Hospitality to Missionaries 3 John Vs 1-14

Good morning. How you guys doing today? Great.

Welcome to Faith Bible Church. Glad to see you all here today. I'm 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. Absolutely. 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. We 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 praise you. 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. 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, is Rescue the Perishing.

So let's all stand together. This is a, we shared last week about Fanny Crosby. She wrote over 5 ,000 hymns.

Guess what? This is one of them and Rescue the Perishing.

This next song, Go Ye into All the World, at the end of the praying is, and lo,

I am with you always. We really need not be ashamed or timid of sharing the gospel message that God is with 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. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel and lo,

I am with you always. Today I'm going to be reading from Philippians 4, 13 through 19, my apologies.

Again, that's Philippians 4, 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 Ephroditus 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. You may be seated as 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. OK, 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 that 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 have given to us.

We think of our country, especially of the things that have transpired in the last day.

We realize, 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 that gets kind of the direction that we're going to the book of Third John.

And as we look at the book, it's always been a blessing to me, but I was trying to say what should

I title my message? I'm not used to titling a message. And I hate to sound trite, but my first thought was the care and feeding of missionaries.

But that sounded like the zoo. And 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 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 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 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 in kind of a transliteration to miso, 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. They and I learned that late in life, and I thought that was an interesting thing.

So the Vulgate, which was the Catholic version of the

Bible, was written about the end of the fourth century. And the

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 who go to church and they would say in within the

Catholic church, I couldn't understand the 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 in, they had in the church that they used 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 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 with him face to face, what

Jesus said. So you and I have the gospel. And 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 1, 8, Luke is a 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 5, 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, 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 an 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, uh,

Ellie, one of our missionaries that we sent out is through the gospel mission of South America.

Uh, 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?