The Danger of Grumbling (Philippians 2:14-16)
The Dangers of Grumbling
Philippians 2:14-16
November 10, 2013
Alright I know just by reading the title to this sermon,
It instantly puts the majority of us under conviction.
If we have learned anything in America it is “Freedom of Speech”
We can say anything we want about anything anytime we want.
And while such freedoms are wonderful
In regard to our freedom to preach the gospel,
Such freedoms have also paved the way for our flesh.
Galatians 5:13 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh…”
And yet that is what often happens with our freedom of speech.
It is a very small thing for us anymore to grumble about our leadership or grumble about our circumstances or grumble about our coworkers, or grumble about our boss.
Grumbling is an American way of life
And I suppose we are all guilty of it.
And yet, the very first verse we look at tonight condemns it all.
(14) “Do all things without grumbling or disputing”
That is what we call an all encompassing command.
It’s really hard to read that verse
And then come up with a situation in which it is ok to grumble.
That verse covers areas like:
• The weather
• The economy
• The President
• The Doctor’s office
• The Dixie Dog
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing”
Of course we don’t just pull that verse out of context.
We know that it is found in the same chapter
Were we are commanded explicitly to lay our lives down for our brethren.
• We are to consider our brother as more important
• We are to look out for our brother’s interest, not our own
• We are to do just as Christ did for us
And here we learn that we are to do it without grumbling.
Let me remind you:
God doesn’t just care that you obey,
But that you obey with the right attitude.
And to illustrate the point we only have to look back at the glorious population we call “The Children of Israel”
Psalms 95:6-11 “Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
I think after reading that passage we can safely say that God was not amused with the children of Israel “in the day of Massah” or “at Meribah”
A little insight?
Exodus 15:22-25 “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.”
Exodus 17:2-7 “Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”
Of course this wasn’t an isolate incident:
Exodus 16:1-3 “Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
And we don’t have to do an entire study on Israel’s grumblings,
But we are well aware that they did.
1 Corinthians 10:10 “Nor [let us] grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”
(linked in that passage with immorality, idolatry, and trying the Lord)
Obviously grumbling is a serious grievance before God.
WHY?
1) Because all grumbling is against God.
• Is God not sovereign?
• Does He not command the weather?
• Does He not appoint rulers?
• Does He not govern your circumstances?
So in a very real way every time we grumble it really is a grumble against God for not making things play out the way we would like.
2) Because God desires us to have grateful and eager hearts
In all that we do, God desires us to do it eagerly.
Consider when we give:
2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Deuteronomy 15:10 “You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.”
Consider what Jesus said about fasting:
Matthew 6:16-18 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Or consider the priests in Malachi’s day:
Malachi 1:12-13 “But you are profaning it, in that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.’ “You also say, ‘My, how tiresome it is!’ And you disdainfully sniff at it,” says the LORD of hosts, “and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?” says the LORD.”
And you understand the point.
God desires not that we do the right thing,
But that we do the right thing with the right attitude.
To do the right action with the wrong motive is an offense to God.
I’m reminded of the little boy who was scolded by his father:
“I may be sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside”
Regrettably that is how we often obey.
We may be obeying on the outside, but we are disobeying on the inside.
(as evidenced by our complaint)
And if the Sermon on the Mount taught us anything it is that
God looks at the heart before He ever looks at the action.
God is concerned about the heart.
And so grumbling is an offense.
WHAT IS THE GREATEST COMMAND?
Love God with all your heart.
To obey another command,
And yet break the greatest does not please God.
And that is why Paul here says:
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing”
Those two words are different but certainly form a complete thought.
The Greek word for “grumbling” is one of those onomatopoetic words.
It is very guttural GONGUSMOS
And it simply means “to have a negative response to something.”
Remember the men who were hired by the landowner to work the vineyard?
Some went early, some in the middle of the day, and some late,
But he paid them all the same.
Matthew 20:11 “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,”
Luke 5:30 “The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”
And you get the picture.
It is when you just don’t like something that is going on
And you begin to grunt and groan under your breath.
And Scripture commands us not to do that.
“disputing” is the word DIALOGISMOS (dialogue)
It refers to “inner reasoning”
Where as “grumbling” is emotional
“disputing” is intellectual
It is to form a reasoned and formal complaint.
One is an initial response, the second is a formal outspoken complaint.
Romans 14:1 “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing”
Do all things without an emotional grunt or a verbal complaint.
And that very specifically applies
To you humbling yourself before your brother.
Example:
You and your brother disagree, but you know that the Scripture says to consider him as more important than you and for you to look out for his personal interests.
So you decide to let him have his way,
but you grumble and complain the whole time you let him do it.
That is kind of missing the point don’t you think?
So don’t just do what a Christian is supposed to do,
Do it with the type of attitude that a Christian is supposed to have.
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing”
WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?
That is precisely what Paul answers in verses 15 and 16.
Three benefits to the grumble free life.
#1 IT SIGNIFIES YOUR PEDIGREE
Philippians 2:15a
“so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,”
Obeying God’s commands without grumbling
Proves something about you.
It proves that you are:
“blameless and innocent”
“children of God”
“above reproach”
“blameless” and “above reproach”
Are actually very similar words in the Greek,
They both mean “without defect or blemish”
In the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament (the one Paul read),
The word was used of sacrificial animals which had to be without defect.
And as we desire to “present our bodies to God a living and holy sacrifice” this is a very important aspect.
You may in fact be “blameless”
You may in fact be “above reproach”
As far as your actions are concerned,
But if your attitude stinks while you do, no one will notice that.
Remember Paul?
Even before salvation he could claim to be “blameless”
Philippians 3:6 “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.”
Paul could claim to be in absolute accordance with the Law even before salvation, but his furious attitude failed to reflect that.
The word “innocent” simply means “unmixed”
Romans 16:19 “For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.”
2 Corinthians 11:2 “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.”
And that is the call here.
We know you want to be “blameless and innocent”
We know you want to be “above reproach”
Beyond that we know you want to be considered “children of God”
DON’T YOU WANT THE WORLD TO RECOGNIZE YOUR HOLINESS?
Our very desire is to be different from the world.
Paul says the world is “crooked and perverse”
“crooked” is SKOLIOS (scoliosis)
• The world is just backward.
• The world is out of place.
• The world has no understanding of the ways or things of God.
They always go the wrong direction, they always get it backward.
It is crooked, it is corrupt, it is depraved, it is wrong.
My dad often amazes me with his practical discernment in situations.
To the lady who didn’t believe in selling horses to the killer plant…
“Well do you have a problem with abortion?”
And isn’t that crooked and perverse?
Killing babies is ok, but killing horses is inhumane.
We obviously desire to stand out against the culture.
HOW DO YOU PROVE THAT?
Paul is clear, there is one thing that proves you a child of God above all other, and that is your lack of grumbling or disputing.
Your attitude is serves as the frame around your obedience.
A good action with a sorry attitude is still not attractive.
If you want to prove to others and yourself that you are a holy innocent child of God, then cut grumbling out of your lifestyle.
A grumble free life signifies your pedigree
#2 SOLIDIFIES YOUR PREACHING
Philippians 2:15b-16a
“among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life,”
On one hand our grumble free life proves that we are children of God.
On the hand it bears testimony
To the mission we are trying to accomplish.
• We know we live in this crooked and perverse world.
• We know this world is going the wrong direction.
• And we know they are doing this because they walk in darkness.
We however, “appear as lights in the world”
Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
We are declaring to men the answer
We are declaring to men the way
We take sinners trapped in darkness
And offer to them the path that will lead them to redemption.
That is what Paul meant when he said
We are “holding fast the word of life”
That really isn’t the best translation.
The word there is really “holding FORTH the word of life”
The indication there is not that we faithfully obey,
But that we faithfully proclaim the truth.
So we are the church.
1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”
And that is a responsibility we accept.
• We know that our job is to proclaim truth in a world of deception.
• We know we are to be light in the midst of darkness.
And that is why we continually preach the truth.
But, if we faithfully preach the word, but grumble and dispute
The world only sees our negative attitude and fails to hear our message.
Remember Israel?
They thought they were a light too…
Romans 2:17-24 “But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,” just as it is written.”
They accepted their role as a light in darkness too…
But because their lifestyles were a direct contradiction of the truth they proclaimed, their preaching actually had a negative affect.
Instead of glorifying God, they actually blasphemed Him.
And that is the danger we run.
We ought not have a tongue that one minute proclaims truth
And the very next grumbles about our circumstances.
James 3:8-10 “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”
When we preach truth but live grumbling it kills our message.
1 Corinthians 13:1 “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
However, when we do all things without grumbling or disputing
It actually validates our claim to be lights in the midst of darkness
As we hold forth the truth.
A grumble free life signifies your pedigree and solidifies your preaching
#3 SATISFIES YOUR PASTOR
Philippians 2:16b
“so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.”
Paul wants them to live without grumbling or complaining
Because if they do this, he will know that they are truly changed
And that his ministry is a genuine one.
Paul speaks of not running in vain.
We know this was important to him.
1 Corinthians 9:26 “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;”
Paul was very careful not to be a person whose life left no mark.
He wanted to make a difference.
And he was concerned any time
It looked like his ministry did not have the desired effect.
Galatians 4:8-11 “However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
However, when those he led demonstrated a true change, he rejoiced.
1 Thessalonians 3:6-8 “But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.”
The apostle John was the same:
2 John 4 “I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.”
Nothing mattered so much to those men as the obedience of their flock.
• Paul wanted to glory…
• Paul wanted to be able to rejoice in his ministry…
• Paul wanted to know he was making a difference…
And incidentally, nothing does this for a pastor
Like the obedience of his flock.
Paul knew if he could look at the Philippians
And find humble people
Who considered others as more important than themselves
And who not only died to self, but rejoiced as they did it…
Then Paul knew his ministry was effective.
Now that being said, I’ll give you a heads up for next October.
Carrie and I greatly appreciate the generosity of our church.
The love offering was a wonderful thing.
Having a pastor appreciating Sunday is indeed appreciated.
But I must sympathize with Paul here…
• Even better than a love offering…
• Even better than an appreciation Sunday…
• Is your obedient life.
That makes a pastor rejoice.
The flip side is that often times pastors continually field complaints.
We live in a day where people put a high premium on leadership.
• Corporations want leaders
• Athletic teams want leaders
• Communities want leaders
And because of that the book stores are filled with books on leadership.
But I’ve often told people if you want a real lesson on leadership
Then read Exodus and Numbers.
Moses was the greatest leader any nation ever knew
And no one was ever grumbled against more than him.
And sadly this is a reality for far too many pastors.
(I’m obviously only preaching this for those in other churches who get our CD’s)
Nothing kills the motivation of a pastor like a grumbling flock.
Hebrews 13:17 “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 “But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.”
And Paul is pretty clear here that if you want to honor such a person or make their job easier, then “do all things without grumbling or disputing”
Bragging on a pastor loses its luster
When you brag one day and complain the next.
And yet that is reality for our entire Christian life.
• We desire to be known as children of God, but grumbling ruins it.
• We desire to be lights in a dark world, but grumbling hides our light.
• We desire to encourage and honor our leaders, but grumbling has the opposite effect.
And so you can see the dangers of it.
We are called to obey and to obey in the right way.
So “do all things without grumbling or disputing”
• It will validate your claim to be a child of God
• It will dictate the effectiveness of your ministry
• It will encourage your pastor that his work is not in vain
