“NO COMPROMISE”

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place, Osoyoos
Pulpit Series Volume 18, Issue 19 July 13, 2008

The television series “24” features an agent (played by Kiefer Sutherland) from the Los Angeles Counter-Terrorist Unit. The series is comprised of twenty-four one-hour episodes, all in real time, together making up the events of an entire day. The series is really intense and well-written. The language isn’t too bad and there isn’t too much gore or hard-to-watch scenes in the first season.This particular clip is in the very first episode in the first season of “24”. The clip itself is a little over a minute and a half, so it’s pretty quick. It features Jack Bauer talking to one of his colleagues, Agent Nina Myers. Jack is trying to get information on possible terrorist activity, and he has been forced to detain and interrogate his own superior. He knows that he can go to jail for what he is doing, but he knows that what he is doing is right. Nina is pleading with Jack to just “look the other way” so that Jack won’t have to leave his family alone by going to jail.

JACK: (on phone) Richard, it’s Jack. Call me back. It’s important.
NINA: (NINA enters) I thought you wanted to get your life back together.
Make things right with your family. You think this is helping? JACK: He’s got information that I need. NINA: What information? Never mind. You can’t tell me, fine. But, Jack, if Tony doesn’t find anything, you could end up in jail. JACK: Probably. NINA: Then what are you doing? Jack. Answer me. JACK: Nina, you can look the other way once and it’s no big deal. Except it makes it easier for you to compromise the next time and pretty soon that’s all you’re doing is compromising because that’s how you think things are done. You know those guys I blew the whistle on? You think they were the bad guys? ‘Cause they weren’t. They weren’t bad guys. They were just like you and me… except they compromised once. NINA: I’ll see how Tony’s coming along. JACK: Thank you.

According to Jack Bauer, only compromising once was what separated him from the men he had sent to prison. It wasn’t the great crimes they had committed that made them different from Jack, it was the little compromise in the beginning.
I Corinthians 10:13 (NLT) “But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.”

If we allow ourselves to compromise in even the smallest ways, it makes it easier to compromise again later. Remember that every step we take is a step on a certain path. Either we take a step on a path of compromise that ultimately ends up where you do not want to be, or you take a step on the path of doing what’s right, which gives you power to do what’s right in the future. God has given us power to stay true. We read in Philippians 3, “No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”

As long as we understand where we are going and who we are serving, we have already taken the first step on the right path.

It’s time to begin living our lives without compromise.

In 1848, Dr. John Geddie was the first Presbyterian missionary to be established on the Aneityum Island, in the South Pacific. His work of 24 years was instrumental in the building of the 1000 seat stone church for the 3500 islanders. On the tablet erected to his memory these words are inscribed: “When he landed, in 1848, there were no Christians. When he left, in 1872, there were no heathens.” No compromise.

In Daniel 1:8-9; 3:16-18, we see Daniel, his friends and thousands of his fellow country citizens being deported to the heathen land of Babylon. Then the King commanded that these captives be educated in every way, including literature and language. Once educated “they’d be stationed in the king’s court”.
Daniel 1:4

The king changed their Hebrew names. Daniel’s new Babylonian name became Beltshazar, however the king soon learned that you can change a person’s name but you can’t change a person’s soul.

From the very start, Daniel refused to compromise. Daniel knowing that some of the food had been previously offered to idols, refused to accept his daily rations.

Daniel had company in this. His three close friends were Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. They also stood firm in their belief not to defile their bodies with the food offered to idols.

God honored and blessed their backbone.

We each must continually be working on our belief foundation so that our faith backbone for Christ becomes stronger. We may never find ourselves in the same situations as Daniel and the others - like in a lions den or a fiery furnace. We face our own places where we will be tempted to compromise.

The result of Daniel standing firm on his standards was that he prospered and grew stronger. God blessed Daniel for his stand.

Now, King Nebuchadnezzar was an arrogant and egocentric ruler. An idol was built depicting him. Everyone in the kingdom was to bow down and worship it.

Refusing to bow to this golden image meant being thrown into the middle of a fiery furnace. Daniel 3:6

Daniel’s friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to bow. Their blatant disregard of the king’s decree sent the king into such a rage that he called for them to be brought to him immediately.

When they were brought before him, he offered them a second chance, to bow down and worship the idol. However, these three did not compromise.
I believe Daniel’s lack of compromise encouraged these three young men to stand.

They did not even shrink from the prospect of a swift and horrible death in the terrible furnace. They were certain that their God was able to save them from perishing.

Their unwillingness to compromise (3:18) is a great testimony of faith in God’s power. No longer just Daniel’s God, but now firmly their Almighty God will see them through.

They are absolutely convinced that God can and will deliver them from the king’s intent of death. It seems they also know this deliverance could take different forms.

God could deliver them from or through the fire. Yet, even if He didn’t physically save them - they still refused to compromise.

They make no effort to tell God how their deliverance should come about. They simply trusted that God’s sovereign purpose would be served.

Their faith and trust did not faltered. They stood up alone, against a nation, with such calm assurance that God would deliver them - one way or another.

This must of infuriated the king, because he has the three bound and thrown into the blazing fire. Now this fire was so hot - seven times hotter than normal. So hot that it killed the guards who were tossing in our three friends. That is when the king saw them in the furnace - no longer bound with rope - but walking in the middle of the fire and not hurt. Plus, he saw a fourth among them. Nebuchadnezzar said the fourth appeared as “son of God.”

We have heard this before, at the foot of the Cross, from the Centurion. The Centurion had seen and heard what had taken place on the cross. He then praised God and said, “Certainly this man was the Son of God.”

Through their pagan eyes, the Centurion and King Nebuchadnezzar saw what looked like a son of God. And they were right!

You and I have the reality of knowing that it was the Son of God who saved the three from the fiery furnace and the same Son who died on the cross to save you and I.

Look at the ripple affect....
Daniel 3:28-30 “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore, I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins; for there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.”

Daniel’s non-compromising faith was so evident and real, that the impact his belief had on these three was truly life producing.

What kind of impact can our non-compromising faith have on our families, our neighbors or our community?
Pray that we may have backbone and be found faithful in every circumstance.

May our belief in God, through Jesus Christ, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have personal impact on us, as well as impact our friends, relatives, and close associates.

May those who come behind us find that we were faithful.