Hearing with Purpose

No Compromise Radio

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. And today, another Wednesday edition.

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Mario is in my study, in my office filming. So if I talk to somebody, it's not just you, it's

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Mario. And I think probably what's going to happen on the show is instead of Monday through Friday, five days a week,

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I think we're going to boil it down to something different. Monday will stay the same. That is a sermon from Bethlehem Bible Church that I preach.

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Friday will stay the same. A rerun of a No Compromise Radio episode. I think we have 4 ,500 of those.

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So we're going to just, when I'm dead and gone, we're going to just keep playing reruns. And then Wednesday is going to be a new show.

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And that new show will be video and audio. And then if you're dying for shows on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I guess you can go to our new website that should be out pretty soon and you can listen.

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So maybe we'll go back and forth, we'll see. But right now, Wednesdays, YouTube, subscribe, hit like.

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Send in your money, all that kind of stuff. And what kind of shirt do I have on here?

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It almost feels like I should be in the Middle East or something. Today on the show, we're going to do something a little bit differently.

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And that is we're going to talk about listening to sermons. In the past, I've talked about how to listen to a sermon.

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And today I want to do that through the lens of a man named George Whitefield. Now, George Whitefield, Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, that type of thing.

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I'm not a, I used to be all in on Whitefield. And by the way, you ought to read,

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I think it's the Dalamore Two volume of Whitefield. Even if you're not a huge fan, you will really understand what's going on here in America.

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Whitefield is buried right up in Portsmouth in a

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Presbyterian church. And I don't think it's OPC, it's something else that's more liberal.

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But here in New England, we think about George Whitefield. And there's things to be learned by Whitefield. I mean, he'd talk about getting to heaven by your own works.

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It's like climbing a ladder to the moon and that ladder is made of sand. He preached three or 400 times on John 3, you must be born again.

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And when asked, why do you keep preaching on you must be born again? He said, because you must be born again.

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Much to learn from Whitefield. But today we're going to learn from him on how to listen to a sermon.

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So I think it was said of Benjamin Franklin that he would listen to Whitefield even say the word

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Mesopotamia and the women would swoon. So today on the show, how to listen to a sermon by George Whitefield.

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So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to read these six points on how to listen to a sermon.

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And then I'm going to kind of abendrothize them. I don't really have to correct any theology per se, but just in my own way, we'll talk about how to carefully listen to a sermon.

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And this is coming up soon in No Compromise world and Bethlehem Bible Church world, because Luke chapter eight's message is going to be about listening and hearing

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God's word. And of course, with the greatest parable of them all, in some people's minds, we've got the parable of the soils or the parable of the sower, depending on what you prefer.

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So today on the radio show, how to get the most out of a sermon. And by the way, I will talk about this in another show soon.

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It's worship to listen to a sermon. It is worshipful to listen to a sermon.

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You should worship while you listen to a sermon. It's not just the preacher, it's the congregation as well.

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And even time -wise, think what occupies most time in a local worship service at a church.

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And of course there's prayers, there's singing, there's giving and other things, but listen to a sermon is probably the thing that takes the most time in a worship service.

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So it's important to know how to listen. So today, George Whitefield, how to listen to a sermon.

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Now you can always write me, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com. You can get bulk discounts on any of the books on Amazon if you just email me, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com.

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40 % off, that's the only plug we'll make for today. Number one, how to listen to a sermon.

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Whitefield said, come to hear them not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty.

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Now this is kind of interesting in the sense that people would go out to listen to Whitefield here in America.

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I think he had 13 trips over here, if I remember rightly. And it was a big deal, right?

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There's no phones, there's no internet, there's no TV, there's no radio. Everything's local.

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And if you heard a celebrity was coming to town and probably Whitefield was the first American celebrity.

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That's another whole story. Interesting when the world is full of celebrities and paparazzi and people wanting to turn into TMZ and everything else.

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Who was the first American celebrity? And arguably it was George Whitefield, the itinerant preacher that because of his eyes, some called him squinty, old squinty.

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He said, don't come out of curiosity, but to know and to do your duty. Now, I don't know how many of you go to church on Sunday to worship in the church building and think,

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I'm curious to what the pastor will say. Now that can be something that would be in your mind.

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I sometimes show up on services thinking, I wonder what I'm going to say because I don't read from a manuscript and I'm pretty extemporaneous in my messages just like I am on the radio show.

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Mario's laughing, but you should come to learn, come to know, come to understand.

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2 Peter 3, to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. So it's good to know about things.

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And it's good to know, especially about the Lord Jesus. Whitefield goes on to say, to enter his house merely to have our ears entertained and not our hearts reformed must certainly be highly displeasing to the most high

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God as well as unprofitable to ourselves. So you don't show up to be entertained.

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You don't show up just, I wonder what's going to happen today. You want to show up so that your heart, so your mind, so your will, so your conscience is moved and you understand who

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God is. And you think, who's a God like this? Incomprehensible, infinite, transcendent, close, holy, who is spirit, triune, one.

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All these things, you're coming to learn about the God who made you and the God who requires perfection from you.

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The God who has given the Lord Jesus for you to live a perfect life, to die for your imperfections, i .e.

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sins, and then to be raised from the dead. And so you want to go to a worship service to worship when you hear the sermon.

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That's how I would put it. Come to hear them and worship while you're listening. Number two, how to listen to a sermon by George Whitfield.

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Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the word of God. In other words, to pay attention, not lackadaisical, not like you watch a

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TV show. When Kim and I are watching TV shows, I usually have my computer on my lap because I'm trying to do two things at once.

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And these days, shows don't really interest me as much. I don't need all my attention.

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I'm doing taxes at the same time. I'm filling out forms. I'm thinking about things.

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But when it comes to worshiping and listening to sermons, you want to come to diligently listen.

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And so sometimes that means sitting on the edge of your chair. Sometimes that means leaning in some.

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There's a man here at our church named Rick. And I said, Rick, by the way, you're a great listener because when

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I look to you, you're leaning in. You have eye contact. You're on the edge of your seat.

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And he said, I do that on purpose. I do that to even kind of help you, Mike, because I want you to know

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I'm an eager listener. I'm a diligent listener. And that's what we want to do. That's why some people take notes.

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That's why I, when I listen to sermons, and mainly on Sundays, I'm preaching them. But if I'm ever listening, I don't like having my phone with me to look at the text from my phone because then a notification comes up and I've got

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WhatsApp. I've got Signal. I've got iMessage. I've got the hordes of no -compromise radio listeners emailing me at all hours of the night.

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We used to get so much email that my friend now that's with the Lord, Ray Johnson, he used to answer them for me.

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And so now Spencer just forwards me the one we get every two weeks. I got a really weird one the other day, and it was like the person had just forgotten to take their

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Adderall or something. And it was just, I didn't know what to do. So I just deleted it because it was so rando, so random.

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Whitfield goes on to say, if an earthly king were to issue a royal proclamation, you can see where he's going with this, and the life or death of his subjects entirely dependent on performing or not performing its conditions, the king is going to say something.

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You're either going to live or die based on what I say. Would you listen? That's what he's after. How eager,

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Whitfield said, would they be to hear what those conditions were? You would diligently pay attention.

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And shall we, now he makes the transition to us. And shall we not pay the same respect to the

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords and lend an attentive ear to his ministers when they're declaring in his name how our pardon, peace, and happiness may be secured?

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Long sentence, lots of commas, but you get the point. Here we have not just a regular king, but the

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King of Kings. And let's say we're already Christians. We're still listening to what

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God requires in terms of his law, third use as a guide, as a normy norm, what pleases him, what gives him honor, what makes our life easy, what helps our neighbor, how to adorn the gospel.

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We want to understand what he's saying, so we respond with fruits and evidences of our salvation. And if you're not a believer, you should attentively listen because you have an eternal soul.

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Right in this very study, in this office, three or four days ago, I met with a man and he wanted to understand

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Christianity better. And I started off with creation in general, and then God created you,

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I said to the man, and expects you to obey him. Then I went to the fall and how Adam fell and we and Adam fell, and I talked about him and not syndromes and diseases and illnesses, but sin and lawlessness and transgressions and trespasses.

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And then I moved to the grace of God and redemption. So creation, fall, redemption, and how your only opportunity to be redeemed is through Jesus, the representative and substitute, the resurrected one.

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And then we move from Genesis creation to the fall, to redemption, to finally consummation.

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And I said, you have an eternal soul and you'll live in heaven or in hell forever. And so will your wife and so will your children.

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And so these things should make us want to pay attention while we listen to sermons.

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Number three from George Whitefield, do not entertain even the least prejudice against the minister.

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Oh, isn't that fascinating? Let me reread that. Do not entertain even the least prejudice against the minister.

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You mean prejudice? Well, I guess if you have someone coming in for a conference, and I've been a conference speaker before, they really don't see me do anything wrong.

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I guess, unless I'm a complete jerk while I'm there, they see me preach the text. They see me extol

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Christ. They listen to the message. They see me greet people, be kind to people, pray with people, smile, encourage, up build, and they never see me sin.

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Hopefully they'll never see a weak spot. They'll never say, you know, he could be better at this or better at that.

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But what if you know your pastor? What if he's been your pastor for 27 years and you know his weaknesses and you know his struggles and you know that he's far from perfect?

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And you go there and you think, you know what? Hmm, Whitefield said this, that was the reason

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Jesus Christ himself could not do many works, nor preach to any great effect among those of his own country.

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For they were offended at him. Take heed therefore and beware of entertaining any dislike against those whom the

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Holy Ghost has made overseers over you. Whitefield goes on. Consider that the clergy are men of like passions with yourselves.

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They're just regular people. And though we should even hear a person teaching others to do what he has not learned himself, yet that is no reason for rejecting this doctrine.

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In other words, you think maybe the pastor doesn't perfectly obey what he's preaching. And let's say the passage is about grumbling or complaining or prayer or something like that.

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And you think, I've heard my pastor grumble. I've heard him complain. I've heard him admit that he doesn't pray like he should.

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Then maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about. I mean, think about the job of a preacher. I'm preaching these commands and these laws and I'm realizing

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I don't live up to those things. And that's why pastors better be preaching the Lord Jesus because he did live up to those things while he was on earth.

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And so what Whitefield is trying to say, and I'll read the last sentence, the last couple of sentences.

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For ministers speak not in their own, but in Christ's name. If I'm talking about my own laws, my own duties, my own things that I'm now imposing on you, then you shouldn't listen.

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But I'm just telling you as a herald, as a preacher, this is what God says. And we know who commanded the people to do whatever the scribes and Pharisees should say unto them, even though they did not do themselves what they had said.

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So we understand there's hypocrisy and I know I'm a hypocrite. Your pastor's a hypocrite.

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Your preacher's a hypocrite. Here's what we wanna look for though. We want our pastors to be sad about their hypocrisy, repenting of their hypocrisy.

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I don't wanna be a hypocrite. I hate it. When I see hypocrisy in other people, man, I can sniff that out and I can just say, boy, who are those people?

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But then I look at myself and I go, you know what? Me too. A long line of hypocrites. And so name me one place in the world where there's not a hypocrite.

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I don't know, maybe a jungle where there's no people because once there's a person there, they're a hypocrite.

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So I don't go to church because they're full of hypocrites. Well, you better not go because there's gonna be one more hypocrite.

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Name me a place without hypocrisy. And so the pulpit ministry, the best thing that I could do is before I preach,

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Lord, I'm gonna preach today about desiring the Word. I wish I would desire it more.

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Please forgive me. Thank you for the impulse that you've given me in my heart to desire it at all.

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That's the fruit of the Spirit. I can't take credit for it. Lord, I know how important it is in my life to desire the

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Word. And I wanna put away malice and slander and envy, 1 Peter 2, and come to the

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Word like a newborn babe, longing for the pure milk of the Word. So Lord, help me. And I do those confessions, if I'm thinking rightly, before I ever get up into the pulpit.

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And so I wanna be a clean, holy vessel used in the Lord's hand. George Whitefield, on No Compromise Radio Ministry, not in person, not live, but his writings,

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How to Listen to a Sermon. Number four, Whitefield said, be careful not to depend too much on a preacher or think more highly of him than you ought to think.

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Okay, so there's almost two there. We could split it, probably. Don't depend too much on the preacher, right?

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I'm not a priest. I said to that man a few days ago here in the study, I'm not a priest.

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I'm not a go -between. There is a priest, Jesus. There is an advocate, Jesus. There is a mediator,

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Jesus. That's not me. You don't want a priest who's a sinner, because he's gonna sacrifice for his own sins first, then for yours.

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You don't want that. You wanna have a high priest who doesn't have to sacrifice for his own sins because he's not a sinner, and then he can be an intercessor for you.

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So here he says, don't depend too much on him. This is very important for those of you that have had a pastor who has sinned himself out of public ministry, who's fallen.

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Christians sin sometimes really badly. Pastors sin sometimes really badly. And then when they

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DQ themselves, you're thinking to yourself, wait a second, my faith is rocked.

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There have been evangelical leaders in the last year who have fallen, who have sinned, who are no longer in ministry.

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And some people that I've interacted with have been shaken. Their faith has been shaken.

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And that means their faith is too much on that preacher, on that celebrity. And they're thinking, if he can fall, maybe

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I can fall. All these other things. So Whitfield, he knew the power of a preacher, the influence of a pastor.

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I mean, coming up now in a few years, 30 years I will have been at Bethlehem Bible Church, almost coming up on 28 full years.

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And you might say, you know what? Pastor Mike buried my grandpa. He married us.

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He was there with our children when we were born and all these other things. But I'm just, you know, my dad would say, don't trust that guy very much.

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Only trust him as far as you can, what? Throw him. So only trust me as far as you can throw me.

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By the way, as you get older, you seem to lose a lot of weight and bone mass and muscle too. So people can probably throw me pretty far right about now.

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I used to have okay calves. And now I'm like, do I have a calf left? Who knows?

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Or think more highly of him than you ought to think. Whitfield said this, preferring one teacher over another has often been of ill consequence to the church.

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It was a fault which the great apostle of the Gentiles condemned in the Corinthians. For whereas one said,

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I'm of Paul, another I'm of Apollos. Are you not carnal, says he? For who is Paul and who is

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Apollos? But instruments in the hands by whom you believe, 1 Corinthians 1 and 1 Corinthians 2.

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Are not all ministers sent forth to be ministering ambassadors to those who shall be heirs of salvation?

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And are they not all therefore greatly to be esteemed for their work's sake? That is to say, we wanna make sure we don't depend too much on the preacher.

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So find a preacher that's pointing you to the Lord Jesus or think more highly than you ought to think of a pastor.

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He's just a pastor. And by the way, one of the things we do here at the church and many others do as well, when it comes to the

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Lord's Supper, where do I stand? I'm not up on the platform.

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I'd never call it a stage because you perform on stages. We're on an elevated platform for only one reason.

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So more people can see us. If there's a few hundred people, then they can see us easier, but it's not because I need to be elevated in some way, shape or form.

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I purposely don't sit on the platform throughout the service because I just wanna be part of the congregation.

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And then when it comes to the Lord's Supper, we have the table on the floor where everyone else is seated.

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And then who's served last? I'm served last because I'm trying to convey something symbolically that I'm with all of you.

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I don't hold up something, a Eucharist. I don't turn my back. I don't take it first. I'm not the one that gets wine and you don't or grape juice and you don't, et cetera.

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Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Number five on how to listen to a sermon.

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Woodfield said, make particular application to your own hearts of everything that is delivered.

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So try to figure out how this truth applies. Woodfield said, when our savior was discoursing at the last supper with his beloved disciples and foretold that one of them should betray him, each of them immediately applied it to his own heart and said,

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Lord, is it I? Matthew 26. That's interesting. I would not have thought of that, but Woodfield did think of it.

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So Jesus asked a question and everybody's saying, is it me? Kind of personal application.

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Now here's where I think I can maybe help a little bit. You the listener, you the viewer, sometimes you're gonna want the pastor to have more practical application than he gives.

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For instance, if I said today's sermons about the two great commandments so we can live in light of God's saving grace and honor him by obedience as children.

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Number one, love God. Number two, love neighbor. How long would it take me to explain all the applications of loving

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God and loving neighbor? Probably 4 ,500 shows.

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I mean, that's a lot. Love God and love neighbor. So what the pastor tends to do, he tries to tell you what it means to love

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God and love neighbor. What the pecking order is in terms of God loves us and then we love him.

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Our love doesn't save us, but it's a fruit and response. How this honors

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God, how this is good for our neighbor, all these things the pastor sets the table the right way, but he doesn't tell you these are the 60 ways to love

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God. So you're left thinking, I kind of wish I had a little more application. I kind of wish he'd tell me what to do more.

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I'm a to -do oriented person. I'm a law oriented person. I've got the law on my heart and not the gospel.

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And therefore, just tell me what to do. Most people think Christianity is simply that.

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Just doing, be good, tell me what to do. I check off the boxes.

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I did the five things this week and now I'm good with God. Where the pastor needs to be reminded and you need to be reminded by the pastor is where do good works fit?

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And so the pastor is very careful to describe this. What's my point? Whitefield is trying to say, you try to make application in your own heart.

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You say, the spirit of God is dwelling within me. I don't have to be concerned about my eternal salvation because that sign sealed and delivered,

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I will be glorified. And now I'd like to live in light of who I am and conduct befitting an officer.

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And you wanna honor your father by the way you live. And when you dishonor him, you're probably gonna get chastened.

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And so you say to yourself, Lord, can you apply this truth of loving

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God and loving neighbor to my life? I talked this week about prayer from James chapter five, right over there in the pulpit.

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And so maybe you say, I wish Mike would say, what are his five steps to pray?

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What does he do? How does he get in the car? And what does he say there? Does he get on his knees in his office?

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What does he say? Does he say the Lord's prayer? Does he go to John 17? What does he do?

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Well, instead, sometimes I explain those things. Instead of that, you say, well, he did tell me and I see it from the text.

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If you're suffering, pray. If you're cheerful, let him sing praises.

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If you're spiritually weak, call for the elders. Prayer that is righteous, is energetic, it works.

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And let's pray. Then you say, Lord, help me apply these truths in my life.

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That's what you should be saying, especially in churches that don't give you five practical things to do every single week.

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And that's what happens a lot. I just need the five things to do. And it's sermons on marriage, sermons on communication, sermons on sex, sermons on finances, sermons on public community works, and then repeat.

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There's some people that make a lot of money on those kinds of sermons. And I wouldn't say the person's name,

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Rick Warren, but if you wanna know. Number six,

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George Whitefield, how to listen to a sermon. Pray to the Lord before, during, and after each sermon.

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And we kind of touched on that, did we not? Pray to the Lord before, during, and after each sermon. So one guy said to a pastor after the sermon, that was a horrible sermon.

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And the pastor, probably being a New Englander, said back to the guy, well, you got what you prayed for, didn't you? So you pray for the preacher.

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I don't do it every single time, but most every time. And certainly it's always my desire.

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If I go to a different church building for a worship service, I'm out of town, I'm on vacation, traveling,

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I say before I get out of the car, let's pray for the preacher. Let's pray for the Word, that it would run forth, that it would be swift, that it would do its work, that it performs its work in those who believe.

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Let's pray for the preacher today. And then I bow my head and just pray in the car. Here he said before, during, and after.

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And you can even be praying during the sermon. That's a good way to stay awake. Lord, help me to see this truth better. Lord, help me to repent, help me to change, help me to do these things.

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And then you pray after. Why? Whitefield said, to undo the minister with power to speak and to grant you a will and ability to put into practice what he shall show you from the book of God to be your duty.

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I mean, you can't kill one sin without the Holy Spirit. I can get up there and spend 35, after spending 35 hours of study and pour my heart out and the

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Spirit is not willing, the Spirit doesn't want to. If he doesn't have any desire to work in your heart, nothing's going to happen.

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It's just words, but powerful words, that is words from the Spirit of God change people.

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He said, if only all who hear me this day would seriously apply their hearts to practice what has now been told them.

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This is the very end of this excerpt from sermon 28 from the works of the

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Reverend George Whitefield. How ministers would see Satan like lightning fall from heaven.

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And people find the word preached sharper than a two -edged sword and mighty through God to the pulling down of the devil's strongholds.

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And so basically he said, if you would just consider that listening to a sermon is worship, and here's how you could listen to sermons better.

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One of the things that I would do often is I would tell the children for every three good sermon notes that you give me,

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I'll give you money, $1, $2, $5. And that would help them write things down.

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That would help them pay attention. It's hard to pay attention for 45 minutes, especially in a world where the camera angle changes every two seconds.

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And so we wanna be engaged. We wanna make sure, here's what I would do. Children, you've all gone to the bathroom in between Sunday school and worship service.

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You've got your Bibles, you've got your notebook, you've got your pencil, you've got all those other things, and off we go.

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So today on the show, I wanted to talk a little bit about how to listen to a sermon.

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Now, you have heard other sermons like that, but here at this church, I don't think

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I've done that enough. So in a couple of weeks, I'm gonna preach that from Bethlehem Bible Church, how to listen to a sermon. But I'm gonna do my own work.

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Today, I just used a quick few. My name is Mike Abenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.