We talked about Burger King and their support of gay marriage back in episode number 394. As a follow-up, Joe writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, Apple and Subaru have openly supported homosexual marriage. Last night my wife brought up the fact that Target is now doing the same. This seems like a question that a lot of people are probably asking or thinking about right now.

As Christian, should the fact that a company openly supports gay marriage affect our purchasing decisions?" Okay, this is a really crucial question. Not because of the importance of boycotting, that's not the point, but because of the principle of allegiance to Jesus that can be compromised when someone forces on you the issue of your identification with sin.

So here's a little background. Some weeks ago I said goodbye Burger King because of a video they were running that was not only immoral in what it promoted and endorsed sexually, but also because it was lewd in its language. It closed with a little girl hugging two lesbians and saying, "I love my two mommies." This struck me as such a blatant assault on children, on truth, on purity, on God, that I said I can do without Burger King.

Goodbye Burger King. I'll go to Chick-fil-A. This was not a prescription for others. I'm not telling anybody else they have to do this and I'm not at all saying in order not to sin you have to boycott Burger King. No way. I'm not saying that. It was a statement from my own life and conscience.

Now the question is raised, so what do we do as more and more companies declare themselves corporately to embrace and endorse and promote behaviors that God says will destroy people's souls? And the principle I want to apply to this comes from 1st Corinthians 10, where Paul is dealing with meat offered to idols.

And the specific situation is, what if you are invited to eat with an unbeliever who serves meat offered to idols? And here's Paul's answer. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

You're free. But if someone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then don't eat it for the sake of the one who informed you. In other words, you are free to eat meat offered to idols. But when an unbeliever makes the meal or that occasion into an act of endorsement, then don't.

So you see the principle here. The act itself is not sin, but the act of endorsing what the sacrifice to an idol stands for, that is sin. Now let's apply that to companies who have sin in their corporate strategies. It might be environmental sin. It might be corruption at the upper levels.

It might be labor injustices and abusive sweatshops overseas. It might be public support for sinful behaviors that the Bible says are going to destroy people in hell. It's not a sin to go to the stores of those companies and purchase things that are not sinful. Let's that be said loud and clear.

Say it again. It's not a sin to go to those stores and purchase things that are not sinful. There is no necessary connection between your shopping there and your endorsement of their policies or views. But what if the day comes when any of those stores or some governmental agency forces the issue and makes the connection explicit?

To shop at our store is to endorse our policies or to push it just a step further. What if they did not just declare this to be so, but required all customers to sign a release that they did in fact agree with the policies of the company and then the endorsement of sin.

So I think at that point the choice is clear. We go without. And yes, I can imagine a society that intentionally starves Christians to death in this way. This is what all persecution comes down to. Your allegiance to a false God and a false sinful soul-destroying way of life or your life will be paid.

Now for now we have the relative luxury in America still of simply making statements by boycotting like I did. We have the luxury to do that and we can go anywhere we we choose. Not go or go. I don't think we're at the point where using an Apple computer is to endorse the gay pride parade that Apple sponsored.

But that day may come and eventually the price will not just be between computers but between life and death. Whether that day comes soon in America or is postponed for a thousand years by a glorious spiritual awakening, it will come. It will come. And the reason I know it will come is because of Revelation 13 15 to 17.

Here's what it says. This is incredibly relevant to this present moment. The beast, this Antichrist figure, the beast causes those who would not worship his image to be slain. How does he do that? Verse 16. Also it causes all both small and great, both rich and poor, both slave and free, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark.

That is the name of the beast, the number of its name. So you will endorse the sin of the beast or you will not be able to shop anywhere because he owns all the stores. And you will die or you will forsake Jesus. So the principle of 1st Corinthians 10 for now does not require us to not shop at stores which endorse sin because there's no necessary correlation.

But the closer our shopping correlates with endorsed soul-destroying, God-dishonoring sins, the stronger becomes the hindrance to shopping. Thank you, Pastor John. And we talked about Burger King's celebration of gay marriage back in episode number 394 of this podcast. Be sure to check that out. So why do we make such a big deal about Burger King and corporations that applaud sexual sin?

Aren't there more important issues to talk about than getting into people's private sexuality? What about ISIS? And what about a possible nuclear war with Russia? I mean, aren't those greater concerns? Actually, tomorrow Pastor John will give a defense for why confronting sexual sin like lust and homosexuality are of even greater concern for us than whether Vladimir Putin is stirring up World War III.

I'm your host Tony Rehnke. We'll see you tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast.