FBC Daily Devotional – May 14, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Friday to you. Here we are, end of another week, and midway through the month of May, almost, 14th, so, boy, the weeks are going by, and so is the year, going quickly, isn't it?

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Well, I trust your week has gone well, and as you're wrapping up your work week, looking forward to the weekend,

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I trust you'll be sure to make plans to worship together with God's people on the

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Lord's Day. That is a day that God has given to us as a gift, really, setting a day aside for a measure of rest, and ceasing from all the rest of the stuff that we do

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Monday through Saturday, and getting together with God's people, and focusing attention on things of the

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Lord, and so forth. I hope you'll be making plans for that, and you'll come to God's house, come before the

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Lord in worship, prepared for what he has for you. Well, you who are parents, how do you handle it when your kids got a good case of the grumblies, you know?

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They're just grumbling about that, grumbling about this, and nothing suits them. How do you handle that?

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I'm pretty confident that you communicate a measure of displeasure over that complaining spirit.

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It's not a very healthful thing for a child, or for anybody, to have a complaining spirit.

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It's also just downright wrong. It's displeasing to the

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Lord to have a complaining spirit. Now, how do we know, how do you and I know that the

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Lord does not appreciate a complaining spirit? He doesn't want us complaining about our circumstances, or complaining about our lot in life.

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How do we know that? Well, the way you and I know it, is we have the Bible. It's laid out pretty clearly for us, and we're told on a positive side to give thanks in all things, to be content with such things as we have, and so forth.

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We see the positive exhortation, and we also see plenty of exhortations about, you know, not being, not grumbling, not complaining, not murmuring, and so forth, and being discontented.

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But we also know that the Lord is displeased with complaining, and having a complaining spirit, by the examples that he's expressed in the

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Scriptures. Now, again, as I mentioned the other day, the Old Testament Israelites, as they're wandering through the wilderness, they don't have a

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Bible. They don't have the exhortations of the New Testament that we have. They don't have the, all the examples laid out for them, that they can read, and study, and see for, see in scripturated for them.

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So, they're learning as they go, and one of the ways the Lord teaches them, is through very tangible expressions of his displeasure.

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He, they're complaining. They've got a complaining spirit, and how does the

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Lord let them know, I don't appreciate that. Well, in our passage today, in Numbers chapter 11, we find a very tangible expression of his displeasure.

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And it says, at the beginning of the chapter, says, now, when the people complained, it displeased the

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Lord. For the Lord heard it, and his anger was aroused. Now, how did they know that he was displeased?

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How did they know that his anger was aroused? By what the Lord did. By how he communicated to them his displeasure.

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And what did he do? He says, at the end of the verse, so fire, the fire of the Lord, burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.

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So, this plague broke out, this fire of some kind broke out, and started to make its way into the camp, and people are being consumed by this fire.

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The fire of the Lord's displeasure. And so, the people cried out to Moses, and said, well, you know, intercede for us, pray to the

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Lord for us. And the Lord, and Moses did, and the fire was quenched. And that led

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Moses to name the place Tibera, or Tibera. Because, that name means, the fire of the

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Lord had burned among them. So, for the rest of that experience, the people would have a very tangible thing to look back to, and a place that was named, where Moses could remind them, hey, you're starting to complain again.

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Remember Tibera? Remember Tibera? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, the fire. The Lord doesn't like complaining.

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The Lord doesn't like complaining. Now, we've been through some, you know, some pretty grievous misfortunes over the last year, in a lot of different ways, haven't we?

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And, it would be, it's very easy to fall into a complaining, murmuring spirit.

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But, we've also experienced some tremendous blessings, and we should be focusing on those.

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It's not that we ignore the things that are hard. We ignore the misfortunes. It's not that we don't, we pretend that they don't exist.

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That's what, that's not what we as believers are called to do. We're not called to deny reality, and to live in some kind of pipe dream euphoria.

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That, that's not what Christianity is. Yes, we acknowledge the misfortunes.

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We acknowledge the hardships. We acknowledge the difficulties. We acknowledge the thirst and the hunger.

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To put it in the framework of the wilderness wandering, we acknowledge this.

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But, we have to come to the place where we don't, we're not complaining, and we're not murmuring. What do we do?

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Let's turn our attention on what the Lord has provided, and how the Lord has worked through the difficulties, and the misfortunes, and the unfortunate circumstances, and how he, in his providence, has blessed in spite of those difficulties.

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And, with that perspective, we develop not a complaining spirit, but a spirit of gratitude, a spirit of thankfulness.

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Let's remember that the Lord's hand is never shortened, that he cannot provide what he promises, no matter how hard it seems.

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That's a lesson that comes out later on. You know, they had complained, and didn't have anything to drink, didn't have anything to eat, and the

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Lord says, I'll give them stuff to eat. I'll give them plenty to eat. Moses says, how can you do that? There's no, there's nowhere to get food around here.

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The Lord says, hey, my hand is not too short to provide what I promise.

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I promise it, I'll provide it. So, let's be careful about a complaining spirit, so easy to fall into.

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It's our natural bent, isn't it? Instead, let's, let's focus on the blessings, and give thanks and praise for those.

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So, our Father and our God, forgive us, forgive us for the complaining spirit, where we're seemingly never satisfied.

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Well, have mercy on us for that, and Lord, I pray that you'd turn our attention on the blessings.

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Help us to see, even in difficult circumstances, that you are good, and you show your people your goodness, even in hardship, and may we be grateful for it.

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We pray it in Jesus' name. All right, well, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and get some rest and refreshment, and especially some spiritual restoration on the