TRANSPARENCY IS GENERATIONAL

2JOHN

October 19, 2008

with Matt Johnson

Intro:
This is Addison. She’s our firstborn dog. We adopted her last June. Our cat Coco had passed away from feline leukemia, and we made the choice to get a dog. Ashley wasn’t sure if she was ready, so she left the decision to me.

We still lived in Loveland at the time, so I went to the League For Animal Welfare in the Milford area to check them out and look around. I went in looking for a midsized older dog that was already housebroken and somewhat trained. We have a tender spot for the underdog, so we wanted to give an older dog a chance that it might not otherwise get. I looked around, and I didn’t really seem to connect to any of the dogs there. I was disappointed, and began to walk back to the front desk area to leave. That was until I caught sight of a litter of puppies in a side room and ducked inside to see them. I was sold instantly. From there, I just had to figure out how to hook Ashley for a puppy. I talked her into to going to see them and reluctantly we went later that afternoon when she got off of work. It only took one look from Ashley and she too was sold. We came home with a seven week old pound puppy named that we named Addison.

She was tiny - all of three pounds when we brought her home. I could hold her in the palm of my hand. I was smitten.

We took her in for her first vet appointment, and we had a great talk with our vet about training, discipline, and raising a puppy to be a great dog. You know, that’s the problem that a lot of people have – they don’t raise the puppy with the adult dog in mind. It’s a puppy – it’s cute, it’s fuzzy, and it doesn’t know any better so it can get away with murder. The problem is, puppies who get away with everything turn into dogs who get away with everything. Large, heavy, stubborn dogs. And the old adage is true – it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. They don’t learn easily. At about a year and a half to two years, a dog’s brain makes the transition from adolescent to adult and they become much harder to train. So, it’s important that when you are training a puppy, you train them so that they’re great dogs.

You know, Addy is about a year and a half now, and it’s becoming true - it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I learned that yesterday with her when I decided to take her on a bike ride for the first time. As Scott asked, “How exactly do you take a dog for a bike ride?” My response was simple – you start pedaling and drag the dog along until they realize that if they run they don’t choke. Now, if I’d done this with her as a puppy, she would have easily caught on and run happily beside me. As it is, she panicked at the sight of the bike and did everything she could to run in the opposite direction. It took her a good country block of me running alongside the bike with her before she began to catch on, and even then I don’t think that she enjoyed it at all. I’m not sure if it was harder on her or me. She was stricken with fear, and I had not ridden a bike in years, so my legs were killing me. It really is true though, it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

You know, it’s hard to teach an old Christian new actions.

Most Christians don’t adapt well to change. They’re like Garth in Waynesworld… “we fear change…”. They’re the same Christians that live, and sadly, die, by these seven words “We ‘ve never done it that way before…” You know what causes Christians like this? Often times, it’s because they were not trained well in the youth of their faith and as they became older in their faith they continued in their bad habits of belief and action. It’s hard to teach an old Christian new actions.

As a church, we’re a young pup of only four years old. We’re still learning, still finding ourselves, still growing. But, we can’t exist thinking only about the coming weeks, months, even year… It’s easy to do, especially as we experience growing pains and set backs… We’ve got to be a church now, who thinks long term. Who sees the big picture. Who lets God dream big and hop on board with him to carry out his will for this community. You know, just like a puppy or a child, the precedents set for our behavior as a church will carry into our “adulthood”. Our actions, our prayers, our giving, our faith, the way we love one another – it will set the tone and the pattern for our future. Transparency is generational.

The first time I ever sat down with Adam to talk “church” stuff, we met at Kidd Coffee for like three hours and I picked his brain about the Orchard. Why did it start, what were it’s values, what was the “big picture” for it. From day one, the Orchard has been a church with a vision of spreading the gospel of Christ to northern Cincinnati and beyond through planting daughter churches or using multiple worship sites in other communities. Yes, we are currently a church aimed at reaching Morrow and the surrounding Little Miami community, but the vision for this church is much larger than that. Here’s the thing though – if we’re ever to fulfill the vision that God’s given the leadership of this church, we’ve got to lay the foundations now, by understanding that transparency is generational.

We continue our look at this idea of being soaked in transparency in the writings of John, and we are at a tiny book of scripture today. Second John. With only 245 greek words, Second John is the second shortest book of scripture, only to Third John with 215 greek words, which Jeff will be preaching from next week. It piggybacks off of the letter of First John that Adam preached through the past month, repeating many of the same themes and teachings in it’s short writing.

It’s the type of letter that I’d love for the Orchard to get years down the road. John writes a distant church a brief letter of encouragement and teaching to let them know he’s thinking about them until he can once again greet them face to face.

Let’s jump into the text…

§ “to the chosen lady and her children…” – John writes to a church or grouping of churches that he’s personally interacted with. While the exact churches are not known, we can gather that they’re growing and producing offspring of Christians and other house churches in their communities. His letter would be a general epistle to be passed among these churches as encouragement and teaching.
§ “as does everyone else who knows God’s truth…” – Context is important here, as the group of believers that John writes to are facing many in their fellowship that have left the community of faith for various reasons but prominently because they were pressured by Jewish society to disclaim Jesus as the savior in order to be accepted in their previous social and religious circles. John, however, says that those who know the truth – a greek word here which alludes to the Truth being the holy spirit – love the church. While subtle, John makes sure that his readers understand that if you love God’s truth, you will also love His church. They are not separate ideas.
§ “how happy I was to meet some of your children…” – It’s amazing how small the world is when you are a Christian. It’s like seven degrees of Jesus. John has come into contact with believers who are descendants of the faith of the churches that he writes to. And even more, he’s encouraged that he finds them living in the truth of the faith in which they were raised. The transparency of their faith parents has successfully passed on to them.

Transparency is generational.
§ “And now I want to urge you…” – His letter transitions. God bless you, I saw your kids – good job, now here’s some encouragement in teaching to keep you on track until I can catch up with you face to face…
§ “love one another…” – I’m not giving you some new command here. It’s been around for a long time – all the way back to Leviticus and renewed again in the teachings of Christ. Love each other. And how? By obeying God’s commands. If you’re following God’s voice, love of others will be a constant byproduct.
§ “many deceivers have gone out into the world…” – Many people have left and gone back into the world because they don’t believe that Jesus existed physically. This was one of the ways that people disclaimed Christ in order to continue to try and blend with the world instead of boldly professing Christ. This deception is anti-Christ, it goes against who He is and the truth about him. Be sure to watch out for these attacks and be careful to remain strong in your faith so that you will receive your heavenly reward. Don’t let the pot holes and distractions of life let you get derailed in your faith which you’ve worked so hard for.
§ “for if you wander beyond the teachings of Christ…” – Don’t stray from what you know to be true about Christ, and don’t look outside of Christ for wisdom and truth. How much we need to hear this in a time of smorgasbord religious hob gob of faith. People try to look everywhere for “truth” – Oprah and other famous TV self help figures, Movies, Books, the Internet, other religious movements, etc… The problem is, when we do this, “truth” becomes subjective and no longer truth. The truth is, “All truth is God’s Truth” because only God is true. There is absolute truth in this world and it exists in the form of Christ. Don’t wander beyond him or you risk loosing fellowship with God.
§ “if someone comes to your meeting…” – Don’t encourage wrong teaching. Man, this is hard. How often have we heard someone who speaks about faith and it sets off our truth radar. That just doesn’t quite sound right does it? But we don’t want to hurt feelings and of course their intentions are good right? So we nod and bite our tongues and in doing so, affirm and encourage their words. How important it is that we become defenders of the truth! In love and truth, standing firm for what we know to be truth about Christ. In this way we don’t encourage those who teach twisted doctrine out of either good or evil motives. When in question, ask yourself the four questions that Adam gave us a few weeks ago.
§ “I have much more to say to you…” – There’s so much more about living a transparent life of faith that I’d like to pass on to you, but I long to do so in person. For now, these teachings will tide you over until we can fellowship together.

What a beautiful letter. You’re living a great life of faith, here are just a few key teachings for what you’re going through right now. Love each other – a lot. Hold firm to your faith and don’t be swayed. Don’t stray from Jesus. Don’t encourage false teaching.

Fast forward with me to years down the road in the Orchard vision. Will the next generations of faith that the Orchard births be transparent because of our example of transparency and truth? Will we love each other greatly? Will we hold firm to our faith in the face of adversity? Will we stay true to Jesus and only Him? Will we protect the truth of Christ?

When I was in college, my freshman year I remember a sermon that has stuck with me to this day. An upperclassmen had his chance to preach in chapel and was given a passage out of Paul’s writings about leadership and the qualifications of being an elder. As he admitted, it was kind of hard preaching to a room full of college students about eldership. After all, was it really applicable to them in their early 20’s? But his refrain through out the sermon was this – You might not be an elder now, but do you want to be? His sermon was simple but spot on - here’s how you begin to live now, because these attributes of eldership don’t come with the title, the title comes because of the attributes in your life. So, you may not be an elder now, but do you want to be? Live like it now.

Our vision is to be a church plant that plants churches. A church plant that is continually growing and multiplying believers. A church plant that is never satisfied with the status quo and is always willing to try new things to share our faith and reach our community. A church plant filled with transparent believers who have been trained up in the word of truth and hold strong to Christ. A church plant who understands that transparency is generational, and we need to start now! We are not all of these things right now, but do you want to be? I know God wants us to be…