Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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So last time I preached, I
preached from verses one through four. I'm
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this time I'm going to focus on
five through the end of the letter.
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But let's go ahead and read the
whole letter of Third John The elder to
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the beloved Guius, whom I love
and truth. Beloved, I pray that
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all may go well with you and
that you may be in good health,
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as it goes well with your soul, for I rejoiced greatly when the brothers
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came, test came and testified to
your truth, as indeed you are walking
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in the truth. I have no
greater joy than to hear that my children
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are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do
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and all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified
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to your love before the church.
You will do well to send them on
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their journey in a manner worthy of
God, for they have gone out for
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the sake of the name, accepting
nothing from the gentiles. Therefore, we
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ought to support people like these that
we may be fellow workers for the truth.
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I have written something to the church, but dial trephus, who likes
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to put himself first, does not
acknowledge our authority. So if I come,
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I will bring up what he is
doing. He talked wicked nonsense against
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us, and not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and
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also stops those who want to and
puts them out of the church. Beloved,
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do not imitate evil, but imitate
good. Whoever does good is from
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God, whoever does evil has not
seen God. Demetrius has received a good
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testimony from everyone and from the truth
itself. We also add our testimony,
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and you know that our testimony is
true. I had much to write you,
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but I would rather not write with
pen and ink. I hope to
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see you soon and we will talk
face to face. Peace be to you.
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The friends greet you. Greet the
friends each by name. I'm well.
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In this letter we see what we
see in all of the letters of
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the New Testament, but here,
because it's short, we see it in
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a concentrated form, and that is
the life of the church. We see
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the life of the church here,
playing out in many ways, the theology
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of the church as well, but
also with very clear, clear eyes,
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the life of the church. We
have these people listed by name, Gius,
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Demetrius, style trephus. We have
others who are testifying to the truth
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of this person and or the love
of Gius. We have, at the
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end in verse thirteen, John's hope
to come and talk to them face to
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face. We have a sense of
that distance, distance and a desire to
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be together. The friends greet you, greet the friends each by name.
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Right when John Writes, he has
particular people in mind. He desires closeness,
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unity, fellowship, love and love
in the truth. Well, as
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he does so, he brings up
this very particular theme that plays out often
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in the life of the Church and
is very important, important enough that it
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features centrally here in one of the
letters of the New Testament, and that's
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the theme of hospitality. Now,
sometimes when people think about hospitality they think
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about it in a very little box. They think about just inviting someone over
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to your house, or they might
which is which is a form of hospitality,
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to be sure, and the most
common one perhaps, which is why
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we think about it that way.
But it's of course more than that.
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Some people will narrow down even more. They'll say it's inviting your people over
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to your house when you have the
fancy dinner, where and when you serve
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the Nice meal and at this certain
time of the year and you we build
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up all of these expectations such that
some of us never do hospitality under that
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definition right or we perhaps choose not
to because we're afraid that we can't.
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But hospitality is simply loving strangers and
in particular Christian strangers, brothers and sisters
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in the church, and that can
show up in a lot of different ways.
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It can show up in the way
we greet people who come here to
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church in the mornings. That can
be in the way we welcome them into
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our homes. It can be all
kinds of different things. Whether we have
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a big place or a little place, even if we're homeless on we can
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find ways to show love to strangers, loved Christian brothers and sisters that maybe
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we don't know very well yet and
we're getting to know. As we begin
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to think about some of these things
and think about them from Third John,
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I'd like you to begin by asking
yourself about your own experiences of Christian hospitality.
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I'm have you ever been in a
place perhaps that wasn't very hospitable and
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maybe you needed it to be?
Have you ever been in someone's home where
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you didn't feel safe or where you
didn't feel welcomed, or where maybe there
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was a show of welcoming but you
could kind of tell that it was a
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show, maybe a little too intense, maybe a sense that they were looking
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for approval by you or someone else, that the point of the hospitality really
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wasn't the service of you, but
maybe to share it online. Perhaps you
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leave those situations not feeling on strengthened
and encouraged, but maybe even depleted,
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worn out, tired, frustrated,
maybe even a little bit used. I'll
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think of the opposite. Have you
ever experienced hospitality where you felt uplifted,
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encouraged, a little bit higher when
you learn, when you left, like
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you can see heaven a little bit
better after that conversation, after that meal,
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after that NAP? Maybe it was
a welcoming smile. Maybe it was
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the way they remembered your favorite tea
from last time. Maybe was the time
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they just spent with you just talking
together in the living room, or maybe
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it was the way they left you
alone and just let you take a nap
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on the couch or in the guest
bedroom or on the porch or something like
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that. In our passage today we
meet a man who gave himself to other
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Christians, even strangers people did didn't
know very well, and he showed them
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this this love. He's commended for
it by the Holy Spirit and through this
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Leotte letter, Jesus commends all of
us who show this kind of hospitality and
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he gives us instruction that we might
grow in it. So let's begin first
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by considering the necessity of hospitality and
God's word. First, Peter for nine
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tells the church be hospitable to one
another with out complaint. Elders and deacons
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are told to be hospitable as qualifications
for their office. And Timothy and titus.
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First Timothy and titus, Romans thirteen
is a favorite passage of mind and
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says contribute to the needs of the
saints and seek to show hospitality. One
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thing I like about this versus it
reminds us that why we show hospitality is
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to contribute to the needs, and
those maybe needs of all kinds. They
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the ways in which we share our
resources with others. But it also reminds
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us that, and as I mentioned, that we seek to show this to
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strangers. Where am I getting that
from, this hospitality being for strangers?
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The Greek word is Phila. Zenia. You might have heard of xenophobia,
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right the fear of strangers. Feel
of Zennia is love, of our love
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toward strangers. It's kind of the
opposite in a way. It's welcoming people
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that you don't totally know yet.
It's an active thing that goes on.
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It's a way that requires a certain
amount of trust, a certain amount of
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of trusting not only them but the
Lord. We'll get into some more of
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that in a moment. The other
thing about Romans twelve that I really like
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is the words seek. Says seek
to show hospitality. Seek as an active
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word. It means we're to be
proactive in loving Christian brothers and sisters.
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In fact, the verbs even a
little stronger here than seek, and we
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know that from Romans twelve fourteen.
It's the verse that comes right after that.
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It says bless those who seek you. Bless and do not persecute them.
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But if you're reading along in your
Bible as you know that it doesn't
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say seek, it says persecute.
Bless those who persecute you, bless and
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do not curse them. The same
word that's used in Romans thirteen is the
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same word that's used in Romans fourteen. The kind of zeal with which our
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enemies might pursue us in order to
harm us is the same kind of zeal
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that we are called to pursue being
hospitable towards people. Doesn't that striking right
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to pursue a persecute is a negative
kind of pursuit, whatever the positive flip
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side of that? That's what seek
here means when it says seek hospitality,
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and those two things are important and
that they go together. Now these commands,
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John has a very particular kind of
hospitality in mind in this passage.
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Let's get into it. God encourages
us through this encouragement to guy us.
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He calls him to face. He
calls him faithful. Look at look at
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verse five. He says it is
a faithful thing that you do in all
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your efforts. Faithful means that he's
fulfilling a duty, he's fulfilling a call,
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he's obeying these commands that we've read. Well, what about that calling?
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That calling is described in his efforts
or works for these brothers, and
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we see also that these efforts are
having these effects. As John is commending
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and encouraging guys. He says,
Look, you're faithful man, you're doing
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a good job in all these work, all this effort that you were giving
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for the brothers, and it's having
this effect. These brothers who are served
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by him. They go out and
then they testify before other people in the
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church. Man Guius, he is
great. It was awesome being at his
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house. We were really cared for, we were helped out, we were
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encouraged. They testified to his love
before the church. He goes on in
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verse six and says you will do
well to send them on their journey in
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a manner worthy of God. These
brothers were testifying of his love, not
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his show of love, but is
actual love. He goes on to say
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and impress this need even further by
saying you will do well to send them.
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So you can see how guy us
both has taken these commands very seriously
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and how the Lord is encouraging him
in them. He's given guy us a
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pat on the back, which we
often need. We need the encouragement of
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the Lord to tell us we're doing
well, we're growing, we're striving and
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it's blessing other people, and that's
what's what's happening here. It's a joyful
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thing. To See. We see
so, in other words, we see
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some of the necessity of hospitality in
this commendation that's given to guy us.
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We also hear of its necessity in
verse seven. For they have gone out,
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that is, those brothers, even
strangers to guy us, brothers who
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are strangers. They have gone out
for the sake of the name. This,
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of course, refers to the name
of Jesus Christ. They have gone
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out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing of from the gentiles.
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This probably means that they are preaching
the Gospel, they are going out,
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they're doing that great commission work and
they're but as they do it they are
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not taking money from the gentiles.
But a guy's got to eat, guys
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got to be encouraged in his work. So how does he get paid?
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How do you get paid when your
work is going out and preaching the Gospel
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to gentiles that you're not taking money
from? Well, as we see here
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this, the means are supplied for
by the church. That's what's happening here.
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Guius is supporting these men who are
coming into his home and then going
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out. They are accepting nothing from
the gentiles, but they are accepting something
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from Guius and from from others as
well, and this is, of course,
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the situation that goes on today.
This is the right thing to do
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and as one myself who is lovingly
supported by this church for the work of
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Ministry, I'm very aware how important
it is and how thankful I am to
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all of you to be able to
do that work, supported by your love,
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your Guius like love, or,
even better, your Christ like love
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to me. As this work is
done, it's important to recognize the reason,
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the reasons that John gives here,
for why we ordained, or why
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God is ordained things in this way, because what we see here is it's
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not just about muzzling the OX,
which of course it is partly about.
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Paul says that, and First Corinthians
nine and first timothy hundred and eighteen.
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He says the laborer deserves his wages, but it's also about the name of
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Jesus ad is as it is proclaimed. In other words, these men are
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concerned that that they're asking from money
from the gentiles, might be seen might
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somehow affect their witness to them.
Perhaps they're concerned, as has happened over
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various times, that it is seen
that for the Christian Ministry of the Gospel
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is seen as a money making tool, like that's what it's all about,
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which, of course, it's not
what it's all about. They want to
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make that clear to these gentiles,
that they're meant, that they're ministering to
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they also the other advantage here is
that they see the spirit of Christ at
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work in the love and the commitment
and the Co Laboring Witness of the Gospel
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with the rest of the church.
In other words, when a, when
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a, when the gentiles meet this
or that minister, it's not just him
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out there by himself. He has
the whole church behind him, supporting him
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financially, but also testifying and witnessing
with that love. If they want to
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see it, all they have to
do is go as guy as his house,
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where they see that love, that
unity, that common commitment to the
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name of Christ in action, and
that's a beautiful thing. This brings us
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to verse eight. Therefore, we
ought to support people like these that we
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may be fellow workers for the truth. In other words, this a minister,
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then, as is described here in
third John is not just out there
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on his own, he's with this
great body of people, you might even
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say the body of Christ. You've
heard me before, perhaps in variou settings,
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talk about corporate evangelism. This is
partly what I have in mind when
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we talk about these things. The
witness of the church is not just one
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or two or even two hundred individuals
proclaiming and discipling and teaching. It's that,
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but it's all the other things as
well, the love that happens in
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the homes, the truth and the
love coming together, the discipling and the
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relationships all working out with as the
witness goes forth and as it is testified
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to within the body of Christ.
It's all of us together, each doing
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his own part, lifting the name
of the Lord up in Truth and in
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love. It's a beautiful picture and
it's a beautiful thing that's happening here in
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this church and it's a beautiful thing
when it happens in our church as well.
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It's something we ought to pray for, strive for, move towards and
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ask God's blessing, and which is
why to Transition Demetrius, or, I'm
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sorry, Diotrephus, is such a
problem and why John Speaks so strongly about
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this man, because dial treffus is
not about the name of Christ. Dial
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treffus is not about binding people together
in this love and truth that John has
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been talking about. Dial trefis likes
to put himself first. Diotrephus is about
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the name of dial trephus. He
does not acknowledge our authority. Why is
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that important? Because John Speaks with
the authority of Christ. He is the
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apostle. We confess this morning in
the nicene creed that we believe in the
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Apostolic Church. We confess the authority
of the apostles in our life, in
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our doctrine, and so somebody who
rejects the Apostolic Authority is to reject Christ
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himself. So John's going to talk
about it. He says if I come,
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I will bring up what he's doing. John's not afraid to say hard
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things, to roughle feathers, to
make people uncomfortable. He's talking wicked nonsense
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against us and he goes on with
that. We see the problems of Diotrepus
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even further. He says not content
with that. Like gives if that was
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bad enough right to go against Apostolic
Authority, to talk wicked non sense against
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us. He goes even further.
He refuses to welcome the brothers and others.
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He's refusing to do the very thing
that guys is doing. He won't
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welcome them, he won't support them. As you said, it's Dia trefus.
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is about dial treffus. He refuses
to welcome the brothers. And we
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can go yet another step further.
John says he stops those who want to.
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So somebody says, well, you
know, Dia Trefus, you don't
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want to welcome them. I can
see your perspective. I'll bring them in
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my home. No, you cannot. Is What dialtreffus is doing. He's
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not only refusing the brothers himself,
he's keeping other people from doing it and
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even puts them out of the church. DIALTREFFUS is a big problem. In
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other words, he's going against everything
that John has been speaking about, and
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so this reminds us that, as
we are called to this kind of hospitality,
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we are called to exercise wisdom in
it, especially when it comes to
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hospitality, is it concerns ministers of
the Gospel, those that we welcome,
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those that we support. HEBRES thirteen, two which I'd like to bring up
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here as a really interesting verse.
It says do not neglect, similar to
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other verses. Do not neglect to
show hospitality to strangers, for by doing
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so, some have entertained angels without
knowing it. Now, this word angels
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is the same word as messenger and
it refers to one of two kinds of
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messengers, spiritual messengers or human messengers. Either as spiritual messengers, it's like
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those who Abraham entertained. You remember
in Genesis when these angels came on.
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These spiritual beings came and Abraham hosted
them, or they might be human messengers
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like Guius is hosting. Either way, we have a command either way,
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and maybe the author of Hebrews means
both. This verse indicates that we won't
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always know the whole situation because they're
unaware of something. Right they may not
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know that these are messengers, in
other words, days they do not neglect
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to show hospitality, these Christians will
not know everything about the people that they
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are hosting. Right so it tells
us that we don't always know what's going
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on. This, in part reminds
us that we are to be wise,
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but not over calculating, not overly
demanding, and what we want to know
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about a person before we welcome them
into part of our lives. After all,
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if we knew someone so well well, they wouldn't really be strangers anymore,
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would they? But once we do
know something about them, we know
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that this is brother so and so
from such and such a church, or
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this is sister so and so for
such and such a church, or there's
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a someone who wants to be a
brother or this is someone who is wanting
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to be a sister, we ought
to welcome them in, to not neglect
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to show hospitality to strangers. But
on the flip side, once we learn
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that a brother is a false brother, once we learn that a sister is
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a false sister, once we learn
that someone is in fact seeking to do
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evil deeds, we are called to
close the door. We are called to
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stop and not support, not participate
in, the evil works that someone is
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engaging in. Now, this kind
of love is hard. It's kind of
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wisdom is hard. It's one reason
that Christ ordains deacons in the church to
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help guide US and and center US
and and direct us in this kind of
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love. This kind of love requires
all hands on deck at cause it's wisdom,
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it requires knowledge of the scriptures right
to be able to be discerning about
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who is proclaiming apostolic teaching and who
is not? It requires our constantly checking
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our own hearts and our own motivations. I said love is hard. So
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that my question, then, is
where does this kind of strength and joy
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and love come from, this very
self denying task? And the answer is
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from the father, the son and
the Holy Spirit. You can't give what
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you don't have. You can't love
people with this kind of love if you
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don't have that kind of love in
yourself. In the scriptures tell us that
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we're born in sin, that we
love ourselves more than anything else and we
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love ourselves in this really twisted,
idolatrous kind of way, and even as
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Christians, that flesh remains in us
and it makes it very difficult sometimes to
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show this kind of love, to
exercise this kind of discernment. But what
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the Bible teaches us is that the
word, and through the word in the
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spirit, God puts to death our
selfishness. He teaches US wisdom, he
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helps us to grow in love.
He takes things like fear, clinging to
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our possessions and he puts them aside
and instead he opens our eyes to our
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responsibilities. He gives us a desire
to fulfill them. He gives us eyes
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even to see Christ himself, who
is, the scriptures say, came not
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to not to be served, but
to serve Jesus, speaking of Jesus,
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once said to a man who invited
him to a dinner. He said,
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when you give a dinner or a
banquet, do not invite your friends or
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your brothers or your relatives or your
rich neighbors, lest they also invite you
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in return and you be repaid.
But when you give a feast, invite
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the poor, the crippled, the
lame, the blind, and you will
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be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the
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resurrection of the just. Here Jesus
tells us. Here Jesus tells us not
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to host in order to be repaid
by people, but in order to be
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repaid by God. But how is
it that we are repaid by God?
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Because when God looks at even our
best works, the scriptures say they're like
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filthy rags. The repayment here is
is is his way of speaking and sort
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of framing this issue. He's saying, don't look to your neighbor to sort
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of like I give you them new
you give something to me, give it
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to God and let God take care
of you, is what he's saying.
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Here's a question for you. Have
you ever been a person who could not
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repay what was given to you?
Have you ever been in a situation where
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somebody showed you that hospitality that you're
like, I don't I can't return this.
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Maybe it was something really small.
Maybe you were just at that particular
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moment hungry, you didn't have any
food, even if you had tons of
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money, you just didn't have any
food and you didn't have access to food
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and somebody gave you their food.
Or maybe it's was really big a moment
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in your life where maybe you didn't
feel safe in your home anymore. It
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was a scary place and somebody gave
you a place in their home or in
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their life. Those experiences that we
have of that are just tiny little drops
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in the bucket compared to the ocean
of love that Jesus gives to us when
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he dies for us on the Cross. There is nothing that we can do
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to repay Christ for his work for
us, for his love for us.
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He says, the Scripture says,
that he died for us while we were
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very rich and noble. No,
the scriptures don't say that he died for
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us when we finally had something that
we could offer to Christ. No,
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the scriptures say that he died for
us while we were still ungodly, while
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we were separated from him, while
we were at war with him, his
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enemies. He called US and he
welcomed us into his home, into his
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life. These are the things the
Christians keep in mind when they desire to
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proclaim the name in Gospel Witness and
in Gospel hospitality. We keep him in
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mind, Him who has given us
everything, beyond anything we could ever repay,
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with how any expectation of US ever
repaying it, and telling us it's
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all of grace, it's all free, it's all for you, because I
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love you. It's in his name
and in his life and in his spirit
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that we open our doors, that
we open our hearts, that we open
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our wallts, that we share with
brothers and sisters who are around us and
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testify to Theo to others in this
world. This is what it's like to
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be a Christian. This is what
it's like to be filled with the love
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of God. This is what it's
like to be in a community of people
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that no Christ because they have been
known by Christ. So when you,
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like me, struggle to be hospitable, let's draw from the well. Let's
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draw from the well and the grace
that our savior has given us. It's
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infinite, it never runs dry.
He's always there, welcoming us into his
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home. Let's pray
