Relationships in Practice

Relationships In Practice 

A Sermon on Philippians 2:19-30

Big Idea: To live out our faith like Christ means embracing a life of self-emptying sacrifice and obedience, making our faith actionable through the love we show to others.

Central image: A vessel poured out — anchored in Paul's own words, "poured out like a drink offering" (2:17).

ME - being served rather than serving Filled and kept. Or poured out and given.

If we are honest, we like being served, probably even more than we like serving others.

Think about going out to eat. You sit down. Somebody brings you water. Somebody takes your order. The food shows up. You didn't cook it. You didn't shop for it. And when you're done, you just get up and leave. Somebody else clears the table. Somebody else does the dishes.

It's nice.

There's nothing wrong with it. It’s nice every once and awhile. 

But we have to be careful that our whole life does revolve around our needs and wants being filled by others serving us. 

It can become a deeper issue that we start to only focus on our needs and wants become and only look to our own interest. And then it becomes a heart issue.

The heart issue is that we would rather be filled by others than poured out in service. We would rather receive than give. Rather be the one served than the one serving.

Hold onto that picture. A vessel can do one of two things. It can be filled and kept. Or it can be poured out and given. Filled, or poured out. We're going to come back to it.

WE - comfortable lives to avoid serving others "Everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ." — Phil 2:21

Filling our lives rather than pouring out in service.

We arrange our lives to be comfortable. We protect our time. We guard our energy. We watch our margin. We keep a little in reserve. Just in case.

And we don't think of ourselves as selfish people. We think of ourselves as careful. Responsible. Reasonable.

But listen to how Paul describes the world he lived in. Verse 21. "Everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”

Everyone.

Not the bad people. Not the pagans out there somewhere. But everyone. He's talking about the church too. He's talking about people who name the name of Jesus. He looks around, and he sees a whole crowd of people protecting themselves. Looking out for number one.

You and me.

The church in Philippi had a problem. We hear about it later in the letter. Two women, Euodia and Syntyche, were at odds. There was tension. There was rivalry. There was that low hum of people quietly competing, quietly protecting their corner. And it was beginning to crack the church.

It always does.

We were not made to be kept full. We were made to be poured out. A vessel that stays full on the shelf is useless. It's safe. It's comfortable. And it does nothing.

Think about it. A vessel kept full on the shelf is no offering. Nothing has been given. No one has benefited. It just sits there, holding onto itself.We were made to give of ourselves, or to be poured out as Paul says, and we keep choosing the shelf.

GOD - How to live in the mindset of Christ Jesus "poured out like a drink offering" — Phil 2:17

So how do we go from looking to our own interests, that desire to be served rather than serving others?

It starts with Jesus. It starts with having the mindset of Christ Jesus.

Paul has already given us the picture. Just a few verses back. Chapter 2:5-11.

Jesus, who was God, did not grasp. Did not clutch. Did not hold on. He emptied himself. He took the form of a servant. He humbled himself. Obedient. All the way down. All the way to a cross.

He was the vessel poured out.

And then look at verse 17, just before our passage. Paul says he himself is being "poured out like a drink offering." That's old language. In the temple, you'd take wine and pour it out on the altar. Once it's poured, it's gone. You can't scoop it back into the jar. It's a one-way gift.

But don't miss where it goes. The drink offering wasn't spilled out onto the ground for nothing. It was poured out to God. Up. Onto the altar. It was worship. Obedience and love, given to the Lord.

And an offering is never wasted. That's the whole point. The wine isn't lost when it's poured. That's the best thing the wine could ever do. Not kept in the vessel. Not saved on the shelf. Given to God, and in the giving, something holy happens.

So when Paul says Jesus was poured out, hear all of it. Jesus didn't empty himself into thin air. He offered himself. To the Father. On the altar of the cross. A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

When Christ was poured out, somebody benefited. We were. We are the ones who received life from his pouring himself out. His offering didn't vanish. It reached us. It found us. The cup tipped over on the cross, and the life came running down to you and me.

Now Paul shows the church two ordinary men who saw the beauty of Christ and the life he lived in service to others. A life poured out for the people around him. And it changed who they were, so that they were no longer focused on their own interest, but now focused on Christ and serving others.

Timothy

Paul says, "I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare." Genuine. That word in Greek means something like "born in the family." Timothy cares the way you care for your own blood.

Timothy actually cares. And he's proven it. Verse 22. "As a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.”

Twelve years, by the time Paul writes this. Twelve years of Timothy showing up. Twelve years of carrying letters, taking the hard assignments, going where Paul couldn't go. Nobody else like him. Why? Because everyone else looks out for themselves. Timothy looks out for you.

Timothy is a vessel being poured out in service to Christ and his Kingdom. And the offering reached someone. The church was cared for. The wine got where it was meant to go.

Epaphroditus

Listen to how Paul stacks up the names. "My brother." "Co-worker." "Fellow soldier." Each one goes higher. Brother: we're family. Co-worker: we labor side by side. Fellow soldier: we've bled in the same fight.

The Philippians had sent Epaphroditus to take care of Paul in prison. And on the way, or while he was there, he got sick. Deathly sick. Verse 27. He "almost died.”

And here's what is unique about this man. He wasn't worried about himself. He was distressed, because the Philippians had heard he was ill. He's the one dying, and he's worried about how you feel.

Verse 30. Paul says Epaphroditus "risked his life." The word he uses is a gambling word. It means to stake everything on one throw of the dice. Epaphroditus put his whole life on the table. For people who couldn't pay him back. For the work of Christ.

Now think about how that looked in their world. He was sent to do a job. He got sick. He couldn't finish. In a culture obsessed with honor and shame, he could've come home looking like a failure. The man who didn't get it done.

So what does Paul do? He refuses to let that happen. He piles honor on him. Brother. Co-worker. Fellow soldier. He says: you welcome this man with joy. You honor people like him.

And see the offering again. Epaphroditus poured his life out, and Paul was fed by it. The Philippians' love reached all the way into a Roman prison through this one man. The offering arrived.

They are the reflection. Two vessels poured out, because Christ was poured out first. They caught the beauty of Christ and he changed them. The mind of Christ got into them, and it came out as a life poured for other people. Timothy and Epaphroditus are not the source.

And here's the gospel in it. You can't do this yourself. You can't live this poured-out life without Christ in you. We were trying to be filled by the wrong thing — by others serving us, by comfort, by the shelf. But the only fill that turns into an offering is Christ himself. It comes from being filled by the One who emptied himself for you. Christ poured himself out first. He fills you. And a filled-by-Christ life starts to spill over.

That's grace. The life you pour out isn't yours. It's Christ in you. It was poured into you at the cross. And now your life becomes an offering too, given up to God in worship, and poured out for the people around you. And they are fed.

YOU - Serve those God has placed in your life

You are not Epaphroditus or Timothy. Most of us won't be asked to put our lives on the line.

But I know there is one person this week that God has placed in your life to pour into and serve.

Maybe it's the person you live with. Maybe it's a neighbor down the road. Maybe it's someone in this church. Maybe it's the family member who is hard to love.

You know the name. It came to mind already.

Being used by Christ isn’t an impossible task. It’s caring and serving the person right in front of you. 

Its the phone call you don't want to make. Its the meal you cook for somebody else. The hard conversation. The visit. The forgiveness. The showing up.

That's it. One person. This week. Care and serve, just a little, in the direction Christ is pointing.

And when you do, two things happen at the same time. It rises up to God as an offering, worship, in the shape of a casserole, or a phone call, or an hour you'll never get back. And it runs down into a person who needs it. They're fed. The pouring reaches them.

Let Christ use you.

WE - A Church that cares and serves

And imagine what happens when a whole church starts doing that.

That's Philippi at its best. That's what Paul is fighting for. A Church that is caring and serving each other well. A whole room of lives poured out as offerings, up to God, and down into one another.

But notice something, Paul doesn't only call them to serve. Look at verse 29 again. "Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him.”

We care for and serve one another. And we honor those who serve.

That second part is easy to skip. It's not enough to pour ourselves out. We've got to notice when others do it. To name it. And celebrate it. We don't let sacrifice go quiet and unseen in this church. When someone's life is poured out among us, we don't let the offering go unnoticed.

We need to honor the volunteer in the nursery. The one who shows up early and stays late. The person who quietly carries a burden nobody else sees.

Because that's how a church stays poured out and serving each other.

That's the kind of church Ellsworth can be. Not vessels kept full and safe on the shelf. Vessels emptied, and then filled again. by the One who first poured himself out for us.

Go and care for and serve each other as Christ fills you with his life. Be poured out. It's the best thing your vessel was ever made to do.