COMPROMISE

I don’t know about y’all but for me it’s been impossible to live in God’s will and also remain comfortable! From the start, God calls us out of “comfort”; our “discomfort” pushes us to salvation.

When people compromise, their sole purpose is to bring comfort to both parties involved. Key word there being “people”. When “People” compromise it’s so both sides can be at ease but God created people; he doesn’t compromise with people. So when God tells us to do something – yes, we have a choice, but compromising isn’t one of them. It’s in our discomfort we grow; it’s in our discomfort we obey. Our discomfort will keep us growing in our faith and our comfortable compromise keeps us bound by the things we can’t hold on to and still grow in the lord.

Daniel 1:2 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled him, and sleep deserted him. 2 So the king gave orders to summon the magicians, mediums, sorcerers, and Chaldeans[a] to tell the king his dreams. When they came and stood before the king, 3 he said to them, “I have had a dream and am anxious to understand it.”4 The Chaldeans spoke to the king (Aramaic[b] begins here): “May the king live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.” 5 The king replied to the Chaldeans, “My word is final: If you don’t tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb,[c] and your houses will be made a garbage dump. 6 But if you make the dream and its interpretation known to me, you’ll receive gifts, a reward, and great honor from me. So make the dream and its interpretation known to me.”7 They answered a second time, “May the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will make known the interpretation.” 8 The king replied, “I know for certain you are trying to gain some time, because you see that my word is final. 9 If you don’t tell me the dream, there is one decree for you. You have conspired to tell me something false or fraudulent until the situation changes. So tell me the dream and I will know you can give me its interpretation.”10 The Chaldeans answered the king, “No one on earth can make known what the king requests. Consequently, no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, medium, or Chaldean. 11 What the king is asking is so difficult that no one can make it known to him except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.”

The Chaldeans are starting to get concerned because they know that the magicians and astrologers and false gods they serve can’t tell them the king’s dream. When you serve anything less than the all-knowing God of the universe and Creator of everything, you need a compromise from the get go! [They asked twice for the dream.] When you can’t put your faith in the supernatural, miracle-working God of Abraham, you have to live a compromised way of life needing a leg up to show what you can do because there is no other power on earth other than Jesus that will allow you to lead a Spirit-filled life without compromise.

Back to verse 10 10 The Chaldeans answered the king, and said, “There is not a man on earth who can tell the king’s matter; therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean.

The Chaldeans insisted the king’s request was impossible and for anyone or anything else other than God, it was impossible. Had the king compromised in that moment he would have robbed Daniel of showing his faith, God of showing His greatness, of the miracle God did, and robbed the king finding out who the one and only true God is!!

So that one compromise would have had several different outcomes. This whole situation wasn’t to show how wise Daniel was; it was to get the king to glorify God, the one and only God, which is a great example of how important our obedience is and how deadly our compromise can be. Delayed obedience is disobedience!

The other so-called wise men knew without a doubt that nothing they served or worshipped could give them the king’s dream, so they had to ask the king for a clue or a compromise. This also shows that only God can read our minds.

Daniel asked for a little time because he knew the God he served could give him the king’s dream. Now Daniel could have asked for a little time and compromised what God was trying to do. When you don’t trust God, you end up compromising your faith which in turn could mean someone could miss salvation. Are you living in faith trusting God to pull off the miracle that could extend your time on earth and add another name in the Book of Life? When you compromise God you don’t give faith a chance.

This story shows that when you submit yourself fully to God and to His authority, he will use you and put you in a great position, because He knows when your life is on the line and the consequences are severe, you’re not going to compromise, you’re going to give faith a chance to move that mountain, and God a chance to show a lost and dying world that He’s still in control and He’s still in the miracle business.

Daniel got the dream from God and gave it to the king and saved them from death and the king said the God of Daniel is the One and only true God.

Daniel 3 – So sometime between the end of the second chapter and beginning of the third chapter, the king compromised his belief because in the last bit of the second chapter he falls on his face and declares and believes that Daniel’s God is the one and only but all the sudden he’s setting up a false idol. Compromise leads you back to the life God saved you out of (Explain).

Daniel 3:12-18 - 12 There are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men have ignored you, the king; they do not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”13 Then in a furious rage Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to bring in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar asked them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you don’t serve my gods or worship the gold statue I have set up? 15 Now if you’re ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue I made. But if you don’t worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire—and who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. 17 If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. 18 But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

I’ve got to say it would be tough not to give in and compromise my morals when someone says I’m the king, the ruler, and the judge and if you don’t bow down, I’m going to burn you alive! But these three men trusted in God and since they didn’t compromise, they gave their faith an opportunity to show how great our God truly is. They trusted God would deliver them, but they also said if God doesn’t deliver us then we still died knowing we didn’t bow to any false God. They would have rather died than to compromise. When we put action with our faith and eliminate compromise you will soon have someone walking through your trials with you who doesn’t just look like the Son of God, but it will be the Son of God. And, the next thing you know, you’re free from the chains the devil has wrapped you in and you’ll come out of the fire, out of the heat, out of the trial without a single hair out of place.

They preferred death over unfaithfulness to God!

And that’s only half of the effect living without compromise does, the other half is the effect it has on other people and not by chance, but by God’s plan, because before the three men are even out of the fire, the king is already giving praise and respect to the Most High God!!

Our compromise could be someone else’s downfall. See how they could have said, well OK I’ll bow down now and ask for forgiveness later because God can’t use me if I’m dead, then they wouldn’t have shown the king who the only true God is. They would have blocked a miracle and they wouldn’t have gotten a promotion. A lot of times God shows us how big He is by how precise He is in the small things. He uses us and molds us so that we can stand up in the face of danger and trust him with faith that whatever the outcome is we will accept. Those three men preferred death over unfaithfulness to God. They had no hope unless hope itself showed up! See when you trust in God and follow His will and refuse to compromise your faith in Him then even the trials that kill men who get close to it are a walk in the park, because you have a miracle-performing God in your heart and on your side. Not to mention what happens when you live this way.

Look at all the glory God gets as a result of these men putting faith into action and not compromising. This story shows what God will do when we trust and believe in Him. It also shows what length God will go to to get one person’s attention and soul saved. [Testimony] This story also shows how easy it is to fall away from God when you continually compromise what God has shown you and done for you.

The king saw God tell Daniel the king’s dream and then interrupted it for him and he believed, but then he compromised and built a new god. But, then God showed him how He will save you from the fire and death for His name sake and the king came back to God, but as we’re about to see, all this wasn’t enough to keep him focused on God.

I went through this in my own life. God saved me when I was run over, He saved me from a bad wreck, He saved me from a terrible drug addiction and much more and it still took time for me to submit. [Testimony on Compromise] (Compromise starts small testimony.)

Daniel 4 – So far the king has seen the power of God, Miracles of God, patience of God, compassion of God and the love of God, but the king thus far has refused to submit so now he’s about to see the wrath of God or God’s reprimand. The king kept giving into God and then compromising back to his default religion. So he has another dream and instead of calling Daniel who has been the only one who can give him answers, he calls the astrologers, magicians and so-called wise men and of course they can’t help. But once Daniel arrives, he immediately interprets the dream, and says it’s YOU. You have an issue with pride and you won’t stop praising false gods and you’re going to end up getting driven out by men into the fields and live like an animal. But once you have lived like this for seven years, you will realize that there is only One god and you will be given your kingdom back. = Grace with renewal. So we see how Daniel puts faith with action and continually gets results. Now we are about to see God’s grace paired with the kings renewal! See faith goes with action just like grace goes with renewal!

So the king worries for 12 months but then he gets comfortable again and starts talking about how great he is, and before the last word of that sentence was spoken, God did exactly what he said he would do and gave him a mind of a beast. God is slow to anger and quick to wrath and this shows it. He gave the king a lot of reasons to believe that there’s only One god but he kept compromising until God had no choice. But even then God gave everything back to him. God doesn’t take from us. We lose things because of disobedience. God doesn’t send us to hell; we send ourselves.

Isn’t it such a shame how we humans are? We see God do one miracle after another, intervene time after time, and it’s like we don’t hardly even acknowledge it. We’re a lot like this king. We see God work in our own lives, in other’s lives, but yet we try every other method we can think of to fix a problem we’re dealing with when all we have to do is call on God. See you would think the king would have had Daniel and his friends around him all the time. I mean after all they had showed him they were in tune with God and they didn’t even have the Spirit of God living with them. We have him living inside and we still don’t have him on speed dial.

Daniel 6: 7 The decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den… 9 So King Darius put the decree in writing.

10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 16 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den.

19 At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. 20 When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, without compromise, been able to rescue you from the lions?”

21 Daniel answered, “May the king live forever! 22 My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.”

25 Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth: 26 “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.

“For he is the living God and he endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. 27 He rescues and he saves;

He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”

Once again it would have been so easy for Daniel to compromise, especially in this case! All he had to do is not pray where people could see him and they would not have caught him. But, God doesn’t expect us to compromise our faith to make things easier. See compromise is to make us comfortable but our faith many times calls us to not be comfortable. Your discomfort could be the difference between somebody’s solution, the difference between God doing a miracle or the difference between your obedience. We have to be more scared of keeping God in rather than letting Him out. When you walk a life without compromise you already know and accept that God’s will is going to happen. It’s not about you in the lion’s den sometimes, it’s about the kings or people watching how you refuse to compromise. When you trust that God will shut the lion’s mouth, you are putting faith with action and that defeats compromise. When you continually walk for God all the warriors of heaven will fight for you.

We all have that lion; we all have that fiery furnace; we all have that unknown dream to translate, but when you don’t compromise what God is leading you to do, you better believe God’s army has your back full force and He will be the fourth man in the fire. He will send that angel to shut the lion’s mouth and after He walks you through the trial, he will show all the doubters just how real he is through you and then the Holy Spirit will go to work and before you know it, the one who was doubting and against you is bowing down to the only true God. So it takes faith with action, grace with renewal, and the boldness of the Holy Spirit and you can be without compromise.

I think it’s pretty cool how they knew the only way to get Daniel to break a law was to make up a law that said he couldn’t serve God. They knew he wouldn’t compromise praising God so they had a way to catch him up but when you stand for God, He will turn a demonic plot into a witness for the only true God.

When we compromise, we settle for something less than we originally found important to the situation because of something or someone. When you compromise you don’t give faith an opportunity; when you compromise you become vulnerable; when you compromise you accept standards that are lower than you originally desired, and lower than God originally intended. And when you compromise God’s intent and desire for your life, you compromise your sanctification…and compromising sanctification leads to not being set apart from the world…and not being set apart from the world leads to being in the world…and being in the world is being in darkness. Darkness leads to death and eternal death is what we as Christians call Hell. Please stay away from deadly compromise.