WWUTT 016 Do Everything Without Complaining (Philippians 2:14-18)

Philippians 2 .14 says to do everything without complaining or arguing. Yep, that's what the

Bible says. But it also gives us the reason why. So that we might be blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which we are to shine as lights in the world when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text and my name is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Good to be along with you again for another week as we continue our study of the book of Philippians.

Today, starting in chapter 2 verse 14 and toward the last third of the broadcast, instead of taking a viewer question, which is what we usually do, somebody who has asked a question about one of our what videos.

Instead of doing that today, I would like to address the Planned Parenthood protest that took place around the country this past weekend.

Thousands of people, tens of thousands gathered together at over 300 Planned Parenthood locations in defense of the unborn.

Such a wonderful thing to see that many people gathered around a common cause. Now, maybe you like me don't live anywhere near a

Planned Parenthood facility. I'm over two hours away from the nearest facility. Or perhaps you didn't hear about it until late.

That happened to Corey Daniel. He is our what Facebook page manager.

And he said to me, I was on vacation this past week. And so I wasn't able to alert him to it. And he said he didn't find out about it until late and couldn't get up and get out to a

Planned Parenthood protest. There is more that you can do to help defend the unborn than just attend a protest.

Even if you did attend the protest, I have some suggestions for you. And that will be coming up toward the end of this broadcast.

That's what we're going to do instead of taking a what question today. But you can still ask a question about anything you've heard on the broadcast or in one of our when we understand the text videos.

Go to our website www .utt .com. You will see the latest episode of the podcast there on the right side of the page.

And there's an email link right underneath that. Click on that to submit your questions. We would love to hear from you.

I will be taking a question tomorrow, but today wanted to offer some more suggestions as to what you can do even in your own community to continue to defend the lives of the unborn and care for even the most delicate lives among us.

Today we are in Philippians chapter two, verse 14. And before going to the text, why don't we come before the

Lord in prayer? Our great God, we come to you today seeking your guidance in this text.

May you continue to teach us the things that we are going to read today. And even after we close our

Bibles and go throughout our day that you are continuing to teach us these words, help us to be convicted by them.

Lead us according to your spirit that we might learn what it means to have the mind of Christ.

As we read about in Philippians two, five, and even some of the things that we're going to read today are, are we're, we're pulling truth from the text with that understanding, desiring to have more of the mind of Christ.

Teach us all of these things according to your spirit, God. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Philippians chapter two, verse 14.

We'll go through verse 18 today. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith,

I am glad and rejoice with all of you. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

The apostle Paul previously said in Philippians chapter two, verse three, that we are to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

And this is the second greatest command. Jesus was asked, what is the greatest command to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And the second command is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. So Paul is reiterating that command here in verse three, when he says do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

The picture of humility that we are supposed to have in our minds when it comes to humbling ourselves and considering others needs ahead of our own is the picture of Christ that is given in the hymn of Christ, Philippians chapter two, verses six through 11.

And I just want to read this again to keep our minds fresh on all of these things in context, because even what we're reading starting in verse 14 needs to be kept in mind with what we've read in the verses previous.

Okay. So that hymn of Christ verses six through 11, Christ who was in the form of God did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God is highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father.

Keep in mind verse five, also let this mind be in you that is in Christ Jesus.

So we are supposed to have the mind of Christ. And the example of that humility that we are to follow is given in the hymn of Christ verses six through 11.

There will never be a greater display of humility in the universe than what we see in Christ Jesus.

He is the ultimate fulfillment of the first and second greatest commands to love the

Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because Christ did that was obedient to the will of God, even to the point of death and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Though he was in the form of God, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men, the form of a servant.

He served, he came to serve, not to be served, but to serve and to serve as an example to us as to how we are supposed to serve one another.

Therefore, Paul goes on in verse 12 to say, therefore, my beloved calling this church is beloved as you have always obeyed.

So now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is

God. It is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Look at verse 14, do all things without grumbling or disputing.

If you have the NIV, if you're following along in the NIV with me, it says, do everything without complaining or arguing.

I know that because when I first learned this passage, it was in the NIV Bible.

That was what I was raised on was the NIV. When I became a teaching pastor, it was about the same time that Zondervan had changed everything about the

NIV and I had to learn it all over again. So instead of doing that, I decided to take it upon myself to maybe explore some other translations.

And I did several translations at once, as a matter of fact, and the ESV, the English Standard Version is one that I settled on, but I still remember very distinctly the

NIV saying that we do everything without complaining or arguing. And that was a difficult thing for me to learn at the time that the spirit was teaching me through that passage, because I am generally a very cynical person.

If left to my own devices, if, if not being changed with the mind of Christ and I follow my own human desires,

I'm a very cynical person. I complain and argue about circumstances. And this is very common in our culture.

I know I'm not saying anything that is necessarily unique to me, but it is something that I personally struggle with being cynical and just complaining and arguing about circumstances.

And so the scripture really had to do, I'm sorry, the spirit really had to do a work in me and use this scripture to teach me these things, to do everything without complaining or arguing.

Why? Because when we complain about, when we complain or argue about our circumstances, it displays our inherent selfishness.

We selfishly wanted something to happen that didn't happen the way that we think it should have happened.

And so then we complain about that circumstance. It reflects the selfishness, that inherent selfishness about our humanness.

So when we complain about our circumstances, it's selfish. I mean, even if it wasn't something that happened to us like to benefit us, we just have this general opinion about things that we expect the flow of, of all things that happen to go with our general opinion.

And when things don't meet our selfish opinions about things, then we complain about those circumstances.

Even if it doesn't benefit us specifically, we'll still complain because it doesn't follow our opinion of that matter.

Is this making sense? You understand where I'm going here? Basically just complaining or arguing, grumbling and disputing displays our, our inherent selfish behavior.

And how have we been told to behave? We have been told that we are to do nothing with selfish ambition or conceit, vain conceit, vain glory is the way that the

Greek is translated there, but in humility to count others more significant than ourselves.

And so by assaulting that inherent selfishness that is in us, we mount an assault against that selfishness by taking on the mind of Christ.

And then with the mind of Christ, we would display a behavior that doesn't grumble or dispute about our circumstance that doesn't complain or argue with another person when they're not doing what we think that they should be doing.

Instead in humility, we show a blameless and innocent behavior with the mind of Christ.

And we show ourselves to be children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, man, this just goes right with something that I talked about at the very beginning of the broadcast.

The fact that we're out there protesting against Planned Parenthood, which is killing children every day, hundreds, thousands of lives being taken by this horrible, deplorable act of abortion.

You don't have to go any farther than a Planned Parenthood center to see the twisted and awful situation that is in our generation right now.

But the ways that we are supposed to interact with that generation needs to be without grumbling or disputing.

It needs to be done in a humble way. We're actually putting ourselves out there, not to simply argue with something that we don't agree with.

We're putting ourselves out there specifically for this reason, because we are considering somebody else's needs ahead of our own.

Okay. Do you understand that right now, as we protest against things like Planned Parenthood, we don't just protest against an ideology that is different from ours.

We are out there protesting because we are considering the needs of someone else ahead of our own.

In this case, it would be the needs of the unborn. Now, this goes for any situation.

Okay. I'm not just talking about Planned Parenthood now. I'm talking about any and all situations. If we develop a reputation, we meaning you as an individual.

Okay. If you develop a reputation of being a generally cynical and argumentative person, then when it comes time for you to confront a person in their sin, they are not going to listen to you.

They're less likely to listen to you because they know you as being a person who just complains and argues all the time.

So then when you come to them to confront them in their sin, they're going to say, well, of course, of course, you're going to confront me in my sin, because I hear you complain about everybody else and all and all these other circumstances going on.

So now you're just going to direct that cynicism toward me. Of course. Of course. Now you're just complaining about me.

If you have an attitude that we see permeating this letter that Paul is writing to the

Philippians, one that is joyful, you are rejoicing in Christ Jesus, knowing that you have been rescued from your sin and brought to new life in Christ.

If you display an attitude and a behavior that is more joyful in your circumstances than cynical and argumentative and complaining and grumbling, then a person is more likely to listen to you when you correct them in their sin and offer to them the gospel because they see in you a behavior that is different than the rest of the world.

If you complain or argue about your circumstances, people in this world and in this culture and in this society in particular are going to give you a pass.

They're going to give you a free ticket to complain about your circumstances because they want the right to be able to complain about their circumstances.

But by not grumbling and disputing, by not complaining, we actually show ourselves to be set apart from the world, blameless and innocent.

Children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and depraved, twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world or as the

NIV says, you shine as stars in the universe. This generation is just black.

It's just blackness. And when we hold out the word of life, holding fast to the word of life, speaking the gospel of Jesus Christ, we shine like a star against that blackness.

So let's show ourselves to be blameless and innocent, to be selfless, not selfish in our approach so that we shine as lights in the world.

They need to hear the gospel and they need to see that our behavior is set apart from the rest of the world.

We rejoice in all circumstances in Christ Jesus, knowing that we have been rescued from death and into his marvelous light.

We have become heirs of the eternal kingdom of God. And the reality of that truth should filter itself into every single aspect of our lives.

We need to show that joy of the Lord in everything so that we become lights in the world.

We're going to talk more about this tomorrow, but I want to leave enough time to talk about the subject that we're going to enter into next.

And again, this is going to come back to those Planned Parenthood protests that occurred around the country this past weekend.

You know, we are instructed in scripture that we are to confront others in their sin, but we need to do this with gentleness and respect as it says in 1

Peter 3 .15. And as Paul instructed to his servant Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, we correct opponents with gentleness.

Yes, we are absolutely supposed to stand as lights in the darkness, but we do this with gentleness and respect.

Our great God, as we come from this text today, learning about what it means to not complain or argue, to not grumble or argue about our circumstances, but to show ourselves as blameless and pure, filled with the joy of Christ Jesus, with humility, considering others' needs ahead of our own.

Continue to teach us this and convict us, according to your Holy Spirit, that we might have the mind of Christ.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. The debate continues as to when life begins and when it ends.

President Bill Clinton's spiritual advisor, a Southern Baptist minister, taught that because Adam wasn't alive until God breathed life into him, then a child isn't alive until the baby takes his first breath.

This is not the view shared in Scripture. About 30 times in the Bible is there a reference to a child in the womb, and in every one of those instances, the

Bible speaks the same of a child inside the womb as it refers to a child outside of the womb. Consider in Luke chapter 1 when the angel

Gabriel appeared to Mary and said she was going to be with child, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and she would call his name

Jesus. Mary went to visit Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, and when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child in her womb left with joy.

Science has only recently caught up to the fact that children express emotion in the womb as early as 8 weeks.

If they'd only read Luke 1 .41, they'd have learned we already know that. Jesus verifies and sanctifies every aspect of human life from conception to natural death because He experienced it all.

Yes, even death is sanctified by Christ. He even sanctifies suffering because He suffered.

We argue about whether or not a person should suffer when the Bible tells us to rejoice in suffering, to share in suffering, be patient in suffering, and that our present suffering does not compare to the glory that awaits us if we endure.

Therefore, we must protect and cherish every aspect of life from beginning to end, a gift from God made in the image of God when we understand the text.

On that subject, related to the sanctity of human life, I have for you five suggestions as to what you can do to continue to protect the lives of the unborn, even in your own community.

Maybe you weren't able to attend one of the Planned Parenthood Center protests, the protests that were going on at Planned Parenthood centers around the country this past weekend, or maybe you were able to attend one of those protests.

Either way, these are things that you can do year round to continue to protect the lives of unborn children.

Five suggestions for you that I actually posted in a blog, but I tell you the truth, I wrote this specifically for this program.

I just realized that after I put it together, it very easily serve in a blog format as it would on this particular broadcast.

But here's five things that you can do to continue to make an impact. Number one, join or volunteer with a pregnancy center in your area.

Do you know what a pregnancy center is? Used to be called crisis pregnancy centers. Now they're more commonly called pregnancy resource centers or very simply pregnancy centers.

And there's about twenty five hundred of them in the US. Compare that with seven hundred

Planned Parenthood locations in the country or about eighteen hundred abortion clinics altogether.

That's including Planned Parenthood affiliates. That means there are more centers in the US interested in saving the life of a child than there are centers that will take the lives of children.

Two thousand five hundred pregnancy centers, the pregnancy center in particular that my dad works at saves over a thousand children per year.

That is outstanding. Greater than ninety five percent of the women that walk into his center make a decision to keep their baby.

Compare that with the average Planned Parenthood affiliate, which aborts about five hundred babies per year. And that's just per center.

Now, some Planned Parenthood centers do more abortions, some less, and most pregnancy centers are probably not saving a thousand children per year.

In fact, I after posting those numbers in the blog that I posted, there was somebody that got ahold of me on Twitter and said that their local crisis pregnancy center had saved the lives of three hundred children last year.

That's not a thousand, but that's still fantastic. Three hundred lives in that community saved by a pregnancy center through through the ministry effort of a pregnancy center.

I put those statistics out there just to tell you that there's an amazing missions effort going on right now to save the lives of children.

And there may be one in your community. They are often short staffed, often volunteer, and often people don't even know about them.

Even if your community does not have a Planned Parenthood or an abortion clinic, it more than likely has a pregnancy center.

Get involved in one. If your community doesn't have one or it has a Catholic one, then start one.

They save lives year round, not just on protest days. They are active, ongoing protests against the culture of death, promoting life in Jesus name.

So number one, join or volunteer with a pregnancy center in your area. Number two, you must raise awareness about abortion in your own church, promote such pregnancy centers in your church, let folks know they're out there, encourage them to support pregnancy centers financially, do a fundraiser.

I believe it's our fourth, fifth and sixth graders in our church that have a baby bottle campaign going on where they collect change in baby bottles and all the money goes to support our local pregnancy center.

That just delights my heart to see children getting involved in protecting the unborn. We absolutely must educate our children about this horrible practice called abortion, because if we fail to eradicate it during our time, then hopefully they will be able to eradicate it in their generation.

It is not enough that your church only talks about abortion on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday when that rolls around in January.

Once a year is not enough. I did my first Sanctity of Human Life Sunday sermon in January of 2014, but folks,

I promise you my congregation heard me talking about that subject well before that. We have to do more than stand on sidewalks in the annual walk for life or join protests, which are all good things, but we must do more and we must do it inside the walls of our church too.

Maybe your pastor doesn't speak about abortion from the pulpit. Maybe you've never heard him talk about it, but you can't wait for him to address it.

You can be raising awareness about abortion in your church right now. You can do that.

If the church had been more diligent in the past to talk about abortion as murder, if we'd not been so worried about hurting others' feelings,

I don't think that this would have gone on for so long, if it would have ever been passed into law at all.

There are people in our churches that are getting abortions. How many lives could have been saved even in the church if we had been brave enough to say a word in a

Sunday school class from the pulpit? We must raise awareness about this deplorable practice even in our own churches.

Speaking of that, here's the third thing that you can do. Number three, you must reach those who have been hurt by abortion.

There are men and women whose lives have been devastated because the culture communicated to them that what they were doing was the right thing, and they got an abortion, and now they're suffering with the consequences.

Abortion creates some serious scar tissue, and it's not just women. It's men, too.

I think that men can be significantly more turned off to this subject, or they can just flip a switch and kind of turn themselves off to the subject because they don't know what it's like to carry a child growing inside of them and then have that child ripped out.

But there are men who have been convicted about this and do feel the pain of abortion. Those men and women need to know two things.

Number one, they need to know that they have sinned. They have murdered, and they do need to know that is what they have done.

And then number two, they need to know that sin is not beyond the forgiveness and the mercy of Christ.

Only Jesus can forgive their sin and relieve them of the burden that they feel because of their sin.

We must reach those who have been hurt by abortion, not turn our backs on them.

We must reach out to them. Number four, here's the number four thing that you can do. We must care for single mothers in difficult pregnancy situations.

If a single mother has gotten pregnant, I think it is the church's responsibility again to inform her that she has sinned and is in need of the forgiveness and grace of Christ Jesus.

We need to do this tenderly. We need to do this in a careful way. But I think in addition to that, the church needs to do everything that it can to protect the child that woman is carrying.

She needs love and care and support, and so does her unborn child.

Convincing her that she has sinned might be a discipleship effort. Maybe she won't be ready to admit that right away.

It also needs to be done tenderly because again, you're thinking about two lives here, not only hers, but the life of the child that she is carrying.

She knows because it is the mindset of our culture that abortion is an option, and you want to take every precaution necessary to be sure she is not going to choose that option.

Show her that she has sinned, but be tender with how you do this. And I'm telling you that this will require the work of the older women in the church to step in and be a mentor to this girl.

Knowing about the pregnancy center in your community becomes a benefit here as well because they'll be able to offer materials and different advice, including medical advice, all of the things that this expectant mother needs.

Care for single mothers in difficult pregnancy situations. It is upon the church to do this.

Here's the number five piece of advice that you can do, and this is perhaps the most important.

Preach Christ and him crucified. I was disappointed to hear that the organization that was behind the

Planned Parenthood protests on Saturday, they were actually out there telling people there are radio interviews that you can go and find.

Apologia Radio was posting those interviews on their Facebook page. They were telling people, not

Apologia Radio, but the organization that was behind these Planned Parenthood protests. They were telling people not to pray in Jesus name at these protests.

Folks, no, that is absolutely wrong. Now is not the time to be politically correct.

Exercising this culture's idea of tolerance is exactly what has gotten us as far into this mess as we are in.

People are not unified by outrage. They're not even unified by tolerance. They're unified by Christ.

There is no greater unity. If we start shying away from preaching Christ as we protest against Planned Parenthood or abortion in general, our nation will not be driven to its knees, praying for forgiveness in Jesus name, and that is absolutely what needs to happen.

It is not enough for us to eliminate abortion. If we think that's enough, then we're practicing a works -based salvation.

We must beg, plead for God's forgiveness on this nation, and we must do it in Jesus name.

If we don't, then we will not be healed. Christ must be preached. That is the only way to be forgiven.

It is the only way to be unified, to be truly unified behind a common cause.

Our great God, please continue to work these things in us and drive us to our knees.

Give us a spirit of conviction. Heal this land. God, appoint for us leaders that will help to direct us toward the righteousness of Christ Jesus, and may we be unified in that cause.

In Jesus name, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. We feature dozens of videos covering a wide range of biblical topics viewed by thousands around the world each day.

You can find a complete list of videos and topics on our website, www .tt .com.

Thank you for listening. Tomorrow we'll continue Philippians, rejoicing together in God's truth when we understand the text.