March 7, 2025 • 46 mins
We love comfort. But it may be getting in the way of God’s plan for our lives. See why being comfortable may not be what God wants for us.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message. Let's pick up right.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
There at Mark, chapter one, verse fourteen with the second
installment of Savage Jesus. After John was put in prison,
Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
The time has come, he said, Kingdom of God is near. Repent,
believe the good news. Jesus walked beside to see if Galilee.
(00:38):
He saw Simon. That's the guy who got his name
changed to Peter. Because God doesn't call you what other
people call you. He doesn't call you what you call yourself,
you call yourself a failure. He calls you a masterpiece
of grace, a canvas waiting to be painted on. So
that's who Simon is. And we believe that Peter gave
(00:59):
Mark the recollect action for this gospel account. Mark was
writing down a lot of the memories of Peter. That's
what scholars tell me. Anyway, I wasn't there. Let's continue.
He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net
into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come follow me,
Jesus said, and I'll make you fishures of men.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And once they left their nets, followed him.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
When he got a little farther, he saw James, son
of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat preparing
their nets, getting ready to go do what they did
without delay, which is Mark's favorite phrase in scripture. It's
translated different ways, but it's immediately or suddenly.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
He writes that way.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's breathless the account that he gives of the life
of Christ, because knowing that he has no time to
waste in getting to the cross, he can't really take
a lot of time with trivial details, and so he's
just giving us not the whole exchange that happened. I
don't think Jesus just walked by and said, come follow me, fishersmen,
and they went with him. I think there was a conversation.
But we are given the essence of the conversation so
(02:02):
that we can know that Jesus did not come to
give us cute cliches and Hallmark cards, but instructions and
commands that are best for our life, to lead us
in the way everlasting and without delay.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
He called them.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
He did not wait for them to understand their calling
before he gave it to them. That interesting, he did
not wait for them to go through confirmation classes. He
did not give them ministerial training. He simply gave them
a calling. And they left their father Zebedee in the
boat with the hired men and followed him. So there's
(02:38):
a commonality. I'm going to read more than that, but
i'll break it up. The commonality is that in both
of these cases, you have Andrew and Simon who became Peter.
You've got John and James. And watch what they had
to do to come into their calling. Verse eighteen says
at once they left their nets, and then again.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
In verse twenty without the life they left their father.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So the first pattern I see emerging here about following
Christ to really follow Christ, is that coming into my
calling means coming out of my comfort zone. And I
want to preach this point fully, but I don't want
to take long on it because it's not my main point.
(03:24):
It is the context of Christianity, though, that Christ did
not come to make us comfortable. I think in order
to understand your relationship with someone, you have to understand
the function. And I want to speak to you for
a few moments today on dysfunctional comfort. That's my topic,
(03:44):
dysfunctional comfort. And when you don't understand the function of something,
you are more than likely to get hurt or break
it trying to engage it. So that's why I had
to explain to my boys that the treadmill in our
house is not a toy. It's a coat wrap. When
(04:10):
I saw them taking their little sister, Abby and they
were putting her on the treadmill at speed eight.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Point five.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And putting her on the treadmill, and they told me
they were playing checkout at Target. This is not the
function of the treadmill. And your sister is worth more
than fifteen cents, that's what they were telling her. That's
why she was crying. You only rang up for fifteen cents. Sorry, Abby,
(04:41):
you're not that expensive. I had to shut it down. Why,
that's not what the treadmill is for. But when you
don't know what something is for, you will know how
to use it. You won't understand how to relate to people.
If you do not understand the nature of a relationship.
Most of the dysfunction in my relationships came because I
(05:04):
violated the nature of the relationship. I either tried to
get something from someone that they could not give me
that they were not designed to deposit in my life,
or I tried to give.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
To somebody something.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
That they didn't ask for or didn't want to receive
from me. But without understanding the nature of a relationship,
you will you will have relational frustration and dysfunction because
you don't understand what that person was in your life for.
It's kind of weird how some of the people that
(05:40):
you try to help the most, or that try to
help you the most, there ends up being more hurt
in those relationships than any other relationship.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
When my dad.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
First got really sick, and we did not know it
was als yet, but we knew that he needed some help,
I started trying to pay for everything, and I started
trying to take care of everything. The process of trying
to take care of his physical needs, I stopped meeting
the emotional need that he had to be a.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Dad to me. And so when I started acting like I.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Was the dad, it created a disfunction in our relationship
that almost broke it apart.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And a lot of that was my fault.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Because I was ignorant to the fact that when you
try to give somebody something in a relationship that is
not the primary need they have of you, it will
be a good intention with a bad result. How many
know what I'm talking about on some level, On some level,
try to make your kids your best friends.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
They're not, They suck. Treat them like it. Now. I
love my kids.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I'm just saying sometimes is going to be Sometimes it's
going to have to be a dad moment and just
not a buddy moment. And I don't have any examples
of that, because in our home it's perfect and we
pray a lot. But here's what I wanted to say
about that. I think a lot of the problems in
our relationship with Christ are because we do not understand
(06:57):
his primary function in our lives lives. I think a
lot of us associate Christ primarily with comfort.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
We come to church for comfort, and.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
People will leave churches sometimes because they'll say.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I was uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
People left Jesus one time because he fed them food.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Comfort food. They loved it.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Then he turned around and said something very uncomfortable. Eat
my flesh, drink my blood. We're out of here. That
made me kind of uncomfortable. That cannibalism part of his sermon.
Food was good, but I don't know, it's not worth
all that it made them uncomfortable. Okay, now the Holy Spirit,
can I teach you a little theology class? I paid
(07:48):
eighty thousand dollars to go to school and learn this stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I got to share it. Sometime when the.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Holy Spirit was coming, Jesus said, I'm going to send
you a comforter.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So the Holy Spirit not only convicts, he comforts. The
primary role of the Holy Spirit is comfort. Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
The primary role of Jesus when he was on the
earth was not comfort.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
It was confrontation. I know you don't like that.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I know you want Jesus to speak to you in
aphorisms that cause you to feel better about yourself each day.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
But the primary function of.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Jesus, I'll show it to you here in the scripture
in a moment, was not to comfort the people, but
to confront the systems that kept the people in bondage
and in captivity. It's important that we understand this because
if we misunderstand the reason that Christ came, we will
(08:43):
be confused about how we come to him, and we
will begin.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
To associate the presence of God in our lives with comfort.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And we will associate the devil with confrontation and conflict.
But sometimes it is the devil who is giving you comfort,
and it is God who is putting you in conflict.
What if I just dropped the mic, walked off the
stage right there, and we thought about it for forty
five minutes. Because you have been blaming the devil for
(09:12):
God's handiwork, and to come into your calling will require
you to come out of your comfort zone. Peter had
to leave his nets. James had to leave poor Zebedee
in the boat. C isze, I gotta go. I'm gonna
(09:33):
fish for men. Notice I'm gonna be doing the same
thing fishing, but for a different purpose, not for profit,
but for people. Now, when God calls you, he doesn't
always make you change your career. I'm so tired of
people quitting their job and starting a coffee shop because
they like coffee. You need to be good at business.
If you like coffee, you can go to Starbucks. You
(09:56):
need to be good at marketing to start a coffee shop.
Calling is not about address, and it's not about vocation.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Calling is about vision.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
It is about the level at which you see the
gift that God.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Has placed in your life.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So Jesus said, I see a gift in you to fish.
You have tenacity, you have a certain set of skills,
but I am going to apply your aptitude to a
higher avocation. In other words, come follow me, and I'm
going to enlarge your capacity. I'm going to bring you
into calling. But in order for you to find your calling,
(10:31):
you've got to forsake your comfort. We typically want both simultaneously,
abs and no planks, a divine calling and no discomfort.
(10:53):
But coming into your calling means coming out of your
comfort zone, no certainty, no contract. Follow me and I
will show you as you go. That sounds almost exactly
like Abraham go to the land. I will show you.
(11:16):
That's an uncomfortable proposition. But if I'm gonna bless you
so you could be a blessing, you are going to
have to learn to be uncomfortable. I'm not going to
call you to do something that is outside of your competency.
I'm gonna use what you're good at. I'm not gonna
put you on the voice. If you can't sing, please
(11:39):
bless us by keeping it in the shower. If you
can't sing, you see what I'm saying. It's not beyond
your competency, but it's going to be beyond your comfort.
You're gonna feel stretched by this. And so they didn't move.
One interesting thing is they didn't move or relocate. Instead,
the call of God was for them to repent. This
word does not mean really bad about yourself. It means
(12:02):
change your mind, to change the way you think about
the reason that you're here, and to change the way
that you think about what you're going through, and to
change the way you think about who really is in
the seat of authority in your life. So follow me,
forsake the familiar, and walk in faith. The greatest enemy
(12:24):
of faith is not fear, It is familiarity.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Fear is an ally of faith.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Fear puts you in a place where you know you
need something greater than yourself, which makes connection with God possible.
Fear can lead to faith, but familiarity can keep you
stuck in predictable cycles that are pitiful. But because they're predictable,
you will stay in them unless something calls you out.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
What was interesting to me.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
About this introductory context is that if you'll remember one time,
Peter had been fishing all night and he caught nothing,
and Jesus said, throw your nets and you'll catch a
lot of fish, and they did. I thought this was
that same time, because you know, there's four different gospels.
I did my research and found out that this was
(13:15):
the first time they were called, and so Jesus did
not call them out of their failure or frustration. What
they were doing was working, but there was a higher purpose. Now,
a lot of times it's easy for us to give
all that we have to Christ when we've come to.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
The end of ourselves.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
But when God calls you out of your success into
something sacrificial, will you still obey?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Will you come out of your comfort zone?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
They knew how to fish, they were good at fishing.
They had a system set up by which their fishing
could put food on their table, and he called them
out of their comfort zone.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Now, where they went next.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Is really critical to our understanding of the nature of
God's calling on our lives. Verse twenty one says they
went to Capernaum.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
I've been there.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I've actually been to Capernaum, and our guide Aria said
that I was saying it wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
He said, not Copernaum, keffer Nahum.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Took me seven times to say it, and till he
was satisfied, he said, kefar ke far nahom nahm ke
far village nahom comforter. Like the minor prophet Nahom. He says, hey,
ke far ken far nahm. Now kevar cavar nahom stress on.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
The k kep.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Don't matter what matters what it means, what it means
village of the comforter. In't that cool? He said, you
call it Copernaum, and you'd missed the whole point.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It means village.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Nahom comforter, village of the comforter. They went to Capernaum,
hold that it's really important to what I want to say.
They went to Kephar Nahum, and when the Sabbath came,
Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach as
a guest speaker.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
This was customary. The people were amazed at his teaching.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Ooh, this is good preaching, pastor Amen, because he taught
them as one who had authority, not as the teachers.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Of the law. But remember I told you last week.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
The greatest proclamation of the gospel is not explanation, it's demonstration.
I've said that in case you're not good with your words,
you might preach the gospel louder than me without saying
a thing, just by how you do your business, or
how you treat people, or how.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
You respond to your wife.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So Jesus is proclaiming the word of God, explaining or teaching,
and they're amazed. Ooh wow, ahoh ah. Hashtag amazing, hashtag authority,
hashtag this guy just then Verse twenty three, a man
in their synagogue, who's synagogue, who's synagogue. Jesus is just
(16:08):
a guest preacher. He's not the senior pastor. He's just
getting to Comperrenahim. Now he's going to base his whole
ministry out of Nahoum. He's going to do a couple
dozen miracles. Twenty two Biblical miracles are in Nahom, village
of the Comforter. And so Jesus comes and he calls
the disciples. He gets his circle right. He does not
(16:29):
call the people who make him comfortable. He calls the
people who will make him effective. Even to say that
coming into your calling means coming out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Should be validated by the fact that for.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Jesus to save you, he had to step out of heaven.
For Jesus to fulfill his calling as the lamb slain
from the foundation of the earth, he had to lay
the richest and glory of heaven aside. And here we
stand sometimes, and we we will not step away from
(17:08):
our heated seats and luxury lives and broken beliefs long
enough to get outside of our comfort zone and step.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Into our calling.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Well, now Jesus is in Copernium, but he does not
come just to comfort the people.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
He comes to confront.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
The system that has imprisoned the people.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
What happens next has never.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Happened to me in a sermon, and I pray that
it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Just then, I've had a lot of stuff happen while
I preach. I've had people get up and walk out.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I don't know if they're mad or had a full bladder,
I don't know, but I've had people.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Get up and walk out.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I've had people say weird things, dearing my sermon, Do
weird things dear my sermon? Never had this, and please
don't try today. Just then, a man in their synagogue
who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out. Just
then a man who was in their synagogue. Now, listen,
you don't just go to synagogue because you feel like
(18:07):
it every first Sunday or on Easter and Christmas. He
was a part of their synagogue, so it stands to
reason he had been there many times before. He had
sat and listened to the teaching and instruction. As little
as we know about him, we have reason to believe
he was a regular. A man in their synagogue who
(18:29):
was possessed by an evil spirit or an unclean spirit,
or maybe your version of Bible says a demon or
the King James says, a devil. It doesn't matter what
you call it. It was dysfunctional. Something dysfunctional in this
man stood up when Jesus spoke. Something dysfunctional in this
(18:55):
man cried out when Jesus spoke with authority, and evil
spirit cried out, what do you want with us, Jesus
of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Be quiet, Jesus says, sternly.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Come out of him.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
He didn't need a seance, he didn't need seven steps,
just the virtue of the power.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
I feel like preaching the Bible today.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
The power of his word made flesh in this man,
drove the dysfunction out of the man. Come out of him,
you unclean spirit. I don't think Jesus screamed it. I
don't think he had to. Real power can whisper and
get its point across.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
The evil spirit shook.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Jesus didn't touch the man, but he started shaking, and
the man was violently convulsing on the floor. But even
though the demon put up a fight, it had to
come out when Jesus spoke. I can't tell if y'all
met me in church today or if I'm doing this
by myself.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Because I think we need to speak to some things.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
In the presence of God today that have occupied space
in our spirit and in our minds, and in our families,
and in our schools and in our generational bloodline.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Somebody shall come out.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
And the spirit came out with a shriek. The power
of God is not always pretty. See this man is
shaking on the floor. We just want a nice clean
pat with roses and chrysanthemums, and we walk down the
aisle and accept Jesus and everything is all right. But
(20:57):
some stuff in your life will not come out less
it is confronted.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
It has to be confronted or it will not come out.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Shout it again in the back, come out, come out.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
And the spirit obeyed Jesus.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
What I can't figure out, and this is what I've
been studying this week in preparation for our time together,
is why this man was able to sit in their
synagogue for so long, and the evil spirit was comfortable
in church. But when Jesus showed up, I said, when
(21:40):
Jesus showed up, when the Son of God showed up.
I'm not preaching this one for everybody. This is just
for a fuel of y'all. When Jesus shows up, power
shows up. When Jesus shows up, Demon's trimple.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
When Jesus shows.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Up, dysfunction, nowhere to hide and nowhere to run. And
we came to declare today to every evil sphearing in
our city, come out in the navel Jesus, how many
(22:23):
times had he been to church possessed by this demon?
Don't get caught up on demon. I know some of
y'all are so scared right now looking for the exist
We're not gonna do anything like that. If you make
this Bible passage about demons. You missed the entire demonstration
(22:47):
of authority because we don't call it demons anymore. In
the ancient world, everything was a demon, running nose demon.
I'm serious. Mental illness was demon. They didn't have tests
and pills and all this. It was just a demon.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Now do demons still exist today? Yes? But do we
call them dysfunctions instead?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
All right, I won't do it, but I was thinking
about having you raise your hand if you came from
a dysfunctional family. Reason I won't do it Number one
might cause you some tense conversations on the way home.
I'm looking out for my teenagers. But I did it
one time. I did it one time. I said how
he came from a dysfunctional family, and I thought I
(23:29):
would minister to twenty percent of the room. Every hand.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Went up.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
When I think about the dysfunctions in my life, I
have to be honest with you. I don't like to
say this, but some of my dysfunctions I've really learned
to love. I don't love the dysfunctions. I don't love
the devil. I love sin, but sometimes I love the
(24:02):
way it makes me feel.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That was too real for him.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
You know, I church people are if you say anything
that resembles real life, they stop shouting. If you put
Jesus on a horse coming out the.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Clouds, they shout.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
But when you say stuff like this, dysfunction can be comfortable, right,
dysfunction can dysfunction can be a snuggie. I mean, if
you really want to feel good, quick, let me tell
you the best way to do it. Criticize somebody women.
(24:41):
Can we talk about this? How fun it is to
be critical of others?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
It is amazing how quickly my dysfunction.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Is swallowed up when I picked somebody who has a
different dysfunction that I don't happen to struggle with and
put all of my energy rather than confronting my own dysfunction.
If I can spend five minutes judging yours.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Come on, can we be honest? It's fun. Listen, It's fun.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
That's why they call it this fun sun.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
It's fun. It's fun to talk about all other people's apparent.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's amazing to talk about all other people just spend
their money on what you would do if you were
sounded down dull.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It's amazing. I love it. I love my dysfunction the
way that it comforts me. I love.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Here's my favorite dysfunction. I love to indulge my insecurities.
It feels humble, but really what it does It gives
me an excuse to not fulfill my calling. But it's comfortable.
(26:14):
So rather than come up to the level God has
called me to, I indulge the insecurity. That's just the
way I am.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
What'd you say? What did you say? Come out of?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
What?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Come out of?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
The insecurity that has imprisoned you?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
This is a word for.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Somebody who has gotten comfortable in your dysfunction.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
In fact, I want to take you to.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Another passage real quick that shows you the devil's strategy.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
How many of you would like to know the devil's
strategy for keeping you defeated? Three of y'all?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
All right, I'm gonna do it for three, three of y'all.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Because Paul.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Writes something in Second Corinthians chapter one that I have
always loved as a counseling scripture. When people are going
through hard things, I will often share this verse with them,
because really the whole passage is good, but two verses
in particular, where it talks about.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
How sometimes when you go through something in your life.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
You're not going through it for you, But there is
somebody who will go through something that will need what
you will have after you get through what you're going through,
and you will have it to give them. It is
the function of comfort. It is the function of comfort.
Comfort has a specific function. The comfort of Christ comes
into our life not so that we can only be comforted,
(27:45):
but that we can comfort others. If you search the
scripture for comfort, you will find many commands to comfort others,
and you will find many promises that God will comfort you,
but you will never find permission to comfort yourself. What
the devil wants us to do is to learn to
(28:06):
run for comfort and cover to places outside of our calling,
so that he can keep us comfortable in our dysfunction,
so that we will never see our destiny come to pass.
When Paul says it, he says, praise be to the
God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father
(28:29):
of compassion and the God of all comfort. Well, see,
Pastor Stephen, you said that Jesus didn't come to comfort us,
and there Paul says that he did. And so I'm
going with Paul. Hang on for another verse. And see
if you still want to sit there and argue with
me after I've been all up in these books all week.
Verse four says, who comforts us in all our dysfunction?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
No, see, that's what the devil does.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
The devil wants to comfort you in your dysfunction until
you no longer see it as a problem, until it
becomes so normal that you can go to church with
an evil spirit and take it to lunch and take notes,
(29:19):
but not take action. But Christ came to confront your dysfunction.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Praise be to the.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
God and Father of our Lord. Jeis Christ, Father Compassion,
who comforts us in all our Give me the verse
all our trouble, all our trouble. Comfort can become dysfunctional
when we get it from the wrong place.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Some of us have comfort foods. Way, look at it me.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Like you never ate the whole bag. Okay, let me
try another route, since you're gonna be all dietary about
this point. Some of us have comfort friends. Here we
go help me, holy ghosts. I feel demons striking while
I appreci this word.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Some of us have people.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
In our lives who are good to us, but they're
not good for us.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I don't mean to call you out.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
But could it be possible that your comfort is keeping
you from your calling, That you have put yourself in
a space that seems safe, but you are sabotaging, silencing
the power of God in your life because you love comfort.
(30:47):
Praise me to the God and Father of our Lord,
Jesus Christ, father of all compassion and the God of a.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
In all our troubles, you mean God will use to
bring me comfort. Yes, and not only that, but God
will disrupt my comfort.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
To confront my dysfunction.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
So when I'm going through trouble, let me be a
little slower to ask God to rebuke the devil. Maybe
the trouble is the means of transformation. When God calls
you out. Sometimes it is uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
The way I gauge the presence of God when I'm
preaching is by how uncomfortable people look in their seats.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
I didn't do that when I first started preaching.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
When I first iarp preaching, I thought they clapped I.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Was doing good.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Now I understand when you squirm. My favorite is when
the Holy Spirit has you pinned so up against your
chair and I'm like about to send the medical team
to check your pulse. That's when the presence of God came,
(32:15):
when you got most uncomfortable. As long as we associate
Jesus with comfort, we will miss him. Because Jesus comes
to confront, not to condemn. There's a difference. Confrontation has
(32:42):
the intent and the means to change you. Condemnation does
not God soul of the word. He gave a son
not to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. The spirit of Christ is not
to condemn, but the spirit of Christ.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Will confront, confront.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
And my question today is what have we allowed to
become too comfortable in our presence to occupy space that
belongs to God. That man sat in their synagogue week
after week, day after day, and the demon said nothing
until Jesus came.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
The evil spirit the dysfunction stayed silent.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
But the proof of the presence of God is not
always comfortable feelings. Sometimes the proof of the presence of
God is disruption. Sometimes the proof of the presence of God.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Is that one thing in.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Your life dies so that something else can come alive.
I don't think we recognize him when he comes because
we don't understand what he came for. But I'll show
you one thing that demons knew more about who Jesus
was than the churchece did. When Jesus spoke, they said, oh,
(34:04):
you came to get rid of us. Oh this is
our eviction. Notice, Oh this is the promised one. The
church people were still taking notes, and the demons were
popping prozac. Because the demons know the name at which
every name must bow, the name at which every tongue
must confess. That Jesus Christ is Lord. And if he
(34:28):
is Lord, fear has got to go. And if he
is Lord, turn.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
This back up.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
And if he is Lord and has the keys of death,
Hell and the Gray, there is nothing. I think we
get too comfortable sometimes with our dysfunction.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I do. I think we.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
The devil doesn't want us to get uncomfortable because then
we would change. So he will make it so comfortable
for us to be dysfunctional that we don't seek anything different.
I don't hear a lot of people get into baptism
tank and say, you know, I got a raise, I
(35:15):
got married, The ring was seven carrots, and I went
to elevation. I hear a lot of times where they
say something shifted in my life. I lost something, I
went through something, I faced the consequence of something, and
at that point in my discomfort, God used my trouble
(35:42):
to confront my dysfunction. So can I say something to
everybody who's in trouble today.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
This is not just a test, This is a confrontation.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
This is an opportunity that God wants to use to
confront what you have called normal and to call you.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Into something greater.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
I believe the spirit of Jesus Christ is in you.
And if the Spirit of Christ is in you, greater
is he that is in you than he that is
in the world. So we're going to take eighteen seconds
and issue the command to every insecurity, to every fear,
to every doubt, to every regret, come out in the
(36:26):
enable Jesus.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I will not.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Become comfortable in the darkness when God has called me
into the light. That's what the devil's telling his demons.
Keep them comfortable, Keep them comfortable, keep them comfortable, keep
them comfortable, Keep them so comfortable that what I died
to set them free from will take up residence in them.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Keep them comfortable.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
One of my friends gave me some good advice, because
I was telling him something that somebody said about me
that I heard through somebody else.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
How dysfunctional is this? He said?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
He said, how did how did you find out that
they said it? I said, well, the person told me
that somebody told them.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
And he said, oh, okay, Well here's what to do
about that.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Don't ask the person what the other person said about
you next time, ask them why that person felt comfortable
saying it about you to them. I never had anybody
say anything bad to me about Holly. I don't think
(37:50):
they would feel very comfortable.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
So what did I do? What was it? Capernaum compernaum,
the village of the comforter.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Were they so comfortable in their religion that they missed
the revelation of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 1 (38:13):
You know what's sad?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Capernaum is the place keffer nahum, sorry sorry, sor sir
ke for naeum.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
That's how we say it. That's the authentic way that
we say it. Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
It was the place where Jesus based his ministry, and
it was the place that he cursed before his ministry
was over. In Matthew eleven, he gave some woes, actually
wanted to give them verse twenty two, because it's important
to the context.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Matthew eleven twenty You got it.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Jesus began to denounce the cities here it is in
which most of his miracles had been performed, because they
did not change their minds they saw the miracles, did
not change their mind and their direction. The third city
(39:06):
that he renounced or denounced is a city called Copernaum,
the place where he lived, the place where he based
out of, and the place where he most mightily displayed
his glory. And look what he says about them in
verse twenty three. And you Capernaum kephar Nahum, village of
(39:27):
the Comforter, Will you.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Be lifted up to the skies?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
After all that you've seen, after all that you've been
exposed to, after hosting the presence of the eternal living
Word of God, will you be lifted up?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
No, you will go down to the depths.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
If the miracles that were performed in you had been
performed in Sodom, that wicked city that was judged for
its pride and arrogance, it would have remained to this day.
But I tell you it will be more bearable for
Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. Why
because you got too comfortable. You got too comfortable. Your
(40:15):
name was a prophecy of what would ultimately be your undoing.
When I love comfort more than I love Christ, and
I run for comfort, I run from calling.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
You will not be lifted up. You will be brought.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Down because you ran to comfort outside of Christ. You
ran to religion, You ran to others, You ran to
familiar fears. You ran back into insecurity, and you will.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Not experience your calling because you got stuck in your comfort.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Are you stuck in your comfort? Has it become dysfunctional?
Have you learned to tolerate things in your life? The
works of the devil that Jesus came to destroy. He
came to save us from our sin, but he also
came to set us free from it.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
And the spirit of Christ is in this place.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
And you don't have to stay stuck in comfortable dysfunction
another day.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
I don't think it has to be loud, and I
don't think we have to scream and shout sometimes Sometimes
I think the loudest response is a decision in your
heart to say I am going to confront this, come out,
Come out for you who have been living in the
(41:50):
year twenty and eleven, in twenty twelve and the relationship
that didn't work, come out. For you who have been
living in the of an event that has passed, come out.
For you who have been living in a complacent place
of mediocre faith and lukewarm.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Commitment to Jesus, come out. He's in the place. This
is an eviction notice.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
To let everything in our lives that is keeping us
from the high calling of God in Christ. Jesus know,
we serve notice on you this day. We serve notice
on you, this moment. We serve notice on you in
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
We're coming out of our dysfunction. We are coming out
of our excuses.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
We are coming out of our complacency.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
We are coming out. I'm coming out.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
I don't want the comfort that comes from dysfunction. I
want the comfort that comes from God.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
And if the spirit of the Lord is.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Here, there is liberty here to break every chain.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Come out in the name of.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Jeson if he came out of his grave.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
I'm coming out of mind.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Praise me to the God and Father of our Lord,
Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
He is in this place.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
I want to pray for you right now on the
level that God is speaking to you. I pray the
Holy Spirit will give me accuracy. Yes, thank you for standing.
I want you to stand right now. And if there's
something that God is speaking to you about in your life.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
That is dysfunctional.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
That you have become comfortable with, and you want to
pray a really crazy prayer today that God would disrupt
your comfort to confront your dysfunction so that you can
behole and have life more abundantly and not just go
to heaven when you die one day, but know the
fullness of the power of God on this earth. The
(44:13):
Holy Spirit is in this place. The comforter is here.
The Comforter is here. So if it's you, I want
you to lift both your hands in the air like
you're not ashamed of the presence of God. And see
when you did that, you said something. You said, I'm
coming out with my hands up. I'm coming out in
(44:36):
full surrender. I'm not coming out in my own opinion
or my own strength. I'm coming out in the power
of God. And I declare and decree in this moment
that the name of Jesus in the blood of Christ
is greater than all that I've done. I declare that
the blood of Jesus has spoken a better word over
my life.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Now, God, by the.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Authority that you have invested in me, by the power
of your word and the name of Jesus Us, and
the gift.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Of your Holy Spirit, to preach the Gospel.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I command everything that is not like you to come
out of your sons and daughters. Everything that has kept
them bound, everything that has kept them broken, everything that
has kept them depressed, everything that has kept them in
cycles of dysfunction, that.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
They cannot break.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
We declare right now, in the name of Jesus, change
are breaking.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Miracle working power is in this place.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Evil spirits come out, evil spirits come out, Thoughts up
to see come out, Discouragement come out. In the name
of Jesus. Shames are falling.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
In the presence of a mighty God, one greater than April,
have one.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Greater than Moses.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
The name of Jesus, the name and wish every need will.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Plow every talk to us. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus
declare that death. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message. Let's pick up right.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
There at Mark, chapter one, verse fourteen with the second
installment of Savage Jesus. After John was put in prison,
Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
The time has come, he said, Kingdom of God is near. Repent,
believe the good news. Jesus walked beside to see if Galilee.
(00:38):
He saw Simon. That's the guy who got his name
changed to Peter. Because God doesn't call you what other
people call you. He doesn't call you what you call yourself,
you call yourself a failure. He calls you a masterpiece
of grace, a canvas waiting to be painted on. So
that's who Simon is. And we believe that Peter gave
(00:59):
Mark the recollect action for this gospel account. Mark was
writing down a lot of the memories of Peter. That's
what scholars tell me. Anyway, I wasn't there. Let's continue.
He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net
into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come follow me,
Jesus said, and I'll make you fishures of men.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And once they left their nets, followed him.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
When he got a little farther, he saw James, son
of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat preparing
their nets, getting ready to go do what they did
without delay, which is Mark's favorite phrase in scripture. It's
translated different ways, but it's immediately or suddenly.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
He writes that way.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's breathless the account that he gives of the life
of Christ, because knowing that he has no time to
waste in getting to the cross, he can't really take
a lot of time with trivial details, and so he's
just giving us not the whole exchange that happened. I
don't think Jesus just walked by and said, come follow me, fishersmen,
and they went with him. I think there was a conversation.
But we are given the essence of the conversation so
(02:02):
that we can know that Jesus did not come to
give us cute cliches and Hallmark cards, but instructions and
commands that are best for our life, to lead us
in the way everlasting and without delay.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
He called them.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
He did not wait for them to understand their calling
before he gave it to them. That interesting, he did
not wait for them to go through confirmation classes. He
did not give them ministerial training. He simply gave them
a calling. And they left their father Zebedee in the
boat with the hired men and followed him. So there's
(02:38):
a commonality. I'm going to read more than that, but
i'll break it up. The commonality is that in both
of these cases, you have Andrew and Simon who became Peter.
You've got John and James. And watch what they had
to do to come into their calling. Verse eighteen says
at once they left their nets, and then again.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
In verse twenty without the life they left their father.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So the first pattern I see emerging here about following
Christ to really follow Christ, is that coming into my
calling means coming out of my comfort zone. And I
want to preach this point fully, but I don't want
to take long on it because it's not my main point.
(03:24):
It is the context of Christianity, though, that Christ did
not come to make us comfortable. I think in order
to understand your relationship with someone, you have to understand
the function. And I want to speak to you for
a few moments today on dysfunctional comfort. That's my topic,
(03:44):
dysfunctional comfort. And when you don't understand the function of something,
you are more than likely to get hurt or break
it trying to engage it. So that's why I had
to explain to my boys that the treadmill in our
house is not a toy. It's a coat wrap. When
(04:10):
I saw them taking their little sister, Abby and they
were putting her on the treadmill at speed eight.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Point five.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And putting her on the treadmill, and they told me
they were playing checkout at Target. This is not the
function of the treadmill. And your sister is worth more
than fifteen cents, that's what they were telling her. That's
why she was crying. You only rang up for fifteen cents. Sorry, Abby,
(04:41):
you're not that expensive. I had to shut it down. Why,
that's not what the treadmill is for. But when you
don't know what something is for, you will know how
to use it. You won't understand how to relate to people.
If you do not understand the nature of a relationship.
Most of the dysfunction in my relationships came because I
(05:04):
violated the nature of the relationship. I either tried to
get something from someone that they could not give me
that they were not designed to deposit in my life,
or I tried to give.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
To somebody something.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
That they didn't ask for or didn't want to receive
from me. But without understanding the nature of a relationship,
you will you will have relational frustration and dysfunction because
you don't understand what that person was in your life for.
It's kind of weird how some of the people that
(05:40):
you try to help the most, or that try to
help you the most, there ends up being more hurt
in those relationships than any other relationship.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
When my dad.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
First got really sick, and we did not know it
was als yet, but we knew that he needed some help,
I started trying to pay for everything, and I started
trying to take care of everything. The process of trying
to take care of his physical needs, I stopped meeting
the emotional need that he had to be a.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Dad to me. And so when I started acting like I.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Was the dad, it created a disfunction in our relationship
that almost broke it apart.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And a lot of that was my fault.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Because I was ignorant to the fact that when you
try to give somebody something in a relationship that is
not the primary need they have of you, it will
be a good intention with a bad result. How many
know what I'm talking about on some level, On some level,
try to make your kids your best friends.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
They're not, They suck. Treat them like it. Now. I
love my kids.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I'm just saying sometimes is going to be Sometimes it's
going to have to be a dad moment and just
not a buddy moment. And I don't have any examples
of that, because in our home it's perfect and we
pray a lot. But here's what I wanted to say
about that. I think a lot of the problems in
our relationship with Christ are because we do not understand
(06:57):
his primary function in our lives lives. I think a
lot of us associate Christ primarily with comfort.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
We come to church for comfort, and.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
People will leave churches sometimes because they'll say.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I was uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
People left Jesus one time because he fed them food.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Comfort food. They loved it.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Then he turned around and said something very uncomfortable. Eat
my flesh, drink my blood. We're out of here. That
made me kind of uncomfortable. That cannibalism part of his sermon.
Food was good, but I don't know, it's not worth
all that it made them uncomfortable. Okay, now the Holy Spirit,
can I teach you a little theology class? I paid
(07:48):
eighty thousand dollars to go to school and learn this stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I got to share it. Sometime when the.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Holy Spirit was coming, Jesus said, I'm going to send
you a comforter.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So the Holy Spirit not only convicts, he comforts. The
primary role of the Holy Spirit is comfort. Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
The primary role of Jesus when he was on the
earth was not comfort.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
It was confrontation. I know you don't like that.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I know you want Jesus to speak to you in
aphorisms that cause you to feel better about yourself each day.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
But the primary function of.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Jesus, I'll show it to you here in the scripture
in a moment, was not to comfort the people, but
to confront the systems that kept the people in bondage
and in captivity. It's important that we understand this because
if we misunderstand the reason that Christ came, we will
(08:43):
be confused about how we come to him, and we
will begin.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
To associate the presence of God in our lives with comfort.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And we will associate the devil with confrontation and conflict.
But sometimes it is the devil who is giving you comfort,
and it is God who is putting you in conflict.
What if I just dropped the mic, walked off the
stage right there, and we thought about it for forty
five minutes. Because you have been blaming the devil for
(09:12):
God's handiwork, and to come into your calling will require
you to come out of your comfort zone. Peter had
to leave his nets. James had to leave poor Zebedee
in the boat. C isze, I gotta go. I'm gonna
(09:33):
fish for men. Notice I'm gonna be doing the same
thing fishing, but for a different purpose, not for profit,
but for people. Now, when God calls you, he doesn't
always make you change your career. I'm so tired of
people quitting their job and starting a coffee shop because
they like coffee. You need to be good at business.
If you like coffee, you can go to Starbucks. You
(09:56):
need to be good at marketing to start a coffee shop.
Calling is not about address, and it's not about vocation.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Calling is about vision.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
It is about the level at which you see the
gift that God.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Has placed in your life.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So Jesus said, I see a gift in you to fish.
You have tenacity, you have a certain set of skills,
but I am going to apply your aptitude to a
higher avocation. In other words, come follow me, and I'm
going to enlarge your capacity. I'm going to bring you
into calling. But in order for you to find your calling,
(10:31):
you've got to forsake your comfort. We typically want both simultaneously,
abs and no planks, a divine calling and no discomfort.
(10:53):
But coming into your calling means coming out of your
comfort zone, no certainty, no contract. Follow me and I
will show you as you go. That sounds almost exactly
like Abraham go to the land. I will show you.
(11:16):
That's an uncomfortable proposition. But if I'm gonna bless you
so you could be a blessing, you are going to
have to learn to be uncomfortable. I'm not going to
call you to do something that is outside of your competency.
I'm gonna use what you're good at. I'm not gonna
put you on the voice. If you can't sing, please
(11:39):
bless us by keeping it in the shower. If you
can't sing, you see what I'm saying. It's not beyond
your competency, but it's going to be beyond your comfort.
You're gonna feel stretched by this. And so they didn't move.
One interesting thing is they didn't move or relocate. Instead,
the call of God was for them to repent. This
word does not mean really bad about yourself. It means
(12:02):
change your mind, to change the way you think about
the reason that you're here, and to change the way
that you think about what you're going through, and to
change the way you think about who really is in
the seat of authority in your life. So follow me,
forsake the familiar, and walk in faith. The greatest enemy
(12:24):
of faith is not fear, It is familiarity.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Fear is an ally of faith.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Fear puts you in a place where you know you
need something greater than yourself, which makes connection with God possible.
Fear can lead to faith, but familiarity can keep you
stuck in predictable cycles that are pitiful. But because they're predictable,
you will stay in them unless something calls you out.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
What was interesting to me.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
About this introductory context is that if you'll remember one time,
Peter had been fishing all night and he caught nothing,
and Jesus said, throw your nets and you'll catch a
lot of fish, and they did. I thought this was
that same time, because you know, there's four different gospels.
I did my research and found out that this was
(13:15):
the first time they were called, and so Jesus did
not call them out of their failure or frustration. What
they were doing was working, but there was a higher purpose. Now,
a lot of times it's easy for us to give
all that we have to Christ when we've come to.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
The end of ourselves.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
But when God calls you out of your success into
something sacrificial, will you still obey?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Will you come out of your comfort zone?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
They knew how to fish, they were good at fishing.
They had a system set up by which their fishing
could put food on their table, and he called them
out of their comfort zone.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Now, where they went next.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Is really critical to our understanding of the nature of
God's calling on our lives. Verse twenty one says they
went to Capernaum.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
I've been there.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I've actually been to Capernaum, and our guide Aria said
that I was saying it wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
He said, not Copernaum, keffer Nahum.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Took me seven times to say it, and till he
was satisfied, he said, kefar ke far nahom nahm ke
far village nahom comforter. Like the minor prophet Nahom. He says, hey,
ke far ken far nahm. Now kevar cavar nahom stress on.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
The k kep.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Don't matter what matters what it means, what it means
village of the comforter. In't that cool? He said, you
call it Copernaum, and you'd missed the whole point.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It means village.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Nahom comforter, village of the comforter. They went to Capernaum,
hold that it's really important to what I want to say.
They went to Kephar Nahum, and when the Sabbath came,
Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach as
a guest speaker.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
This was customary. The people were amazed at his teaching.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Ooh, this is good preaching, pastor Amen, because he taught
them as one who had authority, not as the teachers.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Of the law. But remember I told you last week.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
The greatest proclamation of the gospel is not explanation, it's demonstration.
I've said that in case you're not good with your words,
you might preach the gospel louder than me without saying
a thing, just by how you do your business, or
how you treat people, or how.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
You respond to your wife.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So Jesus is proclaiming the word of God, explaining or teaching,
and they're amazed. Ooh wow, ahoh ah. Hashtag amazing, hashtag authority,
hashtag this guy just then Verse twenty three, a man
in their synagogue, who's synagogue, who's synagogue. Jesus is just
(16:08):
a guest preacher. He's not the senior pastor. He's just
getting to Comperrenahim. Now he's going to base his whole
ministry out of Nahoum. He's going to do a couple
dozen miracles. Twenty two Biblical miracles are in Nahom, village
of the Comforter. And so Jesus comes and he calls
the disciples. He gets his circle right. He does not
(16:29):
call the people who make him comfortable. He calls the
people who will make him effective. Even to say that
coming into your calling means coming out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Should be validated by the fact that for.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Jesus to save you, he had to step out of heaven.
For Jesus to fulfill his calling as the lamb slain
from the foundation of the earth, he had to lay
the richest and glory of heaven aside. And here we
stand sometimes, and we we will not step away from
(17:08):
our heated seats and luxury lives and broken beliefs long
enough to get outside of our comfort zone and step.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Into our calling.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Well, now Jesus is in Copernium, but he does not
come just to comfort the people.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
He comes to confront.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
The system that has imprisoned the people.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
What happens next has never.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Happened to me in a sermon, and I pray that
it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Just then, I've had a lot of stuff happen while
I preach. I've had people get up and walk out.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I don't know if they're mad or had a full bladder,
I don't know, but I've had people.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Get up and walk out.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I've had people say weird things, dearing my sermon, Do
weird things dear my sermon? Never had this, and please
don't try today. Just then, a man in their synagogue
who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out. Just
then a man who was in their synagogue. Now, listen,
you don't just go to synagogue because you feel like
(18:07):
it every first Sunday or on Easter and Christmas. He
was a part of their synagogue, so it stands to
reason he had been there many times before. He had
sat and listened to the teaching and instruction. As little
as we know about him, we have reason to believe
he was a regular. A man in their synagogue who
(18:29):
was possessed by an evil spirit or an unclean spirit,
or maybe your version of Bible says a demon or
the King James says, a devil. It doesn't matter what
you call it. It was dysfunctional. Something dysfunctional in this
man stood up when Jesus spoke. Something dysfunctional in this
(18:55):
man cried out when Jesus spoke with authority, and evil
spirit cried out, what do you want with us, Jesus
of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Be quiet, Jesus says, sternly.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Come out of him.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
He didn't need a seance, he didn't need seven steps,
just the virtue of the power.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
I feel like preaching the Bible today.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
The power of his word made flesh in this man,
drove the dysfunction out of the man. Come out of him,
you unclean spirit. I don't think Jesus screamed it. I
don't think he had to. Real power can whisper and
get its point across.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
The evil spirit shook.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Jesus didn't touch the man, but he started shaking, and
the man was violently convulsing on the floor. But even
though the demon put up a fight, it had to
come out when Jesus spoke. I can't tell if y'all
met me in church today or if I'm doing this
by myself.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Because I think we need to speak to some things.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
In the presence of God today that have occupied space
in our spirit and in our minds, and in our families,
and in our schools and in our generational bloodline.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Somebody shall come out.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
And the spirit came out with a shriek. The power
of God is not always pretty. See this man is
shaking on the floor. We just want a nice clean
pat with roses and chrysanthemums, and we walk down the
aisle and accept Jesus and everything is all right. But
(20:57):
some stuff in your life will not come out less
it is confronted.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
It has to be confronted or it will not come out.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Shout it again in the back, come out, come out.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
And the spirit obeyed Jesus.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
What I can't figure out, and this is what I've
been studying this week in preparation for our time together,
is why this man was able to sit in their
synagogue for so long, and the evil spirit was comfortable
in church. But when Jesus showed up, I said, when
(21:40):
Jesus showed up, when the Son of God showed up.
I'm not preaching this one for everybody. This is just
for a fuel of y'all. When Jesus shows up, power
shows up. When Jesus shows up, Demon's trimple.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
When Jesus shows.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Up, dysfunction, nowhere to hide and nowhere to run. And
we came to declare today to every evil sphearing in
our city, come out in the navel Jesus, how many
(22:23):
times had he been to church possessed by this demon?
Don't get caught up on demon. I know some of
y'all are so scared right now looking for the exist
We're not gonna do anything like that. If you make
this Bible passage about demons. You missed the entire demonstration
(22:47):
of authority because we don't call it demons anymore. In
the ancient world, everything was a demon, running nose demon.
I'm serious. Mental illness was demon. They didn't have tests
and pills and all this. It was just a demon.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Now do demons still exist today? Yes? But do we
call them dysfunctions instead?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
All right, I won't do it, but I was thinking
about having you raise your hand if you came from
a dysfunctional family. Reason I won't do it Number one
might cause you some tense conversations on the way home.
I'm looking out for my teenagers. But I did it
one time. I did it one time. I said how
he came from a dysfunctional family, and I thought I
(23:29):
would minister to twenty percent of the room. Every hand.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Went up.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
When I think about the dysfunctions in my life, I
have to be honest with you. I don't like to
say this, but some of my dysfunctions I've really learned
to love. I don't love the dysfunctions. I don't love
the devil. I love sin, but sometimes I love the
(24:02):
way it makes me feel.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That was too real for him.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
You know, I church people are if you say anything
that resembles real life, they stop shouting. If you put
Jesus on a horse coming out the.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Clouds, they shout.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
But when you say stuff like this, dysfunction can be comfortable, right,
dysfunction can dysfunction can be a snuggie. I mean, if
you really want to feel good, quick, let me tell
you the best way to do it. Criticize somebody women.
(24:41):
Can we talk about this? How fun it is to
be critical of others?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
It is amazing how quickly my dysfunction.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Is swallowed up when I picked somebody who has a
different dysfunction that I don't happen to struggle with and
put all of my energy rather than confronting my own dysfunction.
If I can spend five minutes judging yours.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Come on, can we be honest? It's fun. Listen, It's fun.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
That's why they call it this fun sun.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
It's fun. It's fun to talk about all other people's apparent.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's amazing to talk about all other people just spend
their money on what you would do if you were
sounded down dull.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It's amazing. I love it. I love my dysfunction the
way that it comforts me. I love.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Here's my favorite dysfunction. I love to indulge my insecurities.
It feels humble, but really what it does It gives
me an excuse to not fulfill my calling. But it's comfortable.
(26:14):
So rather than come up to the level God has
called me to, I indulge the insecurity. That's just the
way I am.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
What'd you say? What did you say? Come out of?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
What?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Come out of?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
The insecurity that has imprisoned you?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
This is a word for.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Somebody who has gotten comfortable in your dysfunction.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
In fact, I want to take you to.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Another passage real quick that shows you the devil's strategy.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
How many of you would like to know the devil's
strategy for keeping you defeated? Three of y'all?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
All right, I'm gonna do it for three, three of y'all.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Because Paul.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Writes something in Second Corinthians chapter one that I have
always loved as a counseling scripture. When people are going
through hard things, I will often share this verse with them,
because really the whole passage is good, but two verses
in particular, where it talks about.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
How sometimes when you go through something in your life.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
You're not going through it for you, But there is
somebody who will go through something that will need what
you will have after you get through what you're going through,
and you will have it to give them. It is
the function of comfort. It is the function of comfort.
Comfort has a specific function. The comfort of Christ comes
into our life not so that we can only be comforted,
(27:45):
but that we can comfort others. If you search the
scripture for comfort, you will find many commands to comfort others,
and you will find many promises that God will comfort you,
but you will never find permission to comfort yourself. What
the devil wants us to do is to learn to
(28:06):
run for comfort and cover to places outside of our calling,
so that he can keep us comfortable in our dysfunction,
so that we will never see our destiny come to pass.
When Paul says it, he says, praise be to the
God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father
(28:29):
of compassion and the God of all comfort. Well, see,
Pastor Stephen, you said that Jesus didn't come to comfort us,
and there Paul says that he did. And so I'm
going with Paul. Hang on for another verse. And see
if you still want to sit there and argue with
me after I've been all up in these books all week.
Verse four says, who comforts us in all our dysfunction?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
No, see, that's what the devil does.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
The devil wants to comfort you in your dysfunction until
you no longer see it as a problem, until it
becomes so normal that you can go to church with
an evil spirit and take it to lunch and take notes,
(29:19):
but not take action. But Christ came to confront your dysfunction.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Praise be to the.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
God and Father of our Lord. Jeis Christ, Father Compassion,
who comforts us in all our Give me the verse
all our trouble, all our trouble. Comfort can become dysfunctional
when we get it from the wrong place.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Some of us have comfort foods. Way, look at it me.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Like you never ate the whole bag. Okay, let me
try another route, since you're gonna be all dietary about
this point. Some of us have comfort friends. Here we
go help me, holy ghosts. I feel demons striking while
I appreci this word.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Some of us have people.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
In our lives who are good to us, but they're
not good for us.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I don't mean to call you out.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
But could it be possible that your comfort is keeping
you from your calling, That you have put yourself in
a space that seems safe, but you are sabotaging, silencing
the power of God in your life because you love comfort.
(30:47):
Praise me to the God and Father of our Lord,
Jesus Christ, father of all compassion and the God of a.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
In all our troubles, you mean God will use to
bring me comfort. Yes, and not only that, but God
will disrupt my comfort.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
To confront my dysfunction.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
So when I'm going through trouble, let me be a
little slower to ask God to rebuke the devil. Maybe
the trouble is the means of transformation. When God calls
you out. Sometimes it is uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
The way I gauge the presence of God when I'm
preaching is by how uncomfortable people look in their seats.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
I didn't do that when I first started preaching.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
When I first iarp preaching, I thought they clapped I.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Was doing good.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Now I understand when you squirm. My favorite is when
the Holy Spirit has you pinned so up against your
chair and I'm like about to send the medical team
to check your pulse. That's when the presence of God came,
(32:15):
when you got most uncomfortable. As long as we associate
Jesus with comfort, we will miss him. Because Jesus comes
to confront, not to condemn. There's a difference. Confrontation has
(32:42):
the intent and the means to change you. Condemnation does
not God soul of the word. He gave a son
not to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. The spirit of Christ is not
to condemn, but the spirit of Christ.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Will confront, confront.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
And my question today is what have we allowed to
become too comfortable in our presence to occupy space that
belongs to God. That man sat in their synagogue week
after week, day after day, and the demon said nothing
until Jesus came.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
The evil spirit the dysfunction stayed silent.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
But the proof of the presence of God is not
always comfortable feelings. Sometimes the proof of the presence of
God is disruption. Sometimes the proof of the presence of God.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Is that one thing in.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Your life dies so that something else can come alive.
I don't think we recognize him when he comes because
we don't understand what he came for. But I'll show
you one thing that demons knew more about who Jesus
was than the churchece did. When Jesus spoke, they said, oh,
(34:04):
you came to get rid of us. Oh this is
our eviction. Notice, Oh this is the promised one. The
church people were still taking notes, and the demons were
popping prozac. Because the demons know the name at which
every name must bow, the name at which every tongue
must confess. That Jesus Christ is Lord. And if he
(34:28):
is Lord, fear has got to go. And if he
is Lord, turn.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
This back up.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
And if he is Lord and has the keys of death,
Hell and the Gray, there is nothing. I think we
get too comfortable sometimes with our dysfunction.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I do. I think we.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
The devil doesn't want us to get uncomfortable because then
we would change. So he will make it so comfortable
for us to be dysfunctional that we don't seek anything different.
I don't hear a lot of people get into baptism
tank and say, you know, I got a raise, I
(35:15):
got married, The ring was seven carrots, and I went
to elevation. I hear a lot of times where they
say something shifted in my life. I lost something, I
went through something, I faced the consequence of something, and
at that point in my discomfort, God used my trouble
(35:42):
to confront my dysfunction. So can I say something to
everybody who's in trouble today.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
This is not just a test, This is a confrontation.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
This is an opportunity that God wants to use to
confront what you have called normal and to call you.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Into something greater.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
I believe the spirit of Jesus Christ is in you.
And if the Spirit of Christ is in you, greater
is he that is in you than he that is
in the world. So we're going to take eighteen seconds
and issue the command to every insecurity, to every fear,
to every doubt, to every regret, come out in the
(36:26):
enable Jesus.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I will not.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Become comfortable in the darkness when God has called me
into the light. That's what the devil's telling his demons.
Keep them comfortable, Keep them comfortable, keep them comfortable, keep
them comfortable, Keep them so comfortable that what I died
to set them free from will take up residence in them.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Keep them comfortable.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
One of my friends gave me some good advice, because
I was telling him something that somebody said about me
that I heard through somebody else.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
How dysfunctional is this? He said?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
He said, how did how did you find out that
they said it? I said, well, the person told me
that somebody told them.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
And he said, oh, okay, Well here's what to do
about that.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Don't ask the person what the other person said about
you next time, ask them why that person felt comfortable
saying it about you to them. I never had anybody
say anything bad to me about Holly. I don't think
(37:50):
they would feel very comfortable.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
So what did I do? What was it? Capernaum compernaum,
the village of the comforter.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Were they so comfortable in their religion that they missed
the revelation of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 1 (38:13):
You know what's sad?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Capernaum is the place keffer nahum, sorry sorry, sor sir
ke for naeum.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
That's how we say it. That's the authentic way that
we say it. Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
It was the place where Jesus based his ministry, and
it was the place that he cursed before his ministry
was over. In Matthew eleven, he gave some woes, actually
wanted to give them verse twenty two, because it's important
to the context.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Matthew eleven twenty You got it.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Jesus began to denounce the cities here it is in
which most of his miracles had been performed, because they
did not change their minds they saw the miracles, did
not change their mind and their direction. The third city
(39:06):
that he renounced or denounced is a city called Copernaum,
the place where he lived, the place where he based
out of, and the place where he most mightily displayed
his glory. And look what he says about them in
verse twenty three. And you Capernaum kephar Nahum, village of
(39:27):
the Comforter, Will you.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Be lifted up to the skies?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
After all that you've seen, after all that you've been
exposed to, after hosting the presence of the eternal living
Word of God, will you be lifted up?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
No, you will go down to the depths.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
If the miracles that were performed in you had been
performed in Sodom, that wicked city that was judged for
its pride and arrogance, it would have remained to this day.
But I tell you it will be more bearable for
Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. Why
because you got too comfortable. You got too comfortable. Your
(40:15):
name was a prophecy of what would ultimately be your undoing.
When I love comfort more than I love Christ, and
I run for comfort, I run from calling.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
You will not be lifted up. You will be brought.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Down because you ran to comfort outside of Christ. You
ran to religion, You ran to others, You ran to
familiar fears. You ran back into insecurity, and you will.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Not experience your calling because you got stuck in your comfort.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Are you stuck in your comfort? Has it become dysfunctional?
Have you learned to tolerate things in your life? The
works of the devil that Jesus came to destroy. He
came to save us from our sin, but he also
came to set us free from it.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
And the spirit of Christ is in this place.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
And you don't have to stay stuck in comfortable dysfunction
another day.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
I don't think it has to be loud, and I
don't think we have to scream and shout sometimes Sometimes
I think the loudest response is a decision in your
heart to say I am going to confront this, come out,
Come out for you who have been living in the
(41:50):
year twenty and eleven, in twenty twelve and the relationship
that didn't work, come out. For you who have been
living in the of an event that has passed, come out.
For you who have been living in a complacent place
of mediocre faith and lukewarm.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Commitment to Jesus, come out. He's in the place. This
is an eviction notice.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
To let everything in our lives that is keeping us
from the high calling of God in Christ. Jesus know,
we serve notice on you this day. We serve notice
on you, this moment. We serve notice on you in
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
We're coming out of our dysfunction. We are coming out
of our excuses.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
We are coming out of our complacency.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
We are coming out. I'm coming out.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
I don't want the comfort that comes from dysfunction. I
want the comfort that comes from God.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
And if the spirit of the Lord is.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Here, there is liberty here to break every chain.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Come out in the name of.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Jeson if he came out of his grave.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
I'm coming out of mind.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Praise me to the God and Father of our Lord,
Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
He is in this place.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
I want to pray for you right now on the
level that God is speaking to you. I pray the
Holy Spirit will give me accuracy. Yes, thank you for standing.
I want you to stand right now. And if there's
something that God is speaking to you about in your life.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
That is dysfunctional.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
That you have become comfortable with, and you want to
pray a really crazy prayer today that God would disrupt
your comfort to confront your dysfunction so that you can
behole and have life more abundantly and not just go
to heaven when you die one day, but know the
fullness of the power of God on this earth. The
(44:13):
Holy Spirit is in this place. The comforter is here.
The Comforter is here. So if it's you, I want
you to lift both your hands in the air like
you're not ashamed of the presence of God. And see
when you did that, you said something. You said, I'm
coming out with my hands up. I'm coming out in
(44:36):
full surrender. I'm not coming out in my own opinion
or my own strength. I'm coming out in the power
of God. And I declare and decree in this moment
that the name of Jesus in the blood of Christ
is greater than all that I've done. I declare that
the blood of Jesus has spoken a better word over
my life.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Now, God, by the.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Authority that you have invested in me, by the power
of your word and the name of Jesus Us, and
the gift.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Of your Holy Spirit, to preach the Gospel.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I command everything that is not like you to come
out of your sons and daughters. Everything that has kept
them bound, everything that has kept them broken, everything that
has kept them depressed, everything that has kept them in
cycles of dysfunction, that.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
They cannot break.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
We declare right now, in the name of Jesus, change
are breaking.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Miracle working power is in this place.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Evil spirits come out, evil spirits come out, Thoughts up
to see come out, Discouragement come out. In the name
of Jesus. Shames are falling.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
In the presence of a mighty God, one greater than April,
have one.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Greater than Moses.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
The name of Jesus, the name and wish every need will.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Plow every talk to us. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus
declare that death. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
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Speaker 1 (46:15):
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Speaker 2 (46:16):
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Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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