Alright everybody, hope you guys had a good time of discussion and looking over the passage. We'll draw our attention up here and then we'll start with our Bible study. Let's, what I'd like to do is just read the passage, we'll take a moment to pray and then jump into the study.

Philippians 2, 19 through 30, and the passage says, "But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.

For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me.

And I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly, that I thought it necessary to send to you a prophet Dytus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my knee. Because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.

For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less concerned about you.

Receive him in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. Let's take a moment to pray. Lord, we want to again thank you for the word, and God as we look at these model servants and people of the past, Father we want to all the more see the effect of Christ in their lives.

We want to see their faith in the Lord. We want to see the outworking God of the transformation in their lives, so that God we would continue to learn to grow in our affections, in our resemblance of Christ, in our desire to further the gospel ministry, and so to this end God I do pray that you would help your word continue to challenge our lives.

We thank you it's in Christ and we pray. Amen. Okay, so by way of introduction, you know I typically like to ask the question, how do we get here to this paragraph? What is the flow of thought is what I always ask, and what I like to highlight is this.

When we think about this current section where Apostle Paul highlights two individuals in his life who are essentially model servants, we ask the question how did his thought get there? Well remember that in chapter one, Apostle Paul in just kind of almost incredible fashion expressed his heart, expressed his desire, and what I like to say is he expressed his hope in Jesus.

And remember what he said is, "To my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." And what was pretty amazing was that this hope, this hope of being a shining light, a hope of being an exaltation of Christ was something that helped him interpret or make sense of everything.

Make sense of the suffering, make sense of his current condition in life, make sense of why he could have joy within the circumstance. And so he spent a lot of time in chapter one talking about this incredible hope that carries through to the rest of the passages. And then in chapter two, he commanded and encouraged that we should have this attitude, right?

Remember that if there is any encouragement and if there's any of this, he says, "Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus." So he describes that this attitude of humility, this attitude of self-sacrifice, selflessness, this attitude that is found in Jesus where he did not regard his deity to be grasped and held onto, but he emptied himself.

He says, "You have that." And then in the last passage that we studied two weeks ago, he said for us to join in this work. What he says was, "But even if I'm being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.

You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me." And if you think about it, when Apostle Paul ended the last paragraph by saying, "Share this joy with me," right? He wasn't just saying like, "Be happy, man," right? That's not what he was saying.

He's actually all that he was saying from chapter one till now, he wants them to experience the full gamut, which means then, yes, joining in the hope that is in Christ, joining in the attitude that is with Christ, but also then the work of Christ that involves suffering, self-sacrifice, a desire to minister to the people around and considering their, right, their interest in welfare far above and beyond your own.

And so it totally makes sense that as his mind is there saying, "Join me, share this joy," he presents to you two case examples of two individuals who are walking with him sharing this joy, right, which is Timothy and Epaphroditus who have this hope in Christ, who clearly has this attitude of the Lord and is engaged in the work of our Savior.

And so I wanted to give you that introduction just to show you that this isn't just this random move into, "Hey, these two guys happen to be working, can you guys make sure to receive them?" His flow of thought actually is seen in all of this, where he began with this idea that the exaltation of Christ should be at the forefront of his mind.

Now as I think about that, as we think about this, and we just read the passage, I want to introduce this idea, right, that Apostle Paul, he is clearly thinking about the well-being of the church. So although he's presenting two case model servants who are exemplifying hope in Christ, attitude of Christ, work of Christ, he himself also is still showing forth his care and love for the flock, right?

And as we do that, one of the questions I asked you to prepare for this, tonight's study, was this idea of as Apostle Paul is seeking to send these servants and we see his attitude towards the church, what kind of principles or what is being said then about his attitude and mentality towards the church?

And so clearly, we're going to kind of unpack this idea of all three men, Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus. They show this genuine concern and they show that concern with an incredible level of self-sacrifice. And so when we think about individuals who should be at the forefront of caring for ministry, leading the flock, it should be those who are willing, absolutely willing to sacrifice and lay down whatever it is they have for the sake of the interest of the church.

All right, jumping into this first section, okay? So this passage nicely divides into first section about Timothy and then the second section about Epaphroditus. Let's take a look at this first section. Starting from verse 19 through 22, let's take a moment to reread the passage and he says, but I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition.

So we regularly get this idea that Apostle Paul was constantly checking up on how the churches are doing. I want to hear this, I want to hear your faith, I want to hear your works, right? And that's a sign of genuine care. Verse 20, for I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare, for they all seek after their own interests but not those of Christ Jesus.

But you know of his proven worth that he served me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. Therefore, I hope to send him immediately as soon as I see how things go with me. And I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly.

Okay, as we take a look at that passage, we see a lot of Apostle Paul giving, you know, highlighting the noble character and commendations of Timothy's character. And so I ask what are some of these character traits that Apostle Paul highlights? What are some of these character traits? Well I highlighted those things in green for you guys, the things that I saw.

You can highlight this idea of like he's got this kindred spirit that's really basically like-minded with Apostle Paul, genuine concern, proven worth, and he served the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving the father. Let's take a moment to talk about each one of those things in a little bit more further detail.

First, when we think about a kindred spirit, okay, the way I outlined it is what he does is he gives one main character trait and he gives a little further explanation of it. He begins by saying he has this kindred spirit. And the whole idea there is that there is this like-mindedness, right, that as Apostle Paul has this like, you know, singular drive to exalt Christ, as Apostle Paul is interpreting all that's happening in his life, including the suffering, and he's finding joy in it, right, he's saying Timothy has this same worldview.

Now let me ask you this interesting question. How difficult do you think it is to find somebody who's going to have the exact same worldview as Apostle Paul? Where you're experiencing persecution, the confiscation of your rights, currently he's being held unfairly, they don't have a legitimate accusation, but he's held in Roman prison for a long time.

They kind of don't know what to do with him, right? Within all of that, his perspective is joy. His perspective is look at these opportunities to share. His perspective is I am counted worthy to share and exalt the glories of Christ. Join me, right? I mean, how difficult is it to get somebody to be on that exact same page?

What Apostle Paul is saying is, dude, Timothy is not missing a beat here, he's right there with me. He's got this kindred spirit, right, where he's not focused on himself, where he's not focused in on woe is me, shouldn't God help me get out of this, why do we have to X, Y, and Z, but actually he's thinking about and being concerned for the well-being of the flock, right?

So in that, he says that Timothy is of kindred spirit having this genuine concern for the welfare of the church. And so this is kind of like an interesting question we should stop at and put a stake in. And for your discussion later, there will be this question. When you think genuine concern as opposed to superficial kind of light concern, what are the definitive markers?

Meaning what's the difference between just having a care for somebody, just like let's say, you know, it's like, oh, I care about everybody here at church versus something that's really genuine. What are the characteristics of a concern that goes above and beyond, right? Those are some things that we should talk about.

But we want to highlight and look at the passage and see that Apostle Paul contrasts this genuine concern with verse 21, "For they all seek their own interests and not for Christ Jesus." You know, when I was making observation of this passage and I was trying to connect this whole idea, I just realized like, you know, Apostle Paul, again, his thoughts in the letter is all connected.

Earlier, he said, "You need to have this humility. Don't be looking out for your own interests, but look out for the interests of others." And then I started asking myself, "Hmm, what are some moments in specific cases where I was trying to care for somebody, but my own self-interest got in the way?" Right?

And we should think about that. What are some moments and times when you are trying to care for somebody or you're already in a position where you're expected to care for somebody, but then your own care for yourself started to get in the way? And I started thinking about some examples, right?

So there are times when you are trying to help somebody, maybe you're trying to advise someone in their life decisions, and in those moments when they're not listening, you get all frustrated. You're like, "Oh, aren't you listening to me?" Right? Do these apostles, have they ever experienced that? Of course.

Almost every city they get into, there's this frustration. People don't listen. People aren't paying attention. There could be a moment when you just go, "You know who I am? Aren't you listening?" Right? Or have you guys ever experienced a moment when somebody's maybe asking you advice, they don't listen, but then they go ask somebody else because they think somebody else might have better advice, and you're sitting there thinking, "What?

Why did you ask me if you're going to go ask somebody else?" Have there been moments when you got super offended because somebody maybe you've been caring for, maybe it's a younger sister, maybe it's a younger brother, maybe it's your little family or whatever it may be. Your family, so you should know, but they don't tell you, and you're all offended.

"You didn't tell me?" You know, there was this moment actually when somebody came to me and started apologizing, "I'm so sorry." And I was like, "Why?" It's like, "I started dating and I didn't tell you." And I just took this moment, and I don't know why something came over me, and I just started kind of messing with them.

It's like, "You didn't tell me?" It's okay, you don't have to tell me. But there are those moments when if, let's say you're close to somebody, but they don't share with you, all of a sudden you're like, "Who am I to you? You told everybody else but not me." What I'm talking about is these case moments when your own thought of yourself reacts.

Your own consideration of your value within that whole scenario of caring for somebody, it reacts. "Why don't you tell me? Why aren't you listening? What about me?" Remember the moment you say, "What about me?" All of a sudden, that distinction of genuine care begins to get muddied. And then I started thinking, "Well, I don't know that I necessarily struggle in that way.

I don't have an issue. I don't have an issue. If you want to date, you can come to me for advice because I love giving advice. But it's not like you have to cross-check everything with me." But then I started asking, "What in me, as a self-interest, prevents me from genuinely caring for somebody?" And one of the moments that I had, I just had to confess, was typically for me, is I shy away from sharing or saying what I need to because I worry whether you'll like me still.

Like if I'm honest, and this is just me being honest with you, perhaps some of the other stuff of like, "I need to know. You need to listen to me. How come I'm the one always buying coffee?" Those are the things that I just really don't care about, right?

But what I really care about is, if I say this, then what if you stop coming to me, right? What if you react in a way where you're defensive? What I wrestle with is my consideration of myself and the future, am I going to say what you need versus what you like?

Honestly, that's a hard thing. And I got to say, sometimes that kind of struggle, it doesn't even hit me until later, right? It's like, "Oh, I should have said." I should have said. And then I got to go to the Lord and say, "Hmm, you know, Lord, the biggest hurdle wasn't even their defensiveness because they weren't even defensive to me.

I just assumed. And in my fear and assumption, I didn't say what I needed to say." So this is important. You know why? It's because we take notice of the fact that in verse 21, when he says, "They all seek after their own interest," it's not just about the interest of the two parties involved.

It's about the interest of those two parties in the context of Christ, what Christ is wanting for their lives, what Christ is wanting for their sanctification. And so that portion of it was incredibly convicting for me because Timothy, he's saying, is an individual who is genuinely concerned about your welfare, but clearly implied in that in contrast to the other individuals, Timothy is dedicated to the interest of Christ, right?

Timothy is a young man, but we know from the other passages that Apostle Paul challenges him, "Don't let these other people diminish who you are because you're young, but rather speak boldly, preach the word, in season, out of season, give the truth." Why? Because he's supposed to be a servant of Christ, that he needs to do the work of the evangelist.

And Apostle Paul is saying, he has this genuine interest. Wow, what a great commendation of a young servant. What's more, he talks about how Timothy has a proven worth, and he says, "You know this, you've seen it," right? "That he served me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child." Let's talk about that a little bit.

When he talks about proven worth, he says that everybody knows of this. And what's really interesting is some of you guys have asked, I got a text saying, "Huh, how come he says there's no one like Timothy? I have no one else like this." And isn't that unfair to everybody else, right?

Because truthfully speaking, yeah, Apostle Paul had Silas, Apostle Paul had even Luke, Apostle Paul had Barnabas, lots of other people. And you can imagine, if I'm in small group and I look over and I was like, "All I have is Garrett, and then nobody else." And then Jonathan's over there like, "What about me?" It'd be kind of weird.

What I'm saying is, yeah, Apostle Paul is not just using hyperbole just to be all dramatic. Genuinely speaking, Timothy was a unique individual. I've included for you an appendix at the very end of your packet. So just turn your eyes there. Timothy has gone through the journeys with Apostle Paul.

I have a map for you here. His journey is incredible, right? You look at this and it actually kind of is mind-baffling. What I want to highlight for you is that, I'm not sure if you can see my pointer, but here on this dot in Lystra is where Apostle Paul and Silas pick up Timothy.

This is where he gets converted. But what happens is, in their journey, Timothy starts to follow and he travels all the way down that whole red path, all the way over to Ephesus, and that's where he remains for longer as Apostle Paul continues on ahead. Think about that. I mean, that journey is no small stretch of land.

We're talking like over 1,200 miles. It's crazy. 1,200 miles on foot, on boat, on donkey backs. And here's the funny part, okay? I was thinking about what Timothy has gone through, and you see the journey. We're not going to go over it for the sake of time, but almost all these churches that we hear of, all the churches that we have, the letters in the Bible, understand that Timothy was an integral part in most of those churches.

But think about this. This part's going to be a little bit funny, okay? Before he begins this second missionary journey, Apostle Paul decides to have Timothy circumcised so that it wouldn't be a hindrance to him sharing. And then I thought, "Oh, dude, when Paul says, 'Dude, you know he's proven,' back of their minds are like, 'Dude, he got circumcised.'" I was thinking about this.

This is kind of meditating, like, number one, Timothy didn't know that he was going to go on this massive journey to this extent. Clearly they were going to -- he was going to leave everything and go. Timothy was down, proven. Clearly he was following, right? He was following with faith, not knowing what's ahead, proving.

But to be willing to be even circumcised? I mean, I'm just being honest. If I was him, I'd be like, "Dude, I just lie," and be like, "I got it, right? No one's going to ever know, right?" Like, do we really have to do this? I mean, just think about that whole idea.

And I know it's partially funny, but at the same time, it's like, clearly even as a young man, his willingness to serve the cause of the gospel was evident to the degree Apostle Paul could say, "You guys all know," right? So when Paul says, like, "Timothy is being raised up, and it's realistically so." He wasn't just one of just many people who did all the same stuff.

He was willing to go to great extents, great extents, to further the cause of the gospel. Now, the other thing here is, though, when he says back in the passage that Timothy served him like a child with a father, I thought about that for a moment, and I just want to ask you this question, like, how should we appreciate that to a greater degree, right?

Because I don't think it was just a cultural thing where, like, yes, they did have a kind of culture where they had mentors and disciples, and you had these significant figures who were teachers, and because, you know, they elevated, especially in that Greek culture, they elevated people with knowledge, so if they had knowledge, they would give them gifts and all that kind of stuff.

But I don't think this was just cultural, right? Because it wasn't like, "Oh, yeah, you know, he really respected me as his instructor." He says like a son to a father, and that really challenged me. I mean, it took me a moment. I just had to kind of gather myself, because, you know, honestly speaking, I got to even ask myself, like, do I even treat my own father really well?

My father's retired, he's older, he has some health issues. Typically speaking in this generation, our parents complain, like, "You never call me. You don't check up on me." And all of a sudden, I was like, "Oh, my gosh." You know, like, Apostle Paul and these servants of the Lord are checking up on people, seeing how they're doing.

We kind of live in a generation where our parents are being neglected. It's months goes by and we don't even visit, right? Well, you got to ask the question. If we are to care up and down, right? Timothy cares for the people above him. He's not just being a brown-noser and a, you know, just a suck-up or something like that, like, "Oh, I want to be a leader, too, so I got to do this for you." No, he treats him like his own blood, like his dad.

And then clearly, he treats the people underneath him exactly the same. He treats them like family. And so what I see in this young servant is this amazing character trait. He is loving them and being concerned for them, both up and down, no matter who they are. What a servant of all.

And again, I can't necessarily give all the details of what that might look like, but I want to challenge you. Try to envision. You meet this individual who is a radical missionary, but you start caring for him because of the gospel he carries, because of the love that God is showing through him and building in you, you start treating this person like your own dad.

Could we get there? Do we know what that looks like? Do we know what that means? What an incredible challenge, right? So in summary, Apostle Paul really lifts up Timothy as a model servant who is, in summary, genuinely concerned for the welfare of the people and genuinely concerned for the interests of Christ.

And clearly he's willing, he's absolutely willing to go the distance and to lay the sacrifices down and to treat all those around exactly as Christ would, with a sense of selflessness and sacrifice. Okay, we need to move on to the second section. Here in verse 25 to 30, we move to Epaphroditus.

And I read the passage, this portion for us is, "But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my knee, because he was longing for you, longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.

For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly, so that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and I may be less concerned about you.

Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me." Okay, a couple things about him, right? First, we think about the first section in verse 25, where he says, "I felt it necessary to you to send Epaphroditus." Just real briefly, Epaphroditus, cool thing, his name means charming, okay?

Charming. So, I don't know. Alright, but the cool thing is, Apostle Paul gives him various titles, or I guess certain labels that summarize his role and his relationship with Apostle Paul. What are those labels? He says, "My brother, fellow worker, soldier, messenger, and minister." Okay, I made a little chart for you guys there.

And the reason why I did this is because we don't have time to do it right now, but in your own time, you gotta think about what those things really represent, right? 'Cause meaning, you don't just call anybody who's not your brother, like, "Man, you're like a brother to me," you know?

'Cause you know what he's talking about is that kind of blood tie loyalty. We're gonna be now in a certain relationship where it's gonna be thick. It's gonna last. No matter what happens here, we're not changing our status, yes? I'm not defriending you, basically. What's more, he talks about there is this being a fellow worker, being a fellow soldier.

I mean, all of these things we could describe, but I want you to think about this, envision it. There is levels of dedication. There are levels, especially among soldiers. When I think soldiers, I think, "I depend on you to cover me. You depend on me to cover you," right?

Fellow soldiers also having mutual experiences, experiences that are incredible, experiences that are severe, experiences that are not the norm, right? And so there is this focus of intent, focus of purpose. That kind of stuff is what I'm talking about, and we need to pay attention to those things. Now, moving forward, I had asked this question, which was important.

Apostle Paul clearly says, "I really, really want to send Timothy to you, but I felt it necessary to send the prophet Titus," and the question is why? If he really wants to eventually get out of prison, and he has hopes, he's confident that things are going to essentially work out, and history has it, yes, in the second journey, after the second journey, there is this long period.

We're talking almost two years of imprisonment in Rome, where people, again, they're holding him without right reason, all that kind of stuff, but then he is released. There's about three years from this time until the time where he actually gets executed, but within that time, he has opportunity to revisit the Macedonian area.

Scripture describes generally that he visited the Macedonian area, but it makes sense, prime location in Macedonia is Philippi, but in thinking through this, Apostle Paul says, "I want to send to you Epaphroditus," and we ask the question why? Well, it gives the reasons. So going back to the passage, he says, verse 26, "Because he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.

For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore, I have sent him all the more eagerly, so that when you see him again, you may rejoice." This is pretty incredible stuff.

When you take a moment to slow down and think about this, what I'm saying is this, okay? Number one, what's really, really clear is that Paul felt the need to send Epaphroditus because Epaphroditus wanted to. He loved these people. He longed for them, right? He wanted to be in their presence.

He wanted to see them, and there was this desire in his heart to go to them. But I show you this map, and this map has the flight, airplane flight, the car, and this other stuff, because this is from modern day Google Maps. But remember, Rome is over here, and Philippi is way over here.

This is close to 1,200 miles. Here it has it in kilometers, 1,300, 20-something kilometers, okay? That's crazy. Just the fact that he would travel this distance to be a minister to Apostle Paul, that alone is crazy. Why? Because what's evident is that the church, Philippi, loved Apostle Paul. And what's more, in Apostle Paul's regular ministry, Apostle Paul was regularly giving financial help to churches that were in need.

He would carry gifts. So what's more, those in the Macedonians were giving money both for Apostle Paul's ministry and for the sake of other churches. Epaphroditus was carrying that over. Think about Epaphroditus' character. He is sick. I'm guessing traveling this contributed to his sickness. And if it was any one of us, we would have probably been tempted to stop right here before he hit the water, because traveling waters at that time was dangerous.

Maybe at this time, if he got really sick, he'd be tempted to stop, use some of that money for Airbnb and whatever it may be, right? Like that's what we would do. That's what you would expect any normal person to do. But what I'm saying is, in the highlight of Epaphroditus' character, he carried that all the way through, and then to go back?

And then to go back, that's crazy. But nonetheless, Epaphroditus is saying, "I want to." And Apostle Paul is in agreement with this. Why? Because the church thought their dear messenger, their dear minister to Apostle Paul was sick and could have potentially died. They don't have instant messaging. It's like, "Arrive safely." "I'm here.

Don't worry. Go to bed." Right? Like, there's not that stuff. And so he sends this saying, "I want you to rejoice." Can you imagine that scene? If you send this man who is essentially kind of like cream of the crop of your church, Apostle Paul sees him as like a model, model servant.

And then that scene, if he comes back saying, "I successfully carried your message and gift to Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul is doing well and sharing the gospel, and he's overjoyed." And when they see each other, what a beautiful sight that would be. So what I'm saying here is this.

My goodness, if Epaphroditus was a lesser man, he wouldn't make this trip. He would have been like, "Nah, I'd rather stay. Plus, Paul, you don't have other help. If I leave, who else do you have?" So again, commending Epaphroditus as a fellow servant or as a servant, he carries this.

Now, one of the things I want to highlight before I start wrapping things up by way of conclusion, I want to say this. In the description of why Epaphroditus wants to go, there's two. He says there is a longing for you all, but there's also this. He heard that they heard that he was sick.

Somehow the message got through that the church is worried because Epaphroditus is sick, right? I want you to think about that for a moment. Have you met those people who don't want to be a burden so much to others? A, they're the people who are constantly saying, "Oh, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry," right? And then there are those people who, because they're always like that, they get sick and they don't tell a soul. And then you're all worried and you're all frustrated, like, "Tell me. I can drive you to the hospital." You don't have to drag yourself over, but there are those people who are like that.

Now that kind of stream I don't think is good. I'm not saying do that, okay? Because we need to be interdependent. But clearly what's really interesting is Epaphroditus hears that they're worried and he wants to relieve their worry even though he's dead sick. Do you see that? The concern and burden goes so deep that even though he's the one who's super sick, he's all the more worried about them.

Brothers and sisters, I want to give you this interesting challenge. Sometimes in our love, one of the greatest things we're going to carry is incredible concern and burden. Are they doing well? Right? Are they sick? Are they worried? Are they lost? Are they striving after the Lord? And sometimes we're super frustrated with the people we're ministered to.

It's like, "Why don't you get it? How come you're not changing? Like, how come you haven't fixed it yet?" You know? Why? Because part of that is their weakness is a burden on you. But as a challenge to every single one of us, if we are to love, we're going to always carry the concern.

I'm worried about you, right? I'm thinking about you. And that's one of the interesting things where it's not a physical pain, it's not a physical discomfort, but it's going to be internal, right? That their well-being is going to, especially if they're not doing well, it's going to bother you.

And so Epaphroditus reveals his affection for these people. There is this real care. Although he's sick, he's over here, he could have easily been like, "We're sick, man. Send some more stuff. We need money for medicine. We need..." It wasn't like that at all. He even wanted to travel that distance to relieve their worry.

That's pretty incredible. And so by way of conclusion, Apostle Paul gives this command, "Receive them." We're not going to have time to go over all the details, but I'm going to wrap these things up by saying, "In so doing, in carrying these things, he's carrying the worry and distress and concern for them.

And because he is like that," Apostle Paul says, "men like this," and it carries through both Epaphroditus, Timothy, and Paul, "men like this hold in high regard. Men like this receive. Men like this have joy with them." And so we ask this question, "How should the church regard these people?" Well, what I'd really like to say is, in all honesty, the point is not so much, "How are we supposed to honor these people?" Because that's a legitimate question because we don't want to put people on a pedestal.

Like, "Oh my gosh." Paul's still a man. Timothy is still a man, right? And there are model servants in our lives. They're just men, too, and women. And we shouldn't necessarily put them on this false pedestal. But nevertheless, there are people of noble character that we should elevate. But for us, that's not too hard.

Why? Because naturally, we already give our ear and eyes to the people we admire. But then the main question is, "What are we admiring them for?" Because they're eloquent? Because they're smooth? Because they're skilled? Because clearly, clearly, if they're productive, clearly if they're fruitful, clearly if they're successful, is that why?

Paul's saying, "No. These individuals are noble because of their heart of affection for you. These individuals are noble because their care for you is genuine. These individuals are noble because their love for the Lord is genuine. They're willing to sacrifice. They're willing to go, yes, clearly to death." What a challenge for us.

The people we admire, we're going to automatically listen to and emulate. And the challenge therefore for us then is that's already natural in us. We already try to be like the people we like. The question is, "What are we actually looking at?" And so today we have, remember at the beginning I said, "These men are not above and beyond us.

What they have is the hope of Christ, the attitude of Christ, and they're engaged in the work of Christ." We, too, can do the same. Let's take a moment to pray. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you, God, for your grace. Lord, because all of us, we have this amazing privilege in this generation where you have sent your messengers, you've sent your servants, and then you've called every single one of us to be these things for one another, to be the caretakers of each other, to be the supporters, encouragers, and edifiers of each other.

And so, God, we thank you that you as our Heavenly Father, you've looked at your children and caused us, Lord, to have the maturity that you want us to have, and you've inspired us, Father God, to do all the more. I do pray, Father God, that every single one of us will be challenged in the way that we love, and we'll challenge in the way that we love each other.

And I pray, Father God, that although, yes, we struggle with our own selfishness, although, yes, Father God, our hearts are sometimes so mixed, we do pray for your sanctifying work, that God, our care for you and our care for the church will be pure. We thank you, it's in Christ, and we pray.

Amen. Amen.