Speaker 1: We're in the series, the good life
Speaker 2: And in the series, the good life we're talking about how to achieve this thing that everybody is really seeking for and, and desiring.
Speaker 2: And that's this, this thing called the good life, a life that is good in as many ways as we can achieve this, uh, level of goodness.
Speaker 2: And in fact, I've never met anybody, looking for the bad life.
Speaker 2: Everybody's looking for the good life.
Speaker 2: And last week we talked a little bit about how people define the good life.
Speaker 2: Some people define it by location or, or environment.
Speaker 2: And we even in our own family got me to thinking about Sylvania and how cool it is to live in the Toledo Metro area.
Speaker 2: In that we were talking in our family over the day, just, Hey, what do you see when you see the good life?
Speaker 2: What do you imagine?
Speaker 2: And one of our children said, I see the good life is living in Sylvania for the rest of my life and this area.
Speaker 2: Cause I really liked this area.
Speaker 2: And I was like, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: And so then another one said that they see it living in a city somewhere and I give him 20 minutes of that.
Speaker 2: And then I think he'll change his mind, but you know, you never know.
Speaker 2: And so he said, I see this over here.
Speaker 2: And then Christie and I are talking about it and you know, what's the good life.
Speaker 2: And we just felt very blessed to be able to say that being right here in this moment, in this time with you is just a, really a real blessing in our life.
Speaker 2: We feel like we're doing what we're called to do with the right people in the right situation.
Speaker 2: And it's a, it's an exciting time to be in.
Speaker 2: We feel like we're living the good life at this particular point, but some people have, regardless of how you define the good life, everybody has a few things that are in common in their definition.
Speaker 2: One is that they're happy in the good life.
Speaker 2: They're not sad and miserable.
Speaker 2: Another is that they're satisfied in the good life.
Speaker 2: There there's, there's, there's good stuff happening there.
Speaker 2: And they feel at peace about it.
Speaker 2: Uh, they're respected in the good life.
Speaker 2: They're supplied in the good life.
Speaker 2: When people described the good life, nobody says that I'm stressed out and I'm full of anxiety and depression and worry.
Speaker 2: And I'm just, you know, I don't know how I'm going to and things make the ends meet in the good life.
Speaker 2: That's not what's going on.
Speaker 2: And the good life it's things are good in the good life.
Speaker 2: And your definition of the good life may be simple or it may be more complicated.
Speaker 2: But in I in any situation or condition you of have the good life or definition of the good life, there is this thing called enough, you have enough, you have enough respect, you have enough supply, you have enough resource, you have enough of whatever it is that you need in order to experience that happiness, that satisfaction, et cetera, that's the good life.
Speaker 2: And so the world consistently pushes against or challenges this idea of the good life.
Speaker 2: It says, do you, are you good enough to get what you're trying to get?
Speaker 2: And if you're good enough, get it.
Speaker 2: Are you good enough to keep it?
Speaker 2: And once you have it, will it really be enough to satisfy you ongoing?
Speaker 2: And can it really be the good life?
Speaker 2: Can you really experience the good life for real?
Speaker 2: And so we do a lot to, to pursue the good life we would.
Speaker 2: A lot of our life actually is focused on trying to achieve this thing called the good life, but it's, it's fleeting and it's relative because it's, once you arrive at one particular place that you say, well, that's the good life.
Speaker 2: Then you realize that there's other things that come along with that there's responsibilities.
Speaker 2: There's there's management, there's there's relationships.
Speaker 2: There's everything that was in your previous existence, exists in your current existence.
Speaker 2: In fact, some people think, well, if I could just move to the most beautiful place in the world, then I will have arrived at the good life.
Speaker 2: It really doesn't matter what I do at that point, because every, everyday I walk out of my house and I'm in this beautiful place and that will change everything.
Speaker 2: And so when we lived in Hawaii, a lot of people moved to Hawaii for that particular purpose.
Speaker 2: They say, if I could just get to Hawaii.
Speaker 2: And so they get there and they think, well, I'm going to, I'm going to live the good life in Hawaii.
Speaker 2: But the average person moving from the mainland to Hawaii is there for about four to five years at the most.
Speaker 2: And then they're back wherever they came from or moving on from Hawaii.
Speaker 2: Because what they discover is it doesn't matter how beautiful the place is.
Speaker 2: If you're there, all your problems are there, they're with you.
Speaker 2: They didn't stop at the gate.
Speaker 2: TSA.
Speaker 2: Didn't screen them out.
Speaker 2: No they're there and they're with you and you're still having to deal with you.
Speaker 2: Except now you're in a place that you're not as familiar with.
Speaker 2: And so we, we pushed for, but when you ask somebody, Hey, how much is enough in your life?
Speaker 2: How much is enough in your life?
Speaker 2: Enough finance enough, relationship enough.
Speaker 2: What's enough to you.
Speaker 2: Most people will answer that by saying, I just want to be comfortable.
Speaker 2: I'm not looking to be a billionaire.
Speaker 2: I'm not looking to be, you know, super famous.
Speaker 2: I'm just, I'm just looking to be comfortable.
Speaker 2: But if you look at the statistics in our world, we find that the good life, even the good life in extreme luxury, doesn't bring total satisfaction and happiness because you have people who are living good life.
Speaker 2: They're, they're, they're wealthy and they're famous and they're powerful.
Speaker 2: And yet they're still having some of the same problems that you and I do.
Speaker 2: The difference is you read about their problem in the news.
Speaker 2: You hear about their suicide in the news, you read about their failure in the news.
Speaker 2: And, and suddenly the one who seems like they're living the good life.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's not quite as good as they thought it was going to be in.
Speaker 2: But that's the question today, how good is good enough to be comfortable?
Speaker 2: How good is good enough to be comfortable?
Speaker 2: What do you have to have in order to be comfortable in life?
Speaker 2: And there's a guy in scripture that we're told about.
Speaker 2: That seems like he had pretty much everything necessary to be comfortable in life, to have a comfortable life.
Speaker 2: He's he was actually a citizen of two different locations, two different places at the same time.
Speaker 2: And one of them was, he was a citizen of the city, city, state of Tarsus.
Speaker 2: And as a citizen of the city, state of Tarsus, number one, it was a powerful city state, number two, in order to become a citizen of that city state, you had to pay a fee in order for us to gain citizenship.
Speaker 2: And so his family had to have enough resource to, to gain, to, to be able to pay the fees for citizenship in that city state, number two, he was a citizen of Rome and everything that came with it, all of the benefits and values that came with being part or a citizen of the Roman empire.
Speaker 2: So he is a Jew from Tarsus and he is a citizen
Speaker 3: Of Rome.
Speaker 3: His family was prosperous enough
Speaker 2: That while living in Tarsus, they had the ability to pay for him, to travel to Jerusalem and sit under the teaching of whether the most revered rabbis of their day.
Speaker 3: Emilio.
Speaker 3: This rabbi sat in the Sanhedrin, which was
Speaker 2: Like the Supreme court, if you will, of their culture.
Speaker 2: And so he's a very powerful man and he's teaching.
Speaker 2: And this young man has the privilege of going there and sitting at his feet and being taught by him.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't like it is today where you can get some loans and you can work out the financing.
Speaker 2: No, if you couldn't afford to sustain life and do what need to be done, if your family couldn't afford to pay the fees and so on and so forth, then you didn't get to do it at all.
Speaker 2: And so their family had to have enough money in order to be able to make this thing happen.
Speaker 2: It seemed like he was pretty comfortable.
Speaker 2: He was in the right place.
Speaker 2: He was in the right circles of people.
Speaker 2: He had the right resources available to him.
Speaker 2: It seemed like everything about life could be comfortable for this man
Speaker 3: Until one day
Speaker 2: He's exercising the authority that he has.
Speaker 2: He's, he's operating in the relationships that he has.
Speaker 2: And he he's, he's utilizing everything that this comfortable life seemed to afford him.
Speaker 2: He's making his way up the ladder.
Speaker 2: If you
Speaker 3: Will.
Speaker 3: And on the road to
Speaker 2: Damascus, he's not down by the power of Jesus and Jesus reveals himself to this
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 3: Now, maybe
Speaker 2: You have somebody in your life.
Speaker 2: I know that I do in mine.
Speaker 2: You would like them.
Speaker 2: You would like for them to experience a knocked down Jesus moment where you're like, Jesus just knocked them down on the road, wherever they may be and get their attention.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what happened to this man.
Speaker 2: He met Jesus in a very supernatural and beautiful way, a beautiful moment.
Speaker 2: And Jesus begins to reveal himself to this man, even as this man was fighting against the cause of Christ, the reason that he was on the road in the first place was to go kill the Christians in other places.
Speaker 2: And in that moment, any comfort that he had in life scene cash, it seemed like the good life was over for this guy because now he's a follower of Christ.
Speaker 2: He's not in the right circles anymore.
Speaker 2: He's not in the powerful people anymore.
Speaker 2: Now he's following Jesus.
Speaker 2: And not only that, he's the lowest of the, on the totem pole.
Speaker 2: Not only that, he is the guy who just was killing them 20 minutes ago.
Speaker 2: Now he's one of them today and they don't know that.
Speaker 2: And they don't all like that.
Speaker 2: So there's some stuff he's got to work through in order to be able to gain any kind of traction at this particular point.
Speaker 2: And then if you follow his life, the life of the apostle Paul was not extremely easy and simple.
Speaker 2: In fact, in a list of things that he went through, some struggles that he had, he tells us that he's been shipwrecked.
Speaker 2: He tells us he's been beaten.
Speaker 2: He's tells us that he's been imprisoned.
Speaker 2: He tells us all of these things that he has experienced.
Speaker 2: And yet when writing about these situations, he says I've experienced plenty and I've experienced lack.
Speaker 2: But then he says, not that I speak in regard to need for, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.
Speaker 2: He said, it doesn't matter if things are going like that gangbusters and everything's positive.
Speaker 2: Or if I'm in prison, I've learned to be content.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter if my belly is full or if my belly is empty, I've learned to be content.
Speaker 2: What does that word content to mean?
Speaker 2: It means to be satisfied.
Speaker 2: It means to have enough.
Speaker 2: It means to be in a state of peaceful happiness.
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 2: I don't know, Paul, if that's legit, how can you, how can you be peaceful and have happiness and have enough if you're in these bad situations in these bad times and moments, he follows up verse 11 of Philippians four with verse 13, he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Speaker 2: Now this verse of scripture is used poorly often in Christianity, because it is often used to say that it doesn't matter what you're going through.
Speaker 2: You can do everything you set your mind to.
Speaker 2: You can do all things through Christ.
Speaker 2: And it is true that if you have Christ in your life, then the limits of natural life have are lifted in your life.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 2: I agree with that 100%, but it doesn't mean that because I have Christ in my life, I can dunk a basket.
Speaker 3: Well, just doesn't mean that.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: And so Paul is saying in this in the times, what I've had plenty, I've had enough and that the times where I've been lacking I've had enough and what it is, what the, the, the reason why I've been able to have enough in both conditions is because Christ is within my life.
Speaker 2: And he strengthens me.
Speaker 2: So when I've got enough, I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2: But when I have a little, he bolsters the little I have, and he makes it enough in a way that I cannot do in the natural way it's done with, from within.
Speaker 2: And so in.
Speaker 2: Ultimately what he's saying is real lasting comfort comes from the Holy spirit, living within you, living within me, Hollywood Disney would say, if you look within yourself, you'll find everything you need.
Speaker 2: Most often I've looked at within myself and only found myself
Speaker 3: And I've disappointed myself,
Speaker 2: But when I've looked within and I wasn't looking for me, but I was looking for the one who dwells within me.
Speaker 2: That's whenever fulfillment and happiness and contentment came.
Speaker 2: And so here's our big idea today.
Speaker 2: The Holy spirit empowers you empowers you to work from the comfort zone in every circumstance to work from the comfort zone in every circumstance.
Speaker 2: Now, when I say the word comfort zone, and I say that the Holy spirit allows us or empowers us to work within the comfort zone in every circumstance, some of us immediately go.
Speaker 2: In fact, I did, whenever it first hit me that this is what Paul is talking about.
Speaker 2: I went in why, because we're taught often in today's world.
Speaker 2: And then today's culture that the comfort zone, if you have a comfort zone and we all know that we do, then we really, if we're trying to achieve anything in life, we need to avoid this thing called the comfort zone.
Speaker 2: Like the plague run away from it, push out of it.
Speaker 2: Don't stay in it, make sure you get away from it.
Speaker 2: Get out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 2: That is a challenge that we hear regularly from leadership concepts to, in, in, in development concepts and coaches and teachers and, and everybody around us will encourage us to get out of our comfort zone.
Speaker 2: It's an encouragement to reach for more, to stretch beyond what we already know, what we already have, and it's become a mantra or, or a catchphrase.
Speaker 2: If you will.
Speaker 2: The leaders and coaches and parents, and all kinds of people use to try to encourage us to reach beyond what we already have and what already exists.
Speaker 2: Then it's broad enough to where it can cover almost anything without addressing anything, specifically, get out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 2: And we've even talked about it in Christianity.
Speaker 2: We'd say, if you're a believer, get out of your comfort zone, let the Holy spirit use you in new ways and unique ways and, and develop you in ways that you've not been developed before.
Speaker 2: Get out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 2: But today I want to tell you that God desires us to work and to live from within his comfort zone, his comfort zone.
Speaker 2: I have three thoughts for us today and thought, number one is this.
Speaker 2: The calling of Jesus always stretch
Speaker 3: As the believer.
Speaker 3: It always stretches the believer.
Speaker 2: Anytime you look at Jesus, dealing with people, he deals with us from a place that we are, and he says
Speaker 3: No further.
Speaker 3: He says, I'm meeting you here, but I'm calling you to F two more.
Speaker 3: I'm going to meet you,
Speaker 2: The journey that you're on.
Speaker 2: And then I'm going to call you to a greater
Speaker 3: Journey.
Speaker 3: I think
Speaker 2: One of the things that we do in Christianity today to our own detriment is that we tell people, Hey, it's so easy to be saved, just come to Christ, accept him as your Lord and savior.
Speaker 2: And then things are going to be good.
Speaker 2: And that's about as far as we expect people to go, just get saved, just come to church every once in a while, just, you know, get around some good people.
Speaker 2: And basically we say, be where you're at, have the life that you have, and just add a little Jesus to
Speaker 3: It.
Speaker 3: Just sprinkle a little
Speaker 2: Jesus in there.
Speaker 2: And then whenever you die, you're going to go to heaven.
Speaker 2: And you're good.
Speaker 2: We've done our job because we got you there to Jesus.
Speaker 2: And outside of that, you know, let's not worry about it too much, but that's never been the call
Speaker 3: Of Christ.
Speaker 3: It's never
Speaker 2: Been the call of Christ.
Speaker 2: He's always calling us to go someplace else to, to move someplace else.
Speaker 2: And the issue with the comfort zone is that it's comfortable.
Speaker 3: It's
Speaker 2: Comfortable.
Speaker 2: We have what we need.
Speaker 2: We, we feel good about it, where we're comfortable there.
Speaker 2: And so it's satisfying.
Speaker 2: There's no compelling reason to move out,
Speaker 3: Come comfort zone and reach for more.
Speaker 3: But
Speaker 2: Hey, in the comfort zone, it can cause complacency where we're just like, well, this is
Speaker 3: Good enough or laziness where we say,
Speaker 2: I just, I just don't want to get up and do anything else.
Speaker 2: Um, I'm where I want to be.
Speaker 2: And, and I'm going to be lazy about it.
Speaker 2: Now we lack ambition in the comfort
Speaker 3: Zone, but it can have,
Speaker 2: It can have emotional and mental effects on us as well.
Speaker 2: If we stay in the comfort zone too long, it can cause depression.
Speaker 2: It can cause
Speaker 3: Third G to rise in our life and it limits the potential of any life.
Speaker 3: Any, any family, it limits you artificially limits you and reduces growth.
Speaker 2: And so if you're trying to progress in life, you don't want to stay in the comfort zone.
Speaker 2: You want to keep pushing forward, but there are some issues with not being in the comfort zone as well.
Speaker 2: I know people, I just told you about people that moved from one place to Hawaii or one place just anywhere else on the planet that you want to go to.
Speaker 2: And they say, well, if I get there, I will be happy.
Speaker 2: I will be comfortable.
Speaker 2: It will be right.
Speaker 2: And then they discover that is not true because when you're outside of your comfort zone, Oh, on one hand in your comfort zone, you have all the relationships that you've ever had.
Speaker 2: And while those relationships can be irritating at times, at least you have them in the new place.
Speaker 2: You have to build them all over again.
Speaker 2: You don't have five years worth of knowledge, 15 years worth of knowledge, 30 years worth of knowledge.
Speaker 2: You don't know where everything is.
Speaker 2: Everything's new, everything's fresh.
Speaker 2: And it's, you're off balance.
Speaker 2: You can be uncertain when you step out of your comfort zone, suddenly you don't know where you're going anymore.
Speaker 2: You don't know where that store is or that restaurant, you don't know what's good, or what isn't, you don't know who you should talk to or who you shouldn't talk to.
Speaker 2: You're out of your area of knowledge and expertise.
Speaker 2: And so it automatically makes you feel less effective because you're trying to reach for knowledge that you don't really have and, and use expertise that you don't have achieved just yet.
Speaker 2: And so, and so when you're out of your comfort zone, it really sets you up
Speaker 3: For failure,
Speaker 2: Increases the likelihood of failure quite a bit.
Speaker 2: In fact, I, I have a shirt on that says, made to make a difference.
Speaker 2: It's something we say around here,
Speaker 3: And you know,
Speaker 2: So you can make two kinds of differences.
Speaker 2: You can make a positive difference and you can make a negative difference.
Speaker 3: I've been,
Speaker 2: I've been the negative difference maker at a time or two where people were just wishing I would get out of the picture so that the picture would get better.
Speaker 2: Stop thinking that
Speaker 3: Now,
Speaker 2: You know, I jumped into something that I think I know what I'm doing, but everybody around says no,
Speaker 3: Or I'm trying.
Speaker 3: And they're saying, Hmm, you don't really know what you're doing here in Hawaii.
Speaker 2: You could always tell the tourists because number one, they were driving down these windy mountain roads at about 15 miles an hour.
Speaker 2: And there's no way to pass them.
Speaker 2: A local person is driving at least 65.
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 2: You know, what's coming.
Speaker 3: Number two, they were always trying to pronounce names.
Speaker 2: They were trying to get to Waikiki, Lowy, Whoah.
Speaker 3: You knew
Speaker 2: The tourists because they weren't familiar with the language that was around there.
Speaker 2: We're called to make a difference, a positive difference in the world.
Speaker 2: And that's not done by just kind of fumbling around.
Speaker 2: And so we don't want to be that person.
Speaker 2: We want to be the positive difference maker.
Speaker 2: And so we're called to be outside of our comfort zone, but there's a danger.
Speaker 2: And then I have to ask the simple question.
Speaker 2: Isn't that how God works though, does God call us to be always out of our comfort zone?
Speaker 2: You think about how God worked from the very beginning and he's never let mankind or humanity be within our comfort zone.
Speaker 2: He's always called us to more, whether it be Noah, Hey Noah, you're, you're a good guy.
Speaker 2: I'm going to save you and your family.
Speaker 2: So I preach to everybody that it's gonna rain and then build an Ark that's outside of the comfort zone.
Speaker 2: Moses, I'm going to talk to you out of a Bush.
Speaker 2: That's on fire, but not burning.
Speaker 2: And then I'm going to call it, tell you a shepherd in the wilderness to go talk to Pharaoh.
Speaker 2: One of the most powerful people on planet earth and command him to do a few things.
Speaker 2: And if he doesn't, don't you worry, I'm gonna take care of it.
Speaker 2: Not in the comfort zone.
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: Jesus says, leave all you have and come follow me.
Speaker 2: Not the comfort zone.
Speaker 2: Jesus says live righteous.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 2: How many in here?
Speaker 2: Righteous living is well within the boundaries of your comfort zone.
Speaker 2: You do it all right all the time.
Speaker 2: And you're comfortable with that.
Speaker 2: I'm glad we don't have any liars in this service, pastor Benton.
Speaker 2: It's good.
Speaker 2: God has never called us to stay within the comfort zone.
Speaker 2: And so could it be that modern ideas and ideals align with God's calling
Speaker 3: Maybe except for number two,
Speaker 2: The calling of Jesus always promises, comfort and rest.
Speaker 2: So he calls us out of our comfort zone.
Speaker 2: He calls us to do things that seem out of this out of the ordinary and way outside of what should be normal and right, and, and comfortable for sure.
Speaker 2: But then he says, then he says, I promise you comfort.
Speaker 2: And rest Matthew 1128, pastor David read it today, come to me all who labor and are heavy Laden.
Speaker 2: And I will give you rest.
Speaker 2: He says that whenever we come to him, that there will be a comfort that there will be a peace that comes that, that we can, we'll be able to do things that are outside our ordinary methodology and way of doing with power that we don't even have and wisdom that we did not gain.
Speaker 2: And all of this will happen in our lives.
Speaker 2: And so we are to be comfortable.
Speaker 2: We are to rest in him.
Speaker 2: We are to relax in his presence.
Speaker 2: And so, and so it seems like God is calling us to stretch for more and, and reach for greater while telling us to experience peace and, and even comfort in every situation.
Speaker 2: And how can it be both.
Speaker 2: You might want to write this down or take a picture of the screen as a believer, God, didn't create you to be comfortable in a position, a place or provision God.
Speaker 2: Your comfort level is tied to
Speaker 4: A person, a person.
Speaker 4: So Saul
Speaker 2: Bombing the apostle Paul in the same chapter where he gets saved, acts chapter nine, verse 31 says then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace and were edified.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 2: Because Paul wasn't trying to kill them.
Speaker 4: That helps,
Speaker 2: But it goes even further than that, it says.
Speaker 2: And, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort,
Speaker 4: The Holy spirit, they were multiplied.
Speaker 4: So
Speaker 2: Just like Saul or Paul's wrote to us and said, I can do all things through Christ and I can find I can be have enough and be satisfied and be comfortable even in difficult moments because Christ working in me, the new Testament church found comfort in the Holy spirit, their respect for God grew and simultaneously their comfort was gained through their relationship with the Holy spirit, their world wasn't easy.
Speaker 2: Paganism was still in charge.
Speaker 2: The Sanhedrin still didn't like them, that everybody in the natural world that was in charge of, of life and, and government and culture, none of them were on their side, but they still had
Speaker 4: In the Holy spirit.
Speaker 2: And I believe that there are people in our world right now, maybe in this room, maybe watching us online, joining us right now that you, you are fighting to retain a high level of faith in a difficult time in this world.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 2: Because, because you prayed for some things you believe for some things and, and you don't have the financial resource that you thought you would, or you don't have the healing that you expected to have, or the politics didn't work out the way that you wanted them to, or the situation and culture has got you all twisted up and you don't know, you know, what's good now and what's bad now.
Speaker 2: And so you begin to, to fight a fight of faith, trying to, trying to discover where should I be comfortable?
Speaker 2: What can I find comfort in?
Speaker 2: I can't find it in my finances.
Speaker 2: I can't find it in my, I can't find it in the political system.
Speaker 2: I can't find it.
Speaker 2: So how am I supposed to relax with all of this stuff going on around us?
Speaker 2: And I would encourage you today that you are trying to find your comfort in the wrong place.
Speaker 3: Your comfort
Speaker 2: Level is not meant to be in a position or a condition it's in the Holy spirit.
Speaker 2: And that brings us to the thought number three God's comfort zone is relational, not situational, it's relational, not situational.
Speaker 2: And I kind of liken it this way.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid growing up, we went to, we moved all the time and it seemed like we moved all the time.
Speaker 2: I went to 15 elementary and junior high schools.
Speaker 2: I went to four different Heights
Speaker 3: Schools.
Speaker 3: And you might say, well, you know, didn't that freak you out as a kid?
Speaker 3: Well, truthfully,
Speaker 2: I never knew anything different,
Speaker 3: But I will tell you this.
Speaker 2: I did not find my comfort in the state that we lived in, in the church that we attended or in the school that I went to, my comfort level came from.
Speaker 2: When I came home from any of those places I walked in and I saw my father and my mother, my sister, and my brother, and the relationship there was where I found peace and comfort.
Speaker 3: The relationship
Speaker 2: That you have with the Holy spirit is what's supposed to bring you and I, what provides you?
Speaker 2: And I comfort if we tap into it, John chapter 14, Jesus speaking, he said, and I will ask the father.
Speaker 2: Now he will give you another helper.
Speaker 2: Paraklete toasts that were pair Cletus means advocate or comforter.
Speaker 2: In fact, some translations will translate that word comforter to be with you forever.
Speaker 2: Even the spirit that's Numa or Holy spirit, the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him or knows him.
Speaker 2: It doesn't see him.
Speaker 2: It doesn't know him, but you know him for, he dwells with you and he will be in you.
Speaker 2: He dwells with you.
Speaker 2: How does he well with them that the disciples they're following Jesus, Jesus at his baptism, the Holy spirit descended like a dove and it rested upon him.
Speaker 2: And now the Holy spirit begins to empower the ministry of Jesus.
Speaker 2: The Holy spirit was around them.
Speaker 2: He was talking to them.
Speaker 2: He was working with them.
Speaker 2: The disciples were constantly in connection with the Holy spirit.
Speaker 2: They knew him.
Speaker 2: They just didn't know how they knew him, but he would be, be in them.
Speaker 2: Then he says, I will not leave you orphans that were orphans.
Speaker 2: That word can be translated.
Speaker 2: I will not leave you comfort
Speaker 3: Less.
Speaker 3: I will come
Speaker 2: To you.
Speaker 2: Then in verse 26, to wrap it all up, just in case, we're confused about what Jesus is saying.
Speaker 2: He says, but the helper, the Holy spirit, whom the father will send in my name, remember that word helper all the way back to the beginning.
Speaker 2: Pair of clique dose.
Speaker 2: So same word there.
Speaker 2: The helper, the Holy whom the father will send in my name.
Speaker 2: He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance.
Speaker 2: All that I've said to you, he's telling them the Holy spirit will provide comfort to you when I'm not here anymore.
Speaker 2: You know him, he's been with you and he will be in you.
Speaker 2: So what he's telling you, and what he's telling me is your relationship.
Speaker 2: Our relationship with the Holy spirit is the comfort zone that God calls us to live within.
Speaker 2: It's a powerful reality, and it can, it can, we can be stretched and comfortable when our comfort zone is based on who's with us, not in our position, not in our place or our position filled with the Holy spirit.
Speaker 2: The apostle Paul was able to set.
Speaker 2: I say, I have learned to be content enough in every state I've been in, in every state I've been in.
Speaker 2: So here's the truth that you and I must hold on to today.
Speaker 2: My comfort level in life is equal to my confidence level in Christ
Speaker 4: Where
Speaker 2: My comfort level is low.
Speaker 2: Then it's probably, if I'm a believer, it's probably because my confidence level in Christ as low as dropped, and I need to reconnect
Speaker 4: To that.
Speaker 2: And there's some values of the comfort zone.
Speaker 4: Foster Benton come help me
Speaker 2: In the comfort zone.
Speaker 2: We can make good decisions.
Speaker 2: Now, in this example, pastor Benton is the Holy spirit.
Speaker 2: Most days he's not,
Speaker 4: But today he is sorry, don't drop me, pass him.
Speaker 2: And so when we have the Holy spirit working in us and our, our comfort zone is relational.
Speaker 2: Then what it allows us to do is make good decisions, because we can reach out ahead of ourselves from a place of comfort, because we know that he's got us.
Speaker 2: We can reach for more.
Speaker 2: My position is extended.
Speaker 2: My, my position, if it were not for the relationship in my life right now, I wouldn't be falling flat on my face, but I'm comfortable because I know that he needs a paycheck.
Speaker 2: And, but that's not how the Holy spirit works.
Speaker 2: I'm comfortable because I know that the Holy spirit has got me.
Speaker 2: I, I know that that, that, that he is giving me wisdom that I don't naturally have.
Speaker 2: I know that he's given me authority that I don't naturally possess.
Speaker 2: I know that he's given me the ability to be able to move into reach and, and to exceed my own personal understandings because
Speaker 5: He's got me, but I'm not reaching out here.
Speaker 5: I'm not over the precipice without, without a w with, with, without knowing that that I'm okay.
Speaker 5: I'm comfortable even inexpense
Speaker 4: I can
Speaker 5: Pass up about opportunity cause I'm not reaching for everything.
Speaker 5: I can, I can have margin
Speaker 4: In my life, even when
Speaker 5: I'm extended, because, because the relationship I have in my life allows me to reach without,
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 5: So today I would, I would say to you that if you're in a place where you're saying, well, I'm trying to reach for some stuff and I'm trying to move into some things.
Speaker 5: And, but, but every time I reach anxiety builds and every time I stretch, it seems like fear grips, man.
Speaker 5: And every time I try to make something happen, I feel like I'm gonna fall.
Speaker 5: Here's my, here's my suggestion.
Speaker 5: Refocus your comfort zone from situational
Speaker 4: To relational,
Speaker 5: Press into that relationship with the Holy spirit, call out to him and say, Holy spirit, I need you.
Speaker 5: And I want to grow.
Speaker 5: I want to address something that I did not address in the first service, but, but I've heard a lot of people pray, come Holy spirit.
Speaker 5: And while I'm not opposed to that at all, I want us to be encouraged by the fact that if the Holy spirit is within you, that's like saying me, show up.
Speaker 5: I am here already.
Speaker 5: And so inviting myself to show up with myself, maybe not necessary, but it may reveal a mentality that we have about the Holy spirit that the Holy spirit is out there.
Speaker 5: The Holy spirit is over there.
Speaker 5: The Holy Spirit's around.
Speaker 5: And I have to invite him to become part of this moment.
Speaker 5: I must recognize him as being part of this moment.
Speaker 5: But Jesus said he is with you and he will be in you.
Speaker 5: So if he's in me and if he's in you that I'm, don't have to welcome him to come he's here.
Speaker 5: And so all I have to do is say, Holy spirit, I know you're here.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 5: I'm going to walk in that relationship with you.
Speaker 5: I'm going to act in that relationship with you.
Speaker 5: I'm going to move in that relationship with you when you're operating in the power of the Holy spirit, internal comfort is prioritized over external comfort.
Speaker 5: And I'm going to, I'm going to give you an example in closing of, in my own life, where we were in a very bad situation financially.
Speaker 5: And I knew what the Holy spirit was telling us.
Speaker 5: I knew that it was time to leave Hawaii, but number one, I didn't want to leave Hawaii.
Speaker 5: Number two, I leave Hawaii in the, in the situation that it was in wasn't that anything was bad or wrong.
Speaker 5: It's just that I didn't want to leave the church.
Speaker 5: And at a level of debt that had had, we wanted, I wanted it to be debt free.
Speaker 5: And so I told the Lord, if we don't pay off the debt, I'm not going anywhere, but I was stressed and anxiety.
Speaker 5: It Rose because I thought I'm being a good steward and I'm operating in good stewardship, but I'm not doing what I think God's calling me to do.
Speaker 5: So how does that balance?
Speaker 5: And so I was standing in my, and I, um, looking out the back patio door of our, of our house.
Speaker 5: And I was, I was talking to the Lord and, and to that point, I've been praying, Lord, please do this and Lord, please do this.
Speaker 5: And, and Lord, and that morning for some reason early in the morning, cause I couldn't hardly sleep.
Speaker 5: And I was all jacked up and I'm looking out the window and, and that, for some reason that morning I changed everything.
Speaker 5: I changed the prayer that I was praying.
Speaker 5: I said, I said, Lord, it's your will.
Speaker 5: That needs to be done.
Speaker 5: It's your work that needs to be expanded.
Speaker 5: It's you, that's calling us to these things.
Speaker 5: And so thank you for handling the problem.
Speaker 5: I am done worrying about this.
Speaker 5: I'm done being anxious about it.
Speaker 5: I'm going to sleep good from this point forward.
Speaker 5: I'm not, this is your business deal with.
Speaker 5: And suddenly I peace came over me.
Speaker 5: And from that day, until this day, I can tell you that I know when I'm in alignment with him, because there'll be a sense of peace in my spirit.
Speaker 5: It doesn't mean everything outside of me didn't change instantly.
Speaker 5: But I knew that everything was different.
Speaker 5: I was able to have the conversation I was able to do what needed to be done.
Speaker 5: And by the only the power of God, I cannot take credit for what God did, but by the power of God, things change so fast.
Speaker 5: And before I knew it, the church was debt free and not only were debt we'd debt free, but we ended up with excess in the bank and we were able to turn over a very healthy church to a very great situation.
Speaker 5: And God God did what only he could do.
Speaker 5: And then he continued to move Christy and I forward and, and it was awesome to see it happen, but it was a maturing process in the Holy spirit and in your life.
Speaker 5: And in mind, we have to be open to allowing the Holy spirit to work and it, that's not easy.
Speaker 5: And in my own world I experienced not just then, but many times I experienced maturing in that relationship.
Speaker 5: I grew up in a, in a, a world and in a culture where the moving of the Holy spirit and the expression of the Holy spirit and in many different ways was very normal, very common from a very young age.
Speaker 5: I experienced the power and the presence of the Holy spirit in pretty much every way that you can think about that.
Speaker 5: And I, and I understood that part.
Speaker 5: And so when, when I was down, when I was struggling, I didn't have problems, pray, and I could pray like Nope business.
Speaker 5: And it frankly was business, but me and God's, but, but I could pray.
Speaker 5: I knew how to Farrow my brow.
Speaker 5: I knew how to say, Ooh, God, Oh God, Oh, there's more to it than that.
Speaker 5: But you know what I mean?
Speaker 5: I knew how to pray a very young age.
Speaker 5: I was, I was blessed to, to, uh, have the gift of tongues in my life.
Speaker 5: And so I even knew how to pray in tongues.
Speaker 5: And so these were not weird things or unusual things in my life.
Speaker 5: I didn't bring it.
Speaker 5: But what I do discovered one day is that while I knew how to pray and the presence of the Lord would be there and, and he would bless me and it would be a beautiful, I could trust him to touch me, but I didn't trust him to carry me.
Speaker 5: I trusted him to bless me in the moment.
Speaker 5: I didn't trust him, need me for a lifetime.
Speaker 5: I, I trusted him to, to let me feel all the goosebumps and all of the flutters and all of the wonderful things that come with conversation with him, the Holy spirit.
Speaker 5: But I did not trust him to protect me when everything was around me and things seem to be closing in.
Speaker 5: It was not until I learned to trust the Holy spirit that I found comfort.
Speaker 5: And I can tell you, truthfully began living the good life.
Speaker 5: I know some of you think that I am a very intense person and I'm wound super tight.
Speaker 5: I want you to know this is the most relaxed Micah Sutton has ever been in his life.
Speaker 5: My wife could almost point to the day when the Holy spirit changed me, because if you think I'm wound tight now, how do you need the trust?
Speaker 5: The Holy spirit today?
Speaker 5: How good is good enough to be comfortable for me?
Speaker 5: The answer wasn't found in things of this earth.
Speaker 5: It was when I learned to trust the Holy spirit.
Speaker 5: And I found him to be more than good enough.
Speaker 5: Would you bow your heads with me right now?
Speaker 5: Maybe you're in a place right now where you're, you're saying, I know that I'm saved and I'm not this isn't about salvation right now.
Speaker 5: I know that heaven is my home, but I am not comfortable.
Speaker 5: I don't have a sense of peace.
Speaker 5: I don't have a sense of comfort in my life right now.
Speaker 5: Then I want to encourage you, press into your relationship with the Holy spirit.
Speaker 5: If you're saved, you have access to the Holy spirit in everything he brings.
Speaker 5: He's in your life.
Speaker 5: Suppress into that even today.
Speaker 5: Just pray, Lord, I need you.
Speaker 5: Holy spirit.
Speaker 5: I recognize you in moment in this place in my life.
Speaker 5: I recognize you and I, and, and, and I want your involvement.
Speaker 5: I, I release you to work in my life today.
Speaker 5: And I released that worry in my life.
Speaker 5: I released that concern in my life.
Speaker 5: That problem that we're dealing with, I give it to you right now.
Speaker 5: It's yours to deal with.
Speaker 5: You handle it like only you can, and I'm not going to take it back from you, press into that relationship with the Holy spirit.
Speaker 5: If you've never allowed Jesus to be your Lord and savior, then that's where you start.
Speaker 5: You say, Lord, I need you to be my savior.
Speaker 5: I repent of my sins.
Speaker 5: I accept you as my King, my Lord, my God.
Speaker 5: From this day forward, I live for you.
Speaker 5: Let him change your life.
Speaker 5: Let him fill your life.
Speaker 5: And I will tell you that you, you will never regret it.
Speaker 5: It's how you start living the good life through Christ.
Speaker 5: Let's stand together right now.
Speaker 5: As we close this service per party, just come forward.
Speaker 5: And if you, you say, I need the touch, I need to press into that relationship with the Holy spirit, then know that there are people here that are ready to pray with you.
Speaker 5: The Holy Spirit's in this house right now, he's in this moment right now, wherever you may be watching, he's there with you in this very second press to him, call out to him, let him, let him be stirred up within, you know, let's see what God will do in leading you in Jesus name.