All right, Philippians chapter number two. I was preaching through this book of the Bible some time ago and the Lord put a few things in my heart and I want to share some of that with you and I know you're a preacher as preached through this book, or is preaching through that book. But I feel like I miss the Lord if I don't deal with what's on my heart this morning. Philippians chapter number two, verse number 24. We know this church was a special church to the apostle Paul. It was a church that had been there for him. When he was up, when he was down, when he was going through difficult things, when blessings were everywhere, they were there. And then when he would find himself as he is in this book of the Bible, a prison epistle, he finds himself in a prison in Rome at the writing of the book of Philippians. But this was a church that was always a blessing to him. I love to say something about being a Christian. A lot about being a Christian is just desiring to give glory to God and live your life for Jesus, but also to be a blessing. Your church is here to be a blessing to this community, to bring them the gospel, the good news of salvation in Christ. and you're here to be a blessing to one another. Well, isn't it a blessing to be in a church? I thank God for the church, and thank God for the church I'm part of, and the church here is a special place, and I love to see everybody doing what they can do. Everybody brings something that is a blessing to this local church as a whole, and so it's a good place to be at Midway Baptist Church, but the church at Philippi, it wanted to be a blessing. And so wherever Paul was, they made it, they made up their mind, wherever he was, they were gonna hunt him down, find out whatever he might need, and try to be a blessing to him. You know, they went out of their way to be a blessing. And a lot of times we have to do that. But I wanna look primarily today at this man named Epaphroditus. And I think that he has the heart of the church of Philippi. You know, people usually become like the church they're a part of. People usually take on the same personality, the same attitude, the same heartbeat of the church that they become a part of. Some churches have a thrust of ministry in one direction or another direction, but every church is special in its own way. And so Paul here... as being locked up in prison, but they wanna be a blessing to him, and they've sent Epaphroditus to do that. They took up some sort of a love offering, and I guess a church that was birthed out of a prison revival would probably know what a man of God needed when he was locked up in a prison. Can you say amen to that? This church, you remember that Philippian jailer. Some people have even supposed it might have been Epaphroditus. I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us it was or wasn't. It's not here or there, but we do know that the Lord at midnight, Paul and Silas sang and praised the Lord. and prayed and the prisoners heard them and God heard them and he sent that earthquake. And you remember how the prisoner, the prison official, the man who was in charge, he sprang in and called for a light and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And that night he got saved, the Philippian jailer. and brought Paul and Silas to his house. His whole house got saved. They got baptized and the church started just being a blessing to Paul and they never stopped doing that. Look with me in Philippians chapter two, in verse number, we'll begin reading verse number 24. He said, but I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. Yet I supposed it necessary to send Epaphroditus, 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 he had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, 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 said to 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. I think that in Epaphroditus, some have supposed that he may have been just a faithful member of the church. I suppose maybe he had been the pastor of the church. I don't rightly and I can't say with any authority, but we do know that he's trusted by the church, he's influential there, and it was his desire to be a blessing. Let me just say, the first thing I'd say here by way of introduction is that he wanted to be a blessing to the preacher, amen. You'll never go wrong just being a blessing to the preacher, to the man of God. I thank God for my pastor. Just a couple months from now, he will have married my wife and I 35 years ago. He's been a part of my life ever since. And I know everybody doesn't have that, everybody doesn't get that blessing, but I'm thankful for my pastor. Amen. And I wanna be a blessing to him as long as he lives and as long as I live, I wanna be a blessing to him. God knows my heart, I wanna be an encouragement to him. And so that was the heart of Epaphroditus. I wanna preach for a little while this morning on how can I be a blessing? What does it take to become a blessing? What does it take to become a blessing? and let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray now you'd help us and speak to us and through us and Lord, give us your grace and mercy and help us this morning and anoint us for this time and I pray help the people gather in the wanderings of our hearts and our minds, Lord, on this homecoming day and help us, Lord, now these few moments just to hear from heaven, to hear your word and your voice. Lord, I pray you'd make me a blessing today to this church to this pastor. I thank you for Brother Harold and for Midway Baptist. Lord, what I've seen you do here, what I see you doing, Lord, I thank you for that. And I pray that we'd be a blessing one to another, that we would bless our Lord Jesus Christ today. Lord, that you'd just put it in our hearts, Lord. God, not to wanna live just for self, but to live for you to be a blessing to others. And I pray you'd help us now. In Jesus' name, we'll pray. Amen and amen. You look at the city of Philippi, it was a Roman colony. And being a colony, it gave it special freedoms. They were able to run some of their own affairs. They were able to be free from some of the oversight of the Roman Empire. Really, Philippi was considered a little Rome because it was a colony. They say that there were many, many Roman veterans, military soldiers that would go to Philippi to retire there because it had such a nice situation, a wonderful environment for living, and it was just a good place for them to go. But Philippi was a part of that world. It was just full, like the world we live in, it was full of a pagan society. Now, you look as Paul and his group and Silas come to Philippi in Acts 16, they start the church, and there doesn't seem to be a Jewish, much of a Jewish group there, because instead of going to a synagogue, there's no synagogue, so it goes down by a riverside. You remember Lydia, and she gets saved by the riverside. And the Lord begins that church there at Philippi doing a work like God has done. Well, it's a wonderful church. It begins to bloom and blossom after God gives a great move of revival and salvation there in the prison, in the jail. God plants a church there and begins to do a wonderful work. But they are a good church, but they're also a church that is facing some persecution. They're suffering some, for Christ's sake. Everything doesn't have to be perfect in life for you to be a blessing. Amen. This church had its own issues. It had its own persecution to think about. It had its own struggles and suffering. It was going through, but yet it looked beyond what it was going through and said, how can I be a blessing to someone else? And I think that's an important attitude to have. The Bible says that that Paul said this was such a special church. He said in Philippians 4 verse 15, he said, now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia, he said no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only. Isn't that something? Paul said this church, they wanted to know where he was and they always wanted to be a help to him. That word communication, it means to share what you have with someone else. The Bible uses that term all through the New Testament in different places. In Hebrews 13, it says, and to communicate, forget not. That means we ought to share what we have with other people. And I'm thankful that your church does that. You're a giving body of believers. And so I look at Epaphroditus as the one that they chose. The church said, we want to be a blessing to Paul. He's up there in prison at Rome. How can we be a help? And it may have been that whatever position Epaphroditus held in the church, he held up his hand and said, I volunteer to take the apostle, the preacher, the blessing that the church has brought together. And so Epaphroditus is a friend of the gospel. He seems to have that heart to go above and beyond. You know, we need some more of that today, don't we? A heart to go above and beyond what's just the regular, what is expected. A lot of people never go above and beyond in their walk with God or in their love for the people of God. Now, let me just say that you don't have to be perfect to be a blessing. Sometimes, you know, sometimes we hold people up and we just expect people to get saved one day and be walking, you know, in the fullness of the Spirit, just be doctrinally sound and know everything they ought to know two weeks after they got saved. But to be honest with you, I think about my own development. It took me a whole lot longer than two weeks or even two years to get where God wanted me to be, and I get an amen right there. So you don't have to be perfect to be a blessing. I wanna give you three things that are involved in order to be a blessing. Number one, there's gotta be a change in your life if you're ever going to be a blessing. And Epaphroditus, I guess I've been preaching about 29, 30 years. And I preached and I've taught in Sunday school and preached through the book of Philippians, but I had never stopped and taken time to look up the name Epaphroditus. And one day I was sitting in my office and I was preparing a sermon to preach and I began to study his name. And this name Epaphroditus, if you'll think about it, look at it in your Bible, it's right there in verse 25, Epaphroditus. Within Epaphroditus' name, there is contained a heathen god that had its own high place and its own temple in the Roman Empire. His name, Epaphroditus, it means devoted to Aphrodite. It means devoted to Venus. And I won't go into what that entailed, but you can go online and you can study about it. But it was that worship of Aphrodite, that worship of Venus, it was all about the most wicked lust of the flesh. that you could ever imagine. There would be thousands of people that would go to that temple of Aphrodite. And it was just the wickedest, most debaucherous, it was just filthy, ungodly, wicked sin. But here we have a man in the church whose name is Epaphroditus. You know, I thought about, But he's had a change in his life. Now, I thought about his mother, and they say that there were literally thousands of women that built their life and built their income around that wickedness in that place. And I'm not going to go into detail, but it was just a wicked, wicked place. And I wondered when Epaphroditus' mother bore him, if she didn't walk into that pagan temple with him in that ungodly place, I don't know, maybe he had come from there. Maybe he was a product of that kind of a ungodly worldly lifestyle. And it may have been she walked in that temple and said, I wanna give my little boy to this heathen goddess. Let me just say, you don't have to have a perfect upbringing. to be a blessing. You don't have to have come from a preacher's family to do something for God in your life. Paul said, hey, there's been a change. I know what his name means. I know maybe what his mother came out of. I know what his lifestyle may have been, but his name today doesn't mean what it used to mean. And I'm thankful for the day the Lord saved me. Let's say I had two brothers, one's gone on into eternity. I hope and pray he's gone to heaven. That was his testimony. But I have another brother that's living, he's in Florida. You know something, we had a name even when I was in eighth, ninth grade. The Hallboys. On the first day of school one year, after summer break, the first day of school, I got hauled into the principal's office. I hadn't had time to do nothing wrong, Matthew. I hadn't had time to get in trouble or cause no problem, but they drug me out of class in the principal's office, and that brand new principal right out of Bob Jones University, he wanted to let me know, he had already heard about me, and he said, just in case you've got any intentions of following in your older brother's footsteps. And he put me on notice that day. Let's say that was my first and last day of school there. Mom and dad didn't appreciate that. Well, I'm just saying this, there was a time I was a sinner, but I'm thankful God has changed my life. And Jesus Christ, there was a time I came out of that wicked lifestyle of sin, just like all of you did. If you've ever been to Christ, there's been a change in your life, but you can't really ever become a blessing to anyone until you get right with God. You know, your name means something. The Bible says there in the book of Proverbs that even a child is known by his doings. You know something? You built your own persona. You built your own testimony. You can't blame anyone else for that. You've lived your life. I lived my life. You are today where you are because of the choices you've made. but can I just say Jesus, in spite of all of that, can still change your life. Notice, if you're ever gonna be a blessing, instead of being a problem, if you're ever gonna be a blessing to the church and to the work of God, if you're ever really gonna be a blessing, there's gonna have to be a change in your life. Notice what Paul says, hey, I know what his name means. I know where he came from. I know what his mother may have been involved in. I know his background. But Paul said, though he may not have a Christian heritage, he noticed what the Bible says in verse 25. He said, I know what Epaphroditus means, but he, today, is my brother. Hey, I once was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. I used to be an outcast, no good, but now, thank God, I'm one of the brethren, amen, because I have been born again. Paul, a Jew, a Jew, a Jew, could look at this Gentile who had had a lifestyle of sin and wickedness, but God had saved him. He said, he's no longer out there, but now he's my brother. That means we got a common bond. We got a common sympathy, amen. Well, you know, when you're saved, I like that song. I know it's Gaither, but I still like it. You may notice we say brother and sister around here. It's because we're a family, these hearts are so dear. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God, aren't you? But it's all because Jesus changed my name. He said he's no longer that old heathen, but now he's been changed, he's my brother. Then he said, and all I see my brother, there's been a change, he's my companion in labor. He says I have a common bond, but now he says we have got a common work. And if we're going to be a blessing, we've got to have that change in our life and get in the work of God together. Paul is just saying, I'm not the only one doing anything. Epaphroditus is my companion in labor. And a companion is someone who's with you. with you in good times, with you in bad times, with you when you're up, with you when you're down, with you when you're wealthy, with you when you're poor, with you when you're healthy, with you when you're sick. That's what a companion is. That's what Jesus is to us. He's that friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Not only is he my brother, Not only is there a common bond, but he is my companion in labor. There's a common work, but then he said, he is a fellow soldier, amen. That's pretty good, isn't it? Far as I know, Paul never was a soldier, but he was in the war. He had a warfare, not a flesh and blood, but a spiritual battle. And what he's saying about Epaphroditus is he is with me. We have a common danger and a common adversary, amen. You know something, I'm not your enemy. Someone else is not your enemy. The low down stinking devils are adversary today. Can I get an amen right there? People in the church are not your adversary. But Paul is saying he's a fellow soldier. We're in the same fight. But then he said he's your messenger. Boy, Paphroditus, he's really moved up in the Lord, hasn't he? That's what Jesus does for people who he has saved. He said, he's your messenger. That word messenger, a lot of times it means to be a preacher. Someone who's carrying the message, right? Someone who's bringing the gospel. And Paul said he's a carrier of good things. He's a carrier of the blessings. The Bible says that Epaphroditus has had a change. First of all, if you're gonna be a blessing in your life, there's gotta be a change. Has your name ever really changed? Has your heart ever really changed? I'm not saying did you ever pray a prayer. I'm not saying did you ever come to the altar. I'm saying did you ever really in faith and repentance come to the Lord Jesus Christ and have a heart change? Because that's got to happen before you can be a blessing. Number two, not only is there a change that's involved in being a blessing, but there are some costs involved in being a blessing. I wish that I could say that if you do everything you're supposed to do and you love everybody like Jesus would, and you just go out of your way to help everyone, that things are always just gonna work out wonderfully for you. I'm gonna say that Epaphroditus went on a journey that was difficult. Truly caring about people will cost you something. David's offering, I read in the Old Testament, he said, I'm not gonna offer something to God that didn't cost me something. And serving God will cost you something. I know God blesses us and I know God is good to us, but there is that Romans chapter 12, verse one, there is that reasonable service of laying down your life on the order of God and saying, wherever you lead me, I will follow. Whatever you feed me, I will swallow, amen. Whatever you wanna do in my life, I belong to yours. But there is that cost that's involved in being a blessing. Sometimes caring about people, you end up being the one that gets hurt. Amen. I won't go into too much detail, but sometimes when you try to help two people that are fighting, you end up fighting both of them. And you just tried to help, and you know, sometimes being a blessing has some cost to it. I remind you, this church, it was not birthed after some great outpouring of an offering. This church was birthed after a beating. It was birthed after an inner prison, a filthy dungeon. That's when God did a great work, is when there was suffering. Paul and Silas didn't ride into town to just have roses peddled upon them. No, they suffered. in the will of God, are you listening, doing the perfect will of God, doing the work of God, going somewhere to be a blessing, they ended up with it costing them something. I just say this, don't expect everything to go smooth for you when you decide you're gonna serve God and be a blessing. What I found out in serving God, if you really put your heart in the service of the Lord, you're gonna find there's some trouble in it along the way. We've got an adversary. The devil doesn't like what we do. For Jesus, he doesn't like you being a witness. He doesn't want you to pray. He doesn't want you to be in close fellowship with the family of God here at Midway. But Epaphroditus, it seems as though he got deathly ill on this journey of trying to be a blessing. Notice what the Bible says. The Bible says that he had gotten sick. Look at verse 26, for he longed after you all and was full of heaviness because he 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. Let's actually have sorrow upon sorrow. You know what Paul is saying? Paul is saying, he says it there in that last verse. He said, because, are you looking at verse 30? Because for the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death. There's another thing that I had never really studied till I got to Epaphroditus when I was recently preaching. I never considered how far is it from Philippi to Rome. It never crossed my mind to see how far did Epaphroditus, was he willing to go to be a blessing? So I did what any educated man of God would do. I took out my phone and I pulled out Google Maps. And I said, I need a map from Philippi there in Greece, all the way to Rome over there in Northern Italy. You know what I found out for the trek that a pastor, let me just say, he didn't just cross the road. From Philippi to Rome, it was 800 miles. If you could take the direct journey, but you got a little bit of an issue. There's an ocean in the way. Are you listening? If you had good weather and a good ship and good health and everything just worked out perfectly, they say that you could make that, you could go the short way, 800 miles, go across the sea on a ship, end up over there near Italy, then travel by land all the way north up to Rome, and in 800 miles, you could do that in about eight weeks if everything was perfect. I mean, you know, if you really go try to be a blessing, things don't always go perfect. Now, if you go the other route, there's only two routes. One is you've got to go across the ocean. The second route, you've got to go all the way around by land. That way's 1,300 miles. And that could take from three to six months journey for Bephaphoditus to get from Philippi to Rome. I just have an imagination. I think about Epaphroditus, they're loading up the wagon or they're loading up the chest, whatever route he took. We know that along that journey of desiring to do what was right, do what will please God, he got sick. It may have been he had some of those ocean experiences like Paul had had. Sometimes when we're serving the Lord, there are some costs involved. I'm gonna say, if your labor of love brings some sickness into your life, don't feel like you failed the Lord. Just about every real man of God that I know that has put their heart into serving the Lord, has had some real health setbacks. Can I get an amen right there? I think about my pastor and I don't know And I think he'll soon, next month it'll be 77, I believe. But I don't know that there's probably hardly any part of his body that he hasn't had issues, that he hasn't had surgeries. He's had cancer several times. He's had a five heart bypass surgery. I'm not trying to bring back any bad memories, Brother Harold. I'm just saying. Sometimes the service of God's a little difficult, but you don't quit, you don't give up. If you're gonna be a blessing, there's gonna be some costs. One man said that maturity springs in hardship. Are you listening? Sometimes we would never grow if God didn't let us have some issues. But Paul said he, look at chapter four, verse 15, he said, but I have all and abound I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. You know, what a blessing, and I like verse 19, but my God shall supply all your need. He said, you've supplied all my need. Epaphroditus, he took that long journey. He was willing to put his life in the service of God. He suffered, he got sick, he nearly died. But he said, Paul said, he has met my needs, he's ministered to my wants, he's been a blessing to me. And he's also said he's been a blessing to God. What he did was not a loss. What he did was not a negative, it was not a setback. It was pleasing unto God for him to desire to be a blessing like that. He said, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Paul said he ministered to me. Isn't that a blessing? Back in chapter two, verse number 25, the last phrase, he said, this is who Epaphroditus is, he's my brother, he's my companion in labor, he's my fellow soldier, he's your messenger, and he is, it is he that ministered to my wants. I'm glad God will always have someone in our lives who will care about us. Amen, let me just say something. That goes for every Christian in the building and every pastor, every man of God. The Lord will always have someone in your life that cares about you. I really believe that. I believe God will have someone standing in the shadows that loves you in Jesus. and wants to be an encouragement to you. So if you're really gonna be a blessing, there's gotta be a change. Epaphroditus' name doesn't mean what it used to mean. If you're gonna be a blessing, there's gonna be some costs involved, but keep going for the Lord. And then thirdly, I want us to notice the citation he was awarded. Epaphroditus, when he goes, he takes consumables. When he goes, I don't know what all the Paphrodites may have brought, but I would suggest he probably took what we folks have been taking up to the mountains, blankets and food and things like that. And when we want to be a blessing, sometimes we look into our little bank accounts or look at what we have. We want to do something for missions. We take from what God has provided and we give something to the Lord. You know what Paul says? Paul says in verse number, let me find it. He said, verse number 29, receive him, chapter two, verse 29, receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and notice this, and hold such in reputation. The word citation, let me just say, there is a reward for being a blessing. I don't wanna think about that when I go somewhere to be a blessing, but God is not gonna be in debt to anyone who has given him their time and their life and their heart. God, he's gonna do something to reward us. It may be here, it may be in eternity. The word citation, it is a mention of a praiseworthy act or achievement in an official report. Amen. It is especially that of a member of the armed forces in wartime. They receive, you know what Epaphroditus did? He received recognition, he received reward, he received commendation for his selfless love and service to God and to Paul and to the gospel. You know what Paul is saying? He's saying men like him should be held in reputation. Amen. But think about this, so Paul takes all these things. Maybe he took some bread. Maybe he took some cheese. Maybe he took some good old dried beef, beef jerky, I don't know. But I think the people in Philippi would know what a man in prison needs. So load all of that stuff together and it's all, you know, everything we give to God here a lot of times is just temporary things. But when Epaphroditus comes, now he goes there, he suffers getting there. When he does get there with a blessing, Paul says, I'm full, you've met my needs. God has used Epaphroditus to minister to my heart. You folks have been a blessing to me. But when Epaphroditus goes back to Philippi, he does not come home empty-handed. He left with something temporary, but he came back with something eternal. It's right there in your lap this morning. That's what a pastor does. Now he went, brother. He went, brother Harold. He gave his strength. He gave his physical ability. He put his heart into it. He put his love into it. He invested in it. He gave what he had. He gave all the strength he had. He gave out on the journey. But when he came back, he came back with something eternal. The book of Philippians. What did I say? Serve the Lord. Cause it is worth it, but it will be worth it. Amen. There are times that God's little people do something to be a blessing and no one may ever know what you did. But God knew. Amen. People may never know what you've done for the Lord. You may never be recognized down here, but can I tell you what we do for God and time, we're gonna be rewarded with eternal things, eternal blessings. I don't know what all it's gonna be. It's worth it here to serve the Lord. I was thinking of watching you folks sing and praise the Lord this morning, watching people play instruments and do different things, watching the little children And I was getting blessed, preacher. You may think what you're doing right now isn't noticed, isn't appreciated. You may feel like what you're putting your heart and your time into, what you're investing in, you may feel like it's going nowhere. I wonder how Epaphroditus may have felt along the journey. Here I am, I'm trying to be a blessing to Paul, but I'm so sick along the journey. When I get there, I'm not gonna be a thing but a burden to him. You know, the devil tries to discourage us along the way sometimes. Try to make us feel like what I did was not good enough, or the hardest I tried was not received. It blew up in my face. Can I tell you something this morning? The Lord is gonna bless you for that in life. But can I tell you, in eternity, there's gonna be a citation, there's gonna be something said in heaven that will bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is worth it all now. I'm gonna tell you, it will be worth it all in eternity. Epaphroditus, he took temporary things. He took expendable things. He took things that were going to just, the clothes were going to wear out again. The food was going to be eaten up and disappear. Whatever money he brought was going to be spent. Whatever clothes he brought, they're all going to be worn out. But when he went back to Philippi, he went back singing and shouting as he had something eternal in his hand. He had some promises that, my God, hey, look what God said to us when he got back. My God shall supply all your needs. He said, we got a promise that Midway Baptist Church is gonna be able to, in their life, in their difficult times, they're gonna be able to hold on to that promise that Epaphroditus brought back. I believe it says there in chapter four, verse 13, that I could do all things through Christ, which strength of me. Epaphroditus came back with some good things, didn't he? Child of God, Midway Baptist Church, keep that heart of being a blessing. I enjoyed the instruments today. Wasn't that a blessing? It blessed me to see Matthew play that piano. And I'm saying, how in the world can he do that with one hand? And I could see Brother Harold, you know, speeding him up and just making him just go to the end of his ability over there. Watching you folks get up and sing and watching the children up here, I'm telling you, watching them little ones grab them instruments and start picking, that did something in my heart. It is worth it to serve the Lord. It is worth it to put your heart in this and be, I'm gonna say, if you will just do whatever you can do to be a blessing and don't worry about what's gonna come back your way, God is gonna take care of that. I want to be a blessing in my life. Well, I'm like Epaphroditus, I'm imperfect. But I'm glad the Lord's able to take imperfect people and calls them to be good brothers and good soldiers and good servants. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I pray you'd take the thoughts this morning