True Love

Good morning. I don't recommend Googling true love. I'll admit that the results were amusing, and as an 80s love song apologist, it was a big distraction on my sermon prep. But they're also subtly very dangerous. The world bombards us through movies and music and advertisements of false definitions of love. Let me just give you a few examples you might recognize. Cause I got a couple dents in my fender, a couple rips in my jeans, try to fit the pieces together, but perfection is my enemy. On my own I'm so clumsy, but on your shoulders I can see I'm free to be me. And another, love lift us up where we belong, where the eagles cry on a mountain high. Love lift us up where we belong, far from the world we know, up where the clear wind blow. And finally, one more. In my life, there's been heartache and pain. I don't know if I can face it again. Can't stop now, I've traveled so far to change this lonely life. I want to know what love is. I want you to show me. Amazing song, really bad lyrics. Or a line from a famous movie. I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you. Do you see the themes that run through each of these examples? Worldly love is defined as feeling unjudged, free to be me, expressing myself, self-entitlement, you complete me. Sound familiar? And we find ourselves in a world now in which any time we might suggest that someone is at fault, is using poor judgment, is failing morally, that we are branded as judgmental, as bigoted, as unloving, as intolerant. What is most loving is to meet everyone and to accept everyone right where they are. And let's admit that this worldview is attractive and it's seductive as it feeds our desire to be fulfilled through our whims and our own passions. But it's a massive lie that perverts the true definition of love because it maximizes me. It's nothing but an idol. It places us at the center of our lives. Biblical love, on the other hand, describes true love very, very differently. It's a love that preserves, that does not expect reciprocation, that serves not to be served, but simply to put the interests of others above yourself. And biblical love is a daily choice that you make. It's not something that you fall into or something that just happens to you. Biblical love has boundaries and rules of engagement and provides clarity on what is expected and what is off limits. And most importantly, most importantly, it is not conditional on anything that the subject of that love does. And of course, that true love was manifested, was perfectly displayed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the all-powerful, all-knowing creator God who descended to take on our created form. and then took the full wrath of God we deserved so that we can have new life. Jesus himself said that greater love has no one than this, to lay down your life for others. Friends, that is true love. But Christ then asks us as a visible group of believers, of Christians, to emulate that love, to express it back to each other and to the world through the church. Christianity, you see, is a corporate enterprise. There's no such thing as free agency in Christianity. Christ's faith and love through us is meant to be lived out, surrounded by other saints, surrounded by other believers. But how does that work? How do we possibly reflect such a perfect model of love? We'll turn with me to the book of 3 John. You'll find that on page 1026, if you're using the Pew Bible, in front of you near the very back of the Bible. And let me just say, if you're here visiting and you don't own a Bible, please take that with you. It contains the words of life. This book is how our Creator speaks to us. 3 John, page 1026. the elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to, and puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name. Father, I pray that your words would be mine, that this would be authentic, that it would be accurate, and it would be convicting. In Jesus' name, amen. In this short little treasure of a book, the Apostle John, this is the same individual that wrote the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, writes to his good friend Gaius. Now unlike in John's second letter that is strangely addressed to someone called the Elect Lady, which was most likely the personification of a local church and was meant to be addressed to that entire congregation, I think it's clear here that Gaius is probably a real person. holding some type of leadership position in a local church. Scholars debate and have various views on exactly who this individual is. Many link him to one of the three different Gaius figures that appears in other parts of the New Testament. But if you can believe it, Gaius was actually a very common name in the first century, similar to John might be today. And so I'm not sure how important it is to speculate on which Gaius this might have been. What we can be sure of, however, is that he was a person that John knew well. and that he loved dearly. John introduces himself as the elder, rather than by his name, which suggests the recipient is both familiar with John and recognizes him as having some level of spiritual authority. We also see him refer to Gaius with really intimate language, don't we? Dear friend, one of his children. So we could also deduce that Jonas played a significant role in teaching and caring for this Gaius, perhaps even being partly responsible for his conversion at one time. Now, to truly understand John's main thrust and motivation in this third letter, or epistle as we sometimes call it, we need to consider all three of his letters together very briefly. We need to frame our study here in third John, in John's larger arc, or his larger message. Because first John, in many ways, the first letter, is the treatise that provides a foundation to grasp the very specific issues that John tackles and deals with in second and third John. As we read from 1st to 3rd John, there is progression from theology to practical application, from general to specific, from the source of love to our response to that love. It's even been suggested that these three letters were originally part of a packet that went together. And under this view, 1 John was a sermon for general distribution. 2 John was to be read aloud at Gaius' church. And 3 John was a personal letter to Gaius, commending the courier, the individual that was bringing the letter, Demetrius. And whether this is true or not, I think it's a helpful way to understand the interdependence and progression of the three. Because the danger, of course, if we read 3 John in isolation, which is the most vivid and the most specific of the letters, is that we assume it was so situational to these individuals, so specific on whether to provide hospitality or not to these traveling missionaries, that we skim through it without marinating in some of its deeper meaning. So if you don't mind, keep your finger in 3 John. Just turn a couple pages back to 1 John on page 1022. 1 John 3, and bear with me as we just look at a couple verses here that I think will help us prepare to turn back to 3 John. 1 John 3.1, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. As all Christians should be, John is overwhelmed with the reality that Christ has forgiven our sins and adopted us as his children. You can hear his overwhelming thanks and almost unbelief in this amazing gift. And it's because of Christ's self-sacrificial love on the cross, the very definition of true love, as I said a few moments ago, that does redeem us to new life. We love properly and we love the proper things only because he loved us first. and gave us new life. Look down a little bit further in chapter four, verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. This love is so amazing, so earth shattering, so life changing, that it must starkly separate those that are living for Christ and those that are still living for themselves. There's no gray, there's no middle ground, no confusion over who's for him and who's against him as this new life in Christ that John's writing about must look radically different than the old life and the lives of most of those in today's culture. And let me just say that if you're here visiting with us, if you're here as a guest, we are so thankful that you're here. We're thrilled that you're worshiping with us. And if you don't know this amazing love, if you've not experienced the joy of ridding yourself of being pardoned from that burden of sin and that guilty charge before a holy God, before your creator, please talk to someone after the service. That's the most important thing you can hear today because what awaits you is a freedom and a peace in knowing that you have been deemed innocent by the righteous blood of Christ. But if you're already a beneficiary of this special unparalleled love, if you've placed your faith in Christ, you will extend that love to others. John, in fact, uses pretty confrontational language to describe the hypocrisy of those that claim to know the love of God, and yet don't extend that love of Christ to others. He calls us liars, deceived. John has a way to put a knot in our stomach pretty quickly, doesn't he? So in chapter two, verse five, John can say confidently, this is how we know we were in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. Or in 3.16, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Do you see John's main point here? We must love each other since God loved us first. If we are truly in Christ, we will love and lay down our lives for one another. The acceptance of Christ's good news and the resulting new contours of our life are completely intertwined. They are inseparable. And isn't this the biggest Achilles heel of Christendom of the evangelical church today? Hypocrisy? How often have you heard that from your unbelieving neighbors or perhaps scarred former church members? Oh, can't imagine going back to church or going to church. Just a bunch of hypocrites. I'm sad to say that in many cases they're probably right. Because how can a group of individuals that claim to be followers of Christ, that claim that the creator God from the beginning of time actually descended to live amongst us, to live the life we couldn't live, to die a death on a cross in our place, absorbing the wrath and the punishment that we deserved, and then to rise three days later, conquering sin and death forever, giving us a righteousness from him. How can we claim that amazing love and then go on living just as we did before, looking no different than anyone else in this world? Hypocrisy indeed. Hypocrisy indeed. This truth changes everything. New affections, new desires, new priorities, new appetites. It must change everything. And so John greets Gaius with this reality. I love you in the truth. The truth that God loved me first, the truth that God died in my place, the truth that has restored me to a new life of love. You cannot claim to have new life in Christ if that love does not compel you to love the body of Christ with abandon. True doctrine and fervent devotion must live together. And so he lays out this contrast thoroughly in the first letter between those that are living in the light, loving one another, obedient to his commands, and remaining faithful to the truth, and those living in the darkness, turning their backs on one another, attempting to deceive each other, abandoning the truth. One path is just not compatible with the other. John demands that we must draw lines. There are two ways to live, either for yourself or for God. And that contrast becomes the kernel or the seed that sprouts into this practical advice that we read in his second and his third letter. So now turn back to where you were holding your finger in third John with that larger arc in mind. I'd like to use this situational short letter to draw three ways, three ways that God's love for us should then manifest itself in the local church. John claims because Jesus claimed it first that imitating the love God lavished upon us is what marks off his people. It's what marks off his church. So what does the true love look like for Jefferson Park Baptist Church? If visitors or coworkers or family members will know we are Christians by our love, what should they see when they visit? Three things, first, True love is wholly investing in each other, wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, wholly investing in each other. Look at verse two with me again. John makes a point of saying that he both prays and considers it a source of joy when he hears of his brother and good friend's physical and spiritual health. I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you. So he's clearly talking about physical well-being and needs here. But then he stresses his concern for his spiritual well-being. He says he wishes his soul is getting along well. He goes on to say that he's heard that Gaius continues to walk in the truth for which he has no greater joy. I've had the great joy of worshiping and laboring for this body for about six years now in two separate parts sandwiched two years in London. And from very early on, I've been struck and impressed with how much you serve each other's physical, practical, and health needs. It really is encouraging. The church rallies around fellow members as they battle with illness or conditions, surgical procedures, stays in hospital, needs for transportation or meals, births of new babies, elderly and home visits, as you heard Sam pray for. None of you are looking for fame or recognition, but just simply and quietly caring as faithful church members. But just as I affirm you in this, I want to respectfully challenge us on whether we are investing in the whole self as John models here. In fact, while he clearly articulates the need to do both, the balance of doing both, he seems to point to a priority of spiritual health, doesn't he? He says he has no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in the truth. And so, brothers and sisters of JPBC, are you calibrated? Are you calibrated in your care? Is your relational investment in each other balanced appropriately? Is our greatest joy, like John's, to see each other grow in godliness or simply to be physically healthy? I can't answer that for any of you individually, but ask yourself, how many times a week do you have real conversation, real spiritual conversation with your fellow church members? Are you encouraging them where you see evidences of grace in their life, areas of spiritual growth? Are you asking them specifically where you can pray for them? What sin are they struggling with? What are they battling with? Where are they failing in temptation? Are you challenging them on their spiritual disciplines, their Bible reading, their prayer life, their family devotions? Are you discussing the sermons? Brothers and sisters, there is no better way to encourage each other than discussing the sermon. This is how our God speaks, as I said earlier. Discussing how the Lord is using his word and boasting in it and how he's moving and blessing and shaking us and convicting us through the preaching of the word. What about the last time you asked someone to read through a book together? Or to meet regularly over coffee to talk about their journey, their walk with God? If these don't define your relationships, perhaps we're not calibrated. So certainly we should pray for physical healing and health, but be sure to prioritize the only healing that really matters eternally. God promised that he would finish the work that he started in each of us, and what a tremendous honor it is that we can corporately participate in that, and even sometimes be God's agents, his instruments in each other. I also want you to see some great wisdom that sometimes can get lost in the conclusion of the letter. If you're anything like me, you can sometimes grow numb to the repetition of the greetings and the conclusions of these New Testament letters, but they are all God's word and therefore all worthy of our attention. And here there's perhaps a buried gem in his closing. Look at the very end, verse 13 and 14. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face. John places special emphasis on the importance of face-to-face relationships. And this is very important for us to hear in the modern-day West, particularly the younger generation amongst us, when friends, quote, friends, are now defined as your network on social media. And let's be honest, social media is really quite antisocial in many cases. The technological advances have created a world where it's very easy to hide behind Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Snapchat. And John seems to be saying that these artificial means of communication can only go so far. In order to truly invest in the whole self, we must have more intimate personal relationships. Now, to be honest, Facebook has helped me remember your birthday, and it allows me to more efficiently stay in contact and express my sympathy at times and prayers and share and congratulations. And that can be very helpful and encouraging for all of us. But if we're not careful, it can become a little bit too effortless and efficient, can it? In fact, most of the time, social media is more about us being exhibitionists than rather than investing in the lives of others. Just ran five miles. How you like this new outfit? Check out this link to an awesome sermon on 3rd John. Definitely not posting that. Technology-driven conversations and contact does not equal a real relationship. These tools can certainly supplement and help the relationship flourish, but they must not masquerade as a substitute for truly and sacrificially investing in someone's life. So invest wholly in each other, balancing the physical and spiritual care and prioritizing face-to-face relationships. True love embraces the corporate responsibility of missions and evangelism. Look back at me at verse five. Beloved, it is a faithful thing that you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testify to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, for they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. John's original motivation, as we mentioned earlier, seems disproportionately, very specifically geared towards guiding us on how to discern how to provide hospitality or whether to provide hospitality to traveling missionaries. In 2 John, we didn't look at that today, but again, stressing the progression of these letters, he was warning the church of taking in false teachers into their home, those that had abandoned the teaching of Christ, denying the incarnation, the deceivers, he called them in that letter. Well, here we're seeing the mirror image of that message. He's commending Gaius for his faithfulness, his love, his treatment, his help, and his hospitality, and sharply rebuking Diotrephes for refusing to do so, and his opposition against those that wish to. And so we have this great contrast of the warning in the second letter and the positive instruction of the third. and good counsel on determining whether or not to provide hospitality. So now, today in central Virginia, we don't have a lot of traveling missionaries anymore. How do we make sense of this? Back then, of course, as the Roman Empire was consolidating and the road system was beginning to be modernized, the gospel spread through these traveling missionaries just after the time of Christ was greatly accelerated. So you had this army of evangelists passing through Gentile towns, finding the inns gross and notoriously dirty, unsafe, dishonorable. And they went looking, therefore, for Christians to host them. And it's that common dilemma that John is addressing here, namely, whose missionary work do we share in? How do we know whether these are the deceivers or the faithful? And I think that's our question for today. Whose ministry and missional work are we sharing in? Are you sharing in? John makes it very clear in verse 7 that missionaries are going to receive no help from the pagans, from the world. And we know from today that the world continues to marginalize funding for Christian ministries, in some cases even placing obstacles in their ability to operate simply because of the Christian convictions that they hold. Missionaries don't operate on commission. They have no pension in most cases, no company car, no expense account. Brothers and sisters, it is our responsibility, the church's, Jefferson Park Baptist Church, to bring the gospel to all nations, baptizing them and teaching them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Paul writes in Romans 1, I am obligated to both the Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I'm so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. Because Christ owns us, we owe Christ to the world. We are in debt to the nations because Christ has forgiven our debt. That is our calling. Anything less than passionate involvement in global missions sells God's plan and his purpose for us short. Local ministry and evangelism is important, but it is simply not enough. We're called to much, much more. Do you know there are 7 billion humans in the world and nearly half the population has no formative church? Very little Christian witness? And about a billion of those individuals have never even heard the name Jesus and the gospel. So are you sharing in the work of our missionaries? We may not have the opportunity to host them like back then very often, although if you didn't pick it up, the Phillips are here in one week. So I expect you to show up for that one now. But nonetheless, we don't typically get to host our missionaries. But how are you participating in their ministry, as it says in verse six, in a manner that honors God? How do our missionaries fit into your budget? And by that, I mean all of your budgets in the greatest sense of the word. Most obvious is your financial budget. Are you tithing with a joyful heart at a sacrificial level? Because of course, some of our giving goes to support our missionaries. What about your prayer budget? How often are you praying for their needs, for their words to take root in the people that they're speaking to? for revival to explode among the people group that they're serving and living amongst, for the gospel to transform hearts in Shanghai, in Lusaka, in Addis Ababa, in Guinea. How about your time budget? Are there practical needs that you can help with? Are there things that we can do for them, introductions that we can make? Ask Ben to ask them specifically how you can help. Members, have you considered joining one of the short-term missions trips? If you haven't, search your heart as to why, because the typical excuses, and I'm looking in the mirror here too, but the typical excuses of just not enough time, intimidation, perhaps the ones we don't admit, discomfort, aloofness, they're just plain selfishness. And let me pause here. Our brother Andrew Hodge, and just commend him, is on a seven-week trip in which he's going to see three, three of our missionaries in just seven weeks. What an amazing testimony. What a great example of investing and engaging with our missionaries. Thank you to him for such a great model. Perhaps a bit more provocative, what about your parenting budget? Parenting budget. Parents, how are we training up the next generation of missionaries in the Middle East, in Africa, in China, in India, even in Western Europe today? These are hubs of Islam, atheism, and post-Christian humanism. Are we nurturing an urgency to bring the greatest news, life-saving news, to those that are perishing? Do we care? Remember that the safest place, parents, for our children is not in our wealthy suburban incubators, but in the arms and the will of the victorious Lord and His message. Do we believe that? The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. We are called, as John says here, to invest in our missionaries because God first invested in us. To work together for the truth because God first cultivated that truth in us. To enrich their ministry because through the blessings of Christ, God made you eternally rich. We are to be a light to the world, a set-apart people of God, united on a fishing trip, as Jesus called it, for men and women that also belong to him. Missions is a group responsibility. It is an enterprise of the church at large. A little closer to home, as I alluded to earlier, we also do need to participate and encourage each other in evangelism. When you do get together, is evangelism an intentional part of your discussion with your fellow members, asking them about who they've shared the gospel with, praying for those conversations to take root, sharing advice on difficult conversations that they're currently having? Our fellowship and your hospitality is a major tool for us to share in the work of bringing glory to the name of God, through the work of evangelism locally, and across ethnic, cultural, and national lines globally. So how are you participating in missions and evangelism for the collective sake of His name? So true love, one, invests wholly in each other, two, corporately engages in missions and evangelism, and third and finally, true love faithfully and joyfully honors authority. Look back at verse nine with me. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to, and puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. The human race was created to love. We were designed to be motivated by the object of our love. We do what we love to do, don't we? And yet our sin, as we talked about at the beginning, has corrupted what we do love, as you heard from those songs and those movies. When we're living for ourselves rather than our maker and our king, our affections and our love are completely misaligned. Diotrephes loved to be first. He was consumed with being the center of attention, greedy for his own authority and power, wanting to make all the decisions. And this intoxication for making himself great came with a cost of disrespect and slander towards the Apostle John, a cold shoulder to the traveling missionaries, and even exclusion from the church of those that wanted to care for those missionaries. All because of his insatiable appetite for his own preeminence. Diotrephes chose tyranny over love. Now it's very easy for us to point the finger at this troublemaker as just another leader or influential member abusing his power and influence. But doesn't diatrophies often personify our own heart towards any type of authority, if we're completely honest with ourselves? At the time that John is writing, the New Testament model of a plurality of a group of men, a plurality of elders in the local church, was just starting to take shape as the apostolic age was coming to a close. God, before this, had uniquely called a few men the apostles at the close of Jesus' time on earth to lead the establishment of his church. But today, as we read in the New Testament, he raises up groups of men, groups of men from within the church, each church, gifted to teach God's word, models of upright living, to oversee, to pastor, and to shepherd his people. Now whether we as a congregation decide to set aside funds to pay certain elders to labor full-time as we do with Keith or Sam or Ben, or if they have a different daily vocation like Brian, God calls them all his under-shepherds. The Bible uses our English words of pastor and elder interchangeably. It's the same job description requiring the same qualifications. These men are standing in for Christ temporarily, pointing us to him and providing a model of living that is worthy of imitating. Leading the church in purification so as we read in Colossians, they may present us fully mature to Christ one day. This is their labor. This is their calling. And this is hard. This is hard. Do you realize that? The weight of this calling is why Paul writes that elders or pastors are worthy of double honor, that we shouldn't be hasty in appointing them, that they need to be on extra guard from attacks of the devil, and we should be praying as a congregation for their protection, that they will be held to higher accountability before God. They will have to give account for our souls. Our nurture rests in their hands, in a sense. So how are we honoring these four men, our elders? Is your posture more towards them, more like Gaius and Demetrius appear to be? Faithfully supporting, encouraging, yielding, or more like diatrophies, pursuing position, influence, reputation, in competition with the elders. We are called to be united under the supremacy of Christ. And Christ calls us to represent that unity to him through unity to his under shepherds. They are his agents, his representatives. Paul writes in Ephesians that we are to diligently work to keep the unity of the spirit. We are to love unconditionally and be a unifying force in the church. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that we agree with everything they do. In fact, our various opinions should help shape their leadership, but we subordinate our own preference for the benefit of unity. A recent article on the subject I read quoted a former pastor, a former pastor who said this. It is my goal now, for as long as God would have me be simply a sheep and no longer a shepherd, to be as low maintenance as I can manage for my church. I want, when one of the pastors sees me coming, not for them to inwardly sigh or tense up or to have to marshal some extra patience or energy, but to relax a little, smile, and feel safe. Isn't that powerful? Isn't that humbling? Now obviously, congregations are obligated to remove elders that have abandoned the truth, who are bullies, whose life would be in contradiction to their profession. And I certainly don't want to downplay that. That is absolutely our responsibility. But most churches don't need a lot of reminders that they have that responsibility. They tend to rally pretty quickly around that one. But with leadership at JPBC that is devoted to a ministry philosophy saturated in biblical truth, The ordinary means of grace and preaching the word, regular expression of the ordinances like baptism and the Lord's Supper as we're going to partake today, prayer-fueled worship and decision-making, cultivating a culture of discipleship amongst us, that's what they're committed to. We must entrust the church, therefore, to the men that God has provided for that role. Since I've been a Christian, I've now been a member of three very healthy churches and attended two others for extended periods. So you could say that I've known five congregations fairly well. And I can tell you that almost without exception, the root of nearly every dissension and fracture in those churches is personal vanity or personal pride. And that starts with reflecting on my own behavior. Putting your own interests and agenda above that of others. demanding to be at the decision table because you know better, stirring up support of those you can influence to unite against emotion. I've seen it play out over and over again, chiefly in my own heart. And it's no different than what Diotrephes was doing here with John. Christ arrested your heart when you were running from him, and now he asks you to respond by being led by his men. Imperfectly? Yes. Sinful at times? Absolutely. Mistake-free? Far from it. Opt to this overwhelming task only through the complete reliance on the Spirit for wisdom. We are to put on the mind of Christ. Jesus did not consider quality with God something to be used for his own advantage, but he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Is that the mind that you've put on? Are you working for the sake of the name or the sake of your name? Christ's love should reflect like a boomerang right back to your elders with thanksgiving and humility. Brothers and sisters, I know this is really hard. Goodness, I know it's hard, and both the awkwardness and the timeliness of preaching this passage a couple weeks before five more of us are considered as your elders is not lost on me, but it's what the text says. It's what the text says, and it was balm for my soul as a member, and I pray it is for you too. One thing I can absolutely assure you, Lord willing, if I'm called by you to be an elder, is that I will fail you. As will the other four men, the four other sinners that Lord willing will join me in laboring to attempt to model Christ and his word before you. And yes, Keith, Sam, Ben and Brian will continue to make mistakes and fall short as well. We will need your help. We want to hear your disagreements. We need your counsel. We are hungry for your accountability, but we are dependent on your prayer and support. God was not flippant in the design of a plurality of men to lead local bodies. This wasn't plan B. Before the beginning of time, He appointed these exact men to be your shepherds. Is that not comforting to you? What a burden the Lord lifts with that promise. The only other reality I can assure you in the midst of that promise of imperfection is that I've spent hours with these men. both the existing elders and the ones that you will evaluate and vote on in a couple weeks, debating scripture, praying over you, dialoguing about how best to care for you and the way the worship services are structured, discipling each other, even crying over some of you and your challenges. Our God has left us in good hands, I assure you, in good hands. As I close, brothers and sisters, as redeemed people of God, our existence should be completely centered on making God's name great. That is the role of the believer and the purpose of the church, that the manifold wisdom of God should be made known. That's why Chris read from Deuteronomy earlier. Do you remember the purpose of God's call for us to obey his commands and keep his decrees? Was it just a checklist to ensure that we were loyal? Of course not. It was so that others will learn to fear the Lord, to know the living God, to make his name great. A chapter later in that same book, Deuteronomy 7, he calls, God calls the church holy and special to him, his treasured possession. A people whom he set his affection and love on even though they were unworthy. He calls us the least of all peoples. That's us. And now this undeserving love that we receive should overflow amongst us so much that when a visitor walks in this building or into one of our homes, they would find it peculiar, absolutely, awkward and strange, definitely, but deep down attractive. And they'll begin to ask questions about the source of that love. And that's when you'll be able to tell them the glorious life-saving news about their Savior, Jesus Christ. Look around and let your eyes rest on the first fellow member that you spot. It's very likely that their interests are at odd with yours. Their generation or stage in life looks different. Their strengths and weaknesses, I assure you, will be varied. They may vote a different ticket in the elections. Their skin color may be different. And their financial situation is bound to be in contrast to yours. the world would be shocked that strangers are loving each other more deeply than biological family. When a group of 185 people that have no business together in a typical culture showcase an unimaginable love to one another, the world will be drawn. And that's possible only because God gave us new life and a new heart. And that makes us anything but strangers. In fact, Christ's forgiveness and hope in eternal life is the most unifying relational element the world has ever seen. It's the truth by which John loved Gaius, and it's the truth by which we are called to love one another. And it therefore dwarfs trivial differences like the size of our paycheck, how you spend your weekends, the amount of pigment in your skin, or your biological age. This same author, John, in his gospel account famously records Jesus telling his disciples, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." The love that binds Christians together in a local church is God's Mona Lisa. It is the one-of-a-kind work of art, a masterpiece that paralyzes the world in its display and allows us to speak about the beauty and reality of a cross 2,000 years ago. Brothers and sisters of Jefferson Park, how is our painting? How is our painting? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that we would have the mind of John that is overwhelmed and arrested by your undeserving love for us. And that reality would showcase itself, would manifest, would explode into love for your people. So that others that don't know you yet might see how great you are, how loving you are, how sacrificial you are. and might be drawn to ask questions, and that through those conversations, and through that profession, and that behavior of his other people, that they might accept you as their savior. We pray, Lord, that you would bear great fruit amongst us, and particularly amongst us at this church, Jefferson Park. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.