Fellowship | Wade Branch

Good morning everyone. It's great to see everyone who's

here today. Glad to have our visitors, glad

to have our regulars. And we share in the most

wonderful thing that anyone ever shares in hope, joy, salvation,

things that we do not deserve, like we just sang about, but

things that we can all be confident in.

And as we've studied through first John, as we now move on to

2nd and 3rd John, I hope we can all sing that song confidently

and I hope we will work daily to make Our Calling an election

sure, so that we can have that hope of that home at last.

What a wonderful service that we've had so far.

I decided to go into second, third John and I talked to some

of you and, and I said, I don't know if I'm going to go into

that. It's I'm not super confident in

some of the things this teaches going into this.

Like, I don't know what I would say about it or I didn't know

exactly all the conclusions to draw from it.

And so I was thinking I was going to avoid this and move on

to something else. But as I thought about it, I

don't think I've ever heard a full lesson taught on second and

third John or second John itself or third John itself.

So I said, you know what, I better do it.

I better take this initiative because anytime I have an

opportunity to fill a hole in my knowledge, I feel like it's

worth my time. And I hope it'll be worth your

time to consider these things in second and third John, the theme

that we see in these letters written by, I believe the same

person who wrote first John, the theme is fellowship.

And if we've established that John wrote the 1st letter, the

second and third letters of John are almost identical in their,

in their style, in the theme, the tone and all these ways.

So we can pretty comfortably say it's the same person.

And if we've established that it was John before, then we can we

can assume that with second and third John, the book of

Ecclesiastes says Ecclesiastes 3, verse 5 to everything there

Ecclesiastes 3:5

is a season, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from

embracing. And if you've read that, you

know, there's a long list of things and that he says there.

And this letter, I think, does pull out a key concept of when

to let go and when to withhold and when to embrace.

And both sides of this are equally important as we prepare

now, as we consider fellowship and where he's going to maybe

draw some lines and where he's going to tell them to welcome

people. It's important to remember what

we've already covered, what he's already established in the 1st

letter of John from John was that this, that which we've seen

and heard, we declared to you that you also may have

fellowship with us. That's the goal.

The goal is that we establish grounded, strong, loving

fellowship always. And it's based on the fact that

our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus

Christ. So that is all laid before this.

So I don't want to rehash everything we've already taught,

but we're going into this with this perspective in our mind.

And he said in first John 210 that he who loves his brother

abides in the light. So that is a indicator of our

own walk with God is how are we walking with our brothers around

us. So I want to make sure we're

walking into this situation with a, with a lead with love first

mentality. There's going to be reasons for

us to have caution, but we lead with love and we lead with open

arms to people. And that's our goal.

That's our that's our end goal is to always establish a strong

fellowship based on truth. So we're going to leave with

loving fellowship. And throughout the New

Testament, we read of people who were commended for how gracious

they were with hospitality and with their fellowship.

So if that's a commendation, we should go into it this mine.

But as we're going to see, there are limits to our fellowship and

it's all centered around truth. But I don't want us to leave

this study today in fear of fellowship and how, you know, I

need to watch out and be really careful.

And pretty soon we're kind of clamming up and we're we're

becoming hermits because we're afraid of some limits.

That is not the goal. What he will establish, I think,

is very instinctual things. There are things we need to

protect from. And if we know truth, it will be

instinctive that we protect from those things.

So as, as we consider what he, his advice is, don't lose the

common sense that I think is, is all over this letter.

And part of the reason I don't want to go, I don't want to

leave us with too many strong conclusions of, oh, we need to

be doing XYZ. And that's that's a big thing is

because he says, I'm not writing to you a new command.

I don't believe there's things in here that it's, it's like,

well, this is totally new and and we should, we should be

totally changing what we're doing as a whole.

It's not a new command his that he's bringing.

It's it's an old command. And so in this letter, as we

consider these things and 3rd John and as we go forward, he's

going to give us some examples of loving hospitality and the

damage of the wrong approach to hospitality and fellowship.

OK, so that's the theme. It starts out by saying the

elder and that elder is who we believe to be John the elder.

There's some people believe he might have been 8090 years old

at this time. So he is older than them,

writing to these people. He says to the elect lady and

her children, whom I love. In truth, some people try to

make this phrase, the elect 80's, the elected lady, some

really nuanced things that I don't believe it's teaching at

all. I think it's very simple.

The elect lady, who is this person?

Well, throughout the New Testament, the church is given a

feminine personification. We're giving her as the bride of

Christ. In Ephesians 522, Romans 7,

Romans 7:4

verse 4 and Revelation 21, she's described as a bride adorned for

her husband. So the the church is often

describing a in a female personification.

And I think that's all he's saying.

He's identifying the church with a singular by saying you the

elect lady. The, the elect means the chosen.

We are the chosen group of the church and I believe and her

children refers to the individual members that make up

that elect lady, that church. And it says whom I love in

truth. So Paula or John is saying that

he loves the church and he loves the individual members of the

church. So this is who he's writing to,

he says, and not only I, but also all those who have known

the truth. He started out the 1st letter by

saying we have fellowship with you and you have fellowship with

each other. Because of the connection.

There's a triangulation between those who love now and you have

loved before and whoever will love God.

We all have a triangle of love because of that.

And all who have ever known the truth share in this because of

the truth which abides in US and will be with us forever.

We can still have fellowship with John here because we have

the same truth that has lasted for thousands of years.

This has been masterfully preserved better than any

document in the world's history. We can know that this abides

forever. It's not going anywhere.

Have you noticed how many times he's already said truth?

Maybe if he says it three times in the 1st 2 verses, maybe in

the first sentence, maybe we'll understand that this is around

truth. And if we're going to have

unity, if we're going to have fellowship with people from 2000

years ago and with people from today's day, from different

walks of life, it has to come from somewhere.

It has to come from a truth, the truth, He says grace, mercy and

peace will be with you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and love.

I rejoice greatly that I found some of your children walking in

truth as we received commandment from the Father.

What's the reality? We read from this, some people

in the church do walk in truth and some people do not as he's

going to identify. But I love how he says I rejoice

greatly. This is an old man.

Life can harden us. John could have been hardened by

the years of his life that they were challenging.

John could have had so many experiences that and dealing

with people and dealing with life and dealing with problems

in the church that left him hardened.

He could have been hardened by any of those things.

He could have been hardened by the false teachers, the internal

fights, those who would so soon turn away.

As we read in Galatians, Paul says some people just turned

away so soon, and the frustrations that would cause a

preacher. And yet he found things to take

joy in as an old man. And he didn't just take joy, he

took joy greatly. Especially as men, I think

sometimes we can struggle to show joyful emotions.

Sometimes we can be so task focused that it's like, well,

yeah, I'm having, I'm, I'm enjoying this or I have

enjoyment, but I'm just, I'm focused.

And so our focus doesn't always manifest in joy outwardly and

showing it to other people and noticing other people and

affirming them and showing and communicating joy.

And John does a good job of that.

May we, especially as men work on that.

Sometimes our our female counterparts are better about

that than than we are about that emotional component to a

relationship. Let's remember that to have joy

and show joy. And John says I rejoice greatly

about what that there are people walking in truth, the best thing

he could find to take joy in. And now I plead with you, lady,

not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that

which we have had from the beginning that we love one

another. There we go.

So we're we've reestablished that key concept that we love

and that's the commandment. We show love and this is love

that we walk according to his commandments.

This is the commandment that, as you have heard from the

beginning, you should walk in it.

You're like, haven't we already heard this before?

This was much of first Job. You're right, we have heard that

phrase a lot, but he keeps going back to that.

Walking in God's commands is loving people.

Verse 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do

not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

That is a deceiver and an Antichrist.

Some many translations and maybe more literally translate this as

this is the deceiver and the Antichrist.

So I think this is a good point to look back and say, hey,

remember when we talked about the Antichrist and how some

people believe it's this is the Antichrist, this person, watch

out for him. He's using the same language

here. He's saying this is the

Antichrist. This is the person who would

take Jesus's work and melt it down into something it's not.

Jesus did come in the flesh, but they want to take that away from

him. And because of that, they are

deceivers. Whether they realize it or not,

they are deceiving people with this, with this wrong and with

this falsehood. He says look to yourselves,

watch out for yourself that we do not lose those things which

we have worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.

This is a big deal because some people it's going are going to

lose their reward. This isn't just, you know, you

believe in Jesus, you think he's the Savior.

It's if you look at him the wrong way now he he's focused on

a very core foundational concept of Jesus work and ministry.

But that has a contingency on their reward, on their eternal

salvation. Whoever transgresses and does

not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.

So he has two opposite words here.

He uses one is the exact opposite of the other.

To transgress means to go outside of or to run ahead of or

to go outside of something. What is that something, the

doctrine of Christ? And the contrast is someone who

does not abide in that's that's someone who would stay within

the doctrine of Christ. And that person does not have

God. So we're going to ask the

question a minute. What is this doctrine?

But he goes on to say, if anyone comes to you and does not bring

this doctrine, do not receive an into your house nor greet him

for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

OK, you read that verse. I read that verse.

I say, OK, what do I do with that?

How do I, how do I take that? That seems to be a strong

sentence there. Let's take this piece by piece

and let's remember the the common sense side of this that

we're that we're going to keep trying to focus on the first

piece. If anyone comes to you and does

not bring this doctrine by saying they are bringing in a

doctrine, this is inferring that this implying this is somebody

who's teaching. This is somebody who's bringing

a teaching and sharing it with others.

OK. I don't think this is just

somebody who has a belief in their head, right?

Because there's a lot of people around us who have beliefs in

their head that are we just putting a wall up to everyone

around us who doesn't believe the same thing.

I don't think that's what he's teaching.

He's saying if someone comes to you and does not bring this

doctrine, he's already said this person is not just any old

person. This person denies that Jesus

came in the flesh. This person is a deceiver.

We're dealing with someone who teaches and who is deceiving.

OK, So what is this doctrine that they are bringing them?

He's already said that this person is it is, it is the

deceiver and Antichrist who does not confess that Jesus Christ

has come in the flesh. So we know for sure that he's

saying to watch out for this people and do something.

We're going to say what that something is in a minute with

people who had undermine Christ's fleshly coming.

And if you're not aware, there are groups who claim to be

Christian groups who do not believe that Jesus Christ came

in the flesh. There are a couple big groups

that I can think of just off the top of my head.

There are prominent religious groups who do not confess this.

So he's, he's giving us a caution against this teaching.

But people would say, well, how far does this go?

What is the doctrine of Christ? Because it is very true that

throughout the Bible when someone says the teachings of

the apostles or the teachings of God, it is all things that

coincide with what they bring. So is it just this doctrine that

Jesus came in the flesh? He's already said to watch out

for truth and that those who obey his commandments are what

we're talking about here. So I can see someone saying,

well, if someone comes and attacks foundational truths like

Jesus, come in the flesh, avoid that.

But like I said, he's already discussed how those who walk in

truth and those who abide in his commandments are the ones who

they have fellowship with. So I don't know how you separate

and say this doctrine that he's talking about is only the

teaching about Jesus fleshly coming.

Because there's a lot of things that are the doctrine of Christ,

the teachings of Christ, because of the unity of God's message.

God's whole message is from the Father, from the Son, from the

Holy Spirit. They work together as one.

So I don't know how you make pull that apart and say, well,

if somebody follows God's teaching in the quote UN quote

big stuff, but not in the other stuff, I don't know how you pull

those things apart. OK, I'm going to leave that for

there for now. I believe this is so far what he

said. If someone comes to us who

teaches things that are not truth from God's word, which in

this situation looks a lot looks like not affirming Jesus's

physical work. I think that's a summary that I

would give so far that we can definitely that we can say he

he's addressing. OK, So what about these people?

What do we respond with? He says do not receive him into

your house nor greet him, for he who greets him shares in his

evil deeds. OK, so it says do not receive

him into your house. Well, whose house are we talking

about? He addressed this to the Elect

Lady. So the most to me, most obvious

connection is this is the Elect Lady's house.

Well, what is that? That is the church.

Now specifically during this day and time, they had house

churches. They did not have all these

separate buildings that we do that we have.

That takes a lot of finances to buy a new building and to have

that place designated only for worship.

So they worshipped in people's houses and so to accept someone

into their house, I believe probably contextually is talking

about bringing them in, welcoming into church and having

their place in the pulpit. Now you might ask, well, what

about is he saying individual homes don't welcome people into

your house, your individual home?

Who's bringing these teachings? Now there might be some common

sense caution there. If someone is teaching false

doctrine, bringing them into your house if you are not

seasoned has it's dangers we're going to talk about in a minute.

Having them teach you and teach your family.

Common sense tells you, I mean, however far you want to take

this, it doesn't make a lot of common sense to do that anyway.

OK, So what is the risk? What is the risk of bringing

people like this into the house, Whether it's the House of the

church to teach for us or whether it's our individual

homes to bring this teaching #1 the influence it has on the

elect lady's children. Who is that?

That's the people of God in a church we are commanded to

worship, to come together. That means there's people who

are young, there's people who are old, there's people who are

advanced in their in their understanding, there's people

who are unskilled in their understanding by nature of how

God commands us to come together.

So when anybody comes in who's going to teach, they can

influence people who don't have strong knowledge or those even

who do have strong knowledge. All these people who are the

children of God, of the elected lady, can be influenced.

What about #2 what about the teacher themself?

If someone is teaching wrong things, our best influence on

them is to not accept those things, because people have

taught error and have been changed from that.

And we as a church can change them by not standing with their

error. That is one of the strongest

things anybody can do against a false teacher is to stand

unified together against wrong teaching so we can influence

that teacher in a positive way. Perhaps #3 what about onlookers?

When someone is welcomed in to teach and to spread their their

their teachings? What about other people who who

see that happen? Are they thinking that, hey,

this is OK because this person is allowing this kind of

teaching to happen? There's a lot of risk

associated. If spiritual matters really are

are important, there's a lot of risk here that could come from

someone who brings wrong teachings.

OK, so it says don't bring him into your house, It says, nor

greet him for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

OK, this word, greet him. Some translations will say

welcome him. Do not welcome him.

Well, what is a welcome? Well means to be happy that you

have come. And if you take somebody who is,

who is teaching falsehood and say we are happy to have you.

With us to teach for us, that's not going to send the right

message. Now, other commentators will say

more specifically, this isn't just a typical greeting like we

might say welcome. This is the phrase they would

have used as Cairo, which literally means Godspeed.

So whenever someone would give them this greeting of Godspeed,

they were given approval of a course that they were pursuing

for he who. And that fits more in the

context of the rest of the verse.

He says for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

Me saying hi to somebody who doesn't teach truth, I don't

know if you could say that is me sharing in their evil deeds.

But if I say Godspeed, brother, go ahead, do your thing.

That's me sharing in their their evil deed.

If I push them on their way and send them on to do that work,

Godspeed. Keep doing your thing, man.

That is approval that I believe is really at the heart of what

he's saying here because they're going to be people that we can

have an influence on. There are people all the time

who I interact with who I'm currently working on trying to

maybe have a study or talk Bible.

What do you think about this passage?

I know you've said that before. I try to sneak it into

conversation here and there. I got to build a rapport with

them before they will accept a truth.

They understand my biblical perspective, OK, if he has a

sound biblical reasoning on these subjects, maybe I'll hear

him on this matter. And so I think there is some

common sense to be had here. But we have to watch out for

giving these people our approval.

It's not just, hey, we're all Christians, book of Acts.

Remember, they're all everybody's so happy.

Everything's going well. We're we're sharing all all of

our things together. We're selling property and

everything is just so good hunky Dory.

And then someone tried to take advantage of that, and Ananias

and Sapphira were dropped dead because they were taking

advantage of that by trying to lie to the Holy Spirit.

There are limits to truth, to what's right, and we have to be

wise as serpents and harmless as doves, the apostles are told.

So I think this is a summary of how I might take away from this

and I think I think this is both conservative.

It's not overstretching to say this really by any stance at

all. If someone comes to us who

doesn't teach truth, which in this situation looks like not

affirming Jesus physical work. We shouldn't give them a

platform and we shouldn't provide active support for their

work. As we're going to see in a

minute what active support does look like verse 12 having many

things to write to you. I did not wish to do so with

paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to

face that our joy may be full as I've left some room for.

I'm still learning here. I'm still learning about all

these situations, the what ifs that would come up.

I love how he ends this letter because it's a perfect synopsis

of really what the what the situation entails.

There's a lot of nuance when it comes to dealing with people and

interactions. There's a lot of nuance when it

comes to what is this person's background, where are they

going, what are they saying? And a lot of it, he just needs

to talk to them about it. Some things are not easily to

record in the Bible and just lay it all out there for us because

let's take this situation. You have people passing through

this church who are teaching error.

There are is a long list of context that Paul is or John is

not just going to write to them and retell everything.

They already know that's happened.

If someone were to write a letter to this church, there

could be a long list of things that would go on for pages and

pages and pages about the context.

But it wouldn't make sense for someone to write to us telling

us our context all over again. That's just not how you write a

letter to somebody. It would take forever and you

can never get all the details. And I think that's part of

what's going on here, as there are certain things that are

contextual to their situation that he had to go and talk to

them about and it would not easily be all relayed over a

letter. And when we're dealing with

people, I think it's wise to sometimes not always send things

over text, not always send a letter in writing, because you

can't always get the whole thing in the writing or in the text

message or in the the e-mail that's sent.

And so sometimes you need to have a conversation.

And I think that is a large part of why he ends this letter kind

of in a short way, because there are things to be worked through

situational details. And I would tell you that I

don't have all the situational answers, but I would encourage

this to produce conversations, if we have conversations around

truth, around what is accepted, what around what is permitted,

And especially in the Lord's house, this is the goal that he

would have for us to watch out for the children of your elected

sister. Greet you.

Amen. OK, moving on into third, John,

I kept these together because I do believe they have a similar

related message. So #1 I believe he's going to

talk about some exemplary fellowship that is extended.

So as he's told us about ways to maybe not extend that full

fellowship and welcome, there's going to be a good example of

fellowship, but then there's an example of someone who withholds

fellowship that shouldn't have done that and how much damage

diotrophies causes because of that.

So I this is my kind of synopsis of chapter 2 and three.

It's fellowship. It's how to extend it, how to

sometimes withhold it, but the dangers of doing it wrong on

either side. He says the elder, so the same

address he gave before, but this time he's not writing to the

elect lady. He says the elder to the beloved

Gaius, whom I love. In truth, if you know your

Bible, that name comes up quite a bit.

That's because Gaius is a common Roman name.

You hear this name a lot in Scripture, and so we can't

definitively tell which Gaius this is.

There is a clue in Romans 16 where Gaius has commended for

being a keeper of many in his house.

And So what Gaius has commended here is almost the same

attributes, but we don't know for sure it's the same person

because it's such a common name. Verse 2.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in

health just as your soul prospers.

So Gaze's physical health is probably not doing well.

He's not well physically, but his soul is prospering.

He is doing so well spiritually. Verse 3 For I rejoiced greatly.

There it is again when brethren came and testified of the truth

that is in you just as you walk in truth.

Here we go again with the truths.

There's truth that's in Gaius and there's truth that he is

walking in. He says, I have no greater joy

than to hear that my children walk in truth.

John is the elder and so he is mentored many and so they in a

sense they're his children that are walking in truth.

Having truth to guide our actions is absolutely necessary.

Some know the truth, some appreciate the truth, some even

defend the truth, but most importantly, others would walk

in the truth. That is a complete summary of

all those things that we would walk in truth.

And this man, Gaius, or Gaius, however you want to say it, is

doing just that. He says, beloved, you do

faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers

who have borne witness of your love before the church.

He's commending and complimenting him, saying he is.

He's doing a faithful work. Everything that you're doing

guys, is awesome. You are doing this faithfully in

your service to God, for brethren and for strangers.

This is similar to what Matt what Jesus says in Matthew 25

Matthew 25:23

verse 23 where Jesus says his Lord said to him, well done,

good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few

things. I will make you ruler over many

things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

Guys has been commended for his hospitality because it is

faithful as a servant of Christ for brethren and for strangers.

And these people have appreciated it so much.

And his level of whatever he's doing for them is so good.

He is so skilled and so servantly about it that he these

people are telling everyone in the church about it.

They're passing along the word of his wonderful hospitality and

service to them. This is a great man.

Verse 6. If you send them forward on

their journey in a manner worthy of God, you do well because they

went forth for his name's sake, taking nothing from the

Gentiles. As I understand this phrase,

send them forward is not just like good luck.

Send them forward was what it would entail is providing for

anything they needed. It's almost like He took them

and He brought them forward along their journey.

If they needed a place to stay, if they needed funding, if they

needed food, if they needed encouragement, that was taking

somebody forward. Sometimes maybe they would even

travel with them to get them going on their journey, maybe

for safety or company. This is not just a pat on the

back as He walks out the door. This is carrying their burden

with them. Why is that important?

Because these people are people who are going forth for His

namesake. These are people who are

preaching the gospel, doing the work of God and travelling and

being supported by Gaius. The people who do the Lord's

work need to be supported, not just financially.

They need to be taken forward, sent forward, like Gaius was

able to do for them. We as the church must uphold our

preachers because these people who choose to preach are not

taking things from the Gentiles, from the people who are not

God's people. Now, as I understand during this

time, some of them would actually, it was like a almost

the religious people would take donations from the community and

that was maybe something they solicited.

And he's saying as the teachers in the Church of Christ, he says

we don't take things. We don't go out and solicit

things. Hey, fund our preaching journey

as the Church of Christ. Fund our, our, our sale.

He said we're not going out doing that.

And So what happens is these preachers are being left in

whose hands? Ours preachers take a leap of

faith where they are jumping into the unknown because they

don't have a career in the same way that people who were served

the Gentiles would. Where there's plenty of Gentiles

out there to pay for your stuff. They'll take care of you if you

have a trade or this or that. Preachers surrender and step out

in faith. And yes, they're trusting in

God, but they land in our hands. May we take care of them, not

just financially. That's not that's not what we

need as humans to complete us. They trust their lives, their

potentials, the careers they could have gone into, their

finances, their securities, their families into our hands.

And people like Gaius changed the game for preachers so much

to the point that they were telling everybody about this

guy. We therefore ought to receive

such the word receive, as I understand, doesn't just mean

to, OK, we'll take you. It's it meant illiterate to get

a hold of from underneath and to lift up as we think about how we

as individual church members support preachers.

Let's get that image in our head.

I'm going to get under and I'm going to lift up this person who

is doing something for his name's sake so that we may

become fellow workers for the truth.

We join in the same work that they do when we step up this in

this way. Galatians chapter 6 verse 2 says

Galatians 6:2

bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

So what does it mean to send them forward in a manner worthy

of God? That's what he said there.

Send them forward in a manner worthy of God.

That's quite the modifier he put there.

That's that's a, that's a big modification to that and a

manner worthy of God. What does that mean #1 I believe

it means we understand their need.

If you're going to help somebody, you've got to

understand their need. Side note, understanding a need,

let's look at James one, verse 27.

He says pure and undefiled religion before God and the

Father. Is this to give orphans and

widows a ton of money because they're sad?

Is that what he said? He says to visit orphans and

widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the

world. What's the need of a widow?

What's the need of an orphan? They need people.

The loneliness people feel, the pain they feel.

You can't buy that. People need visit.

People need time. So when we understand the need,

we can actually feel the need, right?

James one verse 19 says be swift to hear.

We can't understand the need if we're going to just jump in and

do whatever we think without even considering the other

person. We have to understand their

need. So this is a good place to

start. What would I need?

You know, after hearing what would I need if I were in their

shoes? No, that's not the end all be

all because they're different than you.

They're different than me. Maybe in a different situation,

but that's a good place to start.

What would I need if I were doing their work?

Well, what is their work? What do they do every day?

What are their tiredness? What is their anxieties?

What is their stresses? So someone who is good might do

something that they want to contribute.

If you were going to be someone who does something and Amanda

worthy, worthy of God, you might do something that you want to

contribute, say home, how can I help?

I I want to do this, you might do something good.

In that way, someone who does better would ask how to most

effectively contribute. But someone who does best would

independently identify needs and fill them.

Now, I don't want to undermine any of these.

I don't want to undermine someone stepping in and doing

something they can think to do off the top of their head.

Every good act is good. But focusing on the needs and

finding the needs so #1 understanding their needs is how

we can give, send them forward and support them in a manner

worthy of God. Because these people are doing

God's work, and we can too, in this in just a different way.

We are equally involved #2 and most preachers aren't going to

say, I have a laundry list of things that I need you to do to

do for me, that I need from you. But what every preacher will

tell you is I want people who are involved.

Are you equally involved? To our supported evangelist

here, I did not say, do you have as many Bible studies as Frank

does? I didn't say do you teach in the

pulpit like Frank does. I said, are you and am I equally

involved in God's work? I would argue this is the most

important thing on the list that I've thought of, or that that

God's Word teaches. If we are equally involved, like

people we read about in Scripture, many of the things

will take care of themselves. Romans 16, verse one.

I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the

church in Tantria, that you may receive her in the Lord and a

manner worthy of the Saints, and assist her in whatever business

she has needed you for. Indeed, she has been a helper of

many and in myself also. Paul writing this letter notices

the people who are really there to serve.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers.

There it is, people who are involved in the work.

Are they doing it the same way? No, but they're involved to

where Paul felt like I've got people there with me in Christ

Jesus who risked their own necks.

That's investment, risking their own necks.

They're involved, just in a different way.

To whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the

Gentiles. Greet my beloved Epinatus, who

is the 1st fruits of Akia for Christ.

Greet Mary, who labored much for us.

Does it say what she did? No, but she was involved, great

Andronicus and Junior, my countrymen and my fellow

prisoners. Does it say what they did?

No, it tells you how involved they were, How deep did they go?

They were in prison who are of note among the apostles, as also

were in Christ before me. I can go on and on, but the next

one I think of is Barnabas. He is described in his

Scriptures as the encourager. I think I mixed up the order of

my slides. But as he's described as the

encourager, it doesn't just say that, you know, he told people

nice things and that's good. That's not, there's nothing

wrong with that. But how was he an encourager?

It was through all the things that he did.

He stood with Paul. When Paul was converted, nobody

wanted to stand with him. They're afraid of him.

This guy, this seems sketchy. He stood with Paul and he

welcomed him when nobody else would.

He even accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys.

He sold his land to donate to the work of Christ in the book

of Acts. He was one of those people.

And then he helped lead the members in the Antioch church.

And Barnabas was somebody who exemplified who's being prepared

to sacrifice. Thirdly, I can think of if we're

going to send preachers forward in a manner worthy of God, we're

prepared to sacrifice. If we want to be involved, we

got to be prepared to sacrifice. That's the mindset Jesus teaches

to save some time. I'm going to keep on moving.

In First Samuel 24 verse 24 we have a great example of this

where David is going to give a sacrifice to the Lord.

And somebody offers him their land for him to do the sacrifice

on. And David says no, but I will

surely buy it from you for a price.

Nor will Ioffer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that

which costs me nothing. What is a sacrifice if it

doesn't cost us anything? If we're going to support

preachers and the support those who are working for God, we have

to be prepared to sacrifice next.

We are. It means that we are as

consistent as they are. You know, I think if if if a

preacher wasn't at their congregation, if Frank wasn't

here, especially on the day that he was going to teach, things

would not function the same. And so we see a very functional

role like that. And we think a preacher, a

conversate congregation needs a preacher.

You would notice if that was not happening, if there was not

someone there to preach. But if the members are not

consistent, like the preacher, is the congregation really what

is it? It might look like there's a

service functioning, but is that congregation alive?

And I'm not making any accusations here, to be clear.

I think we, I think we have so many good things happening.

I'm offering this challenge to myself.

That's what I'm thinking of when I teach this, when I'm going

over this. Are we as consistent as the

preacher is? I want you to think about your

role like like if Frank were up here preaching and he didn't

show up. That's the hole that is left

when you don't involve yourself completely.

It's just any different way. May we stand in that

consistency. And finally on this list I have.

It means we will adapt our supports.

And we've already talked about Barnabas.

Barnabas was supporting in many ways.

May we be willing to adapt our supports because sometimes we

get like, hey, this is what I'm willing to do and I'll take my

hands off of that. I got one responsibility.

I'm willing to take on Barnabas. Look at all these different

things he was willing to do filling needs involves having

some flexibility, having some adaptability.

OK finally to finish up, I'm not going to spend long here goes on

to say after identifying how we get the verse there verse 8A lot

of slides in between there. So he said, We therefore ought

to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the

truth. Verse 9 He then says.

I wrote to the church, but diotrophes who loves to have the

preeminence, He loves to have the 1st place among them.

He likes to be in the spotlight. He wants to be the most

important. This man among them does not

receive us. So here's an example of someone

who is not receiving in a way that is worthy of God.

And if you and I think you know it.

There are problems today. John was one of the apostles

writing this letter and they were already causing problems

with him. So this is nothing new.

This is from the beginning that this stuff was happening.

Verse 10. Therefore, if I come, I will

call to mind his deeds, which he does, praying against us with

malicious words. That word praying means unjustly

accusing or empty accusations or unfounded charges.

So the problem is not that this man diotrophies as calling John

out, it's that it's completely unfounded.

It's completely empty. And the whole theme we've been

talking about is truth. If something is completely

invalid and completely baseless, then this person's parading and

their words are wrong. And not content with that, he

himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who

wish to putting them out of the church.

So it's not good for us to just put up all these walls with

people to where we make it more and more strict to where nobody

is even. We're putting up all these walls

because we can end the process, rule out people who are doing

truth. And so our accusations cannot be

unfair. They cannot be based on anything

other than truth and what's right according to action and

scripture. 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.

He ends with a positive. Demetrius has a good testimony

from all and from the truth itself, and we also bear

witness, and you know that our testimony is true.

I had many things to write, but I don't.

I but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink.

But I hope to see you all shortly and we shall speak face

to face. There it is again.

You might leave with a lot of questions as I do, but some of

those things have to be worked out in conversations where the

wisdom of Scripture is worked through and considerations are

given to all these things. He says peace to you.

Our friends greet you greet the friends by name.

He ends with a note of fellowship, of camaraderie and

positivity. So walking away from this number

one, may we lead with loving fellowship.

We're not leading with this untrusting mindset, but we lead

with fellowship and love. But that there are limitations

to our fellowship. And may we base that on truth.

And we've been looking over some examples of what loving

hospitality looks like. But watch out if we put up

barriers that we shouldn't put up because of the damage they

can cause with people like Diotrophes.

That's our study today. Do you have fellowship with him?

And I pray that we are teaching truth and walking in truth so

that we can have fellowship together with him.

And if you're not in that place, you can start today to begin

this walk. We learned that hearing is how

you learn to believe. You can't believe before you

hear. So Romans 10 verse 17 gives us

Romans 10:17

that foundational step. And upon hearing, we can believe

according to Mark 16, verse 16, that Jesus Christ is the Son of

Mark 16:16

God and He died for our sins and is our Savior and we can repent

of our past life. If we are really one who

believes, we will repent and we will trust in Him with our

action more than just a mental belief, and we will confess

before men that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and be baptized

for the remission of our sins. Mark 16, verse 16, if you

Mark 16:16

started that walk, but you need to get back on the right path.

There is a place for that in this earth where we are going.

What's done is done. But today we have an opportunity

wherever we stand to be right with God and make it right with

God. Please do that while we stand

and while we stand.