The Conquest of Compromise, Part 2

We have been looking at the life of Lot for nine weeks. This is week number 10, looking at the cost of compromise in his life. His name, Lot, means to cover, to veil. And compromise is a covering, a covering of my true identity. Lot's whole life screams of compromise. He covered his true identity to the people of Sodom, to even his own wife and to his children. And that's what compromise does. It hides the reality of our identity in Christ. A good definition of compromise we gave to you last week is the conscious choice contrary to one's creed or convictions, the consequences of which seriously threatens one's character, conduct, and commitment.

So we began by looking at the commencement of compromise. We told you it was wordlessness. We need to be word specialists. We need to know the word of God. The word of God must dwell in us richly. It must be at home in our hearts. When it's not, compromise comes easier. So the commencement of compromise is wordlessness. The cause of compromise is worldliness. Wordlessness always leads to worldliness. If I'm not a man of the word, a woman of the word, I become a man or woman of the world. There's something that governs my life.

There's something that causes me to make the decisions I make. There's some authority that I obey. It's either scripture or society. It's either the word or the world. But if wordlessness is where compromise begins, worldliness is what causes it. We saw that in Lot's life. He cared for the world. He was companion with the world, contaminated by the world, controlled by the world, conformed to the world. His wife was condemned along with the world. And then we told you that the consequences of compromise is wretchedness.

It affects my soul in such a way that the misery cannot be explained because that's what happens. That's why the Bible tells us in 2 Peter 2 that Lot's soul was tormented day and night. He was miserable in his soul. And that's unfortunate. And the unique thing about the life of Lot is that we were asked a question at a leadership meeting on Monday night, when was Lot declared righteous? Because we know he's a righteous man. When was he declared righteous? We don't know. All we know is that 2 Peter 2 is in the context of rescuing righteous Lot from Sodom.

So sometime while he was in Sodom, or maybe before, he was declared righteous by God. We don't know when it was. It's just hard to believe with the life that he lived that he was a righteous man. But because the Bible tells us he was, we believe what the Bible says.

But yet his soul was tormented. His soul was uneasy all the time. And that's how you know that the Spirit is really working on your soul. That you don't rest at night. You don't sleep in comfort. There is a constant turmoil in your soul when you don't live for Christ and you've compromised his word. And that's what happened to Lot. And then we told you that the conquest of compromise is wholeness. Let me explain that to you.

Wholeness. We began last week by helping you understand that wholeness begins when I install Christ as my supreme priority, my supreme authority. Installing Christ as my priority. Lot never did this. God was not a priority for Lot. But his own welfare was his priority. His own pleasure was his priority. So when you install Christ as the priority of your life, we talked about this last week, you proclaim the Christ. You portray the Christ. You please the Christ. You are the kind of person that seeks to pursue all there is about the Christ because he is number one in your life.

And that's where we left off last week. If you want to live a whole life as a believer, you need to conquer compromise. You do that by installing Christ as a priority. Number two, you need to nurture your spirituality.

You need to nurture your spirituality. This is so crucial. Why? Because you need to grow in your walk with the Lord. This is where the word comes into your life and it is at home in your heart. You know, I would like to believe, and I don't know this because I don't know your heart. I would like to believe and I will assume that you are here because you want to grow and nurture your spirituality. Why else would you come tonight? Why else would you be here? I would think that anybody who would want to nurture their spirituality would do all they could to be under and in the word of God, because they want to grow in their walk with the Lord.

How do you do that? If you got your Bible, turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter six for a moment. Deuteronomy chapter six. One thing about Lot is that you never read anywhere in scripture where he would nurture his own spiritual life. You read a lot about Abraham praying, building altars to the Lord, worshiping the Lord, honoring the Lord, but never of Lot. He didn't do that. And so it's very easy to compromise when your spiritual life's going, you know, down the tank. You got to be able to nurture your spiritual walk.

So important. In the book of Deuteronomy, the nation is about to embark on the land of promise. And in Deuteronomy, Moses reiterates the law of God to the nation. He reviews it for them. He reiterates it to them. They need to know what to do when they get into the land. They need to know how to live for the living God in the land of Canaan. And so he says to them, these words, verse one, now this Deuteronomy chapter six. Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

So you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all the statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged. You need to do what God says.

Oh, Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it. That it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey here. Oh, Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up, how do you nurture your spirituality?

Let me give you four simple principles from this text. Okay, here they are. Number one, listen intently to God.

Listen intently. He says in verse three, oh, Israel, you should listen. That was Israel's problem from the very beginning. They just never listened. They heard, but didn't listen.

That's why the Bible says in James one, let every one of you be quick to the hearing of the word of God.

Be quick to hear. This is my beloved son. The Lord said, listen to him. Everything is about listening to what God says that that's why I'm glad that you're here because to some degree you have, you have demonstrated that you want to listen to what God says.

You want to hear his word. You want to understand his word. You want to apply his word. That's why, that's why you're here. So listen intently and then you need to learn intensely. He says, oh, Israel, you should listen and be careful. Be careful. Not only do you need to listen intently, but you need to learn intensely. Be careful how you listen.

Be careful how you hear. Be careful how you learn what it is you're listening to. And then he says, be careful to do it. So not only do you listen intently and learn intensely, but you must live intentionally. You must do it. You intentionally live what you have just heard. You intentionally live out the principles you have learned. If you listen to it and you learn it, you'll live it. If you listen and don't learn, you don't live it. So listen intently to what God says.

Then learn intensely from what God says. Then live intentionally for God based on what he says. And then love incessantly. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And then you need to lead instructively. You shall teach them to your children, he says, when you walk by the way, when you sit by the side through everyday things in life, you need to do this. Why? Well, if you read on, he says this in verse number 10, then it should come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land, which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you great and splendid cities, which you did not build that houses full of good things, which you did not fill in human cisterns, which you did not dig vineyards and all of trees, which you did not plant and you eat and are satisfied.

Watch yourselves that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You shall fear only the Lord your God. You should worship him and swear by his name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the people who surround you for the Lord your God is a jealous God. Watch yourselves. Why? Because you must worship only me. Be careful that when you go and you live in homes you didn't build and drink water from cisterns you didn't dig and live in cities that you didn't build and and all of a sudden you have all these these things at your fingertips that you forget me and your affection is stolen.

Here's a principle you need to understand and this is what the Lord is telling Israel. Devotion always guides affection. Affection always governs direction and direction always gives way to either maturation or deterioration. Let me give it to you again.

Devotion always guides affection. Whatever you're devoted to you'll be affectionate toward. That's why the Lord says be careful. Watch out that they that you don't you fear only me that you're devoted only to me that you worship only me no other God because if your devotion is sidetracked your affections will go a different direction. So devotion will always guide my affection and my affection will always govern my direction which way I go toward the Lord or away from the Lord and direction always gives way to maturation or deterioration.

I'm either going to grow my walk with the Lord or I'm going to go further from my walk with the Lord. Who you devoted to and so the Lord God of Israel says you need to listen you need to learn you need to live love and lead because when you go into this land watch out you'll be tempted to compromise. You'll be tempted to go after other gods and I am a jealous God. I want you for myself. I don't want to give you to anybody else. You're mine. He wants them to nurture their own spirituality. He wants them to grow deep in their walk with him.

He wants them to love him and love only him. Do you nurture your spirituality? I was talking to to my son Kade the other day two days ago and he was saying you know I gotta go. I said where you going? I got Bible study. This is Monday night. He said oh okay yeah on Monday night we got Bible study with the team. On Tuesday I have Bible study with my small group. On Wednesday I got Bible study with my church and on Thursday I have FCA fellowship of Christian athlete Bible study. I said uh do you go to class?

He said dad class is extracurricular here at Indiana State. I'm here to play football study the Bible and if need be go to class. He says this is important dad that we have a Bible study with the players. It's important dad that I spend time in the word with my church. It's important dad that I do these things. He's telling me it's important dad that my own spiritual life is nurtured on this secular campus that I that spending time in the word of the Lord and growing deep in my walk with God. You see that's the way all of us need to be.

See I don't make him go to Bible study. I don't make him go to church. You know he lives you know 2,000 miles away. Those are choices he must make as a young man at 20 years of age. But if you don't nurture your spirituality you're going to become a wordless person and wordlessness will always lead to worldliness. It just does. You need to be in and under the word of God constantly. There's no other way to say it. If you're not you will compromise God's word. You will go a different direction because your devotion has been stolen and therefore you'll compromise.

So install Christ as your priority. Nurture your own spirituality. Number three you need to make sure that you turn from all iniquity.

You turn from all iniquity. If you are nurturing your spirituality you will turn from iniquity. But if you like to dabble in iniquity, you'd like to play with iniquity, that's because you're not nurturing your own spiritual inner man and it means you haven't installed Christ as a priority in your life. If Christ is a priority I want to know Christ. If Christ is supreme I want to grab all I can about him and if I do I'll realize how holy he is and I will turn from iniquity. You turn from all iniquity.

I love what the psalmist said in psalm 119. When the psalmist said the Lord is my portion I promise to keep your words. I sought your favor with all my heart. Be gracious to me according to your word. I considered my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies. In other words I considered the ways of God and while I was going away from your testimonies I turned them back to follow your testimonies, to follow your word. I hastened and did not delay to keep your commandments. The psalmist said in in psalm 101 these words.

The psalmist said I will sing of loving kindness and justice to you oh Lord. I will sing praises. I will give heed to the blameless way. When will you come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. That's a man who turns away from iniquity. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not fasten its grip on me. A perverse heart shall depart from me. I will know no evil he says. Whoever secretly standards his neighbor him I will destroy.

No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure. He wants to turn away from all iniquity. My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me. He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me. He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house. He who speaks falsehood should not maintain his position before me. Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land so as to cut off from the city of the Lord all those who do iniquity.

He wanted to turn away from iniquity. He wanted to leave sin behind. That's what the Bible says in 1st Timothy, I'm sorry 1st Corinthians 6, flee immorality.

1st Corinthians 10, flee idolatry. 1st Timothy 6, flee the love of money. Run, run from those things. Turn away from all iniquity if you want not to compromise. But our problem is that we dabble in sin. We do. We play around with sin. We play close to the fire and the next thing you know we're going to get burned because we're not willing to turn away from iniquity. Install Christ as a priority. Nurture your spirituality. Turn away from all iniquity. And then number four, enter into accountability.

Enter into accountability. In other words, you willingly put yourself in a situation where you now are accountable. We can't make you accountable. You must want to be held accountable because if you are, you'll be honest, you'll be truthful, you'll be willing to tell us what's going on. Now when I say enter into accountability, if you're married, your marriage partner is your accountability partner. They know you the best. They know you better than anybody else. That's the person you're accountable to.

Now you can be accountable to other people. You can do that. But the people who know you the best are the ones you are to enter into accountability with. They can ask the tough questions. They know the tough questions to ask. You can fool those that are not a part of your house because they don't live with you. But the ones you live with you cannot fool, can you? Because they know all the bad things you say and do. So you're held accountable by the ones you live with. If you're a man, you're accountable to your wife.

If you're a wife, you're accountable to your husband. That's why it wasn't good for Adam to be alone, right? God gave him a helpmate. God knew it wasn't good for Adam to be alone. So he gave him the perfect partner that would minister to him, alongside of him, for him. And so therefore, God gives you the exact partner to do that. And it becomes a supreme thing. Now if you're not married, you enter into accountability with somebody that you're not married to. Someone that will say, another man if you're a man, another woman if you're a woman, and say, would you hold me accountable to this or to that in my life?

I really want to grow my walk with the Lord. I want to turn away from iniquity. I want to spend time in the Word of God on my knees. So important. Would you hold me accountable in those areas so that I can know that someone's going to ask me the tough questions? Let me ask you a question.

Who is it that you know that can get in your face? You have a friend like that? If you don't have a friend like that, you don't have any friends. You got acquaintances. You don't have any friends. Who's going to get in your face and say, like Nathan said to David, you're the man. You're the man. You got to have people that will hold you accountable. They're willing to get in your face when you're foolish, when you sin, and say, you can't do that. See, most of us don't have friends like that because our friends don't want to be treated like that.

So they won't do to you because you don't want them, they don't want you to do to them. See, that's how they get around that. So they don't want to ask too difficult a question because that means you're going to ask them a difficult question and they don't have to answer it. So they're going to not ask you the difficult question. That's why you have to enter into accountability. You have to be able to enter into a relationship with someone that will get in your face, ask you the tough questions and say, if necessary, you're the man.

You got to get it right and you got to do it now. We all need those kinds of people. You know, I praise the Lord for my wife. She's that kind of person. I know you see her as Lori, but this tall, you know, not real big and frail. Oh no, she's a barracuda. You know, she goes after me, man. It's a good thing. And she asked the tough questions and she is willing to do that. And that's why our marriage is as great as it is because of her willingness and my willingness to hold each of us accountable in our walk with the Lord, our testimony at the church, our lives with our families.

You know, that's so important. And, you know, we all need that. We all necessarily don't want it, but we all need that. That's why we enter into accountability. That's why in the book of Ecclesiastes the fourth chapter, ninth verse, it says, woe to the man who has no one to pick him up when he falls. Right. But a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. That is, if you are with someone who's able to pick you up, Galatians chapter six, the person who's able to hold up a fallen brother, those kinds of people are very valuable in the church.

Have you entered into accountability? If you're married, have you talked to your wife and your husband about, hey, this is my life. I want you to hold me accountable in these areas. You know, my weaknesses, you know, when I do this or do that, I want you to call me into account. I want you to do that because I need to recognize when I'm in error. I need to recognize when I'm wrong. And even though I might, I might recognize I'm wrong. I need to be able to accountable to you in that area. But that's, that takes a mature person to do that.

Are you willing to do that? Enter into accountability so that your words, your actions, your eyes, your lifestyle, your habits are all called into question when they're in error by someone who loves you the most, the ones closest to you. That's valuable. Install Christ as your priority. Nurture your own spirituality. Turn from all iniquity, enter into accountability. Number five, guard against the enemy. Guard against the enemy. Oh, the enemy has a strategy. It's called the wiles of the devil Ephesians chapter six.

He has a strategy to beguile the sinner or to blind the sinner and beguile the saint. And that strategy is a severe strategy. He will cause all kinds of deception, doubt, discord, division. He has a strategy. He wants to divide your marriage, your home. He wants to, he's the number one homemaker that's ever existed.

Homebreaker, heartbreaker, homebreaker, not homemaker, homebreaker. Sorry. Wow. That, that went all messed up, but he wants to break up your home, break up your marriage, break up your church. He wants to do all those things. He doesn't want the church to thrive. He doesn't want Christians to share their faith. He doesn't want people to live for Christ. He doesn't want your marriage to be a model for others to follow. He doesn't want your children to be obedient to the Lord. He wants to do all we can to destroy you.

So his strategy is very severe, very strategic. That's why we have what the Bible calls the sword of the spirit and the breastplate of righteousness, the armor of God, the shield of faith, those things that Paul tells us to take up. Why? Because they are, there are weapons of war. We need to resist Satan, resist the devil. He will flee. Resist him how? As Peter says, steadfast in the faith. It's that, it's that, that Greek terminology that speaks of a phalanx where there can't be any, any broken areas in this pivotal phalanx that's strong enough not to let any peace broken so that the enemy can get through.

It's a wall of defense that we need to install as we guard our hearts and homes against the attacks of the enemy. They are everywhere. And sometimes we don't even know it. We think there are arguments in our homes because we don't get along with one another. You don't get along with one another because Satan and his wiles and the desire to divide your family. Your enemy is not your neighbor. Your enemy is not your wife. Your enemy is not anybody that you work with. Your enemy is Satan. He's the enemy.

He's the foe. That's why he goes about at first Peter 5, 8 as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

He wants to destroy your testimony. He wants to destroy your family. Guard against the enemy. Take up the whole armor of God. Within that armor is the weapon of prayer because prayer is woven in and through each and every piece of the armor, whether it's the belt, the truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, your feet are, are prepared or are fitted with the gospel of peace. You have the sword of the spirit in prayer is woven in between each piece of that armor because you need to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might guard against the enemy.

Number six, you need to respect, respect your ministry. God's given you a ministry. Paul says over in the book of, of first Timothy, first Timothy chapter chapter one, Paul says this, he says, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me in to service.

Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love, which are found in Christ. Jesus is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason, I found mercy set in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life.

God had put him into service, put him into ministry. Do you know, we don't respect the ministry that God has given us enough. We are ambassadors for the living God. We are spokespeople for the kingdom of God. We are soldiers in the army of Christ. And God has given us this ministry, this ministry of reconciliation that we don't respect near enough, because if we did, we'd realize that our testimony reigns supreme when we go out and speak the truth about God. People are looking at our lives to see if what we're saying is really true.

We need to respect the ministry that's been entrusted to us. Why? Because we are saying to God, we are grateful that you have put us in this ministry, that you have made us children of the living God, that you made us citizens of your kingdom, and that Lord, now we are representatives of you in this world, whether it's at my school, whether it's at my workplace, whether it's in my neighborhood, no matter where it is, I am a representative of the living God. Do we respect the ministry that God has given to us?

And of course, what is your number one ministry? It's always your family, right? If your ministry doesn't work at home, it doesn't work at all, right? Because that's where everybody knows you the best. And so your family is your number one ministry, and so you need to respect your ministry with your family enough to not compromise on the truth.

Lot did not do that. He didn't respect his ministry. He was a righteous man, but he covered that righteousness so that others wouldn't see it. He didn't respect it enough to let everybody know about it, that he was a child of the living God and wanted to serve the one true God of Israel. He didn't do that because he didn't respect the ministry that was given to him by the living God. How about you? You do that? Install Christ as a priority. Nurture your own spirituality. Turn from all iniquity. Enter into accountability.

Guard against the enemy. Respect your ministry. Number seven? Seven. Identify with the godly. Who did Lot identify with in Sodom? The ungodly. There was nobody godly in Sodom. There was only one righteous person. He would identify with the godly when he was Uncle Abraham. When he left Uncle Abraham, who did he identify with now? You need to identify with the godly person. The reason we compromise is because we identify more with the ungodly than we do with the godly. That's why it's so important.

We read it earlier, Psalm 119, 63. The psalmist said these words, I am a companion of all those who fear you and of those who keep your precepts. Isn't that good? I'm a companion of all those who fear you and keep your precepts. Who are you companion with? Who do you hang out with? Who are your friends? Do you identify with the godly ones? The Bible says in Psalm 26, Psalm 26, it says, I do not sit with deceitful men, nor will I go with pretenders.

I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. He made that commitment. We need to learn to identify with people who love Christ, who are godly people. That's why, and you know Psalm 1, right? Psalm 1 is so precious when it comes to this, when it says, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law, he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season.

Its leaf does not wither, and whatever he does, he prospers. He identifies with the godly, not the ungodly. Who do you hang out with? Who are your friends? Who do you follow? Can we really expect not to compromise if we hang around with people who live a life of compromise? We will. We get influenced by those people. Bad company always corrupts good morals. That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15. It just does. We got to be careful about that. We need to hang out with people who love Christ, who want to serve Christ, who want to honor Christ, because that affects us as well for the good.

So identify with the godly. Next, treasure your family. Treasure your family. Do you think Lot treasured his family? No, he offered his daughters to the men of the city. He didn't treasure his family. Did he treasure his wife? I don't think so. She was an unrighteous person, as far as we know. The Bible never says she was righteous. Do you really think he treasured his wife as his most prized possession, but not trying to teach her about the Lord God by trying to explain to her the truth? Did he really treasure his wife by keeping her in that environment, allowing her to live in that environment, his children to remain in Sodom?

Do you think he treasured his family by living there year after year after year when his own soul was tormented day and night? I don't think so. Do you treasure your family? Does your wife know that she is your most prized possession? 1 Peter 3 verse number 7, honor husbands, honor your wives, honor them as your most precious possession. Does your wife know that she is treasured by you? That should be a question that every man asks his wife before he goes to bed. Honey, were you treasured by me today?

If not, tell me how I did not treat you as my ultimate treasure. Ask your wife that question before you go to bed. There's your accountability. And how do I know you're accountable to that? Because your wife is hearing what I'm saying. She's with you. Ask her, did I treat you as my most prized possession today? Every day, ask your wife that question. Can you imagine what that would be like? You'd get tired of hearing, no, you didn't. No, you blew it. No, no, no, speak to the hand. No, yeah, no, yeah.

You know, how many times are you going to hear that before you go to bed? You know what? What do I need to do to treat you as my most prized possession? And then begin to treat her that way. Because then you'd hear one day, you said, honey, did I treat you as my most prized treasure? Oh, baby, you did. Yes. Now you're on the right path. See? And that's what you want to hear. Do you treasure your family? Because you see, if your wife is your treasure, you're not going to compromise your marriage, right?

Your testimony, your family, because she's the treasure. Your children are your gifts from the Lord. They're your treasures. You want to treasure your family. I love what it says over in Psalm 78, when it says, listen, all my people to my instruction, incline your ear to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known in our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come praise of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous works that he has done for established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

It's that reminder to fathers to instruct their children, to treasure their family, to teach them the ways of God so that they wouldn't be like their stubborn, rebellious fathers who did not do that. And look where it led them. Do you treasure your family? Lot didn't do that. How could he overcome compromise by not treasuring his family? He compromised his family. How could he overcome compromise if he didn't respect the ministry that God had given to him? His ministry simply was to be as your ministry is, salt and light.

That's it. Salt in a decaying world, light in a dark world. A decaying world needs salt because salt retards corruption. A dark world needs light because light is that which radiates, radiates and reflects Christ. And so therefore, Lot was not salt. Lot was not light. The Bible says in Matthew 5, we who are the children of God are salt and are light.

We have to shake the salt and shine the light. So people will see and know that Christ reigns supreme. Lot did not respect his ministry enough to do that. Did not treasure his family enough to do that. That needs to happen in your life and in mine. And lastly, yearn for eternity. Yearn for eternity. Remember Hebrews 11? Hebrews 11 verse number 13, speaking of the great Hebrew hall of faith, all these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth for those who say such things, make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

Did Lot make it clear that he was seeking a country, not his own? No. No, he veiled that, but Abraham made it clear. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have an opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them. They yearn for that great city. They yearn for the promises of God. They yearn for the eternal city of God.

They yearn for eternity. The Christmas season is so great because during Christmas, you reflect on the incarnation, right? God becoming man, God coming down to us. And when you begin to reflect on the incarnation, you can then finally realize the celebration.

What are we celebrating? God, not just among us, God actually in us. So once you reflect on the incarnation, then you realize the celebration, which then allows you to simply radiate with anticipation. He's going to come again. And he yearned for eternity. Now, if you take the first letter of each phrase, what does it spell?

Integrity, right? Because integrity is wholeness. The conquest of compromise is wholeness. Integrity is a Latin word that means complete, whole. And in order for you to overcome compromise, you must be a man or a woman of integrity. Now, here's something about integrity you need to understand. You never have a little bit of integrity. You either have integrity or you don't. It's like a woman who's pregnant, right? She never says, I'm almost pregnant. She's either pregnant or she's not. There's no in between, right?

You're either with child or you're not. You either have integrity or you don't. It's as simple as that. And the Bible says over in Proverbs chapter 20, verse number seven, a righteous man who walks in his integrity, how blessed are his sons after him.

You realize that if you overcome compromise and are a man of integrity, you will bless the socks off your sons. Your sons need to see a trustworthy, righteous leader up close in person. And if you are a man who is blameless and walks in integrity, it will do wonders for your children. It says in chapter 19 of Proverbs, the first verse, better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool.

You can lose your money. That's okay. You can't afford to lose your integrity. The Bible says over in the 11th chapter of Proverbs, these words, verse three, the integrity of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroy them.

First part, Abraham, second part, Lot. He was destroyed. His life, his testimony, his ministry. But Abraham, father of our faith, the integrity of one's heart is that which guides him. We need to be men and women of integrity. That's how you overcome compromise. That's how you don't fall away from what you believe and hold dear. And that should be our commitment. What you take away from the study of Lot's life is, yeah, you learn a lot about loss because he lost everything. He lost it all. He lost everything that mattered in life.

And yet we don't have to repeat that. We need not repeat that. If we follow the principles of what it means to live a life of integrity, we can overcome all of that. Listen to what the Lord God said in 1 Kings chapter nine. Now it came about when Solomon finished building the house of the Lord and the king's house and all that Solomon desired to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

And the Lord said to him, I've heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before me. I've consecrated this house, which you have built by putting my name there forever. And my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually. As for you, if you will walk before me as your father, David walked in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I've commanded, commanded you and will keep my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever.

Solomon, if you, if you follow me as your father, David followed me. And someone said, well, didn't David falter? Didn't David fail? Didn't David fall? Yep. Yep. He did. But the emblem of integrity is always confession, right? And he, although he faltered, although he failed, he was forgiven. He was forgiven by almighty God. Meaning to say that no matter what your life has been like up to this point, forgiveness is always available by the living God. And David was a man after God's own heart, right?

That's what it means to be a man of integrity after God's heart. Did he fail? Yep. Did he fail miserably? Yep. Did it affect his family? Yep. But he becomes a human standard. He's not the high standard. He's the human standard. Christ is the high standard. He says, I will establish your throne forever. Just as I promised to your father, David saying, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. But the, but all of Jesus scripture are the biggest butts in the world. But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statutes, which I've set before you and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land, which I've given them.

And the house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight. So Israel would become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, why has the Lord done thus to this land, to this house? And they will say, because they forsook the Lord, their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and adopted other gods and worship them and serve them. Therefore, the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.

And that's exactly what happened. Isn't it? They compromised. If you walk by and say, wow, how did this happen? Why did, why did God do this? As you go to Israel today, that's the question. Why? Because they forsook their God, they compromised. They compromised what they knew to be true. It cost them dearly. It doesn't have to be that way. If it has been like David, you can be forgiven and God will turn it all around. Maybe God is speaking to your heart tonight saying, tonight's the night. Tonight's the night you need to begin installing me as your priority, nurturing your spirituality, making sure that you enter into accountability.

You turn away from all iniquity. It's time you respect the ministry I've given to you, treasuring your family, yearning for eternity, making sure that everything that I've said is true in your life. Begin tonight and you will conquer compromise. We pray with you. Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for our series on the lot. It's been a great series. So much more we could have said. We trust we've said everything that you'd want us to say. Our prayer, Lord, is that we would live for you. For every person here tonight, there is no one who is so far gone that you will not save, nor wandered from you, that you will not forgive and bring back to you.

Our prayer, Father, is that you work in all of our hearts and we would truly live for the beauty of your name, that you would be our only object of affection. For you are a jealous God. You are jealous for us. You want us alone to serve you. May we do so with a passion. We pray in your name. Amen.