Hospitality to Missionaries 3 John Vs 1-14

Good morning. How are you guys doing today? Great. Welcome to Faith Bible Church. Glad to see you all here today. Just going to go through some announcements. We have, as you guys know, we've been announcing our summer church barbecue that we do, that we're going to do this year on August 4th at Harold and Miss Debbie's house.

I call her Miss Debbie because of the kids. It's always great. It's going to be probably very, very hot, but you know, we always have a good time and lots of great food. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So that'll be fun.

So hopefully see you all there. Our missionary of the month is Steve and Joyce Louie out of Atlanta, Georgia. They serve with Biblical Ministries Worldwide and the International Office. So just pray for them as they train other missionaries and witness to their neighbors and friends and train others to do the same.

Also, we have the summer Greek study with Iljin. That's going to be, it's going to continue, sorry, on July 27th at 9 .30 a .m. That's going to be every second and fourth Saturday through the summer. So everybody's welcome to that, obviously.

And then if you have any questions, ask Iljin. He'll point you in the right direction. So now I'll just open service in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you for today, Lord. Thank you for getting us all here safely, Lord.

Thank you for the cooler weather, Lord. And we just pray, Lord, that today we can hone in and focus on you and your word, Lord, and just worship you for all that you've done for us, Lord. And we just pray for focus.

We love you, Lord, and we pray in Jesus' name,.

We pray, amen. Well, good morning again. And if you're new to Faith Bible Church this morning, we welcome you and are glad you're here and just thankful that we can fellowship together and that this is just a foretelling of, or a foreshadowing of heaven and being together with the saints all the time, rejoicing before the Lord.

And, but we get the privilege of being able to do that today and every Sunday as we gather corporately. So this morning, we're going to, there's clearly, there's a mission's emphasis and the great commission of going forth and telling the world about Jesus.

The world needs to hear about Jesus more than anything. That's what they need. That's what we all needed. If you haven't come to Christ, I pray that you would seek the Lord and confess your sins before him and come to him.

And if you know him already, I just pray that we would be encouraged today as we sing together, as we fellowship together and hear a word that Victor is going to share as well, that we just are going to grow in our personal faith and walk with him.

So our first song, if you'd stand with me, um, is a rescue the perishing. So let's all stand together. This is a, we shared last week about Fannie Crosby. She wrote over 5 ,000 hymns.

Guess what? This is one of them and, uh, uh, rescue the perishing next song. Go ye into.

All the world. At the end of the ring is, and lo I am with you always. Uh, we really need not be ashamed or timid of sharing the gospel message. The, um, the God is with us. Let us let that sink in. As we remember that God is with us, wherever we go, when we open our lips and share the gift of Jesus Christ, he is with us.

So don't be afraid.

I'm going to be reading from Philippians four, 13 through 19. My apologies. Again, that's.

Philippians four, 13 through 19. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble 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 if for Titus, the gifts you sent a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Thank the Lord for his word.

As we begin our next set, what a friend we have in Jesus. I wanted to just thank Eliezer for playing the piano and really stretching himself in this area of being able to share what God has given him and the ability to play the piano and then to do it in worship is even more incredible.

So thank you Eliezer for being used by God to do this. And let's.

Stand together. We're going to sing what a friend we have in Jesus. Victor comes forward.

Pastor Cho's are on vacation this week, as you see standing right here, but Victor is going to give Pastor Elgin a break today. And as much as he loves to preach and we love his preaching, Victor is going to share with us.

I have taught a little while in my life, but usually I'm down on the floor there where you can holler at me or correct me. But if I'm up here, you can still correct me if need be. Okay. But if we have questions and it's a blessing to share the Lord's word and we realize that the word of the Lord is directed and guided by him, and we would ask that the Lord would speak through us in all that we have to say today.

I find that when I give a message to you, it's a message that the Lord has hammered in me before and has a reason. So as they say, when they point to you, there's always five fingers pointing back to me.

And the Lord has talked with myself and with Barbara, especially along this line. And we just thank the Lord for his word. So before we get started, let's just open with the word of prayer. Thank you, heavenly father, as we come to you this morning to present your word, we pray heavenly father that we each might have listening ears to hear what you've given to us.

We think of our country, especially in the things that have transpired in the last day. We realized Lord as a country, we need your help. And we are calling for your help and ask you to be merciful to us, Lord, in our government and the choice of the leaders of our country.

Lord, we would pray heavenly father that you would be merciful to us and help us as a country. We think also of individuals from our congregation that are in the hospital. We think especially of Kim today.

We uphold her before you. We would ask that you would continue to be with her and touch her and heal her. And we realize that there are even some among us who are infirmed and weak. And we would ask Lord that you would give strength where it's needed.

And we would thank you for it. Now we would pray for the message that we bring that it might be from our heart, might be from your word. May you guide and direct each one of us. And we would thank you and pray in Jesus name.

Amen. If you have a bulletin in hand with a, there's a outline there. It's kind of the direction that we're going to the book of third John. And, uh, as we, uh, look at the book, it's always been a blessing to me, but, uh, I was trying to say, what should I title my message?

I'm not used to titling a message. And, uh, I hate to sound, uh, trite, but my first thought was the care and feeding of missionaries, but that sounded like the zoo. And, uh, I thought, no, that's not good.

And then I thought, well, how to take care of missionaries. And I thought, eh, but then hospitality of missionaries. I thought that's, that sounds a little better talking about missionaries is what we're talking about today.

And I thought, as we get into that, a thing that was kind of startling to me when I first started getting into the word, the word apostle, you know, we have the, the disciples were called the 12 apostles, right?

And, um, so the definition of the word apostle is a sent one or an emissary or a person sent on a special mission. Did you realize that? So the apostle means a sent one that's number one and, and, or an emissary and a person set on a diplomatic mission.

So that's an apostle, but the apostle was translated to Latin when the church, the Catholic church wrote the scripture in Latin, they translated the word apostle as, and it's kind of a transliteration to me.

So, which is very close to emissary. You spell emissary, M I S S O is Latin. So the rest of it, M I S S O missionary. So Latin, Latin word for me for apostle is missionary. So, I thought, well, that's kind of interesting.

I didn't know, I learned that late in life and I thought that was an interesting thing. So the, uh, Vulgate, which was the Catholic version of the Bible was written about the end of the fourth century and that, uh, Vulgate was used by the Catholic church.

It was updated a little bit along the line, clear up into 1979 and most of the services within the Catholic church were in what? Latin. You know, and some people, and when I think of that, people would go to church and they would say in within the Catholic church, I couldn't understand a word.

So, you know, what good? And it was the duty of the church they felt was their duty to keep the Bible out of the hands of the common people. So the fact that they had the word, uh, in, uh, they had in the church that they use the Latin clear up until 1979.

I used to talk with some of my friends who were at work where the Catholic church and they'd say, well, it's all in Latin. I don't understand. Well, they did change and they do speak in English now in a lot of their services.

So that's just kind of a little side note before we get started. And before I get into, um, third, John, I had written down for myself some quotes of Jesus. When we talk about a missionary and who is a missionary and what does a missionary do in the gospel of Matthew 28, 19, it says, Jesus is speaking to the disciples, go and make disciples of all nations.

Next gospel, Mark 16, 15, Jesus says, go into all the world and preach the gospel in Luke 24, 14. Jesus says, repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations. And in John 17, 18, Jesus says, as you have sent me now, he's in this verse, the Lord is praying for his disciples.

And as he prays for his disciples, he's praying to the father. And he says, as you have sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world and jumping to verse 20, Jesus praying for his disciples says, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their words.

Jesus says, I want to pray for the disciples, but as I pray for them, I'm not praying for them only, but for those who are going to believe on me through their words. Is that you? Is that me? I believe on our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, because of the apostles wrote down the word and passed on because they talked to with him face to face what Jesus said.

So you and I have the gospel in, in John 20, 21. He says, as the father has sent me, I also send you. He's talking to the disciples, but I think he's talking to you and I also through the disciples and in acts one eight, Luke is the writer.

He says, you shall be witnesses to me. He's referring to what Jesus had said. You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And I thought it was interesting.

I found an outline of the book of acts and that I thought was very interesting. Jerusalem chapters one through seven. Do you get it? He said, I want you to go to Jerusalem and then Judea and Samaria chapters eight through 10 and to the rest of the world chapters 11 through 28.

I thought that was a pretty interesting outline for the book of acts. And then in second Corinthians five 19 and you might want to scribble this down and read it yourself later. The Lord passes on. He says that is and I'm kind of in the middle of a verse 19.

That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. And to me, when I see reconcile, there's a lot more involved, but I think he's made peace with the world through Christ.

When I see the word reconciled, God was in Christ making peace with the world to himself, not imputing or not giving their trespasses to them. But then the end of this verse says, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

You see, he says, now I've committed to you the word of reconciliation. I want you to say the word of reconciliation, the word of peace to the world. That's your business now. And then verse 20, he says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ.

Are we official emissaries? You and I, if you're a believer, are an official emissary of Christ to the world. Now we are ambassadors Christ as though God were pleading through us. As though God were pleading through us.

He wants to speak through you and I to the world and give the next message of reconciliation to the world. So the last of that verse is we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. I think some of the versions might even say, we plead with you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled, make peace with God.

And I think that's the message of each individual. But now there are some individuals that have become missionaries and that's their whole life to go to the ends of the earth. And I just might say to begin with, in this day and age, in our churches, if some denominations, they just are able to pay and send missionaries out.

But within most of the independent Bible, fundamental, there's a lot of other churches you could say in there. The missionaries that rise up, go out, have no support except for their friends and the church.

And that's how our church works with, and you'll see them, you'll see in the announcement, our missionaries are with BMW, Biblical Ministries Worldwide. Biblical Ministries Worldwide does not provide the missionary with any money.

They just arrange and make the plans and tell them how to arrange to get to that foreign country. And there's Ellie, one of our missionaries that we sent out is through the Gospel Mission of South America.

That's another mission. She goes out and they send, and talking with Ellie now that that mission has been there since the forties and fifties in South America, they are now sending missionaries to Europe.

If you can believe that from Brazil, they're sending missionaries to Brazil or to Europe because initially missions were coming out of Europe, like Maisley, uh, Holland and, uh, England was sending missionaries throughout the world.

And you'll hear the term, uh, William Carey was the father of modern missions. And the reason he's considered the father of modern missions, he started a mission organization that would go back and raise money for the missionary on the field.

So that's all to say kind of introduction to where we're going today. So when a missionary comes and presents his ministry to you, the only support they have is through friends and churches that have said, we will promise to give you so much.

And, and we will do that. And they usually go out for anywhere from two to four years, come back, visit their friends, and then go back to the field. So after saying all that and saying, seeing that we are ambassadors, then I wrote myself a note, a question to me and to question to you, what am I doing?

And what is our church doing to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth? And how are we as believers to care for missionaries who have given their lives to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth?

And that's the thrust of my whole message this morning is what are we doing and how should we be doing it? And should we be interested in that? The apostle john in john, and if you want to turn now to third john, it's the smallest book, I believe in the scripture.

And if you know how to get to it, go backwards from Revelation, Jude, then there's first, second, third john. John gives us some direction in how we should be involved in carrying out the great commission to carry the gospel to all the earth.

And in the heart of third john, the gospel third john is those who go forth to preach the truth need the support of Christians in places where they travel. And that's Hodges says that in his commentary.

We'll take and read the book of third john together. Verse one, the elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper and in all things, and be in health just as your soul prospers.

For I rejoice greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness of your love before the church.

If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well. Because they went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth.

I wrote to the church, but the atrophies who loves to have the preeminence among them does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does pratting against us with malicious words and not content with that he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to putting them out of the church.

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has a good testimony from all and from the truth itself, and we bear witness and you know that our testimony is true.

I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink, but I hope to see you shortly and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.

If we look at the first verse, when we just go back and go through it, and the very first thing says the elder, and we believe the elder to be the apostle John. It's tradition says that the apostle John wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, but there's hard to find where it says that in the scripture, but John also wrote the book of John, which you're very familiar with, and also wrote Revelations.

So John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and Revelations, we believe were written by the apostle John. He starts it off by saying Gaius, the beloved Gaius, and different versions have it in a different way, but it's the same word, and if you note the word beloved, you'll notice that it's down in verse 2, and if you can kind of go down through verse 1, verse 2, verse 5, and verse 11, all say beloved.

So you can see that he's a close friend of Gaius. The word Gaius means fruit of love, and he's addressed by the apostle John as a friend, and is known for his godly living, as is evidenced in the practice of hospitality to traveling missionaries.

Gaius is mentioned two other times in the scripture. In Romans 16, 23, Paul writes, Gaius my host and host of the church, and also in Acts 20, verse 4, Luke writes, Gaius of Darby, and he was considered among those that were accompanying Paul.

These men going on ahead waited for us in Troas, but we don't know if these two men are the same Gaius. Could be, but we do not know that, that there's nothing that puts that together. And then you notice in verses 3 and 4, he talks about that you walk in truth.

He said, the brethren came back, in other words, these missionaries probably came back to the church, and was reporting. They're really doing a lot for the missionaries that are traveling through there.

So they came back, and he says, I'm thankful that you walk in truth, and he uses that a lot in verse 4. He said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. And I thought it's kind of interesting if you have your Bibles and turn back one page to 2 John, in verses 1 through 4, just to kind of give you some idea.

He says, to the elder lady and her children whom I love in truth. And then he says, but also all those who have known the truth. And grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in truth.

And verse 4, I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth. And I thought that seems to be John's emphasis, both in 2 John and 3 John, the word truth. What is the, I think if I said that we're walking in Christ, we'd be saying the same thing.

And what is this truth that he's talking about? And just as a reference, in John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. So in this case, Jesus says, I'm the truth. That was John 14, 6 and John 14, 17.

It says the spirit of truth, you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. So what do you take that? The Holy spirit is said to be truth that is in you. And then in John 17, 17, the phrase is used, sanctify them.

In other words, sanctify, purify the believers by your truth. Your word is truth. So we have reference to Christ. We have reference to the Holy spirit. We have reference to the word. And I always say, Christ is the living word.

This is the written word. And so that's the thing for us to keep in mind as we go through and think about the truth that he says. So he's very delighted in the fact that Gaius is in truth. And then if we jump to verse five, he said, beloved to Gaius, you do faithfully, whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, that's several of you probably have different versions.

Some version says, whatever you do, and that to strangers. In other words, these traveling missionaries is talking about are coming through. You never knew them before, but you're know that they, you find out that they know the Lord, they're out there to give the word you take care of them is what he's saying.

So faithfully what's the word faithful. I always, I'm the kind of, I like to look up in the dictionary. I thought I knew English until I look in the dictionary and I realized I didn't know any English, but a faithful means to be steadfast, reliable, unwavering.

So Gaius is an example of hospitality to these missionaries. And he says, he's faithful at doing it. He's made up his mind. I'm going to take care of these missionaries whenever they come through. And then if you look in, as we go on down through, he says the fact that they are brethren, they're Christian brothers and they're going for the missionaries.

But then in a verse six, it says who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you do well. What's he mean to send them forward?

It really, he's really talking about give them provisions and support. And when Barb and I have really had a lifetime of where Barb is really the one who has to do all the work, the hospitality with missionaries that have come through the home and taken care of them.

But when they leave, we always say, do you have enough gas to get to the next place? Do you have enough food to get to the next place? I mean, that's just simple in saying, and that's just kind of a minor way in talking about that.

I debated whether to tell the story or not, but, uh, uh, we talk about people from Philadelphia are not really hospitable. And Barb, she looks at me and like goes, oh, but when we were first, and I've said this story to several, when we were first married, my father's a preacher.

He drove from the Midwest to Philadelphia with five preacher friends to go to the ICA convention. None of them had any money, but they all packed, pulled their money and they drove. I've been married about a year or almost a year.

We had a one bedroom apartment. My dad shows up at the door at seven in the morning, I'm gone to work. And he says to Barb, got five preachers here. And we'd like breakfast. She says, there is a restaurant down the street and turn to the right.

My dad, if you knew my dad, he stayed away about a half an hour and he says, we couldn't find it. So Barb became hospitable. She made him breakfast, but she, she also said, what kind of a family have I married into?

So you, you see, but that's what we're talking about. It takes work to be hospitable, but I have to say we've been married 63 years. We've had, I could say hundreds of missionaries and friends in our home that Barb has graciously put up.

And sometimes we've put up as many as five missionaries and preachers together at one time in the house, we throw the kids out of their beds and put them in the kids' beds. And we have a million stories to tell you, which we won't do, but I thank the Lord that she has been very hospitable.

And I would say she's very much like Gaius. She has been a very gracious host and we thank the Lord. And you say, how can you do that? But as I look back on life, it's a blessing having servants of the Lord in your home.

It's a pleasant blessing for the children to see servants of Lord in your home. And the, we took one man, we were driving him home from the church one time. And he said to us, he had cancer. He knew he had about six months to live.

And he said, do you, when you die, are you going to take anything with you? He says, you can take your kids with you. Make sure you invest your time in your kids. And I'm saying to you, that's the kind of things that come out when you're bringing people into the home.

You get a testimony of them to your kids and the kids with our children who are now a little older would say the same thing. It's been a blessing to have and be hospitable. So I encourage each of you to think about hospitality to not just missionaries, but to pastors, to any Christians that come through.

And even when we have Christians that you know are believers, if you can think about it, say, let's go to dinner today after church or something like that. I just encourage you when we lived in Kansas City, we had, we've moved across country for the company sake.

We had a family of five. We're going to Bible school, Calvary Bible College. They would come back to our house for lunch every Sunday, excuse me, not every day, every Sunday. And then usually four or five other students would come by.

And then the family of five, one Sunday said, I've got this missionary friends that have come through. Do you mind if I bring them along? And Barb and I are driving home and Barb says, I have nothing to feed them.

What am I going to do? And I'd been reading about the scripture where it talked about being satisfied with what the Lord gives you. And I said, let's pray that everybody is satisfied. It's kind of funny what you remember.

I remember she had cooked a big sheep cake, you know, just about this thin that's for dessert. We were expecting this group, but now we got this group. And I said, let's just pray as we go that everyone is satisfied when we're done.

And when we were all done, it was almost like unison. They are, they all pushed away from the table and says, we're just satisfied. We didn't say that. They all said, we're just satisfied. That was the Lord's provision.

And I thank the Lord for that. And I don't say that to brag on us. I say that as an example that you'll love it. You'll enjoy it. I witnessed this to some people and I say, bring them right up to the point where salvation and they'll say, yeah, but Victor, you got to live.

In other words, I can't go that far. I got to live. I got to take easy with all of this, but we look back on life and we say, it's been great. We've enjoyed it. Life's been wonderful. No complaints far above just got to getting by.

So the fact that gay is, is a great example of hospitality to the church. Verse seven, for his namesake, we're talking about, this is where we get the missionaries. They went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from the Gentiles.

And that's where we kind of get the modern missionary movement. We feel that the Christians should be the ones supporting the gospel going forward. And Paul and his writing says, I worked so that I didn't have to charge the Gentiles here.

John is saying to gay is, I realized that these missionaries that are coming through were taking nothing from the people that they are witnessing to, but they're doing it for his namesake. And we say to ourselves for his namesake, um, they didn't go out for self gain.

The missionary shouldn't be going out for self gain, taking nothing from the Gentiles. And in first Corinthians nine 18, uh, Paul said, when I preached the gospel, I wanted to preach it without cost to the Gentiles.

And in first Thessalonians two nine, he said, I labored night and day that we might not be burdensome to any of you. We preached to you the gospel of God. Now, when he preached to them, they were still unbelievers.

When he started there, I didn't want to say here, I'm preaching to you. Take care of my needs. He said, no, we didn't do that. And he said, verse eight, taking up nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to receive such.

You see that therefore we ought to receive shuts. Some versions said, therefore we ought to support such. Some manuscripts put up, take up. In other words, we ought to be taking up funds and taking up their support for the missionaries.

So they take nothing from the Gentiles. This is just me talking. I personally believe it's inappropriate for us to seek and ask for support for a church or ministry from those who do not believe in or honor the name.

The name is our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, that name he says is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I just take a little, what we say, a rabbit trail for just one second. I think as a church that we need to support ourselves with our church.

I find it very, whether church uses a rummage sale or a bake sale or this, that going to the world because we can't support ourselves, I think that's wrong. And that's, that's me talking. That's not from the scripture, but I, because I think we ought to support if a church is to the place, they can't support themselves.

Maybe it's time to close that church. And that's a harsh thing to say, but we as believers ought to be supporting those that go forth as well as supporting. And fortunately the Lord has been good to us.

And we thank the Lord for that. Turn with me, if you will, to Philippians, the, what he read this morning, have you ever said to yourself or anyone ever said to you, my God should supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

You ever use that verse, right? Look at the whole thing. And that's why we asked for the scripture to be read this morning. It starts off in verse 13. And I'm just going to skim through it real quick.

He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And previous to that, he says, I've starved sometimes. And sometimes I've had all that I'm needed. I've gone through a lot. It's what he's saying.

And then in verse 14, he says, nevertheless, you have done. And he's talking to the church, the Philippians, the church in Philippi. Nevertheless, in verse 14, you have done well that you shared in my distress.

Verse 15. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, what's it say? No church shared with me concerning giving or receiving, but you only. So he said I needed support.

No church was willing to support me. And that's what he's saying there. But he says, but God has taken care of me anyway. But then he goes on and he says, I'm not seeking a gift from you when I'm saying this.

I'm just telling you how it is. And so it's Paul said. And in verse 18, indeed, I have all and abound. I am full having received from Epaphroditus and the things sent from you as a sweet smelling aroma.

What's the next phrase? An acceptable sacrifice. The church, the people at Philippi sacrifice knowing that Paul really needed it. They needed it too, but they were willing to sacrifice and send it to him.

And then he says, you sacrifice. Then he says to them a promise to them because you gave sacrificially. My God will supply your needs. You see that it's a promise to those that give sacrificially. In saying all this, I'm not speaking about a get rich scheme, but I'm speaking about God supplying our needs.

We were worried about speaking, uh, get rich scheme. We don't do that, but I can say to you, you can't out give God. I really believe that you cannot out give God. We need to trust him. We need to see what our duty is to send missionaries forward, you know, in, in this respect and go back to third.

John verse nine says, I wrote to the church, but the atrophies who loves to have the preeminence among them and does not receive us. When you read the word receive, you ever think about someone rings the doorbell, knocks at your door, you open the door, you're going to receive him or you're going to run him away.

If you receive him, you're going to welcome him. Right? So what he's saying, the atrophies did not welcome me. He was not welcoming to, he didn't have a welcoming spirit. He didn't want anything to do with me.

And because he wanted the preeminence, it's interesting. He's not saying there's a doctrinal difference with us. Possibly they believe the same doctrinally, but he says he just wants to be number one.

He don't want to be anybody else there preaching, but him or being in charge of the church, he was, he said he just wanted to have the preeminence and he does not receive us. Then he goes on to say, therefore in verse 10, when I call to mind the deeds, which he does pratting with malicious words and not content with that, but he doesn't receive the brethren talking about the traveling missionaries that come, he doesn't receive them either.

It doesn't allow them in the church. And if anybody says, well, I want to take care of them, then he throws them out of the church where he talks about pratting. I thought it was interesting. I was looking again in the dictionary, uh, babbling could be used in there.