The Titanic got comfortable

Continuing the series The Making of a Leader, Pastor Max Lyons opens with the Titanic. In 1912 the largest ship in the world, considered unsinkable, set sail without enough lifeboats, ignored six iceberg warnings in a single day and ran at near full speed on a moonless night. It did not sink because the ship was weak. It sank because everyone involved got comfortable. We pray hard when we are desperate, he says, but when the job comes through and the finances settle, we are at the greatest risk. God warned Israel of this (Deuteronomy 8:10–14). The greatest enemy to following Jesus wholeheartedly is comfort, and our greatest need is not more comfort but more of God.

Don't get comfortable with what God has given you

Back in power after Absalom's rebellion, David orders Joab to count the fighting men (2 Samuel 24:1–10). A census is not sinful in itself; the problem is why he takes it. The shepherd who faced a giant in God's strength now wants an inventory of what he can do in his own. Pastor Max points to the 2007 Patriots, undefeated and so sure of a perfect season that trademarks were filed before they lost the Super Bowl. David has become Goliath. Even in the church, databases and systems are good gifts, but God moves by His grace, not because of a website. What God gives can never replace our dependence on Him.

Don't get comfortable with who it's costing

David's choice does not stay with David; a plague falls on the whole nation. Our choices never affect only us. Pastor Max has watched friends caught in drinking insist it only hurts themselves while their families and coworkers carry the weight. Then he brings it closer. In the stressful early years of planting the church, with three small children, he began staying up past midnight watching shows to zone out. It felt harmless, until he woke up tired, less present with his wife, less focused with his kids and shorter tempered. Little comforts we lean on instead of God shape the people around us, and we have a responsibility not to get comfortable with hurting them.

Don't get comfortable with cheap worship

God directs David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah, who offers it all for free. David insists on paying: "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24:24). He refuses cheap worship, and God answers by fire from heaven (1 Chronicles 21:26). Pastor Max asks whether anyone who only started cheering for the Bears this year is really a fan, and tells of his six-year-old who wanted a bigger school fundraiser total as long as it came from Dad's money, not his own piggy bank. Funny in a child, not in a grown follower of Jesus. Worship that costs nothing is not the worship God responds to.

Don't get comfortable in your failure

David does not throw a pity party. He confesses, repents and changes direction, and the threshing floor of his repentance becomes the site where Solomon builds the temple (2 Chronicles 3:1). Generations worship in the place where he turned around. Pastor Max tells his own story. In college he believed he could follow Jesus alone, drifted, and one night told God to stop convicting him. The conviction went quiet and his choices got worse, until a friend's struggle showed him where the road led. He recommitted his life to Jesus, found a healthy church, went to Bible college, met Pastor Juliet while on staff in London and later planted Elan Church. You never know what is on the other side of a decision to repent.

God is not finished with you yet

The message closes with an invitation to write down on a strip of paper whatever has replaced dependence on God or is out of alignment with Him, and to bring it to a bowl at the front as the worship team leads a song. It might be a comfort leaned on without noticing, a job or bank account trusted more than God, or a habit that is hurting the people closest to us. Pastor Max prays that no one would walk out the same way they walked in, and that what is handed over to God today would shape generations to come.