Chasing Carrots - Part 4

January 30, 2022

Today's message was the last in a 4-part series called Chasing Carrots. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, the service did not get recorded. So, here are some bullet points:

• COMFORT
• 1 John 2:15. "the world" here is not people, it's culture/things of the world
• Naturally, we want comfort ("taken care of")
• However, the pursuit of comfort is incompatible with the pursuit of God
• Rather, pursue IMPACT
• 2 Cor. 5:14-15
• 2 Cor. 1:3
  
  
• Key #1: Embrace divine discomfort
  • Discomfort produces good things in us (e.g. exercise)
  • James 1:2-3
  • "testing" here is dokimion, what is found approved after testing, or what survives the furnace as in smelting
  • God's discomfort "drives off" the unhealthy
  • God meets you in discomfort
  • Paul: glory in suffering
  • God can use all circumstances for good
• Key #2: Embrace the best life is yet to come
  • 1 Cor. 2:9
  • Pursue comfort through discomfort

Even Moses wasn't made comfortable. Here's how Moses describes God's reaction to his one personal request. "I [Moses] pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, 'O Lord God, You who let Your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon.' But the Lord was wrathful with me on your account and would not listen to me. The Lord said to me, 'Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again! Go up to the summit of Pisgah and gaze about, to the west, the north, the south, and the east. Look at it well, for you shall not go across yonder Jordan. Give Joshua his instructions, and imbue him with strength and courage, for he shall go across at the head of this people, and he shall allot to them the land that you may only see.'" (Deut. 3:23–28)

Moses goes on to "do his duty." Do what was right. Do what God wanted him to do. The rest of Deuteronomy (Moses' farewell speech, as it were) is Moses explaining to the Israelites what was given at Sinai and how to proceed. He had to have found comfort in a job well done.

"Hashem (The Name), your God has made you like the stars of heaven” (Deuteronomy 19:22). Each star is given a name and a purpose. So to you is given a name and a purpose. In the Torah world, that purpose is taking God and his instruction to the world.

How do we do that? Deuteronomy 5:33: "You must walk in all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess."

And: "Now, O Israel, listen to the decrees and to the ordinances that I teach you to perform, so that you may live, and you will come and possess the Land that Hashem, the God of your forefathers, gives you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor shall you subtract from it, to observe the commandments of Hashem, your God, that I command you" (Deuteronomy 4:1-2).

Will doing this at times be uncomfortable? You bet. But in so doing, you will find true comfort.

Read Isaiah 40. "Comfort, comfort my people..."