The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 5: Fear Not

Episode Date: March 5, 2023

Are you driven by fear or faith?

work in their children's children. I'm not crying, you're crying. If we haven't met, I'm Ryan Britt. I'm one of the pastors here, and the youngest in that video was my oldest daughter. And then praise God for it. Praise God for generational discipleship. Praise God for the testimony that you heard at all of our campuses today of what God's done through our student ministry this weekend.

And for all the leaders and people like Ms. Jen that are willing to pour their life into the next generation and join us as parents and seeing our kids raised in the gospel. Praise God for that. It's not nothing. It matters in the kingdom. Amen. Amen. The original plan, as plans go, was not that I would be up here crying and a snotty mess this

weekend preaching after a video that my daughter was in. Originally, Pastor Job was going to be here, but he called me on Thursday morning before our Thursday night services. And he just said, man, I'm sick. There's no way I'm going to be able to go. I need you to jump in. And I said, my man. No problem.

And so here we are. So we're going to continue on in our Philippians journey. We're in Philippians chapter two, starting in verse 19 and going to verse 30 today. And not only do I preach kind of pinch it, but at the same time I'm preaching the week after Pastor H.B. Charles, which is no small task, mind you. He did an incredible job last weekend, walking us into Philippians Chapter 2. That man is an anointed gospel communicator and praise God for what happened in this place last weekend. And I know, and I believe that we have one of the best preachers in the whole country

in Pastor Jobby Martin. But Pastor H.B. Charles blessed us last weekend. So if you miss that, you need to go and dig into that in order to fully grasp what we're going to get on today. We're going to pick up in Philippians 2, verse 19. And this part of Philippians, Paul's writing more of a commendation. He's writing more of a personal testimony than he is giving doctrinal instruction or giving instructions to the church on what they're supposed to do. He's talking about his friends, two friends that we're going to read about, and then we're going to start to pick the text apart. Verse 19, the Apostle Paul continues and writes this. He says, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you, for I have no one like him,

who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare, for they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth how as a son with a father he has served me in the gospel. I hope, therefore, to send him just as soon as as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. I have thought it necessary to send to you Apaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed, he was ill near to death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me

also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am more of the eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. A couple things jump out right out of the gate. Paul says these words, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you. Timothy is Paul's right-hand man. If you know anything about the Apostle Paul, you know that he was quite the sender. He was quite the planner.

If you're a CEO, you're a leader, you're in the business community, you will love the Apostle Paul because the Apostle Paul is the one that took the church to scale. All of the other disciples are in Jerusalem and they're focused very much on the Jewish people after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. And while they're focused on the Jewish people, the Apostle Paul comes along, has a radical encounter with Jesus and goes from being a religious terrorist to being a pastor advancing the gospel in a missionary, planting churches all over the world. And so Paul looks at all the other disciples. He says, no problem. Y'all want to stay in Jerusalem and focus on the Jewish

people? That's cool. I'm going to take the rest of the world and I got it. And he does. He plans out many missionary journeys. And he goes all around the Roman Empire at the time planting churches. And that's how you and I are here today. Because the ministry of the Apostle Paul launched the gospel into the Gentile world, and this is how we have now come to receive and believe the person and work of Jesus Christ. And Paul says, I hope to send Timothy to you. And so whether it's on a macro level in regards to global church planting efforts, or it's on a micro individual level for you and for me, what we see right out of the gate here is that discipleship takes a plan. It doesn't just happen. It's the result of fruitful intentionality. Discipleship takes a plan. And so

in your life and in the life of this church we are in a two-year discipleship journey called the 10-10 life where we have been unpacking for many months the what's rooted in john chapter 10 verse 10 when jesus says the thief comes only to steal kill and to destroy and who knows that the thief is hard at work in the world and in our lives right now trying to steal kill and destroy that's what he's that's his mission statement that's what he's up to but then jesus says but i have come that they may have life abundantly. Jesus offers full life, purposeful life, mission-driven life, a life that is worth living. He calls it the life abundant. So when we think about walking in the abundant life as followers of Jesus, we ask this question in regards to our personal discipleship plan.

I'd ask you two questions. One, who is discipling you? Who's discipling you? What disciple-making relationships are you on? And I'm not just necessarily talking about fellowship. I'm talking about people who are intentionally teaching you what Jesus has said and what Jesus did. In Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, Jesus gives us the great commission. He says, all authority on earth has been given to me, on heaven and earth has been given to me. So go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. And then in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, he says, what's known as the missional mandate. He says, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses

in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. What does that sound like? It sounds like a plan. Jesus is giving us the who, which is him. He's giving us the how, which is teach them to obey and observe everything that I've commanded. And he's telling us the where, which is all over the world, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the ends of the earth. It takes a plan.

So who's discipling you? Who have you put yourself under to learn and follow Jesus? As I was looking into this sermon, one of the pieces of information that can, you're to me, and I would commend you, Church, I would celebrate this with you in the faithful steps that you're taking is that over the last six weeks, 1,470 adults in our church have signed up to be a part of a disciple group for the first time ever. Praise God for that. Praise God for that. That's significant. That's 1,470 people saying, I want to discover more about what the Bible says, and I want to deepen my relationship with Jesus through it and with

others. Praise God for that. So the first question in your discipleship plan is, who's discipling you. The second is, who are you discipling? If the goal of the kingdom of God is that we would all mature in Christ as being disciples who make disciples and walk out in the Great Commission in the abundant life, then who are you discipling? Paul continues talking about

Timothy and Apaphroditeus, these two brothers that he has spent an extensive amount of time discipling, and he says this. He says, I'm going to send Timothy to you so that I too may be cheered of your news of you. And then he goes on to say in verse 20, for I have no one like him. What an indictment for someone to say about somebody. There's nobody else like him. He says, the reason that is, is because who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare? For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. Paul says Timothy will be genuinely concerned for your

welfare. Do you have that in your life? Do you have those kind of friends? People who are genuinely concerned for your welfare? I hope so. You know what's not hard to find in this world? I don't know how many coffees or lunches or breakfasts you do with how many friends you have. I hope a lot. But what's hard to find is people in this world who you could have a meal with and sit across the table from them and then leave that and realize that they did all the talking. That ever happened to you? you're like, I don't know if I can say that loud. I'm sitting next to them. Right?

It's not hard to find that. But you know what it is? Sometimes a challenge to find. People who sit across the table from you, look you in the eyeballs and ask the question, how are you doing and actually care about the answer? I hope you have some of those relationships in your life. I know that I do. God's blessed me in that way.

And I've got some friends that have been that for me over the years. And when you have those kinds of friendships, it makes everything in life better. It makes the highs higher and it makes the lows far more livable. Let me show you this right here. Y'all zoom in on this right here. I just want everybody to get a piece. You ready? Make sure we all encompass the greatness here.

You see what that says right there? Whole in one. That's what that says. Whole in one. Yes, thank you very much. Let me just read it to you for our own personal enjoyment. Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. Pinehurst, North Carolina, extends congratulations to Ryan Britt.

Thank you very much. June 15th, 2021, scored a hole in one. On the par 3, 148 yard 15th hole at Pinehurst, number eight, this memorable feat was accomplished using the magic stick. You're not grown up enough to know about the magic stick. We congratulate you on this special occasion and are proud to share in the memory of this triumph. Aren't we?

Aren't we glad to share? I stand up on the T-box. I got the magic stick. Line up, get it in my sights. Take the swing, hit the ball, and as she normally does, she does the little left or right, a little baby cut. She's sailing toward the flag. Next thing I know, she hits the earth.

She begins to roll across the dirt, and the next thing you know, boom, she gone. I lost my ever-loving mind. I lost my mind. I was jumping up and down. I'm throwing my hat and glasses. I'm going crazy. This is the only time I call my wife on FaceTime.

I just got to show her the ball down in the cup. You know what I mean? Like it happened. I didn't just throw it there. This is real. When I think about that memory, you know what really makes it stand out? You know what really makes it special? I asked that question on Thursday night.

I said, you know what really makes that memory special? And somebody out loud said, Jesus? Well, now I'm in a predicament as a pastor because you've put me in a bad situation. because the answer is not actually Jesus in this, but sure it's church, it's a safe bet, but you know what makes it special? Who was with me? The men in my life that were with me

that have deeply invested in me that I know when they ask the question, how are you doing? They want to know the answer. Relationships like that make everything better. It is tough to beat when God blesses you with a really good friend. I hope and believe that you know

that you have people here at the Church of 1122 who genuinely are concerned for you. It certainly starts with Pastor Job being the elders, but it goes to our staff and our serve teams that this church is filled with people who have genuine concern for you. Whatever campus you're at, wherever you're attending, if you look to your right or to your left, what I know you will find is grace junkies who have been grabbed by the love of God and they want you to experience the love of God. May it be said of us, church, that we are a people of genuine concern for one another. Paul writes in Philippians chapter one.

We studied it. He says this in verse 27. He says, only let your life, let the manner of your life be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is really the crux of the book of Philippians. Let the manner of your life be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, what does that mean? Well, we studied last week in Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 through 11.

It says this, do nothing. This is what it means. for your life to be worthy of the gospel, do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form,

humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Do you know what that is? It's the gospel. It's the good news of Jesus Christ that though he was God, he did not count himself equal with God, but he came down, emptied himself, and he poured his life out so that sinners could be forgiven all the way into the cross. He became obedient even to death on a cross so that sinners could be forgiven and that they could go free and people who are

rebels could turn into sons and daughters. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the good news of Jesus Christ. And what Paul is saying is let that be the pursuit of your life. Let that be the point of your life. Let that be the purpose for which you live. Let your life be worthy of that. And he says this really interesting phrase in chapter two. He says, look not only to his own interest. What Paul is pointing at is the process of maturity as we grow with Christ. He's saying at some point as you follow Jesus, you begin to mature beyond just meeting your own needs, just thinking about what you want next and what you'd need next and taking the next hill and arriving at the next place. At some point, you begin to mature past that and you begin to really live at

others focused life. That's what this text in Philippians chapter two is really asking this of us. Are we living in others focused life? Are we living in others focused life? What Paul is saying is that if you're going to mature it in Christ, there's someone that you need to get control of and that's is you. Everywhere I go in life, it's wild, there I am. Every relationship I've ever been in, do you know what the common denominator was for me? Me. I bring me everywhere I go. And so me is something that I have to deal with. Paul says, look not only to your own interest, when Jesus was asked this question, he gave a similar response. A scribe comes up to Jesus and says, Jesus, what's the most important commandment?

This is asking the son of God, what's the most important thing God has ever said? And Jesus replies, he says that the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And then he says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Isn't that fascinating? He doesn't say that you should love your neighbor instead of yourself. Paul doesn't say, don't ever look to your own interest. He said, you should love your neighbor as.

yourself. What they're pointing at is maturity is growth. It's not staying still. Anytime we begin to talk about personal maturity and discipleship, which are ultimately the same thing, when we begin to talk about maturing, there's really two ditches we can fall into. It's the old Scottish parable that for every one mile of road, there's two miles of ditch. One ditch that we can fall into when it comes to thinking about maturity is that we can become overly self-focused or self-obsessed. We can get wrapped around the axle of always asking the question, why do I think this way and why do I feel this way? And why am I like this?

And what's my personality type? And we can just spend all of our time trying to understand us and we can fall into the ditch of self-obsession and self-focused. The other ditch that we can fall into is self-neglect, meaning that we never ask questions about things that are going on on the motivational level. We never ask what are our drive, what are the decisions that are making the decisions. Where do these thoughts come from? Why do I act this way?

why do I respond in this manner? We never dig into it and we neglect ourselves. And we can just ignore ourselves by staying busy. And if we can just stay busy doing stuff, we never really have to sit and think on an intimate level and we can fall into the ditch of self-neglect. But Jesus offers us a middle road, the true path toward maturity.

And it's not self-obsession or self-focused and it's not self-neglect. The middle road is prescribed and offered by Jesus, it's self-denial. It's self-forgetfulness. See, Christianity, one of the thousand things that makes Christianity distinct from every other world religion

is that Jesus offers us an actual process and a path to personal maturity and health, and he showed us exactly what it looks like. The middle road of maturing and growing in Christ, often in our world, we hear different philosophies or different ideologies. It's like a prescription from this world in regards to maturity might be this.

You just need to get over yourself. You just need to get over yourself. And, okay, maybe that's true. But Jesus offers a better way. Jesus doesn't say you need to get over yourself. He said, because of God's power and love in your life, you can control yourself. A prescription from the enemy that's very popular in the world is that you should define yourself based on how you feel at any given time.

But Jesus offers a better way. Jesus says, don't define yourself by how you. you feel to find yourself by how God feels about you and he speaks a better word over your life. This world would say, you know what the point is? Protect yourself from pain. Do whatever you got to do to remove negative emotion from your life and Jesus offers a better way. He says, no, don't protect yourself from pain. Pour yourself out for others in the name of Jesus and your pain will always find its purpose. This world would say pursue pleasure as a point, as the point of living. And Jesus says, no, no, no, don't pursue pleasure as the point of living.

follow me and I'll change how you define pleasure and I'll show you what living is really all about. It's really hard and that's just a really nice way to say it's impossible to live a healthy life, a God-honoring, God-centered, whole, mature life. It is really, really hard to live a healthy life if you don't believe that God loves you. If the foundation of your life is not that God loves you, think about it. If you don't believe that God loves you, then we don't believe that God loves you, then we don't believe, what's your motivation for living?

Eventually, you are going to pill all the layers back and you're going to find out the foundation of your motivations is more of you and more for you. And it will always leave you wanting if the foundation is not that God loves you. And this is not just true for a general day out there. It's true for professing believers. I know many professing believers that have a hard time really believing

in all the corners of their heart and life that God really loves them. And if we don't believe that, then what is our motivation for trusting and obeying Jesus? Wrestling self-down on the motivational level is hard work, but it's always worth it. Maybe it's fear of the unknown or it's not feeling like you're in control of your situation. Maybe it's these fears that keep us from maturing in our relationship with Christ. And over the last 10 years, I've been on a journey of digging down on the motivational level

to understand why it is I'm wired the way that I am and begin to grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ. And I offer you this only to say this is a testimony that I've experienced and maybe it'll help you as you mature along the way. Many years ago, I found myself in a season that I would describe as a season of duty. It was a very dutiful season. I grew up very religious. I've been trained in a lot of religion and religion had taken control of my heart and my mind. And I was very, very busy doing things for God, doing things for others. But my motivation was duty. I was just trying to do the right thing because I thought it was the right thing and it was the best way to behave. And so I was just trying to appease God and appease others

through behavior and activity. And I had gotten confused and I had thought that my activity is what gave me identity. I thought that the things that I was doing are what made me matter. And it was a very joyless season. It was a very heavy season in my life. To the point of which I came home one day and I'd been home about five minutes and I guess I was being a bit difficult and my beautiful wife looks at me and she says, hey, you're really robbing the joy out of our house. I couldn't even defend myself because she was right. God used her and used that in my life to begin to unfold what was going on and ultimately what was true of me down in my guts was there was parts of me that did not believe that God loved me. There was parts of me that was still

trying to prove my worth, still trying to make myself significant. And God used that season in my life to begin to lead me out of the season of duty and into a season of what I would call delight. Where I move from, I have to do this because it's the right thing to do to, I get to do this because God's good. And I moved into a season of delight where I began to want to obey God because it was a joy to do so. I began to realize that pouring myself out for others was a gift, that I get to walk in the gifts, that I get to spend time with the father, I get to say yes to him over and over again, I get to see other people come to Christ, I get to help make disciples, I get to count at all joy when troubles arise in my life, I get to be a part of the greatest church in the world,

I get to be my wife's husband, I get to be my kid's dad, I get to show up at work, things that at one point felt like a burden began to turn into a gift. You step out of duty into delight, And now, over the last season, I don't have it figured out yet, but I feel like God's led me on this journey even beyond that, which is to this place of design. The first is duty. The second is delight, and the third is design. And design is ultimately not that I get to do this, but that I was made for this. I was made for this. This is why I'm alive that I am made by God and for God.

I am made to know him and be known by him, to be enthralled with His goodness and love. love, to be overcome by him. I am made for him. I am made to go. I am made to love. I am made to share. I am made to serve and to give and to pray and to teach and to sing. I am made to struggle with hope. I am made to wait with anticipation. I am made to grow and I am made to mature. I am made for him to be his is why I am alive. It's why I am alive. Now, when we know whose we are, who we belong to and who we are as designed by God and for God. When we get there, we are free to live under control. What a line that is. What a statement.

That God has given us the freedom to live under control. That I am free to live under control and not give in to every desire of the flesh. That I am free to see other people as God's beloved children and to join his work in their lives. I pray that you would know this leaving here today, that God's purpose for your life is that you would be. his beloved and that you would see and savor the beauty of his unconditional and infinite love for you that he demonstrated in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ and that this love would permeate every single closet in the hallways of your soul and that you would be overcome by it.

I pray that God would overthrow us with his affections every day. Amen. Paul writes these words from prison. Timothy has lived through much difficulty. Epaphroditis almost dies by saying yes to this mission for the sake of Christ, what compels these men through such hardship and struggle in their lives? What compels them? Well, the love of God does. The love of God that was made clear to them through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes it like this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He says, for the love of Christ controls us.

because we have concluded this that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. It beckons the question, what is in control in our lives? Is it fear? Is it anxiety? Is it insatiable appetites for more? Is it apathy?

Is it excuses? Is it some pain in the past that's, taken control of too much of our life? Is it the approval of man? Is it the acceptance of others? What is in control of our lives? Or, as Paul would write it, is it the love of Christ? I love that. For it, the love of Christ controls us. Does he? Have you received and believed his love for you? The real question is not what is in control. The real question is who is in control. And let me assure you with this confidence that right now Jesus Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, he is currently seated at the right hand of the Father.

And his reality is that there are angels of fires, seraphim and cherubim who are flying around his throne right now singing, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the firstborn among the dead. He is the preeminent one. everything is subject to him. The Bible says that the earth is his footstool. He is in control.

He is in control. And he has offered all those who would follow him, who would trust him, he has offered them peace, he has offered them love, and he has offered them purpose. And the way that we walk in that peace, love, and purpose is by surrendering ourselves unto the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is by getting underneath his rule and his reign. and living our life under his authority. For the follower of Jesus, joy is not a feeling that we get by seizing an opportunity in life.

It is a fruit that is growing as the result of obedience. To be loved by and to be in love with Jesus Christ is the greatest of all invitations. Paul writes about two co-laborers, men who are living an others-focused life, who have come to a place of maturity where they say, I'm in, I'll go, I'll do whatever. The first that he writes us about is a man named Apaphroditis. In Apaproditis, he was a layman, which means he was never a pastor.

He had no public ministry that we know of, no microphone or crowd. He never shepherded a flock. He never received special revelation. He never authored a letter in the New Testament. What Apaphroditis did was say yes. He said, yes. Something needed to be done for the sake of Christ.

and he stepped in and he stepped up. Somebody needed to deliver a bag of money to Paul to support the work of ministry and Apaphrodite says, I'll go. One of the things we see from his testimony is that if you put your yes on the table, God will put it on the map. If you put your yes on the table, God will put it on the map. Paul commends him. He says this.

He calls Apaphroditeus his brother, his fellow worker, his fellow soldier, a messenger, a minister. Paul esteemed his brother. This guy was wildly humble. I don't know if you caught it when we were reading the text, but Aparaditis got very sick and almost died.

And Paul writes that that's not the thing that stressed him out. The thing that stressed Apaphroditis out was that other people knew he was sick and they were worried about him and he stressed him out that people would think that much of him to worry. That's how humble he was.

You know who's got two thumbs in this building and is not that humble? This guy right here. That's something. Papyriditis never sought fame. He never sought to be noticed. He just did the thing that God put in front of him to do. What we see in his testimony is this,

is that to serve in what may seem to be an unnoticed, unrecognized place in the body of Christ is as much the work of Christ as is any public ministry. What's going on in NewGen right now with kids being disciples, what happened this weekend with students being disciples, what happens in our parking lots every weekend and disciple groups all over the city with missionaries all over the world

whom you don't even know their names. Every single person who says yes to the advancement of the gospel through the local church, every single point of service is just as significant as anything I or anybody else would ever do on this stage.

Praise God for it. We live in a world where the name of the game is to tear down. It's to criticize, but the kingdom has a different agenda which is to build up. And so I just want to spend a few minutes encouraging you and you helping me encourage some folks that are part of this church.

I emailed our campus pastors on Thursday and I said, I want you to send me a name and one sentence about someone who is advancing the gospel through the Ministry of 1122 at your campus, and I want you to give me a sentence about who they are and what they're doing. And so they began to send these back. And so as I read these things, be encouraged and at the end we'll esteem one another. One of our campus pastors emailed me and said, his name's Mike, and he was truly rescued and immediately he joined the rescue team and he spends his life helping men out of addiction and failure. Astin, he is in the trenches of discipleship with students every week at great personal

cost to himself. Matt and Lorraine, through the ups and downs of their life, they always show up with a good attitude and are willing to help wherever. Tiffany, she is an incredible woman of God. She serves and disciples with an unmatched zeal. What a thing to be indicted of, to have unmatched zeal. Dale, she's our campus's secret weapon. I love that. Andrew and Vanessa, they leverage their time, talents, and treasures to the max at all times

and are willing to seek and squeeze every second out of the day for the Lord. Katie has such a heart for Jesus that she models uninhibited praise and worship for our kids. Jim's genuine passion to see God's love, changed people is truly amazing. He serves with confidence knowing the gospel

is at work. Ken is the most dependable partner in ministry I've ever met. His faithfulness from day one has stood out. Courtney lead students on Sundays like she's paid to do it. Misty, she's the best team lead in the whole church. Evidently, it's not a competition, but Misty's winning. She's the best team lead in the whole church. She might be four foot too, but she has the ability to take down a Navy seal. Luke might be in a wheelchair. He's one of the first in our building every Sunday. His fist bumps and warm smile touch the hearts of all. Linden has been serving in kids' ministry for 22 years. Every week, he goes above and beyond to create environments for kids to discover their own

relationship with Jesus. Kerry, he's faithful. He serves in a way that makes you want to be happy, rusty. I love this. He cares about souls. Praise God for the work he's doing in and through our church. Amen. And I say praise God for anybody here who has put their yes.

on the table and is letting God put it on the map. Thank you for your ministry. So we see that in Apaphroditis and then we look at Timothy. We know much more about Timothy than we do apaphroditis. I'm actually named after Timothy. My first name is Timothy named after Paul's right hand man. And in the life of Timothy, we know a lot of things. He traveled a lot with Paul all over, a lot with Paul all over Rome. He went to Corinth and Galatia and Troas and Philippi. There's two New Testament letters written from Paul, two Timothy on instructions on how to pastor and shepherd a flock. We know that he grew up in a single mother's home. His grandmother and his mother were Jesus followers in a Jewish culture, and they raised Timothy in the gospel.

And anytime we started the life of Timothy, we have to say this, that we can draw strength from his life, mom and grandma, single moms here that are raising your kids in the gospel. I know there's days where you're trying to load up the car and you're just trying to try to. to go to church and trying to get to the disciple group and trying to get them in relationships that can point them toward Jesus. And you've got to ask the question, is it even worth it? Let me remind you today, my sister, that the word of God does not come back into your void, that it always accomplishes the purposes it's sent out to do. You stay at it, mom, you stay at at grandma in the gospel and let God sort out the details. He's at work in your children's life.

Amen. Amen. Timothy shows us. Timothy shows us that God's at work in and through these things. Timothy, one of the things we know about him is that he struggled hard, very hard, with fear, with anxiety, with timidity, and with self-doubt. It's fascinating that I'm named after him because if you were to write a biography about me, those would be the words that you would use. You would say he struggled with fear and with timidity. you'd be like, really, you've been yelling at us for 45 minutes, you don't seem all that timid. But self-doubt, I raised my hand and I say me too. But we look at the life of Timothy and we see that God used him mightily. We look at Timothy in his relationship with Paul and the intentionality of his discipleship,

and we see that his struggles did not define him. But God used him in significant ways. As I've struggled through some of these same things in my life, I've learned that I can either surrender my struggles or I can surrender to my struggles. I can surrender my struggles to Jesus knowing that his yoke is easy and his burden, his light, and that I can cast my cares on him because he cares for me. And it's not like I just walk up one day and drop him at Jesus and leave him there. Somehow I'm a master of picking him up and carrying him around with me, even if I've had to surrender him.

And so I just keep doing it over and over and over and over and over again, and he never gets tired of it. because he cares for me. Or I can surrender to my struggles. I can give them a seat in my life that they can't handle. And when I put fear and I put worry and timidity on the throne in my life, they're not wired to handle it. And so my life begins to fall into disarray and disorder. I've learned that I can surrender my struggles or I can surrender to my struggles.

And the verse that we've memorized and that Paul writes to Timothy specific to these struggles, he says, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of love of power and of a sound mind. We talk about this all the time, that fear is not a feeling. It is a spirit at work against the church. Scared is a feeling, but fear is not a feeling. It's a spirit at work against the work of God in and through the church. When I was a few years back when my girls were smaller, they're 12 and 9 now,

but when they were smaller, and we still do this sometimes, but when they were smaller, we used to play a lot of hide and go seek. And our house was not very big, and so hide and go seek, there's not so many places to hide. And so I would always be the one counting and seeking, and my girls would be hiding. And I'm dad, right? I knew where they were. I knew where the places were to go. And so they would go and they would get into the closets.

And they would hide in the closet, and then I would be walking around and I would be making some noise so that they knew I was near. and then I would begin the process of trying to find them. And as I would walk over to the closet door, I would always pull on the closet door only to feel them holding on to the doorknob on the other side trying to keep it closed. And I would pull a little bit harder. I would knock on the door so that they would know it was me

and they're trying to be really, really quiet and trying not to be found. And eventually I would pull that door open and they would just throw their arms up and they would say, Dad, you found me. You found me. pick him up and hug them and we did this countless numbers of times. Knowing him pretty well, I know that the way the spirit of fear works in my life is that he tries to get me to play a game

of hide and seek with God. He gets me to try to get into a corner where I feel like I'm in control and that I can handle it, that I can close the door and I can just hold it closed. But what I found every single time is that no matter how hard I try to pull the door closed, God's always knocking and he's always trying to open it up. No matter what the spirit of fear is trying to lie to me and tell me what's true, he's saying, no, no, no, let me open that door up. And every time when I, when I let go of the door and God opens that door and I see his unconditional love for me and I'm reminded of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that I can trust him and that he is, you know, he is, faithful. Every time my eyes get open to that truth, I realize that I'm looking at the face of a

father who loves me, and I look at him and say, you found me. And it's always better to be found than it is to be hiding. And he found us in and through Jesus Christ. He came on a rescue mission for us in and through Jesus Christ. When the spirit of fear tries to keep us in hiding, we can't tame it ourselves. The spirit of fear does not tame easy, but it does flee at the name of Jesus. It does flee at the name of Jesus. The Apostle Paul writes,

every knee will bow in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, the spirit of fear bows at the name of Jesus Christ. Every knee will bow in heaven on earth and under the earth, and every knee and every tongue will confess. We're going to respond to the way that we always do at our services. We respond in three ways. We pray.

We get a head start on bowing our knees. We get a head start on confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord through prayer. At all of our campuses, we have prayer altars open. You're welcome to come and to confess. You're welcome to come and to pray for others. You're welcome to come and do maturing, growing work in and through Christ Jesus. Ask him to bring disciplining relationships into your life to pour into you and for you to pour out.

We pray. We sing, we sing true things about Jesus Christ as revealed to us through His scripture, knowing that if we say them out loud with our mouth, then they can grab on into our mind and to our heart, then they can become true and fruitful in our lives. And then we bring, we bring our first and our best through ties and offerings because God gave us his first and best through Jesus Christ, his son. We're going to respond together as we always do.

If you would at all of our campuses, stand with me. I'm going to pray, and then we're going to respond. to the good news of the gospel. Jesus, we love you. We thank you for the testimony of the Apostle Paul, men like Timothy and Apaphroditeus, who show us the joy of what it is to live an others-focused life, to be mature, to put our yes on the table,

to be surrendered under your lordship in all things. Father, would you help us to draw near now, knowing that you have come near to us? Would you grow our love and our affection for you? Father, we invite you to overcome us. all the doors and we say you found us. Here we are. Father, we want to know you and we want to know the depths of which we're known by you. We love you more than anything in this world and would it not just be something that we say, but something that you make true in us and of us as a people.

We pray all these things in the power of the precious name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said, amen. Amen. Let's respond together in worship.