Sacrificial Living

Music. Philippians chapter 2, verses 17 through 30.

! Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering, upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth. How as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me. And I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier and your messenger and minister to my need.

For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed, he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

I am the more eager to send him therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men.

For he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Would you please be seated?

Whose glory do you seek? Whose glory do you seek? I think that one of the reasons why the prosperity gospel is so appealing is because it seeks to put people in position to receive glory and worship from God rather than them giving glory and worshiping God.

If they could sing a hymn, it would not be to God be the glory, but to me be the glory. It appeals to our sinful desire to seek glory for ourselves and to be worshiped by others.

And as I was thinking about that, I was reminded of a baseball game that I played in high school, and we were down by a couple runs. It was the last inning.

We had runners on first and second. Nobody was out. And it was my turn to bat. And I remember as I approached the plate, what an opportunity for me to receive glory.

My family is here. My friends are here. Some girls from school are here. If I get a hit, we tie the game. If I hit a home run, it's over.

And we win. And I'm the hero. And so I stepped up to the plate, you know, and looked down to third base to get the sign from the coach.

And he gave me the sign to bunt. To bunt! I couldn't believe it. My heart was broken.

You know, those girls wouldn't understand why we bunt in baseball. They wouldn't be impressed by a bunt. But are you kidding me? I mean, it made total sense in baseball.

If you know the game, some of you even knew where I was going. Basically, that play is called a sacrifice bunt. The batter bunts the ball. He gives himself up as an out so that the runners advance to the next base so that they're in better scoring position for the next guy.

To get the hit and to receive the glory that I wasn't going to get. I wanted the glory for myself. I wanted to be the hero.

I wanted the big hit. And I wanted to receive the worship for it. Our sinful nature wants nothing to do with self-sacrifice and everything to do with things that will boost our egos.

It's been a while since we've been in Philippians. But if you remember, Paul has spent a lot of time in this epistle writing about this very issue.

If you recall, Paul is writing this letter to the Philippian church while he is at Rome. And he's there as a prisoner awaiting to appear on trial before Caesar.

And before all of this, he's endured an immense amount of persecution for being a minister to the gospel. And if you'll recall also, some preachers, some Christian preachers were using this set of circumstance that Paul was going through as an opportunity for themselves.

To advance themselves. Back in chapter 1, verse 17, he says that they are using this opportunity, his imprisonment, as an opportunity to proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition.

Not sincerely. So you see that they saw Paul's imprisonment as an opportunity to elevate themselves. To glorify themselves.

Tragically, in many churches, the biggest glory hound is the pastor. I've seen it. I've struggled with it.

Instead of leading the way in sacrificial living, many pastors treat their congregations as a means to an end. To their own personal gain.

They see their church as an opportunity to, you know, eventually become some kind of important sought-after conference speaker. Or to use them to be some kind of catalyst into their being a best-selling author and having some kind of great career where they are glorified for what God is doing through them.

And they use the church to get glory. Pastors do it. And elders and deacons. And even church members do it as well. Oftentimes, you'll see that their focus isn't primarily on giving glory to God, but seeking that glory for themselves.

Paul has warned against this very thing. Back in chapter 1, verse 27, he says to them, Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

And then he says in verse 29, It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him, but also, get this, suffer for His sake.

Now that right there is a verse that you will not hear preached in a prosperity church. To them, suffering means you're doing something wrong. You're not getting it right.

You don't have enough faith. Or you're not using the appropriate words in the right sentence structure in order to get what you want from God.

Or they say you're not praying correctly. Or maybe you haven't sown enough seed money. All of that is garbage. And none of that is found in God's Word.

Then in chapter 2, Paul again instructs the Philippians in verse 3 to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each one of you, he says, look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. In other words, what he's saying is, when you're called to bunt, bunt.

Gladly. Do it for your brother, your sister in Christ, and ultimately for the Lord's glory, not your own. Paul then presents Jesus as the supreme example of what it means to sacrifice.

Jesus, who, he says, though was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born as a man, humbly and obediently, dying on a cross in the place of his people and for their sins.

And why did he do that? For our sake. For our salvation. And as a result of his sacrifice, we see that God has highly and greatly exalted him.

Then Paul again in chapter 2, verses 14 through 16, spends time talking about the importance of Christians living in harmony with one another. That the church is not to be conformed to this world, but they are to shine as lights, exposing the world's sins and pointing them to Jesus Christ.

Now we come to our text here today, which we just read. And here we are presented with three men whose lives are exceptional patterns of what it means to live the godly life.

They are Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus. All three men were together in Rome. You already know why Paul was there. Timothy was one of Paul's most trusted confidants, probably his most trusted confidant, and a fellow soldier in ministry.

Paul referred to him as a son in the faith, describing how close of a relationship these two had. He was like Paul's son. He was like a son to him, and likewise, Timothy, Paul, was like a father to him.

Timothy had been with Paul for some time in Rome. He was probably there dictating even these letters, this letter that was written to the Philippians, and he was running errands for him, among other things.

He was there as Paul's associate, as Paul's assistant in his ministry. Then Epaphroditus had been sent to them from Philippi, from that church, to bring a financial gift of support to Paul for his ministry needs.

These three men were knit together geographically, spiritually, and ministerially. They shared a common cause, which was to give the glory to Christ.

They risked their health. They risked their freedom, even their lives. And they provide us with an example as pastors, as leaders, as church members, that we all should seek to emulate and pattern ourselves after.

Now I want to ask you this question, because you may be thinking it yourself. Why should I want that? Or why should we want that as a church?

Well, first of all, and very basically, we want to be like Jesus. Don't we? As followers of Christ, as disciples of Jesus Christ, who has saved us, He's our Lord, He's our Savior, He ultimately is who we want to be like.

And He was like this. These men were simply following Christ. And they give us an example because they followed His example, and we should want the same for ourselves.

Also, we should want our church to be a light in our world. As we've seen, our society is going deeper and darker into sin.

And its effects are widespread. And as the church of Jesus Christ, we should want to be a light that shines truth into the darkness.

That we'd be used by Him to enlighten men and women and children, that they would know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And we do that by our declaration of the gospel through our words and through our actions.

And then thirdly, we want to experience the joy that comes from being identified with Christ, even if that means that we suffer for our work that we do for Him.

And we see over and over and over and over again, Jesus says, He who wants to save His life is the one who will lose His life. But He who tries to save His life is the one who, in the end, will lose it.

So we want and we hope for those opportunities to be identified with Christ, especially if it means that we suffer for His sake. Because that will lead to even greater rejoicing for us.

We give glory to Christ when we live sacrificially. We give glory to Christ when we live sacrificially. And sacrificial living involves suffering, selflessness, and risk.

And so the first thing we see about what it means to have or to live a sacrificial life is in verses 17 through 18 through Paul's example, that sacrificial living involves suffering.

It involves suffering. And there He again says, Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Likewise, you should be glad and rejoice with me. What's He talking about here? Well, those reading in the first century would have completely understood what Paul meant by this illustration of Him being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of the Philippian Christians that was being made.

But it's not as clearly understood in our context today. Back then, when the sacrificial animal was placed on the altar, the priest would pour either wine on top of it while it was burning or at the base of the altar.

And that act symbolized the rising of the sacrifice to the nostrils of the deity to whom it was being offered to as a pleasing aroma and fragrance.

Last summer, I came across a recipe for grilling steak on these wood planks on the grill. And as a part of it, you had to make this mop sauce.

There's all different kinds of ingredients that you would put in the mop sauce. You'd shake it up and then you'd go out after the meat had been cooking for a while and you would douse it with this mop sauce.

And I remember the first time I did that and as I, you know, see the meat there and oh man, it looks good and my mouth is watering and then I poured that mop sauce all over it and oh, that steam just came up and hit me right in the face.

And I wanted to take it off the grill right there and start eating. You know what I'm saying? My mouth is watering about it right now as I'm talking. I might be going to rib crib after church. I'm not sure. But it's that same kind of smell.

God sees the sacrificial living being done on the part of the Philippians for the advancement of his gospel as they are living for Christ and being an example of Christ in their community and they're facing suffering for that.

And what Paul is doing and combined together, it's an aroma that brings great pleasure to the Lord. And so Paul here is speaking about their common offering.

He's being poured out on top of the burning sacrifice of the Philippian church and their combined suffering and sacrificial living was pleasing, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.

Then Paul, after this, expresses his gladness about all this sacrificial suffering that has taken place. And he says that he rejoices over this and that they should rejoice with him.

This doesn't seem to make any sense, especially to the world, right? They are suffering. Why in the world would anyone be glad and rejoice over suffering?

Well, the Bible says that sacrificial service to the Lord in and of itself is a privilege and a cause for rejoicing. I want to read to you a quote by John MacArthur. He says, Believers are to rejoice in spite of their suffering for Christ.

They are to, in spite of it, because of it. Knowing that all who desire to live godly in Christ will be persecuted. Believers, he says, greatest joy comes at the point of greatest sacrifice because serving God is the supreme purpose of their existence.

But unfortunately, many believers experience joy or seek joy in much the same way that the world seeks joy and experiences joy.

When circumstances are favorable in their life, they're happy. But when circumstances are unfavorable, they're sad, they're grouchy, they're discontent, they're resentful, and sometimes even they're angry at God for what they're having to go through.

The only thing that brings them joy are those things that promote their own interests and give them their own sense of glory.

But when believers seek to do the Father's will and please Him, they view sacrifice and suffering with joy. I can think of many opportunities that I've had to interact with missionaries who have just come back from the mission field.

You know, they're living in these itty-bitty tiny little countries, they don't have the amenities that we have, the luxuries that we have, and they come back for a break and you almost have this expectation like they must be so happy to enjoy the comforts that we have in the United States.

You know, these poor, poor missionaries. But they come back and you meet them and they're so filled with joy. It's like they just glow. They're so happy.

But you think that doesn't make sense. They don't have the things that we have. How can their kids be happy? They don't have PlayStations where they're at or Xboxes or whatever. How can they be so happy and so content?

Well, because they know how it is to suffer for the Lord and how great of a joy that is for them to experience. I haven't had to, or I haven't had the privilege of suffering as much as they have, but I do remember when I was called to the ministry and I was 16 years old.

And the feeling, the overwhelming feeling of all the feelings that I experienced that first few months was this. Terror. I was in terror for many different reasons.

One of the reasons was I knew that I would probably have to go to seminary and I knew from watching my youth pastor how difficult it was for him to do that, to have a wife, to have children, and to work in the church.

I'd been to his house. I had sat on his ratty old couch that he probably bought from some garage sale or some thrift store. I had watched TV on his old television that didn't even have a remote.

You had to get up to change the channels. I saw him come into church tired and worn out. And as I'm being called in the ministry, I remember him.

I think, I wasn't planning on doing that, you know. To me, as a Johnson County kid, I couldn't imagine having TV without a remote control. But then after I did go to seminary, I did answer God's call.

I remember a time when Danny and I had paid all our bills, we paid all our rent. It was Saturday. We had no food and we had no money.

And our only saving grace was that the next day at church, our youth group was hosting a baked potato fundraiser. And so we were hoping that that would go well, but that also there would be some leftover baked potatoes that we could take home.

And there was. And you know, we gladly piled them into our car and took them home. And that week, I think we ate potatoes just about every single way that you can eat a potato.

Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, fried potatoes, you name it. We ate nothing but potatoes. And I will tell you this, that man was not meant to live off potatoes alone.

And I'll leave it at that. But I look back on those days with fondness and joy.

Thankfully, we haven't had any repeat weeks like that. But man, I'm so thankful for what God has given us. And I don't know if I would have been as thankful for it if I hadn't gone through those things.

And you see the faithfulness of God. And you experience the love of God even more so when you're suffering as a result of you're doing what He's called you to do and what He's asked you to be.

And there's nothing more fulfilling or satisfying than that. Many of you have heard of Jim Elliott. On January 8, 1956, he and Pete Fleming and Ed McCauley, Nate Saint, and Roger Udarian were martyred in Ecuador as missionaries.

They were trying to reach the Aca Indians. And on one of their attempts, they were murdered by that tribe. And you can imagine the devastation that that brought to their families and their young children, to their churches, to the people who knew them, even people who didn't know them.

But just the tragedy of what happened as a result of their being martyrs. But you know what happened is God eventually used that to bring many in that very same tribe, that very same tribe that murdered these men, He used that as a catalyst to bring many of them to faith in Jesus Christ.

Through their continuing to go to them with the gospel. And Jim Elliott wrote in his journal before he died this, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

Sacrificial living involves suffering. And that suffering produces tremendous joy. So, what does that mean for you?

Maybe God hasn't called you to the ministry, maybe God hasn't called you out to the mission fields, He certainly has called you to your mission field which is your neighborhood, which is your workplace.

But what does that mean for you right now in our church? Well, it could be a few things. I've written some things down to give you an idea. It could be to volunteer for VBS. Those kids are fun, those kids are awesome, those kids require a lot of patience and love and it's a lot of work.

It could be something like that. It could be going on an overseas mission trip. Here in a while we're going to send Dan over to Latvia with the hope that we establish a relationship with a church over there that we will send more of our people to them in the future.

It could be preparing yourself for something like that. It could be something as simple as cutting out some of the entertainment expenses from your budget and giving it to the gospel debt or giving that time that you normally would towards those things, towards serving in things like Engage and the different ministries that our church is involved with like the Lighthouse, like Hope Center, like again our Engage work or the Grow Teams that I talked to you about this morning.

Doing something that's purpose isn't primarily to serve you or for you to receive the glory. I've had the pleasure on many occasions to take teens on youth trips where we stayed in places where there wasn't any air conditioning.

The food wasn't very good. The work was hard and it was in the summer and we worked real hard where you didn't have opportunities to take a shower every single day.

that suffering especially for some of our teen girls and they couldn't imagine I would tell them before we leave hey you're not going to have any of these things and you're not going to really be able to spend very much time on your phone in fact there's times where I would take it away and they couldn't imagine why are we going on this trip you know is there any way to back out of this?

No there's not. But I would tell them all the time listen at the end of this week you're going to experience something that it's better to give than to receive.

And at the end of this week if you still don't agree with that then you never have to come back on one of these trips again. But every single time at the end of that week when we were ready to go home I'd say hey remember what I told you at the beginning of this trip it's better to give than to receive?

How many of you guys agree with that? Every hand shot up right away. It's a tremendous thing that we get to be Christians. To be God's hands and feet in this world.

And to be able to serve him and suffer for his sake. The next thing we see is that sacrificial living involves selflessness.

In verses 19 through 24 and we see this as exemplified through the life of Timothy. Well who was Timothy? He was a native of Lystra the Bible tells us in the province of Galatia.

His mother Eunice was a Jewish woman. His father was Greek and probably a pagan. Paul met him on his first missionary journey and led him to Christ.

Then he later as we've talked about would accompany Paul on his missionary journeys and became like a son to him. And Paul wanted the Philippians to accept Timothy without any kind of hesitation and so he gave them a brief profile of who he was and highlighted several of his personal characteristics that defined his selfless nature and it was Paul's hope that the Philippians would emulate him.

Again he says therefore I have no one like him. In the Greek this is one word isosukos isosukos used only here also in the New Testament it's a compound adjective isos meaning equal and suke meaning soul.

What Paul is saying of Timothy here is that he is equal souled with me or we are of one soul or of one spirit and what this comes to mind how would we express it in our modern day English is something like this they're kindred spirits they're kindred spirits in the work for Jesus Christ in the advancement of the gospel.

The result was that Timothy was selfless and that he would genuinely be concerned for your welfare.

Selflessness involves the ability to be sympathetic which Timothy was able to do. Paul knew that he would have to be sympathetic to their situation because Timothy didn't seek after his own interests but after the interests of Christ he says.

have you ever met somebody or talked to somebody that all they ever wanted to do was tell you about themselves? Don't look at anybody in the church or point any fingers okay?

But we've all probably come across that person and you know that every time they come to you you know what the topic of that conversation is going to be about don't you? It's going to be about them themselves and what they're doing and what they're going through and you know they want to brag about something that they want you to you know give them glory for or they want to use you to get what they want and they're typically not very thankful after they use you to get whatever it is they want.

You know people like that. We just went over chapter 2 with Jesus example of selflessness his act in the incarnation in the crucifixion that was necessary for our salvation.

So that kind of attitude doesn't come from him but it does come from somebody else who is also a prominent figure in the Bible.

Let's read Isaiah chapter 14 verses 12 through 14 and I believe this passage as many Bible scholars do describes Satan and his mindset as he fell from heaven and there we read oh how you have fallen from heaven oh day star son of dawn how you are cut down to the ground you were laid you who laid the nations low you said in your heart I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God I will set my throne on high I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will make myself like the most high and so here we have a picture of what Satan's agenda is don't we which is to give him self glory why because he's self centered and that should never be the case for a follower of

Jesus Christ we should not be self centered people but Christ centered people Timothy's selflessness was not a one time act but a way of life and so Paul says to him you guys know him he's proven his worth because he lives it out not just one time this isn't just a one time act this is his way of life he's not interested in his own glory he's proved himself worthy especially in our culture today even more so with the millennial generation that's coming up we have people who are not interested in proving their worth anymore I read a recent study that career builder did and they shared that employees expect 45% less than half of their newly hired college grads to remain with the company for less than two years less than two years many of the studies showed that many of them age by the age of 35 about only 25% of young employees would have worked five jobs so what he's saying is by age 35 this study is revealing that 25% of them will have had five different jobs since getting out of college they're job hoppers they're not satisfied in their work or they don't feel like they're being treated the way that they're treated they're not advancing quickly enough they go to the next place until they're dissatisfied with that place and then they go to the next place and they don't care about proving their worth now here's the thing just like we have job hoppers we also have church hoppers they aren't interested in proving their worth in their church but they view the church the same way that these people view their jobs as long as you can give me what

I want as long as I feel like there's an opportunity for me here to get that title or get that thing that I want from you I'll come but as soon as I don't get it or as soon as I feel like I'm not getting it or I'm not going to have that place then I'm gone and I'll find the next place where I feel like I can get what I want and if they fail to satisfy me then I'm gone again and that's what they do they hop from church to church to church unwilling to prove their worth expecting that they can come in and get everything that they want they they view the church as a place to be served instead of a place where they can serve that can't be the case Timothy was seasoned he had proven that he wasn't in it for himself he wasn't like those other preachers who

Paul had talked about who were selfishly ambitious ambitious and so through him we learned that sacrificial living involves selflessness and then thirdly we see that sacrificial living involves risk and this comes from the example of Epaphroditus sacrificial living involves risk now here's the thing Paul was an apostle Timothy was an elder Epaphroditus I like to say was just a guy who was in church he was in church in Philippi and they said hey we've got this offering we've got to have somebody willing to take it to Paul who's going to do it and I just see Epaphroditus saying I'll go we don't know anything of this man this is the only mention of him in scripture he was willing!

just a guy just a dude in church no titles just there willing to serve the Lord and he exemplifies the spirit of sacrifice for the sake of Christ that involves again no public acclaim no titles no great talents or gifts that he had to offer he was not a noted preacher or teacher or leader the Philippians had an offering and it needed to be taken to Rome and this guy was there and he volunteered to do it and he shows us that sacrificial living involves putting yourself at risk well how so well let's examine this again right Paul is in prison in Rome and he's about to go on trial before the most powerful man in the world at that time who could wake up and have a bad morning and say you know what

I'm tired of that Paul guy being here bring him here we're going to kill him and all of his associates round him up and we're going to kill these guys too that could have likely happen and Epaphroditus must have known that putting himself out there to do this could mean risk of his imprisonment or death and while he was there we see that he became very sick and that he nearly died and this news got back to the Philippians and they were distressed about it and that news got back to Epaphroditus and he was distressed that they were distressed you see the character of this man and then Paul chose to send him back and he instructs the Philippians to honor such men like him who are willing to risk it all for the glory of

Jesus Christ risk there in the Greek it literally means to throw aside it speaks of hazarding one's welfare and thereby exposing oneself to danger Epaphroditus was willing to put his life on the line for the work of Christ and now here we are today nearly 2,000 years after the fact and we're giving honor to Epaphroditus for the way that he served!

Lord you want to do something that matters you want to do something that will have an impact on this world years after God is done using you and you go to heaven do things for the Lord do things for his glory serve him risk your life and if you do that the things that the Lord will have you to do will have a far reaching impact greater than you could ever think Epaphroditus is a great example to us of that don't waste your life trying to get your best life now what a waste of time what a waste of time give your life risk yourself in service to the Lord knowing that your best life isn't now but it will be one day when we enter into the rest of our master until then let's work to advance the gospel being selfless not being self centered but being

Christ centered living our days not wasting them trying to gain treasures on earth but serving the Lord where our heart and our treasure should be Paul Timothy and Epaphroditus were very different from one another Paul was bold Paul was fearless Paul was a leader Timothy was quiet but he was devoted Epaphroditus was working behind the scenes yet all three manifested the most important characteristic of godly living and that is to live sacrificially to the Lord I want to close with a verse and I'm going to offer you a challenge Romans 12 1 through 2 I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern the will of

God what is good and acceptable and perfect we need to be transformed like Christ in the Bible says we do that by the renewing of our minds how do we renew our minds reading studying meditating upon the words of God so here's my challenge to you don't be conformed by this world who tells you to live for yourself we've seen that's a life wasted don't waste your life on that garbage but be transformed by the renewing of your mind which means that you spend time in the word of God and so here's your challenge it's the 10 20 30 challenge you maybe have heard this before what I'm challenging you to do is read your Bible every day for one hour you can do it and here's how it's simple wake up in the morning 10 minutes read 10 minutes you have a job you have a lunch break read your

Bible for 20 minutes you go to bed at night pull out your Bible and before your head hits the pillow read it for 30 minutes or read it 30 minutes in the morning and 10 and 20 at night it doesn't matter how you do it just read the Bible if you're already doing that then read your Bible for two hours be in the word of God and the promise is that your mind will be renewed you'll be less like this world you'll be more like Christ your life will have more meaning your life will have more purpose you will be a greater resource for the Holy Spirit to make your life matter not for your glory but for our created purpose which is to give the glory to God and if you have questions in your time of reading the Bible I would love to hear your questions there are other people in this church who would love to hear your questions read and be absorbed in the word of

God and be transformed by the renewing of your mind and if we do that together as a church the things all the things that God will be able to accomplish through us you Thank you.