November 2, 2025 • 55 mins
Is it bad to complain? Joyce Meyer sheds light on what God’s Word says about it and provides practical strategies for living a grateful, holy life.
If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: ele.vc/tIepfr
Scripture References:
Numbers 21, verses 4-7
1 Corinthians 10, verses 8-11
Philippians 4, verse 6
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe
so we can get you these new sermons every week.
I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning, Wow, what more times for the Lord? All right,
praise God, you can be seated. I love you too.
You know, we we tell each other we love each
other all the time, but I really really do love Halloween, Stephen.
(00:57):
And it's kind of funny you have connections with certain
people and I met him, I don't know how many
years ago at a Hillsong conference in Australia and there
was just like an immediate bond. And so it's an
honor for me to be here today. And I want
to teach you something that will you'll enjoy have fun with,
(01:21):
but it will also make you come a pyre because
we're living in a day that really, to be honest,
we talk about how hard it is, but God shows
us for this time. We didn't just end up here
in twenty twenty five accidentally. We're here for a purpose
(01:45):
and the world is very dark, but we have the
privilege of being lights in a dog for it. And
I think we need to shine a lot little brighter
than what we are. Amen. And you know, everybody, you
(02:06):
all have a pulpit. Maybe it's not this one. It
might be your backyard fence or your desk at work,
but you've all got a pulpit. And most people that
will come to the Lord will come through somebody like you.
Your influence, because the ones that really need it aren't
(02:27):
here today. But they are different places in your world.
And really we're not supposed to be doing all the
work anyway, Paul said. You train them up so they
go out and do the work of the ministry. You know. Well,
(02:47):
first of all, I'll tell you I have four grown children,
and my baby will be forty five in December. My
oldest son will be sixty. I don't know how that
all worked out, since I'm only fifty's that's an odd thing.
But we have four grown children. Dave actually ended up
(03:08):
with some kind of virus and couldn't come this weekend.
And we have four grown children. We have twelve grandchildren
and twelve great grandchildren. And so I feel like all
I do is write checks all year, don't take them
very long, and all they wants money, like five or
(03:30):
six years old, they got their hand out for the cash.
Dave and I in January will be married fifty nine years,
and we are not alike at all. So don't tell
me that you can't get along with somebody that's different
than you are, because you can if you want to.
(03:51):
And I've actually had the great privilege. I can't. I
can't think of having the privilege of doing anything greater
than actually handling and teaching the Word of God, the
most important thing that we have. And I've been teaching
for fifty years, and i want to talk to you
(04:18):
today about well. I actually put two titles on it.
The first one was acceptable Sins, which I think that
we think there are some of those, and I think
there are things that are sin that we have forgotten
our sin. But I decided to change the title to
(04:42):
just a little bit, because you know, that's the biggest
lie the devil tells people. It's just a little bit,
that's not a big deal, that doesn't matter. I think
the hardest thing for a sincere Christian to do is
to keep the balance between holiness and legalism, because see,
(05:09):
I've been legalistic, and I don't want to be legalistic.
I don't want to feel like I can never do
anything or never have any fun, you know, but all
I can do is spiritual things. However, if I have
to choose to lean toward holiness, I'm going to always
lean toward holiness. And some people will call that legalism,
(05:32):
but it's not. And God has called us to be
a holy people. And we live in a more casual
society today, and I don't know that I think it's good.
But maybe that's because I'm older. I don't know, but
it seems like the more casual our society gets, the
(05:55):
more casual our morals get. And I think we have
to be really careful because we are a unique generation
that has been called far such a time as this.
Do you know that Jesus actually really could come back
in our lifetime? I mean, he really could call the
(06:18):
church home at any day. And I don't ever want
to be ashamed when I stand before him. When fifty
years ago, just as I was starting to teach home
Bible studies, I was going to a Walgames drug store
one day, and I remember I was walking down the
street to get there, and I saw a penny laying
(06:41):
on the street and I just kind of kicked it.
Walked over it, and I got about this far, and
the Lord spoke very clearly to me, and he said,
if you pick up pennies, you'll always be blessed. But
I knew it had nothing to do with the penny.
What he was saying to me was, if you pay
attention to little things, I'll always bless your life. And
(07:03):
he has. And We've picked up many pennies in our life.
I will dig them out of the dirt. I won't
leave them there because they have a very special meaning
to me. And we've tried the best we can to
run our ministry with integrity and excellence. But I think
(07:26):
it's time to tighten our belt of truth just a
little bit tighter. You know Ephesians six, when it talks
about warfare, one of the first things that says is
tighten the belt of truth. Tighten it so you may
know the word, but God wants us to lean in
on it a little bit more. Make sure we're living it,
not just not just talking about it. And so I
(07:48):
think that there are things that we do that we
shouldn't do, but we do them because the devil says
it's just a little bit. Everybody does it. I mean
(08:10):
maybe you're not here because I know their integrity. But
there are pastors I know that do things that God
won't let me do, and I used to. I went
to God complaining about it one time because there was
a movie that was out that I really wanted to see,
and I just knew God didn't want me to go
(08:33):
see it. But I mean, my pastors were seeing it.
Everybody was seeing it, and I got a little miffed.
I thought, why is it that everybody else can do
stuff and I can't do anything? And you know what
he said to me. Look, Joyce, you asked me for
a lot. Do you want it or not? So you know,
(08:53):
everybody wants everything that you here talked about, but not
everybody's willing to live the lifestyle they need to live
to get it. I want to read your story. It's
by a woman named Annette Nee. Many parents are working
hard to explain to their children and teens why some
video games, music, movies, books, and magazines are not acceptable
(09:17):
material for them to see or bring into their homes.
One parent came up with an original idea that's hard
to refute. He listened to all the reasons his children
gave for wanting to see a particular PG thirteen movie.
It had their favorite actors. Everyone else was seeing it.
Even church members said it was great. It was only
(09:37):
rated PG thirteen because of the suggestion of sex. They
never really showed anything. The language was pretty good. They
only used a large name in vain three times in
the whole movie. The video effects were fabulous, The plot
was power packed. Video effects were fabulous. Yes, there was
those this one scene where they blew up a bunch
(09:59):
of people in kill them, But you know, not violence
as normal stuff today. It wasn't really that bad. Even
after all these explanations for the rating, the father would
not give in. He didn't even give them a satisfying
explanation for saying no. He just said no. A little
later that evening, the father said to his teens, if
you'd like some brownies, I've made some fresh. He explained
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he'd taken the family's favorite recipe and added a little
something new. They said, what is it, and he calmly
replied that he had added just a little bit of
dog poop. He said, but it's just a little as
(10:46):
in this whole batch of brownie. You won't even taste it,
But all the other ingredients or gourmet quality. He had
taken great care to bake the brownies at the precise
temperature at the exact time. He was sure they'd be superb.
Even with all the explanations of the perfect attributes of
(11:06):
the brownies, the teens, not one teen would even try one.
The father acted surprised. Well, there's only one little element
in there that I don't know. Why you actually stubborn?
(11:27):
He said, I assure you you won't notice it, you
won't taste it, if at all. But they all held
firm and not one would even try the brownies. He
then explained that the movie they wanted to see was
just like those brownies. Stand enters our minds and our
homes by deceiving us into believing that just a little
bit won't matter, just a little bit won't make any difference.
(11:56):
So now when the father's children want to do something
they shouldn't do, he just says, would you like a brownie? Now?
I have one main thing that I want to get
out today, and so I'll have to just kind of
give you a little dust over so we all have
a good idea. Okay, I doubt that any one of
(12:18):
you is going to rob a bank next week. I
doubt that anybody here is planning to rob the local
mini march. I doubt that anybody here is planning a murder.
But there are some of you here this morning that
harbor jealousy. Oh yeah, it is a sin. Bible says,
(12:46):
Jealousy rots the bones. You know, it's amazing to me
that we don't see this center. Everything that God tells
us to do or not to do is not for
his benefit, it's for ours. He just tells us to
do what will make us happy, and what will make
(13:06):
us better, and what will that make us healthier and
make us live long. Jealousy rots the bones. It has
an actual effect on your health. But let's just say
that there's a woman at work that is not a believer,
and there's an office that's opened up. There weren't enough
(13:30):
offices for everybody, but certain people got offices and somebody
had quit, and so now this office was open. And
you're a Christian and you prayed for that office. You
even gave a little extra that week in the offering
because you wanted that office. But this girl who wasn't
(13:52):
even a Christian got it. Now, all of a sudden,
you can't like her anymore, because as soon as you
become jealous of somebody, you can no longer have a
loving right relationship with him. Or maybe let's say it's
(14:13):
a sibling rivalry. Maybe just somebody here today maybe or
somebody watching on television. Maybe you have a brother or
sister that's smarter than you are. I had one son
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that got straight a's and never had to crack a book,
and another another one that a girl's. She got good grades,
but I mean she studied so hard. That was all
the girl did. And then I had two who didn't care.
(14:59):
And one of those two the ministry now. And because
he wasn't a book guy, he was a hands on guy.
And everybody has gifts, and you should never be jealous
(15:19):
of somebody else's because what happens if you're jealous of
somebody else's gifts. It causes you not to see your own,
and then we end up being robbed. Because God put
that gift in them for you. The gift that's in
(15:39):
me makes me work. You get to enjoy it, right,
and so I need your gift and you need mine.
But if we get jealous of each other, then it
doesn't happen. What if my eyes said, you know, I'm
really tired of just looking at that ring. I've looked
(16:02):
at that ring all my life and I'm just tired
of it, and I want my own ring. Now. What
if God said, oh, okay, well there you have it.
So now I've just messed up everything. I got my ring,
(16:23):
I got my way, but now I can't see what
I'm doing or or where I'm going in life? Amen?
Or what about unforgiveness? And you know, I know you
hear a lot about unforgiveness, but it's the single biggest
problem in the church. You would be absolutely astonished at
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how many people are in here today that are angry
with someone and you don't forgive them because you don't
think they deserve it, or you know, it's it's funny
when somebody does something that hurts us, how well we
remember it, but how quickly we forget the things that
we do to other people.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Wow. Amen. And you want to forgive some of you,
some of you don't. But if you want to forgive,
people get mixed up because they think forgiveness is a feeling.
So you pray to forgive and you don't feel any
different about that person when you see them, you still
(17:31):
want to knock them down. But forgiveness is not a feeling.
It's a decision you make about how you will treat someone. Now,
I want you to get that, so that'll help so
many of you. The Bible says that we are to
do three things. Pray for our enemies. So if you
(17:53):
want to forgive somebody, you pray for them. You pray
for them to be blessed. And you think, well, I
don't want them to be blessed. Well, you pray for
them to be blessed anyway. And that doesn't mean God's
going to give them a new house. Maybe He'll give
them some revelation about how they treat people. You pray
for them to be blessed, you bless and do not
(18:15):
curse them, And that means in that way that you
speak well of them, you don't speak evil of them,
so you don't run around telling everybody else what they did.
And Thirdly, if they have a need, who that's the
out you one. If they have a need, you meet
(18:40):
that need. Now, forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean that you have
to be around the person. You don't have to have
a reconciliation of the relationship. But how you feel about
them in your heart, you release them in your heart,
You release them into God's hands, and you do yourself
(19:01):
a favor when you do that, not them you because
you can't. It messes your love life up if you're
mad at people. And I tell you, I want to
be so good at forgiveness that I'm forgiving somebody while
they're still trying to offend me. So that's I just
wanted to give you an idea, But I got to
(19:23):
get going here to get to the real stuff. One
I want to mention is lying. There are a lot
of Christian liars, because any time you don't keep your word,
you're lying. Now we're gonna get down to the little stuff,
(19:45):
because I think God cares about the pennies. If you
tell somebody, I'll call you back this afternoon. And and really,
if the truth were told, you already know when you
say that you're not going to call him back this afternoon.
(20:06):
You've just found a way to get rid of them.
I tell you how God cured me of that. We
were in Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, ministering several different churches and
we kind of really hooked up with this one couple
that were pastors, and so we said to them. I
(20:28):
said to them, hey, you guys ought to come to
Saint Louis sometime and stay for about a week, and
we'll take you to the arch and you know, we'll
do all these things. Well, I don't even know why
I said it. I didn't really say it. I didn't
really say it because I wanted them to come. I
(20:52):
just was trying to be nice. Well, about a month
went buying the man calling, he said, well, we're ready.
I said, ready for what? He said, We're ready to
come to Saint Louis. And I thought, oh, And I said,
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to god, God, what am I going to do? I
can't have company for a week right now. I'm just
up to my eyeballs and work. And he said, I'll
tell you exactly what you're gonna do. You're gonna tell
them to come, and you're going to put them in
a good hotel and you're going to spend the week
with them. And that's going to teach you not to
say things that you really don't mean. And ma'am, don't
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tell people. I'll pray for you, and then don't pray
for them. I'll pray for you as a good way
to get rid of people too. Sometimes I'm gonna pray
for you about that. Well, then you pray for them
about that. If you tell somebody you're going to call
them back, you call them back. If you say I'll
call you in a few weeks and we'll go to lunch,
call them and take them to lunch. We expect God
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to keep his word, and God expects us to keep
our word. Amen. I mean these to me are areas
where you could lean a little toward legalism and it
wouldn't hurt I honestly try before God, anything that I
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tell somebody I'm going to do to the best of
my knowledge, I do it. And if there's anything I've forgotten, Lord,
please remind me. But the thing I actually want to
talk to you about today is a big sin, but
one that people I don't think you even think it's
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a sin, and that's complaining. I don't know if you
know who Madam Guyan is, but she lived in the
sixteen hundreds and some of her books have really helped me.
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Pretty strict, but they've really helped me. And she said
something is just like God, You've got to be kidding.
She said, even if you sigh, it's a sign of discontentment.
So let me just tell you I've got a ways
to go, because I still do sigh. In numbers twenty one,
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verses four through seven, the Bible says, and they journeyed
from Mount Horror by way to the Red Sea to
go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient, depressed,
much discouraged because of the trials of the way. And
the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have
you brought us out of Egypt to die in this wilderness.
(24:04):
There's no bread here, neither is there any water. And
we loathe this light, contemptible, unsubstantial manna. Then the Lord
sent fiery burning serpents among the people, and they bit
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the people, and many Israelites died. It was twenty three
thousand exactly. And so they went to Moses and said,
we have sinned. Duh. Sometimes it takes us a long
time to get the idea that God's trying to get
(24:48):
something across to us and we're just not paying any attention.
Oh joyce, does the Bible really say complaining is sin? Well,
it says give thanks in all things, no matter what
the circumstances. Might be be thankful and give thanks for
this is the will of God for those of you
who are in Christ Jesus. Well, that was a lousy clap,
(25:16):
that was Pye. And then over in the New Testament
in First Corinthians eight through eleven, it repeats that whole
thing again, that's in numbers, and Paul said these things
(25:39):
befell them by way of a figure as an example
and a warning to us, a warning. You know, everything
that you hear in church is not supposed to make
you feel great. And that's one of the problems we
have today. People just go to get their blessing and
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they want to feel good. Tell me how wonderful I am,
Tell me all the good things that the Bible has
to say about me. Well, you know, I just went
through a season of doing that. I spent about six
weeks telling the whole world how wonderful they were. Now
I feel led to go in another direction. I feel
(26:26):
a new annoying coming on me for a season. One
of those Mama's thinkings, we must not gratify evil desire
and indulge in immorality, as some of them did. God
called what they were doing immorality. They were crabbing and
(26:47):
complaining about this miracle that God's raining down out of
the sky. You think miracles would keep you happy, They
really won't because we get too used to things. I
bet they were excited about that Man of the first
few days, But you know, we get familiarity with things.
(27:12):
I remember saying to the Lord once, why don't you
do the things that you used to do? When I
was first baptized in the Holy Spirit? I mean, I
had so many supernatural things happening. It was just like
I'd ask God for an answer to something and open
my Bible and that would be the answer. Why don't
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you do the things you used to do? And boy
did he shock me? He said, Oh, I still do them.
You've just gotten used to them. How many amazing things
is God doing in your life every day that you
(27:56):
don't even recognize as amazing anymore? Do you know how
amazing it is just to have a church like this
to go to? I mean, really amazing. There's so many
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amazing things that God does for us. But we have
gotten Yes, God's our friend, but he's also sovereign, and
he means what he says, and when he says to
do something, if we don't do it. We're going to
feel it in our own life. Remember what I say.
(28:40):
I think if you get this, it'll really help you.
Everything that God tells us to do or not to
do is for our benefit. It's not for his. It's
for our better. He's telling us what will make us happy,
what will make us powerful, what will put us in
a position where the devil can't touch us. He's telling
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us how to live a life that is so far
superior that you can't hardly believe it. And we have
the audacity to obey him. Yes, but just a little bit.
There's just a little bit that we You know, Saul,
(29:28):
when God told him to go in and kill all
the women, the men, the babies, the cattle, don't leave anything.
And Saul did a little too much thinking, and instead
of just doing what God told him to do, he
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killed everybody, kept got rid of everything except the good stuff.
And when Saul confronted him about it, the prophet Saul,
he said, well, I just kept the good things to
sacrifice them to the Lord. Now you're really getting light.
(30:11):
I just did it for you. Lord. Well, I desire sacrifice.
I desire obedience, not sacrifice. And I think Sometimes we
don't obey God in something, and then we will do
something like give extra money in the offering, and I
think it just happened so fast. Sometimes we don't even
realize what we're doing. We're trying to make up for
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something else that we should have done and we didn't do.
Wonder how happy it would make the Lord if everybody
that's a Christian never complained. I'd be happy if I
could make it through one whole day. And I mean,
I really try to do this. I'll tell you what
(30:58):
we don't do very well is inconvenience. We are just spoiled,
rotten inconvenience. Well, my electric went off for two hours.
None of my electronics would work. I couldn't use my epad,
(31:20):
you paid epad, whatever they are, there's too many, too
many things. It's YouTube and whatever the pad is. I forget.
(31:44):
I mean, we can't live if we don't have all
of our electric stuff. I mean, I left my phone
at home on this trip, and I was kind of
proud of myself. I thought, I'm gonna see how I
do without it. But they figured out a way to
get it to me and I got I had it
by the time I got here. Okay, listen to what
(32:08):
Poe says in First Corinthians. First Corinthians ten eight. We
must not gratify evil desire and indulge in immorality, as
some of them did, and twenty three thousand suddenly fell
dead in a single day. Wow. We should not tempt
the lord try his patience, become a trial to him
(32:34):
by critically appraising him and exploiting his goodness, as some
of them did and were killed by poisonous serpents. Nor
should we discontentedly complain, as some of them did, and
were put out of the way entirely by the destroyer.
(32:54):
Now these things befell them by way of a figure,
as an example and a warning to us. They were
written to admonish and fit us for right action by
good instruction, we in whose days the ages have reached
their climax. You know, the Bible doesn't say that we
are just to be encouraged, Paul told Timothy. Preach the
(33:17):
word encourage, urge, warn, and rebuke. So we need a
healthy diet of all of it in order to be balanced. Yes,
we need to be encouraged. There are times when we
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need to be rebuked. There's times when the sermon needs
to make you squirm just a little bit in your seats.
And you know, I mean, if we're not going to
learn anything, you got to learn something when you go
to church. I mean it's great, the worship is great,
and it's great to jump around and be happy, and
(33:58):
we all need that. But you need to listen to
every word that Stephen says. Don't ever be the kind
of person if somebody asks you what did Stephen preach
on the day, say it was good? I know it
was good. I want you to know. Well into the
(34:21):
middle of next week, if somebody asks you, oh, I
heard Joyce is at your church. On you what does
she preach on? I want you to be able to
tell them that we have to stop just letting a
little bit of sin into our lives because a little
bit doesn't matter. And when you have something inconvenient, I
(34:42):
want you to when you start to complain, to remember, oops,
that's something I'm not supposed to do. Yeah, go on,
how many of you complain? Everybody in the whole church
is sinning. Let me ask you a sincere question. Do
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you believe that little things like this make a difference,
so it's not the big things that we're guilty of.
It's all the little stuff. A man that I knew,
his wife had divorced him and he had met another
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guy and they both claimed to be Christians. And this
other guy was living with his girlfriend, had been for
quite some time. And he says to the guy that
I know, I've got a good idea. Why don't we
fast once a week and pray together for God to
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do these certain things they wanted him to do. Nay,
excuse me, but that's just stupid. I mean, why even bother? Yeah,
but you know, somehow or another, he had himself convinced
that what he was doing wasn't wrong. And that's the
(36:18):
scary part. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful
above all things. Who can know his own heart? That's
why we got to have some meetings with ourselves. I mean,
at least once a week. You used to have a
meeting with yourself and just really ask God, am I
(36:40):
doing okay? Here? Is there something you need to remind
me of? Do I need a little kick in the rear?
And See, this doesn't mean that you have to live
this rigid, legalistic life where you can never do any
things or have never have any fun. But how about
(37:04):
if I throw this out? What if you start listening
to your conscience. That's one of the best things that
God has given us as a conscience, it's part of
our spirit. Conscience comes from their intuition revelation. So I
(37:25):
can sit and talk to your head all day, but
I want it to fall from your head to your
spirit and become a revelation. We have got so much information,
but we needed to become revelation because when it's revelation,
that's when you start really doing it. One of the
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definitions I found for complain, to complain means to remain.
So the Israelites remained in the wilderness forty years, trying
to make an eleven day trip, and one of the
reasons found. I have found ten reasons why they stayed
(38:14):
out there, but one of them was just complaining. They
just complained every time it was inconvenient. Now it's God's fault,
it's Moses's fault, and we wish we would have stayed
in Egypt where we had those onions and leaks and garlic. Whew.
I might rather try a brownie than that. I don't
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know if we could just understand what we give up
in an effort to try to get what we think
we want. God doesn't answer complaints, He answers prayers. Philippians
(39:04):
four six Philippians for six. Do not fret or have
any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything,
by prayer and petition, definite request with thanksgiving. Now, you know,
(39:25):
the Lord says a lot of stuff to me that
I just don't get by with much. Not that I'm
trying to, but I don't. And I was praying for
something one time, and the Lord said, why should I
give you that? You're already complaining about what you've got.
(39:46):
Why should I give you something else to complain about.
We're supposed to be thankful. People I love be thankful
and say so. It's not enough to say, well, I'm
a thankful person. Well, how many people are in your
(40:08):
life that are blessings to you that you haven't thanked
in a long, long, long long time. You know, if
the word thank you was around your house as more
marriages would last a lot longer. Dave told me the
(40:29):
other day to get him something, and I said, say please,
and he didn't say it. I said, you're not getting it.
Till you say please. Don't take me for granted. Even
(40:49):
in your home, you need to say please and thank you.
It's amazing. I mean, if we just had better manners. See,
how can you be a light in a dark world?
Get out there and you know, you don't really have
to preach to everybody. I forget the famous person that
(41:12):
said it, but somebody said preach at all times and
if necessary, use words. Who was it, Mike Saint Francis
of Assissi. He's like my brain when mine gives out.
I say, there's so much stuff I forget. Now it's
(41:32):
just gotten to be hilarious. I don't even argue with
my kids anymore when they tell me you told us
that last week. I just said, okay, if you say so,
I don't remember it. But if you say so, but
I tell you. You know, when you don't remember things as good.
It's great for movies because I can watch a movie
(41:58):
and not see it for two months and go back
watch it again, just like a brand new movie. You
know what, You're gonna get old, and you better make
your mind up now. I just made up my mind.
I'm gonna be a funny old person. I'm I'm not
gonna be cranky and crabby and hard to get along with.
(42:24):
I just I just want to be funny, and my
kids think I'm hilarious. So I don't know what I
was saying before I got off on that. See there
you go, mm hmm, it's in there. It comes back.
(42:54):
So how can you be a light in a dark world?
You know? I think a lot of people they get
they get real can when somebody says you need to witness,
because we automatically think that means we got to back
somebody into a corner and preach to him. When I
wanted to be used of God, I didn't know yet
(43:17):
that God wanted me to preach, and so I just
anything they asked us to do at church. I tried it.
And one of the first things I did was it
was in a season when passing out tracks was a
big thing, and so our church would take a group
of people on Saturday morning to downtown Saint Louis and
(43:38):
pass out tracks. So I tried street preaching.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
I hated it, did not like it, And that doesn't
make God mad for me to say that.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
That didn't fit. You know, if you don't know what
you believe, God wants you to do. Act like a
woman buying a new outfit. You just keep trying on
stuff till something fits, and then we're too afraid of
(44:18):
being wrong, and it just paralyzes us. It doesn't matter
if you try something and it's not the right thing
for you. Your heart's right. You're just trying to find
out what God wants you to do. And it's not
that hard. You find something you're good at. Everybody's good
(44:40):
at something. You just keep trying on stuff till it fits.
So I tried street ministry and didn't like that. I
tried working in the nursery and me and are the
kids like that? I got over that in two weeks.
(45:04):
But when I finally got around to try to teach,
I had led a girl to the Lord in the
bathroom at work, and when we started to go back
to our desks, the Lord simply said to me, what
are you going to do with her? And I said, well,
what do you want me to do with her? He said,
(45:26):
teach her. I don't know how to do that, he said,
I do. Whoever says God's going to call you to
do something, you know how to do. That's the fun
part is stepping out blindly and watching God work through you.
(45:50):
Why is He called the weak and the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, so we can't
take the credit. I mean, I am the least likeliest
person on the earth to be doing what I'm doing.
I mean, right, this message that I'm preaching here today
will go around the world in one hundred and seven
(46:12):
different languages. And that's that's amazing. It's amazing. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know how I've written one
hundred and fifty books. I thought one day, how did
I do that? I don't know how I did that?
And people say to me, how have you done all this?
(46:34):
I don't know. I don't know. If you're willing, God
will use you. But don't don't get all torn up
if the first thing you try doesn't work or the
second thing doesn't work. You're not a failure until you
quit trying. A man, be happy in your faith and
(47:03):
rejoice and be glad hearted continually. One of the things
we can do to be enlighten in a dark world
is just smile. Seriously, just don't get out in the
world and be a crank, be friendly. High How are
(47:23):
you today, smile and be one of the very unusual
people that don't complain. You're complaining everywhere you go. Next
time you feel like complaining about waiting in traffic, just
(47:50):
be glad you're not one of the people that have
no legs and can't even walk. The next time, you
just for the ladies. The next time you want to
complain about your husband, there's a lot of lonely people
(48:11):
that will take him off your hands. Well, that's going
over better than my thoughts. Maybe I better say something
(48:34):
to the men too. Own you. I mean, really, once
your eyes are open to it, you see how ridiculous
it is to complain. God does so much for us.
And you know, part of the reason why there's so
(48:56):
many divorces is people forget about the good stuff, and
they laser in on the one or two things that
aggravates them, and that's all they think about. One time,
I was having a hard time with Dave over something,
(49:18):
and God put on my heart to make two lists,
one everything I liked about him and everything I didn't
like about him. And the list of stuff I liked
was so much longer than the list of stuff that
I didn't like. And that's usually what it comes down to,
people will get divorced over a couple of little things
(49:41):
that they don't like and forget about all the things
that you love about them. The Bible says that love
covers a multitude of sins. And I'll tell you something
that will help you in your homes. Stop every time
somebody makes a mistake, telling them they did. We have
(50:08):
lived in our home for twenty years, and for at
least eighteen of those twenty years sometimes I'm slow. Eighteen
of those twenty years. Every time Dave left his closet
light on, which is all the time, I would say
you left your closet light on? Again, I finally decided
(50:33):
to shut up and just turn it off, because if
I tell him you left your closet light on, you
know what he says. Do you know what he says?
He says, I didn't leave it on. You must have
turned it on. Now, why would I go to his
closet and turn on the light. The man has three
(50:53):
different kinds of hearing aids, and he won't wear any
of them. He won't wear any of them, and he
says that he's not hard at hearing that I'm mumble. Now,
let me ask have you heard me mumble one time
here today? But you know what, you know what I
(51:16):
really love about Dave. He lets me do anything I
want to just anything I want to do, he lets
me do it. Well, that's worth turning off a closet
light and keeping your mouth shut. If I went home
and said, you know, honey, I feel like I need
(51:37):
to spend some time alone, I'm gonna I'm gonna just
leave for a couple of weeks and spend some time
with the Lord, he said, okay, okay, So see, look
at the good things in people. Look at the good
things about your job. Instead of complaining about your job,
(51:59):
be glad you've got it. There's so many people that
don't even have a job. Amen. Let's appreciate everything good
that God does for us, and let's just not complain
about anything. Amen. How many of you if we pray
together today, how many of you We'll just make a
(52:21):
commitment to just try to tighten your belt just a
little bit and then let's all stand up together. I
really forgot to ask how they like to close services here,
But I'm going to pray for you and then give
it back to Stephens. Now this has been very serious
(52:42):
to me today. I never go anywhere and preach without
feeling like I've got the word of the Lord. And
so this is very simple. You're not going to forget it,
but at the same time very profound. Don't it's just
a little bit now, And don't do it because everybody
(53:08):
else is doing it. You're only going to have to
answer for yourself. You do what's right if everybody else
in the world wants to do it wrong. Amen, Father,
we love you so very much, and we're so appreciative
that you love us. And I want to thank you
(53:30):
for reminding us that we need to pay attention to
little things, because it is the little foxes that spoiled
the vine. So we're all making a fresh commitment today
to always be sure that we do what we say
we're going to do, not harbor things like jealousy and
(53:55):
petty things, a little hang on, little anger issues, but
to just let that stuff go. Let it go and
help us to appreciate everything you do for us. And God,
put a watch over our mouth lest we sin against
(54:17):
you with our tongue by complaining. And let the words
of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be
acceptable in your sight in Jesus's name, Amen, thank you
for having me today.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
get you all of these new messages as soon as
they're available. I also want to take a moment and
thank all of you who are a part of Elevation.
Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
just share these messages, it's because of you that we're
able to reach.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
People all around the world. And if you want more
information on how.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
To be a part of Elevation, click the link in
the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave
a review, share the message, and subscribe. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe
so we can get you these new sermons every week.
I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning, Wow, what more times for the Lord? All right,
praise God, you can be seated. I love you too.
You know, we we tell each other we love each
other all the time, but I really really do love Halloween, Stephen.
(00:57):
And it's kind of funny you have connections with certain
people and I met him, I don't know how many
years ago at a Hillsong conference in Australia and there
was just like an immediate bond. And so it's an
honor for me to be here today. And I want
to teach you something that will you'll enjoy have fun with,
(01:21):
but it will also make you come a pyre because
we're living in a day that really, to be honest,
we talk about how hard it is, but God shows
us for this time. We didn't just end up here
in twenty twenty five accidentally. We're here for a purpose
(01:45):
and the world is very dark, but we have the
privilege of being lights in a dog for it. And
I think we need to shine a lot little brighter
than what we are. Amen. And you know, everybody, you
(02:06):
all have a pulpit. Maybe it's not this one. It
might be your backyard fence or your desk at work,
but you've all got a pulpit. And most people that
will come to the Lord will come through somebody like you.
Your influence, because the ones that really need it aren't
(02:27):
here today. But they are different places in your world.
And really we're not supposed to be doing all the
work anyway, Paul said. You train them up so they
go out and do the work of the ministry. You know. Well,
(02:47):
first of all, I'll tell you I have four grown children,
and my baby will be forty five in December. My
oldest son will be sixty. I don't know how that
all worked out, since I'm only fifty's that's an odd thing.
But we have four grown children. Dave actually ended up
(03:08):
with some kind of virus and couldn't come this weekend.
And we have four grown children. We have twelve grandchildren
and twelve great grandchildren. And so I feel like all
I do is write checks all year, don't take them
very long, and all they wants money, like five or
(03:30):
six years old, they got their hand out for the cash.
Dave and I in January will be married fifty nine years,
and we are not alike at all. So don't tell
me that you can't get along with somebody that's different
than you are, because you can if you want to.
(03:51):
And I've actually had the great privilege. I can't. I
can't think of having the privilege of doing anything greater
than actually handling and teaching the Word of God, the
most important thing that we have. And I've been teaching
for fifty years, and i want to talk to you
(04:18):
today about well. I actually put two titles on it.
The first one was acceptable Sins, which I think that
we think there are some of those, and I think
there are things that are sin that we have forgotten
our sin. But I decided to change the title to
(04:42):
just a little bit, because you know, that's the biggest
lie the devil tells people. It's just a little bit,
that's not a big deal, that doesn't matter. I think
the hardest thing for a sincere Christian to do is
to keep the balance between holiness and legalism, because see,
(05:09):
I've been legalistic, and I don't want to be legalistic.
I don't want to feel like I can never do
anything or never have any fun, you know, but all
I can do is spiritual things. However, if I have
to choose to lean toward holiness, I'm going to always
lean toward holiness. And some people will call that legalism,
(05:32):
but it's not. And God has called us to be
a holy people. And we live in a more casual
society today, and I don't know that I think it's good.
But maybe that's because I'm older. I don't know, but
it seems like the more casual our society gets, the
(05:55):
more casual our morals get. And I think we have
to be really careful because we are a unique generation
that has been called far such a time as this.
Do you know that Jesus actually really could come back
in our lifetime? I mean, he really could call the
(06:18):
church home at any day. And I don't ever want
to be ashamed when I stand before him. When fifty
years ago, just as I was starting to teach home
Bible studies, I was going to a Walgames drug store
one day, and I remember I was walking down the
street to get there, and I saw a penny laying
(06:41):
on the street and I just kind of kicked it.
Walked over it, and I got about this far, and
the Lord spoke very clearly to me, and he said,
if you pick up pennies, you'll always be blessed. But
I knew it had nothing to do with the penny.
What he was saying to me was, if you pay
attention to little things, I'll always bless your life. And
(07:03):
he has. And We've picked up many pennies in our life.
I will dig them out of the dirt. I won't
leave them there because they have a very special meaning
to me. And we've tried the best we can to
run our ministry with integrity and excellence. But I think
(07:26):
it's time to tighten our belt of truth just a
little bit tighter. You know Ephesians six, when it talks
about warfare, one of the first things that says is
tighten the belt of truth. Tighten it so you may
know the word, but God wants us to lean in
on it a little bit more. Make sure we're living it,
not just not just talking about it. And so I
(07:48):
think that there are things that we do that we
shouldn't do, but we do them because the devil says
it's just a little bit. Everybody does it. I mean
(08:10):
maybe you're not here because I know their integrity. But
there are pastors I know that do things that God
won't let me do, and I used to. I went
to God complaining about it one time because there was
a movie that was out that I really wanted to see,
and I just knew God didn't want me to go
(08:33):
see it. But I mean, my pastors were seeing it.
Everybody was seeing it, and I got a little miffed.
I thought, why is it that everybody else can do
stuff and I can't do anything? And you know what
he said to me. Look, Joyce, you asked me for
a lot. Do you want it or not? So you know,
(08:53):
everybody wants everything that you here talked about, but not
everybody's willing to live the lifestyle they need to live
to get it. I want to read your story. It's
by a woman named Annette Nee. Many parents are working
hard to explain to their children and teens why some
video games, music, movies, books, and magazines are not acceptable
(09:17):
material for them to see or bring into their homes.
One parent came up with an original idea that's hard
to refute. He listened to all the reasons his children
gave for wanting to see a particular PG thirteen movie.
It had their favorite actors. Everyone else was seeing it.
Even church members said it was great. It was only
(09:37):
rated PG thirteen because of the suggestion of sex. They
never really showed anything. The language was pretty good. They
only used a large name in vain three times in
the whole movie. The video effects were fabulous, The plot
was power packed. Video effects were fabulous. Yes, there was
those this one scene where they blew up a bunch
(09:59):
of people in kill them, But you know, not violence
as normal stuff today. It wasn't really that bad. Even
after all these explanations for the rating, the father would
not give in. He didn't even give them a satisfying
explanation for saying no. He just said no. A little
later that evening, the father said to his teens, if
you'd like some brownies, I've made some fresh. He explained
(10:24):
he'd taken the family's favorite recipe and added a little
something new. They said, what is it, and he calmly
replied that he had added just a little bit of
dog poop. He said, but it's just a little as
(10:46):
in this whole batch of brownie. You won't even taste it,
But all the other ingredients or gourmet quality. He had
taken great care to bake the brownies at the precise
temperature at the exact time. He was sure they'd be superb.
Even with all the explanations of the perfect attributes of
(11:06):
the brownies, the teens, not one teen would even try one.
The father acted surprised. Well, there's only one little element
in there that I don't know. Why you actually stubborn?
(11:27):
He said, I assure you you won't notice it, you
won't taste it, if at all. But they all held
firm and not one would even try the brownies. He
then explained that the movie they wanted to see was
just like those brownies. Stand enters our minds and our
homes by deceiving us into believing that just a little
bit won't matter, just a little bit won't make any difference.
(11:56):
So now when the father's children want to do something
they shouldn't do, he just says, would you like a brownie? Now?
I have one main thing that I want to get
out today, and so I'll have to just kind of
give you a little dust over so we all have
a good idea. Okay, I doubt that any one of
(12:18):
you is going to rob a bank next week. I
doubt that anybody here is planning to rob the local
mini march. I doubt that anybody here is planning a murder.
But there are some of you here this morning that
harbor jealousy. Oh yeah, it is a sin. Bible says,
(12:46):
Jealousy rots the bones. You know, it's amazing to me
that we don't see this center. Everything that God tells
us to do or not to do is not for
his benefit, it's for ours. He just tells us to
do what will make us happy, and what will make
(13:06):
us better, and what will that make us healthier and
make us live long. Jealousy rots the bones. It has
an actual effect on your health. But let's just say
that there's a woman at work that is not a believer,
and there's an office that's opened up. There weren't enough
(13:30):
offices for everybody, but certain people got offices and somebody
had quit, and so now this office was open. And
you're a Christian and you prayed for that office. You
even gave a little extra that week in the offering
because you wanted that office. But this girl who wasn't
(13:52):
even a Christian got it. Now, all of a sudden,
you can't like her anymore, because as soon as you
become jealous of somebody, you can no longer have a
loving right relationship with him. Or maybe let's say it's
(14:13):
a sibling rivalry. Maybe just somebody here today maybe or
somebody watching on television. Maybe you have a brother or
sister that's smarter than you are. I had one son
(14:36):
that got straight a's and never had to crack a book,
and another another one that a girl's. She got good grades,
but I mean she studied so hard. That was all
the girl did. And then I had two who didn't care.
(14:59):
And one of those two the ministry now. And because
he wasn't a book guy, he was a hands on guy.
And everybody has gifts, and you should never be jealous
(15:19):
of somebody else's because what happens if you're jealous of
somebody else's gifts. It causes you not to see your own,
and then we end up being robbed. Because God put
that gift in them for you. The gift that's in
(15:39):
me makes me work. You get to enjoy it, right,
and so I need your gift and you need mine.
But if we get jealous of each other, then it
doesn't happen. What if my eyes said, you know, I'm
really tired of just looking at that ring. I've looked
(16:02):
at that ring all my life and I'm just tired
of it, and I want my own ring. Now. What
if God said, oh, okay, well there you have it.
So now I've just messed up everything. I got my ring,
(16:23):
I got my way, but now I can't see what
I'm doing or or where I'm going in life? Amen?
Or what about unforgiveness? And you know, I know you
hear a lot about unforgiveness, but it's the single biggest
problem in the church. You would be absolutely astonished at
(16:48):
how many people are in here today that are angry
with someone and you don't forgive them because you don't
think they deserve it, or you know, it's it's funny
when somebody does something that hurts us, how well we
remember it, but how quickly we forget the things that
we do to other people.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Wow. Amen. And you want to forgive some of you,
some of you don't. But if you want to forgive,
people get mixed up because they think forgiveness is a feeling.
So you pray to forgive and you don't feel any
different about that person when you see them, you still
(17:31):
want to knock them down. But forgiveness is not a feeling.
It's a decision you make about how you will treat someone. Now,
I want you to get that, so that'll help so
many of you. The Bible says that we are to
do three things. Pray for our enemies. So if you
(17:53):
want to forgive somebody, you pray for them. You pray
for them to be blessed. And you think, well, I
don't want them to be blessed. Well, you pray for
them to be blessed anyway. And that doesn't mean God's
going to give them a new house. Maybe He'll give
them some revelation about how they treat people. You pray
for them to be blessed, you bless and do not
(18:15):
curse them, And that means in that way that you
speak well of them, you don't speak evil of them,
so you don't run around telling everybody else what they did.
And Thirdly, if they have a need, who that's the
out you one. If they have a need, you meet
(18:40):
that need. Now, forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean that you have
to be around the person. You don't have to have
a reconciliation of the relationship. But how you feel about
them in your heart, you release them in your heart,
You release them into God's hands, and you do yourself
(19:01):
a favor when you do that, not them you because
you can't. It messes your love life up if you're
mad at people. And I tell you, I want to
be so good at forgiveness that I'm forgiving somebody while
they're still trying to offend me. So that's I just
wanted to give you an idea, But I got to
(19:23):
get going here to get to the real stuff. One
I want to mention is lying. There are a lot
of Christian liars, because any time you don't keep your word,
you're lying. Now we're gonna get down to the little stuff,
(19:45):
because I think God cares about the pennies. If you
tell somebody, I'll call you back this afternoon. And and really,
if the truth were told, you already know when you
say that you're not going to call him back this afternoon.
(20:06):
You've just found a way to get rid of them.
I tell you how God cured me of that. We
were in Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, ministering several different churches and
we kind of really hooked up with this one couple
that were pastors, and so we said to them. I
(20:28):
said to them, hey, you guys ought to come to
Saint Louis sometime and stay for about a week, and
we'll take you to the arch and you know, we'll
do all these things. Well, I don't even know why
I said it. I didn't really say it. I didn't
really say it because I wanted them to come. I
(20:52):
just was trying to be nice. Well, about a month
went buying the man calling, he said, well, we're ready.
I said, ready for what? He said, We're ready to
come to Saint Louis. And I thought, oh, And I said,
(21:14):
to god, God, what am I going to do? I
can't have company for a week right now. I'm just
up to my eyeballs and work. And he said, I'll
tell you exactly what you're gonna do. You're gonna tell
them to come, and you're going to put them in
a good hotel and you're going to spend the week
with them. And that's going to teach you not to
say things that you really don't mean. And ma'am, don't
(21:43):
tell people. I'll pray for you, and then don't pray
for them. I'll pray for you as a good way
to get rid of people too. Sometimes I'm gonna pray
for you about that. Well, then you pray for them
about that. If you tell somebody you're going to call
them back, you call them back. If you say I'll
call you in a few weeks and we'll go to lunch,
call them and take them to lunch. We expect God
(22:09):
to keep his word, and God expects us to keep
our word. Amen. I mean these to me are areas
where you could lean a little toward legalism and it
wouldn't hurt I honestly try before God, anything that I
(22:35):
tell somebody I'm going to do to the best of
my knowledge, I do it. And if there's anything I've forgotten, Lord,
please remind me. But the thing I actually want to
talk to you about today is a big sin, but
one that people I don't think you even think it's
(22:56):
a sin, and that's complaining. I don't know if you
know who Madam Guyan is, but she lived in the
sixteen hundreds and some of her books have really helped me.
(23:20):
Pretty strict, but they've really helped me. And she said
something is just like God, You've got to be kidding.
She said, even if you sigh, it's a sign of discontentment.
So let me just tell you I've got a ways
to go, because I still do sigh. In numbers twenty one,
(23:43):
verses four through seven, the Bible says, and they journeyed
from Mount Horror by way to the Red Sea to
go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient, depressed,
much discouraged because of the trials of the way. And
the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have
you brought us out of Egypt to die in this wilderness.
(24:04):
There's no bread here, neither is there any water. And
we loathe this light, contemptible, unsubstantial manna. Then the Lord
sent fiery burning serpents among the people, and they bit
(24:26):
the people, and many Israelites died. It was twenty three
thousand exactly. And so they went to Moses and said,
we have sinned. Duh. Sometimes it takes us a long
time to get the idea that God's trying to get
(24:48):
something across to us and we're just not paying any attention.
Oh joyce, does the Bible really say complaining is sin? Well,
it says give thanks in all things, no matter what
the circumstances. Might be be thankful and give thanks for
this is the will of God for those of you
who are in Christ Jesus. Well, that was a lousy clap,
(25:16):
that was Pye. And then over in the New Testament
in First Corinthians eight through eleven, it repeats that whole
thing again, that's in numbers, and Paul said these things
(25:39):
befell them by way of a figure as an example
and a warning to us, a warning. You know, everything
that you hear in church is not supposed to make
you feel great. And that's one of the problems we
have today. People just go to get their blessing and
(26:01):
they want to feel good. Tell me how wonderful I am,
Tell me all the good things that the Bible has
to say about me. Well, you know, I just went
through a season of doing that. I spent about six
weeks telling the whole world how wonderful they were. Now
I feel led to go in another direction. I feel
(26:26):
a new annoying coming on me for a season. One
of those Mama's thinkings, we must not gratify evil desire
and indulge in immorality, as some of them did. God
called what they were doing immorality. They were crabbing and
(26:47):
complaining about this miracle that God's raining down out of
the sky. You think miracles would keep you happy, They
really won't because we get too used to things. I
bet they were excited about that Man of the first
few days, But you know, we get familiarity with things.
(27:12):
I remember saying to the Lord once, why don't you
do the things that you used to do? When I
was first baptized in the Holy Spirit? I mean, I
had so many supernatural things happening. It was just like
I'd ask God for an answer to something and open
my Bible and that would be the answer. Why don't
(27:35):
you do the things you used to do? And boy
did he shock me? He said, Oh, I still do them.
You've just gotten used to them. How many amazing things
is God doing in your life every day that you
(27:56):
don't even recognize as amazing anymore? Do you know how
amazing it is just to have a church like this
to go to? I mean, really amazing. There's so many
(28:17):
amazing things that God does for us. But we have
gotten Yes, God's our friend, but he's also sovereign, and
he means what he says, and when he says to
do something, if we don't do it. We're going to
feel it in our own life. Remember what I say.
(28:40):
I think if you get this, it'll really help you.
Everything that God tells us to do or not to
do is for our benefit. It's not for his. It's
for our better. He's telling us what will make us happy,
what will make us powerful, what will put us in
a position where the devil can't touch us. He's telling
(29:03):
us how to live a life that is so far
superior that you can't hardly believe it. And we have
the audacity to obey him. Yes, but just a little bit.
There's just a little bit that we You know, Saul,
(29:28):
when God told him to go in and kill all
the women, the men, the babies, the cattle, don't leave anything.
And Saul did a little too much thinking, and instead
of just doing what God told him to do, he
(29:48):
killed everybody, kept got rid of everything except the good stuff.
And when Saul confronted him about it, the prophet Saul,
he said, well, I just kept the good things to
sacrifice them to the Lord. Now you're really getting light.
(30:11):
I just did it for you. Lord. Well, I desire sacrifice.
I desire obedience, not sacrifice. And I think Sometimes we
don't obey God in something, and then we will do
something like give extra money in the offering, and I
think it just happened so fast. Sometimes we don't even
realize what we're doing. We're trying to make up for
(30:34):
something else that we should have done and we didn't do.
Wonder how happy it would make the Lord if everybody
that's a Christian never complained. I'd be happy if I
could make it through one whole day. And I mean,
I really try to do this. I'll tell you what
(30:58):
we don't do very well is inconvenience. We are just spoiled,
rotten inconvenience. Well, my electric went off for two hours.
None of my electronics would work. I couldn't use my epad,
(31:20):
you paid epad, whatever they are, there's too many, too
many things. It's YouTube and whatever the pad is. I forget.
(31:44):
I mean, we can't live if we don't have all
of our electric stuff. I mean, I left my phone
at home on this trip, and I was kind of
proud of myself. I thought, I'm gonna see how I
do without it. But they figured out a way to
get it to me and I got I had it
by the time I got here. Okay, listen to what
(32:08):
Poe says in First Corinthians. First Corinthians ten eight. We
must not gratify evil desire and indulge in immorality, as
some of them did, and twenty three thousand suddenly fell
dead in a single day. Wow. We should not tempt
the lord try his patience, become a trial to him
(32:34):
by critically appraising him and exploiting his goodness, as some
of them did and were killed by poisonous serpents. Nor
should we discontentedly complain, as some of them did, and
were put out of the way entirely by the destroyer.
(32:54):
Now these things befell them by way of a figure,
as an example and a warning to us. They were
written to admonish and fit us for right action by
good instruction, we in whose days the ages have reached
their climax. You know, the Bible doesn't say that we
are just to be encouraged, Paul told Timothy. Preach the
(33:17):
word encourage, urge, warn, and rebuke. So we need a
healthy diet of all of it in order to be balanced. Yes,
we need to be encouraged. There are times when we
(33:37):
need to be rebuked. There's times when the sermon needs
to make you squirm just a little bit in your seats.
And you know, I mean, if we're not going to
learn anything, you got to learn something when you go
to church. I mean it's great, the worship is great,
and it's great to jump around and be happy, and
(33:58):
we all need that. But you need to listen to
every word that Stephen says. Don't ever be the kind
of person if somebody asks you what did Stephen preach
on the day, say it was good? I know it
was good. I want you to know. Well into the
(34:21):
middle of next week, if somebody asks you, oh, I
heard Joyce is at your church. On you what does
she preach on? I want you to be able to
tell them that we have to stop just letting a
little bit of sin into our lives because a little
bit doesn't matter. And when you have something inconvenient, I
(34:42):
want you to when you start to complain, to remember, oops,
that's something I'm not supposed to do. Yeah, go on,
how many of you complain? Everybody in the whole church
is sinning. Let me ask you a sincere question. Do
(35:04):
you believe that little things like this make a difference,
so it's not the big things that we're guilty of.
It's all the little stuff. A man that I knew,
his wife had divorced him and he had met another
(35:29):
guy and they both claimed to be Christians. And this
other guy was living with his girlfriend, had been for
quite some time. And he says to the guy that
I know, I've got a good idea. Why don't we
fast once a week and pray together for God to
(35:55):
do these certain things they wanted him to do. Nay,
excuse me, but that's just stupid. I mean, why even bother? Yeah,
but you know, somehow or another, he had himself convinced
that what he was doing wasn't wrong. And that's the
(36:18):
scary part. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful
above all things. Who can know his own heart? That's
why we got to have some meetings with ourselves. I mean,
at least once a week. You used to have a
meeting with yourself and just really ask God, am I
(36:40):
doing okay? Here? Is there something you need to remind
me of? Do I need a little kick in the rear?
And See, this doesn't mean that you have to live
this rigid, legalistic life where you can never do any
things or have never have any fun. But how about
(37:04):
if I throw this out? What if you start listening
to your conscience. That's one of the best things that
God has given us as a conscience, it's part of
our spirit. Conscience comes from their intuition revelation. So I
(37:25):
can sit and talk to your head all day, but
I want it to fall from your head to your
spirit and become a revelation. We have got so much information,
but we needed to become revelation because when it's revelation,
that's when you start really doing it. One of the
(37:51):
definitions I found for complain, to complain means to remain.
So the Israelites remained in the wilderness forty years, trying
to make an eleven day trip, and one of the
reasons found. I have found ten reasons why they stayed
(38:14):
out there, but one of them was just complaining. They
just complained every time it was inconvenient. Now it's God's fault,
it's Moses's fault, and we wish we would have stayed
in Egypt where we had those onions and leaks and garlic. Whew.
I might rather try a brownie than that. I don't
(38:36):
know if we could just understand what we give up
in an effort to try to get what we think
we want. God doesn't answer complaints, He answers prayers. Philippians
(39:04):
four six Philippians for six. Do not fret or have
any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything,
by prayer and petition, definite request with thanksgiving. Now, you know,
(39:25):
the Lord says a lot of stuff to me that
I just don't get by with much. Not that I'm
trying to, but I don't. And I was praying for
something one time, and the Lord said, why should I
give you that? You're already complaining about what you've got.
(39:46):
Why should I give you something else to complain about.
We're supposed to be thankful. People I love be thankful
and say so. It's not enough to say, well, I'm
a thankful person. Well, how many people are in your
(40:08):
life that are blessings to you that you haven't thanked
in a long, long, long long time. You know, if
the word thank you was around your house as more
marriages would last a lot longer. Dave told me the
(40:29):
other day to get him something, and I said, say please,
and he didn't say it. I said, you're not getting it.
Till you say please. Don't take me for granted. Even
(40:49):
in your home, you need to say please and thank you.
It's amazing. I mean, if we just had better manners. See,
how can you be a light in a dark world?
Get out there and you know, you don't really have
to preach to everybody. I forget the famous person that
(41:12):
said it, but somebody said preach at all times and
if necessary, use words. Who was it, Mike Saint Francis
of Assissi. He's like my brain when mine gives out.
I say, there's so much stuff I forget. Now it's
(41:32):
just gotten to be hilarious. I don't even argue with
my kids anymore when they tell me you told us
that last week. I just said, okay, if you say so,
I don't remember it. But if you say so, but
I tell you. You know, when you don't remember things as good.
It's great for movies because I can watch a movie
(41:58):
and not see it for two months and go back
watch it again, just like a brand new movie. You
know what, You're gonna get old, and you better make
your mind up now. I just made up my mind.
I'm gonna be a funny old person. I'm I'm not
gonna be cranky and crabby and hard to get along with.
(42:24):
I just I just want to be funny, and my
kids think I'm hilarious. So I don't know what I
was saying before I got off on that. See there
you go, mm hmm, it's in there. It comes back.
(42:54):
So how can you be a light in a dark world?
You know? I think a lot of people they get
they get real can when somebody says you need to witness,
because we automatically think that means we got to back
somebody into a corner and preach to him. When I
wanted to be used of God, I didn't know yet
(43:17):
that God wanted me to preach, and so I just
anything they asked us to do at church. I tried it.
And one of the first things I did was it
was in a season when passing out tracks was a
big thing, and so our church would take a group
of people on Saturday morning to downtown Saint Louis and
(43:38):
pass out tracks. So I tried street preaching.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
I hated it, did not like it, And that doesn't
make God mad for me to say that.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
That didn't fit. You know, if you don't know what
you believe, God wants you to do. Act like a
woman buying a new outfit. You just keep trying on
stuff till something fits, and then we're too afraid of
(44:18):
being wrong, and it just paralyzes us. It doesn't matter
if you try something and it's not the right thing
for you. Your heart's right. You're just trying to find
out what God wants you to do. And it's not
that hard. You find something you're good at. Everybody's good
(44:40):
at something. You just keep trying on stuff till it fits.
So I tried street ministry and didn't like that. I
tried working in the nursery and me and are the
kids like that? I got over that in two weeks.
(45:04):
But when I finally got around to try to teach,
I had led a girl to the Lord in the
bathroom at work, and when we started to go back
to our desks, the Lord simply said to me, what
are you going to do with her? And I said, well,
what do you want me to do with her? He said,
(45:26):
teach her. I don't know how to do that, he said,
I do. Whoever says God's going to call you to
do something, you know how to do. That's the fun
part is stepping out blindly and watching God work through you.
(45:50):
Why is He called the weak and the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, so we can't
take the credit. I mean, I am the least likeliest
person on the earth to be doing what I'm doing.
I mean, right, this message that I'm preaching here today
will go around the world in one hundred and seven
(46:12):
different languages. And that's that's amazing. It's amazing. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know how I've written one
hundred and fifty books. I thought one day, how did
I do that? I don't know how I did that?
And people say to me, how have you done all this?
(46:34):
I don't know. I don't know. If you're willing, God
will use you. But don't don't get all torn up
if the first thing you try doesn't work or the
second thing doesn't work. You're not a failure until you
quit trying. A man, be happy in your faith and
(47:03):
rejoice and be glad hearted continually. One of the things
we can do to be enlighten in a dark world
is just smile. Seriously, just don't get out in the
world and be a crank, be friendly. High How are
(47:23):
you today, smile and be one of the very unusual
people that don't complain. You're complaining everywhere you go. Next
time you feel like complaining about waiting in traffic, just
(47:50):
be glad you're not one of the people that have
no legs and can't even walk. The next time, you
just for the ladies. The next time you want to
complain about your husband, there's a lot of lonely people
(48:11):
that will take him off your hands. Well, that's going
over better than my thoughts. Maybe I better say something
(48:34):
to the men too. Own you. I mean, really, once
your eyes are open to it, you see how ridiculous
it is to complain. God does so much for us.
And you know, part of the reason why there's so
(48:56):
many divorces is people forget about the good stuff, and
they laser in on the one or two things that
aggravates them, and that's all they think about. One time,
I was having a hard time with Dave over something,
(49:18):
and God put on my heart to make two lists,
one everything I liked about him and everything I didn't
like about him. And the list of stuff I liked
was so much longer than the list of stuff that
I didn't like. And that's usually what it comes down to,
people will get divorced over a couple of little things
(49:41):
that they don't like and forget about all the things
that you love about them. The Bible says that love
covers a multitude of sins. And I'll tell you something
that will help you in your homes. Stop every time
somebody makes a mistake, telling them they did. We have
(50:08):
lived in our home for twenty years, and for at
least eighteen of those twenty years sometimes I'm slow. Eighteen
of those twenty years. Every time Dave left his closet
light on, which is all the time, I would say
you left your closet light on? Again, I finally decided
(50:33):
to shut up and just turn it off, because if
I tell him you left your closet light on, you
know what he says. Do you know what he says?
He says, I didn't leave it on. You must have
turned it on. Now, why would I go to his
closet and turn on the light. The man has three
(50:53):
different kinds of hearing aids, and he won't wear any
of them. He won't wear any of them, and he
says that he's not hard at hearing that I'm mumble. Now,
let me ask have you heard me mumble one time
here today? But you know what, you know what I
(51:16):
really love about Dave. He lets me do anything I
want to just anything I want to do, he lets
me do it. Well, that's worth turning off a closet
light and keeping your mouth shut. If I went home
and said, you know, honey, I feel like I need
(51:37):
to spend some time alone, I'm gonna I'm gonna just
leave for a couple of weeks and spend some time
with the Lord, he said, okay, okay, So see, look
at the good things in people. Look at the good
things about your job. Instead of complaining about your job,
(51:59):
be glad you've got it. There's so many people that
don't even have a job. Amen. Let's appreciate everything good
that God does for us, and let's just not complain
about anything. Amen. How many of you if we pray
together today, how many of you We'll just make a
(52:21):
commitment to just try to tighten your belt just a
little bit and then let's all stand up together. I
really forgot to ask how they like to close services here,
But I'm going to pray for you and then give
it back to Stephens. Now this has been very serious
(52:42):
to me today. I never go anywhere and preach without
feeling like I've got the word of the Lord. And
so this is very simple. You're not going to forget it,
but at the same time very profound. Don't it's just
a little bit now, And don't do it because everybody
(53:08):
else is doing it. You're only going to have to
answer for yourself. You do what's right if everybody else
in the world wants to do it wrong. Amen, Father,
we love you so very much, and we're so appreciative
that you love us. And I want to thank you
(53:30):
for reminding us that we need to pay attention to
little things, because it is the little foxes that spoiled
the vine. So we're all making a fresh commitment today
to always be sure that we do what we say
we're going to do, not harbor things like jealousy and
(53:55):
petty things, a little hang on, little anger issues, but
to just let that stuff go. Let it go and
help us to appreciate everything you do for us. And God,
put a watch over our mouth lest we sin against
(54:17):
you with our tongue by complaining. And let the words
of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be
acceptable in your sight in Jesus's name, Amen, thank you
for having me today.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
get you all of these new messages as soon as
they're available. I also want to take a moment and
thank all of you who are a part of Elevation.
Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
just share these messages, it's because of you that we're
able to reach.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
People all around the world. And if you want more
information on how.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
To be a part of Elevation, click the link in
the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave
a review, share the message, and subscribe. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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