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Podcast 22 - Are you comfortable
0 Playsin 5 hours
Join us as we discuss what the Bible says about getting comfortable
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Transcript
Introduction: Comfort vs. Spiritual Growth
00:00:10
Speaker
Hey, good afternoon. Yeah, we're off to a great start this this afternoon. ah I don't know, it may be evening while you're watching this. That's right. It's afternoon for us. That's right. Welcome back to the Grove Hill Podcast, where it is a great delight. It is a delight. It is a delight to have you joining us as we talk about life and all the things related to it. Got an interesting subject today. We were bouncing this around in staff meeting earlier today. We do this on a Tuesday afternoon after our staff meetings. But talking about this idea, the greatest danger to the American church, and and I would kind of even say the Western church in general, the greatest danger to the Western church is not atheism, it's not persecution, it's not even secularism. It is instead comfort.
00:00:51
Speaker
what does that What does that bring to your mind as you think about a statement like that? um Recliners. Lazy boys. to go right to the lazy boys. Whenever I think about comfort, I think that whether it's in the physical sense, I mean, I i think that's a legitimate thing as well. But in the spiritual sense, people just thinking...
00:01:12
Speaker
And if I can just get to the recliner of life and sit back, put it on cruise, man, I'm good. Like that's what i would strive and achieve. And then I'm there. And I think it's a sad misconception of happiness or of, you know, anything that's a sustainable goal. Yeah.
00:01:30
Speaker
I think of the parent who does everything for their kid to try to make their life easy, and then it creates a sour kid. and it's kind of It's kind of like it ruins the kid because they don't know how to do anything in life. But we want to provide that comfort for our kids.
Historical Impact of Comfort on the Church
00:01:44
Speaker
So this isn't just a random statement. History actually proves this to be true. If you go back and look through the history of the church, times of prosperity have been the most dangerous times for the church. It's when it gets lazy, it gets weak, it becomes...
00:01:57
Speaker
apathetic to its call and its mission. But you go to places like even today, places like India, China, where there is open and direct opposition to the Christian church.
00:02:08
Speaker
That's where the the places where the church is really blowing up. Sub-Saharan Africa right now, there are places in Africa that are under persecution, but in Africa the estimation is that by I think it's the year 2030 or 2035, that over million Christians will live in that area. wow It's incredible. But if you read the headlines today, what you're reading is villages being burned, women being raped, entire entire clans being ah kidnapped and things of that nature. So um why is that? What is it about human nature that makes us thrive better when we have that opposition and and the persecution against us as opposed to everything's going our way and it seems like God's favor is all over us?
Strength in Adversity: Faith and Resilience
00:02:54
Speaker
Well, it causes, if you look at a non-spiritual side and just say like a physical side, I'm going to mess this quote up, I know. But hard times create hard men, which create soft times. And then soft times create soft men, right? yep um The Great Depression was a very hard time. yeah But it created a generation that was tough, that that knew how to handle business. That generation went on to prosperity and then it created easy times, and then those easy times created a generation that was soft and couldn't handle anything. And so you apply that to the spiritual level. When your faith is tested, what do you have to have? Faith, right? And so if you're going through a trial, you rely on the Lord. If things are easy, you go, you know what? I got this. and You step back. You relax on your scripture reading. You relax on your prayer time. And you're not in a place where you're reliant on the Lord. Yeah, good. It's interesting that you mentioned that back in the Great Depression times. i was looking up, you know, we hear the term the American dream. Yeah. and how the hard times created the desire for the the prototypical statement. I want to do better for my kids. I want to give my kids when that didn't have what what is better? What really is better? yeah So when you break that down, and that American dream has been so skewed. It's been used by presidents, it's been used by political candidates, and they have twisted it to mean
Critique of the American Dream and Its Impact on Faith
00:04:18
Speaker
comfort. like We want you pursue this comfort. well
00:04:22
Speaker
comfort from the Industrial Revolution. all and it And here's the thing, the culture in America, and you mentioned the Western front, you know whether it's America or Europe, there's this pursuance of everything that is offered in this revolution of we're going to create, create, create. And the crazy thing is it never satisfies. There's always a pursuance towards like, ah, give me more. you know man This bit of wealth isn't as much as I need. And I think to Kyle's point, like the American dream or the comfort level, ah there's so much air in that pursuing. There's no substance that you can really grab ahold of. in it And in turn, we have a lot of weak generations that have kind of come out of that.
00:05:05
Speaker
This is not a contemporary problem um for the church. I mean, it's not something that's just popped up in the even in the last 100 years. You can go all the way back to 70 A.D.
00:05:19
Speaker
John, and in the book of Revelation, and writes a letter specifically to a couple churches where he says, you guys are blowing it. You know you have forgotten your first love. You've walked away from the things are important. Specifically, he addresses the church at Laodicea.
00:05:33
Speaker
where he says to them, and they were ah wealthy, I mean, think New York City, you that kind of thing, primarily because of they had this healing salve that they would would produce there that would supposedly fix the eyes that were going bad, stuff like that. But because of their wealth, they got to a place where they were so self-reliant, so self-sufficient,
00:05:53
Speaker
They basically were looking at God and saying, we just don't need you. We got
Modern Complacency and the Church of Laodicea
00:05:56
Speaker
this. It kind of goes back to what you're saying. Well, if an entire church can do that, you can imagine the damage it can do to an individual or a family that becomes so wealthy, so prosperous, so constantly seemingly blessed by God that they suddenly wake up one day and go, now why do we need him? you know um What does that do for our own personal discipleship when we begin to check out on God like that?
00:06:23
Speaker
ah well, you're either moving forward or backwards. That's it. And so if you're not digging your heels in and and crawling forward in your relationship with Jesus, you're backsliding. I think of the old mid-90s saying that said, any fish can float downstream, right? But it takes a a real fish or a dead fish can float downstream. It takes someone going against culture and fighting for that discipleship to love. He's full of all the great saints. I don't know what's happening today. I guess i haven't slept in 34 hours. It's coming off the top of my head. I'm liking it.
00:06:55
Speaker
So here's a couple of things from Scripture. okay We all know Luke 9.23 where Jesus says, if any man's going to come after me, he's got to lay down his life, take up his cross, and follow me. Romans 8.17, Paul adds to that and he says this, ah if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Paul talks constantly about this concept of us identifying with the sufferings of Christ Jesus. What does that phrase mean to identify with the suffering of Christ Jesus? um We have done the the church a disservice for generations by almost promising that if you come to Christ
00:07:30
Speaker
your life is going to get better, that he's going to straighten out your marriage right away, that you're financially going to be prosperous, when that is not what scripture says. Scripture says Christ suffered.
00:07:42
Speaker
If we follow Christ, we will suffer, yeah right? And being real, um when you commit to being a Christian, a follower of Christ, ah you're committing to death. to saying, you know, I'm dying to myself, and that's going to cause suffering in this world, because this world's about comfort, this world's about ah do as you please, please yourself, all these things, and scripture says, no, self should be cut out of your life, and so there's major sacrifice involved. Like you said, if you're going to follow me, you take up your cross, right, like that Christ did. Yeah. Which has also produced this consumer mindset in the church
Consumer Mindset in Church Settings
00:08:20
Speaker
today, John. I know you and i' have talked about that even recently. So speak to that a little bit. What does the consumer mindset do to a church?
00:08:27
Speaker
i You know, i kind of, as the the Oklahoma kid in me would say, it kind of gets in my crawl. You know, that maybe just I think that's a Southern thing, but it does. it in the consumer mindset has permeated into the church. It's been in the house, but it's been in the church. It's been in culture. And the consumer mindset says the first place that I go to is not others centered. Obviously, there's no God center in the first origin of that lifestyle. It is a me type of origin. Where is my pleasure? Where is my satisfaction? It's like a hedonism. Like, you know, the the whole sex movement of the 60s, 70s said, what's going to please me? right That's the same consumer mindset that we have today is saying, going to make myself happy. You know, and if I'm not happy, I've got tons of friends that I've had over 20 years of living almost 20 years of living here in Nashville. And I've seen where people have walked into what was supposed to be a marriage where there is relationship with each other, relationship with God.
00:09:33
Speaker
But because of the consumer mindset, what are they giving me? What are they doing for me? You end up coming up with a bad result and you end up seeing marriage is broken. You see homes torn. And ultimately you see the real reality of the heart where there is or has been no relationship with God or the relationship with God is just...
00:09:55
Speaker
I'm putting to the side. And we see that practically on a ah Sunday morning, right? You go to church, what do you expect? You expect your coffee to be in the foyer. You expect your spot to be saved in the pew, right? yeah you You want it to be comfortable.
00:10:07
Speaker
You want it to be routine. And that's that's not scripture. um Scripture is challenge yourself, discipleship, um cut out the areas of your life that that aren't pleasing to the Lord, and seek Him with all your heart.
00:10:22
Speaker
I would encourage anybody who is a part of a local body ah that believes in Christ, that attends a church, whenever you go ask those questions in a church setting, make sure that are you saying, am I the motivation behind this question? Or is somebody else knowing the gospel of Jesus Christ right the motivation? right Or is giving glory to Christ the motivation? And a lot of times I think we could come back to that and say, oh, I'm kind of doing this just for my comfort level. Well, think about the questions and comments the three of us get from people who are looking for new church homes.
00:10:55
Speaker
Do you have a children's ministry? the kids get snacks? Do the youth take trips? Are you doing a lot of events for the kids? um You get an adult into a worship center, they're looking for the coffee first, and they're looking for the comfort of the chair and the design of the building, how close is the parking. I mean, very seldom...
00:11:19
Speaker
in in churches, a lot of churches I've been a part of, very seldom have I heard people come in and say, I just need to know one thing, are you teaching the Bible? You know, you very seldom hear that in a lot of places. And maybe it's because they've already made that determination. You know, maybe it's not fair to say that, but it just seems like to be an indicator that we are using the wrong metrics to determine how we find our churches.
Faith, Suffering, and True Discipleship
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Jesus said in John 16, 33, he said this, and I want to jump back to you. it says, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. How does that fly in the face of what we teach in our churches? Yeah. um
00:11:55
Speaker
Like I said earlier, we've kind of done the... the the church a disservice by saying, hey, all your problems are going to be going to be solved. When scripture, in fact, says brother will be turned against brother because of my name, mother against daughter, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law in the name of Jesus, and not because Jesus is ah wanting disunity, but the message of truth is divisive.
00:12:20
Speaker
um Some people follow it and and accept the sacrifice and other people reject it and that causes those things. yeah And so Jesus was very clear about it. He didn't hide it. um Like you said, in this world, you will have troubles. It's it's bound to happen. It's a guarantee.
00:12:38
Speaker
And then it's like, but take heart, I've overcome the world. And so he's not leaving us in that suffering by ourselves. He's saying, I've been there. Walk with me through this. I mean, Psalm 23, the most famous one, even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you're going to do it.
00:12:54
Speaker
you are with me. Yeah. Consumerism. And I ah really believe this strongly consumerism and true and proper worship cannot fill the same space. sure Uh, you just can't like, if you have the mindset of feed me, feed me, feed me, that can't also be followed up with, oh, Lord, I love you, but you need to take care of this. it just can't fill the same space in our churches. For one thing, true worship starts with the concept of
Casual Christianity vs. Active Discipleship
00:13:20
Speaker
humility before God. You can't come in and say, okay, God, here's what I need from you. Exactly. You know? Yeah.
00:13:26
Speaker
um we've We've come to a place in our, especially in the Western church, and kind of like beating a dead horse with this thought here, but it's true, where we but we equate blessings with God's favor.
00:13:40
Speaker
You know, if he drives a nice car, well, God must really love him. If he's got good health, he must be doing all right. If his kids made it into all the good schools and got good jobs, they he must have been a real good dad. But On the contrary, you know, you got this guy over here who's struggling to make ends meet, can't seem to hold down a job. Well, he must he must be a real disobedient person and God must not like him very much. And we we don't ever come out and say that, but I think we've actually developed that kind of mentality between the Western church and the Eastern church.
00:14:10
Speaker
what what What's going on in Africa? Those people are being, what why aren't they being treated better, you know? Maybe they're just not really following God. Well, the truth is they probably are following him much better than we are. Yeah.
00:14:21
Speaker
and saying, hey, set. Yeah, yeah. Some of the things that would you and I hear, I'll follow Jesus as long as he doesn't ask too much of me.
00:14:32
Speaker
As long as he doesn't ask for my job or my budget, my schedule. then you're not following Jesus. He's asking for those things. If you if you ask the question, and I think you're in a good spot if you ask the question continuously, when was the last time it hurt you know to follow Jesus? like When did it cause me some uncomfortable? Because if it's not,
00:14:54
Speaker
ah that's a scary place to live in. It's comfort. because Comfort, complacency, all those things, they coincide. yeah so I laugh too, because you and i we all have these conversations where you're talking to somebody about, man, they're all fired up about just fill in the blank, whatever ministry in the church. And you go, well, how about stepping in and being a part of it, or engaging, or becoming a leader in it? And they go, well, I'm in this busy season right now. Which is actually a very fancy way of saying, I've just got misplaced priorities. Yeah.
00:15:23
Speaker
I don't want to sacrifice. My golf schedule is more important. My son's baseball games are more important. And immediately you got parents who are getting defensive who are listening to this. Well, you tell my kid can't play baseball. Well, no, I'm not telling you your kid can't play baseball. You probably can't play baseball. But we all have a dream, right? We all have a dream. But let's think about this. Your son's ability to perform whatever the oboe play a second base that whatever it may be is that really the reason that child was given to you as a parent right and and the clear answer obviously is that we we're given those children because they are ours to disciple towards the kingdom of god yes so um i love the last one we plan our lives first and then we just ask jesus to bless them yeah
00:16:14
Speaker
We don't go to Jesus and say, give me direction on where you want me to go with these things. right Is it any wonder we're so confused in our discipleship processes, even our personal discipleship, when we get these priorities all mixed up and then we just kind hand this bag of mess to Jesus and say, okay, do something with it. Yeah.
00:16:31
Speaker
I don't think there's room for casual Christianity anymore. It used to be a badge that people wore and just say, yeah, i go to church or yeah, I'm a Christian. But if you think of scripture, ah the amount of times that ah we're referred to as the Lord's army or putting on the armor of God, um God's looking for warriors ready to fight. He's looking for warriors ready to stand up against the culture to sacrifice the comforts and to really dig their heels in. And if you think of anything that involves a warrior like military or law enforcement or any type of preparation for any battle, there's sacrifice that is involved
00:17:05
Speaker
to engage in the battle. yeah If we just walk into those areas unprepared, we'll get chewed up, right? And that's what we're seeing in Christianity, where people are just casual about it, and they wonder why this is going and this is going. When we need to prepare with sacrifice and discipleship and start giving up those things that we think matter, and they don't matter.
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. be Be ready to rip out the things that are consuming the time you mentioned. ah Well, i've I've just got a busy season right now. Well, what you're saying to your point, yeah, I've got this, this, this, but okay. So let's talk about the next question.
00:17:42
Speaker
What are you willing to rip out so that God can be inserted in? And obviously God is inserted into the whole of how we live. He should be. He shouldn't just be the the Sunday Christian, yeah the the Sunday relationship, because that is not a relationship.
00:17:57
Speaker
But he has got to be inserted into every part of what we do. And that means ripping out. um not just what we think is a symptomatic thing like, oh, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. No, insert God's word into the very breathing in inhale, exhale of your family's weekly rhythms. Like do it or else something else will be inserted in there. Right.
00:18:22
Speaker
I think all of us, if we were to sit and and take some time to do some self-reflection, would admit there are areas of our life where our obedience has suffered because it cost us comfort. Sure. you know That's too much of a commitment. i'd have to be there too early, stay too late. um think Think about this.
00:18:43
Speaker
The spiritual discipline of fasting in the church today. mean you You ask a crowd of 100 people in a church how many of you have fasted regularly in the last six months.
00:18:54
Speaker
ah My guess is 90% them are going to raise their hand and say no.
00:18:59
Speaker
Because I think, again, it comes back to comfort. Yeah, and I think there's ah lack of knowledge in that area. yeah And then, like you said, comfort. The whole idea of fasting is to sacrifice food and replace that with reliance on the Lord. and so no I want to be clear here because comfort isn't a sin.
00:19:19
Speaker
ah Jesus himself even said, you know, comfort my people and and those kinds of things. But we're talking about a different kind of comfort. And the problem isn't when comfort serves you. It's when you start serving comfort as a master. okay You get your priorities out of line, right? And you start seeking things that are to make you more comfortable. And that's just human nature.
00:19:42
Speaker
physically you slide into a chair the first thing you do is you correct your posture to where you're comfortable i think that's what we do in our walk with jesus christ we when we come face to face with jesus we begin to squirm a little bit until we get to a place where we're comfortable and jesus is saying i didn't invite you to come in and be comfortable i invited you to come in so i could grow you yeah and i would ask the question are you in christ Mm-hmm.
00:20:06
Speaker
And I know that's a very, that's a serious question, but are you in Christ if there is nothing in your life that shows any bit of difference? Yeah. When you have the the relaxed mode, the lazy boy mode,
Prioritizing Faith Over Comfort
00:20:20
Speaker
you have to be really, really careful to say, what what is my life? what What is going on here? ah Who is my master? ah I am not my own. I was bought with a price. So whenever I do that, whenever Christ with his death takes possession of me, I don't get any choice in that. This is like, Hey, I'm signing up for something. And it means the extraction of these things that I desire and these things that will bring me closer to the foot of the cross. Yeah.
00:20:49
Speaker
So again, to be clear, the issue isn't what we own or what we have. The issue is what refuse to let go of in order to serve Christ. Um,
00:20:59
Speaker
So in essence, it's not what we own, it's what owns us. um Things that that need to really be contemplated, because again, i don't think i don't think the Bible's purpose is to shame people who have.
00:21:13
Speaker
um I mean, we we can name people probably several people right the top of our head who are very, very blessed, but are very devoted followers of Jesus Christ. yeah And it's evidenced in their life. But it's people who approach Christ this way. Open-handed.
00:21:29
Speaker
Completely open-handed. What I have is yours. yeah you know If you tell me to sell the house, I'll sell the house and and we'll go do something else. So i mean if you've got a big house, invite me over for dinner, but don't feel bad about it. you know find ah Find a way to use that to serve the kingdom. If you've got a big bank account, then don't be stingy with what you do to support the work of of Christ. um And all of us, all of us have time. we have the same amount of time as everybody else. yeah It's a question of how we choose to use it.
00:22:00
Speaker
um So I think the bottom line of what we're trying to talk about today is just this very simple question that we all have to ask ourselves is are our lives patterned around what's going to make us feel more comfortable and at ease or are our lives patterned around the cross of Jesus Christ? Right.
00:22:18
Speaker
So... pursue holiness, like happiness versus holiness. Like, that's good what is it? Um, and, um, I'm married so that in that my marriage can glorify Christ. This isn't about my satisfaction. So in everything you do, whether it's your marriage, you're raising up kids, uh, your pursuance of any job, whatever it is, how can I become holy as he is holy?
00:22:46
Speaker
Yep. ah The words, wake up, O sleeper, come to my mind. And um what good is a man to his family if he's sleeping behind the wheel, yeah um not leading any direction? And so wake up, grab your grab your word, be ready to sacrifice the areas of your life and and lead your family. Yeah. I think the invitation, or maybe better put the challenge that we offer to you is invite the light of Christ into your heart, into your life. So you can examine where you are serving him versus where you're serving yourself.
00:23:22
Speaker
It's an important question. Light makes the difference. Things that appear one way in the dark are very different when you put the light on them. So maybe this week the challenge is for you. Open up your heart.
00:23:33
Speaker
Invite Jesus Christ to put his light on it. Ask Him to genuinely expose some things to you and to discover where it is that you are seeking comfort above Christ.
00:23:43
Speaker
no All right. Good discussion today. Look forward to seeing you back here next week and joining us. If you do not have a place to attend church here in Middle Tennessee, we'd love to have you at 8, 9, 30, and 11. We're having some great times of worship in the next few weeks. Got some baptisms going on, some excitement, some really cool things. Already fired up about that. We're ending a men's series over the next two weeks, the 8th and the 15th, and then we'll be turning our attention to the Gospel of Luke, diving into the biography of Jesus himself, and that's always good stuff. So, like, follow, share the podcast, join us back here next week, and hopefully we'll see one Sunday. Have a great week.
00:24:21
Speaker
Bye.