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3 Red Flags in Church Leaders You Should Watch Out For · Off The Kirb Ministries

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  Thousands of people are leaving their jobs to go into ministry.
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  Some want to become pastors, some church leaders, some Bible
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  teachers, some even Christian influencers or Youtubers.
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  Now, I don't want anyone to misunderstand me.
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  This is an amazing thing. We need more people to go into
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  ministry because in the last six years alone, there's been a
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  massive increase in people coming to faith.
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  And maybe you watching this video right now, you have only
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  been saved in, in the last five or so years.
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  But there is something that I do want to caution.
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  And again, I don't want to be negative, but some of these
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  people, I think the Bible's clear, they are going into
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  ministry for the wrong reason. Some of these people are even
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  wolves in sheep's clothing. So today I want to give you 3
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  red flags that that minister, that pastor, that person you're
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  listening to, if they're doing these things, you should be very
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  wary. Now if it's your first time on
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  the channel, this is my Cup of Joe podcast where we literally
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  is, all we do is we drink coffee and we look at the Bible.
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  Very simple, no editing, no jump cuts, just coffee and the Bible.
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  Now this is something you're interested in.
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  First off, please do subscribe. And if you can see some faces up
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  there and I want you to pay close attention to what I'm
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  saying. Now these are people who've
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  bought one of these mugs, but this is not a money scheme.
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  So this is just literally some friends of mine bought me one of
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  these mugs. They made one and then other
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  people saying can we get one too?
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  So if you buy one of these mugs, it literally just covers the
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  cost of the printing. And once you've bought one of
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  them, I'll send you an e-mail and we'll stick your face up
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  here if you'd like to be in one of the videos.
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  OK, the first red flag that you should be aware of is if this
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  person, this church leader, this YouTube, this pastor, if they
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  always want to be in control, if they love to be the boss, if
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  they micromanage everything, that is something you need to be
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  aware of. And we're going to look at a man
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  called Diotrophes. That's who we're going to study
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  today because he really does show us that this is not the way
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  to be in Christian work. Turn to the Third Epistle of
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  John and we're going to read verse 9.
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  I wrote to the church, but Diotrophies, who loves to have
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  the pre eminence among them, does not receive us.
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  So here's the thing. We don't know if Diotrophes was
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  a church member who had influence or if he was a church
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  leader. I personally and theologians who
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  I appreciate think he was likely a a church leader who had some
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  kind of power in the church. But what we do know about him is
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  this. He did have followers.
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  There were people who listened to him.
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  Otherwise he wouldn't be such a problem in the church.
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  Now there are people in the church, if we're honest, who
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  they love their own way. It's their way or no way.
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  You hear them. You know when you go to the
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  church business meetings and you know when they, they're in a
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  prayer meeting, they, they can pray like a St. as Spurgeon used
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  to say. But if they get into the church
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  meeting, then they speak like a devil.
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  They completely change character.
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  And there is a problem when you get these church characters, I
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  don't know if you've ever come across them.
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  And some of them, they do the even the opposite.
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  They don't even pray in, in the church meetings.
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  They don't, You never hear them pray.
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  But as soon as something comes to be discussed in a church
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  meeting, like a building or someone who's going to come into
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  membership or some kind of matter, suddenly they're very,
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  very vocal. That to me is a very, very
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  concerning sign. If you're silent when it comes
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  to the things of God, but when it comes to something that's if
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  you like more material, you've suddenly got a lot to say.
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  Again, I don't want to be too negative about church ministers
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  because I truly do believe there's an awful lot out there
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  who are literally doing a wonderful work with no
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  recognition. They're just getting their head
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  down and they're serving the Lord quietly.
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  And I have a lot of admiration for pastors and for church
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  shepherds, but there are some who forget what the word
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  minister literally means. It literally means a servant.
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  And there are people who have forgotten their suffering
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  servant role as a minister and they see themselves as a person
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  of importance. They seek to to raise themselves
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  up. You know, there's this kind of,
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  if I, if you think of like a, a church pastor, like a, a mega
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  church pastor, what comes to your mind now?
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  I think you probably picture them with a smartphone dressed
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  very smartly in their clothes. Maybe they've got a kind of
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  entrepreneur kind of mindset. They're, they're strong, they're
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  driven. And yet instead, what should
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  they have in their hand? They should have a towel ready
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  to wash the people's feet. Perhaps they should be dressed
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  in more modest clothing more instead of flashy clothing.
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  I was always struck by this when I was younger.
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  One of the men who trained me used to say we shouldn't be
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  trying to draw attention to ourselves with the way we dress.
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  We should just, you know, seek to, to live humbly and not be,
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  you know, have something that really draws attention,
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  something in our appearance that that shocks people and, and,
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  and, and pulls people to look at us.
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  No, we're trying to look at Christ.
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  I've used this illustration before, but preachers should be
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  a bit like a finger pointing to the moon.
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  Now a good preacher will just say, look, there's the moon and
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  all the eyes are drawn to the moon.
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  But a bad preacher will say, look at my hand.
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  I've moisturized my hands today. My, my fingernails are all
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  lovely and cut. Don't I have a beautiful hand?
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  My hand is beautiful. Oh, and by the way, I'm pointing
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  at the moon. Do you see what I did there?
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  We shouldn't be drawing attention to ourselves.
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  We should be drawing attention to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  That is our job as ministers, as preachers of the gospel, as the
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  as John the Baptist said, he must increase and I must
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  decrease. So you might have noticed a very
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  strong word in that passage that we read pre eminence.
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  Now those of you know your Bibles know that there is also
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  another famous verse in the in the words.
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  So if you've got a Bible there, just turn to Colossians chapter
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  1 and verse 18. And he, that is Christ, is the
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  head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first
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  born from the dead, that in all things he may have the pre
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  eminence. Did you notice that He, Christ,
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  must have the pre eminence? So here in here, in diotrophes,
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  if we opened his heart, what do we, what would we see?
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  Would we see a love for Christ? Would we see a love for the
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  people? No, We'd see a love for himself.
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  We'd see selfish ambition. And that is the sad reality of
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  so many people out there. Particularly can I say on social
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  media there's a desire that what will this do for me?
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  Will this get me lots of subscribers?
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  Will this get me lots of ad revenue?
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  Will this get me lots of clouts? Will this get me lots of money?
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  What will this do for me? You see what diotrophies did
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  that was so bad is he claimed the pre eminence that belongs to
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  Christ and he claimed it for himself.
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  He took it, He stole what was the Lord's.
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  And that is the big key issue. If there is a man or a woman who
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  is in ministry who is really building themselves up that
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  they, they love themselves, that is a really big warning sign
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  because it's all about Christ. It's not about us.
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  If you are a preacher, if you are a YouTube or you're in some
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  kind of ministry, can I make a suggestion to you?
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  And, and listen guys, I want you to know this.
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  I don't have it all together. I make a mess in these things.
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  I get in the way far too much. I'm not by any means judging
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  anyone, but I do believe every single one of us should be doing
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  some kind of sacrificial ministry on the side.
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  Perhaps it's totally private and no one knows about it apart from
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  the Lord, but what am I talking about?
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  For instance, something I try to do is on YouTube.
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  OK, let's be honest, People are very, very nice.
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  People write really nice comments.
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  People are lovely, particularly if you're in America.
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  I'm not being picking out people in particular, but the Americans
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  are very, very encouraging. They're very, very
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  complimentary, more so than us Brits.
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  We can be a little bit less complimentary, but what am I
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  trying to say? YouTube builds you up.
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  It can build your ego if you're not careful.
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  Ministry can do that even in the church.
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  If you're a young person doing ministry that the older people
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  are really encourage you. So what do I try to do?
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  I go out and I St. preach because there are so many times
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  I'll be stood on my step ladder and no one will listen to me.
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  I'll be just like a voice crying out in the wilderness.
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  People will be looking down at me.
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  People will say get a job and I think I've got a job and I'm
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  very happy with it. Or they'll say things like, you
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  know, have you got nothing better to do?
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  You're wasting your time. No one's listening to you.
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  And all these things, I'll be honest, they hurt, but they're
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  needful. They're needful to bring me down
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  a peg or two. So maybe St. preaching isn't
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  something you could do, but could you go and do a work with
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  the homeless? Could you do a a soup kitchen?
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  Is there some sick people in hospital who need visiting or or
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  an elderly widows, that kind of thing.
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  You need to do something that's quiet, that's sacrificial, that
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  will keep your feet on the ground.
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  That's what you have to do because it's always about, you
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  know, if we're always on a mountain, if, if your life is
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  always like the highlight reel on on Instagram, eventually it
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  will corrupt your soul. And I'm speaking from experience
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  here. So get back out on the streets,
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  get yourself humble and get yourself on, on the lowly things
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  that none of us would be like diotrophies taking the
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  preeminence that we would love, preeminence that we would love
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  to be the center of attention. No, Joe Kirby, whoever you are,
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  we're dust and ashes. We're nothing.
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  It's all about him. So our second red flag, it's not
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  actually that obvious, but in diotropheses case, we see he was
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  threatened by John. And often a minister will feel
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  threatened by other ministers or other people in the church
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  perhaps who again have some kind of influence or authority.
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  Just look at verse 9 with with me in 3rd, the 3rd epistle of
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  John, verse 9. So I that's John wrote to, to
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  the church. But Diotrophes, who loves to
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  have the pre eminence among them, does not receive us.
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  So he wouldn't receive John for one reason or another.
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  And I think the reason's quite obvious.
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  John was an apostle, but Diotrophes was not an apostle.
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  He didn't have that kind of authority.
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  And suddenly when John comes into the church, all of the
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  attention is going to leave Diotrophes and it's going to be
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  directed to John, who I believe would very wisely direct it back
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  to the Lord. That was a threat to
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  diatrophies. He wanted the pre eminence, He
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  wanted the power. And so he was threatened.
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  He was jealous. Do you know what one of the
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  signs that someone is jealous of you?
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  Do you know what it is? It's when they distance
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  themselves from you. We again read about that in the
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  Bible. You remember David, it was said
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  about David. Well, Saul, it said Saul has
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  slain his thousands, but David has slain his ten thousands.
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  And these are women who are dancing away singing this song
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  and and his soul getting very jealous.
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  All of these women, some of them perhaps very attractive.
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  They're singing songs about David.
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  But but I'm a lesser 1. So what did, what did Saul do?
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  He sent David away. He couldn't bear to look at him.
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  The jealousy burnt in him so much that he he made him a
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  commander of the army with the hopes, which is something David
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  would later do with another man called Uriah, but with the hopes
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  that him going out into all of these thousands of battles that
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  he'd be done with, he'd be done away with, he'd be vanquished,
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  and that problem would be no more.
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  But you do see that, don't you? You do see that in people's
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  lives, that if they're jealous of you, they may not want to
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  spend time with you. They may ignore your messages.
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  They may just just, yeah, I don't want to spend time.
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  They'll spend time with lots of other people, but you, they'll
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  give very little time to you. Now, I don't want to inflate
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  anyone's ego here because perhaps they're distancing
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  themselves from you because you've done something wrong or
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  because, you know, as the Bible says, you know, that if you've
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  got an ungodly character, it can corrupt you.
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  And maybe they're there is a good reason for that.
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  So just, but I'm saying sometimes that can be the case.
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  Sometimes someone may just not want to be near to you because
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  it it bothers them, it affects them.
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  And I think that was definitely what was going on here with
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  diotrophies. But guys, it was more than just
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  distancing himself. Diotrophies went one step
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  further. He spread lies about John.
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  Just turn to again, we're in the third Epistle of John and we're
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  looking at the first part of verse 10.
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  Therefore, if I come, that's John, I will call to mind his
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  deeds, which he does prating against us with malicious words.
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  So in other words, diotrophies have been spreading all kinds of
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  rumours. He'd, he'd said some things that
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  were just totally not true. The word malicious words here
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  means false and empty charges, false and empty charges.
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  I think this is becoming a real problem online, maybe in the
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  church, but particularly online, there are lots of people who
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  they just love to, to make up stuff.
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  Maybe it's in a comment section. Maybe it's someone who, you
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  know, they've got a YouTube channel, but they've got no
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  accountability. Some of them, you watch their
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  channels and it appears that, can I say this, they've not got
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  all of their chairs at home. They, they don't seem, you know,
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  they feel like they're a few, I don't know, a few buttons short
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  of a bag, as they say, I don't know, they've not got all of
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  their marbles. And you watch them and, and they
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  are spreading massive claims about ministers of the gospel
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  who perhaps have got quite a lot of, you know, influence or
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  they've, you know, won a lot of souls and they're saying
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  terrible things. I won't name names because I
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  don't want to get into all of this gossip loop.
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  But there's one who I, I really have tried to defend as much as
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  possible because this is one of the greatest evangelists, a
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  wonderful preacher and some lies have been spread about him.
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  And if you go on that guys channel who started these lies,
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  because I did lots of research into where they come in from
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  when I was making a video about this particular evangelist and
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  it's from this guy and it's, you know, he looks like he's just
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  living in his mum's basement. He hasn't had a Washington in
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  about 8 weeks. He's not speaking clearly.
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  It's all word salad and he's he's making terrible claims with
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  no evidence that just false claims.
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  Guys, we've got to be so careful of this.
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  Just because someone makes a YouTube video and says this
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  person's a false teacher or that person's a false teacher, we
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  can't just run along with it like the Bereans.
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  We need to be careful. But on the same side, we do have
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  to be careful. And that is one of the dangers
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  of, of online ministries. You don't know how I speak to my
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  wife. You don't know whether I'm a
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  good father or mother. You don't know how I live my
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  life day-to-day. I could be a total fraud.
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  I could be a total fake. And you know, and that's why we
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  have to be accountable to the church.
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  That's why as ministers of people who who, who do ministry,
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  we have to get ourselves under people and we have to, you know,
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  seek to to be under the Lord and and to pull all of those
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  barriers up so that we are guarding ourselves of becoming
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  like a diatrophies who is just unruly.
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  He's unguarded. His mouth just just runs.
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  Whatever he wants to say, he says it and it doesn't matter
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  the damage he does to people and the people he hurts.
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  As long as he gets the pre eminence, that's all that
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  matters in his world. So yes, I suppose what I'm
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  trying to say is this I am, you've known this some some of
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  you have watched my channel for years.
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  I'm very, very wary of people who've got discernment
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  ministries is, is all they do is they call out false teachers.
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  That's all their ministry is about.
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  We are called to name names. And sometimes I think I need to
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  be stronger in this and maybe I will make some videos in the
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  future. But we've got to be careful not
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  just creating gossip channels because some of these guys,
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  that's all they do. They, they don't do a Bible
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  study on the book of John. They don't do a study on, you
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  know, the life of Jesus is all it is, is all it is, is just
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  calling out these people. And they are getting thousands
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  and thousands of dollars in AD revenue.
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  Because the reality is people have got itching ears.
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  They've they want their ears to be tickled.
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  They, they want to hear the latest gossip of the, the latest
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  dirt on that person. But we should be very careful of
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  this because I do believe the devil loves it when dirt is
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  thrown at ministers. He loves it when we sling dirt
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  at one another because it creates more division and more
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  uncertainty, and it upsets the church, those fragile little
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  sheep who are hearing about all of these people.
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  And it's who do I trust? And eventually some of them have
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  enough and just pull away completely, when actually they
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  were getting a lot of benefit from listening to Christian
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  videos online or from going to a local church.
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  None of us are perfect, but we shouldn't always be trying to
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  pull out the little speck in everyone's eye and picking up
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  any little thing as a way of making content or as a way of
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  making ourselves look better. Sorry, just before I come to the
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  red flag number three, I've actually got way more notes
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  today for some reason. I just wanted to get this
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  message right, but I just want to say this as well that I've
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  just realised was in my notes. It is so important.
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  Yeah, we should be calling out people.
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  But if you do it, make sure you've got a heap of evidence,
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  irrefutable evidence, evidence that no one can can deny.
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  Don't just be going off gossip. If, if there is something that's
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  been said or that's wrong that a minister's done, that does need
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  to be brought to light. You know, they can't just
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  continue in their sin, but there must be evidence.
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  That's what I just want to emphasize, OK #3 our third red
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  flag of a minister who perhaps isn't going into ministry for
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  the right reasons or is even a wolf in sheep's clothing is
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  this. They discipline or they
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  reprimand or they rebuke anyone who doesn't agree with them.
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  In other words, again, it's their way or no way.
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  If you're not in my club, then you're not in any club.
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  You're worthless. Just look at verse.
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  We're going to look back at verse 10, the second part of the
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  third Epistle of John and the second part of verse 10.
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  And not content with that, he himself, this is diatrophies,
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  does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to
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  putting them out of the church. So here in this situation, we've
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  got diatrophes who's jealous, who sees John as a threat, and
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  he's saying anyone who's associated with John, it's guilt
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  by association because they've associated with John.
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  They need to be thrown out of the church.
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  We need to have nothing to do with them, that they're rotten,
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  They can't be helped. Let's get rid of them.
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  Again, this is kind of linking back to what I was saying about
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  the discernment ministries. I don't know what I think of
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  this, but sometimes people, you'll have really godly
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  ministers who've taught the word for for literally 30-40 years,
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  tremendous preachers, the word, you listen to them, they do your
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  soul good. And yet people then say mark and
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  avoid them because they've perhaps gone to a conference and
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  they've shared the stage with a well known false teacher and
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  people say, right, that's it. We write them off.
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  Now, guilt by association. I'm not so sure what I think
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  about that because are they going up on that stage because
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  they want to feed some good into all of these people.
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  They want to counter the arguments that are being said.
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  Are they doing it because they want pre eminence and they want
• 20:13
  to be in this big conference? I don't know.
• 20:16
  I'm just saying should we always write people off?
• 20:19
  I mean, how thorough can you be that way?
• 20:22
  You know, if you're going to say I write off this minister
• 20:24
  because guilt by association, you really need to put a
• 20:27
  tracking device. You need a tracking device that
• 20:30
  you put on every single person that you know because who are
• 20:35
  they hanging around? Who do they spend their time
• 20:37
  with? It's a full time job.
• 20:39
  Can we really separate ourselves by using this kind of criteria?
• 20:44
  I think it's very hard to do and I think we should be careful to
• 20:47
  do this. But here's what we do know.
• 20:49
  Diotrophies. He was going too far.
• 20:51
  And as we know, John was a man of God, but he was just throwing
• 20:54
  people out of the church because he wanted to and he had no
• 20:58
  biblical basis to do this. Church discipline is very, very
• 21:02
  important, but it's not to be there to be used by some
• 21:06
  egotistic church leader to do whatever they like.
• 21:10
  It's not meant to be a weapon in their hands.
• 21:12
  No, it's meant for purity of the church, believe it or not.
• 21:15
  It's meant for rescuing, for restoring the person who's
• 21:19
  sinning. Just turn to 1 Corinthians 5
• 21:22
  verse five with me. Deliver such a one to Satan for
• 21:35
  the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in
• 21:40
  the day of the Lord Jesus. Now you might know this story
• 21:43
  well, but there was, you know, quite an issue going on in the
• 21:47
  Church of Corinth. Quite.
• 21:49
  It might even make you blush if I went into the details and it
• 21:52
  was happening here in the Church of Corinth.
• 21:55
  And what was the, the message that was said here?
• 21:57
  What, what was the, the word of the Lord?
• 21:59
  They were to send this person out.
• 22:01
  They were to discipline this person, take them away from the
• 22:03
  fellowship that the destruction of the flesh might happen by
• 22:07
  handing them over to Satan. And when you, you're sent out
• 22:11
  into the world, you've been shielded in the warmth of
• 22:14
  Christian fellowship. You've been protected by, by the
• 22:18
  Lord and the Lord's people. And now they go out into the
• 22:20
  world. What's going to happen?
• 22:22
  Well, we've seen it, don't we? Sometimes something goes wrong
• 22:28
  and divorce, health problems, just pain, just trouble.
• 22:34
  When people leave the nest, that safety, that shield, that, that,
• 22:38
  that flock of Christ and they go out into the world, they soon
• 22:41
  realise just how good they had it.
• 22:43
  And that's what I think this is Paul who gave these
• 22:45
  instructions. I think that's what he was
• 22:47
  trying to say here is we'll, we'll send this person out,
• 22:50
  they'll hand them over to Satan and they will see just what they
• 22:53
  had in Christ. They'll see what they had in the
• 22:56
  church. And that should hopefully bring
• 22:59
  them to a place of repentance that these sinful bits get cut
• 23:03
  off them get pruned off so they're ready to come back to
• 23:06
  Christ. And some of you, you've been
• 23:09
  through this yourself, whether you've been disciplined from a
• 23:11
  church yourself or you've just gone out and you've backslid and
• 23:16
  you, you thought you had it in your mind.
• 23:18
  I'll be amazed. And to do all of these things,
• 23:20
  you had a sort of fantasy of everything that's going to
• 23:22
  happen. But when you got the reality,
• 23:25
  you realised, yeah, being with Jesus was far better.
• 23:29
  Being in the church, though it might be quiet, though, it might
• 23:32
  be plain, though some might even call it boring at times.
• 23:35
  There's peace there, there's love there, there's hope there.
• 23:38
  And the world has nothing to offer when it comes to Christ
• 23:41
  and the church. So here's the answer we all want
• 23:44
  to know. How do you spot one of these
• 23:47
  false teachers, one of these wolves in sheep's clothing, one
• 23:51
  of these sinful church leaders? How do we identify them?
• 23:55
  Well, there's a few little signs here.
• 23:56
  One of them is this. They love to talk about
• 23:59
  themselves. They're always talking about
• 24:01
  themselves. You'll scarcely hear them
• 24:02
  talking about the Lord. You'll scarcely hear them take
• 24:06
  an interest in you. They'll talk about what they've
• 24:08
  done, their achievements. Their life is always about them.
• 24:13
  Another one is this. They judge people and they
• 24:16
  condemn people who are not in their club.
• 24:19
  They they have these doctrines, they have these certain ways and
• 24:23
  if anyone doesn't quite fit their mould, if anyone isn't
• 24:26
  black and white on their side and they don't have that label,
• 24:30
  they've not had that stamp of approval.
• 24:32
  They condemn them, they laugh at them, they mock them.
• 24:37
  I find this very, very discouraging when someone may
• 24:40
  have a secondary issue, an opinion on that and that they're
• 24:43
  mocked, they're laughed at that they get derided by Christians
• 24:46
  and look down upon, be aware of that person because again, it's
• 24:50
  like diotrophies. They love to have pre eminence.
• 24:53
  They love to have their way and anyone else who doesn't line up
• 24:56
  to their way, they need to get in out of the church.
• 24:58
  They need to be avoided. Another big sign is this.
• 25:02
  Like the Pharisees, they love the best seats in the house.
• 25:06
  They love the best seats in the temple or in the church.
• 25:10
  They love the high places. When it comes for a time of
• 25:14
  fellowship or maybe a meal together, you'll never see them
• 25:17
  sitting with the plane and the humble, the person who no one
• 25:21
  knows, who no one cares about. You'll always see them sitting
• 25:24
  with the the best preachers or the people with influence, with
• 25:28
  money, with power, people who are stimulating, who are so
• 25:31
  exciting. Beware of that.
• 25:34
  Beware of those people who who who use Christianity because
• 25:38
  they like to be in the galleries.
• 25:40
  They like the ivory towers. Beware of those people.
• 25:43
  Another sign is they're self deceived.
• 25:45
  They truly do believe they're doing the Lord's work.
• 25:48
  They might have money, they might have a lot of clout, they
• 25:50
  might have a lot of followers and they see this as the Lord's
• 25:54
  blessing on them. They see this, that this is the
• 25:56
  Lord's favour. You know the guy down the road
• 25:58
  who's who's just got a small church.
• 26:00
  God's not in that church. He's with me.
• 26:03
  Look, look at all the, the money I'm making.
• 26:05
  Look at all the people who are coming.
• 26:06
  Look at all the time again, look at me.
• 26:09
  You know, God's not with the little YouTube who's got, you
• 26:12
  know, 1020 subscribers and he talks to 5-6 people.
• 26:15
  He's with the one who's got 2 million subscribers, who's got
• 26:18
  millions of views. Come on guys, let's be very,
• 26:21
  very careful about that. What does the Lord himself say?
• 26:24
  Do not despise the day of small beginnings.
• 26:27
  He loves that. He loves to God.
• 26:29
  He loves the one who is faithful in the little and then he'll
• 26:33
  give them something greater in the Kingdom, Jesus says.
• 26:36
  So again, just be careful of that.
• 26:38
  And if you're a listener, don't think that the person with all
• 26:41
  of the views and all of the followers is the one that the
• 26:43
  Lord's blessing the most. Do listen to small Christian
• 26:46
  channels. Do listen, if you're on
• 26:48
  Instagram, TikTok, listen to people who've not got that many
• 26:52
  listeners. Make sure you test what they're
• 26:54
  saying by the word, but but give them a chance.
• 26:56
  Don't look at the view count before you click on a video and
• 26:59
  think this has got 500,000 views.
• 27:01
  This has got 1,000,000 views. I need to watch this.
• 27:03
  But when a video comes up and it's 100 views and you think,
• 27:06
  oh, maybe it's not that interesting.
• 27:08
  No, give them a chance guys, come on.
• 27:10
  We are to be, we are to have the Lords heart and we can learn.
• 27:14
  I, I learn you'd be surprised. I don't watch massive Youtubers.
• 27:19
  I watch some of the smaller guys and smaller pastors and that's
• 27:23
  where I get fed and that's how I'm able to, you know, pass on
• 27:26
  things to you guys. It's it's often in the the
• 27:29
  smaller churches where the heart of God is.
• 27:31
  So let me leave you with just one final thought, because a
• 27:34
  passage came to my mind as we're looking at diatrophies.
• 27:37
  There was a passage that it really made me think, my
• 27:40
  granddad shared this with me years ago and I'll never forget
• 27:43
  the conversation we had. It's in Ezekiel chapter 34 and
• 27:48
  it's talking about false prophets.
• 27:50
  So if you've got a Bible there, Ezekiel chapter 34, Ezekiel 34,
• 27:57
  and we're going to read verses 2 to 4, Son of Man prophecy
• 28:04
  against the shepherds of Israel prophecy and say to them, thus
• 28:08
  says the Lord God to the shepherds, woe to the shepherds
• 28:11
  of Israel who feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
• 28:15
  the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe
• 28:18
  yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fatlings, but
• 28:22
  you do not feed the flock. The weak.
• 28:24
  You have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who are
• 28:29
  sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven
• 28:34
  away, nor sought what was lost. But with force and cruelty you
• 28:40
  have ruled them. Do you see why I believe the
• 28:43
  Lord put that in my head today? Dow Trophies was ruling them
• 28:47
  with cruelty. He was exploiting the people.
• 28:51
  He just cared about himself. He just cared about feeding
• 28:54
  himself the food that was coming in.
• 28:56
  He didn't feed the sheep, he ate it himself.
• 28:59
  The very guard, the very fleeces that, the very wool that the
• 29:03
  sheep gave, he, he fleeced it. He took it off their back and
• 29:06
  put it on himself. Guys, we've got to be so, so
• 29:09
  careful. We need to avoid those ministers
• 29:12
  who it's all about them. They just want more money, more
• 29:15
  wealth. And honestly, you know, this
• 29:19
  also came to our mind. I used to say this, I used to
• 29:22
  think about some of these great big ministers that we hear about
• 29:25
  and they fell. They fell so far.
• 29:28
  And I used to say this, I believe they started out well
• 29:31
  with pure intentions. They just wanted to serve the
• 29:33
  Lord. But somehow, little by little,
• 29:37
  ministry pride started to get to them until eventually an
• 29:42
  opportunity came, maybe a young woman, maybe a chance to take
• 29:46
  some money and hide it from the taxman.
• 29:48
  It came or, or theology to, to appease more people.
• 29:52
  I'll, I'll embrace this false theology and just win more
• 29:55
  people, whatever it was that suddenly they fell into that and
• 29:59
  then their ministry came crashing down.
• 30:02
  Something I've been wondering is did they ever, did they truly
• 30:06
  start out with that intention or really at the bottom of their
• 30:10
  heart, did they want to be famous?
• 30:13
  Did they see a preacher who they admired?
• 30:15
  And they said, I want that for myself.
• 30:18
  Was it about Christ? Because eventually, as this
• 30:21
  grows, if you've got pride in your heart, as your ministry
• 30:24
  grows, so will that pride. Things always grow.
• 30:28
  Humility will grow if you really do seek after the Lord.
• 30:32
  But if you've got wrong things in your heart, it'll grow.
• 30:35
  And eventually these things, they'll stand up like, like
• 30:38
  chestnuts. They were once planted in the
• 30:40
  ground, out of sight, out of mind.
• 30:42
  But now these chestnuts have grown into a vast big tree and
• 30:46
  they're a problem. Guys, we need, if you're a
• 30:50
  minister, if you're a preacher, we need to constantly be
• 30:53
  humbling ourselves before the Lord God.
• 30:56
  And we're called to see these sheep, these precious sheep
• 31:01
  who've been bashed away, tossed around by the world and all the
• 31:05
  pain, they've been hurt. They've been, there's wolves
• 31:09
  that have been out there. There's been all kinds of things
• 31:11
  that have got them and our job as ministers is to bind them up,
• 31:16
  is to love them, is to is to get our hands dirty.
• 31:19
  Being a shepherd wasn't a glamorous job.
• 31:21
  They got their hands dirty on their knees.
• 31:24
  They would lay down their life. As Jesus said, That's what the
• 31:27
  Good Shepherd does. He lays down his life for the
• 31:29
  sheep. And so may all of us be doing
• 31:32
  that. And if you're a listener, you
• 31:34
  need to see often we do have good discernment.
• 31:38
  Is the man you're listening to? Would he lay down his life for
• 31:41
  me? Does he really love me or does
• 31:44
  he love the accolades? Does he love the praise?
• 31:47
  Does he love the money? Does he love having a name like
• 31:51
  all the Youtubers, the secular ones?
• 31:54
  Does he love having a power position in the church, like the
• 31:57
  politicians in the local town? Does he like that or does he
• 32:01
  love the Lords and love me? Think about these things.
• 32:05
  These are just some things to to wonder about a little on a
• 32:09
  lighter note, because it's been quite an intense message.
• 32:12
  I was wondering how many of you actually do drink coffee with me
• 32:16
  during these times? Just write it in the comment
• 32:18
  section. Say I've been drinking my
• 32:19
  coffee, I'm drinking it right now or a cup of tea.
• 32:22
  And because I do wonder, should I just drink the coffee or do
• 32:26
  you like the little, you know, me pouring it and talking to you
• 32:29
  guys and pointing out the mugs or should I just get straight
• 32:32
  into the message? Do let me know again, I just
• 32:35
  want to be there to serve you. Thanks again for all of your
• 32:37
  time and God bless. See Wall.