Neither Murmur Ye

Amen. Thank you, brother. All right, well, good morning once again.

Greetings to each one. Welcome here, for whatever reason. It's good to hear about the packing yesterday for the Ukraine container.

I wasn't there. One of the first times I missed. I don't remember when the last time was.

But, Jeremy, tell me, was there plenty of people, or was there just the right amount? I know some of the ladies did some sewing, and that must have been just the right amount to do that as well, so that's great. So, yeah, thank you for being there. We were at a wedding, by the way, back in Delaware, and just flew in late last night, arrived in Portland around 10 o'clock, had almost a two-hour drive home, and then our clocks tell us, hey, you've got to get up an hour early.

So here we are. It's good to be here. Let's do a little review here.

We've had a number of messages here over the last number of weeks. How many people remember what Bob preached about last Sunday? Anybody say it real quickly? Nobody? Election versus free will. What about Dennis? He had the devotions last Sunday.

Anybody remember the two words that he spoke about? Okay. Victim mentality versus gratitude mentality. Thank you.

All right, and after you hear what I'm going to share about, I will say this. I didn't know Dennis was going to talk about that when I chose my message for this morning. I've known I was going to preach here for a couple of weeks now, and so whatever leading there, we'll leave that in God's hands.

But let's keep on going back. What did Jeremy preach about last time he preached? Anybody remember? The fear of God. Does anybody remember that? Okay.

The fear of God, and it was a call to fear God. Does anybody remember anything Jeremy talked about in his message, the fear of God? Now we're getting more specific. Do you remember even one point that he spoke about in the fear of God message? Nobody remembers anything? Does anybody remember the word guns coming up? Anybody remember him mentioning guns during the fear of God message? I think he was warning against idolatry.

What are we going to focus on? I got to thinking as I was listening to that, my own experience with the whole issue of guns. I've had a number of guns in my life. I'm still a gun owner, actually.

But I really was thinking of some of my favorite memories in life have to do with guns. I'll list some of the memories up here. I'll just put them up here.

One, two, three. My third favorite memory of good memories with guns was a .22 rifle, Marlin Model 60. I had that for many years.

It had the bullets along the barrel. Not a clip like some of them have today, but it was down there along the barrel. And I really liked that thing.

It was nice and compact, plinking at different things. We'd go shoot frogs down in the pond behind our place over down by shed where we lived. How many have eaten frog legs before? A few of us.

Okay, good. They're good, actually. You should try them if you ever get a chance.

Tastes like chicken. Second favorite memory. So this was the Marlin Model 60.

That's a .22, actually. And then this was a Model 870. This was a shotgun.

You say, well, what's so special about that? And it's a nice gun, actually. I'm glad to have it. But what was real special about this Model 870 shotgun that I got is why I got it.

You see, I got it because I met a girl, and we started courting, and we got engaged. And for an engagement gift, she gave me a pump shotgun, Remington 12-gauge Model 870. So an engagement gift from a girlfriend.

That's a really neat thing, this gun that I have. Still have it. Once in a while, I'll get it out and shoot clay pigeons or something with it.

With me, it's usually like shoot just past the clay pigeon. That's usually how it goes for me. The thing goes on flying.

But some of you have better skill than I do, so congratulations. But what about the number one gun, the number one favorite memories that I have? Well, this was actually a .280 Remington and Model 700, bolt-action rifle. And I had read an article that these are good guns.

And this was back when I was still single that I think I bought it. I might have been young married. I don't remember for sure.

But, you know, it's a good gun for deer, a good gun for elk. You say, well, what's your favorite memory about that? Did you shoot an elk with it or something? Well, I came real close one time. I was hunting with my brother-in-law, and he knew where these elk were, and he'd take us up there.

And sure enough, we were up there in the mountains behind their place, and all of a sudden, we saw an elk. And it was moving pretty fast away from us. And we were a little bit apart.

He was over there, and I was right here. But between where I was and where the elk was, there was a big bush, and so I waited. While I was waiting, the thing kept walking, and I was trying to get a clear shot.

He said where he was sitting, he could have shot it for a number of seconds, plenty of time to do that. As it turned out, that gun remained a vegetarian all its life while it was in my possession. But that wasn't my favorite memory.

The reason I'm putting that number 1 for that number 280 is this. God was doing a work in my life. We heard a little bit about Titus' testimony and how God got a hold of him at age 12, but God continued to work.

It wasn't the end of the story. Same thing in my experience. God has continued to work even after making commitments to him.

One of those things was in the area of our possessions and finances. I remember how shocked I was when I discovered some of the things that God said about our finances, economics. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth.

Another statement I had, and you could turn to this if you don't mind, turn to Luke 12. This is another verse that shocked me when I discovered it was even in the Bible. I didn't know it was in the Bible.

I've read over it many times, but it never really jumped out at me. And having known the gospel of Jesus Christ, how Jesus invites people to believe on him, receive forgiveness of sins, submit our lives to him, knowing that submission is a good thing, it's gospel, it's good news. Well, here was a verse I didn't know was in the Bible.

And when I did realize it, I felt like I had to do something with it. Luke 12, verse 33, Jesus, well, back up, verse 32. Jesus says, fear not little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

And then he gives a command, verse 33, sell that you have and give alms. And he goes on to say that when you do that, you're providing yourself bags which don't get old, a treasure in the heaven. So sell your possessions, give to the poor.

And I got to thinking as I read that verse, and it was soaking into my consciousness, have I ever done that? You know, I believe I'm a Christian, and yet is this a statement or a command that I've ever followed? Now, giving to the poor, I believed in that, going and working and earning. But what about selling and giving? Had I ever done that? I'd never done that. And then I got to reading early up in the book of Acts where you had this man named Barnabas.

Barnabas saw this verse, he heard this command, what did he do? He had a piece of land and he sold it and brought it to the apostles and they cared for the needy people around them. Well, I didn't have a piece of land I could sell, didn't have a rental house, didn't have anything like that, didn't really even have a vehicle that I wasn't using, I needed to get to work. Then I thought of, oh, I have this 280 Remington, it's been sitting in the closet, still a vegetarian.

And decided, well, maybe I could sell that and give to the poor. Maybe I could obey that verse in that way. So, as time went on, we had a little garage sale in our church for the sake of a family, they were having a hospital bill, and I said, okay, well, maybe I could do that.

So I took this gun, took it to this garage sale, and sure enough, somebody came along and they bought it. Paid, I don't know, pretty much full price for it, I don't know what it was worth exactly, but they paid what we thought it was worth, and, you know, this went to help somebody in need. And, you know, if you think about that, that's, I put that at the top, because of all the favorite memories, you think about what can, something I have that I don't need can go to help somebody that they do have a need.

Yesterday you guys were packing blankets for Ukraine. You know, what about that? Just think about that. Maybe a gun sitting in my closet, or money sitting in my bank, or something I have that I don't actually need can go to maybe provide blankets to people, maybe hygiene kits, maybe food boxes.

These people are going to starve, some of them, maybe, if they don't have what they need. What can I do? And so, wonderful memories, go make some wonderful memories, it's a good thing. Take what you have, and think about this, it's a good thing.

So anyway, let's keep on going, we're going to talk about a different subject, we're not talking about guns here, but I just wanted to bring some of those things up, good review. A few weeks ago, Dennis was back in Living Hope for a leadership conference, and I was wishing I could be there, but we were getting ready for CAM Open House here, and so I couldn't make it, but I decided to listen in on some of them. Well, time goes, I was busy doing taxes, this and that, and so I call in to listen to this one message, and I didn't know who was going to be preaching, or maybe I did know who, but I didn't know what the subject was, and I only got in like the last five minutes of the sermon, as I remember right.

And the speaker was talking about an event that is mentioned in John chapter 3. Now if you know about John chapter 3, that's where Jesus said you must be born again, that's where Jesus gave one of the most famous verses of the Bible, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, but he uses an Old Testament event, you know what it is, anybody say it real quickly? The snake on the, go ahead, the brass serpent, the snake on the pole, and Jesus references that, and the speaker referenced that, here at the leadership seminar in January back in Pennsylvania. And so I started to go back in time, this is a wonderful passage, where Jesus, or God, through Moses, saw the plight of people, who were dying because of snake bites, and he said I'm going to create a cure for these snake bites, by putting up this brass serpent on the pole, and what do the people have to do, pay a bunch of money? No, all they had to do was look at this brass serpent and live. And it's a wonderful illustration that Jesus used, to show how he himself was going to be lifted up, and as people look in faith to him, they can be saved, they can have their sins forgiven.

And so then Jesus gave that verse, and let's all say it together, for God, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So he was jumping off the snake on the pole story. So now my mind started to go back, well why the snake on the pole? Because there were snakes on the ground, and they were killing people.

Why were there snakes on the ground killing people? Who sent the snakes? It was God that sent the snakes. Why did God send the snakes? And that was the part that was grabbing my attention. God sent the snakes as a punishment for the people's sins.

And you can turn to this, Numbers 21, because I have another question then, that is kind of the heart of what grabbed my attention. What was the people's sin? What did the people do that was so wicked, Numbers 21, that God decided, I'm going to send poisonous snakes among them, and these poisonous snakes, they're going to stay long enough that somebody's going to die. Not just somebody, not just one person, not just one little child dying, but many people died.

And so I thought, well, back during that time in their journey from Egypt to Israel, to the land of Canaan, there were different things that they committed. You remember the idolatry? They set up this, Aaron, he took all their gold and he formed a golden calf, and they set that up and they were dancing around it. Was that perhaps the sin that God was judging here? I'll just put that one up there.

That was a huge one. God hated idolatry. He said, I am a jealous God, and when you worship other gods, that makes Him angry.

See, God has a right to get angry. Don't think that's a sin when God gets angry. He's got a right to get angry.

When idolatry happened, God got angry. But it wasn't idolatry in this case. Maybe it was sexual immorality.

That was another thing that God got very angry about when they committed sexual immorality with the nations around them. And, you know, there was huge judgments, fire that would break out, things that would happen that God would get very upset when people would commit sexual sins during that time. But it wasn't sexual sins either.

So let's read this here. Numbers chapter 21. Let's find out what was this sin that made God so upset that He was willing to send a bunch of fiery serpents among them.

Numbers chapter 21, starting with verse 4. And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way and the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of the land of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loathes this light bread.

And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. So what was the sin? It was the sin of complaining. It was the sin of grumbling.

The sin of speaking against God, speaking against Moses, grumbling about their circumstances. There's a verse I'd like to read here a little bit later in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that talks about what they were doing. He says, Neither murmur ye.

And if you want a title for this message, those are the three words. Neither murmur ye. In King James English.

Don't murmur. That's the title of the sermon. But this is a tendency not just to people who are wandering in the wilderness with nothing to eat but manna.

This is a tendency for people all down through time to begin to murmur, to begin to complain. And this thing of God sending serpents shows just a little bit of God's heart on how seriously He takes the sin of complaining. What's interesting is, why do the people complain? I mean, the people were complaining because, hey, they didn't have water sometimes.

The people were complaining because they didn't have food. Or maybe all they had was bread. They had food, but it was just manna.

And sometimes they even had a response to the complaining. Remember when they complained against God because all we have is bread? What did God do? Well, He sent them quail. Well, maybe they remembered that.

And here we are, Mount Hoar, this area, and they said, hey, you know, last time we complained, we complained about the food and God sent us meat. Let's complain again. Actually, I don't think they did that.

Most people, when they're complaining, they don't even know they are complaining. They're just stating facts. They're just saying, hey, this is the way things are.

I'm just trying to be realistic about things, how they're going. But anyway, they started talking about the fact that all they had was this bread. But you see, every time they complained previously, God, even though He maybe had mercy on them, maybe sometimes He would give them what they wanted, but it wasn't His will.

His will was gratefulness, not complaining. Sometimes He would give them, but it was like they were building up this store of wrath against themselves. And eventually God said, it's enough.

Bring on the snakes. Now, you have a group of people that are grumbling, no bread, and all of a sudden there's a snake under my bed. And not just under my bed, it's in my bed.

Not only in my bed, but it's taking bites out of me. And then I discover the thing's poisonous yet. And then I realize that some of my children have gotten bitten and they're dying.

What do you think those people did after those first few snakes started showing up? I think they complained more. I think they went to Moses and Moses. It was bad enough when all we had was manna.

And now we've got these snakes. You've got to do something. What did God do? Bring on more snakes.

The more poisonous, the better. Bring on the cobras from India. Bring on the yellow jaws from Belize.

Bring on the most poisonous snakes we've got. Bring them on. Bring more snakes.

More complaining. More snakes. Just a constant cycle.

They thought their complaining was going to get results. It did. The result was more snakes.

And so often we get the same idea. We think, you know, if I just complain enough, eventually somebody will do something about what I'm complaining about. Well, God did.

But, you see, he had a result. He had something that he had a goal that they didn't know anything about. God's goal was not get rid of the snakes.

It was not give them good food to eat. It wasn't make their lives more comfortable. It was a goal here that's talked about here in Numbers chapter 21.

It says, verse 7, Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. That was what God was waiting for. When they said, we have sinned, they were doing something that God was wanting.

He was waiting. He was hoping for this word right here. It's the word remorse.

It's the word. They were finally to the point of brokenness over their sin. Their sin of complaining.

Their sin of grumbling. This was the sin, in this case, that God was coming so hard against that he was willing to bring on poisonous snakes among them. And not only bring the poisonous snakes, he was willing to let people die.

And I don't know, you know, we maybe think that, well, who's dying? Is it just the people that were complaining? I don't know. I have a hunch probably there were some innocent people that died as well. Either way, it was bad enough that the Scripture says much people died at the end of that.

That makes it pretty serious. That's kind of shocking to me. As I look at some of the things, you know, why God brings judgment.

Why did God pour out His wrath upon Sodom? Fire from the sky. Why did God bring out His wrath upon the early world before the flood? Much violence, it said. But here, God poured out His wrath because of this sin of complaining.

And, you know, I had to think of this. What do we have? Do we have the victim mentality? Do we have the grateful mentality? It's been a burden to mine. It's a danger, I believe, of us as a church.

It's a danger of every generation. It's something we struggle with. And, you know, we think of what are the reasons that we sometimes grumble.

Well, it gets results sometimes. Sometimes we get meat when we grumble about the manna. Sometimes we get water from the rock when we grumble about how thirsty we are.

Sometimes. But that's not what God wanted. Another reason we grumble.

It takes the responsibility away from me and puts, you know, the guilt. I feel guilty about something, but if I can grumble about somebody else, another brother in the church, maybe another church down the road, if I can grumble about something that happened in my past, if I can grumble about my health situation. You know, you've heard the word hypochondriac.

Maybe I can grumble about my money situation. I just don't have enough to pay the bills or relationships I'm experiencing. Maybe my employment.

Maybe my church. Maybe my home life. If I grumble about those things, then it takes the responsibility away from me and puts it on somebody else.

I don't feel guilty anymore. And we have excuses for grumbling. We call it by different names.

Like I say, a lot of people who grumble, they don't even know they are grumbling. But think of some of the terms we use. And I want to be careful how I use these terms because probably there is some right way to use every one of these terms.

But is it possible that we can use terms that I'm going to describe and God says, that's grumbling? Here's some of the terms. We say, well, I'm just being honest about how I feel. You ever hear that before? Is it right to be honest? Yeah, it's right to be honest.

We shouldn't be dishonest. So I'm just being honest about how I feel. And God looks at that and says, that's grumbling.

I'm just sharing my heart. You ever hear that? I'm just sharing my heart with you. And God says, you're grumbling.

Is that possible? I'm asking this as a question, not as an accusation. But is it possible? Well, hey, I was just telling you what happened. I just want to tell you what happened at my place of work the other day.

I just want to tell you what happened at the church I used to go to. I want to just tell you what happened at home in the little interaction I had with my wife or my husband or my son or my daughter or one of my parents. I just want to tell you what happened in this particular situation.

Is it possible sometimes God looks at just telling what happened as complaining? Well, I just want to tell you why I feel like I need to switch jobs or why I feel like I need to change churches or why I had to move out of that community or home. We're in a group here that we all came from other places. We came from other churches.

And there's reasons. We came from where we are to where we are now. Yet how refreshing is it when someone comes and, you know, you ask them about, hey, how was life back wherever you were? How was your home life? How was your former church life? And, well, they just talk about how grateful they were about those things, you know, those people that, you know, I learned a lot from them.

And, you know, they had reasons. They all have reasons. That's okay.

But all they want to talk about, they don't talk about the negative things. They're talking about the positive things. They're talking about how God gave me this home life that I had, this church life, and how I grew when I was there.

And how refreshing is that compared to maybe somebody who, you know, it's all they focus on is the negative things. In fact, whole churches can sometimes be built around those negatives. We all don't want this.

You know, so we're going to start a whole new church based on what we don't want. I've been grateful for the book that we've been going through, you know, church life. If we focus on the negatives of other people, it's not going to be a very solid foundation for future church life.

But here's another question. Why do people grumble? It's because somebody's listening. Why do people listen? That's another question.

There's a lot of good reasons to listen to grumbling. I'll tell you, for me, it's interesting sometimes. You just get a lot of juicy stories just by letting somebody grumble.

Now, again, we don't call it grumbling. Nobody sits there around, you know, and say, okay, hey, why don't you grumble a while? Nobody says that. But is it how God looks at it? That's how, you know, tell me about what happened.

And so here it comes out, and it turns into some negative things. Turns out somebody else's reputation is going down. Some other church's reputation is going down.

Some place of business, you know, their reputation is going down. And, boy, that was a really good story. Anybody else got a story to share? Is that one reason? It's interesting.

It's fun to listen to if we're really, really honest. Here's another reason we listen to it. If I stop it from happening, I say, oh, I actually don't want to listen to that.

Or if I say something positive about the very thing, place, person, circumstance that he says, she says is negative, what's going to happen to me? The next time that person's at somebody else's dinner table, it'll be me. Hey, he took the side of that bad employer, that bad church, that bad something. And so now I'm the one that's complaining.

So it's safer to listen and sympathize. And what do they say now when they go, oh, that, you know, Roger, he just understands me. Because when I was, again, we don't use the word complaining, but when I was sharing my heart, when I was essentially grumbling about my circumstances, he listened.

Now, is there time to listen if somebody has a real struggle? There are times. When does this cross the line? When does it cross the line into grumbling? When does it cross the line into complaining? You know, I think one of the things is when you're talking to people that can't do anything about it. All you're talking, you're talking to somebody who isn't going to fix your problem.

They're not part of the solution. They're not part of the problem. And, you know, talking to someone else, some third party, it seems like at that point it can be complaining.

But in this case, what were the Israelites doing? They were talking to Moses. They were talking, you know, to God. Hey, you can fix it if nothing else.

And it was grumbling even then. So we've got to be awfully careful about this. There's a story of a news organization, and they kind of fell into this trap.

Fox News, some of you who know, and I'm not getting into politics. I'm not getting into news. I'm just telling this story as an illustration.

But Fox News is a conservative. They're known to be a conservative news outlet. And when Donald Trump was president, they were kind of the go-to news organization to support him.

They thought, you know, if we can get good stories about Donald Trump, we go to Fox News. And so they kind of had this relationship that, you know, we'll help you if you help us, and we'll work together in this whole thing. But there's supposed to be news.

There's supposed to be telling the public things that are true. That's what news is supposed to be. Now, is it really? That's a whole other question.

But that's what it's supposed to be. Well, here comes the election of 2000. And where are we at now? We're at 2020.

In the election of 2020, Trump got fewer votes than the other guy. And he said it was stolen from me. Well, Fox News knew we kind of need him.

Now, this is all coming out just in the last few weeks. I'm not making this up. I'm just saying they're admitting what I'm telling you today.

Fox is admitting this, basically. Basically, we need him. A lot of people like him.

If we tell the truth that is negative toward him, it's going to hurt our ratings. So they said, let's lie. Let's tell the public he's right.

The election was stolen to keep people watching our news. Because if we tell – in private, they were – and this has all come out because of a lawsuit that happened. And now it's coming to the light.

In private, they were saying, this guy's crazy. He didn't – there's no evidence at all that this was stolen. But that was all in private.

In public, they would get out in front of the public and say, we think this was corrupt. Because they were using it to boost their own ratings. And now they're admitting it.

Now it's coming out. It had to because they were under depositions and so forth in the court. And so they decided to not tell the truth, to retain this relationship.

Now, be that as it may, I'm not trying to take sides in all that. I mean, politics, news, all that has a lot of corruption in it. I'm just saying this is what happened in this world, the world that we're not part of, hopefully.

But that's what happened in this world. And now they're admitting, hey, it was actually a lie. Here's the point that they could have done – the thing that they could have done that they had an opportunity to do.

As a news organization, they were in the position of an educator. Many people were looking to them to give them accurate information. They could have told the truth back then.

Now, it would have perhaps cost them a lot of ratings. A lot of people may have stopped watching them. But they were in a position to educate people about what the truth really was.

And they decided not to do that. They decided we'd rather tell a lie than lose some viewers of our program. In the church, we sometimes are in the similar position.

Somebody comes to us and begins to complain about something else, about somebody else, about a circumstance. As another brother in the church, I can take the safe route and sympathize with the complaining that's coming. Yeah, you're right.

Well, that was horrible what happened to you. Yeah, amen. Bad deal you got there.

Or I can tell the truth. You know, this is actually murmuring, and God hates it. That's a risky thing to say.

It's risky to call out murmuring and risk them going to the other supper table and bad-mouthing me. That's pretty risky. It's much safer to just, yes, I know, I agree, yep.

Wow, your complaining is totally justified. But I feel like today, as I stand behind this pole, but I'm kind of in a place like Fox News was. I can either sympathize or I can tell the truth and say, wait, God isn't impressed with this.

I don't think. I think God is much more, you know, he's getting closer to the snake truckload coming. They're on the way.

Just be careful. If grumbling is your go to response for past experiences, maybe we should maybe we should watch out. So we have these things that we call.

And I'm just being honest how I feel, just sharing my heart. I'm just telling what happened. I'm just telling you why I did this, why I did that.

Just telling you why there was conflict. It was her fault. It was his fault.

So forth. Here's another one. Maybe.

Well, I just feel like I have the gift of prophecy. You know, some people have the gift of mercy and they're nice to everybody, but I have got the gift of prophecy. So that gives me now a right to point out everything that's wrong.

Is it possible that so sometimes God looks at that and says, actually, that wasn't the gift of prophecy. That was grumbling. That was complaining.

I got a text a while back from a man who I had heard of him, but I didn't know this was him texting me. And he's got a Web site where he puts all these different articles on there. He calls them testings.

And he's got a list of people, a long list of every kind of Christian ministry. You can imagine every person you can imagine. And he calls it this testing and how he's pointing out all the bad things about these different people.

Well, I got a text from this guy and I didn't know it was him. And after about two or three texts, I realized this is the same guy I'd known about him. We had never interacted before.

So I just quit. Sure enough, a testing, you know, on his Web site about me, Watchmen, gospel signs and so forth. So, OK, be that as it may.

But, you know, we get so creative on renaming our complaining. In his case, he called it testing. And, you know, if you call it testing, well, the Bible says test all things, prove all things.

So now you can complain about other groups and you call it testing and no snakes or at least not the poisonous ones. But how does God look at this? Again, I'm just maybe maybe that sounds like I've already made a conclusion. I guess I am making a conclusion that I think many times what we call testing, we call prophecy, we call sharing concerns.

We call this God is calling it. He's calling it complaining. What does James say? Let's turn.

Actually, if you want to turn somewhere, I'm going to quote from James. You don't have to turn there, but I do want you to turn to First Corinthians. First Corinthians chapter three.

First. I'm sorry. First Corinthians 10.

First Corinthians 10. There's a passage there I want to read. Should ask for a raise of Bibles.

How many people have a Bible you can turn to? Probably get some cell phones in the air. Hey, you know, turning to that. That's OK, too.

Either way, if we go along, let's follow along here. First Corinthians chapter 10. And it talks about these events that we just read about back in numbers.

First Corinthians 10 verses 1 to 13. Moreover, brethren, I would not have that you should be ignorant. How that our father, all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized by Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat.

These were a privileged group of people. Think about that. You get to walk through the Red Sea, dry land.

You get to you get to see this man. I come down from heaven and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank from that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ.

But. Verse five, but with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now, these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

Neither be idolaters, as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents.

Neither murmur ye. There's the title of our message. First Corinthians 1010.

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, all these happened to them unto them for examples that they and they are written for our admonition. This happened for our sakes, these snakes and so forth for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And then we have that verse about temptation and how God will always make a way of escape. You know, that's that's in regard to some of these sins that they fell into.

So, you know, but God is faithful. He's going to make a way out. What's the way out? How do you get out of the sin of grumbling? Thanksgiving.

We heard about that last Sunday, that gratitude focus mentality. And so, so, so idolatry. He's got this in the same list.

Fornication, same list. Tempting Christ. When those people murmured against Moses and God, they were tempting Christ, destroyed of serpents.

Neither murmur ye. And they were destroyed of the destroyer. This is how how serious this is.

So there's there's a verse in James 3. Anybody know what James 3 is about? Just very quickly. The tongue. OK, so the tongue.

We know that the James 3 says it talks about the tongue and it talks about all the bad things that can be done with the tongue. Or actually just says bad things can be done with the tongue. But what are the bad things that can be done with the tongue? I've heard in olden days, sometimes people go around, they challenge somebody.

It's a cold day, you know, it's 10 degrees out. Hey, hey, why don't you try to go lick that pump handle over there? And they go lick the pump handle with their tongue and they get stuck to it because it frees. Well, that's is that the bad thing that you can't do? Is that what James is talking about? And he says, watch out for your tongue.

James chapter 3. No, that's not it. He says there, herewith bless we God, herewith curse we men. That's one of the things he brings out, cursing men, grumbling against men.

Out of the same mouth proceeds blessings and cursings. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. So how do we control the tongue? You see, I think James is pointing out something that is sad but true.

We think in our minds a lot of things that should not come out of our mouth. And by thinking in our mind, is that a good thing? No, it's not a good thing. But James is saying, put a guard across your lips.

Let that thought die way back there in your mind. Take it to the grave with you. If you have a grumbling attitude about somebody else, God has never told us, I just need to be honest about my attitude toward that other brother.

Guard your tongue. Let that thing die. Wrestle with that alone in your closet.

The moment it comes out of your mouth, you've done a lot of damage that James 3 has said. Don't do that damage. Don't let it come out of your mouth.

So how do we keep it from coming out of our mouth? You know, there's a word in the English language that is in a lot of our sentences. It's the simple word, but. We say things, and then we put the word but in there, and then we say something else.

Somebody has made the observation that only that which comes after the word but is the important thing that you just said. So let me say something here. You know, that brother over there, well, he's a hard worker, but he sure doesn't, he's not a very good church builder.

That sister over there, she, yeah, she's a good cook and all, but she has problems with relationships in the church. Do you notice what I put the word but? I put it after the positive, before the negative. You know, if we can learn to do the opposite, I think it'd go a long ways in our relationships, in our guilt as far as are we complaining.

Switch that around. You know, yeah, that brother is, you know, he's got some issues and so forth, but he is, he's good at providing for his family. You know, he's, yeah, there's some issues maybe with his children, but he's got a good relationship with his wife.

Yeah, she's got, you know, sometimes she says a few things that she ought not to say, but she is really a contributor in this area. What about that child that I have? You know, well, he's, yeah, we're working on some things with him, but, you know, we're so glad for this thing that God is doing in his heart. Put that, remember only the things that come after the word but in the sentence.

Those are the things that are important. So put the positive things at the end of the sentence. Put the negative things at the beginning of the sentence.

Just a little tip, you know, it's part of controlling the tongue. We've just got a few minutes left. I'd like you to listen to a couple of stories.

Here's what people can have. People will destroy relationships through complaining. They'll get discouraged.

They have some bad experiences in the past. They become negative and depression sets in, and I hate to say the word, but sometimes this happens. Sometimes it even ends in suicide because they'll complain to one person.

As long as that person will listen, wow, he really understands me, but then that relationship dissipates like they always do if it's based on complaining, and they'll go on to the next one. Here's an email we got from another Billboard team member, Brenton. He says, Brothers, two days ago I took a call from this man.

If the call report is not out, it soon will be. After the call, I texted him, and I had a concern for him. His reply was different than any I've ever received.

Pray for this, Matt. And so let me let you hear the reply of this man named David. So Brenton sends him a text.

David, I generally do not take the liberty to text a caller unless they give me permission. Today I will text you. My name is Brenton.

I live in Kansas. Your final statement was touching, but the great I am has given us a choice. I pray you make the right one.

Blessing in his name, David replied. Don't waste your breath on me, on prayer for me. I'm sorry, but I'll never believe again.

I grew up in a Methodist household. My father sang in the choir. My mother taught Sunday school to us kids.

In third grade, we left the church suddenly. Long story, but at six, we joined the Episcopal Church, and I became an acolyte. I don't know what that is until I joined the Navy in 1969.

I married a Baptist as an Episcopal by a Methodist minister. Pretty much covered all the bases. When we moved to south Georgia, we attended a Methodist church, because it was a good compromise between Baptist and Episcopal.

When we moved here to Chattanooga in 2005 and started going to the Church of Christ because of my wife's sister. I sang in the choir. My wife really was involved in church activities.

I retired in 2019, and we had such plans. But after what happened, nothing now. Now, she, talking about his wife, she sleeps all the time.

She's a type 2 diabetic. Kidney function down to 17%. She has stage 3 non-alcohol cirrhosis of the liver, and her stroke has taken away part of her memory and a big portion of her balance.

So in place of our travel plans, I bought myself a Jaguar, and I guess I'll kill myself the way I recklessly drive now. No more Mercedes. I told her that if she doesn't behave and eat right to keep her kidney function going so as to keep her alive, then she's going to die.

And if she does, I guess I won't be far behind her, because I won't have anything left to live for. So you see, my life is over. My faith and belief has been destroyed.

So don't waste your breath praying for me anymore. I'm a lost cause. I can now see through the fog cast by the falsehood of religion that has been all there was in my life.

That has been there all my life. So God, all afog. What are your thoughts as you go through your mind as you look at that hopeless situation? Here's a different story.

This is from Allegheny Boys Camp. This is about a man named Stephen, a boy named Stephen. Stephen was one of the people that came to the boys' camp there in Pennsylvania, and he had a hard life.

Listen to what he did with his hard life. Hanging on the kitchen wall at camp is a wooden plaque that says, Thank you, cooks. God bless you for your great service.

It was made by Stephen Williams, one of the very first campers to come to Allegheny Boys Camp. If you look closely at the plaque, you can see a wormhole in the middle of it which nearly ruined both Stephen's day and the project as the hole was in the exact spot where one of the words was to be. Stephen had already put a lot of time and effort into the project, and in his mind there was no solution to the problem.

The project was a failure, he was a failure, and in fact his whole life was a failure. Stephen's life was full of wormholes in a lot of ways. Stephen's first several years were spent in a very unstable home.

Following that, he was in the foster system before being adopted by parents who struggled to know how to handle his issues and seemed to give up hope for Stephen. He had just turned 17 when he came to the camp, but socially he was closer to 12 or 13. He was very artistic, a creative and insightful writer, and very intelligent, yet emotionally and socially handicapped.

He was a deep thinker and often lost in his own thoughts. One day, while we were walking through a big hay field full of newly baled round bales, Stephen asked in a puzzled way, Chief, why do they bring all these bales out here and spread them around the field like this? Stephen did not know or understand many of the basic things in life due to both the lack of opportunity and his emotional instability from his traumatic childhood. When upset, he became very irrational and there was little to no reasoning with him.

One day, after not winning a game, he punched a tree as hard as he could. In his mind, he could never win, and was therefore a loser, not just at the game, but in all of life. With time, Stephen learned to control his emotions rather than allow them to control him.

Most importantly, Stephen learned about God and who he was in God's eyes. He knew basically nothing about God or the Bible when he came to camp, but immediately began soaking up the Bible stories and Scripture. He read his Bible regularly and asked a lot of questions.

Stephen was continually seeking to learn and regularly shared what he was discovering. By the time he left camp, Stephen would often quote Scripture and what he learned about God in problem-solving. Circle Ops and what other boys who struggled with similar problems that he did when he came to camp.

Stephen experienced and lived out God's grace and redemption. He gave his heart to the Lord and did not look back. Satan sought to ruin Stephen with worms and wormholes.

His parents did not allow him to come home for home visits on his 18th birthday. And on his 18th birthday, he received a birthday card from his dad with a traditional printed birthday greeting. Following it was a handwritten note which said, Have a great life and was signed by his dad.

That was the last Stephen ever heard from them. A letter to them later was returned unopened with return to sender stamped on it. But Stephen faithfully pursued and sought hard after God.

He chose to forgive. He grew and matured immensely. After graduating from camp, he joined a church and was baptized.

Stephen was not perfect, but he faithfully solved problems and continued to forgive and to live and love life. He did not allow the devil and the worms and wormholes to destroy him. Nearly every picture I see of Stephen is wearing his Stephen style grin.

A grin that tells me of redemption and God's grace and what God can do with a soul committed to him. In July, Stephen was diagnosed with stage four cancer at the age of 28. It wasn't long until his life was quickly ebbing away and he was given only several months to live.

Stephen had grown into a fine young man, a man I would describe as a man after God's heart. On his deathbed, Stephen told me it's hard to trust, but he chose to trust anyway. Stephen passed away on December 22 of 2022.

Though his life was short here on earth, and to us it seems so unfair, I can only imagine the joy on Stephen's face as he walked through heaven's gates into the arms of his personal savior and friend, Jesus, and was greeted with the words, Well done, my good and faithful servant. You fought hard and you fought well. Welcome home, my beloved son.

You know, we have a choice to make. Are we going to be like David, who gave up hope when life took a turn for the worst? Are we going to be like Stephen, who choose to trust and to thrive? Are we going to be strong? We learned about strong churches. Are we going to be a strong Christian through thanksgiving? Or are we going to be a weak one through grumbling? Time is up.

Thank you for your attention. God bless you all.