Have You Gotten Too Comfortable?

We are in a message series on the book of Esther. I want to start with a question for those of you who are followers of Christ: Have you ever gotten so comfortable in your life that you stopped depending on God the way you once did?

Some of you may be there today. You want a good life. You pursue it in the name of God and for his glory. But then, when you finally get the very things you want and start to feel comfortable, sometimes you actually stop depending on God the way you once did.

This happened to me about a decade into Life Church. Amy and I started the church together with a handful of people back in 1996. About a decade in, things were finally working and getting easier. We had many people coming to faith in Christ. We finally had a staff, full volunteers—things were working. I thought I could take a breath.

Then I got a phone call from a mentor of mine named Lyall Sholer. Lyall is in heaven today. He was one of the wisest, most godly men I knew. After the normal small talk, Lyall said, "Hey, let me ask you a question." Now, every time Lyall had a question for you, it was going to be a good question. He asked, "Craig, when is the last time that you made a decision that actually took faith?"

I kind of bristled. I'm a pastor. I started this church. I got a lot of faith. Everything I do requires faith. I was a little bit hurt, a little bit offended. He didn't argue. He just listened, then asked again: "Well, just be really specific. Give me a very specific time recently that you did something that required faith."

I couldn't answer him. That was embarrassing. Because in the early years of the church, everything we did was by faith. We started out with no building. We had a borrowed garage. We met in the garage with borrowed chairs, a borrowed sound system. We didn't even have a casserole lady. Every church in the 1990s had a casserole lady. It was really, really hard.

Somewhere along the way, we started getting the things we thought we needed. I just wanted it to be easier. And it finally was. When it got easier, I didn't realize it, but I think I just started to eliminate risk. And when you start to eliminate risk, you don't need as much faith.

When he asked me that question, I realized: my prayers had gotten smaller and my faith was safer. What used to be a very passionate, raw faith in God had just become comfortable.

When Comfort Becomes Spiritually Dangerous

When we talk about comfort today, I want to say right now that comfort alone isn't wrong or bad. But spiritually, comfort can be very dangerous when it quietly replaces your dependence on God.

God doesn't position you for comfort. He positions you for purpose and for his glory. Esther is going to discover that this week and next week. And my prayer is that you will too.

The Only Book That Doesn't Mention God

We are in the Old Testament book of Esther. If you were not here last week, we discovered something very interesting about this book. This is the only book in the Bible that doesn't mention God's name directly. Mind-blowing.

But the good news is God's presence and God's power are found on every single page. Even though his name isn't obvious, his power and presence is obvious.

Let's review the four main characters we introduced last week.

King Xerxes is very well known for throwing big parties. At a particular party, he got very drunk. He had a wife, Queen Vashti, and he said, "Go get her. I want to display her to everybody. She's very beautiful." He wanted to show her off. But the queen, perhaps tired of being paraded around or used, said, "No. Sorry, king. I'm not coming out." King Xerxes got angry and banished the queen. All of a sudden, she's no longer there and the throne is empty.

Enter Esther. The book is named after her. She was a very ordinary girl, probably a teenager, a Jewish orphan who was taken to the palace. After a year of events, she was chosen to become queen.

Esther had a cousin named Mordecai. He raised her—he was almost like a father to her. Mordecai ended up overhearing an assassination plot. Two guys said, "Let's kill the king." Mordecai heard about this and told Esther, who was now queen. Esther told the king. Essentially, Mordecai saved the king's life. His faithfulness was recorded in the book.

Then his good deed was apparently forgotten.

God's name was not anywhere. But God's plan was everywhere. None of it looked like God was in it, but God was in all of it.

When the Music Changes

Today, we're going to be in chapters three and four. This is where the music changes. Things get dark. It's like watching a show where the characters don't know it's about to get scary, but the music changes and you want to scream, "Don't touch the dead guy. He's not really dead!"

That's what's happening here. The music changes because Esther has now been queen for about four years and she's starting to finally feel comfortable. She's starting to enjoy the life that she didn't plan. And honestly, I don't blame her.

The poor girl lost her parents. She was raised by her cousin. She was taken against her will into a palace with a bunch of other beautiful women, then chosen not for her character, heart, intelligence, or personality, but for her beauty. Now she's finally starting to feel secure, starting to feel comfortable.

Again, comfort alone isn't bad. But God rarely calls us to stay in the places we're most comfortable. Why? Because comfort doesn't require faith. The author of Hebrews said that without faith, it's impossible to please God.

Right when she starts to get comfortable, the bad guy steps in. His name is Haman, and he's bad. Every great story has a bad guy. Batman has the Joker. Star Wars has Darth Vader. Spongebob has Plankton. Esther has Haman.

We see this in Esther 3:1:

"Sometime later, King Xerxes promoted Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, over all the other nobles, making Haman the most powerful official in the kingdom. So the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down and pay him honor."

Everyone bows to Haman except for one guy—Mordecai. Why didn't he bow? Probably because he was Jewish and wouldn't bow to anyone but God. This shows us a principle: sometimes your greatest act of courage is refusing to do what everyone else is doing.

If you're a follower of Jesus, you know that to be true. You're trying to follow Jesus and all your other friends are getting drunk and partying their brains out. Even though they're doing it, you say, "I'm not going to do that because Jesus has called me not to be better, but to be different. To be holy and set apart."

Or maybe you don't sleep around when that's considered the absolute norm and everyone expects you to. But you won't. Why? Because you have the courage to be different. Everyone else is gossiping at work, and you don't judge them—you're not better than them—but you walk away because you're called to be different.

Different isn't better. Different is different. If you're the same, you're probably not following Jesus. I tell people all the time: don't worry if you're different. Worry if you're not.

Sometimes the greatest act of courage is just stepping away when everyone else stays in the wrong place.

Mordecai won't bow. Everyone else bows, and he says, "I don't bow to anyone but the true God."

Haman, the bad guy, loses it. He blows a gasket. In some ways, I can relate. This guy had everything you'd want. He's powerful. Everybody else is bowing. And one person doesn't bow, and he falls apart. That happens to me. Several people say, "Good sermon, Pastor Craig." One person says, "That's a dumb sermon, and your shirt didn't look good," and I fall apart.

Isn't it amazing how one unmet expectation can rob you of the joy of all the other blessings you already have?

One guy doesn't bow, and Haman puffs up. Instead of letting it go, he lets it consume him.

Then it got worse. He discovers Haman is Persian and that Mordecai is Jewish. The Persian people despise the Jewish people. Suddenly, it wasn't about one man anymore. Haman didn't want to just kill Mordecai—he wanted to kill every single Jewish person in the entire empire.

Verse 6 of Esther 3 says:

"Yet having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead, Haman looked for a way to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes."

One guy won't bow. And this guy determines: I'm going to kill them all.

So what does Haman do? He goes to the king and tells him a lie. He makes up a story and tries to manipulate the king. He doesn't say, "King, one man won't bow to me." Instead, he says, "King, all these people are dangerous. None of them obeys your laws." The king says, "Oh, that's not good," and he believes Haman's lie. He gives Haman permission to kill every Jewish person in the empire.

Verse 13 tells us:

"Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instructions to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all Jews—young and old, women and children—in one day."

Kill them all.

Haman cast lots—drawing straws or rolling dice—to determine what day they would destroy all the Jews. The day ends up being 11 months later. So 11 months from now, they're going to destroy all the Jews. Haman thinks to himself, "The date is random. It looks like chance."

But what looks like chance is often God's providence in disguise. Providence is when God uses ordinary circumstances to bring about his supernatural will. It's when the very thing going on in your life that you don't understand and wish wasn't there—years later, you look back and say, "Oh, I see how God used something in my life I didn't expect to do something only he could do."

Haman thinks, "Okay, it just so happens that 11 months from now, that's the date we're going to do it." But he doesn't know that God was giving Esther time to discover her purpose while she was in the palace.

Because at this time, Esther doesn't know her purpose. She doesn't even know at this point that there's a plan to kill her people. Why? Because she was comfortable, safe, hidden, still hiding her Jewish identity while her people were under a death sentence.

The Problems With Comfort

I want to ask you: How often is that us? How often in some area of our lives are we living in comfort, unaware of something tragic very nearby?

You see, this is one of the many problems with comfort. Comfort doesn't just make us comfortable; it makes us less aware.

Whenever I find myself more comfortable, I am less aware of people hurting very close to me. When I'm comfortable, I'm less aware of those people who are far from God. When I'm comfortable, I'm less aware of my need for him.

And this is why I'm going to come today with love—there's no judgment because I've been there way too often. But some of you right now are comfortable in your faith. You call yourself a follower of Jesus, and it's been a long time since you've done anything that takes faith. You're comfortable.

We've been pursuing comfort in the name of Jesus. And now we're comfortable. So you're so focused on your next vacation that you don't even notice your teenager is drifting away. You're so busy scrolling on your phone at night that you don't realize the person next to you is desperate to have an intimate conversation with you. But you can't, because your attention is always somewhere else.

We just get so busy enjoying the blessings of God that we forget that he called us to a life outside of our own comfort and selfishness—to be a blessing to other people.

This was me about a decade in. I'd worked so hard. Things were finally starting to go well. I just thought, "I kind of want a break. I kind of want easy. I kind of want comfort." I was so thankful for the fruit. Finally, it's there. I didn't realize that I'd stopped living by faith.

It's easy to do because even though we believe in God—most of you do—just because you believe in God, sometimes it seems like life is just happening outside of God. Just another day. Just another day and another day, and I'm comfortable, and another day, and I'm comfortable. It's not that we're rejecting God's calling. We just get distracted from it.

One comfortable day becomes a comfortable week becomes a comfortable month becomes a comfortable year. And then we wake up and realize we've built a comfortable life, and we're no longer living by faith.

Making Decisions That Take Faith

So I want to talk to you. And when I do, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will talk through my words to you. Because I can't do it right. I don't have the power. But those of you who are followers of Jesus can hear the spirit of God speaking to you.

I want you to recognize that you never hear God's word without God having a purpose. He always has a purpose. His word never returns void. He always wants to speak to you. Maybe that wasn't one of my favorite sermons. Who really cares? God can still speak to you.

Sometimes people quote me and say, "Pastor Craig, when you said that, it changed my life." And I never said that. I didn't say it. Why? God said it. God can take the dumb things I say and fix it. I hope he does that today.

It's not my words. It's his spirit. I can say nothing. You can be in his presence and he can speak to you—through worship, through your kid, through the person who stops you and says, "Let's pray together before you leave." He's always speaking.

So if you're in pain, God will comfort you. That's what he does. If you're hurting today, God comforts you in your pain. But if you're comfortable today, God will convict you in your comfort. That's what he does. He convicts us and comforts us. They're both loving.

So I want to ask you again the same thing Lyall asked me: When is the last time you made a decision that actually took faith?

We're going to talk about that in our life groups this week. And if you're not in a life group, well, it'll probably take faith to actually step out of your comfort zone and get into some community.

There is no strategy and no reason why I always talk about this except for one fact: life goes better with God's people, and life is not as good without God's people.

One of the biggest problems I see today in the world is that people are on their phones, going solo, and they don't have community. I stood in the lobby between two services and asked every person, "Do you have close Christian friends?" Almost everybody—about nine out of ten—looked at me like I just diagnosed a horrible problem and said, "No." Their body language changed.

One out of ten or so would say yes. And their body language changed. Like, "Yes, I do. I have a treasure."

If you don't have it, you're missing one of the key ingredients of knowing God, serving God, being faithful for God, and enjoying the blessings of God. Because we're not just called for an individual relationship with him. Christianity is more of a corporate relationship with him.

We're going to get together in the body of Christ. We're going to study his word together. We're going to serve one another. We're going to love one another. We're going to forgive one another. And we're going to ask each other: when is the last time you actually made a decision that took faith?

Here's how you answer that question: If you can accomplish everything you're doing right now without needing God, you're probably not living by faith.

So what faith step is God calling you to take?

Some of you, it's just a conversation you've been avoiding that you know God wants you to have. Or it's a sin you've been excusing, rationalizing. You've been saying it's not that big of a deal. All sin is a big deal. It breaks the heart of God, separates us from God, hurts us, and hurts people.

Maybe it's something that God wants you to surrender to him. Maybe it's someone that God wants you to forgive. And whatever it is, God wants you to take the faith step, and you haven't done it—not because you don't love God, but because you've gotten comfortable.

I'm preaching this passionately because that's me again. Thirty years in, three decades of trying to keep the passion high. Earlier this year, I found myself being comfortable again. I thought, "I kind of just want to take it easy. I want weekends off." I just want to coast. I don't want to pray big. And I'm looking at my life again and realizing my prayers had gotten smaller and my faith had gotten safer.

So what I'm going to do right now, in front of all of you, in front of God and everybody, is tell you what I'm choosing. And I'll say it as simply as I can. I mean it from the depths of my heart more than I can describe to you.

I choose faith.

I choose faith. I choose it. I choose faith over comfort. I refuse to be more grateful for what God has already done in our church than desperate for what God wants to do next. I choose faith. I choose it. I choose it. I choose it. I choose it.

You're going to watch Esther do this. If you look at her life, she could have easily thought that the palace was finally the reward. "They chose me, and I endured it, and I went through all that stuff, and now I have comfort and power." But the palace wasn't the reward. The palace was preparation.

Watch for her biggest step of faith. Her biggest step of faith was still ahead of her.

So I tell you right now as your pastor: I confess, and I truly believe, that my biggest step of faith is still ahead of me. And I believe as your pastor the very same is true for you. Your biggest step of faith is ahead of you. Don't let comfort keep you from your calling.

If you're comfortable, let God convict you. Feel it. Repent. Grieve it. Turn back to him. Say, "God, I need you. I want you. I want to believe so big for something. If you don't come through, God, then it doesn't happen. I'm not going to depend on my own strength, my own abilities. God, I want to depend on you."

Hear it not as me asking you. Hear it as the Holy Spirit asking you: When is the last time you made a decision that took big faith?

Living as the Body of Christ

Here's the application: We're going to talk about this in our life groups. We're going to be together in the body of Christ. We're going to pray for each other. We're going to stand together. We're going to be conformed to the image of Christ because we're not just going to church. We are the church. This isn't just checking a box and going on with life.

We are the body of Christ, called by God to be a light in the world, to share his word with people. That's who we are. We're going to do it together.

And the application we're going to ask ourselves is this: What faith step is God calling you to take?

Some of you know what it is. No more excuses. Take the step of faith. Give it. Confess it. Apologize for it. Ask for it. Surrender it. Forgive them. Whatever it is, what faith step is God calling you to take?

The Altar Call

I love you, and I pray that God speaks to you. Let me pray with you.

Heavenly Father, we open up our hearts, believing that you're going to speak to all of us. God, comfort those who are hurting. And God, convict those of us who are comfortable. As you're praying today, all across our churches: if you recognize you're a little bit more comfortable, if you recognize you are a follower of Jesus and you've been a little more comfortable, and you want to live by faith—just be uncomfortable for a minute and lift up your hands and say, "It's me."

Let's just not hide this thing. Just be honest.

Now, put your hands in front of you in a surrender place for God. Close your eyes. We're going to pray, and in your own words, you can just tell God: "I'm trusting you in faith. I'm trusting you."

God, I pray for every person who has grown more comfortable. With hands postured in surrender, let that be a reflection of our hearts before you. God, help us to need you. Help us to trust you for specific miracles—for the salvation of a loved one that we think may never know you. For miraculous and supernatural healing in a body that most would say could never be healed. God, for restoration of a broken relationship that seems like it's always going to be broken.

God, for faith for provision—not just for us, but so that we could be generous and be a blessing to others. God, for faith to give to someone, or to give what you prompted us to give.

God, with just surrendered hands, we choose faith.

If you want to tell God that in your own words, if you would just whisper it, just say, "I choose faith."

God, help us to choose faith every single day. Because without faith, it's impossible to please you.

A Word for Those Far from God

As you keep praying today, there are some of you who are comfortable, and some of you the opposite—when it comes to spiritual things, you're not comfortable with God. You're not close to God. You're far from God.

Let me tell you what God's word says. Scripture says that every single one of us has sinned. If you ever feel guilty for doing things wrong, welcome to the family. We've all done things wrong. We've all sinned against a holy God. And our sin separates us from God.

So how are we made right with God? Scripture tells us this: we're not made right with God by our own works or our own religious efforts. The only way we're made right with God is by grace through faith.

Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Faith in the perfect work of Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the sinless son of God. He's called the Lamb of God, who was without sin, who gave his life as a sacrifice on a cross. And three days later, God raised him from the dead so that anyone—and this includes you—no matter what you've done, how bad your life is, how dark you feel—anyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be forgiven and made new.

You're saved not by religious effort. Not by your own good works, but by his grace, by his perfect work through faith, believing in the perfect work of Jesus—so that no one can brag about it. God gets all the glory.

There are those of you here who know you're far from God. You're not walking with him. You're not at peace with him. Maybe you've been too comfortable in this world, but now you're being convicted of your sin. Today, we're going to take a step away from our sin and by faith believe that the work of Jesus is all that we need.

You're saved by grace through faith. If you recognize you're not intimate with God, if you don't know if you're forgiven by God: today is the day of your salvation. Grace through faith.

Wherever you are today, say, "I need his forgiveness. I need his grace today. I give my life to him. Jesus, be my Savior. Be my Lord." That's your prayer.

Lift your hand high right now. Lift it up. Others, say yes. Jesus, I surrender. Be the Lord of my life. I surrender to you. Be first in my life.

Online, you can type in the comments section: "I'm surrendering my life to Jesus."

And today we all pray together in faith. Pray aloud with me:

Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins. Jesus, save me. Jesus, be first in my life, the Lord of my life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I could live by your power, so I could know you, so I could show your love. Help me to live by faith every day—by faith, living for you. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. In Jesus' name I pray.

Church, can you celebrate? Give God glory. Amen.