Replace a Complaining Attitude

Posted on February 3, 2017 by dkoop

lord-change-my-attitudeAn Aggie family that didn’t get out much went into town to do some shopping. They went into a large store and noticed some elevator doors that got their attention.  The boy asked, “Dad what is that?” The father responded, “Son I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is!”
While the boy and his father were watching in wide-eyed astonishment, an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction. The walls opened again, and a beautiful 24-year-old blond woman stepped out.
The father turned to his son and said, “Boy, go get your Ma!”

If only change was that easy! Just walk through a door and you are transformed.  The change that we are focusing on in this series is our attitudes, and today it’s complaining.

Do you find it very easy to complain? I do!  I find myself complaining about traffic, about incompetent people, having to wait too long for anything.

I used to think that complaining was no big deal.  “Everyone does it,” I thought. Now I know God takes complaining seriously.

Look with me at Numbers 11:1:

1  Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused.  Numbers 11:1(NIV)

Did you see that?  God heard their complaining. What were they complaining about?  Their hardships; lets agree that being a slave in Egypt was hard, walking through a desert with a lack of water and food at times was hard, but God had delivered them and was leading them.  I find it convicting that hardships are not a good reason to complain.

As you know hardships are the normal experience of human life. They confront us all, and they perplex and puzzle us. We often ask, “Why has God let this happen to me?” Trials are common to all people (1 Cor. 10:13). When they strike us, the question is: How are we going to react? Are we going to trust God to help and strengthen us, or grumble and complain?

What are the dangers of complaining?

Complaining is bad for me because it causes anger and bitterness to grow.

Complaining is bad for others.  Do you like to be around people who complain?  If not, then why would people want to be around you when you’re complaining?  I have found that complaining is more contagious than any virus!  Once it starts at work or church it continues and before you know it everyone is complaining.  Then morale and productivity go down.

Complaining is bad because it’s missing the mark of God’s best for us.  In other words, complaining is a sin. Why? Complaining and grumbling show distrust in God:

  • Complaining is like saying, “God you could have met my needs and given me what I wanted but you blew it!”
  • Complaining shows that we do not trust the goodness and power of God that He will work things out.

As a parent if you overheard your kid’s saying, “I wish Dad had a better job.  He is not giving us the things that the neighbors have. He is NOT a good provider!”  or “Mom is too strict. Who does she think she is asking us to do this or that?”  “What losers!”    If I heard my kids say this I would be mad! Then I would be sad.   This is how God must feel at our complaining.

Let’s define complaining:
Author James MacDonald uses the following definition: “Complaining is expressing dissatisfaction with a circumstance that is not wrong and about which I’m doing nothing to correct.”

Complaining is about things that are “not wrong.”
If a situation is wrong and you express your dissatisfaction, it is not complaining.
It is not complaining to express your dissatisfaction with meal served at a restaurant and asked the server if it can be changed.
It is not complaining if you are treated rudely at a store and ask for the manager or fill out a customer service form expressing a legitimate concern.

Complaining involves things that “I’m doing nothing to correct.”  If we choose to whine about an issue but refuse to get involved in correcting the situation then we are complaining.

If we agree that complaining solves nothing but causes more problems for me, for others and with God, how do we stop complaining?

I must replace a complaining attitude with a thankful attitude.

Instead of complaining about traffic, at least I have a car!

Instead of complaining about work, at least I have a job!

It’s all about perspective.

As Christ followers we have much to be thankful for:
Our past is forgiven and our future is secure
We have God’s word to guide us
We have fellow Christians who walk with us
We have a home being prepared for us
We have a purpose for living
We have a hope for tomorrow and a strength for today.

Darrell

Check out one of our “Lord Change My Attitude” Growth Groups that will go into much more detail and study about each attitude.

www.RidgeFellowship.com

Posted in Lord Change My Attitude (Exodus & Numbers) | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

We Can’t Do It All by Ourselves

Posted on January 30, 2017 by dkoop

lord-change-my-attitudeHave you been around someone who came across as being indispensable? From this persons’ stance, nothing could be done right if it was not done by him or her?

Have you ever been like this?  I have.  It’s something I struggle with but am determined to change.   For me, sometimes it’s pride that fuels this wrong attitude, “I can do it and don’t need help” or “they may mess it up.”   Sometimes it’s fear, and I feel, “they are too busy to help me or they don’t care.”    Sometimes this wrong attitude is based on a lie.  “I have to meet everybody’s needs.”

I’m not alone and see that many people struggle with trying to meet everybody’s needs. It’s a messiah complex that says “I have to be there for everybody. I have to help all my relatives. I know my son is 45 years old but I have to keep paying his rent. My baby needs me. I have to help everybody at work. They need me! Those people at work won’t make without me. I have to help everybody in my neighborhood. All 100 of my friends need me! They can’t survive without me.”

People who live this lie, live under constant stress and pressure. I know, because in the early days of our church, I lived this lie. As a pastor, I felt like I had to meet everybody’s needs. A lot of pastors struggle with this. There’s this pressure of, “I have to counsel and teach everybody, help everybody, visit everybody in the hospital, marry everybody, meet everybody’s needs.”  I learned that living this lie is unrealistic and unhealthy.

Let me show you a man in the bible who tried to do everything himself:

Exodus 18:13-18 “The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 14 When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. (NIV)

Jethro told Moses that trying to meet everybody’s needs isn’t good! Having the superman or superwoman complex isn’t good! You can meet some needs but you can’t meet every need. You ought to help some people but you can’t help all people! You’re not God!

It’s not good because you’re wearing yourself out.

It’s not good because you’re living a stressed out life trying to meet everybody’s needs.

You’re frustrating people because you’re over promising and under delivering. You’re over committing yourself.

You’re robbing other people from being used by God

This passage of scripture epitomizes for me the fact that, “One person cannot do it all.” Even in trying to do it all Moses as well as the people were wearing themselves out.

When Moses led the people of God out of Egypt there were at least 600,000 men with their wives and children (Exodus 12:37). And all day long, every day for several weeks, he’s been in the desert with these people and he has constantly been judging their many conflicts and disputes.

It’s obvious that it’s tiring Moses out. He’s been doing this from early morning until late nite for several weeks now. Jethro can see the fatigue in Moses’ eyes and he sees how haggard Moses appears each day.

Moses is also neglecting his family. He had already sent them to Jethro in Exodus 18:2.  Now Jethro was bringing them back to camp Exodus 18:5-6.  There would be no time for his family if he continued in the way he was operating.

And it’s obvious that the people aren’t real happy with this arrangement either. It’s wearing them out as well too.

Have you ever stood in a long line at the Grocery store or at the Post Office? Have you ever gotten impatient if you had to wait more than a few minutes?
Imagine what it would be like if you had to wait in line for HOURS to get service! Out there in the desert there’s over a million people and only one line to stand in.
You can get the idea of what this must have been like for the average Israelite.

So Jethro watches what’s going on and he realizes his son-in-law needs some advice.  So he makes a suggestion. He says: “Moses, you need help.”

Exodus 18:19-21
“Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. But select capable men from all the people— men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain— and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.”

In other words: don’t quit doing what you’re doing… just learn to share it with others.

God never designed us to work alone.
Do you remember back in Genesis – when God created man? Do you remember the reason He gave for creating Eve? He said “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18

It’s an abiding principle in Scripture that when we work for God – we need to work with others.

That’s part of the reason Jesus didn’t do His ministry alone. He selected 12 men to work alongside of Him. And then – when he sent them out to do their work – do you remember how he sent them out? “He sent them out two by two” (Mark 6:7 & Luke 10:1)

Why?
Because trying to work for God all by yourself can wear you out.
Ecclesiastes 4:10 “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”
Ecclesiastes 4:12 says: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

In science it’s called the principle of Synergism.
Synergism basically boils down to this idea: Two can carry more than one.

I once read the story is told of a horse pulling contest in Canada.
The winning horse in the contest pulled 9000 pounds
The runner up pulled 8000.
Together you’d expect them to pull 17,000 lbs., but not so! When teamed together, they pulled 30,000 lbs. – nearly twice as much!

That’s part of the reason Jesus created the church.
There are people who will try to tell you that they can be just as good a Christian without going to church, but that’s just not so. They are deceiving themselves and deliberately ignoring the fact that part of the reason Jesus went to the Cross was to establish His church. And one of the reasons He established the church was so that we could do more together than we could individually.
Congregations are filled with imperfect people but when these imperfect people allow themselves to be guided by God’s word, they end up “pulling together” and find they can accomplish a great deal for God.

That was true for Moses in the wilderness, and that’s true for you at home, at work, and for the church in our day.

During World War II, a church building in Strasbourg was destroyed. After the bombing, the members surveyed the area to see what damage was done. They were pleased that a statue of Christ with outstretched hands was still standing, because it had been sculpted centuries before by a great artist.

Taking a closer look however, the people discovered both hands of Christ had been sheared off by a falling beam. It seemed like a great tragedy at the time.
Sometime later, a sculptor in the town offered to replace the broken hands as a gift to the church, but the church leaders refused. They realized the damage done to Christ actually symbolized a powerful teaching from Scripture. They were called to serve God with all their hearts, but if they didn’t do their part, Christ had no hands. They realized they were the hands of Christ!  The statue had taught them that the work of Christ had been given to them.

God designed us to be able to work.  But He didn’t intend for us to do His work all by ourselves.  We must include others.  He designed the church to pull together to accomplish more together than anyone could do alone.

Darrell

www.RidgeFellowship.com
 

Posted in Lord Change My Attitude (Exodus & Numbers) | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What God Wants Us to Remember This New Year

Posted on January 11, 2017 by dkoop

lord-change-my-attitudeI’m sure that most of us can recall a memorable new year’s eve, or new year’s day that we participated in with our families. The Hebrew people of God were about to experience a New Year’s Day like no other. It would be so significant, that it would begin their new calendar. Every time a new year rolled around, they would be reminded of what had happened to them, and their forefathers way back in Egypt, when God sent the death angel, and delivered them from Egyptian bondage.

 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.”  Exodus 12:2 (NIV)

I believe that we can compare this to our Christian experience, and recognize some important things that God wants us to remember every New Year’s.

  • Remember GOD and Who He Says We Are

We are God’s redeemed people.  A people who have been delivered from bondage. Theirs was physical slavery, ours was spiritual enslavement .   God came down, and delivered us. He did not allow us to remain in agony and suffering, and despair.  He sent Moses to the children of Israel in Exodus as their Deliverer.  God sent Christ to us, to deliver us from bondage and darkness,  so that we could walk free and in His light.

They had no power to deliver themselves. Neither do we. God had to send one who would lead them out of bondage, into the marvelous liberty of the children of God.

That first New Year’s Eve, each family was told to take a lamb of the first year, a lamb without blemish, and then slaughter it on the 14th day of Nisan.

Tell the whole community of Israel that each man is to take a lamb for his family”  Exodus 12:3 (NIV)

Then, they were to take the blood of the lamb, and sprinkle it upon the two side posts of their houses, and upon the upper door post wherein they would eat it. It was to be roasted with fire,  They were to eat it with their shoes on their feet, and with a staff in their hand.  They were to eat it in haste, because it was the Lord’s Passover.
The next thing that God wants us to remember this new year,

  • Remember GOD and What He Has Done

Everything about what they were instructed to do was significant.  God promised that when He saw the blood, He would pass-over them, and not destroy them as His plague
of death struck Egypt.

21  Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.
22  Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. 23  When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. Exodus 12: 21-23 (NIV)

Every firstborn child of the Egyptians died, but the Israelite children were spared because the blood of the lamb had been smeared on their doorframes. So begins the story of redemption, the central theme of the Bible.

Redemption means “to buy back” or “to save from captivity by paying a ransom.” One way to buy back a slave was to offer an equivalent or superior slave in exchange. That is the way God chose to buy us back—he offered his Son in exchange for us.

In Old Testament times, God accepted symbolic offerings. Jesus had not yet been sacrificed, so God accepted the life of an animal in place of the life of the sinner. When Jesus came, he substituted his perfect life for our sinful lives, taking the penalty for sin that we deserve. Thus he redeemed us from the power of sin and restored us to God. Jesus’ sacrifice made animal sacrifice no longer necessary.

We must recognize that if we want to be freed from the deadly consequences of our sins, a tremendous price must be paid. But we don’t have to pay it. Jesus Christ, our substitute, has already redeemed us by his death on the cross. Our part is to trust him and accept his gift of eternal life. Our sins have been paid for, and the way has been cleared for us to begin a relationship with God

We need to always remember that it is by the blood of Jesus that we are redeemed, and that apart from that blood we would perish with the rest of the world when God’s judgment falls.

Our redemption is in the blood of Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, who gave Himself for us, that we might be saved, and given a home in Heaven.  Nothing but the blood can cleanse us, and rescue us from God’s judgment against sin and unbelief.
Another thing that I notice is that God wants us to

  • Remember GOD and Share Him with Our Children

 24  “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
25  When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26  And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’
27  then tell them… Exodus 12: 24-27a (NIV)

The meal was prepared for the family and was to be eaten by all the family members. God’s concern is for the entire family and not just for the parents. If the precious Jewish children were not protected by the blood and strengthened by the food, they couldn’t be delivered from Egypt, and that would be the end of the nation.

When local church congregations today meet to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, God sees each individual assembly as part of one body, the church. That’s why Paul could write about “the whole building… the whole family… the whole body” (Eph. 2:21; 3:15; 4:16). Israel was one nation because of the blood of the lamb, and the church is one fellowship because of Jesus Christ.

Not only was the Passover supper an ordinance to be obeyed (Ex. 12:14, 17, 24, 43), but it was also a “memorial” to be celebrated to keep alive in Israel.  After Israel had entered and conquered the Promised Land, it would be easy for the people to settle down and forget the great acts of God on their behalf. The annual observance of Passover would give Jewish parents another opportunity to teach their children the meaning of their freedom and what God did for them. The adults were to be “living links” with Israel’s past so that each new generation would understand what it meant to be a member of God’s chosen nation.  The same is true for us today, we must share with our children why we accept Christ, read the bible, go to church, observe baptism and communion.

Lastly we need to,

  • Remember GOD Gives New Life and Opportunities.

That New Year’s eve night was a night like no other!  There would be a strange silence, and terror, and screaming, and there would not be a house where there was not one dead in Egypt among those who did not follow God’s instructions.

After that awful night’s experiences, they would take all their flocks and herds, and go out-to leave the land of darkness and death, and go with God, towards a new land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

25  When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised…

27  Then the people bowed down and worshiped.  28  The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. Exodus 12:25,27b,28 (NIV)

Many experience yet lay in the future for them.  There would be challenges, and miracles, and doubting, and disobedience, but someday their descendants would enter the Promised Land.

God wants us to live a new life this year, we can ask forgiveness for the mistakes of the past, and walk with God, onward in our new land, trusting Him, and going where He leads.

If we do this, 2017 will be the greatest year we have ever experienced.

Darrell

http://www.RidgeFellowship.com

Posted in Lord Change My Attitude (Exodus & Numbers) | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Jesus Who?

Posted on December 7, 2016 by dkoop

jesus-whoJesus is the most popular and significant person who ever walked this planet. Even our calendar reflects this truth as we write 2017.  2017 years from what or who?  Jesus.   Even with Jesus’ historical and cultural impact many people still do not know much about him.

Jesus has been the top searched for word or name on the internet.  Jesus was actually first on the list of searched for names until 2012, but is still one of top searched for names even today.   Do you think everything out there about Jesus is accurate?

 

Jesus also has graced the cover of major magazines like Time and Newsweek more than any other person or topic with no close second.  Jesus appeared on three covers of Newsweek in 2012 alone.  The problem is that those articles typically get a good response and they sell very well but do not accurately portray Jesus as described by history or in the Bible.   Pastor Rick Warren was one of many to accuse Newsweek’s editors of cynical intentions when he took aim at a piece in 2012. “I think it’s disingenuous that magazines like ‘Newsweek’ know that their circulation goes up at Christmas and Easter if they put a spiritual issue on the cover, but it’s always bait and switch,” Warren told CNN’s Jake Tapper, then with ABC News.

Jesus may be popular but He is still misunderstood by many.

To better understand Jesus, we will look to the Old Testament book of Isaiah. 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet describes for us who and what Jesus would be like:

6  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

Isaiah predicted several important truths about Jesus.

Jesus will come as the God-Man.  Both His humanity and deity are predicted by the prophet. The words a child is born refer to the Jesus’ humanity. He will come to earth as a child, born through the conception of a woman. The words “a son is given” point to the deity of the Jesus. The child being “given” indicates that in some special way God Himself will send the child into the world. The words a son refer back to Isaiah 7:14, which indicate that “Immanuel”—God with us—will come to earth as the Jesus. Of course, all of this points to the coming of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—to earth (Jn.3:16). The very thought of such a miraculous event staggers the human mind. Nevertheless, it was the clear prophecy of Isaiah, and the prediction was made some 700 years before Christ actually came. Today we are actually looking back upon this historic event, this pivotal point of human history. On the night that Christ was born, the very angel who appeared to the shepherds seems to refer to these words spoken by Isaiah: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Lu.2:11). As Matthew Henry says:

Christ’s being born and given to us is the great foundation of our hopes, and fountain of our joys, in times of greatest grief and fear.”

Jesus is in control of this world.  “The government will be upon His shoulders” means that He knows who will govern and when.  Nothing happens that He is not aware of or allows.

Jesus will have four very famous and descriptive names. Note that these names are compound. Single names are simply inadequate to express the extent of the Jesus’s excellence or superiority. Even the compound titles are inadequate to describe Jesus.

  1. Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor. Since Christ has come, we have a far better idea of just what this name means. Christ lived as a man, bearing all the trials and temptations of humanity. He even suffered incomprehensible persecution and was eventually executed as a criminal. Due to His intense suffering, He is able to be the most empathetic counselor imaginable. He knows what it is like to endure pain, to feel hunger and thirst, to experience poverty and homelessness. He knows the feeling of being rejected—even by His own family—and of being forsaken and left all alone. Such are the experiences that confront so many of us as we live out our lives. When we need a counselor, Christ is the one Person who can feel what we feel, and He stands before us as the Wonderful Counselor. He is the one Person who can comfort us, who can give us solid guidance about how to handle the problems facing us. As the Wonderful Counselor, Christ can guide, encourage, and strengthen us to conquer whatever trial or temptation confronts us. As the Wonderful Counselor, He will teach us how to walk victoriously throughout life.

2.  Jesus is the Mighty God. Jesus will do things that no one else could conceivably do, for example, the very things that are covered in this passage. In addition, as God, He is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (present everywhere). He is able to save any who cry out to Him for salvation. As the Mighty God, He has the power and knowledge to rescue people from all trials and temptations. He has the power to deliver people from any bondage or oppression, whether due to some enemy or to a personal addiction.

3. Jesus is the Everlasting Father. Although He is eternal, the emphasis lies upon the fact that Jesus will love His people as a father loves His children. He will care for His people: nurture and nourish, comfort and assure, instruct and inform, lead and guide, correct and discipline them. He will do anything His people may need out of a deep, loving concern for them.

A question might be asked about this title: How can the Jesus, the Son, be called the Everlasting Father?

The Bible Knowledge Commentary makes three comments about this title:

First, the Jesus, being the second Person of the Trinity, is in His essence, God. Therefore He has all the attributes of God including eternality. Since God is One (even though He exists in three Person), Jesus is God. Second, the title “Everlasting Father” is an idiom used to describe the Jesus’s relationship to time, not His relationship to the other Members of the Trinity. He is said to be everlasting, just as God.  Jesus will be a “fatherly” ruler. Third, perhaps Isaiah had in mind the promise to David (2 Sam. 7:16) about the “foreverness” of the kingdom which God promised would come through David’s line. Jesus, a Descendant of David, will fulfill this promise for which the nation had been waiting.

Matthew Henry says the following:

He is the Everlasting Father, or the Father of eternity: he is God, one with the Father, who is from everlasting to everlasting. His fatherly care of His people and tenderness towards them are everlasting. He is the author of everlasting life and happiness to them, and so is the Father of a blessed eternity to them. He is the Father of the world to come…the father of the gospel-state, which is put in subjection to him, not to the angels (Heb.2:5). He was, from eternity, Father of the great work of redemption: his heart was upon it; it was the product of his wisdom as the counsellor of His love as the everlasting Father.

4.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He is the promised Savior of the world, the One who will brings peace to the human heart and peace among the nations. Note the word Prince, which indicates that Jesus will be a ruler who governs in peace. He will achieve His purposes through methods of peace and carry on His work in a peaceful spirit. The people over whom He rules will be a people of peace.

But even more important, because Jesus will bring peace to the human heart, He will solve the problem of mankind’s alienation from God. He will reconcile people to God. And when people are reconciled to God, they have peace with God, and the peace of God floods their hearts. They walk through life with the full assurance that their sins are forgiven and they are accepted by God. Confidence floods their souls, the confidence that they will live eternally with the Father and with the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Jesus.

During this series we will drill down on each name, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace to better understand who Jesus is.

Darrell

www.RidgeFellowship.com

 

 

Posted in Jesus Who? (Isaiah 9) | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment