Philippians 2:12-30 Obedience & Cherished Ministry Partners

Brother Jack will be teaching for the next two weeks. Mike and Paul Arrington, who have been working with Williamson College in Nashville, have had a school of ministerial leadership named after them. They are inaugurating the school this month and there will be a reception on the 23rd. The speaker apologizes for going overtime last week and talks about how Philippians chapter 2 is an incredible chapter. He emphasizes the importance of having the same attitude and mind as Christ. He discusses the responsibility of believers to think and act like Christ, and mentions the challenge of obedience. He encourages unity, warns against complaining and arguing, and talks about the joy of being obedient. He emphasizes that salvation is a past event and a future reality, and that believers should act consistent with their beliefs. He mentions the divine pattern and power for living like Christians. Well, good morning. Good to see you. Brother Jack will be teaching next week and the following week. The following week, Carol Ann and I are going to be at Nashville. You'll be interested, some of you will be, in knowing that Mike and Paul Arrington, some of you remember them from way back when I went to the Sunday School Board, the trustee said, bring somebody with you you can trust. So we took the Arringtons with us. They had 15 great years. And there, he's been working with a little small college in Nashville called Williamson College. Williamson is a county just south of Nashville and the college has been there about 20 years. And they have named a school of ministerial leadership after Mike and Paul Arrington. And so they're inaugurating that school this month and they're having a reception and making it official on the 23rd. So I could never have made it in Nashville without Mike. And Carol Ann would never have made it in Nashville if it hadn't been for Paula. Dear friends, we still talk or text every week and we're going to go up to be there for the reception and help celebrate the honor that they are allowing the school to make for them but to support the school. So we'll be gone two weeks from now. But Brother Jack will be in the third chapter. And I guess I need to apologize to you. You know, I never watched the clock. You probably knew that. I didn't even notice it last week until it was 5 minutes to 11. And we're supposed to be out at 10 minutes to 11. So anyway, I apologize for that. It's just that Philippians chapter 2 may be just the greatest chapter in the Bible. You have that wonderful description of Christ's humility and exaltation that we looked at in verses 5 through 11. But this is an incredible chapter. Those verses where it talks about him existing in the form of God but not considering equality to God with something to be exploited or to be abused. That is really those five, six verses in the first few verses of chapter 2 of Philippians really is the synopsis of the whole Bible. This is what it's all about. He existed with God in the beginning. And there will come a time when every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. And so we know things are going to turn out all right. It may be like some other things. We know it's going to be all right, but sometimes it's not easy. Now Carol Ann and I are getting older. We had a new thing this week. We both fell at the same time. We were coming out of Pizza Hut, which is our favorite place to eat. We do there about once a month. And had about an 8-inch curb, and I was holding her arm so I could step down, and I lost my balance. And I'm talking to Bailey, my son, on the phone. So I say, Bailey, I'm falling. Then I said, whoops, your mother's falling too. And then I'm laying on my back. I said, Bailey, I'm okay. I'll call you back. So anyway, we didn't break anything. Didn't hurt anything but our pride. But we did have some wonderful guys in pickup trucks that rushed to us. And one guy asked me, he said, are you hurt? And I said, I don't know, I just got here. I hadn't had a chance to assess that yet. I said, let me just lay here a minute and see. But we made it all right. But we just realized, and I will tell you again, my favorite saying for us older people is, you've got to know your limitations. You've got to know your limitations. If you don't know your limitations, you're going to fall more than that. But anyway, we've had an interesting week to say the least. But thank God we didn't break anything. And we're doing fine. Now then, in Philippians 2, Paul continues his thought about the attitude of Christ. In verse 5, he said that adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus. So he's talking about us having the same attitude as Christ. In another place, I think in Corinthians, he talks about having the same mind as Christ. So we're to think like Jesus. We're to have the thoughts of Christ in our minds and view things through his lens. We call it a worldview. Have a worldview that is God-like, that is Christ-like. And truthfully, you can, in a very simple way, explain this world's situation in that we have too few who have the mind of Christ. The world does not have the mind of Christ. Never will, never has. We're not in this world to be a part of the world. That's why Paul keeps hammering at us, what you believe is going to make a difference in how you act. Being saved ought to make a difference in your life. My daddy used to say, if you could be saved and not know it, you could lose it and never miss it. I mean, it's got to make a difference. If I ask you, are you married? Well, you certainly know that. Well, it makes a difference how you live, the fact that you're married. You make some choices and you limit some activities. So we want to think and see things through the lens of Christ. That's the only way we'll ever see people as objects of our prayer, as objects of the love of God, if we see it through the eyes of Christ. And the pastor said this morning, we ought to think about the wickedest man that you can imagine. God still loves him. I think of Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden. Evil individuals, but God loved them. Could have been saved if they had chosen to respond. Germany was a Christian nation when Hitler ruled. Lutheranism was asleep at the switch, and it happened among Christians that he got his rule and his terrible annihilation. I was in Israel back in 1984 with a group of Jewish rabbis and Baptist preachers for a week, two weeks. And that's a mixture. Baptist preachers and Jewish rabbis. One of the Jewish rabbis, when we were at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, made a statement that I had not heard before, nor have I heard it since. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Six million Christians were killed in the Holocaust. We think of it as a Jewish phenomenon and tragedy, but in reality, the same amount of people were killed, both believers and unbelievers, in the Holocaust through the wickedness and the derangement of Adolf Hitler. Yet, God still loves him. That's a lot to grasp. I can think of some people I don't like, but God loves them. That's hard to grasp. Why doesn't God think like me? No, the real question is, why don't I think like God? That's what he's dealing with in this chapter. He's going to introduce some people to us here that you know their names, but you shouldn't. We would not know their names if it wasn't for the Apostle Paul. So he's going to talk about them. He's continuing to think about the attitude of Jesus, and he identifies obedience as the primary responsibility for believers, and it's an essential challenge for Christian living. Now, he begins this with a startling claim. Therefore, in light of this great confession, in light of thinking like Christ, in light of who Jesus was, what he did, how he humbled himself, became obedient to death, the death of the cross, therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, let me pause just a minute. Let me remind you, we have, when we are born, everything we need to be grown up. We had another great experience this last week. Our great-granddaughter, Ruby, we saw her take her first steps. And I wasn't surprised because I knew her legs were there. I knew she had all the parts she needed, but she just needed a little training. She just needed to work it out. When we get saved, God does a work in us, but it doesn't relieve us of the responsibility to work out what he's worked in. That's what he's talking about. We need to work out what God has put in us. And the reason some people claim to be saved and act like the devil sometimes is they just haven't worked out what God put in if they're saved at all. Well, that's a pretty startling statement. He says first they're to work out their salvation that God had worked in, and then by way, he never mentions working for your salvation. He just said work it out. You already got it, but you need to work it out. So they're to work out their salvation that God has worked in. Second, they were to never descend into complaining or arguing. There's that unity factor again. He can't get away from this. He was more impressed with John 17 than we've been. He just couldn't get away from the final prayer of Jesus that he prayed only for the unity of believers, his disciples, and then those who were going to believe, and that included us. And so they were never to descend into complaining and arguing. And third, they were to participate in Paul's personal joy. He said you do this and you will have the same joy that I have. The central theme of the Apostle Paul in his epistles was salvation. He viewed salvation as a past event, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and a future reality, Romans 13, 11. He believed passionately that the responsibility of those who were being saved was for them to be obedient, to be obedient. Believers were to act consistent with what they believed. They were to act like Christians. They were to do what's right. Is that too much to ask? Just do what's right. This is what I like about telling the truth. If you tell the truth, you don't ever have to remember what you said. If you don't tell the truth, you've got to remember what you said when you addressed it last time. None of us have that good a memory. We are, as believers, we are to do what is right and act like, quote, consistent with what we believe. Several things. First of all, there's the divine pattern for living like Christians here in verses 12 to 18. Here is the pattern and the power to accomplish what God has commanded us, and it's not a creative thing that we do. It is the divine activity of God that makes this happen. He came to dwell in us and to work through us to accomplish His commands. Christian living is simply a matter of God working out what He's worked into our lives. It does not say work for your salvation. He was talking to believers. They're the saints there in Philippians 1. The word work out literally means to continually working for something until it's completed. In Paul's world, a good illustration would be the workers in a mine. You mine the mine until whatever you're mining for is complete, until it's done. Or if you go to Africa and you ask for ketchup, we did that in Nairobi, and the waiter said, it is finished. We just wanted some ketchup. What did he mean by that? It is finished. It means they didn't have any. They didn't have any, and they weren't going to get any. That's working for something until it's finished. And Christ worked through the cross and the resurrection, through planting the Holy Spirit in us. God worked and planted salvation in us, and He will work until it's finished. I think that's what 1 Peter 1 talks about, that He who began a good work in you will complete it. So it doesn't say we will complete it, but He will work it out through us. I like what the Apostle Paul said. He said, I haven't arrived yet. I haven't made it. I haven't attained yet. I haven't reached perfection yet. None of us have. None of us will. If we ever did, we'd be gone immediately because He wouldn't want to leave us here a moment longer. We might spoil it, and He'd take us home. But we have been planted. The Holy Spirit was put in us when we were saved, and we need guidance. He's there to guide us. We need commands. He's there to command us. Remember, the Holy Spirit, God, and Christ are all together. They're one. One is in you. They're all in you. It's a mystery of the Godhead, the mystery of the Trinity. We can't explain that. We have no way to compare anything with that. There are some illustrations, but they all fall short. Three persons, one God. It boggles our mind. But the Holy Spirit is planted in us, and your own salvation is referring to the personal conduct that should be present in every believer. It is our obedience in the area of active devotion and personal effort. We are to renounce every known form of sin, and the righteousness of God must and will empower each one of us to specific activities of growth in our obedience to God. When little Ruby took her first steps, it wasn't that she hadn't been trying. She'd been barely getting up and didn't toddle a little bit and finally took her first step. It just took time and process. The worst thing we can do is to take a new believer and put them in a place of prominence. I've told you this before, but when I was in Dallas, I preached a campus revival for Southern Methodist University. Now, don't be overwhelmed with the magnitude of that because we never had over 40 or 50 come to the revival services. But one night we had one of the Dallas cowboy linemen come and give his testimony. He'd just gotten saved. I never heard such ridiculous statements come out of a man's mouth in my life that came out of his mouth. I mean, he talked about how we don't need preaching and we don't need that and we don't need the other. He had no idea what he was talking about. He'd just been saved. We have made a lot of mistakes in the last 60 years taking well-known people who profess Christ and putting them on the platform too quick. They're not ready yet. Little Ruby had all the ability to walk for several months, but she hadn't. Now she has. It takes time for things to begin. And she can't run yet, so she's still got some training to do. It's the same way of being saved. When we get saved, the only thing we know is that we're saved. And that's all you need to witness. You don't have to memorize Scripture. You don't have to know a lot of things. Just tell folks what God did for you. That's the starting of it. You'll learn more about it. We don't know everything we ought to know now, let alone when we first got saved. And so he's talking about the mind of Christ now. For the mind of Christ, it's in us, but we have to work it out. We have to allow Him to guide us and the Holy Spirit to lead us and direct us and to be obedient to Him. And that's what he's talking about here. And he has a plan for every one of us. Every single one of us has a plan. No two people are the same. No two believers are exactly the same. But we're designed to be like Christ, according to 1 John 3. As Christ works His ways through us, then we become better witnesses, more mature in our faith, as we testify to what Paul says is a darkened world here. Would you not agree that's a good description? Darkened world. God has a plan. And second thing, he said no arguing or divisions, but just rejoice. You know, the trouble with many of us is that we got over getting saved. I was saved when I was not quite six years old. I didn't know much back then, but I knew one thing that I'd done wrong and Jesus died for my sins. That's all I knew, but that was enough to get saved. I know a whole lot more now, but I haven't arrived yet. I'm still learning things every day. I learn something every day that Jack teaches. I hope you do. But I've been through college and seminary. My granddad and dad were both Southern Baptist pastors. But I learn something different from Jack Terry every time I listen to him. The word disciple literally means learner. We don't ever stop learning. We still have more to do. We have more to experience. We're still not mature. You know, when I was a teenager, I thought I wonder what it would be like for me to be 21 and be mature. And I got to be 21 and I dusted myself off and said, I don't feel any different. Maybe it's 25. Now I'm in 88 and still wondering, when am I going to be mature? We never stop learning. We never stop becoming what God is doing in us. Getting saved wasn't just a point in time. It's supposed to be an experience that never stops. And the trouble with many of us is that we used to rejoice more about our salvation than we do now. There was a time when I could not sing Amazing Grace without tears. When I surveyed the Wondrous Cross, tears. But we get used to those songs and now we sing them without really thinking about the words we're singing. We too soon give up growing up. And that's always too soon. And that's what he's talking about. And by the way, don't argue and be divided over this. Just rejoice that you're saved. And we're to serve Christ without chaos and dissension because the world we're living in is going to hell in a handbasket. Darkness prevails everywhere. Division is everywhere in the world. It shouldn't be in the church. There are a lot of believers who are going to have a fierce judgment to face when they stand in the judgment seat of Christ for all the chaos, confusion, and divisions that they created in the church. I've told you before, but just read again. I never can remember which they are. There are two verses though in 1 Corinthians 3 and 6 right at the end, about 19, 16 to 19. They're both important. But one of them says if anyone destroys the church, I will destroy him. In fact, I used to send out a little blog called Life Way of Heart when I was at Life Way. And I remember I ran across it again this week. I had a little blog that I put out about twice a month. And one of them said, Dear God, please ruin me. That's what he said. You ruin the church, I'll ruin you. People who cause dissension and chaos, they're really praying for God to discipline them in severe ways. Don't argue and divide. The Greek word for complaining is a word that sounds like mumbling. Gungus mumbling. It's just kind of like mummering. That's what the word for complaining is. Arguing is a deep questioning or criticism directed at God. He's not talking about arguing with each other, though that happens too. He's talking about arguing with God. Don't do that. It's a deep criticism directed at God. It's to reject God's providence in our lives by saying negative things about why God allowed them into our lives. I remember one of my friends when he was diagnosed with cancer, he said my first thought was why? Why me? And then he said, the Holy Spirit said, why not you? Not why me. Why not me? God allows things into our lives and we get resentful and ultimately we accuse God of making mistakes. It's a self-centered way of believing that we have suffered without deserving it and accusing God of being unfair about it. Whatever our sovereign God allows into our lives needs to be accepted gladly and without dispute. It's never right for a believer to complain of anything God allows into our lives. A better way to do it when something comes in, I'll use my friend Dawson. He's been so sick off and on all year and he is looking good today. He's verbal and mobile. I always say to Dawson when something happens negative to me, well, I don't appreciate it, but I'm grateful for it. So it's a big difference. We ought not to accuse God of mishandling things. Why did God let us fall this week? I'll tell you the question is, what can we learn from that? What can I learn from what God has allowed into my life? That's what our attitude as believers. Never accusing God of making mistakes because He doesn't make mistakes. But our question is, what does that mean now? What can I do? Now, that is the way we ought to look at the things that God allows into our lives. And he says there, well, I'll say in Philippians 4, and I believe I get to do Philippians 4, but in Philippians 4, 11-13, Paul says, I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know both how to make do with little and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances, I've learned the secret of being content. Whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need, I'm able to do all things through Him who strengthens me. Paul's life in ministry shows us that it's possible to live a holy life and godly behavior is possible in our lives. What is God trying to teach me here? And notice that God's purpose for our believers is accomplished according to these verses in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation. Here's the first lesson we can learn from that. God never intended for us to be isolated or insulated from the reality of the world. The great movement of God in history, in the awakenings, all came in the middle of desperate times of rebellion and sensuality that fought to defeat the great work that God was doing. You just look at all the awakenings. First, we've had two recognized great awakenings. There have been others. But they all came at a time of desperate darkness in the world. Evil running rampant. Morality considered not at all. And the darker and the evil of a time, the brighter the Spirit of God glows in believers who are being obedient to Him. But God must do a work in us before He can accomplish a work through us. I've said often, and I'll just say it again, God is more interested in who we are in Him than in what we do for Him. When we minister in His name without decision, God is able to make of His children who are blameless, pure, and faultless. That's what He speaks of here in Philippians. This is the natural outcome of unity in the church. He gives you several things about that. One is holding on to the Word of Life in verse 16. Now, fortunately, most of you were unaware of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention. You probably read about it. You may have heard critics of it say, well, it's just a preacher's fight. No, it was a battle over the reality and the faithfulness and sufficiency of the Word of God. And none of us in the conservative resurgence set out to be crusaders. I was chairman of the academic affairs committee, the trustees at Baylor University. I love Baylor University. It's still full for the bears. I've been persona non grata now for nearly 50 years at Baylor University because as a trustee, I had to take a stand when the trustees rushed through my committee, academic affairs committee, and I had to present his name to the trustees to be the chairman of the religion department at Baylor University. I objected. I expressed that to the administration. I didn't know the man. He brought me one of his books. I drove up to Dallas so we could be acquainted and he gave me one of his books. I got physically nauseated reading it. It was the most heretical thing I'd ever read. I called the presidents and executive vice president who later became president. I thought they'll be glad to know what I discovered. Quite the contrary. They asked me to come down to Waco and discuss it. When I got down to Waco, I walked into the room with two of the Dallas attorneys for Baylor University in the room and I realized this was not going to be a good day. They were very upset with me and I continued to keep my stand. They called a special call trustee meeting. 48 trustees, all 48 showed up that day. We spent the morning talking around the issue and then we had lunch. I told the chairman at lunch, I said, would you mind me making a statement? I said, we're not making any progress here. After the dinner, after lunch, he recognized me and I said, folks, we all know why we're here. We're here because of me. I said, here's what I believe. This is what I've done. I do not think this man ought to be chairman of the religion department. Here's why I don't believe it. And that's the issue. They debated it for a while and then 48 trustees voted and we had eight good preacher friends. I could call their names and some of you would know some of them if not all of them. We're all behind you. That's what they told me. I've talked to every one of them. They really were all behind me. Way behind me. And when the vote came in 48 trustee meeting, 48 trustees, I had one man who stood with me and he was a lawyer from Houston, Texas. Not one of the preachers. Not one of the trustees. One man. Two voted for what I was saying and 46 voted against it. Now that's not an easy place to be. I wrote a letter. I've been famous for writing letters. I wrote a letter to one man that was very liberal to the faculty. I said, I don't think you ought to be teaching. I said, I know what you believe and it's not consistent with Baptist thought. He thought so well of it that he read it to his class to make fun of me and to ridicule me because I had believed that the Bible was the inerrant word of God and didn't set out to be a crusader but my dad gave me great advice. One thing he said that I never got away with, if something's right, be for it. If it's wrong, be against it. I mean, that's a simple thing. You don't have to have a college degree to figure that out. If something's good, be for it. If it's bad, be against it. And that's how we started this thing, the conservative resurgence. And I won't get any further into that to say, though, that we need to value the word of God. He says here, the word of life. We need to appreciate the Word. We need to appropriate the Word. We need to apply the Word. God's power is released in us when we trust His Word and when we act on it. We see this in the ministry of Jesus. He told the man with the withered hand, stretch forth your hand. Well, that was the one thing the guy couldn't do. But he did. He stretched forth his hand. What he couldn't do, when Jesus commanded it, he did do. The Lord appeared to the disciples when the boat was being torn apart by a ferocious storm on the Sea of Galilee. That little 6 by 13 mile lake storm had come up out of nowhere. And the boat was being thrashed around and looked like it was going to be destroyed. All of a sudden, Jesus came walking on the water. And of course, the New Testament always describes things pretty well. It says they were terrified. Scared to death. And Simon Peter said, Lord, if this is You, let me come to You. Well, he couldn't walk on water, but he did. When he did what Jesus told him to do, he walked on water. You know, that's kind of the way that it happens. What we can't do in our own strength, we can do when we obey God and in obedience to His command, God's power is released through us. We have to build our worldview upon the Word of life, as he says in verse 16. Number two, faithfully becoming all God had intended for us to become is also found there. He says, I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing. The Apostle Paul is thinking about when he stands before Christ, he's going to have to give an account for how things happened in Ephesus. We're in Philippi now, aren't we? Philippi. The last chapter in Hebrews is an enormous chapter. It talks about the leaders that they're going to have to... if they're going to give an account of things, how they did their ministry. Just know that if any one of us ministers, you feel like we failed, just know that God's still on the job and He sees it better than you do. And we're going to have to face that. And Paul knew that he was going to have to give an account for the church that he was writing to. And he said, I want you all to be obedient so that I can give a good report. And that is so that you will be all that God wants you to be. And then sacrificial service and glad rejoicing. Verse 16 to 18, but even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoiced with all of you in the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me. Now the drink offering, I won't get into a lot of detail on that. Sometimes it was before a sacrifice. Sometimes after the sacrifice. And the esteem of the drink offering being poured out upon the sacrifice ascended up to the Lord and was an acceptable offering for the Lord. And he's saying to the Philippian church, y'all have stood with me. You're great. I love you. You've provided for me and sacrificed for me when nobody else would. In fact, later on, he's going to say, you were the only church that did stand with me. And he comes down toward the end of this chapter. And so typical of the Apostle Paul, he's expressing deep appreciation for the gifts of the Philippian church. He doesn't say anything about his ministry to them. He was completely unselfish. His work was for them. They were the important ones and he was able to minister wherever he went because of them. And Christ's own life confirmed this. He never used a sword or any other weapon, yet he conquered Satan, sin, and hell. He conquered hate by revealing love. He overcame lies with the truth. All the Holy Spirit's power within him made him victorious and joyous. His joy was to present a reality and a future promise when he stood before the Lord. We believe that God will faithfully fulfill His promises and we'll rejoice as He does and we get to rejoice with Him. His purpose is for us that we realize that we have a trust in Him and we obey His commands and know that He is continually working in us to work out what He has worked in. Alright, now then, here's a whole new thing. We're going to wind down here. I'm watching the clock. The third thing I see is reluctant partners and cherished partners. Verses 19-30. The last 11 verses or so of this chapter. Hope is mentioned two times in these verses. But for Paul, hope didn't just mean an empty expectation or a pipe dream. I hope something happens. His hope was based on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was his Lord. His life, his all, his hope and trust for the future was all wrapped up in Christ. Paul's plan centered on Jesus Christ and so should ours. Now the Roman church didn't seem too interested in helping the Philippian church. In fact, Paul says in here, there's nobody else here that feels like I do about you. So the Roman church was at best indifferent. Maybe not unaware, but indifferent for the needs of the Philippian church. And so Paul introduces two friends that we would not have known had it not been for the Apostle Paul. Enter Timothy and Epaphroditus. Faithful, beloved partners in ministry. Now, here's the point. These were just two ordinary believers with a heart for God and for the ministry of Paul. They weren't apostles. They were not miracle workers. They were just ordinary believers. And that's the kind of people that God always chooses to use. Our faith and our salvation has been guided and protected over the centuries by ordinary people. Faithful people. Mostly unknown people. For instance, in Luke 10, we read where Jesus appointed 72 others. Remember that word, others. And He sent them ahead of Him in pairs to everywhere He wanted to go. And He sent them out. And we don't know who they were. They're just others. That's sort of the way God does it. Just others. There are always those who are easily recognized as leaders in the Christian community, but Christianity has largely been driven by unknown individuals whose names are unknown just like these 70 others. Timothy and Epaphroditus were faithful men who served aggressively to assist the Apostle Paul and to be obedient to God. And so it is over the ages. Nameless believers have carried the Gospel around the globe. I gave you all a book that I wrote last year called It's Not Rocket Science. And in the epilogue of the book, I had a little closing chapter called Embrace Obscurity. And if you find that book, you can read that. But let me just give you some illustrations. You probably have never heard of the name Edward Kimball. He was the Sunday school teacher who led Dwight L. Moody to faith in Christ. Moody went on to become a world-famous evangelist, founder of Moody Bible Institute, which is still a significant university in Chicago today. A preaching team from Pacific Guard Mission led Billy Sunday to the Lord. No one knows their name, but Billy Sunday became one of the most celebrated evangelists in the early 20th century. Albert McMakin was a farmhand who worked for Billy Graham's father. He's the one who convinced Billy to go to Mordecai Ham's revival and hear Mordecai Ham preach. And that's where Billy Graham was saved. Charles Spurgeon, in a snowy night in London, was on his way to a church when a snowstorm became so severe that he had to take shelter in a primitive Methodist church. The pastor had not even made it to church that night. An unknown layman preached on Isaiah 45-22 to just a handful of people and Charles Spurgeon was saved. He was the most famous preacher of the 19th century. His Sunday sermons for decades were printed on the front page of the London Times and the New York Times every Monday morning. But we don't know who the man was that preached where he was saved. You've never heard probably of Leonard Dober or David Nitzschman. They were Moravian brethren. Laymen from Denmark. And were the first missionaries in the Caribbean. That's a whole other story. But historically, if you want to have some fun, go on your line and just type in the Moravian brethren and just read. These were the pioneers of early foreign missionaries. A long time before we sent missionaries to China, India, the Moravian brothers had been active. These two laymen were the first missionaries in the Caribbean and before they ever were joined by other missionaries. Those two men, which I had time to tell you the story of how they got there but I'll delay on that, saw over 13,000 people saved and churches begun in most of the islands of the Caribbean before any other missionary arrived. You've never heard of them. But they were really truly the fathers of modern foreign missions. Charles Finney. Charles Finney was a well-known in the 19th century evangelist and a leader in the Second Great Awakening. His best-known revival saw some 100,000 souls saved. He was accompanied by two basically unknown laymen, Daniel Nash and Abel Clary. They would go into an area and Daniel Nash was the more dominant of the two. He would find someone that was of the like spirit and they would just start praying a month before the crusade started and find others who were willing to pray for the crusade. And of that revival where 100,000 people were saved, this is what Finney said, the key which unlocked the heavens and revival was the prayer of Nash, Clary, and other unnamed folks who laid themselves prostrate before God's throne and besought Him for a divine outpouring. Despite thousands that came to believe in Christ, Daniel Nash's tombstone is in a neglected cemetery along a dirt road behind an auction barn in upstate New York. No books tell his life story. No pictures or diaries can be found of him or by him. No descendants can be located. His messages are long since forgotten. Yet his impact on eternity is tremendous. Heaven is considerably richer and fuller today because of his efforts. And Finney himself left the revival ministry within months after Nash's death when he realized the great power of his ministry was lost. Many remember Finney, but few know Daniel Nash. Timothy Epaphroditus. Just two ordinary men who were faithful in obscurity before Paul introduced them through his letter to the Philippian church. Paul probably met Timothy on his first missionary journey in Lystra according to Acts 14. And when he returned to Lystra and Derbe, he asked Timothy to go with him on the second missionary journey. Paul considered him my dearly loved son, 2 Timothy 1-2. Timothy was part Jew and part Gentile. Acts 16 tells us that. He was led to the Lord by Paul and had proven his devotion to the Lord and to Paul according to verse 22 here in Philippians 2. He had become the kind of servant that Paul could trust and that God would bless. Paul mentions Timothy at least 24 times in his epistles. It was Paul's desire to send Timothy to the Philippian church because he knew he could not go himself. And the one that he knew could go was Timothy because Timothy knew the church. He knew them well. They knew him well. He would be on another significant journey and traveling on behalf of Paul. His commentation of Timothy is found in verses 19-23. And it's the highest possible commentations concerning Timothy. Verse 20 says, Paul said, I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests. That was Timothy. He played a vital role in Paul's ministry. He had represented Paul in many delicate situations. Timothy's importance to Paul is seen in the fact that he needed Timothy to stay there until he knew how things would go with him. He didn't know how his trial was going to turn out. So he wanted Timothy to stay until he had a verdict. Then he wanted him to come and give the message. No one knows why Paul felt that way. What we do know is that Timothy sustained Paul during uncertainties of his trial. And Paul knew that he needed Timothy and often expressed it. And later when Paul was aware of his impending death, 2 Timothy 4, he called for Timothy to come and stand with him. Timothy was the best able to stand for Paul, so he sent Timothy. Epaphroditus, he was a Gentile. A member of the church at Philippi who had risked his life to deliver the special love offering to the Apostle Paul. His very name changed in time and came to mean charming or loving. He was a devoted, faithful servant. He was concerned about Paul. When he heard Paul was in prison, he wanted to take the dangerous trip to Rome and protect the gift the Philippians wanted to send to him. He had a great concern for Paul and for the church. He was distressed when he heard the Philippians were concerned about him, about his brush with death. The Greek word for distress is a word that speaks of a deep concern that comes from a time of great trauma, something very severe. It's the same word used of Jesus Christ in Mark 26, verse 37 for the burden he carried when he prayed in Gethsemane. Epaphroditus knew something about sacrifice and suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a blessing to Paul. He was with him in captivity and even when he was sick, he did not let his sickness get in the way of standing with Paul. Paul urged the church to honor Epaphroditus for all that he had done for the Lord, the Philippian church, the Roman church. He called him a brother, a co-worker, a fellow soldier as well as your messenger, a minister to my needs since he had been longing for all of you and was distressed because he heard he was sick. Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. Paul concluded this passage by reminding the church that Epaphroditus had really served them because he had done something for Paul that the church couldn't do. They had not attempted to do, but Epaphroditus did. And so he had acted on their behalf and so he urged them to appropriately honor him. Now these two cherished partners stand as a reminder to us that the Lord always uses ordinary people. Always. And accomplishes His plans and completes His promises. These men, three men, Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus are together in Rome. Paul is in house arrest in his own rented house chained to a Roman soldier. Timothy had been there for some time. Epaphroditus had been sent by the Philippian church to bring a special gift, a special offering for Paul and to provide for his needs. They were bound together in every way in a common cause. Each one was passionately devoted to the Lord Jesus and not consumed with his own interests because of their devotions to their divine calling. Each of them had risked their health, their freedom, and their lives for the Lord. Serving the Lord is never sacrificing something and receiving nothing. It is always sacrificing something to receive something better. That's the way God does it. God will never be indebted to us. Paul will remind us of this in chapter 3 when he speaks all the more than he can about all the accomplishments that he has had he claimed to be mere rubbish and what he counted as nothing being changed for Christ and the eternal blessings of salvation and eternal life. What a great chapter that will be. Paul in Philippians 4 talks about receiving something better for all the sacrifices that he has made. So he's still talking about the attitude of Christ. We can see the attitude of Christ in everything that he talks about here. But the thing I get from this more than any other is there are no others in the kingdom that are unimportant. Paul the writer of Hebrews when he's listing all the sacrifices of the heroes is tensing toward the end of chapter of Hebrews 11. He says, and others. Who? We don't know. Others were sawn in half. Terribly persecuted. It's just a good reminder to us that every one of us is significant. I don't know how you can do this. I can look at you. John, Bob, Jack, Bob. God can look at all of us at the same time. And it's as if we were the only ones He's looking at. That does not make sense, does it? How could that be? That's the amazing miracle of our God and the grace that Christ purchased our salvation with on the cross. Every one of us rises out of obscurity and whether the world ever knows us or not, He knows us. Jeremiah 9. I've gotten to where I signed that. When I write a note, I'll usually put Jeremiah 9, 23, 24. Let no man boast that he's wealthy and he's rich. Don't let anybody boast in his wisdom that he's wise. Let him boast in this, that he knows me and that I know him. That's the essence of the Gospel. We know Him. But miracle of miracles, He knows us. And that's something. I mean, that is something. It doesn't take into account my bank account. It doesn't take into account my youthfulness or my age. He just loves us. He's just interested in us. And it's amazing to those of us who have been saved, why would anybody reject that? It shows you the ultimate sinfulness of mankind and the power of Satan that so many could hear the Gospel and still turn away. That Jesus had to say, broad is the way that leads to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads to eternal life. And few there are that find it. But we can find it. Being made in the image of God means we can decide to be obedient. We can receive it. And we can demonstrate it in our lives. God uses folks just like you and me. Father, thank You for a grace that overcomes every obstacle that's thrown at it. Every logical reason is dashed in the grace of God. Every concern and possibility of failure and defeat is driven out by the presence of the Holy Spirit who is in us. And may our lives become more like Him, I pray, day by day. In Jesus' name, amen.