Support the Witnesses

The speaker discusses various topics including the upcoming Christmas holiday, the importance of not praying to Santa Claus for a perfect man, their experiences with a friend named Shelly, their progress in reading the Bible, the different types of love in Greek, and a conversation between Jesus and Peter. The speaker emphasizes the significance of love and its ability to motivate people to do better. They also highlight the use of different words for love in the conversation between Jesus and Peter. I think we're going now. So welcome out everybody. We have Christmas coming right up on us and I know for all you single ladies out there, please quit praying to Santa Claus for the perfect man. I've almost been kidnapped three times in the last week. I'd like you to please quit doing that. Shelly didn't even give me a bad look. I mean, I pulled that one on. She's used to it, she says. She used to think all the things I did was funny, you know, when we were dating. She just laughed. You know, we'd go to the mall and I'd jump up on those trash cans like I was going to the bathroom and she would laugh and I would act like a mannequin in the store, stand real still and scare somebody and she would laugh. She doesn't laugh anymore. We are in 3rd John. I didn't realize, I guess I just never realized when you're reading straight through that 2nd John and 3rd John both only have one chapter and also Jude only has one chapter so I'm like really knocking out these books. It usually takes me three or four months at minimum to go through a small book and I went as much as two years and eight months on the book of Matthew. Here I knocked out a whole book last week and this week we're going to hopefully do the same and next week the same. Of course next week we have our Christmas service though. So next week will be a little different. The musicians will stay on the stage the whole time and then we will weave the message in between the songs. It's always kind of a neat service, something a little different throughout the rest of the year. But yeah, so we're jumping into 3rd John. This is the third letter he wrote to this church and he's writing from another church, showing you the camaraderie between churches at the time. But before we get into the study, we 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 that even as Christians who have eternal life, that we still make bad choices, we sin and you told us that when that happens we just need to confess our sin to you and that you would cleanse us from all unrighteousness as long as we're sincere and we sincerely this morning ask that you would clean our hearts so that your word will have a clean place to go. We ask this Jesus in your name. Amen. So he writes this letter. He does just the same as he did on the last letter. He said this is from John the Elder. John the Elder. Remember we talked about Frank last week? Scott the Painter. Shelley the Cleaner. John the Elder. This letter is from John the Elder. I'm writing to Gaius, my dear friend whom I love in the truth. So I almost hate the way that the translators say my dear friend because the word you may see, I think King James says beloved friend or something like that which is actually a little better because the word is agapeteo which means beloved one and since it comes from agape which is an advanced kind of love, it makes it mean more. It means he's a very sincere friend who really loves his friend. We'll take a look at this little chart. It says the four types of love in the Greek. There's more than four. There's like seven or eight but these are the four that are the most used. There's one word for love is eros and that would mean sensual desire. That would be love between boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, that kind of love, eros love, like erotic love. Phileo used for friendship, that's brotherly love is one translation of phileo like Philadelphia city of brotherly love. So you've got phileo. Then you've got storge which is a family love between brothers and sisters, things like that. And then agape is God's natural or supernatural love. I like the way they define this. Agape is love because of the character of the person loving rather than the worthiness of the object being loved. It is love in spite of rather than love because of. I think that's a good way to define that. And it is the best kind of love. Agape love, you know Jesus loved us first, right? We love him because he first loved us. Even though he knew he was not going to get anything out of us of much value, if any value at all. But he loved us anyway. He loved us because in spite of us. And our language in English has just got the one word. So we have to use modifiers, you know. And so the Greek was a lot more exact language. And really there's not that many words in the Greek language. This is common Greek, not really practiced today, similar but not really practiced like it was then. But that was when Alexander the Great was conquering the world at the time. And he knew I have to have a common language that's easy to teach, that's easy to learn, so that I can communicate with all these conquered nations. And so Koine Greek, which Koine means common, common Greek, they took away a lot of the flowery stuff and very simple language, very mathematical. And so when you're studying the Bible, you can of course, you don't have to know Greek to understand the Bible. I'm not saying that. But it just makes it richer, you know. It's a deeper level, a deeper love to be able to jump in there. And I'll give you an example just of this word love. And this example rings throughout the whole scripture. And you may remember this conversation. Jesus said to Simon Peter, do you love me? And he said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, do you love me? And he said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, shepherd my sheep. And he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said, feed my sheep. And you know, when you first read that, you're thinking, that was kind of a really weird conversation. You know, what the heck was going on there? And in the English translation, they properly translated it. Because if they put modifiers all throughout the scripture of the Bible, we'd have to have a can cart to haul it around. Because it takes a lot more words in the English to express what the Greek really means. And keep in mind, this was after Jesus was resurrected. And he'd appeared to, you know, over 500. And he appeared to all of his followers. Remember, that's when they cast the nets into the sea and pulled in the fish. You know, they wasn't catching anything. And Jesus said, try it again. And pulls it in. And I mean, there was a lot that happened after the resurrection. So this conversation happened after the resurrection. So we're going to take a look at that conversation a little bit deeper. John 21, 15. It says, After breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Probably pointing to the other disciples. Yes, Lord, Peter replied. You know I love you. Then feed my sheep. So we have a couple of things going on here. For one, I thought it's interesting that after he asked if he loved them, he gave them a chore to do. Feed my sheep. You know, in other words, teach the word, teach people. So one lesson from this is that love should motivate us to do better. It does motivate us. Love motivates us to do better. Now, since God is not a puppet master, and doesn't force us, that doesn't mean that you're going to automatically do better. That just doesn't happen. You have to choose to do better. But love does motivate you. The Holy Spirit who lives in you is constantly giving you little ideas of good things to do. And if you don't do them pretty quick, the enemy who lives in you is going to talk you out of it. So whenever you get a good thought in you to do something good for someone, just do it. Because if you don't, the enemy will talk you out of it, and you'll lose that blessing and that reward from the Lord. And then also notice that Jesus called him son of John. I think in King James it says, Barjona, which means the son of John. So he hasn't called him this for a long time, not since he first met him. So it's almost like a restart. It's almost like they're rebooting their relationship here. And also, he and Jesus are using different words. Even though they translate to love in the English, they're using different words. Let's look at that again, that verse. It says, After breakfast, Jesus asked Simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you agape me? That's that special love that God has, that selfless, meaningful love. Do you love me more than these agape? And yes, Lord, Peter replied, you know that I philo you. That's brotherly love, friendship, friend love. Then feed my lambs. So it started that way. He asked him, do you agape me? Peter said, I philo you. Now, some of that could be that they were just used to using those words interchangeably. We do the same thing today. Someone might say, I hate my boss. Do you really hate him? I mean, do you really hate him? Or does he just aggravate you? And sometimes people will ask you to clarify, right? And you will, oh, yeah, well, I guess I don't really hate him. I don't want him dead or anything. Some of it could be that they were just used to using philo and agape interchangeably, especially those two. Or like, I love Jim's pizza. When you say that, people say, do you really love Jim's pizza? Yes, I do. I really love Jim's pizza. I agape Jim's pizza. Or charge your house fish. And then that's when, you know, when you're a kid, they said, well, then why don't you marry it? I would marry Jim's pizza if I could. I would marry it. But that would make me a cannibal, wouldn't it? Because I would be eating my Jim's pizza. And it's just like a little cannibal boy one time said, I hate my sister's guts. And his dad said, you'll eat what's put before you. But, you know, kids say that all the time. Now, we would not allow our kids to say that if our kids said they hated each other. Then the next thing they hated was a switch wrapping around them because we would not allow our children to say they hated each other. I think that's a good thing because you don't want to get that started in your family. But sometimes we have to be asked in English to refocus. What did we really mean? You know, and so it could some of this could have been that. Jesus asked Peter, feed my lambs. In other words, if you love me, you need to work something, you need to do something. Jesus repeated the question, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Agape, again, do you agape me? Yes, Lord, Peter said, you know that I phylo you. Again, presently left, then take care of my sheep, Jesus said. Again, this is getting kind of strange. A third time he asked Simon, Simon, son of John, do you phylo me? You see, now he used the word that Peter was using. Maybe as a way to point out to Peter, you're using the wrong word. And possibly this may have made Peter realize, because Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, Lord, you know, everything, you know that I love you, but he still uses phylo. Jesus said, then sign up for nursery, he said. No, no, no, he said, then feed my sheep. That's a good one. All right. But we know that it hurt his feelings. We just don't know why exactly, you know, we're taking some guesses here. But it could be that he was embarrassed that, that, you know, Jesus pointed out that he was using the wrong word for love. And again, he may have been innocently using the wrong word, too. But it's interesting, and that goes to show you, you know, sometimes, you know, being able to dig a little deeper into the Greek and the Hebrew and the Aramaic, sometimes it does give you a little richer understanding. But even if you knew none of those things, you can still be a very good, solid Christian who loves the Lord. It's just a little, it's just deeper still, you know, I love that song, it's deeper still. And some people think this might have been a response since he said, you know, son of John, you know, Simon Barjona, son of John. Maybe this was related to the, to the betrayals, the denials that Peter did when he was, you know, before he was crucified. So we're gonna take a look at that and see, that could be, that could be another reason why he did the three things. What's really amazing, too, is Pastor Dane and I, we don't talk about our messages before we do them, we just do them. And, and so I try my best to have my rough draft done by Wednesday night, so that, because it's always inspiring to me, because he was in some of this same stuff Wednesday night. And we're in totally different books. But it was kind of cool. He was into Peter's, some of Peter's ministry. So Matthew 26, 31, it says, on the way to Mount, the Mount of Olives, so keep, you know, this is when things are getting close, crucifixion is looming, getting close. Jesus told them, meaning his followers, you know, his disciples, tonight, all of you will desert me. For the scriptures say, God will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. I know I mentioned this quite often, but I love lots of versions of the Bible. Most of them are, they're within 5% of each other from the worst to the best. And it's really rich looking at different versions. Now, if you're looking at the NASB, which is the most literally accurate version is the NASB. And that doesn't mean it's the easiest to read, because sometimes it's kind of choppy, since, since they're so worried about staying accurate, sometimes they make it a little choppy. But in the NASB, they do capitalize every time that they quote the Old Testament, I really like that feature, I wish they all did that. So in this case, this isn't the NASB, but I just knew that that was a verse from the Old Testament. And we'll go back there to Zechariah 13, seven. And this is what Jesus is quoting to these men. He says, Awake, O sword against my shepherd. And so this would be God speaking, awake, O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. And I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. So here Jesus, you know, they would have never guessed that this was about the crucifixion. That's why we got to be careful thinking that we can translate everything perfect, because there's no way they would have guessed this verse was going to be about God's own Son being stricken. But Jesus quoted it. He continued, But after I have been raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you in Galilee and meet you there. Peter declared, Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you. In the fashion of Peter, his boldness was misguided at times. He had a lot of love, but he oftentimes, you know, his desires wrote checks that, you know, that his actions couldn't cash. You know what I mean? You know, I know people like this. We always do those personality tests, you know, where you answer a bunch of questions. We do it in relationship classes usually. I've done it at work even, where you come out either you're an otter or a beaver or a lion or a golden retriever, which means, you know, they all have different traits. But the otter, one of the traits of the otter is they're always happy, go lucky, life of the party, always making promises, meaning to keep them, but not keeping them. You know, I'll be there. I'm going to be there to help you out. And then when it gets close to time, they don't show up. So this is kind of a trait of that. So maybe Peter was an otter. He desired to do better things than he could do. So he says, not me, all these other losers here, they might deny you, but not me. Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, Peter, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me. So you think that that's when Peter would just kind of zip it, you know. But no, Peter insisted, even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you. And all the other disciples vowed the same. We always forget that part there. They all said, yeah, us too. You know, we'll die with you too. We won't, we will not deny you. So all of them said that. But since Peter said it first, and since Peter said it, you know, with more emphasis, and since Peter publicly fails, he gets all the credit for this. And Jesus being God, he was God the Son, he knew what was awaiting him, a shameful and painful death by crucifixion, something that was reserved for the worst of people, you know, insurrectionists, murderers. I mean, the worst people were crucified, because they understood something that we as a country need to understand. When you punish somebody publicly, it works. Not only does it deter crime in the fact that that person is dying and will never be able to commit a crime again. But on top of that, when you watch somebody suffer for maybe three days or something, I mean, because they did their best to keep them alive as long as they could keep them alive. They would even give them narcotics, so that they could live a little longer, because at one at some point, it became more about the show than the punishment. And so it was a horrible way. But boy, when people saw somebody executed in that public of a manner, like the old West used to hang them, remember the old hangings, and it made an impact on people. So he so anyway, he and his men, you know, he knows it's getting close to time. And so they're going away to Mount Abalas, and he prays to his father. And so his, his men kept falling asleep, you know, he said, Oh, can't you just stay awake and watch for me for a little bit, and he'd check on them, they'd be asleep again. And he had to just he was he had to be feeling so alone. And so he's begging to his father, Lord, you know, if this cup can pass from me, you know, that would be great. But then he said one more little thing in that prayer that saved all of humanity, not my will, but your will be done. If Jesus would not have added that last sentence, if he would have said, Father, I don't want to do this, it would have been over. Because God answered every one of his prayers and always will. And so that little last line he said, saved humanity, saved us all and gave us all the chance. His sweat fell like great drops of blood, it said, not that he sweated blood, but the language says he sweated like blood, it dripped big, heavy drops. I know my guys, when they work, they, you know, I said, What's that wet stuff on you guys? What is that called? Because, you know, they're like, well, that's sweat. That's what happens when you do physical labor. Huh? I never saw that before. But then the enemy put his plan into motion. And just like today, the enemy uses participants, willing, participants, just like in the garden, remember in the garden that the serpent willingly, see, we don't know how animals were in those days, we don't get a lot of details. But it seems that they had, you know, more, like control over themselves, they may even have been able to speak, we just don't know, we know the serpent spoke, we know that. But, but since the serpent willingly allowed Satan to use him, he was punished to his legs were taken away. And if you look at the bones of a serpent, you can see where they're at one time we're legs there. And so many, many people are willing to be used, our government is full of them. Our government is full of people who have who are willingly being used for evil. Because we know we talk about this a lot, but it's not, they've got enough money, they'll never need money again. You ever look at the charts of how much money they had going into Senate and how much money they have when they left. And it's crazy. They'll go in with like $800,000 and come out with like 30 million. They are just most of them are just crooked people, willingly using themselves for evil. And there was a guy named Judas in those days. And Judas was the same way. He was the keeper of the money, because most of the time, it's bankers who cause trouble in life. I don't want to hear any amen from George or Dane, I don't know what's going on. He's a recovery banker. Okay, George is recovering. But Judas was the keeper of the money. And a trader Judas had given them a prearranged signal. He says, You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss, you know, that tells us Jesus didn't look any different than any other Jew. Matter of fact, in one verse, it even says he wasn't good to look at. So he probably maybe was not even a very good looking Jew said, You will know which one is to arrest when I greet him with a kiss. So Judas came straight to Jesus greeting rabbi, which means teacher, he exclaimed, and he gave him a kiss. See how evil is it has no standards. Evil has nothing but selfishness. Selfishness is the god of evil. Just like abortion, abortion is selfishness above, you know, this murder too, but it's also selfishness. The fact that you don't want your, you don't want your schedule messed up. So you're just going to murder a human being so that you can still have some good time on Friday and Saturday nights and how selfish, especially when there's people just waiting in line for that baby, who would take that baby in a heartbeat. I mean, I know Shelly and I, it's not like we're looking for a baby, but we at one time one needed a home and we jumped right on that and gave her a home, you know, and still talk to her to this day. And, and so there's always people standing in line for babies. And it's amazing the selfishness that the evil has. And here he kisses him, he gives him a kiss, which was something you did to a friend. Greet your brother with a holy kiss, scripture says. But Jesus asked him, Judas, are you betraying the son of man with a kiss? You'd think that would have crushed him. Jesus says, my friend, go ahead, do what you've come for. Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him. So they took him away to be interrogated. Guys, if you've ever came in too late from hunting or something, you guys know how this feels to be interrogated by someone. And the interrogation quickly turned to torture. Guys, you know, if you ever came home late, the interrogation quickly turns to torture. Meanwhile, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. So he's out kind of in the, you know, they had usually had gate walls around the city, then there was a courtyard, and then there was the buildings. And this was the governor's mansion. And so Jesus is up on the upper floors being interrogated and even tortured later. Meanwhile, Peter was sitting outside the courtyard. We know that he was able to see Jesus, maybe not all the time, but at times he was able to see him. So they must have been interrogating him out on the terrace. The servant girl came over and said to him, you were one of those with the Galileans. But Peter denied it in front of everyone. I don't know what you were talking about, he said. Later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to those standing around, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth. Again, Peter denied it, this time with an oath. I don't even know the man, he said. And a little later, some other bystanders came to Peter and said, you must be one of them. He says, we can tell by your Galilean accent. Peter swore a curse on me if I'm lying. I don't know the man, and immediately the rooster crowed. And suddenly Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind. Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times that you even know me. And Luke tells us, said that the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Man, the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord. How he had told him before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. That's what I love about the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They call Matthew, Mark, and Luke the synoptic gospels. Have you ever heard that term, the synoptic gospels? The word synoptic comes from the Greek synopsis, which means, it means you get the story from a lot of different sources. That's what we use in court. You call in the witnesses, and one witness says, I saw two men running out with the handguns at the bank. And then you talk to another witness, and he says, I saw one man running out with a gun, and another witness says, I saw three men running out with a gun. Well, that doesn't mean that any of them lied. It just means that one of the witnesses saw one man, one of the witnesses saw two of the three, and one of the witnesses saw all three. And they put together from the witnesses what the story really is. And since God was using human beings to tell his story, it's great when we get, you know, different views, you know, because I love how Luke shared with us that their eyes met, you know, because that just adds a lot to the story. You know, the fact that you have to look someone in the eye that you just betrayed, and that added a lot. And then Peter left the courtyard weeping bitterly. Have you ever made a mistake so big that you would take it back, you would trade years of your life, if you didn't do that thing, you would actually you would, if you could bargain with God, you'd say, let me redo that. Let me have a redo. Let me control Z, you know, let me do it undo. And let me let me have that time back. If you give me that time back, I will do it right the second time. You know, that's it. And you're so regretful. You just so can't believe you screwed up to that level. That's that's what he's talking about here. Peter left the courtyard weeping bitterly. So maybe those three times that Jesus asked, Do you love me, Peter said the Lord, you know, all things, you know that I love you. And Jesus said, Feed my sheep, maybe that was Jesus, his way of kind of, you know, balancing it out. You know, it could be we don't know, we just have what we have. So John goes on, it takes me this long just to get to the main text. This letter is from John the Elder. I'm writing to Gaius, my dear friend who I love in the truth. Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are healthy in body as you are in and strong in spirit because there are two different things, you know, our bodies are dying every day, our bodies are dying. And my six packets become a you know, a loose dented can, but the bodies are dying while the spirit lives forever, you know, because your spirit is going to live forever, forever and ever somewhere. He said some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. We love the passage, the truth will set you free, but not only will the truth set you free, but the truth just makes everything better. I was listening to Adrian Peterson talking about truth and marriage and how so many times, you know, you think the truth is going to get you in trouble, and then you're going to have to face that interrogation and torture. But the truth always works. In the end, it always works to the best. And he's telling guys, you, you are a man of truth, even when it doesn't seem to be helping you. You're a man of truth. And I so respect that in you. He said, I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth. Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through even though they are strangers to you. Now we would call these people today what evangelists. But when you look at the word evangelist, though, in the Greek, it means someone who shares the gospel, someone the word of gospel is entwined in that word evangelist. And, and so an evangelist would be kind of what we do see in a lot of the Southern churches today. And a lot of the Baptist churches were, I don't know if you guys ever been to a singing, they call them, where they'd have a special music group come, and they would usually be Southern Gospel and they would sing and then they then they'd have an evangelist get up and speak about becoming a Christian. He focused on that. That's what evangelists do. And it's a different word. I know, that's how I was drawn to the Lord. I was working at the time. I had a long drive and my brother threw me a cassette tape. You guys remember cassette tapes out there? Yeah, I have eight track tapes still at home. But, but the tape was of a singing. So there was this group called Witness, Southern Gospel Group, I think they may still be around. And then there was the choir sang that night. And then the preacher preached that night. And I didn't know any of them. I didn't know what they look like. I didn't know any of the politics of the church. I didn't know anything about anybody, except what that what he was preaching on that tape. And he was raised like I was raised, this preacher was, so he knew what it was like to be pulled into that kind of traditional thing. So it was a nice bridge over troubled waters for me. And I listened to that cassette tape. I cannot even count. Every day on the way to work, every day on the way back. And I did that over and over and over. That's why I have such a passion for the ministry of the recording ministry. You know, we have SoundCloud and Jacob's been working with us and getting us on Spotify. And we have, you know, the Facebook and it means so much to me because I was too proud to walk in the doors of a church at that time. But I wasn't too proud to stick a tape in when nobody was watching me. And I even myself did that ministry many years, I made tapes for many years for that same reason. But so anyway, that was an evangelist. Now, the word he used for these travelers is from the same word that witness comes from. Actually, the word martyr, it sounds like the word martyr in the Greek, because what greater witness is there than a martyr, someone who's willing to die for the cause, that's the greatest witness of all. Jesus was called that himself. And so these people probably talked about a lot more than just how to become a Christian, they actually taught the word and taught, you know, the ways of God. And helping those people is a very good thing to do. But first, you have to be diligent, and you got to make sure that they are teaching the truth, because helping someone that's not teaching the truth is not a good thing. Because we are liable for what they teach too, if we support them. So it's a big responsibility. You know, when Bryce and I went to India with Pastor Daniel, he was such a loving man, we both trusted him with everything. But it was still our responsibility to go over there and make sure he was real. Because con men are good at it. That's why they're con men, right? And Daniel told us, he said, a lot of Christian ministries in India and other countries, he said, they'll go around to church services with their cameras and their phones, and they'll take pictures. And then they'll tell you that's their church, and that they're an evangelist. And they'll tell you that's them on that picture. And so people are sending them money thinking that they're doing a good thing. And $25 a month is a common wage there. That's what a like a minimum wage here would be like $25 a month would be in India. If they get four or five churches to send them $25 a month, which a church doesn't even, you know, $25 doesn't seem like much, but to them, that's, and they can make a good living just by going around snapping pictures at church services. So we had to go over there and make sure that we were supporting someone who really was who he said he was. We spent two weeks with him going through villages of all kinds of villages. Two villages had never seen a white person before. Bryce and I were the only two Caucasians they had ever seen. And one man was 86 years old, and we were the first Caucasians he had ever seen. We were like six hours out into nowhere. And Bryce and I made sure we, through translators, told him, now we are good looking Caucasians. We told him, we actually did. We said, so the next time you see Caucasians, they're not going to be as good looking as us, just so you know. Of course, he laughed. He had a good sense of humor. Then he died. No, not really. But he was old, though. If anyone comes to your meeting, he says, he told us this last book, just last week, we went through this. 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 of their evil work. So we are responsible for that. I love the verse we go to a lot. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Bad company corrupts good morals. I'm not even going to make a biker joke about that this time. See how I am? I'm starting to learn. So John reaches out to this faithful believer, Gaius. And he says, they have told the church, they have told the church here, meaning he's writing from another church, of your loving friendship. But you know, isn't it cool how it comes back to you? I think it was Solomon said that like a little bird, you know that you ever hear that expression, a little bird told me that comes from that comes from Solomon. He said, when you tell say something good about someone, or when you say something bad about someone, he said, it's almost like a little bird takes it to them. And you notice that it always comes back to you somehow. I'm gonna tell you I won't tell nobody else. So don't tell anybody else. And that person says, Well, I'm gonna tell you because you're my friend, but I can't tell you don't tell anybody else that everybody does that till it finally gets back. He says that this was a good thing. He says, he said, they told me that you're doing great, please continue providing for such teachers and a man that pleases God, for they are traveling for the Lord. And they accept nothing from people who are not believers. They didn't want any support from someone who wasn't a believer. They would accept support from someone who was a believer, but they wouldn't accept it from someone who wasn't, which I thought was kind of honorable on their cat on their behalf. You know, they were probably as honorable as Joel Osteen is, you know, when he says, show me the money, show me the money. And we have a lot like him now that are into it for the money, they're into it for the career of it, especially if they can land a big, big, rich church. And so and Paul warned us to watch out for the people who do it for gain. He may, the Apostle Paul took support when it was offered, but support usually meant a place to stay and food to eat. It's usually what it meant. But yeah, so he, you know, he says, it's okay to support these guys, just, you know, make sure they're right. You know, a place to eat, at least a place to eat and a place to stay. So but we have to check them out, make sure they're good teachers. He goes on, he said, so we are self support them so that we can be their partner, as they teach the truth. I wrote to the church about this. But Diatrophes, who loves to be a leader, refused to have anything to do with us. So, so Diatrophes, I loved how he said that, who loves to be a leader, you guys, somebody jumped in all your minds, somebody who loves to be in charge, and often is not good at it, right? A troublemaker is what Diatrophes was, he was a troublemaker. He, you know, he, he went away from the original design of the church. Remember, the original design we talked about last week and the week before last, was they would take a team of elders, and they would be a team so that they wouldn't get too full of themselves. So they wouldn't get, you know, cocky, you know, because they're the main guy, and I'm the main boss, you know, they didn't want that. So that's why they took that design from the synagogue worship. But, but now the trouble is starting, you know, the trouble is starting now that he, he's apparently wiggled his way to the top in some way. It reminds me of a story of this guy who's running down the road as fast as he can run. And he jumps into a tavern and slams the door behind him and runs up to the bar and he goes, Hey, I need a drink before the trouble starts. And the guy's like, okay, he pours him a drink real quick. And he goes, looks out the window again, he comes back and he says, I'm going to need another drink before the trouble starts. So the guy pours another drink and he runs to the back of the window and looks both ways and comes back. Okay, I need a third drink before the trouble starts. So he pours him the third drink. And then the guy says, Hey, that's three drinks you've got, you got to pay me. And the guy says, now the trouble starts. It's kind of like that the trouble was starting now. John received bad reports about the diatrophies. And he liked power and control. You guys know the type. Matter of fact, some people have an expression the diatrophies syndrome, which is somebody who likes to have to be in charge. They don't want nobody else to get any credit. These are the kind of people when they run a business or in my case, a department, they don't want backups. See, like it's very responsible to have someone that can back you up at work. If something happens to you, you could get run over by a truck, you never know you could get something, but you've got to have somebody in place. And if something happens to you, that person can step up and take your job. Well, these diatrophies people, we got some at work, too. They don't want anyone to back them up. They don't want to share the glory with anyone. And so they put, they leave themselves in a bad situation. And what's really sad about that, it makes them seem almost more important because you, because everybody knows there's no backup. And so oftentimes they get more money, they get more glory, they get more fame, and they're actually being very irresponsible. And that's where this diatrophies was. Because the original design was a team of elders so that this didn't happen. And so one reason was to keep them humble. And it was obvious he was not humble anymore. They want all the power and they can't handle the power. I couldn't find power, I had to go to the truth. You can't handle the truth. Well, he couldn't handle the power. So now John has to work through other people to try to get this fixed, Gaius and some others. He said, when I come, I will report some of the things that he's doing and the evil accusations he's making against us. So not only is he not helping those traveling teachers, but he's also insulting John. John, you know, when John was at the bottom of the cross, Jesus looked at him and looked at his mother and said, John, behold, your mother. And he looked at his mother and said, mother, behold, your son. I mean, this is, I mean, what an honor for Jesus to want you to take care of his mother. And when he had stepbrothers, you know, James being one of them, but he wanted John to take care of his mother. And she moved in with John and he took care of her from then on. And this guy is actually insulting and making accusations against John. He said, not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church, excommunication kind of thing. This was kind of the beginning of the big organized church that was all about power and all about, it took about four to 500 years before we saw this really peak. We saw it really peak, the abuse of power. We saw it peak in Catholicism, what's now called Catholicism. We saw the crooked politics of it and the making bargains with countries, make us your main religion and we'll build you an orphanage, but you've got to do this and you've got to pay this. And this is kind of the beginning of that. It took quite a while for it to sprout. This guy's out of control. How does a person get this kind of power? Because they're willing to let evil use them. The resolve of evil is alive and well, and not hard to see. It's not hard to see when people allow themselves to be used by evil. And what's really sad, even though a Christian cannot be indwelled with evil, because the Holy Spirit lives in you and he will not share his dwelling with a demon or whatever, but Christians should absolutely be influenced by it. Absolutely get influenced by it. Money and power are usually the way that enemy gets them fired up. But soon it becomes about more than money and power. It becomes about just evil, like the serpent we talked about in Eden, allowing himself to be used. And evil pays them well. But the thing is, God pays too. And they're not going to like the payment they get from God. Even as a Christian who's going to be in heaven, they're going to still have to face their God someday. And there's going to be shame. And there's going to be emptiness in their hands. People who just take the free gift and don't do anything else for God, or even worse, like this guy, do things against him. He says, Dear friend, don't let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God. Now, notice he didn't say, which would have been real easy for him to say, he could have said, those who do good are not God's children, and those who do evil, or those who do good are God's children, and those who do evil are not God's children. That would have been easy for him to say, but he made sure he didn't say that. Because he wasn't talking about their salvation from hell. He was talking about their behavior. And so he's not judging their salvation. He's just saying that they are not seeing God. That's the word he used. The word in the Greek means to see. Matter of fact, I've got the word here. It says the word is hereo. And it means to openly stare at, to discern clearly, to be acquainted with, and to pay heed to. So he's basically saying that Diatrophes isn't seeing, he's not seeing the picture. He's not seeing the plan. He has got pulled away into this power-hungry thing, and he's going to pay for that dearly. But if he has trusted Christ with his eternal life, he's still a Christian. That's why John was careful not to say that he was not. He just said he's not seeing things clearly. I can see clearly now the rain has come, but he couldn't see very good. Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you. That's what the scripture says. What's that mean if you draw away from God? What's that mean then? See, the inverse is true also. If you draw away from God, and you let laziness and evil fill your life, and you don't do anything for him, he's going to pull away from you. You're not going to get the same protection. You're not going to get the same blessing. You're going to get some of his discipline, but you're not going to get anything else if you're too selfish like Diatrophes. This is a common theme in these last three letters that we've listened to, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. The common theme is lazy Christians versus abiding Christians. Fellowship with God versus being out of fellowship with God. And just the same in your families, especially if you have adult children, you'll see that when a child is going through a rough time, and where they're not being very good, not being very faithful to you, you'll see a lack of fellowship. You'll see not desiring to do things with one when you desire to do things. You love them both equally. You'd die for all of them. But you'll see that the ones who are more faithful to you are the ones you desire more to bless. You see that in your own families, your parents, your kids, your siblings. He goes on to say that he knows that Gaius has some help. He says, Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as does truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth. I love this passage in Ecclesiastes. It says, Two are better than one. I love the teamwork thing. For if one falls, the other is there. Two can keep warm when the nights are cold. Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. So talking about this teaming up with other Christians, you know, even two people can do some great things together. But you bring a third one in, and then now you're even stronger, and a fourth one, you're yet even stronger. The rope just keeps getting stronger all the time. It's crazy. Now John wants Gaius to work with Demetrius, and he wants everyone to stay humble, and everyone to work for the same thing, because power corrupts. Lord Acton, and the first time I heard this was from Ronald Reagan, he was quoting Lord Acton. He said, All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So true. You know, all power, it's hard to not let it corrupt you. But when you have total power, that's why you get attitudes from people who are in total power jobs, jobs where they have total power. I talked to the police chief, it was a couple of chiefs ago, and he told me, he says, You know, when I hire an officer, he says, They always treat me good. He says, They're polite, they're respectful. He says, But when they go out there on the street, I don't know what they're going to do. He said, A lot of times they get, they let that power get to them. And they push people around, and they, they know the person doesn't know the codes like they do. And so they'll play the codes against people, they'll tell them things that aren't even true. You ever watch cops, you'll see that all the time. And he said, It's a tough thing for us as police, as a police chief. He said, It's hard because, you know, we, but now they're doing more and more of the body cams and more of the cameras. So it's getting better for them now. And some of them are just awesome. You know, they're in it for the right reasons. He said, I have much more to say to you. He said, But I don't want to write it with a pen and ink, for I hope to see you soon. And then we will face, we will talk face to face. Again, talked about, he said the same thing, last letter, always better to solve problems face to face, even among friends, and especially in marriages. It's really because men and women are different, right? You know, I know it's a tough thing for today, but they're different. You know, I saw a guy the other day was showing, he showed a chart and it had a circle and he said, women have two sides to their brain. He said, he said that there's the right side and the left side. And he says, on the left side, there ain't nothing right. And he says, on the right side, there ain't nothing left. You find that true, Sally? No. But anyway, peace be with you. He says, your friends here send you their greetings. Please give my personal greetings to each of our friends there. Peace, peace be with you. So you see, there's trouble church, it didn't take long for evil to get its way into the church. It didn't take long for laziness to get its way into the church. People who are just willing to sit back and watch everybody else do all the work. It didn't take long for that to happen. I mean, this church is brand spanking new. I mean, it is new. It's like less than 50 years old. And already, they're having trouble with people using it like it's a club or something. But yeah, so we are going to stop there. Next week, if you remember, we will be going into