(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music You can find your seats and grab your blue songbooks. We're going to be singing song number 490, Who is on the Lord's Side. Welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church. You can find your seats and grab your blue songbooks and turn to page number 490. We're going to be singing Who is on the Lord's Side. Music Song 490, let's sing it out first. Who is on the Lord's Side? Who will serve the King? Who will be his helpers? Others lives to bring. Who will leave the world's side? Who will face the foe? Who is on the Lord's Side? Who for him will go? By thy call of mercy, By thy grace divine, We are on the Lord's Side. Savior, we are thine. Good morning and welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church. You guys go wake up a little bit and sing it out together on that second. It's a great song to sing it out on. Let's sing it out together on the second. Not for weight of glory, Not for crown and home, Enter we the army, Raise the war your song, But for love that claimeth, Love that reigneth, Love that reigneth, Lies for whom he died, He whom Jesus nameth, Must be on his side. By thy love constraining, By thy grace divine, We are on the Lord's Side. Savior, we are thine. Much better on the third. Jesus thou hast bought us, Not with gold or gem, But with thine own lifeblood, For thy diadem, With thy blessing filling, Each who comes to thee, Thou hast made us willing, Thou hast made us free. By thy grand redemption, By thy grace divine, We are on the Lord's Side. Savior, we are thine. Fierce may be the conflict, Strong may be the foe, But the king's own army, None can overthrow. Round his standard ringing, Victory is secure, For his truth unchanging, Makes the triumph sure. Joyfully enlisting, By thy grace divine, We are on the Lord's Side. Savior, we are thine. Amen. Our second song will be our new song. Song number 63, The Wonder of Adal. Sing one verse of it last week. Try the second attempt this week. If you don't know the song, just try to sing it the best you can. That's the best way to learn a new song. Let's sing it out together on the first. The wonder of sunset and evening, The wonder as sunrise I see, But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul, Is the wonder that God loves me. The wonder of it all, The wonder of it all, Just to think that God loves me. The wonder of it all, The wonder of it all, Just to think that God loves me. There's the wonder of springtime and harvest, The sky, the stars, the sky, But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul, Is the wonder that's only begun. The wonder of it all, The wonder of it all, Just to think that God loves me. The wonder of it all, The wonder of it all, Just to think that God loves me. There's the wonder of God's revelation, The world will come again, But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul, Is that Jesus is coming again. The wonder of it all, The wonder of it all, Just to think that God loves me. The wonder of it all, The wonder of it all, Just to think that God loves me. Good job, good scene. Good morning, welcome to Church Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through some announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, would you just lift up your hand? I guess we don't have any more, sorry. We've got to get here early. For those of us that do have bulletins, Our verse of the week is on the front cover there. It says, To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen, Jude 1.25. Our service times, our Sunday morning service is 10.30 a.m. Our Sunday evening service is 3.30 p.m. I'll be back in our series, which is pictures of the Antichrist. That will be the fifth sermon on that topic. I have two more left after this, and then I'll be done. Thursday nights, we'll be back in 1 Peter, chapter number 2, This coming Thursday at 6.30 p.m. Our soul winning times are listed below. We do have soul winning today. Brother Sean Conlon is the soul winning captain for today. If you're going soul winning, please make sure to let him know. Let's see, we have other soul winning times. We have Thursdays at 5 p.m., which is a short time. And then also Fridays at 3 p.m., sometimes that varies. And our Saturday soul winning is led by Brother Brandon. And that time varies sometimes too, depending on what we got going on. So anyway, we also have regional soul winning that are led by the respective leaders underneath there. If you ever want to go soul winning in any of those areas, please get with those people that are here at our church. Or if you're not sure who they are, just get with me and I'll be happy to point you in the right direction. Our praise report, you can see the salvations, baptisms, and attendance totals for the last week and month and year and all that stuff. And then on our right inside cover, there we have our upcoming events, which are now all of a sudden filled back up again. And I wanted to say thanks to everybody for holding the fort while I was gone in England, and the trip went really well. We had 28 salvations for our soul winning. It wasn't even really a full marathon, it was about a 3 hour time block. So we met at noon, and then we had 28 salvations. We all had Indian food afterwards, which was served by course. And I'm talking about the eastern Indians, but the curry and all that kind of stuff. It took a long time for us to get the food, but it was pretty good when it came, so we're happy about that. So yeah, our church is doing really well over there. We had like 76 in our morning service on that Sunday morning, and 75 in our evening service. I think we had like 44 on our Wednesday, and 40 in our other Wednesday service as well. I was there, so the church is doing really well there, and we're excited to be there, but I'm definitely excited to be home. So that flight was brutal, but it was like a nine and a half hour flight coming home, and you know, boarding early and all that stuff. Yeah, I know I'm just a martyr here, but trust me, when you're trapped on a plane, and there's a bunch of people asleep, and then they're just like, it's just bad. Just trust me when I tell you. I'm not going to get into bad details, but anyway. So I'm happy to be back, and thank you for the guys that stepped up to preach, and just everybody being here. And supporting our church. We missed you guys. Ms. Sherry's got to have a, she has a procedure she has to have done, so she's not going to be able to be here today. So if you'd pray for her about her procedure tomorrow, I'd really appreciate that. That's my wife, by the way. And let's see, our upcoming events, we have the Yakima Soul Winning Trip is coming soon. So it's not this week, but next week after that, and it starts the 28th, which is on a Wednesday. If you want to go early, you're more than welcome to. I'm only paying for the rooms for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, though. So if you show up early, that's fine. But the rooms are set in stone now. So they basically wanted two weeks in between. So I mean, if you want to just sign up, like I think the 21st, it has to be totally solidified. If there's anybody else that wants to go, would you come see me after the service, and I'll try, I can try to get you in. But it's like one of those, you know, now or never type things. So is there anybody that wanted to go that didn't, wasn't sure and now can go? Is there anybody? Brother Bill. Okay. All right. Will you shoot me a text, please, and just let me know what days and it's just going to be you, right? So Thursday, and then are you going to stay till Saturday? So you need a room Thursday, Friday, and then, okay, stay until Saturday. All right, cool. Anybody else? Speak now or forever hold your peace until after the service. All right. So I'll be preaching at, we're going to be at this hotel that we stay at every time we go there. And I'll be preaching Friday night at 6 30 p.m. We're probably going to have dinner up in the upstairs room there. There's like a room that we've used before for a church service. And we're going to have Panda Express that night. So we'll have that I think like five o'clock or something like that. But the other two nights, Wednesday and Thursday, will be at Sea Galley. So you're not going to want to miss Wednesday and Thursday. Panda Express is good, too. Who likes the teriyaki chicken? Oh, man. Who likes it better than the orange chicken? Can I get a witness? Yeah, that's good. So I'm going more heavy on the teriyaki chicken than I have. It used to be orange chicken was the church favorite. And I think you all got burned out on that. We'll definitely have orange chicken, broccoli beef, kung pao chicken for all those heat lovers. And then we'll have the teriyaki chicken. All right. So that'll be a great time. And Yakima is very receptive. So we'll have maps for Yakima proper. It's going to be a fun trip. I'm looking forward to it. So and then October 8th is Miss Amy's baby shower. That's going to be 11 a.m. at the church building. And that will be here at the church building. That's for sure. Right. OK. Yes. And then she's registered on Amazon. Is that right? Yes. OK. Amazon. If you want to get a baby shower gift from Miss Amy, that is Amazon. OK. And let's see, October 22nd, we have our annual trip to Busy Farms pumpkin patch. That's going to be at 11 a.m. So I'm going to be standing there waiting for all you to show up, handing you tickets. I would like to say I think there's a sign up already in the group for that. So make sure you sign up for that. Let me know how many tickets you need. I think Miss Rachel's at three and under. It's two and under three and up. You have to pay for the same same prices, right? There's no kids tickets. I can't remember anyway. But anyway, I just need to know how many children, what the ages are. That's helpful just when buying the tickets. And you're you're welcome to invite people in your family if they want to go to. I mean, obviously, there might be some limitations to that. So but, yeah, just see me if you want to get me. You want me to get a ticket for one of your family members that maybe this doesn't come to this church or doesn't come on a regular basis. It's kind of our annual, you know, all church wide trip that we do. And it's here just not too far away from where we're at now on. I think it's on 99th Street or something like that. Is that right? Or anyway, it doesn't matter. Sign up for that if you want to go. And Pastor Jimenez will be preaching for us the next day, the 23rd at 10 30 a.m. And it's always great to have Pastor Jimenez here to preach. He always preaches a great sermon. Then the spirit of Pastor Thompson comes upon him and he always preaches like an extra long sermon. So it's 50 minutes at his church, but an hour and 22 minutes at our church. So I don't know what happens, but they preach the same sermon at home and then comes and preaches it here. And it's like way longer. So it's just kind of how it is. So but I'm looking forward to it. And he can preach as long as he wants, as far as I'm concerned. October 27th is the preaching service in Seattle, the Seattle area. And I still haven't now that I'm home, I can get all that dialed in. We'll have a location for that as soon as I can get something arranged. And that'll be probably like a 7 p.m. start time, I'm guessing, because Seattle is really hard to get to places on any night, probably. But it'll be on a Thursday night. Friday, we're going to have soul winning in Blaine, Washington. And then the twenty ninth is going to be the Sure Foundation Baptist Church North anniversary service. That'll be at Peace Arch Park. And we'll have two services, 10 30 a.m. and 2 p.m. And Pastor Jones has committed to going and preaching one of the services there. So if you are a Pastor Jones fan, which I am, he'll be preaching the 10 30 more in the morning service and I'll be preaching the 2 p.m. service. And there's a chance he did put in for the time off to be able to go to the Seattle trip. So there's a possibility that he's going to be preaching in Seattle with me on the same night. So I was figuring, oh, I'll do like a 10 minute sermon or something. Yeah, right. But it'll be me and Pastor Jones preaching together. And that's where he's from, is up in that area. So it'll be great to have Pastor Jones preaching up there and hanging out together again. So if that's something you're interested in doing, we're probably going to do a sign up for that here pretty soon to see who all plan on going up for those events. So anyway, also when we come back, we're going to all come back Saturday night or whatever, whoever's up there. And we're going to have a chili potluck dinner. And so what does that mean? Well, it means that you're going to bring some chili and we're all going to eat it together. So we'll probably need to sign up for that. But now I just want to make sure that if you're making something really spicy, well, you're going to make all the men hurt the next day and it'll be like this painful ordeal because you can spice up chili pretty good for it's just like, you know, excruciating the next day for you. So or even at that moment. So if you're going to make something hot and spice, I shouldn't say hot. I should say spicy. It's going to be spicy. Then make sure that you're adding that on there. We're going to probably put those ones separate from the other ones because we don't want some kid, you know, eating like ghost pepper chili or something like that and then having to take them to the hospital or take me to the hospital if I eat it or something like that. So so that's all I ask is that you make sure when you sign up that your brains chili then and make sure you put with beans or without. And we'll have those separated, too, because it's just one of those things. I'm going to try to make Cincinnati chili. So Cincinnati chili is even another wonder of this world where I got a guy from that area here. He he's a witness of that. So basically what that is, is it's beanless chili and it's put over the top of spaghetti noodles. So and then topped with mounds of cheddar cheese. So that's good. That's good. If you want to try to make a recipe of that, there's probably some good recipes online. We kind of just mix it all up, you know, and have a there'll be beans, beanless Cincinnati chili. And then if you want to make cornbread or something like that, then that would be a great thing to do. Maybe we'll have some desserts or something. Then after that, the guys that are full of hot air can get up and preach at the men's preaching night. So that might be a little bit rough. It's like when I ate curry the day that I was supposed to preach in England. It was it was a rough it was a rough sermon. So for me. But so if you don't want that part of it, that you probably want to go with the meat chili only the chili con carne con carne or whatever, however you say it. So anyway, there's gonna be a men's preaching night at three thirty. So it's gonna be a great weekend. We have a busy couple of months coming up, but I'm excited about them. It's nice to be in fall. I don't know if I've ever said that before, but it is nice to be in fall. OK, that's really nice. And we're starting to get cooler temperatures and things like that. So anyway, I know I've gone along with the announcement announcements, but we are a family in a great church. That means the children infants are welcome during the church services. Please make sure utilizing those. And if your child is having a breakdown, as they say in the UK, if they're having a breakdown, then please take them to one of those rooms. There's the dad baby room in the right hand corner and in the back there's the mother baby room. They have comfortable seating and also you're allowed or you're able to hear the sermons piped in there and so on and so forth. So and also please reserve the back rows for families with young children. The rockers or gliders are for pregnant nursing mothers and elders only. And please know men in the mother baby room or moms in the dad baby room during the church services especially. Please don't allow your children to run around in those rooms by themselves or even after the services. I prefer that you just keep them out of those rooms unless you're with them and then watch your children at all times. Please silence your cell phones for the church service or put them on airplane mode. And then now is the time we're starting to get dark earlier. So please, if you need an escort to your vehicle, don't hesitate to ask one of the ushers. They're the guys that stand around with the ushers, pens. They don't always stand around but they sit around sometimes too. But anyway, if you need an escort, don't hesitate to ask them and then you can donate a couple different ways if you want instead of just being in the church service. You can see the tithes and offerings that have come in so far for this month. And then September birthday, Brother Ramon's birthday is going to be the 22nd. Yesterday was my granddaughter Emi's birthday. And so we all celebrated with her wherever she's at. She's right over there. Hi Emi. She wasn't paying attention. She's like, what? Wait, what? Anyway, it was her third birthday yesterday. So, and then Brother Ramon's, he's 55. He really just doesn't look that old. But for some reason, you know, he just got that youthful glow about him still. But we're gonna sing happy birthday to him. And then I think that's all we have for birthday. Well, the birth announcement for the Ortega family. And if you don't know who they are, they haven't been here in a while, but she's been great with child for a while here. And they visit our church a few different times and they plan on coming back. But anyway, they had their baby. Well, she had the baby and he was just there, a nonpartisan. But anyway, so just make sure you congratulate them. Their baby was seven pounds and three ounces, 19 and a half inches long. And her name is, I think it's Celisa Laurel Ortega. So anyway, congratulations to them. Let's sing happy birthday to Brother Ramon, the old timer. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. The church got together and got a new wheelchair for him, so he should be good to go. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, happy birthday. And then if you're a first time visitor, we don't have a gift bag up here. But anyway, there's some gift bags around the corner where that fake wall is right there. And on the left hand side, there's some gift bags. If you're a first time visitor, we really appreciate you being here. We know that you have other options. So we're just appreciative of all of our first time guests. We like to give them a gift bag. It has like a few things. It's got a nice pin and it has some information about our church and a free DVD called Being Baptist. And it's a film that our church was a little bit involved in making. And the pastor that ordained me, Pastor Jimenez, he put that together with Brother Oliver, the deacon of Verity Baptist Church. It's really good. It just kind of explains what Baptists believe, the core tenets of our beliefs. And sometimes people think we're a denomination, but we're not. We actually are an independent Baptist church. That means that Christ is the head of our church. We believe the Bible and we don't apologize about that. And the Bible is our boss. So anyway, please take one of those on your way out as a token or appreciation for you being a first time guest. And with that, we're going to sing another song and then we'll receive the offering. All right, our next song is song number 539, Mansion Over the Hilltop. Song number 539, Mansion Over the Hilltop. Song 539, let's sing it out together on the first. I want a gold one, that silver line. I've got a mansion just over the hilltop. In that bright land where we'll never go. And someday on earth we'll never more wander. But walk the streets that are pure as gold. Though often tempted, tormented and tested. And like the prophet, my pillow's cold. And the wife behind here, no permanent dwelling. I know he'll give me a mansion my own. I've got a mansion just over the hilltop. In that bright land where we'll never go. And someday on earth we'll never more wander. But walk the streets that are pure as gold. Don't pick me poor or deserted or lonely. I'm not desirous, I'm heaven bound. I'm just a pilgrim in search of a city. I want a mansion, a harp and a crown. I've got a mansion just over the hilltop. In that bright land where we'll never go. And someday on earth we'll never more wander. But walk the streets that are pure as gold. Amen. Good seeing you. For the Ramon, could you bless the offering for us? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. Brother Bill, will you pray for us? Amen. All right. Well, we have this short chapter. It's like I think one of the shortest chapters in the whole Bible here. And at least in the New Testament. And it's written by John, John the apostle. And John the apostle was the one, the disciple that says that whom Jesus loved. Now of course he loved all of his disciples. John kind of refers to himself that way in the actual gospel of John. But John also writes a couple different other books. He writes the first and second and third epistles of John. And then he also writes the book of Revelation. So John is a predominant author in the New Testament. Now Paul wrote about half the New Testament. But John, you know, he's a great man of God. He was an apostle. He was a leader in the church. He was one of the twelve. And he's writing this short letter to a man named Gaius. It says, whom he loved, whom I love in the truth. And so it seems like it's just a personal letter to someone that he really cares about. But it's connected it seems to be with some church that he's planted. And there's a man named Diotrephes who seems to be the pastor or at least the leader of this congregation. And the title of my sermon this morning is, Don't be a Diotrephes. Don't be a Diotrephes. And Diotrephes has some characteristics here that we don't want to be like. And obviously pastors shouldn't be like. And then anybody that wants to be a pastor should not try to emulate or be like Diotrephes. You should be different. And so that's the basis of my sermon that we shouldn't be a Diotrephes. I'm going to definitely try to apply it to, you know, our church family here and our church. But there's also some application for just people that, you know, they're bad pastors. You know, that would get this kind of attitude of being like Diotrephes. So this is the only time he's ever mentioned in all the Bible. And it's not in a positive light at all. So number one this morning, a Diotrephes loves to have the preeminence. This is one of the main problems with Diotrephes is that he wants to have the preeminence. Look at verse number, 3 John 1, look at verse number 9. The Bible says, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. So in this verse, this is like I said, the only time Diotrephes is ever mentioned. And what does it say about him? The first thing it says is something that's negative, isn't it? It says, who loveth to have the preeminence among them. Among who? Well, it would be the church, right? Isn't that the them? That's what the context is. I wrote unto the church. Now, we don't believe in a universal church. We believe in independent churches. So this is obviously an independent church that it appears that John has some sort of authority over. So because it says receiveth us not. So the us would be who? John and the leadership. So he obviously probably has people, it's just not him walking around the countryside by himself or riding a horse or whatever he's doing. He's got people with him to help him in the ministry. But I want to focus on the fact that he loveth to have the preeminence among them. So number one, a Diotrephes loves to have the preeminence. And what does preeminence mean? It means the first place. It means he wants to be the one that's adored. He wants to be the one that's praised. And he wants superiority over all others. Now, in our small movement of churches that's had a great big impact on this world, in our small movement of churches though, we've had people that have come along, pastors who have said, hey, I want to be part of this and I want to be part of this movement. And then later on they kind of turn out to be like a Diotrephes. Where they love to have the preeminence and they love it so much that then they begin to undermine the followers that someone else basically put in those seats. And obviously we're all independent and they have the right to do whatever they want, but it's just really strange to me how this has seemed to happen over and over again with multiple pastors that have quote-unquote attached themselves to this movement. So we're not a denomination. I know we get accused of being a denomination as independent Baptists, but we're independent Baptists. But if you want to attach yourself to something that's a little bit different, so we're what would be considered new IFB, new independent fundamental Baptist. You know what, I wear that as a badge of honor. I'm not embarrassed about that whatsoever. And I believe that our movement of churches is doing great works for God. And I mean, just all over the world there's people that have been changed by the preaching of God's word through this movement. And I'm just happy and excited that I'm actually part of it. And I don't feel the need to be a diatrophys, I'm just going to be Pastor Aaron Thompson. I just want to be a pastor that loves his people and that I want to lead our church into great exploits for Christ and doing great exploits and planting churches and going and knocking on people's doors and getting them saved. And that's the mission of our church. You know what, I want to have fun and enjoy it while it's happening. But you know, sometimes it's not enjoyable. Sometimes you get people like diatrophys that you just, you know, they just, they want to come in and just cause problems. But there's also other people who come in and cause problems. And there's people, you know, I'm not going to say that being a new IFB Baptist or whatever, a new independent fundamental Baptist is always easy because here's the thing, Satan wants to target churches that are doing great works for God. And so because of that you get a lot of bozos that come and try to attach themselves to it too. It's not just bozo pastors, it's bozo people. People that are wolves in sheep's clothing that would creep into our church and try to gain some sort of advantage so that they can bring people out of it. Because the devil wants to scatter, the devil wants to destroy, and he wants some hirelings in there that will run, you know, when problems happen. He wants some people that will come in and distract and disrupt what's going on in God's program. But diatrophys, for this sermon, diatrophys is basically representing pastors, but it also can represent how we treat other people in our churches. And so I really stress, and I hope that I stress it enough, that we should be kind to people that visit our church. And that we shouldn't just look at them with contempt because there's some other skin color or there's some other nationality or, you know, maybe they just don't really understand kind of what our church is about and things like that. We should welcome people and try to get them plugged in and befriend them and be kind to them and be nice to them. And that would be anybody that's, you know, strangers as well. Just a stranger that comes in off the street, you know, I would like to treat people well. And obviously sometimes we get weirdos that are just strangers off the streets that come in too. And so, but that's what happens when you are a church. There's just going to be some things that are hard and some things are going to be pretty easy. But you know what's easy for me is that I don't believe in taking the preeminence of Christ. You know what Diotrephes does? He wants to have the preeminence among them. What does that mean? Among the church. So, a pastor should be humble. A pastor should just realize that everybody's the same. I just have a different job in this church. I'm the overseer and I am the ruler of this church while we're congregated together or whether we're on a missions trip or whatever it is. But, you know, I'm not like some dictator that has no benevolence. I'm a dictator, but I'm a benevolent dictator. You know, I want to help our congregation, but someone has to be in charge. Okay? Someone has to be in charge at church. It can't just be a free for all where everybody gets up and has a sermon to preach. Everybody comes up and has a song to sing. Everybody wants to sing different songs. Look, there's got to be decency and order in our churches. And there's nothing wrong with having a man of God to lead the church. So, that's what you see happening in the Old Testament. That's what you see in the New Testament. Jesus was the leader of all those men, wasn't he? He was the leader while he was here on this earth and he's the leader now. You know, but he is in heaven. So, he's left us his word for us to follow. And, you know, he dictates to us what we're supposed to do, what we're supposed to teach, how the order of things is, how the government of the church is supposed to be run. And, you know, people get, you know, there's a lot of churches out there that do things by voting. You know, let's vote for the pastor. Well, you know, the problem with that is that sometimes you could get a bad faction of people in and if you have a certain percentage of people in here, you could overthrow the pastor or you could pick someone that's a loser, pick someone that's not qualified, pick someone that's not going to lead right. And so, it shouldn't, you know, did Moses ever have to be voted in as the leader of the children of Israel? No, he didn't. God picked him and put him in place. And so, Moses led the children of Israel and when people tried to step up and challenge him, they got smashed. And Moses was a meek man. The Bible says he was the meekest man on the face of the earth. And so, I feel like, you know, I like Moses as a leader. And, you know, even though he was no nonsense, he was still meek and humble, willing to judge the people and love the people a lot to the point where he said, Well, just blot me out of your book, Lord. And he basically was willing to take the place so that all those people could be saved. Now, obviously, that's not how it works. You know, only Jesus Christ was able to do that. And blot, he could blot out and he can put people in the book of life. Amen. So, anyway, let me get focused back in on this sermon. So, so, Diotrephes, number one, a Diotrephes loves the preeminence. He loves the superior order. He loves being first place. And doesn't want anybody else to shine brighter than he does. And so, how do you do that? Well, you get into a place of advantage. You get into a place where you're some kind of self-willed pastor. And you just want to gain a following so that you can dump whoever helped you get to that point. And then just totally betray them. And that's what Diotrephes does. He wants the preeminence. And so, that's kind of what's happened to some pastors that have attached themselves to our movement. Is that they get envious of pastors that have more clout to them. They preach better than them. Maybe they have a bigger church to them. And it's like, we're all on the same team. Like, why is that something to be upset about? It's really not. You know, every pastor has his own skills and his own talents and things like that. And maybe you're just not as good as him at preaching. Or maybe people want to follow that person more than you because you're like Diotrephes. Because you want to be in the first place instead of just wanting to be part of the team. And so, I've always found it weird that people will just come and then they'll get all their nose out of joint. And then all of a sudden they're gone. And they just kind of act up. And a lot of them have done the same thing. It's just bizarre. So, the them that he's talking about is the church and the church leadership. So, Diotrephes wants the preeminence and he doesn't want to receive the church leadership that is the God-given church leadership. Now, I just want to caveat this really quickly though. John was an apostle so he had the authority to start churches. He had the authority over a church in certain aspects. But as far as who the pastor was, he doesn't have, you know, at the point you put the pastor in that the pastor has the authority. So, we don't have apostles today. And so, like if I start a church and I cut the umbilical cord, so to speak, and that church is its own independent church, what they do from then on is not my concern. It's not my business to get involved in those things. And so, I, you know, that's what being independent is about. So, if you're really truly independent, you're going to just, you know, you're going to let things be. And maybe you want to help give some advice or something like that. But giving unsolicited advice sometimes just backfires on you anyway. Turn to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter number 1. Colossians chapter 1, there's only one person that gets the preeminence. It's not a man. The preeminence or the first place or the superiority over all others only belongs to one person. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what it says in verse number 13. It says, Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son? Who runs the kingdom? His dear Son, right? Jesus Christ is the ruler of the kingdom. And guess what? It's a kingdom. It doesn't say a presidency. There's no voting involved. Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords, right? It says, In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. I don't think the Diotrephes died for anybody's sins. I don't think Diotrephes was a sinless representative and God manifest in the flesh. There's only one person that deserves the preeminence and the number one position. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature? For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. What if they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers? All things were created by him and for him. I don't think Diotrephes even comes close to the Lord Jesus Christ. But look what it says, And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. So matter, time, space, everything that consists is because of Jesus. He created all these things. It says, And he is the head of the body, the church. So am I the head of the body? No, I'm not the head of the body. Jesus Christ is the head of the body. He's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have, what's it say there? The preeminence. In some things? No, in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. So the problem with Diotrephes is he wants something that doesn't belong to him. He wants the first place. He wants that superiority. He wants the preeminence over everybody. And because of that, that makes him a terrible leader. And maybe he just wants the preeminence of the church. But even so, that's still not his position. Christ is the head of the church. Christ is the head of the body of believers, not a man. So I'm not the head of this church. I'm the under shepherd. That's what I am. I'm under Christ and what Christ teaches, that's what I'm supposed to teach to you. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 15. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 15. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6 15, it says, Which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Of course it's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the King of all kings. Prince Charles is now King Charles of England. The Queen died when I was over there and it was kind of like, the culture in England is different than it is here. When a president here dies, maybe some people don't care. It's kind of a big deal to some people or whatever, but when the Queen of England dies, it's on every business, every bus stop, every church bulletin, everything. And it's a big deal. But Charles, he's a worldly ruler. He hasn't put the crown on his head yet. But even if he's, and the crown owns a lot of land. The crown is one of the richest organizations on the face of the earth. And from what I've seen, just Googling it, I've seen that the crown is actually the richest. The crown of England, whoever runs their kingdom, is the richest of all people on the face of the earth. They own more land than any other place. But you know who really owns that land? The Lord Jesus Christ, because he's the one that made it. It's funny, these humans are like, I'm the ruler of the world. It's like, no, you're really not. But we don't want to have a diatrophies high preeminence where we want to overshadow something that doesn't belong to us. Revelation chapter 17, I'll go ahead and turn to Revelation 19, verse 16. I'm going to read Revelation 17, verse 14. Revelation 17, 14 says, These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. So once again, he deserves the first place because he is, I mean if you're the King of kings, that means you're the king of everybody that's ever called himself a king or that ever will call himself a king, and he's the Lord of all lords. Anybody would say that they're a lord or some kind of master or boss, you know, he's the king over them also. That's what it's saying. Revelation 19, 16 says, And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. When he comes back to smash the antichrist and his forces, and to take back the planet for himself and for his kingdom and for his father, he's going to have that name written on his thigh, and it's not going to be a tattoo. I know there's weirdos that teach that, but it's not going to be a tattoo. It's just going to be something written on his thigh. So anyway, so he's the king of kings, Lord of lords. So, Diotrephes loves to have the preeminence, but that does not belong to him, point number one. Point number two is Diotrephes, Diotrephes is not a receiver of leadership. He's not a receiver of leadership. He's power hungry. Not only does he want the first place when it comes to status, but he also wants the first place when it comes to power. So he wants to be the power of the church, which again does not belong to him. Look back in our Bible chapter where it's in 3 John 1, 9. Again it says, I wrote unto the church, this is John speaking, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. So not only does he want to have the preeminence in the first place, but he also does not receive the proper leadership. He doesn't receive people that are people, I mean would you say that if John wrote a gospel and three other epistles, plus the whole book of Revelation, that he has some kind of authority? He does have some kind of authority. And if he started that church, he definitely had the authority. It doesn't say that Diotrephes is a pastor, but I just assume that he is. Maybe he tricked his way or weaseled his way to the top, and people thought, because people can trick you. You know, human beings can trick other human beings, it happens all the time. Now Jesus Christ isn't able to be tricked, but there's going to be people probably that betray us in the future, maybe people that are put into leadership. We've already had people that were put into leadership that betrayed us. And there's also been people that have attached themselves to our quote-unquote movement that are, you know, they're gone now. But what did they do? They wanted the preeminence for themselves, and then they built themselves up on the back of somebody else and on the coattails of somebody else. And then they just, when they got everything that they wanted, maybe the finances that they wanted, or maybe the amount of people that they wanted in their church, then they cut ties and stabbed people in the back that helped them get to that point. And I think that that's wicked. That's definitely wicked, because John's writing about it, and the Bible is true and right, and so if he's writing about this, he's right on this issue. So who is the us? Receive with us not. Who is the us? It's John the Apostle and the ministers that are with him. Leaders that are qualified, leaders that are ordained or installed by that leadership. You know, imagine me saying, Pastor Jimenez is no longer allowed to lock step foot into this church. I'm not going to ask him to preach anymore. I'm not going to be friends with him anymore. And if any of you don't like that, then you can just get out. That's the attitude of a diatrophys. It's like Pastor Jimenez started this church here in Vancouver, Washington. He ordained me to continue on, cut the umbilical cord, so to speak, and then we are an independent Baptist church. I'm the pastor now, but I didn't start out as the pastor. I started out as just someone that was leading the church who Pastor Jimenez put into place. And so if I was just to say, you know, I'm having him preach next month, if I said when he got here, get out, don't come back, anybody else that doesn't like it, you can leave too. How would you feel about that? You'd probably be pretty upset. You'd probably leave, wouldn't you? Well that's kind of what's gone on in our movement of churches, is that people that help them get to that place, they turn on them, and they do the same thing. You're not welcome here, and neither are anybody that believes like you. But see, here's the thing. Did John believe the truth? Did the people that followed him believe the right and true way? Yes, they did. So, and again, if I did that, I'd be well within my rights to tell Pastor Jimenez he's no longer welcome at our church, but that would be a wicked thing for me to do. I'm well within my rights to do that and just say, well, you know, I just don't like him anymore or something. But it's wrong and wicked to do that because Pastor Jimenez started this church. Now he has no authority in this church anymore, but he does have the heartfelt love from our people. Who loves Pastor Jimenez in this church? Raise your hand. Everybody pretty much loves Pastor Jimenez. If you don't know him, then I don't expect you to raise your hand, but everybody in this church loves Pastor Jimenez. Why? Because he's a great man of God. He's a great leader. He does great, mighty works for God. His churches have all been successes. And so it'd be just weird for me to not receive him or anybody that he is, like say people from Verity Baptist, we just had visitors from Verity Baptist Church, and we said, hey, not only is Pastor Jimenez not allowed to be here, but you're not allowed to be here. Either get out. It'd be wicked. But that's what's going on. That's what has gone on. It's what continues to go on with these clowns that have attached themselves to us, and then they're just like, yeah, we got what we wanted. Now just get out. We don't want anything to do with you anymore because A, B, C, and D. Like they're just perfect or something. They get this weird attitude that they're better than everybody else, they're more holy than everybody else, they don't use cuss words ever in their life and never heard anybody cuss before, or whatever. People can just be spiritual holier-than-thous, and there's nothing wrong with being holy. But what God says about holier-than-thous is that they're smoking his nose. They're irritating to him. So obviously there's a point where you can get past in being holy where you're so holy that nobody can even come close to you because you're so holy. That's what God's talking about when people are holy. The term in the Bible is only used one time. And when God uses that, he said, there's smoke in my nose. When you're camping, or if you've ever been around a fire of any kind, like say someone's just burning plastic in a fire. It's like, ugh, it stinks, it gets all over your clothes. That's the way God feels about it. When someone's a holier-than-thou, and that's kind of what these guys have turned into. And the people in their churches, they get all upset because they think that some people in the new IP are mean, and that they've gotten arguments with people or whatever. And so then they're like, well, you're not allowed to argue with anybody online, you're not allowed to do this. They're just like taking control and power that they don't have. And then they let their underlings go and say a bunch of stuff to people in our churches. Total hypocrites is what they are. And they're out there lying about us and slandering and all kinds of things. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So let's go to Matthew chapter 10 verse 41. Matthew chapter 10 verse 41. Now, Diotrephes is, number one, he's trying to get the preeminence, the first place, and he's also power hungry to the point where he won't receive anybody that got him wherever he came from. They helped him get to that point. And then he just turns and says, nope, I don't want anything to do with you anymore. He won't receive John the Apostle, a writer of about a quarter or more of the New Testament, won't allow him to come visit the church. That's pretty weird, isn't it? It tells you about the heart of the Diotrephes or the man Diotrephes himself. It says in Matthew 10, 41, he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. So even if a person is unsaved and they receive someone into their home and give them a glass of water, there's a reward for that. How much more so when you receive a godly person into your church and treat them well? I mean, obviously that's not the main context of this verse, but the spirit of this verse is like, hey, receive those people that are prophets. How come in every one of Paul's epistles almost he's like, hey, receive this person, let this person come, shake this person's hand, salute this person, you know, he's about trying to say, hey, I approve of these people, be nice to them, be kind to them. Even at the end of this epistle here it says, I trust that I shall see thee and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee, our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. It's like when they're writing epistles they're like, hey, the homies are saying hi and make sure you say hi to the homies. You know, it's just like, as Christians we should be treating each other really well, not treating them like a doormat in a dirt pile. Deuteronomy chapter 5, go ahead and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5, and the main thing about Diotrephes is that he desires something that doesn't belong to him. What is that called? What is another word for desire? It's covetous. Now, not all desire is wrong, but covetous is always wrong, unless it's like I'm coveting your prayers, making a play on words or something, but a covetous person is generally someone that wants something that doesn't belong to them and they're willing to do certain things in order to get that. You know, there's a sin attached with that covetousness where they want to take something that's not theirs. Deuteronomy 5.21 kind of shows us this. It says, neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house. His field or his manservant or mainservant or his ox or his ass or anything that is thy neighbor's. So, the Bible makes it very clear that we're not supposed to be covetous, and they use the words desire and covetous synonymously together in this to help us to understand that when you're desiring something that's not yours, look, it's desire thy neighbor's wife. That's always wrong, isn't it? Or covet something that belongs to somebody else, including their beast. You know, the ox would probably be equivalent to like a work truck or something, the Super Hemi Dodge Ram or Diesel or whatever, and his ass, you know, some other kind of, you know, heavy duty work vehicle, but even like the people that work for them. You know, people will try to steal someone else from another job. It's like, hey, I'll offer you this if you come work for me. You know, I mean, we shouldn't be covetous like that. Just get your own workers or whatever. But the point that I'm making of this is that, you know, he's so covetous and so desirous of power and preeminence that he won't even let the proper people, the leadership that installed him into the church, and that's just a wicked thing to do. You know, even if he didn't like him. Say he just didn't like him for whatever reason. They just didn't get along or something, but wouldn't he, shouldn't he just have, you know, still treat him well if he came to the church? Look at 1 Timothy 3, verse 2. 1 Timothy 3, verse 2. And the Bible teaches that Christians should be hospitable. Now, pastors, it's a qualification to be hospitable. That's part of the qualification. And to what level? I mean, it's subjective, okay? Now, just because it says that doesn't mean I should just let every church member come to my house for dinner every single night or something like that. But, you know, we should have this attitude and action of being hospitable to other people, especially the saints, especially people that are visiting. It says a bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. So as a pastor, my job is to be given to hospitality. And even if I say, hey, so and so, take this person out to dinner, take these visitors out to lunch, or whatever, that's still being hospitable. And I want our church family to be hospitable, and I think that our church is very hospitable. People can come, and people befriend them, and I think that's great. And not everybody wants to be our friend, necessarily, at the end of the day, but we should have an attitude of this church of being hospitable to people. And it starts with the leadership. Everything rises and falls on leadership, so shouldn't me, as the pastor, shouldn't I be hospitable? But when someone is not able to be received, just because they want to be the preeminent one, they want to be the powerful one, and they just say, these people are not welcome at our church, even though they've done nothing wrong. And really, John believes all the right stuff. Do you think John's trying to hurt this church? He's obviously not trying to hurt the church. He started that church, more than likely. Now, hospitality means the friendly and generous reception, and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. So as a pastor, my job is to be hospitable. So would you say that diatrophes is not hospitable? I would say he's not hospitable. He receiveth us not, right? So a person that's hospitable is friendly and generous. They receive, reception, receive. Reception is the same word there, basically, and it says, and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. That should be the attitude of everybody that goes to this church. Turn to Titus, chapter 1, verse number 7, Titus 1, 7. The Bible says in Titus 1, 7, it says, For a bishop, that's the same thing as a pastor, must be blameless, as the steward of God, not self-willed. That's another qualification that it's not supposed to be about what I want to get done, the power that I want to have, the things that I want to do, whoever I want to receive, whoever I want to be friends with, getting to be the pastor no matter what, willing to just undermine and do whatever I can to get to be the pastor so I can have the power, so I can have the preeminence. That's not what a pastor is supposed to be like. So anybody in here that wants to be a pastor someday or some kind of leader in the church, look, you don't want to be self-willed because the Bible says that's not how you should be. Self-willed, it's all about me. No, it's supposed to be all about everybody else. Was Jesus self-willed? No, he got down on his hands and knees and washed people's feet and towed them off. That is not being self-willed. I'm sure it's a humiliating thing to have to do something like that. But that's what humility is when you're willing to get down and serve other people. That means he doesn't feel like he's, I mean obviously he's above them because he's God, but at the same time he's a servant leader who's willing to get down on other people's levels and even below them because he got down on his knees when he did that and washed their grimy, gnarly, desert-filled feet with probably corns and stink and whatever. Probably these people have been wearing the same sandals. They might not have been too refreshing. But maybe think about how humbling that would be. Jesus gets down below our level to serve us. So that's how a pastor should be. Not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2. So the atrophies have the wrong, he's just wrong from the very get-go here about how he views himself and about his own ambition. Ambition, people would say that's a positive word, but it really kind of has a negative connotation because ambition is where you're just trying to do whatever you can to get to a certain status. There's nothing wrong with being a hard worker or wanting to get to a certain place, but sometimes ambition can turn sinful where someone's willing to do anything they can to get to the top. It's kind of like at work if somebody, you know, you're competing for a job and that person's going to the boss's back behind your back and saying things about you that aren't true. Or maybe they are true, but just in order to stab his way in the back to the top of where you want to be. So where you're both competing for the same job or whatever. So look what it says in 2 Peter 2.10. It says, But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government, presumptuous are they, stealth-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignity. So that would be someone that's in charge of them. That would be someone that is in charge of maybe how the church got started. You know, now Diotrephes has a different tune he's singing. Now Diotrephes, now that he's at the top, you know, he's viewing himself as better than everybody else and self-willed. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13. Now the Bible specifically states that, you know, bishops and leadership are rulers in the church. I mentioned that earlier in the sermon, but I want you to see where it actually says it in scripture. So, but I didn't, you know, when you came in here, I didn't put my boot on your neck and say, or make you kiss my ring, or kiss my big toe before you came in here, did I? That's because that's not the type of rule it's talking about. It's just talking about someone who's in charge. You know, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made for the betterment of everybody here. Sometimes I have to bring the hammer down, so to speak, about things because things are getting out of control. And like, don't you do that in your home? If things are getting out of control, don't you be like, okay, it's time for, you know, some, in England they'd call it a smack bottom, right? They call it a, you're going to get a smack bottom, you know, or a whipping, or a spanking, or something like that. Sometimes things have to be set in order and sometimes it takes, you know, you know, the dad's supposed to be the boss of the home. And so he's supposed to put things in order. I'm the pastor of the church, I'm supposed to put things in order here and not let everything go crazy into a free for all. Look at Hebrews 13 verse 7. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, wouldn't that, doesn't that seem like it's a pastor, whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation. So what's their life like? Well, follow their faith as they're following Christ. People say, well, I'll never follow a man. Well, Paul said that you should, you know, follow me as I follow Christ. So this whole, you know, people despising government, this happened, there's government inside churches. There's rules inside churches and if someone despises those things, then they're not right with God. And they're self-willed and they're not following, they're despising government, they're self-willed. So it says in verse 17, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves. What does that mean? You obey, you do what they say and submit yourselves. Now, if brother Ryan's going to trade in his big giant truck after the service and he wants to get like a Ferrari or something, I think it'd probably take more than that truck, but I'm not sure that thing could probably win in the apocalypse. But when it pulled in, I was like, dang, that's a big truck. It's been a while since I've seen it, but look, Ryan's not really, he doesn't have to come to me and say, pastor, I was thinking about trading my truck in today, what do you think about that? That's weird, that's not my realm of authority. My realm of authority has to do with what goes on here inside these walls and what we're doing in the name of Christ outside these walls. Okay, but I'm not the ruler of your home. There's an order of rule and this is talking about people in the church that are supposed to rule. Everybody has a boss and if you don't have a boss, then maybe you're a despiser of government. Maybe you're a despiser of the way things are set up because everybody has a boss except for God, right? So, and it says, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls, as they must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. So you don't want to be a pain in the neck church member, basically. That's what it's saying, don't be a pain in the neck to your pastor because it's not going to be good for you, because what if you're giving the pastor so much grief that he ends up quitting? That probably happens every single day in this country where, you know, the mob is ruling that church because they're using some kind of American form of government in order to rule the church over and instead of the pastor being the one that's in charge, it's all the little old ladies in the church that their husband's passed away or whatever and now the way they rule is through a business meeting. And they say, well, this is the kind of toilet paper we want, pastor. You know, quit getting that single ply one sheet, you know, and obviously you don't want that either, but the pastor, if the pastor wants to get the single ply one sheet type of toilet paper, then that's his prerogative. It's not for everybody to vote on. It's not for the people to vote who the pastor should be. That's just, that's my belief. It says in verse 24, what's it say? Salute all them that have the rule over you and all the saints. So you see how hospitality even goes into Hebrews chapter 13 verse 24. Salute all them that have the rule over you. And salute, it's not like you're like, yes sir, you know, but that's kind of, you know, a salute is like, you know, hey, how's it going or shaking someone's hand or being nice to them. It's talking about those that have the rule over you and all the saints, not just the pastor, but all the saints. So like if you're just specifically avoiding people and don't want to be nice to them, look, I don't care if you don't like somebody here in our church necessarily, but you know what you got to do? You got to love them. You should love them and you should care about them. And maybe they're not your cup of tea friend wise, but can't you still say hi, good morning and shake someone's hand? You know, and obviously a fist bump or whatever variation of that you're doing. It seems kind of ghetto to fist bump, but you know, last year we had a lot of people sick. So in the year before that, in the year before that. So, you know, we do implement those rules. If you absolutely have to have a handshake, you know, I'll put some hand sanitizer on my hand and shake your hand. I shook people's hands today. So we're not in DEPCON 5 for handshaking right now, but it's going to come. So, and look what it says at the end of that verse though in verse 24. It says, they of Italy salute you. See, so we're not supposed to be some all inclusive club and nobody else that ever came before can ever come and visit our church. Of course we want people that we consider saints and brethren and other forms of leadership to come here. I invite pastors to come and preach here and they come and preach the word of God to us and it's a blessing to our church. You know, you probably get tired of hearing me and want to have something else, some variety and I appreciate that. I want to, I'm tired of hearing me sometimes too and I want to hear somebody else preach. But wouldn't it be weird if I just like, I'm the pastor, I'm never giving up the pulpit, I'm never letting these guys in here again because they might say something that I don't really agree with. Now, unless they're saying I'm Jesus or, you know, that the earth is flat or some other weird stuff, then I'm going to be okay with what they say. So, number three, I know that was a long point here, but number three this morning, a deatrophys divides through bad deeds of prating and malicious words. A deatrophys divides through bad deeds which would be prating and malicious words. See, what will they do to try to make that separation happen? Well, they'll just talk a bunch of crap about those people to their own congregation, try to run those men down, try to run those saints down and mar their testimony or mar them in some way where people will start to turn against them. And that's what we've seen happen, haven't we? Where now, you know, Manly Perry is running a cult down in San Antonio instead of a church. Where basically he doesn't put up his stuff online so people can hear it and then like nobody's allowed to come that's of our persuasion. But he also taught a bunch of damnable heresy, so I mean, what do you expect? So, he is like the picture of a deatrophys in my mind where he just wants to rule over everything. He just sat there and downplayed everybody and talked bad about them and then when he made his move, you know, that's just kind of what they do. They make their move and then distance, say, well, we're just distancing ourselves from them because of this or that. It's like, you're not perfect, buddy. So, look at verse number 10 back in our text, 3 John 1-10. It says, Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, braiding against us with malicious words, and not content therewith. So he's not even just content with that. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. So, this is what we've seen happen in our own movement where now people that believe the truth, that believe these, you know, that are actual born-again, Bible-believing, on-fire, soul-winning Christians are not allowed to come to that church because deatrophys, you know, he's already downplayed them, down-talked them, falsely accused them, stabbed them in the back, and now their own members that were actually converts of the original person don't want to have anything to do with them. It's just weird. But that's why you don't want to be a diatrophys. Look at Matthew 5-11, Matthew 5-11. Now, the word revile in the English language, it can mean that you're just saying nasty things to somebody, but it also can mean that you're just railing on someone because the word's used synonymously in the gospels where it says that they railed upon Jesus when he was up on the cross and told him to get down, but then there's another parallel gospel that says that they reviled him and did the same thing. So, revile can mean to rail against somebody. So, look what the Bible says in Matthew 5-11. It says, Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So, people can get to the point, obviously unbelievers will get to this point, these reprobates will get to this point, but also, you know, the Bible says that there's going to come a day when people are thinking if they kill you, they're doing something good for God, basically, and, you know, sometimes I think that these people, you know, they're so power hungry and so want to have the preeminence so badly that they're just going to dog out our name and say that we're not saved or, you know, whatever it is, they'll do the exact things that they say that we'll do, but we actually don't do. And so, when people revile you or lie about you on purpose, that's what, railing is always a lie. It's always something that's not true and it's something like when they said, if thou be the son of God, come down off the cross, and basically his mission was to be on that cross. Why would he get down from the cross so they're saying he's not the son of God unless he gets down off the cross and proves it to us. He doesn't have to prove anything to you. So that's why it's railing, but, you know, the similar types of things are said about pastors that I'm friends with or me, myself, or some of our church members, where they'll just sit there and lie and team up with the worst kind of scum on the face of the planet and be all in with them and then they'll forbid the brethren from coming to their church and then make them out to be the boogeyman or whatever. Turn to Romans 16 verse 17, Romans 16 verse 17, Romans 16 verse 17, the Bible says, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. For they are such that serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. So that's kind of what happens. Like they start this division making up all kinds of strange and lying accusations and, you know, some of it might be true. You know, the pastors aren't perfect. Church members aren't perfect. You know, I didn't realize that being perfect, you know, sinless perfection was a requirement for being a member of this church. I didn't know sinless perfection was a requirement for me being the pastor of the church because you can look through the qualifications all you want, but there's nothing that says that I'm sinlessly perfect. So that's when people get these weird ideas that if you said something that, you know, maybe it wasn't 100% right or maybe it was, you know, a little crass or whatever it was that that person is just a pervert in the pulpit. They're just, you know, he said crap. You know, it's just like really in our modern vernacular that's not really that bad of a word. It's just something that comes out the backside sometimes, right? But, you know, we say it, you know, not necessarily in that context. It's just a word that we use like, you know, whatever. So I'm sorry kids don't say that if your parents tell you not to or whatever, but I'm just saying that people get real nitpicky and real weird with all their false accusations and how holy they are, how great their children are, how bad your children are, and that's kind of the stuff that's been going on. And it's just garbage. You don't want to be a diatrophys where you're doing the same thing in our church to other people like that. So the lessons here are really for us this morning. You know, we need to be a cut above. We need to actually do what the Bible says also. And even though people are going to treat us badly, people are going to act like diatrophys, you know, we need to be better than them. And I mean better than how we behave. Turn to Proverbs chapter 6. See, diatrophys, you know, he says, I'll remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words. What's malicious? Well, malicious is where you try to do people harm, isn't it? And so they're using, he's using his words to do harm to their reputation. He's using words to harm other people's reputation so that he can say, look, they're not allowed here. Anybody that agrees with them is going to get kicked out too. That's where, that becomes a cult. That's actually what a cult is. When you're kicking people out for things that they haven't done wrong, you're, if they don't believe every single thing that you believe, that you're throwing them out or whatever. Because we're not like that. People can come in here and they can believe the pre-Trib rapture. And they're still welcome here. They can believe that Israel is still God's chosen people if they want to. And they're still welcome here. We just don't want people going around and causing division through those beliefs that our church doesn't believe. So if you want to come here and believe something different, that's fine. Now when it comes to salvation and baptism and things that are like really super important, you know, eternal security, we're going to have a problem with that kind of stuff. But generally, you know, causing division is a bad thing, isn't it? Look at Proverbs 6 16, it says, These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief. And look at the last verse that says, A false witness that speaketh lies. Isn't that what Diotrephes is doing? He's going around speaking malicious words. It says, And he that soweth discord among brethren. Where you're specifically trying to divide people that are believing, obviously it could be brothers and sisters of the flesh, but what I think it's really talking about here, the spirit of this commandment here, or what God is saying that's an abomination unto them, is when we're going around trying to stop people from liking other people and sowing strife and making them be divided. Now, this is what Diotrephes will do. He's going to go around talking bad about people, lying, making things up, railing, or just maybe telling half-truths, being on the wrong side of things or whatever it is, and then just act like, oh well, I'm so holy and you're not allowed to come into our church. That's basically what a Diotrephes does. Number four, the last point, is a Diotrephes refuses certain believers and kicks out those that want to receive them. That's what a Diotrephes does. So, Diotrephes in that verse, verse number 10, says, Wherefore if I come, I'll remember his deeds, which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren. So, other believers, and forbideth them that would. So, he's saying, you know, maybe there's somebody in the church that likes that person or likes those people because, you know what, they're brethren. They're saved people. And it says, he forbideth them that would and casteth them out of the church. That's really wicked to just try to go on a hunt for your church members that, you know, just want a fellowship with someone that's actually saved and you won't let them come to church there. And as a matter of fact, if they try to come to the church, then you'll kick out someone that already goes to your church that likes those people. And that's kind of what I've seen happen over the last few years. A lot of division causing, a lot of Diotrephes-style pastors that have come and gone. And, you know, they'll make up all these things that they, a good reason for them to do that. But in reality, you know, we were doing just fine before they came. You know what, we're doing just fine now that they're gone. But what did they do? They came to get some kind of clout. They came to get their own following to receive that preeminence. And when they don't get the preeminence, where they don't get what they think that they deserve, then they just cut ties and then they have all those people that they wanted and they have all that money coming in from their donations online. That they're, now they're happy, they're where they want to be, and then they just kick everybody else to the curb. That's a Diotrephes. It's a self-willed, you know, piece of garbage is what it is. And if that's why you're a pastor, so that you can have some kind of preeminence and power and rule over somebody, so that you can just lord it over people whenever you feel like it, that's wrong. It's not right. And, you know, I've gotten accused of being like just ready to kick anybody out or whatever, but when's the last time I kicked somebody out here? It's been a long time. It's been a while. Or maybe, you know, kicked them out ex-cathedra or whatever. I kicked them out after they'd already left because I found out they're, you know, causing division or lying or trying to, you know, get other people on their side or whatever. So they're kicked out after the fact, but they're still kicked out. But I'm just not on a hair trigger to kick people out. And anybody that says that about me is just not telling the truth. Now I'll kick people out for something that they deserve to be kicked out for, you know, and then, you know, Brother Ian just kicked out about a third of our church over there because of railing and lying. And, you know, our church is better off now. Once the leaven's gone, our church becomes a whole new lump that, you know, when you get that leaven out, it's a good thing for your church. So, you know, the problem with the theotrophies here is that he's kicking people out that don't deserve to be kicked out. He's marking people that don't deserve to be marked. And he's preaching sermons against other leaders and against other church members that don't toe the line. See, once they've made that switch over to where they're, you know, I'm just, I'm just rue the day that I ever was part of the new IFB. What was I ever thinking? It's like, you're weird. Like, you knew what we preached about before you came along, buddy. You knew that we were going to rip on some sods every once in a while, or probably a lot, but you knew what we believed. So now all of a sudden, all that stuff we believed is like, oh, it's just too mean, it's too, we're too, we're too graceful. They're graceful in word only, but not in deed. Because in reality, they're less graceful, they're more wicked. You know, it took me, you know, a long time to preach against some of these guys just because I was trying to be long suffering. I was trying to be graceful, but you know, it just became relentless. To the point where I finally felt like I had to say something. Because what was happening is that they were gathering more people and then secretly preaching against people or trying to, you know, and a lot of them, they still won't say names. And they do that because they don't want to lose that following. Because they want what? They want the preeminence. They want the power. So pastors that hate the new IFB, you know, they'll allow all manner of weirdos into their churches. And I'm just saying, you know, not even just like people that have come and gone, I'm talking about people just in old IFB churches. You know, there's some good old IFB churches out there, but you know, when I was over in England, a lot of the, there was a guy that goes there that I'm not even going to name his name just in case it somehow gets back to this pastor. But the pastor, if he knew that he was coming to visit us, would kick him out of the church. He can't even be put into a group photo with us because if the pastor sees his photo, that pastor will kick him out of the church. And that's the only church he has to go to in the area. And he lives a long ways from the church. So he was told that you're not allowed to fellowship with these people. That's a Diatrophes, isn't it? Where you're saying, hey, you can't go and hang out with those people. Well, we started this church. You know, there was people like Pastor Jones and some of the people that were in Washington were all going to this one church. And the pastor said, if you go to that church, the grand opening of that church, you're not welcome back at our church again. That's Diatrophes, isn't it? And then whines about how they betrayed him. It's like, look, we're not a cult. You guys can go visit any church you want to. You know, people in this church go on vacations and go visit other churches. Do you think that offends me? It doesn't offend me in the slightest. I want you to go and visit other churches. I want you to go fellowship with other believers. You know, I don't have a complex where I feel like you have to just be here every single weekend. You know, go have fun. Go visit another church. I don't care. They're my friends. Why would I care? But see, that's the difference between someone that's a Diatrophes and those that aren't. Well, where are you going? You can't go to that church. You've got to get out. But that's the attitude of like most of the independent Baptist churches. And I'm not saying all of them. I don't want to put them in a lump like people have said. All the new IFB people are just mean. All of them fight online. You know, it's just not true. It's just not true. And our church stays out of stuff like that for the most part. You know, and if someone wants to pipe up, I'm not your daddy. Go roast someone online. I don't care. You know, obviously, just don't bring shame to your church. But if you want to say something back to somebody that's saying something that's wrong, I'm not in control of your social media. Give me all your passwords and all your usernames right now. You're not allowed to comment or be in Facebook anymore. But that's what these pastors have done. You're not allowed to be in this group. You're not allowed to fellowship with these people. You're not allowed to say anything nice about that pastor or post his sermons online. It's like, how weird are you? How insecure are you? How much of a little pansy baby are you? Where you have to just try to control your church members to that point. I thought you were independent. We're just so independent. We're way over here. We're so independent. But in reality, anything that ever happens in our churches, somehow these guys know about. How's that? Because they got their little spies that are still in these groups or whatever and they hear us talking about something. It's just like, oh yeah, Pastor Shelley said the F word or whatever. It's just like, and then that's all they can talk about. That's all they can preach about. In the context of his sermon, which I'm going to just say this really quickly. In the context of his sermon, he proved his point. He proved his point that people were saying, you know, what was it, let's go Brandon. And everybody knows what that really means. And then he said, his point was about how people won't say what they mean. And even Christians are going around saying that and putting the bumper stickers on their vehicles and stuff. But then if someone actually says that word, then they're a pervert. But I'm sure that some of these people that are just railing on Pastor Shelley for how bad he was that he said that he's a pervert. He's molesting the children's minds in the church. Let me tell you something. That word doesn't always mean the bad connotation that's attached to it. It could just mean go to hell. You know what I mean? And it was used for a purpose. It wasn't used so that everybody could be offended. But people were offended. And you know who the most offended people were? Diatrophes. The holier than nows. Just railing against Pastor Shelley about how he's the pervert and the pulpit or whatever. It's just like, that's what Diatrophes does though. That's how they play the game. So let me just finish with a little bit of application. Let's go to verse 5 in our text. See now John is saying how this guy, Gaius, you know people have borne witness of his charity. People have seen the kind of manner of life that he lives. It says, What's he saying? Be hospitable. Be nice to people. Paul said receive these people into your church. They're just camping for a while and they're going to move on. But even if someone's just temporarily visiting our church for a while, I still want people to treat them well. I still want people to treat them right. That's how I want our church to be. It says, And that's what I want this church to be like. I don't want us to follow some Diatrophes and try to just... If people from these churches that I'm talking about came to this church, their church members came to this church, I would treat them right. I would treat them good. And you know what? It has happened. There's been people that might not agree with us about everything or their pastor might not like us anymore and they've come to this church. And you know what? We treat them well. We're not like, oh they go to that church. They can't come here. That's weird. They're brethren. Treat them as such. We ought to be fellow helpers of the truth and receive the brethren when they come. It says in verse 12, And you know that our record is true. So whose record was true? It was John. John's record is true. Demetrius is a good guy. Gaius is a good guy. And apparently people that go to that church, John still loves and wants to go visit. But Diatrophes won't allow them to come. That's the one that's wicked. That's the one that's sowing seeds of discord. That's the one that has an issue. And you know what their issue is? Their self-willed clowns that want the preeminence and that's why they're still not with us. It doesn't have anything to do with how holy they are or how much they don't cuss. I mean, just all the things that they, you know, one guy was accusing our kids of all being bad and his kid's not the greatest kid in the world either. It's like, what are you talking about? How are you going to sit there in a glass house and throw rocks? Hey, when your kids are perfect, why don't you come talk to me? Because if your kids aren't perfect and you're sitting there preaching against everybody else's kids and you don't even know their kids, you don't even know the families at all and you're going to just get up and just rail on the whole church movement as a whole, the jury's still out, folks. And I believe that when kids are in the services and they can hear the preaching and they're not in some Sunday school class going, somewhere in outer space, God has me, you know, just singing all these goofy songs, drinking Kool-Aid, eating candy and cookies the whole time, and they're getting a flannel graph of Jesus in a dress with long hair, white Jesus in a dress with long hair and blonde hair and blue eyes, we shouldn't even be having pictures of Jesus in our church at all. You know what's good for our church? It's for the kids to be in the services and listening to the same preaching that we're listening to. You know what? Give them credit for being a little smarter than you think they are. Instead of dividing them with a bunch of clowns that don't even know what they're talking about. Hey, you just joined the church two weeks ago. Here, why don't you teach all these kids, why don't you teach my kids about Jesus and you just got saved last week? Just follow this lesson plan and it'll tell you everything you need to know. How's that spirit feel? How's that right? But then you're going to talk bad about our friends and maybe we don't do everything perfect and maybe we're not perfect. Maybe we do have some issues. But you know what? Everybody has issues. Every church has issues. Nobody's perfect. But you know what we're trying to do? We're trying to reach this world with the gospel. We're trying to start churches and preach the gospel, preach the truth, preach sound doctrine so that we can move forward with the next generation. We teach this generation and move the next generation forward and hopefully there's some young men that are growing up in these churches that are going to say, you know what? I want to go and do the same thing. Or a woman that would say, hey, I want to go and be beside a man that wants to do some great thing for God. Or I want to just be in a church like this where I can just serve God. The pastor might not be perfect. His kids might not be perfect. The people might not be perfect. But you know what we're doing? We're still moving forward. We're still serving the Lord. We're still serving God. And you know what? We're still brethren. It's just kind of stuff that just makes me so angry where people just, you know, and that just shows how self-willed ones, they eventually just go kaput anyway. Because you know what? They were never in it for the right reason. Would my life be easier if I wasn't a pastor? Yes, it would. It would be a lot easier. But you know why I do it? Because I love God and someone has to stand in the gap and fill in the hedge and all that stuff, right? Someone has to lead the charge. Someone that's qualified has to lead the charge and you know what? That's what I've been called to do and that's what I'm going to continue to do until I die or I'm replaced by someone better than me, okay? So eventually we're all going to get replaced by someone that's younger and better than us, right? Right? We're all dust and we're going to return to the dust. Anyway, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the Scriptures. And Lord, I just pray that we'd always have a great attitude of hospitality in our church. And Lord, that even if someone's from another church that we would just treat them well. If someone's a stranger, Lord, we'd bring them in and bring them under the shadow of your wings, Lord. And Lord, we would treat people right to come visit our church. And Lord, even if they don't agree with us on everything, that shouldn't matter. What should matter is how we treat other people. And Lord, let our light shine before men. They may see our good works and give glory and honor to you, our Heavenly Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, our last song of song number 559, Shall We Gather at the River, in your blue hymn books. Song 559, in your blue hymn book, Shall We Gather at the River. Song 559, let's sing it out together on the first. Shall we gather at the river Where bright angel feet have trod With its crystal tide forever Blowing by the throne of God Yes, we'll gather at the river The beautiful, the beautiful, the river Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God On the bosom of the river Where the Savior King we own We shall meet in sorrow never In the glory of the throne Yes, we'll gather at the river The beautiful, the beautiful, the river Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God There we reach the shining river Lay we every burden down Grace our spirits we'll deliver And provide a Roman crown Yes, we'll gather at the river The beautiful, the beautiful, the river Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God Soon we'll reach the shining river Soon our pilgrimage will cease Soon our happy hearts will quiver With the melody of peace Yes, we'll gather at the river The beautiful, the beautiful, the river Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God Thanks for watching!