God i'm not comfortable

God, I Love you, but I’m not Comfortable - Taken from my sermon preached on January 22, 2006

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James 1:2 - 4 NLT
²Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. ³For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

Now this scripture sounds real good but the only problem that people have with this scripture is that when the trouble comes my way, it’s not easy. When trouble comes my way I get frustrated, I get doubtful, my faith doesn’t waver but I do wonder. The reason for my message today is to let you know that it’s alright when you don’t feel comfortable, it’s alright when times look dim, so let’s walk down the road of discomfort and see what God is trying to show us.

In life, people desire to stay in their comfort zone. If you put them in a situation where the zone is above them, they will do things to bring it down (take ghetto people to the suburbs). If you put them in a situation where the zone is beneath them, then they will bring it up (self development, finding Jesus).

Why do we as Christians have discomfort?
How do we overcome the discomfort in our lives?

1. What is comfort
Comfort
· a state of being relaxed and feeling no pain; a feeling of freedom from worry or disappointment, a freedom from financial difficulty

We worship/live/praise according to our level of comfort.
I’m going to church so why am I feeling discomfort?
I’m a man/woman of God so why am I feeling discomfort? I’m saved so why am I feeling discomfort?
Does God have ears?
Why is this happening, I’m a good Christian, if things don’t change then I miles well get back into the world

Romans 8:18
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.
I don’t want to hear that right now Jesus and don’t send anyone to talk to me who’s life is fine, don’t send anyone who’s not going through what I’m going through…matter of fact don’t send anyone…YOU COME GET ME OUT OF THIS. Don’t quote scripture to me, I mean I hear you on that bible stuff but you have no idea what I’m going thru. Your life is not as bad as mine. Everyone has problems…you are no exception…the differences with your problems and someone trying to help you with your problems is that they have already been through it so their perception of it is different.

When we got saved we didn’t want to sign up for Advance Christianity, Basic Jesus 101 was alright for us. Even though we wanted advanced blessings, we only wanted sacrifice 101, we only wanted hard-times 100, and we only wanted discomfort 100. Of course we wanted Walking in Authority 400, Quoting scripture 500, and the faith to move mountains 1000. But how does the faith to move mountains get developed, it’s developed the same way as we develop our academic skills in school, test after test after quiz after handout after homework after project after essay after thesis paper. See we want that PHD in Jesus with that Kindergarten effort. We want Jesus but on our conditions.

2. Conditional Faith/Trust
a. I will trust you as long as my rent is paid
b. I will trust you as long car note is paid
c. I will worship you as long as I have a job
d. I will worship you as long as I have money in the bank
e. I will believe in you as long my marriage is fine
f. I will believe in you as long as my family is not arguing
g. I will have faith as long as no one around me dies
h. I will have faith as long as my health never fails
i. I am your servant as long as I can tithe when I feel like it or I have more then what my bills require
j. I am your servant as long as I can still do a few of the things that I used to do
k. I will follow you as long as you don’t ask me to do anything I don’t want to do
l. I will follow you as long as my situation doesn’t cause me discomfort…..Lord…those are my conditions..take them or leave them.

Don’t just worship when you are feeling good, happy, comfortable. What God has in store for you is so much more then what you can see. He cant just give that to anybody, He has to give it to someone that’s dedicated to His will and will never leave nor forsake Him as He never leaves nor forsake us. Anything worth having takes work and dedication. The kingdom of Heaven and the earthly blessings are no different.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

To the degree we're not living our dreams, our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves. --Peter McWilliams Author

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. --Charles Kingsley

3. What to do when you don’t feel comfortable
a. Who have you depended on all your life? Even though you had many people around you and your family was there for you, when it came down to it, you always depended on yourself…because you would never let YOU down. But what starts to happen is that situations where your skills, talents and abilities were sufficient before…don’t work anymore. Relationships where you used to be able to handle situations just don’t work anymore. Jobs that you used to be able to get and keep, don’t want you anymore, Little lies you used to tell to get by don’t stay little anymore, they blow up in your face…things that you used to do don’t work anymore…they don’t get you the results that you want anymore…you start to feel uncomfortable with yourself…..
b. 2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
c. You have to remove you from the situations, remove what you want to happen, remove your way of doing things, remove your will and remove dependence upon your abilities.

d. What did Jesus do when He was uncomfortable (what would our prayer have sounded like)
Matthew 26:39
He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground, praying, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine."

4. Three reasons God puts us through situations
a. II Corinthians 1:4-6
⁴He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
⁵You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.
⁶So when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your benefit and salvation! For when God comforts us, it is so that we, in turn, can be an encouragement to you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. .

b. So you can tell others (so that we can comfort others)
i. God is looking for distribution centers, not warehouses
ii. The most powerful tool you have in witnessing and bringing people to Christ is your testimony.

c. So God can get the glory, advance the kingdom (the more God will shower us with his comfort)
i. When God takes you thru things he wants you to see a situation that He can only bring you out.
ii. It’s not that we don’t trust God’s ability, we don’t trust that He loves us enough to do it. You have to remember that God loves you just as much as He asks you to love Him. When you fear or doubt Him or situations, you are not doubting His ability, you are doubting His love.

d. So we grow, develop, learn, progress (coal à diamond) (for your benefit and salvation)
i. God is more concerned with our growth then our comfort. Growth helps advance the kingdom, comfort leads to complacency.
ii. (God removing the layers, like peeling an orange) – an orange has a protective covering to keep it from harm and to grow and mature. But the purpose of the orange is not to keep the covering, the covering has to be stripped away so that the seed that is inside can come out and grow into an orange tree and make more seeds. When someone planted a seed into you, they did not plant it so that you could keep it inside your covering…no…it was planted so that it could grow and then you could go and plant more seeds that come from the fruit within you.
iii. (Coal to a Diamond) – Everyone wants the diamond but no one wants the coal. Diamonds come from coal that has been pressurized and heated. Natural diamonds come from deep within the earth where the pressure and heat and fire occur naturally. In order for a coal to become a diamond, sounds like it has to go through hell and back and then you can see the true diamond in the rough.

iv. John 15:2 Branches being pruned
He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.

5. Qualities needed to overcome discomfort
Unselfishness
i. Take you out of the equation. Take what you want, what you have done, what you have acquired, everything in your life that comes before God. Tell God that even though you are imperfect, His will be done…God can easily take an imperfect person and do His perfect will.
Matthew 16:24-25
²⁴Then Jesus said to the disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. ²⁵If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.

Trust
· Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.
· Custody; care.
· Something committed into the care of another; charge.
· Reliance on something in the future; hope.
When someone asks you a question that you already know, you are comfortable with the answer. You are comfortable with your ability to give the answer. If you get a question that you don’t know you would ask someone that you trust to help you or go to a source that you trust to find the answer.

Confidence - Trust or faith in a person or thing

Faith - Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Patience
· Longsuffering Persevering; Tolerant; understanding
· Bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance with calmness.
· Marked by or exhibiting calm endurance of pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance.
· Capable of calmly awaiting an outcome or result; not hasty or impulsive.
· Capable of bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance
Romans 8:25 - But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.
Proverbs 19:11 - A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.
Galatians 5:22 - But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

4 Steps to Success

From The Successful Thinker Newsletter

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Happy New Year and welcome to 2006. The New Year has come in with a fresh new desire to achieve all that life has to offer as well as seek out every opportunity to become successful in life. This past year was one of great achievement and advancement in many of our lives. There were many things that we accomplished that deserved a round of applause, but we all know that there were things that we did that we would rather forget. There were many ups and downs and many times in the midst of our failures we missed the lesson that was to be taken from the situation. I don't want any of us to look back at 2005 and dwell on the things that we didn't accomplish or the failures/shortcomings that we had because that will only make us feel inadequate as we move towards the future. I want us to focus on the things that we did accomplish as well as try to take the nuggets of knowledge from the failures/shortcomings that we had because in each situation we can, as John C. Maxwell says, "Fail Forward, and learn from our failures."

Now in order to make the most of 2006 and take those giant steps towards success, I have prepared the "4 steps of Success" to help each of us in our journey. Let's get started

Find It

The first step towards success is to find out what you want to do with your life. Many times this is discovered by finding your purpose in life. Your purpose is what you were created to accomplish on this earth and what your talents and gifts are most suited for. You can also apply the "Find it" principle to any new venture that you are getting involved in. Your first step in any venture is to seek out as much knowledge about your venture. Knowledge is power when it comes to being successful in any way sort or matter. As you seek out as much knowledge and information about your venture, then you can make a well thought out decision as to whether this venture is beneficial to you and how to achieve and exceed the desired results. When you are seeking out knowledge, use that knowledge to assess the opportunity that is before you. Use that knowledge to see the whole picture (and even the frame) so that you can be sure that this opportunity is the best choice in your pursuit of success. .

Believe it

The next step is to believe that you can do it. This step seems easy if you have all the information and knowledge about the opportunity but many people falter at this step. Believing that you can achieve great feats is not an easy task. When you have grown up in an environment where failure has tore down many people's confidence and faith, it's hard for people to believe that they are able to overcome. Let's look at the two definitions below that make up the basis for the "Believe it" principle.

Confidence - Trust or faith in a person or thing

Faith - Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.

As you can see from the definition of confidence, you must have faith or trust in a person or thing. Now myself I used to have all the confidence in the world in my self. I believed that my own talents, gifts and abilities were great enough that I could achieve anything that I wanted. The problem was that I didn't truly know the source of my talents, gifts and abilities. As, I developed a relationship with my creator, I learned that as my faith grew my confidence grew, so the real source of my confidence was my faith. I also learned that faith is what activates the promises in the Bible and therefore as long as I was in the will of God, I could have 100% confidence and faith in my gifts, talents and abilities because even though I could fail.the source of my faith, confidence, talents, gifts and abilities could not.

Talk It

The next step is to "Talk it". The "Talk it" principle is based on speaking things into existence. Many people do not understand the power of words. The power of words is shown constantly by our continuous use of them and the effect they have. The bible says "As a man thinks, so is he", now we know that words are spoken thoughts, so we can say "as a man speaks, so is he", therefore your words show who you truly are. For example, the Bible is a book of words, but once read, taught, spoken and applied the correct way, they can change lives. Our language is based on spoken words and the things you say to people have lasting effects and can either help or hurt your relationship with them. This newsletter is a collection of words organized into articles to help people reach their goals in life, by reading and applying the principles or telling others the principles that are presented in this newsletter, lives can be changed. Finally, here is the most important factor when it comes to the "Talk it" principle.When you speak, speak with confidence. When you start on your path towards success, many people will ask you what you are trying to do with your life or what your venture is about. You have to speak with confidence and be able to explain to them what you are doing and where you are going in life. People are attracted to confidence and when you speak with the confidence and assurance that you are going to be successful in life, people want to hear what you have to say. When you come across a dynamic preacher, you realize that the preacher has a confidence and great grasp of his or her words during the sermon. Those words capture our hearts, minds, emotions, souls and spirits and bring us closer to God. When you speak with confidence and speak positive things into people lives, you capture hearts, minds, emotions, souls and spirits and bring them closer to their goals of success in life.

Walk it

The "Walk it" principle can be broken down to one single word, progress. As you start on your journey towards your purpose and success, you have to continually take steps and make progress towards that goal. The bible says that the Kingdom of God is not just words, but living by the Power of God. That means that even though we can talk about many things and tell people what we are going to achieve in life, next we have start making things happen and taking steps towards that goal.

Everyday make progress toward a goal. If you see in your future a business for yourself then everyday make progress towards that goal. You don't have to setup the business all in one day but you can at least look up the business process or research your market to see if you can make money with your business. If you see yourself traveling in the future then start looking up the places you want to go online and make sure you will know what you are doing when you get there. You may have to wait to get there but you don't have to wait to be prepared.

The definition of progress is steady movement towards a goal. The keyword there is steady, whatever you want to do in life and wherever you see yourself in the future, continue to make progress everyday. I see myself as a person that teaches people to realize the success that is within them, so everyday I continue to build a company that showcases different ways to bring out the success in people. Remember if you have a lofty goal that is far away from you attaining now, you don't have to make one big step to get there, just make continuous little steps and you will get to the same place.

Finally, if you have a dream or goal that does not require you to become a better person then you are now then the dream is to small. Your dream or goal in life should be so large that it makes you get up everyday and make continuous progress daily so that when you look back in a week, month, year or years you see that you may not be where you want to be, but you are not where you used to be.

Remember, to have what you have never had, you must do what you have never done...because...Success Is Inevitable...So Get Ready!!!