Well, we are in the book of Philippians still, and I've got a kind of an outline here on our board, some things we're going to be looking at this morning. Paul's dealing with fellow helpers in the ministry, and he is going to be sending these men to the church of Philippi. They are with him at the prison, as far as we can tell. Paul has had several folks with him while he's in prison. They wasn't prisoners. but they were there, they were allowed to stay with him. And so they would minister with him. Now, when he talks about them being fellow helpers in the ministry, or such as he calls the papadatus here, a companion in labor, a fellow soldier, these things, when Paul was in prison, he carried out a large ministry. You know, we, We tend to think of church being our base for where we have our ministries at. Well, Paul, just wherever he was at, that was the base for his ministry and he used the prison system to be able to do this. Well, fortunately for Paul, he was allowed visitors. There's a point where he even paid for his own private home as a prisoner. and was allowed to have people there with him, although he would have had a Roman soldier also there as well. But he was still, nevertheless, he was locked up, waiting on a trial. But now it's coming down to, Paul has got it, he has it on his heart to send these men to Philippi. He longs to be there himself, that's his plan. If he's able, if he gets released, he plans to come there, he says shortly. if everything works out the way it will. And so he has this church on his heart. They have sent this man, we'll talk about here in a little while, a paproditus to Paul to help him out. They've sent an offering there with him. And bear in mind that Philippi is about a thousand miles away from Rome, where Paul's at at this time in the prison. And you would have had to cross the Aegean Sea to get there. So this was no small feat that they were able to send this man over there to help Paul. Paul mentions throughout his writings about not taking collections from other churches, but he did from this one. He was glad to get their help and he was thankful for it. But now he's wanting to go back and he's wanting to help them. He has them on their heart. He loved this church so much, so he's gonna send these two men there. And let's go ahead and read our text. We're gonna look at verses 19 through 30. I wanna go ahead and read all those together, and then we'll get expound upon the verses. Philippians chapter two, verse 19. The Bible says, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. But you know the proof of him, that as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel. Him, therefore, I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. Yet I supposed it necessary to send you Aphrodite, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that you had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I send him therefore the more carefully that when you see him again you may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation, because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me. Okay, so last week as we covered those verses previous to this, we looked at verses 12 through 18. Paul was dealing with church, how to handle in the church murmurings and disputings. He warned against that. It does nothing but cause division. He also expanded upon the need for Christians to be the light of this world. And certainly we are to be that. But this morning as he continues on this, we're looking at these two people. He's really dwelling most of his attention on two men. His fellow laborers in the Lord. He said there in verse 19, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. One thing we notice here, he's not only trying to help the church, but this is also a twofold thing. By helping them and finding out how they're doing, because Timothy is to report back to him. Timothy's gonna go, he's gonna see how everything's going, he's gonna help them. Don't know how long he's planning on staying there, but eventually he's going to return back or send a letter to Paul to let them know how they're doing. And Paul says, because of this, then I'll be of good comfort too when I know your state. You see, being a thousand miles away from the church and trying to get information in that day and time would have been very difficult. You would have only heard it by somebody that had been there. or some kind of news that somehow traveled that distance. It's not like today. Something happens today and it's heard around the world within seconds. And we've got the media right here to our disposal. I can get on this phone right here and I can tweet something out and send a message and it would go across this world and within seconds everybody in this world could see that message. Not like that in Paul's day. It would've took days, months, sometimes a year before you would ever hear about anybody. And so Paul is desiring to hear how they're doing. And since he's unable to travel, being in prison, he's gonna send his most trusted man. And he sends Timothy. Now, we all know how he met Timothy. We're gonna look at it there in Acts 16 if you wanna turn there. Acts 16 tells us of the time when Paul first met Timothy. It was during his second missionary journey. If you remember his first journey, he along with Barnabas had had split up. They had a contention there because of Barnabas' nephew, John Mark. And so because this contention that was between them, between Paul and Barnabas, they had split up and went separate ways. And so Paul now was traveling with Silas. Well, he and Silas are going to the places the Holy Spirit's leading them to. And the first place they went to was Syria and Cilicia, and then they traveled to Derbe and Lystra. And this is where they meet Timothy. Look out there, Acts 16 and 1. It says, Then came he to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed. But his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them in the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. And so after Paul and Silas had visited a few places and they end up here and it says Derby and Lystra, we're not sure exactly which one Timothy was from. It could have been either one of those. But this is where they meet him. Now, they probably most likely met him because his mother believed she was a believer. That's what it says there. It says she was a Jewish and believe that means she was already a Christ follower. And so it was perhaps when Paul was there with her, and maybe she was in one of the meetings he was preaching in, and here she brings along her son Timothy, and Paul got to know this family. In fact, he mentions them later on when he's writing to Timothy about his mother and his His grandmother, both, he knew his family well. And this is where Paul, he puts his trust in this young man, sees the potential in him. The Lord has shown Paul that this is one of the men I want you to set aside and help in the ministry. He's gonna be used in a mighty way. During the three, Paul's second missionary was three years altogether. And he had spent a lot of time with Timothy. He taught him the ways of the Lord. He gave him instruction, brought him up, gave him added responsibilities to him. Sometimes Paul left Timothy behind in places and he went on further while Timothy stayed behind. continued in the ministry and then met him later on. And so he had put a lot of trust in this young man and he was a very good minister. He ends up being a pastor and that's why Paul writes the epistles to Timothy, 1st and 2nd Timothy are written to the pastor Timothy. And Paul's explaining to him all the things he needs to do as he's there in his pastorship. And so Paul is going to send him. He's the only one that he can trust to do what he wants done. Look at that in verse 20 back in Philippians chapter 2. Philippians 2 and 20. He explains why he's sending Timothy. He said, For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. Well, these verses right here show us the true heart of a shepherd. Paul was the founder of the Church of Philippi. He felt like he was their pastor. And he was. In all intents and purposes, Paul was their pastor. And so with the heart of that shepherd, all pastors have a heart for their people. We pray for our people. We're concerned about them. We go to the Lord daily asking for help with those that we are entrusted to watch over. And Paul felt this way about Philippi, and he's not just gonna send anybody. He wants somebody that he knows is gonna get the job done, somebody he can trust, somebody, he says, he has no man like-minded except Timothy. That's what he's referring to. Timothy's the only one I have that's got the same mind that I do. With Timothy being around Paul for all those years, he knew what Paul thought. He knew Paul's doctrine, his theology. And by the way, Paul's doctrine and theology is the doctrine and theology of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where Paul gets his doctrine from. And so Timothy understood that. He had been taught that. He'd said, you know, Paul sat at the feet of Gamaliel, who was the greatest teacher for the Jews. Timothy got to sit at the feet of Paul, which was the greatest teacher for the Christians. And so, just remarkable resemblance to how both of these men came to the knowledge of the ministry the way they had. But he shows his heart here. He's going to put his trust in the Timothy because he has a mind like his. And that's the way that we need to treat a replacing of a pastor. When a pastor resigns or he leaves, a church needs to look for someone that has the right mind to lead the church. Too many times churches look for somebody that can draw a lot of attention, somebody that maybe they think is popular, that will be able to draw a large crowd. Maybe he has these charismatic ways about him. He's very likable and all this. Well, there's nothing wrong with that, except for if you've not investigated his doctrine and his theology and find out if he's like-minded the same as the church. If he believes in the truth, for instance, if this church is searching for a pastor, this church needs to look for some man that stands firm upon the King James Bible. stands firm upon the true doctrine of Christ, will not wither and wave when it comes to the doctrine of Jesus Christ, don't bend. I mean, that's the kind of man that you want to look for. You're not looking for somebody that you think can draw a crowd. You can find men that can draw a crowd. If you pay them enough money, they'll come and they'll draw a crowd for two years and then they'll get up and leave. But you need to look for somebody that has the like mind as what you believe. So that's what Paul sees in Timothy. No other man, he says. No man is like-minded except Timothy. He's proven. He's solid. And Timothy wasn't the biggest name of the day. They were bigger names than Timothy. Apollos, for example. Apollos was the, a lot of people heard of him. A lot of people wanted to brag. They were saved under the ministry of Apollos. Apollos says, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you except for this guy and this guy, because they were bragging, I was baptized by Apollos, and I by Paul, and I by John the Baptist. So there were bigger names than Timothy. So Paul wasn't concerned about the big name. He wanted somebody that he could ensure that he was going to be telling the truth. And look at that, he said, who will naturally care for your state. In other words, not somebody that's been forced to go, not somebody that's being paid to go, but somebody that has the desire to go and will have the natural want to care for them. It's the same kind of thought behind it as a parent has for their children. You see, Paul saw the church as his children. Same way John did when John's writing there in his epistles first second third John he talks to him as little children That's the way that he sees them as his own children and Paul sees the church filled by that way And he wants another man that will see him the same way And we'll have natural care. You see we care for our own children more than we do everybody else's children you know if you don't believe that Put your kid in a room with about 20 other kids, yell fire, and see which one you're going to go and save. You're going to go get your kids, because you have natural care for their state. And when you save them, then you'll go in and help the others. But your children, you hold more dear and precious to you. And so that's a natural care. Paul says Timothy will have this same natural care. And so he'll be really, genuinely concerned for them. Look at verse 22. He says, but you know the proof of him. But as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel. Him, therefore, I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. So Timothy had proved himself already in Philippi. After Paul had took him on there in the ministry on that second missionary journey, they went to Philippi and they spent a considerable amount of time there around, I don't remember how long it was, but it was a long time. And if you remember, that's also where Paul and Silas were imprisoned. They were taken by the Romans and put in that Roman prison cell. And so during that time, Paul had Timothy there as well. We don't see in the Bible where Timothy was locked up or Luke. Luke was there too. Neither one of these men are mentioned being locked up. So what were they doing while Paul and Silas was being locked up? Well, they were ministering with the church at Philippi. And after they got out, they, of course, continued with the ministry. So Timothy, the Bible says, Paul said, ye know the proof of him. That proof of him means that he's been proven. He's been put through the fire and tried and proven himself. And so it's not somebody that they're going to have to get to know and learn and wonder about. A lot of times you have somebody thrown on you you don't know a thing about and it takes a while to learn them. It's that way in work. I remember one time we had a new supervisor. They hired a guy off the street. He hadn't been an employee there, but put him over us and hired him off the street. Nobody knew a thing about him, and he comes in. For about six months, we're struggling trying to figure out the guy. You know, what's his deal? What's he up to? But when they put somebody in that's been there, a guy that's been working there for 10 years and everybody knows him, he's proved himself, put him in that position. Everybody knows that he's proved it. And so there's none of this awkward state of getting to have to know him and he has to prove himself that he's worthy of this. Timothy came in already proven. That's the best way. That's why it's good for other men to come up in the church, to get called into the gospel ministry, because these men continue helping that same church. The pastor's out, this man can step up and stand behind the pulpit. He can go on times when the pastor's not able to go. When somebody's in need, send him. Trust him. He's part of the church. He's like-minded. He's proved himself. And so churches need these kind of men. That's why it's important that when we do have young men that come into the church, that we spend time with them and we try to help them. There's a ministry for everybody. Timothy's proved himself and he's going to have the same affection, the natural care for this church that Paul has, and Paul knows that. And so he wants to put the church's mind at ease. Now, I'm not exactly sure why it is so necessary for Paul to send someone at this time. It almost appears as if there's some kind of Void right there or maybe maybe the man that was overseeing the church had stepped away or I'm, not exactly sure what is is why it's so urgent for paul to send somebody But it apparently is and so he wants to send the best that he has And look at verse 24. He said but I trust in the lord that I also myself shall come shortly so as far as we tell at the time paul's writing this letter it's been Approximately 10 years since he'd been in Philippi. And so like again, like I said, I'm not exactly sure why the urgency here But while he's in prison, he's like I said, he's had these other men keeping company through the way but at this point It's apparent that he sent everybody else away except these two men and now he's sending them away He obviously feels that it's it's nearly time for him to either be released or it's time that he's going to be found guilty and put to death and Either way, Paul believes that he's gonna come, he says, shortly. So he's expecting to leave that prison cell, one way or the other. Look at verse 25. He said, yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. The name Epaphroditus right here is written on the board. It means devoted to, that's the meaning of his name. It's actually a Greek name, which is kind of named after the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Apaproditus, Aphrodite, and so in the Greek it's devoted to Aphrodite. However, in here, for in Paul's case, he's devoted to the ministry. And so his name kind of has a twofold meaning. He's devoted to Paul. He's devoted to the ministry. He was a citizen of Philippi, as far as we can tell, and a member of that church. The church was the one that sent him to Paul. And so he's from there. And so they'd sent him there while he was in prison to send the offering there. Paul received that from him. And we don't know what all he did while he was there. But he was a fellow laborer. Paul called him a companion in labor and a fellow soldier. So we can only conclude he was a great worker in the gospel ministry. I put down some of the things Paul said about him here. He's a brother, a companion in labor, a fellow soldier. And he was the messenger from Philippi. And so Aphrodite, I want to call him Aphrodite now, Aphroditus wasn't out to make a name for himself. It wasn't his ministry. It was Paul's ministry. He was there to be an assistant. He wasn't there for his name to be in the top billing. Nowadays, everybody wants to have their name in the limelight. It's so hard nowadays to get any help in the ministry because everybody wants to be numero uno. Everybody can't be the guy at the top. I'm not saying I'm the guy at the top. The Lord Jesus is the guy at the top. I'm just the under shepherd. I'm just the one he's trusted me to be able to help this church and oversee this church. But it's hard to get other men to see the need for other men in the same ministry to help. Because everybody wants to be the guy that's the pastor. They don't want to be an assistant pastor. They don't want to be just a helper. They want to be You know, the guy that everybody's listening to all the time. Well, it just doesn't work that way. Everybody can't be the pastor. Everybody can't be a deacon. Everybody can't be the Sunday school teacher. Although, if there's anybody here that wants to be the Sunday school teacher this class, you're welcome to teach it. Too many people are wanting to be in the spotlight. There's so much jealousy in the ministry these days. You can't get preachers together anymore. They try to outdo each other. Talk about how they did this and do that, and how many of you run them down there, and we had this many and all this stuff. It's sickening. I can't stand to be around a lot of pastors. I really can't. Anyway, Epaphroditus is one of these men that gets it. He's in the background working. We need people in the background working. We need people that's not in the spotlight. And listen, I couldn't preach if it wasn't for people praying for me, and I know they do. And if it wasn't for that, I would just, I don't know what I would do. I remember studying about Charles Spurgeon, and there was a man coming. Of course, Charles Spurgeon had 20,000 people would show up for his messages. And he was uneducated. If you don't know anything about Charles Spurgeon, He was an uneducated man, didn't go to school, learned everything on his own. He had a photographic memory. He could read something out of a book and years later he could tell you what page it was on and everything it said. He had that kind of mind. But he didn't have a formal education in seminary or anything like that, but yet he had the largest ministry in England that anybody ever had. And he drew thousands of people there into that metropolitan tabernacle that he had. Well, there was some people wondering about how he was able to do all this. And this man come and he said, I want to know the secret to your success. I want to know how you're able to do all this. And he said, you come with me. And he goes around the side, he goes down these steps and goes underneath the church, underneath where the pulpit is up above. And down there, there were hundreds of people that were on their knees praying. He said, that's the secret right there. It's these people that are praying. And so listen, it takes people in the background helping. They're invaluable to the ministry. And Epaproditus, he's one of those men. You're not gonna hear about him throughout the Bible. Some people think he's the same man as Epaproditus. I don't believe that to be the case. I don't believe he's Epaproditus. He's Epaproditus, and he's not there to be seen. He's helping. Luke verse 26. Says, for he longed after you all and was full of heaviness because that you had heard that he had been sick. For indeed, he was sick, nigh unto death. But God had mercy on him and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Well, sometime during his stay with Paul, Epaproditus had become very sick. Paul said he was so sick, it was nigh unto death. I don't know what it was. The Bible doesn't tell us what it was. And in that day, there was a lot of sickness. People were sick. I mean, we have medicine today. My whole family has acid reflux. In that day, if you had acid reflux, there was no cure for that. In fact, they probably just thought they had some kind of bad disease wrong with them, you know? All of a sudden, acid's boiling up in your stomach and your throat and wondering what in the world's wrong with you. They didn't have the little purple pill that you could take and it'd go away. We have that today. But men back in those days didn't have the medical advances that we have. And so there was a lot of people sick. Imagine having high blood pressure that day and not having blood pressure medicine. They're going to die at 30 years old with high blood pressure. Now, there was a few things that were a little better. For instance, their diet was not like our diet. They didn't get up every morning and eat sausage like I do. But nevertheless, they would get these diseases and sickness, and most of the time, if you got something that was bad, you died. I mean, that's just it. You're dying. Well, we don't know what happened to paprodontus. He's got some kind of ailment. Maybe he had malaria. That was very common in those days. There was no clean drinking water. It was nasty, deplorable to conditions. And so you had to be very careful. That's why they drank wine most of the time. They didn't have clean water. And so they would drink this wine because it was more pure. Well, this man has gotten some kind of disease, sick, and nearly died from it. But Paul said that God had mercy on him. What does he say there? He said he was sick, nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him. Well, so sometime, I don't know, maybe when he was traveling from Philippi there, maybe he caught something on the ship. But whatever it was, he's very sick and somehow the people back in Philippi has heard about it. And so how they knew that, I don't know. Maybe somebody came in to Rome one day and said, hey, by the way, they were asking prayer for you down at Philippi when I was there last time. They said you were so sick that you were about to die. They worried to death about you. And so he knows that they're worried. Paul knows they're worried. And so this is another thing Paul's trying to do is help the church so that they won't worry about this man. They've been concerned about him. Paul knows the church is going to rejoice when they see him. And when they find out he's okay, like I said earlier, can you only imagine in that day not being able to get any information about anybody, your loved ones that's so far away? Nowadays, like my sister lives in North Carolina, if something happens, you know, I can get the message on text or a phone call or messenger or something, I can get a message about him. But our information now is so easy to get. But in that day, being a thousand miles from home and everybody worried about him, well, they don't have a clue what's wrong. They probably assume he might have died already. But also notice in the days of the apostles, like here, Paul, this man was sick nine to death. Paul had abilities at certain times to heal people. Remember? Remember, they even had the handkerchiefs that had the power to heal through the Holy Ghost. I find it interesting that they didn't always have that ability. They wasn't able to just, as we say, conjure up some kind of healing. For instance, even Paul himself had a thorn in the flesh that he wasn't able to overcome himself. Paul had other ailments. We believe he had bad eyesight because it talks about him having to write his letters so big and things like that. And so there were things that would go on with these men, but the apostles were not able to heal. Paul couldn't heal this man, Epaphroditus. There was another man that's mentioned by Paul. Let's see, I've got his name written down here if I can find it. Trophimus. It's over in second Timothy four and six Paul mentions him Paul said he had to leave him in my lead him because he was sick Well, naturally obviously Paul wasn't able to heal him with the power of the Holy Ghost It wasn't God's will for him to do that And so while the Apostles had healing powers at times, they didn't always have that ability It was only when the Holy Spirit allowed them to have it It wasn't something they could just do it at their own will but it had to be done when it glorified God that was always the times it did and Well, the truth is, many times when we're sick in our lives, that's when we're closest to the Lord. Have you ever noticed that? When you're bad sick, something going wrong with you, that's when you begin praying harder. And so God uses these times in our lives to get us closer to Him. I've known a lot of people that so many bad things have happened to and you've seen their life transform, their spiritual life transform. While they might have been going to church before they got sick, once they got sick, something happened and they were so bad off, you hear them talking about the Lord every time you walk in the room, they're talking about the Lord, or praying and all this. And so, the Lord uses those situations in our life, like it or not. And if we were always perfect and be healed all the time, we wouldn't appreciate all the good times that we do have. When I had cancer, I always was thinking about me still and listen to God's whispers. And when you're laying there, if you have chemo and you can't move, you can't do anything, God's on your mind. And I think sometimes that some of us need to be sick, which I don't want to be with cancer anymore. But during that period of time, I had time to reflect on my life and what God had done for me. I wasn't busy trying to work and do this and that because I couldn't. And maybe Paul in prison, you know, he just had so much space he had and everything. So all he could do was just sit there and reflect on God. And I think maybe it was God's will he be in prison. Yeah. Certainly was. I mean, that's where he wrote most of his, his books from was prison. And so yeah, gave him the time to do that and time to meditate on the things of the Lord. Yeah, that's a good point. All right. Um, see where we left off here. All right. Verse 28 Paul says, I sent him there for the more carefully that when you see him again, you may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful. It appears that Paul may have recently went through some kind of sorrow already, because he mentioned there in verse 27, talking about how he might have had sorrow upon sorrow. So it's as if he was already in some kind of sorrow over something, and if something had happened to Epaphroditus, that would have been on top of that. And so it appears something might have happened in Paul's life. Maybe somebody had passed away that he loved, or something had happened, and he was already sorrowful, and the papyridontist, if he had succumbed to his sickness, then that really made him sorrowful. And he says, therefore, he sent him there more carefully. that when you see him again, you might rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. So it's gonna help Paul to find out that they have really went on about this guy. He would love to have been there, I'm sure, if he could have saw the welcoming when Epaphroditus, can you imagine that, walking in? I don't know how long he's been gone, it's been a long time. But can you imagine when he walked into that congregation there at Philippi and they all laid eyes on him and saw that he was well, how they would have rejoiced. Paul would have loved to have seen that. He said that would have helped him and he would be less sorrowful over it. And so God gave mercy upon both of these men because of this. Listen, God is a loving God. We may not always understand everything that He does and why we have to go through trials, but one thing's for sure, we can always trust that His way is the best way. Our minds can't comprehend it, but I know that God, whatever it is that He wants is the best. We just gotta trust Him no matter what hits us, any storms, anything that happens, we gotta trust in the Lord. He's not just a fair weather God that you worship when things are going good. But he's the God on the mountain. He's the God in the valley. He's the God in all of our trials and our joys. He's the same God. And we can't treat him like a Tennessee ball fan. We're in love with them when they're winning, but we hate them when they're losing. It's not that way. All right, verse 29. He says, receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward men. All right, so when Paul's talking about this, he says their lack of service. That's not, he's not meaning that they were indifferent to him or he's not, He's not chasing them because they've not been able to offer service toward him. He's just mentioning the fact that they've not been able to. But this man has somehow got to him to be able to do this service for him. And he reminds them, he says, listen, the only reason he got in this condition is because he was doing this for you. He wants them to remember that. Pepper dies, we send him there to help Paul. And because he went on this trip, that's why he got sick. So if he hadn't went on this trip, he most likely would not have been sick like this. So therefore, I believe he caught something either on the ship going there or during his travels. He got sick somehow. It might have been malaria. I don't know. But that's the reason he got sick. And Paul wants to remember that. And notice he said that holds such in reputation. We all know what a reputation is. That's what we're known for. He wants them to remember Paproditus, what he's known for. He's known for being a minister in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was willing to forsake all the things of himself, put all that behind, and work in the ministry. And he did that for this reason. So you keep that reputation in mind when you see him and treat him as such. Philippians 4 and 10 gives us a little insight of why they wasn't able to help. He says, but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last year care of me has flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity. So they were unable to help Paul for some reason until Epaphroditus was able to get to him. And so Epaphroditus made a special journey to Rome for this, and he came and he rendered his services to Paul. not to be seen, but to be a helper. And so some good men here that Paul mentions now. All week, last week, I was studying on a message that I was supposed to, or I thought I was supposed to preach this morning, and the Lord changed it on me last night, and so I'm not gonna be preaching that this morning, but it was over in Romans chapter 16, verse 10 was where I was taking the text, but the whole first 16 verses in Romans 16, those first verses down through there, Paul lists off 24 different people, that he mentions to the Romans as he's closing that letter. And it's people that helped him in the ministry. And some of them is his kinsmen he talks about. But he's so thoughtful to remember all these people that were helpers. If anybody, you could say had the so-called right to boast about a ministry, it would have been Paul. You don't find Paul doing that at all. Paul is always, he's got humility about him. He's a much different man than he was when he was known as Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church. Once he got saved, Paul's humility, I mean, he was a pitcher of humbleness. He always mentioned other people that helped him. That's why he tells Timothy over in 2 Timothy, what was it, 2 Timothy 4 and 10, I don't know if that's right. Let me look at it real quick. I don't know if it's not where it's at. He says to, anyway, commit thou unto faithful men. It's somewhere in here. I've done forgot where it's at. But he's telling Timothy he needs to also get other men, faithful men, to come in that will teach and help in the ministry. And so Paul was always looking for those kind of men to help out. And I love that. You know, Pastor Sexton over at Temple, he has a lot of the same mind that Paul had when it comes to things like that. He's always looking for helpers in the ministry. And that's why he spends so much time with the Faithful Men's Conference and things like that. He knows that it takes other men in the ministry. While he has a great ministry on his own, and he can be seen on his own being Pastor Sexton, Clarence Sexton. It took all these other men helping him to be able to, for him to be where he's at today. And so that's why Crown College is doing so well. He's had other men, faithful men in the ministry. Look at men like Scott Pauly that was so helpful with him. Now he's an evangelist on his own. He's booked up. We were talking about him this morning and he's probably booked up for five years with meetings. He's going and flying out all over the United States today, and people getting saved everywhere where Scott Pauly goes. And he started out as a young man there in Crown College. Pastor Sexton saw that potential in him, and he helped him just like Paul helped Timothy, and we see what become. And so look for this in the church, these young men that come in. We've got a few that work in our sound booth, and who knows what God may have in store for them. Maybe they'll realize that God's calling their life one day. Maybe there's some ministry that God wants them to be in. And so think about these things. Anyway, that's the lesson for today. Lord willing, we'll continue on there in Philippians in the next part. We'll get into chapter three next week. No, well, no, no, not next week. We're not having Sunday school next week, it's homecoming. So no Sunday school or evening services next Sunday. I'll have to remember to announce that this morning. And so we'll take a break and come back in two weeks. All right, let's pray. Father God, thank you, Lord, for this time to be in your house. God, thank you for the Sunday school lesson. Lord, I trust that it's been helpful for folks. Lord, it's helped me. And Lord, I pray that we always look for these men, these women, God, that are able to be used in the ministry. And Lord, you have so many things that need to be done. And God, the laborers we know are few. But God, we know that you'll send them, Lord. You said if we pray in the Lord of Harvest, that you would send laborers. Lord, that's what we're doing, Lord. We're praying for them. Lord, we pray for this church. We pray for our services coming up. Lord, I pray that you help the choir as we sing. Lord, I pray that you help me in the preaching. Lord, that you'll be glorified. And God, just may we be obedient to you today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.