Complaining: The Language of Fear – Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

Everything we think and do comes from either love or fear. Bill Johnson shares examples from the Israelites exodus out of Egypt of how their choice of fear led to complaining and caused them to lose sight of who God is. Complaining will always distort our view of God’s goodness and faithfulness. As the gatekeepers of our own hearts, we have the choice to live and speak from love or fear.

every word

every thought

every action every ambition either comes

out of love or comes out of fear

everything is governed by

by one of those two influences

open your bibles to

exodus

chapter 14.

and uh

i love old testament stuff i just i do i

just love

i remember in weaverville there would be

s periods of time where i would only

teach out of the old testament i love it

so much

i like it i think because it’s so it’s

so obvious you know like david kills a

goliath the little guy kills the big guy

easy lesson it’s and daniel the lion’s

den and all these stories uh they’re all

old testament stories that are are

visual very visual story oriented and

that helps me helps me a lot now what

we’re going to read about today

is israel

leaving egypt going into the promised

land

it is a prophetic picture of the people

of god leaving sin and not just entering

salvation but entering the reality of

the kingdom of god the promised land

god always takes us into fulfilled

purpose and fulfilled promise that’s

where he takes every born again believer

everyone who says yes he takes them into

a place a fulfilled purpose fulfilled

destiny

and so that’s the lesson that’s at stake

here today

we’re going to look at

the subject of fear a little bit uh the

what comes out of our mouth the issue of

conversation

and uh and let me just start by saying

this

every word

every thought

every action every ambition either comes

out of love or comes out of fear

everything is governed by

by one of those two influences

and learning to live out of a place of

love

by the way there’s there’s this

crazy careless concept of love that love

just

accepts and accommodates everything it’s

just not true you actually can’t love

well if you don’t hate well

you can’t love well if you don’t hate

well what you hate is pretty important

uh mike bickle uh says it best he says

god’s anger is always aimed at whatever

interferes with love

there must be a hatred for sin if

there’s a love for god

there must be not hatred to the sinner

hatred of sin

there must be that that resolve to be

and to do everything that would bring

him glory

those who see him

those who behold them him

function different than everybody else

everybody else functions out of theory

out of philosophy but those who come to

place where they behold him

live from a different a different place

and because of that coming to places of

great victory back to the subject here

the issue of fear is um

the command to not fear is the most

frequent repeated command in the bible

to not fear why because

it

it leads

to unbelief

complaining is the language of unbelief

only comes out of the heart that has a

lordship challenge a lordship issue

where the lordship of jesus

is being compromised complaining will be

the evidence

is there anybody else in this room

don’t complain

so this story with

moses

and pharaoh

uh is uh is very uh

easy to see

the the participants they each play a

role that’s very easy to come to a

conclusion

and uh it’s best in these kind of

moments just to simplify read the story

so that’s what we’re gonna do and i’ll

just talk to you as we walk through it

so keep your bibles in front of you

we’ve got a bunch to read let’s start in

chapter 14 exodus did i tell you where

yeah

five of you heard me and

all right exodus uh chapter 14 verse 4

then i will harden pharaoh’s heart

if that bothers you repent

you know we might as well start strong

you know

he doesn’t work for me i work for him

he never owes me an explanation

what i know

should never cancel out what i need to

know what i know is that every decision

he makes is that of love

i may not be able to explain this

but i can see the end result

i will harden pharaoh’s heart what you

see with pharaoh is somebody who

continuously hardens his heart against

the lord and the lord finally says all

right i’m going to freeze your will in

that position and i will now use your

rebellion

to illustrate my glory my authority my

lordship

i will use you as a chess piece on a

chess board

and i will use you the way i want to

display my glory

some christians sin believing that they

will just be able to repent afterwards

repentance is a gift

you can’t depend on a gift

[Laughter]

you’re giving me that confused look that

i’m not saying he won’t forgive you i’m

just saying don’t be stupid don’t be

careless with your life

don’t do stupid things just assuming

that you that you will have god

attending to every need it’s not the way

it works

in the kingdom there’s a king

and that king is lord over all

all right that uh that went over pretty

well

let’s see if we can get a little farther

this time then i will harden pharaoh’s

heart so that he will pursue them

and i will gain honor over pharaoh and

over all his army that the egyptians may

know that i am the lord

some of you are facing problems in your

life right now

because the lord wants to demonstrate

his lordship to your enemies to those

who oppose you to those who are causing

you heartache it’s not about you

sometimes we have to just get over

ourselves it’s not always about us

sometimes there’s a bigger picture and

in the bigger picture god is wanting to

display who he is because it is a need

maybe in an entire family line maybe an

entire neighborhood or a city or a place

of business god is wanting to

demonstrate his lordship over the

situations that you’re facing

amen

amen all right verse 10 when pharaoh

drew near the children of israel lifted

their eyes and behold the egyptians

marched after them so they were very

afraid

and the children of israel cried out to

the lord so here’s what we’ve got going

on israel is leaving egypt and pharaoh

in his army is coming after him and so

they turn around in their journey and

they see egypt coming after them and it

says they are very afraid

the wrong kind of fear

will drive you away from the lordship of

jesus

the right kind of fear

endears you to him

complaining is the language of fear

it’s the language of unbelief

nobody complains who sees god’s role in

the middle of their situation

the complaint only happens because we’ve

lost sight of who he is and where he is

there are some fears that are natural

fears or

can i say responsible fears putting your

hand on a hot stove

don’t tempt god that’s stupid

walking across the floor barefoot with

broken glass

it’s not a smart idea

voting for socialism

it’s just not

[Music]

just want to make sure you were awake

i’ve been waiting all morning to say

that

actually longer than that

verse 13 moses said to the people

do not be afraid

i’m sorry this

i don’t have enough time to take many

detours so

i’ll just take one and then this is the

last one

i read this post that said when you have

a conflict with your wife just tell her

she’s overreacting and that’ll calm

everything down

that’s kind of what i thought of here

moses comes to israel who was terrified

said don’t be afraid

oh

okay

okay

there’s a good idea i just won’t be

afraid

but then he comes with the word of the

lord

don’t be afraid

and he says do not be afraid stand still

and see the salvation of the lord which

he will accomplish for you today for the

egyptians whom you see today you shall

see again no more forever i just hit me

strong in the twin of your service just

a few minutes ago and i feel the same

here now there are some of you that are

facing

ongoing problems

and i’m i’m i feel like i’m supposed to

declare over you you will never see

those egyptians in that issue you’ll

never see them again

today it ends that will not be a

cyclical issue in your life it ends

today but here’s the word that moses

brought to the nation of israel the

egyptians though were trying to kill you

you will never see them again forever

okay move on says um verse 14 the lord

will fight for you and you shall hold

your peace now

verse 15 is important

and the lord said to moses why do you

cry out to me

all right

what’s happening here

verse 13

and 14

moses is prophesying

just stand still

god’s going to deliver you you’re going

to see him work on your behalf

he’s going to bring you to a place of

great peace

just hold your place

and the very next verse we see god says

why are you crying out to me so that

tells me after the prophecy moses is

interceding

he gave this great word to israel and

then he’s saying oh god oh god oh god oh

god

do you see these people that i’m leading

oh god

so the lord says why do you cry out to

me so apparently there was prayer after

the prophecy

but what does he say

verse 15 the lord said to moses why do

you cry out to me tell the children of

israel to go forward

i don’t know if you notice this but

there’s a big difference between

standing still and going forward

moses sensed the safety and the

provision of the lord

and

let me say it’s possible he assumed

he’s going to do it while we stand still

and lord brought one clarification to

that prophetic word i’m going to do it

but i’m going to do it while you’re

moving forward you’re going to have to

stand still and there are sometimes

honestly where you just take the

position of rest and there are other

times you just move in the right

direction

god is not usually he’s not looking for

great courageous leaps in movement

he’s generally looking for it just

movement in the right direction

we had a staff member here years ago

that had a very very serious head trauma

injury very serious

and he couldn’t play with his children

anymore he couldn’t be in the room where

there was any kind of

not even argument just challenging

conversation there’s certain things he

couldn’t see on tv because he was so

traumatized in the injury of his head

and uh he was actually was over there in

one sunday night service was in the

men’s room the restroom and the lord

just prompted him bump your head against

the wall that terrified him because that

would just send him to to just to bump

his head against the wall and he said

lord

i can’t do that

and then what he did is he just leaned

his head softly against the wall

instantly healed completely healed of

all the trauma for so long because the

lord isn’t looking always for great

courageous leaps he’s looking for a

movement in the right direction does

that make sense stop trying to be a hero

just move in the right direction

just move in the right direction

so he says why do you cry out to me tell

the children of israel

to go forward

we move on down through the story and

lord begins to reveal himself as being

with the children of israel in this

journey this is i i like the story i

like the story a lot it says in verse 19

excuse me verse 18 the egyptians shall

know that i am the lord when i have

gained honor for myself over pharaoh his

chariots and his horsemen

and the angel of god who went before the

camp of israel moved and went behind

them this is interesting so god’s in

front of them showing them where to go

and he’s behind them protecting them

from from the egyptians right

so the angel of god who went before the

camp moved and went behind them and the

pillar of the cloud went before them and

stood behind them

so he went between the camp of the

egyptians in the camp of israel

thus it was a cloud of darkness to the

one and he gave light by night to the

other

two manifestations of the same revival

a cloud in one case fire in another

the same sun that melts the ice hardens

the clay

the workings and dealings of god the

effect of those workings and dealings

have everything in the world to do with

our heart’s condition

the posture the position of our heart

am i saying god prove it to me or am i

saying no matter what you say

my answer is yes

because those two positions are

extremely different

it’s not a heaven or hell issue it’s a

it’s an issue of what measure of

promised land will i actually experience

in my lifetime

and we were all born to enter the

reality of the fulfilled promises of god

over our lives and our family line until

it actually brings transformation to

culture itself

let’s move on

i want you to go with me to chapter 15

and we’ll jump down to verse 22.

how many of you have your bibles let me

see them

see you see your bob’s all right

there we go i like it i like it and by

the way all of our online family

i love you guys so much i i just love i

miss seeing you different places around

the world

where you come up and

and say hi so i miss you all right verse

22

moses brought israel from the red sea

they went out into the wilderness of

sure they went three days into the

wilderness found no water

when they came tomorrow they could not

drink the water uh the waters of marcus

it was bitter

therefore they called the name mara and

the people complained again against

moses here’s the thing about complaining

complaining is always reasonable

almost always there’s a good reason for

it

all you have to do is just remove the

promises and presence of god out of the

equation to be legalized in your

complaining

see fear is a weird thing too because

fear will always attract whatever

information is needed to legitimize its

existence

and complaining functions out of that

spirit of fear

they were in need of water is that a sin

no

and the people complained against moses

that’s logical

chapter 16

verse 2 the whole congregation of the

children of israel complained against

moses and aaron in the wilderness

verse three is rather humorous to me

the children of israel said to them oh

that we had died by the hand of the lord

in the land of egypt

when we sat by the pots of meat when we

ate bread to the full for you have

brought us out into this wilderness to

kill this whole assembly with hunger

then the lord said to moses behold i

will rain bread from heaven for you

and the people shall go out and gather a

certain quote every day that i may test

them what’s going on here

god has just tested them with lack

and now they’re going to be tested with

abundance

if you don’t trust god with lack you’ll

never trust him with abundance

here in this moment they are complaining

against moses

and they’re saying oh that we would have

died in egypt

when the pots were full of meat we had

all the bread we could eat

i don’t know what’s happened to their

memory because days earlier they were

complaining about their conditions

but what complaining does

complaining distorts your view of

reality

it distorts your view of reality

perspective is lost in complaining

because we move uh in in the momentum of

unbelief we move into a way that cancels

out the god-given ability to simply just

trust god

just to trust him no matter what

complaining cancels out the awareness of

reality it actually it actually clouds

the vision on the experiences of our

life the situations of our life and in

this case they’re saying it would have

been better for us to die when we were

in the lap of luxury

they were slaves

listen carefully

it’s a breakdown of character of the

heart

to choose the safety of slavery

over the responsibility of freedom

what’s happening in this generation

right now is not the first time it’s

happened

it happened to israel right here and

they were preferring the safety of

slavery

over the responsibility of freedom

all right that went over well let’s just

keep on moving here

verse 7 says and in the morning you will

see the glory of the lord for he hears

your complaints against the lord

interesting

seeing the glory is usually thought of

as a reward

but it’s not in this case it’s the

opportunity to recalibrate values

i i don’t know if that makes sense to

you let me let me try to say it this way

beholding him gives me the opportunity

to readjust all my values what i’m

thinking what are my priorities the

focus of my life the glory recalibrates

everything

without that i live randomly carelessly

as to whatever i think is the best

and so he says i’ve heard their

complaints i’m going to show my glory

why because in that experience they will

have opportunity to reset

the values of their heart

chapter 17 verse 2

therefore moses excuse me the people

contended with moses saying give us

water

that we may drink

moses responded to them why do you

contend with me why do you tempt the

lord

all right

let’s just say we’re part of the two

million people

that are following this guy named moses

we’ve been walking for days we have no

water

the desire for water is right

the complaint again against moses is not

why

biblically it’s called tempting god

what is it to tempt god it’s to appeal

to him to do evil

now he can’t

but it’s still the wrong posture for a

person to take

in psalm 78 which is a psalm that really

gives overview of this whole situation

psalm 78 he says

you tempt the lord

by limiting the holy one of israel

you tempt the lord you tempt him

by putting a cap on his capability

and the the profound impact of his

covenant with you

you tempt him by limiting

now first of all he doesn’t expect me to

fully imagine all he’s capable of i

don’t have i don’t have the mental

capacity he’s not looking for that he’s

looking for

the the baby steps the steps in the

right direction that just removes

removes the limit of what god is capable

and willing to do in my lifetime

what we see of him

what he shows us about his nature

is supposed to be the thing we hold to

in difficulty

i’m not saying that right

the absolute

uh anchor of our soul is what he has

shown us about his nature and his

covenant

if i let go of that to embrace a fear an

accusation a resentment any of those

kinds of things i’m letting go of the

most solid thing in my life why you and

i were designed

for one

primary purpose this will sound strange

to you but one primary purpose and that

was to worship

worship is the recognition of worth

in other words god unveils his nature

his presence to a people the only

logical response is worship he’s not

looking for a good worship service

i mean those are wonderful but that’s

that’s not the point

in john 4 it says

the father looks for worshipers those

who would worship in spirit and truth it

doesn’t say he’s looking for worship

he’s not an egotist in need of our

affirmation

he doesn’t need us to boost his ego

he’s looking for worship why because

he’s a god of love

and the god of love always wants the

best for us

and since you become like whatever you

worship he could want nothing better for

us than for us to worship him

because in that transforming presence we

are transformed

all right let’s come to the end of this

it says uh

verse seven

so he called the name of the place masa

and meribah

because the contention of the children

of israel

and because they tempted the lord saying

is the lord among us or not

they tempted the lord saying is the lord

among us okay review the context here

pillar fire

at night

a cloud by day

and they’re asking the question

is the lord

among us

that’s what complaining does

it distorts your view of what’s already

established in your life it’s it’s like

i don’t know if how many of you have

ever had like a dislocate dislocated

joint i used to have this knee

occasionally go out of joint for

football in high school

and i remember one time in fact in

weaverville chris was around when when

it i got up out of the chair or

something and and it dislocated

my the lower part of my leg is still

connected

it’s still alive

there’s a measure of mobility

very limited but a measure

is still me it’s still mine but i

couldn’t stand on it for all the money

in the world

i couldn’t stand them because it’s

actually out of joint and what happens

with complaining is it dislocates you

from your design

it dislocates you’re alive

but the goal has changed from the

promised land to survival

so they tempted the lord by saying is

the lord among us

at one time i didn’t write the reference

sound i should have but i i forgot to

look at her i didn’t get the verse for

you but at one point the lord spoke to

israel and he said

my face was in the cloud so here we are

we’re following this cloud around the

wilderness it’s important to follow the

cloud because it’s a desolate place but

wherever he goes there’s heating at

night there’s cooling during the day and

there’s this bread that appears so it’s

a good thing you want to follow him your

clothes don’t wear out you know

follow the clock

so they learn to follow this cloud

we’re actually designed by god to

recognize presence

and the lord told israel

my face was in the cloud

but i didn’t let you see any form

because i knew you to be an idolatrous

people who would create an image after

the form that you saw

so sometimes when the lord withholds

clarity

it’s his mercy

because he knows our bent to create

formula

idols ideologies

where he’s no longer the moment by

moment inspiration for what we’re doing

so they tempted the lord saying is the

lord among us

there’s this uh verse in in proverbs

um let me let me read it to you

i’ve been thinking about it

a bit it says

a man will be satisfied with good

by the fruit of his mouth

a man will be satisfied

with good

by the fruit of his mouth

i don’t know i i have felt for a while

this verse has been

kind of impacting me a bit

a man will be satisfied with good by the

fruit of his mouth you understand

that it’s a small key that opens a big

door

and every once in a while we find these

phrases that might be

easy to overlook when in fact they are

connected to so much of the reality of

god in our life if we can just simply

capture

the power of that simple key

a man will be satisfied

with good

emotionally

socially

intellectually

spiritually

nourished

full

abundantly

and is determined by what first came out

of the person’s mouth

in other words the measure for what i

received at least in this context is set

by what first comes out of my mouth

first by what comes out of my mouth

so life and death is in the power of the

tongue

some things have to be said this has

been part of our our culture for as long

as i can remember but i still feel like

i need

i need to review this one

here’s the deal psalms 91 i will say of

the lord

he is my refuge

he is my strength

he is my god in whom i will trust it

says i will say of the lord it doesn’t

say and i will think of the lord

it doesn’t say i will contemplate

of the lord

it says i will say because some things

just need to be said

some things need to be said i have found

for me

it’s a strength for me when i’m in a

rough place in fact benny and i will sit

together on the couch we’ll pray

together and we won’t make this

statement we trust you father

you are our refuge you are our strength

you’re our hiding place we trust you we

trust you and make the decree make the

proclamation

don’t don’t don’t let it be passive

don’t let it be just some

passive

comment of agreement it’s it’s no

apparently

things come into my life

by what comes out of my mouth and so i

am going to make a decree

i will say of the lord and i am in fact

saying it now

the lord is my refuge he is my hiding

place he is my drunkenness and in him i

will trust i will trust

i don’t have a plan b

there’s no other options i serve one god

no options

the scripture actually teaches that what

comes into our life comes through a

measurement set by your decrees

the scripture says

he inhabits

the praises of his people

his amen

to my recognition of who he is

putting it in word form as he comes and

he establishes his throne upon the

praises of his people

if god occupies

my praise

who occupies my complaints

words are covenants

words are partnerships they’re

agreements

you

survived you survived the entire message

congratulations

why don’t you stand

wow

i like to lead in prayer when i’m

through speaking but i kind of feel like

you got to pray on your own and just

basically say

whatever he said

amen whatever that was

amen i don’t i don’t know what just

happened

but that’s that’s what i want to be

right here in me i want i want the

language of the kingdom to be my

language

the language of the kingdom i i save the

lord why don’t we do this together i

will save the lord say that with me

here’s my refuge

my fortress

in him will i trust

wow say it again i will save the lord

he is my refuge

my fortress

my god

and him will i trust

[Applause]

that is our confession to your father

that’s our confession jesus we

we just acknowledge our trust is in you

our trust is in you

anytime we come together and a crowd

this size is always a

high chance that we have

people here that don’t have a personal

relationship with jesus you don’t know

what it is to be the bible calls born

again it’s where there’s that place of

absolute surrender

to be a follower a disciple of jesus

turning from your life

to honestly embracing his

look what it’s like to follow him

and if there’s anybody here that’s in

that place that would just say to me

bill i don’t want to leave the building

i don’t want to leave the property until

i know that i’ve been forgiven of sin

and i truly have been brought into the

family of god if that’s you put a hand

up real quick what we are i want to make

sure that that uh that we take advantage

of this moment for your sake as far as

i’m concerned this entire day could be

just for this one moment to give you a

chance to come to know the love of god

anybody at all real quickly

those who are online we all we have no

great numbers of people that respond

online as well i want to encourage you

just write in the chat box we have

pastors that will talk with you and pray

with you

all right well i’m going to assume

you’re all in let’s have who’s who’s

helping me out leslie come on up let’s

uh everybody keep your places if you

would but ministry team come to the

front to help us with this next part