What My Complaining Says About God

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, you said something happened to you recently

00:00:07.920 | as you were studying the Bible for yourself

00:00:09.840 | and you wanted to share it here and ask Pastor John,

00:00:11.520 | please explain for us what happened.

00:00:13.720 | - Well, it was on the Lord's day,

00:00:15.820 | I'm sitting on the front porch

00:00:17.880 | and just trying to enjoy Philippians chapter two,

00:00:22.880 | which is one of the richest chapters there is.

00:00:26.840 | It begins with have the same mind among yourselves

00:00:30.120 | and don't do anything from selfish ambition or conceit,

00:00:32.960 | but in humility count others more significant

00:00:35.000 | than yourselves and don't look just to your own interests,

00:00:39.440 | but to the interests of others and have the mind of Christ.

00:00:42.580 | And you know what that means?

00:00:43.640 | He didn't hold on to his outward manifestations of deity,

00:00:48.640 | but empties himself and becomes a slave and a servant

00:00:52.600 | and dies for us and rises.

00:00:54.720 | And so work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

00:00:58.440 | And then I got to verse 14 of chapter two

00:01:02.400 | and the Lord really convicted me.

00:01:04.820 | I was on the point of tears, really.

00:01:10.280 | If I suppose if I'd let myself go,

00:01:11.960 | I would have cried all the way,

00:01:14.220 | but on the ring of tears because it says,

00:01:18.000 | do all things without grumbling or disputing.

00:01:23.920 | And I've read it a hundred times, more than a hundred,

00:01:27.120 | I'm sure, without it having this effect on me.

00:01:30.920 | Grumbling is another word for complaining or murmuring.

00:01:36.140 | That word disputing is the word that,

00:01:40.940 | it's dialogus mois, it means reasonings or thoughts.

00:01:44.280 | And so what I think it means is complaining

00:01:48.320 | is usually accompanied by all kinds of rationalizations.

00:01:52.760 | As soon as I get frustrated or angry or disappointed

00:01:57.760 | or irritated at something,

00:02:01.880 | and I start feeling like, oh, maybe this is not good,

00:02:05.920 | my brain kicks in with unbelievable rationalizing.

00:02:10.360 | So when he says,

00:02:12.200 | do all things without grumbling or reasonings,

00:02:14.920 | he doesn't mean reason is bad,

00:02:16.280 | he means this kind of reasonings

00:02:19.000 | that the heart that's unbelieving

00:02:22.080 | and self-defensive is producing, that's what's evil.

00:02:27.080 | And here's what sank the arrow deep into my heart,

00:02:32.120 | because the next verse says,

00:02:34.820 | that you may be blameless.

00:02:37.400 | Now, there's do everything without grumbling, Piper,

00:02:39.520 | stop being a complainer,

00:02:42.240 | so that you may be blameless and innocent,

00:02:44.680 | children of God without blemish

00:02:46.440 | in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation

00:02:49.960 | among whom you shine as lights in the world.

00:02:54.960 | And I thought,

00:02:56.440 | my light is my doing things without complaining.

00:03:02.840 | So if I'm a complainer, I put my light out,

00:03:08.440 | and I live in a crooked and twisted and dark generation,

00:03:12.680 | what do they need, complainers?

00:03:15.060 | That's what they are.

00:03:16.600 | Well, what good is a complainer?

00:03:19.040 | My light goes out, and I thought,

00:03:22.800 | then I just, I stepped back and I said,

00:03:24.440 | now, why is that?

00:03:25.760 | What's the light that goes out when you complain?

00:03:28.960 | And the light that goes out is the light of his power.

00:03:31.920 | I'm saying by complaining,

00:03:33.200 | God wasn't strong enough to stop this thing

00:03:35.240 | I'm complaining about,

00:03:36.600 | or the light of his wisdom goes out.

00:03:38.480 | He wasn't smart enough to keep this out of my life,

00:03:42.520 | or his goodness.

00:03:43.840 | He just wasn't, he doesn't have my best interests at heart,

00:03:46.100 | so he lets this thing that I'm frustrated about

00:03:48.980 | come into my life.

00:03:50.300 | And so the longer my complaining goes on,

00:03:55.220 | the more I put out the light of his strength

00:03:57.820 | and the light of his wisdom and the light of his love.

00:04:00.940 | And that just landed on me, Tony,

00:04:02.780 | with tremendous conviction.

00:04:06.540 | And I had to go just pleading to the Lord,

00:04:10.620 | have mercy upon me.

00:04:11.940 | Oh God, I'm just seeming to be wired to complain.

00:04:16.240 | I see faults everywhere I look,

00:04:20.120 | and I don't want to be this way.

00:04:22.380 | I want to be a joyful person, an affirming person,

00:04:26.720 | a hope-filled person.

00:04:29.800 | And so I embraced afresh,

00:04:34.600 | as we must do every day,

00:04:37.000 | the gospel, ask for forgiveness,

00:04:41.200 | and took heart that in his mercy,

00:04:45.800 | this chapter is written precisely,

00:04:48.600 | not just to leave me there in my sadness and my misery,

00:04:53.600 | but to say, he really is bright.

00:04:59.080 | He really is light.

00:05:00.520 | He really is strong and wise and good,

00:05:03.540 | and he can help you not murmur.

00:05:07.720 | So I think the way I would close

00:05:09.640 | this little confession is to just ask people to pray.

00:05:14.040 | I mean, if they're saying, yeah, me too, well, fine.

00:05:17.520 | I do pray for you 'cause I don't know who you are,

00:05:20.240 | but you know who I am now.

00:05:22.400 | And if you're a Christian,

00:05:23.960 | you have some little teeny responsibility

00:05:26.220 | to join John Piper in praying

00:05:28.560 | that he wouldn't put his light out by complaining so much.

00:05:32.400 | - Thank you, Pastor John,

00:05:33.400 | and thank you for listening to this podcast.

00:05:35.040 | Email your questions to us

00:05:36.200 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org,

00:05:38.560 | and you can visit us online at desiringgod.org

00:05:40.840 | to find thousands of free books, articles, sermons,

00:05:42.960 | and other resources from John Piper.

00:05:45.320 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:05:46.240 | Thanks for listening.

00:05:47.280 | (upbeat music)

00:05:49.860 | (upbeat music)

00:05:52.440 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What My Complaining Says About God

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