Uncomfortable for the Gospel

Good afternoon JG! I am so glad that you are here today. If you’re new here, we would love to get to know you, so please join us at the pastors office to your left after service for some light snacks and fellowship!

And everyone else, welcome back to our Sunday service, and I hope school has been good and that you guys are studying and learning a lot! I remember when I was in high school, it felt like I was never learning anything from class, and my life wasn’t really changing. I just went to school, did the everyday tasks, and then went home and played games. And repeated this cycle throughout high school. Didn’t learn anything, I wasn’t improving in any aspect, intellectually nor physically. While college apps and SAT’s were coming up, senioritis was hitting hard and I loved where I was at. Just seeing my friends at school, and hanging out with then afterward online, playing games. This is what we call ‘Complacency’.

And If this is where you are at right now in your stage of life, I hope that God’s Word today would stir your heart up to leave the life of complacency and enter into a life that hungers after Christ’s heart.

So lets start off with the definition.

Definition of Complacency

what is complacency? What does complacency look like?

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Google definition: ‘a feeling of smug or uncriticalsatisfaction with oneself or one's achievements’

so someone who is self-centered, only worrying about themselves and what they need, completely ignorant of other peoples perspective and needs. They are completely self-absorbed and only thinks about themselves. Seeking after their own comfort even if it means the discomfort of others. And I’m sure we know many people who embody these characteristics.

We all know that someone who does the bare minimum because they are comfortable where they are at. When they set up the table, they only bring a bowl and utensils enough for only themselves, or as soon as they are don’t with a task they are given, they go right back to laying down or sleeping. Or maybe you ask that person to help you with something or do some chore, but they say ‘I don’t want to’ and remain their bed. We all know someone like that.

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however, we aren’t quite off the hook yet. Because We see someone that’s by themselves who are in need of God’s love, but we’re complacent so we stick with our friend group. Or when you see a homeless man that’s in need of God’s love, but you’re comfortable where you are and so you just walk past him and go into a nicely air-conditioned restaurant. Or maybe you saw your Bible sitting on your desk, but you were complacent and content in just watching YouTube or sleeping.

And here in this story, Jonah is also complacent in where he is at. Even from the beginning, he doesn’t want to go to Ninevah to preach to them, but even after he goes and preaches, he does the absolute bare minimum and leaves and lays down to watch if God would destroy the city or not.

Because of Jonah’s complacency, mission work is delayed and hindered, preventing people from hearing the gospel and having faith in Christ.

Not only that, but complacency also leads to anger and pettiness.

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When we are complacent, anything that tries to disturb it causes us to feel frustrated and we see this Clearly from the story of Jonah.

He is given something that he did nothing to acquire, a shade that covered him from the sun. And he became complacent in the shade. However, as soon as that comfortability was disrupted when the worm shriveled up the plant, he became angry and frustrated at God, and said that he’d rather die.

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when we are in a season of complacency, we typically are selfish and have a conceited heart

but then this is how God responds to his complacency

verse 11:

- While Jonah had compassion on the little plant that provided him shade, God had an even greater compassion for the 120,000 people in Nineveh. Who did not know any better. That they were all on their way to hell and destruction, but God wanted to save them. He didn’t want to see them going in that direction.

- So that’s why God did so much to get Jonah to go to Nineveh, so that he may preach to those people so that they might be saved.

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Now thankfully, even though Jonah put barely any effort into his preaching, they still turned from their sins and repented before God. But imagine, if Jonah continued in his complacency, and disobeyed God to the end.

God doesn’t just save us and leave us to do whatever, No, he now invites us in this mission work to save His people. We get to be a part of God’s work here on earth. Isn’t that a privilege to do?

Matthew 28, Jesus commands us to make disciples of all nations. We are to go out and share the gospel, but how can we do that if we just stay in our bubbles and be stuck in our complacency. Imagine all the miss opportunities to share the gospel and love on them, when we were complacent.

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Not only does our complacency affect the lives around us, but it also affects our own lives.

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While we might be discourage that even a prophet in the Old Testament had a selfish heart in his ministry, and how do we expect to do better?

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well, we have a better Jonah, Jesus who was selfless and compassionate with us.

Gospel

‌But throughout the whole book, God is constantly wanting to save the people of Nineveh. He wants them to repent of their sins and turn to God, so that they would be saved from destruction. God has a heart of compassion for them and desires them to turn from their sins.

And in order for that to happen, he sends Jonah to Nineveh to preach to them so that they would repent and go to God. While Jonah did not have the same heart and passion for these people, because he was complacent, God ultimately sends someone who would have the same heart as God, and not complacent, but gives up all of his comfortability to save his people.

how was Jesus uncomfortable for the Gospel?

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Jesus in his divine throne, left it and came down to earth, which is full of sin, diseases, conflict, war, betrayal, and death on top of other things. He left his comfortable throne and came down to an uncomfortable world.

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God came down in flesh, giving up his own life so that we might have eternal life and be saved. Doesn’t that love and sacrifice deserve our devotion to him and turn our hearts to share the gospel to as many people as we can?

Imagine if Jesus was complacent in heaven and did not want to come down to earth to save us. Where would we be right now?

But Jesus didn’t stay there, he did come down to earth to save us.

‌And so lets imitate Christ in breaking out of our complacency and having compassion towards people, sharing the love of God to as many people as we can!

(now how does this lead us to the application?)

Application (Get uncomfortable)

So here are some practical applications you guys can do right now!

1. Spend alone time with God

a. Your complacency has lead you to not depend on God, and not having communion with him.

b. Your life might seem great because God has blessed you, so thank Him in prayer.

c. Your complacency should not affect your relationship with God

i. Read God’s word daily, meditating on it, and trusting in it wholly

2. Serve your family at home

a. I know some of you think that one day when you have a family, you claim to be the best dad or mom ever.

i. Let me ask you then, how is your household right now?

ii. Are you being a good son or daughter?

iii. Are you sacrificially severing your parents? Your siblings?

iv. Are you being patient with them?

b. How are you going to expect to love your future family who will be with you until you die, when you can’t even love the family you have who has been with you for 16 17 years.

c. Right now is great practice for your future family

d. You are the most complacent when it comes to your family and home, but break out of that and see how you can serve and love your family right now

i. Maybe that’s doing dishes, or taking out the trash, or cooking for them or maybe even praying for them

3. During lunch time, if you see someone eating by themselves, go sit with them and just be their friend.

a. Get to know them, and if they are hungry, feed them.

b. And most importantly share the gospel with them!

And I pray that you guys just don’t follow these things as check lists, but that you remind yourself of what Jesus has done for you. How uncomfortable he got, so that he can die for you and give you eternal life. And I hope that it is from that love and affection for Christ that leads you to live in these ways. Living like Christ.