The Cure for Complaining

Happy Sunday. Happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that you have chosen to join me today. Today I'm going to talk about the cure for complaining. Of course, you can likely guess that it is being thankful.

I love this story. A grandmother took her little grandson to the beach. She bought him a sailor suit and a little sailor hat, and he was looking good. As they were standing there admiring the ocean, all of a sudden a big wave hit them, and it took the little boy out to see. He was gone. Grandma started praying, and suddenly, not long after, another wave hit, and there he was, washed back on the shore. Grandma looked at him and then looked to heaven and said, "He had a hat."

Well, we can complain sometimes even when God does great things. The Bible makes it clear that we are to be thankful. Psalm 1071 and2 says, "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His Mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy." The Bible makes it clear that we also are to praise God. Do you remember these words from Psalm 1133? "From the rising of the sun to its going down, the lord's name is to be praised."

The Bible lets us too know that we are in trouble when we fail to be grateful. Romans 1:18 to 21 says, "God shows his anger from Heaven against all sinful, Wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them, for ever since the world was created, people have seen the Earth and Sky. Through everything God made, they clearly can see his invisible qualities, his eternal power and his divine nature, so they have no excuse for not knowing god. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks." It matters.

If you know the Old Testament, you know that the children of Israel were often ungrateful. Look at Psalm 95: 1 to7. They tells us how to approach and please God: "Oh come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our Salvation. Let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with Psalms. For the Lord is the great God, and the great king above all gods. In his hands are the Deep places of the Earth; the heights of the hills are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and His Hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his hand."

The rest of the psalm lets us know that if we aren't thankful, if we don't remember what God has done, well, God would not be pleased. Psalm 958 to11 says this: "Today, if you will hear his voice, do not Harden your hearts as in the Rebellion, as in the day of trials in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me. They tried me, though they saw my work. For 40 years I was grieved with that generation, and said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do do not know my ways.' So I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'"

The second part of verse n jumps out at me: "They tried me, though they saw me my work." I won't go over all the work that God did in Exodus that is referred to here, but you know most of it: the miracle of Moses's birth, and is called to lead the captive people, the 10 miraculous plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the red sea on dry land, the Mana that came down from heaven. Miracle after Miracle after miracle, and what did the people do? What did God say? "They tried me, though they saw my work."

Listen to these words from Numbers Chapter 14, beginning at verse 21. God says, "Truly, as I live, all the Earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all these men who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put me to the test now these many, many times, and have not heeded my voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it."

Let me make a point from the scripture: there is no promised land for complainers. There is no promised land for those that forget what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do. Let's leave the Israelites alone now and bring this to our day and time. Do you think that these words from Psalm 959 apply today? "They tried me, though they saw my work."

As I look at my life and all my blessings, I have no reason to complain, and I have every reason to be thankful. The cure for complaining is seeing what God has done and then count in your blessings. You know, you only count your blessings when your heart is right. Over the years I've seen so many, I've been so privileged to have conversations with so many strong Christians that're going, were going through tough times, and none of them complained. Now, remember, I said they were strong Christians, but they didn't complain.

I think of an Bailey. An was 20s something and on her honeymoon at Daytona Beach, oh goodness, 60 years plus ago, and she was run over on the beach on her honeymoon. Her legs no longer worked; in a wheelchair the rest of her days. She had every reason to complain, every reason to be bit. But the reason I know her and I know her story is she came to our church in a wheelchair, and I watched her as a kid, and she taught us in Sunday school and worked with the youth group.

She started a wheelchair basketball league in Atlanta back in the 70s, maybe the first one. She walked down an aisle, and then she didn't walk much more again, but for the next many, many decades we watched her never complain, but be thankful. The cure for complaining is looking what God has done for you. I pray you'll do that this week. God bless.

Pray with me. Lord, thank you for your blessings, more than material things. Thank you for Jesus, for the holy spirit, for forgiveness, for grace, for love, for relationships, especially with you. As We Gather at our tables, our probably have by the time this will Air, help us to always be thankful, not just on that day in November, but every day. In Jesus name, amen. God bless. Thanks for joining me today.