Replace A Complaing Attitude Series

3. Thirdly complaining involves circumstances not people. This is important because we are going to deal with negative talk about people later on. When our complaints focus on people it is criticism but when the focus is things it is complaining.

Trans. What is the bottom line of all of this? The bottom line is that God hates Complaining.

III. GOD HATES COMPLAINING.

I think that what we have read in just these first three verses makes this point very clear but we will see this even more as we continue on in this study. One thing that we need to remember as we think about our own complaining is that God is listening to us.

A. God Is Listening To Us.

1. Look with me at V.1 again (read). If you know about the travels of the children of Israel while they were in the desert then you know that God made His presence known to them by a cloud following them by day and fire by night. Yet despite the fact that God made Himself known to them they still had the nerve to complain about the way He was doing things. We do not have a cloud hovering over our heads during the day nor do we have the fire over us at night but God is with us nonetheless. In fact the Bible tells us that he resides in us through the Holy Spirit, yet how mindful are we of God’s presence and what He is listening to as we speak? Think about the conversations you had last week, how would any of those conversations changed if God were standing there beside you? Well the fact is that He was. Was He pleased with our conversations or did we disappoint Him by our negative complaints and criticisms?

Trans. You know its one thing to complain about the weather or about the traffic or about our jobs but let me show you what I think the worst kind of complaining is.

B. The Worst Kind Of Complaining.

1. What upset God was the fact that these people were complaining about the situation that God had them in. They were complaining about their hardships. Now consider the context of this scripture. To understand this you need to look at 10:11-13 (read). What this scripture tells us that after two years at the foot of Mt. Sinai getting directions for how they were to live as they entered into God’s promises it was now time to set out for the promise land. Then look at 10:33 (read). It was just three days after they set out to inherit God promise for them that they began to complain about their hardships. WAIT A MINUTE! What kind of hardships could they have had after just three days?!

2. Let me tell you what I think was going on here. I think what was happening here is why this was the kind of complaining that God hated. It was complaints over the fact that things had changed, that things were not comfortable for them like it had been. What they were doing now was not the way they had been doing things and they didn’t like the change. Listen, if you want to know what is really inside a person just make some changes for them. I guarantee you that you will discover just how mature they are. None of us likes change and yet change has to happen or we become stagnant and lifeless. Without change there can be no growth in our lives.