Prepare for Worship | The Danger of Comfort, Ease, and Prosperity
Last Sunday, Ronnie Morris reminded us that we are ambassadors for Christ.
Read: Acts 8:1-25
This Sunday, Pastor Jason Finley will encourage us with the truth that Jesus’s name will be renowned over any opposition. As you prepare for our Sunday gathering, let this sermon excerpt from John Piper encourage you to trust that God will grow His church in the face of persecutions.
Reflect: “The Danger of Comfort, Ease, and Prosperity”
I think there is a tremendous lesson for us here. The lesson is not just that God is sovereign and turns setbacks to triumphs. The lesson is that comfort and ease and affluence and prosperity and safety and freedom often cause a tremendous inertia in the church. Inertia is the tendency of something that is standing still to stay standing still and of something moving to keep moving. The very things that we think would produce personnel and energy and creative investment of time and money in the cause of Christ and his kingdom, instead produce, again and again, the exact opposite—weakness, apathy, lethargy, self-centeredness, preoccupation with security.
The Star Tribune had an article on Friday (May 3, 1991, p. 2A) showing that the richer we are, the less we give to the church and its mission proportionate to our income. (The poorest fifth of the church give 3.4% of their income to the church and the richest fifth give 1.6%—half as much as the poorer church members.) It's a strange principle, that probably goes right to the heart of our sinfulness and Christ's sufficiency—the principle that hard times, like persecution, often produce more personnel, more prayer, more power, more open purses than easy times.
I know it's true, from Jesus' parable of the four soils, that some fall away during persecution because they have no root. But it seems to be true that even more people are like the third soil—"the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful" (Mark 4:19).
Persecution can have harmful effects on the church. But prosperity, it seems, is even more devastating to the mission to which God calls us. My point here is not that we should seek persecution. That would be presumption—like jumping off the temple. The point is that we should be very wary of prosperity and excessive ease and comfort and affluence, and we should not be disheartened but filled with hope if we are persecuted for righteousness' sake (Matthew 5:10). Because, as Luke shows us here: God makes persecution serve the mission of the church.
Excerpt from the sermon: “Spreading Power Through Persecution,” May 5th, 1991, desiringGod.org, by John Piper.
Sing: Song List for Sunday
1. “How Great Thou Art,” Arr. Paul Baloche
2. “Once Again,” by Matt Redman
3. “There Is One Gospel,” by CityAlight
4. “Glorify Thy Name,” Arr. The Worship Initiative
5. “Thank You Jesus for the Blood,” by Charity Gayle