As I said before, we are studying today in 2 Thessalonians, working our way toward the end of this book. I hope to finish it today. We'll see how I get along. This has been a good study for us. These were early teachings in the apostolic era. And as I mentioned earlier, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians were written not too long apart, probably a matter of a few weeks apart. Some of the other early books in the New Testament are Galatians, also the book of James, and probably the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is probably the earliest of the Gospels written. And so I have deliberately, since we've been studying church history on Wednesday nights, it's been good for us to also see what did those early believers know? What were the apostles teaching at that time? And it's good for us to see where they were. As we have studied through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, we have seen that how they misunderstood 1 Thessalonians. And he had to write 2 Thessalonians to straighten out some things. It would be good today if some of the so-called prophecy teachers that are out and about would read both books. I have heard many, many sermons on 1 Thessalonians, and not very much on 2, because it doesn't fit with the template of today of certain so-called prophecy teachers. I just want to know from some of those guys who is finally going to hold some of them accountable. You remember there was a book back in the 80s called, 88 Reasons for Christ's Return Before 1988. In case you hadn't noticed, it's 2017. We need to be very, very careful with predictive kind of statements all the time. There's some new teacher that says, oh, it's now, or oh, it's now, it's gonna be October the 12th, or whatever. You could make a lot of money betting against such things. It's foolishness. Christ told us, you do not have the right nor the knowledge of that knowledge. It's not for you to know the times and the seasons that God has placed under His own authority. Go preach the gospel. That's our job. So we come to 2 Thessalonians and at the end of this book we see one of those bad outcomes of having a wrong understanding of end times. In verse 6 he says, now we command you brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life, and not according to the tradition which you received from us." In fact, I called it in our bulletin, the title is, Disorderly Conduct. Now, if you get arrested for disorderly conduct by the police, you've been doing some things out in public that you shouldn't be doing. You've been misbehaving in a public way. We call it disorderly conduct. And so, this is what Paul is saying. They're behaving disorderly. And he lays before them that they had given them an example that, if you were here for our study on Wednesday nights of church history, you'll find out that there are several different understandings of what tradition is. And no, we do not take man-made traditions and make them equal to Scripture, which is what the Roman church does, and frankly, many others. But there are those traditions as of accepted custom of how we behave ourselves. And some of those are biblical and some are not so much. You'll note this morning I'm wearing a necktie. I do not believe that Jesus and the apostles wore neckties. But in our culture, it is acceptable to dress up if you're public speaking. And so I do that not because I think I'm more spiritual by wearing a necktie, but rather that I honor what it is that I am doing. If you go to an important interview, you don't show up in your t-shirt and shorts. you show up dressed appropriately for the occasion. And so that's another kind of tradition. But there is also another sort of tradition, which is a pattern of biblical behavior. of what is right and what is wrong, the way we ought to behave in the light of Scripture. No, there may not be sometimes a specific command, but we know from Scripture the way we ought to behave. A way you can look at that is, for instance, the subject of gambling. There is no command against gambling in Scripture. However, there are many instructions on being good stewards of our money and time. And so we build that case not because, you know, in 2nd Spartacus it says that you can't do this or so, but rather, am I being a good steward of what God has given me? And so we make that kind of distinction at times. But here we have a pattern of behavior that was taught by the apostles and the way they walked among them. And he says, People who do not behave that way, you need to be careful. Look what he says, for you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you. And so, On the one hand, Christ himself had given the command that those who preach the gospel are to live by it. It is right and good for churches to support their pastors. That that is the right and proper way for things to take place. It is wrong for churches to refuse to care for their pastor. In fact, it's wicked sin when they do that. It is also true that he is actually supposed to do something for what they're paying him. Now, some folks would look at me for the last three weeks and say, you're not getting your money's worth. But I do have an excuse. I've been a little under the weather. So God gives us grace and mercy in those cases. But if you look at the example of Paul and how he behaved, it's interesting. If you would turn with me back to the book of Acts where we have the very example that he set. And, excuse me, in Acts chapter 16 we saw where they were in Philippi, in northern what we would call Macedonia or Greece today, and they were set upon and beaten and terrible things happened. And then in Acts chapter 17, after they left that town, In chapter 17, verse 1, now, when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, this Jesus, whom I'm proclaiming to you, is the Christ, is the Messiah. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. So Paul is there. He is continually proclaiming the gospel. We see him there in three successive Sabbaths. I know there are some Bible teachers that say, well, he was only there for three weeks. We're not really sure that. We just know that he was there for three successive Sabbaths, and then everything went against him, but that does not mean he was not preaching longer and in other places. We just know about those three Sabbaths. It's amazing though, when you consider that what a short time he was there, how much biblical truth he had given them. a great deal of the Gospel, of things to come, all kinds of things about the Gospel that he preached. Would that our teachers today were more careful to bring more biblical teaching. We see him there being run out of town, they were dragged before the authorities, and eventually Paul and Silas are taken away by night to Berea and so on. And he goes there, and then there's another riot there, and he goes on to Athens. And later on, In Acts chapter 18, we see verse 1 of chapter 18 says, after these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they were working, for by trade, they were tent makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. Now we see Paul here when he gets to Corinth is actually working. He takes a, you might call it a second job. He's a bi-vocational preacher and he's working as a tent maker along with preaching the gospel. I did that for many years. I preached at a church on Glade Park and during the week I worked either on a ranch or in construction and I had two jobs. I've joked that it's Being a bivocational pastor is a bit like trying to have two wives. Nobody's happy. It's very difficult to do. But he did that. He gave them that example of working hard. Now, we saw him in Thessalonica, he was working hard at preaching the gospel. We see him in Corinth, working hard, not only preaching the gospel, but supporting himself. But I want you to notice in verse 4, or excuse me, verse 5 of Acts 18. But, when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. And so, why was he able to do that? A, he had been working, and B, we find out from the book of Philippians that the Philippian church had sent a gift by means of Timothy and Silas. When they came, he had some funds so that he could continue to support himself. But you see now, if you turn back to 2 Thessalonians, he was giving them two examples of working hard. One, in preaching the gospel on a regular basis, and also, when necessary, he would work for a living in a secular job. And so, what had happened in 2 Thessalonians, there was a group of people in the Thessalonian church, apparently, who had the idea, well, Christ is coming any minute, there's no point in having a job, let's just wait until Jesus comes. Remember what I was saying earlier about some of the false teachers of today that teach on prophetic subjects, and you'll see them say, well, everybody needs to sell all their stuff and come and live here at the church, and we'll divide everything up equally, and we'll just wait for Jesus to come. How well is that working for them? It happens over and over again, especially in the cults. How many times have the JWs claimed that Jesus was coming back? A bunch. I think he supposedly came in 1914, and I forget how many times. False teachers are constantly doing that. So if someone comes to you and says, I have this revelation. I just understood this scripture that Jesus is coming back on November the 12th. Mark it on your calendar. It won't be that day. God is not going to honor that. I remember when Harold Camping had his thing, and it was October something. And folks at work were talking about a place where I worked. I said, oh, there's nothing to worry about. Christ isn't coming back today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. They didn't know what to do with that one. Here is the thing. Jesus tells us He will come like how? A thief in the night. If you knew when the thief was going to break in, wouldn't you wait up for him with your shotgun loaded? Of course you would. The whole idea of a thief is he comes when you're not looking. And Christ will return, not because someone predicted it, but because the Father says it's time. Now our prayer, constantly, it would be great if he came back before I got done preaching today. Wouldn't that be good? And I say the sooner the better. Then you wouldn't have to listen to the rest of this sermon. It'd be great. But we live as though He were not, in one sense, in that we continue on with our lives. We have jobs, we provide for our families, it is the godly thing to do. And mark this down, a fellow who refuses to care for his family, according to Paul, is a heretic. He is a man who is departing from the faith. It's a very dangerous thing to say, well, I don't have to do that. So Paul says himself, we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you. We did not act under disorderly conduct. Look at what he says, we didn't eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with labor and hardship, we kept working night and day, so that we might not be a burden to any of you." And so, was he working at a secular job at that time? Or was he working in the gospel? It's hard to tell from this passage, it would appear from Acts, that he was working hard in the gospel itself, in proclaiming the Word. And it was right in that way, to pay them in that labor of the gospel. but he was not sitting around waiting on people to wait on him. And then he goes on in verse nine, not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you that you might follow our example. Paul talks about it in Corinthians. that he had the right to travel and depend on others, and yet many times he would work in a secular way alongside of his gospel to provide for their needs as an example to others. And then look at this verse. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. If anyone will not work, neither let him eat. You see, there were people that were just mooching off of the church. Now, when we get together for a love feast like we're going to have today and have fellowship lunch together, we all eat together, we understand that. But there are times when folks just want to live off of other people. That's wrong. That's not a biblical lifestyle to behave like. I remember a pastor friend that I knew years ago that he and his church were having a homeless ministry here in town. And they would go down to the park every Saturday and have a meal for the homeless. And somebody in their church had the idea, well, maybe we could help the homeless by helping them with clothes and maybe even help them to know how to apply for a job, how to write a resume, and we could have like a job fair for these homeless folks. And so they went down to the park and nobody showed up until the food was brought out. And he was kind of disappointed. And he said there was one fellow there who was kind of like self-appointed leader of the homeless folks at that time. And he took him aside and he said, you need to understand something. He said, we will come and listen to you preach so that we can have a meal. We will do that. We're glad to have it. But we're not interested in having jobs. We live this way because we want to. That was the last time they had a meal from that group. You see, here was this attitude of, I don't have to work, you owe me a living. As a Christian, you can honestly say, I don't need to support you in this. Now, there are folks, honestly, who truly are in trouble through no fault of their own. And we ought to be open and generous with them. But when you have folks that say, no, I won't work, well, then you don't need to eat either. When you get hungry enough, maybe you'll get a job. And so we need to have compassion on one hand, and just plain good common sense on the other. And so there's a balance there for the church. And so he says, if you won't work, you don't eat. He says, we gave you an example, we kept working. And then look at this, in verse 11, for we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. This is a play on words here. You may not pick it up in English, but it's a play on words. In that saying, they are very busy doing nothing and very busy with messing about in other people's lives. Remember the old adage that the idle hands are the devil's workshop. One of the best things you can do is keep people busy. My brother who served many years in the military and served in Vietnam, he said it was interesting, he said, morale was always the lowest when things were quiet and going well. Morale was always highest when things were going badly and they were under constant attack. Why is that? Well, they didn't have time to think about it and why? You're so busy trying to keep your head on that you're not worrying about complaining about what this guy's doing and that guy's doing. It happens in churches, dear ones. The busier we are, the better off we are. Think about your own life and your personal life. Isn't it good for us to be busy? To have plenty to do? I've shared with many how one of the best things that happened in my life was that when I got a job, not paid by the hour, but salaried. I worked many more hours a week, but I loved it. I loved working the hour. If I'd figured out what I was making per hour, it would have been awful. But I loved it. Why? I was busy all the time. I never paid any attention to the clock. I was done when the sun went down. It was great. And you may have a different view of that, but for me, it helped me to be more dedicated to my work. It was that I wasn't worrying about how many more You know, hours are there in this last 10 minutes. You know how that goes? Have you ever experienced that? Do you ever notice that the clock sped up during lunch hour and break time, and then it slowed way down afterwards? But once I was working at a salary, it didn't matter anymore. I was happy to be there. And so, Busyness in doing the right thing is a wonderful thing. But if you have nothing to do, you'll still be busy, but you'll be causing trouble for other people. Did you notice that passage from Proverbs that we read from earlier? Notice how it talks about the sluggard, meaning a lazy person, Have you ever seen a slug move? Not very fast. That's the idea. Did you ever have anybody working for you like that? You had to drive a fence post beside them to see if they were moving? I mean, I've known a few like that. That's the slugger. He would rather work harder at not working. And you see that in that passage. But notice the following verses to that are those who cause trouble among brothers. Did you find that interesting where it says, like someone who throws firebrands in death who says to his neighbor, I was only joking. Here's a tip. If the other person isn't laughing, it wasn't a joke. We need to be more careful with the things we say. We'll say something cruel or sarcastic and, oh ha ha, I was only joking. That doesn't take the sting away, does it? You see, what happens is, why do we think of such things? We have too much time on our hands. I can think of all kinds of things when I'm just sitting about. When I'm busy, I'm not coming up with that kind of junk. And so, laziness and troublemaking between brothers go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. And so Paul is warning them, isn't it interesting that you have this whole passage on working hard in the midst of a nice letter? It should encourage you. You hear people say, well, I wouldn't have gone to that church if I'd known they had all those problems there. Oh, they've got room for another, you can go. You see, churches are made up of fallen creatures. People who are walking with Christ, people who are learning of Christ, but still, are held back by many of their old habits and ways of thinking and we're growing together, aren't we? How many times have I had to come before you and say, I'm sorry, I didn't handle that rightly. It happens. Pastors have to do that sometimes. I'll never forget the first time someone in this church said to me, Pastor, I'm sorry I did that. I don't know if you realize that that's extremely rare for pastors to hear. But it was a precious moment. And it endeared that person to me forever. Oh, how often we need to do some self-assessment. You know, all of my motivations are pure and wonderful. Right? How often do we need to say to someone, I'm sorry I spoke that way. I'm sorry I spoke in haste. I'm sorry I said that cruel thing and then said I was joking. Oh, dear ones, keep short accounts with your loved ones here. How wonderful it would be if brothers and sisters would live in peace with one another. Funny, there's a psalm all about that, isn't there? How precious it is when brothers live in peace with one another. And so Paul says, we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. He uses really strong terms. It's not just a suggestion. We command and exhort. I mean, this is like really strong words that he uses here. I kind of remember my dad, he had a way of putting it, usually with his hand at your collar. And it would start something like this, now I'm going to talk and you're going to listen. Those were good moments, not at the moment, but you look back and you realize, thank you, Dad, for speaking and not allowing me to talk back. And this is kind of Paul here, now I'm going to talk and you're going to listen. No, I'm telling you, get out there and get to work. Get busy. There was an old evangelist of years ago that said, Trust God and get busy. There's a lot to that. Are you surprised by your own laziness? Human beings are naturally lazy. We are by nature. Now, I know there's some folks that are, you know, more type A's or whatever. They're still lazy about things they want to be. All of us are. We need the motivation of the Holy Spirit to cause us to step out of that comfort zone. How about those times when you could speak a word for Christ in a situation? And you think, well, I can't say anything. They know how I behaved last week. Yes, they do. So you can preface what you're saying by, I am sorry for the way I spoke last week, but here is the truth. And share the Gospel. You can do that. It's amazing what God can do. Work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. Don't be loafing. Don't be a drag on the church. Notice verse 13, but as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. Well, how can I grow weary of doing good? Do you ever grow weary of doing good? I can tell from experience that pastors get tired of it. We do. More than once I've been tempted to leave a sticky note on the pulpit. I just needed a break. I hadn't been camping in a long time and I needed it. Sorry. That would create a stir in the church, wouldn't it? Do you get weary of doing good? Do you get weary of, oh man, we're having that potluck again and I haven't fixed anything? You ever feel that way? Yeah. Do you think pastors wake up every morning saying, oh boy, I get to prepare another sermon? Sometimes we do. There are some sermons that are easy to preach, and then there's ones like this one. I deliberately did not preach this sermon several weeks ago. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Because I love you guys so much, and I see you guys work hard, and how can I complain? And I just didn't feel like I could bring you a sermon against sloth We used to joke about our homeschool, you know, the Walker Homeschool for the Gifted? You know, that one, where my kids went. You know, teams, you know, every school has their mascot, right? I mean, some will have the Panthers or the Rams. We were the Rams growing up. I always joked that ours was the Sloths. The Walker homeschool sloths. What do you think? Move real slow. They didn't appreciate it. They felt they should have been the wolverines. Okay. Brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. We need that reminder now and then. There are times when it is not convenient to do good, to do the right thing. In fact, sometimes it's just not convenient at all and we would rather avoid it. Paul has to tell them, don't grow weary of doing good. And then he says, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him so that he may be put to shame. One of the sad things that happens in the modern church is there's no discipline at all. The reformers viewed church discipline as one of the essential marks of a genuine church. Is the gospel being preached? Is there biblical leadership? Are they practicing the ordinances, that is, the Lord's Table and baptism? And, is there church discipline? There are times when we have to be disciplined. Now, remember, we've gone through all kinds of teaching on how biblical church discipline takes place. The vast majority of biblical discipline never comes before the body. Most of church discipline takes place there in Matthew 18, where one brother says to the other brother, hey, that hurt. And the other brother says, I am so sorry, brother. I didn't mean to hurt you. Please forgive me. And that's the end of it. A great deal of church discipline happens right there without it ever coming to the board or to the church meeting or any of that. But there are times when it is serious, isn't it? We've had to do that here. It's not fun, is it? But yeah, sometimes there's a time when you have to say, if you're going to continue to behave this way, you can't be here with us and continue to do that. Now the goal is that that person would see the error of their ways, come back, say they're sorry, repent of whatever it was they were doing, and come back in and be restored to fellowship. But sadly, in our day, there's another church just a few blocks away that they can just go and plug right into, and nobody the wiser. That's the sad part of it today. But Paul is telling them there are consequences to misbehaving. He says, don't regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Do you love your brother enough to tell them the truth? I remember a situation that cropped up several years ago here. Now, these folks are all gone, and so don't be looking around thinking, I wonder who that was. But there was a fellow who began living with a new girlfriend, continuing to come to church, bringing the new girlfriend. I began to get suspicious because of some things that they had said. And so I went to visit him in his home and I deliberately went early in the morning. And lo and behold, she was there fixing breakfast. So I had to ask, are you two living together? Well, yeah. You do understand that that's wrong. And his response was, nobody ever said anything to me with the one before this. Okay. So when we finally had to deal with this, I had to ask our own church people, how many of you knew this was going on all those years ago? Well, yeah. Didn't you love him enough to warn him? Apparently not. You see, that's the problem in the church today, is that we're so afraid of offending anybody, we offend God Himself. There you have it. We would rather offend God than hurt someone's feelings. So Paul is laying before them the right way to handle it. If they won't obey, then you can't continue to associate in the same way. The idea is to bring them to shame. He says, don't regard him as an enemy, admonish him as a brother. Now, there are times when you have to come to that point of saying, you're not behaving like a brother. I have to now assume that you're not. and I will return to preaching the gospel to you." Notice what Paul follows such a statement with. Now may the Lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. In the midst of telling him you need to discipline these people, he's saying may you live in peace. Do you want to live in peace? It will not happen ignoring wrongdoing. It will only get worse. You know the old joke about the glass with water in it? One guy looks at it and says, well, it's half full. The other one says it's half empty. The engineer says it's twice as big as it needs to be. The realist looks at it and says, well, if it sits there, somebody's gonna have to wash it, it's probably me. But then you come to your average church member, and you know what that is? If I ignore it long enough, the water will evaporate and nobody has to do anything. That's not how problems work in churches, dear ones. I had to learn it by my own bitter experience. If you feel like something's probably wrong, it probably is. You may be mistaken specifically what it is, but if you're sensing that something's wrong, you're probably right. So who's supposed to deal with it? Well, who was it brought to their attention? If you know that your brother is walking in a way that you shouldn't, do you just run to the pastor and say, pastor, you need to deal with brother so-and-so? No, the Lord brought it to your attention for a reason. Go deal with it. And if you need help, the pastor is there to help you. But Matthew 18 does not say, go to the pastor first. It says, go to your brother first. If we loved one another and cared for one another enough, like I say, most church discipline, you would never see it happen because we would be loving one another and caring for one another and keeping short accounts rather than letting something fester and come up with something really bad later. May the Lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all. Isn't this amazing? Paul says, be at peace. You see it in Romans, the same thing. He warns against people turning away from listening to the gospel, and then he assures them of God's peace and hope. And then you come to this interesting statement. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. And this is a distinguishing mark in every letter. This is the way I write. Why was this important? Well, already at that early time, there were frauds. were sending out letters saying they were supposedly from Paul, and supposedly from Peter, and so on. And you still hear about it today. Have you heard this nonsense of, oh, you've never heard the Gospel of Judas? They were fraudulent documents when they were written. And the early church quickly recognized that they were frauds, and never accepted them. And yet you would have people today say, oh, we need to look at this new document we found. No, you don't. You have in your hands the Word of God. You have between the covers of this book everything that God has ever spoken to mankind. Every single word. You don't need to be waiting for some new word from God. Mark it down. Somebody who comes to you and says, I have a new word from God, they're lying. There's no such thing. This Bible is sufficient and it is complete. There's nothing else to add to it. Be careful with that. Oh, there's folks that'll come and say, oh yeah, I had this vision. Oh, I saw Jesus saying this. Really? Not according to this book. In fact, there's a stern warning at the end of it, not to add to it or take away from it, remember? But Paul says, this is the way I write. Apparently, in this original edition, he had written in his own handwriting, and it was recognizable. But there's also something else recognizable about Paul's writings. Not only we don't have any of the original autographs, do we? But there's something else that Paul gave in all of his letters that help you know it's from him. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Somewhere in the last few verses of every single one of his letters is that statement. Did you know that? You don't have to go and look now, but it's true. He had a particular way of ending his letters, and he would include that phrase in the last two or three verses. He would say, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Now, here's just a side light. If you look at the end of the book of Hebrews, His grace be with you all. That's the end of Hebrews. Now I think that's a pretty good argument that possibly Paul wrote that one too. Just saying. We don't have his autograph at the end. But it seems to be a good indication. But we do know that with first and second Thessalonians, he said it very carefully in that way. And so we come to the end of this book. What have you learned? A. Christ is coming. B. He has not yet come. C. You won't know it till it happens. D. When it happens, it's over. It'll be loud, it'll be visible, and it'll be over. When Christ returns, it's not going to be a secret. He warns us against people who teach that. If they tell you He's in the inner rooms, don't go. If they tell you He's out in the wilderness, don't go. Because when He comes, the whole world will know it. There won't be some secret message to Harold Camping or some other false teacher. It'll be loud. And here is the thing. What does He tell us to do? Stay busy until I come. A good worker. What does a good worker do? We have folks here that employ other people. What do you look for in a good worker? Someone who is working when you're not around. The kind of person that you can give a task and they stay at it until they're told to do something different. And that's what God has given you and me to do. Stay busy, stay occupied until I come. It's what the Lord said. Stay busy. Are you busy? Are you working for Him? Or are you just kind of kicked back? There's no such thing as retirement from the Christian life. Now, you may retire from a job here on earth that happens. Hey, my older brother was forced to retire recently. He didn't want to, but they said, nope, you've got enough years here, you're not coming back. Goodbye. But in the Christian life, there's no such thing as retirement. Stay busy till He comes. And if you want to see happy Christians, they're busy Christians. They're ones who are doing something. I remember the Bachmans, dear, dear brother and sister I knew years ago, when they were in their late 80s, They had to go into assisted living. They just couldn't physically care for themselves anymore. So they went up here to one of these assisted living places. The first day, you know what they were doing? They were out knocking on doors saying, we're starting a Bible study in our apartment, would you like to come? And they were sharing the gospel with their neighbors in the assisted living. They weren't sitting back waiting for somebody to care for them. They were out knocking on doors and saying, come to our apartment, we'll teach you from the Word. And when those two passed away, they passed away within weeks of each other. I had the privilege of preaching both services. Dear brother and sister in Christ, How does that happen? They stay busy. If it's only sharing the gospel with the person in the next bed, get busy. Let's pray. Father, thank you for words that convict me. Oh, Father, how lazy I am. What an unprofitable servant I am. Oh, Father, may we be thrilled by the privilege of serving You. God bless us and keep us. Lord, thank You for each one here today. May we leave here to serve You better. In Jesus' name, Amen. Come on up, Clark. Years ago, I wrote this. How weak is my faith. How cold my love for God. How timid my witness. How foolish his servant. How unprofitable his slave. I am constantly shocked by the depravity of my own heart. If it were not for his restraining and intervening grace, who knows what depths I would sink to. I own myself to be but a skin bag of dust and corruption. Oh, that my king would come and set me free of this dungeon. Brother, lead us in song.