I'd invite you to turn in your Bibles with me this morning to 3rd John. Put some tape on the floor. Show me where this chair goes. Hopefully not. 3rd John. If You didn't get a handout, there are some up on this front row here, but the handout is such this morning that you will have to listen to fill in the blanks if you want to fill in the blanks, because this is the only slide you're going to see regarding the sermon. So listen well, and you shouldn't have any problem filling in the blanks. I'm not so much interested in you filling in the blanks, then you get the message of the word of God today. Third John we're looking at this morning. You know, there are different parenting models for people, right? And some of them are good and some of them aren't good, but, you know, sometimes you see parents who will really just be positive. Everything has to be positive and, you know, there's really nothing, there's not much correction, there's not much, you know, negative as far as their parenting goes. And sometimes, of course, you've got the other extreme where parents are just, you know, all of this, no, no, no, don't do this, don't do that, and no positive reinforcement at all. And obviously, the best thing to do is there's got to be some balance. Well, that kind of rolls over to preaching as well. You know, there are those who just want to preach positive stuff. Just, you know, everything's got to be uplifting and positive. And, you know, and then there are others, unfortunately, that everything's just like negative, you know, he's got to stop doing this and you know, and obviously, you know, these things go on. But really, it's like parenting, there needs to be an emphasis on a balance, right? And the way that preaching, biblical preaching does that is to declare the whole counsel of God. We don't pick and choose what we want to preach. We're studying through a book of the Bible. We don't determine by what the text says whether or not we're going to preach that. We preach the whole scriptures. And the reason I bring all that out this morning is because If we were a church, and I were a pastor who only preached the positive things in the Bible, we'd probably skip these next two verses in 3 John. We'd probably just say, eh, I don't really want to deal with those. But we're not. In fact, we probably would have skipped portions of 1 and 2 John as well, and in all the other books we've studied together. But that's not what we do. We take the scriptures for what they say, we seek to understand them and apply them. And that's what we'll do this morning here as we continue our study of 3 John. And you'll note that John's letter to Gaius through these first eight verses that we studied has been very positive. It's been very positive. He's been writing of walking in the truth and working for the truth. commending Gaius for his work and encouraging him to continue in that good work. But now halfway through this letter, when we come to verse nine, John's tone changes completely. He now addresses a problem concerning an individual who instead of walking in and working for the truth is actually wrangling against the truth. Look at verses nine and 10 with me. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. Diotrephes is sharply contrasted with Gaius in both his character and his behavior. Gaius is walking in the truth. He's loving other Christians. He's entertaining strangers. Diotrephes is opposing the truth. He's loving himself more than others and he's refusing to welcome the traveling Christian teachers. These two men were possibly members of the same congregation, or perhaps of neighboring churches. We don't know for sure. But John says that he had written to the church, apparently where Diotrephes was, and perhaps Gaius as well. And Diotrephes was probably either an elder there, a pastor, the pastor, or at least an influential member. And John had apparently given to the church a directive. Now we have no record of the letter that he wrote, but John does say that diatrophies rejected the elders instructions. Of course, John was not only an elder, right? He was also an apostle. And you'll note here that he, he alludes to his apostolic authority in this letter. Though he introduces himself as an elder, note here in these verses how John words these things. He moves from this singular, he says, I have written. He moves from that to the plural, where he says that Diophrates does not acknowledge our authority. And then he goes back to the singular. He says, if I come, I will bring up what he is doing. And then he ends up back with the plural again. He's talking wicked nonsense against us. You see it there? So his use here of the we and the us in these verses is the plural of authority. We saw this, if you remember back in 1 John, it's a plural of authority. When an apostle issued orders, he expected them to be obeyed, but diatrophies had determined that he would not submit to John's authority. He claimed to have sole authority himself, even to the point of excommunicating church members who didn't agree with him. So what was the problem here? It doesn't appear that the problem was doctrinal. If the truth of the gospel had been at stake, John surely would have had exposed that error just like he did in his first two letters. But as we examine what John has to say about deatrophies, we'll see that his character and his conduct are such that he is not only not qualified for leadership, but he's a divisive person who squelches unity and hinders the effectiveness of the ministry of the local church. In the church over the centuries, And still today, there have been those who have followed in diatrophies' footsteps. And our message today is titled, Wrangling Against the Truth, Identifying and Correcting Those Who Cause Dissension in the Local Church. So first of all, how do we recognize those who cause dissension in the local church? Well, the characteristics of these types of people is laid out here. And the first one is, is that those who cause dissension in the local church are motivated by self love. They're motivated by self love. It says of diatrophies, he likes to put himself first. These kinds of people elevate themselves above everyone else. They love to be first. They want to be the most important. The word translated, It's one word translated, likes to put himself first. It's only used once in the New Testament right here. And it's made up of two words, simply to love and to be first, to be most important, to be most prominent. Diotrephes was a man who loved the preeminence. He loved to be the most important person. He was one who wanted to be in control. He wanted to make the decisions. And Diotrephes had a big ego. And that's how these type of people are. They think of themselves more highly than they should. They look at themselves as having a superior intellect. They have better ideas. They have a more profound spirituality. And they want their will done. Even more so than they want the will of the Lord done. You see, Diotrephes was doing the exact opposite of what Peter said elders should do. Look real quickly over with me at 1 Peter 5. And here Peter, is writing, as John is here, as an elder. Of course, he's an apostle as well, but look what he says in 1 Peter 5.1. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Diotrephes was definitely leading, if you can call it that, for shameful gain. It may not have been for money, but it was for his own personal uplifting, to put himself above others. He was domineering over those in charge, as we'll see here shortly. One writer observed, personal vanity still lies at the root of most dissensions in every local church today. Personal vanities still lie at the root of most dissensions in every local church today. Secondly, we see here concerning diatrophies and those who cause dissension in the local church, they have a mindset of resistance and rejection towards spiritual authority. John says he does not acknowledge our authority. Diatrophies rejected the authority of the Apostle John. And this is how these types of people are, who follow in diatrophy's footsteps. Because of their desire for preeminence, those who cause dissension in the local church make themselves their own authority. And they reject the authority that God has placed in their lives. So they refuse to submit to sound spiritual, scriptural instruction from their spiritual authorities. Diotrephes was unwilling to welcome these visiting preachers whom John had sent out. He really viewed himself as an independent autocrat. He wouldn't submit to the apostle and therefore he was not submitting to Christ. Because Christ had made John an apostle. Diotrephes refused to be accountable to anyone. He was his own authority. And because people like diatrophies, they have such a high opinion of themselves and seek to please themselves, they're usually fine with church leadership until the leaders lead in a way that's contrary to their desires. Then they oppose the leadership. And their opposition may take different forms. They may ignore leadership's instructions, they may withdraw, they may speak out against leadership. Thirdly, we see here that those who cause dissension in the local church, like diatrophies, employ a method of speaking evil in order to undermine spiritual authority. John says he's talking wicked nonsense against us. Talking wicked nonsense. Talking wicked nonsense conveys the idea, again, it's not only wicked, but it's senseless. It's unfounded. One translation says, he lays baseless and spiteful charges against us. Diotrephes was trying to undermine the authority of John by slanderously gossiping against him. He spoke against John's person, his position, and also his instruction regarding the welcoming of these traveling teachers. And this is how these people operate. This is how these people who are following in Diotrephes' footsteps operate. And generally, they promote dissension that begins right in their own homes. You've heard about having roast preacher for lunch, right? That's where it starts. It starts right there with the wife and with the children and the criticism of the leadership of the church to the family. Is it any wonder some of these kids in our churches grow up with the idea that they don't need the local church? They don't want to have anything to do with it? It's because of what they've heard from their parents all of these years. And the criticism, the unfounded criticism, often, of the leadership. But it starts in the home and then it spreads to close friends and it goes out from there. It just grows. You know, speaking evil of church leaders is a sure way to spread discord. in a church. You might write down these references, you're probably familiar with them, and in Proverbs 6, it's verses 16 through 19. I'll just read the first part of verse 16 and the last part of verse 19, but the wise writer of scripture says there in Proverbs 6.16, there are six things that the Lord hates, seven. that are an abomination to him and the last one he says is one who sows discord among brothers. The scriptures tell us in 1st Timothy 5.19 do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. It's not that you can't bring a charge against an elder, against church leadership, but there's a way to do it. There's a way to do it. If one person has a complaint about a church elder, a pastor, then it's not valid. There needs to be others who are in agreement with him. It's not just one person's opinion where he disagrees with the leadership. No, it says come with two or three witnesses. Well, fourthly, we see that those who cause dissension in the local church have a manner toward other Christians that is ungracious. They refuse, well here in our passage, Deuteronomy refused to welcome the brothers. He wasn't willing to love these other Christians by showing them hospitality. And really, this could be spread out. When you're talking about people who are following in Diotrephes' footsteps, they do. I mean, it's a progression. They become ungracious toward others. In this case it was not showing them hospitality. But really it comes down to they're unwilling to serve others in the church. They basically leave it up to other people to do. They're not willing to do it. They're not willing to lift a finger to help others in the church. Often these people don't contribute financially to the needs of the local church, they don't help out with the church projects, they only want to serve in a way that they thoroughly enjoy, they only want to serve in a way that perhaps puts them in the limelight. Number five, those who cause dissension in the local church manage other Christians by controlling them. Look what Diotrephes was doing. He was not only, you know, rejecting the authority of the apostle in making his own decisions and how he was going to handle this, but it says that he stops those who want to welcome these traveling preachers. And he not only stops them from doing it, but he puts them out of the church. He's in charge. He's large and in charge. He's controlling. He's the one who's going to make these decisions. You don't agree with me, you can leave. Actually, I knew this missionary in Brazil. I heard him say it. He said, se não concorda, pode ir embora. If you don't agree, leave. That's the way to build a church. You know, there are different ways that a person can be controlled. He might control through loud, boisterous demands. This is the way it needs to be done. This is the way we're going to do it. He may be like that, or he may be more of a passive aggressive person and takes this approach of just pouting and resentment and opposition to the demands made of him or resistance to cooperating with other people or procrastination for what he knows he should be doing or sarcastic and hostile attitudes. But whatever way this controlling is manifested, it's destructive to the church, absolutely destructive to the church. The attitude and behavior of John's description of diatrophies has been labeled the diatrophies syndrome. I don't know if you've ever heard of that, but the diatrophies syndrome. And people like this actually, they do, they cause division in a local church. The Deatrophy Syndrome is manifested by a progression of evil that starts with wicked, self-centered motives in the person's heart. It progresses to rebellious attitudes against authority, leads to wicked accusations toward the authority, and ungracious actions toward other members of the church, and it results in a manifestation of divisive behavior that hinders the ministry and outreach of a local church. How should we handle people like this? Well, we need to confront them with the truth. We need to confront them with the truth. We need to challenge their sinful attitudes and behavior with what the scripture says about their lives and how they conduct themselves, and their wrong attitudes, and their lack of submission. So what does the scripture say? Well, let's look at the correction of those who cause dissension in the local church. And John doesn't give us the correction here. We're going to have to look elsewhere to find it. But their motive is self-love, and what's the answer? Well, they need to love and promote Jesus. Right? I mean, it's really that simple. Jesus and others. Instead of focusing on self and love of self and what I can get out of this and me being lifted up and me being important, me being first, it's Jesus. Jesus is the only one who is worthy of preeminence. Colossians 1.18 says that Jesus is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. That's what needs to happen. Somebody's got this diatrophy syndrome and they're filled with self-love and self-exaltation and have to have their own way. They need to look to Jesus and remember that's why we're all here. We're here to promote the name of Jesus and to lift him on high. The passage that was read for our scripture reading today in Mark chapter 10, Jesus addresses this. He says, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you, he tells the apostles. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. And he gives an example of himself, even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. We are to love Christ. We are to promote His glory in all that we do. And we are to love others. I mean, we just, right through first John, right? Over and over again, we saw it, loving others. And of course, this is what Jesus taught when he was asked, what's the greatest commandment in the law? He said, well, it's you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul. and that's the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like unto it, that you should love your neighbor as yourself. You see, if a Christian is truly endeavoring to love God supremely and to love others earnestly, then there's no way he will develop this diatrophy syndrome. You cannot be focused on loving God supremely and loving others earnestly and be focused on loving and exalting yourself at the same time. You cannot do it, it's impossible. Their mindset, number two, their mindset towards spiritual authority is resistance and rejection. What's the answer? Well, they need to submit to those in spiritual authority. Why does God put authority in our lives? Why do we have authorities? We all know the answer. And probably the best illustration of it is the authority of parents over children. Why did God give parents authority over children? Well, it's for their own good. I mean, we see in our society where parents' authority is being stripped away. The only time parents have authority is when the kid does wrong and gets in trouble, and then it's the parents' fault. But parents' authority is being stripped away, and we see the ramifications of that in our society. But we understand that parental authority is for the protection and the safety and the good of the children. Often a wife doesn't accept it, but God has placed her husband in authority over her for her own good. Now, of course, this isn't to say that parental authority or a husband's authority can't be abused. Unfortunately, it often is. But the way God has it set up is he has set up authority because authority is a gift from God. It is a gift from God. And so when you're talking about authority in a church, when you're talking about spiritual authority, you have a group of godly spiritual men leading a church. That is the authority that God has ordained for a local church. And if the godly leadership of a local church agrees unanimously and gives a Christian counsel or correction regarding a certain matter, that Christian will do well to submit to the leadership. I'm not talking about leaders who are not acting according to scripture. We're talking about a godly leadership that is giving direction and instruction and guidance and counsel according to the word of God. That's why the writers of Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17 says, Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." No leadership in any local church is infallible. But this is the authority God has established for the local church. If you're living in sin, and the church leadership confronts you and you're unwilling to repent of your sin and do what's right, then you are probably going to want to do one of several things. You may want to remove yourself from the church, or you maybe just want to stick around and criticize those who are trying to help you. That's the spirit of diatrophies. That's the spirit of diatrophies. Scripture again, Scripture teaches that if godly leaders are counseling you, directing you in a way that is not contrary to Scripture, but rather is supported by Scripture, then you should listen to them and you should submit to them. Number three, their method is speaking evil in order to undermine spiritual authority. So what's the answer? What should be done? Well, speak those things that build up others and show grace to others. Diotrephes was gossiping about John and the others who had authority. The missionary Amy Carmichael had a rule for everyone at her mission station. Never about, always to. Never about, always to. In other words, don't gossip. If you have something to say about somebody, go say it to them. Talk to them. Don't gossip and don't listen to gossip. What should you do if somebody comes up and starts gossiping to you about somebody else, whether they're in authority or not? You should stop them, get in their tracks, and say, you know what? You really need to go talk to that person about this. You're talking to the wrong person here. You need to go talk to that other person that really, you know, you're talking to me about him or her. No, you need to go talk to them. Just nip it in the bud. Just put an end to it. Don't be a participant by listening to it. Of course, Matthew 18.15, as I said before, the most neglected verse in the New Testament by Christians, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listened to you, you have gained your brother. Oh, that's hard to do. Sure. Of course it is. It's easier to just go talk to someone else about it and gossip. No, that's not what Jesus said. And you can save yourself and a lot of other people, a whole lot of trouble if you would just obey Matthew 18, 15. That one said, amen. Amen. Here's another verse that has to do with this, speaking those things that build up others and showing grace to others. Ephesians 4.29, let no corrupting, the idea there is harmful, let no harmful talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. We should be speaking uplifting words to one another. Are you going to criticize people because they're imperfect? You might want to just practice in the mirror. Right? I mean, which one of us is perfect? Which one of us don't make mistakes? Which one of us, you know... We all are growing in grace, right? The Lord is sanctifying all of us, making us more like his son as believers. And we should be building up one another. We should be using speech that helps one another instead of harmful speech that tears a brother or sister down. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 when he's speaking about the use of gifts in the church in verse 26, he says, let all things be done for building up. Number four, their manner toward other Christians is ungracious. So what do we need to do? Well, we need to practice the one another commandments. That's what we need to do and there are a lot of them, right? couple dozen plus, just one Romans 12, 13, and specifically has to do with deatrophies here. He would have done well to listen to Paul, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. I mean, that would have been a rebuke from the apostle Paul to deatrophies right there. You should be helping these people that are advancing the gospel. But just covering everything, all of these one another commandments is Philippians 2, 3, and 4, where Paul says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. I mean, a couple of more verses there that if we would really take to heart and seek to live by in our lives and in our church, how helpful would that be? How different would the results be if there weren't any people acting like diatrophies in the church? That's totally, totally contrary to diatrophies. Finally, their managing of other Christians is controlling Well, how do you correct that? Well, you allow God to work in the lives of other Christians. You allow God to work in the lives of other Christians. You want people to change, right? Maybe if you're like Diotrephes, I hope not, but if you were like Diotrephes, you would want people to do what you want them to do. Um, that's obviously just wrong. But, but even when we, we want people to, you know, improve in their spiritual life and, and live, be more like Christ, um, you taking control of their life is not gonna cut it. It's not gonna work. That they are not going to, they are not going to, submit themselves to somebody who is trying to control them. Hudson Taylor said we need to learn to move man through God, we need to learn to move man through God. See love is not controlling, Paul says in first Corinthians 13 that Love is patient and kind. Love does not boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. Love does not insist on its own way. This is what Diotrephes was doing. He was insisting on his own way. This is a mistake. You know, I think a lot of, I mean, sometimes it's the wife, but a lot of times it's the husband. He's going to control. He's going to tell his wife, this is, this is what you're going to do. And this is how you're going to do it. And this is when you're going to do it. Because I said, so that that's an abuse of, of, of the husband's authority. You might want to go to first Peter three, seven, where Peter says you need to learn to live according to the knowledge of your wife. You need to get to know her. She's an individual person. She's not like anybody else's wife. Yes, there's whole six verses about how she needs to submit to you. Well, she should call me Lord like Sarah did Abraham. Well, good luck with that. But seriously, seriously, a husband who's loving his wife is not just trying to control every aspect of her life. Say, you will do this. No, he doesn't insist on his own way. But when you get somebody in the church like that who is controlling and doesn't get his way because he knows best, You know, he's superior and he's preeminent in his mind. And he's going to control things whatever way he does it by his boisterous loud demands or by his pouting or whatever he might do. It's trouble. It causes division in the church. Let's just make some practical observations here and applications, and I have two of them here. As far as any local church is concerned, people like diatrophies, who are not pastors, but are church members, they come and go. They come and go. And these people come into a church and they present themselves as faithful servants of Christ. They get involved in ministry and they make friends and they're generally highly capable of influencing others. And often they're outspoken, opinionated, and quite persuasive. And usually their personality demands attention. And they're often very likable people. And usually everything goes pretty smoothly until the church leadership makes a decision that they don't agree with. And because they like to have the preeminence and they reject the authority of church leadership they progress down this road. They establish the mindset of resistance and rejection to authority. Their words and actions begin to show opposition to the leadership. And not only do they ignore the directives of leadership, but often they withdraw from whatever aspect of the ministry they disagree with, and eventually withdraw from almost everything in the church. If possible, they might seek to find fellowship for themselves and for their family outside of their local church. And then more often than not, the evil speaking to others about the leaders and their decisions begins in the church because they have to justify their opposition to the leadership in the eyes of others. Because remember their priority is self-love and there's nothing more important to them than promoting themselves and their superiority to others. Their opposition to and evil speaking of church leadership leads to the self-centered, ungracious manner in which they treat other believers in the church. And because of their self-love and malignant attitude and evil speaking toward church leadership and others, eventually what ends up happening is they hinder the advance of the gospel from the local church and they squelch the spirit of unity in the church. And like I said, these diatrophies figures, they come and go in virtually every local church. And when these people come and they eventually manifest that they have the diatrophies syndrome, then the leadership has to deal with these people wisely and graciously. And you, as a Christian in a local church, will do well to recognize these people, to be able to identify them. And if you are spiritually minded enough, try to help them. You can go right here to 3 John verses 9 and 10, and you can show them, look, brother, look, sister, this is what you're manifesting. This is what you're doing. And you can try to help them because they need help. But secondly, as bad as that scenario I just described to you with a diatrophies figure being a member in a church, there's a much worse case scenario. And that is when a diatrophies like person is a pastor. This may have been the case here that John was addressing. Diotrephes may have been a pastor in the church or he may have just been someone who was some type of leader and was seeking to exercise his own will in accomplishing that. But if a local church gets a pastor like Diotrephes who manifests these characteristics, he will destroy the church. I want to bring something up this morning that we're going to be talking more about as the year goes on. Early on as a pastor, I told the deacons, this was well over 10 years ago, I told the deacons, and I've said this from the pulpit here before on more than one occasion, that my understanding of church polity regarding the setup of the offices of a local church differ from the constitution of our church. We revised the constitution about 10 years ago and because there were so many things to improve in the constitution, I didn't believe that it was the time to address the issue of the offices of the church. And as I said then, and as I still believe, I can function as the pastor of this church under the current setup in our constitution, which sets up for a senior pastor and allows for other pastoral staff working with a board of deacons. I've been doing that for all these years. However, the form of church government that has one pastor, that is one elder in the church, really lends itself, this form of government really lends itself to abuse. It would be very easy for a diatrophies type pastor to come into this church and insist on his own way. without any consideration for the church family. He could be like Diotrephes and say, you know, if you, you know, this is the way we're going to do it, you know, and I don't even care what you have to say. I don't want to hear it. This is what we're doing. If, you know, if you don't like it, just, you can find the door. I mean, there are churches like that. You know that, right? There are churches like that who have pastor Diotrephes. After pastoring here for a couple of years, I approached a man in our church about becoming a deacon. And his response was very eye-opening to me. And he said, well, if I were going to be a deacon in the sense that I understand deacons in the New Testament, I might consider it. But as I observed the church and how you're operating here, it appears to me that your deacons are pretty much fulfilling some of the responsibilities of elders. And I don't believe I should be an elder. Well, as I evaluated what he said, I really could not have agreed more. I already knew at that point that I was treating my deacons like elders because I don't have elders. And when I You know, way back then and up to this point, when I make a decision, I don't do it on my own. I'm not the dictator. I don't make these decisions on my own. I discuss everything of any importance, of any significance with our deacons and we come to an agreement on the best way to go forward and we go forward. And if we don't agree, then we don't move. We pray and we seek the Lord's guidance in things. And you know, I could keep operating that way. I've done it all these years, right? I could do that. But I'm a 64-year-old crippled man. Hopefully not crippled for long, but I am 64 years old and you know, I don't know how long I'll be here and I have no plans to leave. So don't get excited whether you want me to stay until I die or if you wish I'd left last week, you know, I don't have any plans. You know, I just don't know. I'm here until the Lord says it's time, right? But I do believe that the best way to set this church up for success in the future is to revise our constitution so that we have and practice a church leadership made up of a plurality of elders. So going forward this year, my intention is to teach on what is a plurality of elders, what is eldership, And how does it function in the local church? And how do we go about incorporating it into our church? And I don't know how much you know about the plurality of elders as taught in the scripture. I don't know if you think this is a good idea or a bad idea. I don't know. I mean, I know what some of you think, because we've talked about it. But some of you, I don't know what you think. But what I would ask of all of you is that you that you give us time as a church, that you give us time to be able to study this out, to actually see what the scriptures say, and to go forward seeking the Lord's will regarding this matter. And I do appreciate that from all of you, that you would do that. You may have some preconceived ideas that you've had for years or decades. You know, that's fine. But I would ask you to patiently consider what the scriptures say. And I would also encourage you to beware of present day diatrophies. Beware of them. identify them and do your part to keep them from wreaking havoc in the church and causing division. So this passage here, I said, not very positive, but necessary, a warning, something we need to take heed to. And I would just encourage you to pray with me and the deacons about this matter of looking towards establishing a plurality of elders here at our church. Father, we thank you for this passage, we thank you Lord for the warning given here by way of John speaking of this man who wanted to be in control, was over so many and really wreaking havoc in the church. Lord give us wisdom as a church going forward as we desire to please you and we desire to really have this church in the best place possible for future growth and future ministry here in this area. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.