Okay, so we are now tonight in Philippians 2, 14 to 18. Handouts in the back, if you didn't get one. And we've noted that this class title is Surprised by Joy. It comes from the title of C.S. Lewis's autobiographical account of his salvation. He described his salvation with those words, surprised by joy. And so we are borrowing that title because that's really a good summary or a title for Paul's letter to the Philippians because the circumstances of the letter, his imprisonment, Yet this is the most joyful letter that Paul writes. It's just filled with joy. And so you have the contrast of his circumstances with the words joy and rejoice. And we're gonna see it again tonight in 2 14 to 18, this call to joy and that we should be, and we can be surprised by joy because we find ourselves in difficult circumstances. We keep our eyes on Christ and we have joy in the midst of sorrow, joy in the midst of trial. So tonight we're looking at 2, 14 to 18, and we're gonna see that this is actually about, it's related to joy. We're gonna see it's really about moving from difficult circumstances and a propensity to have a negative mindset to walking in joy and how that itself is one of the most powerful, attractive forces for the gospel. I think that's what he's getting at here in this passage, that we're to make the gospel attractive by our unshakable joy, unconquerable joy. Now, we're gonna have moments up and down in our Christian life where at times where we're not, but we're always recovering that joy because if we're really living correctly, the gospel, we're living for the gospel, we always can be joyful. So we go through a circumstance, we recalibrate, we get thrown off a little bit, we recalibrate to the gospel joy. That's the Christian life. And living like that is one of the most powerful evidences that Christ is who he says he is. You have a joy the world can't understand. So let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we'll dig into this passage. Father, we thank you for this time. We pray that you would bless us as we study your word. Will we come worshiping you for being a God who speaks, a God who's made Himself known in Scripture? with such clarity, and yet, Lord, we come even as we know the perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of the Bible, we know we still need grace to understand it, we need the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts and our minds, and we come humbly asking you to work in us that which is pleasing to you. We pray that you would make us people of more and more who are centered on the gospel. and who exhibit in our lives the transforming power of grace. We pray this in Jesus name, amen. So the text. I'm gonna read the first, I'm gonna start at verse 12. We're reading 14 to 18 is our text. Remember last week we were in 12 and 13, but I want us to read it in context a little bit. He says, so then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing 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 among whom you appear as lights in the world. Holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. So you see that triumphant note of joy there at the end. So what I want us to do is we look at this, there's five points tonight we're gonna cover. And the first is the context, the context of these verses and particularly this command. The main command in the passage is in verse 14. It's the only imperative in this section. We know there aren't that many imperatives in Philippians. And so it's always good to note, this is an imperative. This is an imperative, do all things. without grumbling or complaining. The do all things, the do is an imperative. So it's a command. And so the context of that command though, how does it come up? This command to do all things without grumbling or complaining, it comes up in the context of work out your salvation with fear and trembling. So it's in the larger section. And we noted this sometime back, the larger section, and it's always good to tie a particular passage back to the bigger picture. And the bigger picture of Philippians 127 to 218, really the whole section is about living worthy of the gospel. 127, he said, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. And then he starts to unpack what it looks like to live in a manner worthy of the gospel. And what he begins to do right up there, let's just look back over this passage for a minute. You look at verse 27, he says, conduct yourself worthy in a manner worthy of the gospel, so that whether I come or see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you're standing firm in one spirit. with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. We talked about that, the image there of even striving together, standing together against attack, and it's one spirit, one soul. When it says one mind, it says one spirit and one soul, literally. This is the kind of thing, this is what it means to be live worthy of the gospel. And then in chapter two, verses one to four, he continues that same idea and saying, pursue oneness of mind. That's when he says in verse two, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, two, two. Maintain the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. He wants oneness, unity. That's the life worthy of the gospel. a life of oneness. That's the first thing he's telling us about a life worthy of the gospel. And the next thing he does is, the way you're gonna fulfill this, is he says, keep looking at Christ. So actually, pursue oneness of mind by pursuing the mind of Christ. That's the blanks there. Pursue oneness of mind by pursuing the mind of Christ. And then 2, 5, and 11, the theme there is keep looking at Christ. That's essentially what he says. I want you to have this oneness of mind. How are you gonna do that? Well, you look out for others' interests above your own. How do you do that? Keep looking at Jesus. That's what he did. If you keep looking at Christ, you'll become like him. Remember we said last week, beholding is, or two weeks ago, no, last week, beholding is becoming. You keep looking at Jesus, you become like him. And so then last week, we saw the theme of that text was to pursue holiness. Pursue holiness. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. So he's saying get to work. Pursue oneness of mind. Keep looking at Christ. Live worthy of the gospel. Pursue oneness. Pursue unity. Chase after it. How do you do that? You keep looking at Christ and you work out your salvation. That is, you keep working at your own personal holiness, your own personal sanctification. And here's the next part of it. Essentially, what we're gonna see tonight, the theme is do your work, do your work without grumbling or disputing. Do your work without grumbling or disputing. Some translations say complaining. Do your work without grumbling or complaining. So that's the focus tonight. So you kind of see the big picture there, right? Live worthy of the gospel, that means pursue unity. The way you do that, you look at Christ and you pursue personal holiness because nothing promotes unity like pursuing personal holiness. The more we get, the closer we get to Jesus, the closer we get together. You may have seen somebody, this is a, if you had premarital counseling from a pastor before you got married, a lot of times they'll draw a triangle on the board and here's the husband, here's the wife, here's Christ. And so the more you get closer, you get to Christ, the closer you get to each other. Right? And that's true. That's true for Christians. The closer we get to Christ, the closer we get to each other. And he's saying that. But he's saying now, you're supposed to work. And we saw that last week. Work at your sanctification. Remember, it's not let go and let God. It's work hard, trusting continually by faith in Christ's power. Not doing it yourself. It feels like you're doing it yourself, but you're praying, you're crying out to God, you're trusting in his grace, you're looking to Christ, his resurrection power, as you work out your salvation. Here he's saying, so that last time was get to work, get to work. And here he's saying, while you're working, stop grumbling and complaining. That's essentially the message here. Because it's easy to grumble and complain, when you're going through the hard work of pursuing holiness, and when you're going through the hard work of pursuing oneness with other believers. It's easy to grumble and complain. Wow, I've just, I got, this is just too much. I just don't wanna do this. Why does this have to happen? Why are you allowing this to happen to me, Lord? What is going on? Grumbling and complaining. So he says, this is the thing. Do everything without grumbling and complain. Do your work without grumbling or complaining. So now, the second point, the first point was the context. Number two is the contrast. You kinda look at the big picture of these five verses, verses 14 to 18, and we see the contrast. Verse 14, do all things without grumbling or disputing. Think about the attitude, the joylessness. I mean, when you're grumbling and complaining, you're really happy, aren't you? Why don't you grumble and complain because you're so happy? Man, this steak is so wonderful. I just can't believe about this. No, you grumble and complain when you're unhappy. And so, look at what happens between verse 14 and the end of verse 17 and verse 18. Paul says, do this, and he says why to do it, verse 16, so that you can hold fast the word of life. And then he talks about, so you do this so that I'll know that I won't have run or toiled in vain to come to emptiness. If I do this, if I've labored and labored and labored, and you don't keep following Christ, you don't keep pursuing your joy, then I will have labored in vain over you. But then he says, but even if that's true, even if I'm being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, even if things aren't going well for me, Paul says, even if it's not turning out like I want, isn't that why we grumbly complain? Life doesn't turn out like we want it. We work hard. And what is it, the effect of the fall? You know, when God subjected the world to futility, It's what Romans 8 says, verse 20. He subjected the world to futility in hope. Subjected to futility, that is emptiness. So we work to make something happen and we come up empty. This is what God said to Adam when he said, now the ground is cursed because of you and it will produce thorns and thistles. you will till it and you will now have to eat by the sweat of your brow. That is, you're gonna have to, I mean, you're gonna have to work anyway, but now you're gonna work to the point of exhaustion and it's gonna still come up empty. And when that happens, the natural thing to do is to grumble and complain. That's the normal response of the human soul. Paul is saying the gospel changes that. The gospel radically alters your perspective. So that even though it might be natural to grumble and complain because circumstances are not like you want them to be, what does the gospel tell you? I mean, if you're all about the gospel anyway, God is advancing his gospel as we've seen in Paul's life, even in imprisonment, which you would have thought, oh no, Paul's in prison. And you can imagine how many believers probably when they heard that said, Lord, what are you doing? Why did you let this happen? What am I doing if I say that? I'm grumbling and I'm complaining directly to the Lord. Do you hear, sometimes hear bad news about somebody, you know, somebody you care about and something happens and you're like, really, Lord, on top of all they've already got going on? And you catch yourself saying that? I know I've done that many times. I'm like, that just seems too much. What are we supposed to do in that moment? Trust the Lord. I mean, he who began a good work in you will complete it till the day of Christ Jesus. He has made us new and he's using whatever happens in our lives. He's ordaining everything that happens, that comes to pass to make us like Christ. If He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him, gave Him over for us all, how will He not together with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8.32, from the greater to the lesser. If He gave you the greatest gift He could ever give you, how can you not believe He will continue to give you good gifts every moment of every day of your life? And for the Christian, that is true. Whatever happens to me tomorrow in Christ is the very best thing that could happen to me. Even if I think it's the worst thing, and sometimes those things are, and there's a mixed bag about this. God understands that there's evil in death, there's evil in disease, there's evil in sins that happen to us, tragedies that occur, really are evil, but we know that what Satan means for evil God means for good. And so the gospel changes how we interpret circumstances. And so we're to move from grumbling and complaining like Paul is doing even in these verses, because he's saying, if I toil in vain, if I labor over you, and it turns out you don't end up, continue to follow Christ, you fall away that you never were really saved, he's essentially saying, and he's not believing that, he's just saying, even if the worst case thing happens, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me all. Actually, those verbs, there's four verbs there. I rejoice is the word rejoice in Greek. I'll make a note of that. But the word share my joy with you is actually rejoice with. It's the same, it's actually Cairo is the word for rejoice, C-H-A-I-R-O, transliteration. And this is Sug Cairo, S-U-G on the front of Cairo. So it's the same verb. He says, Cairo is I rejoice, Sug Cairo, I rejoice with you. So I rejoice and I rejoice with you. And they're both Greek present tense verbs, means ongoing action. Even if things don't turn out like I want them to, I am rejoicing and I am rejoicing with other Christians. I'm gonna keep rejoicing with you. And I'm telling you, it's not a one-way street. You rejoice and rejoice with me. Let's rejoice in the Lord together. That's what he's saying. Now think about the contrast. Verse 14, you're tempted to grumble and complain as you work and you labor, you fight against sin, you struggle with difficult providences. Life hurts, it's hard, painful. But he says, listen, the first thing that you do is you need to stop grumbling or complaining. So that's the contrast, sets it up. Now thirdly, the command. Point number three, the command. So now we've set the stage for the command. We've noted this contrast that's happening in the big picture of these five verses. Now the command itself. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Remember, the imperative is do all things. It's also a Greek present tense verb, which means continuous action. The Greek verb, they're more about the kind of action than the time of action. So we only think of present tense as present time, right? But Greek is more about the kind of action. Present tense is ongoing, continual action. So he's saying, go on doing all things without grumbling or complaining. So the idea is you're doing, you're constantly doing, you're constantly doing, and do it without complaining or disputing. And do all things. without grumbling or disputing. I'm reading the American Standard, that's the way it translates those words, grumbling or disputing. The NIV says complaining or arguing. ESV says grumbling or disputing just like the NAS. King James says murmuring or disputing. That word grumbling is actually, the Greek word there is an onomatopoetic word. You remember onomatopoeia from grammar? I always like to ask these questions, especially those that are older, because we're like, well, that sounds vaguely familiar. I think I remember that somewhere. Onomatopoeia is where a word sounds like what it describes. The word itself, the classic example is the word buzz. Buzz. A bee makes a buzzing sound. You see, buzzing sounds like the sound it describes. Well, the word grumble in English is an onomatopoetic word. And even better, I think, is murmur. Murmur is describing the sound you make when you are murmuring. Murmur, murmur, right? You can't really make out what the person's saying. They're grumbling under their breath. They're speaking, but they're not intending to be heard. We do that a lot, don't we? We're like, we're frustrated. I can't believe this happened. I can't, I can't believe, you know, just that kind of stuff. So he said, doing everything without that. In a sense, you could say by putting a Greek present, it's almost like he's saying, stop. Cause it's like the idea is the action is ongoing. So the doing is ongoing, but also the tendency to grumble and complain as you labor is continual. It's a temptation to continually. So he's saying, stop. Stop the pattern of grumbling and murmuring. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. This is actually a word we're gonna come back to in 1 Peter 4. This week I'm planning on preaching on Easter, so it won't be there. But in 1 Peter 4, 9, Peter says almost identically the same, well, the same almost phrase, the adverb and then the word, or the preposition and the word. He says, do everything without grumbling. Here, Peter says, hospitality, showing hospitality without grumbling. without grumbling. And this word is a loaded word, the word grumbling, murmuring. It's a word that students of the Old Testament recognize. And I think it's intended to be that way by Paul here. He's saying, listen, you've got to stop grumbling and complaining so that you will finally, because he's actually saying, when he says that about in verse 17, or 16, I don't want to find that I've run or toiled in vain. I don't want you to fall away. But even if you do, I'm still gonna rejoice in the gospel. but I don't want you to fall away. He's actually, I think, carrying through a thought about the word grumble. It's something he was trying to put into the text in the sense of using that word that is like a loaded word in the Old Testament. And when you go to the Greek Old Testament, Hebrew was the Old Testament language, of course, but when it was translated into Greek, in the second century BC, the word for grumbling is the same word here. And it's an onomatopoeia, even in Hebrew, it's onomatopoetic, just the same way in every language of the Bible. But it recalls our minds to Exodus and Numbers and to what happened when the people came out of Egypt. We're not gonna walk through this. It's actually a really helpful study. One of the times I was reading through the Bible in Exodus, I started marking and circling the word grumbling, or grumble, or grumbled. And it's amazing how much it happens. And when you really understand the flow of the narrative, let me just explain this for a minute, because this is important. So if you're reading from Genesis through Deuteronomy, okay? I mean, Genesis is telling the story up to the Exodus. The Exodus story starts with Moses birth and all of that. Then Moses call in chapter three, right? And then chapter four through 12, 13, 14 is about the deliverance from Egypt. And then from there on is about the people now outside of Egypt on the way to Canaan. So the narrative, the flow of the narrative, that's the flow of the story and the action, when you pick it up in Exodus after they come out, they pass through the Red Sea, the next thing they do is they go to Sinai, but on the way to Sinai, they have some problems. The first thing that happens is they've seen God work miraculously to deliver them from Egypt. I mean, think about what they saw, the miracles. All these miracles that happened and they were protected, the Egyptians were just getting annihilated. God is just annihilating the Egyptians. And here they are, you know, hell's happening over there, but it's not happening over here where we are. Darkness over there, not where we are. Frogs over there, not where we are, right? And then ultimately the Passover, the death of all the firstborn of Egypt, but the death angel passing over the Hebrews. And so they leave Egypt and they're told to ask the Egyptians for plunder as they go out. What would you like to give me as I go? And they're giving them gold and silver and jewelry and saying, please go. So they plunder the Egyptians without firing a shot, so to speak. They go out and then the Lord has them pause by the Red Sea and he delivers them through the Red Sea so they can see his mighty power. They go through on dry land. They get through, the Egyptians follow after them. Never can understand why they did that. They follow after them. They're all wiped out. Now they come out of the Red Sea. You think, man, we've seen the God that we are following. He's worth following. What happens? They don't have any water. Moses, what are you doing? and they start grumbling. And that's actually the first account of it. They start grumbling and it's actually 1524. So the people grumbled at Moses saying, what shall we drink? They grumbled at Moses. Then he cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree, threw it into the water, the water became sweet. There was bitter water there, God makes it sweet. Now they're able to drink. So you think now they've learned their lesson, God's gonna take care of them, chapter 16. So this, you know, it's just like the next couple of days, here they are again, they got no food. 16, two, 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 here in the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. That's astounding. Well, the Lord ends up giving, and the word grumbling, verse seven, the Lord, for he hears your grumblings against the Lord, Moses say, what are we that you grumble against us? You're grumbling against God. Verse eight, the word grumble occurs three times. Verse nine, it occurs again. Verse 12, it occurs again. Grumbling, grumbling, grumbling, grumbling. And the Lord is angry with their grumbling, but he gives them man from heaven. Now, back to the issue in chapter 17, they don't have water again, they grumble again. And then you have now the account, they've arrived at Sinai and Jethro visits, the Lord gives the law, they've camped for a while, and the grumbling is not reported for a while. Now God's giving the law through Moses. And so from 19 all the way to the end of the book of Exodus, they're getting basically the law and the tabernacle. So what I'm saying is, the flow of the story stops. Time is kind of standing still. It's like, you know, one day, then another being recounted in the text, and then suddenly it stops. And now there's no more narrative of what's happening with the people. It's just all the law given. And then what is Leviticus? The continuation of the law given. And then you come back to Numbers, and the first nine or 10 chapters is all about the numbering and all of that. It's genealogy type stuff. And then you come to Numbers chapter 11, and now the narrative picks up again. Does that make sense? So the storyline is grumbling, little pause while we hit all this stuff, and grumbling. The storyline is they were always grumbling. They were always complaining. They were always murmuring. It starts in Numbers chapter 11, but particularly picks up in chapter 14. And what happens in chapter 13, they send the spies in, the spies come out, they give a bad report. And it says, when the people hear the bad report, what do they do? They grumble against Moses. And what I think God is doing in that story is what Paul is picking up on right here is that grumbling is essentially the expression of dissatisfaction, discontentment that spawns doubt. It's dissatisfaction leading to doubt. The more you grumble and complain, the more you sow doubt in your heart. And so what happens? The spies come in, come back. Remember 10 say, we can't go in. The people are giants, the city walls. We can never take this land. Joshua and Caleb say, yes, we can. The people grumble against Moses. They're ready to stone Moses. They're gonna pick up stones and the Lord appears And he puts an end to that. He sends a plague on the people. He kills all 10 of those spies immediately that had led the people to grumble. But they don't go into the promised land. And he says, because of your grumbling, you're gonna die in the wilderness. Only two of you are going in. So the grumbling led to their falling away. That's the picture. And so Paul, when he picks it up back into Philippians, And he connects it even with that saying, holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain or toil in vain. I want you to keep holding on to the word of life. I want you to keep being faithful to God because if you don't, I will have run in vain or toiled in vain. And he started that off with grumbling and complaining. And then he exhorts him at the end with rejoice. the opposite of grumbling and complaining. See that? So that's the force of the argument here. So the command is stop grumbling, stop disputing, stop complaining. The word grumble I said is a word which just expresses that. you know, dissatisfaction, discontentment, leading to doubt. The word translated disputing or complaining is a word which means to think things through. It has the idea of reasoning arguments. And so what's happening in the heart when we grumble and complain is we're looking at our circumstances, we're looking at it without putting it in God's perspective. We're not living in light of the gospel. We look at our circumstances and we're reasoning in our own minds about our circumstances. And that's a recipe for disaster. This is where Martin Lloyd-Jones has that helpful statement. He says, one of our greatest problems is we listen to ourselves when we ought to be talking to ourselves. Because the natural, the flesh response is, oh no. Why is this happening? I can't believe this. So stop listening to that. Start speaking to yourself, telling yourself the truth. Remind yourself of the gospel. Preach the gospel to yourself in that moment. So stop the grumbling and complaining. and keep on the doing and realize that this is just hard work. Part of it is just understanding. My kids laugh because I've had some certain sayings that I've said all their life. And a couple of them are, one of them is we've all got problems. They say something and I'll say that and they just know it. And the other is, that's life in a fallen world. You ask Maggie or John about it, they'll tell you they've heard that probably I don't know, thousands of times maybe, at least hundreds and hundreds of times. So that's life in a fallen world. What am I saying? What do you expect? We're not home yet. This is hard. So part of it is just remembering life is hard. God intends it to be hard because hard stuff makes me depend on Him, makes me seek Him in prayer, makes me earnest to fight against sin. I gotta be serious about this. I can't just relax. Gotta go after it. So that's what he's saying. The command is do everything without grumbling or disputing. Number four, the reason. The reason. He gives the reason. He gives a reason for this. Do everything without grumbling or disputing so that, verse 15, you will prove yourselves, literally you will become or you will be so that you will Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent. You will be blameless and innocent. Children of God, above reproach. That's those other blanks. Blameless, innocent children, reproach, above reproach. He's saying, do all these things without grumbling or disputing so that you will become, that you will be blameless and innocent. and above reproach. Three different words he uses to describe us as children of God. I think it's interesting. He reminds us that we're children of God. When you're tempted to grumble and complain, when I'm tempted to grumble and complain, we're all tempted to grumble and complain, right? It's good to remember that we are children of God. Our father loves us. We belong to him. And if we are grumbling and complaining, what are we saying about our dad? I mean, it's almost like, you know, if you, you know, Say a father plans a family vacation. Most of the time I think mothers plan family vacations, but in some cases fathers plan family vacation and those who do, for the sake of illustration, the father does. I say this because I don't do it very well. Although I have done a little bit of it. We'll see how it goes. Okay, so father plans family vacation and he's trying to think of his family and what'll make the most joyful experiences will be most enriching Even like down to, hey, we're gonna stop in this particular place and we're gonna go to the Grand Canyon. I've arranged for us to have a helicopter ride in the Grand Canyon. I mean, you've got to know if your family's up for that, right? But your wife may not be. But anyway, so we've arranged for a helicopter ride. We're going to go down the river in a raft one day. We're going to, you know, then we're going to go to wherever and we're going to eat at this tremendous restaurant and then we're going to do this. And what if the kids are like the whole time? Gosh, it's just miserable. I hate this. Oh yeah, so a helicopter, wow, that's great. Yeah, I knew I'd be, I'm gonna be motion sick and then we're gonna go on a raft. I mean, what would they be saying about your father? I don't love you, I don't, you're just so inept. You don't know me, you don't care about me. All these things he'll be saying. And God is planning out, has already planned out each day of your life. Ephesians 2.10 says that after we're saved by grace, saved by faith alone, he says, but we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has foreordained that we should walk in them. Every day, God has said, here's a work, walk in it. Here's what I've got for you. I mean, this is gonna be wonderful. It's gonna seem a little difficult, just like getting onto that helicopter would. Has anybody ridden in a helicopter before? We had a helicopter show up here. What was that, about a year ago, Mitchell? Some guy drives up and says, can we land our helicopter here? A helicopter pilot can't land where he normally does. And so they land their helicopter out here. And the helicopter pilot comes and asks us who wants to ride in the helicopter. So John and I got in the helicopter and we went up for a ride and he took us all around here. And you know, I mean, it was fun. I'm not really scared of heights that much, but I did think after I got up there, It'd be a bad way to go on be with the Lord. Patty finds out. She had no idea that I'm riding in a helicopter. You don't know your husband when he goes to work is gonna get in a helicopter. But anyway, it did go through my mind. I prayed a little more because of that while we were riding, but it was really cool. But imagine, you know, you've got sick and it's tough, but still, even if I'd gotten sick and been afraid, it was awesome seeing this area from the air. I mean, it was really cool when he flew us out past 85 and back around all the way around, it was cool. So I remember that. Now, so the Lord saying, look, sometimes it may seem difficult on the front end, but I have a purpose. I have a specific purpose for everything that's happening to you. If we believe that, how does that affect the way we respond? You're children of God. Now, when we respond the way we should, which is, hey, I don't know why this is happening. This looks bad. Lord, help me. Help me get aligned with you, reminding my preaching to myself. I know that this is good. Some way help me know what you want me to do. I'm gonna rejoice in the Lord. This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. That verse actually is in Nehemiah. I believe I'm right with that. It's in Nehemiah when they're mourning and God's brought them to the time of repentance. And he's saying, listen, this moment that seems so painful, embrace it. This is the day the Lord has made. It's when things are tough that you preach that to yourself. What I'm going through right now is the day the Lord has made for me. And I will rejoice and be glad in it. And that's what Paul is saying. We need to see it that way. And when we do, it makes us these three attributes, blameless, innocent, and above reproach. These three words, they're all alpha privatives. There's an alpha on the front or an A on the front that negates the meaning. Blameless is without blame, no blame, no blemish. When it says innocent, it means no deceit, but it really means no impurity. It's like a word that's often used with metals. There's no impurity. It's 24 karat gold. That kind of thing. So it's without impurity. So the idea is beauty and brilliance, and the idea of no blemish. In fact, the third word, which is above reproach, is very similar to the first word blameless. It like takes it to another level. There's no blemish, there's no spot, there's no impurity, there's no blemish at all. That's what he seems to say. Children of God unblemished. Look how beautiful they are. And then he adds to the image, they shine like lights. So the reason is that you will be like this and you will, in doing that, remembering they're your children of God, you will look like children of God. There will be an attractiveness about you, an unblemishedness about you that will arouse people's attention. Wow, look at that person. how they go through life, you know, life knocks them down and it doesn't really knock them down. They just stumble and then they keep going. And there's a buoyancy to their joy. This is a powerful testimony of the gospel. And that's what he's gonna say next, the result. Number five, the result. When he adds to that, Children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. So think about it. Yeah, there's a lot to grumble and complain about, especially when you look at the generation you live in. It is crooked and perverse. Those two words are really strong. The first word is a word we get our word scoliosis from. you know, scoliosis, curvature of the spine, it's twisted. And then the second word means to twist and distort. So it's like two different words meaning how twisted this generation is. It is crooked and twisted to the point of perverting, because perversion is to take something from what it's supposed to be and to wreck its essential character so that it's no longer what it's supposed to be. It's we live in the midst of a generation where that's happening everywhere. And we're supposed to be blameless and pure children of God shining. How can we do that? It's not by gauging your joy by what you see around you, right? There's no reason, but there was no reason for in their day to be excited and happy with what they saw either. So we're just like they were in the first century. But he says, if you, among whom you appear as lights in the world. So the next B, among whom you appear as lights in the world. Literally the word there is shine. NASB translates it appear, a couple of the other translations translate shine. Shine's a better translation. You shine as lights in the world. So in the midst, the image he, so he's giving a word picture. He's saying, you live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, it's twisted. Now he says, it's dark. Look how dark the world is becoming. How exceedingly dark it is. What is the, what is, What do you do in the midst of that? Do you just run and hide? No, he says, let your light shine. Overcome this grumbling and complaining spirit, being positive because you know God is at work in you. God is at work doing great things. Now, the joy in you is going to shine and you're gonna appear, you're gonna shine like lights. in the midst of the cosmos, the world, some translations say universe, it's actually the cosmos, he's doing these world, cosmos. Holding fast the word of life, I love that, you're holding fast, I think that's the main meaning is, the way that you're shining is you're holding fast, you keep on holding to the word of life. This is how you shine, you're holding on to the word. You're preaching the word to yourself. You're reminding yourself of the word. You're believing the word. You're building your life on the word. You're preaching the gospel to yourself. You're holding onto it. But as you do, what you're also doing is you're holding it forth. People see, they look at you, they see how are you, like I said, how are you buoyant with this joy? How do you keep on keeping on? How do you have joy? And you're sitting there holding, it's like you're holding the life preserver that's keeping you up and it's the gospel. And people wanna come and find out what is it that you're holding? Hey, hold on to this with me, it's the word of life. It's the gospel that makes all the difference. And so what he's saying is that the way that we live, the way we respond to difficulty and adversity, the way we respond to, now let's apply this. The way we respond to difficulty and adversity in just the battle with sin. The day-to-day war with sin. It's grueling, it's hard. John Owen said, kill sin or sin will be killing you. And so sometimes it's three steps forward and two steps back. And on those two step backs times when we're brokenhearted, we're discouraged, we feel like we're not making progress, don't give in to grumbling and complaining. Preach the gospel to yourself. Then this, it is hard to kill sin. We are living in a fallen world. So get back up and keep fighting and do so with joy because God, even in the midst of one thing, the best things, I remember C.S. Lewis using this illustration, well, Yes, he says in one of his books, I don't know which one it was, he talks about you're walking down a street and you fall in like a gully. You trip into a gully and you fall down. And this is falling into a sin. And you come the next day and you fall into the gully. You get up and you walk on and you're messed up and you're hurting. The next day you get up, you walk and you fall in the gully. And you get up and you walk on. The next day you come along, you fall in the gully, you get up and you walk on. He said, one of the evidences of grace is that you keep getting up after you fall. You keep getting up and looking to Christ. That's actually the beginnings of grace that are changing you. Now, you keep fighting against it so that you, over time, you learn how to not let that gully pull you into it. It feels like it's pulling you into it through Christ's death and resurrection. But it starts with just knowing it's hard. The Christian life is hard. And so don't be surprised it's gonna be hard. Don't grumble and complain. This is what's gonna make us long for heaven. You know, one of the things that I'm convicted of sometimes is I don't long for heaven enough. Do you ever think that? You know, we're supposed to long for Jesus to come back. One of the best things that helps us long for heaven is how hard it is to fight with sin, how hard it is to live in this world, how messed up, how crooked and perverse everything is. So don't, in one sense, we can, even as we're getting up out of the ditch, say, Lord, thank you for giving me the grace to get out of this ditch. I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna fall in this ditch anymore, but thank you for giving me grace, and I'm gonna keep seeking you. Help me, Lord, I wanna be holy, help me. And as we're doing that, we're actually making progress and preaching the gospel ourselves knowing that you love me in spite of the fact I just fell in this ditch because of what Christ did. He died for that sin too. Thank you for that. And that preaching that to ourselves creates more love for him and more power eventually to overcome more and more and more that sin. So that at some point we'd walk down that street and we don't fall in that thing. And we go the next day and we don't fall in that. We're moving toward righteousness. But it's that sense of, so that's the battle with sin. How do you not grumble and complain? When you fall in, look at me, here I am again. I can't believe this. Life's so hard, I'm miserable. That's grumbling and complaining. Stop grumbling and complaining. Get up, follow Jesus. Rejoice in the Lord. Okay, now another way we struggle is when we, with the relationships. And relationships are hard. Aren't they? Relationships are usually kind of easy at the beginning. Isn't this true? It's kind of like what I was talking about a couple of weeks ago, that everybody looks better from a distance, except for Jesus. Everybody else looks better from a distance. And then you get up closer to us and you're like, I didn't know that, I didn't see that or whatever in his life. Wow, well, that's true. So relationships, the closer you get to somebody, the more you're gonna encounter sin, the more you're gonna offend one another. That's why, like we saw on Sunday, we need love, we need to carry it around with us because we need to be ready to cover a multitude of sins. And so when we're fighting and dealing with the difficulty of dealing with sin, and other people and the difficulty they are, stop grumbling and complaining. Stop grumbling and complaining about how hard it is to love our brothers and sisters. Rejoice in the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for giving me the opportunity to learn what it means to love like you love. I remember hearing that pastor say one time he was at a pastor's gathering, and he described this church member. And it was one of these church members that was really hard on him and just constantly picking apart everything he did. And so he's talking about that and he's sharing the story and it went on for years. And I mean, not the story, but the account of the story. This guy is just so hard to live with and he was just struggling with it. And he could not, he was having a hard time loving Him. He was having a hard time praying for Him. It was getting to the point that he didn't even want to see Him coming to him. Like when He comes, He's coming with criticism every time. And so sometime he was with the Lord and the Lord just kind of broke his heart. and showed this to him. He said, this brother, I think it was a deacon in his church. It was a powerful person in the church. They didn't have elders. So it's a deacon. He said, you know, brother Jim, God said this to him, brother Jim is an expression of my great love for you. I love you so much. that I put him in your life. Yes, he's got work. I want you to work on him, but his challenges that he provides to you are making you seek me and love me and know me. So you gotta stop grumbling and trust. This is what this text is calling us to. And if we do that, then we adorn the gospel. Titus 2.10, I believe it is, it talks about slaves being obedient to their masters, even those who are, you know, I forgot the adjective, but they're harsh and unreasonable, and you be obedient to them anyway, not as man pleasers. And in so doing, you will adorn the gospel of our God. You will adorn the gospel by the way you respond to mistreatment even. And I love that, adorn actually is the word cosmeo, comes from cosmos, but it also cosmeo is where you get cosmetic. You're beautifying the gospel. You're making it so attractive. This is what we're called to do. and we, by God's grace, can do so. But I love what he said at the end. I'm rejoicing, I'm gonna rejoice with you, and I'm telling you, rejoice and rejoice with me. We have to help each other to have this kind of mindset. We can't do it on our own. We have to remind each other, and we gotta keep reminding each other. We all need to be reminded. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for the beauty of your word, wonder of your plan. We come, Lord, knowing that we, we can be so much like the Israelites. We can look at our challenges and our difficulties and immediately conclude you've forgotten us or you're being unkind to us. And Lord, we see in your word that you continually put your people in circumstances where they need you. Help us have that mind that is ready to receive the challenge because we can run to Christ. Help us to truly obey this command. And we pray that you would help us to walk in joy. We pray that you would help us in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation to shine like lights in the midst of a dark sky, and that many people will see the beauty of the gospel because of what you're doing in our lives. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.