Opening Comments
How many of you have ever been or are part of some sort of alliance? What sorts of alliances are we a part of on a day-by-day basis? (Entertain answers from the congregation.)
“Alliance” is an interesting word. Webster’s Dictionary defines an alliance as, “an association to further the common interests of the members” and “union by relationship in qualities .” Many times you see this word used in reference to nations, as they form alliances for a common purpose. In fact, in great conflicts like World War II or the Gulf War the nations friendly to our cause were called allies.
The television show Survivor has brought an entirely new meaning to the word “alliance.” You see, on Survivor, people form alliances in the form of a voting block to get rid of people. In their alliances they agree not to vote for one another, and they agree who they are going to vote for when the Tribal Council comes. So, if they can become part of a strong alliance, they can stay in the game for a long time.
Opening Illustration
Of course, in the course of my life I have formed all sorts of alliances … many of them for the wrong reason. I’ll never forget one alliance that I formed when I was in the sixth grade. There was a worrisome boy in my class named Tom. He didn’t run will the cool guys like I did, but he desperately wanted to be a part of our group. So, my little alliance of friends got together and cooked up a little joke to pull on Tom.
We told him that he could hang out with us if he would help us pull a trick on our Social Studies teacher. We told him that at exactly one o’clock that afternoon, he should give a loud sneeze. Ten seconds later, we told him, the entire class would follow with a loud sneeze. Then, ten seconds later, he was supposed to wipe his hand across his nose with a big, loud wipe. And, finally, ten seconds later we would all do the same thing.
Of course, none of has any plan to do it. We were just setting him up. We didn’t even tell anybody else in the class of twenty-five students. And the bad part is that we all forgot about it. But Tom didn’t! And exactly at one o’clock he let out one of the loudest and most stupid fake sneezes you ever heard. It was so loud that teachers were looking out of their rooms up and down the hall. The teacher just went over to his desk, grabbed him by the ear, and hauled him out of the room. About ten minutes later she came and got every member of our little alliance.
Needless to say … our alliance suffered drastically at the hands of the principal that day.
Transition
Alliances are often times an important and necessary part of our lives. We do not live in a vacuum, we live in a society, and so we must ally ourselves with other people for a common cause or to accomplish a common purpose.
But sometimes we make bad alliances. Occasionally, we wind up in an alliance that does us more harm than good. That even happened in the Bible. It happened to Solomon. He married hundreds of women from other countries in order to make military and national alliances with those countries. But, in the end, the influence of those women led him to be unfaithful to God. In fact, he even worshiped and offered sacrifices to other gods. His alliances caused his downfall and eventually led to the splitting of the kingdom of Israel. So, those were definitely bad alliances.
But, there are also good alliances in the Bible. Our New Testament is full of alliances among individuals for a common purpose. We see the formation of an alliance between Jesus and His disciples. We see an alliance between Paul and Barnabas to go out and do missions … take the Gospel to the world. But eventually that alliance becomes strained by a conflict. We eventually see the growth of an alliance and understanding between Christians of Jewish and non-Jewish birth. It wasn’t easy, but that alliance for the common cause of sharing the message of Jesus finally came.
Focus
But today I want us to focus upon a personal alliance … simply because that is most often the type of alliance that we will enter into. Each day we choose the people with whom we will make personal alliances in our lives. Some might call them friends, but that word does not quite do justice to this concept of a personal alliance. Friends can be distant or close, personal or impersonal, deep or superficial.
There is, buried within that concept a friendship, the concept of a personal alliance. There are those people in our lives that we expect to stick with us through thick and thin. There are people we keep so close that we truly begin to identify with one another, sharing common ideas, goals, and dreams. They are the people we know we can count on and trust, no matter what the circumstances may be. These people are your “inner circle,” your true friends.
Paul had a friend like that. He had an alliance with a young man he thought the world of … a young man he knew he could count on … and that young man’s name was Timothy.
Let’s read together what Paul has to say about his ally named Timothy.
**Read Philippians 2:19-22**
You see, by the time Paul wrote these words from prison in Rome, Paul and Timothy had served together for more than ten years, ever since Paul’s second great missionary journey. They had traveled together and preached together. Paul knew that Timothy was a man he could count on … one that would never turn on him. He knew that this Timothy would always be loyal. And as Paul wrote to encourage and instruct the church at Philippi, he knew that Timothy would be effective in going to visit and check on the people there. Paul and Timothy even seemed to think alike. The phrase in v. 20, “I have no one else like him,” literally means in the Greek, “we are like-souled.” Now that’s an alliance!
We all need friends like that … alliances in our lives that are meaningful. We all need those people close by that we can count on to stand by us in times of trouble. We all need people who are “like-souled,” people we can interweave our lives with. The trouble is, those people are hard to find … and often times when we think we have found one, we wind up getting hurt.
So, what do we need to look for in making the right personal alliances in our lives? What are the qualities that we should look for? I believe that Paul gives us an excellent model right here in these verses as he describes his young ally named Timothy.
So, as we seek to make the right alliances in our lives, we need to look for allies who:
1. Really care about other people, especially other believers. (20b)
Timothy had this quality. Paul commended him to the Philippian Christians for having a genuine interest in their welfare. Timothy cared. He invested in the lives of those Christians there. He was supportive of them. He was an encouragement to them.
Friends, that’s the kind of person I want to make an alliance with. Don’t you? The world, and yes, even the church, is full of people who really don’t give a rip about anyone but themselves. You don’t even know they’re on the planet unless they are mad about something or have something to complain about or stir up trouble over. They would never pick up the phone and give you a call, but they would not hesitate to call someone and talk about you. You know what I’m talking about!
But, praise God, there are always those believers who care … who write you notes of encouragement … who call you just to see how you are doing or to pray for you. I thank God each day for the people he has placed in my life who really care about me.
I have known people like that in churches where I have served before. People like Jim Muston, my pastor from Memphis, who will drop an e-mail just to let me know he misses me. People like J.E. Skinner, a retired gentleman from Williamston, North Carolina. J.E. is my friend. He has traveled the world over with me. He has kept up with me. He is my ally. People like Pam Rader, a friend of mine in Hopkinsville. When I served as her son’s youth pastor, Pam would just send me notes from time to time … it seemed like she knew when I was as low as I could go, and her sweet words of care always picked me up.
I am finding allies like that today in our church. I won’t name anyone because I don’t want to embarrass anyone. But I am encouraged by the steady stream of phone calls and sweet notes from my friends here at Crossroads … people who call and write just to let me know they care. Isn’t that incredible!
Those are the people I want to make my alliances with. I want to get close to people who lift me up, not tear me down. I want to get close to people who make me a better person just by being with them. I want to make my alliances with Christians who will lift up their brothers and sisters in Christ … not tear them down.
So, look around Christians! Do the people closest to you really care about you? Are they good partners for a personal alliance?
Transition Illustration
A couple of years ago I had an encounter with an anxious and upset dad. He was sort of joking when he called me, but I could tell that he really wasn’t joking. His daughter had talked to me about a possible missions call on her life. She was a college student. So I encouraged her to check out the possibilities of overseas service through an organization at her school
Well, before we knew it, she was signed up and getting ready to go to Taiwan to serve the entire summer. Well, her dad had a fit. So he called me. He wanted me to talk her out of it. It was too dangerous. Something terrible was going to happen. He would never see her again. He was all for missions and stuff, but this was his daughter.
I talked to him and encouraged him to let her find her own way … and to pray for her. I encouraged him not to put out the fires of missions in her life. And I asked him why it was okay for other people’s kids to serve, but not his own? I encouraged him to offer his daughter in prayer as a gift to the Lord to be used as He saw fit. Well, he wasn’t real happy about my answer. He just said, “Someday your girls will grow up and you’ll understand.” Well, she went. And she came home just fine. And she got to see and experience and do some incredible things for the cause of Christ.
That dad learned an important lesson, and that lesson is a trait that we need to look for as we make our personal alliances. We need to look for allies who:
2. Put the interests of Christ above their own. (21)
There it is again … selfishness. Paul compliments Timothy here for his lack of it. The words of this verse throw back to verse 20. It is showing that a contrast exists here. Most other folks were worried about themselves, but Timothy was concerned for the cause of Christ. It seems that Timothy patterned his life after the life of Paul, who said in 1:12, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.” Paul wasn’t even worried about being in jail … as long as it served the cause of Christ. Just compare Timothy and Paul to the people Paul refers to in Philippians 1:17 (show on screen – read).
Why, that doesn’t sound like Christian folk, does it? Did you know that there is selfishness in the church? (act shocked!) Did you know that there are people in the church who are much more interested in themselves and what they can get out of it than they are what they can put into it? Well, they are! Tragically, that attitude of selfishness is alive and well in the church. It is the source of all conflict in the church. Indeed, selfishness is the source of most of the problems in the church and in personal relationships.
But Timothy wasn’t like that! He put the cause of Christ ahead of his own desires. That attitude made him a worthy servant and a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.
Friends, this is the type of person that you need to make a personal alliance with. You cannot find a better ally and friend that a person who is a happy, motivated, sold-out, committed follower of Jesus Christ. Because, you see, that attitude of selflessness will overflow into the relationship that you share ... it can’t help but do so.
So as you go out looking for those good alliances, look for people who put the cause of Jesus Christ ahead of their own needs and their own desires.
Transition Illustration
I heard a story this week about a man in Texas who loved to share his faith. He had the gift of evangelism and he used it. He wouldn’t keep up with numbers or anything like that, but one of his friends counted over 260 people that he personally led to Christ in one year. His fellow believers knew his heart, and they knew how he put his faith into action.
One young man who was desperate over the spiritual condition of his father asked this man if he would visit and share Jesus with his dad. Of course, this gentleman agreed. But the young man said, “I don’t think you understand … my dad lives in South Carolina.” The man told him, “I don’t care.” And he packed a bag, loaded it in his car, and set off for South Carolina. He struck a relationship with that young man’s father, and within a few days led him to Christ. On the way home he got stopped for speeding in Alabama, and he led the officer to Christ!
That man had an incredible faith relationship with Jesus, and he put it to work in his everyday life.
That brings us to the third trait that we need to look for in our personal allies. We need to look for allies who:
3. Are proven, faithful servants of Christ. (22)
Timothy had proven himself. His character had been tested through the trials of Christian service. Paul and the people at the church in Phillipi had found him as faithful as a son to his father. In fact, the word translated “serve” in the NIV is douleuo, which means to slave. Isn’t that a vivid picture? Timothy had slaved alongside Paul in serving the cause of Christ.
Friends, that is the kind of ally you need. You need someone who can pull up alongside you in life and serve Jesus with you. You know, we build our close relationships upon all sorts of foundations … all sorts of common interests. We have fishing buddies, golfing buddies, shopping buddies … all sorts of alliances built upon worldly pursuits. But how many of us truly build our personal alliances based upon the common bond of service in Jesus Christ.
I have had many friends in my life, but the people I got to know best were the people I served alongside. My fellow pastors and staff members, fellow youth workers, someone who worked beside me on a ladder … painting a house. Those were the moments that really counted, and the relationships that I will always cherish.
Friends … go out and make those alliances. But, please, seek out allies who will serve Jesus Christ at your side.
Closing Illustration
I want to leave you today with one more example of a great friend. There was a man in the book of Acts named Joseph. He was a Levite from the island nation of Cyprus. But his friends didn’t call him Joseph, they called him Barnabas. That nickname meant, “son of encouragement.” He was an encourager. He lifted up his brothers and sisters in Christ. He helped them, and led them to grow in the Lord.
Listen to the actions of this great ally named Barnabas. (Read Acts 11:19-26). Did you see a glimpse of his character there? Could you see the trouble that he went to for these friends in Christ. Friends, we need people like Barnabas in our lives. We need those alliances. We need to be like Barnabas for the allies in our life.
So, let me encourage you. Put today’s message to work in your life. Seek out alliances with people who genuinely care about you, people who are more concerned for the cause of Christ than they are for themselves, people who will go out and serve Jesus at your side.
Prayer & Challenge
Action Steps
1. Evaluate the personal alliances in your life.
2. Make a list of the five people who are closest to you.
3. Determine if they have all of these qualities in their lives.
4. Decide if you need to make any changes in your personal alliances.
5. Look around the church … seek out some new allies to invest your life in.
