How To Overcome A Complaining Attitude Series

Breaking Free Series – July 6th

How to replace a complaining attitude – Numbers 11:1-10

Acknowledgement: James MacDonald ’Lord Change My Attitude Before It’s Too Late’

Introduction

Man went to monastery – where he stayed for three years. They only allowed him to say 2 words a year – at the end of the first year he said “Beds Hard,” 2nd yr - Food Cold, 3ry yr - I Quit - to which the Father replied, well it’s no wonder--all you’ve done since you came here was to complain.

Good morning. We have been in a series called Breaking Free. The Holy Spirit is breaking us free from those strongholds in our lives. The Apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthian church says ‘we have divine power to bring down strongholds (2nd Co. 10:4).”

When Paul wrote about strongholds the Jews had in mind a fortress to protect their lives from the enemy

One fortress was Masada

If you go to Israel you can tour the ruins of Masada

In 67 AD the Romans ransacked Jerusalem – exactly what Jesus prophesied

Some of the Jews fled for their lives to Masada

It took the Romans three years to build a siege to get to the Jews within the stronghold of Masada

When they got to the top they found the whole community had committed suicide

So the Jews have this picture in mind (slide) when the Apostle Paul wrote we have divine power to bring down strongholds

But there are spiritual and satanic strongholds. A stronghold is impenetrable by human methods. Only the Holy Spirit and God’s word can break down the strongholds in our lives.

We have looked at the strongholds of pride, envy, anger, and today we will wind up this series with the stronghold of complaining.

First I want to acknowledge the work of James MacDonald’s book ‘Lord change my attitude before it’s too late.’

In regions of Mexico hot springs and cold springs are found side by side, and because of the convenience of this natural phenomenon the women often bring their laundry, boil their clothes in the hot springs, and then rinse them in the cold springs.

A tourist watching this procedure once commented to his Mexican guide, “They must think God is generous to provide so much free hot and could water!” The guide replied, “No, s˜enor, there is much grumbling because he does not supply the soap!”

The children of Israel were no different: they grumbled constantly. Today were looking at this passage from the Old Testament about the people of Israel.

They had seen the miraculous deliverance by God – about a million of them were set free from slavery in Egypt.

God assigned Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. But somewhere along the journey they lose heart – they start to complain.

They complain because they recall some of the good food from Egypt. They really doubt God and his call on their lives. They doubt his purpose for their lives. They doubt his provision in their lives. They doubt his promise for their lives.

But we can learn from this. The Bible says ‘These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come (1 Co. 10:6).

There are three lessons that we need to learn from this passage.

1. Wilderness attitude number one is complaining

God knows everything and sees everything

He knows whether your in the desert or on the mountaintop

He is your provider

He will meet your needs wherever you are, so don’t complain

Say it in sentence ‘complaining is an attitude choice that if left unchecked will kill my capacity to experience joy and genuine thankfulness’ (James MacDonald)

Complaining is contagious

Complaining is like a cancer, a wildfire, it spreads rapidly!

Cancer is dangerous, and so is complaining!

It often starts with one person and spreads around as is evidenced by our text this morning

Compare our way of life with the low quality of life people in other countries experience. Is it fair for us, with our rich infrastructure, our clean water, our incredible natural resources, to complain when poor Indians from India have to climb over sleeping beggars on their way to work? Who should be complaining here?"

We are warned over and over not to complain

Complaining is when I express resentment over circumstances that are beyond my control

God says the worst kind of complaining is ‘those who complain about adversity’

Why me?

Why do I have to go through that?

Why do I have to go through this and others have it so easy?

Why can’t my life be normal?

Why do I live in Red Lake?

Why do I have this husband?

Now for sure life is tough