Ridiculous Joy #7 - In Investment
Message Description
Butler Campus Pastor Brady Randall continues the 'Ridiculous Joy' series looking at Philippians 2:19-30 teaching about the joy we can experience in a mentoring relationship.
Message Transcript
Good morning. Would you join me in a word of prayer? And as we take a moment to pray, before we dive into the teaching, I want to encourage you to simply pray for yourself today that God would use this time to speak very pointedly to you. And would you also pray for me that God would give me the words that you need to hear this morning? So, would you join me in prayer?
Father God, I pray that you would speak to each and every one of us today, wherever we come from, whatever's on our mind, whatever distractions we're thinking about. God, I pray just in these next moments that your word would comfort or afflict or encourage, that you would help every one of us to see Jesus for the first time or fresh this morning. Father, I pray that you would be with me and help me to say what is true to your word, help me to speak in such a way that clearly shows Jesus Christ. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
I want you to think about for a moment outside of potentially your parents, who is the one person that invested in you or had the most positive impact on your life? What were the qualities of that person? What did that relationship look like? And I want you to think for a moment, what would that mean if you had the same opportunity to have that kind of impact on someone else or even greater, would you take it? Would you do it?
You and I know that when people intentionally invest in others, almost always, we get better. Think about how that happens on the job, if you get a new job, it's two different occasions, if one, you come in and someone's like, "Hey, good luck." And you're on your own, how that goes compared to if someone is there to mentor you or to train you or someone that you can shadow, it's a whole different experience.
Companies know this because they invest many, many dollars into continuing education and conferences because they know that in turn will make you better. You think about how that works with a coach on a sports team or a tutor or a mentor. And I was thinking this past season, my son was playing baseball, it's six to eight years old, so that's not always the most inspiring baseball, but you could see a tremendous improvement from day one until they finished the season.
And it was evident to me, the kids who had someone at home that was working with them, that was practicing swinging, and throwing, and hitting, a coach, someone who invested in them or a parent or a guardian who invests in them, made all the difference.
But you know where I see this the most, and this is in physical therapy. Okay? So, if you've ever had surgery and you've been told that you need to go see a physical therapist for about a month, this is how this often happens. You go in, you got three days the first week, and physical therapist or trainer is working with you, and you're doing all the exercises and you're under their watchful care, and whenever they say go, you go, you do all the sets.
And then what happens is they give you a list of exercises you're supposed to do at home. Now, have you all done those at home to the same intensity and repetition that they wanted? What happens is normally the first day, I'm going to do my homework, they're going to be impressed I did every exercise.
And then by the end of week one, maybe you've done half the exercises and by week two, it's like, "You know what? That's why I'm paying a physical therapist." And so that seems to be what happens, and man, when someone is with us and pouring into us, and holding us accountable, and encouraging us, that makes a tremendous difference.
Now, statistics bear this as well. Did you know that 71% of fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs? And 97% of those who are in those programs say that they're very valuable. 94% of employees say that they would stay with their company, their current company if they had people who would invest in them and mentor them.
Those kids, students who have a mentor are about 50% less likely to try drugs, and 89% of those who have been mentored will then go on to mentor someone else. I've been very fortunate in my life to have some men and women who have poured into me, some coaches and some teachers, and Sunday school teachers.
There was one particular relationship I had when I was in the youth group. I went to a youth group where I grew up, and I went a couple of times and then the youth pastor tapped me on the shoulder one day, he said, "Brady, how would you like to go to breakfast before school on Friday mornings at Panera Bread?"
And at the time I was not a morning person, and so this was already early morning. I was like, "Man, an extra hour early to have breakfast with someone I don't know all that well?" I was like, "Okay." And so, I did that week one, and that turned into week two, and that turned into every week, I was so excited to meet with this youth pastor.
And during that time, it wasn't intimidating as I thought it might be, but he just poured into me. It was an opportunity for me to ask a lot of questions, sometimes we'd read and study the Bible together, sometimes he would pray for me, sometimes we would just hang out.
And as I had that intentional time together with this man, God began to place on my heart, man, what would it look like for me to have this kind of impact on someone or somebody else? And I remember asking him one time, I said, "Paul, how do you know if you should enter into vocational ministry? To do this as a job."
And what he said to me always stuck out, he said, "Brady, you should do something else, you should do anything else. And when you find you can do nothing else, that's when you know that you should enter into the ministry." And that was so profound to me, so simple, but it stuck with me, someone who was intentionally investing in me.
And here's the thing. When you invest in the life of another person, that has the opportunity to have a positive impact. But when you invest in someone intentionally into the mission of Jesus, that has the opportunity to have an eternal impact on somebody else. And not only does it have an opportunity to have an eternal impact, but there is also actually immense joy that you and I can have when we enter into that process.
We've been in a series the past few weeks called Ridiculous Joy, where we're looking at the book of Philippians, And the human author Paul is writing Philippians from a Roman prison. He's basically on house arrest and throughout this book, he talks about joy.
A joy that the Philippian Christians could have, a joy that he has even in chains as he shares this incredible message. And what's crazy about this, what's ridiculous about the joy, is that these are counter-cultural things, to be a servant, to invest in other people, to have joy amid adversity. What in the world is that talking about?
And what I want you to see today, I don't want you to just see it, my prayer for you is that you would get to experience this kind of joy that Paul was talking about, that Jesus is offering. And today in the text that you heard read, "Paul lifts up two particular men, Timothy, and Epaphroditus."
And what we don't want to do at Orchard Hill often is say, "Hey, follow these guys, these guys are the role models." Because every hero in the Bible has flaws. And there's ultimately only one hero in the Bible and that is God. And yet at the same time, Paul can say, "I want you to follow me as I follow Jesus."
And so today God is going to lift up four particular characteristics of these men who have been transformed by Jesus. And it's because of their interaction with Jesus, that they in turn want to give their lives in service to Him and investing in others.
And so, what I want you to see is ask yourself, what would cause someone to have these qualities? What is it about Jesus that would cause people to give their lives in service to Him? And so, the first characteristic we see is in verse 20, and this is someone who's looking out for your genuine best interest.
In other words, someone who's concerned for your welfare and greatest good, and we see this in verse 20. Now, Timothy was basically Paul's protege. Timothy was a young spiritual leader in the church, he came to faith mainly through his grandmother and his mother. I love that. And he was mentored by Paul.
He was a spiritual leader in the church. There are two letters 1st and 2nd Timothy in the New Testament that is written by Paul to this young leader named Timothy. And Paul says he has no one like Timothy who will show genuine concern for your welfare like he does. He's someone who's genuinely looking out for your best interest.
And this is the kind of person that's going to tell you, not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. And I wonder if you can say that you have some real truth-tellers in your life that are going to go through all the fluff and tell you what you need to hear.
And if you're a parent, you know what this is like, because people have different agendas for your kids. Not always bad malicious agendas, but often agendas, whether it's friends or other peers that they're working with. But as a parent, you often tell your kids not what they want to hear, but hopefully what they need to hear, because you love them, and you hopefully have their very best interest at heart.
And so, the second characteristic we see is that what happens when you invest in the life of another person, what's the result of having been transformed by Jesus is then to be consumed with the agenda of Jesus. And we see this in verses 21 to 22, Paul says, "It's natural for people to look out for your own self-interest."
We don't have to learn that. It's easy for us to look out for ourselves, to look out for number one. But here God and Paul lift up Timothy, is an example who didn't look out for his self-interest, but the interest of others. And by the way, a few verses earlier, Paul in Philippians lifts up, he says, "No one looks out for their own self-interests." He said, "In humility, value others as better than yourselves, not looking to your own interest, but into the interest of others."
And this is exactly what Timothy did. Timothy had proved himself by working with Paul, he was a servant in the gospel, he slaved with Paul for the main agenda, for the main mission of Jesus Christ. And you've probably heard that word, if you've been at Orchard Hill, certainly you've heard the word gospel in the book of Philippians, and simply the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ.
It's the announcement of victory, what Jesus has done by His life, His death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, and His ongoing ministry by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the good news. That's what Paul and Timothy were fired up about.
That's what we at Orchard Hill are fired up about, the gospel, that Jesus Christ can transform a life, that Jesus Christ in Him alone can abolish your sins, to separate them as far as the East is from the West, that God can remove all of your shame, that God, by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead wants to live inside of you.
That's the good news. That's what had Timothy so fired up. There's nothing like the gospel. I remember hearing a message about 15 years ago, that's always stuck with me. And the person giving the message said, this phrase, "Be a river, not a flood."
In other words, we could do 100 things, 100 worthwhile things, you and I could be involved in a lot of agendas, but there's nothing quite like the gospel, there's no nothing quite like being laser-focused on the ministry of Jesus Christ. And at Orchard Hill, we always want to ask this question, is how does the ministry, and how does what we're doing as a church focus on Jesus' mission?
This is the way that Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, he said, "I resolve to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Now, I think Paul was speaking a little bit in hyperbole, but what would make Paul say the only thing I want to be about is Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross?
John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist faith. And he had a quote that I want to paraphrase. He said, "Give me 100 people who fear nothing but God, hate nothing but sin, and vowel to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and we will change the world." And I love that. What would it look like to have people who were so focused on the grace and the good news in the mercy of Jesus? That they were willing to give up their lives for that?
You might be here today and say, "Yeah, what would it take to be all about Jesus?" That sounds a little bit weird. I mean, you think about KidsFest and what happened this last week. And if you're here and you invited your kid and like, "Man, what got into those leaders that they are willing to give so many weeks of their summer?"
I was just talking to a girl today, who's been involved. This is a teenage girl; she's going to bed at eight o'clock in the evening. Why? Because she needs so much energy to get up in the morning, to pour into the lives of these kids. What would make someone do that? But the mission and the agenda and the mercy of Jesus.
And see, here's the incredible thing about Jesus, Jesus will use anybody, but He especially loves to use people, not who has it all together, Jesus loves to use people who have blown it, who are weak, who have messed up, because guess what happens, when God uses people like us, people who are broken, weak people, God's the one who gets all the credit.
God is the one who can be on display to say, "Man, if God can use someone like so-and-so, someone like me, then it must be all about God." And so, the other thing that we see here is Paul says, "I would love to send Timothy to you, but it's necessary that I send Epaphroditus."
And Epaphroditus, we don't know a lot about him in the scriptures, he was someone who was at the Philippian church and wanted to send a care offering to Paul, a care package to Paul. He was willing to take this love offering to Paul, who was in prison.
And this is what we see about, this is the third characteristic that we see, that as a result of being transformed by Jesus and investing in others, we see this in verse 25, and I'm just going to simply call this a partner in the battlefield, that carefully attended to Paul's needs. In other words, he was on the front lines with Paul. He was in the day-to-day grind of ministry, day in, day out, working with people, not always fun, not always easy.
And here's the thing, if you want to mentor, do you want someone who talks a good game? Do you want a coach who knows all the philosophy? Or do you want someone who's lived it? Someone who's not just read about it, but someone who's experienced it.
Paul says there's something about Epaphroditus because he's been with me through thick and thin. He was someone who realized that he was engaged in a day-to-day spiritual battle, that there was and is a real enemy named Satan, who wanted nothing more than to destroy the work of the gospel.
And I believe very strongly today that Satan would want nothing more than you and me to simply check out of this message, to say, that's a boring message, that's a boring text, but Satan wants to blind our eyes so we can't see the beauty of Jesus lifted up in the gospel.
But Epaphroditus went to battle with Paul. He attended to his needs and in so doing, he became ill so much so, that he almost died. And what I find fascinating is Paul, who had the gift of healing or gifts of healing, he healed a number of people in the scriptures, here was Paul unable to heal Epaphroditus.
But we read this line, and I love this phrase, "But God had mercy." Don't you love that?" "But God had mercy." And in this case, in His mercy, He chose to heal Epaphroditus, and in so doing, He spared Paul further agony." In fact, the text says, "Sorrow upon and sorrow, God chose to heal him in that day."
And what Paul knew is that God is the one who's ultimately in charge, God is the one who will decide if Paul gets out of prison, God is the one who will decide if and how He chooses to heal a person, God will decide when you and I, and when Paul will take our last breath.
And here's the reality, is that God doesn't always come through the way that we want. I think about a man in the Bible named John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Jesus. He said, "I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals." He was all about Jesus, he had an incredible ministry, and then he was imprisoned.
And then doubt began to sink into his life, and he, John, the Baptist was questioning Jesus, is Jesus who I thought He was? Is Jesus really the savior, the Messiah? And Jesus when He heard about this, He says, "Yes, tell him that I am who I say I am." The dead are healed, the sick are healed, but John the Baptist was beheaded.
So, God doesn't always come through in the way that we ask or request. And maybe you're here today and you say, "Brady, I've been praying some prayers and I haven't seen God come through the way he did here." But here's the thing, God knows a million things that are going on behind the scenes that you and I don't. God knows, God sees, God sees every investment that you made that you say had no fruit.
But God's in control. And because God is in control, the fourth characteristic that we see is a willingness to risk your life for the sake of the mission. In fact, not only did Epaphroditus almost die, but due to the result of his work in the Lord, he risked his life. And the idea here in the Greek language is to roll the dice or to gamble.
And here Epaphroditus was willing to risk his own life and safety and wellbeing for the sake of Christ. It's the idea of realizing that the mission is greater than our comfort or safety. This past year, those healthcare workers who knew that there were many, many people coming, very sick with a contagious virus or disease, and yet they stayed anyway.
It's the firefighter who jumps into the burning building, it's the soldier who willingly risked his or her life, not knowing if they will enter from the battlefield again.
What in the world would be so worth it to be willing to risk your life for the sake of the mission, what would cause someone on the front lines of ministry to give up their lives for the sake of the mission, what would cause teenagers to give up a large majority of their summer to invest in children, not knowing if you would ever see the fruit or investment?
It's knowing that Jesus Christ not only risked His life but gave His life away. Literally in the most excruciating means possible, as He was hanging on the cross, suffering the wrath of God that was poured out, that was due against me for my sin, that was due against you and I for our sins, that not only did Jesus willingly give His life, but He also rose from the dead, knowing that whatever we see or experience in this life is not the end of the story. That's why Jesus says, "Fix your eyes on me, the author and the perfector of your faith."
It's knowing that you're investing even when the fruit might not be seen. I was thinking about this one, a number of years ago, I had a chance to go to the country of Malaysia. And Malaysia is a Muslim country, and in a sense, Christianity was illegal there.
And it blew me away, two particular churches that had an incredible ministry to people who were hard to reach. They had a saying, they said, "Where there are people, there is need, and where there is need, there we go." And this one church, they would give up their Saturday mornings, they would get on a non-air-conditioned bus and travel three hours into the jungles of Malaysia to share the good news of Jesus.
And in these places, there was what's called, a longhouse, and it was very much a longhouse about the size of a football field, and it had many families inside of there. And what would happen is if a family, the head of the household came to faith in Jesus, the entire household would often be converted.
And there were 100 of these houses, and they would go and sometimes they would be rejected, and some people would go for weeks on end and not see any fruit. But when a house came to the Lord, I was like, "Oh my gosh, it's worth it even though we've been rejected so many times before."
And there was another ministry where there were these kids who are literally on the street, they were called stateless children because the government of the Philippines wouldn't recognize them, and the governments of Malaysia wouldn't either. And so, there were these kids just literally living on the street left to die.
And so, these Christians got together, they raised money and they built what was called the Gyra home. And what they would do is they would take these kids in, they would feed them, they would clothe them, they would house them, they would educate them, and they would share the good news and the love of Jesus Christ.
And this is a long process, a lot of hours, money, time, energy, not all the children came to faith in Jesus, that they knew of. But over time, some of them did. And what kept them going was that Jesus Christ and His mission is worth it. They were compelled because seeing the fruit is worth it, even when we don't always see it.
And I would encourage you when you and I see the fruit of a life change in Jesus, that is worth celebrating. And at every campus at Orchard Hill in August, we're going to celebrate that through believer baptism.
And what this is, this is happening onsite at Wexford, in the Strip District, and in Butler, we're celebrating at Moraine State Park. And what this is, is if you've been transformed by Jesus, this is an opportunity to celebrate the work of God in your own life.
And so, what this is, it's a public proclamation of the work that God has done in you, where you go into the water and you are raised to new life, Jesus has washed you clean, it's just a celebration. And so, if God has transformed your life, I want to encourage you to be a part of that celebration at your campus.
If you've already been baptized, I would encourage you to be a part of that celebration of what God has done, there's nothing quite like a life change. Also, at Orchard Hill, if you perhaps were baptized as a child or an infant, we will recognize if you would want to be baptized again, in terms of your own request.
We get this from Acts 19:1-5, where Paul talks about a group of believers who were baptized into John the Baptist, baptism in the ministry of repentance, but then they were rebaptized again in Jesus’ name.
So, if that's a request that you have, we will honor that as well. But man, if you are here and you're like, "That sounds a little crazy. I don't know about this Jesus." I want to encourage you to be a part of that, to see man, what would cause someone to do that? What would cause someone to go into Lake Moraine or to go up in front of people and share their story of how good Jesus is?
This whole thing, this whole mission is not the plan of Orchard Hill, this is Jesus' deal. This is His mission and mandate, in fact, in Matthew 28, when Jesus had risen from the dead and before He ascended into heaven, He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, of all people, groups, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded and surely I am with you always, even until the end of the age."
Someone asked this question and it's always stuck with me. He said, "Brady is your fruit growing on other people's trees?" And if you're here today, you say, "Man, do I want my fruit, the fruit of my own life or whatever I believe. Do I want other people to follow after me?" Whatever that looks like.
And by the way, even though that's the mandate, the way that we invest in others, can look differently. I don't want anyone to walk away from here and be like, "Man, one more thing on my to-do list. I got to add discipleship, I got to add investing, I've already got a full schedule."
And this isn't something that has to be... I've made the mistake of saying, this is something that has to be programmed, you got to have a class, how do you invest in people's lives and Jesus? It can be done organically. It's one of the reasons why we have things like KidsFest and Kidzburgh and Student Ministries, Bible studies, and Life Groups because we believe that these are the best environments where this kind of life change and investment takes place.
But if you're here today, it's like, "Man, who do I got to invest in?" I just want to encourage you, think about someone maybe this week, who you could text and invite to breakfast or coffee or lunch. It doesn't have to be any scarier than that. And then pray intentionally how God might use that relationship to go from there.
It could change your life, it could change there's, but there is a measure of intentionality behind that. And again, if you're here today and you're investigating Jesus, and you wonder what makes people so excited, or maybe you're here today and you've got doubts, because you say, "Yeah, I want to believe in Jesus, but He seems too good to be true because I've prayed and God has not come through," because maybe I've had a terrible mentoring experience or there was abuse that happened.
I want to encourage you, God knows, God sees, God cares, and God is not yet done. And if you've been invited today at Orchard Hill, by someone who's invited you, I would encourage you, maybe ask them to go out to eat, or to have coffee.
Or if you're here on your own and you say, "Man, I want to take advantage while I'm here to find out if Jesus is who He says He is. I think this would be a great environment to do just that."
To talk to a life group leader, talk to someone at the connect desk, talk to a pastor, to investigate if Jesus is who He said He is. Because if He is, that'll change your life and your eternity. But if He's not, then we can just stop wasting our time in the process. But I think it would be silly to do nothing.
And what I believe that you will find, what I hope and pray that you will find, is that there's no one in the universe like Jesus Christ. There was a song I used to sing, "There's no one, there's no one like Jesus. There's no one, there's no one like Him. I've walked and walked all over, I've searched and searched, I've turned and turned all over, but there's no one, there's no one like Jesus."
And it's my hope and prayer that, that would be your experience, if it's not been this far, I want to encourage you, don't give up on Jesus because Jesus has not given up on you. And what's so exciting is that you have the opportunity to increase your joy when you invest in Jesus' mission of helping people find Him for the first time and obey all that He's commanded.
Think about how that would change your life, think about how that would have a ripple effect in the Wexford and Butler and Strip District communities, think about how that would change someone's eternity. And this is not, we have to, but we get to. And you can dive and jump into that today, no matter where you've been or what you've done.
Let's pray. Father God, I thank you for the promise of eternal life that can be found in Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that if there's someone here today, who's not yet given their life to you, but maybe today wants to know more about Jesus or put his or her faith in you, that they would acknowledge their sinfulness, they'd confess their sin, and they would put their trust and hope in you.
Father, I pray that they would know that this could be the first day of eternity. Father God, I pray for those who have been following Jesus for a long time and who have made it their life mission to invest in others. God, I pray that you would encourage them, I pray that you would encourage them to keep going to not give up even when they are not seeing fruit.
Father, I pray for those who are discouraged, who's been investing in people, or investing in relationships, or investing in their families, and they've not seen the fruit that they want to see. God, would you let them know, you see, you saw, that you're the one who's ultimately in control, and would you strengthen them for the journey that remains.
Father, I pray that collectively as a body, as a church, that we would experience joy by giving it away and investing in others. We ask and pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
