Grumbling and Complaining in Ministry

0:00 I Am Yours, I am yours, I am yours. S and me, Lord, I am yours, I am yours. I'm welcome to the Gospel Center pre life podcast, a podcast designed to equip, encourage and challenge you in pro life ministry and always were the focus on the Gospel. Stay tuned, I felt show Passish, touch your heart, use me love. Welcome back to the Gospel centered pro life podcast. Appreciate you guys listening and, as always, would appreciate if you guys would share this podcast episode and if you would give us a review. Leave US review on Itunes or however else you get podcast. We would love to combat some of the negative reviews that we've had from pro abortion people, although we see that as a badge of honor we praise God for every time we are persecuted or marginalized for the name of Jesus, and we try our best to have a good attitude and not to grumble and complain about what people say against us. Jesus said it that people would if they hated me, Jesus said, then they're going to hate you, and so us being hated and maligned by people is just kind of a natural outflow of our identification with Jesus, and we're going to talk about that today. Actually, we did a podcast, hopefully you guys listen

1:33 to last week that came out about joy and US having joy on the sidewalk and knowing the Lord is what brings joy to us and we can have joy on our faces and enjoy in our lives and joy in our hearts. That is conveyed to the women going in that don't have joy. They could help us to really just be compelling for them to come over and talk with us and we need to have joy. We're going to kind of contrast this episode with that episode in a little a little bit or in some ways, because we're going to talk about the title the article that you wrote here's the dangers and antidote to grumbling in sidewalk ministry. And I think as a lot of just like our joy topic, a lot of our topics, you can you can apply this to any any ministry. The ministry that we're involved in and we're talking about in this podcast is the sidewalk ministry at abortion centers. But I think there's dangers and biblical antidotes to grumbling and complaining in any area of ministry or any area. We're like, quite honestly, yeah, you know, not just ministry. Yeah, so we're going to talk about the dangers of grumbling and the antidote to grumbling in light of sidewalk ministry. But again we can apply this to many areas of life and warnings and rebukes throughout the scriptures about grumbling or I mean cash, so, so many that we won't

3:07 be able to touch on all the scriptures where God rebukes. Even, of course, the children is are about grumbling. But even the New Testament, the Bible warns us about grumbling and about complaining. And so let's jump into a Vikulous talk about grumbling and the dangers of grumbling and the antidote. Yeah, the Bible gives us. Yeah. Well, I think a great place to start as the the verse Philippians to fourteen do all things without grumbling or disputing, and that's a really important verse. It says do all things without grumbling or disputing. And we're in a difficult ministry. We've talked about that a lot. It is a Ministry of rejection. Lot of unjust actions are taken against us, a lot of cruelty, even from the pro abortion crowd and I think it is easy for us to justify our complaining. Yeah, and I know until I wrote this article, that was kind of where I was. I hear it from everyone. I am guilty of it, very guilty of it, not just on the sidewalk, to be frank, but but particularly on the sidewalk. And as I was working on this article I realized more and more, Wow, not only is this not godly behavior,

4:43 but it is damaging behavior and, in contrast to our podcast last time, it detracts from the joy that we feel out there and therefore is a danger in taking us away from the sidewalk. And I think indeed we have lost sidewalk counselors because they become so discouraged for by the pro abortion group. Yeah, so this this was born. This podcast, this article came out of again, real life experiences on the sidewalk with fellow counselors and I was just becoming very aware that a lot of our time was spent complaining about the pro abortion crowd. Everything that was said was true. They it, they really are rough and and it really is uncalled for. It. It is childish and sometimes very cruel, but it I realize more of our time was spent discussing that, sometimes than praising God or praying. While while we were out there and I thought this is this is probably worth discussing, because I can't imagine our teams are different from anyone else, that anyone out on the sidewalk

6:16 in such a difficult ministry is, I think, likely to fall fall prey about to this. Yeah, yeah, in some cities, and I know here in southern California, we don't yet have a lot of pro abortion presence. So there's not yet a lot of opposition. I say yet because I think it's probably coming up. told the folks here that it's a badge of honor if pro abortion people show up because you know that you're being effective. Now pro abortion people haven't yet showed up out here. Maybe a few random people here and there. So I don't mean to say that they're not effective. There's certainly the teams here being very effective, but it's told them expect this. These pro abortion people are going to come along. But I will say that they're not the only reason for grumbling. There could be other things.

7:04 Laws that are passed that are hindering what you're doing, or at least seeking to hinder what you're doing. That's happening here in California. Laws that are passed to really intimidate and make people feel like can we even be out on the sidewalk? Also interactions with police officers. That can be a point for grumbling and just being just having a negative attitude. The lack of involvement of the church. It's like where's the church at? And this is this is a real problem here, and so I just want to kind of kind of lump all these these points of contention or points of discouragement in together, because they can all serve to get us in an attitude of grumbling. In something I think that I've shared on this podcast before that I kind of use as a term around our house, and this will tie into this. This this whole grumbling subject, grumbling and complaining, is your attitude determines your altitude.

8:01 Yeah, right, yeah, if you want to fly above the situations, you want to soar above the situations, then have a good attitude, but if you want to be under it and you want to be under oppression and depression and discourage, then just have a bad attitude. And really the gateway to just a bad attitude is grumbling right and complain. Yeah, yeah, and it can quickly devolve into gossip. I think it sometimes starts off as grumbling and you feel justified and then they're starts to creep in, making fun of whatever you're grumbling about or name calling whatever you're grumbling about or telling stories about whomever you're grumbling about, and that that's clearly, clearly gossip.

8:52 I do want to say that what I don't want to convey two people is that there is not a legitimate place for sharing one another's burdens and and you know, I'll go back to the example of the pro abortion crowd. There are they've sometimes brought us to tears and there there are times when we just really do need to unload on an understanding friend or fellow counselor who's been through it, yeah, in order to kind of brush that off and and move on. So I think there is a legitimate place for that, but that's not what really what we're talking about. It can be what we're talking about, but I think, I think when we start just complaining about things that honestly, we should expect these people are not saved, they don't know God.

9:54 We honestly should not be surprised that they're not acting in an honorable, God fearing manner. Right. This is just what we would expect. And and so when I was thinking about when is it okay to grumble, and I grumble is probably not the correct word in that case, but when, I think it's important to ask ourselves before we start grumbling, will my complaining or bringing up up this issue do anything to evoke change in a positive, God honoring way? Yeah, and just complaining about them being who they are in terms of talking about the pro abortion people. I don't see how that's going to in any way honor God or bring about change. And in fact, what I do see is it it takes our focus off of our mission and it kind of brings everybody down. Everybody suppressed because this isn't going to end. How, Oh, what is me? Yeah, so, so I would say grumbling is destructive. It's destructive and we were just talking about before the podcast. I think it's one of the most famous examples of grumbling is poor Moses as he's leading the Israelites across the Promised Land and they pretty much right away start grumbling and complaining they're being led to freedom, out of

11:28 slavery. And I guess what what we would expect is gratitude and joy and praise, but that's not really what happened at all. Know now, I was actually reading that in my time with the Lord this morning. In Exodus and they are of course, God delivers them with miraculous signs. And does all these things in Egypt really prove that the false gods of Egypt, or just that false God's brings the children to Israel, out, brings them to the Red Sea, and then of course the army of Pharaoh is coming, because Pharaoh's heart's been hardened again and he's going to come and bring the children of Israel back into Egypt. And you know, one point they're grumbling and they're complaining and they say it's kind of funny the way that it's worded in the scripture. Are there no graves in Egypt? You know, do you bring us out here because there were no graves, there was no grave plots, less and need you. That's why you brought us out here to die.

12:31 And you know, in a sense it's like, and this is where we have to check our hearts, when we're complaining about a sick situation, when we're complaining about a circumstance that we're in, are we complaining against the Lord? Are we accusing him of not not being wise and not caring about us? and think about the children of Israel, right. I mean, of course God cared about them. He heard their cry in Egypt and he delivered them through these miraculous means. And yet so their accusation is not just it's not against just Moses, but it's against the Lord himself and the Lord's deliverance. And you know, I think this can apply to sidewalk ministry, though I don't think that many of you that are listening, that are doing sidewalk ministry, have that same mentality as the children of Israel. Did you have an attitude of gratitude toward the Lord and all of that? Yet we can slip into that mentality. It's like we can almost have mentality of God.

13:24 Did you call me to this ministry just so people can call me names and Malay find me? Did you call me this ministry just so women can cuss it me as they're going in instead of responding to me positively? And that really kind of goes back to the podcast we did some months ago about the motivation for ministry and I encourage you guys, if you haven't, please listen to that, because that can really, I can really squash a lot of this stuff if you have a wrong motivation for ministry. Of Your motivation from ministry is that you're going to be out there and be the savior of all these babies and these MOMS and all this stuff. You're going to be sadly disappointed when they're cussing at you. Now God will use you to say babies. We do believe that. I can just trust that. The Lord's going to use you for sure, but that can't be our primary motivation.

14:11 A primary motivation has to be a love for God. Is What we're doing. We're doing it in obedience to him. The victory is in obedience and when our motivation is right, then it will guard our heart against grumbling. But I'll tell you, there's always the potential that we're going to grumble in complain and I think, as you said, Vicki, there can be a fine line between us sharing our bird and sharing our concern sharing. I mean I'm thinking about the police officers. We've got a knucklehead police officer in Charlotte. That has caused us a lot of problems and seems like he goes out of his way to cause US issues. Do we need to talk about that as a group? Yeah, we do. We need to talk about that. We need to talk about you know, we we've had some fun sometimes and and just you know, he kind of looks like a cartoon character a little bit. So if people kind of use that analogy, close to the line there, though, of are we having I think we're coming close to the line. Yeah, or are we? Are we making fun of an is that God honoring? So yeah, that was one of the things actually that that a fellow counselor brought up to me, because you very what I thought was good natured was actually mocking someone and and he pointed out that that's kind of gossip that. Yeah, I love you and respect you, but have you considered that? So, anyway, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt.

15:33 Interrupt you there. I mean I think that and again I think that fact there goes back to a podcast we did about the body of Christ working together and about burying one another's burdens in the fact that we need each other. We need each other to help when we cross over that line, somebody that's going to call us out and say hey, we getting into the realm of grumbling and complaining and we're getting into the realm of gossip. Yeah, and to help us will this thing back, because at the end of the day, what we want to do is honor Jesus. Right, we want to honor Jesus and what we're doing. Of course we we've got to share our burdens. We've got a share, and sometimes we can do it in a funny way, we can do it in a way that you know we don't have any malicious intent behind it, because we've got to relate each other and I think part of the Camaraderie and part of the connection that we have with each other's they're sort of like these in inside jokes that we can tell about sidewalk ministry and all that stuff. But it can step over a line and it can get into where we're just in a negative attitude, we're in a grumbling and complaining attitude, and so we need to check our hearts before the Lord and check each other right so that we don't get into this attitude of grumbling and we're ultimately accusing God by grumbling against him, because at the end of the day, we believe that he called us to this ministry and the things that are happening in this ministry, though they're not within his perfect will, he certainly knew those things are going to happen and those things can serve. Actually, the opposition that we receive from pro abortion people, police

17:07 or whatever it might be, can be things that God uses to help us grow to be more like Jesus. Again, let's look at the example of Jesus. Was He maligned? Was He marginalized? Was He spoken against? The people lie about him? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. How did he respond? And he certainly did call things what they were. He called the Pharisees a brood of snakes. You'd know that he did it not out of malicious intent, but out of speaking the truth and warning the people about these snakes, these brood of snakes, and also to confront these Pharisees with their sin and the rebellion against God. So yeah, again there can be this, this fine line. We do need to guard our hearts, we do need to make sure that what we're saying, we're like before the Lord. This this honors the Lord and this doesn't get me into a mindset of one of the brothers here locally says, of stinking thinking. We don't want to get in that mindset of just stinking thinking right, constantly saturating our minds and our hearts with grumbling, with complaining, with negative stuff, with these people do this, this person did that. We've got to come back around to the fact in our minds and our hearts that Jesus Christ is our Lord, like we talked about in the joy podcast. We belong to him. He's our Lord. We need to have joy, not just not grumbling and complaining. Yeah, yeah, thinking about Jesus that you brought up, that he he calls things like they are and sometimes he can even be

18:38 harsh in his choice of words. But I can't recall a single time that I would characterize him as grumbling, not a single time. I don't recall any statement like woe is me, you know, look at look at all that I'm enduring. He just does. He just endures it, and and usually with silence. He usually doesn't speak about what he's suffering at all. The only thing even close to that might be when he says, father, if it is your will, take this Cup from me, but that's that's really more just a plea of anguish, as supposed to you know, a complaint, but in in terms of some of the legitimate grievances, like when you brought up the police. And while I do think there's a fine line when we start to kind of poke fun at then we got to be careful, yeah, that we're not, you know, edging towards disrespect and and flat out gossip. But when when we get together and talk about the police and the things that we feel were unfair, we're actually trying to bring about a change. It's not just to discuss poor, pitiful loss. It really is this is not legal, is it? Can someone look up and find out if this Lee is legal? And oftentimes that you do in that, Daniel, or our what can we do to alleviate this issue, and talking

20:11 to lawyers and finding out what our rights are and how we confide it. And I think that that is very different from grumbling. That's trying to take action to right or wrong, and true grumbling, I don't think is. I think it's just feeling sorry for yourself and complaining about something that, honestly, you probably have no control over. But some of the things we do have control over that are not grumbling in terms of against sidewalk ministry. If we see abusive or aggressive behavior by the pro abortion crowd or by patients or clients or workers, we definitely need to address that and we should tell each other, we should film it, we and we should seek counsel regarding that, because that can be dangerous and again, it's something that we can take action against. If we see concerns of sex trafficking or domestic abuse in the clients coming into the abortion center, you know we need to talk with each other about that and maybe call the police and and discussed with each other what do we do in this situation? Some sometimes there's situations we don't know what to do and we have to talk to each other to try and figure it out. So that's different and that is not at all what what we're talking about. I also have found that the more I grumble, besides getting discouraged,

21:51 the more negatively I feel about that person I'm grumbling against. It feeds into a negative, destructive, hateful attitude towards others and again that that that's not good. Yeah, so, but the next section that I have in our article, which you kind of already talked about, is what's the solution, and I want to tell you a story that that actually happened this week out on the sidewalk, which maybe that there were two things that really sparked this are article. This was one of the things. There was a very difficult group of pro abortion people. I think there was something like fifteen of them. They always have number our team, and they were inches of our face, screaming at us, taunting us, threatening us. They were blowing whistles in our ears, all kinds of other musical instruments right in our ears, which was painful, and we were all feeling just weary at the end of the of three hours of that. We were worn out and we we struggled to it. I think every one of us was thinking, did anyone hear anything of value that we called out, because the noise and the persecution was so strong that day. And one of them, that was the worst

23:22 one of them, was just video taping everything we were doing and getting in our face and again mocking us. And it was time for us all to go home. The time had ended and I said, I said should we pray? And we knew yes, indeed we should pray and I volunteered to be the one to pray. And as soon as this worst of the offenders of the pro abortion crowd heard that we were going to pray, said, Oh, can I pray with you? Can I pray with you, very mocking. So I did wrestle for a moment thinking should I have said sure, but I didn't. I just ignored her and I started praying and and because I think I needed God and I knew my team needed God so desperately at that moment I was really, really into that prayer. I was so focused on God. Sometimes it isn't always like that, but it was that time and just really tapping in to the holy spirit and really feeling that I was in direct communion with with God as I'm praying and she was saying things and trying to distract and I just was totally into my prayer, which, by the way, is out loud for the group before we disperse. And then she started singing and I knew she was singing, but I was not conscious, at least conscious at all of the words of what she was singing.

24:56 And continued the prayer and somewhere through the middle of the prayer. She I knew she had left, at least I no longer registered that she was there in the prayer ended and and we all dispersed, went home and it was later reading the team leads report of the day and she mentioned that prayer and mentioned that during that prayer this pro abortion person was singing hail Satan, and at that everybody else was aware of it. Now I had no idea. I had no idea. All I felt was peace and joy and comfort in this prayer and to me that spoke very specifically about our greatest anetote to to grumbling is to keep our our heart and mind so focused on God that nothing else enters and it is as though you're looking right through all those people trying to discourage you, that you no longer see your hear them because you're so focused on what God has called you to do and on his presence and his holy spirit guiding and enabling you to do that. Yeah, I mean it comes back to where our focus is. It comes back to what our motivation is. We're not out there too we're not out there just to say babies, we're not out there just to be heard. We're out there to

26:26 obey God and if it comes to where our voices are being drowned out by pro abortion people or whatever, you know, opposition comes against us, we're not out there for them. We're not out there to feel good about ourselves or out there to glorify Jesus. Yeah, and we've got to keep our focus on him. I know whenever thoughts and bad attitudes come kind of across our radar, of course one of the ways that can bat that is to pray. Yeah, when you're out there on the sidewalk and there's there's this ability and I think this this subject grumbling ties into the subject of discouragement and dealing with discouragement, which we did do a podcast about long time ago, is bringing our petition to the Lord. That's one of the keys to overcoming discouragement, overcoming not getting into because discouragement can lead into grumbling. That's kind of the progression of things. You get discourage, you start grumbling, you start complaining, then you start accusing God and then you start even question in your calling and all that stuff. Before he gets to there. We need to do, if you look at the psalms, we need to do what David did in the psalms where he's bringing his can, his petition, and it seems like in some of the psalms like he's complaining to the Lord, like, God, where are you in this situation? Like we can be honest before the Lord, but we need to come back around like David does to your God, you're the Lord over it all. I belong to you.

27:56 You're not beholding to me and you know, I think checking our attitude between us and the Lord is it very important then, of course, the dynamic of other folks helping us to check our attitude. Yeah, so that we're not getting this whole round of just being a grant. Yeah. Yeah, act sixteen is a great example of not grumbling but doing replacing that with turning our thoughts. Are Folk us in our heart on the Lord, and I actually I think I copied you probably all know that it's such a great story in the book of acts, but I'll read or do you want to read that? In in acts like sixteen, it's the full story, is well, it goes through the whole chapter of acts, but the crux of it is in verses twenty two, two to thirty. Yeah, yeah, so to kind of condens it just a little bit and you guys probably again we'll know the story where Paul and Silas were thrown into prison because Paul cast a demon out of this girl who was possessed by a demon. Right.

29:07 And they're there in prison now, and we've talked about this passage, I think, before as well, or at least we've talked about acts chapter four, when Peter and John were thrown into prison for preaching the name of Jesus. This is a similar scenario where Paul and Silas were thrown into prison for casting out the demon proclaiming the name of Jesus. Anyway, they're there in a not so nice scenario. Who Mean? We think about jail, we think about prison in this day and age. You didn't have TV's, you didn't have a library. There you're in a nasty, filthy place, probably rats and all this, which they didn't belong to. They did they they didn't deserve to be in it. Would they were false charged, false accusations and they thrown in prison. They had every right to grumble, if someone has a right to grumble, right, yeah, right, yeah, they certainly would have. But order they begin to do they began to worship, they began to sing. Yeah, singing praise to the Lord in the midst of that filthy, rotten place that they didn't deserve to be in. And the Bible says that the place that they were was shaking. The prison house was shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains were unfastened.

30:12 So they were released. They were praising God, they were singing hymns of praise, the Bible says, to God, and the prisoners were hearing this stuff. So that's a testimony. When we praise the Lord in the midst of persecution, in the midst of opposition, and we can worship and we can praise the Lord, it's a witness to those around us, for sure, and in this situation it calls an earthquake from the Lord that shook the foundations of the prison and release their chains, not just their chains, but other people's chains. And there's listen. This will preach, let me tell you, because you praising God in the midst of opposition rather than grumbling and complaining, can also bring freedom to other people. Right it can help other people get free, and this is applicable to on the sidewalk. Whenever you decide in the midst of opposition, to be thankful, to have gratitude toward God, to going back to that acts chapter for or I think it's it's later on in acts chapter six, I believe, when Peter and the apostles, I think it was Peter and John Again, were beaten for the name of Jesus and they left rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer for his namesake. So if we can take that kind of attitude, man, that is contagious and in this situation, the analogy would be the not only were their chains released, but the chains of everyone else. Yeah, that was there people who weren't worshiping and praising God, but people who are overhearing this thing. So you this can bring freedom to other people in the sidewalk is you're worshiping and praising God in the midst of persecution, your other sidewalk counselors, people who are probably filling the same temptation to grumble into be like

31:47 why are we even here? Whatever can actually that fire can actually spread to them. It can also spread. As you were speaking, I realized what an incredible example and picture that is. When we do that, when we turn the persecution and prays to the MOMS themselves, because what we are asking of them oftentimes, I'll directly say this, don't put your eyes on your struggles, don't put your eyes on your circumstances. Put Your eyes on Jesus. Don't give into the to your fears and your struggles in your troubles, but keep bringing your eyes back to the Lord. And that is what that's what we're asking them to do, and they see that, if they see us doing that in the midst of the persecution that we are receiving, not on the side bucket. That is a powerful statement, a powerful word.

32:38 Picture will not word, picture, powerful visual of what we're telling them. And if, instead, what they see is as grumbling, fighting, returning the Machrian and the insults, with further in salt, smocking or whatever from us, all we've shown them is just go and do whatever you want and ignore what God has has called you to do, because that's basically what we're doing. We are not called to credible or to persecute. Those who persecute us. Know we're called a magnified Jesus, and that's what they were doing ultimately, and you guys know the story this, this jailer who was going to take his own life because if a prisoner got loose, his life was going to be taken anyway. Right, he's responsible for them staying in prison.

33:30 Ultimately, Paul says don't harm yourself, leads him to the Lord, baptizes him and his whole family. So this attitude, in the midst of persecution and opposition, of praise and Thanksgiving to the Lord, rather than grumbling, rather than saying all, we're in this filthy prison, we don't deserve to be here. God, weren't you protecting us? Weren't you watching out for us? Like what's going on here? Lord? Instead of that attitude, they praise God, prison doors are open, people are set free. This guy comes into the Lord and sole family. So this is like really a strong motivation for us to have an attitude of worship and praise to the Lord, and an attitude of worship and praise can combat an attitude of grumbling and complaining. So we have to make this, this this conscious, volitional decision, because when we are experiencing wish back and we are experiencing persecution or whatever it might be, there is always going to be that temptation to grumble, complain, to make it about us. We have to make that conscious decision to say, Nope, I'm going to I'm going to shun those feelings and I'm going to embrace an attitude of worship and praise. And sometimes we have to do it even if we don't feel it right. And sometimes it means you getting out your smartphone, even out there on the sidewalk, and pulling up a song on Youtube of worship and just begin to worship Jesus, just begin to pray. Sometimes it maybe it's let's gather the whole group together, the whole sidewalk team in together, and let's just pray. Let's just

35:01 have a time of prayer before the Lord. Let's give the situation to God. We have to make conscious decisions to to not grumble but to magnify Jesus, to worship him and to thank him. And we can even do what they did here, thank him, praise him, even the midst of prison, or like the apostles there in the early part of acts, where they praise him that they were accounted worthy to suffer for his namesake. Yeah, yeah, and so and and we can use each other to help bring about that transformation and how we're thinking about trials and persecution. And so I've got to tell you another story. And the second thing. I told you there were two things that sparked this article. The one was when it happened to me and out on that sidewalk. The second was I was meeting for a podcast with Daniel and he said how is your day and I I I think, grumbled and said it was really rough and and told them you would not have believed the pro abortion group today and I was describing what we had endured and and his response to me, your response was I'm glad you got to have that experience. And I remember, I still remember those works and I'm like it just took totally took the wind out of my sales. I'm like what Boa and I realized immediately you were right and I said, I think

36:34 I said it with a little bit of tongue in cheek, but I said you're right. I counted a privilege that today I was able to suffer for Jesus. But what became just in honestly tongue and cheek at the moment, became my reality. I realize it changed me. That changed me I just thought it was so unexpected. I thought you're using such a nice guy, Daniel. I thought you, I thought you would start telling me, you know. Oh, poor Vicky, I'm so sorry. That must have been really rough. But but your response was the perfect response, because what it did was snapped me out of an attitude of grumbling and complaining into an attitude of you know, it is. Got Surprised by that persecution. Does God not know about that? Did he think I was worth you know, did he want me to suffer? You know? No, God has a purpose and a plan. And when we remember that, that includes I mean we are in a fallen world, but he could remove us at any moment from that persecution. He could remove the persecutors at any moment. Yeah, but he doesn't. And if he doesn't, there is something greater going on.

37:59 And and I do think a lot of it probably has to do with are we going to trust him no matter what? And and the no matter what, if you're in sidewalk ministry, that is going to include opposition. And just no matter what, be prepared to praise and follow and keep your focus on God. And I will say another thing is grumbling is a huge time drain on all of us. I was training someone yesterday and I don't think she was truly grumbling. I think she was just overwhelmed, overwhelmed by what she was seeing. She had never seen the opposition like that. But so much of the time was spent saying, yeah, that's who they are, that's what they are. Can we get back to who we are and what we're called to be doing? Yeah, yeah, I think we have to remember that God doesn't have a vested interest in keeping US comfortable. Right.

39:01 God has a vested interest in making us more like his son Jesus, and he will use things like persecution and he will use opposition and he will use false accusations and all those things, because all those things were experienced by Jesus. God will use those things to grow us to be more like Jesus. The question is, will we? Will we respond appropriately? And going back to the example, and if you want to look at examples of what grumbling and complaining will do and how it will shipwreck your walk with God and your entrance into the Promised Land and to the rest of God, look no further than the book of Exodus. As the children of Israel or brought through the Wilderness and they're brought, and even at the very beginning to the Red Sea.

39:46 I mean they're grumbling actually even before that, whenever Moses initially he is coming to deliver them and Pharaoh puts the task on them to make bricks without Straw. You're going to get your own Straw. And you know that they were grumbling. And they're at the Red Sea right and got it already. showed them his power, and yet they're grumbling against God there all the all through the Wilderness. So you know when they grumbling complain because they don't have meet God, gives him quail up to their eyeballs and they grumbled complain about that. It's every every area and everything that God does, they grumble and they complain. But you will see that there were at least two men, Jonathan, or, I'm sorry, Joshua and Caleb, who didn't grumbling complain against God, and they entered into the promised land. They made a conscious decision to look at what God had done, the good things the Lord had done for them, and that fueled the fire in their hearts to believe that this God is good. We're not going to grumble complain. The stuff that happens to us. It's not God's fault. And even if it was God's fault, he's still good. He puts breath in our lungs and we're going to worship and we're going to praise him. And those men entered the Promised Land Right. Those who did not, those who grumble, those who died in the wilderness, where those who grumbled and complained. And this is a conscious decision and there may be for you guys that are listening, a time that you just need to, after this podcast, repent before God and just tell God you're sorry. And it may not have anything to do a cybwalk

41:17 ministry. It might have to do with your family. You might have been grumbling and complained against God because your kids are doing this or that your husband's doing this or that your wife is doing this or that your financial situation is like this or like that, and you've just had an attitude of grumbling and complaining and ultimately, if you're honest, you're grumbling, you're complaining, is not just against your circumstances, against your family member, but it's against God and you need to repent and just say God, I'm sorry. If of accusing you, I'm sorry, of a bad attitude. In God answers. When we repent, listen, God comes in, he brings forgiveness, he washes, he cleanses and he can give you a good attitude. He can give you a different perspective where you can see that maybe the Lord was using that stuff to make you more like Jesus and you didn't respond appropriately. Soho ask God for grace to respond appropriately in the future and he'll give you grace to do it. Man, it really has to do with our attitude.

42:17 It really has to do with our response to the Lord and when we respond we're not always. No one is going to respond a hundred percent appropriately every time. When we don't, we just repent and ask God for grace to do right in the future, and who give us grace to do it. Yeah, so hope this was an encouragement to you guys and a challenge to you guys. We don't want to discourage you, want to encourage you, just like my response to Vicky. I'm glad you got to experience that. I know Vicky could handle that and maybe people that are brand news. If your leaders, if you're a leader, maybe that's not always the appropriate response.

42:58 You probably want to if you do respond that way when they're sharing their grumbling and complaining, that you might want to spell it out a little more and identify with her with their pain a little more. We certainly want to do that with each other. Point them towards Jesus always right. That's what we need to do. But I knew again. I knew, Vicky, you can handle it and you need to be spurred on encourage in that way. It's sparked any podcast, in my opinion. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and at least drew you closer to the Lord and drew drew me closer to the Lord. Just reading through this and covering the subject is really encouraging, and so, anyway, with that, I think we'll wrap this thing up. We appreciate you, guys, listening and please reach out to me, Daniel Love Life Dot Org. Reach out to Vicky, Vicky at Love Life Dot Org. It maybe you've got some struggles and things we would certainly love to pray for you and pray with you about those things. Maybe you've got questions that we can answer. Will do our best answer whatever questions that come our way about sidewalk ministry and so with that we'll talk to you guys later. God bless God, bless you all. Give me our love for love. Give me our love for gratitude. I know it will cost me my love. Nothing's too precious, and some that you