There is no greater disappointment than working for
something for a long time, only to see that work just
disappear. You worked hard, but it’s gone. That is truly an
awful feeling.
A couple of weeks ago, on one of those steamy weekends
filled with unpredictable thunderstorms, my wife was sitting at
her word processor, making notes for her Sunday School
lesson. Well, the trouble with antiquated word processors is
that they do not store data on a hard drive, only on a disk.
And so, up came a thunderstorm, off went the power, and
away went a couple of hours’ Bible study work! Let me tell
you, there were two thunderstorms around my house that
night, only one of them outside! There is no greater
disappointment than working for something for a long time,
only to see that work just disappear.
Let’s talk about the stock market. Or maybe you’d rather
not? I only know that when the quarterly report comes from
the Baptist Annuity Board, which is holding my retirement
portfolio, I get a little queasy. How can it be that I put all this
money into that thing these last three months, but it is worth
less than when I started? One of our members told me that
she intended to buy a car several months ago, but that her
car got wrecked – not on the road, but in the crash of her
401-K account. I will not bore you with my own investments,
but if you see a certain blonde household guru named
Martha Stewart around, tell her I want a word with her!
There is no greater disappointment than working for
something for a long time, only to see that work just
disappear.
Let’s not talk, then, about electronic files or about the stock
market. Let’s talk about our families. Let’s think about the
most precious thing we have worked for. Our homes, our
families, our children. We have spend time and money,
energy and emotion, nurturing them. We have fed them,
housed them, clothed them, loved them, fought them,
schlepped them around to everything from soccer games to
ballet classes. We expected them to be something when
they grow up. But we didn’t always get it. Sometimes we
lost our own children. Again, there is no greater
disappointment than working for something for a long time,
only to see that work just disappear.
So John’s word today is right on target for us:
Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for.
But what have we worked for? What have we been trying to
accomplish? Unless we are building character, we stand to
lose everything we are working for. Unless we are growing
men and women who will be Christlike, all we have done
scatters to the wind. I say again, there is no greater
disappointment than working for something for a long time,
only to see that work just disappear. There is no greater
disappointment for any of us than to see people deteriorate
into nothing. Hear John again,
Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for.
I
So what needs to happen so that we not lose what we have
worked for? John puts his finger on it in this little Second
Letter. He writes to someone he calls the “elect lady” about
her children. His first message is that we do have to teach
the truth and walk in the truth. We have to teach the truth,
forthrightly and clearly, if we expect anybody to walk in it, but
walk in it they must:
I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth,
just as we have been commanded by the Father. But now, dear
lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new
commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love
one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his
commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it
from the beginning—you must walk in it.
Some of our children walk in the truth. But now, says John,
let us walk according to his commandments. You must walk
in his commandments.
Some of our children walk in the truth, but some do not. Is it
possible that if they do not, the reason is that they have not
been taught the truth forthrightly? Have we been clear and
emphatic in teaching Christian behavior? Have we spoken
about what kind of lifestyle God expects?
Several years ago, one of our members said to me, “How is
it that preachers no longer preach about alcohol? It used to
be that we would hear sermons about the dangers of alcohol,
but not any longer. Why is that?” I thought about that, and
concluded that maybe some of us do not say much about
alcohol because we prefer to speak good news rather than to
talk negatives; and maybe some of us leave that alone
because we are afraid of alienating prominent members who
do drink; and deeper yet, maybe some of us set it aside
because preaching against alcohol feels like the old-style
legalistic religion we ran away from, and we don’t want to go
there again. So what do we do? We remain silent and hope
for the best. But guess what? The best doesn’t come!
Instead we get alcohol abuse and drunk driving and all the
rest, because nobody ever told them that alcohol was not for
Christians. Some walk in the truth, but some do not, and
one reason is that we have not spoken clearly about what it
is to walk in God’s commandments. We are therefore in
danger of losing what we have worked for.
Just recently one of our deacons told me about someone he
had been working with, a young woman, not someone in this
church, but someone who was unmarried and pregnant.
This deacon said the young woman was a churchgoing girl,
seemingly on the right track. But when our deacon talked
with her about her sexual behavior, she said she didn’t know
there was anything wrong with what she had done. Her
pastor had never said anything about it from the pulpit, nor
had her Sunday School class or her youth group addressed
the issue. Now that may seem naive to you, but
nevertheless, there it is. Is it possible that by our silence we
are condoning behavior that is not Christlike, not right? Is it
possible that because we have not been clear about what we
believe, we are in danger of losing all we have worked for?
Oh, God, convict us and turn us around! O God, insofar as
this pulpit has not declared, “Thus saith the Lord”, turn
around this preacher! Insofar as the classrooms and ministry
groups of this church have yielded to the lowest common
denominator, turn us around! Insofar as the elect ladies and
gentlemen who head our homes us have not at least
instructed their children in moral truths, change us today.
Make us determined to speak the truth – speaking the truth
in love, yes, but speaking the truth. Else we are in danger
of losing what we have worked for. And there is no greater
disappointment than working for something for a long time,
only to see that work just disappear.
II
But John goes farther than simply admonishing us to teach
the truth. He turns the coin over and urges us to keep
falsehood and deception away. Not only do we have to
teach the right things; we also have to reject the wrong
things. John speaks in harsh terms.
Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not
confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is
the deceiver and the antichrist! ... Do not receive into the house or
welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this
teaching; for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a
person.
Many deceivers – that’s a harsh word, isn’t it?! That’s tough
business. But I think it is time we heard this. There is stuff
going on out there in our world which is dangerous and
deceptive. It is cynically and demonically designed to
destroy. And we have to identify it, we have to call it what it
is, and, as John says, we have to reject it. Do not receive it
into your house, for if you welcome it, you are participating in
evil.
Are you listening to the music that is being pushed today?
Are you watching the television that is being piped into your
living room? Maybe you cannot really understand the words
of the music, but somebody in your household does and is
taking it in. And slowly but surely it is poisoning a soul.
Maybe you can brush off the images your TV projects, but
somebody is learning to live from it.
Let’s speak candidly. I am talking about the emphasis on
casual sex. We’ve come a long way from the Beatles
singing, “I want to hold your hand”. Now they want to hold
various other things. I am talking about a violence
obsession; there is more blood and abuse and action
weapons and death than ever before. And I am talking about
racism. Much of what we are given is racist to the core,
even though it features minority performers. Folks, I have
looked at some of the so-called black-oriented programs on
TV. When I see African-Americans portrayed as jive-talking,
booze-guzzling, sex-obsessed, argumentative fools, what
else can I call that except racist!? And it is all coming right
into our homes, spoon-fed into the culture, permeating our
children and our youth.
If some sort of noxious cloud were floating down your street,
you would seal off your doors and windows against it. If
some predatory thief were raiding the homes on your block,
you would double lock your door against him. So do we lack
the courage to make certain that nothing invades our homes
that is corrosive and deceptive? Who will determine the
values of your family? Will you do it under God, or will actors
hooked up with the starlet of the week or media executives
looking for a quick dollar do it?
We become like the literature we read and we think like the
media that we experience. It is time for us to turn off the flow
of filth. Now you know me; I am not Jerry Falwell, riding off
on negative crusades. I do NOT think my little
granddaughter is being led into homosexuality by watching
the lavender teletubby! I am not even Tipper Gore, trying to
ban certain kinds of lyrics. But as a concerned Christian,
who cares about the kind of people we are producing, I do
know that we may save people one by one, but the culture
can destroy them hundreds at a time. At the very least we
can do what John tells us we must do – do not receive the
deceivers in our own homes. Or else we are in danger of
losing all we have worked for. And there is no greater
disappointment than working for something for a long time,
only to see that work just disappear.
III
But I do want to turn this message in a positive direction
today. I do not want to speak only negative things. John
certainly has a word of hope and love in his message. He
not only warns the elect lady that some of her children have
not heard the truth, and he not only urges her not to let
deception come into her house, but he also reminds her that
in Jesus Christ there is the power to redirect disobedient
lives. In Jesus Christ there is a way to shape character and
mold life. With first a word of warning and then a word of
hope, John opens the way for a new life.
Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes
beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has
both the Father and the Son.
Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the
Son. Whoever is obedient to the way of Christ has salvation.
There is a terrible mistake that has made its way around in
evangelical Christianity, and that is the idea that you can get
a one-way ticket to heaven just by walking down an aisle,
telling the preacher what he wants to hear, and getting
baptized. That, to some people, is all you need for eternal
salvation, so then you go out and live however you want to
live, but you have your nonreturnable, nonrefundable ticket.
Folks, if you have not turned away from the old life, you have
nothing! If you have not turned away from the old life and
you get baptized, it isn’t salvation you will get. You’ll
probably catch a cold from being nothing more than a wet
sinner!
What does the Bible say? What does this passage teach?
Listen again: “Everyone who does not abide in the teaching
of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever
abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” I
have said enough on the negative side today. Let me focus
on the positive. Turn from the old way of sin, follow Christ,
for that’s where salvation comes from. Turn from what the
world out there tells you is cool, and ask instead how Jesus
Christ wants you to live. Turn from the old habits, turn from
the old dependencies, turn even from the old friends, if they
are deceiving you into the wrong paths. Ask, “What would
Jesus want me to be? What would Jesus want me to do?”
And when you know that, and follow that, then, says John,
when you abide in his teachings, when you take up
residence in His teachings, that’s when you have God, that’s
when you have salvation.
Otherwise you are in danger of losing everything. And that
loss would be an awesome one. Jesus said, “What does it
profit you if you gain the whole world – popularity, pleasure, a
moment’s excitement – what does it profit you if you gain the
whole world and lose your own soul?” There is no greater
disappointment than working for something for a long time,
only to see that work just disappear. There is no more
terrible thing than throwing away recklessly eternal life, just
because you have not understood what it means to obey
God and to follow Christ.
Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for,
but may receive a full reward.
