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in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. I'll read the entire chapter. This is God's word. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men for not all have faith but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one and we have confidence in the Lord about you that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Now we command you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us for you know yourselves how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you or did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it but with toil and labor we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate for even when we were with you we would give you this command if anyone is not willing to work let him not eat for we hear that some of among you walk in idleness not busy at work but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. As for you brothers do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy but warn him as a brother. Now may the Lord of Peace himself give you peace at all times in every way the Lord be with you all. I Paul write this greeting with my own hand this is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine it is the way I write the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Father as we come to your word open our hearts and minds change us in Jesus name. Amen. If you think about most of the innovations in recent history one of the reasons if not the reason for many of them is to make our lives better and by better we often mean easier and by easier we often mean not as much work more free time more leisure time more time to do the things we enjoy that is if we haven't spent all our money on the things that save us time. Now when I think back to when and where I grew up in suburban Detroit Michigan and at a little town not so little named Garden City where there are about 40,000 people most of the homes were similar to ours. We had three bedrooms in a 1,200 square foot home that's about a hundred and twelve square meters and get this there were five people in only one bathroom one bathroom for five people and the dishwasher was whoever washed the dishes. We had a big yard and I was responsible for mowing it not with a gas powered mower not with an electric powered mower but with something called a push mower but if you've ever seen one of those where you provide the power by pushing it and the wheels make the blades turn and it cuts the lawn and my dad was very you might say persnickety about the lawn and he wanted it done a certain way and I had to mow it with a grass catcher behind it and when the grass catcher got filled up I had to put the grass in a bag and to mow our lawn that had to be done maybe five or six times or more and it wasn't enough to just mow it this way I had to then mow it that way as well or I could do it diagonally and criss-cross but he was very fastidious about that and the phone was on the wall in the kitchen again one phone for five people and you had to dial it you know most of you a lot of you don't even know what that is and if you had a teenage girl in the house like we did when my sister was there it was unlikely that you had to turn on the phone of course my sister was seven years older than me and when she was a teenager I had no use for a phone anyway and if you wanted to change the channel on the television you had to get up out of your seat walk over to the TV and change it yourself and if you happen to miss your favorite show you just missed it now all that sounds archaic and I'm not in any way suggesting that we go back but I am saying that all the results of the innovation have not all been positive Paul is warning the Thessalonians not to be idle idleness is harmful to a person's soul and much of our culture has taken to idleness we call it leisure or entertainment both of which have their place if they're not in the place of work verse 11 Paul says for we hear that among you that some among you walk in idleness not busy at work but busy bodies first Timothy chapter 5 he expands this a little bit he says besides that he was speaking of younger women who had become widows and there was something where widows were signed up to be taken care of but if they were young enough he didn't think they should be on the list of widows and he says when they are they learn to be idlers going about from house to house and not only idlers but gossips and busy bodies saying what they should not say so I would have younger widows married bare children manage their households and give the adversary no occasion to slander now being an idler and a busy body and a gossip is now a TV show several TV shows for such things first Thessalonians chapter 4 Paul said concerning brotherly love we have no need for anyone to write you for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia but we urge you brothers to do this more and more to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders see the opportunity for idleness and all the problems that creates is the lack of diligence in our work again leisure and vacations have their place we're going on holiday tomorrow but leisure and vacations shouldn't become the main thing now that word busy body is interesting what is a busy body the Greek word is periargos and the definition of a busy body is someone who has an over interest in the affairs of others we might say somebody that's snoopy nosy or a gossip but what's really interesting is in acts 19 is translated in a different way is translated as someone involved in the magic arts or the occult whether it's gossiping being nosy stirring up trouble or being involved with occult activities none of it is good and all of it is the result of idleness and Paul says in verse 12 such persons we command and encourage the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and earn their own living I want us to go back to the first few verses in this chapter and show you how I think they're related I'll read them again one through three finally brothers pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored has happened among you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men for not all have faith but the Lord is faithful he will establish you and guard you against the evil one and one of the ways that the Lord guards us against the evil one is for us not to be idle but rather by being diligent in matters of faith in our Lord by this we are delivered from wicked and evil men by the faithfulness of the Lord see you can be you you can be diligent at work and be idle in the things of the Lord there are several places in Scripture that tell us how the Lord is faithful I'm going to mention two or three three the first one should sound familiar it's from Deuteronomy chapter 6 it's called the Shema which means here chapter 6 verse 4 hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your might these words that I command you today shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children you shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise you shall bind them as a sign on your hand they shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates what God is communicating here is that his word should be pervasive in our lives and the way it's pervasive in our lives is it springs from a consuming love for God heart soul and might heart soul and might it's it's it's everything and he says you will teach your children diligently not in idleness but diligently you talk of them in every situation he mentioned sitting and walking and lying down and rising in other words in every situation the Word of God should be front and center on our minds and in our hearts and it should come from a consuming love for God and to keep it before our eyes he said it should be on your hands as they had frontlets little boxes with the word that they would it would hang right here and on the doorposts and the gates so they went in and out of any building any house any home the Word of God was front and center and in that way God is faithful in guarding you against evil now when you love someone you want to be with them I was at presbytery this past couple of days on Thursday afternoon flew to Toronto for presbytery was there all day Friday and flew home on Friday night Tracy sent me little notes that said how much she missed me and I missed her we love each other so we want to be together even more so we are to love God and want to be with him when you love someone you want to be with them and the way that we are with God is spending time in his word spending time praying coming together to worship the next passage that I want to mention is found in second Corinthians chapter 10 it says for though we walk in the flesh we're not waging war against according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare and out of the flesh would have divine power to destroy strongholds we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to Christ see some places the battle is obvious some places it's more hidden and I think whether we realize it here in Canada we're in a war a spiritual war which is why idleness is so dangerous because if you are in a war you are in in the army or you're in the Navy or they didn't have an Air Force back then I don't know if they had a Navy but if you were a soldier and you're idle you got killed and the same is true for spiritual war and I'm not saying we shouldn't have leisure time it's important to recharge for the battles ahead but nowhere in the Bible does it suggest that we are to be discharged we get older some of us retire which gives us more time what will we do with the time idleness is not an option now some of us will get sick or become infirm but we're still in the battle I know Saints who have become infirm but they're constantly asking other Christians in the church how can I pray for you because they're staying in the battle even though they can't move around that well I want us to look at what Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 6 finally be strong in the Lord verse 10 and in the strength of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil he's saying the same thing as he says here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 the Lord is faithful and he will deliver us from evil men so that we're able to stand against the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against authorities against the cosmic powers of this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil and heavenly places therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance if you'll notice as I'm reasoning this there's no idleness even if you're not at work we are not to be idle in the Lord making supplication for all the saints and also for me the words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak we should be in prayer for one another that we will be bold enough to talk to our neighbor our relative our friend about the gospel of Jesus Christ while they're here and alive and before they're dead and it's too late does any of this sound like idleness you might ask where are the battles well there's a battle for every soul on the planet some of the more obvious battles that we are engaged in is abortion as mentioned earlier we support the open door ministry now advocates of abortion will say it's the woman's choice and they put her desires above everything else which is ultimately selfish because the father gets no choice and the baby gets no choice and the interesting thing is if a woman is pregnant and she wants to keep it she calls it a baby but if she doesn't want to keep it it's not and so in that scenario her opinion deems whether it's a baby or not but it's the same person the same baby in either case in the school system children are being indoctrinated to believe things that are anti-god anti-bible I'm not even talking about evolution which has been going on for years and years young children are being taught about transgenderism and sexual deviancy among others and when someone dares to oppose the indoctrination they're called out or even punished now one example occurred recently for a student in our church well maybe you know him his name is Wyatt I asked permission if I could share this a teacher who is indigenous asked or rather told her students to stand and participate in an indigenous people's ritual which included smoke in the room to cleanse the evil spirits and then as part of it they were supposed to recite a prayer to their God the indigenous person's God well why it sat down did not remain standing I'm very proud of Wyatt for taking a stand or in this case taking a seat for Christ what I'm wondering is how many of you would have been aware of that how many of you would have sat down how many of you when you're faced with similar situations whether at work or among friends who are willing to not be idle but to take a stand for the gospel all of us have a part to play in the spiritual battle for the gospel we don't know when or where we'll be called on to do our part or how long the battle will last but we prepare for it through the word because we love God with our heart soul and mind we prepare for it with the word and in prayer ask yourself am I engaged am I engaged in the battle or am I a wall in verse 5 he says made a Lord direct your hearts the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ going to read Hebrews 12 verse 1 therefore since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God Jesus is willing to go into the battle and defeat the devil and to free us from the fear of sin and death and then he calls on us to engage as well to not be idle to not be busy bodies but to work to provide for yourself but to work also for the sake of the gospel to work while it is still day for the night is coming he says as for you brothers do not grow weary in doing good I made a Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all he says father thank you for your word thank you for the gospel I pray that we would not be idle in proclaiming it Jesus name amen