Would you join me in a word of prayer? So Lord, would you do that for us, Lord? Would you open the eyes of our heart, Lord? Open our ears to receive what you have for us this morning, Lord. We thank you for our time in your Word, Lord. Holy Spirit, bless this time together. Bless the teaching, Lord, and bless our pastor. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus, we say amen. Amen and amen. Good morning and welcome. You can be seated. Glad you're here. Those of you joining us online, we're so glad that you are. Trust that all of you will be blessed that you did. Is that a frequency interference with? Yeah. I'm looking at two guys. Don't look at them. That background noise is from the... There we go. Thank you. Nope, still there. No, it's still there. See, I can't start until, so I'm going to start over. Listen, you can turn it down and I'll just yell louder. All right, well, let's talk real quick about our ongoing Maui mission support. I want to let you know that we were able to provide another truck for someone who needs it for work. And also we were able to provide a vehicle for a single mom who has an autistic daughter. This as we, as you know, have come alongside of Calvary Chapel Westside, who, by the way, as I mentioned, on Thursday night. Please pray for wisdom for Pastor Steve Santos concerning an amazing opportunity that only the Lord could make happen for Calvary Chapel Westside. The Lord knows the details, but do please pray. Also pray for us because we're continuing to vet ministries. Thank you. I'm sorry. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm going to start over now. So we're going to. No, but also please pray for us because we're vetting ministries in Israel who are actively providing immediate needs to both Jews and Arabs. there in Israel, kind of like what we're doing in Maui. But as of right now, there are some very serious security concerns, as you might imagine, that make the logistics of this significantly more complicated. So please pray to this end. God is able. There's nothing too hard or complicated for the Lord. So Please pray to that end. We would covet your prayers as such. All right, Second John, Chapter one. Well, there's only one chapter. So, but today's text will be verses four through six. I'll ask you to stand if you're able. If not, where you're seated is fine. You can follow along as I read the text. John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, continues to write and says, verse four, It has given me great joy to find some of your Children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 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. 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. Let's pray. If you would please join with me. Father, we have before us this portion here in Your Word that requires the Holy Spirit be our teacher and our guide or else we're not going to see what it is that You want to show us here in this passage that's before us today. So Lord, would You as only You can and are always so faithful to just settle our hearts and calm us down and quiet our minds and just enable us to focus and give You our undivided attention. Because What's written here for us is written here for us, even though it was almost 2000 years ago. So we desperately, and I mean for some, desperately is almost an understatement. We need You to speak into our lives. We're dealing with stuff in our lives that is just becoming increasingly difficult seemingly with each passing day. So Lord, please help us, teach us, guide us, minister to us. Lord, we ask You for this in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. You can be seated. Thank you very much. So what I'm hoping to accomplish in our time together today is to answer this question of, am I going in the right direction? And the reason is that yet again the Apostle John, by the Holy Spirit, is going to rise from the pages of our Bibles to redirect us. And I say redirect us because not only is He going to provide direction to us, so too will He also provide a much needed redirection for us. So God will direct our paths, right? We know Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 backwards and forwards, upside down, and we memorize it, we quote it, we sing it, we know it. But sometimes we set our foot in a direction that the Lord would not have us to go. So there has to be a correction and with it a redirection, if that direction is not the right direction. And this is what we have before us today. I think I'd be grossly remiss if I didn't provide a preface to what we're about to see, because it's going to be germane to our understanding of this text that we have before us today. And try, as I may, I hope you know this. I know I probably shared this last week. I try very hard to get four points so that I don't have another three point sermon. And I couldn't. So there's three again today. So I'm just kind of giving you that warning now. But three verses packed so full of so much. And let me explain. John, who is affectionately referred to as the apostle of love, due to him writing about love more than any other New Testament author, could also be rightfully referred to as the apostle of truth as well. And this by virtue of the fact that John uses the word truth more than any other New Testament author as well. Actually, One has noted that John uses the word truth no less than 20 times in the Gospel of John, nine times in First John, five times here in Second John, and another five times in Third John, for a total of 39 times. Love and truth. Love and truth, truth in love. The apostle of truth, the apostle of love. Again, this is going to be key to our understanding of what I believe the Lord would have us to see here. And this is why I'm starting out this way, because both truth and love are a litmus test of sorts, especially when it comes to God directing our paths. So I did prepare a three point sermon again, but actually I kind of fancied it up a little bit, a little bit fancy Nancy today. It's not just a three point sermon. It's actually a three question test. Don't you just love getting tests? I love giving tests. I don't like taking them. But these, this is a test today. We got three questions on this test. And the test with three questions comes from the text with three verses. How convenient is that? Now the answers to these questions is going to by default answer the question of Am I going in the right direction? There is a way that seems right unto a man, but it is the way that leads unto death. We might have set our foot to go in a certain way, do a certain thing, make a decision in a certain direction, and God is wanting to stop us as it's been rightfully said. God directs our steps, but so too does God direct our stops. So if I'm going in the wrong direction, God wants to correct me so that I'm going in the right direction. So we have a template, a test, a litmus test, a three question test, I'm going to give you the answers, so you're all going to get an A on this test, just so you know. The first one is in verse four, and it's the question of, am I walking in the truth? The second one is in verse five, and it's the question of, am I walking in agape love? And the third one is in verse six, and it's the question of, am I walking in obedience? You can probably already surmise that if you're walking in truth and love and obedience, then you're probably going in the right direction. However, conversely, If you're not walking in the truth, you're not walking in love, and you're not walking in obedience, then you're probably not going in the right direction. Or you're not going about this the right way, because it is conspicuously absent of truth and love and obedience. So let's start with the first one. You're ready? That was my introduction. Thank you so much, Melissa. Okay, now verse four, first one, am I walking in the truth? I love this about John, and you're probably, as we get to know John, appreciating this about him as well. But he starts out by expressing how much joy he has, how much joy it gives him when he finds that some of the children in the faith are walking in the truth. Now, we talked about this last week, that he starts off this letter or postcard, because it's so short, saying, first two words, the elder. He earned that right because he's believed to be in his 90s at the time that he writes this. So everyone to him is a child. When you're that age, you've earned the right to call somebody or just a kid. But He just derives such great joy knowing that they're walking in the truth. And He adds that to walk in the truth is to do just as the Father commanded us to. And truth be known, we want it to be a command. Oh no, there he goes again. You're going to explain this? Yes, I am. I'll make it brief. as much as I can. Why do we want it to be a command? Because when it rises to the level of being a command, and it is a command that we walk in the truth, we are commanded to walk in the truth. And we wanted to be a command because God's callings are God's enablings, and the commands of God are not burdensome. Meaning that God would never command us to do anything without also empowering us to be able to obey the command that He's commanding us to do. Otherwise He would be party to our disobedience. That's why we wanted to be a command. Because when it rises to the level of being a command, we get the Holy Spirit enabling us and empowering us to be obedient to the command that God has commanded us to do. So what's the command? To walk in the truth. How am I going to walk in the truth? How am I going to be obedient to the command to walk in the truth. That's known as the how of the Holy Spirit empowering us to do the what of His Holy Word. So the first question has to be answered concerning that situation you're in, that direction you're going, that problem you're trying to resolve. The question has to be asked, am I walking in the truth? Well, how am I going to know? the Word of Truth. You'll forgive the simplicity of the illustration. I use it often. I hope you don't tire of me using it. But this is the Word of Truth. So this is the gauge by which everything is measured. Every spirit is tested. Every decision is made. Every direction is discerned. This is the truth. So if it's not compatible with God's Word of truth, guess what? It's wrong. Well, that's your truth. I just hate it when somebody said that. Well, that's your truth. You have your truth. I have my truth. Am I taking it too far? I could take it farther. Excuse me. No, it's not my truth. It's the truth. And oh, by the way, I hate to break it to you, but your truth is the truth. How about that? Your truth. Oh, I'm sorry. I must have missed the memo, or I didn't get the email, or it ended up in my spam folder, as many of those emails do. that you are the final arbiter of truth. In other words, you'll determine, you'll decide. In other words, in your mind, you're judge and jury. No, you're wrong. How do I know that? Am I just trying to be mean? No, because you can't be speaking truth, and God be speaking truth, because what you're speaking as your truth is not what God's Word says in His Word of truth. So you both can't be truth. Aren't you glad Jesus didn't say, I am a way, a truth and a life? No, He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. By the way, and I know we talked about this last week. I don't remember if we talked about last week because I don't remember what I taught on last week. But Ephesians six, right? I did. Was it? I can tell by the way you're laughing at me, not with me, that it was last week. Whatever. Just be nice to me. The belt of truth, the belt of truth. gird yourself with the belt of truth. Do you realize in that, that armor, metaphorically, the belt of truth kept everything together. Without the belt, you could not attach the breastplate, the shoes, the sword had nowhere to go, the helmet had nowhere to hang. You could not have anything kept together if it was not for that belt of truth. It holds everything in place. Everything. So if truth is relative in this postmodern world, don't get me started on that. Oh, it's just relative. No, it's not relative. It's the truth. And it's the gauge by which everything is measured. It's the gauge by which every decision is made. It's the gauge by which every direction you go in is decided. Is it the truth? Is it true? Are you walking in the truth? Are you walking in the Spirit? Spirit and truth. Worshipping Him in Spirit and truth. You know, when Paul writes to the Galatians, if you're walking in the Spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. I struggled with that early on as a young believer. What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Okay, so I don't want to fulfill the lust of the flesh, but it's predicated on me walking in the spirit. Well, I want to walk in the spirit. How do you walk in the spirit? You live in the spirit. You feed the spirit and you'll starve the flesh. You walk according to the spirit and you'll have no appetite for the flesh. I will not use the food illustration, though I want to. If I'm so full of the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, walking in the truth, I will have no draw to the lie, to the flesh. If I'm full, I'm not tempted, because I don't have an appetite, because I'm full of the Spirit. So I'm not going to fulfill or get filled up on the flesh. Because I'm so full of the truth, full of the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, in sync with the Spirit. I won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Okay, but that was as good as it's going to get. So verse five is our second one. Am I walking in agape love? Now I probably should just mention again briefly the different words in the original Greek language of the New Testament for love. Unfortunately, we only have one word for love in English, right? We say, I love my wife, I love my children, I love, don't buy this for me, French vanilla ice cream. I love, not vanilla, French vanilla ice cream. Okay. I love French vanilla ice cream, just French vanilla ice cream. Don't put anything on it. Don't ruin it. French vanilla ice cream. Okay. And I love my children. I love my church. I love you. I love, you know, them. I just love you. One word to describe all of those different things or people that I love. In the Greek language there are four words. The four words are philia, eros, storge, agape. What's philia? It's where we get Philadelphia, brotherly love. Eros, where we get our English word for erotic. It's a sensual, physical love. Storgate, translated natural affection. That's a parental love, a familial love that a parent has for a child, and vice versa, the child has for the parent. Agape love, that's unconditional love that God has for us. Four different loves. So here's how it would sound in Greek. I love my, I philia my friend. I've got to be careful on this one. I also store gave my Children, got there quick, and God agapes me. So you see the distinction now? You've changed the whole complexion of the word love. It's not just this generic one word, one size fits all word for love. So the word that John uses here, I could have probably said this a lot, you know, not taking so long to say what I'm going to say right now, but the word is agape that John uses here. And he couples truth with agape love ever so beautifully. And here's the thing, you cannot have love without truth or truth without love. Please hear me on this and stay with me on this. To have truth without love makes one harsh. Paul said it like this. You can have the, speak with the tongues of angels. You could be speaking the truth, but if you have not, love is just a clanging symbol. And conversely, to have love without truth makes one dishonest. Oh, we love everybody. That's disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst. No, the two have to go together. You need truth with love and love with truth. So now let's bring Agape back into the picture. Do you remember when John in his first letter was inspired to write and make this delineation between the Love from an unseen God that's seen. How do you see the love, agape love of God if God is unseen? How do you see an unseen love? You see an unseen love through you and me. That's God's love seen through us. That's how you see the unseen agape love of God. Now, why is that important? Because this is what John is talking about. Am I walking in love? The truth with love. Maybe the question should be asked and answered this way. Am I going about this in a loving way? Is the direction I'm going one that is motivated out of love? Is the situation that I'm trying to resolve being done in a loving way? Because I can be right and speak truth, but where's the love? Love covers a multitude of sins. I don't know if I have permission yet to go on to the third one, only because absent this agape love in every decision we make, every direction we go, every relationship we have, we have no hope of going in the right direction and being right with God and pleasing in the sight of God. Because God is love, not God has love. God is love. So when we are walking in agape love, what are we doing? We are a reflection of God's love. So there has to be love. You know, I'm learning. I didn't say learned. learning, present tense, I'm learning that it's not so much what I say, it's how I say what I say. Because you can change the whole tone of how something is said or done by how it's said or done. You can have the best of intentions, But if there's not love, it will always be met with failure. The direction you're going in, it will always be the wrong direction absent love. Can I bring in the marriage relationship as an example? No, no, not again. Well, I'm going to. Of course, I'm not speaking of my own marriage again, just so you know, because I have a perfect marriage as the pastor, talking about your marriages. Isn't it interesting that the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, would say to husbands three times, husbands love your wives. How many times does he say that to the wife? Zero. No, for real. Ephesians five, check me on it if you want. Be a Berean. It's probably one of my least favorite, I'm trying to be pastoral here, passages in all of the Bible, because it's like husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Husbands, what about, what about the wife? Wait, no, I'll get to her. Husbands, love your wives as much as you love your own body. Husbands, three times, love your wives as much as you love yourself. Well, that's the problem right there. I don't love myself. Yes, you do. Just stop. Just stop. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Well, that's my problem. I just don't love myself. You love you. That is not the problem. Okay. Nice try though. No, husbands love your wives, husbands love your wives, husbands love your wives. About this time the husband's going, I think I'm supposed to love my wife. No, to the wife. This is at the end. I want to say it's about verse 25, Ephesians 5. I can almost picture Paul as if he were talking conversationally with a husband and wife. It's a letter he wrote to the church in Ephesus. But could you imagine if he's talking? He's just talking to, husband, love your wife, love your wife, love your wife, love your wife, love your wife. And then here's the wife over here going, yeah, love me. And then I can just picture Paul, this is how I think, just pray for me. Okay, I could just picture Paul, then looking over to the wife and just say, wife, respect your husband. That's it? Wait, he just got done reading me the riot act, and I got to love my wife, love my wife, love my wife, love my wife. And just respect him, won't you? How is that even balanced? I'll tell you how it's balanced. God has wired the wife to respect the husband proportionate to how the husband loves his wife. How about the Proverbs? The things that the earth cannot stand up under that are too high for my understanding. And one of them is an unloved wife. See, that's why the way God wired them is to be loved. Don't you find it interesting that nowhere does, not that the wives don't love the husbands. You love the husbands, right? But He says, wives love your husbands. No, respect them. She can't respect you, husband, until you love her. Husband, The onus is on you when you love her in that way. Listen, try as she may. She will not be, she may not want to. You know how it is, husband, you probably heard your wife. I'm not going to look at anybody when I say this. You know, your wife would say, I love you, but I just don't like you right now. Okay, fine. Just all I want you to do is respect me, woman. Well, I can't respect you because God wired me that I can't respect you until you love me that way. But when you love me that way, I won't be able to resist. I'll try. I don't want to respect him, but he loves me. So I have to respect him because that's the way God wired me. I might be taking this too far, but I am getting to a point here. We're just again taking the scenic route. Shouldn't this work in every aspect, in every arena of life? When you're walking in that kind of love, loving in that way, with a Christ like love, agape love. Are you kidding me? It's right in the sight of the Lord. And here's the thing, you're untying the hands of God's blessing on whatever that decision is, or that direction that you're going is. See, we tie the hands of God's blessing on our lives with the ropes of our being unloving. And it's not like God doesn't want to. It's that God can't. It's a prerequisite. I want to bless you. I want to bless what you're doing. I want to bless that relationship. I want to bless this. I want to bless that. But I can't because you're not walking in agape love. It's inconsistent, incompatible with who I am and how I am. And so I can't. I can't put my name on it and I can't bless it. I can't sign off on it. So you're heading in a direction, you're praying about a decision. The number one request many Christians have in prayer is, how do I know the will of God? I want to make sure I'm in God's will. I'm at a crossroads of decision in my life. And I want to know what God's will is. Well, I want to encourage you because God wants you in His will more than even you yourself want to be in His will. And God will always create an environment in your life that is conducive to you being in His will. Again, He cannot be party to our disobedience or not walking according to His ways and in His will. So He's always going to choreograph the steps and orchestrate the circumstances to direct me into what His will is. And the four legs on that table of knowing and discerning the will of God are as follows. Very quick. Number one, is it compatible with the Word of God, according to the Word of God? Number two, do I have the peace of God? Number three, is there the providence of God? I'll come back to that. And number four, do I have the confirmation from God? Now let me explain and just kind of expound a little bit. First of all, right out of the chute, number one, and all four of them have to be in place or that table coming down. That decision you're making, that direction you're going, it ain't going to happen. It will fall apart. if you don't have all four in place. Number one, right out of the chute, it has to be according to God's Word of truth. If it's not compatible with God's Word, don't bother with God's peace. But if it is compatible with God's Word, and it is consistent with God's Word, now we can talk about the peace of God from the God of peace. Did I say that right? Let's just say I said that right. So this is where you have that piece that Paul describes as surpassing human understanding that keeps your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, where there's no anxiety. James talks about the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. There's just a peace about it. It's your spirit bearing witness with His Spirit that this is good between me and the Holy Spirit. This is the way, walk ye in it. You just have a peace that, by the way, you've got the Word of God. Now you've got the peace of God. Let's talk about the providence of God. This is where God starts. We like to refer to it as opening and shutting doors. I've got scars from God, not just shutting doors, slamming them in my face. Of course, I'm trying to open them after He shuts them. So that's where a lot of the scars come from. But God will shut a door here and open a door here. Sometimes I love it when God does this, when He makes it Red Sea clear. You know what I mean by Red Sea clear? Oh, what direction should we go? What do we do? We've got the Egyptians over here. We're going to die. We've got the Red Sea here. We're going to drown. God, what do we do? And then God commands Moses, no rod, parting, dry ground. I think we're supposed to go in this direction. What do you think? I love it when it's that Red Sea clear, where providentially God arranges the circumstances, parts the Red Sea, and shows you the way to walk ye therein. And it's so clear that a fool could not err thereof. That's the providence of God. What about the confirmation? Well, this one's interesting because this can come in many ways. Sometimes it's not from pulpit to pew. In fact, usually for you guys, it's not pulpit to pew. It's between you and you. And by that, I mean, you've got the situation, you've got this decision, you're going in this direction, you come to church, and then somebody just kind of out of the blue comes up, says, hey, brother or sister, how you doing? Of course, we give them the, you know, canned answer. Fine, blessed. How are you? Smile. Hey, we'll do lunch sometime. And then someone has the audacity. When you ask them, how are you doing? They respond with, oh, do you got a minute? Oh, I wasn't expecting that answer. And then we're trying to figure out how to get out of it. Because we were just, because we're busy, you know. So we'll do lunch sometime. My people will get in touch with your people. No, no, they come up to you genuinely. This is the real deal. And they say, hey, how are you doing? You know, God's been putting you on My heart. And I just want you to know, I've been praying for you. And they'll put their arm around you, and they'll just encourage you. Man, I'll tell you, when someone, that alone, Just a hug, an encouraging word, that alone. I mean, I didn't mean to get off on that. Maybe I did. People need to be encouraged. But let me take it further. It's when they say something like this, you know, God gave me a verse when He put you on my heart. And then they quote a verse which is the exact verse that you needed to hear. It was a word fitly spoken, even prophetically spoken. And I mean the light bulbs go off and the Lord's going, hello. I'm speaking through and sometimes we're dismissive because Why does He have to choose them? Because God chooses the foolish to confound the wise, and the weak to shame the strong. We object to the vessel that God uses in our lives, and we don't receive it because of who it's coming from. To your own peril, by the way, I should speak for myself. You know, we say consider the source. Now, if so and so were to come up and say to me, that's a thus saith the Lord. But here, I've got to be careful with this one. Here comes, I shouldn't have went here. Here comes that, that, you know, the one that when you see him coming, you go the other direction. And then he come up to you and go, hey brother, how are you doing? Fine. And then, I mean the Lord is going to speak through them directly to you. And you're going to know it's the Lord. And that's the confirmation that you need. And it will always tie together with the Word of God, the peace of God and the providence of God. And that's the fourth leg on that table. And you know that this is right in the sight of the Lord, truth and love and lastly obedience. I want to preface this last one real quick with a question, and it's kind of rhetorical, so don't answer it. Because again, I know you know the answer. It's a rhetorical question. What is the one thing that you and I can give God that He doesn't already have? I mean, He's God. He has everything, right? Not necessarily. There's something He doesn't necessarily have, and it's something that we can give to Him. Again, this is rhetorical. You know, we always, what do you give to the person that has everything? I mean, what do you give God that He doesn't already have? He's God. Answer, your obedience, your obedience, better than sacrifice. So Here, John expounds on the definition of this aforementioned agape love, saying that it's evidenced by our walking in obedience. Jesus said it. If you love Me, you'll obey My commandments. It's not my mom. It's been a while since I used a mom illustration, right? with her thick accent, used to say to me as a little boy, you don't love me wahido, because you don't obey me. And so that really messed me up after I came to Christ. And I would read, if you love me, you would obey me. I could just hear my mom's voice in the background. I must not love the Lord because I'm not obedient. I'm so disobedient. It's not Jesus saying you must not love me because you don't obey me. If you really love me, you'd be obedient to me. No, it's more like this. When you love That way you love God. That way obedience is sure to follow. Is that not the summing up of the law? Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, body. Love your neighbor as yourself and you love yourself. I probably should rephrase that. Love your neighbor as you already are head over heels in love with yourself. Is that better? It's more accurate. Okay, so when you love that way, let's just say you love your neighbor that way, you're not going to covet what they have. You're not going to steal what they have, because you love them too much. And the same thing with God, even more so with God. And I think Joseph is the poster child, if I can say it like that, when he's seduced by his boss's wife every day, by the way, the narrative details. It's too much information. I don't want to know all that. But I mean, every single day, the boss's wife is telling Joseph to sleep with her, every day. And I mean, Joseph is the prime of his life. We already know from the detail of the narrative that he's a very handsome man. You've got to know that the boss's wife has got to be beautiful. Otherwise there would be no temptation. I'm not going to go any further with that one. So, but what does Joseph do? He says, you know what, I cannot, I can't do that to God. I can't do that to my boss, your husband, by the way. But I cannot sin against God. He loved God so much, and his love for God was followed by his obedience to God. That's what Jesus is saying. This is what John is reiterating. walking in obedience to the commands of God is the demonstration of our walking in the agape love from God. I mean, I suppose you could say it this way, show me a Christian that's walking in obedience and I'll show you a Christian that loves God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Because again, this is how God has wired us. So are you ready to answer the question before us today? Let's do it. That wasn't very convincing, by the way, so I'm going to go ahead and do it. How do I know if I'm going in the right direction? Answer, I'm going in the right direction if I'm walking in the truth. I'm going in the right direction if I'm walking in agape love. And I'm going in the right direction if I'm walking in obedience. You're going the right direction. You know, sometimes we'll tell somebody, warn them, because we love them, by the way, because that's when we speak the truth in love, because of love. Otherwise we wouldn't bother. Right? We've talked about that. We're all okay with that. The reason why you'll speak truth and the reason why the wounds of a friend are faithful, a friend, They are your friend if they'll speak the truth to you. They're not your friend if they won't, because an enemy will just multiply kisses. So if you really love me, you'll speak truth to me. I know my wife really loves me. Anyway, that was no extra charge. So, but, but, you know, and initially when somebody speaks the hard truth, you don't want to hear it, but you need to hear it. If someone speaks the truth to you, that's because they love you. It can be trusted. It's faithful. They're faithful enough, and you could trust them because they love you enough to speak the truth to you. If they don't love you, they're going to just tell you what you want to hear, multiply kisses. That's not love, that's self love. They love themselves more than they love you because they want to preserve their relationship. They don't want you to block them on Facebook, and so they're not going to tell you the truth because you won't like them. You'll resent it initially. When somebody tells you the truth, speaks the truth in love because of love, they tell you the truth. You're going to resent it initially, and you will block them on Facebook. But eventually, when you realize that they had your best interest at heart, and they cared enough to put the relationship in jeopardy to speak the truth, knowing that you might react this way, because it's very wounding. They might resent it initially, but eventually they will appreciate it, and vice versa. When somebody flatters you, multiplies, kisses, tells you what you want to hear, you'll appreciate, thank you. I appreciate that. Initially, But eventually you'll resent it. Why? Why didn't you tell me the truth? Why? You didn't love me enough to tell me the truth. You loved yourself more. You didn't care enough about me to speak truth to me. That's not love. You're going in the right direction. if there's love, truth and obedience. You're going in the wrong direction if there's not truth, love or obedience. I probably could have preached that sermon in 35 minutes. Don't look at your watches. Capone, come on up. You can stand up and we'll close now. Lord, this passage here in Second John is one that could arguably be just kind of that first read, just read past and fast. But yet there's a reason because of John's loving heart and heart for the truth and heart for You, that He would write what He wrote here, and that you would inspire Him to write it, and then include it in the pages of Holy Writ for us all these generations later. Thank you. Because we need to hear this. We need to know this. Many maybe here today or watching online are in a situation where There is no truth. It's not consistent with Your Word of truth. It's surely not loving in any way. And truth be made known, it's disobedient in every way. So no wonder it's not right. No wonder you can't bless it. But Lord, thank You that You can effortlessly lovingly and ever so gently correct us and redirect us. So we are right and it is right. And the direction we're going in is the right direction. So Lord, thank You. Thank You that You're very patient with us in long suffering. And thank You for Your Word. And thank You for this portion again here in Your Word. take you from here by the Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.