are on your own.

So for the Philippian church to send Epaphroditas to take care of Paul is deep ministry.

He needed it.

And this guy, he he's coming as an expression of care from his church, and then he gets sick and almost dies on his journey to care for Paul.

And Paul sees this as such a deep ministry to him, and he's saying, I'm gonna send him back.

He's longing for you, he's distressed because you heard he was ill and he can't send you a video like I'm fine.

He has to come physically back to you.

You heard he almost died.

God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but also on me to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.

Paul's life was hard, but I don't think he complained.

He was about Jesus, no matter what it cost.

But he looks at this situation and he's like, I'm so glad he didn't die coming to take care of me.

That would have been really hard.

Sorrow upon sorrow.

So, Epaphroditus, he knows what it looks like to have costly um friendship, costly brotherhood.

I'll come and take care of you.

It might kill me, but I'm coming.

And I don't know if he would have gone if he knew how costly it was.

But as I look at the description of him, I think he would have.

I think he made a predetermined decision to serve the Lord with his whole life, no matter what it cost him.

And that's why when we talk about next steps as a community, helping people take next steps with God, that's our mission as a church.

It's so important to pause and make a commitment to our next step.

Because when we start to take it, it could be costly.

And we're like, oh no, if I want to do this anymore.

So we take a next step and we share with our people so that they can help us to stay accountable.

I used to be in youth ministry in an arbor, and there was a young man who gave me a hard time in youth ministry.

He was just a punk, okay?

And then he met Jesus and he got baptized, and I happened to be preaching when he got baptized, so I gave him a hard time.

It was payback, you know.

But it was like hear someone saying publicly, my life belongs to the Lord.

So if you see him in the community and he's doing dumb things, give him a hard time, you know, because that's what accountability looks like.

If I decide that this is how I'm going to love my husband or my kids, and I tell the group of women I pray with, and a month later I'm not acting in that way, they have every right to call me out.

Because we're in this together.

That's what biblical community looks like.

So these men are a powerful example of what Paul was inviting all of us to to shine like stars in a crooked and depraved generation.

And I want to give you an example from the 19th century.

But before I do, I want to tell you about Bob Smith.

So some of you may have heard that How 242 started was Bob Smith, who was a police officer, had this vision.

He saw people walking around without a knowledge of God and nobody pursuing them.

He was like, I want to build a church where people are hungry to share the gospel with others who are not in the building yet.

So he remained a police officer, raised the funds, and started 242.

When he retired from the police force, he came and joined the staff team.

And then he retired from the staff team fairly recently.

And on the last day that we had all our staff gathered, Bob talked about William and Catherine Booth.

If you've never heard of this couple, they were in ministry in the 19th century.

1865, William began preaching in London's East End.

And he preached among the people who are experiencing extreme poverty, people that the normal church would have overlooked.

They wouldn't have gone to them.

They would have waited for them to clean up and then come to the church.

He preached to alcoholics, people living on the streets, laborers, women stuck in prostitution.

And Catherine, who at that time, a woman preacher, was like, what?

She was such a powerful voice in this movement, and she fought for others to be seen.

The way that these two lived their ministry, they started what became the Salvation Army, which has then gone to change the world.

Their Salvation Army chapters in all over the world.

And their heart was, we see you.

They were ridiculed, they were persecuted, they even experienced violence.

The church, respectable Christians at the time were like, What are you doing?

And disowning them.

But their heart was, this is the gospel.

The gospel is not an intellectual exercise.

What Jesus did needs to live out of us.

And when the people they were sharing the gospel with would respond to the gospel, it wasn't now, let's hanker down and sing kumbaya, roll up your sleeves, and we're going back and helping other people feel seen and heard and known.

They built radical community with unlikely people.

And it was costly.

But their legacy, how we remember them, is still this.

One of the things that was said at the end of William's life, his famous final public address reduced decades of his ministry to one word.

Others.

Others.

He lived this selfless, not looking out for my own interests, but looking out for the interests of others' life.

And he shown like a star, he and his wife, in a crooked and depraved generation.

A generation that had justified ills that they were all just living with, and they were like, No.

The gospel is more than this.

So we see Timothy, and he inspires us to be better, to show genuine concern for others and to serve them sacrificially.

Then we see Epaphroditus and he does the same.

We see William and Catherine Booth live this out in the 19th century.

But I want to take us all the way back to Jesus.

Jesus was that person who saw people other people didn't see.

Other people didn't want to see.

He made room at his table for prostitutes and tax collectors, outcasts, people who would have been spat on.

He's like, come, let's hang out.

This wee little man that we were talking about, Zacchaeus, he said, I'm coming to your house.

Not only did he make room at his table, he invited himself to other people's houses.

He's my kind of guy.

The table, it's a powerful place where who we gather with, what we share at that place, how we share our lives.

And this is the third journal prompt.

I want you to think about your table.

Who is at your table?

It may be physically, but also metaphorically.

Like who are you making room for?

Who it may be uncomfortable to hang out with.

Maybe you don't think the same, maybe you don't look the same.

But this is what Jesus did.

He made room at the table for all sorts of people in ways that were costly.

He got ridiculed and shunned and even lost his life because of who he hung out with and how he lived out his ministry.

So who might Jesus be inviting me to make room for?

I grew up in Kenya, and in my country, we don't make meals like you know, a plate for each person, like a cut from the butcher or whatever.

We make pots of food because the dove could ring anytime, and someone's at the door, and you just redistribute the food.

And it's living in the posture of readiness to share your table.

So how can God shift your posture to be more ready?

Or maybe you already are, and you need to teach us stuff, so that you can make room for who God could be putting on your heart.

My husband and boys were going for brunch the other day, and there was a gentleman hitchhiking.

So they stopped and picked him up, and he happened to be going to the same brunch restaurant that they were going to.

So they're walking together, and my husband asked for a table, and the man is like coming to join them.

They're like, Oh, we were having family time, you know.

But he was just like, I'm ready.

I'm supposed to be at your table.

He invited himself, which is some of what Jesus did.

Maybe some of your table is asking your friend, hey, can I come to your house?

You don't have to clean up.

I have a group of girls who we meet for too long because we share real things, and our rule is don't clean up your house.

Because those are the things that stop us sometimes.

Like I have to be praying and proper and have no, just real biblical community.

Like you know me, you see me, and you're still my person.

And we can go on a journey where I'm with you.

You're making costly decisions because you're saying yes to Jesus.

Well, I'll be right there.

I'll be right there.

So, this is our invitation to process what it looks like to live like stars in a crooked and depraved generation.

And when I think about Jesus and how he wrapped up his time on earth, the last thing he did with his disciples is gather around a table.

And he rolled up his sleeves.

I don't know if he had sleeves, the Jewish dress thing, and he tied a towel around his waist, and then he washed their feet.

And they were so confused.

You're our Lord and teacher, and you're washing our feet.

And he washed their feet knowing that some would betray him, some would run away, some would disown him.

It wasn't like, I guess maybe he knew he knew who and what they were going to do, and he washed their feet anyway.

And then he sat at a table with them and he broke bread and he said, This is my body broken for you, and this is the cup poured out for you, my blood poured out.

But they couldn't have understood what he was saying because the cross hadn't happened yet.

But this is what he chose to do at the Last Suppers, is show them why he was sacrificing his life for us.

And then he told those who follow him, remember, remember this.

Remember my body broken for you, remember my blood poured out for you.

And if you don't know Jesus yet, this is who he is.

He makes room at the table for you.

He's been pursuing you.

You're not hearing this on accident.

This is very intentional on his part.

And he wants you in his story.

He wants you to come to that table and share in it with him.

And once you do, for those of us who already know Jesus, we stand from that table and we live like this.

Not because of our own strength, but the Holy Spirit enables us, those men who Jesus wash their feet, who are going to betray him and disown him, and then go hide once he was crucified.

They encounter the Holy Spirit and then they start to live boldly, sacrificially.

This is how we're enabled if we know Jesus, the spirit of the living God.

And as we are enabled, we live this out, this sacrificial biblical community that changes the world.

That brings the gospel to places it may never have reached if you hadn't given up your whole life to serve the Lord.

So I want to pray for us and then we'll talk about some next steps.

Lord, I thank you so much that you came.

You didn't consider being equal to God, something to be held on to, but you let go of that and you emptied yourself and you served as a servant and you gave your life to death, even death on a cross.

And Lord, as we seek to live in intimacy with you and to overflow from that place in community, may you show us what that looks like in a really practical way, in hundreds of ways.

May we walk out of here knowing what it looks like to make room at our table, to make room in our lives, to love like this.

In Jesus' name I pray.