Salt, Light, and Complaining
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - In the last podcast, you shared with us
00:00:06.500 | from Philippians chapter two,
00:00:07.620 | and the effect of murmuring on our mission in the world,
00:00:10.040 | and what our complaining says about God.
00:00:12.660 | There's more to it from Matthew chapter five.
00:00:14.760 | Continue explaining this for us.
00:00:17.060 | Explain to us this connection
00:00:18.860 | between salt, light, and complaining.
00:00:20.940 | - Well, I will probably say something
00:00:24.540 | by way of explanation, but really,
00:00:26.820 | what I feel is that the Lord wasn't done with me
00:00:30.060 | on the Lord's day when he showed me
00:00:33.580 | Philippians chapter two, verse 14,
00:00:37.180 | do all things without complaining and reasonings.
00:00:42.060 | And the reason it convicted me so much at that time
00:00:45.020 | was because it went on to say,
00:00:47.620 | you live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
00:00:50.260 | and you shine as lights.
00:00:53.060 | And the light is doing all things without complaining.
00:00:55.700 | Being the kind of person who's not a grumbler,
00:00:58.460 | and a murmur, and a complainer,
00:01:00.620 | and a self-justifying arguer with people
00:01:05.620 | while you have every right to complain.
00:01:08.140 | And so he showed me all that.
00:01:10.740 | He broke me because of my bent to complaining.
00:01:15.620 | And then he wasn't done with me,
00:01:17.460 | and he took me to Matthew five.
00:01:20.560 | Blessed are you when others revile you,
00:01:23.660 | and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil
00:01:27.140 | against you falsely.
00:01:28.340 | Now that's where you start complaining, right?
00:01:30.740 | If somebody, like if my wife says something
00:01:33.540 | that wasn't true, I'm frustrated, I'm angry, I'm irritated,
00:01:38.540 | and then I start to reason in my mind
00:01:41.620 | how I should talk about this,
00:01:43.500 | and just everything starts to churn inside of me
00:01:48.060 | in terms of self-defense and outcomes,
00:01:53.060 | complaining, and if I don't deal with it,
00:01:55.300 | it just can go on and on.
00:01:57.060 | So that's what happens, whether it's at home,
00:02:00.180 | or at work, or on a blog, or somewhere,
00:02:02.900 | you get persecuted, or somebody says something falsely
00:02:06.460 | against you, you complain, you murmur, you grumble,
00:02:10.780 | and here's what Jesus says.
00:02:12.500 | When that happens, when you're treated badly,
00:02:15.980 | rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
00:02:20.220 | So men persecuted the prophets who were before you,
00:02:23.020 | and I thought, this is Philippians 2:14 stated positively.
00:02:28.020 | Philippians 2:14 said, "Do all things without grumbling,
00:02:34.220 | "that you may shine as a light in the midst
00:02:37.620 | "of a crooked and first generation."
00:02:39.100 | And here it says, "Rejoice and be glad,"
00:02:42.200 | which is the opposite of complaining and grumbling.
00:02:45.580 | Rejoice when you experience something
00:02:48.700 | that would make ordinary people complain.
00:02:51.780 | And then, the arrow, just like last time,
00:02:55.580 | the arrow went deeper because I went on and read,
00:02:59.020 | just what, three verses later, four verses later,
00:03:02.860 | "You're the light of the world."
00:03:05.100 | And I thought, I've never seen that before.
00:03:07.300 | In Philippians 2, "Do all things without murmuring,
00:03:12.320 | "and you'll shine like a light in the midst
00:03:15.920 | "of a crooked and perverse generation."
00:03:18.140 | Matthew 5, "Rejoice and be glad
00:03:20.940 | "when you're persecuted and slandered,
00:03:23.760 | "for you're the light of the world,
00:03:25.220 | "a city set on a hill."
00:03:27.420 | Now I know, verse 16 says, "Let your light so shine
00:03:31.220 | "that men may see your good deeds."
00:03:33.460 | But I wanna say, doesn't he mean they're not just good deeds,
00:03:36.500 | I mean, the world can do good deeds.
00:03:38.220 | It's good deeds without murmuring.
00:03:40.820 | It's good deeds without complaining.
00:03:42.280 | It's good deeds rejoicing
00:03:44.720 | when those good deeds aren't appreciated,
00:03:46.860 | when those good deeds are misinterpreted,
00:03:48.620 | when those good deeds are criticized.
00:03:50.380 | Rejoice in that day.
00:03:51.940 | "The Lord wasn't done with me yet."
00:03:53.860 | In other words, there was more to do,
00:03:56.700 | both by way of illumination.
00:04:00.180 | If you've never seen this, John,
00:04:01.580 | that the light of the world,
00:04:03.500 | the light of the church is a freedom
00:04:07.580 | from complaining and grumbling and murmuring,
00:04:12.460 | and instead, a joy.
00:04:14.500 | And here was the new precious gift
00:04:17.500 | of how to fight the battle,
00:04:20.100 | "For great is your reward in heaven."
00:04:22.740 | I had seen from Philippians that when I was murmuring,
00:04:28.220 | I was putting out my light
00:04:30.620 | about the brightness of God's power
00:04:34.240 | and the brightness of his wisdom
00:04:36.300 | and the brightness of his kindness.
00:04:38.300 | And now I saw, when I'm complaining,
00:04:41.660 | I'm putting out the brightness of his reward.
00:04:45.540 | I'm saying, "Well, the payoff for this experience right now
00:04:49.900 | "that I'm having, this slander, isn't very good."
00:04:54.900 | And Jesus is saying, "Oh, yes, it is very good."
00:04:59.340 | (laughs)
00:05:00.940 | Your reward in heaven for enduring
00:05:04.140 | what you're going through right now
00:05:06.340 | with not complaining but rejoicing
00:05:09.420 | will be off the charts glorious.
00:05:14.180 | And so my battle right now, Tony,
00:05:17.220 | is to not just believe that God's been kind to me in the past
00:05:22.220 | which he has by dying for me and forgiving me,
00:05:25.560 | but that he intends a reward for every patient act,
00:05:30.560 | every non-complaining act,
00:05:34.180 | he intends a reward that's just unspeakably great.
00:05:39.040 | Very, very true.
00:05:40.440 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:05:41.600 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:05:43.600 | Email your questions to us
00:05:44.680 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:05:47.360 | You can visit us online at desiringgod.org
00:05:49.280 | to find thousands of free books, articles, sermons,
00:05:51.040 | and other resources from John Piper, all for free.
00:05:53.560 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:05:54.400 | Thanks for listening.
00:05:55.400 | (upbeat music)
00:05:57.980 | (upbeat music)
00:06:00.560 | [BLANK_AUDIO]