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2 Thessalonians 3 - Those Who Won't Work Should Not Eat · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Good morning, friends and faith listeners, and welcome to the
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Speaker 1: Bible Explain podcast. We are finishing up Second Thessalonians today
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Speaker 1: with a fantastic topic, those who are not willing to
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Speaker 1: work should not eat man. Today's topic, I think is
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Speaker 1: a really good one. So let's go ahead and just
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Speaker 1: dive right into Second Thessalonians three and finish up this book.
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Speaker 1: It's a very short chapter, so it won't take very
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Speaker 1: long to read. I'll be reading this from the web
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Speaker 1: version as I usually do, which, by the way, the
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Speaker 1: WEB stands for World English Bible. It's a really good
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Speaker 1: translation because it is public domain, and they also use
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Speaker 1: the proper name of God, which I really like, which
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Speaker 1: is Yahweh. So that's the reason I use the web version.
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Speaker 1: But of course feel free to grab the version of
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Speaker 1: the Bible that you prefer. This morning, let's go ahead
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Speaker 1: and read Second Thessalonians three the entire thing. Grab you
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Speaker 1: a cup of coffee to share with me, and let's
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Speaker 1: read this together. Finally, brother, pray for us that the
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Speaker 1: word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified,
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Speaker 1: even as also with you, and that we may be
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Speaker 1: delivered from unreasonable and evil men. For not all have faith,
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Speaker 1: But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and
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Speaker 1: guard you from the evil one. We have confidence in
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Speaker 1: the Lord concerning you, that you both do and will
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Speaker 1: do the things we command. May the Lord direct your
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Speaker 1: hearts into God's love and into the perseverance of Christ.
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Speaker 1: Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our
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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother
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Speaker 1: who walks in rebellion, and not after the tradition which
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Speaker 1: they receive from us. For you know how you ought
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Speaker 1: to imitate us. For we didn't behave ourselves rebelliously among you.
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Speaker 1: Neither did we eat bread from anyone's hand without paying
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Speaker 1: for it, but in labor and travail, work tonight and day,
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Speaker 1: that we may not burden any of you. This was
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Speaker 1: not because we don't have the right, but to make
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Speaker 1: ourselves an example to you that you should imitate us.
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Speaker 1: For even when we were with you, we commanded you this.
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Speaker 1: If anyone is not willing to work, don't let him eat.
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Speaker 1: For we hear of some who walk among you in
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Speaker 1: rebellion who don't work at all, but are busy bodies.
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Speaker 1: Now those who are that way, we command and exhort
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Speaker 1: in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they work with quietness
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Speaker 1: and eat their own bread. But you, brothers, don't be
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Speaker 1: weary in doing what is right. If any man doesn't
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Speaker 1: obey our word in this letter, note that man, and
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Speaker 1: have no company with him to the end that he
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Speaker 1: may be ashamed. Don't count him as an enemy, but
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Speaker 1: admonish him as a brother. Now, may the Lord of
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Speaker 1: Peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways.
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Speaker 1: The Lord be with you all. I Paul write this
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Speaker 1: greeting with my own hand, which is the sign in
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Speaker 1: every letter. This is how I write the grace of
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Speaker 1: our Lord Jesus Christ, to be with you all amen.
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Speaker 1: This chapter reveals another problem that was going on in
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Speaker 1: the Thessalonian Church. There are two problems that we know of.
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Speaker 1: The first one being that the Thessalonian Christians had received
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Speaker 1: possibly a fake letter claiming to be from Paul, and
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Speaker 1: this letter apparently said that the day of the Lord
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Speaker 1: had already come and that the Thessalonian Christians had not
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Speaker 1: been raptured along with everybody else. And the Thessalonian Christians
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Speaker 1: were obviously very concerned about this because they're like, uh, oh,
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Speaker 1: we missed the rapture, and that was the first reason
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Speaker 1: why Paul wrote this letter was to set everybody straight, like, no,
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Speaker 1: you did not miss the rapture. The day of the
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Speaker 1: Lord has not already come, and it can't come until
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Speaker 1: several things happen. And we talked about those things on
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Speaker 1: Tuesday and also last Thursday. But now today Paul reveals
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Speaker 1: another reason why he wrote this letter. The Thessalonian Christians
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Speaker 1: had become lazy. So here's what it says in the
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Speaker 1: Second Thessalonians three verse one. Finally, brothers, pray for us
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Speaker 1: that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and
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Speaker 1: be glorified, even as also with you. Now, Paul was
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Speaker 1: not afraid to ask people to pray for him. In fact,
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Speaker 1: he did that quite often throughout all of his letters.
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Speaker 1: He asked for courage, he asked for six sets in
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Speaker 1: his ministry, and he asked for the Gospel to be
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Speaker 1: spread rapidly and effectively. Paul understood that prayer is powerful
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Speaker 1: and that his ministry would be successful because of the
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Speaker 1: prayers of other people. You know, so many ministries, myself included.
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Speaker 1: I don't really ask for prayer all that often, like
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Speaker 1: I might ask for prayer like personally if I'm feeling
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Speaker 1: sick or something. But I've never asked you guys to
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Speaker 1: pray for my ministry, because that's something I just don't
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Speaker 1: think about. Like generally, when you think of support, you
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Speaker 1: think of finances, But prayer is really the best support
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Speaker 1: you could give somebody because you're asking God to provide
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Speaker 1: the needs for that person, and the God of the
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Speaker 1: universe has everything under his command. So maybe that's something
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Speaker 1: I should ask for you guys more often. Will you
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Speaker 1: pray for my ministry? You know? Last month, I just
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Speaker 1: had that whole problem where like half of my podcast
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Speaker 1: was unavailable for a while, and then my first two
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Speaker 1: hundred episodes we're unavailable as well. Thankfully that has been fixed,
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Speaker 1: but there's still a lot of like behind the scenes
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Speaker 1: problems going on right now. For example, I'm struggling with
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Speaker 1: a lot of audio issues. I got a new audio interface,
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Speaker 1: and it's like my computer is rejecting it, and I've
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Speaker 1: troubleshot it one hundred times, and my husband has trouble
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Speaker 1: shot it and he's mister I and we haven't been
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Speaker 1: able to figure it out yet. So I'm gonna have
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Speaker 1: a friend of mine come over and look at it
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Speaker 1: and hopefully he can possibly figure it out for me.
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Speaker 1: But yeah, if you guys could pray for my ministry.
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Speaker 1: There's a lot of irritating things happening behind the scenes
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Speaker 1: that I don't regularly talk about, and it is inhibiting
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Speaker 1: my ability to produce podcast episodes effectively. So if you
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Speaker 1: guys could pray about that, pray for my ministry, and
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Speaker 1: just pray for me to have courage and boldness to
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Speaker 1: spread the gospel, and maybe I'll ask for that more
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Speaker 1: often on the podcast. I feel a little bit convicted
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Speaker 1: about this. So Paul asks for prayer. He understands the
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Speaker 1: power of prayer, and he also so asks that they
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Speaker 1: pray for God's word to be spread rapidly and for
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Speaker 1: God to be glorified. This week, we discussed that the
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Speaker 1: gospel message needed to go to the entire world before
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Speaker 1: Jesus can come back. That is what Jesus said in
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Speaker 1: Matthew twenty four. He said, the entire world will hear
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Speaker 1: the gospel message and then the end will come. Paul,
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Speaker 1: like every other Christian, wants Jesus to come back, so
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Speaker 1: of course he's going to pray that the gospel message
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Speaker 1: spreads quickly and effectively to the entire world, and that
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Speaker 1: evil people don't inhibit the Gospel message from being spread,
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Speaker 1: which is what he says here in verse two. Pray
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Speaker 1: that we may be delivered from unreasonable and evil men,
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Speaker 1: for not all have faith. No matter what generation you're in,
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Speaker 1: there are going to be people who hate the Gospel message,
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Speaker 1: who hate Jesus and don't want the Gospel to be spread.
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Speaker 1: So they're going to do everything in their power to
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Speaker 1: make sure that the Gospel is not effectively bread. So
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Speaker 1: Paul asks the Christians to pray against these people, because
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Speaker 1: the faster the Gospel message is spread around the world,
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Speaker 1: the quicker Jesus returns. Actually, it does say in scripture
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Speaker 1: that we can speed up Jesus's second coming. We have
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Speaker 1: that ability, and one of the ways we do that
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Speaker 1: is by praying against evil people who want to stop
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Speaker 1: the Gospel message from being spread. We can pray that
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Speaker 1: the Gospel message spreads rapidly around the world. And if
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Speaker 1: we do that, the day of the Lord will come
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Speaker 1: even faster, and that's a good thing for us. He says,
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Speaker 1: The Lord is faithful in verse three, who will establish
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Speaker 1: you and guard you from the evil one. So there
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Speaker 1: you go. When Christians have faith in God, they understand
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Speaker 1: that he loves us and He's going to take care
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Speaker 1: of us and protect us from Satan, which is why
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Speaker 1: we should be praying for the Gospel message to be
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Speaker 1: spread faster. I mean, I'm sure some of you, Oh,
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Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to pray for that,
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Speaker 1: because that means that the Antichrist is going to come faster,
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Speaker 1: and that seems really scary. And if you thought that,
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Speaker 1: you're not alone. I mean I have thought things like
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Speaker 1: that in the past before. I don't want the Antichrist, Like,
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Speaker 1: who wants to deal with that? But God is going
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Speaker 1: to protect us, and we need to have faith in
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Speaker 1: God's plans, understanding that when Jesus comes again, that's a
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Speaker 1: really really good thing for us, and we don't have
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Speaker 1: to fear that. We should look forward to that. Actually,
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Speaker 1: so really there's no reason why we shouldn't pray for
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Speaker 1: the end to come faster, for Jesus to come quicker,
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Speaker 1: because no matter what happens, God is going to take
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Speaker 1: care of us and protect us. Then in verse four,
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Speaker 1: we have confidence in the Lord concerning you that you
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Speaker 1: both do and will do the things we command. May
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Speaker 1: the Lord, direct your hearts into God's love and into
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Speaker 1: the perseverance of Christ. So the phrase perseverance of Christ,
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Speaker 1: that right there shows you know that Christians are going
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Speaker 1: to suffer. I mean, it is clear in scripture. Jesus
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Speaker 1: himself said, in this world you will have trials, you
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Speaker 1: will have suffering, you will have temptation. But take heart,
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Speaker 1: because I have overcome the world, and Jesus himself suffered.
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Speaker 1: So Paul believes that God is going to give the
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Speaker 1: Thessalonian Church the same kind of perseverance that Jesus had,
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Speaker 1: perseverance to have joy and maybe even in some cases
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Speaker 1: happiness in spite of persecution, in spite of trials or
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Speaker 1: any other problems that we have on earth. But notice
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Speaker 1: also here in verse four, Paul says that he has
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Speaker 1: confidence that the church will do all of the commands
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Speaker 1: that he lays out. These aren't suggestions that Paul's about
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Speaker 1: to give. These are commands, and here they are in
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Speaker 1: verse six. We command you brothers, in the name of
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Speaker 1: our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every
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Speaker 1: brother who walks in rebellion and not after the tradition
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Speaker 1: which they received from us. Now these are not Paul's
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Speaker 1: commands or anybody that was with Paul. These commands are
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Speaker 1: straight from the Lord Jesus Christ. They are speaking in
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Speaker 1: God's name when they give these commands. And also when
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Speaker 1: Paul says to follow after the tradition you received from us.
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Speaker 1: He's not talking about like man made traditions like the
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Speaker 1: Pharisees had. You know where the Pharisees commanded people to
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Speaker 1: wash their hands in five different positions while doing six
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Speaker 1: incantations using a very specific type of water. Now those
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Speaker 1: were man made traditions. The traditions that Paul is talking
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Speaker 1: about right here were God honoring traditions that were completely biblical.
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Speaker 1: Traditions aren't always man made. Sometimes they're from God, God himself.
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Speaker 1: So Paul commands the Thessalonians to withdraw themselves from any
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Speaker 1: brother who walks in rebellion against the traditions of God.
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Speaker 1: This is not talking about your average Joe on the
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Speaker 1: street or just some guy that is not a Christian
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Speaker 1: that might be attending your church on an off and
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Speaker 1: on basis. Notice Paul uses the word brother here, so
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Speaker 1: this would be somebody who is a regular church member
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Speaker 1: who rebels against the God given traditions Paul says, withdraw
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Speaker 1: yourselves from that brother. Now this is also talked about
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Speaker 1: in some depth in First Corinthians five. So here's what
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Speaker 1: First Corinthians five one through five says. It is reported
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Speaker 1: that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual
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Speaker 1: immorality as is not even named among the gentiles, that
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Speaker 1: one has his father's wife. You are arrogant and didn't
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Speaker 1: mourn instead that he who has done this deed might
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Speaker 1: be removed from among you. For I, most certainly, as
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Speaker 1: being absent in body but present in spirit, have already,
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Speaker 1: as though I were present, judged him who has done
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Speaker 1: this thing. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: When you are gathered together with my spirit, with the
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Speaker 1: power of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are to deliver
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Speaker 1: such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
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Speaker 1: that the spirit may be saved in the day of
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Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus. So what this is talking about is
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Speaker 1: a church member, a Corinthian church member, who was sleeping
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Speaker 1: with his stepmom, which is real gross. Okay, that's just nasty.
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Speaker 1: Apparently the Corinthian Church was like arrogant about this thing.
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Speaker 1: They're like, look, how loving and tolerant we are. We
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Speaker 1: have this guy right here, he is an active church member,
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Speaker 1: and you know he's living in a weird relationship. So
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Speaker 1: all of you gentiles, you know, feel free to come
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Speaker 1: on into our accepting and very loving church. And Paul's like,
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Speaker 1: how dare you be arrogant over this thing? You should
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Speaker 1: be mourning that somebody in your congregation is behaving in
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Speaker 1: this sort of way and carrying Jesus's name so badly
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Speaker 1: to the rest of the city. You should be mourning
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Speaker 1: over this. And Paul's like, I'm not even with you,
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Speaker 1: and I've already judged this guy as if I were
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Speaker 1: with you. So you guys who are presently there should
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Speaker 1: be also judging this man and deliver him to Satan
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Speaker 1: for the destruction of the flesh. Now, when Paul talks
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Speaker 1: about the destruction of the flesh, he's not talking about
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Speaker 1: like our physical bodies. But there's something that we all
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Speaker 1: have called our fleshly desires, right, So that's what Paul
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Speaker 1: is talking about, that this man, when he is ostracized
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Speaker 1: from the church, that will cause his destruction of flesh,
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Speaker 1: like his fleshly desires, and hopefully once he has seen
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Speaker 1: how bad it is outside of the church. When he
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Speaker 1: can no longer be in fellowship with Christians, he will
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Speaker 1: repent of his sin, get rid of this weird relationship
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Speaker 1: he has with his stepmom, and come back to the
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Speaker 1: church as a new man. So that is what Paul
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Speaker 1: talks about here in Second Thessalonians three, where he's like,
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Speaker 1: withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks in rebellion. This
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Speaker 1: means to ostracize certain members who are not doing what
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Speaker 1: they should be doing as Christians, who are in deep sin.
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Speaker 1: The Thessalonians should be enacting church judgment on these people.
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Speaker 1: Once again, this is not talking about your average Joe
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Speaker 1: or a non Christian or even a baby Christian. This
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Speaker 1: is talking about an active Christian member who is involved
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Speaker 1: in some sort of sin that they refuse to repent from.
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Speaker 1: They are living in rebellion, is what it says. This
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Speaker 1: is also not talking about just ordinary Christians who are
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Speaker 1: struggling and they repent and they want to be better,
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Speaker 1: they want to live for Christ, but they are struggling.
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Speaker 1: That's also not what this is talking about. This is
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Speaker 1: somebody living in rebellion who is a church member and
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Speaker 1: refuses to turn away from this sin. Kind of like
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Speaker 1: that guy in First Corinthians who was sleeping with his stepmom.
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Speaker 1: There were Thessalonian Christians who were also engaging in sin.
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Speaker 1: And what was this sin? This sin was refusing to
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Speaker 1: work verse seven. You know how you ought to imitate us,
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Speaker 1: For we didn't behave ourselves rebelliously among you. Neither did
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Speaker 1: we eat bread from anyone's hand without paying for it.
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Speaker 1: But in labor and travail, we worked night and day
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Speaker 1: that we might not be a burden to any of you.
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Speaker 1: Apparently there were church members refusing to work and mooching
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Speaker 1: off of others. I was reading some history about Thessalonika,
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Speaker 1: and I guess it was kind of common for rich
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Speaker 1: men and women of the city to sponsor patrons. But
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Speaker 1: these patrons just mooch off of the rich and refuse
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Speaker 1: to work, refuse to do anything with their lives. Really,
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Speaker 1: this is kind of talked about, or alluded to rather
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Speaker 1: in Acts chapter seventeen, when Paul was in Thessalonaika. Here's
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Speaker 1: what it says. In verse five of Acts seventeen, the
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Speaker 1: Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace and
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Speaker 1: gathered a crowd set the city in an uproar and
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Speaker 1: assaulted the house of Jason. They sought to bring them
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Speaker 1: out to the people. The wicked men in the marketplace
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Speaker 1: talked about there is likely men that were just kind
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Speaker 1: of loafing around the marketplace during the day, expecting handouts
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Speaker 1: and entitlements from rich individuals. Paul says, this is wicked behavior,
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Speaker 1: and they're called wicked. Actually in Acts seventeen, they were
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Speaker 1: wicked men from the marketplace. So it is an unhealthy
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Speaker 1: thing for somebody to refuse to work. Here's what Paul says,
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Speaker 1: We set an example to you. We worked night and
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Speaker 1: day so that we don't burden any of you. That
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Speaker 1: was not because we didn't have the right, but we
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Speaker 1: did this to make ourselves an example to you that
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Speaker 1: you should imitate us. Now, this is a common phrase
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Speaker 1: repeated by Paul in many of his letters, where he
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Speaker 1: says imitate me or imitate us. And I've talked about
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Speaker 1: this in depth before, so I don't really want to
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Speaker 1: go back over it again. But essentially, people didn't have
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Speaker 1: the New Testament yet it was still being written, you know,
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Speaker 1: they had it in bits and chunks with the letters
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Speaker 1: that Paul would write, but they didn't have a full
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Speaker 1: breakdown of how to successfully live like Jesus, like you
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Speaker 1: and I do nowadays. So Paul said, as we imitate Christ,
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Speaker 1: and as we teach you about Christ, imitate us until
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Speaker 1: you have a full picture of who Christ is. So
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Speaker 1: Paul says, when we were with you, guys, we worked
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Speaker 1: night and day so that we didn't have to ask
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Speaker 1: you guys for anything, not even a loaf of bread.
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Speaker 1: We provided for ourselves. And Paul's like, not that we
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Speaker 1: didn't have the right to ask for payment from you guys,
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Speaker 1: because we did, because we worked among you. We did
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Speaker 1: not take payment because we wanted to be an example
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Speaker 1: to you of how a Christian is supposed to work.
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Speaker 1: So he says in verse ten, for even when we
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Speaker 1: are with you, we commanded you this. If anyone is
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Speaker 1: not willing to work, don't let him eat. Who man,
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Speaker 1: That is countercultural, isn't it. And you know Paul's not
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Speaker 1: talking about people who can't work. He doesn't say anybody
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Speaker 1: who can't work, county, don't let them eat? You know,
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Speaker 1: too bad about the injured, or the widows or the
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Speaker 1: old people who cares about them, they can't eat. No,
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Speaker 1: Paul says, those who are unwilling to work, don't let
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Speaker 1: them eat. This will be talking about healthy young individuals
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Speaker 1: who just absolutely refuse to work and just demand handouts
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Speaker 1: and payments from rich people or from the church itself.
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Speaker 1: Because one of the things the church did very early on,
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Speaker 1: like you can actually read about this in the Book
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Speaker 1: of Acts, the church would provide for the sick and
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Speaker 1: for the widows, and probably it got corrupted over time
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Speaker 1: where healthy individuals started demanding payouts from the church. And
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Speaker 1: that's why Paul says earlier, don't associate with these people,
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Speaker 1: stop giving them handouts, with draw yourselves from every brother
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Speaker 1: who walks in rebellion. But even worse, not only were
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Speaker 1: they doing nothing, but they were also doing like anti work.
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Speaker 1: They were being extremely unhelpful. So here's what it says
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Speaker 1: in verse eleven, we hear some of you who walk
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Speaker 1: among you in rebellion who don't work at all, but
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Speaker 1: are busy bodies. So not only are some of these
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Speaker 1: people refusing to work even though they are able bodied,
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Speaker 1: going around loafing about, spreading all sorts of rumors and
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Speaker 1: slander and divisions in the church. So not only are
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Speaker 1: they refusing to work and expecting other people to work
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Speaker 1: for them, but they are also gossiping, acting entitled, and
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Speaker 1: possibly spreading division in the church. They are doing nothing
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Speaker 1: to help the body of Christ. Now this is again
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Speaker 1: alluded to in First Thessalonians five, starting in verse twelve,
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Speaker 1: and this is from the NIV version. We ask you,
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Speaker 1: brothers and sisters to acknowledge those who work hard among you,
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Speaker 1: who care for you in the Lord, and who admonish you.
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Speaker 1: Hold them in the highest regard in love because of
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Speaker 1: their work. Live in peace with each other. And we
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Speaker 1: urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle
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Speaker 1: and disruptive, Encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient
20:55
Speaker 1: with everyone, make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong,
20:58
Speaker 1: but always strive to do what is good for you,
21:00
Speaker 1: each other and for everyone else. So this problem was
21:03
Speaker 1: rampant even back in First Thessalonians, because Paul kind of
21:07
Speaker 1: addressed it then. But now he's hearing even more reports
21:12
Speaker 1: about these wicked people refusing to work and just causing
21:16
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of trouble. Here's what he says in
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Speaker 1: verse twelve of our passage today. Now those who are
21:21
Speaker 1: that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus
21:24
Speaker 1: Christ that they work with quietness and eat their own bread.
21:28
Speaker 1: So essentially, stop being idle, work with your own hands,
21:34
Speaker 1: earn your own bread, and eat it with quietness. Shut
21:37
Speaker 1: your mouth, and stop gossiping. That's what Paul is saying.
21:42
Speaker 1: But you, brothers verse thirteen, don't be weary in doing
21:45
Speaker 1: what is right. If any man doesn't obey our word
21:49
Speaker 1: in this letter, note that man and have no company
21:53
Speaker 1: with him to the end that he may be ashamed.
21:56
Speaker 1: Don't count him as an enemy, but admonish him as
21:58
Speaker 1: a brother. So there you go. Whenever church discipline is done,
22:02
Speaker 1: you know, I think a lot of people are like, oh,
22:03
Speaker 1: church discipline is so mean, it's so mean. But no,
22:07
Speaker 1: we are actually called to judge our fellow brothers and
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Speaker 1: sisters in Christ. We are not called to judge like
22:14
Speaker 1: the outside world. That's supposed to be left up to God.
22:17
Speaker 1: But in our church we actually are supposed to judge.
22:21
Speaker 1: That is how church discipline is done. And church discipline
22:25
Speaker 1: is not done to be mean or to cast somebody aside.
22:28
Speaker 1: And you know, I've seen church discipline done the wrong way.
22:31
Speaker 1: The church I had growing up, they had terrible church discipline.
22:35
Speaker 1: They would just uh, kick somebody out for not agreeing
22:39
Speaker 1: with the pastor and really crazy things like that. Church
22:43
Speaker 1: discipline can absolutely be done wrong. I've seen it. But
22:48
Speaker 1: when it's done right, it's actually for the betterment of
22:52
Speaker 1: the individual being punished. That's what Paul says right here.
22:58
Speaker 1: Don't have any company with him so that he will
23:01
Speaker 1: be ashamed, but don't count him as an enemy. Admonish
23:04
Speaker 1: him as a brother, so this person is still a
23:08
Speaker 1: brother in Christ. When this person gets essentially kicked out
23:13
Speaker 1: of the church for a time, it's to admonish this
23:16
Speaker 1: person and you're supposed to pray for him the entire
23:21
Speaker 1: time he is outside of the church. But like I said,
23:24
Speaker 1: church discipline can be done incorrectly, So here is the
23:28
Speaker 1: correct way to do church discipline. Firstly, the person must
23:32
Speaker 1: be an active Christian member claiming to love Christ. Secondly,
23:39
Speaker 1: the person has to be doing a sin that is
23:43
Speaker 1: talked about in scripture, not disagreeing with the pastor or
23:46
Speaker 1: anything silly like that, anything extra biblical. The person is
23:49
Speaker 1: only to be kicked out if they are breaking one
23:53
Speaker 1: of the rules of Christianity, which would be being in
23:57
Speaker 1: rebellion against God, refusing to turn from a sin and
24:02
Speaker 1: continuing to live in that sin, or if a church
24:05
Speaker 1: member is purposely causing division in the church. Titus chapter
24:09
Speaker 1: three ten through eleven actually talks about this. This is
24:13
Speaker 1: from the NLT version. It says, if people are causing
24:17
Speaker 1: divisions among you give a first and a second warning.
24:21
Speaker 1: After that, have nothing more to do with them, for
24:24
Speaker 1: people like that have turned away from the truth and
24:26
Speaker 1: their own sins condemned them. So essentially, before church discipline happens,
24:32
Speaker 1: warnings are supposed to take place. So you go to
24:35
Speaker 1: the person, you warn them once or twice about what
24:39
Speaker 1: they're doing. But if they refuse to turn away from that,
24:42
Speaker 1: that is when church discipline ends up happening. And after
24:46
Speaker 1: this person gets in a sense excommunicated from the church,
24:50
Speaker 1: Paul does say you're to invite them back in once
24:55
Speaker 1: they actually do repent. It is not supposed to be
24:58
Speaker 1: a long term thing. Unless that person absolutely refuses to repent,
25:05
Speaker 1: then Paul's like, Okay, they refuse to repent, that's kind
25:08
Speaker 1: of just it. But if they come back and they're like,
25:10
Speaker 1: I am sorry for what I did, like I see
25:12
Speaker 1: the error of my ways. You guys are my family,
25:15
Speaker 1: and I just don't want to be away from you, guys.
25:18
Speaker 1: I don't want to be away from God. Paul says,
25:21
Speaker 1: the correction is over, except that person back in with
25:25
Speaker 1: open arms. So there is a right way for church
25:29
Speaker 1: discipline to be done. And there are some churches that
25:31
Speaker 1: don't enact church discipline at all, and there are others
25:35
Speaker 1: that enact it way too much. Like with a lot
25:37
Speaker 1: of things, it should be somewhere in the middle. But regardless,
25:42
Speaker 1: Verse fifteen says, you're not supposed to count this person
25:45
Speaker 1: as an enemy when he gets disciplined by the church,
25:48
Speaker 1: but to admonish him as a brother. So pray for
25:51
Speaker 1: this person, ask God to reveal their sin to them,
25:56
Speaker 1: and then when they do eventually come back, accept them
26:01
Speaker 1: with open arms. Now to end with verse sixteen through eighteen. Now,
26:05
Speaker 1: may the Lord of Peace himself give you peace at
26:08
Speaker 1: all times in all ways. The Lord be with you
26:12
Speaker 1: all I, Paul write this greeting with my own hand,
26:16
Speaker 1: which is the sign in every letter. This is how
26:19
Speaker 1: I write. So Paul's like, yeah, if there's any fake
26:23
Speaker 1: letters in the future, here's how you know they're not
26:25
Speaker 1: from me. They're not gonna have my signature. At the end,
26:29
Speaker 1: Paul's like, this is the way I write. I always
26:32
Speaker 1: sign my name at the end with a little greeting,
26:34
Speaker 1: and then he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus
26:37
Speaker 1: Christ be with you all amen. I absolutely loved the
26:45
Speaker 1: Book of Second Thessalonians. Like honestly, this was probably one
26:49
Speaker 1: of my favorite books to talk about in a really,
26:51
Speaker 1: really long time. It was just so fun to discuss
26:54
Speaker 1: this book, and I hope you guys enjoyed it as well.
26:57
Speaker 1: We are done with Second Thessalonians. I thought Man Today
27:00
Speaker 1: would be a two part episode, but now I don't
27:02
Speaker 1: think so. I think we definitely was able to fit
27:04
Speaker 1: all of this into one episode. And I hope you
27:06
Speaker 1: guys loved it. And if you did, share it with
27:09
Speaker 1: somebody who needs it. If you know somebody who just
27:11
Speaker 1: needs to hear Second Thessalonians, tell them about the Bible
27:15
Speaker 1: Explain podcast and also pray for this ministry to succeed.
27:19
Speaker 1: That is the best way to get more people to
27:22
Speaker 1: find this podcast in the future. Faithful listeners, have a
27:26
Speaker 1: fantastic rest of your day. We will be in the
27:29
Speaker 1: Book of First Timothy on Tuesday, so I hope to
27:32
Speaker 1: see all of you guys then, Happy listening, and God
27:35
Speaker 1: bless