Grumble Or Grow!

GRUMBLE OR GROW!

Exodus 16:1-8

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. A lawyer, a doctor, and a preacher went deer hunting together when along came a big buck. The three of them all shot at the same time, and immediately the buck dropped to the ground.

2. They all rushed up to examine the deer, but couldn't determine whose shot had actually killed it.

3. They were in the middle of a heated argument when a game warden came by and asked what the problem was. The doctor told him that they were debating who shot the buck.

4. The warden took one look at the buck and immediately pronounced, “The preacher shot the buck!” They all wondered how he knew that so quickly.

5. To which the warden said, “Easy. The bullet went in one ear and out the other.” (As retold by P. J. Alindogan).

B. TEXT

16 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” 1-3

6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In…the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”

C. THESIS

1. I’m going to talk about something we all do – grumble. We don’t think God cares – if we mumble and grumble, but He does.

2. We’re going to look at what grumbling is, why we shouldn’t grumble, and look at the alternatives to grumbling.

3. The title of this message is “Grumble or Grow!”

I. WHAT IS GRUMBLING?

A. DEFINITION:

1. complain or protest about something in a bad-tempered but typically quiet way.

2. to murmur or mutter in discontent; complain sullenly.

3. Why would the Lord care if they quietly grumbled?

B. WHAT DID THEY GRUMBLE ABOUT?

1. What a. they drank (15:24)

b. What they would eat (16:2)

c. Missing the food they had in Egypt (16:3)

d. They grumbled about their leaders (16:8)

e. About WHAT they were given (16:13-15)

f. About HOW MUCH they were given (16:17-22).

2. They had developed a grumbling “spirit.” A grumbling spirit is displeasing to God!

3. See Num. 11:1; “Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.”

4. In Num. 14:29, God told them that all the complainers would die in the desert. So grumbling and complaining are not pleasing to the Lord.

C. WHO THEY GRUMBLED WAS AGAINST

1. The Israelites thought they were grumbling against Moses or Aaron, but they were really grumbling against God. 2. Moses’ own sister Miriam was afflicted with leprosy for speaking against Moses. Why?

3. Because God was ultimately in charge of their lives and He has set up those who are in authority.

4. “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” Rom. 13:1-2.

5. The Israelites were ultimately questioning God’s character – whether He would provide for them or not.

II. 4 REASONS WE SHOULD NOT GRUMBLE:

A. GRUMBLING is COUNTERPRODUCTIVE

1. 1 Cor. 10:10 says, "And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel." Phip. 2:14 says, "Do everything without grumbling or arguing.”

2. Grumbling is counterproductive and doesn't benefit anyone. Not one ounce of good came from their grumbling.

3. Q - Isn’t it easy to fall into a perpetual state of discontent and find something wrong with everything?

4. Not everything can be done as you would do it. Rather than complaining, if you think there is a better way, make a positive suggestion.

B. GRUMBLING IS CONTAGIOUS

1. When the Israelites sent 12 spies in to inspect the land, 10 of them brought back a bad report. Numbers 14:36, “So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it.”