When things don't go as planned is it ok to complain, and a question about the Sabbath

Welcome to episode 253, 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 253. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I am trying something totally different today, and if you've known me, you've known for a long time that I'm willing to jump in the middle of something. Ready, fire, aim. That's the way I do things around here, and I am gonna start doing my podcast via video. So I'm gonna videotape this thing, I'm gonna audiotape this thing, and we're going to get busy doing both video and audio at the same time. And I'm doing this thanks to a couple of people. I want to thank first my son Seth. Said, you know, Dad, all the biggest podcasts are video and audio. You know, they're on YouTube or they're doing something. And it— my lightning-fast mind, it takes me a minute to get something. So it's taken me a little over a year to figure this thing out, but I am gonna start doing my podcast on video and audio. And if you're listening to this on iTunes, or if you're listening to this on your phone or while you're working out, you don't have to go to YouTube to see it. All you got to do is pull up the same thing. I'm gonna rip the audio out of this video and I'm gonna post it just like I do every other time. But this just gives me a couple of different angles to go at this thing. And I've been talking about from the beginning of the year, I've been talking about how I'm gonna be fearless, and that's my word for the year. And being fearless means I'm gonna have to do something different besides just talking into a microphone into a room with my favorite shirts behind me. I am gonna do more and more for the kingdom of God. I am doing all of this to promote God. I am doing this to promote God's word, and I'm doing this, I hope, to help you get closer and deeper into his word. God says that he is no respecter of persons. He does not size you or me up whether we're good or whether we're bad. The only thing that matters is He's going to say, what have you done? I believe this is the only question you're going to get when you stand before Father God is, what did you do with my son? And if we can say, hey, I accepted him as Lord and Savior, then he's going to say, he's going to say, stand over here to my right side. And if you're going to— if you tell him, look, I didn't have much time for Jesus or God or any of that Bible stuff while I was down there, but I, I'm thinking I'm— I want to be on your team now. I think Father God's going to say, hey, stand over here on my left side. And I know on the video I'm trying to get used to this, but my right is left and my left is right. But if you're working out or if you're doing this on the podcast, you're going to be just fine. You'll be able to picture that. And I'm kind of more of an audio guy. I think I want to hold something in my hand. I've said before that I'm kinesthetic. Somebody made the mistake of telling me one time that I was kinesthetic. And I've got to have— if I get a book, I've got to have a book. I can't have an iPhone copy or a— what do you even call that? An ebook, I guess. An ebook or an audiobook. I don't even know. I've got to have something in my hand. And so that's a— I don't know if that's a character flaw or that's just the way God made me. But the question I want to ask today on this podcast is, does God— is God okay with complaining? And I'm asking that in a sense, I'm asking, I'm really, I'm asking for a friend here. I have got an idea that God don't much care for it. And as I'm reading through the Bible in a year, I am into Numbers right now, and I just, I've read Numbers before. I'm not real fired up about Numbers and Deuteronomy. And I think Exodus is, is okay to some degree, but when he starts writing, when Moses starts writing down the law, all of these different things and all these rules and regulations, and from a guy that's ready, fire, aim, that wants to just jump in the water and see which way the tide's going to take me or which way the current's going to pull me, I'm not real good when you start getting me organized. And if you saw my desk Or if you see my office, you would know that this guy isn't hung up on keeping everything in alphabetical order and everything all neat and stacked and all of that good stuff. That is a character flaw, but that's just the way God made me. I can't help it. I try to get organized. I do like having systems, but I don't follow them real well. So when I'm reading Numbers and I'm looking at all the stuff that God's writing down, you know, the Ten Commandments, they're not ten suggestions. They're actually commandments. They're saying, do not do these things. And one of those commandments is the Sabbath. And I just find that fascinating. And I'm going to chase this rabbit. I'm sorry, I, I've got to run after this rabbit for a minute. But the Sabbath, I think most Christians think it's okay to break that one. And I was reading in Numbers, and I'm going to go to that real quick, but it's in Numbers where they get the first guy that was working on the Sabbath. We're going to read about this guy picking up sticks on the Sabbath, and they don't know what to do with it. They took him and said, Moses, we found this guy picking up sticks on the Sabbath. What are we supposed to do with it? And Moses said, I don't know. And I'm paraphrasing, I'm going to read the scripture, but he said, I don't know, let me go find out what God wants to do with him. And I think you're going to be surprised at what God says to do with him. So let's go, no further ado, let's go to the word of God. And if you're reading along with me, you will find this in Numbers 15, and it starts in 32. Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him under guard because it had not been explained what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, the man must surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. So as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died. Now I know I talked about complaining when I started this podcast, and but this was a rabbit I had to chase because there's Ten Commandments and I started talking about being organized and. And so I had to finish this thought out. But are we gonna break the Sabbath? Do we just think it's not a big deal? God obviously thinks it was a pretty big deal. And if you've ever raised children— I guess you're supposed to rear children, I don't know, I think you raise cattle— but anyway, if you've ever reared children, you will know that there's things that you've got to do to show them you mean it. And one of the things is, if you tell them you're going to do something, you need to actually do it. The punishment— I've always heard that the punishment needs to fit the crime, and I guess that's what they're talking about here. When you see the guy picking up sticks and God says, 'Stone him, put him to death,' and that seems a little bit harsh, but God is making a point. God knows that if you give an inch, they're going to take a mile. And I know that God is just saying, look, I said rest on the Sabbath, no work. That looks like work, put him to death. And I know when you start looking at the Bible, and I've told you multiple times, we need to see God when we read this Bible, we need to see God as a loving and kind and gentle and a joyful, faithful, patient God. And when I read this scripture, this is where, you know, when, when I start asking God questions and it's like, um, that's a tough one. But the Ten Commandments— God, you've got to see God as loving and kind, and you've got to see that he puts these rules in, in place not because he wants to punish us, but he puts these rules in place to protect us. And if you've ever had a child and you've ever lived by a busy road, I've used this analogy before, you don't just let your kid just take off and run. You set a standard, you set guidelines and fences so that the child does not run out in the busy street because the cars are not going to be able to stop every time for this child. And so as the parent You know better. Hey, you can't just run anywhere you want. You've got to stay inside the yard. And so that is what God is saying right here. I— and when I ever get to a place, and probably in the next episode I'm going to talk about Job because I find that as a fascinating book. And I don't know if you've read Job lately, but there are so many takeaways from the book of Job. I don't know that I love Job. I don't know that it's one of my favorite books. But there is an awful lot in that book, and we'll probably get to that on the next episode. But I want to get back to this. God said, stone him with stones, and they did it, and they obeyed him. So I just want you to understand that God is a God of laws, and he's a God of standard, but he loves you and he cares for you, and you just have to, by faith, know that God set these laws to protect his kids. And we'll know when we get— and we'll talk about this more in Job, and I'll finish chasing this rabbit on the next episode— but when we get to Job, we will see God's not going to answer why. And I want to get back to the complaining part, because again, I was in Numbers. And so as I'm praying about what to put on my next episode and all the podcasts and stuff like that, I'm looking and I'm reading and I'm praying and I'm thinking, wow, these guys complained an awful lot. And you start reading these, the children of Israel, they did an awful lot of complaining. And it is amazing to me. They were in Egypt and they were slaves and they were just getting beat to death and worked to death. And God delivers them, and then he has Pharaoh chase them, and then they get to the Red Sea and he parts the Red Sea for them, and they cross on dry land, and then they get and they sing praises to God because they covers— the sea covers Pharaoh and his armies and his chariots. And all of this, they see this with their own eyes. Not only did God deliver them, He also gave them gold and silver and jewelry and wealth when they left Egypt. And that's amazing. They went from a slave nation to a wealthy nation in one day. And it's incredible. It's an incredible story. But then we pick it up, the people just complain all the time. If you read the book, they're complaining We should have just— we need to go back to Egypt. And I want to show you, when they start complaining, I want to show you what Moses and Aaron do. They fall on their face. And let's go real quick, and I'm just going to read one. There's a bunch of examples in here, and I'm going to go to Numbers 14. It's one of my favorite parts about Numbers, is where Joshua and Caleb gave the good report and the other 10 spies gave the bad report. Let's go to Numbers 14. Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, let us select a leader and return to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And then this is where Joshua— but I just want to show you, it is incredible that these people had seen miracle and blessing and deliverance and all of this stuff, and they just kept going back. I wish we were back in Egypt. I wish we were slaves again. And I just want you to understand, I'm going to have to cut it off here. I just looked up at the clock, it's getting a little long, and you know how I kind of like to just be on one topic. For about 10 or 12 minutes. But I just want you to think about what it is in your life, and if, if you are complaining— and I, I'm probably going to take this next teaching, this teaching, and on the next episode I'm going to conclude it. But what— while you're thinking about this and while you're mulling this over, if you're complaining a lot— and I'm— the reason I teach is because when I start reading the Bible, I start seeing some of myself in these people. I kind of got one of those, "Mm, that's tough," because there's times in my life, and recently, to where I've complained. And I wasn't complaining at God, but I was complaining because of things that I was doing. I just want you to think about this while we go to the next episode. If I complain, is that making God feel good, or is that making God feel not so good. And so I want to stop right there. God, I want to thank you so much for your word. I want to thank you for this listener. I want to thank you for their life. I want to thank you for Jesus, for coming to this earth and dying for me and dying for this listener. And I want to thank you, Holy Spirit, for never leaving us nor forsaking us. God, I thank you. We love you. We ask it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.