Is He The Boss Of Me? S26e2 3Jn9

How'd you like to be a person who comes with a WARNING LABEL stamped on you? We meet such a person in 3John.  He's a guy who gets authority wrong. This leads to additional errors of thought and action.  He demonstrates being anti-missional and anti-church. The church should not tolerate such a person.

Let the people of God, treat the sent of God, in a manner worthy of God. Too, let the people of God, treat the deliberately NOT of GOD, as if they are NOT from God.

Let's be a missional church and all that means. Let's get authority right. Let's be careful of all those walking around with a WARNING LABEL slapped on them.

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Transcript

Michael Smith: 0:00

Good morning, my brothers and sisters. Welcome to episode number two, in the book of Third John, this is season 26. Today's title is, is he the boss of me. And we'll tell a great story in a little bit here, in Third John, there are basically three character categories of people. There's missionaries, and who are they, they're those were gone out for the sake of the name. And in my experience, they're wonderful and attracted people. But you cannot be local friends with them because of the the distance of them going out for the sake of the name. This also puts them in a unique financial position, and they're not getting support from the world from the Gentiles. So verse eight of three, John says, Therefore we ought to support people like these. So we ought to support people like these that have gone out that their support comes from the church, which leads us to our second category of people that is in third John, which is missional people. So those are people in the local church physically, but whose hearts and whose effort and works and wallet goes outside of the church and into the pockets of the missionaries to support them. So this requires effort says, verse five, beloved is faithful thing you do in all your efforts. And it requires work, it says. It also requires faithfulness, it requires love that requires sending, and it requires support. So this is a very, very active participation of the congregation, verse six says, who testified to your love before the church, you would do well to send them on their journey. So the church has a responsibility to send and the missionaries have a responsibility to go out. And it's kind of a ham and egg thing where everybody does does their job. So the missional people in the church are sending, they're supporting, they're loving, they're using their efforts, they're working. Behind the scenes, they're acknowledging authority, but that this is the way the Lord has it. They're walking in truth, they're staying in the family of God. Well, in the story, there's this, there's a third category, character, and he's the anti missionary. His name is Diane atrophies. And there's this warning, he's a person who literally carries a warning on his forehead. And the author, John is warning the church about him. Listen, and I have written this in verse nine, I have written something to the church. So he's warning them, but they atrophies, who likes to put himself first. So that's a bad thing, does not acknowledge our authority got to talk about that. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing. I will remind everybody of this badness, talking wicked nonsense. So he's BS rebellious with his mouth as well. And not content with that he refuses to welcome the brothers. So he's refusing hospitality of the of the missionaries when we're supposed to be emotional people. And also get this even goes a step further, he stops those who want to, and puts them out of church. So he's, he has an eye for the missional people in the church, which we're supporting and sending the missionaries. And he's throwing them out of the church, which is just just crazy. So he's like the anti authority. He's disrupting the order. He's teaching bad things. He's using his authority in a bad way. So authority is a major unresolved problem in many bad churches. And authority is a major resolved issue in many good churches. And you sort of have to get the authority issue understood so you can get to the good stuff. So here's my story for the day. So being a grandparent is about 99.5%. Love fun rainbows and puppies. Got a five year old grandchild, in one day, he was doing something foolish. I told him to stop and he kept doing something foolish. And I told him to stop. So he leaves the the area, he goes and finds his mother. And I could see this happening across the room. And he kind of nods towards me, he asked his mother is he the boss of me? And he asked, he asks it out loud. You just gotta You gotta love this. And this is a question we all ask, but you just don't hear it out loud very much. And it's just beautiful, because children are sort of without guile. And and he was asking, you know, what's the authority chain here and who do I have to obey? Because this is this is more complex than I want it to be. While to atrophy is a guy who got gets that question wrong. He he's gone rogue, and he's out of the authority chain, he's out. He leaves the discipline of the church authority. And we can see this because he has this wild tongue. He's speaking against the the true disciples, John was an actual disciple. He also has wild actions and throwing these people out of the churches was a good example of that, and not supporting those in the church that have rightly deserved that the support of the church. And then he doesn't support those in the church who are supporting those in the church who rightly deserves support. And he's putting them out. So the church today is let the people of God treat the sense of God in a manner worthy of God. So supporting missionaries, specifically, also, but on this thing is to let the people of God treat that deliberately not of God, this character here Daphnis is a good example of that, as they are not of God. So people not deserving of allegiance of our heart and our attention and our wallet. So the problem with Diotrephes is that he comes with a warning neighbor, why? Well, he's a leader. He's a teacher, and he's not connected to the truth. And he's using his his teaching power and leadership power for evil in sort of being the anti church, anti missionary. So the problem for him is that he kind of started like my grandchild, he asked the question, who's the boss of me? rejected the correct answer, and then kind of has the fruit of all this. So teaching point for us today is in the church, don't be amanti missionary don't get the authority thing wrong. And then while the subsequent things about teaching in action, but either be a missionary be one sent out which is fantastic, and if you're not a sent out one, then you are one who stays in, but works and has effort and is faithful and loving in his sending and supporting those who are sent out. Thanks for listening