Transcript

3 John · Scripture Unscripted

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3rd John, let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for
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today. We thank you for another
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opportunity to come and to sit at your feet and to dine with
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you, to Sup with you. God, we thank you for giving us
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life and life eternal. We thank you for all the words
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God breathed onto this book. Lord, thank you for giving us
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access to it. Thank You that we can come and
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we can reason, Lord, and we can sit and learn.
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Father, meditate upon your words, God, and munch upon them
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and eat them. God, we eat the scroll today
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that goes down bitter but tastes sweet.
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Father, we thank you God, for all of the things that you have
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taught us throughout our lives and throughout this walk with
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you. God, continue to speak boldly
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and mightily to us. God, continue to move us into
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the arenas that You would have us to go into.
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Father, help us to be the difference makers and the peace
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makers. Help us to be light and salt to
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this world. Help us, Lord, to hear Your
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voice and to know that you're near and to know that You are
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moving mightily in our midst. Father, come in touchdown like a
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fighter jet. God knocked the pictures off the
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wall. Come rushing in like a mighty
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rushing wind. Father, fresh fire, fresh wind.
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Today, God, give us the Shekinah glory where we cannot even
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minister unto you. Lord, I pray in the name, name
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of Jesus, that today will be the day of salvation for many.
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I pray in the name of Jesus that somebody somewhere will give
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their life over to you. Lord, hide me and hide my words
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and hide my thoughts. Holy Spirit, fill us.
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Fill us up today, overflowing. Lord, it's all about Jesus
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Christ. It's always been about Jesus
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Christ and it'll always be about Jesus Christ.
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To Him be the glory and the honor forever and ever and ever.
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And it's in his holy and awesome, in awe inspiring name
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that we pray today. Amen.
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Well, let's start in verse one, the elder unto the well beloved
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Gaius, whom I love in the truth. So there it is again.
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He wants us to drill down into this truth and he's balancing
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this third epistle with the love that he wrote in the first
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epistle, all about love. And here we are.
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We had second John that was dialing in truth, and then he
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just, he's going to dial it in even further and he's writing to
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Gaius here. We can surmise which Gaius this
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is in the Bible, but we don't actually know.
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Verse 2. Beloved, I wish above all things
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that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul
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prospers. So here, this is a very warm,
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familiar greeting of this time. And he's saying to be in good
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health and to be prosperous. And God desires for us to take
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care of our temple. He desires for us to be wise
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with what we have and to steward it well.
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But this is not some prosperity gospel, health and wealth gospel
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friends, that a lot of people try to attach this to.
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This is just a very, very simple greeting that he is saying and
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God is saying that He desires for us to be in good health and
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to be prosperous. And everything that we do,
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friends, and if we will take the Holy Spirit with us, everywhere
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that we go will be holy ground. And whenever you are eating your
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crusty bread with your glass of water, you can look and say, I
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have all this and Jesus and you are blessed.
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And anything that we have with Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ
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is blessed. Friends, you can be in a prison
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cell and be blessed. You can be on the beach and be
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blessed in the mountains and be blessed.
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You can have much or little and be content and be blessed.
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Friends, This is the life with God.
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He and he calls us into the abundant life.
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And it's not about the external, it's not about the material,
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friends. It's all about being housed with
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the Holy Ghost and being able to see this world in the way that
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he does and to know that he's moving everything along
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according to His plan and that you are in that plan and you're
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in the sweet spot of life and you're exactly where you need to
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be. And you don't need to be washed
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up and tossed to and fro by every wind and wave that comes
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your way. You can be settled, friends, and
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that is what it looks like. To be prosperous and in in good
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health is to actually know that the Holy Spirit is in you and
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that you have confirmed your calling and election.
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Friends, as we have learned about verse three, I 4I rejoiced
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greatly when the brothers came and testified of the truth that
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is in you. Even as you walk in the truth.
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There it is truth and truth and truth.
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Friends, he's dialing it in and he's saying he's had a good
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report of Gaius, and it made him so incredibly happy to hear that
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Gaius is walking in the truth. For I have no greater joy than
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to hear that my children walk in the truth.
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So here the elder John writing to Gaius and he likens him to a
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child. He likens him to his children.
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But this is for us today to underline it, highlight it, put
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it as a screensaver on your phone.
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This is the greatest joy that a parent could ever have is to
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know that their children are authentically following after
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God Almighty. That is not just their parents
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faith anymore. It's not just them dragging them
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to church anymore. But the children have a vibrant,
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healthy relationship with God Almighty through His Son Jesus
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Christ. There is no greater pleasure.
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There is no greater honor, there is no greater joy that a parent
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can have than that. Five beloved, you do faithfully
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whatsoever you do to the brothers and to strangers.
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So he's talking about hospitality and back in this
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time the travelling ministers would come and they would
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understand who in that place was a believer, a brother in Christ,
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and they would expect to be put up and to have hospitality
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extended towards them. And here the elder John is
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writing to Gaius and he's saying you have done very well.
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You've made a name for yourself. And people are saying that you
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show hospitality. And he's going to let us know in
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the next verse or so that whenever we show hospitality to
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those that are doing the Lord's work, it is as if we are doing
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it ourselves. Some go and some send.
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And the ones that send and the ones that pray for those that
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are in the harvest are equal in their inheritance with those
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that are actually on the front lines.
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What an amazing thought that we can be partakers with those that
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are actually doing the work that are actually boots on the
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ground. Friends 6 which have borne
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witness of your charity before the Church, whom if you bring
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forward on their journey after a godly sort, you shall do well.
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So these travelling ministers have said in the churches that
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Gaius is putting them up and he's showing and extending
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hospitality to them. And the elder John wants to put
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a spotlight on Gaius and say well done, good and faithful
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servant, good job on supporting them and you were going to do
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well. Seven, because that for his
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namesake, they went forth taking nothing of the gentiles.
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So he's saying they don't need to go to the secular world and
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ask for handouts and ask for a meal or a place to stay, that
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the church is well able to be able to fulfill all the needs of
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those that are doing the Lord's work.
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And there is no lack in the Father's house, friends.
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The storehouse is packed and plentiful because God is the one
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who's orchestrating it all. There's no lack in His house,
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and you need to know that He has the most abundant resources in
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the entire world. But He gives them out in ways
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that increases our faith. God sometimes plays spiritual
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chicken with us as we don't know where the finances are going to
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come from, but we're stepping out in faith and God comes
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through in the very last minute. What an amazing God we serve.
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There's no lack in his house. He has the cattle on 1000 hills.
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He put the oar in the ground that we value our currency off
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of friends. He is our all sufficient
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supplier and provider of all of our needs.
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And he says be content with clothing and with food.
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Eight, We therefore ought to receive such that we might be
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fellow helpers to the truth. So he's saying we can be the
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fellow helpers. We can be those who even though
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we're not actually going out, but we're giving the
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hospitality, we're supporting them while they're on the front
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lines and it is as if we are the ones that are actually doing it.
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What an amazing God we serve. 9 I wrote unto the church, but
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Diotrophes, who loves to have the preeminence among them,
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received us. Not so here.
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John the Elder has written to the church, but this Diotrophes
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he is Rd. blocking John's letters and we're going to see
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what John has to say then. Wherefore if I come, I will
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remember his deeds, which he does, praying against us with
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malicious words and not content therewith.
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Neither does he himself receive the brothers and forbids them
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that would and cast them out of the church.
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This diopternes he is not a very nice guy.
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He is filled with the spirit of the Antichrist.
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He's Rd. blocking any of the good news to come into the
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church because he loves preeminence which is the
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original sin. It's the pride friends that got
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Lucifer cast out of his heavenly abode with 1/3 of the angels
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friends and you can see that this diopternes he is guilty of
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the same sin. 11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that
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which is good. He that does good is of God, but
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he that does evil has not seen God.
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So this is a perpetual lifestyle of evil.
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This is not the one off failures and moral failures and slips
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into sin, which the Holy Spirit reminds us is not of God and he
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convicts us of those sins and we repent, we confess, we return.
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It's it's not talking to those people.
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It's talking to those that are stuck in the perpetual lifestyle
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of sin and they see nothing wrong with it.
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They have not seen God. 12 Demetrius has good rapport of
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all men and of the truth itself. Yeah, and we also bear record,
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and you know that our record is true.
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So this godly Demetrius is in juxtaposition of the domineering
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Diotronese and his evil deeds. And you can see that John wanted
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Gaius to follow and listen to Demetrius and not to the
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Diotronese. 13 I had many things to write, but I will not with
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ink and pen write unto you, 14 But I trust I shall shortly see
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you, and we shall speak face to face.
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Peace be to you. Our friends salute you greet the
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friends by name. Perhaps John is being somewhat
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secretive in his writing so that he doesn't get anybody in
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trouble just in case the letter gets intercepted.
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We don't actually know, but you can surmise that this was
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written during a time of great persecution and John was very
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tactful not to get anyone into trouble.
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What an amazing book that we get to study and spend a lifetime
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reading and meditating upon. And you can see that Scripture
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interprets scripture and it's amazing.
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It's alive and active. I hope you've been blessed by
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this book. I know I sure have.
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I'm praying for you. I love you.
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We'll see you back here tomorrow.
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God bless you.