Dysfunctional Comfort | Savage Jesus | Pastor Steven Furtick

[Applause] let's pick up right there at mark chapter 1 verse 14 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 and said kingdom of God is near repent and believe the good news Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon that's the guy who got his name change 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 can that's waiting to be painted on so that's who Simon is and we believe that Peter gave marked the recollection 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 will make you fishers of men and once they left their nets followed him 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 he writes that way it's breathless account that he gives up 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 make you fishers of men and they went with him I think there was a conversation but we are given the essence of the conversation so that we can know that Jesus did not come to give us cue cliches and Hallmark cards but instructions of commands that are best for our life to lead us in the way everlasting and without delay he called them 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 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 a commonality I'm gonna 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 in through their calling verse 18 says at once they left their nets and then again in verse 20 without delay they left their father 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 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 and I want to speak to you for a few moments today on dysfunctional comfort that's my topic 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 rack when I saw them taking their little sister Abby and they were putting her on the treadmill at speed 8.5 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 15 cents that's what they were telling her that's why she was crying you only rang up for 15 cents sorry Abby 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 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 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 to somebody something 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 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 you try to help the most or that try to help you the most there ends up being more hurt in those relationships than than any other relationship when my dad 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 but in the process of trying to take care of his physical needs I stopped meeting the emotional need that he had to be a dad to me and so when I started acting like I was the dad it created a dysfunction in our relationship that almost broke it apart and a lot of that was my fault 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 yeah on some level try to make your kids your best friends they're not they suck treat them like it I love my kids I'm just saying sometimes there's gonna be sometimes it's gonna 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 is perfect and uh 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 his primary function in our lives I think a lot of us associate Christ primarily with comfort we come to church for comfort and people will leave churches sometimes because they'll say I was uncomfortable people left Jesus one time because he fed them food comfort food they loved it 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 a sermon food was good but 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 five eighty thousand dollars to go to school and learn this stuff I got to share some time when when when the Holy Spirit was coming Jesus said I'm gonna send you a comforter so the holy spirit not only convicts he comforts the primary role of the Holy Spirit is Comfort okay the primary role of Jesus when he was on the earth was not comfort it was confrontation I know you don't like that I know you want Jesus to speak to you and aphorisms that caused you to feel better about yourself each day but the primary function of Jesus I'll show it to you here in the scripture in a moment was not to comfort the people but to confront the sis Thums 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 be confused about how we come to him and we will begin to associate the presence of God in our lives with comfort 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 45 minutes because you have been blaming the devil for 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 coz I gotta go I'm gonna 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 need to be good at marketing to start a coffee shop calling is not about address and it's not about vocation calling is about vision it is about the level at which you see the gift that God has placed in your life 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 application 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 you've got to forsake your comfort we typically want both simultaneously abs and no planks a divine calling and no discomfort but coming in to 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 that's an uncomfortable proposition but if I'm gonna bless you so you could be a blessing you're going to have to learn to be uncomfortable I 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 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 gonna 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 feel really bad about yourself it means change your mind to change the way you think about the reason that you're here it's changed 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 of faith is not fear it is familiarity fear is an ally of faith 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 what was interesting to me 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 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 the end of ourselves but when God calls you out of your success into something sacrificial will you still obey will you come out of your comfort zone 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 now where they went next is really critical to our understanding of the nature of God's calling on our lives verse 21 says they went to Capernaum I've been there I've actually been to Capernaum and our guide Rea said that I was saying it wrong he said not Capernaum Keffer nay home it took me seven times to say it and until he was satisfied he said Jeff are gaffar nay home nay Oh Jeff our village nay home comforter like the minor prophet may home he says idiot kaffir kafar nay home now Jeff our govardhan a home stress on the cake hid from Allah no matter what matters what means what it means village of the comforter in that cool he said you call it Capernaum and you'd missed the whole point it means Jeff our village knew whom comforter village of the comforter they went to Capernaum hold it's really important to what I want to say they went to Jeff our new home and when the Sabbath came Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach as a guest speaker this was customary the people were amazed at his teaching ooh this is good preach pastor amen because he taught them as one who had Authority not as the teachers of the law but remember I told you last week the greatest proclamation of the gospel is not explanation its demonstration I 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 you respond to your wife so Jesus is proclaiming the Word of God explaining or teaching and they're amazed oh wow Oh hashtag amazing hashtag Authority hashtag this guy just then verse 23 a man in their synagogue whose synagogue whose whose synagogue Jesus is just a guest preacher he's not the senior pastor he's just getting the Capernaum and he's gonna base this whole ministry out of Keffer name he's gonna do a couple dozen miracles twenty-two biblical miracles are in Jeff our new home village of the comforter and so Jesus comes and he calls the disciples he gets his circle right he does not 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 should be validated by the fact that for 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 riches and glory of heaven aside and here we spend sometimes and and we we will not step away from our heated seats and luxury lives and broken beliefs long enough to get outside of our comfort zone and step into our calling well now Jesus is in Capernaum but he does not come just to comfort the people he comes to confront the system that has imprisoned the people what happens next has never happened to me in a sermon and I pray that it doesn't just then I've had a lot of stuff happened while I preached I've had people get up and walk out I don't know if they're mad or had a full bladder I don't know but I've had people get up and walk out I've had people say weird things during my sermon do weird things during my sermon never had this and please don't try it today just said 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 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 was possessed by an evil spirit or an unclean spirit or maybe your version 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 man cried out when Jesus spoke with authority an evil spirit cried out what do you want with us Jesus of Nazareth have you come to destroy us I know who you are the Holy One of God be quiet jesus said sternly come out of him he didn't need a seance he didn't need steps just the virtue of the power I feel like preaching the Bible today 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 his point across the evil spirit shook 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 because I think we need to speak to some things 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 somebody shall come out and the Spirit came out with a street the power of God is not always pretty see this man is shaking on the floor we just want a nice clean pad with roses and chrysanthemums and we walk down the aisle and accept Jesus and everything is alright but some stuff in your life will not come out unless it is confronted it has to be confronted or it will not come out shout it again in the back come out come out and and the spirit obeyed Jesus 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 Jesus showed up when the Son of God soda I'm not preaching this one for everybody this is just for a fuel job when Jesus shows up power shows up when Jesus shows up demons triple when Jesus shows up dysfunction has nowhere to hide and nowhere to run and we came to declare today to every evil spirit in our city come out in the name of Jesus [Applause] how many times have you 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 exits we're not gonna do anything like that if you make this Bible passage about demons you missed the entire demonstration of Authority because we don't call it demons anymore in the ancient world everything was a demon runny-nosed demon have serious mental illness was demon they didn't have tests and pills and all this so it was just a demon now do demons still exist today yes but do we call them dysfunctions instead 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 it 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 many came from a dysfunctional family and I thought I would minister to 20% of the room every hand went up when I 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 way it makes me feel that was too real for him you know at church people are do you say anything that resembles real life they stop shouting if you put Jesus on a horse coming out the clouds they shout but when you say stuff like this this function can be comfortable this function can this function can be a Snuggie I mean if you really want to feel good quit let me tell you the best way to do it criticize somebody can we talk about this how fun it is to be critical of others it is amazing how quickly my dysfunction is swallowed up when I pick somebody who has a different dysfunction then 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 come on can we be honest it's fun listen it's fun that's why they call it this fun son it's fun it's fun to talk about other people should parent it's amazing to talk about other people should spend their money and what you would do if you would sound it down it's amazing I love it I love my dysfunction the way that it it comforts me I love 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 so rather than come up to the level God has called me to I indulge the insecurities that's just the way I am what you say what did you say come out of what come out of the insecurity that has imprisoned you this is a word for somebody who has gotten comfortable in your dysfunction in fact I want to take you to another passage real quick that shows you the devil's strategy how many of you would like to know the devil's strategy for keeping you defeated three of y'all all right i'ma do it for three three y'all because Paul 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 how sometimes when you go through something in your life 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 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 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 of compassion and the God of all comfort well see Pastor Steven 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 4 says who comforts us in all our dysfunction no see that's what the devil does 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 but not take action what Christ came to confront your dysfunction praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus 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 some of us have comfort foods why are you looking at me like you 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 Ghost I feel demon streak and while I preach this word some of us have people in our lives who are good to us but they're not good for us I don't mean to call you out 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 praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all compassion the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles in all our troubles you mean God will use trouble to bring me comfort yes and not only that but God will disrupt my comfort to confront my dysfunction 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 sometimes the way I gauge the presence of God when I'm preaching is by how uncomfortable people look in their seats I didn't do that when I first start appreciating my first stop preach I thought they clapped I was doing good 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 when you got most uncomfortable as long as we associate Jesus with comfort we will miss him because Jesus comes to confront to comfort not to condemn there's a difference confrontation has the intent and the means to change you condemnation does not God so loved the Lord 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 will confront confront and my question today is what if 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 that the evil spirit the dysfunction stayed silent 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 is that one thing in your life dies so that something else can come alive I don't think we recognized him when he comes because we don't understand what he came for but I'll show you one thing the demons knew more about who Jesus was than the church people did when Jesus spoke they said oh you came to get rid of us oh 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 is Lord here has got to go and if he is Lord darkness back up and if he is Lord and has the keys of death hell and the grave there is nothing if we get too comfortable sometimes with our dysfunction I do I think we 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 race I got married the ring was seven carats I went to Elevation I hear a lot of times where they say something shifted in my life I lost something III went through something I I face the consequence of something and at that point in my discomfort God used my trouble to confront my dysfunction so can I say something to everybody who's in trouble today this is not just a test this is a confrontation this is an opportunity that God wants to use to confront what you have called normal and to call you into something greater 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 gonna take 18 seconds and issue the command to every insecurity to every fear to every doubt to every regret in the name of Jesus I will not become comfortable in the darkness when God has called me into the light that's what the devil's telling his demons keep him comfortable keep them comfortable keep them comfortable keep them comfortable keep him so comfortable that that what I died to set them free from will take up residence in them keep them comfortable 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 how dysfunctional is this he said he said how did how did you find out that they said it I said well the person told me that somebody told them and he said oh okay well here's what to do about that 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 they would feel very comfortable so what did I do what was it Capernaum Capernaum the village of the comforter were they so comfortable in their religion that they missed the revelation of Jesus Christ you know what's at Capernaum is the place Kevin a home sorry sorry sir sir kefir Nahum mm-hmm that's how we say it that's the authentic way that we say it okay it was the place where Jesus based his ministry and it was the place that he cursed before his ministry was over in Matthew 11 he gave some woes actually wanted to give him verse 22 because it's important to the context Matthew 11:28 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 but they did not change their mind and their direction the third city that he renounced or denounced is a city called Capernaum the place where he lived at the place where he based out of and the place where he most mildly displayed his glory and look what he says about them in verse 23 and you capernaum Keffer naome village of the comforter will you be lifted up to the skies 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 no you will go down to the depths if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom that wicked City that was judged for its pride and arid ass it would have remained to this day but I tell you it would be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you why because you got too comfortable you got too comfortable your 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 you will not be lifted up you will be brought down because you ran to comfort outside of Christ you ran to religion you ran to others you rent a familiar fears you're in back into insecurity and you will not experience your calling because you got stuck in your comfort 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 and the Spirit of Christ is in this place and you don't have to stay stuck in comfortable dysfunction another day you know 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 year 2011 in 2012 and the relationship that didn't work come out for you who have been living in the trauma of an event that has passed come out for you who have been living in a complacent place of mediocre faith and lukewarm commitment to Jesus come out he's in the place this is an eviction notice to let everything in our lives that is keeping us from the high calling of God in Christ Jesus no 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 we're coming out of our dysfunction we are coming out of our excuses we are coming out of our complacency we are coming out I'm coming out I don't want the comfort that comes from dysfunction I want the comfort that comes from God and if the Spirit of the Lord is here there is Liberty here too break every chain come out in the name of Jesus if he came out of his grave I'm coming out of mine [Applause] [Music] praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the God of all comfort he is in this place 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 that is dysfunctional that you have become comfortable with and you want to prayer to pray a really crazy prayer today that God would disrupt your comfort to confront your dysfunction so that you can be whole 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 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 full surrender I'm not I'm not 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 and the blood of Christ is greater than all that I've done I declared that the blood of Jesus has spoken a better word over my life now God by the authority that you have invested in me by the power of your word and the name of Jesus and the gift of your Holy Spirit to preach the gospel 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 they cannot break we declare right now in the name of Jesus change or breaking miracle-working powers in this place evil spirits come out evil spirits come out thoughts of defeat come out discouragement come out in the name of Jesus saints are falling in the presence of a mighty God one greater than Abraham and Moses [Applause] hey thanks for watching two things I want you to do first click our logo to subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video second you can click the give Now button to support the ministry and we'll be able to continue reaching people all over the world thanks again for watching

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 835,381

Rating: 4.8947887 out of 5

Keywords: Elevation Church, Pastor, Steven Furtick, Sermon, bible, comfort, confrontation, dysfunction, dysfunctional, success, help, emotionals, family, Confront, Calling, Holy Spirit, Jesus, change, bad habit, power, strength

Id: HvPUZxG9d4s

Length: 46min 2sec (2762 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 05 2018