Storms Creek Church 12-10-2023

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Episode Transcript

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It was nineteen sixty six and Thursdayevenings around seven twenty somewhere around in there,
I would leave our house. Iwould turn the corner and walk about
four houses down to a friend ofmine who also was a classmate, And
from seven point thirty to eight o'clockon Thursday nights, we would watch Batman,

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and then at eight o'clock I wouldleave and I would go back home.
Now you wonder why I did that. Did we not have a television
set? Yeah, we had atelevision set, but it was black and
white. He had a caller TV. And if you're going to watch Batman,
it's much better to watch it incollar than to watch it in black

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and white. We would watch themas they would fight crime, that they
would fight, all the different villainsthey had to face each and every week.
They were there to protect Gotham City, to make it safe. And
so we watch these men. Youknow what they were called, don't you,

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The dynamic Duo. Well, I'mgoing to use that for the title
for the message tonight denied Dynamic Duo, because here in Philippians, chapter two,
the Apostle Paul is going to finishthis second chapter by showing us a
dynamic duo two men who were well. They were those who came to defeat

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evil and stand against the evil one. And these two men are known as
Timothy and Epathriditis. Now we havebeen looking over the last several messages at
the important doctrine of sanctification, andagain I remind you that sanctification simply means

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that someone has been set apart forGod. The moment we are saved,
the moment any of us are saved, when we're justified. At that very
moment, God sets us apart.He sanctifies us. We belong to him.
But he also begins a lifelong processof shaping us and conforming us into

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the very image and likeness of hisson. And so that's what it means
for us to be sanctified. Whatwe're doing, really, going back to
verse seventeen through verse thirty of thissecond chapter, is we are looking at
some examples of men who were sanctified, men who had been set apart,

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men who were faithfully serving the LordJesus Christ. And all of these men
are those who serve as the LordJesus Christ. Did they have the mind
of Christ? And remember, Christwas the example that Paul gave us at
the beginning of chapter two. Andso what I want to do is I
want to look at these men andI want to see if we can these

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some marks, some way to identifythese men as those who are set apart,
those who are striving to serve theLord. And I want us to
see these men as examples that youand I that we can emulate, that
we can strive to be just likethey were. Now again, you go
back to the first example that Paulused, and that was himself, and

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that was in verses seventeen and eighteen. Paul did two things that identified him
as a sanctified person. One ishe was humble and the other with he
was joyful. And so those Ibelieve are two marks of somebody who has
been sanctified, who's been set apart. I pray that all of us here

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tonight that we show humility and weare filled with joy. Well, as
I pointed out when we looked atPaul last time, you know, it's
kind of hard to relate to theapostle Paul. You know, I mean,
we're looking for examples to follow.Well, Paul seems to kind of
be in a class all to himself. Paul seems to be way up here

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and we're all way down here.It's kind of hard for me to identify
with Paul. I mean, let'sface it, Paul was a great man.
Paul was an apostle. Paul wasa great missionary, probably the greatest
missionary who's ever lived. Paul wasa man who was used by God to
write a big part of our NewTestament. And so when we talk about

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Paul and look at him as anexample, it's like, well, I
don't know, I can't really identifywith him. I can't relate to him.
Well, the next two men we'regonna look at it's a different story.
We can relate to them because Ithink of Timothy and I think of
Paprediteis as common people, just kindof like we are. You know,

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they were not apostle, they weren'tgreat missionaries. They didn't perform any miracles
that were told of, they didn'twrite any of the New Testament scripture.
But they were just faithful, ordinarymen who were set apart by the Lord
and who were faithfully serving him.So I want to look at these two

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men. We're going to take onetonight and take the other the next time.
So tonight we're going to look atTimothy. He had noticed. Verse
nineteen, Paul writes, but Itrust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus
shortly unto you, that I alsomay be of good comfort when I know
your state. The apostle Paul wasconcerned about the church at philippip. Paul

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had a great affection for that church. Paul knew that they were having a
very tough time. He knew thatfinancially things were tough. Many of the
people had lost their jobs, theydidn't have a way of making money to
earn a living. They were havingto go without a lot of the necessities

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of life. They were struggling financially. The church, well, Paul got
worded that the church was having someproblems. Well Paul, when he hears
news of this, of course,Paul, being the man that he is,
he wants to go to Philippi andsee what's going on and see if
he can be of help and tokind of help them through this very difficult

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time. But there's only one problem. Paul's in prison. So what Paul
has to do is he has tofind somebody who will go in his place.
He knows just the man for thatjob. It's his companion, Timothy.
So that's why he talks in versenineteen about to Motheus and sending to

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Motheus to the city and to thechurch at Philippie. Now what is it
that we know about Timothy, Well, just to briefly tell you about him,
we know that Timothy was from Listra, which is in Galatia, which
today would be modern Turkey. Thathe comes from a mixed family. By

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that, I mean his father wasGreek and his mother was Jewish, so
that of a mixed family. Weknow that his mother and his grandmother were
both saved. They were both believers, and they both had a part in
training Timothy, bringing him up withthe knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures.

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We also know that he was probablysaved during Paul's first missionary journey as he
came to Listra. As he preachedthe gospel. Young Timothy there was probably
converted under the apostle Paul, butwhen Paul left, Timothy didn't go with
him. Eventually, Timothy will joinPaul and he will be his sidekick,

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he'll be his co worker, he'llbe his companion in a lot of ways.
I guess you could say that Pauland Timothy were also a dynamic duo
as they are going to work together. Just to show you how Paul felt
about Timothy, here's some things hesaid about him. He calls him my
true child in the faith. Hesays he's my beloved son. He says

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he's my beloved and faithful child inthe Lord. He's my fellow worker.
Kind of leads you to believe thatTimothy was saved under Paul's ministry. That's
why he refers to him and theway he does. And here in Philippians
he calls him my fellow bond servantof Christ. Now, if you want
to know just how Paul felt aboutTimothy, just read first and tewod Timothy,

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which these quotes are from, andyou'll see just how dear Timothy was
to Paul, how much he lovedhim, and the affection that he had
for him. And remember, Timothywas a very godly young man. So
what I want to do tonight isI want to look at Timothy and I
want to see what is it aboutTimothy that made him special? What is

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it about Timothy that gives us evidencethat he is set apart that he is
someone who is striving to faithfully servethe Lord. Well, there's three things
that I see in this passage thatI'm going to bring out in regard to
Timothy. The first is is Timothyhad a concern for other people. Timothy

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cared about people. We might usethe word compassion. Timothy was a compassionate
person. Then you knows. Let'sread again, look at verse nineteen.
Again he says, but I trustin the Lord Jesus the send Timochia is
shortly unto you, that I alsomay be of good comfort when I know
your state. Paul was also aman who was concerned about others. Paul

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had a deep concern, especially forthe church there at Philippie. So if
he cannot go, he knows justthe man for the job. I know
who I'll send. I'll send somebodywho's just like I am, who shares
the same values, who shares thesame ideas that I do. In fact,

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look at what he says in versetenty, for I have no man
like minded who will naturally care foryour state. So that's where I get
the idea that he was a personwho cared about other people. But see
Paul says that they're like minded,that means they're of kindred spirits, that
they're cut from the same cloth.Now you could say Timothy was a younger

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version of the apostle Paul. Butthey didn't always agree on everything. Just
because he says they're like minded doesn'tmean that they always saw everything the same
way that they never had any timeswhen they maybe disagreed with each other.
You can be like minded and stilldisagree with somebody sometime, and so I

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think that was the case with Paul. But when you looked at Paul and
Timothy, you saw two men whoheld to the truth, who were committed
to preaching the gospel, who hada burden for those who were lost,
who were missionaries. And so that'swhy I say, in a sense,
I could refer to them also asthe dynamic duo. Timothy spent a lot

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of time with Paul. Later on, when he began to work together with
him, they spent a lot oftime together. And what happened is is
that spending time together, Timothy wouldwatch Paul, he would observe him.
He would see how he dealt withother people, he would see how he

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was burden, how he cared forpeople. I loved people, how he
dealt with opposition, how he wasburden for people. And so Timothy naturally
just pick up on this. SoPaul was a good example for Timothy to
see and for him to follow.And so Paul, well, Timothy,

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I should say, modeled the apostlePaul in First Corinthians chapter four and verses
sixteen and seventeen. I want youto listen to what Paul writes says.
Wherefore I beseech you be you followersof me. For this cause have I

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sent unto you Timotheus, who ismy beloved son, and faithful in the
Lord, who shall bring you intoremembrance of my ways which be in Christ,
as I teach everywhere in every church. So you see there that Timothy
is he disliked the apostle Paul.You know they shared a lot of the

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same values, a lot of thesame characteristics. Well back here in Philippians
chapter two, you'll notice that hesays at the end of verse twenty,
he talks about those who will naturallynotice the words he uses their care for

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your soul or your state. Hesays, the word care there means to
be anxious, to be anxious tothe point of being burdened. It's the
same word that Jesus uses in theSermon on the Mount when he talks about
worry and not to be anxious.The same thing here. So Paul and

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Timothy were men. I guess thebest way to describe them is they were
real. They were the real thing. They were genuine. They weren't pretenders,
they weren't hypocrites. They were menwho were deeply burdened with the cares
of other people, whether you're talkingabout their physical needs or whether you're talking

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about their spiritual needs. And hegoes on and he says in verse twenty
one, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ.
Now this is a basic a descriptionof the people that lived back in
Paul's day, those who lived inRome. Now, remember there was a
church in room. There was alot of Christian people in the city of

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Rome. And that's where Paul isat the time, that's where he's in
prison. And he says about thesepeople, he says, they are well,
they're more concerned about their own problemsthan they are others. They're more
concerned about their own welfare than theyare helping those who are in need.
They have enough just to deal withtheir selves without helping those others who are

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in need of help. Friends,Timothy wasn't like that, Paul wasn't like
that. They put their needs aside, and they cared, they were concerned
about other people. I can rememberseveral years ago reading of an incident that

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happened in New York City. Thirtyeight people in New York City watched a
young girl being stalked and then finallybeing attacked by a man, and not
one of them tried to help thisgirl. Not one person tried to help,
and no one went to a phoneand called the police to come and

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help. Now this was before reallycell phones, so you can put out
their cell phone and call. Sonobody even bothered to go and call the
police to help this girl. Imaginethat thirty eight people standing and watching the
girl being attacked, and not oneperson did anything to help, no concern

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whatsoever for this person. Now weknow today if that was the case,
you'd have everybody with phones, butthey wouldn't take their phone out and call
the police. You know what theydo. They would be video and taping
the whole incident, not helping thegirl, but they have it all on
tape. See, we're not tobe this way, not if we're going

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to be concerned about the welfare ofothers. Now, on the other hand,
sometimes we can help and we haveto pay the consequence for doing so,
because sometimes there is a risk inhelping people who were in need.
I remember reading about a doctor Ithink it was in Kentucky who was on
his way to the hospital to visitone of his patients, and on his

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way he witnessed an accident and so, being a doctor, he got out
to see if he could be ofhelp where there was a man that was
injured that needed help. And sothis doctor helped this man the best he
could until the MS got there.And once they got there and they took
over, then he got in hiscar and went to the hospital and visited

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his patient, thinking everything was okay. Guess what happened to this doctor.
He was sued. He was suedby the very man that he tried to
help. Now we hear a storylike that, and our first response is,
well, I'm not going to helpanybody. I'm not going to be
a good Samaritan. You know.If I see somebody need help, I

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don't want to get involved because Imight get sued or something might happen to
me, So we just kind ofshy away. We shouldn't have that attitude.
Timothy wouldn't have handed that attitude.Neither would the Apostle Paul. So
the question I would ask you simplyis this, and I'm asking myself this
as well. Are we sympathetic tothe needs of other people? Do we

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really care about other people? Arewe concerned about they're welfare? Are we
concerned about those who are poor needing? Now? I know as a church,
I know we support the City Missionand that's good. But it's very
easy just to write a check fromthe church and send it to the City
Mission every month, and that's theend of the story. You know,

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is there not more that we coulddo? Is there not more we could
do to help those who are inneed? And I know this time of
year is the City Mission and otherplaces Salvation Army. I know they're asking
people to help because people are inneed, and it seems like November and
December especially, they want to helppeople who are in need. And that's
good, But you know what,those people who are in need in November

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and December, they're also in needin January, February, March, April,
and the rest of the year aswell. And so we if we're
going to be concerned about other people, we need to look for opportunities.
We look for ways that we canhelp those who are in need. But
when we come to thinking about caringfor people meeting their needs most importantly of

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course, and I know you'll agreewith me on this, is we need
to be concerned about their souls.We need to be willing to share the
Gospel with people. Yeah, Iknow they need clothing, they need food,
they need shelter, Yes, theyneed these things. But more importantly
than that, they need the Lord. They need the no Jesus Christ.

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They need to have a relationship withHim. When we go out those doors
and when we go about our dayto day business, whether we go to
work someplace, or we go toschool someplace, or if we're involved in
sports or whatever, we're always comingin contact with people who are lost,

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who need to know Christ as Lordand Savior. And so the question I'm
asking not just you, I'm askingmyself as well, is what are we
doing for these people? Do wereally care or is it just something we
say we care, but we don'treally show it by our actions. Well,

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Timothy as well as the apostle Paul, for two men who traveled throughout
the Roman Empire preaching the Gospel becausethey cared about people, They were concerned
about their souls. Also, younotice that Paul, Paul wanted Timothy to

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go so that Timothy could be ofcomfort to him with the news that he
would be bringing back. Look againat verse nineteen, he says, but
I trust in the Lord Jesus tosend Timothius shortly under you. Now notice
these last words that I also maybe of good comfort when I know your
state. Paul wanted to be comforted. Paul wanted to be encouraged. You

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know why because he was discouraged becauseof what was going on there in the
church at Philip Pie. Do youever get discouraged? Do any of you
get discouraged? Yes? I getdiscouraged. And I know we as a
church, we get discouraged. There'sa lot out there to discourage us,

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and a lot of times our attitudeis is, well, what can we
really do anyway? You know,I'm not really anybody special, I'm not
really especially gifted, So what canI do? What can I do to
help? Well, let me giveyou an answer to that. You know
what you can do. You canbe an encourager. You can be an
encourager, or we need encouragers.We need this church to be filled with

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encouragers. A lot of times,just a simple spoken word, just a
few words, make all the differencein the world to somebody. Have you
ever been in that position or you'redown and discouraged and somebody comes up and
they don't say a whole lot,but they just say a few things to
you, and when they're done,you say, wow, I feel better

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now. That picked me up.I needed to hear that. Yes,
I will tell you I need tobe encouraged sometimes. And I'm not saying
this so afterwards everybody come up andstarted No, I'm just telling you we
need it. And I can tellyou times when somebody comes up and just
says a few things to me andI say, wow, thank you.
I needed that. And you knowwhat, I'm looking at a congregation filled

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with people. You need that aswell. Whether you're teaching a Sunday school
class, whether you lead the singing, whether you work with the youth you
know, or you're just working whateverit is that you do. Sometimes it's
good to say, you know what, I just wanted to tell you,
I appreciate what you do. Ijust want to thank you for the things
that you do. You're doing areally good job. You know, you

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don't know what that might do tosomebody sometimes. And the reason I'm bringing
this out is because I believe thatTimothy he knew what Paul was going through,
and Timothy would go to Fillow andhopefully he would hear good news so
that he come back and be anencouragement to Paul with the news that he
brought him. Well, that's thefirst we spend most of the time on
that. The second way that wecan identify someone who is fully or that

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is sanctified is they are fully devotedto Christ. Another way we could say
that is they put Christ first.Somebody who's sanctified is going to put Christ
first. They're going to be devotedto him. Look at verse twenty one
and twenty two. For all seektheir own, not the things which are
of Jesus Christ. But you knowthe proof of Him that as a son

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with the Father, he hath servedwith me. In the Gospel, he
says there in verse twenty one.All seek their own a word, seek
theirs in the present tense, hesaid. So it's in the presentent because
it means they are continually seeking theirown. And what I think Paul is

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saying here is is that people therein Rome, they were trying to have
the best of both worlds. Theywanted to serve the Lord, but they
also wanted to have everything in theworld had to offer. And I believe
a lot of people fall into thatcategory that a lot of Christian people do
because they want the best of bothworlds. Let me just tell you something.

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If that's what you're trying to do, your efforts are all going to
be in vain. People, youcan't serve two masters. So Timothy was
a man who was fully devoted.He was a man who sought to always
please the Lord in all that hedid. You want to know what somebody

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who is fully devoted to the Lord. You want to know what that person?
You want to know what they looklike. Let me read you this.
I cut this out several years ago. This is description of somebody who's
devoted to the Lord. This isfrom John Patten, a missionary who served
back in the late eighteen hundreds.He went to the New Hebrides, which

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is in the South Sea in thePacific. And here's what he said one
time about going there, because hewas told by somebody, you'll be eaten
by cannibals. Listen to what hesaid, mister Dixon, you are advanced
in years now, and your ownprospect is soon to be laid in the

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grave there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I
can but live and die serving andhonoring the Lord Jesus, it will make
no difference to me whether I ameaten by cannibals or worms, And in
the great day of my resurrection bodyit will arise as fair as yours,
in the likeness of our risen redeemer. That is some good stuff. That

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is what somebody looks like who isdevoted to the Lord, who always puts
the Lord first. I remember,after I was first saved, I sent
off. I'll tell you where Isent off to Jerry Folwell, okay,
don't get mad at me. Iwas young in the faith, but I
sent and got a little Jesus lapelor Jesus first lapel pen and I would

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put that on my suit jacket andI was coaching it. And that's back
when I coached and you had thecoaches were supposed to wear suits. Okay,
so I would wear a suit orjacket and I'd have that Jesus first
lapel pen on my jacket. Andso part of the reason is is I
wanted to make sure that I didn'tget any technical fouls or do anything that

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wouldn't look very good. All justsay, hey, you got a Jesus
first lapel pin. There you havegot thrown out of the ball game.
Okay. I didn't want any ofthat to go on. And I wish
I could say that I always putJesus first, but I didn't, no
more than you do. But itwas my aim, it was my old

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Well, Timothy was a man whoput the Lord Jesus Christ first. He
was devoted to the Lord. Andthen finally the third is he served together
with others. I think that's amark of somebody who set apart their willingness
to serve with other people. Lookat verse twenty two again he says,

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but you know the proof of himthat as a son with his father,
he had served with me in thegospel. You know a lot of times
if we're going to be honest.We are well, we're tempted just to
go solo. You know, Ican handle this. I can do this
myself. I don't need any help. Thanks, but no thanks. I
can tell I can do it.And a lot of times I think they

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ask the attitude we have when itcomes to serve in the Lord, and
I think again, a mark ofsomebody who's sanctified is that they realize I
can't do it by myself. Ineed help, and I need other sanctified
people to help me do the workthe Lord's called me to do. And
to do that, we need humility. We need to humble ourselves and just

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realize, you know what, Igotta have help. And I can stand
here tonight and I will tell youI gotta have help. I can't do
it on my own. I can'tdo everything that this church needs to have
done by myself. And I don'teven want to try, because I know
that there are people here in thischurch that are more gifted to do things
than I am. And so that'show we acknowledge that, and we're willing

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to work together to do that.If you look at verse twenty two,
where Paul says that you know theproof of him that as a son with
the Father, he hath served withme in the Gospel. You would be
prone to say that as a sonwith the Father, he hath served me
in the gospel, because Paul wasthe father figure and Timothy was his son.

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But that's not what he says.He says, you have served with
me in the gospel. See helooked at Timothy, and Timothy looked at
him, as they were equal partnersin this. There was no such thing
as a generation gap when it comesto serving the Lord. Do you realize
that We closes out Verses twenty threeand twenty four by really again acknowledging the

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fact that he was wanting to sendTimothy soon and he was wanting to hear
how things were going there in Philipie. So as we close, Timothy is
someone that we ought to emulate.We ought to try to be like Timothy.
How be concerned about other people,care for other people. Put Jesus

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Christ first, be devoted to him, and then be willing to serve alongside
others. Realizing you can't