This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day five of our look at Philippians chapter two in daily drive time
devotions. We're looking at verses 25 to verse 30 today. Remember yesterday we
began a look at how to experience joy on the job and we talked about the first
three of six things in these verses that can create an excitement and a joy in
any job.

Even if I don't enjoy the work, I can enjoy what God's doing through me in that
place. Yesterday we talked about you need to take a genuine interest in others
and the need to associate with the experts and number three, they need to
improve the relationships. We're going to take a look at three other things
today.

Number four in this list of six is help others in their work. You want to enjoy
any job, help others in their work. Verses 26 to 28, talking about Epaphroditus
that we began a look at yesterday.

That guy who had brought an offering to Paul in Rome from the Philippian church,
Paul says of him back to this church, "For he longs for all of you and he's
distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed, he was ill and almost
died, but God had mercy on him and not on him only but also on me. Spare me
sorrow upon sorrow, therefore I am all the more eager to send him so that when
you see him again, you may be glad and I may have less anxiety.

" Paul talks here about Epaphroditus who had served him and he says, "I'm going
to send him back to continue to serve you. " As he talks about what Epaphroditus
had done for him, how he had helped Paul in his work, and as he talks about what
Epaphroditus is going to do by going back to continue to serve with the
Philippians, he reminds us of two things you can do to help anyone. Those that
you work for, those that work for you.

When Paul says, "I'm sending him back so that you can be glad and so that I can
have less anxiety," he's talking about two ways you can help anyone in their
job. That you may be glad, you can maximize their potential. That I may have
less anxiety, you can minimize their anxiety.

You do that for anyone and you have helped them in their work. Paul wanted to go
back to the Philippians, but he couldn't. Epaphroditus could go, he wasn't in
prison, so he went for Paul.

And Paul said, "I'm going to do that and you're going to be glad. " Epaphroditus
stretched, he maximized Paul's potential. He did things that he couldn't do.

Now, some of you might be thinking about this in relationship to your boss. I
mean, Epaphroditus helped out his boss, the Apostle Paul, and you might be
thinking, "Wait, wait, wait. You don't understand.

If I maximize my boss's potential, that might make my boss look good. And you
don't know my boss. He's going to take all the credit.

" Let me just say, not all. God sees, God knows, and that credit cannot be
taken. The only credit that's going to last into eternity, that credit cannot be
taken.

Truth is, in most workplaces, everyone else sees and everyone else knows also.
And the idea that I have to somehow not help other people because they might
take advantage of me keeps you from joy. And Dara Gandhi once said that her
grandfather said there were two types of people in this world, those who do the
work and those who want the credit.

His advice was, "Go for the first group. It's a lot less competition. There's a
lot less competition for work than for wanting the credit.

And if you just live for wanting the credit, then you're never going to
experience joy. " So you maximize the potential of other people, and you let God
sort out the credit. The other thing you do is you minimize their anxiety, that
I may have less anxiety.

Some people delight in maximizing the anxiety of the people that they work with.
They think that's where they get joy, but in the end, you end up depressed. You
don't realize that when you minimize their anxiety, you also minimize your
anxiety.

Epaphroditus minimized Paul's anxiety because Paul knew that he could be
trusted. He was a man that he could trust to send back to the Philippians.
Maximize potential and minimize anxiety, those are two things that you can do to
help anybody in your work.

Who do you need to do that for today? Who do you need to help today? And then,
whether anybody else notices or not, just let God's joy flow into your heart.

You help others in their work. The fifth thing that you do to experience joy in
any job is you honor those who work well. Paul did that in verses 29 and 30 when
he said, "Welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor men like him,"
because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for
the help that you could not give me.

In these verses, Paul reminds us of two things that you can do for the people
that you work with, especially for those that might work for you. You recognize
their importance and you recognize their sacrifices. Paul recognizes
Epaphroditus' importance.

Back up in verse 25, when Paul talks about Epaphroditus being a messenger, the
word there in Greek is the word "apostle," and he's not saying he's one of the
twelve apostles, but he's using a very high honoring word, almost ranking
Epaphroditus up with himself. I'm not afraid to do that. He's recognizing the
importance of the ministry of Epaphroditus.

And when Paul talks about Epaphroditus taking care of my needs earlier in this
passage, we get our word "liturgy" from that phrase "take care of my needs. "
The liturgy means here's how to worship. You see what Paul's saying here?

He's saying your life can be a liturgy to God, worshipping God by serving
others, by what you do to help other people. And you recognize the importance of
that. I believe that the most important job at any work, any job, might just be
the people who let others know how important their job really is, because we all
need encouragement.

So who could you encourage today? Maybe the least noticed person at your school,
at your office, at the construction yard, wherever you work. You say to them
today, "You know, what you do is really important.

Thank you for what you do. " You recognize their importance, and you also
recognize their sacrifices. Paul said Epaphroditus became sick, in fact, he
almost died for the work of Christ.

When someone makes a great sacrifice for a job, for work, that should be
honored, that should be lifted up. The sacrifice of the work that people put in
each day, the sacrifice of the heart that they give to that. I know some people
who say, "Oh, people get a paycheck, that's all the recognition they need.

" Those people don't understand people. A paycheck is not enough to motivate me
to joy. And I get joy when I recognize the sacrifices of others, and they get
joy through my recognition you honor those who work well.

And then in this passage about work, just sort of tucked away in the way that
Epaphroditus worked, I'd like to suggest a sixth key to joy in any job. Verse
30, "He almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the
help you could not give me. " I believe that work without risk is work without
joy.

Christians are not asked to just play it safe. Epaphroditus risked his life, and
that makes me ask, "What am I risking? How do I risk my life in a way that says
I'm willing to give it all because of my love for Jesus Christ?

" The question is, how do I make sure I'm taking the right risk, not a foolish
risk? And the answer is, because it's easy to take foolish risks, the answer is
take every risk that God asks you to take based on his word, based on the advice
of other believers. You take every risk that God asks you to take.

When you have a sense God is asking me to take this risk, you check it by the
Bible, you ask a few Christian friends about it, and if it checks with them, and
you sense that God wants you to do it, you better take that risk. Now you may
not have to risk your life, or you might, but sometimes you might have to risk
instead your job. The risk of being a witness at work is a risk.

The risk of standing up for what you know to be right is a risk. You know what
one of the greatest risks in any job is? It's the risk of trusting someone else
to do your job, the risk of teaching someone else how to do it.

Now if you're going to grow as a person, if you're going to grow in your job, if
you're going to grow in your influence, you're going to have to trust other
people to do the jobs that you know how to do well, but that's always a risk.
What if I'm not needed anymore? That is a risk.

But Paul, because he taught other people to do his job, was able to spread the
good news of the message of Christ all over the world. If he tried to do it all
by himself, it never would have happened. You may think my job is not that
important, where your joy is.

If you're going to enjoy, if you're going to have joy in the job that you've
been given, you have to be able to grow in it, and that means you've got to take
the risk to trust someone else to learn to do your job. Now risk has to be
weighed by importance. You don't risk it all in that which won't last.

I know guys who risk their family for just a little more money. That's not a
good risk. Risks have to be made by faith.

Some people, they make risks just based on adrenaline. They like the thrill of
it. That's not what I'm talking about here.

I'm talking about the risk of faith. The risk that says it doesn't create
adrenaline and it creates instead a sense of nervousness that unless God pulls
through, this is not going to work. And risk will be paid by consequences.

Epaphroditus almost died. Never take a risk without being aware that it might
turn out for the "worst" for you but for God's best. But if God asks you to do
it, you better do it.

Paul says that God healed Epaphroditus and he saw that as the mercy of God. The
apostle didn't demand that God heal Epaphroditus. He didn't pray some faith
prayer where he said, "God, you have to do this.

" Instead he asked and then he trusted. And when God healed, he saw it as a sign
of God's mercy. Mercy for Paul.

Now for Epaphroditus, if he died, he'd be gone to be in heaven. So the mercy
really was for Paul that he could stay and work longer with them. The Bible says
that Epaphroditus risked his life for the work of Christ.

That is the kind of risk that I want to take. He knew who he was working for. It
reminds me of Colossians 3.

23, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord,
not for men. " The work of Christ. Whatever you do.

Martin Luther once said, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of
God just as much as the monk who prays, not because she may sing a Christian
hymn as she sweeps, but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker
does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by
making good shoes because God is interested in good craftsmanship. " Whatever
you do, you can do it to honor God.

C. S. Lewis once said, "The work of a Beethoven and the work of a janitor
becomes spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God,
of being done humbly as to the Lord.

" Whatever you're doing today, you can do it for his sake. You can do it to
honor him. The Bible says in Hebrews 6.

10, "God is fair. He will not forget the work you did and the love you showed
for him by helping his people. And he will remember that you're still helping
them.

" Let's pray together. And as we pray, I'd like to pray for three groups of
people. First pray with me for those who wish they had a job.

You might be praying for yourself as you pray for this. God, I pray for people
who don't have a job right now that are looking for one, whether they live on my
block or where they live all the way around the world. God give them good work
to do.

Help them to find a job, a place where they can give themselves to making a
difference in this world. A place where you can work through that job to meet
the needs of their family and their life. God, I know that you'll meet their
needs, but one of their needs right now is a place to work.

So would you open the door in the way that only you can? Pray for those who
don't have a job. Secondly, pray for your coworkers, people that work alongside
of you, whether it's one or a thousand.

As you pray, you might ask yourself the question in prayer, "God, how could I
help you put the name in? I've got to help this person I'm thinking of to see
God's goals realized in his life, in her life. How could I be an ambassador for
Jesus Christ in his life, in her life?

" And then number three, pray for your boss. Ask God to strengthen the person
who manages you. They may be your best friend, they may feel like your worst
enemy today.

Well, God told us to pray for our friends and pray for our enemies, so pray for
your boss right now. Ask God to bless them. Ask God to use your influence in
their life to help them to see the light of Jesus Christ.

God, we thank you that you meet the needs of our lives. And we thank you that we
can find joy, even in the places where often it's lost, because of your grace
and strength and power. Help us to find joy in the gifts that you've given to
us, as we allow you to grow us.

And help us to find joy in the place that we work, as we allow you to use us. We
pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Make sure to join us next week as we continue in
our look through the book of Philippians.

We'll be looking at Philippians chapter three.