you Well, good evening. Good to see you in God's house. And it kind of gets dark real early, doesn't it? And then rain and all that kind of thing. It's bright in God's light. Amen. Let's take a hymn book, sing page 778. 778, the sweet by and by. Let's stand together, please. 778. there's a land that is fairer than day and by faith we can see it afar for the father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there in the sweet By and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. we shall sing on that beautiful shore the melodious songs of the blessed and our spirits shall sorrow no more not a sigh for the blessing of rest in the sweet By and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. To our bountiful Father above We will offer our tribute of praise For the glorious gift of His love And the blessings that hallow our days In the sweet By and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. Well, thank you so much. You may be seated. If Brother Don, if you will, or sir, if you will come lead us in prayer in just a moment, if you'll do that. We have cards here that have been addressed to some folks and I hope you'll come Pick them up or some down on the table already. I'll put these down there with them. And I'm so glad you're here tonight. Rainy, nasty evening. But that's all right. We need a little bit of rain. And you can't help but think whenever you walk in and see everything that's being prepared for journey. And you think about a night like this during journey, and I thought, boy, it feels good that it's going to be inside again. But nevertheless, that's an encouraging thing. Brother Mark's going to go over the prayer list with us in just a moment. I was thinking as we were singing that song. Yesterday evening, I stopped to see Peggy. Peggy Clifford. Peggy Clifford. Peggy Clifford. She's in hospice. There's a hospice. They have two or three rooms of hospice in Fish Hospital down in Saxon now. And I went in to see her and she is not expected to live very long. The fact is they thought she was going to die last night. But I walked in. Whenever I spoke to her, her head moved a little bit. But they said, if you put your finger in her hand, she'll squeeze it and respond to you. And so I put my hand down on her hand, and I was talking to her. And we kidded a little bit. And she kind of smiled, just a little bit almost. And I said, now Peggy, I said, I don't feel very well this evening as far as the weather. It's kind of got my voice not doing very good. But I'm going to sing anyhow. I'm going to sing for you. And I sang in the sweet by and by. There's a land that is fairer than day. And you know, now, whenever I, by the time I finished singing, she had both eyes open. And so I talked with her a little while. She could not respond. But I talked with her a while and then sang Amazing Grace and I said now we'll pray for you. So what happened was I sang her awake and prayed her to sleep. Because whenever I finished praying I opened my eyes and looked at her and she was gone. She was asleep. And so we laughed about that a little bit. But we have not heard any more from that. But do pray for her. I saw Kenny Cox this week. Kenny's doing really well after that surgery. He's doing very good and amazing, amazing. They do that and then he's back home and just almost, I think he stayed one night, maybe two nights in the hospital after that major surgery on his brain. And I don't know how they do that. They do it. I want you to pray, and I don't often bring personal requests to you. But I want you to pray for our granddaughter. Our granddaughter Morgan, that's Alan's daughter. And she's 20 years old. Many of you know she's a gymnast, a scholarship gymnast with the University of Georgia. And she's a sick little girl. And she's been in the hospital, I let her go out, and now she's back in the hospital. They're treating her for some kind of a blood disease that I don't know that they know what has caused it, but there's no platelets in her blood. The platelets are gone out of the blood. And she has a terrible allergic reaction to the treatment. And whenever they do the treatment, she just swells up and itches and cries with pain. And it started out, they diagnosed at first as E. coli, but her kidneys were right on the verge of shutting down. And it's just a really, really bad situation. And I don't know if Becky and I were planning to go up for Thanksgiving. I don't know if we're going to have to leave early or not. But if we have to leave, we're going to leave. And so I don't know what the situation is, but I want you to pray for Morgan. She's on the list right here. And I hope that you'll. hold her up before the Lord, even tonight. I talked to Alan, didn't really talk to him. He's just completely exhausted and emotionally in every other way. And he said he feels tomorrow is a very defining day in this whole situation. So I told him that as a church, we would pray very specifically for Morgan tonight. So I hope you'll do that. And Brother Mark, if you'll come share the other requests with us, and Brother Don, if you'll come lead us in prayer. We're praying for our president and our government officials, praying for the peace of Israel, our missionaries serving in the Middle East. It's not on here, but we need to keep praying for the folks in France. Pray for the upcoming elections in 2016. Jim Crawford is in the hospital at Sanford. with kidney stones. Please pray for Jim. Anita Boyd had her first radiation treatments this week. It's not on here, but she also had reaction to this, and so pray for her. She has some decisions to make about whether or not she can have the treatments here locally, and a complicated situation. So pray for Anita, if you will. Nancy White's son, Danny, who was hit by a car. We mentioned that, I believe, on Sunday. Pray for him, if you will. A broken shoulder. Linda Cook requests prayer for Sharon Briggs, who has a tumor in her shoulder and will have tests and surgery soon. And, of course, Pastor just mentioned about Morgan Reynolds. Please pray for her, if you will. Mikhail Streeter had an auto accident and pray for her. She recovers. Jose Abella is in ICU. And I understand that in the midst of everything that he has, he is showing improvement and answered his prayer. So thank you for praying for him. Esther Abbott had surgery this week and she's at home. Kenny Cox, pastor, mentioned about his surgery and doing so much better. But he has a long recovery of healing and all that. So pray for the Kenny, please, if you will. Pray for Robert Floyd and his family. His father passed away. The funeral will be in DeLand at Lankford Funeral Home. The viewing is on Friday, November 20th. Tomorrow from 6 to 7.30 and the funeral service will be Saturday at 11. Saturday at 11 for the funeral service at Lankford in DeLand. Ashley Koylo requests prayer for Michael, a co-worker's husband, who is in a coma and is not saved. We just got this request right at the beginning of service. Rhonda Sutton, one of our deaf members, sits right down here. Rhonda Sutton, she went into surgery for biopsies. And during surgery, her lungs collapsed and they found blood in her bronchial and respiratory system and all of that. She's in fish and please pray for her as they keep her at least a couple of days at this point. And so anytime, there's no minor surgery, right? Minor surgery is something that somebody else has. Okay, no minor surgeries. And so pray for Rhonda, if you will. And then these, continue to remember in prayer, big list of names here on the front and on the back, missionaries of the week, focusing on the Mullins family in the Northwest, building churches, starting great works for God, and the Larry Nolan family in the Arctic and Canada. And then these listed here, nursing homes and assisted livings, as well as those in the armed forces. Thank you, Pastor for the time. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight and thank you for the opportunity to be here. Thank you for the rain. Thank you for keeping us safe as we got here. Just pray that we'd be attentive tonight as your word is opened and that we'd receive exactly what you have for us. Lord, we just lift up these requests before you. There are so many needs within our church, and I pray for those that need healing, Lord. I pray specifically for Morgan, that you'd give the doctors wisdom there, Lord, but that you'd you know, put your healing hand on her and just restore her health. You know, for these others, you know, that need healing as well, Lord, I pray the same for them, that you just give doctors wisdom, you know, that you'd use them, but that you'd bring healing in those situations. And I pray for those that are you know grieving Lord that you'd bring comfort and give them an extra measure of your grace and Lord for you know our missionaries around the world I pray you know specifically for the Mullins and the Nolans Lord that you'd bless the work that they're doing you know but for all the missionaries that you'd keep them safe and give them fruit for their labors And then, Lord, for our country, I pray that you'd help us to turn back to you as a nation. I pray that as believers, Lord, we'd be sensitive to what you have for us as it relates to our role in our country and politics and things that we can do to help, Lord. But mostly, I pray we'd be close to you so that you'd speak to us and use us to be a light to those around us. And then, Lord, for our servicemen and women around the world, I just pray you'd keep them safe and give them victories in the battles that they face. Lord, I pray you'd bless our, you know, our pastor and the staff and this church and, you know, just pray that you just continue to use it to reach lost people and lift up the saints, Lord. And we'll thank you and praise you for all that you do. In Jesus' name, amen. Page 566, a great song, I Am Resolved No Longer to Linger. Just remain seated if you'll sing it out now on the first verse, 566. I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight. Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight. I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, great earth, highest, I will come to Thee. I am resolved to go to the Savior, leaving my sin and strife. He is the true one, he is the just one, he hath the words of life. I will hasten to him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to thee. I am resolved to follow the Savior, faithful and true each day. what he sayeth, do what he willeth, he is the living way. I will hasten to him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to thee. I am resolved to enter the kingdom, leaving the paths of sin. Friends may oppose me, foes may beset me, still will I enter it. Sing it. I will hasten to him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will On this last verse, look at I'm resolved and who will go with me? Who will go with me? You need to look for somebody who's stumbling along the path. Someone maybe is having a harder time along the way. Reach down, pick them up, and bring them along with you. And gentlemen, if you will, give that nice men's part a good try, okay? On the chorus, I will hasten, hasten to him, okay? I'll sing it along with you. Here we go, on the last verse now. I am resolved, and who will go with me? Come, friends, without delay. Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit, we'll walk the heavenly way. I will hasten, hasten to Him, hasten so glad and, hasten glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee. All right, I think the ladies needed to help us a little bit on that, hasten glad and free. I think they needed to help us a little bit on that, but all right. Good to see you. We have visitors here with us tonight. I know Carrie's here. And Carrie, it's good to see you. Glad you'll be here. And good to see the newlyweds here, Rick and Diane Shea. Good to see them here. Fact is, they've enjoyed being married so much they're going to get married again this Saturday. And what time is it? 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock. OK. 2 o'clock. And so Rick agreed to do this. Rick agreed to do this whenever he was really, really bad off with cancer. And I think that he thought, I'm going to die so I don't have to do that. But he survived it, and here he is, okay, okay. A kid about that fella, talking to this young man, said, how long you been married? He said, oh, he said, I'm so excited, my wife and I are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. He said, 25th, oh, wow. He said, I remember when me and my wife celebrated our 25th anniversary. He said, really, what'd you do? He said, I took her to France. He said, really? Wow. He said, how many is it now? He says, almost 50. He said, what are you going to do for your 50th anniversary? He said, I think I'm going to go back and get her. Oh, dear. Nevertheless, nevertheless. Good to see y'all. Good to have you. Congratulations. We'll say that more that Saturday. And let's see. Carrie, always good to see you. Anybody else? Anybody else visiting with us? Anybody introduce a guest here with you tonight? Anybody? Anyone at all? Introduce a guest that's here. All right, it's in your book if you need it, but I don't think you do. It's number 214. If you need it, it says I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter his courts with praise. Let's stand together, sing it with me if you will. Give me this out of the microphone if you'll do it. I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter his courts with praise. I will say this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. And we will rejoice. We will rejoice. We'll rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. I think we did that last week, didn't we? Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, all that kind of thing. But that's good. The instruments will play. And greet those around you. And welcome one another. And just enjoy each other a lot. I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter his courts with praise. I will say this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. All right, if there's some folks, as you find your seats, if there are some men who can stick around tonight after church for a few minutes, it'd be nice to pitch in and give some help for setting up for the Saturday festivities, all the wonderful time of rejoicing, celebrating 50 years of marriage of the Shea family. And so if you could help them. That would be greatly appreciated, just moving some tables and setting up some chairs and that kind of thing. So after service, right after this evening, please. That would be great. Then also, I want to remind you that there is a great opportunity to spread the word about Journey Through Christmas. Not only the tickets, by the way, the tickets are really going quickly. What we have out there and the little bit that we have at the office are all that we have left of 60,000 tickets. Now, that's good. I'm glad the people have been giving them out. And here's what we're hearing. We're hearing that folks see these all over the city, all over here and there and everywhere. I've seen them. And there was a lady that was helping us get some stuff out to the car and reach in my pocket, and I pulled out some tickets. And I said, here, we want to invite you to a journey through Christmas. She said, oh, yeah, I already have tickets. I'm coming. And we come every year, and we're looking forward to it. It's a wonderful evangelistic outreach. Some of you are a little bit bashful. I encourage you to pick up one of these at the table if you can. These are magnetic signs and folks will be looking at your car. And just remember, you have a sign on the side of your car. They're reading your sign. Or put it on the back if you have a truck or a van or something. Put it on the back so the people behind you will have something to think about while they're sitting behind you. And that would be marvelous. But any way that you can invite people. And yes, again, let me stress this to everyone. This is free. It is a free event. But those who want to can reserve seats. But we cannot offer the seats that we reserve for free. We did that last year, and it went badly. People just never showed. So they purchased the reserved seats. They need to purchase the reserved seats. But everything else is free. So we've had some people say, how many people are going to buy the reserved seats? I don't know. We'll see. We'll see, but some are selling and we're still three weeks out. Three weeks out from yesterday is the first official night for the public. So if you will, please be in prayer that everything will fall into place accordingly. Tomorrow, we'll have some work going on. in here, finishing some things up on the platform. If you can help us in the morning, 9.30, that would be marvelous. We'd appreciate it. But things are coming along, and thank you so much, all those who are working so diligently, so hard, and thank you so very much for your help. All right. I hope you'll keep all those things before you. Some of these cards are still left here, so they'll be in the offering place probably in this middle aisle, Patrick, if you'll do that. Put those in that offering plate as it passes back through there. If you'll take one of those out, if you're in another row, you can go over there and take something out of the offering plate. One of the cards, OK? What we're going to do tonight, we've had some really some very real needs and benevolent within our church among our people and we need to replenish some money in that tonight. Usher's come forward if you will and I hope you'll feel comfortable doing that. We try to be very careful about that and of course you know people that are in the church they always say now Now, preacher, you know, we're going to pay this back. I said, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I want you to know something. We're not a bank. We're not a bank. And here's some more right here if you get them. And so it's not a matter of paying back. If you're going to pay it forward, you can pay it forward. but you're not going to pay it back, okay? But that's what we do, and needs come up like that. And it's interesting that the lesson tonight from 2 Thessalonians somewhat addresses this very thing that I'm talking about right here in this offering tonight. And so it's a very pointed addressing of that, in fact, in the church at Thessalonica. But if you feel comfortable giving to that, to the Benevolent Fund, I hope you will. I thank you for the privilege of giving and, Father, for the privilege of being able to help other people who are in need. And, Father, I pray that as the folks give tonight to this fund within the church, they might not see the people that it directly helps here on Sunday. And if they saw them, they might not even know that they needed help. But, Father, we have, in this way, been able to bear one another's burdens. and so fulfill the law of Christ. So we ask you to bless this time and bless this offering in Jesus' name. Amen. You. Well, let's get our Bibles ready, and you can go ahead and turn to 2 Thessalonians. Be ahead of the curve there. And just before Pastor comes with the message, the Rogers Trio is going to sing a wonderful song, a song of promise, a song of encouragement. Jesus is coming soon. Troublesome times are here, filling man's hearts with fear. Freedom we all hold dear, now is at stake. Tremble your hearts to God, save from the chastening rod. Seek the way, build, crush God, Christians awake. The many love-beads that do trumpets full of sound, The dead shall rise, righteous beads in the sky, Soaring where no one dies, heavenward bound. Travels will soon be o'er, happy forevermore, when we meet on that shore, free from all care. Rising up in the sky, telling this world goodbye, homeward we then will fly, glory to share. Jesus is coming, coming soon, morning's bright or noon, Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound. All the dead shall rise, righteous be to the skies. Going where no one dies, heavenward bound. Jesus is coming, he is coming soon, coming soon. Okay, I think the first time I met those kids and I went in the house and you know he's just kind of overwhelmed with all these M's and these girls and so I was trying to get it straightened out and I still can't get the twins straightened out. I still can't get them But they were going down the line, Michelle, Melissa. And then we came to the one standing over here on your right. And she gave her name. And whenever she said her name, she said, Melati. I said, Melati? Her mother said, Melati, you tell him what your name is. And then I think the one standing On your left, on my right, I think she said me-linda, me-linda instead of me-linda. But anyway, they're gone. They're gone out there. They can't hear me now. And me-linda, the one on the right, is so fragile, really. She's just fragile. And I don't mean that physically. I mean emotionally. And she's just so sensitive and everything like that. And whenever she first came into Voices of Victory, you heard her sing tonight. She was singing the soprano, singing the lead. But boy, whenever she came into Voices of Victory, she just, Jesus is coming, son, morning or night or day, kind of like that. And I'd get in her face and I'd say, say it, say it louder, say it louder, I can't hear you, I can't hear you. She started crying and I said, what have I done? What have I done? Oh my, and she, I was trying to intimidate her and she intimidated me right back. Boy, I tell you what, I backed off. I haven't said anything to her since then as far as correcting her. I haven't done anything. Have a note here from Nancy Deason. Nancy says, thank you so much, Pastor Reynolds, Pastor Mark, Brother Aaron, for all you did for Dad's memorial service. Thank you, VCBC family, for all the prayers and cards and kind words. Dad would really have loved it. Thanks to all who gave to the Livestream Deaf Fund. Words can never express my full gratitude. Love y'all. Nancy Deason. And if you don't know what that's about, of course Nancy's mom has been deaf since she was just a little child and you've seen many places on TV whenever they have a little circle down in the corner and someone's down there signing to the deaf and interpreting to the deaf. And the only thing, she wanted to do that in memory of her mother and ask people in lieu of flowers to give to that fund. If any of y'all would like to give to that, it'd be a wonderful thing if you do that. We've received a few hundred dollars now, maybe $1,500, $1,600 toward that. But it's going to be, from what I understand, In order to do that with the equipment we have to get it compatible and everything like that, it's going to take about $20,000. And so, that's a big ticket. But, and I do not know how widely we are viewed by the deaf, but I'm sure that would increase if we were able to do that. And it was known that we were able to do that because they will get, the deaf do communicate. I mean, they get the word out within the community of death, and whenever I'm talking about the community, I'm not talking about up and down the streets next door. I'm talking about all over this country. They communicate, and whenever a church does live stream with that, they certainly find out about it and let it be known. Open your Bible to 2 Timothy if you haven't already. 2 Timothy Let's go back another page or two, okay? Let's go back another page or two. That's where my Bible fell open was 2 Timothy, okay? Let's go back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Well, we're coming really to the conclusion and I was trying to figure out today the schedule for concluding this. Next week is Thanksgiving, and we meet on Tuesday night. And I want you to think about, those of you that are here tonight will probably be here next Tuesday night, and I want you to think about some categories of Thanksgiving. And I'm going to give you some categories of Thanksgiving. There are some people who will want to thank the Lord for the salvation. And we'd probably all like to do that, but some may particularly want to give a thanksgiving particularly for that. Some may want to give a thanksgiving for answers to prayer. That'd be another category. Some people may want to give a thanksgiving for guidance that God has given in your life. Others may want to give a thanks for protection. There'll be a number of categories that I'll give to you, and we'll have a number of areas of thanksgiving that we will thank the Lord for. So I hope that you will be prepared and think about that a little bit, what you'd like to thank the Lord for. Well, we really finished up a good section last week, and I think I'm going to again tonight read Verses 6, I think 6 all the way down through 15. It's pretty strong language. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which you received of us. Now all this is going to be explained very quickly, right here, it's going to be explained. What the disorderliness is, what the tradition is. For yourselves know how you ought to follow us. For we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Now he's talking about whenever he was there. Whenever this church was founded, whenever it started. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught. Okay? I do not know, it's hard to relate to that in any culture except our own culture. I don't know whether he's saying none of you all ever took me out to eat, none of you all ever invited me over to the house to eat. I don't know what he's saying there exactly, but I do know, well I'm gonna tell you that in a little bit, okay? But we wrought or worked with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you. Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing, And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." And then he comes very quickly to the conclusion. And we probably will not get through all those verses tonight, but we'll get through some of them. As we said last week, at the end of last week, here we take a little different turn. The whole field takes a different turn. We come from the doctrinal part of the book into the very practical part of the book. These commands here, and this particular command, has to do with disorderly believers. Now, the word disorderly is used three times right here in these verses very quickly, and it's the same Greek word every time. It's the only place in the New Testament this Greek word is used. It's right here in this place, this disorderliness. And so it's a unique kind of disorderliness. Now, the word in the Greek language means to keep rank, and it's really a military word. It's a military word that The soldier stays in step and in rank and fulfills his place in the formation. That's a very common thing. It's a very useful thing. And to be disorderly is to be literally out of step, to be out of step. Now it doesn't mean to be out of step with the times. It's not talking about that. It's talking about exactly what he's dealing with right here. And the orderliness right here has to do with a Financial orderliness. Financial orderliness. And it has to do with working. And it has to do with honest labor. Now, I'm sure there are many applications of the command about being disorderly. But I'm talking about specifically what the Thessalonican people are understanding when they read this, when the letter comes to the church and it's read in the group. The thing they're understanding from it is exactly what is laid out here by Paul. The believer's life should have an order. an order that is consistent with other believers in the fellowship that are following God's command. Now, you and I both know that when a person doesn't have anything to do, it's a bad situation. It's not a good situation at all. You need to have something to do. It's often said the devil's idle hands are the devil's workshop. and I don't mind is the devil's workshop. And it's not good to just let your mind wander. Paul said, I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. He said, I make my body do what it's supposed to do. And he speaks of bringing the mind under the instruction of God. Now, it's not talking about, it's not a conflict with meditation. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the Son of God, and standeth in the way of sinners, so that they may see the scornful. For it is the right and the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. So, whenever there is meditation, It is focused on the word of the Lord and it is thinking about what God has said, how it applies to my life. It's not a disorderly thing where just let the mind wander and go anywhere it wants to. No, you better keep that mind disciplined to think right thoughts and to think on right things. If there be therefore. any consolation or mercy, any of these things like this. And whatsoever things are good and honest and pure and of good report, think on these things. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Now it doesn't mean there aren't other things. And it doesn't mean that sometimes you don't have to think about other things. But when you're going to meditate, meditate on truth. Meditate on not what if, but what is. The what ifs will just take you everywhere. You've got to deal with the what is, what is. Now, in the first letter, in chapter 4, verse 11, he deals with this, he touches on this, and he alludes to it, but now it gets pretty, pretty, pretty detailed. God always places great value on labor. He places High value on it. In 1 Thessalonians, it seems that there were some who were not working. And the reason they gave that they were not working is because, well, the Lord's coming. The Lord's coming. I mean, there's no sense going to work today. The Lord's going to come today. If he doesn't come today, he'll come tonight or maybe in the morning. But there's no sense going to work today. There's no sense doing anything. Back in, I guess it was 1976. in 76, a six-day war in Israel, and all those things went on. And Curtis Hudson got home one day, and his wife's name was Jerry, and she'd been working on putting up curtains in the living room, and putting up new curtains. And he came in one afternoon, and there hadn't been anything done to the curtains for a week. And he came in one afternoon. He said, Jerry, what are you doing? What's going on with the curtains? They're still the way they were. She said, there's no use doing anything about those curtains. She said, the Lord's coming. Now, I like the faith that looks for the coming of the Lord. But he does say, occupy till I come. Occupy till I come. We need to stay busy about the thing. You get the idea. that the Lord wants you to keep if you knew the Lord was coming today. You get the idea that he wants you to still fulfill your responsibilities of the day instead of go out on a hillside somewhere and put on a white gown and lay down on your back and look up and watch for him to come. He wants you to stay busy about the job at hand. And so the Lord says through here, Paul says to these people, to do that kind of thing is out of order. That's out of order. Don't do that. And what he says to the believers there is he says, steer clear of them. Steer clear of them. We command you, withdraw yourselves from them. And that literally means steer clear of them. Yesterday evening's paper, I read it in the evening. It's a morning paper, but I read it in the evening. And so all the news is old news. But they have this thing in there ticked off. And somebody was really ticked off because people were not using their turn signals. And the person said, when will car manufacturers ever give in to the fact that what we have to do is we have to have a steering mechanism that will not let you turn until you turn your turn signals on? I thought, now there's a village somewhere missing an idiot. I can see you run over somebody or run into a car that stopped too quickly in front of you, and the officer says, what in the world's going on? What happened? Well, I just couldn't get my turn signal on quick enough so I could turn the car out of the way. Where I'm from, you'd have to keep your turn signal on all the time to go around those curves in West Virginia. I mean, you'd have to turn the turn signal on to go around a curve, and then turn to go around the other way. But anyway, steer clear. Steer clear of those people. Stay out of your way. Stay out of the way of those folks. Don't be around them too much. Don't get too near to those folks. They will affect you in a bad way. For hundreds of years, I guess for more hundred years, probably for millennium, there have been those who go off into seclusion and meditate and read and expect other people to work and support them while they do that. They may go out and piddle around the garden trim some shrubs or something like that. But they give their lives to meditation, and that's really very highly valued in some circles. But I don't think that's what Paul is condoning here. I don't think he's given to that at all. It's interesting that in Israel, in Israel right now, there are Orthodox Jews who are supported by the state to study Talmud, the commentaries on the Old Testament scriptures, and to study the scriptures. And they don't work. They don't work. They don't serve in the army. They don't do anything. Now, their wives generally work, but they don't. And this is what Paul's dealing with here. There were people like that in Thessalonica. They were just focusing on the return of the Lord, the Lord's coming at any time. So, you know, there's no sense going to work. You know, just use your credit card at will. They didn't have those, I know, but they had something like that. And use your credit card at will because you're not going to have to pay it back because the Lord's going to come. Just leave the antichrist a big debt, you know, just leave a big debt, just leave everybody like that. They'll be looking for you, won't be able to find you because you'll be gone. That's not what he's telling here. He's saying, that is out of order. That is out of order. And this kind of thing within people who have some similarity to who we are and to have a system of belief somewhat like our system of belief, that has generally happened with people who set dates for the Lord's return. It's where the Mormons came from. It's where Jehovah's Witnesses came from. It's really where Seventh-day Adventists came from also. It's from that kind of thing. Withdrawal. Now, if we learn anything from that, from history, and from its consistency with scripture, is this, that people who behave like that will generally lead you astray doctrinally. Paul said, you received a different tradition from me. and from Silas and from Timothy. From us, you received a different tradition than that. Now, in verse 7, he says, you for yourselves also know how you ought to follow us. Now, he's setting himself up as an example here. Now, he's not saying he's perfect. There's nothing wrong about what he's done here. He's not saying anything out of order. He said, I gave you an example about that. As the Lord gave an example, so I have given you an example. And he said, the example you are to follow. There's nothing secretive about how I behaved when I was in Thessalonica. Everybody knows how I behaved. Everybody knows how I worked. They know what order my life was in. They know how I ordered my life. They know what time I got up. They know what time I went to bed. They know how hard I worked. They know that. Oh, that we would be able to say to all who know us, you have me for an example. You have me for an example as to how to do that. The second phrase of verse 7 says, I was not a burden to you. There's not a one of you there that can say, I was a burden to you. Now, there's a lot of things involved in this. And you have to, I think, have some perspective to find consistencies with this scripture and in other scriptures where it says that the church is supposed to take care of the pastor and so forth like this. You have to understand this is a different situation. Whenever Paul went to Thessalonica, there was no church. Whenever Paul went to Thessalonica, There were no believers there. There was nobody of the Christian faith there. And so he said, I will not be a bad testimony by becoming dependent upon you to take care of me before there is even any organization there, any structure there. before there's any group together. Now, I think about this, if Brother Dan had gone to Chattanooga, and he goes to Chattanooga, and there are believers there, and they know about that, but he goes into the Highland Park community, And he goes up and down the streets in Highland Park, and he's knocking on the door. And he said, I've come to Chattanooga to pick up this work that has been started here, and this church has been started. And I really need support because the church doesn't have enough money to really pay me, and I really need support. And I just came by, and I'm going up and down the streets today knocking on doors to see if y'all could help me financially. That's what it would have been like if Paul went there. Can you imagine him going into Thessalonica and talking to the people? And say, I've come here to preach Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Jewish scriptures. And I don't have any money, but I serve a God who supplies every need. And so I'm asking you for money. He said, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. Didn't do that at all. He said, and I've given you an example. He said, I got a job and went to work. Brother Dan Davis in Chattanooga. You know what he did whenever he went in there? Now, there was money in the treasury. Not a whole lot, not enough to really sustain him for a long time. But there was money in the treasury. And whenever he was there, whenever he went there, you know what he did whenever he first got there? He bagged groceries. He bagged groceries at Publix or Winn-Dixie's or somebody. That's what he did. And met a lot of people and talked to them about the Lord and had great opportunities. Now, that's a whole different situation than whenever you come into a place that a church calls a pastor to come. It's good, honest work. Good, honest work, and they have a right to be expected to be taken care of. And, of course, among preachers, you know, there are all kinds of jokes about this, and all kinds of comments, and sometimes they're good and bad, and sometimes they're even ugly. But, you know, they say most churches have the attitude that a preacher ought to be poor and humble. And we ask the Lord to keep him humble, and we'll keep him poor. Now I'm going to tell you something about a church like that. A church like that is generally poor. Generally so. Generally so. Generally they don't have any money. And they say, we don't have any money to take care of the preacher. We don't have any money to pay the preacher. And the reason they don't have any money to pay the preacher is because they don't pay the preacher. I have said it in other places. I haven't said it here much, but I've said it in other places. I do not doubt that some of the reason for the way God has blessed this church is for the wonderful way from day one this church has taken care of me as a pastor. Not because it's me. Not because it's me, but simply, God blesses that. God blesses that, and He prospers those who do that. Explain it? I can't explain it. This is a different situation than what we're talking about here. The ministry is honest work, and this is not a conflict. with other scriptures that say that the pastor is worthy of his efforts and he really says he's worthy of double portion, he's worthy of double whatever it is that was given at that place at that time. Now verse 8 continues without breaking, it's a break in the scripture of verse 7 and verse 8. But there's no really break in the thought. There's no period there at the end of verse 7. He said, neither would eat any man's bread for not. He said, if I came in and ate with you, I left some money. I left some money. I remember many, many years ago, some folks invited us to eat. I was small. My dad had just started the church that he pastored until he retired the first time. And I think he retired three times. But whenever he started this church, and then we had a guy who led the music. French Goodwin, and we went up to the Goodwin's house, French and Virginia. They were always aunt and uncle, you know, Uncle French and Aunt Virginia. And we were at their house, and she had cooked dinner, and we had eaten and had a good time fellowshipping. I'm sure we had a good time. I don't remember much about it. If I had to sit still at the table, I didn't have a good time. But I'm sure they did, and somehow, We heard something from the kitchen, and Virginia said, whoa, look at here. And Daddy had put a dollar bill in his plate somewhere. I don't know where. And she put the dishes in the sink to wash the dishes. And this dollar bill is floating in the water. Of course, the French of Virginia weren't too happy about that, as I remember. You're not going to pay us for eating with us. All that kind of stuff. And I do remember that daddy laughed and enjoyed it. I do remember that. But it continues here. We didn't eat any man's bread for naught, but worked with labor. and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you. There's not going to be any testimony hindered because of the financial situation. Paul said, I'll see to that. I was on staff at a church one time, and a fellow on staff with me. We had gone to eat lunch, and we were on our way back to church, and he said, I'll tell you what, John. He said, the church just doesn't, he said, the church doesn't take care of me to live, to pay my bills. I just, I can't make it. He said, I just can't make it. Well, I knew where he lived, and I knew what kind of a car he drove, and I knew how he lived, and he lived quite well. And I said to him, I said, you know, the church is not responsible for taking care of us and providing for us in the lifestyle that we want to live. The church's responsibility is to support us and pay us the way they feel they can and should. And it's our responsibility to live within our means. Now that just makes sense, doesn't it? This is what was going on here. You see, Piety needs to be governed by prudence. He not only preached the importance of labor, but he practiced the importance of labor. Now, verse 9 is generally spoken of as his right as an apostle. Whenever it talks about, not because we have not power, not because I don't have the authority, he's saying to someone here, I had a right If you want to talk about rights, I had a right to be paid. I had a right to that. Now, I don't think the people in Thessalonica would understand that right as an apostle. Although there was a right to that in scripture, and it's very clear in the book of Acts and in other places in the epistles, that there was a right to that as an apostle. But there wasn't anybody in Thessalonica that had any idea what an apostle was. They didn't know what a preacher was. They didn't know about that. Now the only thing I can think is that perhaps as a Jewish rabbi, which he was. He was a Jewish rabbi. And as a Jewish rabbi, the Jews had some responsibility if he came into a synagogue. They had, by tradition and instruction, they had a responsibility to take care of someone who came into the synagogue and taught them the Old Testament scriptures. They were responsible to do that, even as they are today. He was not going to do that. He said, though, I may have had a right to do that. Because see, he was not just a rabbi of any kind of order. He was a rabbi that was right ready to enter into the Sanhedrin, the 70 elite in all the nation of Israel and in all of Judaism. He was right at that door. But he said, The people back in Jerusalem disagree with me, and they would use that against me that I'd taken money under false pretense. So he said, I'm not going to do that. Though I might have a right to do that, he said, I'm not going to do that. I don't think it had to do with the people in Thessalonica taking care of him because he was a Christian apostle. He said, I'm not going to be chargeable. And whenever he says that, he said, I'm not going to be a heavy burden. I'm not going to be a heavy burden on any of you. For when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Now, of course, there's some things assumed in that. There's some things assumed as an ability to be able to work. And we are not, in our culture, we've become more adapted to this in this day than we used to be. But begging in this country is, in the way that it's done now, is a relatively new thing. We, in the office, deal with over and over and over and over and over, day in, day out, day in, day out. We deal with people who come by and it's like they don't think you remember them because they come back in and make the same story. They tell the same story, you know, and Generally, it has to do with Kentucky. And it has to do with mother dying. And it has to do with going to a funeral. And that's generally that kind of thing. It is interesting that it's changed a little bit in recent days. Now they email. They don't even come by. They email. and tell you what address to send the money to. It's interesting the way that has changed. It's phenomenal. I remember back in Atlanta many years ago, a lady came in and she had a sad story. She had fallen and couldn't go to work because she'd broken her leg. And man, alive it was a bad situation. And I don't remember. Probably, probably we gave her something. I don't know. But somebody was downstairs whenever she, this was on the third floor of the educational building. And whenever she took that leg in a cast and she got back downstairs, I kid you not, I kid you not, she unbuckled that cast. It was hinged. She unbuckled that thing, put it in the back seat, and got in the car. Now, you have to find a balance between a tender heart and callousness. And you know, I've told you all the story. Coming across the parking lot, coming to church, the guy said, I need $10 to get a tire fixed on my trailer. I said, what kind of trailer you got? He said, I got a boat trailer. I said, where is it? He says, right out there. He said, I need $10 to get a tire fixed. He said, I got a flat tire. I said, you're kidding me. You're kidding me. I said, you're going fishing. It's Sunday morning. It's Sunday morning. People in his parking lot have come to church. I'm pastor, I'm going to church to preach. And you have a flat tire on a boat that you're not going to church, you're going fishing on Sunday morning. And you want me to give you money on Sunday morning to get your tire fixed so you can go on fishing. He said, yes, sir. I said, I have $10, and I did. I had $10 in my pocket. I said, I want you to know something. I said, I'm going to tell this story everywhere I preach. And a man stopped me in the parking lot of church on Sunday morning, asked me for money to get his tire fixed on his boat trailer so he could go fishing on Sunday morning. Now, I should have been probably kinder about that. I should have been very spiritual and witnessed to him and told him about the Lord and all that kind of thing. I just gave him $10 and came on in and preached. I don't want to be wrong about that, but I got the idea if he'd do that, he'd tell me anything I wanted to hear. Okay? Sometimes we could do things that are not necessarily wrong. They're just not blameless. They're just not blameless. In this way, he made himself an example. And it gives him a basis to deal with the problem that he's confronting in this church right now. And now he comes to the problem. He comes to the problem. For we hear, we hear, verse 11, that there are some which walk among you, here's that word again, disorderly, working not at all. That was the disorderliness. Working not at all, but our busy bodies. Did you ever notice that people don't have any business of their own, generally want to mess with everybody else's business? It amazes me. It amazes me. People who've never pastored a church know exactly how to do it. They know exactly how to do it. They've never built a church, but they know exactly how to do it. They know how to do it. And sometimes ideas may be good if that was the only thing you're dealing with. But whenever there's a situation and a person wants to deal with this in this area, they don't know that there are a hundred other areas that have to be concerned, that this is just one little part of. That busybody means And literally what it means, the Greek word means, literally, to walk around messing in other people's business. It's literally what it means. Well, we'll finish up this section sometime. not next week, next Tuesday night, the thanks service, and then I'll be in Israel the next Thursday night, and the next Thursday night is going to be Journey Through Christmas, and then we're going to be right into Christmas. I don't know, maybe we'll get into the Christmas things at that time, or maybe we'll finish up right here, but nevertheless, I'm glad you're here tonight, and let's take the word of God for who it's from, and for what it means, and the ones to which it applies is us as much as it did to the people there at Thessalonica. Father, I thank you for this time together around your book. I pray, Father, that we will take to heart the practical things that you have to say to us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a different day we live in than the day that this was written to the people at Thessalonica. And yet, Lord, how everything is still the same. So we ask you to bless us and help us with it. Now, Lord, I want to pray that you'll bless all the preparations for Journey, all the study that's going on and the people that are having speaking parts and the work that is taking place and the construction that's going on and the music that's being practiced and And Father, all the cookies that are being baked and all the things that have to be done, Lord Jesus, I thank you for the people. I ask you to bless them and keep them well. Again, Lord, we pray that you'll help those on the prayer list tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. God bless you. You're dismissed. You're dismissed.