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6.23.21 MOC Session #2 Brian Bowen · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Good evening, guys. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Brian Bowen, and my family and I have been coming to Highland since early 2017 and...
• 0:08
  Man, what a joy it is to be back in summer, thrive with the men of Highland. I gotta admit, I'm a bit jealous of all of you that attended last week. My family and I, we were on vacation in North Carolina, and while we had a fantastic time, I couldn't help but think of all of you last Wednesday, longing to be with you. And I'm so grateful that I'm here tonight, and also grateful for the humbling opportunity to teach from God's Word.
• 0:35
  And tonight we will be continuing the Men of the Church series, focusing on Philippians chapter 2, verses 19 through 30, and specifically two men, Timothy and Epaphroditus. And tonight's teaching is titled, Fellow...
• 0:51
  soldiers, as we will explore what it means to be men of the church within the context of serving together as fellow soldiers of Christ. But before we do, let's briefly review some of the main points from Nathan's message last week.
• 1:07
  Now, our vision for the men of Highland comes straight out of the Bible. We find it in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Five imperatives to live by. Number one is that be watchful. Two, stand firm in the faith. Three, act like men.
• 1:36
  Four, be strong. And then five, the fifth one, do everything in love. And this is our charge to each of you. This is a charge to me. And more importantly, this is our call from our commanding officer, Jesus Christ. And men of the church, not just men in the church, right? And to reiterate one of the discussion questions from last week.
• 1:57
  Will we commit to be asking the Lord through this summer study to show us where we can grow to become men of the church, not just men in the church? As I pondered this thought of being a man of the church and not just a man in the church, I recalled some words that were shared from one of the leaders of another men's ministry with which I'm involved. Now, what he said was in light of Father's Day. However, I do believe.
• 2:27
  that these words ring true for all men who are chasing after God. He wrote this. He said, Men, you are public enemy number one. The culture hates you because it knows what you represent. Responsibility, hard work, selfless sacrifice, and leadership in a distinctively masculine way. Be strong in the face of this. Accept that if you are doing your job right, you will be hated for it.
• 2:53
  To be a good man is to be unappreciated, to be a good father even more so. Get over it and stay in the fight. You are building a legacy, not trying to win a popularity contest. Where you are present, the world prospers. Where you are absent, the world burns. And you know, guys, I really think that this captures at least in one way what it means to be a man of the church and not just a man.
• 3:23
  in the church. And so now we're going to take a look at two men who certainly were of the church of God. And this is Timothy and Epaphroditus. We'll be spending some time learning about the character of these men, Paul's dear friends and brothers in Christ. We will also be looking into what it means to be fellow soldiers, as well as to whom we report daily as Christian men.
• 3:50
  Our commanding officer, Jesus Christ. So if you would, guys, I invite you to open up your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. And we'll be reading verses 19 through 30. God's word says this, 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.
• 4:15
  They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 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. I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier.
• 4:38
  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, lest I should have sorrow upon me.
• 4:55
  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. And guys, would you bow your heads and pray with me? Father God, we love you so much, Lord, and we are grateful for who you are. We're grateful for
• 5:24
  Jesus, what you've done on the cross for us. And God, I ask that you just make us attentive tonight to your word. Holy Spirit, would you be present with us tonight and challenge us where we need to be challenged, lift us up where we need to be lifted up. And God, that you are just honored and glorified through the teaching of your word tonight. It's in your name we pray, Jesus. Amen.
• 5:54
  Now, I find it interesting that prior to this passage, Paul talks about advancing the gospel, following Christ's example of humility, and being lights in the world. And here we find Timothy and Epaphroditus, two men worth imitating, who were sent by Paul to do just that. Notice in verse 20, Paul says about Timothy that there is no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.
• 6:21
  No one like him. I mean, to me, that means that Paul would not have chosen any other man apart from Christ if he could. One commentary said that every Christian has the light of God on him, but how few shine with unwavering luster, ready for every call of duty. That was Timothy.
• 6:41
  Now in verse 22 we find that Timothy has proven himself and that he's grown into a level of spiritual maturity that gives Paul even more confidence that Timothy is the right man for the job. Brothers, if we are intentional about our service to and our daily walk with Christ, God's call will come. And I must ask, are we ready for it?
• 7:04
  And the consistency and persistence of Timothy has to be mentioned here. I have found that most timelines show that by the time Paul wrote this epistle to the Philippians, it had been over 10 years since he first met Timothy at Derbe. Now, I want you to take a moment and think back over the last 10 years of your lives. I mean, really, take a minute to reflect. I'm going to give you some time here. You know, guys, I'll tell you what.
• 7:38
  If I go back more than about five years ago, that's a place I don't really like to revisit often. However, to see God's hand over my life and to see how He has pulled me out of the pit and restored and redeemed me, man, I mean, this is miraculous stuff. And while I have been far from perfect, far from perfect over the course of the last four or five years, I've certainly been much more consistent and persistent in my walk with God. He has been preparing me. And Timothy, from a very young age, had proven
• 8:08
  himself over the course of more than a decade. Now like Timothy, Epaphroditus had also proven himself the fellow brother, the fellow worker, the fellow soldier of Paul. He gave himself to the work in Rome with such fervor that his health suffered greatly, even to the brink.
• 8:28
  I mean, in all of his infirmities, he, as verse 26 tells us, Now, I don't know about you, but when I have a cold, my distress isn't about how others are feeling. Trust me. Ask my wife. I'm a big baby when I'm sick. I'm more concerned about what I need, not what others need. But here we find this man, Epaphroditus, on his deathbed, extremely troubled.
• 8:57
  The members of his church are worried about him, concerned about their welfare, not his own. And in verse 29, Paul says to the Philippians, So receive him, speaking of Epaphroditus here, 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, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. Honor such men.
• 9:36
  Why? Why do we honor such men? Because he nearly died for the work of Christ. And if Epaphroditus was willing to die for the work of Christ, I have to believe that he was most likely willing to lay his life down for his brothers and sisters in Christ. His fellow soldiers. Look, we're going to do this for real. Take this. Got some high-powered fireworks in here that might come in handy. Are you kidding me? You mean you've been carrying a bag of fireworks around with you this whole time?
• 10:11
  There's literally a dozen situations where we could have used these. He's right. None of that's important now, okay? Listen, I gotta just level with you, bro. I misjudged you. I thought you were just a dumb dude who dressed stupid, but I'm wrong. You're solid. Thanks. Thick or thin, I will follow you into battle at any time. You hear me? Absolutely any time. Okay. How about now?
• 10:41
  Like right now? Yes. Honestly, I didn't really expect you to call the favor in this soon. So, uh, on this one, unfortunately, I have to say no. But I think it's gonna be awesome for you, for personal growth, just to hit this one solo. I'm gonna be rooting for you. Okay? Trenches, bro. It's all about love. Okay? After this time, I'm there for you, okay? Anytime after now. He's your man, not me.
• 11:15
  Now, apparently, Will Ferrell's buddy either does not know or does not have the heart to apply the words of Christ that we find in John chapter 15, verse 13. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. I think Will Ferrell's buddy kind of missed the boat on that one.
• 11:38
  Now, guys, when I prepare a message, I almost always ask my wife certain questions because I truly value her thoughts and opinions. Plus, she's just generally smarter than I am, so it's a good idea that I do. So I asked my wife, who currently wears the rank of Major and serves in the Air National Guard, I asked her, what is the first thing you think of when you hear fellow soldiers? Her response? Love.
• 12:07
  Now, of course, my first thoughts were of all the war movies and shows that I've watched throughout my life. You know, movies such as Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, Dunkirk, Band of Brothers, the list goes on. And guys, if you haven't seen at least one of those movies or shows that I just mentioned, we may need to discuss the surrender of your man card before you leave tonight. Just saying, just saying. But love, love.
• 12:34
  What was the last imperative that I mentioned just a bit ago? The last part of 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13. Let all that you do be done in love. And we could go into all the different kinds of love that we find in the Bible. Eros, philia.
• 12:52
  storge and agape but the kind of love between fellow soldiers is this greater love that christ talks about this selfless sacrificial love in which we put others interests and welfare before our own this agape love where we have an intentional desire to call greatness out of others not to express to others what we may find great in ourselves
• 13:17
  And Paul certainly called greatness out of Timothy and passed on to him this strong desire to serve others for Christ's sake. And earlier in the chapter, Paul is telling those in the church at Philippi to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. And here again, we find Paul sending to them Timothy.
• 13:45
  Such a faithful example of someone who will do just that. Now some of you, maybe most of you know that I served 20 years in the Air Force and retired a couple years ago. And I also know that some of you in here have served as well. And we are so, so grateful for your service to and sacrifice for this country in which we live.
• 14:10
  Now, it has been more than 20 years that I first arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for basic military training, but I can still remember the experience quite vividly. That first night was chaos. Guys arriving all hours of the night, just being constantly woken up again and again. Not that I'd actually been sleeping anyway. And then finally, at some point in the morning, the TIs, which stands for training instructors, the equivalent.
• 14:37
  of the drill instructors and the army, they stomped into the barracks and screamed at all of us to get out of bed and stand at attention, which at that point I didn't even know how to stand at attention. I mean, I can remember looking around the barracks, just looking at all these guys, none of course of whom I knew anything about, and these were the guys that I had to spend the next eight weeks with.
• 14:57
  And let me tell you, we sucked. We could not get our act together as a flight. A flight is the equivalent of a platoon in the Army. We could not get it together for at least the first few weeks. We didn't know each other. We didn't really want to know each other.
• 15:14
  You know, we just wanted to get by each day as individuals so we could survive. And we may have had the common goal of graduating basic training, but man, we were working against each other, not for each other. It was exhausting. It was frustrating. And then at some point, though, in the middle of the eight weeks, we began to realize in order to succeed and in order to thrive and flourish, we needed to work together. And it started with really getting to know each other.
• 15:41
  One area in which most of us struggled was the presentation of our uniforms. Since the uniforms were new, they had all these little threads poking out of the seams, and if one of our instructors saw one of those threads, we'd be given what's called an Air Force Form 341. Now, these Air Force Form 341s were for excellence in discrepancies.
• 16:04
  It was an excellence in discrepancy report. Let me tell you that when one of the instructors handed these out to us, it was rarely, if at all, for excellence, mostly for some kind of discrepancy, something we were screwing up. So one night, a handful of us decided to stay up and take a nail clippers and clip each and every one of these little rogue threads that were found on these new uniforms. But, you know, it wasn't only on our own uniforms that we were doing this. We were doing it for the uniforms of all of our buddies who were sleeping.
• 16:33
  And, you know, another example is I could not fold T-shirts to save my life. I mean, I really still can't, but, you know, I digress. But what we did or what I did is I found somebody that could really fold T-shirts well. And every night I would shine my buddy's boots and he would fold.
• 16:55
  My t-shirts, you know, we were intentional about learning about each other's strengths and weaknesses, and we picked up each other's slack where and when we could. And men, should we not be doing the same for each other in the church?
• 17:10
  You know, my basic training buddies and I had the common goal of graduating basic training. And yes, that had significant meaning. And it was something that we were proud of when we finally reached that day. But guys, we have a much more significant, meaningful, and spiritually challenging goal to strive for. And Paul tells us what that is just a few chapters later in Philippians chapter 3.
• 17:32
  Verses 12 through 14, he says, Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it on my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
• 17:59
  You see, guys, the goal here isn't the benefits that come from the call or anything like that. The goal is the call itself, working with God as a partner to do the work of his kingdom. I mean, being plucked out of space and time by God himself to be a part of his mission and purpose. I mean, is there anything more humbling and exciting than that? That we are here tonight serving the most powerful, wonderful, glorious, just, loving, and grace-filled king there ever was or will be.
• 18:29
  And here's the cool thing, guys. We don't have to do it alone. God doesn't want us to do it alone. We need Jesus. Oh, yes, we most definitely need Jesus. And we also need each other because we are in a war, brothers, and I want, I mean, I need fellow soldiers like you, soldiers of Christ, to walk alongside me, to challenge me, to rebuke me when I need rebuked, to pick me up when I've fallen down, to love me as Christ commands us.
• 18:57
  And what a commanding officer he is. And any commanding officer of any army needs to cultivate sound order among his troops so that the mission is carried out effectively and efficiently. Our God is a God of order. He created the universe in a certain order. He created our bodies to function in a certain way, a certain order. And even though God exists outside of time, he created time itself, which is orderly and sequential.
• 19:24
  A good friend of mine reminds me often that where there is order, there is honor. And as fellow soldiers, we are to submit to our commanding officer, Jesus Christ, first and foremost. Jesus is at the top of the chain of command. Nothing and nobody else can come before him. One of the key reasons why a chain of command exists in the military in the first place is to promote good order and discipline among the troops.
• 19:49
  It is a way to know and understand who is in charge. And you know guys, in my experience in the military, I have not always agreed with the commander's vision, his decisions and orders.
• 20:01
  However, if the order was lawful, and if it was in the best interest of the mission and the people, then I had an unwavering duty to support it. And let me be 100% transparent with you guys. There's some stuff in the Bible that I find extremely hard to work through, whether it is dealing with a certain sin that I've been struggling with, or maybe a certain controversial and potentially divisive topic, or maybe it's the greatest commandment of all, to love God with all of my heart, all of my soul.
• 20:30
  all my mind and all my strength and to love my neighbor as myself. I mean, that's not easy, especially loving your enemies, right? I mean, there's some people out there, guys, that are really hard to love. I mean, heck, I might be one of them. Yet that is the call from our commanding officer. That is his order, his command to us. We find it right in John 15, verse 12, Jesus' own words. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Brothers, we need to have each other's backs.
• 21:00
  Spiritual warfare is real. Paul, in Ephesians 6, verse 12, tells us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We're at war. You know, I'm currently taking an Old Testament course at Denver Seminary.
• 21:26
  You know, we've been reading through the entire Old Testament over the course of the, or we will be reading through the entire Old Testament over the course of a few months here over the summer. And, you know, it's actually been really helpful in keeping me accountable to my Bible reading plan. So I'm very grateful for that, of which I'm very behind. So I just recently finished reading the book of Deuteronomy. And Deuteronomy 20 talks about the laws concerning warfare. Listen to what Deuteronomy 20 says.
• 21:55
  When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priests shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies.
• 22:24
  enemies to give you the victory. Then the officers shall speak to the people saying, is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house lest he die.
• 22:44
  in the battle, and another man enjoys fruit. And is there any man who has betrothed the wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. And the officers shall speak further to the people and say, Is there any man who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own. One commentary said the following about these verses that I just read.
• 23:17
  God was perfectly willing to use those who were left.
• 23:46
  after the officers had excused all of those under the previous two conditions. Both of these exemptions, remarkable among any army, were a powerful testimony that Israel trusted in God for military victory, not in their own ability to raise a mighty, large army. You see, to God, the size of the army wasn't important. The heart of the army was far more important. He didn't want people who might be distracted from the real battle.
• 24:14
  By worrying about the cares of everyday life, their home, their vineyard, their fiance, nor did he want people who were not really trusting him. God could do more through a smaller army that was really committed to him than through a bigger army that was full of compromise. You know, in the army, about 10 soldiers make up a squad, and within that squad are two teams, about four to five soldiers per team. And, you know, that's not what I would consider a large force, would you?
• 24:43
  Yet God wants those whose eyes are fixed on Jesus and who follow His commands. Our force may be small, but our hearts are big and full of the love of Christ. Who can stop us? As Paul tells us in Romans 8.31, if God is for us, who can be against us? Consider the men at your table your squad.
• 25:02
  Yeah, consider these guys to the right and left you, your squad. And within your squad, maybe you have a couple of teams. Let's call them your fire team, a few guys that you are going to make an intentional effort to really get to know better, to open up, to dig in, and to start to do life together, start to really find the joy in what it means to have fellow soldiers in the greatest army there will ever be, God's army. Let's pray.
• 25:30
  Father God, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for each and every one of my brothers here. God, and I pray for them. I pray a prayer of protection, provision, wisdom over them and their families, God. And that we would be challenged and that we would go out tonight and we would dig in, God. We would dig in and just really find in our own hearts what it means to be a soldier in your army, God. How to serve you with a loving heart.
• 25:59
  and a fearless heart, God. We love you so much and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.