Please Pass The Salt Series

Please Pass the Salt

Read text - 2nd John

Introduction:

Have you ever lost something that you had worked hard for?

Televangelists in the 80’s - Jim Baker, Gordon McDonald, Jimmy Swaggart

Farmers - Flood of ’94, Many farmers planted, only to have the crops drowned out.

Computer users - done a lot of work only to have a power outage - didn’t save

Losing something that you work hard for is frustrating

Vs. 8 - Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.

People losing what they had worked for was is not a new problem to us.

Apparently some 1st century Christians lost what they had "worked for".

How does John instruct us to keep from losing what we have "worked for’?

I Walk - in obedience to his commands - Vs 6

A. What is His Command?

1. Love one another

B. Why would God have to make that a command?

1. He knows that we are self centered by nature

C. Are there people that it is hard to love?

1. There are some people that you just couldn’t love unless it was a command.

a. Muslims

b. Mormons

c. Jehovah’s witnesses

d. Insurance salesman

e. Customer - No Service people

f. Telemarketers

g. Stores who put out their Christmas decorations before Halloween.

D. The people that are the hardest to love are those who disagree with us

1. Hatfields 7 McCoysThe family feud between the Hatfields and McCoys lasted twelve years, and claimed the lives of 12 people--3 Hatfields, 7 McCoys, and 2 outsiders. What caused such animosity between neighbors? It started with a simple dispute over the ownership of a hog.

E. God Says in each of these situations, Love must take control -

1. Last week we I mentioned a quote by Corrie Ten Boom (Sermon Central Users, see "When Hurts Run Deep)

a. Ten Boom said "Forgiveness is not something you feel, it is something you DO"

b. Love is the same way. Love is not something you feel, it is something that you DO

We WALK in obedience to His Commands: His command to Love One Another

II Watch - out that you do not lose what you have worked for Vs. 8

A. We guard ourselves with TRUTH.

1. Vs. 9 - Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

B. If we know the truth, we will know what is false

C. Sometimes the truth looks good, but it can be harmful

According to Peter Kendall in the Chicago Tribune, Ruben Brown, age sixty-one, was known on the south and west sides of Chicago, as the friendly neighborhood cockroach exterminator with "the Mississippi stuff." The Mississippi stuff was a pesticide Brown had bought hundreds of gallons of in the South, and it really did the trick on roaches. Brown went from door to door with his hand sprayer, and his business grew as satisfied customers recommended the remarkably effective exterminator to others.

In the process, however, Brown is alleged to have single-handedly created an environmental catastrophe. The can-do pesticide-methyl parathion-is outlawed by the EPA for use in homes. Southern farmers use it on boll weevils in their cotton fields, and within days the pesticide chemically breaks down into harmless elements. Not so in the home. There the pesticide persists as a toxic chemical that can harm the human neurological system with effects similar to lead poisoning.

The EPA was called into Chicago for the cleanup. Drywall, carpeting, and furniture sprayed with the pesticide had to be torn out and hauled to a hazardous -materials dump. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the total cost of the cleanup would be some $20 million, ranking this as one of the worst environmental nightmares in Illinois history.

Brown was charged with two misdemeanors. He apparently didn’t know much about the pesticide he sprayed so liberally. Brown’s attorney said, "It’s a tragedy. It is one of those situations where he did a lot of harm, but his intention in no way matches the damage he has done. He is a family man and handled it with his own hands. Do you think he knew how toxic it was?"

What you don’t know can hurt you. That is true both of pesticides and of false teaching.

D. If the people in Chicago had known what Mr. Brown was spraying, they would have protected themselves. If they knew the truth, they could have put themselves on guard.

E. John says "Watch Out. There are some people in your area who are very convincing, but are teaching things contrary to the truth. You have worked hard to get where you are. Don’t blow it by being taken in by a group of con-men. They are against everything that Christ teaches.."