 So, third John, beginning at verse one, the elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers, for I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well because they went forth for his name's sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth. I wrote to the church, but diatrophies who loves to have the preeminence among them does not receive us. Therefore if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prading against us with malicious words and not content with that. He himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has a good testimony from all and from the truth itself. We also bear witness and you know that our testimony is true. I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink. But I hope to see you shortly and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name. Third John, let's look at this. Let me give you a little background just so that for those of you who take notes and like to get that kind of information, you might have that information so that you can look at it in its context. Third John is a letter that centers on three people in a particular church. We saw them as we are going through this. Gaius, Deotrophes, and Demetrius. Now Gaius and Demetrius are mentioned in a positive light, but Deotrophes or Deotrophes, we really don't know how I don't know how to pronounce his name. We can call him Joe if you'd like, is looked at in the negative. There are parallels between second and third John and that gives us reason to believe that the date is around the same for both of those letters. It was written around 90 AD. There is a purpose in this letter and that is to encourage a man named Gaius, Gaius or Gaius to continue his Christian service to those in need. And it's also intended to expose the prideful power hunger of a pastor named Deotrophes. Now to get this context down, Gaius had welcome missionaries into his home. He cared for their various needs. He cared for them in the sense of giving them meals and lodging finances, other necessities and in doing so, what he was actually doing was simply acting as a Christian. You know, the Bible tells us in Galatians, for example, chapter six, verse 10, that as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. And so we're commanded to do good. We're to be good and do good in general, but we especially are called by God to care for those who are in the family of faith. In Hebrews 13, 1 and 2, it says, keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers for by doing some have entertained angels without knowing it. And so there is a spiritual element to this kind of generosity and hospitality. So on the one hand, Gaius had welcome missionaries into his home. Yet on the other hand, the pastor, Diatrophes, was opposed to this. He didn't like him performing this kind of ministry. And the reason for that is given in verse nine, when it simply says that he loves to have preeminence. So he was a bully is what he was. He had what is called selfish ambition. He had a longing for power and his selfish ambition and his longing for control and power actually motivated his response. Now, the Bible tells us in Philippians chapter two, verse three, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in loneliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. And Diatrophes should have known that better than the average person in the body of Christ. And yet for some reason, he seemed to forget that lesson. You see, if false teachers had entered in, the Bible tells us that Diatrophes would have been required to deal with them. That was established throughout John's first and second letters. False teachers could infiltrate. False teachers from the very beginning have entered in to the body of Christ with the attempt to undermine the direction that God would have the church to go and to undermine the faith of individuals. We live in a time, a day to day, that many people do not understand that there is something that is really called truth and that the church has been given the chore to the job, the ministry of safeguarding. The Bible refers to us in 1 Timothy chapter three as the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. And so in the early days of the church, there were those who would creep in and as they crept in to the church, there were sheep that would succumb to their bad doctrine. And because they were yielding to the things that were being said, the pastor had been given the authority to wield that rod of authority in order to protect the sheep from the error that they might embrace. So Diatrophes was for false teachers called by God to make sure that they didn't have a place in the church. In second John, I'll give you an example, verses 10 and 11, it says there, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him, for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. And so false teachers were not to be encouraged in any way. False teachers were not to be supported in any way by the church. They were actually supposed to reject. The church was to reject the false doctrine. Now I didn't prepare a lot of statements that are running through my mind right now as it relates to that, but I can say to you this, that because of the state of the church in the United States today, there are quite a number of people who support false ministries. And whenever I name the false ministries or whenever I've warned in the past, be careful about this, there are those who are young in their faith, perhaps weak in their faith or perhaps have not matured in their faith. There's whatever reason there may be and they get upset at me and I get the letters and the angry, you know, standing up, walking out and demonstrating how spiritual they are by walking out while I'm speaking and all of that. But the bottom line is, is there some churches out there that I as a pastor have the responsibility not to judge the man's heart, but to say this is what's being said therefore be careful because it's not lining up with scripture. I've had conversations over the years many times related to this and, you know, and I just had a conversation going on my Facebook page which, you know, the Facebook for me is a good ministry opportunity. I enjoy the dialogue and the letters that I get and the questions that will come through it and all of that. And yet at the same time because I've got like 5,000 people that are called friends, you know, it's not all of them go to this fellowship and so they go to other fellowships and so they'll bring in their whatever, you know, their point of view and that happens. And if I write something there are times and someone will message me and say, well, how about this or they want to post their ideas and all of that and that's a forum where, you know, I don't have a real problem with that as long as we don't go in the wrong direction. And recently I was mentioned by one particular teacher. I won't mention by name Joel Osteen and there was an open letter written to him and he's a winsome young man. He's got a beautiful wife. They've got, you know, great personalities and all. And I said, you know, I posted a letter that was written, you know, with an encouraging, loving warning to them to get into the word of God and teach God's word. That's what pastors are supposed to do by the way. You know, the Bible says in the latter days, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the doctrines of demons. And the reason they do that is he said, Paul said, having itching ears. Having itching ears. What does that mean that they're always scratching their ears? No, they're looking for somebody who will tickle their ears. They're looking for somebody who will say the things they want to hear. And that's not hard to do because there are plenty of people out there communicating things that you would love to hear. And that's why sometimes churches can explode in numbers because that man is saying things that these people want to hear. So who doesn't want to hear that today's your best day? Who wants to, who doesn't want to hear that you are the head and not the tail? You know, that's just something that we, because here we go. I wasn't preparing this. I didn't prepare this, but travel with me for a minute. Because it sounds like I'm condemning people, and that's why I have a problem. That's why I keep stopping myself because I'm not, I'm not condemning, but I am observing and commenting, and that's my responsibility. Bottom line is, is because we are in an era of self-love. Now Paul said in 2 Timothy 3, he said that in the latter days, there'll be two things. Well, he actually lists several things. First couple things he speaks about men being lovers of themselves, you know. And that's what we call narcissism. That's the self-love, the self-absorption. So everything has to meet my criteria. You know, it's kind of like when I go to a certain burger place, you know, I'm going to have it my way. And that's how people are. And it's in the church. It's in the body of Christ. I still remember in this auditorium, after a Sunday morning, a woman approaching me and saying to me, this is my first day here, and I just wanted to ask you, what does this church have to offer me? And well, that's a legitimate question. But I said the question isn't, what does this church have to offer you? The question is, what do you have to offer this church? Because we're taught here to serve the Lord. And so what this church has to offer is an encouragement to be a servant to Jesus Christ, because there's no greater thing that you can do than to serve the Lord, right? I would hope that we'd agree on that. There's nothing greater than serving Jesus Christ. I mean, if you don't want to serve the Lord, then you probably don't want to go to heaven either. I mean, that's just the way it is, right? I mean, that's what the scriptures teach, is that what we are. But see, because we don't think that way, we have a tendency of heaping into ourselves teachers, because we have itching ears, we're turned aside from the truth, we're turned unto fables. And that is a sign of the last days. And so I'm not impressed by auditoriums filled with people. What I'm impressed with is men and women who love Jesus Christ and serve them completely and do works for Him. So the size of the church, do you think that Jesus is saying, I'm sorry, there's only a hundred people there? That's just a real waste of my time. You know, I want to go over to Houston where there's 48,000. I don't, Jesus, if Jesus walks into the room, as I see it when I read scripture, of course he liked multitudes and he liked individuals and we can develop that too. But when he'd walk into a synagogue, the first thing he did is he ministered to a demon-possessed man, he'd ministered to a person with a withered hand or he was drawn to the need, to the need. And so in ministry, what we're supposed to do is we're supposed to discover the heart of God and do that. And the pastor has the responsibility of encouraging people to follow the right path. Now we have authority, we have to exercise it and if a false teacher were to walk in, a man like Diatrophes who was put in the position of leadership had a responsibility to check out on whether or not their doctrine was proper or not and if it wasn't proper, they were not to welcome them into their house. Now, when it speaks about someone who comes to you and doesn't bring this doctrine, don't receive them into your house nor greet them, we need to remember that the early church met in houses and what they were saying, it was not like 21st century I've had people say, well, if a Jehovah's Witness talks on my door, should I keep them in the front porch? You know, don't let them into my house because doesn't it say that? And I've had to explain, that's how you can dialogue with them, invite them in, give them a glass of water, share the love of Jesus with them. That's what we do. So the house that he was speaking about is this, if somebody were to come here to this church and would say, I'm from such and so church and I have a message to bring, if their doctrine doesn't line up with scripture, I'm not to welcome them in, give them a place of prominence or allow them to teach their doctrine because in doing so, I'm actually blessing them as they're doing things that are contrary to what scripture has to say. And that's why you won't see, for example, you know, anybody who is not doctrinally solid teaching from this pulpit, teaching the word of God from this pulpit. There will be times perhaps in the future, we've had it once in the past, where I might invite somebody who has a differing view and I'll put them against somebody who espouses doctrinally what we accept and they can debate the issues in front of the church, but that person with a differing view is not being placed in a pulpit to preach his message to you as if it's true. That person is being given an opportunity for you to hear their side and then get the rebuts that come from the individuals who represent Orthodox Christianity. But would I bring in to this pulpit somebody who doesn't teach the word of God? No, would I bring somebody into this pulpit, somebody who's gonna teach you that Jesus is Michael the Archangel? No, why not? You're unloving, Pastor David, that's the whole problem I have with you. You're a judge. Jesus said that I am to judge righteous judgment and one of the gifts of the spirit is the gift of discerning of spirits and we are called by the word of God to become discerning or judging. The word discernment speaks of judgment so that we can hear and we can balance and test whether these things are true and embrace what is true and reject that which is false. And so the whole purpose of Bible studies and times like this is for us to be built up in our faith so that we may know the ways of God so that we're equipped for worse to service so that we can share with others the truth of Jesus Christ. Diographies as a pastor has a responsibility of doing that but he doesn't have the responsibility of telling his church not to minister to sincere believers in Christ. And that's what's taking place in this particular situation. Gaius was acting responsibly in helping the missionaries because they were the genuine article but on the other hand diatrophies was in the wrong because his motives were impure because he did those things because he wanted to have preeminence. So he wasn't acting as a shepherd he was acting as a bully. Now with that in mind John chose to use certain words repeatedly you notice when I was reading it he used the word beloved and the word love seven times in 14 verses. He used the word truth and the word true seven times love and truth. Love and truth go together don't they? Love and truth. I'm 20 years old you're looking at me saying no you're not I was born on leap year. I'm 20 years old I'm barefooted I've been drinking smoking pot my eyes are glazed my hair is not really combed nicely wearing a raggedy t-shirt and jeans and I walk into church for the first time a church called Calvary Chapel and nobody nobody looked at me and said you don't belong here look at the way you're dressed put on some shoes get your hair cut brothers and sisters in 1970 that was common in the church a lot of youngsters here you wouldn't know that but you would not have walked into a church without shoes any church you just didn't do that you see this is a different place this is a place filled with the love of God a new carpet had been put down on the floors and uh... because hippies didn't like to wear shoes the elders ushers had noticed that these hippies were walking in barefooted well anybody here knows that when you walk around barefooted the oils on your feet get rubbed into the carpet dirty up that carpet they had just laid some new carpet so they put a sign and the sign said no shoes no entrance they're trying to be good stewards that they're trying to take care of the place God gave to them they did it with a good heart pastor chuck providentially arrives early and he sees that sign and he picks it up and he starts hitting him with this my father's no i'm that that was jesus and the house of prayer we made it at dinner thieves and he drove them out i'm sorry no he just took the sign and he trashed it and he got the guys and he said if new carpets keep one kid from coming in to find jesus christ let's rip up the carpets so they could come in now that's my heritage that's my heritage and what is that what would that be called now i'd be called love and that's why i was talking to the men today in the meeting and i said the same thing to them twenty-year-old kid loaded drinking walks into a place ambushed by something i had never felt in a church in a church ambushed by love god help us god help us not to become old wine skins god help us do not look at that kid with the earrings and say the kid with the tattoos up and down their arms how can you don't you know you know what that kid with the tats maybe you don't want them and maybe you don't like them and i'm fine with that but i don't think that jesus cares about those tattoos i think jesus cares about that kid i believe that jesus cares about that kid and we gotta we we gotta be careful we gotta be careful i have staff members who are tatted all over the place how can you have somebody like that on staff because they love the lord jesus christ that's why what other person would i have on clean skin dirty heart you know i'm telling you that be careful be careful because we can stop loving i was not booted out of that place i wasn't kicked out of that place i was welcomed why because i needed the lord jesus christ and that's what i've always wanted for us as a group of people and so beloved or the word love seven times because love is so important and so is true and so that's your introduction we better get into the book right verse one the elder to the beloved guys whom i love in truth he begins with a very simple introduction he is the last surviving apostle of the original twelve he is what would be called the leading elder in the body of christ he is an elder he is not only positionally he is not only positionally an elder in the sense of in the hierarchy of the church how the church is run and is run by elders but he is also an older man an older man uh... one thing one brief thing is that in in a youth oriented society in churches becoming more youth oriented also and i understand uh... a lot about that in terms of like uh... the attractiveness attractiveness of youth and the the abilities of youth to understand the needs of other youth and all and i think that's all very valid we still need to re-respect elders in the body of christ don't we uh... you know you can go to the doctor and the doctor has forty years experience in the particular illness you have or you could go to the doctor who's got uh... a years experience in the particular illness that you have and maybe you're the sort who is pretty much an equal opportunity person you'll say well that one year you know a new guy is good with me you know me i prefer the guy who's been there forty years just because he's got a lot of experience i'm kind of kind of picky when it comes to my health if i went to somebody said you know i i i need to have an operation that guy says gee whiz that's great i just graduated i'd say well that's neat to you you have anybody else you might suggest you know i like experience and experience in the body of christ is very important and so we need to we need to respond that way because in a time when the young people are casting out the old and not one in them uh... the last pastor's conference one of the young pastors were saying uh... something about the dinosaurs who were teaching at the pastor's conference uh... from my perspective that's just youth speaking because we need elders and we need men and and and older women who walk that road for a long time to help us along the way and so he's an elder and he's writing to guys whom he loves in the truth and uh... this is obviously a personal letter to a member of the church that is passed by diatrophies but when he says whom i love in truth that's a simple affirmation he's simply saying whom i love sincerely here's something for you applicationally whom i love sincerely religious people are especially adept at pretending they love people am i right in that yeah i am amen pastor david that's true but they are religious people are especially adept of putting on that oh i love you face i've been places where they say give one another the sign of peace in a church service oh god be with you my brother and they won't speak to you in the parking lot but there they are hugging one another and greeting one another giving each other the sign of peace and this and that they can't stand each other i've seen that so have you we're really adept we're really good at hypocrisy putting on the mask oh i love you i love you so much i'm going to tell you the truth and then we rip them up and down in love right because we are very good at that loving people is what we're supposed to do right here's an example for you in uh... in the gospels on in more than one gospel we have a woman by the name of mary she was Lazarus's sister and mary wanted to express her love for the lord jesus christ and so what does mary do well she notes his head and she anoints his feet with a very very expensive perfume as a matter of fact the bible tells us that this particular ointment the spike now that she used was worth three hundred days wages that is obviously very expensive years wages is what that's that's saying and so when this takes place it's found in john twelve four three six one of his disciples judas is scary at simon son who would betray him said why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor and john goes on to say this he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the money box and used to take what was put and what he did is he used love as a cover up this could have been sold and the poor could have been cared for and i'm telling you a lot of times when people want to want to give you what we used to call i don't know if they still use this word i think they do a zinger when they want to kind of just give you a poke they'll say something like uh... you know that's nice that you're nice to mary but are you still beating her i mean they they twist things around this should have been sold you know it's it's just another way of selling sounding holy and loving and we could have given it to the poor see religious people are very good at hypocrisy the love in the lord is to be genuine because this is basic because he genuinely loved us and because he genuinely loved us would love one another roman's twelve nine let love be without hypocrisy first peter one twenty two since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren love one another fervently with a pure heart so john loved gaius sincerely and he let him know now verse two is one of those verses that's been taken out of context many times beloved i pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers this is what is called a general blessing it was a common greeting during that period he said may you prosper may you have good health and may you be spiritually mature by the way those are things that are proper to pray for in our desire to live a life that is blessed by god there's nothing wrong with saying lord i would pray that you would you would prosper my life in every way i would pray that you would work within me in every way may i grow in you and may i find success in the things that i do in your name in first chronicles four ten it says jayvis called on the god of israel saying oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory that your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil that i may not cause pain and god granted him that request there's there's nothing wrong with saying god would you bless my life the reality is is if you bless my lord is so that i might be a blessing to somebody else so god may bless you in every aspect of your life physically spiritually materially but this is not a guarantee of health and prosperity what this is simply a blessing in a prayer for spiritual growth he says in verse three i testified i rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you just as you walk in the truth have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth so john rejoices in the knowledge that gaius is maturing in his walk in the lord and by the way this rejoicing to hear that his spiritual children are walking in the truth is something that causes every every spiritual mentor every pastor great joy it's something that we want it it's a blessing on the occasions that i will have somebody say oh i i ran into somebody from your fellowship what a blessing they are to me that that causes my heart to rejoice when the cateenus come in and others like the cateenus and they they were here just last week but i can tell you they will say things like you know we love coming to your fellowship your church has got such sweet hearts and they're such sweet people that blesses my heart because i know as a minister that that that the people are walking in the truth they're rejoicing i rejoiced in that and so that's something every pastor every spiritual mentor rejoices in he says in verse three second portion he said when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you just as you walk in the truth and um his ministry has reached the ears of the aged apostles by those whom gaius had ministered to and that's what caused him to rejoice let's look at this in a practical way briefly know this know that your personal ministry is very often spoken of and recognized by other people know that and know this also the things that people say concerning your personal ministry are very often the very small things it's the small and simple things that you do that very often touches and blesses people's hearts never forget that sometimes you may feel that you're not really doing anything because you're not having this huge international impact you may be thinking that you're nothing and doing nothing that's absolutely not true my mama was because of physical um disabilities incapable of getting out of her bed her last year of her life mama had been bedridden off and on for many years and she would she would talk to me and she would say to me with tears quite often how difficult it was for her and i always told her the same thing i said mom i said there's one thing you can do in that bed that you do well and that is you pray your prayer warrior and you take petitions to god and you love the lord and don't let the enemy whisper into your ear that you're nothing and useless because you're not because mama you pray for my ministry you pray for your children you pray for your grandchildren you pray for your great-grandchildren you lift them to the lord in prayer never let the enemy think it make you think that you are useless because that's what he wants to do he wants to make you feel feeble and unnecessary but every person in the body of christ is necessary and it's the small things that you do keep that in mind it's not the huge things it's the small things that you do that very often impact people there's an interesting story in the book of acts it's found in chapter nine verses thirty six through forty one and there it simply says there was a believer in japa named tabitha which in greek is dorkus she was always doing kind things for others helping the poor about this time she became ill and died her friends prepared her for burial later in an upstairs room but they had heard that peter was nearby at litta so they sent two men to beg him please come as soon as possible so peter returned with them and as soon as he arrived they took him to the upstairs room the room was filled with widows who were weeping now listen and showing him the coats and other garments dorkus had made for them the thing that she did is she would actually just make garments for him that's no big deal is it but look at how it touched these people they said look what she did for us these things matter the small things keep that in mind it's not the huge things it's the small things unnoticed by some noticed by god and it changes lives and these people came and spoke to john and said we want you to know concerning guys what a great man he is they said that he was walking in the truth and that caused great joy when he says in verse four i have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth his christian faith was not simply intellectual it was practical and truth that was in him was revealed by the things that he did this is someone who showed compassion this is someone who showed love to someone who was in need and that to me is a tremendous sign of spiritual maturity he says in verse five beloved you do faithfully whatever you do for the brother and for strangers who have born witness of your love before the church if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of god you will do well because they went forth for his namesake taking nothing from the gentiles we therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth and so the things that he was doing was shown through his hospitality and his support of ministers who had visited the church hospitality in the ancient world was looked at as a sacred duty it remains so uh... even to this day during this time they had what are called ends but they were generally dirty they were flea infested in keepers were on the lowest rung of society at that time they charged people for that which should have been given freely that was the mindset of that age hospitality should have been something done generously and freely there was a uh... greek philosopher by the name of play dough and he called in keepers pirates he said they hold gas for ransom before they're allowed to escape and so he didn't have a good word for in keepers you see in the ancient world they had what was a system called a system of guest friendships so families would open up their homes family members from other countries and all the traveling family member needed was an identification in that way they would be shelter and so because that was true in the heathen world they were known for generosity and and for caring for traveling strangers the question should be should not the church be more so well in first peter four nine it says offer hospitality to one another without complaining without grumbling you know it's christmas grandma's here but when she gonna go you know without complaining notice what he says in verse six concerning the support of ministers he says if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of god you do well the church's responsibility towards genuine ministers care for them generously shelter them feed them encourage them even provide funds for traveling but you do so for those who are worthy those who are doing the work of ministry he says in verse seven they went forth for his name's sake these are those who went forth in the name of the lord for the sake of god that's what they did they went everywhere for christ's sake everywhere for christ's sake so there was this sports writer used to write for the la times i believe he was in africa and he was on a he was driving his car on a dirt road and some path doing sightseeing years ago now when the car in front of them stopped and when the car stopped that car started backing up and the sports writer stops because the car is getting close to him and then makes a wide turn in order to make a turn and come back so the guy unrolls his window and yells at him and says this this is a quote he says where are you going for christ's sake and billy graham was the driver of the other car and billy graham stuck his head out of the window and he says i go everywhere for christ's sake and and that's basically what's being said here they they went forth for his name's sake they went out preaching in the name of jesus christ again remember that false teachers go out on their own authority for their own profit but these missionaries went for the name of jesus christ and so notice how he says in verse seven taking nothing of the gentiles they were missionaries not mercenaries the church has an obligation of supporting the spread of the gospel and the world doesn't have that obligation and so we as the body of christ care for our own he says in verse eight we therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth this is interesting these are people who are worthy of support they should be properly cared for he's saying in our regular purchasing habits we need to remember that we support many companies that are opposed to our values many and and you know any any if i mentioned any automaker any brand of of automobile in here the cars that i've seen in the parking lot like like your bentley's in your rolls roices you know that i see out there there's so many of them and key is if you went and looked into the the charitable organizations they support you know when you buy their car many times they're giving to organizations that you would never give your money to you wouldn't if these organizations were to contact you for a donation you'd say no i'm sorry philosophically i'm opposed to how you use this money you would do that i've done this i've had people you know right me and say how about this and if you that well bottom line is almost every single thing that you buy if it's a corporation that corporation sending a portion of your money into organizations that you do not support and that's just a that's just a bottom line fact that's what happens so in our regular purchasing habits we support many companies were opposed to concerning our values so the point is we should care for ministers and their ministries because they have eternal impact and that's the reason you you give in that way you know we've had people here in our fellowship will go into our bookstore and get a lot of information about a book that they want to buy when they get all that information they go uh... and they purchase it online and so the there because they're gonna save a dollar and they don't realize that if you bought the book here that money goes into ministry but when you go online and you buy through amazon or whatever your your money's going into a corporation that is not doing ministry to save a dollar rather than to give that dollar i'd like you to think about that whenever you purchase because it's just wise to do that because in a lot of ways we support those those those were opposed everything we really believe in now what's interesting also i should point this out is when he says in verse eight that we may become fellow workers for the truth fellow workers in supporting them you are partaking in the work in the fruit as well as the rewards of the work that they're performing when i prepared the study i wasn't thinking of jess and nesty and the work in philippines i wasn't thinking of it but the gifts and offerings that go towards their support and the work that they're performing the reward from the support that we have they're getting a reward for performing those works we get a support we get a reward also for our support of that work and what's really interesting paul said it this way in philippians four seventeen is that he said not that i'm looking for a gift but i'm looking for what may be credited to your account in the gift that you give maybe you don't know this in the gift that you give to the lord when that gift is put into ministry when you see people come forward at invitations when you hear stories of you know hundreds of boxes of toys taken to mexico or charitable work that was done at one of the soup kitchens around here or there's so many things our church does i've been saying to my people i ought to be saying more about the things that you guys do your gifts when you give your gift they have eternal dividends eternal reward and ultimately one day you'll receive that reward because you supported the work that god has performed and that's what paul's saying and that's what john said now notice better hurry up i only have a few minutes i'm at verse nine already just rushing through aren't i he says i wrote to the church but diatrophes who loves to have the preeminence among them does not receive us therefore if i come i will call to mind his deeds which he does prading against us with malicious words not content with that he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish wish to putting them out of the church and he says beloved do not imitate what is evil but what is good he who does good is of a god but he who does evil has not seen god the diatrophes diatrophes did not want any teaching in the church except his own he was a tyrant he couldn't stand for his influence to be challenged and he wanted to be the most important i should say this as a confession when our fellowship was younger i i was afraid to bring in better speakers because i knew in my heart i thought well they're going to prefer that guy over my teaching and and i was jealous there i said it but that's true that's true people can be fickle i have had people say when are you going to leave again you always bring such good speakers no i'm i find that funny and i'm blessed because i want them to be blessed by these by the speakers of course but see it at the beginning i i wasn't quite like that at all because i was jealous and the lord said uh... long time ago now the best thing you can do is encourage them to have a great meal bring the best teachers you can bring so they can be the best fed and that's really whichever is supposed to do when you have a jealousy about authority and you want to be the preeminent one then you're not going to allow anybody in if they in any way are going to challenge who you think yourself to be so he could not stand for his influence to be challenged because he wanted to be the best so what does he do well notice verse ten he openly rejects the authority of john now the word preying did you use that word today that's not a word we use right he said preying against john with malicious words when it the word preying uh... is speaks concerning uttering nonsense he was bringing idle accusations making up empty charges whenever anybody makes up charges like diatrophies was there's an intent there to steal the heart of people away from somebody else and bring that heart to themselves and so he was making malicious charges against hall out rather john because he didn't want anybody to respect john the elders authority and so he put himself against john and said malicious things about him and he wanted to undermine john by these accusations a second thing he did is he would not receive the brethren well by not receiving them that was a way of showing his authority so he would not show hospitality and he would not record recognize these emissaries of the kingdom a third thing he did easy put them out of the church uh... he kicked them out and what he did is he refused to comply to that those things that were right and he ended up just bullying people and that's why he says in verse eleven do not imitate what is evil but what is good you does good is from god but he who does evil has not seen god in other words you need a better example you need to follow the lord and you need to follow john's example you see a good example is verse twelve demetrius demetrius has a good testimony from all and from the truth itself we also bear witness and you know that our testimony is true so this is a man who is blameless and he's saying the facts speak for themselves just look and see the difference between diatrophies and demetrius and you'll see the work of god in one man's life and the work of the flesh in the other and finally he said i had many things to write but i do not wish to write to you with pen and ink i hope to see you shortly we shall speak face to face peace to you our friends greet you greet the friends by name couple of closing thoughts here's something for you take me just one minute christianity this can be threatening so i'll say it hopefully in a way that makes sense christianity is relational christianity is a philosophy of life that is lived out in relationship with other human beings there are reasons why we'll ask you to hold one another's hands i know some of you feel uncomfortable with that i respect that i really do and if you don't that's between you and the lord you ogre no that's we do have hand cleaner by the way before you come in you can clean your hands up nice and dainty if you'd like but i do understand that and please never feel like you're being forced to do something if you don't feel comfortable with that you're not a bad person if you don't that's okay you need to understand two things one is when i got saved i came from a an environment where putting arms around each other singing to the music in swain that's what we did that's what we did and when we would gather together for prayer we would actually sit on carpets we were hippies we would sit on carpets and we would hold one another's hand that's what i was brought into see that's my background so i have never really thought of how uncomfortable you may be forgive me for not thinking that way i just don't because i i said well i had to get used to it and i i did i've told you this is a true story that when we would hold hands when i first got saved and a man would hold my hand i was uncomfortable at the bottom line you know we could my dad my dad didn't say i love you my dad didn't show affection my dad didn't even show outward affection to my mom in front of us that was how i was raised i i think a lot of you may have had a similar similar to me that's how i was raised no affection no my dad to show me affection would hit me in the back of the head that's a fact i'd walk by and he'd hit me and my mom i said why is that hit me and my mom told me as a little boy because he loves you that's the truth that's the truth and i don't say that it is just true so i was raised in a very you don't show affection environment my mom was affectionate but my dad wasn't and so men don't show affection women do that's how i was raised now i'm with these hippie freaks who are jesus freaks and we're sitting on carpeting and they want me to hold that guy's hand it just does not make sense but i would do it because i'm a new creation of christ jesus all things are passed away i can get over this but i would squeeze their hands real tight just so they didn't get any ideas that's true that's true christianity is relational it's love we learned to love one another now if you aren't comfortable god bless you i'm very serious when i say smile at the person next to you give them your elbow whatever but always remember that sometimes there are people in this room who have not had any other human being touch them until tonight until tonight they live alone they don't work in an environment that's affectionate they come to church and they feel the same way here as they do on the job to me i actually i actually i had a friend named george who brought me to help to bring me to faith in christ and george is the guy who helped me he would grab me and hug me and hold me and i'm telling you i would stiffen up and it was just because i'm not used to this you know you know man i love you brother and he put his face on my face i have a very dear friend his name is scotty he won't mind me saying this to you he cuts my hair i've known him for thirty plus years and scotty will grab me by the face sometimes just to kiss me he's a hairdresser in his shop kissing me and i'm fine with that because i love him too and every time he cuts my hair when i walk out he grabs me and he puts he holds me and he'll tell me the same thing always i love you pastor you're not just my pastor you're my friend and i say you're right scotty give me a kiss now man i'm not asking you to do that and don't worry we're not going to do that in men's small groups let's love one another love is practical and it is it is expressive and finally he says this and i'll close this he says in verse fourteen i hope to see you shortly we shall speak face to face peace to you our friends greet you greet the friends by name i'm looking forward to seeing you we will minister i will minister to you will get together and oh by the way when i get there i will i will deal with diatrophies i will deal with them and diatrophies i have no doubt in my mind i have no doubt in my mind that john came brought the word to him restored him and taught him some things about what it means to be a believer in jesus christ that's what elders do