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Self esteem is sinful. Stop it!
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. This is Mike Abendroth here. We've been on the air for about six months, gotten quite a few emails. So if you wanna email me, it's info at nocompromiseradio .com, info at nocompromiseradio .com.
You can also get ahold of us through info at bbchurch .org. I'm the pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. I don't know if you know the background for some of the words like Bethlehem or how it's been tweaked a little bit.
I always liked the story where there was, I think in the 1400s, St. Bethlehem's Insane Asylum, a mental institution in London. Excuse me. And there's all kinds of crazy things going on behind the bars of the Insane Asylum on the grounds of the Insane Asylum.
And as the New Englanders like to do, Englanders originally liked to do, and that is contract words. So instead of, oh, I don't know, Leicester, we wouldn't say Leicester phonetically, or Worcestershire or something like that, Worcester.
And so they'd contract words. And so they said the stuff that's going on behind the scenes at St. Bethlehem's Insane Asylum is really Bedlam. So it's Bethlehem contracted down to Bedlam, St. Bedlam. That's where we get the word Bedlam.
And occasionally I think I pastor Bedlam Bible Church. And that's not because of the people, that's because of moi, that's me. What do we want to talk about today? Something has to be biblical, something has to be provocative, and something has to be in that order for me to want to talk about it.
I want to provoke and I want you to think biblically and say to yourself, if this guy's according to the Bible, I'll have to keep agreeing with him. And if he's not, then I will have to part ways. And so I want to try to pick things that are spicy, that are interesting.
And I know if you have lots of different choices while you're driving around, then I'm going to try to get you to stay tuned. I did hear somebody the other day that listens to find out how much they disagree with me.
So that is perfect. This show is for you, if that's the person. Today I want to talk about self-esteem. How about this to provoke and to prod about the sin of self-esteem. There's too much self-esteem and it is sinful.
Any amount of self-esteem you will see just very shortly is something that you ought not to be proud of, that you ought to run from. And I don't care who promotes self-esteem, whether it's James Dobson, and he does, or any other person, including your pastor, our friend, our comrade, or a Christian quote-unquote psychologist, Christian quote-unquote psychiatric doctor or nurse, they have no idea what they're talking about.
They're ignorant to the fact of what the Bible says and they just as soon put the cloak of psychology on over the Bible and its instruction. What does the Bible say about self-esteem? When people commit sins now, it's attributed to all kinds of things like, oh, they didn't have high enough self-esteem.
It was a Christian radio station, not this one, not WV &E, but another one I listened to, and the Christian psychologist had some panel couples on there, some couples who were on this panel, and you know, why'd you commit adultery?
I had a lack of self-esteem. It is horrible, and I think I'm going to try to drive at this show to get you to think like John Newton did, the great writer of Amazing Grace, the ex-slave trader whom God captured for his grace and preached the gospel faithfully for years in only England, O-N-L-E-Y.
And John Newton said this, "'Young Christians think themselves little.'". So far, so good, that's excellent. "'Growing Christians think themselves nothing.'". That is excellent as well. "'Full-grown Christians think themselves less than nothing.'".
John Newton, that sounds like he's doing the exact same thing that Paul did in Romans chapter seven. This whole self-esteem business, it's always been around, I guess it's been around as long as the fall has been around, but recently in the 1950s and the 1960s, you had men like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, and they were these psychologists, humanistic psychologists, and they wanted to have man get some power back in his life.
People's lives were falling apart, and so you need to regain the power. And if you have the right power, you can control your life, you can control your future, you can control your kids, you can control your behavior, you could control your emotions.
And so they began to develop this self-esteem, trying to make sure people had a proper self-image, which would determine then behavior, emotions, productivity, and everything else. And they were very good at what they did.
Somehow Satan, I think, is a good advertiser, and people really bought into self-esteem. That's why you probably think I'm crazy. If I say it's sinful to have high self-esteem, you're ready to turn the show off.
Certainly the secular culture, pop culture, they knew how to drink deeply from this well of self-esteem. Whitney Houston had a song called The Greatest Love of All. And remember the lyrics in The Greatest Love of All?
"'Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.'". Now, does that sound Christian to you? Does that sound right to you, biblical? Peter McWilliams authored a book called Love 101. And he's got a subtitle to that book called To Love Oneself is the Beginning of a Lifelong Romance.
Does that sound like the gospel to you? Does this sound like loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Does this sound like you'll have no other gods before me? Does this sound like you will glorify me, and I'm a jealous God, and I will give my glory not to another?
Is that what that sounds like? I don't think it sounds like that at all. Peter McWilliams in that book asked this interesting question. Who else is more qualified to love you than you? Who else knows what you want precisely when you want it, and is always around to supply it?
Well, since you put it that way, Peter, I guess the answer would be me. And so you see this push where people are trying to drive us to think of self-esteem. Melody Beattie, B-E-A-T-T-I-E, wrote a book called Codependent No More, and there's a neat chapter in there.
Neat if you'd like to sin by having more self-esteem. How to have a love affair with yourself. How to have a love affair with yourself. Jackie Schwartz, not to be outdone by Melody Beattie, wrote a book called Letting Go of Stress.
And so what you need to do if you've got a lot of stress in your life is you need to go write a letter to yourself. And I think that old song in the 60s, My Baby, She Wrote Me a Letter. Hey, self, write yourself a letter.
And here's what Jackie says. Tell yourself, this is in the letter. In the letter, tell yourself all the attributes you cherish about yourself. The things that really please, comfort, and excite you. The bad news is this idea of self-esteem has not just leaked into pop culture, secular culture, humanistic psychology, it's everywhere in Christianity.
It's everywhere, Christian radio, Christian talk shows, Christian counseling, you will find this everywhere. And then you'll see it just being used as an excuse. As Saddam Hussein, he had a high, he had a lack of self-esteem.
You've got people like Robert Shuler at the Crystal Cathedral, the heretic pastor there in Garden Grove. And you can't sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, because that would be a sin to Robert Shuler to talk that way.
You've got to do the opposite. So you have to sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a soul like me. Robert Shuler said, Reformation theology failed to make clear that the core of sin is a lack of self-esteem.
So when you look at the six Hebrew words for sin and the six New Testament Greek words for sin, I guess we should add a seventh one since seven's a perfect number. Oh, instead of transgressions, iniquity, perversity, missing the mark, et cetera, we forgot self-esteem, lacking self-esteem.
Shuler says the most serious sin is the one that causes me to say I am unworthy. At the pyramid food chain of sins, that's at the very top, according to Robert Shuler. For once one believes, Shuler says, he is an unworthy sinner, it is doubtful if he can really honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus Christ.
I don't really know what to say to that. I think I probably have one of those little white bags that you have in airlines, and it's waxed on the inside, and it's got a little container wrapper at the top, those little metal things, so you can throw up in that and then seal it, and not many people need to smell it in the airplane.
Here's what Shuler goes on to say. I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence counterproductive to the evangelistic enterprise than the unchristian, uncouth strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.
Well, that's according to Robert Shuler. I wonder what the Bible says. I wonder what godly people would say as they look at the Bible. I wonder what Robert Shuler thinks of the tombstone of William Carey, the great missionary.
William Carey, born August 17, 1761, died June 1834. A wretched, poor, and helpless worm on thy kind arms I fall. I wonder what Robert Shuler thinks of that. I'd like to know what Robert Shuler is going to put in his tombstone.
I think I've actually driven by in Christ Cathedral, I believe you can see the place where he's actually going to be buried. Mike Abendroth here, No Compromise Radio. Today we're talking about self-esteem and how you should have a low self-esteem.
You should have no self-esteem. You should esteem others above yourself. We'll get to that in a minute. Children don't need self-esteem. Adults don't need self-esteem. You don't need self-esteem. If you've got low self-esteem, it's not going to lead to one single problem in your life.
If you're a parent, don't you dare try to build self-esteem in your children. It's wrong. The Bible does not encourage self-esteem. The Bible discourages it. So let's talk the rest of the time about self-esteem from a biblical perspective.
Of course, the Bible is the final authority, not Maslow, not Abendroth, not anyone else. But what does the Bible say in his all-sufficient word, in his word that's able to take care of any problem you have in your life, any problem you have regarding how to live your life in a godly fashion?
The Bible talks about that. And did you know the Bible teaches, number one, regarding self-esteem as we frame our mind to try to understand this topic. Number one, God does not want you to be caught off guard when it comes to this error, 2 Timothy 3.
But realize this, Paul writes to Timothy, that in the last days, difficult times will come. This compressed, hard time will come. Show me the end days, after Christ's resurrection and ascension until now, and I'll show you something that's happening.
For men will become lovers of, now if you had to describe the culture today and say, you know, men love a lot of things today, what would be at the top of the list? Men love sex, men love sports, men love video games, men love to eat, men love, I mean, you could figure out whatever you want that men love in these last days.
What do you think would be at the top of the list? Men love money, men love power. What would these last days show that would be at the top of the list? Show me this in a culture and I'll show you, it's a difficult time, it's a compressed time, it's a trial-filled time in the last days.
Second Timothy 3, 2. For men will become lovers of self. Of course you knew that, men become lovers of self. Secondly, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, and the list goes on.
We're in the last days. Of course people are going around trying to say you should love yourself, and just like Isaiah 5, some people call evil good and good evil, and here, don't you know Satan and his emissaries and secularism is going to call something that's wrong and sinful good and righteous and healthy?
Using it as some kind of blame game thing, you can commit adultery because you have a lack of self-esteem. Number two, thinking about self-esteem from a biblical perspective, be careful about self-esteem because it redefines the source of evil.
It redefines the source of sin, and we know the Bible teaches that it's our pleasures that wage war on our members. That's why there's difficulties between people. James 4, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?
Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? According to these self-esteem promoters, you have emotional problems because you have a bad self-image. You have a bad body image, and this is not to be tolerated.
You can't go around telling people that they're bad, that they did something wrong. You don't want to stir up some kind of guilt in the heart of a person and somehow tell them that they're a wretched sinner.
So what do they do? They blame sin on other things, and they'll say things like James 1 .13. They won't say it. I should say, I should say it. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by a lack of self-esteem. I didn't know that. That must be the Message Bible translation. Er, no, he himself does not tempt anyone, the Bible says, regarding verse 13, and of God, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lusts.
You don't sin because you've got a problem with a lack of self-esteem. Lee Strobel said, Madonna's big problem is a self-esteem issue. In his book, What Would Jesus Say? Jesus is going to say that Madonna's got a self-esteem problem?
I don't think so. So we can't use self-esteem to blame our problems because the problems, like the Toys R Us chain, you know, sin is in us. Sin is, we are the ones. And I know what somebody's going to say, so let me come to number three, self-esteem from a biblical perspective.
Aren't we supposed to love ourselves and then we'll know how to love other people? Love your neighbor as yourself? Shouldn't we do that, Pastor Mike? Well, the Bible doesn't say that at all. Let's go back to Jesus' words in Matthew 12.
Teacher said, I mean, someone said to the teacher, to Jesus, what's the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now, what Jesus says there is, you love yourself. You know, not to love yourself, but you do love yourself.
Time spent, thoughts spent, money spent, all these kinds of things. You love yourself. That's a problem, but as you love yourself with that kind of intensity, love other people. Love them like you're you.
This is not, we don't have three commandments here. We have two. Jesus says in verse 40, mark this, on these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. We don't have three great royal commands.
Summarizing mosaic law and God's law, Christ's law. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love yourself. That's not the way it goes, but that's how they try to torque it, these self-esteem folks.
How about this instead? Philippians chapter two. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you esteem one another as more important than himself. Oh, now we're starting to get to the crux of the issue.
Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Why should you do that, Paul? Because we're following our savior. It's Philippians 2 .5. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.
But emptying himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, had been found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
You are to see yourself properly. Romans chapter 12 says, I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. We ought to think with sound judgment. Let me ask you this question.
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. True or false? True or false? Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who have just the right amount of self-esteem.
No. Listen to what Spurgeon said 100 and some years ago. Poverty of spirit is an absence of self-esteem. Wow. Where that kind of spirit is found, it is sweet poverty for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Charles Spurgeon. My name is Mike Ebendroth and we're talking about self-esteem today. When people think too highly of themselves, why do they need the gospel? If they're already good to go, why do they need the gospel?
We start with sin. Romans 16 chapters, chapter one, sin, chapter two, sin, chapter three. A lot of it up to verse 20. Sin, dealing with sin. When you know you have a problem, God is holy, you're not holy, and there's no way you can earn or please God enough on your own.
You're going to need the work of another to save you, to rescue you, to grace you, to forgive you, to die for you, to be raised for you. You need another. Then you start looking towards someone beside yourself.
When you can't rescue yourself because you know you are sin, you're sin incarnate, then you need a savior. You can look outside of yourself. So I've got a major problem because this doctrine destroys evangelism.
It says to people, I'm okay, you're okay, I just need to get all my needs met so I can stay okay. That's not a-okay to stay okay. You need to understand if you're not a Christian, I could care less about your self-esteem.
You need to realize that you've sinned not against President Obama, not against the UN, not against the mayor, you've sinned against the king of the universe, and you're going to pay, and you ought to feel guilty, and you ought to be able to say to yourself, there's nowhere I can run, there's nowhere I can hide, and I'm going to have to pay for this guilt forever.
I've committed this sin against such a holy God, it's going to take forever to pay for this, and I need help, I need to be rescued, I need forgiveness, and there's a God who saves people. There's a God who saves people who cry out to them, cry out to Him rather.
You know, Paul said, wretched man that I am, Romans 7, who will set me free from the body of this death? Verse 25, he acknowledges the problem, and now he sees the solution. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Then he realizes right after that, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus Himself came, not to call the righteous, Mark chapter two, but sinners. Jesus said, it's not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.
And so if you think you're sick, you have sin sickness, you have the S-I-N virus, and there's no cure except someone else paying for your punishment, and that person's name is Jesus Christ. Then you run to the physician, then you run to the Savior.
But if you think you're righteous, who needs salvation? And so what we wanna do at this show is we don't want you to be self-affirmed, we don't want you to be self-gratified, self-actualized. If you've got kids, you can say, I'm proud of you, and I love you, you're the best.
I'm not saying you have to demoralize your children. There's a place for biblical encouragement, of course, but you also need to teach your kids that they're sinful and they need a Savior. He who loves his life, John chapter 12, loses it, and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
You love your life, you're gonna go to hell. And if you hate your life and you cry out to Christ Jesus and ask him to save you, and God saves you, you're gonna go to heaven. If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, not actualized self, not self-esteem self, take up his cross and follow me, for whoever wishes Luke 9 to save his life shall lose it.
But whoever loses his life, for my sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profits, what does a man profit if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits his soul? If you're listening today, you need to have a low self-esteem, a zero self-esteem.
You ought not to see him yourself at all. You ought to be sane like the tax gatherer did, standing a distance away, unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, beating your breast saying, God be merciful to me.
The sinner. I don't care what Robert Shuler would say to that. I'd rather hear from Jesus Christ. I'd rather hear from Jesus Christ that if you exalt yourself, you will be humbled. But if you humble yourself, you shall be exalted.
Your self-image should be a non-existent image. Your self-esteem should be non-existent. You ought to say to yourself, I need to look up to Christ. It's not good to glory in myself. It's not good to glory in anyone except Jesus Christ.
Forget myself and serve him. It's Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Don't fall for the sin of self-esteem.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.