Comfort vs Contement

Intro: Good morning Church, its good to have you and I don’t know if we can top last weeks service, man the Spirit was sure present in here, so lets keep it going, let’s keep that Spirit alive and well and carry it with us each day this week that we may overflow on others. Today, we are continuing our study on Church Words by talking about Comfort vs. Contentment. These are words that great and they make us feel good, but are often misunderstood, especially in our money driven society. Paul tells us all about contentment and how it isn’t really about being comfortable at all in :

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Taxi driver/silken robe story. What about you, does your faith put you to sleep or does it drive you to pray? In today’s society we see comfort and contentment as tools to slow down and sit back in our easy chair. Not to have a worry or care in the world because we have plenty. However, in our spiritual life, both comfort and contentment derive from being alive and active, mostly being in want and need and facing trials and fighting against the world. Comfort and contentment in God’s kingdom, as with most things, are misunderstood but when we truly have them and understand them, they can give us strength beyond understanding and peace beyond measure. It starts with the apparent contradiction that God seems to love to work with in our lives and it says: Read

I. Comfort

A. God Comforts us –

1. When we mourn

a. Facing sin

b. Coming to repentance

c. God brings comfort in the struggle

2. When face trials

a. Sharing God with students

b. Sent me on a Spiritual Journey

3. When we are fighting against the World

a.

b. Take comfort in this

c. Means going the right way

d. Stop trying to please people

B. Comfort doesn’t equal comfortable

1. Comfort comes in trouble times

a. always past or present tense

b. Never in times when there is good

c. Drawing us out of trouble

d. Verses

i. ; ; ;

2. Comfort is a verb, Comfortable is an adjective

a. Comfortable leads to lazy

b. Comfortable leads us away from mission

C. Jesus never call us to the comfortable

1. Comfortable draws us to laziness

2. Comfortable draws us away from Christ

a. Something, I am

b. Comfort is happening to me

II. Contentment

A. Satisfaction –

1. Our society is driven by money

2. Compare hours

a. Ask how many hours at work

i. Reveal 40.3

b. Ask how many hours worship

i. Reveal 2.5

3. There is a reason we have a contentment problem

a. Again people on average spend 45 hours TV

b. All that telling us we need stuff to be content

4. Ask why people aren’t Christian or go to church

a. Once I get stuff together

b. Once I am content

B. Where do I find contentment

1. Thailand

a. People didn’t know

b. So they were content

2. Realize God has all I need

3. Stems from comfort above

4. Realize that He will provide

C. This country is Discontented

1. Need Jesus

a. Stand in line for 2 days to get phone

b. Gotta have the best

c. Throw it away in 1 year

2. We have that to give to them

3. They would love to have what we have

a.

III. How Jesus brings us there

A. First remember Jesus leads us –

1. Directly tied to mourning

2. In our trials He is our comfort

a.

b. Reminds us we are doing right

i. comfort

c. Leads to contentment

i. No matter the circumstance

B. Second remember He hasn’t left us alone –

1. How many of us call upon the Spirit

a. Do we pray for His intervention

b. Do we pray for His power

c. He is the third part of the Trinity

2. One of the most misunderstood pieces of God

a. People think your hyper spiritual

b. But the Spirit was sent to help –

i. Conviction

ii. Contentment

iv. Peace

3. Listen, obey and find contentment

a. Comes through the Spirit

b.

C. Third remember everything will be good –

1. No matter what

2. Spirit never leaves

3. We have already won

a. Techmo Bowl

b. Same as with Christ

c. Still have to do, but I will win

d.

Conclusion:

And this we will know, that we have already won and that is the secret to comfort and contentment. But to get there we still have to do the work of Christ and call upon the Spirit in our hearts. Without that, we will be at unrest and full of stress. We were not called to be comfortable, as a matter of fact, He brings us comfort because He knows the trouble we will face. He knows the courage it is going to take to face an inhospitable world that is perfectly happy staying in the darkness. But He has overcome the world and people need the light whether they know it or not. Now, when we fight the good fight, that’s when He provides the comfort that leads to contentment. And both of these are found in doing what Christ has called us to do. I want to close with , probably one of my favorite verses and what I turn to when I start getting discontent and full of stress which leads me away from the comfort of Christ, it says: Read

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