The Downward Spiral: Ep5: Unwavering Faith: The Cost of Compromise

0:00 Welcome back to our Faith on the Go series, part of the Diary of Black Women podcast. I'm your host, Connie Morris, and today's episode is titled, The Collapse of Conviction, The Consequences of Compromise. So in this episode, we'll explore how small compromises can lead to a complete collapse of faith and conviction if left unchecked. Have you ever heard of the phrase, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump? In other words, it only takes a small compromise to shift everything out of alignment.

0:41 Compromise often starts innocently, but can lead to devastating consequences, if not vigilant. Today, we'll trace how compromise weakens God's people throughout Scripture and how those lessons can strengthen us in modern time. So I want you to go with me to, you can go with me to Judges chapter 2, verses 10 through 12. Let's get there. Judges chapter 2, verses 10 through 12. Let's see what's happening here. And it's a story of how Israel obeys the Lord.

1:27 And I'm going to read. It says, after the generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remembered the mighty things he had done for Israel. The Israelites did evil in the Lord's sight and served the images of Baal. In Judges, we read how a generation arose and did not know the Lord or the works he had done in Israel. They began to compromise by worshiping false gods and the spiral of destruction began. Many times, you know, we start out as strong and mighty Christians, and then we allow a little bit of compromise in.

2:14 We might say, I don't need to pray every day. I can pray every other day. And then every other day we might get busy. It might be maybe gets to twice a week and then it's once a week and then it's not at all. And so and then you see here it says. They began to sin in the sight of God. And so when we don't pray, there's nothing that keeps us from sinning, right? There's no conviction of the Holy Spirit. And so let's go on to some biblical examples. It says, we know about Samson.

2:54 Samson is in Judges 16. I won't read that story. But Samson was set apart as a Nazarite, a cause to a life of obedience and holiness. But with every small act of disobedience, touching dead things, drinking wine, and finally revealing the strength, secret of his strength, he inched further from his calling. His compromise led to captivity. So we know about Samson and Delilah. You know how he did everything. You read the story in Judges. If I read it, this devotional will be probably about an hour long if I go into detail on every scripture.

3:36 So the devotional is something to get you stirred up to go read the stories in the Bible so that you can get it in your sight, get it in your eyes. This is a foundation to get you stirred up to read more, get you in your Bible. Yeah. But Samson's story, everything his family told him not to do. He was born a Nazarite. He wasn't supposed to cut his hair. God had great things for him to do. And he was like the rebellious kid. We have those in our family and they do everything that you tell them not to do. And he did everything. He lived a life.

4:17 He was called to live a life of obedience and holiness, but he lived a life of disobedience and unholiness. And so we talk about King Saul in 1 Samuel 15. Saul was instructed to completely destroy the Amalekites. That's a good story to read, but spared their king and the best livestock. His partial obedience was a rebellion in disguise, costing him his throne. We have children of disobedience who want to do what they want. And we try our best. We pray for them. And we can see those kids who want to skip school, don't want to go to school.

5:03 We ever watch First 48 Hours, they end up on shows like First 48 Hours in detention centers. And so we pray for them. God wants them to be obedient. God wants the best for them. But in their heart, they're resisting the Lord. King Saul, God told him what to do, kill everybody. But how many times God tells us maybe in a group of friends to, I need you to leave that group of friends alone. But yet we might say, you know what? we might have Susie or Billy is okay. And then you keep Billy or Susie as a friend, but he didn't tell you to do that.

5:46 He told you to clear out all friendships. I need you to cut ties with everybody. Why? Because he wants, he has something for you. Just like when he told Abraham, Abraham and Lot, he told Abraham to leave his family, but who he take with him, He took Lot. So they get Lot and Lot. God bless Abraham. God bless Lot. They got to a point where they had too much to stay in the same space. So then they began to have little conflicts, not with Abraham and Lot personally, but with the people that they worked for them. And so they had to separate. And until Lot separated from Abraham, that's when Abraham was blood.

6:34 And so partial obedience is still disobedience. We hear that it's rebellion in disguise. So when God tells you to get rid of some things, do it fully. He has something so much better for you. When I think about that, if I ask you as my audience, what has God told you to rid yourself of for 2025? Who are your friends, your foes? What has he told you to do for 2025 that you decided that you're going to just do it partially and not wholeheartedly? And that's when compromise kind of sneak in, right?

7:18 And so these stories remind us that when we choose partial obedience, we're opening the door to destruction. What does that look like in modern day crisis of conviction? Compromise looks different today, but it's still just as dangerous. Here are some modern examples. Now, maybe God has told you for 2025 regarding entertainment choices, watching shows or listening to music that glorifies sin may seem harmless, but it desensitizes us over time. Wow. You ever hear like cuss words are bad, period, because it curses yourself first. Why? Because it's coming out of your mouth.

8:04 And then the videos are not, I don't watch the music videos, but now you can watch the videos. Now it desensitizes you to what? To what they're saying. Remember, the words are powerful. God's words are powerful. They build pictures of hope and prosperity and healing. But some of the entertainment worship, I won't say some, most or all of the entertainment worships who? The devil. and as you're allowing the devil to entertain you, what do you expect over time? Partial obedience is rebellion in disguise. So has he told you to turn off some of that rap music, turn off some of that Beyonce, oh shoot, did I say the Beyonce word?

8:53 Turn off some of the music that you've listened to that you know is not good for you, right? That God wants to grow you up. I remember as a new church person, I was new to church, but I was still listening way back in the day. It's been now about almost 30 years or so. I'll leave the church. We worship, worship. Then I'll leave church. And my radio station, back when we had radio station, it was a countdown that would happen to the top songs. And I'll leave the church, put on the countdown, you know, and listen to that on my way home. Whoa, just heard the spirit of the Lord is, you know, we're worshiping the Lord.

9:35 But just as I leave out the church, I'm turning on some entertainment of the world. And so pretty soon after that, God began to convict me, like turn everything off. When I left church, I had to keep it silent to allow what God, because sometimes we don't get everything. What God has for us inside the church during the church service, especially if you're serving church. You know, a lot of time while the preacher is talking, you're absorbing it. But many times God will speak maybe after the service. And so I remember after service, as I was driving home, God would give me what he want, like my special sermonette from the Lord on what, how to interpret what the pastor has said.

10:25 What are some things I need to do application? I would say of the word of God. And so I would turn that down. And remember, I'm still a new Christian. So I'm like, I just wasn't like I was hearing God clearly because I was still new, but I just felt the unction to turn that off and I'll just, it'll be quiet. And then I'll just listen, like listen to what he has to say. A lot of times we will be able to get a copy of the CD and I will play the CD again on the way home. Because remember, you never hear the full sermon in its entirety. Why are you there? I don't know why, but when you listen to it twice, you hear something you didn't hear the first time. When you listen to it a second or third time, you hear something different.

11:09 And so that helped me to minimize that compromise in the entertainment choices. And pretty soon, even now, I'm very picky about what I listen to as far as words singing. I'll have this kind of music in the background. Not a lot of words being vocal music unless I'm at church, but I don't listen to a lot of vocals because I just want to hear God's voice while I'm praying. And that was a long little sermonette regarding entertainment. But that is how we get stolen. That's how compromise entered. You ever just be somewhere and all of a sudden one of the worldly songs come up out of your spirit?

11:49 I mean, that means I'm full of the world. And so I didn't want that anymore. I wanted just only God's voice to come up or some spiritual song or just a worship of my own to rise up. Right. I don't want to be like the Aaron when Moses went to the mountain and Aaron and allowed the people to build a false God. I just only want the real and true and living God on the inside of me. Second point, moral justification, justifying dishonesty, unethical behavior, because everyone does it, leads to a weak spiritual foundation. That's so easy to do. Everybody does it.

12:31 Everybody does it. What does everybody do now? Social media seem to be a everybody does it thing. I have a sister and she don't do it anymore because I told her, she says, we're going on a trip together, but she'll say, log on to TikTok and I'll show you this video. And I was like, well, tell me about the video. I don't want to log on to any social media right now. Just tell me about the video. So she, she stopped sending me videos about different stuff because I don't want the world's perspective. I want to go and enjoy a trip without trying to make an image that someone already put on out there. And then you go and create your vacation after someone else's image.

13:14 And so that's one, just moral justice. So you also can create your image out of justifying dishonesty because we don't know what people are true or false on these social medias. And so we begin to build our image after them under a false image. So we become false. And then we build our foundation, spiritual foundation becomes weak because we're building it on the world's foundation without building it on a solid rock of the Lord Jesus. We build it on sand. So check your moral justification of why you do what you do. And then finally, spiritual laziness, prioritizing convenience over commitment, like skipping church, neglecting prayer, or avoiding accountability can cause faith to weaken.

14:07 Skipping church is so easy because you can say, I'm going to skip church today. Unless it's raining today, I don't want to get wet. Oh, it's snowing today. I don't feel good today. I mean, those can get so easy. And pretty soon you're like, I got no gas today. And then it just starts to just add up pretty soon. You haven't been in church for about three or four months. So you're not church. You're not at church. You're not tithing. You're not praying. You're not fasting. You're not doing any spiritual duties. And so guess what? Your spiritual laziness is lacking up and that opens the door so big to compromise. So you'll find yourself slipping back into like a King Saul thing where you have decided to go back to your old friends. Why?

14:52 Because you haven't seen your new friends. You haven't been in those same new friend circles. So you slip back into your old friend circle. You'll even be like Samson. You know, you were once obedience and doing holy things. Now you're being disobedient and holy. Even your old attitude has slipped back in. Your skirts got back short. Your V's got back beer. And you just totally back being what you are. Remember, we are sinful in nature. If we are not connected with God, we will slip back into our old nature. But the longer you in the presence of God, the longer you're praying and set up some spiritual routine, it makes it so hard to go back to the old ways.

15:38 So the culture around us often whispers, it's not that serious. Oh my gosh, how many people have said that to me? But compromise is the small things that lead to collapse in the big things. When someone tells you is not that serious, it's not that serious for them, right? So don't put your not that serious on me. I used to try to, oh, it's not that serious. And then you begin to compromise because now you're allowing someone else's standard to be your standard. It is that serious for me. If you read the Bible, you know hell is a real place, right? It's a real place.

16:19 And the standards to get in hell is not that high. It's very low. But the standards to get in heaven is very high. And so when you begin to start to compromise, you start to put yourself on the other list and you want to always want to check yourself. So when someone says it's not that serious, you must mean you're talking about you. It is that serious for me. My relationship with God is that serious. So don't allow anyone else to tell you what's not serious for you. When you're younger, we take that like, OK, you're right. But when you get older and you have a solid relationship with God or you're trying to get a solid relationship with God, you need to stand up for yourself and say, yes, it is that serious.

17:07 Because you know when you were spiraling out of control and when you hit rock bottom, you know what that felt like and you don't want to go back there. So what areas in your life need a conviction check? And, you know, when the Holy Spirit stopped convicting you, you better be concerned. Concerned you better be concerned because you've gotten out of you know how you there's like a spot where he's going to convict convict convict convict convict and pretty soon you're like whoa i must be doing something right and you are no longer getting the convictions from the holy spirit you better be concerned you better be concerned and so you you might go like wait a minute i'm getting too comfortable in the world and i'm not even replying back to the holy Spirit.

17:55 I'm not even responding to his checks. That's a scary place to be. So always check that. So I'll be transparent here. We all have seasons where we compromise our time with God for busyness. Maybe there's a time when you had a lot of overtime you had to work, or you just got busy about life. And then when you get busy about life, then your spirituality, you feel like I don't even got time to pray, but yet you feel spiritually drained. And I wasn't committed to God as I should be because I'm busy trying to supply, oh, this is good. Thank you, Holy Ghost.

18:37 I was trying to meet my own needs when God said he will meet my needs according to his riches and glory. You ever did that where we work overtime trying to meet our own needs? And that's what happened. I got so busy about trying to meet my needs that I didn't prioritize God. But then at a point, and that's when I wasn't tithing. So I said, I'm going to tithe off my, I'm going to tithe. And when I began to tithe, I didn't have to work as much and everything was kind of balancing out. And then I felt like refreshed and renewed. So maybe that's you. Maybe you're thinking that you need to work harder instead of smarter.

19:19 It won't hurt that. And you might feel like you're distant from God. I would say right now, this might be your conviction check. Go check with God. How did I get so far from you? How can I get back into that relationship with you? Maybe you are working a lot of overtime. Maybe you're sleeping in. Maybe something's going on where you feel distant from him. Find out what that is. Find out where you've opened the door to a compromise and where you have stopped listening to the Holy Spirit, where your conviction has kind of faded because you stopped responding to him.

20:01 So here's what you do to avoid the collapse of conviction. Number one, you want to guard your heart. Proverbs 4.23, monitor what you allow into your life. Monitor what, monitor who, and ask yourself why. But check things at the door of your heart. Just always be aware. And a Holy Spirit conviction will always let you know when something is too much or you should let that go. I mean, he doesn't really have to explain to you why. Because he doesn't have to prove anything to you. You trust God, then you trust the Holy Spirit that he's going to tell you what's right and what's wrong.

20:45 You don't need to know the whole story. Just be obedient. Sometimes we just need to do what we need to do. And sometimes we always say, why can't he be my friend? Why can't she be my friend? Sometimes you don't need to know the whole story. And if you knew the whole story, what would that do? Would that still stop you from being their friend? Sometimes we just have to be obedient. So when God tells you no, because you ask him for help in guarding your heart, just go ahead and then do that. And then allow him to monitor it. Monitor your heart when you're feeling lazy. Monitor your heart when you feel like you're compromising. Number two, practice full obedience. When God gives an instruction, follow it completely. No shortcuts.

21:34 Follow it completely. No shortcuts. Number three, surround yourself with accountability. Seek community with those who encourage you to stay strong in faith. That means if you have backed out of going to church or with your church community, you might want to sneak back in and connect with your church folks because they will hold you accountable. Stay rooted in scripture. God's word provides strength to resist the pressures of compromise. And if there's something that you're dealing with on compromise, maybe there's a topic, you just go to the Lord or go to your concordance, look up the word, see what God says about it, and then create some decrees on how to do it and begin to pray about it, right?

22:22 Just put up your shield of faith and just go for it. And you'll watch how quick God responds because he's on your side. He's on your side. All right. Ephesians 6, 13, it says, therefore, put on your full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you'll be able to stand your ground. Right. So when you are fully armored and you're putting the word of God on, that you will be able to stand your ground. I had this short dream and I'll share it. I had this dream where I was fighting, but what I was fighting for, I was on my back and I was fighting this unknown thing. I don't know what it looked like, but I was fighting.

23:09 And they were trying, this thing was trying to take off my armor. You know and as I was trying to I was fighting the thing trying to take out my armor and then I saw the Lord kind of peek peek in and I was winning because the armor is a supernatural. Defense if you have it on by faith no one can take it off so it will come off and then it'll seal back in like supernatural it'll zoom zoom and I was like this is a this is a fight that I win Long as I stay equipped in my full armor, there's no way the enemy can defeat me.

23:50 No way the enemy can defeat me. How good is that? So that's a good word. So let's pray together. We come humbly before you, acknowledging the times we compromise our faith for convenience or comfort, strengthen our hearts to be unwavering in our convictions. Help us to walk in the complete obedience, and resist the whispers of compromise. We decree that we will stand firm in our faith, rooted in your truth, and empowered by your Spirit, keeping on our full armor and standing firm in you, O God.

24:34 In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining me today for today's episode of Faith on the Go. If you were blessed by today's message, share it with a friend who may need encouragement. Remember, standing firm in conviction isn't about perfection. It's about choosing God's way, even when it's hard. But join me on the next episode as we continue to uncover the spiritual truth that helps us to live boldly in faith. Until next time, stay grounded in truth and walk in confidence in his promises. God bless you.