This week we will be looking at the second of the lies that Weve believed. This lie is "Our lives are supposed to be comfortable" This is one that I struggle with. I want a life without worries like one of those fairy tale movies in which everyone lives happily ever after. But I am going to let you folks in on a little secret. Dont tell anyone. It did not happen for Paul, Peter, or any of the other disciples so it is most definitely 100 percent for sure not going to happen for me.

On this I want to look at for areas (you may have this in your bulletin). First we will examine why this is a lie. Then we will look at what society thinks comfort and a comfortable life is in comparison to the Christian view. Third we will look at reasons why we are not supposed to comfortable using that idea of a comfortable life in those term. The fourth area is how are attempts at comfort will. Fail all of these ideas will bring us to the point of sermon. What I hope you leave here knowing and this is that the LORD is the one who brings Comfort, makes our lives comfortable and his grace is sufficient in our discomfort.

So why is this a lie. Should we not be happy. Living a life of relative ease. I am not saying that this is wrong. That if one has this they should repent. It is as much a lie to say that our lives must be as uncomfortable as possible. The lie is that our goal in life should not be for physical comfort but for a spiritual comfort. Why is it a lie. This is lie because

Many people believe that once they express faith in Jesus all there problems disappear and life is supposed to be a walk in the park. Problems are only punishment for sins. So if your life is not comfortable it means that God is disciplining them and they are doing something wrong and need repentance.

A few places we get this lie from.

Were do we get this lie from. I really wish I could blame this lie from the media saying that this came from all the Hollywood happy endings. But in this case that would not be accurate. This lie comes out of bad interpretations by Christians of certain Biblical texts as well as the extremes certain Christian leaders have pushed this.Many preachers have pushed this lie and claiming Biblical. But it is not. How ever to be clear I am not saying that we as Christians should not have money. That we are to do whatever we can to be uncomfortable. But this is getting off track.

Lets look at why it is a lie. From the Bible almost all the people in the DH from Adam to John the Apostle in his writing of Revelation have a life that is uncomfortable. Moses the greatest hero of the old testament spent most of his life in the desert a way from his homeland. (Explain - Running from Egypt/ post exodus with the people of God) Elijah spent a lot of time running around Israel with no real home even being fed by ravens. The disciples were told to leave with nothing and preach. Only one died of natural causes. Not the most comfortable of live. Except all of these men have something in Common. The LORD was their comfort and provider. God took care of Moses, Elijah and Comforted the disciples. This same God is the same God who is our comfort.

But what is comfort. To understand what comfort and comfortable is I would like to look first at what it isnt. How is comfort defined in the world. The dictionary definition for these two are:

comfortable >adjective 1 providing or enjoying physical comfort. 2 free from financial worry. 3 (of a victory) with a wide margin.

comfort >noun 1 a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. 2 (comforts) things that contribute to comfort. 3 consolation for grief or anxiety. >verb cause to feel less unhappy; console.

-DERIVATIVES comforting >adjective.

-ORIGIN Old French confort, from Latin confortare 'strengthen'.

This seems to fit well within what most people think that comfort and comfortable means. This is the idea that is presented in most aspects of society. The one that we are bombarded with. Further cementing the lie in our minds. But is this really comfort. How easy is it for this to disappear. For it to be taken all away.

3 - our own attempts will fail! Money is temporal (e.g.), health can come, curve balls arrive and if one just relies on self they strike out but if ones Comfort is the LORD it is a home run. Hypothetically speaking of course.

Because our own attempts at Comfort and a comfortable life will fail. If one spends 15 years amassing a great fortune all is fine and dandy until one invests it all in Nortel, Corel or Enron only to have it decrease significantly or disappear entirely. Money is temporal. And when it disappears so does everything that was bought with it. And relying on money means happiness is gone. Depression can set in. And instead of going from a happy healthy rich person one becomes a sad sick broke one. This is an extreme case. So lets just look to the words of Solomon a man who had everything and a little too much of one thing "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?." This means resting in your own comfort is meaningless it is trying to catch the wind. I am sure that most people would agree that in the world what Solomon had makes a life comfortable. Everything a "wise" man could want. And I think that if I polled a majority of people a comfortable life would probably look something like this. "A little bit more than enough money, mortgage paid, retirement taken care of, security in job, the only worry is whether to add ketchup or mustard to your hotdog." Many people dream about this their entire lives only to accomplish this with melancholy. This can mean a secure life. And there is nothing wrong with this. But this does not mean that ones life is full of comfort. Our attempts to make our lives comfortable usually make it uncomfortable. So how then do we get comfort.

This is a great paradox. To be comfortable you need to be uncomfortable. Not in the sense of trying to have the most painful possible life but finding comfort in God. So this is it: if our lives were comfortable we would not look to God as our comforter. If our lives were on easy street and full of comfort we would be arrogant. In two ways first we would be arrogant before God in thinking that we do not need him because we can take care of ourselves and rely on our own selves in order to find comfort. The second area is that we would become arrogant to others because we have everything in order and our live are comfortable meaning we must be super Christians or just super Humans and anyone who does have problems is inferior to us. Even with "thorns" we as Christians all too often to become like this. We say to God "I am doing fine on my own see you" We try to walk on our own and to fine for a day, a week, a month, and maybe even a year but God will get our attention and we fall and fall hard. This fall is for restoration. When we start to look at other people with contempt. We forget that we are not in this alone we have a great cloud of witnesses struggling along with us. This is meant so that when we slip, a brother catches us and holds os until we regain our balance. When we tire a sister push us to keep going. Paul in 2 Corinthians gives us this the best. Read ""2 Cor 12: 7ff- To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, 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" Paul was looking for his life to be more comfortable. Without this one thing that was a serious pain to him. Many people have speculated a great deal as to what this was. If you are interested in some of the guesses Darryl seems to be familiar with them. But the truth is we dont know and it does not matter. It was a discomfort for Paul and he begged God on three occasions to have it removed. But God said that his grace is sufficient. This is also true for us. In order to find comfort one must find it in him and only look for it in him. If you do not look for it in him and try to find it in anything of this world you will do nothing more than make your life more uncomfortable. Mere hours before his death Jesus gives his disciples a new hope. He has again predicted that he will be crucified, but at that time he also tells his disciples that to them will be sent form the father another. In greek there are two words used for "another". One means another of a different kind hetereov. While the other means another of the same or similar kind. This one , allon is used here which means that this parakljtov is the Holy Spirit. In the John passage Jesus presents it with a literal meaning of the one who comes along side. This is the Holy Spirit. However in that passage the word paraclete is translated many ways but all of them stay with the literal meaning which is the one who comes alongside. One of them is comforter. The others are "Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby" This means that in times of trouble he will come alongside you. He will comfort you in your needs. If you are alone. What better friend could you have? The Psalm passage that was read earlier makes this ring clear. I just want to highlight to parts of that Psalm. The first one