2026-09-09 Philippians 2 Wednesday Part 3

0:00Today is the day you have. Welcome to Today in the Word with Pastor Bob Larson of Calvary Chapel Caldwell. Pastor Bob will be with us in just a few minutes, but first we'd like to let you know that Calvary Chapel is located on the corner of 10th and Everett across from the library in downtown Caldwell. We have two Sunday morning services at 9.30 and 11.30. If you prefer Saturday nights, we have a Saturday night service at 7 p.m. We also have a midweek service Wednesday night at 7 p.m. You can watch Today in the Word on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. on ABC, Channel 6.1. Join us as we broadcast Calvary Chapel Caldwell's Sunday morning church services. Where Pastor Bob teaches you how to apply the truths in your Bible to your everyday experiences so that you might enjoy better life. So verse 19, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. Now Paul was sending Timothy to see how things were going in the church in Philippi so that

1:01when Timothy came back to Paul, that Paul could hear the good news about how they were doing well and it would be encouraging to him. Not like that. He says, I'm going to send Timothy to you so he can tell me how good you're doing. He's being very optimistic, right? Paul chooses to look at the good. He's in prison and he knows there's trouble in the church yet. He's like, I'm going to send Timothy and he's going to come in here. How you guys are doing good work and things are going well and that's going to encourage me. So Paul was very optimistic. He looked at the good, right? He looked for the good. In verse 21, for I have no one like minded who will sincerely care for your state. So Paul's saying, I don't have anybody else who cares for the church and the well-being of the church and the family of God except Timothy. Now Timothy was kind of Paul's protege. He was a younger man that Paul was training up. Verse 21, for all seek their own and not the things which are of Christ Jesus. Now there are many different motives for people getting involved in ministry. And many of you are involved in ministry from Sunday school and ushers and greeters and

2:02all those sort of things. But if you're in ministry and your agenda is that I want to serve the Lord but I want to do it my way, well that's not going to work out very well, right? Because really we want to do it the Lord's way. And if a person gets involved in ministry because they have an agenda of their own, whatever that is to accomplish their will, you know, honestly there are Christians in church that they don't say this out loud. But when you talk to them and you see how they roll, their prayer really is God not your will be done but my will be done. And there are people who live like that, right? And that's not really what we should be doing. But we're to be serving the Lord and Colossians 3.23 says, and whatever you do do it heartily as unto the Lord and not to men. In other words, the Bible says that we should be serving the Lord as a servant, right? Not as a king but as a servant. And how do you know if you're a servant, well how do you act when someone treats you like a servant, right? Years ago we had an administrator who worked here at the church and he told me this story

3:03that he was in the family seating and his name was James and someone needed some cream her for their coffee and they were snapping their fingers going, James cream her and he was really annoyed by it. I thought it was quite funny. James and I was like, then I would do that. I would snap my fingers. James, he didn't think it was funny. But how do you know if you're a servant, how do you act when people treat you like one, right? And the truth is that if your motive is to serve the Lord and to be a servant, well then if somebody snaps their fingers and calls your name, you're not going to be offended because you're a servant. But if you think you're somebody important and you want to be respected as some big important somebody, well then they snap their fingers and call your name. That's what I'm going to say. Now, the problem is that if you get involved in serving the Lord for the wrong motive, it's not going to have longevity, right? You're going to bail out of the thing. In fact, I read in ministry magazine, it reported that 94% of people involved in full-time Christian ministry, people that work full-time at a church, experience what's called ministerial

4:06burnout. It said, the average pastor stays in the pulpit for two and a half years before he moves on. 1,600 pastors per month are leaving the ministry. Now, he said, why is that? So I started looking into this and there's less pastors for churches, right? I read a couple articles. The headline was, pastor shortage, the coming crisis. In more than one setting, I've recently heard of the word crisis in relation to pastor shortage. According to reports, one third of the Southern Baptist convention churches are without a pastor in the state of Mississippi. 600 churches in North Carolina are without pastors. 17% of the churches in Louisiana are without pastors. It kind of goes on and on about all these churches that don't have pastors. And then another article said the evangelical Lutheran church, according to lay leader Kristen Levey, under which atonement Lutheran church works, there is a nationwide shortage of at least 600 pastors.

5:06Therefore it may be sometime before they find a new pastor. And so there's all these articles about how there's less and less people in ministry. And you say, why is that? Well, some of it is that the pastor is getting older and retiring, but some of it is people get involved in ministry for the wrong motive. You know, the whole seeker friendly church movement thing, it's like you come to church and if you become a youth pastor, then you're a rock star and you're cool and you drink vodka shots with Justin Bieber or whatever. And it's like, that's not really what ministry is about, right? It's about being a servant and the guy who was doing that, he's not a minister anymore. In fact, their whole church is not even going. But you know, there was this seeker friendly church. And the idea was people come to church to get a concert, to get a funny sermon, but not to be told you're a sinner, you're going to hell and you need a repent of your sin. And if you want to be like Jesus, you need to serve people and love people and bless people, right? And so it just caused a problem. So there is a Christ in the church and imagine if there were no churches in America, just imagine if there were no churches in Oregon, just Oregon, right?

6:09Where cocaine, meth, heroin, fentanyl, it's all legal, right? Imagine if there's no churches and all you have is drug dealers, right? What would society be like? Well, yeah, not good, right? And so it's important that we value church, right? It's Paul saying that it's important, that church is important. And we don't want to, you know, like these two that were fighting in this church in Philippi, we don't want to come to church with our own agenda and have a wrong motive, right? When Christians seek their own agenda, there's a lot of confusion in their mind. In fact, the Bible says, as a Christian, when you seek your own agenda and your selfish, it says in James 3, 14, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. Now, when I first read that, I'm like, what? How bad can envy and selfishness be? Well, really bad, right? Because you extrapolate what it takes. Why do you think most people are in prison?

7:10Envy, selfishness, right? I mean, self-seeking, people want something somebody else has and they're willing to commit crime to take it, right? At James 3, 16, it says, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion, and every evil thing are there. So envy and self-fishness and self-seeking, they produce confusion, right? So that's why Jesus came and modeled for us, loving and serving. Verse 22, but you know his proven character that as a son, he's talking about Timothy with his father, he's served with me in the gospel. Therefore, I hope to send him at once and as soon as I see how it goes with me, but I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly. Paul wanted to come to Philippi again. Verse 25, yet I consider it necessary to send a Paphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your message, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my needs. So, in those days, they didn't have UPS or FedEx.

8:10So the church at Philippi sent some support to Paul while he was in prison. In those days, they didn't feed people in prison like they do today. So, came and brought you stuff while you're in prison. And so, if Paphroditus brought a gift to a Paul-wise in prison, and so it says in verse 26, and since he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick, for indeed he was sick almost to death. So if Paphroditus takes this gift, financial gift to Paul in prison from the church at Philippi, and he almost died on the journey. And so, the Bible doesn't teach that if you have enough faith, you'll never get sick. I mean, I hear that all the time. There's no place in the Bible that it teaches that if you have enough faith, you'll never get sick. Because, duh, the common cold, duh, the flu, right? Who in here has never been sick? Raise your hand. Right? I mean, people get sick, right?

9:12But he says, goes on to say, he was sick almost to death, but got immersed in him, and not only him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I sent him the more eagerly that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such men in esteem. Because for the work of Christ, he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service towards me. So the Paphroditus sacrificed a lot to serve the Lord. He almost died, but the Lord spared him. And so why did the Paphroditus risk his life serving the Lord? Well, because he was just responding to God's love for us, right? And that really is the motivation to serve the Lord, whether you're an usher, a greeter, a sonnest school teacher, that when we say, Lord, I love you. Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me, for giving my sins, removing my guilt and shame, that I can be presented righteous before you in heaven.

10:13And what can I do to Lord, I want to serve you, right? It's just a response. In fact, the Bible says in 1st John, 119, or 1st John 419, we love him because he first loved us. And that's so important to be reminded that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. Even though we didn't deserve it, we didn't earn it. And so my response to Jesus is, thank you. What can I do to show my love towards you? How can I serve you? How can I do whatever I want to, whatever I can for you? And you know, you all here on Wednesday night, there's some people like, you go to church on Wednesday night. My response is, you stay home and watch the lame stuff on TV on Wednesday night. I mean, it's like, I mean, just think about it. Go to church one hour on Wednesday or watch whatever garbage that they're pumping about, who knows, and I want to get off on all their weirdness. But, right, whatever they're doing. But the whole thing is that, hey, I love the Lord. I want to go to church. I love to come to church on Wednesday. I love to come on Saturday and Sunday and Wednesday.

11:14And, you know, we had fasting and prayer last night. I love to come. Why? Well, because I love the Lord. I'm thankful for what He's done for me. I'm not coming here to, you know, to earn my way into heaven. I'm already saved. I'm going to heaven, right? But we are our response to Him, is Lord, we love you because you first love us. And so we're going to have communion tonight. And if you've never invited Jesus into your life, that really is the first step. Is to pray and ask you to forgive your sins, come into your life. And then, from there, you begin to have them change you on the inside. So we're going to pray and we're going to have communion. Lord, we thank you for your word. And let we do pray you would cause these truths to not just go into our minds, but Lord, to go into our hearts. And that by the power of your spirit, Lord, that you would cause these truths to transform us on the inside. Lord, we want to be loving people who don't complain and argue. But, Lord, we want to be a blessing. We want to be a light for you in this world. And so we do pray, Lord, for all of us tonight, as we have communion, that we would be reminded Jesus that you loved us first,

12:17that you initiated this relationship because you love us and you care about us. And our response to you is to tell you, Lord, we love you and we want to follow you. And so we pray you would bless this time of communion tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for joining us for today in the worth. We'd like to share with you a couple of things that are going on here at Calvary Chapel. Calvary Kids of Caldwell is currently enrolling infants to 12-year-olds. We are a licensed daycare offering infant and toddler care, as well as pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and after-school programs. We provide Christian-based learning programs at affordable rates, with flexible options to accommodate most work and pay schedules. We are located in downtown Caldwell and are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 2-0-8-453-9-6-5-3 to request more information or visit us online at calvarycaldwell.com. Calvary Chapel Caldwell would like to invite you to our Saturday night service at 7 p.m. This is an alternative for those who cannot make it to our Sunday morning services.

13:19Like us on Facebook at Calvary Chapel Caldwell or check out our website at calvarycaldwell.com. You can watch today in the word on Sunday mornings at 10.30 a.m. on the CW channel 2.2. Join us as we broadcast Calvary Chapel Caldwell's Sunday morning church services, where Pastor Bob teaches you how to apply the truth in your Bible to your everyday experiences, so that you might enjoy a better life. If you would like to listen to Pastor Bob's message today and its entirety, you can visit our YouTube page. Just search Calvary Chapel Caldwell and you can see all of the latest messages from Pastor Bob. Make sure to click the notification bell so you know when. We post new content. If you are not currently attending a church and are in the Caldwell area, we'd like to invite you to one of our services. We're located on the corner of 10th and Everett across the street from the library in downtown Caldwell. You can also visit us on the web at calvarycaldwell.com. If today in the word has ministered to you and you would like to support this radio outreach ministry, we encourage you to pray for us. You can also partner with us financially. Simply visit calvarycaldwell.com to make a donation.

14:21Thank you for joining us for today in the word. May the Lord bless you and may you have a great day.