Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:00:00]:
Hey, everybody. How's it going? Good. Hey, my name is Jeff Pagay. Pastor Jeff. And I have. I want to say a few things to share with you because I always do announcements, but I gotta get that out of announcements. Is power ready? So I'm gonna actually give the word the message. Pastor Glenn is doing another event this evening, so I get to share the word with you all.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:00:24]:
And just like we said before, God makes a way. And I love that he made a way for all of us to be here. We're not here. Coincidence. We're going to hear the word of God. It was neat because I got to open up when we studied first Thessalonians way back, I think it was July, June or July, June. Way back in June. And then now this is the last part of 2nd Thessalonians.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:00:47]:
I get to close it up like a. Like a sandwich. But anyway, going back to the baking contest, I remember somebody making a strawberry rhubarb piece. Anybody make a strawberry rhubarb pie? Anybody even know what rhubarb is? Yeah, it's like a. It's like a celery. It's a red celery. But it was really good. I don't know what he did to it, but man, that was my favorite pie that he made.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:01:11]:
He enjoyed baking. But then he was also a rock drummer. He was our drummer in our little band. But anyway, I just wanted to mention that. I don't know why. Strawberry rhubarb pie, you get my vote. But anyway, we are going to continue on in Thessalonians and yeah, I want to welcome any first time visitors or second time visitors. Make sure you come by the information table.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:01:33]:
We're going to thank you for coming. We have a little something for you. And you know, before you stop, before you leave, stop by there, stop by the refreshment table. We have some refreshments from the hospitality team. It's going to be good. And why don't we open up in a word of prayer? Father God, we just thank you so much for this evening. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you come to live in us and dwell in us and empower us. Holy Spirit.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:01:59]:
So move and allow us to have ears to hear, Lord, the message that you have for us this evening. In Jesus name, Amen. So it's good always to look at a book in the Bible. It's not just a dusty old book. You know, the Bible is the word of God. And so we should open it up. And now that we know Thessalonians, we can know more about it, we can share more. It can live in our lives, it can live in our hearts.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:02:27]:
As we read through Second Thessalonians, we know it was a young church, they were just getting started. The word had, you know, God had Jesus came and went back up to heaven. Apostle Paul was getting there and making churches. And, you know, they did face opposition, they did face confusion, and they had rebellion. It sounds like my mornings sometime when I go to school, opposition, confusion and rebellion. But I get through it, you know, Amen. Praise God. For opposition we have faith.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:03:00]:
For confusion we have hope. And for rebellion we have love. And that's kind of what we're going to look at today in Second Thessalonians as we read, you know, as it opens up and in your notes is actually pretty, pretty much printed out Second Thessalonians in NIV Version, so we can follow along in your notes, in your notes there. And it opens up on the top it says, as for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you. 2nd Thessalonians 3:1. So really Paul starts off asking for prayer, and I think that's a good place for us all to start asking for prayer. I remember I asked my wife, hey, can you pray for me? And she asked me, can you pray for me? And it's just a natural thing now. And this evening my brothers pray for me and it's feeling a little better.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:03:54]:
I had this little nagging cough. I want to praise God because it's going away. Thank you, Jesus. I have a little water, so I might have to stop and take a sip. Do you say sip or zip? I like to say zip, but anyway, I'm going to take a zip. I going to take a zip. Getting a little off track here, but I'll go back to the I'll go back to my notes. The return of the Lord Jesus, it's a serious matter.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:04:18]:
And in the second the second coming of Christ is mentioned 318 times in 260 chapters of the New Testament. So it's important and we know the lead up to Christmas that the wise men were anticipating Jesus coming. And we had Christmas time, the baby Jesus was born. And then you see him grow up and go to his lifetime. But that ending part where Jesus is going to, you know, he went back up in the clouds, but he's going to come back again. And that part is a little bit mysterious. We read about it in Revelation, it talks a little bit about that. And we Know that there's a tribulation time and there's all of these different viewpoints and we don't know because, you know, it's something coming up in the future.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:05:05]:
And we call it the tribulation period. Are you pre trib or. That means before the tribulation, you think we're going to go up to heaven? You post trib, you think after the tribulation, we're going to go up. And I like to consider myself pan trib whichever way it pans out. That's my view on it. You know, let's trust the Lord Jesus. It's like when you go surgery and you have the little gown, you just got to trust them that they're going to do, you know, put you out and they're going to do their thing and you have to just place your faith in the. Not that I had a lot of surgeries, I just had a couple of them, but I'm like, so you're gonna knock me out? And I'm, you know, it's like.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:05:45]:
And I got no clothes on. I just got this little gown. So I got to make sure I trust who's ever in the room. And I just go and trust him. We can trust Jesus is what I'm getting. We can trust Jesus in his second coming. Whatever, whatever way it passed out, we will gonna be. We.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:06:00]:
We will be with him in the air. We're going to go to meet him in the air. That's what Bible says. And like we sang, every knee will bow, every tongue confess. Jesus is Lord. Jesus himself said, I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would have told you, okay. He says also, fear not.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:06:17]:
Jesus said, don't worry about tomorrow because today has enough trouble of its own. Basically, just worry about today. Tomorrow's going to come and he'll be there. He'll take care of it. He'll make a way. And so to the church in Thessalonica, the young believing church, you know, hearing about Jesus return and some people was getting them scared. They thought Jesus kind of came already. And some people were like, you know, they were kind of confused about things.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:06:43]:
Back there in Thessalonica, everything was very new. And Apostle Paul was trying to tell them, hey, you know, Jesus is coming soon, but until he comes, we got to do certain things. But people were. Other people would come alongside. And just like in today's world, you have other people. We call them false prophets or whatever. You see the guys with the doomsday sign, the world's gonna end tomorrow. Well, you know, maybe it could.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:07:09]:
We don't know. Like I said, only the Father knows. Even Jesus said, no one knows the day or the hour. Only my Father knows, Jesus said. So back in Thessalonica, it was a scary thing. You know, Pastor Glenn mentioned last time about Antichrist last week. And that's the scary thing. Antichrist.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:07:26]:
It sounds spooky. Just his name, the Antichrist. He doesn't like Christ. He's opposite of Christ, right? People rising from the dead. You know, Jesus raising up others from the dead. So that was frightening stuff for some people. And so, you know, also in First Thessalonians, it says, in addition to their trials and persecutions, the Thessalonian Christians were unsettled and alarmed by deceivers who made some of them believe that they were already passing through the Great Tribulation. And some days it is like the Great Tribulation, depending on how bad your day is.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:08:01]:
Right? But, you know, so this is the. This is the setting that we're looking at in Thessalonica. This is the setting Paul's talking about. So he wrote this second letter, right? Pretty much after he wrote his first letter. First Thessalonians, now we got two Thessalonians. So it's really meant to clear up any confusion about the Lord's return and what believers should be doing in the time in the meantime. Okay, this is the second epistle. We call it the Blessed Hope.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:08:31]:
So the Blessed Hope. We're praying for Jesus to come back. And sometimes I hear people, and they might be joking a little bit, oh, Jesus, come soon. Or just come already and stuff. And I get it. I get what they're saying. They're having a hard day and they just want to go to heaven or something, you know, but we got to be kind of be careful about that because we want to take more people with us. Amen.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:08:51]:
We don't want to. The only second best thing of going to heaven is bringing people along with us. And that's what we're called to do, is go out and share the gospel, share the good news. Can I get Amen to that? Amen. You know, I'm very cut and dry when I do my transactions in the stores or wherever I'm doing. But now lately, I've been trying to say, hey, God, bless you and thank you and just make a little small talk. I'm not really a small talk guy, but just to see the different results. So I'm stretching myself.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:09:23]:
I'm trying to, you know, stretch myself A little bit and see if people respond, if they know God or not. And we hear testimonies of people. What kind of work do you do? I work at a church. And then you wait for their response, what it's going to be. But that's our opening to talk about the gospel. I work at a church or I go to a church. Hey, we did a fun thing at church. Bring it up and let's make sure that we're spreading the word somehow or just get into a full on conversation if you can.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:09:51]:
That's better yet, if you can just start a conversation with people. But point number one would be like, just like we prayed earlier tonight, you know, Paul asked for prayers for this young church and he says of course, in three, one. Finally, brothers, for us, pray for us that our message may spread rapidly and be honored just as it is with you. So he wants it to spread rapidly and be honored. And that's a good thing because like he said, you never know when Jesus is going to come back. So Paul wanted to get that word out, get that word out, you know, no need to waste time, you know, that was his prayer. Also Paul's prayer before Jesus returned, that many more people can hear the gospel. Amen.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:10:37]:
So also the prayer that Paul had, he was praying that God would sustain the church's faithfulness for his glory. It says in three, five and three, sustain the church's faithfulness. We have to be faithful. And we just thank God that he's sustainer of the church. Like we sang earlier, he's worthy of it all, he's faithful. So that's. And we pray that we thank him as we pray, we thank him that he's faithful. We thank him that he's a sustainer.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:11:10]:
The second part of the prayer is pray that we may be delivered from the wicked men. Wicked and evil men. So these are the people who have a wrong teaching, false, false teaching, false gospel. And this may include Paul's request for his own mission. Because Paul was on a mission and he knew every time there's a move of God, there's a move of the devil. The devil is always trying to counteract what God is doing. Even now, today when we move, something happens to the devil. So we got to be strong, steadfast and strong and rebuke the devil and then he'll flee.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:11:48]:
You know, that's what it says. 2nd Thessalonians 3, 2. Also I pray that we may be delivered from wicked people, for not everyone has faith. And then he goes on in three. But the Lord is faithful. And the Lord will strengthen you and protect you from evil ones. Amen. That's a good news right there.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:12:06]:
Thank you, Lord, for protecting us, for strengthening us. I don't know about you, but I need protection. I need strength. And that's where it comes from. Comes from the Lord because he's faithful. In your notes, it says, we have confidence in the Lord. That's confidence in the blank that you are doing. That you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:12:30]:
May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. Yes, Lord. So praying those kind of prayers, you know, sometimes we wonder, how do you pray? What do you pray? This is a prayer right there. That's a good prayer. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. Hallelujah. And then remember, in first Thessalonians 5, 17, pray without ceasing. We read that earlier when we did First Thessalonians, but, man, it's so good.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:13:01]:
You guys liking this so far. It's good news. It's good news. I never really thought about first and second Thessalonians too much, but now it's one of my faves. I think it's going to get real pretty soon. Once we turn the corner here, we are going to turn a corner, and Paul's going to get going, take us into a little controversy, and we're going to just take it step by step. But, yeah, this was Paul's encouragement to the believers regarding the coming of Christ and taking care of some confusion and false doctrine of the day. And we still have it today.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:13:40]:
So that's why it is important to be grounded, grounded in the word, grounded in doctrine. So, you know, some people say, well, if you look at this, this YouTube thing that I saw, it's going to be in the fall. God's going to come in 2025 and 2026. It's going to be in. And you're like, what? And some people fall for it. They go, really? You think it's going to be. Yeah, it's going to be October, going to be November, so go sell all your possessions. Better yet, give me all your money and I'll take care of it for you.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:14:09]:
Red flag, Red flag, right? Don't listen to these types of people. Paul, like I said, he's taking care of the confusion, the false doctrine of the day, and we still have it today. So, you know, we got to be ready, be prepared. We're turning the corner now. Paul in verse number six, he's moving to. To idleness. Okay. Beware of false teachers.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:14:34]:
Sometimes it's better to let the Lord deal with them and then try to deal with them ourselves. So let's just pray that the Lord deals with these false teachers and not to let them lead us astray. Okay. I wanted to share this one verse too. It's not in your notes, but if you want to jot it down, it's a good verse for. From second Timothy. And I think. Is this the one? That's the.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:14:59]:
There's a little group with the little kids, the Awanas. This might be there, there. But no, I think it's. It's later. The second Timothy, 2:15. You know, be a workman, not ashamed. Yeah. What does awana stand for? Awana be Christ follower.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:15:16]:
It's. It's a little kid organization. It's good. It's a positive thing. But anyway, I want to share 2 Timothy 4:3. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. Oh, I remember reading that a long time ago. I'm like, it sounds like today, right? They just want to gather around people who.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:15:44]:
To say what their itching ears want to hear. I'll read that again just for the kicks, actually, so it can sink in. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. It sounds like today they'll say this is, you know, they'll call the white black and the black white. The right wrong and the wrong right. It's like Lord, Lord Jesus, open people's eyes instead to suit their own desires. They'll gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. And go ahead and take it however you want to take it.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:16:18]:
But there comes a time in this world where we who have God's word are going, what you guys believe what? And you think what? And it just doesn't make sense. Sometimes Paul cited and he went down to Berea when he was in his travels, and he cited them in the book of Acts. He says, be like the Bereans. The Bereans were this place the Bereans actually tested, were thought of more highly because they tested what the Lord said, his words and the Scriptures. And they made sure everything was good and squared away. And in the Old Testament, in First Chronicles, there was this group. They were going through the tribes of Israel and They came to the sons of Issachar. The sons of Issachar.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:17:01]:
From the tribes of issachar, there were 200 leaders. All of the men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take. Do we know the signs of the times? We should know the signs of the times. We have earthquakes, we have all of these things, wars, rumors of wars. Doesn't mean we got to panic, but it means that, you know, we should be prepared. We should always keep our eyes on the Lord. Right? Amen. Amen.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:17:27]:
And then here's the second Timothy 2:15 study to show yourself approved. The workmen not ashamed of the Gospel, rightly dividing the word of truth. There we go. So we should get into this book, this Bible, book by book, however you want to do it. But rightly divide it, study it, meditate on it, chew on it, ponder on it, you know, and talk about it. Put it up. If you have a Scriptures, put it up in your house. You could go to Ross and you could get a plaque or wherever you go, you know, love is patient, love is kind.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:17:58]:
You know, you get a coffee mug. It's the word of God. It really triggers your mind, you having positive things around your house. Okay, so in the early church, lots of speculation on what's going on. Lots of speculation on the teaching, who's going to be governing, what to do, what to allow. This was all going on. How many, you know, branches going off in different directions and. And different doctrines.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:18:24]:
The main thing is clear here, we got to stay with the gospel of Christ. A lot of times in conversations I've gone like this, look, because people will say, what about this? What about this faction? What about this group? Well, if you did a line, and I'm a visual, I'm an artist, so I have the visual. If you take a line from Jesus times to now, if you can do a straight line from Jesus teaching now, boom. We had our church fathers who canonized the Bible, gave us the 66 books of the Bible. Let's follow that track. Never mind this teaching of you got to have this and you got to do that. Never mind this one. Stick with the Bible, stick with the gospel, stick with the truth, right? Draw that straight line with Jesus.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:19:07]:
You can't go wrong, right? The quickest way is from point A to point B is a straight line. So no need to deviate off and teach and learn about all these things. Read the Bible, get the Bible. Amen. All right, this is where we turn the corner. Yes, Lord. This is where we turn the Corner a warning against idleness. So basically there are some people who got so scared and so freaked out that Jesus came already or Jesus is going to come, that they didn't want to work, they were just going to chill.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:19:39]:
And they said, Jesus is to going came already. I missed it. No sense already. No sense. Go work. No sense. I'll just kind of find, you know, let other people feed me and stuff. We'll read here in number six, okay? It's in your notes.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:19:54]:
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and do not live according to their. To the teachings you. And they do not live according to the teachings you receive from us. Ooh. So he's pointing, he's calling out some certain people. He's saying, you know, my brothers and sisters, these folks over here who are not following us, they're. They're idle and disruptive. Idle means they're not working, they're not doing nothing.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:20:23]:
They're just kind of hanging out for number seven, for you yourself know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. This is Paul talking. On the contrary, we worked day and night, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. That's Paul talking, right? Number nine, we did this not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. For even when we were here with you, you gave us this rule. The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat. Okay? Now, if.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:21:13]:
I know it's controversial and if you have any complaints, you can write to New Hope Leeward in charge of pastor. No, just kidding. I hope you don't. I hope this is the word of God. It's not me, okay? I'm not. Don't shoot the messenger. That's what they say. You do not work, you do not eat.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:21:30]:
I remember going to Lanai. That's where my family is from the island of Lanai. And they had these big family gatherings and stuff. And I mean, it's the country. It's old school country living, right? They had jeeps, the old World War II jeeps, and they would go kill the pigs and stuff. And they had a slaughterhouse. Hey, Jeff, you want to come to the slaughterhouse? And I would like. I would be like, oh, no, I don't think I can make that.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:21:53]:
I. I was a Townie, right? And I'd never been to no slaughterhouse. I don't want to go to go over there. But anyway, when we would have the party, all the cousins and uncles and aunties would get out the tables and the chairs and stuff. And being a townie, I would just be chilling out and getting my drink and just watching everybody work. And then I was wondering why everybody's giving me stink eye, you know, they were like, bro, come on, you gotta help, right? If you don't help, you don't eat, that kind of thing. So I learned it quickly in my younger days that, you know, if you want to come, you join in, you chip in, right? You be a part of the family, right? So anyway, that's kind of what was happening. Everybody was chilling out.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:22:32]:
There was this little group that said, oh no, you guys, you guys, looks like you got it going on. You guys take care of all the work. We'll wait here and then we'll wait and make a plate. And you know, and so he says, you do not unwilling to work, shall not eat. Okay? So of course there's extenuating circumstances on this. You have exceptions. Maybe you have a season, a physical, mental challenge, disability, whatever it may be. You cannot work.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:22:59]:
Fine, I get it. We get it. He's not talking about that. He's talking about able bodied people who choose not to work. So here we go. In verse 11, we hear that some of you are idle and disruptive. You're not busy, but you're being busy bodies, okay? You know what that means? You're not busy with work, you're busy bodies. You're just talking stories, gossiping, whatever it may be.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:23:22]:
Such people, we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and to earn the food they eat. It's an admonition. Paul's talking to these people. Hey, he's calling a monk. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good, okay? Verse 14. Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter and do not associate with them in order that they may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer. Okay? So we remember another scripture is all scripture is God breathed for teaching and correcting, you know, admonishing for the good of the Lord, right? So all scripture is God breathed, is helpful.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:24:12]:
So he wants to try to be helpful. Okay? In the context, like I said, the reason for this idleness, you know, they were afraid that they missed Jesus coming back. When we see Idleness today in a different light, it still applies. Okay. So we look around at our world today and we have this situation and I don't know what's the reason, if they're scared of Jesus not coming back or what, or they just have this idea in their mind that it's okay to just not work and just to not do stuff. We know the subject is full of nuance, Right. It's a subject that we talk about. You know, we can call it homelessness, houselessness, living on the street, whatever you want to say.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:24:58]:
But this is Paul's admonition, let them work so they can eat. Right. So my thing, what I get, my take on this is let's give people a hand up and not a hand out. Yeah, it's a different. There's a saying, if you give a man a fish, he can eat for one day. If you teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime. You see the difference there? Yeah. And you know, it's a struggle, man, it's a struggle to see somebody, you know, you want to give them a buck or two.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:25:32]:
There's a. And you know, I've done it, I've given folks money and whatever bought food, but that's giving him a fish for today he'll get fed. Yeah. And tomorrow someone else will give him and he'll get fed. I wonder where the trajectory of his life will go, what kind of future this person has if this is his way of life. So that's what Paul's getting at here. It's not that it's my favorite subject to talk about, but I'm just expounding what Paul said here. There's two words that came to my mind.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:26:04]:
There's enable and empower. Yeah, to enable somebody and empower. Enabling is, you know, you kind of keep it going. And this is the negative context of enable. When I looked it up, it says to behave in a manner that facilitates or supports another's abusive or addictive self destructive behavior. This is enabling. In this context, I looked up empower to invest with power, especially legal power or official authority. It's a synonym to authorize, similar to authorize to give authority to, to delegate power to commission.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:26:46]:
Right. I'd rather have somebody do that, empower somebody. And I still remember a couple times I was donating stuff to this one charity place, I brought a big couch and I saw that there's these guys, it's a work program that they fix stuff up and I thought, this is such a good program, I'm going to donate this couch. And then I was a Christian already, so I felt good about donating my couch over there. And then I happened to ask the lady in front, is there anything else you need? Anything else I can do? And then she stopped me in my tracks, right? She goes, yeah, you know what would be good? If you could sit and have coffee with one of these guys. And I was like, ooh, that's next level. Yeah, that's next level. It's like.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:27:32]:
And then all of a sudden, I'm checking my watch, I'm saying, well, and that's me. You know, I'm confessing that that was my. That was my response in honesty. That would have been good. Hey, hey, brother, how you doing? And If I spent 15, half hour, what would be the difference? He's trying to make a difference. Maybe people look at folks differently. And I'm just saying. And that's my confession.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:27:59]:
I hope I can do better. And then a couple other times, it was like that, where somebody challenged me, and I was like, oh, okay. I think I was reading a book by Greg Laurie one time about evangelizing. I was a young believer, and honestly, this is a true story. I opened the book. I'm going to evangelize, you know, and be like, Greg Laurie, I'm a young Christian. Open it up. He goes, line number one, right? The first things you got to do is love these people.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:28:25]:
You got to go love them. And I went, you know, I want to help them. I want to get them. But I wasn't ready to love them because I was being honest. So I closed that book and put it aside. I'm not ready yet. I hope you guys are better than me. I hope you guys are better than me, okay? Because this is what it's going to take to change people, to empower them.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:28:47]:
Yeah. And he's saying, there's a little more commentary here that I'll share with you. Colossians 3:23 reads. And whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly as unto the Lord and not to men. Okay, number two, Follow examples of working not to be idle. He addressed the fact that some people have turned to idleness, right? Giving up on life. They thought they missed Jesus. In the second epistle, it says, but work and wait until he comes.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:29:18]:
The second coming of Christ, of course, is like I said, mentioned 318 times. But he says, work and wait, not just wait for the Lord. Ah, God's coming back. So I'll just wait. No need to work. You know, you should work. You should get going. Those who refuse correction and their anarchic behavior, you know, anarchy should be shunned by the church, yet admonished as brothers in order that they may repent.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:29:52]:
So that's his goal. His goal is repentance, right? Take special note if anyone does not obey you. This is 14, verse 14. Take special note if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, do not associate with them in order that they may feel ashamed. Okay, Take the context. Please take the context. Don't get riled up just yet. Yet.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:30:17]:
Do not regard them as enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer. I love it. It's the balance, right? Warn them as a brah. You keep doing this, you keep sitting in front of this place, you know, if you can, if you have, you know, you can try to get people up and up and moving. And I get it. And I love this fact that people talk about housing first, right? Housing first. Some people just need a place to gather their thoughts. And there's all kinds of different.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:30:43]:
It's so multifaceted is this issue of why people don't work and whatever you might say. But yeah, because some people, they choose this lifestyle. You're gonna go help them. They don't want help. They just want to live a. They want to be a free bird, right? Okay, you're gonna be free bird. God bless you, my brother. You know, you got to do what you got to do.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:31:02]:
Some people, they fall through the cracks and they say, I lost my this. And this happened, this happened, this happened. Now I'm here. Can I get some help? Of course you can get help. That's what the church is here for. But there's other ones like we talked about earlier. No, that's good. I'm just gonna, you know, just gonna wait until somebody feed me.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:31:23]:
And this is what Paul is addressing. So he was very clear on this. You could read it again if you want. But yeah, in all of the commentaries I'm reading, this attitude on the part of these men was absolutely wrong. He asked them to look to him for an example. So he says, look at me, I work, I go to work and I buy my own stuff. Right? That's what Apostle Paul said. That's what the commentaries all talk about.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:31:51]:
And then, you know, it goes down to the. It kind of a trickle down effect. It says, advocate Paul always advocated charity towards these in need and always taking up time for offerings for the poor. He was very severe in condemning those able bodied who could work but did not work. And then also there's a Greek word called unruly or disorderly. And this comes if, you know, it's kind of a slippery slope here. You decide to be idle, and then maybe you get into some kind of crime. You start doing drugs or whatever it is.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:32:34]:
You're masking your behavior. Now you started to steal. You see how the slippery slope comes down? It says disorderly here. So that's why, again, have something occupy your mind, right? I was just talking with a friend of mine upstairs. He's talking about. He saw people when they retire, you know, there's nothing to do now. I'm just going to sit in my chair. And he says, you know, what happened to these guys? They didn't last long after.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:33:00]:
They don't have a purpose. We need a purpose to wake up in the morning to get out and do something productive. And he says, if you're not going to do work, go out and help somebody. And I went, I'm going to use that. That's good. Go out and help somebody. Then if you don't want to go work. The key is find a job or career that you like.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:33:22]:
It's hard, and I get it. Some people are in a job that. Man, I don't know. It's a weird job. I don't know if I can stay here. I remember as a young man, I went through this little bit. I actually started working back in high school. It was a pineapple plant that was operational.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:33:42]:
And I would go in a can plant. I was making cans, I think. Was that the pineapple plant? And then one summer, I was in 10th grade, I think I went to the island of Lanai and picked pineapple. And that's. I picked pineapple for a whole summer over there. That's how I could afford my first electric guitar. I remember going to the. To the.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:34:02]:
To the guitar shop, and I had all my hundreds. And I was, like, looking at all the guitars and. And, you know, I remember the guy, the proprietor. You like a Les Paul or a Stratocaster? That was the big decision, right? Oh, my God. I chose the Strat. I showed a Stratocaster. But lately I've been playing Les Paul. But anyway, that was my little entry into work.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:34:24]:
Then after that summer, I went back to high school. I had a big Afro. Nobody recognized me. I had a tan because I was working in the pineapple fields. And I had all these pokies in my hand because they had gloves. We had gloves. But when you pick pineapple, it just rips the seam. And sometimes you get all these pokies but anyway, I worked, right? I bought myself an electric guitar.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:34:46]:
It was awesome. And then I also. Later on, after high school, my mom and dad was like, hey, you should go get a job already, son. And I was like, oh, there's nothing that I like. Back then, you read the newspaper, and in the newspaper, you had the help wanted ads. So they had this one that says, temporary labor, Temporary labor service. And I went, okay, I'll call these guys up. And they said, yeah, come on on Monday.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:35:08]:
So I would end. I ended up. They sent me to this place, go to this address, and, you know, I signed up the papers so they can give me a paycheck. I unloaded matching containers of meat, frozen meat. And it was heavy and it was hard, and I put it on pallets, right? There was other time I did carpets. There was a container of carpets. I loaded up. One time, I got to work in an armored car.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:35:30]:
Believe it or not, it was an armored car. The car was like this, and it was full of coins, nickels, bags of nickels, and bags of dimes and bags of quarters. They said, get in. You're gonna help us unload this. I was like, what? And then there was a guy with a gun sitting in the back. I was like, you know, don't worry, bro. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna pocket anything.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:35:49]:
So I'm sitting in the back of this armored car. It was kind of cool, you know, had the little pukas if you needed to shoot. But we went in a secret place, a secret bank, under, underground. And he said, okay, unload all this. So I unloaded the dimes and nickel. I was working, making money. Okay, what else? What else kind of weird job did I have? I worked. I was in the money.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:36:13]:
You could say back then, I was in the money. Literally, I was in the money. And then I worked at a sign shop, you know, making signs. Back then. We painted the sign back in the old days, right? We carved it in stone. Nah, just kidding. I'm not that old. Like, Flintstone kind chock.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:36:28]:
Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. But I painted it with enamel paints. You know, I learned how to do that sign painting. And then, of course, I was doing airbrushing. Back in the day where airbrushing was happening, I was airbrushing in Waikiki doing shirts. Became a freelance artist. I always wanted to do art, and then I did murals, book illustration, yada, yada. Then I ended up teaching art with a friend of mine, and now I'm actually a legit art teacher at Christian Academy.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:36:57]:
Christian Academy. How's it? And so this is how, you know, this is how God works, right? You take one little step at a time and you get a, you know, a few years later, a few decades later. But I praise God, man. I praise God for this. This journey that I've been on. God is a God of order, okay? He wants. He doesn't want chaos. He doesn't, you know, want just people to buck a loose, as we would say.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:37:26]:
You gotta. You gotta have a little order. Okay? I did a little check with my kids at class. I'm trying to tell them in class we need order. I said, you want chaos in the class or order? And the kids a little bit. Chaos is okay. I go, no, that's the wrong answer. That's not the right.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:37:44]:
That's not what we're looking for. Because little kids, this is third grader. Chaos is fun. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Trying to get you to say the right answer. But anyway, we eliminated that one. The Bible says, how then should we live? Right? How then should we live? Second Thessalonians, it says, be disciplined while waiting for Christ coming. After instructing Thessalonians, Paul asked for their prayers.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:38:13]:
And he says, you know, as the Lord delays, it gives us several opportunities. And this is where the, you know, he says, be loyal to him. Be loyal. The next one. Evangelize the world. So that's what I shared with earlier. Pray for his servants. Yeah.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:38:36]:
And then patiently wait for him. That's in your notes. And then live a holy life. Live a holy life. Not a perfect life, but a holy knife. You know, there's a saying that says, keep your nose clean, you know, and I've already learned from the past. I don't know if it's a Hawaii thing or it's an all over thing, but I remember, you know, walking sort of one foot in the world and one foot in the church that, you know, I would be sometimes in the wrong environments and people would assume different things, like. Like, I'll just say, maybe this guy wants to scrap, you know, but I don't know if I look like a scrapper or what, but, you know, they would, like, give me the eye, like, what's up, man? And then, you know, sometimes I'll take the bait.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:39:22]:
And then we would, you know, sort of get into it. And I would have to show him my mane pakeaw, you know, but not too often. But then again, I was. I was also drawn to the church and this side of things, but the church folks Was like, I don't know, he looks dangerous, you know, but so I couldn't win whichever side I went on. So needless to say, you know, I combed my hair finally I shaved a little bit, tried to be presentable. And here you go. That's me. But yeah, live a holy life.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:39:52]:
Yeah. Patiently wait for him. You yourselves, you know, it has the rest of the scriptures in here. But that's. That's my notes for tonight. I really, like I said, I really love God's word. He gives a final, final greeting. Now, Apostle Paul.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:40:09]:
Now may the Lord of Peace himself give you peace at all times, in every way. The Lord be with you all. And it says, I, Paul, write these greetings in my own hand, which is distinguished mark in all my letters. This is how I write. So he's basically confessing, hey, you know, and the church fathers didn't speculate he might have had eye trouble. So he wrote real big, big letters. But Paul wrote this letter to encourage us. Right? So he wants to encourage us, you know, and let's.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:40:42]:
My final, final admonition. Let's stay awake as. As we're waiting for the Lord to come, let's stay awake. Let's not be idle and let's. Let's look for. Let's tell others about Jesus. Return and it's a good way to open up conversation. Just as he was in the beginning, so he shall be in the end.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:41:01]:
He's Alpha, he's the beginning and Omega, the beginning and the end. The same God who was and is and will be forevermore. So let's close this portion in prayer. Dear Lord, we are just so grateful for your word today. We take it to heart, Lord God. We pray that it can. It can be applied throughout our lives, Lord God. And we just want to thank you and we want to say we love you in Jesus name.

Pastor Jeff Pagay [00:41:27]:
Amen. Amen. Let's give God some praise. Hallelujah. I want to thank him.