2 Thessalonians 3:6-18

If you were unaware, Malcolm is retiring next week.

And so we are having a big retirement party at Valley Christian Church.

And we didn't want our online community to be left out.

So if you want to join us, we'd love to have you come to join us for ice cream floats on Saturday night.

It's a smaller group, or we're having a giant barbecue Sunday after the second service, about 1130.

We'd love for you to come have some ribs, celebrate time, say goodbye and farewell to Malcolm.

So please, if you can make it, we would love to have you join us next week on the fifteenth and sixteen.

Sculpture was so interesting and unique that he picked it up, looked at it all over, and asked the shop owner, How much does this cost?

$12 for the rat, sir, the shop owner said, and a thousand dollars more for the story behind it.

What?

Well, you know what, you can keep the story, but I'll take the rat.

So he paid the guy 12 bucks, and the tourists left with the bronze rat under his arm.

He crossed the street in front of a store, and two live rats emerged from the sewer drain and started walking behind him.

Nervously looking over his shoulder, he started walking a little faster, but every time he would walk by a storm drain, more rats would come.

And more rats would come.

By the time he had walked two blocks, there was at least a hundred rats fing him right at his heels, and people began to point and shout at him.

And so he started walking faster.

He soon broke into a trot as multitudes of rats swarmed from basements and from sewers and from alleyways, and they're just following him.

And he's running and he sees the waterfront at the bottom of the hill, and he panics and he starts running full blast down the hill.

And now it's not just a few hundred, it's millions of rats following him.

And he's scared to death of it.

And just as he gets to the waterfront, he jumps up as high as he can, grabs a lamppost, and throws that bronze rat into the water as far as he can.

And he watches all these rats just tumble over, jump into the water, and drown.

He waited until all the rats got in there and they drowned.

Shaking and mumbling, he decided, I gotta go back to that antique shop.

He goes walking back into the antique shop and the store owner goes, ah! So now you've come back for the rest of the story, huh?

No, said the tourist.

I'm just wondering, do you have any bronze politicians?

You know that joke illustrates to me the danger of following just anyone or anything.

Those rats followed the bronze statue even into the sea and they drowned.

And there's some people who will follow people, whatever the media says, whatever a certain commentator says, whatever a certain politician says, whatever somebody else says, and they will do it unquestioningly, whether or not it's in the right direction.

But I believe we need to be more like the person who's walking in a graveyard.

He found a tombstone that read, Remember, friend, when passing by.

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, soon you will be.

Prepare for death and follow me.

The man looked at it, wrote his own little note, and he attached it to the tombstone.

To follow you, I'm not content until I know which way you went.

I think we need to follow the right people.

That also means we need some people in our lives to give us the right example that we can follow.

And Paul, as he finishes up his letter to the Christians in Thessalonica, he writes his final instructions to them.

And he mentions there in verse 7 that they need to follow our example.

Paul and Sylvanus and Timothy have set the right example for the Christians, and now as Paul finishes his letter, he tells the Christians there in Thessalonica, I want you to follow our example.

Do what is right in God's eyes.

And today I want to look at this passage, the remaining verses here of 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, starting in verse 6 down to verse 18, and look at what Paul said about his example that we should follow, what we should do.

2 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

But first let's begin with prayer.

Lord, I do thank you for this passage, and I ask, Lord, that you would help us to pay attention to this, and that we would see the need to follow a good example.

Somebody is setting the right example for us.

Lord, help us to be faithful in you, following those who follow the right direction, knowing that they are hitting us and leading us in the right spot.

Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let me start by reading from 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, starting in verse 6, all the way down to verse 18.

2 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you have 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, 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 might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have the right to do this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, that you may follow our example.

For even when we were with you we used to give you this order if any one will not work, neither let him eat.

For we hear that some among you who are leading an undisciplined life are 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 eat their own bread.

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.

And if anyone does not take does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him that man, and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame.

And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

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 my a distinguishing mark in every letter.

This is the way I write, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all.

There are three main thoughts I find in these last few verses here.

First one is that he wrote about here in verse 6 I want you to avoid those brethren who choose to live sinful lives.

Avoid the brethren that choose sinful lives.

That is not a new teaching to God's people.

Even in the Old Testament, God wanted his people to remain true and faithful and put away anyone who was rejecting God.

They were not to intermarry with those who worshipped idols.

They were not to even to permit those who lived in sin to continue to sin against God.

It even tells us in Numbers chapter 25 that when the Israelites decided to join themselves in the worship of Baal, that God sent a plague among Israel, killed 24,000 people before Phinehas, stopped the plague by driving his spear both through an Israelite man and a woman of Baal as they were having sexual relations to worship the Baals.

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

God dealt harshly in the Old Testament with people who claimed to know him as God but chose to live sinful lives.

Even Jesus dealt harshly with those who claimed to worship God, yet chose to live sinful lives.

At the beginning of his ministry and at the end of his ministry, Jesus went into the temple and he drove the money changers out.

He rebuked the religious leaders who had turned God's house of prayer into a den of robbers.

Paul here in 2 Thessalonians echoes the same thought as he preached about the example he and the apostles and the disciples set to avoid, have the brethren avoid choosing to live in sin.

The first thing we need to do for such brothers who choose to live in sin is rebuke sinners.

Rebuke sinners.

Sin cannot be overlooked.

It must be dealt with.

It must be rebuked.

And when Paul wrote to Timothy, the young preacher, and soon you'll be getting into 1 and 2 Timothy, he put it this way in 2 Timothy 4, verse 2.

2 Timothy 4:2

He said very bluntly, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction.

That is the charge that I'm going to leave with Jared as he begins to become the main preacher here at Valley Christian Church.

He's going to have to step up and reprove and rebuke sin.

In 1 Timothy 5, verse 20, Paul bluntly wrote regarding sinning elders.

1 Timothy 5:20

Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.

It's not a pleasant thing to do.

But we call ourselves a New Testament church, trying to follow the church of the New Testament and do things according to Scriptures and follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His apostles.

And if we do that, then sinners must be rebuked.

Sin has to be dealt with.

It's not for the purpose of getting rid of people, for God does not desire for anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

The rebuking of sin is to get people to repent, to get people to live according to the word of God.

And when someone refuses to repent, then this passage points out verse 6 and verses 14 and 15, reject continual sinners.

Reject the person who refuses to repent.

Specifically, Paul wrote verse 6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition that you receive from us.

Verses 14 and 15, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame.

And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Back when we were in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul wrote about Christians and commanding them to not associate with a Christian man who was living in a sexual sin.

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

And then he expounded upon that, writing in verse 11, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother, if he should be an immoral person, a covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler, not to even eat with such one.

Later in Titus, Paul wrote to him in Titus chapter 3, verses 10 and 11, to reject a factious, a divisive man.

Titus 3:10

After a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.

Again, the purpose is not to kick people out, it's to bring Christians to repentance.

If they've got sin in their life, he's wanting them to repent.

It's to prevent the word of the Lord from being slandered as being a bunch of hypocrites who go there, hypocritical lies of Christians, but instead let the word of God be glorified by the lives of repentant Christians.

And God wants his people to be holy and pure and set apart for doing what is right.

He wants us to avoid being sinful Christians and instead be forgiven Christians, doing our very best to walk in righteousness.

And God isn't calling us to avoid all sinners, but to avoid Christians who are purposefully choosing to live a life of sin.

He wants us to rebuke them for their choice of continually living in sin and reject people who refuse to repent.

Yet all of this isn't to try to get rid of them.

Remember, it's getting people to try to live right.

Don't ever forget that.

Follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Follow the example of your preachers.

Live an exemplary life that pleases God in all areas.

And that's why this example we're to follow doesn't end with just avoiding the brethren who choose to live sinful lives, but it goes on in point two here to live a disciplined life.

Again, what Paul wrote, you ought to follow our example because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you.

In other words, we lived a disciplined life, 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 might not be a burden to any of you, not because we don't have a right to do this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, that you might follow our example.

For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order.

If anyone will not work, neither let him eat.

And he goes on, verse 12.

Now such per persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in a quiet fashion and eat their own bread.

And part of the discipline life is that we are to work with our hands.

To the Christians in Ephesus, Paul gave the same instruction, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 28.

Ephesians 4:28

Let him labor, performing with his hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has a need.

Put your hands to work.

Don't try to live off of other people, don't try to live off of the government ways.

Just do something work.

As Paul was writing to the Christians in Thessalonica, he was addressing some of those who had the Christian system figured out.

I put that in quote, Christian system.

There are some Christians who had figured out that since Christians are supposed to be generous and they're to help those who are less fortunate, they decided they would make it their life that instead of working for their food, they would just hit up all their Christian brothers and sisters and say, you feed me today, you feed me tomorrow, you feed me the next day, you feed me the following day, you feed me the following.

Oh, by the way, I need my rent.

You've got my rent, you've got my utilities, you can pay for my other bills, you can pay for, I'm gonna go to the river.

You need to pay for me to go to the river so I can go fan.

I want to rent a boat.

You can pay for my boat to get there.

You know, and they had this system figured out.

In today's world, I call it playing the Christian card.

There are people who come to me, they know I'm a Christian, they know I'm a preacher, and they ask me for money.

Well, I know you're a Christian, now you must give it to me.

You must give it to me.

They even proclaim because they're a Christian, therefore I need to pay.

I don't think I'm ever going to forget the guy who came up here in a brand new motor home and told me that I need to come up out there and buy him fuel to fill up his motor home.

Brand new.

If I don't, I will be cursed by God.

If I do, then I will be blessed by him.

I'm going like, mister, that's not the way this works.

That's not the way this works.

Yet Paul was pointing out here, this isn't the example he said.

He didn't go around telling everybody you've got to pay everything for me.

He lived a disciplined life.

He worked with his hands, and God wants us each to labor to earn our livelihood.

He wants us to work to earn our food, to earn our money, to pay our electric bills, our water bills, our house payments.

He doesn't want us to just sit back and command everybody else, you pay my bills.

His plan wasn't that you can tell other Christians that you have to fund my lifestyle.

Don't you forget?

I want to go, I want to go visit all the countries around the world, so you need to pay for my private jet so I can go do these things.

No, that's not the way it works.

God wants us to live disciplined lives, working with our hands, but some of them failed to understand that.

And as Paul wrote in verse 11, some of them were refusing to work at all.

They were acting like busybodies, and Paul commands them don't be a busybody.

Don't be a busybody.

And Paul's definition is a person who doesn't work, but tries to get other people to pay for his livelihood.

1 Timothy 5, verse 13, Paul stretches out the meaning of busybodies to include those who are not merely idle, they don't have any work, but they also are gossips, going from house to house, talking about things they shouldn't even be talking about.

1 Timothy 5:13

Gossips.

And that's not what we as Christians are to do.

In order to live lives of proper discipline, following the example of Christ, following the example of the apostles, following the example of your preachers.

Hopefully you'll understand.

You need to work.

Work with your hands and don't rely upon everybody else to pay all your bills.

That's God's desire for us.

He inspired the apostle Paul to live this way, he set the example this way, he gave the instructions to the other Christians.

You live disciplined lives, work with your hands, don't be a busybody, and live righteously.

Although this particular phrase doesn't actually occur in this chapter, it does in Paul's other writings.

In Romans chapter 6, he wrote that we need to let other members of our bodies live as instruments of righteousness to God.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 10, Paul mentions that we must live by righteousness.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Titus chapter 2, you're going to be getting to that sometime soon.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

Titus chapter 2, 11 and 12, Paul wrote about the grace of God has instructed us to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

Even though this new covenant that we're living in, living by grace rather than by the legalistic laws of the old covenant, that does not give us the license to sin.

Paul preached very hard about that, Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

We hit that pretty good.

What shall we say?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

May it never be, God forbid.

How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Christians weren't given the wonderful grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We weren't given the forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ, so we could go out and continue to willfully sin.

We're to follow the example of the apostles.

Remember Saul of Tarsus?

He was going out and putting Christians to death, arresting them, torturing them, helping put them to death.

When he became a Christian, he didn't keep doing that.

He changed his life.

He set us an example by leaving behind every sinful thing in his life, even if he was getting wealthy by the Jewish leaders for doing the sinful things.

He set us the example of following and putting behind all of his sins and pressing forward to live a disciplined life, working with his hands, not being a busybody, and living righteously.

He set us the example of rebuking Christians who are sinning and rejecting those Christian brothers who refuse to sin.

And third, we continue reading as Paul writes here, of setting us the example and telling us, do not grow weary of doing good.

Don't grow weary of doing good.

Verse 13 puts it very plainly.

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.

Do you think Christians ever have the temptation of growing weary of doing good?

I believe they do.

In fact, if we put the rubber to the road, metaphorically speaking, and literally speaking, you ever get tired of just doing the speed limit when other people are just zipping by you?

You set your cruise control for the speed limit and these people are just flying by you?

Whoops, drop that.

And they're flying by you.

And they're not getting pulled over, and you're going like starting to sneak the Yeah, don't grow weary of doing what's right.

You know, I've heard people say, oh, well, everybody else is doing it.

It doesn't matter that much.

They don't even ride a ticket until you get over five miles an hour.

Everybody else can't be wrong.

Do not grow weary of doing good.

You ever get weary of doing good?

How about when you have a neighbor that does something that irritates you day after day after day after day?

And you're going like, you know what?

I've already turned my other cheek twice.

It's about time for me to get my revenge.

Do not grow weary of doing good.

Sometimes it's real hard to continue to show Christian love and bear up with them.

You ever get weary of doing good?

How about when you have to forgive someone?

How about when you're around somebody who's not real easy to love and they just k constantly rub you the wrong way and you're going like, ah man.

Or how about that one temptation that keeps nagging you that every once in a while you're going like, ah, it won't matter.

I can always ask for forgiveness afterwards.

You ever get weary of doing good?

Or is that only a problem that I've ever faced?

You know, I think Paul gives us some commands here.

Don't grow weary of doing good.

Keep on doing what's right.

Always do what is right.

When God's word tells us what we need to do, we need to do it.

When God's word tells us what we should not be doing, we need to stop doing that and refuse to do that thing.

We always need to do what is right, but the biggest problem that I think most of us face is we're still in a fleshly body.

And that fleshly body still is tempted by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life.

However, we are supposed to keep on pressing on to perfection and doing what is right all the time and not grow weary in doing it.

We as Christians need to realize that we need to be better in 2026 than we were in 2025, than we were in 2024.

We need to be pressing forward.

And yet Satan is still going to be throwing those temptations in front of us, and yet we're going to have to continually try to work hard daily, hourly, every minute to resist those temptations.

And truly it's hard work.

But we must never grow weary of doing good, continually, always doing what is right.

Even if a Satan is telling you, you're a mess up.

Keep pressing forward.

Keep pressing forward.

And we need to continue to do good even when others take advantage of us.

You know, Jesus taught us that if someone strikes us on the cheek, we're supposed to do what?

Turn on the other cheek.

He also taught if someone wants to take your shirt, give them your coat too.

Someone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.

You know what?

Those are tough commands by Jesus.

Most of us here don't actually want to abide by them.

We like the idea of vengeance.

We like the idea, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

You know, we're gonna like, I'm not gonna get fooled, I'm not gonna be taking advantage twice.

And yet Jesus commands us to abide by these.

We've been set the example by Jesus and his apostles.

Do not grow weary of doing good, even when others take advantage of you.

Will you set the example of others?

Will you take pride in, or will you let pride keep you from doing what is right and keep you from letting somebody take advantage of you a second time?

You know, we're to follow a good example.

Paul set a good example.

Uh, when I retire, I'm leaving my good example here to Brother Jared.

He's going to set the good example for you, and I'm excited about that, and I hope you will follow his example as he follows Christ.

Let's follow Paul's example of not growing weary and doing good, and let us rely upon the Lord.

I cannot fully relate to the life of Paul, that he had to live in total reliance upon God.

We read of his travels.

He traveled from city to city, place to place.

He didn't seem to stay very long in any place.

Where was he going to spend the night each time he got to a new place?

Where, what would he eat?

How would he earn his living there?

All of those things were things that Paul would have to submit to God and daily rely upon the Lord each and every time he got there.

He even wrote to the Christians in Philippi that he had learned to be content in every circumstance, whether it was being filled or going hungry.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't like it when my stomach's growling and I'm hungry.

He learned how to be content in whatever circumstances he was in.

He could do it because he said, because Christ strengthens me, I can do all things in him because Christ strengthens me.

Will you rely upon God no matter what?

How about if your bank balance hits zero?

Are you going to trust God?

How about if it's millions?

Are you going to trust God or trust your money?

How about if you have a house or you're staying under a tree?

Will you trust Him?

Will you continually do what is right no matter what?

Will you follow Christ's example?

Lord, I just ask that you would help us to submit to your example, to submit to the example of Paul.

That Lord, for 23 years I've tried to set an example here for people to follow, and I'm getting ready to hand those reins over to Jared, and I'm just asking, Lord, that you would be with him to help him set the example that people could follow.

I thank you, Lord, in the six years I've known him, he has done a great job setting an example, a very humble servant who is serving your kingdom.

And I ask, Lord, that you would let us all submit to you and not grow weary of doing good, that we would turn away from sinful things, that we would be willing to rebuke those who are living in sin.

And if we are the one who is living in sin, that we will wisely take the rebuke that we receive.

Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen.