Glad to see everybody. We're going to be picking back up with 2 Thessalonians 3, and I've got some surprising news for you: today we're going to finish. Isn't that crazy? So after today, if you've been with us for the past 13 years, I actually got off track in the count of how many books and letters we've taught. But if you've been with us over these 13 years, you've been taught 24 books of the Bible, verse by verse, which is roughly 36% of the Bible in total, 24 out of 66. And we've done this very slowly, methodically, rightly dividing God's word of truth through God's holy manuscript.

My prayer today is the same prayer that I always pray at the end of any letter or book, and that is that your life has been changed in some way. That you've been transformed by the teachings, more specifically through the teachings, so you've either been convicted by it, been compelled by it, saved by it, convicted and changed, or you've grown spiritually somehow through the process of sanctification, which, as I said, is what increases your spiritual maturity. Of course, my prayer is always that God has been glorified, that God has been lifted up both in this church and also in your life.

With that said, let's jump back into 2 Thessalonians 3:6-18. We'll pick up with verse 6, where for one final time, we will read what Paul wrote. I say one final time for today, although we’re going to be doing a deep dive on Tuesday night at six o’clock into the message for those who show up. Here's what Paul wrote: Verse 6, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you."

Then we have a shift in Verse 8, "Nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship, we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you so that you would follow our example. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in a quiet fashion and to eat their own bread." Then Paul has this final shift in his narrative in Verse 13, "But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with them, so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." Admonishment means to correct, to warn, to counsel.

Now may the Lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter. This is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Last week and the week before, I spent quite a bit of time discussing Paul's comments, which highlighted the fact that he did not take any pay from the churches that he served—how he went out of his way to remind the churches that he did not burden them unnecessarily.

One more time, let me say this: This is my position. It's okay for the pastor to be paid. It's okay for other ministers to be paid. They just have to understand something, understand what Paul understood, which was ministry is tough. If you looked at the rate of statistically, if you looked at the amount of people who go to seminary, get either a master's or a doctorate, and then get out and serve churches, if you look at statistically speaking, how many of those people have quit ministry altogether and some quit church, we call it the morbidity rate, and it's extremely high. Extremely high. Ministry is tough, and it gets even tougher when you inject money or pay into the equation.

That's why Paul said the following in 1 Corinthians 9:18: "What then is my reward? That when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel." What he meant by that was he didn't want to be a hindrance to the gospel message in any way by having people murmur, so to speak, behind the scenes, and then under their breath, talking about, you know, how he was taking money, like a lot of the religious rulers of that day did. And while at the same time they would say, he's supposed to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, but he comes into our churches and our communities and he sucks money out of our people’s hands. It's interesting how he equated his reward with that of not charging for the work of ministry, which then allowed him the right to what he called the full use of the gospel.

We've talked about that enough and we've gone over it. If you weren't here and you hadn't heard it, you can go back and listen to it. But that was Paul's stance on being paid in the ministry, and that's why he chose not to be paid. So what's next on the agenda? Well, how about verses 13 through 15 where Paul said the following? "But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person. Do not associate with them so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."

Do not grow weary of doing good. Here's my question for each one of you sitting here today. Have you ever grown weary of doing good? Has that ever happened to you? It happens to me, it's happened to me a lot, and it happens to my wife a lot. But what is it that causes us or you or anyone else to become weary of doing good? It doesn't make sense, does it? I mean, is it all that appreciation that we feel when we've served someone? I don't think so. I think it's when we have poured ourselves into someone, given them everything that we have, invested in them, invested in their situation, their family, whatever it may be.

And we have given and given and given of ourselves only to have them show what I would say would be little to no appreciation, or maybe show appreciation in that moment but soon forget it when something else happens or something that they don't like that causes them to change the way they treat us back. It causes us to grow weary. What Paul is doing when he says do not grow weary of doing good is he's encouraging them to stay strong in the faith, remembering why it was they did what they did, why it is that we do what we do. And what a good word for all of us to hear here this morning as many of us go out of our way to help folks, to help people, only to have them stab us in the back, so to speak, talk about us frivolously to others with little to no consideration for what had been done for them, for everything that we had done.

Paul says, don't grow weary. I would take it a step further and say don't grow weary because whatever we're doing, if our heart is in the right place, we're doing it in the name of the Lord. Do it expecting nothing, and I mean nothing, zero in return. I would even take it a step further and say even if you get nothing, but you get negative, do that expecting nothing in return. Years ago, I had a very close employee and friend say something to me, something that in the moment, to be honest, seemed ridiculous. It actually made me mad. He said, "Greg, you know what your problem is?" And I said, "Evidently, I don't, but I bet you're gonna tell me." And he said, "Well, you expect people to treat you the way you treat them." I said, "Okay, I'm kind of failing to connect the dots here."

He went on to say, "Well, you and Daphne do things for people all the time and you don't expect anything in return. But when people don't do the same for you or they act differently than they should, you get upset." I said, "Yeah, crazy me. What was I thinking?" He said, "No, seriously, when you do whatever it is you do for that person, I know you do it with a correct heart without expecting anything in return. So when they act opposite of the way that they should, especially when they seem to have developed a bad case of amnesia, well, your same thought process should apply." I'm not going to lie, folks. I didn't necessarily receive that too well in the moment. I eventually realized that, to be honest with you, I felt like later on that was the Lord speaking through him to me because it's true.

If I do something for someone and truly don't expect anything in return, then when they do something that lets me down or disappoints me, I shouldn't get upset. That's if I truly didn't expect anything from them in the beginning. But guys, can I be honest? I haven't acquiesced to that higher place of spiritual maturity yet, at least not on a consistent basis. And so guess what? The realization of that fact keeps me humble, causing me to reflect and admit my own weakness in that area of my walk. And so once that realization sets in for me, it takes me back to the, what I would say, the old proverbial drawing board. I think I'm doing good. I'm thinking I'm cooking along. I think I'm climbing the ladder through sanctification, spiritual maturity, and then something happens and I'm right back to where I started, it seems like, where I asked God to grant me the maturity to accept such things.

Honestly, it reminds me of the Serenity Prayer, and although it's not scripture per se, it is based on the theme of scripture, which makes sense as it was written by a very well-known theologian. Real quick, I want you to listen to the prayer. It goes, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." This is obviously a prayer that Alcoholics Anonymous uses a lot, but I think it's a prayer that also fits us very well because how powerful are those words? One more time, I want you to listen to it. It said, "God, grant me the serenity, the inner peace to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, the wisdom to know the difference." That's pretty powerful. Very mature words.

It also reminds me of the Philippians piece that Paul talks about in Philippians 4:7 where he says, "And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, other translations say all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." The peace of God which surpasses all comprehension. May it guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That's a peace that you cannot get anywhere else. That's a peace that when the storm is raging, when the things that are happening to you, you do not understand, you can reach out to God and you can pray for that peace. I've had it many, many times and he'll bring it to you.

The attitude we should all adopt requires a higher level of spiritual enlightenment and maturity. To achieve that higher level, it requires us to understand our position before God. That we are bondservants of the God Most High, that we are the doulos, as the Greek says, bondservants, that we're slaves essentially, and that God has got us. And when we do things for others, despite an apparent lack of appreciation, whether in the moment or in the future, we must remember, we must always remember that we're doing these things, and we're doing so as if we were doing them for the Lord. Amen. Of course, that then made me think about Matthew 25:31-46, where my NASB version of the Bible, my 95 NASB version of the Bible, entitles this section of Scripture, The Judgment. I want you to listen to it real quick.

Verse 31, "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He'll sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will gather before Him, and He will separate them one from the other, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he would put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you are blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. And I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry? This is the key to the whole text. When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? The king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them you did it to me. And that's the key. Then, verse 41, we will also say to those on his left, depart from me, O cursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, you did not invite me in. Necked, and you did not cloth me. Sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then they themselves also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you? Then he will answer them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. These will go away in eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Once again, remembering Matthew's statement here in verse 40, in the moment, in the moment, it requires a, in the moment when we feel betrayed, it requires a certain level of spiritual maturity. In the moment when we are growing weary of doing good, it requires a level of spiritual enlightenment and recognition. But I would tell you, it is obtainable. It is. You just have to think about it, be cognitive, aware of it. All we have to do, though, to really get to this place to where we can be more consistent in it, I think that's the thing for me, is I don't feel consistent enough in it. All we have to do is grow in our faith. And we do that by learning more about God, His character. And we do that through what? The study and the ingestion of his word. And then by praying and asking God to give us strength and maturity when we need it, specifically asking him for strength so that we will never become weary of doing good.

Moving on back to 2 Thessalonians 3:13-15. One more time, "But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person. Do not associate with them so they'd be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother." So Paul says if anyone does not obey our instructions in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with them so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother. Now, we've already expanded and dealt with verse 14 in previous teachings, how it was that we are to disassociate ourselves with those brothers and sisters who seem to be wandering off track, teaching something totally different other than what the Scripture teaches, or in this case, what Paul taught. But what we didn't do is talk about verse 15. In verse 14, we're told not to associate ourselves with believers who do not obey Paul's instruction. But then in verse 15, we're told not to regard them as an enemy, but to admonish him as a brother.

The concept is this, even though we may be aggravated with them, and even though they may be pushing something different than what Paul taught, we're to admonish them. That means to correct them, to try and correct them, to warn them, to counsel them. Now, what I find interesting about this is this is in very stark contrast to the instructions that we receive about disassociating ourselves with what I would call the goats or the unbelievers. Where Paul said this following in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. Listen to it. "Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we've received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we've renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case this god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants, for Jesus' sake. For God who said, Let light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

So when we share Christ with someone, an unbeliever, and they don't receive it, which often happens, we should then retreat, so to speak, and pray and ask that God give them the eyes to see and the ears to hear. And if that doesn't work, we're to follow the instructions or the example set forth in Matthew 10:5-14. Listen to what Matthew had to say about this very thing. "Verse 5, These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, Do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, freely you receive, freely you give. Do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts or a bag for your journey or even two coats or sandals or do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two coats or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his support. And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city. As you enter the house, give it your greeting. If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it's not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. Whoever does not receive you nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it'll be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

Paul says when we encounter the unbelieving world and we try to invest in them and share the good news and the gospel of Jesus with them, if they don't listen and we continue on and they still don't listen, then we just dust off our sandals and move on. That's what that means. To dust off your sandals is just an idiomatic way of saying move on. But what if I have a tremendous burden for that person? What if I'm worried about them? Then I would tell you to keep praying. Keep asking God to enlighten their hearts, to give light to their path. And when He does that, make sure you're close by. But remember the enlightenment that comes from God's Word is the enlightenment that draws people to Him. It is not a compelling argument of some sort that you may bring to them. It's not you sitting down and arguing with them over this.

It reminds me of Acts 2:36 where Peter preached to the Jews and they were enlightened. I want you to listen to it real quick, and we'll back up to verse 22 for the context. Beginning with Acts 2:22-38, here's what it said: "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. This man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says of him, 'I saw the Lord always in my presence, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exulted. Moreover, my flesh also will live in hope.'"

"Because you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay. You've made known to me the ways of life, and you will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He’s poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself who said, 'The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Peter is preaching here in the Book of Acts. He's preaching to the Jews. Now let's see how the Jews react, those who crucified the Lord, by the way. I want to see how they responded. Verse 37-38 says, "Now when they heard this, they were pierced to their heart." Other translations say pricked in their heart. The way to translate that is they were convicted and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission or forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." And then what happened? I think that'd be pretty important for us to know, don't you? What happened then? Let's see, beginning with verse 39, "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord God will call to Himself. And with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept exhorting them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.' So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer."

My point is this: These Jews had already been taught about Jesus, who He was, the Messiah, this man that would be coming one day. And when He showed up, they crucified Him. That's what happened. Why did they crucify Him? Because of what Luke told us in verse 23: "This man was delivered over by the predetermined plan and the foreknowledge of God. He was nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put to death." God did that. But why? Why? Because the only way that mankind could be saved, to be redeemed back to God in the future, outside the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Old Covenant, was for Jesus to be sacrificed, for Him to die as a once and for all propitiation for our sin. He was the propitiation for our sin. He was the substitute for our sin. He was the once and for all sacrifice for our sin. It had to happen. There was no other way. And therefore, God blinded them to what they were doing so that they would follow through with it. Which tells us, using inverse logic, that if He hadn't blinded them, well, they might not have followed through with it.

And by the way, this is not the first time we've seen this type of thing from God. Anyone know where else God did something very similar? How about when He hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't let the children of Israel go? God increases the plagues, causing them to get worse progressively over time. Pharaoh, if you read it, appears to be about at his breaking point and God hardens his heart so he still won't let the children go. By the way, now you know why when Jesus was arrested and Pilate, who by the way was not a Christian, was not a believer, he was a pagan. Pilate said himself, "I find no fault with this man." But the Jews said, "Crucify him, crucify him." Why? Because they thought they were doing the right thing. They thought they were doing what they were supposed to be doing. No different than Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, who was ravaging and just wreaking havoc on Christian men and women, until one day God strikes him down on the road to Damascus, in which he cries out and says, "What, Lord, is that you?" And He says, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" For three days, he was blinded and eventually the scales fall off. He sees what the deal is. And from Saul, he becomes Paul. Saul was his Hebrew name. Paul was his Greek name. And then he becomes the greatest apostle, by my opinion, evangelist in the New Testament.

But now all of a sudden, as I said, here in this situation, for no apparent reason, they had crucified Him. They are now convicted about this entire thing. And so the question is, what changed? What changed? Was it knowledge? Was it just understanding? No, something happened. God, through His word, opened their hearts, convicted them. And in that moment when that happened, they were all of a sudden brought to the reality and the realization of what they had done, which caused them to come face to face with that reality. That created a trepidation in their heart, causing them to think, "Oh my goodness, what have we done?" At which point they had a choice. They could A, accept what had been done and what they had done and repent of it, or they could B, reject Peter's preaching and say, "We don't really care. We believe what we did was right. We stand behind what we did."

And so what did they do? What was the answer? Well, in verse 41 and 42, we get that explanation. It said this: "So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day they were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves then to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer." And that, my friends, is how it works. That's how it works. When we share the gospel with someone and they don't receive it, all we can do is pray and ask God to open their hearts. And if you're around when that happens, you may very well be the instrument that God uses to draw that person to Himself.

Moving on and we're going to close with verses 16 through 18. Here's what it says: "Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. And this is a distinguishing mark in every letter. This is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." So Paul writes his closing in this letter as he often does, by doing something, by praying for their peace in every circumstance. And then he goes on to let them know that he wrote it in his own handwriting, which was like he was putting an exclamation point on the entire letter of 2 Thessalonians. Simply put, and this is where I'll end, He wrote it that way. He said what he said so that they would understand that you can count on it, that you can believe it. That's a check you can cash. And as such, he said, may the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen?