It’s great to be with you today as we wrap up our message series, “Chasing Carrots,” about how we chase after things that don’t satisfy. Today we are talking about comfort! I love comfort. Sometimes we need comfort. It can be a good thing, but other times chasing comfort doesn’t give you the best life. There’s a saying, “Live your best life.” Our culture is obsessed with the idea: of living your best life. Maybe you get the perfect cup of coffee, that is living your best life. You take the best vacations and post pictures, “I’m living my best life.” It’s all about “I want to have enough to do whatever the heck I want to do whenever I want to do it with whomever I want to do it with, without having to go through any pain or challenge.” Basically, I want a comfortable easy life, where God is not necessary.
Myself, I struggle with the pursuit of comfort. I like a comfortable life. I was talking with my neighbor who is in her 80s. She told me when she was kid, it was cold in their house in the winter. They had a little heat in one room on the first floor, and in one room on the 2nd floor. The rest of the house was cold! Today, we have warm houses in winter, cool houses in summer, running water, a refrigerator, and at least one vehicle! We’re living comfortable lives.
In life, we tend to want to get more comfortable. We start to live for what’s easy. If you have a spouse, think about all the things you did for them before you got married: you looked your best whenever you saw them. You got them the perfect birthday present! You looked into their eyes with love! Then you get married, time goes on and you get comfortable, why dress up when I’m just going out with my husband? You let your wife pick out her own present. You get a little lazy. We just want to be comfortable.
Sometimes we all need comfort. But there’s an empty type of comfort. You think you want it, but it’s shallow and has no value. If you chase it, it doesn’t satisfy. It leaves you spiritually empty.
There’s a verse of the Bible, 1 John 2:15, that says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” That verse makes me feel guilty! Like if I love my house, I don’t love God. Or if I’m excited about going on vacation, it means clearly, I don’t love God! But that’s not what it means. It’s talking about, if you only strive for your most comfortable life, you haven’t understood God’s love and let his love fill you.
God has a great love for the least of these, the broken, and the forgotten. He has a great love for those who are faithful, who selflessly serve. If God’s love is deep inside of you, you aren’t living for what’s easy. You are being disturbed by what disturbs the heart of God.
If the love of God fills you, you do hard things for God. You give your time and talent to teach kids in Sunday school or give to the food pantry or welcome the stranger. Our culture would say, “Why do those things? You might feel uncomfortable.” But we find, when we step away from our own comfort in order to love God and others, it’s very rewarding. It fills you up in a way that comfort can’t.
Hebrews 11 has a list of people of faith who left comfort to live out the love of God. It says by faith Abraham went where God asked him to go, even though he didn’t know where he was going. By faith he was a stranger in a foreign land, living in tents. (I wouldn’t want to live in a tent! That’s faith! Not comfort!) He lived by faith, for he was looking to God.
By faith Noah built the ark. By faith Moses refused to be known as the son of Pharoah’s daughter. Instead, he chose to be mistreated as a Hebrew. By faith the people of Israel walked through the Red Sea like it was dry land. All these people of faith, their weakness was turned to strength. They did hard things for God. Not a single one of these stories was about people living in comfort. Their faith compelled them, they obeyed God. We still talk about them today: not because they took a comfortable, early retirement or got a hot tub. We remember them because they did hard things and made a difference in this world for God!
When you live by faith instead of for comfort, God is faithful. There’s a reward. You made a difference; you changed the world for the better. It’s exciting!
We all need some comfort. We need to take care of ourselves. Sometimes we need some encouragement from God and others. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Paul talks about how that comfort works. “Praise be to God…the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles…” God gives us comfort that satisfies. But that comfort is not just for you. Paul says, He comforts us in our troubles “so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” You are comforted, so that you can comfort others, with the comfort you received from God. Paul continues: “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” We will suffer for following Christ, but we will also have overflowing comfort!
Why are we looking for comfort in all the wrong places? Part of it is, we want to deny and run away from suffering and pain. We think we can avoid suffering. Or we try to look like we’re living our best life, we’re not in pain. Paul is teaching us, sometimes you are going to suffer. It’s a real thing. It’s ok not to be ok. We can sit with our suffering, and seek comfort from God and others. We can feel our pain, then follow God anyway. When you live by faith instead of for comfort, God is faithful!
We all have suffering and pain. I want you to embrace the pain that comes from following God, to say it’s ok to suffer. Think about this: chicken fried steak is a steak that is fried. It’s comfort food. Now think about squats. That’s an exercise for your legs. Squats are not comfortable. If you eat a chicken fried steak once, it’s no big deal. But if you do either of these: eat the chicken fried steak, or do the squats three times a week for five years, you get two different results. You get heart disease from the comfort food. From the squats, you look like John Cena. Maybe not quite, but you’re on your way!
When Jesus preached the sermon on the mount, he said blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Jesus is saying blessed are the people who live by faith, who step away from comfort. When people insult you, persecute you and say evil things against you because of me, rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven! When you live by faith instead of for comfort, God is faithful.
My challenge for you this week is this: since God comforts you, how can you be a comfort or encouragement to someone else this week?
Culture tries to get us to seek our own comfort. But that doesn’t satisfy. Comfort doesn’t satisfy, you end up always wanting more. God made you with a purpose. When you put your desire for comfort aside and open your life to God, he’ll lead you. You may think you want the easy life. But you don’t. You want the life that matters, where by faith, you make a difference for good and for God. Amen.
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