What to do? Complain - Pastor Kipp Penrod

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

Philippians 2:12

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

Philippians 2:12

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,

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

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.