Epaphroditus - Our Role Model for Sacrificial Service

Well, let's take our Bible. Let's turn back to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, tonight we'll cover quite a bit of scripture. A lot of times I'll only cover a couple of verses, but we'll cover verses 25 to 30. It's quite a lot to cover. I do believe we have the time, and I know that we have the spiritual attention because God has taught us that throughout the years. But tonight we're back in this portion of scripture that has to do with these wonderful Christian role models. Paul is giving us four role models. We can call them examples, whatever language you like.

And he's given us these role models so that we would follow them in our Christian life and also in the life of the church. Now I have given this definition two times already. I hang on to it because it's good for me. But I think this is helpful, and I think we need this definition in our minds because I think this can help establish and enlarge our expectations here. Webster's dictionary defines a role model as a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others. And that is what we have here, and that is what we have been seeing here and what we have here in these verses. And that is what we will continue to see tonight.

Here we have certain individuals in one particular church that behave in their particular God-given roles in such a way that we should imitate them, just like Webster's definition tells us. Now in verses 17 to 18, we saw Paul and the Philippians as our role model for sacrificial service, but not just sacrificial service. Sacrificial service, enjoy. Using the Old Testament sacrificial system as an illustration, Paul said that he was the secondary drink offering that was poured around or on top of the primary offering and sacrifice of the Philippians. And he said that he rejoiced in these things, and he called them to rejoice with him as well.

And there is a major lesson there. I brought that out before. There is a major lesson right there. And that is this. The ministry of the church comes first. The ministry of the church comes first. The ministry and the sacrifice of the local church comes first. Now again, how did Paul approach these things? He said that the sacrifice of the Philippians was the central animal sacrifice, and his sacrifice was the drink offering that went around it, the secondary offering. So if Paul is our role model, then we should have the same view here that Paul has and had. And notice, we should do these things with joy.

And then in verses 19 to 24, we saw Timothy as our model for a single-minded service. Paul explained that Timothy was the best that he had to send to the Philippians. We know that Paul had quite a few men around him in ministry, associates. And he said that while the others sought their own interests, Timothy had this single-minded approach to service to Christ in his ministry. And the major lesson for us here is this. We should strive to a single-mindedness. We should not allow our own interests to erode or to eat away at our single-mindedness, our single-mindedness in our service to Christ. And again, Timothy is our role model.

How did he approach these things? And should we not be imitating Timothy? Yes, we should. Now, let's read all of those verses. We've covered them. But let's read all of these verses again. We're seeing the Philippians as an example, Paul as an example, and Timothy as an example, our role models. Paul says, "Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice or sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoiced with you all. Likewise, you should be glad and rejoiced with me. 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 that would be spiritual welfare. For they all seek their own interests, like those of Christ Jesus. But you know, Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father, he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also." And tonight, we're going to look at the final, the fourth role model, and that is a piperiditis. Some of you might look at that word and think, "I don't know how to pronounce that." Well, a piperiditis is how you pronounce this.

And just like when we studied Paul, we will see some things about the Philippian church right here that we should be imitating as well. Now, when we compare this man named a piperiditis to Timothy and even to Paul, there is one thing that is pretty obvious. It is obvious that we do not know very much about this man. We only see a piperiditis mentioned here in Philippians chapter 2 and Philippians chapter 4. Now, there are some that say that this could be a man named a piperist mentioned in Colossians. I don't think that it is. I think this is two different individuals.

But we do know of a piperiditis, and we know of his wonderful, his great example, how he was a great role model for sacrificial service to God and in the church. That is what we know of. Now, before we read our verses and get into the message, I want to give us a quick biographical sketch of a piperiditis. A piperiditis was a believer from the church at Philippi, and although the text does not say he was a leader, he most definitely was. Some have speculated that he could have been an elder or maybe even a deacon in the church. We don't know, the text doesn't say, but we know he was a spiritual leader.

This man was definitely a spiritual leader, and he was sent by the church to Paul while Paul was in a Roman imprisonment. And if you do some study, you will learn that he traveled by foot for hundreds of miles, a very risky journey. And he was sent to Paul for basically three reasons. First, to minister to Paul on behalf of the church. Second, to bring back news of Paul and his situation. Remember, the Philippians were very concerned about Paul. And then third, to take a much needed monetary gift to Paul. But as we will see, God had other plans. A piperiditis became deathly ill and he almost died.

And this became a great concern, a very great concern for the Philippians and for Paul and for a piperiditis. And out of a piperiditis life in his ministry in these circumstances, we see this great role model for sacrificial service and he almost paid the ultimate sacrifice and that was death. So the title of the message is this, a piperiditis, our role model for sacrificial service. And not only will we learn from this role model of sacrificial service, we will learn a lot about this church and we'll learn about a lot about sickness and how we should view sickness. Now let's read these verses that we're going to cover and divide tonight.

Paul says, "I have thought it necessary to send you a piperiditis, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier and your messenger and minister to my need. For he has been longing for you all 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. Least I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more 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." Now this is how we will divide or examine these verses. We're going to look at three things that Paul does. First, he explains his plans to send a piperiditis to them and why. Second, he recommended a piperiditis or commended a piperiditis to them. Third, he called the Philippian church to honor a piperiditis. And just like when we studied Paul, I mentioned this earlier, we're going to see the Philippians as an example as well. So number one, Paul explained his plans to send a piperiditis.

Now we see this at the beginning of verse 25 and then it's really explained in verses 26 to 28. Now I mentioned this in my short biographical sketch of a piperiditis, but there is more than we need to see here. A piperiditis had been sent by the Philippian church to Paul, but along the way or shortly after he arrived at Rome, a piperiditis became seriously ill. Three times Paul said he was ill and this sickness was so bad that he almost died. So let's look back at those verses. I'm going to read the beginning of verse 25 and then verses 26 to 30. Paul says, "I have bought it necessary to send to you a piperiditis." Why?

Verse 26, "For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill." Verse 27, "Indeed he was ill near to death, but God had mercy on him and not only on him, but on me also. At least I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious." That might surprise you that Paul would say he was anxious.

Verse 29, "So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men." Verse 30, "For he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me." Now, out of these verses, we see Paul's plans to send a piperiditis back on and it gives this lengthy explanation. First, Paul does this because a piperiditis was concerned for the Philippians. Here in verse 26, we see that a piperiditis was longing for the believers in Philippi and that he was distressed because they had heard that he was ill and had almost died.

And notice what we see in this relationship between Paul and the Philippians, a piperiditis in Paul and the Philippians, especially a piperiditis in the Philippians. Great love, great emotion, great feeling. This longing here speaks of an intense desire and craving and this distress speaks of being full or heavy, being full or heavy with trouble, being full or heavy with anguish or distress. This can even speak of depression. So what we have here is this.

A piperiditis knew of the believers' great concern for him and because of his great love for them and their relationship, he was very distressed and troubled because of their concern for him. So he had this great desire, this burden to go back home to the church to alleviate all of their anxieties and all of their concerns. But then the second reason Paul does this, because the Philippians were concerned for a piperiditis. As I've already said, the believers in Philippi had heard that a piperiditis had fallen ill and that he had almost died. So they were very concerned for their brother.

They were very concerned for their fellow servant and the one that they had sent out on this journey. Of course, this is only speculation on my part. Maybe they felt responsible for these circumstances. They were the ones that sent him. Maybe they felt that if they had not sent a piperiditis, well, this would not have happened. So maybe they had a burden of responsibility here. And if they did, that would have been normal. Of course, that's speculation. But before we move on, look at what we have right here. Here we get a glimpse of this great relationship again between the Philippian believers and a piperiditis.

And Paul's tied up in this as well. We see this great love, this great concern, we see this great desire for one another. Now before I move on, I think we see a tremendous lesson here. I think we see a goal here. Remember, these are role models. We should desire that kind of relationship with brothers and sisters in our church. Do we have that? We should desire this. If they are role models for us, we should desire this kind of a relationship with brothers and sisters. Are we truly concerned? Are we really burdened? Are we heavy with burden when we have a brother or a sister who's struggling, going through trial?

We should be because these brothers in Philippi and a piperiditis certainly were. Now notice before I move on, this takes time. It takes time for God to form these kind of relationships. And these things cannot be faked either. So work of the spirit. You can't do this in the flesh. And then third, the third reason that Paul sent a piperiditis back, it was because Paul was concerned for them all. Look back at verse 28. This is real personal from Paul. He says, "I am the more eager to see him. Therefore that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious." The King James says, "less sorrowful." Now notice the obvious.

Paul was eager to send a piperiditis back. And he wanted to see the Philippians rejoice at seeing a piperiditis upon his return home. And he even said that his concern or anxieties would be over when they were reunited. But we need to see that this was not an emotionless concern from Paul. Paul was not robotic. We know he was an apostle. He was like a super Christian. But it doesn't mean that he was free from human emotion. He had feelings and he expressed his feelings and concerns by using this word sorrow three times. And he used this word sorrow or a form of this word sorrow as one of the three. Look back at verse 27 and verse 28.

He says, "Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him and not only on him but also on me. Least I should have sorrow upon sorrow." What is he saying? If he had died sorrow upon sorrow, "I am the more eager to send him. Therefore that you may rejoice at seeing him again that I may be less anxious." In this word anxious is a form of the word sorrow. So we see that Paul was deeply distressed, emotionally involved in very, if I can use this word, not in a sinful way, worried. Now there's a lesson right here for us. As our relationships with our brothers and sisters in the church grow, there should be great love.

There should be great closeness. There should be great feeling between us all. Not just in trials, not just when a brother or a sister is struggling, but there should be this bond of love. We should have great feeling. We should have great closeness between us all. And again, this takes time. Do you want that? Do you need that? You need it? Do you desire that? I have known people in the life of the church they didn't want that kind of closeness.

And anytime someone is in the life of the church and they do not want these kind of relationships, I have to wonder if they're hiding sin or hiding a hypocritical lifestyle or just hiding beings that they don't want others to see. But notice one certain detail. Paul put the Philippian church in a Papardotist before himself. You see that? Paul put his needs behind him. Paul put their needs before him and ahead of him. And think about this. Was not Paul still in a Roman imprisonment? Yes. Was not Paul still waiting to see if he would be freed or executed? Now, he thought he would be set free, but he didn't know.

He very well could have been executed. Did he not have special and serious needs in his situation? Remember the Philippians sent a Papardotist to begin with because they were greatly distressed about his circumstances. And I would imagine that having a Papardotist with him could have been a very big help for Paul in so many different ways. But Paul did not put his needs first. He put the needs of others before his needs. And oh, what a lesson here, church. We must be mature enough as believers to put the needs of others ahead of ourselves.

Even when our needs are great, even if our needs are difficult, and even if our needs are legitimate, we must be mature enough that we could put the needs of others ahead of ourselves. Again, Paul's a robot. So Paul explained his plans to send a Papardotist back home. And he explained why. He planned to send a Papardotist back to his home church out of love and concern for the burden and the sorrow that the Philippians had for a Papardotist and his sickness and for the concern and the burden that a Papardotist had for his home church and those brothers and sisters. And again, the application for us is this.

We should see a few things that we should want in our lives. We should desire love for one another like we see between a Papardotist and these Philippians. And that can happen. We can have a love just like that among ourselves. And we should be willing to send out the very best that we have. The Papardotist was the very best, one of the very best. And we should be willing to do the very same thing. Just like Paul needed a Papardotist, it could have been that the Philippians needed him. Maybe there was a hole in the ministries of their church because he was gone. And then we should be like Paul here.

Again, we should be willing to put the needs of others ahead of our own, even when we are going through difficulties, pain, even when we have legitimate needs. So Paul explained his plans to send a Papardotist back home and why. And then number two, Paul recommended, you can use the word commended, but Paul recommended a Papardotist to them. And we see this in the second part of verse 25. That's the verse that I skipped over earlier. We'll read that in a minute. Now you may have noticed, but earlier I did skip over this part and I did that on purpose. But right here, we're going to see that Paul recommended a Papardotist.

He commended a Papardotist. I use this term. He even bragged on a Papardotist. Look at the verse. "I have thought it necessary to send to you a Papardotist, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need." And here Paul lists five things about the Papardotist. He brags on this man by saying that he saw certain spiritual characteristics and commitments in this life. And he's saying these things are noteworthy. He's basically saying, "Let me brag on this brother a little." First, Paul called him a brother, but he called him his brother. Look back at verse 25.

Paul called him my brother, and this can be connected to the other descriptions of this man. Paul is calling him my brother, my fellow worker, my fellow soldier, because fellow there connects the two. And this tells us something very important about this man and his relationship to Paul. He was a Philippians 1, verse 5, partner in the gospel ministry with Paul. And this tells us that this man was more than just a partner. I like how the New American commentary describes their relationship. I think they are right.

The writer of that commentary says, and I'm quoting these descriptions, "Emphasize partnership by employing familial, vocational, and military terms." Each of them provides insight as to how Paul saw the work of the gospel. And the writer goes on to say, and I'm quoting, "At Papernotus was an equal. There was not even a hint of inferiority or failure." So Paul called him my brother. But then second, he called him his fellow servant or my fellow servant. Here we see that Paul calls at Papernotus, again, my fellow worker, my fellow servant. But we need to see that this term fellow worker is unique.

MacArthur says that this term was almost exclusively used by Paul when we see it in the New Testament. Of the 13 times that we see this in the New Testament, all but one were used by Paul. And every time Paul used this term, he carried with it the idea of a close and affectionate partnership. MacArthur points out that twice Paul includes godly women among fellow workers. Priscilla and Aquila in Romans 16, 13, and Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians 4, chapter 4, verses 2 to 3. And in 1 Corinthians, he calls all of the believers God's fellow workers there in 1 Corinthians 3, 9. Now, what's my point there?

Paul did not view ministry partnership as some impersonal, official relationship. Let me say that again. Paul did not view ministry partnership with anyone as something as impersonal like this official relationship. Paul viewed ministry partnership as a very close, even loving, even affectionate partnership in the total ministry of the gospel. Now, oh, there is a wonderful lesson here. And I'm going to tell you, this is my position and it's always been my position throughout the years. We should expect that.

When we partner, when we partner together in ministry and when you have leaders among you in the leadership of the church, you should see this kind of a closeness, not just official positions, official titles. I've known churches where you had ministers who were on staff, they really weren't close at all. Maybe they shared the same office complex, but they weren't close at all. I have had people question me about how I could be so close in my relationship with brother Keith. Well, God did that. And we see that here in the scripture.

And so the lesson here, the expectation here is this, if Paul in his partnerships with people in the gospel ministry, if they were this close, we should expect that as well in the life of our church, in the pew and with our leaders. Then third Paul called him, this is a Paparidotis, a fellow soldier. Now, in using this term fellow soldier, what Paul was saying was simple. Paul saw a Paparidotis as a companion in arms in the fight. He was a fellow soldier. And in this phrase, Paul was speaking of two things. First, his position. He was not under Paul and Paul wasn't over him. He was his fellow soldier, you see. And then second, his purpose.

He was a soldier. He was fighting in the work for the gospel and against the enemies of the gospel. The scholar Hendrickson points out that a worker in the gospel must be a warrior. I love that. He says a worker in the gospel must be a warrior. He says that a worker must be a warrior because in the gospel or the work of the gospel, one encounters many foes or enemies that are up against the gospel. And I think he's right. And in Paul's case and a Paparidotis case, as they were fellow soldiers together, they faced the enemies of Judaism and all those false teachers.

They faced the enemies of the Greeks and the Romans, those mockers of Christianity, those emperor worshipers. Look at all that they faced, those enemies. And the lesson here for us is this. We must be balanced. On one hand, we must be soldiers. And on the other hand, we must be servants. We must be on one hand warriors and on the other hand workers. Okay. You see the balance, but notice the balance on the other side. We must battle for the gospel and we must battle against those things that are against the gospel. You see? So we are soldiers and servants, warriors and workers, and we battle for and we battle against.

We battle for and we battle against. But let me give you a word here. The word balance. If you get out of balance here, you get in a ditch every time. If all you do is battle for the gospel, you fail to realize that you're going up against things that are enemies of the gospel. And if all you do is battle against those things that are against the gospel, all you're going to do is go around fighting against, against, against. You never give people the gospel. And me, in my years, I've seen lots of people get out of balance here. So this word balance, we need that word balance. And then fourth, Paul called him their messenger.

Now here Paul makes a shift in the relationship. He focuses on a Papariditis and his relationship to the Philippian church. And notice that Paul calls him a messenger. Now in the original, this is literally the word apostle. So that leads us to a question. Was Paul calling a Papariditis an apostle? Was a Papariditis an apostle? Yes and no. The word apostle in the scripture can be used in a specific way and a general way, in a specific sense, in a general sense. Specifically, Paul was an apostle sent out by Christ. And we know that there were only a few apostles. You had the original 12, but Matthias replaced Judas.

And then you had Paul, who was added later. Those men were uniquely called. I have said it like this before. They were apostles with a big A. Apostle. But generally, many were called apostles. That was because this word apostle simply means a delegate, an ambassador, one that was sent, a sent messenger. And that is what a Papariditis was. He was a delegate who was sent by his church to Paul. He was an ambassador. He was a messenger sent by his church to Paul. So that meant that Paul saw the Papariditis as an official representative of the Philippian church and that he was sent by the church for the church and for Paul and to Paul.

And then fifth, he called him a minister. Now this title of description was more than a title. This spoke of who a Papariditis was, but mostly what he was sent to do. He was sent by the Philippian believers to Paul to minister mainly to Paul and to his needs. The new American commentary says, and I'm quoting, "He came with news of the church's love and a gift for them. He also determined to stay and care for Paul." So this means that Paul saw a Papariditis as a true and a legitimate minister. So here we see how Paul commended. He recommended a Papariditis. He bragged on this brother. Here we see how he described him.

Paul commended him as a fellow brother, a fellow worker, a fellow soldier. And he was even possessive and loving by calling him my brother. He commended him as their very own messenger and their very own minister who was sent from them by them to him. And although Paul does not say this, it seems that Paul was putting a Papariditis in the very same category as men like himself in Timothy, and I believe he was. So what should we see and learn here? There are two things that resonate with me. First, we should see these very same things in our lives. People should look at us and call us brothers, workers, soldiers, messengers, and ministers.

People should look at us and say, "That's my brother. That's my fellow worker. That's my fellow soldier. I'm right beside him. We're right beside each other. We're brothers in arms, workers in arms, soldiers in arms." And then we should see each other as messengers and ministers in the church being even sent out of the church. And then second, we must understand that although we may be like a Papariditis here and we should, he's our role model, how these things are fleshed out and even seen are much different. Notice Paul put a Papariditis in the same category for himself, didn't he?

But notice a Papariditis role and Paul's role and how different that was. You see, we see the same things in their lives, but those things are fleshed out in a different way. And you and me, yes, we should see these same things in our lives, but yet it's different in your life and different in my life. So what I'm showing you is this. People should see us as brothers, workers, soldiers, messengers, and ministers, but it looks different for you than it does for me. So Paul recommended, commended a Papariditis to the Philippian church. And then number three, Paul called the Philippians to honor a Papariditis upon his return.

Look at the last two verses, verse 29 to 30. Paul says, "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." Now here we see how Paul says they should receive a Papariditis back from his missionary journeys, back from his missionary trip. You know, somehow the term mission trip doesn't fit here. Somehow it doesn't fit. It was more than that. And he calls on the Philippian church to do two things. First, he calls them to receive him in the Lord with all joy.

This simply means that because he was sent by the Lord and in the Lord to Paul, a Papariditis should be welcomed back in the very same way. No matter the results, no matter the struggles or the seeming failures of this missionary trip to Paul, they should receive him back just like they sent him. Think about that. It seems that a Papariditis really had no chance to serve Paul like they had intended. It seems that Paul had to minister to a Papariditis, which was not the plan from the beginning, right? He goes to Paul to minister to him, but a Papariditis comes and he is a missions project in and of himself. He almost died.

So he was to be welcomed back in the Lord no matter the circumstances and with all joy. This simply means they were to be filled with joy and gladness, not disappointment, not defeat. They were to be filled with joy and gladness, not at the seeming success of the missions trip or the seeming failure of the missions trip, but at the faithfulness of the brother and God's faithfulness in all of these things. And old folks, there is a big lesson here, a very big lesson. We cannot allow our joy in ministry to be dictated by seeming success. Our joy must be dictated by faithfulness, obedience and sacrifice in that obedience and sacrifice. You see?

Our joy must be dictated by faithfulness, obedience and sacrifice in that obedience and that sacrifice because what do we do? We trust in the providence of God. Sometimes we think we know God's plans, but yet God's plans change. And then second, Paul says they would receive him back with joy giving him much honor. The English standard says in honor such men, the amplified says appreciate and honor men like him. The King James says hold such in reputation. Now this might surprise some, but what Paul was saying was simple. He was calling the Philippian church to appreciate him, respect him and exalt him and men like him.

He was calling them to esteem a Paparditis and men like him highly. And as John Gill says, and I'm quoting, reckon them worthy of double honor and give it to them. Why? In the case with a Paparditis, Paul says to honor a Paparditis and honor him greatly because he nearly died for the work of Christ. Notice Paul sees it in relation to the providence of God. He says for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. So Paul says he was to be honored with double honor because of his sacrificial service even to the point of death. And I thought about it like this folks.

Oh, that we would never ever, ever complain that our service to God is too hard, too costly and too sacrificial. May God never let us get to a place where we complain that our service to God is too hard, too costly and too sacrificial. What about a Paparditis? He almost died. But a question here. What does this mean when Paul says risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me? What in the world does that mean? This is simple and it's extremely important. Paul was not saying that they had failed in some way to minister to him. He was saying that they lacked in service to him.

They had been separated for a period of years we've learned and at the time Paul was in a Roman imprisonment so they lacked in their ability to serve Paul. But what was their heart here? What was in their mind here? And this is important to see. They intended to do more for Paul. They wanted to do more for Paul and without men like a Paparditis they were hindered. They were lacking, you see. But with men like a Paparditis who were willing to take the risks, they were able to do more and even do the things that they dreamed of doing. And right here we must ask, are we a church that is seen as lacking? We should be. Let me explain what I mean.

We should be a church that wants to do more. We should be a church that intends to do more, that wants to minister more. We should be a church who is lacking because we want to do more but we are not able to do more. And my question for you is this, are we that kind of church and are we that kind of people? See, lacking is good folks. And do we have men and women that God has sent us and because of them being in our church we can do more. And can we do these things that we dream about? Can we do these things that we dream about and we want to dream about because God has provided the people? You see the kind of church they were?

So here Paul called the Philippian believers and the church as a whole to receive the Papardotis back in the Lord and with all joy and gladness. I thought about it like this. If they had a great prayer time and a great celebration and sending him out, they were to receive him just the same way. And he called them to honor him with double honor, first because of his great sacrifice, even to the point of death, and second because he had completed what was lacking in them because of the Papardotis, they were able to minister to Paul like they dreamed. So Paul called the Philippian church to honor a Papardotis with double honor.

Now as a close, I want us to see what we have learned here in these verses. Our fourth role model. This is what I'm calling a Papardotis, our role model for sacrificial service. That title is easy to see. But a question folks, how was the Philippian church here? How is the Philippian church here to be our role model? Now I know that they did not sacrifice to the point of death like a Papardotis, but they did sacrifice greatly. They sacrificed by sending one of their very best men. Again, I said this earlier, imagine the hole in ministry that was there because he was gone. They sacrificed by sending a great monetary gift.

So notice they were ascending church or sacrificing church. But notice what else we see, the spiritual maturity of this church. They were the kind of a church that wanted to do more. They were dreamers. They dreamed to do more. They wanted to do more. They wanted to work more. And through men like a Papardotis, they were able to do more. Now two more things and then we'll close. Just to let you in on how I think. These are the kind of things I dream about in our relationship with anchor in truth.

We're not a very big church, but I pray for, I yearn for, I talk about the day when we will have mission points around the world and we're going and we're giving money. When we have missionaries who are connected to us and they depend on us and we're sending men out and women out like a Papardotis, maybe even some of our best men and they go and stay. Sometimes when I talk like that, folks could say, well, gee whiz, it hadn't been long when y'all were a missions church, just about. But my point is this, I don't want to just sit back here and grow. I want to do more. I want to dream. I want to do more. I want us all to.

Now real quick as I close, notice some lessons on sickness. At the heart of all of this teaching is a Papardotis who became ill and almost died doing the will of the Lord. Now many of you have the believers Bible commentary by William McDonald and earlier in the week I read this and when I read this, I yanked it right out and I thought I got to share this because it's so good. And I tweaked it and kind of made it my own. McDonald's says this, three lessons on sickness. The first lesson, sickness is not always the result of sin. There are people who think that. Papardotis was an sin.

He was right in the will of God, right in the center of the will of God. Somebody might say, well, he took a great risk. He took a great risk traveling on foot like 900 miles. Oh, he could have been killed. What a great risk. You're never at risk right in the center of God's will, folks. You're never at risk right in the center of God's will. And so his sickness was not a result of sin. The second lesson is this. We learned that it is not always God's will to heal instantly. Let me test you Bible knowledge. Weren't there times that Paul healed people? Weren't there times that he healed people instantly, miraculously? Anybody name an example?

Why didn't he do that here? Why? I mean, think about a Papardotis. He could have looked at Paul and said, Paul, I heard you could heal folks. How about me? I kind of don't want to be sick here. But what we see here is this. It's not always God's will to heal instantly. Now he does at times. And then third lesson, we learned that healing is grace and mercy from God. What did Paul say? They had mercy from God. It's not something that we can demand or expect. It is a grace gift. It is a mercy gift from God. And you know, there are some people that really get tripped up here about healing and how we should approach those things.

These are three good lessons that come out of the story. So what do we see here? Tonight I'm calling this a Papardotis, our role model for sacrificial service. And next week I'm going to do what I do at times. I'm going to take all of these role models, all of these verses, and we're going to look at some lessons here. And this will help drive some of this teaching home.