This is part three of Comfort Must Fall—an excerpt series from Louie Giglio’s Goliath Must Fall. Click here for part one, click here for part two, and click here to grab a copy of this special resource.
As soon as we grasp that, we’re ready for the battle. Sure, when we do that we could be put in an uncomfortable position. Yet we will also be in the place where we can see the salvation of God. What does this look like?
- We remember that faith thrives in discomfort.
I spoke this message at our church, and when I came to this first point, it couldn’t have gotten any quieter in the house. One of those “don’t breathe” moments. Faith goes hand in hand with discomfort. Oh, that’s just great, Louie. Exactly what everybody wants to hear.
But hey, don’t let me get in between you and God’s Word. Read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, the “hall of fame” faith chapter in the Bible, and you’ll see what I mean. “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (v.1).
That’s seldom comfortable.
In fact, the gospel is rooted in a place of discomfort—Christ’s discomfort. The cross brought pain to Jesus in the same breath it brought freedom to us. We are alive because of Christ’s discomfort. We can fully live because of the rugged cross. Christ endured what was uncomfortable so we could become the sons and daughters of God. This is our story. People ask, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” It means to put our faith in the work of Jesus. What is the work of Jesus? That he came to earth. He lived. He was crucified. He was resurrected. He ascended into heaven. He sent the Spirit of God, and he’s now living inside of us. This is the gospel. This is what we believe, and it all hinges around a very uncomfortable moment.
Somehow as a people of God, if we’re not careful, we can sing songs about the uncomfortable moment of Jesus while we live in the very comfortable moment of us. Thank you, Jesus—you took it all. But we forget what it truly means to identify with Christ. The Bible tells us that as Christ followers, we identify with his crucifixion just as much as we identify with his resurrection. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” That means our dreams and plans become merged with Christ’s when we remember that death and life are both part of Christ’s work. Romans 6:8 says, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” That’s our call. To die with Christ and also to live with him.
Can you name anything in the life of faith that’s completely comfortable? Resisting sin? Nope, not comfortable. Being transformed into the image of Christ? No, not comfortable either. Joining with Christ on his mission? No. Wondrous, but not always comfortable. That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Faith thrives in holy discomfort. The greatest moments in life can often result from some of the most uncomfortable decisions being made. Nothing worth having comes without a cost.
A few months after my father passed away in 1995, Shelley and I were in a fog of discomfort. We had left a thriving ministry behind in Texas to help my mom with my father’s care in Atlanta. But just before we relocated, a heart attack took him from us. We were confused, grieving death, between two cities and without jobs. The reason we were making the move vanished, leaving us in no-man’s-land.
Not comfortable.
But in that tilled-up soil, a seed was planted, a seed we have watched grow and blossom into all things Passion. God needed us open-handed, flexible, and available so faith could give birth to something new and bold and beautiful.
- We remember the point of our lives is the fame of Jesus.
How can we make sure we don’t lose God’s opportunity by settling back in our comfort and complacency? We remember the point of our lives is the fame of Jesus.
If our only motivation for taking down a giant is our freedom, then we won’t have all the motivation that’s needed. God’s glory is also the motivation for us to walk in victory over the giants in our lives. Our freedom and God’s glory are forever intertwined, and if we forget about the glory of God, then we won’t be willing to pay the price of whatever step it is that God’s asking us to take. When we see the glory of God, we’ll understand that there is no cost too great to pay to make his name known in our life.
The army of Israel was complacent in their comfort. They had food. They had tents. They had a war cry. They had armor. They had little brothers who would replenish their supply.
But they weren’t moving.
David showed up and said, “Hey, Goliath, you’re insulting my God. That’s got to stop right now. It stops because you’re dishonoring my God. This is the God I worship, the God I commune with, the God who loves me, the God I’ve been hanging out with for years in the shepherd’s field. And you are taking glory away from the name of the one true God of all gods. That needs to stop immediately.”
Philippians 2 is an amazing passage. Paul talks about how he wants us to give our lives away for one another. The point of life is not to think about me and mine, but to think about you and yours. Not to get my stuff in order, but to think about what I can do to help you. Paul gives us a picture of that in verse 5: “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (NLT).
Jesus had the full rights and full nature and essence of God, yet he stepped out of heaven and came to earth. He humbled himself and became a man. He took the nature of a servant. Jesus obeyed God the Father and went to the cross. Because of all that, the Bible says, God “exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11).
Why did Jesus ultimately take this step? For our well-being? No. For the glory of God. Why did Jesus empty himself? Because he loved us? No. It was ultimately for the glory of God. Of course God loves us. Of course God cares about us. The love of Jesus shines a light on God. And our response is to live for his glory.
- We align ourselves with God.
How can we make sure we don’t lose God’s opportunity by settling back in our comfort and complacency? We align ourselves with God.
Any of us can sit back and decide it’s easier to follow the world’s message. A point of view. The example of someone else’s life. Someone else’s standard for material wealth. Ultimately, we can rationalize anything we want. But the invitation for each of us is not to come and follow our neighbor or fellow believer. It’s to follow Christ.
Purposeful, meaningful, lasting life is the by-product of walking closely with the Father, Son, and Spirit. When Jesus was a boy, he asked, “Didn’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49, author’s paraphrase). When the Spirit fell on the early followers of Jesus in the book of Acts, his power propelled them into the world to proclaim the grace and goodness of the gospel at all cost.
God doesn’t call us to avoid the danger of a lost and dying world. Rather, he leads us into it with the sword of the Spirit in our hands. He says, “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work” (John 9:4 NLT).
My friend Andy Stanley reminds us that we don’t end up where we hope to end up. Our lives ultimately end up wherever our path is headed right now. So we have to be diligent about who and what we align ourselves with. Because whatever (or whomever) we saddle up with is going to determine where we arrive months and years from now.
Who are you linking your life to? Who helps you decide what you spend, where you go, what you watch, what ranks at the top of your to-do list? To walk with Christ is to imitate him. To imitate Christ is to live with ultimate purpose.
- We remember life is short.
How can we make sure we don’t lose God’s opportunity by settling back into our comfort and complacency? We remember that life is short. It’s a mission statement for all of us to ingest into our hearts and lives. “Life is short.” We forget this so easily. But it’s so important.
When David’s three older brothers and all the rest of the army of Israel got to the end of their days, I believe they all shared a big regret. They’d wasted forty days sitting on that hillside. Forty days they would never get back. Hey, life is short, and what a waste to spend forty days under the influence of a taunting giant. They had the power of God with them. They could have moved forward if they’d wanted to. But they didn’t. They chose comfort instead of discomfort. They chose to waste their days rather than claim their days.
What’s the danger for us? It’s that we do the same thing. We waste our days thinking, I’ve got time. I’ll obey God in the next season of life. I’ll obey God when I get enough money in the bank. I’ll obey God when my kids are out of the house. I’ll obey God when I’m older. I’ll obey God when I’m finished having fun. I’ll obey God after I’m married. I’ll obey God when my marriage gets easier. I’ll obey God when it seems like it’s a more logical time to take the next step.
But God is breaking into our story today. He says, The battle is already won. I want you to step out with me right now, today. Don’t delay. Life is short. Don’t waste your days.
We might live to be eighty-five or ninety years old, but in the end it’s all pretty much the same. God gives us breath. And then our days are gone. Quickly, a match is lit. Quickly, a match is extinguished. Poof. Wow, that went by fast. If the Enemy can keep us good and comfortable, then he can prompt us to waste our days. But we are not a people of comfort. We are a people of faith.
To be clear, complacency is not about what we own or don’t own. It’s cultivating and tolerating an off-target heart. Complacency springs from the root of me that says we should protect what we have because we earned it—and we deserve more. That kind of thinking results from having our eyes glued to the wrong world. Namely, this passing world, instead of the one that’s coming.
The reminder of God is that we rally around the cross. We don’t have time to waste our days. Yes, we rest in the work of Jesus. Yes, his yoke is easy and our burden is light. But yes, we work with all our might. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:26, “I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.” We live on a planet with billions and billions of people who’ve never heard of Jesus. That’s why time is short. This world is rattling at the hinges, and we have the answer. We have the hope. We have the truth. We have the life. We have Jesus.
That’s what matters—letting Jesus be known. The goal of our faith isn’t to settle into a nice comfortable job and a nice easy routine. The goal is to say, “God, I’m available for whatever you want me to do. When you call on me I will step forward and say, ‘In the name of the Lord God Almighty, I will step into the fight.’ Not in my ability. Not in my power. Not in my strength. But in the name of Jesus. Life is short, and I don’t have enough time to have a complacent heart.”
If you want to keep reading from Goliath Must Fall, click here to grab a copy of this special resource.
Scripture References
