A Sermon by Ken Trivette from The Living Word

The Book of Philippians (Study 13)
NOT YOUR AVERAGE CHRISTIAN
Philippians 2:19-23


1. Vance Havner once made the statement that most Christians live such a subnormal Christian life that if they began to live a normal Christian life people would think them abnormal. 

2. George Gallup, Jr. said: "While religion is highly popular in America, it is to a large extent superficial; it does not change people's lives to the degree one would expect from the level of professed faith." (The People's Religion)  

3. To put it very simply, most Christians live an average Christian life. The average Christian spends little time in Bible study and prayer. The average Christian rarely shares their faith. The average Christian goes to Church on a regular basis but such things as Christian service and spiritual growth are not important to them. 

4. In all honesty, someone who spends time in the Word of God and prayer; who is passionately and persistently sharing their faith; who seeks the will of God and does the will of God and puts Christ first in every aspect of their life by today's standards is not your everyday Christian. 

5. The Christian life that many live may be normal by religious standards but subnormal by God's standards. Many times, what we accept as a fair Christian life is in God's eyes a failing Christian life. It may be an average Christian life but it is certainly not the acceptable Christian life. 

6. A speaker, who when in a town, would always read the local newspaper to learn a little about the place he was in and the people to whom he would be speaking. He was to speak in Bloomington, Illinois. He arrived on Saturday night, bought a paper and began to read it. It seems there are two small towns or suburbs next to Bloomington, one called "Normal" and the other "Oblong." As he was looking at the paper, he came to the society section and he came across the headline, "Normal boy marries Oblong girl." 

7. Well, in our text, we find a Christian that was not normal. Paul speaks of Timothy as one that was not your average Christian. He was not your everyday kind of believer. Notice how Paul described Timothy in verse 20, "For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state." 

8. The word "likeminded" is made up of two words, "equal" and "soul." Paul was saying, "I have no man with a soul equal to Timothy's." Paul was declaring that Timothy was not your everyday kind of Christian. He was not an average believer. There were many believers in Rome, but Timothy was in a class all by himself. 

9. Paul writes to the believers at Philippi to let them know they are on his heart and mind and in his prayers. He wants them to know that his plans are to send Timothy to check on them and see how they were doing. He affirms Timothy to them and tells them that he is not your everyday Christian. He wants them to know there is something special about Timothy. 

10. Notice 3 things that he stated about Timothy that explains the praise Paul gave him. 

1. HIS LOVE WAS SINCERE! 

1. We read in verse ten, "For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state." Someone has said that love is a verb, not a noun. Paul loved the believers at Philippi and that love was revealed in the way he cared for them. They could never doubt his love for them. His care for them was obvious and the proof of his love. Paul tells them that Timothy is the same loving and caring person he is. 

A. HE HAD A GODLY CARE FOR THEM. 

1. The word "care" means to, "be anxious about." It is to have someone on your mind, to think about that person and to be concerned about their welfare and state. That which was on the mind and in the heart of both Paul and Timothy was the spiritual condition and state of the believers at Philippi. 

2. It was a godly care. They were not wondering how Joe's sword game was coming along or if Harry had got that new chariot, or if Mary had got that stone floor put in her house. Their concern, anxiety, and care was their spiritual condition. It was a godly care. 

3. The average believer cares very little about the spiritual condition of those they know. They can be around the lost and talk about everything but Jesus. They rarely express and exemplify care for new converts, weak and fallen believers, and other Christians that have needs. 

4. Do you have a love and care for your family and friends that are unsaved? Do you have a deep concern over the spiritual condition of your family. Are you concerned that you have loved ones unsaved or away from God? Timothy was the kind of Christian that cared about other's and their relationship with God. 

5. Chesterton once said, "There are no uninteresting things, there are only uninterested people." The average Christian and the average Church is uninterested and uncaring about the spiritual condition of others. 

B. HE HAD A GENUINE CARE FOR THEM. 

1. Paul said that Timothy was one who would "naturally care" for their state. The word "naturally" means, "sincerely, genuinely." Timothy was someone who really cared. It was more than words he spoke. It was works he showed. If you could have X-rayed Timothy's heart you would have found that he sincerely, genuinely, really and naturally cared for others. 

2. I think of the feelings of the Psalmist in Psalm 142:4, "I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul." The Psalmist felt that no one really cared. 

3. It is easy for a person or church to say they cared, but it is another thing for them to really care. Really caring is more than what you say with your lips. It is something that you show with your life. 

4. Many years ago, Anne Lindbergh's father, Dwight Morrow, told a group of friends that he felt Calvin Coolidge had real presidential possibilities. They all disagreed saying that Coolidge was too quite and lacked color and political personality. One said that no one would like him. Anne, age six at the time, spoke up and said, "I like Mr. Coolidge." Then she held up a finger with a bit of adhesive tape on it and said, "He was the only one who asked me about my sore finger." Mr. Morrow nodded, "There's your answer." 

5. The average Christian may pretend to care and may profess to care, but the only ones that really care are those that really care and show it. 

1. His Love Was Sincere! 

2. HIS LORD WAS SUPREME! 

1. We read in verse 21, "For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." Paul said that Timothy was not your average Christian because that which was first and foremost in his life was the Lord Jesus Christ. 

A. LIVING FOR THE EARTHLY. 

1. Paul stated that for the many, life was lived for the earthly. He spoke of those who "seek their own." The word "seek" means, "to endeavor, to desire." For many, life is built around what they wanted. The priority of many believers is their own happiness. The boundaries of life are no large than their own little world. 

2. They are like the man that Jesus spoke of in Luke 12:16-21: "And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall these things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." 

3. This man laid up treasure for himself. He sought only what he wanted. Jesus called him a fool. He was rich as far as this world is concerned, but was bankrupt as far as the eternal was concerned. 

4. Barna's book Baby Busters (those born between 1965-1983) spoke of workplace studies that have identified certain concerns about the Busters. Let me mention four: 

5. This "all for one, and one for me" is not only an attitude that particularly characteristic of Baby Busters, but it also true of the average Christian. Many a Christian life is self-centered and self-propagating. They live life seeking their own. 

6. It is somewhat like a couple of prayers I came across. There is the prayer of a certain father: "Lord bless me and my wife, My son John and his wife, Us four and no more." Then there is the prayer of a childless couple: "Lord bless us two, And that will do." Finally there is the prayer of a bachelor: "Lord bless only me That's as far as I can see."

B. LIVING FOR THE ETERNAL. 

1. Timothy was not your average Christian for he sought "the things which are Jesus Christ's." His life was not limited to the earthly but lived for the eternal. He modeled the instructions of Colossians 3:1-2, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." 

2. He lived by the rule Jesus gave in Matthew 6:33: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." 

3. The rich man in Luke 12 was condemned for living for the earthly, but Timothy was commended for living for the eternal. A man is a fool who only lives for this life, but a man is wise who lives for the things of Christ. 

4. George Barna in his book The Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators said, "People may view themselves as Christian, but their intensity of commitment to the faith is lukewarm. Less than half of its self-proclaimed adherents (41 per cent) say they are "absolutely committed" to Christianity. A similar proportion (44 per cent) say they are "moderately" committed to the faith. 

5. The person that is not your everyday Christian says, "Lord, I want to do your will. I want to please you in all things. I want to be all you want me to be. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I will seek first the kingdom of God and your righteousness." 

6. The Lord wants more than a place in the believers life. He wants even more than prominence. He wants preeminence. He wants to be Lord! 

1. His Love Was Sincere! 
2. His Lord Was Supreme! 

3. HIS LABOR WAS SPECIFIC! 

1. We read in verse 22, "But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel." Timothy was not the kind of Christian that you had to wonder about. Paul said to the believers at Philippi, "ye know the proof of him." The word "proof" speaks of that which has been tested and proven. Paul said that they knew that Timothy was as Kenneth Wuest described, "All wool and a yard wide." 

2. Timothy was not your average Christian in the sense that he was involved in God's work. 

A. HE WAS CO-OPERATING IN GOD'S WORK. 

1. Paul and Timothy worked hand in hand. Paul compared him to a son and a father. Like Sanford and son, it was Paul and Timothy working together. 

2. When I think of God's work I am reminded that the task before us is too great for one person. It demands that believers work together and join hands in cooperation. 

3. The story is told of a little girl that was lost in a Kansas wheat field. Workers searched through the day but the field was so big they failed to find her. It was getting toward evening and they feared that if they did not find the little girl soon she was perish in the cold night. Finally someone suggested that they join hands and walk across the field. In a little while there was a shout, "Here she is." They all rushed to where the cry had come from but only to find that it was too late. As the mother rushed up and saw the lifeless body of her little girl, she begin to cry, "Why did we not join hands sooner, oh, why did we not join hands sooner?" 

B. THERE WAS CONSECRATION TO THE WORK. 

1. It was not just any work Timothy was involved in, but a specific work. It was a work "in the gospel." Timothy was consecrated to the preaching of the gospel and the winning of souls. He was not your average Christian. The simple truth is, you cannot get the average Christian to visit, work, and be concerned about those who are lost. 

2. I read about a pastor who was very rigid about keeping an appointment each morning. His wife did not know where he. His secretary did not know what he was doing. This aroused the suspicions of the deacons so they decided to investigate. They decided to follow him one morning. They followed him out of town where he parked his car and and began walking down through the woods. When they caught up to him, he was standing beside the railroad tracks shouting and cheering at the top of his lungs, pumping his fist into the air. The deacons approached him and asked, "Pastor, what on earth are you doing?" The pastor replied, "I can't help it. I just get excited when I see something moving and I'm not the one pushing it." 

3. Every believer ought to say that by God's grace and God's help, they are not going to be an average Christian. May we all live above the average in the way we care for others, live for God, and seek to win others to Christ.

Copyright Notice: This sermon may be used and copied freely for personal use. If used in any publication or on another web page permission must be obtained from: "The Living Word, Temple Baptist Church, 3204 Clio Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37412."

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