I’m Over It | What God Actually Thinks About Complaining — Numbers 11 Unpacked

Complaining might be the most socially acceptable bad habit there is. It feels harmless — just venting, just blowing off steam, just being honest about how hard things are. The problem is that Scripture has a lot to say about it, and spoiler alert: God does not view it the way most of us do.

David, Jon, and Phil dig into one of the most instructive — and honestly uncomfortable — passages in all of Scripture: Numbers 11, where Moses is at his absolute breaking point leading a people who will not stop complaining. The picture is almost painfully relatable. Delivered, provided for, witness to miracle after miracle — and still at it. The damage complaining did to them, to Moses, and to their forward progress through the wilderness is a masterclass in what this habit actually costs us.

This conversation gets into the self-inflicted wounds that come with a complaining spirit, why it is one of the first things to surface when life feels like too much, and what the Word actually calls us to instead. 

This is not a guilt trip — it is a genuinely eye-opening look at a tendency most of us do not take seriously enough.

Grab your Bible, a notebook, and your brew of choice. This one is going to hit differently.

Drop a comment and tell us: what area of your life are you most tempted to complain about right now — and what would it look like to bring that to God instead?

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Transcript

Setting The Theme: Being Over It

David McIntyre 0:00

Are you still over it? For a lot of people, they really are. And that shows you that our condition as a society is not necessarily in the best place. But tonight I'm going to introduce to you a whole different group of people who are also over it. And I want to show you what God does in their situation and circumstance. And I want to show you how that applies to where you live, and we'll give you some insight to help you to not be over it. Up next on Bible Bros and Brew.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

That's all right.

Simple Helps: Rest, Food, Perspective

David McIntyre 1:18

My high brother Optitude. That'll work. Of course, with us, we've got the producer, the man with the plan, uh John on the ones and twos. Um glad everybody's here with us. Tonight we're going to be talking about some more about being over it. Um, one of the things I hope is that I hope is as we've looked over the weeks, that for those of you who have listened, I hope that you've grown less over it. Because one of the things that we've tried to show you throughout the weeks is that every time you're over it, God is there. You're over it, God is in it. And He has a way of helping to get you to where you need to be. You know, one of the things we just noticed is such a simple thing, is that for a bunch of you, you just need a nap and something to eat.

Jon Dzyuba 2:16

Yes. Yes, cup of coffee.

David McIntyre 2:19

Come on, go back and see Elijah uh in 1 Kings. Um and just let that let that sink in. Some of you just need a nap, and then some of you need a nap to eat, to go back to sleep and get another nap and wake up and eat again, and then you'll kind of feel more like yourself and in your right mind and all of that. And I and look, the reality is that we know that that can be hard. Um, Phil, you know, John's, even though he's been married for a couple of years, uh more than a couple, uh, he's still in, they're still in their kind of newlywed stage. They haven't quite hit year seven yet, where things get interesting. And uh Philip and I have been married. Philip's been married for I think uh 20 some odd years now.

Phillip Rich 3:11

22.

Coffee Corner: What’s In The Cup

David McIntyre 3:12

22, and Lori and I have been married for 30 years. And and we all have been in this place where you know we've been we've been over it, but we all know what it's like to just need a break. Sometimes you just need to check out for a little bit, right, and get your mind right, and then reapproach the situation and circumstances uh from a healthy perspective. And you know, I know for so many years, because Philip and I often so many times did this together. Sometimes it was like, you know, I just need to I need to go get in my word. Yeah, I just need to go dig into Jesus a little bit, and I need to figure some things out, and you know, sometimes we do that together, a lot of times we do it apart, but you know, sometimes you just need a nap and something to eat. Other times it's very obvious um that, and honestly, even Jonah went and took a nap. Uh, the Lord built him a plant that covered him up so he had plenty of shade to take his nap in. And so, and you know, sometimes we just need a nap. And then afterwards, whatever was very interesting, at least in the story of Jonah and Elijah, we see that Jesus came and ministered to them once they were in the right place. In one sense, in Elijah's sense, uh, God was pointing out some truth to him that he didn't know, and then showed him what he was going to do. And then with uh Jonah, he began to ask him a question because he was trying to get his heart right and get him back in the place that he needed to be. But in either situation, and even in the one that we'll look at tonight, we see that God steps in and he provides help. So when we're over it, there is spiritual help to help us to get through it. Um, we just have to first of all get to that spiritual help. Some of us are guilty of being in a very unhealthy place, and that unhealthy place is being over it and allowing being over it to take us to places we should never have gone, even to the places where we become a danger to others. Because you look at there was just a situation, you know, in um up north somewhere, a situation in a hockey rink where uh uh a parent killed some people, and he had just the minute before talked about online you keep doing so and so, and then you wonder why we blow up. He was already over it, allowed himself to be pushed to the edge, and he went to a place where he couldn't return from, and now people's lives have been ended, and his life is forever changed. Nobody grows up thinking I'm gonna spend the well, first of all, I don't think anybody grows up saying I'm gonna take somebody's life while I'm while I'm on this earth, and then nobody grows up saying I want to spend the rest of my life in jail. And because inevitably, at the point that you sober up, because when you're in jail, you're gonna take a nap and you're gonna eat all right. Then you sober up and you realize, what have I done? My goodness, and that's that's the worst, that's the worst place to be to have gone too far and then to come sober after the fact and try to figure out what you did, because even though you may figure out what you did, the outcomes around the situation are what they are, and you won't the the second chance won't be like that. We've got a lot to talk about tonight, but before we do, let's find out what's in the cup.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Yeah. What happened, David?

Phillip Rich 7:35

I don't know what it is, but I'm laughing anyway, man.

Jon Dzyuba 7:37

You got something goofy in his cup.

David McIntyre 7:39

No, no, no. I'm I'm cool, I'm cool. Um so let's talk about what's in the cup.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Um okay.

David McIntyre 7:50

Tonight I want to start over with John. Let's find out what he's probably already drank before we even started the show.

Jon Dzyuba 7:59

First of all, I was drinking it while we started the show. Um first of all. Oh no, I already had this mug. Never mind, don't peep the mug. I like the mug. Thank you. Thank you too. Uh check this. I don't know if you could probably might be a little too bright. Hold on, hold on.

Phillip Rich 8:19

There we go.

Jon Dzyuba 8:19

It's a K cup. There you go. Mocha turtle, baby. Okay. Uh very mocha. Uh not I'm not really getting notes of turtle, but the mocha part is very strong and it's nice, and it's it's just something that is making me feel calm, not super nervous, but it's also nice to nice to ingest. It's very tasty tasteful on the tongue. I'm taking sips. It's easier to take sips than to drink.

David McIntyre 8:54

Are you getting any caramel or as Philip likes to call it, and the rest of the world does too, nougat.

Jon Dzyuba 9:02

Nougat? Ooh. No, because I put in a little, I'm a huge cinnamon and brown sugar fan.

David McIntyre 9:09

Oh, so you killed the flavor of the coffee with your creamer.

Is Being Over It Biblical?

Jon Dzyuba 9:12

Not creamer. Syrup. Just the one pump. To be honest with you, it was a little too much chocolate. I'll tell you that. It was a little bit too much, and so uh I was really feeling the brown sugar and the the the cinnamon of it all. So that's good. That's nice.

David McIntyre 9:33

So you were feeling the syrup more than you were the coffee.

Jon Dzyuba 9:39

You know, okay. I don't think I was ready for the coffee.

David McIntyre 9:43

All is forgiven, John.

Jon Dzyuba 9:45

Yeah, maybe I just know how to drink a mixed drink.

David McIntyre 9:49

Yeah, I pick I pick on John, but honestly, you know, one of the things I had to start doing so I could begin to appreciate these coffees more. Um, one of the things I started doing every time I opened a new bag or tried a new cake up for the first time, I tasted it black.

Phillip Rich 10:07

Yeah, right.

David McIntyre 10:08

That's important. I wanted to see if I could feel and sense all of the flavors and get what they wanted me to get out of it. Because even when you add cream, even if your cream is just, you know, half and half, or I use heavy whipping cream in my coffee, um, when you add that in, it begins to impact the flavor. Because milk and cream all have flavors to them as well. So um, depending on how much you use, will depend upon how much it impacts the coffee you're drinking. So I in order to make try to help myself be better with coffee, I started doing it black like that, and I've really enjoyed it. Um, because it's helped me to see things, to taste. How about you? What you're drinking today?

Phillip Rich 10:59

Man, let me tell you guys, Peregrine has done it again.

David McIntyre 11:04

It always does. It always does. Well, the 14th week in a row, they've done yes.

Phillip Rich 11:11

So they have a new, I don't know what to call this, like a new edition of coffee called Peregrine Gold. And boy, is it wonderful. It's uh it's a geisha coffee, which um what racism are you doing? Oh man. Uh no, just it's got like it's it's a I guess like a rare or whatever you want to call it, kind of uh geisha coffees are like, you know, they're they're grown in these like I guess remote regions or whatever it is. I'm not really sure, to be honest with you. I just know that I know they taste awesome. Uh, but this one is called it's from El Salvador, it has notes of cherry candy, cola, and lemon icebox pie, they say. So taking all this together, and I was like, you know, so I had to uh I had to give it a shot. And since I was drinking Peregrine Gold, I broke out the gold mug that says I'm just trying to do this thing right, y'all. I'm just trying to make it happen.

Jon Dzyuba 12:22

So premium peregrine experience.

Phillip Rich 12:27

Does it taste does it taste the part though? See that that's the thing with with you know, like the people who taste who test these peregrine coffees, I think their palettes are far more sophisticated than mine. Okay, they'll come up with like amazing notes, and I'll taste the coffee, and I love the way it tastes, but I don't know that I taste what they taste, right? So, you know, but it's still good, it's fantastic. So how about you, David? What you got going on, man?

David McIntyre 12:53

All right, tonight I am drinking in a cup that I haven't drink in in a while, my Mickey Sore Cup.

Phillip Rich 12:59

Oh, nice cup.

Lifestyle Creep And Personal Responsibility

David McIntyre 13:01

I love this cup. Um, and tonight I am drinking Jim's Organics Double Chocolate. Uh, this is such a good coffee. Uh, the only place I've found it so far is um outside of going, I guess maybe direct to their website. Um, though, anyway, is Amazon of all places. I have found a couple of good coffees on Amazon. Um, and so this is one of them, but it's got a very, very extra chocolate feel, and the great thing about when you add creamer to that is it tends to buttery up and enhance the chocolate flavor in it.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yes.

David McIntyre 13:43

So um it's quite an enjoyable cup, and it's made me quite conversational tonight.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Yes, it might be the bomb.

David McIntyre 13:52

Yeah, I completely agree.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Yes.

David McIntyre 13:54

All right, let's get into it, everybody. Let's talk about what we came to talk about tonight. And um, we've been talking about the series I'm over it. And uh in this series, we have looked at um we looked at some of the things that are going on in our world today, um, from the political stuff to to just the madness of other people of your own life and so forth. And so many people that we've seen just seem to be getting to this place where they're saying, you know what, I'm over it, and they're throwing their hands up, they're checking out of life, or they're plowing through, trying to hope to get to a breathing place, or whatever. And we asked the question, is being over it biblical? And the answer is a resounding yes. We see it in the lives of Elijah, we see it in the lives of Jonah, we saw it in the life of Paul, we saw it in the life of David, and tonight we're gonna see it in the life of Moses, and um, the way that they communicated getting being over it, you know, so many of them just said, Lord, if this is how it's gonna be, just kill me. I'm done, I'm finished, and we'll see that Moses has that same thought process. You know, Philip, I was just thinking about another thought that part of the reason why, and we've talked about some of the reasons people get over it, you know, and one of the reasons that we get over it in the first place is because we're doing too much. Yeah, you know, we we are we often feel like we we owe everybody a yes to whatever we're asked to do and all of that, or we have to do this in order to look a certain way, and so we take on more than we should. Um, you know, even you know, I was thinking about this, you know, I was thinking about my Gen Z folks, and um part of the reason why there is an affordability crisis today is not well, I I believe that the there truly is an affordable for some people, affordability is a problem, but it didn't just creep up, it's been around for a long time, and it's just the reality of trying to make their ends meet. And so, by the way, a long time ago, whenever people would say make their ends meet, I always thought they were talking about actual meat, and I'm like, Well, how do you do that? I mean, what's the processing thing here? What are they trying to say until I finally figured out that it meant making the ends meet? So uh, yeah, forgive me for being on the small bus. Uh so um, but for so many of us, just think about it. We say that we have an affordability crisis, and we can't afford this, we can't afford that, but yet we're affording every streaming platform that exists out there, and we're paying even more for that than we used to pay for cable, which is why we said we were gonna stream in the first place. We got gift box coming to the house every month where you get surprise gifts in your box that you're subscribed to at$30 a month. You know, we have to get Starbucks every day, and sometimes it's our lifestyle creep that's really creating the pressure in our lives rather than backing up and seeing where we are. One of the things that, you know, I've openly said, you know, right now we've got some real struggle going on in our lives. And I know God's in the process of pulling us out of that struggle. I believe Him for it. Um, but the reality is, is as I've looked at our budget and have had to say, we're not paying that anymore, we're not doing that anymore. There was so much, there was more creep than I could even calculate.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Wow.

David McIntyre 18:04

Because just when I thought that I'd gotten, all right, we're subscribed to this, we're subscribed to that, we're subscribed to this, we're subscribed to that. And when I thought I got them all, something would come through the bank or something would come along, a credit card statement. I'm like, we're subscribed to that too. And before you know it, you got 30, 40 things that you're subscribed to, and most of the time you forgot about it.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

Yeah.

David McIntyre 18:31

And so every month they're just charging you, and you're just looking at your paycheck and saying, This isn't enough. But you've got$500 in charges that you could have contributing to other places. I say all that to say we've got to take responsibility for the parts of our lives that are making us over it that we can control.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Yeah.

David McIntyre 18:53

We can't control some of the political stuff that's going on in the world, we can't control how some people respond and react. But when it comes to certain areas of our lives, we have the ability to say no, and we have the ability to just back up a minute and say, I'm not do that anymore, that anymore, that's not important to me, or that's not necessary right now, and pull things back, even just think, you know, how much are you spending to eat out every week? And no, this isn't a budget class, but it's to recognize and see that we actually create some of the obstacles that we then struggle to hurdle in our own lives. Phil, what's your thought, real quick?

Phillip Rich 19:42

That's so true, David. I'm sorry about that. Um, you it's so true though, man. You made me think of that meme that I've seen on uh like Twitter and stuff where it's like a dude, it's like a little cartoon of a dude riding a bike and he's got a stick in his hand, and he sticks the stick into the spokes, and then the next frame is him laying on the ground with his bike all you know wrecked up and stuff. And it's like, you did this to yourself, basically. Right. And it's, I mean, we as much as we don't want to admit it, a lot of times that's the actual reality of it. Um, and I have to go back to my Proverbs 19 scripture, it's it's one of my favorites in the whole Bible, and it says, the foolishness of man perverts his way, but then his heart frets against the Lord. It's like uh, and I think it's the message Bible that says people ruin their lives by their own stupidity and then they blame God for it. Yeah, you know, and it's like I have had to I've had many of those moments, those come to Jesus moments, where it's like, okay, I'm sitting here and I'm mad and I'm over it and I'm complaining, but let me look at the trail of decisions that I made that led me to where I'm at right now. You know, like there's so much of what I've done. And and you know, when you really get honest with yourself about it, which is hard sometimes, but when you really get honest with yourself about it, the first thing you find yourself wanting to do is doggone repent. Yeah, it's like, gosh, Lord, I'm sorry. I you know, and I remember one time I I this is just a transparent moment here, okay. So just bear with me. But um one time I was praying about all this stuff and I recognized a lot of stuff I I had done wrong and made bad decisions. And and um I said, God, is it possible to repent for your whole life? You know, for all the life choices you've made up until this point.

Jon Dzyuba 21:37

Let me go ahead and put that one in there.

Phillip Rich 21:40

So, and that's honestly like, you know, there is a balance. Yes, we have times when circumstances and situations we weren't expecting, you know, uh can can blindside us. So what you know, we've all had those times with different things like that, but my The majority, if I may say this, the majority of our issues that we deal with, if we're being honest, we can look in the mirror and go, you know what, I kind of, I kind of decided my way into this one. You know, I I I neglected to do this when I should have. I went over here and spent money on this when I know I shouldn't have spent money on that, you know, and different things like that. And then all of a sudden, you know, we're we're sitting there crying to God. And the crazy thing is, and I guess not really crazy, but the amazing thing is that he's so merciful that he'll even help you when you have completely sabotaged yourself, he will still help you. And I'm telling you, I've I've seen it happen to with me over and over again. It's like um, it reminds me of that scripture in Psalm 103 when it says, He knows our frame and he remembers that we that we are but dust. He knows that we had we're barely figuring things out here in this earth, man. Um, and we need his help. We need we need his counsel. We need to not ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit when he's he's instructing us to do something or when he's restraining us from doing something. We don't need to push him to the side and keep trying to do it.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Right.

Phillip Rich 23:14

You know, there's a lot of things that honestly, if I would have just not done something, I would have been in such a better place than feeling like I had to force my way into this thing or force my way into that thing, you know. So um it, you know, that to me, many times, if again, if we're being honest, it's when we make our own, when we make decisions that end up sabotaging our future, and we have to be honest and say, okay, I might be feeling like I'm over it right now, but but you know what, I contributed myself to a lot of this, so which really leads us to the concept of taking personal responsibility for where we are, and that's a whole nother episode because people don't like the concept of taking personal responsibility because that means that you have to look at yourself as part of the problem and and come to grips with where you took you wrong, and then adapt and adjust.

Moses Reaches His Breaking Point

The Cost Of Complaining

David McIntyre 24:23

And it's it's just so much easier to blame other people, blame situations and blame circumstances for where we are. So um yeah, the uh, you know, we're gonna, I think maybe we'll probably talk about that a little bit more next week because you know that brings us to solutions. But one of the things that I want to bring you to tonight is in the book of Numbers, chapter 11. And in the book of Numbers, chapter 11, um, you know, we we see Moses, right? And uh I'm gonna read from the English Standard Version right now. Um, but you read from whatever version is comfortable for you, and uh then we're gonna talk about some of this stuff. And I mean we could we could stop with verse one, but I want to read a little bit more and then dig in. Um, it starts in verse one with, and the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes. We could literally we could spend the rest of our time right there, but we're gonna talk about it a little bit, but uh that complaining never impressed God, yeah, yeah. But it did set a few fires off, and particularly the Jewish people back in the day, they uh they at this point in life, if they remember their history, the one thing they wouldn't do is complain. Yeah, so uh but and the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them, consumed consumed some outlaying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. So the name of the place was called Tabera Tabera because of the fire of the Lord burned among them. So we have a dubious start to verse 11 already. The people are complaining uh about their misfortunes, the Lord hears it, he's angry, so there's fire on the outskirts of the camp. And the people out there complaining uh were the ones who did not make it, and and that's a that's a bad deal. So as well, let me leave that alone, anyway. Verse 4 goes on to say, now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving, so it wasn't enough, and the people of Israel also wept again and said, Oh, that we had meat to eat. Now, before this, you know, just remember, we're we're in a season of miracles, right? And so God has bought these people out, he's brought them over the Red Sea on dry land as they crossed, buried their enemies in the water, he's bought them out on the other side in the process of giving them a promised land, going before them as a cloud by day for their shade, as a fire by night for their light and their warmth. And at different points so far, we see them breaking off and complaining about this, complaining about that, saying they don't have enough of this, they don't have enough of that. And so here we see that they start complaining in verse 4 about their strong cravings. Now, the Lord, the other miracle that God dropped was he bought them manna from heaven, yeah, not manna from the earth, but God was feeding them, he was providing for their drink, he was providing for their food, he was giving them everything they needed, and he gave them the manna from heaven because that nourished them in every area that they needed and gave them exactly what they needed. But they got caught up, I think, Philip, in the looks of things. Yep, and they were dissatisfied with the manna, and so they literally go out to the front of their houses and start weeping and crying and saying, Oh, that we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in verse 5 in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there's nothing at all but this manna to look at. They're talking about your strength was dried up, really, because you were strong enough to complain, right? Wasted all your energy there, so and and the Lord would not provide food from heaven that did not provide you what you needed, right? So we see them exaggerating as well because they wanted what they wanted, yeah. And so verse 7 goes on to say, now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bedelium. Bedelium is a type of gem, so you know, a lot of times people think God was dropping loaves out of heaven onto the ground. That wasn't, he was dropping this seed on the ground that kind of looked like coriander bedelium. That color is kind of a pale yellow to uh a white, pearly white color. And so they were actually collecting these coriand these coriander-like seeds every day. Then they'd run them through their crusher, and then they would mix it with water, and they would make bread. They would make the things that they wanted from the seeds that God was dropping down from heaven for them. So the people went about and gathered. Uh now the manna was like coriander seed in verse 7, and its appearance like that of Bedelion. The people went out, went about, and gathered it and ground it in hand mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. That sounds pretty good. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it. Um, you know, I just have another thought, Philip. If they had acted right on the journey, they would have gotten to their homeland a whole lot quicker where they could have been grown their animals and their livestock would have grown and they would have been able to eat their lamb and their other things, but they got out here cutting up in the woods. And they delayed their journey. We're talking about a few days' journey to get to where they were going, turned out to be a 40-year journey. Crazy, yup, crazy, because they were disobedient to God, and he goes on and says, Um, when the dew fell upon the camp in verse 9 in the night, the manna fell with it, and so Moses heard the people weeping through the throughout their clans. Everyone at the door of his tent, the anger of the Lord blazed hotly. Um I can just see God out there talking about flame on.

Phillip Rich 32:08

Can I can I jump in real quick with a little comment? Um, just something that John, if you could go back up just a tad. Um yeah. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry, back down, John. My my bad. Uh first 10. I love how it said Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. So they were like, it was a per it was a performative weeping that they were doing. Yeah, they were clowning, they were clowning, dude. They wanted to make sure Moses heard them, you know. Oh, this is so terrible, you know. So I just thought that was funny, man.

David McIntyre 32:51

And so the Lord, it says the Lord, the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses, and then here's the thing, here's how we get to being over it. Moses says in verse 11, Moses says to the Lord, why have you dealt ill with your servant? Talking about himself. Oh boy, and why have I not found favor in your sight that you laid the burden of all this people on me? Ooh. Ooh, did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth? That you would say to me, Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing child to the land that you swore to give their fathers. Where am I to get meat to give all these people? For they weep before me and say, Give us meat that we may eat.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

Oh boy.

Gratitude As A Counter Practice

David McIntyre 33:45

So Moses is the leader here. He's leading these people, and he gets to the point after he hear and I I just want to I'm going to I'm gonna say something that I'm going to maybe paint a picture of it. The Bible doesn't specifically say it, but having been in leadership, I think it's true, and it's the reality that it wasn't just that moment that got to Moses, right? It was all of the complaining and stuff that had already been happening before. Yep. It was all the, you know, we want food, you know, we're gonna live out here and die. And Moses has to go back to God and say, you know, how he feed us, you know, and it's just the ongoing already, we're just in verse 11, chapter 11 of Numbers, and their ability to complain has showed that they are skilled at this, yes. And so I don't think it was just this moment that got Moses to the point where he is like, Look, did did I give birth to these people? Am I supposed to give, you know, am I supposed to give them suck on my bosom? Not my people, and so you you kind of get the sense that Moses was just as hot as God was. The difference was Moses was just over it, and he says to God, they're not my people, they're yours. Man, but God was already hot, God knew they were his people, right? But he asked Moses to lead them. It's wild, it's wild, yeah. And so he goes on, and then he says in verse 14, I am not able to carry all these people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once. If I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness. Wow, wow, look at that. Look at that. Moses got to the point where he was just so over it, he was dumb, just so over these people and what they were doing. He just said, just kill me, just take me out, and then he takes it another step further and he says, If I find favor in your sight, I know it's almost like you know, man, if you could do me a favor, God, just take me out of here, man. Oh goodness, and so here we are, and I mean, it's just uh it's the wildest thing, and and I think maybe the place that we can start at, we're gonna go on into verse 16 just a little bit, but man, can we talk to y'all about the dangers of complaining? You know, part of the reason why we struggle in our lives is because we spend so much time complaining about everything. Yeah, we complain about things in our own minds, we get in little groups of people and we complain to one another about stuff, we complain to our spouse about stuff, and we complain to anybody who hears sometimes about the things that are going on, but God asked us not to complain, yeah, yeah.

Phillip Rich 37:21

And we we, I mean, Philip, it's something we got to get under control, yeah, yeah, because it's so easy to do, and that's the whole thing. Like, uh, you know, if we could all be honest, it's your flesh likes to complain, right? Yeah, you know, you it it feels good in a weird kind of twisted way. It feels good to complain. It's like you you kind of indulge in it, you know. Um, and I don't know what it is. I mean, I'm I'm talking from somebody who, you know, who's been a serial complainer at times, you know. So I'm not saying anything that I haven't done. But um, but yeah, it's like, you know, there's kind of this perverse pleasure that you get out of complaining, you know. Um, and and only seeing the negative is such a imbalanced perspective. Like if we're being honest about it, all if you can only see the negative, and if you if you can only look at something and find something to complain about when you look at it, you you're your your perspective's not balanced. Your perception of life is not balanced. You're seeing it through a lens of just everything's wrong, you know, or or uh if I look close enough, I'm sure I'll find something wrong with this, that, or the other. It's like um, you know, and and I remember this this one minister said it this way. He said, complaining is the opposite of Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

Right.

Phillip Rich 38:47

It's like, wow, that's actually true. It's like the the more you can if you had like a scale, like the little, you know, the balance scale thing, the more complaining you do, the less uh gratefulness you're showing. It's just they're they're like mutually exclusive. So um we gotta be watching, we gotta be aware, man. Like, think about the things you're saying and go, number one, is this complaining helping anything? Like, am I getting any benefit from complaining? And the answer 99.999% of the time is no. Yeah, all you're doing is just uh you're putting yourself in a worse attitude, you're speaking negative words, and the Bible says, you know, death and life are in the power of the tongue. You don't want to do nothing but speak uh negative words all the time. So there's a lot of reasons why complaining um it can it can it can just be a detrimental to your spiritual life, so yeah.

God’s Solution: Shared Leadership

Jon Dzyuba 39:45

Uh what I add, listen, I'd not even that doesn't even apply just to you as an individual, but when you start complaining, I've seen it, especially in the workplace, when one person starts complaining and nobody else really has the discipline to not complain for themselves, it just kind of grows into this negative environment. Uh I've had some people, this particular person that I would work with, um, he was very the nature of our work involves a lot of change, and so you know, we introduce some changes, change the procedure in which you know auditors are working, and all and every single time this this leader is a very diligent person, he'll do the work, but every single time it's just like you know, we're they're gonna make mistakes, they're gonna have this many just be prepared, they're gonna do this, this, and that. And it's like, yeah, dude, I I know that's gonna happen. Yeah, but it's like you putting it out there just kind of confirms this feeling, and all of a sudden it's just like dang, now it's like you know the the excitement and the and the nervousness and the the challenge of you know doing these change making these changes for people to work, all of a sudden it's just like wow, now there's like zero optimism, and everyone's just kind of bummed out at the fact that these changes are happening. Um, and it just it it spreads, and that that could apply to the workplace, that definitely applies to the church, that could be in your family. Um, that the complaining, it like it's almost infectious when you don't have people that don't stand up against it and fight back with a little bit not fight back, but don't have any gratitude to combat it.

Phillip Rich 41:27

Yeah, that's right.

David McIntyre 41:28

That's right, you know, one of the things about complaining that I think you can almost notice anywhere, complaining is a vibe changer. Yeah, I mean, you can just feel the energy being sucked out of the room with complaining, and you just you just see here's Moses, and we don't necessarily see where Moses is, but he hears the people complaining and weeping and carrying on in their front doorsteps, which meant he was meant to hear it wherever he was. But you could see that you know, we don't necessarily come into it seeing how God felt and how Moses felt, but what we do see is that when they heard it and experienced it, that both of their dispositions changed. Yeah, and we the same thing can happen to us, and let me tell you, when you are the leader and people are complaining about you, complaining about decisions you've made, complaining about the reasons why you're going this way instead of that way, you feel it. Yeah, you know, you can tell, and then it has a way of coming across in their work, how they communicate with you, uh, even the way that some people, after they've complained and spent time talking about you and dogging you out, how they won't even want to look you in the eye as you're walking down the hallway, they'll break for the nearest door or the nearest breakaway rather than look you in the eye. And part of that is because of the guilt that's associated with complaining and dogging people out.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Yeah.

David McIntyre 43:11

And um, but we've been we've been called, we've been called to something so much higher. You know, if we look in Jude chapter one, um Jude is wearing, well, not wearing the people out, but he's talking about something that we need to re-talk about again. We hadn't talked about in a long time, but he's talking about the condition of the church and some of the things that you'll see in the church, which is, you know, um, yeah, I'll talk about that in a minute. But when you get to verse 16, it you know, he talks about Enoch who lived in verse 14, and the seventh generation after Adam prophesied about these people. He said, Listen, the Lord has come. Coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These people, verse 16, are grumblers, complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves and they flatter others to get to what they want. I haven't seen a place in the Bible where complaining isn't associated with a list of bad character issues that put you in opposition to God.

Phillip Rich 44:44

Wow, that's good, David. That's good, man.

David McIntyre 44:47

And so go ahead, Phil.

Pouring Out Your Heart vs Complaining

Phillip Rich 44:49

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Just was um wanted to put something on the screen here. Uh Seven's pattern comment he made here. I think it's very good. It says the amazingly large percentage of human disease and suffering, which is directly traceable to worry, fear, conflict, immorality, dissipation, to unwholesome thinking, and unclean living. That is a hundred percent true. It's like we um you know, the Bible talks about it. It says uh in 2 Peter 1, it says we can escape the corruption that comes into the world through through lust. Basically, it was saying that corruption and all the horrible things that have come to the world have come by way of evil human desire. Right. And that's the root of so many things that are wrong with with uh the way the world is, the the culture of the world right now is just this this selfishness, this you know, constant um trying to get advantage for yourself and benefit self even at the expense of others. Just this whole self-centered mindset, it has ruined so many things and so many societies. Um, and so uh in my mind, David, it kind of ties into what you're saying in Jude about the complaining. It's like complaining always shows up on those kinds of lists of things that you know that produce bad results for people. And um, you know, it makes me think of the scripture in 1 Corinthians 10 when it talks about how you know Paul was giving us a list and saying, hey, uh, don't do like the Israelites did when they were committing fornication, when they were complaining, when they were murmuring. And it said, the ones that murmured were destroyed by the destroyer. And I'm like, whoo. I mean, I don't, you know, I don't ever want to run across the destroyer. I think I'd rather just stay away from that. So but um complaining, I I guess you know, if we want to put it this way, complaining is not a small thing in God's eyes, it's not. He, I mean, it really I don't want to make it seem put him put him on too human of a level, but it really ticks him off. He he's not a fan of that, you know, not at all.

David McIntyre 47:04

Well because we yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead. I want you to finish your thought, Philip. But part of the reason is you said it before that what drives complaining is often lust, it's your own appetite. Yeah, it's you know, why do you complain at the water cooler with people? It's because you think things ought to be done a certain way at the job, yeah, and you think the way that you've determined is the best way, but mind you, you're you're only flying at 20,000 feet at your job and you don't see the other thousand, 30,000 feet because your boss is flying at 50. But then let's just say your boss does have it wrong. Why do you have the right to complain?

SPEAKER_01 47:52

Right, right.

David McIntyre 47:54

Of all the things that you could be doing as a believer, you could be praying for that person, you could be praying for God to drive the direction a certain way, you could be praying for God to show you what you might be missing in the midst so that you can be better down the road. But of all the things that we pick to do, we pick complaining. Wow with your thought, Philip.

Phillip Rich 48:17

Yeah, well, um, it was just basically complaining complaining, shows that you're more focused on all the negative things that you're seeing instead of acknowledging the good things that God has done and all the things you can be grateful for. Um, if we took the time to really acknowledge all the stuff that God has done and that we should be grateful and thankful for, we wouldn't even have time nor room to complain ever. I mean, you know, that's that old saying, uh, count your blessings. There's a lot of truth to that, man. If you start thinking about the things you've been blessed with, I mean, even something as simple as, you know, I can see, I can hear, I can talk, you know, I'm I'm not in a hospital bed laid up with IVs stuck in me. You know, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that, you know, God has preserved us from. Many times we don't even know all the things He's preserved us from. Um, the fact that you, you know, you have a roof over your head, food on the table, clothes on your back, transportation. Man, this stuff is is no light thing. But, you know, it it's it's again so easy to to zero in on those small things that that you think aren't to your liking. And it's like, man, you know, let's back up and see the bigger picture. God has done so much for each one of us, man. Let's focus on what we can be grateful for. Um, because a grateful heart, that's what really uh opens the room for more blessing to flow. Yeah, yeah.

David McIntyre 49:53

That's good. I look let look at Philippians 2, 14 and 15 really quickly here. In Philippians 2, 14 and 15, one of the things that Paul instructs us to do is he says, Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault, in a crooked and perverse generation in which you shine as lights in the world. You cannot shine as a light in the world complaining all the time.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

That's right.

Practical Wrap-Up And Next Steps

David McIntyre 50:28

Wow, it's impossible. It's absolutely impossible. And you know, I was looking at uh something here, and you know, it talks about complainers, and it says in the biblical context, complainers are individuals who express dissatisfaction or grumble against God, his provisions, or his appointed leaders. The Bible addresses the issue of complaining as a spiritual and moral concern, often associating it with a lack of faith and gratitude. Wow. So what Philip was saying just a little earlier, that that comes from um a great concordance that I have, not a concordance, but a topical Bible uh that I have here in Bible Hub. But you know, we just and I mean, and the children of Israel wouldn't were notorious for this. You know, in Exodus, they were like, you know, oh God, just you know, you should have just killed us while we were in Egypt, while we were surrounded by, you know, meat and pots and and everything we needed, Lord. You could have just done us that favor and killed us there. Further on in Exodus 16, we see they say again, oh God, if you had just left us in Egypt. Now, mind you, this is God trying to deliver them into their own land where they're no longer slaves, they're no longer bound. They get to make their own path, go their own way. All they have to do is believe in the Lord their God and put their trust in him. And on the way, they couldn't do anything but complain. And and I'm telling you guys, and I'm talking to myself too. Don't think that this conversation isn't about David, but we have got to shut this piece of our character down. We've got to get to this place where we stop complaining about everything. Because it's not it's not doing us any good, but it is doing us bad. So don't think it's an inconsequential thing, it's consequential to the negative.

SPEAKER_03 52:43

Yeah, yeah.

Jon Dzyuba 52:45

That's good, isn't it? You guys have seen the that trend. This might have been more like for younger people, I've seen it a lot where these younger guys are just like going on TikTok and just kind of come kind of crashing out saying, Hey, you know, stop complaining about the job that you've been praying for. I've been seeing that one a lot, and I feel personally very humbled about that particular uh trend that I've been seeing. Maybe it could be just me, but it's an interesting concept. Like I there was a point in time where you were like especially like regarding you know, if you're in a similar situation, like regarding a certain job that you've been asking for, um it just plainly put, like, why are you stop complaining about the job that you wanted? Stop complaining about the things that you asked me for, like, you know, a few years ago. Like, it's just interesting to think about, like that the Israelites wanted freedom from the Egyptians. They've been begging for this, and then as soon as they get the thing that they've been asking for, like not there's no satisfaction. It's just so disappointing to watch, and I think that that that trend is like a modern version of what I'm seeing with Moses and the Israelites, is that there's no like how there's no room, like how do you have room in your life to complain about the things, especially the things that you have been praying for, you've been asking God for. It's it's like I said, that personally had like been a personal conviction for myself.

David McIntyre 54:20

But you know, you you just said something important too, John. If you're complaining about your job, um you're instead of complaining, be grateful for what you have because God has provided a way to put resources in your hand. There's an exchange of your knowledge and your ability, your work for a financial outcome that allows you to pay your bills, take care of important things. That's an important piece of the puzzle. If you're unhappy, do what a lot of people do. Don't complain about it at work, begin to search for another job, something that you feel like you would be more happy in. Because the reality is that you can just simply look at that job and say, you know what? I'm finding out this really isn't for me. I don't like the way certain things are going down, or I don't the culture here is a little more skewed than I'd like it to be. So rather than me walk around complaining to everybody, maybe I should just look for another opportunity so that I can step into a new job with maybe a better culture. And then inevitably, it also leads you, and you're in the interview process, to ask different questions to better discern what that environment is like for you, so that you feel like you're more equipped to walk into that environment in a better way. But we we've gotta stop it because you know, one of the things, you know, murmuring and complaining go together. Murmuring is what you kind of do under your breath, uh, to yourself, and then complaining is what you that same murmuring just carried on uh externally with other people. Um and we just gotta we gotta we gotta cut it all off. Yeah, let's let's just quickly see how God wraps us up with Moses as we wrap up this episode. If we look back at Numbers 11 and verse 16, we see that then the Lord said to Moses, Gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there, and I will talk, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you, and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. So Moses didn't complain per se. He took what he was feeling to God.

SPEAKER_03 56:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David McIntyre 56:58

It's it's perfectly fine, I think, and y'all correct me if you think I'm wrong. I think it's perfectly fine to go to the Lord and say, Lord, this doesn't seem to be working right. These people are doing this, they're complaining about this all the time. These people won't follow my instructions, blah blah blah, and lay it all out before him. Yeah, yeah, and then when you lay it out before him, look what God does. He realizes that, okay, here's what I'm gonna do, Moses. I'm going to give you help. Because the answer wasn't, I'm gonna remove you from leadership and kill you, you know. We always try to make God the bad guy, and that's not what he was saying to Moses. He was like, I see that you need some help, and so he doesn't just get one or two people, he gets 70. Come on, and then whereas they may have been leading or guiding people before they were officers and elders of the people, God does something extra for them, he puts the spirit that he put in Moses on them, yeah. And then what we what you if you continue to read, you see that when he he talked with them at the tabernacle, just like he said he would. And then the thing that happens is once he put his spirit on them, they all began to prophesy. Wow, so there was a sign that the spirit of God was on every one of those leaders, and there were two of those leaders who didn't show up to the tabernacle, and in the towns that they were in, the spirit of God fell on them too. Wow, wow, which tells me if you're called, there's no running.

SPEAKER_03 58:37

Yeah, come on then.

David McIntyre 58:39

If you're called, God's spirit is gonna fall on you. Um wherever he decides, whenever he decides to drop it, it's coming. And so we see God once again. His answer isn't to attack or harm his servant, his answer is to provide answers and solutions that help that servant because that's who he is.

SPEAKER_03 59:04

Yeah, yeah.

David McIntyre 59:05

Now God still kept dealing with dealing with these complainers in the wilderness. Yeah, but we don't necessarily see, and I it could be just because I haven't read it all in a while, but you know, every time something happened, we see God step up and deal with it. And inevitably, what Moses was doing was Moses was stepping up and praying, Lord, can you bring it to an end? So Moses was preserving life uh for the the sake of for the sake of getting, I guess, as many people across the finish line as possible.

SPEAKER_03 59:39

Yeah, yeah.

David McIntyre 59:41

You know, we can learn two things from here. God will help us when we are overwhelmed, yes, and when we're leading and doing the things of God, we can feel overwhelmed and God will help us. But I hope that you also see that God's not one for the foolishness of complaining. No, no, and that if you're involved in that and you've been doing it, the answer is repent and stop it, and then go the other way and change. The people at your job, the people at your church, the people in your groups and your friend circles and all that, they might be like, dude, what's up with you? And you know, be willing to change, be willing to say, complaining hasn't gotten any of us anywhere. I choose to trust God for what we need.

Phillip Rich 1:00:32

That's good, David.

David McIntyre 1:00:34

And go on. Philip and John, what are your final thoughts?

Phillip Rich 1:00:38

Just um something, and this is a little bit of a sidebar, so I don't want to go too deep into it since we're wrapping up, but um, interestingly enough, when Moses came and poured out his complaint to God, he did what what David said in Psalms. David encouraged us to pour out our heart before the Lord.

David McIntyre 1:00:56

Yes.

Phillip Rich 1:00:58

There's there's biblical basis for being able to do that. Um, and to be transparent with with God, number one, because he already knows, okay. You know, we're not fooling anyone, especially not him. Um, when we come to him and with a complaint or with you know, these these things that are weighing heavily on our minds and hearts, it's not like God doesn't know that. You know, and it even says in Matthew 7, I believe, he says, your father knows the things you have need of before you even ask him for it. You know, so we we gotta, you know, feel that openness and that boldness and that honestly the freedom of speech, uh, because that's what um Hebrews 10 says. It says that we have boldness to enter into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus. And when you look up that word boldness in Hebrews 10, 19, it actually means frankness or total freedom of speech, being completely unashamed. You know, we we can we can come to God that way because he already knows it, number one. You know, we're not fooling him with any kind of pious, super religious, superficial talk. He he knows us. But um also that's one of the best ways to kind of empty out the things that have been bugging you and and and bothering you, and then now you've got more of a calmness and more of an openness to for God to be able to speak to you, sometimes with that still small voice, you know, that can really make the difference and show you at least the first step of what you might need to do to remedy that situation.

David McIntyre 1:02:34

Yeah, that's good, Philip. That's good, Philip. A final thought, John, real quick.

Jon Dzyuba 1:02:39

Yeah, I I want to add that I think that the difference, those who are asked asking and wondering, the difference between complaining to God and pouring out your heart to God, I think lies in what you mentioned. You said uh asking God. I think that this could be just John speaking, you can disagree. But I think that when Moses was was dumping out his heart to God, I think that God knew his intention, and his intention was to help Moses' intention was to to lead the people. I don't think he was complaining out of what the Israelites were complaining about, which was their own fleshliness and their own desire to complain and be yeah, that where the complaint is coming out of the flesh. I believe that asking or pouring out your heart comes from your soul to the Lord instead of your flesh from your flesh. I think that's that's probably a key difference there.

David McIntyre 1:03:39

All right, everybody, we're so glad that you've joined us. Uh don't complain.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:48

Um let me just look here.

David McIntyre 1:03:51

Minds are blinded for another day. Yeah, that's so true, Seven. So true that 2 Corinthians 3, 13, and 14. Um we we got we got some work to do, everybody. But if we'll do it, just think, is it possible that I'll feel less over everything and and more more in control because I trust in God to drive my future than I am trusting my own feelings and how I feel and see and perceive things. I I would even tell you, could you just even with the politics right now, because I know that's a big pressing thing for a lot of people, just step back for a second and ask God, show me what I'm missing here. Yeah, show me what I need to see, show me what you're doing here, Lord, and try to do it without your bias, your bias for one side or against one side, and just ask God straight up the middle, what are you trying to do and where would you have me to stand in this? Yeah, and then trust that you hear him and trust that he will guide you um and lead you. Look, we're glad you joined us again. Uh, connect with us on social media, TikTok, Instagram. Uh, you might even find us out there on Facebook. Um, you can also connect with us right here on YouTube. You can connect with us on Rumble. Make sure you like and subscribe to the page. It tells us that you love us, but it also helps the algorithm to point people here so that we can uh reach more people with the life changing word of God. Um, and that is what we believe. Your life cannot be changed by the effort of man alone, but you need the living God to enter in and begin to order your steps and direct your path. Until next time with David, that's John, he's Phillip. We All right.