Killing Compromise

When I used to read old sermons, I'd say in the Puritans, 1600s, 1700s, they would talk about political issues in their sermons. It was not, that's actually the people who come to hear what the Word of God has to say about political issues. And so we've been dumbed down these last couple decades on church and state separation, which is nowhere in the Constitution.

And granted, we don't wanna be, we're about the gospel. And no political party, we should, I think it was Reagan or Lincoln said, we need to ask if we're on God's side, rather if He's on our side. So it's really not about political parties, but it was an event that will be seared in the memory.

I think just like Kennedy was, for many of you in the 60s. And for me, it was Reagan. I remember the school I was still at.

And for the kids, it's just amazing. I'm not gonna go into all the details, but just, I mean, a bullet just grazing by is, I mean, just from, and if you shoot, how many shooters out there I've shot, long range rifles, 400 feet's not far. It's really not far.

And so just what's gonna be coming out, I'm sure there's a lot of information. There's four things I think it's important for the church. We have to remain contrite, humble.

How hard is that for me seeing on X, all these people saying it was planned, it was staged. What? Lord, help me. I'm not gonna respond.

I'm not gonna respond. The stupidity level is alarming. But contrite, humble, broken, how we talk to people and pray with people, and the committed, committed to the Lord, committed to the Lord and seeking Him.

It shouldn't be, we had a packed prayer room this morning. I mean, a lot of people, the prayer room's almost getting too small. But it shouldn't be tragedy that prompts prayer.

We need to prepare before the tragedy hits. Committed to the Lord. And that's how you really weather a storm.

We talk about weathering a storm, how are we gonna get through these times? You're preparing now. See, the foundation's built now, before the storm hits. And then of course, I think we should be concerned.

Not fearful, but concerned. Like Nehemiah, I'll talk about maybe next week, he said, why should I not be sad when the place of my Father's tombs lies in waste? There's a concern. And because when you're concerned, you wanna make a difference.

And it prompts motivation. And then the fourth C is consecrated. Consecrated.

We have to be consecrated to the Lord. Set apart, holy, living that life. So as you can see, broken, committed, consecrated and concerned and weathering those storms.

And what I've been going back and forth on, I might just spend a minute here because I know my kids have questions. Other people are texting me, other people are asking, like what in the world is going on? What is going on? And our hope, as you know, is another great awakening. That's the only hope.

We need God to awaken His church, awaken His people. And that is our hope. Now, of course, people say, well, we might be going to hell in a handbasket and that may never happen.

I don't know. I just am told to have hope in God and to hope for those things. But just so you know, what is happening is kingdoms are colliding.

So I'm not going to, whether Democrat, Republican, Independent, you shouldn't get offended at this. I'm not going to take sides. I'm just going to tell you the facts.

You've got, let's say Trump's character, right? Okay, got it. It's not about character, it's about his policies. Because he could exhibit the same character and be a Democrat, they wouldn't care.

So it's not about character, it's about policies. And I've got concerns. I've written about the concerns.

The abortion issue, which he said, leave it up to the states. You know, I mean, based on the Constitution and what a politician would say, that's what they say. But when you try to go after the deep state, it's not fake news.

There are people inside the government that want America destroyed. They want open borders and to just let everyone in. They're trying to soar us.

They're trying to destroy it. This is not conspiracy theory. I don't wear a tinfoil hat.

This is all legitimate. You can listen to the World Health Organization. You can listen to them, what their own words.

You're gonna own nothing and be happy. I mean, so there's deep demonic levels going on. Kingdoms are colliding.

So you have a person that's gonna try to bring Christians in positions of leadership in the government, stop the deep state, secure the borders, be a threat to Russia, China, come against and expose a lot of the evil. I'm not gonna get into the deep levels of the human trafficking industry. And so you see you've got kingdoms colliding.

That's what's happening. And if you've ever seen, I've been posting for about a year that this group is not gonna let him get to office. Now God might.

I mean, I don't know what the plan is. I'm not gonna speculate, but there's so much turmoil and that's why. And I've been in private meetings.

I don't know how, the people that were on his advisory team last election cycle, and they know people in the FBI, Department of Justice, Homeland Security that are not good. There are many good people, thank God for that. But there's an underpinning, there's a darkness that is trying to take America down.

Now, we read Revelation. It might apply to us. I don't know, I'm supposed to have hope.

I'm supposed to defend. I'm supposed to talk about the unfruitful works of darkness and expose them. But just so kids know, adults, that's what's happening.

So this whole character and stuff, yeah, character's great, but he's not a pastor. He couldn't be a pastor. And I can't be a politician because I couldn't do those things.

So because, and what we don't understand is what's going on in the inside. You don't think the Supreme Court justices are a big deal? I want you to think about this. Without the justices, without certain people in positions of leadership, we would be no different right now than China and Russia.

Slippery slope to North Korea. That's where we are going. There's just no way around it.

Control you, influence you, fear-mongering, civil war, racial division, all this is being manipulated. And so that is what is happening. That's just the truth.

I'm not telling you to vote for them. I'm not taking sides. I'm not pro anybody.

That's just what's happening. Now you can say, yeah, but okay, maybe, but that is what is happening. Kingdoms are colliding.

What the Democratic Party has in store for America is completely different than what the Republican Party has in store for America. Again, not embracing one party over another. I'm just telling you that's what's happening.

And I can see Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, all these people, oh, our prayers go out to Trump. No, you're hypocrites. I'll call them all out.

They're hypocrites. They wish that would have been two inches closer. That's the world we live in.

And the church has to talk about these issues. We've got to be prepared that, oh, that's what's happening. So if it's a spiritual battle, and I'm not saying one side will reply, oh, this great godly side.

No, we got to get on God's side, the cross, the cross. Absolutely. So you look at the policies that are gonna be more God-honoring.

And so the only way to spike this spiritual battle is to engage spiritual weapons. That's it. That's why we're here, praying and fasting and looking to the Word, living out the Word, walking in obedience, contrite, committed.

And the church is to be that light in the center of all the darkness. So that was just a quick overview of what's going on. I'm very certain of that.

And most of you know. I mean, you know, you can see the writing on the wall and what is really going on. So with that little side note done, the message this morning is killing compromise, and it will actually tie into everything.

Killing compromise. Faith must fight. Faith must fight.

I was going to give Faith Must Fight part two Wednesday. That didn't happen. So I'm gonna get through it briefly because there's not a lot.

And then I'm gonna jump right into Samuel, Chronicles. Basically, it's 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, because we're giving an overview of the Old Testament. We're gravitating towards certain principles that are so important, especially right now.

Wait till we get to Nehemiah and Ezra next week. It's a manual for leadership. It's just incredible.

And then I'll get into the book of Acts in September, and we will be there a long time. I'm going verse by verse by verse. For all those people who chew me out, you don't go verse by verse.

Well, I've done the whole book of Matthew. I've done the whole book of James, and I've done Revelation. I've done, you know, people nitpick you for anything.

And if you guys like Spurgeon, guess what? He was topical. He would camp out on one verse for a whole hour of his notes. It's incredible.

God has different ways of communicating His truth. The only downside to topical is you miss key topics because you cherry pick. So that's why over the course of the last few decades, a lot of the well-known pastors that I would say that aren't very biblically literate and avoid the truth, they love topical because they can avoid all the hard stuff.

But topical is fine if you hit on all the topics. Jesus was topical when He preached. So was Paul.

So was Peter. So I'm going to be topical for a few weeks, and then we'll get into Acts in September. Last week, I talked about the fact that the devil wants to dampen, distract, and discourage us.

And we left off with Judges and Ruth. And what I talked about was once they exited the land of Egypt, and they were going into the promised land, what do they do when they get to the promised land? Well, they have to have judges that rule over them. God was their king.

This is a key point we'll get to. God was their king, and God would use judges to rule His people. So as we go into the book of Judges, they're still driving out the enemies, but some were not driven out completely, and they influenced Israel to sin against God.

I could stay there for an hour, but I'm not going to, because that is a key. When you don't drive something fully out, it comes back. You don't get rid of that sin completely, it will come back, and often stronger in many cases.

So we talked about Joshua, right? Joshua goes into the promised land. There's no promised land without a battle. There's no warfare without a battle.

And so they're taking over the promised land. They're going in and I don't remember how many, 30 some kingdoms, and they're going through and they're going through, I think it was like 25 years. And then so you get into the book of Judges, they're still trying to conquer the land.

But as with us, they probably experienced the same thing. Have you ever been there where you say, forget it, I'll just compromise. We do that, we go into spiritual battle.

Like God wants us to pray for someone or contend for someone and fasting. And after a couple of weeks, we're like, you know what? I'm good, I'm tired. I'll deal with this, it's not that big of a deal.

And so that's what they did. They said, you know what? Let's make a treaty or let's marry. Guy, that Canaanite sure is attractive.

That Moabitess is sure attractive. And they would marry the people of the land that were not part of the nation of Israel. And then those gods, false gods would influence the children of Israel away from God.

And it goes back to that concept of equally yoked. Equally yoked together, going in the same direction. And a lot of people don't understand because they'll say, well, I know they're not a Christian, but if I marry them, eventually they will become a Christian or I'll be a good influence.

Now, sometimes that's the case, but more often than not, it's easier to pull me down to their level, isn't it? I bet if me and my wife had a wrestling match right here, it'd be hard for me to pull her up. She'd have just as much leverage to pull me down. So remember that, it's always easier to pull a person down into sin.

Now it doesn't mean we don't minister to people, but there might be a season where you don't need to go to the bar and minister to your friends if you're coming out of addiction. If you're attracted to that person, you don't need to date them to minister to them because it will pull you down. There might be a time and a place for things.

So that's what was happening. They were in the land, instead of them influencing them towards God, the people influenced them away from God. So the point I left off at last week, number five, faith must remove compromise.

Building genuine faith must remove compromise. Now remember, the title is actually killing compromise. Faith has to remove it.

Judges 3.6, and they took their daughters to be their wives, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods. Well, I knew I read it somewhere. It was in my notes.

Compromise is kryptonite to faith. Compromise, it hurts our faith. It's counterproductive, right? Because with faith in God comes a certain way of living, does it not? If I have faith and I'm building my faith and I want to strengthen my faith, I have to live a certain way.

So compromise pulls me away from faith. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Number six, faith is married to humility.

This is also what we glean from judges. And watching the life of Joshua. Like Joshua, look for a place to serve, not a platform to shine.

Ouch. Let me tell you, it's unending what God will do with you if you're looking for a place to serve instead of a platform to shine. Because a platform to shine is wrong motives.

And I believe that's why many people fail in ministry. They were not truly called to it. Or of course, there's failings, it's hard, it's a very difficult profession, of course.

But a lot of times, they want the limelight. They want that platform. But look for a place to serve, not that platform to shine.

Humility recognizes that we can do nothing without God. A man's pride will bring him low. Is there anyone here that's low this morning? Not a good low? You'll be amazed at what humility will do to you.

You'll be amazed at how humility can restore your marriage. How humility can restore that relationship with the Lord. And then number seven, faith focuses on finishing strong.

And if I had time last week, I was gonna go through a little bit, but the story of Samson. Oh, we know Samson, don't we? Don't we? Even unbelievers know that name. Oh, I remember my mom told me about him when I was a little kid.

Samson, Samson's pride was his downfall, but his humility lifted him back up to finish on God's side. And if you are interested on the life of Samson, I almost went over a lot of the points, but I spoke on that about five years ago here. Lessons from Samson, surviving the anointing.

So you can find that on our YouTube channels and different things. Lessons from Samson, surviving the anointing. You can get all the details about his life.

Basically, he was God's anointed. He had the supernatural strength, but Delilah drew him in. He began to compromise and he lost his spiritual strength.

And they actually cut out his eyes. I know you're having a hard week maybe, but I won't go into detail how they would hold him down and that's what they did. They did it with another king they captured of the children of Israel later on.

And then they made him push this thing, they called it grinding at the millhouse like an oxen. So he would push this thing around and around and it would grind whatever it was, their barley, their wheat, their spelt, whatever those things were. And here is this mighty man of God who's called of God, anointed by God.

Now he's pushing this thing and all the people laughing and mocking at him. And that's what compromise does. We have to kill compromise before compromise kills us.

But something special happened when he was doing that. The Bible says his hair began to grow back because he shaved his hair and the power wasn't necessarily in his hair, it was in the consecration to the Lord. And so what that means is this anointing began to come back upon Samson as he probably humbled himself.

Probably he did a lot of praying. There's nothing else to do and he's praying, he's repenting, he's broken. And that anointing came back and he was able to finish strong.

The Bible actually says that he finished strong that last section of his life. And we can learn here that we all come to a quitting point. Do we not? We all come to a quitting point.

But endurance is built when we push through. Maybe that will help somebody this morning. All of us come to a quitting point.

It's not just, well, you know, certain people do, certain people don't. Many of us, unless you don't, I don't know. But most people are gonna get to a quitting point and that's when endurance kicks in.

It's the ability to push through. And that's what Joshua did as well. Even after the defeat at Ai and the Gibbonite deception, Joshua got back up and finished strong.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that means, the defeat at Ai was very important because Joshua is conquering cities. He said, hey, we'll go in and we'll conquer this city. We only need, I think it was like 3,000 men, don't quote me on it.

This should be pretty easy. And they lost. And Joshua was petitioning the Lord.

What happened, God, what happened? He didn't go to the Lord first. And they found out that the famous term we hear, sin in the camp. Sin in the camp drains spiritual power.

And so Achan, I believe his name was, his family took these accursed things. And God said, don't. And he kept it in the camp.

And that sin in the camp caused Israel to lose the battle of Ai. Once they discovered it, they repented. They were able to go in and defeat that city.

It's a very important lesson. That going to God first, before going out and doing something, Lord, is this You? Is this Your will? Because sometimes we run ahead too quick. And we rush ahead and waiting on God.

And also dealing with sin in the camp. It's very important for churches. You know, if we know of something, that we have to address it because it does affect the body.

And I won't go into a lot of details, but I think it's important. There are churches, one in our area, I knew of for certain. They wouldn't deal with issues.

It's like, well, let the Holy Spirit convict them. Well, it's also your job too. You know, because they could ignore that conviction.

People engaging in homosexual activity as ushers. Or different, and like, let God deal with it. It's not our job.

You know, we're just here to love. And they allow sin in the camp. A husband brings his girlfriend.

Why is that not dealt with that day? Well, you know, they're going through some struggles. Let's just let God deal with them. Let God convict them.

And there are times for that, right? You understand what I'm saying. I mean, those two times aren't, but there are times where you don't just go rush ahead. You allow God to convict the people.

You know, you love them and you wait for God to convict them. They know where you stand, especially if you're dealing with kids and things. But in a church, when you know there is besetting sin, and you just kind of wink, it's not a big deal, I believe that is a form of sin in the camp.

Because we want to do these great things for God. We want to look like the book of Acts. We want to have the power in the pulpit.

We want to have anointed worship. We want to have just lives being changed. But we're allowing these things to continue.

It can be very, very detrimental to a church. Look at these verses. For the righteous falls seven times and rises again.

Rejoice not over me. Oh, my enemy, when I fall, I shall rise. Remember, we're still on that step.

Faith finishes strong. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed.

Paul said that. When you pass through the waters, God says, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.

A part of building faith is to get back up when you fall. Don't sit and wallow in that misery. Faith is strengthened by getting back up, and it's depressed and quenched by staying down.

Get up today and get your health back on track. Get up today and get your family back on track. Get up today and get your relationship with the Lord back on track.

It's a call to get back up and to kill compromise. And then another, after Joshua judges, we get into Ruth. And one of the things I didn't like about going through the Old Testament is I wish I could spend the whole sermon on just one book.

How many books are in the Old Testament? Quite a few. And also just gleaming certain points. But Ruth teaches that genuine love at times may require uncompromising sacrifice.

Regardless of our lot in life, we can live according to the precepts of God. Genuine love and kindness will be rewarded. Did you hear that? It might not feel like it, but it takes time.

God abundantly blesses those who seek to live obedient lives. Obedient living does not allow for accidents in God's plan. God extends mercy to the merciful.

Just read from gotquestions.org on an overview of Ruth. So those who don't know Ruth, it's where this concept comes from, the kinsman redeemer. And she basically had nothing and Boaz was able to be her kinsman redeemer and redeem those things that she had lost.

And it's a beautiful picture of Christ. It really is. And that's point number eight.

Faith saves. Faith saves. Kinsman redeemer is the most important takeaway.

The kinsman redeemer acted on behalf of a relative who was in danger or in great need or had gotten into trouble. The role was to rescue. So we see Christ as the kinsman redeemer in our life.

And that's why I've said it before, you're not saved by the plan of salvation, you're saved by the man of salvation, okay? So many people, well, I was born a Christian and raised a Christian and they know about the plan. They can quote the plan, but atheists read the plan. Unbelievers read the plan, Romans Road.

They go, oh, okay, that's what Christians believe, huh? So the plan doesn't save. The man saves you, Jesus Christ. The plan points you to the cross.

So here's the plan of salvation for the wrath of God is on all of us. If you confess Christ as Lord and believe that you raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, you must repent and believe that's the plan and then it points you to the man. That's how faith saves you.

That's why it's so important. It's not what you know, it's who you know. I mean, one of the most remarkable verses in all of the Bible, there's quite a few, I have quite a few questions.

But this one, even the demons believe in Jesus and tremble. What do you mean? But see, that's not saving faith belief. That's not the type when the Bible says believe.

It believes that Jesus is Lord of my life. I need to repent and believe in God and confess. I believe.

This is a belief of intellectual knowledge. They know. I mean, every time Jesus was on the scene, the demon would speak out of the person.

We know who you are. And I love it, they never negotiated. They never tried to fight Him.

They cowered back. Please do not send us into the abyss right now. Hey, there's a herd of swine.

Can we? And so He walked with that authority. No man ever spoke like this man, is what they would say when they would question Him. And so it's not the plan of salvation, it's the man of salvation.

You can believe, you can believe everything I'm saying. And this happens all the time with this many people coming. They go, I believe that.

I believe that. Belief is not enough. You have to act upon, engage faith and repent.

Take intellectual belief of that makes sense. You can leave here and say, that makes sense. What He said makes sense.

I believe there is a God. I believe there was a Jesus. And it not changed your life.

Because it hasn't changed your heart. Believe, believe. So I usually hold this to the end, but it fits right here.

Believe today. Make that decision. Say, I repent.

Lord, I repent. I have been running. I don't want to just try Christianity out.

Have you ever heard that? I'm going to try it out for a while. I've prayed with people. How long have you been coming? I'm good, I'm trying this thing out for a while.

What? No, no, no. Come on, let's talk for a minute. This is not a test drive.

You realize you need a car, and you're going to die without a car. You're under God's judgment. And you have to repent and believe in Jesus.

So faith saves is so important. And then once Ruth was over, we're going to move right into Samuel. 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles.

Incredible books of the Bible. I encourage you to just start reading. Reading the Bible and write down notes.

And look up the notes later, but just start writing down. I should say your questions. Write your questions down.

So Samuel is the final judge over Israel and is known for his lifelong obedience to God. So, you following so far? Genesis, right? Creation, the fall, Exodus. God calls His people out of Egypt.

Leviticus, they set up the Levitical priesthood, the sacrificial system. And then you've got Deuteronomy, which lays out the law. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy.

Joshua, then they go into the promised land. And God says, okay, now that you're in the land, you need judges. Well, here's the difference.

A king, by the way, we'll get to this, but all the people wanted a king. Give us a king. Give us a king.

God says, Samuel, they've not rejected you, they've rejected me. What's the big deal? Well, if you look into it a little bit, it was laziness and selfishness. A king will guard us.

Right now, it's just judges. We've got Samuel, and we've got to rally the tribes. We've got to rally the men.

We've got to go to war. It was on us. It was a theocracy, really, governed by God.

And then the king, though, if they had a king, oh, now the king will defend us. The king will guard us. And we're just like all the other nations.

Do your kids ever say that? I just want to do it because such and such doing it. And so that's what was happening here. They wanted that king, 1 Samuel 8. But when they said, give us a king to lead us, this displeased Samuel.

So he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said, don't listen. I mean, he said, listen to all the people. We're going to do this.

And they haven't rejected you, they've rejected me as their king. What an example, huh? God was the king, and He would allow the judges to lead. When you get into Samson and Samuel and the different judges, and they would lead according to God's heart.

Where the king, you get Saul, now he's, because with the judge, it was a prophetic voice, there was humility. He didn't have the big castle. He didn't have all this pomp and reckoning.

He wasn't the king. He was a call of God, a humble judge. And so you get Saul and David and then Solomon, and the kingdom breaks up, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, and then you get this line of evil kings and wicked kings, and Judah's divided, some good kings in there.

It's just a mess. They should have left it the way God designed it. Maybe that's for you today.

Leave it the way God designed it. But a couple points that are important. Don't take rejection personally.

I need to hear that one for myself today. Don't take rejection personally. Especially when you're talking about God and His Word and the truth.

They reject you. They reject your truth. Don't take that personally.

They're rejecting the truth, not you. And also, the people looked at outer appearance versus the heart. Do we still have that same problem today? We often look at outer appearance, not the heart.

Even when they chose their kings, they would look at, even I think it was Samuel, would go into Jesse, where David's father, and he'd say, okay, we've got anointed king. Where are your sons at? And the oil wasn't flowing. It wasn't like, this isn't working, but these guys look like kings.

And they said, well, then there's little David in the back, scrawny David, red-haired David. You know, freckle-faced kid. Go get him.

And then the oil flowed. Now, if you have red-haired freckles, that's not... We're all designed in God's image, right? That's just the, what do they call that? The stereotyping. Yeah, I guess I did that.

But, so they looked at the outer appearance and not the heart. Do you know how many marriages are in trouble today? Or dating relationships? Because they looked at outer appearance and not the heart. Honestly, that's what happens.

The biggest issue normally with young couples dating is the motive why. Why they did it. The attraction versus not having the heart and looking at the heart and waiting for God's timing.

Now, if you've already said, I do, it's too late. But if you haven't yet done that, make sure you take it to the Lord. Thank God for attraction, but that follows the right decision and being equally yoked.

And then what follows after Samuel, 1 and 2 Samuel, what follows is all the kings being chronicled. So now you've got 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. So this is where we get a lot of the Old Testament history.

All the kings, the Ahab's and the Manasseh's and the Hezekiah's. And what happened is Saul, right? And then David became king. And then Solomon became king.

And then because he married other wives that weren't of the children of Israel, what happened? His heart went astray. See, easier to pull down than to pull up. His heart went astray.

He had to kill compromise. Killing compromise is so important. And then from him, it actually split up from his son and his servant, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, and that began to go down.

And then you have the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And that's what you see at odds throughout the book of 1 and 2 Chronicles and Kings. This whole thing going on.

And the list of good kings, what they would do is they would encourage the people to kill compromise and return to God. Kill compromise, return to God. And a lot of why we don't run from compromise is because we don't see the death in it.

We see the allurement, right? Is that the right word? The allure. And you see that like a fish, until it takes that, oh, this shiny thing looks good, until it's in your gum, we have to see the death in it. And then it will maybe really change the way you view things.

Yesterday I spoke at the men's breakfast on this topic. And I said, hey guys, before we eat the breakfast burritos, we had an accident in the kitchen, a whole bunch of, and a lot of these guys are starving, right? They're ready to just pig into these things. And we had some rat poison fall into the eggs and stuff.

Quite a bit. Now are they still going to eat the eggs and burritos? No! So this tremendous hunger, this lust for I have to have this burrito. What happened? Now it's like, nope, no thank you.

They saw the death in it. See the death in your porn addiction. See the death in the compromise that you're doing in your life.

See how it's going to affect your children and your family. See the death in it. And I can't take credit for that.

I got it from Steve Schell, Dr. Steve Schell many years ago. He talked about a birthday cake. And I said, well, that's good for a men's breakfast.

By the way, there was no rat poison in the burritos, so you're okay? You guys are okay? Some of you are probably going, I'm glad I didn't come. I'm glad I didn't come to that. Give compromise an inch, she will take a mile.

Give compromise an inch, she will take a mile. And then a good verse from 1 Kings 13 is this. After this event, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way.

He kept compromising. And he even made the priests from every class of people, what he would do is, he would make whoever he wanted a priest. And God had a particular plan how the priest was to be chosen.

So you see compromise in all these areas. Here's how I want a priest chosen to represent me. Nope, I'm just gonna appoint whoever.

Compromise. What about, what was his name? Uzzah, who reached out and steadied the cart. Something like that, right? The Ark of the Covenant is falling.

He held it straight. Well, he died. Because he didn't follow God's way.

Two of the priests who offer profane fire, compromised. And so we see throughout Old Testament history, and Paul said, do not lust after evil things like they lusted, that the Old Testament be an example for you. And so in the area of spiritual matters, they would compromise.

And it was a sin, and to his entire house, and to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth. Compromise is like a weed that must be uprooted. Anybody ever just trim a weed? Or do you ever go to pull it out and only half comes out? Well, guess what? Give it a few more weeks.

And so areas of compromise, and guys, I'm not trying to beat people up. I'm not trying to, oh, I can never live that way. Oh my goodness.

I know as believers, compromise is difficult because we're always hit with it. Always hit with it. Every day.

And so you have to choose your battles carefully. You also have to say, what type of compromise? Lord, what do You want me to do? But remember, if you give it a little, it will take a mile. And it's like a weed that must be uprooted.

You cannot cut it back. And you'll see throughout the Old Testament, especially in Kings and Chronicles, they would often say, or the Bible would say, but they did not remove the high places. These high places were just what you would think up on the hills out here.

High places built to worship false gods. And so what these kings would do, some of them trying to be good, they would go in and they would make reformation or reforms, bringing the children back to God, initiating the right type of sacrifice, putting the right priests in order. But then the Bible says, but the high places were not removed.

They would allow those things in their life. And so we see from the high places, we see in Joshua that they would not go in and possess all of the land, that they compromise with the people. And you can see how compromise is not very good for a believer.

We must kill compromise. And that's what's actually happening in the church. A lot of the church, the division you're seeing is a lot of churches are compromising the Gospel.

Have you heard that term? How about watered down? How about candy coating? That's what it is. We don't really need the cross. That's pretty extreme.

Can we meet in the middle? The virgin birth, like Jonah swallowed by a whale or a great fish, and we compromise. And so a lot of the churches and what they do, the big push with the rainbow flags and other things and other compromises are because these are men, and now cases, many times women, not filled with the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, the boldness. And so what they are then is people pleasers.

So because they don't have the gauge of truth guiding them, they are listening to people and trying to please the masses. Well, let's do this for this group. Let's do this.

Who are we to say, that's so narrow-minded chain that you feel that way. We're to love all people. That's compromise.

And I will guarantee you this, there's no spiritual power in a compromise church. There's not a perfect church on planet Earth. It's okay.

There's no perfect church, but there is a difference between a church wanting to remove compromise and wanting to be holy and fighting for unity. That's why I'm excited about the book of Acts. There's all of that is in there.

Fighting for unity, fighting for other people and being gentle and gracious and wanting God's Word to be the standard and calling out the sin, but loving the sinner. I know that phrase, people joke about it, but it's true. A lot of cases.

We're to love that person, but also speak the truth in love. Compromise subtly rejects the truth. Subtly rejects the truth.

And they said, all the other nations have kings, give us a king. If everyone is doing it, it's often a good indication to go the other direction. Get this part to your young adults and teenagers.

You can just go on YouTube and say, hey, listen to this two minutes. That's it. If they don't listen to the whole thing, right? If everyone's going in a certain direction, run the other direction.

Everybody's doing it. Everybody's dressing this way. Have you heard that? I've got four daughters.

Whatever happened to clothing? My goodness. I mean, have you ever seen like 1930s and 40s at the beach? You know, the women had their hat on, their little dress all the way down. Like, you know, I don't know if that's too extreme, but you don't need to be walking around like that.

You are today. My goodness. You know, it's hard and compromising, but everybody's doing it.

Everybody has Instagram. Why can't I? Everybody has TikTok. Why can't I have that app? Or my favorite that's still challenging, why can't I have a phone? You're 12.

I know this might upset some parents, but kids don't need phones. My goodness. And if you're worried for safety, get them a flip phone maybe.

No Internet access. They can just call you. There's precautions if you want to take them.

Stick those little GPS finders in their pocket. Have the flip phone for emergencies. But the Internet is just so ungodly and perverted in their little minds and hearts.

Look at what we're doing. If everybody's doing it, man, I could go somewhere on this rabbit trail, but I'm not going to. I could talk about eating.

All these fast food places, man, the line's backed up. And nobody's buying broccoli and hummus. There is no line for that.

Right, so remember that if everybody's doing it, you might want to rethink how we stay trapped. How do we stay trapped with compromise? Like Samson, the consequences did not come right away. And that's how the enemy works in all of our lives.

The consequences don't happen right away. Often it takes time. It takes time.

It takes time. And sometimes he wants to build you up a little bit. Build you up in the ministry so your fall hurts more people.

Oh, I did this. I made a mistake. Nothing happens.

Maybe I'll just keep compromising. The key is you repent and say, Lord, help me. You get accountability.

You bring it to the light like I talked about yesterday. But it's when you continue it. The sin grows in darkness.

If you don't expose something, it will expose you. That's how it works. And it waits.

Look at it, man, I'm not getting away. I'm getting away with all this. And you just keep digging deeper and deeper and deeper in that hole.

So the key is if that convicts anyone to repent this morning and say, God, get me right back on track. And another good verse, 1 Kings 18. So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel.

And Elisha came to all the people and he attacked them for their compromise. This is exactly what compromise is. He said, how long will you falter between two opinions? Can you imagine that? I mean, we've got this view of Jesus as just a nice guy who doesn't say anything.

And oh, I think the prophets in the Bible, I think they were really nice. And no, they weren't. Because they weren't called to be nice.

They were called to be truthful. And although that is love, and they're being nice in that sense, they had hard things to say to wake the people up. They basically said, how long will you waver? How long will you falter between two opinions? Can you imagine me saying that to you today? Guys, how long will you waver between two opinions? If God is God, follow Him.

If you're not gonna follow Him wholeheartedly, there's the door. So would you please leave and let the true saints of God stay in fellowship and worship? That's what he would say. How long will you waver? If God is God, follow Him.

But if Baal be God, follow Him. Make your decision. Choose today whom ye will serve.

Joshua said, ask for me and my house. We will serve the Lord. There's a consecration.

There's a consecration. There's a time to say, here's the line I draw, and no further. How long will you serve both the God of this world and the God of this Bible? Because you cannot serve two masters.

You cannot! It's not possible. In a very telling, telling sentence, but the people answered him, not a word. I bet he's a little fired up.

You want to play this game? You want to play this game? Build an altar. Let's see who's God is God. And all these prophets of Baal built this big altar.

Water. Laid the sacrifice on it. And they're cutting themselves and their blood and they're dancing all around and nothing's happening.

I love these guys. They're funny too. Maybe he's asleep.

Maybe he's on vacation. You better be louder. And they would do all this crazy stuff and nothing.

And that was just Elijah by himself. And he said, you know what? Go grab a lot of water and pour it on the sacrifice so this can be crystal clear who's God is God. Dig a trench around it.

Immerse this thing in water. And the God who answers by fire, let Him be God. And it was about the time of the evening sacrifice.

Elijah prayed. And that fire came down from heaven. It says it licked up everything.

That God answered by fire. They killed all those false prophets and then the people cried out to God. Let the real God answer by fire.

And that's why sometimes we say fire fell. Or God let Your fire fall. Not in a judgmental way, but in the book of Acts way to where as they're waiting on God, that fire came that's contagious.

Fire burns. It reforms. It renews in many cases.

That the fire of God and all the people who fell from Samson to David all compromised. When a person falls, and again, we're all susceptible. We've all fallen in certain areas.

But it's because of compromise. Certain areas weren't shored up. So the best defense is to be filled with the Spirit.

Amen? The best defense with all of this is to be filled with the Spirit. And an important mechanism of being filled with the Spirit is controlling self. So I'm not going to go into a lot of detail.

Listen to yesterday's message to the men. I talked a lot about this. The title of it yesterday was on discipline.

The duty of discipline. And Proverbs is talking about as a city has its wall torn down, so is a man or woman without restraint on their body. When the appetites are left to their own, they will destroy you.

But it is interesting because to be on defense, you must be filled with the Spirit. But in order to be filled with the Spirit, you must make certain decisions. When Paul said, Be filled with the Spirit, it's not only a mental choice.

Lord, please fill me with the Spirit. I want more of You. I want to do things for You.

Now I've got to live in such a way that I'm not quenching and grieving the Spirit. So it's not only a mental decision, it's where my feet go too. And that's why discipline is so important.

Paul said, I discipline my body. And I bring it into control. Because if I don't, when I preach to others, I will become disqualified.

Paul is not talking about salvation here. The prize is he is running for the crown of recognition from Christ. That he has served well.

A person becomes disqualified. This wouldn't be the right language if a person, you think you can lose your salvation. What he's saying here, I'm disqualifying from giving my testimony because I don't discipline my body.

Let me talk to you about your finances, yet I'm in bankruptcy and I made some really bad decisions. And let me talk to you about marriage, but I'm on my fourth. Let me talk to you about health and fitness, but I'm really just, I caved in to Krispy Kreme and then I went to Shark Shakey's and then I went to In-N-Out Burger and then I just can't control myself.

I went and got a half gallon of ice cream last night. It's just constantly not controlling anything. I don't know if that's funny, but a lot of you are laughing.

But isn't that true? Isn't that true? How many of you would even be here if I said, you know what, me and Morgan have irreconcilable differences. We're just not gonna work this time around. So I'll be single in a couple months.

Disqualified. Disqualified. And that's why this is one of the hardest jobs on planet Earth is because no other position is disqualified by your character.

Very few places. You have to walk that razor's edge. Walk that razor's edge.

But that's what he's saying here. I have to discipline my body because when I preach, when I testify about Jesus' power in my life, I'll become disqualified if I'm not living out what I preach. Now, did Paul do this perfectly? No.

Thank God. I'm so glad. I know he probably didn't like writing it, but I'm so glad he wrote, oh, wretched man that I am.

The good I want to do, I don't do. And the things I don't want to do, I do. Oh, wretched man that I am.

Who will deliver me from this body of sin and death? You ever feel this way? My goodness. He said, with the mind, I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. He's got this constant, this pull, this turmoil inside of him.

Have you ever had rest from that in a day? I haven't. I wanted to sleep in this morning, but I had to be here. The constant pull, the constant struggle.

And it's not about trying harder. It's about surrendering more. It's not about doing better.

It's about being broken. That's why so many people don't succeed, or I know, I'll try harder. How many of you have seen people, especially in recovery or addiction, go back and back and back and back? I know, I'll try harder.

I'll do better next time. Now, it's better to say that than something else, but that is not going to see you through the difficult times, being broken and surrender to God. And letting Him fill you with His Spirit.

So that's why we talk about prayer and worship and things like that, because prayer and worship and application to the Word of God and fasting, they all weaken sin's grip. They weaken the grip of compromise. Discipline often begins with blanket victory.

Like I had this morning. Early will I seek You. Early will I seek You.

My soul thirsts for You. Discipline. If you want to discipline your body and begin to beat compromise, it starts with the little things throughout the day, doesn't it? Because you feel like, man, I made a good decision, and I know I need to deal with this, and that motivation begins to continue to motivate you.

Many times, it's hard to go to church on Sunday, or hard to seek God in the morning because of what we did the night before. What we watched. Unproductive, ungodly.

It gives us no passion for the things of God. And we wake up with the last thing we went to bed with on our mind. Or the mistakes we made.

And now we're in that endless cycle. But I believe you can break that cycle. Because the Bible, the topic is interesting because yes, we live under God's grace and we walk in God's grace and His mercy.

And it's not about perfection, it's about direction. But there's a lot of verses that talk about crucifying the flesh. Putting to death the deeds of the flesh.

Walking not according to the flesh. Making no provision for the flesh. That's a lot of action words.

Now there's some responsibility on our part, and I can keep going. It only talks about no temptation is overtaking you, but what is common to man? God gives you the opportunity to say no. And you can bear that temptation.

Oh, I can say no. But the loosey-goosey, cheap grace side says oh no, it doesn't matter, just trust in God's grace and mercy. It doesn't matter how you live.

Christ died for all that. But the Bible has something completely opposite to say about that. Not only that, you're walking in freedom as you're walking in disciplines.

You're walking in freedom. Don't you feel better when you're obeying God's Word? Come on, let's just be honest. Let's be practical.

I sure feel a lot better when I'm obeying God's Word. The dangers of discipline though. When we take back control, sometimes we must be extreme, correct? To tame the wild beast.

But sometimes there are dangers. And again, you can listen to yesterday's message for more on this. But I talked to the guys about how discipline, if we're not careful, can turn into legalism.

You know what legalism is? I'm super spiritual because I don't go to the movies. I'm more spiritual than you. I remember for years, it was like, well, I don't own a TV.

People would tell me, well, good for you. I don't own a TV. I don't know.

I don't watch the news. I don't know. Whoa.

But how much pride was that? Ugly, disgusting. But see, they can hide it behind the cloak of discipline. And maybe it's good you don't have a TV.

I wish we didn't and we started too late, right? But it's why you do something. Why you don't do it. I also don't go to the movies.

Wow. You are, man, you're spiritual. Well, thank you.

So you see, right? Just because you live a certain way, you're disciplined. You don't beat people up with it. You're not prideful about it because you're gonna fall soon.

That attitude will fall soon because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So you have to be careful because we can get disciplined and we can get legalistic about it. And what else can follow it? Controlling.

You begin to control your family or you want to control your spouse or control your kids or control others. I'm disciplined in this area. Why aren't you? And force it and force it and force it.

And so there are dangers. You have to make sure there's that love and brokenness and gentleness. And it is a hard balance to find.

I mean, it really is. But as you seek God, you will be able to find that balance. But be careful because I've seen that.

And a lot of people that are disciplined, they're very arrogant. Very arrogant. The delight of discipline.

And we'll be coming to an end here shortly. The delight of discipline. It qualifies our testimony.

Don't you love when you can go tell people about Jesus because you're living it? Have you ever tried to talk about Jesus when you're not living it? Probably not because it doesn't happen. It's like, let me just get through this day. Can you pray for me next week? Let me get through this day.

But delight, it qualifies. It qualifies our testimony. We want to share with others more.

We want to pray and read and do things like that. It controls our destiny. Discipline, and I want to be careful on this one because I believe in God's sovereignty.

I believe God has sovereign plans. But I've also seen, haven't you, where choices can help that along or it can hinder you. The best example I've ever thought of, well, the Bible actually gives it, is, and we talked about a few weeks ago, if you were here, how long should it have taken Israel to go from Egypt to the Promised Land? 11 days, depending on how fast they're walking, right? So what happened here with 38 years, guys? I mean, that's a little off course.

Think about it. God said, I'm giving you the Promised Land. Moses is calling you out.

Go get it. They didn't get it. So you're telling me that our choices don't affect our destiny sometimes? I don't know.

We see that they definitely do. And I believe God wants certain things for us, but we've got to get our life in such a way that we're ready for those things. Self-control.

I don't want to get into too much detail, but when I talked to the men, too, I said, if you're wanting to find Mrs. Right, you better be Mr. Right. And I knew, I won't go into a lot of detail, because I did yesterday, but before I met Morgan, God was showing me a lot of things. Shane, you've got to get these areas shored up.

You're not going to meet anybody until you get these areas shored up. And because of discipline, right, so okay, Lord, I'm disciplining myself, I want what You, and I would shore these areas up, and then God would open other doors. Or a lot of times, that's why somebody shouldn't pastor a church until later, because it's, wow, that's all I can say.

But you have to have some areas shored up in there. Right, you've got to have brokenness and life experience and so many other things. It takes time.

And so discipline can help us get to our destiny even quicker, I believe. There's tons of scriptural support. Also, the delight of discipline.

It conquers our passions and things that oppose God. That comes delight. Think about this.

Self-controlled, following God, not out of legalism, but out of a loving relationship. Now I'm filled more with the Spirit, and because of that, because I'm filled with the Spirit, what is the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, gentleness, kindness, goodness, self-control. That's the fruit that flows from this.

The delight of discipline also guards our relationships, our families, our relationships with our kids. We won't get into details because we've all had problems, right? I'm not going to get specific here, but in your relationships or in your marriages, usually marriage issues, there's problems when one spouse is not being very self-disciplined. Or both.

And because of that lack of self-discipline as a Christian, it's hurting the family. It's hurting the family. And then it fills us with the Spirit, which always brings delight.

I just said that. So why many people are grumpy, depressed, and not happy is because they are constantly giving into something that they know they should be controlling. The power of discipline.

And really, I don't look at discipline as self-will, like, oh, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, what do they call that? White-knuckling it. I'm white-knuckling it. I'm grinning and bearing it.

I'm barely getting through it. It's like, Lord, this is a struggle. I give it to You.

I need Your help. I'm choosing to walk away. As a result, the joy follows the right decision.

God's strength that helped you make the right decision. So, and you know, if you've ever been back on the right track, you're not white-knuckling it. You're walking in freedom.

You're walking in freedom. It's not difficult at all. Certain patterns have been established.

Certain disciplines have been established. That's the good thing about discipline. Once you establish those patterns, once you establish those patterns, it stays with you.

And so what I talked about earlier, what the enemy wants to do is what? That was a close one. Whoa. He'd knock you down.

Get you off track. Compromise. Get you off the road, the direction you're going.

Just a couple other verses on this topic. 1 Peter, the end of all things is at hand. Amen to that.

Therefore, therefore, because of all things are at hand, in other words, it's going to get difficult. It's going to get challenging. Therefore, be self-controlled.

Well, darn it, Peter. We're not supposed to do that. We live under grace now.

And be sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Now, different translations say, word it in such a way that you would go to prayer to be sober-minded and self-controlled, which is true. But also, I think the power of our prayers can also hinder on our self-discipline or lack of self-discipline.

What about when God told the prophet, tell the people, my ear's not heavy, my hand's not short. I can save, I can hear. But their sins have what? Separated me.

Put up a barrier. I want to, but there's a barrier here so that I cannot answer their prayers. So could it be when we're living in sinful lifestyles and we're not self-disciplined, but Lord, we go to God in prayer, but God wants us to repent and go to Him with clean hands and a pure heart.

You want to get really convicting, we can turn to the passage where God says, man, I won't even hear your prayers if you don't treat your wives right. So my prayers can be hindered? Yes. How many of our prayers are hindered? And again, I don't want anybody leaving here, if you do, talk to me afterwards, I'd love to talk with you about it.

I don't want anybody leaving here beat up and oh, I can never measure up. What I'm trying to do is pull out of you what's already inside of you. That's what a coach does.

They say, get up, you can keep fighting, fall forward, it's not about perfection, it's about direction. Just get back up and repent, get your heart right before God because I know the joy that follows. All those people walking around, don't you, the joy of the Lord is in their heart.

You see them, right? The joy of the Lord in their heart. And I told you, I do great on Sundays. I'm good on Sundays.

I love after church on Sunday, but get me by Tuesday. Like what happened? I want the Sunday stuff back. And then during Around the Heavens, I'm just, man, all week, I'm just feeling great.

Why? Because we're leaky vessels. D.L. Moody said it, we're leaky vessels. We have to sit underneath the fountain of living water every single day because we leak.

So my encouragement to you is not to depress you, it's to motivate you and to get you back on track and say I want to be back in the Lord's will. Repentance and joy, but what I was going to say is those people, and there's a lot here that are, this is probably one of the best churches I've ever seen that are filled with the Spirit and joy, but I guarantee those people went through something in order to get them that way. They haven't been that way since they were a little baby.

I've been a Christian since I'm two years old and I've just been so filled with the Spirit all my days. No challenges, no obstacles, no problems. No, it's those who have the joy of the Lord because they've got back up.

Ah, they see Him as Redeemer. They see Him as Healer and Restorer. He held me.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and though He falls, the Lord will pick Him up with His right hand and put Him back up. There's joy in that. There's tremendous joy in that.

So, how do I say this right? Because it doesn't sound good in my head, but it's not what I'm saying. It could be if you're feeling discouraged and beat up, it might be because you're not wanting to give something up. I've had people leave here, it breaks my heart.

They say, you know, we can't come back. My wife, she keeps feeling so discouraged that the message is like, what's going on here? We begin to dig a little deeper, they don't want to come out of their sin. Well, that's not my fault.

I can't do anything about that. Now I can be gentle and loving and pray with them and try to encourage them, but if you want to hold on to that sin, you bet you're going to be ticked off today. And you're going to leave.

Who's that guy I think he is? Who's that guy I think he is? I know I'm not divorced yet, but I'm not going to give up my girlfriend. Who's that guy I think he is? That's not me, that's you. Anybody that truly wants to repent and get back on track will experience the joy of the Lord.

There's no way around it. There's no way around it. And I have to give you some sad news from Kings and Chronicles.

Bet you all just gasped for a minute, didn't you? The fall of Jerusalem. Can you imagine? Can you imagine all these years, the great Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, Assyrians, all these wicked groups. And this verse, I don't know, it could just be me.

And you know, you love certain writers of the Bible. And I love the prophetic voices and the Kings and Chronicles. But God loved, listen to the love of God, the Lord God of their fathers.

He sent warnings to them by His messengers. He got them up early, brought God's message because God loved His people, calling them back. But what did they do? They mocked His messengers.

They despised His Word and they scoffed at His prophets until the anger of the Lord arose against His own people. And then there was no remedy. Oh, I don't want to get to that spot in our nation.

But these words are interesting. They mocked. They mocked the messengers of God.

Mocking and mocking Christianity, mocking God. Or even some, maybe some listening, they mock a deeper work of the Spirit. Do you know that happens too? They mock the things of God.

And they despise His words. It means they don't listen. I don't care.

And they scoffed at His messengers. Scoffing, teasing. And they despised and scoffed and mocked until the wrath of the Lord arose against His own people.

Do you know how hard it is for me to say that? If I'm trying to win a popularity contest, I'm not going here. I'm gonna stick with God loves you. God is love.

He's a cosmic ball of love. He's a doting grandfather. Go get Him, team.

Don't judge while you're at it. Don't judge. Just let people live how they want to live.

I'm just here to love. Man, you guys know if you wouldn't be back, but that would write to the majority of the church, the majority of the nation. That's what they want to hear.

And that's why Paul said, Timothy, be careful because the time will come when they will not endure, they will not put up with sound doctrine, but they will look for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. So my encouragement as we close, when you feel like giving up, stand up. When you feel like giving up, stand up.

And I pulled this from a devotional. I can't remember which one. March straight through the flood and the waters will divide.

Watch, go right through the Red Sea and it will open. The Jordan will part and the Lord will lead you through to victory. But the key is you got to stand up.

You got to stand up and get back on track. And that's why I said earlier, choose this day whom you will serve. At the end of Joshua's ministry, at the end of the book of Joshua, he's there with the people.

And he said, choose this day who you will serve. There's no half-hearted approach. There's no lukewarm Christianity.

There's no way to serve two things, the world and God. Choose today whom you serve. And he said, but as for me, in case you're not clear, but for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

That's our goal. That's our objective. So as the worship team comes up, remember this repentance shores up the walls that have fallen.

It weakens the grip of compromise and it strengthens our faith. Get right before God, especially in these dire times. There is no other hope.