The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Stop Complaining: Don’t Be Doug and Wendy Whiner (Part Two)

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

Do you find yourself complaining often? In this two-part episode, Jeff shares some passages from the Old Testament about complaining, and relates our frustrations with the frustrations of the Israelites in the wilderness. Snippet from the Show “When people complain and whine, they may be expressing a thirst for God they’re not yet aware of.” Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven's show, episode 2.37. Don't be a Doug and Wendy Weiner in the wilderness. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Well, thank you for returning to the show. this week. This is the second of two shows entitled Don't Be Doug and Wendy Weiner in the Wilderness. And of course, Doug and Wendy Weiner were very popular on S&L. And no matter what happened in their life, they could have won, they could have won the lottery. And they would have said,

but it's in pesos, right? They could have found out that they won a trip to Hawaii and they would have said, but I don't have a swimsuit. They always found a way to complain. That's what we're talking about last week and this week. Last week, we looked into four different ways that Israel complained on their way from slavery, crying out to God, under Moses, and going all the way to the promised land. Yep, 40 years later, they complained so many times. In fact, we discussed last week that they complained 14 times about different things divided into four topics. They complained about leadership. They complained about God. They complained about water. And they complained about food. So what we're doing now is we're going through those 14 incidents. And before I get into number five this week,

let me ask you a question. How did you do this last week? I concluded the last show by asking you to do a little bit of an exercise to take some time to look at your heart and the topic of whining and complaining. And I asked you really a simple question, and that was, what areas of your life do you think you complain about more? What areas do you think you think you complain about more? Like marriage, work, money, children, politics, COVID-slash-vaccines, extended family, neighbors, food, health and wellness. And so I asked you to think about that, about those different topics. And then asked you to also think about who in your life would you be the most fearful of if you were to ask them about your whining? That's kind of revealing right there, isn't it? Because if we want to

find out about our whining and complaining in our life, the best thing to do is to ask those who live with you. And I found that children are typically the most honest, or certainly more honest than your neighbors, and they're more honest than the people that you work with, but they are the ones we probably don't want to ask because we know that we're going to hear the truth. And then I asked you last week to think about how do you think Jesus would counter your complaining in those areas, is to give it a guess. I hope it was a fruitful little exercise for you, and if you didn't do it, you might want to stop right now and go back and just think about that for a moment before we move on. Well, this week,

Let's pick up with number five. Number five, the people of Israel were in the wilderness, and again, for the second time, they complained about water. They complained about being thirsty. And there's no problem with being thirsty in the wilderness. Trust me. I remember spending in the Sinai Desert down by Mount Sinai. I've climbed that mountain, I think, four times now.

But the first time I went down there, I was blown away how hot it was during the day. and we were drinking liters of water during the day, leaders and leaders. And the magical thing was we rarely actually use the bathroom. Your skin just, you know, your body was evaporating water. You could hardly keep up. And I thought to myself, what would it have been like to be a whole nation of people out here in the wilderness and we're thirsty? You say, well, it would have been natural to complain, perhaps, but it would have been supernatural. to ask God to meet your need, wouldn't you say? And speaking of thirst in the wilderness, and that's in Exodus 17, and I'm providing all of this for you in the notes, all 14 examples. St. Augustine said, regarding thirst, he said, that God actually thirsts. I don't know if you've ever thought of that before, but it is an interesting idea that

God actually thirsts. And St. Augustine said, God thirsts that we would thirst for him. Now, if you're out in the wilderness and you are thirsty, you can complain in wine all day long, or you can let your thirst lead you to God. I know in my life, and I'm pretty sure you would agree with me, that oftentimes our thirst leads us to things that will not quench our thirst, that will not really satisfy us. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned there in the wilderness of your life right now. What are you turning to when you're thirsty? What are you going after when you have that desire to drink deeply? When we thirst, we need to see that that thirst is because we need

something. And spiritually, we need to have our thirst quenched by God alone. But so often we complain and we whine about this thirst in my life and we settle for for lesser gods. As one man said, I'm thinking here about John chapter four. Remember that story in John chapter four about the Samaritan woman and Samaritan woman said to Jesus, how is it that you a Jew ask a drink of me, a Samaritan

woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans and Jesus answered her, he said, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing

to draw with and the well is deep, where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself and his sons and his cattle? And Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this well, pointing to the well there in the ground will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never, ever thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Wow. Note that when people complain, they may be thirsty for God. When people whine, they may be expressing a thirst and a longing for God, but they don't know it. They don't know it, but it's true.

Point them to God. As you lay down on the couch to talk to your counselor, remember that if God is left out of the equation. You may just receive Gatorade and not living water. So, after complaining five times, God is debating a little timeout for the people. Moves this into number six, they're here. They're going to complain against God. They're going to complain against God. Remember the story in Exodus chapter 32 where Moses went up on the mountain and he was up there for 40 days. They were more counting on 20 days, maybe 25, something like that. But he was working overtime and he stayed 40 days up on the mountain. And that was not to their liking. It didn't fit their clock. It wasn't it wasn't keeping step with their timing. We expected an answer much

earlier than this. And so they began to, that's right, complain. And they began to to whine. He's been up there on that mountain all this time. How long is this going to take? We want freedom. We want to move on. You see, they could not wait. They didn't have that tenacity, the patience, to wait on the Lord. And so what did they do? They did what we often do, take things into our own hands. When we forsake God and settle for idols, complaining can be the result. This is is big. This is really big in our lives today. My friend, you see, God wants to give you himself. God wants to supply your need. God wants to lead you and correct you. God wants to fashion you after him himself. But it's in his timing. It's in his way. We cannot grow impatient and then make our

own gods, turn to our own images, and give credit to this man or that system or whatever it might be. When we forsake God, we settle for idols. That's the truth. When we forsake God and we give up on God, we settle for idols and idols will always, always, always disappoint you. As I said, this is big in families, particularly between parents and children. Why can't I do this. Everyone else is doing it. Our patience leads us to worship anything. And there is no limit to what we will worship if God doesn't meet our clock. You know, that number 40 is one that you need to take note of because as you're reading through the Bible in a year or whenever, you'll notice that the number 40 comes up a lot and that number 40 typically is a time of

testing of trial. In this case, they got an F because they gave up on God and they created the golden calf and bowed down and worshipped it and had a big party right when Moses was coming down the mountain with the covenant in his hand. Oh, you know, I have found that a lot of times when I was ready to give up, there was a blessing right around the corner. And if I had given up or taken things into my own hands and complained and whined like Doug and Wendy, I would have missed the blessing of God big time. You may say or hear, I think you make too much. You know, someone says, well, I have these idols of mine. I have these things that I go to that help me out because, you know, I found that I can't hear God or I'm not that smart. So this tarot card,

this helps me out. These horoscopes, they give me kind of the edge, you know, or the Ouija board. You know, they actually work. No, they don't. It's lies. Total lies. Israel struggled with this once they came into the land. They came into the land and they saw the Canaanites and they were so rich and so well to do and everything.

And they asked them, you know, how did you guys do this? And I said, well, we worship bail. Well, yeah, I think we might do that too. We settle for idols. This is the first time Moses intercedes in Exodus 32. By the way, this is also the time when the Book of Leviticus fits in, because the nation is going to be laicized, and the tribe of the Levites are going to become the priests at this point.

Number seven, the mixed multitude of the people complained about food, food again. Numbers chapter 11, it says, Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. You see, there was these people that were mixed among Israel, and they had a strong craving, and the people of Israel also wept again and said, oh, that we had meat to eat. This is interesting because this is an example now of where the people of God are influenced by outsiders and their cravings. one of the problems that we can encounter is that the cravings of this world can become the cravings

of God's people. That's true. And the more we're with them, and the more we listen to their whining, and they're complaining, and they're craving, the more we think, well, I'm entitled to that, too. Kind of live in an entitlement culture, don't you think? This is when you bring in the experts who don't know God to form your opinion. Isn't it interesting how often we quote so-called pop experts and leaders who are not in the family of God to get our marching orders? To find out how the needs in our life can be met, how we can become that person that we always knew that we could become, go get them, Tiger, right?

The mixed multitude, complaining. or in a church board meeting. You can hear complaining when varying opinions about the Lord are shared. There's usually advice given that criticizes real commitment and leading people out of their comfort zone. Number eight, number eight, they complain against Moses. Miriam and Aaron, what do they do? They get together and they complain about Moses.

Can't the Lord speak to us too? So again, you have this argument or this complaining against leadership. Moses. And as a result of this, the Lord curses Miriam with leprosy. That's in Numbers chapter 12. That didn't end so well for her. And this is the second time that Moses intercedes for the people in Numbers 12 and verse 13. And the next test that the people face is this test of leadership, knowing the importance of not only following God, but following his delegated leaders. And when things aren't going well in our life, in America today, you know, it's very easy to criticize leadership. It's very easy to criticize those who have been put over us because it takes the responsibility

of our own lives off of our own shoulders and puts it on somebody else. Now, I'm not saying that all leadership is just absolutely perfect in every way, but I do know that there is a pattern in the Old Testament about people. complaining, murmuring, and whining about leadership. Number nine, they're complaining against God. The people complained about how difficult, how difficult it looked to conquer the giants. In Numbers 14, they are told to go, they've been at Mount Sinai for a year. They're breaking camp now, and they're going up to Kadesh Barnea north of there,

and then they're going to send 12 spies up into the land of Canaan to see if they can spy out the land. and, you know, see if they can take it. So they do. And 10 of them came back and said, we cannot take this land. They're stronger than us. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, said, we can do it with the help of the Lord. We can do this. But the 10 overruled the two, and they suffered the consequences, which meant 40 years in the wilderness. One year for every day they were up there spying out the land and complaining when they got back. How many days do you think they were up there spying out the land? 40.

When I talk about evangelization and learning how to share the faith with other people, sometimes I met with, oh, no, I could never do that. No, that's not my gift. You think about this situation in Numbers 14, where Israel is told to go in and take the promised land, well they could have easily come back and said well you know we talked about it we don't think this is our gift frankly god no but it is gods and if he says that we can do it we can do it but we complain and and and we whine you know if someone says well you can do what jesus

told you to do and it's not my gift and i'm not talented and i'm not oh boy imagine being god and listening to all that. It's time for us to rise up and trust God and be the people he has called us to be, which is not the person you were. It's the person he has called you to be. So if we're not going to evangelize, then we're going to have to settle for conferences and tapes and shows. That's what we're going to have to do. When God has called all of us to go into the promised land, to trust him, the people want to go forward, but it looks too hard. We complain and hear that. the complaints about how much we will be expected to do and how we are going to have to totally rely on the Lord for success.

We can do it. Number 10, Moses, I'll tell you what, before we get to number 10, I'm going to take a break here, and then when I come back, I got 10 through 14, and we're going to conclude this two-week series. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, I'm Sonia Corbett, the Bible study of Angelista. When I became Catholic, I had a really hard time understanding the role Mary was supposed to play in my life. So I went to her and I told her, I just don't get it. I need your help. And guess what? Mary did just that. She showed me a way to pray that has revolutionized my entire life. Mary has been called the mother of listening. She didn't just hear the word. She knew how to hear it in light of her own relationships, circumstances, and habits. And then she let the word transform her. I realized that I had to share what I was learning about Mary's way of praying with others. So I wrote how to pray like Mary,

step-by-step guide to discovering God's voice in the scriptures and letting him transform your heart. I invite you to learn more about how to pray like Mary at ascensionpress.com or on Amazon. Thank you for coming back. I thought you might complain that I was talking about all these negative things. I'm kidding. Now, if there's a group of people that I love talking to, it's you, It's my friend, and I know that we're on this journey together. Okay, so let's look at number 10. They're going to complain against Moses again in Numbers 14, and the people this time, they complain and they wanted to kill Moses at this point, and they wanted to try to

select another leader. That's what happens. That was the 10th one, and this is the third time that Moses intercedes for the people. Talk about a patient, loving person. He intercedes for the people. and yeah imagine interceding for the people that want to kill you that's a leader that's a leader I wish our leaders were gone I wish a you know a tornado picked him up and threw him around that's what sometimes we think that isn't the way God wants us to think at all again pointing to the

Lord looking to God relying on his strength relying on his wisdom number 11 they're going to complain against Moses get this 10 11 12 13 oh yeah they're all Moses so they want to kill him in number 10 that's the 10th one the 11th one the key leaders rebel against Moses in number 16 and god gets serious this time and he opens up the earth and swallows the offenders yikes went too far there this is when the bitterness of a few disgruntled leaders, defiles many, and God has to stop the takeover. This is the fourth time that Moses intercedes for the people in number 16. The 12th, it's Moses again.

They're whining about. The people complained again, and they accused Moses of killing God's people. You brought us out here. You're killing us. This is the fifth time that Moses intercedes for the people. You know, as I'm going through this, I'm thinking, wow, this is. just becomes like a broken record, doesn't it? Boy, I hope my life doesn't look like that at times.

The 13th, it's Moses again. The people contend with Moses again because of no water. And this time it doesn't end well for Moses because Moses is just, he's tired of this. And so the complaining finally got to Moses and he struck the rock with his rod instead of speaking to it. And as a result, Moses missed out. on the promised land. My friends, there's a warning here. You know what that warning is? The warning is

is that when the people of God complain and whine incessantly, good leaders can fall. It can break them too. And so your whining and complaining has an effect on good leaders. We, you know, sin, John Paul the second said that there is no such thing as private sin. It all affects all of us in the body of Christ. These people, in Numbers Chapter 20, in Numbers Chapter 20, their complaining affected Moses' life. Don't let the complaining of others steal your reward and the goal of your walk with God. Number 14, they complain against God.

The people complained against God and Moses in Numbers 21. And finally, God brings the antidote for their poison of complaining. The fiery serpents bite them. and God shows them like looking in the mirror their sinful nature and they cried out to God and Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and it says in John chapter three as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. It all gets back to Jesus. In fact we call call that in Bible study Christocentric. That means that everything in the Old Testament is

Christocentric. It finds its fulfillment, its fullness, completion in Jesus. And so any one of these 14 that I could pull out, whether it was complaining against leadership or God or water or food, the real answer was Christ. Was Jesus? Was Jesus? Jesus. As Paul said, I've learned to live with a little. I've learned to live with a lot. I know the secret that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You see, that in itself is the anecdote. That itself is the answer to the complaining person. That is what Doug and Wendy Weiner needed. They needed Christ. If you go back and watch any of those on SNL. Watch it thinking, Doug, Wendy, get a clue. You need Christ. And it makes it real,

doesn't it? So, okay, so we've gone through these 14. Last week I had you do a little exercise to kind of find out where you're at right now. But what I want to encourage you to do as we wind this down is to is to provide an answer to the complaining and the whining in our life which is Jesus give in and submit your life

to Jesus submit your thinking to the mind of God submit your will to the will of God submit your body as a slave of God

right? not a slave of unrighteousness, but a slave of righteousness. This is the right path. And I speak to myself when I say this. Stop looking elsewhere. Stop searching for a way to go back to Egypt. Stop complaining about leadership. Stop blaming family members for your situation.

Stop blaming the government for what you are experiencing and turn to Christ. Turn to the Lord. Now, if you are a Doug or Wendy whiner, here's a couple things to do. One, acknowledge the complaining. Acknowledge the complaining in your life. And you can go ahead and say it because the second one is go to confession.

I am a complainer. I am a whiner. And I want to confess that as sin. acknowledge that complaining is the frustration of thwarted desires and hope deferred it's the expression of those who try everything but the lord and when it comes to the lord complainers are people who tried the lord it was like an experiment in seventh grade in a biology class i tried it It didn't work the way I wanted to, and it took too long. Complaining is the expression of those who try everything but the Lord, and complaining is a way to place blame for you not living the way your flesh wants to live.

So I would encourage you this week, take stock of your complaining and whining, and go to confession, and be brutal. Tell it like it is. Be honest. but I'd also encourage you to make restitution. What do I mean by that? Well, if you have been a, you know, a Doug or Wendy Weiner or a Debbie Downer, if you have been hard on your family, your children, your friends, your colleagues, apologize. Just say it the way it is.

I want to say that I am sorry. And over the last month or so, I have been a, complainer and it's not sitting well with me and I know it's not right. Please forgive me. Forgive me for being hard on you. Forgive me for expecting from you what we really all needed to expect from the Lord. I am sorry. Now a friend of mine shared something very powerful here about the military drill instructors and they have many goals when training new recruits. One goal is instilling mental toughness. We're currently fighting an information war in the world today, and as with any type of warfare,

digital soldiers must develop and maintain the right mental attitude if they're going to be victorious. When complaining is allowed in the ranks of an army, it lowers the morale of the entire unit. For that reason, drill instructors do not, I repeat, do not, I repeat, do not tolerate whining. They demand mental toughness. well it's not just a matter of mental toughness is it my friend it's about being tough but it's about being trusting with the lord mental toughness is the mindset that despite present perception of negative circumstances accomplishing the mission is the top priority and the team is adequately prepared for any and all obstacles and victory will be achieved when the team overcomes the

obstacles it faces. Your enemy is constantly evaluating your posts, your conversations and Monday morning quarterbacking and trying to develop a strategy to defeat you. Presenting a public appearance of mental toughness and fortitude and tenacity and a complete reliance on the Lord removes any strategic advantage they might gain over you. So in conclusion, the Wilderness journey is about us discovering who we are and who God is. The problem is that we discover while around other people and people we love and care. They see it. Jeremiah said, Jeremiah 179, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt who can understand it. I, the Lord, search the mind and try the heart to give to every man

according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Trust in the Lord, says with all of your heart and do not rely on your own insight my friend i will be praying for you this week pray for me and may god deliver you from being a complainer and a whiner and trust in god have a good Thank you.