Are we too comfortable?

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Concert July 16th

Landon & Chelsea Leaving this week

Intro

Good morning I hope yall have had a wonderful fourth of July and enjoyed some amazing fire works.

There are a lot of things that I think of when someone mentions July 4th, however one of the biggest things I think of is pride. Around the fourth of july it seems like it is the peak of the pride that we have in our country every year.

It made me start to think of what other things are we prideful about?

Favorite sports team, job, car, house, The fact that the youth group is the best place to serve in the church :), we as Americans have so much that we tend to be prideful about, and I believe that many of the things that we are proud about have a lot more to do with allowing us to be comfortable than anything else. We are proud of our favorite football team because when they win I am comfortable. Im proud of my house because I have all the space I need to store all the things that make me comfortable, my car gives me comfort as I drive to and from work in the air conditioning. However today we are going to talk about a story that many of you have probably heard before, and one that goes completely against our American nature of having that pride and our desire for comfort.

Today we are going to looking into John the Baptist and his baptism of Jesus.

If you turn to Luke 3 we see here in the beginning of the chapter it tells us some of the history about who was in charge politically at the time of John the Baptist. We see names that if you have been around church for any bit of time around Christmas you would recognize. We come to a point where there was a large group of people that came out to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach

Call From our Comfort

In the process of going to hear John the Baptist we find that the crowds of people had to give up their comfort to hear his message. We can see this in

Matthew 3:1–2 (NIV)

3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

This passage tells us that He was preaching in the wilderness. How often do we complain about the temperature of the room, or the volume of the music, or the color of the carpet or lights. I believe we in America have gotten things so out of order that many times we place comfort before of the Gospel.

We have decided that we dont want to offend anyone or make a situation awkward so we decide that we wont share the Gospel with them.

Check out this video of Penn Gillette who is an outspoken Athiest speaking about an interaction he had with a fan who gave him a Gideon New testament after his show.

Pen Gillette video

So we see even from an Athiest’s perspective that sharing your faith should be important if you truly believe what the Bible teaches.

But not only were the crowds uncomfortable in the location they were probably uncomfortable in the message from john as well

Call to Repentance

Luke 3:7–9 (NIV)

7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

So here we see John’s call to repentance for the people that were in the crowds listening. We know through the different books in the Gospels that there were many different types of people listening, including Pharisees, other religious leaders, as well as just normal people like you and I.

Now I dont think I have ever heard the recommendation for a best selling book to be mocking your readers. Its just not something that most marketing experts would recommend. If you watch the news lately there have been a few marketing experts looking for new jobs because of this. However John was not interested in making people happy. John was not interested in making people comfortable. John was interested in calling people to repentance, and by showing people who they truly are.

In these two verses John is warning people that baptism by itself will not save them, and he stating the same concept that we see in james

James 2:14–18 (NIV)

Faith and Deeds

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

Then back in Luke 3:9 we see the response to what kind of things should they be looking for if John is telling them that being baptized is not enough, and guess what if being baptized is not enough than neither is going to church.

Luke 3:9–14 (NIV)

10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

In this passage we are seeing John give the directions for repentance. He is calling out the public and known sins of the people of that were in the crowd and telling them that they must instead do the opposite.

For the majority of the crowd he was calling out what seems to be a lack of generosity, The tax collectors, if you dont know much about them in this time they would get rich because they had the authority of the roman Gov. to charge whatever they wanted as long as they gave Rome the amount that was required.

Example of Humility

We see that not only did John require the removal of our comfort, call for repentance, but he also exemplified humility. We see this in Luke 3:15-16

Luke 3:15–16 (NIV)

15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John realized that people were beginning to think of him as the Messiah, and instead of playing into how great he was, he immediately humbled himself and pointed people toward Jesus. we also see him doing this in John 3:30 Here we see John’s followers coming up to him towards the end of Johns ministry before he was thrown in prison and killed, and they were concerned about this other guy named Jesus who is also baptizing people and crowds of people began following him instead of John, and here is John’s reply

John 3:28–30 (NIV)

28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”

So today I dont know what God is calling for you to do, but we have clearly been given an example through John the baptist of being willing to make ourselves uncomfortable to share the Gospel. John has also shown the need for more than just coming to church but true repentance, and finally he showed us our need for humility.

Are we willing to humble ourselves and make ourselves uncomfortable to make Jesus known?