Awaken from the Illusion: The Dangerous Lure of Ungodly Comfort

Matthew 25:14-30 - For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. – His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. – He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. – His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I’m going to talk about myself for a little. You just read about me in that parable. The reason I’m doing this is not because I’m trying to be the center, but so that I can be humble so that I’m not simply being judgmental.

I was fine looking good on the outside. I was ok about going to church on Sunday, but I was not upset or concerned if we missed church. God was not my priority. My prayer life was very very weak. I liked to watch movies. They were not terrible, but I liked to watch a movie every night or other night. I was into my world of photography, editing, domains, and websites.

At one time I probably had close to 10 different websites for whatever interest I had at the time. I was not reading my Bible everyday. I had a lot of criticism, complaining, unforgiveness, and anger. I also spoke in tongues. I was a clear example of (James 3:9-12) Look it up for better reference. I was lukewarm. I was serving in the church, but there was not a deep first love for Jesus. My love was for myself and my life.
Revelations 3:5-7 - I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

I’m going to teach and preach against my former self. Just know this is where I was and God brought me out of this. It took my wife praying and seeking God to start to put a fire underneath me to really desire more from God to really draw close to God so He could draw close to me. (James 4:8) A lot of this involved and involves a lot of repentance, forgiveness, and deliverance.

There is another place that Jesus wants to take us, but due to many things we kind of just get comfortable and complacent in where we are in our relationship with Him.

We have a good thing going where we are spending some time with God, but we have these other things that are kind of steal our time due to our real desires in life.

There’s a demon that will steal from you. His name is comfort.
It’s not God’s comfort, but an evil spirit of false comfort. We all need to be comforted at times, but what I am talking about is the wrong kind of comfort that will try and stop us from doing God’s will. Remember this demon of comfort and his buddies like Ahab which is friends to passivity and apathy. He likes to make you feel just right with your walk with God.
He likes to tell you that you just don’t have the time, energy, ability, or money to do what you thought God told you to do.

Comfort works with the “time wasting” demon to literally waste your time so that what really matters for God can not be done because you have no more time or energy.

Comfort will work with other spirts to bring good things into your life, such as a promotion with extra long hours or to forget It’s good to be blessed by God. It’s good to have everything going well in life. But sometimes when everything is going well, we just forget about God. When everything is going well, we just put more on our plate and literally push God right off our plate so that there is no more time for God.
Matthew 13:22 - He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

He likes to lie to you and make you think that you really don’t need to feed on the Word of God,
Or talk to Jesus,
Or fellowship with other believers,
Or take a risk speaking to a stranger to start witnessing and invite them out to get more from God

This demon of comfort likes you to just go to church on Sunday and nothing more. Then it becomes once in awhile. Then it becomes just holidays making you feel that you are fine.

This demon likes to work with religious spirits so that you will do the same rituals in church every week without any real change or transformation. In religion, there’s no real connection to God, just disciplines that have no substance. That’s because religious spirits push us out of guilt to do things, not out a real desire to connect with Jesus.

The demon of comfort will connect with doctrinal obsession thinking that it’s all bout your denomination and how your denomination or church has all the truth and therefore you are righteous, but yet lacking love which is the most important of all commands.

Sometimes we are just playing church, but we don’t want to roll up our sleeves and get dirty. Any kind of service for God is going to cost us.
Maybe, it’s not us selling everything we have and becoming a missionary to another country because that may not be what Jesus is telling is to do.
Any service for Jesus that does not cost us, is not really service.
Sometimes we are fasting, but it’s not God’s fast. (Isaiah 58:3-7)

We can’t be comfortable with just doing church inside our church. We need to go into all the world. That’s your family, that’s your neighborhood, that’s your work, that everywhere we go. But comfort will try to keep you isolated and doing the same old same old with no actual transformation. It will make you a consumer of truth from whatever someone else tells you, rather than seeking out truth for yourself in prayer with Jesus and His Word, the Bible.

Contrasting Godly Comfort to that of Ungodly Comfort.

God's Comfort:

1. Presence & Assurance:
   • Psalm 23:4 - "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."
   • 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 - "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."
2. Endurance & Hope:
   • Romans 15:4 - "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope."
3. Peace & Rest:
   • Matthew 11:28 - "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Ungodly Comfort:

1. Temporary Pleasure & False Assurance:
   • Proverbs 14:12 - "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
   • Luke 12:19 - "And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry."
2. Complacency & Spiritual Stagnation:
   • Revelation 3:15-16 - "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."
3. Self-Deception & Worldly Distractions:
   • 1 John 2:15-16 - "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."

God's comfort provides believers with assurance, peace, hope, and rest that is eternal and grounded in His love. It uplifts and strengthens during times of tribulation. In contrast, ungodly comfort offers temporary pleasure and ease but leads to spiritual stagnation, deception, and eternal consequences. It might appear alluring, but it's fleeting and can take one away from the true path of righteousness and the love of God. There is a lot in Satan’s kingdom that will infect us with evil spirits so that we are not doing God’s will and listening to something that seems good, but is false.

Deliverance Prayer: Father, in Jesus name, I repent and I’m sorry for listening to the evil spirit of comfort and all of the other evil spirits connecting with comfort. Help me to recognize the wrong kind of comfort in my life that is trying to stop me from doing Your will.

In the name of Jesus, I renounce, reject, resist, and refuse the evil spirit of comfort and every other evil spirit trying to get me to not step out and do God’s will.

I will have God’s comfort and not the false comfort from Satan’s kingdom. I break every spirit of false comfort in my generations. False comfort, leave me, in Jesus name.

Ministry of Deliverance & Self-Deliverance

TELL THSES TO LEAVE IN JESUS NAME WITH HIS AUTHORITY (Luke 10:18-20)

Friends of comfort: laziness, fear of man, fear of unknown, fear of doing something wrong, judgement/criticism, self-righteousness, defensive, isolation, religious, fear of false doctrine, obsessive doctrine, extreme beliefs,

In the context of ungodly comfort, spirits of doubt and unbelief exist because there is no faith in God to help you do His will. Therefore, everything becomes reliant on man and depends on what others think and say.

References that connect to content from the teaching:

1. Proverbs 6:9-11 - Laziness leading to poverty.
2. Proverbs 12:24 - The hand of the diligent shall bear rule.
3. Proverbs 13:4 - Contrast between desires of the lazy and rewards of the diligent.
4. Proverbs 20:4 - The sluggard does not plow because of the cold.
5. Proverbs 26:13-16 - The sluggard's excuses and his extreme laziness.
6. Ecclesiastes 9:10 - Whatever your hand finds to do, do it mightily.
7. Matthew 5:16 - Let your good works shine before men.
8. Matthew 9:37-38 - The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
9. Matthew 25:14-30 - Parable of the talents: rewards for diligence and consequences for inaction.
10. Matthew 28:19-20 - The Great Commission; go out and make disciples.
11. Luke 9:62 - Not looking back after putting your hand to the plow.
12. John 9:4 - Urgency of doing God's work while it is still day.
13. Romans 12:11 - Not being slothful in zeal but fervent in serving the Lord.
14. 1 Corinthians 15:58 - Be steadfast and immovable in the work of the Lord.
15. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 - If someone will not work, neither should they eat.
16. Galatians 6:9 - Do not grow weary in doing good.
17. Ephesians 2:10 - Believers are created for good works.
18. Ephesians 4:28 - Work with your hands so you can give to the needy.
19. Ephesians 6:7 - Serve with a good will, as to the Lord.
20. Colossians 3:23-24 - Work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.
21. 2 Timothy 2:15 - Present yourself as a diligent worker to God.
22. 2 Timothy 4:2 - Be ready to preach the word in and out of season.
23. Titus 1:12-13 - Warning against being lazy gluttons.
24. Titus 2:14 - Be zealous for good works.
25. Titus 3:8 - Importance of maintaining good works.
26. Hebrews 6:12 - Be imitators of those who inherit promises through faith and patience.
27. Hebrews 11 - Examples of those who took action based on faith.
28. James 2:14-26 - Faith without works is dead.
29. James 4:17 - Knowing the right thing and failing to do it is sin.
30. 2 Peter 1:5-10 - Call to add virtues ensuring we are fruitful.
31. Revelation 3:15-16 - Dangers of lukewarm faith.

Judges 1:21, 27-36: This chapter outlines a series of failures by the individual tribes of Israel to fully drive out the inhabitants of various regions. For instance:

• The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem (v. 21).
• Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, and Megiddo (v. 27).
• Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites from Gezer (v. 29).
• Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron and Nahalol (v. 30).
• Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of several cities including Accho, Zidon, Ahlab, Achzib, and Helbah (vv. 31-32).
• Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh and Bethanath (v. 33).
• The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain and would not let them come down to the valley (v. 34-36).