Resiliency joy and hope

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. For 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, 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 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.

Philippians 2:19‭-‬30 ESV

Rev. Travis Drake

How to deal when God doesn't give us what we want..

The excellence of Timothy

Paul tells of how he hopes to send Timothy because he has no one like Timothy. Paul gives the highest compliment to Timothy. Timothy is like a son in the gospel. Timothy pursued the good of others. He's the goat. But Timothy isn't being sent to them. Such disappointment. 

The faithful ordinariness of Epaphroditus

So Paul follows up and says he will send back Epaphroditus. This was one of their own. Paul was sending him back. Huh. The church knew him, they had sent him to help Paul. Paul elevates Epaphroditus as a minister. A worker in the gospel who they thought they knew. Paul commends the man they sent to him.

The necessity of sending Epaphroditus (not Timothy)

Epaphroditus is sent to them, not Timothy. The church doesn't need Timothy. They didn't need the greatness of Timothy. The church may have wanted the extraordinary, impressive Timothy. But really what they needed was the very ordinary, very familiar Epaphroditus. God often gives us not what we want, but what we need. We do not see what God sees. God doesn't give us the five star thing we want. He gives us the ordinary, mundane to minister to us.

Paul commends those very mundane things. We should look at those very ordinary servants in the gospel. He does not commend sin and failings, but he does say that earnest, familiar coworkers in the gospel deserve honor. The ordinary community group leader. The struggling worker in the gospel. Paul was a murderer, a gang leader, a persecutor of the church, he was a train wreck from the perspective of the church. So far from God. But Paul's life had been turned around. He was reformed by the Holy Spirit. 

What Epaphroditus reveals

God doesn't just use the extraordinary things. He uses the mundane. Yes, mundane people like you and I. What is special then? The Holy Spirit in the believer. It is not the skills, the personality, the looks, the talent. What makes us special is not gifted people but people who have been gifted by God with the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus did not come as Timothy. He came clothed as an Epaphroditus, so very ordinary. Jesus came as an ordinary looking guy. He did not have good looks. Jesus came here as a rural kid from nowhere that nobody knew about rather than a prince in a palace. Jesus came as a carpenter when the Jews were looking for a warrior or technocrat. He came with no powerful connections in the nation. 

Closing encouragements

Embrace the ordinary around us - if God does this with Jesus, then wouldn't it make sense that God does the same with other people in our lives. Don't get hung up waiting for the next great thing.