#Coronavirus Without Grumbling & Complaining

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Hey, everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor, though I'd love to be.

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I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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God's designed for individual Christians to be part of a local Christian church under the care of qualified, faithful, biblical elders.

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And so as much as we love all of you watching these sermons and we're thankful to God that God uses them to bless you, to encourage you,

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That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as again, as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that he's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

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You can, though, actually partner with Apologia Church as we proclaim the gospel and provide a defense of the biblical gospel all around the world.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right.

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Praise God for the freedom that we have today to be here and worship, at least for the moment.

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We're grateful to God for the opportunity to gather together as his people. If you would open your

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Bibles to Philippians chapter 2, Philippians and amazing.

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And I'm grateful that we are, especially at the time, during the time that we're in right now. So today

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I'm going to start a little different, in a different way, because I want to make sure as we have the opportunity to speak on how, as elders, we are addressing this and thinking through this and praying and meditating through all these things.

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It's important for our body to know how we're responding as elders. And so we're going to pray first.

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And before we actually begin to unpack Philippians, we're in Philippians chapter 2 right now, and we are specifically in the section about grumbling and complaining, and that is in verse 14.

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But we're going to start with prayer, and then we'll do some explaining about how we're handling some of the things that are before us right now.

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Then we'll get right into the text. If you would join with me in prayer. Father, we come before your throne with gratitude.

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Lord, nothing's changed. Nothing. You're still the sovereign. And Lord, we know that you are the

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God who declares the end from the beginning. There are no surprises. God, you are the one who is sovereign and wields everything according to your purpose.

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And we cling right now to the promises that you make in your word. You say in your word that you cause, you cause, that you cause all things to work together for good for those who love you, those who are the called according to your purpose.

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You are the God who has a purpose in all things. There isn't a single molecule in all of the universe that is out of your control.

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Everything is being sustained by you. We know that you, Lord Jesus, you carry everything along to its intended destination.

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And we know that as your people, this moment was known by you, decreed by you, and that you are the

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God who loves us, who sings over us, who's called us friends, which is so strange, that we are called children of God and that we are here because of your grace and your love that you poured out and you set upon us.

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We ask God as we gather together corporately as your people that you'd bless this worship of you, bless the proclamation of your word and the teaching through your word.

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Allow me to be a faithful shepherd to your people. Teach God your people.

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Let me be forgotten in your word and your promises and you remembered.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So it's important as we're facing really any trial that we do not respond to things that are before us reactionary, without patience, without meditation.

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And I want to say fundamentally it's important for us in any circumstance not to respond to trial and difficulty and confusion apart from principle.

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You see, one of the glories of the biblical worldview is that God has spoken.

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God has disclosed himself in history. He's not the God who's far off. He's not a

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God that's like us, that can't be trusted, that's not dependable, that doesn't know things.

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There's no confusion for God. He's the sovereign one who wields everything. Things only happen because God has ultimately decreed it for his glory and for his praise and for his purpose to one degree or another.

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The Bible teaches, Jesus teaches, that a bird does not fall from a branch dead to the ground apart from our

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Father's knowledge, ultimately his decree. So that's the God that we worship and when we actually try to comprehend the glory of this worldview, it's incomprehensible, but there are things that are apprehendable, things that God has taught us, he showed us, he's revealed himself, we know what

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God's character is like, we know what God's promises are for the future. These are things that we can hold on to with confidence.

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We can glory in these things that God has disclosed himself and he's told us. Are there things that we don't know?

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There are vast amounts of things that we do not know and we cannot ultimately comprehend. Are there mysteries to the

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Christian faith? Absolutely. Are there things that are incomprehensible? Yes, but what

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God has revealed to us is for us and for our children. It's for us and for our children.

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God has told us. So when God speaks, we can have certainty. When God gives us a revelation of his own will, a disclosure of his own character or his purpose in history, those are things we can hold on to, we can rest assured in, and we can stand on.

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And so it's important for us in this fallen world, this is really important to say, we face challenges of communicable diseases on an ongoing basis, on a regular basis.

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It is a normative aspect of a fallen creation. We can see that throughout history.

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Just in the last 150 years, there's almost no end to the list.

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We can talk about the Spanish flu, the Hong Kong flu, we can talk about the Russian flu, we can talk about H1N1, we can talk about SARS, we can talk about the swine flu, we can go on and on even over the last 20 years of time.

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And one thing is sure, that this fallen world constantly has the reminder that it has fallen, that it is broken, and that we are going to die.

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Oftentimes we don't think about this. We don't think at times about the millions of people that die around us on an annual basis from any number of communicable diseases.

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Now here's the thing I want you to hear, please hear this because you know right now fingers are moving on keyboards.

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I am not saying that this is not a serious thing. I'm not saying that it is not horrifying in circumstances.

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I'm not saying that it is not something we should take seriously and wave the hand at. That is not what's being said.

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I'm speaking as a minister of the gospel in the context of God's call to gather for public worship.

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And I'm making sure that we keep before us biblical principles over our emotions, over our perceptions, over our fears, and that we face everything annually, daily, weekly, monthly, standing on biblical principles.

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What has God disclosed? And so you should know that the faithful to God and faithful to you and to not respond to difficulties that we are faced with with our emotions, with our own feelings and perceptions, but we face them standing on principles from God's word.

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What has God disclosed? What has God said? And so what's really important is again we're starting off the message a little different today, a little awkward, but it's our opportunity to make sure that we speak to this issue publicly for our members who aren't here today and also for our body that is gathered here today.

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Very important for us first and foremost to address this, the command to love one another, to love one another.

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Here's what's important to recognize. There are faithful, faithful, faithful, more faithful, more in many ways knowledgeable and just sharper men than me who have made a different decision on this particular point.

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Many of them made an immediate decision and they said well our desire is to love our people so we're going to call off the corporate gathering and we're going to do it in this way.

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It is our duty before God, please hear me on this, it's our duty before God to respect our brothers and sisters who have made a different decision.

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We need to honor them, honor their decision making and know this, that whatever they do in word or in deed they are to do to God, for God.

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And our hope is that any decision being made for any local church globally is a decision being made with a heart full of love for God, love for neighbor and a desire to worship

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Him. But there are differences of opinion and those differences of opinion on this particular issue ought not create opportunity for us to destroy our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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So that needs to be kept very much at the very front of our thinking here in terms of our disagreements. Understand this, it's a fallen world, we're fallible people, we don't know all things and so when we're facing difficulties the people of God, believe it or not, this is amazing,

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I hope it's not a revelation to you, have had disagreements throughout 2 ,000 years of church history alone.

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If you didn't know that, you should get to know that. Christians are fallible and what we have is an infallible word to go to and so we have to do is gather around that infallible word together even when there's disagreements amongst us.

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So first and foremost I want to call the people of God at Apologia Church to respect brothers and sisters in Christ who have a difference of opinion on this matter.

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It's not to say you can't talk about it, it's not to say that you can't actually engage in some of these principles, it's to say that when we do we need to do it in such a way that actually brings unity and not breaks us apart as the people of God.

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God calls us to have unity with one another even in the midst of disagreements. I've always gloried in the fact that Apologia Church, we are a

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Reformed Baptist church, we do our catechism before service, 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.

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I think that was one of the greatest expressions of the Christian faith in the history of the

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Christian church, but I am grateful to God that we have Presbyterians who are members of our body. I think that is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

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It's a wonderful thing that shows, I think, just amazing unity. A lot of people maybe would be uncomfortable with that, but I think that is an amazing display of unity in God's people, and so we can have disagreements with each other without harming one another, even intellectually or theologically.

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Now, it seems to me that there are two primary things, and this is where you want to come back now, all that's over with and out of the way, we laid down the foundation.

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There are two primary arguments being made right now that need to be examined in a number of ways, a number of different angles need to be looked at as we talk about this.

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Number one is Romans chapter 13, and number two is the command to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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So those seem to be the two primary arguments right now. Number one is Romans 13, and number two is love thy neighbor as you love thyself, yourself.

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We are to make sure that we handle these two things in a way that glorifies

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God. So what will we hear today? We will hear brothers and sisters who love the Lord, want to remain faithful.

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They'll say Romans 13 says to submit to your governing authorities. It talks about the governing authorities being

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God's deacon, and they are to wield the sword of justice, and you are to submit to your governing authorities.

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And of course, the second one is love your neighbor. People will suggest that if you gather together for corporate worship right now in this moment, no matter how many people have this particular virus right now or complication, you are not loving your neighbor.

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We've even heard people say things like if you gather together for corporate worship, you are guilty of murder.

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Murder. Christians tend to go off the deep end on either side rather than having a balanced perspective, right?

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If you gather together to worship God, you are killing somebody. And so we need to say, okay, well, let's think about these two particular things that seem to be the primary arguments right now that are being examined.

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First and foremost, Romans 13. Does the Bible teach that the civil government is

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God's deacon? Yes, it does. And if you've been a member of Apologia Church for any length of time, you've heard us talk about this a lot.

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We believe strongly that God has instituted civil government to be his deacon.

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What is a deacon? It means servant. So the question has to be asked, whose servant is the state supposed to be?

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God's servant. Which God? Some God? Any God? Man -made gods?

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The true God. So actually when you look at Romans 13, it's actually prescriptive and not descriptive.

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What's that mean? It's not descriptive of what the government is always doing. We know that from modern history and just any length of history you look at, civil government is not always acting as the deacon of Yahweh.

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Amen? Yes? Never. And with the Fed dropping a trillion dollars a day now, we say, absolutely not.

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You are wicked. Okay, sorry, that just, I had to go off on that one. But when we see the scriptures,

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Romans 13, it says that the civil government is actually instituted by God, and the civil government is to be

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God's deacon, God's servant, not the servant of some other God. The servant of the true

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God, the living God. That's really important. Again, prescriptive but not descriptive.

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Now here's what needs to be held onto and examined. Please hear me on this. This is critical, and if you are watching right now on social media,

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I want you to consider this. I want you to very humbly consider this. No Christian worth their salt believes that Romans 13 means universal, unlimited obedience to civil government.

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If you believe that, I am terrified of you. The Jews would have been terrified of you in Germany, and we could put our finger on any other place in history where civil governments have done wicked, evil things.

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How about in China? If the Chinese government commands Christians in the underground church to reveal the location of, and the worship service times of, other believers, are those believers in China commanded by God to submit to the governing authorities to obey that kind of command?

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And the answer is no. If during the time of the holocaust, they come knocking at your door and they say,

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I want you to tell me where all the Jews are hiding, are you now, because of Romans 13, supposed to submit to the civil government and reveal the location of maybe the

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Jews you're hiding under your floorboards? The answer is absolutely not. So here's what's important.

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To take Romans 13 and to spread it like peanut butter across every instance in history, obey your governing authorities, is to actually abuse the text of Romans 13, which is prescriptive and not descriptive of what the government is always like or does.

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And Christians, we all know this. Scripture tells us that our heroes withstood, stood against wicked, ungodly governments, which were instituted by God to be his servant.

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They weren't always obedient to that, but we know the stories. If you've seen VeggieTales, you know about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right?

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They were told bow, and the answer was no. Are we to say Romans 13, peanut butter over everything, submit to your civil authorities?

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All of us recognize that when the civil government is not acting righteously in obedience to God, we have a duty before God to actually resist that kind of evil.

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Now, of course, I'm going to respond to the fact that the government is saying they're trying to preserve health and life.

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I'm going to answer that, but I want to talk about principles. We see Peter, of course, in the book of Acts being told, do not preach in this name anymore.

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And we know that Peter said we must obey God rather than men. And now what people will say, I can hear it already, they're going to say, yes, but this isn't an unrighteous, evil thing.

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This is trying to protect neighbor. My point of bringing this up is that Romans 13 cannot be used to say that there is universal, all the time, obedience to the government.

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Nobody believes that. I'll give you another example of a scripture that's often abused and how we have to say there's nuance to the text.

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It says in the Bible for wives to submit to their husbands and everything, right? Now imagine now your pastors are sitting in front of a couple, they're counseling them.

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And we're learning in this meeting that there's actually been abuse in the marriage. This man is harsh.

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He is mean spirited. He is abusive to the wife. He's making her do things that are actually sinful.

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Now we're in that meeting. And then the man says to me as a pastor, pastor, you know, the Bible, the Bible says wives submit to your husbands and everything.

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You're being a sinful pastor by confronting my behavior and telling my wife not to submit to me.

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Well, brothers and sisters, if we cherry pick the Bible and we proof text it out of context, what do we do with that?

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It says wives submit to your husbands and everything. Really? Always? Or is there nuance to that text that we understand has to be there because of the consistency of all of scripture.

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So when Romans 13 says to submit to the civil government, the question is this, how do we ever understand the nuance of when we're to obey civil government or not?

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And the answer is this, where the civil government fails to be God's deacon, where the civil government actually begins to hate and destroy neighbor, where the civil government actually is disobedient to godly wisdom and God's righteous standards.

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The church has the duty and the right and the authority to oppose the civil government's decisions.

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How so? Based upon the word of God. So what we have to say is that Romans 13, we believe it.

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We love civil government. We praise God for our governing authorities. And we pray for the day when they are fully submitted to Jesus Christ.

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Amen. So it does not teach unlimited obedience. And every Christian believes that here's the point.

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If you grant that Romans 13 does not teach unlimited obedience, then you've granted our point that we always have to examine the decrees of the government and commands of the government in light of what?

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Scripture. So that's principle number one that we are trying to look through and appeal to and pray about and meditate on as elders, as we face any circumstance like this.

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We have to have wisdom and examination, wisdom and examination. Now I'm going to talk really quickly.

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It is true. Please hear this. This is critical. A lot of people are missing this. The government does have the right to make commands that are truly wise and will protect public health and safety.

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It certainly does. Yes, it does. Absolutely. And does the Bible actually teach the concept of quarantine?

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Well, I'm going to actually suggest this to you, that the idea of quarantine for the sick is actually a distinctly

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Christian and biblical perspective in history. It wasn't something that was universally practiced by pagan nations and those who are idolaters.

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So get this, the idea of quarantine came from us. You're welcome. Does the

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Bible teach the concept of quarantine? Yes, it does quite a lot. There are spiritual applications to the idea of quarantine that are appealed to in the

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New Testament, the general equity of those ideas of quarantine. You can look at the

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Bible and you can look at Leviticus 13 .4, 14 .8, Numbers 5 .2, Numbers 31 .19,

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Leviticus 13 .2 -5, Leviticus 13 .31 -33. We can go on and on. The Bible does teach quarantine for the diseased or the sick.

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And it was even used as, again, as a spiritual application. First, it was supposed to teach them something about separation and blemish and those sorts of things.

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But in scripture, you will see, and I can't go over all this today, that the sick were examined and then quarantined to protect the life and health and safety of the people of God.

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One of the things you do not see in scripture is government shutting down families, abilities to feed themselves, businesses, commerce, and all the rest.

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You do not see that sort of a thing in terms of a preemptive quarantine. Now, I just wanted to say this quickly.

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I'm going to actually expand this a little bit more on Tuesday at noon when we do Apology or Radio. Quarantine laws are biblical, but just because we have quarantine laws in scripture doesn't mean that the government is wielding them appropriately.

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I want to just state that preemptive quarantine seems to me to be in principle the same as preemptive justice.

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Preemptive quarantine seems to be in principle the same as preemptive justice.

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You ever seen the movie Minority Report? You ever seen that? Sinners. You can say it, okay?

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Just kidding. Minority Report, you know the story. Minority Report, it's these people who sort of like see the future and what somebody might potentially do.

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And then Tom Cruise drops out of the sky with his Scientology. I'm just kidding. No. And he drops out of the sky and they're capturing people.

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Then he realizes, no, this is kind of wrong. You can't do preemptive justice of what somebody might actually do. Biblical law is clear.

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Somebody is innocent until they are proven guilty. By the way, you like that in the United States? You're welcome,

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America. That came from the Bible. Innocent until proven guilty is a distinctively Christian concept.

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It comes from God's Word. Innocent until you prove me guilty. So we all hate the idea of preemptive justice or the

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Minority Report or the crimes that may take place because we say it's not just to punish somebody for what may be the case.

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But then the argument will come. Yes, but in the case of preemptive quarantine where we destroy families, businesses, and the entire economy, what we're doing is we're focusing in upon the safety and security of society.

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And I'm going to say, remember how I said that in principle, preemptive quarantine sounds like preemptive justice.

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Those who would argue for laws about preemptive justice make the same arguments.

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It's about the safety and security of all of society. So something to consider.

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These are principles, biblical principles that we are examining. Now, I want to say that any time this is happening, we have to endure it and examine it with patience and wisdom.

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We have to ask, is this righteous? Is this righteous? Is this right?

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Is this too heavy -handed? Is this a reaction that is appropriate? We're not saying that things could change and we wouldn't change the course of things or our decision making to make sure everyone's protected.

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But we have to do things with patience, wisdom, and we have to ask, is it righteous? Right now, as elders, we realize that every year, annually, we have to face the fact that millions upon millions upon millions of people are dying because of communicable diseases all around us all the time.

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Please hear me on this because I can already hear the keystrokes. Also, you're just saying this is the flu and like anybody, anything else.

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My answer is absolutely not. Some of the observations that have been made about people who are experiencing the farthest end in terms of the mortality aspect of this particular virus are horrible.

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This is obviously very communicable. It's a very serious illness, and we ought to all take it very, very seriously.

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But as elders, we do not have the right as elders, shepherds of our

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God's people, to jump into the stream of the community. Wherever there is panic, wherever there is fear, wherever there is a reaction, we do not have the luxurious pastors.

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We have to answer to Jesus for how we've shepherded. To jump into the stream of popular opinion and disrupt the corporate worship of God or to actually give a stamp of approval to the destruction of the economy.

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These are real people who are hurting without jobs. You understand that? Please hear me on this. Millions upon millions upon millions of people have had their lives destroyed in just the last week, and we haven't even begun to smell it.

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We haven't been bitten down yet. You understand dance studios, karate schools, gymnastics studios can't endure this.

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You understand that? They can't endure this kind of a thing. Restaurants, travel, entertainment, people who are service providers can't endure this.

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Real people who are really dependent upon that paycheck every week are already wondering today, right now as I'm preaching this, they're wondering, how am

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I going to feed my kids? How am I going to take care of my wife? Because you see, people can say only essential businesses should be open.

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All non -essential businesses should not be open. And in the background are millions of people raising their hands saying, but my business is essential to me.

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To me. My business is essential to my wife. My business is essential to my children.

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My business is essential to my care for my aging parents. It's essential to me.

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And I'm going to say this with so much respect. Please hear me on this, because there's a way this can be misunderstood, and I do not want it to be.

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If you misunderstand this, it's your fault, not mine. It is easier for a politician or a healthcare professional to say, just stay home.

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I'm not saying that it's easy. It's easier. A politician, of course, has to deal with the consequences and the fallout, the difficulties that they will endure in terms of their own reputation.

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If they say, shut down commerce, destroy the economy, stay home. It's hard.

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It's not easy, but it's easier to say out there, you all stay home.

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And why is that? From a politician's perspective, he still gets his paycheck.

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She still gets her paycheck. It's easier for a healthcare professional, which we love and we are grateful to God for.

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It's easier for a healthcare professional to say to all of the community, stay home.

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Shut your business down. Don't work. And why is that? Because the healthcare professional's paycheck is still coming.

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Do you hear me? So what's driving my concern here as an elder? I want you to hear me on this. This is what

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I see as one of the fundamental, most important aspects of the decision making that we make and our leaders make.

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Love for neighbor. Isn't it funny how that gets hijacked? It's love for neighbor that says that we should all be quarantined to our houses right now and we should shut down commerce and the economy.

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It's love for neighbor. I'm going to say this. You're forgetting about an entire segment of neighbors, millions upon millions of them that are being destroyed right now.

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You see, you've drawn a small circle around one segment of neighbors and you've forgotten about all these ones.

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And love for neighbor as a principle we should uphold for both aspects. Protecting safety, life, health, but also loving the neighbors who are going to suffer.

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It's interesting. Monday we woke up as elders. Here's the thing. Look, I want to be just transparent here and I'm not speaking down to you.

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I'm looking at you eye to eye as brothers and sisters in this. You may not have to experience what your pastors have to experience.

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And that's the phone calls and that's the messages. We've lost our jobs. We don't have any income now.

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We don't know how we're going to make it. Maybe you're getting those phone calls. I grant, of course, you probably are.

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But as pastors, we're charged with the care and duty to respond to the needs of our body, to care for their needs.

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And what we see is families falling apart financially, economically. We have to face those things as elders.

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My wife got a phone call as a group of women that come to our house on occasion.

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I wanted to bless my wife. And we have a new baby now we've adopted. And so I want to make it easier on her.

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So for the past couple of months, every once in a while, we pay these women to come over and do a deep clean of our house, right?

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For Candy's benefit. But there's about five women who come over, these wonderful Mexican ladies.

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They don't speak a lick of English. And sometimes I'm like, are you talking about me, right?

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Because I'll be in the way and they just don't seem happy that I'm kind of in the way. But here's what

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I was worried. One of the first things that popped to my mind is like, these women are fully dependent upon work like this, side work like this to survive and feed their families.

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And I was wondering, how are they going to do? Well, the boss called

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Candy yesterday, very fearful, very upset. She's lost all of her business.

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And she was basically contacting us pleading with Candy, can you please not cancel your appointment this month, please?

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We need it to survive. I went to a sandwich shop today on the way to pray and prepare for the message today.

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I went to a sandwich shop that I normally go to on occasion and the parking lot was completely empty.

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And there wasn't a soul inside except the owner. And I walked inside, his face lit up, his face completely lit up.

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And he was like, oh, welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here today. And I said, absolutely. He said, what can

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I get you? What can I get you? I was like, this is some amazing service. He was treating me like a king. And so I told him what

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I wanted. And so as I'm finishing the whole way through, he's just blessing me and saying, thank you. I get to the end where I'm paying and he hands me it.

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And he basically through tear filled eyes, he tells me, I just want to thank you so, so, so much for coming in today.

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Thank you for coming in today. I bought a sandwich. This man has no customers.

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There's no one coming in. His business is struggling. And he was just so grateful to God that someone went in to buy a sandwich from him.

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Because people are wondering how are they going to make it? And I want to just highlight the principle of love for neighbor has to be something that all of us, but especially your pastors, have to consider when we're making decisions.

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Is this loving my neighbor or is it showing a lack of passion for their well -being?

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The decisions that are being made. Very important. So when we face this as pastors, we're looking at the numbers.

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That's all we can do right now. We're looking at the numbers and we're asking questions. We're trying to make godly and wise decisions as elders that respects our governing authorities and loves one another.

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And what we see so far in the numbers, what we see so far in the numbers is that it is very serious.

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People of course die. People suffer. Some people are asymptomatic and feel nothing at all.

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But what we see in the numbers is this. We see a consistency in terms of things that are communicable diseases that we're facing all the time as a society.

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It's not to minimize how serious it is. It's not to minimize the seriousness of how easily this is communicated.

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It's just to say that what we see in the numbers is something that's consistent with the fallen world that we live in.

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The mortality rate, those who are showing really not many symptoms, those who recover, we're seeing it's very serious and it is so sad that people are dying.

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But we have to ask the question as elders. When we are faced with numbers like this, are we going to be consistent?

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Please hear me on this. This is a principle. A principle. Are we going to be consistent three months from now with another communicable disease that is killing a lot of people and maybe more people have it in our state?

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We have to ask the question of ourselves before God. Are we going to shut down the worship, the corporate worship of God every time we have to face a communicable disease?

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Do we think that it's appropriate to destroy millions of our neighbors, make them destitute, take away their ability to feed their families, destroy their ability to pay for their homes, to maybe put them out on the street?

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Do we think it's appropriate to do it every time there is a communicable disease that causes fear and panic and yes, even kills people?

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Brothers and sisters, we live in a fallen world and we face these awful things all the time.

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It's the world that we chose for ourselves. I'm not minimizing the pain. I'm not minimizing the concern.

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I'm saying your elders have a responsibility before a holy God and for your benefit to be consistent.

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If we yield on principle, then we fail you as your people, as your ministers.

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We do. I want to say this. Love for one another has to be the premier thing for all of us at the moment.

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Love for one another. So as an example, as elders, we look at a decree of the government, a command of the government that says this is a very serious situation.

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We say we want to yield to that and treat it as such. When the government says we want you guys all washing your hands, we say that's wise and that's godly and we think that is loving your neighbor.

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Everybody make sure you obey the government. Wash your hands a lot, a lot.

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When they say try not to touch your face, I'm going to try to obey the government, not touch my face. It's really hard.

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It's so hard. Did you see the woman in the CDC talking about how you pass things? She's like, you know, don't touch your face or your mouth and as she passes the page, she licks her finger.

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It's just, you can't help it, right? It's just sort of, you got to get out of the habit. My nose is itching right now as I'm talking about this.

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Okay. When the government says practice social distancing, try to keep some space between yourselves, limit how much you're going out, we say that is very wise advice from the government right now.

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We think that you should obey, basically obey that advice. Stop shaking hands and avoid the hugging. We say brothers and sisters, obey the government in that.

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That's actually very wise. That's a way you can love one another. We think everybody should be doing that, but when the government says no meetings of more than two people, which has been suggested, no meetings of more than 10 people, we have to act upon biblical principle, godly standards of wisdom and righteousness and we have to say this question, can

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I ask a question about that? Is it worthy to destroy the corporate gathering of God's people in this moment?

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Is it worthy to destroy the entire economy and make people financially destitute at this moment?

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We have to ask those important questions. So what we say again is Romans 13, we uphold, but we have a right as pastors and as Christians to weigh the statements of the civil government in light of Holy Scripture because the civil government is supposed to be the deacon of which

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God? The true God. And the Bible teaches that we're to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

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So at Apologia Church, you know, we're not shaking hands. We're not hugging each other.

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If you cough on anybody, you're dead. Just kidding.

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If you're sick, we have already quarantined. By the way, we've tried to obey biblical laws of quarantine this week as your pastors.

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It's God's law. The priests were to examine the sick person and quarantine them from the healthy body of believers in the community.

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We've already quarantined other members of our body who have had contact with people with coronavirus.

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They don't have it, but they've had, they're in the healthcare industry. We've said it's best that you do not come to the body right now.

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We've told people who are sick and have fevers, do not come to the body, stay away from other members right now. So we are practicing biblical laws of quarantine and trying to love our community in the midst of this.

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And if I could just put on record, my concern here in terms of loving neighbor is for those who are going to be decimated financially because of this.

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That's my concern. That's my concern. It is a love your neighbor concern.

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And so brothers and sisters, as we face this together, we should respect one another as we're making decisions.

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And I think what we can all do is say, if you're trying to stand on the word of God and do this before the

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Lord, then do it to the glory of God. And we're going to love and respect you. But as for our part as Apologia Church, elders and shepherds who will have to answer to God for all of the decisions we make, we want to do this in a way that is thoughtful, patient, wise, and righteous.

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We want you to see an example in your elders that when things get difficult, we do not overreact, react with a heavy hand.

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We do not react apart from biblical principle and biblical law, and that your elders are not the kind of men who will immediately yield to the stream of the thought of the community.

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But we want to make sure we're following the word of God. Amen? And I want to say, as things get different and change, we think our position is balanced.

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We will face the trouble of the day with each day. We're trying to stay balanced.

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As things shift or change, we will face it as pastors as they shift and change, but we don't want to react with a hand that is heavy and allow people to be destroyed.

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I will not go down in history as a pastor who overreacted and it destroyed families.

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I refuse to. So let's go to our Bibles now. It's a little shorter message today.

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It is because I needed to say all of that today, but I wanted to make sure we had an opportunity as we gathered together to put something on record.

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And again, on Tuesday at noon, we're planning to have an extensive discussion on Apologia Radio.

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But Philippians chapter 2, we have been in this amazing, amazing section.

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And if you haven't listened to them, please do so. They're at Apologia Studios on YouTube and on Facebook.

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Go back and listen to those. This series has truly blessed me. It's challenged me. And I want to just actually read something to you.

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This is really interesting in terms of a pastoral confession. This was from John Piper.

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He wrote this about this particular passage, do all things without grumbling. He's meditation on Philippians 2 .14.

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I wanted you to hear what he said. It's so inspiring to see just this willingness to be humble and say this is something that we're all in.

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We're all a work in progress. Piper says, one of the effects of my speaking nine times to pastors in Alaska recently was conviction for my sin of grumbling.

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What happened was this. I spoke on the things that I love most. I spoke about the great and glorious God of Christian hedonism.

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We talked about that in the beginning part of our series here. And make some points here. He spoke about the glorious God.

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The God who, quote, works for those who wait for him, Isaiah 64 .4.

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The God who, quote, withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly,

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Psalm 23 .6. The God who, quote, works all things together for the good of those who love him,

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Romans 8 .28. The God who, quote, did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all and so will surely give us all things with him,

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Romans 8 .32. The God, quote, through whom we can do all things, Philippians 4 .13.

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The God, quote, who supplies all our needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4 .19.

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The God who will, quote, will help us and strengthen us and hold us up by the right hand of his righteousness,

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Isaiah 41 .10. The God who, quote, will never leave us or forsake us so that we can confidently say the

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Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me, Hebrews 13 .5

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-6. The God who, quote, will complete in me the work he began, Philippians 1 .6.

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The God, quote, in whose presence is fullness of joy and whose right hand are pleasures forevermore,

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Psalm 16 .11. The God who, quote, has all authority in heaven and on earth and who will be with us to the end of the age,

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Matthew 28 .18 -20. The God who, quote, disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness,

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Hebrews 12 .10. This is beautiful. The God who, quote, knows the hairs of our head and without whom not a bird falls to the ground,

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Matthew 10 .29 -30. The God who, quote, rejoices to do us good with all his heart and with all his soul,

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Jeremiah 32 .41. And this one, which I can't comprehend. The God who, quote, rejoices over us with gladness and exalts over us with loud singing,

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Zephaniah 3 .17. What's it sound like when God sings? I've heard some great singers in my life.

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I do not have the gift. Don't ever ask me to lead worship. By the way, if we ever have to go underground and break into small groups, somebody's got to take over the singing role because you do not, you'd never come back.

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You'd never come back if I have to lead worship or sing. It's not a gift that God gave me. But what does it sound like to have

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God sing? He is the origin of it. It has got to be the most amazing and comprehensible sound and it says that God sings over his people.

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I want to know what that sounds like. Piper says, when I heard these things coming out of my mouth, I was deeply convicted that my heart had grumbled in these recent months.

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Paul said, quote, do all things without grumbling. Grumbling is an evidence of little faith in the gracious providence of God and all the affairs of our lives.

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And little faith is a dishonor to him. It belittles his sovereignty and wisdom and goodness.

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Do I believe these things? If my faith is strong, I will not grumble. Piper says, pray for me.

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I think it's powerful. This is a challenging verse and it's so perfect. Don't you think it's amazing right now?

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Right now, we're in Philippians chapter two. Right now, the section about grumbling and complaining. Here's what it says,

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Philippians chapter two, 14. Do all things without grumbling or, and the

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ESV says, questioning. The word is disputing, complaining, that you may be blameless and innocent.

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Children of God without blemish, blemish, a whole idea of quarantine, blemish, out from the body, all that.

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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 and that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

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I think the best way to start this is to actually do it like we always do and that's in context. Not just merely proof text it, but to do it in context.

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You heard the amazing message from brother Wade where he talks in verse 12, therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

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

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I think it's important to note that Paul says this after he's talking about how to work out what's working within us.

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This is in the same letter from the apostle Paul where he gives us that promise, that excellent promise at the very beginning in chapter one where he says he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

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This is a promise that God has made to his people. He will finish, remember this?

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Remember? He's going to finish what he started in his child of God, in the redeemed one.

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He's going to finish it all. We know that Paul actually says in Philippians chapter one in that same section where he talks about God finishing what he starts, he actually says in verse 10, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

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So Paul, we've talked about this. How do you have authentic joy in the midst of imprisonment and difficulty and trial and plague and disease and pandemics and epidemics?

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How do you have authentic joy in the midst of it? For Paul, God is sovereign. Paul knows his own status in Jesus Christ.

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He knows the promises of God that are ahead of him and so for Paul, he knows that God is in this as the sovereign to actually finish what he started and all this stuff that's being worked through me now and working out my salvation with fear and trembling, all this is through Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God.

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That's what's happening in all this. So Paul, of course, has that epic statement where he says, to live is

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Christ, to die is gain. I'm hard pressed between the two. I don't know which one I want.

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Like to stay with you means more fruit through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God, but if I get to weigh the anchor and sail away to be with Jesus, if I die, then

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I get Jesus. So he's like, I don't really know what I want, but for Paul, he says here in this text, to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is

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God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or complaining.

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So the do all things is right after the work out what's being worked within.

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So okay, what's that look like? Well, do all things without grumbling and complaining.

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Simple. Do all things without grumbling or murmuring.

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Isn't that offensive when people murmur? Just the word itself sounds weird. Murmur, right?

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It's a weird word, right? The word there is grumbling or murmuring. If you're a parent for any length of time, you know what murmuring is, right?

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Then that gets you. Murmurs will run across the house and find their way to the bottom part of the spine of any parent and crawl its way all the way up into your neck, right?

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Murmuring. It's where you tell somebody, a child, do this, and all they do is they just murmur and complain, right?

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It's one of the favorite verses of my household. Do everything without murmuring and complaining, grumbling and complaining, because it is our natural tendency to be angry about our plights, to resist what

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God has given to us, and to actually grumble, to murmur, and to complain about God, complain to God.

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Do all things without grumbling, murmuring, and complaining or disputing.

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I think we need to stay in the text. To stay in this text, chapter two, he has just had the discussion about Jesus, and this is what's so critical.

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Let's go to the text, same chapter, chapter two, verse one. Paul says, in the same chapter, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the

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Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord, and of one mind, here it is, do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

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Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

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Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped or held on to, but made himself nothing.

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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.

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So here, Paul says, as you work out what's being worked within to the praise and glory of Jesus Christ, that's his whole concept, that's where he's going, he says in that same text, do all things without grumbling, without murmuring.

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In the immediate context is the Carmen Christi. It's talking about Jesus.

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And if we can consider how in the world am I going to face all that this fallen world has to offer me and present to me on a daily basis, sometimes an hourly, moment by moment by basis, how do

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I do it without murmuring out loud to one another, to my family, or to God, murmuring about it, grumbling about my plight.

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Paul just told us Jesus was in the very form of God. He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but what did he do?

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He emptied himself. He became obedient. He made himself a servant, born in human form.

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He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. And here's the thing, he's our example.

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It's in the same chapter. Do it without murmuring, grumbling, question, did

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Jesus? Did Jesus? Think about his life and ministry.

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Think about what Jesus presents to us in his life and his ministry as he comes as the God -man, truly

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God, truly man, as he humbles himself and he endures the onslaught of slander, lies, betrayal, sin, murder as he does.

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Isaiah chapter 53. Go there. Isaiah 53.

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Here's how Jesus, who humbled himself, handled it.

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Verse 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

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Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

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That's the example in scripture of the Lord Jesus. God, as a man, humbles himself, steps into our experience, into humanity.

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He lays his life down. And where do you see in the life of Jesus the grumbling, the disputing, the complaining against the

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Father? Where do you see it? You do not see it. And here's the amazing thing that I think is so critical.

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I know that Jesus is sinless. I know he's the righteous one. He cannot sin. But just consider this.

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Who would have a right to complain? He's the righteous one. He's the blameless one.

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When people are slandering, when people are lying and the false testimony is coming at trial, when people are plotting to kill

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Jesus or they're even nailing him to a cross, he's the blameless one. He's the holy one.

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We have no right to do to him what we're doing, and yet he opened not his mouth. He's led away to judgment, and he does not give them anything.

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He does not actually debate with them, dispute, grumble. All Jesus does is he goes like a lamb led to the slaughter for my good and for your good.

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No grumbling, no murmuring from Jesus. And oftentimes I think we think we have the right to murmur.

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We have the right to grumble, right? We'll see an injustice. We'll have a difficulty presented before us, or we'll have a task before us that seems too large, or we shouldn't have to do it.

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And our first response is to grumble, to murmur about our plight, about the situation.

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And it's amazing. We're sinners, fallen rebels. We're guilty, and yet we murmur.

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Jesus is the righteous one, and when he's presented with sin before him, and trials before him, difficulties, all this fallenness is impacting

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Jesus in his life as well. He's experiencing it too. The pain, the difficulty, all the sorrow, and yet Jesus does not murmur against the

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Father. He does not grumble. 1

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Peter 2 .23 gives another example of how Jesus is our example in this.

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Not murmuring, not grumbling and complaining. It talks about Jesus, how when he was on that cross, and this is,

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I hope you have this in your hearts, because you're going to need it in this world, with injustice and sin and accusations, false witness.

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It says that when Jesus was being reviled, he did not revile in return, but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

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How does Jesus not murmur? How does he not grumble in the midst of pain and difficulty and sin, betrayal, murder, evil?

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Who stands in front of a brutal Roman cross with a man who is bleeding to death and suffocating, who has been beaten and marred?

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He is disfigured. Who stands there and reviles him?

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What kind of wickedness is inside of a person to stand at the foot of a dying man and to revile the man?

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We don't even do it today. When we do have executions, people stand behind a glass and you have to shut up.

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It's the law. Why? Because it's a wicked thing for you to have a person dying and you're adding now insult to injury, right?

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And they're standing in front of the cross reviling Jesus, mocking Jesus, right? Where's your God? You're the

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Messiah. Come on now, do something, Messiah. It says that he did not revile in return, but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

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What caused Jesus to not murmur and grumble in the midst of his circumstance and difficulty?

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He understood the just God of all of creation, who will always do right.

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He knows that God will have the ultimate answer and he knows that the Father is sovereign over every detail.

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This is Jesus, the one who's already said in his ministry that there aren't birds that fall from branches dead without the

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Father's will or his decree or his knowledge. He's in charge of every dead bird.

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Do everything without grumbling. Next point, he says do all things without grumbling or complaining.

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The word can also be disputing and actually it means thoughts, which is interesting.

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Thoughts. I'll give an example of that so you can see it. It's also used by James. Just go there quickly so you have a reference for it.

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If you look at James, James chapter 2 in verse 4, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

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This is in reference to showing no partiality to people who come in with the gold ring and the fine clothing, showing partiality to those who obviously have money or are well -to -do versus the poor person who doesn't have as much.

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No partiality. And James says here, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

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Same word, right? Evil thoughts. Isn't it interesting that when the apostle

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Paul is addressing this issue again, by the way, from imprisonment, did we forget that?

01:01:07

That he wrote this about not grumbling and complaining in chains? I hope you remember that as a foundation there.

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All this is coming from a dude who's in chains, right? His life is not doing well.

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He's not sitting in a 15 ,000 square foot mansion with a

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Rolls Royce or a Bentley or whatever the case may be. He's actually in chains. He says, do all things without grumbling and complaining.

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And the word there, essentially, used by James, evil thoughts. Evil thoughts.

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Complaining. Disputing. So primarily, what does that reference to? I think primarily to complaining and disputing evil thoughts to God.

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First, it's going to begin there, all the evil thoughts, the complaining, the disputing with God, right?

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Difficulties come into my life. Pain comes into my life. Loss comes into my life.

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And my response, oftentimes, is to dispute with God, to have evil thoughts towards God, to actually have thoughts of unbelief towards God and his plan in my life.

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I know what he said. He said that he causes all things to work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

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But at the first sign of difficulty, my reaction, oftentimes, is to dispute with God and to have evil thoughts towards God, thoughts of unbelief, thoughts of distrust towards God.

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And so Paul says, do all things without grumbling or questioning or complaining or disputing without the evil thoughts.

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First, I think it starts with disputing with God those kinds of evil thoughts.

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And then, of course, it'll come out into the community. But how? How? How do we face this as redeemed people who have fruits of righteousness coming through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God?

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How do we do this? I think we need to stay here in Philippians and see what we know so far.

01:03:18

I got in trouble for this. Believe this? It surprised me. I don't usually pay attention to comments and things like that online.

01:03:25

That'll give you a heart attack and make you have evil thoughts towards God. But I was surprised.

01:03:35

I was really surprised. I did happen upon some comments while we're uploading and checking things.

01:03:42

People said that my suggestion that faith and suffering are gifts from God was evil, maniacal.

01:03:55

And I thought to myself, but that's what the text says.

01:04:03

You see, how does Paul have the audacity to say to people who endure hardships and trials and difficulties, do it without grumbling and complaining?

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He's the one who said in Philippians 129, for it has been granted to you, the word there is gifted to you, that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, so there's the first gift, belief in Jesus for his sake, belief in Jesus, trusting in Jesus is a gift from God, but also to suffer for his sake.

01:04:41

God says that suffering for the sake of Christ is a gift from God.

01:04:47

So Paul can tell us, the people of God, do all things without grumbling and complaining, do it without murmuring and disputing or having evil thoughts.

01:04:57

He says do all things because even the suffering is a gift from God. God is working out his purpose and plan, which is for your good and his glory through this suffering, through the suffering.

01:05:13

Paul knows Philippians 1 .6 that God is doing something that is all part of his completing what he started in you.

01:05:22

So why should I avoid the murmuring? Why should I fight against and resist the murmuring and the complaining or the disputing with God or the anxious thoughts towards God?

01:05:32

Why? Because God has promised, he's given us the certainty of the future, he is going to finish what he started in your life.

01:05:41

And this suffering, all this difficulty is part of God's purpose to get to that end, that end of completing you, what he wants you to look like in Jesus, in his son.

01:05:55

Paul can say no murmuring, no complaining, no disputing, no hostile thoughts towards God.

01:06:01

Why? Because God has his purpose, he's the sovereign. You know who you are in Jesus. God's given you this gift, believe in Jesus, but also to suffer for his sake.

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It's all for his glory and purpose. We know that all of this difficulty and challenge that's coming through us is ultimately moving to the glory and praise of God.

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But how does Paul, and we're almost done, how does Paul do it though? He gives us an indication as to what's going on.

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How does he approach, how does he have authentic joy in the midst of imprisonment and trial and ultimately death, which we know occurred?

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Philippians chapter one, he gives you two examples. First, in verses 12 through 14, he says this,

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I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

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And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

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Question, from a human perspective, does Paul have the right to murmur and complain? I think from a human perspective, people say, yeah, it's not looking very good for you right now.

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You're not apparently living your best life now, so it looks bad. And Paul says this, do everything without grumbling and complaining, and you're like, oh yeah, that's easy for you.

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Wait. Imprisonment, trial, what's Paul's whole perspective?

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God's the sovereign, I know who I am in Jesus, I know what God is working out in history, so that he faces an imprisonment and difficulty in chains, and he says this,

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I'm rejoicing. Why? Because I want you to know that what's happened to me has served to advance the gospel.

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God is doing something in my chains. He's doing something in my trial for his glory, for his praise.

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I'm going to rejoice in it. Do you know that these people over here are now more bold to preach

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Christ because of my imprisonment? I'll take it and I'll rejoice. That's why you can trust when the word of God comes to us like this, through a spirit -filled apostle, you know this is life -giving word, life -transforming, mind -altering word.

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The second example is right here in front of us, 15 through 18. He says this, some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.

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The latter do it out of love, knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim

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Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

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Seems like a reason to murmur, seems like a reason to be anxious, but what's

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Paul say? He says, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,

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Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice.

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You know, I'm so grateful to God that God allowed the apostle

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Paul to live one of the most painful lives in history. I'm so grateful to God.

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You know why? I know this is the word of God, I trust that it's the word of God, I know it came from the

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Spirit of God, I know it's the very breathed -out revelation of God, but you know what?

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On a very simple level, I believe it because of his pain. I believe it because what

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I see in his example, do everything without grumbling and complaining, it'd be really hard to buy that nonsense if it was coming from a mansion on a hill, and so I'm so glad that it came with imprisonment and pain and beatings and sufferings and ultimately death.

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I believe it. I believe it was genuine. We've talked a lot about putting off a plastic smile, we've talked a lot about how there's no reason to pursue the external fiction of joy, we want authentic joy, and I want to say, where's it coming from in Paul?

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And I think we have our answer. It's all being found at the center with the sovereign

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God who makes us what we are in Jesus Christ and tells us about his ultimate purpose so we can rejoice.

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We can say to live as Christ, to die as a gain. We can work out what's being worked within us, knowing that it's all going to the glory and praise of Jesus Christ, and we can know ultimately that God has his purpose even in this gift of suffering that I'm enduring.

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And so the Apostle Paul tells us through divine inspiration, and it's a command, do all things without grumbling, without murmuring, without complaining, without disputing.

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How many of us need to repent right now? I know

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I do. How many of us need to actually take this text in and not let it simply be the text that we're telling our children or putting on Christian t -shirts or on oil paintings or whatever?

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Like we know the verse, right? We've said it a thousand times, been confronted by it a thousand times, but how many of us, especially in light of our current circumstances, need this particular word from God to totally wash over us, cleanse our minds and our hearts, and change us, do everything, do all things without grumbling, murmuring, and complaining, disputing against God?

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There's so much temptation to do so. And here's the ultimate end to this.

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He says in Philippians 2, we'll end here today, he says, that you, verse 15, may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish.

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That's powerful. Do it for this reason. Do it that you may be blameless and innocent, hmm, children of God without blemish.

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Remember we talked about quarantine, right? Biblical laws of quarantine. The priest was supposed to go make an examination.

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If he saw a certain thing, he'd quarantine different cases at different scenarios, but they would quarantine the sick from the healthy.

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Get that? The sick from the healthy. And so there was the quarantine, there was the spot, there was the blemish idea, even then disease, right?

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But also you have the idea of the sacrifice, no spot, no blemish. They understood this whole concept of blemish and spot and stain, disease, sickness, the whole worldview is there.

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But Paul says, without blemish, without stain, without all of that, this whole worldview of cleanliness, holiness, separateness, this whole idea of blemish, stain, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

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And there it is. Wow, those are tall orders. Very relevant to today.

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Paul says, do all things without grumbling, murmuring, or evil thoughts, questioning, disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

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And that's the point. You see, God has a purpose in the transformation of his people.

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God saves us solely by his grace through faith in Jesus. He accomplishes it all to the degree that even repentance is a gift from God, faith is a gift from God because no man can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up.

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Salvation from beginning to end is from God completely to his glory. It's all

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God's glory. And the Bible teaches that as God saves a person, he begins that process of completing the work that he started.

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By grace do you save through faith in that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. What? The grace and the faith.

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It is the gift of God not according to works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus on two good works which

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God has already prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Someone needs to tell Andy Stanley that verse.

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We wonder why the world is in the condition that we are. There's a lot of sin and false teaching in the camp but it's important to recognize that the apostle

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Paul as he lays out these truths he says and here's why you'll be without blemish crooked and perverse generation that you live in the midst of and you are lights.

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So the purpose of God as he saves people is to continue glorifying himself through their lives and causing them to be salt light in the world but in this context

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Paul says you shine as lights in the world. How?

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Through not grumbling and complaining. Do you see that as that's light? You know what can I say something to families?

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This is really important. This is really important. I think we tend to we this is important we got to repent all of us.

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I think we tend to see a command like this and a beautiful story like this that you're the lights in the dark world and we tend to think about the lost people all around us right that unbelieving world out there and we say yeah we need to be light to them so I'm not going to grumble and complain in front of the unbeliever but how many of the mothers and the fathers in this room do nothing but complain in front of your children or your husband or your wife?

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You know what I mean? Like to the world outside we're like got to guard myself got to be light to the world in the darkness for the unbeliever so that they see no blemish crooked and perverse generation light in the world let it come out of my house and then you turn right around and you step into your door and it's the wife murmuring constantly or disputing constantly or the husband doing the same and the amazing thing is is we do it to one another or we do it to our children or we gather in our little bible studies in our fellowship groups right and then things take they tend towards the murmuring and the complaining right and we say but it's no big deal though because I'm with other believers right these are other lights than I'm murmuring with what what

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Paul says the grumbling and the complaining no that you may be blameless and innocent children of God not children of the devil not children of wrath children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as light in the world there is a massive easy to see

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I hope so what to the end of this message today in light of our current circumstances there's the presentation from the word of God that's the certain word from God right there not my words

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God's word you heard it I pray that everything that I said today that if it wasn't consistent with God's word if it was anything for me

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I pray that it just completely falls dead on the ground but I pray that those words that I gave you from our God would challenge you completely today especially with what we have to face tomorrow yeah

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I saw that me some of you guys shared the meme so fun right now the memes are interesting um and it was uh who is it you know this the the captain from Star Trek not

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Spock Picard I just did this as the Star Trek sign this is just that yeah

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Captain Picard yeah I just so I see

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I see the meme of Captain Picard and it says like when I wake up every morning now it's like damage report and he's like you know and right and everyone's doing that now like you know you get up and it's like your first thing you're doing is like did my community blow up last night right or like what happened everyone's checking their phone to see like what's the news what's the story and I I think we all as we need as a church to be completely challenged on this because I think we all have sin in this area will you face now the trial and difficulty ahead of ahead of us with this stamped on your heart this do all things without murmuring without grumbling without complaining without disputing without the evil thoughts because the call of God is this

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God says this is what I'm going to do with you I'm going to save you I'm going to put you in the world and you're going to be the child of God that shines like lights in the midst of darkness that's your call and one of the ways that that is most displayed at least in this context is that God's children are to do all things without murmuring grumbling complaining disputing so where does this start well first it starts here personally between God and I I have to repent

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I have to be humble I have to recognize what goes on in my mind towards God in terms of disputes and evil thoughts and I have to also be very very aware of what's coming out of my mouth but then it also goes out how many of you need to with your husband or wife need to confess like this is it's a part of our it's a part of just the theme of our life now like we're just okay with the murmuring grumbling and complaining the disputing and our children are seeing it how many of us need to actually say this to one another on a regular basis no murmuring don't be light don't grumble don't complain be light that that's the call of God right now all that darkness going on as you walk out of this room into tomorrow that's your job it's your role it's your life it's your calling light light the thing that ought to cause the most concern for us right now in the midst of the trial that our sovereign

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God has presented before us for whatever purpose it's his it's he knows we need to consider that we are not to act like the unbelieving world with fear and worry and grumbling murmuring complaining about God you say like to what end like when do

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I get to start doing it well I would say Jesus was being reviled on a cross being murdered as an innocent man and he did not revile but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously he opened not his mouth he trusted the father you do the same let's pray father