Uncomfortable Grace
Through Uncomfortable Grace, I create space for honest, Spirit-led conversations that challenge the Church to return to truth, unity, and holiness. Each episode confronts the hard stuff... sin, division, lukewarm faith and invites listeners into deeper surrender, practical discipleship, and a revived relationship with Jesus. This isn’t about surface-level inspiration... it’s about transformation.
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Uncomfortable Grace
America: Kumbaya Won't Cut It (Part 3)
What if the crisis in the church isn’t politics at all, but idolatry disguised as relevance and “balance”? We take off the mask of false peace and press into why comfort-based Christianity keeps pews full while altars stay empty. This is a straight call to trade applause for an altar, to reject a middle that buries conviction, and to rediscover unity that bows to the lordship of Jesus rather than silence that keeps the room calm.
We unpack why hype can’t replace holiness and why emotional highs without obedience leave souls shallow. You’ll hear the hard difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking, how “balance” often functions as fear with good manners, and why Jesus stood in the gap instead of blending in. We frame the cultural divide as a spiritual war, drawing on Ephesians 6:12 to expose how neutrality becomes complicity and how a quiet church gives the enemy the microphone.
The path forward is both simple and costly: repent of comfort as a goal, return to the Word with endurance, and rise with holy resolve. Revival won’t come from a platform or a policy; it starts in God’s house when we say “enough” to compromise and open our mouths with truth and love. If you’re ready to move from singing to standing, from brand to burden, and from safe to set-apart, this conversation will light a fire in your bones.
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Hello, and welcome back to Uncomfortable Praise, where truth and mercy lie. I'm coding in today's episode. This one is. And then there was an episode where I talked about unity and how it is mission critical for the church. It is not optional. It's something that we do in obedience. And then the second version of uh that was America Kumbaya won't cut it. There's a second part out, in case you didn't know. And today the goal is to put a third part out because I think what's happening here is that we're slowly removing the mask off of quote unquote peace because it's it's really false peace. So today we're gonna go even deeper. I would like to go to the root of the issue because the truth is America's problem isn't just politics. It's not even ideology, it's idolatry. We've traded the presence of God for the approval of man. We've replaced repentance with relevance, we've confused peace with silence and holiness with popularity. And the church has been standing in the middle of the fire singing, you guessed it. Kumbaya, hoping that pretending will fix what only repentance can heal. So, no, this one isn't going to be comfortable. But guess what? That's good because that's why I want to be here. That's why I created this platform, if you will, because the gospel was never meant to make us comfortable. It was meant to make us holy. You see, we've built a comfort-based Christianity, a version of faith that prioritizes it prioritizes ease over endurance and feelings over faithfulness. Our pews are full, but our altars are empty. We've created congregations that are consumers, not disciples. We drive across town for a polished worship team, but won't kneel for five minutes of prayer. The modern church has confused growth with godliness. Just because something is large doesn't mean it's alive. And the saddest part is that we've baptized this comfort culture in spiritual language. We say things like, we just want people to feel welcome. But what we what we really mean is we don't want people to feel very convicted. We tell ourselves that we're being loving, but we're really being lazy. Because real love tells the truth, even when it is uncomfortable. Jesus didn't build the church around comfort, he built it around a cross. The moment we forget that, the moment we forget that, we stop being the church and start being a club. We've welcomed a people bored with truth. We scroll past scripture like it's a suggestion, not a revelation. We treat conviction like negativity and a holiness like extremism. And because we're bored, we chase noise. We chase hype, trends, and experiences that feel spiritual but lack substance. We crave sermons that make us feel inspired but not accountable. We want pastors to motivate us, not shepherd us. It's no wonder the church feels shallow. We've built it on emotion instead of endurance. But here's the deeper issue. When the word stops thrilling us, something else will fill that void. The devil doesn't mind us being passionate as long as our passion is misplaced. So he'll feed us emotional highs and culture causes to keep us busy while our hearts grow cold. When truth stops being enough, we start worshiping the golden calf made of comfort, charisma, and compromise.
SPEAKER_01:And we call it balance.
SPEAKER_00:That being balanced is the same thing as being biblical. We say things like, well, I'm not on the left or the right. I just I just want to be in the middle. But friend, oh friend, Jesus never stood in the middle. He stood in the gap. He didn't come to blend with culture. He came to confront it. He didn't come to hold hands with darkness, he came to drive it out. Balance sounds noble, but it's often a disguise for fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of conflict, fear of losing influence. But the middle is where conviction goes to die. And it's where truth becomes tone, holiness becomes harshness, and obedience becomes optional. Here's the the deeper danger. The moment you try to be everyone's pastor, you stop being God's messenger. We've got too many leaders who'd rather keep peace with people than stay at peace with God. The church loves to talk about unity. Listen to me, it loves to talk about unity. But what kind of unity are we actually fighting for? You see, we talked about this already. False unity says, let's let's just not talk about that. Let's leave it there. True unity says, let's talk about it until we're aligned with the truth. False unity avoids the hard conversations in the name of love. But real love has hard conversations in the name of holiness. Here's the deeper layer. False unity is comfortable because it doesn't require repentance. It just requires your silence. You to just go along with it like some useful idiot. But silence in the face of sin isn't unity, it's betrayal. When we tolerate what Jesus died to destroy, we're not keeping peace. We're crucifying him all over again. Real unity doesn't come from ignoring truth. It comes from every believer bowing their will to the same truth. Jesus is Lord. And his word is final. That kind of unity is costly. But it's the only kind worth having. You see, peacekeeping is one of the church's most socially acceptable sins. We call it diplomacy. We call it bridging the gap. But in reality, it's avoidance dressed up as virtue. We've confused keeping the peace with making peace. But they are not the same thing. You see, peacekeeping avoids conflict to look godly. Peacemaking confronts conflict to restore godliness. Here's the problem. Peacekeeping protects our comfort. Peacemaking protects God's character. You see, maybe we just avoid this text. Because the word says, you know, d Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers. Did you notice something about that? He didn't say peacekeepers. He didn't keep peace when sin corrupted the temple. He flipped tables. We've got pastors trying to keep everyone happy. Trying to keep everyone happy instead of keeping God holy. But real revival doesn't come through comfort. It comes through confrontation. And until we start flipping the right tables, the church will keep singing while the world just burns a burns down around it. So let's go deeper here, because I think we can go deeper still. This isn't just a cultural war, it's a spiritual one. Ephesians 6 12 says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world. This divide in America isn't just political. It's demonic. The enemy is whispering lies into both sides, fueling hatred, twisting truth, and convincing the church to stay quiet for fear of being political. But neutrality, oh, neutrality doesn't make you holy. It makes you complicit. When the church refuses to engage the spiritual war because we're afraid of the cultural backlash, we're already surrendered. We've already surrendered the ground, in fact. The devil doesn't need the church to bow to him. Do you hear me? He doesn't need the church to bow to him. He just needs the church to stay silent, to shut up, to shut up long enough for the world to forget what the truth sounds like.
SPEAKER_01:So what's really on the line here? Our witness. Our children. Our calling.
SPEAKER_00:When the church mirrors the culture.
SPEAKER_01:In fact, when Methodism adopts culture, it dies.
SPEAKER_00:When the church mirrors the culture, the world stops believing the gospel. When the next generation sees us fighting on lion instead of fighting on our knees, they walk away disillusioned. When we treat obedience as optional, we lose the power of our witness. And ultimately we dishonor Christ. Because his final prayer wasn't Lord, make them popular. It was Lord, make them one. Every time we choose safety over conviction, the cross loses visibility in our world. And that's not just tragic. It's treason against the one who carried it. That might be harsh. It might come off harsh. And I think I'm just feeling in my spirit that it's meant to be that way. It's treason against the very man who hung on that tree.
SPEAKER_01:For you and for me, and for the world to have life. So what do we do?
SPEAKER_00:I think I think this is probably the simplest section of them all as I try and land this plane and this little I guess you can say soapbox or whatever you want to call it that I'm on is we repent.
SPEAKER_01:We get real. We stop pretending everything's fine.
SPEAKER_00:We repent for treating the gospel like a brand. We repent for using grace as a cover for compromise. We repent for thinking comfort was the goal when it when it's always been holiness. And then well and then we rise up, ye Christian soldier. We take our stand again. Not in arrogance, but in authority, not in pride, but in purpose. We open our mouths again, we preach the truth, and we live holy again. Because revival isn't waiting on the White House. It's waiting on God's house. It starts when the church finally says enough.
SPEAKER_01:Enough. Enough pretending. Enough placating. Kumba Yah. It won't cut it anymore.
SPEAKER_00:It just won't cut it anymore. The church is being called higher. God is doing something right now. And we just we just need to wake up as the church and perceive it. The Lord is doing a new thing and he's doing it now.
SPEAKER_01:So here's the bottom line. America doesn't need a balanced church.
SPEAKER_00:It needs a burning one. One on fire for the Lord. The world doesn't need quiet Christians who blend in. No, friends. It needs bold Bible believing believers who stand on the Word of God, who fix their eyes on the author and the perfection of our faith, and we learn how he did it, and we mirror that till we are called home, or until we die. The hour is too late for silence. The kingdom of God is at hand. It's too dark for compromise and too urgent for fear. This is not the time for fenceetters. This is the time for fire starters. If the world is going to see Jesus, it's going to be through a church that's finally done singing and ready to start standing. So don't you dare settle for kumbaya when God is calling you to revival. And I believe in my spirit and in my soul, the Lord is calling the church to revival. Revive us, O Lord.
SPEAKER_01:Reign over us, great King. Show us thine way. And renew in us a right spirit, O Lord. This is what we pray, O Lord. Thank you, O mighty Father. Thank you, great key, King. Reign over us. Reign victorious. O ancient of days. It is in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit I pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you for joining me on Uncomfortable Grace today.
SPEAKER_01:If this stirred you, share it. If it convicted you, sit with it. If it inspired you, act on it.
SPEAKER_00:The church doesn't need another influencer. It needs an as intercessor intercessors. It doesn't need applause. It needs an altar. And that starts with you. But as always, is my call to you. Stay faithful, friend. Stay uncomfortable. And stay in the fire. As Wesley said, the best of all God is Whether you believe it or not, I would say even better than that is you.
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