(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, as I said in the announcements. I'm going to finish off this Bible study, and some people don't come to the Bible study, so you're actually going to get a taste of a Thursday night Bible study. I'm going to be flying out to Indianapolis first thing in the morning on Thursday, so I wanted to finish this series because I feel like it's been kind of dragging on. It's only three chapters, but I wanted to just get it done before I leave, and then when I get back, I'll be ready to start a new book the Thursday after next. Really, I've almost finished the whole New Testament in Bible studies in this seven-year span that I've been the leader of this church. I still haven't done the book of Luke or Revelation, 1 and 2 Timothy, Philemon, Ephesians, so there's a few New Testament books, but there might be some other ones that I'm not thinking about, but I'm probably going to have to do some double-ups on some Old Testament stuff here for a while, but the great thing about God's Word is it's for us always. Every single chapter in here is for us. Every verse, every line. This morning I want to preach about, and through this Bible study, I want to preach about disorderly conduct, and you've probably heard that term before. It's kind of a legal term, and it can mean a lot of different things, but before I get into that topic, I want to just, first of all, talk about the first four verses here in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3. My first point, actually, in this sermon is pray diligently for leadership. There's been times in the Bible when there's a lot of great leadership, but in most of the Bible, you'll see that there's a lack of leadership, and in 2023, it's no different. There's a lot of lack of leadership. Of course, in our own country, we have someone that's leading our country that can barely even string together two sentences, and a lot of times, he just doesn't even coherently say things at all. He's bringing up Zhi Zhi Ping and some Tibetan leader, and he's just like, Zhi Zhi Ping, I got hairy legs, and he's just coming out of left field. He doesn't know what side of the stage to get off of and all this other stuff, and it's just the fact that this is supposed to be the greatest country in the world in a shining light, a city on a hill, and our president is just pandering to all this weird stuff and all these crazy environmentalist policies, destroying our economy, printing money. I'm sure that obviously there's banksters behind that and all that, but aside from our country and the bad leadership we have in this country, what about the bad leadership we have around the world? Then you go and just boil it down to our senators and our representatives, and we have women leading over us, our governors, even down to the mayors and city council members. This world is in bad shape when it comes to leadership, but it also is in bad shape when it comes to leadership in churches. Even independent fundamental Baptist churches have a lot of bad leadership. They have bad leadership polity in their churches. Most independent Baptist churches are deacon board-led churches where they could just say, we don't like the pastor. We're going to get rid of them and bring in some new blood that we like. They pick deacons not based upon the qualifications set forth in scripture, but they pick deacons based upon who's the most entrepreneurial, do-nothing, not-going-soul-winning person in the church. They're good with money, and so let's make them the deacons and make them in charge of the pastor, and the pastor has to jump through all the hoops and listen to what the deacons say, and then the rest of the church votes on what kind of toilet paper, what color the carpet is, and all this other kind of stuff. So we have a really big problem in leadership in this world today, but look what Paul says in verse number one. He says, finally, brethren, pray for us. Paul is a leader, isn't he? He started many churches at this point, and he takes the time and writes these epistles and writes these letters to encourage the brethren. He loves the brethren. There's no doubt about that. He talks about it often, how much he loves them, and he says, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course, because there are places in this world, because of leadership, because the people have rejected the word of God over the years, where the word of the Lord does not have free course. Try going to North Korea and preaching the gospel and see what happens. Try going to some of these communistic countries like China and preaching the book of Revelation or the book of Daniel and see what happens, or even just being a non-state church affiliated state church entity. Just go into China and try to just start preaching to people and see what happens. You're going to get met with probably people arresting you, putting a sack over your head, and you waking up being tortured somewhere. So the word of God does not have free course all the time, and the apostle Paul was even warned not to go to certain places sometimes, and the spirit did not allow them or suffer them to go to certain areas because it just wasn't the right time. So God protects his people, and we shouldn't be trying to go to the most dangerous areas in the world because that's kind of, you know, you can just see that free course has not been given to that place. But Paul says pray for that. Pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course. So this is something we should pray for. So we should pray diligently for leadership, but I'm not just talking about this leader here, not just me. You should pray for me though. You should pray for the leadership in this church, but I'm not the only leader in this church. There's several different leaders in this church. There's leaders in the church plants that we have. There's ordained evangelists in our churches, and there's so many captains. There's many different types of leadership. There's leadership in other churches. Look, we just need to pray for leadership in general. And the Bible does say that we should pray for the leaders. Well, I think we should pray for leaders like Joe Biden to be out of office so we can get someone good in office. But you know what? The people are the problem. It's not just the leaders. When the people as a whole reject the word of God, then we're gonna get who we deserve. And God's gonna put in place, God sets up kings and deposes kings. God sets up rulers and takes down rulers. But he kind of gives us who we deserve, and you can see that trend take place in the Bible. But he does have mercy on us too, and he'll put somebody in that will allow us to have that free course. And in America, we can still preach the gospel. We can still go door to door, even though the demonic apartment managers try to stop us. We still, for the most part, can still have free course in this country to preach the gospel. We're going to be met with opposition some places. Obviously, there's some high-level devils over these apartment managers. I think that you have to sign your contract in blood or something in order to be an apartment manager where they're following you around and doing all kinds of strange things. But we really have a problem with leadership in this country. We need to be able to take some time and pray for leadership, not just in our local churches, but for leadership in general. But Paul here is saying, pray for us. And what is Paul doing? He's preaching the word of God. He's going from country to country, from place to place, and he's preaching the word of God, and he's saying, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you. And so it's not just that God's word is preached, but that God is glorified. So it's not just about us doing the preaching of God's word and having the accolades of, hey, we've got this many people saved. But it's about God being glorified because of those people being saved, even as it is with you. And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. Because that's the reason why the word of the Lord doesn't have free course sometimes is because of unreasonable and wicked men. Because it says, for all men have not faith. And when people don't have faith, they're capable of doing all kinds of evil against God's people, against God's word, and they just don't care about the things of God. And so it says, but the Lord is faithful. See, even when we're not faithful to pray for the leaders, when you're not faithful to pray for leadership, God is still faithful to you. But you know, I'd say this, that when you're praying faithfully for your leaders, that God is being faithful to you. And that's a big deal. It says, who shall establish you and keep you from evil? So what's Paul saying? Pray for us that we can be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, but God is faithful to you. Who shall establish you and keep you from evil? So when you're praying for your leadership, God's being faithful to you and making sure that you're not having all this evil happen in your life. And we're not talking about just evil as in this malevolent evil spirit, but it could be talking about that. But what about just evil in general? Bad things happening in your life. Things like that. So it says, and we have confidence in the Lord touching you that you both do and will do the things which we command. And so Paul's starting to get into the crux of this chapter really, where he's talking about how the people should be doing what the leadership is commanding them to do. And he says command. And you're like, well, I don't think we really should have to do what the leadership commands us to do. What does it say? That you both do and will do the things which we command. He says, we have confidence in the Lord touching you. So does Paul have authority in this situation? It kind of sounds like he does, doesn't he? He's an apostle. He's not the pastor of the church, but he's an apostle and he's the one that started this church. And he's saying, hey, I have confidence touching you that you both do, that you're doing what I say already, and that you will do the things that we command. And as a pastor, my authority only goes so far. But when it comes to the things concerning the church and the duties to God and man, it's appropriate for me to command things from the Bible that have already been commanded to other believers, like here, for instance, and set forth in scripture, like here, for instance, where Paul is going to continue on and give commandments to this church, which obviously are set forth and are in scripture for us 2,000 years later for us to read and apply to our lives. And so as the pastor, I just trust that you do and will do also those things because it's the word of God being preached. And I don't just assume that nobody listens and obeys the preaching of God's word. I try to stay positive about these things and just think they are doing these things. When I preach the word of God, that you're here to listen, you're here to obey what the Bible says. And so I just want to think, well, hey, they are listening. They are applying these things to their lives. And obviously we all grow on certain levels and everybody's at different growth levels and there's lots of different people who have been in this church for long periods of time. There's people that haven't been in this church for long periods of time and everybody grows and people kind of have setbacks in their Christian life and things like that. But I mainly trust that you do the basics. Bible reading, prayer, soul winning, church attendance, and separation from the world. I trust that those are the things, those are the basic things. That's the milk of the word. Those are the things that God just, those are just baseline things that we should already be doing. Am I naive for that? For thinking that that's something that you're already doing? Is that a silly assumption on my part that I would just think that you're automatically just doing these things? Well, I'm not an idiot. I know that some people probably aren't. Not everyone does everything that the Bible says. I don't do everything that the Bible says all the time. I mean, nobody does. But how are you doing on the basics though? Because the basics are going to help you. That's your foundation that's going to help you get through this Christian life on a daily basis. And I just trust that you apply these things on a daily basis. And look, we can get off on our schedules. We can get where we're working extra hours, and that cuts into other things. But if you just wake up and every day God is part of your life in some way, shape, or form, you're on the right track for the day. And sometimes it's hard though, because again, I'm a person of schedule. If I'm off on my schedule, it really affects me in a bad way. If I'm off on a trip or if I'm up on different hours or whatever, it's hard on me. And once you get off on a routine, it's hard to get back onto it. But God expects it. Look, the apostle Paul expected it. Didn't he say, I'm just expecting that you're going to do, you're already doing what I said, and you will do what I say. He's just expecting it. And so, that's kind of, you know, Paul expects it. God expects it. And so, when I preach the word of God to this church, I'm not just preaching my own sayings. I'm preaching what the Bible says. I'm preaching what the apostle says. Look, our faith is built on the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophets and the apostles. And so, I'm going to preach forth the things that they said to us. Second Thessalonians was written to us a long time ago. It was written to the Thessalonians, but it's also written to us, isn't it? And so, I just expect if you're coming to this church, it's because, you know, you accepted the calling of Jesus Christ to be the soldier that he called you to be. Because this church is not like all other churches. I'm not saying that we're the only good church. I'm just saying that this is a great church, and the people that are here are generally here because they already know they're soldiers. They already know that they have a high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You know what? Sometimes we go AWOL as soldiers. Sometimes we go AWOL in our hearts. Sometimes we go AWOL physically, too. You know, where we're just not in church, you know, just like, ah, you know, today is just not my day to go to church or whatever. Sometimes we have those thoughts. Sometimes we have, you know, that spiritual, you know, that lack of spirituality where we go AWOL in our hearts, even if it's just for a day or a weekend or whatever it is. But, you know, I just trust that we're going to get back on the right track and get back in the fight. Because there's a lot of soldiers that go AWOL, and they get punished for that. Isn't that funny? You know, we're in this military, you know, the Bible says that we're called to be soldiers by Christ. And so when you go AWOL in the military, if you think about it, what happens to people? They get in trouble, don't they? And then they lose privileges. But what does God do when a Christian goes AWOL or backslides? He punishes them. But he doesn't punish them so that they'll just leave completely. He punishes them so they'll get back in the fight and realize, hey, you know, you're slack in here. You need to get back to the agreement that you kind of had, which was you're going to fight in the military. You're going to fight in the Lord's army. Look at verse 5 in our text that says, And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. So here's, you know, the talking about the rapture. You know, every chapter as we've gone through 1 and 2 Thessalonians, it mentions the coming of Christ. It mentions also tribulation. So it already mentioned tribulation, Paul says, to deliver us from unreasonable and wicked men. And then you have the patient waiting for Christ. Waiting for what? Waiting for him to come back, right? And, you know, it says, And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. So how do we do that, though? How does that look? Well, turn to Proverbs 3, verse 5. Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 5. And I think this is a really great Bible truth that if we just would latch on to this, that it would really help us in our daily Christian life. Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 5. And, you know, sometimes when we go AWOL in our hearts or we go astray in our hearts, you know, if we would just think about these scriptures, I think it would help us to get back on track really quickly. Proverbs 3, verse 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. So when we trust in God, we're trusting Him with everything, every matter in life, every decision in life. You know, should I buy this house? Trust in the Lord. Should I take this job? Trust in the Lord. Should I let my wife stop working so I can bring home the bacon? Trust in the Lord. Should I spank my children? I'm afraid that someone's going to turn me in. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Should I go to this church? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. You know, when we put God first, He's going to give us all the desires of our heart. You know, if we trust in the Lord, you know, and we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you. The things that we fear we're going to lose are actually the things that we're going to gain when we put God first in our lives. It says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. See, this is, you know, when we trust in God instead of our own understanding, this is the struggle. We're like, I don't understand. This doesn't make sense, God. But we're leaning on our own understanding. And that's the problem. Instead of letting God make the choice for us of what the Bible says to do is right, even if it doesn't make, tie the ten percent. That doesn't make sense, God. I can't pay my bills. No, it does make sense because God promised you He's going to take care of you. But He says He's going to curse you if you don't. So, what, you know, but we, a lot of people just choose the curse. No, I'll just take the curse. And then people just wiggle out of that in their mind. They're like, well, that's Old Testament, Old Testament, pastor. Old Testament. It's the Old Testament. It's not just the Old Testament. It's not just the Old Testament. It's, you know, because before the law, people were tithing. So, don't bring me that garbage. And I'm just using that as an example because God uses that. He says, test me. Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord. And He's going to open up a window and bless you. And I'm not saying, you know, tie the ten percent and God's going to bring you the Lamborghini of your choice and color. That's not what the promise is. He's going to meet your needs. He's going to make sure that you're taken care of. In the time of famine and feast, look, I mean, in the time of Joseph, when the whole earth was in a dearth and there was no food to eat, what happened? Well, God put it in Joseph. He gave Joseph a dream that he was able to save the whole world by. And the children of Israel were all safe through that whole thing, weren't they? And then he allowed the children of Israel through Joseph to, you know, keep the world alive basically by that bread that he distributed, that grain that he distributed. So, even in the harshest times, Elijah was fed by ravens. You know, birds literally flew up and gave Elijah food so he could have the strength to go on because he prayed for rain, for the rain to not come. You know, it's like his own doing. And then he still, you know, those ravens are bringing him food when he's about to die. So, God can still take care of us in our harshest times. No matter what's going on in the world, God still can take care of us. But if we're leaning on our own understanding, we're always going to have issues. But it says, in all thy ways acknowledge him. So, when we're acknowledging God in our lives, you know, in everything that we do, every decision we make, every choice we make, every way of our life, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. In Second Thessalonians 3-5 it says, in the Lord direct your hearts. Look, God's going to direct the paths of our lives but, you know, there is a but there. It's when we're trusting in him, when we're not leaning onto our own understanding, in all of our ways acknowledging him and he will direct our paths of life. So, when things go wrong in our life, just know it's probably for a reason. There's something better on the horizon. I mean, think about Job. He probably at the time didn't think that everything was going really great. But in the end, Job was the one that was comforted, wasn't he? And he got back everything. And he got 10 more kids. And his wife still loved him. And he got back double of everything that he lost. And so, look, a lot of bad things can go on in our lives but God is still, you know, we have to trust in him and acknowledge him in everything we do. So, if you wake up in the morning and you're acknowledging God in your first thoughts, you know, just rolling from bed to the knees, thinking, singing a song in your heart or singing out loud to him and then, you know, reading your Bible daily, cram it in there. Even if you just, even if you have like the longest, hardest day, cram it in, you know. But don't make every day a blessed be the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. You know, I mean, don't make every day that's your Bible reading. That's a good verse. But, you know, I mean, that shouldn't be every day of your Bible reading. But if that's all you can squeak in that day, I mean, at least you're acknowledging him for some part of your day. The Lord Jesus Christ, our leader, he's coming back. He promised he would, but we got to kind of hang on. That's why it says waiting for the patient waiting for Christ because we're kind of hanging on here. I mean, just think about what the picture of the tribulation is. The picture of the tribulation is that people are being hunted by the beast and they're running for their lives and he's chopping off heads and they're patiently waiting for him to come back and then he does right at the last minute, right when, you know, those that are alive and remain need him to come the most. So if he came right now, though, which he can't, but if he did, how would you be doing right now spiritually? How would you be doing right now if he came back? Again, he can't. I preached about this Thursday night. But if he did, would you be ashamed that it's coming? Because there will be some people that will be ashamed and I'm not saying they're not going to be saved, but we should be serving God. We should be trusting in God and not just off living for ourselves and living in the world when he does come back. Part of the patient return is also enduring the hardships of life while we wait. See, because if Job would have went a different direction, then things wouldn't have turned out the way that they did. But when he was tried, he came forth as gold. That's how God wants us to go through tribulation also, is that even if he did kill us, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Even if he allowed me to be killed in the tribulation, yet will I trust in him. And he's still going to bless my life. And so that's the kind of, that patience isn't just like, you know, you're getting mad because Jesus isn't coming back or something. That's not what this patience is talking about. It's talking about enduring hardships and tribulations because this world is hard. So praying for leadership diligently is important because we don't have a lot of great leadership in our lives these days, and it's even harder to get through this Christian life without great leaders. I mean, look at people just asking all over this country for new IFB churches, all over the world for churches like this church here, and you happen to be in a great church, and then a lot of people just take it for granted that they're in a great church. And it's just like, you know, there's a lot of people who just would love to be able to go to a church like this, and there's, you know, people that go to churches like this that don't really show up all the time. It's just like, it boggles my mind. So don't just pray for me, but please pray for me, but pray for pastors and our leaders in our other churches, but also the pastors and leaders would rise up in the next generation because who's going to fill the shoes of Pastor Anderson when he retires? Who's going to fill the shoes of Pastor Jimenez when he retires? You know, I know that Jack Hiles, he preached a sermon about a call or a vote for preaching, and he's just like worried about the next generation. Who's going to rise up? You know, and people have, but a lot of people drop the ball. He's worried about, you know, people dropping off in the soul-winning churches, and it did. He was right. But, you know, there are people that have picked up the torch, but look, there's no church, there's no new IFB churches that are running 15, 20,000. You know, the decline has happened like he said it was going to, but we need people to step up and new men of God to be studied in the Word of God, to know what they're talking about, to read their Bibles, and to have a passion to preach to the lost and to preach to the people and to know what they're talking about when they get up and preach the Bible and to be able to lead people, to lead men, and to teach other men how to lead their families. And this is a dearth, there's a dearth in the land of great leadership. It's just like who's going to fill the shoes of the men of God that are in this generation? Because there's a lack, and so that's why there's a need to pray for leadership. Number two this morning, we see a warning to withdraw ourselves from believers who walk disorderly. Now, look at verse number six in our text. The Bible says, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. So, what is Paul talking about here? He's talking about getting away from certain people, isn't he? Isn't that what that means? Withdraw yourself, get away from that person that walketh every, and it's not talking about just anybody, it's talking about what a brother. So, what is this talking about? It's talking about a Christian, isn't it? Now, a lot of times in this passage people will, and I preached out of this passage talking about derelict homeless bums that are mooches of society, but in reality this passage is talking about Christians that are doing this. Because there's that famous verse where it says, If man doesn't work, neither should he eat. And we apply that to what's going on outside, in the outside world, not inside our church, but it's actually written to Christians. But what we see going on outside is what we should really avoid. We should be nothing like the world when it comes to this. And if you think about it, the things that would get you kicked out of church are things that the world kind of finds disgusting also. You know, extortioners get thrown in prison, don't they? Like in the mafia, what do they get them for? They enacted the RICO Act, and what do they get them on mostly? Extortion and racketeering. Which extortion is like, give me the money or I'm going to beat you, or I'm going to kill you, and all that kind of stuff. So, the Bible says if you're an extortioner, you're going to be thrown out. But we don't really deal with that kind of stuff in church. I've never seen anybody in church walk up to somebody else and go, give me 500 bucks or I'm going to beat the crap out of you. That doesn't really generally happen in churches. Has anybody ever had anybody do that to them at church before? If you don't give me money, I'm going to beat you up really bad. And that's kind of what we view as an extortioner, right? But there's many forms of extortion, and I'll get into that. But the Bible says we need to withdraw ourselves from people that walk disorderly. And look, there is different definitions, but let me give you a definition of disorderly. In a manner of violating law and good order. In a manner contrary to rules or established institutions. Then the Apostle Paul, what did he say? He said, withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us. So disorderly is in a manner violating law and good order in a manner contrary to rules or established institutions. So Paul's saying if you're disorderly, you're doing contrary to what we've told you to do and how we've shown you to do things. Another definition is involving or contributing to a breakdown of peaceful and law abiding behavior. So is begging people when you're able-bodied and can work in the middle of a median with a sign that says, while I just need a beer, do you think that's orderly conduct or that's disorderly conduct? It's disorderly conduct. So what Paul's about to teach here is that if a saved person is doing the things that Paul's about to describe, that we're to withdraw ourselves from that person. This is known also in our circles as the Jimenez Doctrine. And you know the first time I ever heard this, I think we were at the missions conference from 2020. And Pastor Anderson came up and he told Pastor Jimenez that the people at Faithful Word call this the Jimenez Doctrine. And he brought this passage up. And somebody from Faithful Word heard him preach about it. And so Pastor Jimenez believes that in this passage that if someone is doing the things that Paul's about to explain to us here, that they're to be thrown out of the church. And I agree with them because that's what, I mean, it's already said right now that you need to withdraw yourself from that person. So if that person's still in church, how could you withdraw yourself from that person if they're still in church? But anyway, I'll let the Bible do the teaching for you later on when I get to it. At Faithful Word, like I said, they call it the Jimenez Doctrine. That's what Pastor Anderson calls it. But obviously, it's the Bible. The Bible is actually teaching this. It's not just the Jimenez Doctrine. Because people say, well, the new IFB doctrine of the reprobate doctrine. It's like, no, that's the Bible reprobate doctrine. And it's like, you can't divorce the reprobate doctrine from the Bible and just apply it to just an only new IFB cult teaching. It's like, you could really probably literally just turn your page to one part in the Bible and find something about false prophets in the Bible. And they're reprobates, by the way. So let's look at our chapter here, verse number seven. The Bible says, For yourselves know how you ought to follow us. Are they men? Oh, you're not supposed to follow men. No. How you ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught. So Paul started to outline here what he's talking about. We didn't eat other people's food. But rot with labor. What are they doing? They're working and travail night and day. So they're working hard night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you. That word not eat man's bread for naught means nothing. They're not begging people for their food. They're not just lounging around doing nothing. They're actually working double time so that they can have their own food to eat. So they're not chargeable to this church. For a specific reason. This is not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us. And what's the ensemble? Maybe Paul just realized that this might be a problem in this area, in this church. So let's just show a really big example. And he also does it in Corinth, too. But I believe that there's a time when Paul probably does end up just not being able to make tents anymore or whatever he's doing. When you get old, it stops your ability to be able to do so much. Obviously, Paul's in prison. He might have been making license plates, but maybe he was making tents for him. Who knows? But I'm sure there came a time when he probably... But look, when it says not because we have not power, what is he referring to? He's saying that we do have power to be able to take on a salary if we want to. And I'll prove that to you. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And this is also... If tithing isn't a thing in the New Testament, then how would people in the New Testament... How would people get paid in the New Testament if there wasn't tithing? It just doesn't make sense. And Paul refers back to the Old Testament, saying that Moses' law commands tithes to be paid. But anyway, look at 1 Corinthians 9.3. It says, My answer to them that do examine me is this. So people are calling Paul into question. It says, Have we not power? What it's saying in 2 Thessalonians 3, it says, Not because we have not power. But it says, Have we not power to eat and drink? Have we not power to lead us about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or I, only in Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working? So what is it talking about? It's talking about working a secular job, right? Who goes to warfare at any time at his own charges? Who plants at the vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say these things as a man, or saith not the law, the same also. So look, these people say that tithing is not a thing in the New Testament. Why is Paul referring to the law when he's talking about tithing? When he's talking about, you know, the man of God being paid? You know, that just kind of just destroys their whole doctrine. But it says, For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Does God take care for oxen? Or saith it altogether for our sakes. For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and that he that thresheth in hope should partake of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing that we shall reap your carnal things? Now, the Apostle Paul's not saying, he's saying that we have the right to take this power to be paid if we want to. But look at what he says. If others be partakers of this power over you, so he's talking about, you know, like Peter, he mentioned them, Peter and, you know, these other apostles getting paid. He says, If others be partakers of this power over you, or not we rather, like he's saying, it's not just me and Barnabas, we're just choosing not to get paid for a specific reason. It says, Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel. So they're doing it for a reason. And in Thessalonica, they're doing it for a reason also that they want to be an example that you should be a hard worker. And not just walking, you know, they're setting an example of how hard you should work. And so in Second Thessalonians, looking back at verse 10, it says, For even when we were with you, we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat. So again, this is applied to Christians. So he's saying even a Christian, if you don't work, you shouldn't eat. And what did he say? To withdraw yourself from people that are like this. So what is he talking about the people that are disorderly? Who's disorderly? People that are taking things, food and things like that, that isn't theirs, that they didn't work for, and that are not laboring, right? Christians save people. So what is the Bible teaching here? What does the modern version say of Aaron? It says, If you don't work, you should starve. You don't work, you don't eat. Right? So we ought not to be like the world as Christians being perpetual mooches that refuse to labor. And I'm not talking about the working poor. Because the poor will always be among us, Jesus said. And I'm not talking about people that just need help. They work and they do everything they can and the ends aren't meeting. And they need extra help from time to time. They need extra help. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people that refuse to labor. That's what I'm talking about. And then they're mooches. Or they don't work as hard as they could to provide for their family and then continue to be mooches. So look at 1 Corinthians 5 verse 11. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 11. Now I mean, so this isn't, you could kind of tie this in with 1 Corinthians 5. You know the Bible gives these reasons why people would be kicked out of church. But isn't it saying though, isn't Paul saying that if someone is not working that we should stay away from them? If they're being like this mooch that we should not let them come to church anymore? I mean, and look again, don't take this the wrong way. I'm not saying that people that need help are like bad people or something. I've needed help in my life. And I think that really the society that we have set up, it used to be that churches did help people. But we live in America right now and it's the richest country in the world. And so when we look out we see these derelicts outside the church. They're lining up at churches that they probably don't attend. They show up at these churches around here that they don't attend. They eat whatever food that they were giving to them and then leave their bowls and stuff around here and throw their trash on the ground while they sit under the cover of the stoop of our church and just leave their crap laying all over the place. And then they go to Safeway and steal a cart full of food and then break into our back gate and piss on the back stoop of our porch here and other things as well. And, you know, it's just disgusting. That's the end of people that refuse to labor. That's the end, you know, being a drugged out drunken bum that doesn't have enough respect for the house of God that they'll just piss right on the property or shoot drugs or they know children are walking around or they'll sit there and threaten me and threaten to kill me because I asked them to leave because they're leaving a giant mess and sitting around with a pit bull or whatever, you know, because people they're smoking drugs while our ladies are here trying to clean the church. Anyway, I gotta move on here. First Corinthians 511. I'll get back on that in a minute here, but I just want to say I'm not, you know, don't take me wrong here. I'm talking about people that refuse to labor, okay? Now look at 1 Corinthians 511. It says, But now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or drunkard or an extortioner with such a one know not to eat. But what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not judge them that are within, but them that are without God judges. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So God is the one that judges the person that we throw out, okay? And it gave us a list of people, but I'll just call to your attention covetous. Covetous is having or showing a great desire or lust to possess something that belongs to someone else. And extortioner is, the meaning of extortion is an illegal action of obtaining money, property, or anything of value by using threats of violence or public shaming. Extortion does not have to be intentional and can be done by legal means. Extortion can be defined as protection schemes, blackmail, ransomware, and hacking. And there's a lot of extortion that goes on these days. And I don't know if anybody is aware of this, but please, for your own safety, if UPS texts your phone and says that they need you to type in a six digit code, don't do it. If Amazon calls you and says, I need you to tell me what your password is so we can, this thing that you purchased, don't do it. If Wells Fargo calls you and tells you to type in, don't do it. I mean, I've had multiple people try to scam me just recently and look, that's a form of extortion. They're cyber hacking you so they can steal from you and they're using software to extort you. Extortion is a serious crime and each state in the US has its own extortion laws. Extortion is a form of robbery, but with prior verbal or written threat and it can occur with or without the use of force. Extortion is a versatile crime and can be committed through phone, mail, or computer. In order for a crime to be committed, the message only has to be sent and does not have to be received by the intended victim. Forms of extortion, blackmail, money laundering, cyber crime, kidnapping, there's multiple different types of extortion. But I would say that mainly in churches it's stuff like fraud. Fraud is wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. So I would just say in churches it'd be like this, it's like you're pretending that you need something that you don't really need in order to gain some kind of financial thing. Financial or personal gain. And as Christians we should not be doing this kind of stuff. And it does borderline into the, hey I'm not willing to work so I'm just going to ask for things that I could be working for but I'm too lazy to do. And it is covetous. You know it borders on covetous. And you know there's also the pyramid schemes and the multi-level marketing schemes that people try to do in churches. And I don't think people are doing that in our church. I'm just saying that we need to avoid these kinds of things. But I've had people try to do it in this church before. I've had people that visited and they're like, I want to have a meeting with you. I'm just like, I already know what this is about. It's just like, this is annoying. You know, don't try to sell me your water purifying scheme. Okay, I'll buy a bottle of water. Thank you. I'll just buy a filter. I'll buy a Brita. Right. We had like people test our water and then like try to ask me for like a meeting in Sacramento. I'm just like, I know what you're doing. You know, and I was right. And I just said, hey, you do this with other people, they're going to jump down your throat. Just saying. Because their plan was to go to all the different churches at that time and kind of just try to sell them on this water purification system. It's just like you listen to the preaching of the new IFB and you think that you're just going to be able to get away with this wherever you go. It's not going to happen. But in previous churches, we've had people, you know, and I know Pastor Anderson has told stories about this where his parents got invited to things and they're like, oh, finally someone's going to be friendly to us at church. And it's like, they're just trying to sell them some kind of scam. And, you know, some of those things are like, you know, gold buying, you know, Scentsy candles, you know, pampered chef, AdvoCare. What are some of the other ones? Amway, sterilize, life insurance, you know, all kinds of filters and vitamins and all this other stuff. It's like, you know, just keep that garbage out of here. It is a scam. It's covetous because, you know, look, and this is the thing that Christians just were like, well, I just want to be able to be self, you know, a self-made, you know, millionaire. It's just desiring to be rich and to be able to do it like you got in on the bottom floor and that's how you got, you know, how you made it to the top or whatever. It's never going to happen. You're so far up the pyramid that you're never going to make it to the, I mean, you're not going to make it. I don't know how, is it the bottom of the pyramid that you get it all the best or is it the top? The top. You get the, okay, it trickles down. Okay, so yeah, I just want, I was thinking, yeah, the top is the last piece, right? So the first, okay, but when you're building a pyramid, it goes from the bottom. Okay, all right, I got to get that straight in my mind, but yeah, you're, if you're just now hearing about it, you're the sucker. Okay, you're the sucker. And so, you know, I've heard once of all, it's kind of important to preach stuff like this because maybe new people don't know this, but look, stay away from the get rich quick schemes and just keep that garbage out of our church because, you know, Jesus made a whip of a cord, some put some cords together and made a whip and drove the money changers out of the temple and he was angry. He had, he caused a stampede of animals and birds and all kinds of things and he turned into cowboy Jesus for a minute and he was upset and that's the one time you can really see where he, I wouldn't say he lost his temper, but he was, he was fired up. He was angry and it was when people were trying to buy and sell in his house. Even just carrying a vessel that was meant to be bought or sold in the temple, he wouldn't even allow them to walk inside with it. He was so angry about it. So, look, this is stuff we got to keep out and that's why I'm saying like there's forms of extortion and fraud is part of that. So, yeah, maybe people aren't walking up with a knife to you after church and threatening you and give me all your money, but there's other forms of that and it does border on covetousness and it borders because you're lusting after something that doesn't belong to you, but it could just be that you're perpetually lazy and just asking things for people. We've had people like that at this church where everybody in the church was basically giving them money, but not everybody knew that and it's because they had the little animal caught in the trap. Help, help. Who's ever seen an animal caught in a trap before? I was out driving in the mountains one time and there was a coyote caught in a trap. I was just a little kid and the coyote was calling out like making these sounds and it was trying to call for help, but people can do this call for help or they need help. People run to assist it, but we don't want to be that person. The person was just like every time someone would say hi, hey, how's it going? They'd be like, oh, just trying to see how God's going to pay my bills this month and stuff like that. That would be the way that they would respond to every person that said hello to them and that is extortion via fraud because it's like why don't you go to work? Why don't you work more? Why don't you work harder? But this person claimed that they were the hardest working person in the church staying up all night all the time drinking Monster Energy drinks. It's just like nobody stays up all night drinking Monster Energy drinks, number one. I can drink a Monster Energy drink and go right to sleep right afterwards. Don't give me that crap. I can drink a cup of coffee and be asleep a half hour later. Why am I saying this? Well, because we have to be aware that there are people that are like that and like sometimes people don't even mean to be like that necessarily, but we have to be aware like at some point there has to be like a limit to it. You know what I mean? But again, I know people are going to go, are you talking about me? Yes. Are you preaching about me right now? Yes. Still not for Pastor Shelley because he says people do that to him and he always says yes because if you're applying it to yourself then maybe the Holy Spirit is preaching to you. You know what I mean? It's like if you're taking it that way then maybe you just need to fix something and look sometimes people get upset you know when they're being when they feel like they're being preached to and look I'm not thinking of anybody in particular. I did think of someone in particular when I was talking about a past thing, but I'm not thinking of anybody in particular now, but if there's something you need to fix just fix it. Don't be bitter about it because some people when they can't take correction they instead of just internalizing it and fixing it they externalize it and get upset about it. It's just like why don't you just let God correct your way of thinking and help you fix whatever that problem is. So look if you borrow money pay it back. If you borrow something give it back. If you lose something or break something replace it. If you buy something pay for it. The Bible says in Psalm 37 21 it says the wicked borroweth and payeth not again. Let's not be those people and really ultimately what are these rules about kicking people out of church? What are they really ultimately saying to us? Don't be like the world because the wicked borrow and payeth not again. Let not that be said about God's people and especially about a brother or sister in Christ in our own church. Hey can I borrow some money and then you never pay them back? That's wicked. The wicked borroweth and payeth not again but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth. So ultimately you know you can take these you know the list of the things of these sins serious enough for God to kick you out you know but they're wicked practices outside the world too. There's a lot of mafiosos that got thrown into prison for extortion. And you know it was the literal extortion. I'm going to break your legs if you don't have my collection money this week. But you know in fornication look at you look there's there's countries all around the world where being a virgin until you got married was a thing and probably still is in a lot of cultures. So this thing of fornication being a normal thing is really kind of an American thing now. But I'm sure it goes on in European countries and other things like that but there are places where your parity is important. And just being a total drunkard in any society is pretty you know it used to be anyway a pretty bad thing. I mean even in early you know what was it in the 1920s or 30s where it was outlawed to even be able to drink alcohol? Prohibition. And they got rid of that but because then people were using that and then you know gangster empires were built. You know the Kennedy empire was built on running booze from Canada to the United States. That's how John Kennedy's family got the money that they got and then he's dead. But anyway let's look at 1st Corinthians 6 6. And here's the thing you don't always have to right every wrong. We don't always have to right every single wrong that happens to us. But that doesn't excuse the person that does the wrong either. So hey if you've done something wrong to someone make it right. But if someone does something wrong to you it doesn't mean that you have to hate that person. Sometimes you can just let it pass especially if it's not that big. If someone borrows ten thousand dollars from you and they don't pay you back. I mean I would just say this if you don't if you're not ready to lose it don't don't lend it. But it's like the Egyptians you know. The Egyptians spoiled them and borrowed all their stuff and they didn't give it back. But anyway 1st Corinthians 6 6 says, but brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Sometimes you know when it's time I defrauded it's like when someone defrauds you they they refuse to pay you back or give back your stuff right. It says nay you do wrong and defraud and that your brethren. It's talking about suing people taking someone to the magistrates or the law to sue someone in church. You know by the way I'll kick you out if you do that. But you know don't sue another believer but how do you how do you handle that situation? Matthew 18 and then you take you take the witnesses to them and then if they they won't hear the witnesses then you bring it before the church and if that person doesn't want to receive that what the church has to say then you treat that man like a publican and a heathen and then you cast them out. So there are ramifications but you don't take that person to law because they're not going to judge you with righteous judgment because it's the world right. So that's why it's a shame to do that. It's better to just have the least esteem in the church judge that situation. But it is really interesting that in most churches today if you ask them what they do what is it that they say that their biggest ministry is? To feed and clothe the homeless. That's their big thing. Well what do you do? We feed and clothe the homeless every week. What do you do? Well the Bible says if man doesn't work neither should he eat so why would we do what the Bible says not to do? You know you're like well it says a brother yeah I know but you're trying to get these people into church so what you're going to bring people into church that don't work and they come they don't come to church either and then you're going to what bring them into your church so you can show what a bad example is in to your other church members that you would that should be thrown out if they do this. You get them saved you bring them in and they're just doing the same thing every week still and you're letting them come to church no they should be cast out. So and the thing is the same leadership style that caused the dystopian hellscape nightmare that is Portland Oregon over there has come to Vancouver also to turn the world upside down over here and look it's on a smaller scale but it's here you see it I mean we see it here with all these so-called churches around us that are you know giving out free stuff to the homeless and they're just you know we had to put fences in here so they'd stop shooting drugs and needles all over our property and yet they still bust through there to try to use it as their little personal drug escape and porta potty they have no respect and look if you ushers if you catch them back there ever just call the police and get them trespassed and then if they have a shopping cart full of groceries that they stole from Safeway you know get one of the other ushers to help you and just take that shopping cart back over there and give it back to them you know if you have the chance to do that because I don't want their stolen goods on our property and I don't want them on our property I mean they're trespassing if the gate's locked they're trespassing it's like it's locked for a reason it's not so you can come in here and use it our property as a toilet you know and you got the same lane churches over in Portland helping do the same thing as the churches over here doing so it's like the government and the churches here are doing the same things that Portland is doing and they just don't realize that they're doing the same mistake that made that place the hellscape that it is where all the businesses are leaving all the small businesses are leaving and going to different places all the walmarts are shutting down all the targets are shutting down why because the police refuse and the and it's actually their hands are tied to not be able to arrest people because when they arrest them they just book and release them they just give them a ticket here's a ticket and if it's not worth two thousand dollars then they can't even do anything to them anyway so even laundry detergent has to have a locking key on it belts I forgot my belt when I was in Seattle and I drove to the to the walmart and the belts are behind a locking key a ten dollar belt really people are just well you see these videos on like twitter and stuff where people are just like walking around with all these big arms full of clothing and belts and whatever else there's just like theft rings are just being allowed to take place all over the place it's almost as if they're just allowing this stuff to go on on purpose in these liberal hellhole communist hellscape places like Portland and then you know Vancouver was kind of like a conservative bubble but that bubble's starting to pop you know once you start seeing the bike lanes come in it's all over after that when you start seeing the green bike lanes that's when you know the jig is up and all the breweries downtown and all the little you know gentrified queer areas around here the rosemere neighborhood used to be the ghettoest place to go soul wanting and to get you know get some good soul wanting done and now it's just a bunch of yuppies except for Tony you know he's the only Baptist there I'm sure we've gotten people saved over there but anyway so on November 7th the city of Vancouver declared a homeless state of emergency like falling after the footsteps of Oregon of course why while the city and the partners have worked to address the issue of homelessness over the last several years the complexity and magnitude of the issue related to homelessness continue to grow the city needs more flexibility to create additional solutions that can be implemented at a faster pace to save lives and address the public health and humanitarian crisis moreover though a variety of inputs and community has been clear that addressing homelessness and related issues is one of the their top priorities how about the neighborhoods that they're infesting how about the wire stripping and theft and property damage and all the stuff that's going on what about those people what about the people that actually pay taxes in this state and in this city what about that they're not the top priority this the public safety is not the top priority it's the derelict drug-using bums that come into somebody else's neighborhood that park all along fourth plane and make it a danger zone are andreas in there and guess why they're parked there because that stupid church down there is giving them a bunch of free stuff and then they just here's what they do they just move them from one place because they're causing a disturbance and then move them to another spot where they do the same exact thing and they make these little tiny house cities for them where they go in they're like oh this is going to do a great thing and they hire someone to manage that area that they probably pay a lot of money to and then i mean look they've been doing this crap for years in portland and guess what it doesn't work it just gets worse every single year i said this last week but the definition of madness is continuing to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results that's why i think it's on purpose because you can't actually think that continuing to throw money at the problem is actually going to help because it's not helped nothing that they've done has helped it just made it worse because look you know you go to yellowstone they say don't feed the bears you know why because they're the bears then are going to become less likely to be timid and they're going to come up and just start expecting every person that walks up or that comes to the park is going to have food for them you know and bears are dangerous you know and drugged out fentanyl infested zombies are dangerous too i don't know like the true saying of this but teach a man to fish you know that teach a man to fish you know and then you know they'll be they'll fish for life and they can you know catch their own fish or whatever quit giving them fish because if you give them the fish then they'll just come back and keep having their hand out see i believe in giving people a lift up and a help and a helping hand but not a hand out constantly because if you just keep giving people handouts they just get this welfare mentality and then they're just always going to come back waiting for the you know and it's funny they have all these sanctuary policies that are going on and people just flooding across the borders like crazy and they're putting all these people into these you know these south chicago neighborhoods i was watching this this video and you know the the black people that have been getting these turkeys and and stuff in the south chicago neighborhood are mad because the immigrants and they might be actually like muslim immigrants i think but they were there an hour and a half earlier than everybody else and they got all the turkeys and everything that they were supposed to get and they're mad because that was supposed to be their free turkeys so it's it's you know it's the poor wars i guess but you know i and look i understand like we should help the poor we should help the poor but like people that refuse the labor you know as christians look this this chapter is written to christians and as christians we should set the example not be looking like what what what we see outside and and what we have to deal with outside it's you know it's ridiculous and the fact that cops are doing nothing to help the situation you you call the cops and they don't come well there's someone dying but we're not coming how many times have you heard that no somebody's not dying so you're not coming so like you pretty much have to yep i feel like i'm gonna die will you please hurry up and come because like you know how do you know if you're gonna die or not how do you know if they have a gun on them or not and it's just like you know they're too busy just pulling over law-abiding citizens that are going five over the speed limit or something because they hired a bunch of cops after they wanted to fire all the cops at first because you know you know the cops are too white and oppressive and shooting everybody in the back or whatever now you want them back and they don't bring them back to enforce the laws though of the people that pay taxes here and the the big companies that don't want them their shelves just being stripped by all these people that just can steal with impunity but they want to mess with the law-abiding citizens that are actually just driving that just got their tabs renewed they pay their car insurance they pay their car payments they'd have their house payments they pay their taxes they paid for the rv and the boats that they have and all that stuff and they work damn hard for those things and you're gonna you're gonna just go after those people instead of going after the actual criminals in this country and that's the state of the union really and it's sad i was gonna share some headlines with you but i'm kind of running out of time here but let me share you there's there's a couple headlines but i'll share this one with you lower deck of fremont bridge closed while portland police bureau assist woman in crisis let me translate for you that drug-crazed woman of the night wants to end it all during rush hour traffic to make sure to ruin everybody else's friday night also that's that's the thompson translation i mean on a friday night you can't kill yourself at midnight so nobody else is driving you got to do it on friday it's just like and she works her way to the bottom deck where you can't reach her you know what i'm saying it's like you're like that's mean pastor thompson well i mean it's mean to to shut down like you know this is rush hour traffic on friday you know what the friday you know what the fremont bridge looks like rush hour traffic without a crazy fentanyl laced crazy woman on the bridge is like shut down shut down the traffic on i you know getting onto i-5 north this is this is what this happens all the time though people are always like stall on i-5 bridge it's like how how is it always a stall on i-5 bridge well you know cops shut down i-5 bridge or two i-5 jumper on 205 it's like they're doing it for attention but you know they just want to like ruin everybody else's life at the same time because they always do it at rush hour traffic i don't know maybe i'm just mean let's go back to our text and we'll try to get finished up here real quick all right verse 11 it says for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly not working at all but are busybodies see when you're not when you're when you're idle you're going to be busy in other people's affairs busy in other people's business that's what a busybody is you're so wrapped up in everybody else's life because you don't have anything going on in yours and it says now them that are such we command and exhort command and exhort by our lord jesus christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread now i'll be caveat that also it's okay to invite people over for dinner all right it's okay to give people food okay but what it's saying is that like someone that doesn't work you know they shouldn't eat you know it shouldn't just be like a soup kitchen at church for the guys that just don't want to eat but want to work and i'm not gonna have you turn there but first timothy 5 8 says but if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel so look if you're a man and you just don't want to work you're worse than you're worse than an unbeliever and you know it's just it's just super wicked to not provide and work for your for your family verse 13 by ye brethren be not weary in well-doing and if any man obey not the word by this epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed so i mean again it's saying withdraw yourself from their company and now the apostle paul's saying note that man isn't that kind of the same as mark that man mark them avoid them have no company with them that they may that he may be ashamed so but then it says yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother so we're talking about a saved person that needs to be kicked out of church because they refuse to labor and they were in their busy bodies and they're just not minding their business and this is just like talking about like basically a christian saved bum in the church that refuses the labor and those people you know they're they're kind of borderline extortioners and they're also covetous because they're they're taking things that belong to other people and they should be doing it for themselves so that is also known as the himenas doctrine but it's really the the doctrine of the bible and and and paul is saying we command you by the lord jesus christ so it's really christ doctrine right so people say well you're just mean why are you talking about homeless people i was actually just using them as an example of something we should never be and the bible says if we get like that we should be outside where there are where they they are and then god's going to punish those people and then when they get right it's an admonish means to warn or reprimand somebody firmly hey quit being a bum go get a job support your family just get a job just stop being a busybody no i'm not going to give you anything else no i'm not going to help you anymore you know you know they say tough love sometimes people need tough love this is what this is talking about really some people just need tough love and they need to get their act together and it says have no company with them that they may be ashamed isn't that what shunning's about you shun them ashamed you know you shun them so that they'll be ashamed and then they'll get it right because the purpose is to restore people obviously you don't want to kick them out for all eternity this isn't an infraction that can't be fixed it's not something that they're just reprobate or something just means that they just need to get their act together and sometimes people just need to be disciplined so that they'll get right so then of course you have the benediction and we'll be done here number three the benediction and description i remember when i first started the the this the second thessalonians i talked about how paul kind of signs off his epistles and uh it says in verse 16 it says now the lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means the lord be with you all the salutation of paul salutation of paul with mine own hand which is the token in every epistle so i write so paul is actually telling us that this is something that he specifically does in every epistle is that he signs off with his own hand and this is a token so normally a token is a standard formula of words used um excuse me a token is normally a thing serving as a visible tangible representation of a fact quality or feeling but you know it could also mean a word or object conferring an authority or serving to authenticate the speaker or holder and that's kind of what i think that the token represents here is that paul's saying this is the token this is to serve to authenticate that i'm the one that wrote this letter so there it is it kind of wraps up where we started in this chapter here says the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you all amen so that's the end of second thessalonians we'll be moving on to another book um two thursdays from now let's go ahead and pray lord we thank you so much for the scriptures and for this great chapter in your word pray the lord you'd help us to always be mindful that we should walk orderly and not disorderly in your church we pray for leadership lord and lord that you'd help us to walk in grace and truth before you always pray for solely that's happening today pray for lord just uh the rest of the day in your house for the sermon to come later on and and lord that you would just bless the people here in jesus name we pray amen