The Awful Sin of Grumbling and Complaining
If you will read I Corinthians the 10th chapter, Paul writes that by the children of Israel’s examples, we are not to lust after evil things; have idols; commit sexual immorality; tempt Christ; nor complain. All these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So do you think this applies to us today? God’s word says it does, HE WILL BE FAITHFUL!
God is able to bring deliverance from our trials. The question is does he want to do it? YES! He is chomping at the bit to deliver His people, to hear his people say “Lord we are going to trust you no matter what our circumstances look like!”
We all can agree that occasionally we grumble, murmur or complain with our mouths. In case you did not know, what comes out of your mouth is what is really in your heart. (Matthew 12:34-37) When our lemon gets squeezed, and the pressure is on, what comes out of our mouth in that moment? Is it “sour” or “bitter” like lemons (Loving or hateful)? Sometimes because we are “Christians” we don’t say what we know would be wrong. If we don’t actually speak the words and yet still hold it in our hearts, would not the outcome be the same? What does God say? He knows your heart and what needs to be changed to glorify Him. James 5:9 Grudge (complain) not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned (judged): behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Let’s put this into today’s perspective. You lose your job and you see no way of paying your bills or having your needs met. Maybe you don’t say the words, but even if they are not spoken, in your heart, you are saying, and exposing I am discontented and so you ask “God, why?” God provides you food for the months you are out of work, he provides ways to pay your bills and you are STILL agonizing over the fact you have no job. Are you complaining against what God has provided or His purpose that we can’t see at the moment? This trial goes on for a year maybe two, and you still have no job maybe because of grumbling, murmuring and complaining in your heart. God is testing your heart to see if you FULLY TRUST Him. Do you really want to go around the same mountain for forty years like the children of Israel?
The trials that we go through or the tunnel that never seems to have any end has filled our hearts with hopelessness that we accept and embrace. What does God say about this? God is a solid rock that does not change. God is the same today as he was yesterday, the same he was thousand of years ago. God is faithful to perform what His word says. Let’s look in Exodus 14:10-15 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD. Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” And the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.
Moses said to the people stand back and see the salvation of the Lord, then turns right around and cries out God do something and the Lord says why are you crying out to me? The Lord said to Moses lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. Remember that in Exodus 4 God provided a rod and gave Authority to Moses to fulfill all that God had promised. God is faithful, church. What the Lord speaks, he means. Jesus is our covenant partner. All Moses has to do is be faithful, obedient and trust God. When you enter a trial the first thing that the enemy puts in our mind is fear. Fear speaks and says you won’t have enough money to pay bills; or there is a big lay off at the plant and you going to be one of them; or your car needs repairs and you are going to be stranded somewhere; or you have just lost your health insurance and you need medical attention. (The enemy wants us to accept fear because out of our heart will come grumbling, murmuring and complaining, which will expose our unbelief).
In verse 27 the Red Sea parted and the children of Israel crossed on dry land. God delivered his people. In chapter 15 they sing a song. They are happy because now they believed the Lord and His servant Moses. How many of us have had the privilege of Gods deliverance in our lives, our health, our jobs, our relationships and how about divine healing when the Doctor said there is nothing we can do. So often God does a miraculous thing in our lives, we sing a song, shout and dance, and we truly worship Him on Sunday. The real test is Monday, Tuesday or maybe even Wednesday morning, in our homes, in our jobs, while driving in traffic. Do we forget what God has done in our lives? Church, the world needs to see peace on you when you are in the storm. Exodus 15:22-24 So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
The word Marah means a bitter place. (Galling, grievous, pungent, and painful). They went three days and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water for it was bitter. The children of Israel were singing Sunday night. They sang a song, then three short days later on Wednesday they complained against Moses. Church, learn this; it is in the trial, where God wants us to sing the song, that God you are faithful in my life. God is testing to see when you can stand and sing the song. The tree (of life) represents the cross, when it touches the water the bitterness becomes sweet. God will bring you to a place of bitter water. Our Lord will bring us to a bitter place in our trials as we look down into that never ending dark tunnel, it is what we do with it when it arrives. Exodus 16:1-4 And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
The children of Israel murmured against their leader, Moses, and God took offense. When we complain against our jobs, politicians, our leaders in church, our husbands, our parents, teachers, or anyone in authority God takes offense. What we are really saying is God we do not trust you and this authority you have put in my life! Our hearts speak what our true Christian belief is, that we “Christian believers” really don’t believe. How can we minister to the lost with a heart that does not believe?
Exodus 17: 1-2 Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.” So Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the LORD?” they were brought to a place they were thirsty. Moses said, why do you test the Lord?
In Numbers 14 the Lord brought them right back to the place they started because they would not learn their lesson. They went in circles, going around the same mountain and failing their test for 38 years and every time they grumbled against the Lord. In the eighth verse only two men of the whole congregation of people said, “we can over come”! The difference between can and can’t is BELIEF! Then what did God say to His people? Numbers 14:26-28 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:
Ask yourself, am I stuck in the WILDERNESS?
The bible often speaks of Gods blessings. Is our desire to acquire those blessings or to grow into a closer relationship with God? Does anyone know what God’s plan is for his or her life? Who can know, only God can know and if we are not searching Him and allowing Him to search our hearts to be purified by Him, what are we pursuing? God’s people receive God’s blessings for their godly behavior. As we learn to grow in godliness and righteousness, and allow God to remove our impurities, we begin to understand that the blessings we receive are with a purpose in mind, that we might be a blessing to others and so that the nations of the earth will come to know God. Are we or are we not HIS SERVANTS here to fulfill HIS PURPOSE?
Now that we all understand that we are called by God almighty for HIS PURPOSE and it has nothing to do with us, let’s discuss why we tend to grumble, murmur and complain. There is a time of testing, just as God tested the children of Israel for 40 years. God tested the hearts of his people. Church, you have to know that trials are standing there with what seems like no end. If you stood looking into a tunnel and all you can see is hopelessness and what seems like no end, what would be your first thought? I guarantee it would be a grumbling, murmur or complaining remark! We have to get to a place where we realize that as we stand in the trial, God knows a thousand ways to deliver you from your troubles. God could have easily delivered the children of Israel from their despair, or what they saw as despair. The whole time God provided for them what He intended for His purpose. Unfortunately they could not see it because of their selfish hearts. All of their complaining, grumbling and murmuring, was a symptom of the selfishness in their hearts. Philippians 2:14-16 “Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.”
What exactly do these words mean? Let’s examine the definitions and the context of these words.
Complain: According to the dictionary: to express grief, pain or discontent or to make a formal accusation or charge. According to the Hebrew meaning: to weep, mourn, and wail, to ponder, hold a controversy
Grumble: According to the dictionary: to mutter in discontent. The Greek meaning: to blame or find fault, to grudge
Murmur: According to the dictionary: half suppressed or muttered complaint. The Hebrew meaning: to rebel: to be obstinate especially in words
Do you grumble, find fault (speak against) or rebel?
1. Speak evil of government authorities and the laws of the land?
2. Paying your taxes?
3. God-appointed leaders in the Church?
4. God (question Him)?
5. The structure of Authority in the home?
6. Your employers and their rules?
7. Your salary, your condition, your home?
8. Your food, your clothes, your lack?
9. Your teachers?
10. Your Parents?
11. Against God’s commandments to Love Him and your neighbor as yourself?
Paul Said in Philippians 4:11-12 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Paul wrote, in his second letter to the Corinthians (II Corinthians 2:14) “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place”.
In the scriptures, being thankful is mentioned approximately 130 times in one form or another. Paul knew that nothing could get into his life that was not filtered through the fingers of a loving Heavenly Father, even from prison, a place that was cold, dark, stinks, had bad food, ill treatment and confinement and probably bugs and rats. Paul sitting in prison hearing the evil reports of the wolves in sheep’s clothing coming into the churches he had planted, was still writing “But thanks be to God” as he was writing letters of encouragement and sometimes rebuke to these churches. He did not know he was writing two thirds of the New Testament if he had not been in prison that would have not happened!
Remember nothing can get into your life that is not filtered through God and He is using it to train us, to cause you to grow. It is to perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish or settle you (I Peter 5:10). Settle means to build a foundation in your trust of God!
Now let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, I confess that my heart is selfish and I have complained against you and your provisions in my life. I grumbled against the authority you put in my life and I didn’t trust you. I ask that you forgive me Lord because I repent and turn from it, not just with words, but also with actions. Lord please create in me a clean heart, a heart that will trust you and like Paul, learn how to be content in whatever state I find myself in. Lord I love you and thank you for your grace in my life! In Jesus name, AMEN!
Ken Carpenter email kc134@bellsouth.net
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