Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 18, 2024 | The Good Life - A Quiet Life

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August 18, 2024 | The Good Life - A Quiet Life · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good to be with you.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: By a show of hands, how many of you uh would use the word busy to describe your life?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um we like using that word to describe our lives, right?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um at least certainly those around us, it it seems to be kind of the answer that we give.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And when somebody says, How are you doing?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: and the they're not ready for the emotional weight of really how I'm doing, like busy sort of just shortcuts to the end of it.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it often can seem like the most important people in our lives have the most going on.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's true in our lives or the world around us.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're productive, they get things done, they're in demand.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: When someone asks how your life is doing, peaceful normally doesn't make the cut.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Relaxed is probably not how we respond.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, our world is louder and there is less privacy, and overall there's more anxiety about the future.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And all the polls and research have kind of come in, and they say that we're stressed to the max, but increasingly it feels like life isn't as fulfilling as it should be, even though we're doing more things.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so we have a question this morning, which is Is there a better way?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says there is.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that actually the good life is the quiet life, and that it is intentionally pushing back against sort of the speed and the way of life that for so many of us has sort of created this sense of anxiety and stress.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: That actually it is the simple life, the quiet life that Christ would desire for us to have.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're going to look at this morning.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: How can we find it, or at least one version of it.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And our text is going to be in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: We see here that Paul is speaking to a group of people.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk more about them in a moment, but um, they are really the Thessalonians.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's a they're a wonderful church.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sometimes when you get letters, people aren't doing so great.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the Thessalonians, they are a faithful church, they're a generous church, they are filled with love.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul takes a bit of time to just talk about how great they are.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but they are they are also a church that has been persecuted really heavily, and um they are very excited about the teaching that Paul has given them on the second coming of Christ.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all of the hope that is present when Jesus returns and sets the world as it should be.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, as that has happened, as the Thessalonians have learned about the second coming of Christ, they have taken that teaching and become, in fact, so excited about it, or you could also say they have become so anxious about it coming, uh, that many of them in the church have quit their jobs in anticipation of that event.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, to make a long story short, that's not good, and it has created a lot of problems then within the church and actually within the community.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, in verses uh chapter 4, verses 9 through 12, Paul is sort of drawing them into this idea.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you are a church that knows what love is.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: You guys do great gold stars all the way around, but you need to see that your love should extend in the way that you are um treating one another and ultimately how the world is looking at you as Christians, how you are handling this moment.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And up to this point in time, the answer is not super well.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, about brotherly love, you don't need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, at the beginning of this passage here, we have Paul saying, like, you don't need me to tell you what it looks like to love one another, because you do that so well, right?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he gives an example.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: When he says, uh, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: We know from 2 Corinthians, uh, when Paul was talking about uh chapter 8 and 9, is where he's uh talking about giving to the churches and giving finances to help those who are in need, the Thessalonians uh, through their church, are supporting almost an entire region of churches in Macedonia, even though they don't have much money.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul's like, you guys, you really you've got this in spades.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: However, you've turned a blind eye towards this one area, and that blind eye is that you have been whipped up into this frenzy.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some of you who have quit your jobs, and uh you now have a lot more time on your hands, and what you have done with that time is you are creating drama.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: You are uh nosy and you are meddling in other people's businesses, and you have become idle and lazy, even though you like to say that you are busy, right?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's going to look at each one of these things, his three correctives you can see, right, is that you need to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we have commanded you.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, two reasons so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders, and not be dependent on anyone.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So these three things, leading a quiet life, minding your own business, and working with your own hands, they will be a benefit to those in the community who don't know Christ, and it will be a benefit to you personally.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Every single one of these, a quiet life, uh benefit to them and to you.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Minding your own business, certainly a benefit to them and to you.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Working well, uh benefit to them and to you.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning we're going to look at those three things and how it really pushes back, actually, against, I think, our um the desire for so many of us, myself included, to just go, you know, harder, faster, stronger in our lives.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um oftentimes we find ourselves in a place where we are so busy, but actually we're dissatisfied.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that there is another way to live.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing we're going to look at here is what it means to live a quiet life.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Paul's first encouragement is the one that really sets the stage for the others.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Make it your ambition and your goal to lead a quiet life.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, a quiet life, perhaps ironically, does not mean a silent life, but rather it is one that is rooted in confidence.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to try and express that here briefly, but basically, what is going on in Thessalonica is that Paul has given them this instruction about the return of Christ.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they are not only eager, but they are so anxious about it coming, um, that they have tried to take things into their own hands, and they have sort of begun to maybe saying that they're control trying to control their destiny is a little too intense.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: But they have um decided that they can step away from the world because Jesus is coming soon.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what that has done is it has not only divided people within the church, because not everybody quit their jobs.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: This actually ends up becoming a problem later because those who have quit their jobs are relying on those who still have jobs to support them.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll get to that in a moment.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, the the Thessalonians who have quit, they are projecting this image of anxiety and stress and really a lack of confidence in God's plan.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Jesus is going to return whether or not you quit your job.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, what happened in the days and weeks, months, and then even years after they had quit their jobs, and to the best of my knowledge, Jesus has not returned yet for the second time, is that they ended up looking like fools.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And what was supposed to be something that uh was you know presenting as a great act of faith in reality undermined the gospel message because they had not really stopped to consider how those who don't know Christ would see all these folks within the church just quitting their jobs and kicking back and just waiting for Jesus to return.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't really consider how the gospel message would be impacted by that.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then obviously, the anxiety and the stress that they were feeling about all of these things, to be fair, well placed, right?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of persecution going on, but these things, man, it was making it so hard for them to project, right?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Really, the Christian life, which should be marked by peace, should be marked by contentedness, should be marked by joy.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not that we always feel these emotions every single moment, but they were giving off the idea of more of a chicken little sky is falling.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: They were anxious and they were speaking of doom and gloom.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so a natural question is, okay, well, but isn't it important for people to know these things?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: To know what Christ has said is going to happen?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: You look at specifically this context here, and we say, well, um, maybe one way to look at it is the Thessalonians, those who had quit their jobs, they were the ones who were really stepping out in faith.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: They were the ones who, you know, were really taking it seriously.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: They were the ones who were the most focused on God's plan for their life, uh, that they had just taken a step out and trust in the Lord, uh, knowing that he was going to do what he said he was going to do.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: That'd be one way to look at it.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: But we also have to see that this urgency that they were living with was not something that God had designed for them.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true for the way that we are living our lives right now.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: God's plan is going to happen.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: We need to have confidence in it.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but so often what we do is his plan maybe isn't happening as fast as we would like, or maybe his plan is not going the way that we think it should.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we do, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, is we start pulling back more and more agency to ourselves, and we say, well, you know what, I'm gonna do this because I don't see God working as fast as he should, right?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or we say, well, I'm gonna go ahead and do this, I'm gonna pursue this life, I'm gonna take on these challenges, I'm going to, you know, go ahead and make all these commitments, I'm going to fill my schedule with all these things because that is going to be satisfying to me, because so far God's plan hasn't been nearly as satisfying to me.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Should the message not be known?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Should we not try and take things into our own hands?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a really good example, um, you're not going to be surprised, of what it looks like to lead the quiet life in confidence, to trust in the timing and purpose of God's plan, and to not be stressed about, you know, sort of needing to hurry, hurry, hurry, actually comes from Jesus Himself.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, there's a period of time when Jesus went back to minister in his hometown.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And uh one of the things that was shocking to his former neighbors is they had had no idea for the past 30 years that the carpenter's son had any ability to heal the blind and lame or perform miracles and speak such wonders.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus went to his hometown and began to teach them in the synagogue so that they were astonished and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't this the carpenter's son?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't his mother called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and his sisters?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Aren't they all with us?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So where does he get all of these things?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: They had grown up next to him, and for thirty Jesus' public ministry was about three years before he was crucified and he resurrected.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And for thirty years he lived as the carpenter's son.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Who had a more important message to share than Jesus Christ?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, um, what the the reaction of his former neighbors was, we had no idea.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like to live not only within the timing of God's plan, but to balance the idea of an important gospel message and also confidence in his timing, right?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, being the Son of God, had a bit of a direct line with the Father and when he wanted him to, when the Father wanted him to do certain things.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus was not fretting.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: There was no sense of stress in the timing of his mission.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: He understood that God was going to bring it about in his perfect order.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is something the Bible says over and over again, that the timing of the gospel message was perfect, and that to do it before or afterwards, just in the scope of history, it would have not been nearly as effective.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: God knew what he was doing, and we need to have confidence that he's doing that same thing in our life.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or we can look like the Thessalonians and we can try and take things into our own hands, we can create a lot of anxiety, we can create a lot of stress, and we can be loud.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: I want to try and be really specific with application this morning.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, two points.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: A quiet life is rooted in the promises of God and hope for the future.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: A constantly nervous Christian shouldn't exist.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm nervous a lot of the time.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have anxiety.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but somebody who is perpetually in that way, right, we need to look at what it means for us to trust in Christ as the hope for the future.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: We've been given the Holy Spirit, we have given uh been given a promise about what is coming, we have received uh the hope in the resurrection of Jesus, we have a new relationship with God through the cross, right?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: We have we're forgiven of our sins on and on and on and on.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that this life is never filled with anxiety, but the person who is always stressed and maxed and sort of redlining, pedaled to the ground, that that doesn't really reflect the peace that Christ is supposed to give us.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, much of our hurried, frantic life is an attempt to still control our destiny, or at least the need to project our worth to a culture that values loud living more than tranquility and confidence.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Application.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Take some time to write down a list of the things that you're nervous about, anxious about, and then use that list as the basis of your prayers or quiet time for the next two weeks.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Ask the Lord to give you his peace and intentionally seek to model your life after the patience of Christ.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Who had a more important message than Jesus did?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And yet he was confident in the Father's timing.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Not all of the points that we're going to look at this morning are going to last as long as living a quiet life.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to see is that there's sort of a surface level, and there's a command from God, an encouragement for us, and the solution to us beating that busy life is not necessarily what we would think it is on the surface level.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Leading a quiet life was not so much about just taking things out of our schedule.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't so much about just being actually silent, but rather it's about having confidence in God's plan.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you're able to focus on that and give some of these things that you're anxious about over to the Lord, what you're going to see is that by and by your need to live loud, your need to be fast, your need to chase after things to fulfill you is going to decrease.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And as you have more confidence in God's plan, you will have more peace, you'll have less stress.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your life will shockingly have a bit less drama in it.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right, number two, if we go back to our passage, we rem were reminded that the second item that Paul presented was that we are to mind our own business.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, this phrase needs a little introduction because chances are that you've heard this when a you know family member has given unsolicited advice, or you have felt this when you're at some kind of mixer and somebody got way too deep with the personal questions way too fast.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe somebody at work you've said this because they got a little too nosy about you know a job that the boss asked you to do.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh mind your own business is the verbal version of a skunk raising its tail, right?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, back off just a little bit.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we don't know exactly what was going on in Thessalonica, but we can kind of construct a picture.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: As we mentioned, people have quit their jobs, um, they have a lot more time on their hands, and they're creating division within the city.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so not only do you have the comments of those outside the church who have no real idea what's going on here, why are these Christians, why have they just stopped working?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's not great.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so they've got, you know, chatter going on there.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but then even within the church, right?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: You have those who are still working and those who aren't.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And on the one side, those who aren't working, they're saying things like, Could they not step out in faith?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Did they not trust in God?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are they just living in fear?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are they not, you know, they have this whole commentary, and then on the other side, these people are like, how could they be so unwise?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're having to bear the burden of them.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and they're, you know, we're the ones feeding them as they've quit their jobs.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're the ones.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can imagine how this situation is fertile ground for gossip, for slander, for saying all kinds of negative things about each other.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so when Paul says mind your own business, the Thessalonians needed to hear it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody who was a part of this, whether they had quit their jobs or not, needed to mind their own business.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm reminded of uh a couple different ways, right, that gossip takes place.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and not just gossip, because there's sort of that very obvious, like mean girls type of gossip that we're all probably very aware of.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: We've experienced it.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we we slip into that at times.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of that gossip that really is just tearing people down, it's demeaning, it's sort of sniping behind their back.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: But what I want to press into a little bit more, because that that is certainly sinful, but that there are kind of some slippery ways that we can fall into this sort of um uh talking about people being so wrapped up in their issues, even within the church, that we should be aware of.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have a good buddy who's um he's a pastor in a more rural congregation in a small town, and he was telling me recently that there's a retired member of their congregation who owns a police scanner and has made it their personal job and mission to text and call him whenever somebody from their congregation um goes to the hospital or is picked up on the police scanner, right?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And let's just say that he has then, you know, in meaning well, um followed up with some of those people in the hospital and realized that maybe they didn't want somebody visiting them right then.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is somebody who means well, but it's actually unhelpful, right?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And and their need, and really like let's look at it sort of the heart there, their need to be in the know, their need to have sort of information and power, um, can sort of be hit, and I'm not saying that it's an evil intent what they're doing, but it can sort of be hidden uh by the uh by this mask of I'm just trying to help people.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: In reality, what's going on is they're prying into other people's business who don't want that business shared, and in fact, they're hurting some relationships.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: We uh uh you know, this can take place in the church sometimes when we're talking about like prayer requests or those who are walking through diseases or sickness.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: We can get um uh and and frankly, I say this as somebody who needs to watch this myself because we get a lot of information about those of you who are walking through.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hard things, that my role or your role is never to become the person who is just like, you know, trying to find the bottom of every single story, but rather instead taking the information that we receive.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: We can be very tempted to just pry in and just be like, oh man, did you hear, did you hear what happened to them?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Did you hear about their surgery?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Did you hear in a way that actually isn't profitable?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the other thing that we can do as Christians is we can be sneakily hurtful in the way that we're talking about people.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, sort of the Trojan horses, I want to help somebody.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: But in this one, what actually ends up happening is we are just disguising our gossip, we are disguising our sort of slander under the mask of, oh, I just want to pray for them, I just want to care for them.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I did this just the other day.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was at lunch with a buddy, and we have a mutual friend who's going through some some hard times.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I genuinely started the conversation with a desire to know and make sure that there was, if there was anything that I could do, that we could do as friends to help them.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: But as that conversation persisted, um I was lingering in descriptions of their struggle.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was less than gracious in my own unsolicited feedback, and I was prodding for unnecessary details, right?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever been there, but I recognized that by the end of the conversation it was no longer a healthy thing that was motivated by love, but instead I was somebody who was contributing to really tearing them down, or at least not taking any action when the conversation started to turn more negative.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I should have kept in mind this passage from Ephesians.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And don't grieve God's Holy Spirit.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: You are sealed by him for the day of redemption.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let all bitterness, anger, and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: A great question to ask ourselves is whether our conversations are leading to the building up of those in need, or if we are instead grieving God's Holy Spirit by speaking with a heart of bitterness, anger, or even just unhealthy fascination with other people's struggles.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Would the person we are speaking of be honored if they were here in our presence?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's one consideration.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the other one that this passage brings up that's really interesting and good for us to consider is how the other person in the conversation can be blessed in their listening by the way that we speak with encouragement of those who are not around.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, that in any conversation where you have somebody who is, you know, whether it's at the water cooler, whether it's in your backyard, whether it's, you know, on the phone or texting, whatever it is, that that conversation starts to steer towards the, yeah, but did you hear really what they were doing?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that you have the opportunity to actually be a blessing to both the person you're speaking of and the one who is listening by redirecting that conversation towards something that is honoring to Christ.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: You will be blessed, the listener will be blessed, and the person who you spoke about positively, or at least stop talking about them negatively, they will be blessed as well.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Two points.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful of both obvious and sneaky forms of gossip.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Lusting after knowledge of others can be a sinful path.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Second, the need to concern ourselves with others often reveals a heart that is wrapped up in comparison and competition, which only increases our feelings of dissatisfaction.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let me try and reconnect this here to what we said is our busy, fast, hurried, anxious life.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: And why that is sometimes our need to talk about other people is a product of those things.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's because we are dissatisfied with our lives that we are drawn deeper and deeper into the act of comparison and competition.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it feeds the beast in two separate ways.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Either we're doing better than somebody else, or we're finding ways to tear down the accomplishments that somebody else has done, right?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that we should be able to rejoice with those who rejoice.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so often what happens when we struggle to mind our own business is we're filling our minds with the business of other people.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, we're drawing a distinction here.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is good to know how we can pray for, care, love one another.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is not that you should never ask your friend how they're doing.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're saying.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: But rather, there is an unhealthy level where we are just sort of taking in information simply for the purpose of either our own fascination, right, or a desire to make ourselves feel better.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's really the root of what's going on.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so the need to concern ourselves with others often comes from a heart that is wrapped up in these things.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you'll recognize as I do that, like in my lunch conversation with my friend, uh if I if I ask myself, why did I let it go so negative for so long?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's because shamefully I was, I took a weird sense of pleasure and and or satisfaction in knowing that I was doing better than they were, that my family wasn't going through the same struggles, that I um maybe I would have made a wiser decision, thought I would, in their same circumstance.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like whatever it is, it wasn't good and Christ honoring.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, application, don't be the person known for gossip.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Instead be known for always having an encouraging word.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever possible, make your conversations life-giving.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: You will bless those around you, and your own feelings of dissatisfaction will calm down.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I like I said, tying this back again, all of these things, the answer to correcting the busy, the anxious, the hurried life is not exactly what we might think.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, it is having our identity rooted in Christ, knowing who we are, being confident in that.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is actually the thing that will sort of let our need for comparison, our need to sort of learn about other people and what they're doing for good or for ill, to let that slide away.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's the person who knows who they are in Christ, who knows the hope that they have in Christ.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of person who is able to mind their own business.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Third and finally, we have our last encouragement from Paul.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: To work with your own hands.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: His uh final encouragement here has far less to do with the specific nature of the job than it does with having a job at all.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as we've said, uh many in the church have quit their jobs and they were sitting idly by, waiting for the return of Christ.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they were reliant upon, again, as this stretched out and into the months and then years, they were reliant upon uh the others in their church to provide for them.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this ends up being such a huge problem for the church in Thessalonica that in 2 Thessalonians, the following letter from 1 Thessalonians, Paul addresses it specifically.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says, In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone isn't willing to work, he should not eat.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: For we hear that there are some among you who are idle.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: They are hear this, they are not busy, but busy bodies.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and provide for themselves.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: If there was ever an example of how our culture has not changed from the biblical times, it would be people who, even back then, felt the need to let everybody know that they were busy, right?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have jobs, but they've got a lot going on, you know, a lot of commitments, a lot of social engagements, you know, a lot of responsibilities, they're, you know, working on some projects, all this kind of stuff.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what Paul says is actually you're not busy at all.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, the distinction that he draws is that you're not really spending your time on the things that matter most.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you might be filling your time.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's not that's not really the issue here.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh like you might be filling your time, um, but you're not filling it with things that are glorifying.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're not filling it with things that are meaningful, you're not filling it with things that are good for not just the kingdom, but for your own families.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're filling your time with useless things.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: God does value work, and there's a whole conversation here to be had about, you know, work with something that existed in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um for all intents and purposes, we are going to work when we are in heaven, but it will be glorified work.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: It will be something that is not prone to the uh stress and backbreaking labor that is so often defining our work now.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said, that's a whole nother message.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: What Paul's getting at here, and why this is so important for the church in Thessalonica, is they need to understand what it meant to spend their time on things that mattered most.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: And for them in particular, it was that they weren't working, and so they needed to get back to work.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now there are there are plenty of people, right, who, because of disease or disability or circumstance, can't uh hold a job that requires physical labor, or maybe they're not able to work in that way.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I want to kind of step away from the idea that this is swinging a hammer, okay?
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: As wonderful as it is to work and provide an income, whether in the home, outside of the home, uh, you know, male, female, married, single, whatever it is, as wonderful as it is to sort of work and provide, uh, what we need to look at this morning is what does it mean to spend our time on the things that do matter most?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to share a hard truth with you that you're probably not gonna like, um, which is that even though we feel busier than ever before, um the research would show that we have more leisure time as a uh on average, every person, than we ever did 60 years ago.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: We have more time to spend on things that are outside of work than ever before.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, obviously, the feeling is I don't have any time, I'm maxed, I'm stressed, my schedule, my calendar is full, we can't take on yet another thing.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so the question then becomes, how are we spending that time?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: One other example to share with you.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to I want you to go ahead and um think in your head, okay?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think the average amount of time spent on your phone, 18 and up, so don't take teenagers into account here.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: 18 and up, what do you think the average amount of time spent on your phone was in 2019?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh here in a second I'm going to share with you how COVID changed things.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: 2019, are you ready?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Three hours and 45 minutes.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, three hours and forty-five minutes, average adult time spent on the phone.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: COVID happened.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: We all spent a lot more time on our phone and and with technology.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what happened now that we don't have that anymore, the pandemic, is we have stayed on our phones.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: The average amount of time spent on our phones in 2024, four hours and 40 minutes.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: So more than an hour than we did back in 2019.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: You get my point.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: My point is that we have more time than we ever did before.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're just not always spending it well.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so the question becomes: if we have this sort of busy, hurried, stressed, constant on-the-go, endless multitasking state, have we just created that?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Have we produced within our lives a situation of our own doing where we are not actually spending and focusing our time on the things that matter most?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the answer is yes.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's encouragement was to spend time on the things that matter, and for them, he said, you should not be idle.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: You should work as the Lord has created you to work, but also keeping in mind that the Lord has saved you in Christ for the purpose of good works, that your work doesn't just extend to your what you might get a paycheck for, or what is your nine to five, but rather that it also extends to the things that God has called you to do in this lifetime.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: God has a purpose for you.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: And are you pursuing those things as well, or are you being idle?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Two points.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's very possible to have your schedule filled with items of little meaning.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are you spending your time on things that matter?
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, humanity was designed for work, and God has prepared good works for us to do in Christ.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Are we pursuing God's plan for our life, or are we idle?
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Application is that you would take your time captive, whether it's in hours, days, weeks, however you want to do it, spend some time alone or as a family asking, how does God want us to spend our time?
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: As many healthy things come to mind, make sure those get priority spots as your calendar fills up.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget that rest is something that God has commanded you to include in your schedule.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want you the classic example that fits this or illustration is the idea of the jar, right?
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the things that are most important in life are the biggest pieces and the things that don't matter all.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like sand.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you can fill up the jar with sand, and then you don't have room for the things that matter most when you try and fit them in later, or you can put those in first and then fill the rest up with sand, right?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably heard that before, and frankly, it's a great illustration of what God has called us to do as stewards for our time.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, as we look at the good life here, there are three areas that Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to pursue: to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you might remember that the reason that he said those things, the reason that he did it, is because it would mean that they were behaving properly in the presence of outsiders, and they would not be dependent on anyone.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: When you pursue these things, two good things are going to happen.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: One is that the gospel message is going to be amplified because it turns out people who don't know Christ like hanging out with other people who aren't filled with drama, mind their own business, and have a good work ethic.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Turns out those are just universally liked traits.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as it was back then, so the same is true today.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you have this confident life in God's plan, when you know your identity in Christ and don't need to compare yourself with other people, when you are putting first things first and second things second, when you are doing that, then when it comes time to share the gospel message with other people, it is going to be captivating because they can see that there is no real irony in your life.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: You are living out the gospel message.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Second, is that this will be good for you.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to take a step back from sort of that rat race, busy, hurried lifestyle, you need to understand that the answer is not just slashing commitments.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is drawing deeper into Christ so that you can have greater confidence in God's plan, know your identity in Him, and understand the things that will fulfill you as you spend your time on them.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: As you pursue those things, then what will happen is you will realize as a byproduct, wow, I don't feel as stressed.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't feel as anxious, I don't feel as hurried, I don't feel the need to perform as much as I did.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, my life is getting quieter.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: My life is getting to be a little bit less hurried.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: And whether or not you want to be the person who answers the question, how are you doing?
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: and you just go relaxed.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's not how we want to say it, but you can be somebody who lives that way.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: And to know that that is actually a healthy thing.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that this idea of a sort of maxed-out life that is just tearing us down and burning us out, that God didn't design us to live that way.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is found in Christ.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go ahead and pray.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you that you set a pace for us through Christ.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um that really contrasts this breakneck speed that we so often feel like we're going at.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you didn't design us to feel so much anxiety, stress, and hurriedness.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you designed us to be at peace with you.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: You designed us to be confident in your plans.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: You designed us, Lord, so that we could find fulfillment in the way that we're living our life.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would help us to do that, Lord.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: And as many of us feel like life is just a little out of control right now, feels like it's kind of hard to get a grasp on these things.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: How is it possible?
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, might you remind us that you have given us the Holy Spirit that enables us to take on all of these challenges and much more.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: God, you have given us the power and the ability to live our lives in the way that you have designed.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, praise be to you that it is not actually having an event going on every single day of the week.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or Lord, that it is not that we must keep tabs with every single person and know what everybody is doing.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or Lord, that it is not that we need to take everything into our own hands.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, we can have confidence.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to pursue these things and actually live them out, trusting in the peace that only Christ can provide.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, love you.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Hope to see you at the baptism tonight.