Untitled Sermon (5)

Introductory Story

I remember growing up as a kid, there were two things that I just was not particularly fond of. [pause] Carrots. [pause] And wrestling. You couldn’t pay me to eat a carrot when I was kid. How our staff talks about mayonnaise, that’s how I thought of carrots. Utterly despicable! Wrestling, on the otherhand, wasn’t as bad. I just didn’t ENJOY it. I was a football player and, my coaches figured if I WRESTLED, I’d come back a BETTER football player. And, so I wrestled. And wrestling did actually make me a better football player. I was stronger; I was tougher; I understood body leverage, which was good for my position. So you’re probably thinking: Why dislike it then? Well, the difficulty came, not so much with the sport itself, but with the PRESSURE and the EXPECTATIONS that it came with. [pause] I didn’t say this at the beginning but I came from a family of wrestlers. My father was a state champion wrestler, who eventually got inducted into the hall of fame. I had two brothers that were both top state placers multiple times while we were in high school. Everywhere we went, were known for being a good wrestling family. And there I was, sticking out like a sore thumb. And, so I despised wrestling. I always felt the pressure of needing to perform. I felt like I was always trying to live up to the family name that was too high of a standard. And if I didn’t, it’d say something about my family. It’d say something about my dad.

[Point]: We come to our text this morning, and I believe this is what Paul is wanting the Philippians to understand. How you live as those INSIDE the church, says something about God, to those OUTSIDE the church. The way you live, as a person who professes to know Jesus, says something about Him, to those who don’t know Him. In John 13:35, Jesus says, “By this ALL people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The Christian’s life is a constant chant to the world. We are constantly preaching a message with our life to the world around us. And so, the question I wanna ask this morning is: what message does your life preach about God?

The main idea for our time this morning is this: Our conduct as God’s children preaches a message about our God.

[Pray]:

[Recap from last week]: Last week, we looked at one of the most DEBATED, yet GREATEST passages in all of scripture. Paul exhorts the Philippian church to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Dr. B did a great job of explaining the difference between work “OUT” vs work “FOR”. We work “OUT” what God has graciously worked “IN” by the power of the Spirit. Following his exhortation, Paul BLESSES them with a sweet encouragement in verse 13, “For it is God who works in you, both to will AND to work for His good pleasure,”

So, not only does He give us the desire to obey Him, He gives us the POWER to obey Him. All for His good pleasure…

But now he tells them how to put it into practice. What does it look like to: work it out? In verse 14, Paul tells them, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” In everything you do, do it without complaining and arguing.

If there was ever a “Respectable Sin”, this is it. Grumbling is one of those sins, as Greg Morse says, its “too-easily-committed and too-easily-overlooked.” MEANING, not only do we PARTICPATE in the grumbling, but no one ever speaks up about it. When was the last time you called someone out because they were complaining too much? When was the last time someone rebuked you because you grumbled? This doesn’t happen as often as it should because this sin is ALL TOO COMMON for us. It’s too normal for us. And this is a PROBLEM! We treat so lightly, what God takes so seriously. And It’s a bigger deal than we think it is. I don’t know about you guys, but, my reflex is to complain. When I’m in traffic on 19; When my to-go order gets messed up; When my plans don’t go the way that I planned them to go, it is FAR TO EASY to complain. And this is a big deal to God. It’s a big deal because of how DESENSITIZED we are to it, but it’s an even bigger deal because it offends God. When we complain, we’re saying something TO God.

We SAY that we believe in the soverignty of God. We SAY that Jesus is enough for us. We SAY that God is good. But if we believe these things in the FULLEST sense of what they mean, we WOULDN’ T complain as much as we do.

We wouldn’t grumble when things go wrong because we know that our GOD is on the throne. And that He’s WISE in what He does!

We wouldn’t complain when God withholds because we have what we need in Jesus.

Grumbling tunes our hearts to sing a different song. Instead of singing, “all I have needed thy hand has provided,” we sing, “All I have wanted, God has withheld.”

Everytime we grumble and complain, we’re saying something to God. [Illustration]: My wife has this thing she does that everytime I start complaining about something at home, she goes, “Baby noises… Is all I hear” And as annoying as this can be, she’s so right. God has given me and He’s GIVEN US, the Bride of Christ, SOO MUCH to be thankful for. HE’S GIVEN US EVERYTHING WE NEED IN JESUS. And instead of returning to Him the praise and worship He deserves, He gets the cries of an infant who didn’t get their way. [pause]

May God CLEANSE us of this sin and make us a GRATEFUL people. And may we strive to avoid the complaining and the arguing that so easily entangles us. This will not only bless our walks with the Lord individually, but it’ll bless our journey collectively. Paul could’ve said ANYTHING… But when you think of the context of this letter, the calls for unity, the division in chapter 4, it makes sense why he would say this. When the grumbling and the disputing settles down. The peace of God begins to settle in. And what a joy it is to experience this.

Notice the purpose he gives them in verse 15, he says: “14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 THAT you may be blameless, and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”

Avoiding grumbling is good for them PERSONALLY; it’s good for them COLLECTIVELY; But Paul says it’s good for them: MISSIONALLY. And this is what I mean when I say: Our conduct as God’s children preaches a message about our God. When we operate a certain way, it SAYS something to the world about our God.

But the problem is, we forget this. We forget that the church is God’s primary means of reaching the lost. The mission of the church is twofold: We’re to worship and we’re to witness. This is God’s mission for His church! When we worship God rightly, we will display Him properly.

And so we need to be “blameless, innocent, and without blemish.” All of these means we need to Christ-Like. We need to live Paul isn’t saying, do these to be children of God. He’s not saying if you do these things you’ll be perfect.

The word he uses for blameless has the idea of being faultless. No one can look at you and use you as an excuse for denying Jesus.