← Life.Church with Craig Groeschel
Life.Church with Craig Groeschel
The Trap of Comfortable Christianity | Christian-ish | Part 1
00:36:14
What happens when following Jesus leads us out of our comfort zone? What do we do when God’s Word feels challenging? Let’s find out in this message.
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I was on a trip and I met this guy that was really, really cool. How many of you know what it's like when you meet someone and you just immediately hit it off? You know, I'm talking about we just hit it off and it was really interesting. I was asking him a lot of questions, and then he asked me the question that I hate. When I met somebody new, he asked me, so, what do you do for a living? And the reason I hate that is because when I'm having any kind of good, normal conversation, the moment I tell someone I'm a pastor, it always gets weird. It either gets Christian weird or it gets unchristian weird. Christian weird is when we're having a normal conversation. They say, what do you do for a living? I say, I'm a pastor. And then all of a sudden it's, well, praise the Lord. Hallelujah, brother. You know, and it just gets Christian weird. And then there's another type of weird where we were getting along fine. It just goes dead. I mean, they just act like they don't wanna talk to me anymore. And so, like, I've never lied, but I think about lying every time someone asks me what I do for a living. So I'm enjoying this conversation with the guy. And he says, what do you do for a living? I was like, oh, pastor. And the cool thing about this guy is he obviously really wasn't a Christian. I could tell by several clues he gave me, but he just rolled with it. And he just started telling me about all his good works. And I thought, this guy, I like this guy. He's like, hey, I give money to this homeless charity, and I try to be really loving to people, and I'm living with my girlfriend, but we're not having sex. You know, he was really proud of that. I'm living with my girlfriend, we're not having sex. I'm like, good on you, mate. I don't even know what to say to you right now. But he was really excited about that. And he was telling me about all his Christian values. And so I said, so, like, do you have a faith story? He's like, oh, yeah, kind of, sorta, yeah. I mean, you know, like, I mean, sorta, like. Yeah. And then he just started rattling off about 43 different religious beliefs. He's like, I'm kind of a spiritual guy. And I kind of got into New Age, and I like the positive energy. And then I looked at Buddhism, and I looked at a bunch of different religions, and I like a lot of them, and I Do like Jes. And so I guess you could kind of say that I'm kind of Christian ish. And the moment he said Christian ish, I just thought, that's it. That's the word I've been looking for for 29 years of leading Life Church. Christian ish. That's the word. Because where I live there are so many people that are Christian ish. If those of you around the world watching church online, I live in the Bible belt and in the Bible Belt, it's really, really common. Call yourself a Christian, but not take your faith too seriously. You know, you might go to church on Christmas and Easter whether you need it or not. You might call yourself a Christian. You might have even been baptized when you were a kid. You're a spiritual person. You believe in God, you want to go to heaven when you die. But if you ask people around you, is he or she a Christian, like, ah, I'm not sure. Maybe, maybe not. I'm Christian ish. As we start a new year, I want to give you a new word, Christian ish. And I want to start by defining it because we're starting a new message series called Christian ish. What does it mean to be Christian ish? My definition is this. It's having a half hearted faith. Wearing the label of Christianity without truly following Jesus is having a half hearted faith. It's like being Christian in name only. It's like almost Christian sort of Christian is Christian ish. And I would say very honestly, from a pastoral perspective, to be Christian ish is to kind of embrace a superficial, watered down version of Christianity. It's where you have enough of Jesus that it makes you feel better, but not so much of Jesus that it changes anything in your life. Happy New Year and welcome to Life Church where I'm here to make you feel better about your faith. I had a seminary professor years ago that said a role of an effective pastor is to comfort those who are afflicted and to afflict those who are comfortable. Would you just say, today, afflict me pastor? Type in the comment section if you wanted to flick me. Pastor, if you're a little bit comfortable today, I want to push you and believe that you can be closer to Jesus this year and more effective for his kingdom than you ever have been before. We're going to look at God's word today. We're going to be in Revelation chapter 3 and in early in the book of Revelation, Jesus gave custom messages to seven different churches. One of the churches he was speaking to was the church in Laodicea. And when he talked to the Laodicean people, he didn't hold back, he didn't pull any punches. Let's look at the whole text together. Revelation 3, starting in verse 15, Jesus said this. He said, I know your deeds. In other words, I know your good works. And he says, you're neither cold nor hot. Jesus says, I wish you were one or the other. So because you're lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. Jesus said. He goes on to say, you say, I'm rich, I've acquired wealth, I don't need a thing. But you don't realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind. Jesus goes on to say, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So what do you do? He says, so be earnest and repent. Then Jesus says, it's so powerful. He says, here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and, and they with me. Jesus says, I'd rather you be hot or cold. But if you're lukewarm, Jesus says, what's he gonna do? I'm gonna vomit you up. Jesus is not playing. To give you a little context of why Jesus brought this kind of spiritual intensity. Laodicea was one of the wealthiest cities in the Roman Empire. And 35 years prior to this message, the whole region was destroyed by this massive earthquake. And so the Laodiceans did something that was very different for that time. They on their own, without any help of any neighboring cities. Normally if there'd be a city go through a disaster, their friends and other people would come in and help them. But completely on their own, the Laodiceans rebuilt the entire city with these lavish theaters and stadiums and these public baths and shopping centers. Think Las Vegas or think Dubai. It was similar to that. And so when Jesus says into this very wealthy, self sufficient community, when he says, you're lukewarm, the analogy of being lukewarm would have been striking to the Laodiceans because with all of their wealth and with all of their comfort, they had one very big problem. And the problem is they had a very inadequate water supply. So in Laodicea, in order to get water, you had to pipe it in from one of two places. You had to get it from Hierapolis or from Colossae. And I'll show you on the map the problem. You got Laodicea on the bottom left. Hierapolis is about 6 miles away Colossae, about 10 miles away, Hierapolis. You can remember this. Think H stands for hot. Colossae, Think cold. C stands for cold. From Hierapolis, they would actually pipe in hot water, which had a purpose. The hot water from the hot springs was famous for its healing purposes. And from Colossae, they would pipe in the cold water through these kind of nasty old aqueduct piping systems. And the problem is, by the time the hot water got all the way to Laodicea, it had cooled. And by the time the cold water got all the way to Laodicea, it was tepid, the water was lukewarm, it was often contaminated. And guess what it did to the people? It made them sick, right? So Jesus says, you're like that. You're lukewarm, you're not hot, you're not cold, you're not serving any real purpose. And that makes sense. Me sick. Now. The spiritual interpretation for lukewarm is occasionally misunderstood. When Jesus says, hey, you're not hot, you're not cold, he wasn't just talking about spiritual passion. He was also talking about spiritual purpose and spiritual impact. Because the hot water, it had a purpose. Its purpose was to heal. The cool water had a purpose. Its purpose was to cleanse. Jesus was saying, you are not fulfilling your purpose. May I say to some of you, humbly and with a heart, to heal and to bring you hope as you enter into a new year. If you look back at the last year, you may not have fulfilled your spiritual purpose. God has given you specialized personal gifts. You're good at certain things. You're good with people, you're others oriented, you're more generous than others. You know how to organize, you like to serve. You got something about you that's different. And if you didn't use what God gave you to fulfill your spiritual purpose, creating the spiritual impact to make a difference, then Jesus might say, you're lukewarm. And when he says lukewarm, the word in the Greek is the word emeo. And this word is a very, very strong word. Literally, what this word means is this. It means to vomit, to throw up, to spew out forcefully. Those of you that have ever had a baby, if you ever feed your baby and then you lay down on your back and you play with your baby like this, they will likely projectile vomit in your face. Meo. It almost means projectile vomit. It conveys a strong visceral response where God says, I am vomiting you out. God can't stomach comfortable Christianity. It's not just undesirable to God intolerable Christian. If it suggests this half hearted, convenient, comfortable commitment to receive the benefits of Jesus without fully surrendering to the call of Jesus. And it suggests this half hearted faith that is so repugnant and to God that it provokes a visceral reaction. And Jesus says this. Revelation 3. 17. He says, you who say, I'm rich and I've acquired wealth in our culture, be like, you have an iPhone and you can order Amazon, click buy anytime you want, because you are rich. Do you know that you are rich? You don't feel rich, but you are rich. You had three meals today, you drove a car here. You got a computer, you got a phone. You're rich. That's rich. That's rich. Some of you are so rich, you got a house for your cars. You drive up and park your cars in a little house, you call it a garage. You have a house for your cars. We're rich. You can say, I'm rich, I've acquired wealth and I don't need a thing. I don't need God in my. I don't need a thing. But you don't realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Maybe you know someone who thinks they don't need anything from God. Or maybe you're one of those people who think, I don't really need anything from God, I've got what I need, I'm a good person. No one has the right to tell me how to live. I don't need some outdated, irrelevant religion to make me feel better about myself. And maybe you don't need anything from God until you do. Until you get a bad medical report and you weren't a person of prayer the day before, but you might feel like praying on that day, right? Or until your spouse leaves you and you got nowhere to turn. Or until you lose a relationship with a child and you're, you're, you feel lost and broken and hopeless because you don't have a relationship with the, that you gave birth to. Or on the other hand, you finally get what you wanted. Everything that you wanted. You get it all. Like you wanted the job, or you wanted the blue check mark, you wanted the six figure income, you wanted the house, the car, the boat, the vacation, whatever it is. And you get all that. And you realize now, finally, I have what I want. I'm now comfortable on the outside, but I am still empty on the inside. And you realize, oh my gosh, I mean, I do have so much of what I want. I'm rich in things But I'm poor in spirit and I want to look at the verse again. Verse 17, when Jesus said, you don't realize. Somebody say, I may not realize. Type it in the comment section. Say it again. I may not realize. You may not realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. You don't realize. I went to a party and was having a great time and I went into the bathroom and I looked in the mirror and I didn't realize I had a big piece of meat stuck right there for the whole party. Didn't realize. One time, back in about 2005, I preached what I thought was a really, really good message. And there were more salvations than maybe I'd ever seen at one time before. And I didn't realize that I preached the whole message with my zipper down. And I just thought I preached good and that's why people are calling on Jesus. I didn't realize. Most recently, I didn't realize. Did any of you trim your own eyebrows? Anybody trim your own eyebrows? I normally have Whitney trim mine, but one time she wasn't available, so I ordered from Amazon an eyebrow trimmer. And I tried to use it with this little guard. Zoom in on here. There's a little guard on here. And I used it with this little guard and it didn't do a very good job. So I used the tighter version on the little guard. And it still seemed like there's too much, so I thought I'll just take this guard off. And I just did, Just trimmed them up. And I thought that's the best they've ever looked. Literally, I thought it was the best they'd ever looked. I'll show you a picture of what it looked like. This was when my daughter Joy got married, got engaged to Blake. I'll zoom in on it. And there's my eyebrows. I thought they looked good. If you can't quite tell on that one. There's this picture of me out in the snow. Yeah. That makes my eyes look about 102 years old. Right. I didn't realize. Somebody say it again. I didn't realize. Type in the comment section. I didn't realize. What, what if, what if you're lukewarm when you didn't realize? What if you're not fulfilling your God ordained purpose? You don't even realize it. What if you think I'm okay? I'm a spiritual person. I mean, I believe in God and everything, I must be okay. And you don't realize that you're spiritually wretched. Pitiful, poor, blind and your zippers down naked, your eyebrows are shaved off. A lukewarm Christian ish. Faith is perhaps the ultimate self deception. It's enough of Jesus to soothe your conscience, but not enough to make you born anew. What if you're lukewarm and you don't even know it? Christian ish how do you know if you're lukewarm? I'll give you five signs to suggest you might be lukewarm. The first thing, number one, is this. You might be lukewarm if you crave acceptance from people more than acceptance from God, more than trying to live a life that's truly pleasing to God. You actually just want to be liked by people. You want to fit in. You want to be popular. You want everybody to like you. You want to belong. You want to go along with the crowd, because it's easier to go along with the crowd than to stand out by doing something that Jesus calls you to do. But remember what Jesus said. Jesus said this. He said, woe to you when everyone else speaks well of you. Because if you're truly following Jesus, you will be persecuted. You may be lukewarm if you crave acceptance from people more than you do acceptance from God. The second thing is, you may be lukewarm if you rationalize sin. If there's sin in your life, there's something in your life that is displeasing and dishonorable to God. And you just kind of explained it away like it's no big deal, you know, like, hey, everyone else is doing it anyway and it's nobody's business at all. I mean, I mean, you know, I. I'm not hurting anybody. And Isaiah said this in God's word, woe to those people who call good evil and those who call evil good. You may be lukewarm and not even realize it if you're rationalizing explaining away sin. A third indicator you may be lukewarm is this, is that you rarely share your faith in Christ. You say, oh yeah, I'm Christian ish. Yeah, yeah, I believe in Jesus and everything. And okay, I know I'm called to be a light in the world, but it's just not my gift. I just don't talk about my faith. I don't want to offend people. I'm not very good at it. You know, I'm good at other things. And so I don't even share my faith. Some of you are so timid with your faith that you've worked with people for seven years and they might be Surprised to find out you're truly following Jesus. Remember, you said, afflict me, Pastor. So just so you know, you asked for it with me because I can't be convicted of that as well. I can go weeks without even inviting someone to come to church with me. You rarely share your faith in Christ. You don't want to offend people. Number four indicator that you may be lukewarm is that you only turn to God when you need something that God's like your emergency 911 call, right? And instead of seeking him daily, instead of letting his spirit guide you, instead of letting his word build your faith and renew your mind, you call on him when you're in trouble. He's a tool in your toolbox. It's something that we use instead of a God that we fear and we worship. You may be lukewarm if God has so many calling just when you need Him. And then finally, you may be lukewarm if you're not much different from this world. You call yourself a Christian, but you talk like you're not. You gossip just like everybody else at work. You cuss, maybe even take the Lord's name in vain. You're critical of other people. You're judgmental with your words. You watch the same shows on Netflix or Hulu that take God's name in vain and have horrible stuff that's dishonoring to God. And you rationalize it. And you rationalize your sexual sin and say, it's not that big a deal. Maybe you go to parties and get drunk or get high and you live for the things of this world. You're living for money and fighting for money and success, and you claim Jesus, but your actions say that you love the world. What if you're lukewarm and you don't even realize it? You claim Jesus, and yet you love the world. And John said in First John 2:15, he said, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. So you may say, okay, Craig, you're coming out swinging in 2025. I feel a little bit convicted. Is Jesus mad at me? Let me promise you, Jesus loves you more than you can imagine. And when Jesus called the Laodiceans lukewarm, he wasn't trying to shame them. He wasn't trying to make them feel guilty. He was actually loving them. Because this is what Jesus said. Again, let's look at the text. 3:19. He said, I correct in discipline. Say it with me. Everyone I love. I'm not angry. I correct and I discipline everyone I love. You know, if you have a child, your child does something wrong and you correct your child, it's not because you don't love your child. You correct your child because you love your child. If you feel convicted by the Holy Spirit right now, it is not because God is mad at you. It's because God is loving you. Jesus says this, so what do you do? Be diligent and turn from your indifference. That word indifference is striking to me because if there's one word that captures where a lot of Christian people would be when it comes to the things of God, they're just indifferent. Take it if it helps, leave it if it doesn't. Call on Jesus when I need him and live comfortably when I don't. So how do you turn? How do you be diligent and turn? How do you grow from being Christian? Ish. That was me, I'm telling you 100%. That was me growing up. I grew up going to church multiple weekends, believing in God, went through confirmation claim Jesus had enough of him to make me feel like maybe I'm okay, but not so much that it made me different and new. So if you find yourself there, what do you do? Well, I got good news for you. Hopefully I've matured in my preaching over the years. In the old days, I'd given you a list of 17 things and they would have all been important and I would have told you like, you need to read God's word daily because you do. His word is living, active, powerful, sharper than a double edged sword. I would tell you that you need to pray and talk to God. And I tell you that you need Christian fellowship and you need to, you need, you need to be in a small group. And I would tell you that you need to give and trust God by faith. I tell you that you need to worship and turn and I go on and on and on and all those things would be important. But I've learned that if I give you three things, you do none. Neither do I. So instead I'm going to give you one thing. One thing. Keep it as simple as I can. If you want to grow out of your Christian ish, illusion, self deception, and truly be a devoted follower of Jesus, what do you do? I would suggest this one thing. Do something every day that requires faith. That's it. Do something every day that requires you to trust in Jesus. Do something every day. One year in my journal for 365 days, I would journal in every day. What did I do that required faith. Some days I didn't do anything. I'd be like the next day, okay, I'm gonna do something. What requires faith for you? It might be to do what's right, even if your friends make fun of you. Or it might be for you to worship God when you don't feel like he's even near. And just by faith, you worship Him. It might be to forgive someone. You just came through the holidays and some of you, like, we call ourselves Christians and we're not even in relationship with people, family members, because of something they did or, or, or, or how they let you down. It might be to forgive someone who, who hurt you, as Jesus teaches us. It might be to volunteer to pray out loud at your next life group. Or for some of you might. It might be to go to a life group that takes faith, to go and open up your life and to let others speak into you and to speak into the lives of others. It might be to invite someone to church to share your faith, to be a witness. It might be to give sacrificially above the tithe. For some of you, it might be to tithe for the very first time it takes faith to tithe. It might be to pray and ask God to do something that seems completely impossible. I would say do something that requires faith. Because Hebrews 11:6 says, without faith, without faith, it is impossible to please God every day. Do something that requires faith. And if you do something that requires faith, you won't be Christian ish. You can't be Christian ish. You won't be lukewarm, you won't be tepid, your faith will be hot because you're serving people and you're glorifying God. And when you're doing something that requires faith and when you're depending on God, suddenly you're not concerned with what people think, you're more concerned with what God thinks. And you're living for his approval, to glorify him above anything else. And instead of rationalizing your sins, you confess your sins. And God says when you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And you're empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the will of God. And instead of hiding your faith, you're bold in your faith. You're sharing the truth of who Jesus is and what he's done, the power of the gospel to save. And you don't only turn to God when you need something, you prioritize him. You seek him first in all things. You design your life around him. And you are not like this world. You're different. And people know it. And some will criticize you for it, and others will respect it and be drawn to it. You're not Christian. Ish. You're dead to yourself. You're alive in Christ. And so if you find out, cut my eyebrows too tight, I might be a little bit. Lukewarm. And I didn't realize it. What do you do? Well, you open the door and you let Jesus in. Jesus said this. He said, look, I stand at the door and I knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, Jesus says, I will come in and I'll share a meal together with you as friends. He says, I stand at the door and knock. I'm wanting you to. To let me in. I'm wanting you to let me in. When Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock, in the Greek, he uses what's known as the perfect tense, and it indicates a continuous action. I'm knocking, and I'm still knocking. I want you to see this. Jesus opened a door for you. And on the other side of that door is the life that God has for you. Jesus has opened a door that no man can close. And he's keeping the door open. No matter what you've done, no matter how comfortable you may be, his door is open to you. So what do you do? You walk through the door. And when you walk through the door, you go all in. And we're not asking God to make us comfortable, asking God to make us faithful. We are seeking him with everything in us. And we are not going to embrace a faith that is more about our comfort than our commitment to the King of Kings and the Lord of all Lords. As a follower of Jesus, we're not going to settle for a faith that looks the part but lacks the power. We're going to refuse to live for a faith that feels safe because we're not gonna be a comfortable Christian. Lukewarm. It doesn't just grieve God, but it robs you from the life that God wants for you, the purpose for which God created you. And so what's Jesus asking for? He's continuing to knock. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. He didn't want half your heart, part of your heart, a little bit of your heart, whatever's convenient. He wants all of your heart. Holding nothing back, he says, die to yourself. Deny yourself and let your life reflect the one who left heaven and came to earth and shed his blood so you could Live forever. Jesus is standing at the door, and he's knocking, and he's still knocking. And no man can shut the door that Jesus opened. And he's saying, will you come in? Will you let me in? And together we'll have the life that God created you to have. So if you don't realize it, but you might be lukewarm, what are we gonna do? We're gonna do something every day that requires faith. Because without faith, it is impossible to please God. And more than anything else, what do we want to do? We want to please God with who we are and all that we do. So, Holy Spirit, stir within us to be the people that you created us to be today at all of our churches. I want to talk to those of you that, you know that you're a Christian. You really are a Christian. You're not just Christian Ish. But you know, you're a Christian, and yet you become a little bit comfortable. If you want to step out of that to stir up your faith, I'm going to challenge you this week. Seven days, every day, this week. Write it down, put it in your phone. Put it somewhere. I want to do something that requires faith. If that's you today, you are a Christian, and you don't want to be comfortable every day this week, God, you're going to look for the moment at least one time, maybe multiple times, you're going to do something that requires faith. Would you lift up your hands right now? Just lift them up. Praise God. For all of you online, you can just type in the comment section. I want to do something that requires faith. Every day. I want to do something. So, God, we pray. I pray God, for those that are at churches right now that some of them couldn't even get out of the building without, by faith, reaching out to someone, maybe inviting them to a meal, maybe praying for someone, maybe giving someone something that they feel like they. They may need. God, every day, teach us to walk by faith and not by sight. God, teach us to depend on you, because without you, we're nothing. With you, we have everything. So God, stir up. God, forgive us for any time that we're comfortable. God, teach us to live by faith every day. Doing something by faith. As you keep praying today, nobody looking around, the guy I told you about the beginning of the story, I said to him at the end, I said, hey, you actually are doing a lot of things that are, like, Christian. Like, you're not even having sex with your girlfriend. Way to go, man. That's great. But I said, hey, If I can just tell you honestly, you're really not following Jesus. You're not a Christian. And the guy looked at me and he smiled and he said, ah, thanks for saying that. I know I'm not. I just tell people I am because it makes the conversation go better when Christians are talking to me. And I just told him, you're really not. And he explained very clearly, lovingly, if you'd ever like to talk about it, I'd love to be the one to talk about it with you. And he said, yeah, I actually do. I want to know more. And so I told him about the goodness and the grace of who Jesus is. I want to say to some of you right now what I wish someone would have said to me years ago. I wish someone would have said when I was Christian, this I would have said, craig, you're not really following Jesus. Because I would have said, you know what? You're right, I'm not. And I want to take a moment as we start a new year to say to some of you, you may be in church, but just because you're in church doesn't mean you're following Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the sinless son of God who died in your place so you could be forgiven. Your only reasonable response is to give your entire life to Him. Today you may realize that you're lukewarm, you're not fully devoted to him, and Jesus is standing at the door and knocking. If you let him in, he will forgive your sins, he will make you new, and he will reveal the life, the calling, the purpose that God has for you today at all of our churches and online, those who say, I probably am not really following Jesus, I want his forgiveness. I need his grace. Today we're just going to step away from and we're gonna do something that requires faith. We're gonna call on Jesus to save us. Scripture says that we're saved by grace, through faith, believing that his work is perfect and that he is enough. Today at all of our churches, those who say, I need him today, I'm stepping away from my sin. I'm calling on Jesus by faith. I give you my life today. I surrender and give you my life. All in. I give my life to you. It's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now, all over the place and say, yes, back here. Praise God for you right over here. Others today say, yes, Jesus, I surrender. I wanna follow you. Lift up your hands high and say, I am surrendering my life to Jesus. Online. Type in the comment section. I'M surrendering my life to Jesus and pray with those around you. Pray. Heavenly Father, receive me by faith. Forgive all of my sins. Be first in my life. My Lord and my Savior. I want to know you and serve you always. Thank you for new life. I give you all of mine In Jesus name I pray. Could you celebrate today? Church welcome those born into God's family.