Stay Strong in Love

John is the author of the book of 2 John, as well as the book of Revelation, the Gospel of John, and 1 and 3 John. He emphasizes love and belief in his writings. In 1, 2, and 3 John, he focuses on fellowship and the importance of continuing to live a Christian life after salvation. 2 John is a short letter, possibly written as an encouragement to a church that had responded well to his previous letter. John refers to himself as John the Elder, which signifies his wisdom and experience in following God's word. The only sanctioned positions in the church are pastors and deacons, and the word "pastor" comes from the Greek word "poimen" meaning shepherd. Jesus himself referred to himself as the Good Shepherd. Jesus valued humility and emphasized its importance in the Christian faith. John warns against seeking glory and exalting oneself, as some religious leaders do. be getting old or something, I don't know, we're starting to get caught up, but today we are starting the book of 2 John, 1, 2, and 3 John. So you have John writing the book of Revelation, and you also have him in 1, 2, and 3 John, and the Gospel of John. So you get a lot from John, and he spoke a lot about love, you know, he's always considered a love apostle, talks a lot about love, belief, he talks about belief far more than anyone else. Out of the 150 mentions, 95 of them are his, and even though he has a small portion of the scripture that God put him in charge of, still he's the belief apostle too. And in 1, 2, and 3 John, he seems to be focusing mainly on fellowship, meaning that after you become a Christian, even though you're secure in the hands of the Lord, and you're going to go to heaven after you become a Christian, but there's still things to do, and there's reward to be won, and there's discipline to be avoided. And John stays on that theme, and 2 John, very short letter when he wrote to this church from another church, seemed to be mainly an encouraging letter that they'd responded, possibly they had responded well to his first letter. But before we go into our study, we always do like to go to the Lord to get our hearts right, so let's do that. Dear Jesus, again we come to you with sin on our account. We know, even as born-again believers, we know we still sin, we still have that sinful nature. Thankfully, you have insulated us from that when it comes to our eternal life, but we also know that it displeases you when we're living in sin, and we ask that you would forgive us, Lord, of the sin, and you would cleanse us this morning for your holy word. We ask this in your name, amen. So 2 John, if somebody ever says, Hey, have you ever read 2 John, chapter 2, then if you say yes, then they caught you in a lie, because there's just one. It's a very short letter, and he starts out this way. This letter is from John the Elder. Now that reminds me of a guy I used to rent from, Shelly remembers, Frank Evers, remember? Just super good man, but he just didn't know how to make conversation. So when he would walk up to you, whatever you were doing, like I used to hire me to paint for him, he'd say, Scott the painter, and Shelly cleaned for him and his wife. Shelly the cleaner, and no matter what you were doing, you know, Scott the hunter, Scott the car driver, and that was just how he always... So when John said John the Elder, I thought, Oh, that's where Frank got it. But so it just reminded me of him, but John the Elder, the word elder can be interpreted a couple of ways. It originally in the Hebrew just meant somebody old, but a person who is old and who has actually followed God's advice and God's word is automatically going to be wise. So when they came up with the title for the synagogue worship, they came up with the title elder because they knew that they even had a rule in the synagogue, you had to be at least 30 or you couldn't be considered as an elder. And so it kind of got mixed with the position of elder, which usually meant a person older who was wise. I mean, just getting old doesn't make you wise. You can be an old fool too. But if you listen to God's words though, and you react to them, and you know, you've made a lot of mistakes. Don't you hate it when your kids want to make the same mistakes you made? You're thinking, man, I made that mistake already, why don't you not make it since I made it? Let me, just listen to me and save yourself that trouble, but they always want to make their own. I don't understand that. But that's what the whole idea behind elder, so he's, but he's talking here about the position of elder. You know, with that, that comparison between wisdom and I know I've heard a story, I think it was Chuck Swindoll was telling about this older gentleman was in the McDonald's drive through. And he was, you know, we know how old people are, you know, they don't have as long to live. They're never in a hurry. You think they would be in a hurry, you know, because they don't have long to live, but they're never in a hurry. And so he's poking around there and the guy behind him, and I guess it was a lady that was behind him and she wants to get to the drive thru, so she's honking and hurry up old man. And she gave him some interesting sign language. You guys know what I mean? And so he pulls up and he orders his food and then he pulls up to pay and he says, I would like to pay for the person behind me too. And so they said, okay, so they, he paid and they gave both receipts to him. And then she pulls up and they tell it, he looks in his mirror and you know, they're telling him, Hey, the guy in front of you paid. Now she feels like, you know, this big, you know, she's, and so she's kind of like mouthing the words. Thank you to him. I'm sorry. Thank you. So when he gets up to get his food, he, he asked for both orders of food since he had both receipts. So that person had to wait in line all over again. See, that's the difference in age and wisdom. But anyway, so, uh, so he calls himself an elder and, uh, there's only two positions sanctioned for the church. I know there's lots of titles you hear in churches, but when it comes to the actual Greek, there's only two positions in the church, just, just two. There's what we call pastors and there's deacons. That's the only two that have qualifications in the church. Not talking about old Testament. Now we're talking about new Testament church. Now the word pastor, uh, comes from the Greek poimen. And when they transferred it over to Latin, it became pastura and you got the word pasture in there. Right. And because what a poimen was, was a shepherd, someone who worked in the pasture with a sheep and it was not a prestigious job. You were dirty and you had to deal with dirty animals. And so it wasn't a prestigious job, you know, even though it was an important job, you know, like maybe a plumber, you know, today a plumber is a very important job. You have to be very smart to be a good plumber, but you don't get that prestige, you know, when you're, when you're a plumber. And so, uh, that's, you know, that's kind of like the same thing. And so that's why the church liked the word pastor for a, for a title that, you know, because it's a, it's a humble word and you'll see as we study why they derived it that. Now that is not the word they used in the Greek though, when they were talking about the qualifications of a pastor or what we call pastor, the qualifications of an elder, the words they use were Presbyterus, which means elder in the Hebrew. But they knew that the Greeks had no idea what elder meant, you know, they, they didn't have that kind of worship. So what the apostle Paul did, he used the word episkopos when he was talking to Greek people or Roman people, the word episkopos meant superintendent, supervisor, overseer is how it's most often translated because he knew they would not have any idea of what Presbyterus meant. So he would use overseer when he was talking to Greeks and Romans, and he would use Presbyterus when he was talking to Jews. So but pastor was chosen because it's a humble title, it's a, it's a very humble title. It means shepherd coming from that, you know, the old field worker and Jesus himself used that title of himself. He said he was the good shepherd, the good pastor. In our terms, it would be the good pastor, he's the good shepherd. And you see in the scripture, Jesus focused on humility all the time. As a matter of fact, his favorite term for himself was son of man, which was a much lower title than son of God or, you know, king of heaven, king of glory, all the thousands of titles that he's worthy of. He puts his man, he focuses on the fact that he was God and man, which was a lower title, but he focused on that because that's the title that won us our eternal life. And he loved son of man. Matthew 14, 11 says, for whoever exalts himself shall be abased or humbled. And he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Always taking the low side, always looking in your life. Anytime someone tries to give you a prideful thing, you know, to step back, you know, let it come to you instead of you go to it. And it's represented all through the scriptures. Matthew 11, 29, Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls. So Jesus himself considered himself lowly at heart. So important, humility. You can't be a faithful Christian without humility. Now religious people of his day, though, they sought glory. And honestly, many religious people of our day seek glory too. Some of those big churches you see, their congregation don't even get to meet the pastors. I've talked to people who've worked in those big churches and they will have worked in the church for three or four or five years and never met the pastor. Can you believe that? They bring him in the backstage and he does his thing. And after church is over, they usher him out the backstage into his limo and off he goes. Because he just doesn't want to mess with all the people, you know. And so there's, it's still a lot today like that. There's a lot of glory seeking and pastoring today. And they come in, and especially when you see them wearing the big fancy costumes and the goofy looking hats and all that kind of stuff. And why would you dress like that if it wasn't to bring attention to yourself, right? You know how it is. When people want to bring attention to themselves, they dress somewhere crazier. They do something crazy to their hair or something like that. And you know they're just trying to bring attention to themselves. And so why would they dress like that other than that? To exalt themselves with a special garment that nobody but them gets to have and a title that's very domestic and sounding and uppity. And Jesus hated that. He hated that. If you don't, if you hate it, you've got something in common with Jesus. Matthew 23, Jesus said to the crowds, to his disciples, he said, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. Because they could read and they could interpret. So they would meet at the synagogues or they would meet at the temple and they would pull the scrolls out. Remember, we have a nice bound 66 books in one book, right? They didn't. You know, they had scrolls. And you may go into one town, they have 10 scrolls. Another town may have 20 scrolls. Another town may have one scroll. Usually Isaiah was a really, almost everybody had Isaiah. But so they would read the scrolls, which was truth from God. But then he said, so practice and obey whatever they tell you, meaning what they read, but don't follow their example for they don't practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and they never lift a finger to ease the burden. So this is Jesus saying this, you know, this is Jesus saying, look at those phony balonies up there doing all these rituals and all these traditions. And they don't do a thing to make your life better. They just make your life harder. And they come up, they make rules, they would take an Old Testament law and they would add amendments to it and make it harder than it really had to be. And they would take away the intent of the law and instead they would try to make the letter of the law very burdensome. So Jesus is the one saying this, legalism never accomplishes his will. Legalism never pleases God. Colossians 2.16, this is what Jesus gave to Paul, this passage. So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink. We still have churches today that have rules on what you can eat and drink, still today. Or what day you can eat this on, what day you can eat that on, things like that. Don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come and Christ himself is that reality. He was saying all those rules in the Old Testament, they were all just pointing to the coming Messiah and he's here. Give it up. It's over. It was pointing to him. It's like those little things. You'd make those things in art class, the little circles that clipped into each other like 30 days before Christmas and then you would go peel one off every day. Do you guys, do they still do that in school? Make those little chains? They still do that? You peel one off every day and when you finally get to Christmas, you're like, yeah, it's Christmas. Well, you don't start peeling them off again the next day. It's too late. It's over. It's over. It did what it was meant to do. It was a good thing, but it's over. That's what he's saying here. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come and Christ himself is that reality. Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial. Like my family was raised, the girls couldn't cut their hair, they couldn't wear jeans. Some of our denominations, the women couldn't shave their legs and they'd wear those pantyhose on those long hairy legs and that was a mess to see, I'm telling you, and self-denial and worship of angels saying that they had visions about these things, their sinful minds have made them proud. They actually like almost like self-hypnotized themselves into thinking that they should say certain things. Have you ever been to churches that testified? I've been to quite a few that testified and, you know, sometimes the testimonies, honestly, are very encouraging. You know, someone stands up and they say, you know, my mother was sick and we prayed and this happened, that happened, but a lot of times they're not encouraging at all. And so there's a reason in 1 Corinthians 14 they said to keep the speakers limited to two or three and if two of the three are going to say the same thing, limit it to two. There's a reason for that order because it caught, I mean, you wouldn't believe the testimonies I've sat through. One, the guy, it was like a special service where, you know, you had special singers, so we had people from all over come into that service, and this guy stands up and he says, he points to a woman across the room and nobody knows, you know, the story, and he goes, I've worked with that woman my whole life. He goes, I've worshipped with that woman, I've slept with that woman, he says, with his wife, but, you know, nobody knows that, you know, we're like, ah, shut up. And then we had another guy, and he stands up, and he was a sweet guy, and he stands up and he says, when I was a sinner, I used to flip people off, and every time he would say flip off, he would do it. Up would come the bird. He goes, I would flip them off when they made me mad, I would flip them off, you know, he would just go back and forth, and every time he did, those old little Baptist women in that church would cringe, and at the end he goes, but now that I'm saved, I don't flip anybody off. But he flipped the church off, like, nine times in his story. But yeah, and see, that's the stuff that Paul said, you know what, they're going to think you're crazy. He said, don't do dumb things like that. He goes, they're going to think you're crazy, new people especially, and new believers. He goes on, they're not connected to Christ, the head or the body, for he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. That's the only way a church grows, is not in number, I mean, it's great when it grows in number, but he's more about a healthy plant, you know, a healthy church. He said, you have died with Christ, what an honor. You have died with Christ. When he died on that cross, you were on his mind, like the song says, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world, so why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as don't handle, don't taste, and don't touch? Paul is frustrated with them, even though it was hard. It was hard for my sisters to go to that school with no hairstyle, no stylish jeans or whatever, going with dresses down to their knees, and no makeup, and that was hard for my sisters to do. It was very hard on them, but the sad thing was, it meant nothing too. It was hard on them, and it meant nothing, and these behaviors are just a waste, and not only are they just a waste of your time, they're wrong, because you're putting your faith in something that you're doing instead of in God, and also you're chasing people away from the church, because people think, that's a crazy way they live, I don't want any part of that. You know, you're actually being an anti-witness instead of a witness. He said, such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise, because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline, but they provide no help, zero, in conquering a person's evil desires. The enemy loves it. He loves traditional churches that are caught up in a bunch of traditions and rituals. He loves it, because now your mind's where it shouldn't be. Your mind's in a totally different place. You're doing nothing good for God when you're all engaged, and then you're checking the boxes. Ooh, I tithed this week, and they make a check. I did this this week, I did that this week, and oh, I've arrived, I'm righteous. No, you're not righteous. Righteousness is from the heart, not from the things you do. Now, if you don't like religion, you're in good company, because Jesus hated those ritualistic, hypocritical actions. Jesus said, listen to what they read. Remember, he said, listen to what they say, because they're reading the word of God. But don't follow how they live. Don't follow how they live. You ever hear the expression, I think we were talking about this the other day, should we eat the meat and spit out the bones? Me and Darlene were talking about this the other day. I like that expression in a way, because if you have good doctrine, and you've been taught right, and say you're listening to a sermon on TV, then somebody teaches something wrong, you're going to catch it. You're going to say, ah, that's wrong. I know that, because I know the scripture that contradicts that. And so you can eat the meat and spit out the bones. In other words, you could say, oh, this preacher's doing pretty good today, but he's wrong on that. But I'm not going to, I don't have to turn it off if I don't want to, because I know where he's wrong, I know where he's right. You decipher it. So you spit out, you know, if you know the truth, you know what the bones are and what the meat is. And you can spit out the bones, right, if you know the truth. Now the Bereans were one group the apostle Paul preached to, and Luke was telling us about that in the book of Acts. He says, now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. See, they didn't just take Paul at his word. He was a man. He was a great man, but he was a man. And so when he would teach about what Jesus said in the Old Testament, what God said in the Old Testament, they would bring out their scrolls and they would look it up. They wanted to make sure that he wasn't, you know, feeding them a line, even though they liked him and they invited him, but they didn't just believe it because he said it. So that's a good thing. If you know the truth, then you can eat the meat and spit out the bones. But spitting out the bones, it's kind of old after a while, doesn't it? If you just constantly are listening to someone and they're constantly throwing in wrong things all the time because you're thinking, man, what if I what if he throws one at me that I know I don't know the truth on? Maybe he hits me with something I haven't studied yet. And can I really trust this guy if he's if he's throwing some bones in? Right. So you have to look at the source and you've got to know you've got to make sure that you're not wasting a lot of time, spending a lot of time on these people that you're constantly having to watch. It just what it reminds me of is this whole covid nightmare we all went through here. People are watching CNN and MSNBC and all these channels, and they're saying you should abort your children if you don't want them. And you're like, oh, that's wrong. I can't believe they said that marriage is between any two things. I go, go, go marry your dog if you want to. Well, I can't believe they said that. No, there's they're telling all these lies. Right. And so who do they listen to when there's a health concern? They go to the same person, the same news channel that says you should abort your children, the same news channels that says you should marry your dog. They go they go to those same places where they know those places are beds of lies. You know, you live on a throne of lies. Right. They go to those places instead of going to sources that teach truth, you know, and that's where they got their health advice. I'm thinking, what the heck? You get your health advice from a source you know is wrong. Almost every time their mouths move. And my dad used to say that about a guy he knew. I know he's lying because his lips are moving. You know, that kind of guy. I know my dad had all those old Southern expressions. When he dies, he's so crooked, they'll have to screw him into the ground, he would say. But, you know, so that's spitting out the bones. You know, that's dangerous. I mean, it's OK if you get stuck somewhere where you're on vacation and you want to go to church and you just pick a church on the side of the road and you go and use it. OK, I'm going to have to eat the meat, spit out the bones today because this guy is about half right on everything. But it's dangerous to do that a lot. This this this next caption says you may be able to chew the meat and spit out the bones, but you can't chew the meat and spit out the poison. Good, good point that you want to be careful who you listen to. Don't get yourself stuck under a bad teacher. And once you know they're a bad teacher, you know, and you've given them a couple of chances and they keep going wrong, you need to beware. Now you know, you know, now you know. So now it's time to make moves. Just like if you if you go out and have a drink with your meal and then you get hammered, then you know, OK, I can't handle the drink with my meal. I know that now. So I know God's not going to look over that next time because I've proven to myself that kind of thing. Once you know they're wrong, you need to be careful. Don't make a habit of sitting under them. Now, Jesus continues his advice on these hypocritical leaders. He said everything they do is for show. Oh, my gosh. Is this was this written yesterday? I don't know. Everything they do is for show on their arms. They wear extra wide prayer boxes, something that they would do. They wear little boxes with prayers in them and scriptures in them with scripture verses inside. And they wear robes with extra long tassels because they wanted to look all holy. That's what did. Chris bought me a pretty cool collar that one time. I did look pretty slick in it, you know, but anyway. And they love to sit at the head of the table at banquets and at the seats of honor in the synagogue. And they love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces and to be called rabbi, because that was a really big title in their day. And Jesus says this, don't let anybody call you rabbi, for you have only one teacher, which is what rabbi meant. And all of you are equal as brothers and sisters. And don't address anyone here on Earth as father, for only God in heaven is your father. And don't let anyone call you teacher, for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. Now, these titles in his day were very big titles. They're different today. You know, different things mean different things today. But any title that demands glory and demands honor, those are for Jesus. They're not for us. That's why the early church liked the title that we chose, you know, pastor, because we didn't want that undue honor brought upon the pastors. And those titles were designed to bring honor and glory to them. Jesus said the leaders should be your servants, you know, a servant leader. So the greatest among you must be a servant, he says, but those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted, the same passage we started with. And again, that's why pastor is a term you hear mostly in modern churches, because it is a humble title. The pastor represents a humble person. And Jesus said, my strength is made perfect in weakness. That's a strange thing when you think about it. But when we are short, which we all are, when we fall short and we realize we fall short, when we know we're not good enough, then God can use us then. You know, I know I've told this story before, but when we put the first Grace Christian, we started at the reception hall that is now Don Chico's. There must have been some prophecy there for the love of Mexican food. And then we moved to an archery range, which is really beautiful, because the word for sin in the Greek is the same word as missing a shot with your arrow. And here we end up in an archery shop, which we turned into a church. And when we finally wanted to go to that building, the downtown business association didn't want us there, because we weren't commerce and we weren't selling a product. Half the storefronts were empty at that time, and the other half were bars. But still, at that time, they didn't want us there. They said they didn't want it to draw undesirables. Like undesirables? What the heck? You see how many bikers are at that bar over there? Oh, sorry, Gary. But anyway, and so it was crazy that they didn't want us there, you know. But the laws were for us, you know. Finally, and they knew that the whole time, but they just didn't know that we knew that. And so finally, they had to let us be there. And as we're walking out the door, one of the people on that committee said, they're just a bunch of dumb kids. They're never going to make it anyway. Said it loud enough for us to hear it, but not, you know, because the meeting was over. And, you know, and I remember turning around thinking, you're right. We are a bunch of dumb kids, and we are unqualified. And we won't make it. If it's up to us, we won't. But in our weakness, God showed his perfect strength because that's been... That was 1998 when we had that meeting. The church was formed in 97, or actually, it was closer to 2000 because we'd already been at the reception off a little while. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. So whatever you call the person who leads your service, make sure it's a humble title. You see all these titles today, elder, pastor, priest, bishop, reverend. You know, there's lots of different titles. I even went by a church somewhere, and they called them the apostle. It was a Pentecostal church. They called their pastor their apostle. But basically, they're all from the same words, though. Presbyterus, remember? That was the Jewish term for elder. Episkopos was a Greek term, bishop, or overseer. You ever hear something called a bishop? That comes from that word episkopos. And deacon was from dekanos, and it meant a servant. The only difference in the qualifications in deacon and pastor is a deacon isn't expected to be a good teacher, and a pastor must be a good teacher. It says in the Greek, didaktikon, skillful at teaching. If they're not skillful at teaching, they are not qualified to pastor. And the deacon doesn't have that qualification. That's the only difference, though. All the other, they're behavioral qualifications. Now, in Titus, when he was talking about deacons and pastors, he said this. He said, for this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders, Presbyterus, in every city as I directed you. For the overseer, episkopos, must be above reproach as God's steward. So you see he used overseer and elder interchangeably of the same person. So we know for sure those two terms are talking about the same person. Now, what an elder is in the church is a rich guy that you don't want to go to somebody else's church, so you give them a title. If we ever get a rich guy here, I'm going to give him that title, I think. The qualifications are really clear, and they're all behavioral, you know, as far as your reputation. They're all about reputation. That's why if a pastor, like, has an affair or something, they usually are never qualified again because it'd be really hard for them ever to clean that reputation back up. They could still serve in the church in other ways, but to serve as a pastor again, they'd have to move somewhere so far away, and that would be deceitful not disclosing that. So pretty much when a pastor gets involved in something serious like that, he's pretty much done pastoring because he can't meet the qualifications. And then the deacon is a servant. The word means servant. A deacon, they were made to help serve the people. That's why they started deacons in the first church because, you know, a lot of the widows needed food, and the pastors didn't have time to do the study, and also feed the people, so deacon, a very, very important person if you can find somebody that qualifies. God also recycled the Jewish model. See, not only did he recycle the Jewish title, elder, he also recycled the Jewish model for a church because in a synagogue, what you would do in a synagogue is you would make, you'd find three or four or five guys that fit those qualifications in Titus and Timothy and Peter, and then you would have those guys start a synagogue somewhere, which was like what we would call a church, and then when the church started growing and you noticed you had a bunch of people driving, you know, of course in those days it was walking, some people, a lot of people from far away, and if there was three or four guys that qualified in their area, you'd start another synagogue in their area so they wouldn't have to walk as far. So he took that same thing, that team thing. The experienced elders were the ones who named the new elders. It wasn't, they were the only ones who knew the scripture well enough, and they would watch the behavior of the person who they thought might be an elder. They would watch them, the deacons too. They would watch how they lived, how they behaved when they were mad, how they behaved when they were poor, how they behaved when they were doing well, and they would watch them before they would approach them and say, hey, you know, we think you would make a good elder or you'd make a good deacon. And so both systems also, the synagogue system and the church system involved what's called plurality of elders, meaning that there's not one pastor unless you just are down to one, but you want as many as qualify in your church so that you have a team of elders. And we know that's true because when we go to look at Book of Acts 14.23, he says, when they had appointed elders, plural, of the church, singular, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. You notice you had plural elders, singular church, Acts 20 and 17. From Miletus, he sent Ephesus and called to him the elders, plural, of the church, singular. See there again, James 5.14, if anyone among you is sick, then he must call for the elders, plural, of the church, singular, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. So you notice multiple elders, singular churches. So men were appointed by seasoned elders, not by a vote. It's not a democracy because the seasoned elders know what to look for. And so if you make it a vote, then the guy with the money is going to win it. The guy with the nice house is going to win it. The guy with, you know, the nice Toyota truck with a rack on it, he'll always win it because everybody wants a Toyota truck with a nice aluminum rack on it. I don't know why that is. Everybody wants that. But anyway, it was not and is not a popularity contest. It wasn't based on money. It wasn't based on formal education. It wasn't based on social status. It wasn't based on good looks. So you guys got lucky there. It wasn't based on that. Just like when you choose a welder, you need somebody to weld a big project. You're like, well, that guy's pretty good looking. I think I'll pick him. No, you want somebody with a proven record to be a good welder, electrician, plumber, mechanic. And it takes one to know one, right? If I look at a weld, I can't tell you what a good weld is. I just can't. But like our welder at our shop, we build a water plant. He did all the welding. And we had another company come who does tons of welding. And they walked in and looked at his welds. And the one looked at the other and said, yeah, he's better than us. I mean, they knew because they are welders. They know what a good weld looks like. I don't. I think J.D. weld is what I would use on the water plant, but it wouldn't last long. But it takes one to know one. And I know what I've told the story before, but you know me, I tell stories a lot of times. But we had an engineer that read all the books on telemetry, you know, making the water plant run from a distance, you know, from phones and from Internet. And so I didn't know nothing about telemetry, really. But I did hire a telemetry expert. And I was working with him. So I was learning. Well, this engineer walks in and sits down with us, too. And he starts talking about this project we're doing. And he's going on and on and on with great confidence and using really cool, big, you know, big words, you know. But I knew enough to know that he didn't know what the heck he was talking about. And he went on and on and on. And he gets up all confident. He shuts his book. He looks just like a picture of pride. See you later. Good to see you again. And he shuts the door. And I looked at the other guy who actually knew telemetry. And I said, he doesn't have a clue, does he? And he said, not a clue. But we just let him talk. And he walked away thinking that he bullcrap us. But but we you know, it's just we were just too embarrassed to confront him, you know, and that's why liars always are liars. They think they're getting away with the lies. But 90 percent of time, people know when you're lying. Now, why a team of elders? There's a lot of reasons and a lot more than I just listed here. Probably one, the battle of the pride, the arrogant pastor syndrome. Have you ever been to church and you know the arrogant pastor syndrome when they think they're better than other people? It's hard to do that when you have a team of elders. So lessen the workload. That's a big one. What lessen the workload is you have somebody to help you. Number three, to ensure family responsibilities are met. You know, like if you want to go, you and your wife want to go away on a trip, you know, maybe it's your anniversary or something. You want to get a couple of nutty farmers to go with you. And I'm sorry. Sorry, guys. You all go on a trip and you know that it's covered because your other, your teammates are going to cover it for you. It's great. You know, it has, you know, you can meet your family responsibilities. Say your daughter goes crazy on you or your son goes crazy on you. See, and one of the qualifications of an elder is that you must have your family in control. So like, say, one of your teenagers goes nutcrackers, you might have to step back and take care of that situation. And then once you're, you know, after you've buried their body somewhere, then you can be an elder again, something like that. And so, and you know, and that's a great to know that, hey, you know, the church doesn't fall just because my family situation. Once they move out, then you're like, oh, good riddance. You're not mine anymore. That's how you do then. And also just for your sanity, accountability. Like if Dane's up here preaching and he's, he preaches something like, oh, you know what? I bet he doesn't know about that verse over there that just contradicted what he said. Then after church, you can come up to him and say, hey, you know, I don't know, you're nice and you're tactful, but you help each other. You sharpen each other that way. Yeah, I know you preach this, but you know, do you realize that Paul said that? So that can't be true. And it's a good way to sharpen each other and help each other out. I know Pastor Nate at Kennebill, he used to, he'd always say at the end of the sermons, Lord, please let them forget anything I taught wrong. And I would always go up after service and say, you know what's funny? I don't remember anything you said. Accountability, learning from and leaning on each other. When one of you is depressed, you get depressed a lot in this job. You get depressed a lot because you pour your hearts into people and they don't like the color of the carpet and they quit coming to church. Happens all the time. Things like that. And it breaks your heart. Shelley always says, you gotta not take it to heart. You know, you gotta have thicker skin. She's always telling me that. Correction, discipline and doctrinal correction. We talked a little bit about that. Capabilities. There's no Lone Rangers in this life. We need, we need help. You know, burnout claims many pastors. Most pastors who start pastoring don't retire as pastors. It's a very small percent that actually stick with it their whole life because they get so burned out. Divorce rates at times. Sometimes the pastoral divorce rate is in the top 10 at times. It's been better lately, but it's a lot of times it's really bad. Protecting the flock from sudden loss. You know, when, when Pastor Roger passed away, if he would have been our only pastor, we'd have been, we'd have been stuck. But since we had three or four other pastors, it killed us still, but we moved on. And then the camaraderie is comforting. Knowing somebody that knows what you know. Somebody that, that values what you value. It's great. Second, John one, we finally got back to our main text. I'm writing to the chosen lady and to her children. That was the nickname for the church. Even now we call sister churches. Our Kennebale church is our sister church. They're the ugly sister, but they're our sister church. It says, so the chosen lady to her children, whom I love in the truth, as does everyone else who knows the truth, because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever. The grammar, some people think, what if that's a real woman he's talking to? Well, the grammar doesn't agree with it being a real woman. They always referred to churches as women and they referred to sister churches, you know, as two churches that agreed with each other largely. He says, grace, mercy and peace, which come from God, the father, from Jesus Christ, the son of the father, will continue to be with us who live in truth and love. That's a great encouraging thing he just said. He didn't say, like, usually they say, pray that God gives us grace and peace. He says, will continue, meaning that he believes God is already giving them those things because they, they, they appear to have listened to what we just taught in first John. It appears that they listened and are doing what he said. He said, happy I was to meet some of your children, meaning your people that go to your church and find them living according to the truth, just as the father commanded, complimenting them, encouraging them in the same way he was harsh in the last book. He's now he's, he's re complimenting them and that's how we should raise our children. That's how we should do business. No, you know, when someone doesn't listen and is doing better, we should, we should bring them back into us. So he gave them lots of advice and this brings great joy to pastors when they see someone's life change in a positive way based on this, based on biblical advice. Not, not so much their advice, although they're the ones that God let deliberate, but it's really God's advice. It's not his, it's God's. And when you see people listen to that, um, it's just amazing to watch their lives change because you can see somebody else's life change way easier. You see your own change. It's amazing. You can see it. And it's just encouraging when you see that, even when it hurts, you need to follow that advice, but they did. They were still short in one area. Apparently he says, I'm writing to remind you to your friends that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning. He mentioned this in the last letter to remember, told him to love one another. I think that their culture might've been a little like our culture where people are like, I don't know, afraid to show love. You know what I mean? It kind of makes you feel weak or something to show love, um, you know, to give somebody a hug or to, to, you know, worry about somebody else's problem. But, but he says, you need to do that. And in first Corinthians, he says, if I have faith that can move mountains, which would be awesome, but do not have love, I am nothing. He goes on to say in that passage, if I can, if I get, if I know everything in the Bible, I have to have all knowledge and all wisdom. And if I have it all, but I don't love, I'm still nothing. So, so important. He wants them to know, I love how you're changing your lives, but you also got, you still need to show some love to each other. True love, true love based on, not on emotions, but based on actions. Uh, not just fancy Christian talk. Man, that makes me sick when I, when people just like to say all the big Christian buzzwords, but then the, you know, you have to send a search party out to get them to church. For a second, John 1, 6 says, love means doing, and this is John, he's saying this right after he told him to love. Love means doing what God has commanded us. And he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning. I remember you sat before the pastor, maybe me, if some of you, and he said at your wedding, love is patient, love is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude. It's not self-seeking, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it always protects, always hopes, always persists, love never fails. Remember he told you that? And I always tell him in my sermon whenever I do a wedding, how much you love your spouse or your children or your parents is based on this. If you're not, if you're doing half of these things, you only half love them. Even though you have this emotional rush when you see them, that, that means, you know, that and six bucks will buy you a cup of coffee, that emotional rush. That's not about that. It's about what you do. If you're doing those things, then you, if you love them 50%, that's an F, you failed. You need to, you want to, you know, you want to love them as much, close to 100% as you can, meaning you do all those things. He says, I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus came in the real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. You remember in the last book, he said, who is the liar? It is not the one who did not, is it not the one who denies that Jesus is Christ? This is the antichrist who denies the father and the son. So John liked that title, that antichrist. He used it a lot. He said, watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. As we know, we're saved by faith alone in Christ alone. Works have nothing to do with your salvation. Works are on one hand, and it connects to your reward and your discipline. And salvation is on the other hand, and the two never meet. If they ever met, we would all perish. If one work was involved in our salvation, what do you think Satan would have talked us all into doing? That thing. We're saved by faith alone in Christ alone, but we are rewarded and disciplined based on our faithfulness. Just like in your family, you do the same thing in your family. And the discipline is important because he who spares the rod hates his son. But he who loves him disciplines him diligently. My father loved me so much. Yeah, man, I look like a zebra with the switches he used. Anyone who wanders away from the teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching has a relationship with both the father and the son. Again, John, focusing on your relationship, your salvation from hell is is not what he's talking about. He's talking to Bornean believers here. But he's saying, even though you're a Christian, you can be a bad one. You can be one that that disappoints your God. You need to have a good relationship, just like in a marriage. You can be a husband, but that don't mean anything unless you're a good husband. You can be a wife, but that means nothing unless you're a good wife. It's just a title. He says, if anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don't invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement. Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work. All through the scripture, this is a theme. If you help somebody fail, then you fail, too. If you're walking down a road and a guy's trying to break in a house and you pull out your locksmith kit and get him in there and then you keep right on walking, you're guilty for every crime he commits in that in that house. And that's even that's even in our law today. And he's saying, don't hang around with bad blood. He even said that Paul even said, don't don't be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. I love how the person who put this out says anonymous on the bottom. Pick up your Bible. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. He said, I have much more to say to you, but I don't want to do it with paper and ink, for I have to visit you soon and talk with you face to face. Then our joy will be complete. That's still true of today. You're better off not to try to handle a big problem with a text or handle a big problem with an email or a post on Facebook or Instagram or whatever. If it's a problem, do it face to face so they can see your emotions. They can see your expressions. They can see your hand movements. They can know. Don't you know, because people will read it the way they want to read it and misunderstand your intention. And then he ends with greeting from the children of your sister. Again, a sister church chosen by God. Then I put for my last slide says before you post, think the T stands for true. Is it true what you're going to post? H is, is it helpful? It might be true, but is it helpful? I, is it inspiring? Is it actually going to be encouraging somebody? N, is it necessary? Sometimes it's just better just to let it go. K, is it kind? And that's kind of a nice little thing. Even an email, a text, anything like that. Um, lots of enemies are made because of Facebook, but we're going to go ahead and stop right there. So, um, we will, that, that we actually knocked out that, that whole entire book.