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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.

Why I Do the Show and Why Ministry Should Not Be About Celebrity

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and we�re recording another show. Technically, it�s a day off today, but we�re going to just try to catch up and get some shows out there.

How long this show will last, who knows? But I got a book free. Lots of reasons why I do No Compromise Radio. Number one, I like to hear myself talk, speak, think. I like to hear myself laugh here by myself in the studio in beautiful downtown Burbank.

I like to talk about the Lord Jesus who never compromised. I also like free books. I don�t get as many as I used to, but I still get some free books because publishers send books, and then they want me to read them and then have the author on to talk about the book, to hopefully talk about the Lord.

There was a very prolific author, very well-known evangelical, and I ordered a book, and I said, �Can I have a review copy, please They sent it to me. I called and said, �I�d love to have the author to come on the show and talk for 24 minutes, 24 and a half minutes.

And they said, �Well, how big is your show? What�s the wattage of the station? How many Twitter followers do you have? What�s your Facebook imprint And this was not the person, so I�m hoping he just had a bad handler.

I said, �Is this about ministry, or is it about what? What is this about? Why would you send me a free book There�s this awful mentality in evangelicalism where you go speak and you won�t speak unless you fly first class and get $5 ,000 and stay at a hotel and eat at Outback.

I mean, it�s just awful. Who does that? If you fly somewhere and someone says, �By the way, you have no conditions to come and speak, but we want to bless you. We have some extra miles, and we�d like to give you a free first-class upgrade.

If they say, �We have a generous donor, and we�d like to give you $5 ,000. You asked for nothing as a condition, and so we�re going to give you $5 ,000. Great. You can do whatever. That�s all fine and dandy, but this whole thing, this is what it�s going to take for me to come and speak.

Now, I�ve heard that some people say they don�t want to go speak, and so they put the $5 ,000, $10 ,000 line on there. It�s basically begging someone or you�re baiting someone to say, �Well, you know what?

I don�t really want to come, but if it�s that much, I�d get out of bed to go do it. I thought this was ministry. Now, if you�re a church and you want to have someone come and speak, I think you should because this is what we do because I�m on both ends of the scale.

I get invited to go speak, and then I have people come speak here. It�s completely different when I�m on one side versus the other. When I�m on, �Hey, you called me up, and you asked me if I�ll come and speak I say usually, I�ll say, �Thank you for the offer.

I really appreciate it, and I�ll talk to the elders. Maybe I have some time. I can already do it. I don�t have to ask, but most times, I�ll ask. The elders check on my schedule, see if I�ve been gone from the church too much.

Not that that would ever happen. It was a sabbatical year. I have cancer. It�s just the way out of everything now. And I just would say, �Okay, fine. You know, I don�t have to stay at a hotel. If they say, �Can we put you up at somebody�s house to save money and get to know them better

�Sure. �They�re going to fly me southwest �Okay, sure. The only thing I say is, I say, �I would like to have final say on the flight times. That�s all. And if they say, �We�ve got to have you three stops to get from here to Detroit I just think, �You know what

I would probably say, �Well, there�s a direct flight here, and I notice it�s about $50 more. I�ll give you the $50 just so I don�t have to stop two more times. I mean, that�s about the most I would ever do.

And then if they give you an honorarium, great. If they don�t give you an honorarium, it�s ministry. Now, on the receiving side, if you�re a church and you ask someone to come and speak, whether that�s on a Sunday morning for preaching, for pulpit supply, or if it is for a conference, I think you should say, �You know, we should factor in, pay his flights.

Let�s pay him back ahead of time so he doesn�t have to let that ride on his credit card. Let�s have him stay with somebody�s house. It�s got a big extra bedroom and maybe some privacy if he needs to study, or let�s get the hotel.

Let�s get the rental car. Let�s get somebody to pick him up. Let�s get a gift basket for the hotel. Let�s take him out to nice dinners. Let�s have certain people take him out so we can get to know a variety of different people.

Let�s give him a nice honorarium and bless him. Let�s bring his wife out. All right? Lots of times I get asked, and then I�ll say to Kim, �Would you like to go with me on this trip And she�ll say, �Is there surf there?

Kansas? Well, maybe there�s a tide pool. And I�ll say, �You need to stay home with the kids, or there�s something�s come up. And she�ll say, �Yeah, that�s right. Or sometimes I�ll just say, �Well, I�m assuming I�ll probably get an honorarium.

You might as well go with me, and we�ll just use the honorarium to get you to minister and meet the people, and we�ll hang out together and have fun. Sometimes people will pay for her flight. I don�t ask, but they just offer.

Anyway, it�s a crazy world when people are, �Hey, how many people listen to your show? Then we�ll decide if we�re going to do it or not. Just do me a favor. Don�t send me the book. Don�t send me the review copy.

Why bother? I�m too small fry anyway. You know, it�s this, how many people are at your church? That is irrelevant. More than I�d like to be accountable for, that�s for sure. How many people are in your town?

How many people read your books? How big is your radio show? Your conference isn�t any good unless thousands attend. Fifty people at a conference, oh, it must not be any good. These are all so irrelevant.

If you want to start thinking about, well, a conference is held in Atlanta, and we�ve got a few thousand people show up, and then there�s a conference held in Vermont, and 40 showed up. By the way, just advertise, try to tell people that you have someone coming to speak about the Lord and His Word, and all the numbers are left up to the Lord.

Our responsibility, the book of Corinthians teaches us, is faithfulness. Stewards are to be found faithful. That�s all. And when it comes to ministry and got to stay at this hotel or that hotel and have to go to these kind of restaurants, I mean, when I go someplace and they say, �Would you like to go out to a restaurant to have lunch

Sure, whatever, wherever. What are your culinary requirements? Well, if they took me for hot dogs, I�d go. I wouldn�t like it, but I wouldn�t let anybody know. I�d send a missionary to my face, and then I wouldn�t say anything.

We�ve lost our minds in evangelicalism, and it�s sad. So back to my point here on No Compromise Radio, seven minutes into this little screed. I do get free books, not very often anymore. But I got this one, unsolicited, Tim Cameron, never heard of the guy.

That doesn�t mean anything, right? Author of 40-Day Word Fast. Okay, now wait a second. I�m sure I�m wrong, but just judging by the title alone, 40-Day Word Fast, don�t read the Bible for 40 days and see how that works out for you.

Now I missed days. The other day, I had to get up at 345, catch the flight from San Fran to Boston to come back from California after I was laying low for the radiation stuff. I didn�t get up that morning and have a cup of coffee and read my Bible.

I got up, had a cup of coffee that I had, instant coffee, kind of a Starbucks type of thing, Nespresso type of deal that I think I brought back from Trimony, and threw the coffee down. Didn�t even really, you know, it wasn�t even boiling water, just hot tap water, threw down the double shot of Nespresso and then got in the car.

There are days that I miss. I try not to. My typical day is I wake up in the morning and I make some French roast coffee, Major Dickinson, Pete�s, French roast, house roast, Major Dickinson, something like that, dark.

And then I sit down and have a time where I read my Bible. I try to read the passage that I�m preaching that Sunday. I try to read that in Greek. I�m not a Greek scholar or anything, but I just try to do that to familiarize myself with the passage, see if there�s something I�m not seeing or missing, because our English translations are translations after all.

And then read some of the Gospels. Sometimes I�ll read some Psalms and Proverbs, et cetera. But if I had a 40-day word fast, or maybe at second blush, this is you don�t talk for 40 days. That�s probably wise.

I think there would probably be some social media people that would be wise to do that, maybe even myself included. So the book is 40 Days, that�s a popular title so far, Through the Prayers of Jesus, a Journey to Pray More Like Christ.

Now you know what? No comment, negative comment. Go through the books of the Bible, see how Jesus prayed, and there are certain things that he prayed that we couldn�t pray or shouldn�t pray. But if you want to even see how he did the disciples� prayer, our Father who art in heaven, this template, there wouldn�t be anything wrong with that, obviously.

Well, let�s see what it says here now. That�s just the first kind of look here. It says in the little immediate release, press release contact here, it says, �How to pray according to the power of the Holy Spirit, the importance of God�s word in prayer, the power of praying as a child does, what Jesus prayed for, how to pray when God does not meet your expectations, how to overcome challenges that keep Christians from following Jesus� example.

Cameron says, �Jesus prayed the whole night. He set an example that we should follow. In great emergencies in our life, when we have duties with boundless consequence or we are about to face encounters with severe implications, we should seek divine blessing and direction by setting apart an unusual portion of time for prayer.

Our Savior did it. We should follow in his footsteps. Now, maybe this book isn�t as bad as I might think Charisma House would have it to be, but the first thing you have to remember is when you�re looking at the Lord Jesus, you have to think about a simple hermeneutical principle that needs to be expanded, but simply to start at least.

There are things in the Bible that are described and there are things in the Bible that are prescribed, right? This is a prescription. Take these two pills. Call me tomorrow. Description, �Jesus wept.

Well, Jesus wept, now we are to weep. Make sure when you go to a funeral that you weep. Jesus wept, we should weep. Now, you know, if you go to a funeral, weep with those who weep, right? But we have to be very careful because Jesus stayed up all night to pray.

If you don�t, is that sinful? Tim Cameron shows how vital prayer was to Jesus. You�ll find yourself hungering for a greater connection yourself. This is a book you don�t want to miss. So anyway, got the free book.

It does say on the back here he�s a graduate of Oral Roberts University. He was a basketball player, teaches, who knows where, but he�s at Tulsa. So at least I get free books, right? Maybe it�s going to be really good.

Maybe I�m just trying to be nice. You know, it is nice to be nice and it is good to be good. Yes, you can write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com, Twitter at nocoradio. And if you want to get into a big fight on Twitter, or Facebook for that matter, I really won�t respond.

That�s not the medium for argument and I think it�s basically one-way information. Here�s a good article. Here�s a good quote. Did you read this? Can you believe that? That�s kind of what Twitter is.

Here, here�s the information. But in terms of 140 characters back and forth in a public forum and all the debate stuff that goes on and statements and everything else, it�s just not the best. I have the Facebook account through No Compromise, but I used Hootsuite.

So when I go to Facebook, I don�t go to other people�s Facebooks and it gives me the feed and all that kind of stuff. I don�t do that. I just have the NoCo Facebook and I read the responses to things that are posted and usually if you�re acting childish, then I�ll delete it.

But if not, we just kind of let it ride because it�s a one-way communication. Here, there�s stuff about the radio show. Oh, Israel next year, February. Do you want to go? Sign up. I�ll be speaking at Master�s Seminary Chapel in the fall.

See you there. God is sovereign over cancer. Praise the Lord. It�s that type of thing. Can you believe that Redeemer Press did such and such? But going back and forth and everything else and then people want to have the last word and get their pound of flesh and prove everybody right and wrong.

I don�t know. I just have a different idea of what it is and I have other things to do. This is not my day job. So there you have it. What else? I�ve been studying a lot this summer, justification by faith alone.

That was one of the topics that I preached at Judge Not Conference. I did that. I did style over substance, a case study using C .S. Lewis and then I talked about the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 and how if you understand the gospel, your focus is going to be on who Jesus is and what he�s done.

So that means you have a good testimony. Oh, a quick story by the way to focus on that, this risen Savior Jesus who died for our sins according to the scriptures, right? He was buried and he was raised according to the scriptures.

So I preached 1 Corinthians 15 at the conference and broke it down how it was speaking about God in 1 Corinthians 15, which you think, �Oh, wow. Yeah, it�s about God. The gospel is about God. That�s true.

But when we give our testimony so often, what do we end up doing? We relate the subjective experience of conversion, what happened to us, our thoughts, our desires, our affections, certainly nothing wrong with that.

But that can�t be primary. Primary is I have a testimony about Jesus and what he�s done. And if you say, �Here�s how God saved me that�s a good way to start. This God and describe him and explain him and then how he brought about circumstances for you to hear the gospel and then open your heart to receive the Lord.

Now I have a different mindset, life, affections. I�m a new creature in Christ. Okay. But Ritterbos, Herman Ritterbos, said in one of his books that for Calvin and Luther and Zwingli, it was the objective redemptive event of Christ.

That�s what they focused upon primarily. And for our society, it�s the subjective reception slash conversion, what happened to us. So I was talking about that. And there are implications. You�re not the fifth gospel.

That�s an implication, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mike. There are implications when it comes to every testimony is a great testimony because whether you�re saved from unrighteousness or self-righteousness, to God be the glory.

Only he could do that. Only he could redeem. Only he could make propitiation. Only he could reconcile. But then I also said you�ll have a great testimony. You know, it was 25 years ago probably Michael Horton said on White Horse Inn or in one of his books, you know, what if you don�t have a good testimony?

Maybe a cure article. What if you don�t have a good testimony? But see, if you focus on who the Lord is, you�ve always got a good testimony. If you�re a homeschool kid saved at 15, never did anything that was egregious in society or external in your sin, it was just coveting and it was self-righteousness and pride and, you know, selfishness, you still have a great testimony.

If you�re a prostitute or a thief or whatever, you have a great testimony if you testify to the Lord�s goodness and kindness. As Jesus, the God-man, was sent to save lost sinners. Mission accomplished.

So I spoke that day. That day was Saturday. And a younger lady, I would say mid -20s, came up to me, kind of teary-eyed. This was in Ohio. And I said, �You know what? Why don�t we turn in such a way so that your tears, you don�t have to cry in front of people.

You can have your back to these people and I�ll have my face towards people. Then they�ll have something to cry about. And so I just was trying to be gentle. I was thinking, you know, I�ve got a daughter your age and I want to be sweet to you.

And I said, �Well, how can I help you? You know, what�s wrong And she said, �Last night, we had the conference that night and we went out to dinner wherever they went and met with some other Christian friends and they were giving their testimony.

And she started to cry more and she said, �I didn�t really have a testimony. You know, I believe since I was a young age. And she said, �I didn�t have a testimony. And I said, �Well, are you a believer?

Do you trust in the finished work of Jesus today for your salvation, forgiveness of sins? Is God who He said He is in Scripture? Do you believe that �Yes, I do. I know I�m a Christian. I just don�t have a testimony.

Last night, I said on the way home, crying to God, �God, would you please give me a testimony �I�d like to have a testimony about you. And she said, �And then I came here today and you said, based on 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that if the testimony is about the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ and His life and His death, confirmed by the resurrection, I have a good testimony now.

And she cried. I cried. And I thought, you know, it was kind of a hassle to get to Ohio and I did not have the first class seats or the $5 ,000 honorarium. I flew southwest, actually, and it was from San Jose to Midway to Ohio, and then on the way back, it was Ohio to Phoenix to San Jose.

And I have this little card, and so if I light up the TSA x-ray thing, I have a card saying that I have radiation implants and that that�s why. Use your Geiger counter sparingly. It didn�t go off, but I have the little card.

But I did say to the flight attendants, you know, �May I please sit by the back for the bathroom in case I might need it You have these compulsions, these well, that�s enough to say on radio. And I was thinking, this is, you know, I don�t feel that good.

I�m still trying to recover. It�s a long flight. I mean, if I was in Boston to fly to Cleveland, that�s nothing. I remember last year when I flew to Detroit, David Doran, the president there at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.

Great guy, great seminary. That was easy. It was like an hour and a half flight or something. And the $5 ,000 honorarium, David, was excelente, muy picante. Anyway, I went to minister. I don�t always have good motives.

I�m not saying all my motives are pure or anything like that, but I just thought I want to go and serve, and it�s a real privilege to go and serve. I don�t deserve any of this stuff. And so when I got asked, I said yes, I would go.

And then I�m thinking when I got up at four in the morning, did I make the right decision? And then to have that young lady say, �Essentially, God answered my prayer through you. Right? It was all the Lord�s doing.

I didn�t write the Bible. I didn�t set all this up. I was very encouraged. And isn�t that just like the Lord? We minister to other people, and then we�re ministered to. And so I went to minister, and then I got ministered to.

And the Evian and the Green M &Ms, those were an added plus. I wanted to go downtown to the downtown Cleveland to check it out, but everybody was so sad there in Cleveland because they played the first preseason game or already ruled out of the Super Bowl run, the Browns.

And so you go to minister and you think, okay, I have a ministry in the nursery of the church or I move chairs and tables, I�m a janitor, I�m in the sound room. There are a lot of not upfront type of ministries.

And you go and you minister to the Lord and for him only, and then you�ll never be let down in case you�re never recognized. But so often, just at the right moment when you need to be encouraged, the Lord then encourages in gospel ministry.

That�s a testimony of God�s goodness. He wouldn�t have to do that. We are worthless slaves and it is our duty to serve. And you can think of certain parables, but many times God gives us just those little encouragements when we need them.

Maybe nobody else knows about it, but he knows and we know, and then we get to experience that very thing. So I don�t know what the young lady�s name was, but I was so glad to be able to go and encourage her.

And then because of that, I was encouraged. And yet, if we don�t get those encouragements, you say, �I don�t ever get those encouragements. Well, then we�ll go back to we don�t have to worry, God�s faithful, and he will reward us in due time and heaven will show more than grace.

It�ll be amazing grace. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. You can write me, info at No Compromise Radio. If you�re looking for a show, Jonathan and Linton and the guys, Josh, have done a great job on the website.

If you just type in something, Mother Teresa on the website, search bar, it�ll pull up whatever I�ve said about her and messages and, you know, we have 1 ,700 messages. We�ll try to get a bunch of new shows out.

There are four new Tuesday shows, and then I�m recording a few new shows for this particular week and hopefully we�ll be up and running. I will be in New Zealand, the North Island, at the end of October for a Reformation conference with my friend Donald Stevenson, who�s hosting me.

Thanks for the first class. 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 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.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.