1. People Pleasing
The following is reported to be a true story regarding Berkley, CA:
In 1990, the Berkeley City Council passed a law changing the name of Columbus Day to Native American Day because Columbus wasn't nice to the Indians. Of course, no Native Americans were asked if they wanted the holiday's name changed or even if they wanted to be called Native Americans.
In 1991, a group of PCers argued that Indians are not native to America but to Asia, so calling them Native Americans might be insulting to Asians. So the Berkeley City Council changed the name, to "Indigenous People Day." Of course, neither the Indian nor the Asian communities were consulted about it.
In 1992, the Italian American Anti-Defamation League gave the City of Berkeley their Insensitivity Award. The Italian-American group said that they agreed that Indians haven't been treated well, but that the Italians weren't the ones who did it, so why take away their holiday? Nobody asked the Italian-American community at large how they felt about renaming Columbus Day.
In 1994, the Berkeley City Council finally changed the holiday back to "Columbus Day."
In 1995, representatives of the Winnamucca Indian Tribe protested at City Council meetings. They argued that Indians had never asked that Columbus Day be renamed to honor Indians, but since it had been, the City Council couldn't take it back, lest they become "indigenous-people-givers."
In 1996, the City Council again changed the name to "Indigenous Peoples/Columbus Day." It was felt that this name was a compromise which would end any and all protests from the diverse, interested parties.
You can't please everyone, can you? In fact, trying to do so will only frustrate you. I'm not saying we shouldn't give consideration to the desires of others, because we should. But, ultimately, in our Christian lives, we should seek to please only one person.
2. Temptations
a. To compromise and be PC in our world -- all the adages: Just go with the flow (GWTF); Go along to get along; be flexible; roll with the punches
b. To be antagonistic
3. Yet, as believers we know that God is true and means what he says. When the choice comes to choosing God or choosing the times, we must choose God. Even if it means we go against the cultural norms.
4. "Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it." -- William Penn
5. 2 Chronicles 18.1-16
a. The Kings
Israel in North -- Ahab (ungodly King)
Judah -- Jehoshaphat (godly King, son of Asa)
Asa turned the moral slide of Judah around -- removed high places; dethroned queen mother for worshiping asherah; exported male prostitutes of idolatry; passes on legacy to son who continues and strengthens the reform
Both had made alliances with pagan kings -- Jehoshaphat made one with Ahab via marriage -- 18.1-3
Ramoth Gilead was a strategic city on trade route to Damascus; Ahab wants military help
Israel and Judah -- similar in ancestry
Israel and Judah differed in spirituality -- so Jehoshaphat asks for confirmation in order to go into battle (good to see if God is for us) -- 18.4
Ahab gathers 400 puppet prophets who will say what the king wants to hear (18.5)
Jehoshaphat requests another prophet (18.6)
Spiritual discernment of Jehoshaphat
Is it possible for 400 to say they speak in the name of God but he has not spoken?
Two (or three) witnesses can make a truth -- here are 400
b. The Prophet Micaiah -- 18.7-13
Micaiah was told what to say -- he refused
The 400 were influenced by a lying spirit from God
Micaiah prophesies that Ahab will die in the battle
Ahab has him imprisoned because of the words he spoke against him
Go to war; Ahab disguises himself because of the prophecy of Micaiah -- a random arrow kills him
God protected Jehoshaphat
c. A matter of conviction
Convicts for Christ
When someone is convicted of a crime and sent to prison, he becomes a convict. Barring any judicial errors, a decision (conviction) has been reached that is unchangeable; the convict must serve the sentence.
A conviction can also be made at the personal level. We can convict ourselves to a permanent position regarding commitments, beliefs, and values. We can become a convict for Christ when we choose to follow Him permanently and irrevocably.
Jesus was a self-determined convict--a person with immovable convictions. He refused to give in to Satan's temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). And He lived as a servant to God the Father, refusing to give up His convictions even when it resulted in His physical death (Philippians 2:6-8). We are given that same choice (Luke 14:26-27).
It is better to die for a conviction than to live with a compromise. Vance Havner
I. Micaiah Displayed His Convictions in the Face of Powerful Opposition
A. His Opponents
1. Easy to be People Please and "go along to get along"
2. Micaiah went against King Ahab and the King's Messenger
3. Our PC world will oppose Christians with conviction -- 1 John 3.13
13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
a. Issues of our day:
Homosexuality
Pro-Life
Divorce-Remarriage
Gaining Wealth
Sexual Purity
Marijuana
Immigration
Respect for Authority
Liberty
b. A Word about the Ten Commandments and Our Nation's Founding -- Unpopular
* DID YOU KNOW? As you walk up the steps to the U.S. Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view .... It is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!
* DID YOU KNOW? As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.
* DID YOU KNOW? As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court justices sit a display of the Ten Commandments!
* DID YOU KNOW? James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement: "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
* DID YOU KNOW? Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".
* DID YOU KNOW? Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.
* DID YOU KNOW? The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said: "Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."
B. He Expressed God's Opinion In Spite of the Pressures
West Point's "Harder Right"
This quotation is from the "Cadet Prayer." It is repeated every Sunday in chapel services at West Point:
"Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be contented with half-truth when whole truth can be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when right and truth are in jeopardy."
1. He contradicted 400 prophets of the King of Israel
2. Pressure to conform to ungodliness and Micaiah's response: 2 Chronicles 18.12-13 --
12 And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, "Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably." 13 But Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, what my God says, that I will speak."
3. The few, the ONE makes a difference:
1 Samuel 14.6 -- It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.
Mark 1.3 cf. Isaiah 40.3 -- the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD
The world has been saved by ONE, THE One -- 1 Timothy 2.5-6
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
II. Micaiah Displayed His Convictions by Declaring God's Message
2 Chronicles 18.13 13 But Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, what my God says, that I will speak."
A. Micaiah Spoke and went to Prison
B. God Still Lives Today and Our Job is to be His Body in an Antagonistic World
1. We are not in the entertainment business
2. We are not in the crowd-building business
3. We are not in the PC business
4. We are not in the joyless business
5. We are in the business of bringing good news to the down-trodden
Some Verses:
* Acts 20.27 -- 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
* 2 Corinthians 2.17 -- 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
* Galatians 1.9-10 -- 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
* 1 Thessalonians 2.3-4 --
3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
* 2 Timothy 4.1-4 --
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
1. Whenever we exclude the teachings of God, we become an empty shell -- like cups clean on the outside but dirty inside; like whited tombs full of dead bones
2. Conversely, if we embrace God's teachings completely we have the whole package.
3. 1 Peter 3.14-16
14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
4. Honor
Paris was in the grip of a heat wave during the 1924 Summer Olympics, and the Colombes Stadium was like a frying pan. For runner Eric Liddell, heat was the least of his concerns. His best event--the 100-meter--had been scheduled for a Sunday. He withdrew because he didn't want to run on the Lord's Day. He set his sights on the 400-meter instead. In the dressing room before the event, the masseur handed him a folded paper. It contained a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30: "Those who honor Me I will honor." Inspired by those words, Eric Liddell broke the existing world record and won the gold medal.
God honors those who honor Him and put their trust in Him. Honoring ourselves is a thankless task, and hoping to be honored by others is prideful. When we acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and seek to worship and glorify Him in all we say and do, He has a way of blessing us, using us, providing for us, and establishing our reputation before others.
You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals. Eric Liddell
