Hope in God The Source of all comfort
We continue in our series on Hope Found Here and this month our focus is on Hope in the Comforter.
Listen to the words of 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.
God is meant to be the source of our comfort, the source of our strength in adversity or trouble. Is God your comforter in all things or have you built yourself your own comfort zone?
A comfort zone, an invisible barrier that make you feel safe and secure. All of us have our comfort zones. Some of us surround ourselves with them. Some of us live in them. Some of us visit them. And some of us have learned to ignore our comfort zones and trust God to be our comforter, our strength, our refuge in every circumstance.
When we get used to something, or when we have done something in a particular way for a while, or when we just don’t want something to change, those are times when we can find ourselves in a comfort zone of our own design.
We develop comfort zones to help us feel secure, we develop comfort zones when we do not want the way we do things to change. Sometimes we are so scared of what might, we retreat further into our own comfort zone.
Someone once said that the only people who like change are babies with dirty nappies! I think my grandson would testify to that, the smiles he gives when someone changes his nappy are beautiful. If I’m honest I’m happy to see his smile but changing his nappy would take me outside my comfort zone!
If we are honest with ourselves, it’s easier for us to keep doing the same things - over and over and over again - than it is for us to allow change in our lives!
Even when it is God’s will that change should happen in our lives - or when it is God’s will that change should happen in the life of our church, we choose the comfortable option, the safe option. Have you ever done that?
Have you ever chosen the “safe” option? The option that says, I know God is bigger than this, I know God has said that all things are possible to those who believe, I know God is a God of miracles, BUT...
just in case this situation is bigger than God,
just in case I don’t have enough faith,
just in case God has stopped working miracles,
I am going to stay in my comfort zone and take the option that seems to be the safest.
Do you ever find yourself settling for second best?
Do you ever find yourself choosing the easy option?
What is it that stops you living and serving as God want you to live?
So often we settle for something easy and routine instead of striving for the best of what God wants to give us.
We have been called to trust God, we have been called to follow Him, we have been told that He has promised in whatever circumstance we find ourselves that He will never leave us or forsake us, yet we find ourselves fenced in by our own boundaries, we hide ourselves, we trap ourselves, we convince ourselves that we feel safe in our comfort zone.
In our comfort zone, we can choose to ignore God, we can hide ourselves so deep we ignore His voice, or worse we get to the point where we believe that we are trapped in our comfort zone and that there is no escape from a prison we have created.
Have you put walls around your comfort zone? Have you put a fence around the wall, so even if you try to escape your comfort zone there are additional barriers which prevent you from heading in the direction God is calling you to take?
Has your comfort zone become a prison? Is it the fear of the unknown that keeps you trapped inside your comfort zone? To be free from what has imprisoned you, you need to trust God and open the door.
Then you can escape from your comfort zone and allow the God of Comfort to work fully in your life, to bring you into a place of freedom and release.
God has a perfect plan and purpose for your life, but you need to choose to step out of your comfort zone, to leave the prison you have created, to leave behind the things that bind you and cage you, to come into the place where you allow the Holy Spirit to fully work in you and through you.
Friends, we need to leave behind the prisons of fear, failure, responsibility, routine, assumptions and guilt. We need to leave our comfort zones and step into the life of Hope, of blessed assurance, that God has called us to live.
Where is your comfort zone? Where are you this morning?
I want you to look at your own spiritual life and where you are in your spiritual walk right now.
Are you stuck in your comfort zone or are you stepping out in faith? Are you missing out on the blessings and the abundant life that Jesus promised because you refuse to leave your comfort zone?
Throughout history God has taken people out of their comfort zones. God has proven time after time that He is able and that He is willing. God has guided people on the paths He has made for them. God has guided and enabled people to do what He has called them to do. All it has taken is a step of faith.
A step of faith that has led to blessing.
A step of faith that has led to changed lives.
A step of faith that has made the impossible possible.
A step of faith that has brought glory to God.
A step of faith that leaves the comfort zone behind.
Do you ever take things for granted? So often we can take things for granted.
This morning you came in, sat down. You probably took for granted that the chairs would be here. You probably never think about who puts the chairs out - you just take for granted that it will happen.
When you stood up to sing, you took for granted that your voice would work.
When you sat down - you probably took for granted that your chair would still be there.
We take things for granted.
Things like the earth orbiting the sun.God placed our planet in just the right position so that life can continue, we do not freeze and we do not burn. Every second of the day God keeps the orbit of our planet JUST right! We take it for granted. How often do we even think about it?
Or Gravity. Do you ever go to bed at night worried that gravity will stop working?
Do you strap yourself into your bed just in case when you wake up your ceiling has become the floor?
Of course not, we take it for granted each and every day. So let me ask this question, “Why is it that that we can trust God to take care of these HUGE things in our universe, but we cannot seem to trust God in the little things within our lives?
So often we take for granted the wonderful and exciting things in our lives. God is at work - yet we ignore the fact that God is at work. God is operating right in front of our faces! God is doing things are vital to our lives. God is at work in us, in our families, in our church, in our community.
Friends, some of us are so busy in our comfort zones, we do not see what He is doing.Some of us are so happy in our comfort zones,we do not want to see what He is doing. Why? Because we know He wants us to be part of what He is doing but we do not want to be interrupted in our comfort zones.
When are you going to leave your comfort zone?
Is God calling you to step out of your comfort zone?
Is God asking you to do greater things for Him?
Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to work in your life?
Are you hiding and complaining that you aren’t qualified or that you are NOT the man or woman for the job?
What reason or excuse have you come up with in the hope that God will give up and leave you in your comfort zone?
Let me read you a theological definition of a spiritual comfort zone: A spiritual comfort zone is a state of spiritual behaviour within which a believer seeks to live out their Christian life without the presence of any spiritual anxiety or conflict. They adopt a spiritually neutral condition by limiting their spiritual behaviour to deliver a nondescript level of performance, usually without any sense of spiritual adventure!
A sad description isn’t it. A sad description - true of many Christians and many churches in the twenty-first century.
Comfort Zone Christianity. Spiritual mediocrity that wallows in self. Going through the motions of serving God without any risk or sense of purpose or adventure!
‘Comfort zone’ Christians never experience the abundant life that Christ has promised. ‘Comfort zone’ Christians never fulfill what Jesus promised in John 14 - the promise of doing great things as believers!.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!"
“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
Far too often we overlook these verses and don’t take it to heart. Jesus is saying what is expected of believers that follow Him. Maybe you have read this part of the Bible many times, maybe you have asked yourself the question “How can I do greater things than Jesus?” The simple answer is - you need to get out of your comfort zone.
Does doing ‘greater’ things than Jesus sound dangerous? Does it sound scary? Does it sound like something you are willing to do?
Jesus cleared the temple. Jesus held the religious leaders of His day accountable for their actions. Jesus looked beyond boundaries and reached out to those who society rejected. Jesus was willing to touch and be touched by those with terrible diseases. Jesus reached out to all that society had said were unworthy of God’s love.
When all hope was gone Jesus worked miracles. Jesus had courage in the face of adversity. Jesus was able to influence those around Him. Are you willing to have a “Jesus Like” influence on the world around you?
Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone so that through Him,through the empowerment of the Spirit, you are able to do great things for His kingdom?
Jesus knew that those who would trust Him, would spread the Gospel further into the world. That there would be others who would be used to speak the words of truth and life around the whole world.
There is hope found here. In Jesus own words, Jesus says to those who trust Him, to those who follow Him, to those who obey God, to those who allow the Advocate, the comforter, the Holy Spirit, to work in them and through them, great things are going to happen!
As I draw to a close, let me ask you, this morning will you step out of your comfort zone?
Step out in faith and serve our almighty, all powerful, all knowing God whose boundaries are limitless”
Don’t let your Christian life, your life as a disciple of Jesus, be limited by your comfort zone. Allow the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit in your life to help you live by faith. Step out of your comfort zone and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in the will of God. Submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your daily life.
We are called by God out of darkness into the light and life of His salvation for a purpose, that purpose is to seek and do the will of God. Step out of your comfort zone and walk by faith and not by sight Take a step of faith, step out of your Comfort Zone.
Let God be your Comforter and The Source of all your hope and your comfort.
