"You Look To Comfortable; Getting Out Of The Comfort Zone!” Pt.3 Series

Intro: I have been talking to you about casting the vision. Last Sunday, I told you about the story of Moses and Joshua how Moses set the vision while Joshua fulfilled it.

I then challenged you to get plugged in to the vision of the church; it is by plugging in that you become empowered to go with the vision. When you plugged in you are now giving new goals and challenges that will strengthen and equip you in your daily walk with the Lord. When the needs of this House are placed above yours not only will God bless this house but yours as well.

Today I want to follow up by challenging you to get out of your comfort zone and into the Gift Zone. Look at your neighbor and say, “neighbor you are looking a little too comfortable!”

Let me share with the story of Larry Walters.

He was a truck driver with a life-long dream to fly. So, he bought a tank of helium and 45 weather balloons (more than 4 feet across). He then strapped them to his lawn chair that was anchored to the bumper of his Jeep; packed him some sandwiches and drinks and a BB gun to pop the balloons when ready to return to earth.

He cut the rope and shot up like a rocket rather than floating like he envisioned. He didn’t only go a couple of hundred feet, but climbed to 11,000 feet (over 2 miles high). Now he’s afraid to shoot the balloons. He floated around for 14 hours.

He eventually drifted into near LAX Los Angeles International Airport. A Pan Am pilot radioed that he just passed a guy in a lawn chair w/a gun in his lap. The Navy dispatched a helicopter to rescue him. They had a hard time reaching him because the propellers kept pushing him away. They hovered over & lowered a rope & hauled him in.

When he hit the ground, he was arrested. The TV reporter asked why he did it. He replied, “A man just can’t sit around.”

The worst thing we can do here in the church is just sit around, and wait for the coming of the Lord. Jesus tells us in Luke 19:13 to “occupy till I come” we are to be about the Fathers business.

Thomas Carlyle, “the tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.”

So many are missing out right now and sadly it is those in the church that are missing out in their relationship with Christ and their relationship with the church.

My Grandpa at a young age shut down and became very fearful of the outside world he refused to leave and if he did it was for only a brief moment. He confided himself to the house.

All my memories of my grandpa are of him just sitting around. Life passed him by, he missed out on so much. Later in his life I had the privilege to lead him to the Lord before he died, but often I wonder how much different it would have been if he started a relationship early in his life.

I would hope that he would have done more with his walk than what he had done with his life.

I.Comfort zone to Gift Zone???

It is time for us to step out of our comfort zone that we have grown so accustomed too and step into our Gift Zone. We develop in the Gift zone we become cold and complacent in the comfort zone.

Now since I love football, I plan to use a lot of analogies from that game to get my points across. Today I will focus on from comfort zone to gift zone, and next message will deal with challenge zone to end zone.

The comfort zone sits and watches the game. The gift zone is like participating in a practice sessions, the challenge zone is being in the game, and the end zone is where the points are made.

Let’s look at Paul here in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” Victory is for those that play the game.

Here you see Paul come out of the comfort zone when he accepted the call into ministry, in the gift zone he fought a good fight, in the challenge zone he kept the faith, and in the end zone he finished the course.

Too many are complacent, settled, and satisfied with their walk with the Lord. They are living in the place of least resistance.

Let us look at a few characteristics of the comfort zone.

When you go to a football game the only thing you got to worry about is getting there. The players on the other hand have a lot more at stake. Showing up is not good enough; they have to know they are prepared for the game.