Complaining

there is an interesting side bar to my sermon today. paul wrote to the church in philippi that they were to “do everything without complaining or arguing”. everything. not some things. all things. all the time. everywhere. no matter what. no complaining.

now here’s what i’ve been thinking about. we all complain. it’s part of our dna. we are descendants of the children of israel. grumblers. complainers. murmurers. doubters. whiners. we’re all part of the same family. but that’s not what i’m thinking about. what concerns me is our apparent willingness to live in denial over our disobedience.

we all complain and seem to accept it as a natural and unavoidable part of our existence. we do it without thinking and go on as if nothing is wrong with it. and that’s what has me bothered. why do we accept this? why do we act like nothings wrong?

more than that, why is it that we are so quick to say that certain things are bad, wrong, sinful, disobedient all the time, and something like complaining is casually overlooked without even an eyebrow being raised? we get up in arms about lying and fighting and cussing and stealing and homosexuality and meanness and a list of other things…but whine away our petty disappointments and frustrations without a confession of the sin or a drop of remorse. worse yet, i’m pretty sure it doesn’t even bother us much, now that we know. come on people…

#pastor #preaching #sin