Ministry to the Sick

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, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I have not talked a lot today.

That�s kind of weird. My breathing is really pretty good, and then all of a sudden I get on the radio and I can�t talk.

You can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. For those that want to support the show,

I think we have 10 Patreon supporters. We used to have 12. We�re down to 10. And I guess if I cared more,

I would have PayPal linked to the show too, but it is what it is.

It is today in real time, Wednesday, January 26th, 2022.

We are supposed to get a couple feet of snow this Saturday. That means we have to have what we call around here a snow

Sunday. Well, there will be snow, that�s for certain, but also that means no

Sunday school. Church starts a little later than normal, so people can dig out from Snowmageddon, and then no

Sunday night service. The Sunday night service, maybe that�s wise anyway, since there are a couple football games on, and sometimes people have a hard time getting out on Sunday night, do they not?

I wonder if your church has a Sunday night. We used to do Sunday nights every Sunday, then we started to backslide.

Well, today we have a variety show. You know how you like variety shows on late -night

TV? Too bad I can�t watch any of them because they�re all just too sleazy or left -wing. But if you had a variety show, oh, we�re having a talent show here at the church, that�ll be good.

That�s something that we have in the wintertime that�s usually hilarious. I drive separate cars in case

I just want to go home again. In front of me today, I have the

Book of Common Prayer, the Book of Common Prayer, an administration of the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the church, according to the use of the

Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Cambridge, published by James Pott and Company.

This one here, I certify that the edition of the Book of Common Prayer has been compared with a certified copy of the standard book as the canon directs, and that it conforms thereto of Samuel Hart, January 1893.

Well, there�s an older one, and I think there�s a newer one. I�m not an expert on the Book of Prayer, the Common Prayer.

But it was interesting to me, as I was talking to a friend today, he was very sick, and now he�s thinking about being a chaplain because he realizes how important it is to have

Christian chaplains, evangelical Christian chaplains, evangelical Protestant Christian chaplains.

Everybody�s kind of just, you know, their own person now, for every belief, one chaplain fits all.

It reminds me of that old ER show where there�s that guy demanding the chaplain because he�s going to die and he doesn�t want a new age chaplain.

Very dramatic scene. Excuse me. Well, this has a section on visitation of the sick.

It has other sections too, but the section on visitation of the sick, a prayer for a sick person, when there appeareth but small hope of recovery.

Now, we could get into a big argument on rote prayers, written prayers, memorized prayers, the

Lord�s Prayer. Is it a template? Could you ever just read it, pray it?

Of course you could. Scott Clarke just did a good show on prayer and the

Lord�s Prayer and how God accepts prayer and how God accepts our weak, frail, sinful prayers because He accepts us.

Good show. I recommend the Heidelcast. But this is thoughtful. This is something that I think you could just probably pull up online someplace for free.

Just listen to this prayer for the sick person, and you�re not sure they�re going to make it. And there are several of these, but I want to read this one.

O Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need, we fly unto

Thee for succor in behalf of this Thy servant, here lying under Thy hand in great weakness of body.

Look graciously upon him, O Lord, and the more the outward man decayeth, strengthen him, we beseech

Thee. So much the more continually with Thy grace and Holy Spirit in the inner man, give him unfeigned repentance for all the errors of his past life, and steadfast faith in Thy Son Jesus, that his sins may be done away by Thy mercy, and his pardon sealed in heaven before he go hence and be no more seen.

We know, O Lord, that there is no word impossible with Thee, and that if Thou wilt,

Thou can even yet raise him up and grant him a longer continuance among us, yet for as much as in all appearance the time of his desolation draweth near.

So fit and prepare him, we beseech Thee, against the hour of death, that after his departure hence in peace and in Thy favor his soul may be received unto

Thine everlasting kingdom through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, Thine only

Son, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Pretty moving.

I sat in the hospital room for 16 days, denying remdesivir, accepting the oxygen steroids, blood clot shots in my stomach twice a day,

I think, Lovenex, I called them my love shots. And the first few days,

I didn't really think it was that bad because I was only on oxygen 2, then 4, then 5, then 10.

Once we got up to 15, and then that wasn't enough for my blood saturation, oxygen saturation, then

I started to worry a little bit more. Once you have the high flow come in, and it's 60 liters, four times more than what they can get out of the wall,

I'm starting to think this way. Now supposedly, I could have received a chaplain visit in my room.

Now I was in one of these negative pressure COVID rooms, the staff didn't really like to come in very much.

Doctors would call you, not every doctor, but some doctors would call you ahead of time, talk to you for a while, then gown up, then come in, listen to your chest, and then leave.

They didn't want to be there talking, they'd rather talk on the phone. And so I supposedly could get a chaplain.

I could have probably said yes, and had some company, but I didn't really want to fight.

I didn't want to disagree. I didn't want to hear platitudes. I didn't want to hear, oh, I didn't want to do all that.

I'd rather just sit there by myself. Now I tried to make it so that Kim could be called a minister, right?

Minister just means servant. So whenever I send Kim to the hospital to visit a lady maybe,

I will say to her, this is pre -COVID days, if it's late in the evening and the front doors are shut and you have to go into the

ER, just say you're a minister from Bethlehem Bible Church, and that's all they really need to know.

It's not a capital M, it's not an office of deacon, it's, you know, I don't have, I don't believe deaconesses, it's not an elder, it's not a bishop, it's not an episkopos, it's, you know, you're just a minister, you're just a servant, and then that'll get you in, right?

Because the hospitals don't care if it's male, female, 1 Timothy 2, et cetera, Titus 1. But what if some chaplain would have come in,

Anglican, come and book a prayer and prayed that prayer over me?

I don't mean over in some weird way, but just prayed the prayer, came in, held my hand and prayed that prayer.

Maybe they didn't memorize it, maybe they had to read it, right, from this common prayer book. That would have been awesome.

That would have been great. Here's another one, a commendatory prayer for a sick person at the point of departure.

The first prayer I read, we're not sure this person's going to make it, it doesn't seem like it. Here, we're moments away.

You're on hospice, the morphine's dripping, and that breathing, that morphine breathing is getting slower and slower.

You think they're deceased, but then they take that breath again, many seconds in between breaths.

Oh, almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of just men made perfect, after they are delivered from their earthly prisons.

We humbly commend the soul of this thy servant, our dear brother, into thy hands, as into the hands of a faithful creator and most merciful savior, most humbly beseeching thee that it may be precious in thy sight.

Wash it, we pray thee, in the blood of that immaculate lamb that was slain to take away the sins of the world, that whatsoever defilements it may have contracted in the midst of this miserable and naughty world, through the lust of the flesh or the wiles of Satan, being purged and done away with, it may be presented pure and without spot before thee, through the merits of Jesus Christ, thine only son, our

Lord. Amen. Now, one of the things that these have is they have a stability and a foundation that comes from scripture.

I can read sections or hear sections of scripture when

I read this about the faithful creator who does what's right. I'm thinking 1 Peter, are you not? I believe chapter 5.

I think about the merciful savior, rich in mercy, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4.

Precious in thy sight, I'm thinking about, I think it's Psalm 16, the death of the godly is precious in the sight of the

Lord. I'm thinking about the lamb that was slain to take away the sin of the world. I'm thinking John 1 29.

I don't have these verses in front of me. They just are so common. This is important.

And who knows if this is just of interest to you or maybe makes you want to dive a little deeper to some of these things.

People love the valley of vision prayers, those Puritan prayers. I wish I could figure out the ones written by Richard Baxter just so I could expunge them.

But, regardless, people like me, it's hard.

We kind of pray the same thing. Dear Lord, we thank you for this beautiful day, you know, and it just starts off and that's just kind of what we say.

Well, what are we going to do when we have to pray for folks like this in those situations? Very very deeply rooted in scripture are these prayers.

I was going to just read a couple of these and then do something else today, but we'll save the something else for tomorrow.

A prayer for persons troubled in mind or in conscience. Now, there's all kinds of counseling books galore everywhere.

I'm not necessarily anti -newthetic counseling, nor am I pro -newthetic counseling.

Where it's biblical, I like it. Where it's not, I don't. It is pretty law -heavy to me.

You have to be motivated by the personal work of Jesus. He is our motivation. Sanctification is monergistic and we respond with good works.

There's not this cooperation type of synergism that is more

Arminian than my liking, but we can talk about that another day. Well, a lot of things we could learn are put into newthetic counseling.

ABCD. What's it called? A -B -B -C? A -B -B -A? ABBA? Did they make a comeback?

I just call it A -B -C -B. That's all I do. A -B -C -D. A -B.

A -B -Droth. What do you do if somebody's troubled in conscience? It could be for a lot of reasons.

I mean, there are a lot of people I know that are troubled in conscience. Oh, blessed Lord, the Father of mercies and the

God of all comfort. We beseech Thee, look down in pity and compassion upon this

Thy afflicted servant. Thou writest bitter things against him, and makest him to possess his former iniquities.

Thy wrath lieth hard upon him, and his soul is full of trouble. But, O merciful

God, who has written Thy holy word for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of Thy holy scriptures, might have hope.

Give him a right understanding of himself, and of Thy threats and promises, that he may neither cast away his confidence in Thee, nor place it anywhere but in Thee.

Give him strength against all his temptations, and heal all his distempers. Break not

Thy bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Shut not up Thy tender mercies in displeasure, but make him to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which

Thou hast broken may rejoice. Deliver him from the fear of the enemy, and lift up the light of Thy countenance upon him, and give him peace, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our

Lord. Amen. That is so good. Maybe you want to argue a little bit about wrath of God, lying hard against him, and Jesus' sardeus wage for the wrath that this person deserves.

Okay, but the rest, I'm just thinking, give him strength against all temptations, heal his distemper.

That section right there, break not the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Shut not up Thy tender mercies in displeasure, but make him to hear joy and gladness.

I just think that's rich, biblical, encouraging. Very, very important.

Now, something else happens, and I stand as convicted with you. When we're in a pickle, when we're in room

M17, med -surg room, Lemmonster Hospital, 16 days, and you pray, that's understandable.

That's right. That's good. But when you get out, what kind of prayer is there then?

The prayer of thanksgiving, gratitude, joy, answered prayer.

Here in the Common Prayer book, there's a thanksgiving for the beginning of recovery.

Somebody's turned a corner. To this day, I will not forget when

David Petullo, Dr. Petullo, walked in my room and said, we are, you know, you're in a turn for the better.

Wow. And we're going to take you off a high flow. We're going to put you back down on the wall at 15 liters of oxygen.

Here even in the Common Prayer book, we see insight into thanking

God and praising Him for what He's done. Great and mighty God, who bring us down to the grave and bring us up again, we bless

Thy wonderful goodness for having turned our heaviness into joy and our mourning into gladness by restoring this our brother to some degree of his former health.

Blessed be Thy name that Thou does not forsake him in a sickness, but does visit him with comforts from above, does support him in patience and submission to Thy will, and at last did send him seasonable relief.

Perfect, we beseech Thee, this Thy mercy toward him, and prosper the means which shall be made use of for his cure, that being restored to health of body, vigor of mind, and cheerfulness of spirit, he may be able to go to Thine house, to offer

Thee in oblation with great gladness, and to bless Thy holy name for all

Thy goodness toward him, through Jesus Christ our Savior, to whom with Thee in the Holy Spirit be all honor, glory, world without end.

That's good, isn't it? That is so good, that he could go to his house to offer in oblation with great gladness and to bless

Thy holy name for all Thy goodness toward him. Wow. That is excellent.

Well, my name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and today, along with many other days,

I've thought about prayer and being sick, and what do you do?

How do you pray? Is there any instruction in things that are written in the past? I have another one here in front of me, and when it comes to sick, visitation of the sick, here it says, a prayer for a sick child.

Hmm, okay. They realize life and death and what happens, and here we have a child that's sick.

How do you pray? Well, there's nothing wrong with just saying, God help, you're so distraught, that's all you could say.

Often in the hospital, I couldn't, I didn't remember adoration, thanks, a confession, adoration, confession, thanks, supplication.

I didn't, I just said help, I just need help, God help me. Now I need to give him an oblation of thanksgiving at my own house.

Oh, the day that I went home, so exciting, I had all the oxygen and all that stuff, but just to go home,

I wanted to walk up those front steps and sit down in my own chair. Man, that was great to be home, see my wife and kids, and a couple of their friends were there too, keeping vigil, and it was just great to be home.

I mean, I thought, you know what, I think I'm gonna make it. I can't believe this just happened to me, but I think I'm going to make it.

And then to stake a shower, sit in the shower for, I would've sat in there longer, but I was running out of oxygen.

Oh, to offer an oblation and thanks to God for that, for his, for thine goodness to me.

Here's a prayer for a sick child, oh almighty God and merciful father, to whom alone belong the issues of life and death.

Look down from heaven, we humbly beseech thee, with the eyes of mercy upon this child, now lying upon the bed of sickness.

Visit him, oh Lord, with thy salvation. Deliver him in thy good appointed time from his bodily pain, and save his souls for thy mercy's sake, that if it shall be thy pleasure to prolong his days here on earth, he may live to thee and be an instrument of thy glory by serving thee faithfully and doing good in his generation, or else receive him into those heavenly habitations where the souls of those who sleep in the

Lord Jesus enjoy perpetual rest and felicity. Grant this, oh

Lord, for thy mercy's sake, in the same thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee, and the

Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

Very, very touching, very wonderful. And lastly, a prayer which may be said in case of sudden surprise and immediate danger.

Oh most gracious Father, we fly unto thee for mercy in behalf of this thy servant here lying under the sudden visitation of thine hand.

If it be thy will, preserve his life, that there may be place for repentance, but if thou hast otherwise appointed, let thy mercy supply to him the want of the usual opportunity for the trimming of his lamp.

Stir up in him such sorrow for sin and such fervent love to thee, as may in a short time do the work of many days, that among the praises which thy saints and holy angels shall sing to the honor of thy mercy through eternal ages.

It may be to thy unspeakable glory that thou hast redeemed the soul of this thy servant from the eternal death and made him partaker of the everlasting life, which is through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. Amen. Well, all these come from the

Common Prayer Book, Anglican Prayer Book. It's used very often. And here we have the one section,

I've read almost every prayer in the section of Visitation of the

Sick. Visitation of the Sick. And it is one of these, well

I guess there are more prayers, it said, when any person is sick, notice shall be given thereof to the minister of the parish, who coming into the sick person's house shall say, peace be to this house and to all that dwell in it.

When he cometh into the sick man's presence, he shall say kneeling down, remember not Lord our iniquities, nor the iniquities of our forefathers.

Spare us good Lord, spare thy people whom thou has redeemed with thy most precious blood and be not angry for us forever.

Now whether you want to do that or not, that's another question. But in these days of Facebook and other things, sometimes

I find it strangely odd that when somebody says, do you know so and so is sick, I said, I didn't even know.

And they never called the church, they never called me, they never sent an email. Since I'm not on Facebook, the whole world knows, but I don't know.

And if you need to have a minister visit, then it'd probably be a good idea to actually call that minister.

I try, especially with my wife's help, she'll say, well how's so and so, or how's so and so, and I'll try to reach out, how are you doing, what can we do for you?

But if you're going to need prayer from a pastor, then we want to make sure you reach out and ask for that very thing and not be shy about it.

Especially at a church where there are many elders, several pastors, maybe a couple pastors, and also other deacons that could help serve.

One of the things that I've been doing since I've been sick, and not really at the top of my physical game yet, is not just asking elders, but asking deacons to begin to meet with people and disciple people.

And it's been working out great, not just for the people that need the help, but also for those men too.

Anyway, I'm just trying to fill the time here. Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio. If you send a self -addressed stamp envelope and want a new sticker, you can do that.

Just send it to Bethlehem Bible Church slash No Compromise Radio, 307 Lancaster Street, West Boylston Mass, 01583.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 6. 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.