Today, I ask our guest speaker to come and cover for me this morning. Pastor Nate Quack, he is presently serving at Good Steward Church, and he's a brother that we've had contact with for a while, and he's a brother that, again, is a like-minded brother. And our youth group actually went to several retreats together with their church, and so we participated and had a relationship with him for a while.

So he comes to us with his wife, Kazeah, and they have two young children, Addy and Hudson. And so they are here with us, and so they are somewhere, somewhere that you're, they were in the first service, I don't know where they are now, but if you see them, say hi to them.

But Pastor Nate is a, again, an encouraging brother. We were able to have lunch several times, and getting to know him, and he's, again, like I said, he's a very like-minded brother, and so we asked him to come and share God's word with us this morning. So let's welcome him.

Good morning, everybody. It's good to see all of you, and as Pastor Peter said, thank you for inviting me. I'm Nathan Kwok, and I come from Good Stewards Church. It's a church that I've been pastoring at for about the last eight years or so, ten years as an intern, and I've been there for all my life, pretty much.

I grew up at that church, and you know, I've heard lots of things about Berean. This is the first time I'm actually here on a Sunday, and I've preached at a college retreat last year, and so if you remember me, please come and say hi. I most likely won't remember your name, but I do want to get to know you again and things like that.

So again, thank you guys for inviting me. I graduated from UCSD, about four years of colleging there from 2004 to 2008, and then I moved back here to this area. I grew up in La Palma, California right there, and yeah, UCSD, I've been meeting a lot of people from UCI here.

I feel like this place is covered with UCI students, so we all know UCSD is the best college in San Diego. And you know, I just want to remind you guys that there are other places outside, so again, thank you. Well, today we're going to be covering a topic.

It's a random topic. It's a topic that's close to my heart recently because of something my daughter has been going through, and because of that, I've not only been seeing my daughter's heart, but I've also been seeing my own heart reflected in her. So if you could turn with me to Philippians chapter 2, verse 14.

This is the passage we're going to be covering today. Philippians chapter 2, verse 14. And we're going to be reading through 16. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 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, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Would you bow your heads with me as we pray? God of heaven, we declare to you your majesty and might. God, you are God above, you're second to none. There is no one like you. And Father, your words are the ones that we're pouring over this morning. Father, may we not take it lightly.

Would it be something that we draw to our heart and hide it? Help us, God, to remember that this is not just some philosophy, and it's not just the Bible. God, these are words of life. This is our bread, this is the thing by which we live. So God, draw all of our hearts open, mine included, that we might be changed by your word.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well today we're gonna be addressing the topic of complaining, and that's why it came to my attention, and I was trying to think through, like, how do I take our daughter Addie through this? And so this is why I started actually looking into this passage, and then it grew and grew, and it made me realize how prevalent it is, not in just my own heart, but we already know this, but it's prevalent in our society.

And we see it all over the place. I don't think I need to preach it here, but we see it all around us, a grumbling heart that is almost just permeating throughout all of society. We know that social media is something that has really, really done a work on this, because never in all of history has there been a place where you had a forum or a platform where just a blink of an eye you can make your complaint known to thousands of people.

But we see it all over. Also in our companies, we see it in our HR departments, we see it in complaint departments, and it's easy to be critical, and so easy to justify our complainings. We almost feel right in it. Society is almost preaching that to us. It is your right.

You are always right. And so we must make our voice heard. It's been so much easier also to compare ourselves and our situations with others. So you can see even the complaining hearts that begin to arise as you listen to other sermons on radios or online. We have access to the greatest preachers around the world, and so it can be easy to complain about your own pastors and about your own leaders.

There's so many things we complain about. We can complain about it, that everyone else in the world, it seems like they're traveling. Why is everyone in France? Why is everyone in New York? Why is everyone doing these things? Why does it seem like everybody has a Disneyland pass? Oh, is that true here?

Why does it seem like everybody has tried that new eatery across the street? Well, this passage today, the surrounding context shows, and this book of Philippians about this theme of humbly rejoicing in the midst of suffering through the example of Christ. It's about rejoicing in suffering. There is no place for grumbling and disputing in a place like this.

And Paul writes this from prison, a place where maybe grumbling and complaining rules. He has just concluded his exhortation to the church of Philippi, asking them to be unified in heart and mind, given the humble example of Christ. And in light of that, if you look just a passage up in verse 12 through 13, Paul is saying there to work on your own salvation in light of Jesus and the unity we're called to in him.

That we're called to work on our faith and sanctification, and that not grumbling, not disputing is the natural outflowing of that. We're going to go through four points today. The first is the command. The command, that command is don't complain. The second is the why, which is you are children of God.

Whenever a command is given, our rebellious hearts' natural reaction is we question why. Well, this is the first why. And then the second why is point three, you are to shine as lights in the world. And fourthly is the how. How do we do this? It's by holding fast to Scripture's life-giving words.

So the first point is don't complain. And can't get any more simple than that. Don't complain. Look down with me at chapter 2, verse 14 there. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Now, the command says do this. You've probably been told this a myriad of times before, but we've probably again forgotten that when someone gives a command, if an authority gives a command, it is not an option.

The expectation is for you to comply. You hear, you listen, and you obey the command. If you're a part of an army in war and a general gives you a command, it's not an option. You don't sit there and say, "No, not for me. No thank you." And more than that, you can't even say like, "Oh no, can you just give me a second?" No, actually the greater the authority, the greater the power, the faster you're expected, the more with more urgency you're expected to follow that command.

And this is a command given through the Word of God, through an apostle of God. Do this. Don't complain. Don't grumble. Don't dispute. It isn't optional. So what is the command here? Well, the command is that in all things, you are to do them without grumbling or disputing. By the way, I'm going to be using today grumbling and disputing and complaining kind of very synonymously because I believe that the thought is similar.

And basically, this is a command to us to, in a nutshell, it's about complaining. And it says it, to not do it in anything. There are no caveats. There are no conditions given to this command. It says to do it. There is no time and place in our life where it's okay for us to complain.

In the verses before, this is specific to our faith. As we're working out our salvation, that is, as we're being sanctified, and maybe even as we're being persecuted for it, as our faith is being tested and stretched, there is going to be a natural temptation there to grumble and dispute against other people and against our God.

But Paul makes it crystal clear, do them without grumbling or disputing. Now some of us might be thinking, shouldn't we speak up at certain times? If there is injustice or unfairness happening, should we not speak up? Should we not open our mouths and speak the truth, and you would be right?

But that would be something like defending or reasoning or rebuking or exhorting. We are still called never to do it with a grumbling and complaining of heart. There is no time or place in our lives where it's okay. I mean, we're getting this command from the Apostle Paul. This guy is an incredible man of God.

If we should be listening to a command, maybe it should be from this guy. God speaks through him and gives this command to us. But Paul, he doesn't lord over the Philippians, telling them, "You should do this," and he just goes and does whatever he wants. He's living it out.

Remember where he is. He's in prison. He had actually just gone through this thing. In Acts 16, it talks about this account of Paul in Philippi. Maybe some of these church members that are receiving this letter were a part of that congregation around that time. That Paul exercises the spirit out of this girl.

And after he does that, because the crowd, they go crazy on him and they start beating him and throwing stuff at him, Paul is brought before the magistrate, and they strip him down and they beat him some more with rods. So Paul and company, they're beaten, they're bruised, they're probably, you know, so sad.

They're taken into the inner dungeon, the lower dungeon, and they're shackled to the wall. And the lower dungeon is the place where it smells, it's raining, because this is a horrible place to be. The worst of prisoners were sent down to this kind of place. They can't move, they're not eating well, and they're surrounded by people who are grumbling and complaining.

Man, this passage sometimes frustrates me, because I ask Paul, "How can you do this?" In Acts 16.25, it says this about Paul and Silas. About midnight, they were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. And they couldn't believe this guy. A guy like this, in a situation like this, is singing.

And this is the very guy who's telling Philippians, "Don't grumble or complain about anything." Man, doesn't that make your head hang in shame? If anyone, this guy should be complaining. How can we have the gall to complain about anything? Now let's look at these two words, grumbling and disputing.

The first word, grumbling, it's to express one's discontent. That is, in grumbling, you are showing that your heart is not satisfied. You're not content with your life, with the way things are going. Later on in Philippians 4, verses 11 through 12. If you want, you can flip just a page over.

Philippians 4, 11 through 12. Paul says this, "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." See, grumbling and disputing and complaining is the exact opposite of where we're called to be as Christians.

Grumbling doesn't only show discontent, but there's something about this word that brings out this idea of murmuring, of whispering, of mumbling. It's a secret displeasure. Some of you might know what I mean. I'm a parent of a child that's three years old. Again, Addie, that's her name. I'm beginning to hear it all the time.

About six months ago, Addie, she got a new favorite word. And I really wanted that favorite word to be something like, "Yes, Daddy," or "Thank you," or "I'm sorry," or something like that, right? But that word she learned was "Why?" Why, why, why? At first, it was cute. At first, it was fresh and exciting for me.

"Come, come to me. I'll tell you why. My goodness, you're talking. Let me explain to you the world." It didn't take long for her sinfulness to start coming out through that word. And it wasn't just a trickle. It was just an eruption of discontent and of sin. "Why, Mommy?

Why, Daddy?" Never content. We'd say, "Finish your plate, Addie." And she would say, "Why?" I'd say, "Oh, because it's good for you, and we're giving you good food to eat, and you're going to be hungry later." She'd say, "Okay." "Addie, why aren't you eating your food?" She says, "Why?" Drove us up the wall.

Just because that heart was so discontent. Her heart wanted what she wanted. It questioned whatever else anyone else wanted. And like that last question, sometimes it wouldn't even make sense. She just wanted to say, "Why?" So we began to teach Addie that she doesn't need to ask why in everything.

And we're trying to do what's best for her because we love her. And that God commands children to obey their parents. So that's when the quiet grumbling started happening. "What'd you say, Addie?" She said, "Nothing." "Man, so small. How did you learn? Where'd you learn that?" "Mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble, whisper, whisper, mumble, mumble, mumble in the heart." It shouldn't be this difficult to eat a few more bites of food.

We would portion it out and say, "You just have to finish one, two, three, four more bites," and it became like World War III. Why? Finally, we got her to finish the food, and you can see it written all over her face. You can see she was so complaintative in her heart.

You see, it says something about our hearts. Would it really have been that difficult to stick a couple more bites in the mouth? No. It was not about the food anymore. It was a sickness of the heart. It's a type of faithlessness where you don't believe that the person is telling you to do what is good for you.

It's a type of rebellion where you want to do what you want to do regardless of what's best. It's a deep and inward selfishness where our eyes are pointed inwards, looking at our own frustrations and desires and our wants. Now when this is one person, it's frustrating. Now get a bunch of these people together, and it could be downright terrifying.

It was happening in the Philippians church when grumbling, with this grumbling came disunity and a spirit of competition that was disruptive to this church. We see it in Philippians 1, verse 15, that people were in rivalry against each other for the gospel cause. All through chapters 1 and 2, Paul keeps reminding them, "Be unified in heart.

Be unified in spirit. Walk side by side. Strive for the same thing. Have the mind of Christ who was humble to show that example to us." It shows that something was going on in this church. In chapter 4, verse 2, it actually names two people, which is kind of sad.

You owe it to Yancintiq. He says, "Have them agree with each other because they were disagreeing." With grumbling comes a second word, disputing, which is basically along the same vein, but it's the idea of giving your thoughts, your opinions, your ideas, your heart, meaning that you want your way to happen.

Disputes when your ideas and thoughts clash with other people's. At the heart of this, just like grumbling, is rooted in rebellion, selfishness, and self-centeredness. Now, again, this is a command to the church. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. All things is what it says. This is all-encompassing, all-expansive phrase.

There is no situation you can ever find yourself in your life, no matter how small or how huge, where grumbling and disputing is okay. Again I want to draw our attention to Paul and what he had already been through. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23-27, he says this, "I am talking like a madman, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes, less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. On frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." Even in this, Paul is saying, "Do all things without grumbling and disputing." And now don't think for an instant that this was easy for Paul just because he was an apostle or because it was Paul.

This was hard for him. And yet I know that even after he wrote this to the Philippians, he would preach this to himself all the time. This leads us to a question then. Are you a person marked by grumbling and disputing? Are you a person marked by complaining? And this doesn't need to always be an outward physical thing or a voice thing.

What about in the depths of our hearts? Are you a person marked by this? And there are so many things we complain about, don't we? And one of the easiest things that just shows the outward expression of our complaining hearts is traffic. It's such an easy sermon illustration to use.

I'm sure you've heard these things all the time. I remember this one time I was supposed to be there somewhere by 11 a.m. and a type of personality where if I'm not there by that time, I get really nervous, I get really frustrated and things like that. There was traffic and I remember complaining, "Why is there traffic at 11 a.m.

in the morning?" I remember that day so vividly because I journaled at the end of the day. My heart, I felt so wicked. But I remember everything about it. There was this car that was in front of me that was so slow in traffic that like six or seven cars cut into my lane.

I felt like I was going backwards. I was so frustrated. I remember passing by the two cars that had gotten in collision. I remember complaining against them. "Because of you guys and your reckless driving." Days are ruined. I'm just like, "I'm thinking about myself." So much stuff about traffic.

Everyone and everything made me complain. We complain about it when we get stopped at like three red lights in a row. Every red light. Why does this always happen to me? I don't drive too often in Irvine, but I noticed that about Irvine. There are no smart lights in Irvine.

You get stopped at a light and then it's just red even though there's no cars coming in the other directions until it turns green. I remember I went to my sister's house and then I was the first car to get stuck at the red and we were there for like seven minutes or something.

Complaining. We complain when the car in front of us stops so suddenly that our coffee spills. We complain when things don't go our way in the morning. When one of our grocery bags rip open at the bottom. When our phones freeze. When our parents ask for help about how to send a photo again.

When we get to the dryer and our clothes aren't dry and now it smells like a rag. When our kids stop every two seconds distracted by something on the way to what they're supposed to be doing. We complain when one of the coaches of the Dodgers pulls a starting pitcher too quickly.

We complain when it's supposed to be our wind down time at the end of the day and someone interrupts it. We complain when our roommates leave their dishes again. We complain when a coworker won't get the hint and keeps standing next to our table talking and talking and talking.

We complain when we're asked to cover another person's shift. We complain when in basketball that ball hawk keeps chucking up shots when I'm wide open. We complain when we get to McDonald's at 10 p.m. and for some reason the line, the drive-thru line is going around the building. We complain when it's too cold, when it's too hot, when it's too sunny, when it's too rainy.

We complain about the liberal leftist, the hard-headed rightist. We complain about the president. We complain about policies, procedures. All over our lives, deep in our hearts, rooted there. Are you a person marked by complaining, grumbling, disputing? Do you realize that it's a command given by God himself to all things without grumbling or disputing?

And we love to go, "But this guy, but this situation, but you, God." And we point our fingers everywhere. If this begins to root in our hearts, if it becomes habitual for us to complain, then it's only a matter of time before this kind of thing creates disunity amongst the church.

Grumbling and disputing does something to our hearts to create an environment where selfishness, self-centeredness, rebellion, and discontent thrives. And if in our hearts this is happening, it's very easy for it to happen against each other. This word grumbling is used three other times in the New Testament. It's found in John 7, 12, Acts 6, 1, 1 Peter 4, 9, and each time it's grumbling towards others that create some kind of disunity.

Commentator Peter O'Brien says, "Grumblings promote ill will instead of harmony within the church. Grumblings of any kind may include complaints about other members of the congregation, its leaders, or even outsiders at whose hands they were suffering." Berean, I'm always so encouraged to hear about you guys. I know some of you here and I hear good things about this church.

You know, in San Diego I went to Lighthouse Bible Church, so we were loosely affiliated and we spent some time with you in like, I forgot, Love Bowl or something like that, and different things. And I'm always so encouraged. And yet, Berean, you are not immune to this. If you have a heart of grumbling or disputing and you're cultivating that in your personal life, then it's only a matter of time before it infiltrates how this church will be able to run in unity for the gospel cause.

There's a deep, deep danger if you are grumbling and disputing about another brother or sister within the church, or how a leader is running a program, or how things operate. And while it isn't wrong to voice your opinions, you must, you need to, if you begin to see those seeds of grumbling and complaining in your heart, listen to this command of Scripture.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Stop complaining. It's never okay. Complaining runs deep. The discontent found in the depths of the heart threatens the very foundation of our faith. And we complain. It's a declaration that we deserve better, that I deserve more, that I'm the most important. Here's what I mean by that.

Have you ever tried to stop complaining about something? A lot of times you might try to stop complaining about something by comparing your situation with another person's. And in that, we become very self-centered. I remember in the early days of Addie, in the first few months of her life, she was a very, very difficult child.

A lot of health conditions, all these things. All the night, you know, Kazee would be crying. Addie would be shrieking for like, you know, three hours straight, and I'd be holding her. And you know, after a few months, it's like, "I can't do this anymore." I remember trying to soothe my grumbling heart and saying things like, "Well, at least you have a kid.

There's so many miscarriages out there. Well, at least she's healthy in that kind of way." When finances are tight and difficult, we say these things to ourselves. So by comparing to others, we say, "Well, you know, you live in a top couple percentile of the world. You're rich." We soothe ourselves with these things.

You eat three times a day. There are people who eat only once. They're starving out there. And while that kind of thinking works temporarily, it's not nearly where we need to be. This is still selfish thinking that shows how inward complaining is, that even in our fighting of it, we remain.

We might be tempted to do that even with the Apostle Paul. I know sometimes, like Pastor Peter, as I've been interacting with Pastor Peter more, all these stories come out. And I hear it, and sometimes I'm like, "Oh, man, I put my head down. I didn't suffer like that." And we might be tempted to look at Apostle Paul sitting in prison, and we make ourselves feel better by comparing ourselves to people in these situations, and it's actually a little messed up if you think about it long enough.

See, in doing this, we console and comfort ourselves, but it doesn't deal with the real grumbling problem of our hearts. It becomes a quick fix, and we manipulate our circumstances to stop our mouths from complaining. But when another circumstances arise, there it is again. There we are again. As Christians, what do we know?

What are we supposed to compare our situation with? Well, we have been saved from the clutches of darkness to the kingdom of light. We were enemies of God, destined for the eternal fires of hell. Saved from its flames, now adopted into the house of God. That song, man, that's an old song.

I was listening to that. Once your enemy is seated at your table. That's why later on in Philippians chapter 3, verse 7 through 11, Paul says what he knows that he has. And when he sees that he has Jesus and everything else, he says, "I count on his loss." See, complaining is so dangerous because we think we deserve better instead of understanding what we actually have.

We think we deserve more, and so we complain. But church, consider what we actually know. You and I deserve hell. A pastor in college used to say that sometimes. He would say, it was always in dating seminars. He would call out to all the girls and say, he would call out to men and he would say, "Men, you all are dogs.

You deserve hell." And all the girls would be, "Yeah, yeah." And she'd be like, "Ladies, what are you guys talking about? You guys don't even deserve dogs." You know, it was such a good reminder to me, even in college, that, man, we deserve hell. This word grumbling is very reminiscent of the words used in Exodus and Deuteronomy, talking about the Israelites when they're in the wilderness.

The ones who had just been saved from Egypt, this terrible, terrible place, with a tyrant of a leader. And they were brought into this wilderness and given everything that they needed. And this word grumbling comes out, grumbling, grumbling, grumbling. They would say, "Oh, that we're back in Egypt." When we complain, we cast out the greatest, heaviest, most weighty, precious truth that we have as Christians.

We throw out the gospel that we have been redeemed. And we make it an afterthought. We say, "Well, I have salvation, but what this guy is doing is wrong." And so instead of lovingly, kindly, humbly approaching each other, knowing who we are, knowing where we came from, we grumble in our hearts when we declare our righteousness, selfishly, rebelliously.

Complaining is very dangerous. It is the most unchristian thing. I do want to take a moment and say that there will be undoubtedly situations in your life where circumstances are going to be very difficult. And I don't want to downplay situations and circumstances because they're hard. There are going to be nights where you're weeping because it's so hard.

And yet the Bible still says, "Don't grumble and complain." That was the first point. That's the longest point. The command, "Don't grumble. Don't complain." Here's the second, why? Why? Well, point number two is because we are children of God without blemish. It's because we're God's children. If you look down with me on chapter 2, verse 14 through 15, "Do all things without grumbling or disputing," the command, "that," and there's the purpose, "that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish." That you may be shows this purpose.

It answers the question, "Why are we to follow this command?" It's not a blind following. If you search, you'll see that God always gives commands for our good and His glory. It's always going to be the same thing, His glory, our good, and that's why He gives commands. And that is that we are children of God without blemish.

Here's what He says about children of God, "Blameless and innocent." That word blameless obviously means without blame. It means guiltless, faultless. When someone looks at you, they can't find fault. There is no evidence they can dredge up to slander you unless they're lying about you. They did that about Jesus, right?

There was nothing that they could get Him on, so they lied about Him to get Him on that cross. In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 10, Paul says that his conduct towards them was blameless. That is, they looked at Paul's ministry and they couldn't blame him for anything. There's no fault.

The second word, innocent, is pertaining to being without a mixture of evil and hence to be pure and untainted. It's given to words like unalloyed metals or undiluted wine. It's a purity, sincerity, integrity of heart. Obviously, these two things, blameless and innocent, aren't talking about the external but the internal.

Our hearts must not be producing grumbling or disputing, but we are called to be blameless and innocent. Why? Why are we called to be blameless and innocent? Just because? Well, no. It's because we are children of God. These are the two sides you could be a part of, grumbling, disputing, blameless or innocent.

That's it in these situations. And the point is not for us to simply to be blameless and innocent, but what that fact points to, children of God are blameless and innocent. So in a converse example, what happens when someone sees a child of God grumbling and complaining? It taints the Father's name.

People question the entire faith on the basis of your testimony. When you see divisions in the church, it is the worst testimony to the world. People question the entire faith on the basis of it. People wonder if you believe in what you believe in. The gospel begins to drown out.

The more difficult the circumstance, the more tempting it is to grumble and complain. The more we resist grumbling and complaining, the more we show the blamelessness and innocence that we are as children of God. And the more people see that, they're going to see God. It's all about God at the end.

His glory, His kingdom, His name, not to be fazed, tainted, broken, manipulated, perverted, warped. It's all connected. The outside world can get you on this. Look at you. Say, "Ah, got you. You're grumbling. You're a complainer. You look no different than me. Actually, you look a little bit worse than me because you say you're a Christian." What do your coworkers see?

What do your classmates see? What do your roommates, your children, your parents, your family see in you? Do they see blamelessness and innocence? People striving towards this end, working out their salvation to this end? Or do they see the markers of the child of God, or do they see a complainer?

This actually moves us into our third point, the second why, which is it's because we shine as lights. We are called to live evangelistically. We are called to live as pointers to heaven. We are called to show people who God is. Look down with me at Philippians 2, verse 14 through 15 again.

We'll repeat this. "We are all things without grumbling or disputing that we may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish." And here it is. "In the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world." We're children of God in the midst of something crooked and twisted.

Crooked has this idea of being warped, mutated, not how it's supposed to be. Something is not crooked unless you see straight. And the twist it has the idea of perverted or depraved. When someone tries to twist something, manipulate something, pervert something, taking something that's innocent and good and changing it into something that's evil.

And that's our generation. And it's our generation because this is every generation. We are not living in some era where sin is now worse than before. It has always been terrible and we shouldn't grow surprised when we see evil in our generation. What did we expect? Something that is blameless and innocent and without blemish then is awesome and refreshing to behold compared to this generation.

Put that up against something crooked and twisted, it's made that much more powerful, your testimony is. Our world fallen in sin is like this. And grumbling and disputing is not a small thing. It's a deep and dangerous divide in the heart and reveals the condition of it. And the sin and darkness engulfs everything, everything on this planet and engulfs it.

And so when you see something pure, it's powerful. And we have that ability in our workplaces, homes, classes, places of leisure. It's only natural for people to grumble, dispute, complain, rebel and be selfish. But shocking is when you see the opposite, a child of God, blameless and innocent, not grumbling, not complaining in the hardest of situations and circumstances.

Do we look the same as the world? I'm not talking about Sunday us. I'm talking about the Monday through Saturday us. I'm talking about the ones that interact with our parents back at home. We see it all over Facebook, all over social media. It's very common in the workplace where we indulge in grumbling and the quietness and hidden places of our hearts and then we plaster on a face.

Do we heed this command? Because we are called to be different. Everyone and everything is twisted in this world. Are we unique? And not just compared to the most depraved of your friends. We're not talking about your heathen friend, the one that like, you know, all of us have that one friend that's like, that is kind of crazy out there.

I'm not talking about comparing to, I'm talking about comparing even to the, maybe to the most moral of your friends. Do we look different? The words used here are among whom you shine as lights. That means the Christian is to look different by shining. The church is to look different by shining.

Everything else is darkness. There's only church light that comes through Christ and darkness, that's it. It's not different colored lights. Or like there's all these lights that we're competing with. As a Christian, we need to be that stark of a difference. That contrast needs to be that pronounced where we look like lights and darkness.

Our fighting against grumbling and disputing, our fighting towards blamelessness and innocence as to people's accusations against us, it needs to pop as lights and darkness. We need to look different. That's what light does. When we shine as lights, we're not just being lights, but the light is doing something.

It's a revealing of something. Yes, something about us that we follow God, but ultimately it shines light on who God is. And when we are properly shining as lights by not grumbling and complaining, people will not leave saying, "Wow, what a wonderful person that guy is." It's going to be, "Wow, what a wonderful God they serve." In Matthew 5, verse 16, it says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and bring glory to your Father who is in heaven." It's going to happen if you're shining.

So in a way, evangelism is not just going out and preaching the gospel. In a way, it's all mixed together with your character in life. And you must be so unmarked not by grumbling and complaining. Isn't that crazy that our grumbling, that our complaining can do a disservice to God's kingdom where we can actually stop people from bringing glory to God?

Because if our light shines so that people see it, so that they'll glorify the Father, if our light is not shining, then what? So that's the third point. And to our last point, how do we do this? And this is the answer. It's not rocket science. By holding fast to Scripture's life-giving words.

Complaining has everything to do with truth. We complain when we have competing truths in our hearts. And since I've been a youth pastor for a while, one of the things I commonly see parents and kids fight about are smartphones. Now, in elementary, we helped out with like, we call it Harvest Festival.

I know you guys call it Reformation Night. But I've helped out with like, those programs. You know with the elementary kids, actually at our church, they don't really like, ask their parents for smartphones and things like that. So they'll, I wonder, you know, like why? Why aren't they like, so crazy about getting these smartphones?

Well, it's because their truth is, well nobody else has one. We don't really need one. And so we're happy. That's their truth. Well, what happens when they like, all of a sudden their voices start deepening and they get all like, hormonal and stuff? It's that they start looking at each other and like, the truth changes.

There's a competing truth that happens with the truth. The truth is, you don't need the smartphone. The competing truth becomes, I need the smartphone. Everyone's on Snapchat. Everyone's on Instagram. I need to get a mom. And it can't just be any smartphone. It has to be one everyone has.

You can't just go to a kiosk that your mom and dad goes to and like, that random like, one that's like a flip phone or something. It can't be that. It has to be a galaxy. It has to be an iPhone. It has to be a Pixel. It's a competing truth.

Obviously the problem here is not whether it's right or wrong to have a nice phone, but the state of the heart is being displayed in grumbling and complaining against the parents. It's following a perceived truth. And that is why in order to do all things without grumbling or disputing, the scriptures are everything.

The word of God is everything to you. It's the truth by which everything gets standardized. It's the truth by which we fight perceived wrong truth. That's why Jesus says in John 17, 17, "Sanctify them in the truth because your word is truth." Our sanctification happens inside of truth. We go back to the same truth of the gospel we talked about just a moment before.

Remember who you were and who you are now. Remember what you deserve and look at what you have now. It goes far beyond the superficial things of this world. In 1 John 2, verse 15, it says that the world is passing away along with all its desires. These things are just going, going, going.

But we have something eternal, imperishable. It's something that cannot be taken away or destroyed. We have a truth of the gospel, a hope of the gospel, a hope of inheritance that we have through Jesus. How can we ever complain about anything ever again? How can we ever dispute? The reason why complaining leads to disunity in the church is because when we are clinging to these things that are so peripheral, it competes against this greater truth of what we're doing as a church.

And that's why churches go through splits over how money is used. Of course the discussion is that we're trying to use finances for God's kingdom and glory, but when some littler truth supersedes that of the gospel, you begin to see division. First in our hearts and actually physically, congregation split.

We hear about this all the time. People are leaving. But when we're in the word of God, that needs to always be the central starting point that dictates everything. We are called to unity. So that humility and understanding and kindness and compassion and gentle rebuke and sharpening happens and precedes all these other things that are important.

About how we use money, about what kind of programs we do, about which way our church is going, all of this stuff. I'm talking about this because we've been talking about this a lot at our church. The word is the thing that in Hebrews chapter 4 it says divides the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.

You can feel so right in what you're saying, so justified in what you're saying, but the word is going to open us up and just display the ugliness of our hearts. In James 1 it says that scripture is like a mirror that just reveals the truth. The mirror is not going to lie to you and say, "You look beautiful." You look at it and you go, "Whoa, I better fix myself up before I go to church." It's called the word of life that we are called to hold fast to.

It gives life. The word is so, so important. Something that we can't simply study. It constantly needs to be the instrument by which our hearts are refined and purged. Have you been grumbling, disputing, and complaining lately? Have you been a bad witness lately to family, to friends, coworkers, teachers, classmates, the same people we keep bringing up?

Even a stranger on the road? That means that even though you might be reading your Bible every day, it might be like a mile behind you, you're just on a leash and you're just pulling it behind you. The Bible says here we need to hold fast to it, cling, it needs to be close to us.

We're fixing our eyes on it. We're hiding it in our hearts. You will not be distracted by what the world says, by what the enemy says, or even what your heart says. It doesn't matter if you're tired or angry. It doesn't matter if you're a boss or your teacher is unfair.

It doesn't matter if your children are going crazy. You hold fast to it in desperation. If the word gives life, then without the word there is death. We need to meditate on the gospel over and over and over again every single day. Remember everything that you have in Christ.

For me, I like to go through Ephesians chapter one and two whenever I forget what I have in Christ. Just study and just look at the richness of what we have. If we indeed have everything that the gospel promises, if we have been given Jesus Christ himself, I don't think we're going to be complaining about some of the things that we're so tempted to complain about.

Church, there is no quick fix to our hearts. There's no quick fix to our complaining hearts. We need to cling fast to the word of God that is constantly going to remind us, change us, cultivate in us a heart of gratitude, which is the opposite of complaint. Scripture is the timeless standard of truth that stands above everything else.

Don't force yourself into not complaining. It needs to be changed by the work of the spirit through the word of God. So as a reminder to us, this is a command that we all will fail in. The idea is not to legalistically force ourselves to stop complaining, to leave this room and say, "I gotta stop complaining, stop complaining," but simply to remember the truth we have in our gospel identity, that the word of God will draw us to a reminder of these truths and give us a grumble-free life.

My favorite passage is in Philippians chapter two, verse five through 11, and it shows us this example of Christ, who was God, came to earth, and died the worst. Christ is ultimately the greatest example of someone who didn't complain, a Christ who would willingly give himself for others and endure hardship and persecutions, even to the point of death, even death on a cross, and he would do it silently.

No complaint from his mouth, never screaming of injustice, never thrashing about the unfairness of it all. The only one who could actually say, "This is not fair," was the only one who remained silent. God gave his son for us, and through him our sins are paid. We have a living hope.

We have a promised inheritance. We have a home awaiting us. This world is passing away, but the kingdom is at hand. I love 1 Corinthians 4. It says that this light momentary affliction is preparing for us this weight of glory that is beyond all comparison. What is to come is so much greater than what we have, and so when we fix our eyes on that, what we have doesn't matter so much.

When you cling to the word of life, grumbling cease and complaining turns into praise. It's a call to us to remember that the word of life, clinging close, holding fast, is the only way to accomplish this command. The only way Paul, so beaten up, so derided in life, can say that I count all things as lost compared to the surpassing worth, I'm knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.

It is the only way, church, by which we will be marked by this kind of heart, where the world will see that we are people who don't grumble, who don't complain, not because life is hard. Actually, life gets harder, but because we treasure something so much. And so there as a testimony, whenever you see a testimony on an infomercial, you see that person who loves their product so much, you go like, "Oh, I'm kind of interested in this product now." In a similar way, they're going to see your life, and you will shine, and people will come to Christ, and God will be glorified in you and in me.

Let's pray.