Sermon Tone Analysis
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What type of believer are you?
It seems like customer service has taken a huge hit since COVID became a thing.
The service industry, restaurants in particular have taken a huge hit.
Who would have thought that someone working at McDonald’s would be making $15 an hour.
I have two teenage clients who will be working at 7-Springs this winter and will be making nearly what I make per hour.
Some business struggle because the employees don’t want to work.
People will come up with all sorts of excuses as to why they cannot make it to work.
I read a funny story this week that illustrates this point.
There were two factory workers, Joe and Lester, who were talking.
"I know how to get some time off from work," said Joe.
"How do you think you'll do that?"
asked Lester.
Joe proceeded to climb up to the rafters of the factory and hang upside down by his knees.
The boss walked in, saw Joe hanging from the ceiling, and asked him what on earth he was doing.
"I'm a light bulb," Joe answered.
"I think you need to take some time off," said the boss.
So, Joe jumped down and walked out of the factory.
Lester started walking out, too.
The boss asked him where did he think he was going.
"Home." said Lester, "I can't work in the dark."
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It seems that in this letter that Paul is dealing with problems.
Last week we looked at the problem of people stirring up the church about when Jesus was going to come again.
In these few verses Paul addresses those who were living undisciplined lives.
We can identify three different types of Christians here.
The first type is the “If” Christian.
An If type of Christian follows God if he receives blessings and rewards in return.
He waits to see what God will do first, then decides whether or not to respond in obedience.
Paul gets right to his point in verse six when he writes:
This wasn’t a suggestion for the Thessalonians; it wasn’t an option for them.
Paul writes that it’s a command.
It wasn’t just a command coming from Paul, because he puts the full weight of Jesus behind the command when he writes “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul was saying to the church to keep away from every believer who is goofing off and is disrupting the church and isn’t living according to the church’s teachings.
It’s easy to understand the part about not living according to the church’s teachings.
It’s also easy to understand the part about disrupting the church.
It’s the part about goofing off or being idle that for me is hard to wrap my head around.
What exactly is Paul talking about?
As Christians we’re taught to love each other unconditionally, but here Paul is telling the church to keep away from certain people.
How is that loving unconditionally?
Part of the problem is the difference between tolerate and unconditional.
Though the definitions are somewhat similar they mean two different things.
Tolerate means:
1. to allow the existence, presence, practice, or act of without prohibition or hindrance; permit.
2. to endure without intense disgust; put up with
3. to experience, undergo, or sustain, as pain or hardship.
Unconditional means - without conditions or limitations
To love unconditional means that you don’t put any limitations on that love.
Sometimes that unconditional love has to be tough.
An example is a show on TV about people who are trapped in an addiction and the family gathers to confront the person in hopes of getting them the help they need to conquer the addiction.
A part of the storyline has family members telling the person that if they don’t accept the help then they aren’t going to help them anymore or they can’t live in their home any longer.
That is unconditional love although it is tough love.
They aren’t telling the person they won’t love them any longer it’s just that they aren’t going to enable them any longer with their habit.
To tolerate would be to continue loving the person while still supporting them and enabling to continue their habit.
These “If” believers were only following Jesus if they received a blessing from God.
The bulk of my time as a pastor is spent with the “needs” of If believers.
They are the ones that want the most from the church.
They are the ones that demand that I visit them in their homes.
The expect that I drop everything to “minister” to them when they are going through a problem.
If they are in the hospital, they want me to show up at 3 in the morning to pray with them.
I don’t mind doing any of that, however, for them is that they believe that I am obligated to do that.
They want they church to “help them out” or provide for them.
They are the first in line at a potluck meal and take home lots of leftovers when they didn’t bring anything to share.
They didn’t share because they didn’t have it to share, it is because they feel that they are entitled.
They don’t give to the church or do anything for the church until they get a blessing from God.
When they get a blessing, they might give a “tip” to the church but they are not going to invest in the Kingdom through tithing because they don’t get anything from it.
I don’t think this anything new.
Paul wrote to Timothy in his first letter 1Timothy 5:8
An If type of believer waits on what God is going to do first before they decide how or if they will respond.
Paul calls these type of people undisciplined.
Paul reminds them that he provided them a living example.
Paul was one of the first bi-vocational ministers.
He worked as a tent-maker to support his ministry.
He was saying that he had the right to receive financial support from the church, but he wanted to provide him an example of working for the Kingdom.
Instead of working and keeping busy and providing for their families they were idle.
I grew up hearing the old proverb “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
Do you remember hearing that?
Have you had a bunch of little kids in your house and all of a sudden you realize it’s awfully quiet?
There are two options as to what is going on.
The first option is that they’ve fallen asleep which is highly unlikely.
The second option is that they are doing something that they shouldn’t be doing and you’re going to have a mess to clean up.
We can’t just sit around and do nothing.
That is true in your own family and life and it’s true in the church.
Not only were some of the people idle they had become disruptive to the church and had even become busybodies.
Reading between the lines here I think we can see people who had quit their jobs and now they were dependent on the church to feed them and to provide for them.
It was because of a bad choice on that person’s part that they are now disrupting the mission of the church which is to make disciples.
The second type of believer is the “Because” believer
The Because believer is those who give to the Kingdom work because they have seen the blessings and they want to continue to receive the blessings.
Now it might seem that this is the way a Christian should live, but I need to challenge your thinking on this style.
Another way that I see these types of Christians is that they are “lottery” Christians.
The largest lottery was recently won by someone in California.
They are suddenly a Billionaire.
In places from gas stations, pizza places, to laundromat there are those Pennsylvania Skills games.
I call them “crack” machines because they are very addictive.
Why do people continue to by scratch-off lottery tickets or feed those machines?
They hope to get something from them.
Because type of Christians often treat God as if He were some cosmic lottery game or skills game.
I’ll give something or do something because I’ll receive a blessing from God.
If I don’t receive a blessing then I’m not going to give or do.
We as a church and as individual Christians have a responsibility to help those who are in need if we have the resources to do so.
It’s the time of year when social agencies and churches are bombarded with requests for assistance.
I wish we had the resources to help everyone who has called me but we don’t and sometimes it’s frustrating to tell someone we can’t help.
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