[Music] I do what I do because I've seen God's power transform my own life and he will do it for you the key to everything is found in God's word I'm Joyce Meyer and I believe that God can heal you everywhere you hurt I'm going to preach today you don't need it um but maybe there'll be somebody you know that will need it and so you can either take some notes for them or you can buy a copy of the CD or something but I know you don't need it because I'm going to talk about
stop complaining so I'm sure that you don't need that none of you need that right okay well I think if we could make it through one day without complaining about something it would border on being a pretty major Miracle it seems like like the more we have the more we find to complain about I caught myself a couple of weeks ago and I think I do this pretty often go to the refrigerator door open the door stand there and look at all the food and then I heard myself say I get so tired of trying
to figure out every day what to eat come on anybody ever say that you ever do that look at that see hands up all over the place or I go to my closet which is really kind of a small room and I uh say I just get so tired of trying to figure out what to wear every day well you know when I was a teenager and my closet was this big and I had seven outfits I didn't get confused trying to figure out what to wear there was a Monday outfit a Tuesday outfit a
Wednesday outfit I didn't get confused about my shoes because I only had two pair and I think a lot of times we We complain about having so much stuff that we actually get confused trying to figure out what to eat isn't it isn't it pathetic that in a country where you can eat absolutely anything you want anytime you want it we stand at the refrigerator door and complain because we don't know what to eat we get tired of trying to figure out what to eat well there was a missionary her husband and her and her
family lived in Africa for many years and they would come home once a year once every two years to visit and in Africa where she lived they had one kind of cereal it was called wabix and uh so she loves cereal and one of the things that she really liked to do when she was home was to get some of the cereal that she liked well she hadn't been home for a few years and things had grown quite a bit there was a lot more variety of what you could have and so her husband dropped
her off the grocery store and said he'd wait outside for her and so she went in and didn't come out didn't come out didn't come out and didn't come out and finally she came out and she didn't have anything and he said well where's the cereal she said I got so confused trying to figure out which cereal to buy because there's so many different varieties that I finally just gave up and didn't buy anything how many of you know we have a lot of abundance going on God said to me one time Joyce if you're
going to complain about something then don't bother praying about it so God does not answer complaints there may be a complaint department at every department store but there's no complaint department open in heaven where you can go and complain about a problem and they'll right away take care of it the way we get our problems taken care of is by praying about things and believing God not by complaining about things matter of fact I tend to think that if we pray about something and then turn around and complain about it we've probably just undone any
good that we might have done and I and really we're probably going to have some good laughs today I've got some funny stories to tell you but I want to point out in the beginning I think this is a much more serious message than what we might think and I really believe it's an insult to God When We complain and I actually think it's dangerous I think we open the door for the enemy When We complain and so I would just like to suggest that you take it a little more seriously try to do a
lot less of it and when you catch yourself complaining treat it as Sin and repent how many of you are really good to your kids tell I am and uh how many of you don't like it when they complain because you are so good to them you just like really I mean really you going to complain about that well you know just imagine how God feels then with everything that he's done for us and all the sacrifices that he made in giving us his only son and the phenomenal provision that we have and you know
I don't have to try to complain but I do have to try not to complaining is something that we do just kind of as an automatic response to any kind of inconvenience or discomfort that we have in life and I believe that I can prove to you scripturally that complaining is a sin and that it opens a door for the enemy and so I do have a pretty healthy reverential fear of complaining that doesn't mean that I never do it but I love to to preach a message like this because I need to hear it
over and over Paul said that I it I never get never gets irksome to me to teach you the same things over and over and I tell you I don't think there's anything in the Bible that we can only hear it once and we never really need to hear it again I think that that there's every word doesn't need to be a new word it just needs to be a now word and so this is not something you've never heard before it's probably something hear again but it's something that if you're anything like me every
time you hear it you need it amen so here we go Philippians 4:6 do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving not with complaining with Thanksgiving let your request be made known known unto God 1 Thessalonians 5:16 through 19 give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God for those of you who are in Christ Jesus do not quench the spirit now the the word quench means to stop from working so if we're going to just kind of cut through the Chase and make this real
plain if I'm understanding what I'm reading here it's says if I have a situation going on in my life I need God to help me and I I'm maybe I'm praying maybe I'm not praying but let's just say I'm praying but I'm also complaining about it then my complaining stops the Holy Spirit from being able to work in my life and in my situation the Israelites spent 40 years making what could have been an 11-day trip that still just amazes me and I wonder how many years we wander around the Wilderness of life trying to
find that promised land that we've set out for and we just don't understand what it is that's holding us back and sometimes it's not the complicated things that we think it is it's more simple things and I did a teaching one time called Wilderness mentalities I think it's about time for me to do it again but I actually studied what kept the Israelites out there that long when they could have made it in an 11-day trip and it was simple things like impatience blaming God for their problems blaming Moses for their problems and lots of
complaining I mean they have Miracle food being rained down out of the sky and they said we hate this light contemptible Mana they didn't like it anymore and so it kept them out there I don't remember where I found this but um I found a definition for complain one time and part of that definition said that to complain means to remain so when I complain about something I'm pretty much guaranteeing that I'm going to remain in it until I learn how to be thankful you know we have to be careful that we don't get how
many know it's really easy to start looking at what you don't have it's so easy to start looking at what you don't have and the problem with that is is the more you look at what you don't have the more you miss what you do have and I tell we've all got so much and we've got so many opportunity matter of fact I'll just say it we've all including me got too much we have so much stuff that it frustrates us and we just keep bringing in more you and uh I think God wants us
to enjoy things but I think sometimes you can actually add stress to your life by having so much stuff that it frustrates you and I keep what I've learned to call a giving box and it's a pretty good siiz box and I fill that thing up probably at least every three or four weeks with just stuff you know stuff that there's really nothing wrong with but I'm not using it or I haven't used it in a long time so at least we can prune our stuff and give away things that we're not using because there's
somebody out there that would use it it at least helps you keep your sanity if you live just a little bit more simple but let's be thankful and I mean thankful on purpose I thank God for hot water I love to take a hot shower or a hot bath and I thank God for hot water I thank God for clean water that I don't have to walk miles and miles to get my water I thank God a lot of days I'll start out thank you God that I can walk and talk and see and hear
how many people can't just roll out of bed in the morning and take off and just imagine people that are are paraplegics or they're in wheelchairs how long it takes them just to even do something like go to the bathroom and then we find so many things to complain about do all things without grumbling or disputing Philippians 2:14-15 we got to get this do all things without grumbling the Amplified Bible says without grumbling fault finding and complaining against God and questioning and doubting among yourselves all things how many things are we supposed to do without
complaining all how many when are we supposed to give thanks and this is why he says to live without complaining that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and a twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world so God says one of the ways that you can get out in the world and be a bright light for me is just to do the opposite of what the world does and be thankful instead of complaining don't sit at the lunch table and complain with
everybody else that you work with about the working conditions and the boss and the this and the that and the something else don't blend then stand out and maybe you could say something like well I know everything's not perfect here but I'm thankful that I've got a job there's a lot of people that don't have jobs or or maybe when you want to complain about the husband you've got you could remember that there's some Lonely Woman somewhere that would probably love to take him off your hands amen just think some people don't ever even have
anybody to sit down and eat a meal with we have so much inconvenience and complaining well I took eight weeks and during that eight weeks I listed all the things that happened to me that I could have and probably did complain about and uh so I thought I'd share with you that in 8 weeks 34 things happened to me see stuff is happening all the time and I mean I I think I don't know if game is a good word to use but I think that we should just almost make it like a game that
we play with the devil that we just refuse to complain no matter what he throws against us let's let's just see after today how long we can go and with with the devil just aggravating us and us just saying thank God I'm so blessed thank God I'm so blessed and see even here's the thing even when we have a problem we've got God in our life and he can help us solve that problem just imagine how would you like to have your problem today and not have Jesus on your side amen now like I said
I know you guys don't need this but how many of you can think of somebody you know that needs this message and you could so see I don't know if you sell messages after the services if you still do that you see you can buy this and give it to The Grouchy person you know that's never happy no matter what what goes on all right here we go 34 things first thing that happened was I injured my back at the gym then water leaked out of my humidifier and bubbled up the wood on my table
tore that up I twisted my wrist I left some luggage on the plane the nursing home called about my mom two times now for a number of years we took care of my mom my dad and my aunt all in nursing home care and took care of means several things number one we paid for it which was very expensive and number two that meant that we were never knew when we were going to get calls but a call from the nursing home doesn't just mean a call from the nursing home it means that they need
you to do something either Mama's acting up Granny's acting up Auntie's acting up they need to go to the doctor they need to go to the hospital something and it's never at a time when you're sitting around with nothing to do hoping the nursing home calls so you can find you know have something to do with your time so the nursing home called two times my back was still hurting then I hurt my arm trying to do stretches for my back pain the nursing home called again about my mom I spilled a red vitamin drink
on a white couch Dave hit a golf ball through a window of somebody's home on the golf course I ended up talking to a pillow in the middle of the night thinking it was Dave I'm like here it was the pillow I had to spend some money I didn't plan to spend replacing a couch I didn't plan to replace I got my toe caught in my underwear and I strained the tendon and my toe my little toe SW welled up and turned black and blue because I caught it in my underwear I had to tell
my very independent 86y old aunt that she could no longer Drive anymore and take her car away from her you have not done anything fun until you take an elderly person's driving privileges away from them I had to replace my mother's TV so she could have TV ears to help her hear the TV because she refused to wear the hearing aids that she insisted that I buy her I went to the spa at the Waldorf atoria Hotel which is a very nice hotel and I lost my pants at the spa I mean lost my pants
you say what do you mean well you know when you go to the spa for a treatment you get a locker you put your clothes in the locker well somehow I didn't get my pants in the locker and so somebody took them and did something with them we didn't know what so I'm done with my massage and I'm getting dressed and I've got a top on and I got my shoes and I have no pants now how does one leave the Waldorf [Applause] atoria so I I wasn't in the humor right then to say thank
you God for all my blessings I at least appreciate having a top you know I I wasn't much in the mood for that and so I thought well what am I going to do so I put a robe on and I went up to the desk feeling really stupid and said I have a problem I've lost my pants now it's not like nobody knows who I am you know so it's not like just anybody losing their pants you know Joyce Meyer was here and she lost her pants so they said that they would give me
a pair out of the gift shop if I would go to the gift shop and get them so I had to go in my robe through the lobby of the walar festor come on I mean this is life this the kind of stuff that happens to people and it happens a lot more regularly than we think it does but I think if we can stop complaining about it so much then we won't even really remember all the stuff that happens but I'm going to finish my list so I went into the gift shop and they
said they kind of looked at me and said you're the lady that lost your pants right I said yeah that's me they gave me a pair of pants didn't fit me too great but they gave me a pair and I went home and that afternoon they called and said we found your pants I said where were they they were right at the desk the whole time somebody just laid the appointment book on top of them so here they had them the whole time and I went through all that mess for nothing except for embarrassment I
guess how many of you have never lost your pants at the spa my mother lost her new $350 glasses we think she dropped them in the trash can our water went off for 24 hours my aunt had shingles in her eyes and had to be taken to an eye specialist and number of times had a situation at work I wasn't expecting with an employee Dave had back surgery and couldn't go to Indonesia with me I flew 47 hours and 7 days to Indonesia and back and while I was there the city flooded and I wasn't
able to do what I went there for are we having fun yet my aunt was taken to the hospital with pneumonia 3 hours after I got home from Indonesia I got a called to come and get my aunt from the hospital our website was down for two days the phones went out at the office I jammed my toe into the leg of the couch had to tell my aunt she now had to move to the nursing home and could no longer stay in her apartment I had a stomach virus the fire alarms were being tested
all day at the hotel where I was staying while having a conference and last but not least I drank my entire protein shake after realizing that Dave had coated the shaker cup with Dawn dishwashing soap the night before and left it to soak and I didn't see it I just poured the water out out but there was soap in it so I guess we could say I was forever blowing bubbles now I tell you that because stuff happens to you too but just imagine if we could get through just imagine how it would infuriate the
devil if we could just get through life and realize that he sets us up to get us upset amen the devil sets you up to get you upset he wants you to lose your temper murmur and complain act like everybody else out in the world so people can't tell any difference between us and anybody else we are not supposed to blend in we're supposed to stand out and that doesn't mean that we have to preach to everybody we see matter of fact I think sometimes that does more harm than good but boy if we get
out there and just live the life I mean can you imagine Jesus complaining I'm so tired of eating the same old fish every day so tired of sleeping out here with no nice bed and pillow he said hey if you're going to follow me I have nowhere to lay my head he didn't say that following him was going to be easy he said it was going to be challenging
