Speak Life Over Your City

Pastor Jamie McBride of the Homer Church of the Nazarene starts at the elementary school where he works as head custodian, with a coworker whose complaints turned into trading scriptures each morning about the words we use. Anyone can list what is wrong with the place they live, right down to the parking spot. But Proverbs 11:11 says a city is exalted by the blessing of the upright and torn down by the mouth of the wicked.

Paul names grumbling among the warnings of Israel’s story in 1 Corinthians 10, and Jamie traces how it grows: wishing for Egypt, forgetting God’s provision, ending with a heart full of unbelief. When James and John want to call down fire on a Samaritan village, Jesus rebukes them. He came to save lives, not destroy them. So take a complaint to someone who can help fix it, pray for the place God has put you, and do all things without grumbling, so that you shine as lights in the world.

Also in this message: 1 Corinthians 10 · Numbers 13-14 · Proverbs 18:21 · John 6:63 · Matthew 16:18 · Luke 9:51-56 · Jeremiah 29:7 · Colossians 4:6 · Luke 5:30 · Luke 15 · Luke 19:7 · John 6:41 · 1 Peter 4:9 · Jude 16 · John 4 · Philippians 2:14-15