21 Days to the Life You've Always Wanted

Part 4 -- Maintaining No Complaining

Prayer -

Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we can gather in Your house this day and we thank you for the complete and total forgiveness that You have given us. We thank You that we are forever reconciled to You, that we can approach You, and that we can have a relationship with You. Thank You, Lord, that you care about us, and that you speak to us. And now, Lord, You will speak to us through Your words in the Bible. May Your Holy Spirit accompany Your words, may they give us wisdom and understanding so that we may know what You have  to say to us this day.   And we pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen

Scripture Readings-

Some background on our first reading from the Book of Exodus - the people had been in slavery in Egypt and had cried out to the Lord asking for deliverance. God delivered them, brought them out of slavery and they are now in the desert, backed up against the Red Sea with Pharaoh and his troops pursuing them. As we know, sometimes God backs us into a corner so that He can show us   His great deliverance. That was God’s plan here; He had Pharaoh pursue the people so that He could show His great deliverance, so that people would be awestruck by His greatness. That’s what God is planning, but what do we have? We have people complaining!

Old Testament – Exodus 14:10-14 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still

Our second reading from Philippians tells us that when we take what is bothering us and give it to the Lord, we can be at peace and rejoice.

Epistle –Philippians 4:4-8  Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.

In our Gospel Lesson for today, Jesus sets us straight. So often we think that as God’s people, life should be going better than it is; that we should have fewer problems, fewer persecutions, that, as a Christian, life should be a bowl of cherries all the time. In this reading, God sets us straight; we are soldiers under the Cross, the easy life is going to come when we get to heaven, but for now we are soldiers under the Cross.

Gospel – John 15:18-20 (The words of Jesus)  “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master’. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

Sermon –

Today we’re going to conclude our series “21 Days to the Life You’ve Always Wanted”, a life where you feel healthier and happier, a life where you have more satisfaction in your daily activities, more job satisfaction, fewer conflicts in your relationships, more peace and more joy. And, as you know, you only have to do one thing – you don’t have to change the world around you – you just have to change something you have control over – complaining! God tells us in Philippians 2:14 that we are to do everything without complaining. Many times we feel it is our God-given right to complain, which it is not. Many times we think it makes us feel good to complain, which it doesn’t; when you stop complaining, you will feel fantastic!

God always talks about renewing things, changing things, changing our lives around. Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about the fact that when we complain, we are doing what our sinful nature tells us to do. Because complaining is sin, it is something that comes naturally to us. So how do we change? We all have the complaining habit, so how do we change? It takes twenty-one days to develop a new habit so that’s why we’re calling this series “21 Days to the Life You’ve Always Wanted.” The theory is to wear one of these purple wristbands and, every time you find yourself complaining, take the wristband off and put it on the other wrist and try to go twenty-one days with your purple band on just one wrist! Accomplish this and you have developed the “no-complaining” habit and you will feel great! And by the way, if you need a wristband, call the church office at (603) 352-4446 and let us know.

Today, we want to finish the series and discuss just what complaining is and what complaining isn’t. We want to look at the difference between complaining and dissatisfaction. Complaining brings unhappiness, dissatisfaction brings progress and solutions. Here we are at the end of September; looming off in a couple of months is snow and one of the things we complain a lot about here is snow. Think about shoveling snow for a minute; so often we say that shoveling snow is just one big pain in the backside. That’s complaining! We look at our snow shovels and say, “I’m going to have to use this out in the cold, it hurts my back, it’s so uncomfortable.” That’s complaining. But if we say, “Shoveling snow is one big pain in the backside; maybe I could do something about it. Maybe I could take a snow shovel and put a kink or two in the handle and get a different kind of shovel so I won’t have to bend over so much and make it a little bit easier to shovel. That wouldn’t be half bad!” The better snow shovel didn’t come from complaining, it came from dissatisfaction. It came because someone was dissatisfied with shoveling snow with a conventional shovel and found a better way. Dissatisfaction led to progress and solutions. Keep that in mind – it will help you determine the difference between complaining and dissatisfaction. Complaining leads to unhappiness, dissatisfaction leads to progress and solutions. It’s not complaining if it H-E-L-P-S! As you express the problem, theHeard Expression Leads to Progress and Solutions.

And, as we’ve talked about over the last several weeks, here is the outline to:

HAVING THE LIFE YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED…..

• DO EVERYTHING WITHOUT COMPLAINING –  Philippians 2:14

• PUT OFF THE OLD SELF…BE MADE NEW IN THE ATTITUDE OF YOUR MIND – Ephesians 4:22-23

• WHATEVER IS…PRAISEWORTHY – THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS – Philippians  4:8

• USE THE WRISTBAND AS AN AID TO BREAK THE OLD HABIT OF COMPLAINING AND START A NEW LIFE THAT IS COMPLAINT FREE.

• ENJOY YOUR NEW LIFE; THE LIFE YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED!

You need the power of God’s Word to stop complaining; you can’t do this on your own. God tells us to do everything without complaining (Philippians 2:14), and because the Holy Spirit accompanies God’s Word, He is there to help. The next thing we read is in Ephesians 4:22-23, “Put off the old self…be made new in the attitude of your mind” and the Holy Spirit is there to help you put off the old complaining self and to put on the new “no-complaining” self. Then Philippians 4:8 says, “Whatever is…praiseworthy – think about such things”, and we will talk about that is a few seconds. Use the wristband as an aid you will enjoy your new life!

Today, we want to talk about “Maintaining No Complaining” How do we maintain a “no-complaint” life? If we feel the desire to complain about something, the first thing we want to ask ourselves is - Is what I am complaining about true? In our Old Testament lesson we read that the Israelites had cried out to God for deliverance from slavery in Egypt and He delivered them. And now they are saying to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?’’(Verse 11).   Is that complaining? It sure is, there’s no solution, they are simply complaining! Is it true that there are no graves in Egypt? No. Is it true that Moses brought them out into the desert? No, it wasn’t Moses’ idea, it was God’s idea. God used Moses to do it, but it was God that brought them out into the desert. And let’s read on: Verse 12, the Israelites said to Moses, “Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”   That’s not what they said, everything they’re complaining about in these verses is simply not true. God brought them into the desert and God would deliver them; He would do something great. If I say, “All it did last summer was rain!”, that’s just not true; there were some pretty nice days last summer. If I say, “All it does around here in the winter is snow!”, that’s just not true; there are some days when it doesn’t snow! You have to ask yourself, “Is what I’m complaining about true?

The next thing we want to ask ourselves is - Is what I’m complaining about realistic? So often it is unrealistic to think that the events we are complaining about wouldn’t occur.   We have to remember that you and I are soldiers under the Cross working for Jesus every day so that repentance and forgiveness of sin would be preached in His name. That’s the plan for our lives; that’s what He tells us in Luke 24. To think that we’re not going to have opposition is simply unrealistic. Can we realistically get up in the morning and think that the devil is not going to do things in our lives to try to discourage us and make our lives difficult? Jesus said it would happen; He tells us in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble”, but He also says, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.” Trust in Him and see the great deliverance He will bring to you.

And we have to ask ourselves is - What would my life be like if I didn’t think about it? I’ll give you an example. I have something in this envelope. Not one of you have complained about what’s in it; not one of you have let what’s in this envelope ruin your morning, or your day, or your week. Why is that? Because you don’t know what’s in the envelope! And because you don’t know what’s in the envelope, you can’t think about it, therefore it’s not affecting your quality of life, it’s not tearing you down, it’s not a sink-hole that you’re going into. Because you have absolutely no idea what’s in this envelope, it can’t bother you. And what’s in this envelope is not true or realistic, so why spend time thinking about it? It can’t ruin the quality of your life.

The last thing we need to ask ourselves is - What if my complaint is true; what if my complaint is realistic? Even if what is in this envelope is true and realistic you can still have peace. Philippians 4:6 says; “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” So, take the situation that’s true that’s bothering you, or the situation that’s realistic that’s bothering you and give it to God in prayer and ask Him what you can do that would lead to progress or solutions. If He is not giving you any clear direction about the solution to the problem, or if it’s so removed from you that you can’t do anything about it, let God act. He does answer prayer. Don’t be anxious, give it to God in prayer with thanksgiving, let God handle it, and you don’t have to think about it. Let God do the thinking about it.  Let God provide the solution. You don’t have to think about it because God will do it.

So what will your life be like if you don’t think about it? Let’s read what your life will be like - you’ve given it to God and you get on this “thanksgiving kick” where you dwell on what is right and positive in your life and you thank God for the circumstance and then -read what verse seven says: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” Don’t think about the bad stuff; don’t complain about the way things are, that’s not God’s way. Think about the good stuff and God’s peace will be with you, God’s joy will be with you and happiness will be with you.

Now, since I was on vacation last week I’ve had two weeks to think about and process this whole “no-complaining” idea. And, I have to say, my vacation was the vacation I’ve always hoped for, it was the greatest vacation in the world. And it had absolutely nothing to do with what I did on vacation because, to tell you the truth, four of the five relatives I visited back in Wisconsin all have serious health problems, they could die in the next year. And I went to see a Packers game; they played a terribly and were beaten by the Cowboys –   not complaining, just stating the fact – they played terribly! Yet it was a great time, it was the vacation I’ve always wanted. And do you know why I had such a great vacation? I didn’t complain!! When I felt like complaining, I asked myself, “Is it true?” In the past I would have said, “The airlines are always late and it’s always inconvenient to fly.” But that’s complaining. So I asked myself, “Is it true that every flight is late and inconvenient?” That’s simply not true; I had two great flights! I asked myself, “Is it realistic that you can go away for eight days and not have any travel problems?” That’s not realistic! And I asked myself, “What would my life be like if I didn’t think about it?” I’ll tell you what your life is like if you don’t think about it – pretty doggone good!!! I tested the theory out - it does work! I hope you will do the same thing because you can have the life you’ve always dreamed of and you don’t have to change any of your circumstances at all – all you have to do it not complain! The life you’ve always wanted and the life God wants you to have is always less than twenty-one days away!

Prayer –

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your words in the Bible that tell us to do everything without complaining. Help us to do just that. We pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.