Christian Conferences

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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

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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.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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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

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

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Steve, I'm still laughing based on our conversation five minutes ago. We're always having fun here in the lush

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No Compromise studios. Well, we just were watching a video of sermons and you ever watch other preachers preach, you know?

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Yeah. Yes, I do. Okay. And many times I'm very encouraged when I listen to other preachers preach, right?

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Yeah. Sometimes. You know, unlike some people in this room,

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I try to watch just things that are good. Well, this just came my way.

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And so Steve and I just put on a video of a sermon and the pastor was preaching and he talked about, do you want

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God's assurance? And I'd like God's assurance. I would love God's assurance. To be assured that I'm a

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Christian. And he said it the number one reason. Number one way to get God's assurance.

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How do you do it? You obey. Uh -huh. You obey God. I thought it was maybe the other way around, or maybe

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I'm in a different universe. You know, it's like the Star Trek episode, Mirror, Mirror. Maybe I'm in the alt -universe.

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Well, now, if I could defend him for just a moment, when you're in sin, do you have assurance?

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You know, in other words, if you're in gross, some kind of gross sin, do you at that moment have assurance of salvation?

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Right. Well, and you know, I would agree with your line of argument there. And I know you would agree with mine, that if you know you're saved and you have assurance, then it's a lot easier to obey.

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Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we were laughing. Pastor Steve, anything going on in your life?

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What are you thinking about? Nothing, man. Just nothing. What am I thinking about? What are you thinking about?

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So, today we want to talk a little bit about Christian conferences, Bible conferences.

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There are all kinds of conferences, from Founders to G3 to the Shepherds Conference to the

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Non -Shepherds Conference to the Orlando's Ligonier Conference. To conferences right here at Bethlehem Bible Church.

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Yeah. When's the last time we had one? I don't know. Yeah. Well, maybe we need another. I think so. Featuring Mike Ebendroth and Steve Cooley.

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And since I just was in Orlando, and you, how long ago were you at the Founders Conference? It was in January.

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Okay. So, not that long ago. Let's just kind of talk all things conference. Are they good? Are they even biblical?

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How should you pick a conference? Fun things at conferences? Edifying things at conferences?

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Strange things at conferences? So, is this one going to be called, would Jesus go to your conference? What would

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Jesus eat? We could talk about food at conferences. There's all kinds of things we could talk about.

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Yeah. What's the appeal for Christian conferences? What do you think? What do

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I think? Well, I think it's great just for a concentrated time of teaching, right?

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I mean, we could say fellowship, but then again, you know, you go to some conferences and there's almost zero fellowship, you know, not because you're not open to it, but because you almost have to kind of push your way into fellowship.

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So, you know, unless you bring, I mean, remember the days where we used to take 10 or 11 guys out to Shepherd's Conference, but yeah.

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So, fellowship, teaching, the music, the singing. I mean, when we were down there at Founders, you know, they had

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Bob Coughlin leading the music, and so that was just, that was a lot of fun. Do they have a mask on? No.

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In fact, out of the 1400 people that were there, I think there were probably about 10 masks.

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Okay. But it was in Florida. Yeah. Right? And so when I was in Orlando for the Ligonier Conference a week ago, not many people wore masks out of the 3000 maybe that were in the auditorium.

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I don't know, maybe 100 had masks on or something like that. And I don't think anybody singing had a mask on, no one preaching had a mask on.

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And they didn't do baptisms there, but if they did, there'd be no one wearing a mask when they did baptisms.

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And I think that's great that baptisms are done without masks, because otherwise, I'm telling you,

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I think it's like waterboarding. I just don't, you know, you get the sensation that you're drowning. Well, it's interesting because you did officiate six baptisms last

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Sunday night, and that was exciting to hear people's testimony of the Lord Jesus. And even if you're a Pato Baptist, it's, you know, even

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Pato Baptists believe in believer's baptism. Yes, they do. If they've never been baptized as a child, and now they profess faith in Christ, believer's baptism, the water was cold, and was it dirty?

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Yeah, it wasn't very clean. I mean, it was, you know, again, I say our baptistry would embarrass some

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Presbyterians. Well, that time that I went to a Southeastern, I believe, community church or whatever church it was called, it was a

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Church of Christ church that a lot of Southern Baptists go to in Louisville, Kentucky, and Baptists that don't really know much, because I remember in the beautiful baptismal with blue lights and kind of neon and reflecting and glowing and plexiglass and everything, it was just spectacular.

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It was like stained glass. The pastor, after he baptized the first person, said, welcome to the kingdom.

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Ooh. And I said, that guy believes in baptismal regeneration. Mm. Yeah, I probably wouldn't be going back to that church after that.

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Welcome to the kingdom. But they have good kids programs. Uh -huh. A lot of good parking lot attendance. All right.

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So, how about back to the conferences? What if a family said, you know, we regularly go to Disneyland, but we'd like to go to a

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Christian conference instead. Our kids can do the youth track and we can have some good

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Bible teaching, almost like a Mount Hermon thing or something. Would that be a good option? Sure. I just don't know of any,

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I don't think I've ever been to a conference that had a good, that had a youth track. I know not many good youth tracks are there.

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Well, I don't think there's many youth tracks at conferences, period. Right? So, I mean, maybe.

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Unless it was like a camp. Yeah. Some kind of camp of the woods or something like that. Yeah. Now, tell me if I'm wrong,

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Steve. When I think of conferences, I have just been to the Ligonier conference and there was a

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Isaiah 6 and kind of bigger themes, you know, the holiness of God, who God is, big

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God Psalms type of thing. But I don't really want that. While it's good and it's encouraging to be reminded of those truths,

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I wish you and I had enough money we could put together a conference where we could have some specific theological issues that pastors, leaders, elders, deacons could work through.

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Right? So, if we said it's about sanctification, so that instead of general messages about sanctification, let's have kind of pro and con and work through, this is how the dispensationalists do it.

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This is how the Keziks do it. This is how the Wesleyans do it. I guess I want something more as a pastor, but maybe lay people wouldn't be interested in that.

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Well, I thought the founders conference was good because it was basically kind of,

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I don't know, how would I put it? If I can remember the name of the thing, but it was, you know, the existence and attributes of God.

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And so, you know, several sessions by Dolezal about, Dolezal about his...

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All that is in God. Yeah. His simplicity. Simplicity of God. And so, yeah, it was really good. And, you know, you could just kind of listen to those sessions over and over and over again.

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And I thought there were several, it seemed to kind of, and I think what you're aiming at is something that sort of builds, you know, instead of all these disparate big picture things, but something that just sort of builds on itself and develops a theme as it goes along.

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I think maybe what would happen if we did these particular nuances with theology and theological issues, maybe the average person wouldn't go, right?

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So there's big budgets. And if you think, well, you're 80 years old and you just want to kind of go to Florida and have some sun and have a few messages, they almost,

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I guess, if I could put it this way, I don't want another sermon. I'd almost like a theological lecture so I could understand the issues.

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And so the homiletics don't need to be there. I'm there for just the data. Pete So in other words, you would like a conference where everything pleased you.

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So, yeah, that'll pack them in. All the Mike Evendross out there can gather together.

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Jeff See, that's just the thing though. There aren't any conferences like that anymore because, well, maybe there are in the

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Reform Baptist world or something like that or OPC world. But people don't really tend to go to those.

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Pete No, I mean, that would be a, you know, you could put all the people in your office. Jeff Well, I think you'll agree with me in this train of thought, the old

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Shepherds Conferences in the old days, MacArthur would get up and say, if you want to listen to a sermon, go to the tape shack and get a cassette and listen to a sermon.

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Instead of giving you a sermon, man, I'm going to just tell you what's on my heart. Then he would talk about sufficiency of Christ and blast psychological sanctification.

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And then he would talk about seeker sensitive stuff and he would blast it, you know, Rick Warren purpose driven church.

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I like that. I don't really need another sermon. I'm not against conferences.

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I'm against conferences in lieu of Sunday morning worship, but I'm not looking for another sermon. I don't know if that makes sense or not.

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Pete No, I think it makes sense. And I just think what packs people in, and you saw it down in Orlando, you know, how do you get a big group of people who are conservative evangelicals and, you know, mostly

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Calvinists? How do you get, you know, three, four, 5 ,000 people to do that? Well, you have big themes and big conference speakers and big place and, you know, so I mean, that's one way to go.

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I think what you're talking about is a little more esoteric. Oh, very interesting.

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Well, today, Pastor Steve here is in the studio. We're talking about conferences. Let's go to kind of the next chapter of this, and that is the celebrity culture behind conferences.

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And that could either be good or bad. It could be good that you have celebrities to draw the people in because you have something good to tell them.

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But tell me the downside of it versus, you know, the upside. When you go to conferences, do you kind of sense these are a bunch of celebrities and we have to treat them that way?

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Sometimes. And, you know, I don't want to sound like a founders groupie here, but -

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Oh, are you post middle? That post middle. It was interesting because it was just kind of homespun.

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I mean, you know, I know Chad Vegas. I mean, you know, not like we're buddies, but I mean,

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I know who he is, and I've talked to him on several occasions. You almost preached for him too, didn't you? Yeah.

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Yeah. So, I mean, there's that relationship, and he was one of the conference speakers down there and did a nice job.

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But, you know, also just the way it was, you could just kind of intermingle.

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I mean, Voti was down there, and Voti's like hanging out in the lobby and just talking to people and, you know, getting selfies taken with them and, you know, whatever people want.

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It was very much informal, you know, in that sense.

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I mean, watching the conference, I mean, if you watched it online, you wouldn't think, oh, this is just some kind of slap together thing.

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That's not what I mean. It was very well produced or well choreographed or anything like that. It's just the lack of,

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I'll just say security. I don't mean it wasn't safe because they obviously had people around, but it just wasn't so cordoned off.

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It didn't feel like, oh, I can't ask anybody any questions. I can't do that kind of thing.

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And it was just very nice, you know, a good environment. Well, I think the point that I understand you're making is, let's say there's 4 ,000 people at a conference.

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It's still nice if you're the preacher, the pastor, the presenter, to just engage with the people.

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Yes. Because you know what, if I, you know, now I don't really care because I know a lot of these guys and could have access to them if I needed it.

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But if I'm, you know, a new Christian and maybe I've been influenced by a certain, you know, speaker, and you mentioned

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Voti before, and you think, oh, I'd really like to meet him because the Lord's used him in my life.

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And I just want to say hi. And, you know, I just want to say, I met Voti Bachum. You know, people can think that.

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Yeah. Okay, fine. And then he's out there with the people. I'm never going to get asked to speak at any of these big conferences.

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But if I were to, I'd want to make sure, short of me being sick and not feeling good,

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I'd want to be out there talking with the folks. That's part of the ministry, I think, of the conference. And it's just kind of how the whole thing was, you know,

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I mean, everybody's in every session, including all the speakers, and they're not all, you know, sitting up in the front row and kind of, you know, with security all around them.

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And look, I'm not going to say anything about other conferences being negative.

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It was just a different vibe, you know, and intentionally, I think so.

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And it was nice. You know, that part of it was really, really nice. I really appreciated it. I wonder if we could somehow have a big conference.

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Maybe somebody give us a couple million, right? We have this big conference, and then we could have, you know, just the big celebrities.

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By the way, if you could have any conference, who would you have speak? I mean, of living people today?

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Like, okay, I could have five people come and speak. Who would be the five for Pastor Steve? Well. He just put his nose on this hit screen.

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I'm just going to play it safe because, you know, my first draft pick, he may not be, you know, billboard material or whatever, but I really like him.

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I like him personally. I like to listen to him. I'd pick Phil Johnson. I just like Phil.

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So that would have been an easy one for me. Okay, now let's go back since you said that was your first choice.

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Now it's my turn to draft. Yeah, okay. Yeah. I think I would get Sinclair Ferguson. Oh, that's good.

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Yeah, I like that. He did show up for like a half hour via Zoom. He can't get out of Scotland to come to the conference.

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How crazy is that? I like Sinclair. Sinclair would be way up there for me too. So that's good.

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I don't know. I mean, other, well, because every time I listen to Sinclair Ferguson, I feel like I learned something or I'm reminded of something or I'm provoked to kind of think, yeah, maybe

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I haven't been thinking about that rightly or whatever. You know, I mean, so yeah, he's very helpful. A couple of times, by the way,

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I got to speak with Phil Johnson at conferences and I enjoyed his messages, but it's also fun behind the scenes because Phil, you ask him any question, he gives you an answer.

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Yeah. Well, I just, I like Phil. I mean, it's just kind of like a bias in me, you know?

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I don't know who other ones, you know, I really was surprised how much

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I enjoyed James Dolezal. Okay, good. You know, his book is great, but I just didn't know,

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I didn't know what he was going to be like because there's so much erudition in his book.

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And he speaks like that too, which is funny. And he goes fast. He's like chow. I go super fast, but it was enjoyable.

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I had fun and, you know, just enough self -deprecation and everything else to just really kind of think, okay, you know, he doesn't, he's not lording his, you know, 180

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IQ over the rest of us. Good. Tell me, Steve, do you think there are some downsides to conferences?

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And I'll lead with this. Something to the effect, well, these speakers are so good.

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And they're at the top of their game, gifted by the Lord. And then now I have to just hear my regular

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Joe pastor in a town of 300 and, you know, with the other 39 people there.

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Is that a problem? Well, yeah, I mean, it can be for some people, you know, but it's like,

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I would say like our people at BBC have been trained pretty well. You know, they get to listen to you all the time.

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And then when they listen to me, they also put up with that. So, well, yeah, I usually, I usually give them some

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Bitcoin. That's very kind of you. But I think, you know, from time to time, it's good to have these big shot conference speakers just say things like, be thankful for the faithfulness of your pastor.

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You know, even if your pastor isn't scintillating, even if he's not Mike Gabendroth, you know, even if you've only got

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Steve Cooley, rejoice, you know. Well, I think there's something to be said.

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I don't even know who did this. I'm thinking I know, but I don't know if I want to give them any credit. So, I won't say exactly until I check my facts.

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But there was a big conference that would have main speakers, but then they would always pull in a couple of guys that nobody ever heard of, but had been granted a faithful ministry by the

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Lord and they were discharging their duty. I kind of like that, right? I would love if somebody said to me, here are five new preachers and theologians that you should listen to because I think they have a lot to offer.

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I need to know who those guys are. I just don't know. So, like, the rock stars and the, you could call them rising stars or you can call them the schlubs, whatever you want to call them.

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Yeah. Just other guys that you should know, you know, if you like this band, you might also like, you know, that sort of thing.

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Jared Yeah, it's true. Pete Right. Jared Yeah. Like a little bottom of Pandora or Spotify or something like that. I think sometimes people would say, do you know what?

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The conferences were so wonderful. The speakers were so great. The food was so, you know, tastes so good and everything else.

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And I just don't want that to eclipse a Sunday morning Lord's Day worship that is very particular, protected and, you know, should be preeminent.

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Pete Well, it really can't. I mean, it's like, you know, you go off to, you spend a week at Disney World or you spend it, you know, for us, it'd be

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Storyland up at the, you know, we rent a house and take all the grandkids and the kids and we go up to Storyland for a week.

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And then you come back to the real world and you go, oh, I wish we could always live in Storyland. Okay, well, then you have to grow up too, right?

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I mean, there are things that don't happen at a conference. There's no one another's.

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There are a lot of things that don't go on, right? There's no baptisms. There's no communion. I mean, it's not church.

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It's a kind of a mountaintop experience. So, you have to accept it for what it is. Pete And that's why

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I don't like it if there's a conference not held at a church building and then it goes into Sunday, right?

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If it's a church, you know, and we do that. I think you did that when you went to California. I go to Ohio. It's a

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Friday -Saturday conference and then I preach on Sunday or whatever. Fine, because that's legit.

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But when it eclipses Sunday morning worship, there's a problem. Steve, did you find this when you have spoken to other churches that people are very thankful that you're there?

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You tell them about who Jesus is. You've preached the Bible. And, you know, they don't really know any downside of you.

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Right. You know, we're not trying to present ourselves as superstars or rock stars or celebrities, but they're just so thankful and there's something very humbling and right about a local church where I know the people here love me, but I know they know my faults and they still love me anyway.

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It's kind of nice. Pete It's pretty amazing. Pete Oh, sorry. Pete Well, I was going to say, and then when it comes to you, the three famous preacher words, how much more or how little less.

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But that is better. I mean, we aren't, you know, the most righteous people in terms of, you know, practical holiness or anything like that.

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It's the priesthood of all believers. And of course, you know, we're gifted and then told to preach on Sunday, but we're just regular people.

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Pete Well, for everybody out there, if you expect your pastor to be, you know, just perfect, well, you're going to be let down, right?

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You know, I mean, we talk about dare to be a Daniel preacher. Well, how about dare to be like me? You know, dare to be like the pastor.

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I mean, you would hate that no matter who it was, you know. And the problem is whether we're talking about Sinclair Ferguson, Phil Johnson, John MacArthur, Votie, whomever it is, if you're with them week in, week out, year after year after year, you're going to find out, guess what?

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Dude has issues. I'm sorry.

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You know, everybody has their blind spots, their weaknesses, however you want to frame it.

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Everybody does. You know, all men do. You know, my wife is different, but everybody has their faults.

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Pete Well, I'm certain that the people at church, somebody like my wife would be, you know,

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I'm thankful for Mike because he's faithful and I know what to expect every single Sunday from the pulpit. But beyond that, she's not that impressed.

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You know, it's when I meet people at conferences, they're like, could I have my picture with you? And I just always smile and say, sure, because I don't want to be a jerk.

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I mean, that's my other option is to go, no, I'm not a celebrity. Or if they say, could you please sign my book?

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I always go, oh, it'd be my pleasure. Right? I don't personally get books signed by Sinclair Ferguson because I just,

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I'm not into that. But I want to be kind and nice to people and not ruin the testimony.

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Pete Yeah, my thing is if somebody asks for, you know, a picture with me, I'm like, how long before that gets deleted?

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You know? Mark Well, yes, but remember for years, I would and, you know, I'd think, oh, yeah, that guy recognized me by my voice because of the radio show.

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And oh, yeah, my name is Mike Abendroth. And then they would say, well, where's Tuesday guy? Pete I feel so sorry for those people.

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I mean, that's really, really sad. Mark I think, you know, we don't have to worry about that much anymore. Pete No, especially not the

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Tuesday guy. Mark Anyway, today is just all things conference. I like to go to conferences.

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I would encourage it. If you are a part of a local church and you do not have a budget for your pastor to go to a conference.

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Here at the church, we get a mini conference, and we get a full week conference that our church pays for not only ourselves as pastors, but our wives to get away.

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That would be good to budget for your church, don't you think? Pete Be excellent to budget. Yep. And you know what?

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If we could just take a second to just say in terms of I'm going to just be a homer here for a second in terms of books, there's no doubt in my mind where the best deals are.

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Right. I mean, that's a positive to conferences. They've got good books on sale. I was able to what

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I think I paid like $12 for that new Carl Truman book down at the Mark That's like a $40 book.

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Pete Yeah, it's pretty expensive. They had a super sale. And so, you know, I mean, things like that pop up at conferences that you don't, you know, typically see.

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Pete Yeah, good. Well, today we talked a little bit about conferences. You can always write us, mike at no compromise radio .com

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or the Tuesday guy. Do you ever get an email from people? Here's an appeal. Here's a general call.

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Dear no co -listeners, would you please write Pastor Steve, the Tuesday guy at no compromise radio .com.

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Pete Please. Yeah, and we are tracking to go to Israel. I don't know if you want to go or not,

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Steve, but that's February 23rd, 2022. It's my birthday. It is February 23rd. Well, happy birthday.

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62 years old. Yeah, well, that's where we'll be. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.