Apple, Subaru, Target — Should We Buy from Promoters of Sin?
00:00:00.000 | We talked about Burger King and their support of gay marriage back in episode
00:00:08.760 | number 394. As a follow-up, Joe writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, Apple and
00:00:13.780 | Subaru have openly supported homosexual marriage. Last night my wife brought up
00:00:17.720 | the fact that Target is now doing the same. This seems like a question that a
00:00:20.800 | lot of people are probably asking or thinking about right now. As Christian,
00:00:24.680 | should the fact that a company openly supports gay marriage affect our
00:00:28.080 | purchasing decisions?" Okay, this is a really crucial question. Not because of
00:00:34.960 | the importance of boycotting, that's not the point, but because of the principle
00:00:40.280 | of allegiance to Jesus that can be compromised when someone forces on you
00:00:48.760 | the issue of your identification with sin. So here's a little background. Some
00:00:55.040 | weeks ago I said goodbye Burger King because of a video they were running
00:01:01.120 | that was not only immoral in what it promoted and endorsed sexually, but also
00:01:08.840 | because it was lewd in its language. It closed with a little girl hugging two
00:01:15.400 | lesbians and saying, "I love my two mommies." This struck me as such a blatant
00:01:22.160 | assault on children, on truth, on purity, on God, that I said I can do without
00:01:30.800 | Burger King. Goodbye Burger King. I'll go to Chick-fil-A. This was not a
00:01:37.200 | prescription for others. I'm not telling anybody else they have to do this and
00:01:41.240 | I'm not at all saying in order not to sin you have to boycott Burger King.
00:01:46.800 | No way. I'm not saying that. It was a statement from my own life and conscience.
00:01:52.680 | Now the question is raised, so what do we do as more and more companies declare
00:01:59.240 | themselves corporately to embrace and endorse and promote behaviors that God
00:02:06.400 | says will destroy people's souls? And the principle I want to apply to this comes
00:02:14.560 | from 1st Corinthians 10, where Paul is dealing with meat offered to idols. And
00:02:20.200 | the specific situation is, what if you are invited to eat with an unbeliever
00:02:25.680 | who serves meat offered to idols? And here's Paul's answer. If one of the
00:02:30.600 | unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is
00:02:35.720 | set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
00:02:39.600 | You're free. But if someone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then
00:02:47.320 | don't eat it for the sake of the one who informed you. In other words, you are free
00:02:54.080 | to eat meat offered to idols. But when an unbeliever makes the meal or that
00:03:02.520 | occasion into an act of endorsement, then don't. So you see the principle here. The
00:03:08.760 | act itself is not sin, but the act of endorsing what the sacrifice to an idol
00:03:16.680 | stands for, that is sin. Now let's apply that to companies who have sin in their
00:03:24.680 | corporate strategies. It might be environmental sin. It might be corruption
00:03:29.320 | at the upper levels. It might be labor injustices and abusive sweatshops
00:03:34.560 | overseas. It might be public support for sinful behaviors that the Bible says
00:03:40.320 | are going to destroy people in hell. It's not a sin to go to the stores of those
00:03:48.200 | companies and purchase things that are not sinful. Let's that be said loud and
00:03:54.080 | clear. Say it again. It's not a sin to go to those stores and purchase things that
00:04:01.640 | are not sinful. There is no necessary connection between your shopping there
00:04:07.680 | and your endorsement of their policies or views. But what if the day comes when
00:04:15.400 | any of those stores or some governmental agency forces the issue and makes the
00:04:22.680 | connection explicit? To shop at our store is to endorse our policies or to push it
00:04:31.480 | just a step further. What if they did not just declare this to be so, but required
00:04:37.840 | all customers to sign a release that they did in fact agree with the policies
00:04:46.080 | of the company and then the endorsement of sin. So I think at that point the
00:04:52.520 | choice is clear. We go without. And yes, I can imagine a society that
00:05:01.640 | intentionally starves Christians to death in this way. This is what all
00:05:10.040 | persecution comes down to. Your allegiance to a false God and a false
00:05:16.040 | sinful soul-destroying way of life or your life will be paid. Now for now we
00:05:23.760 | have the relative luxury in America still of simply making statements by
00:05:29.200 | boycotting like I did. We have the luxury to do that and we can go anywhere we we
00:05:35.400 | choose. Not go or go. I don't think we're at the point where using an Apple
00:05:40.680 | computer is to endorse the gay pride parade that Apple sponsored. But that day
00:05:48.600 | may come and eventually the price will not just be between computers but
00:05:55.000 | between life and death. Whether that day comes soon in America or is postponed
00:05:59.960 | for a thousand years by a glorious spiritual awakening, it will come. It will
00:06:04.720 | come. And the reason I know it will come is because of Revelation 13 15 to 17.
00:06:09.000 | Here's what it says. This is incredibly relevant to this present moment. The
00:06:14.280 | beast, this Antichrist figure, the beast causes those who would not worship his
00:06:21.760 | image to be slain. How does he do that? Verse 16. Also it causes all both small
00:06:29.760 | and great, both rich and poor, both slave and free, to be marked on the right hand
00:06:36.120 | or the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark. That is
00:06:46.760 | the name of the beast, the number of its name. So you will endorse the sin of the
00:06:54.920 | beast or you will not be able to shop anywhere because he owns all the stores.
00:07:00.840 | And you will die or you will forsake Jesus. So the principle of 1st
00:07:08.120 | Corinthians 10 for now does not require us to not shop at stores which endorse
00:07:14.520 | sin because there's no necessary correlation. But the closer our shopping
00:07:20.120 | correlates with endorsed soul-destroying, God-dishonoring sins, the stronger
00:07:27.880 | becomes the hindrance to shopping. Thank you, Pastor John. And we talked about
00:07:32.840 | Burger King's celebration of gay marriage back in episode number 394 of
00:07:36.760 | this podcast. Be sure to check that out. So why do we make such a big deal about
00:07:40.520 | Burger King and corporations that applaud sexual sin? Aren't there more
00:07:44.280 | important issues to talk about than getting into people's private sexuality?
00:07:47.560 | What about ISIS? And what about a possible nuclear war with Russia? I mean,
00:07:51.480 | aren't those greater concerns? Actually, tomorrow Pastor John will give a defense
00:07:55.720 | for why confronting sexual sin like lust and homosexuality are of even greater
00:07:59.960 | concern for us than whether Vladimir Putin is stirring up World War III. I'm
00:08:04.680 | your host Tony Rehnke. We'll see you tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:08:07.880 | [BLANK_AUDIO]