The Danger of the Compromised Life: How to Stand Strong

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. If you would like to know how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.

That's harvest.org. We know Satan's temptations are real, and our response is real important. Pastor Greg Laurie shows us the right way to react. Here's the deal, devil.

Listen very carefully. You get nothing. You get zero. You get zipped. You get nada. You've ripped me off. You've taken advantage of me. I'm giving you nothing.

There's no compromise. Goodbye. And you turn your back on Him and follow the Lord and you'll never regret it. That's the way to live for Christ. When the devil tempts us, it pays to remember the words of the renowned evangelist, Billy Sunday.

He said, hell is the highest reward the devil can offer you for being a servant of his. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us stick to our guns and refuse to compromise. We're learning to follow the example of the great leader, Moses. As Pastor Greg continues his series, World Changers, we're observing Moses' confrontation with the pharaoh of Egypt.

It's intense. You know, prior to knowing Jesus Christ, if we knew it or not, if we liked it or not, we were under the power and control of the devil. This is what the Bible teaches. The Scripture tells us that Satan, this god of this world as he is called in the Bible, blinded the eyes of us and we were held captive by him.

Taken captive by him. And the irony is we thought we were in control of our own lives. That makes me laugh when people say, well I don't want to become a Christian because I don't want to come under the control of God. I am the captain of my own ship. I am in control of my own life.

No you aren't. You're under the control of the devil. And he's a liar and he ripped us off. He promised us pleasure but he brought us misery. He promised us fun but he brought us guilt. He promised us life but he brought us death.

And the most clever strategy of all, he had us thinking he did not even exist. But one day in each of our lives, for those of us who have put our faith in Christ, it was like the light went on. Like a lightning bolt from heaven it hit us. Jesus Christ is the answer. Jesus Christ is the one I have been searching for. So we believed in him.

And that changed our life. Now this is the greatest event that will happen in a human life the day that you are born again. And I ask you today are you born again? And are you sure you are born again?

And if you are not I will tell you how to be at the end of the message. Listen. After we made the commitment of Christ you need to know what is going on. The devil, well to put it bluntly, is really ticked off.

He lost one of his own. And he is going to do everything he can to undermine you. To trip you up.

To pull you back if possible. It has been said, conversion has made our hearts a battlefield and it is true. If you are not experiencing the spiritual battle, quite honestly, something is wrong with you. And so I want you to know you are going to face devilish opposition. And I am going to talk about one of the devil's most effective strategies in this message.

And that strategy is compromise. Well as I said earlier we are in this World Changers series and we are looking at the life of Moses. Now you remember it took a while for the Lord to whip Moses into shape. And there on the backside of the desert God said, Moses you are My man and I am going to use you to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. Moses had a bunch of excuses. God responded. And the Lord told Moses it is not going to be easy.

But what I want you to do is take them three days journey into the wilderness. So Moses was ready. So let's see what happens now when Moses has his first confrontation with the great Pharaoh of Egypt. Now let's flip over to Exodus chapter 5.

Starting in verse 1. Afterwards Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness. The Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? Why should I obey His voice to let Israel go? I don't know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go. And they said, The God of the Hebrews is meant with us. Please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.

We will stop there. So now the big moment has come. Moses walks into the court of the Pharaoh and says, Let My people go. And the Pharaoh thought, There is no way I am going to do this. And he opposed Moses. So now a series of judgments are going to come upon Egypt.

Here comes plague number one. The Nile River has turned to blood. That is on Exodus 7, 14 to 18. God directs Moses to go over with his staff and he calls Pharaoh to come and watch.

And he puts his staff in the water and it turns to blood. Now not only did the Egyptians worship the Nile but that was also the source of food supply. It was a source of drinking water.

They would use that water for bathing, for cooking, for cleaning, laundry. Plus they got fish out of that Nile River. And now it is all turned to blood.

But still his heart gets hard. In fact Exodus 7, 23 says, He returned to his palace and put the whole thing out of his mind. It is a big deal. Now plague number two comes. An invasion of frogs. The Pharaoh goes to Moses and says, Make these frogs go away. And then Moses prays and the frogs all die. Exodus 8, 15.

Pharaoh saw there was relief and he hardened his heart. Well now comes plague number three. A bunch of gnats.

That is all folks. Ok. You are now responding to the Nile turning to blood. You are now responding to the frogs everywhere. Here is a bunch of bugs. Gnats. Gnats are horrible aren't they? And this particular plague included all kinds of insects. Winged insects primarily.

You know we have spiders and ticks and beetles. It was the first case of beetle mania. Ladies and gentlemen the Beatles. In come the Beatles. If you got that joke you are really old.

And most of you didn't get it so maybe that is good. That was Ed Sullivan introducing the Beatles on his television show. Remember the Beatles. They were from England right?

They were a British band of four lads from Liverpool ever. Forget all this. But that didn't cause the Pharaoh to respond. His heart just gets harder.

But now this is interesting. He knows what Moses is doing so he is going to change his strategy. And that really brings us to the heart of this message. He brings a series of compromises to Moses.

So he will not do what is right. Look at Exodus 8, 25. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron.

All right he said. Go ahead and offer sacrifices to your God but do it here in the land. Moses replied, well that wouldn't be right. The Egyptians attest the sacrifices we offer to the Lord our God. Look if we offer sacrifices here where the Egyptians can see us they will stone us. We must take a three day trip into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God just as He commanded us.

Pharaoh replied, all right. Go ahead. I will let you go into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God. But don't go too far away. Now hurry and pray for me.

So the Pharaoh said, ok ok already. Go. Leave. But don't go too far.

Hey and don't forget. Pray for me. Intercede for me.

Now what is going on? He is trying to get them to compromise. First of all he says go sacrifice here in the land. But what did God tell them to do? He said go three days into the wilderness.

Why? Because God wanted them to put as much distance between them and Egypt as possible so they wouldn't be tempted to go back. And in the same way when we become a Christian God tells us to make a break with our past and our sinful activities and begin to follow Jesus Christ. Because you see if you make a deal with the devil you are going to ultimately lose. You know the devil will say all right all right if you have to be a Christian be one. But be practical.

Don't get fanatical. You know when I first became a believer I hung around with a bunch of low life guys. And I was one of them. And we did drugs together.

And Christ had come into my life. And I remember what I said to one of my friends right after I became a Christian. I said, Greg.

He had the same name as I do but he had two G's in his name. I said, Greg don't worry. The last thing you are ever going to see is Laurie becoming a fanatic.

He said, you are never going to see me walking around carrying a Bible talking about Jesus. I am still going to be cool but I will believe in God too. Famous last words. And I am thankful they were famous last words. Because for a little bit of time I tried to fit in with these guys. And I realized I have to walk away from this life completely. And you know it was hard because these were my friends.

As low life as they were they were my friends. And now I have to go and hang out with a bunch of people that seemed a little odd to me quite frankly. Because it is Jesus this and Jesus that and the Bible this and the Bible that. And I am thinking I don't know. That is a little too intense for me. But I realized that I needed to walk away from that old life and start a new one with Christian brothers and sisters around me. See that is the way to do it.

See compromise never works. I heard a story about a hunter who went out to shoot a bear. And he found a big one. He had him in his sights. He was just getting ready to pull the trigger when the bear turned around and said, excuse me.

This is a true story. The hunter is shocked of course. It is a talking bear. The bear says, excuse me what are you doing? The hunter says, well I am going to shoot you and kill you. The bear said, wait isn't it better to talk than to shoot? And let me ask you what is it you want? The hunter said, well I am cold. I want a fur coat. The bear said, ok maybe we can talk.

Here is what I want. A full stomach. So the hunter set his gun up against a tree and the bear and the hunter disappeared into the forest for a while. A little bit later the bear emerged alone. Apparently the negotiations had been successful.

The hunter got his fur coat and the bear got a full stomach. That is how compromise works. Oh don't go too far. Don't be too fanatical.

The devil says. And we compromise with him. Pastor Greg will have more of this tense exchange between Moses and the Pharaoh in just a moment.

We are learning some lessons today on standing our ground and not compromising. Pastor Greg is leading our study of the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. Moses demanding his people be let go. Look at this. This is really interesting.

The Pharaoh says in verse 28, I will let you go but pray for me. Wow. Doesn't that look like he is getting closer to God? Well maybe and maybe not. And we know of course it was maybe not.

It was a ploy. And this happens to believers. They get into relationships with nonbelievers.

Sometimes it is romantic and sometimes it even becomes sexual. And they have totally compromised their witness. And they know it is a bad thing.

And they know they need to break up with this person. So the Christian says to the nonChristian, we need to terminate this relationship. And the nonbeliever says, oh wait. Don't give up on me.

Pray for me. I am close to coming to Christ. Yeah you know what. They are not going to come to Christ by you compromising.

They are going to come to Christ by you standing up for what is true. You know that is how you do it. I read about a dating service called Just Coffee. And supposedly you can go meet somebody. It is better than dinner or lunch. Because you know dinner can go on long. Right. And maybe you meet this person for the first time and say, wow I do not want to be here with them for an hour. So just coffee.

It is much simpler. But you know maybe you are trying to find someone. That right person. That guy.

That girl that you are going to spend the rest of your life with. Well instead of just coffee I have a better idea. How about just church. Just church.

Here is how it works. A guy asks you out. A girl asks you out.

Let's go out. Are you a believer? Why do you ask?

Well because I am a Christian and I will only get involved with a Christian. Oh. Yeah. Hallelujah. Even the way they say it is kind of sleazy. Never heard it said in such a creepy way. Doesn't the Bible say something about a holy kiss or something. Here is a way to call them out if they are really Christian.

Say well I would like to go out with you. Great. Let's go out for coffee.

Great. At my church. Your church has coffee. Oh we have awesome coffee.

Yeah. Come meet me at church. We will go to the service and after the service I will meet you for coffee. A lot of those people will not show up. Trust me. But if they do hey you got them in church. That is good.

They will hear the Word of God and if they are really a believer then you know you go from there. I met my wife in church. I was speaking. I was around probably 18 years old.

Maybe 19. I had long hair. I looked like one of the Duck Dynasty guys.

Beard down to here. It is not exaggerating. I was very nervous. My leg was shaking all the time. And she was sitting there with her two sisters and I saw her. Now I was not like scoping girls out when I preached normally but Kathy just sort of stood out. There was like a light coming on her.

It wasn't quite like that. But I noticed her and afterwards I started talking and one thing led to another and 43 years later here we are. Ok. So. But what a great place to meet that person.

Because here is the problem. You get involved romantically and especially if you marry a nonbeliever it pulls you down. Here is a modern translation of a familiar verse being unequally yoked together with nonbelievers. 2 Corinthians 6 14 it says, Don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong?

That is not partnership. That is war. Is life best friends with dark? Do Christ and the devil go strolling together?

Do trust and mistrust hold hands? So well translated. That is so right to what that verse is saying. It doesn't work. Because you are not going to end up pulling them up. In more cases they are going to end up pulling you down. You see.

And so the Pharaoh is using a point. Oh pray for me man. I am close.

Stay close. No no no. We got to get out of here.

All right. Look at Exodus 10. We are almost done. So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh and he said, All right. Go serve the Lord your God.

By the way who are the ones who are going? Moses said, Well we will go with our young and our old, our sons and our daughters, our fox and our herds, and we will hold a feast to the Lord. And he said, Well the Lord better be with you if I let you and your little ones go. For behold evil is ahead of you. Now Pharaoh is saying, Ok I will let you go. But I want you to leave your kids here. Wow. Did you know the devil wants your kids?

And he can't have them. Because we are going to raise them in the way of the Lord. That is our job. That is not the church's job in Sunday school. We will do what we can do.

Reinforce what you are doing at home. It is not the job of the Christian school. It is the job. It is the mission.

It is the calling. It is the privilege of the parent, of the mother, of the father, and you grandparents have a role to play in this as well. To raise those children in the way of the Lord. I love the way Moses put it. He said, Teach these truths to your child when you get up in the morning, when you go to sleep at night, when you walk together. It is something you do all the time teaching your children what is right. But listen to this.

You have got to live it too. Because if you tell them one thing and you do another and you contradict what you are saying, that is a way to drive kids away from Christ. But if you want to draw them to Christ, show them what it is. Model it for them and teach them the Word of God. So the Pharaoh says, Ok ok go.

And Moses could have said, Hey let's get out of here. He is going to let us go. Now I want your kids.

You are not going to get our kids. And that is why it is really important to us here at Harvest we want to continue to reach the next generation. You know because I think as we get older and I include myself among you. I am getting older too of course. You know we don't always like change.

We get set on our ways. You know you are getting old when at the breakfast table you hear snap, crackle, and pop. But you are not eating cereal.

So that is a problem. You know you are getting older when it takes longer to rest than it did to get tired. You know you are getting older when you have more patience but it is really that you just don't care anymore. You know you are getting older when it takes two tries to get up from the couch.

Furniture that is very popular today is very low to the ground right. And I look at that and go, I am not sitting in that. And you know you are getting older when you are resistant to change in the church because everything doesn't revolve around you. And we want to keep reaching the next generation then the next generation. That is why we in our crusades it is always changing and the sound is changing and the look is changing.

But the content never changes because we want to reach each generation. Ok. So now the final compromise. Exodus 10 24.

Pharaoh calls Moses and says, All right. All right. Take your whiny little kids if you have to. But leave your flocks and herds.

That seems like a pretty decent compromise. Ok. Ok. Take your kids. Leave your animals.

You know. Moses could have said, This is a good deal. Let's get out while we are ahead. I mean he is telling us we can go.

We just have to leave our animals. But I love what Moses says to Pharaoh. Verse 26. No Pharaoh. Not a hoof will be left behind. Why would Pharaoh even want the animals?

Because he knew if there was something left in the land it would keep them potentially coming back to the land. But here is what Moses says. No. You can't have our animals. You can't have our kids. You can't have anything.

We are leaving lock, stock, and barrel. And we need to say the same thing to the devil. Here is the deal devil.

Listen very carefully. You get nothing. You get zero. You get zipped.

You get nada. You have ripped me off. You have taken advantage of me. You have ruined my life for years. And you have ruined the lives of people I know. And I am giving you nothing.

There is no compromise. Goodbye. And you turn your back on Him and follow the Lord and you will never regret it. That is the way to live for Christ. I said earlier you need to be born again to enter God's kingdom. You know when you follow Jesus He fills the void in your life. You have the hope of heaven. And you find what you were always looking for. When you reject Jesus and have a hard heart you walk through life with emptiness and guilt and then you face a certain judgment.

What a rip off. It is time for you to make a change. You decide if your heart will be softer heart. We are going to close now in prayer and I am going to extend an invitation for you to break free from the power of the devil. An invitation for you to have Christ and take residence in your heart. An invitation for you to know with certainty that you will go to heaven when you die. Let's all bow our heads. Father thank You for Your Word and now I pray for any person here who does not yet know You. Help them to see their need for Jesus and help them to come to You and believe now. We ask this in Your name. Amen.

Now the title of today's study is The Danger of the Compromised Life. Mention that if you'd like a permanent copy of the full presentation. You can reach us by calling 1-800-821-3300. We're here to take your call 24-7. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online for an instant replay at harvest.org. And then we're so happy to make available a new resource for the holiday called The Jesus Storybook Bible, a Christmas collection by Sally Lloyd-Jones. In fact, she's here with Pastor Greg and me today along with Pastor Greg's wife, Kathy.

Kathy? Sally, I think that when we speak to our children or tell our children Bible stories, we are so careful to not admit our own fears, our own shortcomings. And what I love about your stories is that you're very real and honest with children. You're not shielding them from some of the gentle realities that they need to begin to be talked to about, that there are things that go wrong, that there are times when we are afraid. How do you take those difficult times in a child's life and address them through your stories based on what the Bible has shown you?

Yes, I think that's so right. You don't hide the fact that sad things happen. And, you know, children right now will have experienced sad things happening, losing grandparents or who knows?

That's true. So they know and children know from a very early age that not everything is right with the world. And so unless we tell them the truth, they can't trust us. So I think that just to encourage that, obviously, we have to say it in age-appropriate ways. But if we can process scary things with children while they're on our laps, then they can have their feelings while we're there in a safe place.

And that will just prepare them and equip them. Because I think the main thing is when, yes, we protect children, but we also have to get them ready. So I think this year, perhaps the telling of the truth is, yes, everything is not all right with the world, but our headlines don't come from the news. They come from this story, which is the story underneath all the stories. And it's about the God who is still in charge, even though everything looks completely out of control.

He's not, and He has a good plan. And I think it's just declaring the truth. Wow. Great insights from Sally Lou Jones, everybody, who you're listening to right now. And she's a prolific author of children's books and most notably the Jesus Storybook Bible. And now, this special book that we're offering called A Christmas Collection of Stories, Songs, and Reflections for the Advent Season, written in Sally's beautiful way. And narrated also by David Suchet, the outstanding actor, illustrated again by Jago, who she's worked with before, really has a great style as an artist.

I really appreciate the graphic quality of this. And this is a beautiful book, hardcover book, with this button you push periodically, interactive features with David Suchet's voice and a Christmas song and a lot here. And this is gonna be a delightful, very helpful, a resource for you in the Christmas season to get your children or grandchildren focused on what Christmas really is all about, the most important of all stories. And so, we wanna send you a copy of this book for your gift of any size to help us continue on with our radio ministry that we call A New Beginning. Because as you know, we teach the Word of God every day and we give people an opportunity to come to Christ. So if that's important to you, if you believe more people need to hear the Bible taught and they need to hear the gospel so they can believe in Jesus then we appreciate whatever you can send to our ministry and really, I will send this to you for your gift of any size. You'd frankly pay quite a bit of money for this if you were to order it online or buy it in a store. And some of you can give a little more and maybe some of you not give as much, but give what you can and we'll rush you your copy of the Jesus Storybook Bible Christmas collection.

Yeah, that's right. And you can contact us right away at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call at 1-800-821-3300. Or send a note to A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514.

Or just go online to harvest.org. And look for the Jesus Storybook Bible, a Christmas collection. Well Pastor Greg, you spoke today about having a relationship with the Lord. Yeah. Someone can enter into that kind of relationship with God right now, can't they? Yeah, they really can. That's the amazing thing. I think people are surprised that it doesn't take years to become a Christian. It doesn't take months. It doesn't take weeks. It doesn't take days.

It doesn't even take hours. You can believe on the spot. I would like to lead you in a prayer where you can ask for His forgiveness, a prayer where you can receive Jesus Christ into your life as your Savior and Lord. So if you want Christ to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you want a second chance in life, if you want to go to heaven when you die, stop what you're doing and pray after me these words. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. And I'm sorry for my sin. And I turn from it now. And I choose to follow You from this moment forward as Savior and Lord, as God and friend.

Thank You for loving me and calling me and forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. And listen, if you have just prayed those words with Pastor Greg, the Lord has heard you and forgiven you of your sin.

The Bible says Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we'd like to send you some materials to help you begin to live this new life. We call it our New Believers' Growth Packet. Just ask for it and we'll send it your way free of any charge if you pray for the first time today with Pastor Greg. Write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or call us anytime at 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or just go online to harvest.org and click on Know God. Well, next time Pastor Greg continues his series called World Changers.

More insights from the epic confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. Join us next time on A New Beginning. But before we go, Pastor Greg has an important word to close today's program.

Hey, everybody. A few thoughts about this election that's coming up. As you all know, on November 3rd, we're going to elect the President of the United States. Your vote matters.

Listen, every Christian should register and vote. I cannot emphasize that enough. It's our responsibility. It is our duty.

But it is also our privilege. And we really have no right to criticize what's going on in our nation if we don't even take the time to vote for a candidate. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, but I'll give you some ideas. When I cast my vote, I can tell you there's some things that factor into it.

I can talk about a lot of things, but let me just pick two out in particular. The candidate that will receive my vote will be one that is pro-life. I would never vote for a candidate that would support the aborting of unborn children. Number two, I'm going to vote for a candidate that stands with and supports the nation Israel. God promises a blessing to the people that bless God's people. So those are a couple of things to think about as you go to the voting booth. You vote your conscience, but vote biblically and do vote. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.