 your Bibles with you, would you please turn with me to the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 16 as we get into God's Word. And tonight I'm so thrilled and excited for the topic of what we are going to be talking about tonight, because tonight I want to talk to you about how to overcome the natural tendency that each of us have to complain constantly. You're laughing already. I have a feeling this is going to resonate with many people's lives, because in the times in which we live in, there's always something to complain about. So I want to share a message with you. If you take a note tonight, I want you to write this down. The title of the message, Overcoming Constant Complaining. Overcoming Constant Complaining. And let's pray one more time and ask God to bless this time that we have to be in His Word. Lord, as we open up your Word, we pray once again that your Word would do the work that your Word was sent out to accomplish, that it would touch our hearts and our lives in such a way that our lives would be changed forever. We don't only want to be hearers of the Word, God, we want to be doers of the Word. So Lord, we pray that you would speak to us, that we would hear your words spoken to us and that by your Spirit, you would empower us to live it out. So Lord, we pray for fresh revelation and application from your Word into our lives this night, that we could apply your Word in such a way that our lives would be changed forever. In Jesus' name, amen. The list is endless when it comes to all the different things that we have to complain about. Isn't it true? There's so many different things. For some people, it's the reality that every other person on the road is an inferior driver. Maybe you've had a situation like most of us have where you're cruising down the freeway around the speed limit, no more than 30 miles over, and all of a sudden another car decides just to merge into your lane. No blinker, no sign of them coming, and they're cruising at about 15 miles an hour on the freeway. There's no one in front of them, and then they begin to slam on their brakes for no apparent reason. Now, I know what you do because it's the same thing that I do. We start complaining about it. Like, how in the world does this person have a driver's license? Who taught them how to drive? How are they still legally driving? You know, what is their problem? What kind of moron is this on the road? Can you believe this? And if there's other people in the car, we complain about their driving to them. If it's not someone driving on the road, maybe it's your house. You know, I can't believe the house is such a mess. Why is the house such a mess? And the lights, the lights are always left on. Why are the lights left on? If you have kids, then you ask that question often. I can't believe it, but I sound a lot like my dad did 30 years ago. You need to turn your lights off. And not only are the lights always left on, but the kids leave messes. You know, the laundry basket is always empty. The clothes around the laundry basket are always piling up. Can't you get the clothes into the laundry basket? And I'm not talking to the kids anymore. That's usually your spouse. It's the house is a mess. The house is never picked up. We live in a pigsty. The people on the freeway, they don't know how to drive. Everyone's a worse driver than I am. It's not the house is a mess or the people driving on the freeways. Well, for many of us, no matter how many times you tell them to remove that you off their call list, telemarketers always seem to have your number. And every time we say remove me off the list, they somehow send your number to every other list. It's not telemarketers calling. The line in the drive through is just too long. This was fast food. Now I'm eating slow food. It's not the drive through is too long. It's the toilet seat was left up or why do I always crave Chick-fil-A on Sundays? And you know what? I get in the line at Chick-fil-A every Sunday and there's no one in line. It's a miracle. Praise the Lord. I don't have to wait for an hour until I get to the window. Oh, they have to be closed on Sunday. Why do they have to be closed? Oh, they're a Christian company. And the list goes on and on and on, doesn't it? About all the different things that we could complain about. We even complain about the day of the week it is. Like we're not even satisfied with the current day that we are ever in. You realize that? Mondays, I hate Mondays. Mondays are the worst. I can't believe Monday. You know, I just dread Mondays. Mondays are the worst. What did Monday ever do to you? But we hate Mondays. You think at the later the week would go on, the happier would be about the day that it is, but we're not. We complain when Wednesday rolls around. I can't believe it's only Wednesday. It feels like Friday. I think it should be Friday, but it's only Wednesday and I can't believe it's only Wednesday. And then Sunday rolls around after church. I can't believe we're already back to Monday. It's not even Monday yet and you're already back on Monday again. We complain about everything. And even if we don't have something to complain about, we'll find something to complain about. It's interesting that there's been studies done that in our country about 78% of the words people speak in our country are complaints, negative thoughts about things that we don't like that are taking place. 78% of the things that we speak, but you know what's also pretty sad about this? As Americans find an alarming number of things to complain about, so do Christians. And it's interesting in the study it showed that really all people groups, including Christians, there is very little difference between Christians and non-Christians that we all always are complaining. And that study was done before the most recent election. The number 78% has probably gone way up since then. You know, I can't believe $6 a gallon, $6 a gallon. I remember when I paid $2 a gallon and then your grandpa was like, yeah, well, I remember it was 32 cents a gallon. I remember it only cost me a nickel to get a thing of milk, you know, and everyone is complaining about everything that's going on. And that's why today I want to talk to you about how to overcome constant complaining. You see, there isn't a better example of a group of complainers than the people in our text today in the book of Exodus chapter 16. If complaining was an Olympic sport, these people would have taken the gold. See, the Israelites spent hundreds of years in bondage as slaves in Egypt. They complained about their conditions and they cried out to God and asked for God to deliver them out of the bondage in Egypt, so God heard their cries and he raised up a deliverer, Moses, and he sent Moses to these people to deliver them and God starts to work through Moses by bringing about plagues upon Egypt, but many of those plagues not only affected Egypt, but they also were temporarily inconvenient and uncomfortable for the people of Israel too. Some of the plagues were limited just to the Egyptians, but other plagues affected all the people in the land. And you know what they started doing when all the plagues started affecting them? They started, you guessed it, complaining. Oh, Moses, just leave us alone. We don't want you to deliver us. You're making things worse for us. Moses, we don't like you, but after the 10 plagues, they finally are freed and they start rejoicing and praising God. They make their way down to a place called Paiahirah between two bodies of water. Their backs are completely surrounded by water and at that time Pharaoh decides, you know what, if I can't keep them as my slaves, I'm just going to go kill them all. And so he takes his entire army in hot pursuit of the Israelites and he finds them trapped with their backs against the body of water. And as they see the people of Israel see the Egyptian army coming full speed at them, you know what they start to do again? You guessed it, complaining again. And they start complaining to Moses in Exodus chapter 14 verse 11 and 12. I'll read it to you. They said it this way. You can hear the tone in which they're said it to. I'll just help you understand a little bit. Why? Why, Moses? You can hear them whining. Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt that year? Why did you make us leave our slavery? Make you? You were dying to get out of that place. Literally, you were dying to get out of this place. They said in verse 12, didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? Have you ever heard someone say that to you? Didn't we tell you this would happen? Have you ever heard those words? I told you so. I told you this would happen. That's the type of attitude they're having with Moses. And they said it this way. Leave us alone. Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness. Moses after several hundred years of the nation of Israel crying out to God for deliverer. God finally sends them what they've been praying and asking for. You know what they say? Oh yeah, we loved being slaves. Oh really? In the words of Nacho Libre, it's the best. Really? They say, oh, we had it so good. But then, well, God shows up and God parts the Red Sea. And the nation of Israel walks across on dry ground. Pharaoh pursues with his army after the Israelites. But after the Israelites cross, God closes the sea and completely destroys the entire army of Egypt. And I always wondered why that was mentioned in the Bible. The Lord showed me it was such an epiphany, just the obvious answer because Egypt in the Bible is the type of the world. And God sent a deliverer, Moses, which is the type of Jesus, to come and to lead us out of the world. As the people are making their way to the Promised Land, which is the type of the spirit filled life, God destroys the enemy completely, renders their power useless to ever have the power to bring them back into bondage again. And God does the same thing with you when he delivers you out of the world. He destroys the enemy's power when he died on the cross for your sins. And the enemies rendered powerless to ever bring you back and have the power to bring you back into bondage once God takes you and delivers you completely. And so, they get to the other side and they're free. And you know what they start doing? Well, they start worshiping and praising God. God, you're so good to us. Lord, thank you. And Moses writes the song, the first worship song ever recorded in the Bible. And then Moses, his sister, Maryam, she joins in and she writes a little diddy. And she sings a little song much shorter than Moses says, but she sings one too. They just break out in spontaneous praise unto God because God's so good. And he delivered them completely. And then they travel three days, three days at this point. The resources that they took from Egypt with them are now gone. And they don't have any water. So, you know what the people of Israel start to do again? You guessed it, complain. And they complain against Moses. And actually this chapter 15, verse 24, it says, the people complained and turned against Moses. What are we going to drink? They demanded. You see, there was no water. And then God led them to a place that was called Mara. They see an oasis in the wilderness. And so they run to this oasis. They jump and they begin to drink the water. And then they spit it out because they realized this water, it was bitter. It was undrinkable. It's like in a mouthful of ocean water. You know, no one ever thinks like, oh, let me drink a whole gallon of that. It was unpalatable. God ended up doing a miracle at that place and made that bitter water sweet that was drinkable again. But before God did that, they began to complain even that much more. And the reason why is sometimes we find ourselves complaining even more when we think what we want will satisfy and then we get it and we realize that's not what we really needed. And so they found themselves complaining, complaining and complaining. But then God led them to a place called Elim, which was a place of 12 springs and 70 palm trees, a place where they could be completely refreshed. And now they're happy again and praising God again. And that's where we pick up in our text once again. In Exodus, chapter 16, they leave Elim and they journeyed from Elim verse one of chapter 16. And all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of sin. You might think, uh-oh, they came to the wilderness of sin, sin city, uh-oh, they're in, they're in Las Vegas, Nevada. But don't mistake this word sin with the English word sin. You see the English word sin comes from an old English word, which literally means to miss the mark. You see in an archery tournament, if you aimed for the bullseye, you know, Robin Hood style and you shot for the bullseye, but you didn't hit the bullseye. Everything other than the bullseye was missing the mark and they would say sin, you missed the mark. So in translating the Bible from Hebrew and Greek to English, they had to come up with an English word for missing the mark, not hitting the bullseye. And so they used that old English word in the King James version, sin, because that was applicable, that meant miss the mark. That's what the people would understand in speaking English in that day. The word here for sin isn't that English word. This word sin is literally an abbreviation for the region of Sinai. And so it's, it's sin is the entire area that included Mount Sinai. And that's where we see the people gathering. It was not a wrong place for them to be. It was actually the place that God led them. And this place was, was between Elim and Sinai. And on the 15th day of the second month, after they departed from the land of Egypt, and then it says in verse two, then the whole congregation of the children of Israel, here it is again, complained against Moses and Aaron and the wilderness. You know what they do right after they see God see them through? They complain again. Right after, every time it would complain, God would show up in a powerful way and do something miraculously. And then shortly after that they would complain again. You're gonna get so annoyed with these people by the time that we're done with them, until you realize much of what they do is exactly what we do in our lives too. That in the middle of seeing God come through for us over and over and over again. Right after we see God come through when we don't see what God currently is doing, we too can find ourselves complaining about our current situations. You see these people whine and gripe and complain right after God would come through. And we do the same thing too. It says in verse three, and the children of Israel said to them, oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. When we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Their resources are now gone. They're out of food. They have nothing left to eat, nothing to feed their children, nothing to give to their livestock. They're completely out of resource. They begin complaining and saying, you know what, we're going to die out here. Remember how good we had it back in Egypt? Oh, we had plates full of meat. You know, rib-eyes every night for dinner. Filet mignons. Oh, it was so good back in those days. You think, no, they didn't. It never records them ever having that type of food that they got that as slaves, but they didn't remember their past properly. I think a lot of times when we go through difficulty presently, it can cause us to not remember our past properly. You've heard it before. Maybe you've even been guilty of saying it. You know, all those were the good old days. Oh, really? What was so good? Oh, yeah, my buddies and all. You know, we were really lifted up back in those days, you know, partying and all of that. We're fighting and all, but those were the good old days. No, they weren't. There was nothing good about those days, but we quickly remember the pleasure and forget the pain. Our brains are wired in such a way. Psychologists and people, scientists who study the brain activity, say that the pleasure is remembered more than pain, but our mind blocks out the pain to protect our brains. So we just think about, you know, the old days as the good old days. There was nothing good about those days when you were far from Christ. Nothing. But we don't remember the past properly. And when we don't remember the past properly, it causes us to struggle with our current walk with the Lord presently. When we don't remember what God has saved us from. May it be true for each of us that we never forget in some ways that even after the Lord heals us, that we never forget what the Lord has saved us from. So that we would never stop being grateful and thankful and having a reason to praise and thank the Lord every time we gather in church for what he's saved us from. A fate worse than death, no doubt. The Lord is gracious to us, but these people, well, they complain. They complain against the Lord and look how patient and gracious God is. Look at verse four. Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I might test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, at evening, you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. Now God promises to provide for his people right after their complaining against the Lord. They complain about the Lord's provision for them, but God says that's not going to change my nature and what I'm going to do for them. I'm going to provide bread from heaven, what we know as manna. As you read through this chapter, you'll see later in the chapter, they name manna. Manna literally means, what's that? They didn't know what it was, so they named it, what's that? You know, the whatchamacallit stuff out in the desert, go gather the whatchamacallit. That's literally what manna means. We don't know what that is, so we named it, I don't know. So manna, God promises to provide manna from heaven for them. So they use this manna to make all sorts of food. They make manna, coddy, but manna, nut bread. Even they add some but manna splits. They use this manna to make food. It's God's provision for them. When you listen to and obey what God is calling you to do, He will make sure that you have everything that you need to. When Mary the mother of Jesus submitted herself to God's plan for her life, the wise men came out of nowhere from the east and provided frankincense and myrrh and gold. You see, Jesus would have a hit on him, Herod would want him dead and so God would send an angel to warn Joseph and Mary and tell them to take Jesus to Egypt until I tell you it's safe to return. They were there for two years but God knew what was going to happen in their future and so God already sent and provided for them through the gold from the wise men. God would provide all that they would need to do that all that God would call them to do when they would submit themselves to God's plan. When Abraham went up to Mount Moriah to sacrifice Isaac, a ram was found in the other side. When Elijah went to the brook, God sent ravens to feed him. It was the first case of Uber Eats and when Moses was obedient to lead the people out of Egypt, God provided manna from heaven. God will always give you what you need when you're obedient to do what God has called you to. And then it says in verse seven, And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord for he hears your complaints against the Lord. But what are we that you complain against us? Also, Moses said, This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and in the morning bread to the full for the Lord hears your complaints which you make, notice this, underline this against him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord. Interesting, Moses gives us some insight about when people who are followers of God complain about our current situations. Do you realize as Christians that when we complain about our current situations, all we're doing is talking negatively about God? If you truly believe that God is in control and you truly believe that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above, and if you truly believe that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purposes, that when we find ourselves complaining about what's going on in our life, all we're doing is saying I don't like the plan that God has me on. And what we're doing is we are talking bad about God. Do you realize that when we talk to people about our complaints, we're talking negatively about what God is currently doing because we don't understand what God is currently doing, but God has a plan and he's working all things together for good. And just because you don't see it doesn't mean that God's not in it. So many times when we don't see what God is currently doing, our natural tendency is to complain about what's happening in the workplace or we complain about anyone or anything to other people, but if we truly believe that God is in control, there should be nothing that we ever have to complain about because we believe the promises of God's Word and what God said is true. See what is it in your life that you find yourself complaining about the most? It could be for you, maybe as a single woman, complained about not being married, you know? I don't know why I'm not married. You know that other girl at church? She's engaged now, yeah. That guy liked her. She's been serving church. She's here every other week, if that. And here I am still single. God, why don't you have someone for me? I'm serving you with my life. I'm still single and then you get married and the complaints don't go away. God, why would you give me this man? He never puts his clothes in the laundry basket and the toilet seat always left up. Lord, why? My husband, he chews his food loud. He talks funny. He walks funny. He looks funny. Maybe for you, it's your job. I hate my job, you might say. You know what? My boss, he's a moron. He's an idiot. He drives me crazy. The meetings are long. They're boring. For you, it might be traffic. Traffic is so bad. I hate traffic. We'll just welcome this other in California. And for many people, it's the weather. You know, it's just, I don't know. What's up with this weather? You know, this weather is just crazy right now. So hot lately. Have you realized how hot it's been? It's way too hot for me. You know, it's like 76 degrees. It's way too hot. And then the next week, oh, it's freezing. It's freezing this week. You know, I don't understand how it's so hot one week and so cold the next week. You know, the government controlling with the chemtrails and all of these things. I just can't believe it. Wait, you were complaining that it was too hot when it was 76 and now it's 74. It's too cold. Yeah, I like it to be 75. That's why I live in Southern California. I like 75 and that's the only degree that I like. And that's why I pay $27 million to live in a shack in Southern California because I like 75 degrees. It's not the weather, the Wi-Fi. My Wi-Fi is too slow. There's nothing to binge watch on Netflix. A million shows on Netflix and not one of them are good. Or the music we listen to. You know, I can't believe. How is Nickelback still on the radio? The worst band known to man. Justin Who, Bieber, what? Twilight. And we had complained about everything. But what I want us to understand today, and this is important church, what I want us to understand today is that when we complain, the weather is not your problem. The slow connection of your Wi-Fi is not your problem. The lack of original content that meets your viewing requirements is not your problem. The problem is this, that Satan has taken your eyes off the goodness of God and placed them squarely on yourself. And that is the problem. You see, our spiritual enemy has distracted us and taken our eyes off of the enormous, vast blessings that God has given to us. And taken our eyes off the goodness and hugeness of the grace of God and God has to put our eyes on the smallness of ourselves. That, my dear friends, is our problem. You see, complaining takes place in your life when you take your eyes off of God and you put them on yourself. That's when complaining starts. And we are all so prone to complaining. You see, this message would be pretty easy to beat you guys up with. It really would. Because we are all guilty of it, except me. I'm the only perfect one here. We are all so guilty of complaining. But today, my intention isn't to beat you up to say, complaining is bad. You know, this message is called Quick Complaining. Suck it up, baby. Oh, nice title of a message. You see, we all are so prone to complain. Matter of fact, some of you complained on the way to church tonight. I can't believe we're late to church again. How many of you have ever had that conversation? We need to get this done sooner so that we can get to church on time because we're going to have to walk in late now and everyone's going to have to look at us. And the ushers are going to say, oh, late again, huh? And we're going to have to deal with all this lateness. And then I get to church late and you know what I find? Someone's in my seat. Don't they know that is my seat? They must be new to church. I'm glad we got new people coming to church, taking my seats. And we complain about everything even on the way to church, but I don't want to encourage you just not to complain. But tonight, I want to give you a key understanding that will keep you from complaining. I want to let you know of a biblical strategy. It's a strategy that I try to implement in my own life. I want you to write this down. This will keep you from complaining. Number one, write this down. When you are praising, it is impossible to be complaining more than just telling you to take the complaints out of your mouth. That's not going to be enough to keep you from complaining. It's what you need to put in your mouth. You see, when we complain, our eyes are on ourselves, but when we worship, it takes our eyes off of ourselves and it puts our eyes upon God. You see, worship takes our eyes from our current situation and it lifts it above our current situation and it puts our eyes where it should be. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2 says, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning the shame. You see, when you worship, it takes your eyes off of your problems and it puts them on Jesus. When you worship, it takes your eyes off of your worries and it turns them into worship. It takes your eyes off of your problems and it turns them into praise. Worship will change the attitude in which we view our current circumstances. You see, it isn't focused on our current circumstances, but the grander plan that God has. Romans 828 says that we know that God causes everything to work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purposes for them. You see, worship moves us to a higher use of our words. It takes our whining and it transforms it into worship. Psalms 150, verse 6 says, let everything that has breath whine in complaint about your problems. No, it doesn't say that. It says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord and then it says it again, praise the Lord. It does not say, well, you know, in one breath you can complain and in one breath you can worship. No, actually it is impossible to praise God and complain at the same time. Do you realize that? You cannot praise God and give God thanks for who he is and what he's doing and what he's yet to do and complain at the same time. You cannot compliment God and complain about God at the same time. And so that's why it's so important that we take our problems and we turn them into praise. We take our complaints and our whining and we turn it into worship because, number one, when you are praising it is impossible to be complaining. Number two, when you are giving it will keep you from grumbling. I want to take you to the New Testament to close. Turn with me to Philippians chapter two. The reason why I want to go to Philippians chapter two because if anyone had a reason to complain, it was the author of the letter to the Philippian congregation, a man named Paul. Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Philippi from a place that he always wanted to go, a place called Rome. He wanted to go there because it was the most strategic city to spread the gospel. Rome built its kingdom in such a way that all roads led to Rome and Paul knew if all roads led to Rome, then all roads to the entire world that would be known would lead from Rome. So if I could get to Rome, the gospel could spread around the world and so Paul desired to go there as a pastor, but instead he went there as a prisoner. He was arrested and falsely accused. He didn't go there as a preacher, but as a prisoner, now taken there on house arrest and this is after he's been falsely accused. He's been beaten. He's been whipped with a cat of nine tails three times what Jesus went through before the cross. Paul did that three times. He had been imprisoned over and over and over again and finally gets to the point where now he's going to Rome but as a prisoner where he is there held on house arrest for two years, chained to a Roman guard 24 hours a day and waiting very possibly for his execution for two years. Now let that sink in. You have a passion and desire to see the gospel go forward. You've given your life everything all that you are to follow what God's called you to do and all you're doing is being obedient to him and now you have to spend two years in house arrest, two years in lockdown, two years staying in my house and Paul Paul he had reasons. If I was Paul no I think I could have come up with a lot of things to complain about like God this isn't fair. God you know what I'm giving you my life I'm doing what's right it's not like I'm sitting against you God I've literally done everything you've asked me to do and you know what I get in return I've been shipwrecked I've been stranded on an island I've been beaten I've been bitten by a venomous snake I've been stoned and left for dead and God all I'm doing is serving you like God couldn't you make it a little easier on me like why God are you allowing all of these things the list of things that Paul had to complain about was a very long list too but not only does the apostle Paul not complain but he redeems the time while he's there as a prisoner and writes this very letter the Philippian congregation and listen to the words that he writes in Philippians chapter 2 verse 14 he says this do everything without complaining and arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation listen we live in a warped and crooked generation don't we and so he says for us to become blameless and pure that we ought to do everything without complaining and the reason why is this then you will shine among them like the stars in the sky listen I said we ought to be those that are free from constant complaining the how is to worship God because it's impossible to whine when you're worshiping that means anytime that a complaint pops in your head that we ought to start praising God and going down the long list because the list of things that we have to praise God for is a lot longer than the list of things that we have to complain about and we ought to be praising God that's the how we can stop complaining but here is the why we ought to stop complaining because you might say well you know what I like my voice being heard so I complain because I want people to know that that service was horrible that that that waiter did a bad job so I'm gonna let the manager know my complaints and then I'm gonna invite them to church do everything without complaining why so that you will shine like stars among them in other words when you stop complaining when everyone else is complaining the light of Jesus will shine out of your life and the people will see a difference in you what you need to understand today is I'm not saying never express valid concerns or never stand up for what is right but what I am saying is that the bible confirms what actually modern scientists and psychologists and researchers have found that we are born with a negative bias that is that we tend to focus on the things that aren't right rather than paying attention to the good things that are happening and so we ought to stop complaining because when we complain oh we give a bad name to God and we also ruin our witness you see when we complain we'll find more things to complain about there's something called confirmation bias and that is if you think you're not going to like something it drastically raises the percentage of chance that you won't that's why as a kid when you said I don't I'm not gonna like that vegetable you didn't like it because I'm something called confirmation bias you know I don't think I'm gonna like like that uh food place the chances are you won't I don't think I'm gonna like that church then the percentage that you won't goes through the roof the chances are most of the time you are going to get exactly what you thought because we can't see beyond our own preconceived negative ideas you see there's so much negative in the world today I want to train my brain if I can't change my circumstances then I need to change my perception if I can change my circumstances then I'm going to do something about it but we ought to change what we say about it how we say about it how we think about it because the apostle Paul well he couldn't change his circumstances but he changed his perspective and he goes on to say in Philippians chapter 2 verse 17 but even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith I am glad and rejoice with all of you so you too should be glad and rejoice with me what does it mean to be poured out like a drink offering that word in the greek is spindu water was essential for life in the desert it was the most valuable liquid that they had and they poured it out what it was saying is what is essential for me what is important to me I'm going to surrender to you god as a sacrifice but then people would say well that's a waste pouring out water into the sand that you can never reclaim that's a waste and what Paul is saying although some people might look at this time two years in house arrest or my ministry as a waste my life has been poured out to god and nothing that I do for the lord will ever be a waste you see Paul doesn't change his circumstance because he couldn't but he changed his perspective the way that he viewed his circumstances and we need to view our circumstances differently too instead of saying I hate my job we ought to say lord thank you for blessing me with one instead of saying lord I'm sick of my spouse we ought to say lord thank you for giving me a spouse we ought to think about things in our lives differently how could Paul rejoice in a situation like this because to Paul Paul was not the center of his story Jesus Christ was and when we are the center of our stories we'll be consumed with ourselves and our eyes will be focused on ourselves until we realize Jesus Christ is the center of our story and when Jesus is the center of your story it will change your perspective the moment everything is about us we'll find ourselves complaining but when we realize that our life is not about us but it's about Jesus then we like Paul said to the Galatians in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 will say I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me if you're going through negative circumstances I know some of you are going through incredibly difficult times but just know complaining about those times will never change anything let's not focus about what you don't have but let's thank God for what we do have let's not complain about what we lost let's thank God for where we've been blessed I'm going to change the words that I speak I'm going to change the thoughts that I think and like Psalms 105 verse 1 says let all that I am praise the Lord with my whole heart I will praise his holy name let all that I am praise the Lord and may I never forget the good things he's done for me he forgives all my sins and he heals my diseases he redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies and he fills my life with good things when you are praising it's impossible to be complaining so start praising and the reason why you should is because we live in a time where the world so desperately needs Jesus and if we find ourselves complaining like everyone else is maybe there's layoffs in the workplace coming down and everyone's complaining about it or no one got the bonus in your department that year that month and everyone's complaining about it but when you don't people will see a difference in you and that you're not like everyone else why because you truly believe that God is in control and that all things will work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purposes I can follow God's plan because I know God's plan will always be best for me whether I see it or not and then friends we don't have to complain there's nothing to complain about there's nothing to complain about you know we're so prone to complain about everything on the way to church not only on the way to church but even in church there's things oh I don't like this song I know you guys didn't think that tonight I don't I don't I don't like that pastor I don't like skinny jeans I don't like that but instead how often do we miss out on all that God wanted to do because we are so focused on the negative that we miss the blessings and the greatness and the goodness of what God is doing guys don't fall prey to the enemy strategy to get you to miss God's blessings in your life currently because you're so focused on what that person didn't do that you miss out on what God wants them to do don't get so focused on the negative thing in church or the negative thing in the workplace or the negative thing in the home that you miss all the great things that God is doing listen we just got to change our perspective and call it for what it is and if God is allowed it I know God is going to use it for good and I'll never talk bad about God again let's be those who shine bright as stars in the heavens our light of Jesus shining bright in a dark and desperate world so that people see Jesus in our lives too can that be true for us in our lives Lord help us we pray