Amen. Thank you. Second Thessalonians in chapter three. I want to begin at verse number six and we'll work our way down to at least verse number 12. The title of this message is work in the name of the Lord, in the name of the Lord. Now we command you brothers, so he's talking unto the saints. He's not talking unto unbelievers. And often in the Christian church, an unbeliever's actions can be so similar to those of a true believer. In 1 Corinthians 5, we're told to cast some people out of the church and to have no fellowship with them as wicked people. They could be drunkards, they could be fornicators. Extortioner is a person who takes things by force. He's like a bully, like a policeman that makes you pay him money or he'll put you in jail. But there are some things that true believers do that you can't tell. And here in Africa especially, that's where the opportunities aren't as many, aren't as major. There is a lot of slothfulness and excuse-making. But Christians are hard at work. We are very diligent with our own hands. Now, we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as above all names, That is the name of authority and of power. But it's more than that. It's the name of our Savior. Our Savior is the one who comes to give us grace so that we may keep, so that we may do his commands. Mr. Law, did he ever help us? No, he just pointed at us and said, you do wrong and I'll kill you. But Mr. Grace, our Lord Jesus Christ, at the Mount Zion, at the New Covenant, he gives grace for all of his commands. So everything he tells us to do, he will help us do. because He put away our sins. He gives us the Holy Spirit. It's His will to help us. He tells us, come boldly to the throne of grace that we may find help and obtain mercy in our time of need. And my time of need is obedience. And so in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the authority, but it's also the gospel. And anytime as you hear preaching, you always want to hear and say, am I hearing a man preaching how to obey God? There are many men that will tell you to obey God, but only those who preach the cross of Christ Jesus and the grace of God. are giving you any help to obey God from the Spirit. It's the Spirit of God. It's the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the command comes with authority and love. help and assistance. It's a mandate, but he will help us do it. And we never need to look at the commands of God as burdensome because of that. It's all by grace. It's by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our first command is to believe on the son of God, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then draw strength from him to love each other because he first loved us and washed away our sins. Now we command you, brothers, 2 Thessalonians 3.6, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother. It doesn't matter how much you love him. It doesn't matter how kind he is. What kind of personality he may have. He may be your favorite person in the church. So funny. And often people who don't work have a good sense of humor and they like to sit around and talk and tell jokes. But that doesn't matter. You want to be a diligent person, a hardworking person. And because in Christianity, there's a transformation that has happened because of Christ. Before I was saved, I had, well before I, because I was religious. It's before I was saved is I was religious. I became a preacher. But before I got religious, I had no intention of working. I was going to be a drug dealer, a gangster. It had never entered into my brain. that I'm gonna be at work all day. I played sports, either I make money there or I'm a gangster. But once a man is in Christ, he's a new creation. Everything is new. The old ways, the old life is gone. And what I'm really talking about from the text as to what he's saying unto us is that the transformation is total. And we're not trying to be as close unto the world or as close unto our old selves as possible. We're trying to be totally new in every way. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things are new. Our reconciliation with God is complete and total. I have a new attitude towards God. I'm a new creation. I got the favor of God, but I've also got a new lifestyle too. There are many people who want this new relationship of acceptance with Christ But they don't want to do the things that God says do now. That's an antinomian Anti-law, I'm not under on the law of Moses. I'm under the law of Christ. I see gospel everywhere in this book and I preach Christ from Old Testament and New, and the law does come in, it condemns, it has a place to show us our sins. He that breaks even one law is guilty of all. That's the book of James 2. I can't stand in my own sight in acceptance with God by what I do. I need Christ Jesus. But there's another law of how I'm to live now. I'm to love. I'm to grow. I'm to be transformed. And working is part of that change, the transformation of attitude. As I see you in here, Faith, as I was in my seat, as you're sweeping, you're here early, you're humming a tune, a hymn. And I'm thinking in my chair, is this the same girl I had to get on her back about not paying attention? What happened to her? This is so much more beautiful, so wonderful. That's what Christianity does. It transforms us from being utterly worthless people. Very damaging. Everybody I led, I would have led them to destruction. into being a person that's good and transformed by the grace of God and does good to other people and works hard. Now, everyone here I see is hard working, but there are others I know in Africa, in Nigeria, who are brothers, but they don't want to work. I got a call from a brother, this was in the last week, I had reached out because I saw that he had unfriended me. Then he added me back. And so I wanted to find out. I said, what is the problem? Are you okay? And he responded that he was angry with me because I wasn't showing Christian love. because I had not helped him in his poverty and his need. And I got angry. Not angry angry, but adamant. And you know I can get adamant. And I told him, I've offered you jobs. I was going to buy a car, but you have to pay it back. There are other brothers I help, but they pay it. I'm not handing money to anybody just to sit around. It's not my responsibility to take care of their family just because they're poor. It's his responsibility. It's the struggle and work. and claw in the dirt if you have to, scale a wall if you have to. You've got to take care of your family, Yasmeer, or you're worse than an infidel. It's not my responsibility to take care of another man's family. It's my responsibility, your responsibility is to give, but it's everybody's responsibility to work so that they can have something to give. And we help our brothers, but we demand they work. And if a man comes unto my door and he says, I'm hungry, brother, I can't feed my family. And I say, oh, you're a brother. Here's my field. If you mow my field, if you clear my field, I'll give you enough money to feed your whole family for a week. If he says no, he's going hungry and his baby. You understand me? He is not to eat. And that hunger pain needs to teach him a lesson. And what this is saying, have nothing to do with him. Look at the words again, that you keep away, 2 Thessalonians 3, 6, you keep away, you stay away from any brother who is walking in idleness. He's refusing to work and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us. It's serious business. He's not calling him an unbeliever. He's saying this is a brother that don't work and he needs to be chastised by taking away the fellowship and having nothing to do with him, that he might be ashamed. When a person is baptised and confesses Christ in the true gospel and eats and drinks of the Lord's supper, he's under responsibility to obey Christ. He's under responsibility to live by the, there are no excuses. There's help. There's the confession of sin. Brother, I'm wrong. I'm sorry. I've been lazy. Okay, let me help you up. But there's no excuse for the disobedience of not working even in Africa, even in Africa. And I told this brother that most of the people I've helped have not paid me back in Africa. And I've helped a few scammers. And I'm pretty astute, but so are they. They can talk sovereign grace and scam people out of their money. Smart people, very clever and crafty. I don't give any money out if I don't know some more details. I've been scammed by men who preach the gospel, who are liars, shameful things. I feel sorry for their wife to have a husband like that, that you have to submit a scoundrel, a coward, and a liar. No, no, no. If a brother doesn't work, shouldn't he? As you put your arm around him and you say, brother, this is the last time I'm gonna speak with you until you change your character. Verse seven, for you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us. Not the lazy person but the Apostles. This is a brand new life now imitate the Apostles imitate us imitate Silas imitate Timothy imitate a Believers who are strong and honor God in this new life because look what Paul says We were not idle when we were with you if anybody had the title of and the right to sit around and just preach, it was the Apostle Paul. As I met a man, it was a young lady, and she contacted me to ask some questions about a man that's pursuing her for marriage. And she told me that he's got one problem. doesn't want to work and he's in Bible college and and he's swearing that the Lord will provide and he doesn't think it's spiritual if he has a secular work as he's preaching Christ and he's saying the Lord will provide that's great if he does But if he doesn't and your belly's hungry, you need to work with your own hands. After the example of the apostle Paul, he said, these people are not mature enough to give. It's a small church. It's a new church. It's a young church. They don't have it in them yet. Let me work day and night with my hands so I can preach the gospel unto them and they not be offended or pressurized into giving. Pastors don't pressure people into giving. Pastors teach people to give. They take no money from anybody by extortion or extraction or by weaseling. They're not clever and crafty to get into your pocket. They want your heart after God. And then your money's loose according unto God gave it to you. But pastors are like Paul. He said, I'll work. instead of offend these people by begging and bring them into bondage in their conscience. When they don't have it to give, how about if I told y'all, you pay me now. If I have my flat, my food, you can't pay? You can clean my house. You can mow my field. Is that a pass? That's not a pastor. That's not a preacher of the gospel. He works so he can serve you. That's what Paul did. It's so different than what we see in Nigeria. Of all places I've been on earth, I have never seen a place with more big man syndrome than Nigeria. The big man is served by all the people. They're turned into slaves. and held in fear and bondage of how this little puny man deceives them as if he's some great, great somebody. The pastor's a servant. The pastor is after the example of Paul. And all of us are to follow the example of Paul, to work with our own heads and put the gospel first. Paul said, the gospel is more important than my liberty. I know I have the freedom, he said, to be supported. But if you can't do it, if you can't give, if you're too small, if you're too young as a church and immature, let me get my hands unto it. Let me get dirty. Day and night, he said, he toiled. And you know what it is to work and preach all day and night? It's not an easy thing to do at all. And when you're an apostle, of all people to sit around on the side and watch everybody else work, but actually an apostle is an example of them all. He's the leader of the pack as the hardest working, and the most upright, and the most selfless. The greatest is the servant. It's the servant. They led by example and the people were poor and unable to give just so they may lead by example and work. God knew what he was doing. He could have saved a bunch of rich people and set Paul down in ease, but he saved poor people and a few of them. They met in a house church and he couldn't get fed by these people. So he worked with his own hands. that he may have something to give and to support his other brothers in the ministry. Let me just, I want to read you that in Acts chapter number 20. It's an important verse for all of the charlatans around here. If you look at your preacher, and your preacher would not be doing this, I wouldn't listen to him, for he is very immature at best. Acts chapter 20. This is our example. Verse number 33, Paul says, I coveted no one's silver or gold, or apparel, I didn't want the clothing. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities. As he made tents, as he was in Corinth, tents. And to those who were with me. Not just my needs were being cared for, I was caring for the needs of others as the great apostle by my working unto give them money and opportunity. In all things, I've shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it's more blessed unto give than receive. And when he left, they wept because they saw his heart. They knew he loved them and he preached the gospel. That's a pastor's relationship with his church, if it's right. Second Thessalonians 3, verse number eight, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. I don't want a pastor's discount, he says. If you have a car and you're selling me a car, you have a car business, I don't get a pastor's discount. If you want to give it to me, that's fine, but it's not by extortion. Huh, I'm the pastor. Huh, and the Lord will bless you if you cut that price. Huh, I'm preaching under you. Shouldn't you let me have this? No, we don't serve like that. That's hypocrisy. That's evil. That's misusing people. That's misusing the authority that God gives you to serve. If you have a baby, you're going to tell the baby, if you keep quiet, baby, I'm going to let you have some milk. No. You have to feed the baby and hope he keeps quiet. But you have to feed the baby. That's your job. As a mother, you have to feed the baby. But with toil and labor, look at Paul. In Silas, in Timothy, we work night and day. That's one of the things I think is. troubling me, I need more work. I need to find work, something to do with my hands, that we might not be a burden unto any of you. I didn't want to be a problem until you're able to give. Then when you're able, you got some money in your pocket, yeah, you give and support the gospel. It's your joy, it's your privilege, it's your pleasure. But until then, I can't be leaning on you and eating out of your plate. You barely have enough yourself, and I'm going to be eating out of your plate by force? By coercion? By a guilt trip? No, because we work with our own hands. Verse number nine, it was not because we do not have that right. I have authority unto be sponsored and to be paid for as a preacher of the gospel. If I'm sowing unto you spiritual things, I have a right to reap. I gotta work and get paid, and part of my work is the preaching of the gospel. It's a valuable work. I have a right. It's Galatians 6. This is an important principle, and there's always balance in the Word of God. Because there are some preachers, especially new ones, especially young ones, Like me when I was getting started out that Don't know how to ask the people to give but if we need to preach the Word of God That's how you do it you ask for what the Bible says asked for and in Galatians 6 Verse number 6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 1 Corinthians 9. Verse 11, if we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? Verse 14, in the same way, and the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. It doesn't mean a man can't work. Obviously Paul did. But it means his people ought to take care of him. As you see the difference, as you see the balance, I should be willing to work with my own hands and the people who hear me preach in America or from wherever should be willing to give and support me. Both are true. Both are true. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 9, it's not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. He wants all the church at Thessalonica to imitate what? What are they imitating? Hard work, but there's another principle there. What's the principle? Be an example of the gospel. Put the gospel first. If anybody could have sat around and said, I'm an apostle, I'm preaching." It was Paul. But because he's an apostle and he's a high man in the church, he has to give an example of what? Of service. Self-sacrificing service that puts the gospel before my life. that puts the gospel before my ease and comfort. He could have gone home and slept, but no, he said, I have to go work to be an example unto these other people. I got to go do it with my own hands. And God could have provided. And Paul, I'm is I'm sure he prayed, Lord, help me. If you give me some money, I can preach more. I can pray more, Lord. I can spend more time in the scriptures. Help me with some money. No, my grace is sufficient as you go work and be an example. That's what the church needs more than even your time being free in preaching. God knew what he was doing to give us an example of what's important. It's the gospel. Verse number 10 through 12, for even When we were with you, we would give you this command. It must be implemented. It must be obeyed. We can never think ourselves wiser than God. If we can never say that because we're saved by grace, What the commands are in scripture are unimportant. If we never taper them, if we never lower them down. I heard a man on a podcast that he made an astute statement that preachers fall when they stop praying. is they get the articulation, and they know the doctrine in their mind, and they're gifted, and can open the text, but when they stop praying, they lose their communion with God, their intimacy, their true power, their contact, and then they fall by the side. Praying is a command. And when the man says, I don't have to pray, I'm saved by grace, I'm doing well, I'm the best preacher out here, he's in his own strength, and he will fall. Or he's already fallen. The commands of Scripture are important, all of them. They're all to be obeyed, even if I have to put my favorite brother out of the church. Even if a wife has to say amen unto her husband being put out of the church, and she's probably tired of him not working anyway, but even if she has to beg and say, please, Lord, and he's still put out of the church, she has to say amen because she's a Christian. And she loves him, but she loves God more. If it's my father, if it's my son, they don't want to work. They can't eat. You can't even sneak them some food on the side. Paul said, have nothing to do with him that he might be ashamed and get a job. And I think as I was speaking with this brother, I hid his conscience, I hope. That it was not me not giving, it was you not actually working, and I wasn't going to compromise, and it would have been wrong if I did. And for you to think I owe you something is wrong. Africans are not owed anything by Americans, not one thing. They owe themselves to work, and the Americans are responsible to give. But they don't owe us here. Nobody owes me as a missionary anything. Their responsibility is to give. That's their own business. My responsibility is to work with my hands if I have a need. Did you see the difference? If anyone is not willing to work, are you young ladies, don't marry a man who won't work. I don't care how smooth talking he is. This man I was informed about, I gave a list of examples and reasons for working. And he disregards them unto his own power. And he may be a true believer. I have my doubts, but it's possible. He's saying deal with them as a brother. But you don't want to marry a man that disregards this mountain of evidence that says work just because he's so spiritual. He's never preached a sermon in his life. He's just in Bible school expecting people to support him. I've been preaching for 30 years. 30 years as of next year. I have a right to think that God might Provide through some of the people who've heard me and if he doesn't I got to get to it with my own hands Nobody owes me If I'm sitting here in Africa or in America saying nobody's paying me money Then you ain't gonna eat if you don't work preacher Preacher get to work with your hands And if God wants to provide through your people, oh, that's a good thing. It's a benefit. It's mutual love. He's giving in the preaching and you're giving out of your pocket to support his needs. You're giving in love and he's giving in love. That's the gospel. For we hear verse 11, that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. They're in other people's business because they don't have anything to do with their own hands. They're unoccupied, and so they're gossips. They don't have anything to do and control their mind, and so they're in everybody else's business. Have you heard about Jeremiah? Faith, man, I pray for faith. I've seen some things in her. Haven't told her yet, but I'm gonna speak with you about it. I don't, I don't. leads to gossip and talking and being in everybody else's business, telling her as to how to run her life with her husband because I don't have a job to occupy my mind. Have you ever seen people who talk about other people all the time. It could be sports. It could be movie stars. This is all they do. How many of them are billionaires? Their mind is occupied with frivolous things. There's a place for it. But that other guy's mind is occupied with work. He ain't got time for gossip. Work with your own hands, saints. Occupy your life. Now, verse 12, such persons we command and encourage. We put arms around you. is we say we love you. We speak to you with tears. There's no anger or hatred. It may be an angry voice, but it's not hatred. And I'm encouraging you, I'm pleading with you, I'm begging you, work with your own hands in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Nobody is to support you and me, but ourselves. And if a man is preaching the gospel and you're giving unto him to support him, you're doing rightly. But you don't owe him anything except love. and what love would call you to do. There was a man is a preacher and musician is in America. He said, lock the doors. Nobody gets out up until I raise $40,000. There's 1,000 people in here. I should be able to get that much. Lock the doors, and they locked And the foolish people didn't have the nerve to stand up and walk out And he's apologizing now, but that's not how we give Not by force Extraction It's by giving generously because you saved by God's grace And to a man that's preaching the gospel