Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. And ushers who take care of
that every week. But you might have got in the
door and got past them in some way. And we want
to make sure that somebody says hello to you
this morning and recognizes that you're here.
Because we're glad that you've came. We do not
take for granted that you come to worship here
at LifeHouse. There's a lot of places you could
go. We know that. And we just appreciate everybody
that comes together as a family, as a body of
Christ in the big church seat. And come together
and really just worship God. So good to have
you here. Love the worship, love the kids this
morning, just all that's taking place. I do want
to read you something that I came across, a little
article, and I kind of keep these things or read
up on some of this stuff sometimes, but the magazine
Inc. ran an article titled, Listening to Complainers
is Bad for Your Brain. All right, let me say
that article title again. Listening to Complainers
is Bad for Your Brain. Anybody say amen to that
yet? Yes, okay. Apparently, neuroscientists have
learned to measure brain activity when faced
with various stimuli, including a long complaint
session. And the news isn't good. The article
summarizes the research, being exposed to too
much complaining can actually make us dumb. That's
what the article says. It's true, right? Research
shows that if you are exposed to 30 minutes or
more of negativity, including viewing TV, material
on TV, actually peels away neurons in the brain's
hippocampus. Basically, it turns part of your
brain into mush, is what it says, right? Too
much complaining, either listening or dishing
it out yourself, can actually begin to break
down this part of the brain's function. Now,
listen, I am no medical expert, but it is no
revelation to any of us that none of us like
to be around somebody who complains incessantly.
Amen? Come on. And now we really know why we
don't like it, because it's peeling away the
neurons in your brain, apparently. We hide from
people like this, right? If somebody's a constant
chronic complainer, we hide from them. You know
how it is. If you see them in the grocery store,
what do you do? Move very quickly to the next
aisle, hoping they didn't see you, right? And
if they did see you from the other end of the
grocery store, you wave, turn around and move
the other direction and head away. We do this,
right? Don't do that to me in the store because
I'll know what's going on now if that happens.
But really, we don't like listening to complainers.
Here's the thing. We hate it when other people
complain. Most of us, though, if we're honest
and we're looking to be honest, especially since
we're in church this morning, all of us, complain
sometimes. True. Thank you. I got one truth.
All right. Let's be honest inside the house and
outside the house. If you're listening online,
I want you to just go ahead and type it in the
chat. How many of you complained at some point
this week? Raise your hand. All right. 70, 80
% of you are honest. The rest of you are lying.
Okay. It's just truth, speaking truth. How many
of you, no, never mind. I was gonna say, how
many of you complained this morning on your way
to church? I won't make you raise your hands.
But it's true. While we don't like it, it grates
us when somebody expresses dissatisfaction and
their frustration and their annoyance or their
grievance about a person, place, or a thing,
a circumstance of some kind. While that drives
us crazy, how many know that a lot of times we
complain ourselves? And we catch ourselves complaining
and sometimes even justifying our complaint.
And we complain, we protest. Anybody ever protest
in the middle of your complaint? We grumble,
we whine. And I came across another synonym while
I was looking at this, bleating. All right, how
many of you have ever bleated? All right. That's
what goats and sheep do. You ever hear goat or
sheep bleat? All right. I know it's one of the
synonyms. I live about a quarter of a mile from
a goat farm and we hear them sometimes. I swear
they're in my backyard and they're out there
bleeding. And I guess that's what it sounds like
when we complain, when we gripe, when we grumble,
when we just kind of start killing off those
neurons in our hippocampus. Right. But. You know,
all this is interesting stuff to read. It's interesting
stuff to take a look at. But the bigger problem
is when you look into Scripture, God is not cool
with complaining. He really isn't. As a matter
of fact, the Word of God says that it displeases
Him. And it's not just a mild displeasure that
God gets from this. So if you've got your Bibles,
I want you to go ahead and turn to Philippians.
Philippians, I want you to flip to Philippians
2 .12. I've waited all week to say that. All
right? Truly. But I want you to flip over to
Philippians 2, verse 12. And as you turn, I'm
going to pray. Lord, thank you for this time
together. Thank you for the opportunity to come
into the house. I thank you for your word, God,
that is truth and is life. And God, it truly,
God discerns our hearts. God opens us up. And
Lord, I just pray this morning that we're bare
and honest before you. And God, that, Lord, your
word begins to shift and change our hearts in
so many ways. And we just give you glory and
honor in Jesus' name. Everybody say it together.
Amen. All right. Philippians 2, verse 12. If
you don't have your Bibles, you can look up on
the screens. But it says this, Therefore, my
beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not
as in my presence, but much more in my absence.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who works in you both to will and
to work for his good pleasure. Do all things.
Say all things. without grumbling. All right,
grumbling is complaining. You could replace the
word with complaining there. Do all things without
grumbling or disputing 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,
holding fast to the word of life so that in the
day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not
run in vain or labor in vain. The Apostle Paul,
writing to the Philippians, makes it clear in
this portion of Scripture that I never really
function as light in the darkness while I am
complaining. I never function as light in a dark
world while I'm complaining. It just doesn't
happen. There are few things that negate or discredit
my testimony more than when I'm complaining to
somebody else. The mind -numbing activity, right,
of grumbling or whining or griping or complaining
will snuff out the light of Christ every single
time in our lives. It'll snuff out his light
as we're trying to disseminate it and complaining
at the same time. Complaining never really seems
to carry the love of Jesus with it, does it?
You know, when we hear somebody complaining,
we're not thinking, oh man, there it is, the
love of Jesus, when somebody's complaining, right?
No one, we never see a deep reflection of Christ
or of God. God when somebody's complaining. It
never lights up a room when you come in and you
start to complain. It doesn't light up a room.
It doesn't light up a house. It doesn't light
up a community. It doesn't light up anything.
Complaining actually is typically selfish and
annoying. And I'm going to be completely honest
right here. I got convicted so many times when
I started prepping this message. It took me three
times as long because I had to just stop and
confess and repent the whole time I was doing
it. So trust me, I'm not pointing a finger at
you. But the second I begin to complain, I blemish
my testimony of Christ. I null and void it a
lot of times in my generation. And the second
I begin to complain, I begin to pull in a dark
cloud versus the light of God in somebody's life.
And you might think, well, that's extreme. You
know, maybe you're overstating it just a bit.
You know, listen to what the apostle Paul instructs
here. He says, do all things. Say all things
again. Do all things without grumbling or disputing.
Now, listen, you don't need to get to the Greek
or the Hebrew in this. How many know what all
means? All, yeah, right? It's everything. You
don't have to pull out the Greek or you don't
got to take this back to the original language.
In all things, the word of God instructs us that
no matter what we're engaged in, don't do it.
Don't complain. Whether you're working at your
job, right? Don't complain. When you think your
family has lost their ever -loving mind, don't
complain. All right? How many of you ever have
family that loses their ever -loving mind? Amen.
Come on. Right? You're about to start school,
some of you students, in a week or two. Don't
complain that summer's almost over. When you're
doing something that you like and when you're
doing something that you don't like, don't do
it. Don't complain. Why? Because we live in the
midst of a crooked... and twisted generation.
That's what the Word of God says. Be light. Because
the Word of God says, be blameless and innocent
children without blemishing your generation.
Because the same scripture says, to shine as
lights in the world, not to snuff out, right,
our testimony with bleeding, with complaining.
Because we cannot light it up for Jesus and be
complaining at the same time. We can't do it.
So this morning, I want you to see complaining.
for kind of the horrible, destructive thing that
it really is in our lives, truly. Don't minimize
it. Don't kind of blow it off. Don't think, man,
pastor's just exaggerating today, right? He just
wants to fire it all up. I know you're tempted
to think like me, right? It's not that big a
deal to complain. Everyone does it. How many
know as soon as you say that, you're into something
you shouldn't be doing, right? Everybody's doing
it. Everybody complains. But here's the thing
about complaining. And as we go into this, I
want to show you how much God hates complaining.
Hates it. Now, I don't use that word lightly.
When my kids were growing up, we didn't allow
our kids to say they hated each other. Matter
of fact, if they said something like that, they
got in trouble, and we probably wouldn't make
them do something weird like hug it out, right?
You got to tell each other you love each other.
You know how they do. I love you, you know. And
you'd make them do that for like five, just to
torture them a little until they get the point.
But we didn't allow that word. We didn't throw
that word around. You weren't allowed to say,
I hate this or I hate that. You could say, I
really don't like that very much, you know. our
kids grew, they learned not to use that word.
But God really does hate complaining. And Paul
begins to levy the seriousness of this as you
look at the scripture in Philippians, right?
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed,
so now, not only in my presence, but much more
in my absence, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. That's what he says. Work
out your salvation with fear and trembling. Live
out your salvation with fear and trembling. Fearing
who? We fear God. Healthy fear of God is what
he's talking about in this same scripture. I
have a healthy fear of fire. I really do. I understand
the destructive nature of fire can be, but I
love fire. All right? I am the first one at a
campsite to get a stick and light the fire and
see what else I can light. It's just going to
be like, I'm like a kid with fire. All the men
in the house said amen. I don't know what it
is. You're born with it. It's genetic, right?
We like to blow things up. We like to light things
up, right? And the bigger the fire, the better
we like it. It's just true. We were burning brush.
And my grandson's man, I piled up a bunch of
brush. We had flames 15, 20 feet in the air.
I thought they were going to do a happy dance.
Like, they just thought it was the greatest thing
in the world. But we've got to have the fear.
I have a healthy fear of fire. It's the same
kind of fear of God. I've got to understand that
God loves me more than anybody on the face of
the planet. I will never experience more love
from somebody than the love of God. But I also
understand that he is judge, right? I understand
that he will judge all hearts, the word of God.
And it should scare me, almost scare me. Maybe,
yes, it'd scare me. to complain. And I'm going
to show you why. Because God seriously hates
complaining, especially when I complain about
him, when I complain about godly leadership that's
over me, that God's placed over my life, and
I have godly leadership, people who are over
me. When I complain about his provision, when
I complain about his hand, when I, you know,
the directives that he gives, his plans that
he gives, I can make the Lord angry with my complaint.
I really can. And before I tell you this next
biblical story of complaining, before I tell
that, I want to give you a little context to
the complainers in this portion of Scripture.
The Israelites. Say the Israelites. You've got
to know who we're talking about. The Israelites,
God's chosen people, that's what the word God
calls them, were complainers. And you got to
understand the background a little bit to get
the seriousness of all this. Because God's people
were enslaved for 400 years in the land of Egypt.
And God miraculously delivers them from slavery.
He sends a man named Moses to go and lead them
out. And God uses Moses in incredible ways. He
sends Moses to Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt.
And he tells him, he gives him the authority
to call down 10 plagues on Egypt. He calls down
all these different plagues to plague Egypt because
they wouldn't release the Israelites from...
slavery. They won't let him go. And Moses, one
by one, he calls it out and it rains down fire
on them and lice and frogs and all kinds of crazy
things. God literally puts his thumb on the neck
of Egypt because they were oppressing God's people.
And when the enemy finally, finally concedes
and releases them from slavery, they leave Egypt
loaded with wealth. The Egyptians wanted to get
rid of Israel so badly because of all the plagues
that God sent that they were throwing money at
them. They were throwing their stuff at them
and saying, just get out of here. Just leave.
Take our stuff and leave. Now, Pharaoh, who's
the leader, releases them from slavery, but then
he has release regret. I don't know if you've
ever had release regret, but he did. He lets
them go. They leave. He regrets it. He gathers
his armies together. He begins to pursue them.
He pursues them to the place called the Red Sea.
And God splits the Red Sea, opens it up. The
Israelites walk across on dry ground. The Egyptian
army follows them in, just like it was this isle,
follows them into the sea. And when the Egyptian
army comes in, God swallows them up in the sea,
and they are gone in a heartbeat. God promises
the Israelites, I'm going to take you to a land
that's flowing with milk and honey. That's the
same way of telling them that they were going
to go to a prosperous land. It was God's way
of saying that. He guides them by day with a
cloud and by night with a pillar of fire. He
gives them supernatural food. It's called manna.
It's like a super vitamin food. Every morning
it was laying out on the grass floor and they
could just eat it up. Every time they needed
water, he supplied it. Every time the waters
were bitter, he made them sweet. Every step of
the journey, they're seeing God show off for
them, show up and show off for them, and all
they do is complain. They whine. They gripe.
They grumble. They murmur. They bleat all along
the way. And I was super tempted when I'm reading
about Israel to point a finger at them and say,
you know, you guys are just messed up. You're
whacked after everything that God did for you.
But how many know that Jesus delivered all of
us from the grip of sin, right? He took us out
of the slavery of sin. How many know that he
gave us power over our enemy? He gave us the
Holy Spirit to guide us and consult us and direct
us and empower us. He supplies our every need
according to his riches and glory. Truly, he
does all these things. When I get up in the mornings,
what do I do sometimes? Instead of giving him
praise, I whine about what's going on. I gripe.
And it's dangerous. Numbers 21 .4 says this.
From Mount Horeb, they set out, this is the Israelites,
by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land
of Edom, and the people became impatient. How
many know that impatience usually precedes complaining?
Amen. How many were impatient in the car on the
way to church, right? And a complaint followed
as soon as thereafter. All the drivers, it's
true, right? They became impatient on the way,
and the people spoke against God and against
Moses. They start complaining about God. They
start complaining about Moses. Why have you brought
us out to Egypt to die in the wilderness? For
there's no food and no water, and we loathe this
worthless food, this super vitamin God that you
gave us. We hate it. Look what the next verse
says. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among
the people, and they bit the people. So that
many of the Israel died. And the people came
to Moses and said, we've sinned. For we've all
spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray
to the Lord that he take away the serpents from
us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord
said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it
on a pole. And everyone who is bitten, when he
sees it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent
and he set it on a pole. And if the serpent bit
anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent.
and he would live. This scripture, as I was reading
this, reminded me of something from my childhood,
not snakes, by the way, all right? But I remember
when my kid, when I was a kid, I remember my
parents, I have two sisters, we'd start complaining
and whining about something. My parents would
stop and say, listen, if you don't stop complaining,
I'm gonna give you something what? To complain
about, right? That basically meant if you think
your circumstance is bad right now, I'm about
to change your circumstance and make it worse.
So you can find out what complaining is all about.
That's exactly what God is saying to Israel here.
This is exactly what he said. You want to complain
about my provision? You want to complain about
my hand? You want to complain about everything
that I provide you? Let me release something
into your life that's going to change your complaining.
Right? Let me leave you with something that you're
going to understand what a complaint is really
about. Let me leave you with something that has
taken men out from the beginning, the serpent.
Isn't it interesting? It's a serpent here. God
allows Satan to lose serpents among the people.
How many know that would freak you out and me
out right now? Amen? You've seen those movies
right now. If a bunch of snakes started slithering
through the pews right now, I would see you all
hopping and get very excited in a big hurry,
right? We would. I can't even imagine being in
this community and what was taking place. But
God allows these snakes, allows them, sends them
in amongst the people. And you might be saying,
well, does God always have someone complain?
No. Actually, I've only ever read it one time
in history. Thank God, right? God doesn't do
that on the regular. But what's the message here?
God hates complaining. He really does. Look and
listen from the Israelites. This is a cautionary
tale. And what is crazy is that God chooses an
interesting way to heal the people from the snake
bites that take place. God has Moses make a pole,
a bronze pole, and he has him wrap a fiery serpent
and place it on the bronze pole. And if the people
looked at it, when they got bit, they would be
healed. And by the way, that pole with the serpent,
you ever seen that before? Yeah, come on, that's
a medical symbol. This is where they got it from,
from Scripture. But why a fiery serpent on a
pole? A serpent in Scripture always represents
Satan. And Satan came from the beginning. He
initially came into the garden in the form of
a serpent, and he comes to Eve, and he deceives
her, right? He says, did God really say you couldn't
eat from the one tree, one tree in the whole
garden? And he begins, he gets Eve thinking,
well, I don't know if I really believe God. And
God, we weren't there, but Eve might even complain
about what God said. You know, I should be allowed
to eat from this one tree. Satan's been doing
this from the beginning. himself around you,
just like that pole. He'll begin to wrap you
out. He'll choke out the word of God. He'll choke
out the power of God. He'll choke out your faith
in God. He'll do all those things, and you will
begin to complain about God himself. I think
God wanted to, I don't know, but I think God,
when this took place in Israel, I think God wanted
the people, when they got bitten, I wanted them
to come and take a look at what's actually going
to take you out, right? The enemy that's going
to take you out. And come and acknowledge, listen,
this is something to complain about. The enemy
is something to complain about. But not me. I
am your provision. I am your healing. Because
when they looked on it, God healed them immediately
from the snake bites, from the poison. Every
time they looked at the pool. We have to understand.
an underlying problem that goes along with complaining.
Because when I complain, I'm actually verbalizing
my lack of faith in God. Man, I know this is
tough. I'm not getting many amens this morning.
Right? Thank you. I got a pity amen. That's awesome.
All right. When I verbalize my lack, when I verbalize
a complaint, I'm verbalizing my lack of faith
in God. My lack of faith in the situation, right?
I'm making a bold declaration of how bad I have
it. How awful it is. How God cannot possibly
have me covered in this area of life. You know,
I don't have enough money for the month. God
can't supply your need according to his riches
and glory. I don't like what someone said about
me. Right? They're talking about me. So I believe
what they said about me instead of what God says
about me. It's too cold. It's too hot. It's too
sunny. It's too cloudy. So my environment now
determines my joy and not the God of the universe
who loves me more than I can know heart and soul.
Any complaint, whine, murmur is laced with my
lack of faith in God. I know, ouch, right? I
did a lot of repenting right here, by the way.
I did a lot of confessing right here. Moses told
the children of Israel that once the serpent
has bitten you and the light of life begins to
drain from you, look at it and realize who your
strength is, right? Who your provision is, who
your healing is. See complaining for the awful
thing that it is in my life. See it that way.
Repent and be healed. That's what God told them.
Numbers 21 is that cautionary tale of not to
complain. And listen to what Scripture says.
1 ,500 years later, Paul writes this in Corinth
to the Corinthians. He says, all under the cloud
and all passed through the sea and all were baptized
into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all
ate the same spiritual food and drank the same
spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual
rock. This is Paul talking 1 ,500 years later
about the children of Israel from the same spiritual
rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not
pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things took place as examples for us,
that we might not desire evil as they did. Do
not be idolaters, as some of them were, as it
is written, that people sat down to eat and to
drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge
in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and
23 ,000 fell in a single day. We must not put
to the test, right? We must not put Christ to
the test, as some of them did and were destroyed
by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did
as they were destroyed by the destroyer. Now,
these things happened to them as an example,
a cautionary tale, but they were written down
for our instruction on whom the end of the ages,
has come. Paul tells Corinth, learn from the
Israelites. Learn from them. They angered God.
They angered God for three reasons. Idol worship
was one of them. Sexual immorality was the second
one. And the third one is they tested God by
complaining. That was the three things that gets
named. Right? Do you know what? happened to this
generation of Israelites that complained against
God, they never made it to the promised land.
They verbalized their doubt in God all along
the way. And if you go to Numbers chapter 14,
and I think it's verse 28, you go from between
eight and... 35, you'll find out that God gets
so tired of their complaining that after a while
he says, you know what? Anybody 20 and older
in this group is not, we're talking a million
plus people. They're not going to the promised
land. Matter of fact, the only two that are going
to the promised land is Caleb and Joshua because
they did not complain. They came back and said,
we can make it into the promised land. And everybody
else listened to eight other spies and said,
we're never going to be able to do it. We can't
do it. God's not big enough. The giants are too
big, right? And an entire generation dies in
the wilderness. And do you know who went in the
promised land? The children of those who are
the complainers. The children and Joshua and
Caleb went into the promised land. That's who
God took in. Don't do it. Don't complain. Don't
complain when it's too hard because he never
leaves you or forsakes you. Don't complain when
there's a giant in front of you because he will
always supercharge anything that you have in
your hand, like a sling and a stone, to take
down the giant. Don't complain in little or much
because he will always supply our needs, right?
Don't complain when people use us, despitefully
use us, because he is our reward and not people.
Don't complain when you have a hand that's difficult,
something that was dealt to you in life that's
very difficult. Because he has the power to overcome
anything that is before us. Don't complain because
Jesus will never, ever, ever let you ultimately
lose. He'll never let it happen. Rejoice. Amen?
Praise him. Give him glory. As the worship team
comes. Can I give you just a little qualifier
in all this? Speak faith in him. Speak truth.
to speak his word, but also correct someone if
necessary. But do it without complaining. Address
the issues of life, but do it without complaining.
Be real about the difficult thing in front of
you, but do it without complaining. Stand up
against injustice around you, but do it without
complaining. Make it about him and not about
you. Don't complain. Thread faith of God in everything
that we speak and in everything we do by not
complaining. And I'm going to finally close with
something that's super positive because I know
I've hit you really hard on the front end of
all this with Scripture, right? But not complaining,
understand this about this, not complaining makes
me blameless, harmless, and a light automatically
in the world around me. Let's take a peek back
at Philippians 2 .14. It says, Do all things
without grumbling or disputing 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. Have you ever looked good just because
you didn't do the wrong thing? Anybody know what
I'm talking about? You didn't do anything particularly
special in any kind of way, but you just simply
looked good because you didn't do something the
wrong way. You just looked good because you didn't
do the wrong thing. I mentioned a little earlier,
I have two sisters. I have a twin sister and
a younger sister. And I remember growing up,
all I had to do to look good to my dad and mom
was not complain or fight with my sisters in
front of me. That was it. I just didn't have
to do that. I didn't have to do anything special.
I didn't have to go out of my way and get them
a special card. I didn't have to get my mom flowers.
I didn't have to do that. All I had to do was
not complain and not fight with my sisters in
front of them, and I was the golden child. All
right? And kids, I'm giving you some good advice
right here. You need to be taking notes right
now, all right? You want to be the golden child?
You want your halo to light up? Just don't do
it in front of them, right? Just don't do that.
I didn't do anything special. I just didn't complain
and fight, you know? And honestly, kids, if you
really want to add a little bit to it, you know,
when there's siblings, if you got siblings and
they are fighting, you can just walk up and tell
your mom and dad, mom and dad, I'm really sorry
that you have to put up with all this, you know?
You don't deserve this. I'll pray for you and
walk away. That's all you got to do. Right? By
virtue of not complaining and speaking faith
in Jesus, we automatically appear as light in
the world around us. Nothing special. Just don't
do it. Right? Just don't complain. Just don't
whine. Don't, you know, don't bleat wherever
you're at. Not complaining according to the word
of God keeps me innocent before God. It keeps
me blameless. It keeps me in his light. And it
shows my faith in him automatically. It happens
automatically if you just don't do it. One day.
And as you stand now, maybe a good example is
one day, if you would stand please with me, all
of us are going to stand before the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords. One day when I get before
him, I want to hear, well done, that good and
faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord.
That's the words I'm looking for. One day when
I stand before God, I do not want to hear the
words, man, I gave you everything and all you
did was complain. In the house and outside of
the house. I want us to do something this morning.
I want us to set a self -imposed policy that
I'm not going to complain. I'm going to do my
level best not to complain. I'll speak the truth
in love, but I'm going to leave out the complaining.
Today I confess. Today I repent. And I'm only
asking you to do that because I did it so many
times this week as I looked. And I'm going to
be honest with you. I had enough here. I could
have preached for another half an hour, 45 minutes,
and not even blinked as I began to look into
God's Word. There is so much there. So what I
want you to do today, I want you to close your
eyes, and I want you to take responsibility.
Only you and you alone know. the complaining
that's taking place out of your mouth and maybe
even in your heart. And today I want you to put
together an action plan. And first, that starts
with confession. You can't, God won't fix and
you can't fix what you won't name. So if you're
complaining, you got to speak it to him. You
just got to let him know, Lord, I've been whining,
I'm complaining, I've been bleeding, right? I've
been griping about things and I want you to forgive
me. I'm asking for forgiveness in my life. I
want you. Forgive me of my, this is this sin
that I have against you that I am complained
and complained and complained. Lord, I ask you
right now, wash me clean of complaint. Lord,
help me to recognize and see, just like when
they looked at the pole with the serpent, that
you are my healer, that you are the provider.
God, that you're the one who will never leave
me or never forsake me. Lord, you're the one
who will walk me through, and I cannot lose in
you. I might have a battle. I might have many
battles in a row, but I might lose. I've got
some battles here and some battles there, but
I will never lose the war in you, and I know
that. So, Lord, I look to you. God, help me to
remember this every time I go to complain. Lord,
I ask this in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen? Now here's what I'm going to do. I wanted
to come up with a plan church -wide for this.
Because I can't monitor it, you've got to monitor
it yourself. Here's what we're going to do to
the end of August. There's 22 days left in the
month of August. I'm going to ask you to do this
for 21 days, and then hopefully the last day
of August will be a launching point for you.
But here's what I'm going to ask you to do, and
you can talk about it within your family. But
I want you to commit. To give money to missions
every time you complain. All right? This is like
a complaint jar. I did this once a long time
ago. And you can trap it. I want you to habit
track this. The Word of God calls it actually
renewing your mind because that's how you change
your mind about something. You begin to track
your habit. And I want you to decide. And maybe,
now listen, don't make it a penny for crying
out loud, okay? Like, I'm going to give Jesus
a penny every time I complain. Come on. Make
it hurt a little bit. I'm going to give the missions.
And every time I complain in the next 21 days,
I'm going to mark it down on my phone. I'm going
to write down on a tablet, whatever. Going to
make a check mark, right? And I owe God a buck.
I owe God 10 bucks. Whatever you want to make
it, you determine that for your family. But I'm
going to help you stop complaining. Amen? How
many know if it hurts, you stop complaining?
If I pinched you every time you complained in
the arm, if I was right by your side and I pinched
you and you pinched me every time I complained,
how many know it wouldn't take long? We'd quit
complaining. Now the money's going to go to a
great thing, missions. We'll give you the different
missions projects you can give to. And this is
self -imposed. You can decide to do this or not
decide. But I don't want to complain. I really
don't. I've done enough confessing and repenting
this week. I really don't want to repeat that.
So I want you just to decide your heart. We're
going to pray one more time. in this part of
the service. And I want you to just bow your
heads because you've got to make a commitment.
You're not committing to me. You're committing
to God. So I want you to make a commitment. You
might have to discuss the amount with your spouse.
But how much are you going to give every time
you complain? Because we're going to renew our
minds with this. We're going to change our habit
with this. We're going to be a people of God
who will speak truth and love, but we're not
going to complain. Because I don't want God's
judgment on this house. I don't want God's judgment
in my life. I don't want God. calling me out
on this again. Father, I thank you for this opportunity.
I thank you for this time to come together. God,
for each person in the house right now, give
them a number. God, I pray, Lord, that you speak
to them. Holy Spirit, I know that you can speak
into their lives. And Lord God, we're going to
stop complaining. Together, God, we're going
to be people of God who praise you. We're going
to be people of God who lift up your name. We're
going to be people of God who speak truth. But
Lord God, we're going to do it without complaining,
without grumbling. And Lord, we thank you. God,
we give you glory. We give you honor. We make
this simple commitment right now. If you're listening
online, you can do the same thing. You can type
it in the chat. Take responsibility. Lord, we
give you praise and glory in Jesus' name. And
amen and amen. Amen. Can I read one last scripture
to you? One last scripture. James 5, 7 says this.
This one shook me to the core. Be patient, therefore,
brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how
the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the
earth, being patient about it until it receives
the early and the late rains. You also be patient,
patient. Establish your hearts for the coming
of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against
one another, brothers, so that you may not be
judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the
door. The judge is right on the other side of
the door of complaint. Right on the other side.
Man. Understand why I was repentant? I have more.
I'm not going to give them to you. God's so good.
He's so good. Commit to this. The blessing of
God is in this. The children of the complainers
went into the promised land. They reaped. Their
parents promise. Because they simply didn't complain.
And God walked them in to the promised land.
Thank you for tuning in to this message from
Lifehouse Church. We pray that you were impacted
powerfully by this message. If you have been
personally affected by our ministry and you would
like to partner with us as we love God, love
people every day, visit our website at www .lifehousecog
.com.