Father, we're thankful for the life of the church. We're thankful for Your ministry that You can take things that are dead and turn them to life. We certainly see that with the Dead Sea in Ezekiel 47. You're going to bring the Dead Sea back to life. So we just ask for Your life today, Father, in our lives. our life today here at Sugar Land Bible Church. And I pray, Lord, that You'd be with us as we study both in this session and in the main service that follows. We are very dependent upon the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. So in preparation for that ministry, we're just going to take a few moments of silence to do personal confession so we can receive from the Holy Spirit in an unfettered way today. We're thankful, Lord, for the comprehensiveness of your provision for us and to us. We thank you that our position is secure in you, but sometimes we can get out of fellowship, and so we thank you for your grace. We're told to go boldly into the throne room of grace that we may receive help in time of need. We are a needy people. And so we thank you for your provision for us in every area. I pray that You'll be with us now as we study. I pray You'll be with all of the classes that are meeting as I speak. And I pray that by the time Sugar Land Bible Church wraps up its day today, including meetings this evening, that Your name would be glorified. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, God's people said. Amen. Well, good morning everybody. Let's take our Bibles and open them to 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 10. Continuing here in Sunday school, our verse-by-verse teaching through the book of 2 Thessalonians. She brought me my name tag. The book has three chapters in it. Each chapter is a part. Chapter 1 is Paul's commending of them for their growth. Chapter 2 is his correction of them. Because for all of the reasons we've spoken of, they thought they were inside the day of the Lord, the tribulation period. Paul says, no, you're not. You're going to be removed from the earth before the tribulation starts. Deals with that in chapter two. But bad doctrine leads to bad practice because they thought they were in the tribulation period. He deals with the consequences of their bad doctrine. Chapter three. Because they were, as anybody really would do the moment someone sets a date for the return of Christ, you know, would say to themselves, well, if Jesus is coming back in seven years, then what's the point of paying down my credit card debt or paying off my mortgage or saving for retirement or, you know, any other financially responsible activity. And so this is the problem with having a bad eschatology, which they had. It was leading to irresponsible living. So after a season of prayer, verses 1 through 5, he exhorts the idol to get to work. And he does that in verses 6 through 15. He gives an exhortation, verse 6, and then he holds himself up as an example of a man who was industrious when he was with them, verses 7 through 9. We talked all about that last time. And then he basically is opening the door here to a Christian that won't financially support themselves after several warnings You need to. Disassociate with such a Christian. And you need to exercise church discipline on such a Christian. So these are things that are unheard of today in the 21st century in the church world, but that's what Paul is exhorting the. Thessalonian leadership to do with this problem of the lazy brethren. And so he gets into the whole reason why he's saying these things in verses 10 and 11. So we pick it up here in verse 10. He says, for even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. So this is not the first time Paul's had to deal with this issue. He dealt with it a little bit in the first letter. But things had obviously gotten worse in the second letter. because that's when they got the forged letter that they were in the day of the Lord, and so their propensity not to work was exasperated by the theological confusion that they were brought into in the second letter. But you remember in the first letter, he said this, to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and work with your hands just as we commanded you. So that's what he's talking about there in verse 10 when he says, for when we were with you, we used to give you this order. So I've role modeled a productive lifestyle when I was with you in planning the church. And when I wrote to you the first time, you know, I gave you this command to make it your ambition. This is your goal as a Christian. In other words, To lead a quiet life to attend to your own business and to work with your hands just as we commanded you. So you'll notice these little expressions here just as we commanded you. Going back to verse 10, we used to give you this order. And you know who does Paul think he is giving commands and orders? Well, he's an apostle. That's who he is. And Jesus in the upper room. specifically said, I have many things to tell you to the disciples, but you're not yet able. But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will bring to your remembrance all things and he will teach you all things. So the moment Jesus said that is he's opening the door to the 27 New Testament books that would be written, Paul, Obviously playing a major role in that contributing 13. Of the 27 New Testament books. So in September we're going to be starting up in the book of Acts again with Acts chapter 9. And we're going to see the conversion of Paul. Saul to Paul. And that's such a big deal, because if that conversion hadn't happened, arguably 13 New Testament books wouldn't exist. So when Jesus says, I'm gonna bring all things to your remembrance, John 14, 26, he's speaking of the gospels that would be written, recording the life of Christ, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. When he says, the spirit to the disciples will teach you all things, he's speaking of the epistles or the letters. And then when he says he will disclose to you the things that are to come, he's speaking of the book of Revelation. So Jesus, I guess, could have tried to disclose all of that material in the upper room, but they were not in a place where they could receive it yet, either by way of maturity or by the Spirit's baptizing ministry, which wouldn't even start until Acts chapter 2. And so Jesus is putting the writings of the disciples that are coming, the 27 New Testament books that we have, on equal par with his own statements. And I have to keep reemphasizing this or these. Statements that he's being that he's that Paul is making here. We used to give you this order. You know what did he say in 1st Thessalonians 411? Just as we commanded you that won't make any sense to you. A lot of people they want to build their theology completely on the teachings of Jesus. And they want to act like the things that Paul said. You know, or sort of. Misogynistic, I guess, or homophobic or something, but. Jesus himself would not allow, would not allow that in the upper room when he opened the door. You know, to this idea that when the spirit comes, he will guide you into all truth. So that's what's happening here. You might remember back at verse 6, Paul said the same thing. Now we command you, brethren. So he goes on in verse 10. He says, for when we were with you, we used to give you this order. And look at this. If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either. There's a big difference between Jesus saying, the Bible saying, or the Christian believing, Jesus will come back today versus He could come back today. I mean, those are two different things. Could Jesus come back today? Yes, He could. He could come back before the Sunday school lesson is over. And some of you might be praying for that to happen. But that's entirely different than saying he will come back before the Sunday school lesson is over. Saying he could come back today is a healthy belief. It's the doctrine of imminency. The rapture, as we call it, could take place at any moment. But it becomes very, very dangerous when you start to say the rapture will happen today or it will happen within seven years, as unfortunately many, many groups have done. Once you cross the line from he could come back today versus he will come back today, it's automatically going to lead to bad practice. In this case, the Thessalonians were just following their theology to its logical conclusion, meaning there's no point in really doing anything of a responsible nature, economically anyway, if he's coming back in less than seven years. So Paul says, if you're in that mindset and you don't wanna work to support yourself because you believe Jesus will come back within the next seven years, he gives this order as an apostle, if anyone is not willing to work, then neither is he to eat either. So this idea that you work to support yourself is something as old as the Garden of Eden. I mean, Paul here is not, it's not like when Paul said this, everybody's shocked. Oh my goodness, I can't believe God would actually make us, you know, support ourselves through employment, et cetera. It's a principle that goes right back to the fall of man. Prior to the fall of man, in Genesis 2, Adam was working, you'll see it in Genesis 2, keeping and tilling the garden. So he was industrious. It's just when the fall of man happened, now man had to work by the sweat of his brow to survive. Before the fall of man, he could work based on things he liked to do. I mean, if you like poetry, write poetry all day. If you like the violin, play the violin all day. If you're a painter, paint all day. In Adam's case, if you're a gardener, garden all day. It's just when the fall of man happened, it's now you have to do labor that you may not necessarily enjoy by the sweat of your own brow just to survive. So when God spoke in Genesis three, after man fell, he issued divine consequences. Consequences follow sin just as night follows the day, right? So he announces two consequences on the serpent because the serpent sinned first. Genesis 3 verses 14 and 15. He announced two consequences on the woman because the woman sinned second. Genesis 3 verse 16 and then he announced two consequences on the man because the man sinned third. Genesis 3 verses 17 through 19. And one of the things he said to the man is, now you have to engage in painful labor. So you're not going to be working just for enjoyment. You're going to be working to economically survive. And the last time I checked, it doesn't matter who gets voted into office. That hasn't changed, right? I mean, that's the curse and its ramifications that still go up to the president You might remember what God said to Adam following sin. It says in Genesis 3, verses 17 through 19, it says, then to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife. Now, this isn't saying never listen to the voice of your wife. I've heard people use it that way. I'm not supposed to listen to my wife because that's what got Adam into trouble. It's not like some kind of universal, you know, don't ever listen to your wife. It's she, he listened to her voice, to her voice, to rebel against God. That was the problem. Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat from it. Cursed is the ground. So God says, you want to rebel against me? Then the ground itself is going to rebel against you. And now you have to eke out a living. You have to labor to survive. Which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In other words, don't blame me, God says, for this. You brought it on yourself. In toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. I mean, it doesn't even say here, in toil, you'll eat of it until you reach the age of retirement. At age 65, then you're on easy street. And I'm not against retirement and things of that nature. I'm just saying that that's an American concept that you really don't find here in Genesis chapter three. I mean, this is something that's going to plague you, you know, until your dying day is what he's saying. Both verse 18, both thorns and thistles, it shall grow for you. You will eat the plants of the field because man at this point was still herbivorous, not carnivorous. That didn't change until Genesis 9. And notice it doesn't say here, you know, and I think our college graduates today need to hear this, that you're gonna find some job and it's gonna be just completely you. And you're gonna love every day at work. you know, it's going to be so you and that, you know, it won't even feel like a job, you know, that kind of mindset. Well, that's not what the Bible says. I mean, the Bible says thorns, thistles, you've got to now deal with grumpy people, grumpy customers, grumpy bosses. The customer's always right. We're told you've got to deal with that situation and that's the thorns and thistles. Both thorns and thistles, it shall grow for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of someone else's face, you will eat bread. Oh, well, I'm sorry I didn't say that, does it? By the sweat of your face, you will eat bread. So if you want to survive, you have to work. Which is the opposite of socialism, right? And I bring this up because apparently depending on how this election goes, is one of the candidates is talking about price controls and all of these kind of big government type things, you know, equity, which is redistribution of the wealth. I mean, apparently a lot of people are enamored with this idea that we're going to move into socialism or communism. I mean, what's the difference between a socialist and a communist? A socialist is a communist that's not in as big a hurry, I guess, as you could say. And the doctrine of socialism basically says, you work, I eat, because you can work off someone else's sweat. Oh, come on, pastor, you're very, you don't have any compassion. Don't you believe in a safety net? Well, of course I believe in a safety net, but the problem is when the safety net turns into a hammock, then we have a little problem. And by the sweat of your face, so I can't live off somebody else, by the sweat of your face you will eat bread. So the whole world has been put into this curse and it won't change until Jesus comes back. Paul writes in Romans 8 verses 19 through 22, he says, for the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans." It's a personification. The turmoil, the cosmos is now in because of Adam's sin. And it suffers until the, it suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. So this situation is not going to change until the revealing of the sons of God. That's the angels coming back with Jesus. Matthew 25 verse 31 talks about that. And when Jesus comes back, then he will roll back the curse. It won't be completely done away with for a thousand years. But it will be rolled back significantly. And then at the end of the thousand years, the whole cosmos that Adam corrupted will be destroyed by fire. There's where to put your global warming if you're interested in global warming. It'll be destroyed by fire and replaced with the new heavens and new earth. And so we will finally get back to the original creation that God intended. So that's how to look at the current state of the world. The whole creation groans and suffers. It's suffering from many, many consequences, one of which is the reality of death. But we're not getting into that because Paul's not dealing with that here. But it's this idea that you have to basically work to to survive. First, Timothy, chapter five, verse eight says, if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household. So charity starts at home, right? If you're looking to be charitable, you start with your own family. If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, this is very strong language, and is worse than an unbeliever. So if a person who's able-bodied won't work to survive, they're basically denying the world that we're living in. It's that God clearly articulated would come to pass back in Genesis chapter 3. So you can see very clearly here that you cannot use the doctrine of the rapture, the any moment appearance of Jesus, to get out of life's responsibilities. Once somebody does that, they've transgressed the doctrine. And unfortunately, a lot of people misunderstand this teaching of the any moment return of Christ. And they think that just by teaching it, we're teaching people to get out of life's responsibilities. Because the doctrine has been misapplied or mistaught, but people that are sort of young in Christ or really haven't been discipled correctly think that just by teaching it, the rapture We're teaching people to be irresponsible. So you'll notice a statement that Eric Metaxas made in a recent podcast. And fortunately, he got a lot of pushback on this, where he's tried to walk back some of this. If you listen to Kirk Cameron at all, he goes around saying this stuff all the time. I mean, my family heard it at a homeschool graduation a year or two ago. Other people have talked to me. They've gone to different events. Kirk Cameron has hosted, and he's really down on the rapture, which is kind of hilarious because he was like the actor in the Left Behind series. So is he going to give back all that money he made? We'll take it over here at Sugar Land Bible Church, Kirk, if you're that upset about it. Here's Eric Metaxas. He calls the rapture doctrine a rescue rapture doctrine. And he's applying this to people who misuse the doctrine. Well, he's not even saying misuse. He thinks the doctrine itself, at least in this statement, creates apathy in voters. And he's all about political engagement. So unfortunately, you run into this a lot in political active circles. As you guys know me, I'm in favor of political activism. But unfortunately, as you get into those circles, you run into people that think that, oh, you're a rapture person. You must be teaching people not to vote. Voting. I'll show you in just a second from a statement Benjamin Franklin made is just a basic responsibility as a Christian. I mean, that's like a no brainer. By the way, we have a voting registration, I think we had it there. Yeah, there it is in the back. We're going to have that set up, I think, from now until Election Day. Hope it helps. It's not who votes that counts, though, but who counts the votes, but we won't get into that subject. So so we look at the we look at voting just as a basic responsibility of a Christian. It's like just as a basic of responsibility is paying off your mortgage. But Eric Metaxas doesn't understand it that way, and he sees it as every time the rapture is taught, it leads to apathy amongst Christians. And I'm saying to myself, Eric, you don't understand the doctrine. If you read chapter 3 of 2 Thessalonians, you would understand it, where Paul is reacting against people abusing the doctrine. It's the abuse of the doctrine that's the problem. not the doctrine rightly taught. But Eric McTaxis says this, they, that's us I guess, think Jesus is going to rescue them. Yeah, sign me up for that. I think that. I'm not going to hell. Isn't that a rescue operation? On the other hand, there are a lot of people I've met that are almost psyched to see the world go to hell. They're almost psyched to see everything get worse. Like, ha ha, judgment is coming. instead of being moved by compassion to help those who might be helped. They're kind of glad to see it. That's the United States, I guess, go downhill. And a lot of people have this rescue rapture rescue mentality. They're kind of like we're happy to see America go down the tubes and they're not slightly patriotic. Thinking, what can I do to help my nation stand for God's principles? I'm just about Jesus. So what Eric Metaxas has done here is he's engaged in a logical fallacy called the straw man argument. A straw man argument, people, you watch politics or anything, people do this all the time. They misrepresent what someone is saying. And then they tear down the misrepresentation that they've created. And it's called a straw man because it's not a real person you're arguing with. It's a caricature that you've created. And just like a man of straw topples over easily, it's easy to topple somebody over if you misrepresent what they're saying. So what he thinks we're saying is Jesus is coming, so be irresponsible. Which is obviously not what we're saying because we're reading chapter three and we're seeing that Paul is not teaching that. So he's misrepresented rapture teaching. And he thinks it leads to a lack of patriotism and apathy. Let me let you in on a little secret if I could. Dr. Tim LaHaye, who's now with the Lord, I go to his pre-trib study group every December. I've been going to that since 2001. believe it is, right after 9-11 happened. I was like, man, I better get over there and see what's going on about prophecy because Twin Towers is burned down. But anyway, that's another story. So it's a group started by Tim LaHaye. Tim LaHaye probably did more than any other human being ever to popularize rapture, pre-tribulational teaching through his Left Behind series. Because he put, along with Jerry Jenkins, into the form of a story, the theology of rapture teaching. And he got people reading about the rapture that would never read a systematic theology textbook and would never darken the door of any Bible church that teaches the doctrine of the rapture. And the Academy was very angry at him for that because he circumvented them. He went right around them. Dr. John Walvert at one of these meetings was asked, what do you think about Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series? And Walvert, who spent his life advocating for and defending the doctrine of the rapture, pre-tribulation rapture, said Tim LaHaye's series demonstrates that God has a sense of humor. Because God is accomplishing through a fictional series what the church and the seminaries have failed to teach. which is rapture teaching. And so Tim LaHaye in academic circles is just hated because he sort of made them irrelevant. Because they want to be the custodians of truth. And God says, well, all right, you won't teach the truth in this area. I'll raise up a fiction series to actually teach good theology. And Tim LaHaye consulted with a lot of different theologians, a lot of people that I know when he put that series together. So you've got this guy Tim LaHaye who probably has done more than any human being in church history in terms of promoting the Left Behind series. Tim LaHaye is the same guy that gave to the late Jerry Falwell the idea of the moral majority. If you know anything about the moral majority, the so-called religious right became prominent when a lot of Christian pastors went to see then-President Jimmy Carter and sort of expressed their concerns about the direction of America. And they got nowhere with Jimmy Carter. And so, as I understand the story, sort of on the way out, a bunch of them sort of got together and said, we've got to do something different. And they formed what's called the moral majority. Pat Robertson, later through the Christian Coalition, sort of took up the mantle. But it's sort of this idea that we've got to get Christians registered to vote, we've got to get Christians engaged in the political process, or this country is going to go right down the tubes. It's very interesting that Jerry Falwell, who's given credit for the idea, did not come up with the idea on his own. It was Tim LaHaye that told him to do this. And whether you like these things or not is really not my point. My point is I'm just trying to show you that rapture teaching does not lead to political apathy. Because the man that promoted rapture teaching more than anybody else also promoted political conservative activism from Christians like nobody else. It was Tim LaHaye that came up with both ideas. So if Eric Metaxas is right that rapture teaching leads to political apathy then how do you explain the example of Tim LaHaye who promoted rapture teaching aggressively through his Left Behind series but also gave to Jerry Falwell the idea of the moral majority. So all of these ideas, you know, as Eric Metaxas is going off on this rant here, I mean, this is all pieces of history that he obviously doesn't understand. I mean, we don't we don't believe the rapture doctrine correctly taught leads to apathy. We don't think it leads to irresponsibility. We believe what Jesus said, occupy till I come. In fact, our very presence in the world right now is holding back the Antichrist. We are the salt and light of the earth. Now, we don't think that our engagement is going to bring in the kingdom. The kingdom is going to come when Jesus touches down on planet earth. But we are literally on in this world to hold back the hand of evil. I mean, that's why Christians were on the cutting edge of. You know, the eradication of slavery, civil rights member, it was the Reverend Martin Luther King. So an ordained Baptist minister. I forgot the fellow's name in Britain who used his position. They made a movie about him. Wilberforce. Wilberforce used his position in Parliament to advocate for the end of the slave trade. I mean, it's always Christians that are involved in these things. So we don't believe rapture teaching or biblical teaching means you just sit on your hands and let the world fall apart. And anybody that teaches the rapture that way is misunderstanding the rapture. And probably people like Eric Metaxas and Kirk Cameron have heard the doctrine taught incorrectly so frequently that they think the very doctrine itself leads to irresponsibility. Which it obviously does not do if you read chapter 3 of 2 Thessalonians, which is why I'm bringing these things up. So it is okay to believe in an any moment return of Christ and be a political activist. It's okay to believe in the any moment return of Christ and pay off your mortgage. It's okay to believe in the any moment return of Christ and evangelize your neighbor that doesn't know Jesus. All these people are trying to make the case that the rapture hurts those things. It does not hurt those things. It hurts those things when they're wrongly taught, but it enhances those things when they're correctly taught. So Metaxas and Cameron are reacting to a misrepresentation of a doctrine that really is a straw man and they're taking as doctrinal truth. I was listening to a post-millennialist, Gary DeMar, who's basically a post-millennial preterist. He thinks most of the events of the book of Revelation already happened. Try to wrap your head around that one. I wrote a master's thesis and a doctoral dissertation against that position, and it took me 10 years to figure out what those guys were actually saying. And I have the documentation to prove it. And if you ever have trouble sleeping at night, email me and I'll send you my master's thesis and my dissertation. So I've spent a lot of time reading these people and trying to figure out what is wrong with these people. Because they think the problem is us. We're teaching irresponsibility. We're teaching apathy. We're teaching disengagement. And so, well, what's their solution? Their solution is the beast already showed up in A.D. 70, so what's there to worry about? And they're teaching post-millennialism, that Jesus is not going to set up the kingdom, but they're going to set up the kingdom. And Jesus post is going to come back and find the world in apple pie order. I'm like thinking, do these people ever read the newspaper? Let me tell you something. You can do an awful lot as a Christian to hold back the hand of evil, but you can't set up the kingdom. That's only something Jesus can do. So, you know, I was listening to Gary DeMar sort of on a podcast, kind of espouses views, and he was talking about people like us that believe in the rapture. And he was saying, you know, these people, they don't vote. They they won't homeschool their kids. And I kept thinking to myself, well, that doesn't describe me. I vote. I'm a homeschool parent. That doesn't describe me. So all of these representations that he was trying to create were basically a straw man. I mean, basically, he was trying to teach that rapture teaching leads to irresponsible behavior. And I'm saying that's not where rapture teaching rightly taught leads. It leads actually to responsible behavior if it's taught correctly. Eric Metaxas goes on and he says, let's call it what it is, folks. It's bad theology. So it's our theology that's the problem, not the misapplication of the theology. And by the way, I want to be very clear. I say this in all my speeches, bad bad theology to be clear is from the pit of hell. Now look at this. He uses the S word. It's Satan's theology. It's like all B minus theology. Now, if you're going to call something satanic, don't give it a B minus. I mean, you know, I think you had to lower the grade a little bit. It's Satan's theology. It's all it's like all B minus theology. And then he says it's from the pit of hell. So you have these voices like Metaxas, you have these voices like Kirk Cameron that are speaking in front of these homeschool groups, and they're taking constant swipes against the rapture. So we were there at this big Houston homeschool convention. I mean, it's a really happy time when somebody graduates from homeschool. I mean, that's a lot of rigor and, well, if anybody graduates from anything, really. This thing was designed to promote the homeschool movement. Parents have sacrificed a lot. They fly in the speaker, Kurt Cameron, and he has to bad mouth, I would say 50% in the audience, if not more, by trashing the rapture. Newsflash, the rapture isn't the problem. It's the misapplication of rapture teaching that's the problem. Paul here is not saying quit believing in the rapture, you guys, and get to work. What he's saying is you've got a misapplication of rapture teaching. Actually, you think you've missed it. You're in the day of the Lord and Jesus is coming back in less than seven years. That's the problem. So don't let people deceive you into thinking that rapturism leads to irresponsible behavior. It's the misunderstanding and misapplication of rapture teaching that leads to irresponsible behavior. So why would I say that voting is just a basic Christian responsibility? It relates to what Benjamin Franklin said at the close of the constitutional convention And it says this, at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation, in the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland's delegates to the convention, a lady asked Dr. Benjamin Franklin, quote, well, doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy? What kind of government did you all come up with there in Independence Hall? Franklin responded, quote, a a republic. Replied the doctor, if you can keep it. So what he just did there, he says, I've given you the structure, we've given you the structure. Now it's your responsibility to keep our founding principles. As you sustain the structure. In other words, If the Republic doesn't last, it won't be our fault. It'll be your fault. And by the way, we need to stop calling the United States of America a democracy. We are not a democracy. A democracy is something the founding fathers were afraid of, mobocracy, where the majority could vote in anything they wanted. All you need is, what, 51% of the vote. If that were true, you could get a 51% vote to get rid of the Second Amendment. But you can't do that, because we're not a pure democracy. If someone says something you don't like, you could get 51% vote to get rid of the First Amendment, free speech. But you can't do that, because we're not a pure democracy, which they thought was mobocracy coming from what they saw happening in other failed systems. We are a constitutional republic, but we are a constitutional republic with democratic elements in it. Democrat, small d. OK, I don't want to be misunderstood here. And one of the things you have the ability to do as a citizen is through voting, you can influence the direction of the republic. Now, what a privilege that is. You think most people in world history have had that? I mean, that's a. Really? The people are the king in the United States of America? So if you don't really like what's going on, it's like look in the mirror. You're the boss. Take charge. Do something about it. Not illegally or violently, but peacefully and legally. So Benjamin Franklin himself said, the responsibility of this government is now in your hands. We've given you the structure. Now you keep it. So I like to use that quote because it shows that every American has a basic, I mean like a minimal responsibility to vote. And how would that be different than the salt and light of the earth? Light doesn't function the way it's supposed to function if it's hidden. That's what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Salt does not function the way it's supposed to function if salt is hidden in the salt shaker. So the salt and light has to get out there to be effective. And one of the most basic things you can do as a Christian to influence the direction of your government, a privilege that very few if any people in world history have really had. I guarantee you in Iran and Saudi Arabia they don't think like this. You have the ability to influence the direction of your government. Voting is just as basic as paying down your mortgage. It's just a basic responsibility. So you can't use the rapture teaching to say, well, I don't have to vote because we're going to have an Antichrist in the New World Order. Are we going to have an Antichrist in the New World Order? Yes, we do. I talk about it all the time. But you can actually play a role as a Christian in delaying the decay. In slowing down the progress of evil. You cannot, and if that can't happen, then we'd still be sitting in segregated lunch counters, right? I mean, obviously Christians can get involved and see society change for the better. So don't use the end times as some kind of excuse that I don't have to be responsible. I mean, if a person won't vote, and if a person won't do basic research and figure out who's running, and by the way, the presidential race is not the only election you vote in, right? I mean, there's all kinds of state, local, school board, zoning, I mean, you name it. If a person won't be aware of what's going on, and they won't do a little bit of minimal research, and there are countless websites and organizations that are set up to help you with that. Because you're saying to yourself, well, it's all going to hell in a handbasket anyway. We're in the end times. That is essentially, it's like saying I'm not gonna pay down my mortgage. It's using a doctrine to escape basic life's responsibilities. And then, oh, by the way, let me share this with you. This is something that I quote frequently. It's from a book by Nathaniel Filibrick. It's called The Mayflower, A Story of Courage, Community, and War, page 165. And it's a tremendous example about how the free market, people working, because they have an incentive to work, saved the United States of America. Because when our forebearers came here, they've started to think in a socialistic way. Plymouth Plantation, other places, they said, OK, everybody work the crops and then you put it into the common pot and we're all going to share out of the common pot. That's socialism, Marxism. And that's what they were doing. And they were starving to death. And then a guy named William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony, switched the policy. He switched it from a socialist Marxist concept to more of a free market concept, and prosperity from that saved the country. The book says this, the fall of 1623 marked the end of Plymouth's debilitating food shortages. For the last two planting seasons, the Pilgrims had grown crops communally, communism. The approach first used at Jamestown and other English settlements. But as the disastrous harvest of the previous fall had shown, something drastic needed to be done to increase the annual yield. In April, Bradford, the governor of Plymouth, had decided that each household would be assigned its own plot to cultivate with the understanding that each family kept whatever it grew. The change in attitude was stunning. Families were now willing to work much harder than they'd ever worked before. In previous years, the men had tended the fields while the women tended the children at home. Now here's a direct quote from Bradford's diary. He says, The women now went willingly into the field, Bradford wrote, continuing with the quote, and took their little ones with them to set corn. Close quote. This author says the pilgrims had stumbled upon the power of capitalism. Although the fortunes of the colony still teetered precariously in the years ahead, the inhabitants never starved again. So simply by switching from a Marxist model to more of a free market model. And I believe it was the Holy Spirit that led these Puritans, people of God, this direction. You know, it's it saved the prosperity, it saved the economy, it saved the United States from being just another failed national experiment. And I believe it was the Holy Spirit that was leading these people to a type of economy that will actually work. Because the truth of the matter is people have been touched by original sin. People are not altruistic at heart. And they will not work and labor and unleash their creative abilities if all of their efforts go into some sort of common pot. But if you give them the ability to keep what they work, what they make, that's different. They will work longer. They will work harder. They will perspire to a greater degree. Their natural abilities that are inside of them will be unleashed. Adam Smith, the great economist, called this the invisible hand. When people pursue their self-interests, then there's like an invisible hand in society where suddenly businesses, shops, and other things are showing up to meet the needs of others. So keep this in mind as we now have people that are kind of following the Bernie Sanders model and are basically arguing that we need to go into some sort of socialistic, communistic mindset. Look, let me just put it this way. There's a reason we have an immigration crisis in this country. We don't have a border problem, we have a border crisis, right? Why are all these people coming here? Well, the reason they're coming here is they're fleeing from the utopian societies in their homelands that they were promised, which is Marxism, socialism, in some cases, Islam. We have the red-green axis where Muslims and Marxists are best friends. They just both hate us. Because the enemy of my enemy is my what? My friend. And by the way, once they get rid of us, they're going to go to war with each other. And I guess I'd bet on the Muslims to win that one. What do you think? But why are all these people fleeing their native homeland to come here? Because they're fleeing from what they were promised. their promise, the promise was you go into this socialistic communist mindset, all your needs will be met and you're going to have kind of a utopia. It's what Karl Marx talked about and political leaders with the gift of gab like Fidel Castro who would speak for hours. When you think my sermons are long, listen to Castro and he had like closed circuit TV where that's like the only channel In fact, there are no channels. You just turn it on and there he is talking. It's almost like the man was demonically possessed as you watch him. He would just go on and on about the wonderful Marxist utopia that he was going to bring in. And people would listen to him and they would fall in love with it. Well, Castro had his revolution. He overthrew Batista. And he made that island an island prison, a living hellhole. where people are willing to get on these little, I don't even call them rafts, they look like boards and things that they're clinging to, trying to make the 90-mile journey from Havana to Miami, you know, in hopes that they're going to settle on, you know, American soil. So, you know, Why is it that we have this immigration crisis in this country? Why are people fleeing here? What are they fleeing from? What are they running from exactly? They're running from the utopian societies that they were promised. And the reason why Marxism and socialism do not work, there is no example on planet Earth of a Marxist socialist society working. Why don't they work? because they're built on the wrong assumption about human nature. They think people are inherently good. People will work to support the common good. Well, people touched in original sin can't do that. But if you give people the ability to work for themselves and to keep some or most of what they make, Suddenly it's like Katie bar the door. They're working hard. They're unleashing creative God-given ability that you didn't know they had Because they will work hard if they can benefit So capitalism with all of its problems. I'm not promoting it as a perfect economy I mean every economy is gonna have imperfections until Jesus comes back, but it's more rooted in a a proper anthropology, doctrine of man, than is socialism or communism. So that's why everybody's leaving socialist, communist experiments, and they're trying to get here. And so I share that with you because I think it's in the spirit that Paul is making these statements. If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either. And we have a lot of people in schools that, to my mind, are indoctrination camps. And they will never hear this story about Bradford. They'll never hear it. They will never hear the story that's in his own journal about how the free market and capitalism saved America It was a movement away from Marxism and socialism that saved America. Socialism and Marxism did not save America. Capitalism, built on the right assumption of a human being, saved America. And they will never hear this story unless you, as the parent or the grandparent, speak up. And it's my job as your pastor to equip you so you can build these truths into your own children or your grandchildren, or else the Eric Metaxas and the Kirk Camerons of the world are exactly right. This country will go right down the tubes. Did I plan on saying all of that? Not really. You come to well, actually, we're not quite through with verse 11, are we? We didn't even start verse 11. For we hear that there are some among you who are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all. So the situation in 1 Thessalonians 4.11, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, to work with your hands just as we commanded you, that situation got worse. And so if they weren't working, what exactly were they doing? I mean, if a person is not going to work, what do they do with all their God-given talents and energy? They become what's called a busybody. Because you've got to direct that energy somewhere. So not channeling energy into proper pursuits leaves energy to be misdirected You become what some call a Budinsky. You ever met the Budinskys? Have you read the book of Proverbs lately? It's got a lot of stuff on this. Sarah and I are reading through the Old Testament right now. Almost finished. Got through Proverbs and I read this. Proverbs 25 verse 17. Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor's house. Wow. Or he will become weary of you and hate you. Why would your foot be in your neighbor's house? Because you don't have anything else to do. Because you're not productive. So you've got all this energy. You become sort of a Budinsky. 1 Timothy 5 verse 13 says, at the same time, they also, Paul here is critiquing, they also learn to be idle. As they go around from house to house, and not merely idle, but gossips, and busy bodies, is what Paul says, talking about things not proper to mention. You know, the way a lot of people conduct themselves, you kind of have to ask yourself at some point, why do they have so much time on their hands? I mean, why do you have so much time and energy on your hands to be obnoxious? I mean, I don't have that time or energy. I mean, I could be obnoxious too. I'm just too tired to be obnoxious. Not because I'm some kind of sanctified person or anything. I'm just tired. Because I'm doing things that I think are productive. The problem is if you're not channeling yourself in a productive way, you've got all this time and energy on your hands, which can easily be misdirected. The late Adrian Rogers put it this way. He said, leisure can be lethal. Leisure can be lethal. And this is the problem of developing a lifestyle where Someone else is working, so you're eating. You're not working by the sweat of your own brow and energy is left over for unproductive pursuits. It's amazing how practical the Bible is, isn't it? Father, we're grateful for this brief time in your word and help us to understand that you've given us a book, not just how to get to heaven, which is wonderful. but how to conduct ourselves during our brief sojourn here on earth. Help us to live lives that are befitting of you as our Savior. We'll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name, God's people said. Amen. Happy intermission.