A Life Worth Following

Good morning, Destination Church. If we haven't had the chance to meet before, my name is Josh Meyers. I'm the lead pastor here, but I'm not here today.

That being said, I'm super excited for you guys because you get to hear from my good friend Mark Kenberger as he continues in our message series going through the book of Philippians. A little bit about Mark and why this is exciting. Mark was not only my former boss, but he is the lead pastor of one of our sending churches. Transformed church.

He currently sits on our board and so he hears a lot about us and a lot about you and what's going on here. And he's also a really big mentor and friend to me and a lot of his investment into me is why you are sitting where you're sitting this morning. And so I'm grateful for Mark and I'm grateful for him to be bringing the message this morning.

So, can we give him like the biggest destination church round of applause as he comes up to the stage. Hey, thank you for having me. It wasn't your choice. It was Josh's, but I'm here and I'm so glad to be here. Happy belated first birthday.

I missed your celebration, but happy birthday to you guys. We down at Transform, which is only 15-ish minutes from here. We are so proud of you and we are so proud to be a part of this story and what God is doing here.

As Josh said, he was a staff member at Transform with us for several years and then we had the opportunity to plant and help Destination get going. I first met Josh, I think it was 2021. We were just coming out of CO and we had lunch together. I knew some of his relatives, his in-laws were at our church.

So, I met with Josh for lunch to just talk ministry. Maybe there was something there. I'm like, who's this punk rocker. Okay, like with the black skinny jeans. Who is this guy.

Okay, so I met with him for lunch and we hit it off real quick. , many of the same convictions, the same heart for ministry. And soon enough that conversation turned into, I think you should work at Transform.

We're looking for somebody just like you. And so Josh came on staff with us and early on he had said, "You know what. I might someday plant a church. " but right now I need to be I need to just be at a healthy church for a season.

And so he came I don't know if he ever found the healthy part, but he found a church and he found our church and he served with us for almost four years various roles. And then I won't forget the time when so so we we are a church plant ourselves but we we had said hey we want to plant churches we believe in this but we hadn't done it yet. We've been putting dollars away. We've been dreaming about it but we hadn't done it yet. And then Josh came forward and said all right I think it's time.

And I said let's go. Let's do it. And I had we we had just launched into a giant building campaign to expand our building like literally three four weeks ahead of this.

And I I gave that announcement to our church. And then a few weeks later, I said, "I've got another really important announcement. We're going to plant our first church. " And I need 30 of you to go with Pastor Josh and go plant Destination Church.

And over 30 of you signed up to go. And I am absolutely thrilled. Not that you left. But I'm just thrilled with what God is doing here. And I And I miss Josh.

I really miss Josh. I see him like once a month now. And he calls sometimes. But I I miss I miss his ability to lead worship for us.

I miss his preaching and teaching. I miss his Excel spreadsheets. He's really good at that.

I miss I miss hanging out with him every day. Now Josh isn't dead. He's just here now.

He's not with me every day. And so you get him. You get him instead of me.

But he's been such a blessing and such a friend in ministry. And so I'm I'm just thrilled to be able to be a part of this with you guys. Church planting is kind of like sending a teenager off to college. So like they leave and then maybe they come back for a little visit or they call but the reason they're calling is cuz they probably need something or a little help with something and then sometimes they come and do their laundry or in this case they do printing at our church or something like that. But like it's like sending a teenager and as as hard as it is to send that teenager off, you go, "That's what I was supposed to do with that teenager.

I'm supposed to send them. " And so it is so fun to see what God is doing here. And just to be able to be with you and worship with you and and be a part of this. I am I'm so blessed to to to check this out.

Church planting was not on my radar growing up. I was a part of a an established church, a wonderful church, but multiplication was not a part of the conversation. Church planting, I'd never heard of it in my life. Heard a lot about church splitting, never a lot about church planting. And so, , when I was 22 years old, I was interviewing for jobs as a youth pastor.

I'd gone to college to be a youth pastor. And, and I was interviewing at a few different places, and I I landed just up the road from here, another 15 minutes, at a place called New Hope Community Church in Cambridge. And at the time they were in a high school and I'd never seen anything like this.

I'm going what. Like you can do church in a school. Like that's a thing. And I fell in love with the church and I got the job and my wife and I were there for 5 years. And that's where we kind of caught the bug to go, huh, maybe maybe you can reach a new city and a new community in a new way by starting a new church.

And so the rest is history. And I had the opportunity to plant transform about seven years ago. And now we officially have planted our our first church. , and so it has been a a joy to watch it and also to have people like many of you that were formerly transformed that you'd be willing to trust me to send you to go with somebody else. What we're going to talk about today is kind of what what it means to trust or have leadership or have characteristics of a life worth following.

That's going to be our our title for the message today is four characteristics of a life worth following. The reason why this is the title is because you guys are in the book of Philippians and you're kind of walking your way through that book in the Bible, which which by the way, let me just tell you, that's really not normal for church plants to go through the Bible. And so, I love that you open up your Bibles and that you want to go through books in the Bible and you're hungry for God's word. Is that a good thing. So, I'm really excited about that.

So, I'm going to continue that with you. Open up a Bible with me to Philippians chapter 2. And the page number is behind me here. Philippians chapter 2.

And in Josh's words, if you don't own a Bible, take this one home with you. That's a gift to you. Philippians chapter 2 is where you are, where we are.

And when you first read this section, which we're going to read it, you're going to go, "This is Josh gave Mark a weird one. Like it's kind of like this Passover section of scripture, which sometimes it's like that. Sometimes there's there's the ones that like, okay, Hobby Lobby, I get it. Those are the famous ones, right. And then sometimes there's passages of scripture where I bet you you unless you've really read Philippians in depth, you've skipped over these verses.

But there's some gold in here. And you don't get to that gold unless you're teaching through the Bible kind of verse by verse. So, , here here's what happens here. In in Philippians 2, we're going to talk about two two guys that that Paul brings up.

One is Timothy and the other is Apaproditis. Okay, so these are two two important guys that Paul brings up. This is this is Pippen and Jordan. This is Lamelo Ballal and Anthony Edwards here.

These are important guys, okay. Going to make it all the way. He says, Paul says,"I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.

" So he he he wants to send Timothy back to the church in Philippi. So again, you're in the book of Philippians, which is a letter written by Paul to a church in the city of Philippi that that he loves and he loves these people and he started this church, but he's not with him anymore. Paul's actually in jail, in prison in the city of Rome. So, he can't get there, but they can go to him.

But, , he says, "I want to send Timothy to you as soon as I can cuz I want to get news about you. I want to I want to hear the update. " It's kind of like me visiting destination. I want to I want to know the update.

Paul wants to come, but he can't come. So, he's he wants to send Timothy to get an update. This has been really refreshing to to read Philippians.

By the way, I just finished preaching through Galatians. It's a different book, okay. Like, so if you know anything about Philippians, Paul is like happy. The whole book is happy.

If you know anything about Galatians, he's mad. The entire book, okay. Because he's disappointed in that church.

But Philippians, he's excited about these people. He's excited about what God's doing. And he wants to send Timothy to him because he wants to get an update.

He doesn't know what's going on, right. He's not following them on social media. He hasn't been listening to the podcast cuz he's in prison.

And those things don't exist. So, basically, he said, "I'm going to send Timothy to you cuz I want to know what's going on. " Then he talks about Timothy for a minute. He says, "I have no one else like him who will show genuine concern for your welfare. For everyone looks out for their own interest, not those of Jesus Christ.

" But you know that Timothy has proved himself because as a son with his father, he's served with me in the work of the ministry. So he's going to go on here for a little bit and talk about Timothy and the important relationship that he and Timothy has. And so he's going to kind of promote Timothy, if you will, say, "Hey, this is a guy that you want to follow. This is a guy that that is really living for the Lord.

I've got nobody like him. " Paul says, "Oh, Paul, I don't think Paul plays favorites, but if he had a favorite, Timothyy's his favorite. " Some of you parents, you don't play favorites.

She might have a favorite. And so, like, I tell my sisters, look, my parents, they didn't play favorites, but I'm your favorite. But anyway, that's they they get mad at me for that.

But if Paul had a favorite, it's Timothy. Timothy is like his favorite. He's his guy. They go back at least 10 years from this moment. They've been together for 10 years or they they've had a relationship for 10 years.

They've been doing ministry together. We first meet Timothy in Acts chapter 16. This one will be behind me.

It says Paul came to Derby and then to Lystra where a disciple named Timothy lived whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. And the believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. So, we know from a young age, Timothy was probably a teenager when Paul met him and he just had a reputation about him. This dude was was strong and he was actually a believer before Paul got there.

It says in 1 Timothy 15, it says, "I'm reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Ununice and I'm persuaded now lives in you also. " So, one of the most important men in the New Testament, do you know who led Timothy to Christ. It wasn't Paul. You know who did it. His mom and his grandma.

So, if you're a mom or you're a grandma in here, you don't stop praying. And how many of you like were impacted by a mom or a grandma that just didn't stop praying for you, right. That's why you're here today, right.

Because there's something about those moms and those grandmas that just keep praying for you. Well, that's Timothy's story. Timothy comes to Christ and as far as we know Timothy's Timothy's father is not a believer. If he was, it would have been explained differently. All it says is he's a Greek.

His mom, it says he's Jewish, she's a believer. It says his father's Greek. So, as far as we know, there's a split home there in terms of dad does not believe, mom does.

Timothy comes to Christ and Paul basically says, "Timothy, you're coming with me. I want to take you onto my onto my team. " They kind of have this like father-son relationship with each other. It is a working ministry relationship. He's not his biological father, but he kind of like adopts him as a son.

And then Paul tells the Philippians, "Hey, I got somebody coming your way that you really got to meet. He's the best I have. I want to send Timothy to you soon because there's nobody better that I can send to help this new church.

" So he says Timothy back back into the passage here, he he has genuine concern for you. He's proved himself in ministry. And then verse 23, I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. He doesn't know exactly what his future's going to be. And I'm confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

So not only does he want to send Timothy, he wants to come himself. He wants to go and see what God's doing in the city of Philippi, but he's in prison. He doesn't know if he's going to make it.

So, he's going to send he's going to send Timothy instead. I want to look at based on this, I want to look at these characteristics of a life worth following. Characteristics of a life worth following.

We're going to have two from Timothy's life and two from the next guy, Apaproditis. We'll talk about him in the next section. But those those two and two make four characteristics of a life a life worth following. Number one, I want to show you this.

Paul says that Timothy has a genuine love for others. Paul's like, "Okay, why should you follow a guy like Timothy. Why should you trust him. " It's because he's got a genuine love for other people.

And this is this is the way that Paul describes him. This is in verse 20. I have no one like him who will show genuine concern for your welfare. How many of you have had the a boss where you know some of you you've had a boss where you know that your boss loves you and some of you have had a boss where you know that your boss loves your performance, right. Like and okay, it's a job.

But there's a real difference when you know that the person above you actually loves you, not just what you give to the company, right. And so he says of Timothy, he says he's got this genuine love for other people. He's genuine.

And this is a life worth following. He's genuine. There's a lot of statistics that are coming out about how Gen Z and the younger generations, they don't buy the lie. Well, shouldn't say they don't buy the lie. They they're opposed to our slick marketing because they've always grown up with screens and they've always grown up with we don't know what's real and what's not, especially with AI.

What the world is real and what's not, right. And they're pushing against that. And what they're saying is we want genuine.

You even watch look at the shows that maybe you watched versus shows that your kids watch. It's like real life stuff now. Like real life YouTube stuff.

All these shows because the kids and the younger generation are saying, "You know what. We're kind of pushing against our parents' generation of slick marketing. All we want is genuine. Show me something real.

" And that's how that's how Paul explains Timothy. This dude's real. He's genuine. And no, nobody's like this. They they are they are totally genuine and consistent in their whole life.

That that's a the description of one of the descriptions of of Timothy's life which is a life worth following. And I would I would ask that of you. Do you genu do you have genuine love for others.

When people sense that about you like they actually like you actually like them. You actually love these people. They want to follow you. They want to be in a relationship with you because you know that that person actually cares about you. I've been in a relationship with this guy for maybe two years now.

And I've never seen anybody like it. He he like we're friends and we work out together and and he's like mentoring all these different guys and he's having lunch with this guy and then he's having breakfast with this guy and then he met with this guy and then he he's sharing the gospel with this guy. I'm like how do you do this. And the coolest thing about it when I talk to him about it is it's like he actually individually cares for each one of these people. He's got a really high capacity to do this.

But the thing that sticks out to me is his genuine love for others. And that so that's what Paul is the first descriptor of of Timothy is he genuinely loves and he's a genuine guy. And that's the type of people that we want to follow.

That's the type of people we want to become. That's a life worth following. The second thing is that he's consistent and faithful over time.

Look at verse 22. It says that you know that Timothy has proved himself as a son with his father. He has served with me in the work of the gospel.

Remember I said they kind of have this like father-son relationship. But the fact that Paul's going to send Timothy and he says he has proved himself means that this didn't happen overnight. That it takes consistency and faithfulness over time. You want to be a person that people want to follow or you want to have influence maybe on your kids or your grandkids or a neighbor or a co-orker. You want to have an impact and influence.

Well, be consistently faithful year after year after year. Now, all of us like to chase a shiny object here and there, right. That looked fun.

, but the people that make the biggest impact, I'm not saying that that's boring. , the people that make the biggest impact are consistent. They know what what to expect from you. You're always going to be there for them. You're you're going to stay consistent.

You're going to prove yourself over the long haul. As I said, I think Paul's known Timothy for at least 10 years, and he's proved himself year after year. You see, here's the deal. Most days are pretty mundane.

You don't have life-changing events usually that happen all the time and most tasks are not super exciting tasks but the right things done in the right direction over a long period of time they make a difference and when you're faithful in the little things often times God gives you something bigger that that's actually what Jesus said he said whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with much whoever is dishonest with a little will be dishonest with much Jesus taught that So that consistency, little things in the dark, nobody's you aren't famous, nobody knows who you are. You're not on a on a platform somewhere. You just do the next right thing and and you do the little thing that nobody's ever going to recognize and you're not even going to get a thank you for it. But God sees that. And you know what.

Other people say that. Other people see that. One of the greatest compliments I ever got was not, "That was an incredible sermon.

That's so awesome. " That's not the greatest compliment. One of the best compliments I ever got, it happened two years ago, was you know why we're here, Mark. Because when you say you're going to do something, you do it and you keep your word and you you're consistent and you don't change.

Well, we're going to chase this direction. We're going to go this way. Now, of course, there's changes that have to be made as things grow and change, but consistent.

I think often times the people that we respect the most are those people that are just boringly consistent and godly about how they do it. That's the home I grew up in. There's no there's nobody nothing special about the home I grew up in.

Couple couple special things though. We went to church every single Sunday and we didn't miss. It wasn't like, "Hey, let's get up in the morning and let's let the kids decide.

" That was not my decision. Now, I do remember I have this weird memory of sitting in the car with my dad warming up the vehicle, honking the horn at my mom to we're late. I've never done that.

I don't think that would go well for me. I'm not sure how we got away with it, but we went to church every single weekend. It just wasn't a question. We prayed at every single meal.

This is what we did. This is what we do, right. It it's just like these aren't questions.

This is that consistency. They were married for 38 years till my my dad passed away eight years ago. Never missed a beat.

My dad got sick. He got a disease. He had Parkinson's disease.

No question was my mom going to be there. Just consistent. Boringly consistent.

Not going to change. And and you know who really really loves that. You know who really respects that.

Your grandkids. Man, that makes a difference. So, if you want to live a life that people want to follow, well, be consistent and faithful over time. That's that's what we're after.

That's what he says. Timothy's like this. So, number one, Timothy's got this genuine love for others.

And secondly, he's consistent and faithful over time. So, these are two two of our four things of a life worth following. That's Timothy. There's another guy that gets mentioned here starting in verse 25.

His name is Apapraditis. It goes like this. I think it necessary to send back to you Apaproditis, my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier who's also your messenger whom you sent to take care of my needs.

So, okay, little context. He says, I want to send Epaphroditis back to you. Well, again, he's writing to the Philippians.

Is a guy that is from that church in Philippi and he traveled to meet Paul and it says later in the book so this is Philippians it says I've received full payment and have more than enough I am amply supplied now that I have received from Apaproditis the gifts that you sent they are a fragrant offering an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God so these are the only two places that Apapraditis is even mentioned in the Bible you have never bought a mug or a sign with a quote about Apaproditis. Okay, nobody's ever heard of Apaproditis. And I think that's the cool part about him. He's not this famous guy. Timothy's kind of going to be famous later in the New Testament.

There's a book named after him, too. But Apaproditis, who's ever heard of him. I'll tell you who heard about him and who why he was special. Because he traveled 800 miles on foot from Philippi to Rome to visit Paul in prison and to take with him a financial gift that that church took up an offering and sent with Apaproditis to go visit Paul.

And then he stayed with Paul. He didn't just like drop it on the doorstep and leave. He stayed and he helped Paul and he served.

Hey, how can I be helpful. How can I be helpful. What can I do. And one of the cool things about him is that's all we know about him.

Brought the gift and stayed and invested in that ministry. He believed in Paul and the ministry trusted in the gospel. The church sent him and and that's all we know about this guy.

He's not famous. He doesn't have a book in the Bible named after him. But Paul says, "I got to I want to send him back to you.

He is so valuable. He has been so good in ministry. I've got a guy in my church that was on our original launch when we first started the church and he started putting out signs, you know, like the the signs, the A-frame signs that you guys see that you guys have up here. And I don't know if he knew this, but he's still doing it seven years later. Every sign, if you've ever driven in Andoverish area, he's putting out these signs every weekend.

And do you know how long he's been doing that. He's never been paid to do it. Nobody knows. He's the one that does it. He's never made a big deal about it.

We've never put him on stage and say, "Here's your sign guy. He's unnamed. He's unnamed.

" And he loves it that way. It's Apaproditis. He's a guy that serves behind the scenes. And Paul says, "You are so valuable to me. " Look at the way that he describes his relationship to Apapraditis.

Epaphroditis, my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier. I want to just zone in on those three words for a second. The way that he describes his relationship to Apapraditis, one, he's my brother, which is a friend to help. You know, in the church, not just your church, but my church, a church is a family. It's different than a business.

It's different than a 501c3 nonprofit. It's a family. It's supposed to function like a family. So, if you ever grew up in a church where they said, "Hey, brother.

Good morning, sister. " The reason they did that, one, it's cuz they probably forgot their name. But two, it's also is more than that, though. It's cuz biblically speaking, you're sitting next to your brother or your sister. >> And that's the real deal.

There's moms and there's dads in this church. There's grandparents in this church. There's brothers and sisters. And I'm not talking blood. I'm talking the church.

So whenever Paul talks about these these people that he's doing ministry with, he's always saying my brother, my son, my mother. Like that's the way that Paul explains these relationships because the church is like a family. Also, the church is kind of like a bunch of co-workers cuz we've got a job to do. Some of you got here at 7 a.

Praise God for you, right. It's a bunch of co-workers. Because we've got a job. We we have a responsibility.

It's called the great commission. That's what we're after here. And it's totally worth getting here early and setting up and doing all the things that you got to do because we're co-workers. So, we're brothers in Christ and we're co-workers. We got a job to do together.

And he says he's also a soldier cuz we've got a battle to fight. Do you realize that. Like I think we're so unaware of the invisible battle that's happening all around us that we just go through day to day with these little blinders on our eyes. We're not thinking at all about the battle that's happening in East Bethl for your kids' soul and for your soul and for your neighbor's soul. It's happening all around you.

There's a spiritual battle more real than any physical battle. You just can't see it. And so Paul says, "You're my brother. You're my coworker. And you're a fellow soldier.

" And that's what you guys are destination. That's what you are for each other, your family and your co-workers. And there's a real battle and you're real soldiers in a real fight.

Don't forget it. That's how Paul explains his relationship to Apaproditis. So, , he they sent they sent him to Paul with this money, with this gift, and then he stayed and and he served. But while he was there, he got really really sick.

So, I don't know if it happened like on the journey there or once he got to Rome, but all we know is Patreas got super sick. Verse 26 says this, "For he longs for all of you. " He longs for his church back in Philippi and he's distressed because you heard he was ill.

Indeed, he was ill and he almost died. But God had mercy on him and not on him only, but also on me to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore, I am all the more eager to send him to you so that when you see him again, you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. So, he almost died for the work of the ministry here with Paul. Again, I don't know why he got sick or what happened.

And then Apaproditis's concern is not that he got sick. His concern is that they're nervous about him. And again, you can't phone home to like I'm okay. I recovered. Like, they don't know.

As far as they know, he might have died visiting Paul and they don't know. And so he says, "I'm sending him back to you because I want to encourage you. Hey, he's alive and he's going to give you an update on what's happening in in Paul's ministry and the church is going to be encouraged.

" So here's the final thing that he says about him in verse 29. So then welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor people like him because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help that you yourselves could not give. Meaning, he risked his life to travel 800 miles because the whole church couldn't go visit Paul, but this one guy could. And he sent a gift with him and it was received.

And and and Paul says, "When he comes back home, honor this guy. This is a good man. This is a life worth following.

" So let me give you two more ideas characteristics of a life worth following. This these two now from Apapraditis. Number three, he was personally invested in the mission. Apapraditis was personally invested in the mission. So then welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor people like him.

Why why do we honor a guy like that or a gal. Because instead of saying somebody else will do it, Epaphroditis was the one that said I'll do it. Knowing that was going to be risky for him, he said I'm happy to go. I want to go.

I want to be the one that does it. I will sacrifice. And I don't know how this is going to go, but I'm invested. I'm so invested in the mission that I'm going to I'm going to go I'm going to leave what's comfortable and go do something that is uncomfortable.

, being part of a church, by the way, , can be uncomfortable at times because church was never designed to be a bunch of people that come and watch professionals on a stage. I've been talking to my church a lot about this lately. Like, that works for the Vikings. That works for the Vikings. There are in a in an hour there's going to be 22 players on the field desperately in need of rest and 66,000 people watching desperately in need of exercise.

That's that's fine. That's fine for the Vikings, but that's not the church. That's that's the way sports work. But that's not how we do it here. No, we're invested in the mission.

So Epaphroditis could have said, "Well, can somebody else go. I maybe he's got a family, maybe he's got a job, maybe he's busy, but he said, "I'll go. " And so what I love about him is he's personally invested in the mission.

And they sent this church also. I think overall as a church, they were personally invested in this mission, too. They didn't Paul's 800 miles away.

It had been years since he'd been to Philippi. What in the world are they doing. Gathering a huge financial gift to send it with one guy to get to Paul. Cuz they're engaged in the mission.

Cuz they care about this thing. Cuz they want to see Paul's ministry continue. He's the one that helped them get going.

He's the one that shared the gospel in that city. And and so he wants to see they want to see it continue to go. So let me just say this. I want you to know how huge your consistent sacrificial giving is here at this church.

Listen to that. The like the whole giving aspect is not secondary. That's huge for a church like like Philippians and a guy like Paul. He he the reason Apaproditis came was to help Paul with a tangible gift.

If destination is going to thrive in this community, it's going to take sacrifice. Just like that church did for Paul's mission for the gospel to continue to move forward. Vision takes provision and you've got a great vision for this city and this community and great things are going to happen.

But that takes an investment. That takes getting involved personally invested in the mission. Let me tell you a little secret.

Your church is a year old right now >> and you don't know what the future's going to hold. When my church was one year old, no clue. We were still wearing masks and six feet apart. Okay, so who know I didn't know what we're going to do. Okay, but I often look at those people that helped us get this thing going seven years ago and they would say, "Wow, so fun to be in at the ground level to watch this thing to where it is today.

" And that's my prayer for you. For those of you that are here right now, you've been here in the first year of this church, you go, "Whoa. " Five years from now, six years from now, you get to see what God is doing. I think it's like investing in Apple stock in the 90s. You're like, "Wow, you don't know what that was going to happen.

Sure glad I invested there. " That's what I think about your church. That's what I think about your pastor. So, get involved here.

Get invested here. Oh, one more thing, by the way. If you're kind of on the fence about that and you've kind of been like just kind of checking it out, you checking it out for a while, now is the time. You don't know what's coming up in your life next either. Like we had a lady, this is not in the notes, this is just coming.

, we had a lady that got involved in our church like two years ago and she brings her grandson to church cuz the the dad, her son was kind of not really in the picture and it's become her family. She would say, "You're my family. She loves this church.

She's always there. Whenever the doors are open, she's there. " What she didn't know is that her son, her son, her adult son was going to die this last summer.

She went through the darkest period of her life. It's her grandson's father. And she said to me, she said, "I sure am glad I found this family.

God knew I needed this family because I didn't know this was coming, but God knew I needed this family. " And that's God's timing. I hope you'll believe that. If you're on the fence, get in here.

Get involved. Get be part of the family. You don't know what's coming.

You don't know what's coming in your future. So again, back to number three. Personally invested in the mission.

This is Apapraditis. On number four, willing to risk it all. He risked his life to make up for the the help that you yourselves could not give.

That's what Paul says in verse 30. He was willing to risk his life. Epaproditis was so bought in on the gospel, he was willing to take a risk to help Paul out. Comfort and safety would have kept Apaproditis back in Philippi. He never would have traveled to Rome if he was looking for comfort and safety.

But he wasn't. He was looking for a risk. A risk that had a reward. A risk that had an eternal reward.

You're I think a lot of you are good at risk-taking. You know why. You're a part of a church plant. It's risky business. So worth it.

So so much potential for the kingdom of God. So Epaphroditis doesn't say, you know what, I'm going to play it safe. He says, you know what.

I'm going to risk it. I'm going to risk comfort, maybe even my own health because I want to go see what God's going to do here. Maybe God might be calling you to something even today.

I want you to really think through this. Is he calling you to take some sort of a risk, some sort of a faith step. Maybe it is in your workplace.

It's maybe in your family or it's this church. But there's some sort of a risk that God's calling you to take. What is that. You might be listening to me here and you're like, you know, there's been this thing on my mind or this thing that somebody keeps telling me about and I just keep kind of putting it off, but what if that's the risk that feels a little uncomfortable that God might be calling you to do. I guarantee when Apaproditis raised his hand to say, "I'll go.

" He didn't know all the details of what were going to happen. You know, he didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't know how this thing was going to play out. But he was willing to take the risk. Are you Are you willing to take the risk.

What's God calling you to do. Who's he calling you to talk to. Is there a new role for you.

Is there something you're supposed to do that feels a little risky and a little uncomfortable. But maybe God's calling you to do it. So the last is the last characteristic of a person to follow is they're willing to risk it all.

Willing to take a risk. Here's the four characteristics of a life worth following. Genuine love for others.

Consistent faithfulness over time. Personally invested in the mission. Willing to risk it all.

These are characteristics of the of these two guys. And they're just two guys. They're just two regular guys. Timothy is a little more famous at Pataproditis.

You never heard of him. And I think that's the beauty of it is this is exactly who God wants to use. This is exactly the type of people that that we want to become, >> that we want to follow. I want to invite the band to come up here as I close. But as you look at those four characteristics, can I tell you that at the end of this message, I I hope there's some application points for you, maybe what God's calling you to do.

But also, listen here for a minute. They're just two guys and they were following a much greater guy and his name was Jesus who did all four of these things, right. The hero of this message is not Timothy and it's not Epaphroditis.

They'd be the first to tell you that. The cool thing is that Jesus did these exact things. Jesus genuinely loved others. If he didn't, he he never would have came for us, right. He genuinely loves us.

He's consistent and faithful over time. 33 years of a sinless life. The same guy, the same guy just kept showing up.

He was personally invested in the mission. Boy was he to the cost of his life was he personally invested in in the mission. And he was willing to risk it all. Don't we praise God for that.

>> That he willingly risked it all. And for him, it cost him his life. >> You see, Jesus is worth following.

>> And these are some of the characteristics that Jesus displays. And as Jesus followers, we want to follow our king and say, "If that's who you are, that's who I want to be. That's the type of person I want to be.

And I'm not going to do it as well as as you do it. You might have walked in here and you're like, I don't feel like I have any of these things. Well, I've got plenty of people in my church that have started their faith journey at 40, 50, 60 years old. Now, they're starting to walk in these things.

It is not too late. Don't don't ever write yourself off. This is who he wants us to be because this is who he is.

And Jesus is worth following. And we want to be followers of Jesus, worth following ourselves. >> Let's pray together.

Jesus, thanks for what you're doing here. Thank you for the opportunity to to see destination in action. Just like Paul wrote to the Philippians and said, "Oh, I thank my God every time I remember you in my prayers.

I feel that way here. What a gift to worship with these brothers and sisters in Christ. Help us, Lord, to live lives worth following. And sometimes people will know our names and sometimes nobody knows our name.

And that's totally fine. Help us to risk it if you call us to it. Help us to invest. Help us to be consistent and love others.

Lord, thanks for doing it for us first. We owe you everything in Jesus name.