Danger of Compromise by Chuck Smith

[Applause] good to be back this morning I'd like to talk to you on the subject of the danger of compromise it seems like the enemy is always seeking to get us to compromise somewhere along the line and our walk with the Lord but here in Exodus chapters 8 and 10 we find that the subject of compromise is brought up as Moses has gone before the Pharaoh to demand the freedom of the people to go into the wilderness and worship God which the ferrell refused saying who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I do not know the Lord well I'm sure that he thought he ever said that because the Lord began to show him who he was and the plagues that came upon Egypt wiping out the land and when Pharaoh saw that Moses was going to be persistent in the desire and in the demand that he released the people to go and worship the Lord he first of all began to offer suggestions of a series of compromises and when Satan sees that you have that commitment and you're going to serve the Lord he so often comes to us with suggestions of compromise and he follows really basically the same pattern that he followed with Moses in Exodus 8:28 we read that the Pharaoh said I will let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness only you shall not go very far away and pray for me don't become a fanatic oh go ahead and you know give your life to the Lord and all but don't become a fanatic don't go very far god forbid that you should worship him more than in one service during the week read your Bible but don't make a serious attempt to really know the scriptures don't be one of those who are always quoting scriptures never share your faith with others you might offend them and they might make fun of you you might believe but try to keep it a secret you may give but only that which you can afford to give never give a tithe you might become a fanatic about football or basketball and that the games you can yell and scream when your team scores a victory but don't show any emotion over the victory that the Lord gives to you over sin in your life don't become a fanatic you were destined once for hell but God has turned you around and now you're headed for heaven but try not to show any excitement over it you were dead in your trespasses and sins but now you were alive in the spirit but try to keep it a secret there was a little boy who was going to summer camp and it was a secular camp and he went to his pastor and he told him you know I'm going to go to camp this next week and I want you to pray for me that the Lord will help me to you know to just live a life for him while I'm a camp and so the pastor prayed with him and the next week when the little boy came to church again the pastor saw him and said well how did it go money and he said oh great pastor thank you for the prayer they never found out but so often I'm afraid that we're like little Johnny we try to keep sort of under wraps our walked with the Lord and we don't want anybody making fun of us or ridiculing us for our trust and commitment to the Lord there in the tenth chapter verse 10 the ferrell offers the second compromise as he said unto them let the Lord be so with you as I will let you go and your little ones look to it for evil is before you basically he is saying I'll let you go but don't take your children don't let them have to experience the rigors of the wilderness do not expose your children to that don't force your children to go don't deprive them of the pleasures of Egypt a pastor Brian last week pointed out that this history that we have of their deliverance out of their slavery and bondage in Egypt was typical history in other words it is a type of other things Egypt is a type of the world and their bondage in Egypt is the type of the bondage that people experience living in the world and their deliverance out of Egypt is a type of the coming into that new life in our new relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the typology is very beautiful as you look at it and as you study it and uh you may deny yourself and take up the cross to follow Jesus but don't require your children to do so you don't want them to be different from the world growing up I never went to the movies my mother was a very beautiful woman in every respect physically and spiritually and for a time she worked in the movie studios and she saw the lives of the people in the stars behind the scenes the immorality of the industry and she would never let us go to movies where the rest of the kids in school always went to the Saturday matinees we always just played ball when the movie Snow White came out and there we were living in Ventura and there was a wealthy lady in Ventura who saw the movie and felt that every child should see this exciting Disney movie she paid the theaters to allow every child in the public school system in Ventura to go and see Snow White now I realize that Snow White is a very innocuous kind of a film but yet the whole principle of the industry was such that my mother did not want us to go and see even Snow White and so she wrote a note to the school and requested that my brother and sister and myself be excused not to go to see the film Snow White and thus where the rest of the school all went we did not go and we sort of stood out you know kids would say you know what's wrong we're going to see Snow White well we really didn't know but we just knew that it was something that mom didn't want us to do and so she held her ground now no compromise the interesting thing is that today both my brothers sister and of course myself we are very committed in following the Lord and serving the Lord one of the evils of Israel was they offered their children to the false god of Molech and sacrifices to Molech unfortunately today people are doing much the same thing sacrificing their children to the god of pleasure to Molech and offering them on the altars to Molech because some godless psychologist has suggested that you should not force your child to go to Sunday School let them make up their own mind do not force them to go to church and as a consequence so many children have been lost to the kingdom of God because we don't want to force them to go to Sunday School or to go to church however you force them to eat their vegetables why because you know they're good for them you know that they need vegetables to be strong and to be healthy and yet we say well I don't want to force them you know to go to church because they might resent it and whatever but you see the inconsistency of it you know it is good for them spiritually if they are going to be strong and healthy Christians they need the influence of the sunday school they need to learn the stories of the Bible and we say well you know you're going to go like it or not because we're not going to compromise our children we are not just wanting deliverance ourselves but we're going to take our children with us they will go with us though it may be a rigorous experience they're going to be strong by it and they'll grow as the result of it so we know that their eternal destiny is at stake and so we don't let them make their own choices but as long as we are able we encourage and we force them to follow the things of the Lord I used to tell my boys as long as you're living in the home that I am providing eating the food that I am providing you're going to abide by the rules that I make now the day that you think that you don't want to live by the rules of the house then you're free to move out and you can live on your own you can pay your own bills you can rent your own place but as long as you're living in the home that I am providing you're gonna live by my rules no compromises you know I think that it's wrong to just let the children get by with doing things that we know are armful to them just because we're afraid of offending them no compromise Moses said to the ferrell we're gonna go and we're going to take our children with us well in verse 24 of chapter 10 the Pharaoh tries again he called unto Moses and he said go and serve the Lord only let your flocks and your herds stay behind let your little ones go with you also and Moses said we must give sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord our God and our cattle will go with us because we don't know just what sacrifices the Lord will require when we are there go but don't give up you're sick purity don't be reckless with your future make sure that there is always something that you can fall back on keep your basis cupboard step out in faith but make sure that there is a safety net under you the compromise is something less than a full commitment holding back something for yourself looking at the story from a typical interpretation it is leaving a part of your life still in the world but make a clean break from the world a total break this was an actuality when Israel got into the tough wilderness they began to look longingly back at the life in Egypt but there was really nothing to go back to they developed what you might call a selective memory they remembered the sensual things we remember the leeks the garlic and they were saying we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt the cucumber's the melons the leeks the onions the garlic but they forgot the horrible bondage that they were experiencing the weariness at night as they climbed into the their beds their bodies aching because of the forced labor the beatings that they had received when they did it produce the full amount of bricks that they were required to make they forgot the long nights of crying out to God for help and deliverance it was like God almost did them a disfavor in delivering them from that old life you know some people when they recount their testimony of coming to Jesus Christ when they talk about the life that they once lived in the past the things they used to do there sometimes is almost a smack of the lips as they recount how evil they were how easy it is to forget the bondage in the misery and the hopelessness as Paul wrote to the Ephesians that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel you were strangers from the covenants you had no hope and you were without God in the world easy to forget that God wants you to have a clean break with the old life take with you all of the things that God has blessed you with don't try to hold on to the past if it add value take it with you don't leave anything behind that might tempt you to want to go back no compromise if God has blessed you with it take the blessings with you leave only the sorrow and the bondage behind there are some people that sort of emphasize what I gave up to follow Jesus Christ I think of the words of that song I worked so hard I often boast and say I sacrificed a lot of things to walk this narrow way I gave up fame and fortune Lord I'm worth a lot to thee and then I hear him say so tenderly I left my home in glory I counted it but loss my hands were nailed in anger upon the cruel cross be faithful weary pilgrim the morning I can see just take your hand take my hand and follow close to me it's not what I gave up to follow Jesus Christ it's what I've gained in following Christ that is important to me Paul the Apostle talked about the things which were once gained to me I counted loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ for whom I suffered the loss of all things but I count them as refuse that I might know him and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is of Christ through faith not what I gave up it's what I've gained that's the important thing that's the thing I like to emphasize the rich full abundant life that I have in Christ as he said the enemy has come to steal to kill and to destroy but I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly and so this beautiful abundant life that we have in Jesus Christ years ago when I was between my junior and senior year in college my brother younger brethren myself we decided that we'd like to see America and drive across and see the rest of the United States had never been further than Arizona and would like to just see America so we wrote to a lot of pastors and churches across the country telling them that we were going to be in their area and we would be available to hold services in their search church and lined up sort of a series of meetings where we would have a place to minister as we were going across the country sort of giving us an excuse to make this trip and we started out in his little 38 Ford and driving across the country to visit places across the United States when we were in Toledo Ohio we were holding services in the church there and the engine began to knock and we realized that the rod was going out and so we dropped the motor and we replaced the rod and the inserts and rugs and continued our journey coming home we we stopped in Omaha Nebraska but as we were coming through Council Bluffs we began to hear the rods knocking again and realized that this little car wasn't long for this world and so we were having a meeting in Omaha and we called my dad and said dad having car problems can you wire us some money so we can get another car to make it home yeah and so he wired us some money and we went out and bought a beautiful Cadillac convertible we decided we might as well drive home in style but the prices between cars and Omaha and California were such that we figured when we got to California we could sell the Cadillac convertible and pay for the trip with the profit that we can make off of it so it looked like a good deal to us and to my dad and so we bought this Cadillac convertible to drive home we made the mistake of driving it out to the church where we were holding the meetings so we didn't get much of a love offering there but the young guys oh man did they take up with that car I mean they you know put the top up and down windows up and down and all and it was just a beautiful car and we just enjoyed really all of the attention that we got driving that car around but when the guys would come up and admire it we didn't say oh well you know to get this car we had to sell that little 38 Ford with the motor that was you know knocking and all and we didn't tell what we had to give up to get it you know but sometimes people are always talking about what they gave up in order to get the blessings of God upon their lives well I gave up this or I gave up that for the Lord Oh in reality give me a break what did you give up all of the misery and all of the world and the things of the world in order to have this rich full life in Christ and I always sort of question when people are talking about what they gave up in order to gain what God has given to us as Paul said you know the present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us and so what we gave up is is nothing it gave up misery gave up sorrow gave up bondage to sin and what have we gained this rich full life in Christ Jesus and so Jesus did not come to strip you but to give to you as he said it's the thief that comes to steal to kill and to destroy but I've come that you might have life and that more abundantly and so the joy and the blessings of this more abundant life that we now experience and know in Christ Jesus compromise yes Satan is going to try to get you to compromise you can go but just don't go too far don't get carried away yes you can uh commit your life to Christ but just don't become a fanatic don't go too far and his saying to us of course uh don't make your children have to follow you in your walk with the Lord let them have the freedom to do what they please but yet be careful of these compromises because they will always cause you to come short of what God has in store and what God wants for each of us as we seek to serve Him and follow him compromises are always dangerous they always leave you with less than what you could have had had you maintained and just continued in that commitment to the Lord it's going to be full it's going to be complete it's going to be the Lord all of the way and you'll never regret not making compromises but if you do make the compromise it seems like it'll always come back and you'll always regret that day that you settle for something less than God's best for you father we thank you that you have called us to this rich full wonderful life in Christ and Lord we realize that Satan is constantly coming with compromises something less than your best but lord help us that we will to the position that our life is going to be completely yours fully committed to you no compromises no holding back Lord but all for you and just complete full commitment to your plan and your will for our lives help us Lord this day to hold firm to our convictions to not settle for second best but to press on Lord into the fullness that you have for us we ask this in the name of Jesus our Lord and for His glory amen shall we stand the passengers are down here at the front to minister to you today maybe you've been guilty of making compromises and you've been robbed of that blessing of the Lord that he wishes to bestow upon you you've come short of the fullness that God has for your life you've been hurt and hindered because you made compromises along the way time to renew the commitment time to say to the Lord all the way Lord nothing held back I'm going to serve you fully completely going to go all the way not going to leave anything behind Lord that would draw me back into the things of the world but just Lord pressing on to higher heights to richer experiences in you day by day these men are down here to pray for you to help you to be reestablished in the Lord and in the things of the Lord and so we would encourage you as we're dismissed if you've been guilty of sort of compromising along the way we would encourage you to come and renew the commitment that you once had and you once had made to the Lord and that determination that you're going to go all the way with him and so they're here to minister to you and to pray with you we encourage you as we are dismissed make your way forward and just let these men pray for you and minister to you today you'll never be sorry I guarantee the Lord bless thee and keep the Lord make his face to shine upon me and be gracious unto thee and we gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon me and be easy [Applause] you

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 40,585

Keywords: Chuck, Smith, Revival, Repent, God, Sermons, Jesus, SermonIndex

Id: wfKPN6s7GHg

Length: 30min 19sec (1819 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2010