[PASTOR JEREMY MATTEK] Do
you ever find yourself
complaining about things
in life?
Pastor Jeske's going to
show us the secret to
filling our days with
thanksgiving instead of
grumbling next on Time of
Grace.
[MUSIC]
[PASTOR MARK
JESKE] I want you to
imagine right now if you
can the entire population
of the city of Chicago.
And imagine this: That
every man, woman, and
child living in Chicago
stepped out of his or her
home and began walking to
the Promise Land, which of
course would be northwards
[Audience: Laughter].
Here was God's dilemma:
How is he going to move
three million former
slaves to be the
inheritors of a country
that he was forcibly going
to take away from its
current owners?
It was an early judgment
day on the people of
Canaan; a judgment that
had been piling up in
God's court on his dockets
for 400 years.
And when he decided now is
the time, he called his
nation out of slavery.
I'd like to invite you to
take your Bible and look
up the book of Exodus with
me and let's - you're
going to have to work a
little bit today.
Usually, I give you a
break and we only go to
one spot so you can kind
of settle in there, but I
need you to work with me a
little today so get ready.
Exodus 14 is where I'd
like to start and we're
going to do a little
hopping.
They walk through the Red
Sea, which parts for the
Israelites, and then
crashes together right on
top of the tanks; a tank
brigade.
Well, there actually
weren't tanks, they're
chariots actually, but
they had the effect of
tanks; they're like mobile
armor.
God just thought the
chariots are no problem
for me.
"The Israelites went
through the sea on dry
ground, with a wall of
water on their right and
on their left.
And that day, the Lord
saved Israel from the
hands of the Egyptians."
How good is your
imagination?
Can you imagine walking on
dry land through a major
body of water and seeing
some invisible force
piling up the water on
both sides of you and
there's nothing there to
hold it up?
How could you ever forget
that?
How could that not make
you dazzlingly in awe of
the God who put his name
on you and who is claiming
you as his special favored
nation?
Not that he didn't love
other people, but they
were going to be his
leaders of the human race.
They were going to be the
teachers of the human
race; they were going to
be a beacon of the gospel.
They were going to be a
place to find salvation.
What an honor was given to
them!
They got to watch the
creative and sustaining
powers of God at work and
not just as we do, which
is most of the time we
believe in things by
faith; we're not allowed
yet to see, we're not yet
in the age of seeing.
They had moments of seeing
the incredible power of
the Creator putting one
hand on this side and one
hand on this side and
simply with a thought and
a word, holding back the
waters of a major body of
water.
Incredible!
"Israel saw Egyptians
lying dead on the shore."
An hour earlier, they'd
been terrified of those
chariot troops.
Now they saw their corpses
without the loss of a
single Israelite soldier.
"When the Israelites saw
the great power the Lord
displayed against the
Egyptians, the people
feared the Lord and put
their trust in him and in
Moses his servant." Case
closed?
Not so much!
Slide your eye ahead to
the end of chapter
fifteen.
After pausing for moments
of worship and
celebration, you can hear
some of the women's voices
in Scripture in the Song
of Moses that people have
prepared.
Miriam, the prophetess,
Aaron's sister, took a
tambourine in her hand.
All the women followed
her.
Miriam sang to them.
"Then Moses led Israel
from the Red Sea," verse
22, "and they went into
the Desert of Shur.
For three days, they
traveled without finding
water.
When they came to Marah,
they could not drink its
water because it was
bitter.
So the people grumbled
against Moses saying,
'What are we to drink?'
Then Moses cried out to
the Lord and the Lord
showed him a piece of
wood.
He threw it in the water."
Well, everybody knows
that, right?
If there is water that's
polluted and foul,
everybody knows that,
right?
You want to make it
drinkable again, you throw
a piece of wood in it,
right?
Doesn't that work?
[Audience: Laughter] What,
you never tried that
trick?
It's easy; it just simply
clears all the impurities
out of the water, right?
Not!
This was just something
visible so that the people
could watch the Creator do
it again; intervene with
his world and make
something happen on behalf
of his people.
But he let them struggle
first on purpose.
Not because he got
distracted watching his
favorite TV show and
looked down and thought,
"Oh dang, I forgot those
poor suckers will get
thirsty down there."
[Audience: Laughter] No!
He did it on purpose.
Why?
Because not every time
that we sweat and worry,
that's not always bad.
More on that in a minute.
"There the Lord made a
decree and law for them
and there," verse 25, "he
tested them." This is a
test.
How good is your memory?
Do you remember me?
"If you listen carefully
to the voice of the Lord
your God and do what's
right in his eyes, if you
pay attention to his
commands, keep all his
decrees, I will not bring
on you any of the diseases
I brought on the
Egyptians, for I am the
Lord who," what?
"Who heals you." I'm
working for you.
Do you trust me?
Do you respect me?
Do you give me credit for
an ounce of brains?
Do you think I'm losing my
power as the years go on?
Am I aging like you and
growing feebler as the
decades roll on?
Do you doubt my love and
my seriousness of a
permanent relationship
with you?
These are not idle
questions because they're
your questions, too.
Because you've been
squeezed, as well, and
sometimes your - and mine,
too - faith have faltered
and we've doubted that God
knew what he was doing or
doubted his heart.
Does he even care?
Wondered where is he?
Are you lost?
Are you gone?
Are you angry with me
again?
Am I waiting for the other
shoe to drop?
Will the hammer come down
on me any day now?
Why is my life so hard?
They had to process
through that and see what
were they going to do with
their frustration and
fear?
At this moment, they
crumbled and grumbled;
they grumbled against
Moses.
In chapter 16, they
grumbled again because now
they said there's not
enough food.
It said they had packed
food to travel with but
that eventually got
exhausted.
Now if the entire
population of the city of
Chicago is cruising
northwards, heading for
the Promise Land, they've
got to eat, right?
So you can exhaust what
you pack but then comes
the dilemma: Now what?
Once again, God allowed
them to get hungry; same
as he allows you to run
out of resources
sometimes, to run out of
energy.
To have your heart be
burdened so heavy you
don't think you can walk
another step.
To suffer physical
challenges that make your
life hard.
He lets that happen on
purpose not because he
doesn't love you but
because he really does
love you.
And the character building
that takes place, that
needs to happen, cannot
happen any other way for
you don't get stronger and
taller and tougher unless
you have worked out and
encountered some
resistance.
Same as I am never going
to have the body of my
youth if I sit around in a
passive kind of lifestyle.
The only way that you can
be lean and buff is by
working out.
Donuts and stratoloungers
do not make for taut
bellies, do they?
They do not; I'm here to
tell you that.
[Audience: Laughter] This
is part of their workout.
God let them run low on
food on purpose to see
what they would do.
They grumbled.
Again.
The fourth "Killer G,"
they grumbled: "If only we
had died by the Lord's
hand in Egypt." It'd be
better to be dead.
He should have just killed
us.
If he thinks so little of
us, he should have just
killed us.
"There we sat around pots
of meat." Oh boy, the
slave life!
That's the life for me!
Oh man, I wish we were
slaves again.
We'd at least have food.
"You brought us out into
this desert," listen to
this, "to starve this
entire assembly to death."
And the Lord, the sad, sad
Lord said to Moses, "I
will rain down bread from
heaven for you," and he
did.
He gave them meat that
evening but every day
thereafter, once they'd
exhausted what they were
able to pack, God made
miracle bread fall down
from heaven for them.
The Israelites looked at
that stuff on the ground
and thought, "What the
heck is that?
Manhu, they said, "What is
this?"
So that's what the name
became.
In Hebrew, they called it,
"What is this" food?
Manhu.
Manna, we call it manna.
Miracle food from heaven.
It covered the ground.
You could scoop up enough
for the day.
It was not - there wasn't
much variety; it was tasty
enough.
It was like basic pasta.
It was nutritious; it was
like vitamin fortified
farina or something like
that.
You know, real small
ground little - not
little, like a starch
product - and it filled
their bellies and gave
them what they needed to
stay healthy.
Not a lot of variety.
You could bake it into
cakes, you could boil it
to make porridge out of
it.
It could be a binder for
other stuff they might
find and it kept them
alive.
And it melted away then.
When the sun got high and
if you hadn't gathered
your food, you were going
to be very hungry that
day.
You had to get it while it
was there and then God
just made it melt away;
just went away.
And you had to get a
double portion on Friday
because Saturday was the
[Audience: Sabbath]
Sabbath.
No gathering manna on
Saturdays.
Now last one to look at,
Chapter 17: "The whole
Israelite community set
out from the Desert of
Sin." This isn't sin as in
a sin against God,
although they are going to
sin against God in a
minute.
This is a geographical
reference of a midpoint
from the Red Sea crossing
down south towards Mount
Sinai, where God was going
to establish his covenant
officially and formally
with them.
"They camped at Rephidium
and there was no water for
the people to drink.
So they quarreled with
Moses.
'Give us water to drink.'
And Moses replied, 'Why do
you quarrel with me?
Why do you put the Lord to
the test?'
But they were thirsty,"
then and there, "and they
grumbled against Moses.
They said, 'Why did you
bring us up out of Egypt
to make us and our
children and livestock die
of thirst?'
And Moses said, "What am I
going to do with these
people?
They're ready to stone
me.' The Lord said to
Moses, 'Walk on ahead.
Take with you some of the
elders of Israel.
Take in your hand the
staff with which you
struck the Nile,' as part
of the plagues on Egypt,
'and I will stand there
before you by the rock at
Horeb.
Strike the rock and water
will come out of it for
the people to drink.' So
Moses did this in the
sight of the elders of
Israel." Bam!
And water exploded out of
the rock.
Man, did they remember
that day, as well!
But he didn't call the
place "trust," the place
of trust.
He didn't call it the
place of "Thirst being
quenched; the quenching
place." The place was
nicknamed the "place of
testing," Massah, and it
was called Meribah, which
means quarreling, "Because
the Israelites quarreled
and because they tested
the Lord saying, 'Is the
Lord among us or not?'
" And P.S., if you feel
like reading on a little
farther, just in case that
was not enough
intervention visibly, what
God in the next event was
even more extraordinary.
They were jumped by a
well-organized nomadic
nation called the
Amalekites who were afraid
of this roving band of
Chicagoans who they didn't
know where they were going
to go and steal their
stuff.
So they attacked
preemptively and God was
very angry about that
because the Israelites had
not messed with the
Amalekites.
The Amalekites went first;
they jumped the Israelite
group on the marsh.
And God said, "Moses, as
long as your hands are in
the air, you will wipe
them out; just don't drop
your hands." And so Moses
did that for a while but
you try that for half an
hour.
Your shoulders will ache
like you think you'll
never move them again.
So they kept Moses' arms
in the air artificially.
They got him a rock to sit
on because his legs were
hurting, too, from
standing that long.
And then his brother,
Aaron, and his friend Hur
came and they held up his
hands in the air and
Israel - though they were
untrained, they didn't
have adequate weaponry -
they're slaves!
Where are they going to
get outfitted with a whole
set of armor and battle
weapons?
They had very little
stuff.
They were probably
fighting with sticks and
shovels and anything they
could find and yet, they
won an incredible victory
because Moses' hands were
in the air, which is a
symbol of trust in a power
coming from above.
Now, I'm telling you all
this stuff so that you
don't blow off the
importance and danger of
the fourth "Killer G," the
sin of grumbling.
Grumbling is a big deal.
Why do we do it?
Nobody likes to hear it.
Why do we do it?
Drive people away; I hate
it.
I like to grumble; I don't
like to listen to
grumbling.
If you listen to me
grumble, you're just being
nice to me.
It's not because you like
it.
Why do we do it?
I think I know why I like
to grumble.
When I need attention.
When I want you to pity me
and feel sorry for me.
When I want to feel like a
victim.
When I'm lazy and don't
want to accept
responsibility for
something and I don't want
to bring about changes, I
don't want to plan a
change agenda, I just want
to whine about it, then I
complain as though that's
doing something.
That is not really doing
anything.
I complain in this way and
demonstrate that I think
God must be asleep or
senile or gone; that his
throne is empty and he's
not around or that he
stops caring about me.
I feel sorry for myself.
I complain when my
self-pity starts to rise
and I feel sorry for
myself.
I complain when I'm
envious of other people
who have it so much better
than me and so much
easier.
Doesn't that just grind
you to see other people
sailing through life
that's not hard and why is
my life hard?
And theirs - they just
sail right along and
nobody lays a glove on
them.
They get everything they
want and here it seems
like I'm getting nothing
that I want so I complain
about it.
I know why we do that.
I know why we do that.
It's also a way to ditch
any personal
responsibility.
If I can blame somebody
else, then nothing that
happened that day was my
fault.
I can make other people
look bad.
And because I complain out
of earshot of them, nobody
can contradict my story so
it enables me to the
complainee - the poor
sucker who's listening to
me venting - it allows me
to kind of craft an
account of what happened
that day in such a way as
to make me look like the
innocent victim and I can
paint her or him as the
jerks.
See how perfect that is?
There's nobody there to
contradict me.
But it's not good because
ultimately grumbling is an
accusation against God:
"You're not doing your
job." The other "Killer
G's" may initially look
small, too.
Last week, I talked about
gluttony.
You might think, "Okay,
alright.
Come on, give me a break,
Pastor Mark.
Once in a while I overeat
and okay, Thanksgiving
Day, I will pack down as
much of my mother's food
as I can.
If I don't, she'll be
insulted, right?
So I've got to load up so
okay, I overeat.
Gluttony is more than just
eating way too much;
gluttony is letting go of
your control over all your
appetites.
Greed, well you think,
isn't it good to have an
aggressive plan for
building up your personal
balance sheet?
Sure it is!
Greed, though, goes way
beyond that.
Grudges, you might think,
so what's with a grudge?
You can't wipe out your
memory.
If you've been hurt in the
past by somebody else, how
can you - where can you go
with that?
If - until the person
apologizes, you've got to
be angry about it.
I'm saying, if you hang
onto old angers, you will
poison your soul and you
will hurt your faith in
Christ your Savior who
freely forgave you and now
not only invites you to
have a forgiving spirit,
but even commands you that
if you hold in that anger,
you are like - you are
trying to influence God to
hold back on his
forgiveness to you.
It's that big of a deal.
Jesus' language was very
sharp.
The language about
complaining is very sharp,
as well.
1 Corinthians 10 tells us,
"Do not be like them." And
the story of Israel is a
story of great obedience
achieving incredible
things, going to great
heights.
There are heroes and
bravery and love and
passion and service in the
stories of Israel for us
to imitate.
There are also pathetic
miserable stories of
spiritual breakdown for us
to learn from and avoid
because our lives are in
the same battle zone as
theirs.
Now because of these
stories, Scripture tells
us in 1 Corinthians 10,
these things were written
for your learning so pay
attention.
A grumbling spirit, if you
allow a complaining spirit
to dominate your life, you
are allowing your fear to
drown out your confidence
in God.
It will hurt your trust in
God and he will become
less and less important to
you and your life will get
more and more me-centered
if you allow your mind to
dwell on every broken
thing in your life.
So what to do?
First of all, remember who
you are.
You've been bought at a
price.
Jesus cannot possibly do
anything greater to
convince you of your worth
than he did.
The exodus from Egypt
before Mount Calvary and
Christ's death was the
greatest thing that God
had ever done to
demonstrate I'm serious
about loving you.
He completely busted the
whole mightiest nation on
earth at that time - Egypt
- he busted them open like
a cantaloupe and blew
their armies and economy
all over the place and
pulled his people out to
give them the dignity of
being somebody.
Jesus did the ultimate.
He not only redeemed us
from earthly slavery, he
redeemed you from the
slavery of hell.
From your sin.
From the power of the
devil and from the terror
of your grave and the
judgment to come.
He freed you from all
those things.
How does that not leave
you feeling really
important?
Remember that.
Cherish that.
Say, "I'm baptized.
I'm wearing God's uniform.
I have this clothes on.
I look as holy and pure as
Jesus." So a grumbling
spirit, where you love to
complain, where that
becomes part of your
character, that is the
talk people in your home
hear coming out of your
mouth.
That's what people where
you work, that's what they
hear is this complaining
spirit.
This erodes faith.
Take this seriously and
just try to do whatever
you can to wipe that
spirit out of your heart
and have an accountability
partner.
Carol and I have a little
game that we play.
We try really hard to put
the brakes on our own
complaining and we try to
listen for it in each
other, too, and we have a
little thing we say when
we catch the other person
complain.
And if she hears me
starting to complain, she
goes, "Waah, waah, waah."
[Audience: Laughter] Does
that work for you?
Let's practice it.
Ready?
On the count of three,
give me the Carol words.
Ready?
One, two, three: [Audience
and Pastor: Waah, waah,
waah."] If you catch
somebody in your home
whining, just give them
the Carol words and help
them to put a cork in it
right there to say, "Well,
just stop.
You're not explaining a
problem." How can you tell
a difference?
Here's the difference: If
you explain something
that's hurting,
something's wrong, that's
not complaining; you're
laying out a problem.
Complaining is when
there's no action plan and
when there's no personal
accountability for what
you did to make that
problem.
That's the difference.
Listen for it in yourself.
Try to catch yourself when
you hear yourself whining
and say those three words
to yourself, "Oh Mark,
there you go again.
Waah, waah, waah," and
stop him; choke it off
right there.
Instead, what we need to
practice is thanksgiving
therapy.
Instead of reviewing our
day - why is it always if
I say, "How was your day?"
why does your mind
immediately go to the
negative stuff?
Can you figure that out?
Why do you have to go
negative all the time?
How about, "How was your
day?"
- why don't you make your
mind pick out something
that was awesome about the
day.
It's because of amnesia;
one of the reasons we
whine is we keep
forgetting how good God
has been.
The Israelite whiners, God
let them be stressed to
give them a memory test.
Do you remember what I
just did?
You remember you ate manna
this morning?
On this nation alone, food
fell from heaven to feed
you that you did not have
to raise your plant.
How about that?
Do you remember this
morning, in your whining
about food?
Do you remember the
explosion of water out of
a rock because somebody
hit it?
Do you remember dropping a
piece of wood in some
poison water and it got
pure and clean?
Do you remember that?
Do you remember the
plagues I put on the
Egyptians?
Do you remember the wall
of water that you walked
through?
Do you remember all 600
chariots of the Egyptians
smashed and broken up and
the troops dead and the
chariot tears and drivers
and the armored people
riding with them all
washed up on the shore
dead?
Do you remember that?
What does that tell you
about what I'm going to
keep doing for you to help
you along?
Do not panic.
But we need that
thanks-therapy because of
our amnesia because we
keep forgetting.
So here's my challenge to
you: Listen to the talk
coming out of your mouth.
Would the people in your
family or where you work
call you a complainer?
Hmm.
Today is the day of
change.
I'm going to go positive
today.
If you have an issue with
somebody else, the Bible
has a plan for that too,
doesn't it?
If you've been hurt or
injured, go talk to the
person; let them know you
have been hurt.
But the main thing is look
at all of the stuff in
your life from God's point
of view and count how
staggeringly blessed you
have been.
I know mine has been one
by one and when somebody
says, "How was your day?"
Just say, "It was great.
God loved me the entire
day and here are the ways
that I can see it." Are
you in?
If so, say "yes."
[Audience: Yes].
I am, too.
Amen.
[MUSIC]
[PASTOR JEREMY
MATTEK] Thank you, Pastor
Jeske, for that reminder
of why God allowed the
Israelites to run out of
food in the wilderness.
He was basically asking
the Israelites a question:
Will you remember me even
when life gets really
hard?
And the reason why he
wanted the Israelites to
remember him was that
they would see a God who
always remembers you.
Always.
I'll be back with you to
pray.
[PROMOTION] Hi, I'm Amber
Albee Swenson.
You might have seen my
blog posts at Time of
Grace.
And I've just recently
finished a book,
"Borderline." It talks
about the seven deadly
sins.
So often as Christians, we
look at the world and
think that their sins are
really big but our sins
are just sort of little.
This book helps us take a
look at those sins and how
they might be creeping
into our life.
It helps us identify those
sins and then also gives
us action steps that we
can take to avoid those
sins and get them out of
our life so that we can
live the full life that
Jesus talked about when he
said, "I've come so that
you can live your life to
the full." Call the number
on the screen to receive a
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donation today to help
reach more people with the
timeless truths of God's
word.
[PASTOR JEREMY MATTEK]
Today, Pastor Jeske talked
about things that people
believe they lack in their
lives.
Some things that people do
legitimately lack in their
lives include peace, joy,
hope.
Wonderful things that only
God can give.
You can help us provide
those wonderful gifts to
so many souls.
Would you please consider
supporting this ministry?
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, We are so
sorry for ever complaining
about our lack of
anything.
Help us to keep our eyes
fixed on your cross so
that we see how determined
you are to provide us with
everything.
In your name we pray,
Amen.
I'm Pastor Jeremy Mattek
with Time of Grace,
grateful to be a recipient
of God's amazing grace
along with you, and it all
starts now.
[MUSIC]
[ANNOUNCER] The
preceding program was
sponsored by the
friends and partners of
Time of Grace.
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