Model Servants

So please open your Bibles to Philippians 2. Philippians 2. Warren Wiersby tells the story of a reporter in San Bernardino, California, who arranged for a man to lie in the gutter on a city street. Hundreds of people passed by this man and no one, not one, stopped to help or to even show any sympathy toward him. Now I don't think there are any mothers that passed by because it would be hard to think of a mother not having a heart to do something to at least find out what's wrong. Wiersby goes on to tell about other stories like this that seem to show the hard, hard-edness, the selfishness of our culture today. He talks about newspapers and I remember this incident and I have a clip of it in my files, a newspaper across the Newspapers across the country that a few years ago told how in a major city in our country, people watched out their apartment windows as a man stalked and then attacked a young lady on a street in a major city in our country. And as the police were going around the apartment buildings to see if there were any witnesses, they found 38 people who had watched this out their window, no one even bothered to call the police. A couple of teenagers in Detroit discovered a woman in a telephone booth who had evidently had a heart attack. They carried her to a nearby house and rang the bell hoping to get some help. The only reply they received when someone came to the door was get off my porch and take her with you. A doctor in Kentucky was on his way to the hospital to visit a patient of his and he saw an accident up ahead of him so he stopped and he got out and he went to see if there's anything he could do to help and he did administer some help to a couple of people in that accident before the ambulance got there. Sometime later he received a summons that he was being sued by one of the drivers of one of those cars. Do we live in a culture where it is impossible to be a good Samaritan? Do we live in a time and a day where everyone must harden their heart so that they will not be taken advantage of to protect ourselves? If we give up on the idea of serving other people, is it impossible to be a servant to people around us in this day? I think that's a question that many of us wonder about today and Paul answers in Philippians chapter 2. Let's take a moment to reset on Philippians if we can. Philippians is a book that really focuses upon the person of Jesus Christ. The name of Christ is found 51 times in this book. That's an average of 13 times per chapter. So I've chosen to focus our thoughts as we move through this book around the person and work of Jesus Christ. That seems to be Paul's emphasis, his thrust. In chapter 1, the emphasis seems to be on suffering for Christ. Paul talks about his own suffering in a Roman prison and he talks to the Philippians about the suffering that they may have to endure someday. When he moves to chapter 2, the theme seems to change a little bit from suffering for Christ to serving Christ and he encourages the Philippians to serve together as one in unity and to serve in humility with the Lord Jesus being the example and to serve Christ as a lifestyle as we work out in everyday life, the implications of our faith that we have in Christ. We work at our salvation as Paul states it. And as we read the first part of Philippians 2 and we find that the ultimate example of servanthood is Jesus Christ, while we recognize that as true, we might also have another question in the back of our minds, something like this. I know Christ is the perfect model of servanthood and reaching out to others. But he was also God. He was perfect. Are there any ordinary people like us, Paul, that you could give us an example of servanth and servanthood? And as though Paul anticipates that question, he talks to us about two men, Timothy and Epaphroditus. Actually Paul is explaining in the latter part of chapter 2 his plans for visiting hopefully in the future the Philippians and what he has plans to do before that time in sending Timothy to see them and then sending their pastor or their messenger, Epaphroditus back to them. But in so doing as he describes what these two men become models of servanthood, model servants themselves. And I want us to notice today the qualities of their lives that made them model servants. They serve as a challenge to us, each of us here today. As we look at these men, we'll look at Timothy first because Timothy is the one Paul talks about in verses 19 through 24, four characteristics of Timothy, leap off of the page and into our minds and hearts as we see what kind of servant this man was. Characteristic number one is a willingness to go anywhere. Look at verse 19. Paul says, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I'm going to send Timothy to visit you there in Philippi so that he can bring me a report back about the church in Philippi. Now please understand this is not an easy trip. Paul was very difficult in the first century. Timothy could not just hop on a plane and travel the 650 miles as the crow flies from Rome to Philippi. Nor could he hop on a bus or take a train or even drive a car. He was limited to the mode of transportation in that day, which would have been probably on horseback, on foot, or on unseeworthy vessels that hopped along the coast and rarely ever dared to go out into open seas. So this was not an easy task that Timothy was being asked to do. This was a long, hazardous, perilous trip. And Timothy could have said, if Paul needs someone to go to Philippi, he's going to have to find someone else. I don't want to make that kind of a trip. But it seems as though Timothy had the mindset, I will go wherever I'm sent, wherever Paul needs me to go, wherever God tells me to go, I'll go. This Paul seems to have chosen Timothy a number of times for this very same kind of ministry. Look on the screen at this verse that Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 when he says, for this reason I'm sending to you Timothy, my son, whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. So Paul sent him to Corinth as well. But Paul also sent him to Thessalonica. He wrote to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 3. So when we could not stand it any longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother, and God's fellow worker, and spreading the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you in the faith. So he also sent him to Thessalonica from Athens. That's a pretty good hike too. Thessalonica is right next to Philippi. Athens is way down on the southern part of Greece. That's a long, long journey. And so Timothy seems to be willing to go wherever he was needed. And I think there's a lesson for us in that. Are we willing to go wherever we are needed, wherever God tells us to go? And it may not necessarily be a hazardous, perilous journey like Timothy was required to undertake. But God may put His finger on your heart, some of you here today. God may put His finger on your heart and say, I want you to go to a foreign country. I want you to go somewhere like Slovakia or Papua New Guinea or Brazil. That's where I want you to serve me. Doesn't matter about your age in life. God may put His finger on your heart and say, this is where I want you to go. Are you willing to go? God may say, I want you to go to another state, another town. Regardless of whether the locations geographically changes for you, God is telling all of us that we at least need to go across the street, reach across the office building or the next classroom down or the person who works down the hall from us. Because all of us are asked to be salt and light wherever He's placed us in this world. And we are all asked to reach out to people around us and share the word of God with them and live a kind of Christ-like testimony before them that creates thirst to know more about what it means to be a Christ follower. And so if Christ is simply telling you and laying up on your heart and burdening you to go across the street to a neighbor and befriend them and help them with something and generate the kind of friendship that will lead to a natural opportunity to share the gospel. If the Lord is placing upon your heart to speak to someone in your workplace, then by all means be willing to go wherever God says go and take the gospel of Christ to those around you. Timothy a servant of God willing to go anywhere. Secondly, he had a concern for others. It's very evident in verse 20. Paul says, I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. No one else like him who has a genuine interest in your welfare. Timothy had a concern for others. He was concerned about the welfare of the Philippians. This is not a church of which he was a member. This is not a church he had ever pastored. This is not a church that he really was there and knew people well. But he had a heart concern just like Paul for the needs of believers everywhere. And the people in Philippi, he was willing to go. He was willing to do whatever he could because he had a concern for others. Paul says, I don't have anyone like him. Now that's not a negative reflection on other people that helped Paul from time to time. There were others like Luke and others who were with Paul in Rome, but quite possibly they had been sent to other places. Paul, especially when he was in prison, would send his co-workers to different churches to check on them. And we know from other epistles that other men at this very time were sent to other places. So Paul is not casting a negative reflection. He's just saying there's no one that really shares the heart that I have for others like Timothy does. When Paul says in verse 20, I have no one like him. The most literal translation of that would be, I have no one like sold. I have no one that has the same kind of soul that I've got. The same kind of burden that I have. The same kind of mind set that I have. A burden and heart concern for others. There's just no one like Timothy that shares the same heart I have. We think alike. We feel alike. We have the same soul stirrings of God for other people. They were so close in the way they looked at ministry that Paul said, I know this guy shares the same concern for others that I have in my own heart. And it's just like my own heart being sent to Philippi when I send Timothy. He's that kind of man, a concern for others. The third evidence of a servant spirit in Timothy was a complete dedication to Christ. Look at it in verse 21. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. Now that's the reason why Timothy had such a concern for other people. It's because his first concern was not for himself, it was for others. And the reason he had a concern for others first was because his complete dedication, the very first prayer word in his life was Jesus Christ, not his own interests, but the interests of Christ, the things of Christ. You see, it was not for Timothy, what is this going to cost me, how difficult is this going to be for me, how inconvenient is this going to be for me? That was not Timothy's first thought. Timothy's first thought was, does this represent my commitment to Jesus Christ, is Christ calling me to do this? And Paul says, I look around, the church at Rome, there's nobody. There's nobody that shares that same complete dedication to Christ. Everybody puts their own interests first. And if it's inconvenient for them to go, if it's inconvenient, if it's difficult, if it's hard, if there's going to be some cost to it, they'd rather not do it. But Timothy's willing to put all that aside because his interests, chiefly are the things that interest Christ, not what pleases him. And Paul says, nobody else like that, I've got around me, a guy who has that kind of a heart. And when I read that, I have to ask myself, I have to search my own soul, not always pleased at what I find there. I have to search my own soul and say, what are you in this for? When the cost is great, when it's not convenient, when it's too hard, do you consider yourself first? Is there self-pity? Is there a drawing back from something that's going to be too difficult to do? Complete dedication to Christ puts him first. Not ourselves, not our own interests first. Paul said it this way in Colossians 3 and verse 1, since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Where's my heart? Where are my desires? Where are my goals and ambition and interests and passions? Are they on things above or things here? If my interest, passion, heart, my stuff is all centered around what's here, then I'll count the cost. I'll say, is this going to cost me too much before I do something that Christ is telling me to do? And what Timothy would say, what Paul would say about Timothy is that his interests are secondary to the interests of Christ. For that reason, he's a model servant. Jesus challenged us in that regard in Matthew 6, verse 33, when he said, but seek first, his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Another thing he's talking about are further back in chapter 6. That's that passage where he's talking about, don't be concerned about clothes and what you're going to eat tomorrow and those kinds of things. The stuff of life, because God takes care of the birds, he gives them food, and God takes care of the grass of the field, he dresses it up, and it's real pretty. This time of year, we see all of that, the wildflowers coming out, the trees coming out, and the dogwood, and the red bud, and all of that, just so pretty. And God takes care of all of that. Those things don't have to work to get to where they are. God takes care of all of that. So God will take care of us too. And if we seek first, his kingdom and his righteousness, if that's our priority, he'll make sure all those other things are taken care of. You see, that's the kind of focused Timothy had. Timothy was not going to worry about what the cost was to him because he had a complete dedication to Christ, the things of Christ, the interests of Christ were first and foremost in his life. That was his highest priority, complete dedication to Christ. And then, verse 22, it's very simple, a servant attitude. Look at verse 22, fourth characteristic of this model servant was a servant attitude. But you know, Paul says, you know that Timothy has proved himself because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel. Here was a young man who was willing to serve with Paul, to serve, to be a slave, if you will, to serve the Lord alongside and under Paul, to be willing to help in any way he could help. This is a young man who had great potential. Paul had seen the potential in this man from the time he was a teenager and took him with him on his first missionary trip. Second missionary trip. Paul had seen great potential in this guy. And yet, Timothy could have been the kind of man that said, okay, I've proven myself, I want to be on my own. I want to do my own, I want to make a name for myself, I'm tired of being under Paul's wings. I want to get out, have my own ministry. But that's not the heart of Timothy. Timothy is willing to be a servant, he's willing to work with and under Paul. Watch out, watch out for the person who longs to be in the spotlight, who longs to be up front, getting the recognition, always being in control, watch out for that person. That person has some serious issues with pride. Watch out for that kind of person. Timothy is the kind of man who said, I'm willing to take a servant attitude to work with and under Paul, whatever Paul needs, I'm willing to do. It's not my agenda, I'm serving under Paul, he was willing to do that. Read about a young man, a performer, a Christian musician who was actually a very popular musician in the secular world before he came to Christ. And when he came to know the Lord, he went to a pastor of a church that he was going to get involved in and asked him, what can I do? And the pastor said, well, the first thing you need to do is get involved in a good Bible believing church and study the Word of God, learn the Word of God, develop relationships with other people in the church. And in his time and in his own way, God will show you what he wants you to do and he'll give you some kind of work for him. And the man said, oh, you don't understand, I'm a famous performer. Everybody knows my name. I have a platform I can use. And I want to do big things for Christ. I want to make records and speak in conferences and sing in great events and give my testimony for Christ. And the pastor said, is your mother, is your wife saved? And he said, well, no, not yet, but I hope to win her to the Lord. He said, you get in a good Bible believing church. You start growing in your faith. You try to reach your family first. And then God will open up the right doors for you in the right time. The guy who kind of huffed out of the pastor's office. He was bigger than that. He wanted more than that. He felt like he had really something to offer to God. So he wanted to platform the spotlight and the stage to speak a glowing testimony. Well, he did that for about a year because his wife didn't understand what had happened to him and what was going on. He was away all the time. He lost his family. And because he was not ready yet, his roots were not deep enough for the kind of branches he was trying to spread out. He shippered his faith and he lost his testimony. You don't hear about him anymore because his testimony has been silenced. He wanted the spotlight. He wanted the recognition. He wanted the stage. And people who want that beware of, beware of. They have problems with pride that they've not learned to deal with yet. Timothy was willing to serve in any way. He didn't have to be in the spotlight. He's willing to be Paul's servant to go to Philippi, do whatever Paul needs him to do there. You know where he learned that spirit? I think the reason why he was such a comrade in heart and spirit with Paul was because of something Paul said to him. In the last letter, Paul would ever write to anyone. Second Timothy, he wrote to this young protege and he said to him in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5, I've been reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother Eunice. And I am persuaded and now lives in you also. Timothy the faith that you came to know, you came to know as a child and you were taught that faith by your mother, by your grandmother. And later in this same book, 2 Timothy 3, verse 14, he says, but ask for you, continue in what you know in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it. You learn it from Paul? You learn it from another apostle? No, no. Paul says, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures which you're able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Where did Timothy get his roots put down deep in the Word of God? He learned it from his mother, his grandmother, from infancy, Greek word, brefas, the young baby, from infancy you've known what it means to be around the Word of God. You've had Scripture taught to you, Scripture sung in your home, you've been surrounded with godly influences. Who impacts the Timothy's of this day? Is it youth pastors and pastors and Bible college teachers? Well, yeah. But the greatest influence young Timothy's will ever have is their mother, grandmother, father in the home. So on this mother's day, I remind you mothers of the tremendous, tremendous ministry that god gives you to develop and shape young hearts and minds in the home. There is no greater work that could ever be done. There's no higher calling that could ever be done than to be a unis and a low-us to a Timothy and to surround him with the kind of influences that will help them to nurture and develop a tender heart toward god at a young age so that god in his providence, the Holy Spirit may then be at work untiling that tender soul of the heart so that that young child may early come to know Christ and be dedicated to him, be yielded to him, and go out to serve him, serve the Lord. It's the mother's ministry in the home. And moms today, if you're feeling kind of down because you're cooped up in those four walls and you know, oh, you got as the kids, the greatest ministry in the world is that ministry of reaching young lives and molding them for the Savior. That's how Timothy was prepared for ministry. And so by the time he was a young teenager, Paul saw something in this guy that he liked and he would become Paul's most trusted helper. He was a servant, one who was willing to go anywhere, had a concern for others, complete dedication for Christ and evidenced a servant attitude, not looking for the spotlight himself. But Paul moves on to another man. Another man who's only mentioned twice in Scripture, here in the passage we have before us. And later in Philippians in chapter 4 verse 18, this man, Epaphroditus is mentioned. Epaphroditus was the messenger, as we shall see, sent from the church in Philippi to Rome to help minister to Paul's needs. He may have been the pastor of the church in Philippi. We're not sure, but he was a representative of that church that was sent to Paul. And so as Paul describes how important this man has been to him in Rome, the same characteristics leap off the page, the very same ones. So some of you obsessive, compulsive people have already filled in the rest of the outline. You know what's coming. Try to listen anyway, okay? Here's a man who has the same characteristics, first of all, a willingness to go anywhere, verse 25. But I think it necessary to send back to you, Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. Now the same thing could be said about a Epaphroditus that was said about Timothy. Timothy is being sent to make that hard perilous journey from Rome to Philippi. If Epaphroditus has already made that hard perilous journey from Philippi to Rome, and he was willing to do that, he was their messenger to Paul. Interesting word, the word messenger is the same word translated apostle in the New Testament. Apostle means a sent one, someone who has given a special commission by the Lord to do a work for him. And technically we know the apostles in the New Testament were men who had been directly commissioned by Christ to help lay the foundation of the church in this church age. But the term is also used in a more general fashion like it is here of other kinds of messengers sent with a commission. Epaphroditus was not an apostle like Paul of the Lord, but he wasn't a apostle of the church in Philippi. He was sent with a special commission by that church to represent the church on Paul's behalf. And I'm reminded just with the way that word is used in Scripture, I'm reminded that on this earth we are called to represent both our Lord and our church. All of us, as believers, have a special commission in this world, a special job to do. We represent our Savior in this world. We also represent our body of believers, our church, wherever we go. We not only represent the name of Christ, we represent the name of Johnston Chapel. And so when people see you at work, they know you hopefully not only as a Christ follower, but as one who goes to Johnston Chapel and your lifestyle reflects favorably or unfavorably upon the testimony of Christ and his church. So Epaphroditus was a messenger willing to go anywhere, messenger of the church, willing to go, take care of the needs of Paul. Make that long trip to go. Secondly, verse 25, he also has a servant attitude. Notice the words that Paul uses of him. My brother, fellow worker, fellow worker, worker is a servant, one who's willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Just like Timothy, one who's willing to step into the trenches and do the work of a servant, whatever it takes to get the job done. He is a worker. And the work of Christ for him is not just a hobby. He takes it seriously, as we'll see later on, he's willing to risk his life to do what God wants him to do. I think he probably is the living embodiment of the kind of zealous service that Paul wrote to the Corinthians about in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58, where Paul says to the Corinthians, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Always abounding in the work of the Lord, he said, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Epaphroditus was that kind of man who was always abounding, willing to serve with a servant's attitude. Thirdly, he also, like Timothy, had a concern for others. This is very interestingly described in verses 26 to 28, but notice how epaphroditus is concerned for others and not himself comes out in verse 26, for he longs for all of you. That means he's homesick. His heart is back in Philippide, he's homesick, he longs for you. But then he also says, he is distressed because you heard he was ill. Paul goes on to explain, indeed he was ill and almost died, but God had mercy on him and not only on him, but also on me to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him so that when you see him again, you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. You see, a paphroditus had become sick after he got to Rome. Maybe it was something about the long hard trip he had taken that wore down his physical capabilities, took his energy away, made him susceptible to illness. Maybe he caught somebody's illness on the trip, someone on the ship, or maybe he got sick after he was in Rome. We don't know, but he got sick and possibly the trip had a part to play in that. And he was so sick, he kept getting worse and he kept getting worse and he almost died. By the way, just as a sideline here, it's interesting that this happens several times in the Apostle Paul's ministry and Paul does not just immediately reach out to heal people, which should be a reminder to us that even in the age of the apostles, when the sign miracles, the miracles, the miraculous gifts that were designed to be the apostles credentials, be the signs of an apostle, as 2 Corinthians 12-12 says, even those gifts were not used by the apostles whenever they wanted to. God chose the times and the places where miraculous healings were done and Paul couldn't just say, well, paphroditus is sick, I'm going to heal him. Oh, the guy kept getting sicker and sicker and almost died and finally Paul says, God raised him back up. Paul would say, in 2 Timothy 4, trophemous, have I left at Maletus sick? Left, I had to leave him, I had to go and he was sick. Why didn't you just heal him, Paul? That's not always God's will to heal people. Even for the apostles who had that miraculous power, it's not always God's will to do that. Paul himself had a physical ailment that he cried out to God about three times and the Lord said, no, no, I'm not taking this away from you. So you see, friend, it's not always God's will to heal people. So when you pray for a loved one, don't become disillusioned if God does not see fit to give healing. It's not always his will to do that. Even as believers and our families, we are a part of this world that is groaning under the curse because of man's sin and the garden of Eden. And a part of that is illness and affliction and difficult, we face that way. And so we're not promised exemptions from that. Some of us are going to get sick and eventually unless the Lord comes first, we'll die. That's a part of life. And so here's Epaphroditus who gets extremely ill and Paul is very grateful to God that he raises him up. But my point is this, back in verse 26, notice what was of concern to Epaphroditus. He is distressed because you heard he was ill. He was concerned about what the news of his illness would cause for the church in Philippi. He was concerned that they would be upset, they would be anxious, they would be concerned. You know, that's exactly the opposite of what often happens with us today. We get upset if someone else doesn't recognize we're sick and you know, if we don't get a card and don't get a call and don't get a visit and this doesn't happen or that doesn't happen, we get all bent out of shape. Because why? We're more concerned about ourselves. Now don't misunderstand me. I think other believers, the church, Bible fellowships, pastors, we all ought to make that call, make that visit, send that card, yes, if we know that it's happening. By the way, pastors do not have omniscience. I don't know if you've ever recognized that or not. We do not know all things. Only God knows all things. And so if you have a loved one that goes to the hospital, please call us. We may not know it. You know, we used to be able to go to the hospital and just check the lists and we could find anybody that was in there because of laws. No, you can't do that. They won't give you that information. And so we have to know that you're in the hospital. So call us, you know, you have a telephone. Paul didn't. Paphroditus didn't. You have to tell him, call us. Let us know. You're in the hospital. And we'll gladly come and pray and sprinkle pastor dust and all those good things that we do, you know. We'd love to do that. But people today get all upset and been out of shape if they're not tended to. The Paphroditus was concerned for others. He was upset that the church might be anxious about his physical condition. He was concerned about what it might affect them, how it might affect them. Didn't want the church to worry and his concern was for others. But then I would also have you notice his complete dedication to Christ, which is described in verses 29 to 30. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor men like him because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me, which would lead us to believe that it was something about this trip that caused him to become weak and sick. But he was willing to make up for the help that the Philippians couldn't give him. He brought the gift of the Philippians, made that trip and risked his life to do it. And I ask myself the question, when something is difficult for me to do, if there's personal discomfort, does it cause me to draw back, maybe even stop? If it's inconvenient for me, if it's going to be hard, if it's going to be a cost to it, does it mean I stop that I hold off? Not for Paphroditus. Not only would nothing like that stop him, he would be willing to risk his life to do whatever God wanted him to do. What a challenge to us to be the kind of servants of God that have complete dedication to Christ, that Christ is first, what he says goes, and that even if it means our life, risking our life, if we know that's what Christ, what it means to be dedicated to him, then we would do that. That's what Paphroditus was doing. If you ever get the chance to read anything about a man by the name of Diedrich Bonhoffer, read about that man's life, Bonhoffer was a pastor in Germany in the 1930s and early 40s. He was a pastor, he was also a seminary professor in Germany. He was one of the leaders of what was called in those days the confessing church, a branch of the Lutheran church in Germany that stayed really true to the Lord and even under the threat of persecution from the Nazi Third Reich, stayed true to the Lord and was very openly opposed to the policies of the Nazi government. Bonhoffer was one of the leaders in that movement. He was so well known that he was invited to speak in places like England and the United States. Invitations like that came to him in Germany had to be kind of coded because every telegram would be seen by the German authorities. He received an invitation in 1939 to come to the United States and it was worded this way. We want you to come and teach seminary class. We want you to come and speak in a conference for the summer. And Bonhoffer misunderstood the invitation. He thought that's what he was being asked to do. Actually it was code. When he got to the States he found out what they really wanted him to do was to stay in the States. They wanted to save his life because they knew the confessing church was facing persecution. And so they wanted to deliver Bonhoffer out. They wanted him to stay in the United States and minister to German refugees here in the States. And Bonhoffer said, I can't do that. I cannot do that. My people are in Germany. That's where I need to be. And so he left the States and went back to Germany to the surprise and amazement and consternation of his American friends who just felt like he would be walking back to his death and that's exactly what happened. In the early 40s, Dietrich Bonhoffer was arrested. First of all kept in prison because he was an outspoken critic of the policies of the Nazis towards Jews. Then he was transferred to a concentration camp. One month before allied forces freed the death camps in a last ditch effort to put Bonhoffer to death. The German authorities tortured him, stripped him of all of his clothes because they didn't have any more wood to build gallows to hang him. They put a meat hook in his back, hoisted him off the ground, put a piano wire around his neck and it took 30 minutes for him to suffocate death. Why did that man go back to Germany knowing what he was going to face? The same reason Paphroditus went to Rome. Same reason Timothy was willing to go to Philippi because they were servants. Because they would say I'm willing to go anywhere, I have a concern for others that surpasses my concern for myself. I want to be completely dedicated to Christ, my interest or not my own, but his and I want to have a servant attitude. Where did they learn that? They learned it from Paul, they learned it from others who were teaching Timothy, learned it from his mother and his grandmother, but they had learned it from Jesus Christ. More than anyone else, they had learned it from Christ because Christ himself, as is described earlier in the chapter, was willing to go anywhere. He came from heaven to earth, willing to go anywhere to accomplish God's will. Jesus Christ had a concern for others that outweighed his concern for himself. That's the reason he was willing to, although he was in very nature of God, he did not consider equality of God something to be grasped, but he was willing to make himself nothing. Why? Because he had a concern for us, he loved us and he wanted us to be that's why Jesus came. Jesus came because of a complete dedication to the Father. And so he was willing to humble himself to the Father's plan, which required that someone of the Trinity come and give a spotless sacrifice for the sins of man. Jesus was willing to do that because of complete dedication to the Father's will. Jesus was willing to come down here to be a servant. As Paul has said, being found in appearances of man, he humbled himself, became obedient to death. He was made in human likeness. He took the very nature of a servant. Where did he path for Dytus and Timothy learned this? Same place Paul learned it from Christ because Christ was willing to do all of that for you and for me. And because Jesus was willing to do that, we can be called as children. We in turn are called upon to be servants of God. There's coming a day when all types of servant activity will be rewarded by the Lord. You may not see it here, but you will see it there when you get to be with the Lord. Whatever you have done to put the concerns of others first, complete dedication to Christ, willingness to go across the street or into the nursery of your child, the minister to them, willingness to be completely dedicated to him and be a servant for whomever God calls you to be a servant to. When you do that, there is a reward coming for you in heaven someday. I'm reminded of the story I heard many years ago about a young man who was a clerk in a hotel in a major city in our country, just a guy who worked at front desk. It was late at night one night and an elderly couple walked in, wanted a room. And this young clerk explained, we've got three conventions in town this week, all of our rooms are full. I don't know of another hotel in this part of the city that has a room. But he said, I'm young, I'm single, I have a room here. It's kind of off to the side, it's not one of the regular motel rooms, but I've got a room here. Would you be willing to sleep in my room tonight? And the elderly gentleman said, are you sure you would give up your room for us? And he said, oh yeah, I don't mind. You know, he felt kind of bad for this elderly couple. It was late at night, it was raining outside. He said, I'd be glad to give you my room. And the elderly gentleman looked at him and said, you're the kind of clerk that should be running the finest hotel in the world. Some day I'm going to build it for you. And the clerk kind of laughed at the joke of the older man and went on about his business. And the arrangements were made and the couple stayed the night and they were gone the next morning, years passed. And this young clerk got a letter from someone in New York City inviting him to come to the city. Round trip airfare was provided and he was told to meet a gentleman at a certain location in the city. And so the clerk went and it was the gentleman that he had given the room to that night. And this gentleman put him in a very expensive car, took him downtown to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, where stood a magnificent new building. They got out, we're looking at it. The elderly gentleman said, young man, this is the hotel I have built for you to manage. And the young guy looked at him and said, you can't be serious. He said, I am very serious. Young man said, well, who are you? And the man said, my name is William Waldor Astor. And the building was the first Waldorf Astoria hotel, the finest hotel in the world. That young man was named George Bolt and for years and years he served as the manager of the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Why? How did he get recognized? Because he was a servant who was willing to give up his room for an elderly couple as a clerk at a front desk on a cold, rainy, dark night. Where are you in your commitment to Christ? Where am I? Are we the kind of servants that we've read about today? Willing to do whatever God wants us to do, go wherever he wants us to go, cross the room, cross the street to witness to someone. Another country, if that's what God says, concern for others more than yourself. Complete dedication to Christ, servant attitude. Where are you today? Let's bow our hearts together in prayer. Father, I thank you for people like Timothy, the Paparitus, like Paul. Thank you for your son, who willingly gave himself for our sins. And Father, many of us thinking on this day could include our mothers as well, who were these kinds of servants to build into us, to mold our hearts in minds, to be children and young people that would look to you and follow you. Father, I pray that we would strive to be servants, that we would desire above all else to descend to that position of a servant and be willing to serve you and others. However, whenever, wherever, whatever it may cost, may we be your servants. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.