The Stumbling Block Of Revival | Dr Chandreshan Ravichandren

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

So I'm gonna jump right in. I've been on.

A series of sharing on the letters, the seven Letters

to the Churches seven Churches.

In the Book of Revelation, So you know, if.

I come back again and I'll continue on today, I'm

gonna jump into one particular letter, which is from Revelations

to verse twelve until verse seventeen.

So we're gonna read it together.

You know, if actually we can put the slide the

verses on top, or maybe if you have a Bible,

you can open up your Bible so that we can

read Revelations to verse twelve until verse seventeen. Yah, if

you're ready, I'm gonna read it so you can follow

along as well. Vers twelve it says, and to the

Angel of the Church in Pergramo's rights, these things say

he who has the sharp two edged sword. He says,

I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's

throne is, and you hold fast to my name and

did not deny my faith even in the days in

which Antipass was my faithful martyr who was killed among you.

Where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you,

because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balam,

who thought Ballach to put a stumbling block before the

children of Israel to eat these sacrifice, to eat things,

sacrifice to the idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus

you also have those who hold the doctrine of Nick

Layton's which thing I hate, repent or else? I will

come to you quickly and will fight against them with

the sort of my mouth.

He was a year. Let him hear what the spirit

says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will give some of the

hidden manner to eat, and I will give him a

white stone, and on the stone a new name written,

which no one knows except him who receives it.

Amen here if you read this letter.

Actually, this letter that is written is very relatable to

us today. And why why I was saying this is

that you might not You might say, like, what is

he talking about? Is talking about some doctrines, talking about this,

talking about that, you know, But it's actually very relatable

to what we face today. And you will understand as

I break it down to you. So for that for

you to understand that you might want to know who

this letter is written to and who wrote this letter. Obviously,

this is a revelation that John is receiving when he

was in exile, and who was giving him this revelation

is Jesus himself, and Jesus is writing who's telling him

to the angel. And the Angel has given this letter

and this revelation to John as a warning. This letter

was written to a particular church in Pergamos, so per Gramos.

Where was Pergrammos? Pergramos was in Asia Minor. It was

a political capital of Rome in Asia Minor, and where

its Asia Minor is actually the modern day Turkey. Modern

day Turkey is Asia Minor. So Programmers and right now,

I mean in todays the city still exists is called Bergama.

So Pergramos was fifty miles nor of Smyrna. If you know,

there's another church there was a letter that was written

to as well, and Programs was quite an interesting place

because it was the capital of that region and as

the capital, what also was happening is that it served

as a cultural and educational center. So at that time

the city had one of the ancient or largest.

Library as well.

Read about two hundred and thousand books or artifacts or

whatever that they were saying. So it was very cultural,

very political, and also very educational.

So people go there for all of these things.

But Paragram was also was a very religious city, deeply religious.

They were in deeply involved in pagan worship, their temple

worship being different gods like a Tina.

There was a Zeus.

Zeus, not the Zeus Coffee, but the Greek god Zeus, uh,

you know, he had a temple himself, uh, you know.

And also they were into emperor worship, meaning they were

worshiping their empress.

They used to worship Caesar, you know.

And and Caesar was one of the few that was

worship as well.

And and and this was a very big thing.

It built They built a first temple for Caesar Augustus

as well. And interestingly, people are needed supposed to say

Caesar is Lord. So you can imagine if you say

Jesus is Lord, there you are in trouble because what

you're supposed to say is Caesar is Lord. And not

only that, it's a very interesting thing about Rome and

that time when they collect how do they see you

or count you as a citizen? Is that every year,

you have to go to the Caesar's temple and you

have to burn incense. Incense, yeah, incense, you know, you

have to burn incense. After you burn incense, you have

to come out and give your like a receipt or

something like that, so that you receive a certificate saying

that you have burned incense for Caesar. And without the certificate,

you would not be considered as a citizen. So imagine

if you were a Christian at that time, and you'll

be like, no, Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not Lord.

And it means you will say that no, I'm not

gonna burn incense. I'm not gonna go and worship Caesar.

That means you will then lose your citizenship. That means

people will exclude you economically because you can't do any business.

People will never want to do business with anyone who

doesn't have a certificate, you know. So, and you're socially

also excluded nobody. You can't go anywhere and you can't

do any thing because you don't have citizenship. So it's

a struggle living at that time because as a believer,

because this is what will be happening. So that's why

as you see the verse in the top verst verse fourteen,

it says Jesus calls this place as the church is

dwelling among the Satan's throne. Because why it says that

it is because you know, Jesus was probably referring to

this place because he was such a central place for

pagan religion. And then I don't put a picture, but

there's this place called there's an acropolis. Acropolis means it's

like a huge arena, and the arena looks like a

throne for something to sit in as well, you know,

and they had so many worship they worship different gods.

So that was why Jesus probably was referring to this

place as a place that was du by Satan's thrown.

But yet it says yeah in Worse thirteen, even though

as you know, he says Worse thirteen says yes, and

you hold fast in my name and did not deny

my faith even in these days in which Antipus, my

faithful martyr, was killed among you. So even at that

time when they were going through this challenging situation, they were.

Still holding on strong to their faith.

Like I mentioned to you, you were economically excluded socially excluded,

but yet they were still holding on to their faith.

And within this community there was this one man who

stood out and his name is mentioned, and he was

honored by Jesus himself as a significant with a significant

title of faithful martyr. This man's name is Antipas, and

he was probably a leader in the church at that time,

or maybe the pastor of the church at that time.

You know this church. There's no record of who planted

this church.

People believe that it's a second generation of Paul's ministry,

maybe someone that Paul Disciple and Timothy Disciple went on

to plant this church.

But Antipas was one of those.

Who was mentioned that He was probably a physician, meaning

it was like a doctor.

But then he did not acknowledge that Christ.

I mean Caesar is king, Caesar is Lord, whereas I

acknowledged that Christ is Lord. And what they did to

him was they put him in a brazen bull meaning

it's like a huge heart, and.

They roasted him. Yes, they roasted him.

That's what happened to him, and that's why it was

known as a martyr. And Jesus calls him specifically a

faithful martyr. Martyr another word in Greek is also known

equivalent to witness, witness, meaning it says that he makes

a stand, that says her, you know, it's not someone

just dies, but it declares through his life that this

is the truth and I know it.

So this Antipus.

Was referred to Jesus as how everybody refers Jesus a

faithful witness. In Revelations one five, it says here Jesus Christ,

the faithful witness, the first born among the dead, and

the ruler over the king of the earth.

And Jesus says this because this man.

Hold on stepfast to the truth, saying that this is

the truth, and I know it, and no one can

shake me, not even a roasting pot can change me.

And even his name Antipus actually means again against all.

So he stands, and he remained steadfast because he wanted

to honor the one who loved him, the one who

died for him. So this was the man who was

leading this church, and the Bible says, and Jesus says, yeah,

even when this happened, you guys were still holding on

to your faith, even when people were willing to be martyred.

Imagine us if it comes to a place in time

where we cannot proclaim our faith publicly. What would our

first reaction be if they say that you're no longer

it's legal for you together as believers together, What would

your first reaction be, Oh, yes, let's just watch on

nine man, so much better. Is that going to be

your response or what would it be? Imagine if we

were in a place like how they were at and

they still stead stood steadfast. But even in this church

that was very steadfast in your faith, Jesus were saying

that I do not like some things that was happening here.

I'm against some things that are happening here. So even

as the church there was so on fire and holding

fast to its name, did not deny their faith, even

though they were forced to deny their faith, they had

a major flaw. So it says in verse fourteen and

fifteen that there were individuals among them who were following

to the doctrines of Balam and also the doctrines of

Nick Clayton's. It is almost like the similar concept. And

what is this doctrine that we were talking about? What

is doctrine of Balam? Balam is mentioned in the Bible

in the Old Testament, the story of Balam in numbers

twenty four, sorry, numbers twenty two to twenty four, and

also in chapter thirty one. If you read the Book

of Numbers, you will year and listen about this name,

this story.

So a little bit of background of this man.

So what happened was at that time when the Israelites were,

you know, went out of Egypt. They were saved and

they were free, set free, and they were going out,

you know, and they were and God was telling them

to take land, take you know, of this place from

the promised land, take control of this place. So but

in the process they had to get rid of certain nations.

They were worshiping idols and gods and things like that.

So one of the nations was the more the Morbides.

And the king of Morbide was this king named King Balak,

you know. So this king realized that the Israelites couldn't

be cursed, couldn't be harmed because there was this God

who was so strong was protecting them, and this God

says that I will never let my people to be cursed.

So King Balak was trying to find a way, how

do I get this people cursed? I need these people

cursed and destroyed because they are taking every territory and

we are now struggling. So he goes and finds this

man named Balam, and he tells this man, Balam, curse

you are such a mighty prophet or whatever.

Curse the Israelites.

You curse them, and I'm sure they will fall, and

then I can they won't take over my place or

I will no longer need to give my place to them.

And Balam.

Was offered a lot of things to do that It

was offered with money, honor and such things. But God

told Balam, you shall not curse the people because they

are blessed.

And God warned Balam not to go.

God even sent his angels to block Baalam, and not

even that God had his donkey.

Balam's donkey was talking.

To Ballam saying that, hey, can you not go, you know,

for the first time, you know. But yeah, nevertheless, Bahalam

still went ahead because he was keept saying that he

kept saying that, oh, I cannot go. I wouldn't say

because the word of the Lord says, you know, I

shall not curse Israelized. But every time King Ballack offers

him silver gold, and then he'll be like, maybe let

me try.

You know, I will still come, you know.

So it's it's even though he says outside that, oh,

you know, God, God's is so strong I cannot fight against.

But every time it was tempted with an action, he

felt drawn to it. So his actions revealed a heart

that was still drawn to reward and compromise. And what

he did he tried a few times, specifically, three times

he tried to curse Israelies, but every time he cursed,

instead of cursing them, he blessed them. Every time he cursed,

he blessed them. You can read this in the Book

of Numbers in twenty two to twenty four onwards. You know,

three times he did that, and Ballah continued to offer

more money, offering and and Balam asked for more, offering

more ramps, more bulls. But yet he couldn't curse because

God just didn't allow him to curse the Israelites, you know,

and then we see them give up in chapter twenty four.

They give up and they went apart, you know, they

went apart. Sobaalam could not defeat Israel through a supernatural curse.

It just couldn't place a curse over the Israelites because

God was.

With them, and it's the same thing in our lives.

God is with us.

And because when God is with us, there's no curse

or no harm can be done by anyone else. But

numbers twenty five shows something what happens next. Suddenly you

see the Israelites are joined together with the morbid women.

They were having all sorts of immoral relationships, and they

were at eating pagan sacrifices, and they were worshiping pagan gods.

And suddenly now they're part of the Baal worshippers.

You realize that in verse twenty two, chapter twenty two

to twenty four they were so being blessed by the Lord,

and the suddenly in worse twenty five, chapter twenty five,

they were now doing all these things.

How come?

So when you read and continue to read in numbers

thirty one, it then reveals in numbers thirty one, verse sixteen,

may you can put the worse up numbers thirty one,

verse sixteen. It shows the full picture of what happened.

Moses is there and Moses says, look, these women caused

the children of Israel to the Council of Balam to

trespass against the Lord in the incident of pure and

there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.

That's what verse sixteen says. And so what does it mean.

What did Balam do? Because he knew it could not

defeat the people by cursing them, it counseled the king,

a maybe you can't curse them openly, you can't destroy

them openly, but what you can do, you can corrupt

them from the inside.

So probably this is what Balam probably told Ballach.

He probably said, you can you cannot make God to

curse Israel, but you can seduce the Israelites to sin,

and they will bring judgment upon themselves. And that's what

Revelation two, verse fourteen says exactly that Balam taught Balach

to place a stumbling block before the Israelites to be part,

and the stumbling blocks were to eat the food that

was served to idols and also to be involved in

sexual immorality. So this was the doctrine of what is it?

It is compromise.

You see numbers Israelites were seduced into idolatry and immorality

because they could not be defeated externally.

And the same thing.

This church in programmers that the enemy knows that Satan

knows that it cannot be destroyed by persecution. You see,

they stand fast through persecution. They did not deny their

faith even though they were persecuted attacked. So what does

the enemy does then? It tempts them. It leads them

to a place to compromise, because they say, say, there

were some people here.

Were in this compromising doctrine.

Because Baalam's doctrine and even the Nickelayton's doctrine talks about

it's okay. It simply says it's okay. It says that

you can belong to God, but yet you can be

part of this world's idols. You can worship Jesus, but

you can still feast at the table of idols. You

can still worship Jesus and also tolerate sexual immorality. Because

these doctrine says, oh Jesus bought everything for you in

grace already, it's okay. It teaches you to accept compromise

in our lives. This doctrine teaches people to lower the

standard of holiness, to pursue acceptance, to pursue pleasure, to

pursue financial gain, or just survival.

That's why it does. It teaches you to compromise.

You know, as Christians today we live in a world

that also pushes us to compromise. It makes us feel

like it's okay. It's a common word that we use

as Christians. It's okay, la, We're still learning, so Keller,

you know, Jesus still loves me. Are you sure this

loves you? Okay, Jesus loves you. But what is compromise?

What is compromise? The first one compromise or sinful compromise.

It is reordering of your allegiances. It reorders your priority.

Let me tell you that Christ is Lord, and he

is the Lord of all. If it's not the Lord

of all is the lord of none. You can't say

I love Jesus, but I will still do this because

verse thirteen years says clearly that they were holding fast

to his name and did not deny his faith, meaning

Christ was still Lord in their lives, but just Christ

was not first in their lives, and it was not

all in their lives. They were okay to eat food

that was served to idols, they were okay to be

involved in sexual immorality, and they felt like, you know,

all life is a balance.

We always like to say the life is.

A balance or work life balance, you know, work life balance.

So when the lives that we have been taught to

live with, because there's no such thing as balance.

Maybe there's integration, but no balance. The same thing.

You can't live in two worlds, or you can't put

Jesus at the last of all priorities and allegiances. You

can't negotiate with God because all these things God has

already judged idolty, no sexual, immorality, no. But what human

does he is that, Lord, I still believe in you.

The moment when.

People accept Jesus, they say that, Lord, I still believe

in you. But yet I still can't get rid of

all these things in my life. I still want space,

I still want my mean time, I still want this,

I still want that. That is usually compromise. Second version

of what is compromise is compromise is when our desires

overright God's intended purposes. You see the story of Balam here,

let's say the story. He was very aware of God's

word and his plans and it Israelites, that the Israelites

were blessed. He cannot do anything about it, his Israelites

were blessed. But when Ballach the king offered him a

lot of things money, you know, offering honor and all

these things, Baalam continued to entertain the requests even though

he knew that it was wrong and he's not going

to happen.

He had a divided heart. You know, sometimes we ourselves

in our lives.

So when you openly pursue something, you already know it's

wrong from the beginning.

We already know that this is something that we should

not do our it.

It could be anything, could be a sin, It could

be people friends that we have, It could be maybe

even a job that you should not choose. And then

but then you allow it to You entertain it. You

entertain it because it sounds so nice, it sounds so good,

you like.

It.

Perhaps when you were offered a job that was will

take your time on Sundays if Sundays were gone, you

have to work on Sundays, but the pay is so high,

and then you're like, I know I shouldn't miss Sundays,

but the pay is so high. You entertain it. You

don't immediately reject it. You still try to negotiate with

the boss. You know, like, hey, maybe you know what

can I do?

Can I? Can I do this?

You know we do that. We do that often. We

negotiate with things because it feels so nice. We entertain

thoughts that are so nice, but when we know that

it even should not be there. So the same thing

that Eve did when she saw the tree. But in

Genesis Tree it says that if saw the tree was

good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and was desirable

for gaining wisdom. Every part of her knew that she

was in opposition of what God told her not to do.

It was God's command not to take from the tree.

She knew it.

But yet when she was tempted, she was like, Wow,

the food looks so good. It looks so nice. Yeah,

should just give it a try. And most of the

time this is what this is what it tells us.

Sometimes we feel that as well, Oh it looks so good,

can I try?

I just want to try, man one time? One time?

On What's what's wrong with it? It's okay everybody else

is doing Most often we say, oh everybody else is

doing what, so what's wrong if I do it?

As well? Give an excuse of our excuse.

Over something that we know is wrong, maybe right in

the eyes of the world. But you know, if you

follow Jesus, if you believe in Jesus, it is completely wrong.

So you know that's one another one. What is compromise,

It is competing identities. You see, we humans, right, we

are covenant creatures, meaning we were made in covenant with God.

We will either worship God Jesus, or we will worship

something else. We cannot be someone, will never be someone

that have nothing to worship as humans. Even the people

who say that they are eighties, they actually worship something.

They worship their knowledge. They worship science, and they think

that is greater than everything, meaning why because it means

they are worshiping it. So there's no one can say

that they don't worship anything. Because we were made essentially God,

made as to worship, and that was our identity. We

are not just beings that choose options. You know, oh

maybe today, this tomorrow, there tomorrow that.

No.

We were shaped by what we love, what we fear,

and what we obey. If you look at our lives,

learn from your baby too. Now, this is the three

things that will guide your life. What you love, what

you fear, what you obey, You will do things because

you love love it, you love the person, or you'll

do something because you fear the person that you fear

your mom probably when you're younger, that you don't want

to get whooped, and you will do something, oh you know,

you fear the consequences, or you do something, or you

will obey someone or something. So always just treat things.

That guides. That's how we are built as humans. But

the moment when we so compromising is it's not just

you know, making bad decisions, but you're changing your identity.

You're deforming your identity from worshiping God to worshiping something else.

You know.

In One Peter, chapter two, verse nine, it says here

that you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a

holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim

the praises of Him who called you out of darkness

into his marvelous light. You see, that was our identity,

that we are a royal priesthood, we are a holy nation,

his own special people. But when you compromise your idea entity,

instead of chasing your royal priesthood, knowing where you are,

you're a chosen your royal priesthood. You compromise means you

will let other things become your identity. Essentially, it says, yeah,

you know, you can be God's Holy people and still

also be part of Moab. You can be a mombi,

you can still be part of the Programmer's people. You

can still be God's Holy people and also Egyptian.

No, you can't be. You left Egypt already.

The Israelites left Egypt, they were no longer slaves, but

in their hearts they were still slaves to Egypt.

They always say, I wish we go back to Egypt.

Things were so much better there.

It's because why because they thought like when they were

in Egypt, there was a lot of things to compromise to,

but when they were now in God's protection, they can't compromise. Oh,

this God is full of laws and rules. I can't

do that. I can't do this. But they never understood

that they were a chosen people for a specific purpose,

the same times as believers here sometimes we forget that

as well, that God has the intended purpose for each

and every one of us, something that is much greater

than what you can see right now.

But because you.

Allow yourself to be compromised to the things that you love,

or you think that pays better, looks better, you know,

whatever better. In our mind, we compromise and we put

ourselves down. We think that we are putting ourselves higher

because we are pursuing something that looks.

So fine and great in this world's eyes. But no,

you're putting yourself lower.

Because of a thing that you think temporarily it looks

so good, you know, like driving a nice, beautiful car

looks very nice. But we all know that owning it

is temporary. You can't bring it to to meet Jesus.

You can't pull up in your tesla to meet Jesus.

That's just true. But sometimes we allow that thing, the

tesla to become God in your life. You know, not

saying is wrong to own it, but I'm saying that

if it becomes, if it owns you, then is wrong.

Yeah, you know. So that's what we need to stand for.

We need you to understand what compromising does because God

clearly said in First John two, verse fifteen, do not

love the things of the world, or do not love

the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of

the Father is not in him. The love of the

Father is not in him. Meaning you're no longer identified

as the father's child when you love other things, meaning

you have compromised your identity as the father's child for

I don't know, a test last child or something.

You know, just using test La as an example.

Okay, another thing that compromising does it bends God's word

to protect your desire. You know, this is the question

that we always have in our mind. When we want

to compromise. We will look into technicalities. We will think

how close can I get to sin without technically disobeying.

We will try to find loopholes out of everything.

Hey, I didn't I didn't actually do that work.

I did these, you know, so it's not say it clearly,

you know, whatever it could be. You know, you will

find technique. We will say that, oh it's We will

try to say that it's gray. We like to dwell

in gray areas, so we ban God's word.

The same thing that Baalam did.

He you know, he had this appearance of obedience saying that, oh,

I will only speak what God allowed me to speak,

but his heart. Always we're looking for the rewards, the

earthly rewards, and we do this very regularly. We justify

our acts, you know, it's very simple, and commonly what

we do is that we justify our act to hate

someone when we are supposed to forgive that person because

God clearly told us to forgive everyone, because Jesus died

to forgive all of us. But yet, as human beings,

we still find it hard to forgive some people.

Sometimes, yes, I agree, they will.

They have really done things that are really hurtful in

our lives, you know, and it's hard to imagine what

you might be going through because of that hurt.

But still God tells us to forgive the person.

It might take time to forgive that person, but we

are to forgive that person.

But very easily we think.

That we can compromise by saying that, oh, I don't

need to forgive yet yet, or I'm healing so I

don't need to forgive that person yet. We don't realize

that that is actually compromising. We are bending God's word

to fit our situation because we want to, you know,

because we can't do it. We bend God's work. It's

not just yeah, in a lot of things, we ben

or did God really say that? Did God really said this?

You know? I see?

Oftentimes the people argue over things that doesn't matter, like

having tattoos. Like people will be like, oh, you know,

God said this, God said that. I'm like, why do

you have it? Just don't have it, you know, just

don't have it. But we like to bend. We I

sometimes think that this is very Malaysian thing to do

because we like discounts. We like short cuts, you know,

so we try to find discounts. We try to find

short cuts every sale right there, right shells laughing, yeah,

you know, every five to five sail we are loading

up things in our car to check out and shopping.

You know, we try to find shortcuts and discounts.

But sometimes that is the thing that leads us to

bend God's word and perga. People the church in Burgamos

were almost doing the same thing. They were not necessarily

doing it because they wanted to compromise, but they were

doing it because it felt okay culturally, because I've been

kicked out nos, so it felt culturally necessary to do

so like that, it's okay to do it because everyone

else is doing it around us, and if we don't

do it, we are going to be.

Rejected. So let me just follow you know.

They they probably were saying stuff like this, you know, hey,

it's only food.

Word.

See this is a Malaysian way to say it's ok

you know, it's just entertainment.

It's okay.

People say, you know, I don't watch all those movies

in in Netflix and then be like, ah, it's okay,

it's just entertainment.

You know, it's okay to watch one you know, don't

watch you for a year.

It's okay. It's just entertainment. You know, nothing wrong watching it.

But but you know what, what you're feeding yourself. People say, oh,

it's just business. You know, it's just business. That's what

they were saying because they had to compromise for business.

They would have to say Caesar is Lord for business.

And sometimes we also like, oh, you don't understand how

corporate world works.

You know, we have to do all these things in

corporate world. We give this excuse. Most of the time.

We say, oh, we's still believe in Jesus. So it's

okay what I'm still believing in Jesus. But we also

say the same thing. God knows my heart. God knows

that my heart, even though I can't be here on Sunday,

it knows that I love him. While you're lying on

your bed, you say that I know, God knows, God

knows you know. And if you always like to say, oh,

others also do one, it's quite normal.

Rich also do what is just saying just edwards.

Actually, you know, we we give excuses like this, but

Jesus he saw it differently. He saw it as a

stumbling block, and compromising is essentially a stumbling block.

What does a stumbling block means? Greek?

It stands for this word called scandalon. It means it's

not the trap, but it is the trigger for the trap.

It is a bait stick. So when you put your

foot or when the animal goes in, this is the

stick that will be taken off.

So it's not really the trap itself, but it's exactly.

That that stick, or maybe it might be you know,

the nice food there just dangling at the stick to

tempt you, to tempt the animal that they're trying to catch.

It's an invitation or temptation or sometimes even justification that

will lead us into.

Sin.

This is what the Israelites did. They fell into the trap.

They walked into the trap that was set by Ballack,

by all these pretty women of Mobiites.

I don't know how pretty they were, but sure they

were not worth it.

You know that they walked into that trap and they

normalized idolatry because of the women, because they worship and

then they ended up worshiping bal completely derailed from where

they were supposed to go.

They were supposed to.

Go to the Promised Land, but they got derailed because

they were worshiping all these things that don't really matter.

That's what stumbling blocked does. It causes you to stumble,

to trap you, to derail you, to hurt you, to

slow you down and wear you down, and eventually to

consume you. And this is what the Israelites went through.

Yet while you were believing they were still God's people. See,

the thing is, the dangerous thing is that you can

still believe that God loves you and fall into the

chap And all you need to do is this. You

will go through these three stages. Number one, you will

negotiate with God's word. God's word becomes negotiable. Number two,

You're desires. You will justify it. Hey, you know, it's

just one time thing. You know, it's okay. You know

the cake looks so good, let me just eat it

one time. Oh, it's cheat.

They let me just eat it. You know, you just

justify it.

And then you keep justifying it, you keep negotiating with

God's word. Your sins become normalized, just becomes part of

the world that we live in. If you realize this

is the way, this is where the world in today

with that we are living in. Once upon a time,

going through abortion was just a major crime. It's the

wrong thing to do. But it has come to a

place where we have normalized abortion. Killing a life, It's

okay for your own purpose, for your own reason.

It becomes okay.

You know, sleeping with another man another woman once upon

a time was considered a sin. But now because we

allow it to slip into our lives and sleep into

our life, it has become normal. Sins are being normalized.

This is just the result of compromising. And you keep

compromising in life, then you will just fall into this trap.

So how do you not compromise? And we try to

wrap this up as fast as I can, how do

you not compromise?

Number one? Conviction over comfort.

We must choose to live by truth and not swayed

by our emotions, our feelings, and social pressure around us.

The pressure you will get is just immense because people

will be like, what's wrong with you Sundays? We can't

go out and hang out with friends on Saturday night.

You can't go out and you know, party all night

because you have to be in church in the morning,

and all your friends we're not Christians.

They'll be like, what's wrong with you? Why are you

so holy? Why are you so holy? Moly? Are you?

Are you like? Are you pret that you're behaving like this?

You know you get that, But we have to make

decisions grounded in our convictions.

You cannot be uncertain and indecisive. You know. First Kings

eighteen was twenty one.

Elijah came to all the people there and he tells them,

how long will you flatter between two opinions? If the

Lord is God, follow him, but if baal you follow him?

But the people answered him not a word, meaning they

can make a decision. They were afraid of the consequences.

What will happen if they make a decision to say that,

you know the Lord is God? Because comfort meant more

than truth. Comfort takes over when you live for yourself

instead of God's purpose. You know what happens when you

desire for comfort in life. You are cheap opening the

grace that you receive from the blood of Jesus Christ

on the cross. It's cheapening grace when you seek comfort

because Christ did not went through suffering on that cross,

so that we can have a comfortable life.

And if we think or we.

Associate our comfort to suffering, we are cheapening grace. We

are cheapening is suffering because grace without you know, it's

not forgiveness without repentance. We think that forgiveness without repentance.

We want communion without confessing our sins. We want grace

without willing to be disciples. We want Christian benefits without

being obedient.

That's the wrong way to live life.

If we can't obey, if we don't have strong convictions,

then we are just after the benefits that comes with Jesus,

not Jesus himself. So you have to make a sent

Do you want Jesus or you want Jesus blessings? So

how do you build your conviction true the word of God?

If it is five fourteen says, but solid food belongs

to those who are full of age, that is, those

by reason of yous have their senses exercised to discern

both good and evil, solid food, solid meat. You consume

the word of God, not just you know, bits and pieces,

not just the worst of the day. But you consume

God's word, and you will know what is right and

what is wrong.

What is your conviction.

Second, your company that you choose, choose the right company.

Compromise rarely happens when you're isolated, but it always seeps

through the things that you give attention to. You can

see number twenty five and number thirty one specifically says

that the relationship that they entertain the Israeli is entertained

is what led them into compromise. We are shaped by

what we love, and we learn what we love through

the people around us. Community. It just stands for common unity.

So the community that you're around with is what forms

your desire, what shapes your conscious and it's also what

defines what is normal for you. If you hang out

with a bunch of Christians every day, reading your Bible

every single day is a normal thing. If you hang

out with people who are on fire, coming to church

dressed up like this is a normal.

Thing, especially with extras.

Dressing up like if you're dressed dressed down is something

that is not normal. But it's so normal to dress

like this in a hot weather in in terras But

it's just normal. So who you hang out with defines

what is normal for you. People will hang out you

will define whether parting all night is normal or waking

out in the morning to spend time with the Lord

is normal. So who you hang out with mathis So

you gotta ask yourself, you know, ask yourself who influences

your decisions, who defines what feels normal in your life?

And who do you go to when you are not

sure of something? These will define what and whom you

are compromising to. That is where careful. You have to

be very careful who you hang out with.

I know sometimes we say that no, I want to,

you know, evangelize to the non Christian friend. That's why

I spend time with them. But that doesn't mean you

fall into the trap with them. You have to be

mature enough to say no to them, stay strong with

your conviction to them. Third one, and we all know

we've got to do this is to come back to

the Lord. You know, the five of the seven churches

were commanded to repent. Repentance is a command that applies

to Christians also not just those who first come to Jesus.

We always associate it with you know, when you first

come to Jesus, you repent.

No, it's a daily thing. You know. Rina mentioned it

just now in almost twelve two. It says it clearly.

It's a daily renewal of mine and it only happens

through repentance. Repentance is always used and associated with this

word called methanoia in Greek.

It is not feeling bad, I'm saying, I'm sorry, Lord,

I'm sorry. It's not that.

But it is change of mind and change of direction

and restoring who you are loyal to, meaning you. This

is a step that you take intentionally to stop compromising,

align yourself with the truth again, and submit to the

way of Jesus. If you don't, Verse sixteen says here

in Revelations to sixteen, repent or else I'll come to

you quickly and fight against them with the sort of

my mouth. So church, let us no longer compromise, but

align ourselves with a lot's words, because you know why,

it says her, it's going to fight against everyone with

the word, with the sword of his mouth.

What is this sort? It's a word of God.

So Jesus is going to measure each and every one

of us through his word, nothing else. You know, the

measurement of our judgment is going to be based on

the sword of his mouth, which is the word double

edged sword. So if we are not aligned to this word,

but we are aligned to what we think is right,

then we are in the wrong track.

You know.

You don't just listen to what I say and then

you're like, Okay, this is what it is. Don't stop here.

You go back and read it for yourself to make

sure your heart is convinced and believing this word, because

this is what you will be judged to it. This

is what God will come and see. Have you followed this.

I've given you a Manuel.

It's going to appierces through the world.

Let's stand and I want to get a bandon.

As well.

What happens when you stop compromising, says here in verse seventeen.

If you overcome this compromising, you will receive three things.

Hidden manna means that God will continue to provide. Sometimes

we look at other food and stuff at the provision

and we feel like, oh, it's not enough for us,

or this is not enough for us. But God says

that I have kept hidden manna for you. This is

manna that is perfect. And what is this manner? Jesus

says that I am bred of life, meaning that we

can find satisfaction in Jesus. Second thing he promises is

a white stone. What is this white stone? In the

ancient time? This is a stone. It is actually like

a medal that you carry, or it's like a token

that you carry that allows you to enter into banquets,

allows you to call yourself someone that is important. And

when Jesus gives you this stone, it says that you

are mine. And Third, it gives you a new name.

You know, he gave Abraham a name Abraham, he gave

Jacob Israel, he calls Simon Peter. Every time he gives

the name a new name, it's a new identity. So

when you overcome this thing, this compromising, you overcome sin,

God gives you a new name, a new name for

you to live, a new identity for you to carry.

But it's given to you in secret.

You know, sometimes we want public reward, we want God

God to do it now. But what if I tell

you then one day you'll be rewarded secretly. God will

do it secretly, So you gotta hold on till then

and be a faithful witness. So unless people will not understand,

you know when you make convictions right, Even family will

not understand when you follow Jesus. The cost of following Jesus.

Even other people will never understand. But Christ is a

faithful witness. It's witnessing every struggle you go through. So

let's live with no compromise in greater purpose.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as church Org. We

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this week is going to be a good week. I

hit for you. God bless