Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Let's pick up right.
Speaker 2: There at Mark, chapter one, verse fourteen with the second
Speaker 2: installment of Savage Jesus. After John was put in prison,
Speaker 2: Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
Speaker 2: The time has come, he said, Kingdom of God is near. Repent,
Speaker 2: believe the good news. Jesus walked beside to see if Galilee.
Speaker 2: He saw Simon. That's the guy who got his name
Speaker 2: changed to Peter. Because God doesn't call you what other
Speaker 2: people call you. He doesn't call you what you call yourself,
Speaker 2: you call yourself a failure. He calls you a masterpiece
Speaker 2: of grace, a canvas waiting to be painted on. So
Speaker 2: that's who Simon is. And we believe that Peter gave
Speaker 2: Mark the recollect action for this gospel account. Mark was
Speaker 2: writing down a lot of the memories of Peter. That's
Speaker 2: what scholars tell me. Anyway, I wasn't there. Let's continue.
Speaker 2: He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net
Speaker 2: into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come follow me,
Speaker 2: Jesus said, and I'll make you fishures of men.
Speaker 1: And once they left their nets, followed him.
Speaker 2: When he got a little farther, he saw James, son
Speaker 2: of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat preparing
Speaker 2: their nets, getting ready to go do what they did
Speaker 2: without delay, which is Mark's favorite phrase in scripture. It's
Speaker 2: translated different ways, but it's immediately or suddenly.
Speaker 1: He writes that way.
Speaker 2: It's breathless the account that he gives of the life
Speaker 2: of Christ, because knowing that he has no time to
Speaker 2: waste in getting to the cross, he can't really take
Speaker 2: a lot of time with trivial details, and so he's
Speaker 2: just giving us not the whole exchange that happened. I
Speaker 2: don't think Jesus just walked by and said, come follow me, fishersmen,
Speaker 2: and they went with him. I think there was a conversation.
Speaker 2: But we are given the essence of the conversation so
Speaker 2: that we can know that Jesus did not come to
Speaker 2: give us cute cliches and Hallmark cards, but instructions and
Speaker 2: commands that are best for our life, to lead us
Speaker 2: in the way everlasting and without delay.
Speaker 1: He called them.
Speaker 2: He did not wait for them to understand their calling
Speaker 2: before he gave it to them. That interesting, he did
Speaker 2: not wait for them to go through confirmation classes. He
Speaker 2: did not give them ministerial training. He simply gave them
Speaker 2: a calling. And they left their father Zebedee in the
Speaker 2: boat with the hired men and followed him. So there's
Speaker 2: a commonality. I'm going to read more than that, but
Speaker 2: i'll break it up. The commonality is that in both
Speaker 2: of these cases, you have Andrew and Simon who became Peter.
Speaker 2: You've got John and James. And watch what they had
Speaker 2: to do to come into their calling. Verse eighteen says
Speaker 2: at once they left their nets, and then again.
Speaker 1: In verse twenty without the life they left their father.
Speaker 2: So the first pattern I see emerging here about following
Speaker 2: Christ to really follow Christ, is that coming into my
Speaker 2: calling means coming out of my comfort zone. And I
Speaker 2: want to preach this point fully, but I don't want
Speaker 2: to take long on it because it's not my main point.
Speaker 2: It is the context of Christianity, though, that Christ did
Speaker 2: not come to make us comfortable. I think in order
Speaker 2: to understand your relationship with someone, you have to understand
Speaker 2: the function. And I want to speak to you for
Speaker 2: a few moments today on dysfunctional comfort. That's my topic,
Speaker 2: dysfunctional comfort. And when you don't understand the function of something,
Speaker 2: you are more than likely to get hurt or break
Speaker 2: it trying to engage it. So that's why I had
Speaker 2: to explain to my boys that the treadmill in our
Speaker 2: house is not a toy. It's a coat wrap. When
Speaker 2: I saw them taking their little sister, Abby and they
Speaker 2: were putting her on the treadmill at speed eight.
Speaker 1: Point five.
Speaker 2: And putting her on the treadmill, and they told me
Speaker 2: they were playing checkout at Target. This is not the
Speaker 2: function of the treadmill. And your sister is worth more
Speaker 2: than fifteen cents, that's what they were telling her. That's
Speaker 2: why she was crying. You only rang up for fifteen cents. Sorry, Abby,
Speaker 2: you're not that expensive. I had to shut it down. Why,
Speaker 2: that's not what the treadmill is for. But when you
Speaker 2: don't know what something is for, you will know how
Speaker 2: to use it. You won't understand how to relate to people.
Speaker 2: If you do not understand the nature of a relationship.
Speaker 2: Most of the dysfunction in my relationships came because I
Speaker 2: violated the nature of the relationship. I either tried to
Speaker 2: get something from someone that they could not give me
Speaker 2: that they were not designed to deposit in my life,
Speaker 2: or I tried to give.
Speaker 1: To somebody something.
Speaker 2: That they didn't ask for or didn't want to receive
Speaker 2: from me. But without understanding the nature of a relationship,
Speaker 2: you will you will have relational frustration and dysfunction because
Speaker 2: you don't understand what that person was in your life for.
Speaker 2: It's kind of weird how some of the people that
Speaker 2: you try to help the most, or that try to
Speaker 2: help you the most, there ends up being more hurt
Speaker 2: in those relationships than any other relationship.
Speaker 1: When my dad.
Speaker 2: First got really sick, and we did not know it
Speaker 2: was als yet, but we knew that he needed some help,
Speaker 2: I started trying to pay for everything, and I started
Speaker 2: trying to take care of everything. The process of trying
Speaker 2: to take care of his physical needs, I stopped meeting
Speaker 2: the emotional need that he had to be a.
Speaker 1: Dad to me. And so when I started acting like I.
Speaker 2: Was the dad, it created a disfunction in our relationship
Speaker 2: that almost broke it apart.
Speaker 1: And a lot of that was my fault.
Speaker 2: Because I was ignorant to the fact that when you
Speaker 2: try to give somebody something in a relationship that is
Speaker 2: not the primary need they have of you, it will
Speaker 2: be a good intention with a bad result. How many
Speaker 2: know what I'm talking about on some level, On some level,
Speaker 2: try to make your kids your best friends.
Speaker 1: They're not, They suck. Treat them like it. Now. I
Speaker 1: love my kids.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying sometimes is going to be Sometimes it's
Speaker 2: going to have to be a dad moment and just
Speaker 2: not a buddy moment. And I don't have any examples
Speaker 2: of that, because in our home it's perfect and we
Speaker 2: pray a lot. But here's what I wanted to say
Speaker 2: about that. I think a lot of the problems in
Speaker 2: our relationship with Christ are because we do not understand
Speaker 2: his primary function in our lives lives. I think a
Speaker 2: lot of us associate Christ primarily with comfort.
Speaker 1: We come to church for comfort, and.
Speaker 2: People will leave churches sometimes because they'll say.
Speaker 1: I was uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: People left Jesus one time because he fed them food.
Speaker 1: Comfort food. They loved it.
Speaker 2: Then he turned around and said something very uncomfortable. Eat
Speaker 2: my flesh, drink my blood. We're out of here. That
Speaker 2: made me kind of uncomfortable. That cannibalism part of his sermon.
Speaker 2: Food was good, but I don't know, it's not worth
Speaker 2: all that it made them uncomfortable. Okay, now the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 2: can I teach you a little theology class? I paid
Speaker 2: eighty thousand dollars to go to school and learn this stuff.
Speaker 1: I got to share it. Sometime when the.
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit was coming, Jesus said, I'm going to send
Speaker 2: you a comforter.
Speaker 1: So the Holy Spirit not only convicts, he comforts. The
Speaker 1: primary role of the Holy Spirit is comfort. Okay.
Speaker 2: The primary role of Jesus when he was on the
Speaker 2: earth was not comfort.
Speaker 1: It was confrontation. I know you don't like that.
Speaker 2: I know you want Jesus to speak to you in
Speaker 2: aphorisms that cause you to feel better about yourself each day.
Speaker 1: But the primary function of.
Speaker 2: Jesus, I'll show it to you here in the scripture
Speaker 2: in a moment, was not to comfort the people, but
Speaker 2: to confront the systems that kept the people in bondage
Speaker 2: and in captivity. It's important that we understand this because
Speaker 2: if we misunderstand the reason that Christ came, we will
Speaker 2: be confused about how we come to him, and we
Speaker 2: will begin.
Speaker 1: To associate the presence of God in our lives with comfort.
Speaker 2: And we will associate the devil with confrontation and conflict.
Speaker 2: But sometimes it is the devil who is giving you comfort,
Speaker 2: and it is God who is putting you in conflict.
Speaker 2: What if I just dropped the mic, walked off the
Speaker 2: stage right there, and we thought about it for forty
Speaker 2: five minutes. Because you have been blaming the devil for
Speaker 2: God's handiwork, and to come into your calling will require
Speaker 2: you to come out of your comfort zone. Peter had
Speaker 2: to leave his nets. James had to leave poor Zebedee
Speaker 2: in the boat. C isze, I gotta go. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: fish for men. Notice I'm gonna be doing the same
Speaker 2: thing fishing, but for a different purpose, not for profit,
Speaker 2: but for people. Now, when God calls you, he doesn't
Speaker 2: always make you change your career. I'm so tired of
Speaker 2: people quitting their job and starting a coffee shop because
Speaker 2: they like coffee. You need to be good at business.
Speaker 2: If you like coffee, you can go to Starbucks. You
Speaker 2: need to be good at marketing to start a coffee shop.
Speaker 2: Calling is not about address, and it's not about vocation.
Speaker 1: Calling is about vision.
Speaker 2: It is about the level at which you see the
Speaker 2: gift that God.
Speaker 1: Has placed in your life.
Speaker 2: So Jesus said, I see a gift in you to fish.
Speaker 2: You have tenacity, you have a certain set of skills,
Speaker 2: but I am going to apply your aptitude to a
Speaker 2: higher avocation. In other words, come follow me, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to enlarge your capacity. I'm going to bring you
Speaker 2: into calling. But in order for you to find your calling,
Speaker 2: you've got to forsake your comfort. We typically want both simultaneously,
Speaker 2: abs and no planks, a divine calling and no discomfort.
Speaker 2: But coming into your calling means coming out of your
Speaker 2: comfort zone, no certainty, no contract. Follow me and I
Speaker 2: will show you as you go. That sounds almost exactly
Speaker 2: like Abraham go to the land. I will show you.
Speaker 2: That's an uncomfortable proposition. But if I'm gonna bless you
Speaker 2: so you could be a blessing, you are going to
Speaker 2: have to learn to be uncomfortable. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: call you to do something that is outside of your competency.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna use what you're good at. I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: put you on the voice. If you can't sing, please
Speaker 2: bless us by keeping it in the shower. If you
Speaker 2: can't sing, you see what I'm saying. It's not beyond
Speaker 2: your competency, but it's going to be beyond your comfort.
Speaker 2: You're gonna feel stretched by this. And so they didn't move.
Speaker 2: One interesting thing is they didn't move or relocate. Instead,
Speaker 2: the call of God was for them to repent. This
Speaker 2: word does not mean really bad about yourself. It means
Speaker 2: change your mind, to change the way you think about
Speaker 2: the reason that you're here, and to change the way
Speaker 2: that you think about what you're going through, and to
Speaker 2: change the way you think about who really is in
Speaker 2: the seat of authority in your life. So follow me,
Speaker 2: forsake the familiar, and walk in faith. The greatest enemy
Speaker 2: of faith is not fear, It is familiarity.
Speaker 1: Fear is an ally of faith.
Speaker 2: Fear puts you in a place where you know you
Speaker 2: need something greater than yourself, which makes connection with God possible.
Speaker 2: Fear can lead to faith, but familiarity can keep you
Speaker 2: stuck in predictable cycles that are pitiful. But because they're predictable,
Speaker 2: you will stay in them unless something calls you out.
Speaker 1: What was interesting to me.
Speaker 2: About this introductory context is that if you'll remember one time,
Speaker 2: Peter had been fishing all night and he caught nothing,
Speaker 2: and Jesus said, throw your nets and you'll catch a
Speaker 2: lot of fish, and they did. I thought this was
Speaker 2: that same time, because you know, there's four different gospels.
Speaker 2: I did my research and found out that this was
Speaker 2: the first time they were called, and so Jesus did
Speaker 2: not call them out of their failure or frustration. What
Speaker 2: they were doing was working, but there was a higher purpose. Now,
Speaker 2: a lot of times it's easy for us to give
Speaker 2: all that we have to Christ when we've come to.
Speaker 1: The end of ourselves.
Speaker 2: But when God calls you out of your success into
Speaker 2: something sacrificial, will you still obey?
Speaker 1: Will you come out of your comfort zone?
Speaker 2: They knew how to fish, they were good at fishing.
Speaker 2: They had a system set up by which their fishing
Speaker 2: could put food on their table, and he called them
Speaker 2: out of their comfort zone.
Speaker 1: Now, where they went next.
Speaker 2: Is really critical to our understanding of the nature of
Speaker 2: God's calling on our lives. Verse twenty one says they
Speaker 2: went to Capernaum.
Speaker 1: I've been there.
Speaker 2: I've actually been to Capernaum, and our guide Aria said
Speaker 2: that I was saying it wrong.
Speaker 1: He said, not Copernaum, keffer Nahum.
Speaker 2: Took me seven times to say it, and till he
Speaker 2: was satisfied, he said, kefar ke far nahom nahm ke
Speaker 2: far village nahom comforter. Like the minor prophet Nahom. He says, hey,
Speaker 2: ke far ken far nahm. Now kevar cavar nahom stress on.
Speaker 1: The k kep.
Speaker 2: Don't matter what matters what it means, what it means
Speaker 2: village of the comforter. In't that cool? He said, you
Speaker 2: call it Copernaum, and you'd missed the whole point.
Speaker 1: It means village.
Speaker 2: Nahom comforter, village of the comforter. They went to Capernaum,
Speaker 2: hold that it's really important to what I want to say.
Speaker 2: They went to Kephar Nahum, and when the Sabbath came,
Speaker 2: Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach as
Speaker 2: a guest speaker.
Speaker 1: This was customary. The people were amazed at his teaching.
Speaker 2: Ooh, this is good preaching, pastor Amen, because he taught
Speaker 2: them as one who had authority, not as the teachers.
Speaker 1: Of the law. But remember I told you last week.
Speaker 2: The greatest proclamation of the gospel is not explanation, it's demonstration.
Speaker 2: I've said that in case you're not good with your words,
Speaker 2: you might preach the gospel louder than me without saying
Speaker 2: a thing, just by how you do your business, or
Speaker 2: how you treat people, or how.
Speaker 1: You respond to your wife.
Speaker 2: So Jesus is proclaiming the word of God, explaining or teaching,
Speaker 2: and they're amazed. Ooh wow, ahoh ah. Hashtag amazing, hashtag authority,
Speaker 2: hashtag this guy just then Verse twenty three, a man
Speaker 2: in their synagogue, who's synagogue, who's synagogue. Jesus is just
Speaker 2: a guest preacher. He's not the senior pastor. He's just
Speaker 2: getting to Comperrenahim. Now he's going to base his whole
Speaker 2: ministry out of Nahoum. He's going to do a couple
Speaker 2: dozen miracles. Twenty two Biblical miracles are in Nahom, village
Speaker 2: of the Comforter. And so Jesus comes and he calls
Speaker 2: the disciples. He gets his circle right. He does not
Speaker 2: call the people who make him comfortable. He calls the
Speaker 2: people who will make him effective. Even to say that
Speaker 2: coming into your calling means coming out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 1: Should be validated by the fact that for.
Speaker 2: Jesus to save you, he had to step out of heaven.
Speaker 2: For Jesus to fulfill his calling as the lamb slain
Speaker 2: from the foundation of the earth, he had to lay
Speaker 2: the richest and glory of heaven aside. And here we
Speaker 2: stand sometimes, and we we will not step away from
Speaker 2: our heated seats and luxury lives and broken beliefs long
Speaker 2: enough to get outside of our comfort zone and step.
Speaker 1: Into our calling.
Speaker 2: Well, now Jesus is in Copernium, but he does not
Speaker 2: come just to comfort the people.
Speaker 1: He comes to confront.
Speaker 2: The system that has imprisoned the people.
Speaker 1: What happens next has never.
Speaker 2: Happened to me in a sermon, and I pray that
Speaker 2: it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Just then, I've had a lot of stuff happen while
Speaker 1: I preach. I've had people get up and walk out.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they're mad or had a full bladder,
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I've had people.
Speaker 1: Get up and walk out.
Speaker 2: I've had people say weird things, dearing my sermon, Do
Speaker 2: weird things dear my sermon? Never had this, and please
Speaker 2: don't try today. Just then, a man in their synagogue
Speaker 2: who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out. Just
Speaker 2: then a man who was in their synagogue. Now, listen,
Speaker 2: you don't just go to synagogue because you feel like
Speaker 2: it every first Sunday or on Easter and Christmas. He
Speaker 2: was a part of their synagogue, so it stands to
Speaker 2: reason he had been there many times before. He had
Speaker 2: sat and listened to the teaching and instruction. As little
Speaker 2: as we know about him, we have reason to believe
Speaker 2: he was a regular. A man in their synagogue who
Speaker 2: was possessed by an evil spirit or an unclean spirit,
Speaker 2: or maybe your version of Bible says a demon or
Speaker 2: the King James says, a devil. It doesn't matter what
Speaker 2: you call it. It was dysfunctional. Something dysfunctional in this
Speaker 2: man stood up when Jesus spoke. Something dysfunctional in this
Speaker 2: man cried out when Jesus spoke with authority, and evil
Speaker 2: spirit cried out, what do you want with us, Jesus
Speaker 2: of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?
Speaker 1: I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
Speaker 2: Be quiet, Jesus says, sternly.
Speaker 1: Come out of him.
Speaker 2: He didn't need a seance, he didn't need seven steps,
Speaker 2: just the virtue of the power.
Speaker 1: I feel like preaching the Bible today.
Speaker 2: The power of his word made flesh in this man,
Speaker 2: drove the dysfunction out of the man. Come out of him,
Speaker 2: you unclean spirit. I don't think Jesus screamed it. I
Speaker 2: don't think he had to. Real power can whisper and
Speaker 2: get its point across.
Speaker 1: The evil spirit shook.
Speaker 2: Jesus didn't touch the man, but he started shaking, and
Speaker 2: the man was violently convulsing on the floor. But even
Speaker 2: though the demon put up a fight, it had to
Speaker 2: come out when Jesus spoke. I can't tell if y'all
Speaker 2: met me in church today or if I'm doing this
Speaker 2: by myself.
Speaker 1: Because I think we need to speak to some things.
Speaker 2: In the presence of God today that have occupied space
Speaker 2: in our spirit and in our minds, and in our families,
Speaker 2: and in our schools and in our generational bloodline.
Speaker 1: Somebody shall come out.
Speaker 2: And the spirit came out with a shriek. The power
Speaker 2: of God is not always pretty. See this man is
Speaker 2: shaking on the floor. We just want a nice clean
Speaker 2: pat with roses and chrysanthemums, and we walk down the
Speaker 2: aisle and accept Jesus and everything is all right. But
Speaker 2: some stuff in your life will not come out less
Speaker 2: it is confronted.
Speaker 1: It has to be confronted or it will not come out.
Speaker 2: Shout it again in the back, come out, come out.
Speaker 1: And the spirit obeyed Jesus.
Speaker 2: What I can't figure out, and this is what I've
Speaker 2: been studying this week in preparation for our time together,
Speaker 2: is why this man was able to sit in their
Speaker 2: synagogue for so long, and the evil spirit was comfortable
Speaker 2: in church. But when Jesus showed up, I said, when
Speaker 2: Jesus showed up, when the Son of God showed up.
Speaker 2: I'm not preaching this one for everybody. This is just
Speaker 2: for a fuel of y'all. When Jesus shows up, power
Speaker 2: shows up. When Jesus shows up, Demon's trimple.
Speaker 1: When Jesus shows.
Speaker 2: Up, dysfunction, nowhere to hide and nowhere to run. And
Speaker 2: we came to declare today to every evil sphearing in
Speaker 2: our city, come out in the navel Jesus, how many
Speaker 2: times had he been to church possessed by this demon?
Speaker 2: Don't get caught up on demon. I know some of
Speaker 2: y'all are so scared right now looking for the exist
Speaker 2: We're not gonna do anything like that. If you make
Speaker 2: this Bible passage about demons. You missed the entire demonstration
Speaker 2: of authority because we don't call it demons anymore. In
Speaker 2: the ancient world, everything was a demon, running nose demon.
Speaker 2: I'm serious. Mental illness was demon. They didn't have tests
Speaker 2: and pills and all this. It was just a demon.
Speaker 1: Now do demons still exist today? Yes? But do we
Speaker 1: call them dysfunctions instead?
Speaker 2: All right, I won't do it, but I was thinking
Speaker 2: about having you raise your hand if you came from
Speaker 2: a dysfunctional family. Reason I won't do it Number one
Speaker 2: might cause you some tense conversations on the way home.
Speaker 2: I'm looking out for my teenagers. But I did it
Speaker 2: one time. I did it one time. I said how
Speaker 2: he came from a dysfunctional family, and I thought I
Speaker 2: would minister to twenty percent of the room. Every hand.
Speaker 1: Went up.
Speaker 2: When I think about the dysfunctions in my life, I
Speaker 2: have to be honest with you. I don't like to
Speaker 2: say this, but some of my dysfunctions I've really learned
Speaker 2: to love. I don't love the dysfunctions. I don't love
Speaker 2: the devil. I love sin, but sometimes I love the
Speaker 2: way it makes me feel.
Speaker 1: That was too real for him.
Speaker 2: You know, I church people are if you say anything
Speaker 2: that resembles real life, they stop shouting. If you put
Speaker 2: Jesus on a horse coming out the.
Speaker 1: Clouds, they shout.
Speaker 2: But when you say stuff like this, dysfunction can be comfortable, right,
Speaker 2: dysfunction can dysfunction can be a snuggie. I mean, if
Speaker 2: you really want to feel good, quick, let me tell
Speaker 2: you the best way to do it. Criticize somebody women.
Speaker 2: Can we talk about this? How fun it is to
Speaker 2: be critical of others?
Speaker 1: It is amazing how quickly my dysfunction.
Speaker 2: Is swallowed up when I picked somebody who has a
Speaker 2: different dysfunction that I don't happen to struggle with and
Speaker 2: put all of my energy rather than confronting my own dysfunction.
Speaker 2: If I can spend five minutes judging yours.
Speaker 1: Come on, can we be honest? It's fun. Listen, It's fun.
Speaker 2: That's why they call it this fun sun.
Speaker 1: It's fun. It's fun to talk about all other people's apparent.
Speaker 2: It's amazing to talk about all other people just spend
Speaker 2: their money on what you would do if you were
Speaker 2: sounded down dull.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. I love it. I love my dysfunction the
Speaker 1: way that it comforts me. I love.
Speaker 2: Here's my favorite dysfunction. I love to indulge my insecurities.
Speaker 2: It feels humble, but really what it does It gives
Speaker 2: me an excuse to not fulfill my calling. But it's comfortable.
Speaker 2: So rather than come up to the level God has
Speaker 2: called me to, I indulge the insecurity. That's just the
Speaker 2: way I am.
Speaker 1: What'd you say? What did you say? Come out of?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: Come out of?
Speaker 2: The insecurity that has imprisoned you?
Speaker 1: This is a word for.
Speaker 2: Somebody who has gotten comfortable in your dysfunction.
Speaker 1: In fact, I want to take you to.
Speaker 2: Another passage real quick that shows you the devil's strategy.
Speaker 1: How many of you would like to know the devil's
Speaker 1: strategy for keeping you defeated? Three of y'all?
Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna do it for three, three of y'all.
Speaker 1: Because Paul.
Speaker 2: Writes something in Second Corinthians chapter one that I have
Speaker 2: always loved as a counseling scripture. When people are going
Speaker 2: through hard things, I will often share this verse with them,
Speaker 2: because really the whole passage is good, but two verses
Speaker 2: in particular, where it talks about.
Speaker 1: How sometimes when you go through something in your life.
Speaker 2: You're not going through it for you, But there is
Speaker 2: somebody who will go through something that will need what
Speaker 2: you will have after you get through what you're going through,
Speaker 2: and you will have it to give them. It is
Speaker 2: the function of comfort. It is the function of comfort.
Speaker 2: Comfort has a specific function. The comfort of Christ comes
Speaker 2: into our life not so that we can only be comforted,
Speaker 2: but that we can comfort others. If you search the
Speaker 2: scripture for comfort, you will find many commands to comfort others,
Speaker 2: and you will find many promises that God will comfort you,
Speaker 2: but you will never find permission to comfort yourself. What
Speaker 2: the devil wants us to do is to learn to
Speaker 2: run for comfort and cover to places outside of our calling,
Speaker 2: so that he can keep us comfortable in our dysfunction,
Speaker 2: so that we will never see our destiny come to pass.
Speaker 2: When Paul says it, he says, praise be to the
Speaker 2: God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father
Speaker 2: of compassion and the God of all comfort. Well, see,
Speaker 2: Pastor Stephen, you said that Jesus didn't come to comfort us,
Speaker 2: and there Paul says that he did. And so I'm
Speaker 2: going with Paul. Hang on for another verse. And see
Speaker 2: if you still want to sit there and argue with
Speaker 2: me after I've been all up in these books all week.
Speaker 2: Verse four says, who comforts us in all our dysfunction?
Speaker 1: No, see, that's what the devil does.
Speaker 2: The devil wants to comfort you in your dysfunction until
Speaker 2: you no longer see it as a problem, until it
Speaker 2: becomes so normal that you can go to church with
Speaker 2: an evil spirit and take it to lunch and take notes,
Speaker 2: but not take action. But Christ came to confront your dysfunction.
Speaker 1: Praise be to the.
Speaker 2: God and Father of our Lord. Jeis Christ, Father Compassion,
Speaker 2: who comforts us in all our Give me the verse
Speaker 2: all our trouble, all our trouble. Comfort can become dysfunctional
Speaker 2: when we get it from the wrong place.
Speaker 1: Some of us have comfort foods. Way, look at it me.
Speaker 2: Like you never ate the whole bag. Okay, let me
Speaker 2: try another route, since you're gonna be all dietary about
Speaker 2: this point. Some of us have comfort friends. Here we
Speaker 2: go help me, holy ghosts. I feel demons striking while
Speaker 2: I appreci this word.
Speaker 1: Some of us have people.
Speaker 2: In our lives who are good to us, but they're
Speaker 2: not good for us.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to call you out.
Speaker 2: But could it be possible that your comfort is keeping
Speaker 2: you from your calling, That you have put yourself in
Speaker 2: a space that seems safe, but you are sabotaging, silencing
Speaker 2: the power of God in your life because you love comfort.
Speaker 2: Praise me to the God and Father of our Lord,
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, father of all compassion and the God of a.
Speaker 1: Comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.
Speaker 2: In all our troubles, you mean God will use to
Speaker 2: bring me comfort. Yes, and not only that, but God
Speaker 2: will disrupt my comfort.
Speaker 1: To confront my dysfunction.
Speaker 2: So when I'm going through trouble, let me be a
Speaker 2: little slower to ask God to rebuke the devil. Maybe
Speaker 2: the trouble is the means of transformation. When God calls
Speaker 2: you out. Sometimes it is uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Sometimes.
Speaker 2: The way I gauge the presence of God when I'm
Speaker 2: preaching is by how uncomfortable people look in their seats.
Speaker 1: I didn't do that when I first started preaching.
Speaker 2: When I first iarp preaching, I thought they clapped I.
Speaker 1: Was doing good.
Speaker 2: Now I understand when you squirm. My favorite is when
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit has you pinned so up against your
Speaker 2: chair and I'm like about to send the medical team
Speaker 2: to check your pulse. That's when the presence of God came,
Speaker 2: when you got most uncomfortable. As long as we associate
Speaker 2: Jesus with comfort, we will miss him. Because Jesus comes
Speaker 2: to confront, not to condemn. There's a difference. Confrontation has
Speaker 2: the intent and the means to change you. Condemnation does
Speaker 2: not God soul of the word. He gave a son
Speaker 2: not to condemn the world, but that the world through
Speaker 2: him might be saved. The spirit of Christ is not
Speaker 2: to condemn, but the spirit of Christ.
Speaker 1: Will confront, confront.
Speaker 2: And my question today is what have we allowed to
Speaker 2: become too comfortable in our presence to occupy space that
Speaker 2: belongs to God. That man sat in their synagogue week
Speaker 2: after week, day after day, and the demon said nothing
Speaker 2: until Jesus came.
Speaker 1: The evil spirit the dysfunction stayed silent.
Speaker 2: But the proof of the presence of God is not
Speaker 2: always comfortable feelings. Sometimes the proof of the presence of
Speaker 2: God is disruption. Sometimes the proof of the presence of God.
Speaker 1: Is that one thing in.
Speaker 2: Your life dies so that something else can come alive.
Speaker 2: I don't think we recognize him when he comes because
Speaker 2: we don't understand what he came for. But I'll show
Speaker 2: you one thing that demons knew more about who Jesus
Speaker 2: was than the churchece did. When Jesus spoke, they said, oh,
Speaker 2: you came to get rid of us. Oh this is
Speaker 2: our eviction. Notice, Oh this is the promised one. The
Speaker 2: church people were still taking notes, and the demons were
Speaker 2: popping prozac. Because the demons know the name at which
Speaker 2: every name must bow, the name at which every tongue
Speaker 2: must confess. That Jesus Christ is Lord. And if he
Speaker 2: is Lord, fear has got to go. And if he
Speaker 2: is Lord, turn.
Speaker 1: This back up.
Speaker 2: And if he is Lord and has the keys of death,
Speaker 2: Hell and the Gray, there is nothing. I think we
Speaker 2: get too comfortable sometimes with our dysfunction.
Speaker 1: I do. I think we.
Speaker 2: The devil doesn't want us to get uncomfortable because then
Speaker 2: we would change. So he will make it so comfortable
Speaker 2: for us to be dysfunctional that we don't seek anything different.
Speaker 2: I don't hear a lot of people get into baptism
Speaker 2: tank and say, you know, I got a raise, I
Speaker 2: got married, The ring was seven carrots, and I went
Speaker 2: to elevation. I hear a lot of times where they
Speaker 2: say something shifted in my life. I lost something, I
Speaker 2: went through something, I faced the consequence of something, and
Speaker 2: at that point in my discomfort, God used my trouble
Speaker 2: to confront my dysfunction. So can I say something to
Speaker 2: everybody who's in trouble today.
Speaker 1: This is not just a test, This is a confrontation.
Speaker 2: This is an opportunity that God wants to use to
Speaker 2: confront what you have called normal and to call you.
Speaker 1: Into something greater.
Speaker 2: I believe the spirit of Jesus Christ is in you.
Speaker 2: And if the Spirit of Christ is in you, greater
Speaker 2: is he that is in you than he that is
Speaker 2: in the world. So we're going to take eighteen seconds
Speaker 2: and issue the command to every insecurity, to every fear,
Speaker 2: to every doubt, to every regret, come out in the
Speaker 2: enable Jesus.
Speaker 1: I will not.
Speaker 2: Become comfortable in the darkness when God has called me
Speaker 2: into the light. That's what the devil's telling his demons.
Speaker 2: Keep them comfortable, Keep them comfortable, keep them comfortable, keep
Speaker 2: them comfortable, Keep them so comfortable that what I died
Speaker 2: to set them free from will take up residence in them.
Speaker 1: Keep them comfortable.
Speaker 2: One of my friends gave me some good advice, because
Speaker 2: I was telling him something that somebody said about me
Speaker 2: that I heard through somebody else.
Speaker 1: How dysfunctional is this? He said?
Speaker 2: He said, how did how did you find out that
Speaker 2: they said it? I said, well, the person told me
Speaker 2: that somebody told them.
Speaker 1: And he said, oh, okay, Well here's what to do
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: Don't ask the person what the other person said about
Speaker 2: you next time, ask them why that person felt comfortable
Speaker 2: saying it about you to them. I never had anybody
Speaker 2: say anything bad to me about Holly. I don't think
Speaker 2: they would feel very comfortable.
Speaker 1: So what did I do? What was it? Capernaum compernaum,
Speaker 1: the village of the comforter.
Speaker 2: Were they so comfortable in their religion that they missed
Speaker 2: the revelation of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 1: You know what's sad?
Speaker 2: Capernaum is the place keffer nahum, sorry sorry, sor sir
Speaker 2: ke for naeum.
Speaker 1: That's how we say it. That's the authentic way that
Speaker 1: we say it. Okay.
Speaker 2: It was the place where Jesus based his ministry, and
Speaker 2: it was the place that he cursed before his ministry
Speaker 2: was over. In Matthew eleven, he gave some woes, actually
Speaker 2: wanted to give them verse twenty two, because it's important
Speaker 2: to the context.
Speaker 1: Matthew eleven twenty You got it.
Speaker 2: Jesus began to denounce the cities here it is in
Speaker 2: which most of his miracles had been performed, because they
Speaker 2: did not change their minds they saw the miracles, did
Speaker 2: not change their mind and their direction. The third city
Speaker 2: that he renounced or denounced is a city called Copernaum,
Speaker 2: the place where he lived, the place where he based
Speaker 2: out of, and the place where he most mightily displayed
Speaker 2: his glory. And look what he says about them in
Speaker 2: verse twenty three. And you Capernaum kephar Nahum, village of
Speaker 2: the Comforter, Will you.
Speaker 1: Be lifted up to the skies?
Speaker 2: After all that you've seen, after all that you've been
Speaker 2: exposed to, after hosting the presence of the eternal living
Speaker 2: Word of God, will you be lifted up?
Speaker 1: No, you will go down to the depths.
Speaker 2: If the miracles that were performed in you had been
Speaker 2: performed in Sodom, that wicked city that was judged for
Speaker 2: its pride and arrogance, it would have remained to this day.
Speaker 2: But I tell you it will be more bearable for
Speaker 2: Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. Why
Speaker 2: because you got too comfortable. You got too comfortable. Your
Speaker 2: name was a prophecy of what would ultimately be your undoing.
Speaker 2: When I love comfort more than I love Christ, and
Speaker 2: I run for comfort, I run from calling.
Speaker 1: You will not be lifted up. You will be brought.
Speaker 2: Down because you ran to comfort outside of Christ. You
Speaker 2: ran to religion, You ran to others, You ran to
Speaker 2: familiar fears. You ran back into insecurity, and you will.
Speaker 1: Not experience your calling because you got stuck in your comfort.
Speaker 2: Are you stuck in your comfort? Has it become dysfunctional?
Speaker 2: Have you learned to tolerate things in your life? The
Speaker 2: works of the devil that Jesus came to destroy. He
Speaker 2: came to save us from our sin, but he also
Speaker 2: came to set us free from it.
Speaker 1: And the spirit of Christ is in this place.
Speaker 2: And you don't have to stay stuck in comfortable dysfunction
Speaker 2: another day.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I don't think it has to be loud, and I
Speaker 2: don't think we have to scream and shout sometimes Sometimes
Speaker 2: I think the loudest response is a decision in your
Speaker 2: heart to say I am going to confront this, come out,
Speaker 2: Come out for you who have been living in the
Speaker 2: year twenty and eleven, in twenty twelve and the relationship
Speaker 2: that didn't work, come out. For you who have been
Speaker 2: living in the of an event that has passed, come out.
Speaker 2: For you who have been living in a complacent place
Speaker 2: of mediocre faith and lukewarm.
Speaker 1: Commitment to Jesus, come out. He's in the place. This
Speaker 1: is an eviction notice.
Speaker 2: To let everything in our lives that is keeping us
Speaker 2: from the high calling of God in Christ. Jesus know,
Speaker 2: we serve notice on you this day. We serve notice
Speaker 2: on you, this moment. We serve notice on you in
Speaker 2: the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Speaker 1: We're coming out of our dysfunction. We are coming out
Speaker 1: of our excuses.
Speaker 2: We are coming out of our complacency.
Speaker 1: We are coming out. I'm coming out.
Speaker 2: I don't want the comfort that comes from dysfunction. I
Speaker 2: want the comfort that comes from God.
Speaker 1: And if the spirit of the Lord is.
Speaker 2: Here, there is liberty here to break every chain.
Speaker 1: Come out in the name of.
Speaker 2: Jeson if he came out of his grave.
Speaker 1: I'm coming out of mind.
Speaker 2: Praise me to the God and Father of our Lord,
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort.
Speaker 1: He is in this place.
Speaker 2: I want to pray for you right now on the
Speaker 2: level that God is speaking to you. I pray the
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit will give me accuracy. Yes, thank you for standing.
Speaker 2: I want you to stand right now. And if there's
Speaker 2: something that God is speaking to you about in your life.
Speaker 1: That is dysfunctional.
Speaker 2: That you have become comfortable with, and you want to
Speaker 2: pray a really crazy prayer today that God would disrupt
Speaker 2: your comfort to confront your dysfunction so that you can
Speaker 2: behole and have life more abundantly and not just go
Speaker 2: to heaven when you die one day, but know the
Speaker 2: fullness of the power of God on this earth. The
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit is in this place. The comforter is here.
Speaker 2: The Comforter is here. So if it's you, I want
Speaker 2: you to lift both your hands in the air like
Speaker 2: you're not ashamed of the presence of God. And see
Speaker 2: when you did that, you said something. You said, I'm
Speaker 2: coming out with my hands up. I'm coming out in
Speaker 2: full surrender. I'm not coming out in my own opinion
Speaker 2: or my own strength. I'm coming out in the power
Speaker 2: of God. And I declare and decree in this moment
Speaker 2: that the name of Jesus in the blood of Christ
Speaker 2: is greater than all that I've done. I declare that
Speaker 2: the blood of Jesus has spoken a better word over
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 1: Now, God, by the.
Speaker 2: Authority that you have invested in me, by the power
Speaker 2: of your word and the name of Jesus Us, and
Speaker 2: the gift.
Speaker 1: Of your Holy Spirit, to preach the Gospel.
Speaker 2: I command everything that is not like you to come
Speaker 2: out of your sons and daughters. Everything that has kept
Speaker 2: them bound, everything that has kept them broken, everything that
Speaker 2: has kept them depressed, everything that has kept them in
Speaker 2: cycles of dysfunction, that.
Speaker 1: They cannot break.
Speaker 2: We declare right now, in the name of Jesus, change
Speaker 2: are breaking.
Speaker 1: Miracle working power is in this place.
Speaker 3: Evil spirits come out, evil spirits come out, Thoughts up
Speaker 3: to see come out, Discouragement come out. In the name
Speaker 3: of Jesus. Shames are falling.
Speaker 2: In the presence of a mighty God, one greater than April,
Speaker 2: have one.
Speaker 1: Greater than Moses.
Speaker 2: The name of Jesus, the name and wish every need will.
Speaker 1: Plow every talk to us. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus
Speaker 1: declare that death. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.