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that now we get to hear your word even more beautiful, so powerful, so capable of doing the impossible. I ask you now, Lord Jesus, be glorified today. I I want you, Lord, to get all praise.

I want people to remember that you hung on a cross and bled. You died. You suffered.

I want them to know and experience the fact that you rose from the dead. Let resurrection power be evident among us right now. And as always, Lord, without you, we can do nothing.

Without help from you, Jesus, without an uncction from the Holy Spirit, I can't preach this message. It will fall to the ground, but if you'll touch me, you will do the miraculous. And I praise you for it in Jesus name.

Everybody said, "Amen." >> Amen. >> And smile at somebody on the way down. I am so glad to see you this morning.

I love coming to church. I love church people. I love everything about church.

I want to take you first of all to 2 Chronicles chapter 16 verse9 and I want to talk about compromise. We all know this verse. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.

Now think about those words. God Almighty sitting on his sovereign throne and his eyes are darting from one end of the earth to the other because he's looking for someone to whom he can show his strength and power. And why would he do that?

because he's looking for someone whose heart is loyal to him. Deeper in the Greek or the Hebrew I should say loyal means whole only looking to bless somebody and strengthen somebody who has a heart only for him loyal to him. Now, where does that verse come from?

The prophet Hani has just approached King Asa. King Asa instead of calling on the Lord called on the Ethiopians and other nations with chariots and horses and military strength to help him. And Asa came and said to Hannah, "I I already have the help I need." And Hannah said, "Well, because you have done this," I'm going to read it now.

Because you have done this, you are going to have wars until you die. If you had called on the Lord, if you had trusted in the Lord, the Lord would have given you one great victory. And now you're going to spend the rest of your days fighting many wars.

That's what you call compromise. That's what God calls compromise. And if you'll just bear with me one more week, that's what the Bible calls fornication.

Spiritual reliance to someone other than God. So it's compromise. It's saying I can have this strength that I see right now or I can by faith, blind faith, wait on God to do it in his time or his way.

It's compromise. You know, in the days of the Caesars, in the days when the New Testament was written of of course the Roman emperor was a a cult leader. That whole thing was a cult.

And the Christians were told, "All you got to do is walk by the temple or walk by a statue of Caesar and just take one little pinch of incense and drop it in a bowl and burn it. Just one tiny pinch. No big deal.

Just on your way to work, walk by one of those places, take a pinch of incense, drop it in a bowl, let the fire burn it, and that way you're showing your loyalty to Caesar. That way, you can stay out of jail. That way, you can keep your job.

And if you do that, you won't ever end up in the coliseum being trampled by animals or torn apart by lions or shot through with spears and arrows at the delight of a godless crowd. All you got to do, one little tiny pinch. And that's exactly what's going to happen during the tribulation period.

The antichrist is going to say all you got to do to stay alive to stay away from martyrdom is just take a mark. Just it's just a mark. It's no big deal.

And you go all the way back into the scriptures, the Old Testament, Meshach, Shadrach, Abednego had the same opportunity. They said, "We won't bow no matter what." And so the first time that the trumpets blew and they didn't bow, it infuriated the king. And here's what the king said.

I will give you another chance. What's the big deal? You're making me look bad.

Everybody knelt but you. So I'm going to give you one more chance. Just do it.

You can stay out of trouble. You can keep your job and your life. Just do a little thing.

What difference does it make? Well, all of those people that I've mentioned to you, the Christians under Caesar, the Hebrews under King Nebuchadnezzar, knew that if you compromise at all, you compromise it all. Let it sink in.

If you compromise at all, you compromise it all. How easy it is to compromise. We feel the pressure of it every day of our lives.

It's easy. You know, living right is a war and it's a struggle and a climb and a run. You don't have to do anything to sin.

So when you turn over to Hebrews chapter 12, you learn one thing. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ens snares us. I rarely ask for a response.

I want to do that right now. I'm going to ask you to raise your hand if you know what I mean when I read this. The sin which so easily ens snares us.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you know what the scriptures teach? Easily ens snared, easily beset by sin.

Take off the weights. Be done with that which holds you back. You don't need anything dragging you down because sin so easily ens snares you.

You've got a race to run. And the only way to run that race is to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. I thought it was interesting yesterday as I studied this.

Uh looking unto Jesus is in verse two. Then I looked at verse 15 and it says, "Looking carefully." looking unto Jesus. Verse two, verse 15.

Looking carefully, and we're still talking about compromise and giving in and selling out. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. That means go to church, pretend you're saved, go through the motions, but you have never experienced the grace of God.

Lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled. Folks, we live in a bitter world. Our country is bitter.

People walk around with bitterness about to explode about something. I've often likened it to smoldering embers. You think the fire is out, but just the right little poof of wind can start it up again.

And that's what people are allowing in their lives who sit in church. They will praise God, but deep down inside there's this bitterness about what happened. Who did it to me?

I want revenge. I want payback. You can't get away with this.

And the Bible says it causes trouble for everybody. A bitter mother makes her children bitter. A bitter father makes his family bitter.

A bitter pastor makes his congregation bitter. You can't not affect people with your bitterness and it defiles everybody. Then he said, "Lest there be any fornicator." There's that word again, compromiser or profane person like Esau.

Listen to these words. Who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For one moment of fleshly satisfaction, he gave it all away.

He shows a morsel over the Almighty. That's called compromise. That's thinking this way.

It's just little. It's nothing to it. It's a morsel.

I've got God in my life. I I know all the truth. This little thing I'm about to enjoy won't really affect me, will it?

Well, yes. It's called compromise. And I've told you twice already that if you compromise at all, you compromise it it all.

He gave up everything because he couldn't control his fleshly desires. And in order for me, I'm a Christian. See, I'm not just giving you instructions.

I have to be instructed by God's word every day myself. Instead of my just thinking, I hope that doesn't happen to me. I'm admonished.

Look carefully then. Monitor it. Watch it.

Be merciless with yourself. Don't coddle your feelings. Don't give yourself permission to feel any of these things.

Don't let your flesh fool you to think that one morsel doesn't matter. Don't let your flesh fool you to think that you can walk around and live with bitterness and it not destroy you. and the people around you.

Then how do I live a life free from these things? There it is. Looking unto Jesus, you'll live defeated the rest of your life.

If you look inside, if you look at you, you will never take another step of victory. It only comes when you look unto Jesus. Get your eyes off you.

Get your eyes on Jesus. I'm going to say that so many times today, you're going to get tired of it. The only way for you to walk through this day to I'm this day victoriously is to look unto Jesus.

If you don't, before the day is over, you'll compromise in some way or another. Let me be very honest with you today. I think that God's word in the Christian community has taken second place to the internet.

I think Christians look more at screens than scripture. The screens are more exciting. You get pictures.

um you get all kinds of exciting uh clickbait things that will lure you. It's it's just much more titillating to the flesh to look and to curiously investigate what somebody else is saying even about the Bible. And if you're not careful, if you do this so often, too often, you'll become crazy.

You'll be torn in 50 different directions about what you believe. You'll be confused. You'll have so many teachers and commentaries and opinions that you will end up saying, "I don't really know what to believe because that man is smart and he says this and that man is smart and he says that and they can't both be right.

I'm confused. I'm crazy." So you get into all that and before you know it, you're investigating the uncertainty of Calvinism and the insecurity of Armenianism. Think about those words.

Not going to explain it. Got too much to say today. You'll you'll read across those who are cessationists and then you'll turn over and look at those who write about continuation.

You know what that is? Cessationists say the gifts of the spirit died with the apostles. The continuationists say no.

They're still operating in the church today and they're fighting left and right. And you're reading left and right. Then you get into these um podcasts about creation.

Did God create the earth in literal 24-hour days or did he do it in eons and epics and periods and on and on and on and before you know it you go cuz that makes sense and that makes sense. So then you get confused about the age of the earth. Is the is the earth young?

Is it just 6,000 years old? Or is it 6 billion years old? I don't know.

He sounds smart. He sounds smart. They sound smart.

I don't know what to believe. And before you know it, you're thinking about, well, what about Noah's flood? Because this guy says it was a local flood just for that region, that area.

But this guy, he's got all kinds of letters behind his name, says it was a global flood. And you say, "Well, here's what the Bible says." But then it's amazing what people can do with Hebrew and Greek. It's just it's it's like numbers.

You can make numbers say about anything you want them to say. And then you can take Hebrew and Greek and you can squeeze and twist and fashion and mold them just about any way you want to. Then once you're confused enough about the Old Testament, then you come to last day events.

They call it esquetology. What do I really believe? Well, there are those that believe that the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 were fulfilled, already all fulfilled.

And in 70 AD, when Titus destroyed Jerusalem, all of Jesus predictions came to pass. H then you realize that people who believe that all prophecies already been fulfilled are called predtoists. They believe that everything Jesus predicted.

They believe that all what all the prophets predicted has already come to pass. That revelation has already really happened literally. So now everything is symbolic.

It's symbolic. It's allegory. It's not literal anymore.

Then what about the book of Revelation? Well, you got people arguing about the rapture. I'm pre-rapture.

Well, pre-tribulation rapture. I'm mid-tribulation rapture. I'm posttribulation rapture.

I'M PRE-RATH TRIBULATION. I'm partial wrath tribulation. You know what that is?

Only some Christians are going in the rapture. The ones that are watching and waiting and working, they're going. The rest of us got to stay behind and get spanked.

Stay behind and get perfected by the wrath of God. So, who knows what to believe? Well, I'll tell you right now, I know what I believe.

>> And you can't change my mind. And I don't care what degree you have in Hebrew and Greek. I already I'm one step ahead of you right there.

>> So that's not bragging. I'm just telling you I'm not willing to compro compromise on anything for anybody for any reason. I know whom watch this.

I know whom I have believed. I don't think he said I know in whom I have believed. He said I know whom I have believed.

It's not about my position in esquetology. It's about the man that the Bible is written about. Jesus is the word of God.

Everything in the Bible is about Jesus. I KNOW WHOM I HAVE believed and none of the peripheral issues change my mind about Jesus. HE IS THE CENTRAL FIGURE IN everything the Bible says.

Hallelujah to God. But pastor, I just want to learn. That's why I do that.

THAT'S WHY I SCROLL ALL DAY LONG. And that's why you call me want me to explain what he said. I don't have time for it.

I don't have time to read what he said. Why would I HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN TO YOU WHAT HE SAID? Let me just say it like this.

And I knew this was going to happen. I was going to be professional this morning and try to be scholarly, but I think it's just oozing out of me RIGHT NOW. YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW ANYBODY BUT JESUS.

YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW ANYTHING EXCEPT JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED. and every other thing you study should revolve rotate around the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's how Paul said it in Ephesians 1:17.

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you THE SPIRIT OF wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. In the knowledge of him, church, God can give you the spirit OF WISDOM AND REVELATION in the knowledge of Jesus. And so he prayed that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling.

What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. I'm going to keep ON READING.

FAR above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name THAT IS NAMED, NOT ONLY IN THIS AGE, BUT ALSO in that age which is to come. AND HE PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET, AND GAVE HIM to be head over all things to the church, WHICH IS HIS BODY, THE FULLNESS OF HIM WHO FILLS ALL IN ALL. What is it you want to learn anyway?

Because I I turned over to Matthew. I'm turning over to Matthew right now. Everybody look right here for a moment.

What is it you want to learn? What do you want to know more about? What area of religion are you most interested in?

Well, I'm into pneumatology, the gifts of the spirit. Well, I'm into sotiology. I love studying salvation.

And it folks, you you can just divide it all up and pick one out, one that seems to fit you most. But I don't think that's why Jesus died and rose again and was seated far above all principality and power, so you could just major in one area of of religion, even Christianity. Here's what I read.

This is as simple as it gets. Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

What will you learn about Jesus? I am gentle and lowly in heart and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Learn. Learn. The only thing I'm really supposed to apply myself to is a closer walk with Jesus.

Allow the Holy Spirit to g give me a greater understanding of wisdom and spiritual enlightenment. I'm supposed to be thrusting and rushing towards a walk with Jesus that diffuses all attacks against my life and all I can see is him. The first thing you will learn about Jesus is that it's all about Jesus.

Sometimes I pray, "Lord, I feel like I repeat myself so much and I I don't want to bore the people. Could you help me say it a different way? cuz I know I have to say it, but just let me say it a different way.

It's all about Jesus. John 16:15, listen to Jesus. All things the Father has are mine.

I want you to let those words sink in. All things the Father has are mine. Therefore, I say to you, I will take what is mine and show it to you.

What a promise. I have everything and I want to show it to you. Hallelujah.

Matthew 28:18, "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." It's all about Jesus. All things belong to him. All power is his.

He owns everything and everybody. He made everything and everybody. He possesses all things.

That means he controls it. And he's a very possessive savior. Very possessive.

That's why he said my father is greater than all of them. He said my kingdom is not of this world. Jesus said upon this rock I will build my church.

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. My peace I leave with you. My joy I give unto you.

My sheep hear my voice and I call them by name and a stranger they will not follow. My blood is drink indeed. My flesh is food indeed.

Behold, I am coming, and my reward is with me. In my name, they shall cast out devils. He's very possessive.

He wants you to know that he'll possess all of you or he'll possess none of you. He will not allow compromise in your life. He won't let one more soul of the flesh own any part of you.

He will not la allow BITTERNESS OF SOUL and spirit LIVE INSIDE OF you and then you expect him to come and bless you and fill you. God only fills empty vessels. That's some really good preaching right there.

Did you hear that? He only fills empty vessels. So you've got to be emptied of yourself and emptied of your flesh and emptied of your bitterness and emptiness of this sense and spirit of compromise.

Because Jesus, I'll tell you again, will have all every bit of you or he will have none of you. And I tremble to say it. That sounded a bit dramatic, didn't it?

Well, I'm uneasy to say that it's very difficult for us to say he owns every bit of me. He can have all of me. I'm willing to give up anything.

I will not compromise. I will not give into my flesh. I will not do things for convenience.

I will not offer Caesar a pinch of salt just so I can keep my job. I will not bow to Nebuchadnezzar and his image just so I will save my own life. My life is Jesus Christ and I will not compromise one thought, one idea, ONE ACTION, ONE DAY OF MY LIFE BECAUSE IN HIM I live and move and have my being.

I WANT HIM TO HAVE ALL OF ME. The next thing you learn about Jesus is what I just said. He is our life.

He's He's our life. You don't have a church life and then a business life. I don't know what it is about American Christianity that we think we can divvy it up.

This is who I am when I'm at work, when I'm in the office. This is what I do to make money. Even though people would question that and even though my conscience says, "Yeah, you probably shouldn't do that." But that's the way it is in the business world.

So that's who I am because I got to make it. I'LL OFFER JUST A PINCH OF SALT to Caesar because I need this job. I need this income.

But you begin to realize as you look unto Jesus, did you hear me? The more you stare at Jesus, the more you recognize the ugliness of the sin that's trying to so easily beset you. He is our life.

Here's the deal. You are either alive in Christ or you are dead in trespasses and sins. How simple is that?

I haven't said a thing that's complicated yet, have I? This morning, you're either alive in Christ, alive by faith in the shed blood of Jesus, or you are dead in trespasses and sins. You have no hope.

You are without life. You are without God. You are on your way to hell.

There is no in between. THERE IS NO COMPROMISE. GOD DOESN'T COMPROMISE.

God won't say, "I understand what you've been through. I understand the marriage, what it did to you. I understand how your daddy treated you.

Oh, do I need to go on with all OF THESE EXCUSES? I understand your scars. I understand your journey." God doesn't say any of that.

HE SAYS, "BRING YOUR JOURNEY. BRING YOUR SCARS. BRING YOUR DADDY.

BRING YOUR PAIN. BRING IT TO THE CROSS. AND THE CROSS WILL HEAL EVERY BIT OF IT.

And I will become your life. And you won't spend your days talking about how abused you were or how used you were or how UNFAIR LIFE IS. NO.

ONCE YOU LOOK AT JESUS, STARE AT JESUS, ALL YOU'LL SEE IS GRACE AND MERCY AND BLESSINGS BEYOND ANYTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE. THE OLD IS GONE AND THE NEW HAS COME. He's our life.

And Jesus meant to make the point, I don't know that you could make it any straighter or stronger than he made it when he said, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." Now, critics of the faith call that cannibalism. Critics of Christ call him a maniac and they look at us sideways because we actually don't question that. We know what he means.

He means unless I'm inside of you, you have no life. Unless by my blood you are washed and cleansed and forgiven, you have no life. He that eats the flesh of the son of man every day all day and drinks his blood.

Say life is in the blood. I drink the life of God when I worship the risen Jesus. I realize that the blood that flowed down his side and soaked the ground under his cross is not literal blood that I drink.

It was literal blood then, but the blood that I drink is by faith in what that blood did for me. >> Praise God. And then I want you to hear this again.

My sheep know my voice. My sheep hear my voice. My sheep know my voice.

Could it be that some of you are confused because you don't know the real voice? You're listening to somebody else's voice and those voices are saying uh Bible things and they're saying church things, but they are not speaking spiritual things. They know my voice.

I know his voice. I'll tell you again, I've never heard the audible voice of Jesus Christ or the father or the son or angels or anything else. Never.

But I know that silent soft earthquake of enlightenment and understanding that I receive when I'm looking unto Jesus. somewhere up in the mountains of North Carolina, Sandra and I and somebody else we were with and I cannot remember it was one of these little mini vacations, but we were in a restaurant and you know we were talking and I we paid the bill and I got up and a lady walked over to me and said, "I know that voice." She pointed right at me. I know that voice.

She said, "Are you Pastor Livingston?" I said, 'I am.' She said, 'I've never seen you in my life, but I listen to you on the radio. I've been listening for five years. I know that voice.

I didn't know your face. I didn't know anything about you, but I know that voice. That's some good preaching right there.

I Now And watch, I'M NOT GOING TO GET OUT of hand here. >> I have never seen his face. Hallelujah.

>> Hallelujah. >> BUT I KNOW THAT VOICE. >> WHY?

BECAUSE HE'S MY SHEPHERD. I'M HIS SHEEP. I KNOW THAT VOICE.

I KNOW THE SOFT STILL VOICE OF THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK OF GOD. I KNOW THAT VOICE. And any spiritfilled child of God can attest to that.

I know that voice. Now, I love these songs. You did one of them today that says, "We're going to see him face to face." Won't that be something when you can put the face with the voice?

I'm about to have another one of those meltdowns that I had last Sunday. What a day that's going to be when I actually PUT THE FACE WITH THE VOICE AND SEE THE ONE WHO DIED FOR ME, WHO ROSE AGAIN FOR MY JUSTIFICATION, WHO KEPT ME, GUIDED ME, PROTECTED ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE. HALLELUJAH TO GOD.

YOU OUGHT TO DO BETTER THAN THAT THIS MORNING. and with me. Hallelujah.

>> Praise God. >> Praise God. Oh, I want to see him.

>> Look upon his face >> there to sing forever >> of his saving grace ON THE STREETS OF GLORY. LET ME LIFT MY VOICE. CARES ALL PAST HOME AT LAST.

EVER to rejoice. Now let me ask you this. What is it you want to learn about Jesus?

Because Jesus said, "I am meek and lowly." Now, how many of us in here have ever truly earnestly prayed to be meek and lowly? And yet your savior that conquered the whole world was meek, lowly. Meek means he was gentle.

How many hotheads we got in here? Yeah, I can tell. We don't have any in the choir.

How many of us truly pray Lord make me meek like you. Take the desire to fight out of me to be right. Rid me of that thing, oh Lord.

Let me be humble, lowly. Let me be obedient. That's what lowly means.

I'm I'm gentle. I'm humble. I'm obedient.

Everything the Father tells me, I do it. Everything he tells me to say, I say it. And so, if you really want to learn today, I'm just going to gently suggest you turn that scrolling machine off for a while.

And instead of scrolling, you start turning. >> Get along. get along with Jesus and say, "Make me like you, Lord.

Teach me who you are, Lord." You won't learn it any other way, brothers and sisters, than in prayer on your knees. Then when you get up and walk out and you begin to see that your steps are ordered and God provides for you in everything you do, you say, "Oh, I want to know him. I want to know him.

Hallelujah. I don't care what people think about me anymore. Not now.

I just I'm loud. I cry. I scream.

One day I'll cry my last tear and scream my last time. Preach my last sermon. Kiss my wife for the last time.

Say, "Church, I love you for the last time." And I'll put the voice with the face and I'll rar back and say, "It was worth it all. It was worth it all. It was worth it all." Oh, thank you, Jesus.

The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall BE REVEALED IN US. FOR THIS OUTWARD MAN IS PERISHING, but the inward man is being renewed every single day. For the things you can see are temporary, BUT THE THINGS YOU CANNOT SEE ARE ETERNAL.

HALLELUJAH. What are you praying, David? Go ahead and sing it then.