How to encourage Christians

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. Mike Abendroth here. I used to think we�d finished about 1 ,800 shows, but that means we have shows on Saturday.

That wouldn�t quite work. So, 250 new shows, or 250 shows a year times about six years coming up on that.

So that gives you an idea. 1 ,500 shows. Is that right? Two, four, five, six, 1 ,500 shows, and how many reruns have we done,

Fred? You should know. You should be counting. Let�s say we did 300 reruns. Do we do that many reruns?

Can�t be. So, let�s just say that�s 1 ,300 new shows.

That�s a lot of shows. Like today, it�s Friday. I�m in here. I try to record four new shows a week because Monday is the

Sunday sermon. That�s a lot of shows. This week, it�s like force.

Force yourself to get into the studio, which happens to be my study, but it�s force.

When I go to California, I should have a little better microphone and I could record some shows there when I just get kind of a craw, craw stuck in my throat, but that�s

Don Green�s segment. If you want to write, it�s info at nocompromiseradio .com.

We try to write back unless you�re a troll. If there�s one particular troll, he doesn�t get any responses.

We just have to block and then he changes his email. I think it�s done. That�s happened like 300 times now. If your name is

Gene the Baptist, we block you too. There was a lady who used to listen. Maybe she still does and she told me her name was

Gene and she was Gene the Baptist and she called out invectives on people, but she swore when she did it.

I called her Gene the Swearing Baptist. Sometimes she writes postcards.

She draws this, I don�t know, to me it�s like mega death art of a

Christian kind. Does that make any sense? I don�t know if that makes any sense, but to me, in my opinion, that�s what it seemed like.

She came to church here one time and she tried to give me some money.

I guess it was for the offering. I said, �I don�t handle the money here.� So she gave it to somebody else. Obviously, it�s a

Sunday service. We cashed it and then something happened and she said, �Well, yeah, but you won�t do

X, Y, and Z, but you sure cash the check I give.� So I emailed the financial secretary and said, �Find out.�

I don�t know what Gene the Baptist�s last name is, �Baptist�, �Baptista.�

Find out what she gave. I don�t want to know how much it is. Cut her a check. Write it back.

So then she wrote me and said, without any swear words, I don�t think she ever wrote swear words.

It was just on the phone and she said at least she had enough gumption or courage or decency to send me back my money.

I don�t know if it was a million or if it was $1. I�m not sure. I don�t look.

I try not to look. When I first got here, people would send money into the office and I was the only one here who didn�t have a secretary on Monday, Wednesday, Fridays.

And so I�d open it and then there�d be a check. So have I ever seen what a person has given? I have seen, but I could probably count it on less than two hands.

And now I don�t know. I don�t want to know. Don�t tell me. If you give a lot, great. If you don�t give a lot, I don�t know what to tell you.

It�s up to you and the Lord, right? That�s 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And speaking of donations, there is a donation button on the website.

But our request for you is if you listen to No Compromise Radio and you like it, just tell your friends.

That�s all we ask. Unless you�re a millionaire or billionaire, then we want you to give according to your riches, not out of your riches.

Evangelical White Lies should be available on Amazon soon. And why don�t you go with us to Europe?

Wouldn�t that be fun? Let�s go see Calvin�s Haunts and then have a double espresso sitting by Lake Geneva.

I want to go into deep purple on the Lake Geneva shoreline. That�s what I want to do. If you are not on Twitter, fine.

If you are on Twitter and you want to follow No Compromise Radio, it�s at nocoradio.

We have about 400 ,000 followers. And just to give you an idea of what are the kind of things we tweet,

I mean we tweet new videos or book promotions, but just a few things I�ve tweeted lately just to give you an idea.

Less than 30 % of those ordained to the Christian ministry can preach an even mediocre sermon.

T. David Gordon, convicting things like that.

Interesting things we put on here as well. I like whiskey. I always did. And that is why I never drink it.

Robert E. Lee. Sometimes we�ll put on some �hello� stuff. For those of you that don�t know what �hello� is, �hello� is how my grandmother answered the phone and she would say, �Hello.�

No, she wouldn�t say that. She�d say, �Hello.� Grandma, don�t say �hello.� Say, �Hello.�

I say �hello.� I don�t say �hello.� Okay, let me call you right back, 553 -3836, area code 402, �hello.�

You know, I should call that number and see who�s got it now and see if they say �hello.� So �hello� means �hello.�

It�s a theological �hello.� How could they do that? So there�s a picture of Creflo Dollar and a plane and �hello.�

Stephen has done some great jobs on the graphics. Hebrews 10 .10,

�And by that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.�

And then once in a while, I�ll retweet some stuff. And Chortles Weekly, I retweeted what he said, quoting

Machen, rather. I thought this was excellent and then we�ll get into the show. �Thus the warfare of the world has entered even into the house of God.

And sad indeed is the heart of the man who has come seeking peace. Is there no refuge from strife?

Is there no place of refreshing where a man can prepare for the battle of life? Is there no place where two or three can gather in Jesus� name to forget for the moment all those things that divide nation from nation and race from race, to forget human pride, to forget the passions of war, to forget the puzzling problems of industrial strife and to unite in overflowing gratitude at the foot of the cross?

If there be such a place, and then that is the house of God and that the gate of heaven.

And from under the threshold of that house will go forth a river that will revive the weary world.�

That�s why when you come to worship here with us at Bethlehem Bible Church, the church that I�m privileged to pastor for the last 19 years, and three months, who�s counting?

We�re not going to talk about politics. And when I see Thabiti�s post about voting for Hillary and stuff like that,

I�m just shaking my head. This morning I�d like to talk to you about this afternoon, which will air this evening.

Now, how do you encourage people? That�s a good question. A lot of us need encouragement. What is the way to encourage other

Christians? What�s your strategy? After all, you�re told to encourage one another, aren�t you, in the scriptures?

There�s lots of one -anothers. How do you encourage people? I have regularly put on my post -it notes near my monitor on the desk here at the church building, �Encourage !�

I regularly do that because it�s something that I forget to do. I think I probably encourage people more now that I�m older and think about that.

I hope I�m growing in grace. I like to say to young men, �If I were your father, I�d be proud of you ,� because I think that�s the most encouraging thing you could say from the human perspective.

I wish my dad would have said that to me. Insert daddy wounds here. I went to a

Christian website, �How to Encourage Others 19 Ways ,� S. Weeby, and some of these actually are not bad.

Some of them I don�t really care for. Early on, he talks about he or she, I don�t know what the S stands for, �Encourage,

Encore, Enput into.� Latin core means heart, put into somebody�s heart.

Encouragement goes straight to the heart. It�s an affair of the heart. Why do these country songs pop into my mind?

The only time I really listen to country music in my life is when I�m in Branson, Missouri.

Then I listen. I have to listen all the time. How do you encourage people? One, learn people�s love languages.

There you go. Then he talks about the Gary Chapman book, �Five Love Languages.� Noco�s love language is receiving gifts.

Can radio shows have love languages? If an encouraging thought comes to mind, share it.

Okay. That�s not bad. Hebrews 3, �Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today.�

If you�ve introduced someone, add a few words of praise. It�s encouraging to be praised in front of others.

Not bad. Send flowers. Okay. I don�t know.

Is that a Christian way? When someone is discouraged or hurting, offer specific, helpful, practical help.

Would it help if I? I would like to. Instead of saying, �How can I help ?�

Okay, I guess there�s wisdom in that. Update your address book. Well, he goes on to say, �Handwritten notes in the mail.

Remind fellow Christians of specific promises of God and characteristics of God.� Hey, that�s not bad.

That�s excellent. 2 Peter 1, verse 12, the apostle Peter, �I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.�

Number eight, how do you encourage someone, Christian? Write someone a note to tell them you�re praying for them. Romans 15, 13, �I pray the

God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the

Holy Spirit.� Okay. Number nine, make celebration a more regular part of your relationships.

Special meal, high -fives. It says that. Just a high -five.

Be specific when you offer words of praise. I really appreciate that you did a great job at number 11, encourage other believers with a reminder of Christ�s coming.

Okay, I like that. We who are alive and left will be caught up in the clouds to meet the

Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage each other with these words.

Okay, see? Credit given where credit is due.

That's my motto. Hope that encourages you. Number 12, this is good for satellite campus churches.

Realize the power of presence. Just being there.

That's the idea. If you're part of a church, Bible study, or fellowship, I thought this was for Christians, be committed to showing up, okay?

Do not let us give up the habit of meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, okay?

I think that is a Christian way. How can you encourage other people if you're not with the saints when they gather?

Hard to do. If someone you know is working on a large project, send her a single flower.

At the beginning, a full bouquet when it's done. Well, what do you know? Never thought of that.

My wife does not like it when I get her flowers because she's not a flower lady. She's not a flower girl.

She maybe grew up close to Haight -Ashbury, but was a little late. I think maybe she might be kind of, maybe there's a little hippie going on.

Hippie shake. Somebody said the other day to my kids, does your dad pastor that surf church?

Oh, and the other one was good. We had some friends and they didn't really come to church, but they wanted to send their kids to Awana.

So we would just pick up the kids down the street, particular girl down the street, and pick her up to go to Awana, the youth program here on Wednesday nights.

And the little girl didn't know Mike Avendroth, Kim Avendroth, Mr. and Mrs. Avendroth, Pastor Avendroth, Reverend High Holy Avendroth.

So she said to her parents, are the Jesus people coming over tonight and picking me up? Hey, that's encouraging.

I'll take that. Use encouragement as an outreach. If you really want to encourage someone who gives you excellent service, write a commendation to the person's boss.

That's nice. It doesn't have anything to do with Christianity. We could learn something from the way teams, this is no -go by the way.

We could learn something from the way team athletes freely pat, touch, and high -five each other in competition.

This guy's got, or this lady is all about high -fives. Thankfully, they say, touch is a powerful encouragement.

Be sure to be sensitive in this area, though, come though. Ask someone if you can hug her first and be careful to be above approach with persons of the opposite sex.

Two more. When you see someone making positive changes in their life, affirm their

Pelagianism. Affirm them.

You seem to really have a great attitude about. Do you think that you are becoming more, and then finally on the list here, how to encourage others, 19 ways,

S. Weeby. Maybe it's Phoebe. Remember Phoebe Snow? Don't like that kind of music at all.

I'm a poetry man. I do not like that. I want that out of my mind. Tell people how they've encouraged you.

Okay, so that was all preliminary. That was all just getting you up to speed.

What do you do to encourage people? No, that's not really my question.

How would you encourage someone that was getting persecuted for the sake of Christ Jesus? That's happening now, probably in this country, but especially overseas.

What if they weren't getting killed yet, but they were close to getting killed? They're on the run.

Their houses were taken, and they're enduring hard struggles with sufferings.

People are publicly exposing them to reproach, public exposure to affliction, getting thrown into prison, having their property plundered.

What do you do? Well, as I've been studying the book of Hebrews, that is the forefront of my mind, because the writer is writing to those persecuted

Christians, and he's trying to encourage them. He's trying to help them.

He's trying to point them away from their troubles and to the

Lord Jesus Christ. One of those 19 things that encourage people, talk directly about that, and I certainly commend them, but the nuance here is when you're struggling in persecution and affliction and hardship,

I think too often we want to just focus on our troubles, and the writer of Hebrews wants to make sure they realize

Jesus is better, and Jesus, if he's better in every way, shape, and form, you can almost see the trajectory, can't you?

Jesus is better than prophets. Jesus is better than angels. Jesus is better than Moses.

Jesus is better than Aaron. Jesus is better than the old covenant. Jesus is better than life without Jesus when things were going well.

So if you've got Jesus, rather, he's got you, you've got everything, it's okay.

It's okay. And when you study the book of Hebrews, you have an increased view of the person and work of Christ and how powerful and majestic he is, where he sits in a place of authority and can bestow all kinds of blessings, how he intercedes, how his work is done when it comes to salvation, but when it comes to sanctification, he is still there helping his brothers to use the language of Hebrews.

Don't forget, you can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. How do you encourage people?

Well, it's talking about Jesus. I remember when I would go to hospitals early on, and I was told when you visit somebody in a hospital, don't talk about your surgeries.

And I've had quite a few surgeries over the years, and so if someone says, well, I had a hernia operation, and I'm in the hospital for that.

Now they just make you go home like after two hours. Well, I could say to them, you know,

I've had double hernia, bilateral hernia when I was like three years old. And the doctor, this true story, did the wrong side first.

It was supposed to be one -sided, and then after four months, they had to go back and fix the original side, and bilateral now

I have scars, and I have no money. I wish this would have happened now.

I could have sued free college education for certain. But you don't want to do that. You don't want to talk about yourself.

You're there for them, and you want to encourage them and talk to them. But if you talk to them too much about their problems, what if they're not going to get better?

I've been in Mark Westcott's hospital room when he was dying. He's with the Lord now, and it's not going to do me any good to talk about numbers.

I mean, when you're in the room with a family member, and they're slowly dying, it's like all the focus, all the attention.

And some of this, of course, just has to be done. I don't slam you for doing it. But I slam you with gentleness if you are obsessed by it.

What's the next thing? What's the next drug? What's the next possibility that we have for prolonging this person's life?

They're going to die, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Let's work on palliative care.

Let's work on comfort. Let's work on minimizing pain. But to have the hope in the monitors.

I remember when, actually, it was 11 years ago today, my mother died, and it was kind of refreshing and good for the soul when the doctor just said, you know, we're going to just turn off all the monitors.

I didn't have to keep looking over there every five minutes, you know, what's the O2 level? What's oxygenation?

What's the blood pressure? What's the heart rate? What's going on with the, you know, pulse oximeter?

You just don't need to. And so what would be better? Hi, mom, let me tell you about Jesus. Let me tell you about heaven.

Let me tell you about how great Jesus is. Absent from the body, present with the

Lord. It's going to be worth it. Hang in there. Finish well, mom. Walking by faith.

He loved you once, he'll love you forever. He said he's never going to leave you nor forsake you.

That's what we need to do. And in particular, here are these suffering Christians, and those who are suffering for even saying,

I might want to be, they need a good dose of Jesus. The powerful creator and sustainer.

That's why early on you get this good dose of angels are great. Angels did a lot of wonderful things.

They're wonderful beings. I'm talking about the non -fallen ones, but Jesus is greater.

Servants are angels. Of course, Jesus served on the earth, but Jesus now is seated at the right hand of the father.

He's the one telling angels what to do. And if there are guardian angels for each and every

Christian, it's Jesus is the one who sent them. And the son,

Jesus, is fully God. The high priest, Jesus, is fully God. He existed before human history.

He's always existed. He's never been created. He existed before his incarnation.

He existed before Melchizedek. He is the creator, Jesus, Lord, without sin, fully human, who wept, who was tempted, who suffered, who died and was raised from the dead.

He is the one that you need to be focused upon as you want to be encouraged.

And so Christian, if you'd like to be encouraged, I would say, why don't you get your Bible out and begin to read the book of Mark?

And you start reading Mark, and by the time you hit Mark 9, you're thinking, when the guy asked

Jesus about healing his loved one, if you can, Jesus, and Jesus said, if you can, what do you mean, if you can?

The question isn't if you can. That's the wrong question. That's the wrong statement.

It's if you will. Are you willing? But it's not if you can. If you can, that's an incredulous statement.

If you can, Jesus, yeah, you can, and if you're suffering and persecuted and on the run,

Jesus can deliver you, but he also can give you the strength to get through it, and that's what often happens because the suffering servant,

Jesus, has servants who suffer, but Jesus is with their suffering. He's with them as they suffer.

That's the point. We never have to say God has forsaken us like Jesus did on the cross because that never has to happen.

For Christians, it never will happen. It's an impossibility. Well, my name is Mike Avendroth. You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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