What Is the Difference Between Lamenting and Complaining to God?

What's the difference between lamenting and complaining to God? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Happy Friday. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We would love to hear from you and our phone lines are open for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. And you can email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Mark in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mark, welcome to the program.

What's your question? Thank you. I appreciate what you guys do. I have a question about praying in the name of Jesus. I mean, we're told in Scripture that praying in the name of Jesus, God the Father will hear that prayer.

I'm curious about a person who prays but does not pray in the name of Jesus. And for example, a Jewish person or a Muslim, if they were to pray, would that prayer be heard? Thank you. Thank you for your question, Mark. And of course, God is omniscient. He knows all things. He sees all things.

He hears all things. But we're talking about something different here with regard to how an individual approaches God. And we can only approach God in prayer with confidence through His Son, Jesus. You know, Paul says in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

Jesus is our mediator. We go to the Father, to His throne of grace, through Christ. And that really is what it means to pray in the name of Jesus. We are coming to the Father through the mediation of the Son because of what Jesus has done for us as our great high priest. And so this is why we can approach God boldly and confidently as Christians, as those who have received the Holy Spirit by faith in Christ. We can come to Him because of what Jesus has done for us. Now, that doesn't mean that if somebody doesn't end their prayer by saying in Jesus' name, that prayer just gets completely lost, that kind of a thing.

It's just how it is. It is that we are meant to approach God. And so that's what I would say. God hears our prayers, receives our prayers, answers our prayers through Jesus, His Son. Now, what about all the prayers of people who aren't praying in Jesus' name?

Or you mentioned, you know, Jews, Muslims, that kind of a thing. Well, God hears those prayers, but I don't believe that He answers those prayers, certainly not like He answers the prayers of a Christian. He's someone who comes to the Father through Christ. When an individual comes to God and they don't know Christ, they don't believe in Jesus, they're calling out to Him. You know, God still does hear those prayers, and I think that's an important point to make. In the Book of Acts, you have the case of Cornelius, who we're told feared God, didn't really understand the Gospel, and he's offering up alms to God. He's offering up these prayers in sincerity, but he doesn't really know the true God. And so what does God do? He sends people to preach the Gospel to Cornelius. And as a result, he's baptized and he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

And so, you know, we have that hope and that confidence that the Lord hears everything. But as Christians, as believers, we come to the Father through the Son. Thanks, Mark, for your question.

Great question, Mark. And thanks for digging into God's Word. We really do appreciate that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Jump on your phone right now if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Here's the number.

It's 43THECORE. You can also leave us a voicemail on that same number, 24 hours a day. Let's go to Elias in Hampstead, New York. Elias, welcome to the program.

Hi, friend, Brother Sanchez and Brother Meyer. Does a Gentile born-again Christian also become a Jew or spiritual Jew? And would they be called a Christian if you were simply a Christian? Secondly, are all unsaved Jews God's chosen people or only the elect of God, God's chosen? And lastly, I'd like to submit two verses. Many are called, God says, many are called, but few are chosen.

And a true Jew, the Bible says, is not one of circumcision of the flesh, but circumcision of the heart. Amen. Amen. Thank you, beloved. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Elias.

Thank you for giving us a call again. Two questions and I think two chapters in the book of Romans that I think provide answers to each of those questions. The first one is, how do you refer to a Christian as a Christian, a spiritual Jew, that kind of a thing under the old covenant in the Hebrew people where God's chosen people, how do we refer to Christians, Gentile born-again believers today? And you alluded to this passage in Romans chapter two. Paul says in verse 25 in the context here in the book of Romans is Paul is highlighting the universal sinfulness of mankind. He says, for circumcision indeed is of value, verse 25, if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes your uncircumcision. So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor a circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. And so right there, Paul is highlighting the importance of true spirituality, what it means to be a child of God, and that's something that we experience by faith in Jesus Christ. There are no quote-unquote chosen people, if you will, apart from Jesus.

And that really gets at your second question. And the answer to that question, I think, is something that Paul impacts a little bit later in the same book, the book of Romans, in Romans chapter 11. And one of the things he highlights there is that these Gentiles, you know, non-Jewish people have been grafted into the people of God, grafted into the vine, if you will, by faith in Jesus Christ, and other people were broken off of the vine. And there he's speaking of ethnic Jews in particular who did not believe. And in verse 17 of chapter 11, he says, But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.

If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. And so what Paul is doing there is he's highlighting the fact that, look, for those who don't believe, those who don't have faith, they're not a part of the covenant people of God. So I think it's unhelpful to refer to people, whether it's, you know, the ethnic Jews today, as God's chosen people, as God's elect, if you will, in the sense of they're the recipients of God's salvation. They're just going to be saved simply by virtue of the fact that they're Jewish, that they have Jewish blood running through their veins. No, what saves us is not our ethnicity. What saves us is the forgiveness of sins that comes through Jesus Christ and by means of faith.

And so those two texts, I think, really answer your questions, Romans chapter 2 and Romans chapter 11. Thanks for the call. Thanks so much, Elias. We appreciate you calling. Let us know if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. You can call us right now for the next 15 minutes or so. Our phone lines will be open at 833-THE-CORE, that's 1-833-843-2673. You can also leave us a voicemail at that same number.

Here's a voicemail we received earlier this week. Hello, Pastor Sanchez, I was told by a biblical counselor that our enemies are anyone who is in disagreement with us. It could be our husband, brothers, our parents, and we would need to reconcile with them. But at the moment of disagreement, they are our enemies. And yet the Bible clearly states in Ephesians 2, 2 and 3, that our enemies are Satan, the world and our flesh. Could you help me understand what this biblical counselor just might be trying to explain to me?

Thank you. Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what this particular biblical counselor was trying to say, if this individual was defining enemies as anyone who disagrees with you, I think that that would be an unhelpful way to define who are our enemies. I think just about everybody will disagree with you on one thing or another.

And so we have to be really careful here. When Jesus said we ought to love our enemies, I don't think he was primarily referring to those who simply disagree with us on certain things, although I think that could be a part of it. Jesus said in Matthew 5, verse 23, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Right there, there's people coming against you in particular for your faith in Jesus Christ persecute you. That's how Jesus is defining enemies there.

So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Now the other thing that you mentioned there with regard to this particular counselor is that he says, whoever disagrees with you is your enemy and you just need to reconcile with them. We talk about the distinction between forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration from time to time on this broadcast.

And I think it's really helpful to bring it up again because it's just really practical and I know a lot of believers benefit from parsing those out. As Christians, we are always called to forgive. There will be people that sin against you, that do things that they should not have done and Jesus, he calls us, Matthew chapter six, to forgive, to forgive those who have sinned against us regardless of what they do, whether or not they repent.

We're called to forgive because Jesus Christ has forgiven us, because we've sinned against a holy God and yet he showered us with his mercy and so we ought to extend forgiveness to others. Reconciliation is different than forgiveness. We're always called to forgive regardless of what an individual does, but reconciliation requires that that person who sinned against us recognizes what they did and repent of it. It requires two parties, whereas I would say forgiveness, you can just forgive another person, but if you're going to reconcile with them, they have to own their sin. They have to be willing to confess their sin and say, look, we need to reconcile here. In those situations, you could reconcile, it doesn't always work out and sadly in the church, we are called to pursue reconciliation, but it doesn't always work out and then restoration is even a step beyond that. It's restoring the relationship to what it was maybe initially and that could be a wonderful thing, a beautiful thing that the spirit of God brings about, but it's not always the right thing or even the wisest thing. We have to use wisdom as we think about these categories and that's what a good counselor can and might help you to do, but it sounds to me like there's a little bit of confusion there and so we're called to love our enemies, we're called to pray for our enemies, and Jesus makes that clear in Matthew chapter five, but we're not always called to reconcile with them because we can't if they don't repent, so thank you for your question.

Good explanation there. Thank you, Pastor Adriel. This is Core Christianity and if you have a question, you can email us that question anytime, here's the email address, it's questions at corechristianity.com. Zare wrote to us and said, where is the line between biblical lament, such as crying out to God and severe suffering, and unbiblical complaint like the Israelites in the wilderness? The line between someone to keep asking in prayer, statements made by Jesus, and accepting the unanswered like Paul's thorn in 2 Corinthians when there is only silence from God.

What do we do? Yeah. There's some really good distinctions here and categories for us to think about. Lament, there's this whole genre in the book of Psalms called the Psalms of Lament. It's a particular kind of psalm where the psalmist oftentimes is bringing a complaint to the Lord and sometimes we can read those Psalms of Lament and think, boy, is it okay to pray that way? Too often I think in the Christian life we sort of assume that it's supposed to be really bubbly and happy and a lot of times we go to church and that's the kind of music that you hear and the sort of attitude.

It's really like high energy, exciting, bubbly kind of a worship service. And yet when you look at the hymn book of the Israelites, if you will, the book of Psalms, the majority of the Psalms in the Psalter are Psalms of Lament. They're Psalms where the psalmist is saying, God, why is this stuff happening in my life that's happening in my life right now? God, where are you in the midst of my suffering?

God, I don't really feel you right now. And I think we really need to recover this in worship today because the fact of the matter is many of us when we show up to church on a Sunday morning, that's how we feel. After a tough week, we wonder, God, where are you?

What's going on right now? And so the Psalms of Lament give us words for those feelings that we often have inside of it. It shows that this is a real experience of the people of God and they're actually, I think, really an act of faith where an individual believer, where we come before God and we say, look, God, in the midst of everything, I have these why questions, but I still trust you. And I'm here asking and crying out to you.

I don't have an answer, but I'm going to look to you. And so they are, even though they're heavy and oftentimes kind of raw, they are this demonstration of faith. Now that's different from what you see in the Old Testament and places like Numbers chapter 14, where you have grumbling, a kind of complaint that God forbids and condemns. A Numbers chapter 14 beginning in verse one, listen to what it says there. This is the scene where the Israelites are grumbling after the spies were sent into Canaan.

All the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night and all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become prey.

Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? You see, here what you have is not an act of trusting in God, coming to him sincerely and saying, Lord, what's going on? Help. It's grumbling. It's rebellion. It's whispering against the Lord.

It's saying, you know, it would have been better never even to follow you because of how you're treating me. You see how there's this sort of attitude of testing God there, whispering against the Lord. If you're a parent, you have children, and maybe there are times where you tell your children to do something they don't want to do. And this has never happened to us, but you tell them to do something they don't want to do and they whisper, they mutter something under their breath. And you know it's not the right thing to say or a nice thing to say. You know that they're grumbling against you.

It's disrespectful. That's sort of what you have here in Numbers chapter 14. Now, that's very different from if you're a parent and your children come to you and something is really difficult for them and they say, Mom, Dad, what's going on? Help. I don't understand. I don't understand why.

Those are the ways in which I would distinguish this. Lamenting before God is a good thing, and it's an act of faith. Grumbling against God is a bad thing. It's rebellion. It's not trusting in the Lord and saying, you know what, God, I'm not even going to follow you.

I don't even want to follow you because of what you've done. So we have to be really careful with how we're approaching the Lord in prayer. And there is a line there between those two. We can cry out to the Lord honestly and lament, but we mustn't ever grumble and complain in that rebellious way. Thank you for that email. You know, Adriel, your kids are young, so they might whisper when they don't agree.

When they get to be teenagers, their grumbling is out loud. Just trust me on that. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. But well, I'm going to look to you when those, when those days come and I'm going to say, please don't give me retirement home. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And we'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. If you're new to this program, or if you're one of our regular listeners, we want to let you know that we are a listener supported radio show.

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That's 833, the core. Let's go to Cherie in Hartley, Iowa. Cherie, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello? Hi, Cherie. How are you? Hi, I'm doing great. How are you? Hi, I'm doing good. Good. Thanks for giving us a call.

What's your question? My question is about, like, what your opinion is about if Christians can have, like, demonic spirits. I mean, I don't believe that, like, a true born-again Christian could be, like, completely possessed by a demonic spirit, but do you believe that, like, they could still, maybe like in their flesh, have spirits that need to be dealt with? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, thank you for that question. I don't believe that Christians can be demon-possessed. I do think that we are in the midst of a battle, and we can experience spiritual attack, demonic oppression, but the question is, you know, can a evil spirit reside in the same place where the Holy Spirit lives? And scripture is absolutely clear. When we believe in Jesus Christ, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit, and God is jealous about his temple. He doesn't let other evil spirits reside there with him, and so when someone is cleansed of their sins, when their sins are washed away, when they're forgiven, filled with the Holy Spirit, there is no place for the evil one.

A text of scripture that I oftentimes go to and others will go to as well is in 1 John chapter 5. In verse 18, John said this, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

So there's this distinction there. We're kept by Jesus as the people of God, and the evil one can't touch us. He can't snatch us out of the Father's hand. Now, again, that doesn't mean that we don't experience spiritual attack, demonic oppression at times, and sometimes we don't even invite that stuff into our lives through the things that we do, through the sins that we participate in. But if you belong to Jesus, he doesn't let go of you, and he doesn't leave you or forsake you. This is what scripture makes absolutely clear, and so I think having that distinction is important.

You can be oppressed, but I don't think that you can be possessed because the Spirit of God lives in you. Thank you for your question. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Sly in Edmond, Oklahoma. Sligh, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello. Hi, Sly.

I enjoy the interaction between you two guys. Thanks, Sly. What's your question, brother? I have a question from Luke chapter 22, verses 36 to 38. Before the cross, Jesus said to his disciples, if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. The disciples said, see, Lord, here are two swords. Jesus replied, that is enough.

Yes. And yet, Peter pulled his sword and Jesus said, put it away, and I understand that. How do we make these two scriptures jive in our world today?

How does this apply? Yeah. Yeah, this is a great question, and is it a contradiction?

That's the big question. Luke 22, you have Jesus telling the disciples, hey, get a sword, and then in places like Matthew 26, verse 52, when Peter strikes the servant of the high priest, Jesus says to him, put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Then when you read the book of Acts, it's absolutely clear that the disciples aren't taking their swords around, trying to get people to convert to believe in Jesus.

In fact, even when they're persecuted, even when they're beaten, they're not taking up arms. So it seems to me as though what Jesus was referring to, it really was, I think, symbolic in Luke 22, where he's talking about the importance of being ready for battle, if you will, being prepared for the fight. The fight that we're in as followers of Jesus Christ, and for the disciples there, the initial disciples as they're going out to preach the gospel, is a spiritual battle. The weapons of our warfare are not flesh and blood kind of weapons. It's not carnal weapons.

They're spiritual weapons. It's through prayer. It's through the preaching of the holy gospel. This is how the kingdom of God is advancing in the world today. I think, again, that that's confirmed by the ministry of the early church in particular. As the apostles are going out, planting churches, preaching the gospel, that kind of a thing, you just don't see them taking up arms. They were persecuted very often, many of them losing their lives, and yet they weren't fighting back.

They would yield to their persecutors. So I think in Luke 22 that the language there, primarily what he's getting at is, look, what you're being sent into, this isn't going to be a real fight. This isn't going to be a real battle. You need to be prepared.

You need to be ready. But it's clear to me, based on the fact that he tells Peter to sheath his sword, that he's not saying, my disciples are going to be people who go around chopping heads off and that kind of a thing. No, the fight that we're in is a spiritual fight.

And we're wrestling not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. And so the way the gospel advances is not by the sword, but through the gospel preached. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.