For the Sake of the Name

2:43So long before state conventions, long before a national convention, Baptist churches work together in local regions in what we call associations. The very first association in the United States or in America, before the United States was the United States, was in Philadelphia in 1707. And before that, there Associations across the pond in England. But that first association in Philadelphia had three purposes. Number one was to be a means by which pastors could encourage and equip one another. Number two, to be a place where they could pool their resources together for missions and for evangelism. And number three, to hold the churches accountable to sound doctrine. And so associations function much the same way today. And so our mission statement at the Kreth Brazos Baptist Association is simply this: that we exist to glorify God by partnering, strengthening, and mobilizing churches to extend the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we do: that we work with churches. I, as the director of missions, help churches partner together. I try to help coordinate missions efforts between churches. And also, Lord willing, I try to strengthen the churches as God gives me opportunity to minister to the pastors. Sometimes people call my role a pastor to pastors, but I wear a lot of different hats as your director of missions. Now, what is the CRETH? What is CRETH Brazil's Baptist Association? I'm glad you asked what CRETH is. Most people call it say CRETH. It's CRETH. And Kreth was actually a missionary. J.D.W. Kreth was a missionary in the mid-1800s who was sent from the domestic mission board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was sent from Virginia to come to Texas to plant churches and to spread the gospel through Texas. He came to this area first. Many of the churches in this area, actually, some of the older churches, I was just at a church yesterday, celebrating its 150th anniversary, are directly connected to J.D.W. Krest's ministry. And he planted churches here and eventually moved towards Abilene and then out towards El Paso. And he eventually passed away. Further west he went, he felt like his mission was completing and he eventually passed away. But a lot of the Baptist work in Texas is a result of his missionary efforts. So as we're talking about sending and supporting missionaries this morning, you need to understand this church, maybe not directly, but indirectly, is the fruit of a man being sent 150 or so years ago to spread the gospel into what at that time was just this territory called Texas.

5:14So I want to talk to you this morning about this task that the church has to send and to support gospel workers, sending and supporting gospel workers for the sake of the name of Christ to go out with the gospel, to take it both locally and to take it both globally. And we're going to be in 3 John this morning. So please keep your Bibles open to that spot. But let me pray for us real quick. Pray that God would bless this sermon and then we'll continue. Father, I thank you again so much for the opportunity to be here this morning. This is tremendously, tremendous blessing for me to be able to be in this church. And so, Father, I pray now that you would use your word to speak to our hearts, that you'd open up all of our ears, mine included, to hear what you have to say. And Lord, that you'd give me a mouth to speak it accurately. If there be anything, Lord, that I say that's inaccurate, strike it. Strike it from the sermon. Strike it from the memory of those that are here. But instead, let your pure word be spoken. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

6:09Now, before I was a pastor at a church planter, I was a children's pastor at a couple of large churches. So I used to use illustrations a lot to help children grasp certain concepts. And I discovered as I was a pastor that it works with adults as well. So I have brought a physical illustration this morning, and it is a bag of Legos. Bo mentioned that I have children from the age 21 to 8. My 21-year-old is a combat engineer in the United States Marine Corps right now. So he's building bigger and more dangerous things. But he started off by building with these little things right here, these Legos. And so we still have a boatload of his Legos at our house. And my 8-year-old daughter, she loves playing with the Legos. So I have a question this morning. If I were to take, there's nobody in the front row, so I'm just going to pick on Bo. All right. So if I took this little Lego and I were to chunk it at your head, do you think it would hurt you? Okay.

7:00People are laughing as if they want me to do it. I'm not going to actually do it. I'm just asking. This is hypothetical. He says it wouldn't hurt him, and it probably wouldn't hurt him. This little Lego is not going to hurt anybody. It may annoy you. It may really make him a little frustrated. It makes him question why they invited me to come and preach. But if I were to take all of these Legos, so individually by itself, it doesn't make a huge impact. But if I were to take all of these Legos and connect them together, and then with this big block of Legos, take that and chunk it at Bo's head, well, it might hurt him. It could cause. Some damage. It would make a much bigger impact. And the reason our association exists, and part of what I'm talking about this morning, is the fact that we are better together. Churches are better when they work together. They make a bigger impact for the kingdom when we work together. And so, too, within the body of Christ. It's not just that missionaries go on a whim and do what they want to do, it's that we work together. There are senders, there are supporters, there are two ends of the rope, as I'll talk about in a minute. And we are called to work together because we are better together. We make a much more powerful impact for the gospel when we work together. And we see that here in this letter. This letter, this personal letter that John the Apostle wrote around A.D. 90, which would have made John a very old man. Hence, he is called in verse 1 the elder. I do believe that he's being called this because he is the last remaining apostle. He is the elder apostle. And we see in verse 1 also who he is writing this very personal letter to, and he's writing it to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Gaius was a member and perhaps a leader of a church that we don't know exactly where it was located, but it's probably in the vicinity of Ephesus. And it's very clear from these first verses that John has great affection for this man named Gaius, to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. And so that says a lot right there about how much regard John had for this man. He's actually saying that he wants Gaius' physical health to match his spiritual health.

9:05Okay, that's what John is praying for. His physical health to match his spiritual health. That's how confident John is in this man's strength in the gospel and his spiritual standing. And so Gaius here is mentioned four other places in the Bible, but we don't know for sure if all the other mentions of the name Gaius was the same man. It was a common name during that time. But we do have church tradition, which tells us that this Gaius here may have been the same Gaius as we find in Acts chapter 20, who was accompanying Paul on his way to Jerusalem to deliver a gift for the impoverished Jerusalem church. Now, this is an important thing to Paul. He spills a lot of ink about this collection that he's doing for the saints in Jerusalem. And so we see it in multiple epistles, and particularly we see in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul giving detail about this collection that he was doing. And it was so important to him that he tells the Romans he couldn't visit them yet, even though he really wanted to. And he also wanted to be sent by them to Spain. He couldn't do that yet until he took this offering to Jerusalem. And so that just shows, again, the power of churches working together. Paul knew the saints in Jerusalem needed help, and it was a missionary offering. It was this collective offering of gifts from the different churches who also sent representative missionaries to go back to Jerusalem and minister to that first church there in Jerusalem. And so if Gaius was indeed the one in Acts 20 who was with Paul, then what we see is. That he learned his missional giving and his missional sending instincts from the Apostle Paul himself. Now, I want to look now at Gaius's missional heart and allow God to teach us about sending and supporting gospel workers this morning. And I have three points. Number one, we'll look at the ground for sending and supporting gospel workers. Number two, we'll look at the goal of sending and supporting gospel workers. And number three, we'll look at the gain from sending and supporting gospel workers. Now, we'll also see at the very end of 3 John that there's some things that a person can do that will kill gospel efforts and kill the sending and supporting of gospel workers. But I won't have as much time to talk about that. Let's focus first on this first point. The ground for sending and supporting gospel workers is simply this, God's Word. Before we can look at Gaius's actions, we need to see the foundation for his missional posture. A person or a church that has a heart for sending and supporting gospel workers must have a foundation. It must have something to stand on. And that something, friends, is the word of God, the truth. Look at verse 3. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. So do you see the ground? We'll shortly look at Gaius' missional heart here in a second, but the solid foundation for being this type of person, a person who generously supports and sends missionaries, is a lifestyle of walking in. The truth. What is this truth that Gaius is walking in and that John's other spiritual children were walking in? That truth is simply the apostolic teaching, which is the Word of God, the Word of the truth, the gospel message itself. This walk that John speaks of is simply a manner of life marked by holiness. Holiness shaped by the Word of God. Friends, you do know, hopefully, and I'm sure you do in a church like this, that we are called, we are expected to grow in holiness. We are called to be more holy now than we were 10 years ago when we first became a believer. We are called to be sanctified. Oftentimes, and there's not as many in this service as I saw in the first service when I talked to college kids. A lot of the times what's on their heartbeat is this question: I'm trying to figure out what God's will is for my life. What's God's will for my life? And I think what they're communicating there is they're trying to tap into God's secret will that He has for them, and that's okay for God to eventually reveal His direction for them, but really, God's will for us is right here in the Word. This is God's will. 1 Thessalonians 3:3 will tell us exactly what God's will is. It says this, For this is the will of God, your sanctification. We know it is God's will for you to grow in holiness. And how are we sanctified? Jesus, in his high priestly prayer, prayed this for us: sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Praying to the Father. He says, Your word is the truth. It's the means for our sanctification. It is what Gaius is walking in. He's walking in the word. And that fact gave the old apostle great happiness and joy. Look at verse 4. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. No greater joy. Now, this was, as I mentioned earlier, John was an old man at this point. He had a lot of experience with things that could give him joy. But what is the pinnacle of his joy? What's the pinnacle of his joyometer, if you will? It's that his children, his spiritual children, were growing. Those who had benefited from his preaching and teaching were growing in the truth. And that's really the mark of a good pastor. And friends, I believe you have good pastors here because I know they rejoice to see you grow in the faith. That's what really gets them stoked. That's what really gets them excited, is to see that the people in this body are becoming more like Christ. That's the mark of a good pastor. Like a parent rejoicing at a child's milestones, a good pastor rejoices to see his children walking in the truth. Now, to bring us back to what we're focusing on this morning, if an individual or a church is going to have a passion for sending and supporting gospel workers, they must first be walking in the truth. It is the ground that you must be standing on. Conversely, if a church strays from the truth, then her missions and endeavors will likewise stray. So, how is it? And this happens a lot. How is it that a church or an organization subtly shifts from a gospel-centered mission, from gospel-centered missions, to more socially focused humanitarianism? How does that happen? It happens when the ground for sending shifts. That's what happens. Walk in the truth of the unadulterated, unaltered gospel of Jesus Christ, and you will inevitably send and support men and women who are unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So sending and supporting gospel workers flows directly out of the truth. And Gaius's missional hospitality that's on display in this little book, and his missional generosity, which we'll also see on display, they flow out of his walk in the truth. And I believe that as you grow in your walk in the truth, which means you're also growing in your knowledge of who God is, then God's global purposes will come into focus and it will become your heartbeat. Let me just give you an example from Psalm 46, 10. Psalm 46, 10 is a famous verse, one we like to quote. It's one of these verses we like to encourage one another with, right? Especially when you're anxious and life is busy, and we say, be still and know that I am God, right? I had that verse quoted to me many times. I've read that verse many times. I've sat and meditated on that verse times before. But frankly, it wasn't until recently, within the last five or six years, that someone helped me see that verse is not about introspection and just your private experience with God. That verse is. About missions because when you are still and know who God is, then you'll know this: what God says next: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. So, the more we walk in the truth, the more we know who our God is, the more our heartbeat will be His heartbeat, and that is, we'll have a heart for the nations. More and more and more. You cannot be in the Word, I believe, and not have a missional heart mindset. And frankly, nor can you have a missional mindset if you're not in the Word.

17:02William Carey, the father of the modern missionary movement, says this: Though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God's cause will triumph. If you know anything about William Carey's life, you know there were a lot of challenges and difficulties. And what kept him focused and grounded? It was the Word of God. It was the Word of God. So fix your missions' efforts, local and global, sending and supporting, on the solid ground of the infallible, inerrant Word of God, my friends, and then you'll see how that message of the Word fuels your missions. Now, let's keep walking through the text. Look at verse 5. Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are. Now we're going to begin to look at the actions of Gaius. We begin to see his labor, his hard work on behalf of what. Were apparently some traveling missionaries. Essentially, he shows them humble hospitality, even though they were, according to the text, they were strangers. And so these men were not close friends of Gaius, but he supported them. Why? Why did he support them? Okay, we can only assume that he supported them because they indeed were also walking in the truth. He supported those who he knew were walking in the truth because he was walking in the truth. It's very interesting. It's not that Gaius met a couple of guys who said, hey, I love Jesus. Well, hey, I love Jesus too. Then let me just support you. That's not what's happening here. He knows he's walking in the truth so he can detect who is walking in the truth and who has the gospel message and who does not. 2 John and 3 John kind of balance each other out. 2 John actually warns, and they were probably sent at the exact same time. 2 John warns about letting people come and influence the church who aren't focused on the gospel. 2 John verse 10 says this, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, which is the gospel, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting. For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. And so the church is called to be discerning. We are to support gospel workers, but we are to support gospel workers that are truly centered on the true gospel. Because we know there are a lot of false gospels out there. I was sharing in the first hour as your associational leader over here. My office is like right across the street. And when I'm in there in the office, sometimes people will come by, and I don't think they quite know what the Creth Brasil Baptist. Association is because I've had several people come and ask for funding for missionary works. And so it could be an organization. It might be an individual. Hey, I'm going to China. I need some help or whatever. And it's been very interesting because I've had some pretty strange folks come through and ask for some help. And when I try to pin them down on what they're going to be doing and what they're going to be preaching and their view of the local church and their view of the gospel, there are some that it's very clear. I'll still be very kind to them, very nice, but I know we're not going to support them. And I cannot connect them with one of our churches. But there are some who come in, and by God's grace, I can tell they're walking in the truth. What they're saying accords with what's right here. And I'll gladly try to connect them with our local churches. And so, what we have here is John, he's, I mean, Gaius is showing discernment and love as he greets, as he takes these strangers in and gives them humble hospitality. I believe your church is a discerning church, okay? I'm preaching to the choir here because I know from talking to Alan, from talking to Bo, from talking to Mark, you guys have a process in place so that you make sure your missionaries are ready before they go on the field. And so you're discerning, you're making sure that everything's in place, that what they believe is aligned with the scripture. So I praise God that you guys are doing that. And I just want to encourage you to continue to do that. So walking in the truth enables us to be discerning. Gaius showed tremendous love to these strangers. In verse 6, we're told that these brothers who had been strangers to Gaius, they returned to John and they testified of his love before the church. Isn't that a great thing? One of the things I love about missions efforts like this is when you have missionaries come back and just testify to what's going on. I love that. And just the testimony of missionaries is a beautiful thing. So the ground for sending and supporting gospel workers is God's Word. And the next thing I want us to see is this. The goal of sending and supporting gospel workers is this, God's glory. So the ground, God's word. The goal, God's glory. So let's continue with the second half of verse 6. It says this, you will do well to send them. Okay, so it's not just that Gaius is being commended for his gracious hospitality, but John also expects him to support and send these missionaries on their journey. So send them on their journey. And to do so, what does the text say? In a manner worthy of God. In a manner that brings God glory. That means that you do so in a manner that the way you're sending actually says something about who our God is and brings him honor and brings his name, exalts his name.

22:04Before I was a pastor, I served, or I didn't serve, I worked at Walmart, not at Walmart. I worked for a company that did videos for Walmart. The name of our video company was Square One Production Company. I was in northwest Arkansas. Our golden client was Walmart. If we lost Walmart, our company was sunk. But we did videos for Walmart. And there was one time where we were producing this video. We were up against a time crunch, and we knew we hadn't done our best work, and we sent it to the. To the home office. We sent a tape, and that tells you how old I am. We sent the tape to the home office. They watched the video, and they made a call. They called us back, and they said, This is not good. And they said these exact words: This video is not worthy of the name Walmart, okay? Which tells you how bad the video is. I mean, it's Walmart. Come on. Okay? This video is not worthy of Walmart, of our name. And they actually said that. We can't put our name on this. And I think about that. When we talk about going and we talk about sending missionaries, the way we do it says a lot.

23:07Is the way that we're doing our missions efforts, are we doing it in such a way that the name of our Lord will be on that and be glorified in that? That's the question. That's what the Apostle John here is putting before Gaius. He says he did well to send them in a manner worthy of God. Now, the aim in the sending, the aim of our sending and our supporting of gospel workers is obviously the glory of God, for his name to be exalted. So the question is, what kind of sending and supporting glorifies God? So if we're supposed to send in a way that glorifies God, well, what kind of sending glorifies God? And I'm glad you asked because verse 6 answers that question for us. It may be hard to detect at first, but look with me. Verse 6 says, send them on their journey. Now, let me just tell you, those words right there, which is five words in our English translation, that's only one word in the translation. The Greek. And that one word is simply the word propimpo, which means to escort or aid someone in their journey, especially as it pertains to supplying the provisions for their journey. And it seems that this word propimpo had a very technical meaning in the New Testament church. It's found in eight other places in the New Testament: Acts 15:3, Acts 20, verse 38, and 21, verse 5, Romans 15:24, 1 Corinthians 16:6, and then in 16, 11, 2 Corinthians 1:16, and then in Titus 3:13. And in each one of those passages, that word is used referring to the sending of missionaries. So that propimpo was a technical term used when it was talking about sending, when the apostles were talking about sending missionaries. Titus 3:3 makes it clear for us. I think that's on the screen for you there. And it says this: Do your best to speed Zenus the lawyer and Apollos on their way. So those words, speed on their way, that verb is the exact same word, propimpo. And the verse goes on to say this: see that they lack nothing. So what does it mean? What does propimpo mean? What does it mean to send someone on their way or to speed them on the way? It means to make sure that they lack nothing. See that they lack nothing. That gets to the heart of propimpo. The goer doesn't have to worry about his or her needs because the sender is making sure that he or she lacks nothing. So when We read send them on their journey, we must understand that it means much more than just say goodbye to them, throw them a going-away party, or anything like that. It means that you are to support them in a manner that brings glory to God. In other words, the type of support that glorifies God is support that provides for the needs of those being sent. That's the type of sending that glorifies God.

26:00So send them on their journey, support them in a manner that brings glory to God. Friends, the local church is called to be the supplier and the supporter of missionaries. Jump down to verse 8, real quick. Therefore, we ought, and that's emphatic in the Greek, just as it sounds in the English, we ought, it's a moral imperative, we ought to support people like these. The church is called to support missionaries. And that word support means to grab up from below or to bear up. And so, missionaries and missions efforts are borne up by the local church. Associations are borne up by the local church. Global missions, even local missions like church planting or church revitalization, are borne up by the local churches. The local church is to do this because the gospel workers' initial support should not come from the ones to whom he or she is sent. Verse 7. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. So the ones being evangelized are not expected to support. The ones bringing them the good news, at least not until they're ready and able to do so as they are established into churches. So, these brothers in today's text, just like Paul in 1 Corinthians 9, they want God to be glorified, and thus they didn't want there to be any confusion among those to whom they were sent as to their motives. Thus, the only support they were going to receive from those sending was from those sending them. That's the way it should work. Remember, friends, the glory of God is at stake. Now, look at the connection real quick between verses 6 and 7. You would do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For, okay, and like I said in the first hour, in a church like yours, I know you take little words like that, like little conjunctions like that, seriously. For, so here's the reason they should be sent in a manner worthy of God. For, they have gone out for the sake of the name. They have gone out for the sake of the name. We are to financially support gospel workers locally and globally, missions organizations, associations, because, for, the name of Jesus needs to be heralded until the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters covered the sea. That's simply why we do it. For the sake of the name. This idea of the name of God, it looks back, casts its glance back at the Old Testament. The name of God was the revelation of his character and of his nature. It was the revelation of his glory. And we know that in the old covenant, the place Where the glory of the Lord dwelled was the tabernacle and then the temple. So we read in Deuteronomy 12:52, but you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all the tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. So God would place his glory in a place. And we know the old covenant people of God, Israel, were supposed to be a light unto the nations. And the missional mandate of the old covenant was to be a come and see mandate, to live in such a way that God's glory resided amongst his people, so all the nations would see and they would come. But in the new covenant reality, now that Jesus is here and the old covenant all pointed to Christ, now that Christ is here, we've shifted from a come and see missional mandate to a go-and-tell missional mandate. You actually see the clash of these things in the book of Acts. You had the Ethiopian eunuch. What was he doing? He was coming to Jerusalem to worship God. He was a proselyte. He was one from the nations who was coming to worship God. And who does he meet on the way? He meets a missionary who's been sent out. And so we see the covenants clashing right there. We see the transition of the covenants, really, from the come and see missional mandate to the go-and-tell missional mandate. And so now in this new covenant, Jesus has come, and it is in him that the glory of God is made manifest, and thus he is the new tabernacle, John 1:14, and he is the new temple, John 2:21. So that now all who are united to him have his spirit and are in that sense temples of the Holy Spirit. So now we are no longer under a come and see missional mandate, but we are empowered to go and to tell. And what is it that we go and tell? We go and tell that there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. We go for the sake of the name. Philippians 2:9 says, God is highly exalted on him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. The glory of the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is our ultimate motive and our ultimate aim for missions. The Apostle Paul, in the beginning of Romans, says that the aim of his apostleship is this, verse 5, to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among the nations. The glory of the name of Jesus Christ was the motive that drove Paul. And we see, John Stott says, speaking about the motive for missions, he says this: The highest of all missionary motives is neither obedience to the great commission, important as that is, nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing, strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God, but rather zeal, burning and passionate zeal for the glory of Jesus Christ. So the glory of our Lord and Savior, the glory of our God, is the aim of our missional giving and sending. Goers go and senders send, so that rebels will be transformed into worshipers and thereby. Our God will be glorified. Consider what John Piper says in Let the Nations Be Glad, which is really my favorite book on missions. You've probably heard this before, but it's worth saying again. Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. So worship is the fuel and the goal of missions. Amen. That is utterly biblical. The whole story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is about the glory of God being spread across the face of the earth. So to recap, the ground for sending and supporting gospel workers is God's word. The goal of sending and supporting gospel workers is God's glory. And finally, the gain from sending and supporting gospel workers is God's people united. God's people united. Verse 8. Therefore, okay, so in light of these men going out for the sake of the name, therefore, we ought to support people like these that they may be fellow workers for the truth. Fellow workers for the truth. And here's where our Lego illustration comes back in. That's why I brought that illustration: to encourage us to be fellow workers, to be united with each other for the sake of the gospel. Fellow workers for the truth. This work, this word fellow workers is synergas, which is where we get our word synergy from. When goers go for the sake of the name, and when senders send in a manner worthy of God, they become fellow workers, co-workers, and that is gospel synergy. I have never been to Liberia, never been there, yet I've been a co-worker in Liberia. Why? Because our church supported missionaries in Liberia. Most people at my former church had never been to Honduras, but they were co-laborers in Honduras as they supported what my wife and I are doing in Honduras. None of you in here have sat down and given counsel to a struggling pastor in Madisonville, Texas. But as you support the association, you have been a co-worker with me as I've done that. As you send gospel workers locally and globally, as you support other churches across the globe or even in your neighborhood, you are demonstrating beautiful gospel koinonia, gospel fellowship, a gospel partnership that makes you, according to this text, fellow workers. And that is what is expected of the New Testament church. Romans 15, 24, I kind of alluded to this earlier. Paul was planning to go to Rome and then head on to Spain to continue his missionary efforts. And he says this in Romans 15, 24. I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you. And to be helped on my journey is that same word. Pimpo, to be helped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while. So the expectation that Paul had for the Roman church was that they would support his missionary efforts. The local church is expected to do missions work, not only to do it themselves, but to be sending people globally and locally. And you may not know this, but your church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which means you are part of the greatest missionary sending network in the history of the world. And I know there are lots of other mission groups that you guys are part of, but I'm thankful that you're connected with the association as well. The Southern Baptists are not perfect. We are far, far from it. But by God's grace, we're moving, I believe, in a more biblically solid direction. And so, as your associational leader, I need you to be my fellow worker as I carry out my mission and the association's mission of partnering and mobilizing and strengthening the churches of this area. William Carey, as I mentioned earlier, was the father of the modern missions movement, but behind him stood great men and great women. And one of those great men was Andrew Fuller, who's sometimes been called the theologian of the modern missions movement. And William Carey famously spoke this to Andrew Fuller. He said, I will go into the pit if you will hold the ropes. I will go into the pit if you will hold the ropes. And other great missionaries, Adam Iram Judson, and other great missions movements, they've all had similar people standing behind them, similar churches standing behind them to help support them to hold the other end of the rope. At the end of the age, we'll see there have been. Nameless saints and unknown churches who held the rope on this end as God's people went and took the gospel so that others from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation would come to Christ. And by holding the rope, by being fellow workers for the gospel, by showing gospel synergy, God is yet again glorified. Remember, his glory is what's at stake here. He is glorified. Jesus said in his high priestly prayer in John 17, 21, that he's praying that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they all may be in us. Why? So that the world may believe that you have sent me. Gospel synergy glorifies God and is part of the way that we show the world the truth of the gospel. So, to recap it one last time, the ground for sending and supporting gospel workers is God's Word. The goal is God's glory. The gain is God's people united. Let me just conclude the message by making a couple of more really quick observations from the remainder of the text here. There are three people mentioned in the book: there's Gaius, who's beloved by John. There's Demetrius, who is commended by John, and he's the one delivering the book. And there's a guy named Diotrephes. And in Diotrephes, we see what it is that actually kills missions. Look at verse 9. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, listen to this. He refuses. To welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. And so, this guy is anti-missionary support. He is anti-missional living. Why? Number one, he likes to put himself first, he wants to make much of himself. So, my word to you simply this morning is: if you're wanting to be involved in missions, whether it be giving or sending, or going, and you're thinking that you're going to be able to make much of yourself in the process, wow, people are going to think much of me if I go to wherever. My face is going to be at the wall at that church, or if I give this amount, the pastors will recognize what a great supporter I am of missions. If you're doing anything missional that's based upon you getting the glory, then stop right now. That will kill true missions. And secondly, not only does he put himself first, he doesn't acknowledge apostolic authority. He doesn't submit, therefore, to the word of God. To not submit to apostolic authority in our context is to not submit to this word, this authoritative, all-sufficient, infallible word. And that's how you kill local, that's how you kill missions. Care more about your name than his name, and supplant his word with your word, and you will kill missions. So, let's bring this sermon in for landing with these last two verses, or it's not the last two verses, two of the last four verses here. It says, I had much to write to you, but I'd rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Let me just say this: I'm so thankful for you guys bringing me here this morning just to have the opportunity to talk to you face to face. And I'm so glad that missionaries come back home to be able to talk face-to-face. Because nothing replaces this kind of interaction and getting to know each other and talking face-to-face. And it's part of the value of an association of local churches. Your church is part of all kinds of different networks. But this local network, part of the reason I think this is valuable, is despite this age of technology, nothing replaces face-to-face contact with your brothers and sisters. So there was much more that John wanted to say, but he said, wait a second, I'm just going to tell you face-to-face because that's even of more value. So thank you, brothers and sisters, for allowing me to be here. Never forget that the ground for sending and supporting missionaries is God's Word. The goal is God's glory. And the gain that you will get, the glorious gain, is God's people united. Let's pray.

39:50Father, I thank you again for the opportunity to be here. I thank you that I could be here face to face with these brothers and sisters. Father, I wish every church in our association had the same mission heartbeat that this church had. Oh, what a glorious thing it would be. What a revival we'd see. What an explosion of missions outreach with this gigantic university here and all the opportunities to reach the ends of the earth through this university. What an explosion of gospel missions we'd see if all the churches in this area were centered on the word and it's got to be. Gospel-focused and as serious about missions as this church was. So, God, I pray that you duplicate that across this association. But in the meantime, Father, I pray that you'd strengthen this body, strengthen the people of this church. And even now, as we partake of the bread and the cup, Father, this is a strengthening thing that we do here as we commune together around the Lord's table. Strengthen us as we're reminded through these senses of taste of what it is that you did for us. And remind us that we are together in Christ united to one another. We are fellow workers for the gospel. And may this reminder of the gospel propel us to teach others and to reach others with the truth.

41:22There are people in this community right here within a stone's throw who do not know you, Lord. And there are hundreds here that do. So, God, move us. And may this Lord's table be a means you use to strengthen us with your grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.