(upbeat music) - In the last podcast, you shared with us from Philippians chapter two, and the effect of murmuring on our mission in the world, and what our complaining says about God. There's more to it from Matthew chapter five. Continue explaining this for us. Explain to us this connection between salt, light, and complaining.

- Well, I will probably say something by way of explanation, but really, what I feel is that the Lord wasn't done with me on the Lord's day when he showed me Philippians chapter two, verse 14, do all things without complaining and reasonings. And the reason it convicted me so much at that time was because it went on to say, you live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, and you shine as lights.

And the light is doing all things without complaining. Being the kind of person who's not a grumbler, and a murmur, and a complainer, and a self-justifying arguer with people while you have every right to complain. And so he showed me all that. He broke me because of my bent to complaining.

And then he wasn't done with me, and he took me to Matthew five. Blessed are you when others revile you, and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely. Now that's where you start complaining, right? If somebody, like if my wife says something that wasn't true, I'm frustrated, I'm angry, I'm irritated, and then I start to reason in my mind how I should talk about this, and just everything starts to churn inside of me in terms of self-defense and outcomes, complaining, and if I don't deal with it, it just can go on and on.

So that's what happens, whether it's at home, or at work, or on a blog, or somewhere, you get persecuted, or somebody says something falsely against you, you complain, you murmur, you grumble, and here's what Jesus says. When that happens, when you're treated badly, rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.

So men persecuted the prophets who were before you, and I thought, this is Philippians 2:14 stated positively. Philippians 2:14 said, "Do all things without grumbling, "that you may shine as a light in the midst "of a crooked and first generation." And here it says, "Rejoice and be glad," which is the opposite of complaining and grumbling.

Rejoice when you experience something that would make ordinary people complain. And then, the arrow, just like last time, the arrow went deeper because I went on and read, just what, three verses later, four verses later, "You're the light of the world." And I thought, I've never seen that before.

In Philippians 2, "Do all things without murmuring, "and you'll shine like a light in the midst "of a crooked and perverse generation." Matthew 5, "Rejoice and be glad "when you're persecuted and slandered, "for you're the light of the world, "a city set on a hill." Now I know, verse 16 says, "Let your light so shine "that men may see your good deeds." But I wanna say, doesn't he mean they're not just good deeds, I mean, the world can do good deeds.

It's good deeds without murmuring. It's good deeds without complaining. It's good deeds rejoicing when those good deeds aren't appreciated, when those good deeds are misinterpreted, when those good deeds are criticized. Rejoice in that day. "The Lord wasn't done with me yet." In other words, there was more to do, both by way of illumination.

If you've never seen this, John, that the light of the world, the light of the church is a freedom from complaining and grumbling and murmuring, and instead, a joy. And here was the new precious gift of how to fight the battle, "For great is your reward in heaven." I had seen from Philippians that when I was murmuring, I was putting out my light about the brightness of God's power and the brightness of his wisdom and the brightness of his kindness.

And now I saw, when I'm complaining, I'm putting out the brightness of his reward. I'm saying, "Well, the payoff for this experience right now "that I'm having, this slander, isn't very good." And Jesus is saying, "Oh, yes, it is very good." (laughs) Your reward in heaven for enduring what you're going through right now with not complaining but rejoicing will be off the charts glorious.

And so my battle right now, Tony, is to not just believe that God's been kind to me in the past which he has by dying for me and forgiving me, but that he intends a reward for every patient act, every non-complaining act, he intends a reward that's just unspeakably great.

Very, very true. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for listening to this podcast. Email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. You can visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of free books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all for free. I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

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