Ask Your Pastor

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.

Answering Questions by Asking About the Local Church

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. It's about time Tuesday. Guy's back.

Yeah, I've been gone far, far too long.

Well, I don't think we've taped shows for Tuesday Guy in quite some time, and when I was in Los Angeles, Steve, at the Shepherd's Conference, while people were happy to see me and say, oh, that's No Compromise Radio, regularly those same people said, where's the Tuesday Guy?

I should have a shirt made up that says the Tuesday Guy.

I think you should. Make sure you just order one for you and one for your wife because I'm not sure it'll be a huge seller. How do you get Tuesday Guy in the right font on a T-shirt? Are you kidding?

This could be our best seller ever at No Compromise Radio.

Speaking of No Compromise Radio, let's just talk generally in ministry for a second, Steve. People write in and ask us questions, and some of them are pretty important questions, wouldn't you say? Vital, key.

Some are, shall I leave the church that I'm at? What about my wife and possible divorce? Am I called into ministry? What are some other questions we get?

What's wrong with the King James? No. Some of the questions aren't really all that good.

Well, and some ask questions about how do you reconcile sovereignty and free will?

Sure, that's a good question.

Yeah, we'd say we don't reconcile sovereignty and human responsibility, but here's what I would like to say because I've been getting lots of questions lately, Steve. I don't think I've forwarded them to you, but I've been responding like this, and tell me if you think this is the right approach.

Okay. Have you talked to your pastor about this issue? That's a great approach.

Why is that a great approach? Because so many people want to, well, I think they want to answer shop, but they also don't want to really be accountable to anybody. So maybe they don't even go to church, and they just listen to some guy on the radio, and they go, you know what?

I'll just ask him because if I don't do what he says, nobody's going to know. So I think the great answer is, have you asked your pastor about that yet?

Well, Steve, I don't know about these people. Well, let me back up. I want to help them. If we're going to throw our voices on the radio and say this is a ministry, aren't we to help people if we give out an email?

And even if we're not going to throw our voices on the radio.

Right, if somebody asked me for help, I like to say, I want to help you because I think that's the Christian thing. Last time I checked, maybe it was the second great commandment.

It's also a very pastoral thing to do, and we're extremely, exceedingly pastoral.

We want to be, that's our desire. So I want to help people, but if there's somebody down the street from another church and they say, my wife's doing this and I'm doing that, and blah, blah, blah, we've got this mess of sin and chaos and confusion, I want them to go to their pastor, not because I don't want to be bothered, but I don't know the person well.

I don't meet them regularly. I don't worship with them. They're not under me in terms of shepherding. And so lots of times people email us with these practically life and death questions. And I can give an answer, but I like to say, have you met with your pastor?

And what does your pastor say? Because then I can at least know a little bit more and they need to go to the first line of defense, as it were, their pastor.

Yeah, I guess that's one of the advantages too of not doing this as a live call-in show. We don't get those kinds of questions and then say, I mean, that might be a little embarrassing. Have you asked your pastor?

Well, I don't actually go to a church, you know.

See, I learned that from, you know the guy I learned it from. I don't want to say his name now because he's kind of fallen off into crazyville. But I did learn something from a man who did radio back in Los Angeles.

And he would always say, have you talked to your pastor? Rick Dees. Rick Dees, kissing a man. Now that was funny. If you've lived in Los Angeles, that was funny. I think Rick Dees actually made it nationally, didn't he?

He did for a while.

I don't know what he's doing now. Yeah, he was kind of, Ryan Seacrest kind of He swept him away. Yeah, was he married? Was Rick Dees married to Kiki Dee? All I remember is Rick Dees, oy vey. That's all I remember.

I don't remember that. Yeah, I do. Boy, how trashy is drive time radio in the morning FM? I don't know. Even sports drive time radio is trashy. So back to the subject at hand. If you'd like to write us at info at nocompromisedradio .com, Ray would like to answer your questions.

The truth comes out. No, Ray would, or I would, or Steve would, or other people, we want to help you when we leave no email unanswered. How about this?

The No Compromise team would love to answer your emails.

Yes, that's true. But sometimes when they're at the top of the charts in terms of importance, I like to take care of those. I feel it's my duty, Steve.

And then some get farmed out to Indonesia and other places.

If you mention, yeah, that's right. We have a guy in China who responds. He does it cheaply, by the way. And in India. And see, here's the thing. We want to help, but when you ask us questions, we'll probably ask you more questions.

And so first thing we'd like to tell you is if you've got a problem, why don't you go to your elders and your pastor slash pastors and see if you can get some help. And if you say, I don't have a pastor, I think you've got a bigger problem.

And you would have a, I hate to say these words, Steve, a support base, some shepherding to help you get through these issues. Steve, what does the Bible say about, what does wisdom say about someone who doesn't have a local church that they're a member of, accountable to, serving with?

Here's what wisdom says.

I can hear wisdom's voice. Sounds a lot like Professor Montoya. The Lone Ranger is the dead ranger. The Lone Ranger's dead.

I think I stole some of that and changed the metaphor to a ship sailing in the sea and it was easy for pirates to attack them or something.

Or even World War II, they did convoys. Why? To protect their safety in numbers, protect them from the U-boats. So there's that whole theory. But here would be a worrisome response. We say, well, have you talked to your pastor?

And they say, yes, I have. And she says.

She told me that would be worrisome. So if you have a question, we want to answer your questions and we want to help. And if we are going to be online, then we want to minister to those who would write us.

And sometimes people write and say, our Bible studies using such and such a Richard Foster book, just how bad is it?

And we'd say. It's bad, exceedingly bad. That's right.

And we're not trying to get people to leave their churches inappropriately or anything like that. But we are far away and so we don't really know you. So please go talk to your pastor if you've got a problem and work through it.

Steve, don't you like it if someone has a problem and instead of gossiping or talking to other people or running around or going to some shrink that they actually would go to you and say, I have a problem.

Do you think the Bible could help me? Absolutely.

I mean, that's a great response. What's interesting is we have in the past had some emails where people have said that they've gone to their church and really gotten bad information. So I mean, we're more than willing to help out, but I do think step one is to go to the pastors and elders that have charge over you.

I mean, they're the ones that are going to be held accountable by God for your soul. So I think it's, A, it's only fair, but B, it's wise to go to them first.

Yes, but Steve, as I wrote to No Compromise Radio, I wanted to go see my pastor. But since I'm on a multi-campus church facility, I only have a video screen for a pastor. He comes once every five weeks, but he doesn't tell us ahead of time which church he'll be at, because then most people will flock to that church.

So I'd like to ask you the question.

It reminds me of that old Blood, Sweat, and Tears song, you know, Spin and Wheel, which congregation is he going to show up and preach for today? Let's spin the wheel and see.

Spin and Wheel got to go round. Can you imagine you don't tell the people what church you're going to be at because more people would go to that church? Steve, just this last Sunday, by the way, we have two services now at the church,.

Yes, we do have two services.

So if you've been to Bethlehem Bible Church before and you thought, hey, this place is so crowded, I can't even find a seat, there's room in the pew for you.

And the services are at 8 .30, Sunday school, 10 .30, and then the next service. Sunday school's at 10. Oh yeah, that's at Grace Church, sorry. I was just at Grace Church. 8 .30 service, 10 o 'clock Sunday school, 11 o 'clock service, and then we have the always standing room only service, 6 p .m.

Yeah, standing room only. Except for Sunday night, the first Sunday of the month.

Standing room only unless you want to sit down.

That's right. But I actually am glad to see visitors from other churches on Sunday night when their church doesn't have a Sunday night service, so then they come over and worship with us. And the more the merrier.

Okay, so what was I talking about again? Why would I be talking about this issue? Multi-campus, where was I going with that?

I don't know, we'll have to refer to our carefully written out script.

Steve, there's something to do with multi-campus. Anyway, if you're at a multi-campus church, are you gonna do church at home? Let's do home church, let's do video church. I just wish you wouldn't do that.

That's not very helpful to you.

Well, I mean, when you get right into it, I know we've talked about this before, but there are a number of issues with that. How do you exercise your spiritual gifts? How do you bear the burdens of other folks?

How do they come alongside you? How do you have corporate worship? How do you do the public reading of scripture, all these kind of things? I mean, church, worshiping God is meant to be a corporate interactive experience, not something we kind of sanitize online and just kind of experience vicariously.

Absolutely, if you're stuck in the middle of Saudi Arabia and you can't get to a local worship service and you pull up MacArthur's Grace to You and watch the worship service and sing along and listen, I don't blame you.

No, because that's better than nothing. In fact, people say, well, we didn't get to church because we were sick on Sunday, but we stayed home and listened to whatever, we watched whatever. Well, good, at least you did something and you marked out the day as the Lord's day.

Steve, let's talk more about the Lord's day in a second, but I remember what I had previously forgot. I had disremembered something and now I re-remembered it. Excellent. Sunday, there were a variety of little kids running around and so I was out in the sanctuary area and Steve, one of my favorite things is when a young child, two years old, maybe up to four years old, sees me and runs up to me and wants to give me a big old hug.

And of course they're little and I'm taller and so they usually give me the big leg hug. They give me the hug of the leg and I'm happy that they want to see me. I'm happy that they like me. And then I usually lift them up and their parents are right there and I kind of pull them up a little bit and give them a big hug.

Sadly, these days, you can't do that in your office because I don't let kids in my office alone. That's a no-no, but in public in front of their parents, it's fine to do and I'm glad they do that. Now, who does a kid hug if they get a video screen for church?

So if you pipe in Mark Driscoll and you're down in Los Angeles and you don't have Driscoll because Driscoll's in Seattle, although I heard rumors that he wanted to move to LA. Did he? Yeah. So then whom do you hug?

Who do you hug? I think it's whom, though. You hug him, so it's a whom and a him. And a him and a haw.

And a pig and a poke. Yeah, but I get the point. I mean, you're missing out on all that and I suppose you could make the argument that you're less exposed to germs and a bunch of other things, but you're missing it.

You're missing a lot. I'm less exposed or they are less exposed. They are less exposed.

Because you never know what bug Pastor Mark's carrying around. No, I just mean in general. You know, come on, you're being silly. But yeah, I agree. I mean, there's just a familial aspect, a brotherly aspect of it.

I mean, look, we went to two services, why? It's not because we really, we weren't chomping at the bit to go to two services. The truth is we just ran out of space entirely. And I mean, we were having some real problems just parking, seating, everything.

So you have to do what you have to do.

Steve, when I read 1 Timothy 4 and it says to Timothy, written by Paul, and therefore then to any other elder or shepherd or pastor, practice these things. He's just got done talking about scripture reading and exhortation and teaching.

Practice these things, immerse yourself in them. For what reason? So that all may see your progress on the big screen. How do you know that? I mean, the only way I would know about John MacArthur is being a person who's at Grace Community Church and then listen to John and talk to John.

And when I had problems, I would say, John, can I meet with you? This is a big issue. Yes, you can. Let's just set up a time. Or hearing the stories about John giving his credit card to a seminary student who was poor.

Or going over to John's house. Todd told the story, or one of the guys did, and he's over there with all his grandkids that are all laying around close to him while they're watching Captain, not Captain Nemo, Nemo, the Disney movie.

How do you know about these things? You don't know about them if you don't have them there.

I agree. And I mean, it is an entirely different experience. Not some, I mean, we don't watch church. Church is something that we participate in. It's a worship service. The whole thing is about worship.

You don't worship via computer screen.

That's just not what you do. Steve, I can't come up with anything tangible. I have no way to make this objective. But there is something to be said about being in a worship service, listening to the preaching.

A man of God stepping up behind the desk of God, the pulpit, as Lawson likes to call it, this piece of furniture, in the middle of the auditorium. And you're listening to a sermon. And it's different if you just hear it online or you listen to a recording.

I'm not kind of crazy. It's anointing if it's in real life. And if it's not, I can't quantify it, Steve. I can.

I have a verse for it. Yeah, wherever two or three are gathered in his name. Oh, that's, you know what?

That's an obvious no-brainer. And I retract what I just said. You're correct. So anyway, we want you to be part of a local church. If the church says, well, you know what? Over the next five weeks, because of buildings and permits and all that, we have to do the extension campus by video till the new building's built and both congregations can come together.

I wouldn't, I'm not saying categorically it's wrong. I'm just saying categorically it's stupid. Hmm, okay. Well, that's it. Welcome to no-compromise radio ministry. That's entirely different. And what if you just are saying to me though, but Mike, if you could do it, if you were popular enough and if you were gifted enough, and if you could have five campuses, you would do it too.

What would be my response, Steve?

Because sometimes you like to answer for me. Well, I'll tell you what your answer would be. The answer would be no. I mean, we've already experienced that. I mean, let's just be honest here, a little no-compromise radio here.

Who was it who absolutely did not? Yeah, I mean, none of us wanted to go to two services, but Pastor Mike here was literally the last one convinced that we had to. Wasn't I the foot-dragger? Yes, you were.

Yes, okay. So, you know, was it because you didn't think you were popular enough? No, it's because you knew all the problems that come along with having two services and you didn't want to do it, neither did the rest of us.

But I mean, the idea of a multi-campus thing, I think if you've got that many people, then you either need to do a church plant, you need to figure out a way to finance a bigger building, you have to do something, but this, you know, kind of, I don't even know what to call it.

I mean, it's network church, you know? I mean, it's just, it's goofy. You can't do that. That's worse than two services, five services, whatever. For those of you who are disagreeing.

With Pastor Steve right now, sometimes I just like to quote a Bible verse and see if it matches Pastor Steve. And sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. And so, as I look at my Bible and just quote this verse, let's see if it matches up with Steve.

This is from the ESV, the English Standard Version, 1 Timothy 6, verse four. He is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. I think that agrees with me about you. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

Hey, let's have a conference depraved and deprived. That would be excellent. I think that would be excellent, right from this verse.

Sounds like a Led Zeppelin song, though. Depraved and deprived. You know, I could hear Robert Plant screaming that one.

You know what, when Steve first started this show, some 700 shows ago, three years ago, his pop music insertions were fewer. They were few and far between, but now they are just as plentiful as rabbits in the springtime.

Yeah, those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end. Well. You know who wrote that song? Let's see, those were the days, my friend. Let's see, maybe that was Celine Dion.

Oh my goodness, I don't even think she was born when that song was written. No, you know where she was? She was probably. Paul McCartney wrote that song. Oh, he did? Yeah, he didn't sing it, but he wrote it.

Who sang it? I'm gonna have to think about the woman's name. Uh-oh. She was a one-hit. Helen Reddy. No, no, this is like the late 60s, though, so it doesn't really count against me.

No, Helen Reddy was late 60s. 1972, she won the Grammy for I Am Woman, and she said, I'd like to thank God.

For everything she's done for me. Yeah, the only song I really liked of hers was Delta Dawn. I thought she didn't write any songs. Well, I believe that was a,.

She didn't even write Delta Dawn. No, she didn't write it. Tanya Tucker sang that when she was. Yeah, country version, yeah. You know, well, let's talk about music another time. Okay. So, today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, we have been talking, we started off with what?

We started off. I don't know, it was something spiritual, and then we just. It's about writing in, writing in and asking questions, and so how important the local church is. Let's also talk, Steve, since we were going to talk about a different subject, feminism in the local church, and now we're gonna talk about that next time.

Prioritizing the Lord's Day and Sunday Worship

Talk about the Lord's Day and our strategy for Sunday worship. Is there ever a time, if you're within civilization, close to a church, that you would say, well, I don't think I really wanna go to church today?

Maybe you're sick, too sick, but here's my point. I want my children to realize, dad is going to wake up today, not because he's the pastor, because I did this before I was a pastor. When we wake up on Sunday, our parents are saying, get ready for church.

Saturday night, we don't say, should we go tomorrow, or shouldn't we? Steve's filling in for Mike, maybe we sleep in.

There's none of that kind of talk. Yeah, I think it all depends on, you know, who the Patriots are playing, if I have tickets for a Red Sox game. I mean, look, in all seriousness, people have other priorities, and they're a bit mystifying to me, because here's the message I give my kids, or I did give my kids when they were living at home.

You know, nothing comes before Christ. So that's the message I tell them, and then on Sunday, if something really cool comes up, then, you know, the Lord goes on the back burner, and whatever I secretly wanna do goes on the front burner, and we just kind of wink, wink, nudge, nudge, and say, well, kids, this is a one-timer.

Whoever came up with the slogan, I don't know, but they were right. People make time for things or people they love. If you love something or someone, you'll make time for it. It's just a truism. I mean, it is true, right?

If you tell your wife you love her, and then you spend 80 hours a week at the office that you're not, you know, 40 hours of which you're not required to do, and you've got all kinds of other activities, and you spend all Saturday, I don't know, chopping wood before you go hang out with the boys, then, I mean, you are not, you're not living out what you're telling your wife.

She's not gonna believe you. Why? Because it's not believable. So when you tell your kids, the Lord comes first in this household, and then you put other things first, well, guess what?

You're not believable. On Saturday night, what we do in our family is, let's get everything ready for church tomorrow, kids. That is, find your Bible, get your clothes out for tomorrow, because then we don't have to have the satanic, demonized, fighting over stupid clothes and all that stuff.

All right, let's make sure, Kim and I usually go to the grocery store together on Saturday night. Let's make sure we've got enough stuff for the kids tomorrow for breakfast and for lunch, and so we don't have to have all the chaos, because I just want it to go smoothly.

I just want it to go evenly. And so to me, that's just having a Saturday night. How about this, Steve? Could you say to yourself on Saturday night, I think tomorrow, pastor's going to be in 1 Corinthians 11, 2 -16.

Maybe I should read that before church. Yeah, I think I'm going to give it a little preview so that I'll have some clue about what he's going to say. Yeah, I think that's fine. You know, here's the thing.

Here's what drives me nuts is, you know, people will say, well, I can't get up that early. I can't do this. I can't do that. And I'm like, well, what time do you go to bed on Saturday night? Because you know what?

When we have people over The Saturday night live's on late. Yeah, when we have people over, guess what I do on Saturday night? I kick them out. Guess what? Because I have to go to bed because I'm going to get up in the morning because I'm going to go to church.

And I would, you know, we did that all the time, even way before I was a pastor. So it's not complicated. We have to put the Lord's Day first. We have to put the Lord first. And what we do, believe it or not, our kids notice.

You know, it's funny because now we have a grandchild. Our granddaughter's with us all the time. And my wife said to me yesterday, she goes, you know what I've noticed? You know, January was kicking one of the dogs today.

And she goes, I was wondering why. And then she goes, I realized that I redirect, you know, we don't kick the dogs, we redirect them. But a one and a half year old doesn't understand the difference between redirecting and kicking.

You know, and they watch everything. And I don't care how old they are, they notice what you're doing, they notice what you're saying, and they see the contradictions and they will go after them like sharks at a shipwreck.

Is there a Linda Ronstadt song about contradictions, Steve? Contradictions, contradictions. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think that was Harry Belafonte. Oh, maybe, maybe he did that. I think you're right.

All right, so today in No Compromised Radio Ministry, we've just talked about everything,.

Yet we've talked about nothing. Would that be fair to say? I think that'd be unfair. I think this is our first Seinfeld show, though.

Oh, just what was the show about? I have nothing.

Yeah, exactly, yeah. Might as well bring Kramer in.

No, no, we were talking about talk to your pastor, be involved in a local church, get there a little early on Sunday to worship the King. What a privilege. Prioritize the Lord's Day. What a privilege it is to be able to have access into the King's presence based on Christ's mediatorial work.

And why would we give that up?

I mean, there's no reason to miss out on that.

All right, I said info at nocompromisedradio .com, but call your pastor first.

Program Closing and Station Disclaimer

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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