No Grumbling | Shane Willard

there's this guy named paul paul's having a bad time of it he's being tortured on a systemic basis under the authority of a guy named nero he's on death row he is absolutely going to die because he won't come off the idea that jesus is lord not caesar see the roman empire believed that caesar was god in flesh not just a man but god and flesh and and paul was like no no if god actually was a man he wouldn't be raping pillaging murdering and oppressing 99 of the world to enrich the one he'd be lifting the lowly to the level of the elite this doesn't make sense if god was a man it wouldn't look like you bro right and so and so because of that he's he's going to die and and he's and he's writing letters back to churches he started as his like last words to them he knows he's gonna die and one of those letters was a letter to the church in philippi in the phil the philippians he's very thankful for them because they sent someone to feed him because in the in those days they didn't feed the prisoners your friends and family had to bring you food oh and because paul's not from rome he's going to starve to death so the philippians hear about this and they they you know they send someone to help him and so paul's writing back to them about how to live in our world see to paul christianity was not a what do you believe word it was a who do you trust word the cross was not something to believe in the cross was a fundamental way of seeing the whole world and that's two different things and so paul's talking about the implications of that because without language it's just a platitude it's like i hate platitudes platitudes are when you say something that's obviously true but then you have no language for how to apply it like come on folks we should walk in the spirit what does that mean i don't know just we should walk in right so it helps to have language around this and paul is urging the people to identify so much with christ who emptied himself of his deity in order to identify with humanity to to to don't just believe in it to identify so much with a god that verified his deity by choosing not to be god in order to identify with human beings and to be so moved by his humility to serve the world this is what our life should then look like and how we show the world what that looks like living out and this is one of his first mandates to what the church of jesus christ should look like to our world and i think it's worth investigating for the whole 40 minutes right if you could bring that first slide up here it is do all things without grumbling or disputing let's just stop right there this could be the shortest sermon you've ever heard let's just stop and breathe and give that its full 30 seconds of meditation and let's ask the question how are we doing with that of all the bible thumping i hear i've never had anybody bible thump that one do all things without grumbling or arguing between yourselves now let's ask a few questions are christians known worldwide for being the group of people who argue the least amongst themselves and if not why not are christians known worldwide for being the people who grumble the least who find the who find the cheery side and everything they they actually are always the glass half full sort of people are we known for that and if not why not paul said that we are to do all things without grumbling or disputing which leads to this question where have we rationalized arguing with somebody people say oh like tell me please tell me i'm not alone in this i'm not the only one who gets nauseous when i see two christians on the internet arguing about the bible right like do you understand that two people on the internet arguing about the bible and failing to see the irony that they're arguing about a book that literally tells us don't argue what are you doing now let's examine this a bit shall we i have three thoughts for the bible nerds right because i'm a bible nerd so let's do three thoughts for the bible nerds and then we'll do a bit of comedy and then we'll talk about the psychology of grumbling and hopefully we'll come around and i'll be able to touch everybody in the room first i have a degree in greek i can actually read that in its original language and i could tell you that the word all there is actually oh because all says all in all means all and it's best for us to leave all when all says all because if all doesn't mean all we can rationalize some pretty destructive behavior so let's leave all because all says all and it means also let's leave all because all is better when we leave it all which leads to this question we should have no place where we rationalize grumbling or disputing that's first now paul says some pretty serious things here do all things without grumbling or disputing now watch where he goes with this that you may be blameless and innocent what children of god in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation amongst whom you shine like stars in the world holding fast to the word of life so that the day of christ i may be proud that i did not run in vain or labor vain in other words i'm fixing to die i'd like to know i didn't waste my life and one of the ways i'm going to know i didn't waste my life is that you make a commitment to do all things without grumbling or disputing now three thoughts for the bible nerds all means all let's try that together ready all means oh all means all that's first second paul is a first century rabbi and he is referencing direct stories from the old testament now if you're a bible nerd you'll go study this later if you'll not you'll forget about it anyway so give me 30 seconds to humor the bible nerds next slide paul is saying grumbling is a reference to exodus 16 numbers 21 numbers 25 blameless and pures a reference to genesis 17. warped and crooked generation is a reference to deuteronomy 32 that is when moses says after all god's done for you you're still grumbling and complaining you're no longer children of god you're a warp to crooked generation shine like stars is a reference to daniel 12 run in vain is a is a reference to isaiah 65. here if you're saying so what here's the basic point paul is referencing the exodus story what is the exodus story here it is in a nutshell there's a group of people who did nothing to earn it and nothing to deserve it and god reached down and moved them from slavery into freedom sound like anybody you know and then despite that they grumbled about things less important than that so this is not just a story about them this is a story about me and it's a story about you and it's a story about any time we lose our consciousness around how much god has done for us and we grumble about things less important than what he has done if if if you lost me in any of that come back now i've summarized it on one slide next slide so paul's essentially saying don't be like the freed israelites and grumble there's a better way to live you can shine like stars there's a lot in our world about hey we should be light in our world we should be light in our community yes how paul says one of the ways to be light is to make a commitment to do all things without grumbling or disputing now if you know me and you're starting to get you're starting to get to know me a little bit if you know me you know i love words i have to show you words because words matter and i find them beautiful um let me show you the word translated grumble this is such a cool word next slide the word is gongizmon i love that gong let me read it slowly gong gizmon the greek word translated grumble is a gong it's an out of place symbol it's a musical metaphor it's sort of like this your life is a song your church is a song your business is a song your state is a song your country is a song and for the song to sound right everybody has to play their own parts but here's the truth about music i don't know much about it but i do know this it doesn't matter if you got the best singer in adelaide standing here next to the best guitar player next to the best keyboard player next to the best whatever else we got up here player if the drummer is awful it butchers the song right there's no such thing as a good enough musician to overcome a bad drummer and and this is what grumbling is grumbling is when everybody is practiced hard and everybody is playing their song with the right notes and the right key in the right rhythm but the drummer is just arbitrarily hitting the symbol as hard as he can out of tomb he's going gong gong gong this is what paul is saying when it comes to life be a part of the song and never a gong be a part of the song and never gone this is what grumbling is grumbling is when we make everybody else start the song over because of our selfishness grumbling is when we refuse to play within the rhythm of the song and we start making as much noise with our mouth as humanly possible grumbling is when we lose our place in the song so we just start beating the symbol out of tune so everybody else has to start over the idea is is that if you lose your place in the song at least be humble enough to sit that number out don't make everybody else start the song over because of our selfishness we want to be a part of the song but never a gong that's what grumbling is grumbling is when we're the out of place symbol in a beautiful song so three thoughts for the bible nerds one all means oh second paul is quoting the exodus story to make his point third be a part of the song and never a gong which leads me to this there's an ancient rabbinical parable about the nature of grumbling a parable is a fictional story that didn't actually happen but it makes a good point and when the rabbis talked about the nature of grumbling here's the story they told they said it's like the children of israel were being led out of egyptian slavery into freedom and of course they walked through the red sea and when they walked through the red sea there was walls of water being held back on both sides to keep them alive and there was one slave as he was walking across the ground of the red sea that got a piece of mud stuck between his toes and so he says to his friend on his right he says mate i have a piece of mud stuck between me toes this is an australian jew now and and the friend notices yes you have a piece of mud stuck between your toes and he couldn't clear the piece of mud and so what happens is is the two slaves got so focused on the one piece of mud between the guys toes that they lost sight of the walls of water being held back for their redemption on both sides which leads me to this question have we been guilty of losing sight of everything else god is up to in our world at the expense of one or two pieces of mud we can always find one or two things not going so well but that's not the question the question is what is god up to in the entirety of the historical narrative of what he's up to in our world see when we do this like let me let me make this point you cannot judge success on a plotted point you judge success on the trajectory line like if i said to you let me tell you about my money i have a million u.s dollars in the bank and i have zero debt am i winning or am i losing the answer is you can't possibly know because i just gave you a plotted point what if i said let me tell you the whole story i inherited 120 million dollars from my rich uncle and i'm an idiot and i'm now down to my last million am i winning or am i losing i'm losing but what if i started with nothing and through hard work and dedication determination i've just become a millionaire am i winning or am i losing i'm winning so two people could be the exact same plotted point and one be winning and one be losing because you don't judge success on plotted points you judge success on the trajectory line it's on and when it comes to what god's up to in this world this world is getting better and better and better and better and better and better and better and better and better and better and better and it's not even close why because jesus did not come into the world to destroy and condemn the world but rather to engage the broken narrative of the world and make a better story and he is doing a really good job at it which leads me to this it disheartens me when i hear christians do say things like oh shane you believe how bad this world's getting oh god can you believe how bad this world's getting oh shank you believe it what are you talking about compared to what listen other than pollution i would defy you to name one thing that's getting worse now are there a couple pieces of mud that we could focus on sure but we should be the people pointing out everything god's up to in this world this world's the best it's ever been and it's not even close and we should be the ones screaming that from the rooftop because of the work of the spirit of god in the world that you don't seem convinced okay i'll prove it would you rather be a woman today or 1950 that's not hard ready all right would you rather be a woman today or 1950 today or 1850 or 1550 is god done redeeming women's rights not even close is it better than it's ever been you better believe it you'd better believe it would you rather be black today or 1950 or 1850 or 1550 is god done redeeming race relations not even close is it better than it's ever been yes it is yes it is okay medicine would you rather have dental work today or 1950 right or 1850. today they can numb your entire mouth with one well-placed shot of novocaine in your jaw before they drill in your teeth today they numb your mouth with novocaine in 1910 they numbed your mouth with whiskey novocaine is better right it's just better hey this is true number one selling cough medicine in 1900 this is true number one selling cough medicine in 1900 was wait for it heroin yes it was legal and effective right like oh look billy's not coughing anymore actually to be fair billy's not doing much of anything anymore is god done no is it better yeah would you have a colonoscopy today or 1950. oh look [Music] hello today is better or 1850 when they just sort of looked around right are you kidding me money according to the world health organization 92 percent of the world was living in poverty in 1820 by today's definition of poverty today that number is more like 14 and by 2025 they're predicting for the first time in the history of the world it'll be below 10 is god done redeeming poverty no is it better yes we've got more money today that according to forest magazine the generation turning 19 today has more money in the bank by the age of 19 than the previous four generations before it combined and all you got to do is talk to them ask them hey what's your plan a 19 year old today with a straight face we'll say you don't think about doing think about taking a year off walking around europe who's got that kind of money evidently they do i'm 44. we never thought about that never you if you're over the age of 40 could you imagine telling your dad that you were gonna take a year off to walk around europe why i'm gonna find myself my dad would be like there you are i have found you get a job as far as i know my grandparents never ate out once and it's not because they didn't enjoy other people cooking food for them it's because they didn't have enough money to eat out the generation turned 19 today has more excess money they could stop twice a day and pay five dollars for coffee that makes no sense five dollars for a liquid that's going to make you slightly more alert for 14 minutes and then it's gonna make you pee you just paid five dollars for urine that's how much money we have today oh shane we felt bad this world what are you talking about what are you doing you you imagine if i was suddenly possessed with the spirit of my great-grandfather and i said out loud excuse me could you help me for a sec where's the bathroom for white people right you go what the heck what are you talking like but 60 years ago that was a thing or what if i was possessed even 130 years ago and i said hey can you tell me where in adelaide do you buy humans to do your work for you you go what the heck are you talk right you think the world's getting worse there was a day that was normal or let's go back 450 years if i said hey where's the friday night entertainment where we disembowel the village betrayer you know you're like what what the heck we we have netflix now right like now is netflix totally moral no but it's better than disemboweling the village betrayer right the roman emperor the roman emperor communist told his military to kidnap 300 young girls and boys kids to have one big sexual orgy with him you think the world's worse now are you kidding me you think our governments are corrupt now no way is god done redeeming these things no is it better you better believe it's better why because of the work of the spirit of god in this world right which leads me to this question why is it then that we grumble why are we given to sing the mud instead of the water i think if we understand this this might could help us live some of this out i have a couple thoughts on this next slide so so one i think we grumble when we forget to remember like we forget to remember things like our nation's awesome all of us woke up this morning in australia a nation with motor cars paved roads stores that pre-package food for us clean water in our taps machines that do washing other machines that do drying world-class healthcare right down the road and it's largely free this is australia man when i hear australians complain about australia let me be blunt where are you gonna go [Music] if you can't make it here bro where are you gonna go you could be on the dole here and that would make you in the top seven percent richest people in the world this nation's awesome is there a couple pieces of mud sure but why focus on that right our health is a gift hey you know if god never did one thing one thing if god never did one more thing for most of us in our life pretty awesome hey i woke up this morning without a chemotherapy appointment right like that's that's called winning right we forget that we forget to remember these things we forget like our transportation like i i don't i haven't been able to do it this year so much but i fly every week every week every week of my life i'm on some kind of airplane you know i see people in airports complaining about 20-minute flight delays 20 minutes are you kidding me it took your great grandfather four months to get here and they just hope they didn't all die of scurvy on the way and we're fixing to get in the most technologically advanced piece of machinery ever created in the history of the world for transportation it's gonna fly us at 36 000 feet 900 kilometers an hour while digitally streaming on-demand movie content at the push of a button and somebody's bringing us free coke and we can still complain what on earth can you imagine if your great-great-grandfather came back from the dead and lived with you for three days and your job was to convince him how hard the world is now how much worse it is than what he had you imagine the stuff imagine that man just imagine the stuff in your house like what's that it's a car what's that do takes us wherever we want to go at 110 ks an hour what on a paved road yep what's that it's a tap what's that do brings clean water into our house under pressure oh what's the other one that's the hot water what what's that it's the refrigerator keeps things cool what what is that that's toilet paper it's amazing great granddad we saw you get a handful of moss earlier we didn't want to say anything but toilet paper is better oh and by the way if you're interested um japan started having problems with too much toilet paper in their sewer system and so instead of complaining about it they got ingenuitive and here's what they did they invented toilet paper-free toilets right i know i know what you're thinking god shane that's disgusting i know i know that's because in your imagination you're picturing one of those french bidet things like no no a japanese toilet paper free toilet it has an 80 horsepower kubota engine and when you're done it washes your butt with an 80 horsepower kubota engine i'm talking i promise you when you go to japan you can't wait to go to the bathroom it is amazing you go use the bathroom in japan and come back and use the toilet at the watson hotel in walkerville you'll think you're in sudan you're like what is this the third world is god done no is it better oh yeah people say shane there's surely something's getting worse sure there's a couple beats of mud it's a piece of mud divorce rate somebody asked me when i was doing this they said shane if the world's getting better how come the divorce rate's going up that's true of course that's true divorce rates obviously are going up obviously and ironically marriage rates are going down first time in the history of america the 2020 census less than 50 percent of americans are married more than 50 are single right so marriage rates are going down divorce rates are going up absolutely and is that a good thing no no that's not a good thing is that a piece of mud yes but he asked me he said why is the divorce rate going up huh why is it well that's easy the divorce rate's going up because we're living longer duh the life expectancy of jesus day was 32 till death do us part was more doable now we're living to 84. marriage has to last 50 more years that people even live to jesus day is god done redeeming these things no is it better yes life expectancy is a good example of this life is basically jesus day 32 by 15 50 37 1850 was 43 it wasn't until 1925 we started living to 50. that was only in the western world global life expectancy did not cross 50 years old till 1948 that's within my dad's lifetime now now it's in our 80s is god done redeeming long life no is it better yes our homes like we're living how kings used to live you've got running water refrigeration you hired a lawn guy what like we have so much money now there are people making a full-time wage in adelaide massaging people that's a relatively new thing right we could pay people 60 an hour to rub our shoulders because they feel tight that my grandmother couldn't do that there's somebody making a full-time wage in adelaide permanently removing women's facial hair that is a new thing my grandmother didn't have that you should have seen him it's unbelievable [Applause] we grumble when we forget to remember let's talk about the next one next slide we we grumble when we forget to remember the story is larger we focused on the mud and missed the water just because you remember a time five years ago where the world was better doesn't mean the world's not getting better over the course of three thousand years doesn't mean that the story is larger than the 20 years we remember the trajectory is better let's say this way number three we grumble when we think we need more or compare ourselves to what others have we grumble when we look right and left instead of in and up to get our value let's let's talk let's put some language around this next slide so so we grumble uh yeah next one yeah we grumbled with when we think i'll have peace and contentment at some unknown point in the future that's a lie the lie is if i just had this then i'll feel better no you won't that's called the if you're interested that's called the lie of the sacred object the lie of the sacred object is there's something outside of me that if i just had it i'd feel better even if it's a good thing it won't make you feel better like even if you if you need to like i need i'll feel better if i lose 15 kilos and let me be clear and let me be clear if you need to lose 15 kilos please do it's good for you it's good for your blood pressure your metabolism your joints it's a lot of health benefits for being at the correct weight for your height if you need to lose 15 kilos please do but you're not gonna feel better you'll just be if if you're not enough without it you'll never be enough with it you'll just be a 15 kilo lighter version of your discontent itself right or or or if i just be that oh i just want to get married oh if i just if i just met somebody i just want to be married a marriage will fix my life no it won't no it won't because there's no such thing as a happy marriage that was forged between two miserable single people that doesn't work like oh man we hated our life but then we got married and fixed it all no no it doesn't work that way a good spouse is a great thing to have but if you're not enough without them you'll never be enough with them you're just it right right a good spell is a great thing to have now you marry poorly you'll pray for a comet to come to earth to bring you sweet relief from them right but a good spell is a good thing to have but whether it's a job or a raise or a house or a shirt or car anything outside of us we grumble when we buy into the lie of the sacred object that says there's something outside of me that if i just got it it'd make me feel better no no it won't next one is we grumble when we feel god has shorted us and if we don't get this one nothing else i say matters the idea that god has been good me you woke up today in australia god has been good to me i don't have a chemotherapy appointment god this is why when somebody goes through something and it's so much worse than what we grumble about it's very confronting we're like what was i complaining about what was it was what was it we we grumble when we feel like god has shorted us we grumble when we forget to remember when we focus on the one piece of mud and lose sight of the water we grumble when we compare let's say this way number five we grumble when we judge the future by the present when we when we believe that tomorrow is just a repeat of yesterday that's never true resurrection says that resurrection is not something to believe in resurrection is the fundamental way of seeing the world resurrection says you never know what god might do to your today that fundamentally changes everything for your tomorrow you never know you don't know that no way the the the philosophical word for this is despair despair is the internal conviction that my tomorrow is simply repeated yesterday that's not true the psychological word is freezing the present when we believe we'll never be out of this pain and so we grumble when we go through things and we think this will never end why do we grumble because we forget to remember we lose sight of the water at the expense of one or two pieces of mud we forget that the story is larger and god has been at work making this world better and better and better and better and better jesus did not come into the world to condemn it but to engage the broken story of the world and make it better and he's doing a great job and that should be our message we grumble when we compare we grumble when when we lose when we feel like god has shorted us or when we freeze the present i'll say it one last way number six we grumble when we forget life is a marathon and not a sprint this is a quote from the great franciscan monk richard rohr who has a phd in saying profound things here's what he said we tend to overestimate what we can do in a year but underestimate what we can do in 10 right the idea the idea that we feel like a failure because we didn't meet our goal in a year but actually it was just an overestimation of what was possible but it's an underestimation of what would be possible when we compound that year into ten so why do we grumble we forget to remember we focus on the mud and miss the water we compare we feel like god has shorted us we freeze the present or we forget life is a marathon and not a sprint now if you're the type of person who listens to the first three minutes of a message and then you tune out and then when you feel it winding down you come back now is your time this is this is your moment right and i've summarized in case you've missed it right and you know the car ride home is going to be awkward because she's going to ask you what i talked about right and you're not going to know because you tuned out i'm going to save it right now ready here's the whole message on one slide next slide no grumbling shine like stars that when we choose to do all things without grumbling or disputing it's at that moment we're light in our world now great sermons are not meant to be agreed with nor disagreed with they're meant to be wrestled with so let's let's wrestle for application what do we do with this next slide what does this mean for us is shining as simple as not grumbling where have we made being a light something only special spiritual people can do but actually being the group of people who don't complain don't argue maybe it's that or shining as simple as keep going there's nothing inspiring about somebody not going through anything the inspiring people the ones who keep their head up their shoulders back their hands clean their heart peer their taste sweet in the middle of it they keep going that's shining that's inspiring when you see somebody do that is shining as simple as knowing we have enough right now like there's something inspiring about somebody who's truly content with their material possessions they know that there's nothing outside of them that's going to make them feel any less lack than they feel on the inside there's no object they can have the next car is not going to do it they know because they tried it with the last six cars that didn't do it the next shirt's not going to do it the next person's not going to do it the next job's not going to do it the next church is not going to do it nothing outside of us is going to make us is shining as simple as knowing we have enough right now let's say this way next slide where do we need to repent from grumbling is there any place that we said you know what i've rationalized being a complainer which leads me to this i started thinking i wonder if paul would have had youtube how philippians would have been different if he'd had the internet you know if he could have attached a file so somebody a while back sent me one of the most uh moving things i've ever been sent and um in one minute i'm going to share it with you but i got to set it up first because otherwise it won't make sense there's this little girl and she's very very sick tubes all in her nose she's got a a rare form of blood cancer she has been in the hospital 334 days awaiting a bone marrow transplant which means who else has been waiting in the hospital 334 days her mother this girl is probably two or three uh she's um really puffy from prednisone um too much prednisone can make you appear puffy but the steroids were trying to keep her alive if anybody had the right he had the right or the reason to complain about their lot in life it's a two-year-old little girl with a rare form of childhood cancer but they choose to do something more profound and her and this mother she must have the greatest mother on earth her and this mother choose to sing us a song and i want to tell you something that she's going to say halfway through about the 20 it's only 50 seconds long but about the 28 second mark she's going to say something that sounds like baby garble but when you know what she says you'll hear it she says this is really awesome this is really awesome i think if paul would have had the internet if he just said if you want to know what shining like stars is let me show you this i'm going to step out the way just for a second and i'm going to play you this video of this little girl shining like stars [Applause] and what was the last thing we were going to play about shine like stars by the way in 1950 a girl with that cancer had a zero percent chance of survival [Music] zero today she has an 80 chance of survival is god done redeeming the world no is it better oh yeah why because god is always engaging our broken stories with the intent of making it better so my brothers and sisters may we live more profound than mud focus and may we be water focused may we live on a higher plane and show the world what faith looks like by choosing to do all things without grumbling or disputing and may we shine like stars let me pray for you lord we love you we honor you we proclaim your king and there's none like you maybe we should need to take a quiet moment and repent for where we've justified grumbling and arguing and maybe maybe you're here today or you're watching online you can just feel this nudge at your heart and that nudge is saying this you can trust god with god's version of your life story instead of the one you've been writing on your own and so maybe you're at that point today where you need to trust jesus you say man it's a pretty big word there what do you mean by that here's all i mean that today you're going to choose to trust jesus's version of your life story instead of the one you've been writing on your own and you're going to say you know what i don't know what that even looks like but i do know this i know that god's version of my life is better than the one i've been writing on my own and i'm going to choose to put my trust in that and i'd like to say yes to that today if that's you i'd like to pray for you no one's looking around we're dealing with our own stuff if that's you i'd like to pray for you if you could just slip your hand up it just just could be really quick with it so you know what today this is this is what raising your hand means today i'm choosing to trust jesus i see you there yep in the middle yep i'm chose i'm choosing to trust jesus's version of my life story i see you there in the middle i'm choosing to trust jesus's version of my life story instead of the one i've been writing on my own anybody else want to join those two it takes a lot of bravery to be the first to anybody else you know what yep i see you back there yep and over to the right yep and i see in the middle yep it's amazing so we're going to do is i'm going to pray a prayer and i want you to pray it in your heart because it's not about the words of anything that do anything for us it's the decision you make in your heart it's the response but sometimes it helps us to put language around things it's so the the the prayer to pray and you could just pick up on this inside it says something like this lord jesus today i'm choosing to trust you and your version of my life instead of the one i've been writing on my own would you partner with me and engage my broken story and in order to make a better narrative i'm inviting you into my story in order to make a better narrative i'm choosing to put my faith and trust in that today thank you for everything you've done for me amen you

Channel: LIFE Adelaide

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Length: 36min 0sec (2160 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020