the the the the the the the Good morning. Welcome to Community Presbyterian Church on this beautiful Lord's Day. We offer our welcome to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the head of the church. If you're a visitor, you're most warmly welcome and we would encourage you to take out that welcome card you see in front of you if you're visiting and fill that out and you can Let us get to know you a little bit better today. Drop that in the offering plate as it goes by. If you would take out your bulletin and turn to the back, you'll see we have a number of announcements. And I need to go through just a few of them, partly because I messed up on a bunch in their information. So I want to make sure we have that corrected. One, I neglected to mention that it's our monthly prayer meeting. That's Wednesday at 7 o'clock here at the church. meet to intercede for the needs of our church, our community. So please mark that one down. We have our hymn sing tonight at 545. And you also note there's a notice about the kickoff of our women's ministry. And there's a beautiful insert that gives you information about that. So if you are a woman in our church and you would like to strengthen relationships, friendships with other women in the church, or you just want to have this one-time hangout and have some good food at the Jacksons, please go and you can hear more about this ministry. Maybe during fellowship time, Mary or Jennifer or one of the other women on the leadership team can give you information about that. After our service, we're going to meet outside for our fellowship time today, enjoy the beautiful weather. And out there on the table will be the sign up for our so long summer outreach event. We really could use more people signing up to serve food, to lead children's games, just to talk to neighbors, so please note that. And then finally, after our time outside, we're going to come back in. You'll notice that the session is calling a congregational meeting for September 4th. That's Wednesday at 7 o'clock. If you are a member of this church, the session is calling you to meet at that time. And we're going to let you know what that's about after the fellowship time, just to give you a heads up. The owners of the house directly to my left, right here on Richland Avenue, are putting their house up on the market and have approached the church to see if we would like to purchase it before they put it on the market. And so the trustees have met and discussed that. We want to present to you the idea and the plans that we have for that. So that's after our fellowship time, come back in, and you can hear all about that. Well, with those announcements behind us, let's stand for our call to worship. Call to worship is found in your bulletin from Psalm 96, which reminds us what we are here to do is to praise the Lord, our God, our maker, and our king. Let's exhort one another with this call to worship. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song. Let Israel be glad in his maker. Let us pray. Almighty God, you have brought us safely through another week to this place of rest and refuge, of holiness, a place of blessing, a place of worship. Would you fit us for the tasks that you're calling us to today by your Holy Spirit? Make us those who are ready and willing to receive from you all the wonderful things that you have in store for us. that we would be ready to go out into a new week, reminded of our identity in Christ, ready to serve you and proclaim the good news of the gospel. We ask that you would aid us to that end in our time together in worship. We ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen. People of God, your God greets you, saying grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied to you from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. If you're able, remain standing and we'll turn to number 96, setting of the psalm which we heard in our call to worship. Sing to the Lord, sing his praise, all you peoples. Number 96. Sing to the Lord, sing his praise, all you peoples. New be your song, as new honors you may. Sing of his majesty, bless him forever. Show his salvation from day to day. Tell of his wondrous works, tell of his glory, till through the nations his name is revered. Praise and exalt him, for he is almighty. God over all, let the Lord be glorified. They ignore the heathen gods, idols, and helpless. God made the heavens, and his glory they tell. Honor and majesty shine out before him. Beauty and strength in his temple dwell. Give unto God most high glory and honor. ♪ Come with your offerings and humbly draw near ♪ ♪ In holy beauty now worship Jehovah ♪ ♪ Tremble before him with godly fear ♪ ♪ Make all the nations know God reigns forever ♪ Earth is established as he did decree. Righteous and just is the king of the nations, judging of people and witty. Let heaven and earth be glad waves of the ocean, forest and field exultation. God is coming, the judge of the nations, coming to judge in his righteousness. Amen. Please be seated. The king of the nations who judges in righteousness and in equity has given us his law that we would be proper citizens of this kingdom. And so that's why every week we come to hear God's law, to hear his commands, his imperatives for how we are to live as children of the king. Today we hear them from Deuteronomy chapter 5. This is the word of God. God said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey, any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. Well, brothers and sisters, how are we doing with these things? As you hear God's voice today, as it is proclaimed through the reading of his law, do not let your hearts be hardened. Do not become calloused to the Spirit's conviction. The Spirit works through the reading of God's law to convict us of our sin, but also to draw us to Christ, the one who has perfectly fulfilled that law, the one who is eager, willing, able, ready to give us his righteousness if we confess our sins and ask for his mercy. And so we want to do that now, recognizing where we have fallen short, asking for God's forgiveness and trusting that he will give it to us in Christ. Let's first confess our sins silently, and then we'll join together with the prayer found on page one in your liturgies. Let's pray. Let us confess our sins together, saying, have mercy on us, O God. According to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out our transgressions. Wash away all our iniquity and cleanse us from our sin. Against you, you only, have we sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Wash us that we may be whiter than snow. For a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Restore us to fellowship that we may walk in the full assurance of your promises and in the freedom of knowing that you care for us. and have brought us to yourself by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose strong name we pray. Amen. Indeed, the name of our Savior is strong and mighty as we Heard already from our reading of the law, God has saved his people with a mighty arm, with an outstretched hand, and that is revealed perfectly to us in the strength of our Savior who, once he takes a hold of us, never lets us go. Here are these words of assurance for those who are looking to the Savior in faith. From John chapter 6, Jesus says, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." These are not beautiful words of gospel assurance, that once we are Christ, we are always Christ. Once we belong to our Savior, we can never be taken from him. Friends, if you are looking to Jesus today in faith, If you're abhorring yourself and your own merits and your own righteousness, but you're pleading the merits and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, this verse is true for you, that he has you and he will never let you go. And so I can declare to you as a minister of his word, by the authority of his gospel, that you have the forgiveness of sins and you are no longer under the condemnation of God's law. Amen. We respond together saying, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. before all time and now and forever. Amen. Let's stand as we continue to praise God with our hymn of the month, our anniversary hymn, Unless the Lord. Let's stand to sing. Unless the Lord builds up the house, the labor's built in vain. And lest He keep the evil out, no city could be saved. We look in hope to you, O Lord, the triune God of grace. Grant us that fruit which stems from you. Bless and build this place. Great God of faithfulness and power, we bow before your sway. Come place your church upon your word, and work in us today. Unless the Father sent below The Son who pleased Him well Our wills could be enslaved to sin Condemning us to hell But in the freedom won by Christ Purposed by Your love We now aspire, O God, to do was done above. Great God of faithfulness and power, we bow before your sway. Come fix your church upon your word, and work in us today. Unless the sun had borne the upon the cross. The curse would do our guilty souls to suffer shameful loss. Since you've shed your blood, O Christ, and interposed to save, the guilty is gone, the shame removed, and conquered is the grave. Great God of faithfulness and power, we bow before your sway. Come fix your church upon your word and work in us today. Unless the Spirit brings to life the work of fallen men, our righteousness's filthy rights polluted through its sin. So hear us, Spirit, give the growth and bid the harvest come. Stir in our midst a fruitful work and set our hearts on home. Great God of faithfulness and power, we bow before your sway. Come fix your church upon your word and work in us today. As we go to God in prayer, a couple of things to keep in mind. I want to continue to pray for our sister, Megan Muhlenberg, and for quick healing for her knee injury, which we mentioned last week. Continued prayer also for the Vanderband family. So glad they're with us again today. But still in much pain and it's slow going in terms of recovering from that horrific car accident the other week. So keep praying for the Vanderband family. And then a matter of serious praise. Today, if you haven't noticed, is the first day the Germans are with us. So wonderful, what an answer to prayer. If you think about it, we've been praying for this for months, pretty much since November or December. But what a wonderful thing that God has known about this event since before the foundations of the world, that he would bring this family to our midst to minister with us, alongside us. We hope to do the same to them, minister to them. So please welcome the Germans after the service. Make them feel at home. Indeed, this is their home. And we're so glad that God has brought them here. Let's go to God now in prayer. Oh God, our mighty God, the heavens and the earth proclaim your praise and your wonders. Just as we come today to proclaim and praise your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones, those who have been called out, the church. You're worthy of our praise for who is like you. Who in the skies can be compared to You, O Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord? A God who is greatly to be feared in the counsel of the heavenly beings. A God who is awesome above all who are around Him. O Lord God, You are the God of hosts, the God of the armies of heaven, our warrior, our king. Who is mighty like You, O Lord? with faithfulness surrounding you, a God who has created the world and sustains it. You rule the raging of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them with a single word. The heavens are yours. The earth is yours. The world and all that is in it, you have founded them. You keep them. North to south, you have created them. You have a mighty arm, strong as your hand. Lord, as we We're so blessed to hear from John chapter 6, the words of our Savior, that your mighty arm and your strong hand find expression in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come to us to rescue us, to save us from our sin, to keep us from the world and the flesh and the devil, to keep us from falling away, Lord, you are greater than all things, mightier than all things, you are above all things, holy or set apart from all things, and yet you still come to us in your Son. And so righteousness and justice and mercy and love and faithfulness all meet in the gospel. So we know we are a blessed people. Those people who know the festal shout, those people who come today to sing your praise, who walk in the light of your countenance, who exalt in your name all the day long. For your glory is our strength. Your favor is our life. Our shield, our security, our protection belongs to the Lord. We thank you that you, oh God, King of all, are our King in Christ Jesus. We are your people. That gives us great confidence as we come today, as we lift up before you the needs of our church. What a waste of time, oh no, waste of breath it would be to pray to an idol, to pray to an impotent God, but you, are the true God, the true and living God, the omnipotent God, who hears us, not only hears us, but grants us the request that we bring to you in accordance with your will and your word. In the name of our Savior, Lord, we do pray that you would be with our church. We're asking, Lord, for you to bless our upcoming ministries as the fall is just around the corner and our regular Programs begin again, we ask for fruit and for blessing through them. For our Sunday school as it begins mid-September, we ask that that would be an edifying time for the children, for the adults as well, for the teachers, Lord, we ask that you would prepare them for that. We thank you for their time, their service that they give to Christian education in the house of God. For Bible studies that will begin. Lord, we pray that they would be well attended and people would find the time and make an effort to grow in relationships with others through these more intimate settings and grow, more importantly, in their relationship with you as we use these events to allow the Word of Christ to dwell richly within us. We pray for our outreach event just around the corner, less than two weeks away. We pray for our so long summer. Lord, we're grateful that we can do this event again as we had a great, by your grace, a great turnout last year. We pray for our servant hearts ready to give up a few hours on Friday evening to come and to meet their neighbors. Lord, we want to be a light in this community where you have called us, which you have placed us in. So we pray for a willingness, a readiness to serve you and to serve others in that way. And so, Lord, we ask for the help that we need to be met, for the volunteers we need. They would be abundant, Lord. And that this would be a means not only of getting to know our neighbors better, but also, Lord, of bringing your children who perhaps do not even know it yet, your lost sheep into your fold. To that end, Lord, we do pray for the Jerramin family, for Marcus in particular, as he will head up our outreach efforts beginning this fall and throughout the year to come. We pray that you'd give him everything he stands in need of, Lord, and that he would be a good servant and a good leader for our church as we seek to be outward facing. And we pray for the whole family, Lord. We're so grateful that they can be with us. We ask that you would bless them as they get settled into their home. No doubt we'll take some time to get used to, but we pray that the love and the welcome that they receive from us would cause any hiccups or issues along the way to go smoothly. We pray, Lord, that you would bless this family, bless Marcus and Sharon Ruth. Bless all the kids, bless Levi and Susie and Annalise and Gracie, Lord, that they would feel at home in this congregation, that they would make friends, Lord, and that they would grow, not just only in stature, but in wisdom and in every grace. Lord, we lift up the health concerns of Several of our members, we pray for Megan. We do ask, Lord, that she would not need to have any surgery or any kind of physical therapy, anything like that, but could recover on her own from the injury she sustained to her knee. We thank you that Jackie Vedders is doing better and that she can be with us again. And we ask you to remove all pain and discomfort from her recent knee surgery. Lord, we lift up to you the Vanderbilt family in particular, Tom and Marlene having a hard time getting back to the normal swing of things. And in pain and in discomfort, we pray for your mercy upon them and your healing hand. You are the good physician, so we plead for you, Lord, to be merciful to them. And as they deal with a lot of stresses as far as insurance and finding new vehicles, Lord, give them everything they need. Help them to trust you, though, in this time where they are lacking the things that they normally have, good health and enough cars at home and things like that. Would they be reminded that you are the all in all and that they do have you? What do we pray for? Melissa Bacus. And we ask that you would keep her in good health and that her baby girl would be growing healthily and We long and eagerly await the day when we can meet her face to face. And so give Melissa a healthy pregnancy, we do pray. Continue to lift up the needs of those who are related to us in various ways. Be with Sue's parents, Lord, and their declining health and their struggles. For Rod's mother, we're thankful that she's recovering well. Be with his grandmother, who also suffered a fall the other week and is recovering from that. We pray for Perry's brother, Rick, continued to plead for you to melt his heart. And in this time of physical difficulty, he would look to you, oh God. We pray for those who will be heading back to school or perhaps already have. We ask that this would be a productive year. We pray in particular for Bethany Post, who has moved up to Grand Rapids this past week. We're thankful for a safe, smooth move for her. We pray that you would grant her success in this new endeavor. We pray for our teachers and pray for Sarah and Nate and Sue and others who will be returning to the classroom and for all our students, Lord, that they would glorify you in the classroom. We do pray. Lord, we're grateful that we can bring the needs of our church and know that you do hear us because we do not come in and of ourselves, but we bring them to you in the name of Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church. who is glorified through his church, and so we know you will do all things well through him. Indeed, we pray these things in his name, even as he taught us to pray, saying, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Scripture tells us that the Lord loves the cheerful giver. So let us now give cheerfully to the cause of the church. Let's pray. Lord, no one has ever given a gift to you that you should repay us. Indeed, we are always in your debt. We are debtors to your mercy, Lord. And so you demand for us more than our monies. You demand our very lives, that we would offer them up as a living sacrifice. We ask that you would receive, though, these monetary gifts as an act of that kind of self-giving to you, Lord, that you would receive these gifts as a means of our worship and our devotion to you for all that you've done for us. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen. Before our scripture reading, we have our hymn of preparation. You just heard it played through during the operatory. Let's stand and sing together. Number 523, Oh God, my faithful God. O God, my faithful God, true fountain ever flowing, without whom nothing is, all perfect gifts bestowing. Give me a healthy frame And may I have within A conscience free from blame A soul unstained by sin Give me the strength to do With ready heart and willing Whatever you command, my calling here fulfilling. To do it when I ought, with all my strength and bless. Whatever I have wrought, for you must give success. keep me from saying words that later need recalling. Our needless idle speech may from my lips be falling, but when within my place I must and ought to speak, To my words give grace, lest I offend the weak. When dangers gather round, O keep me calm and fearless. Help me to bear the cross When life seems dark and cheerless Help me as you have taught To love both great and small And by your Spirit's light To live at peace with all Let us pray. Father, as we open up your word, we plead with you that you would sanctify us in the truth. Your word is truth. So reveal your word to us, Lord. By the Holy Spirit would we see truth incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, will we come to know him, greater and to love Him more fully and to serve Him more earnestly. We pray for His sake. Amen. You may be seated. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to 3 John, another error that needs correcting in the bulletin. We are completing our series today, but we do not begin Exodus next week. Next week, we have the pleasure of hearing from our new Minister of Outreach, who will be preaching in our morning service. So, September 8th, I believe, is when we begin Exodus. But for today, we complete our 15-part series looking at these letters from the Apostle John. Brief letter today. In fact, the shortest book of the New Testament. So, I trust you'll be able to give your undivided attention as we read these inspired words. The Elder, to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, for they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. And also, he stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil. but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God, whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. And we also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace be to you, the friends greet you, greet the friends each by name. Thus far the reading of God's holy and truthful word. We're arriving at the final installment of John's letters. As I said, the shortest letter in the New Testament. It's also the most personal correspondence from John. The most personal of these three letters. You remember last time, while it seemed that John might have been writing to an individual, the elect lady, we said that that was a personification for a church. He was writing to a congregation. Whereas here, he is writing to an individual, namely Gaius. He's writing to Gaius about two other individuals, Diotrephes and Demetrius. One he condemns, the other he commends. So there's a distinction between 2 John, 3 John. 2 John written to a group, 3 John written to an individual. Another distinction is their emphasis. It's their emphasis in the previous letter John warned the church not to extend hospitality to false teachers people coming to the church Proclaiming to be Christians proclaiming to be true missionaries and yet we're spreading falsehood where we're planting seeds of discord He said don't have anything to do with them Don't show them hospitality. Here we have the inverse. Here he encourages and implores hospitality to be shown to true teachers, to true Orthodox missionaries, laborers of the gospel. So the positive teaching of 3rd John finds its complement in the negative teaching of 2nd John. Or we could put it like this. While the emphasis in 2nd John was on the truth, the emphasis in 3rd John is on love. And we said last time, you cannot separate the two. You cannot separate truth from love. But it's just the way in which he highlights, the way in which he emphasizes these themes. In 2 John, it's about having nothing to do with falsehood. It's about promoting the truth. Defending the truth. Dying for the truth, even. Here, though, the emphasis is on the need for us to extend love to those who are united to us in the truth. And so to that end, let's consider the three people that John addresses to make this message clear. First, there's Gaius. And as we look at Gaius, we want to consider him as the fellow worker. We have Gaius, the fellow worker. Gaius is one of the most common names in the ancient Greco-Roman world, so we're not going to try to figure out if he might be one of the other three Gaiuses who are mentioned in the New Testament. We can't know for sure what we can be pretty certain of, is that he is a leader, or perhaps a pastor, or maybe even more closely, he's the host of a particular congregation that John's writing to. He's well loved by John, they get along well, as you can see that from the way in which John refers to him four times at least as beloved. Beloved Gaius in verse 2, Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you. In verse 5, Beloved, it's a faithful thing. Verse 11, Beloved, do not imitate evil. They know each other well. You can pick that up also from verse 15 when he says, Greet the friends each by name. They have a relationship. John begins his letter with a fairly standard epistolary greeting, verse 2. I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health. We still use that today, right? How many times do you receive an email that begins, you know, dear so and so, I hope this email finds you well, right? That's essentially what he's doing here. But he adds to that concern not just for his physical well-being, but for his spiritual well-being, right? that you might be in good health, as it also goes well with your soul." You see, friends, true Christians care for the body and for the soul, and they never separate the two. We don't care for the body at the expense of the soul, nor the soul at the expense of the body. Here's this holistic display of care for Gaius. But he quickly moves on, because John is pretty certain that things are going well for Gaius. body and soul because he's received a report from him. Not a report, a report about him from other missionaries. You see that in verses 3 and 4. I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. This is proof that Gaius is doing well. Gaius as an individual minister, and Gaius and his ministry are marked by keeping in step with the truth. And look at verse 4. How does this make John feel? He says, I have no greater joy. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Gaius is his child in the faith. Gaius is the one that he has nurtured and brought up in the ways of the Lord. And to hear that he is sticking with that way, he is on the straight and narrow, that brings John, the apostle, the teacher, the mentor, joy. Just as any parents here know, that there really is no greater joy than to hear that your children, whom you nurture, whom you raise up, are walking with the Lord. We know as parents, we screw up so many things. And we know as parents that our kids screw up a lot of things too. But when the grace of the Lord breaks down all of that, and works through all of that, and keeps on to our children, despite our sin besides, despite their sin, And the Lord holds them in His grace. There really is no greater joy. We know that as parents. And John has that same feeling as a mentor, as a teacher to Gaius. He stays in the truth. He commends him for that. But as I said, the focus in this letter is not so much on the truth as it is on the love. And so where he really commends, where he kind of hones in his commendation for Gaius, is in the ways in which this truth has led to displays of love. Look at verses 5 through 8. First verse 5, Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all of your efforts, for these brothers, strangers as they are, verse six, who testified to your love before the church. There are two things that Gaius has done that John wants to encourage and compliment and commend. First, he has shown Philadelphia, right? You know that word? He has shown love to the brothers. Philo is Greek for love. Delphus, brother. Philadelphia, brotherly love. That's the first thing. All of your efforts for these brothers. But then secondly, he's also shown philoxenia. You've heard maybe perhaps xenophobia, right? Fear of the stranger, fear of the other, fear of the unknown. But here he has love for the stranger, love for those whom he does not know. So look what he says in verse five, all of your efforts to the brothers, Philadelphia, and they are also strangers, Philosinia. Two things that he commends him for. But what's interesting is that while there are two different types of love, they're received by one in the same group. These brothers and these strangers are the same people. These missionaries, missionaries that John says have been sent out, in verse seven, for the sake of the name. These missionaries that don't know Gaius, do not know his church from Adam, and yet they knock on the door, and they are welcomed in. They're received like they are family. Even though they're strangers, they're welcomed as though they are brothers. Now, if this, friends, if this is not one of the most practical appeals to the Christian faith, I don't know what is. It's only in Christianity where you can take a stranger and they become a brother. Someone who is a stranger to you at the same time is your sibling, right? Not a friend, not just a friend, but part of your family. That's the power of the gospel, isn't it? When somebody who is a stranger to us, but is not a stranger to God, but rather has been bought by the blood of His Son, has been brought near by the power of the Holy Spirit, and has been united to the Son of God, just as we are united to the Son of God, that means that any kind of barriers, any kind of distance, any kind of foreignness that we would otherwise have, that's all removed when you're a Christian. And somebody who is otherwise a stranger becomes a sibling. Yeah, we might not know them, but we know their savior. We know their savior because he's our savior too. We know their elder brother. We are heirs of the same heavenly family. We are siblings. This creates an immediate bond that is really comparable to nothing else in this world. If you've ever Maybe you've been traveling, you're out of town, so you visit a new church. If you've ever experienced the hospitality of a church on some Sunday, they don't know you, they welcome you, and they treat you like they're family. They have you over for lunch afterwards. If you've perhaps ever spent any time in the mission field, short-term, long-term, and you meet these people of a completely different culture, and yet you're united immediately by the bonds of your faith. Or if you've ever bumped into somebody, let's say, on an airplane, you find out they're a Christian. The conversation changes completely. You know what I'm talking about if this has ever happened to you. That way in which strangers become family, there's nothing else in this world that can offer that. That's only the gospel. That's only the gospel. And so friends, it is truly to our shame when in our very own Christian circles, in our own congregation, people who belong to the Christian community feel like strangers and not siblings. We need to ensure that all who are united to Christ, all who are within our reach here, feel as though they are brothers, feel as though they are sisters. And then that's something that we can go and offer the world. A world that is so desperately lonely, so sickeningly isolated, we can offer them something beautiful. A gift from heaven. And we can welcome them into this community, into this family, out of their loneliness. Because it's only in the Christian world where a stranger is a brother. And this reality demands something of us. You see it in verse 8. Verse 8. Or because of this fact, we ought to support people like these, that we could be fellow workers for the truth. John's saying, since we're united in Christ, since we're siblings with them, we need to support them. This is actually, it's a further layer of our connection with them. Now we're not only siblings, now we're fellow workers, he says. We're partners with them in ministry when we support them, when we encourage them. Not all of us can be missionaries. Not all of us can be pastors or preachers or teachers and not all of us are supposed to be these things. But we're all meant to come alongside such people. We're all meant to come along and support such people. William Barclay writes this, it is not everyone who can be, so to speak, on the front lines of ministry. But every man and woman, by supporting those who are on the front lines, can make themselves an ally of the truth. That's what we must be after, to be allies of the truth. We need to support them. Verse 8, we ought to support people like these. What is the support that John is referring to? Well, specifically, he is talking about hospitality. It's an important theme that comes up again and again in this tiny little letter. He's talking about hospitality, welcoming them into your home. Okay, so in our current context, we don't really often have missionaries who, you know, are traveling on foot and they go door to door and they say, you know, I'm a missionary and I'm trying to get from here to there. Could you take me in? Could you give me a meal? Could I sleep here tonight? That's not really our context. But that doesn't mean that there aren't ways in which we can show hospitality to people in the ministry. means more than having somebody over for dinner, doesn't it? Hospitality is not just regulated to the home. Hospitality begins in the heart before it ever gets in the home. That's what we need to understand. Something that we take with us wherever we go. It's meant to be a way of life. Rosario Butterfield says this very succinct definition of hospitality. She says, hospitality shares whatever there is. and nothing more. That's hospitality. It's sharing. Sharing yourself. It's sharing your time, your monies, perhaps your home, perhaps your food, but it doesn't have to be regulated to those things. And it can cost us something. In fact, it should cost us something. It might cost us being comfortable. We become uncomfortable in order to make somebody else comfortable. Or we displace ourselves in order to make others feel that they have a place. So you need to be asking yourselves, and today's a good a day as any, what are ways in which I, me, where God has placed me and the gifts he's given me, what are ways in which I can come alongside those people who are on the front lines of ministry? What are ways in which I can come alongside and support and become an ally of the truth with other gospel ministers and ministries? You know, we've got a new frontline worker with us today. Be asking yourself, what are ways I can show hospitality to the Jerramin family? What are ways I can come alongside and support them? And I know that they would say they already are feeling much support, much hospitality. But we have gospel workers, we have people in our lives who John says we must support. And Gaius does this well, and so he's commended. But John writes this letter for more reasons than just commending Gaius. He also wants to warn Gaius about this deatrophy. So we've had Gaius, the fellow worker, then we have deatrophies. And we can say he is the major problem. That's the second thing. Deatrophies, the major problem. Diotrephes is likely a leader or a host or a pastor of a neighboring church, a church that Gaius is familiar with. That's why John is warning him about him. He says, don't be like that guy over there that, you know, the church that meets down the street. Because he's a major problem. What is the problem with Diotrephes? It's surprising that in just two verses, verse 9 and 10, John gives five reasons, five reasons. why Diotrephes is a major problem. Let's look at them in turn. First, he's selfish. That's the first thing. He's selfish. I've written something to the church, but Diotrephes, quote, who likes to put himself first. Whereas Gaius displayed Philadelphia, love for the brothers, and Philosinia, love for strangers. Here, the word is literally philoprotuon. Philo, you got that love word, and then protuon, you know what it means? First place, preeminence. But deiotrophes, who is in love with being first, is how we could translate it. It's the opposite of Paul's command in Philippians, isn't it? Chapter 2. where he says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Don't take the first place. It's sad that this pastor of a church shares one of the primary marks of a world lost in sin, and that is self-centeredness. James Montgomery Boyce says this, the unbeliever naturally puts himself first. Others second, and then God last. That's the order for the unbeliever. Me, others, and then God, if he even makes the list. And he thinks he merits that order, Boyce says. But the Bible teaches that we should reverse the series. God is first, others must be second, and we are last of all. Theatrophies, though, is marked by this philo-protoan, this love of the first place. But Colossians 1.18, it's the only other place in Scripture where we get this word protoan. And who's it referring to? Jesus Christ. That in all things, Colossians 1.18, He might be preeminent. He might have the first place. And so it is a major problem when a minister whose job, whose primary task is to point people to the preeminence of Christ is instead pointing people to the preeminence of himself. That's his first problem. Second, he's not submissive. He's selfish and he's not submissive. The end of verse nine, he does not acknowledge our authority. John says he refuses to acknowledge the authority of the apostles or the emissaries that they send. That's why you look at the beginning of verse nine. I've written something to the church. It seems like there was a previous letter that got shredded. Deutrophy's got it. He says, well, I don't need to listen to John. He tosses it in the garbage. How does he justify his action? Well, he denies the authority that is inherent within the apostolic office. You know, we all have a boss, right? Everybody has a boss. It doesn't matter how high up you climb the ladder, everyone has a boss. Same is true in ministry. And so for Deutrophis to reject the authority of the apostles is tantamount to him rejecting the authority of God who ordained those men to that office. He doesn't submit. Third, he slanders. Verse 10. I will bring up what he is doing, John says, talking wicked nonsense against us. You see, it's not enough for Deotrophes to reject the apostles himself. He needs to go and get other people to reject them. He's got to go and spread rumors. He has to put them down in the hearing of others. What we have here is kingdom building. And Diotrephes is the king, and he's putting down any threat or perceived threat to his throne. And look at the way, friends, this is very serious. Look at the way that John describes this behavior. What kind of nonsense is it? Wicked. It's wicked nonsense. This is a word that belongs for descriptions of Satan and the kingdom of sin, the reign of sin in this world. And here John uses it to describe the ministry of a pastor. It's to his shame. It goes on, fourth thing, Deuteronomy is inhospitable. So he's selfish, he doesn't submit, he's slanders, he's inhospitable. Verse 10, and not content with that, that is, not content with slander, he refuses to welcome the brothers. It's the opposite of Gaius' commendable behavior. He does not take missionaries in who are in need. He does not welcome people sent by the apostles, likely because He's afraid that they're going to detract from His own position in the church. Oh, they're going to start listening to them. They're going to, you know, appreciate them, and then I'm going to recede in importance. But yet here we come again in this short letter to the theme of hospitality. And I think maybe this is a bigger deal than perhaps we give give credit. It's a bigger deal than we often think it is. Because we might excuse hospitality as being a negotiable aspect of the Christian life. Do you know what I mean? I mean, we do this with other things too, but here we're talking about hospitality, where we say, Well, I don't have that spiritual gift of hospitality, so I don't need, therefore, to be hospitable. We leave that to other people. We have all kinds of excuses. I'm a terrible cook. Nobody would want to come over anyway. Or I have a messy house. I'm too busy. Or I'm too shy. I'm too introverted. And we excuse these things, and we expect others to do them. But I want you to notice that it's not only here, but that nearly every other major author in the New Testament speaks of hospitality and speaks of it as a command, an imperative that we must obey as we are belonging to Christ. Look at Romans 12. Turn there, please. Romans chapter 12, verse 13. We're going to flip through to a few passages. Romans 12, 13. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. These aren't two different commands. The one fulfills the other. How might you contribute to the needs of the saints, the needs of fellow Christians? By seeking and therefore showing hospitality. It's a command. It's how you contribute to the needy. Flip over to Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 2. Hebrews 13 verse 2. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. That's a command. Do not neglect. Do not avoid. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. We talked already about how strangers can be brothers and sisters in the faith here. It's kind of like the author of Hebrews is up the ante. Well, they could actually, these strangers could be messengers from God himself. So do not neglect to show hospitality. Finally, one other verse from 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4, this one's very important. 1 Peter 4 verse 9. 1 Peter 4 and verse 9. Show hospitality to one another. Okay. So I have to show hospitality. The verse doesn't end there though, does it? As a qualifier. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. And that means if you go out this week and you're like, well, pastor said I need to be hospitable. So I'm going to invite somebody over. I'm going to do such and such a thing, but I don't really want to. Well, you've missed the point. The command is not just to be hospitable. It's to do it with joy. It's to do it with love because you are serving your King. And when we serve our King, that does bring us the greatest joy imaginable. So friends, this is not a take it or leave it matter. It's a do it matter. It really is. And certainly, it does come more easily to some than to others. And if you are one of those people for whom hospitality is difficult, let me offer just a few suggestions. First, know that it's not going to get any easier the longer you wait. But if you are in a position to have people over to your home, why don't you try to make it a name that you'll have somebody over once a month. I mean, that's 12 times a year that you would have somebody over. That's not too daunting. Or maybe you're not in a position. You don't cook. Or your house isn't fit for having people over. You can take people out to lunch. Make a list of people you want to know better, you want to check in on. Ask them for coffee or lunch a few times. Maybe do that once a month instead. Or here's something that's even easier. Why don't you make a list of people that you want to check in on, and you just text them. Pick somebody else once a day. That is real easy. How are you doing today? Is there ways I can be praying for you? This is all aspects of hospitality. There's so many ways to be hospitable. September 6th, out on the lawn, serving hot dogs and hamburgers to our neighbors. That's a way to show hospitality. or leading the kids games or just meeting folks in the neighborhood. That's a way to show hospitality. It doesn't mean that you need to clean up your house or prepare a meal on your own. So many ways that we can be hospitable. We need to be thinking about how we can fulfill this calling, friends, because as we've seen from 3 John, to be inhospitable is to be Problem for the church. Well, there's one more issue with the atrophies and it is that he is a bully Did you pick that up? He's a bully The end of verse 10 not content with that He refuses to welcome the brothers and he also stops those who want to welcome the brothers and he puts them out of the church He restricts his church from showing hospitality And it says that he threatens or he puts them out of the church. We call that excommunication. That's the bully tactic here. If you're going to welcome these people, then you can leave. We're going to kick you out. Church excommunication is a serious matter, but it's been given by Christ to protect his church and to bless his church. And here, Deotrephes is using it to bully his church. Matthew Henry says, church power is often abused. Many are cast out of the church who should be received there with welcome, but woe to those who cast out the brethren whom the Lord Christ will take into his own communion and to his own kingdom. You know what unsettles me about 3 John? What unsettles me about this book is how close to home it hits. Right here we have the Apostle John picking up his pen to denounce the behavior in the ministry of a Christian pastor in the strongest terms imaginable. And he doesn't once mention anything like heresy, apostasy, false teaching, heterodoxy. He mentions being selfish. He mentions speaking poorly of others. He mentions being inhospitable. Whereas 1st and 2nd John, he condemns things like denying that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, here we don't have any of that. And whereas I might not have an inclination to deny the deity of Jesus or the incarnation of Jesus, I do have an inclination to be selfish. I do have an inclination to love the first place, like Deuteronomy. or to put others down who would try to go against me. I mean, aren't these the kinds of down-to-earth sins that we all struggle with, that we all have within ourselves, the kind of sins that can, if they're fed and if they're nurtured, would blossom into the kind of problem that deatrophies is causing for the church? John Newton once said that he's heard of many evil popes, but no pope so evil as the pope self. We all have within us the seedling of these kinds of sins, these down-to-earth sins that can make a shipwreck of our faith. And friends, that's why it's such a wonderful thing to know that we have a Savior who literally came down to earth and died for down-to-earth kinds of sins, not just the kind of sins that make headlines, but sins like being selfish, sins like gossip and slander. Sins like being a bully. Those sins that left unatoned for would condemn us to hell. Christ came and he rescued us from them. John's simple exhortation to Gaius after laying out the sins of Deuteronomy is this, verse 11, don't be like him, right? Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. And so Deuteronomy is given as an example of what not to imitate, We have Demetrius finally as the good example. He comes with a three-fold recommendation. He's likely a missionary that John is sending. He's bringing the letter himself most likely. Three-fold recommendation. You see that there in verse 12. He's received first a good testimony from everyone. And then third, we also add our testimony. He has an apostolic commendation. But I want us to focus here in the last two minutes on this middle commendation. He's received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. That is to say, the gospel truth with which his life accords is in line with. One scholar puts it like this, Demetrius lived his life according to God's word of truth, so that when he was measured by that yardstick, the truth itself confirmed his quality. And he was not found wanting. The truth itself commends Demetrius. You know, it's a rare thing to have a good reputation from everyone. That's what Demetrius has, right? He's received a good testimony from everyone. That's a rare thing, because no doubt you go through life, you're going to rub somebody the wrong way, you're going to offend somebody who won't be able to forgive and forget, and they're going to have a spoiled conception of you in their minds. You're going to have a bad reputation to them. It's a rare thing, but apparently it can be done, and Demetrius is one of those rare people where the whole world can testify that he's an upright kind of guy. The whole world. Here's the thing, friends. You can fool the world. You can fool the world into thinking that you're worthy of their testimony, worthy of their commendation. What would be even greater is when your own life, no matter what other people see, no matter what other people think, but when your own life accords with God's truth, not just externally, not just for the praise and admiration, the commendation of others, but internally, spiritually, in the secret recesses of your heart, you can say, my life is in accord with the truth and the truth itself, John says, Jesus Christ is the truth itself. Can Christ commend you? Is that your aim today, friends? To live a life worthy of God, a life that God would commend? This is the encouragement. that Paul gives in Corinthians. Remember, he says, imitate me. Why? Just for me? No, as I imitate Christ. That's what we're after here, that our lives would reflect Christ, the truth itself. Demetrius is given as an example because his life is in line with Jesus, who is the way, who is the truth, who is the life. And so can the same be said of us. Friends, it can't happen on your own. Demetrius didn't get here by trying really hard. can't do it on our own. We need to be in Christ. We need to be in the truth. And as I said, it is not primarily so that others would commend us. It is primarily so that God would commend us, so that on that last day we would hear these words, well done, my good and faithful servant. Friends, these are the words you hear when you are in the good and faithful Son of God. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your truth as it is revealed to us in your word. And we do not want it to penetrate our minds only, but also our hearts. And as we know the truth, it would pour forth in deeds of love and mercy to the brothers, to the sisters, to the Christian community, but also to all with whom we come into contact with, all who are our neighbors. Lord, your desire is for truth and love to be inseparably bound together. So may we be a people, yes, who affirm the truths of Scripture, affirm the reality of Jesus Christ. But then with that knowledge, Lord, we go and we live lives of love, lives of lives of hospitality, lives where we speak well of others and do not need to recall our words later on, lives where we do not want ourselves to have the first place but for Christ to have the first place, lives where we are looking to the needs of others. Make us people of love, we pray, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let's stand and sing one final time in response to the good news we've heard and to encourage and exhort one another to these things. Number 500. 500, Father, I know that all my life. Father, I know that all my life is portioned out for me. The changes that are sure to come, I do not fear to see. I ask thee for a present, my intent on pleasing thee. I would not have a restless will that hurries to and fro Seeking for some great thing to do or secret thing to know I would be treated as a child and guided where I go I ask thee for the daily strength To none that ask benign A mind to blend with outward life While keeping at thy side Content to fill a little space If thou be glorified In service which thy will appoints, there are no bonds for me. My secret heart is taught the truth that makes thy children free. A life of self-renouncing love is one of liberty. Amen. Reminder to head outside for fellowship on this beautiful day. The sign-up sheet for So Long to Summer is out there. And then after a few minutes, we encourage everybody, members, and if you're just interested, to come back in for our discussion about the house. For now, though, receive your Lord's blessing. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and remain with you now and forevermore. Let us go serve the world in love. see here goes