Tear Down the Idols: Comfort • Ps Craig Clark

"So here's the key thought, we are to live from God's comfort not for our comfort. We are to live from God's comfort not for our comfort. See, when comfort is God, it'll always lead us to a compromised life even as Christians. I don't really feel like lifting my hands today. I would serve on a team, but they look like they've got it all sorted. I don't really need to serve. I mean, I would go to discipleship group. I don't really have the energy to go to discipleship group tonight. I mean, if I'm gonna it feels a bit awkward but uncomfortable to go to one. [00:05:36] (44 seconds)  #LiveFromGodsComfort

"Jesus is indicating a counsellor of the exact same kind as himself, A divine constant presence that's not lesser than Jesus but actually replaces him to every life through Jesus. Isn't that a wonderful thing? So we've got this reality that comfort's not negative but the reality is if comfort is God and God is not comfort then things start to fall and things start to corrode and start to slip in our lives because Jesus doesn't call us to live a comfortable life. He actually calls us to live one that's Christ like, one full of conviction and courage, a life that actually costs us. [00:04:54] (42 seconds)  #ChooseChristOverComfort

"The other day I was giving blood and the blood donors and they say this, they say, what you're going to do is give life to another person but get ready though, it's going to hurt. As you can live your Christian life, you are giving hope and life, light, a way for others to follow but be aware, it's going to hurt. Jesus was misunderstood, ridiculed, attacked and ultimately beaten and executed. It cost him his life shedding his blood but in the shedding of his blood, we all received life. He had the chance to walk away in the garden but he chose to persevere. He not only showed us what it was like to tear down the idol of comfort but he commands us to do the same. [00:16:04] (55 seconds)  #SacrificeBringsLife

"And the last one is understand that Christianity requires courage. Christianity, it requires courage. Why would he give us spiritual armor if he just wanted us rocking in an armchair? Come on. What good is the armor of God if there's not a warrior to wear it? Taste courage to sacrifice our wants, courage to forgive those who hurt us, keep our mouth shut rather than slander, courage to trust God with our finances and future, courage to run to God and not from God when we feel shame and guilt, courage to invite others in and reveal our pain or pitfalls, courage to crucify the flesh and rather surrender to the spirit. [00:38:26] (50 seconds)  #FaithRequiresCourage

"Everything's free. Everything's gifted and salvation is free. It does not cost us anything to receive his grace but once we have his grace in our life and we know his pathway for our life, it no longer becomes about gimme gimme gimme, My middle name's Jimmy. It's not Jimmy, it's Kingsley but But if we can see from the life of Jesus and what's promised in the bible, the truth of it is is in our Christian walk it will become hard at times but as humans we actually tend to see pain, effort, sacrifice and risks as evils. Things to avoid rather than pathways to embrace. [00:09:39] (46 seconds)  #GraceLeadsToSacrifice

"See, I think the tension that can be in the room is that we live in the most comfort oriented oriented sorry comfort obsessed culture and history. Instant everything. Everything you need. I would go drive to the supermarket but I've got Uber now. Entertainment, all entertainment, any entertainment at the click of your fingers. Self gratification, however you want it, you can get it. AI alleviates all thinking and that's not a positive but the thing is to realize is that at its heart comfort isn't evil. In fact, it's one of God's good gifts in our life. [00:03:45] (47 seconds)  #ResistComfortCulture

"Come on. It's gonna cost us our freedoms. It will cost us our will and wants, our ideals, our plans. It costs us our plans. Oh, I plan to go and get that job. I plan to go and travel and do that for three years and then God speaks. It costs you to obey. Come on. It costs you work opportunities. Some for standing for their faith, for not wanting to put pronouns on their emails or wear something that aligns with a belief that's not biblical. It's cost them their jobs. But we're not here to please the opinions of others and you must be okay with standing in the convictions. If this is what God has placed in your heart, then that's a great place to stand. [00:17:38] (48 seconds)  #StandInConviction

"You know you say what's an idol? An idol often is something that starts out good but in time it takes the place of God. Things that the enemy will just start to put in your life in an increased focus or an increased measure or in a way of maybe even abundance that we thank God for but it's not long before our eyes and our hearts are more focused on the things he's brought into our life than the one who brought it in the first place and so that's why we're talking about tear down the idols because not because we're afraid or not for any other reason but we've got to identify these things. If we don't identify them and be intentional then the reality is we can be caught off guard [00:00:19] (41 seconds)  #TearDownIdols

"and there could be a stronghold that enables him to go places that if we had stood and we had recognised and we had confronted that maybe the enemy wouldn't be where he is. Does that make sense? And so today we're exposing one of the more invisible but rather persuasive idols of our heart and our lives and that is the idol of comfort. The idol of comfort. So in light of that, today might be a bit uncomfortable because we're not here to simply high five each other but as we talk about idols and confront the god of comfort that wants to take ground in our lives so the enemy can advance, we're here to say no, we're going to stand, we're going to see things clearly and on our watch, come on, we'll push back darkness and we'll shine great light. [00:02:55] (50 seconds)  #ExposeComfortIdol

"Come on, engaging in deals in our businesses that may get you coined but will compromise your character, it costs you to say no to those deals. It costs us being misunderstood. It costs us relationships. I remember losing 80% of my friends when I gave my life to Jesus. They said hurtful things. They distanced themselves from me. Naturally, it can look like you sacrifice a lot but you've to hear it. The revelation God's put in my heart is though it looks like a setback, don't lose sight that it's a setup. It may look like a setback now but hold on to God. Keep your eyes fixed on him when you're walking on water and his waves are tall because I'm telling you it's a setup, it's not a setback. [00:18:26] (42 seconds)  #SetbacksAreSetups

"Come on, convenient, comfortable, what suits me, what do I feel, what do I want, what do I like, and what do we notice in all of that? I I I I I I I I I I I I but can I just say, at life, we are not a body of believers built on comfort of what we want, but we are called to live a life of conviction of all that God is lead leading? It has never been about convenience. It's always and will always be about the great commission. [00:08:01] (31 seconds)  #BeyondConvenience

"But here, we're gonna say there's a call of God on your life. There's a purpose to live for that's greater than yourself. And when I go, I don't care if they remember my name, but I want the church to look brighter. I want more people to be in heaven. I want more souls to be saved. But I think the church, if this is an observation, the church at large in the Western world without meaning to has done Christians a great disservice by not teaching a lot around suffering. So we come to faith believing that the Christian life is supposed to be easy. [00:09:05] (34 seconds)  #TeachRedemptiveSuffering

"He's not there to shame you. He's leading you in love. When he identifies something in our heart and our lives, he's actually he's leading us in love. He's he's not there to shame you. Can I also say, as you live from conviction and you shine your light bright in our community, in your high school, in your university, at your workplace, in your home, can I just say to you, you're not condemning anybody? You're revealing the goodness of God. So don't put your light under a bowl. Don't apologize for your faith. Don't apologize for the conviction God's given you. Now don't live in judgment. Don't place yourself higher than anybody else. [00:35:41] (42 seconds)  #LeadWithLoveNotShame

"But let's be real. There's only two destinations. There's two paths. The decisions of our lives will either lead to life, it will lead to death. Not all roads lead to Rome and so we need to be aware. Don't get comfort in complacent. Don't be okay with your extra drinking. Don't justify our anger. Don't live in a place of envy. Don't let lust and engaging in porn and other purity perverse things. Don't excuse that stuff. Come on. Sexual immorality, sex outside of marriage. Come on. It's a gift from God, but God's got a perth way perfect pathway for it. Come on. The area of greed and judgment that we carry, the area of unforgiveness that we hold on to. Come on. It doesn't lead to life. None of it's going to satisfy and provide what you and I so desperately are wanting. [00:26:16] (58 seconds)  #ChooseLifeNotSin

"So what's the comfort? The comfort is nobody arrived. The bible says all have sinned and fallen short. So don't think that somebody thinks they're up here, up here and you're down there. That's not how this works. We're just all simply in one big line, all with the same value, all seen as from the eyes of the father as his children but the one thing is either we are facing him and we're walking to him we're not facing him and we're walking away from him and our heart is today before we close, I know this isn't a comfortable message but you've to hear it, the comforter's here to let you know that he can wipe the slate clean, he can clear what has been of the old and if we would turn, repent, acknowledge our need of Christ and choose to follow him, I want to tell you today he can make all things new. [00:29:10] (49 seconds)  #TurnToChristNow

"Never ever hate the person regardless of even how they've hurt you. Never hate the person. The bible says he hated the practices. You must separate somebody's ideology and their identity. We must separate the two. What does the bible say he did on the cross? Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. There are things people have been consuming and that what they're living out of is a direct reflection of what they've been told their whole life. And so therefore, we get angry at them and God's saying, why are you angry at them? They're a child of God. No. It's get annoyed at the devil and start praying in love that God would soften a heart and seeds could be sown or water could be poured on the seeds that are there. Come on. Never push past the person. Does that make sense? [00:37:26] (51 seconds)  #LoveThePersonPrayForChange

"You've got to hear it, everybody's welcome but not every viewpoint is agreed with. We can love you and I thank god that many people love me without agreeing with everything I agree with because together it helps shape and mold us to grow into maturity, not just hold tight to what we want to believe and what we feel. So I want to encourage you if you want to know what our statements of beliefs are on all things faith and around the areas of gender or how God designed and established marriage to be between one man and one woman, it's all there with articulation of heart. But in our compassion, you're going hear it, we are full of compassion but in our compassion we're not going to compromise God's truth because it's the truth that sets us free. It's the truth that sets us free. [00:28:16] (55 seconds)  #CompassionWithoutCompromise

"I don't know about you but I want you to hear this heart is not condemnation and I'm not judging anyone for the lives that we've all come from. We've all fallen short. God picked me up and met me in a very broken place with pieces everywhere having hurt myself and hurt many others. But I find myself today looking at society going, how did we get here? How did we get here? How did we get to this place? How do we get to this place? Our society has walked away from God actively promoting the denial of his ways, celebrating that which corrupts the very heart and nature of what he created us for. [00:21:21] (53 seconds)  #WakeFromCulturalDrift

"And see the thing is is when you turn away from God and you deny him, you actually have to take up his place and start to play him. See the message of this world is that you and I are inherently good, that we are always right, that we can live however we choose and feel and the truth of it is we can live however we choose and feel but if we elevate ourselves like that, we don't just remove God, we replace him. And what was once inconceivable has now become every day. Inconceivable and the way the enemy works is rather than telling you the blatant reality of what it is is it changes the language around it to soften what it represents and I understand this is sensitive stuff [00:22:14] (54 seconds)  #DontReplaceGodWithSelf

"Come on, but if those are the things we think, how much more will other areas just slip slip slip slip? I mean, kid sports back on. Gonna be going to the 03:30 now. Oh, maybe I'll make the six. Oh, sure has been a big day on the side of the sports field. And then six months later, if kids feel a little disconnected, we feel a little bit disconnected, oh, people are gonna ask, where are you? I haven't seen you. That's a little bit awkward. And all of a sudden, we start resisting wanting to come. And we've actually shown our household that hobbies are more important than his house. [00:07:11] (37 seconds)  #RaiseResilientKids