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.."
F. Walk don’t run.
1. When you go to fast, you miss things.
2. We live in a high paced society
a. Less people to do more work in the same amount
b. of time
c. Fast Food restraunts
(1) Fast Food
(2) Drive through
(3) Double Windows
(4) Two order stations at the drive through (and after all this, they STILL can’t get your order right.)
(5) Maybe not because it is fast, maybe we’re just too lazy to go in
(6) If we try to go too far too fast, we forget to look at the word to match up man’s teachings with God’s teachings.
III Don’t Welcome - anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching Vs 10
A. First we walk with God and learn his Truths, then we use his truths to critique belief systems, now we critique others based on those truths.
B. If they don’t bring this teaching, don’t take any chances, don’t even let them into your house
C. Only says this after speaking first of LOVE and TRUTH
1. We like to be right
a. Marriage Rule #1 - The wife is ALWAYS right
b. Marriage Rule #2 - When the wife is wrong, buy flowers and see rule #1
2. We get arrogant when we know we are right - of which I am the chief of sinners (right honey)
D. Apparently, the lady that John is writing to is that type of person. She likes to be right
1. When John greets her, he talks about TRUTH
a. 1 The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth-- and not I only, but also all who know the truth--
b. 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:
c. 3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.
d. 4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us
E. When we encounter those who are teaching the wrong things, we must speak the truth, but we must speak in LOVE!
1. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.
2. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
F. Illus.
1. Mike Warnke hated when people told him they were going to tell him something in love. He figured when they did it, he would know, and when they didn’t, he would know that too.
2. ILLUSTRATION:
Sodium is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always links itself to another element. Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous gas that gives bleach its offensive odor. When sodium and chlorine are combined, the result is sodium chloride - common table salt - the substance we use to preserve meat and bring out its flavor.
Love and truth can be like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth is flighty, sometimes blind, willing to combine with various doctrines. On the other hand, truth by itself can be offensive, sometimes even poisonous. Spoken without love, it can turn people away from the gospel. When truth and love are combined in an individual or a church, however, then we have what Jesus called "the salt of the earth" and we’re able to preserve and bring out the beauty of our faith.
