Compromise Will Cost You Everything

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I remember back in the 1980’s when a lot of discussion was happening in the church about how to attract more young people into the church.

Hymns wouldn’t do any longer, because young people considered them “old-people” music.

There was no longer an expectation of dressing up for church, because culture overall didn’t demand suit and tie or skirts and hose.

And while I don’t think some of changes that took place were wrong (some of the changes likely needed to happen), they opened a Pandora’s box, and we’re reaping the consequences today.

While good changes were made, sadly any potential boundaries that might have existed at that time to prevent what we’re seeing today have long been trampled.

They have sadly given birth to a level of compromise that is rampantly spreading throughout the body like a deadly disease.

Many churches refuse to preach about the cross and blood of Jesus.

Many Christians refuse to entertain the idea of moral purity and sexual abstinence until marriage.

There are churches and Bible studies held over glasses of microbrew: Beer and the Bible

Not only do many pastors refuse to take a hard stand on LGBTQ and gender dysphoria, there is a growing number of church leaders embracing LGBTQ and the narrative that there are people born with homosexual tendencies and gender confusion.

They say that we should just accept them as they are. Rather than seeing the bound become free, they will applaud their efforts to abstain from homosexual relationships as some great sacrifice.

Sadly, over the past 5-6 years, I have watched Christian leader after Christian leader fall into this trap of compromise.

Softening their stand on homosexuality.

Praising the film “Redeeming Love“, filled with partial nudity and simulated sex scenes.

Justifying why they refuse to take a hard line against abortion.

There may be those who think I’m judgmental, but I’m willing to risk that to state my opinion on why I believe that the church has fallen into a deep it of moral decline, and even depravity, in the past few decades.

We have watched leader after leader, and those we once trusted to teach us God’s Word, fall morally.

In recent years: Ravi Zacharias, Carl Lentz, Bill Hybels, and Brian Houston, just to name a few.

Many more have softened their stand on other moral issues such as what the Bible says about homosexuality, abortion, and sexual abstinence before marriage.

And I believe a huge contributing factor to this moral landslide we see happening in the church is a god that has been left unchecked.

We see this same downward spiral in the land of Judah in 2 Chronicles.

It began with Solomon, as he took wife after wife from the nations with which God had forbidden Israel to intermarry.

And just as was predicted by God, these wives turned Solomon’s heart away from God.

He began worshiping the idols of his wives.

His sin resulted in a divided kingdom. Israel was left completely void of an spiritual guidance, as the Levites abandoned Israel to live in Jerusalem, left in the land of Judah.

But the presence of the Levites did little to curb the level of idolatry that would take place.

In our study in the book of 2 Chronicles, we began to read about King Asa last week. He began to lead the nation of Judah in a spiritual reform, but sadly chose to compromise, creating an alliance with Syria.

The prophet Hanani delivered a message of judgement from God to Asa.

Rather than repenting for his sin, he put the prophet in prison and turned and oppressed the people. His son Jehoshaphat took over the country when Asa died and sadly followed in his father’s foosteps.

In his early years he walked with God. It says in chapter 17 that he delighted in the ways of the Lord and removed the high places and idols from Judah.

The Levites began going throughout the land of Judah instructing the people in the Law and spiritual reform began to take place.

However, in the very next chapter we read how he created an alliance with Ahab king of Israel by marrying his daughter.

While Jehoshaphat continued to lead Judah spiritually in the ways of the Lord and rejected idolatry, he gave his son to marry Ahab’s daughter.

What would follow would be a rapid spiritual decline in Judah from which she will never recover.

Oh, she will have seasons when kings will lead a godly reform, but eventually she will descend into a spiritual darkness that will lead to her utter destruction.

Compromise will cost you everything.

Dear sister, we cannot afford to compromise God’s standard of living for pleasure, success, advancement, financial stability, our child’s sense of self-worth in this difficult culture, or comfortable living.

The moment we choose to compromise, the moment we decide that trying to navigate this culture, it’s pleasures and comforts, and it’s offer of success and financial stability are more important than God’s standard is the moment we relinquish the right to determine how far we will go.

Once the first compromise is made, we give up control.

Earlier in this article I mentioned that I have an opinion as to why the church has been in such a moral landslide.

I truly believe that it is because we have given ourselves to the idol of entertainment.

Christians today will tolerate every kind of sin depicted on screen, listen to every kind of profanity – even the most holy name of Jesus Christ taken in vain – for the pleasure of entertainment.

While they may walk away slightly blushed, they will declare that overall the movie or show was “good, except for the few bad words or scenes.”

And this is exactly what Scripture says will happen in the last days: Calling evil good!

How can something be “overall good” when it portrays evil, spews profanity, and curses the God we claim to worship (giving all worth and value to).

We can’t give worth and value to God, and then turn around and call “good” the very thing that completely strips Him of His supreme worth and value!

We can’t do this and get away with it.

Entertainment shapes culture, it’s narrative, and it’s worldview. And sadly, the church today has not only ceased talking about the dangers of ungodly entertainment, it has chosen to saturate herself in the sewage it pours out daily.

And as we’ve all but completely thrown out our filter, we have slowly allowed it shape the way we think about morality in our modern-day culture.

We’ve slowly adopted the narrative that biblical morality is culturally relative.

We’ve slowly stopped expecting our children to remain sexually pure.

We’ve slowly accepted that some people are born with homosexual tendencies and gender dysphoria.

We’ve slowly begun believing that the things the Bible calls sins are really mental illnesses and diseases.

What would happen if the Church rose up in a great spiritual reform and utterly eradicated the idol of entertainment, from film to TV and streaming services to music, books, and magazines, and sought God to reshape her worldview so that it came into agreement with Scripture.

What would happen?

What would happen if we filtered our social media consumption so that what we viewed only encouraged us spiritually, and didn’t preach politics, tempt us with sensual dancing, or dredge up drama?

What would happen to us spiritually if we replaced compromising entertainment with God’s Word and seeking His face?

What kind of power would we begin seeing our life?

I will close with a statement I often hear my dad say from the pulpit:

If we want to see God’s power working in and through us, we must be willing to take radical steps to eradicate idolatry and darkness from our lives.

I realize that to some, this blog post will seem judgmental and perhaps too strong, but I cannot and will not apologize.

I believe that it’s message is centered squarely on God’s Word.

Dear sister, we are living in the last of the last days.

We cannot afford to be like the 5 foolish virgins: lulled to sleep by our gods of entertainment and pleasure, by our positive affirmations; by playing footsie with the world – thinking that it will not hurt us.

We must be vigilant and awake like the 5 wise virgins, not distracted by this world and it’s shiny, worthless trinkets.

If we will remain alert and faithful, there will be a great reward.

But if we assume we can compromise and get away with it, it will cost us everything.