PROBLEMS OF THE HEART
#3 – The Problem of Complaining
1 Corinthians 10:1-12
by Rev. John R. Hannem.
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As we continue this morning with our series on Problems of the Heart I want to look at what scripture has to say about a spiritual problem that I would say that all of us have battled with at one time or another. That is the problem of complaining. Now I get the felling that some of you are complaining already…Oh no, here we go again…. Another sermon on the evils of grumbling and complaining about everything. … I bet it’s going to be a long one …. I bet its going to be a boring one … I don’t know why I bothered to come this morning, I don’t need to hear this … I’ve never had a problem with complaining. … Well, if that’s what you’re thinking right now, you’re in luck ‘cause this sermon is just for you!
I mean, seriously, have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a place where you were feeling down and depressed and the only thing that brought you a little bit of joy was your ability to gripe and complain about your lot in life?
It has always intrigued me to what level we who profess to be Christians, are willing to carry out the commands of God. I believe that there are sins that we keep away from at all costs, like murder, or stealing, or adultery, but then there are some other sins that we just kind of gloss over. You know if it doesn’t hurt anyone then it’s not that big of a deal. I believe that complaining or if you have a King James Bible it’s called “murmuring” fits into that gloss over category.
We are told in Scripture that every day should be a day of Thanksgiving. If you have a Palm Pilot or a blackberry, a date book or a calendar on your refrigerator everyday should have Thanksgiving on it. Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes to the Church in Colossi. 2:7 continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. l.
4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Now I know that there may be some here today that have never read that before and didn’t know that was in there. I know that there may be some here today that have probably read it and forgot it as soon as it passed from their eyes. And I know that there are some here today that are struggling to live a life of thankfulness.
Our text today comes from I Corinthians 10:1-12 Lets turn there and read together today.
READ _ 1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-12
Instead of remaining continually grateful for their deliverance from
And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
Grumbling and complaining was one of the reasons that some of the Children of Israel were destroyed in the Wilderness. If God saw complaining as an offense worthy of death in the Old Testament then it must be higher on the list of offensive things than we give it credit for.
With that in mind I want to give you some reasons that I believe that God expects us to live lives of Joy, devoid of murmuring and complaining. You see gratitude is not optional. To be an ingrate, is to be disobedient; and, to be disobedient is to be lost.
The first thing we must do is Remember To Never Forget
The Psalmist writes in Psalm 103:2 "Forget not all His benefits."
We often live life with the attitude of “what have you done for me lately.” This week I was scrolling through the channels and came upon Judge Judy so I stopped to see what she was up to this time. Well I am not recommending the show, sometimes it’s pretty bad but there was a young woman on the show that day suing an older woman for $5,000.00. It seemed that this older woman had dented the younger woman’s car fender and that was the cost of the repair. It seemed simple enough but what we found out later was that the Older woman had welcomed the younger woman into her home 8 years before, Took care of her, fed her, clothed her, made sure she had the chance to go to school and even bought the young woman the car in question. When that revelation was made I just turned the channel.
Now as ridiculous as that sounds if we were to be honest … you know what? …. Listen to me here …… we do the same thing with God. We sing Count Your Many blessings, but sometimes we are a lot happier counting the bruises.
In society, and in churches we often date matters from a given tragedy. "That happened the year of the tornado," or, "the year I had my heart surgery ." Instead of dwelling on the blessings, that happened in the year that God gave me a job, or God gave us a son.
I remember in the 5th or 6th grade I was having trouble seeing the Blackboard so my mom made an appointment with Dr. MacLeod? and sure enough I had to wear glasses. Now back then you didn’t have all of the frame choices that you have now. As a matter of fact I think I only had two choices. Black horn rimmed glasses or Brown horn rimmed glasses. But I learned to be thankful that year for those glasses, because they kept the boys from beating me up and the girls from kissing me.
The great Biblical Scholar Matthew Henry wrote in his diary the day that His house was robbed, "Let me be thankful first, because he: never robbed me before; second, because although he took my purse, he did not take my life; third, because although he took all I possessed, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed."
Do we really believe God when He leads the Apostle Paul to write in Romans 8:28 that "all things work together for good to them that love God."
Well, we live out that belief when we remember to never forget.
Second we need to dwell on the blessings we do have rather than on what we don’t have.
Again the Bible says this " But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” 1 Timothy 6:8 and then in Hebrews 13:5 it says …be content with what you have, because God has said,
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you
But, so often we don’t remember the things God has blessed us with.
Have you ever tried to do what we sing. Have you ever tried to count your many blessings? Have you ever sat down and tried to compile a list of some of your Spiritual Blessings and Physical Blessings.
God’s blessings are innumerable. Even the things we think are horrible at the time can turn out to be a blessing.
We must truly learn how to dwell on the blessings we do have rather than on what we don’t have. And if we are honest we will see what we do have far out weighs what we don’t have.
And this is important when we realize how detestable our ingratitude really is.
Again the Apostle Paul is writing to our first century brethren, but this time to the church in
they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks;
I don’t believe that there are things in the bible that just happen to be there. I believe that by God placing grumbling or ingratitude first it was a way of saying that our inability to give thanks to God for His blessings is the first step to these other sins which include idolatry, Homosexuality, a depraved mind, unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, envy, murder, and strife.
That’s why we must learn to Quit Complaining and Express Our Gratitude We are commanded to express our gratitude in two different ways :
There is a verbal expression as seen in 1 Thessalonians 5: 18 …. in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
And again in Ephesians 5:20 Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord
I believe our expression of gratefulness warms the Heart of our Lord in the same way that our complaints burden His heart. God desires in fact I believe he longs for his children to express their love and gratitude to him.
Then there is an expression of your life as seen in Romans 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God
Paul encourages us to have the resolve that we offer our life as a living Sacrifice. In a life of thankfulness and praise we resolve to give God our love, our time, our talents, our money, our lives, our all. And if we are truly aware of the way that God has blessed us can we do any less than offer ever blessing back as praise?
We need to have the mindset of the Christian man who had to go to an accountant after he went out of business bankrupt. The accountant said that they needed to list all of the wealth that the man had so that they could figure the best way to pay his creditors.
The man replied, "I am a very wealthy man." And began to list his assets:
I have remission of my sins - Acts 2:38.
I have a mansion in heaven - John 14:2.
I have peace that passes understanding – Philippians . 4:7.
I have unspeakable joy – 1 Peter 1 :8.
I have a love that never fails - 1Cornthians 13:8.
I have a faithful wife - Proverbs 31: 10.
I have devoted children - Exodus 20: 12.
I have true, loyal friends - Proverbs 18 :24
I have songs in the night - Psalm 42:8.
I have a crown of life - James 1:12.
And I have a Savior who supplies all my needs freely – Philippians 4: 19.
God has given us so much that often we forget it is not the gift but the giver that is important.
We have become like the little child who has been pampered by an over-indulgent uncle bringing him candy each day. But one day the uncle forgot the candy and the little boy stomped off to his room and cried the day away. Why? The child is more interested in the gift than in the giver.
It is possible for us to have the same attitude toward God. We are so interested in the Blessings from God that when they do not come in the way we expect we feel compelled to gripe and complain.
Instead we need to be like the young bride-to-be who is grateful for her new engagement ring; but, she is much more grateful for the one who gave it to her. Apart from him, the ring means nothing. And in your life and mine apart from God all of His blessings mean nothing. Let us never separate God from his gifts.
George Herbert prayed, "Our Father, Thou hast given us so much. Please, give us one more thing .... a grateful heart!"
Hymn #11 – My Tribute