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Unstoppable: How We Win the Respect of Unbelievers
March 5, 2024 · 43 min
Pastor John Mark Caton's message explains how believers can influence society positively and glorify God. He also encourages the listener to strive for God's approval above everything else.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton March 5, 2024 · 43 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark Caton's message explains how believers can influence society positively and glorify God. He also encourages the listener to strive for God's approval above everything else. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark Caton's message explains how believers can influence society positively and glorify God. He also encourages the listener to strive for God's approval above everything else.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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101K followers
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
0:00 I wanna invite you to reach and grab your copy of God's word. Go back to first Thessalonians. It's been a book that we've been in since the beginning of the year. Go to first Thessalonians chapter 4. We started a series0:11 at the beginning of this year called unstoppable. That it is our greatest desire as God's children, to be, as believers, as Christians, to be unstoppable in every area and space possible, at0:23 the office, in our families, with our kids, with our influence in society, but also we want to be unstoppable as a church. When you look at the book of 10:34 Thessalonians, it's really about a church that Paul started on his second missionary journey. After being there for a while, Paul was quickly run out of town because persecution0:45 arose. Paul continued on his way preaching and teaching the gospel. He gets down to Athens and he says, You know, I'm really concerned about that great church we started back in Thessalonica. So he0:57 stops in the missionary journey, sends Timothy back, and says, Timothy, go find out how they're doing. And so Timothy goes there and he really gets a great report that this church1:09 in the midst of persecution, in the midst of struggle is continuing to stay faithful. In other words, Timothy goes back to Paul and says, let me tell you what, Paul. Of all the churches we planted, that's an unstoppable1:20 church. And so that's why we've been looking at this church since the beginning of the year to glean some insights as to how we should be as a church and how we should live as Christians even1:32 in the midst like they were of persecution. It's also kind of interesting if you just look at this church, it was kind of a crazy mixture of a bunch of different kinds of people. There1:44 were Jews in this church, there were Gentiles, there were Hellenistic Jews, there were Greeks, there were all kinds of people that had come to faith, and even though they had different backgrounds and different1:55 upbringings backgrounds and different upbringings and different places and different allegiances, when they came into God's house, they were knit together with 1 purpose and became an unstoppable2:06 church filled with unstoppable Christians. And so let's go all the way back as we think today. Paul kind of makes a transition. In chapter 1, 2 and 3 and the first part of 4,2:18 Paul is really just giving them 1 commendation after another commendation saying, Way to go. Way to go. Way to go. He makes kind of a transition in the passage that we're gonna look at today, and he says, Listen.2:30 Not only do you want to be influential inside the church, But he talks to us today of what it takes to be influential outside the church in our community, in2:42 our culture, in our society, at your office, in our schools, and in our neighborhoods. But let's go all the way back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, remind ourselves what Paul says. He's writing this letter. He's received2:54 word back from Timothy. Timothy says they're doing great, and here's what Paul writes. Paul, Silas, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Grace and3:06 peace to you. We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. He says, Listen, grace and peace to you, but I pray for you every day that you would stay faithful. Now, notice these things we3:17 looked at, these 3 things. He says, We remember before our God and Father in prayer your work produced by your faith. In other words, he says, Your vibrant faith drove you to work and to work3:29 and to serve hard. Then he says, your labor that was prompted by your love. He says, you love others and love the gospel, love God so much that you are willing to strive and labor and toil3:41 together. Then he says, your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Those 3 things are absolutely awesome. Now we're gonna jump3:52 forward to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where Paul begins to After commending them and sharing with them and saying, Y'all are doing a great job, He then starts saying, But don't forget,4:04 part of our job as Christians and as a church is that we would also earn or win the respect of outsiders. You say, Pastor, is that really true? Well, Paul says4:16 absolutely it's true, that we want to be, as God's children, influential in every space that we're in. Paul's gonna give us 4 keys to this as we think about it, And so as you journey4:28 through this, is Paul kind of making a shift from what takes place inside the church to what takes place outside the church? Look at the latter part of, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, this passage we're gonna look4:40 at. Let's just jump to verse 12. This is where we're gonna end, but I want you to know. He says, So that That word so that means that the things that I've said in the previous verses4:51 should lead to a result or a conclusion or an outcome so that What's the outcome? That your daily life may win the respect of outsiders.5:04 That there ought to be something about us as Christians, the way we live. And notice he uses the word daily lives. He's not talking about our words. He says,5:16 Our lives, the way we live, ought to scream the gospel, and if my wife screams the gospel, I can whisper it with my words. I can carry a soft5:28 tone with my words. There are times that you'll see people and, man, their life speaks nothing but their words are loud. Paul is saying, man, our words and our lives, our daily lives5:40 need to be loud. It needs to scream the gospel, that we follow and love God and we love each other, and then we can share the gospel in a whisper but a confident tone. So here he says,5:51 So that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, so that, what? You will not be dependent on anybody.6:03 Seems kind of interesting. He says 2 things. We want to live this way, this way, and this way so that we would win or earn the respect of those not in the church, and we would6:15 also not be dependent on anyone. That's kind of unique. As I was thinking about winning the respect, I started doing some research this week and looking, you know, what do Americans think about6:27 us as evangelicals? A lot of times we think, Well, we don't care, but it's good to at least know what they think about. This first chart I'm going to put up there for you is by Pew6:38 Research. They just looked at Americans. It was back in 20 22 this survey was done, just released the study. It says, Do you, asking Americans, do you have a favorable, unfavorable, or6:50 you don't have any opinion about Christians or evangelicals? I thought it was interesting. All Americans, 28 percent have a favorable opinion of us. 27 percent, almost as many, have an7:02 unfavorable opinion of us, and 45 percent just they don't have an opinion at all. All right? These are outside the church. Now, notice, if you know an evangelical Here's7:14 kind of interesting, all right? So, the All Americans Now, if you know an evangelical, your favorable opinion goes down. You know what I'll take from that? Is7:26 they just know the wrong ones. How many of you know what I'm talking about? They've just met the wrong evangelical. All right? But here it is. 41 percent, if they know 1, still don't have an opinion. In other words,7:37 they're not doing a good job of living their faith. And 35 percent, when they know 1, actually, unfavorability goes up. Here's another 1. But if they don't know an evangelical this is in our country7:49 10 percent of people who don't know us at least have a favorable opinion about us. 22 percent who don't know us have an unfavorable opinion, but 688:01 percent just we don't know. They're waiting to be met by a Christian is the way I look at that. Here's another chart. I thought it was interesting. This is talking about the8:12 characteristics. When they surveyed Americans and they said, Well, what kind of characteristics did you identify with evangelicals or conservative8:24 evangelicals or Christians? If you look at the column to your left, this is of the Christians who answered the survey. Alright? How do we see ourselves? We see8:36 ourselves as giving, compassionate, loving, respectful, so these are the people that checked I am a Christian, and then they said, What characteristics? They gave a big old list of 50 characteristics. What8:47 symbolizes a Christian for you? We said we were giving, compassionate, loving, respectful, friendly, honest, humble and sharing. How many of you think that's pretty good? That's our opinion of ourselves.8:59 Go to the last column. I won't spend time with the other religions. I do want to encourage you to come to our reality conference next week and we're gonna talk about other religions, but let's go to the not religious.9:09 These are people that don't go to church. They're not Christians. What is their opinion of us that we're hypocritical, judgmental, self righteous, arrogant, unforgiving, and9:20 selfish? That's their opinion, and many of them have never met 1 of us. You say, Pastor, is there any good news in that? Absolutely, because if you put these 29:32 together, that means 68 percent are just waiting for a good, godly evangelical to show up in their life, and they are willing to be pointed9:44 towards the truth. So listen, let's don't look down on them. Instead, let's look high at our responsibility. When I show up in their9:56 life, I get the opportunity to change that. You say, Should we even care? Absolutely. Paul cared. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4 12, Listen, we10:08 want to live this way, and we're going to talk about these 4 keys to earning the respect of outsiders. All right? He says, If you live this way, this way, this way, this way, you will earn the respect of outsiders. That10:18 is an encouragement to us that we get the opportunity to live in such a way that literally it would earn the respect of those outside the church. All right. So you say, Pastor,10:30 what does that look like? Let me give you 4 thoughts. Want to encourage you. Open your app. Write these down. Paul says, If you want to be influential in your daily life, not just your words, here are10:42 4 things that you need to do. Number 1, we have to learn to live in a loving way. We learn to live in a loving way. You say, where do you see that? Pick it10:53 up. And he's talking about in here, by the way. He's talking about us as God's children. Pick it up on verse 9. He says, now about your love for 1 another, he's talking about insiders, he says, We do not write to you, we11:05 do not even need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. Look at verse 10. He goes, And in fact, you do love all of God's family. I11:17 love this. This is already the third time he talks about your love for 1 another, your love for 1 another, your love for God's family. He says, you do love all of God's family throughout Macedonia, yet we urge you,11:28 brothers and sisters, that's us, to do it more and more. I love what Paul says here. He says, Listen, you do love 1 another. You do love 1 another. You do love 1 another. As a matter of fact, I love what Paul11:40 kind of says. It's kind of funny, kind of an oxymoron. He says, You don't need me to write to you, but I'm going go ahead and write to you. It's kind of like me saying, You don't need me to preach to you today, but I'm11:51 going go ahead and preach to you today, which is exactly what's going to happen, by the way, just so you know. But I love this. Paul looks at him and he's heard back from Timothy and he says, They love each other. They12:03 love each other well. So Paul in this passage says, Listen, that is 1 of the ways we win the respect of outsiders is that we love each other. He says over and over again, he12:14 goes, Listen, and the beautiful thing about this is that love is written on your hearts, therefore I don't need to write it on paper. However, Paul says, I'm going go ahead and write it on paper to affirm what the love12:26 is already in your heart. Then notice what he says. He says, You have been what? You have been taught by God how to love each other. You say,12:38 What does that Well remember there were Jews and there were Gentiles, there were Hellenistic Jews, there were Greeks there in the audience. He says listen, if you happen to be a Jew, go to the Old Testament.12:51 Remember in the Old Testament God said, hey, when I take you into the promised land, out of slavery, you need to live this way, this way, this way, this way. And the Jews constantly walked away from God. They failed God13:02 over and over and over again. But even in Jeremiah, if you go to Jeremiah, it's a book where the children of Israel are doing everything wrong. They're not worshiping God, they're13:14 worshiping false gods, they're living in immorality. They're doing all of these things. God sends Jeremiah to deliver a word and he is called the weeping prophet. It is so bad he is weeping. But in Jeremiah13:25 chapter 31 verse 3, God says, But yay, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Child of God, I don't know if there's someone13:37 in here today that you think, you know, can God love me? I want to consider everything that I've done in my past. Can God love me?13:49 Can I just tell you this? Don't let me answer that question. Let God answer it. He says, Yea, I've loved you with an everlasting love. I loved you. You know that everlasting, that Hebrew word everlasting says go back as14:01 far as your mind can think beyond the beyond at the beginning of all of eternity. And God says, I loved you then. And he goes, And let your mind wonder14:13 all the way into the future how much God loves you. God says, I will love you then. Yea, I've loved you with an everlasting love. That's in the Old Testament. You say, well, okay, that's good for the Jews, but what about14:24 the Gentiles? What about the Greeks in there? That's when you go to the New Testament. Paul reminds them that God loved them so much that he sent his 1 and only son to die on the cross, be14:36 delivered in the hands of sinful men, to die on the cross for their sins, to be buried in a tomb, to rise again the third day so that whoever believes in him would not perish14:48 but would be saved. So Paul says, listen, you're loving each other with God's love so much so that it's written on your heart, taught by God. I don't need to write it on15:00 paper, but I'm going to write it on paper because we all need to be reminded to live in a loving way. Beyond that, notice those last few words. He says, And my encouragement to you is that you would15:12 do it more and more. And 1 of the things that I love about our church at Cottonwood Creek, we are a loving church. Man, you don't see us fighting and arguing and strife and15:24 envy. We are a loving church and that is a good thing. Paul would say the same thing to us that he would say to them, Man, you love because love is written in your heart, taught by God. I15:36 don't need to write it on paper, but we're going to write it on paper because you're loving. However, we need to continue to be more and more loving as we journey forward. In other words, fast forward a year15:48 from now or 2 years from now or 3 years from now that we would never come to a place when we say, Man, I have mastered God's love for 1 another. You might just want to write this down.16:00 When it comes to Christian love, it is always practiced, it is never mastered. There will never come a time in my life where I love16:12 fully the way God wants me to love. There will always be room for more and more. Does that make sense? Even if I grow from today and a year from now and a decade from now and, man, I am16:23 sold out, I will always be practicing God's love. Why? Because this side of heaven, none of us will fully reflect the perfection of God's love. Do we understand that? And so Paul says,16:35 Hey, if you are loving, way to go. Let's be all the more loving as we journey forward. I love what Paul told the Roman believers. He says, Love, it's sincere. We16:47 want to hate what is evil. We want to cling to what is good. We want to be devoted to 1 another in love. He says, Honor 1 another above yourselves, never lacking in zeal, but keep your16:58 spiritual fervor and serve the Lord. I just love those words. He says, do we love? With sincerity, not with hypocrisy. With17:10 humility, I'm gonna honor others above myself. He says, I'm gonna pursue the right thing. I love what he says. What does love do? It hates what is evil and clings to what is good. We love in a culture.17:23 We live in a society today where people will say, Listen, it's unloving if you don't accept everything. Let me just tell you, it is unloving to accept everything if it's harmful. How many of us understand that? So17:35 Paul right there is talking about, Man, love is genuine. Love is sincere, but there is still aspect of love as I hate what is evil. What does it mean to be evil? That's just not my personal preference. There are a lot of17:47 things that you and I can disagree with. Do we understand that? That you and I can disagree with in the faith. He's not saying that. He's not saying it's not the song that you listen to or what you like or what meal you17:58 like. It's not any of those things. He says hating what is evil. Evil is what is brought by sin to deceive God's people and those who are outside the church in such a way that it'll draw them into18:10 a trap, destroy their lives, destroy their families, destroy their communities, destroy their school, and ultimately, what? Have them spend an eternity to depart from God's love. See,18:22 that's what we hate. That's the stuff that we hate, and so he says, Man, hate it. He says, I want to honor each other, but I love the last few phrases of verse 11, Romans chapter 12. He says,18:34 Keeping your spiritual passion. He uses the word fervor alive. Man, we need to show up in God's house passionate to serve, passionate to love, passionate to worship. Man, we need to show18:46 up and say, regardless of what happens, I'm going to get there, I'm going to be with to worship God's people in a very passionate way. Give God a hand for that. All right? I love that.18:57 But notice what he says. If you have spiritual passion, you will also serve others. See, the outflow of good worship is not just good singing. It's a changed19:09 heart. It's a humble heart. It's a loving heart that says, Man, I see a need. I'm gonna step in, and I'm gonna fill that need. That's what it's all about. So here's thought number 1. Man, I could go to another, a bunch19:21 of other verses. You can just see Galatians chapter 5, fruit of the spirit. What's the first fruit of the spirit? Love. Man, we're taught by God and we're moved by the spirit. We're gonna learn to love each other. So19:30 thought number 1, if we are gonna win the respect of those outside the church, we have to learn to live in a loving way in here. Here's number 2. We need to live19:43 quiet and peaceful lives. You say, Wait. What? I thought we were supposed to be loud about our faith. All right, now be careful. Let's just read it. Notice what he19:54 says. Here's what Paul says. Number 2, he says, Not only do you live in a loving way, he says, And we want to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. Now let me just stop20:06 you right there. A lot of times people think, okay, quiet, therefore I don't have to mention my faith outside the walls of this church at all. That is not what he is saying. Sometimes when we think quiet,20:18 think shy. We think hide our faith. That's not what he's saying at all. Notice that word ambition. Some people think, well, what Paul is saying here is that as Christians we make it20:30 our ambition to have no ambition. Can I just tell you, that is not what Paul says? Paul uses the word ambition saying you and I need to have20:42 an ambition to live a quiet life. What does that mean? That we, as God's children, ought to be an ambitious people. I want to have20:54 the greatest family and the greatest kids and be a part of the greatest church, and if you're working at your office, you want to be the greatest you can be. That's your ambition, and that is a good thing. Can I tell you21:05 that? That word ambition Let me just tell you, if you haven't noticed this, my call or my job is not the same as yours. Mine is to be21:16 your pastor. Let me just lay it out on the line. You want to know what my ambition is? Here's my ambition, is that I could pastor and lead this church21:28 in such a way that we could be the very best church we could be. And let me tell you what, I'm passionate about it, I'm ambitious about it, and that's what I want.21:40 You want to know what is not my ambition? I don't care about being a nationally known pastor. I don't care about being on TV. All right? You can find me on social media. I don't know why you would,21:52 but that's not what I'm passionate about. What I'm passionate about is being your pastor, and someday, if you didn't know this, I'm gonna die. How many of you know? No, pray for that right22:04 now. My number 1 desire is that when I walk into the gates of heaven that God would look at me and say, Well done, good and22:16 faithful servant. That's my number 1 call, all right? I And I'm passionate about it, and I'm ambitious about it, and I'll run through walls for you, our22:27 community, and our kids to make sure that I reach my ambition. So I'm telling you, Paul is not saying make it your ambition to have no ambition. He's saying make it your ambition to have the right ambitions.22:40 So wherever you are in your place, you want to say, Man, if I am in sales, if I'm in this, or if I'm in construction, it doesn't matter. If I'm in insurance, whatever If you're a school22:51 teacher, whatever, if you're an administrator, if you're a police officer, you want to make it your ambition to be the best you can be. Man, what does that mean? That means that I want to be the best, because I also23:03 believe if you're a school teacher in the room that God's going to show up someday and he can look you in the eye and say, Well done, good and faithful servant. If you are in sales, God could say, Well done, good and23:12 faithful servant. If you're in accounting, he goes, Good job with the numbers. I don't know what all he'll say, but he'll say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Does that make sense? Man, wherever you are, make it23:22 your ambition to kill it. To kill it. I want you to know that as a church, not only is it my ambition, that we as a church My number 1 ambition for every23:34 person in this room and every person watching online is that there would come a day when you show up that God welcomes you into heaven and says, Well done, good and faithful servant. He goes, You weren't a pastor. You23:43 weren't a preacher. You didn't teach Sunday school or whatever. You just nailed it wherever you were and whatever you did. But then notice what he says. He's to live a quiet23:55 life. See, a lot of times we think that word quiet means, well, you know, I'm kind of shy about my faith. Go look that word up. It means confidence and courage. I'm going to make24:07 it my ambition that my life is gonna scream courage. My life is gonna scream confidence, that I trust God24:19 and I'm doing the right thing and I'm gonna live in such a way at the office, in the church, in my neighborhood that I'm gonna be as good as I am. Now listen, here's what this means. This quiet24:31 means that we're not cocky, we're not arrogant, we don't climb over people to get to the top. You say, Well, pastor, then how do I get to the top? Outwork them.24:44 Does that make sense? Outwork By the way, this is what Paul is saying. You're going to see it here in a second. He goes, You want to get to the top? Don't be afraid of the top. Outwork them. But if all you end up being24:54 is a copilot, be the best 1 you can be. If all you can be is the number 2, or the number 3, or the number 5, or the number 50, be the best 1 you can be. Man, that's living a quiet life. Man, we'll outwork you.25:06 I'm not going to step over you. I'm not going to destroy you, but I am going to outwork you. And what he's simply saying is, Be an unselfish doer. Look at what Paul says in Romans 12 17. He says, Man, what25:18 does a quiet life look like? We're not going to repay evil for evil, but we're going to be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on me,25:29 I'm going to live at peace with everybody. That's my call, that I'm going to do what is right, but here's the reality. Paul says, But there are some that are not going to accept you because of your faith. Does that25:41 make sense? But we want to live a peaceful life. You say, What do we do? How many of you know it's an election season? How many of you know? If you didn't know that, news flash.25:53 Here's what Paul told the believers in Ephesus about their political leaders and the rulers over them. He says, I urge you then, first of all, that petitions and prayers26:05 and intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people. We pray for everyone inside, outside the church. Also for kings and all those in authority over you that we may live26:17 peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. What is Paul's prayer for the king? Let me tell you what. If you don't like your political leaders in this day, go look who Paul's kings were.26:29 You don't have bad people. He goes, What do you pray for? That they wouldn't step in in such a way that would keep me from living a quiet and godly life. They wouldn't institute these laws and rules. They would26:41 say, Man, you can't be a Christian. We are blessed in this country. We are blessed in this country to have the ability to go vote. How many of us understand that? There are lots of countries around the26:53 world where you are not even given a choice, and when you are given a choice, you know you're not given a choice. All right? Don't ever take the opportunity we have for granted to go27:05 vote, and then you vote for the person or the people or the group or the organization or the party that you think will put the fewest laws in place till you live in a peaceful and a27:17 godly life. That's what you vote for, all right? That's what we vote for. Why? Because that's our call. Because if we get the wrong leaders, listen to this, and just news flash, in this election, Billy Graham's not27:28 running, Okay? So you're gonna have to make a lesser choice. But if you have the wrong leader, you'll find yourself like Elijah. If you go into the Old27:40 Testament, you look in the Old Testament, it's kind of interesting that this couple, this crazy couple, this couple named Ahab and Jezebel. Anybody heard about them? Yeah. They were kind of the27:52 power couple in Israel. They led the children of Israel to tear down the places of worship. They led them in such a way and listen to this, what else they did? If there28:04 was a prophet of God or the people of God that would stand and say what you're doing is sin. It's against God's word. Guess what? They would have them killed. And so Elijah shows up, it's kinda interesting, to28:15 Ahab. Go read it in first Kings chapter 18. It's also when you're out. Verse 17, when Ahab sees Elijah, Israel is in disarray. And28:27 Ahab is so confused, he looks at Elijah and he says, Elijah, you troubler of Israel. What an incredible thought. I mean, it's almost funny28:39 because Ahab and Jezebel have done everything they could to make sure the children of Israel did not live God's way, and when the country is in shambles, he looks up at Elijah and says, Is that28:51 you, you troubler of Israel? I love Elijah's boldness. He looks back and said, No, no, no, no. I'm not the guy that's creating all the problems. It's you. That's not living quiet. That's29:03 telling the truth. It's not being arrogant or cocky. It is simply telling truth. And so for us, I want you to know, when we think about how we should walk and how we should live, when our culture,29:15 even our politicians, look at us and call us the troublers of America, we need to look back and say, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's29:27 not us. Let me tell you who we are. We're pro God, but we're pro family. We're pro kids. We're pro kindness. We're pro character.29:39 We're pro law and order. We're pro hard work. That's what we're about. We're about all of those things, and those things, look back on it, any society,29:51 those don't trouble a society. Those build up a society. When culture looks at us and calls us the troublers, you need to think Ahab called Elijah a troubler. This is my opportunity to30:03 stand on Mount Carmel and say, No, no, no, no. I'm not the troubler of Israel. You are. But you do it with love and you do it with grace. Thought number 1 is this. If we are going to have an30:14 impact, an influence on outsiders, we live in a loving way and do so more and more. Number 2, we think about it in such a way that we journey to live30:25 ambitious and quiet lives. We win, but we win the right way. Here's number 3, we mind our own business. All right, you say, Uh-oh pastor, that sure takes all30:37 the fun out of gossip. That's exactly what he's talking about. He says, Listen, we don't need to go out there to dig up dirt on people. That ought not to be My call is not to dig up dirt on you. How many of you30:49 know that? My call is not If I find dirt, my call is not to share the dirt on you, it's to cover it over. That's ultimately our call. Paul here is saying there are some31:02 that they like to find Remember the context, if you were here for Chase preaching last week, he talked about sexual purity. He said, There are some that they love to find out What? They find out a couple of things about31:13 you, and then they go tell it to other people in the form of a prayer request. Makes it okay. No, it doesn't. Still makes it gossip. So what we need to do, he says, Listen, we don't31:25 want to just meddle. We don't want to come around. We don't want to critique everybody's life. We don't want to be busybodies. We don't want to have strife. In other words, we want to live that quiet life that I'm gonna31:35 live my life, you live your life. Man, if you want my help, I'll help you. If want me to speak in, we're all gonna read God's word and say, You know what? I need to make some change. I love this.31:48 As I was studying this week, there's a Yiddish phrase, I don't know if any Yiddish are in here, but there's a Yiddish phrase called a kibitzer. You might want to just write that down. You can use this on somebody at the32:00 office tomorrow. You know what a kibitzer is? K I B I T Z E R. It's someone that constantly critiques those who are playing the game but never plays the game themselves.32:12 Anybody know a bunch of people like that in your life? You know, I'm out here playing the game and all you do is want to critique my game. You want tell me I don't pray right or I don't32:24 do this or I don't do that. The Yiddish say that's a kebitzer. That's someone who never plays. They're just constantly critiquing. Paul is saying, don't want to be that. Man, we're all playing this game.32:36 Everybody say, All of us. All of us. We're all playing the game. Now, I don't have time to sit around and critique how you play the game on Monday through Friday and how I play the game Monday through Friday. Our job is32:46 to play the game, get better, encourage 1 another, and move forward. Now, here's the last idea. He says, Finally, above it all, man, above it all, you and I32:58 need to work hard so we can provide for our families and others. Remember I said we're gonna get to this part. Paul33:10 said, So that you win respect of outsiders and not be dependent on others. Timothy clearly, when he went to the church in Thessalonica, came back to33:22 Paul, he gave him a lot of glowing good stuff to That church loves each other. They've received the gospel. They share the gospel. They're holding up under persecution. They're doing this. They're doing33:34 all this good report. But Timothy clearly said, But you know, there are some folks that are in the church that they're taking advantage of the love and33:45 grace and generosity of others, and they've stopped working. They're just a burden, and they have their hand out. You say, Pastor, that seems a little harsh. Those aren't my words.33:57 Those are Paul's words. Pick it up. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4 11. Here's what Paul says. He says, Work hard. Here it is. Sorry. I got ahead of my notes. He says, And work with34:09 your hands Everybody say, With your hands. Just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of the outsiders. He says there's something about a34:21 great work ethic that wins the respect of those who you work with. How many of us understand that? How many of you work with somebody that's lazy? Just point at them if you work together. If you work at34:33 the church, just shoot me an email. All right? And if it's about me, we'll fix that too. But I love it. There's something Paul says there's something about a great work ethic, an34:44 ambition to be your best in the office that wins the respect of outsiders. He says, and if all you do, if you're lazy or you slack off or all you do is have your hand out, you're not gonna win the respect of34:56 outsiders. Man, they wanna see somebody, so you say you love God, you love others, man, I'm gonna provide for my family, I'm gonna be generous, and then guess what? Man, you're gonna see me excel at the office. That's35:06 what he says. So he says, You win the respect of outsiders so that, listen to this, you would not be dependent on anyone. It's interesting. He's talked a lot35:18 about positive, now he's moved to the negative. He says there are some that have taken advantage of the love and the grace and the generosity of other people. They show up and they just keep their hand out. Now35:30 listen, here's not what we're talking about. Just in person or online, we are not talking about people who have lost their jobs. We've got some people in our church right now who have recently lost their35:42 jobs. That is not what we are talking about, Because I'm gonna show you a word Paul uses in the book of 2 Thessalonians that really becomes a descriptor of who he's talking about. He says those who are35:53 unwilling to work, not those who are unable, not those who have lost a job. There are times that we as a church, we help in, we step in, we are generous, we are gracious, we are loving36:05 because we all have those seasons when we are down. We do it with care, love, money, resources, whatever it takes to make it happen in those seasons. But Timothy clearly said there are some that36:17 show up, they don't want to work, they just want to take. And he says, Be cautious. He says, Besides, the bigger issue is that person will never be able to win the36:29 respect of outsiders. They might be able to get something for food today, but he says, Listen, that's not what we're about. Jump down. Let me just show you 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 7. So here's what36:40 happened. Paul, Timothy came back to Paul the first time. Paul wrote this letter in First Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 9 to 12. Paul says, Listen, you were good loving, you were this, you were36:52 that, but there's some among you I love that word. There's not many, but there's some. He says, They've come in, they're taking advantage of you. He says, They're never gonna have a good witness outside the church37:01 because all they do is have their hand out. But notice, Paul writes that in a letter and he says, Don't be a busybody. Live a quiet, respectful life. Have ambition at the office. And then37:13 he says, Listen, work hard. Provide for your family and others. Apparently during the time between 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, those people didn't get the37:25 message. So in 2 Thessalonians, Paul shows up with instead of 1 verse, kind of a whole paragraph which is a review. Notice what he says.37:37 He says 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 7, he's really addressing the same people. He says, For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. Remember Paul says, you became imitators of37:49 me as we imitated Christ. Remember, when it comes to work, how many of you know when you work hard you also imitate Christ? He was a carpenter, right? Paul was a carpenter. People worked. Notice what he says. He says, we38:00 know you're supposed to follow our example. He says, well, what was our example with you? He says, we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. He38:12 says, on the contrary. Here was our example. We worked night and day laboring and toiling so that what? So that we would not be a burden to any of you. He says, we did this38:24 not because we did not have the right to such up. Paul's saying, If anybody could have showed up and said, Give me, give me, give me, it would have been the guy that planted the church, right? Paul says, I had the right.38:36 I probably would have. He says, As a matter of fact, you probably would have given me everything I needed. Paul says, That's not the example we want to live. He says, As a matter of fact, that's not the example38:48 that's going to allow us to win the respect of those outside the church. He says, What does? He says, On the contrary, we work night and day laboring and toiling so that we would not be aShow more
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