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Well, in 1977, the world was introduced to the most powerful weapon ever created.

It was described as a super weapon, armed with a planet-destroying super laser,

powered by Khyber crystals.

And had it not been for the bravery of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and a wookie named Chewbacca, we would not know intergalactic peace as we do.

So yes, I'm talking about Star Wars, I'm talking about the Death Star, a weapon unlike anything

we had ever seen before, designed with the power

to destroy entire planets. And I know I'm in D.C. and there are people in here who were like,

if there was a weapon built in 1977 that could destroy the world, I would know about it.

So you were on to me from the beginning that this was not real. So I don't

want to talk to you about Star Wars this morning. But I do want us to consider is this question,

if you were to design a machine with the power to destroy a church community, not physically

wipe it out, but to tear apart and divide a community of the people of God, what would you design?

What has the power to pull apart a community of people?

In the book of 3 John, we are introduced to a community destroying power.

And John calls it the Philoprotos. Philorotos. We're introduced to it in verse 9. And the structure

of 3rd John is very simple. There's kind of three major movements, and they're the three

paragraphs, and they all start with the same word. Beloved in verse 2, beloved in verse 5, beloved in verse 11. Very uplifting letter. But then in verse 2, Beloved in verse 5, Beloved in verse 11.

Very uplifting letter.

But then in verse 9, we get this disruption in the beloveds.

It's like this awkward interruption.

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