Becoming a Person of Growth in a Culture of Comfort

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Restoring the Savour of our Salt Series               Message # 7

We’re working on a series of messages that deal with the theme of restoring the savour of our salt, as we confront the culture in which we live in these days. We’ve been talking about the fact that we are either being molded by the Word of God, or we are being molded by the culture around us. And if we take our lives, look at the way that we are being molded, and project those lives twenty years from now, we’ll have a pretty good idea of what we’re going to look like in twenty years.

If I am molded by the culture for twenty years, the way I look will be drastically different than the way I will look if I am molded by the Word of God.

We’ve talked about being a person of integrity in a culture of duplicity. We talked about being a person of compassion in a culture of callousness. And then a person of forgiveness in a culture of grudge-holders. We talked about being a person of absolutes in a culture of relativism. Being a person of connection in a culture of isolation.

Today we want to talk about the matter of being a person of growth in a culture of comfort.

I’d like to begin by reading 2 Corinthians 11, beginning at verse 22. We won’t actually get into the passage until just a little later in the message, but I want to start with it. 2 Corinthians 11:22. The apostle Paul is defending his apostleship to a bunch of people in Corinth who were saying he is not a true apostle. And in the course of defending that, he says some things about himself that I find very interesting. He said some things about himself that I certainly would not want to have faced.

2 Corinthians 11:22. Paul says there, “Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. 23  Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck [this is before his final shipwreck at the end of the book of Acts], a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27  In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. [Verse 28 is a very powerful verse] 28  Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29  Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 30  If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. 31  The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.”

There is a writer named M. Scott Peck who a number of years ago wrote a book called The Road Less Traveled. One of his quotes was very significant and very powerful. This man, who became a believer later on in his life after he was already a published and fairly famous author said, “Life is a constant choice between comfort and growth.” “Life is a constant choice between comfort and growth.”

I think he is right. The reality is, we can either be comfortable, or we can grow. We can either be comfortable, or we can make progress in our lives spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

When I am comfortable, I am probably not growing much. And when I am growing, I am probably not very comfortable. I can’t have both at the same time.

Based on several passages in the Word of God that we’ll be looking at shortly, I want to ask you to think about Mr. Peck’s statement that life is a constant choice between comfort and growth. And ask you to think about your own life and say to yourself, “Have I been choosing consistently for comfort, or have I been choosing consistently for growth? Have I been investing myself in a way that allows me to grow?”

If life is a constant choice between comfort and growth, I suspect that America is in pretty serious trouble!

So, let’s think about this first issue. I think America has succumbed to a comfort addiction. There is a very powerful sense in which most Americans are deeply committed to comfort. Somewhere, somehow, sometime along the line, American culture elevated comfort to a level of almost deity. At some point we said, it is extremely important to me that I be comfortable.

I am not sure how it happened. I’m not sure what happened in America. Maybe it is the constant battering of this hammer of hardship that just kept hitting the knee of the culture, and nothing happened and nothing happened and nothing happened. And so the doctor kept hitting harder and harder until at last there was this incredible knee-jerk reaction. Americans went through colonization, the war for independence, the taming of the frontier, the War Between the States, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War. Perhaps the collective weight of all those hardships made Americans say, I will be comfortable, and I don’t care how uncomfortable I have to be to get there! I will invest whatever it takes to become a very comfortable person.

Some of the evidence for this addiction to comfort that came to my mind as I was thinking about it—number one, retailers are always advertising chairs and cars and beds as the most comfortable you could possibly buy. It is incredibly valuable.

On the other hand, the major goal and the incessant advertising of a lot of airlines and hotel chains and travel tours is, your comfort. They kept saying, your comfort is our greatest concern. Not my safety, necessarily, but my comfort.

Children, in many cases in America, will do almost anything to be comfortable. Parents work very hard to make their children comfortable. A pass to Six Flags, a pass to the water park, a pass to any other amusement they could come up with. I had a youth director share with me his frustration one day when he said, “You know, the kids in my youth group have everything. I can’t even get them excited about Disney Land.”

The deification of comfort has been very subtle in some lives. Some people have been so committed to comfort that they have turned out working incredibly hard so they could get to the place where they could be comfortable for the rest of their lives.

I heard about one couple who left the lower 48 states and moved to Alaska. Both of them taught in the school system of Alaska and between them they could make about $110,000 a year. Then in the summer they would commercial fish and make another $80,000 to $100,000 a piece. And then they saved all that money and worked for exactly ten years from the time they were 22 till they were 32. And then they had all the money they needed for the rest of their lives, and they could be comfortable from there on out. Parents who had children in those Alaska school systems called such people mercenaries. They didn’t care about the children, they were not good teachers. They were addicted to comfort, and they were going to work like dogs for ten years so they could be comfortable from then on out.

I am convinced that there are very many cases in America where we have become addicted to comfort. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say, and I’ve said it myself, “I would not be comfortable doing that.”

Have you ever really thought about that statement? I’m sure I’ve said it. You may have said it yourself. “I would not be comfortable doing that.” The base meaning behind that statement is, it is very important to be comfortable. It is more important to be comfortable, than in some cases, to do what God has asked me to do. The base meaning behind that statement is, Comfort is my god. Comfort is more important than effort or purpose or sacrifice, or having a mission in my life. Comfort is so important that I can refuse to get involved in something because whatever it is would make me uncomfortable.

I know it’s early in the message, but I want to take the time to make one simple application. And that is to say, please do not fail to do the eternal thing rather than the comfortable thing. And I understand that there are a lot of things God wants us to do that can be quite uncomfortable. But if we take the effort and put in the energy to do something of eternal value, we will not regret that.

The sad reality, I think, is that comfort worship has really gotten into the church as well as the culture. The deification of comfort has invaded Christian thinking.

In one large church during the service, the announcements were given and then the “worship leader” said, “I want you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the service.”

Worship is not an issue of sit back and relax! Worship is an issue of stand up and sing and invest energy and give praise to God. When you get on an airplane, it is perfectly legitimate to say, “please sit back and relax and enjoy the flight.” But when you come to worship, the goal is not to be comfortable! The goal of coming here on Sunday morning is not relaxing. The goal of coming here is giving praise and honor to God. And there are very many ways in which comfort worship has gotten into the church. In fact, that’s what it’s all about now with the seeker friendly church growth movement—making unsaved people comfortable in church.

For most Americans, comfort is king. For most Americans, hardship and sacrifice are poisonous little snakes that are supposed to be beaten to death with the scepter of comfort. For most Americans, they are very comfortable saying, “I wouldn’t be comfortable doing that.”

I’d like to ask you to think today about your own life and your own question of comfort. And also to begin by looking at the evidence that God is not very committed to our comfort.

There are very many ways in which God gives us good things. I’m certain of that. There are very many ways in which God wants us to enjoy good things. 1 Timothy 6 says He has given us all things richly to enjoy. If you have something, number one, consider it a gift of God. Number two, enjoy it. There is nothing at all wrong with that.

But I am powerfully convinced that God is not committed to making me comfortable. He could hardly care less how comfortable T.P. Johnston is. He’s got another issue in my life. He’s got something else He is far more concerned about.

Second issue I want to talk about is this: God values growth that leads to maturity. God wants to see the kinds of growth in my life, both spiritually and emotionally and relationally that bring me to maturity. He is deeply committed to having me grow up. He aches for me to be mature. He longs for me to escape the foolishness and the sinfulness of wallowing in immaturity. I think He is just absolutely sick of it in our lives, and one of His major goals for my life is for me to reach spiritual maturity.

I want to read a series of passages to you. They are all short. I’m not going to ask you to look them up. It would take too long between them. Just think about these passages and the assertion that God is not committed to my comfort, but He is committed to my maturity.

Ephesians 4:15, “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”

1 Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”

James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

The word perfect in this case doesn’t mean I never sin again; it means that I mature. It is a powerful word for the word mature.

1 Peter 5:10, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”

He will help you grow up in the midst of trials.

Colossians 1:28, “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Complete, grown up, mature.

Ephesians 4:13, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect [mature] man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

There is no evidence that God is committed to my comfort. But there is great evidence that God is committed to my growth. There’s a book titled Pastoral Renewal, written by a man named Charles Simpson. I’d like to read you an interesting illustration that he gives. He said, “I met a young man not long ago who dives for exotic fish for aquariums. He said that one of the most popular aquarium fish is the shark. He explained that if you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium that you put it in. Sharks can be six inches long, yet fully mature. But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they will grow to their normal length of eight feet.” Now, listen to this last sentence: “That also happens to some Christians. I have seen the cutest little six-inch Christians swimming around in a puddle.”

I wonder where I’m going in my own life. I wonder if I am pressing toward maturity, or if I am content being a cute little six-inch Christian in my life.

I want to ask you to think about the question in your own life and very briefly think about the question, How do I grow up? If I am just a six-inch, immature believer swimming around in a little puddle and completely content with where I am in my spiritual growth, how do I grow up?

I want to talk briefly about seven basic elements. I don’t have time to belabor any of them.

Number one, the first step in growing up spiritually is trusting Christ. The reality is, if I don’t trust Christ the Bible says I am spiritually dead, and dead things do not grow. Acts 16:30, a jailer from the town of Philippi said to Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” And Paul said to him, very simply, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” The word believe in the New Testament is pronounced pisteuo. It’s the same as the word trust. And it very simply means that I need to come to a place in my life where I trust in Jesus Christ to deal with my sin problem, and stop trusting in whatever I have been trusting. That I come to a place where, when I stand before God, I say, Lord, I trusted in what Jesus Christ did for me to take care of my sin, and I give up on all that other stuff. I give up on giving money to the church, worship attendance, I give up on having been baptized. I give upon the fact that my parents were Christians. I give up on all of it. I just trust what the Lord Jesus did for me. The first step to being a person who grows spiritually is to find new life by trusting Christ.

Second step. Pray that God will work in your life. I want to read a very short passage out of Colossians chapter 1, starting in verse 9. It is a prayer that Paul gave for the believers at Colossae, and as I read this prayer, I’d encourage you to think about the things that he is praying for. The kinds of things he is praying for.

Colossians 1:9. “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10  That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11  Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12 ¶  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

You listen to Paul’s prayer—he didn’t pray for new cars. He didn’t pray that they would be comfortable. He never once mentioned comfort in there. He didn’t even pray for their health at that point. His main issue was that they would grow up spiritually!

As you think about your own prayer, and as I think about my own prayer, I think it is a very powerful question to ask: what am I praying for? Am I praying for comfort-related things, or am I praying, earnestly seeking the Father for spiritual growth?

I believe one of the most powerful prayers we can pray is simply to say, Father, help me grow up and become spiritually mature. Make it the first thing we do—before we ask for the car to be fixed, before we ask for the money to do this or that, say, Father, help me to grow up. Help me to be a person who is making progress in spiritual maturity.

Issue number 3, Ephesians 5:18. The third issue in growing up is that I only grow when I am submitting the control of my life to the Holy Spirit of God. Ephesians 5:18 says, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”

The key issue in that verse is very simple. It’s the issue of control. It’s the question of who is controlling my life? Am I controlled by alcohol and drunkenness? Am I controlled by rage and jealousy? Am I controlled by the desire for things that do not belong to me? Am I controlled by anxiety, by greed, by retaliation? What is controlling me?

The way that I grow spiritually is by getting up and each moment of each day saying, Father, control me by Your Holy Spirit. Lead me in all my decisions. Guide me in everything I’m doing. Every day, every moment of my life, I want you in control. That is one of the key issues in me becoming a person who is growing. It is impossible to grow if I am not controlled by the Holy Spirit. If I am controlled by any other thing, it is impossible to grow spiritually.

Fourth issue. Matthew 7:1-5. One of the things that we need to do in order to grow spiritually is to be confronting our own sinful patterns and habits and thoughts and choices.

Matthew 7:1-5—a passage in which the Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the Sermon on the Mount, and He says some really interesting things. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

God is saying to us, to paraphrase, that one of the key areas of spiritual growth is to be confronting my own sin. Very simply being honest with God and saying, Lord, enable me to deal with my own sin, to confess what I have done, to look at my own life rather than habitually looking at the lives of those around me.

It occurred to me that it is very easy for us to focus on what so and so is doing and talk about that. It is not that common for us to say to some brother or sister in Christ, I have a sin in my life and I need help. But when we do the latter, we make incredible personal spiritual progress. We come to a point of such personal humility that the Lord works in our lives powerfully. Terrific progress is made.

The message to us is, we need to be people who are willing to ask God to reveal our own sin, who are willing to give up defensiveness, who are willing to confess the sin to God, and who are willing to humble ourselves and say, “Lord, help me. I am not able on my own.” It’s a key issue in spiritual growth.

Number five. I grow spiritually, John 8:31-32 by reading the Word of God to see what is true. John 8:31. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

The chain of events that is happening here in this little spiritual progress is, number one, when I really live in the Word of God, when it’s really a part of my life and my mind and my thinking, then I am truly a disciple of Jesus Christ. Then I know what is true, and finally, when I know what is true, I gain freedom. I get freedom from the things that are holding me in bondage, not by being real powerful, not by doing a miracle, not by saying it doesn’t exist, but by knowing what is true. I gain freedom when I know what is true about my sin, when I know why I’m doing it, when I understand my motives, when I understand what I think it delivers to me, when I see the foolishness and the sinfulness behind it. I gain freedom when I know what is true, and God is calling me to experience spiritual growth by coming to understand what is true.

The greatest spiritual breakthroughs I have ever made in my spiritual walk have been when I got the truth. The most profound experiences I’ve had spiritually are when I got the truth. It brings freedom.

Issue number six. I grow spiritually by responding graciously to the hardships in my life. There is in this one issue, probably the greatest landmine of spiritual growth. I suspect that I have personally witnessed more people derailed in their spiritual growth by wrong responses to hard things than any other thing. I’ve personally seen more people derailed by becoming bitter and sinful about things that have happened in their life, rather than by submitting to what has happened. There is no storm-free place to build a house. And there is no storm-free place to build a life. Every life experiences storms and the key issue for me is, when I experience storms does it harden me or does it soften me?

There are two different kinds of clay. One of them you can put in the kiln and expose it to heat and the result is that it becomes hard and brittle. The other kind of clay, when you heat it up, rather than becoming hard and brittle, becomes soft and moldable. And the issue in the Christian life is, how am I responding to the heat in my life? Every life has heat of some kind or another. Am I responding with hardness and bitterness and saying, God, I don’t deserve this and You need to fix it, or am I responding with softness and moldability and saying, Father, work in my life. I don’t like what’s happening. You don’t have to be a masochist, but I am simply saying, at that point we need to say, Father, make me a soft and moldable person.

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “The experience we call joy is found in those periods of life characterized by challenge, risk, and hope. These three are the gateway to character.” These are the times that we call joy in our life.

I read the passage earlier out of 2 Corinthians about the apostle Paul. I’m not going to re-read it, but it occurred to me that here is a man who suffered incredible hardship without becoming hardened. Four shipwrecks, beaten so many times he lost count, lost count of the number of times he had been beaten for being a Christian and for sharing his faith. In all those things that he suffered, he never became hardened to God. He always became more open to God and more moldable by God.

Can you imagine what would have happened to the Christian faith if Paul would have said, “Lord, I’m not comfortable with that. I’m not comfortable with shipwrecks. I’m not comfortable with sharing my faith in this city, because you could get beat up here.”

God did not say to Paul, Share the message in any place that you are comfortable sharing it. Paul was not committed to comfort, and he didn’t experience much comfort in his life, but he experienced a great deal of joy and growth and spiritual impact.

There is one other thing to deal with. Number seven—I grow spiritually when I make spiritual and emotional growth a major goal and a major value in my life. If they are major goals to me and major values, that’s when I begin to have them happen.

Philippians 3:12 on down to verse 14, Paul said in that passage, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul was investing energy to get to where he needed to be. For Paul there was great emphasis on valuing what God values. He was very willing to say, growth and maturity are important to me, and I am willing to be uncomfortable to get there.

I think we all need to come to the place in our individual lives where we say, growth and maturity are important to me, and I will be uncomfortable in the process of getting there.

I am sure you all know the Mother Goose rhyme that says, “Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been? I’ve been to London to visit the Queen. Pussycat, pussycat, what did you there? I frightened a little mouse under her chair.”

Here is a cat who had the incredible privilege of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to London, got in the very throne room of the Queen, and instead of drinking in this wonderful experience of being in the very throne room of the Queen, did just what she was used to doing back home—chased a little mouse around under a chair.

I think that is a powerful metaphor for a lot of believers in America today. People who come to know Christ, who have complete forgiveness of their sins, who have the Holy Spirit indwelling them, who have the knowledge of the Good News about Jesus Christ that they could be sharing with others, who are looking forward to eternal joy with God, who have remarkable resources, unbelievable blessing—they have the Word of God, they have all they need for life and godliness, and they are devoting their lives to fun, wonderful, trivial second-class things. They could be pursuing eternal things like growth and maturity and in the process they are simply chasing good, fun, trivial, second-class mice around the chair!

My encouragement to you today is to say to the Father, Lord, show me what it is in my life that is trivial and second-best. Show me what it is in my life that I have been investing energy in, that I have been giving my time and money to, that is trivial and second-best and is preventing me from personal growth. To say to the Father, I don’t want to be a cat who goes to the big city and just chases mice. I want to be a person who invests my life in that which is eternal, in that which makes a difference. I want to invest my life in first-class kinds of things.

I read a little story about a tour group which was touring a quaint mountain village. They were walking along the road and there was an old man sitting on a bench in front of this country store. One of the tourists walked up to him and in sort of a condescending way said, Sir, were there any great men born in this village? And the old man sitting on the bench looked at him and said, “Nope. Only babies.”

There are no great Christians born, friends. They are all babies. We all start out at the same place. But then, once we have started out at that same place, the question is, Do we value growth and maturity enough to be uncomfortable in the process?

—PRAYER—