02/01/26 - Cautious Influence - John 3

They've been so transformed by that truth that they now are going from town to town to make Jesus' name famous. They've been so influenced by the gospel that they are willing to go and put themselves out there, risk rejection, risk abandonment, risk being mistreated for the sake of the name. Have you been influenced by Jesus to that level? Has he changed everything about your story? It did for these men. [00:20:58] (34 seconds)  #RadicalForJesus

The early church is influenced by false teachers and under cultural pressure to stay true. That's why John is writing these letters. And today, maybe more than ever, our influence is under assault. We are bombarded by influencers. Everywhere we look, how many of us I mean, I'm literally in front of a screen right now, and there is an assault all the time to put things in front of us that would shape us and turn us into something maybe we don't want to become. [00:05:31] (37 seconds)  #InfluenceUnderAssault

Church, we have to be alert to the evil influences. We have to be alert to this kind of drift. We don't drift towards holiness or heresy. We imitate it. And so we need to be aware of the people in our life who maybe are like this. We need to be aware of the places in our life where this is prevalent, and we need to repent and return to Jesus because these influences are out there. [00:26:59] (29 seconds)  #GuardAgainstDrift

Later on, Israel again comes under the influence of other nations as they see other foreign nations have kings and kingdoms, and they go to God and they say, we want a king like them. They're they're influenced by looking at those around them. Even when we get to the life ministry and eventual death of Jesus, we see the crowds that on one day so quickly follow Jesus and proclaim him and are magnifying him, come under the influence of the religious leaders of the day. And in less than a week, they turn on him and cry out, crucify him, because they're influenced by those around them. [00:04:51] (40 seconds)  #DontFollowTheCrowd

That you start to form connections with these influencers. And this isn't all bad. Some of this is how God has designed us to be. We are biologically built to imitate things that we see. We have these things in our brain called mirror neurons that when we see something repeated long enough, we start to think that it's good, right, and true, and we follow what we see. It is how God has made us to be. We are built to imitate what we see. It's part of God's design. [00:08:40] (31 seconds)  #WiredToImitate

Here's what I think these men are doing is they're going town to town and sold out for the truth of the gospel. They are unwilling to compromise. They don't want a slippery slope to overtake them. And so they're not going to accept funds from those who haven't bought in to the mission. And so John is telling Gaius here, lead well, support them generously. Because when you do, he says, you're when you support people like these, you become fellow workers. You get to join with them in their work. [00:22:10] (39 seconds)  #SupportFaithfulWorkers

We talked last week about the fact that anywhere you say yes to Jesus is reason to celebrate. And I just wanna remind you of that. Where did you say yes to Jesus this last week? And don't just skim over that. Rejoice in that. Celebrate that. John Gaius is using his influence to invite others in. These brothers are traveling missionaries and preachers. They show up at his church, and they give a good report, which leads John to say that he has no greater joy than to hear that his children are walking in the church. [00:17:27] (35 seconds)  #CelebrateEveryYes

third John, and this is not a new thing in John or in really in God's people that we need to be on guard for the influences that are out there. If we go all the way back to the garden, our first parents come under the influence of the deceiver, and they listen to him and not God. If you fast forward to Israel, they are influenced by the spies who go and look at the promised land and come back and give a false report, and they choose not to go in to the promised land. There's always an assault on us and what we are paying attention to. [00:04:11] (39 seconds)  #WatchTheInfluences