The Enemy Within: Pergamum & Thyatira | Curtis Andrusko

Apocalyptic visions, mysterious creatures, dramatic warnings. No wonder the book of Revelation is so scary for so many. It's a book depicting the end of the world as we know it. It's chaotic. It's messy. And yes, it can be pretty scary. But the Apostle John didn't write this book to fill us with fear.

He wrote it to give us a message of hope, comfort, and certainty. The hope of knowing that Jesus holds the final victory over sin and death. The comfort of knowing that he will come again and make all things new. And the certainty that God will once again dwell with his people.

And to the angel of the church in Pergamum, write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipus, my faithful witness, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balum who taught Bailac to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolatians.

Therefore repent. If not I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden mana, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

((music playing)) Well, good morning, Summit family. Revelation chapter 2, if you've not already made your way there, Revelation chapter 2. Um, hope you guys have been enjoying the series so far through the book of Revelation. Um, you know, one of the things we always do as a pastoral team when we're putting together these series is thinking about, you know, what are ways that we can make you really fully experience the series we're in, make you feel it.

And so, we're like, Revelation. We're like, you know what? Let's pray and ask God to make it hot as Hades outside. And so, um, that's been our gift from the Summit Church directly to you. Um, just kidding. So, I want you to think about where were you in 2001? 2001.

Some of you weren't born yet, but 2001, place yourself there. Uh, I can tell you, um, your boy was a strapping young freshman in high school, living my best life. Thought I knew everything. And, um, specifically a few things I remember about 2001, at least in the entertainment world. 2001 was when Lincoln Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory, made its debut.

Thank you. Got some claps for that. Fantastic. Changed the music world forever. Um, right alongside that, the greatest film franchise of all time kicked off where Fast and Furious opened up. That's when I started to pursue my career as a street racer. Lord had different different thoughts. So, um, other things in entertainment that I remember in 2001 very vividly, um, I remember Dale Senior, you know, Daytona 500.

Um, side on Thursday night for some I just had a brain fart and I said Dale and I said Indie 500. You would have thought I blasphemed Jesus from this stage. So, don't make NASCAR mistakes. Um, another thing in entertainment, I remember, um, that's when Aaliyah died. If you remember Aaliyah, uh, some guy last service front row went.

So, um, Aaliyah, the greatest R&B singer at that time, um, she passed away. Uh, 2001, of course, we all remember 911. Um, I remember sitting in math class and I remember, uh, somebody screaming into the the hallway and then wheeling, uh, one of those TVs in there, you know.

Um, but then there was something else that happened in 2001 that I don't know why I remember this because I was not involved in business. I wasn't involved in stocks or any of that stuff. Um, but I remember a company called Enron. Y'all remember Enron? Who remembers Enron 2001?

Um, in case you don't remember, Enron at that time, 2001, at one point was one of the biggest, fastest growing, most innovative companies in the entire world at that point. Um, they were number seven on the Fortune 500 list. Enron was valued at $70 billion heading into 2001.

And at the end of 2000, their stock price was upwards of $90 per share. What's crazy though is in 2001, I remember it vividly that almost overnight, this colossal titan of a company just collapsed. In just four short weeks, investors lost $74 billion. 20,000 employees lost their jobs, retirement, billions in pensions, and their stock price plummeted in four weeks from $90 a share all the way down to 26.

Just insane. And here's what's crazy is Enron was not brought down by some external forces. Like it wasn't brought down by competitors or some economic disaster or some new political figure in office. You know, obviously we'd quickly come to learn that Enron had this uh shady accounting and they had these hidden debts and these fake partnerships and they just had this culture of deception that its leaders let go on for years and years.

See, Enron didn't collapse from pressure on the outside. No, this enviable, innovative company imploded from compromise and deception on the inside. See, if you were to ask me what I think the greatest threat to the church today is and to God's people, I'd argue that the greatest threat is not Satan.

It's not demons. It's not persecution. It's not some political figure. It's not other world religions. It's not any outside forces. I'd argue that the greatest danger to the church isn't found outside the church, but rather inside the church. And see, that's the danger that Revelation chapter 2 is warning us about.

Not just the enemy outside or around us, but the enemy within us. The greatest threat to your walk with Jesus isn't out there. It's what you tolerate in here. And so today, what we're going to do is we're going to pick up where Pastor JD left off a couple weeks ago, where he started us by looking at the first two of the seven churches in Revelation.

We looked at Ephesus and Smyrna two weeks ago. And what we're seeing is Jesus writing through John, the Apostle John, who's having a revelation. John's writing these churches, being given the words of Jesus to these seven churches that are facing just all this persecution in the in the places that they find themselves.

So he got Ephesa. We're going to pick up with Pergamum and Thotyra today. And one of the things you need to see is just like all the other seven churches, these two churches were facing this massive pressure to compromise. They were facing massive pressure to sell out and to fit in and to quiet down just to find some type of relief from their persecution.

And so, pick me up. Revelation 2. Look at verse 12. Jesus writes, "And to the angel," that's just to the pastor, to the pastor of the church in Pergamum, he tells John, "Write these words, the words of him, Jesus, who has the sharp two-edged sword." Now, like a lot of things in the book of Revelation, this is symbolism.

I don't want you to get the idea that Jesus comes with a literal sword coming out of his mouth. No, the two-edged sword symbolizes the power of Jesus's words. It symbolizes that Jesus's word can pierce and correct and convict and bring judgment. It's a two-edged sword. And so Jesus says in verse 13, he says, "Pergamum, I know where you dwell.

Where you dwell is where Satan's throne is." Think about that phrase. There was so much pagan worship in Pergamum that Jesus says it is literally where Satan's throne is. Satan is not omnipresent. He can't be everywhere at once. And Jesus is saying, "Satan has set up his throne in Pergamum.

How'd you like your city to be known by that?" Like, "Welcome to Chapel Hill, the city of Satan's throne." Like, that's not a very welcoming sign. See, this city, like all these other cities, were kind of famous for its massive idol temples and its idol worship. It it was kind of uh cling to the hip with Rome where uh the emperor had to be worshiped as a god himself.

Um these temples that they would erect, they they had two main idols that they worshiped. One was Zeus. We we all know who Zeus is, but the other was Pergamum's specific god whose name was Eslepius. Eslepius was the god of medicine and healing. Kind of fun fact, go ahead and throw that picture up.

Um, this is actually what is still known as the rod of Eslepius. This is the still the medical symbol that we use universally. Um, well, this was attributed to Esleius, the god of healing and medicine, and we still use it today. This came from Pergamum. And so, look what Jesus says.

He says, "Yet even in the city of Satan's throne." Jesus says to this church, "You hold fast my name. You didn't deny my faith. Not even in the days of Antipus, my faithful witness who was killed among you again where Satan dwells." Jesus says, "Hey, even with all this pagan worship going on around you, church, you've held fast to my name.

You haven't denied me. Not even in the days of Antipus, my faithful witness." Uh according to most accounts, Antipus was a well-known pastor who was actually burned alive in a brass bull. And even then, Jesus says, "Peram, you didn't deny the faith. You didn't deny me." I mean, if this is Pergamum's performance review with Jesus as their supervisor, like things are going pretty well until we get to verse 14.

But, right, uh-oh. This is here comes the growth opportunities and the performance review. He says, "I have a few things against you." Jesus is like, "I love you. You've done well, but we need to talk. He says, "You have some there who hold the teaching of Balum who taught Bailo to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, God's people, so that God's people might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality."

Now, you don't need to turn there, but Balum is referring back to an instance found in Numbers chapters 22-2. Um, Balum was a prophet for prophet. Does that make sense? He he was a prophet that you could hire out to kind of do your bidding. And so the king of Moab in Numbers 22 tries to hire Balam to go curse God's people.

But God wouldn't let Balam curse God's people. And so Balum had to find another way to weaken Israel. So what he did is he advised the king of Moab to begin seducing God's people through inner marriage with Moabitete women that God's people might end up worshiping the Moabitete gods, participation in feast to idols, and then try to seduce them with sexual immorality that would be tied to this pagan worship because that's what was going on in the culture.

See, Balam tried to seduce God's people through compromise. What he said was, "Hey, it's okay to fit in with the culture. You can follow God and blend in with the world. It's not a big deal. That's balinism. So that's kind of our first one. Now look at verse 15.

Jesus continues. He says, "So also you have some who hold the teaching of the nickelans." Now the nickelans were much like the Balamites. The nickelans taught that as long as you didn't really mean it in your heart that it was fine to participate in Rome's pagan practices while claiming to follow Jesus.

So like, hey, I I know if you don't do that, the culture is going to persecute you. And so that's fine to participate in as long as you don't really mean it. Like God knows your heart. That's balenism. But Balum or or Nicicoatinism. Balam seduced the church through compromise.

And then what the nickelans did is they normalized that compromise. What what Balam seduced by whispering, saying, "Hey, it's not a big deal." The nickelotans systemized it and made it the new normal. See, both Balum and the Nickelutans were masters of distortion. They didn't come to the church.

They didn't come to God's people with just open rebellion, right? No, no. They they snuck in the church through these slight redefinitions, through these subtle shifts, through these spiritual halftruths that sounded like no big deal, which we all know that's that's the way the best distortions work, right?

Like nobody nobody clicks on the email that says in all caps bold like this is a scam. We're trying to get your bank account info. Do you you don't click that one? But but all of a sudden you get that email from Amazon telling you that they've lost your package and they need your payment info in order to deliver that.

Like some of you go click that or you like I've received how many times have you received the text message from NC DOT about your unpaid past due fine, right? And if you don't pay it in the next 24 hours, then you're going to get like a $250 fine.

So, please insert like your bank account information, checking, routing, wire, every credit card, firstborn sons, info, social security, like all that stuff. And some of you have fallen for that stuff, haven't you? That's because the most dangerous lies are the ones dressed up as truth. And see, this is exactly how our enemy works.

This is how he sets up his throne in our lives and our hearts. not with this open rebellion, but but by seducing us with these small, seemingly insignificant compromises that pile up over time. That's why Bible author Jyn Wilkins says that Satan doesn't need to persecute the church if he can simply seduce it.

See, Balum didn't curse the people. He just coached them into compromise. The the the Nickelans didn't attack the church. They just infiltrated it and rebranded sin as freedom in Christ. That's what Jesus says in verse 16. Look at it. He says, "Therefore, repent. If not, I'll come to you soon and I'll war against them with the sword of my mouth."

I hope you feel the weight of this. Jesus isn't casual about compromise. He doesn't say, "Hey, I just want you to think about a few things. Maybe work on improving them. We'll check on it next quarter." Now he says,"Repent or I'm coming to you with a sword." It's how seriously Jesus takes this.

And so if Pergamum shows us what happens when compromise kind of sneaks into the church and in the lives of God's people, Thotyra, the next church, shows us what happens when compromise is no longer subtle, but it's actually fully settled in the church. And so look at verse 18.

Jesus says, ' And to the angel to the pastor of the church in Thotyra, write this, the words of the son of God, Jesus, who has eyes like a flame of fire. Again, symbolism. This means that Jesus sees absolutely everything. He He sees through our hypocrisy. He sees through the games we play.

He sees through the masks that we wear. He sees through the sin that we try to hide. and whose feet are like burnished bronze. This represents the strength and the stability and the judgment of Jesus. It symbolizes the fact that Jesus stands firm and steady and ready to stamp out any and all sin that opposes his holiness.

And Jesus's gaze is currently set on this church at Thotyra. Now, just some quick background on Thotyra. Thotyra was actually a pretty small but a large workingclass city. It was small city but it was big on business and industry. In fact to s to succeed in business in Thotyra you actually had to join kind of these trade unions or these trade guilds.

And the problem with joining is these unions and these guilds is normal practices of those unions and guilds involved again feast to pagan uh idols and these sexual immorality kind of events. And so if you wanted to thrive in business, you were expected to be part of these trade guilds and to participate in these things.

To to not participate in those things would literally cost you some of your bottom line. There were people that weren't going to do business with you. There was a literal cost to not participating in the things of culture. Um kind of interesting side note, if you were to go look at Acts chapter 16, we meet a woman in Thotyra, a woman named Lydia.

If you remember, Lydia was a dealer of purple cloth. She had a business selling kind of cloth to royalty. And what happens in Acts chapter 16 is the Apostle Paul is actually on his missionary journeys and he meets this woman named Lydia, shares the gospel with her. And not only does Lydia get saved, her entire family gets saved, they get baptized.

And historians tell us that it's Lydia and her family who helped plant this church in Thotyra. See, I have to imagine that Lydia not compromising with the culture after she proclaimed Christ as savior probably cost her some bottom line in her business. And so what Jesus says to Thotyra, look at verse 19.

He says,"Thotyra, I know your works. I know that your love and faith and service and patient endurance." I mean, this is a pretty awesome list of things for Jesus to say about you, right? He said, "Not only that, love, faith, service, patient endurance, but I know that your latter works exceed the first."

Again, if I'm thyroid, I'm like, "My this performance review is going great." Right? Verse 20. But growth opportunity time. I have this against you that you Thotyra tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetus. Um I'm a sarcastic guy. I love Jesus's sarcasm here because he's like, "Hey, just so you know, God didn't set her up as a prophetus.

The the church didn't set her up as a prophet." He says, "No, this is a self-proclaimed influencer prophet." And then Jesus says, "By the way, her content is terrible." Okay, verse 20, he continues. He says, "She's teaching and seducing my servants, people that claim my name, to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols."

Now scholars are actually divided as to whether here in Revelation chapter 2 that Jezebel whether it's referring to a literal woman named Jezebel who's part of this church at Thotyra and is dividing them through these practices um or there's another group that thinks it's just Jesus is referring to the spirit of Jezebel.

But see here's the thing either way Jezebel actually was a real person at one time. Um, if you were to flip back to the Old Testament, you'd see that Jezebel was King Ahab's idolatrous, wicked, greedy, murderous queen. This was an evil woman. That's why if somebody calls you a Jezebel, that is not a compliment.

Okay? That's that's why nobody names their daughter Jezebel. All right? Um, if your name's Jezebel, I'm so sorry this morning. Okay? Um, but so what you got to see is this progression that that Balin Balum seduces with compromise. the the nickelans then normalize that compromise and now Jezebel sanctifies and celebrates those compromise things.

It's this progression from temptation to acceptance to full-on justification to ultimate celebration. This is what we see with our cultural morals, isn't it? And see, here's the thing about Jezebel. She never actually tries to convert people away from God. This is what's crazy. The the spirit of Jezebel isn't trying to pull you into atheism.

That's not what she's doing. It's just trying to convince you that Jesus doesn't mind if you keep a few little idols on the side. She whispers, "Hey, you you can still have God, but you can also have this." The spirit of Jezebel is the voice that whispers, "Hey, overwork and idolizing your career, even if it means neglecting your family, that's fine.

I mean, after all, you got to provide, right? And God wants you to provide. That's what you're called to do. So, that's fine. Keep your God. Just add a little idol of work to the side. It's not a big deal. The the the spirit of Jezebel says, "Look, nobody actually waits until marriage anymore."

What kind of outdated theory is that? I mean, what really matters is that you love each other, right? Besides, I mean, you'd never buy a car without test driving it first. Don't get in that thing. So keep Jesus, but just add a little worldly wisdom to how you date.

It's not a big deal. Jezebel says it's just a show. It's just music. It's just a video game. It's not like you actually believe or participate in that stuff. It's just entertainment. And so it's fine to keep Jesus. That's not a big deal. But you're free to binge whatever you want because it doesn't really affect you, right?

You can have Jesus and the hookup. You can have Jesus and continue in gossip. You can have Jesus and partake in excessive drinking. It's not a big deal. That's the spirit of Jezebel. She doesn't scream, "Walk away from God." She just says, "You can keep him and add this idol to him.

It's no big deal." But see, Jesus makes it clear here. He's not okay with that. Not at all. And so, let's talk about what compromise really does and why Jesus takes it so seriously. So, what I want to do with the rest of our time is I want to make this incredibly practical by giving you five spiritual truths that every believer needs to know about compromise.

Okay? Uh, a few of these come from a pastor named Chuck Smith. And then, um, some of the other ones I've just kind of thrown in there myself. And here's the first one. Number one, this is easily the most serious one because we need to understand the gravity of what we're dealing with.

Number one is the fact that compromise puts you in opposition to God. Compromise puts you in opposition to God. See, when tolerance or compromise means refusing to call sin what it is, you and I have crossed a line that Jesus never intended nor asked us to cross. And when we cross that line, we stoke the righteous wrath of our holy God.

Psalm 7 11 and 12 say that God is a righteous judge. He's a God who shows wrath every day. If anyone does not repent, God will sharpen his sword and he has strung his bow and made it ready for battle. If that is not a terrifying thought to you, it should be.

The danger of tolerance and compromise is that over time it numbs us to the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit. That's what's happened to Thotyra. Look back at verse 21. Jesus says, "I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality." See, unchecked tolerance and compromise, it doesn't just soften our convictions.

It puts us in opposition to the God of the universe. And when we reject his grace, when we reject his mercy, the only thing that can follow is judgment. And so verse 22, Jesus says, "If you don't want to repent, behold, I'll throw her onto a sick bed."

He says, "You love that unclean bed of yours. All right, I'll give you one. And those who commit adultery with her, I will throw you into great tribulation. You want to sow sin, you're going to reap death, for the wages of sin, what you've earned from that sin is death."

And he says, "Unless they repent of her works, don't you see the loving kindness of God even in the midst of this warning of judgment?" He's saying, "Just repent." He doesn't want to cast in judgment on you. He wants to pull you back close. And he says, "Unless they repent of her works."

Verse 23, "If you don't repent," he says, "I will strike her children dead." Jesus is assuming that her children are going to follow in the way of her false teaching. And he's going to have to put judgment on them, too. And all the churches will know Jesus says that I am he who searches mind and heart.

You can't hide anything from me and I will give to each of you according to your works. Church, if this feels heavy, it should because the judgment of God is real and eternity is long. But not only is the judgment of God real, so is his mercy. over and over and over again.

You see, even in the middle of this, Jesus offers mercy if we will repent. And so, yes, compromise puts you in opposition to God. But the good news of the gospel is that repentance puts you back under his grace. That's why second Peter 3:9 says that the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise of salvation as some count slowness.

No, he's patient towards you. Think about how patient God was to me before I was a follower of Jesus. Because Jesus, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Listen, if you find yourself in opposition to God today, I only have one message for you.

You need to do away with these five points. You just have one message, and that is to repent and call upon the Lord. And if you do, Romans 10:13 says that if you will repent and call upon the Lord, you will be saved. I don't care what you came in here with.

Even in your sin, even in your compromise, even in the things you've been tolerating, if you will repent, then Jesus stands ready, arms open wide, yes, with his sword drawn. But it is a two-edged sword. He doesn't want to destroy you with that sword. He wants to cut away the very sin that's been killing you as he welcomes you into the family of God and adopts you as a son or a daughter.

That is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you will repent, you don't come back to Jesus by trying harder. You don't defeat compromise by trying harder. You fight it by repenting and turning back to Jesus who already fought the battle for your sin and won on the cross.

And so that's number one. Number two, you need to realize that compromise never occurs quickly. It never occurs quickly, which means you hardly even notice when it's happening. Um, when I was thinking about this, let me illustrate it like this. Um, let me let me tell you, let me tell you guys how I eat cake, okay?

Um, my my family, I would say we're let's say 80 85% healthy eaters, okay? Like I consider myself a pretty healthy person. I like healthy things. Um, but that man that 15 20% like we're going to go hard in our household. Don't don't bring us your like here's healthy protein cereal.

Like no, give me like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Give me Frosted Flake. Like get just give me all the butter, all the sugar. Okay. Um we've had backto backtoback birthdays in our house with some kids and so uh the desserts have just been flowing galore. It's been constant cakes and Betty Crocker and cupcakes and all the things.

Well um because I see myself as a healthy person, it would be irresponsible for a healthy person to just cut out like three pieces of cake and put it on a plate, wouldn't it? So I do what any healthy responsible person would do. I walk by the stove where that sheake is placed.

And I peel back that tin foil. And lo and behold, God has provided a little fork that just stays placed right in that little pan. I take a tiny little bite, right? Tiny little bite. Tiny little bite. Put the fork back, close it up tinfold, go about my way till all of a sudden that sugar hits my taste buds, right?

I walk back by. God forbid that cake's still there. So I open it back up, have a little bite, have a little bite, and before you know it, I have not had one bite of cake. I have not had one piece of cake. Your boy's eating like two entire rows of cake.

You know what I'm talking about? Like by the end of the day, that's what happens. But see, that happened just one innocent bite at a time. Compromise does not begin with a whole slice. It begins with just a bite of something that you tell yourself doesn't actually count.

It It's subtle. It's quiet. It feels harmless. I mean, it's just one glance at that girl. Didn't do anything. It's not a big deal. It It's just one visit to that website. Who's it harming? Students, it's just one white lie to my parents, right? Like, I know I told him my homework's done, but I'm going to get it done.

It's not a big deal, pastor. I know I skipped my tithe this month, but it wasn't the best financial month, and God will understand, right? I know I have a tendency to exaggerate my story, maybe to make myself look a bit a little better, but I want them to like me.

It's not a big deal. It's just one comment, one look, one taste, one exception, just this once. Yet, you know this. The fact that nobody destroys their life in one single moment. Nobody loses their faith in Jesus in one single moment. It happens slowly and secretly, one bite at a time, until one day you look up and wonder, "How in the world did I get here?

How how did I get two rows deep in this thing when all I did was just take a single bite? See, compromise is rarely this outright denial, but it's usually more of this subtle casual drift. And so, what Jesus is doing in Revelation 2, both for these churches and for the people of the Summit Church, is he's sounding this alarm because he knows that what you don't confront right now will end up destroying you later.

And so, that's our second thing. The third thing compromise does is that it lowers the original standard. Compromise lowers the original standard. See, if we want to be fair here, you you realize that most of the compromise in your life usually begins with good intentions. Like even when you're trying to share God's word, right?

Like it usually begins with good intentions. you're trying to make God's word, you know, more accessible or more palatable to somebody or more relevant or a little more flexible. But in doing so, you don't elevate the truth. You end up actually watering it down and lowering the standard in the process.

Um CS Lewis has this great illustration where he says, "We have to learn to think about doctrines, things that teach us about God and his ways and his works and his characteristics. We have to learn to think about doctrines found in his word. We have to learn to think about those things like maps.

And so think about the way you use a map. Nobody uses a physical map unless your name is Andresco, my dad. Um but uh think about like the way you use GPS like Google Maps or Apple Maps. Um you don't wait until you're lost to then type in your destination and figure out where you're going.

Unless you're dumb, okay? Like that's not you. What you do is you type in your destination before you ever pull out of the driveway, right? That's what happens. See, if you don't set the destination ahead of time, don't be surprised when you end up somewhere you were never meant to go.

The moment you start ignoring God's word, his map, the moment you start tweaking and adjusting and deleting the parts that feel inconvenient to you or that you don't like or don't line up with what you feel in the moment, you're not just taking a detour on your Christian road.

You've actually lowered the standard. This is what compromise does. it it trades. This is what God has said for well this is what feels easier and safer and more acceptable to me. And the more you compromise, the more you do it, the lower that bar gets until one day your Christianity no longer looks anything like your Christ.

And so just super practically, I do want to press into this one for a moment. How do you resist lowering the standard in your own life? Like how do you hold this line, hold this line and this bar when the pressure of our world is to constantly bend?

And and very simply the way you do that is you predecide. You predecide. You choose the destination before you ever pull out of the driveway and enter the pressures of the world. You say, "If God has spoken, then my standard's already set." Okay? You say, "I don't move the line that God has set.

I just walk in that line." And so very practically a few ways, a few things that means that means like each day you should predecide when you are going to spend time with God each day. You don't just get to the end of your day and hope your schedule works out where you might be able to sift in some time for God.

No, you predecide. For me and my wife, this means we predecide that we're going to spend time with God first thing every single morning. You predecide what you're going to do with your money. Just like your time. You don't wait till the end of the month and say, "Well, God, here's my leftovers."

No, you predecide that God is going to get first and best from your paycheck. For for some of you high school students, you need to prereddecide that you are not going to engage in gossip. If it's not yours to say or solve or it's about you, then you don't participate.

You're out. And that doesn't mean still standing in the circle and just kind of laughing. That's partaking. That's that's balinism. That's the spirit of jet. No, you say, "I'm out. I'm not doing this." You prereddecide. You're not going to partake in that. you you predecide that if you're going to be on social media that you're only going to use it to actually connect with other real human beings that you're not going to be on it more than you're in God's word or more than you're in physical community.

Some of you the main thing that Jesus is harping on these churches for is sexual immorality. Some of you need to predecide that you are going to reserve the beautiful gift of sex for marriage as God has designed no matter what the world says about it. You you you need to preddecide that that's how you're going to approach this.

Don't wait till you're alone on a Friday night on a couch with your significant other watching Netflix. Your inhibitions are lowered. Things start heating up and then you're like, "Oh my gosh, God, please help." Like God's going to be like, "I I tried to help you a long time ago.

At this point, it's on you." Like, you preerdecide. That's not what's going to happen. Friends, the standard is already set. It's ours to submit to. And if we call Jesus Lord of our lives, we walk in that line, not seek to renegotiate where the line is. So that's number three.

Number four is the fact that compromise is seldom offensive because it's often perceived as loving. So this specifically has to do with the way we compromise in relationships with other people. See, one of the things that makes compromise so sneaky again is that it doesn't always look like outright rebellion.

Especially in relationships, one of the ways that compromise loves to dress up is as compassion. And so compromise often sounds like, well, I just don't want to push them away or who am I to judge or well that's just the way they are. But let's be honest, that's not usually compassion and humility talking.

That's usually fear of being seen as intolerant and fearing that relationship more than you fear God. Now, now hear me. There's a type of tolerance that is biblical. There's a type of tolerance that allows people space to wrestle and grow and even fall and falter. There's a there's a type of tolerance that gives us space to even disagree on non-essentials.

But the Bible calls that compassion and patience. That's not what's happening in these churches. This wasn't compassion for sinners happening in these churches. This was tolerance of sin. This was a church that yes had good works and real love and they growing perseverance, but it was also a church that had grown soft on truth, which is what compromise does.

It begins blurring those lines. We start confusing loving somebody well with actually approving of their choices even if they're sinful and harmful to themselves and others. We we end up staying silent to keep the peace. But silence becomes agreement disguised as kindness. The lines get blur blurred. And so yes, what might start as empathy, compromise actually turns on or turns into full endorsement.

And see, that's not compassion. That's not patience. That's a type of toxic empathy. It's empathy that's completely lost its spine. It's a type of empathy that compromise turns into endorsement. And so if we want to be people who follow Jesus, who love like Jesus, we don't just sit with other people in their sin, we are to lovingly call them out of it.

Real Jesus-like empathy never prioritizes someone's temporary comfort over their eternal condition. Jesus never avoided hard conversations. Now, I want to be clear and fair that Jesus also never weaponized truth. Okay? Some of you need to hear that. Some of you need to sprinkle a lot more grace in with your truth bombs that you keep dropping.

But Jesus also never watered down the truth either. So yeah, we should share the truth in love, but we should still share the truth. And when we don't, when we choose to compromise in this way, it leads straight into the last danger, number five, which is that compromise causes us to lose our witness.

Compromise causes us to lose our witness. See, I've struggled with this. Shared with y'all that I mean, I love the approval of man. But when we compromise with the world, we might gain its approval, but we actually lose our distinctiveness in the world, and we dull our witness to Jesus, our savior.

That doesn't mean we claim to be perfect. We're not hypocrites by calling people up into something that we might struggle with. The church's power is not in being perfect. The church's power is in being set apart and being different. It's why Jesus said, "We are the light of the world."

City set on a hill to shine brightly in a dark culture. And so if Jesus said that, let me tell you, you can't call people out of darkness while dimming your own light through compromise. You can't win the world by becoming like it. That's why Charles Spurgeon used to say that one reason the church has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.

Y'all, God forbid that the Summit Church ever begin to look or sound or think or act just like the world because if we do, we will lose our credibility to actually speak to the world. If you and I choose to chase success like the world and redefine truth like the world and tolerate sin like the world, why in the world would the world listen to you as a member of the church?

When the church starts to look like the world, it stops having anything that the world actually needs. See, when we choose to compromise or excuse sin under the banner of freedom in Christ or tolerance or everybody's doing it, it's not a big deal. What happens that we are preaching with our lives something that contradicts what we are saying with our lips.

And if you and I lose what makes us distinct, we lose our ability to actually make a difference. And yet, even with all of that, Jesus in Revelation chapter 2 isn't just calling out everything that's wrong. He's calling us back to himself. I mean, look at verse 24 and how this ends.

He says, "But to the rest of you in Thotyra who don't hold to this teaching of Balen Balam or the nickelutans or Jezebel, those of you who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, you haven't participated in these pagan meals and sexual immorality, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden."

He's like, there's nothing else you need to do other than verse 25. Just hold fast what you have the gospel until I come. Those who do, you'll conquer. If you keep my works until the end, to him, he says, I will give authority over the nations. Verse 27.

And that conqueror will rule them with a rod of iron as when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even if as I, Jesus myself, have received authority from my father. and I will give him the morning star. He's talking about himself. You hold fast, you overcome. You get me.

Jesus says, "For he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches." Let me end with this. Um, it's crazy illustration, but I think hopefully it'll land. Um, man, it's been a long week preaching this week. Kids are out of school. Dear God, can school get back in, please?

Um, I also had class all this week. I'm doing my doctorate. Shout out to Pastor A Day at Garner, Pastor Rob Fugquay doing it with me. So, just in class all week, preaching kids, work, life, you know it goes. So, earlier this week, got home and at night we got the kids down.

I told my wife like, "Can we just watch something mindless? Like, I just need to turn my mind off." Yes, that even happens to pastors. And so, we pull up Netflix and lo and behold, Netflix delivers a gem. We see this hourong documentary on an infamous cruise ship.

Y'all know exactly this cruise ship. I'm not being callous here. Has come to be known as the poop cruise. Okay, if you are not familiar with this thing, in 2013, a Carnival cruise set out, sunny skies, drinks are flowing, people are happy, the party's going like any other cruise.

And it was supposed to be a 4-day cruise. They were going to pop on down to somewhere and then back and two days down, two days back. And um on their way back, day three, in the middle of the ocean, um unbeknownst to them, way down in the inner recesses of the ship where nobody could see it, down in the engine room, a fire breaks out.

Now, thankfully, cruise ships have multiple engines, so not that big of a deal, right? But this fire somehow made its way across every single engine and burned every single power line to the cruise ship. And in a moment, not only was the ship smoking, but all of a sudden, all the power to the ship was cut off.

So, no power, no way to make food, no air conditioning, but then worst of all, it cut off all the plumbing, too. So, 4,500 people stranded at sea for 4 plus days with no power, no plumbing. Let me just say this is a pretty crappy situation. Okay, just throwing that out there.

Yo, toilets start overflowing like into the cabins. Like sewage is leaking down the hallways. Like they had pictures like it's like dripping down the stair. This is my worst nightmare. Um I I hate poop. I've never been on a cruise. Never desired to. I will never ever You could gift me the nicest cruise in the world after this.

I ain't going. Okay, I'm not I would go trade it for like a Starbucks gift card. It's not happening. I am not going on a cruise. And see, here's the crazy thing. As bad as it was for these people, it to like if you flew a helicopter over or if you were in a passing ship, you you would think that it looked just fine.

Like the ship was still afloat. It wasn't sinking. And from a distance, externally, everything looked just fine. It looked like a normal cruise ship. But see, the people on the ship knew this is not what a cruise is supposed to feel like. Because see, while on the outside it might have looked okay, there was something wreaking havoc on the inside, something deep down in the recesses where fire was taking over everything.

See, that's what compromise does to our souls. We're we're not meant to live feeling like we're constantly skirting around the God of the universe and well, am I approving of him or is he approving of me? Am I doing the right thing? Well, is joy found over here?

Is peace found over here? Is happiness found over here? No, no, no. If that's what's happening, that compromise is a fire that is burning inside your soul and taking out the good, glorious things that Jesus wants to do in your life. What we got to do is put that fire out.

And we do that by repentance. Listen, Jesus is calling these things out, not to shame us, but to bring us back to himself. Joel chapter 2 says, "Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." What I want you to know today is that no matter how deep your compromise, Jesus's mercy is deeper.

No ha no matter how long you've been tolerating what you shouldn't, Jesus has not given up on you. Even in the midst of all these warnings, the sword is coming. Repent. Judgment is coming. Repent. I'll cut your legs out for me. Repent. I'll throw you onto that sick bed.

Repent. Jesus over and over saying, "Yes, this is what's going to happen. But what I want to happen most is for you to repent and come back into loving relationship with me where you will find life. You will find joy. You will find peace. You will find happiness.

Everything you've been searching for in compromise." Jesus says, "It is found fully and wholly in me if you will repent." ((applause)) And so church, that's how I want us to end. I actually just want to end by giving you a few m minutes alone by yourself with God with the Holy Spirit to just ask the question to yourself and where have I been compromising?

Where have I been tolerating what I shouldn't be? I just want you to repent. ((music playing)) We're going to put a verse up on the screen. in Psalm 86:5 to remind us of the goodness of our God. For you, oh Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding and steadfast love to all who would call upon you.

Just want you to take a few moments, maybe at your campus, if you want to come up to the altar and literally lay these things at the altar before Jesus, you can do that. Maybe some of you spouses need to get together. Students, maybe, praise God, you haven't fallen into some of these things.

Maybe you spend this time asking God to keep you from falling into these things. I just want to let the spirit of God and you have some time together, just a few minutes, and then in a moment at all of our campuses, our teams will come and lead us.