Philippians 2:15-30 - Living Without Grumbling

Tom Shrader examines Paul's call in Philippians 2:12-16 for believers to work out their salvation without grumbling or disputing. He challenges the church to live differently from the world's culture of complaint and discontent, becoming blameless children of God who shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation. Shrader emphasizes that believers should be recognizably different through their contentment and grace, making the invisible God visible to those around them.

“You may be the only Bible that some people ever read, but they ought to look at you and say, gosh, there's something different.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Philippians

Recorded: October 27, 2016

Duration: 38 min

Themes: contentment, grumbling, complaining, humility, witness, relationships, unity, obedience, struggling with complaints, married couples, church members, dealing with conflict, husband, parent, new believer, young adult

Scripture: Philippians 2:12-16, Philippians 1:27, Philippians 2:3-4, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 5:16, Deuteronomy 32:5, Ecclesiastes, John 3:16

Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, incarnation, substitutionary atonement, salvation, christian living, philippians, biblical obedience

Handout Link

Full Transcript

If you have Bibles, open them to Philippians chapter 2. We're in an interesting place. Sandy and I took a walk on Monday or Tuesday, and we were just talking about the week, what it's going to look like, and the lesson. I said, "You know, I don't know that I've ever taught through a book like this." I don't know if I've ever spent so much time trying to connect one thought to another. Obviously, books do that, but it feels like I'm getting a sense or flavor of what Paul intended. I said, "The thing is, it tends to be repetitious," and Sandy's been coming to PL at Thursday noon, and she said, "I can vouch for that, because the last two weeks, you've said exactly the same thing."

That's how it feels. I'm into seeing how Paul is taking a truth all through this letter. At the same time, there are these little parenthetical inserts that can launch you off into discussion. Probably the classic is chapter 2, verses 5 through 11, where He talks about the incarnation. He talks about Christ's substitutionary atonement. It's a passage that you could teach at Christmas or Easter, or introduce at Christmas and close at Easter. It's just a classic passage. I don't think the emphasis of that chapter is on that act, though. That's really an illustration. Paul's making a point.

The Key to Getting Along

Go back to chapter 1, verse 27: "Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." He's writing to this church, and He's giving what is for them, and for us as well, the key to being able to get along, being able for a relationship to survive.

While He's talking about church, I continue to want to push it and make you see this is the key to a husband-wife relationship. This is the key to anything that has two people engaged in it. A homeowners association just got in the mail yesterday, time to elect new homeowners association board members, and they all seemed intent on pretty flowers, and my concern is barking dogs. "Attacks on yippers," that's my campaign slogan. But on a homeowners association and getting along, can't we get along?

The key to this is what Paul illustrates in chapter 2, verse 5: "Have the mind in you that's also in Christ Jesus." When I begin to live this way, see how that's the conclusion? Look at verses 3 and 4. I'm doing this in reverse order, but you can do it either way. He's saying, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Don't merely look out for your own personal interest." He's not saying don't look out for your own personal interest. He's pragmatic and He understands you're going to look out for your own personal interest. He said don't merely do that, but also for the interest of others.

The Illustration of Jesus

All of a sudden, if you have Sandy and I in this relationship, and I am not motivated by my own interest, but what's best for her, it's this amazing thing. We've hit a tipping point, I think, after 10 months now, where we really are looking out for each other's interests. Sometimes at our own personal expense. Then He says, "Here's the illustration, it's Jesus." The key is what we celebrated last Friday. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Now, here's what we looked at last week, and we pick right up here today. "So beloved, just as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation in fear and trembling" (verse 12). He is talking here about living in a way that's the result of salvation. The key phrase is not working for your salvation, not working at your salvation, but live in a way that's the result of it.

This morning at 5:38, I got an email from Steve Wheeler. Steve's here this morning, and there's a man who's a very good friend of His, Don Robinson. Some of you know Don. Here's what the message said: "Don took His first breath in heaven at 3:47 this morning." That's an amazing reality. How do we know that? Because He worked out His salvation and did a bunch of good things? No, because He put His faith and trust in Christ, and the promise the Bible gives us is if we do that, we're as sure of heaven as the saints that are already there.

Working Out Your Salvation

So He says, work out your salvation, do the things that result from being saved, and understand verse 13, it's God who's putting it in you, the desire to do it, and the ability to do it.

Now, verse 14. There are certain times when I'm teaching, when I'm bold, I think, bold, aggressive, perhaps reckless. Then there are certain times when I'm teaching and I'm going, "I shouldn't be teaching this section." Verse 14: "Do all things without grumbling or disputing." I tend to grumble. I don't know about dispute, but I tend to grumble. But see how Paul's returned to that theme from 1:27? He's talking about how we live together, whether it's in a church, any relationship. Do all things and do them this way without grumbling.

Modern Society's Prosperity and Discontentment

I want to read you just a couple of passages from some different authors. John MacArthur writes this: "Modern Western society is by far the most prosperous culture in the history of mankind. Except for the very poor, people have all they need and much of what they want, and yet they're seldom satisfied."

Especially this generation, and many of you are my generation, a little bit older. You have more stuff than you ever thought possible. There's a piece of equipment that almost all of you had, that growing up, we never had. We use it every day, and it makes life pretty easy. It's a garage door opener. When I was a kid, we had a garage door opener, and my dad would say, "Get your butt out and open the garage door, Tom." But now, you just hit it. When I was in high school, Nike was a Greek god. Everything is different.

The more we have, the more we want. He goes on to develop the thought: consequently, ours is arguably the most discontent society ever. As the economy has been increasingly richer, people appear to become more discontent and complain more with each passing generation. Add to the discontent are the fantasies of worlds of movies, television, and advertising. The media, to create dissatisfaction, continually assault us with the intent of senses with alluring and often unrealistic images that have been described as plastic perfection.

There are probably a billion illustrations here, but the one that comes to mind for me is the golf industry, specifically the driver. Every year, because they're a publicly held company, TaylorMade is going to introduce a new driver, which amazingly is 10 to 15 yards longer than last year's driver. This means in 10 years, you're going to hit it 200 yards further than you're hitting it right now. I haven't played golf—I've been on the injured reserve and can't grip a club, which is probably going to hurt me long term.

Last summer, I played and flagged three times. The first thing I thought of when I played a round of golf with some guys is they all had the new drivers with the whiteheads, whatever they were. I thought, why? They're all hitting it further than I do anyway, but they're hitting them straighter than normal. Now for me, getting an extra 20 yards is only going to mean I'm 20 yards closer to that out-of-bounds stake, because it's going to go dead right.

I found myself coming back and saying to Sandy, "We need to swing down. I need to get a new driver." Sandy doesn't golf, so she said, "Really?" I said, "Yeah." She said—this is her way of saying this is stupid—"Are you planning on playing a lot of golf?" I said, "It doesn't matter. If I'm going to play a round, I'm going to get my money's worth out of this thing." I'm not playing golf, and my answer was a new driver. If I use the new ball and I use the new driver, I'm going to hit it 40 yards further.

The Relentless Assault of Marketing

See how that comes every year? It just comes at you and assaults you with everything. It's to look at somebody who's got a phone, then somebody will look at it and go, "You're still using that? That iPhone 3? I got a 5, I got a 28." It just goes on and on and on.

Remember the classic? Radio Shack had the tagline that said, "We have thousands of things you never knew you needed." What MacArthur's saying, and what our generation is proving, is what Solomon wrote back in the book of Ecclesiastes, which says: the more you have, the more you want. As goods increase, so do our consumption of them.

When I was interviewing at Coble Banker, there's a guy by the name of Dick Oglesby. I don't know if any of you ever knew Dick, but he was an interesting guy. I'm waiting, wanting to get hired bad—I need the job. I'm the only guy that ever took the job at Coble Banker for the runner's salary, which was $1,200 a month.

I needed the money, and Wentworth is sick, and I can't get this moving, so I'm interviewing with Oglesby for like the 400th time. He said, "Do you have any questions of me?" I'm exhausted and all interviewed out. I said to him, "What's the biggest thing you see, or problem you see with your sales guys?"

The Trap of Rising Expectations

Here was his answer: Oglesby said, "They make too much money." At that point, that didn't seem like an obstacle to me. I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You'll see it. When you're a runner and you come to a Christmas party—that'll be the annual event that you have wives at, the big event—you'll come that first year, and you'll have on a $100 blazer, and your wife will have on a $50 dress."

"The next year, you'll have a $200 blazer, and she'll have on a $150 dress. By the fourth year, you'll have on a $1,500 suit, and she'll have on a $500 dress, and now all the accessories. The more you make, the more you spend." And not even because you need it, but the $50 dress did the job, but we went to $500. The $99 blazer did the job, but we went to $1,500. It wasn't about clothing—it was about something else.

This is what MacArthur's saying. Swindoll quotes a guy who's talking about this whole process that we're in, and he says it's particularly prevalent among young people who seem to live in a state of discontent, continually dissatisfied with things as they are.

The Problem of Small Families and Affluence

He introduces a sociological issue to it. He said part of the problem, he suggests, is small families in which fewer children are able to demand more of their parents, more attention, and they don't have to share with brothers or sisters. Combined with affluence and materialism, that situation tends to produce selfish, self-indulgent children who are never content with what they have.

He's saying all of a sudden, you're raised in this little environment where your dad's got a "My Kid's an Honor Student" bumper sticker on his car, and you're told how great you are. A participation ribbon is the same as a championship trophy, and pretty soon you think you're okay. He said you begin to grumble. The more you have doesn't solve the problem.

Abundance Doesn't Cure Grumbling

When we were on this cruise, I think I mentioned to you, I was stunned at how rude people were. When I was growing up, we had a war on hunger. Now we have a war on obesity, so we must have won the war on hunger, I don't know. But all we saw were enormously fat people knocking each other down to get food that's in abundance.

I came up with a great illustration: outsinning God's grace is like running out of food on a cruise ship—unless it's Carnival, it ain't going to happen. And they're grumbling, and they're miserable. "This isn't hot." Well, it looks to me like you're going to eat it anyway.

The Call to Live Without Complaint

They go on and on and on. And this grumbling and disputing, the grumbling's kind of an emotional response, the disputing's a little bit of an intellectual response, and it permeates the culture we're in. Now, He's writing to those of us who are believers. This gets convicting right here. He's saying, I get that the rest of the world does this, but you don't act like that.

MacArthur writes this: "Every circumstance of life is to be accepted willingly and joyfully without murmuring, complaining, disappointment, much less resentment. There are no exceptions. There should never be either emotional grumbling or intellectual disputing. It is always sinful for believers to complain about anything the Lord calls them to do and about any circumstance which He sovereignly allows."

Paul goes on to make this point. Look at verse 14: "Do all things without grumbling or disputing." Why? So that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God.

Proving We Are Children of God

We are children of God by faith and by adoption, by spiritual birth. And He says, I want you to be innocent. It's the idea here of pure. I want you to be innocent. I want you to be blameless without spiritual blemish. I want you to prove that you're a child of God.

Then He uses an interesting phrase. He says, above reproach. So even if there's an accusation against you, they don't stick. If somebody came in and said something about you and it was negative, the people around you would go, "That can't be true."

We had something happen Good Friday. We had a guy who came back who hasn't been at church for a couple of years. He came back and to the guy who took my place teaching, Tim Maughan, he said, "I need to ask you something. I'm very concerned." Tim said, "What is it?" He said, "I saw Tom out in the parking lot with a young girl, hugging a young girl in a parking lot." Tim said, "Well, that's probably his wife." He said, "Susan's died." All I could think of is if he didn't run into Tim, his conversation on Monday would have been, "I went back there to Redemption, but I've got to tell you, they've lost the standard a little bit. Tom's out making out between services in the parking lot with a young girl." Tim did not go, "Really? Tell me about it. Did you get a picture? What did she look like?" He just went right to, "That has to be Sandy. Tom isn't going to do it otherwise."

See, that's what He's saying. Even if there's an accusation that's brought against you, you're still in the process, verse 12, of working out your salvation.

Living as Lights in a Crooked World

He describes the world we live in: "I want you to live a life above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are to appear as lights in the world." Deuteronomy 32:5. Moses describes the unfaithful rebellious Israel as a perverse and crooked generation.

The word crooked, from that Greek word, we get the English word scoliosis, an abnormal curvature or alignment of the spine. The term is used metaphorically of anything that deviates from a standard or a norm. You're in a world that's deviated from a standard, and the standard is God's standard.

When Convictions Change with Circumstances

Let me step back a second here and illustrate. There's something that happened a couple weeks ago that was as alarming and telling about our culture as any I've seen in a long time. The senator from Ohio reversed his stance on same-sex marriage. You up to speed with that?

Now, I don't want to talk about the issue. This is not about same-sex marriage. This is about why he did it and what that says. He said he reversed his position. Why did he reverse his position? His son is gay. Well, I found myself saying, "Well then, what was that position based on to begin with? Was it based on political expediency? Was it based on some truth?"

I've learned over the years, there are few things as charged as this topic. I don't want to lose the illustration on the topic. I want to see the illustration. I want to go back and say, "How did you arrive at that conclusion to begin with?" Because if it was based on conviction and truth, that doesn't change.

The Bible as Our Standard

What Paul's writing to this generation in Philippi, and what's true of ours, is that we live in the midst of a bunch of crooks and perverts that have distorted what God would say. So for us, we come back to what does the Bible say? That should be the bottom line for everything that we do.

I just got an invitation to do a coaches conference. Primarily it'd be high school coaches, I would guess. The challenge is to come in and say, "What does the Bible say about coaching baseball or basketball or football or teaching?"

We were in a gathering yesterday. Here's what we tried to do. We tried to look at the issue of immigration. In five minutes, we've done same-sex marriage and immigration. If we don't have everybody alienated here soon, we should. But we said, "Forget conclusions, forget what we read in the newspaper or see on TV. Does the Bible speak to that issue? And if it does, what's its appropriate weight in this discussion?" I think you land at a different place than maybe you would if you went to a CPAC meeting.

That's the issue. We have to have a standard, and He said, "I don't want you to be like the world. They're crooked, distorted, a deviation here, and they're perverse." It's a more active and dynamic form of this kind of change. One author writes, "The crookedness and perversity of the modern world are so obvious and pervasive that examples are hardly necessary. Most of the modern culture has radically distorted and deviated from God's standards of truth and of righteousness."

But He's saying, you're in the midst of this. How do you respond to it? Jesus didn't sugarcoat

The night before He died, Jesus said, "The world hates me, they're gonna hate you." One of the great studies that we saw was Tim Kimmel. Many of you know Tim. Tim wrote some curriculum called Grace-Based Parenting. I don't want to get in and start arguing the specifics, but what we see at a place like ours—ours is a conservative church—we get a lot of adult converted people. So there's gonna be people like me who are 35 or 40 or whatever they are when God saves them.

The cool thing about a person like that is that there's a radical change. The downside is that much of their parenting is now fear-based rather than grace-based. They know what they were like, and they'll be darned if their kids are gonna be this way. So we try to isolate them from the world so Christian becomes an adjective rather than a noun. So we end up with Christian comedians, Christian bookstores, Christian schools, Christian music, Christian everything, as though we're saying, "Well, we don't want to get any of that world on us." So we're gonna cocoon, we're gonna isolate.

We want to be monks, but we don't want to be celibate. And that vow of poverty stinks. So we want to somehow work this delicate dance while we operate in the world, so we have to come up with a phrase like, "be in the world, but not of the world." Oh, what does that mean? Well, don't believe like the world, but we're so afraid of the world.

Sent Into the World

Jesus said the night before He died, as He prayed to His Father, "Father, now listen to this now, think it through. Just as you sent me into the world"—now how did He send Him into the world? He didn't sit in heaven and gaze and watch. He put Him in here. It's what you just read in Philippians 2:5-11. "Just as you sent me into the world, God sent these guys into the world"—you and me.

See what Paul's saying here? "Prove yourself blameless and innocent children of God above reproach. You're in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you are to appear as lights in the world." When you read that, does that bring to mind any passage of scripture? Matthew 5:16: "Let your light shine in such a way that people see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

Shining Your Light

I mentioned it last week in here. There was a kid on the cruise, David Clinkenberg or whatever, the violin guy. I think I mentioned to you, because he starts with "What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?" And he said, "The difference is the number of teeth the guy has who's playing it." So this guy comes out and he's kind of a young guy, taller, thinner—I always liked that. And he just comes out and he's got this composure about him that he walked out and said, "Good evening." And I said to Sandy, "Gosh, I like this guy." That's all he did.

And then he played some song. He's classically trained. And then he played a little bluegrass and then he dropped some things in along the way. And I kept saying to Sandy, "I really like this guy." You can see something different about him. He didn't say anything. He didn't come out and say, "John 3:16." All he did was play the violin.

And I thought of this passage immediately. And ultimately it's disclosed that he's a believer. You could see it. And I thought of it as a perfect example in the midst of this cruise ship, crooked and perverse. In the midst of this cruise ship, there was something different. Jesus is saying, "Let your light shine." Paul's saying, "You're the light in the midst of this."

Making the Invisible God Visible

So I don't know where you go today—off to the office, heavy negotiations. I should be able to sit in the room and I should be able to see that the Christian faith has changed your life. And this always gets in when we start talking about athletics and business. "Well, all of a sudden he's gonna lose that killer instinct." Well, he shouldn't. He's just motivated in a different way. He's a different person. He doesn't even have to say anything.

And Clinkenberg's a great illustration of this. He just played the violin, but he played it in such a way that you were sitting up there and going, "There's something different about this dude. This isn't Charlie Daniels. There's something different here." And that's what He's saying about you.

So if we were gonna stop and kind of at this point probe a little bit, we'd say this is where you need to ask yourself: do the people see Jesus in you? So my friend Larry Wright used to say it this way: "You may be the only Bible that some people ever read," but they ought to look at you and say, "Gosh, there's something different."

Speaking Truth Boldly

Now, this is a key point. It's to make the invisible God visible, but then to speak the truth boldly. Again, Jesus in Matthew 5 said this way: "Let Him see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." They won't glorify your Father who is in heaven unless you tell them. That's the beauty to me about an Easter or a Good Friday. It's like the lowest buy-in of reaching out to your neighbor and say, "I don't know if you have a church for Easter, but gosh, would you like to join us?" And you see all these people. I met a dozen of them Sunday morning: "This is Bob and Lisa, and they're our neighbors, and they're here for the first time."

That is you, I think at the lowest entry level, though it may produce a lot of tension. That's you saying to your friends, "You need to glorify my Father who's in heaven." So I'll use this all the time where I'm talking to somebody and they'll talk about, "I got into it with a guy at work today," and yada, yada, yada, "We went at it, ding-a-ding-a-ding." And I'll always say, "What's he gonna say when you invite him to Easter?" People should not be stunned when you invite him to Easter. They ought to go, "Oh, wow, now the dots are connected. Now I see it." That's what Paul's saying in this passage.

Swindoll writes, "No need to scream or shout or make a scene, just shine. Just live a life free of grumbling and disputing." It just happens. I got an invitation to speak down at New City Church.

which is a cool church, if you're in Midtown looking for a church. It's on Central between Indian School and Camelback, east side of the street. I'll be down there on the 14th, and Brian Kruckenberg, who is the lead pastor there, told me the other day that my topic is the fruit of the spirit. That's perfect. Our tagline for that is "fruit happens." This stuff just happens. You can't stop it.

It's like I say to Sandy every morning, wipe that smile off your face. You can't stop this stuff from happening. God's transformed your life, and this connects. This flips you right back to verse 13. He's the one who's at work in you to will this, to desire this, to do this.

The Day of Christ

So I want you to do this. I want you to hold fast to the word of life, the word of God, so that in the day of Christ—this is Paul now speaking, not of the day of the Lord and judgment for the unbeliever, but in this day of Christ, the judgment, if you will, for the believer, not for sin, but for reward—I will have reason to glory, because I did not run in vain or toil in vain. I didn't waste my time.

There is a difference. You know Ancestry.com. They run a lot of this. I'm thinking, who goes on this? And probably some of you, so I'm not making a bad judgment. I'm just thinking, I don't have that much curiosity. I don't think my family tree is going to bear a lot of fruit. I don't think we're going to find any Rockefellers in there, or any great thinkers. I don't think Jonathan Edwards was my great, great, great, great grandfather.

But I thought how cool it would be if you could go online and do a spiritualancestry.com. That would be cool. And I'll tell you what, if you hit ancestry.com, many in this room, and you could do it spiritual, that tree would all go back for many to Larry Wright. And I would think, how cool it's got to be for Larry. That's what Paul's saying.

Spiritual Pride in Ministry

Paul's saying, I want to be proud, not in an arrogant way. This is healthy pride. I am part of a group that started what was East Valley Bible Church and then moved and is now Redemption Church. I'm in a meeting the other day, and we're recounting. I got to hear one of our guys.

So on our sheet, if you were to go deep in teaching at Gilbert, I think I'm one of the better teachers there. Tim Maughan took my place as a good teacher. We've got a guy by the name of Justin Marshall who I think can teach. A guy by the name of Paul Artino can teach. There's a guy that came down from Iowa, Muscatine, Iowa, Jake Each, who we hired. Jake taught three weeks ago, and he was amazing.

It's kind of like Susan Boyle, the singer from Britain. The frumpy old gal comes up, and then she opens her mouth, and you go, wow. I think that's what it was for Jake. I think a bunch of people went, we just thought he was a guy that led adult ministry.

And then if you go to our Tempe campus, there's a young guy there by the name of Ricardo Stewart, who a few years ago was in our kind of co-leading student ministry who's now leading that church, leading it, overseeing it. They had 1,600 people on Easter. Not numbers. I'm not into the numbers. Just saying what God's doing.

You go out to Gateway. Luke Simmons did an amazing service. I don't say this to you often. It's worth going online and googling Redemption Church Gateway and see what Luke did on Easter. He memorized 120 verses and put together the redemption story. Frank in Arcadia, Vince up in Flagstaff, which is amazing, in our West Mesa campus.

And I said, I'm so proud of these guys. And it's the first time that I went, I get what Paul's saying here, and I feel some of that myself. When somebody comes up and they begin—they had their preaching collective. That's what we do once a week. The guys who are going to preach gather together to talk about the lesson. And they work it together.

And they came out yesterday and they said, big idea is what you say all the time, make the invisible God visible and speak the truth boldly. It's like when your kids say something back to you. I opened my mouth and my mom came out. It's that kind of thought process. That's what Paul's saying. He said, this is amazing.

Timothy: A Kindred Spirit

Let me hit high points so we have it for the tape. Paul uses an illustration here of Timothy. Paul speaks of Timothy and Epaphroditus. Timothy, he knew well, so he talked about what he was. Epaphroditus, he didn't know as well, so he talked about what he did.

Here's Timothy, this young man that Paul likely led to Christ, born of a mixed marriage, dad Greek, mom Jew. It made him a perfect candidate to reach out to the Greeks as well as the Jews. He's circumcised as an adult. And Paul says, this is an amazing guy. I'll tell you why.

He said, he is a kindred spirit, in verse 20. It's the only time that phrase appears in the New Testament. It means same-souled. Radically different personalities. Paul is hard-charging, aggressive, brash. Timothy, Paul says to him, listen, you got to suck it up a little, man. You're a little too timid.

Different personalities, but Paul says, when you talk to him, you're talking to me. We see things the same. What is it that separates Timothy? This, again, should be gigantic as you process your life.

He said, he's of kindred spirit. He will, verse 20, genuinely be concerned for your welfare. All these others seek for their own interests, but not for Christ. Can you go back to what he said in chapter 2, verse 3 and 4? Be more concerned about the others than yourself. Don't look out for your own interest, but the interest of others. Paul said, Timothy is a kindred spirit who's concerned about others, who has this servant's heart.

Verse 22, you will know of his proven worth, for he has served—and I circled that next word. He has served with me, not for me. Now, I'm going to give you more than you'll

The Key to Intergenerational Service

Paul gives us what I think is the key to intergenerational service. Paul doesn't say Timothy worked for him. Paul's the older one, the mentor, the established one. He doesn't say Timothy came in and really did a good job for him. He served with him.

Let me say this again to so many of you in here who are older: let me tell you about the younger generation. They are dying to be influenced by you. They want you to share with them what you've learned. You generations need each other.

I'll tell you what we find over and over again. The problem is not the younger generation—it's the older generation. We talk about younger ladies needing to be influenced by the older ladies, and the older ladies won't do it. They go to the same study over and over again, sit with the same old gals over and over again, eat the same food over and over again, and complain about the world over and over again. And here are all these young kids over here trying to figure out—they don't need a Bible lesson from you. They're trying to figure out how do you live this stuff out?

Living Examples of Service

Al and Betty Page used to be down here all the time. They just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. When we do all the premarital stuff, you know the favorite part of every class is when Al and Betty come in. Al proposed to her, and they'd never been on a date. I don't know if you knew that. He wrote her a letter and said, "I just think I'm supposed to marry you." They'd never been on a date. Al was in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

So a real strange relationship. He's going to have a chance to be in Korea again. How big a mess has this thing become? How does that work? Look at how this fleshes itself out. You labor in this together.

Epaphroditus: A Model of Risk and Service

The other guy was Epaphroditus. He was a guy that the church at Philippi sent to Paul with a gift. He got there, and he became sick, and Paul says, "I'm sending him back to you." And that's going to provide them comfort, and he's going to give them accurate information. But what he did by bringing that gift was very risky. He's coming in to Paul's house arrest to be associated with Him.

The Wisdom of Risk

I'll give you this, and we're done. There was a survey that was taken, informal, not scientific, among 50 people who were 100 years of age or older. And they asked them, "If you had life to live over again, what would you do differently?" You want to guess what they said? Three things. Risk more. That's the one that surprised me. The one they said is do things that would last beyond my life—that makes sense. The next was that they would reflect more. They wouldn't react, they'd think about it.

But the third thing was—you don't think of this as 100-year-old people—they said we would risk more. We played life a little too close to the vest. We would risk it. Not parachute without a chute, but we would risk.

If we have two besetting sins—and I have them—of comfort, they really had them. And that comfort's going to take away any sort of propensity toward risking.

What we'll pick up right there next week. We'll start in chapter three next week. Paul becomes extraordinarily autobiographical here. So we'll look at that.

Father, help us see this truth, change our life. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.