Are you a person who seeks God’s will and God’s mind 100% in everything you do? Or do you find yourself sometimes looking for a middle ground that allows you to feel you’re a zealous child of God – while not being so hard and fast on what God says he wants from us? I admit – as a human – I can find myself slipping into that if I’m not alert.
I’m referring to situations that clearly involve sin or righteousness.
In today’s blog I’m NOT referring to situations that do not involve righteousness or sin. We all have to at times be willing to compromise and make accommodations so everyone can be best served. That’s wonderful, that’s good, where sin is not involved.
But where God’s word is clear about right and wrong, do we find ourselves even in those cases still trying to find middle ground, to compromise, to not “rock the boat” – and end up giving in to at least a little bit of sin? The Bible is clear about the sanctity of life from conception through life, marriage between a man and a woman, respect for law and order. The 10 Commandments are clear: we are to honor the true God, keep the 7th day sabbath, honor our parents, never lie, cheat, or steal or kill – and more, for example. The Bible is clear about same-sex unions. About which days are sacred.
So today we’re talking about how we must avoid compromising God’s word and principles just for the sake of “getting along” or finding middle ground that ends up compromising God’s word and what we do.
When we seek middle ground, in the end – who do we end up serving? Do we end up serving Holy God in heaven – or his/our Adversary, Satan? So where do God’s people – those led by his spirit (Romans 8:14) often try to find middle ground?
Well, for example, Halloween is coming up. Please check out my sermon I’ve recently posted (Oct 2020) titled “Should Christians participate in Halloween?” I believe I show conclusively in that teaching that God’s children who are led by God’s Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14) will not – in any way – participate in Halloween. Not even a little bit!
Too many Christians have settled on a “middle ground” where they feel they can participate – just a little bit – in Halloween and still be pleasing to God.
When it comes to God and his Way, he likes us to be definite. Consider how God warned Laodicea to be either “hot or cold” – but not be the middle ground between hot or cold, which is lukewarm (Revelation 3:14-16). Yeshua said that their middle ground of lukewarmness made him want to vomit! Finding middle ground on God’s word is about our apathy, our Laodiceanism.
God wants ALL our heart, soul, and mind, not just 80% of it. If we’re giving in to sin on some issues can we still say we love God with our whole heart? And again, I’m not talking about everyday compromises in areas NOT involving sin where we have to make compromises to accommodate our spouse’s needs, or to make everything work smoother.
To know when we can and when we can’t compromise at all, means we have to intimately know God’s word, so we recognize times when we must hold firm versus times that are inconsequential.
After I recorded my Halloween sermon, I found other ministers teaching that there IS a middle ground with Halloween involvement. Seeing that actually was the inspiration for this blog. I call it compromise. But again, that kind of middle ground makes our Savior want to vomit. We might not think participating a little in Halloween or other pagan holidays is all that bad, but we end up participating in celebrating what is dark, evil, and Satanic!
Let’s listen to our Master Yeshua on this concept:
Luke 16:10, 13 -- “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 13 "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
This blog is asking us: WHERE do we find ourselves compromising and not being totally faithful to God? I preach to myself too.
Click on “continue reading” to finish this blog. You’re halfway through.
Most ministers don’t even bother addressing Halloween anymore lest they cause offense. Other preachers said we could dabble with dark Halloween if we find some middle ground. Here are some of their wrong ideas:
** They taught you can hand out treats as long as you also hand out a flyer about Jesus and witness for Christ to the children and others who come to your home. So are they saying I could use that kind of logic to do anything evil as long as I also preached Christ to those around me? Really?
But isn’t that still being involved in Halloween? Read 1 Cor. 10:20-21. We cannot drink of the Lord’s cup and cup of demons. We cannot serve God and demons at the same time. Read it.
Here’s another…
2 Corinthians 6:14-15 --“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?”
** Another one said we can dress our sons and daughters in tamer outfits, let them have fun, while avoiding the gory masks and costumes. Voila! They say we can obey God but still participate in a night dedicated to the dead and Satan. But isn’t that still participating in a night God clearly tells us he detests, on so many levels? It’s all in that sermon I gave. And what happens to our young children when they go out and see others dressed up in bloody outfits and gore? Is that really OK with our God?
** Yet another said when we pass out candy on Halloween, we are witnessing that generosity is a good thing. He said we’re showing children that it’s more blessed to give than receive.
All fine and good – except the day remains being a day to honor the dead and ghosts, darkness, and mayhem. It’s still a day that was originally about worshiping Satan! Putting a Christian label on it doesn’t change what it is!
Some of these pastors never gave even a single scripture to support their case for compromise. But at least some people commented on those sites that they were disappointed that the pastor took a compromising stance.
Remember: A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Even just a few drops of arsenic in a glass of pure water will still harm or kill you. We have to surrender 100% to God or else Christ is really not yet LORD of all our life. When Halloween’s roots are pure evil, how can holy God condone any of it?
God is so clear in his Word:
** We are not to ask the nations how they worship their gods and copy their abominations (Deut. 12:1-4, 29-32).
** We can’t drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of Satan. (1 Cor. 10:20-21)
** If we’re children of Light, we will not walk in or with darkness. John 8:12
Can you really imagine Christ, Paul, Peter, or John saying it’s OK to participate, even just a little, in a night dedicated to the dark side? To Satan?
Aaron tried a “middle Ground” approach with the gold calf abomination. He concluded that as long as he puts a Christian label on the gold calf and tell Israel they were really worshiping YHVH, that it would be OK. He even had them start with sacrifices. But putting God’s name on to that evil idol just made it worse in God’s eyes.
Exodus 32:4-6 –"And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!"
5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow is a feast to YHVH."
6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
Just before Joshua died, he brought the people of Israel together and challenged them to be 100% for YHVH or 100% for paganism. Many of them still held foreign gods and idols apparently when you read all of Joshua 24. Elijah basically said the same in 1 Kings 18 at Mt. Carmel. But here’s how Joshua concluded:
Joshua 24:14-15 "Now therefore, fear YHVH, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve YHVH!
15 And if it seems evil to you to serve YHVH, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve YHVH."
He said there is no middle ground here! Choose 100% the true God or go 100% for the false gods. One or the other. Joshua’s saying, “Don’t think you can worship God while continuing to dabble in what is wrong”.
The sad truth is, I think many of us – in our human weakness and end-time apathy – do often compromise. I do too at times, as you probably do as well. None of us is perfect yet. But let’s at least admit that we can’t have our heart fully with God and at the same time be participating in the most Satanic of all holidays – on the day is all about darkness, the dead, honoring Satan.
We can’t call ourselves “God’s children” but be allowing or compromising with ANY sin for that matter. That’s the real aim of this blog actually: where are each of us compromising as we try to keep some sin in our lives while claiming to be God’s children? I have to preach to myself too. I fight this same heart of compromise as many do.
But as children of God, each of us has to decide whom we’ll serve – GOD – or compromise. No more middle ground.
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Feel free to send a copy of this to others who may appreciate the wake-up call.