2nd Thessalonians Part 3 – Lawson Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends, we are concluding our series today on 2 Thessalonians. We are in chapter three, where Paul is encouraging the believers of Thessalonica to guard their relationships. Did you know the Bible says, “Awake to righteousness and sin not.” But right before that it says, “Beware of evil communications because they corrupt good manners.” Open your heart and receive the word of God. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians, we went through that first, and he was talking about, “Jesus is gonna come again.” And then he kind of continues this in 2 Thessalonians, “How do we live in light of His coming?” And these were written about 50 to 52 AD. So we read this and let’s just go jump into it. We’ll look at some of these scriptures in 2 Thessalonians 1, where we started, that Jesus is coming to save the church, and he’s coming to judge the world. How do we respond? He says this, and we’ll read verse seven through 12 really quickly. And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day. Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, to fulfill the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” So how do we respond? You know, when we read scriptures about Jesus coming for his church, those are are scriptures that we look forward to his coming with great anticipation. When you read scriptures about him coming to judge the world, there’s a different perception of that, right? But what do we do in the church? He says, “Walk by faith, trust in grace and be at peace.” He goes on in 2 Thessalonians 2:1 and he says, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together to him.” Jesus is gonna come, but what do we do in the meantime? And he says he is not gonna come. And he talks about the antichrist and he says, you know, “Let no man,” he says this in verse three, “Let no man deceive you that day, the day the Lord will not come, except there’s a falling away first and the man of sin revealed, the son of perdition.” And he talks a little bit about that, but then he says there’s something that’s resisting him. What is resisting the antichrist?

Congregation The church.

The church. The church is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And Israel was the type of the church in the Old Testament. And for another foreign nation to come take over Israel in the Old Testament, they either had to be backslid nor removed. So as long as the church is here, as long as we keep being salt, keep being light, we are gonna be resisting, right, darkness, we’re gonna be resisting the spirit of antichrist. By the way, the spirit of antichrist has been around since the first century church. John wrote about it in 1 John, and that’s what he was talking about, resisting that. And we have the spirit of love, the spirit of truth, the spirit of life, right? That helps us overcome, right, the spirit of antichrist. So how do we respond to that? He tells us in verse 15 to verse 17 of 2 Thessalonians 2, Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions you’ve have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting confidence and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.” So stand fast in the word, keep your confidence through hoping in his grace and be established in every good word and work. Finally talks about responding to Jesus. How are we responding to Jesus? And he says a couple of things here in 2 Thessalonians 3, we’ll read these two verses and then we’ll go back and begin in verse one. He says in verse three, “The Lord is faithful who will establish you and keep you from evil.” How many of you’re glad that Jesus is faithful? And he will establish you and he will keep you from evil. You don’t have to, you know, be overcome with evil, but you can overcome evil with good. And then he says this in verse 13, and Barbara, I didn’t know I was sharing this scripture actually, and I’ve got it right down in my notes, Galatians 6, but, “Brethren be not weary in well-doing.” And she shared that, maybe I’ll share it later. I’ve got some others I can add in. So how do we respond to Jesus? Well, don’t be weary and well-doing. But let’s go back to verse one and read the first five verses together. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you, that we may be delivered from in unreasonable and wicked men: for all men do not have the faith.” How many of you found out there’s some people who don’t have faith? You know now, some of them, they just willingly admit they don’t have faith. My neighbor, where we moved in 13 years ago, you know what? He said, “They call me bad Billy, and I don’t like preachers and I don’t like church.” The men’s group was moving me into the house and he said, “What’s going on?” They said, “We’re moving our pastor.” He said, “I don’t like pastors.” I said, “There’s my assignment.” Hallelujah. But I kept talking to bad Billy. Amen. And he said, “You know, I’m not a lot different than you.” And I said, “No, you aren’t. We’re really a lot alike in personality, amen.” So I didn’t disagree with him. We’re all saved by grace if we’re saved. Amen?

Congregation Amen.

And he had a belly full of religion. Now he’d had a bad marriage and had trouble, right, with his first wife. So they were separated, parted of ways. He had his girlfriend, he said, “Girlfriend, not wife,” he is really rough. But then she ran off with another guy. So he got connected with this backslidden Baptist girl. And I met her daddy and I thought, “You know what? Billy is in trouble.” He might be watching tonight. He knows I love him. He knows I’m telling the truth. Praise God. Billy might be watching tonight. And we witnessed to him, talk to him about Jesus did all we could, amen, we’re kind to him, kept reaching out. But I thought when he married this backslidden Baptist girl, he is in trouble. Praise God. Well, amen. Billy married Shelly, amen. And Billy turned his life to Jesus and received Jesus. And they have places in Phoenix and a place here. And so when they’re here, they’ve been coming to church, praise God. And a lot of things are changing, praise God. And so we just thank God for the grace of God, but, you know what? He says, “We need to keep sharing the word of God, but we need to be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men.” But I found out some of those people aren’t in the world. Some of those people are in the church. He says, “For all men, have not faith.” And he says, “But the Lord is faithful who will stablish you, and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that you both do and will do the things which we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and the patient waiting for Christ.” So the first thing he says is, keep praying. Jesus is coming. Keep praying. You know, Jesus said this in the gospel of Luke. He said, “When the son of man returns, shall he find faith on the earth? And the way he answered, finding faith on the earth is one sign of faith is people of faith pray. Now, not all prayers are prayers of faith. In fact, the Muslims and the Buddhists pray circles around most Christians. So not all prayers are of faith, but all people of faith pray. And when you have faith in God, you’re gonna call on the name of Jesus. And Jesus told us how to pray. Our Father, God’s our Father. We’re in his family. That changes how we pray, doesn’t it? You know, I’ve been to Nepal, I’ve been on mission trips and I’ve told y’all the story how I was out running early in the morning in Nepal, and this one guy kept passing me up and I was running fast. He was running a lot faster than me, but I was going along. And then pretty soon he’d passed me up and pretty soon he’d passed me up and I thought, “He passed me up a while ago. What’s going on? He’s running faster than I am.” And then I came by one of the… And we were in Kathmandu. It’s the city of over a hundred million gods. And he was ducking in every place he could, praying to as many gods as he could because Hinduism is a religion of fear. And he was trying to appease the wrath of as many gods as he could before the day got started. How many of you glad that Jesus already died? He already took the wrath of God. And we don’t have to appease the wrath of God, it’s already being appeased, but we just need to believe on Jesus. So we’re not praying out of fear, but we’re praying out of faith. So it changes how you pray when you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re not praying, trying to move God. Because God already accomplished some things right, in Christ on the cross. So you’re praying really as a response to what Jesus already accomplished in his death and resurrection. And if you read Paul’s prayers in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, Colossians 1 and Philippians 1, Paul prays from a totally different perspective. His prayers in those books, I think it’s one of the greatest examples of how to pray in the New Testament because he never talks about fear. He never talks about lack. He never talks about what we don’t have. He never talks about the devil. He never talks about demons. You know what He prays? He prays, number one, you need to know Jesus. Number two, you need to know what God’s called you to do. Number three, you need to know what he’s invested in you. And number four, you need to know the authority that you have in Jesus so you can do something about the situations on the earth. So you praise in a totally different way. Know who God is, know who Christ is, know who you are, know what he’s given you, and walk it out. And then complete, check me out. It’s a totally different way of praying. So he says, “Pray this. Pray that the word of the Lord may have free course,” the modern English is run swiftly and be glorified, “that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men.” Some people are unreasonable and wicked. Even those sometimes who claim to know the Lord. He says, “Because everybody doesn’t have faith.” And then he says, “We are praying for you. The Lord is faithful, he will establish you, he will keep you from evil. We have confidence in the Lord that you both do and will do the things we command you. The Lord direct your hearts in the love of God. We’re praying that the Lord would establish you that you would do the right thing and the Lord would direct your hearts in the love of God and in the patient waiting for Jesus.” So number one, keep praying. When the son of man returns, shall he find faith on the earth. Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve been enjoying the word of God today. Did you know we have a website and on our website we have hundreds of hours of free teaching, downloadable audio, downloadable video, a free children’s curriculum, and soon to come a free youth curriculum plus much more on our website at Charis Christian Center. Check it out. The word will produce freedom in your life. Psalm 138:2 says, “I magnified my word above all of my name.” Thank God His word is magnified. Praise God. When you honor the word, you honor God. When you honor the word, you honor Christ. You need to let the word of God be the absolute standard for truth, praise God? Paul says in Colossians 4:2, “Continue in prayer.” He says in 2 Timothy chapter, or 1 Timothy chapter 2:1, “First of all, prayers intercessions giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all who are in authority that we may live a peaceable life in all godliness.” Amen, he talks about prayers still a priority and prayers are not a big work that we do. Prayer to me is as easy as breathing. It’s part of who we are. Praise God? It comes out of our spirit, it comes out of our relationship with God. The second thing he talks about Jesus is coming again so keep working, right? Keep working. Let’s read verse six through 10. “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how you ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man’s bread for nothing; but worked with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample to you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Now that is Barna and my dad’s, he went to heaven when I was 17, but that was his favorite scripture. In fact, I got filled with the spirit on fire for Jesus, called to preach. I was saved when I was eight. But that happened when I was 14 years old. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit in Andrew Wommack’s Bible study and knew that God called me to preach and I was in love with Jesus. And my dad had me out there and we were planting these trees, sweating like a dog in July, right? Cutting the weeds around him in southeast Colorado, irrigating, humid, hot, bugs. I’m like, “Daddy, why are we doing all this? Jesus is gonna come again.” He said, “Son, if a man don’t work, he don’t eat.” I said, “Yeah, daddy, but Jesus is coming.” He said, “Son, the Bible says, ‘Occupy till I come,’ get to work.” Now, I had this missionary tell me a number of years after my dad went home to be with Jesus in Mexico. I taught for 12 years in Mexico at a Bible school that we supported while we pastored and Kit Carson from 1988 to 2001. I’ll go there every year and teach about a week. But that missionary told me, “If you go there, those trees are still there.” And if you drive there today, those trees are still there. And they’re big, beautiful groves, Eastern red cedars, ponderosa pine, lots and lots of cottonwoods. They’re beautiful. Hallelujah. Jesus hasn’t come yet. And I’m still working more excited every day to go to work than I’ve ever been. And so he says, “Listen, withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks disorderly,” and laziness counts as disorderly. He said, “We work day and night.” Did we work because we had to eat? No, we worked because we wanna give. What’s your attitude in working? I told Tanya, “I could retire right now if I want to. God’s been very gracious to me.” I have plenty of money, amen? I could live very well for the rest of my life, but I’m not planning on retiring. I’m 60 years old. I’m planning on preaching till I’m 90 if Jesus tarries. Now my roles will change. But I love to work. And listen, in the last couple of days, I picked some weeds out in front of the church and picked up some trash, right? I’m not ahead of picking weeds and picking up trash, amen? And anybody around here, you know, I had a person that worked for me and he is complaining to my mother about my work ethic. This was a few years back. And my mother told him, “Well, I guarantee you Lawson will never ask you to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself or hasn’t done himself.” And that’s the truth. Amen. But anyway, I’m gonna stop right there, or I’ll get in trouble. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” That’s what my dad told me over and over again. In fact, I had a good friend, he had handed out some tracks and it said, “If you wanna make money” and you open it up and is a big written across the middle of the track, WORK in big red letters. You know, it’s just amazing if you, you know, if you want to get ahead, just go to work. But what’s our purpose in working? Before I go to this scripture, turn with me to Ephesians. Let me show you this because I think one of… This is my goal really in working is this right here. Ephesians 4:28 says it, “Let him who stole steel no more, but rather let him labor, let him work. Working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs.” I work so that I can give. My goal is to give. Do you know Isaiah 32:8 says, “The liberal devises liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand.” You could say it like this, “The generous devises generous things, and by generous things shall he stand.” In other words, God gives seed to sowers. And if you determine to be generous, God will see that you have seed to sow, hallelujah. I still remember when I gave my first tithes check. I was 13 years old. I made 1300 plus dollars in the summer. And I got paid all with one check. I didn’t make very much per hour, but I worked a lot of hours. But I brought $135 check and put it in the Sunday school offering. My dad taught me to tithe as a child. And I’ve always tithed and I’ve never lacked. There’s a blessing on tithing and I believe in it. Amen? I would keep doing it. Herb Carter can tell you, Herb and Judith were young and they weren’t making enough money. They said, “Let’s talk to grandma.” Grandma was a good Methodist. She said, “Well, you ought to start tithing.” They said, “Well, we don’t have enough money to make it anyway, why don’t we tithe?” So they started tithing and guess what? They had some stuff go wrong and it looked like they shouldn’t make it. But then Herb was a mechanic and people started hiring Herb to work on their cars in his yard and different things. And Herb had to be in the hospital and somebody came and paid off the hospital bill. And all these different miracles happened to them. We have another family that helped us start this church, Bob and Carol Hellem. and Bob and Carol were running a Firestone. And their accountant said, “You guys better declare bankruptcy because there’s no way that you can make it.” But they got saved and they started going to church and they started tithing.” And they said, we’re not gonna declare bankruptcy. We’re gonna believe God. And they cleaned houses at night and cut firewood on the weekends and kept running their Firestone. And God turned their financial life completely around and they became greatly blessed and great givers. This has happened time after time, after time after time. And so I believe in tithing. Amen? If you don’t believe me, talk to some of these people that have proved it out in their own life. And I’m not after your money. If you don’t wanna give, keep it. I’m not worried about it. Amen.

Congregation Amen.

But you know what? It’s worked in my own life. My pastor told me. When Barbara and I were getting married, I was making $800 a month, giving $200 a month to the church. I didn’t know I’d keep it up. My pastor said, “Lawson, you’re a tither and giver and you’ll never lack.” And you know what we’ve never lacked. I kept giving $200 a month. God changed the way I got paid. I took on a $300 house payment way back then. And you know what? God just keeps blessing us. He keeps helping us. Hallelujah. Larry and Carla, another testimony, they were challenged. They came to our church in Kit Carson. The elders sat down and met and said, “Hey, let’s help them.” They made a commitment to tithe, then God bless them. And God turned their situation around time after time after time. God says this in Malachi 3, “Prove me. See if I won’t open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that’s not lar….” Hallelujah. We’ve proven him over and over. Barbara and I don’t give 10%, we give about 30. Amen? But we work so that we can give. And I get to do it, I’m excited. One thing we’ve done in this church, I used to talk to pastors and say, “You know, you need to give at least 10%.” “Oh we can’t afford to do it.” And they still can’t afford to do it. In fact, they can’t afford to do much. We started our first church, we didn’t give 10%, we gave about 50% of the money away. And God blessed us and took care of us. We started this church. We had almost no people and no money. We’ve given every year between 10 and 27% of the money away. Everything you see here is completely paid for. Amen. And we got plenty of excess. Amen. And I offend people because we have too much. But God’s spoken some word to us about the future. And you know what? We wouldn’t have this if we didn’t do what God told us to do when he told us to do it. So we’re gonna keep doing what God told us to do. And if somebody gets offended over the church being blessed, that’s your challenge. But I’m gonna keep doing what Jesus told me to do ’cause he is good. And you know what? It works. And so he says, “Let us work. Let him that stole steel no more: but rather let him work with his hands that which is good, that he may have to give to him who needs,” right? I don’t work so I can live. My living’s taken care of. I work so that I can give. Giving is my goal. In fact, Jesus talked about it. There’s a certain rich man, right, or man, and he had a big harvest. He said, “Hey, let’s build a bigger barn. Let’s fill it up and let’s do nothing from now on.” And Jesus said, “You fool, tonight, your soul is gonna be required of you.” Wow. Amen, Jesus said it. If you don’t like it, talk to Jesus. But keep working but don’t work to live, work to give. Let giving be your goal. And guess what you’re living will be no problem. Amen. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been watching. Did you know the scripture says that where your heart is there will your treasure be also. We’ve just been sharing about, you know what? You don’t wanna work just to live. You wanna work to give, that’s what Ephesians tells us. And when you got that mentality that I’m not working just to make a living, but I’m working to be a giver, you know the scripture says God gives seed to the sower. If you will determine to be a sower, God will see that you have seed to sow. I believe that Charis Christian Center and “Grace for Today” is good ground. In fact, we’ve seen many people who partner with this ministry, prosper exponentially. It’s super natural increase. In fact, I have a book on that and it all comes from the Bible. So if you wanna become a partner today, a first time new partner with Charis Christian Center and “Grace for Today”, we’re gonna offer you that book “Releasing Supernatural Increase in your Life Provision.” And we’re gonna offer it to you free of charge. So give us a call if you need prayer, if you wanna become a partner, we would love to hear from you, blessings. Hey, everyone, I want you to mark your calendar for Family Camp meeting. We’re gonna have great teaching with Mark Hankins and Pastor Max Cornell. Great worship with Philip Renner, sharing the grace of Jesus all around the globe. And we’re gonna have great children’s meetings, great youth meetings, something for the entire family right here at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. We want to see you here. Blessings. Friend, we here at Cares Christian Center and “Grace for Today” believe in being good stewards of the resources that God has given us. So we pay a professional service that’s actually available to help you do that in a couple of ways. Number one, you can make a will absolutely free of charge with professional legal help. And number two, you can go to Tax Smart Ways of Giving. You can find them all on our website. Hey, everyone, I want to invite you today to subscribe to the Charis Christian Center YouTube channel where you can get hundreds of hours of teaching and different materials absolutely free. We live stream all of our services there and so check it out, Charis Christian Center on the YouTube channel. Thanks so much and have an awesome day.

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