When Comfort Becomes Dangerous

- Hey, big welcome to our church family. And before we dive into God's Word today, I'm very, very emotional just thinking about what is happening in our church community. Last weekend alone, we got to celebrate that over 1,900 people were baptized, publicly declaring the work of Jesus in their lives, which is completely mind-blowing. And on the very same weekend, we saw that, we actually launched our 46th location in Papillion, Nebraska. If you say, "Lara's Papillion," it's Suburb in Omaha. And on the very first weekend, imagine this, the very first weekend of a brand new church location, we saw over 1,700 people attend and worship there with 20 salvation. (audience applauds) And when we talk about all these numbers, it can be overwhelming. I want you to remember that every single number has a name. And every name has a story. And every single one matters to God. And just one of them from the brand new location was John, who had tried Buddhism. And John actually declared himself a pagan. He came the very first time, the very first Sunday, gave his life to Christ, asked to be baptized since we didn't have a pool there, 'cause of the brand new church, we found a horse trough.

And on the first weekend, John got baptized in a horse trough celebrating the work of God. Congratulations to you, John. Congratulations to everybody at Life Search for Papillion. Thank you for your faithfulness. And thank you to God for your goodness. It's amazing to be a part of something so special. If you're ready for the word today, say I'm ready, are you ready? - Ready. - We are in a message series on the book of Esther. And I wanna start with the question for those of you that are followers of Christ, for those of you that are Christians. I wonder, have you ever gotten so comfortable in your life that you stopped depending on God the way that you once did? Some of you may be there today. You want a good life, you pursue a good life, you do it in the name of God for the glory of God. And then sometimes when you get the very things that you want, and you finally start to feel a little bit comfortable in your comfort, sometimes you actually stop depending on God the way that you once did. This happened to me about a decade or so into life church. Amy and I started the church together with a handful of people back in 1996. About a decade into it, things were finally really starting to work and getting a little bit easier.

We had a lot of people coming to faith in Christ. We finally had a staff, we had full volunteers. We had just, things were working. And I kind of thought, I'll take a breath. I got a phone call from a mentor of mine whose name is Lyle Schaller. Lyle is in heaven today. Lyle was one of the, one of the wisest, most godly men that I knew. I got a phone call from Lyle and after the normal, how you doing small talk, Lyle said, hey, let me ask you a question. Every time Lyle had a question for you, it was gonna be a good question. And he said, let me ask you a question. And he asked me, he said, Craig, when is the last time that you made a decision that actually took faith? When is the last time you made a decision that actually took faith? I kind of bowed up. Lyle, you talking to Mr. Faith? Everything I do requires faith. My whole life is, I was a little bit hurt, a little bit offended. I'm a pastor, I started this church. I got a lot of faith. And he didn't argue, he just kind of listened to me and then he asked again. He said, well, just be really specific.

Give me a very specific time recently that you did something that required faith. And I couldn't answer him, which was embarrassing. Because earlier in the early years of the church, everything we did was by faith. I mean, everything, like we started out with no building. We had a borrowed garage, we met in the garage with borrowed shares, a borrowed sound system. We didn't have caught, we didn't have a casserole lady. And in the 1990s, every church had a casserole lady. We didn't have it. And it was really, really hard. And somewhere along the way, we started getting the things that we thought that we needed. And I just wanted it to be easier. And it finally was easier and it got easier. I didn't even realize it, but without knowing it, I think I just started to kind of eliminate real. you don't really need as much faith. And so he asked me that question and I realized, man, my prayers had actually gotten smaller and my faith was safer. And what used to be a very passionate, raw faith in God had just become comfortable. Now, when we talk about comfort to demonstrate right now that comfort alone isn't wrong or bad, just to be comfortable, but spiritually comfort can be very dangerous when it quietly replaces your dependence on God. And so I'm gonna show you today from God's word

that God doesn't position you for comfort. He positions you for purpose and for his glory. And Esther is gonna discover that in the beginning of this week and next week, and my prayer is that you will too. So would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your presence and we thank you for your word. We pray God that you would speak to all of us. God, especially those who may have grown more comfortable, build our faith, that we can take faith steps and faith risks and believe you for big things as we follow you. We pray this in Jesus' name and everybody said, and men, remember you prayed for it if you get it today, okay? We are in the Old Testament book of Esther. If you were not here last week, we discover something very interesting about the book of Esther. Do you remember what it is? Of every book in the Bible, this is the only, what is it, what is it, what is it? It's the only book that doesn't mention God's name directly. Mind-blowing, every book in the Bible, this is the only one that doesn't mention God's name directly. But the good news is God's presence and God's power is found on every single page. Even though his name isn't obvious, his power and presence is obvious. So let's review, in case you missed, last week, we introduced four big characters last week, the four main characters I called him

the starting lineup first of all. We have King Xerxes, remember? King is very well known for throwing big parties and at a particular party, he got very, very drunk. And King Xerxes had the wife, Queen Vasti, and he said, hey, go get her, I want to display her to everybody. She's very, very beautiful. I want everybody to see my trophy wife. Essentially, that's not what the Bible says directly, but that's essentially what it says. And the queen, perhaps she was tired of being paraded around or being used or whatever, but on this particular day, she said, no, go, it ain't happening. Sorry, King, no, I'm not coming out. And so the King Xerxes got angry and banished the queen and all of a sudden, she's no longer there and the throne is empty. Enter Esther, the book is named after Esther. She was a very ordinary girl, probably a teenager, a Jewish orphan who then is taken to the palace and after a year of events, she actually has chosen to become the queen. She had a cousin, what was his name? Starts with the M and rhymes with Ortekei. She had a cousin named Mordecai and Mordecai raised her. He was almost like a dad to her and he ended up overhearing about an assassination plot.

Two guys said, let's kill the king. And Mordecai heard about this and told Esther, who was the queen, hey, somebody's trying to kill the king. She told the king. Essentially, Mordecai saved the king's life. His faithfulness was recorded in this book and then his good deed apparently forgotten. God's name was not anywhere. God's plan was everywhere. None of it looked like God was in it, but God was in all of it. Today, we're gonna be in chapters three and four and this is where the music changes. Things get dark. You ever watch in the show and the characters don't know, it's about to get scary, but the music changes and you wanna scream, don't touch the dead guy. He's not really dead, right? This is what's happening here. The music changes because Esther's now been queen for about four years and she's starting to finally feel comfortable. She's starting to enjoy the life that she didn't plan and honestly, I don't blame her. If you think about it, the poor girl, she lost her parents. She's raised by her cousin. She's taken against her will into a palace with a bunch of other beautiful women and then chosen not for her character or her heart,

Now she's finally starting to feel secure, starting to feel comfortable. And again, comfort alone isn't bad. But God rarely calls us to stay in the places where most comfortable. Why? Because comfort doesn't require faith. And the author to the Hebrews said that without faith, it's impossible to please God. So right when she starts to get comfortable, the bad guy steps in. His name is Haman, and he's a bad guy. Our coin looks scary. We made it looks scary because he's the bad guy. Every great story has a bad guy. Think about it. Batman has Joker, Star Wars, Darth Vader, SpongeBob has Plankton, Esther has Haman. We see this in Esther 3-1. This is the story. Sometime later, King Xerxes promoted the bad guy Haman. Son of hard word to pronounce. The Aggagite. Over all the other nobles making Haman the most powerful official in the kingdom. So you got the king's most powerful and now he's got his most powerful ranking official. And all the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to the bad guy Haman for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Esther's cousin Mordecai would not kneel down and pay him honor. What do we see here? Well, we see that everyone bowels to Haman except for one guy. Mordecai. Why didn't he bow? Well, probably because he was Jewish and he wouldn't bow to anyone but God. Which shows us the principle that sometimes your greatest act of courage is refusing to do what everyone else is doing. And if you're a follower of Jesus, you actually know that to be true. Sometimes whatever it is, you're trying to follow Jesus in your life and all your other friends are getting drunk and partying their brains out. And even though they're doing it, you say, "Well, I'm not going to do that because Jesus has called me not to be better but to be different, to be holy and to be set apart." Or maybe you don't sleep around when that's considered the absolute norm and everyone expects you to. But you're not going to. Why? Because you have the courage to be different. Everyone else is gossiping at work. And you don't judge them and you're not better than them, but you walk away because you're called to be different. Different isn't. Better, different is different. If you're the same, you're probably not following Jesus. I tell people all the time, "Don't worry if you're different. Worry if you're not." Sometimes the greatest act of courage is just stepping away when everyone else stays in the wrong place. Mordecai won't bow. Everyone else bows. And he says, "I don't bow to anyone but the true God." And so, Heyman, the bad guy, he loses it. I mean, he blows a gasket. And in some ways, I can relate because this guy had everything you'd want.

He's powerful. Everybody else is bowing. And one bro doesn't bow and he falls apart. That happens to me. Several people say, good sermon, pester Greg, good sermon, pester Greg, good sermon, pester Greg. One person says, "Does a dumb sermon in your shirt didn't look good?" And I fall apart. Whatever. I mean, it is amazing how one unmet expectation can rob you of the joy of all the other blessings that you already have. One guy doesn't bow. And Heyman puffs up, instead of letting it go, he lets it consume him. There's one guy who bow down. Let me. And then it got worse. He discovers, Heyman is Persian. And he discovers that Mordecai is Jewish. And the Persian people despise the Jewish people. Suddenly, it wasn't about one man anymore. Now, Heyman, the bad guy, didn't want to just kill Mordecai, but instead he wanted to kill every single Jewish person in the entire empire. Tragic, horrific, horrible. Verse 6 of Esther 3 says this, you're having learned who Mordecai's people were. Okay, they're Jewish. He scored the Instead, Haman, the bad guy, looks for a way to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerces. One guy won't battle. And this guy determines, I'm gonna kill them all. So what does Haman do? He goes to the king, king. And he tells him a lie. He makes up this story and he tries to manipulate the king. He doesn't say, king, one man won't bow to me. Instead what he says is king, all these people are dangerous. None of them obeys your loss. And the king says, oh, that's not good. And he believes Haman's lie. And so he gives Haman permission to kill every Jewish person in the empire. Verse 13 tells us this, letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instructions to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all Jews, young and old,

women and children in one day, kill them all. And so the Bible says that Haman says he cast lots. I don't know if you know what that means or not. It means like drawing straws or like rolling dice. He says, okay, what day are we gonna destroy them all? And he cast lots and the day ends up on being 11 months later. So 11 months from now, he's gonna destroy all the Jews. And he thinks to himself the date was random. It looks like chance. But what looks like chance is often God's providence in disguise. Some of you are here last week, remember what providence is. That's when God uses ordinary circumstances to bring about his supernatural will. That's when the very thing that's going on in your life that you don't understand and which wasn't there. Years later, you look back and say, oh, I see how God used something in my life that I didn't expect to do something that only he could do. Haman thinks, okay, it just so happens that 11 months from now, that's the date that we're gonna do it. But he didn't know that God was giving Esther time to discover her purpose when she was in the palace because at this time, she doesn't know her purpose. She didn't even know at this point that there was a plan to kill her people. Why? Because she was comfortable. Safe.

Hidden, still hiding her Jewish identity. While her people were under a death sentence. Now I wanna ask you, a lot of build up. Thank you for staying with me, application. How often is that us? How often in some area of our lives are we living in comfort? Unaware of something tragic, very nearby. You see, this is one of the many problems with comfort. Comfort doesn't just make us comfortable. It makes us less aware. Whenever I find myself more comfortable, I am less aware of people that are hurting, very close to me. When I'm comfortable, I'm less aware of those people who are far from God. When I'm comfortable, I'm less aware of my need for him. And this is why I'm gonna come today. I hope you receive this as loving because there is no judgment because I've been there way too often. But suddenly right now, you are comfortable in your faith. You call yourself a follower of Jesus. He's been a long time since you've done anything that takes faith. You're comfortable. We've been pursuing comfort in the name of Jesus and now we're comfortable. And so whatever it is, like you're so focused on the next vacation that you don't even notice

your teenager is drifting away. You're so busy like scrolling on your phone at night. You didn't realize the person next to you is desperate to have an intimate conversation with you but can't because your attention is always somewhere else. Some people, but we just get so busy enjoying the blessings of God that we forget that he called us to a life outside of our own comfort and selfishness to be a blessing to other people. And this was me about a decade in, pastor, correct. I'd worked so hard, things were finally starting to go well. And I just thought, I kind of want to break. I kind of want to ease you. I kind of want comfort. And I was like, I was so thankful for the fruit. Like finally, it's there. I didn't realize that I'd stop living by faith. And it's easy to do. Because even though like we believe in God, most of you do, most of you believe in God. sometimes it seems like life is just happening outside of God, just another day, just another day, and another day, and I'm comfortable. And another day, and I'm comfortable. And it's not that we're rejecting God's calling. We just get distracted from it. When comfortable day becomes a comfortable week, becomes a comfortable month, becomes a comfortable year, and then we wake up and realize we've built a comfortable life

and we're no longer living by faith. And so I want to talk to you. And when I do, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will talk through my words to you because I can't do it right. I don't have the power, but that those of you that are followers of Jesus, you can hear the spirit of God speaking to you. And what I want to recognize is that you never hear God's word without God having a purpose. He always has a purpose. His word never returns void. He always wants to speak to you. Hey, that wasn't one of my favorite sermons. Who really cares? God can still speak to you. Sometimes people quote me and say, Pastor Craig, when you said that it changed my life and they're like, I never said that. I didn't say it. Why? God said it. Like God can take the dumb things I say and fix it. I hope he does that today. This is like whatever it's like, it's not my word. It's his spirit. I can say nothing. You can be in his presence and he can speak to you. Speak to you through worship. Speak to you through your kid. Speak to you through the person who stops you and says,

let's pray together before you leave. The presence of God is always speaking. He's always speaking. And so if you're in pain, God will comfort you. Three does. If you're hurting today, God comforts you in your pain. But if you're comfortable today, God will convict you in your comfort. It's what he does. He convicts us, comforts us and he convicts us. They're both loving. So I want to ask you again, same thing Lyle asked me. When is the last time you made a decision that actually took faith? What we're going to do is we're going to talk about that in our life groups this week and so I'm going to say, well, I'm not in a life group. Well, it would probably take faith to actually step out of your comfort zone and get in some community. And there is no strategy and no reason why I always talk about this besides the fact that the matter is that life goes better with God's people. And life is not as good without God's people. And one of the biggest problems I see today in the world is that people are on their phones and they're going solo and they don't have community. And I stood in a lobby between two services and I asked every person, do you have close Christian friends and almost everybody, almost everybody, about nine out of 10 looked at me like I just diagnosed a horrible problem and went, no, and their body language changed. Do you have close, strong Christian friends? No, and their body language changed. One out of 10 or so would say, yes, and their body language changed. Yes, I do like I have a treasure.

Yes, I do. Yes, I do. No, I don't. Yes, I do. If you don't have it, you're missing one of the key ingredients of knowing God, serving God, being faithful for God, enjoying the blessings of God because we're not just called for an individual relationship with them, but Christianity is more of a corporate relationship with them. And we're going to get together in the body of Christ. We're going to study His Word together. We're going to serve one another. We're going to love one another. We're going to forgive one another. And we're going to ask each other, when is the last time you actually made a decision that took faith? And I'm going to help you answer that question. Here's a question, when is the last time you made a decision that took faith? Here's how you answer it. If you're going to accomplish everything you're doing right now without needing God, you're probably not living by faith. So what faith step is God calling you to take? Some of you, it's just a conversation that you've been avoiding that you know God wants you to have or it's a sin that you've been excusing. You've been rationalizing it. It's not that big of a deal. All sin is a big deal. It breaks the heart of God, separates us from God, it hurts us and hurts people. Maybe it's something that God wants you to surrender to Him. Maybe it's someone that God wants you to forgive. And whatever it is, God wants you to take your time. not because you don't love God, but because you've gotten comfortable.

And if you say, Craig, you're preaching passionately is because that's me. Again, 30 years in, three decades of trying to keep the passion high. And earlier this year, it was again, I just found myself being comfortable again. I'm like, I kind of just want to take it easy. I want weekends off. Not jealous, maybe a little bit. I just want, I just want to coast. I don't want to pray big. And I'm looking at my life again and realizing my prayers had gotten smaller. And my faith had gotten safer. And so what I'm going to do just right now in front of all of you, in front of God and everybody, I'm just going to tell you what I'm choosing. And I'll just say it as simply as I can. And I mean it from the depths of my heart. I mean it more than I can describe to you. I choose faith. I choose faith. I choose it. I choose faith over comfort. I refuse to be more grateful for what God has already done in our church than desperate for what God wants to do next. I choose faith. I choose it. I choose it.

I choose it. I choose it. And you're going to watch Esther do this because if you look at her life, she could have very easily thought that the palace was finally like the reward. Okay, they chose me and I endured it and I went through all that stuff. And now I have comfort and power, but the palace wasn't the reward. The palace was preparation. Watch for her biggest step of faith. Her biggest step of faith was still ahead of her. And so I just tell you right now as your pastor, I confess and I truly believe. I truly believe that my biggest step of faith is still ahead of me. And I believe as your pastor, the very same is true for you. Your biggest step of faith is ahead of you. Don't let comfort keep you from your calling. If you're comfortable, let God can fix you, feel it, repent, grieve it, turn back to him. So God, I need you. I want you. I want to believe so big for something. If you don't come through God, then it doesn't happen. Not that it depend on my own strength, my own abilities. God, I want to depend on you.

So, hear it not as me asking you, hear it as a Holy Spirit asking you, when, when is the last time you made a decision? It took big faith and here's the application and here's whatever and we're gonna talk about this in our live groups and we're gonna be together in the body of Christ and we're gonna pray for each other and we're gonna stand together and we're gonna be conformed to the image of Christ 'cause we're not playing. We're gonna just go into church. We are the church. This isn't just a check the box and we go on with life. We are the body of Christ called by God to be a light in the world, to share his word with people as who we are. We're gonna do it together and the application that we're gonna ask ourselves is this, what faith step is God calling you to take? Some of you know what it is, no more excuses. Take the step of faith. Give it, confess it, apologize for it, ask for it, surrender it, forgive them, whatever it is. What faith step is God calling you to take? I love you, I pray that God speaks to you. Would you pray with me today? Heavenly Father, we open up our hearts, believing God you're gonna speak to all of us. God comfort those that are hurting and God convict those of us that are comfortable.

As you're praying today, all of our churches, if you recognize you're a little bit more comfortable. We're gonna do this again. I keep changing my mind, open up your eyes. Let's just not play. We're not hiding this thing. If you recognize you are a follower of Jesus and you've been a little more comfortable and you wanna live by faith, Praise God for you, just be honest. Now we're gonna just put your hands in front of you, just kind of in a surrender place for God, and just kind of do this, now you can close your eyes, and we're just gonna pray, and in your own words, you can just tell God I'm trusting you in faith. God, I pray for every person who has grown more comfortable that just hands postured towards surrender would be a reflection of our heart before you, God. Help us to need you, help us to trust you. God, for specific miracles, for the salvation of the loved one that we think may never know you. For miraculous and supernatural healing in a body that most would say could never be healed. God, for restoration, for a broken relationship. That seems like it's always gonna be broken. God, for faith, for provision, not just for us, but so that we could be generous and be a blessing to others. God, for faith to give to someone, or to give what you prompted us to give. God, let's just surrender hands.

We choose faith. If you wanna tell 'em that in your own words is what you just, you would say, I choose faith. If you wanna tell 'em, just whisper it to say, I choose faith. I choose faith. God, help us to choose faith every single day, because without faith it's impossible, please you. As you keep praying today, nobody looking around this time. There are some of you that are comfortable, and some of you are the opposite. When it comes to spiritual things, like you're not comfortable, you're not close to God, you're far from God. Let me tell you what God's word says. Scripture says that every single one of us have sinned. If you ever feel guilty for doing things wrong, welcome to the family. We've all done things wrong. We've all sinned against the holy God, and our sin separates us from God. So how are we made right with God? Well, Scripture tells us this, that we're not made right with God by our own works, by our own religious efforts, but the only way we're made right with God, watch this, the Bible says that we are saved by grace. If you know what say aloud, through what? Through faith, the way that we're saved is by grace through faith.

Grace is the unmerited favor of God, faith in the perfect work of Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the sinless son of God. He's called the Lamb of God, who was without sin, who gave his life as a sacrifice on a cross, and three days later, God raised him from the dead, so that anyone in this includes you, doesn't matter what you've done, how bad your life is, how dark you feel. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be forgiven and made new. You're saved not by religious effort, not by your own good works, but by his grace, by his perfect work through faith, believing in the perfect work of Jesus by faith, so that no one can brag about it. God gets all the glory for it. There are those of you that are here, that you know you're far from God, you're not walking with him, you're not at peace with him. Maybe you've been too comfortable in this world, but now you're being convicted of your sin. Today, we're gonna take a step away from our sin, and by faith believe that the work of Jesus is all that we need, you're saved by grace through faith. If you recognize, you're not an intimate God, you don't know if you're forgiven by God. Today is the day of your salvation, grace through faith, wherever you are today,

say I need his forgiveness, I need his grace. Today, I give my life to him, Jesus, be my Savior, be my Lord, that's your prayer, lift your hand high right now. Lift it up all over the place and say yes, that's my prayer right back there. God bless you over here as well, praise God for you. Oh, come on in this section here. I just say yes, Jesus, I surrender. People up here praise God for you, others say yes. Be the Lord of my life, I surrender to you. Be first in my life. Online, you can type in the comment section, I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. And today, we all pray together in faith, pray a lot, pray heavenly Father. Forgive all of my sins, Jesus saved me. Be first in my life, the Lord of my life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, so I can live by your power, so I can know you, so I can show your love. Help me to live by faith, every day by faith, living for you. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Church, can you celebrate, give God glory. Come on, come on, come on. - Hey, it's Pastor Craig and Amy Groeschel with Life Church. And if you just made the decision to give your life to Christ,

this is the most important and life-changing decision that you'll ever make. And all of heaven is celebrating right now because of your decision, - That's right. And we want you to know that God sees you. He's with you and he loves you. He has a purpose for your life. And incarceration, it doesn't define you. It doesn't confine you 'cause you are free in Christ. You are new in him. Chains have been broken today. - And so as a follower of Jesus, God wants us to be on this journey together. And I want you to know you don't have to do this alone. And that's why we, as your church family, we're here for you and we want to help you grow in your faith and find your next steps. So first of all, just keep joining us for church every single week and worshiping through the Pando app. We're so thankful that you're here. When we draw close to God, he draws near to us. And so I would also encourage you read God's word if it's available to you. And as you do, just start to pray and invite God into every single aspect of your life. And then if you feel led, you might even share your decision with somebody else. There might be a family member or a friend. And they're gonna wanna hear your story

and your spiritual journey. We'd love to hear it as well. And you can send us a letter if you'd like to. The address is on your screen. And our team will write back to you and help you grow in your faith with Jesus. And so we'd love to mail you some content about who Jesus is and help you grow in your relationship with him now that you've chosen to follow Jesus. That's right. And God's plan for your life, it's greater than anything that you could ever imagine. In fact, Ephesians 3.20 says God is able to do abundantly more than we could ask or imagine. Trust him with your whole life. You will see him work in ways you have never thought possible. Congratulations on this decision. We are your family and you're part of the family of God. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]