Sunday Service 11/03/24 (Afternoon)

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Thank you By way of announcement Monday November 4th to Tuesday November 5th
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There will be the Southern California Reformed Baptist pastors conference on effectual calling in La Mirada, California I know that a few of us are going to be going to that and so that's a good opportunity to hear the word preached
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If you're so inclined This Friday November 8th, there will be a women's fellowship which meets at church at 7 p .m
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So make sure you put that on your calendar and be ready for that as well Bless the
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Lord. Oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the
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Lord. Oh my soul and forget not his benefits Who forgives all your iniquity and heals all your diseases who redeemed your life from the pit who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy
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Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles?
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If you do have a hymnal turn to hymn number 80 and we're going to be
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Singing how firm a foundation if you do have a
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Bible turn to 2nd Thessalonians 3 and we're going to be reading 2nd Thessalonians 3 6 through 12.
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So whenever you get to 2nd Thessalonians 3 go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word 2nd
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Thessalonians 3 6 Now we command you brothers in the name of our
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Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness And not in accord with the tradition that you've received from us
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For you yourselves know that how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you
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Nor 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
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It was not because we do not have that right but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate
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For even when we were with you, we would give this command if anyone is not willing to work
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Let him not eat for we hear that some among you walk in idleness not busy at work
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But busy bodies now such persons we command and encourage in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work
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Quietly and to earn their own living It's the Word of the Lord Let's pray
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Lord we do thank you for the words that you've given to us which are life to us Pray that you help us today to hear great things from your scriptures
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Help convict us of our convict us of our sin help us to personally seek to apply by the
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Spirit All the ways in which we may be violating your commands without knowing it and give us hope
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That you stand ready to forgive us when we ask we thank you for all you do in your son's name.
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I pray. Amen You maybe see now what now when we think about ways in which we may
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Tempt other people to sin or put a stumbling block in their path of sin most naturally we think of ways in which we as Sinful human beings with malicious motives are actively seeking to do them harm and encourage their harm
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But as you read through the scriptures one of the things that you're going to find is that there are many instances in which we as Christians are tempted to do other people harm by seeking their good and doing good and kind and generous things for them and with respect to the nature of The destruction that this kind of sin can bring it's very difficult to compare
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The two because you can destroy a person's life through kindness just as well as you can
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Destroy their life through through active evil and we ought to do well to pay attention to these things now when you read 2nd
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Thessalonians 3 one of the things you realize is that you're dealing with a situation where Christians are tempted to entice other people to sin through acts of kindness through acts of Charity and so this is a topic that we would do well to think about Today we're going to be talking about the sin of enabling and this is a sin that Christians are quick to fall prey to partly because we as Christians were a generous people and were taught by God in Christ to do good to those who persecute us and Despitefully use this we're taught to be generous to people who don't deserve
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The kindness that we show to them But as I said, this is a sin that Christians are very prone to commit and sin that we're going to talk about today
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And we think about the passage here 2nd Thessalonians comes to us in a particular context So the context of 2nd
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Thessalonians is that these books are written These are very early books that are written and there was an expectation that you're going to find as you read through these books that Christ's return would be very soon
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So many people in the early church They knew and understood that and thought that Christ would be coming Soon and because they thought
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Christ was going to be coming so quickly because of a lot of the words that Jesus said They have a temptation towards idleness
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Because after all I mean Jesus is gonna return and arrive at any moment Then why not just sit there and do nothing and wait for him to come right?
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And so this is a very natural temptation that many people have this the temptation that the early church had
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It's a temptation that's surrounding the formation of the early church in general So one of the things that happen when you think about the formation of the early church
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You find in the book of Acts that there is a remarkable change from the new from the
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Old Covenant into the New Covenant It is a huge deal that Jesus Christ has come to be the fulfillment of the law
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There's a this is a huge deal in the lives of the Jewish believers If you understand the nature of their lives beforehand
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They've been given a portion of land and inheritance in the promised land that was going to be their eternal
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Possession the nature of their mission like the mission of the Old Testament in part is to hold on to that land
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Which is an inheritance of that's given to them by their fathers that's passed along through families and tribes
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One of the things you'll find is in the story of Ahab trying to steal
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Naboth's vineyard Naboth looks at Ahab and says how you know, I can't it would be wrong
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It would be evil for me to sell you the birthright of my fathers and so when you think about the nature of the
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Jew the the Jewish relationship to the land their lives were tied very particular particularly to a very specific
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Portion of land now when Jesus came that changed the nature of the mission so No longer were they commanded to stay in the promised land forever and make that their eternal inheritance
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They were told to take the good news and spread it to Jerusalem first then Judea Samaria to the ends of the earth
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So they were given a missionary calling that they were supposed to take this good news and sell it and spread it everywhere
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And what you'll find in the book of Acts is after the day of Pentecost 3 ,000 people were added to the church and Those 3 ,000 people
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That were added to the church Sold their houses and lands and properties and they gave those funds
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They laid those at the foot of the Apostles because they knew that their life was going to be remarkably different You know
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If you look at the picture of the early church One of the things that Christians who have a socialist kind of bent are apt to point out is that in the early church?
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they had all things in common and What they think that meant is they shared one purse it was socialism
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But really what's happening is you're living in a time where Jews are have realized that Jesus was
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Messiah This is going to radically change the nature of their life. So they're selling their houses their lands and their property
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They're devoting himself to the Apostles teaching Which is happening daily at the temple, you know so they're in a unique time where they're being told all the expectations about what
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Jesus coming To earth taking on flesh long among us becoming the once and for all sacrifice of sin means to them, but very quickly
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They can't just stay there forever devoting themselves to the
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Apostles teaching every single day they have to get back to work and These are dynamics that are happening behind the scenes when you get to the book of 2nd
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Thessalonians One of the things you realize is that many people in the Thessalonian Church They they thought that Christ would be coming quickly.
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And so they were prone to idleness This was a sin that they were actively committed committing and this is a sin that the
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Apostles are warning against Jesus Christ will return. Amen. He's going to return quickly.
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Amen But we need to get continue to get to work and there's a lot of work to be done until that time
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When he does return So the book of 2nd Thessalonians in our passage it starts with this 2nd
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Thessalonians 3 6 And it says this we command you brothers in the name of our
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Lord Jesus Christ That you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not accord
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With the tradition that you've received from us and so what we see is that this passage starts with an apostolic command to reject the idol
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Now when you think about the nature of the Apostles commands, it's important to realize that the Apostles commands come from Christ They're not just speaking of their own authority.
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They're speaking the authority of Christ. So the revelation of Christ it comes in two different phases So Jesus before he was taken up This is what
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Luke tells us in the opening chapters of Luke before Jesus was taken up He had given commands to the
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Apostles So Luke says in Luke 1 1 as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us
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Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us
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It seemed good to me Also having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account to you
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Most excellent theophilus that you may have certainty concerning the things that you've been taught
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So the revelation of Christ as I said, it comes in two different phases It came through Jesus's earthly ministry while he was here on earth to the
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Apostles which The Gospels are a record of if you think about the nature of what the
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Gospels are doing They're a record of Jesus's teaching a record of the things that Jesus didn't talk now
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They're not an absolute record in terms of they don't set out to Tell you everything that Jesus didn't taught
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John tells us that if everything that Jesus didn't taught were written I suppose the world itself couldn't contain the books that would be written of that But it is a sufficient record of what
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Jesus didn't taught to know God's will and his expectations for us, but If you remember before Jesus left
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He looked at his apostles and he says I have more things to teach you and the helper who am I'm gonna send the
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Holy Spirit he's going to guide you into all truth He's going to give you those additional things that you're not able to bear at this point
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After my departure and they were the Apostles were instructed to Wait for power to come from on high in order to give these additional commands that God had to give to them
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So acts 1 1 Luke tells us this he says in the first book. Oh Theophilus I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach
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Until the day he was taken up and then after that he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the
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Apostles Whom he had chosen. So when the Apostles here are saying Now we command you brothers in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. They're not appealing to their own authority They're appealing to the authority of Christ. These are they're making a claim to revelation
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These are those additional commands the Lord Jesus Christ has for you that were given to us by the
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Holy Spirit and Established on the basis of signs and wonders and miraculous gifts and everything else.
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So the Apostles commands come from Christ and This command that we look at today is not something that we can just say.
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Hey, that was the Apostles They just decided to talk about these things These are commands that are coming from Christ and the command that is given in this passage is the command to reject the idol
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And we talked about the nature of what that means when you talk about what does it mean to reject? The idol
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What does it mean to keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness? You're talking about the category of church discipline
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There's few things that's more uncomfortable to the life of believers in general than the topic of church discipline
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If you look at the church like in large Measure one of the things you're going to find is in in particular the
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American Church the Reformed Church Whatever church you're talking about church church in general in our time in our location in history
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We are not often Guilty of the sin of disciplining too much you know if there's any indictment that could be made upon us in our own particular time and place in history is that we
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Discipline too little and in fact Most of us probably don't have the stomach
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To practice church discipline and unfortunately church discipline is something that almost never happens in most churches
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Okay, it was a very rare thing that a church or practice church discipline, and I'm not saying we'll just get hey look
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Let's overcompensate and find ways to correct the correct the imbalance. I'm just trying to say that You we ought to be aware brothers and sister that our most natural
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Impulses at this point are not to discipline too much our natural impulses are basically to Discipline too little if if at all okay, those are our temptations our temptation is to Not listen to what
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Paul says, and I'm not saying that these temptations are particularly Unique to us in this time and place in history although.
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I do think that we are very much characterized by the sin of the of a Neglective disciplined over against a sin of over discipline, but then when you think about the nature of what's happening here
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The Apostles are putting idleness in the category of church discipline
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So when you read this passage you should understand that the Apostles are putting that sin of idleness In the category of church discipline, they're not giving a lot of caveats for it are they?
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And it may not be intuitively obvious why it should be put in that category as well
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So I think as a church we often have a very underdeveloped Theology of work and because we have an underdeveloped theology of work it may not be intuitively obvious Why this is such a significant deal
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Why this is something that you would discipline over it made it may seem like that they're blowing this way out of proportion
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Okay So the the less familiar we are with Scripture the less
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Intuitively obvious this all becomes and yet this isn't just an instruction.
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That's given related to one passage You understand so first Timothy 5 8 says if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his own household
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He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
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Okay? Like this is the Uniform teaching of Scripture that idleness is
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Something that should be treated in the in the most serious terms possible And the only way you understand why that's happening is if you understand that God made man
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He put him in a garden. He put him in garden and gave him a purpose to work and to keep it Work is central to humanity's mission in the here and now and when you take work away from people
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You are robbing them of their dignity right there in the language of this passage if you enable people to not work and Be productive you are treating them in a subhuman way, right?
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But they're even animals who know this lesson like the ants that we should at times look to learn it from but Work is
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God's gift given to man and the preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us this over and over and over again Work is central to man's purpose in the here and now and when you take it away
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You do rob people of their Dignity and this is a much more serious thing than what you might imagine
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Now one of the things that Nazis would do in World War two would be they would make the Jews engage in labor process labor projects
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And then they would immediately Destroy them afterwards because they they understood something about the nature of the work that God created man to work
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And when you destroy a man's work you are destroying his dignity and I learned this lesson when
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I was delivering appliances So when we were learning how to What I did a job for a while where I was delivering appliances and in order to learn how to carry refrigerators on dollies
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They made us take all of the refrigerators and washers and dryers from one side of the warehouse to the other
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And so we thought that we were doing that for a purpose you understand we thought that we were doing that for purpose So we brought them over there to the others to one side of the warehouse
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Then when we got done they told us to take him from that point all the way back to where they started and I felt like I was being treated like a
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Nazi at that point I thought I was working towards some objective that made sense But really it was just a learning exercise to teach me how to how to work
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But I'm just here to say that God has given us work and when we refuse to work It actually is a much bigger deal than what we realize and the apostolic command here is to reject
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The idol because they have an understanding. Here's the point. They have an understanding of the primacy of work
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That we often are Tempted to tone down. Okay So we command you brothers in the name of Lord Jesus Christ You keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition you received from us
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For verse 7 you yourself know How you want to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you
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Nor that did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it But with toil and labor we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you
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It's not because we do not have the right but to give You in ourselves an example to emulate
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So first we see in the past is the apostolic command to reject the idol second We see the apostolic example of work to imitate
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Now the apostles encouraged the Thessalonians to follow their example but note the
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Apostles are also following the example of Christ and The Apostles are also following the example of God Notice Jesus John 5 17
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Jesus answered them. My father is working until now and I am working John 9 4 we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day
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Night is coming when no one is work Jesus came to earth to do the work that the father had prepared
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For him to do before the foundation of the world Jesus came to earth to accomplish that work and he accomplished that work in a way that we will never accomplish any work, right?
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He accomplished that work perfectly and completely Directly in obedience to the father in everything.
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So Jesus Jesus came to earth to work When we say we're not saved by works, that's
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Somewhat inaccurate in the sense that we're not saved by our works. We're saved by Christ's work, aren't we?
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So we are saved by work. It's just not by our work. It's by Christ's work on the cross So Christ came to accomplish a great work
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So not only did Christ come to accomplish a great work of salvation for us God worked and we've been we've been thinking about that over the last few weeks
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Haven't we in the opening chapters of Genesis where God? Created the world out of nothing
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X Nihilo out of not God created the world out of nothing in Six days and saw that it was very good
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The Apostles they're they're putting themselves forward as examples of work to emulate
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So they're telling you to reject the idol They're putting themselves forward as examples to emulate but then they are also emulating
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Christ and God in Their working to provide a tangible example to the
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Thessalonians of faithfulness Third we see the apostolic command to not enable the idols
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That's second Thessalonians 310 For even when we were with you we would give you this command
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If anyone is not willing to work let him not eat now
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I've described this over the course of The sermon today and the language of enabling and enabling is obviously not a word that's found in the
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Bible It's it's a word that's frequently used in counseling context and because it's a word that's frequently used in counseling context
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It is a word that Could be prone to misunderstanding and it may not be the most helpful word to use at all
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But it is a word that I believe is a summary of a certain kind of sin that we can commit
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Against other people which is a very destructive kind of sin. So let's deal with Some simple definitions of this word and talk about how they apply
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To this definition in Scripture in general So enabler is a person or thing that enables something or makes it possible
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It's fairly neutral definition, isn't it a person or thing that enables something or makes it possible?
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That could be a good thing. That could be a bad thing So you think about an enabler there you can enable something good
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You can enable something bad when using the counseling context enabling generally refers to actions or a lack of actions
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That allow support or facilitate another person's harmful behavior to continue whether knowingly or unknowingly
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Enabling using involves making it easier for someone to persist in destructive behavior
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Often by removing the natural consequences they would otherwise face So enabling can involve excusing or justifying bad behavior rather than addressing it directly
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Failing to hold someone accountable allowing them to avoid responsibility Protecting someone from the consequences of their actions or providing resources or support that facilitate harmful behavior
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So when you think about enabling as I said, that's not a word in the Bible, but then there is Many different concepts in the
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Bible that would be necessarily Violated through this inactive enabling.
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So as I said enabling it's not a biblical word But it's a useful summary of a variety of sins which can be committed out of a misguided understanding of compassion with enabling
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Charity essentially becomes an enticement to sin. So to put this in biblical language.
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We're talking about Charity as an enticement to sin or charity as the facilitation of sin
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So one of the ways you can able enable someone in the language of this passage is you can enable them to be idle?
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By continuing to give them monetary support. What are you doing when you're doing that? You're enticing them to sin
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You're facilitating their sin. You're subsidizing their sin
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Your charity and your generosity is functioning as a biblical stumbling block in the way of obedience for them
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Do you understand? So imagine someone selling telling you they want to create an idol to worship and serve instead of the living
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God Imagine someone telling you that and you say hey, well, you know what? I have some metal and I have an engraving tool.
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Here you go Right, that would be an example of the sin of enabling And I think most of you like you would think if someone were to come to you with That intention and say hey,
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I I want to create an idol your Christian impulses would kick in and you would say well
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Don't ask me to help right? I'm not gonna buy you the stuff so you can make your idol I'm not gonna give you techniques on how to engrave this thing and carve it, you know
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Because I can't really control you. I can't really help what you're doing So if you put the matter that starkly
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Most of us would recoil and think there's something wrong there, right? There's something wrong with me giving you everything that you need in order to carry out your sinful plan
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And I think in the extremes we can often identify this sin in the extremes So for example, if someone were to come to you and say hey,
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I want to kill myself and you're a doctor Can you give me a shot in order to make that happen?
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Most of us as Christians would think it would be morally reprehensible To give them their euthanasia shot in order to allow to help them assist them in taking their lives
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We understand this in some areas, but then I think We have a great
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Temptation that we may not be aware of to do this very thing as it relates to our loved ones in general
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So there's plenty of common examples of enabling that We fall prey to without even realizing it so as an example parents enabling children
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There's a growing trend among young adults today and Whatever young adult is is
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I think we just keep on making up new categories And so you have preteens and teens and young, you know young adults apparently young adult includes right now
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The category of 18 to 34 year olds, so that's a pretty broad category Okay, but there's a growing trend of young adults now that a third of young adults from 18 to 34
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Are still living with their parents? So the trend there is the trend of failure to launch and what may be surprising is that 36 % of those are men and 30 % are women
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When you would naturally expect it to be the opposite way Like you would expect it to be more reasonable
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That because a man's job is to go and prepare a place for a wife so that where he is she might be also there's a natural kind of impulse to say that it would be wise for him to Start making some progress on that so that he can bring a wife into a situation whereas a woman being the weaker vessel opens herself up to many many temptations and has no form of protection if She's just launched out on her own by herself
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With with no form of protection or care, but the trend here is just to say that 36
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Percent of men aged 18 to 34 and 30 percent of young women Seem to be failing to launch so parents enabling children is a significant problem
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There's children who enable parents so there's plenty of situations where children are
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Out of a sense of compassion and care for their parents in a seat in an attempt to try to honor them are providing
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Total financial provision for them very early on in their lives You know not in their later years where they're physically unable to work, but providing like total financial provision for them
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And providing for them to be idle basically to have nothing productive to do
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Because often they're being manipulated and guilted into doing this so parents enabling children
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I mean there's examples of parents enabling children to be idle children enabling parents to be idles we could think about Husbands can enable wives.
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I mean I gave statistics about Dual income families right now.
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There's plenty of husbands who are enabling wives to Basically reject all of their responsibilities to be homemakers to be domestic to be workers at home
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In order to ask that they're there I know situation of a situation of a situation where young men are
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Demanding that their wife take on the role of being a provider for them Enabling them to not fulfill their responsibilities and work the work that they're called to do
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The exact opposite is true, too. There's wives who enable husbands in that same way To not take on their responsibility to be a provider by jumping in and taking over that role for them
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I mean, I think that's an area where a wife should look at her husband and say you can't ask me to Obey you right over and against God.
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I need to obey God rather than men There are times where if a husband is asking you to take over his job for him
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You look at him and say I have a higher authority that tells me what my job is than you and so there are times where wives should not submit to their husbands and and one of those clear times is when a husband is asking his wife to Enable him to reject
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God's commands by taking over his job for him As I said,
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I mean you're talking about you're talking about this apostolic command to not enable the idol This is a common problem that pastors and church members face
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Where pastors and church members enable their fellow church members to walk in sin With no consequence.
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This is not obviously a new temptation for us. This is a temptation that's always existed Paul in 1st
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Corinthians 5 6 says your boasting is not good. Your glorying is not good Like you think that you're being generous towards this brother who has his
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You know, it's mother -in -law as wife like you think that you're being generous towards him
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Your glorying is not good. This isn't an example of generosity. This is an example of kindness
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You are you are harming this individual one not dealing with it in the right kind of way
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Boasting is not good. Do you know that do you not know that a little 11 lemons a whole lump? Therefore remove the leaven so that you may be a pure lump
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Titus 3 10 Says that's for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice have nothing more to do with him knowing
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Such a person is warped and sinful He is self to say it could self -condemn So there's there's plenty of examples that I could give a parents enabling children children and aiming parents husbands enabling wives wives enabling husbands pastors church members who enable their fellow church members
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Bible was replete with these kind of things But as you think about the main example, it's important to realize
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What they're talking about here goes against our basic notions of charity in certain ways, doesn't it?
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So second Thessalonians 3 10 says for even when we were with you, we would give this command if anyone is not willing to work
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Let him not eat Again, this command is given because we have a natural temptation
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When you see a person who appears to be in need as a
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Christian You feel this impulse rising up within yourself to meet that need but part of the problem
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Is that not all needs are needs are they? Not all needs are legitimate
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If you if you've worked with people who Are in low -income areas to any degree and I mean we certainly did at my last church
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We had many people coming to our church asking for money asking for provision
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I could tell you story after story after story after story of Situations where we as a church wanted to help people
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And we would give them opportunities to work and earn provision So they're asking for food.
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You say hey, we have a job to do if you do this job We'll go get you some food and I'll tell you in case after case after case after case
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They would look at us and they would be unwilling to work in order to they expected you to give them
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Material provision, but they weren't willing to work for it. They weren't willing to earn it and if you think that like here's the issue if you think that you should just Give some give anyone something that asks them what you're gonna find is they're gonna come to you every single day and expect you to Be there provided for them.
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That's the way things are gonna Things actually work out and there's more consequences to these things than what you might imagine
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So the apostolic command is to not enable the idol because Verse 11 there are consequences to enabling idol idleness.
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So verse 11 We hear that some among you are walking in idleness not busy at work, but busy
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Bodies, so there's consequences. Here's the thing brothers and sisters. There's consequences to enabling idleness this passage mentions one
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Mentions one consequence of idleness and you can see these consequences Bear themselves out in different ways throughout both testimonies
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But one consequence of enabling idleness is that people have a lot more time to meddle in the affairs of other people
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So if you don't have something productive to do what you're often going to be tempted to do is to mess things up.
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Okay So one of the ways you mess things up is to be a busybody you have time
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To go from house to house meddling in affairs that don't belong to you Stirring up conflict stirring up divisions, you know, one of the temptations of young men is
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To get into trouble When they don't have productive things to do So you so you see this in the book of Proverbs you see the temptations that come from idleness
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You know some of those temptations are temptations to join a gang to go around mess things up What do young men do you know?
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What do young men do when they have too much time on their hands and nothing productive to do? Some of the young men are shaking their heads right now because you imagine some of the things that you're tempted to do.
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I mean, you know Drive by in your hey, I got a great idea Why don't we drive by in our car with a baseball bat and see if we can play baseball with the mailboxes?
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You know, this is these are the kind of things that guys are tempted to do when they have too much time on their hand But this is not just like a cultural phenomenon
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Like the Bible has a category that is called worthless fellows Fellows of the baser sort and typically worthless fellows are those young Unemployed men who have way too much time on their hands and they find themselves getting into trouble, right?
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David found David when he was on the run from Saul, he found a bunch of these worthless fellows and he formed an army
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Because that's what you generally do, right? Throughout history if you're gonna form an army you find a bunch of young angry men with a bunch of time on their hand you give them something productive to do and a lot of the things that they
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Are given to do and like historically is was form an army and put that to good use So what when the kovat lockdowns happen
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When the kovat lockdowns happen, I looked at my brother. I said when's the rioting gonna start?
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I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet but the writing is gonna come Right because you have a bunch of people who are prevented from working.
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What's the natural consequence of this gonna be? There's gonna be rioting, right? What did we see happen like the summer of love right that happened shortly after that?
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We saw example after sample is that after example of that and that's not because I'm a prophet It's just because I understand what the
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Bible says that there are sins that come from idleness There's a many many sins that young men
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Fall into when they have way too much time on their hand a lot of its destruction Like in terms of personal they when you hit when men have way too much time on their hand.
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They give themselves over to lust They give themselves over to lust, you know, Paul Paul talks about with women
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Like the younger widows they encourage them to marry Because they're gonna become gossips and busybodies if they have way too much time on their hand with nothing to do
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You can look at internet conversations and realize that a lot of the internet conversations and Spats and arguments where people are meddling in affairs that don't belong to them are the result of people who have
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Way too much time on their hand and no godly work to do whereas people who are way more busy than all that They don't have time to meddle in a bunch of controversies that don't belong to them
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The problem here is just to say that there's a lot of consequences to these and I haven't even talked about all the consequences
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Talked about some of the consequences But there are many consequences you understand like when you take away someone's work
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You're taking away their dignity. That's what you're doing Ecclesiastes says this
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Ecclesiastes 2 24 there's nothing better for a person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil
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This I saw is from the hand of God when you have nothing to do
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Like why do you think that that older people when they retire and they have nothing to do they start going down really quickly?
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And I've seen this happen numerous times. We have an old man who has something to do he retires
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He doesn't have anything left to do and all of a sudden he loses his motivation for being here because he has nothing to do
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He doesn't know why he's here anymore. It's almost as if they deteriorate Rapidly when they have nothing productive to do because that's what
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Ecclesiastes says We're not here just to sit around and relax and enjoy ourself. We're here to work. I Perceive there's nothing better This is
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Ecclesiastes 3 12 I perceive there's nothing better for them than to be joyful do good as long as they lived
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Ecclesiastes 3 22 and I saw there's nothing better than for a man to rejoice in his work for that is his lot
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Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Ecclesiastes 8 15
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I commend joy for him a man has nothing better under the Sun but to eat and drink and be joyful For this will go with him in his toil through the days of life that God has given him under the
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Sun God's given man work as a gift that he should be rejoicing in You should be rejoicing in work as a gift not just find a job
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You love rejoice in the work that you've been given to do. There's great satisfaction to be found in Learning to rejoice in your work and when you take that from people
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The natural result is depression you understand Like we think when you see a person who is like depressed and worried
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We like we put all of these labels like these psychological labels on people That give them excuses to avoid their work
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And what they end up doing is laying around with nothing productive to do being weighed down by guilt shame
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Condemnation feelings of worthlessness and you look at him you say hey who could have thought that that's what you would experience
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When you reject work who would have thought that that would happen? But there are consequence when you know that you're made for work, and you have nothing productive to do with your life
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You will give yourself over to iniquity to a level that you never thought you would and you'll be weighed down by guilt and shame
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And condemnation because you don't know why you're here, okay? So you have nothing to do
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Nothing to do you don't know why you're here If you enable here's the point when you enable people to do this
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When you provide the means necessary for a person to avoid work when you do that you are a means of Introducing in their life guilt shame and condemnation.
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That's what you're doing You think you're helping them, but you are poisoning them.
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I mean I could tell you Examples of people I know right now Who have been enabled by their family members?
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to live worthless lives to sit there
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For years and years and years and years and play video games all day long
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I know of young men who who have spent their life from Early childhood to their 40s devoting themselves to playing video games
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Because they have parents who in grandparents who are enabling them to do that Because they say hey,
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I'm too scared to go talk to people I have social anxiety disorder Do you understand that you just destroyed their life?
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You destroyed their life you bear responsibility for destroying their life and their legacy and their heritage
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They they are so far behind the curve at that point, and it's your fault. It's your fault because you you subsidized it
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Because you thought you were being nice to them. That's what you thought So the consequences of enabling idleness are severe these are not small matters
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Finally we see the apostolic command and encouragement for the idol to work verse 12 now such person we command and Encourage in the
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Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living you see right here command commands and encouragement are not set in opposition to each other as If they're enemies are they there is a command here that is in encouragement
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Do you know what the word encouragement means Word encouragement means to give courage
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Encouragement does not mean flatter Does it? We think when we try to encourage people what we should be doing is flattering them
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Let me encourage you you're so wonderful right that's what we think we think encouragement means flattering.
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What is encouragement actually mean? Giving courage to people right giving courage to people
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That often involves taking away excuses for people doesn't it?
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What would it look like in this? context to give Courage to the idol
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What are the Apostles not doing here They're not saying hey, you're a great guy, and you have a lot of good qualities and And people like you
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Right that's not what they're doing is it they're saying if you're not willing to work. You're not going to eat right
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If you're not willing to work you have abandoned the faith, and you are worse than unbeliever God has made you to work
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We love you so much not we're just going to allow you to not work for the rest of your life They're looking at them the way that they're encouraging them is to say
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God made you for work You're destroying your life By giving yourself over to idleness not only are you destroying your life?
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You're destroying everyone's lives around you who are depending on you You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you you can face your social anxiety disorder fears with God's help and You can go and do something productive
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You don't have to lay in your bed all day long suffering from depression You can get up and do something that God's called you to do and get your eyes focused on all the things that you don't have and all the things that you want and all the things that you wish
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God would Have done and hasn't what does it mean to encourage someone in this context?
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It means to give them courage, and that's not going to be a message of flattery is it?
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It's not a message of flattery that helps people who are idle to change. We're told to admonish the idol
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Encourage the faint -hearted help the weak be patient with all we're told to admonish. That's a strong rebuke the idol because this is a soul destroying sin brothers and sisters
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That has remarkable consequences Now if I could give you a famous example of enabling in the scriptures,
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I would point you to the example of the prodigal son I Don't know if we often think about this in the context of enabling, but it's certainly something we should be thinking about So notice the son despises his father demands his inheritance
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Functionally by doing that he's looking at his dad and saying I wish you were dead right now, right? I wish you were dead right now the father gives it to him.
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What is he's not ready to care for it Is he he's not ready to care for it that inheritance. He just wants to be done
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He wants to be out on his own do his own thing father gives him inheritance. What happens spends it all on prostitutes riotous living
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He uses it to make the temporary kind of friends that come from having a lot of money and not a lot of sense the kind of friends that they're there for you when you're
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You're gonna you're gonna financially subsidize their sin, but once the money runs out
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They're they're not friends with you anymore He goes and he wastes all of the money What happens what happens?
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Luke 15 15 when he hired himself out to the one of the citizens of that country So he kind of gets to this low place.
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He's run out of money So he hires himself out to one of the citizens of that country Who sent him into the field to feed the pigs and it says he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and No one gave him anything
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You know, he didn't come to the he didn't come to the end of himself until he ran out of resources did he
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Notice what he says it says when he came to himself verse 17 when he came to himself He said how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread?
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But here I am perishing with hunger brothers sister Do you think that the way to help people is to endlessly help them and they supply their rebellion for years and years and years?
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Just give them money as long as you can That would be like in this situation the father just saying oh,
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I've run out of money to waste on prostitutes Can you send me some more? Yeah. Sure son. Here's some more money to waste on prostitutes
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You think that's helping him because there's a need he has he's hungry. He's run out of money
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You think the way to help him is just to give him more money But the problem is that when you do that what you're doing is you're keeping him from coming to himself
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You're trying to take away those natural consequences for his actions because you think you're better than God you understand
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You think that you're more generous than God you think that the way to help someone is
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To take away all the pain and all the difficult circumstances and make everything easy on them
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But the part of the problem is that he didn't come to repentance Until he saw how hard the world was
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God gave you a stomach that's going to rumble tomorrow if you don't eat until then Didn't he he gave you a stomach that's going to tell you it needs to be fed
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He's given you a means of feeding that stomach and that means of feeding that stomach is the means of productive work
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So God has designed natural consequences in the world to rejecting his plan
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When we enable people what we are doing is we're trying to take away all of those consequences and in doing so You're robbing them of them of the necessary conviction that's supposed to happen when they see that they've made a mess of their life and We've done this in so many different ways as a church if someone just claims to have any psychological label you're gonna give them drugs that tranquilize them or remove their conscience and dull their thoughts and You think you're trying to help them because you're trying to make the pain go away
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But they need to sit in that pain brothers and sisters Because that pain is going to lead to conviction
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And we think the way to help people is just to take away all the bad feelings Give them in endless supply of wealth
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Not encourage them to face any responsibility because we can't bear the thought of them going through pain
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But you know what pain is a good teacher Pain is a good teacher brothers and sisters and the prodigal son need needed to learn the lessons of pain
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In order to be brought to repentance and that's the way that God's designed the world if you love people
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Here's the point if you love people You won't subsidize their sin If you love people you're not going to hand them the ability and the means to continue in their rebellion against God If you love people
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There are times where you need to withhold Good things from them that they are going to turn
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Into means of continuing their rebellion against the Lord and this is a passage which talks about that very thing
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For even when we were with you we would give this command if anyone is not willing to work
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Let him not eat Amen That's right
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Lord we do thank you for the scriptures that you've given to us which are life to us
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We know that your way is right and you are good and You will be justified
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Lord and you know what's best for us Please help us to not be a people
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Who are thinking that we are more generous than you and more charitable Than you and in our attempts to try to help people we end up destroying their souls
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Help that help that not to be a sin that's named among us in your son's name. I pray Amen.