Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent

Well, third time's a charm. Got it figured out now. That's good. Brethren, I was given another prayer request just as I was coming back up here a little bit ago by Calvin Cole. Your prayers will be requested for Fred Reaves' mother. For those that are not aware, she had some pneumonia issues that got her landed in the hospital, and then from there things progressively got worse. She ultimately had a heart attack and is now in ICU, I guess. So your prayers for Fred Reaves' mother would be greatly appreciated that God would intervene and take care of whatever illnesses she might be dealing with. Well, brethren, now is the winter of our discontent. You might recognize this as the opening line from Shakespeare's play, Richard III. It was written in 1594, and the play follows the main character, Richard III, the younger brother of the newly crowned King Edward of England. With the bloody war of the roses over and peace restored to the kingdom, Richard doesn't know what to do with himself. He has great physical limitations, and frankly, at his core, is an extremely unhappy man. He's power-hungry, he's malicious, he's bitter about his lot in life. So he begins to aspire to the throne itself and decides to kill anyone who stands in the way, including and most certainly not limited to his own brother. Throughout the play, through a series of political maneuvers and assassinations, he solidifies his power. And as he wages this brutal ascent to the throne, the commoners learn to fear and hate him. He alienated the nobles, alienated the queen herself, and there must have been a sigh of relief, an audible sigh of relief, when a challenger finally arose to King Richard. As the commoners, the nobles, and the queen, they all threw their support behind this person who had arisen to take on King Richard.

Richard's eventually killed. The challenger, the Earl of Richmond, is crowned king. Peace reigns in the kingdom again, and all is well with the world. But throughout the play, throughout the play, and most notably in the opening soliloquy, Richard continues to come back to his physical limitations. He keeps coming back to these deformities and contrasts them with his brother, who is the epitome of kinghood. Life wasn't fair to be saddled with these deformities. Edward is perfect! He's handsome! He was king! He had this, he has that! Why not me? Richard had allowed bitterness to take root in his life. He allowed it to poison him slowly over time. He resented his older brother, he resented his brother's success, and the happiness of all of the people in the kingdom under Edward's reign. He was like the one that wasn't happy! Everyone else was fine! He complained, he resented his lot in life, he wanted more! He was not content with his current state, and he was willing to murder and manipulate to improve it. And he's portrayed throughout the play as a thoroughly evil man. Now, whether he was as evil as he's portrayed in the story as uncertain, I mean, history is a little ambiguous on his issues. He was a real person, for those that are kind of archaeological buffs. Recently, his body actually was found. They figured it out. It was him. And I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not he was given a king's burial or not. They found him underneath the corner of a parking lot that was being replaced near the location of an old church when a backhoe dug into a whole bunch of unmarked graves from about that time period. And I would say, given the location of the burial, the fact that his grave was unmarked, it might give some credence to his reputation.

He most certainly was not given a kingly funeral. Regardless, though, the quote that we began with, which incidentally is the title of the message today, has a second lesser-known aspect to it. The entire quote, again, this is the opening line of the monologue by King Richard's character. The actual full line is, Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York.

In other words, the time of unhappiness is past! Everything is great again! Edward is king! Except, of course, he's saying it with an incredible amount of sarcasm. Because everything wasn't great. Richard was not happy. He continued to be unhappy, continued to be discontent, and he allowed a certain degree of bitterness to reign in his life, and it consumed him. It consumed him. From the inside out, it ate him up.

Now, while an extreme example, and it is an extreme example, King Richard is fairly extreme, it doesn't take much looking around today to realize the world around us is full of a lot of really unhappy people. Recent studies have shown that workplace discontent is at an all-time high. In fact, there was a 2013 study that showed that 52% of individuals, that's over half of the people that go to work, they show up to work.

Oh, but they are less than thrilled to be there. They are less than thrilled to be at work. Now, 18% of that group that was studied readily admitted to being extremely vocal in their discontent. Not only are they showing up to work and not happy, they're telling everybody how unhappy they are. That's the 18% that are there. They consider themselves to be, and this was what the study used, regular complainers, grumblers, and mumblers. And 18% of the people copped to it.

I would imagine there's more that weren't willing to go out that far on a limb and say that included them. And we've all likely worked with somebody like this. In the interest of brevity, we've maybe sort of been this person before. Maybe we've had this sort of thing go on in our own life. It seems to be a problem on the rise among millennials. An article from the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics written by Greg Ayers contains the following. And the article is titled, The Summer of Discontent, The Millennial Generation Search for Meaningful Work.

With due respect to Shakespeare and John Steinbeck says the article, For Millennials, the winter of our discontent has continued into summer. At least that's the impression that one gets after reading the latest jobs report released last Friday. This is back from 2013. The pace of job growth has slowed, ABC News and other sources report, and that doesn't bode well for the already discouraging job prospects of many young adults. Gallup recently reported that fewer young adults aged 18 to 29 are holding full-time jobs.

43.6% as of June 2013 compared to 47% in June of 2012. So, a full 4% difference, roughly. Generation Opportunity had a Millennial Jobs report. The state of the unemployment rate for this same age group was 16.1% in July of 2013. In short, it is, as Generation Opportunity's president told ABC News in April, a rough time to be a young person in America. There's a gentleman that goes on and discusses his name as Tyler Castle.

He's a writer. He wrote an article called, My Success Story, What I Learned from Jesus and John Wooden. Okay. But here's what he says. He says, I'm a 23-year-old college graduate. Am I quickly making a name for myself in the political world? Playing professional sports? Rapidly climbing the corporate ladder? Nope. Serving tables at a restaurant while I look for a job. In a society that compulsively obsesses over achievement and success, it's easy to become discouraged. At times, I feel like a failure. Is this really what my years of education gets me?

Many other recent college graduates are in similar situations. Some are working in mindless entry-level jobs. Some find themselves in one end paid internship after another, and even worse, others are back living in their parents' basement. Castle also shares candidly about the effect that this is having on his generation, talking about the Millennials. As a result, those of us who are not, quote-unquote, successful right out of college can easily become depressed and vocationally de-abilitated. In D.C. and other large cities particularly, some just give up and go home. Is this simply a reality of life? Are we destined to lead unsatisfying vocational lives?

It's not just Millennials, folks, and it's not just in the workplace. Statistics on depression are, well, really depressing, for lack of a better word. One in ten Americans suffers from depression. Of those that do, 80 percent are not seeking treatment. And the number of those diagnosed with clinical depression is increasing by 20 percent a year, according to Healthline.com.

Depression is found to be most prevalent amongst those aged 45 to 64 years of age, and women are twice as likely to suffer from depression as men of a comparable age. As a country, we're struggling. As a country, we're struggling. According to the World Happiness Survey, which is the thing, the United States didn't even make the top ten of the happiest countries in the world.

We were in 15th place, directly behind Mexico. Here's the top 15, in case you're curious. I'll put this over on the bulletin board so you can kind of take a look at the sheets. But I'm going to have to read the really small print. I can't find my other paper. I think I got my glasses on. Number one, Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Costa Rica, Austria, Mexico, United States. There's the 15. It is truly mankind's winter of discontent. The online dictionary, dictionary.com, defines discontent as, wait for it, not content.

Dissatisfied and discontented. Thank you, dictionary.com. No, but they actually helped out a lot because they provide three additional definitions and context for this word. We're going to use today as our three primary points. So our first point, this is the first of the three extra definitions that they give us, is discontentment, lack of content, and dissatisfaction. So discontentment, lack of content, and dissatisfaction, that's point number one.

Point number two, they define it as a restless desire or craving for something one does not have. That's definition number two. And number three, amal content. So there you go. Number one, discontentment, lack of content, dissatisfaction. Number two, a restless desire or craving for something one does not have. And number three, amal content. And folks, discontent, unhappiness, complete grumbling are nothing new. They are nothing new. For examples, we need look no further than the pages of our Bibles. So let's start today. Let's start taking a look at some of these overall concepts to begin with of what discontent is.

So the first point we'll look at is discontentment, lack of content, and dissatisfaction. It can be very easy to become discontented. It can be very easy. And it can sneak in when you're least expecting it. It comes out of nowhere sometimes. But it's easy to look around at the world around us and become dissatisfied, to become frustrated. We're all too familiar with the negative airwaves that Satan broadcasts. We're too familiar. In fact, I heard it described recently, and I love the description.

He said, if we're not careful, we can get ourselves tuned in to 666 K. Lai on the radio dial. Like, that's the Satan's radio station there. If we're not careful sometimes, we can catch that if we're not careful. And it starts with frustration. And then we dwell on that frustration. And it starts to breed dissatisfaction.

And then that dissatisfaction goes right to discontent. Happiness may begin to become elusive. It can be hard to see the bright side of situations. And if we don't remain vigilant, it's not hard to find ourselves here. It's not hard to find ourselves here. And I'm going to use a personal example here. Right around the end of October, into the end of November, I turned into quite the complainer. I did. More than normal. Even more than normal. And part of it is, for most of this school year, to be honest, most of this school year, I haven't been the most fun person to be around. I happen to have a very difficult group of students this year.

Really rough group of kids this year. But if I'm being perfectly honest, I'm not really loving the day-to-day in my job. I'm not. I'm not loving the day-to-day. I'm finding that I'm spending more time babysitting student behaviors. I find that I'm spending more time babysitting than educating. Or so at least it feels to me. So there are days that I feel like I get nowhere at all. That we've just had the wheels and the mud, and for six and a half hours we've hit the gas, and just dug a big hole and gone nowhere.

And for me, I personally have trouble with that. I'm one that if I don't see the benefit necessarily, or if I feel like it's not going or I'm wasting my time, I have a hard time having the energy to really pour into that. And so it's been tough. But as I've talked with people at work this year, in the day-to-day, I've noticed almost all of our conversations have headed down a road that ends with us complaining, murmuring, and sharing a significant amount of overall negativity about our job.

And I found the more that I had these conversations, the more upset I got. The more frustrated I got, the more questioning of my chosen profession that I got. And in the interest of brevity, I came to realize the common denominator in those conversations was me. I was the common denominator. I was the reason that those conversations were going down the road that they went.

So not only was I impacting myself, I was affecting the people that I work with through my own dissatisfaction and my discontent. And as a result of those conversations, those frustrations, I started to consider other career options. I Googled, what could you do with a teaching degree? Enter. Turns out not much. So, I'm kidding. But not too seriously. I mean, I'm still, I'm not planning on bailing out necessarily, but, you know, I started looking at possibilities or considering a change in scenery or something like that.

But when I had done, I had allowed bitterness to enter my life. When I thought of work, I despaired. You know, if you ever had that morning where you swing your legs off the bed and the feet hit the floor and you go, all right, buddy, you got this. You just got to get out of bed and go to work today. You can do it.

You can do it. And then you kind of go, maybe in 10 or 15 minutes. Maybe I can do it in 10 or 15. But I had to talk myself into getting up and going to work. The paycheck felt like the only real benefit. If we fast-forward to fall conferences, the week of Thanksgiving, somewhat irony, somewhat ironic there, but God inspired me. Or you might say that He slapped me in the face, and for me, they're kind of one and the same thing. I'm not always the fastest on the uptake. Sometimes it takes me a little bit.

Whenever we have parent-teacher conferences at Waldo, they ask us to park across the street at this church that's across the street. And we've parked there—I mean, I've been there eight years now. We've parked there two or three times a year for eight years. I've never once noticed that they even have a reader board. I just, you know, I get out of my truck, pouring rain usually because it's fall conferences, and in you go.

And I don't pay any attention, duck the head down and try not to get soaked and go in. Well, I happened to look this time at the little reader board out front and noticed that, oh, they have a reader board. Oh, it has something on it. I happened to read it. Here was the quote that was written on it after I parked my truck and I started walking in. It said, discontent is the penalty that we must pay for not being grateful for what we have.

And I re-coiled a little bit and said, ow, that one hurt. Okay. That's fair. Message received. I realized I wasn't being grateful at all. I wasn't. I was focusing on what I felt like I wanted—something that was different. I hadn't considered the blessing of the job that God had given me in the first place.

I hadn't considered the fact that that job had quite literally dropped in my lap only eight years prior to that. And then I started really thinking, when was the last time that I thanked Him for that job despite of all the challenges? And that wasn't the only thing. When was the last time that I thanked Him for some of the other things in my life that can sometimes be challenging but are incredible blessings?

I had very seriously dropped the ball on being grateful and thankful for what God had provided for me. And I don't know how many of you have found yourself in this state of discontent before. I would imagine all of us have to some degree or another. I doubt there's a hand that can go up and go, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't identify at all. I doubt that. I doubt there's that situation. But maybe there is. If so, let's talk afterwards, please.

But I had just realized I had dropped the ball. And I have discovered since that being grateful and thankful for the blessings that you've been given is a sure-fire cure for destroying discontent. Let's go over to Psalm 77. Let's go over to Psalm 77 and we'll go ahead and get started today. There's an interesting psalm that shows a pattern similar to what we're talking about at the moment.

It's actually a psalm not written by David. It's a psalm of Asaph. And so, Psalm 77, and we'll read through the first couple of passages here. Okay, we'll read the whole thing. So, I think I have time. I should have time. Psalm 77 in verse 1, it says, to the chief musician, to Jeddathun, the psalm of Asaph.

It's talking about looking. He's seeking God. He's looking for God. He's reaching out for Him.

And he kind of gets it, I didn't find Him. I wouldn't be comforted. And keep in mind, it's not because God wasn't there to comfort Him.

It's because Asaph wouldn't be comforted. Now, why is that? Let's look at verse 3.

Usually when you think about remembering God, trouble isn't what comes to our head. I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.

As he's thinking of God, he's disquieted. He's complaining. His spirit is overwhelmed. He'd become bitter in a way, to the point of complaint. The thought of God disquieted Him. He's having a tough time. He's struggling. He's struggling with discontent, struggling with unhappiness, perhaps. Verse 4 says, Will the Lord cast off forever? Will He be favorable no more? Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed forever more? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies? Kind of asking, Have you left me? Am I out of your favor? Do your promises fail? Asaph is having, I, I, we could almost, he's having a crisis of faith here. He's really struggling. He's seeking but not finding. He's reaching and He's grasping air. He refers to it as His infirmity in the next verse. He refers to it in verse 10 as His infirmity. Verse 10 says, and I said, This is my anguish, or some translations again say infirmity. But He gets the solution right here. But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Mosai. It kind of turns the corner here a little bit. It goes into some different discussion a little bit. So here's His infirmity, but what's the solution?

The solution is recalling the mighty works of God. Look at verse 11.

He's reflecting back on the deeds and the works of God, these wonders and these blessings that He had provided. In particular, ancient Israel, but then also looking at His song and some of the other things, thinking about what He's working out in His own life. But He focused on these great miracles that God had wrought during the Exodus, the very miracles that the Israelites, for the most part, forgot right then and there, even though God's presence was right in front of them. An attitude of gratitude. An attitude of gratitude. Looking at life and being thankful for what we have, no matter how big or how small, not necessarily what we perceive that we're missing and what we think we need, but having gratitude and thankfulness for the things that God has given us will destroy discontent in one's life quite handily. And I can attest to it personally. As a result of that reader board and what God kind of continued to work with after that, I challenge myself to write down five things every day that I'm thankful for. Five things. And they can be small, they can be huge, but five things every day that I'm thankful for as a way of acknowledging before God what He's doing in my life. And I make sure to thank Him in prayer for those five things. But as an outlook, or as a result, my outlook has become one of gratefulness and thankfulness. Not discontent, not wishing for something more, but even if I've had a bad day at work, I can usually find five things. No problem that God has done for me, that He has provided. And that's helped me to counter the next component that we'll look at, which is the second point. This idea of a restless desire or craving for something that one does not have. A restless desire or craving for something that one does not have. If you can turn with me over to the book of Exodus. Let's go to Exodus 16. A sermon about complaining and discontent and grumbling would not be complete unless I went to the example of the ancient Israelites. I feel like I would be doing a disservice if I did not go there. And only because they provide a really good example of what not to do. In this particular topic, in this particular circumstance, they provide an excellent example for what not to do. Now, it's easy to bag on the Israelites. It's very easy to come back here and go, look at these guys. We don't know what we would have done. So it's really easy to go back and look at this and say, oh, look at these guys. But this gives us a good example. Exodus 16.

Exodus 16 in verse 1. Exodus 16 and verse 1. We'll take a look at what the Israelites did shortly after they got themselves out of Egypt. And they journeyed from Elam and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. So we're only about a month out at this point.

Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, emphasis added, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full. For you brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. I mean, you have young kids, many of you do. You ever have a kid tell you, if I don't eat, I'm going to die? This is this moment right here. Oh, you just ate ten minutes ago. Ten minutes ago, you just ate. What do you mean? You're fine. You're good. So it's this idea of everything is so dramatic, right? Everything is so dramatic. But then the Lord said to Moses, So he heard the complaint, Behold, I'll rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my way or not. Okay, so he's providing for them. He's doing exactly what he said he would do when they left Egypt. I will protect you, I will deliver you, and I will provide for you. I'll do all of those things. All you have to do is your part. All you have to do is your part. It says that they get into this idea of the manna. It says, Then Moses spoke to Aaron, say to all the con...or I'm sorry, verse 8, Then Moses said, This shall be seen, so glory to the Lord will be seen, when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full, not just to the little bit, but to the full. This was every possible thing they could need. Their entire world was taken care of from a food standpoint. No need for anything else. For the Lord hears your complaints, which you make against him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against the Lord, Moses here saying to them. Moses spoke to Aaron, say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your complaints. Come on in. Let's listen, he says, to the Israelites. Now it came to pass that Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. That must have been something to see. It must have really been something to see, to be able to know that at that moment, boom, you know, presence was there. A very physical reminder of it. We have a very spiritual reminder of that now. But the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. He heard them. Speak to them, saying, At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. So it was, quails came up in the evening, covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp, and when the layer of dew lifted there on the surface of the wilderness, there was a small round substance as fine as frost on the ground.

Here is an incredible miracle that God provided ancient Israel. An incredible miracle. He delivers them from their bondage. He saves them, provides for them. He does exactly what He said He would do in leading them out of Israel. He protected, or out of Egypt. He protected and He cared for them through the wilderness. So what happened next? Let's go to Numbers 11. Let's go to Numbers 11. We'll see what happens next.

Numbers 11. Fast forward just a little bit. Numbers 11. We'll pick it up in verse 1. Under a heading in my Bible of the people complain. Numbers 11 verse 1.

Numbers 11 and verse 1 says, Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. Now notice, it didn't say anything specific that He was necessarily really upset after the last one. He listened and He provided what He needed. But the second time, now we have some displeasure. Now we have some frustration and some anger coming from God here. It says, It displeased the Lord for the Lord, heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. So the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So He called the name of the place Tibera, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. Now, number 4, the mixed multitude, indicating it wasn't just Israelites, the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving. So the children of Israel also wept. Notice this word, wept. So upset that there were tears flowing. Again, emphasis added. So they wept again and said, Who will give us meat to eat?

We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic. And it's almost like at that moment.

Last time we got bread and quail! Why are there no melons? Why are there no leeks? Why are there no onions? What's going on here? But now our whole being is dried up. Again, imagine your kids when they've done this conversation before. I hear that so much in this. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes. It talks about a little bit of a description of what the manna looks like next. But basically, the Israelites just said, Hey God, we don't even want this miracle that you've provided us. We're not even interested. In fact, we're kind of sick of it, to be perfectly honest. And we'd like to go back to that place where we were, where we were totally slaves, but we could eat whatever we want. We'd like to go back there because we don't want this bread. We want fish. We want leeks. We want all this stuff we left behind. What they did was they collectively sent God an overwhelming message of, Dear God, Your blessings aren't good enough. For God's Israelites. That's dangerous. That's dangerous. This attitude of not appreciating what God has provided is dangerous. And it comes to a head a few chapters later in Numbers 14. Let's flip a couple pages over. Numbers 14. It comes to a head. Numbers 14. And we'll pick it up in verse 1. This particular section comes right after the spies have gone into Canaan. They've come back to make their report. Keep in mind, God had already given them Canaan. He's already said, it's yours. Pretty much all you've got to do is just have the faith to follow through and go in there and claim it. I will be with you the entire way. Go get it. They sent the spies in to spy it out. You know, the story. Ten of them came back, lied about the whole thing, or at least exaggerated the stories. Tried to convince the people it wasn't worth it. Caleb and Joshua told the truth. Tried to encourage the congregation. And then we pick it up in Numbers 14, verse 1. Numbers 14, verse 1 says, So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night, To find out that they'd gotten so far! They're right there! They're on the precipice! And then we can't do it! It's too scary! There's giants! And all the children of Israel complained against Moses. Notice that again. All the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness. Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?

You can imagine for a moment somebody hears this. Yeah! Yeah! That's a good idea! It would be better if we just turned around and went back to Egypt. In fact, we should elect a new leader, and we should definitely do that. We should! What about this guy? This guy right here. He looks like a leader. This is the one. We'll get this guy. So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt. This is now past complaint. This is mutiny. This is mutiny at this point. They've now undercut Moses. They've undercut Aaron. And they're looking to select a new leader and return to Egypt. It gets worse! Verse 5, Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. But Joshua, the son of Nun and Caleb, the son of Jafuna, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes, ripped their clothes on the spot in mourning of what these guys were trying to do. And they spoke to the congregation of Israel, saying, The land we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. The protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. Their response to this passionate plea from Caleb and Joshua? Verse 10, And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Great speech! Here's some rocks. It's done.

Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel. Verse 11, And the Lord said to Moses, How long will these people reject me? And how long will they not believe me? With all the signs which I have performed among them, I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. God basically tells Moses, Moses, get out of the way. I'm going to destroy them all. And I'm going to start over with you. And I will create a nation greater and mightier than they are from you. We see Moses intercede on the people's behalf, he reasons an argument to God that stays his hand. But the Israelites did receive a judgment. Let's go down to verse 20. Let's go down to verse 20. Numbers 14. Verse 20 says, He's referencing all these things that they had a chance to see. All these wonders, all these blessings.

They had complained one time too many. And God said, look, and that's enough. We're done. The Israelites lost sight of the blessings that God had provided them, just like I had lost sight of what God had done for me. They missed out entirely on the fact that they were no longer in bondage. Their needs were taken care of entirely. They had no want or need of anything. They were taken care of. They were taken care of. They were taken care of. They were taken care of. They were taken care of. They might not have had much.

But they were alive. They were free. They had been delivered. They had God. What do you need? They didn't recognize that God planned to make them this great nation in the land of Canaan. They were too short-sighted to see, pass their own desires. What about us? Do we lose sight? Do we place our desires and our wants in the forefront of our life and not recognize the things that God wants for us? In the case of ancient Israel, what they wanted was more important in their mind. As a result, they started to grumble and complain and murmur and mumble.

They became quarrelsome. They followed through on rebellion. God told them, hey, not so fast. We're not done here. We're not done here. Their desire for things that they couldn't have, this restlessness, this craving. Let's call it what it is. What do you call a restlessness and a craving for something that you don't have? It's covetousness. It's covetousness, plain and simple. Coveting what they couldn't have was for those that came out of Egypt's downfall.

And because of it, they would all die in the wilderness without having set foot in the promised land. God wasn't willing to reward people who spit in the face of the great miracles that He had provided them, who would rebel and who would quarrel and who would fight with the leaders that He had chosen.

The book of James talks about this in great depth. Let's go to James 4, or Chapter 4, I should say. James 4, and we go here quite a bit, and there's a reason because there's a lot here. James 4, verse 1. James 4 and verse 1 kind of talks about this concept of quarreling and these fights that we have amongst us and within us. It talks about these quarrels that we have. The book of James in James 4, verse 1, says, Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Where do they come from? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war and your members? You lust and don't have, you murder and covet and can't obtain, you fight in war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. We have fights among us. We have difficulties in our interpersonal relationships. We do. We war within ourselves. And why? Because of the pleasures that war in our members.

We want and we cannot have. We covet and we cannot obtain. We fight, we war, we quarrel, but we have not because we ask not. Or we ask but we don't receive it because of the attitude with which we're asking or the desire with which we want something.

You know, I might want a million dollars. God's not going to give me a million dollars. And I'm not saying that to try to shorten God's hand. It's just it would not be a good thing for me to have a million dollars. And God knows that. The attitude in our life is so important because we can't afford to be what is defined by Webster's dictionary, a malcontent. That's our next point.

A malcontent. Here's the definition of a malcontent. Are you ready? I love this definition. Someone who is dissatisfied or rebellious. Some synonyms of malcontent is troublemaker, mischiefmaker, agitator, dissident, rebel, and my personal favorite, rabble-rouser. I don't know why I just love that term. Rabble-rouser. But when we think about these words, when you look at what a malcontent is, when you think of these words, troublemaker, mischiefmaker, agitator, dissident, rebel, rabble, these are not one-time events.

This is a history of this type of behavior. It's not a weakness thing that happens once. It is a character flaw. It's a character flaw. And Albert Einstein actually really wisely once said that a weakness of attitude becomes a weakness of character. And if we have a weakness of attitude, it can become a weakness in our character. If we don't keep a close check on our attitude in the situations that we face in life, because we do, we face all kinds of difficult times, we can allow that attitude to breed discontent in over a long period of time.

But it can become an aspect of our character. Recently I've noticed an interesting trend kind of within the church. And we often make the statement, so goes the world, so goes the church. And it's that idea that if we're not careful, trends from the outside can creep in unawares that we might not notice. And one that's made itself very known lately, within the last five, six, seven years or so, is discontent. People who are generally upset with how things are run, frustrated with the people in charge, who occurred in this location or that location, who said this or who said that.

There are entire websites dedicated to the survivors of the worldwide church of God. And on these websites, every post mocks, scoffs, throws rocks at anyone who is affiliated with the churches of God in any way. Now, to be fair, they are equal opportunity offenders. Living, Philadelphia, UCG, Kaguya, little tiny groups, whatever. They will offend anybody and everybody. It doesn't matter to them at all. No one is safe. Particularly if they are a Sabbath-keeping Christian with any ties to worldwide.

But unfortunately what happens with this is sometimes people want to talk to others about the various things that they find out from these sites. And they want to share and they want to get all worked up over it. They get upset about it and they want to share with people. But the problem is, now you're taking your discontent, your dissatisfaction, and doing exactly what I did. You're passing it on to other people now who are going to become discontent and dissatisfied and upset.

And ultimately, I guess the bigger real question is, why would we spend our precious time? I think we can all agree that time is precious. There are not enough hours of it in the day, right? Why would we spend our precious time in a place that does nothing but criticize and throw rocks? Why? Where unsubstantiated gossip is turned out as truth, or outright lies and mischaracterizations are represented as fact. What's the fruit in that? God tells us in Philippians 4a to pay attention to the things that are pure, that are worthy, that are ultimately good in their setup.

But being a malcontent, being somebody who is always dissatisfied and upset and frustrated, can be dangerous because it provides Satan with a toehold. It gives him a toehold, not just in our own lives, but within the ecclesia as a whole. Let's go over to Ephesians 4. Let's go over to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, and we'll turn to verse 21. Ephesians 4, verse 21. And we'll look at this idea of a toehold, kind of this idea of what our expectation is and what we need to be doing.

Ephesians 4, verse 21. Ephesians 4, verse 21 says, If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth, is in Jesus, that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, those desires, those wants, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man. That word put there is like literally getting dressed.

Like you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. It's so important that we speak truth, that the words that we say are 100% accurate and edifying and seasoned with salt.

Not gossip, not things that are falsehoods, that are not true, because the damage that we can cause is incredible. Verse 26, verse 26, Be angry and do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath. It's okay to be frustrated. It's okay to be upset. You could even go as far as saying it's okay to be angry. But to skew on something for weeks and weeks, and the weeks turn into months, and the months turn into years, and the frustration builds, and the dissatisfaction builds, and the discontent builds, we're instructed not to let the sun go down on our wrath. Meaning we need to resolve it. We need to get it dealt with. We need to get it taken care of. To constructively solve the frustration. Or, even better, let it go. Let it go, and let God take care of it. Verse 27, verse 27, Nor give place to the devil, and some translations say, Foothold or Tohold, there on the word place. There's a section in Berkeley's commentary on Galatians and Ephesians. I'd like to read you. It's page 157, and it's chapters 2 and 3. Or chapters 2 and 3, I'm sorry, paragraph 2 and 3. And so here's what he has to say about this particular section. It says, Paul's advice is sound. Because the longer we postpone mending a quarrel, the less likely we are ever to mend it. If there's trouble between us and anyone else, if there's trouble in a church or a fellowship or any society where men meet, the only way to deal with it is at once. The longer that it's left to flourish, the more bitter it will grow. If we have been in the wrong, we must pray to God to give us grace to admit that it was so. And even if we have been right, we must pray to God and give us the graciousness, which will enable us to take the first step to make matters right. Along with this phrase, Paul puts another command. The Greek can equally well mean two things. It can mean, don't give the devil his opportunity. And an unhealed breach is a magnificent opportunity for the devil to sow dissension. Many a time a church has been torn into factions because two people quarreled and let the sun set upon their wrath. But there's another meaning which this phrase can have. The word for devil in Greek is diabolos. But diabolos is also the normal Greek word for a slanderer. Luther, for instance, took this to mean, give the slanderer no place in your life. And it may well be that this is the true meaning of what Paul wishes to say, as no one in this world can do more damage than a slanderous tailbearer. What is Satan described as? A slanderous tailbearer. Someone who traded in merchandise, quote-unquote. Who went around and talked things up. It's dangerous. It's dangerous. Paul continues in verse 28.

I'm adding a couple of those.

The second one, Paul says, is the only choice we have in our life. That's really the only choice we have in these situations. We have to choose contentedness. We have to choose contentedness. And the Apostle Paul knew all there was to be about contentedness. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11. Or, as some say, 2 Corinthians 11. Sorry. A subtle political joke there.

2 Corinthians 11.

2 Corinthians 11. And we'll pick it up in verse 23. We start to see this beginning of a laundry list of injustices that Paul received as a follower of Christ. 2 Corinthians 11, 23 through 28. So 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23. And he's really, part of the reason the context here, he's answering the ones that were accusing him of being a false apostle. That he's answering those who were accusing him of being false, that he didn't really love the brethren. On and on it went. So 11, verse 23, here's his response to those in Corinth. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, and I am more. In labors, more abundant. In stripes above measure. In prisons, more frequently. In deaths, often.

From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Three times, I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, one of my favorite stories in the whole thing. Gets right back up. Up goes the police. Right back in the front gate. I love that story. But once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and day I've been in the deep. In journeys, often. In perils of waters. Perils of robbers. Perils of my own countrymen.

Perils of the Gentiles. Perils in the city. Perils in the wilderness. Perils in the sea. In perils among false brethren. In weariness and toil. In sleeplessness often. In hunger and thirst. In fastings often. In cold and nakedness. Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, besides all the stuff that I normally have to deal with, my deep concern is for all the churches. He didn't do this as a means of complaining about the things that happened in his life.

He didn't do it to brag. This wasn't him being a brighter. He was providing the members of the church in Corinth with the laundry list of things that he had gone through. So that they would understand the love that he had for them. That he loved them so much that he would be willing to go through all of these things. To care and to care for them. Despite all of these things really being largely out of his control.

We argue maybe a couple of times he got himself in this situation, I guess. But despite most of these being out of his control, he chose to accept them for what they were. Part of living his Christian calling. We haven't been promised a rose garden. We don't get to dictate the terms. Hey, things are going to come. In fact, he's been promised that they're going to come. He discusses a similar principle in Philippians 4. Let's go over there. Philippians 4, verses 12 through 13. Philippians 4, 12, and 13. And it's kind of a similar discussion to what we're looking at at the moment.

Fairly similar. Philippians 4, verses 12. It says, I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I've learned both to be full and to be hungry. Both to abound and to suffer need. He's telling him, look, I know what it's like to have, and I know what it's like to not have. I understand. But I've also learned the secret to both being in full and being hungry.

I've learned the secret to it. To abounding and wanting. And he gets into the point of it in verse 13. This idea that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That when he gave up his need to try to fix it and he relied on God to take care of it, that God provides us the strength to face whatever comes. He gives us the ability to face it. Shannon and I had a pretty eventful, and when I say eventful, please hear the word expensive, summer. We went to Northwest Camp at the end of July.

We went and served at Magruder at the end of July for a week. And then the following morning, after camp was over, with all of our rest, because we were so rested up the morning after camp was done, we jumped in our car, packed all of our belongings, and we had a Dodge Caravan. We bailed out for what we termed the Great Summer Road Trip of 2015.

And we drove from the Oregon Coast to just outside of Boise, Idaho, the first night. We stayed there in Boise. The next day we drove to Green River, Utah. And then from Green River we went to Arches National Park, which if you've never been, please go. And Moab. And went and checked out Arches and Moab. And headed towards Albuquerque, New Mexico, where our plan was to hit I-40 and cut across New Mexico and Texas for Altus, Oklahoma. We were headed for a family reunion. It was the grandparent's 65th wedding anniversary. And we wanted to make sure that we were there.

We get together every five years. This time we thought we'd drive it instead of fly it. We, I jokingly told myself it would be cheaper to fly. I was wrong. I was very wrong. But our plan was we would get there and then our return trip would take us through Dallas, Texas, back through Albuquerque to Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, Mojave Desert, Yosemite, Redwoods, and then back home.

So, I mean, we hit multiple national parks in this timeframe. Well, just outside of Shiprock, New Mexico, three days into our trip, our Dodge Caravan had other plans. It started making some really funny noises. Then the temperature spiked, and smoke started pouring out of the air vents inside the car, blowing smoke all out of the air vents. And I am no mechanic, but I don't think it's a good sign.

At that point, I'm like, I'm not a mechanic, but there is definitely something wrong. So we pull over. We're on the Navajo Indian Reservation, about three miles outside of the town of Shiprock, which incidentally has no hotels, no mechanics, and no tow trucks. Just in case you ever stop there, there's nothing. There's like a regional medical center, and that's pretty much it. I made the phone calls. They sent one from Farmington, which was like an hour and an hour and a half away or so, and they sent it in. The tow truck took about an hour to get there.

And so there we are, side of the road, middle of the Navajo Reservation, just waiting. Three kids, so we fed them. We gave them toys to play with, whatever else. While I'm standing in front of the car like I know what I'm doing... ...that's pretty much me. And as I'm waiting, you know, my mind is reflecting back on the thousands-plus dollars that I put into this car prior to the trip.

You know, we'd put a bunch of new stuff on it before we went. Incidentally, none of those new things broke. It was the old thing that broke. So the new things were all still good. So, you know, that's good. A number of people stopped. They did the same thing I did. They'd get out of the car and they'd come and look and go, yup, that's a problem. None of them knew what the problem was.

I mean, nobody got us back on the road. It was beyond what we were able to do. And we get there, the tow truck driver shows up, we get the car loaded, and then he tells us, it's dark. I mean, it's already dark. The sun's down.

And we'd been sitting on the side of the road by the time it was done, almost three hours by the time it was all said and done. And he goes, how are you guys getting to Farmington? And I went, what do you mean, how are we getting to Farmington? We're riding with you. And he goes, no, I've only got a two-person cab and my daughter's with me. And so I look at Shannon, and Shannon looks at me, and we both kind of chuckle.

And we go, is there anything we can do? So he says, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll call my boss. So he loads the truck on the back of the tow truck, and then we climb in the van and buckle into the van. And we row it on the back of the tow truck. And we passed so many police officers, and every time we did, it was like, seat goes down.

So you still see that I'm in this thing. So they get us into Farmington, New Mexico, and we get a hotel room for a couple of nights. And we start trying to figure out what we're going to do. We get ahold of a mechanic. We spent a bunch more money to find out that the van was totally dead. So we spent a bunch of money to find out we needed a new engine. Rental cars in Farmington we call around. Every place is gone except the most expensive car on the Avis lot that is there, and they want not only all my money but my first born child.

The family reunion is still one day away and two states away. And if you've never driven through the panhandle of Texas, that is a big state. So we had a long ways to go still to get there, and we only had one day to do it. So just rent the car, get in the car, load the stuff, figure out what's going on. Honestly, you know, I got off the phone with the rental car company, and all I could do was laugh. All I could do was laugh.

You couldn't have written a better movie script. You seriously couldn't have written a better movie script. And hey, that's an idea. Maybe. It turned into a movie. But what ended up happening was, I coined this phrase in my life on that trip, and I'm sure I'll use it more and more as time goes on. Good memories are bad memories. They're all still memories. Whether it's good or whether it's bad, they're still memories.

And honestly, I'll probably remember a lot of the bad stuff in a way just because it was so funny. It was so funny in the scheme of it all. I had no control over any of it. None. No control. You could argue maybe I should have taken better care of the engine in the van. I'll give you that. But I had no control over any of this.

What only thing I had control over was the attitude with which I chose to face these challenges. I could have stressed about it. I could have been anxious. I could have gotten frustrated. I could have gotten mad. I could have completely ruined my family vacation. I could have destroyed it with my anger and my frustration and my dissatisfaction. I could have ruined it. Or, thankfully, this was the choice that I made. I handed this situation over to God, and I let him take care of it. God provided us a new vehicle, found it in the middle of a cow pasture in Oklahoma. Different Indian reservation in Oklahoma.

We bought it, and we drove it home, and I drove it to church today. So God took care of it. He knows what we need, and he knows what needs to be done. Let's go over to Romans 8.28 with the second-to-last passage we'll turn to today. Again, this is one we know quite well.

Romans 8.28. Romans 8.28 tells us, To them that love God, to them that love God, all things work together for good. So all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And for those that love God, we know that all things work together for good. We may not get to choose how they work out, and frankly, they may not work out for good as we anticipated that they would. They might not. You know, had I... You know, the new car that we've got, it's fantastic. It's really a great vehicle. And would I have sold the other one and bought this one?

Probably not until it blew up. It's God-new. If we need a new vehicle, there we go. So it might not even work out for good in this life. And that's sometimes something that's hard for us to look at, but it might not work out for good in this life. But it will work out for good in our life because we love God, and most importantly, because He says so.

He says so. Psalm 91, which is the final passage it will turn to today. Psalm 91 is one of my absolute favorite Psalms because it shows the way that God cares for us. It illustrates the way that He cares for His people and the way that He loves His people. Psalm 91, and we'll go through and take a look at this particular passage. Psalm 91. I just want you to listen to these words and think about it. Picture it in your head as you hear this. Picture it. Those of you who have chickens, picture one aspect in particular.

You'll know it as soon as you hear it. Psalm 91, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in Him I will trust. Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge. His truths shall be your shield and your buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place.

No evil shall befall you, nor shall your plague come near your dwelling, or plague come near your dwelling. For He gives His angels charge over you to keep you in all of your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent, you shall trample underfoot. Because He has set His love upon me, therefore I will deliver Him. I will set Him on high because He has known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer Him. I will be with Him in trouble. I will deliver Him and honor Him.

With long life I will satisfy Him and show Him my salvation. Brethren, our life is full of all sorts of trials and difficulties, injustices, things that happen to us, frustrations, struggles. And every day we have a choice as to how we're going to deal with those trials and those injustices. We can dwell on them, we can get frustrated, we can get mad, we can get bitter, and we can let it just eat us up from the inside.

Or we can hand them over to God and we can say, This problem, this frustration, it's not worth my time. It's not worth my time. I am seeking you, Lord, and this is nothing more than a distraction and getting in the way of that.

We can hand it to God and ask Him to please handle it. We must be aware of these attitudes of bitterness. We need to be aware of them as well. And this bit of discontent that can build up in us and really eat us from the inside out. It is a poison. It is a poison in our life.

Absolutely a poison. And it can destroy us. We need to make sure we put our trust in God and our confidence in Him and be actively thankful, actively thankful for all that He's done in our lives. And brethren, that is the antidote.