This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
So Paul said when we are with you, we worked, even though we
took time to preach the gospel to you so that you would know
the gospel truth, we still work. And the reason why Paul did this
because this was a young church. This was not an established
church. These were new Christians.
He was just bringing the word of God to them.
Now the Bible clearly talks about the fact that as those who
are teachers, pastors, teachers, what not, that it's biblical to
receive compensation for the labor that we do.
As Pastor Lewis continues his teaching series through the book
of Second Thessalonians, he'll be challenging you to work and
not be a lazy Christian. The most efficient and capable
worker should always be Christians.
The Apostle Paul himself reminded the church that he also
worked but didn't constantly ask for money and resources.
Paul simply wanted to preach the gospel and give them this
blessing and not want anything in return.
This is a great example of selflessness which the Lord
delights in. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the
Book of Second Thessalonians Chapter 3, with today's edition
of Living Waters of Grace. This word disorderly means that
he's walking in a way that's he's idle.
He's walking in a divisive way or disruptive or unruly.
This is difficult because it's us seeing a brother who is not
walking in the things that we have received from the Lord.
And Paul says, OK, after so many warnings, you have to just
separate yourself for a while. You got to withdraw from that
brother to let him know that what he's doing is not approved
of in this community. And this is not the first time
that he gave those kind of warnings that we go over.
We go back, as a matter of fact, the First Thessalonians chapter
5, First Thessalonians chapter 5.
And look at verse 14. He says now we exhort you and
this is in the 1st letter. In the first letter he said we
exhort you brethren, warn those, warn those or admonish those who
are unruly, comfort the faint hearted and uphold the weak.
So he told them about that and he wrote about that back in the
1st letter. He knew what was going on and he
said, look, you need to go ahead and deal with those brothers
that are unruly because they will be a disruption in your
community. There'll be a disruption.
And so he says it again here in chapter 3 of the second letter.
In verse 6, he says it again. And this time he says again,
withdraw from those brothers. We've warned them, We've warned
them. This isn't the first time we've
given them a warning. We've talked to them about this
a few times and we've warned them and we let them know what
the unruly behavior was. And they still, they refuse to
listen. They refuse to listen.
So we have got to take action. And he says, withdraw yourself
from those brothers. And he says and, and, and do
that with those brothers who are disorderly, which means they're
not walking according to the tradition which he received from
us. And we talked about it last
week, that that tradition is not when we talk about a cultural
tradition, you know what I mean? Our families have traditions,
just things that we do every Christmas or things that we do,
you know, every Thanksgiving or things that we do, whatever the
traditions may be. Everybody have different
traditions. He's not talking about that.
There's traditions that we do as African Americans.
There's traditions that some people do as Europeans or as
Mexican Americans or whatever. There are traditions.
Everybody have traditions, whether it's cultural, ethnic or
whatever it is. He's not talking about that.
You continue in those things. He's talking about the
traditions that you receive from the Apostles teaching of the
truth, the apostles doctrine, the word of God that he has
passed down that came from Jesus Christ and passed down to the
apostles or the disciples and now given them to you.
He said those things. That is what you have to walk in
accordance with. And sometimes people get
together. I mean, there's some churches
that confuse the extra biblical traditions with those that are
biblical and sometimes they put more emphasis on the extra
biblical traditions than they do the things that are biblical.
Jesus had to correct the Pharisees about that.
So you know, you're making the word of God.
None avoid because you don't want to give your your parents
any money. You said so that thing that we
would give to our parents that's called Corbin.
That means that we separating it for God.
Bible. Don't say that.
The Bible says honor your father and your mother.
So Jesus said you're, you're making the word of God, you
know, you're making it invalid. You're taking the power from the
word, you're trying to take the power from the word of God.
That's tradition. That's extra biblical tradition,
The things that are tradition that from the apostles, those
are the things that are written in the word of God.
So if you want to get traditions for your family that you
constantly want to keep, get them out of here.
Teach your family the word of God, Have them respond to this.
Know what this says and how we live.
These are the traditions that you want to keep, that you want
to keep in, in, in in front of your family.
So what you received from us, for you know yourselves how you
ought to follow us, for we were not this early among you.
Verse 8 says, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge,
but we worked labor and toil night and day that we might not
be a burden to any of you. Verse 9 says, not that we did
not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you
should follow us. Paul says back.
He says, look, do or follow the example that I gave you or that
we gave you when we were with you.
What's the example that you get from them?
What's the example that you get from your leaders?
That's what we should do, the example Paul said, look how I
walked among you, and this is how he walked among them.
Let's go back for a second to first, That's, I'm sorry, First
Thessalonians. Yeah, chapter 2, very quickly
going to 1st Thessalonians, chapter 2.
And here in chapter 2, we're going to start right here in
verse 5 that says for neither at any time do we use flattery
words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness.
God is witness. Nor did we seek glory for men
either from you or from others, when we might have made demands
as apostles of Christ. OK, and then it goes on to verse
7. It says, But we were gentle
among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own
children, so affectionately longing for you.
We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of
God, but also our own lives, because you have become dear to
us for you. Remember brother, in our labor
and toil for laboring night and day that we might not be a
burden to any of you. We preach the gospel of God.
So Paul says when we are with you, we worked even though we
took time to preach the gospel to you so that you would know
the gospel truth, we still work. And the reason why Paul did this
because this was a young church. This was not an established
church. These were new Christians.
He was just bringing the word of God to them.
Now, the Bible clearly talks about the fact that as those who
are teachers, pastors, teachers, what not that it's biblical to
receive compensation for the labor that we do.
The Bible teaches that, He teaches that.
But Paul is saying that this was a young church not established
yet. We're just bringing the gospel.
We don't want it to look like that.
We're using the gospel as a way to make money off of you.
So by example, we want to be those who are giving you the
gospel and not asking you to do anything.
It's the churches that are established that Paul was
receiving support from. But when he first goes into a
community, he's not asking them for anything.
He's not asking people for anything.
He doesn't pass the plate when he, you know, evangelize
somebody and they become a new Christian.
He's sharing the gospel for the first time.
He's not passing the plate in front of them.
Paul said that's for people who are established church members.
He said, so we didn't even ask that of you.
We had the authority, yes, to be supported, but we didn't even
use that because we wanted to be an example for you.
And and and 1st Corinthians Chapter 11, verse one, Paul
said, follow me or imitate me as I imitate Christ.
So he said, be that imitation, you know, imitate me because I'm
imitating Christ. And then here in verse 10, he
says, for even when we were with you, we commanded you this.
Here's another command. If you will not work, neither
shall you eat. Hear what he said there.
He didn't say if you don't work. He didn't say if you can't work.
He said if you will not work, neither shall you eat, will not
work. You have the opportunity to work
and you don't work. You know, even if you're on
unemployment, one of the questions they asked you is did
you not work when work was available?
They asked you that question literally like we're not giving
you money for you to just sit around and collect.
If money, if a job is available, you need to get up and go to
work. We ain't doing this thing where
you just collect for 16 weeks because you think you can.
No, if a job is available, get up and go to work.
And Paul says here, he says if anyone will not work, neither
should they eat. Because see, there's some people
who can't work. Maybe there's a physical
problem, they can't work. Maybe no work is available.
Look, I'm getting up every day and I'm going to fill out, you
know, job applications and I'm just not getting anything.
There's nothing out there right now available, but they want to
work. They will work, but there's
nothing available. He's not talking about them.
He's not even talking about those who are underemployed.
There's some people who have a job, but things happen.
Things happen. You get income.
Maybe they're not making a whole lot of money.
They have an income coming in and they have their budget down.
Then all of a sudden, bam, the car goes out, boom, the
refrigerator dies, boom, the stove dies.
And all of a sudden you got to put a, you got to come up with a
decent sum of money at one time to be able to take care of those
things. Those things happen.
Those things happen and the church is there to help.
The church is there to help. We want to help people who are
working, or maybe they're underemployed and things just
come up. Maybe a health issue comes up
and a lot of your money is now going to paying medical bills.
Those things happen. Those things happen, but the
person who will not work, that's the person that Paul says should
not eat. They're capable of working
physically. They can work.
Work is available. They just want to stay on the
couch and play video games, Paul said.
We ain't having that. Then you shouldn't eat.
Apparently, if you're not hungry enough to work, then you ain't
hungry enough to want something to eat now.
Now, you know, I remember back when I was growing up that there
were some people that would come to your house right around
dinnertime. Right around dinnertime.
Misses Harold. Misses Harold.
Well, I mean, where were you all day or where were you yesterday
or the debut Right around dinnertime.
Time to come in. My mother is never going to eat
in front of somebody and not offer.
And they know that. They know that people do that
sometimes, but you have to want to work.
Paul is saying, and then he goes to verse 11 and he says, for we
hear that there are some of you who walk among you in a
disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busy bodies.
And I just want to share, you know, I just want to share that
even back in the Old Testament, in biblical history, God always
put emphasis on work. Always.
Every man that he used in the Old Testament and the new
actually were men or women who worked, They worked.
Moses, he was a shepherd keeping Jethro's sheep, Joshua.
He was the man. He he was the the the commander
of Moses's army and then eventually succeeded Moses.
Gideon. He was threshing wheat when the
Angel came to him and called him.
There were 4 fishermen who were tending Nets.
Peter, James, John, Andrew, they were tender Nets.
Jesus called them and said I'm going to make you fishers of
men. They worked, they were working.
Jesus himself was a Carpenter for his ministry got started.
He worked as a Carpenter. He worked, He had a trade.
And if you go back to Genesis chapter 2, you'll see that God
worked six days creating the world, and then it was on the
7th day that he rested. On the 7th day he rested, but
he'd already completed the world.
Everything God worked. And what did he do with Adam
right after he created Adam out of the dust of the ground and
blew the breath of air, the breath of, of, of, of air into
his nostrils. What did he do with him?
The first thing he did was put him in the Garden of Eden and
tell him to work it till it tend to it.
He had a job before he had a wife and kids.
That's what God, that's the priority that God has placed on
working. In John 9, Jesus says I must
work the works that that that he who sent me has given to me
because there is going to be a time when, you know, I must work
wise day because night is coming when no man can work.
And this is something that we use for our kids in training to
motivate them to work. In Proverbs 1423 it says in all
labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads to poverty.
Idle chatter leads to poverty. We understand that Jesus, that
the Jews regarded work as an evidence of good character and
they passed that down, they passed down trades to him.
But we know that the Greeks and the Romans, they despise hard
labor. They despised it.
They would get slaves to do that for them.
So some of these people here were expecting others to just
provide meals for them. So they stopped working
partially because of the bad teaching that they had received
from some of these false teachers that had come in and
was telling them that the day of the Lord has already come and
he's going to be coming back for you at any minute now.
So they decided we ain't no sense working.
We'll just wait on the Lord and we'll have other people feed us
while we're waiting. But Jesus told the apostles, he
said, look until I come occupy till I come occupy you work, you
serve until I come back. Verse 9, he goes on and he, I'm
sorry, verse 12, he goes on and he says that now these those who
are such, we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ
that they work in quietness, eat their own bread, work in
quietness and eat their own bread.
So he says at the end of verse 11, he says they're not working
at all. These people who are disorderly,
they're not working at all. And they are busy bodies.
Now the busy bodies are just gossiping people who meddled in
the business of everybody else. That's what the busy bodies are
meddling people who get in the business of everybody else.
And, and, and basically what this is saying is that because
you are idle and you're not working and you're spending your
time doing anything productive, you have time to go get in
everybody else's business and cause dissension and cause
division and disruption. Paul said.
No, we can't have that. We can't have that.
Busy bodies. The Bible talks a lot about not
being a busy body. In fact, in fact, over in First
Peter chapter 4, he actually puts busy bodies as a prohibited
sin along with murder and theft in the same category as murder
and theft. First Peter chapter 4, you don't
have to go out. I'll read it for you myself,
4/15, he says. But let none of you suffer as a
murderer, a thief or evildoer, or as a busy body and other
people's matters. He put busy bodies in the same
category, in the same line with murderers and thieves.
That's how much he does not like the idea of idleness.
See the world does that. The world does that.
They sow those seeds, they gossip, sow seeds of discord.
They met on other people's affairs.
The church should not do that because it doesn't glorify God.
And then it goes on in verse 13, it says, As for you brethren, do
not grow weary in well doing. Don't grow weary.
Look, you have seen other people do some bad things and, and, and
sometimes this can wear you out. You're working, you see that
they're not working. They're being busy bodies in
everybody's business and you're still trying to be nice.
You're, you're, you're, you're, you're giving to them as they
need, you know, and they're giving you evil for your good.
And all those things, those things can make us weary.
They can make us weary, cause us to question why am I doing this?
But Jesus said the reason why we're doing it, we're not doing
it for the people. We're not doing it for the
people. We got to keep our eyes on him,
not the people, because He says that He is the one who gives us
our reward. The people don't give us our
reward. So we, we, we have to make sure
that we don't lose heart in this battle because of the opposers
and because of those who are busy bodies and other people's
matters. We got to make sure that we
don't lose heart and turn around ourselves first.
First Corinthians 15 and 58 says that you know that your labor in
the Lord is not in vain, so you got to be steadfast and
unmovable. Don't let nothing move you away
from what you need to do. And then of course, it's
Galatians 69 that says don't become weary and well doing for
in due season. That means in God's time, in
God's only appointed time that He has for you, you're going to
reap if you do not lose heart. Don't let what others do or not
don't affect your ministry. Or the way that you serve the
Lord, keep your eyes on him. And then in verse 14, he goes on
and said, if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle,
note that person and do not keep company with them.
Now this is getting into church. This is church discipline here.
This is church discipline. OK, and church discipline.
There's a there's a definition for the definition is denying
the fellowship of a believer in Christ who is involved in open
sin, slothfulness and and and and busy bodiness and people not
working. That is need for church
discipline. The occasion for or people who
are involved in usually people involved in sexual sins or
creating division within the body of Christ or those who are
just in defiance of leadership. Those are the occasions that
which church discipline needs to be invoked.
And the reason why we do church membership and this is important
is so that the church can remain pure.
The church should be a house, a place of God that's pure.
The body of of of, of, of the church.
That's us. You know, we want to be pure
before God as much as we can. We want to be pure.
And then the goal of it is to win back the brother or sister
who was caught in the sin to win that.
That's the goal. It's never it's never just to
put them out, never to get rid of them all together.
But the goal is for them to think about what they're doing,
repent and to come back and be restored.
OK. And then in verse 15, it says,
now if you don't count them as an enemy but admonish them,
they're not our enemies. They're the family.
They're our family, Brothers of God, sisters of the Lord,
sisters of us in the Lord, brothers of us in the Lord.
They're not enemies, OK? We have to walk with them until
they are able to or pray for them until they're able to get
victory over this thing. And sometimes the way to get
their attention about it is to admonish them, which means that
you warn them and express disapproval.
And if they don't listen to that, then you have to execute
church discipline, which means that you have to withdraw
yourself from them until that time that they do come to the
acknowledgement of their sin and repent.
Verse 16 says, Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace
always. It's peace.
Whenever the church is obeying what the Lord says to do, the
church has peace. Chaos comes when there's
disobedience. That always brings chaos.
But when people are in or walking in obedience together
and encouraging each other to walk in obedience, there's
peace, there's peace. So Paul said may you have peace.
May the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every
way that the that the Lord the Lord be with you.
Amen. Verse 17 said that the
salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every
epistle. So I write.
Remember, there were others who were writing letters and was
trying to say that these letters were coming from Paul.
And it had a lot of misinformation in those letters
and it was leading them astray. It was leading them to go down
the wrong path. That's why some of these people
quit working. OK.
And Paul is saying, you'll know that this letter came from me
because at some point at the end of this letter, I will take the
pen from the person who's writing it, and I'll write a
line or two and put my name. And that's how you know this
letter came from me. So Paul said out of doing every
letter, I am going to write it in my own hand, which is a sign
to you that it actually came from me.
And then in verse 18 says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
being with you all. Amen. 1st Thessalonians 416
through 18 says, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of an Archangel, and with the
trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, and then
we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we
shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another
with these words. If you've ever found yourself
wondering if it's all going to be worth it in the end, the
answer seems clear. You are living here now for
Jesus so you can live in the clouds then with Jesus.
You've been listening to Living Waters of Grace.
The teachings in this series are given by Pastor Lewis Harrell,
an associate pastor at Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
You'll be hearing periodically from Pastor Lewis as he serves
alongside Pastor Clark. Pastor Clark has been the
familiar voice of Grace FM, Living Waters of Grace.
As we continue through the books of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians,
you're going to see over and over again the encouragement
given by Paul as a response to the people's continued faith,
even in the midst of false teachers.
As you read, receive this recognition as your own for a
life lived in Christ. Living Waters of Grace is a
ministry out of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA.
Are you in the area? We'd love to see you there this
Sunday at 10:30 AM. For more information, head over
to our website, calvarychapelonline.com.
Once again, that website is Calvary Chapel online.com.
Thanks so much for listening to today's edition.
We look forward to the next one right here on Living Waters of
Grace.