Philippians 2:19-30 - Pursuing Jesus By Appreciating His Servants

Main Idea: Am I valuing those who’ve served me on Christ’s behalf, and passing on that service to others?

1. Christ’s servants care for people (vs. 19-24)

a. We care for people with our emotions.

b. We care for people with our plans.

c. We care for people with our actions.

2. Christ’s servants expend themselves for people (vs. 25-30)

a. We expend ourselves by praising others.

b. We expend ourselves by caring about others’ feelings.

c. We expend ourselves by giving to others.

d. We expend ourselves by highly regarding others.

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Many of us tend to think God's like us. We tend to think He's made in our image that He'd respond to people, He'd treat people like we do. And if you had to deal with a person that was just like you, you probably wouldn't like them very much.

You probably wouldn't invite them back softly and tenderly. You'd go, no, you're not a very nice person to me all the time. You forget about me sometimes.

Sometimes you're selfish and you're not looking out for my best interests. But our Heavenly Father is not like us.

He is the one who is consistently, always gracious and kind, opening his arms to sinners and to those that think that they're not sinners. And he says, I invite you back into relationship and fellowship with me. We're in Philippians chapter 2.

We've been walking through the book of Philippians, the letter from the Apostle Paul to the church at Philippi, and been looking at this main thought one pursuit.

So we've seen all the way through that we are pursuing Jesus through each of the things that we look at each week.

So loving others, keeping our focus on Christ, valuing his kingdom and his purpose, valuing what he does by being humble, by adopting his mentality of love and appreciation and dependence on others.

And last week, as we saw, that we're called to appreciate the gifts that he's given us, gifts of salvation, gifts of representing him to the world and even the gift of suffering.

And now in the book, Paul reaches a portion where we're kind of zooming out from, hey, here's all this wonderful doctrinal truth that I want to give you as a church.

And now he's going to talk about to people, to specific people that we're not unfamiliar to the church. And if I if I cough, I apologize. I've got a little bit of a tickle in my throat at the moment.

So if I do it, don't go, oh, no, he's sick. He's got the plague. Not sick.

Don't have the plague. I want to address two truths this morning.

As we dive into this passage first, I am aware that the most direct interpretation and application of this passage is speaking to a church appreciating one of its pastors and one of its founding pastors.

Second, I realize what an awkward position that puts me in, given that I'm preaching the passage. Hey, this says, appreciate your pastors. All of you appreciate the pastor.

Great. That's pretty self-serving.

However, all of you that have been here over the past two months realize that I haven't selected this portion of scripture because I don't think I'm appreciated enough, but because it's the next section in our study in Philippians.

With that being said, I'm going to do my best to speak to the direct application of the passage with this caveat at the beginning that I'm calling you and myself to biblical faithfulness and obedience.

I'm also going to highlight the other application we can glean from this passage, which is that it's not just pastors that serve us in Christ's name. And so we can appreciate all of those that do for us what Jesus would do if he was here physically.

These people include deacons, small group teachers, men's and women's ministry leaders, and friends and family members that pray for us, encourage us from the Bible, call us to obedience and love and many other things.

Today we're going to be studying pursuing Jesus by appreciating his servants. And our main question for today is, are we valuing those who've served us on Christ's behalf and passing on that service to others?

Are we valuing those who've served us on Christ's behalf and passing on that service to others? We're going to start by looking in verses 19 through 24 at the fact that Christ's servants care for people.

Paul says this now, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you. For I have no one else like minded who will genuinely care about your interests.

All seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know his proven character because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father. Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.

I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon. If you're anything like me, you might have read that portion of scripture and gone, great, that's wonderful. Those are great verses.

What does that have to do with me? I'm not Timothy, I'm not the church at Philippi, I'm not the Apostle Paul. What does this have to do with me?

We see in here that Paul, both himself and saying about Timothy, that these servants of Christ care for people. And while we ought to appreciate those that care for us, we are also called to be Christ's servants.

It's not that maybe Pastor Ron and Owen and myself, okay, you guys are set aside, you guys are supposed to serve Christ, all the rest of us, we just serve ourselves.

No, all of us are called to be servants of Christ, that we would do what Jesus would want us to do. So we're all called to be Christ's servants. So we're all called, like Paul and Timothy, to care for people.

And I see in here some specific ways in which Paul highlights Timothy's care for the Philippians. The first of these is that he says we care for people with our emotions. I might say, okay, where is that?

I missed that verse in there. He says about Timothy, he says, I have no one else like minded, equal in mind to me on this. Both of us are like this.

He says, who will genuinely care about your interests. The word care here is a very rich word. We'll interact with it later when Paul tells the Philippians, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication.

With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. It's that same word, anxious. He says, he will care about you.

He will be anxious about you.

Not only do I see that word in there, but if you look in verse number 19, where he says, I too may be encouraged in verse number 22, where he has served and later in the passage, as we'll see with the papherditis, God calls us to care for people with

our emotions. That is the natural way that we think of when I say, hey, you need to care for others, you would think, okay, I need to think kindly. I need to feel warmly in regards to a specific person.

We feel this general sense of compassion and love. But we are called to care for others with our emotions. We tend to separate, okay, I can feel love.

All of my other emotions, they don't have to get involved with people at all. But as I looked at some of the main emotions that we carry as people, there are some specific ways in which we can care for others.

With the emotion of happiness, I think about Romans 12, where it says that we are called to rejoice with those who rejoice. When someone else is happy, we aren't jealous of their happiness. We aren't wishing that we were as happy as them.

We enter into it. We care for them by being happy when they're happy.

With the emotion of excitement, if we don't enter into others' joys and passions and we're bored by the other person, if every time you tell someone, hey, this really cool thing happened this week, or man, this was just awful, and they go, oh, you're

not gonna feel very cared for. You're not gonna feel loved by the other person. So we're called to care for other people. We would join them in their happiness.

We would join them in their excitement with the emotion of tenderness, the words gentleness, kindness, forgiveness, patience, and love.

All of those are mentioned over and over again in Scripture as vital spiritual practices that our world doesn't value when it comes to outside groups.

So we're fine being gentle, kind, forgiving, patient, and loving to the people we like, but to those that are on the outside, whether that's Democrats on the outside, Republicans on the outside, racists on the outside, sinners on the outside, illegal

immigrants on the outside, or homosexuals on the outside. I'm not going to be gentle or kind or forgiving or patient or loving towards those people, but those are the traits we're called most in the New Testament to embody, to image or show who God

is. We are called to have that tenderness, that kindness, forgiveness, and love towards others. We also see that another common emotion, one of the core ones is being scared or being fearful. Timothy here, Paul says, will genuinely care.

He will be anxious about the Philippians' spiritual health. This is not a level of relationship and caring that we often willingly enter into. We might feel it as it interacts with our kids.

My daughter Evelyn and my son, Bryon, they like playing on these steps, and occasionally they'll get a little close, and I get fearful because I care about them. I don't want them to get hurt.

That's what Paul says Timothy's feeling is towards the Philippians. He doesn't want them to fall off. He doesn't want them to turn back on their faith in Christ.

He doesn't want them to stumble into spiritual sin. Does it bother you if someone you love is engaging in sin that will destroy their soul? There is no such thing as a consequence-less sin.

And one of the ways in which we're called to care for others is to have some measure of fear, anxiousness that we bring to God obviously, but that we would genuinely care about the state of others.

Maybe it might be as well for their health or for something that we could help someone else with, that we would have a care, that it would bother us. There would be some measure of, oh, no, I really don't want that to happen for them.

I don't want them to go down that path. I'm going to warn them. Is a way in which we can care for others with our emotions.

Did you know you can care for people emotionally through your anger? Kind of an odd thought. Be moved, have some sort of indignation that rises up in you when others are wronged, and seek justice and right for them.

Don't seek revenge. Don't go, oh, that person said that to you. I'm going to slash their tires.

I'm really caring for you emotionally. But that you would have a heart like the heart of our God, that when his children are harmed, when they are hurt, that justice would be sought out for them.

Jesus clarified this in even the Sermon on the Mount, that we don't seek revenge or vengeance for our own sake, but we seek right relationships with God and with people, that we wouldn't see someone being wronged and just be completely okay with it.

It would cause something to rise up in us that would say, I want to help in this situation. That's one way in which we can care for people with our emotions.

So, happiness with excitement, with tenderness, with even our fear or being scared with anger and with sadness. I think of the other verse in Romans 12 where it says, to weep with those who weep.

Don't simply sit in your comfortable emotions and go, I'm really sorry that you feel that way. Enter into sorrow with them.

For all of Job's friends' faults that they had, they sat with him in silence for seven days as he pondered the deep losses that he had suffered. And they sat with him for seven days entering into that sorrow. Care about people with your emotions.

It will mean that you become somewhat vulnerable to them, but it's what Christ calls us to. It's here what Timothy embodied that Paul said, Timothy is just like me in that he's going to be anxious. He's going to care about you all.

If you never get close enough to others to know them or become invested in their life, how can you care for them? And I'll mention as we're talking here about leaders and pastors as well.

If you want your pastors or other believers, other servants of Christ to care for you, open yourself up to spending time with them, to being honest with them. And they will care for you.

They will enter into caring for your emotions, just as we are called to do for others, that we enter into the pain of others.

Even as we saw two weeks ago with Jesus, this is what he did, that he was in heaven, that there was nothing wrong in his life. It was literally perfect.

And he entered into our world, that even as he went to go resurrect Lazarus from the dead, what is the shortest verse in the Bible? John 11 35, Jesus wept. He entered into our sorrow.

He entered into our joy. He went to weddings. He did so many things that cared about people.

Even the infamous him going into the temple and throwing out the money changers, was they were exacting interest, exorbitant interest rates on those that were coming into the temple, that these were poor people that couldn't afford to bring, you

know, the finest, the best sacrifices to bring to God. So they could only afford some things, and these money changers were making money off of other people's sacrifices to God. And so there Jesus enters in with anger that says, this is not right.

This is against the law of God. And he made things right for those that were being wronged and being harmed. Jesus modeled this for us.

Here, Paul and Timothy, they had this mindset. Let us also care for people with our emotions. Not only do we care for people with our emotions, but in verses 21 through 24, we care for people with our plans.

And we can see this in verse number 21, where Paul says, all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ, but you know his proven character. Verse 21, he says, Timothy is just like me.

He's going to genuinely care, be anxious about your interests. He says, everyone else seeks, they go after, they plan, they plot about their own interests. Everyone else is pursuing what works for them.

Timothy will naturally seek, plan, plot, go after what is best for you. We talked about this two weeks ago with the thought that we are to scope out.

Remember, I told all of you that you're now hired as marksmen to be able to scope out the interests, the needs of others. Do you have plans for caring for anyone besides yourself or maybe your immediate family this week?

Are you caring for people with what you're plotting, planning ahead to do this week? Are you including caring for others or being with others or doing any of those things with someone else this week? If not, it's the very beginning of the week.

You've still got time, but let's plan on caring for others by including them in our plans that you don't know who really needs your presence this week.

You don't know who needs to have a conversation with you, that the words that you speak, the joy that maybe you bring into a situation, maybe you coming alongside with someone's grief or someone's sorrow or even someone's anger against a wrong, you

don't know what coming alongside them could do this week. So plot out, plan, seek the interests of others. Just like Paul says, Timothy does this. I'm calling us as a church to do the exact same thing.

As it relates to our leaders, so he's saying, hey, you guys can trust Timothy because he's like this, because he plans out things for others.

At the church, we've got several things that are planned out, planned out sermons, planned out discipleship, planned out lessons, planned out activities for outreach.

We have different things that we plan not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of our church.

And I'd encourage you, will you let your spiritual leaders care for you with their plans, or will you avoid any extra time tending to your spiritual life?

I know that life is busy, but we ought to make time to grow spiritually, that we would be with other people in community.

I'm so grateful for the different instances in which I've been able to sit in on all of the different small groups of the church and the different classes and being able to see our teachers present the Word of God.

It's an encouragement to me, and the work that they've done in planning that out is not for their own benefit. I know Gary, I know Owen, I know Jim and many others. They don't do it because they've got nothing better to do with their time.

They do it for the spiritual betterment of those that are in attendance. And so I would encourage you have, allow your spiritual leaders plans for your spiritual betterment. Allow that to impact at least some portion of your schedule.

They are caring for your spiritual life. I would encourage you to have that same care for your own spiritual life. Not only do we care for people with our emotions and our plans, we can care for people with our actions.

We can see this in verses 22 and 23. It says this, you know his proven character, his tested character, because he has served with me in the gospel ministry, like a son with a father.

Here caring for people with our actions, Paul says that Timothy has served with me in the gospel. This word would be the word slave. He has slaved with me in the gospel.

As we've been going through the book of Acts in our Bible study podcast, one of the things that we noticed is Timothy was in Philippi when Paul was interacting with all the different things that took place. So Paul and Silas, they were arrested.

They were thrown into prison. They were beaten. And Timothy is still there with the rest of the believers that he wasn't also arrested at that time.

So they would have known Timothy.

At this point, Timothy wasn't one that had spent a ton of time with Paul, but because of what he had known from his mother and grandmother in them raising him to know the Hebrew scriptures, his mother and grandmother were Jewish.

His dad was a Greek and did not believe in God.

So as one short aside, I want to mention to you today, maybe you don't come from a Christian background, maybe you didn't come from a Christian home, maybe you've got kind of a split home or you come from a home of divorce. God still wants you.

God still cares about you. He loves you. And your pedigree does not make you more attractive to God or less attractive to God.

Whatever background you come from, like we can learn from Timothy, if you come from a split home, God wants you. He loves you. And he can do incredible things with your life.

So he says, you guys know Timothy. You have interacted with him. You know his proven, his tested character, because he's slaved with me in the gospel ministry like a son with the father.

At this time, you would kind of pass on the family trade. If dad was a blacksmith, the son would be a blacksmith. It would be someone that from the earliest moments of their life, they were involved in the trade, that they knew all the ins and outs.

Oh yeah, my dad has done this for years, and my grandfather has done this for years. It is a familiarity. It is a knowledge of what is happening.

So he says, Paul says, Timothy slaved with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father. That this relationship that we have had is close, that I can vouch for him.

So I want to send him to you guys so that there can be a report that is brought and he can tell me about how great things are going in the church at Philippi. So caring for people with our actions.

These are the things Paul said, Timothy has served, has slaved with me in the gospel. So you can trust him because he cares for you. He doesn't just care for you with emotions and plans, but he actually does something.

If I say, man, I love you so much. I feel all this emotion for you. You're really great.

And I want to plan to hang out with you this week. We'll get coffee. We'll go down to Denny's.

We'll share a meal. I'll pray for you. And then I never actually follow through.

I never actually do anything. Will you really think that I care for you? If I say, hey, I love you.

There's the emotion. I'm planning to spend time with you, and it never follows through. We're going to go, this person doesn't actually care about me.

If we're going to care about people, let's care with our emotions. Let's care with our plans. And let's care with our actual actions.

I encourage us, be grateful for those that do things for your spiritual betterment. People can care for you in many ways, but your soul is the most valuable part of your essence.

And those that share God's truth with you, pray for you, and call you to faithfulness to Christ, are worthy of your respect and love. If you have known the Lord, I can see many people that I know in the room have followed the Lord for many years.

And I know that many of them talk about the person that maybe led them to faith in Christ or the person that first introduced them to the truths of Scripture and discipled them. I would encourage you, be grateful for those people.

We can nitpick people all we want, but let's be grateful for those that have invested into us. The one thing I noticed here with the emotions, plans and actions is that this is the entirety of Timothy's person.

This is his body, his soul and his spirit. So with his body, he is serving, he's actually doing the actions. So with his body, he cares for people.

With his soul, with his emotions, with caring for people, with being anxious for people, with his soul, he is caring for people.

And then with his spirit, that his mind, his intellect, he's plotting out, he's seeking, he's planning the betterment of others.

Are you caring for others with your body, your soul, and your spirit, with your actions, with your emotions, and with your plans? Not only do Christ's servants care for others, care for people, Christ's servants expend themselves for people.

And we can see this in verses 25 through 30.

Paul says this, But I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need, since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you had heard

that he was sick. Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. However, God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

For this reason, I am very eager to send him so that you may rejoice again when you see him, and I may be less anxious.

Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and hold people like him in honor, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.

So here, Paul is describing Epaphroditus that he says, okay, I want to send Timothy to you. He says, but I considered it necessary, that which you can't do without. He says, I had to send you guys Epaphroditus.

He was the one that had brought the gift from the Philippians to Paul. He fell very sick. They heard that he had been sick.

It distressed both Epaphroditus and Paul. And so Paul says, all right, now that he's better, I'm sending him back to you all so that you can be encouraged, so that we don't have to be worried about you as a church anymore.

And he talks about how Epaphroditus expended himself, how he gave himself entirely to the care and love of people and of Paul.

And I noticed first that not only does Paul say Epaphroditus did this, he is modeling for the Philippians how they too can expend themselves for people.

He says Epaphroditus has modeled this, and now with how I'm describing him to you, these are the type of actions that he has done that are good. And I want you guys to emulate these same actions. Here's the blueprint.

First, we expend ourselves by praising others. Do you notice all the ways that Paul describes Epaphroditus? He calls him my brother, my coworker, my fellow soldier, your messenger, and minister to my need.

Later down, he says, hold people like him in honor because he came close to death for the work of Christ. So he's heaping all of these accolades, praising Epaphroditus. Do you ever take time to build others up through your words?

We can all tend to make excuses on why we're only ever negative in our words. But why don't we start describing people with compliments and words of gratitude? Paul calls sinners saints.

God calls cowards like Gideon, hiding in wine presses, men of valor. Jesus calls his betraying enemy friend. Don't you think you can start speaking to people with kinder words?

I'd also say in connection with this, how do you speak about your spiritual leaders? Do you consistently complain about content, structure, time, amount of communication, clothing, habits, etc.?

Paul here is modeling for the Philippians what he calls them to do in verse 29, which is to honor Epaphroditus. He's saying, here's how you talk about those that serve you in Christ. It's easy for us to complain.

It's something spiritual. It's something godly to speak well of others. Think of James 3 where it says this, death and life are in the tongue's power.

And he says, out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing, and this should not be. Today, we can either mimic what our God does, mimic what he shows in his word of how we speak about people.

And here specifically about how we speak about those that have ministered to us, that have loved us, that have cared for us, that have helped us out spiritually. We can either choose to follow our own way or God's way.

So not only do we expend ourselves by praising others, by building others up with our words, but we expend ourselves by caring about others' feelings. So verses 26 through 28. Paul says that Epaphroditus has been longing.

This is that same word in 1 Peter 2 where he says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, he says, just as much as a baby wants milk, Epaphroditus has been longing for you all and was distressed.

This word is the strongest New Testament word for depression or sadness. Like Epaphroditus was completely bummed out. He was very down and sad because he was sick.

No, because you heard that he was sick. Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. His sadness was not for my circumstances.

It was about how it was going to affect others. And Paul says, for this reason, I am very eager to send him so that he can be better. No, no.

So that you may rejoice again. Here, their reasons for what they were doing, their own sorrow, their sadness, their longing, their desires were all wrapped up in how it would affect other people.

How it would affect their emotions so that they would have joy. His sadness was because of the care of other people. Do you know that it's a lot harder to do anything in life when you have to care about someone else's feelings?

If you didn't have to care about someone else's feelings, you could do all sorts of stuff. It would take no time whatsoever. When you care about other people's feelings, you're slower to take action.

You're more cautious in your words. In the words of the popular speakers of today, facts might not care about others' feelings, but as Christians, we must care about others' feelings. Why would I say that?

Because Paul says Timothy was like him in being anxious for the Philippians, that Epaphroditus was depressed because he knew how sad the Philippians would be when they heard that he was sick.

Because Paul sent Epaphroditus back to Philippi, even though he loved being with him because it would bring the Philippians joy. And that their joy would calm Paul's anxiety.

This chapter, Philippians 2, is rich with emotions, with feelings, all inspired to be in Scripture by the Holy Spirit. If Paul cared about others' emotions and feelings, then why shouldn't we?

It's exhausting to care about what other people's thoughts and feelings are. But we're called to expend ourselves just as Epaphroditus did, just as Jesus did. He spent himself.

He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He spent himself entirely. We are called to spend ourselves in service of others.

As a pastor, that's one goal that I'm consistently trying to reach, caring about the feelings of others.

Now, you all have been in the world long enough, you realize that not everyone's feelings or emotions have as much truth or validity behind them as others. There are some people that have really big emotions about things that are just dumb.

They have immature emotions. But if I'm going to be a caring pastor, if I'm going to expend myself caring about the feelings of others, I'm going to attempt to the best of my ability to care for that person despite their immaturity.

I'm so grateful for the pastors in my life that cared for me.

When I was a dumb teenager or young college student, times when a girl didn't like me or broke up with me, that I was despondent, that my emotions were telling me that I needed to respond in ways that were over the top and not reflective of reality.

They cared for me and kindly helped me see where my emotions, my feelings weren't in line with God's Word and reality. And they helped me. I want to be that same person for others and help people with their emotions when I can.

It can be easy just to go, ah, tough it up. Hey, it's been two months. I can't believe you're still sad about that.

Oh, I can't believe you'd have this emotion about this thing. Expend yourself in caring about the feelings of others. Not only that, thirdly, we expend ourselves by giving to others.

And we can see this in that Paul sent Epaphroditus, someone that had ministered to him, that had helped him out, that had encouraged him in the faith. And he sent him back, not because it was some big benefit to Paul.

Like, oh, man, you know, I don't have a bunch of resources, and Epaphroditus is eating me out of house and jail. And so I'm going to send him back to you guys. No, no, no.

He was a blessing to Paul. And he sent him so that the Philippian church could be encouraged. And here the Philippians had sent Epaphroditus with the gift to go to Paul, that there was a mutual beneficial giving that was taking place.

Do you hoard all of your resources just for yourself? I challenge us. Let's expend ourselves by giving to others.

I think of Hebrews chapter 13, where the writer there says that, to do good and to share with others, do not forget, because with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. God is pleased when we meet the needs of others.

I think of Galatians 6, where Paul says, to do good, to share with others, to give to the needs of others, especially those who are of the household of faith, that we are called to give to others. Our resources are not simply mine.

They are given by God, so that we would accomplish His will with the gifts that He has given us. I saw this lived out in a huge way in our church in Washington. About three or four years ago, there was a couple that they had just moved to the church.

They had been going to a church that was an hour and a half away, and it was just a lot on them. It was very draining, and so our church was only about 20 minutes away.

They began coming to our church, and one day as they were coming to the Sunday evening service, they got a call that their house was on fire. And everything went up in blaze of smoke, and pretty much all of their possessions were gone in a moment.

And I saw how that church in Washington wrapped its arms around that family, and my wife and I, we didn't have a lot of money, but we chipped in too, and a bunch of people did things so that then that family, even though they had an incredibly

difficult circumstance, even though they had lost so much, God's people wrapped their arms around them, and that they knew they weren't alone, that the church couldn't take care of every need, but that the people individually gave what God had given

them to be able to help the needs of others. Let's expend ourselves by giving to others. As here, there's some discussion of pastors. I want to mention very briefly why we would give to maybe support pastoral staff.

And I think of 1 Timothy 5, where Paul wrote to Timothy, he says, The elders that rule well are to be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in teaching and preaching.

1 Corinthians 9 says that those that, those that live, sorry, those that share the gospel, those that their work is in the gospel, should live of the gospel, that those receiving the fruits of their work, that they should be able to live as a result

of that. Or 3 John 1 and verse 8, where the apostle would write that the church there is to send their missionaries on a manner worthy of God, that they are to support them and to help meet their needs.

I'm so grateful for our church and for how you have ministered to both our family, how we've been able to help with Pastor Ron and with his wife, as he served as interim pastor and now as ministry's advisor, that it helps him, it helps myself, to not

have to worry about working an outside job and also trying to do so many other things, but that we would have a central focus on the Word of God and being able to spend our time in that and being able to be a spiritual encouragement to others. I say

that as a supplemental thing of, okay, does this apply? I know we're supposed to give to others. Are we supposed to give to a Timothy or an Epaphroditus? And the testimony of Scripture would be that we do.

It's why I don't just receive money from the church, but every single week I give to the church because I want to be a part of helping those that are helping to feed me spiritually, to help those that disciple me in the gospel like Pastor Ron has

done over the past several months. So we expend ourselves by praising others. We expend ourselves by caring about others' feelings.

We expend ourselves by giving to others, that it's not just okay we give to a church somewhere, but that we care about the needs of individual people and help them. And then we expend ourselves by highly regarding others.

So this is in verses 29 and 30 where he says, Welcome Epaphroditus in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor.

That is to regard them as precious, to highly regard them, to think of those kinds of people, people like Epaphroditus as distinguished people. And this isn't just for those that are maybe pastors. I want you to really respect Pastor Ron.

I want you to really respect these deacons. We are called to have a respect and a love for everyone. In Philippians 2 and verse 3, Paul wrote, In humility, consider others as more important than yourselves.

You are to highly regard others. Consider them more important than you view yourself. First Peter 2 and verse 17, Honor everyone.

Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

When you think of people, do you think of them in derogatory ways? Ah, that person's just a this or that. That person's just stupid.

This person is just this. Scripture would tell us, as Paul models here with Epaphroditus, hold people like him in honor. Highly regard him, esteem him as precious.

God would also tell us, view other people the same way. It's not just Timothy and Epaphroditus. We put up on a pedestal and everyone else, they're really nothing.

No, we view others with value. They are made in God's image. And as such, they are worthy of us thinking well of them.

Isn't that what you would want for your life? That when people think about you, they wouldn't think all about your flaws and your failures and times where you didn't do what was right? Or would you want them to think the best of you?

In the spirit of the Golden Rule, of treating others as we would want to be treated. Treat others with honor. When you think about others, highly regard them.

As it comes to our spiritual leaders, I do think of 1 Timothy 5 17, the elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

Or 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 12 and 13, Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, and to regard them very highly in love because of their work.

If you have someone that has faithfully taught you the Word of God, that has maybe ministered to you, been consistent in praying for you for many years, if you have someone that will constantly tell you, hey, this is what the Bible says, they'll send

you an encouraging text, they'll say, hey, what can I do for you this week? Esteem those people with honor, highly regard them, don't take it for granted. Those people are a gift from God to you.

So we expend ourselves by praising others, we expend ourselves by caring about others' feelings, we expend ourselves by giving to others, and we expend ourselves by highly regarding others. In what ways can you expend yourself for others this week?

God is going to ask you, hey, I want you to tire yourself out a little bit in caring and loving for others. In what ways this week can you put that thought to the ground?

What way can you put your boots on the ground to be able to accomplish that end? In closing, I want to note this, that Jesus modeled care and expending for us.

I think all of us would realize that, that he was the one that perfectly showed what it was to love others, to care for others with body and soul and spirit.

He perfectly modeled expending himself in caring about our feelings, that those that were sad, he cared about, that those that were angry, he told them that one day God would make it all right and that he took actions to make things right when and

where he could. He was one that gave to others. He gave his life. He gave healing.

I can think of many times where it says that someone touched the hem of his garment and he felt that power had gone from him, that he gave to others. It was a care and a love, that he highly regarded others.

I think of Hebrews chapters 1 and 2 where it says that Jesus, as he's brought us into God's family, has made us his brothers and sisters, that we are children of God with him. And it says that he is not ashamed to call us his siblings.

He highly regards you. He views you as a saint. He views you as a holy one set apart to God.

He views you as someone that he wants to spend all of eternity with. So we're following in his footsteps when we do these things. We are following in the footsteps of Christians throughout the past two millennia.

That we'd say, I want to care about others, and I want to expend myself for others. I'd ask you today, have you made Jesus the one who cared for you and expended himself for you? Have you made him the Lord of your life?

Do you know for sure that you have a relationship with him? That if you were to die today, that you would know where you'd go? If you don't know that today, I'd invite you.

We're going to have an invitation in just a moment. I would invite you to talk with Pastor Ron. I would invite you after the service.

I'm going to be right there in the back by that group's bulletin board. I would invite you to talk to me. We would love to open a Bible and show you how you can know for sure that Jesus is your Lord and your Savior, that your sins are forgiven.

If you do know Christ, are you caring for others with your body, soul, and spirit? In what ways can you expend yourselves for others this week? Epaphrodite has spent himself for Paul.

He spent himself for the Philippians. He almost died because of how much effort he put in. I'm not asking you to get sick and almost die this week, but in what ways can you expend yourselves, yourself for others this week?

And then, are you appreciating those who serve you in Christ's name?

Those that serve you, maybe here at this church, maybe you're visiting, you're from out of town, and you've got a church back home, are you appreciating those who serve you in Christ's name?

Paul takes all this time to build these men up, to say these are the people that you need to appreciate, that you need to be grateful to God for, because they actually care about you.

If you have people like that in your Christian life, be grateful for them. Maybe tell them, shoot them a text, say, hey, thank you for what you have taught me in my Christian life. Maybe you would, I don't know, many things.

Pastor Ron, we've gone out to lunch a couple of times, and I happen to know you like Chinese food, so maybe if Pastor Ron's been a blessing to you, you might help him with a Chinese food gift card. Maybe something like that.

But that you would say, I appreciate, I care about you because of the love that you've had for me and the desire that you have for me to walk with God and be in right community with God's people. Care about those people, appreciate them.

How do we pursue Jesus? We pursue Jesus by appreciating His servants, those that model the same love and care and giving for us. That Christ did.