Behind the Lens

to No Compromised Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. And finally, we have the man behind the camera, in front of the camera, my personal bodyguard and ex -Navy

SEAL, Mario Escobar. What is going on?

It's a pleasure to be here. So they probably know your voice because you are the only one in the studio when

I record. And so you're the only one that laughs at my jokes. Yeah, on cue, by the way.

That's right. I have a little zapper that I push. There's a sign. If you appreciate the quality of the broadcast, and I know you do, it's all because of Mario.

He does it professionally. He does great editing, great filming. And I just wanna say thanks for all your ministry.

To me, to the Lord, and to No Compromised Radio. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to do it. It's an honor to do it.

So Mario, we've known each other for what? Has it been 20 years? It's been over, a little over 20 years, yeah. When we're still friends.

Yes. How many times have you gotten mad at me over the years? I haven't gotten mad at you. Okay, well, let's do this.

This will be a good way to start the show. How many times have you thought about leaving Bethlehem Bible Church?

Quite a few times, yeah. That's it. So let's tell the listeners a little bit about that. So you, before I get to your background, just what would prompt someone to think, maybe

I should leave the church? For me, it was, it's a great question.

For me, I struggled just with fitting in. I think it was more of a cultural thing for me.

And yeah, I think that was the heart of it, was culture. Probably some of that is not just ethic culture, but religious culture, right?

You came out of a charismatic background? I did, yeah. Actually, Catholicism first. My grandparents are devoted Catholics, and so that influence has always been there.

So when the Lord began to draw me, the first thing that I thought of was Catholicism, and that's where I started.

Okay, so family from Puerto Rico? My father's side, Colombia, my mom's side,

Puerto Rico. Okay, okay, and so both of those countries probably dominated by Roman Catholicism? Right, yep.

Okay, and born and raised in Worcester? Born and raised in Worcester, yeah. Okay, so before you started thinking about spiritual things and religious things, what was your life like?

I know it was pretty rough. Yeah, okay. Testimony, not testifony.

That's right, testify, not test the lie. Well, we always joke around that if you just talk about yourself, it's a testifony, right?

Versus magnifying the Lord, but I think it would be fair, even in Titus chapter three, for instance,

Paul was talking about, you know, dead and sin, and here's what that sin looked like, but God saved us, et cetera.

So I think it's fair to at least see what you came out of. Yeah, absolutely. It wasn't necessarily self -righteous, it was unrighteous.

Yeah, pretty much. So my parents were very loose with me, and my father was big on just experience will teach you.

He was big on that. So I was pretty much, you know, out in the streets roaming around and trying to figure out what's right and wrong for myself.

At 13, 12? Yeah, for as young as I can remember. Yeah, that's the way it's been.

Okay, and then I'm sure you were looking for things. What did you find? Are you talking drugs?

You're talking about alcohol, talking about gangs? Yeah, I was inspired by, you know, the hip hop culture.

That was my, I guess you could say that was my subculture. It was hip hop. It has its own roots, its own history, primarily with mixed cultures in lower income communities.

That's where hip hop started from. It started from individuals that couldn't afford going to the clubs, going to the parties.

They didn't have the money, so they created their own parties and this is where you get the birth of the

DJ and the birth of the first rapper. So I came from, I was a break dancer. I produced since I was young.

I was influenced by hip hop. My dad was actually a DJ on the side part -time. So he introduced me to like MTV, watching the rap music videos and stuff like that.

Let's just stop you for a second. Let's talk about break dancing for a minute. Yeah, I used to break dance.

Spinning around or did you? All of it. I actually led a small break dance crew in the town

I grew up in. Okay, all right. Yeah. You can edit that out. No, no, that would be, I guess you have to edit that out,

Maria. I'll edit that out. Who's behind the cameras? And so what was kind of the genesis of the

Lord working in your heart? The Bible talks about the Father drawing us and that can be through prayers, through evangelism, through conviction, through loss.

How did that all start? Yep, so it actually, it started with an individual, my supervisor at the time.

He's now currently a member of BBC. Shout out to Louie Marrero. Love you, brother.

I worked at DYS, Department of Youth Services. He was my supervisor. The gentleman who brought me into DYS, he was my manager in the music.

So he was also a club promoter. So that was my first like real gig.

I didn't, I was young. I was very young at the time. And working there introduced me to Louis and Louis was, he was a chaplain in the army.

His heart and his passion was preaching. And so every shift that I work on was like a small

Bible study with Lou. Whether you wanted it or not. Yeah, well, he did it in a way that it was entertaining.

We all had fun. Everybody was in on it. Nobody was like, oh, here comes the preach. Nobody was annoyed.

Everyone loved Lou and he just had a great reputation, great heart, loved the people. It was genuine.

The kids knew it, the staff knew it, everybody knew it. By the way, shout out to the Lord's work in Lou's life.

That's something that is very important, right? The message does its work. That's true through a donkey, through anyone.

But the way the Lord has orchestrated everything, when people have a good reputation, even with unbelievers, they work hard, they're confident, they love the people.

It's easier to listen to. Yeah. Right? I knew he was real. I knew he was genuine.

In Catholicism, at least for me, I don't know what it's like, because Catholicism is pretty big and there's different sects even within Catholicism.

For me, it was, I was taught, if you hear anybody trying to bring you out of Catholicism, that's the enemy, that's

Satan. So my guard was heavily up whenever anybody tried to preach anything other than Catholicism.

And with Lou, my guard started slowly coming down because I'm like, this guy is genuine about what he's saying and it didn't matter what topic we spoke about, he would go in the

Bible, every single topic. Didn't matter what relationships, the music I was doing, whatever it was, he had a scripture for it.

And I was just so impressed with how much the Bible spoke about just everyday things.

Well, you could probably sniff out someone who was disingenuous, especially with living, you didn't live on the streets, but just being out and about, you could probably tell what was real and what wasn't and who was real and what wasn't.

Right, very true, very true. And we all, it's funny enough, because some of the people that I was in the streets with, we were working alongside each other.

So it was like a community of like -minded individuals there on the unit. But Lou was the one who stood out.

We called him the preacher of the unit, and that's how we identified him.

And so, going back to what I was saying, as he's diving through scripture, it was just, that's what began drawing me, was my curiosity on how this

Bible was so vast on all different topics. And you probably didn't know much of the Bible. I did not.

Because you were unregenerate, lazy, and Rome doesn't help us very much. Right, yeah,

I mean, in Catholicism, it was more so the catechism, the separate books that they had.

The Bible was there, but it wasn't something that we sat around and studied together.

It was more driven by, even at church, it was more driven by tradition or whatever the priests felt compelled to talk about at the time.

So some people, Mario, know exactly where they were when they got saved. And of course, it isn't a point of time.

It isn't a point of time, but some people don't really know the exact point of time. The Lord does.

And they just say, somewhere in this timeframe, the Lord gave me a new heart. What was that like for you?

For me, it was more, and you know, now as I mature,

I - Your testimony changes. Yes, but I do remember the moment where I understood the gospel.

I do remember that clearly. And Lou always preached it to me. My cousin,

Natalie, also shout out to Natalie, preached it to me as well. She came to the Lord before I did. She's also a member here at BBC.

So there were people that preached the gospel to me. So maybe in my head,

I knew it, but it wasn't until I decided to go buy a Bible. I was like, okay,

Lou is very impressive with how he navigates through the scripture. I need to go get myself a

Bible. So I went - And where'd you go? Morningstar. Believe it or not. There's a Christian bookstore around here.

Yes, yep. I went to Morningstar and that was where I knew I can get a

Bible. So I went there and I got myself a ESV, small little pocket Bible, full

Bible, all 66 books. And I began in Matthew and every night

I would just read. I would just read, read, read. I don't know if it was,

I don't know exactly where in the Bible, but I remember the moment it was maybe like three o 'clock, four o 'clock in the morning,

I woke up and I've been wrestling what I've been reading. And what got me was when

Jesus was confronting the Pharisees and I just, I couldn't understand.

My mind just couldn't, because the Pharisees in my mind were the holy religious men of the time, right?

In my mind, I'm thinking, these are the holy men. These are the righteous men, the teachers. And here's Jesus confronting them and like completely pointing out their wrongs.

And I'm just thinking to myself, because now I'm being honest. The Lord is working on my heart and he's convicting me and showing me the truth about who

I am. And I'm just like, just being honest with myself. If the Pharisees are being confronted by Jesus, what leg do

I have to stand on? And immediately I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm undone.

It's over for me. And that was the moment where I woke up my wife and I just, it was like my eyes opened up to sin right at that moment.

And I was overwhelmed because I was just bombarded with my lifestyle.

And I'm like, oh my goodness. I wake up my wife. What'd you say to her? I'm like, we need to get married.

Well, I wake up my wife, who wasn't my wife. Yes, it's a time of just like,

I'm in the middle of, I'm in the middle of the sin. Like I'm just, he caught me in the middle of it.

How soon after did you get married? A couple of months after I got married. Now, maybe that wasn't,

I didn't know theology. I didn't know much about anything.

I was just convicted in that moment and just like, I need to be married. And so from then on, it's been the seek, the pursue of the

Lord. Well, I have a friend, Pastor Phil Howard, and he pastored for a long time, just north of San Francisco.

And it was during the Jesus movement. And he said he did so many, he preached the gospel, talk about sin, repentance.

And then all these couples were living together right in the 60s and 70s.

And he said he did wedding after wedding after wedding because here, premarital sex, fornication, sinful, you gotta run.

He said, we did so many weddings. Yeah, and that will make sense. And you get convicted and you want to respond with obedience.

So then did you go first church, charismatic church? How did that happen? Catholicism first. Yeah. I started going to -

Catholicism after you got married? Yeah, during that - Just get back to the Catholic church? No, okay.

So no, so eventually I left that and I found the charismatic church that I was going to at the time.

And I think during that transition period is when I got married. I knew to get married, but then the Lord, as I was going back to Catholicism, trying to seek the

Lord, that was my first church. He was changing me. There was a lot of things changing at the time.

So I knew I needed to get married, but I was still seeking, where am I to go to congregate?

Where's church? Yeah, yeah, where's the truth? I know where to buy a Bible. Right, right. And I have nobody. There's no teacher.

There's nobody. So were you into drugs and alcohol and all that stuff or no? I was, yeah.

Okay, so that stopped and you weaned off? How'd that work? Everything stopped. I became,

I don't know if self -righteous is the right, legalistic, legalistic in my mind. I didn't fully understand the application of the word, the gospel.

I was still learning. I knew I was a sinner. I knew I needed Christ. I knew I needed that. I just was still learning these things.

So because I was unsure, I just, everything, even rapping, even like my rapping,

I thought that was sin. I was like, I gotta stop doing this. And so there was this period of study. I need to learn what this is about.

Awesome. Today on No Compromise Radio, talking to my dear friend, Mario, and he's the one and the genius behind NoCo and getting everything ready and up and schlepping all the stuff all around as well.

And so it's good to get to know Mario some. Mario, you in the Charismatic Church, and then how'd you find out about BBC 20 years ago?

Was it through Natalie? Yes. So there was a period of time where we're seeking the truth and we all went to the same

Charismatic Church. And then there was - Did you ever speak in tongues? I did. I did.

Give us a little - Rabasha raboshur. Just rolling my

R's and just like, okay, I know how to do this. Yeah, what if you can't speak in Spanish and you can't roll the

R? That's right. That's no fun. That's right. So yeah, I did. And it was never like,

I was never convinced of it. By the way, when you were doing it, did you know it was fake? I had an idea, but like Catholicism, I was thinking the enemy's trying to rob me.

Like Catholicism. So I'm like, this is a gift. I gotta embrace this gift. And just my thinking was, you know,

I was ignorant in the truth, but eventually over time, you know, you get confronted about these things,

Lord willing, if that, and I pray that happens to people who are still caught up in that way of thinking. But it was

John MacArthur's Charismatic Chaos. I dove into that book and that thing just completely undone everything that I thought was right and biblical.

Yeah, that book, I think will stand the test of time. He first put it out, I think maybe 78, maybe it was called the

Charismatics. It was called the Charismatics. And then he had to update it because there just keeps being new charismatic crazy stuff.

Yeah, it was a very useful book that the Lord used to help me get out of that. So you're in Worcester, urban, you come to West Boylston, 7 ,000 people, kind of, it's all white.

Before that, there was a gap where we were looking for a church. So we spent a year looking and we went to all different types of churches and everybody had their own ways of doing things, their own.

But at that point, we were already listening to John MacArthur, Votie Bachum, R .C.

Sproul. And so because we didn't have a place to congregate, we decided to just come together as a family and we will break bread together as a family.

We would study the Bible and listen to like a MacArthur who would just follow him. And that would be our church as we're looking for a church.

And then a friend of mine came across, I think it was the Grace To You website where they had a section for the alumni section.

And we went through that and we were just like, maybe there's something local and we found your name there. And that's how we found

Bethlehem Bible Church. Nice, and what was the first Sunday like, do you remember? First of all, the sermons that we heard on the website were just like, no way.

We were in denial. We were like, this exists here? No way. Because we're so used to seeing it on TV and it's always somewhere else.

We didn't think it was local. Plus it's discouraging when you're visiting churches, church after church after church after church and you're like -

Just stand up and preach the Bible. Exactly. And it was some churches we walked with, we only spent like five minutes in and we were like, all right, turn around, get out of there.

But we already fell in love with Bethlehem Bible Church when we heard the sermons online. So before we even came.

Before we even came. It's kind of nice because if you're trying to find a church and you're watching the show today, you can do it.

Obviously so much research before you even show up. So most of the people now that show up to BBC, they already know what they're getting, right?

For good or for ill, they're like, oh, we already kind of know that. So that's good. It was still a culture shock for me because the

Charismatic Church is Hispanic. You have tongues, you have all kinds of music playing.

Much more upbeat music. Very live, very, yeah. It's just very, and plus the people there were more, it was more

Hispanic culture. So with us in our culture, we're very touchy, feely, hugging and -

That's why we do this. Yeah. So it's easy when you're from that culture.

It just feels like a family function almost, and it's like, oh yeah, these people can be my cousins, and that's how it felt.

So coming here, it was like, oh, this is completely different. It was orderly.

Okay, I'll take that. It was very orderly. It was very sound. It was very, it just well -structured with respect to time and everything.

Because you have some churches, the pastors led by the Spirit to go another five hours, and you don't get out of the church.

But so yeah, so that for us, music, everything, all of everything about it, it took some time to see past those things and to understand the heart of Bethlehem Bible Church, why you guys chose to do things the way that you do them.

And then as you mature and grow, you appreciate it. Right, the differences.

And even back to the first question that I asked about thinking about leaving, right? It is hard, different culture, different place, different background.

How do I fit in? I mean, the church now is pretty diverse, I would say. Yeah, it's completely different.

If you had to pick a number, white, non -white, what would you say? Oh, it's mixed now. Yeah, it went from like, you know, at the time where I was going, it was like 90 % white, and now it's almost 50 -50 split.

Something like that, yeah. Right. Yeah, how do we figure that out? I always tell people, I talk about a Jew who's been resurrected every

Sunday, and now all kinds of different people show up. I know you've been praying about it too, though. Well, and it's exciting, right?

Yeah, every tribe, every tongue, you get to see that, yeah. That's right. So when you thought about leaving, was it just,

I'm okay theologically, but I don't fit in socially? It's a mix, so it's not just, you know, yes,

I have a Hispanic background, but I don't speak Spanish fluently. I never learned the language like that.

I struggled a lot with identity because I didn't know what I was. I'm like, I'm not, I don't speak

Spanish. I don't know the Colombian culture. I don't know the Puerto Rican culture. I come from a different background.

What am I? So hip hop was literally my identity. That's what

I knew. Okay, plus add in Calvinism, right? You probably felt different because you believed in the doctrines of grace.

I did, yes. I knew though, I had somebody tell me, they were like, oh, you're going to that church because, you know, that's the only thing you're listening to.

That's why you're going to that church. Like, they're just feeding you consistently and that's what you're learning and that's what you accept.

The truth of the matter is I'm coming here because you're preaching what I've been convicted of in the word.

And so when you talk about the doctrines of grace, it's like, it's something I already accepted.

I just didn't know that there was a formula to it. And there was a structure, it's a systematic exactly structure to it, so.

Was it true, Mario, when you got here pretty early on, I think I had maybe the second book that I'd written about Jesus being the

King. Did you do an entire rap album based on this? I haven't recorded it, but yes,

I do have it ready. Yeah. Okay. And it was for each chapter. Here's the updated one. Okay. Hit, hit, there you go.

And it's not about Christian nationalism. So. But I did do one on the doctrines of grace.

I completely split up and have an entire album that's focused on the doctrines of grace.

And I think you did a concert here once. I did, yes, yep. And so in the last 20 years, you've also been doing some podcasting.

I have been. That's why I can just say, hey, Mario, let's do a show. And you just say, okay, you're not sweaty, you're not nervous, you're just talking.

You don't even give me a chance to talk. Sorry. Just kidding. No, you're the guest. So you've done some hip hop recording music.

You've did some hip hop. Was it Christian hip hop podcasting? Yeah, it was, yep, me and Gil.

Shout out to Gil Vargas. Love you, brother. He was also, he still calls himself a member of Bethlehem Bible Church.

Okay, nice. I haven't seen any giving come through. Well, once the app is live,

I'll let them know to download it. I don't look at giving. Okay, I'm sorry,

I'm off. Wait a minute. We're just talking about doctrines of grace. Okay, yeah, so the podcast, yep.

So the podcast was more so just desiring to utilize a tool to kind of house the music, updates on the music.

Me and Gil were doing a lot of work together, music. And plus feeling compelled to kind of help guide the

Christian hip hop scene, because it's very mixed and there's all different types of theology and all kinds of things.

So we just felt compelled, if we're a part of this community, why don't we bring what we're learning from Bethlehem Bible Church into this realm?

Okay, good. You know what, I almost called you Gil. You know what, Mario, what might be good for our listeners, help them kind of walk through how you would encourage, how they would encourage their friends who come from Catholicism, who come from a different background, come from different socioeconomic, come from charismatic, what would be a good way for our listeners to lead their friends into good

Bible teaching in spite of a different kind of music, structure, order, doctrine? I mean, what captivated me here and has always, what kept me here was just the preaching of the word verse by verse, chapter by chapter and seeing

Christ just pulled out of every verse. No matter where we were in the

Bible, I needed to hear the gospel. I desperately - It's funny how the gospel's for Christians too.

Yeah, amen, amen. And as you are enduring through some of your trials with cancer and things like that, you talk about this and as a listener,

I've experienced it. I don't know if it came alive in me,

I was listening better. I don't know, but there was something, and thank

God, because I struggled pretty badly sometimes, but I could not, where else am

I gonna go? This place just, Pastor Mike, Pastor Steve Cooley, the elders here, Pradeep, and the heart of the elders and the deacons, it was just,

I knew. I'm like, these are men of God, they know their word. I knew better.

And it was like just that conviction and God just showing me and giving me wisdom and saying, this is stupid that you're trying to leave.

This is not for the right reasons. So for me, it's always been, let the word do its work.

And so what I encourage people is, instead of debating specific doctrines,

I mean, confront what you need to confront as you're convicted and have those moments, of course, and don't just accept things as they are.

We have to have our guard up and we need to be wise, but people are where they are and not just accepting where they are and just trusting the power of the word to do its work.

Just simply study scripture with them. Just simply go through scripture with them. Maybe a Bible study.

If you don't have time for that, then just keep throwing scripture at them and just keep loving them. And that's what you did with me.

And that's what Luke did to you. Yes, exactly. Yeah, when I came into this church with the charismatic background with me,

I didn't drop off that bag. I brought that bag with me. And I remember sitting actually behind these cameras,

Pastor Mike's desk is back there. And I remember sitting right there with Gil and telling

Pastor Mike, the Lord led me here. And like thinking I was some, I don't know what

I thought I was. And you're just looking at me and just with a smile, just that smile on your face, letting me finish what

I had to say. And you just simply said, well, I can tell you this. If you wanna learn about the

Bible, this is the place to come. If that's what you wanna do and that's your desire, this is the place to come.

And I've been coming ever since. Well, Catholicism, charismatic, Bethlehem Bible Church, this is your last stop.

Yeah, I believe so. If I live long enough, I'll bury you. And I'm completely okay with that.

Trust me, I'm very thankful for Bethlehem Bible Church. Tell us a little bit,

Mario, about how you've learned some lessons, sometimes the hard way, sometimes with lots of grace and mercy to trust the

Lord. You've got your own business now, you've worked for other people. Your business is actually this, right?

Tell us what your business is and then how it's forced you to try to trust the

Lord more. All right, so my business is called D2L Productions. It's actually, it's death to life productions.

That was my record label at the time, not registered. I didn't know what I was doing, but as a hip hop guy, you need to have your label.

So that was my label. I lost my job during the pandemic. I was living at my mother's family of five at the time to save up and pay for a house.

Didn't anticipate the pandemic. My two -year plan turned into a five -year plan and D2L Productions was actually birthed out of necessity during that time.

I had to provide, I had to do something. And so I decided, let me register this, let me pray about this.

Of course, I was looking for jobs too at the time, but I needed to provide immediately. And that was four years ago.

Here I am four years later with D2L Productions. And the Lord blessed me with a house. The Lord blessed me with the business.

And since has been teaching me just through life experiences and stuff like that, teaching me just what it means to honor

Him with your hands, with your work, even with the responsibility of running a business, being convicted at times of that as well.

Like maybe there's times I have lack of faith and I'm like, maybe I'll just go find a nine to five and I just gotta, but it's weird in this position because now it's like, well, you've been building this up and this has been providing and there's opportunities.

And so it's not that I'm against the job. It's just the conviction in my own personal walk of saying, this is what the

Lord gave me and I wanna be a good store of this and build it up. Nice, so you film, do you film weddings?

Yeah, I do. So it's film, photography, audio production.

So it's an all around digital media producer, I guess you could say, where now

I'm looking for more ongoing work with organizations to help them build a media infrastructure for like a monthly base ongoing telling stories and helping them.

Now, I know you don't wanna do this, but since I'm your boss at NoCo. Go ahead, yeah. You have to put it in the little notes underneath.

Okay. YouTube and all that, put your website so people can go check it out. And they can just look at it.

Or if they wanna hire you or whatever, I just get 10 % off the top. No problem. Yes, you do.

Mario, I think about the joys of being a pastor. And of course, there are a lot of things that are very difficult being a pastor.

And sometimes those are self -inflicted because I'm far from perfect. Other times it's different people.

I think of Hebrews chapter 13, and it talks about living your life in such a way that you would give your leaders joy and not grief.

And it's been so fun for me to watch you because you don't give me grief.

You give me joy. I get to watch you. You're a different man than I met 20 years ago, learning, growing.

We laugh a lot, but I just think about your theology. I think about your wife. I think about your kids. I think about your daughter off to the

Czech Republic for a missions trip. Yes. All these things. And I think, wow, I didn't do anything in Mario's life.

I just preached the word. And as Luther said, how do you start the reformation? Well, I preached the word of God.

I went home. I had a beer with my friend, Phillip in Amsdorf, and went to bed. That's it.

And if you're a Baptist, he had like a Diet Coke. So I'm so proud of you.

I watch you, and it's just a joy. We get to minister alongside of each other here at No Compromise Radio.

You really are a pastor's joy. That's really great to hear, and I'm honored by that.

And same on this side, as far as just being thankful for you, being faithful to the ministry that God has given you.

I don't wanna puff you up, but I'm very, very thankful for you and your faithfulness.

All right. Mike Abendroth, Mario Escobar, No Compromise Radio. Can you take us out with a little bit of rap?

I'll attach it to this then. Can you just do it off the top of your head right now? Something about Jesus the King.

Okay. It's best to like, you really put me on the spot here. I'm a songwriter.

I'm not really a freestyler, but let me see. Jesus, Jesus the King. Jesus King, he's got crowns.

Jesus King, he got crowns. He's sovereign over everything around. There we go.

That's how it goes down. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. You can write me mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

Don't forget about the new book, The Chosen. It's on Amazon. It's a helpful book on how to understand unconditional election for people that are just experiencing it for the first time.