All right, we'll go to the book of 3 John. Book of 3 John. Trust that you had a good prayer time. I know we'll take that list with us and be praying for one another. And I try to get it sent out by email either Thursday or Friday of each week. And I know there are some who maybe use the list off of your phone. Some may use the paper copy. But we will continue to pray for one another. So thank you for your prayers and for caring for one another. Book of 3 John, 3 John, and we will just quickly go back through. these individuals and then I want to move on to Romans 16 and there is a long list of names in Romans 16 that I'd like to at least get started in talking about several of the individuals in Romans 16 as we have been looking at various epistles and at the end of some of Paul's epistles or John's epistles there will be the mention of particular people who have been companions in the ministry. or in the case of a diatrophies, a challenge or a conflict in the ministry. And so we'll be looking at some more of these names. Some of them are relatively unknown and it's been interesting doing some study. Some things we know a little bit more because of church history. They're mentioned by the early church fathers or their name is brought up again in some manner in church history. But some of them we only know what we read in the Word of God at the conclusion of these epistles. But the book of 3 John, we see the individuals Gaius, Diotrephes, and Demetrius. We spent a considerable amount of time already talking about Gaius. And he was a good friend to John, well-beloved, beloved. He was a friend according to the truth or in the truth. And he was a man who was spiritually prosperous, though it appears that he had some health issues, maybe some financial setbacks, but he was a very giving man. He was very supportive of the church, of the pastor, and the evangelists, the itinerant preachers, one of whom, it appears, was Demetrius. And we know that Gaius was a man who had a very important role there in that church, though we are not sure exactly which church. It was more than likely there in Western Turkey. And he was supportive of the church in great contrast to Diotrephes. He encouraged Demetrius, and John was encouraging him to continue to support him. Whether Demetrius was the pastor or just an itinerant preacher, we know that Gaius had an important role even in encouraging that young man in his ministry. And then we talked about principles of ministry giving. I know this is not in the outline that's in the prayer list, since we had that in the prayer bolts in the last couple of weeks. We talked about the motive in ministry giving, his namesake, a gospel cause, the truth, not for money. We see that principle in verse 7 as well as in these other passages, 2 Corinthians 2, 1 Timothy 5, and then the importance of the church supporting the ministry of missionaries, evangelists, the going forth of the gospel to every creature, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the outermost parts of the earth. It's not the church's responsibility to solicit funds from the unsaved, to partner with unsaved groups and organizations and various kinds of fundraisers. No, the church is given the responsibility to support the pastors and the missionaries, the evangelists, and the various gospel ministries. And we spent a considerable amount of time talking about that. I won't rehearse all of that. And then as we do give, as we are cheerful givers, willing givers, giving out of a heart of love, giving back what God already has, what God already owns, and we are just giving a portion back of what already belongs to him in love and appreciation, In response to his great love for us, we then, as givers, participate in the ministry as fellow helpers to the truth, found there in John, 3 John, verse number 8. And then we talked about diatrophies, and he was a man who loved power in the church. He abused that power. casting people out of the church in some way. He was influential in driving people out of the church, strong-arming them out. We're not sure exactly how, but he was even trying to prevent the ministry of Demetrius and other preachers, evangelists, that apparently were ministering in the church. He would not receive the brethren. He was a malicious gossip, preying against us with malicious words. He was spreading evil reports. and rumors, false witness. He was a false witness and was involved in putting people out of the church. Again, we won't go into all this again, but we then come to Demetrius. So, quick review there of Gaius and Diatrophes, and then we see a verse here. Verse 12, 3rd John, verse 12, Demetrius hath good report of all men and of the truth itself, yea, and we also bear record, and ye know that our record is true. So there was a testimony that this young preacher, Demetrius, had, a good testimony, hath good report of all men and of the truth itself. His character was in keeping with the truth. Here is a young man, apparently a young preacher, possibly the pastor, possibly just an itinerant preacher, evangelist passing through. He was being strong-armed in some way by diatrophies, but he had a good testimony. And he had a character about him, an integrity of life. And we see John is encouraging Gaius to be supportive of Demetrius, and no doubt, in turn, and through Gaius, and through this letter, John was encouraging Demetrius. John had been a young preacher, a young pastor, a young man in the ministry at some point. He knew what that was like. He had been with Jesus as, obviously, an apostle, and had spent time with Jesus as an apostle, as one of his disciples, one of the 12. And John had been taught specifically and personally by Jesus himself, but John had some growth that he had to go through. He was a son of Zebedee, a son of thunder. He was a man with passion, who at one point was overzealous with his passion and his zeal, wanting to bring down fire on someone who was not doing right or living out the way they should, living the way they should. And James and John were very passionate for the truth and were thankful for that. We see that in John, in his epistles, in the book of Revelation, in his gospel. He had a very exalted view of His Savior, Jesus Christ, the theme and the doctrinal themes in the book of John. We went through the book of John over more than a year of messages, primarily on Sunday mornings. And we went through the book of John and we saw a lot of those theological themes and the overarching theme of His gospel, that Jesus is the Son of God. emphasizing that we may know that we have eternal life and that eternal life is found only in Christ. John had a great passion for the truth and he was thankful for Gaius' determination and commitment to the truth and he was encouraging Demetrius and encouraging Demetrius through Gaius and through this letter and hoping to come as we read there in verse 14, but I trust I shall shortly see thee and we shall speak face to face. So even I would imagine John was hoping to be able to encourage Demetrius in person. And if I can just take a little bit of time here and share a little bit, I don't want this to come across the wrong way, but one of the things that I have experienced and that I have been trying to do with young people, I know what it's like to feel the pressure of having the call of God on my life and having to work through that as a teenager. and being in a preacher boy's class, and just really trying to seek the Lord, and just knowing that the Lord seemed to be leading me in the direction of ministry, and understanding the call to preach, and working with my youth pastor, who was an extremely valuable influence in my life, and I love Pastor Wayne. He's a tremendous man of God, faithful man of God, still pastoring up in North Liberty, Indiana. He was instrumental in my life and one of the ones whom God used to help me know God's call upon my life, though it was ultimately obviously God's call. Nevertheless, God used Pastor Wayne. But I understand some of the pressure of being in a Preacher Boys class and sensing God's call to the ministry and some of that pressure that comes. When a young person comes to me and says, I am thinking about ministry. I feel like God may be calling me to the mission field to preach, to be in ministry. I want to be very sensitive to that, but I also don't want to put unnecessary pressure on them. And I also don't want it to become a matter of pride. So I'm not saying that this is always the way to do it, but I don't necessarily take a young person and immediately put them behind the pulpit, immediately put them on the platform and give them opportunities to preach or exalt them, put them on a pedestal and say, here's the next missionary kid or the next preacher who's called from our church. I want to be careful about that. Some of that comes from my own experience. I'm thankful I had a good experience. I had a lot of supportive people in my home church. I had a very supportive pastor and youth pastor, but I felt the pressure of having that impression, that sense of God's call in my life, and as a young person, I knew what it was like to be under the microscope, so to speak. And so I couldn't do anything wrong in school, because you ain't one of the preacher boy. Right? If you understand what I'm saying. And so I had to live perfect, and I couldn't live perfect. It was impossible. I'm still not perfect, surprisingly. No, just kidding. Just kidding, just kidding. No, no, no. I am far from perfect, even to this day. But as a teenager, you know what the pressures are as a young person. You know how it is as a young person to feel all the peer pressure, and then for us in the preacher boys class, I know that there was some increased pressure And as I sensed God's call in my life, and as I had opportunities to preach, and as my youth pastor would give me opportunities in nursing homes and in sermon contests and at the rescue mission downtown, and as I went to Bob Jones as a Bible major, And people knew that. And again, I had a lot of support, but I understood the pressure. I also have seen young people who were wanting to serve the Lord, but they didn't know where and how. And I've seen young people get put up on a pedestal, and they were told by a mom or a dad or a pastor or a youth pastor that they were called. And it was a little too early. had a lot of pressure on them and then they struggled with that pressure and they struggled with that call and I've seen some not be able to go forward with that or then they feel guilty because They don't pursue the ministry when they get older, and yet there was all this pressure because someone had exalted them into a position of ministry before they were even an adult, before they could even pursue that in a full-time way or through their education. And so I don't want that to be understood the wrong way. I want to encourage young people in the ministry. I hope that God calls multiple young people from our church to serve in a vocational ministry. But there's all sorts of vocations that our young people can be called to that can still be very active and faithful in serving the Lord in their local church and not be a vocational ministry. But if a young person is called to vocational ministry, by all means, let's encourage them and let's support them. But let's not put undue pressure on them. Let's not make them a pastor or a missionary and evangelist before they have fully sensed and experience that call in their life, and before maybe they even get their education. And sometimes we need to encourage them and support them, give opportunity to them, but not put unnecessary pressure on them. And I hope that that makes sense. I hope that I'm not saying that the wrong way. But just again, from my own experience of having had some of that pressure, from having watched some young people get a big head and get kind of a holier-than-thou kind of attitude, I'm called, I'm the preacher, I'm the missionary, and then they get that arrogance, they get that pride. I've seen some struggle with that, and I've seen some that just struggle under the pressure. And they feel like they have to be perfect, and they can't do anything wrong. And then there's too much pressure that way, and they struggle with that. So I want to be sensitive. I want to encourage young people. When a young person comes to me and says, I'm sensing God's call on my life concerning the ministry, I say, praise the Lord. And then I give them some practical things. I'll often tell them, you need to serve right now. You need to be faithful right now. You don't need to necessarily think that you've got to immediately be exalted to the place behind the pulpit or have your name in lights, so to speak. You need to be faithful in the little things right now. And as you are faithful in the little things, then God will give you more and God will give you greater. And let God do the exalting. And sometimes I've seen young people try to run ahead of the Lord and they get in the way of God, so to speak. And I don't want that to happen. And then there'll be discouragement. or there be pride, and then there be issues with that. So a little bit of my heart concerning young people and how we can encourage them and support them in the ministry, and as they sense God's call in their life, how we can come alongside them and help them with that, but not put unnecessary pressure on them, nor exalt them in pride. As a matter of fact, in the ministry of the Mosaic Law for priests, my understanding is for them to be In certain duties of the priesthood, they had to be 30 years of age. Not that that's the time that we have to set for a preacher today, but I think in the priesthood it was 30 before they could involve themselves in certain priestly duties. Jesus himself was around the age of 30 when he began his public ministry. Again, that's not to say that there can't be a preacher who's 21, 22 years of age and be in the pulpit. I know a young man who was about 25, and he was pastoring a big church at the age of 25, and I thought, wow, what a tremendous responsibility that is. As far as I know, he is still serving faithfully there, but that's unusual, especially for a ministry that big. But you even look at the qualifications of the pastor, in Titus and in Timothy, and it says, not a novice. So that's something that we have to be careful about, too, is not just put somebody in who's not mature, not ready, maybe he's young in the faith, not mature enough in the faith. Also, Paul talks about lay hands suddenly upon no man. In other words, be very careful who you lay hands on, who you say, by the leading and the guidance of the Lord, as the church sends out a pastor, puts his blessings, the church puts their blessings on him, or that missionary, or that evangelist, or whatever the case may be, before the church agrees with God about the person's call and acknowledging that call. Assess that person's character. assess their qualifications, and that's why it's so important that a pulpit committee do their due diligence, and they'll never find the perfect pastor. Some churches, they are looking for the perfect pastor, and they can't find them. They're not out there. You didn't get a perfect pastor, and you know that. You found that out very quickly. But there's a need to run a man, in a sense, through the checks on purpose, doctrine and character and the qualifications, it's important. Some churches, they get in too big of a hurry, and the pulpit committee gets a certain individual that they get focused on, and then they're really not the right person, and we just have to be careful in those things. So, hope that makes sense. I know I've kinda gone a little bit of a rabbit trail with this, with Demetrius, but I thought it was important that we speak to this. and I thought Demetrius would be a good opportunity to do so. So then let's go over to Romans chapter 16, Romans chapter number 16. We'll just be able to get started here. We cannot go through an exhaustive list in Romans 16, but we will try to at least touch on most or many of these individuals. The first one in Romans 16, as Paul is concluding his epistle to the Romans, to the church at Rome, He begins in Romans 16, and throughout the chapter, he names several individuals. And so again, I wanna remind us of the importance of community of ministry companions. The fact that as a church family, we are a family, we're a called out group of believers in a local assembly, and we need each other. Again, as I see in the news and I hear all about the loneliness epidemic, I've mentioned this before, that even a Orthodox Jew, conservative, I listen to his podcast regularly, I enjoy his conservative politics, I don't always agree with some of his conclusions, but even he said, And this is coming from an Orthodox Jew who doesn't even believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He says the cure for the loneliness epidemic in America is church. Now, he threw in synagogue and he threw in the mosque, you know, your particular religious community. Obviously, I'm throwing out a non-gospel community. Again, there's a human bond. There's a social aspect to all of us as humans made in the image of God, in the image and likeness of God, as people. We are social creatures. Some are more social than others. But we have a social nature because of the way God made us. Because God is a person, three persons in one essence. I know he's one God, the Trinity. But there is personality with God. There is personhood with God. He's a social God who desires a relationship with us through Jesus Christ. He wants to spend eternity with us. He has a perfect relationship in the Trinity as one essence, three persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So we see again the importance of each person in the church. And as we have opportunity, as God brings people into our sphere of ministry, let's reach out. Let's try to involve them, evangelize if we sense that they're not a believer, edify and encourage and try to strengthen them, build them up in the faith, help them in their walk with God, opportunities that God gives us. And we see the importance of our church family. And as a community, we come together for worship, for praising, for edifying, singing, We talked about that even again on Sunday night, and even our congregational singing is a way of speaking the truth to one another. And we know from Hebrews 10 and verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching. We need each other even more, do we not, as we see the way the world is going, how important it is for us to come together. And we see Paul, we see John, and their love for people. their desire to acknowledge, I know they're writing by the inspiration of God, but does it not also show the heart of God for his people and for his church and for us serving together and being fellow helpers in the ministry and co-labors? And we see Phoebe, and we'll have to just talk about her tonight and then we'll pick up next week with some others. But Phoebe, we see in Romans 16 and verse 1, I commend unto you Phoebe our sister which is a servant of the church which is at Centuria. Does anybody know Phoebe? Does anybody know anybody named Phoebe? Once in a while. Okay, there's a few of you. Once in a while I see a name, I see someone named Phoebe. Phoebe is actually another name for, or representative or name for the god Apollos, but obviously the name Phoebe does not have that connotation anymore, and by the time she was named here, she had obviously left any kind of association with the Greek gods. She obviously was a born-again Christian faithful in the church, and we see four characteristics of Phoebe. She was a servant of the church in Centria, Centuria was the eastern port of the city of Corinth. So Corinth was on an, I'm not going to be able to pronounce it right, an isthmus, isthmus, isthmus, and Corinth had a port facing Europe to the west and a port to the east facing Asia, and Centria was the port city on the east facing Asia. Now, I would be, however you want to do that, if you want to think of terms on a map, I don't have it, but facing the east would be Centria toward Asia, and that's where she was involved in her local church. She is said here, verse number two, that ye receive her in the Lord as become a saint and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you, for she hath been a sucker of many and of myself also. She is to be received in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints. Okay, this goes beyond Chick-fil-A customer service. Okay, this is more than just my pleasure, or something along that line. This is a Christian love, a bond in Christ according to the truth, and a genuine love for one another to see that individual, their needs met, that their faith grow, that they see the Lord in our lives, and that they see the Lord in how we relate to one another. And Phoebe was, a person who apparently was a giver, was a servant. It's mentioned here that in verse number two, that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you, for she hath been a sucker of many and of myself also. It's an older English word, sucker, which has the idea of compassion, the idea of helping, of meeting a need. And we see that Phoebe had this reputation in the church. She was a giver. She was a servant. She was a person, her name literally, see if I can find it here in my notes, her name literally means bright and radiant. We even get the word servant here. The word servant here is actually from that word we get deacon or deaconess. So some have even ascribed to her the title of deaconess. Not that she had an official office in the church as a deaconess, but that was what she was. She was a servant. Apparently she was helping in the ministry in the early church. It was common for the older women to be helping the poor, helping widows in the church, helping in children's ministries. And we also know from Paul's writings to Timothy that the older women were to help the younger women, to teach the younger women. And there were several things that Paul listed in, I believe it's in 1st or 2nd Timothy, I forget the exact reference, of the things that the older women were to be helping the younger women with. And that was Phoebe. Phoebe was an older woman, apparently, who took her ministry very seriously. And no doubt, she was one who found younger women in the church and reached out to them and assisted and helped them. Helped with the poor, helped with the children's ministry. She was a compassionate, giving person who loved others. And Paul is saying, receive her. She may have even been the one who delivered the letter of the epistle to Rome. She may have even been the one who delivered it. And he is saying, receive her. She has done much for you. Think about her life. She has been a faithful person in the church, helped many, a servant, probably even a teacher, probably giving even of her own wealth and resources. And he says, receive her in the Lord with compassion and He is commending her for her integrity and for her character. That's where we'll have to stop tonight. We'll have to come back and we'll continue in Romans 16, Lord willing, next week. But I hope this has been a help and encouragement to us. Thank you so much for being here and for your faithfulness. And I hope that you enjoy a little bit of fellowship and a reminder to the deacons of our meeting, membership meeting. We'll start that in about 10 minutes or so, but let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for these examples in your word. Help us, Lord, to be like a Demetrius, a Phoebe. Help us, Lord, to have the integrity and the character, the giving spirit, the love and the compassion, and, Lord, to be faithful servants in your church for your glory. Guide and direct our lives through the remainder of the week. Thank you, Lord, for the faithfulness of your people and for the truth of your word that encourages us and helps us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Have a great rest of the week. We look forward to seeing you on Sunday.