Pastor: Pastor Jason Bryant | I find it somewhat ironic that, in a sermon that I’ll examine the destructive power of complaining that I’ll begin, paradoxically, with a brief and hopefully mild complaint. And, here it is, believe it or not, one of the more difficult tasks we pastors are given is to come up with a title for our sermons, each and every week. And, to be sure, some of my colleagues have an absolute genius for distilling the meaning of their messages into short, pithy phrases. One of my buddies, the pastor over at First Baptist in Mount Holly would be an example of this. Every week, their church sign had the name of what Kendell would preach that week. And, just about every week, it was something that made you want to you. My personal favorite was, “The Biggest Sinner in Mount Holly…Revealed.”   That’s a sermon I want to hear, right?

Thus, I find it rather ironic that, on a week that I think I’ve got a fairly good sermon title, there aren’t any bulletins in which you can read it. Curse you COVID-19. Curse you. So, I’m just going to tell you the title although I do believe it would be better read. Here we go, “Spelling Miserable with 3 Gs.”

“Spelling Miserable with 3 Gs”

I hope that has you hooked. After all, there aren’t any g’s in the word miserable, should my elementary education be sufficient. None whatsoever. But I am rather convinced that being miserable is a real and actual state one can be in on this side of eternity. There can be things that bring us to the point where every atom within us cries out against our present situation.

And, sometimes, being miserable is just downright unavoidable. We no sooner sign up to be stuck in a dreadful traffic jam than we would for getting sick but there we are, nevertheless. Self-inflicted misery, that’s another matter already. The Apostle Peter draws the distinction between the two types of suffering, writing in 1 Peter 3:7, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

But I think we can all acknowledge that sometimes, we do indeed bring on our own suffering, our own misery, if you will. This morning, we’re going to talk about three means by which we do so for ourselves and, unfortunately others. They are, as the sermon hinted at, grumbling, griping and gossiping. Grumbling, griping and gossiping are our three G’s this morning.

And, make no mistake about it, the Bible speaks to all of these tendencies of our sin-sick hearts. In fact, the Scriptures go to great and repeated length to warn us of the dangers of these three actions. Time after time ibn the Word we are given stories, examples and clear, red-letter texts which warn us about these three destructive tendencies.

As a matter of fact, something that is often underappreciated, I believe, is just how often that what the Bible suggests is bad for us, science has a manner of confirming overt time. Both for the individual who finds grumbling, griping and gossiping are harmful, something that both the science book and the book of our lives confirms.

So, let’s look into the pages of our Scriptures, seeking to hear God’s Word on these matters and find the necessary power to change our behaviors, should they be found to be lacking.

Of course, when it comes to grumbling, there are some great Biblical texts to choose from. Now, grumbling is defined as “to murmur or mutter in discontent; complain sullenly.” In the New Testament, there is frequent grumbling, groups of people who in a low volume complain about what Jesus is doing or saying. What shouldn’t be missed is that all of this grumbling occurs away from Jesus. You see, grumbling is always done APART from the decision makers. That’s what makes it grumbling, after all.