Murmuring and Sighs

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.

Donuts, Travel, and California Conference Small Talk

No Compromise Radio ministry, I have to say, no joking, this is one of my favorite times of the week when we get to sit down and talk and laugh and have Mr. Steve Cooley in the studio. Well, thank you very much.

It�s my pleasure to be here. Steve, we�ve been doing this now. This is going into the seventh year. Is that all? Yeah. I don�t know how many times I�ve thought to myself when I do the show by myself, �Hey, where�s Steve because I have a pop culture music reference and I need some help.

Did you ever think about, you know, just saying, �Stand by, listeners, while I phone a friend. You know, I could have.

And, you know, let�s see, what�s that Elvis Costello song, �My Aim is True. Okay. Yeah, that�s right. Now we have it. Anything new in your life? Any good restaurants you�ve been to? Oh, you know what?

You and Janet took Kim and I to Cane�s Donuts in Boston. We had a great time.

Yeah. So did we. But, you know, Janet was just telling me this morning that she was reading about the top donut places in every state and apparently some other place in Quincy is supposed to be better.

Wow.

Okay, let�s go. So we have to go back. It�s almost time for Christmas presents again. But I think Bon Appetit had the Cane�s as one of their top ten or something. Maybe it was dated.

And I would say, if you go there, Creme Brulee. Creme Brulee all the way.

Kim said to me she didn�t really prefer the Creme Brulee, but I liked it because of the outside sugar torch thing. But the inside wasn�t very sugary. It wasn�t frosty. Well, no, but it was creamy. It was like the Boston Cream Pie.

I loved it. I thought it was awesome. So we brought home some for the kids and I think they were all, they didn�t care. They were on a diet or something like that. So I�m like, I�m sawing pieces, like, how many did I eat in one day?

It was awful.

Oh, yeah. I did like those donuts though, you know, and they aren�t the kind of greasy nasty. Of course, they�re a little pricey too, but, you know, I mean, it�s not like you get a dozen for four bucks or something like that.

Yeah, it�s one for, I think, $3 .50 or $3 .25 or something like that. And then we went and had tacos at a place where, seriously, Steve, a lot of food I eat, I don�t think about it the next day or whatever.

I�ve been thinking about those tacos for weeks now. Sambrosas or something, what was it called? Those tacos, so spicy, that green verde sauce, yum. Yeah, I think we�re heading back there then. I think so too.

Now I know you travel some. You just got back from California doing a conference, so update on that. I think there�s a website. People can access the.

It�s Church at the Cross in Pine Grove, California, Pine Grove, California. Is that off to 49? Yes. In fact, this isn�t really funny, but as I was leaving and driving down to Brickerfield, I just turned on because the car came with, you know, a GPS unit in it.

So I just punched in my stepmom�s address and off I go. It�s like taking me down 49, like way down 49. I�m going, �This doesn�t seem right. Seems like I should be heading for the 99. So finally, it tells me to make a left-hand turn towards Yosemite and I go, �Okay, I�ve had enough.

I pull off to the side of the road and I punch in my phone and instead of the like four and a half hours that the GPS was telling me it was going to take, it�s like three hours and 45 minutes on my phone.

I�m going, �I think I�m going with the phone, you know, I�ve had enough of this.

Now when we�re in Massachusetts and you say, �Go to the 99 people are thinking, �The 99 restaurant

Yeah, exactly. But it�s different. And, you know, why do we talk about highways that way? I don�t want to get into a griffin thing about it, but it�s because in Los Angeles, the freeways initially had names, not numbers.

And you know, like the Pasadena Freeway, nobody would say� 210. Yeah. So all these things, it�s actually the 110 is the Pasadena Freeway. Oh, it is? But, you know, I don�t want to correct you. I thought you�re going to correct me and say it was 134.

That�s actually the 11, I think, but anyway, so whatever. They all had those names and then they imposed the numbers on them after that, you know, and as they were putting in the interstate, the national highway system.

And so that�s why all these highways have that and that�s why people from Los Angeles are the only ones who do that kind of thing.

Hmm, okay. Yeah, because when I got out here, I think there�s a certain way to talk about freeways and interstates and highways.

That�s the definite article, it�s just, you know, you take 99 and you go to.

And then when you get down Cape, you go down Seller. But anyway, I had a great time at the conference.

The folks were fantastic. You know, I have to give Sam a shout out for his, was it yellow fin or yellow tail tuna? It was, oh, it was so good. I don�t even eat fish and I actually had seconds.

What was the hardest question that you fielded in the Q &A time?

The hardest question had to do with abortion. And somebody asked me, you know, what do you do with this section? I think it�s Leviticus where, you know, it talks about if a woman caught it because they were confronted with it by a non-believer who said, you know, what about this section where it says, �Take some of the dirt from the bottom of the� not the temple, but the pre-temple thing that.

Yeah, tabernacle. Thank you. He was waving his hands like a charismatic, but I was just letting him do it.

I know what it�s called. The tabernacle and, you know, mix it in the water, make the woman drink it and, you know, and I�m just like, well, first of all, what does this have to do with abortion? Which was nothing.

You know, and secondly, we don�t live in Israel. We don�t have a tabernacle. We don�t, you know, so, I mean, it�s just a matter of two things, hermeneutics, which is number one, if you really wanted to understand it, but number two, and more importantly, this is what we call a distraction.

The person doesn�t want to, I said, so what you do is you say, well, let me tell you how any woman or any man for that matter can be forgiven of adultery. There's one way to be, you know, and you just go straight to the gut.

Or abortion. Yeah.

Yeah. You just go straight to the gut. Well, that�s got to be a pretty good atonement to forgive the murder of an innocent child. Amen. Well, I�m glad you got to go there. I got to go a few years ago, Love the People, and I think you probably did a little link on your Facebook page or something, didn�t you?

Yes, I did. And yeah, tweeted it out. So, yeah. Good. Steve, I want to talk a little bit about a subject today, and before we talk about it, I have a lead in. This is the Thomas Cook Vacations Survey.

Yeah, because see, I did this, you know, a little travel down the 49, down the 99. I'm feeling like a world traveler.

I mean, I went by the cabin that once belonged to the writer, American writer Sam Clemens or Sam Clemens Mark Twain. Mark Twain's cabin, right down there off the 49.

I wanted to say Sam Bam Cunningham. Yeah. Then I said Sam Dam. Well, you know, D-A-M.

I did pass some wonderful dams, and it was some really remarkable terrain that I saw, including like they had this one mine, and you could see it from the road. And it was like level after level up this mountainside, and it was awesome to look at.

It was crazy.

Anyway, sorry. Okay. Since we're kind of doing the cool thing with podcasts, we talk about all these things, then get into the Bible. This is more of a longer lead-in, so let's go straight to the Bible now.

Complaining, Contentment, and God’s Sovereignty

First Corinthians chapter 10. I wanted to talk about complaining today. First Corinthians 10, Philippians 2, James 5. Steve, I hate it when I complain. I mean Are you complaining about complaining? What does it say when we complain in light of the sovereignty of God and his providence?

How does that all work? In other words, what am I saying to God when I say I don't like the way the situation is going? We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

First Corinthians 10. These things happen to them as an example. I lack contentment.

I am upset with the conditions that you put me in, Lord. You might as well just say this, Lord, I'm sinning. What are you going to do about it?

Now, what I like, I mean, I liked everything you said, but especially I want you to expand a little bit the relationship between contentment and complaining. Because I think if Paul is in the jail, Philippians 4, I've learned to be content.

There's probably a learning curve for not complaining that's directly related to contentment.

Pete. Well, it has to do with spiritual maturity, I think. And just, you know, mentally being able to understand that the situation we're in is exactly the situation God would have us in. And people are like, how could that be possible?

How could God possibly want this? And I'm like, I don't know, except you have to look at, I mean, there are a myriad of scriptures you could look at, but if you just look at Romans 8 .28 and you understand that all things, all things work together for our good, you know, then, and I'm shortening the verse there on purpose, but if you look at it that way and you just say, okay, all things means all things, whether they're good or they're bad, and there's a long book written by a Puritan that you can read that just tells you about everything that could possibly happen in life and they're all for your good.

Even those things that seem really bad, even when people are sinning against you, even when there's calamity, whatever it is. And so, when Paul says that he's learned to be content, it's because he's learned that and it's because he's learned to say, okay, now, what am I to learn in this situation and what am I to do in this situation?

How should I respond in a way that would please the Lord?

Steve, obviously, the Lord sees everything that we do and knows our thoughts, even if we don't say the words. Pete That's right. And when you look at Numbers, it says, Numbers 11, the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes.

And when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Now, I will be the one that admits, it's easier to complain about other people when they're not around.

Pete You betcha. Steve Right? Pete Yeah. Pete Especially, like, for you, you know, the boss that you have and stuff like that. Steve Oh, he's not around. Pete He's terrible. Steve But every time we complain about a situation or a person or another Christian, even though they're not in the room, the Lord can hear us and does hear us and that's convicting to me.

Pete. Well, you know, I almost said something I'd rather not say. So, let me just say it this way. You know, what's really good is I have a wife, and if I'm, which is always good. But you know, if I'm

Steve. That's a good thing. If you find a wife, you find a good thing. Pete. If I, you know, am ambling into murmur or complaint territory, she just kind of gives me the, are you wandering into murmur or complaint territory?

You know, kind of either look or comment and I go, okay, well, I need to back up and get away from that border.

Steve Even when the text says in Philippians 2, it's talking about a sigh or kind of this, you know, somebody bugs you or does something you don't like or whatever, and it's like, even the Lord says you shouldn't be doing that.

That's sinful. Pete That's rough. Steve I know. Pete That's rough. Steve Well, Steve, I found this Thomas Cook vacations. These are actual complaints received by them from dissatisfied customers. Pete Oh, man.

Steve. They're the best. Pete. Well, even better than the ones we get about the church. Okay, never mind.

Let's go on with this. Steve. On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food.

Pete. You know, I don't know. Is there a place in Nevada named Goa or something? I mean, come on. I mean, you're going to India and you're going to complain about Indian food. That's pretty funny.

Steve. Here's another one. It's lazy of those local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during siesta time. This should be banned.

Pete. Okay, and again, you know, if you don't like the culture, well, I don't know what to tell you. I guess change the entire, you know, the culture of Mexico.

Sure, that'll happen. Steve. This is a true Thomas Cook vacation actual complaint in their ABTA survey. We booked an excursion to a water park, but no one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels.

We assumed it would be included in the price.

Pete. I mean, you know, some of these things you just can't make up. And well, and it's like with that one, honestly, come on, wasn't somebody just looking for a reason to complain? Or even the Indian food?

I mean, does the internet not work? And even before the internet, did you not have an encyclopedia or something you could refer to? You know, what's it like in India? You know, what about this place? Should I not do any research before I go?

You know, I don't know. Steve. No one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared.

Pete. You know, that'd be a really great complaint if you were like at a swimming pool, right? Nobody told me there'd be fish.

That would be a little disturbing, right? Steve. Yes, if it was an enclosed, you know, water park or something like that. This one is definitely non-PC, but it's true. We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.

I guess they all spoke Spanish. Pete. Well, it reminds me of a Steve Martin routine where he says, you know, they didn't even have the decency to speak English. That was when he was in France, but the same principle applies, you know.

Steve. We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white, but it was more yellow.

Pete. Oh, well, thank you for bringing that to our attention. A complete refund will be in the mail.

Steve. Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg slicer in the drawers.

Pete. Oh, yeah, that's false advertising. I mean, honestly, one of two things is true. Either these people are angling for some kind of, you know, money back kind of thing or they're just not people I would like to interact with because they would complain about anything.

Steve. And lastly, but not leastly, the beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.

Pete. Well, you know what? That's pretty much my complaint with the beach, right? That's why I don't go there.

It's just too sandy. Steve. Now, let's turn the humor toward another issue, and that is how Christians, how we, how you, if you're not careful listener, complain about other Christians. James 5, be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.

See how the farmer waits of the precious fruit of the earth for the precious fruit, being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains. You also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

Pete I am, you know, I mean, this might just wind up being, you know, gossip part 57 for me, but I, you know, grumbling about people. I'm just, I really would like to grab anybody and just pull them into the corner and ask them nicely what they hope to accomplish by grumbling.

Grumbling has never, ever changed anything, and all it really does is increase the bitterness of your own heart and distance you from people that you are supposed to, according to 1 John, love. If you don't love the brethren, right, and what kind of love would you consider loving if somebody grumbled about you?

The answer is no, of course. So why would you think it's loving to grumble about or, you know, acceptable in the sight of the Lord or any of these things?

So I think how it manifests itself in a marriage. The husband grumbles about his wife. The wife complains about her husband. What about the children? What do they do or don't do with the children? You move into ecclesiological circles.

The sermon was too long. The sermon was not application-oriented. I didn't like those songs. The tempo was too fast. I don't like bongos. I didn't like the organ. I mean, it just goes on and on and on.

I hate it when I do that.

You sort of reminded me now of the Babylon Bee where somebody recently discovered the gift of basically firing missiles from behind a keyboard, you know, sending nasty emails and stuff like that. And I'm like, yeah, a lot of people seem to be discovering that gift now.

You know, with the anonymity of the internet and whatnot, you know, you can just say whatever you want and blast people.

Well, good. Let's talk about that on No Compromise Radio. This doesn't just apply to what you say. Of course, it applies to what you think since God can read your thoughts. It also applies what you type, right?

Typing on Twitter, Facebook, little Instagram deals, and everything else. It applies to that. How many people love to complain on Twitter, on Facebook? It's an industry. If you can get paid for it. I think you can.

Some people. What, for complaining on the internet?

That's a good job. That's a good job. Let's apply for that. I think, you know, like especially though, getting back to grumbling about brothers and stuff like that. But just think about this. If somebody has done something wrong, or they failed to do something that they should have done, you know, the right thing to do, what you would want them to do for you is to come to you and just say, you know what, Steve, I wish you had done this, or I wish you hadn't done that.

And, you know, then I should respond rightly instead of, you know, oh, that's Steve. Look what he did.

Or didn't do. Steve, don't you think that in a local church, and I say this to the guys in my discipleship group, because I don't think they all get it, but don't you think this is the way life should be?

Correct me if I'm wrong. We're good with each other until one of us says, hey, I've got a problem. In other words, we don't have to wonder. I don't want to sit there and wonder. I wonder if Steve's good with me.

I wonder about this. I wonder about those guys at church. He walked down the hall. He didn't really smile like he used to. He didn't shake my hand like he did last week. I wonder if there's some problem.

Shouldn't it be, not just with men in the church, but everybody, men and women. If there's a problem that I have with you, first of all, I just need to cover it and think I sin worse than he does. Love covers a multitude of sins.

But then if it really bugs me to the point where day after day I can't get over it, I need to go to you. And so from my side, I think to myself, well, if people aren't coming to me, then they must be good with me.

Is that naive? Is that wrong?

Is it biblical? What's your take? Well, it probably is naive, but I just don't know. I don't know what else to do, you know, just kind of like, what should we do, like call people in for an interview?

Do you have a problem with me, bro? You know, you haven't said anything nice to me for a while. But you know, now as an unbeliever and just kind of, you know, in a lot of ways, a knucklehead, this applies here.

Going back years ago when I was first working in a radio car, I had a partner who would, he was my supervisor, and we would sit in that car for hours and he wouldn't say anything, you know, just silent.

And I was the underling, right? I was the guy under the microscope. And so eventually after four or five hours, if you can imagine, of driving around a radio car together during the middle of the night, I would just turn to him and say, you know, are you mad at me?

Because normal is there's some kind of banter going back and forth and, you know, and even if it's just teaching or whatnot. And so, you know, if somebody is giving off obvious signs that they're upset with you, and I would later on find out there were two issues with this guy and I, which number one was he always wanted us to be arresting somebody, which wasn't easy if there was nobody driving on the road.

But secondly, he thought I was kind of what we used to call salty, meaning overly confident. It was only when he got his second training that he learned that I wasn't as bad as he thought I was. But anyway, to put this in a church context, you know, if somebody is, you know, just going over the top in ways to kind of avoid you or something else, well, then I think, you have to just say, instead of just inferring to yourself, you know, that he has a problem with me, just say, you know, is everything all right between us?

And, you know, just ask the person. There's nothing wrong with that.

Church Unity Under Persecution

Pete. Yeah, good idea. In light of James 5, these Christians were dispersed, they were on the run, there's persecution, there's suffering. Life is very, very difficult. And don't you think James is trying to tell them, listen, you can't turn on yourself.

You can't turn on each other. You need each other. And even though you're far from perfect, you're worshiping the perfect one. And in times of suffering, the worst thing that can happen is now you start aiming the rifles.

Pete Yeah. I was just going to say, do you think there were gunfights inside the Alamo? I don't think so. You know, they weren't like, okay, dude, I've had enough of you stealing my water. It's on. You know, because they had enough problems from the outside, right?

And we need to, I'm not saying that the church is the Alamo, but I mean, sometimes it might feel like that, right? Pete Alamo Bible Church. A-B-C. Pete You know, people might associate that with Tony Alamo.

That would be Pete Oh, remember him? Pete Yes, that would be most Pete That was a long time ago. Pete Most unfortunate. Well, we used to get all kinds of tracks near our home, you know, so, you know, just going on and on about him.

But I do think that there's a certain sense in which we don't prize one another enough. You know, we don't do the Philippians 2, you know, honoring others, esteeming others more than ourselves. And if Christ did that, then how much more should we do that because we are not the Lord Jesus.

Pete Steve, I like what you said earlier. It made me think of that 13 Hours Benghazi film and the story. And those men, those hired hands, they didn't like each other sometimes and gave each other trouble and roughed each other up.

But once they had to fight, once they knew, game on, we need to rally around each other, and then they would lay down their lives for one another and did. That makes me think, you know, we are in a battle.

It's not against people. I know it's against spiritual, invisible forces, but we're in a battle, so we have to rally around one another.

And the kind of in-house fire is just stupid, you know, especially within a congregation.

So when Steve and I get convicted... No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Havendroth 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.