Fellow Workers for the Truth

0:56Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. I have written something to the church, but diatrophy. Who likes to put himself first does not acknowledge our authority.

1:34So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. We also add to our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

2:14I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the fringe, friends, each by name. This is God's word. You may be seated. Most of us have experienced exceptional hospitality at some point in our lives. We had an incredible stay at a hotel, a memorable weekend at an Airbnb, or even just simply the kindness extended to us by friends or family members in their own home.

2:57And I think most of us also. Have experienced less than exceptional hospitality, also. Kendra and I had this experience on a trip to Florida that we took. We looked up this hotel online, and I should be generous and say this was 14 years ago when the internet was powered by gas generators. You had to pull with a cord to start. But we looked up this hotel online, and it seemed like it was fine. And so we have this long day and this long travel, and we finally arrive at this hotel and we get there to the front desk, and there's nobody there. Kind of like a ring-the-bell for service kind of a thing. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Finally, somebody comes out and greets us and welcomes us and checks us in. And he ends by saying, If there's anything that you need, just let us know. I said, Well, we actually have quite a few bags here. Do you have one of those baggage carts? He said, No, we don't have any of those. Okay.

3:59Well, where are the elevators so we can get up to our room? Could you just point us in that direction? Oh, we don't have elevators. The stairs are outside and to the left. Okay, so we take all the bags and walk up the stairs to our room and get to our room, and it is a smoking room. Or at least somebody made it a smoking room. So back down we go to the lobby, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, waiting for the guy again. And he comes out, and we tell him the situation, and he says that. He will get us a new room. And meanwhile, we've discovered that we've forgotten something, one of toiletries, something of importance. And so we asked him, Hey, do you have any of these? No, we don't have any of those.

4:41So when you said anything that you need, what exactly did you mean by that? So we spend the night here. It's all fine. The next morning, we wake up, and Kendra and I are 22 at the time. And most rental car companies, probably wisely, will not rent cars to 22-year-olds. You have to be 25. But there is one company that will, Enterprise rent a car. So we call them up and we say, hey, we need you to pick us up. And the guy says, I'm not really sure we'll be able to do that. I'm like, bro, your motto is pick enterprise. We'll pick you up. Like, that's literally what your company motto is. So I had to persuade him to come and get us, and finally, he did. We were able to get our rental car and get on our way. But that was a weekend that we did not experience stellar hospitality. It was a weekend that left a little something to be desired in that compartment of our life. And I think for all of us, we understand why hospitality is so important. It's because often when you're in need of it, you're away from home. Things are unfamiliar to you, and so you're counting on that. And this was even more the case. It was even more important in the first century. Because in the first century, there really wasn't a hospitality industry. There weren't hotels. The few that existed were more like broadcast.

6:01And so you really needed hospitality if you were traveling around in the first century. And so today in 3 John, we're going to see a contrast between two different church leaders. One who furthered the work of the gospel through his hospitality, and one who hindered the work of the gospel through his lack of hospitality. And what we're going to learn today in 3 John is that through faithful ministry, we become fellow workers for the truth. So let's look now at the text together here in 3 John.

6:37We see at the outset that it's just like 2 John, it's just written by the elder. And if you want some more information on that, you can go back and listen to last week's sermon on 2 John if you missed it. But just for the sake of time today, we're just going to say we've concluded that this is the Apostle John. And John in this third letter is writing to a man named Gaius, and Gaius is tough to identify. This is one of the most common names in the Roman Empire. It was like being named John or something today. It's just a very common name. And so actually in the New Testament, there are three other Gaiuses, all different people, that are named. And so this is the fourth occurrence of the name Gaius that we have. And so it's very hard to identify exactly who this is. But from the context, Gaius and John were very dear friends. You can see that he reminds him of his love for him in verse 1. And actually, all All throughout the letter, he refers to him as his beloved. They had a very close relationship. From verse 4, it seems like John actually led Gaius to faith in Christ, that he is one of his spiritual children. And given what we read in the content of the letter, it also seems that Gaius is a leader in his local church. And so John is writing to this man who is a dear and beloved friend, but also a leader in the local church. And so he has some important information that he wants to convey to him. But first, he begins by praying for him. And you look there in verse 2. John prays that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul.

8:14And I think this is really important. This is kind of a customary greeting and maybe even something along the lines of what you would say to a Christian friend today. But it's important to notice that unlike many religious leaders of his day, John did not believe that the material world was evil. You see here that he prayed for Gaius' circumstances and he prayed for Gaius's physical well-being. Now, to be sure, he wasn't only concerned with Gaius's physical well-being, but he also didn't ignore it. He didn't think that the body was evil and the spirit was good.

8:48John understood the same thing that all of us need to understand, and that is that we were created in God's image and likeness. We were created with eternal souls that have earthly bodies. Which one day God is going to redeem and make new forever. So it is a mistake for us to ignore our physical existence, our bodies, or the world that we live in. But I want you to also see that John doesn't swing the pendulum all the way to the other side. He doesn't ignore the body, he doesn't ignore Gaius' circumstances, but he also doesn't make those things ultimate. And that's what we see often in the prosperity gospel movement. That movement that teaches that God's will for every Christian is that you would be healthy and wealthy. You also don't see that here or anywhere in the New Testament. That teaching, that thinking, finds no support in the Bible. In fact, when you read the scripture, what you find is that every Christian believer is promised suffering. Jesus says that every teacher will be like his, or every student rather, will be like his teacher. And Jesus himself was the suffering servant. And so, of course, his people, his followers, are also going to suffer. We're going to go through trials. And some of those trials that we're going to go through are financial setbacks, our health challenges, and trials in our lives. And that's all part of God's design for our sanctification.

10:17So, what we see right away is that John avoids both errors of overvaluing the body and this earthly life, and the error of undervaluing this. Body in this earthly life. He praises God for all of those things, and he sees that there is goodness in all of those things. But what is very clear is that John's greatest hope is that it would be well with Gaius's soul, and John knew that it was well with Gaius' soul. How did he know? Look at verse 3. He says that men had come from Gaius' church and they testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.

10:59Now, remember, we've learned from 1st and 2 John so far that all followers of Jesus must be marked by love for others. We have to be marked by belief in the truth, and we have to be marked by obedience to Jesus. Those are just the basic characteristics of what it means to be a Christian. And John says, Gaius was obedient to the truth, so much so that it was evident to everybody around him. Anybody that had ever been around Gaius could testify, this man is walking in the truth, and that should be the same for us. It should never be a surprise to our coworkers or to our extended family members, to people that we live around in the community. It should never be a surprise to them when they find out that we're believers. They should say, now that makes sense to me. I understand why you live in these ways because I see the evidence all over your life. I hear it in your speech. I see it in your conduct. I see it in your love and concern for other people. There's just evidence all around you that this is what. You are. And that was the case for Gaius. It was just evident in his life that he was walking in the truth, and that obedience brought John, his spiritual father, great joy. Look at verse 4. John says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

12:27I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Now, if we can stop for a minute and just think about earthly parents here, it's true that every earthly parent wants his or her child to succeed. That's something that all parents share in common. But I think as we read this verse, we should ask ourselves, what is it about my children that brings me the greatest joy as a Christian parent?

12:57Is it their academic success? Is it that they're getting good grades and then therefore are going to be accepted into the right schools? Is it their athletic success? That they're winning games and making the right teams and on their way to a potential scholarship? Or maybe that just for one day, they'll wear clean, matching clothing. John's greatest joy is to hear that his children are walking in the truth. And Jesus said this in Mark chapter 8. He asked this question: For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

13:50For what can a man give in return for his soul? Now, I wonder how many Christian parents who spent thousands of dollars on their children's academics and their children's athletics, now that their kids are grown up, are asking themselves the question, How is it with my children's souls? Are they walking in the truth? And so, I think we should be challenged this morning by the reality that our kids will learn to love what we love. And this goes for our physical children, for those of you who are parents or who may become parents one day, but this goes especially for our spiritual children, whether they're our physical children or not.

14:43Because our children, physical and spiritual, those that we disciple, they're going to look at us and they're going to learn to love the things that we love. And so, if you ask those people around you, what Is it that I love the most? Anyone who knows you well is going to be able to tell you this is what you're most excited about. And I know this is what you're most excited about because this is what you're always talking about. This is what you spend your money on. This is what you spend your time doing.

15:16And we teach those that we are discipling to love the same things that we love. And so, friends, if the gospel, the good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection on our behalf is what we love the most, if we love the person and work of Jesus more than anything, then everyone in our life is going to know that. And we're going to train them to love that like we love it. But if we love anything else more than Jesus and more than his gospel, that's also going to be evident. And that's also going to train those people under us and around us to love those same kinds of things. So just ask yourself this morning, what really is my greatest joy?

16:06What is my greatest joy? Is it to see our spiritual children walking in the truth? Because that's what it should be. That was John's greatest joy. And friends, as we learn from 1 and 2 John, if we love the truth, we're also going to love those who walk in it, our fellow believers. And that's what we see with God. Starting in verse 5, look there with me. He says, Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

17:07See, the message of 3 John is almost the opposite of the message of 2 John. In 2 John, the message is, don't show hospitality to false teachers. The message of 3 John is show hospitality to faithful teachers. That's the message that he wants to get across here. And so, the cool thing about 3 John, especially for those of us who have not spent a whole lot of time in this book, and that's me too, this book is so important because more than any other book in the New Testament, it helps us to understand how we are called to bless and support Christian workers, especially Christian missionaries.

17:52And so, what I want to do is consider what we can learn from Gaius about our ministry as senders to the nations here. In the local church, as those people whom God has not called to go to the mission field, but still has called to be a part of sending to the field. So, what can we learn from Gaius here? Well, the first thing that we learn right away in verse 5 is we should send with all our effort in great love.

18:22We should send with all our effort in great love. You see here that Gaius went to these great lengths to welcome and to serve these traveling ministers who came to his church, even though John says very clearly they were strangers to him. Gaius did not know these people. These weren't family members. These weren't friends. He did not know these men. And yet he goes to great lengths to serve them and welcome them and show hospitality to them. And Gaius's hospitality is such a blessing that these brothers come and they testify to his love before the church. And that's talking about the church where John ministered.

19:07And friends, I think that's such a challenge to us that Gaius didn't even know these men, and yet he went out of his way to send them off well supplied after caring for their needs while they were with him. I mean, you probably know this, but many Christian workers, especially missionaries, they feel forgotten. Many times, even by the churches that sent them out. You may have had this experience yourself where perhaps a church sent out workers, but they were almost never mentioned. They were almost never prayed for. They were never talked about. They may have had a picture somewhere in the church building, but it was kind of like in a back corner somewhere.

19:53They feel forgotten. But these ministers of the gospel, these men and women who have gone out to the nations, they've sacrificed a great deal. They have laid down their dreams, their hopes for their lives. And they've said, yes, Jesus, we will go. We will answer the call. And so our calling as senders is to expend all of our effort to send them out in great love so that they don't feel forgotten, but they know that we stand with them, that we are co-laborers for the same goals and the same ends.

20:34So that's the first thing that we see here. Second, we should send in a manner worthy of God. Look again at verse 6. That's where he says that. We should send in a manner worthy of God. And in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus is instructing his apostles before he sends them out to minister, to preach the good news. And I want you to look on the screen at what he says in verse 6. Verses 40 through 42 of chapter 10. Jesus says, whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

21:38So, friends, this passage has direct application to what we're talking about today in 3 John, because John is instructing us to show hospitality to faithful ministers of the gospel. And why is that? Jesus gave us the reason in Matthew 10. He said, because whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. That's the reason that we do this. That's the reason that we go out of our way to show hospitality. Because when we do that, we are receiving Jesus and therefore receiving the Father who sent him. So we have to send in a manner worthy of God.

22:17Because to do so is to honor Jesus and his Father who sent him. And then third and finally, we learn that we should send with full support. We should send with full support. And when we talk about support, that includes prayer for sure. But it also includes finances. And if you look at verse 7, you see that John alludes to that. He said that these brothers accepted nothing from the Gentiles. And the way he's using that word, he's not distinguishing Jews and Gentiles.

22:53He's distinguishing Christians from non-Christians. He's saying, in effect, these brothers accepted nothing from non-Christians. They didn't take any financial support from them. And why did they decide to do that? Well, again, keep in mind the context. It hasn't really changed all that much even today. But the context is you've got all of these religious teachers in the ancient world that travel around and they do their teaching and they do their teaching in hopes of getting rich from it.

23:24And so obviously, that's going to call their motives into question. And so these brothers avoided that practice entirely so that they could offer the gospel of Jesus Christ free of charge to all non-Christians. So there would never be a scenario where someone could say, well, the only reason that you're teaching us this stuff about Jesus is so you can make money. But rather they would offer it free of charge. But friends, missionaries are human beings that have needs too.

24:00Have to eat, they still have to have clothes to wear. If they have a family, they still have to take care of their family, not just themselves. And so, John says, Therefore, look at how he concludes: therefore, we ought to support people like these. A couple months ago, we looked at Philippians 4, and I want to remind you of this passage. It's such a great passage on the subject. Look at the screen. Paul writes this, and you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

25:08See, I love that passage because it gives us a model of faithful sending to follow. You see there that the Philippian church sent help for his needs once and again to the point that he could say, I am well supplied. How many missionaries around the world do you think could say that today? I am well supplied. All of my needs, all of our family. Needs, they're met. Paul said he was well supplied. And one of the great blessings is that we've sent out eight family units so far to training or to the mission field itself, and each one of them has reported back multiple times: we are well supplied. Our needs are met and taken care of by you, the New Life family. And they've actually told us that their fellow missionaries have told them, We can't believe how much support you have from your sending church. We can't believe the prayer and the ongoing support financially and just through conversation and letters and gifts. We just can't believe the level of support that you have. I think that's the biblical goal. That's the biblical vision. And why should this be the biblical vision? Look again at this section and look at what he says. We do this because, first, these workers have gone out for the sake of the name.

26:30That's why they've done this. None of the missionaries that we've sent out from New Life have gone out for any other reason except to make the name of Jesus famous. That's why they've left. And so we should support them because they've gone out for the sake of the name. And then look at verse 8. This is really important for you and me. Why should we support them? That we may be fellow workers for the truth. That we may be fellow workers for the truth. That we may partner with them. See, I think too often in the church we think about missionaries, we think about Christian workers, and that's their ministry. That's the thing that God has called them to. That's not our ministry.

27:13But here in Scripture, you see these terms all the time. Paul refers to his fellow workers as co-laborers in Christ. Here we're called fellow workers for the truth. And if you remember back to 2 John, verse 11, he was saying, hey, don't receive false teachers into the church. Don't welcome them. Don't put them up. Don't put up with their teaching. Why? Because then you are taking part in his wicked works. But here in 3 John, he's saying the opposite thing. Receive these faithful ministers because when you do that, when you show them hospitality, when you send them out well-supplied, what are you becoming? You are becoming a fellow worker for the truth. You're partnering with them.

28:02And that should be our vision. But sadly, not everyone in Gaius' church was a fellow worker for the truth, as we're going to see here in verse 9. Let's pick up there together. John says, 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 you away from him. Bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to, then puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

29:04So, what John is saying here is that he wrote a letter to this church. My guess is that it was probably a letter of introduction for these missionaries. Remember, they were strangers to Gaius, he didn't know these men. So, John is probably writing a letter of introduction saying, Hey, these are good, faithful, gospel-believing, gospel-preaching workers. Receive them. He wrote a letter to the church, but there's a problem. You've got this man, Diotrephes, and whether he's an official leader in the church or an unofficial leader in the church, it's very clear that this man has a lot of influence in the church. And John's got a ton of issues with this guy. First, he refuses to recognize John's apostolic authority. So, whether he refused to read this letter or he destroyed it or both, he's saying, I'm not going to listen to John. I'm not going to listen to an apostle of Jesus Christ. I'm not going to listen to any of them.

30:00Second problem is that Diotrephes is spreading lies about John and the other church leaders. He calls it wicked nonsense. So it may have been about John's character or it may have been about his teaching. Maybe it was both, but he's spreading these lies about him. Third, Diotrephes refused to welcome the brothers. And again, remember the context. They couldn't just go to the holiday inn or to the Hyatt. There were no hotels for the most part. There was nowhere that you could go. So if they didn't open their homes and show hospitality to these traveling Christian workers, they had nowhere to go.

30:41And Diotrephes refused to receive them. But more than that, the final problem is that he excommunicated any Christians who tried to welcome them. So imagine being disciplined by a church leader for welcoming Christian workers that were sent out by a church led by an apostle of Jesus Christ. That's the situation here. This man is excommunicating people. He's throwing people out of the church because they want to welcome missionaries sent out from John the Apostle's church. I mean, the situation is just incredulous. And so John says, Diotrephes is doing this. Why? Because he likes to put himself first.

31:30Pride has this serious foothold in his life. And pride may exhibit itself more obviously in certain people, but pride is lurking beneath the surface for all of us. It takes different forms. Sometimes it looks like selfishness. Sometimes it looks like ambition. Sometimes it looks like comparison. But in the end, pride is loving ourselves more than we love our neighbors. It is putting ourselves first. And as a pastor here in America, I'm concerned because it seems like largely the church in the West, we are learning to embrace pride as a virtue rather than rejecting it as a vice.

32:19It's not hard to see how we've gotten there as a culture, right? We live in this culture where the autonomous self is the pinnacle, where you make decisions for you and how it affects you. And you don't consider the preferences, the wants, the needs of other people around you. It's just all about whatever you want. And when we're being raised in a culture that tells us you have to look out for yourself at all costs, then it should be no surprise that the church also is being influenced by that. And now we're seeing people who are being celebrated, not just in the first century, but today, for pride. Putting themselves first.

33:03That's what Diotrephes is doing. And so, how does he instruct Gaius? What does he say? Look at verse 11. He tells him, Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. You know, as we were talking about before, all of us follow the example that's set by others. And the problem is that we're confronted with thousands of ungodly examples every single day, every single week, every single month of our lives. Now, Demetrius, as you see in verse 12, he's a person worth imitating. John says that he's received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. What he's saying is he has a great reputation. There is absolutely no hypocrisy in this man. Demetrius lives out what he says he believes on a daily basis.

33:58And then John even adds his own testimony. He says, hey, you know that our testimony is true. You know me. So Gaius should imitate good like Demetrius rather than evil, like Diotrephes. And the second thing that he tells Gaius is that he needs to be discerning. You look at verse 12. He tells him, Gaius, whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. It's hard to get much more straightforward than that, isn't it? If you do good, you're from God. If you do evil, you aren't. And that's Diotrephes for you. He's not from God. John has taught very clearly that if you love God, what are you going to do? You're going to love the people of God.

34:50But Diotrephes is throwing the people of God out of the church. First, the missionaries, and then anybody who wants to welcome them. He's not loving the people of God. And so Gaius has to be discerning about who he imitates. Gaius can't imitate Diotrephes. He's got to imitate men like Demetrius. And the same is true for us. We have to be aware of the fact that all day long, whether you are aware of it or not, people are around you watching you.

35:22And we have to make our choices, including the choices that we make with our Christian freedoms, with the knowledge that people are watching us, and they're going to conclude how to live their lives based on how we live our lives. In 1 Corinthians 15, look at the screen. Paul says, do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts or ruins good morals. And the reverse is true as well. Good company reinforces good morals or godly behavior. So when I think about the most godly and mature believers that I know, one of the things that's true about them is that they spend time with other godly, mature believers on a regular basis.

36:13Now they don't only spend time with godly, mature believers. We would not be able to fulfill our mission as Christians to take the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth and across the street and across the hallway at our office if we only spent time with godly, mature people. And we also wouldn't be able to fulfill our mission as disciple makers if we're only around mature Christians. So don't hear me saying that. What I am saying, though, is that the most mature and godly people I know do spend regular time with other godly, mature believers, being sharpened by them.

36:47And maybe you're not doing that. As you look at your life, there's just not any spaces where you are around consistently godly and mature believers. And as a result, your growth has been stunted. Well, if that's the case for you, now is the perfect time to make some changes. We're right here at the outset of the fall, a new school year. You're going to have a chance to sign up for a discipleship class in the next few weeks. You're going to have a chance to get involved in a life group if you've never been in one before. You're going to have a chance to go through the membership process. I mean, all of these things are different steps that you could take to make sure that you are going to surround yourself with people that are encouraging you and building you up. People like Demetrius.

37:30They're going to set a good and godly example for you as a believer. So, I want to conclude now this letter and this whole summer series with these last few verses where John is going to wrap up with these final instructions that I think are very relevant, especially in our culture today. Look at verse 13. Verse 12, rather, excuse me. No, it is 13. I just looked at 2 John. Where even am I in this Bible?

38:01Verse 13 of the book of 3 John. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, every one of them. So the ending, if you were here last week, is real similar to how he ends 2 John. He says, Look, I have more that I want to say, but I want to say that face to face. I don't want to settle for the technology of the day writing with ink and papyrus and sending it to you. I want to be there with you. And last week we talked about the importance of embodied community, of actually living the Christian life together in the local church. But what I want you to notice is the additional nuance that he puts here in 3 John that's not there in 2 John. Look at the last thing that he says. He says, greet the friends, every one of them.

39:00And in the Greek, the implication is: greet the friends, every one of them, by name. You can't greet people, especially by name, if you don't know them, if you don't even know their names. And I think if you know me, if you've been a part of our church for any length of time, you know that you'll never hear me say a negative thing about large churches. The reality is, the average attendance in a church in America is 75 people. And so, New Life, by even American standards, is a very large church.

39:39But having said that, I think that too many leaders of larger churches and too many members of larger churches are okay with the fact that many people don't come very often to participate in the worship of the church, don't get involved in giving and serving, in discipling others, and they're just okay with that. They just accept that as normative. But, friends, I don't think that we can settle for that biblically. I don't think that we can settle for a church not really knowing one another to the extent that we can build one another up and that we can know one another by name.

40:22You can't really be fellow workers for the truth with people if you don't really know them. Now, in May be the case that you've only been visiting New Life for a few weeks, or maybe even today is your first day, and that's great. But I want to challenge you, if you've been attending for months or even years and you still can't greet the friends by name, so to speak, I want to challenge you to ask yourself the question: Am I really living as a fellow worker for the truth? Have I really linked arms with other believers in such a way that I could say, we are co-laborers for Christ together? We're working toward the same goal of reaching our community and reaching the world with the good news of Jesus.

41:08And if that's not the case, then you can make a different decision today. You can say, today is going to be the day that I get plugged into meaningful community with the local church. And if not here, then somewhere else at another healthy local church. But that's the biblical vision that we get: believers living as fellow workers for the truth with one another, with one goal in mind, and that is to see the person and work of Jesus magnified in ourselves and then in our community and then around the world.

41:42And if you're a member here at New Life and you've been here for some time, I just want to encourage you to ask yourself the question: what can I do this year, this school year, as we're right now at the outset of a fresh start, a new season? How is God calling you? Me to be a fellow worker of the truth in a new or deeper way. I don't know what that answer is for you, but I do know that we have lots of different channels and ways for you to get involved where you can really link arms tangibly with the other members of our church so that we see together the good news of the gospel going forth.

42:24We see here in 3 John that through faithful ministry together, we become fellow workers for the truth. Let's pray.