But ever since that time, communication
has gotten simpler and simpler and simpler, easier, and it has
gotten less intimate. The easier it is to talk to someone,
the less intimate it can be. I mean, you look at the rage
today. You're connected 24 hours a day. I know some of you, and I love
you all, but I think this is really going to cause problems
in your mind and in your life one day, that you have your Facebook
accounts and your Twitter feeds and your Post-it, whatever the
thing's called, the Instagram things, and all this stuff popping
up, constantly giving you notifications on your phone, and you spend
more time going... than you do talking with someone
in their face. Now, I like connectivity. It's a very useful tool. But
is it really loving when someone shoots you a Facebook message
that says, yo, sup? Question mark, smiley. I mean,
is that really? People say that I'm verbose with
my mouth. You ought to read some of my
emails. You ought to see some of the things I type. If Twitter
allowed you to do more than 140, I'd shut their server down. I'd
send them a thesis, if I could, on some of the answers to things
that we work with. But in our day, the art of communication,
this is what I'm getting to, has become just commonplace.
It's not communication anymore, it's just constant noise, it's
constant data. To sit down and be reminded that
someone needs not just the sloppy hallmark thinking of you, may
all your days be joyful, and you sign your name at the bottom.
But the cards that I remember my grandparents using were blank.
They may have had a nice verse or something on the front, but
inside they actually pinned letters. And if they had something in
there, they would write something anyway. And sometimes I remember
I still have letters sent to me by family. Four, five, six pages of handwritten
letters. Thinking of you today, son, praying
for you. How's college going? How's music
school? And the crazy thing, I live 20 miles away, but they
mail a letter anyway. For us to do that today, it'd
have to be something from the IRS. It'd have to be something
from some missionary that lives in the middle of nowhere that
can't receive anything but a letter. Because that's just too much
time. Now imagine Paul's life as he was imprisoned. Imagine
Paul's life as he was running to try to stay alive, running
the race of his faith, and as he's concerned in some aspects,
I'm in prison now, I'm about to plant a church over here,
but the church that I just left, how are they doing? I need to
know. We saw as he wrote to the Philippians
and then the first letter to the Thessalonians, his heart
was grieved not knowing the condition of these people, where they were
in Christ and their joy. He wanted to know was it complete
and had they fallen away or did they really receive the gospel
in power? Brothers and sisters, for us
to sit here and read 2 Thessalonians, It shows the divine power of
God's holy affection for His people. When Paul wrote these
words to the Philippian church, I love you with all the affection
of Christ, it's evidenced by the fact he spent time teaching
them. Not just in person, but teaching them through letter.
Paul would show us in Ephesians chapter 4 that the gifts to the
church are those who teach the church to do the work of the
ministry. I mean, be honest with yourself. What memories of childhood
do we have that are most fond or fondest in our hearts? Is
it the trip we took to the zoo? Is it the real funny, you know,
milk-nose, belly-guster joke that uncle so-and-so told? Is
it these funny tongue-in-cheek moments? What really stands at
the end of time? Those people who spent time teaching
us. Let me just by a show of hands,
how many of you remember who taught you to tie your shoes? Just raise
your hand. You remember it. You know how old you were? Two,
three, four, five? And yet you have that memory
because it was an intimate moment of investment. See, in our day,
teaching kids to tie shoes would be, Lord, let's buy an app. Here's
your pad, do like this. Or better yet, let's buy the
gadget that ties shoes for you. So that mom and dad can go, your
shoes untied son, hold on a minute. Somebody's gonna go patent that
and make a jillion dollars. How awful, how awful. Friends, what's crazy is we're
not any busier than the people of antiquity. We just choose
to be. We choose to be because we live
as a culture that's myopically involved in themselves. Blinders on, straight thinking,
never looking at anything but themselves. That is the culture
in which we live. And that is counterculture. The
church then is countercultural to that. The antithesis of the
American culture is the church of Jesus Christ. Friends, we
cannot be like the world. Why? Because God has given us
grace. I remember a lot of teaching
in my day. I remember every teacher I ever
had, every teacher I've ever had in school. I remember the
mean ones and the good ones. Notice I didn't say sweet ones.
No, if you were mean, you were not a good teacher in my book. And I remember things that my
grandmother taught me that will always sit with me. And when
she would see me misbehaving, instead of doing what most parents
do. See, grandparents are better
than parents. Why? Because parents, we screw our
kids up and then we do it right with the grandkids. And then
there's a little vendetta that we have to want to make sure
that our children taste a little bit of the struggle of parenting
so we do other things, too, to make parenting a little more
difficult if we're grandparents. And I'm saying that as an observation,
not as a grandparent. But I know that's the way it
is, because my mother has confessed that to me, that spoiling children
is part of the payback of parenting. But I'll never forget Numerous
times, over and over again, where my grandmother, when she would
see me engage in a poor attitude, what's wrong? Complaint, don't
complain. Why are you complaining? And
she would not say, you don't complain, son, that's wrong,
or don't act that way, or don't speak that way, or don't you
dare disobey. Now, would she be right in saying
those things? Yes, but what stuck out to me
was, you're a child of the king, you don't have to live that way. Christians don't have to live
that way. Believers won't succumb to such
things. And you see the difference in
the teaching there? The list of don't dos, get it right, stop
doing this, don't do that, don't do that. I mean, psychologists
and linguists will tell you, when it comes to communicating
with a child, that their cognitive ability to absorb everything
is not as articulate as we think it is as adults. So when we get
through with the, you remember, was it Schuller? The Peanuts? Remember how they said that the
parents and the adults sounded in that show? Wah wah wah wah
wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah. That's exactly how it sounds
to children. Not literally. But it's been
shown that as we teach a child, the instruction that's given
must be clear and precise because otherwise all they hear is the
rant. They hear the rant. Why in the world do you ever...
You ask a child that question and while it's thinking, then
we give correction and then they never hear the correction and
all they do is they live in a form of constant response. My three-year-old,
when you say, hey Abigail, what are you doing? She'll use the
word but in the beginning of every sentence right now because
she's at that age that correction is normative. But I was just,
how are you doing? But I'm just standing here. What's the point in all this?
Well, Paul's about to get to some correction to the Thessalonians. Paul's about to get into the
commanding of the Thessalonians. And friends, I want you to understand
that as Paul wrote their first letter, we see that this is the example
of what God does in a people when He saves them through the
gospel. And we see the teaching week after week after week after
week. Do not be idle. Love each other. Grow. Do all
these things, but understand that God is finishing the work
that He began in you. Do not be overburdened and frustrated. at the fact that your perfection
is not absolute, but Christ's perfection is absolute. Therefore,
you have hope in Christ, and that even as you walk in Him,
you walk by faith in Him, not by faith in our faithfulness.
Do you see the difference? And Paul loves these Christians.
Because while he was in prison, while he was being whipped, while
he was being pursued, even when he was in prison for two years
waiting to appeal to Caesar, all that he could do was think
about those beloved Christians in every province. Oh, how our love for each other
must at least be that much. We may not love every Christian
we can think of, we may not even consider every person in our
lives often, but beloved, are we considering each other every
day? One of the remedies of being
burdened is praying for other people. One of the remedies of
depression and frustration And joylessness is to invest our
lives in giving of ourselves in prayer for others. It works. But yet our culture says that's
ridiculous. Where there's a will, there's
a way. It's all about me. I am the most important thing
in my life. That is wrong. And that's why
the gospel is hated so much in America. I mean the true gospel. Because most people, when you're
looking at a guy who has served in megachurches, megachurches. I mean, I don't know too many
churches that baptize 312 months. But we did that in 2001. And I know that even in that
time, my very act of ministry was self-serving. Did you hear
that? Didn't know it, couldn't recognize
it, but as I look back, it was self-serving. Man, I was somebody.
And I was really a nobody, doing nothing. Paul was a nobody, and
yet he's the very one through whom God has given the gospel
to you. Let's look at it. 2 Thessalonians
chapter 3, verses 6 through 15. Now, we command you, brothers,
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from
any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with
the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know
how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when
we were with you, nor do we eat anyone's bread without paying
for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that
we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we
do not have the right, but to give you and ourselves an example
to imitate. For even when we were with you,
we would give you this command, and he repeats it, if anyone
is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some
among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and
encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and
to earn their own living. As for you, brothers, do not
grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what
we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing
to do with him that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as
an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Let's pray. Father, as your word
is heard, only by your grace will it be effectual in our hearts
and minds. Father, protect us from self-righteousness and from
self-serving motivation as we hear this this morning, but Lord,
help us to, in every way, understand the power of your gospel and
the perfection of the life and the death and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ as our sole hope for eternal life. But let us
not turn a blind eye to how our flesh can interfere with our
intimacy and how some people, Lord, need encouragement and
need warning and let us be aware that it is us at times. May Your
Word be a blessing to us, not a burden, that we might grow
and mature in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His gospel.
and display and reflect the power of Your grace for which You are
praised. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, here
we are with a little text that absolutely throws a wrench in
this divine, powerful, gospel-focused, Grace-saturated teaching that
we've had over the last four or five weeks. I mean, we've
heard Paul talk about God. I mean, look over there at verse
13 of chapter 2 real quick. Let's just read that again. But
we ought to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, who
are the beloved by the Lord, because God chose you for Himself. From the beginning to be saved
through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth
to this he called you through our Gospel so that you may obtain
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ So then brothers stand firm and
hold to the traditions that you were taught by us either by our
spoken word or by our letter Now may the Lord Jesus himself
and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort
and good hope through grace Comfort your hearts and establish them
in every good work and word I mean, think about that. I mean, that
was some good, good things that we saw there. And it's very easy,
when we hear this teaching, to just be satisfied. And that's
the point of it. We are to be satisfied in the
Gospel of Jesus. That means that we're not worried
or consumed with fear or doubt or frustration, and the fact
that we must do something else other than believe on what Christ
has done. We must be satisfied in knowing that God loves us,
so in turn we love Him. and our love for Him trumps every
affection of this world. But then all of a sudden, we
see, now we command you. You see the tension that I feel?
Maybe you don't feel it, but I feel it. Because this is one
of those areas where we can, oh, I can do that. I can see
these idol brothers amongst us and tell them to hit the road.
I can do that. Why? Because that's fleshly.
It's easy. It's easy to be snooty and condemning. You ever been that way? It's easy to say, all right,
I'm busy. We can all be Martha. We can be busy by the Lord's
work. We can be like the Pharisees and we can walk the chalk line.
We can have the testimony of Paul that according to the law
of God, we are blameless in the eyes of man. But yet, that's
what Paul's telling us to look out for, idleness. Now see, All of our dads, especially
you men in the room, all of our dads could preach this sermon
at the dinner table. Because the sermon, the centrality
of this sermon says, if you don't work, you don't eat. And as one
of my friends said years ago, I didn't say it, God did. If we don't work, we don't eat.
So this socialistic mindset of everybody gets a little bit of
something doesn't fit with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now it
sounds like the old men in the barbershop. They can preach this
sermon. Man, people ought to be responsible.
People ought to stand up and be active. I got some old grumpy
pastor friends that can preach this sermon from their deathbeds.
What the world needs is churchmen. Can you hear them? Can you see
them? You know who they are. And if we don't get it in our
minds that it's all of grace, it's going to be us. If we don't get it in our minds
that this is a work of God, then we're going to be those grumpy
old men and old women sitting around talking about how bad
all the youngsters are. You want to get us started? Get
us 40-somethings talking about the millennials. Hot dog! And all the millennials in the
room paid attention just then. What are you talking about me? What are you
looking at? No, we're not talking about you.
You're the exception, Grace Truth. The church of Jesus Christ does
not fit the mold of the normality of this world. It don't fit the
patterns of the flesh. We are changed and made new by
the gospel. And that's what Paul's getting
to right now. Because see, don't forget the occasion of this letter.
What happened in the first letter? What was one of the main problems
that was going on in Thessalonica? Here it was. The main problem,
one of the main problems is that many people had come into the
city and had began to talk about the second coming of Jesus. Is
that not something we look forward to? We are ready, church, to
see Jesus come again. We're tired of this world. Now
when we're really, really young, we're going, no, I'd like to
play. I'm having a pretty good time, but once we start adulting
as Christians, we start to really see the overbearing reality of
what living in a world that we're not part of looks like and feels
like. So, in this coming of Christ, we now can very easily get caught
up in myths and legends and false teaching. And I will suggest
to you, church, that we have as a culture. Other than health
and wealth and prosperity, garbage, I guarantee you that second coming
and end times writing is probably some of the most profitable stuff
that's ever hit the shelves in so-called Christian bookstores.
As a matter of fact, some of the most lucrative people who
live high wealth, with high wealth in our communities and in our
cultures and in our societies, they go around teaching about
the second coming of Jesus. Why? Because it's mysterious
and everybody wants to know. How do you think Harold Camping,
who lived near where we were when we were in Cali years ago,
supported not doing anything but writing prophecy that he
got out of the air. Because people want to hear it.
And they will pay dearly for it. Especially if the prophet
starts to tell you that by the end of this calendar year, on
the 22nd of December, Jesus Christ is going to return. So let us
prepare ourselves. Now if you believe that, guess
what this year is going to be for you? A house cleaning. It's going to be a clearing house
year. You're going to get your affairs in order? Why? I don't
know. I mean, what are you going to leave
behind? Fire. God's going to destroy it all
anyway. But you've got some money that Harold could use or people
like him could use to get the word out that Jesus is coming.
Do you know what the Scripture says about someone who prophesies
something that does not come to pass? That they are to be
stoned. Stoned. But yet they didn't get stoned,
did they? They tried to stone Jeremiah. They stoned Paul. Because the gospel of Jesus speaks
contrary to those things. And when people get all caught
up in end time stuff, the coming of the man of lawlessness, which
we went through not only on Tuesday nights out of Revelation, but
also Sunday morning about four or five weeks ago, and all these
things, we want to know who it is and when it's going to happen
so we can be prepared for it. Let's buy a bunch of food. Let's
do all sorts of things. Let's be preparatory in our intentions
and let's be ready for the coming of the Lord. Friends, you're
not going to stand before Christ with a box of hot dogs. You're
not going to be having 10 gallons of freeze-dried cantaloupes with
you when Christ returns. You don't need that. Sorry, the picture's a little
humorous. And these people bought it. Oh,
Jesus has already come back? Or Jesus is about to come? What's
going on? So many, some, I won't say many, but some, what we know
because of the continued pressing of Paul saying, Christ has not
come back. You people need to work and get
busy doing something profitable and productive instead of sitting
around talking about trash like this. That's the paraphrase of
most of this letter concerning that. And so as some of these
people were so caught up in this end time stuff, they stopped. They stopped working altogether. They weren't busy doing their
jobs. They weren't busy tending to their homes. They weren't
working for their bosses. They weren't helping even in
the ministry of the church. Because they were just sitting
around going, well, you know, the Lord's already come back.
What is there? What's the reason the Lord is about to come back?
Let's just sit around and wait for Him any minute now. Let's
just sit around. And they were doing nothing.
And Paul said they become busybodies. He addressed it in the first
letter, but because he had to continue to end the letter like
this, it must not have corrected itself. So what do we see? Well, we see this exhortation
and the command to those who are the brethren. We command
you brothers. Keep in mind, we're not talking
about unbelievers who are mixed up. We're not talking about wolves
and pigs and dogs. We're talking about sheep. And
Paul is saying that he commands them, and Paul would might be,
and they, oftentimes, who is Paul? Well, Paul is coming as
an apostle, apostolos, which is the one who is sent by Christ.
to tell the church how she should look, to teach her the gospel
that she might be saved, and then through the teaching of
these commands and instruction, the church matures into the fullness
of He who is in Christ. And we live in accordance to
what Christ has called us to, rather than what the world has
called us to, or that worse, the culture has called us to. Anyone who considers the church
or considers that the church should be culturally relevant,
just write their name in the back of your mind as the do not
listen to list. There is nothing relevant to
the culture of humanity concerning the gospel of Jesus except that
if they don't believe it, they perish in their sin. So evangelism
is the only relationship that the church has with the world.
I command you in what authority? In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You see that? That's why it's
always so puzzling to me is that people will sometimes obey, and
I use that word in the right context, but they'll obey or
submit to the teaching of their pastors, but they won't obey
or submit to their teaching of their husbands or their wives
out of the same text. Well, if the preacher says it,
then I'll do it. If not, how about if God's word says it,
God has commanded it of us? How about we go there? Had breakfast
with a couple of brothers and one of the elders in California
years ago, and this one elder who's very quiet decided he would
chime in and give exhortation and admonishment to this other
brother, and he did, and the guy looked at him and says, you
don't know me like that. You don't know me enough to tell me what to do. to which I just sort of jumped
right in there very cautiously because he's big and strong.
But very cautiously, I'm like, and that's where I came up with
my cat. I said, if a cat comes up here and barks the word of
God to you, you better obey it. You better listen to it, you
better take heed. I said, the Lord Jesus Christ is the authority.
So if we say, thus saith the Lord, then thus saith the Lord.
It doesn't matter if this plant starts to talk. The word of God
is authoritative over all human beings. And it commands men everywhere
to repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if
we do not believe on Christ, we are still guilty from conception,
as human beings, to be given the justice and the wrath and
the judgment of God. God, in His mercy, because of
the love with which He loved us, He sent Christ to die in
our stay that we might be the righteousness of God. This is
so puzzling to me when we hear the commands of scripture. Yeah,
but that was for then. Well, let me give you an insight
on some of the depths of some things that I've studied throughout
my life. God is immutable. And that means that God does
not change. That God is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Jesus claims immutability as
His own. He says, I am the Alpha and the
Omega. In Isaiah 46, which I believe
I'm going to preach in a couple of weeks when I'm through with
Thessalonians before we get to John. But in Isaiah 46, God Himself
speaks through the prophet Isaiah and says that He purposes all
things from the beginning to the end. Now friends, there is
no other place of supremacy inside the cosmos or in the depths of
the human mind that can count itself worthy to stand in comparison
to the sovereignty of God. So when the word of God is given
as ridiculous and as circular as it may be in our reasoning,
friends, we know that it is true for God's spirit has given us
enlightenment and understanding. And to the Greek, it is foolish.
And to the Jew, it is a stumbling block. But to us, what does it,
what does Paul say? It is a fragrant tree of life. What is the command? The authority
is through Jesus Christ. His word is that authority. Keep
away. Look at that. I command, we command
you brothers, keep away from any brother who's walking in
idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive
from us." Now I would love to make so much out of these words
that are not there. I could take this text and be
so creative, I could put together a campaign, we could go from
church to church to church all over the state of Georgia and
we could teach people that the traditions of what they practice
in the context of their fellowship is not the traditions of Paul.
But I don't believe that's exactly what Paul's talking about here.
I can make it work, but that's twisting scripture. You see?
What is Paul talking about here? Well, number one, he's saying
that you as the brothers, you've got brothers among you, and I
say brothers, it could be sisters too. Brethren in the Greek is
inclusive of both men and women when it talks about the assembly. Anyone who is a part of you who
walks in idleness and does not walk in accord with the tradition
that you receive from us, keep away from them. What does that
mean? This is a small, just a small
teaching on church discipline. It's not very in-depth. It's
not what Paul taught at the Church of Colossae, I mean, Church of
Corinth. It's not how Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 18. But it's an allusion to that,
it's a pointing to that. Have nothing to do, stay away
from any brother who's walking in idleness. What's going on
here? Well, Paul gave them some instruction. He gave them instruction
that we see even in the first letter, to work with your hands.
What did he say? Work quietly and tend to your own business.
But doesn't that contradict what Paul taught us in other places
to make sure that we think more about the needs and the concerns
of others than the needs and the concerns of ourselves? Paul
didn't say, don't be concerned about others. He said, mind your
business. Stay out of people's affairs.
Quit trying to be the busybody. Oh, so we're not to have anything
to do with people who aren't working and who are not following
traditions that Paul is giving. What are those traditions? Well,
why don't we just go ahead and assume that the traditions that
we saw in the first letter are easily there, that we ought to
be praying, we ought to be assembled together. The Word of God is
synergistic in that it always affirms itself. It always is
consistent. So the scripture teaches us that
when we get together as often as we can, we ought to hear the
word of God. We ought to be teaching each other. We ought to be encouraging
and admonishing and rebuking each other through the word of
God. And we ought to do all these things with gentleness and patience
and kindness. Why? Because the reason that
we do it to begin with is because we love one another. So Paul
writes this letter out of the affection that he has for them
because he wants their joy to be full and complete. And then
Paul gives the instruction to the church in this way to have
nothing to do with the brother that walks in idleness and walks
not in the traditions that we gave you because he knows that
if we allow those people to go unchecked in the church, they
eventually will fall into sin and become divisive. They'll
become divisive. Well, what's divisiveness? Well,
is it the gospel divisive? Absolutely. Jesus himself said,
I know that's redundant, but Jesus said, I do not come to
bring peace, but a sword. So we know that sometimes our
enemies can be those of our own household because they do not
love God. They do not love the gospel,
but friends, what are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to
recognize it? But I think Paul goes on to tell
us. Because he gives the contrast. The command is to keep away from
any brother who's walking in idleness, not according to the
tradition that you receive from us. The contrast is you know
how, for yourselves, how you ought to imitate us. So as Paul
lived as an apostle, now keep in mind what an apostle is. The
authority of the apostles over the church still stands today.
How does that work? The New Testament. The Word of
God, the authority of the apostles. But there are no apostles. No
one is being sent by Christ to govern the expansion of the gospel
and the planting of churches. Now, there may be some apostolic-like
work. For example, planting Grace Truth
Church was apostolic-like, but the apostles planted Grace Truth
Church through the Word of God, and I'm just a shepherd. I'm
just a pastor, an overseer, one of many. So we don't need new apostles.
The apostles' work is finished. So, you know how we live. We
see how Paul lived. We see Paul lived with humility.
We see Paul lived with graciousness. Paul lived concerning himself
not with his own needs as we saw in Philippi, but Paul concerned
himself with the needs of the church. We saw Paul teaching
the Ephesians and the Philippians and others to do what was necessary,
to love each other, to be at unity with each other, to have
enough care to look out for each other's spiritual well-being
among all things, and that if anyone had need in the church,
to make sure that we who had something could give to someone
else who had need so that they may not go hungry. And this seems
to conflict with that, but we'll talk about what that looks like
in a second. So this is how Paul imitated, says we ought to imitate
him. Follow me as I follow Christ, Paul said. So we follow Christ.
How does Paul live? I live this life, how? By faith in the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. This is how we live. This is how we're supposed to
imitate. And so what is walking by faith in Jesus Christ have
to do with a brother that's idle? Because a brother that's idle,
something's wrong with this confession of faith. Think about that. And he's still a brother, but
he's lost sight of what faith in Jesus Christ is. Because if
we're believing in the sufficiency of Christ alone, then Christ
alone will do what Christ alone can do. You ought to imitate us. Because
when we were there, now we specifically know what he's talking about.
He says there, when we were there, verse 7, We were not idle. Now, what's he talking about?
Well, they were doing a lot of work. They were teaching a lot.
They were preaching a lot. They were praying a lot. They
were fighting. They were running. They were doing whatever they
had to do. When I say fight, I don't mean physically. But then also, they
were selling tents. They were helping the people
of the church. So that as they actually needed some food three
times or four times or five times a day, they didn't just show
up to the host house of the church and just gobble all the food
down and sit around and watch soccer all day. They probably, in our day, they
probably did whatever was needed doing physically for the sake
of the church. As they taught the church and
as they worked for the church, the church provided for them.
You see that? And we know Paul sold tents. What does that even
look like? I don't know. What's it look
like? But he says, imitate us. We were
active. We did not take anything that
even was our own right, he says, so that we would work night and
day that we not not be a burden to any of you. So in that like
manner, there are people in the church of Thessalonica who are
sitting around who are abled, who are doing nothing to the
cost of their own financial destruction, to their own inability to eat
food, and they're just sitting around waiting for the church
to take care of them because Paul commanded that we give to
those who have need. These aren't widows. These aren't
orphans. These aren't people who are disabled. These are people
who are just lazy. That's the point. Lazy. And worse than laziness, you
know what laziness, what I believe the root of laziness is? Entitlement. Laziness says somebody else will
take care of it. Somebody else will give to that
need. Somebody else will work that field. Somebody else will
pay that bill. I don't have to worry about it.
I know somebody's got it. That's what Paul's talking about.
And Paul's saying those folks need to be shoved out the door.
with prejudice. They will rob the joy of the
church. And some of you have been around
Grace Truth for a while, you know, we've had people like that. Just
come and take and take and labor. Have you ever been in a small
group of about, you know, seven, eight people? And you ever had
that one person that was always the dominating person in the
small group? Now I'm not talking about with good ideas or good
teaching or always wanted to talk. I'm talking about we're
talking, we're gonna learn out of John 6 today and they're gonna
talk about their marriage. Every week. You know that person?
Take, take, take. They're not, that's not even
who Paul's talking about. Paul's talking about people who take
and take and take from the labor of the church and never ever
lift a finger. And it can go from not willing
to work a job to not willing to help in the church to just
assume somebody else has got more time than they. Friends,
how much time do we really have? We've got a lot of time. I can
promise you, I have processed this for decades. We have a lot
of time. There is plenty of time in this
day. You think, man, I just don't
have time. Then stop doing what you're doing
when you think that and go do what you need to do. You want to learn what kind of
time you've got? Take a piece of paper with you. Every time
you change topics, every time you change Projects. Every time you change actions,
write the date, write the time and what you're doing. You got plenty. You got plenty. Some have less than others. But friends, there's always more
time to pray. There's always more time to serve.
There's always more time. There's always more time. Because
what we fail to forget is that God can do more with one hour
than we can do with six months. I just don't have time to read
my Bible. You are sadly mistaken. You don't have time not to. I'd
rather you go in late to work. That's a bad habit. Than not
read your Bible. Skip your lunch. Read your Bible. I just can't do that. That used
to be my excuse. I get really fidgety, upset, physically, just
when I need to eat, I get something happens in my body. I get dizzy. You know what's crazy? When I
read the Bible, it doesn't happen. We not only, we're not out on
verse eight, we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it. We did not do it. We worked day
and night that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was
not because we did not have the right to take your bread. See,
the apostles were supposed to be taken care of by the churches.
And when Paul was planting in this place, usually another church
in another city would help. But sometimes that wasn't enough.
And sometimes they had to supplement that and they would give more. They would sell things or whatever
they would do for labor so they could have money to buy bread.
You notice it didn't say car, mule, sword, sandals. It said bread. But we wanted to give you in
ourselves an example to imitate. Have you heard this before? Yeah,
you heard it in 1 Thessalonians, but you've also heard it in Philippians.
Well, Paul says, have this mind among you which is yours in Christ
Jesus. Though he was equal with God, he did not take equality
with God, something to be grasped, but made himself a slave, obedient,
even unto death. Have this mind among you. Though
we may be entitled, though we may have, let us not operate
under entitlement, but let us work and labor quietly. It does
no good for us to labor, especially in the Lord's work as a church,
grumbling. You know why? Because it's sinful. And it shows an attitude of thanklessness
and an attitude of unbelief. And we know that's not true,
beloved. We worked without a burden to
you and we taught you. Look at verse 10. For even when
we were with you, we would give you this command. It wasn't the
only command, but he reiterates what he's already said. If anyone
is not willing to work, then he adds something to it. He reminds
him, what does he say? Let him not eat. Let him not eat. Now a lot of
times here we get really confused because in our world today, and
I might have to just wrap this up and finish this text next
week, but in our world today we are told by the culture that
giving everything we have away to others is Christ-like. Now I mean it can be, but to
whom are we to give? Church. I mean, would Jesus not take
the same approach that even Judas Iscariot took? In John chapter
11, when Mary poured a year's wage over the head and feet of
Jesus and slopped it up with her hair, and the aroma of the
nard filled the house. I cannot wait to get into John. Judas and the other disciples
are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't pour that out. We can sell
that and give it to the poor. And Jesus says, oh, that's right. I am so sorry, let me wring this
out. No, he said, the poor you'll always have. So that means that no matter
how much food, how much money, how much stuff, how much benevolence
is given, the poor will always be there. And the poor will always
be the poor. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus, who is the majesty of
heaven, came down to become a nothing. Poor in spirit. And the Scripture shows that
those who had need in the church, that the church helped those
people. There is not one place in the entire Word of God where
people outside the camp of Israel or outside the camp of the church
were supported in any way. What about my neighbor? Feed
your neighbor. Feed your neighbor. What about
the guy I heard about down the street? Feed him, give him something
to eat, give him some clothes. It's great. But don't do it without
giving him the gospel. Because you know what? You can't
do it all the time, can you? So when what you give, gives
out, what do you have left? What do you have left? We pacify the needs of the flesh,
I don't know exactly how you said it years ago, Brother Jesse,
but about a year ago, if we keep feeding the flesh just like a
dog, they'll keep coming. But when we try to feed them
the bread of life, they'll run away. And right here, Paul is even
saying that those in the church who do not labor and are able
should not even be fed, that they might be ashamed so that
the hunger of their stomachs might push them into knowing
that they must have an attitude of service. Wow! That is so contrary to everything
I was taught. Everything I was taught. Proof text, John 6, other places,
Jesus feeds 5,000, Jesus feeds 10,000. Oh, he fed 10,000. And
then he refused to feed them one more bite and said, you come
after me because you want your bellies full. Stop it and starve.
But if you eat of me, you'll never be hungry. Even though
you're hungry, you won't be hungry. It's stressful. It's stressful
to consider what this might look like if we actually walked in
this way. And friends, I have been in the
ministry pretty much my entire adult life. Pretty much. And I will say to you, not with
a swollen head, please don't get a big head, but Grace Truth
Church does well in these things. No one yet has just enabled someone
to get away with robbery. Your compassion is godly. Your love and your prayers with
each other, I see it growing every day. And most importantly, I see you
growing to a place where you uphold the word of God. And many
of you test me on it. And that's a blessing. So when
we see things like this, We need to understand the complaint,
as Paul would say, many of you walk in idleness. You're not
busy at work, but you are busy bodies, verse 11. Now such persons
we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their
work quietly and to earn their own living. Do you see the context
now? There were people who were so sure and certain of the imminent
return or return of Jesus Christ had given up on anything related
to this world, that they were not willing to work to earn anything. And let me tell you something,
church. Work has never been a curse. Before Adam and Eve ate that
fruit, God blessed them with the gift of labor. Anyone who thinks that a job
or work or physically working or doing something for income
is not of God has never read the Bible correctly. We who do not work shun the gift
of God. What kind of work? Name something. Maybe you work for a company.
Maybe you have a company. Maybe you just work at home.
Maybe you're tending to your children. Maybe you're in the
ministry. Maybe you're a florist. I don't
know. Maybe you work at McDonald's. But work is not a curse. The
toil of it is a curse. The fact that it's so hard and
that we work for nothing. We plant and it gets weeds. We
plant and it gets weevils. But work is not a curse. Work
is a blessing and it is a gift of God and is part of the purpose
of God in the world. We must be busy. And when we
get to a place where we cannot work physically, we can work
in some way. One of the greatest lies that
I think the devil has perpetrated in the church of our culture
is that when we're not able to paint walls, or lay floor, or
dig ditches, or write big checks, that we're worthless. We're not
worthless. Friends, each of us can spend
time in prayer. Each of us can work toward encouraging
each other. Each of us can work in investing
in each other's lives. Friends, it's always work. There
is no such thing as godless work unless the type of work we do
is godless. Unless the company we work for
is godless. But do you know what I'm saying? People who are not busy, are
not working, they're not investing in their families, they're not
teaching their children, they're not helping the church, they're
worried and concerned only for themselves and they become busy
bodies always investing in how they can go around and stir stuff
up in the church. Think about it. One of the worst
things, one of the worst things that happened to our culture
is the fact that people can be taken care of by their parents
till they're 40. Think about that. The church
should not allow that. Family business is different. I'm talking about a guy 40 years
old spending $1,000 a month on Xbox games while his mama feeds
him. It's wrong. And church discipline
should be exercised on those people and those families who
continue to do that. What are you going to do with
your life? I don't know. Then let's pray that you can find
a place. Friends, when you're single, you can serve so much. When you're young, you've got
every second of your life in charge of it in your hands. Teenagers, ten-year-olds, You've
got more time now than you'll ever have, ever. What are you
doing with it? If you don't work, you don't
eat. We have a conflict. Life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. How demonic is that? It's idolatry. I'm thankful to
be living under such things, but let us not take for granted
the teaching of scripture. Let us not be busy bodies, but
let us be busy. It is good that we are busy and
not every action of work responds with remuneration. Sometimes
it is just the service to the body and the body then serves
each other. What does that look like in the
culture where Paul was? Anthropologists and archeologists, sociologists,
they all say that they know, but we don't really know. What
does it look like in our day? I think the list is too long
to figure out. We need to be diligent because
Paul would then command, and I'll talk about this next week.
such persons we command. Encourage the Lord to do their
work quietly, to earn their own living. As for you, brothers,
do not grow weary in doing good." Do not grow weary. If anyone
does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of them
and have nothing more to do with them that he may be ashamed.
Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. You
see, isn't that what the gospel empowers us to do. And Paul would
say there's therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ
Jesus. Why then do we condemn each other? Do we think that when we're walking
right with Christ that as I got to this conversation yesterday
and I like to lost my mind with a sinless perfectionist who said
to me out of his own mouth, my righteousness is greater than
yours and that of the Pharisees. to which I responded, you are
a liar, do not talk to me again. I mean, that's, I was abrasive,
but I was tired of it. Friends, if we think our righteousness
is good enough, we're in trouble. If we think our labor is good
enough, we're in trouble. And if we think working harder
makes God more pleased with us, we're in trouble. We're at peace
because of Christ. We're able to encourage someone
who's idle. Son, I need you to do this. I
need you to work on this. Daughter, I need you to deal
with this. Friend, brother, sister, how can I pray for you? How can
I encourage you? How can I help you? And sometimes
we can do all the help we can do and it still is not enough.
But at least we're working. At least we're working. And friends, we're all necessary. You recognize that? No one here
and the ones who aren't here are unnecessary, is unnecessary. We're all necessary for each
other. God has purposed us all to be here and all of our gifts
and all of our talents and all of our treasures and all of our
understanding of truth and everywhere that we are and everything that
we have and all that we could be is for the benefit of each
other. It's for the benefit of each
other. so that we might grow and worship
and do all things for the glory of God. Because that's ultimately
how we are going to live as God's people. We say everything, drink
everything, eat everything, and do everything for the sake of
giving glory to Jesus Christ who is our righteousness. That
is the purpose. That is the end of why we do
what we do every day. Whether we're working someplace
else, whether we're laboring for someone else, We're doing
that as unto the Lord as well. And it is a gift. And we need
to pray that as we see others come into our fellowship, as
we see those around us who just refuse to help do anything for
themselves, we have to come to a place where we go, I cannot
help you anymore until you have a willingness to work. It's tough. It's a simple message.
but it has a lot of implications. Let's pray. Father, how abruptly
these letters can transform into something that just doesn't.
Doesn't seem as glorious or as grand, but Lord, oftentimes the
grand and the glorious can put us into a place of just sitting
in awe, which is good, but you have purpose that we get up from
this place of just worship and awe and that we can continue
in our spirit to be in awe of you as we do that which you've
called us to do. Father, all of us have a job. All of us have
an opportunity to work. All of us have something that
we need to be doing with our hands and with our minds and
with our lives. No matter how old we are, no
matter how skilled we are, no matter how abled we are. And
Father, we are called to take care of those who cannot work
and cannot feed themselves and cannot provide for themselves
to a degree. Lord, let us make sure that we're
taking care of each other spiritually over those things. Let us make
sure that we who are maybe sound in our understanding of truth
and we walk rightly by your grace, Lord, help us to look out for
each other in those things. That we don't walk idly spiritually. and our obligation to bear with
each other and to teach each other and to grow with each other.
Lord, at minimum and most powerfully, cause us to pray for one another
daily. If each of us would pray every
day, Lord, your work in us would be overwhelming. Father, as we come to the end
of our service, and as we have opportunity for those who can
to fellowship together today, Lord, I pray that our minds are
set on the cross of Christ. That we may understand the labor
that came, the work that Jesus endured as a child, as a boy,
as a man. subjecting himself to just the
time involved in growing to a 30-year-old man and dealing with this world
and this life and enduring the temptation and the suffering. Father, the work that you sent
Christ to do on our behalf to live righteously where we could
not, to die satisfactorily where we could not and to be raised
to life so that we would be. forever alive in Him. As we take
of your table today, Lord, let us remember these things. And
I pray, Father, as all of us sit here, that we would evaluate
our hearts and would evaluate our faith and clearly look and
see that we are trusting in Christ alone. And it is in His name
we pray these things. Amen.