It’s a question worth sitting with this morning: Are you comfortable? Colin (filling in for Josh White) didn’t ask it lightly. He meant it in two ways — the practical (how’s that memory foam pillow treating you?) and the existential (how comfortable are you with your faith?). Most of us, if we’re honest, like our comfort. We like it to a sinful degree. But here’s the tension the sermon wrestled with: faith should comfort us, yet it should also call us to uncomfortable action. When comfort becomes complacency, we’ve got a problem.
Paul Wasn’t Comfortable — And Neither Should We Be
Colin turned to 2 Corinthians 11 to show what following Christ actually looked like for Paul — not a cozy devotional life, but beatings, imprisonment, shipwrecks, and constant danger. Paul listed it out like a dark resume: five times he received forty lashes minus one, three times beaten with rods, once pelted with stones, three shipwrecks, a day and a night in the open sea. Not exactly the wellness retreat we sign up for.
And yet Paul wasn’t complaining about his 401k or the spotty sanctuary Wi-Fi. He was making a point: comfort can make us petty. When we’re too comfortable, we start treating faith like a nice pillow — something that helps us sleep at night and doesn’t ask too much of us. Paul didn’t have that luxury.
Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace
Colin cited Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous contrast between cheap grace and costly grace. Cheap grace is grace without sacrifice — a comfortable faith that asks nothing of us. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field for which a man sells everything. It’s the pearl of great price. It’s Jesus saying to his disciples, “Leave your nets and follow me.”
Bonhoeffer knew what he was talking about. He was a pastor who helped shelter people from the Nazi regime during World War II. He didn’t preach cheap grace. He lived costly grace. And his point cuts through our comfortable American Christianity like a blade: your faith might call you to drop your net. It might call you to do something that makes you deeply uncomfortable.
“God, I’ll follow you, but don’t mess with my Roth IRA, please.”
It’s funny because it’s true. We all have nets we’re willing to set down and nets we hold onto tightly. The question is whether we’ll be honest about which ones we’re clinging to.
Solomon Had Everything — And It Still Meant Nothing
Colin noted that scholars estimate Solomon’s net worth at around $1.56 trillion in today’s money. He had money, power, notoriety — every comfort imaginable. And yet in Ecclesiastes, all we hear is vanity of vanities. Later in Ecclesiastes 12:13, Solomon lands the point:
“Now all has been heard. Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.”
— Ecclesiastes 12:13
All that comfort, all that wealth — and his conclusion is the same call that’s always been: fear God, keep his commandments. Not because it earns salvation, but because that’s what we’re made for.
The Greatest Commandment: Love That Costs Something
Colin turned to Matthew 22:36-40 where Jesus sums up the whole law: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind — and love your neighbor as yourself. This is agape love, not warm fuzzy feelings. It’s a love that starts with a changed heart and leads to action. It’s not a transactional obligation. It’s a willingness to put others’ needs before your own because that’s what faithful obedience looks like.
And Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 2:8-10: we are saved by grace through faith, not by works. But we are saved for good works — works God prepared in advance for us to do. Faith produces action. Works are evidence of faith, not the other way around.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
— Ephesians 2:10
Colin noted that the word for “handiwork” here is poema — poem. We are God’s poetry, intentionally and intricately designed. And like a poem or a painting, the question isn’t whether the art exists to serve the artist — it’s whether we exist to serve God and others.
You Are the Light of the World
Colin read from Matthew 5:14-16 — the familiar passage where Jesus says we are the light of the world, a city on a hill, a lamp on a stand. We don’t light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Our good deeds should be evident. Our love should be visible. Our faith should make a difference in how we live.
This is where comfort becomes dangerous. It’s easy to keep our light hidden, to keep our faith comfortable and private, to think “I’ll follow you, God, just don’t ask me to do anything hard.” But Jesus doesn’t give us that option.
Get in the Arena
The climax of the sermon came with Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” passage — possibly one of the most quoted speeches in American history. Colin read it in full:
“It’s not the critic who counts… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errors, who comes short again and again… who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
It’s easy to sit in the stands. Easy to be the armchair quarterback, the pew critic, the person who has opinions about everything and does nothing. “That’s not how church should be run.” “I didn’t feel fed when I came to church.” “I’m a Christian, but all those other Christians are wrong about X, Y, and Z.” Colin acknowledged he’d caught himself thinking these things — and that they’re often a sign we’re acting as critics rather than people in the arena.
The Real Battle Is Bigger Than You Think
Colin closed with Ephesians 6:10-13 — Paul’s final word on the spiritual battle we’re in:
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
— Ephesians 6:12
The battle is more than skin deep. It’s greater than flesh and blood. And it’s not won by comfortable Christians sitting on the sidelines. It requires sacrifice. It will make you uncomfortable. And if Solomon’s $1.56 trillion ending in vanity teaches us anything, it’s that all the comfort in the world won’t save us or anyone else.
The Challenge
Colin’s final challenge was direct: faith should comfort you — that’s real. But it shouldn’t make you comfortable to the point of idleness. Get in the arena. Get a little uncomfortable. Fight the good fight. Do some good work. You are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
“If all the stuff and all the wealth that you have means nothing anyway — might as well fight the good fight.”
Monday’s coming. A work week, a school week, whatever the week looks like for you. You’re not too young. You’re not too old. You’re not too tired. Go do some good work. Get in the arena. And at best — get one day closer to hearing those words: Well done, good and faithful servant.
Scripture References
- 2 Corinthians 11:21-33 — Paul’s hardships for the gospel
- Ecclesiastes 12:13 — The conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep his commandments
- Matthew 22:36-40 — The greatest commandment: love God and love your neighbor
- Ephesians 2:8-10 — Saved by grace for good works
- James 2:20-24 — Faith without deeds is useless; Abraham’s faith and works together
- Matthew 5:14-16 — You are the light of the world
- 2 Timothy 4:3-5 — The time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine
- 1 Corinthians 4:9-16 — The apostles on display like those condemned to die in the arena
- Ephesians 6:10-13 — Our struggle is not against flesh and blood