Christian Podcast: What You Should Do Instead of Complaining to God

Welcome to episode 254.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 254. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I'm continuing with the teaching, Does God Mind If We Complain? In the previous episode, I talked about how Moses and Aaron fell on their face before God after the people complained, and this was in Numbers 14:2 through— I don't even know, I'm going to read it again because I have superior reading skills. 2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? 4 So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt. 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their face before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And it's gonna talk about Joshua and Caleb that have tried to quiet the people down. And once these people have made up their mind, this is mob mentality and they are on it. And so in 14:11, then the Lord said to Moses, how long will these people reject me? And how long will they not believe me with all the signs that I performed among them? And I'm gonna stop there because the guy's asking a pretty good question right there. And he's saying, I've been doing all of these miracles. I've took them from poverty, I took them from slavery to wealth. I brought them from slaves to a nation. And I am their God, and I go with them during the day, and I stay with them during the night. It was incredible what God did for the children of Israel, and they still complained anyway. And I want you to see that these 12 spies that they sent out in Numbers— I think it's 13, 14— but Moses sent them out, and they were leaders among the people of Israel. These were from each tribe. There's 12 tribes, and they sent out a leader. So the best of the best went out among the people and came back, and 10 of the 12 come back with a bad report. And then it just gets worse because then they stirred up the whole congregation to yell and scream and complain about how God led them out here to the wilderness to just die. And then they said it would be better if they'd have died in Egypt or if they'd have died in the wilderness, but to die by the sword and have the wife and kids come and die— and I mean, you You can read it on your own, but that to me is just incredible and it's so telling. And Moses then goes on and God, if you continue in the whole chapter 14, it talks about where Moses and God were communicating and God's saying, look, I just wanna take 'em all out. I'm just gonna take 'em all out. And then Moses starts telling God, now, you know, Egypt, the people are gonna find out that, you didn't, that you couldn't handle this. It's not going to look good. And so Moses is trying to save these people, and, and finally Moses reminds God how long-suffering, how patient. And that's one of the fruits of the Spirit. And when I'm teaching about this, I've got to remind you that God— when we read the Bible and we see the characteristics of God, we have got to remember that God is love. And if we don't remember that, we'll, we'll get short-sighted and we'll start being like the people here. We'll start going, well, that, that wasn't very good. But, but we're going to go in next— in the next episode, I'm going to talk about Job and some of the lessons that I find fascinating about Job. And Job had every opportunity to complain. I mean, it's incredible what happened to Job. I don't want to take that lesson into this lesson But I just want you to think about in your life when you've got things that don't go quite right, and I just want to remind you that God said to be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And I know I've got that memorized-ish, I kind of got that in my mind, and I'll put up— of course I'm going to put it up on the screen, but I want you to just think about if you're in a thankful state, it just changes your whole disposition. And I just want to encourage you that when Moses saw this, Moses and Aaron, they fell down. That's called— that you can see that's humbleness or humility and kind of common sense too, if you think about it, where it's like, oh no, these people don't have any idea what they're doing. And I've said this, and I know it's probably not really that kind, but you can't fix stupid. And when you see these people— God performed 10 miracles or 10 signs before he— they left Egypt. And they left— remember, we talked about it last episode— that they left with gold and silver, and they found favor. And God said, look, before you leave— he said that at the beginning of all this when he talked to Moses— that I'm gonna— they'll find favor in the Egyptians. I mean, he's— God sees the end from the beginning, so he knew what was going to happen. And he said, look, I'm— they're going to find favor and they're going to get gold and silver when they leave. And so that is just incredible. And these people went from slaves, went from having to do everything that the Egyptians told them to do, getting beat, living horrible lives not having any control whatsoever. But it just goes to show you that if you start getting into a habit, even if it's a bad habit, it's hard to get out of that. And it's hard once it gets ingrained. And that's a whole nother rabbit that I'm not gonna chase on this episode. But once something gets ingrained in you, it becomes hard to pull it out. And I would call that, and the Bible I think calls that, a stronghold. And that's where you need the word of God. And again, this is your soapbox moment. I don't know what number it is this year, but it is, you have got to get in the word of God and allow the word of God to get into you. And when you do that, you will start growing in the word and you will start growing in grace and truth like Jesus did. And we're gonna talk in the next episodes about how God doesn't do anything like just like that. He just does not do things not all the time, sometimes it's immediate, but most of the times when he's trying to teach a lesson, it's going to be the kingdom of God. And it is why Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of the needle than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And look, I'm going to tell you one more time, I didn't write one word of the Bible, and I was not there when Jesus said that. But he is not talking about some gate in Israel where the camels had to kneel down. I've heard people talk about, well, the camels knelt down and they had to go in with the doors or whatever. No, he's saying that it's impossible for a rich person to enter into God's way of doing things on his own. And then he says, but with God, you know, 'cause then the disciples said, Well, Jesus, how would anybody do this? And he said, "With man it's impossible, with God it's not impossible." And again, I'm paraphrasing 'cause I'm just going by the story and I don't wanna look down and start reading my Bible, but I just want you to understand that God is not happy when we complain. God loves it when we're thankful. And I wanna encourage you, you remember, you gotta pick a side. If you go to John 10:10, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. You've got to pick a side. Are you gonna be abundant life, or are you gonna be on the side of the, the guy that steals and kills and destroys? Are you gonna pick God, or are you gonna pick money? There's all kinds of decisions. Are you gonna be sin and death, or are you gonna be slave to righteousness? We have to decide. There are multiple decisions that we have to make every day. And this is just one of them. Moses and Aaron fell on their face, and I want to pick up the story, and it's in 17 where, where Moses said, and now I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as you have spoken, saying, the Lord is long-suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgressions, but he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation. Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. Then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word. But truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all these men who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have put me to the test now these 10 times and have not heeded my voice, they certainly shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who reject me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. This is where they have to start wandering for 40 years until all of the people that were 20 years and older that was complaining on this day and said, oh God, is, you know, he's going to have us destroyed. They all fell in except Caleb and Joshua. They're the only two that made it into the Promised Land that spied out this land and were over 20 years. And that is incredible. And that's what I want to get on this point here, this episode. I want you to see how powerful gratitude and trusting the word of God is and how devastating complaining and not trusting the word of God is. And I think that we have just come into this world now and everybody is just— it just seems like they're so fearful and anxious and nervous. And we got all this war going on in Ukraine with Russia, and it's just— it's not helping. It's just not helping the fear factor. Only thing that you can do, based on how my life is going, you that it's the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. And I just wanna encourage you to just get into this word and be grateful for what you have. Tell God how wonderful he is and be sincere and humble yourself. And I just wanna encourage you, complaining, I do it. I'm not here to tell you that I don't ever complain. When I get behind a car and I'm getting better, I promise you, I'm getting better. I'm driving and I'm reminding myself, you know, love is patient, love is kind. And I've memorized that, and I thank God that he made me memorize 1 Corinthians 13, I think it's 4 through 7, what love is. And I'm not gonna say all of it right now. I say that over and over when I start feeling myself gripping that steering wheel. And I know I've got a problem, but I'm working through it. And I'm not here to tell you, oh, I've got all this figured out. I'm just like you. I'm— but I am getting in this word and I'm allowing this word to get inside of me, and then I'm making adjustments in my life. And it's not about perfection. We've talked about this multiple times. It's about correction. And if we just correct course, if we just— repent is changing your mind. If we'll just change our mind on how we react and just say, look, I'm just not going to come— if I find myself complaining, I'm going to remind myself of Numbers 14, and I'm going to go back and I'm going to read that, and I'm going to go, um, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to complain. I'm going to fall on my face before God and ask him to forgive me and say, look, help me to be more like you. Well, that's enough for this episode. Let's pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for the Old Testament, Lord, that shows us how people reacted, how you acted, and how we can learn from these, sometimes these failures and sometimes these successes. But God, I thank you so much for allowing me to be here on earth at this time. And I thank you, Holy Spirit, that you'd never leave me nor forsake me. And I pray right now in Jesus' name for this listener, that you would just encourage them to be thankful and grateful. And if they find themselves complaining, Lord, help them. Lord, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thanks for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

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