The Landmine of Compromise - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, February fourteenth. No one likes discipline. As a believer in Jesus, you can avoid unnecessary pain of that sort by living within the loving limits God has set. Learn to step around the landmine of compromise. There are landmines laid out there in the Christian life, very well camouflaged. And one of the reasons that in the believer's life that people have a problem is simply because they're not even aware of it.

They're not even aware of how to spot these dangers in their life. One of those landmines is the landmine of compromise. Now, there are two different kinds of compromise.

For example, there is good compromise. Let's say that you and your friend decide to go to dinner tonight and you want steak. You're all ready for it. He wants chicken or she wants chicken, whatever. And so, he says, Well, here's what I've got in mind. She says, Oh, well, here's what I have in mind. So, you say, Okay, you want steak, I want chicken, let's just go to the seafood place. And, Oh, that's fantastic, we are both happy. So, you've had a very pleasant compromise.

Nothing wrong with that. Now, watch this carefully. Anything that causes you or leads us to compromise for evil, the things that we know are not right.

Disobedience to God, rebellion toward God, participating in, talking about those things that are not of God. Any compromise is going to cost you. Now, watch this carefully. Any time you compromise with evil, evil wins every single time. That's the nature of it. And when I think about how people get involved in these things and why, why they compromise. Do you know one of the primary reasons people compromise?

Fear of rejection. Oh, if I don't join them, if I don't listen, if I don't participate, they're not going to like me anymore. So what? Listen carefully. It all boils down to this.

Watch this. Let's say that somebody wants you to participate in something that you know is absolutely wrong. They'll say, Ah, come on, I mean, we're all just going to have a good time. Come on now, listen. You're one of those Baptists or you're one of those religious people.

You had churchgoers. Come on now, look, everybody else is. Here's the decision and here's the bottom line. Do you choose to obey God and to please Him and to have His favor? Or do you choose to please those who are living an ungodly life and have their favor? Oh, you say, well, it's not that cut and dry.

Oh yes, it is. You see, compromise to do evil is always the wrong thing. So anytime you're tempted to be disobedient to God, here is the question. What matters to me most?

His opinion, Almighty God, or their opinion? Now watch this. Here's what's going to happen. When you violate your very clear God-given convictions and the people before whom and with whom you violate them, do you think they're going to like you more?

No. When you participate with them in disobedience, they feel a little bit more happy around you. But deep down inside, here's what they think. I knew he was a fake.

I knew that wasn't real. And you know what? When you violate your God-given convictions before someone else, they don't respect you. You think they do, you're fooling yourself, they don't respect you. Because if you'll violate it here, you'll violate it there.

When they get in some kind of a deal with you, if you violate it over here, you may violate it over here. And so what happens is trying to please someone else for fear of rejection. Listen, you live godly, here's what Paul said. You will suffer persecution for Jesus' sake. Now that doesn't mean somebody's going to string you up on a cross, necessarily.

Could be. But what I'm saying is this. You can't please the unbelieving world and please God. And I want to ask you this. Do your unbelieving friends, listen, can they protect you? No. What do they provide for you? Nothing. Can they give you peace, joy, happiness, and eternal life? No.

All the things that the God who wants you to live a godly life gives you and provides for you, He and He alone can provide for you. And you mean to tell me you're going to please a bunch of friends who can't do anything for you and won't even respect you afterwards rather than pleasing God. Isn't that ridiculous? Amen?

That's a little light. That's ridiculous, amen? That you want to please somebody who can't help you, who's going to criticize you afterwards. They'll say, you know, well, we finally got her.

We finally got them therein. You know, all that church stuff was, they didn't really believe all that because now they're just like us. That's exactly what they say. Will they say it to your face?

No. But that's what they think. Compromise is deadly to a believer. And so, oftentimes, it's a matter of a fear of rejection, for example. And sometimes it's a fear of conflict. Somebody says, look, the reason I participate is because it was just going to be a big conflict. So what? Listen, the cross was conflict.

Paul laid out in Lystra, they tried to stone him to death. That was conflict. When you and I live a godly life, we'll be accepted by some, we'll, your very presence will create conflict in some people. You say, well, now that's not Christian. Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. If you live godly, you're going to cause some people trouble. Why?

Because they don't want to live godly. And so, oftentimes, a person says, well, you know, in my business, if I don't do this and so, I'm going to lose money. Let me ask you a question. This God, whose name is Jehovah, who owns all things, who controls everything, don't you think and don't you know that He's able to multiply everything they tell you that you're going to lose if you go along with them?

Absolutely. You see, you can't listen to the world. You can't listen to the lies and the deception of the world for the simple reason they don't know the God whom you and I serve. You see, they don't know who this is we are following and whom we are living for. Therefore, you cannot afford to let acceptance and all these things, profit and so forth.

And so, somebody says, well, the reason I really and truly compromise here is I just wanted something and I wanted so bad I was just willing to pay the price. Well, you'll pay the price. Nobody's going to walk up to you and say, look, I want you to violate your convictions. I want you to violate the Ten Commandments. I want you to turn away from God. They're not going to say that.

They're going to say, look, why don't you come with us and why don't we do thus and so? You violate your convictions. Now, what's the consequences of that? I want, listen, I'm not a non-fun loving person.

I have lots of fun. You don't lose having fun, being a godly person. But here are the consequences of disobedience. When you and I would choose to be disobedient to Him and follow in the ways of the world, living in disobedience, here's what happens. We lose our fellowship with Him. There's a gap. We don't have that sense of oneness with Him. And so, one of the consequences of compromise is, you see, it's not seen. Watch this. This is the deception of it. It's not seen.

You know, we still have the same folks around you. But if you don't have an intimate relationship with Him, if your relationship with Him is cloudy and muddy and begins to get dark, what, because you have chosen to be disobedient to God, you can't live in sin and have an intimate relationship with God. You can't. And the last thing you want to lose in your life is that. Now, the unbeliever doesn't have it.

So watch this. They can just party and have a big time or whatever they're into and whatever they would try to cause you to compromise. They don't have Him. They don't know what you have. And the reason they're into this all the time and got to have this and more of that and more pleasure and on and on and they got, you know what they're trying to fill up this big void. Yours is already full.

It's full of Jesus. So they don't understand you. And so they're trying to, watch this, they're trying to get you to get full of something that they think that will fill them up. They don't know you're already full. Tell them, listen, they say, have a drink. Say, I've already had one. I've already had a drink. Well, what did you drink? I had a drink of Jesus Christ and He satisfied me and I've been overflowing and satisfied ever since. What did Jesus say to the woman at the well? I'm going to give you a drink. And He said, look, what I give you is going to be a well of water springing up into your life, out of your life, into eternal life. I'm going to fill you up and satisfy you. Tell me one single sin that satisfies the human heart. Not a one. It may satisfy the flesh, watch, but only for a season.

Name me one single sin that satisfies the flesh for good. Drink alcohol, got to have some more. If it's illicit sex, got to have some more.

If it's what? If it's financial thing, got to have some more. Obedience to God is where the satisfaction comes from. You have His promise. Listen, you have His promise of His presence, of His power in your life, of His preservation of your life, of His provision in your life.

In other words, He is the great satisfier. Now, your unbelieving friends, they've never tasted of that. They don't know. So, it's foolish for you to fall for their allurements, their temptation, and their attempts to get you to compromise when you have Him and they don't. That's why you must stand strong and say to them, let me tell you why I believe what I believe. Let me tell you the kind of effect that Jesus has had in my life. When you stand strong in the midst of opposition, temptation, and compromise, what happens?

They may turn you off, they may reject you, you name it, but I want to tell you something. When they get in trouble, you know who they're coming to? I learned this as a college student. I lived in B-17 Jeter Hall, University of Richmond.

And there were a lot of guys around me that were not Christians and they boasted of it. I watched this. I lived in that particular room for three years. So I watched men come and go.

Stanley, he's going to be a preacher, but I watched him. Time after time, knock on my door. Charles, I wonder if I could talk to you a minute too.

Yeah, come on in. When all hell broke through in their life, when they got in moral trouble, when they got in financial trouble, that trouble of their parents, trouble of their girlfriend, you name it, why don't they come talk to me? That preacher, the Baptist, you know, Christians, I'll tell you why. Listen carefully.

Because your unbelieving friends deep down inside hope that you are who you claim to be so if when trouble hits, they'll come to you. But if you get involved in what they're doing and you compromise your conviction, why do you think they're going to you just like them? Compromise is deadly to your personal testimony. Deadly to your relationship to Him.

Listen, it's deadly to your daily walk. And what you have to ask is, do I want to please someone else, do I want to please God? Think about this. If you ask me, how many of my high school friends have I seen since I graduated?

I couldn't name you five of them. Do you think they cared about me? No. When they left, they were gone. Whatever they do to you, if you think that they're going to be there for you, you can forget it. They're gone and they're going to forget you.

Oh, they may see, pull out an old book and see your album and say, oh, there he was when he was eighteen, sixteen, fifteen, twelve years of age and so forth. You know what? They don't care.

They're not around you. You're going to make a decision today to please somebody who in another year or six months or three months, whenever graduation's over, they're gone. You're going to please somebody who doesn't really and truly care about you and your future and your life and your morality and your husband and your wife and your raising of your children. And you're going to do something for them to please them instead of the God who will bless you. Foolish, foolish, foolish indeed. Now, you say, okay, the consequences are bad.

They're always bad. How do I avoid them? How do I avoid stepping on a landmine? And if you will follow these, I promise you, I promise you, God will help you. Listen, He will help you to spot it, to identify it when it's laying right in front of you. And He'll help you to be able to overcome that.

Okay? Number one, make the Word of God the standard of your conduct. You want to keep from stepping on the landmine of compromise? You make the Word of God your standard for conduct.

There's not another book that you can choose that's so comprehensive. This, listen, this deals with every single situation in every circumstance of life. It's all right here in God's Word from Genesis to Revelation, it's right here. So you've got to have a standard of conduct.

The second thing, a way to avoid compromise is this. You need to begin every day in this book. Listen, because when you begin the day on your knees before God in prayer and meditation, here's what happens. It focuses you for the day on Him.

And when you get focused on Him, what does He do? The Holy Spirit who is within you. Listen, every single one of us has a spiritual GPS on the inside. That's God's positional system. That's what that means.

All of us have one. That's the Holy Spirit to guide us, direct us. That's what He says, He will guide us into all truth. So first of all, I've got to have a standard.

Then I have this time being with Him, getting my focus every day right. The third thing you do to avoid it is watch this. There's one word in this sentence that's most important. Obey the initial promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Now what's that initial business? Somebody says, Oh look, hey, come on. You know, what about right now? You're, listen, the Holy Spirit will immediately say to you, no. Say no.

Now you, now watch this. If you obey the initial promptings of the Holy Spirit, your response is going to be no. If you say, well, let me think about it. That's all Satan wants you to do is to think about it. Because then what happens? You start thinking about, well, my feelings. And how am I going to feel?

And how am I, how's it going to make me feel? That's not the issue. The issue is when God tells you to do something, you do it.

You don't argue. It's because, listen, all Satan wants to do is get you in a conversation. That's how he got Eve.

She knew the truth. And so Satan said, well, let's think about it. Let's talk about it. Did God really and truly say, or the day your friends will say, well now, where is it in the Bible God tells you not to do thus and so? Where is it in the Bible that you can't buy a lottery ticket? Where is it in the Bible that you just can't have a little fun? I mean, you know, a little, I know what the Bible says about wine.

This isn't wine, this beer. All kinds of ridiculous lies obey the initial promptings of the Spirit. When He tells you not to do something, that's it. In other words, listen, if God speaks, isn't that sufficient?

Isn't that sufficient? Well, for many people it's not. The initial promptings of the Spirit. And the last thing I'd say is this. You make a determination in your life. You may have to make it many times. You make a determination in your life. I'm going to obey God. I'm going to leave all the consequences to Him.

You can't lose. If you're one of those persons who's never been saved, listen carefully. You've already compromised. You say, what do I do about it?

Watch this carefully. You tell God, Lord, I've messed it up. I've compromised my morals. I've compromised my family. I've compromised everything, God. I'm asking You to forgive me of my sin. This is my sin, God, I'm asking You to forgive me. I've been weak, I've yielded, I've surrendered to that, and I'm ashamed of myself, and I want to be forgiven. Will He forgive you?

Yes, He will. Then you should ask Him, enable me by the power of the Holy Spirit to have the courage to say no. And to stand firm for what I believe. And God, when I weaken, strengthen me at that moment and remind me of what I've heard and show me how to be strong in the things of God. Will He answer that prayer? Yes.

No matter what you've done in the past, will He forgive you? Yes. Will He strengthen you?

Yes. But you need to make a deliberate, willful decision. If you keep a diary, you should write in there, on this day, I am committing myself to Jesus Christ to live obediently before Him and to follow the teachings of the Word of God. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, refuse to compromise my conviction. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of The Landmine of Compromise. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.