Untitled Sermon

2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Now, as we come to this section, we started it two weeks ago, and it's entitled Loving One Another. And I know you've forgotten all about it, and forgotten most of you probably. Where we were and what it had to do with. But I want you to understand the context of this is not disjointed from the first five verses of chapter 3, nor is it separate from the overall intent of 2 Thessalonians.

Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians as an encouragement to a church that thought that it had missed the rapture and was in the midst of the tribulation because suffering was intense. He wrote it to not only correct their eschatology or their understanding of end times events, but he wrote it to encourage them, encourage them in the faithfulness of God, that God's faithful no matter what the circumstances are, that they could trust him, and that they needed to be encouraging one another. There's a tendency at times when trouble hits to forget others and just take care of yourself, to just focus in on your own problems and forget that other people are going through similar things. And so Paul was encouraging them to consider one another,

to realize the necessity to minister. All the time continuing to look for the coming of the Lord. Every chapter of 1 Thessalonians ends with an exhortation of the Lord's coming, and the entire book of 2 Thessalonians is dealing with the soon coming of the Lord, but keeping your life in a proper perspective while you're waiting for that to happen, while you're waiting for his coming. And so let's just look at the first five verses here again.

Let me just read through them of chapter 3, just to keep us in context. He says, Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly, and be honored just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing, and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. Now, there you probably have a paragraph and a space, and probably in your study Bible, a title of a different subject, or a title that kind of indicates maybe we're going to a different topic right now. That's for study purposes, so that you have a frame of reference to come back and say, oh, that's what this part's talking about.

But too often, when we look at those, we think that the whole subject has changed. That Paul was writing about encouraging these brothers and sisters to pray for him, as he was going to be praying for them, that they would continue in the things that he has commanded them, that they would keep themselves in God, in God's love and Christ's perseverance. Now he's done with that. Now let's talk about discipline.

It's not. It's the same context. It's the same thought. So right now, ignore that space that's there. Ignore the little heading that's for study purposes, and keep this thought going, because Paul's giving an example now of what he's been talking about in the first five verses. He says in verse four, we have confidence in the Lord that you are doing, and will continue to do the things we command.

And he's implying, as you do this, may the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. Now in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we command you. He says in verse four, we have confidence that you're doing the things we command. Now in verse six, we command you in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked nightly, night and day, laboring and toiling, so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule, if a man will not work, he shall not eat. We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy. They are busy bodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter,

take special note of him. Do not associate with him in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. All Paul is writing concerning fellowship, fellowship, the fellowshipping of the saints, the fellowshipping of the church. Now, I don't know how you look at it, but you did not come to church today. You are the church. We just happened to meet in this building, but you are the church. And when the church comes together in fellowship,

there is an amazing event that takes place. There is. It's a mystery. It's something. It's something that is hard to understand and hard to define because there's a oneness and a unity with the church, with the body of Christ as the church comes together that's not found anywhere else. The world does not have what you have right now as the church comes together.

People can gather together in a building and they can have a speaker that stands up in front of them and talks to them and tries to motivate them. But there's not the koinonia. There's not the oneness. There's not the spirit. There's not the flow. There's not the power of God moving as there is as God's church comes together. So there is a powerful action and moving of God's Holy Spirit as we gather together.

So many people look at coming to fellowship as is just something you do rather than seeing the blessing and the benefit and the ministry that results when the church gathers together, when the body of Christ comes together. There are three things that the enemy will seek to do in your life, that Satan will seek to do. So many times people are looking for Satan under every rock, you know, or looking as to how the enemy is going to deceive. Hey, the main thing Satan wants to do is to, first of all, keep you out of the Word of God so that you're not reading his Word.

Secondly, he wants to keep you out of prayer because if you're in God's Word, then you're learning God's will. You're learning what God wants you to do. And Satan doesn't want you to do that. If you're praying, you're communing with God about his will, about what he desires to happen. There's a two-way communication now if you're in the Word and in prayer. And Satan wants to break that.

So he'll try to keep you out of the Word, and he'll try to keep you out of prayer. And thirdly, he'll try to keep you out of fellowship. It's not, you know, I can worship God by a lake. I can worship God under a tree. That's true. I can worship God in the quiet of my home. That's absolutely true. But there's a dynamic that happens ministry-wise as the body of Christ comes together

that you can't experience under a tree by yourself out at a lake. You can recognize the creative work of God. You can commune with him in prayer. You can read his Word there, but you're still missing a vital element for your growth, and that's fellowship. Acts chapter 2, the people gave... They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in the breaking of bread,

in prayer, and in fellowship. Those were the key things that kept them going. And so as we come together, don't just look at it as a ho-hum, something to do on Sundays or Sunday nights or Wednesdays or whatever. It's a time when the Holy Spirit moves in a way that he doesn't move at any other time. It's a time when you experience the nearness of God, the love of God,

in a way that you... you don't experience it any other time. And it's in a way that the world cannot experience. They have no idea what this is all about. They have no idea the blessing that takes place as we fellowship. Now remember that Satan will seek to try and keep you away from those three areas to weaken you, to get your eyes focused on yourself. And so Paul is saying,

keep yourself in the love of God. Keep yourself in Christ's perseverance. Continue to do the things that we command because I command you in the... in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 6, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching that you received from us. Now at this particular time, the church in Thessalonica,

as I mentioned, thought that the rapture had already come. Suffering was increasing with great intensity as Rome was continuing to persecute Christians throughout the empire. There was a letter that had supposedly come from Paul saying, that in fact it happened. I was wrong and the rapture's already happened and we're going through the tribulation. And so the people were upset and they were scared.

And some of them were thinking, well, if this is going on, then I'm just not going to care. I'm just going to sit back and just I'm not going to be involved not only in working and providing for their needs, but also in ministry, also in this area of ministering one to another. And Paul mentions it here in NIV as idle, if you're reading King James, it's unruliness or disorderliness. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, I think it's disorderly or it's one or the other, but it's the same word in the Greek and it's translated all three ways, idleness, disorderliness or unruliness.

And basically it has the connotation, as we saw last time, of the military marching and somebody or a group of people are really out of step. You know, the ranks look so good as they pass by and all the feet are going the same way, except this one, the guy back here, it just throws the whole picture off. Everybody, you can have 100 men marching and 99 of them are marching right and one guy's marching off and that's the one everybody sees. And it just, you know, it affects the entire group and that's what this idleness does.

That's what this unruliness does, this disorderliness. And so Paul is writing to correct that within this fellowship of believers. And he wrote back in 1 Thessalonians to try and correct it, chapter 4 and 5. It didn't. And now with this, this supposed letter that's come saying that yes, they are in the day of the Lord. They are in the time of the great tribulation.

People are, this idleness or this unruliness or this disorderliness is increasing. And so Paul is writing here to seek to correct that. And he admonishes that church and us, the church down through the church age, admonishes us four ways regarding idleness. Because idleness is as much a problem today. Disorderliness is as much a problem today. Unruliness is as much a problem today

within the church as it was back then. We talked about this a lot in detail last time. So you can get the tape. The tapes are free to sign up in the lobby if you want specifics on that. We started off though looking at these four admonishments. Last time we began with Paul's first admonishment which is the admonishment of the Word of God, the command of the Word of God.

In verse 4 he says that we have confidence in the Lord that you're doing and will continue to do the things we command. In verse 6 he says, therefore we command you, brothers. In verse 10 he says, for even when we were with you, we gave you this rule, it's the same Greek word, this command, if a man will not work, he shall not eat. In verse 11 we hear that some people are idle or unruly or disorderly.

They're not busy. They're busy bodies. Verse 12, such people we command, the same word, and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there in verse 12 and back in verse 6, Paul says, in Jesus' stead and in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's saying, this is God's Word. This is not just from me, Paul. This is the Word of God. As if Christ himself were telling you this. So Paul is commanding,

Paul is giving an admonishment concerning God's Word. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, follow my command. Be obedient to that that I'm commanding you. He says, verse 6, the second half, keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching or the truth. Tradition, which the traditions there that it's mentioned are simply precepts

which are based upon doctrine which have been handed down or the commands of the Lord. Keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching or the commands that you receive from us. Now, we'll talk in a minute about what he's meaning by keep away from every brother. Why don't you just kind of sit that in the back burner of your brain right now and let's go on with the rest of this and we'll get to that.

The Word of God is one of the things that Satan will try to keep you out of and try to get you to measure your situations and your circumstances based on your own perception, based on your own intuition, based on your own attitudes. What happened last night with the storm? Was it just a random storm? Was it just something that happened? Was it a freak of nature?

Was it simply a cause of a certain cold front moving into a certain hot air mass and it just simply happened to come together where it came together and did the things that had happened? Or is this something that is indeed divinely directed? Or is it the enemy seeking to squash people and God simply allowing it to happen? Well, this morning in Psalm 148, we read where the lightning and the hail and the clouds and the waters above the earth and the storms itself praise God.

So somehow that storm was in submission to the Lord. Somehow, not to give it personality, but somehow all of the elements of everything that happened was in submission to the Lord. And if you're not in the Word of God, if you're not in the Word of God, if you're not in the Word of God, if you're not realizing the commands of God and that all of those elements are subject to God, you can come up with all kinds of ideas as to why that happened and how, poor little old me, I've been hit with this trouble now and I don't need this trouble now and why did it have to hit right now? And why am I getting picked on?

God isn't picking on you. But if you're out of His Word, you think all kinds of different things. And so Paul's drawing us back, first of all, to the teachings, to the traditions, which are precepts based on doctrine that have been handed down to us concerning this idleness. Now, specifically here, he's looking at the labor, their labor and their working to provide for their own needs.

Verse 10, there were those who were able to work, but they were not willing. There was an unwillingness to labor here. But I think you can look at this idleness as the unruliness that can refer to anything unruly that takes away from the blessing of the fellowship of the body of Christ. Paul says, I command you, to keep the teaching and to keep away from every brother who is idle, who is unruly, who is disorderly, and doesn't live according to that doctrine that we've handed you.

Stay in the Word of God. The enemy will try and keep you out of it. You have to willingly choose to spend time with the Lord. We went out this morning to survey our damage. We've got part of our roof torn off, shingles all over the place. We have a huge TV antenna, which we don't use, but it's bent over the house. Last night, when the second wave hit, we have double front doors,

and they just both blew open, and the pin broke the top part of the door. We're trying to get downstairs, and I ran over, and I shut these doors, and I'm holding them, thinking I need to get that pin pushed down. I had the upper pin up, but I didn't have the bottom pin pushed down. I'm standing there, and there's somebody out there pushing against us, and I'm standing there trying to hold this shut.

It's like the things you see on TV, where somebody's trying to get into, and I'm standing there thinking, this is a tornado. Why am I holding the door shut?

I prayed, and God answered, and let it kind of break there for a minute to where I could get that thing pushed down and the door locked and get downstairs. We went out to survey the damage, and there's lots of damage. I went this morning, and it's real easy to think we just spent all this time moving in, and we don't need this extra stuff to do. I just sat down, and I said, Lord, show me something from your word.

I went to the Psalms, and I just started reading the Psalms, and that's where I came across Psalm 148. You caused the lightning and the hail and the waters above the earth and the clouds and the storms to praise you. Well, praise God. You're in control. Thank you, Lord. And it's just a peace that came over. Stay in the word. Secondly, Paul gives us his own example

as an admonishment where this idleness is concerned, this unruliness. Verse 7, he says, For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle or unruly or disorderly when we were with you. We were not idle or unruly or disorderly when we were with you. We were not idle or unruly or disorderly when we were with you. We were not idle or unruly or disorderly

when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling, so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command, If a man will not work, he shall not eat.

Paul says, as an apostle, I had a right to expect support from you. As an apostle. I am an apostle. And I had a right to expect that support, that you would help us as we came to minister to you. But he says, I gave up that right to be an example to you. To be an example, especially to young believers, to be a model for you. Paul said, I didn't demand any financial support

because I wanted to be a model of how God will provide if we're obedient to his word and if we just set ourselves to do the labor that's necessary, how God will take care. And God will provide. And that's why we don't hound you for finances. That's why you don't hear a financial message every time you come to church. That's why we don't take a formal offering.

But there's boxes at the entrances that between you and the Lord, you can worship him with your giving. There are churches that have pledge cards. You know, they have the little cards in the pews. And they have pledge week or pledge Sunday or pledge month or pledge year. You know, this is pledge day. And you're going to make it. You're going to make it. You're going to make a pledge.

And you're going to sit down and you're going to put down what you're going to pledge to give. And you write that down and you put it in your offering envelope and give it. And then they send you a statement, you know. And you give so much. And after a quarter, they send you a statement that says, you still owe, you know, there's the red lines down here. You still owe X amount.

And it can get to the point. Now, I'm not saying it does, but it can get to the point where you're looking at, well, I've got my phone bill and my visa bill and my church bill. And I've got these things to pay. And now your attitude to giving has been, well, I've got to fulfill this pledge rather than, Lord, here's the first fruits of everything you've given me.

I want to give back to you as you've commanded in your word to be obedient to you out of love because you have so richly blessed me, Lord. Here in worship are the first fruits that belong to you. It's not, you know, well, the pastor needs a salary and I have a right to a salary because, you know, I labor in the word and labor in ministry and all that stuff. Hey, you give as unto the Lord in worship to the Lord and we receive it that way and we hold what you give in high regard.

It's not something we take lightly because we know we're going to answer to God for what we do with what you give. And so we disperse it worshipfully. Lord, is this where you want it to go? Is this the thing that you want it to do? Is that the need that's before us right now? And several ways we minister, we minister to meet people's needs. You would be amazed.

Well, maybe not. You know the needs that you have. We have several scores of people in our fellowship with needs and people who know people within our fellowship with needs. And when we find the need, we try and meet that need as anonymously as we can so that people won't become dependent upon the church. The ministry will give discreetly and secretly so that they'll just receive it.

They've got nobody to thank but God. And it's exciting to do that. And God continues to bless where that's concerned. And so when you give, it's not under coercion. It's not you should, you're sitting here and you ought to give. It's, boy, Lord, I'm getting blessed and you're feeding me. And God, I give to you in worship because I love you. And because that's what your word says

and I want to be obedient to you because I love you. And your leadership here seeks to model that before you, not demanding anything. Selfish leaders use people to build their own support. They're not concerned with the people. They're not concerned with the needs of the people, but they claim their rights as leaders. But a truly dedicated leader will seek to build up the flock.

He gives. Gives himself for the flock. Gives himself for the people. Lay aside his rights and his privileges for the sake of others. And Paul says that's what he did. I made myself an example to you. And he refers to that example in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 9. Same thing. And in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 9, he called them to follow his example again. To follow his modeling.

Warren Wiersbe makes an interesting point. He says, you know, there's a difference between authority and stature. There's a difference between authority and stature. And too often in our jobs and in our marriages and in our churches, we seek to claim authority when rather we should be seeking to build stature. Stature is action by example. It's that area where you don't claim

to be the authority. You simply do. You do what you talk. You don't just say that this is what somebody does. You do it. It's, it's, Wiersbe says, authority comes from position. Stature comes from practice and example. Stature is what earns the leader the right to exercise authority. Stature is what earns the leader the right to exercise authority. Paul said, we didn't,

we didn't come demanding. We came serving. We came pouring out. We came taking care of our own needs so that we wouldn't be a burden to you to lead by example. And in that you see his stature, not his claiming of authority. That's how we raise people up into leadership here. Somebody, somebody wanting to be a deacon it's or an elder. It's like, it's like on Kung Fu.

And remember, remember Carradine, you know, and he was sitting out there in front of the place waiting to get into the, to the temple. And, and, and he was, you know, he finally got to the point where he realized I just humbly submit and however they want to do it. And that's, that's the, finally, it was the humility that brought him in, that finally brought him in. And that's, that's how you see service in scripture.

It's not the seeking of a position. It's just the ministering. It's the stature that's built as you take an example with the action, the ministry that, that you're doing and that's recognized. And then we say, hey, we see the Lord's hand in your life raising you up to this area of, of the title, the position, the authority of being a deacon or the same thing with our deacons when we move them to elders, it's the same thing.

They're already functioning. They're not seeking the position. They're not seeking the authority. They're seeking to build that stature. And that's what Paul's saying here. They're the only place that Paul gives his credentials for apostleship. He gives it apologetically. Second Corinthians chapter 11, he says, ah, you guys are wanting to know, you know, you've been asking, well, who does he think he is

claiming to be an apostle? Well, okay, here you go. And he gives his credentials, which are his sufferings for the church. I've been shipwrecked three times, been in the water overnight twice. I've been beaten with rods three times. I've been beaten with a whip five times. I've been stoned twice and left for dead. And he goes down through his credentials and then he goes on in to say,

and as he goes down through that, he goes, this is foolishness, but for your sake, you wanted to know this is stupid, but here's the credentials for it. Rather than just saying, by my example, you want to see the fellowship function smoothly. You want to see it keep from idleness, from unruliness, from disorderliness, then keep yourself in the word of God and follow the example that of Paul and of Peter and of Christ, the others that we have in the word of God, follow their example. Paul says, follow my example.

We're going to Philippians next. So starting next week, we'll be in the book of Philippians. Start reading ahead now. And in there, he says, the things that you have seen and heard and learned from me, these things do. Follow my example. That's what you and I should be saying to one another. I don't know a whole lot about Christianity. I don't know a whole lot.

Fine, just follow me. Just follow me and we'll walk through it together. I may be one step in front of you, but I'm ahead of you. So follow me. I'm learning right along with you. Just follow me. And you get to the point where you realize people are following your example. It keeps you on your toes. You don't want to lead them astray. You don't want to lead them down a wrong path.

So Paul says, follow my example. And in this sense, he uses the example of his own physical labor. And he says, hey, deliberate loafers are not going to be supported by the church. If you're just loafing and expecting the church to support you, forget it. Pull your own weight. You're not supported out of a false sense of charity. How many times have you heard that?

Somebody comes and asks for finances and you say, gosh, I'm sorry. I just can't help you right now. I thought you were a Christian. We have people coming in here. All the time wanting help with rent, wanting help with gas and utilities and all of that stuff, all the time. And we're just flat out of funds. I mean, just, we help as many as we can. And then we run out and I'm sorry.

Well, I thought you were a Christian. There you go. Okay, let's back up. Let's get you some work here. Let's get you a job. Well, no, I don't want to do that. And they leave. They want to work. They just want handouts. As though the church is some kind of charity that just does that, that just does handouts. Paul says, nope, deliberate loafers we don't support

out of a false sense of charity. Stay in the word, for you'll see the examples in the word of what we are to do. And then thirdly, he says that one of the admonishments for dealing with this idleness is the encouragement of the church, the encouragement of the church. And this is where we hit this area of what we're supposed to do. Back in verse six, the last half, he says,

"'We command you brothers to keep away "'from every brother who is idle "'and does not live according to the teaching "'you receive from us.'" Then down in verse 11, "'We hear that some among you are idle. "'They are not busy. "'They are busy bodies. "'Such people we command "'and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ "'to settle down and earn the bread they eat. "'And as for you brothers,

"'never tire of doing what is right. "'If anyone does not obey our instructions in this letter, "'take special note of him. "'Do not associate with him "'in order that he may feel ashamed. "'Yet do not regard him as an enemy, "'but warn him as a brother.'" The encouragement of the church. And one thing I want you to see here first is what he says in verse 13,

do not lose heart doing good. The encouragement of the church, the fellowshipping together. How many times have you been in fellowship and somebody says or does something and it hurt you? How many times have you tried to minister to somebody else, to be an encouragement and they've spurned it, they've turned it away or they've taken advantage of it and hurt you?

And it's real easy to wanna say, fine, forget it. You've hurt me, you've said something and I'm gonna go sit on the other side of the church and I'll just show you. I'm not gonna say anything to you anymore. A matter of fact, I may even leave this church and go somewhere else. I'm tired of reaching out. I'm tired of trying to be good. Paul says, no, don't, never tire, never tire.

Do not lose heart of doing good, doing good, doing what God commands us to do. You stay in his word, you stay in fellowship, that fellowship with the saints, you stay in prayer and you keep ministering to one another, having that others centeredness. You see, that quells the argument. Well, they do it, why can't I? Or since he's done that, I'm not gonna. You see, sin in the life of a believer

affects the entire body. There's no such thing as a secret sin. There's no such thing as a secret sin. What you think you may be doing in secret that nobody else knows is already affecting other people in the body. Maybe it's a spouse, maybe it's a good friend, where now a friendship is crumbling because of a secret sin and you can't put your finger on it. Maybe it's your health that's failing

because of a secret sin and it's affecting the loved ones that are around you. There's no such thing as a secret sin. You can't do something over here that's against God's word, that's against God's law, that doesn't affect other people. Let me give you a good example. Close your eyes and reach around somewhere with one of your hands and pinch yourself on another part of your body.

You know right where you were. Okay, another. Reach over and pinch somebody next to you. No, that. They'll let you know where it is, too. You can't do something that doesn't affect the entire body where sin is concerned. Sin affects the body. We belong to one another and what we do affects one another. That's why this area of idleness or unruliness or disorderliness needed to be confronted.

Look at the progression of it. Back in verse six, it's this disorder, this orderliness or this idleness. Now in verse 11, you have become a busy body. Rather than being busy, and this is a play on words, rather than being busy doing what you're supposed to do, not just your labor to provide for your needs, but ministering one to another, keeping yourself in God's love and in Christ's perseverance, continuing to do the things we command.

Rather than being busy that way, you become busy bodies. Busy bodies, literally in the Greek, it means you are busy fooling around. You're busy laboring at things that don't matter. The things that actually are hindering or hurting. You're meddlesome. A meddlesome, somebody who meddles is another way that it's used in scripture. First Timothy chapter five, verse 13 says that they,

these people are those who meddle in matters that do not belong to them. And rather than coming and seeking to minister to those that are here, you're just wanting to come and find out little tidbits of information. So you can know what the score is. So you can know what's going on. So the next time you're in conversation, you can pass it on. Pass that little tidbit on

and maybe cause some kind of little schism over here or draw people together who don't like the pastor or don't like this elder or this deacon or this ministry, the way that it's going. That's busy bodies. You see, they're self-centered. They're drawing people after themselves rather than being other-centered and seeking to minister, seeking to meet the needs of others, working, laboring where that's concerned.

Paul says you move from idleness or unruliness to being busy bodies. Now, most cultures have their sayings about idleness. The Romans say, by not or by doing nothing, men learn to do evil. By doing nothing, men learn to do evil. Isaac Watts has written, for Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do. Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.

Now, you may like me be thinking, idleness, quiet time with nothing to do. I don't have any time like that, you know? I remember when Anna and I first got married, we used to sit around going, what do you want to do today? I don't care, what do you want to do today? Well, I don't care, what do you want to do today? And we'd go on for weeks that way. You know, what do you want to do?

I don't care, we didn't have anything to do. I mean, we'd go to work and come home, nothing planned, nothing scheduled. We were new Christians, we weren't all active in all the Bible studies and everything yet, and idleness, and I don't, yeah, I don't have that anymore. You know, it's, God, I need some time, you know? I don't have time. But we can get involved in doing things that seem good

that aren't maybe the best, that can cause an unruliness within our families, that can cause an ought between a husband and a wife, or between us in fellowship, because we're not taking care of what the Lord wants us to take care of first. What's primary and of utmost importance, Lord, that you want me to deal with first in my relationship with you? And so Satan can still find some mischief for idle hands to do. The Jewish rabbis have written, he who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to be a thief.

He who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to be a thief. Idleness. Paul says in verse 12, you need to just settle down and earn the bread that you eat. Just calm down and get to work, be obedient, fall back into the things that you know you're supposed to do, be in the word of God, follow our example. You know, several months ago, I mentioned that we were in a study,

and it was dealing with faith, and our faith is simply just being obedient to what God's called us to do, just trusting God that he's gonna do what he said he's gonna do, and we're just obedient to what he's told us to do while he's told us to do what he's doing. And we just mainly have to row and bail, like the disciples going across. They freaked out and woke Jesus up, and he was mad at them, not because they didn't have the faith to calm the storm. He wasn't expecting them to calm the storm.

He was expecting them to go to the other side, because that's where he said we're going. They expected them to just row and bail, and they freaked. God wants us to just row and bail, just continue on being obedient, just continue on. With what he's commanded us to do, just trusting him. Paul says, get back to that. Settle down and just get back to that. Now the church is to take part in this discipline.

I don't know if you're aware of that or not. You know, we often have had people come and say, did you know that so-and-so is doing this? You know, like it's on the side, and it's on the sly, and we're telling you this so that you'll go take care of it. Is that the proper thing to do? Is that what the Bible says is supposed to happen? No, it's not. The pastor and the elders are not the sin police.

We're all a part of one another. We're all a part of the body. And so we're all involved in discipline, in church discipline together. And that's what Paul's dealing with here. Concerning, if we love one another, we'll discipline one another. Listen, and some of you are not gonna like this. I believe in spanking. I believe spanking is a biblical discipline.

If you have children, I believe that there is a time where there should be spanking. I don't believe we've outgrown that. I don't think we've gotten intellectual enough and grown up sophisticated enough that we've outgrown that corporal punishment that's archaic and old and outdated and outmoded and Old Testament. No, God is the same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In Hebrews chapter 12, the writer of the Hebrews says, "'No discipline for the moment is pleasant. "'No chastening for the moment is pleasant, "'but God disciplines.' "'And the idea is he disciplines with pain "'in order to bring us to that point of obedience. "'And obedience in the long run brings forth fruit.'" I believe in discipline. I believe in spanking.

And if you are gonna discipline biblically, you have to realize that a line has been drawn in the sand by the state. It's not the Bible that's drawn the line. It's the state. And the state says you cross this line into discipline this way, and you can be charged with abuse. Now, the reason it's gotten to that point is because people have drifted so far from biblical discipline,

the commands of scripture, that we have a decadent society that there is more and more abuse because of the decadence. Not because of the discipline. It's because of a lack of discipline. I believe in positive reinforcement. When somebody does something right, you reinforce that. Hey, way to go. Commend them. That's great. But the rod of reproof has been given by God

to drive foolishness from a child. And if you withhold that, listen, God says, not me, God says you're withholding love from that child because God disciplines us that way. And the church is to be involved in discipline of one another. And if you're not, if you're not up for confronting, I'm just coming to sit and leave, then you are saying, I really don't love you.

I really don't want to be involved. I really don't want to love. I just want to get fed and go. Then that's not love. And we are to be involved in discipline. That discipline is the exercise and the evidence of correcting love. And Paul says, I command you to keep away from every brother, verse six, who is idle. Verse 14, take special note of him if he is not obeying our instructions,

do not associate with him. That's church discipline. Now there are various times that discipline is to occur in the church with the fellowship doing it. I want to show you one that has been misunderstood a lot. Hold your finger here, go back with me to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18, familiar set of scripture. There's a lot of scripture that's pulled out of this

and wrongfully applied. It's applied to other areas rather than what its context intends it to be. Matthew chapter 18, if a brother sins against you, isolate yourself and go sit on the other side of the church and maybe even leave the church because that's the right thing to do. After all, I don't like him because he did that to me. Is that what it says? You know what happens when you do that and you're afraid?

See, by our very nature, we will offend each other. I will do or say something in the course of either being up here or dealing in just my daily activities. I'll forget to wave when you go by and you'll think, have you got a cob, you know? Is he stuck up? What's the deal here? And if you take an offense and just go on with that, the next time you see me, that attitude

is going to affect your perception. He's wearing red and black checks. He knows I don't like red and black check. He wore those red and black checks just to make me mad. We laugh, but that's the way we are. If a brother offends you, sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you. Now, you're not headhunting. You're not going and saying, you creep, look at what you,

why did you ignore me? What's your purpose in going to him? It's not to prove you're right in something and he's wrong. It's to go and say, I miss our fellowships. Because of what's happened here, it's put a kink in our relationship with each other, and I miss that fellowship. And so I'm coming to say, hey, this is, and whatever this is, then this has affected our fellowship.

And it says, and if he listens to you, you've won your brother, verse 16. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. You're not ganging up on him. You're again coming and appealing to him, appealing with this humility. It's for the sake of gaining our relationship, our fellowship

back. And this has created an offense. It's not to prove me right and you're wrong. It's to draw us back into fellowship, so that every matter may be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Verse 17, if he refuses to listen to him, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

It doesn't mean you hate him. It means you treat him as an unbeliever. And what do you do with unbelievers? You try and lead them to Jesus. You try and get them saved. So you're dealing with him now, not as an enemy, but as one who needs the love of Christ. So you're going to love him. Whether he loves you or not, it doesn't mean you just set him out and forget him.

We've had to set people out before. We have set people out of the fellowship. And we've told them, this is an area where there needs to be repentance, or we can't have you back in. But it's not, you see him on the street and you go, hey, you treat him as an unbeliever. And you seek to draw him with the love of Christ. That's what he's talking about here. Now, it says, verse 18, I tell you the truth,

whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. I've heard this applied to so many different things other than what? The context he's dealing with. He hasn't changed the context. Hasn't changed. He's dealing with discipline. But I've heard we bind Satan, and we loose Satan, and we bind this activity, and we loose this activity.

And they're referring to this verse. And it has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with he's not heeding church discipline. He's bound from the fellowship. He's set outside the fellowship. And God honors that because God honors the discipline, because he knows you're doing it out of love. And God will honor the discipline in your home, because he knows you're doing it out of love.

And God honors the confrontation that we have between brothers and sisters for the sake of keeping fellowship. I don't know how many of you in here may not like somebody that's here. But I've heard from several of you before that you don't like so-and-so, one of the elders or so, because he was really a .. And it's like you're into toleration. Well, let me exhort you.

You've got to love him. If you're really a Christian, you've got to love him. And that means you take the action. You take the steps. You pray for. You bless. You do good unto, as Jesus said. You don't isolate yourself, because you want to restore fellowship. That's the goal. And the binding and loosing is like 1 Corinthians 5, where the guy's set outside the church because

of an incestuous relationship, and he wouldn't repent. And then in 2 Corinthians 5, he comes back, and Paul says, hey, release him to come back into the fellowship now so that Satan doesn't devour him out there. And he's loosed from that binding, and he's restored back into fellowship. Binding and loosing here refers to church discipline. And God honors that.

How does he honor it? Look at this. I tell you the truth. Whatever is bound on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you, verse 19, and he's dealing in the same context. If two of you on earth agree. About anything you ask for, it will be done to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name,

there I am with them. And as we people get together, well, we're going to get together any two or three people because we're praying for this event to happen. And it says where two or three are asking in my name. Whatever two of you agree on touching anything, I'll be there. So we're going to get together and pray for this Cadillac, or we're going to get together and pray for this whatever.

And that has nothing to do with it. The context is dealing with restoration and fellowship as a result of church discipline. Wherever two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst. How many times have I heard people say that? Well, there's two or three of us here together. Jesus is here in the midst. Hey, Jesus was in your heart before the other two came.

He was there with you before the other two came. This has nothing to do with two or three getting together. Now we've got power to ask God. You had power to ask God by yourself for whatever you're dealing with. This is regarding church discipline. Whatever two or three of you agree on here, wherever two or three of you are gathered, there I am in the midst of you as you're dealing

with this church discipline, as you're taking that stand where the discipline's concerned, God's saying, I'm there because it's a demonstration of your love one for another. So there's various times in scripture. We don't have time to go into all of them. A believer is overtaken in sin, Galatians chapter 6, the first three verses. What are you supposed to do?

You're supposed to approach him gently. Gently, that's why I don't like the concept of the sin police. Here we come, the elders of the church, we're going to throw you out. No, consider yourselves also, Galatians 6 says, lest you also be tempted and overtaken in the same sin. You come humbly. You come beseeching and begging as a brother to restore that one back into fellowship.

To help him, to be accountable to him. Titus chapter 3, verse 10, somebody who's a repeating troublemaker. He's causing division. Paul told Titus, you warn him once, then you warn him twice, and after that, don't have anything to do with him. Just set him out. Open to morality. We've already talked about 1 Corinthians chapter 5. You confront, and you confront, and then finally you

bring him before the church, and then you set him out. Set him outside the fellowship if there's no repentance. Here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, he's dealing with lazy saints. Lazy saints. He says, exhort them and warn them. And if there's no response, then he says, withdraw your intimate fellowship from them. He says, verse 6, keep away from. That doesn't mean just ignore.

In verse 14, he says, take special note of him, and do not associate with him in order that he may feel ashamed. That's not the intensity of the Greek, is not that you shun them. That's where the Amish get the idea of shunning, is from these verses. Somebody sins, then you shun them, and that has the idea that you just totally ignore their existence. They're not there.

They don't fellowship with us, you don't eat with them, and they shun them to make them feel ashamed. That's taking it to the radical extreme of what's intended here. What's intended here is you withdraw intimate fellowship. You still treat him as a brother, and Paul knows that we're. We're prone to go radical, and so he qualifies in verse 15. Yet do not regard him as an enemy,

but warn him as a brother. Hey, you know, I just, I'm sorry, you're a brother, but I don't agree with this that's going on, and so, you know, I'm just, I'm praying right now. And just kind of withdraw that intimate fellowship, that real koinonia that we have here, where this idleness, this unruliness is concerned. But all the time, there's patience, and there's love, and there's the grace of God.

It's not a shun. So Paul says, obey the commands of God. Follow my example. Use the fellowship. You, as fellowshipping one to another, be not afraid to confront where these things are concerned. And finally, realize the presence of the Lord, that the presence of God is with you. Verse 16, may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.

Do you realize that he will and that he does? The other day, we got back from Colorado, and we were at a conference Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. We left before noon, got back to Denver. We were in Colorado Springs, got back to Denver. Went and got a Ryder truck. Within a couple hours, had a couple of guys there. Loaded the truck and took off from Denver, heading back this way.

We got to Lyman and spent the night. That night in Denver, there were 90 mile an hour winds that tore trees out of the ground and everything else. And so it was God's foresight that caused us to leave before that next day. But from Lyman to Hayes, we still had strong winds. So much so, Ann and my dad said that they would follow me, and I was driving the truck, that the truck just kind of leaned to this side

the whole way. And I'm sitting here like this, driving from Lyman to Hayes that way, just fighting that wind. And then the rest of the way from Hayes on in, it was periodic. Wind burst. So you're driving along, and all of a sudden, whammo! You know, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, back over here like this. And so we got in, and I was dragging. I mean, I was exhausted.

I was thinking we were going to get in at 4. We didn't get in until 6. And God bless you, the guys that were contacted. And I'm sorry if you weren't contacted. It just happened that fast. But people were there, and they were helping us unload. But I was tired, and I was a jerk. I mean, I was just really a jerk. And so I apologize to those of you that were there,

because I may have been short with you. I was just a jerk. And I knew that God's peace was there. I mean, it was there. And it was mine to have. And I knew that. And I didn't want it. I was wanting to do this on my own. I want to be a jerk! You know, I want to feel sorry for myself. I've driven all this way. And I'm tired. And I don't want to unload right now.

And I want to feel sorry. And yet God's peace is right there. All the time. All the time. You don't have to be a jerk. You don't have to be. We only are jerky because of choice. Nobody makes us jerks. You're angry because you choose to be angry. Nobody makes you angry. You're upset because you choose to be upset. Nobody makes you upset. You're disappointed because you choose to be disappointed.

Nobody makes you disappointed. You're a jerk because you choose to be a jerk because God's peace is there and it's available if you'll receive it. And Paul says, for all this is concerned, God's peace is with you. He will give you that if you will just receive it. And then he says, this last half of verse 16, the Lord be with you all. We need to constantly recognize that presence.

Verse 17, Paul is affirming. He's saying, now this letter is from me. Here's my mark or here's my signature. He's had a secretary write this down for him, but he signs it at the end of the letter so that there's a signifying mark that probably nobody else could copy because most believe that Paul had some kind of an eye disease and he probably couldn't even see the paper.

He's probably right down on the paper. And I think of Pastor Robbie whenever I read this. This is my mark. And it's like nobody else can copy it. And Robbie's, you know, his signature, you can't copy Robbie's signature. It's a distinguishing mark. It's a distinguishing characteristic. And Paul says, this is showing you that it's from me. And then he finishes verse 18,

the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Paul could exhort him and he could admonish him and he could. Warn him, then he commits him into the hands of God. He commits him into the grace of God. The Lord's coming soon. As we close today, let me just say the same thing to you. The Lord is coming soon. I mean, it's sooner than we realize. It's immediately.

There's so many things going on in Israel that we're not being made aware of. Do you realize all the elections that are happening this year? Elections in Israel, elections in Russia, elections in the United States, elections in Egypt. Mubarak evidently had just encouraged Syria that if they would attack Israel because of their activities in Lebanon, that Egypt would follow suit and attack from the south.

You don't hear that in the secular press. But Mubarak and Egypt are ready to break the Camp David Peace Accord for the sake of annihilating Israel. If that happens, Israel will unleash nuclear. Russia will come down. Ezekiel 38, 39 will be fulfilled. The church will be out of here. We're going. We're that close. We're a hair's breadth away. And so it's not time to play games.

It's not time to just go to church. It's time to really realize where we're at. Realize our calling as parts of the body of Christ. Give ourselves to prayer. Give ourselves to the study of the word. Give ourselves to fellowshipping and the breaking of bread together, which specifically deals with communion. But those times that we break bread and eating together too

as it brings about a oneness or koinonia of the king. Give ourselves to those things as we're waiting for the Lord's coming. Let's stand. If you need prayer this morning for anything, if there's maybe there's maybe there's somebody that you're having a problem with. Maybe there's somebody that you're having a problem with. Maybe there's an area of fellowshipping

where you realize that there's something that's hindering your relationship with the Lord because of your fellowship or lack of with somebody in this fellowship. And you need prayer where that's concerned. The brothers will be down front. I encourage you to come down for prayer. The Lord has such, such sweet, refreshing fellowship that he wants to have with you this morning.

And maybe the storm is just something that he's used to stir up your own heart, to shake you out of your routine, to cause you to see your own frailty and your own inability to do it all yourself and to fix it all yourself. And he's just wanting you to call upon his name and trust him. I urge you to do that this morning before you leave. If you need someone to pray with, the brothers will be down front to pray with you, to pray for you.

And so let's let's not leave choosing to be jerked. Let's choose to follow the Lord. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for the refreshing that comes after the storm. We thank you that we realize that all this stuff's going to burn anyhow. And the greatest thing we have is our relationship with each other and our fellowship with you. And so let us really set our hearts

to being committed to maintaining those relationships, Lord. Help us as brothers and sisters to stay in your word, to stay in prayer, to stay in fellowship, ministering, to have that other-centeredness, Lord, that we need to have. For it's in Jesus' name that we pray.