February 2, 2025 • 35 mins
What happens when you face the ultimate test of faith and come back stronger? Join me on this heartfelt journey as I return to podcasting after a year away, marked by the profound loss of my mother. I’ve found solace in my new home in North Carolina and am excited to share my plans for our weekly exploration of the book of Revelation. This episode is more than just an update—it's a call to prayer for our nation and a reminder of the ever-present challenge of staying vigilant in our faith against the formidable adversary we face.
We navigate the intricate theme of "Compromise, the Ultimate Gateway Drug" through the cautionary stories found in Acts 19 and Revelation 2. Drawing lessons from the seven sons of Sceva and the church in Pergamos, this discussion illuminates the subtle dangers of small compromises. From indulging in secular distractions to the risks of idol worship and immorality, I stress the necessity of prioritizing spiritual commitments. As we hold firm, rewards await us—symbolized by the hidden manna and the white stone with a new name, promising spiritual nourishment and divine recognition.
Inspired by a moving message from Joel C. Rosenberg, I explore the struggles of compromise in our spiritual lives, touching on real-life issues like social media distractions and personal battles. This is a heartfelt invitation to return to Jesus, embrace repentance and forgiveness, and nurture a close relationship with Him. Whether you're rekindling your faith or just beginning your spiritual journey, you're encouraged to seek a supportive church community and delve into the themes of Jesus' life, sacrifice, and imminent return. Let's grow together in faith, navigating life's messes with Jesus by our side.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Larry Thompson, chief of Staff.
Good afternoon, gang.
It's Larry, with the thoughts Ihave towards you, and I am here
and I'm going to be here.
I haven't been, I haven'tposted anything in over a year
(00:21):
and so, as some of you may know,I um, I lost my mom in 2024
after a protected battle with alot of different things, and
she's home and she's in a much,much, much better place.
She's in the presence of theLord and that is, uh, finally
(00:44):
now bringing me some peace.
So that's why I haven't beenhere, that's why I haven't done
anything.
Things are still wonderful herein North Carolina, where I
currently reside with my family,my wife and my mother-in-law,
and things are great here andthings are great here.
For those of you that I knowwill listen to this, in the
(01:06):
great state of Colorado, it is65 degrees here today, so you're
welcome.
In any case, we're going to getback to our study in Revelation
.
If you want the complete studyin this series, you're welcome
to it.
It's atthethoughtsihavetowardyoucom.
That website is active againand it is pulling all of the
(01:30):
podcast information.
You can get my podcast onanywhere.
You get your podcasts, pleasefollow if you're on Apple,
subscribe if you're everywhereelse so you never miss an
episode.
I'm going to be doing a lot ofrecording this weekend to get a
bunch of episodes up there, toget them lined up and ready to
drop.
The first one will drop on.
(01:51):
We've changed the day.
The first one's going to dropon Wednesday this week,
wednesday the first Wednesday inFebruary, and we're going to
drop them once a week onWednesdays.
I've changed that up a littlebit just simply because Sunday
(02:11):
seems to be a very busy day forfolks and with church and family
obligations and those kinds ofthings, and so I've changed it
up.
The beauty of a podcast is,whenever you're listening to it,
I'm right here with you and I'mthankful, as I always say to
everyone within the sound of myvoice, who's given me a listen,
who's rated my podcast.
Please do that.
Five stars is the acceptablerating so that we can beat the
(02:35):
algorithm and share the gospel,because, as I've said before
many times, there's no one Iwouldn't want to see in heaven.
Before many times there's noone I wouldn't want to see in
heaven.
So with that, as we get startedhere, we're going to be in
Revelation, chapter 2, verses 12through 17, today in a study
(02:56):
that I've entitled Compromise,the Ultimate Gateway Drug, and
let's open in a word of prayer,eight-way drug.
And let's open in a word ofprayer.
Heavenly Father, I give youthanks today for many things.
I give you thanks today for thestate of our country, for your
(03:18):
mercy, for your grace, lord, aswe move forward into another
season as a nation.
Lord, god, as I've talked aboutmany times before, we've got
two choices revival or not.
And, lord, I pray for a revivalthe likes of which no one has
(03:44):
ever seen, because, as I havesaid before, and I said it just
recently again, there's no one Iwouldn't want to see in heaven.
And thank you for allowing meto do a small part in making
that happen, in hopefully makingthat happen, lord, if it be
your will, that someone's lifewould be changed by the simple
(04:06):
words that are spoken here onthis platform, that would be an
amazing gift to me and to them.
Lord, god, I give you thanksfor all of our first responders.
They've been awfully busy overthe last couple of days the
crash in DC at Reagan National,the collision and then the
(04:34):
unexplained as yet explosiondowning I don't know what to
call it of the Angel Flightplane that was going to Missouri
.
Uh, they had uh, st Jude, had,um, made a girl's life better,
(04:56):
because that's what they do.
They made a person's lifebetter and, from what I'm
understanding this morning, thegirl's mother and the girl were
on the plane, and they are.
We pray home with you, lord.
God, I pray for the families.
I pray for those that aredealing with loss today, those
(05:16):
that woke up to a phone callthat they never wanted to
receive.
I pray for the bystanders thatwere hurt, damaged, or the one
that we know that was killed onthe ground.
Lord, I pray for that family aswell.
Lord God, help us to rememberthat we are all one people, we
(05:38):
are all your people, and all weneed to do is say yes, that's
all it's do is say yes, that'sall.
It's very, very simple.
In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
All right, so we're going tocontinue our study in the book
of Revelation.
As I said, we're in Revelation2, verses 12-17 for the core
(06:00):
message.
Verses 12 through 17 for thecore message.
Also, put your finger in Acts,chapter 19, picking up in verse
13, because that's going to bethe first place we're going to
(06:22):
be this afternoon.
So I don't know about you, but Ihave a wonderful pastor and I
still follow Pastor Ed Taylorand attend church online with my
Colorado family at CalvaryChurch.
And one time, very early in myfaith, I was playing around with
(06:43):
a couple of things thatprobably weren't well no, they
weren't.
They weren't probably not agood idea.
They weren't a good idea.
And I was playing around with acouple of things and I talked
to my pastor about it and hetold me something that I've
never forgotten.
He said Larry, no matter howmuch you know, no matter how
(07:07):
much you pray, no matter howmuch you spend time with the
Lord, spend time in scripture,you're never stronger than the
devil.
And, as I said, I've neverforgotten that.
And as we start today, I wantto impress upon you that, no
matter what you think, the devilis stronger than you are.
He's stronger than me.
The protection that we have isAlmighty God, and the only one
(07:33):
that can and has defeated Satanis Jesus Christ.
Okay, that's core to our beliefsystem, that's core to
everything we do.
We are travelers in this worldand we are not stronger than the
devil.
(07:53):
I want to give you an example.
As I said, open up to Acts 19and pick up in verse 13 for me.
(08:19):
It says it says Also, therewere seven sons of Sceva, a
Jewish chief priest, who did so.
Okay, so these are big shots,right, these are big shots.
And they're trying to exercisepower.
Okay, and they're trying toexercise power that's not theirs
(08:40):
to exercise, okay.
And so it says, picking up inverse 15, the evil spirit
answered and said Jesus, I know,and Paul, I know, but who are
you?
That's not a good sign.
(09:01):
It's not a good sign.
Then the man in whom the evilspirit was leapt on them,
overpowering them and prevailingagainst them, so that they fled
out of the house naked andwounded.
And again, that's Acts 19, 13through 16.
(09:21):
New King James.
It's a stark example of whathappens when we tangle with the
devil or his minions.
We lose, and we often losebadly.
This example is one of directconfrontation.
Today's study, today's study,deals with something that is
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more dangerous Compromise.
Turn back to the right, back tothe book of Revelation, and
pick up with me in chapter 2,starting in verse 12.
And we're going to read for awhile.
We're going to go through verse12, through verse 17.
(10:06):
Again, new King James Version.
And to the angel in the churchin Pergamos, write these things,
says he who has a sharp,two-edged sword.
I know your works and where youdwell where Satan's throne is
and where you dwell whereSatan's throne is, and you hold
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fast to my name.
And you held fast to my nameand did not deny my faith, even
in the days which Antipas was myfaithful martyr.
So this church has experienceda great loss.
One of their flock, one oftheir leaders, antipas, had been
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martyred for the faith.
It's unimaginable in theWestern mindset to be martyred
for the faith.
It truly is unimaginable tohave that happen, and we can't.
We can't fathom it.
But ask believers in Iran andIraq and China.
(11:18):
If you're interested.
There's a couple of resourcesthat you can look at to get a
feel for what martyrdom lookslike.
The first and best, in myestimation, is Fox's Book of
Martyrs.
You can get that on Amazon fora limited cost, and that's
(11:44):
something that I would recommendto put in your library for sure
.
Uh, and there are a couple ofother ones.
I'll I'll post them, uh thisafternoon on socials.
Uh, I'm on Instagram.
I'm on, uh, facebook.
Uh, the thoughts I have towardsyou.
Instagram is the same, thethoughts I have towards you.
I'll post those up today in areel so that everybody can see
(12:09):
those resources and hopefullyadd them to your library.
So then we go on and it saysAntipas, who was my faithful
martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
But I have a few things againstyou, because you have there
(12:33):
those who hold the doctrine ofBalaam, who taught Balak to put
stumbling blocks before thechildren of Israel, to eat
things sacrifice to idols and tocommit sexual immorality.
Okay, so they're believers andthey're playing around on the
(12:57):
edges.
They're eating things that havebeen sacrificed to idols.
The blood is not pure, the foodis not pure because it's been
sacrificed to idols, and they'recommitting sexual immorality
and yikes.
Okay, so you can't.
If I'm speaking to you directly, okay, you can't play around on
(13:22):
the edges.
That's what my pastor meantwhen he told me I wasn't
stronger than the devil.
You can't play around on theedges.
You can't have intercourseoutside of marriage and, yeah,
that includes porn.
Porn is adultery.
Jesus said in Matthew that ifyou look at a woman with lust in
(13:44):
your eyes, you've committedadultery with her already.
That's also any number ofdifferent compromises that you
might make.
It's football season.
You know it's football season.
Now the Super Bowl is coming up, so we've gone past the playoff
games and whatever else.
But how many people skip churchto watch a football game?
(14:06):
There's nothing wrong with that, right, we can do that.
Skip church once for a footballgame.
Okay, what happens the nextweek when you skip church
because you got yard work to doand you got to work on Monday.
Or you skip church because afriend has invited you over that
you haven't seen for a while.
You see, and it just builds andbuilds and that's what Jesus is
(14:31):
talking about here, stumblingblocks in front of the children
of Israel to eat things,sacrifice to idols, to commit
sexual immorality.
Thus you also have those whohold the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate,and we've talked about the
Nicolaitans in previous studiesas to why Jesus hated the.
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They were a warring tribe, theywere, they slaughtered folks.
I mean it was.
It was bad, bad, bad.
Repent, or else I will comequickly and will fight against
them with the sword of my mouth.
And will fight against themwith the sword of my mouth.
Now, he said he who has an earto hear, let him hear what the
(15:18):
Spirit says to the churches.
To him who overcomes, I willgive some of the hidden manna to
eat.
And I will give him a whitestone.
On that stone, a new namewritten, which no one knows
(15:38):
except him who receives it.
Again, just before this letter,just as before letters, address
the angel.
That's the pastor of the churchin Pergamos.
But, as always, we are thechurch, therefore it applies to
us, okay.
Jesus refers to himself as hewho has a sharp, two-edged sword
.
The edges of the sword are theword and judgment.
(16:02):
So on one side is scripture,the word of God, what God has
told us we are to do, to honorhim, to love him, to put no
other gods before him.
And that's what this church isdoing, that's what they're doing
(16:25):
, and it's bad news.
He basically says look, I'mgoing to come and get you and
I'm going to get rid of it all.
I'm going to rip it out, rootand stem.
Okay, going to come and get youand I'm going to get rid of it
all.
I'm going to rip it out, rootand stem, okay.
So Jesus refers to himself asthat sharp, two-edged sword
judgment and the word.
(16:46):
As we live this life we havebeen given, it seems.
As we live this life we havebeen given, it seems that we are
faced every day with decisions.
I'm often asked where I stand onthis issue or that and
(17:11):
sometimes, most of the time,truthfully, my mind is set to
focus on issues that I see onsocial media.
Anybody else have that problem?
You're scrolling through yourfeed and somebody says something
absolutely stupid and you'relike you're immediately fired up
.
You're like, oh, I can't do itand I bet you'll realize the
same thing occurs in your ownlife.
I bet you will there.
(17:31):
You are killing time.
Occurs in your own life, I betyou will there.
You are killing time scrollingthrough your socials and you see
someone, like I said, has madea statement that hits you wrong
Gross.
It's reprehensible.
So you come up with a sharpretort and a rejoinder and,
before you know it, you're offto the races.
(17:51):
You've responded Then he or shehas responded.
Now you're talking about his orher parentage and he's taking a
dig at your kids.
I mean, it's gotten horrible,right?
This is an example of compromiseand damage to your witness and
(18:18):
damage to your witness.
It's hard to tell someone thatJesus loves them after you've
bludgeoned them into submissionwith clever arguments.
It's next to impossible if youdon't live what you believe
every day and, of course we'renever going to do that, it's
never going to be perfect, butman, man, that tongue that lives
(18:41):
in our mouth, wow, and withsocial media now, it's so very
dangerous.
It's so very dangerous becauseyou can destroy your witness,
and then you've destroyed yourwitness in front of the world.
I don't care.
There have been severalcelebrities since the election
who have, you know, put upridiculous stuff on social media
(19:03):
and then they turn around.
After they get all kinds of badpress from it, they turn around
and delete the post.
I got news for you the post isthere forever.
You may not be able to see it,it's still there.
Okay, so you've hurt yourwitness, you've hurt who you are
as a Christian, and for us,it's so much more important than
that, because we're not tryingto be movie stars, we're trying
(19:26):
to follow Jesus, and that shouldcome out of our pores, folks.
That should come out of ourpores, folks that should come
out of our pores.
And so you know what exactlyhave we compromised?
(19:51):
Well, again, our witness.
And so think about it.
During the inflamedconversations, or better
referred to as screaming matches, are we sharing the truth of
Christ's love and the free giftof salvation?
More likely not.
We are giving into our carnal,sinful nature.
(20:12):
And that sinful nature, folks,is always right below the
surface.
As a person who was rescued fromaddiction to alcohol, I can
tell you that, you know, it'snot as often anymore, but there
(20:34):
are times when I think to myselfwow, you know, it'd be great to
have a drink.
Well, that's Satan In my headunbidden just shows up and he's
like hey, you know how?
About a nice bourbon?
That'd be great?
Well, no, because I know thatonce I stumbled down that road
(20:54):
again and I won't be stumblingat the beginning, but I promise
I'll be stumbling at the end.
I've destroyed my witness.
I can't go back.
And so let's, let's look atthis from from a perspective of
the social media piece.
I mean, it's bad enough, youknow.
(21:18):
It's bad enough that we'vegiven in to our carnal nature.
Right, it's bad enough thatthat happened.
But to take the situation tocompletion if you take the
situation rather to completion,you'll see the real damage.
If you take the situationrather to completion, you'll see
the real damage.
(21:42):
After the online row, the personyou were arguing with goes and
checks out your profile.
What do they see?
Pictures of your family.
At last week's church serviceposted verses from the Bible app
.
You asking for prayer on behalfof a friend Check, check, check
.
It's all there, right,beautiful family lover of Christ
.
You've probably even got aBible verse on your page in a
(22:03):
very prominent spot as your lifeverse and you put it up there
because, wow, that's cool, right?
So this person who you've justhollered at whether you were
right or wrong and we're goingto get to that whether you were
right or wrong, they move onwith one single thought.
So that's what Christians arelike and they're done For a
(22:29):
while.
I mean God will get hold ofthem.
They'll be given an opportunityto make a choice.
But you had that opportunity toshow them that choice and
because of the choices that youmade, that didn't happen.
Always remember you may be theonly person they ever meet who
is a believer.
That's heavy stuff.
(22:51):
That's heavy stuff.
I mean it is, I understand, Iget it, I live with that every
day.
This guy at the gas station Imay be the only person that he
meets.
That's a believer.
The lady at the grocery store Imay be the only person he meets
or she meets.
That's a believer.
No-transcript.
(23:24):
So I want you to take a look atone other verse.
I didn't tell you we wereturning here, but flip over to
the left just a little bit, tothe book of James, chapter 1,
verse 19.
It says be quick to listen,slow to speak and slow to get
angry.
I like that verse and commit itto memory.
(23:48):
We are expected to participate,and this is important.
Christians are expected toparticipate in the political
process, but always asambassadors of the Jesus Christ,
the Messiah.
Jesus who saved us, man, youknow.
(24:13):
So, yeah, you're going to getangry, it's going to happen.
And no, you don't have tosacrifice your principles.
No, no, no.
Tell them your principles.
Tell them where they come from,tell them why.
Tell them where they come from.
Tell them why.
Tell them why you stand for theright to life.
Tell them why you attended themarch.
(24:35):
Tell them why transgenderism isa wicked sin.
Tell them why.
But you know what.
You have to also know thatthese people are lost, and the
one thing that I will say isthat, as we watch all of the
(24:59):
things that have happened sincethe election, the folks that
didn't win the presidency and Idon't get involved in this stuff
on this podcast very oftenbecause of the fact that I feel
that sometimes it can get in theway of sharing the word, but
this is very important.
(25:20):
These people are lost.
They have made overarchinggovernment politics and all of
the different social experimentstheir religion.
They've made it their religionand if you view it that way, as
(25:44):
I've started to view it, youview it that way and you know
that they're lost, so love them.
You know the whole reason thispodcast started was I sat in my
church and listened to.
I've had the privilege to meethim a couple of times.
(26:04):
I listened to Joel C Rosenbergprivilege to meet him a couple
of times.
I listened to Joel C Rosenberg.
He's recently moved his familyback to Israel and he lives
there now and does fantasticwork for on the nation of Israel
as a messianic Jew, a Jew thatbelieves in Jesus.
(26:29):
And he said in the talk that inthe, in the message that he
delivered to my church thatSunday morning, he said you know
you've got to pray for yourenemies and, man, he got to love
your enemies.
And I thought I was convictedright there.
(26:55):
It's so hard and I get it sohard and the thing about
compromise and I use the exampleof social media.
But boy, we can talk aboutother things.
We can talk about other things.
We can talk about other things,uh, we can talk about, you know
.
We can talk about, um, pornaddiction.
(27:16):
We can talk about having aroaming eye for the ladies or
the gentlemen we can talk about,uh, uh, the, the, the.
The situation is.
The old quote is show me yourfriends and I'll show you your
(27:37):
future.
Do you have a friend in Jesus?
You know, because Jesus says uphere, and I don't want to miss
it, I don't want to miss it tohim who overcomes, I will give
some hidden manna to eat and Iwill give him a white stone, and
on that stone is a new namewritten, which no one knows
(28:00):
except him who receives it.
Jesus is always right there,he's always right there.
So if you've made the error andyou've made the mistake and
you've damaged your witness, weall have.
We all have.
I'm not putting myself aboveanyone else.
If you've made the mistake andyou've damaged your witness,
(28:21):
then so be it.
Go back to Jesus and ask himfor his forgiveness and he'll
give it to you and you pick upand you move on.
You pick up and you moveforward, walking with Jesus
every day.
And as we close, I want toleave you with a final thought
(28:43):
to ponder.
Compromise, as I said, is adangerous thing that sin leads
to.
It's a very dangerous thing.
You know, compromise is made tolook as though it's no big deal
.
A slip here, a slide there, andsoon our Bibles are gathering
(29:07):
dust and our prayer life isnon-existent.
That's when the devil turns thething on us.
Right In the beginning he wasall about it's no big deal, you
can handle it.
But once we start down thatslope, the accuser of the
(29:27):
brethren, as the Bible says,turns on us immediately and he
says you're terrible, you cannever go back to Jesus now
You've done too much.
As I said earlier, jesus isalways there.
Jesus is always there.
You don't know what, what Imean.
(29:53):
Those of you who've beenfollowing me for a long time and
those of you that are membersof my home church.
You guys know my story andmaybe I'll tell it again as we
kick this podcast off again.
Maybe I'll tell it again, Idon't know, we'll see again.
Maybe I'll tell it again, Idon't know, we'll see.
But all you have to do is repent, turn away and take his hand.
And if you'd like to do thattoday if you'd like to say you
(30:25):
know what it's a mess man, Ineed help.
I need help, I need to fix this, I need to help, I need help.
Don't fix it and then come toJesus.
Come to Jesus and get it fixed.
Get it fixed right.
So if you'd like to do thattoday, all you have to do is let
him in and you can just talk tohim.
You can pray something like this.
You can say dear Jesus, I knowI'm a sinner in need of a savior
(30:49):
.
Lord, god, I want to turn awayfrom the train wreck that my
life has been, the compromisesthat I've made in my life.
I want to turn away from thosetoday and I want to follow you
for the rest of my life.
I want you to be my Lord, myGod, my savior and my life.
I want to turn away from thosetoday and I want to follow you
for the rest of my life.
I want you to be my Lord, myGod, my Savior and my friend.
(31:10):
I'm sorry, jesus, and I loveyou, amen.
If you just prayed that prayerwith me, welcome to the family
of God.
I'm going to have some resourcesin the next couple of weeks to
come for those that have made adecision for Christ and, in the
(31:34):
meantime, find a church.
Find a Bible-believing churchin your area.
There are plenty of them allover the country.
Find a Bible-believing church.
Go to that Bible-believingchurch with your Bible in hand.
Open your Bible and learn aboutthe man who came, who gave up
(31:58):
his kingship and came to thisplanet, to this earth, walked
among us, talked, talked amongus, taught us, loved us, died
for us, because the only paymentfor sin is blood.
(32:19):
He died for us and then he roseagain on the third day, on a
glorious Sunday morning, defesin in the grave and sits at the
right hand of the Father.
And he will come again, as itsays, in glory, to judge the
living and the dead.
But before that and we're goingto get to that in the next
(32:42):
couple of chapters, so I'm justgoing to lay out a little teaser
Before that his followers, hisbelievers, those who have given
their lives to Christ, will beraptured from this planet before
the tribulation and we willreturn with him in glory, in his
(33:07):
glory, as he sets the worldright after the seven years of
tribulation.
Join me, won't you?
As I said, there's no one Iwouldn't want to see in heaven.
That's all the time I havetoday.
Gang, make it count, be blessed.
Larry Thompson, chief of Staff.
Good afternoon, gang.
It's Larry, with the thoughts Ihave towards you, and I am here
and I'm going to be here.
I haven't been, I haven'tposted anything in over a year
(00:21):
and so, as some of you may know,I um, I lost my mom in 2024
after a protected battle with alot of different things, and
she's home and she's in a much,much, much better place.
She's in the presence of theLord and that is, uh, finally
(00:44):
now bringing me some peace.
So that's why I haven't beenhere, that's why I haven't done
anything.
Things are still wonderful herein North Carolina, where I
currently reside with my family,my wife and my mother-in-law,
and things are great here andthings are great here.
For those of you that I knowwill listen to this, in the
(01:06):
great state of Colorado, it is65 degrees here today, so you're
welcome.
In any case, we're going to getback to our study in Revelation
.
If you want the complete studyin this series, you're welcome
to it.
It's atthethoughtsihavetowardyoucom.
That website is active againand it is pulling all of the
(01:30):
podcast information.
You can get my podcast onanywhere.
You get your podcasts, pleasefollow if you're on Apple,
subscribe if you're everywhereelse so you never miss an
episode.
I'm going to be doing a lot ofrecording this weekend to get a
bunch of episodes up there, toget them lined up and ready to
drop.
The first one will drop on.
(01:51):
We've changed the day.
The first one's going to dropon Wednesday this week,
wednesday the first Wednesday inFebruary, and we're going to
drop them once a week onWednesdays.
I've changed that up a littlebit just simply because Sunday
(02:11):
seems to be a very busy day forfolks and with church and family
obligations and those kinds ofthings, and so I've changed it
up.
The beauty of a podcast is,whenever you're listening to it,
I'm right here with you and I'mthankful, as I always say to
everyone within the sound of myvoice, who's given me a listen,
who's rated my podcast.
Please do that.
Five stars is the acceptablerating so that we can beat the
(02:35):
algorithm and share the gospel,because, as I've said before
many times, there's no one Iwouldn't want to see in heaven.
Before many times there's noone I wouldn't want to see in
heaven.
So with that, as we get startedhere, we're going to be in
Revelation, chapter 2, verses 12through 17, today in a study
(02:56):
that I've entitled Compromise,the Ultimate Gateway Drug, and
let's open in a word of prayer,eight-way drug.
And let's open in a word ofprayer.
Heavenly Father, I give youthanks today for many things.
I give you thanks today for thestate of our country, for your
(03:18):
mercy, for your grace, lord, aswe move forward into another
season as a nation.
Lord, god, as I've talked aboutmany times before, we've got
two choices revival or not.
And, lord, I pray for a revivalthe likes of which no one has
(03:44):
ever seen, because, as I havesaid before, and I said it just
recently again, there's no one Iwouldn't want to see in heaven.
And thank you for allowing meto do a small part in making
that happen, in hopefully makingthat happen, lord, if it be
your will, that someone's lifewould be changed by the simple
(04:06):
words that are spoken here onthis platform, that would be an
amazing gift to me and to them.
Lord, god, I give you thanksfor all of our first responders.
They've been awfully busy overthe last couple of days the
crash in DC at Reagan National,the collision and then the
(04:34):
unexplained as yet explosiondowning I don't know what to
call it of the Angel Flightplane that was going to Missouri
.
Uh, they had uh, st Jude, had,um, made a girl's life better,
(04:56):
because that's what they do.
They made a person's lifebetter and, from what I'm
understanding this morning, thegirl's mother and the girl were
on the plane, and they are.
We pray home with you, lord.
God, I pray for the families.
I pray for those that aredealing with loss today, those
(05:16):
that woke up to a phone callthat they never wanted to
receive.
I pray for the bystanders thatwere hurt, damaged, or the one
that we know that was killed onthe ground.
Lord, I pray for that family aswell.
Lord God, help us to rememberthat we are all one people, we
(05:38):
are all your people, and all weneed to do is say yes, that's
all it's do is say yes, that'sall.
It's very, very simple.
In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
All right, so we're going tocontinue our study in the book
of Revelation.
As I said, we're in Revelation2, verses 12-17 for the core
(06:00):
message.
Verses 12 through 17 for thecore message.
Also, put your finger in Acts,chapter 19, picking up in verse
13, because that's going to bethe first place we're going to
(06:22):
be this afternoon.
So I don't know about you, but Ihave a wonderful pastor and I
still follow Pastor Ed Taylorand attend church online with my
Colorado family at CalvaryChurch.
And one time, very early in myfaith, I was playing around with
(06:43):
a couple of things thatprobably weren't well no, they
weren't.
They weren't probably not agood idea.
They weren't a good idea.
And I was playing around with acouple of things and I talked
to my pastor about it and hetold me something that I've
never forgotten.
He said Larry, no matter howmuch you know, no matter how
(07:07):
much you pray, no matter howmuch you spend time with the
Lord, spend time in scripture,you're never stronger than the
devil.
And, as I said, I've neverforgotten that.
And as we start today, I wantto impress upon you that, no
matter what you think, the devilis stronger than you are.
He's stronger than me.
The protection that we have isAlmighty God, and the only one
(07:33):
that can and has defeated Satanis Jesus Christ.
Okay, that's core to our beliefsystem, that's core to
everything we do.
We are travelers in this worldand we are not stronger than the
devil.
(07:53):
I want to give you an example.
As I said, open up to Acts 19and pick up in verse 13 for me.
(08:19):
It says it says Also, therewere seven sons of Sceva, a
Jewish chief priest, who did so.
Okay, so these are big shots,right, these are big shots.
And they're trying to exercisepower.
Okay, and they're trying toexercise power that's not theirs
(08:40):
to exercise, okay.
And so it says, picking up inverse 15, the evil spirit
answered and said Jesus, I know,and Paul, I know, but who are
you?
That's not a good sign.
(09:01):
It's not a good sign.
Then the man in whom the evilspirit was leapt on them,
overpowering them and prevailingagainst them, so that they fled
out of the house naked andwounded.
And again, that's Acts 19, 13through 16.
(09:21):
New King James.
It's a stark example of whathappens when we tangle with the
devil or his minions.
We lose, and we often losebadly.
This example is one of directconfrontation.
Today's study, today's study,deals with something that is
(09:44):
more dangerous Compromise.
Turn back to the right, back tothe book of Revelation, and
pick up with me in chapter 2,starting in verse 12.
And we're going to read for awhile.
We're going to go through verse12, through verse 17.
(10:06):
Again, new King James Version.
And to the angel in the churchin Pergamos, write these things,
says he who has a sharp,two-edged sword.
I know your works and where youdwell where Satan's throne is
and where you dwell whereSatan's throne is, and you hold
(10:30):
fast to my name.
And you held fast to my nameand did not deny my faith, even
in the days which Antipas was myfaithful martyr.
So this church has experienceda great loss.
One of their flock, one oftheir leaders, antipas, had been
(10:56):
martyred for the faith.
It's unimaginable in theWestern mindset to be martyred
for the faith.
It truly is unimaginable tohave that happen, and we can't.
We can't fathom it.
But ask believers in Iran andIraq and China.
(11:18):
If you're interested.
There's a couple of resourcesthat you can look at to get a
feel for what martyrdom lookslike.
The first and best, in myestimation, is Fox's Book of
Martyrs.
You can get that on Amazon fora limited cost, and that's
(11:44):
something that I would recommendto put in your library for sure
.
Uh, and there are a couple ofother ones.
I'll I'll post them, uh thisafternoon on socials.
Uh, I'm on Instagram.
I'm on, uh, facebook.
Uh, the thoughts I have towardsyou.
Instagram is the same, thethoughts I have towards you.
I'll post those up today in areel so that everybody can see
(12:09):
those resources and hopefullyadd them to your library.
So then we go on and it saysAntipas, who was my faithful
martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
But I have a few things againstyou, because you have there
(12:33):
those who hold the doctrine ofBalaam, who taught Balak to put
stumbling blocks before thechildren of Israel, to eat
things sacrifice to idols and tocommit sexual immorality.
Okay, so they're believers andthey're playing around on the
(12:57):
edges.
They're eating things that havebeen sacrificed to idols.
The blood is not pure, the foodis not pure because it's been
sacrificed to idols, and they'recommitting sexual immorality
and yikes.
Okay, so you can't.
If I'm speaking to you directly, okay, you can't play around on
(13:22):
the edges.
That's what my pastor meantwhen he told me I wasn't
stronger than the devil.
You can't play around on theedges.
You can't have intercourseoutside of marriage and, yeah,
that includes porn.
Porn is adultery.
Jesus said in Matthew that ifyou look at a woman with lust in
(13:44):
your eyes, you've committedadultery with her already.
That's also any number ofdifferent compromises that you
might make.
It's football season.
You know it's football season.
Now the Super Bowl is coming up, so we've gone past the playoff
games and whatever else.
But how many people skip churchto watch a football game?
(14:06):
There's nothing wrong with that, right, we can do that.
Skip church once for a footballgame.
Okay, what happens the nextweek when you skip church
because you got yard work to doand you got to work on Monday.
Or you skip church because afriend has invited you over that
you haven't seen for a while.
You see, and it just builds andbuilds and that's what Jesus is
(14:31):
talking about here, stumblingblocks in front of the children
of Israel to eat things,sacrifice to idols, to commit
sexual immorality.
Thus you also have those whohold the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate,and we've talked about the
Nicolaitans in previous studiesas to why Jesus hated the.
(14:56):
They were a warring tribe, theywere, they slaughtered folks.
I mean it was.
It was bad, bad, bad.
Repent, or else I will comequickly and will fight against
them with the sword of my mouth.
And will fight against themwith the sword of my mouth.
Now, he said he who has an earto hear, let him hear what the
(15:18):
Spirit says to the churches.
To him who overcomes, I willgive some of the hidden manna to
eat.
And I will give him a whitestone.
On that stone, a new namewritten, which no one knows
(15:38):
except him who receives it.
Again, just before this letter,just as before letters, address
the angel.
That's the pastor of the churchin Pergamos.
But, as always, we are thechurch, therefore it applies to
us, okay.
Jesus refers to himself as hewho has a sharp, two-edged sword
.
The edges of the sword are theword and judgment.
(16:02):
So on one side is scripture,the word of God, what God has
told us we are to do, to honorhim, to love him, to put no
other gods before him.
And that's what this church isdoing, that's what they're doing
(16:25):
, and it's bad news.
He basically says look, I'mgoing to come and get you and
I'm going to get rid of it all.
I'm going to rip it out, rootand stem.
Okay, going to come and get youand I'm going to get rid of it
all.
I'm going to rip it out, rootand stem, okay.
So Jesus refers to himself asthat sharp, two-edged sword
judgment and the word.
(16:46):
As we live this life we havebeen given, it seems.
As we live this life we havebeen given, it seems that we are
faced every day with decisions.
I'm often asked where I stand onthis issue or that and
(17:11):
sometimes, most of the time,truthfully, my mind is set to
focus on issues that I see onsocial media.
Anybody else have that problem?
You're scrolling through yourfeed and somebody says something
absolutely stupid and you'relike you're immediately fired up
.
You're like, oh, I can't do itand I bet you'll realize the
same thing occurs in your ownlife.
I bet you will there.
(17:31):
You are killing time.
Occurs in your own life, I betyou will there.
You are killing time scrollingthrough your socials and you see
someone, like I said, has madea statement that hits you wrong
Gross.
It's reprehensible.
So you come up with a sharpretort and a rejoinder and,
before you know it, you're offto the races.
(17:51):
You've responded Then he or shehas responded.
Now you're talking about his orher parentage and he's taking a
dig at your kids.
I mean, it's gotten horrible,right?
This is an example of compromiseand damage to your witness and
(18:18):
damage to your witness.
It's hard to tell someone thatJesus loves them after you've
bludgeoned them into submissionwith clever arguments.
It's next to impossible if youdon't live what you believe
every day and, of course we'renever going to do that, it's
never going to be perfect, butman, man, that tongue that lives
(18:41):
in our mouth, wow, and withsocial media now, it's so very
dangerous.
It's so very dangerous becauseyou can destroy your witness,
and then you've destroyed yourwitness in front of the world.
I don't care.
There have been severalcelebrities since the election
who have, you know, put upridiculous stuff on social media
(19:03):
and then they turn around.
After they get all kinds of badpress from it, they turn around
and delete the post.
I got news for you the post isthere forever.
You may not be able to see it,it's still there.
Okay, so you've hurt yourwitness, you've hurt who you are
as a Christian, and for us,it's so much more important than
that, because we're not tryingto be movie stars, we're trying
(19:26):
to follow Jesus, and that shouldcome out of our pores, folks.
That should come out of ourpores, folks that should come
out of our pores.
And so you know what exactlyhave we compromised?
(19:51):
Well, again, our witness.
And so think about it.
During the inflamedconversations, or better
referred to as screaming matches, are we sharing the truth of
Christ's love and the free giftof salvation?
More likely not.
We are giving into our carnal,sinful nature.
(20:12):
And that sinful nature, folks,is always right below the
surface.
As a person who was rescued fromaddiction to alcohol, I can
tell you that, you know, it'snot as often anymore, but there
(20:34):
are times when I think to myselfwow, you know, it'd be great to
have a drink.
Well, that's Satan In my headunbidden just shows up and he's
like hey, you know how?
About a nice bourbon?
That'd be great?
Well, no, because I know thatonce I stumbled down that road
(20:54):
again and I won't be stumblingat the beginning, but I promise
I'll be stumbling at the end.
I've destroyed my witness.
I can't go back.
And so let's, let's look atthis from from a perspective of
the social media piece.
I mean, it's bad enough, youknow.
(21:18):
It's bad enough that we'vegiven in to our carnal nature.
Right, it's bad enough thatthat happened.
But to take the situation tocompletion if you take the
situation rather to completion,you'll see the real damage.
If you take the situationrather to completion, you'll see
the real damage.
(21:42):
After the online row, the personyou were arguing with goes and
checks out your profile.
What do they see?
Pictures of your family.
At last week's church serviceposted verses from the Bible app
.
You asking for prayer on behalfof a friend Check, check, check
.
It's all there, right,beautiful family lover of Christ
.
You've probably even got aBible verse on your page in a
(22:03):
very prominent spot as your lifeverse and you put it up there
because, wow, that's cool, right?
So this person who you've justhollered at whether you were
right or wrong and we're goingto get to that whether you were
right or wrong, they move onwith one single thought.
So that's what Christians arelike and they're done For a
(22:29):
while.
I mean God will get hold ofthem.
They'll be given an opportunityto make a choice.
But you had that opportunity toshow them that choice and
because of the choices that youmade, that didn't happen.
Always remember you may be theonly person they ever meet who
is a believer.
That's heavy stuff.
(22:51):
That's heavy stuff.
I mean it is, I understand, Iget it, I live with that every
day.
This guy at the gas station Imay be the only person that he
meets.
That's a believer.
The lady at the grocery store Imay be the only person he meets
or she meets.
That's a believer.
No-transcript.
(23:24):
So I want you to take a look atone other verse.
I didn't tell you we wereturning here, but flip over to
the left just a little bit, tothe book of James, chapter 1,
verse 19.
It says be quick to listen,slow to speak and slow to get
angry.
I like that verse and commit itto memory.
(23:48):
We are expected to participate,and this is important.
Christians are expected toparticipate in the political
process, but always asambassadors of the Jesus Christ,
the Messiah.
Jesus who saved us, man, youknow.
(24:13):
So, yeah, you're going to getangry, it's going to happen.
And no, you don't have tosacrifice your principles.
No, no, no.
Tell them your principles.
Tell them where they come from,tell them why.
Tell them where they come from.
Tell them why.
Tell them why you stand for theright to life.
Tell them why you attended themarch.
(24:35):
Tell them why transgenderism isa wicked sin.
Tell them why.
But you know what.
You have to also know thatthese people are lost, and the
one thing that I will say isthat, as we watch all of the
(24:59):
things that have happened sincethe election, the folks that
didn't win the presidency and Idon't get involved in this stuff
on this podcast very oftenbecause of the fact that I feel
that sometimes it can get in theway of sharing the word, but
this is very important.
(25:20):
These people are lost.
They have made overarchinggovernment politics and all of
the different social experimentstheir religion.
They've made it their religionand if you view it that way, as
(25:44):
I've started to view it, youview it that way and you know
that they're lost, so love them.
You know the whole reason thispodcast started was I sat in my
church and listened to.
I've had the privilege to meethim a couple of times.
(26:04):
I listened to Joel C Rosenbergprivilege to meet him a couple
of times.
I listened to Joel C Rosenberg.
He's recently moved his familyback to Israel and he lives
there now and does fantasticwork for on the nation of Israel
as a messianic Jew, a Jew thatbelieves in Jesus.
(26:29):
And he said in the talk that inthe, in the message that he
delivered to my church thatSunday morning, he said you know
you've got to pray for yourenemies and, man, he got to love
your enemies.
And I thought I was convictedright there.
(26:55):
It's so hard and I get it sohard and the thing about
compromise and I use the exampleof social media.
But boy, we can talk aboutother things.
We can talk about other things.
We can talk about other things,uh, we can talk about, you know
.
We can talk about, um, pornaddiction.
(27:16):
We can talk about having aroaming eye for the ladies or
the gentlemen we can talk about,uh, uh, the, the, the.
The situation is.
The old quote is show me yourfriends and I'll show you your
(27:37):
future.
Do you have a friend in Jesus?
You know, because Jesus says uphere, and I don't want to miss
it, I don't want to miss it tohim who overcomes, I will give
some hidden manna to eat and Iwill give him a white stone, and
on that stone is a new namewritten, which no one knows
(28:00):
except him who receives it.
Jesus is always right there,he's always right there.
So if you've made the error andyou've made the mistake and
you've damaged your witness, weall have.
We all have.
I'm not putting myself aboveanyone else.
If you've made the mistake andyou've damaged your witness,
(28:21):
then so be it.
Go back to Jesus and ask himfor his forgiveness and he'll
give it to you and you pick upand you move on.
You pick up and you moveforward, walking with Jesus
every day.
And as we close, I want toleave you with a final thought
(28:43):
to ponder.
Compromise, as I said, is adangerous thing that sin leads
to.
It's a very dangerous thing.
You know, compromise is made tolook as though it's no big deal
.
A slip here, a slide there, andsoon our Bibles are gathering
(29:07):
dust and our prayer life isnon-existent.
That's when the devil turns thething on us.
Right In the beginning he wasall about it's no big deal, you
can handle it.
But once we start down thatslope, the accuser of the
(29:27):
brethren, as the Bible says,turns on us immediately and he
says you're terrible, you cannever go back to Jesus now
You've done too much.
As I said earlier, jesus isalways there.
Jesus is always there.
You don't know what, what Imean.
(29:53):
Those of you who've beenfollowing me for a long time and
those of you that are membersof my home church.
You guys know my story andmaybe I'll tell it again as we
kick this podcast off again.
Maybe I'll tell it again, Idon't know, we'll see again.
Maybe I'll tell it again, Idon't know, we'll see.
But all you have to do is repent, turn away and take his hand.
And if you'd like to do thattoday if you'd like to say you
(30:25):
know what it's a mess man, Ineed help.
I need help, I need to fix this, I need to help, I need help.
Don't fix it and then come toJesus.
Come to Jesus and get it fixed.
Get it fixed right.
So if you'd like to do thattoday, all you have to do is let
him in and you can just talk tohim.
You can pray something like this.
You can say dear Jesus, I knowI'm a sinner in need of a savior
(30:49):
.
Lord, god, I want to turn awayfrom the train wreck that my
life has been, the compromisesthat I've made in my life.
I want to turn away from thosetoday and I want to follow you
for the rest of my life.
I want you to be my Lord, myGod, my savior and my life.
I want to turn away from thosetoday and I want to follow you
for the rest of my life.
I want you to be my Lord, myGod, my Savior and my friend.
(31:10):
I'm sorry, jesus, and I loveyou, amen.
If you just prayed that prayerwith me, welcome to the family
of God.
I'm going to have some resourcesin the next couple of weeks to
come for those that have made adecision for Christ and, in the
(31:34):
meantime, find a church.
Find a Bible-believing churchin your area.
There are plenty of them allover the country.
Find a Bible-believing church.
Go to that Bible-believingchurch with your Bible in hand.
Open your Bible and learn aboutthe man who came, who gave up
(31:58):
his kingship and came to thisplanet, to this earth, walked
among us, talked, talked amongus, taught us, loved us, died
for us, because the only paymentfor sin is blood.
(32:19):
He died for us and then he roseagain on the third day, on a
glorious Sunday morning, defesin in the grave and sits at the
right hand of the Father.
And he will come again, as itsays, in glory, to judge the
living and the dead.
But before that and we're goingto get to that in the next
(32:42):
couple of chapters, so I'm justgoing to lay out a little teaser
Before that his followers, hisbelievers, those who have given
their lives to Christ, will beraptured from this planet before
the tribulation and we willreturn with him in glory, in his
(33:07):
glory, as he sets the worldright after the seven years of
tribulation.
Join me, won't you?
As I said, there's no one Iwouldn't want to see in heaven.
That's all the time I havetoday.
Gang, make it count, be blessed.
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