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Last born proud and proud, we came to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thine enemy. Lest I forget Thy love for me, we came to Calvary. Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid, tenderly born and bled. Angels and roads up by the rain, guardingly wilds now slept. Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thine enemy. Lest I forget Thy love for me, we came to Calvary. Lest we are carried through the gloom, come with a gift to me. Show to me now the empty tomb, we came to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thy agony. Lest I forget Thy love for me, we came to Calvary. Day I came willing Lord to bear, daily my cross for thee. Even my cup of grape to share, now has worn all for me. Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thy agony. Lest I forget Thy love for me, we came to Calvary. Amen. Let's go ahead and open up the service of the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to be here on this Sunday night, gathered together and singing praises to you. We pray that Lord that you please bless us and fill us with your spirit as we sing and fill pastor with your spirit, help him to preach boldly and for us to grow in wisdom and the knowledge of your word and we'll thank you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's go up to hymn number 39. Number 39, How Beautiful Heaven Must Be. Number 39, We Read of a Place That's Called Heaven, number 39. Let's sing it out on this first verse. We read of a place that's called heaven Let's sing for the pure and the free These words of God's word he hath given How beautiful heaven must be How beautiful heaven must be Sleep over the happy and free Fair cave and a breast for the weary How beautiful heaven must be In heaven I'm drooping or fining Not wishing for a certainty God's light is forever shining How beautiful heaven must be How beautiful heaven must be Sleep over the happy and free Fair cave and a breast for the weary How beautiful heaven must be Pure waters of life there are flowing And all who will drink may be free Rare jewels of splendor are glowing How beautiful heaven must be How beautiful heaven must be Sleep over the happy and free Fair cave and a breast for the weary How beautiful heaven must be The angels so sweetly are singing Affair by the beautiful sea Sweet doors from their gold hearts are ringing How beautiful heaven must be How beautiful heaven must be Sweet home of the happy and free Fair cave and a breast for the weary How beautiful heaven must be How beautiful heaven must be Alright, it's time to go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand and we'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service times. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in Ezekiel 23. We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvation and baptisms. The 2021 year-end giving statements are available and can be requested by emailing the church at faithfulword1 at gmail.com. It doesn't apply to most people, but if you want one, just email the church and we'll get you one. Please pray for the St. Croix missions trip. Some of the people are already there. Some of them are getting there. I know there have already been a lot of canceled flights, delayed flights because there's a lot of snow falling on the east coast right now. And so just pray that all that weather would clear up at some point so that people could get out there and that they'd get their negative COVID test so that they can be allowed to fly and so forth. And then below that, just a praise report here that we did finish knocking every single door in Globe. So that was a great achievement for our church and the small town soul winning program. And so we're moving on to Claypool and the next trip for that is going to be on January the 29th and we'll get a sign up sheet over here once it gets a little bit closer to that. On the back, we've got the weekly singing class at the building at 5 p.m. Keep praying for all the pregnant ladies that they would have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. And then there's a music emphasis night on Thursday, February 3rd at 7 p.m. You can sign up for that over here to my left. And then other upcoming events are listed there below. Oh, and of course everyone happy Marxist Lucifer King Day. I almost forgot to mention that. You know, if you haven't seen the documentary that we did on that a while back, it's probably not on YouTube anymore but allthepreaching.com. There we go. So All the Preaching has it, right? So go to allthepreaching.com and you can watch the Marxist Lucifer King documentary that we did many years ago. Because I mean right away when you see the world just rallying behind someone and just praising someone and all of the most wicked and godless people just lift them up as the greatest hero, you probably think for a second there's probably something seriously wrong with this guy, okay? And just to give you just a quick version, you know first of all Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist pastor. That's why he's the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And here's the thing about him being a Baptist pastor is that he also denied the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and he also denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He did not believe in the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection, the inspiration of scripture. In short, he did not believe the Bible or the gospel or anything. And you say, what's that have to do with anything? Oh, I don't know everything? Because of the fact that when you are a Baptist pastor who doesn't believe those things, you're probably one of the most rotten people in the world? What kind of a wicked person becomes a Baptist pastor when they don't even believe anything that the Bible teaches? But you see, he was using religion just as a political platform, just becoming a pastor to use that as a soapbox for his political activism and so forth. Well you know what? At the end of the day, heaven and earth are going to pass away. God's word is not going to pass away. And at the end of the day, using the house of God and using the name of Jesus Christ and using the word of God to promote any agenda other than the gospel is wicked. Sorry, but it's wicked. I don't care what his agenda was. This is everything. Jesus is everything. The gospel is everything, okay? Number one. But not only that, you know, he was a wicked person surrounded by literal communists that he worked with in his organization. He went to the communist training schools and was yoked up with the CPUSA and all these different things. And not only that, but he was a serial adulterer involved in all kinds of horrible orgies and filthy things. I mean, he was just a disgusting, scummy individual. Now look, don't say that it's racist to be against Martin Luther King Jr. because I thought we're supposed to judge people by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. So guess what? The content of his character is garbage. It has nothing to do with him being black. And you know what? I believe that all races should be treated the same. I believe that we're all the same in the sight of God. We're all of one blood. Red, yellow, black, and white. And the house of God should be a house of prayer for all nations. And so, you know, I believe that the answer to any race problem is simply Christianity, the house of God, the word of God, the local church. The right way to bring people together is to bring them together by the name of Jesus Christ, rally them together in the house of God. You know, that is the right way. The wrong way is the government forcing people to, uh, basically accept people that they don't want to accept or whatever. Because, you know, when you, if you force someone to be friends with someone that they don't want to be friends with, it's probably just going to make them resent that person even more. And here we are in 2022, and we still have all of the racial anger and all of the stuff. I mean, look at 2020 with all the riots and the fires and everything like that. Because, you know what? The world doesn't have the right answer for these things. The right answer is Jesus, okay? The right answer is the word of God. And Martin Luther King Jr. is burning in hell right now because he denied the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? And said, well, look at all the good that he did. You know what? Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, okay? Because you know what? The unsaved man cannot please God. Nothing he does can please God. Nothing he does is righteous at the end of the day. And so, I'm not a fan of Martin Luther King. He's not a role model for anyone because, you know what? My role models are people who actually stay married to their spouse and actually stay faithful to their spouse and are not a serial adulterer having orgies in hotel rooms. Those are my role models that I want for me and my children, not some guy who's a great public speaker. Well, you know what? Somebody who's a great public speaker but doesn't have the personal life to back it up, you know what they are? They're a hypocrite, a rotten person and shouldn't be a role model for anyone. And look, if you want to actually get the data and the facts, go to allthepreaching.com, watch the documentary. It has the exact quotes from Martin Luther King. It has the relevant historical information. All the facts are there. They use how he's surrounded by sodomites and communists and weirdos that he's working with in his organization and so forth. And by the way, you know, while I'm making people upset possibly, you know, the thing about the civil rights movement and look, I 100% believe in equal rights for everybody. You know, everybody should have equal rights and the color of people's skin should be considered meaningless unto us. You know, it should be no different than getting a tan or something. It should be no different than eye color or hair color. That's how I feel about it. You know, I believe that we're all equal in the sight of God and that skin color is absolutely meaningless. Okay. But, you know, the problem with the civil rights movement is that it has opened the door now to saying, oh, well, if you can force people to hire black people, now you can force people to hire sodomites and force people. So it's open. You're forced to hire a transvestite now. So that's the problem with using the government to enforce these things instead of allowing someone to have their own business and run it the way that they want to run it. And, you know, maybe that's not popular for me to say that, but that's what I believe is that, you know, let's say there was some business that didn't serve black people, then here's the thing. People should just not go to that business and boycott that business and then that business is going to lose money and be ostracized. That's how you bring about change the right way. Not by forcing it and saying like, you must do it. Because now we're living in a time where now this bakery must bake the cake and put two dudes on it and congratulate, you know, Stan and Robert on their wedding or something. Or that even religious organizations would be forced to comply with all these perverted things. Of course, you know, our church will never comply with any of that. I would rather die than participate in anything like that. And so, anyway, you know, don't just blindly get on the bandwagon tomorrow and get all inspirational with your MLK quotes. I got some MLK quotes for you and they're on allthepreaching.com. Okay. So, anyway. It's still on YouTube? It just keeps respawning. Just got to scroll that. So, yeah, and one way to find it is probably if you type in Marxist Lucifer King, sometimes you can filter by length and just show me only long videos or, you know, because it's obviously, you know, an hour long or whatever. And scroll down and find it by hook or by crook. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to watch it, especially if you're offended by what I've said just now. Watch the video and get the facts because that's not what the sermon's about tonight. All right. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days going back to Thursday, January 13th. Anything from Thursday? Gotcha. Anything else from Thursday? How about, is that Thursday? All right. What about Friday? Oh, and by the way, Marxist Lucifer King's widow is a big advocate for sodomite rights and she says if Martin was around right now, you know, he'd be pushing for queer rights and whatever. She said that many times, by the way. She's probably right because he would pretty much just say whatever is popular. He certainly wasn't going to be preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, Baptist pastor that he was. All right. Saturday. Any soul winning from Saturday? All right. Anything else from Saturday? And then what about today, Sunday? Scott? Three for the main group with brother Scott. Gotcha. All right. North Phoenix. Two more over here. All right. Okay. Anything else? Okay. All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. And answer in the front of your hymnals with the Psalm 67. Psalm 67. If you don't have one, please raise your hand. We'll sing it on that first verse together. Psalm 67. Let all nations, let the people praise thee O God. Let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For now shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon her. The nations upon her see love. Let the people praise thee O God. Let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Then shall the earth yield her in peace and God even her own. God shall bless us. God shall bless us with all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Let the people praise thee O God. Let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Amen. Your Psalm is up. Let's go to hymn number 16. Hymn number 16. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned. Number 16. Number 16. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon the Savior's crown. His hand with radiant glory's crown. His lips with grace or flow. His lips with grace or flow. The mortal can with him compare among the sons of men. Fairer is he than all the fair who filled the heavenly train. Who filled the heavenly train. He saw me plunged in deep distress and flew to my relief. For he poured the shameful cross and carried all my grief. And carried all my grief. To him I owe my life and breath and all the joys I have. He makes me triumph over death. And saves me from the grave. And saves me from the grave. Thank you. All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter. Beginning in verse number 1, follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads. 2 Thessalonians 3. For all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you that you both do and will do the things which we command you. And the Lord directs your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. 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 he received from the Lord. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither do we eat any man's bread for naught, but rot 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 ensample 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 busy with you. 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 wary 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. Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always, by all means. The Lord be with you all, the salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle, so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Father in heaven, we come here in prayer, Lord, to give you thanks for every day we have on earth, Lord. We pray that you bless our brothers and sisters that are already on the island, Lord. We pray that you bless our brothers and sisters that are on the way to the island, Lord. Please remove all distractions, Lord, and let them get there safely, and please be with us. Amen. Amen. All right, 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3, the title of the sermon is Disorderly Conduct. Disorderly Conduct. The Bible reads in verse number 4, and we have confidence in the Lord touching you that you both do and will do the things which we command you. So in this epistle, the apostle Paul is giving some commandments to the churches of God. He's giving some commandments to the churches of Thessalonica, and he starts in verse 6 here, 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 he received of us. And so here in verse 6, the apostle Paul is expressing to them not just a wish or a desire or a suggestion, he's saying, look, we command you to do this. You need to withdraw yourselves from these disorderly brethren. Okay, so obviously there's a big problem here. The churches of the Thessalonians obviously have a big problem with these disorderly people. It needs to be dealt with, and he's saying, look, you've got to withdraw yourself from these people. Now, who are these people that are walking disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us? Well, if we keep reading, context will explain to us who these disorderly people are, because it says in verse number 7, For yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. And then look at the next words, Neither did we eat any man's bread for not, but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you. So the opposite of being disorderly, the guys who are not disorderly are the ones who weren't freeloaders, they weren't eating someone else's food for nothing, but rather they wrought with travail night and day, they worked hard and met their own needs. Now if you jump down to verse 11, we'll get an even clearer definition. It says, For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. So it's pretty easy when you put this passage together and you read through this passage in the context to figure out that these disorderly people are people who are refusing to work. They're refusing to work. That's why the Bible says in verse 10, For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Because there are these disorderly people and they're refusing to work. So the people that he is saying to put away from you are these people who are refusing to work. They don't work. They're lazy. They are freeloaders. They are disorderly. Now with that in mind, let's start over at the beginning here and look at this verse by verse. It says in verse 6, 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 he received of us. And then it says, For yourselves know how you ought to follow us. Now what does the word tradition mean? The word tradition is simply anything that is passed down. Anything that, for example, your grandparents did, and then your parents picked up on that from them, and then your parents have taught it to you, now you've picked up on it. That's a tradition. So traditions can be either good or bad. Now we often talk about tradition in a bad light or a negative light because Jesus talked about people who made the word of God of none effect by their tradition. So obviously if someone's tradition is nullifying the word of God, that's a bad tradition. So you think about religions that are based on tradition, like say the Roman Catholic Church, right? The Roman Catholic Church is not based on the Bible. It's based on their traditions, things that have been passed down from the church fathers and so forth. But the problem is, they don't jive with scripture. Things that the Roman Catholic Church teaches are not compatible with scripture, and that's a whole other sermon that shall be preached at another time. But here, in this scripture, the tradition that they're not walking after is the tradition of working hard and paying your own way. Because he says, they're walking disorderly, and we kind of defined what that entails from the context. And not after the tradition which he received of us, for yourselves know how you ought to follow us. We left you an example, we left you a tradition of not being disorderly, but rather, you know, working night and day laboring, not being chargeable to anyone. It says in verse 9, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us. The thing is, you know, we've set an example of how to work hard. You need to be following that example. That's the tradition that we've left you with. We've left you with a certain style of living and a certain mentality, and if anybody walks disorderly and not according to that tradition, that example, that teaching that we've given, you need to withdraw yourself from that person. Now, what does that mean when it says, withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly? He's saying, do not have fellowship with them. Do not have fellowship with them. Now, this is very similar to the type of scriptures like 1 Corinthians chapter 5 that would say, you know, if any man that's called a brother be a drunkard, or a fornicator, or an extortioner, or a railer, you know, with such a one, know not to eat. Don't even eat a meal with these people. Don't have fellowship with these people. Put away from among yourselves that wicked person. You know, I jokingly call this doctrine that I'm teaching right now from this verse about how, you know, we need to withdraw ourselves from people who refuse to work. I jokingly call it the Jimenez doctrine. You know, because Pastor Jimenez was the first person that I ever heard preach this, where he said, you know, a grounds for church discipline is people who are just refusing to work. They're just freeloaders, lazy, and I'm not talking about people that are disabled or people that actually are unable to work or they're trying to work and they, you know, they're looking for a job. But I mean, just people who just plain refuse to work and they're just a freeloader, you know, to basically throw that person out of the church. I call that the Jimenez doctrine, okay. And, uh, because he's the one that I heard preach that and I kind of joke with him, we joke with him about that and call it that. But basically it is a great doctrine, you know, to have your name on. So he ought to be proud, I think. But anyway, it says, yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behaved ourselves not disorderly among you. Now you might ask yourself, you know, why would these people who are refusing to work, why are they labeled as disorderly? You know, that's not really what you'd think of with disorderly. Now, there's a, there's a charge that the police will charge you with sometimes, and I know because they hit me with it one time, but it's called disorderly conduct. But, you know, the charges were dropped, all right. But this charge disorderly conduct, I found that the police will sometimes use this, you did something we don't like and it's not really a crime, so we'll just kind of slap this label on it, disorderly conduct or whatever. But typically it's people that are being loud and rowdy and maybe they're, you know, I don't know, drunk and just causing problems, making a ruckus, disturbing the peace or whatever. You know, that's not what we're really talking about here. You know, because if you read the context here, these disorderly people, the Bible doesn't describe them as disturbing the peace or getting too rowdy. That's not what we see in this passage. We gotta let the Bible kind of define itself. The disorderly people are people that are refusing to work and as a result, look at verse 11, we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Okay. Now then that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. So the only other thing that we really see about these people, besides the fact that they're refusing to work, is that they're busybodies and they need to just kind of shut up and go to work and quit just running their mouths. So a busybody is someone who gets involved in other people's business, they run their mouth, they gossip, they talk about other people's business and just things of that nature. So why would this lazy person who refuses to work be called disorderly? Well, here's the thing about life is that if you don't have structure in your life, and typically that involves going to work every day or at least having some kind of work laid out for yourself that you do, maybe if you're self-employed or if you run your own business or whatever, if you don't have that kind of structure of work in your life, you're going to get into trouble, you're going to get into sin, you're going to end up doing the wrong things because as my mom used to tell me when I was a kid, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. And so when you have nothing to do, that's when you get into trouble. You think about King David. Kings are supposed to go to war, they're supposed to defend their nation. And we see that when King David stays home from battle and is just hanging out in Jerusalem sending Joab to do all the fighting and everything that he should be doing, that's when he goes up on the rooftop and he looks at Bathsheba, he can't sleep. Why can't he sleep? Because he's not doing anything. You know, when you work hard, you fall asleep at night. But he's up at night and he's just looking around, he's got nothing to do because he stayed home from the battle, next thing you know he's committing adultery and getting involved in these other things. You see, if you are not working, you become disorderly. What's the opposite of disorderly? Orderly. You know, the person who has an ordered life is the person who goes to work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That brings order to our lives, doesn't it? Going to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night brings order to our lives, right? We have a schedule. We get up, we do our work, we have responsibilities, and that keeps us on track. We don't just wake up every day, uh, what do you want to do today, man? Just every day. Because I guarantee you, you're going to end up doing some sinful things, living that kind of a disordered life. And the disorderly conduct that I believe the Apostle Paul is referring to in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 is a disordered life. A life with no structure. A life that does not have a job to go to, or work to go to, or at least work planned. Because obviously throughout history not everyone has gone to work or gone to a job. But let's say you're living on the farm or whatever, you still have some order to your life where you're working to meet the needs of your family, you're milking the cows at a certain time, you're plowing the field at a certain time, you're gathering in the crops, you're fixing equipment. Whatever it is, we need to stay busy in our lives working hard and doing the right things so that we don't get tempted to do the wrong things. We don't want to live a disorderly life. We don't want to be these lazy people that are just kind of just sitting around, fooling around, no structure, and the next thing you know they're gossiping and talking about a bunch of stupid things because they just have nothing productive to do with their time. We as Christians must have order in our lives. We need to work. Men, we need to work. Women need to work. Not necessarily outside the home. Obviously, we believe that women should be at home with the children, that they should be a stay-at-home housewife and a stay-at-home mother. That's the ideal that the Bible puts forth. That's what I preach. That's what I believe. That's what I say. But guess what? It's still work. You know, my wife hasn't had a job in the entire 21 years that we've been married. She's been a stay-at-home wife, stay-at-home mom. She's not clocking in anywhere, but yet she has work to do. She has structure to her life. She has routines and things that she does. She eateth not the bread of idleness. Because if you live a disordered life, you get into trouble. You end up doing bad things and doing wrong things. Now, today we have just an epidemic. I'm not talking about COVID. We have an epidemic of lazy young people refusing to work. It's incredible. All around the streets of Phoenix and Tempe, you see them standing on the corner, holding up their signs. I mean, on the way over here was a homeless dude holding up a sign that says, you know, if you can help, please help. Otherwise, just smile. And then it said, so smile you cheap bastard. That's what the sign said. It's like huh? Excuse me? And by the way, this exact guy with his stupid little joke that's not funny, you know, the same guy had that sign a week ago. The same thing. It's just hey, smile you cheap bastard. You know, and please don't say that I'm cussing because that word is in the Bible multiple times, you know. But anyway, the point is this guy is holding up this sign insulting me because I won't give him my money that I worked for because he's too lazy. He's a lazy bastard, okay, is what he is. He's a disorderly bastard, is what he is. It's not cheap to not give your hard-earned money to these people. And let me take it a step further. You're not helping these people by giving them money when they are refusing to work. And it would be one thing if they were crippled or something, then yeah, give them alms. If somebody's actually crippled, if somebody's actually unable to work because they're so handicapped, then you know, by all means, help them out. But I'm talking about the street corners of Phoenix, Arizona today being filled with young, able-bodied, healthy people. I mean, people in their 20s and 30s asking for free money. It is wicked in the sight of God. And you say, well, what are they supposed to do? Well, they have two options according to the word of God here. Either work or starve to death. That's what the Bible says. It says, if any man will not work, neither should he eat. How can you get any more clear than that? These people deserve to die of starvation if they refuse to work. You're not allowed to live on this planet and not work and eat the food. If you eat the food, you gotta do the work. That's the way this planet works. Alright? If you don't like it, then just stop eating and just die. It's that simple. This is how life works. Any questions? But when you're giving money to these people, you are enabling them. You're enabling them. You're teaching them that this is an acceptable lifestyle. And people are constantly giving them money and they think that it makes them a better person because they give money to these derelict bums. Like, oh, now I'm going to heaven for sure. You know, because they believe in a workspace, salvation. People who don't have the Gospel, they think they're like earning their way to heaven or they have some moral high ground where they'll even take pictures and put it on social media and video. Boy, those videos make me want to puke. Helping homeless people on video. Oh, look at this crying homeless person as I give them a pizza. They're crying because it's not drugs. They're crying because it's not beer. That's why they're crying. They're not crying because they love you. They're crying because you're so stupid. Okay? The point is, first of all, if you actually were doing alms, you're not supposed to let anybody know about it. The Bible says when you actually give alms, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Let your alms be in secret. And your Father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly doing alms. But it's not alms to give to somebody who's refusing to work. What you're actually doing is you're actually hurting that person. I mean, what if somebody's a drug addict and I give them drugs? Am I helping or hurting them? What if someone's an alcoholic and I buy them booze? Am I helping them? No. And giving money to a person who refuses to work is like giving drugs to a drug addict. Their addiction is laziness. Their disease is laziness. And giving them free money is just teaching them to continue in that lifestyle. Let me tell you something. These people who are refusing to work, they're not happy. Work makes you happy. Work makes you feel good. You know, every man who goes to work and puts in an honest day's work knows the joy and the satisfaction of an honest pay for an honest job and it makes us feel good to accomplish something, to build something, to do something. We get achievement and a sense of pride in our labor from that. You know, you think these people are happy, dirty, by the side of the road, doing nothing, just standing there. I mean, it looks boring to me. It's humiliating. But yet they do it because anything except work. Now, I've been talking to these people lately. You know, when they're young and able-bodied and when it's clear that they're perfectly healthy, normal people, I roll down my window to them and I say to them, I say, you know that literally everyone is hiring right now? I said, have you heard about the worker shortage? I mean, folks, restaurants are now literally, they used to be open at lunch, now they're dinner only because they're saying, we don't have the staff. I know one that closed three days. In a week, they closed no staff. What restaurant? It's in Cape Creek, El Encanto. El Encanto is closing three days a week. Yeah, what days? Yeah, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday closed. They just don't have the staff. You know, other restaurants, brand new restaurant was going to open in a distant city and they said, we just can't, we can't even open because we can't hire anyone. We can't find the workers. My son was just telling me that Taco Bell, a certain Taco Bell went to drive-thru only. McDonald's went to drive-thru only. They just can't find the staff. I mean, today, if you have a pulse, you're hired. And I'm telling you, my teenage children are being like head-hunted for minimum wage jobs. You know what I mean? Like, seriously, my son works at a certain establishment. My young teenage son that's not an adult, my third born, he's working at a certain establishment. He has people approaching him. What are they paying you here? I'll give you two dollars more an hour. What's it going to take to get you to come over to Chick-fil-A? What's it going to take to get you over to In-N-Out Burger or something? I mean, these type of jobs, which it used to be, you know, it wasn't really that hard for them to find people. I remember back when I was getting those kind of entry-level jobs or looking for those kind of entry-level jobs, I remember I was 16 years old and it was time to get a job. Right? And when I was 16, I applied at like, you know, eight or nine fast food places or something. None of them even called me back. None of them gave me the time of day, but then, thankfully, the one that called me back, Round Table Pizza, ended up you know, and who can say, I was much happier there than working at McDonald's anyway, because it was the last Honest Pizza, okay? And the food was good. But my point is, back then, it was like you know, you had to fight for those jobs. You had to fight for that job at Taco Bell, McDonald's, whatever. I couldn't even get them to call me back when I was 16. Alright? But nowadays, they're shutting down. I mean, I drive by Panda Express, it's like $17 an hour to work at Panda Express or something. You know, I remember I was married with two kids in California working a highly skilled fire alarm job for $15.50 an hour. And yeah, I get it that there's been inflation since then, but still, I mean $17 an hour to work at Panda Express, that's incredible. There hasn't been that much inflation, you know. I mean, I was working at Round Table Pizza, I was making like $5.15 an hour, okay? And I realized there's inflation, but have prices really tripled and quadrupled? Not quite, okay? And so the point is, everybody's hiring. I could name places for you that they'll hire you immediately. And all the, it's like every receipt I get at the bottom says, we're hiring. Every sign in the window, hiring. There's a worker shortage, businesses are shutting down, they just can't get people. And I roll down my window and I say to these people, have you heard about the worker shortage? Do you realize that literally everyone is hiring? If you have a pulse, you're hired. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you know and then it's just some stupid lame excuse. Oh, I'm going to do that, I'm working on that, you see them the next day, you see them a week later, you see them a month later. I mean, you get to know them after a while. I'm not kidding. I mean, you know the guy at this corner, this corner, this gal, this guy, I mean it's just it's the same people over and over again. And I mean, they're like fighting for real estate now. It'll be like, they'll be at all four corners and then one comes up and it's like, hey man, this is my turf and it's like, oh, you know, they're like taking shifts. These people are disorderly, okay. These people, they refuse to work, they're lazy, giving them money is not helping them. Now, let me show you a key verse in this passage, okay. Because what did the Bible say to do with these people if they're a brother? If they're a brother, if they're a Christian doing this, now, you know, obviously a lot of these people are not saved, okay. They need to get saved, obviously that's their biggest issue, okay. But, if somebody who's a brother is refusing to work and freeloading and just living off handouts, we're supposed to put that person away from us. And Pastor Jimenez has done that a few times and, you know, thus the Jimenez Doctrine. But look what the Bible says in verse number 14. If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him. That's the, you know, put him away from among yourselves, don't eat with him, have no company with him, that he may be ashamed, okay. So what's the Bible saying? The whole point in throwing these people out or ostracizing them or not having any fellowship with them is to shame them. To shame them, I said. How dare you shame these people? What did the Bible just say? Have no company with them that they may be ashamed. And you say, well that's not very loving of you to do that. Okay, but look what the next verse says. Show him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. You see, if I shame someone for refusing to work and admonish them that they need to, with quietness, work and eat their own bread, if I preach to someone this is laziness, this is slothfulness, you're a sluggard, God says it's wicked, you're disorderly, you're out of line, you need to get a job, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Is that me being an enemy to that person? Is that me being unloving to that person? Is that hateful to do that? No. Because otherwise, how could the Bible in one breath tell me to do that and then in the next breath say you know what, don't count that guy as an enemy. Don't hate him. Don't consider him your enemy. Admonish him as a brother. What's the Bible saying here? You know, sometimes the best thing we can do for someone is to correct them. To rebuke them. I mean, think about it. If my life were in a downward spiral of drunkenness, what do I need? Somebody to just throw their arms around me and tell me it's going to be okay? And may I buy you a 24-pack? Or do I need somebody to tell me, you're a drunk, you're ruining your life, and you know, until you get it right, you can't come to church anymore. Because you're a drunkard. You need to go to rehab or whatever you need to do to fix this, but you are a drunk and you're destroying your life, you're destroying the lives of the people around you. You know, that's not unloving to rebuke that type of destructive sin. Because at the end of the day, if people would stop giving money to these people on the corner, they wouldn't be there anymore. The reason that they're there is because people are giving them money, and you know what you're doing? You're contributing that person's misery. So when you give that five dollar bill to the able-bodied disorderly person on the corner who's refusing to work, when you give them that five dollar bill, number one, you're participating in their sin, you're condoning it, you're participating in it, and not only that, but you're also contributing to their misery. Because you're basically saying, here, spend another day in this miserable condition. Spend another day eating and drinking from the gas station. Spend another day drunk. Spend another day on drugs. Spend another day disorderly without going to work. And that's not going to bring happiness to that person. These people are not happy. Now, I ride my bicycle around the city a lot. That's how I get around a lot. Because I like to exercise, and because my wife and I share a vehicle, and I just want to reduce my carbon footprint, okay? But anyway, I ride my bike around the city a lot, and when you ride a bike, you see things up close. In a car, you just kind of whiz by, but when you're on a bike or even walking on foot, you really see things as they are. And so, I come right up to these people. I'm standing right next to them, waiting for that light to turn. And you know what I've noticed about them is that they don't have any dignity. They don't have any confidence. We were talking the other day, somebody said, well, if you mouth off to these homeless people, aren't you afraid they're going to attack you or hit you or get angry or fight you or something? And I said no, because anybody who actually knows how to fight isn't homeless. Because anybody who had the character to go to a boxing gym or learn martial arts or get a black belt and whatever, probably wouldn't be out there. If they would have got that black belt in Taekwondo, they probably wouldn't even be there. You know what I mean? Because of the fact that they'd have character. They'd have some character. These people they're just they're a shell of a human being. They won't make eye contact. They have no dignity. That's not a happy life. It's a miserable life. It's a sad life. But it is a life, make no mistake about it, that they have chosen and are choosing it every day. Every day they choose that life. Now look, I can feel bad for them and pity them and show them the love of Christ at the same time as I rebuke them and give them a swift kick in the pants. Not literally now, but verbally. Why? Because of the fact that I know that they are doing this to themselves. They are choosing this path. They are lazy. They are wicked in the sight of God and they must repent and they must get a job. And there are so many pathways to actually working and living an honest life. I mean our society makes it so easy now. I mean you've got Goodwill has got all these programs and you know folks, I mean anybody will hire you practically these days. But what about places like Goodwill who have a whole program. I mean I just drove by a place the other day and it said Goodwill Career Center. And they said we're going to help you make a resume we'll teach you. You can go to classes and they'll teach you some skill that you can then take and get hired at one of these entry level jobs. Minimum wage is so high and I mean what in the world? Like what are you doing out here? What are you doing? But you know Santa is like that. Santa destroys our lives. It makes us miserable. It makes us a pitiable human being. And we do it to ourselves but yet it destroys us. And that's what's going on with these homeless people and I'm so sick of this moralizing by libtards who are like oh there's all these churches but they can't fix homelessness. Folks you can't fix stupid. Okay? If a person wants to be homeless what can you do? If you can tell this person here get a job. And folks you say well you know they have to be on drugs and whatever. Folks you can get hired even on drugs now. All day long. You know it used to be that it's like well they don't have a job because they're a drug addict. Now it's like drug addicts welcome. You know I think a lot of jobs would love to hire drug addicts right now. They don't care what you snort before work or whatever. Just show up and wash the dishes amen? We don't care what's in your system. That's literally where we're at in the job market right now. Jobs a lot of jobs won't even drug test their employees because you know they'd lose too many staff. Even when I was in the workforce it was kind of like that. There were certain guys on the job everybody knew they were doing drugs but it was like but they're good at the job. And so you know these people have literally no excuse. You'd be better off rather than giving them money rebuking them and giving them a Bible verse. And I'm all for witnessing to them as well. I've witnessed to many of them and I'm for that. You would expect them to be a very receptive population because you know the poor are receptive amen? But let me explain something to you about people who refuse to work. They're not the poor. They're not poor. Don't tell me that I'm not helping the poor or that I'm not regarding the poor. No no no. I love the poor. I want to help the poor. These people are not the poor. You know who's receptive to the gospel? The poor. But I found homeless people to be some of the least receptive people to the gospel. Doesn't really make sense does it? You'd expect poor people to be receptive. Oh yeah they're not poor. That's why they're not receptive. This is what I believe is a poor person. A poor person is someone who works and they struggle to make ends meet even though they work. And it's out there. You know there are people who go and they work hard and they put in a lot of work at their job. Maybe even work two jobs and they struggle to make ends meet. That is a poor person. And I don't want you to think that I don't understand what it's like to have financial problems because I do. You know I remember when I first got married my wife and I were very poor. Okay. We lived in just a one bedroom apartment. It was a pretty ghetto apartment complex. One bedroom apartment. We even when we had our second child born we were still in a one bedroom. You know eventually we got into a two bedroom. But we were in a one bedroom in a run down apartment complex in a kind of rough part of town. And when we got married we didn't even have a bed. We had a twin mattress on the ground. Twin size for two people on the ground. You know we were very close right away as a couple. But anyway so we have you know twin mattress on the ground. We had no couch. We had no dining room table at first. I mean we had two plates, two forks, two spoons, two knives. I mean we you know and here's the thing. I wasn't stupid or refusing to work or anything like that. I mean I went and I worked 50 hours a week at my job and I just you know I just struggled to pay the bills. Just as a young man. Just working hard. Doing skilled work even. And so I get it. You know I worked 50 hours a week. Eventually you know we got a table with two chairs and then when we would have our friends over we'd say hey bring chairs. We had another couple come over from church and they had to bring chairs over. We ate at home. The only time we ate out was when someone else was paying. You know if my parents would take us out to eat and they would buy. So for a few years the only restaurant we ever ate out was Chili's because that's where my parents always ate. So basically you know I know what it's like to struggle and you're just you're barely getting by paycheck to paycheck. You got $50 in your checking account and then you get an unexpected bill. I get it that there are people that are legitimately working and struggling and so forth. That's what I consider poor people. Other people I would consider poor people are people that are actually handicapped. They actually have some kind of a physical disability or handicap that doesn't allow them to work. And so because they're physically disabled and they're on just some meager income I would consider that a poor person as well. Okay. Widows and people that are struggling for various reasons. But a person who refuses to work I refuse to give them the label poor. So all those Bible verses about poor people do not apply to them. Because God wants us to help the poor. God wants us to lift up the poor and consider the poor. And the Bible says that the righteous man regards the poor and considers his cause. We should consider the cause of the poor. But you know okay I consider the cause of these homeless people it's drugs, it's alcohol, it's a refusal to work. The Bible doesn't just say indiscriminately give money to everyone who asks for it even if they don't want to work. No the Bible says if any will not work neither should he eat. So he says if they won't work put them away from you admonish them, rebuke them, don't have any fellowship with them, don't have any, and by the way this isn't optional it's a command. Put these people away from you. They're not your enemies but you're helping them you're being a friend to them more by rebuking them and telling them to get their act together. If any will not work neither should he eat. We hear that there are some, verse 11, 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. Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. And so the example that Paul set was working hard paying your own way, meeting your own needs, and then even having extra to give to other people and help other people. Now how do we apply this sermon besides saving our money and not giving it out to these people that are refusing to work among us? And well before I get to that one more thing. I was riding my bike two days ago and I was rode by the dwelling of one of these bum encampments and there was a styrofoam box and it was open and it was just a complete meal. It was like some kind of a steak or something, vegetable, rice, I mean it didn't even look like it had been touched. Just sitting there, open, untouched, just totally rotten. Untouched. Because the Bible says he that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. And let me tell you something about these people who refuse to work. Have you noticed how they trash our city? You ever wonder sometimes I wonder like where does all this trash come from? Who is doing this? Because I hate litter. And you hate to see just street corners covered in trash. There are garbage cans everywhere. Put your trash in the garbage. And by the way if your kids throw trash on the ground, teach them that that is not acceptable. Teach them that littering is wrong. Make them put it in the proper receptacle. But you wonder where all the trash comes from. They dump their trash everywhere. But it's always a half-eaten food item. They never finish their food. They never clean their plate. Why is that? Hungry. You're not hungry. You know what? When I'm hungry, I eat everything. You know, when I, and most of us in America we don't even, we hardly ever even truly get hungry. Because we all eat three meals a day and we might skip a meal here and there but it's not a big deal is it? But man, there are situations where I've been truly hungry. I remember being on an, someone was on an airplane and you get desperate for food. I don't know what it is about flying but flying makes me really hungry. So I always load up on snacks and stuff. But sometimes I've been ill-prepared or something. And I mean when I've gotten desperate on an airplane, I'll eat anything. And whatever dumb snack they have on that airplane, I'll eat it. And I've had to like buy the little snack box or whatever on the airplane. You pay like ten bucks and it's just junky snacks. And I remember buying one of those snack boxes and whatever it has in it I was just like literally just like sucking every calorie out of it. Like it just like, it had some weird little gelled marmalade janky thing. I'm just like I'm licking out the container. Every crumb of every cracker, every peanut. And I'm just like gobbling it down to where it's just, there's nothing left. Literally not, I'm licking the plate. I mean it's just, it's done. That's hungry. Anybody who's actually hungry will eat everything. Imagine all this, this half-eaten food everywhere. That's what you do when you just have an abundance of food. You have an excess of food. And no character. Now how do we apply this to ourselves today is that, you know, we need to make sure that we're living an orderly life. Okay, you need to have a job that you go to man. Have a job that you go to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. You know, you need to have structure. Now perhaps you're self-employed. Maybe you've got your own business or ranch or farm or whatever. Then create a structure for yourself. But you've got to have structure. Maybe you're retired. You say well Pastor Anderson, I'm retired. You know, what do I do? Hey, you better find something productive to do with your life. Because if you just are idle and disorderly, you're going to get into trouble. You're going to get into sin. You're going to get backslidden. You know, at least find something to do. And you know, a lot of elderly people they're retired. You know, maybe they're traveling or maybe they take up hobbies or whatever. But ideally, you know, it would be great to see people that are retired also, you know, getting work done for the Lord. You know, showing up for soul winning and, you know, getting serious about serving God and whatever. Obviously everybody's situation is different. But the point is, don't just retire and do nothing. And just sit around and watch TV and sit around and surf the internet. You know, get on some kind of a program. Get a goal. Get motivated about something. Get some structure in your life. Have some goals that you're working towards. Six months, one year, two years. Plan your days. Get up at a certain time. Read your Bible. Pray. And do something productive with your life. We all need structure in our lives. And you ladies that are the stay at home wives and stay at home mothers, you need some structure in your life. Okay, do not be that housewife or mother who basically just freestyles it through the day and just goes from soap opera, I don't even know if that's even still a thing anymore, but just goes from soap opera to just Facebook to Candy Crush to whatever the video game, surfing the news, reading social media. And look, I'm not against having fun. I'm not against blowing off steam. I'm not against social media. I'm not against even a video game in extreme moderation. I'm not against following the news necessarily. I'm not going to do it, but you're welcome to do it. But when people are just spending their whole day on that, is that really what your life is about? Being a housewife and a mother and actually doing it right is actually hard work, if you're doing it right. If you're actually cooking the meals and doing the cleaning and homeschooling the kids, it's actually difficult. But a lot of people, they homeschool their kids, and then that just becomes an excuse to basically just stay up till midnight every night, stay up till one in the morning, everybody rolls out of bed at 9, 10 a.m. and they're all groggy because every day is a day off from school. Now, here's the thing about school. School makes you get up in the morning. Am I right? I mean, when I was a kid, I used to have to get up at 5.45 every day to get ready and go to school because you had to get the carpool or you had to get on a bus or your parents have to take you on their way to work or whatever. So, you know, going to school forces you to get up in the morning and have some structure in your life. Now, obviously, I don't want my kids enrolled at the public fool system. And so we believe in homeschooling, but you know what? I still want my children to have some structure in their lives. And so don't unschool your kids. If you're going to homeschool, you should still at least have some structure of like, okay, let's get up at a certain time, let's have breakfast, let's do schoolwork at a certain time, let's have lunch, let's read our Bibles at this time, let's get some exercise at this time, here's your free time, here's your work time. Not just every day is just do some schoolwork when you feel like it and just kind of just freestyle through the day. You know, because that's not how adult life works, is it? You know, as men, we have schedules, we have structure, we have work that we have to do. Women, they should have schedule, structure, work that they have to do even in the home. And you've got to enforce that even on your kids and have this is nap time, this is bedtime, this is time to get up, this is when we eat breakfast, this is when we eat lunch, this is when we eat dinner. You know, you don't want to become a disorderly person where you're just lazy and just wasting time. And you know, sometimes people ask me like, man, I don't know how you have time to do such and such. How do you find time to do such and such? You know, I'm not some expert guru of time management or anything. I find myself asking, what are other people doing all day? Like, how can you not have time for these things? Like, what do you do all day? You work for eight hours, there's 24 hours in the day. Like, what do you do the rest of the time? You know, we end up wasting a lot of time if we don't structure our time a little bit, you know. And I want to get the most out of my day that I can. You know, I want to get the most out of Monday, the most out of Tuesday, the most out of Wednesday. And so, we need structure, right? We need order. Children need order and structure. Wives and mothers need it. We as men, hopefully our job provides most of that. And then, you know, but what about the rest of the day? You know, have some time set aside for productive things, spiritual things, church, soul winning, taking care of your health, whatever you need to do, have structure in your life. The extreme example is these disorderly people who don't work at all. That's the most extreme example. There are some disorderly among you, working not at all. That's on one extreme. Okay, but here's the thing, there's also a lot of us could maybe fall into a gray area where we get a little disorderly in our lives where, yeah, we work, but we just basically fool around for hours and hours and hours every day just being lazy, watching TV, just not accomplishing anything, you know. I just want to challenge you tonight to not give money to derelicts on the street corner in Phoenix, and I want to challenge you tonight to look at your life, look at your week, look at your schedule, and ask yourself, you know, is this disorderly? Or, you know, can I bring some more order to my life so that I can be a more productive servant of God? Can I get some hard and fast goals? Maybe you're retired, you know, ask yourself, what do I want to do with the next 10 years of my life? You know, because people nowadays, they retire and they're still pretty young, you know, what do I want to do for the next 10 years? What do I want to do for the next 20 years? Get some goals, get a vision, get a plan, you know, if you run your own business, man, structure your life, get some kind of a routine going, and some kind of a schedule that you impose on yourself. So that you don't live a disorderly life. Let's bow your heads in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord. It flies in the face of how so many people think now. They think that somehow giving money to people who refuse to work is a virtue, but Lord, help us to follow this chapter's wisdom, help us to, when we see these people that refuse to work, look at it as a cautionary tale and say, wow, I don't want to drink because I don't want to end up like that guy. I better not take drugs so I don't end up like that guy. I better get some order in my life so I don't become lazy and a bum by the side of the road. Lord, God, help us to have that wisdom and to hold ourselves accountable and to impose some schedule and structure in our lives because ultimately we're going to be able to do more for you and we will also be happier and Lord, you have obviously always the best advice in the word of God on how we should live our lives and so Lord, help us to be wise and take heed to what the Bible says and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, let's go in your song books to hymn number 315. 315, Take My Life and Let It Be. Number 315, we'll sing this. Be it dismissed, number 315, let's sing it out together on this first verse. Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. At the impulse of thy love take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing, always only for my King, always only for my King. Take my silver and my gold, not a fight would I withhold. Take my moments and my days let them flow in ceaseless praise, let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my will and make it thine it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne, it shall be thy royal throne. Amen. Great singing tonight. You are dismissed. Thank you.