Today, I want to show you a very powerful portion of scripture that's very relevant for today,

even though it was written 2,000 years ago. We're going to look at 2,000 John, which is a very short

personal letter from John, who was one of Jesus' disciples. The point at which he was writing

this, he was older. He was probably in his mid-80s, maybe even pushing 90, and he was writing

from Ephesus to some people that he loved. It was a very intimate letter, and he was telling them how to love one another, and then he was saying, watch out for spiritual deception. If I could tell you something today, in this day, we need to love one another, and we need to watch out for the spiritual deception of our enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And this is what he said in 2nd John,

verse 12. He said this. He said, I have much more to say to you. In other words, this message is not

complete. He says, but I don't want to do it with paper and ink. He said, for I hope to visit you

soon and talk with you face to face. And I like it.

He says, then our joy will be complete. I've got more that I want to say to you, but I can't just do it

in the form of a letter. There are some things that are more intimate than that. I want to be

face to face. And then we were face to face sharing what's on my heart with you. Then our joy

will be made completely. He's saying there's something more that I want to share with you. It's on my heart.

God put it on my heart. But it's just too special for a letter.

In today's culture we might say it's too intimate for a text or too sacred for a screen

because there are some moments that you just have to be face to face.

When you're face to face, then your joy will be made complete. But sadly, let's be honest,

that is just so much less common today than it once was. I'll give an example. My dad died a couple of

years ago, and when he did, so many people reached out. It was a little bit

overwhelming. I got text. I got prayer emojis. I got heart emojis and more text and more text and

more text and more text and more text. And then a couple of evenings after he died, Amy and I were sitting

down in our living room and the weirdest thing happened. I mean, it was shocking. Someone

knocked on our door. And I looked at her like, were you expecting anybody? Maybe it said,

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