Walk in Love

You have your Bible going to make your way to second John

this morning. First, second and third John.

Hope you got your Bible marked there.

If not toward the very end of your Bible.

If you get to Jude and Revelation gone too far, just

back a couple pages to second John.

If you had the opportunity to physically walk with Jesus

during his earthly life, what is it that you would say?

If you had witnessed the life, death, burial and resurrection

and ascension of Jesus? What is it you would say if

you'd personally been present when Jesus communicated the

Great Commission to go there for and make disciples of all

nations and all authority in heaven and earth being His

commissioned you to go? What would you have said if you

had witnessed all of your closest friends and ministry

partners be slain for their testimony and faith to Jesus?

What is it that you would say if you had been exiled for your

faith? What is it you think you would

say if you were in the final years of your life, having lived

and given all your life for Jesus?

What is it that you would say? The second John, first, second

and third John is essentially exactly what John the disciple

would say under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Remember, John's now an elderly man.

He's been in exile. He's returned to the area of

Ephesus where he is pouring his final years of life into

ministry in the local church, into people.

And he's written these 3 letters not long before his death in

about 100 AD. And, and, and John is speaking

about the vitals, the essentials, the fundamentals of

our faith. And again, second John, if you

need some ketchup, has been called a concise form of first

John. So he's taking everything he

said. They're really whittling it down

to the vital essentials. We're seeing three things that

John wants to say to us, but we've wrapped them really all

into one thing, which is this. John says, here's what I'd say

after all that Walk and stay in love and in truth.

Walk and stay in love and in truth.

I don't know if y'all notice, but the world is not too much

caught up in the pursuit of love and truth.

The world. You know what the world wants.

You know what the pursuit of the world is?

Power, prestige, prominence, popularity, pleasure, profit,

personal fulfillment. We could keep going.

But me, myself, and I being better and greater than you and

others, That's the world's pursuit.

The Bible, Jesus himself, and through John, the inspirational

Holy Spirit calls us to walk and stay in love and in truth, to

not pursue the other things the world says are important, but to

pursue the things the Scripture and the Savior tells us are

important. I want to read again John's

message in second John. We're going to read the whole

thing. It's not very long.

Follow along as we read the Word of God together.

The elder that's John to the elect lady, that's a local

church just like us and her children.

That's her church members whom I love in truth.

There's that combo love in truth and not only I, but also all who

know the truth because of the truth that abides in US and will

be with us forever. Grace, mercy and peace will be

with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father.

Son in here's the combo again, Truth and love.

I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the

truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.

And now I ask you, dear lady Church, not as though I were

writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the

beginning, that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.

This is the commandment, just as you've heard from the beginning,

so that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out

into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus

Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver in

the Antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you may

not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

Everyone who goes on ahead does not abide in the teaching of

Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching

has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does

not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or

give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in

his wicked works. Though I have much to write to

you, I'd rather not use paper and ink.

Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that

our joy may be complete. The children of your elect

sister, another local church, greet you.

John is the apostle John, as we talked about last week, this

elect lady and her children, our local church and her members.

And the first thing of the three things that we have are pulling

out that John is communicating to us in this letter, one that

we reviewed last week that we'll just cover quickly again, is

that true? Faith walks in the truth.

True faith walks in the truth. This is verse 4, right that I've

rejoiced greatly to find some of your children.

Not everybody in the church, but there are some praise God, John

says, are walking in the truth. What does it look like to walk

in the truth? It means to apply in our lives

what the Scripture tells us, what Jesus has commanded us,

what God has given us. And listen, we didn't name every

one of them last week when we named a top ten that by the way,

for men calling 10 for men that will do once a month starting

next year, all year for ten months, taking off June and

July. Registration will go live next

week. So we can look at how to address

and then walk in accountability of what it is.

What truth should we be applying in our lives?

But these truths are not just for men.

They're for every Christian. Let me just give them to you

quickly. Again, number one, spend daily

time in God's word. How are we going to do what God

wants us to do if we're not hearing and learning what God

says to do? Daily fellowship with God in

prayer. Daily pray with your spouse,

read God's word with your kids, be discipled by someone, share

the gospel with a lost person, disciple someone tithe, honor

God with your wealth #9 do life with a small group of Christians

and #10 discover, identify your spiritual gift and serve.

Those are 10 basics of basic that God's Word instructs us as

believers to walk in. These are things all of us

should life situation apply should be putting into practice.

True faith walks in the truth #2 though where we pick up today is

that true faith not only walks in the truth, true faith walks

in love. When I say true faith, what am I

talking about? I am not Speaking of a mystical

intuition. A lot of times people when they

hear faith, they think we must be talking about some mystical

spiritual feeling or sensation. That's not what I'm talking

about. When I say true faith, I'm not.

I'm not talking about either any logical or irrational blind leap

of belief when I'm talking about true faith.

I'm talking about the most rational, the most logical,

obedient response to God's revelation through His Son and

through His Word and through all of creation that can be seen

that He has made, that displays His power.

Faith is the most logical, the most rational response to God's

self revelation generally in creation and specifically in His

Son and in His written word. This is what we mean, that true

faith walks in the truth and also in love.

Again, I want to emphasize truth and love are never opposed in

the Christian life. They are always to be paired in

the Christian life. When you light a fire like you

might have done or will do this winter, you're going to get two

things guaranteed that you can't separate.

You know what they are when you light that fire.

Light and think truth and love in the same way.

When you get a Christian, when you get somebody walking in the

truth, they ought to be walking in love.

When someone's walking in love because of Christ, they ought to

be walking in truth. When you put a 24 hour day

together, you get 2 things that seem like polar opposites, but

it takes both of them to make a full day.

What are they? Day and night, light and

darkness, truth and love are always together in the Christian

life. Let me just kind of make

something explicit that you know, but let me remind us of

our loyalty to the truth must never keep us from loving one

another. Our loyalty to the truth ought

never keep us from loving one another and our love for one

another must never undermine our loyalty to the truth.

These two things always go hand in hand.

Our love for one another and loyalty to the truth are never

opposed but are always to go together.

Before John reminds them of this command to love one another, he

tells them again, this is not a new command.

Hey y'all, this has been a non negotiable from the beginning.

From the moment Jesus began his ministry and began giving

instructions. Guess what?

Jesus was commanding and teaching and even before Jesus

came, the word of God instructed us to love one another.

Another reminder, this love in the Greek called agape love is

not a feeling. It's not an emotion.

Again, I don't know why it's just stuck in my head.

I'll just never forget in high school, senior year, English

homeroom, first period, random conversations are going on that

high schoolers have that are always usually immature.

And I remember this one girl who was dating the guy she shouldn't

date was just like, I just can't help who I love.

Ted of Grace, I never want you to hear you say that.

All right, you're not enough to date yet.

But if you were, this love God speaks of is not this magnetic,

instinctive animal like draw that you just can't help.

This agape love is a deliberate choice to act for another's

good, even at your own expense. It's not when you feel a certain

way towards someone, It's not when you like someone, It's when

you choose their good, even if it costs you.

Why? Because Jesus has already paid

it. Oh come on now, we got to do a

different sermon if we can't answer that question.

Jesus already paid it all, So what could I not give in

response to His love for me? If He's given all for me, how

could I not agape in the same? It's not a feeling, it's a

response. It's a deliberate choice to live

in a certain way because of the way Christ lived towards you,

taking on human flesh. By the way, if you're not a

Christian this morning, what you need to hear and know is that

Jesus paid it all for you, for God.

So love the insert your name that he gave Himself, taking on

him in flesh, lived a sinless life, paid for your sin on the

cross, shedding his blood to pay the price for your sin that

separates you from your Maker. That Jesus made a way to offer

you his righteousness if by faith you'd receive his payment

on the cross for you, confessing him as Lord, receiving him as

Savior, calling out in prayer to him, letting Jesus save me and

let me be yours forever, and you're you mine.

That's the decision God's calling you to make today.

If you've never confessed Christ as Lord, you're responding to

the love of God when you get saved.

That, by the way, neither you nor I deserve.

Have you responded to the love of God, to the sacrifice and

payment of Christ by receiving it by faith?

Agape love, Let me remind you, as one writer has said, is the

life blood of the church. Take agape love out of the body,

out of the veins of the church. And what do you have?

A dead church? Take agape love out of the veins

of the body and you lack what is needed to carry the vital

nutrients to every part of the body.

So it operates and it functions vitally and in a healthy manner.

The way God has called the commands, the hands and the feet

commanded our hands and feet to be used to film.

Agape love is the lifeblood of the church, and this love we're

called to as a love both for God and for others.

And John really brings up both here and the way he describes

it, he describes love for God like this.

And this is love that we walk according to his commandments.

Again, love is not a feeling or an emotion towards God.

There may be some days you don't really like God.

Nobody will say that out loud, but I'll say it for you, right?

But God's not asking you to like Him every day.

God's asking you to love him by obeying Him, even when you don't

feel like it every day because you trust Him, you trust him.

Love for God is an action of obedience.

Matthew 2819 through 20 Jesus says go, therefore make

disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey.

What all that I've commanded you, right.

So loving God, let's just break this down as a reminder quickly.

Loving God looks like learning God's commands and then obeying

God's commands. And you can't obey God's

commands until you learn God's commands, which goes back to

being in the Word of God on a daily basis.

Loving God with all your mind, heart, soul and strength.

Loving God with your mind. Begin by learning what God has

said. So you can obey God with all

your strength by applying what God has said and then love for

God. Y'all is always going to then

express itself in love towards others.

The Bible gives amazing descriptions of what love for

others should look like in our lives.

I'm currently reading in my quiet time the book of Isaiah

among some other books, and the book of Isaiah will just flat

hit you in the face. The prophets have a way of doing

that and there's passages that are so convicting because he

describes God. He gives literally God's wording

for what love for others should look like in our lives.

There's one particular passage I want to read you.

I have a little slightly different version at home that

I'm reading. It's the CSB, not the ESVI.

Think I threw some people off in the first service and I wasn't

reading from the main one I read from each week.

So not going to maybe sound like if you're follow along with the

ESV, but I'm going to to read Isaiah 58 six through 12.

I want you to listen to the description of what loving

others should look like in our lives because I can't put it any

more practical than this. Isaiah 58 verse 6.

Isaiah 58:6

Isn't this the fast that I choose?

In other words, isn't this the way I'd rather be worshipped by

you? To break the chains of

wickedness. To untie the ropes of the yoke

that is of wickedness. To set the oppressed that is

under wickedness free. To tear off every yoke that is

every yoke of ungodliness. Is it not to share your bread

with the hungry? To bring the poor and homeless

into your house? To clothe the naked when you see

him, and not to ignore. Not to ignore your own flesh and

blood. Then your light will appear like

the dawn and your recovery will come quickly.

Your righteousness will go before you and the Lorde glory

will be your rear guard. At that time when you call, the

Lord will answer. When you cry out, He will say,

here I am. If you get rid of the yoke among

you, listen to this yoke that was among them.

This is a modern day yoke. It's an old day yoke.

This is a yoke we all fight as sinners, the finger pointing and

the malicious speaking. And if you offer yourself to the

hungry and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine

in the darkness and your night will be like noonday.

The Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land

and strengthen your bones. You'll be like a watered garden,

like a spring whose water never runs dry.

Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins.

You'll restore the foundations laid long ago.

You'll be called the repair of broken walls, the restorer of

streets where people live. Does your love for others ever

look and sound like that? I'll just be honest, that was

super convicting for me to read. How far short God does my life

look like compared to what the Bible says?

Just start with that first line to break the chains of

wickedness. What are the chains of

wickedness? Generational sin in families

that continue to keep us living in brokenness.

Laws in our land that give us license to sin and do that which

does not honor God. Stuff that leads people to

addiction that people are profiting off of and it's

killing people and leading them to destruction.

I could keep going right? We as people living to then what

about as simple as putting meals in front of people and clothing

on their back and shelter over their head.

God says you want to worship me, you want to love me.

Do it like this. Does your love for others look

and sound like this? True faith is going to walk in

the truth y'all. And then true faith is going to

walk in love and the 2GO hand in hand.

But thirdly and finally, what we're going to see from this

letter and this is really the really the main reason I believe

John wrote this 2nd letter of John.

This is the high point of the letter.

This is the main emphasis is this final truth is that true

faith doesn't just walk in the truth and doesn't just walk in

love, but true faith remains in the truth.

True faith remains in the truth. It doesn't pass, go and collect

$2.00. It remains in the truth.

Listen to verse 7 for many deceivers have gone out into the

world. Those who do not confess the

coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, Such a one is the

deceiver and the Antichrist. Let's talk about this for a

moment. Who is John talking about?

The deceivers. Who are they?

They are false teachers. They have gone out.

They are going out. They will go out just like the

Christian missionaries we just prayed about.

Let me say that again. Satan is sending out

missionaries. Satan is sending out deceivers,

false teachers, missionaries. They often make call themselves

Christians sometimes. But the the devil never creates

anything new. Jesus sent him out.

Guess all he knows what to do is to do a false imitation to seek

to steal, kill and destroy. And Satan has been sending out

false teachers from the moment Jesus has been sending out false

real teachers of the truth. Some call themselves Christians,

they might even claim they're leading you to a deeper

knowledge or greater faith or greater truth.

But they come from Satan, and John says they are the very

expression of the Antichrist. Do you get the idea that John in

his old age doesn't give a RIP about what's politically

correct? He's like, y'all, I'm about to

die anyway, let me just tell you what you need to hear.

Y'all deal with it, right? Why are they false teachers?

He makes it clear. Look what the Bible says because

they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Let me just spell that out what that means.

Now some of you are going to be like these seems to be like

irrelevant details. Pastor Kyle, they're not hang

with me. What does John mean?

He means they do not confess that Jesus being fully God,

eternally pre existent eternal God, second person of the

Trinity, took on human flesh while remaining fully God and

then becoming fully man simultaneously.

They deny that. They deny the coming of the one

who is God, Jesus Himself in the flesh.

Now one of the most common false teachings about Jesus that was

and is, is that Jesus was just an ordinary man.

And that Jesus as an ordinary man had the extraordinary

experience of the Christ coming upon him at his baptism for a

temporary three-year time and then departing from him

therefrom before his crucifixion.

So that the Son of God doesn't actually die.

That's Jesus, the ordinary man that dies, but the Christ came

upon him for a three-year period of time, denying that Jesus

Christ, who is the Christ, actually came in the flesh.

Mark it down. Mark it down.

You will not find an exception. Every world religion or cult or

every false teaching without exception denies Jesus Christ is

eternally fully God, who's come in the flesh is fully man.

They will deny it. Mark it down, you say, Kyle, how

does that work itself out? I'm, I'm about to be specific.

And again, what I'm about to do is probably kind of like John,

not politically correct. And what I'm about to do, I

actually do not enjoy publicly critiquing and calling out

what's wrong or error in any way.

But I don't believe I would be a faithful shepherd unless I did.

And if it was only my kids in the room, I would want them to

hear this, but I certainly would want everybody else.

So I want to say it in that light, truth in love.

But let me give you just one example, the Articles of Faith

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, otherwise

known as Mormonism, Chapter one, number one says we believe in

God the Eternal Father and in his Son Jesus Christ and in the

Holy Ghost. Now how does that sound?

Sounds great, you and I can date.

Not so fast, we're good. Sounds like the doctrine of the

Trinity to me. But it isn't.

Because here's what they don't tell you unless you dig deeper.

Mormonism teaches that Jesus Christ is a created being who

was not fully God from eternity past who is not Co eternal with

the Father nor is the Holy Spirit Co eternal with the with

the Father. Many other unbiblical

perspectives will also will claim in a different way that

again like I said earlier that Jesus was just a mere man.

Mormons actually can't claim when you go deeper that Jesus

that even God the Father was originally a mere man who

originally became God and so can you.

Do you see how flip flop, totally satanic backwards this

is that the God who has always been God they actually claim was

originally a man. They don't tell you this on the

surface though. Again, the denial here is that

Jesus of Nazareth and the eternal Son of God are not the

same person. The Bible declares that Jesus of

Nazareth was God in the flesh, living, dying and rising, doing

what only fully God, fully man could make possible for the

salvation of all mankind. Which is why Jesus would look at

you and say unashamedly truth and love.

I am the truth and the and no one comes to the Father except

through me. John Jesus says he doesn't say

that out of like anything other than love for the world, knowing

there's no other way and knowing that in the enemy was going to

send out all sorts of fake, counterfeit other ways that I

actually are no way at all. Why is this such a big deal?

Why you say pastor God? That sounds like something

preachers would argue about in seminary.

Why do I need to know? Let me tell you why you need to

know because if you don't have Jesus right, you don't have a

right relationship with God. And if you don't have a right

relationship with God, you don't have salvation and you don't

have heaven. If you don't have Jesus, right,

you don't have eternal life, right?

Jesus is God who's come in the flesh.

So what does John say here? Verse 8?

This is the high point purpose of the letter.

Watch yourselves. It's a warning.

Watch yourselves listen so that you may not, he says, lose what

we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

Now, I want to be explicitly clear so we don't have

misunderstanding about what John is riding right there.

What does he mean to watch out so that we may not lose what

we've worked for but may win a full reward?

Well, John is warning us as believers that it not that he's

not saying that it's possible to lose 1 salvation and he's not

saying that we've worked for salvation.

That's a gift that we receive by faith.

OK, So what he's describing here are the loss of rewards though,

that our believer can receive for living out faithfulness and

obedience to Jesus. That John has worked so hard to

disciple them into living out, to living out truth and love and

remaining in the truth, that he wants them to receive a full

reward for when they see Jesus face to face.

And again, the implication is if the possibility of a full reward

is there, guess what? Also is the possibility of a

less than a what? That doesn't mean loss of

salvation, but it doesn't mean a loss of a full reward.

You say, well, Kyle, what kind of rewards does the Bible speak

of? I'm not necessarily familiar

with those. Well, let me make sure you are

familiar with how the Bible describes this for believers.

But John, again, is writing so that he knows it's possible for

believers to get caught up and influenced by false teaching.

Otherwise he wouldn't give you the warning.

So here's what he says, here's what the Bible says about

rewards. Let me just kind of give you a

little overview. The Bible number one mentioned

several types of crowns that can be received as rewards in

heaven. That by the way, we're going to

put right back at the feet of Jesus, crowns of rejoicing,

crowns of righteousness, the crown of life.

Jesus himself in Revelation 311 says I am coming soon.

Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown.

He's not saying so that someone can come snatch your salvation

from you, but He is saying so that no one may steal what you

may be living out faithfully to Him can be taking, just so that

what may be unfaithfulness would mean loss of the reward.

In terms of that description of a crown #2 Jesus states that

He'll reward every man according to his what his works are.

Every man's works the same, so they're going to be a different

level of reward based on one's works, based on how one is

walked out. The good works in advance.

God's prepared for those who love him.

Absolutely #3 Furthermore, Jesus instructs us to store up

treasure in heaven instead of earth.

Is everybody going to have stored up the exact amount of

treasure in heaven? No, Sir.

There's going to be a different level of treasure in heaven

based on how 1 steward of what God's entrusted to us.

Paul says in First Corinthians 3/8.

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will

receive his wages according to his labor.

Is everybody's labor the same? No.

Then Peter describes the opposite side of the coin in

second Peter 1/8 when he says for these qualities are yours

and increasing. In other words, the godliness

and the faithfulness and the endurance and the character.

He says this should be added to 1's fate.

He says if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep

you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of

the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In other words, Peter saying here, it's possible to be in a

knowledge of relationship of salvation with Jesus and yet

live ineffective and unfruitful for the Kingdom of God.

Lord, let it not be, but it's possible.

It's possible. John saying watch out so we

don't lose what we've worked for, walking in obedience to

Jesus for his name and the crowns we'll put back at his

feet. Don't be deceived.

No, to be clear, let me make this statement.

We have not worked for our salvation, but once we receive

it by faith, the Bible calls us to work it out with fear and

with trembling. That means out of the fear of

God, not this I'm afraid of God, but out of an overwhelming all

of the majesty of God and out of love for God, for what He's done

for me. I can't help but live it out

back to Him. Not because I've earned it,

because I've received it by grace and I'm seeking to live

for His glory. Watch yourselves first nine.

John then goes on ahead with another level of warning.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching

of Christ does not have God. What does it mean to go on

ahead? It means to move beyond the

teaching of Jesus and His Word. Most of the time it will sound

like I found superior, deeper, greater knowledge or revelation.

Let me tell you what it sounds like written on a statement of

faith that will lead you astray. Back to the Articles of Faith of

the Latter Day Saints #8 we believe the Bible to be the word

of God as far as it's translated correctly.

Here's where they really go wrong.

We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God.

The problem is, the Book of Mormon directly contradicts the

Word of God and therefore cannot also be the word of God.

The moment you elevate anything with the authoritative level of

this, you have gone beyond the teaching of Jesus.

You've said Jesus plus this, Jesus plus Muhammad, Jesus plus

Joseph Smith, Jesus plus Charles Russell or Jesus plus Ron

Hubbard or Jesus plus whomever else you want to put there,

you've gone beyond. And John, not Kyle, says when

you go beyond Jesus, you no longer have, you no longer have

God, you no longer have God, you forfeit Jesus, you lose God.

So that's not a deeper knowledge, it's darkness and

deception to go beyond the teaching of Jesus in his word.

To deny Jesus is to forfeit God. Again, why is this important?

Because if you don't have Jesus, right, you don't have the

Father, right? If you don't have Jesus, you

don't have God. Look what John says.

Whoever abides, this is where we rest.

Whoever abides remains, stays in the teaching of who Christ has

both the Father and the Son. We need to be congregationally

burdened that we and one another walk and stay in the truth.

Often times you'll hear the slogan military or in a reading

campaign or whatever it may be, no one left.

But in the church we also need to be concerned about no one

going beyond, no one left behind, no one that would never

hear, but also no one that hears going beyond and leaving and not

remaining in the teaching of Christ and being deceived by the

enemy and his false missionaries that are out there seeking to

kill, steal and destroy. Go beyond Jesus.

You don't have God. Young people, mark it down.

What they say about Jesus will reveal what they believe.

What they say about Jesus will reveal what they believe.

Now listen to what he says in verse 10.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not

receive him into your house or give him any greeting.

Forever greets him, takes part in his wicked works.

That's an amazing command in light of the New Testament's

emphasis on a little word that Christians are called to

practice. That starts with an H called

hospitality, and the only instance in the New Testament

you'll find where it's not to be practiced is when you're

standing face to face with one who is robbing people of Jesus

and saying things that are leading them to hell.

Let me put it like this. John's like, hey, if a snake had

arms, a poisonous snake had arms and can knock on your door,

would you invite him in? No.

So why would someone full of eternal, spiritual, deadly

venom, would you entertain their fangs around yourself or your

family? If we are the flock and sheep of

God, we ought not entertain wolves.

No, I don't think he's saying that.

You can, in the love of Jesus, have a polite conversation if

you're spiritually, prayerfully prepared.

You try to confront them of their error and have a

conversation leading them to the truth.

But John's basically saying, hey, they've heard the truth and

moved on from it and made a decision and are seeking to lead

you astray. And you ought not do anything

that would look like endorsing, supporting, or authenticating

what they're Hawking because it's leading people to hell.

There's just a different response to a wolf.

There's a different response to a snake, and so it's the most

loving response when someone is not not leading people to the

truth. Y'all, this whole scenario

really raises this tension for us.

OK, Well, Kyle, that brings up the question like, OK, if you

say love and truth are always to go together, it sure feels

strained at times for love and truth to stay together.

And you'd be right. There's times that sure feels

hard to put those two things together in ways that we think

of them going together. Let me just make this statement.

There has, I believe, been no exception to if someone, a

Christian, has chosen to stand for the truth, no matter how

loving they've been while doing it, There's not going to be an

instant somewhere someday where they stand for the truth.

So loving that someone somewhere is not going to accuse them of

being unloving. I'm going to say that again.

If you choose to stand for the truth, no matter how loving you

may do it, somebody is going to accuse you of being unloving.

OK, So you just got to be. That's one of the attacks of the

enemy. You're going to have to face

that and continue to stand in truth and in love.

John finishes like this, verse 12 and 13.

Though I have much to write to you, I'd rather not use paper

and ink, but instead hope to come to you and talk face to

face so that our joy may be complete.

The children of your fellow church elect sister greet you.

I just want you to notice quickly.

I'm not going to say much about this, but I do think this is

worth saying that John connects here fullness or completeness of

joy with the physical reality of being physically together with

this church. In other words, he's saying

y'all my joy, your joy is not going to be complete until we're

together. There is the reality for us as

Christians that our joy, guess what is not going to be complete

till we see who face to face of Jesus and until we're all

together face to face around the throne.

And in the meantime, our joy is not going to be complete as it

can be unless we're committed to physically gathering and being

together in the fabric of the physical together family of God.

Christianity is not some private on your own thing to do just in

your living room or here or there when you want to.

It is about being ultimately together, the family of God, one

day forever. And we're practicing in the

meantime, even every Sunday and other times that we gather, we

ought to prioritize the togetherness of the body.

I want to read you a quote I came across in a devotional this

week by the name of Judith Haugen.

She writes this and she's just spot on.

Listen to this. And this is really an indictment

on the American church. It's a warning to even for us to

think about how we do church. Nothing, she says, changes

people more deeply than the presence of love, humility and

truth in actual relationship. Yet many churches, most American

churches, have organized themselves around preaching,

programming and production structures that can keep us

safely in the pews, untouched. When we avoid the vulnerable

work of community, that physical togetherness, we become

institutions that talk about spiritual formation without

actually experiencing it. Iron sharpens, which means life

on life, which goes back to one of my 10 do life in a small

group of Christians. We'll talk about that more in

the days ahead. Walk and stay in love and truth.

The world's running after everything else.

The Bible calls us to run and stay in love and truth.

John and praise team are about to come out and I want to ask

you a few questions before we respond.

Number one is this. Do you have a right relationship

with Jesus? That's the most important

question a human being could ever ask you.

And if you don't, would you be willing to do something about it

today? You can't earn a right

relationship. You can receive it by faith if

you'd be willing to step out from where you are.

You don't have to do this to be saved.

You don't have to talk to a preacher to be saved.

You got to talk to Jesus. You got to talk to Jesus.

I can help you. You can do it where you are.

You can do it right here with me.

You can do it on your own, but you got to have a conversation

with Jesus. That sounds something like this.

Jesus, I've sinned. You're the only Savior.

I want to receive you and your payment for my sin.

I'm sorry for what I've done. I'm choosing you as my Lord and

Savior today. My life is yours.

Save me. Save me.

Would you say that maybe, maybe you have a right relationship

with Jesus, but staying and walking in love and truth is

probably, maybe you feel like you got areas you're just shy of

that in some way and you just want to come talk to Jesus about

those? Again, you don't need to talk to

me necessarily. You need to talk to Jesus.

But I can help you if you want to, if you just want to get on

your knees or on your face before God, or just stand here

to talk to Jesus about where you are in walking and staying in

love and truth. God is God in his word has the

best plans for us if we'll walk in it.

So I'm just going to invite you to do that.

We're going to sing. I'm going to ask you to stand

after I pray, and I'm going to ask you to respond to the Lord.

I'm here to help If you need counsel.

Remember, we're going to have encouragers.

It'll be close if you need to have a conversation with

somebody. But this is just the time to

talk to Jesus about what he's talking to you about.

By His Spirit, you respond as the Lord leads you.

Heavenly Father God, I want to ask right now, in these next few

moments, the Lord Jesus you would make clear to us the next

steps for each one of us. Father, we'd have a right

relationship with you and we'd walk and stay in it until we see

you face to face. Father, that we would walk into

a full reward in heaven one day, crowns to lay at your feet,

having walked in the good works, prepared in advance for us,

having not wasted our lives and unfruitful and ineffective

pursuits that the world says are important.

But it will be ashes when it's all said and done.

God, give us, give us the motivation and realization of

what's really worth living and help us do it for your namesake

in Jesus name, Amen. Would you stand sing with me?