Life Together: Time, Teamwork, and Risk for the Gospel

What is he challenging you to? What risk does he want you to take for his sake so that you're not risking getting to the finish line with nothing left and everything that you've accomplished being worthless. It's the stories that people will tell about you. It's not about your vocation, it's about your mission. It's about how God wants to use you in the midst of where you are. [01:12:52] (34 seconds)  #LiveYourMission

How do we do that? Because I think we can sit here and read the great commission that we should go and make disciples, we can read in Acts one eight, that we should be his witnesses, we can hear that every Sunday. But how do we become a community where we truly are devoted to that, where we have relationships with one another and that we have a mission that we're compelled by, and that in the mass variety and diversity among each of us, how do we truly have a community like that? There's three things. Time, teamwork, and time. [01:00:55] (34 seconds)  #TimeTeamwork

And so in our church, we have the opportunity to live on mission because most of us are not supposed to be pastors or missionaries. Most of us are supposed to be accountants or attorneys or consultants or stay at home moms. But to do that devoted to Jesus and living a life where we are light in the midst of darkness. Living a life where we are gathering and giving and going and growing for the sake of others. And the risk isn't what is it gonna cost you to follow Jesus? The risk is what is it gonna cost you just to live a normal life instead of following Jesus? [01:11:22] (42 seconds)  #EverydayMissionaries

To try and be spun up in your own anxieties and worries and concerns and striving for nothing that lasts instead of being an accountant or an engineer or whatever else, but to do that for kingdom impact, to do that with a sense that what you do in life has an impact for eternity. As a husband or a mom, Randy is just an engineer. Randy was an engineer for many, many years and is retired now and I think has probably had more impact for global missions than I'll ever have in my life. What is God calling you to? [01:12:03] (49 seconds)  #KingdomAtWork

I understand the transience of our culture. The reality is is that if you wanna have deep relationships, you need people around you for a period of time that experience the joys that you have of a new job or your graduation or getting married or having kids and experience the sorrows of loss and pain and suffering together. And that takes time. People being around you over the course of time. That's what Paul and Epaphroditus and Timothy and so many of the apostles experienced. Even on mission, while they strided together, they had time next to each other, eventually with each other, encouraging each other, supporting each other, devoting their lives together for one mission. [01:07:20] (59 seconds)  #RelationshipsTakeTime

A metaphor that Paul uses so often for faithful servants of Christ that he's very familiar with because in prison he sees soldiers every day and the commitment that they have to the one in charge. They have a mission. Paul has a mission. Epaphroditus served alongside on that mission. He's a minister, a gentle shepherd, a caring hand, a voice of encouragement to Paul in the midst of his suffering, seeing his needs and caring for him. And he's gonna be a messenger bringing this letter, literally that we're reading is what he will carry back to the church in Philippi. [00:58:15] (43 seconds)  #MissionMessengers

See, what we're seeing here is that like embodied life together, that there's a mission that Paul has been transformed by and changed by the good news of the gospel in such a way that that is his focus, that is his aim, that he continues to press into and he sees the value of that above and over everything else. It has changed his life and as he begins to see others coming around side him like Timothy or Epaphroditus and others, he's calling them into that same life, that Jesus is the center of everything that they do, that he is the center of how they shape and form and live out the gospel. [00:59:15] (46 seconds)  #JesusAtTheCenter

And what Paul says about that time is that he was worried, sorrow upon sorrow that Epaphroditus might lose his life. That doubling of that word, that sorrow is an expression of grief, like emphatic grief. It was a burden that he was carrying that that might happen. Paul loved Epaphroditus and he wasn't like Timothy that had carried along in all of these journeys, he came to visit Paul in the midst of his imprisonment. He built that relationship and the time spent together there and he loved him. [00:54:21] (41 seconds)  #BrotherlyLove

See, the reality is is that if we really wanna have relationships with people, if we wanna have a community, it takes time. So often, people want to be a part of the church by coming, attending a service, and then going to brunch. And then they feel like they don't know anybody. You might feel that way. And the reality is is that even like statistically, the average person goes to church less than twice a month. What Paul experiences with Timothy and Epaphroditus was a commitment to being around each other every day. [01:05:58] (36 seconds)  #ShowUpForCommunity

When we began the letter, I emphasized the idea that Paul was gonna be writing to a church in Philippi and I challenge you to think about what would it look like for people to write letters about your life? And in this section, we begin to see what that looks like for Paul to write letters about some of the men in his life back to the church in Philippi to describe the ways that they live and the impact that their faith has on their lives and on the lives of others around them. [00:55:02] (30 seconds)  #LegacyOfFaith

And oftentimes, there's a dichotomy between like you either pay the ultimate price, you make this cost, you change your whole life, or you're just kinda this like normal person. You go to church on Sundays and that's it. Then you're just like, you get to do whatever you kinda wanna do. And Timothy goes and Epaphroditus has a good story to tell about that time he was with Paul. But I don't think that's the choice. Epaphroditus risked his life to go and minister to Paul. I don't think he went back to Philippi and just lived a normal life. Whatever his career was, whatever he did, he lived for the sake of the gospel. [01:10:27] (42 seconds)  #LiveForTheGospel

See, the gospel is a unifying message of hope and transformation that compels us to missional community. Disciples of Jesus are committed to gathering and giving and growing so that others might experience the love of Jesus with them. This is the life that Paul is calling the church in Philippi and us too. A life committed to the gospel, The good news, the message that there is a God who created all things and when He created it, it was good. [00:48:10] (35 seconds)  #OrdinaryButImpactful

maybe a volunteer, maybe exhorted to go, and in either case, we're not really sure, but what we do know is that he went. And in that time, Paul began to build a relationship with him and to get to know him and to learn who he was and ultimately, Epaphroditus was an ordinary guy from Philippi who had a profound impact on Paul's life. In the midst of his suffering, he came alongside and ministered to him. He calls him brother. [00:53:45] (28 seconds)  #LifeTogether

This series we've been going through in this letter, we've titled Life Together. That we are that missional community, that we are committed to the mission together of proclaiming the gospel as the church in our city. But life together has requirements. It requires relationship, it requires responsibilities, and it requires risk. [00:49:54] (25 seconds)  #FaithfulServant

See, he's a man who comes from Philippi. He brought provisions and came to minister to the needs of Paul while he's in prison. See, the opportunity was that in that time, Paul was maybe even in a house prison, and so the opportunity was that Epaphroditus could come and bring things like food or clothing, other items to care for his needs, to minister alongside of him, to listen to him, but also to be praying over him. And so Epaphroditus came from Philippi maybe having a reputation like Timothy, maybe just being a good guy, [00:53:13] (32 seconds)  #HopeInDarkness

And yet as we look around the world as Christians, we are not unrealistic with the reality that not everything is good. In fact, it could be dark, pain, suffering, agony and anguish. That's what we see in our world and in our own lives oftentimes where it's mourning and suffering and costly pain. But the gospel is that God doesn't just leave things that way. In fact, He enters into that suffering, that pain, that darkness and brings light in the form of His son, our Savior Jesus Christ. He does that to give hope, he does that to give joy, he does that to give [00:48:44] (36 seconds)