I invite you to open up your Bible. Amen already? Wow! It's going to be a good morning. Amen. I invite you to open up your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2, as we're going to be studying this. I'm going to say a couple of words about Pastor DeVille, because you know, I get the last word. Now, he's not only a friend, he's a mentor. What we really appreciate about him And since it's pastor appreciation, let me just say something we appreciate about him. You know, we traveled around a lot of churches to raise support and did the deputation thing. And if you ever had to do that, you know it's not a fun process. You sit around with a lot of pastors that are bitter, they're political, and some are downright mean. And I just praise the Lord that we have a transparent, loving person in Pastor DeVille. And we've been friends over 15 years now, and I just thank the Lord for him. So let's give him a round of applause. Now I hope he buys lunch. All right, Philippians chapter 2. I'm here with my beautiful family, and I thank the Lord for them. My lovely wife, Katie, who actually lived out in Falcon for a little bit when we met, and our oldest daughter, now gonna be 15 in a couple of months, and that's incredible to think about, and we praise God for Ellie. Johnny is 13, and Joshua is 11, and they're all different, and Abigail, our baby, Joshua and Abigail were born in Argentina, so they're both Argentines. And Abigail is with Rene right now, nine years old. Just turned nine this week and is excited and everything. So they're growing quick. And our kids actually come to school here in Falcon. We love Falcon. They come twice a week here. And we love it here and we thank the Lord for this opportunity. It feels weird to preach in another church, to be honest with you. I love preaching in my own church. The people know me, they know when I joke, they can laugh. Sometimes when you're in another church, they look at you and they say, did he just say that? Should we laugh? Should we cry? What would she do? And don't worry, you could smile today and question and answer time, ask me anything you want, how much I weigh, what you want to know about me, and I'll be as transparent as I can. Commitment is hard, actually. I don't know if you heard of the pastors, the three pastors talking about they had rats in their church. And so the first pastor said, you know, I got rats in the church and I can't get rid of them. I put down poison. And after I put down poison, more rats came afterwards. So now I got more rats than ever before. Second pastor goes, I know what you're saying, man, I wasted money. I hired an exterminator. And the rats, you know, after he was done, now I got more rats than I want. Third pastor says, I haven't seen a rat in months. What'd you do? He says, well, it was easy. I grabbed him, I baptized him, asked him to commit to the church, and he never came back. You want to get rid of people, ask for commitment. But you know what? When we talk about that, today's sermon, and if you missed the last two, that's fine. I'll just preach them right now and bring you up to date. But really, we're talking about working out our salvation and how it is God working in us and changing us through the power of his word, through prayer, through service, how he uses those means. The Spirit of God is changing our lives. And really, when we want to adopt the mind of Jesus Christ, one of the biggest obstacles to that is complaining. Complaining. Now, I don't know about you, but I live and preach and teach, and I look in the mirror at people who complain. It is all around us. You think about, in a normal week, what people complain about. Let's just name a few things. Weather. Anybody complain about the fog today? That one, amen. It's either too cold or it's too hot. It's this. It's going to rain. It's this. It's that. The weather is this. It's going to rain in three weeks, so we're depressed. As you see, it's going to snow in two months. You know, I can't enjoy today. They complain about the weather, complain about health issues. How are you doing today? Oh. Are you OK? Oh. How are you doing? Oh, my back. My neck, I don't know, have I slept bad? My arm is just weak. I don't know, my foot hurts today. I don't know what's going on. I just woke up and, you know, you know what's going on? We're getting old. Guess what happens? The body breaks down. It does. I don't care how healthy you think you are, you will die. Amen? You will break down. Unless you're me. All right, let's keep going on. What other things do we complain about? People. Oh, man, do we complain about people. I mean, all the time. Did you see so-and-so? Did so-and-so talk to you today? Oh, man, so-and-so just bothers me. Did you see that look I got in church when we had five minutes to greet and she didn't even say hi to me? I mean, for crying out loud. And my boss? Don't ask me about my boss. And my kids? Oh, man. And my wife? Ah, this. And they just complain about people all the time. and politics, oh man. I had enough to hear. Did you know, are you ready for this? Are you ready for the most interesting fact you're ever gonna hear in life and it's not gonna come up in the question and answer time? Me and Donald Trump were born in the same hospital. We are both from Jamaica, Queens, amen? Don't mess with us. I'll make three phone calls and you will be wiped out if you don't like this sermon. We are from the same hospital. I wish I could find out which room we were both born in. Wouldn't that be amazing? The same room. Soon we're going to have the same wig. All right, let's go on. Did I just say that? Is that taped? Oh, we're having big trouble here. Hi, I'm the pastor of Falcon Baptist Church. It's so good to be here today. I heard of a guy that went into a, don't worry, we'll get into the text sometime today. I heard of a guy that went into a monastery, he wanted to become a priest, and the person in charge says, you have two words, two words to say, and you will say them when I ask you to say them. And so a few years went by, and the guy came up to him and says, you have two words, two words, and he says, cold food. Five more years passes by, and he says, okay, now you got time for two words, two words. What do you want to say? He goes, hard bed. Five more years goes by, and the guy in charge says, two words, two words you have to say. And he says, I quit. And the guy goes, about time. All you do is complain. All you do is complain. I want you to look at this passage of Scripture here, because it starts off in verse 14 by saying, Notice that phrase there. What he is talking about, this includes every part of our lives. Whether we are at home, at work, at school, on social media, on vacation, at the airport, driving the car, in church, wherever we are at, do all things. He's saying this encompasses our whole life. This is who we are and how we live. Do all things without two things. Are you ready? The first thing that we are not to do while we do all things is grumble. Interesting word there. It's an emotional response. It is an emotional response that can be expressed under someone's breath. I have mine. It's shh. When I am upset, pfft, comes out of me. I'll be in the car, someone cuts me off. I'll be trying to watch a Yankee game, a kid will come up singing, pfft. My wife will ask me something, pfft. She'll say something, pfft. She's like, what's pfft, what's the matter? No, I'm okay, pfft. We all have them. What's yours? Some, it's their eyebrows. You ever see the complaining eyebrows? I mean, I'm scared of those. I can't even do it. I only got one eyebrow anyway. The complaining eyebrows, the look, the faces. I love preaching the faces. I mean, it is just so much fun. I get all different kind of faces when I'm preaching. I get the, I get the, thinking about the Yankees, and then I'm thinking about the Sermons, or anything else. I get all kinds of faces. What is your, what is your emotional response, the inward emotional response? It speaks of severe displeasure that's expressed It's really what grumbling is. Are you ready for this? It is being upset with God. Because we are, under our breath, or expressing it, or whatever it may be, we are saying to God that our circumstances, His will, are not good enough. Wow. Now, we don't say that out loud. But we do say that by our actions. I don't like the weather, God. My foot's hurting, God. This person is bothering me, God. Say his name after the complaint." No, we wouldn't do that. But really, that's what it is. And it doesn't just stop there. If it just stopped there, maybe it would be, but it doesn't just stop there. Notice what it leads to. Do all things without grumbling. And it says, do all things without what? Disputing. And really, that word means to enter into a contentious argument with somebody because you're being critical or you're complaining. Criticism and complaining never just stops. It always spreads, and it usually spreads and starts contentions with people, and this word can actually mean bring somebody to court. Wow. So here's what happens. Somebody bothers you, you start complaining about it, all of a sudden you start to get into a contention with the person, a fight with them, and then all of a sudden now you're bringing that person to court. It just keeps getting worse and worse. We had a guy in the church in Argentina that he told me he had four or five lawsuits going on right now. Four or five. Isn't that incredible? Where does it begin? With a complaining heart. We are complainers. It's amazing when you study the book of Exodus. Isn't that a wonderful book to study? And the book of Numbers. Isn't Numbers very devotional when you get in there? And what do you see in Numbers? And what do you see in Exodus? You see people who complain. God brings them through the Red Sea. I mean, just amazing what God does. And the first thing they do is they say, Lord, where's the water? It's bitter. Come on, God. And then later on, they're like, Lord, if we could just go and have that meat. I want a little meat. And God says, you want meat? I'll give you meat. I'll give you meat till it comes out of your nostrils. I'll give you meat, all the meat you want. And what happened when they got meat? They died. They died. And their criticism and their complaining did not stop just with God. It led to being contentious with Moses, their leader. You see how this works? So when Paul was talking to the church, he's saying, I want you to work out your salvation. I want you to show others that you really have the mind of Jesus Christ, and your biggest obstacle is gonna be this, complaining. grumbling, showing displeasure with your circumstances, with what God has brought you in. Watch what happens to us when we do this, and then we're gonna look at the cure. He says here in verse 15, the damaging effects of complaining and disputing and arguing with others. Here's what it does, first of all. Notice what it does. so that you will prove yourselves to be what? Blameless. The word means that you cannot be criticized rightly from somebody else. And let me just say this, a lot of people don't want Christianity because a lot of Christians are complainers. Why would I want that? I got enough problems. And this person has God and he doesn't stop talking about his or her problem? Why do I need that? I just went in to do a hospital visit. I love the person to death. He's former colonel, loves, I mean, he's a great person. Reminds me of my grandfather. I love hanging around Air Force people. I mean, they just, they're loving, they're straight, they're transparent. We're not doing it! Okay, that's it. It just ends right there. I love them, I love them. You know it's on their hearts. So I go and visit this man, and I go there, and I notice a list of things next to his bed. And I said to him, what's that? He goes, these are 19 complaints I have about this place. You don't mess with Air Force people. I'm gonna hit on you right now. And he says, I've only been here one night. This same guy in the hospital had, when I saw him, 42 complaints about the hospital. Right? That's when I saw him. Two days later, someone else went to go see him. At that time, he had 102 complaints. 102! I mean, this is crazy. At least he's transparent. You say, oh, I would never do that. That's you under your breath. That's him on paper. That's why I like the Air Force, amen? And so, What does that do? Can you imagine him witnessing to a nurse? And saying, do you want my God? By the way, yeah, file this. Do you want my God? It damages us. It not only does that, notice the next word he uses here. This is incredible. That you may be blameless and innocent. That's an interesting word. It's used of wine in the Bible that wasn't diluted. So really what he's saying is complaining dilutes our pure devotion to Christ. We cannot love Christ with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and complain at the same time. It dilutes that love, that love instead of being that wine that wasn't diluted, it becomes wine and water, it's mixed. It dilutes it. And then, he says right here, in verse 15, that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, and notice the next phrase, children of God. If we are really children of God, we're gonna believe that God knows what's best, because we're his children. And we are gonna act like children. and we're gonna be above reproach, it says right here, and don't miss this, in verse 15, in the midst, underline that phrase, in the midst, because people miss this, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. God doesn't want us to isolate ourselves, to run away from the world, to get away from the world. We live in the midst of the world. In the midst of it. And you say, what kind of world do we live in? Are you ready? Look what it says. A crooked world. You wanna know what that word means? It literally means they have deviated what God says right here in his word. I just heard of a student that was asked to leave the class because he told his teacher he believed that there are two genders only. And she kicked him out. She kicked him out. Where are we going? It's getting crazy. We were up in Denver, and it came up at the museum. Who are you, a male or a female? I looked at my wife, I said, pretty soon they're gonna have to put their, who are you, a male or female, or you're still questioning it? They're changing everything. It is getting worse and worse. We live in the midst of a crooked generation. And not only that, here's what blows my mind. Look at the next word. They are perverse. They are so crooked, they have twisted God's word to make it mean what they want it to mean, and they try to defend their lives using God's word. They are twisted. And what does God want us to do, run from them? No. God wants us to live in the midst of them, not complaining and fighting with them. Wow. And here's the good news about this. The darker it gets, and it is getting darker, the darker it gets, the brighter we should shine. Here's the good news. And this is why I love Colorado. Because we lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina for so long, and you didn't see stars. I mean, it's polluted. And if you were to go outside and look up and see the stars, you look down, your wallet's gone. All right, you don't have time. All right, so you gotta be quick. Real quick. But you go out here in Colorado, we're spoiled out here. You go out here in Colorado and what do you see? Wow! It is just beautiful. You're like, man, unbelievable what God has done. And every time we look at that dark sky but see those beautiful stars, we need to remember how God wants us to be here on this earth. We are the stars in the midst of a dark, dark generation. Notice what it says right here. Do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you may prove yourselves to be blameless, that you won't be damaged, you won't be deluded, you'll be children of God, above reproach, in the midst of this going on, among whom you appear as lights in the world. All right, so now, if we were to shut all the lights off right now, how many of us would shine? Probably none of us. Right, so you're saying, well, how do I shine in this crooked and perverse and wicked generation? How do I shine here? It says right here in verse 16 how we do it. Verse 16, it tells us how to shine. Holding fast, what? The word of life. Holding fast literally means to hold forth. It's used of a waiter. And what he is saying here in verse 16 is we are gonna appear as light in the world when we hold the word of God and share it with others. I love this verse. So here's the cure. Instead of complaining, let's start proclaiming. Ready for that? The weather's horrible today! Well I just praise God, I'm a sinner saved by grace. And he wants to save you too. And if you think it's hot today, wait if you don't accept Jesus, it's gonna get hot. I mean real hot. Oh, my leg is hurting, you know, that's part of the sin. Can I tell you a little bit about what sin does to us? It separates us from God, and because of sin, you know, we don't have a relationship with God, but Jesus came and died for our sin, and he was buried and he rose again, and if you call upon him, he'll save you, and that foot that may hurt, it may hurt till you die, but one day you'll be in glory. All of a sudden, instead of complaining, what are we doing? We're proclaiming. And let me just tell you something about the word. Notice how it's described here. I love this phrase. It is the word of what? Life! Because it changes lives. Have you seen that? We had a military guy come to the church, and I didn't know his wife was military, and I asked him to come into my office. I said, why don't you come into my office, let's talk. And I just got to the church at the time, and he comes in, he's dressed all, and his wife is dressed in her uniform. I'm like, oh, they're both, I couldn't believe it, they're both military. And they're sitting down, and I asked them, as a New Yorker, I ask people when they first come to church, if you die tonight, where you going? By the way, that's my boldness, don't try that with a lot of people. And they looked at me and go, um, uh, uh, uh. And I said, can we just talk? And I opened up a track, and I'm sharing a gospel with him. They both left, nothing. Okay, thank you, thank you, pastor. Three months later, he says, hey, I want you to meet my chaplain. Okay. Sitting there, we're eating, I think, old country buffet, I forget where we went. And we're sitting there, and his chaplain says, so tell me, when did you get saved? He's talking to the other guy, the military guy. And the military guy goes, you know, it all started in Jeremy's office. shared the gospel with me, I went home, thought about it, accepted Christ. Got baptized, this guy, growing in the Lord, just called me this week. He's retiring from the military, he's down in Georgia right now, still loving the Lord, living for God. It's the word of life. We had a lady just this last month walk into our office, said to me and Katie, yeah, I've been thinking about this stuff, I need to get saved. You need to get saved. Not many people tell me that. Wow. I didn't even get that. If you die tonight, where are you going? I didn't even get that line in. Because I need to be saved. Well, I think I can help you with that one. All right, here you go. Here's the verses and all that. Are you sure? Yeah. Are you sure? Yeah. OK. Here's how you can do it. She did. Just this last Sunday, she says, you know what? I'm ready to get baptized now. Nobody talked to her about that. It's God. It is God, it is the word of life. We will never impact anybody by complaining in the right way. But we can change people's lives by proclaiming. So why don't we use our words to proclaim and shine and share the word of life so that their hearts will change? Paul says, here's what you need to do. Live your life without the grumbling, the inside displeasure, the emotional displeasure inside of you that comes out externally, that you're arguing, you're complaining, you're disputing with other people. Don't do that. You don't want people to accuse you of that. But instead of that, in the midst of this crooked and wicked generation that we live, that they've twisted everything, you proclaim Jesus, the word of life. and watch how God works. I'm telling you, it's getting harder and harder to share Jesus, isn't it? You can't talk about him, if you're a teacher, you can't talk about him in the schools. If you rub shoulders in some places, you mention him, you're gone. It's getting harder and harder, but you know what? The opportunities are more and more. You get these nuisance phone calls. I heard of one guy, this is amazing, he turns these nuisance phone calls into opportunities to share Christ. So they'll call him up and say, you know what, you're up for insurance and all this. Well, thank you so much for telling me that. You know what, I have insurance. His name is Jesus Christ. And all of a sudden, he's turning these nuisance opportunities into opportunities to share. I'll tell you what me and you would have done. Somebody calls us up to sell insurance. Hey, I'm not interested right now. You're bothering me. Please don't talk to me right now. Hang up the phone. Hey, hon, can you believe another one of these people are calling me up? And all of a sudden, we're complaining. Not one amen. Instead of proclaiming. Let me tell you, this is absolutely amazing. This has changed my life. I mean, this has been incredible. I cannot believe how God has used this. Let me just give you an amazing illustration of how God has used this. You all know that I'm a Yankee fan. I'm also a New York Giant fan, football fan, not one, amen. Oh, hey, I'm in the right church, praise God. Where two or more are gathered, there he is in our midst, right? Oh, you're a Mets fan, okay. Father, we pray for him right now. I'm not gonna complain, I'm just gonna proclaim. This is amazing, you gotta hear this. The Philadelphia Eagles, who I hate, I hate. Last year, they were headed to the Super Bowl, and their star quarterback, Carson Wentz, got hurt. He's jumping in for a touchdown, they hit him in the legs, they hit him, and he tears an ACL and another ligament in his leg, and he's done. That same night, he goes on YouTube and gives a podcast. And he says, I don't know what God is doing, but I trust in him, and I know the Lord has a plan in this, and he's gonna work this out for my good. Okay, here I am, six months later, on a plane to Georgia, heading back from Georgia to Colorado Springs, and I'm sitting next to a football guy. He's not, plays football, but is into football, and a pretty wealthy man, and he starts to talk to me, and I said, so who's your team? And he goes, the Eagles, and I'm like. Almost complained. And then he says to me, I couldn't believe this, I said, so what do you think of Carson Wentz? He says, man, this guy, he goes, what faith he has. Goes around, preaches the Bible to you, he goes, I don't share the faith he has, but he just is impacting players, he has a wonderful testimony, he starts talking about him. And then he looks at me and he says, so what do you do? I do exactly what Carson Wentz does, thank you for asking. I go around and tell people I love Jesus. and I shared the gospel with him. Carson Wentz's podcast impacted an unregenerate, somebody who can care less about God and gave me an opportunity to witness. That's how powerful this is. When we stop complaining and start proclaiming, maybe this crooked and perverse generation will start changing. You ever think of that? And maybe they won't go from questioning their gender to believing in Jesus and how he has made him or her. And maybe their lives will just change as the word of life is being preached to them. We never know what God's gonna do. I wish it was every time we talked to someone they came to Christ, it doesn't happen that way. But who knows by your wonderful spirit that you are preparing for the next guy to come in to say to them what Jesus is. This works. This is working out our salvation. This is showing others we have the mind of Christ. This is the obstacle here. Now notice what Paul says. He says something very important here. One of the worst fears for every pastor out there, or preacher, or missionary, or anything, is to think that, hey, I lived my life and it really didn't produce anything. And so look what Paul says here. I want you to hold fast to the word of life. Hold it forth. Share Jesus, verse 16. so that in the day of Christ, and Christ is gonna come back and he's talking about the rapture there, in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory, because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain. In other words, here's what Paul's saying. Do this, stop complaining, start proclaiming, because when we're all in heaven, I can say to Jesus, I've done it! You get the glory, Lord. But I've preached, and guess what? I didn't produce complainers. They were proclaimers. They were amazing. Thank you, Lord. It wasn't in vain, my life and what I have done. It did something. It impacted lives. It changed hearts. Thank you, Lord. He says, I want to have reason to glory, so I didn't run in vain or toil in vain. And then Paul, not thinking of himself, he says, but even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. Now, don't miss this. Verse 18. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. Here's what he's saying. Let's paraphrase it in the ESV, the Estrema Standard Version. I love that version. Paul says, will you just be happy? For crying out loud. Can you smile? It's okay to tell a joke here and there. I got a good one tonight. I can't wait to tell it. It's all right. Smile. Be happy. It's raining. You can smile. It's hot? Okay. Your foot hurts? Still have joy. Still have joy. Will you share your joy with me, he says. Will you just rejoice? Because here's the way we can. You say, Jeremy, but how do I do that? Here's how you do that. Meditate on the gospel. And when you meditate on a gospel, here's the conclusion we come out with. We are better than we deserve. Because all I deserve is the pit of hell. That's it. So when somebody asks you on a bad day how you are, you can repeat what Dave Ramsey says. I'm better than I deserve. Because we are. We are. I preach that in the church, and it's so funny when I ask people how they're doing now, because they give me that line. Pastor, I'm just better than I deserve. I'm like, oh, how did you get that line? Oh, wait a minute, I gave it to you. Great line! We are better than we deserve. And we meditate on the gospel and realize what Jesus has done for us. our foot pain, our back, whatever it may be, the weather, our jobs, our circumstances, whatever it may be, we are so much better than we deserve. And we can praise God. We can praise him and proclaim him.