God said to me one time Joyce.
If you’re gonna complain about something, then don’t bother praying about it.
So God does not answer complaints.
There may be a complaint department at every department store, but there’s no complaint department open in heaven where you can go and complain about a problem and they’ll right away, take care of it.
The way we get our problems taken care of is by praying about things and believe in God, not by complaining about things.
Matter of fact, I tend to think that if we pray about something and then turn around and complain about it, we probably just undone any good that we might have done.
And, and really, we’re probably gonna have some good laughs today.
I’ve got some funny stories to tell you.
But I want to point out in the beginning, I think this is a much more serious message than what we might think.
And I really believe it’s an insult to God when we complain.
And I actually think it’s dangerous.
I think we open the door for the enemy when we complain.
And so I would just like to suggest that you take it a little more seriously, try to do a lot less of it.
And when you catch yourself complaining, treated as sin and repent, how many of you are really good to your kids?
Okay, I am.
And how many of you don’t like it when they complain because you are so good to them.
You just like, really, I mean, really you’re gonna complain about that.
Well, you know, just imagine how God feels then with everything that he’s done for us and all the sacrifices that he made in giving us his only son and the phenomenal provision that we have.
And you know, I don’t have to try to complain, but I do have to try not to complaining is something that we do just kind of as an automatic response to any kind of inconvenience, our discomfort that we have in life.
And I believe that I can prove to you scripturally that complaining is a sin and that it opens the door for the enemy.
And so I do have a pretty healthy reverential fear of complaining.
That doesn’t mean that I never do it.
But I love to preach a message like this because I need to hear it over and over.
Paul said that I never get, never gets irksome to me to teach you the same things over and over.
And I tell you, I don’t think there’s anything in the Bible that we can only hear it once and we never really need to hear it again.
I think that, that there’s every word doesn’t need to be a new word.
It just needs to be a now word. And so this is not something you’ve never heard before.
It’s probably something you’ll hear again, but it’s something that if you’re anything like me, every time you hear it, you need it.
Amen. So here we go.
Philippians 4 6 do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, not with complaining with Thanksgiving.
Let your request be made known unto God. First Thessalonians 5 16 through 19.
Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God.
For those of you who are in Christ, Jesus do not quench the spirit.
Now, the word quench means to stop from working.
So if we’re gonna just kind of cut to the chase and make this real plain, if I’m understanding what I’m reading here, it says if I have a situation going on in my life, I need God to help me.
And I’m maybe I’m praying, maybe I’m not praying, but let’s just say I’m praying, but I’m also complaining about it.
Then my complaining stops the Holy Spirit from being able to work in my life.
And in my situation, The Israelites spent 40 years making what could have been an 11 day trip.
That’s still just amazes me.
And I wonder how many years we wander around the wilderness of life trying to find that promised land that we’ve set out far and we just don’t understand what it is that’s holding us back.
And sometimes it’s not the complicated things that we think it is. It’s more simple things.
And I did a teaching one time called wilderness mentalities.
I think it’s about time for me to do it again.
But I actually studied What kept the Israelites out there that long when they could have made it in an 11 day trip.
And it was simple things like impatience, blaming God for their problems, blaming moses for their problems and lots of complaining.
I mean, they have miracle food being rained down out of the sky and they said we hate this light contemptible manner.
They didn’t like it anymore. And so it kept him out there.
I don’t remember where I found this, but, um, I found a definition for complain one time and part of that definition said that to complain means to remain.
So when I complain about something, I’m pretty much guaranteeing that I’m gonna remain in it until I learn how to be thankful.
You know, we have to be careful that we don’t get how many, you know, it’s really easy to start looking at what you don’t have.
It’s so easy to start looking at what you don’t have.
And the problem with that is, is the more you look at what you don’t have, the more you miss what you do have.
And I said, we’ve all got so much and we’ve got so many opportunities.
Matter of fact, I’ll just say it, we’ve all including me, got too much.
We have so much stuff that it frustrates us and we just keep bringing in more and I think God wants us to enjoy things.
But I think sometimes you can actually add stress to your life by having so much stuff that it frustrates you.
And I keep what I’ve learned to call a giving box and it’s a pretty good sized box and I fill that thing up probably at least every three or four weeks with just stuff, you know, stuff that there’s really nothing wrong with, but I’m not using it or I haven’t used it in a long time.
So at least we can prune our stuff and give away things that we’re not using because there’s somebody out there that would use it that at least helps you keep your sanity if you live just a little bit more simple.
But let’s be thankful. And I mean, thankful on purpose. I thank God for hot water.
I love to take a hot shower or a hot bath. And I thank God for hot water.
I thank God for clean water that I don’t have to walk miles and miles to get my water.
I thank God a lot of days I’ll start out.
Thank you God that I can walk and talk and see and hear how many people can’t just roll out of bed in the morning and take off.
Just imagine people that are, are paraplegic. So they’re in wheelchairs.
How long it takes them just to even do something like go to the bathroom and then we find so many things to complain about.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing Philippians 2 14 through 15, we’ve got to get this, do all things without grumbling.
The amplified Bible says, without grumbling fault, finding and complaining against God and questioning and doubting among yourselves all things.
How many things are we supposed to do without complaining?
How many, when are we supposed to give thanks?
And this is why he says to live without complaining that you may be blameless and innocent Children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.
So God says, one of the ways that you can get out in the world and be a bright light for me is just to do the opposite of what the world does and be thankful.
Instead of complaining, don’t sit at the lunch table and complain with everybody else that you work with about the working conditions and the boss and this and that.
And there’s something else don’t blend in, stand out and maybe you could say something like, well, I know everything’s not perfect here, but I’m thankful that I’ve got a job.
There’s a lot of people that don’t have jobs or, or maybe when you want to complain about the husband, you’ve got, you could remember that there’s some lonely woman somewhere that would probably love to take him off your hands.
Amen.
Just think some people don’t ever even have anybody to sit down and eat a meal with.
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