We're going to read an entire book of the Bible, 3 John, from our risen Lord. The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well because they went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth. I wrote to the church, but Theotrophes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words and not content with that. He himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has a good testimony from all and from the truth itself, and we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true. I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink. But I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name. Amen. Father, I thank you for this, your word, and I pray that as we dig into it, that our hearts would be grabbed by your Holy Spirit and drawn into the same hospitality that you have shown to us as you have invited us to this banqueting table, as you have said in the end of Revelation, the Spirit and the Bride say come and let him who is a thirst come. May each of us, Father, have this same invitational attitude, and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Well, last week I pointed out that both 2 and 3 John were personal letters that were being written to a head of a household. 2 John was written to a single mom from a broken family. And 3 John was written to a man called Gaius who apparently had taken a major hit financially and a major hit to his health, and scholars have deduced that from three facts. First of all, John, as has been mentioned a couple times in this service, prayed that he would gain health, which implies that he didn't have it. He prays that he would prosper in all things, implying that there was lack that was there. That's the first fact. The second fact is that John has to tell Gaius about some pretty bad things that are happening in the church that he is attached to, of which Diotrephes apparently is the lead elder. And that implies that Gaius has not been to church for a while, otherwise why does he have to be informed of what is going on? And that further implies that he lived far enough away that his health prevented him from making this trip to the church. Third, this is further confirmed by the fact that deiotrophies had excommunicated several people in verses 9 through 10 for engaging in exactly the same hospitality that Gaius has been engaged in, and yet Gaius is not excommunicated. And so trying to fit these pieces together These scholars have deduced that he probably lived far enough away from the church that his health problems prevented attending and also prevented him receiving news as frequently as might otherwise have been the case. And what I want to do right now is I want to give you a three minute overview of the whole book so that you can see the context. As I mentioned earlier, verses 1 and 14 show that this was a private letter to an individual, just like 2 John was, and this particular letter was intended to encourage the continuation of proper hospitality, in verse 8, to thank Gaius for the hospitality he's already shown in verses 3, 5, and 6, and to vindicate the name of Demetrius as being a candidate who was worthy of hospitality, verse 12. So he's introducing yet another missionary that Diotrephes has rejected and that John is asking Gaius, we need help for. John had sent out some missionaries in verse 6 accompanied with an explanatory letter, and this frequently happened. They would give letters of reference to various churches. And this explanatory letter was sent to Deiotrophes, who perhaps was the lead elder of the church that Gaius was connected to, verse 9. However, Diotrephes rejected John's letter, verse 9, refused to extend hospitality, verse 10, and actually kicked people out of the church for extending hospitality to these missionaries that John had sent. That's verse 10 as well. John chalks all of this abusive behavior up to pride and arrogance, verse 10. Now, why would pride and arrogance enter in? Well, some commentators have tried to read between the lines based upon his name. Diotrephes is a very rare name in the first century that was only used of aristocrats, and so they conjecture that he had such high social standing that it was just improper in terms of the way the world thought for him to be submitting to a peasant like John, and John was socially way below him. He just refused to do that. Whether that's the case or not, and it is a conjecture, I will admit that, but it seems like a reasonable one, The text is quite clear that Diotrephes is an abusive and prideful elder. He stands as a warning to all of us leaders as to what pride can do to destroy our ministry. I've got a bunch of Dilbert cartoons in the back of your outlines that illustrate six other leadership problems with Diotrephes. I was gonna get into that. I'm just gonna skip over that this morning. But, in any case, John was concerned that this abusive overreach on the part of Diotrephes might completely dry up hospitality within the church. Just in case Gaius himself might be tempted to stop extending hospitality, that had been his habit, once he finds out what Diotrephes is going to say. He tells him, Deotrephes does not have authority to be doing this, no authority to forbid this hospitality whatsoever. And John gives three references, witnesses to the integrity of these missionaries, and he promises that as a representative of Presbytery, he's going to make sure that Deotrephes comes under church discipline. Leaders who abuse the sheep, need to be dealt with. Now sadly in many modern churches that is not the case. Abusive leaders get away with their abusive behavior with impunity. But the very fact that John expects Gaius to extend hospitality, even though he is poor in health, does not have a lot of money, has a lot of other issues and problems facing him, shows how central hospitality is to the Christian faith. It complements 2 John in that respect. So that's kind of an overview of the whole book. And the heart of the book, which is a chiasm, The heart of the book is not leadership. It's a call to hospitality. I was planning to emphasize more the leadership so that we had a balance between 2 and 3 John. But I decided to be faithful as I've been going through each of these books and trying to capture the essence of that book. I'm gonna stick to the central theme of hospitality, and it's gonna mean I'm gonna duplicate some things, at least, that I've preached on in the past when we've looked at this book. Now, the Bible treats hospitality as an absolutely essential characteristic of all Christians. Let me repeat that. The Bible as a whole, not just 2 and 3 John, but the Bible as a whole from Genesis to Revelation treats hospitality as an absolutely essential ingredient of true Christianity. For example, in Romans 12, 9 through 21, he gives a listing of all of the things that every Christian should be characterized by. Now most of those you'd say, oh yeah, sure, I can see why Christians need that. But part of it was distributing to the needs of the saints, and it says, given to hospitality. He says that's what a true Christian should be doing, be given to hospitality. And we need to ask ourselves, am I given to hospitality? If not, why not? It is certainly a requirement of officers in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1. People shouldn't even apply to the offices of elder or deacon if they are not given to hospitality. It is my belief that no stranger should be able to come through the doors of this church without receiving a warm welcome and some hospitality. We'll define what that means in a little bit. Not just from the elders and the deacons, but hospitality from every member in the church. First Peter 4.9 commands believers, be hospitable to one another without grumbling. So even our attitudes need to be sanctified by grace so that they are hospitable attitudes, without grumbling, he says. Hebrews 13 verse 2 says, Do not forget to extend hospitality, for by so doing some have unwittingly extended hospitality to angels. And I could go on and on with many references from Genesis through Revelation that form the background to 3 John. And so I want to repeat that statement again so it's crystal clear in your mind. The Bible treats hospitality as an absolutely essential characteristic of all Christians, old and young. So don't write the sermon off as irrelevant to you. It is very, very relevant to you. And before we dig into this marvelous book, let me define a Greek word. that occurred in each of the verses I've just read from Paul's writings. It's the Greek word phyloxenia. If you actually look at your bulletins, it's written right under the first picture up on the top right. Phyloxenia is made up of two Greek words. There's phylao, which is friendship, love, and then there's xenia, which is a stranger. And it may seem like an oxymoron to put those words together, because the first word indicates a very warm relationship between friends, and the second word is the exact opposite. It's a stranger, somebody whom you do not even know. But when you put those two words together, you get the meaning of hospitality. And it's a shame that the New King James translates it sometimes as to entertain. Because in my mind, there is a big difference between entertainment and hospitality. They both have their place. We love both. but they are quite different. The word phyloxenia refers to someone who is a stranger. It's just a pouring out of your life into someone else's life who is a stranger so that he no longer feels like a stranger. He is welcomed in to see the real you. Now contrast that with entertainment. Entertainment is opening your home to somebody who is a stranger to your home and doesn't really know what your home looks like on a day-to-day basis. So there is some similarity between entertainment and hospitality on that note. But he may get invited in once a year, maybe he comes over for your Thanksgiving meal or something like that. It's a special occasion when you've had a chance to really plan for something special, but he's still a stranger to what your home normally looks like. And he remains a stranger when he leaves your home. The only people who really know what your home looks like are your immediate relatives and maybe some close friends. You could entertain a person several times, and he might still be a stranger to your home, which would be a contradiction to the meaning of phyloxenia. Let me try to paint a picture of at least some of the nuanced differences between entertainment and the real meaning of this word, where the person sees the real you. This may be a slight exaggeration, but in my mind, entertaining is putting on a big production that is exhausting. It might involve bringing out the cloth napkins and napkin rings and fine china and food designed to impress, and it takes you all day to cook that. Nothing wrong with that. Carpet gets clean because you'd be embarrassed for the guests to realize how dirty your carpet gets. And maybe you buy new furniture. And maybe you ship the kids off to grandpa's house because you're afraid that they're going to spill something on the guests or act their normal bratties. No, that would not be true of any of the kids here, right? But anyway, the point is, you want it to be really, really special, and so you've got a little bit of an artificial environment designed to some degree to impress, but also to minister to people. But it's an artificial environment, it's not your real home. To the guests, it is not a close friend relationship, but rather a special occasion relationship. And I've already mentioned, both are okay. But they're different. So that's the first word picture, the picture of entertaining. You can't afford to do that every day because you'd be exhausted. But when you extend hospitality, phyloxenia, a person who is a stranger to your home very quickly becomes a friend and he becomes at ease in your home. You make him feel relaxed. Okay, that's the meaning of hospitality. This word implies you're inviting people into your life, even with all of its messiness. Doesn't mean I'm excusing you for not cleaning, vacuuming your carpet, you know, occasionally. They come into your life the way it is. In fact, when you're taking them to the dining room, you might have to kick some toys out of the way that just got dropped five minutes before by your kids, right? But you're relaxed, and you immediately make your guests relaxed and feel like they are at home. Now, that's not to say, again, that there's no place for entertaining and putting on a big spread. We love doing that, too. We love doing both. But the day-in and day-out hospitality that God calls all believers to is a much more down-to-earth and real experience. And when you look at all that the Bible includes under the concept of hospitality, it covers a boatload of things. Now let me just translate it into modern terms. It could cover things as simple as writing a card to somebody to cheer them up and to make them feel wanted. and like they belong, to maybe inviting somebody over for a meal. It could be as simple as making people feel at home when they come through the doors of this church. That's a kind of hospitality. Or it could be much more costly, where you put them up for board and room for two or three weeks. And to one extent or another, every Christian is called to be involved in at least some kind of hospitality. Some are going to be especially gifted at it. But in verse 5 of 3 John, Gaius is commended for what he calls faithful activities, his faithful hospitality to the brethren and to strangers alike. And so for the rest of this sermon, what I want to do is I want to open up three things that need to be in place if there is to be faithful hospitality. And I should have numbered these. outlines. I almost redid them, but these three points are in Roman numerals 2, 3, and 5. I kind of numbered them weird, but... The first point is that it needs to flow from the heart. Without a hospitality heart, you really are gonna lose something in the hospitality. We'll explain that. And the second, it must be self-giving or self-sacrificing. It's a giving of yourself in some way. And then third, it must be discerning. We cannot naively give hospitality to everybody, and 2 John dealt with that as well. So let's dig into those three points. First, faithful hospitality flows from the heart. That's the key and most important condition. Now, many Christians wait for other conditions to be fulfilled before they extend hospitality. They want to have more time, more money, more help. better health, better house, better furniture, better dishes. I mean, one thing or another makes them put off the hospitality that they want to engage in, but they think, oh, you know, I'm just not quite ready for that at this point. But in contrast to all of the reasons we could have for procrastination, the Bible says the primary prerequisite is a change in the inner man, a different perspective on this subject. God's grace gives us a love for connecting with people in this unique way. It's not just a change of the outer circumstances. If you have the heart, it does not matter what your circumstances are, you will find a way to be hospitable guaranteed if your heart is in it. Now we can see that Gaius's was in it because he didn't have health or wealth or supportive leadership or any of the outward helps. Verse two says, beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. Now I preached an entire series of sermons on that verse and we branched off into the rest of scripture. There's a lot packed in it, but I just want to focus on one thing. The fact that John prays that Gaius might gain health and prosperity implies that Gaius had been in poor health and was not particularly wealthy. and he didn't have other things, you know, prosper in all things, it says. Yet he engaged in hospitality anyway because his heart was healthy. His soul was prospering so much it automatically overflowed in hospitality. It's a prospering soul. I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. The next obstacle was that the elders didn't model hospitality. How do I know that? Well, verse nine says, I wrote to the church But Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Okay, so Diotrephes is not modeling hospitality. There was an atmosphere in the church that actually was downright hostile to hospitality. And verse 10 makes that clear. It says of Diotrephes, the pastor, he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to putting them out of the church. So really the result was that the church was becoming an ingrown click. Third, we can see it in the ways that Gaius got around his obstacles. John rejoiced in the sacrificial hospitality that Gaius had previously engaged in, in verse 3. He praises him for his faithfulness and hospitality in verse 5. In verses six through eight, John heard testimonies from others of Gaius' hospitality. I mean, people are just blown away by how welcoming this man was. So somehow, Gaius had been able to work around his limitations. Now, of course, John sees them as limitations, and he prays they'll be removed. Praise God. God's not against wealth and health and having a great house and everything like that. But his lack illustrates the fact that it was his heart that was the key to whether hospitality would occur or not. Kathy and I love Karen Main's book, Open Heart, Open Home, The Hospitable Way to Make Others Feel Welcome and Wanted. But it's the first part of that title that I think shows this essential ingredient, open heart open home, okay? It's not until our hearts are wide open that our homes feel wide open when people get invited over to our homes, okay? The heart really makes a huge, huge difference. Now, this past week, the elders and the deacons were engaged in self-examination on, we're using the book Lead by Paul David Tripp. That is a remarkable book. I haven't finished it yet, but what we have been reading so far, it's just absolutely fabulous. But I was struck right in the introduction with an interesting phrase that he used for approachability. He said, humility is about firing your inner lawyer. Others had heard that, I've never heard that expression before. I thought, wow, that is a cool expression because you know what the inner lawyer is. It's something inside of you that defends you. and tries to make you feel like, oh, I didn't do anything wrong. No, that's not me. You got me completely wrong. You know, it's justifying. And so he was saying we need to fire that inner lawyer of self vindication, self serving pride, self focus, excuses, etc. Well, what I'm going to say this morning is we need to have the same attitude when it comes to hospitality. We can come up with all kinds of reasons why we cannot extend hospitality, and we say, no, no, no, I'm firing that inner excuse maker. We're going to do what God calls us to do, and we're going to love it. The next characteristic of faithful hospitality, this is Roman numeral three, is that it is self-sacrificing in its expression. It really is a giving of ourselves. Of course, that immediately makes some people not interested. Okay, they're selfish. The scripture indicates that everyone who has tasted of God's grace begins to have this servant's heart. And what is so cool about this is that you can extend hospitality like this. I mean, you can share yourself, even if you're dirt poor. It's not dependent on your circumstances. You share yourself. You're not sharing things, you're sharing yourself. In fact, the sacrificial nature of hospitality becomes far more obvious when we are poor. God sees it in a highlighted way. Anyway, we can see this characteristic in verses 5 through 10. Now let me illustrate how you can have this sacrificial heart even when you have nothing. Let's just pretend that you're in a hospital dying of cancer, or you're in the hospital for whatever reason, You probably do not feel like being hospitable to the nurses and the doctors and visitors who are coming into your room. And yet, if God has changed your heart into a heart of hospitality, that's the previous point, right? You will want to sacrificially put aside for the moment, while those people are coming into your room, your pain and misery and complaining and other symptoms so that you can be at least somewhat pleasant to be around. Your heart will move you so much to this next point of sacrificial giving that nurses, doctors, and visitors will notice your welcoming demeanor and smile. They will want to come into your room. Why? Because there is something infectious about your hospitable demeanor. But it would take the sacrificing of your feelings for a person to be that way. I gave this illustration just to illustrate there's no excuse for any Christian to not be hospitable, even if you're in a hospital, right? Unless you're in a coma. Okay, you're excused if you're in a coma. But let's dig into this point. This book gives four illustrations of hospitality's self-sacrificing nature, and I think these are remarkable illustrations. Verse 5 says, Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers. Now, let's focus on the strangers part of that clause because if you're You have strangers that come to your home overnight, and then they leave, and you never see them again. You're extending hospitality not so that you can get something in return. There is no return whatsoever. And actually, that was the case with the brethren as well. For strangers, it's obvious, but these brethren were not known by Gaius. He has to be introduced. That's why they had letters of introduction. They're probably going to come. They may or may not come again, but there's probably no way that these missionaries are going to return the favor and extend hospitality to you. Now, that's the point. We're not certain why deatrophies did not accept them, but Gaius was extending hospitality to castoffs and unknown at that. Now, we saw last week that there is a boatload that we could say about the limits of church authority and how this is abusive leadership, and we could get into that. But here it illustrates that Gaius didn't extend hospitality in hopes that they would return the favor. Probably no way they could. Second evidence of this self-sacrificing nature. is found in the Greek word for love. Verse six says, who have borne witness of your love before the church. Now the word for love there is agape, which by now you all know is self-sacrificing love. It's supernatural love that God gives to us. People will quickly sense when we are extending hospitality because it is expected versus whether we're doing it out of love. The first is focused on the task, The latter is focused on the person. Let me just illustrate using the two sisters, Martha and Mary. in the Gospel of John. Martha was really flustered and frustrated because she was so focused upon the tasks that were not getting done, whereas Mary really captured the essence and the heart of hospitality because she was having the reach of the heart to the person, okay? Now, we have to have service and there's sacrifice involved in both. But if we are sacrificing out of love for the person, it changes your perspective. It gives you a joy in doing this. It flows from God's grace. And again, it reinforces the first point that it's a heart issue. A third sub-point is that it is a God-centered activity in its focus. It is done as if you were doing this hospitality for God himself, as if you were inviting God over for dinner. Now you do a quality job if that was the case It'd be pretty exciting if Jesus could come over for lunch to your house. I mean you would really try to put your all into giving your heart to him and make him feel at home. Well, verse six says, if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well because they went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. Well, if we engaged in hospitality in a way that was worthy of God, I think it would transform our hospitality. I actually like to think of myself as ministering to Jesus when we have guests over to our house, because Jesus is indwelling them. And that's exactly what he says in Matthew 25. Jesus said, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. And what was it that he was talking about? What they did to the brethren, what they did to him, fed the hungry, gave drinks to the thirsty, took a stranger in, clothed the naked, visited the sick, visited those in prison. I mean, those are all different kinds of hospitality. The point is that both Jesus and John tell us to do it as if we're doing it to God. in a manner worthy of God. That is a high, high standard for hospitality. We represent God to the world, and God is a God of hospitality and generosity. Interestingly, John begins his gospel by saying that Jesus came into the world as a stranger, and the world did not receive him, but he overcame the world and received them. So we're really imitating Jesus. Okay, the last example of self-sacrificing character of the hospitality that we see in this chapter is that He calls it work, good old-fashioned work, right? Laziness is one of the things that keeps people from being hospitable. It takes the Protestant work ethic to be good at hospitality. It takes a willingness to be tired. Verse eight says, we therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth. Now, there's a boatload of other things in that phrase we cannot get into. I wanna focus just on that phrase, fellow workers. Obviously, the word workers implies we got labor, we got work to do, but I love that first word that we are fellow workers. Fellow workers, that adds to the glorious nature of this work that receives an eternal reward. By extending hospitality to these brothers that John had sent, Gaius shared in their labors. Fellow workers, he shared in their labors. Matthew 10, 41 through 42 says something very similar. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. You know, one of the things that gets me excited about extending hospitality to missionaries and sending money to missionaries is it gives me an opportunity to share in their labors and share in their rewards. I cannot traipse all over the African mountains like Peter Hammond can. It just wears me out thinking about it. And he's getting older too. When I share in His ministry, I'm sharing in His labors, I'm sharing in His reward, and it makes me feel excited. I remember when I first came to the realization of how significant this was. It was much, much later in my pastoral ministry I was going on one of my first trips to China, and there was a poor man who wanted to contribute to my airfare to get there. And I needed the money, but I told him, no, there is no way you're going to be contributing to this. And the look of disappointment on his face He said, you can't. I mean, he had tears in his eyes. He said, don't rob me of the privilege of sharing in your ministry and sharing in your rewards. And I was just dumbfounded. I'd never thought of it that way before. Here was a poor man that tried to share in as many people's ministries as he could because it was his only way that he could share and serve the Lord and share in their rewards. And I became an instant convert. From that moment on, I got a vision of this being co-laborers with other people. sharing in their rewards. It's a whole new perspective on giving. It changed the way I give. I love to give. Now, when I was younger, we always, even as a kid, I loved to do hospitality. But I did have this edge in me that was a little bit stingy. Now, I never thought of it as being stingy. I thought of it as being frugal. But I really was stingy when I look back on myself in those days. And now I see all kinds of ways to give to the Lord, and it gives me great, great pleasure. You know, one of the things that has really transformed my life, and I'm very grateful to a brother a couple of decades ago who convinced me of the three tithes from the Old Testament, which amounts basically to giving two and a third, 23 and a third percent. Yeah, get my math right here. The three and a third percent is because one of the 10th percenters is only given once every three years. So you're saving up three and a third percent over a period of three years. So you can give a big sum to some poor person. But anyway. That thing, that three tithe principle, just grabbed my heart and I just have fallen in love with giving. And people sometimes have a hard time understanding why we love to do hospitality. We've actually had people accuse us when we were at the Davenport house and doing day in and day out hospitality to hundreds of people, says, you got a martyr complex, Phil. You got to cut this out. And it's not like we didn't share. We let people invite us to their homes. And we, hey, if you want to invite the whole church over, yeah, feel free to do it. But we didn't have a martyr complex. We love to do this. I really feel that God captured my heart so much on this that we have what Paul spoke of, of Stephanas, and the King James translates it, they were addicted to ministry. We feel addicted to hospitality, okay? So that's all it is. We love it. We love it. It's a way that we have of serving the Lord. Now, when you extend hospitality to each other, you share in other people's labors, you receive of their rewards, even the giving of a cup of cold water in his name will by no means lose its reward. So just think of it this way. Doing dishes, you're doing it for Christ. Cooking a cake, you're doing it for Christ. Ministering to the sick, stacking chairs after the worship service, you're doing it for Christ. You're not just doing it for Christ, but he says, oh, there's more to it than that. You're sharing in the labors of other people in the church and elsewhere, and you're going to share in their rewards. You women who serve your families so selflessly can find a new joy when you start serving your children and your husbands in a way that is worthy of Christ, worthy of the Lord. Now even though that doesn't count as hospitality, right? But it's still related and he ministers and gives us gifts in that regard as well. And it has a reward as well. But let me tell you this, this work that is often extended day after day, sometimes without thanks, is something that God smiles with approval upon. You can be sure he does not forget. We are fellow workers for the truth. There is a purpose, there is a goal in what we do, and if this sermon can achieve my goal in stirring up every man, woman, and child in this congregation to say, I want to have that kind of a heart, I want to be engaged in hospitality, I will be thrilled. Now, I've already mentioned that Diotrephes was the exact opposite. He did not have this self-sacrificing character. He was a very negative example. I sometimes use every verse in this book to train interns, just like I did with 2 John, in how to apply this, but also looking at the difference between abusive leadership and approachable leadership. But let me just apply one facet of verses 9 through 10. I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words and not content with that. He himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church." So John treats the root of the problem as self-serving pride in verse 9. Pride led to malicious slander, a refusal to even associate with those whom John had sent, and finally, trying to fit everybody into the same pattern. Sin loves to have company, right? People who are in sin don't want to be alone in their sin. It's amazing what one person can do to have a negative influence on others. Scripture makes clear that bad company corrupts good morals, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3. We do influence each other for either good or bad by our examples and how much more so when the person is a leader of influence. People will excuse themselves from hospitality on the ground that the pastor is not engaging in it any better than they are. And I praise God that the deacons and elders in our church love hospitality. They have an open heart ready to minister. But we've seen thus far that faithful hospitality flows from an open and ready heart more than it does from having opportunity or resources. When your heart's gripped, you're going to look for opportunities. You're going to look for them. Second, it is characterized by self-sacrifice. In other words, the giving of your life for the building up of others. And lastly, it is discerning. It is not naive. It is discerning, first of all, in what it is patterned after. John was worried about the long-term effects that deatrophies might have upon Gaius, and he warns Gaius to be careful about whom he imitates. Verse 11, Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God. Now, it's natural for us to imitate our leaders. It's natural for us to imitate those that we look up to. But what do you do when leaders are not hospitable? Well, you'd just be hospitable anyway. You take the leadership. You can serve in more powerful ways than they might, but don't let the lack of hospitality that you see in other churches stop you from leading. And again, I am so thankful that the elders and the deacons love hospitality. If you see our discussions, you know that we are trying to cultivate a culture of hospitality within this church. And sometimes it starts by inviting people over to your house over and over and over and over again without getting a reverse invite, and that's okay. Eventually, it catches on. And so it's discerning, first of all, in what it is patterned after. Second, it was discerning in how it was ministered. In verse 12, John says, Demetrius has a good testimony from all and from the truth itself, and we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true. So it appears that Gaius, for some reason, and we're not told why, he wondered about the advisability of welcoming Demetrius. Maybe he had heard about Deiotrophes and been poisoned toward him. Maybe other people were beginning to gossip about Demetrius. We don't know, but whatever the source of hesitation, John sets his mind at ease by bringing forward three character witnesses in defense of Demetrius. So John vouches for his character. He says, hey, everybody who knows Demetrius can vouch for his character. And thirdly, just look at his lifestyle. His own lifestyle is going to vouch for his character. Now, just the need to bring up these good character witnesses reminds us of John's warnings and admonition in 2 John that we must not extend hospitality to those who are under church discipline or those who are heretics. Or Paul actually says, If a man work not, neither shall he eat. There are leeches out there, you know, that you're not supposed to encourage and enable. But on the other hand, we should not be too quick to judge who should be rejected, especially by following one man's opinion. Now, in conclusion, I would urge all of us to seek to improve our serve when it comes to hospitality. Make this a goal in 2021. Obviously, you can read books on the subject, but honestly, there's no better way of learning than just doing it and saying, wow, I think we could improve on this next time. You do it again, and you just keep improving over time. We may not all be able to extend it in the same way, But everyone, I mean, you can invite people out to a picnic lunch, or you can do like Trevor and Tracy, you know, the Tyler family, they're camping, and they invite people around the bonfire, you know, roasting weenies, and maybe don't roast weenies, marshmallows. That's fellowship. That's drawing people into your circle. Just be creative. There's so many different ways that we can extend hospitality. If you don't have a home, you can certainly make people feel welcome. You notice, oh, there's somebody standing alone that's a visitor. Let me go out and be welcoming to that person. You do not have to put on a big spread. In fact, some of the fondest memories I have of hospitality were occasions where I was served at the hands of poverty-stricken Ethiopians and poverty-stricken Chinese farmers and the lowest classes, the Indian Dalits. Jonathan went on a couple of trips. Jonathan and I sometimes wondered what in the world the lumps were that we were eating. trying to gag down, but we received them with gratefulness, even if we didn't like the flavor. We received them with gratefulness because we saw those as tokens of sacrificial love. It was the best they had. I have incredibly fond memories of those times. There are several other beautiful applications could be made from this book, but I hope I've dug deep enough under this central theme that every one of us will be encouraged to imitate Gaius and be given to hospitality. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Father, I thank you that you have raised up so many examples of hospitality in the Bible and elsewhere, and I pray that you would give to us an increasing love for this discipline that reflects your heart and your love. Father, help us to get better and better at it over our lifetime. And bless this people, Father, with your grace. May they find great joy in serving you in various capacities. And I pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.