In this episode, Steve helps us answer this question by showing us what a person of revival is NOT. A person on fire for God refuses to compromise.
In Matthew 11:7, Jesus asked a crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness expecting to see? A reed swayed by the wind?” The reed appeared as a symbol on the coins at that time, representing King Herod. Herod is the extreme example of a compromiser. The Jews had assumed that John the Baptist would just be another compromiser—someone who just went along with what was popular and acceptable by the standards of the culture then.
What does compromise look like in today’s world?
Today, many people want to find a church that makes them comfortable or fits who they already are. Many churches are lukewarm and lacking the presence of God, so they try to attract people with the best programs, music, and charismatic preacher. But if the power of God and the preaching of the Gospel are missing, then it’s all compromised.
Most people today don’t want to be challenged. They want to be comforted.
The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking him, “Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” (Matthew 22:17). They believed that they could either accuse him of being either a law-breaking revolutionary or a Roman sympathizer/collaborator. Jesus replied, “Show me a coin.” Jews wouldn’t normally have the coin that said, Caesar is God, but the Pharisees were compromisers. Similarly, churches today are compromised because they have the world in their pockets, with Jesus not at the center.
Jesus said, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Give the coin to Caesar, and give to God yourself. Once you give God yourself, the rest in life just follows.
7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind?
8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces.
9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence,[b] and violent people have been raiding it.
13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.
14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.
15 Whoever has ears, let them hear.
16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17 “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.
16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.
17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,
20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Questions:
In what ways might you be compromising in your life?
01:46Most people today don’t want to be challenged. They want to be comforted.
08:31Today, we’ve got a lot of preachers, teachers, churches, buildings everywhere. They got the world in their pockets, minds, and hearts. It’s not revival or the Gospel. It’s all self-style, self-improvement type of message, not with Jesus in the center.
09:01Instead of trying to lose ourselves, we’re trying to just improve ourselves.
11:28It’s not a coin offering. It’s a self-offering.
11:40Once you give yourself, the rest of it just follows. That’s where the compromise stops and where revival starts.
