Living Waters of Grace 08.28.25

This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark

Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County

of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

So Paul said when we are with you, we worked, even though we

took time to preach the gospel to you so that you would know

the gospel truth, we still work. And the reason why Paul did this

because this was a young church. This was not an established

church. These were new Christians.

He was just bringing the word of God to them.

Now the Bible clearly talks about the fact that as those who

are teachers, pastors, teachers, what not, that it's biblical to

receive compensation for the labor that we do.

As Pastor Lewis continues his teaching series through the book

of Second Thessalonians, he'll be challenging you to work and

not be a lazy Christian. The most efficient and capable

worker should always be Christians.

The Apostle Paul himself reminded the church that he also

worked but didn't constantly ask for money and resources.

Paul simply wanted to preach the gospel and give them this

blessing and not want anything in return.

This is a great example of selflessness which the Lord

delights in. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the

Book of Second Thessalonians Chapter 3, with today's edition

2 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

of Living Waters of Grace. This word disorderly means that

he's walking in a way that's he's idle.

He's walking in a divisive way or disruptive or unruly.

This is difficult because it's us seeing a brother who is not

walking in the things that we have received from the Lord.

And Paul says, OK, after so many warnings, you have to just

separate yourself for a while. You got to withdraw from that

brother to let him know that what he's doing is not approved

of in this community. And this is not the first time

that he gave those kind of warnings that we go over.

We go back, as a matter of fact, the First Thessalonians chapter

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

5, First Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

And look at verse 14. He says now we exhort you and

this is in the 1st letter. In the first letter he said we

exhort you brethren, warn those, warn those or admonish those who

are unruly, comfort the faint hearted and uphold the weak.

So he told them about that and he wrote about that back in the

1st letter. He knew what was going on and he

said, look, you need to go ahead and deal with those brothers

that are unruly because they will be a disruption in your

community. There'll be a disruption.

And so he says it again here in chapter 3 of the second letter.

In verse 6, he says it again. And this time he says again,

withdraw from those brothers. We've warned them, We've warned

them. This isn't the first time we've

given them a warning. We've talked to them about this

a few times and we've warned them and we let them know what

the unruly behavior was. And they still, they refuse to

listen. They refuse to listen.

So we have got to take action. And he says, withdraw yourself

from those brothers. And he says and, and, and do

that with those brothers who are disorderly, which means they're

not walking according to the tradition which he received from

us. And we talked about it last

week, that that tradition is not when we talk about a cultural

tradition, you know what I mean? Our families have traditions,

just things that we do every Christmas or things that we do,

you know, every Thanksgiving or things that we do, whatever the

traditions may be. Everybody have different

traditions. He's not talking about that.

There's traditions that we do as African Americans.

There's traditions that some people do as Europeans or as

Mexican Americans or whatever. There are traditions.

Everybody have traditions, whether it's cultural, ethnic or

whatever it is. He's not talking about that.

You continue in those things. He's talking about the

traditions that you receive from the Apostles teaching of the

truth, the apostles doctrine, the word of God that he has

passed down that came from Jesus Christ and passed down to the

apostles or the disciples and now given them to you.

He said those things. That is what you have to walk in

accordance with. And sometimes people get

together. I mean, there's some churches

that confuse the extra biblical traditions with those that are

biblical and sometimes they put more emphasis on the extra

biblical traditions than they do the things that are biblical.

Jesus had to correct the Pharisees about that.

So you know, you're making the word of God.

None avoid because you don't want to give your your parents

any money. You said so that thing that we

would give to our parents that's called Corbin.

That means that we separating it for God.

Bible. Don't say that.

The Bible says honor your father and your mother.

So Jesus said you're, you're making the word of God, you

know, you're making it invalid. You're taking the power from the

word, you're trying to take the power from the word of God.

That's tradition. That's extra biblical tradition,

The things that are tradition that from the apostles, those

are the things that are written in the word of God.

So if you want to get traditions for your family that you

constantly want to keep, get them out of here.

Teach your family the word of God, Have them respond to this.

Know what this says and how we live.

These are the traditions that you want to keep, that you want

to keep in, in, in in front of your family.

So what you received from us, for you know yourselves how you

ought to follow us, for we were not this early among you.

Verse 8 says, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge,

but we worked labor and toil night and day that we might not

be a burden to any of you. Verse 9 says, not that we did

not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you

should follow us. Paul says back.

He says, look, do or follow the example that I gave you or that

we gave you when we were with you.

What's the example that you get from them?

What's the example that you get from your leaders?

What's the example that you get from your leaders?

That's what we should do, the example Paul said, look how I

walked among you, and this is how he walked among them.

Let's go back for a second to first, That's, I'm sorry, First

Thessalonians. Yeah, chapter 2, very quickly

going to 1st Thessalonians, chapter 2.

And here in chapter 2, we're going to start right here in

verse 5 that says for neither at any time do we use flattery

words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness.

God is witness. Nor did we seek glory for men

either from you or from others, when we might have made demands

as apostles of Christ. OK, and then it goes on to verse

7. It says, But we were gentle

among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own

children, so affectionately longing for you.

We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of

God, but also our own lives, because you have become dear to

us for you. Remember brother, in our labor

and toil for laboring night and day that we might not be a

burden to any of you. We preach the gospel of God.

So Paul says when we are with you, we worked even though we

took time to preach the gospel to you so that you would know

the gospel truth, we still work. And the reason why Paul did this

because this was a young church. This was not an established

church. These were new Christians.

He was just bringing the word of God to them.

Now, the Bible clearly talks about the fact that as those who

are teachers, pastors, teachers, what not that it's biblical to

receive compensation for the labor that we do.

The Bible teaches that, He teaches that.

But Paul is saying that this was a young church not established

yet. We're just bringing the gospel.

We don't want it to look like that.

We're using the gospel as a way to make money off of you.

So by example, we want to be those who are giving you the

gospel and not asking you to do anything.

It's the churches that are established that Paul was

receiving support from. But when he first goes into a

community, he's not asking them for anything.

He's not asking people for anything.

He doesn't pass the plate when he, you know, evangelize

somebody and they become a new Christian.

He's sharing the gospel for the first time.

He's not passing the plate in front of them.

Paul said that's for people who are established church members.

He said, so we didn't even ask that of you.

We had the authority, yes, to be supported, but we didn't even

use that because we wanted to be an example for you.

And and and 1st Corinthians Chapter 11, verse one, Paul

said, follow me or imitate me as I imitate Christ.

So he said, be that imitation, you know, imitate me because I'm

imitating Christ. And then here in verse 10, he

says, for even when we were with you, we commanded you this.

Here's another command. If you will not work, neither

shall you eat. Hear what he said there.

He didn't say if you don't work. He didn't say if you can't work.

He said if you will not work, neither shall you eat, will not

work. You have the opportunity to work

and you don't work. You know, even if you're on

unemployment, one of the questions they asked you is did

you not work when work was available?

They asked you that question literally like we're not giving

you money for you to just sit around and collect.

If money, if a job is available, you need to get up and go to

work. We ain't doing this thing where

you just collect for 16 weeks because you think you can.

No, if a job is available, get up and go to work.

And Paul says here, he says if anyone will not work, neither

should they eat. Because see, there's some people

who can't work. Maybe there's a physical

problem, they can't work. Maybe no work is available.

Look, I'm getting up every day and I'm going to fill out, you

know, job applications and I'm just not getting anything.

There's nothing out there right now available, but they want to

work. They will work, but there's

nothing available. He's not talking about them.

He's not even talking about those who are underemployed.

There's some people who have a job, but things happen.

Things happen. You get income.

Maybe they're not making a whole lot of money.

They have an income coming in and they have their budget down.

Then all of a sudden, bam, the car goes out, boom, the

refrigerator dies, boom, the stove dies.

And all of a sudden you got to put a, you got to come up with a

decent sum of money at one time to be able to take care of those

things. Those things happen.

Those things happen and the church is there to help.

The church is there to help. We want to help people who are

working, or maybe they're underemployed and things just

come up. Maybe a health issue comes up

and a lot of your money is now going to paying medical bills.

Those things happen. Those things happen, but the

person who will not work, that's the person that Paul says should

not eat. They're capable of working

physically. They can work.

Work is available. They just want to stay on the

couch and play video games, Paul said.

We ain't having that. Then you shouldn't eat.

Apparently, if you're not hungry enough to work, then you ain't

hungry enough to want something to eat now.

Now, you know, I remember back when I was growing up that there

were some people that would come to your house right around

dinnertime. Right around dinnertime.

Misses Harold. Misses Harold.

Well, I mean, where were you all day or where were you yesterday

or the debut Right around dinnertime.

Time to come in. My mother is never going to eat

in front of somebody and not offer.

And they know that. They know that people do that

sometimes, but you have to want to work.

Paul is saying, and then he goes to verse 11 and he says, for we

hear that there are some of you who walk among you in a

disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busy bodies.

And I just want to share, you know, I just want to share that

even back in the Old Testament, in biblical history, God always

put emphasis on work. Always.

Every man that he used in the Old Testament and the new

actually were men or women who worked, They worked.

Moses, he was a shepherd keeping Jethro's sheep, Joshua.

He was the man. He he was the the the commander

of Moses's army and then eventually succeeded Moses.

Gideon. He was threshing wheat when the

Angel came to him and called him.

There were 4 fishermen who were tending Nets.

Peter, James, John, Andrew, they were tender Nets.

Jesus called them and said I'm going to make you fishers of

men. They worked, they were working.

Jesus himself was a Carpenter for his ministry got started.

He worked as a Carpenter. He worked, He had a trade.

And if you go back to Genesis chapter 2, you'll see that God

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

worked six days creating the world, and then it was on the

7th day that he rested. On the 7th day he rested, but

he'd already completed the world.

Everything God worked. And what did he do with Adam

right after he created Adam out of the dust of the ground and

blew the breath of air, the breath of, of, of, of air into

his nostrils. What did he do with him?

The first thing he did was put him in the Garden of Eden and

tell him to work it till it tend to it.

He had a job before he had a wife and kids.

He had a job before he had a wife and kids.

That's what God, that's the priority that God has placed on

working. In John 9, Jesus says I must

work the works that that that he who sent me has given to me

because there is going to be a time when, you know, I must work

wise day because night is coming when no man can work.

And this is something that we use for our kids in training to

motivate them to work. In Proverbs 1423 it says in all

labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads to poverty.

Idle chatter leads to poverty. We understand that Jesus, that

the Jews regarded work as an evidence of good character and

they passed that down, they passed down trades to him.

But we know that the Greeks and the Romans, they despise hard

labor. They despised it.

They would get slaves to do that for them.

So some of these people here were expecting others to just

provide meals for them. So they stopped working

partially because of the bad teaching that they had received

from some of these false teachers that had come in and

was telling them that the day of the Lord has already come and

he's going to be coming back for you at any minute now.

So they decided we ain't no sense working.

We'll just wait on the Lord and we'll have other people feed us

while we're waiting. But Jesus told the apostles, he

said, look until I come occupy till I come occupy you work, you

serve until I come back. Verse 9, he goes on and he, I'm

sorry, verse 12, he goes on and he says that now these those who

are such, we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ

that they work in quietness, eat their own bread, work in

quietness and eat their own bread.

So he says at the end of verse 11, he says they're not working

at all. These people who are disorderly,

they're not working at all. And they are busy bodies.

Now the busy bodies are just gossiping people who meddled in

the business of everybody else. That's what the busy bodies are

meddling people who get in the business of everybody else.

And, and, and basically what this is saying is that because

you are idle and you're not working and you're spending your

time doing anything productive, you have time to go get in

everybody else's business and cause dissension and cause

division and disruption. Paul said.

No, we can't have that. We can't have that.

Busy bodies. The Bible talks a lot about not

being a busy body. In fact, in fact, over in First

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

Peter chapter 4, he actually puts busy bodies as a prohibited

sin along with murder and theft in the same category as murder

and theft. First Peter chapter 4, you don't

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

have to go out. I'll read it for you myself,

4/15, he says. But let none of you suffer as a

murderer, a thief or evildoer, or as a busy body and other

people's matters. He put busy bodies in the same

category, in the same line with murderers and thieves.

That's how much he does not like the idea of idleness.

See the world does that. The world does that.

They sow those seeds, they gossip, sow seeds of discord.

They met on other people's affairs.

The church should not do that because it doesn't glorify God.

And then it goes on in verse 13, it says, As for you brethren, do

not grow weary in well doing. Don't grow weary.

Look, you have seen other people do some bad things and, and, and

sometimes this can wear you out. You're working, you see that

they're not working. They're being busy bodies in

everybody's business and you're still trying to be nice.

You're, you're, you're, you're, you're giving to them as they

need, you know, and they're giving you evil for your good.

And all those things, those things can make us weary.

They can make us weary, cause us to question why am I doing this?

But Jesus said the reason why we're doing it, we're not doing

it for the people. We're not doing it for the

people. We got to keep our eyes on him,

not the people, because He says that He is the one who gives us

our reward. The people don't give us our

reward. So we, we, we have to make sure

that we don't lose heart in this battle because of the opposers

and because of those who are busy bodies and other people's

matters. We got to make sure that we

don't lose heart and turn around ourselves first.

First Corinthians 15 and 58 says that you know that your labor in

the Lord is not in vain, so you got to be steadfast and

unmovable. Don't let nothing move you away

from what you need to do. And then of course, it's

Galatians 69 that says don't become weary and well doing for

in due season. That means in God's time, in

God's only appointed time that He has for you, you're going to

reap if you do not lose heart. Don't let what others do or not

don't affect your ministry. Or the way that you serve the

Lord, keep your eyes on him. And then in verse 14, he goes on

and said, if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle,

note that person and do not keep company with them.

Now this is getting into church. This is church discipline here.

This is church discipline. OK, and church discipline.

There's a there's a definition for the definition is denying

the fellowship of a believer in Christ who is involved in open

sin, slothfulness and and and and busy bodiness and people not

working. That is need for church

discipline. The occasion for or people who

are involved in usually people involved in sexual sins or

creating division within the body of Christ or those who are

just in defiance of leadership. Those are the occasions that

which church discipline needs to be invoked.

And the reason why we do church membership and this is important

is so that the church can remain pure.

The church should be a house, a place of God that's pure.

The body of of of, of, of the church.

That's us. You know, we want to be pure

before God as much as we can. We want to be pure.

And then the goal of it is to win back the brother or sister

who was caught in the sin to win that.

That's the goal. It's never it's never just to

put them out, never to get rid of them all together.

But the goal is for them to think about what they're doing,

repent and to come back and be restored.

OK. And then in verse 15, it says,

now if you don't count them as an enemy but admonish them,

they're not our enemies. They're the family.

They're our family, Brothers of God, sisters of the Lord,

sisters of us in the Lord, brothers of us in the Lord.

They're not enemies, OK? We have to walk with them until

they are able to or pray for them until they're able to get

victory over this thing. And sometimes the way to get

their attention about it is to admonish them, which means that

you warn them and express disapproval.

And if they don't listen to that, then you have to execute

church discipline, which means that you have to withdraw

yourself from them until that time that they do come to the

acknowledgement of their sin and repent.

Verse 16 says, Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace

always. It's peace.

Whenever the church is obeying what the Lord says to do, the

church has peace. Chaos comes when there's

disobedience. That always brings chaos.

But when people are in or walking in obedience together

and encouraging each other to walk in obedience, there's

peace, there's peace. So Paul said may you have peace.

May the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every

way that the that the Lord the Lord be with you.

Amen. Verse 17 said that the

salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every

epistle. So I write.

Remember, there were others who were writing letters and was

trying to say that these letters were coming from Paul.

And it had a lot of misinformation in those letters

and it was leading them astray. It was leading them to go down

the wrong path. That's why some of these people

quit working. OK.

And Paul is saying, you'll know that this letter came from me

because at some point at the end of this letter, I will take the

pen from the person who's writing it, and I'll write a

line or two and put my name. And that's how you know this

letter came from me. So Paul said out of doing every

letter, I am going to write it in my own hand, which is a sign

to you that it actually came from me.

And then in verse 18 says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

being with you all. Amen. 1st Thessalonians 416

through 18 says, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven

with a shout, with the voice of an Archangel, and with the

trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, and then

we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with

them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we

shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another

with these words. If you've ever found yourself

wondering if it's all going to be worth it in the end, the

answer seems clear. You are living here now for

Jesus so you can live in the clouds then with Jesus.

You've been listening to Living Waters of Grace.

The teachings in this series are given by Pastor Lewis Harrell,

an associate pastor at Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.

You'll be hearing periodically from Pastor Lewis as he serves

alongside Pastor Clark. Pastor Clark has been the

familiar voice of Grace FM, Living Waters of Grace.

As we continue through the books of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians,

you're going to see over and over again the encouragement

given by Paul as a response to the people's continued faith,

even in the midst of false teachers.

As you read, receive this recognition as your own for a

life lived in Christ. Living Waters of Grace is a

ministry out of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA.

Are you in the area? We'd love to see you there this

Sunday at 10:30 AM. For more information, head over

to our website, calvarychapelonline.com.

Once again, that website is Calvary Chapel online.com.

Thanks so much for listening to today's edition.

We look forward to the next one right here on Living Waters of

Grace.