Lake Murray Baptist Church

The Gospel, Suffering, and Complaining

While preparing for my message September 19th on the Gospel and our suffering, I began to come across wisdom and insight from many people that moved their study of suffering into a study of complaining.  The article below was originally written by Bill Izard (whom I do not know and know nothing about).  I found it very thought-provoking.

Complaining is unbecoming of the true Christian and yet we are proficient at it. The cure is found in these verses. In Christ we are never hopeless or forsaken. Every trial has meaning. Meditate on this cure in order to change both your language and your heart.

1. GOD COMMANDS ME NEVER TO COMPLAIN.

Do all things without complaining and disputing. Philippians 2:14

2. GOD COMMANDS ME TO GIVE THANKS IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

3. GOD COMMANDS ME TO REJOICE ALWAYS, AND ESPECIALLY IN TIMES OF TRIAL.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Phil. 4:4; Rejoice always. 1 Thessalonians 5:16; Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. James 1:2

4. I ALWAYS DESERVE MUCH WORSE THAN WHAT I AM SUFFERING NOW.  IN FACT, I DESERVE HELL.

Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins? Lamentations 3:39 Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Luke 13:2-3

5. IN LIGHT OF THE ETERNAL HAPPINESS AND GLORY THAT I WILL EXPERIENCE IN HEAVEN, THIS PRESENT TRIAL IS EXTREMELY BRIEF AND INSIGNIFICANT, EVEN IF IT WERE TO LAST A LIFETIME.

The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Rom. 8:18; For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:19

6. MY SUFFERING IS FAR LESS THAN THAT WHICH CHRIST SUFFERED, AND HE DID NOT COMPLAIN.

Who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when he suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. 1 Peter 2:23

7. TO COMPLAIN IS TO SAY GOD IS NOT JUST.

Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? Genesis 18:25

8. FAITH AND PRAYER EXCLUDE COMPLAINING.

I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered from all my fears. Psalm 34:4

9. THIS DIFFICULTY IS BEING USED BY GOD FOR MY GOOD AND IT IS FOOLISH FOR ME TO COMPLAIN AGAINST IT.

And we know that all things work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

10. THOSE MORE FAITHFUL THAN I HAVE SUFFERED FAR WORSE THAN I, AND DID SO WITHOUT COMPLAINT.

…and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. All these, having gained approval through their faith… Hebrews 11:35-39

11. COMPLAINING DENIES THAT GOD'S GRACE IS ENTIRELY SUFFICIENT.

My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9

12. THE GREATEST SUFFERING, THE WORST TRIAL OR DIFFICULTY, CAN NEVER ROB ME OF THAT WHICH IS OF GREATEST VALUE TO ME AND MY GREATEST JOY, NAMELY THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39

The Gospel, Relationships, and Corporate Worship

This an excerpt from my sermon on Matthew 5:21-26, given in April 2009.  It's been very convicting this week.

Jesus teaches in these verses that there is no value, as far as God is concerned, in an act of worship or in other so-called “good works” that are done when there is anger and strife between you and a brother.  Let me put it more clearly: if you are in a state of conscious enmity against another person … if you are harboring anger towards another … there is NO VALUE IN YOUR WORSHIP.

I’ve served little more than 15 years in local churches, and I have been encouraged and edified by many for various reasons in all of the churches I’ve served.  I have a folder of personal notes and emails that people have sent me over the years that I have felt were particularly helpful to me and so I saved them.  Lake Murray has already made some contributions to that folder, for which I am grateful.

Yet if I were to keep the emails and logs of phone conversations about the complaints I have heard, my office would be in here.  And most of the time, even in youth ministry, the majority of the complaints are about worship. Sometimes it’s about decorations; maybe the chairs aren’t comfortable enough; perhaps the sound is not quite right; often times it’s the music.  But even most of that people will overlook if the sermon is good, but often times it is not. 

But all of those complaints are attempts to detail a general dissatisfaction with worship in general.  People genuinely want worshipful to be meaningful, and these are typically what comes to mind (preaching, music, aesthetics, etc.).

Ironically, NO ONE has ever come to me and said, “Perhaps the reason worship is not as meaningful as it could be is because there are many of us who are not right with someone.  We are angry with another, or another is angry with us.”  It has NEVER happened.

Lake Murray, if we are to take Jesus’ teaching as seriously as he intends it to be taken, the path to more meaningful worship is to temporarily exclude people who have anger or bitterness between themselves and others, know it, and are attempting to use worship as a means of atoning for their sin and ignoring the Gospel call to reconcile.

• Are there any spouses here angry with one another, trying to worship this morning?  God is having none of it. 
  
• Are there any parents here this morning who KNOW that animosity exists between you and your children?  You haven’t worshipped today.
  

Psalm 66:18 – “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

There is a great story in the OT that illustrates this well.  Some of you will recall the story of Samuel and Saul in 1 Samuel 15.  God gives the command to Saul to destroy the Amalekites entirely (boys love the OT!).  Saul decided, however, that he need not be that thorough.  They are victorious in battle, but Saul keeps some of the beasts and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord, and even their King, Agag.  Samuel the prophet shows up and challenges Saul on it … Saul justifies himself by pointing out all the good things he was doing in place of his disobedience, and even tries to pin the blame on the people who follow him.  Samuel’s response is terrifying:

Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Well, I have to stop this point here …. And I hope you see it.  We are to be proactive and positive in our attitude toward anger … so much so that even worship must take a back seat toward attempted reconciliation, b/c such worship is worthless anyway and impacts those who are here with reconciled relationships.

Living Life on Target

As our sermon series continues this week with the Gospel and our decisions ... coming off of a week where we talked about the Gospel and our possessions ... and before that, the book of Philippians ... I found these words from John Piper prescient.  I elaborate further below.

We need to ponder the superiority of God as our great reward over all that the world has to offer.

If we don’t, we will love the world like everyone else and live like every one else.

So take the things that drive the world and ponder how much better and more abiding God is: take money or sex or power or popularity. Think about these things.

First think about them in relation to death. Death will take away every one of them: money, sex, power, and popularity. If that is what you live for, you won’t get much, and what you get, you lose. But God’s treasure is “abiding.” It lasts. It goes beyond death.

It’s better than money because God owns all the money and he is our Father. “All things are yours, and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:22-23).

It’s better than sex. Jesus never had sexual relations, and he was the most full and complete human that ever will exist. Sex is a shadow, an image, of a greater reality—of a relationship and pleasure that will make sex seem like a yawn.

The reward of God is better than power. There is no greater human power than to be a child of the Almighty God. “Do you not know that we shall judge angels” (1 Corinthians 6:3)?

It’s better than popularity. Fame is a pipe dream if you are only known by human nobodies. But if the greatest beings know you, that is a popularity of another kind. The greatest popularity is to be known by God (1 Corinthians 8:3; Galatians 4:9). And when it comes to angels: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14)?

And so it goes on and on. Everything the world has to offer, God is better and more abiding. There is no comparison. God wins—every time.

The question is: will we have him? Will we wake up from the trance of this stupefying world and see and believe and rejoice and love? And suffer?

This is what BELIEF is.  This is what FAITH is.  As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, "When Christ calls a man, he bid him 'Come and die.'"  The Gospel really does require more of us than cultural Christianity does.  The greatest threat to our walk with Christ is the distractions and blessings of this temporary world.