"The Complaint Trap: How Grumbling Distorts Our View of God" Andre Bercot

Lesson Transcript

When you grumble, you're ultimately grumbling against God, His goodness, His wisdom, His character. We're actually telling God to His face that He doesn't have the best for me. He doesn't know what He's doing, if you really think about it. Today we want to look at the topic of grumbling. We're going to listen to this little clip from this song. It was a song that Elizabeth sang to when she was a young girl in Sunday School. The song is from a Nigerian choir.

They're in Africa, so it does have a little bit of a British African accent. I want to thank Jason for helping me make this clip, and he put in audio, not audio, visual text so you can follow along because it takes you a second to get used to their accent as you listen to it. And he said it is definitely a British English there. And then this time we are ready to go. Well, that's like I said, hit the button accidentally when we were setting this up.

In country town or city, some people can be found who spend their lives in grumbling as every day around. Oh yes, they always grumble, no matter what they say, for these are chronic grumblers, and they grumble night and day. Oh, they grumble on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, grumble on Thursday too, grumble on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, grumble all week through. Grumble on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, grumble on Thursday too, grumble on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, grumble all week through.

I said that song was written in the late 1800s, and that, like Elizabeth said, she had sang it when she was in Sunday School. So we thought we'd open that as an opening to my message about what is grumbling. What made me think about this topic, it happened three weeks ago on Sunday, November 10th. If you all remember, the Northeast United States had a severe drought these last couple of months. At least at my house in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, the last rain we had was on October 3rd for Hurricane Helene.

And the next rain we had, except for maybe a few small sprinkles, was on November 10th. That's over 30 days. And I know virtually all the Northeast was as dry as we were here in Pennsylvania. Finally, rain was forecast. We had fellowship meal that day, and rain was forecast for that evening. So when we got home, I looked out the window and it was starting to mist, a little light mist. After supper, without even thinking, I made the comment, "Boy, I wish we had a steady shower.

It would be nice to have some nice rain this evening. We're so dry." My whole family looked at me and said, "Dad, don't you know it's raining very nice right now? We are having a steady shower. Why are you complaining? Why aren't you thankful?" I should have thought about it, but I kind of brushed it off. Well, okay, I wasn't thinking about how I was acting. What about it didn't really click in my mind. Like it was a nice steady shower, and I just thought we were having a misty rain.

Instead, the very next day, as far as I can remember, it could have been the day after, I was at Scroll Publishing, and we had just received a letter in the mail from a Scroll customer asking if we had our audio messages in a paper transcribed form. He was a member of a church that doesn't allow audio messages. We get this request often. Instead of being gracious about it, I said, "Boy, I'm sick and tired of these people who don't have CD players or can't use computers or smartphones.

Why can't they get on with technology?" And my mom looked at me with a little frown on her face and said, "Andre, why are you grumbling again? It makes me sad. It makes me discouraged. It just kind of darkens the mood and makes a dark atmosphere here. Like I said, it's a kind of a dark mood. Made me think about complaining." And I thought about it myself. And I realized, I think I have a bad habit of complaining. And I was thinking, probably most of us do.

But do you think about this when you complain, what it does to other people and what it does to yourself? As I said, most of us were honest. We don't realize that we're complaining. In my mind, when I was saying about the weather, I didn't think I actually was complaining. My children said, "Dad, you are complaining." When I said the thing about the Scroll customer, again, I didn't think I was complaining. My mom called me up short. I was complaining.

I think most of us just don't realize that we actually are complaining. Sometimes, like I said, when we're complaining about the weather, we don't even think of it as complaining. We're just making a comment. Maybe it's not wrong to make a comment, but I think we just don't really realize it is a complaint. Do you also realize that when you complain, it does affect both yourself? It does things in your mind, and it does things, like I said, with other people. Who likes being around the complainer? I know I don't.

I'm glad my children and my wife and my mother called me up short. So we're going to look at four points about complaining, which when I use the word complaining, I'm also going to use the word grumbling. You could use the word murmuring, or you could use the word repining. They're all synonyms. They all mean similar things. Sometimes you see in the Bible murmur. Sometimes you see grumble. Sometimes you see complain.

And they're all very not the same word, but they're just like synonyms, having a very similar meaning. So we're going to look at four points. What is grumbling? Why is grumbling a sin? The inconsistency of being a follower of Jesus and at the same time being a constant grumbler. And finally, steps you can take to help overcome the sin of grumbling. So we're just going to define grumble, those words. Grumble is the idea of that you complain in a bad-tempered way. It's not just a minor complaint.

You're actually very frustrated about it. Complain is just the idea that you express grief, pain, discontent, your fault-finding. Murmur, which the Bible uses a bunch, is the idea you're grumbling, but maybe like a half-hearted. You don't really want people to hear your grumbling, maybe kind of behind people's back, whispering, but it's still out there. And repine, which is more or less we don't use that word, but I will be using in some of my quotes, is to feel or express deduction or discontent.

One Bible passage I want to read this morning about an example of grumbling is found in the book of Numbers. It's about the children of Israel. And unfortunately, as we all know, they grumbled a bunch about their whole when they were redeemed from Exodus, I mean, redeemed in the book of Exodus, and then finally get to the promised land. They grumble a bunch. At least in what I was studying, I found two passages in Numbers and a passage in Exodus.

And I know there's other passages as well that talk about their constant grumbling, complaining, murmuring. So we're just going to read this one in Numbers. I am going to skip a few verses here, and I'll let you know just to make sure you can follow along. This is Numbers 11. Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it, and his anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.

Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So he called the name of the place Taborah because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. So there is a first instance of complaining in this verse in God's judgment. Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to the intense craving. So the children of Israel also wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat?

We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our whole being is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes." Again, complaining. Now the manna was like coriander seed in its color, the color of belladume. The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones, or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it. And its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil.

And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it. Skipping verses that ended about verse 9, we're going to skip down to verse 18 when you right there. It says, "That's God talking to Moses. Then you shall say to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, 'Who will give us meat to eat? For it is well with us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.

You shall eat not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, 'Why did we ever come out of Egypt?'" Now we're going to skip down to verse. We're skipping again. This is skip. Sorry. We're not quite skipping, but we will in a second. And Moses said, "The people whom I am among are 600,000 men on foot.

Yet you have said, 'I will give them meat, and they will eat for a whole month. Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them to provide them enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to provide enough for them?' And the Lord said to Moses, 'Has the Lord's arm been shortened? Now you shall see what I will say will happen to you or not.'" Then we skip down to verse 30.

Now a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp, about a day's journey on this side and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground. Sounds like a lot of quail there. And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. He who gathered least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. Then what happened?

God brought judgment again. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people. And the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. So he called the name of that place Kibrat Hotivah because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.

So just in that one example passage from the book of Numbers, we see at least two instances of complaining and two times that God brought judgment on the children of Israel for their complaining. Now my thought, as I was thinking about this, how blind the Israelites had to be, if you think about it. They had been miraculously delivered from Egypt under slavery with Moses and Aaron crossing the Red Sea. The armies of Pharaoh destroyed in the Red Sea. God provided manna. He provided water.

And the pillar of fire, the pillar of cloud. And they still complain that God's not with them. And I just thought, how blind they had to be. But I thought about, isn't that sometimes how we are? We are actually blind to God's goodness to us. We have all these blessings, all these things that God does for us and provides for us. Like I said, that rain that day, I said they're complaining about it. And we just can't see that we're always, like I said, that God is good.

Because again, I thought about how God was swift on his judgment on the Israelites, that he brought judgment. So let's just look as we just kind of delve into a little bit to why grumbling is a sin. This at least, some of these are my own thoughts. When you grumble at circumstances of your life, circumstances of your family, like as a grumble about the rain, the lack of it, you're ultimately grumbling against God, his goodness, his wisdom, his character.

We're actually telling God to his face that he doesn't have the best for me. He doesn't know what he's doing, if you really think about it. We don't really believe that God is good, and he's looking out for us. When you think about it, grumbling, whining, complaining are all ultimately the harsh response to God, not to our circumstances. It shows a lack of faith in God and his kingdom and focuses on us getting what we want, how we want it, when we want it. Because grumbling is a very selfish, in my mind, sin.

And I would have to say that any type of grumbling is ultimately against God, even if you just grumble about the weather, because I would firmly believe that God is ultimately in control of the weather, not mankind that they're trying to say like we hear about nowadays. There's some Bible verses that, like I'm going to share some, read a couple of scriptures here about this idea that God's in the view of grumbling. The first one is 1 Corinthians 10:6-11. This is again, quote, using Israelites as an example.

"Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted, and do not become idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.' Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell." When Elizabeth put that snake in there, it kind of like, when in the middle of the night when you see that, it kind of like, what in the world? That kind of scared me a little bit.

"Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents." Then I realized why she put it there. "Nor complain, as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer." Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. If you see in that verse, like I said, they complained, and God brought judgment on them.

Another verse here in the New Testament about complaining found in Philippians 2:12-16.

"Do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become harmless, become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life so that I may be rejoiced in the day of Christ, that I have not run in the rain or labored in vain." But when I looked at that verse, it came to my mind a very obvious thing.

It links us not complaining and disputing as being blameless and harmless children of God, that they go together, like I said, a link on a chain, which means the opposite is true. If we are complaining as we're disputing, we're not blameless, we're not harmless, and ultimately we're not the children of God. Like I said, it's a nice link there. As I said, I think complaining, it goes back against God. When we complain, we're actually telling him he is not good. He's not wise.

He's not looking out for the best of us, best for our family, for me, for anything. Which the scripture says, I found two passages here. I think there's a more. First one is Psalm 24:1-2. "The earth is the Lord's in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters." Affirming again in my mind that God is in control of everything. If we complain about the weather, God is ultimately in control of the weather.

He's ultimately in control of all the circumstances that we have. That we're complaining against him, we're not actually complaining about something else. Another verse that I hadn't thought about, but that affirms this idea that everything is actually God's if we complain. And I think these verses, the actual context is about why we don't take oaths as a Christian.

But if you read that second part that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, 5:34, it says, "But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne." Again, that heaven is God's, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the seat of the great king. Again, that everything is God's. So if we murmur and complain about anything, we're ultimately complaining about God because he is in control of everything.

William Law had some good quotes about this idea of this complaining. We'll just look at these here real quickly about just the sinfulness of it. First one. "Whenever, therefore, you find yourself disposed to uneasiness or murmuring at anything that is the effect of God's providence over us, you must look upon yourself as denying either the wisdom or goodness of God. For every complaint necessarily supposes this," which is what I would wholeheartedly agree. Another one.

"It is very common for people to allow themselves great liberty in finding fault with such things as have only God for their cause." And then one final one. "Now does not this scripture plainly oblige us to reason after this manner? Whosoever murmurs at the course of the world murmurs at God that governs the course of the world.

Whoso repines at seasons, repining being another word for complaining, and weather, and speaks impatiently of times and events, repines and speaks impatiently of God, who is the sole Lord and governor of times, seasons, and events." Now I want to just briefly look at the utter inconsistency it is that we claim to be a follower of Jesus and at the same time we grumble. I'm not saying at one time of a little incident of complaining, but it's a habitual aspect of our life. Just think about that for a little bit.

If you think, when you became a follower of Jesus, you renounced the world's values, which are temporal and reflect the wisdom of this world. Instead, you made a conscious decision to follow Jesus and his ways, reflect like in the Sermon on the Mount, and his values, which are eternal. There's a verse here. Colossians 1:13. "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love." Again, affirming that we have changed our allegiance, our value system.

But if you think about it, if you grumble or complain or murmur, it ultimately shows you that your heart is still holding on to the values of this world. You're not actually holding on to the eternal values of God. Because if we were, I don't think we would be grumbling. I found this quote in one of George McDonald's sermons. George McDonald lived in the late 1800s. He was a pastor there in Scotland, if you're not familiar with him. It is just reflecting this idea.

"The careless soul receives the Father's gifts as if it were a way things that have dropping into his hand. He thus grants himself a slave dependent on chance and his own blundering endeavor. Yet is he ever complaining as if someone were accountable for the checks which meet him at every turn. For the good that comes to him, he gives no thanks. He was therefore to thank. At the disappointments that befall him, he grumbles.

There must be someone to blame." And I would say, yes, I think that obviously applies to the people of this world. I think we can see that in the world we live in. But how often does it sometimes apply to us who are trying to be followers of Jesus? Not always giving thanks when we have blessings. As William McDonald says, they look at it as something they always did, their endeavors, something of chance. And then when something goes bad, they have to blame somebody.

And I think how often does that fall to us as well? We're all familiar with James in the book of James, where it talks about the unruly tongue. And if you remember what James said in James 3:8-10, it says, "But no man contain the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude or likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.

My brethren, these things ought not so to be." And we can see just how inconsistent that is that we can bless God, sing praises to him, and then curse our fellow man who's made in the image of God. It's the same idea with complaining. We can thank God for all his wonderful blessings. And in the next breath, we can complain to God that, "Why don't we ever get any rain?" And unfortunately, because I did it that night, and I think if we're all honest, we probably have done it too.

William Law had three quotes about this inconsistency and I'll just share them. This is the first talking, this first quote. "To see this in yet a clearer light, let us suppose a person to have appointed times for praising God with psalms and hymns, and to be strict in the observation of them. Let it also be supposed that in his common life," which is meaning ordinary life, "he is restless and uneasy, full of murmurings and complaints at everything.

Never pleased but by chance, as his temper happens to carry him, but murmuring and repining at the very season and having something to dislike in everything that happens to him. Now, can you conceive anything more absurd and unreasonable than such a character as this?" A similar quote about this idea of murmuring.

"For if he cannot thank and praise God as well in calamities and sufferings as in prosperity and happiness, he is as far from the piety of a Christian as he that only loves them that love him is from the charity of a Christian. For to thank God only for such thing as you'd like is no more a proper act of piety than to believe only what you see as an act of faith." And William Law in that middle is quoting this verse from Jesus. "For if you love those who love you, what word have you?

They're not even the tax collectors do the same." That's what William Law said. If that's all we can do, then we're as far from Christian love and charity. And this last one, if you see the picture, the guy stepping in a banana peel, obviously he might not fall. I don't know if you actually fall when you step in a banana peel, but at least it might make you stumble, trip, get you flustered.

"If therefore you live in murmurings and complaints, accusing all the axes of life, it is not because you are a weak and firm creature, but it is because you want the first principle of religion, a right belief in God. For his thankfulness is an express acknowledgment of the goodness of God towards you. So repinings and complaints are as a plain accusation of God's want of goodness towards you." Again, when we complain, we are accusing God of not having our best in mind. Okay.

Now we're going to come to the final point. Things that we can do in our own life to help overcome the habit of grumbling, the sin of grumbling. Why do I use the word habit? Because at least in my own life, maybe in yours as well, I came to realize that grumbling is a sinful habit. It's something that I have developed over time. It's not something, okay, I've done it once, but it's something that I've developed. And what I found on the internet, now obviously there's not a right or wrong in this.

Some people use three, some people use four, but the idea that a habit is formed, and we all have habits. They're like what you do when you get up in the morning before you go to work, or go to school, or go to church. They're not necessarily a bad thing. It's just something that we develop. You have a cue, which is a trigger, a craving, which is what you hope to get, what you hope to get with your cue, your response, what you do, and then reward what you have finally received.

And if you think about grumbling, the cue, the trigger is something happens to you or to someone else that causes you to want to complain. Then you think, what will you get when you complain? Then you actually go complain, and then you get your reward. At least in my mind, the reward is you feel sorry for yourself because everything isn't going well, and you can tell everyone else how bad life is.

And I said, I think grumbling, at least for myself and most likely for you, if you have it, is a habit that you can hopefully replace that spirit of grumbling with a spirit of thankfulness, contentment that praises God. But you're going to have to do that, as I say, through God's help, to develop a good godly habit that you have made that into your life. There's some things to think about as I think about some of this, as we have these words, thankfulness, thanksgiving, gratitude, gratefulness, and contentment.

Now, thankfulness, thanksgiving, gratitude, and gratefulness are all synonyms. We've had celebrated the holiday here in the United States of America, Thanksgiving. Thankfulness is the idea that you express feeling of gratitude towards people or towards things. Gratitude is that you're thankful. Like I said, they're all virtually the same word. Gratefulness is when you're appreciative of kindness or benefits that someone gave to you, and contentment that you're satisfied with how things are.

You're not always wanting more, being covetous to that idea. I think in my mind, one of the most important things in overcoming the habit of grumbling is that you need to acknowledge that it is sin, and you need to repent of it. Like I said, it is sin that the scripture says, and the first thing we need is we need to acknowledge it and repent. And obviously, repentance is the idea of changing your mind, going away from our way, and going the way of God.

But like I said, at least in my mind, since I've made a habit, it's not a one-time repentance. I'm going to have to think about it. When I start to grumble, then I'm going to have to repent maybe and keep doing that. One of the thoughts I had about as we work in overcoming grumbling is that when we think about we're going to grumble, instead of grumble, why don't we say a prayer to God for his help, his mercy to overcome grumbling?

And as we practice repentance and we practice praying, we will slowly change our thought pattern and develop a godly habit. It's going to take a little bit of time. Relating to this, as I said, often people grumble because they're not satisfied with what they have. They're not content with their satisfaction. But as I shared in my message on the poor, we live in one of the richest countries that's ever existed in mankind's history. We could, should, and can be content with what we have.

I think all of us have shelter, food, clothing, vehicles. That is more than most people have in the world. And we have much more than that. I think we can be satisfied and content. Like I said, it's amazing how much grumbling is related to discontentment. William Law made this quote about that. "Every uneasiness at our own state is founded upon comparing it with that of other people." And how often is that true?

You look at your neighbor, and he has a nicer house, so you get unhappy, and you complain and grumble, "Why can't I have a nicer house?" Most people in the world don't have as nice a house as we have in the United States. Here's a verse from Paul in 1 Timothy about contentment. 1 Timothy 6:6-8. "Now godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and clothing, we shall be content." If you think about it, if you're content, it is hard to complain about your circumstances. Why would you? I mean, I think about it. I mean, I have everything I need. Why would I need to complain and say, "Oh, I wish I had a better house"? I have a house. That's like more than most people have in the world. Not as nice a house as I live in. Another idea relating to that is that we slowly develop responses of gratitude and praise.

Instead of grumbling and complaining, instead we can develop a response of gratitude and praise. It took us a while to develop that habit of grumbling and complaining, so it's going to take us a while to slowly replace, when we think about that, to instead replace it with praise and thanksgiving. You might say, "Well, I don't think I really have anything to be thankful for." I've heard that before. Let me share this quote from William Law.

This quote, I'm sharing it in sarcasm, is a quote he said, and I don't think, and I just read it, it's like, I don't think that's how most of us feel, but if you think about it, I think, let's just read and see what you think. "Everyone thinks he may justly say what a wretched, abominable climate he lives in. This man is frequently telling you what a dismal curse of day it is, what intolerable seasons we have. Another thinks he has very little to thank God for.

It is hardly worth his while to live in a world so full of changes and revolution. But these are tempers of great impiety and show that religion has not yet its seat in the heart of these that have them." And obviously, I don't believe that, but I just thought, is that how we think that there honestly isn't anything to be happy and thankful for? I think if we really think about it, there is. Like I said, this is, I could think, an extreme example of what William Law said.

And I found this quote from George McDonald, just implying, like I said, what we can be thankful for. This is a quote from him. "I find everything a blessing. I thank God I'm a poor man." Is that something we can thank for? I don't think any of us are poor who live in here, but I just thought about that. I've met brothers in other countries who are poor, and I think, yes, can we thank God for that? "I thank him for every good book I've fallen with him. I thank him when a child smiles to me.

I thank him when the sun rises or the wind blows on me. Every day I am so happy, or at least so peaceful, or at the worst so hopeful that my very consciousness is thanksgiving." Is that something we can think? It is a blessing if you think about that. To have a good book. I thought about when my children or other children smile at me, that is a blessing too. Or when we can wake up and we have the sunrise, or the feel the breeze on our face, or they see the clouds, that's something we can be thankful for.

That we can find something to be thankful if we're truly honest with ourselves. Here's just some other ideas about being thankful. Here's a verse that is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. "And everything gets thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Now here's some thoughts about being thankful. We can be thankful that we're alive. We can be here. If we weren't alive, we wouldn't, yeah, we would be hopefully with God in paradise. We can be thankful for our relationship with God.

If you're married, you can be thankful for your family or spouse. If you're single, you can be thankful for that state. I didn't get married until I was age 35, and I'm very thankful that I got to have that time period of not being married, and I'm very thankful I can be married as well. We can be thankful that we have the Bible. There's millions of people around the world who would like to have a Bible, and they can't get it either. It doesn't exist in their language.

It's too expensive, or they live in a country that Bible's restricted. We can be thankful that we have friends. Friendship is a very big blessing from God. We can be thankful that we have a church family. How many people have we heard, met, who don't have a church family they can be part of? We can be thankful that we have food, clothing, shelter. Like I said, most people in the world struggle to get that. We can be thankful that we have a job, that we can provide for ourselves.

We can also be thankful that we live in a beautiful world that was created by a good God. Just think about all the people who think this world came through evolution. How could you be thankful for that? That we all came through evolution and that everything just happened by chance. One last thing about this thankfulness, one last quote, the one from William Law.

"And for this reason, I exhort you to this method in your devotion, that every day may be made a day of thanksgiving, and that the spirit of murmur and discontent may be unable to enter into the which is so often employed in singing the praises of God." I just thought about that. If we're truly singing the praises of God because we really are thankful for him, it's going to be hard to sing a praise of discontent and murmuring because they don't go together.

Something else I thought about as we try to overcome complaining, be careful who you hang out with. Are your close friends and companions people who like to complain just like you? Hopefully not, but if they are, William Law made this comment, and I think it's true. As anger produces angry words, so angry words increase anger. The same idea with complaining.

If you complain and you're with other people who complain, all your complaining kind of goes down, spirals downhill like a snowball, and everybody's complaining about whatever that is in their life, and you all maybe all feel sorry for yourselves at the end, but that's not what I think we're supposed to be doing. Remember what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, yeah, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 33. "Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits." Something to think about.

William Law even said this. Now, I think we want to be careful because people can do this rudely, inconsistently, self-righteously, but I think he had a very good point. If a man, whenever he was in the company where anyone swore, talked lewdly, which would be talked not very nice, sinfully, or spoke evil of his neighbor, should make it a rule to himself, either gently to reprove him, or if that were not proper, then to leave the company as decently as he could.

You would find that this little rule, like a little leaven hidden in a great quantity of meal, would spread and extend itself through the whole form of his life. I think there's some truth in that statement. I think you'd want to be careful because you could come out as self-righteous and judgmental depending on how you did it, but I think there is truth.

I mean, I know I think most of us have been worth people who weren't doing something that we thought was right, and we left hopefully in a nice way and stuff, but I think there's some truth in that. We want to think about this in our own life with just trying to overcome complaining. Remember, as I said, we didn't just develop this sinful habit of complaining in one day. It took days, different incidents that instead of being thankful in both good and bad circumstances, we complained. Something that it developed.

It's not something that, oh, I decided I'm going to be a constant complainer. At least it didn't happen in my life. It was days, weeks, months, maybe years. So for us to overcome it with being able to give thanks to God and praise and thanksgiving and gratefulness, it's going to take a little time. It's not going to be a once and done. We repent and we're done. I think it's going to, like I said, we're going to have to just make small steps. Small times of praying to God and repenting.

Small steps of saying praise, thanksgiving, being grateful. Small steps of catching yourself in complaining and realizing, oops, I'm complaining, I need to stop. And if I think that we do that with God's help and grace and mercy, we can slowly but surely develop a godly habit of being thankful that can help us overcome being unthankful. And William Law made this comment here. Whoops, yeah.

"You're not therefore pleased yourself with thinking how pious you will act and submit to God in the plague or famine or persecution. But be attentive upon the perfection of the present day. Be assured that the best way of showing a true zeal is to make little things the occasions of great piety." Again, that we have to do it in the day in, day out.

Because we're not going to be ready for it if we have, like I said, a plague, famine, or persecution on complaining if we haven't done an everyday little incident, oh, we didn't get our rain. My car broke down, whatever. Somebody spilled milk on the floor or something. Like I said, you have to do it in little things.

One last comment about this complaining is, as I was studying, I know if we remember in the book of Acts, the Hellenists had the concern, and they used the word complaint, that their widows weren't getting food in the daily distribution. So at least in that case, it was a correct thing that they brought that complaint to the Apostles.

Because if you remember what the Apostles said in Acts 6:1-3, "Now in those days, when the number of the disciples were multiplying, there arose a complaint." It's the same word that, yeah, that is, I was reading that, "against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution." Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.

Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business." And obviously, in this case, whatever the concern was legitimate, and the Apostles listened, and they appointed men to take care of the problem. So I don't know when that time would come, uncertain, but I do know we do have it that it was something that was actually a true concern, and the Apostles appointed the deacons to take care of the problem.

So we shared this warning. We shared what is grumbling, why grumbling is a sin, the inconsistency of being a follower of Jesus, and at the same time being a grumbler, and steps to help you overcome the sinful habit of grumbling. One final quote from William Law about this. "On the other hand, would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most. It is not he who gives most alms or is most imminent for temperance, charity, or justice.

But it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God willeth, who receives everything as an instance of God's goodness, and has a heart always ready to praise God for it." That is all I have this morning.