WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.519 Friends, good morning. 00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:21.140 If you're here, if you're a part of our church right now, you are here and part of this community 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:21.140 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:36.259 since we're meeting in a living room because we are on the verge of a relaunch. We're in the final 00:00:36.259 --> 00:00:43.899 stages of renovating our permanent church home in the heart of the city, and this is going to 00:00:43.899 --> 00:00:49.280 bring a lot of change to our community. It's going to create an enormous amount of opportunity. For 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:57.719 the first time ever in the life of our church, we will have a city center permanent location 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:05.120 that will be yours. It will be a place that you can come, whether you live in Bethesda or Chevrolet 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:11.579 or Capitol Hill or Columbia Heights or Arlington or Brooklyn or wherever you're coming from, 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:17.840 you will now have a place where you can come to pray. You will have a place where you can come to 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:23.560 rest and be with the Lord. You'll have a place where you can come to spend time with and connect 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:30.079 with other people in this community. And we're also going to have what will be a hub for ministry 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:38.079 throughout the DMV area. It will greatly expand the opportunities that we have to love and serve 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:44.640 the people of this city. And so we're at this amazing moment that not many people get to experience. 00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:49.420 And so it's incredible, and there's a lot to be excited about just around the corner in the next couple 00:01:49.420 --> 00:01:56.420 of months that will be coming to full fruition. And yet at the same time, it's been a hard year. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:01.680 It's been a hard year for many people in our community, for many people in our society. It's 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:08.560 been a hard year in the life of our country, but also in our church. There's been a lot of change. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:13.400 There's been a lot of upheaval. And I think a lot of people are simply weary. 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:21.640 I am weary. And I know many of you are too for lots of different reasons. And so the question 00:02:21.640 --> 00:02:28.259 that we have before us is how do we lean into what God is doing right now in our midst? 00:02:29.460 --> 00:02:37.980 Right? How do we lean into that? When we might be most tempted to pull back, to say, 00:02:38.040 --> 00:02:43.159 I'm just too tired. I just don't have it in me. I'm just trying to make life work. I'm just 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:49.300 trying to kind of, you know, get through the day or get through the week. How do we lean in when 00:02:49.300 --> 00:02:56.960 there can be a strong and maybe very understandable temptation to pull back? How do we go about 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:02.379 building the kind of church that we feel called to build, right? That being the kind of community 00:03:02.379 --> 00:03:08.180 that we hear about in our gospel reading, right? A community of witnesses who are on mission, who 00:03:08.180 --> 00:03:12.759 recognize that no matter how much we might face, no matter how many challenges might come, 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:18.620 we are fully given over to this calling that we have from the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we become 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:24.899 that kind of community and build the kind of church that we want to be a part of, right, when many of us 00:03:24.899 --> 00:03:31.060 feel so weary? And as it turns out, the lectionary reading this week, the New Testament reading from 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:39.120 2 Thessalonians 3, very practically gets at this question. It very practically speaks to people who I 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:45.520 think feel a lot like us, people who are weary and tired and yet who are desiring to live into this 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:51.700 great calling that we have in response to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen and He is coming 00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:58.400 again, right? And so Paul is writing to these people and he's essentially saying this. I think one of the 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:04.659 kind of core verses here is he says, as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good. 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:12.180 In other words, don't give up. Continue pursuing God's purposes in your life and in your community 00:04:12.180 --> 00:04:17.579 for your good and for His glory. But the question is, how do we do that? And that's what we're going 00:04:17.579 --> 00:04:23.199 to look at this morning. I'm going to suggest three ways from this passage to not grow weary 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:30.039 of doing good, even when we may be tempted to give up. So let's pray and then we will open God's word 00:04:30.039 --> 00:04:37.019 together. Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you that it is ever available to us, 00:04:37.139 --> 00:04:44.800 not only as words on a page, but as a way to hear your voice. Your voice is that which we need most. 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:52.660 Lord, and as we hear your voice, may you align our hearts with your heart and may you bring us face 00:04:52.660 --> 00:04:56.680 to face with the living word, Jesus Christ. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen. 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:03.060 So as we contemplate this question of how do we respond to what God is doing, 00:05:03.580 --> 00:05:07.460 how do we not grow weary of doing good? The first thing I would say from this passage is simply this, 00:05:07.459 --> 00:05:16.000 that we should seek to be intentional in how we live, to be intentional. In both of his letters 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:22.579 to the Thessalonians, Paul warns against the danger of idleness. And the example that he is using here 00:05:22.579 --> 00:05:27.000 is the example of food and people who are either working for the food they eat or not working. 00:05:27.259 --> 00:05:32.699 This is in a community where they would come together, they would share a common meal. But he's 00:05:32.699 --> 00:05:38.339 warning about something more broad when he talks about idleness. This is a much broader term. 00:05:38.939 --> 00:05:43.779 And by the way, he's not the only one who warns against the danger of idleness. Christians have 00:05:43.779 --> 00:05:48.839 warned one another about the danger of idleness throughout the history of the church. St. Francis 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:55.579 famously called idleness the enemy of the soul. But what exactly is idleness? 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:01.459 And at first glance, it might be tempting to think Paul is simply talking about people who are lazy. 00:06:02.699 --> 00:06:07.240 Don't, you know, if people are being lazy, they shouldn't eat. But that's not exactly what he's 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:14.000 talking about. On closer examination, it seems the issue is not so much inactivity. It's the wrong 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:19.240 kind of activity. These people, I think, that Paul has in mind are very active people. 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:27.180 But they're spending their time and energy doing things not that benefit and meet the needs of the 00:06:27.180 --> 00:06:32.120 broader community. They're spending their time and energy on things that are ultimately unproductive 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:38.699 and even disruptive. So the thing we need to understand about idleness is, idleness is not 00:06:38.699 --> 00:06:43.720 necessarily laziness. Idleness is more understood, I think it's better understood, as a lack of 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:53.340 intentionality. It's living a kind of rudderless life where you are allowing yourself to be carried 00:06:53.340 --> 00:07:01.160 along by the wind and the current of the circumstances that you're in. But you're not aiming at anything. 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:08.699 Right? There's no rowing against the current. There's no direction in mind. So you can be 00:07:08.699 --> 00:07:16.579 extremely busy as an idle person, but it's not purposeful. Right? You're spending a lot of sideways 00:07:16.579 --> 00:07:23.439 energy on things that ultimately don't matter. So idleness is like motion without mission. 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:34.399 It's simply motion. A lot of times idleness in our lives looks like a bunch of pseudo work. Now what do I 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:40.459 mean by pseudo work? It's activities that consume energy and consume time but produce no fruit. 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:49.639 Things that multiply and expand our anxieties. Things that maybe prevent us or keep us 00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:56.339 from the responsibilities God has actually entrusted to us. So doom scrolling on our phones. 00:07:57.979 --> 00:08:03.740 Right? How much time do we spend doom scrolling? Or how much time do we spend, you know, just scrolling 00:08:03.740 --> 00:08:11.659 on Instagram or TikTok or Zillow or whatever your favorite flavor might be? That's pseudo work. 00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:18.900 How much time and energy do we spend overthinking and dwelling on situations that we can't ultimately 00:08:18.900 --> 00:08:24.860 control? You know, or putting off decisions because we're just analyzing and researching and analyzing 00:08:24.860 --> 00:08:29.400 and researching and we're afraid to pull the trigger. That's a kind of pseudo work. It takes an enormous 00:08:29.400 --> 00:08:37.279 amount of time and energy. Living lives where we are vastly over committed because we tend to over 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:42.819 commit out of guilt or obligation. We have a really hard time saying no. We don't ever want to feel 00:08:42.819 --> 00:08:48.259 like we're letting anybody down. And so we just say yes to everything. And then there's this kind of 00:08:48.259 --> 00:08:52.759 low-grade resentment that's always simmering under the surface because of all the things that we've 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:58.860 said yes to. Right? These are forms of activity. They're forms of busyness but without any direction 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:06.759 or purpose behind them. And I think this is why many of us feel weary in our lives. I think that causes a 00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:14.620 constant weariness, the white noise that we live in. You know, research on burnout has found pretty 00:09:14.620 --> 00:09:22.639 conclusively that burnout is not actually the direct result of effort. It's not really about the hours 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:31.840 worked. Burnout is actually the product of stagnation. That's what causes a sense of burnout. It's, you know, 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:37.060 what we find is that when you can actually see progress in your life that you're making toward 00:09:37.060 --> 00:09:41.560 goals, people will work any number of hours. They'll work as hard as it takes and they'll do it 00:09:41.560 --> 00:09:49.000 with a ton of energy and motivation. Burnout happens when there is no measurable progress despite our 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:54.360 effort. When you feel like no matter how much I'm doing, the ball is not moving forward. That's what 00:09:54.360 --> 00:10:00.540 causes burnout. So think about your life. If you're not aiming at anything, if you're not aiming at 00:10:00.539 --> 00:10:05.419 anything beyond just getting through the day, there's going to be no way to measure progress. 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:11.659 You're just going to be spending time and energy, but with no sense of forward motion. And that's 00:10:11.659 --> 00:10:17.699 going to create a sense of exhaustion. It's going to wear us down. So I would suggest that the first 00:10:17.699 --> 00:10:22.740 way that we should be thinking about overcoming that sense of weariness that many of us feel, 00:10:22.740 --> 00:10:31.639 it starts with intentionality. You know, first to borrow a phrase from Dallas Willard, we need to 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:39.740 ruthlessly eliminate the pseudo work from our lives. We need to ruthlessly eliminate it. And then we need 00:10:39.740 --> 00:10:47.340 to decide what are we aiming our lives at? What are we living for? Who are we living for? What matters most? 00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:55.300 And I find it really helpful to just sit down and make a short list of the callings in our lives, 00:10:55.300 --> 00:11:02.560 just to write it down. Just sit down and say, what are the things I'm called to? What are the roles that 00:11:02.560 --> 00:11:12.379 are most important in my life? I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm a spouse. I am a parent. I'm a friend. 00:11:12.379 --> 00:11:20.039 I have a job. I'm an employee, right? These are the roles that I know that Jesus has called me to. 00:11:20.220 --> 00:11:26.580 And just to write those things down, and then to begin with a kind of purposeful beginning to our 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:32.120 day to seek a kind of clarity based on those callings by beginning the day by simply praying. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:36.279 You can do this as you're brushing your teeth, you know, as you're taking a shower in the morning, 00:11:36.279 --> 00:11:46.539 just praying, Lord, what is mine to do today? What are my responsibilities today? And it doesn't 00:11:46.539 --> 00:11:51.379 have to be everything I'm called to do in my whole life, but just starting with 10 or 15 minutes of 00:11:51.379 --> 00:11:56.399 praying and asking God, as I think about these callings in my life, what are the two or three 00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:01.179 things that I should really focus on? Where are the areas? Where are the relationships, the people, 00:12:01.179 --> 00:12:07.159 the goals that I should really be investing in today? Two or three things. And seek clarity on that. 00:12:07.859 --> 00:12:12.659 And then the day should be about investing in those two or three ways. And when we've done that, 00:12:12.739 --> 00:12:20.779 we call it a success, right? And we rest. So intentionality is about understanding what our 00:12:20.779 --> 00:12:27.459 lives are aimed at and living in line with them and doing what we can to cut out the rest, right? 00:12:27.460 --> 00:12:33.519 This is very simple. It's very practical. But I think a lot of this sits behind the weariness that 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:41.040 many of us feel. So that's the first thing. This is going to be an interesting dance with this thing 00:12:41.040 --> 00:12:48.040 here. It keeps dropping down on me. The next thing I would say, just looking at this passage, is that 00:12:48.040 --> 00:12:56.060 we should commit ourselves to being contributors where the Lord has us, to making a contribution. 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:59.399 You're like, well, that sounds like the opposite. If I'm weary and you're telling me to do more, 00:12:59.579 --> 00:13:05.859 it's not exactly the way it works. Paul is deeply concerned over the fact that there are apparently 00:13:05.859 --> 00:13:12.000 some people in the community who are benefiting from the community and they're getting their needs met, 00:13:12.119 --> 00:13:18.079 but they're not actively serving or contributing in any way to meet the needs of the community. And 00:13:18.079 --> 00:13:24.439 this seems to be a huge concern for Paul. And it's worth asking, why is this such a big deal for 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:29.020 Paul? It seems like he could just maybe have a sentence or two about it, but the language here 00:13:29.020 --> 00:13:35.380 is very strongly worded. And what we need to realize is that this is related to how Paul 00:13:35.380 --> 00:13:43.300 understands the nature of the church. In many of his other letters, we see Paul consistently comparing 00:13:43.300 --> 00:13:50.400 the church to a human body. And that's extremely important. It's not just a metaphor that Paul uses. 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:57.019 It's a spiritual reality that Paul is trying to impress upon us as God's people. What it means 00:13:57.019 --> 00:14:02.600 is this, is that when you become a Christian, that's not just a private transaction that happens 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:06.279 between you and the Lord, where you get right with God and then you go on with your life. 00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:16.340 When you become a Christian, you are incorporated, meaning you are taken into and made part of a body. 00:14:16.340 --> 00:14:23.519 You're incorporated into the body of Christ. So when you became a Christian, whatever point in life, 00:14:23.660 --> 00:14:28.560 for those of us who are Christians, whenever that happened, you ceased at that moment to be an 00:14:28.560 --> 00:14:36.920 autonomous, isolated individual. And there was an ontological change. Your nature changed. 00:14:37.460 --> 00:14:43.019 And you became part of a living spiritual organism. From that moment on, your nature changed. 00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:50.819 And here's how Paul describes the way that organism works in Ephesians 4. Notice, everybody has work 00:14:50.819 --> 00:14:57.240 to do. So he says in Ephesians 4, the work of church leaders, people like pastors, is to equip 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:04.519 saints. It's to equip God's people. The work of God's people is to do the work of all of the other 00:15:04.519 --> 00:15:11.159 various ministries that happen in the life of the church. And then he says that as everybody is doing 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:18.279 their work, the body grows. And it grows into maturity. It grows more and more and more into 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:24.620 the likeness of Christ when everybody is doing the work that they've been given to do. And then he says 00:15:24.620 --> 00:15:32.620 at the end of the passage, the whole body grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:40.799 So the point is that the body grows if and when every part of the body is doing the work that it is 00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:46.019 given to do. And, you know, if you think about your body, that's exactly how human bodies work. 00:15:47.340 --> 00:15:53.539 In order for your body to grow and to be healthy and to develop normally, every single cell has to 00:15:53.539 --> 00:16:00.320 contribute to the growth and health of the entire system. And that is generally the case. The cells in 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:06.160 your body, wherever they might be located, whatever organ they might be a part of, whatever kind of cell 00:16:06.160 --> 00:16:11.460 they might be, the thing they all have in common is they are all oriented towards serving the common good 00:16:11.460 --> 00:16:19.400 of the whole body. And when all your cells are doing that, you're healthy. There's one kind of cell that we 00:16:19.400 --> 00:16:26.640 sometimes find that doesn't do that. We sometimes find it in the human body. It's a healthy cell. It's a growing 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:32.419 cell. It's a thriving cell. In every way, it looks like all the other cells in your body. Even white 00:16:32.419 --> 00:16:37.679 blood cells can't tell the difference between these cells and any other cell in your body. There's only 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:43.059 one difference between these cells and all the other cells, is that these cells, instead of seeking the 00:16:43.059 --> 00:16:49.220 common good, they prioritize their own good and health and they disregard the needs of the body. 00:16:49.220 --> 00:16:58.600 And of course, the name for these kinds of cells is cancer. That's what cancer does. And so, when we look at 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:08.279 Paul's language, we have to recognize that when he comes into the church in Thessaloniki, he recognizes as 00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:14.039 he's among these people that there are a significant number of people who are not only focused on getting 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:19.379 their own needs met, but they're not willing to work and contribute to the community in any way. 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:28.460 And for Paul, this isn't just an issue of logistics. This is cause for alarm. I mean, in a way, you might 00:17:28.460 --> 00:17:33.619 say that Paul looks at this and says, oh, this is not good. This is not a healthy church. This church has 00:17:33.619 --> 00:17:42.759 cancer. And so, he strongly commands these people, essentially saying, do everything you can to 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:48.240 rectify that situation as quickly as possible because the growth and the health of the church actually hinges 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:57.640 on this issue being resolved. Now, what does this have to do with us and the ability to not grow weary in doing 00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:05.019 good? Well, when you have a significant number of people who are consuming in a community without 00:18:05.019 --> 00:18:12.400 contributing, a couple of things happen. For the people who are serving, there is a much greater demand 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:17.440 placed on them, on their time and on their energy because there's not enough people to share the load. 00:18:17.880 --> 00:18:24.460 And so, it's draining on them. But here's the real paradox. And unless you've experienced this, it 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:29.380 might be kind of counterintuitive. But for the people in any community who aren't contributing, 00:18:29.560 --> 00:18:35.920 who aren't serving, the people who are simply sort of there to receive, that can actually be more 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:42.360 draining. And I know that sounds like a paradox. But here's the way it works. When you're part of a 00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:46.199 group, whether it's a family or, you know, workplace environment or a friend group or a church, 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:56.059 when you're actively contributing, that's actually energizing because you feel like you are connected 00:18:56.059 --> 00:19:02.219 to and part of the mission. You're operating like a stakeholder. And so, when anything good happens, 00:19:02.419 --> 00:19:07.619 you share in the joy of that because you feel like you helped contribute to make that thing happen. 00:19:07.619 --> 00:19:13.219 And so, it's incredibly energizing. When you're actively contributing in a community, you feel 00:19:13.219 --> 00:19:17.919 energized because you bond with the other people that you're serving alongside. That's how a lot 00:19:17.919 --> 00:19:24.299 of friendships form in communities like the church. And so, contributing, even though you're spending 00:19:24.299 --> 00:19:29.159 time and energy that you might not otherwise be spending, you're getting so much more back, 00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:36.080 right, out of that investment. And by contrast, people who come to church simply to consume, 00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:47.060 over time, tend to remain and feel disconnected, uninvested. There can be a tendency, even despite 00:19:47.060 --> 00:19:53.320 our good intentions, to view the church more as a product than as a shared project. 00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:59.559 So, you spend your time focusing on whether your needs are getting met, whether or not you like 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:05.839 this or that, whether your preferences are being honored. But all the while, you're missing out 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:09.939 on the satisfaction that comes with actually meeting the needs of others in the community. 00:20:10.659 --> 00:20:15.500 When things happen, you're from the outside looking in. You're not sharing in the celebration. 00:20:15.500 --> 00:20:21.660 You're sort of sitting on the sidelines. And that can be draining over time. 00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:29.240 So, if you're feeling weary right now, there might be a strong temptation to pull back, to say, 00:20:29.500 --> 00:20:36.039 you know, in this season, I just can't do X, Y, or Z. But in reality, I would argue that this is 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:43.640 probably the best possible time for you to intentionally lean in to the opportunities and 00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:50.759 openings that God has in your life. You would be amazed if we had the time. You would be amazed 00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:56.840 if I just took the time to regale you with a comprehensive list of all of the men and women 00:20:56.840 --> 00:21:04.000 who serve in all of their various ways to simply make this possible, right? There are people who 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:10.280 came early this morning to set up and people who will stay late in order to clean up. There are people 00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:16.160 who greeted us at the door. There are people right now loving and teaching our kids. There are people 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:21.839 who bake our communion bread and people who make music and people who read scripture and people who 00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:27.299 pray for others, not just here on Sundays, but all throughout the week. There are people who are 00:21:27.299 --> 00:21:33.960 right now ensuring that our space is safe and that it's accessible. There are people who are right now 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:43.279 working to write policies to make sure that we are adopting all of the best practices that we can to 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:48.240 have a healthy and thriving church. There are people who are writing and submitting grant proposals 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:55.039 and getting some of them. That's how they're serving the church, by writing grant proposals. There are 00:21:55.039 --> 00:22:00.039 people who are actively supporting missionaries all around the world and making sure not only that they 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:04.920 have enough funding, but that they are loved and cared and prayed for. There are people who are 00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:10.740 hosting small groups, who are hosting and leading our youth. There are people who are showing up from 00:22:10.740 --> 00:22:16.720 time to time to mow the lawn and trim the hedges in our church building. There are, and many of you are a 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:22.799 part of these groups. All of that is happening, and that is just the smallest little sliver of the 00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:31.039 activity that happens every week to make Church of the Advent possible. And, you know, in the months 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:37.480 that are coming, the months ahead, there's going to be even more ways to serve. There's a newly formed 00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:43.599 and growing mercy team. There are going to be people, you know, my vision and hope for our church is that 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:48.220 when you come in the door, you're not only welcomed and greeted, but that somebody is actually serving you 00:22:48.220 --> 00:22:53.900 coffee, right, because we are committed to hospitality. There's going to be opportunities 00:22:53.900 --> 00:23:01.140 to help keep our space clean. There's going to be opportunities to set up rooms for various events 00:23:01.140 --> 00:23:06.059 throughout the week. There's going to be opportunities to help with fellowship meals that we'll be able to 00:23:06.059 --> 00:23:10.519 have. There's going to be opportunities to be a part of and help us launch Alpha so that we can do more 00:23:10.519 --> 00:23:16.640 in the way of evangelism in our city. I would love to see us start and host addiction recovery 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:20.860 meetings in our space. We're going to have a need for that, and some people are particularly called to 00:23:20.860 --> 00:23:25.540 that, right? Now, I don't want you to hear this as a to-do list. I want you to hear this as an 00:23:25.540 --> 00:23:32.200 opportunity to lean in, to lean into what God is doing, you know, because ultimately we're called to 00:23:32.200 --> 00:23:38.120 do more than simply consume. We're called to actually work together to build the kind of church that we 00:23:38.120 --> 00:23:44.100 would want to be a part of, right, a kind of church that's on mission together. There is a kind of 00:23:44.099 --> 00:23:48.799 energy and vitality, a kind of motivation that comes from that that you're not going to find 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:56.879 anywhere else. This is the kind of church that grows into maturity. It's a church where every part 00:23:56.879 --> 00:24:03.199 does its work. So the first two things that we've looked at, be intentional and then be a contributor. 00:24:04.459 --> 00:24:09.079 The last thing in this passage I think very interesting and every bit as important, 00:24:09.079 --> 00:24:19.059 be a peacemaker. Be a peacemaker. It's very interesting. In verse 11, Paul says that some 00:24:19.059 --> 00:24:28.119 of the people in this church are not just idle, they are disruptive because they're not busy doing 00:24:28.119 --> 00:24:33.879 good work that benefits the community. Instead, he says in a kind of play on words, they are busy bodies. 00:24:33.880 --> 00:24:41.820 And here's an example of how Scripture can be extremely insightful about the human condition. 00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:46.420 You know, there are times, you know, as the phrase goes, where you're reading the Bible and at some 00:24:46.420 --> 00:24:51.960 point you begin to realize that the Bible is actually reading you, right? And the Bible is the only book in 00:24:51.960 --> 00:24:57.140 the world that can do it that way, where you feel like you're not only reading your diary, but you're 00:24:57.140 --> 00:25:03.920 reading somebody who knows you better than you know yourself. Some people avoid work in their lives. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:08.259 Tell me if this resonates at all. You don't have to tell me, just think it. That resonates. 00:25:09.980 --> 00:25:14.620 Some people avoid the work in their life, meaning some people avoid the things that they're responsible 00:25:14.620 --> 00:25:18.420 for, right? So here's the things that God has given me to do, and I don't want to deal with those 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:24.820 things for whatever reason. And you avoid the work that you've been given to do by going and focusing 00:25:24.819 --> 00:25:33.200 on other people's stuff because it's appealing, and it's a way of escaping your own stuff, right? 00:25:33.399 --> 00:25:39.019 So people like this may seem busy. They may seem overwhelmed. They may seem exhausted. But if you 00:25:39.019 --> 00:25:44.220 look closely at their lives, none of that energy is actually being spent on their stuff. 00:25:46.119 --> 00:25:50.299 They're spending all their time and energy worrying about and obsessing over and focusing on other 00:25:50.299 --> 00:25:55.960 people's stuff, right? So what do I mean by this? Well, there are some people who seem to just gravitate 00:25:55.960 --> 00:26:02.839 toward crisis, you know? And maybe they're the people who tend to sort of gravitate whenever 00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:08.500 there's a crisis, and they will kind of insert themselves in a kind of unsolicited way. 00:26:09.899 --> 00:26:15.480 Or some of us spend a lot of time and energy obsessing over other people's choices. 00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:20.799 You know, why did they choose this? Or how can I get them to do this? Or how can I 00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:25.400 get them to change on this thing, right? And we just obsess over other people's choices. 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:30.799 Some of us spend a lot of time and energy trying to manage other people's emotions. 00:26:32.099 --> 00:26:38.920 We worry way more about other people's emotional state maybe even than they do, right? We're not okay 00:26:38.920 --> 00:26:44.799 when other people are not okay. Or we're not okay when other people are not okay with us. And we're 00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:51.000 spending all of our time and energy thinking about that. Some people really tend to and are prone to 00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:58.480 gossip, you know? Meaning talking about and sharing things that are really not their concern. Maybe 00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:06.599 misinformed or under-informed things that we don't really have any right to be talking about, but we're 00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:12.960 talking about them because they're interesting and salacious. And we like to be the person who is in 00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:18.299 the know. But we're sort of, you know, sharing about and spending time on things that don't really 00:27:18.299 --> 00:27:23.420 concern us. And then there's triangulation, which we're sort of pulling in a more modern-day term. 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:27.680 But it's a good way of getting at, I think, some of what Paul means when he talks about busybodies. 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:32.480 Triangulation is essentially when there is a conflict or an issue between two people. 00:27:32.940 --> 00:27:38.960 Instead of those two people working it out directly, they pull in a third person or a fourth 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:43.519 or a fifth, right? So you'll have person A, and person A says or does something, and it really 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:49.380 doesn't sit right with person B. Person B is offended. Person B just does not want to, does not 00:27:49.380 --> 00:27:53.660 have the time or energy to go talk to person A, and what's going to happen, and what if they get mad at 00:27:53.660 --> 00:27:58.799 me, and, you know? And so, you know, I need some help and advice. And so they go to person C. 00:28:00.019 --> 00:28:04.420 Let me tell you what person A said or did. I was so offended. I was so hurt. 00:28:04.420 --> 00:28:09.060 Person C says, oh, so now person C is in this weird situation where person C knows 00:28:09.060 --> 00:28:12.519 something about person A. Person A has no idea there's a problem. 00:28:13.880 --> 00:28:16.860 And then person B and C, and they're like, well, let's pray about this. We're going to pray about 00:28:16.860 --> 00:28:20.720 it. And then person C now feels responsible for a situation that they never should have been 00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:25.600 involved in, and they don't know what to do. Well, they need some advice and say, then person C goes 00:28:25.600 --> 00:28:31.560 to person D and E and F. Hey, can I get some advice, and can we pray about this? And then they talk 00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:37.639 about that. And before long, you have person A who's coming in thinking everything's fine, 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:45.679 and you've got persons B through Q who know all about person A's business, right? And now the 00:28:45.679 --> 00:28:52.000 situation is way bigger and messier because now all those other people, you know, people M and Q and X, 00:28:52.159 --> 00:28:57.480 they all have pretty strong opinions about person A, right? And it's a whole thing, right? Now, I know 00:28:57.480 --> 00:29:05.039 this is a drawn out example. It's all purely hypothetical, right? But we need to take this 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:10.259 kind of thing extremely seriously, right? And here again, when you first read this passage, 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:14.660 and you look at the issue Paul's addressing, and then you look at the strength of his language, 00:29:15.360 --> 00:29:20.339 you know, we need to ignore these people so that they feel ashamed, right? And he makes a reference 00:29:20.339 --> 00:29:24.880 to kind of a church disciplinary situation. When you first read it, you're like, wow, Paul's really 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:32.960 overreacting. But then you realize, when you see the kind of harm that these kinds of behaviors do in 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:41.060 a church community, when you see that firsthand, Paul's reaction makes sense. Over the years, 00:29:41.280 --> 00:29:49.440 the hardest situations that we have faced as a church, without exception, started out as very 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:56.840 manageable situations between maybe two, three, four people that could have and should have been 00:29:56.840 --> 00:30:05.019 resolved. But what happened, right? You have gossip, you have slander, you have triangulation, 00:30:05.500 --> 00:30:11.940 you have more and more and more people getting pulled into what we affectionately refer to as the 00:30:11.940 --> 00:30:20.360 swirl. And when that happens, the situation quickly spirals out of control. And a situation that should 00:30:20.360 --> 00:30:27.279 have been able to be resolved becomes uncontrollable, unmanageable, relationships irreparably break down, 00:30:27.480 --> 00:30:32.440 and people leave. And I think that many of us have seen this happen. If not in the church, 00:30:32.660 --> 00:30:36.860 the same thing happens in friend groups. It happens in neighborhoods and small towns. 00:30:36.859 --> 00:30:43.299 It happens in workplaces. It happens in families. Some of us are going to go to Thanksgiving this year, 00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:48.279 and there are going to be certain people who aren't sitting there, who should be sitting there. 00:30:49.879 --> 00:30:54.659 And when you feel that in the family, around the dinner table, when you feel that in a church, 00:30:55.879 --> 00:31:02.779 it's heartbreak. It's grievous. And so you look at this letter from Paul, and you realize, oh yeah, 00:31:02.779 --> 00:31:07.339 Paul's actually seen this. He knows how dangerous it is. That's why he's being so strong with his words. 00:31:08.379 --> 00:31:14.720 Now, I think some of us are weary from situations like this. And we have seen firsthand how they can 00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:22.619 drain energy and focus away from gospel ministry. Talk about the all-time best definition of sideways 00:31:22.619 --> 00:31:30.200 energy, of unproductive, unproductive work, right? Because these things can spread like wildfire. 00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:36.840 And so Paul urges the church to take this kind of thing very seriously. So he says to the people who 00:31:36.840 --> 00:31:43.920 are being busybodies, we command and urge you in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down. That's what he 00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:50.620 says. Settle down. And then he says, work for your own food, which is a way of saying, focus on your 00:31:50.620 --> 00:31:56.920 stuff that God has given you to do that you're responsible for, and put some boundaries in place. 00:31:56.920 --> 00:32:03.060 Don't over-focus on other people's stuff. This is not to say that we shouldn't help each other, 00:32:03.140 --> 00:32:07.779 support each other, encourage each other, pray for each other. But motivation is everything. 00:32:08.340 --> 00:32:12.920 Are you being invited into that? Is it your place to be there? Is this something that you're 00:32:12.920 --> 00:32:17.920 responsible for? Is it your business? Are you using this as a way to avoid your own stuff, 00:32:17.960 --> 00:32:22.920 right? These are the questions we should be asking. And then Paul says to the rest of the church, 00:32:22.920 --> 00:32:30.759 when you see other people doing this, avoid it at all costs. Don't allow yourself to get pulled into 00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:35.440 the swirl, right? So if somebody comes to you and says, I need your advice, I'm having this conflict 00:32:35.440 --> 00:32:39.340 with this other person, I just want to tell you about it, and I can't, can you believe what they 00:32:39.340 --> 00:32:44.140 said or did, right? It can be very tempting to think that the Christian response is to dive in and 00:32:44.140 --> 00:32:50.560 help. But I would suggest, based on this, that the Christian response is to say, you know, that 00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:54.579 it sounds like it's been really hard for you. This is really not my business. 00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:02.579 And I want to strongly encourage you to go to that person and to work this out directly with them. 00:33:03.299 --> 00:33:08.819 That's what Jesus commands us to do, right? That's what the apostles command us to do. Go and bring 00:33:08.819 --> 00:33:13.679 this to them and try to work it out. And that person says, I can't imagine doing that. And you say, 00:33:13.740 --> 00:33:17.460 okay, well, we're going to pray together, but I'm going to pray for this goal in your life. I'm going to 00:33:17.460 --> 00:33:22.900 pray that at some point you get the courage to go to this person and to be honest and work this out 00:33:22.900 --> 00:33:26.860 with them. The gospel has given us everything we need to make that possible. We just need to do it. 00:33:28.740 --> 00:33:33.079 Maybe, maybe we could role play some scenarios, right? And you can practice what you're going to 00:33:33.079 --> 00:33:38.120 say, but your goal as that friend is to see that conversation happen, right? If you're in a group 00:33:38.120 --> 00:33:44.120 of people and someone starts gossiping about a situation, encourage them to change the subject. 00:33:44.119 --> 00:33:48.979 Hey, I really don't think we should be talking about this, right? In other words, this is again, 00:33:49.059 --> 00:33:55.419 very practical stuff, right? We're all called to be peacemakers. A peaceful community is only 00:33:55.419 --> 00:33:59.979 possible if everybody in the community is committed to peace and committed to making peace and committed 00:33:59.979 --> 00:34:04.979 to doing what we can to preserve and protect peace because God desires his community to be a 00:34:04.979 --> 00:34:08.739 community of peace. And peace, friends, doesn't just mean an absence of conflict, 00:34:08.739 --> 00:34:17.279 like a ceasefire. Peace means wholeness. Peace means flourishing. Peace means everything being put 00:34:17.279 --> 00:34:24.619 right in our relationships, not only with God, but within the church and to the extent possible with 00:34:24.619 --> 00:34:30.039 the surrounding world. It means being a part of the kind of church that we would want to be a part of. 00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:38.719 And as the final verse reminds us, this kind of peace is not something that we can attain in our own 00:34:38.719 --> 00:34:48.340 strength. It's only possible, and it only comes by knowing the Lord of peace, who is Jesus Christ. 00:34:49.759 --> 00:34:55.059 Paul is alluding to the fact that through his death and resurrection, Jesus makes it possible for us to 00:34:55.059 --> 00:35:03.119 find a lasting, eternal peace with God and with one another. So the way, the best way for us to be 00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:10.360 peacemakers is to make him the center of our life and to follow Paul's example, to actively pray for this, 00:35:10.820 --> 00:35:17.699 to pray to the Lord of peace that he would give us the kind of peace that only he can give. 00:35:17.699 --> 00:35:24.839 So to bring this all together right now, pivotal opportunity. We have an opportunity to relaunch and 00:35:24.839 --> 00:35:30.559 build a community of peace, to be a church in the heart of DC that is committed to seeking the good 00:35:30.559 --> 00:35:36.460 of the city for the glory of God. And so the invitation for us this morning is very practical, 00:35:36.839 --> 00:35:43.859 right? It's very practical. The call is this, to simply be intentional in how we spend our time and 00:35:43.860 --> 00:35:51.900 energy, to find ways to contribute so that we're all growing together, and then simply to be peacemakers, 00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:59.539 to pray for peace, to promote peace whenever we have opportunity to do so, so that our hearts and 00:35:59.539 --> 00:36:07.460 lives reflect the Lord of peace. And now to close with Paul's blessing, may the Lord of peace himself 00:36:07.460 --> 00:36:12.900 give us peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. 00:36:14.760 --> 00:36:19.679 Lord, we pray that this would be true. We pray that this would be real. We pray that this would be, 00:36:20.820 --> 00:36:25.059 that in however we need to hear and receive your word this morning, that you would. 00:36:25.639 --> 00:36:31.119 And we pray ultimately that this would be a very practical way for us to take steps toward 00:36:31.119 --> 00:36:39.339 being the kind of community, the kind of communal witness that we're called to be. Lord, just as the 00:36:39.339 --> 00:36:45.960 gospel said that one day we may be called before the authorities and persecuted, Lord, and we want 00:36:45.960 --> 00:36:50.619 to be ready for that day, but we know that our witness begins here simply in how we treat one another 00:36:50.619 --> 00:36:55.980 and how we do life together. And we pray that this would all be true and reflect your heart 00:36:55.980 --> 00:36:59.019 according to the power of your spirit. In Jesus's name, amen.