Amen. What's in a name? And I'm sure you've often heard that statement. Perhaps in the world's estimation of things, absolutely nothing. Nothing whatsoever. Some people just don't care about their name. They care more about riches and gold and position and power. They don't really care about what you think about their name. But in the world's estimation, there's very little in the name. But in the Bible, and certainly in the mind of our God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, there's everything. in a name, everything. In fact, he would have Solomon, under divine inspiration, pen words for us in the book of Proverbs, the chapter 22 and verse 1. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. That's not how the world view things. Some people strive after riches. They literally pursue after wealth. It seems that their name is mud. They don't really care. what people think of them, so long as they can get their wealth and their riches, so long as they can hold on to their fortune, so long as they can climb that ladder and make themselves very wealthy. They don't really care what people think of their name. But the Bible's different. A good name is better than riches. The world doesn't think like that, but that's the teaching of scripture. The most important thing that you have apart from your salvation, although it's linked to it, is to have a good name. That is, that if someone mentioned your name in public or someone mentioned your name here, there, and yonder, people would know that you have a good name in the sense that you have a name that is Christian. and a good testimony. Solomon also said, I quote, in Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 1, a good name is better than precious ointment. And we know that there are perfumes today that people chase after, and the new perfumes that are coming out now. and all the colognes and aftershaves that are all coming in now, and they're sky-high prices. People chase after these fragrances. And if there's a new one out, the old one is dispensed with, and the new one is a must-have. And people chase after those things that are precious, the precious ointments and so on. And yet the Bible says, a greater fragrance than any perfume, aftershave, or cologne, or whatever is scented that you would put on your body The Bible says a good name is better than precious ointment. A good name is better than riches, and great riches, in fact, the word is used. Some chase after, we know, they chase after glory and greatness in this world, but they do not care who they destroy. They do not mind whose hands and fingers they tread upon as they climb the social ladder. They don't care who they hurt. They don't care what you think of them. But their name stinks in the nostrils of society. Their name even stinks in the annals of history. You think of Judas. Whoever, and I hope There's no one in your family called this, for I don't want to offend you. Who would ever call their son Judas? This is Judas. Meet him and spend a day with him. Can you imagine someone introducing their child to you and saying, this is my little boy. What do you call you? Hitler. Can you imagine? What a name. I don't believe for one moment that there's anybody that I ever met and they've called their son Judas or they've called their boy Hitler. Is he a good name? A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and it's better than all the fragrance and all the ointments that you can purchase in this world. You think of Stalin, and we could go through all the lists of names and all those ones who were done in our nation for murder. We could go through all those names. We could bring names to you of Republicans and Loyalists, some who are alive and some are dead. I want to tell you their name stinks, but I bring names to you like William and Catherine Booth, the founders of the Salvation Army, or C.T. Studd, one of the greatest missionaries, or D.L. Moody, or Charles Haddon Spurgeon, or Robert Murray McShane, just to name but a few. What about the Apostle Paul? What about Martin Luther and all of the reformers and so on and so on? You see, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and is more fragrant than the precious ointment. And it seems that the Apostle Paul, in his ministry, was surrounded by individuals who had a good name. In fact, what he has done here, writing to the church at Colossae, even though he never had a camera, And even though he never had a video, and even though he never had a sketchpad, what he has done under inspiration, he has given a little thumbnail album. And in this fourth chapter, he mentions quite a number of names. There are a vast array of individuals, and every one of them He commends. Every one of them He holds up as a faithful minister, a beloved brother, a fellow servant, a fellow prisoner, one who can be trusted, one who is loyal, one who is sincere, one who is humble, one who loves the Lord, some who have jeopardized their lives for the Lord, and some who have paid the price for the Lord, and others who have changed so dramatically that their testimony is clear, like Onesimus. And I have to say this, that it seems that Paul had a knack of gathering around him individuals, male and female, who had a good name. They were thoroughly Christian, and they had a wonderful character and Christ-likeness about those individuals. Now, there's no doubt that great men will interest us. There's no doubt if someone brings out a life story, whether dead or alive, whether a biography or autobiography, there's a lot of people buy those books because they like to read and know what these great men in the world people get on in their lives. Where did you come from? Did you live in poverty? Uh what was your home like? What was your mother and father like? Who are your brothers and sisters? What part of the world did you grow up in? What school did you go to? And then how did you get into business? How did you get into the film world? How did you get into sport? Were you good as a as a child and then you were noticed and then you were brought over to England and so on and so on. People love to read the stories of great men and they will The names and life stories of good men, they inspire us. Great men, they interest me. But good men, good women. They inspire us. Well, I believe such were the names of those individuals that were associated with the Apostle Paul in his ministry. They were persons with a good name, and therefore, any study of those individuals in Scripture, no matter how scant the information is about them, has to benefit the child of God. It has not only to interest us, but it should inspire us. Paul has given us, I believe, a little thumbnail, sketch, or photo album of different individuals. We looked at one last Tuesday night, Epiphras, or Epaphras, as many of we would have called him. But Epiphras, a faithful brother, I want to look at another tonight, and his name is called Tychicus. His name means fortunate, virtuous. I don't know why he was given that name, and I'm not going to go into speculation and preach a message on a name, why he was given this name. It could have been. And remember, names were given at birth. And so this little child, no doubt, been given this name. Parents might have had a very difficult time, or they may not have believed that this child would have survived, and they gave him the name Tychicus. He was very fortunate. We're fortunate to have this child. We could have lost this child. Maybe an accident when he was younger, I don't know. Maybe his name was changed, we don't know. But it's an unusual name, we know that. And we can't go into Scripture and find out what happened to this young boy and why he was given this name. Maybe he... The parents felt, and maybe because he was a convert from heathen religion, that they took the name and said, well, we hope that good fortune goes with you. We hope that you have good luck all your life, and your name will carry fortune, and maybe fortune will follow you, and fortune will be a friend with you, and fortune will guide you. That is fatalism. heathenism, paganism, but when he was converted to Christ, I don't see that his name really, in that sense, carries much weight. because he's now under the sovereign control of a providential hand. But Tychicus is mentioned five times in Holy Scripture. Five, no doubt, the number of God's grace, and we see that he had the grace of God in his life. He's mentioned in Acts 20, verse 4. He's also mentioned in Ephesians 6 and verse 21. He's mentioned in 2 Timothy 4, 12. He's mentioned in Titus 3, 12, and he's mentioned here. in Colossians chapter 4 and the verse 7. But in our study we will stay with this reference in Colossians in chapter 4 verses 7 and 8. So I just want to lift this man up and I trust that he will inspire you tonight as we consider something of his name and his character Tychicus. First of all, I want you to think of his testimony. Notice what it says in verse 7. Paul describes him as Tychicus, a beloved brother. And he does that twice. In Ephesians 6 and verse 21, he also introduces him to the church at Ephesus, and he says, I've sent Tychicus, and he's a beloved brother. In other words, this man is very dear to me. I want to tell you he's a brother beloved in the Lord and I love this man and this man loves me and he loves God and he loves Christ and he loves you and he loves the work of God. I want to tell you he's a beloved brother. He's a man and I tell you when you meet him and you get to know him and he ministers in your church, you will love this man. In other words, he's a beautiful Christian. He's a beautiful Christian to have about you. And I can send him anywhere. I can send him to Ephesus. I can send him to Colossae. I have no doubt whatsoever that this man will live up to his testimony. A beloved brother is a He's a man you'll not fall out with. He's a lovely believer. And if you were serving with him, you would see his charm. You would see the attractiveness of his character. And you would see how excellent he is when it comes to Christian values and virtues. He's got a warm, kind-hearted spirit. He's endearing. He's a great worker. There's no doubt about that. He followed Paul. And he was an errand boy in a sense because he carried the letters. In fact, along with Onesimus, When Paul was imprisoned at Rome, Tychicus and Onesimus were with Paul, associated with him. And when Paul wrote the letter to Colossae, It was Tychicus along with Onesimus that brought the letter to the church, and they were entrusted with the epistle to the Colossians. Here's a man who had a great testimony. Do you think Paul was going to give the sacred letter, the epistle that we have today, which is the word of God, into the hands of a carnal wretch? Not at all. He says, here's a beloved brother. Here's a man, and I know him through and through. And I want to tell you something. He's a delightful spirit. He's a likable person. He has an attraction. I want to tell you, I've seen him work. I've been with him. I've prayed with him. I've wept with him. He's someone who will do your heart good. He's someone that I believe that if you were in company with him, you would see just how large a heart that he has. He's a beloved brother. In other words, He had a tremendous testimony. And in Scripture, this beloved brother title was given to this man twice. And number two in Scripture is the number of witness. And what's God doing here? He's witnessing to this man's testimony. Brothers and sisters, apart from your salvation and mine, there is nothing more important in this world than your testimony. And there's no doubt if we were to lose our testimony. Now, I know there are those who are theologically minded. There are those who like to stroke the T and dot the I. Those who argue over semantics, we know that. And I know, theologically, they could argue and say we have no testimony. We're sinners. We're lost. We're depraved in our nature. We're saved by grace. We have no testimony. It's the testimony of Christ in me. I know that. I know that. I know that full well. I'm coming from the angle of responsibility. We have a responsibility to maintain a testimony before the world, and a testimony before our family, and a testimony among our neighbors, and our friends, and our school friends, and our workmates. I know it's not possible to live peaceably with all men, because all men will not want to live peaceably with you, and you and I know that. But there is that responsibility like Tychicus. that we might have a good testimony, that people would want to work with us and serve with us. Do we possess such a testimony that Christ could come now and say, and mention your name and mine, and say, such and such a beloved sister, a beloved brother. So we have Tychicus. We have his testimony. I want you to think secondly of Tychicus. We have his humility. Notice what it says here about the man. Tychicus, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. In other words, here was a genuine man of God. He was true and faithful in all his service and administrations for Christ, and he was really helpful to those around him. This man did not strive for preeminence. And I'm going to show you in a minute the very description that's given of him that shows the humility that this man had and upon which he served under. He did not strive for preeminence. And that is true. There are many today, and that's what they strive for, preeminence. Well, if I'm not leading the service, I'll not be doing a quiz. We've heard that said. If I'm not preaching, well, I'm certainly going to lead or open in prayer. If I'm not to the fore, if I don't get that position, well, as far as I'm concerned, that'll be it, and so on and so on. And we know that he didn't strive for preeminence. He didn't seek for glory. He didn't want to be seen. He didn't want to be heard. He didn't want recognized. He did not look for praise. And sometimes, I've heard it says, no one appreciates me in the work of God. I do everything and no one would say thank you. And I know it's nice to hear thank you. I know it is. And I know that sometimes, that we do look for it. But is it not a sense of pride? Do we really need thanks for serving the Lord? Do we need some commendation for walking with Christ and serving the Lord with humility? No, he walked with Christ and served the Lord with humility. And how I know that is verse seven, a faithful minister. You remember last week, or was it a few sermons ago? Maybe it was a Sunday, I can't remember now. I told you what the word minister means here. It means, listen to it, table waiter, table waiter. You're not the boss. You're a table waiter, and I don't want to offend you. And I am talking to myself here. Do you know what it really means, a table waiter? It means an attendant. It means it's someone who's at the master's bidding, and he runs errands for his master. Now, where is the room for boasting? Where is the room for preeminence? Where is the room for thanks? Where's the room here to be seen, heard, recognized? It's not there. I want to tell you, where is the room here to seek for any glory? A table waiter. And here's what it says. He's a faithful table waiter. a faithful attendant upon God, a faithful, and I don't want to use derogatory terms, a faithful errand boy, because that's exactly what the word means. That's exactly the meaning of the word. And the Lord humbles us through his word. And I want to tell you, as such, Tychicus was a servant of Christ. He waited upon the Lord. He ran errands for his God, and whenever the Lord told him to do, no matter how small and insignificant it was, he did it with all of his heart. I want to tell you something. Without people like Tychicus in the church, nothing would be done. You'd be sitting in this house tonight, freezing. I wouldn't be taking my coat off, I'd be putting an overcoat on. Who do you think puts the heat on? Who switches the lights on? You've got to think about these things. Who brings the boys and girls when we had normality to the meetings? People like Tychicus, faithful table readers, attendants, running errands for the Lord and not looking for preeminence. And I tell you, it's a wonderful thing, but isn't it true? And you would know better than I would. Isn't it true that somewhere in a powerful engine that literally drives massive machinery and gets the work done, that there's somewhere in that engine a little tiny screw? And if that little tiny bolt or screw was not in its place, that engine would fail. That's exactly what you have in Tychicus. And the work in Colossae and the letter to the Colossians would not be in our hands today, and I know I'm talking on a human level, but for men like Tychicus, who ran on a faithful errand to see if Paul was all right and if he needed anything, and then came back again with a letter to the church at Colossae. And then there was obviously an overspill because this letter was to be read at the church at Laodicea and Hierapolis and in the house of Nymphis where there was a church as well. And then it was given to the entire world as part of the canon of Holy Scripture. But it was the Apostle Paul imprisoned, but he had men around him and women. who were faithful and beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. It's true that a ship, no matter how vast it is, even those cruise ships, without a rudder, they're useless. Did you know that? And so is a horse without a tiny bit in its mouth. It's totally useless. And so individuals like Tychicus they ought to be multiplied in the church. Because, and I don't want to offend you, and I'm speaking to my own heart, and I trust that you and I will have the humility to take it, we're table waiters. We are attending the master's table. In fact, a fellow servant The word servant is bond slave. That's the actual Greek word, bond slave. And there's no boasting here. There's no place for superiority in the work of God, a need for humility. One prominent evangelist and Methodist preacher, Dr. William E. Sangster, tells of an organist giving a recital in a village church where the organ was pumped by hand, a set of billows, and a wee man at the back just pumping away, getting the air into the belly of the organ, and he was out, he was behind the curtains, and the boy was playing away, and everybody was applauding him. And that's exactly what happened. After each piece, this is what William E. Sangster said, After each piece was played, there was loud applause in the church, in the little village church, and that man stood up and took all the praise. The wee guy behind the curtain, he was the one that was pushing at the bellows. He was the one that was breaking sweat. Behind the curtains was that little man pumping away at the bellows that gave the organ its wind in order to be played. As the moments passed, he was getting very irate at the conceit of the organist taking all the praise. Finally, he could take it no more. And when the organist announced his next piece or rendition, he began to play and there was no sound from the organ. And the man at the pump had stopped working. And he pulled the curtains back and poked his head through and shouted at the organist, here, let's have a bit more of we instead of me, and you'll be able to play this organ. And you know, service for Christ is never me. It's us. It's we. And we're laborers together with God. Tychicus. his testimony, Tychicus, his humility. I want you to think thirdly and very quickly, Tychicus, his loyalty. Look what it says in verse 7, all my state shall Tychicus declare unto you. Then look at verse 8, whom I have sent on to you, his loyalty. You see, this man could be trusted. Now, I would ask you a question tonight. Some of you probably would know the answer of it, but I'll give it to you anyway. But which is the greatest ability in the world? Well, someone has said the greatest ability in the world is dependability. And how true that is. Tychicus was dependable. You could trust this man. In fact, Paul gave to him the epistle to the church at Colossae. And he didn't change it or alter it. He took it with him. And he took that arduous journey, and he moved from Rome to the church at Colossae. He kept it on his person. He never lost it. He never damaged it. He didn't get there and say, oh, by the way, this parchment has been destroyed. I'll read what I can of it, but it's all destroyed. It was ripped. It was torn. And there's water spilled over it. There's liquid over it and all this. And people stood on it. It fell on the boat when I was crossing. And going across the land, I lay on it at night and so on and so on. And the sun has got to it. And the rain has got to it. It's just a bit of a mess. And it's all torn. But listen. I'll try and give you what I've got here. Oh, no, no, no. He was entrusted with the epistle to the church at Colossae. He was entrusted with the words of the living God in its original autograph. You remember that? Not a translation which we can reprint, but the original autograph. was given to Tychicus and also to Onesimus, the runaway slave from the house of Philemon. And Paul sent that letter as well by the hand of Onesimus. And so the greatest ability in the world is dependability. And that's exactly what we need. We need to be faithful. and dependable like Tychicus. Now, they tell us that there are over 200 geysers in Yellowstone Park. Now, I'm not talking about old people here, so don't get offended. But there are over 200 geysers. Every time I think of it, I think of a geyser. But, you know, there's one of them that stands out from all the rest. It's not the largest geyser, by the way, which is really a hot spring. So there are over 200 hot springs, we'll use that word. And it doesn't really reach the heights that other springs or geysers do. And yet it's the most popular. And if you were to visit Yellowstone National Country Park, you'll go to all of these springs, hot springs, and you'll see them bursting up. You might not see some of them. They're idle. and you couldn't tell whenever they will burst. But it's not the largest, yet it doesn't even reach the greatest height, yet by far it's the most popular spring. And everybody, when you go to Yellowstone National Country Park, you go to see this particular spring out of all the hundreds that literally are spread across Yellowstone National Park. It's popularity. it's due to its dependability. This spring, for centuries, every 65 minutes on the dot, it shoots forth 170 feet into the air a spray of hot boiling water. And if you were to set your clock and wait for 65 minutes, exactly that spring, We'll shoot that up into the air. It's been given the name Old Faithful. You could set your watch by that spring or geyser. Tychicus, he's Old Faithful. He's always in his place. You could set your watch by him. It is sad and I pray that I would never become this person. Can you imagine? if the church revolved around me, if church only opened when certain people came. And we're not talking about COVID days. We're not talking about people self-isolating and shielding. So, we're not getting at anyone. We're talking about normal times. We're talking about what we had before COVID-19, pre-December 2019. For some churches, they never would have opened, but maybe twice a year. Some prayer meetings may never have opened, never in a full year. Some gospel missions may never had people in them, but one night out of the two weeks. You see where I'm coming from? Old faithful, in their place, dependable. That's Tychicus. Wouldn't you like to be like this man? Wouldn't it be good if the free church and other denominations and our own wee church here had dozens upon dozens of people like Tychicus? Finally, Tychicus, his sincerity. Notice what it says in verse eight. Who may have sent unto you that he might comfort your hearts. Isn't that a remarkable thing? This man here, his sincerity. This is not the kind of person that would depress your soul, by the way. He's not someone who would discourage your heart. He's not someone who's a murmurer or a gossip. He's not a scaremonger or a pessimist. He's not a woe-is-me person. Rather, he will comfort your hearts, and it's very interesting. We've been studying the word comfort in the Old Testament, but when you come to the New Testament, this word, not all the time, but certainly here and other places. It comes from the root word that we get, comforter, which is the Holy Spirit's ministry, the paraclete. Well, we have it here. The root form of this word comfort is paraclete, and we have that in the Spirit. So, here's a man, and he's Christ-like, and he's Spirit-like, and he's a comforter. Now, I tell you something, that's the kind of person we should strive to be. A comforter and not a complainer. Lord, make me a comforter and not a complainer. Lord, make me a helper and not a hindrance. Make me a blessing, Lord. Make me a blessing and not a barrier. Lord, make, make me like Tychicus, a beloved brother. His testimony. A faithful minister. His humility. A fellow servant. And when you think, that it's a bond slave we're talking about. We're talking about a man who really would serve under God no matter what he was doing, no matter what he was involved in, he would be an individual that would do it with all of his heart. I want to say to you, Lord, make me like Tychicus, a man who not only was humble, but was sincere and was loyal. and had a great testimony. And I trust the Lord will challenge us through the little thumbnail photo album He has given us in Colossians 4. Epiphras, Antiochus, If the Lord spurs us, we may come back again, and we might look at a few other names here, and we might just elaborate on something of their character and of their testimony found in holy Scripture. May the Lord bless His word to all of us.