SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for a sermon from Sojourn North.
SPEAKER_00: Well, several years ago I was really burdened about something because I I always like to watch what's going on in the what I call many people many people call the public square, the arena, the the world.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times uh news uh agencies or newscasts will have on the Christian view by a pastor who's written a book or something, and then so they they get up, and a lot of times I was burdened because this pastor or whoever they had on the panel would just be very aggressive and angry, and they might win the argument, but they lost people because of their posture, because it was like, this is what we do, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And I was burdened because it was like we have beautiful truth.
SPEAKER_00: We have logic, God is the God of logic, we have all of these things, but what do we do with our posture?
SPEAKER_00: And I'd read books about how we could be presenting ourselves in the world because we have convictions and we want people to know those convictions.
SPEAKER_00: And so it was just perplexing.
SPEAKER_00: And so you read sometimes what you need to be, and then you see other people not doing it, and you're just it's confusing.
SPEAKER_00: But then I saw Tim Keller, who's one of our a lot of our guys' uh spiritual grandfathers in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote a book called Reason for God, which is an apologetics book.
SPEAKER_00: He passed away a few years ago from cancer.
SPEAKER_00: But he started a church in New York City and just did amazing things by God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And when he put out Reason for God, he took invitations to a lot of different places to speak.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the places he went to speak was at Google.
SPEAKER_00: And so they had Google employees, and it's not a Christian environment, if you know Google.
SPEAKER_00: But he went in and he just stood and shared.
SPEAKER_00: And he knew that his audience, most of them were not believers.
SPEAKER_00: They had different worldviews.
SPEAKER_00: But what blew me away was his posture.
SPEAKER_00: And I wrote a few things down.
SPEAKER_00: He was thoughtful without being defensive.
SPEAKER_00: He was convictional without being combative.
SPEAKER_00: He was humble without compromising.
SPEAKER_00: He was filled with kindness, love, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: He took questions and he appreciated the dignity of the person asking the question.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't seek to shame anyone.
SPEAKER_00: He just was there and he was, this is what I believe, and this is what I see as the truth, and this is what I give my life for.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times in the Christian life, until we see a picture of someone embodying what we're actually called to do, it's really hard to even see how we're supposed to be functioning.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I tell you this intro is because we get to a point in Philippians, as we've been several weeks, in Philippians, we get to a point that if you look at it at face value, you might be saying, why is Paul starting to talk about Timothy and Epaphroditus?
SPEAKER_00: Is he just talking about travel plans?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's not.
SPEAKER_00: And let's look at the flow again before we read our passage.
SPEAKER_00: In our first sermon, we looked at verses 1 through 11 of chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: We saw God is at work.
SPEAKER_00: And then we looked at verses 12 through 18 that the story is bigger than our circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Our circumstances are going to change all through our lives.
SPEAKER_00: They can be good, they can be hard, they can be awful, but God is the same, and the story is bigger than our circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Then we hit chapter 2, and Paul says, here's what Christian community looks like with Christ at the center.
SPEAKER_00: And then we get this amazing passage where it's this Christ helm, and it's like, behold Christ, look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In what he did, he poured out all that he had for us.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't grasp onto his right as creator, but came and emptied himself as a babe.
SPEAKER_00: And I wrote that poem, behold, and I read it to you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you were here, I got another poem for you.
SPEAKER_00: So this may be the first poem that you hear from me.
SPEAKER_00: But be excited because that comes at the end, so stick around.
SPEAKER_00: I really do have a poem I wrote this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But we see, look at Jesus, behold him.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verses 12 through 18, thanks so much to Pastor Fletch for preaching last week.
SPEAKER_00: Just awesome sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Work out what God has worked in.
SPEAKER_00: Not works-based salvation, but when he changes you, follow.
SPEAKER_00: There's invitations to go.
SPEAKER_00: And now today, as we look at this passage, it's as if Paul is saying, hey, all of this stuff we've been talking about, looking at who Jesus is, looking at how amazing he is, all these things I've been telling you to do, and what matters the most.
SPEAKER_00: Look at these examples.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Timothy, my friend.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Epaphroditus.
SPEAKER_00: And in this passage, I love it because it's filled with just glowing recommendations for these guys, but I want you to look at what Paul sees as important.
SPEAKER_00: But I also want you to see the emotional state of Paul because it goes up and down too, because he's filled with all sorts of different things and he's very human, just like you and me.
SPEAKER_00: So with that in mind, I'd invite you to stand for the reading of God's Word if you wish.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at Philippians 2, 19 through 30.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes this.
SPEAKER_00: Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be encouraged by news about you.
SPEAKER_00: For I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests.
SPEAKER_00: All seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But you know his proven character because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a father, like a son with a father.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.
SPEAKER_00: I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.
SPEAKER_00: But I considered it necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need, since he has been loving, or he has been longing for all of you, and was distressed because you heard that he was sick.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died.
SPEAKER_00: However, God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in today's passage, just what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want to stay rooted in looking at what Paul says about Timothy, and then looking at what Paul says about Epaphroditus, and looking at these lives, because we want to continue, like we say each week, is to find ourselves in the story.
SPEAKER_00: These are human people, human lives with hurts, longings, desires, dreams, hopes, just like you, just like me.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first point, what I want to look at is the gift of faithful friendships.
SPEAKER_00: So we just read in verses 19 through 24 that Paul has deep affection for Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of places that Timothy's mentioned, so let's just think about Timothy's life at this juncture.
SPEAKER_00: At the point Paul is writing Philippians, Paul has known Timothy for more than a decade, 12, 15 years, maybe around in that time.
SPEAKER_00: So if you go all the way back to Acts 16, Paul meets Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: He's a young believer from Lystra.
SPEAKER_00: We know from looking at Acts and looking at the letters Paul writes that Timothy's mother is Eunice and his grandmother Lois had faithfully taught him the scriptures from childhood.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is cool because you get to see the generational influence of Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: And we never know what we're doing or how many seeds we're planting when we're planting seeds in our kids.
SPEAKER_00: And when we think about VBS coming up, that we don't know how important just telling the gospel story is for kids and what God may do in and through that.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why we continue to share, because sometimes things seemingly lie dormant, but then they bloom.
SPEAKER_00: And we we want to continue to do this.
SPEAKER_00: But Timothy had been invested in so dearly by his grandmother and mother.
SPEAKER_00: They had a love for the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: His father was Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Paul sees something in this young man, not perfection, but he sees teachabilities led by the Lord to engage Timothy in relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He invites Timothy into his life.
SPEAKER_00: Not to a classroom, but to his life to do life together, and so he takes him on journeys with him.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what Paul says throughout the New Testament about Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: As Timothy's form through relationship with Paul and with other Christians and through walking through just the trials, the ups and downs of life.
SPEAKER_00: To the Corinthian church, Paul says this about Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: To the Philippians, we've already seen, I have no one else like him.
SPEAKER_00: To Timothy himself, in his letters, he says, My true child in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: So this is, once again, what is Paul?
SPEAKER_00: I love looking at the prayers in Ephesians, Ephesians 1, 3 and Colossians, and you look at Paul's priority in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We could say it like this: what's Paul's priority in saying, this is what you should honor?
SPEAKER_00: You can look at it with the qualifications for an elder, for deacons, because it says these are character qualifications.
SPEAKER_00: They're about the person's character.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the gifting.
SPEAKER_00: Giftings are great.
SPEAKER_00: We all have gifts.
SPEAKER_00: God gives us gifts.
SPEAKER_00: But the character is what matters most.
SPEAKER_00: So when we think about all that Paul's written in Philippians 1 and 2, and here he gets to Timothy, let's see how Timothy embodies what Paul's been talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Back in verses 3 and 4, Paul says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition.
SPEAKER_00: And then what's he say about Timothy?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Everyone else looks out for their own interest.
SPEAKER_00: Not the interest of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But Timothy does.
SPEAKER_00: Look out for others' interests.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you know Timothy's proven character.
SPEAKER_00: He had just said, work out your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: What is Timothy doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's working out what God has worked in.
SPEAKER_00: And notice again, I want to hit the drum again, again.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul praises, and this stands out to me continually.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't praise Timothy's preaching ability or his leadership or his intelligence or his giftedness or his education.
SPEAKER_00: All of those things were true.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, Timothy genuinely cares about your interests.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he honors in Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the greatest compliments you can give me, I received it this week when I was just visiting with someone who's walking through struggles with their family, and they simply said, Thank you for caring.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Man, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: What if we walked around as a people and they looked at us, the world, and they didn't say, Man, they have brilliant intellect.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are very smart.
SPEAKER_00: Or look at all the things they're able to plan and do these things.
SPEAKER_00: What if those weren't the primary things that people saw first?
SPEAKER_00: What if people came and said, they care?
SPEAKER_00: That's the counter-cultural people that we want to be, right?
SPEAKER_00: In a day and age where people don't care.
SPEAKER_00: They don't care about people's feelings.
SPEAKER_00: They care about being right.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be the people who care.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ has cared for us.
SPEAKER_00: It definitely reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, love is patient, love is kind.
SPEAKER_00: What happens if you speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love?
SPEAKER_00: You're just a clanging gong.
SPEAKER_00: You're just like a cymbal.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be that harsh noise.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Sean, for not being too harsh on the cymbals this morning as you play drums.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't want to be that, do we?
SPEAKER_00: We want to be at the hands and feet of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: One more final encouragement with Timothy, because you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, he struggled.
SPEAKER_00: This is an encouragement for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's dude.
SPEAKER_00: The one Paul pumps up and says, look at Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy wasn't naturally fearless.
SPEAKER_00: If you read 1 and 2 Timothy, these are the last letters that Paul writes before going off to be martyred.
SPEAKER_00: As he writes, he says, this to Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't let anyone despise your youth.
SPEAKER_00: He says, God has not given us a spirit of fear, Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Fulfill your ministry, Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Fight the good fight.
SPEAKER_00: Another place he says, don't forget the gifts you've been given.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the laying on of hands.
SPEAKER_00: He's encouraging Timothy to stay in the fight.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us we all are going to struggle.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, we go back to Galatians, we all will drift.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to struggle.
SPEAKER_00: I read something, I don't, I don't go on, I still call it Twitter, but it's called X now.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone heard of X?
SPEAKER_00: I know you do.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, what is that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It's where people can freely share in the public arena their thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know that we're better off for having such an arena for people to share their thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: I like free speech, but that was kind of a joke.
SPEAKER_00: But it was not very funny.
SPEAKER_00: So I read something that just I leaned on my phone and X popped up.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I was like, what happened?
SPEAKER_00: And so I looked and saw an article and I was like, ooh, I don't like that.
SPEAKER_00: But what did I do?
SPEAKER_00: I got sucked in and I read it.
SPEAKER_00: And now it made me mad.
SPEAKER_00: And then I thought, what's my response gonna be?
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm like, I don't, I haven't tweeted in 25 years.
SPEAKER_00: Why would I give a response?
SPEAKER_00: And then I don't, it's like, what am I doing here?
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know why I'm telling you this story.
SPEAKER_00: I just went on a whole tirade on that.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is, we struggle, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We struggle with these internal things.
SPEAKER_00: And I literally I just went, Lord, what's stirring in me that made me so angry?
SPEAKER_00: Because it wasn't even that big a deal what the guy was writing.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, man, that's that reveals a lot about me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you that I can come to you, I can breathe deep, and I can keep walking.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, continue the work that you've started in me.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep on going.
SPEAKER_00: Finding yourself in this story.
SPEAKER_00: Who has been a Timothy in your life?
SPEAKER_00: And who are you a Timothy to?
SPEAKER_00: In the realm of encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about that more in just a moment as we look at it.
SPEAKER_00: But we do this in relationship.
SPEAKER_00: We do this in relationship.
SPEAKER_00: All right, point number two, the beauty of shared burdens.
SPEAKER_00: So if Timothy shows us the heart of a faithful friend, Ephroditis shows us the cost of being one.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to read verse 25 again.
SPEAKER_00: But I considered it necessary to send you Ephroditus, my brother, co-worker, fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need.
SPEAKER_00: So who was this guy?
SPEAKER_00: Unlike Timothy, we don't know much about Epaphroditus outside of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't mentioned in Acts, he doesn't appear in Paul's other writings.
SPEAKER_00: Yet for this brief moment, Paul lets us see who this man was.
SPEAKER_00: And look at his descriptors again in the text you got before you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My brother, this is family language.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My co-worker, they're not just simply friends, they're working together, and that's how we grow together by even serving together at VBS.
SPEAKER_00: That we grow together.
SPEAKER_00: By being together out here on the Friday night for Family Fun night, as we serve together, as we hand out hot dogs, as we get to know people.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we grow together.
SPEAKER_00: We labor side by side.
SPEAKER_00: My fellow soldier.
SPEAKER_00: Shifts to military language.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry often requires endurance and sacrifice and doing this together.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Your messenger, so the Philippian church has entrusted him as a messenger to bring word to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He carried their love, he carried a financial gift.
SPEAKER_00: But then this is what Paul says minister to my need.
SPEAKER_00: And once again, I want us to see the humanity of Paul.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times you can see these spiritual heroes as just stoic people.
SPEAKER_00: You might just think Paul's always sitting with a thousand theology books and just writing.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Fletch pointed out.
SPEAKER_00: Like he was uh bivocational through much of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He was making tents.
SPEAKER_00: He had calluses on his hands.
SPEAKER_00: He's a man's man, he's real.
SPEAKER_00: He feels deeply.
SPEAKER_00: Look through 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is who Paul is.
SPEAKER_00: He needed someone to minister to him.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never get to a point where you're able to do it alone.
SPEAKER_00: You need someone to be loving on you.
SPEAKER_00: So don't isolate yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's one of the challenges that I've had in my life is like not asking for help because I grew up with a vision of seeing you just do everything you're on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You just, if something's broke, you fix it.
SPEAKER_00: If you need something, you do it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't count on other people.
SPEAKER_00: And so I I had this semblance of belief, and I know it's like I need to ask for help, I need to ask for help, so I'll ask for help here and here.
SPEAKER_00: But over last summer, that was just blown up completely.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, man, I gotta do life differently.
SPEAKER_00: I need to invite others in.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do this alone.
SPEAKER_00: But I was never asked to do it alone.
SPEAKER_00: You see Paul's humanity, and I love it because this is one of my apologetics when you look at Epaphroditus, with people that say you should be healed if you have enough faith, and it's like that's not everyone's story.
SPEAKER_00: Does God still heal people?
SPEAKER_00: He does.
SPEAKER_00: Do some people stay sick?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: The ultimate healing will come one day.
SPEAKER_00: But I love it here because Paul, had he healed people?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but it wasn't just a la carte.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just get to go like, oh, I'll heal this one, healed this one, I'll heal.
SPEAKER_00: It was dependent on God's movement and God's leading for people to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: And here is Epaphroditis.
SPEAKER_00: Paul didn't just touch him and he's healed.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's unsure.
SPEAKER_00: He prays.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't know if he's gonna live or die.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wasn't emotionally detached.
SPEAKER_00: He loved deeply, he feared losing his friend.
SPEAKER_00: He prayed, he waited, he hoped, he trusted.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we do together as a family.
SPEAKER_00: And we understand the reality of life and death.
SPEAKER_00: So we find ourselves in the story again.
SPEAKER_00: Epaphroditus bore the burdens of Paul.
SPEAKER_00: We go back to Galatians, Galatians 6 1, it's bear one another's burdens, and we see thus fulfilled the law of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And there was that beautiful parallel, but Everyone must carry your own load.
SPEAKER_00: So everyone's responsible.
SPEAKER_00: You've got human agency.
SPEAKER_00: But we bear one another's burdens.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is something to reflect on again here today.
SPEAKER_00: Who has carried your burdens?
SPEAKER_00: Who's been in apaphroditis to you?
SPEAKER_00: Who sat with you in the hospital?
SPEAKER_00: Who's brought you meals when you're sick?
SPEAKER_00: Or when you had an accident?
SPEAKER_00: Who prayed with you and for you when you couldn't pray?
SPEAKER_00: Who simply showed up?
SPEAKER_00: Showing up is so huge.
SPEAKER_00: Putting yourself in the place, just showing up.
SPEAKER_00: So huge.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have the right words to say, just show up.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time it's better to say less than to say more.
SPEAKER_00: One of the clear signs that Christ is forming us is that we begin making room in our lives to carry the burdens of others.
SPEAKER_00: And so that means creating space.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the last point.
SPEAKER_00: So after Paul has said, look at Timothy, look at Epaphroditus, there's a little line if we if we miss it, we're missing part of the message.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this about them receive him, honor people like him.
SPEAKER_00: I think the beauty of this is that Paul describes two faithful friends to the church, and he's saying, honor people like this.
SPEAKER_00: And so it led me to the thought of like, we talk sometimes about eulogizing people before they pass.
SPEAKER_00: I've done a lot of funerals over the last 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: My own mother's, my own father's funeral.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting to eulogize and to try to summarize things in short fashion.
SPEAKER_00: But to try to utilize people and just say, this is what you meant to me.
SPEAKER_00: I was able to do that a couple weeks ago with someone who's been a mentor to me meeting on a video call.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I just wanted to take some time to share what you've meant to me in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Man, it was really beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Because once again, this guy's written books, he's just brilliant.
SPEAKER_00: But I was like, you sat with me when my brother passed, and you shed tears with me.
SPEAKER_00: And you spoke truth to me, and even though you're the most brilliant guy I know, what matters is that you loved me, you lent courage to me to stay on the path.
SPEAKER_00: And here I am today, all these years later.
SPEAKER_00: So when the world celebrates a person who's successful and talented, influential, wealthy, famous, all the things that the world celebrates, what do we celebrate?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the kingdom flips upside down the script, and God says, the humble shall be exalted.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks at the widow who puts in her two bits, two mites, two pennies, whatever it is, and says, She gave more than everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, What?
SPEAKER_00: There are people giving in tons of myths.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, She gave out of her need.
SPEAKER_00: I do believe on that day that those who will be exalted are the ones that you never saw them do anything because they were praying in their closet for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: They were serving behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_00: I had a memory the other week Chloe was out of town and I was uh cleaning up after S2.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you kids are just sloppy with your chips.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: Got a nice new floor, and you're getting all sloppy with your chips.
SPEAKER_00: I had a little dust pan out.
SPEAKER_00: But I remembered going back to the year 1999.
SPEAKER_00: I went to, I left teaching and coaching to go work with a homeless ministry that was reaching out to uh drug-addicted youth.
SPEAKER_00: And we have this, these nights, we call them coffee house nights.
SPEAKER_00: We had a building, that was an old pizza restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: But they would come in and we would just try to love on them.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't, and they did not have care for the building.
SPEAKER_00: And I was I was just volunteering, living in Atlanta in a house with homeless men.
SPEAKER_00: It was quite an interesting time.
SPEAKER_00: But I remember they just would trash on Friday nights, and I'd be the only one there.
SPEAKER_00: I'd be like 1 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: sweeping stuff up, and I was just, I was just bitter in my soul.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, why did I leave coaching?
SPEAKER_00: I was at this elite prep school in Memphis, and I was like, man, I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even making money because I was a terrible support raiser, and I was like, I think I'm making 30 cents an hour, and it's like I'm cleaning this stuff up, but then something hit me, and I was like, Jesus, you washed the nasty mud and filth off the disciples' feet, and you're king of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: And as I swept and cleaned, tears came to my eyes and flooded my face, and it was like, Lord, thank you that I can clean up for these kids that don't even know you, that don't even have any idea that I'm doing this, but this is what you've done for me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I cleaned up those chips from those wayward youth of yours.
SPEAKER_00: I was reminded of that.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Lord, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I can clean up a few chips.
SPEAKER_00: Because what is unseen is beautiful, and it's what the kingdom is built on.
SPEAKER_00: Be not discouraged in doing good, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: There will be a harvest of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So when I think about leaving these days behind, I thought, and I just I wrote a poem.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I'm a poet or not, but this be at least the second poem I read to you.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe I'll never read another poem to you again.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna read you a poem.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about my death this morning because I was not in a weird way, but I was like, 30, 40 years from now, when people are eulogizing me, what do I hope they say?
SPEAKER_00: And so this is what came forth.
SPEAKER_00: On the last day when breath grows still and gathered voices fill the room, I pray the stories people tell will point beyond the life I've known, beyond what's seen, not just to things achieved, but deeper to the man I'd become.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they'll mention songs once sung, a weathered guitar in hands, a carving shaped from reused wood, or shelves that bowed beneath good books.
SPEAKER_00: Those things were gifts.
SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful for them, every one, but they were never to be the end.
SPEAKER_00: I would not want my life reduced to sermons preached or tasks complete, to meetings held or buildings raised, or list of things, achievements seen, for in the end the work of hands will fade, the work within the heart remains.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, I hope they might recall a man who humbly slowly learned to walk at pace throughout the world, because love rarely seemed in haste, who noticed the one still standing by the wall, the quiet voice that no one heard.
SPEAKER_00: I hope they say I welcome tears without demanding they depart, that I could sit with mystery and leave some question still unclosed, that somehow my hands spoke more of faith than tightly guarded certainty.
SPEAKER_00: I hope they saw a growing peace, not one untouched by pain or fear, but one that kept returning home to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Every road grew hard, returning again tomorrow, then once again.
SPEAKER_00: I hope they say that I loved my friends, the laughter often filled our meals, that children found an easy smile and weary souls discovered rest, not because I carried strength for all, but because I knew where strength is found.
SPEAKER_00: And if they speak of anything that made my ordinary life worthwhile, I pray it is not what I built, but whom I gently pointed toward for every road, if faithfully and humbly walked, can quietly become a road to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So when that final day shall come, let grief be mingled there with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Do not remember me as one who just had answers or got things done.
SPEAKER_00: Remember instead a fellow pilgrim learning still to trust the one who called him home.
SPEAKER_00: And if my leaving leaves a space, let it become a place of grace, an invitation to walk the pace, to live more freely, to hope more deeply until at last we meet again before his face, where every faithful story finds its new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: My desire to lift the veil, to pull it back, and just say, man, can this be us?
SPEAKER_00: A people who care, who are faithful, who love the word because it is the foundation of our life, tells us who God is, tells us who humanity is, it tells us his plan and how we are to live.
SPEAKER_00: And from that, life, and we do it together.
SPEAKER_00: Here's your sentence to carry for the week.
SPEAKER_00: From all that Paul has said, the gospel forms the kind of friendships that help us follow Christ together.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel forms the kind of friendships that help us follow Christ together.
SPEAKER_00: And as we are a people who care, we will follow Christ together.
SPEAKER_00: And the beauty of it, it's all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, Epaphroditus, me, you.
SPEAKER_00: We don't celebrate any of us when we come to the table each week.
SPEAKER_00: We celebrate the one who makes it possible for us to have life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's Jesus Christ who embodied everything perfectly because it was Him, our God and our King.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're a Christian here today, after I pray, I'd invite you to come forward and to take some bread and some juice back to your seat and hold them there, and I'll lead us in communion in just a few moments once everyone receives the elements.
SPEAKER_00: But be reminded of all Christ has done.
SPEAKER_00: He died the death, receiving the punishment that would be our should have been ours, and was raised on the third day, and gives us his righteousness so that we will have life and life eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And ask yourself, what is your eulogy?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may it be that we are a people who cared and we pointed to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for these pictures of Timothy, of Epaphroditus, of Paul as one who struggles and just lived a real life before us to show us the ups and downs, and Lord, to point us to what is priority and what should be priority for us in our lives, to humbly serve as our Savior served.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, I pray as we come and partake of this communion meal as we do every week, that we would be a reminder, Jesus, of all that you've done, of all that you're doing, and all that you promise to do, that you will come again one day.
SPEAKER_00: And even now, and already and not yet, you are making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: And that day, all will be made new.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we long for you to come.
SPEAKER_00: And in this in between, in this space, I pray that you would do your continual work in our hearts, and we praise you that you began this good work and you will bring it about to completion until your day.
SPEAKER_00: Move in our hearts even now.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.