Introduction:
Proverbs 26:13 - The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! There is a lion on the streets!"
1 Thessalonians 4:11 - and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you
How to Deal with Lazy Freeloaders in the Church (2 Thessalonians 3:6-18):
- Set an
Example . (2 Thes 3:7-9)
1 Corinthians 9:9 - For it is written in the Law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
1 Timothy 5:8 - But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
- Don't be an Enabler . (2 Thes 3:10-12)
- Avoid Him. (2 Thes 3:13-15)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:41-00:47
2 Thessalonians 3, we're going to be picking up in verse 6 where we left off last week.
00:47-00:50
And this is the last message in our series.
00:51-00:57
We are living on the edge of the apocalypse.
00:59-01:03
The title of today's message is, in the meantime, don't be lazy.
01:05-01:08
Today we're going to talk about work.
01:10-01:19
And much like Mark's checkbook, there's a generation coming up that is unfamiliar with the term.
01:22-01:32
It's a foreign concept, and I might be showing my age here, but I remember when work was considered a virtue.
01:34-01:38
It was a compliment to say that someone was hard working.
01:39-02:00
Now it kind of sounds like a disease, like, "Ew, why does he do that?" But church, as our culture drifts further away from God, which we're seeing, our culture is also going to drift further away from working.
02:00-02:02
You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second.
02:04-02:06
How did you make that connection?
02:07-02:18
How in the world are those two things connected that drifting from God also means drifting from hard work?" And it's just simply this.
02:19-02:22
We were designed to work.
02:24-02:28
That's part of being made in the image of God.
02:30-02:34
Because if you read God's Word, you'll note that He is a worker, right?
02:35-02:41
Creation and redemption and judgment and His providence.
02:41-02:43
God is constantly working.
02:45-02:48
Jesus Christ is a worker.
02:49-03:00
In fact, if you look at John 4.34, Jesus said, "Accomplishing the work of God was His food." He's like, "That's what keeps me going.
03:00-03:14
That's what sustains me is doing God's work." And doing God's work ultimately was going to the cross to die for our sins, to resurrect from the dead so that we could have the promise of eternal life.
03:15-03:19
And it is through belief in Him that we have eternal life.
03:20-03:25
But that work was what Jesus said He came to do.
03:29-03:34
And I need to remind you that work is not part of the curse.
03:35-03:49
Some people think that God put Adam and Eve in the garden and it was just relaxing all day and no, God from the very beginning ordained work.
03:52-03:57
The curse, the fall of man changed the nature of work.
04:00-04:01
But we are called to be workers.
04:05-04:07
Work brings a sense of fulfillment.
04:10-04:19
And you know what that feels like when you've worked all day and you've accomplished things, you can sit back and say, "I feel like I had a productive day.
04:19-04:25
I accomplished something." That feeling is from God and of God.
04:27-04:35
Work provides value and meaning and provision for your family and for others.
04:39-04:49
And to not work is sinful, because you're rejecting a core purpose for which you were created.
04:52-04:59
So born again believers in Jesus Christ more than anyone should be known for being hard workers.
05:02-05:04
And this is how the letter ends.
05:05-05:06
Look at verse 6.
05:06-05:31
Paul writes, "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 receive from us." I've got to be honest with you, I kind of think that's a weird subject to close this letter with, right?
05:32-05:53
I mean 2 Thessalonians is all about like end time stuff and what's ahead and you know, living on the edge of the apocalypse, how do we live now knowing that Jesus is coming soon and you would think that he would have some like eschatology lesson like to end the letter and he's like, "Oh, by the way, just one more thing.
05:55-06:12
I get to talk about laziness, and it's a pretty big chunk in what's relatively a small letter, but obviously some people in the Thessalonian church refused to work.
06:14-06:21
And there are a lot of scholars that think that maybe it was belief that Jesus was coming soon.
06:21-06:24
Well, if Jesus is coming soon, why do I got to go to work?
06:25-06:29
'Cause I ain't gonna need money, 'cause I ain't gonna need to buy anything because Jesus is a coming soon, right?
06:29-06:30
So why should I go to work?
06:31-06:37
That's what a lot of people think, but actually the text doesn't say why.
06:40-06:43
And the truth is it doesn't matter why.
06:45-06:47
Because of this eternal truth.
06:50-06:55
If somebody doesn't wanna work, they will find an excuse not to work.
06:55-06:56
True or false?
06:57-06:57
True.
06:58-07:03
It reminds me of, I love this proverb, Proverbs 26, 13.
07:04-07:05
I love this.
07:06-07:11
The slugger, the lazy person says, "There's a lion in the road.
07:11-07:14
There's a lion on the streets." I love that.
07:14-07:14
That's hilarious.
07:18-07:21
It's like, dude, why aren't you going to work?
07:21-07:23
Why don't you have a job?
07:23-07:25
Like, here's a lion in the streets.
07:26-07:28
Just, and if I go to work, I'm gonna get eaten.
07:29-07:33
Like, you will come up with anything to get out of working.
07:35-07:38
And that's why Paul here, he starts out with a command.
07:38-07:41
He says, keep away from the idle people.
07:43-07:48
And he says, you need to deal seriously with lazy people in the church.
07:51-07:54
And as we go through this, I gotta give you a heads up.
07:56-07:59
Paul doesn't give some positive pep talk.
07:59-08:04
I mean, he could give all of these like compelling reasons why work is great, right?
08:04-08:08
You feel like a sense of accomplishment and don't you wanna be a productive member of society?
08:08-08:13
He could have done the whole positive thing, but honestly, the tone of this letter is pretty stern.
08:15-08:19
This passage is pretty, how you say, austere, right?
08:20-08:23
It's pretty direct and strict.
08:24-08:27
And you're like, well, why is that?
08:29-08:31
Why isn't Paul a little nicer about this?
08:32-08:34
I'm gonna show you why, and you're all gonna get it here in a second.
08:36-08:44
The previous letter, 1 Thessalonians 4.11, he says, "Aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs." Look at these last couple of phrases.
08:44-08:52
He says, "And to work with your hands as we instructed you." So see what Paul's saying here in 1 Thessalonians.
08:53-09:06
He said, "When we were there, we told you to get to work." And now I'm writing 1 Thessalonians, and I'm reminding you that when we were there, we told you to get to work.
09:06-09:11
And now I'm writing 2 Thessalonians, and I'm telling you, what?
09:13-09:13
Get to work.
09:14-09:24
So that's, when we get to this passage in 2 Thessalonians, this is at least, at least the third time he's had to talk to them about this.
09:26-09:30
Have you ever had to tell somebody something three times?
09:32-09:33
How do we do there by the third time?
09:36-09:40
Ryan, ever have any employees you had to talk to on the third time?
09:40-09:42
Is your tone the same as the first time?
09:42-09:44
No, it is not.
09:47-09:51
Parents, have you ever had to tell your kids something more than once?
09:53-09:53
Have you?
09:54-10:01
You're like, "Not me, Pastor Jeff, my kids are Christians." Well, for the rest of us, you know how it is.
10:01-10:04
Like, "Hey, champ, would you pick up your toys?
10:05-10:09
Let's pick up your toys." And then later the toys ain't picked up.
10:09-10:11
And you're like, "Hey, didn't I tell you?
10:11-10:12
Didn't I tell you to pick these up?
10:12-10:14
Come on, we got company coming, pick these up.
10:15-10:21
And then by the third time, I'm giving all of this stuff to Goodwill if you don't pick it up!
10:22-10:22
Right?
10:23-10:24
True or false?
10:24-10:29
Okay, so now you understand why Paul's tone here is a little direct.
10:30-10:33
Like, how many times do I get to talk to you people about this?
10:34-10:35
Get a job!
10:36-10:37
Stop being lazy!
10:38-10:38
Right?
10:41-10:45
Being Mr. Nice Guy apparently didn't connect with the lazy people.
10:47-10:53
So here, he's not even addressing the lazy people directly.
10:54-10:56
The directive here is to the church.
10:58-11:00
So that's what we're looking at today.
11:00-11:03
How should we handle someone who refuses to work?
11:04-11:05
That's the topic of the day.
11:06-11:09
So on your outline, how to deal with lazy freeloaders in the church.
11:12-11:13
That's how he closes the letter.
11:13-11:15
And here's the first thing you need to do, write this down, set an example.
11:17-11:19
Set an example, look at verses 7 through 9.
11:22-11:48
He says, "For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor." 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.
11:50-12:17
Stop there. He says we worked, we earned, we contributed, but notice he says it's not because we do not have the right to be paid by you. He's saying we worked hard and we earned when we were there. But it's not because the preacher shouldn't get paid for preaching. The preacher absolutely should get paid for preaching. Can I get an amen?
12:21-12:23
The preacher absolutely should get paid for preaching.
12:25-12:25
Amen.
12:26-12:28
That's a whole nother sermon.
12:28-12:32
And I don't need to preach that one right now because this church gets that.
12:32-12:36
And you take care of all the ministers in this church very well.
12:36-12:38
And we appreciate that.
12:40-12:43
But if there's a skeptic here, here's one proof text for you.
12:43-13:01
1 Corinthians 9.9, he says, "For it is written in the law of Moses, "you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." You know, like if the ox is like working to process the grain, he should be able to have some of the grain, and then he says, "Is it for oxen that God is concerned?" Like no, it's really not.
13:01-13:02
There's a principle there.
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And so much of the New Testament teaches you should pay the people that teach and preach the Word of God.
13:12-13:14
You're like, "Okay, okay, I get that.
13:14-13:19
And why did Paul work if he had the right not to?
13:21-13:24
Why did he work if he had the right to have the church pay him?
13:25-13:27
Well, he tells us right here, two reasons.
13:27-13:29
And the first one is, he didn't want to be a burden.
13:30-13:31
He didn't want to be a burden.
13:32-13:35
You know, this church in Thessalonica was a young church plant.
13:38-13:41
And I remember those days, right?
13:41-13:44
Dan and Alicia Thompson, you remember those days?
13:44-13:48
Aaron, remember those days when this church had zero?
13:49-14:00
We literally had zero, and we were meeting in a chiropractor's office, we were praying and we were trusting God, and that was the first reason.
14:00-14:09
Paul's like, "Hey, we didn't wanna be "a financial burden to you." He did receive support from other churches in other contexts.
14:09-14:17
And again, he wasn't saying it was wrong, but in this particular context, he's like, "I just, I knew that it would be a financial burden." So that's one reason we didn't do it.
14:18-14:24
But the second reason, where I want to rest here for just a second, he makes it very clear in verse 9, he says he wanted to be an example.
14:27-14:29
He says, "Church, you had an example in us.
14:29-14:39
We worked hard and we didn't mooch off of anyone, and you need to imitate that." It's positive peer pressure, right?
14:40-14:57
It's, "Church, we should have a culture of hard-working people." And someone new coming into this church should pick up on that pretty quickly, like, "Hey, the people at this church, they seem very serious about their jobs, and they work very hard at their jobs.
14:57-15:02
There's no freeloaders at this church." That's the kind of people that they are at this church.
15:02-15:04
That's the kind of vibe we should give up.
15:05-15:06
the kind of people we should be.
15:09-15:21
The church, the people in the church that have to see you working hard, maybe more than anyone are the kids, the teenagers.
15:24-15:29
Because parents, your kids are not only watching your work ethic, they're catching it.
15:33-15:43
If you don't have kids, you have young single people in this church looking up to you, looking at your work ethic.
15:45-15:57
You're saying, "Hey, just because I might not have a family, I'm a single person, but I still work hard and earn to provide and to have something to give." Young single person, you should do the same thing.
15:57-15:58
That's the kind of people we are here.
15:59-16:00
We're not freeloaders.
16:02-16:03
We work here.
16:03-16:32
around. That's why Paul said, "We left an example for you." You're like, "Man, is this really a thing? Shouldn't we be talking about something serious in the church? I mean, nobody likes a mooch, but listen, this whole concept of working hard and earning and providing, This is so serious to God.
16:34-16:36
Because look at what he says in 1 Timothy 5.8.
16:37-16:48
He says, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household." Look at these two phrases.
16:49-16:50
Like it doesn't get any worse than this.
16:51-16:58
It says, "He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." Can you wrap your brain around that?
16:59-17:04
Like if you refuse to work and earn and provide, God's like, "Here, here's the hierarchy.
17:04-17:12
Here's an unbeliever, someone who doesn't believe in My Son, someone who has rejected the gospel, and here's you.
17:13-17:14
You are that much lower.
17:14-17:32
You are worse than an unbeliever if you call yourself a Christian and you don't work to earn to provide." So church, we not only have to teach hard work, we have to model it because that is what God's people do, and it is a big deal to God.
17:35-17:37
So how to deal with lazy freeloaders in the church?
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He says first of all, very clearly, set an example, and secondly, don't be an enabler.
17:44-17:46
Don't be an enabler.
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Look at verse 10.
17:51-18:06
He says, "For even when we were with you, we would give you this command, 'If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.'" Stop there because this is so important.
18:08-18:14
He doesn't say, "If anyone cannot work." Do you see what he says?
18:14-18:18
if anyone is not willing to work.
18:21-18:24
And obviously there's a huge difference there, isn't there?
18:26-18:28
He's giving a bit of a disclaimer.
18:29-18:32
There's a difference between I can't work versus I won't work.
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He says, I'm talking to the won't work people.
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Okay, says we're coming down hard on the moochers, the freeloaders, the idle, Insert your favorite term for the bum.
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Bit of a disclaimer we have to give.
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First of all, he's not talking about those who are unable to work, whether there's a physical issue or a health reason.
18:57-19:00
He's not talking to you, okay?
19:00-19:10
Or somebody that went through a crisis recently and for whatever reason, and they're temporarily in a position where they can't work.
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he's not talking to you.
19:12-19:23
Or if you lost your job temporarily, whether it's due to COVID or whatever, and you are working on getting another job, he's not talking to you.
19:24-19:27
If you're a stay-at-home mom, he's not talking to you.
19:28-19:29
All right?
19:29-19:34
Listen, I'm the stay-at-home mom when Aaron goes to work.
19:36-19:41
And it is a thousand times easier to come here than it is to be a stay-at-home mom.
19:42-19:42
Okay?
19:43-19:47
So, stay-at-home moms, you have my permission.
19:48-19:54
If somebody in this church says to you, "Oh, you don't work, you're a stay-at-home mom," you have my permission to bite that person.
19:56-19:56
(congregation laughing)
19:57-19:58
Just right on the arm, don't break skin.
20:00-20:02
Just to let 'em know what's up.
20:05-20:06
He's not talking about that.
20:07-20:32
He's talking about somebody that is completely capable and able to work and says, "Nah, I'd rather live off the generosity of others." Or as we say in our country, "I'd rather live off the government." Erin, my wife Erin used to be a social worker and she would do in-home counseling.
20:32-20:37
And one case in particular, She had a mother of three little ones.
20:39-20:44
It was, mother was really just trying to get her life in order and that's what Erin did.
20:44-20:47
She would go into the home and counsel and help get the house in order, right?
20:48-20:56
And Erin lined up childcare and got her a job and like, hey, we're getting on track to being the productive member of society.
20:58-21:02
Well, this young mom got her first paycheck and immediately quit the job.
21:03-21:05
And Aaron's like, "I did all that work to get you set up.
21:05-21:08
Why'd you quit your job?" You know what she said?
21:08-21:09
You know what she said.
21:09-21:11
I make more from the government handouts just sitting at home.
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That's commonplace.
21:20-21:22
Welfare abusers, living on the stimmy.
21:23-21:31
You know, hearing people say now, "I don't know how I'm gonna make it if I don't get another one of them child tax credit things, stimmy things.
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Like, I don't know how I'm going to live if I don't get one of those.
21:34-21:36
Like, how did you live before?
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Now all of a sudden you consider that your income.
21:40-21:41
That's a problem.
21:43-21:45
That's a problem when our government rewards laziness.
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That's a problem.
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That's a problem when our government creates entitled people.
21:52-21:58
People walking around saying, "The government owes me." Well, why does the government owe you?
22:00-22:01
Because I'm American?
22:03-22:04
Because I breathe?
22:04-22:05
Because I like money?
22:06-22:07
The government owes me.
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Listen, it is not the government's job to provide for you.
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That is not the government's job.
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Biblically, that's your job.
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Your job is to work and to earn, and to reject that is sin, according to God's word.
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So, that's it.
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if someone can work but won't work, we should not help them.
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Paul says, "If anyone's not willing to work, let him not eat." Because helping condones their sin.
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You enable.
22:47-22:55
Right now, someone's squirming in their seat, whether here or at home, you're squirming in your seat right now.
22:57-23:06
Like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, this just seems so like, un-Jesus-like, because aren't we supposed to share and give?
23:06-23:13
I mean, all this seems so severe that someone would have a need and we wouldn't rush to meet the need.
23:14-23:18
Isn't that severe?" No, severe is helping someone sin.
23:18-23:19
That's severe.
23:21-23:23
And refusing to work is sin.
23:26-23:40
Look at verse 11, it says, "For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies." Like, "Hey, let them starve." They won't, by the way.
23:43-23:44
They won't.
23:44-23:58
But withholding help actually prevents something worse from happening, and that's the freeloader they're becoming a busybody, a meddler, getting into other people's business.
23:58-23:59
Why?
24:00-24:07
Because when you don't have work to do, when you don't have something productive to fill your time with, what do you do?
24:09-24:10
You start to get in other people's business.
24:12-24:13
Like, hey, I don't have a job.
24:14-24:15
My life is boring and uninteresting.
24:16-24:17
Let me get in your business.
24:20-24:21
Busybodies create disharmony.
24:23-24:38
And that's why Paul says here, "Don't enable that." Because refusing to work, that's a sin, and that leads to other sins, including being a busybody, being, as we say around here, being nebby.
24:39-24:40
Right?
24:42-24:52
Verse 12, he says, "Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
24:53-25:01
He says, "Command them and encourage them, do their work quietly and earn their own living." In other words, shut your mouth and get to work.
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You are loved.
25:05-25:06
But don't be an enabler.
25:06-25:07
Don't be an enabler.
25:09-25:12
Like, well, what should we do if we're not enabling?
25:12-25:12
What should we do?
25:12-25:14
Number three, here it is, avoid them.
25:15-25:16
Avoid them.
25:18-25:32
First of all, verse 13, he says, "As for you brothers, do not grow weary in doing good." And obviously the context of the passage here, he's talking about doing good in regards to dealing with laziness and people in need.
25:33-25:41
He says, "Do not grow weary in doing good." And I think it's a pretty obvious point, right?
25:43-25:55
Because when you deal with freeloaders long enough, you can get jaded to the point that you start to become indifferent to people that have actual real needs, right?
25:58-26:05
You know, I served in a church in downtown Butler for 11 years, and oh, the stories I could tell you.
26:06-26:14
Stories of people in line for a community meal complaining about the hot free meal they're getting while they're on their newest iPhone.
26:16-26:28
I can tell you stories of these two girls who came into the office at one time and they wanted food certificates and lo and behold, I actually had a real actual bag of groceries in my office.
26:28-26:31
They're like, "We're starving," and they had their usual sales pitch, "We're starving," blah, blah.
26:32-26:32
And I'm like, "You know what?
26:33-26:39
You're in luck." And I came down and I handed them, they wanted the food certificates, but I handed them a bag of groceries.
26:42-26:49
And when I handed them the bag of groceries, the look on their face when they saw the bag groceries looked like I was handing them a dead cat.
26:50-26:55
They were like, "No, we need the certificates." I'm like, "But you can't eat the certificates.
26:55-26:58
Here's real actual food." They were back the next day.
27:01-27:02
Oh, I could tell you stories.
27:03-27:14
I could tell you stories of people showing up to church saying, "I don't know what I'm going to do because my truck's on fumes." I'm like, "Oh, that means you're not going to be able to leave?
27:15-27:17
"That's like coercion if I've ever heard it.
27:18-27:23
"Give me money or I'm not gonna leave." But when I would say no, they just go the other pastor.
27:25-27:26
Start the sales pitch over again.
27:27-27:32
Like mom said, "No, so I'll ask dad." People going from church to church to church to church.
27:33-27:44
I'm like, "You realize it'd probably be less effort "if you actually got a job "than your scavenger hunt for freebies." Which isn't free by the way, somebody's paying for it.
27:45-27:49
But the bottom line is this, it's not helping anyone.
27:52-27:53
It's not helping anyone.
27:56-28:31
And that's why Paul here says, "Don't get worn out with the moochers and lose compassion for those with real needs because you can get jaded real fast." Gotta guard our hearts there, church. He says, verse 14, "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." Now, this is going to sound so foreign to so many people here, what I'm about to say, but I just want you to look at your Bible and tell me, is this what God said?
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All right?
28:32-28:33
I'm not making this up.
28:35-28:45
He gives the exact same command here as he gave in verse 6, that if somebody in your fellowship refuses to work, he says to avoid them.
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Ignore them.
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Don't just hope that the problem goes away by itself.
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He says you have to actively ignore them.
28:57-29:05
In other words, look, don't come to small group until you get a job and stop freeloading.
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Like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I don't know if I could ever do that." This is what God told you to do.
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So you take that up with Him.
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Or you say, "Look, you're not allowed to join fishermen until you stop refusing to work.
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You get the work situation figured out, then we'll be glad to have you on fishermen.
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But you can't be a part of the fellowship intimately, body life, until you get a job.
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Stop being a freeloader." You're like, "Well, why would we shut them out like this?" Well, he tells you right here.
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And again, this sounds so foreign, but this is what your Bible says.
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He says, "Have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed." Do you see that?
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That he may be ashamed.
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That the person who refuses to work is like, "Man, I don't know.
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I went to Harvest last week and it just seemed like everybody was ignoring me." We are!
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We're ignoring you because you're lazy.
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And aren't you embarrassed that we sort of have to do this, like, intervention as a church body?
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Like, "Hey, nobody talk to him because he won't stop being a freeloader, he won't get a job, and we've been trying to encourage him, ignore him." Like doesn't that embarrass you?
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this group intervention thing that we have to do?
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Aren't you embarrassed?
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You should be.
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Like I said, I know there are some people that are like, "Oh, I don't know if I could do that." But I also know that the opposite is true as well, that there's somebody here right now that's like, "Yeah, yeah, Pastor Jeff, tear 'em up, man.
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"Rip 'em down, up one side, down the other.
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"Rip 'em up." And I would say, "Easy there, Thanos." Look at verse 15.
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He says, "Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother." Look, he's not the enemy.
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He's a brother that needs to hear you say this.
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Look, I love you.
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This is wrong.
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Look, man, you know I love you.
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You know we're boys, but dude, you can't live like this.
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You can't be a mooch, man.
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Because God says to work, so let's get a job, man.
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He needs to hear that.
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He needs to hear, look man, I can't hang with you until you get this work thing figured out.
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You don't treat him like an enemy.
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He says, we're in him as a brother.
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Like, look man, it's just how it is.
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This is serious business.
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Like, well, yeah, you know what, Jeff, if we do that, they'll just go to another church.
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And I'm like, okay, that's their choice.
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But the reality is they wouldn't fit in here anyways, because we work hard at this church.
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He gives some closing remarks, verse 16.
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He says, "Now, may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.
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The Lord be with you all.
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I Paul write this greeting with my own hand.
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This is a sign of genuineness and every letter of mine it is the way I write.
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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
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Jesus is coming soon.
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And we learn from 2 Thessalonians, the payback is coming.
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We learned that the man of lawlessness is coming, and we learned that in the meantime, what do we do, church?
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What do we do?
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We stand firm.
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We pray.
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And don't be lazy.
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And do not tolerate laziness in the church.
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'cause we are living on the edge of the apocalypse.
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You're like, man, I really, I love this topic.
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And I'm so sad that the conversation is ending.
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Well, the good news is the conversation isn't ending, but beginning.
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Let's pray, and then we're going to stand and worship.
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Father in heaven, we thank you for your word.
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And Father, I know some of these things sound very It's different than what we would expect in the way that we've sort of watered down Your Word.
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But You are so clear on this, that You have called Your people who are able to work, to work hard.
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So I pray, Father, that as a church, we're obedient to Your Word, and we seek to establish the kind of culture that you've called us to be in your Word.
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Father as we continue the conversation about end times and the signs ahead, Jesus told us to be looking at the signs.
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And there's so much happening right now and people are having such a hard time processing.
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I just pray for Edmund, I pray for Alex, I pray for this church, Father, that we can discern what's happening in our world and in the news and all these things happening around us, Father, because your word makes it so clear that we are truly living on the edge of the apocalypse. And Father, prepare us to be the people that you've called us to be in this season. We pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Thessalonians 3:6-18
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why is refusing to work a sin? Why is work so important to God?
How would you respond to someone who says “Isn’t it harsh to not give food to someone just because they refuse to work?”
How specifically can the church fulfill the command to keep away from someone who refuses to work, yet treat him as a brother at the same time (2 Thes 3:6, 14, 15)?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
