Ever Wonder Why?: Why Is Change So Uncomfortable?

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Thanks for joining us for this week's Real Life Church Podcast. We'd love to know if God is using this ministry to bless you in some way, and if you'd like to share your story or get connected at Real Life Church, you can visit us online at livereallife.com.

SPEAKER_2 (0:17)

We're gonna get into God's word this morning. Ready to get into God's word today? Praise the Lord. We're gonna continue our series called Ever Wonder Why. And how many of you like change? Go ahead and raise your hand if you like change. Oh, some of you really like change. I think you're lying. No, I'm just kidding. You might like change, and some of you may like, you know, you're not a creature of habit, if you will. But I know most people don't like change. Most people don't like flipping their lives upside down or having to do a new thing. I heard at one time that the hardest thing on earth to do is to think a new thought. And so I think sometimes when it comes to change, we approach it a certain way. And I want to just share with you today, I heard this story, probably not a true story, so this morning I will not tell you a true story. However, it's a story about a guy that a flood had hit a small town, and he decided the flood was rising up, and as he saw the flood rising up, he climbs up onto the roof of his house and he begins to pray. And he says, God, I know you'll save me. I know I'm not going to go under in this flood, and all of a sudden a boat comes by, and he's up there on the roof, and they're waving to him to come down, and he says, no, I'm good. I'm waiting on God to come rescue me.

And so he's praying that, and so he waves it off. He says, God's going to save me, and then a few moments later, another rescue boat comes by, and he turns to that one too, and he says, listen, I'm believing God's going to come save me, and he's going to rescue me from this flood. And that boat drives off, and then finally a helicopter comes and starts swirling around his home, and they drop a ladder down over the top of him, and he's waving up to him. He's like, it's okay, God's got this. It's all right. It's good. And the helicopter flies away, and the water rises, and this man dies.

So he's standing in heaven, and he asks God, he says, God, why didn't you save me? I was believing for you to save me. And God looks at him and says, I sent you two boats and a helicopter.

Come on, somebody. I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What more did you want in that moment? The answer was right in front of the guy. The answer to his salvation in that moment was right in front of him. But every rescue moment required him to do something uncomfortable.

He had to step off the roof to get into the boat. He had to grab the ladder of the helicopter in order to be rescued. He had to step away from the comfort zone of the roof and trust someone else in that moment to rescue him. And see, he missed his rescue because how many know sometimes receiving help requires you to move? It requires you to change. It requires you to come out of familiar and out of comfortable and step into the help that God has provided for you. You know, a lot of times in life, we ask God to change our circumstances, but resist the very step that He gives us for our circumstances to change. You know, I think about just in general, just life, family. You think about finances. You think about all the things of your life that God, in order for our circumstances to change, God requires a step from us. I heard it put this way, the hardest part of change isn't doing something new. It's releasing the old way that makes us fill in control. That a lot of times in our life, the reason we resist change is because we want to fill in control. This is what makes change uncomfortable. So my question really this morning is why is change uncomfortable? Why is change so uncomfortable in our life? And so as we look at change and we look at the idea of change, how many know we love the idea of change? You know, but the idea of change and actually changing are two different things because God, in order to change us, takes us through a process. And the process is the frustrating part. We want change. We want God make me different, make me better, make me a disciple, but it's the change process that we get that starts to make us feel uncomfortable. I like to say it this way. Everybody wants change until change starts changing things. Everybody wants change until change starts changing things. And there was a man in your Bible in 2 Kings chapter 5, which we'll be reading out of today. How many brought a real Bible? You brought a Bible got pages in it. Got your pages. Hold your pages up. I want to see your pages. All right. The rest of you, you're going to use those glow in the dark ones, right? Remember, just stay with me now. Stay in your Bible app. I got ushers watching whether you're on Facebook or not. Amen. If you are on Facebook, make sure you share the feed. All right. Anyway, so verse 1