Expanding Our Comfort Zones:
1) Cut and Paste Christianity
Matthew 16:21-26
This morning we’re beginning a brief message series designed to
move us out of our familiar comfort zones. And this might be a little
tricky…because most of us (including myself) don’t want to be
uncomfortable. I mean, if given the choice, we would choose comfort
over discomfort. In a world filled with turmoil, natural disasters,
financial pressures, mounting anxieties and soaring stress levels,
people are looking for comfort.
And our culture has really embraced this whole comfort thing. We
have a burgeoning spa industry, complete with massages, facials,
pedicures. We want to be in comfortable shoes, comfortable clothes,
comfortable furniture…and many of us are searching to become
“financially comfortable.” It’s all about being comfortable.
You could argue that the La-Z-Boy is synonymous with comfort.
Whoever invented the La-Z-Boy knew what they were doing! (Thank
God no one has invented the Risk-E-Boy or the Work-R-Boy) I like
La-Z-Boys. You can sit down and sink down deeper and deeper into
it’s cushy embrace. It’s a truly great experience. And we’ve even
developed a whole language around this.
 People say, “I want to go home and veg out…make myself as
much like vegetation as humanly possible, preferably in front of a
TV.”
 We even have a name for people who do this in front of a TV,
too: couch potatoes. Couch potatoes in their La-Z-Boys.
But despite our exhaustive search for comfort…somehow I don’t
think Jesus spent his life on earth looking for a spiritual La-Z-Boy. In
fact, Jesus got very uncomfortable for each of us…living an
uncomfortable life on earth, dying an excruciatingly uncomfortable
death. And when he spoke to his followers, he didn’t have comfort in
mind when he said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.”
(Matthew 10:16) He didn’t have comfort in mind when he said, “If
any one wants to be my disciple, let them deny themselves, take up
their cross and follow me.” I don’t think Paul had comfort in mind
when he said to his fellow Christians in Rome, “Give your bodies as a
living and holy sacrifice to God. This is what God accepts as true
spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)
In these instances, followers of Jesus aren’t being told to “Go sit in a
La-Z-Boy.” Instead Jesus was talking about getting uncomfortable.
And as we unpack this idea over the next several weeks, we’ll see
that the Bible tells us that we’re to be comfortably uncomfortable.
We have to be willing to push out of our usual comfort zones and
take risky steps of faith into the life of deeper discipleship.
And while the church should be a place where people come to find
spiritual comfort…it shouldn’t be a place where we just sit in a bunch
of La-Z-Boys and wait for Christ to change us. There’s this tension in
the church…a balance. It should be a place of discomfort for those
who are Christ followers and a place of comfort for those who are
searching for the abundant life Christ alone offers. Or, to use a
variation of a familiar quote, the church is to be a place where “the
comfortable are afflicted and the afflicted are comforted.”
Illustration – Cody Bates came by the office this week and saw the
picture of the La-Z-Boy and the word “COMFY” on the front of the
worship bulletin and said, “Comfort! I’ll be there!” And then when I
said, “Cody, we’re going to talk about getting out of our spiritual LaZ-Boys!” he said, “Not interested!” Of course, Cody was being lighthearted about all this…but there are a lot of us who probably aren’t
interested in getting comfortably uncomfortable. But, what if it took
getting comfortably uncomfortable in order for us to truly experience
the abundant life that Christ promises? Well, this message series is
built on the conviction that we have to move out of our comfort
zones to truly experience abundant life in Christ.
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For the next few minutes I want to talk about how most of us go
about preserving our La-Z-Boy spirituality. We have a method for
cacooning ourselves in our comfort zones. We employ what I want to
call, “cut and paste Christianity.”
“Cut and paste” is a common computer, word processing term. We
can easily “cut” out those things we want to excise from the text and
then we can “paste” other things in just as easily.
 In video and sound production, people will take hours of raw
footage and “cut and paste” it into a final, pleasing package that
tells a story in two minutes.
 Entire cultures have employed cut and past to rewrite and revise
their nation’s histories, editing out of their resumes the defeats
and the failures, the sins and stains that they deem undesirable.
(Better to feel good about ourselves than to face the truth!
Right?)
 Some “holy” cutting and pasting has been good for the Church. In
the year 397, biblical scholars gathered for the Council at
Carthage and asked God’s Spirit to give them discernment on
which books to include in the official Bible. Lots of sacred texts
were circulating throughout the churches of the day, and there
was a need for a group of godly people to gather, seek God, and
reason together about which ones were worthy to be “canonized”
into Holy Scripture. Lots of books were discussed. For example,
out of the dozen or so Gospels…the stories of the life of
Jesus…only four were selected: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
And we believe that God was at work in that whole process, giving
us Holy Scriptures that are inspired and authoritative for our lives.
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But over the years, we’ve cut and pasted a little less “officially”…and
with less honorable intentions. We’ve not gathered together and
sought God’s direction. Instead, we’ve done it individually. We’ve
read through the Bible and we’ve highlighted the passages that really
speak to us and give us the things we desire:
 Like comfort, as in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want…”
 Or peace, like Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus.”
 Or hope, like Jeremiah 29:31: “For I know the plans I have for
you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
 We choose Life Verses like one of my favorites: “And my God will
meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
 We choose verses for our Capital Campaigns like Ephesians
3:20: “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or
imagine, according to his power at work within us.”
 We underline promises such as Luke 11:10: “For everyone who
asks receives; everyone who seeks finds; and to everyone who
knocks, the door will be opened.”
Now don’t misunderstand me. God is good. God loves us and wants
only what’s best for us. There’s no doubt about it. We’re God’s
children and God wants to bless us. And yet…(and this is a big “and
yet”)…God loves us enough not to cut and paste the Cross (the
symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice and the symbol of our discipleship) out of
the Christian story. God will not edit the Cross, the symbol of
suffering and adversity…the symbol of self-denial and sacrifice out of
our lives.
I know this isn’t the most popular or the most appealing theme…and
it’s not what most churches, including ours, cut and paste on the
Home Page of our websites or on the cover of our Direct Mail pieces.
Let’s face it: the Cross has never been “seeker-sensitive” and
“marketing friendly”. In fact, the Bible even makes this comment:
“We preach Christ crucified…a stumbling block to the Jews and
foolishness to the Gentiles.” (I Cor. 1:23)
 Even back in Paul’s day, people much preferred to listen to
Televangelists from Texas who side-stepped the Cross with those
pearly-white smiles, settling instead, for giving folks seven steps to
“Becoming a Better You.”
And yet, if I can be honest with you: Jesus never promised the kind
of “Name It and Claim It”, health and wealth prosperity gospel that
so many prostitute these days. Instead, Jesus is pretty up front in
insisting that unless we “name and claim” the Cross, no amount of
self-improvement will enable us to fully realize the power and
presence of God in our lives. In Biblical terms, we’ll never experience
the new life of the Resurrection until we’ve embraced the sacrifice
and suffering of the Cross.
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Traditionally, every year during the weeks that lead up to Easter
Sunday, Christians mark a 40-day period called Lent by calling
themselves to sacrifice and self-denial. And through the years, people
have committed themselves to giving up certain things like…doing
without desserts or candy or meat…or breaking out of bad habits like
nicotine or alcohol use…or letting go of unholy practices like
gossiping or complaining.
And while these commitments are great, and God will honor them,
I’d like to suggest that there’s something even more radical that God
would love for us to begin to lay down at the foot of the
Cross…(pause)…and that’s our comfort! It may be one of the most
critical issues that we have to face today…the truth that being faithful
as Christ followers will require that we get comfortable with the idea
of being uncomfortable.
 And this isn’t a challenge reserved for those who make twice as
much money as we do…or drive faster cars than we do…or live in
bigger homes than we do.
 This is a challenge for each of us…because every one of us, in our
own way, has grown comfortable with the idea of being
comfortable…even so far as to see it as a sign of God’s blessing.
But if you’ll open yourself to consider that God wants us to let go of
some of our comfort, I’ll make you a promise: You’ll find it will lead
you to a more abundant life.
Listen again to how Jesus laid it out there: From that time on Jesus
began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and
suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and
teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day
be raised to life…Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any would come
after me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me.” (Matthew 16:21,24)
 What’s ironic is Jesus’ timing. Jesus is with his disciples, and they’re
talking about the buzz he’s generated.
 Jesus is gaining market share with the people, and he’s wondering
about who people think he is. The disciples say things like: “John
the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the great prophets” who’ve come back
to life.
 Then Jesus asks them who they think he is. And Peter’s the first to
speak up and get it right. He says that Jesus is the Messiah: “You
are the Christ (the anointed one…the sent one), the Son of the
Living God.”
 It’s important to note that the popular Jewish perception of the
Messiah was that of a conquering hero, riding a white horse with a
sword strapped to his side…someone who defeated the enemies of
Israel and restored the glory days of King David.
 So when Jesus says that the Messiah must go to Jerusalem to
suffer and die at the hands of his own religious leaders, it must’ve
confused Peter big time! Now wonder Peter says, “Never Lord! This
shall never happen to you!”
 But Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are
a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of
God, but the things of men.” (Matt. 16:22-23)
Now that may seem like a pretty strong scolding for the one who’d
walked on the water just like Jesus had…the one who Jesus had just
renamed “the Rock”…the one on whom Jesus had said he’d build his
Church…the one who’d just gotten Jesus’ identity right!
But Jesus saw something deeper. He saw, in Peter’s words, the
influence of the Evil One, trying to commit identity theft. And here’s
how the tempter tried to steal not only Jesus’ identity, but ours as
well. Look at his resume.
 After Jesus’ baptism, at the very beginning of his ministry, when
the Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tested, the Tempter
came to him and said, “If you are truly the Son of God, tell these
stones to become bread.” (Matt. 4:1-3) In other words, “Don’t fast
and sacrifice this way. Feed yourself. Be comfortable.”
 Then, near the very end of his earthly ministry, while he hung on
the Cross, the Tempter said to him through the voice of the
crowds: “You are going to destroy the temple and build it in three
days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are really
the Son of God!”
 And the religious leaders, reflecting the devilish disbelief in their
own hearts, said, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! Let
him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He
trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants, for he said, ‘I
am the Son of God.’” (Matt. 27:39-43)
In the face of all this, Jesus took up his cross…and he calls us, in the
face of the voices that tell us to walk the easy, comfortable way…to
take up our cross also.
I wish I could tell you that the Christian life was comfortable and
easy. But the truth is that if you cut out the Cross in your own life
and paste nice, soft, fluffy, comfortable pillows all over it…you’ll
never discover the blessing of new life in Christ. Real life begins just
on the other side of death…just on the other side of that old way of
life…the one where self stands at the center and comfort is the
highest ideal. New life begins when we start peeling the padding off
the Cross and do what Jesus asks.
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The only way to enter fully into the abundant life that’s freely offered
us is to take a few risks and a few small steps of faith.
At the climax of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,
Indiana has to pass three supreme tests to reach the Holy Grail and
save his father, who is dying.
 The first test is “The Breath of God.” As he walks down a
corridor, Indiana must bow down at precisely the right moment to
keep from having his head cut off by large, revolving metal blades.
 The second test is “The Word of God.” Jones must walk on just
the right stones…the ones that spell God’s name in Latin…to keep
from falling through the floor to his death.
 But the third test, “The Path of God,” is the most difficult.
Indiana comes to the edge of a vast chasm…about a hundred feet
across and a thousand feet down. On the other side of the chasm is
the doorway to the Holy Grail. The instruction says, “Only in the
leap from the lion’s head, will he prove his worth.”
 Indiana says to himself, “It’s impossible. Nobody can jump this.”
Then he realizes that this test requires a leap of faith, as his father
screams to him, “You must believe, boy. You must believe!” And
even though every nerve and fiber of his being screams that he
must not do it, Indiana walks to the edge of the cliff…lifts his
foot…and then steps out into thin air, hoping that he won’t end up
like Wile E. Coyote in the “Roadrunner” cartoons.
 And if you’ve seen the movie, you know what happens next. Each
time he takes a step of faith into the empty void…he finds that his
feet are upheld by an invisible force.
In the next few weeks we’re going to focus on several specific areas
of our lives where we really need to expand our comfort zones. And I
want to tell you that there’s only one way for that to happen. There’s
only one way to increase your spiritual comfort zone…and acquiring
more information alone won’t do it. You will have to follow the path
of God. And trust me…it will require a few leaps of faith. Some of you
will have to step out at the point of your fear. God will be
waiting…and the next step is yours.
Let us pray…Amen.