Good evening. Let's take our Bibles, please, and turn to 3 John. 3 John. And I've enjoyed the services, enjoyed all the young people tonight and all the work. And you could tell that they had put so much into that. As Pastor Moore was mentioning his appreciation to you, Church, for allowing him to be able to go to Kenya, I was thinking of my own church, Tri-State Baptist Church in Connecticut, who allows me to be here tonight. And it was one of the things that we talked about, Pastor Moore, you mentioned the deacon who said, maybe we won't be able to keep you. And it was one of the things is I've recently transitioned to the senior pastor's position of Tri-State Baptist Church. And as I went through the pulpit committee with them and all, they asked me, they said, You done with that traveling? And I said, I don't think I'm going to go back to the mission field, but I'm not done traveling. And we talked at length about that and explained to them that when I get to come to a place like this, it's really part of what they are doing. And it's really their ministry. And just I am kind of their representative tonight. And so I'm very appreciative of Tri-State Baptist Church and allowing my wife and I to be here. I'm appreciative of one of our deacons who filled the pulpit on Wednesday. I'm thankful that they will take care of the services on Sunday. And they let us do this. They let us go to different places and to be able to preach and to teach. In the summertime, my wife and I get to go to the campus of West Coast Baptist College and be a part of what they call Joshua Camps and run the missions camp there. And I let the church know, we just get to go on your behalf. And so we're so thankful that our church lets us do that. And I'm sure that Pastor Moore is thankful that you get to do that too. And really, we just get to be your representatives as we do those things. Third John in our Bibles tonight, Third John. And I've entitled this message, Fellow Helpers. And I've really kind of have been struggling. I know it's what God wants me to preach, But I told even Pastor Moore, I said, this is almost review for this church, some of this stuff. And as we go through it, but God said, stay here. And I'm gonna tell you the number of times I've been tempted to go to a different text and go to a different place, but I trust that God knows best. And he told me, you just stay right there, stick with the plan. And so this is a little bit different from what we have looked at the last couple of nights, but it has been for a good while now what the Lord had put on my heart to preach. When I come to a conference like this, I pray well in advance and I start penciling in on the calendar, what's gonna get preached, what night and what day, and I always let the Lord change that as He will, and I try really hard not to change it as I will. And so we're in 3rd John tonight, and the title again is Fellow Helpers. And as we gather together in a missions conference tonight, it is not my purpose to convince anybody, because I don't think I need to convince anybody, that we need more laborers. that the need is tremendous, that the need, since Jesus said it, pray ye therefore that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers, that that need has always been there, it will always be there till Jesus comes. We understand that there's a need for laborers, and we can preach about the need for laborers, but the truth is, we've got that part down, we know about that part. The question for me then is, how do we get the laborers? And just as important, how do we keep them once they enter into the ministry? Because the attrition rate is pretty high. It is unusual to have a pastor who pastored in one place for 39 years and is still in the ministry. And I'm so thankful that God has let us be in ministry now for a good number of years, not as long as Pastor Moore, but it is an unusual situation. And it's something that's really burdened my heart for a long time. Not only do how do we get more laborers, but how do we keep them? How do we keep them going? And we want to look at 3 John tonight. And I believe in this text there are some solutions for both how we get more laborers and and how we keep those laborers in the missions or in the ministry at all. And I think that a lot of times what we've done in churches where we've been involved, where I've had the privilege to pastor churches that we've had the privilege to let God plant through us. And what we have done is we've tried to train the people of the church that yes, it's important to get people like John Jones and his family to the field for the first time. And it's important to get a Kathy Jo to the field for the first time, but it's equally important to keep the West Burns family on the field. We don't want to send the Jones to replace the Burns because they dropped out. We want the Burns to stay and the Jones to go also. We need there to be an increase. And sometimes we forget that that there's a two-fold purpose here. We get really excited about sending people, but we've got to be excited about keeping them there as well. And that is going to be really a main focus of what we're going to cover tonight. And by the way, Everything I'll say tonight in regards to getting missionaries to a field and keeping missionaries on a field is applicable in the local church that needs more laborers as well. And the church is always needing more laborers right in the local church. As the church grows, there's more opportunity for ministry. And we need those who are already serving to stay, but we need others to come alongside. And usually it's the ones who are already serving who will help the ones that are coming along and then showing them what it means to stay by the stuff and to stick with the ministry. And so as we come to this tonight, The Apostle John is writing what book we have now is 3 John, but it is obvious from this letter that John writes to a man named Gaius that he had written another letter. We don't have that letter. We don't know what it said because a guy named Deiotrophes got a hold of that and wouldn't let it get through to the church. And he didn't want John's communications coming. He didn't want new people coming. And there's a great contrast between Gaius and Deiotrophes as we come to this text tonight. We'll talk a little bit about that, but we're going to focus in on Gaius. And what did this man do, this man that John is writing to? Such an encouragement not just to the Apostle John but to those in ministry Helping them to get to where they were going and helping them to stay Doing what God had called them to do And so with that in mind, I want to read the first eight verses of 3rd John and the Bible says this the elder That's John the Apostle unto the well-beloved Gaius Whom I love in the truth Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. If you mark your Bible, you might mark the word the brethren, because we're gonna be told who they are, and it's important to this text. So let's read a little bit further. Verse four says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers. I would draw a line, I would circle the word strangers, and I would draw a line between brethren and strangers in verse three and verse five. Verse six says, which have borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. Because for his namesake, they, I would circle the word they, draw a line up to the word strangers, draw a line up to the word brethren, and we're beginning to understand who these people are. because for their namesake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore, we therefore, ought to receive such, the such is the they, is the strangers, is the brethren. We're going to see who those people are. That we might be fellow helpers of the truth. Let's pray together. Father, I do thank you for this day, for your goodness and your grace. And I do pray that you will bless this time and use it for your honor and for your glory. God, we are praying that you would send forth laborers. God, we are praying that you would help us to encourage one another, to provoke one another unto love and to good works, as the writer of Hebrews tells us to do, some amongst us will go. And we want to get behind them. We want to help them. We want to get them to where you've called them, but then we want to help them to stay where you've called them as well. And so we ask that you would bless this time in Jesus' name, amen. I imagine everybody in this room tonight has somebody that if you were to say, you know, somebody who brings me joy. If I were to say to you, who brings joy to your life in this world? Somebody that you know, instantly you have somebody who comes to mind. For John, it was amongst the many other people, no doubt, this man Gaius. And as I have been involved in church planting now and pastoring and admissions for more than a couple decades, I can tell you I could probably just spend the whole night giving you name after name after name after name of people who have been a joy in my life, who have helped me, who have encouraged me, who have just come alongside in the labor. I think of a man named Ted Day. Ted Day is with the Lord now, but I met him in Arizona. Interestingly enough, when we moved from Quebec to Arizona, one of the very first men I met was from Quebec, was a Canadian. And we just became friends. Ted was at that time probably in his 70s. Interesting story. I don't have time to go into it all tonight. We never really did, nor did he ever really know exactly how old he was. He didn't have a birth certificate that we could find or he could find. and kind of just estimated his age based on some things he had been through. And I'm sure we were pretty close one way or the other, or he was. And Ted was a guy who just loved the Lord, loved missionaries. When I met him, he would say this, I met him out in the desert shooting. We were just looking for a place to shoot. And he had been saved riding the rails during the Great Depression in Canada. And he was just going from one place to the other. He happened to go through and find a tent meeting while he was riding railroads in Canada during the Great Depression, heard the gospel, but never grew past that, never was discipled, never had been baptized. I had the privilege to disciple him and baptize him. And he would give a testimony. He would say, when pastor met me, he met me in the wilderness. And he meant when I met him in the desert, but he was talking about his spiritual wilderness as well. and he developed this great love for missionaries and for soul winning, and he was my son's soul winning partner for a number of years. Ted had a problem that caused him to have tremendous tremors in his hands, and I don't know how he was the marksman that he was, but his hands would just tremor, and then it kind of went on to his feet and his legs. And it got to a point where he couldn't go out and go soul winning, and we had to ask him to stop because he was really a danger to himself. He was falling and having a hard time, but he just wanted to keep going. And in midweek services, he would come probably an hour before our midweek service, week after week after week, and he'd sit in my office and he'd say this to me, Pastor, I just wish I could do more. I just wish I could do more. And Ted Day was a guy who just brought joy to my life as a pastor. I think of a guy named Pat Kelly who was a farmer from Colorado. He's home with the Lord now as well and went home with the Lord a couple years ago quite unexpectedly. And just a guy who, when I met him, We became friends and he had already been saved and baptized and discipled, but became an intricate part of our church and ministry. And he was just a guy that no matter what needed to be done, he was there to help. He was a guy who brought great joy to my life and to the ministry that God gave to us. of Tri-State Baptist Church tonight. I think of the godly deacons that we have, and I think of a number of other men. I think of the ladies who have come alongside and helped my wife, and though we're new to that church, they've just gone out of their way to make us feel so welcomed at home and so loved, and they're just people who have brought great joy to our lives. As we think of those kinds of people and we think of people through the Bible, I think we think of people like Erin and her. People who came alongside and just held up the arms of Moses so that Moses could help Joshua down in the valley. And God was just working through all of those different people. And by the way, when Joshua was down fighting the Amalekites, who really won the battle? Well, ultimately God did, right? But was it Joshua? Or was it Moses? Or was it Aaron? Or was it her? Or was it a team? I think it was a team. And it just takes a lot of people to make sure that the gospel's going forward. And here's what I want us to consider tonight. While I have had some time to be around and to meet people like Ted or meet people like Pat or meet the deacons that we have or the men and the women of Tri-State Baptist Church who are doing such a tremendous job even as we are gone now and making sure that the church keeps doing what the church needs to do. Who's gonna do that for the church planter who's just starting off on day one. Who's the Aaron and who's the her? Who is gonna be John Jones today? Who's gonna be, for Kathy, Joe, who's gonna be the one who comes along and says, I'll hold up her arms? Who's gonna be that person? Until the ministry gets established, who's gonna be that person? And by the way, once the ministry does get established, there still needs to be those kinds of people. We all need people within the church, but any pastor, anybody who's involved in ministry will tell you, You need somebody outside the church as well. And I'm thankful that I have a good network of good and godly men who help me. And when I need to make a decision or I need some counsel or I need some wisdom, some men who have been alongside me for years and decades now that I can reach out to. And we've built relationships who help me in this. And as we come to a third John and we meet this man named Gaius, the first thing I want us to know is that there's just some delightful information about him. Some delightful information. He is the well-beloved Gaius, as John starts off, and then in verse 2 he calls him beloved again. Both of these terms speak of the fact that he is loved by God, that he is loved by the local church in which he is a part, that he is well beloved by the missionaries that he helped and assisted, that he is beloved by the Apostle John, that this was a man that others got around and said, man, he's just a joy to be around. And you say, well, how come? I think verse four really tells us the reason. I have no greater joy to hear that my children walk in the truth. And what I want us to think about for a moment is this testimony of Gaius that brought such joy to the apostle John, such joy to missionaries, such joy to the church he was a part of, was because he was a man who walked in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 3 says this, For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. Now these brethren, we're gonna dive into that a little bit deeper later on, but we're gonna see that these are missionaries. These are people that most likely the Apostle John had referred to the church that Gaius was a part of, and now we're back where John was, and they said, hey, that guy John, he was a blessing to us. He was a help to us. Hey, do you know that missionaries and church planters talk to each other? Makes sense, right? Do you know what they talk about? A lot of times they talk about churches that they've been to. They talk about pastors that they have met along the way. Do you know what they love to talk about? They love to talk about a church like Central Baptist Church that's been a blessing to them. They love to talk about that. I'm gonna tell you what, I guarantee you, when John Jones and his family leave Central Baptist Church and are at their next church and there's a group of missionaries there, they're gonna tell them, you gotta hear about the conference we were just in. When Kathy Jo goes to another, they're gonna say, you gotta know about this conference we were just in. Not every conference is like this, by the way. And sometimes, They tell you that and they say, hey, you got to hear about this conference more as a warning than as a blessing. But the truth is they don't want to talk about that. It doesn't bring them any joy to talk about those things. And seldom do they talk about those things. What they like to talk about is a church or a pastor or a group of churches and pastors that say, hey, we're just going to be a blessing to you. We're just going to be a help to you. And I'm just going to tell you that when that happens, other missionaries start paying attention, but other people start paying attention as well. The brethren came and testified. What an incredible testimony. this guy Gaius has, that people who met him as they were passing through came back to the Apostle John and said, hey, this is some guy. This is really somebody who was such a blessing in our lives. He's a man who was walking in the truth. I want to move forward because the next thing I see is this deliberate intention of walking in the truth. There's delightful information. He's just a likable, joyful man who brings joy to the lives of others. But how does he do that? Well, he has deliberate intentions. He is walking in the truth. You understand tonight that the word walk in this text means the means by which we order our day-to-day life. It's how we live our life out. So as we read that Gaius is walking in the truth, what it means is he's not doing it by impulse. He's not doing it whimsically. He's not riding the emotional rollercoaster, and one day He's faithful and walking in the truth, and the next day He's far away. It's not intermittent, but it is faithfully, day after day after day after day, He is walking in the truth. Now that phrase, walking in the truth, obviously means that Gaius was ordering his life in accordance with the truth. You say, what truth was he ordering his life in accordance with? The Bible and its great doctrines. We know that the Bible itself is the truth. We read in John chapter 17 and verse number 17, sanctify them through thy word, through thy truth rather, thy word is truth. And so Gaius was consistently and deliberately conducting himself, interacting with others, and forming relationships based on this, the Word of God. And you need to have your relationships really be find their foundation on the Word of God. And I don't have a lot of time with this tonight, and I don't even think I need to take a lot of time with this tonight, but there is such a contrast, is there not, between this guy named Gaius, who we meet first, and another guy named Diotrephes. And we're all probably familiar with Diotrephes, and the truth of the matter is nobody wants to be like Diotrephes. You ever meet a Christian parent who says, hey, I know what, let's name our kid Little Deatrophies. Nobody names their kid Deatrophies. Nobody wants to be like Deatrophies. He's the second guy in the text. You can study it out for yourself, but here's what, The quick takeaway is, while Gaius is a man who is walking in the truth, ordering his life in the truth, conducting himself in accordance with the word of God, building his relationships based on that, Diotrephes is quite the opposite. What is Diotrephes concerned with? Really two things. Personality, mostly his, and preferences, mostly his. And when we aren't building our relationships on the word of God, when that's not the basis and the foundation by which we decide how we're gonna act with others and interact with others, what happens is personalities always get in the way. And then preferences, ours, always become more important than the truth. And so we have to be so careful with this because pride slips in so easily. The thing that brought such joy to the heart of John about Gaius was the thing that would attract and keep laborers in the ministry. And that is the truth. Conducting ourselves in the truth. I have worked now for over 20 years with young people especially. I love to work with young people and teenagers in missions camps. It is not a vacation when my wife and I fly to California to do the missions camp at Joshua's camp, but we do it because we want to invest our lives in young people. And I have for years now, for decades, I have been sitting with young people and I've been talking to young people and I've been asking them and saying to them, I see that you're here, but the truth is we're not really doing a great job with your generation. And can you let me know, like, what is the talk? Why are we not connecting with your generation? And you know what I have been told by teenager after teenager, young person after young person, young adult after young adult, consistently, independently, one from the other, they'll say this. Well, I'll tell you what it is, Brother Tony. We want your Bible, but we don't care about your preferences. Now, they're not being disrespectful. What they're saying is, we don't want you to have what you think is right to be equal with the word of God. And we just want the word of God to be the thing. And if we could just build our relationship on that, we'll do really, really well. I have tried to just make this a practice in our time to serve and to minister. I just ask myself this, are you preaching the gospel? Do you believe the great doctrines? Do you believe that salvation is by grace, that Jesus Christ came and died and rose again, and do you believe really just the core doctrines? If you do, you may do things differently, and it may be that we won't even be able to partner, but I'm not going to badmouth you. I'm not going to say things poorly about you. When I start to feel like, you know what, my preferences are getting in the way and personalities are getting in the way, I try to remember the Apostle Paul. You remember the Apostle Paul when he was sitting in a Roman prison? He wrote a little book. We call it the Joy Book or the Joy Epistle. He's sitting in a Roman prison and he says to us in Philippians chapter number one, there are people out there who are preaching the gospel on purpose because they think that's gonna hurt me. They're not preaching it the way I would preach it. They're not preaching it with the intentions and attitudes that I would preach it. They're doing it differently than I would, but here's what he says in verse number 18 of Philippians 1. Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and I will rejoice. And what I try to remember is this. They might do it differently than me. They might not do it exactly like I would do it, but they're preaching Jesus. So I'm going to rejoice because we need to remember something. Same team. Now, hear me out on all of this. Don't turn me off because you think I'm heading in a direction that might be dangerous. When we partner with missionaries, here's what we tell them. We have a questionnaire, not unsimilar to yours. And then we invite them to a conference or we invite them to the church. We get to know them, get them to know us. And then we basically say this, we don't expect you to reproduce Tri-State Baptist Church on the field, but here's what we do expect. When we come to visit you on the field, we'll be able to be comfortable. It won't be so radically different that we won't feel like we can even fit in. But you might do it differently in different places, and you might have a different structure, but we want to be able to say, seems like we're still on the same side. Seems like we are still close enough. And so here is this guy named Gaius who said, you know what? I don't want to be like Diotrephes. I don't want to build my relationships on personalities and preferences. I want to build them on the word of God. And as long as we can agree on the Word of God, we've got a good basis by which we can move forward. And now let's talk about these dedicated itinerants that are in the text tonight. There's a lot more that we could say about this, but we really need to move forward, and I wanna see these dedicated itinerants. Verse number five, these strangers, as John calls him, these are those who, for his namesake, Jesus' namesake, went forth to the Gentiles, taking nothing of the Gentiles. They're preaching the gospel to lost people. And they're trusting that the Lord will use His people to meet their daily needs so that they can go out and preach the gospel. You see, the gospel has to be preached freely to the lost because the lost don't see any value in it. Why would we expect lost people to fund the ministry of God? Only those who have been saved, only those who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ understand the intrinsic value in getting other people the gospel. And so these people, people not unlike the Jones family or the Burns family, the Jones family are not gonna go from Central Baptist Church and then go to some non-believing church or some group of people and say, hey, would you partner with us too? They understand something. Those people don't see any value in the gospel. Only those who understand the gospel, who have received Jesus as Savior, understand the value of getting the gospel to other people. And so we have this biblical model of what these missionaries are doing. These are those missionaries that John said bore witness of thy charity before the church. And we understand that that word charity, Old English, has a lot to do with love and of just building relationships, but it has to do with actually what we use it for today too, charity, not in the sense of, oh, you're poor and needy, but we want to get on board and help. And we're gonna see that in the text as well. I wanna tie all this together. And I've been working really hard to get us to this part. I want us to see the root cause of the delightful information. What was Gaius doing as he was deliberate in his intentions? How did these dedicated itinerants, these missionaries, These church planters have a part in this. And we see it in the divine investments that were being made. The divine investments that were being made. Gaius was deliberately and faithfully investing himself, his time, his energy, his possessions, his finances, all for the furtherance of the gospel. He was, as John says, a fellow helper of the truth. To be a fellow helper of the truth is to be a partner in labor. We sometimes use the term co-laborers. In 2 Corinthians 8, verse 23, we read this, Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you. To be a fellow helper means we have an equal labor to do, an equal part in the labor. Maybe we don't have the same responsibilities. Actually, certainly we don't have the same responsibilities, but we have an equal part in what has to be done, and therefore we will be equally rewarded when it gets done. That's what Paul is saying to the church that partnered with him at Philippi. The very first church to ever partner with Paul in the gospel was the Philippian church. And he says, I want to bring this back to 3 John. And I want us to notice that John says we ought to be doing this same thing. That's what verse 8 says. We therefore ought to receive such, these missionaries, and we ought to be fellow helpers like Gaius has been a fellow helper. We ought to be making these divine investments. And as we look to Gaius, I want us to consider some ways in which we can make these divine investments. And to do that, we need to notice a phrase in the text. It's such an important phrase, and it's used in other places in the Bible, but I think sometimes we miss it because it's almost missable because we don't really consider it. What does that exactly mean? And it's the phrase in verse number six that says that Gaius helped to bring forward on their journey, these missionaries, bring forward on their journey. That entire phrase, bring forward on their journey, is translated from a single Greek word. That word is used nine times in the New Testament. It's the word propempo. I believe, personally, it may be the most important missionary word in all of the New Testament. It tells us how to get missionaries, how to keep missionaries, and how to get the gospel further, this word propempo. As you study out this word propempo, it has at its core the meaning to outfit. Ever hear outfit and passage? We used to use that term a long time ago when we were sending big cargo boxes over to different places and we say, hey, we're raising funds for outfit and passage. It means to outfit, to meet the physical and financial needs of another so that they can go further on their journey. That's the key, further on their journey. It's not limited to, though, meeting only physical needs. It goes well beyond that. Because it means to meet the emotional needs of another, providing comfort and encouragement through developing meaningful relationships that are based on the Word of God, all so that the journeyer can get further as he travels, to help them advance. As we study this word, propempo, I think we can break it down into two primary categories, pretty simply. The first one means to invest by equipping, to invest by equipping through finances and other material means. It means to outfit for the journey so that the traveler goes further. I want you to think about this. When missionaries go further, the gospel goes further. Further with the gospel, that's a good thing. That's an important thing. I want you to just think about these biblical references that show us that this means meeting the financial needs the missionary, of the church planter, so that they can go further. Acts 15 and verse number 3, Paul and Barnabas are in Antioch. They're updating their sending church on their missionary efforts. And while they're there in Antioch, it is decided that Paul and Barnabas need to go up to Jerusalem to settle a matter about the law and to give an update on their ministry to the church in Jerusalem as well. And in Acts 15 and verse 3, we read this, and being brought on their way by the church, pro pempo. What does that mean? Well, Paul and Barnabas weren't independently wealthy. They couldn't get to Jerusalem unless somebody helped to finance the travel. By the way, how many of you have been on a business trip where your employer said, hey, I need to send you somewhere? How many of you had your employer said, I'm sending you on a business trip, but you're gonna pay the way? That doesn't work that way. The one who sends pays the bill. Who does the sending in the New Testament? The church. God does the calling, but God uses the local church to send, right? And how shall they preach except they be sent? And we understand that the sending agency is the local church, and so Paul and Barnabas have a sending church, a partnering church in Antioch, and being brought on their way, they pass through Phineas and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they cause great joy unto all the brethren. In Romans 15, verse 24, Paul is writing to the Romans. His desire is that he wants to come to Rome. He'd like to minister there in Rome, but he says also, but I'd also like to get to Spain. And so he writes to the church at Rome, and he says this in verse 24 of Romans 15. Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you, for I trust to see you in my journey and to be Brought on my way thitherward to Spain. Romans, I'm gonna need you to finance my trip to Spain so I can get the gospel further. That's what he's saying. We have this idea that, you know, I talk to missionaries a lot. One of my classes that I taught at Candidate School at BIM, I was deputation. I would tell the missionaries all the time, don't be shy to tell people you need money. They're like, I don't wanna ask for money. What are you here for? Let's just be honest. They're here because they understand that deputation is a ministry. And if they don't understand that it's a ministry to encourage people to go with the gospel, then they don't have any business being here. That's the truth. But the bottom line is the bottom line. The Jones aren't here just to be here. They're here because they need a means to get to Alaska. And Kathy Jo needs a means to get to Columbia. And church, they need you to bring them on their way. That's what they need. That's what Paul said to the church at Rome. I'm trying to get to Spain. I need you to get me on my way. In 1 Corinthians 16, verse five and six, Paul is planning his ministry travels. He's coming right to the church at Corinth. He's gonna say, hey, listen, I'm gonna need some help from you. I need some housing while I'm there. Meet my physical needs while I'm there, but also I'm gonna be going further and I'm gonna ask you to help me to get further with the gospel. Here's how we read it. Now when I come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia, for I do pass through Macedonia, and it may be that I will abide with you, yea, and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my journey, watch this, whithersoever I go, further with the gospel. 2 Corinthians 1 and verse number 16, Paul's planning another ministry trip. He's gonna go to Macedonia, Achaia, and to Judea. And here's what he says, and to pass by you to Macedonia and to come again out of Macedonia unto you and of you be brought on my way propempo to Judea. In Titus 3 and verse number 13, Paul uses this word again. And I really love that he uses it in Titus 3 and verse number 13. Because if you remember, Paul left Titus in Crete to do what? To plant churches, to establish churches, right? In every city, that's what we read in Titus 1 and verse number 5, that you need to plant and establish churches in every city. And sometimes, Church planters forget that they're supposed to be a part of sending others. We never partner with a church planting missionary. We never partner with a missionary without this question being asked. Are you going to help others go further with the gospel as well? Because everybody's supposed to be involved in this, helping others go with the gospel. And if they say, well, we're just church planters. We're going to have a need. Then usually we don't partner with them. What we want to hear is, oh, yes, we are going to. Churches that we've planted, from day one, first service, take a missionary on, first order of business. Because all of us need to be involved in this propempo of getting the gospel further. And Paul says to Titus, a church planter, in verse number 13 of Titus 3, brings Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos, we know he's a preacher, on their journey diligently that nothing be wanting unto them, propempo. This is what Gaius was doing when we read about him in verse six of 3 John. He was bringing others forward on their journey. Now, I understand, I understand that we live in less than stellar economic times. And I've been doing this long enough to know this. While this church has tremendous participation, it probably doesn't have 100% participation. Though it should, and that should be the goal. 100% participation in this idea of propempo, get the gospel further. But there's always somebody who is thinking this, and I understand it, I truly do. I checked the checkbook and there's more month than there is money. So I just can't afford this. You don't understand my situation. If you understood my situation, you wouldn't be telling me this because you would understand I can't afford this. I don't even want to argue that point with you, but I would like to give you God's point of view. The Bible says in 1 John 3 and verse number 17, but whoso hath this world's good and seeth his brother have a need, and shut up his balls of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? The word good in verse three, in verse 17, really important word. It's the word bios. It means that which is necessary to sustain life. I've been surveying the crowd ever since I got up and it appears to me that everybody in the room is alive. And therefore we can logically conclude that you have that which is necessary to sustain life. Now you may not have a lot, but you have something that is sustaining your life. And I want us to notice that John says, but who hath this world's good, this bios, that which sustains life, and seeth his brother hath a need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? John Paul, come up here just quickly, just super, super quick. I wanna do this. John Paul, are you saved? You have trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Nice and loud to the church. Did you hear that, church? Okay, get up here really high, because I need to make sure that they see you. Okay, he says he's saved, that makes him our brother. Okay, did God call you and your family to go to Alaska to plant churches? Yes, sir. Are you gonna go to Alaska to get the gospel further? Yes, sir. Can you get there alone? Are you independently wealthy or do you need some help? I need help. So can we understand tonight that if God called him to get to Alaska, he has a need? He actually, we could say it this way, he needs to get there because God told him to get there. Do we see Him? If I'm living and breathing, I have bios. I see His need. If I don't help to meet that need, how does the love of God dwell in me? Thank you. Sit down. You say, oh, you just set us up. Well, let me give you a Jesus example. You remember one day when Jesus was in the temple and He was observing the offering? By the way, I think He still does that. As he was observing the offering, he was observing the hearts of those who were giving. By the way, I think he still does that. And he comments on that process in Mark 12, verse 41 through verse 44. Jesus sat over against the treasury and he beheld how the people cast money into the treasury. He's not really so concerned with how much, by the way. It's how they did it, with what attitude. Because God loves a cheerful giver. And many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing, the smallest amount of money known in that day. And he called unto him his disciples, and he saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than all they which cast into the treasury, by the way, the rich people who gave of their abundance. "'For all they did give of their abundance,' he says, "'but she of her want did cast in all that she had, "'even all her living.'" You know what the word living is? Bios. She had two mites. It was everything she was expecting to sustain her life with, and she gave it all to God, every bit of it. I see the consideration of the Savior. He's just watching how people are giving, and He's just paying attention to what's going on. I see a confident servant. She gives without fretting, and I see a comparison that is stated. Jesus isn't critical of those who gave of their abundance. Read 2 Corinthians 8 sometime. Some gave to their power, some beyond their power. Some to their ability, beyond their ability. Jesus is not being critical. He's just saying that she gave more. Why? Because she gave everything she was expecting to use to sustain her life. And here's what I would say. Her way of giving took more faith. And anything that takes more faith is more pleasing to God, because without faith, it is impossible to please Him. So as we consider propempo and meeting the needs physically to get people further with the gospel, we can say, well, I don't have it, but God has a different view. Then number two, just quickly, this word propempo, and I wish I could spend more time on this, but church, you get this. I've observed, you do get it, but I wanna encourage you in it. It means to invest emotionally, to invest emotionally. Do you know what most missionaries do in their prayer letters? I know I was a missionary. I wrote prayer letters. Do you know what they do? They always tell the truth, but here's what they do. They withhold information. They withhold information. You know what information they withhold? They don't tell you about their personal trials. They don't tell you about the deatrophies in the church. They don't tell you about all the difficulties they're facing. I never wrote one time about Mrs. Pauley and all my interactions with her in language school. We don't tell those stories. They don't tell how hard it is to raise their family in a culture that is so different. They don't tell how it's hard for their family to be the outsiders in everything that they do. They don't talk about the difficulties that their children go through. They don't talk about what it means to travel from place to place to place to place to church to church to church so that they can go further with the gospel and how it wears their families out. They don't talk about those things. Every missionary on Prayer Letter Day is having a great day. They're withholding information. You want to know why? because most churches have not established a relationship with them based on the truth, but more on personality and preferences, and they are scared that they're gonna lose support. They are scared that they're gonna sound like whiners and complainers. They are scared that somebody's gonna think they're not fit for the ministry. They are fearful that people are gonna think, what in the world, are they ever gonna make it? They are also, I would say this, probably the number one reason I've never met a missionary who didn't think everybody in the world was called to their field. When I was going to Quebec, I thought everybody should go to Quebec. When I was in Arizona, I thought everybody should be in Arizona. I'm in New England now, I know everybody should be in New England. You know what I don't want to do? I don't want to discourage anybody from going to those places. So I'm not going to write negative things about those things. I'm only going to write the positive things about those things. And what I'm saying is that this word propempo teaches us that it is important that we build our relationships with these missionaries in such a way that they can be comfortable and find somebody to share the truth with because if they don't, sooner or later they're going to burn out and they're going to leave. And you know what somebody's gonna say? I knew they'd never make it. Well, if you knew they would never make it, why didn't you intervene and get in the way? Just think about this. You think the apostle Paul was just a little bit encouraged to go further with the gospel? When he was at Ephesus and he was heading towards Jerusalem and he knew that there was a lot of bad stuff lying ahead of him, and the Bible says in verse 38 of Acts 20, they accompanied him unto the ship. The people accompanied him, propempoed him, went further. I think he was encouraged. They didn't meet his needs physically that day. They met his emotional and spiritual needs. You think he was a little bit encouraged later on in Acts 21 when he's going a little further with the gospel and we get to verse number five and it says that they brought us on their way with their wives and their children until we were out of the city and they kneeled down on the shore and they prayed. You think that Paul may have been a concern for a young man named Timothy, that he might not stick it out, that he might not continue as he told him to do? When he says to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 16, verse number 10, that he, speaking of Timothy, may be with you without fear, for he can work at the work of the Lord as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me, for I look for him with me, brethren." This is what Gaius was doing. He was doing it after a godly sort. He was doing it so that missionaries could go further with the gospel. Church, God bless you for this week. And I mean it with all sincerity. God bless you. What you have done for these missionaries is incredible. What you've done for my wife and I, who are no longer even people serving as missionaries in need of support. You've been so kind and generous to us. God bless you for that. And it's exciting to get behind these and get them down the road. But who's going to encourage them next month? And who's going to encourage them next year? And who's going to encourage them when they get to Alaska? And who's going to remember to text them? And who's going to remember to call them? And who's going to remember to write to them and say, hey, just keep staying by the stuff because I'm for you. I'm with you. I'm praying for you. You will never know what a text that you send to a missionary means to a missionary on the field at any one given moment. Pro pempo.