Give WHAT to Lottie WHO? | 3 John 5-8 | 12/15/2024

our title of the message today uh is a

question and it is give what to lah who

can you guys say it just like that with

me here's the title of the sermon give

what to lah who okay good because some

of you are think you've heard that name

you've heard it two or three times in

this worship service some of you are

brand new to us and you're saying who's

this lady lot that we're giving all this

money the national goal is like $200

million so um who's this lady that we're

going to give $200 million to well um

we're not giving it to lahti we're

giving it to the Lord but as we give it

to the Lord we're going to see why we

mention this now every Christmas um many

churches especially southern baptist

churches rightly take some time to

really think and to talk about

missions you say well Pastor why do we

do that why don't we just talk about the

baby born in the manger why don't we

just talk about the Angels why don't we

just talk about all of the other things

that seem to be part of the Christmas

story well let me tell you that when we

remind

ourselves of the issue of Missions at

Christmas we are talking

most about the meaning of

Christmas you really need to make this

connection right now in your mind if

you've never made

it Jesus was the first First

Missionary he came on a

mission does anybody remember the little

verse that tells us what his mission was

it says the son of man came to what to

seek and to save the Lost let's say that

together the son of man came to seek and

to save that which was

lost so this this is the reason he was

born this is the reason we just sang

about it this this babe who is this babe

that is sleeping who is this babe as we

think about this in humility after 400

years of Silence he finally

comes and he's born and the whole

world's trying to kind of figure this

out and what we eventually see is that

this baby is going to be pierced with

nails and a spear this baby is going to

die on a cruel Roman cross lifted up

cursed and that curse that he takes into

himself is for our sin so he is the

sacrifice given by God the second person

of the Trinity God himself coming to

save us from our sin so there is a

reason to go into a Central Asian PR

prison and give blankets to the people

who would call themselves enemies of our

own nationality there's a reason to do

that in the name of Jesus because Jesus

came for them too and Jesus came for the

people across Asia and he came for the

people across South America and he came

for the people across

America and so we we are doing the

Christmas

thing when we look at missions because

Jesus was the first and great missionary

so um when we talk about missions when

we talk about that it's there's a few

things that we want to consider number

one one of the things that you ought to

be asking whenever we hear about this

whenever we talk about this is what is

God calling me to do and for the most

important one on that I think in my

opinion is am I joining him am I

going am I too a

missionary you say well Pastor you

really are getting at the money right I

mean it's about how much you're going to

give to support missions right and I

would say you know God doesn't really

need your

money God has the cattle on a thousand

hills um most of the time when it's the

issue of money it's it's not because God

doesn't have enough I I remember when we

were in Spain we were going um to go to

another church about 2 hours from our

house one time and we were on the pay

what do they call it a payoff

uh like a a Turnpike where you had to

pay right so we're going down to jalter

for Easter Sunday and we get down there

and there's a toll booth and the the

thing was usually like

€7 and it was 14 it was double and I

said to the guy why is the toll double

this is Easter weekend and he said God

needs the money

I don't know why I said that but I just

thought to myself and he was being funny

but God doesn't need the

money God God has all the money he needs

but you know what it's not so much that

God needs it it's so much as that we

need to give

it our hearts need to give our hearts

need to sacrifice our hearts need to be

giving to you know the wise men Came To

Worship and what did they do they

brought gifts of worship gifts listen

of sacrifice gold frankincense and my

precious things now there were symbols

behind that gold because he was a king

frankincense because he deserved worship

myr because he was going to

die and so these precious gifts that

they brought we see coming to worship

throughout the Bible means coming to

sacrifice of ourselves God calls us to

that so let's look and let's see a

little bit about missions this morning

morning and about how we support this

there's a there's a lady there um that

we're going to look at lah Moon born in

1840 and Virginia and dies in Co Japan

in

1912 um being a missionary to China she

was on her way home starving to death um

and very old and very sick and uh she

died on Christmas Eve in 1912 but so our

text this morning I want us to briefly

look at it here this is such a beautiful

little letter and I want us to see the

background notice this under setting in

background of third John number one John

is a disciple of Jesus um John a

disciple of Jesus is the writer of this

letter and he is also called The Elder

now what's kind of weird about this is

that Jesus uh Jesus selected 12

disciples and of the 12 disciples the

youngest one was John and he was also

one of the ones he was Peter James and

John the three cord the ones that were

always with Jesus John was the

youngest and so when we come to the time

for this letter to be written all the

other Apostles have been killed by now

so this is late in his life he is he's

living he has lived in in what is turkey

where the paing used to live and the

churches they all across turkey are

there he is exiled to an island of

patmas he is dying on an island in Exile

um kind of in prison on an island island

out in the Mediterranean and the Holy

Spirit inspires him to write letters and

the Book of Revelation so notice this um

earlier he had written the Gospel of

John so this is also the John who wrote

the Gospel of John and Revelation number

three these little letters first second

and third John were likely sent together

they were likely sent together first

John was a sermon to the churches in

what is now

Turkey um second John was a letter to

one of those particular churches in the

third John put a big circle around the

third John here on that bullet point

this is the one we're looking at this

morning was personal correspondence to a

man named gas and um number four

apparently gas was helping traveling

missionaries who were passing through

their area of Asia or Western turkey

turkey is in an interesting place is

people pass through there from further

east going to West toward Europe and so

turkey is kind of a Transit ground we

even heard that earlier from um Scott

talking about all the immigrants coming

through turkey and Eastern Europe um

that are that are headed um over into

Europe and even sometimes on their way

to here to our country but it's a it's a

Transit place and and we see guas had

been supporting those missionaries so

let's read the text I want you to see

this um I discovered this several years

ago I'd never thought about it as a

missionary text and um I I think it's

really good for us to become familiar

and think about this so prominently in

the New Testament and a challenge to us

and an encouragement to us so this is

third John in its verses 5 6 7 and 8

there is no chapter because third John

is so short it's only a few verses

there's um I guess it's all chapter 1

but look with me verse 5 look what it

says

beloved it is a faithful thing you do in

all your efforts for these brothers

strangers as they are he says you don't

even know them verse six who testified

to your love before the church so these

people come through you help them and

they are saying man you have really

helped us look at the middle of verse 6

you will do well to send them on their

journey in a manner worthy of God verse

7 for they have gone out for the sake of

the

name which

name the name that's above every name

right the Lord Jesus accepting nothing

from the Gentiles so from those who

weren't religious those who weren't

Believers they're they're not going and

asking people to pay them them as they

are there to share the gospel with them

they're coming and they're even going to

the Gentiles they're going to other Jews

that are across the ancient world and

they're going not asking for anything

but going to share with those who've

never heard the gospel and here we see

part of the church like us being so told

send them so they can go and not have to

ask anything look at number eight verse

eight therefore we ought to support

people like these that we may be fellow

workers for the truth it just doesn't

get any pler than that do you see that

let's read verse eight out loud together

are you there let's read verse eight

here we go therefore we ought to support

people like these that we may be fellow

workers for the truth fellow workers for

what the truth and what is the truth a

savior has died a savior has died and he

will save you from your sins he'll take

you from sin and death to righteousness

and eternal life he will give you his

righteousness the righteousness you

don't have he will impute it upon you he

will press it upon you all by

faith and so this is the amazing

salvation of God this is the truth so

notice this let's break down these few

verses that are here first of all in

verse 5 and in verse 8 it's saying here

number one supporting missionaries is a

fill it in a really good thing to do

it's a really good thing to do it's very

plain it's very simple look at verse 5

beloved it's a what what does it say

there a faithful thing you do in all

your efforts for these brothers look at

verse eight therefore we ought to

support these that we may be fellow

workers so it's a really good thing to

do well what do we do for these

missionaries letter

fill it in we care for them we care for

them if we are sending out missionaries

we ought to care for them I can tell you

that one of the reasons I am so thankful

to have an organization like the one

that we all support all 46,000 southern

baptist churches

support um the IMB the the IMB is very

careful to say if we're going to send

these people out let's take good care of

them because some people they don't have

that support and they go out there and

let me tell you that Marcy and I were on

the field for a long time and we saw um

family after family that they they had a

lot of struggles because they just

didn't have the support that we had we

saw people that would be in the middle

of having in a really important project

or a really important year and kind of

run out of money and so you know what

they had to do they had to turn around

go back back to the United States and

either go back and stay back or they had

to go back and say and go around and

talk to churches and talk to people and

say hey could you support us so they

would have to stop to raise support our

missionaries listen to this our

missionaries don't have to do that

because all these 46,000 southern

baptist churches and all of the people

just like you all of us give we take

good care of them let me tell you that

before Marcy and I went we were young in

our early 30s and they said wow um

they're looking at all our medical

records we're not we're not sending you

to Africa sick we need to make sure

you're well so the IMB had a very

rigorous medical approval and so we're

sitting there and they said wow your

grandparents had on one side had colon

cancer your grandparents on the other

side had colon

cancer you know we need to check you and

I'm like no I'm 32 years old

you know they did a colonoscopy on me

and they removed six

Pops that they said two of these were

very

significant the IMB saved my

life with that that could have gone for

years undetected and had been too late

and we all know that because of members

in our

church yes I've had that joy for four or

five times um but I'm thankful that the

organization that you support cares for

missionaries there were times when um we

we would be on the field and a partner

from another organization the engine in

there I remember one particular time the

engine blew in their

truck and they they couldn't get around

and they didn't have the money to

replace the engine and so you know what

we did I called up my friends and London

who were my supervisors and I said we

really need this guy's help he's very

good he doesn't have the money to

replace the truck the the engine and

they said well how much can we get it

for and I told them how much we can get

it for and we hauled that thing over to

the capital of the country we were in

and the IMB paid for a new engine in

another person's

truck because we are cared for so what

should we do we should care for them

well we should care for them letter B we

should pray for them we should pray for

them we see that throughout the New

Testament when you're sending people out

you pray for them you pray for their

work Paul says pray that the Lord would

open a door that we'd be able to share

the mystery of the gospel Paul over and

over again writes in the New Testament

because of your prayers God has worked

and answered in our lives see we're in

this thing together so we don't let the

pings and all of the others go out of

sight and out of mind we remember them

in prayer not only do we care for them

and we pray for them but letter C we pay

for them we pay for them we pay for

their expenses we pay for their needs we

pay them a salary we and that's part of

what we see here we we see that they are

generously called to support

them um not just giving engines and

accommodations like that but supporting

what they need in order to live um so

that they can go on in their work um so

it's a really good thing to do to care

pray and pay um for our missionaries I

unabashedly invite you to participate in

that because I know you will be blessed

number two um we look in Vice in verse

two excuse me number two sometimes we

know them and sometimes we do not

sometimes you will know the missionaries

that you're supporting but most of the

time you will not know them um look up

there in verse 5 look what it says

beloved it's a faithful thing that you

do in all your efforts for these

brothers underline that up there

strangers as they

are that is a now some of you are

turning over the page don't do that look

at this strangers as they are just

because you don't know by God's grace we

we have a good good organization and

that you don't have to know every single

one of them in order to give that's one

of the reasons we believe in the IMB is

that there's a lot of

accountability and there's a lot of care

given into who we send out and as they

are unknown to us they're not unknown to

all look at the next part here yes you

can turn the page okay let's look don't

want you to miss the point we're making

number

three we should also support them

generously

generously look at verse six um

strangers as they are who testified to

your love before the church look in the

middle of verse six you do well to send

them on their journey and then what does

it say in a manner worthy of God you

know what this is

saying

God is worth your

sacrifice God is worth worth you looking

at your gift of worship in it being

significant um how generous has God been

to you he's given his son Jesus Christ

to pay for your millions of sins he's

promised you eternal life he's promised

you total acceptance he's promised you a

complete and clean slate he's promised

you eternity with him and he's even said

while you're on this Earth while you may

have troubles and you may have

difficulties I'll still be with you I'll

give you a peace that surpasses all

human comprehension when the storms of

life rock your boat and Shake Your World

I will still be with you I'll let you

know that I'm with you I will grow your

faith so you're ready to see me face to

face that's what he's doing but he's

saying I will be with you I will be with

you in it all and I will care for you

now the Lord doesn't just care for us

practically everyone in this room is

very very blessed especially in

comparison to the other peoples of the

world many of the people that Scott and

Dawn minister to in Central Asia the

ones that live out in the country sleep

on a concrete slab with a mat in the

cold many of them may have a little foam

mattress that they sleep on on the

floor

um most of the world is far far far

poorer than the poorest person in this

room most of the world um does not have

what we have in any and and really has

almost no hope of getting

it when you look at the billions of

people that live in in very great

difficulty we have been given so

much um and when you kind of think about

that what does that call us to do you

see fill it in here our generosity

should be

great and our generosity should be

genuine I mean it shouldn't be like well

I'm going to give a lot but the Lord

better be happy and these people I'm

giving to you better they better really

be

thankful a general generous genuine

spirit is just genuine saying I it's my

privilege to give look at this our

generosity should be

glad you remember with me what the

scripture says the lord loves a what a

cheerful Giver now some of you when you

give you I mean you you give

begrudgingly I want to encourage you to

mature out of that and just say Lord

give me the joy to give I have hard time

with that I'm worried about it or I I

just I I don't like the preacher talking

about money I wish you would leave us

alone well if I wanted to be a bad

pastor I could never mention finances

but a good pastor is going to say to you

what God has given you is very important

indicator of your heart Jesus talked a

lot about our hearts and our money and

so look at this our generosity should be

glad

that um an old Pastor that kind of

mentored me when I was planting um

Crescent Beach Baptist Church this is oh

my goodness I'm not going to say how

many years ago um an old man named

Armando silvario he was an Italian

evangelist and he was part of our church

he was in his 80s when I was there I was

25 and um we were there and he would say

this all the time don't give till it

hurts give till it feels

good where you really feel that you're

giving don't give to if you're stuck in

giving till it hurts you're missing out

give till it feels good give with

gladness now look at this our generosity

should be great the amount matters

that's that's part of what we see here

the amount

matters um number two our generosity

should be gen genuine uh the

authenticity of our giving matters

that's we we should be authentic in

where we are in life and what we can

give and then look at this our

generosity should be glad um the

attitude

counts so amount authenticity and

attitude count and the idea is not that

we're all going to give the same thing

it's not about equal gifts but it's

about equal sacrifice that's what God

intends for us

um so there is just what someone may

give in this room might be a tremendous

sacrifice for this individual or this

family and for others if you would judge

your giving based upon that you would

say well that's no problem at all

because we all have different level the

point is each person in their own heart

not under compulsion but as the gladness

of their heart to obey

that is what we see the Lord Challen

challenging us to do um to give and to

give

generously um and with gladness look at

number four and we see this in verse 7

we should support missionaries because

we love Christ we should support

missionaries because we love Christ look

at verse 7 it says for they have gone

out for the sake of the name because we

love Jesus we give they've gone out

they're they're likeminded with us they

love the Lord we love the Lord and so

because we love his name being

proclaimed number five we should give we

should support missionaries because it's

good strategy it's very good strategy

and we see that in verse 7 verse B it

says they accept nothing from the

Gentiles you see it would be a bad thing

if we sent out Dawn and Scott and said

hey God bless you you guys go over there

and um hopefully you can go over there

and the people that you're sharing the

gospel with they'll support you cuz

we're not going to I mean they ought to

be glad for it anyway right well no

that's not the way it works they don't

even know to be glad for it they don't

even know they need to hear something

they don't even know that they need to

consider the claims of Christ and the

goodness of Christ they they just need

somebody to show up and not ask anything

of them and share the gospel with them

now eventually those churches wind up

becoming self-supporting because they're

taught all of these principles they're

taught to be generous too so they learn

that we become self-supporting and we

can eventually support our own Ministry

and our own work in the life of the

church we don't need somebody from the

outside to do that Scott has already

mentioned that but it is good strategy

that we let them go now some of our

missionaries go over and they get a job

they'll be somewhere in the middle east

or they'll be down in Argentina or

they'll be somewhere in Asia and they

will go and they will open a coffee shop

um they will open up um some consulting

firm they will open up some type of um

support for microenterprises and they

are in business legitimate business and

they're there kind of supporting

themselves but they're not asking the

people that they're sharing the gospel

with to support them they are there to

share the good news that's called tent

making so Paul was a tent maker and he

discipled people but he made his own

money as a Tent Maker so um we have IMB

missionar that have roles like that

where they partially support themselves

through that but it is good strategy

that they don't have to go and have to

ask for funds number six we should

support Ministries missionaries so we

may fill it in join their work you

become part of their work because you're

helping pay for it look what it says

there in verse eight therefore we ought

to support people like these that we may

be what fellow workers for the truth

that is a really really important part

of that well so who's this guy Moon

we've talked a lot about it over the

years um I would say this and you can

this might be something interesting for

you to

know um L moon was a missionary for you

know uh many many years in China she was

uh look at this born in Virginia she

rebelled against Christianity until she

came to Christ during college

in 1858 was that around the time of the

Civil War um one of the first women in

the South to receive a master's degree

she sailed to China in 1873 supported by

Southern Baptist Churches um at the time

the foreign Mission board which was

renamed to the international Mission

board she spent 39 years teaching girls

and women in shantong China about Christ

and other cities too but she spent 39

years teaching she wrote thousands of

letters campaigning for Mission support

for China now what does that mean she

kept writing back to the United States

saying

hey we we need your support we need your

help there's so many people here and

they don't hear they don't know the

gospel and for a long time they were not

responding to the gospel they were

closed to her and closed to foreigners

the Chinese were extremely

closed and so she was asking for prayer

like we see in the Apostle Paul's

letters so fill that in she she was

saying please pray for us she was saying

please give so that we can stay so she

her letters were calling for finances

and then she would say this please send

people to help us we need more

missionaries we need

help do you

know when she was doing those things and

and writing those letters and calling on

people to do those things uh she did

that for decades upon decades she wrote

letters we have boxes and boxes of her

letters in Richmond

Virginia um letters that she had written

calling on people to support so when it

came time to really evaluate whether she

should stay on the field there were

people who went to see her and they said

you're

dying you're starving to death um it's

getting cold now and you're old and

you've given away all your food she did

she literally gave away the food that

she would eat because there was a

terrible famine in the area where she

was and she was put on a ship headed

back to America and the ship pulled into

coob Japan Japan um and it pulled into

coob Japan on Christmas Eve and she died

on board that ship in the port of coob

Japan on Christmas Eve

1912 um so when we think about that 112

years ago 112 years ago she passed away

well when it came time

to

write

a the name of this offering to name this

offering people were saying well what

should we name our big offering they

said well why not name it after the lady

who kept calling upon us to give there's

a quote here and guys if you can go to

that quote that is there I want you to

see what she wrote in December of 1887

so this is a long time before she died

but look what this quote says and it's

right up there on the screen need it be

said why the week before Christmas is

chosen for this offering why why should

we do it the week before Christmas look

what she says is not the festive season

when families and friends exchange gifts

in memory of the gift laid on the altar

of the world for the Redemption of the

human race the most appropriate time to

concentrate a portion from abounding

riches and scant poverty to send forth

the Good Tidings of great joy into all

the Earth she said doesn't it make sense

that we would do this at Christmas I

mean Jesus came we celebrate his

Incarnation at Christmas it just makes

sense that we would do it at this time

of

year Well many others have died as a

result of being on the mission field um

many others have gone before us many

others have laid down their lives it

wasn't just a little lady from Virginia

and I think you all know for those of

you who are new to us we have these

little cutouts of her this is literally

how tall she was so if she was here with

me right now um I you know nice nice to

have you here I mean we have I think

probably seveny olds that are about this

high so but by God's design she was able

to go and to minister to Chinese um

Chinese especially then tended to be

very short people um in the area where

she was so she wasn't um uh very it

wasn't very surprising to her um but I

want you to see and hear a little bit

about

her her strategy I think we have just

listen to this when she got there she

realized people would not let her in to

their homes she was a foreigner they

were afraid or they were disinterested

they wouldn't listen to her with her

broken English and everything

else and so you know what she did she

started thinking

hm I need a way in the

door and she said I'm from

Virginia and um I like to bake and I

have cookie

recipes and I'll adjust some of the

ingredients here that I can get here and

I'll start making

cookies and so she started making

cookies because she would pray and make

cookies pray and make cookies pray and

make cookies and you know what the doors

started to

open people started to open the doors of

their house because she was The Cookie

Lady literally

true do you know that at Christmas time

when we are baking cookies as Community

groups and we're just simply in putting

those all together exchanging all those

cookies assembling them into bags and

boxes and everything else do you know

what we're trying to do we're simply

trying to find an open door into the

people of our life of our

church um we put together a bunch in our

community group and we took them to the

people so The Cookie Lady was the lady

that just continued to use the strategy

of finding some common ground in a

simple thing like the sweetness of

cookies could lead to the sweetness of

Christ and we saw that happen so when we

challenge you to go to your neighbor

South Florida is the worst people can be

inside the house and uh they won't even

open the door right and you're wondering

why don't they open the door but

sometimes when they see you standing

there with a gift sometimes they'll do

that we had that experience this week as

Marcy and I were passing out um our bags

of cookies here in this area we had a

great time doing it had great

conversations invited many people to

come to the candlelight service um we

had two or three people say I'll

come um there was a young man um back

here behind the church he said oh yeah

one of my friends Aaron he goes to that

church he prays and I said oh well

that's good that that's

good teenager said that he prays

I'm like I'm glad he knows

that um so when we are having the heart

of taking the gospel and inviting people

to come when we are learning in one of

Stephen's classes or one of the other

classes that we are learning to share

the gospel when we are considering

listen to this when we are considering

is the Lord calling me to go

overseas because God laid it on Scott

and Dawn's heart somewhere along the

way um in fact I was sitting somewhere

right over here behind Pastor Jason when

I started to sense that God was calling

me to be a

missionary and so God God may be calling

you to go and it doesn't matter how

young or old you are God may be opening

that door for you so the call to action

on this is number one that we would

think of Christmas as

Missions Number Two that we would think

of Christmas as a time for us to give

the gospel to other people that don't

have access to it locally and globally

number three that we would think about

our involvement our giving our praying

our

going maybe a step of faith for you

would be to come and talk with one of

the pastors and say would you would you

pray with me I I think that the Lord is

leading me to be open to this and to

pray about going so we would invite you

to do that why give to the lmon

Christmas offering fill these in your

gift supports 3,300 missionaries um

serving overseas that's pretty amazing

number two your gift sends IB

missionaries to the last Frontiers that

means we don't go to the easy places we

go to the hard places um we go to the

places that other Mission organizations

many of them can't um because we have a

support structure that allow now

sometimes there's other organizations

that beat our pants off over some of

those places I mean they're just doing

they're going and blowing it's great but

many times IMB folks are at some of the

last Frontiers some of the hardest to

reach

places 100% of your gift to lmon

Christmas offering goes overseas none of

it stays in the United States all of it

goes overseas Financial giving is an

essential part of gospel work um we all

get to be involved we partner as this

verse says and this final one no notice

this this is an appropriate way to

celebrate Christ's

birth God so loved the

world that he what

gave the wise men came bringing gifts

David said I will not give to the Lord

that which costs me

nothing I want to challenge you to take

a step of Faith this year and really

give and to give generously at Christ's

birth um and as we do that we will see

God's Great message of the Gospel going

around the world this is a very good and

glorious thing for us to do so how do we

support our folks overseas number one we

pray number two we give and number three

as lah calls us to we go we go pray give

and go that's what we need to think of

when we think of missions amen amen

let's stand together as we pray