Book of Common Prayer

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Today Mike discusses the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. What is it? Is it good, bad, other? Are the wedding vows worth using? Listen in to find out; you might be surprised!  You also get to find out what does Mike and Captain Ahab have in common!

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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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My name is Mike Abendroth. I thought I would do a little Facebook Live today as well.
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It is Friday, not the 13th, but it's Friday the what, 21st of February, 2020.
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Don't forget, dear friends, if you'd like to go to Israel with Bethlehem Bible Church, No Compromise Radio, and Omaha Bible Church, OBC, you can email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com,
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and get the information. It will be the last several days of February, 2021, and the first few days of March.
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I think it's about a nine -day trip, so a day and a half travel, seven and a half days in Israel, and we're baptizing people in the
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Med Sea, Red Sea, Dead Sea. I don't think we did any baptisms last time in the
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Jordan. They've got that little cordoned off spot where you can go pay extra money, and you get special anointing if you've been baptized in the
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Jordan. One thing we won't do, what we won't do is if you've been baptized before, and you want to get re -baptized in the
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Jordan for the extra unction blessing, nope. I guess I could just hold you under, maybe, maybe that would be a special blessing.
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In the old days, I used to say to people when I did the baptisms, I'm excited for you, and this is a big day, and you're going to stand here and give a testimony of the
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Lord Jesus and His greatness, and I just want you to know, I'll ask you a couple questions like, what did you do to earn your salvation?
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Did you contribute anything to your standing before God? Do you love the
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Lord Jesus Christ? And then I'm going to grab your arm, I want you to hold it like this, and then bend your knees, and I'm going to say it's my privilege and pleasure to baptize you in the name of the triune
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God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then I'm going to dunk you. And then if you come up and you want to give me a hug or something, that's fine, and if you come up and you want to speak in tongues, what you think is tongues, la la la la la la, you're going back under.
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I just saw, I think it must have been some Orthodox church, a paedo -baptism, and there was a basin, and it was clear, translucent, transparent, it wasn't opaque, and quite a bit of water there, and there were some godparents, and the pastor, he had a gown on and some hat, clerical hat.
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What would you call a clerical hat? There are vestments, there are robes, and what's the hat called? A beanie, that's like the
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Shriner beanie, not Thomas Shriner, but Shriner Hospital. And so they took the kid, the kid was naked,
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I guess they had some clothes on the kid, a robe or something, and took the kid, and then they did head down into the water, up,
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Father, head down, same kid, into the water, up, full immersion, head down into the water, up, and then
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Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And when I watched the video, it had kind of the repeat, so I could just watch it over and over and over.
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I've also seen paedo -baptists, full immersion baptists, and they've been in pools before, with kind of bigger people, if you know what
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I mean, and then they are dunking them three times, but the people aren't strong enough to get them back up, because it's not a, hey, bend your knees and let's go under, and it's all kind of, not choreographed, but we're going to watch our backs.
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I remember once I hurt my back super bad when I was baptizing someone. I went to the chiropractor and I thought, I should expense this, this should be some kind of worker's comp, how'd you hurt your back?
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Oh, I'm a Baptist. One more reason to be a Presbyterian, they might have said. Anyway, it's good to be back.
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I have hardly recorded any shows. Hi, Wendy, good to see you. I have hardly recorded any shows in the last six weeks.
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I had the ACL replacement with a meniscus repair, made me stay off of my feet for six weeks.
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A week in, I got a DVT, thrombosis, deep vein thrombosis, which is, hey,
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Steven, which is a blood clot, and then they put me on blood thinners, and I felt,
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I mean, one day I took three naps, these blood thinners are killing me. Maybe they're literally saving my life, but they're making me so tired.
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So I have essentially done nothing except work on my sermons. I preach from a stool now, no soy lattes.
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I think this Sunday will be the first time that I don't have to preach with a stool. I'll be going to the Shepherd's Conference, Lord willing, and after that flight, then
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I don't have to take blood thinners any longer. And the doctor said a couple days ago, walk as much as you want, and I thought, oh, this is going to be great.
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I don't have to be on crutches. You know how hard it is to carry coffee with crutches, carry a Bible? You know how hard it is to kick the dog with crutches?
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Anyway, I started to try to walk. I can't walk. My legs are shot. They've atrophied.
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I've been lifting the one leg a couple days a week at the gym, but the other leg, I can't, and so I'm just been hobbling along.
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There's that dancer, have you ever seen on YouTube, Peg Leg Bates? And he had like a pole for one leg and then a regular leg, and he was a tap dancer, kind of Sammy Davis Jr.
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kind of deal. So my wife calls me Peg Leg. I can't sneak around the house anymore. You know, I try to sneak up and give my wife a kiss or something like that, like in the old days, and now it's
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Captain A .M. Where's Mike?
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Oh, there he is. Well, Wendy, it says here on the
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Facebook that you and your husband are going to be, and son, are going to ShepCon. Well, I won't have a booth or anything, but I'll be walking around or limping.
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Look for the limper. And my wife, actually, Mrs. NoCo, she's going to be around.
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I don't think she's going to be at the Shepherds Conference, but she's going to be around, so that will be fun, Stephen R.
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Pirates. I should do some kind of Pirates of the Caribbean sermon theme. Something about,
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I don't know, some kind of honor among thieves or something like that.
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So anyway, thanks for praying. We'll get back to some new shows soon. I think the last week we had a few new shows.
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Next week we should have new shows as well. I interviewed D. Scott Meadows from New Hampshire Reformed Baptist.
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That should be online. And we'll slowly try to build ourselves back up into normal life.
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Book of Jonah. Not supposed to drink anything on the air, but now we have the nasty peaches and cream.
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Who knows what this is, but that's the drink for the day. Yeah, just tell them to look for the limper.
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I've been thinking about Acts chapter 3, you know, in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. You know, walking and leaping and praising
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God. I'm going to be walking and limping and praising God just to be able to put pressure on this leg. It's been so nice.
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Well, the other day I was thinking about the common book of prayer. Now I know there are probably zero
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Anglicans watching NoCo on Facebook, and I know there aren't many probably
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Anglicans that listen to No Compromise Radio. Maybe there's a few that follow the tweets. The one
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I have here in front of me is the common book of prayer and administration of the sacraments and other rites,
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R -I -T -E -S, and ceremonies of the church according to the use of the
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Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Cambridge, I don't know what edition this is,
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I certify that this edition of the common book of prayer compared certified to the standard book, 1893.
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Anyway, I officiate a wedding tomorrow, hopefully on two legs.
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I always thought it was funny over the years as I've officiated weddings, then
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I'm usually in the wedding pictures, right, in some kind of way. And maybe not the ones they put on the mantle, but sometimes, yes, and then something will happen, somebody will get bugged and leave the church, and, you know, maybe there's some kind of who knows what, a disagreement with me or something.
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Not that I'd ever be wrong, but then, forever, I'm in their wedding pictures, right?
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So now, forever, maybe this couple tomorrow, I'll have a crutch, they'll have the crutch in the middle of the wedding pictures.
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Anyway, I wanted to pull up the common book of prayer because I'm not trying to make you read it,
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I'm not trying to take the church to the Episcopalian denomination, but there's a lot more in here than you would imagine.
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And on the good side, right? Some of the stuff you think, oh, we don't really do confirmation or whatever, but some of the things here, visitation of the sick.
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The other day, someone said to me, I'm going to the hospital and is there something I should do or say or read when
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I get to the hospital? And I said, Romans 8, you can always read them Romans 8, right?
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If it's an unbeliever, you can even say, do you mind if I pray for you? And most of the time, people say, oh, yeah, you can pray for me.
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And my discipleship group two weeks ago, we had about 10 guys, 12 guys in here, and I taught them how to visit somebody at the hospital, what to do, what not to do, etc.,
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etc. Even saying, if it's late at night and you have to go visit, I'm a minister from Bethlehem Bible Church, because if you're a pastor, you get in, and if you say minister, which you are, you're a servant, and you're going there on my behalf, essentially, then don't drive all the way there and then not get in.
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That wouldn't be any good. Visitation of the sick, a prayer for persons troubled in mind or in conscience.
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So I just thought it was very fascinating to read, because I think it's something we just kind of like, ah, common book of prayer. And then it's got some things in here that if you just read a couple pages, you'd go, oh, that's not too bad.
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Here's one. A thanksgiving for the beginning of a recovery. Now that sounds like No Compromise Radio to me, with the knee.
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I've got the knee brace on. It's not too bad of a knee brace, but I guess
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I can't really show you, I can't bend over. But here, let's see what it says.
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I've not rehearsed this, of course, you know, I don't rehearse things on No Compromise Radio. That's why we have such a big following.
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Here's a prayer for thanksgiving of the beginning of a recovery. You tell me if it's good or not.
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We're just going to do this live. This is kind of, you know, like wretched radio stuff. I just looked the other day,
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Justin Peters did that thing about Hillsong and healing or something like that, or false teaching.
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I can't remember what it was. I think there's been 450 ,000 views. Great and mighty
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God, who bring us down to the grave and bring us up again, we bless thy wonderful goodness for having turned our heaviness into joy and our mourning into gladness by restoring this our brother to some degree of his former health.
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And it's got brother in italics, so you could say sister or name. Blessed be thy name that thou does not forsake him in his sickness, but did visit him with comforts from above, did support him in patience and submission to thy will, and at last did send him seasonable relief.
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Perfect we beseech thee, this thy mercy towards him. That's pretty good. Your mercy,
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God, toward this person has been perfect. And prosper the means which shall be made use of for his cure.
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That being restored to health of body, vigor, and of mind, and cheerfulness of spirit. He's going to get better for what reason?
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We pray God he gets better for this reason. Are you ready? I can tell where this is going. He may be able to go to thine house to offer thee an ablation with great gladness and to bless thy holy name for all thy goodness toward him through Jesus Christ, our savior, to whom with thee and the
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Holy Spirit be all honor and glory world without end. Amen. That's not too bad, right?
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That's just not too bad. And again, I have to make a thousand caveats. I'm not trying to make you
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Anglican or anything like that. I just trying to tell you some good stuff.
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Reason why I pulled this out today is because of this section right here. Can you see it? Probably backwards to you.
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The Solomonization of Matrimony. Now most of you know something about the common book of prayer because of this section.
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And I love to use this section. And I think Cramner wrote this part, Thomas Cramner, the
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Anglican, who lost his life just right there outside of Oxford. There's a little obelisk that has
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Ridley, Cramner, and who's the other guy that died there with a
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Philippians 129 placard underneath it, that God has ordained suffering as a gift and faith or something like that.
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I can't remember, but it's Philippians 129. Anyway, here's the Solomonization of marriage. This doesn't have anything to do with Solomon, the son of David, but this is solemn.
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This is solemn matrimony. Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the face of this company to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony.
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That's what you see in movies, do you not? By the way, whenever I officiate weddings, I use this and I also disallow people writing their own vows.
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Why do I do that? Well, number one, they spend a lot of time writing their vows.
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And then when I hear them, I say, wow. And then if they spend all this time and I think they're dumb, and I tell them, sorry, you can't use them, then
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I look like I'm the bad guy. So I say early on, no, you can't, we're going to use standard vows.
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But the main reason I have them use standard vows that I provide is because biblical vows are not symmetrical.
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That is to say, symmetry, you'll see the sameness if you folded the piece of paper in half, it'd be the exact same.
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And you think, okay, why is a husband told to love his wife? Why is a wife told to submit to her husband?
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Here's a good example of things with husband and wives where they're not symmetrical. Wives you're told to respect your husbands.
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Husbands are never commanded by God to respect their wives. Now, if you do respect your wife, that's a good thing, I'm not against that.
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But if you're in a position functionally underneath a leader, and that leader doesn't do the right thing, and of course your husband's not going to in a lot of cases, you're going to have an attitude of, who do you think you are?
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And you're in charge, and you're not doing this the right way, and you'd be tempted not to respect him.
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So you're told by God to respect your husband. It is a command. You must respect your husband.
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He didn't earn respect. He doesn't deserve respect. Well, the text is the text, is it not? Secondly, when it comes to husbands, what about where it says, don't be embittered toward your wives?
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Now, should wives be embittered toward their husbands? Okay. Stephen said, allow your husbands to buy any amount of books.
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Well, Stephen, the good news for me is I get a book allowance now from the church, and they make sure
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I have tons of resources. And so what used to be a problem in our marriage, spending money on books, not budgeted, it's no longer an issue.
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Other things are issues, but that's no longer an issue. Eat your heart out. Don't be embittered to your wives.
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Well, if you've got somebody under you functionally, right? You're equal in Christ, Galatians 3 .28, but she's under you and she's not doing what you say or with a good attitude or the right way or is in rebellion or something or other, then you could be embittered toward your wife for not going along with the program where you're supposed to be in charge and you're the leader.
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So those things aren't symmetrical. Respect, don't be embittered. Therefore when you have vows written and you're not cognizant of the fact, it just turns into some kind of mushy, amorous, whatever.
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I'm all for mushy, amorous. That's later, right? You want to give vows in the hotel room that are all symmetrical and mushy and vows and everything else.
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For my husband is hunting and fishing supplies. What does this go on to say here?
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Solemnization of matrimony, which is an honorable estate, no matter what the world says, right?
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Instituted by God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt
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Christ and his church. Now tomorrow I won't say betwixt because everybody will be thinking about what?
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Certain kind of candy. Same thing. I won't say Assyrian because if you say Assyrian, Siri says, hello, can
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I help you within your iPhone, right? With which holy estate
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Christ adorned and beautified with his presence, right? John chapter two at Cana and first miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galilee and is commended by St.
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Paul to be honorable among all men. So Jesus was there, right? He made the good grape juice first in Cana.
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How dumb can we get, right? Matter of fact, if you think about Welch, he was a
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Methodist pastor. He didn't want alcohol used in communion or anyplace else. So he pasteurized grape juice.
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That's where we got that. And I think if you do some study about Kellogg's cornflakes, I think that will be
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Seventh -day Adventist stuff. And you'll be very surprised why they made cornflakes. I don't think you want to know.
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But isn't this interesting? Commended by Paul, St. Paul to be honorable among all men. Matter of fact, that's language of Hebrews 13, verse four, the marriage bed, coitus is not defiled and marriages to be held in honor among all, right?
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And adulterers and fornicators, God will judge. That's Hebrews 13. He, Cramner, this common book of prayer, they thought
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Paul was the author of Hebrews. I just thought that was interesting. And therefore it is not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly.
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You just don't rush into marriage. Now the next part
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I say when I officiate a wedding, and I'm looking forward to saying tomorrow because I think it's very, very true and hardly ever said, and this is right from the common book of prayer, this is how you enter marriage, not unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God.
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That's how you enter marriage. And by the way, aren't we glad for the mercy and patience and grace of God for those of us who entered marriage in a flippant way, in less than this kind of way.
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Then the book says, into this holy estate, these two persons present come now to be joined.
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If any man can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him speak now or else hereafter forever hold his what?
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Peace. That's called the bands. B -A -N -N -E -S. And in the old days with the bands, you would have a public placard someplace saying these two are going to get married, and if anybody knows anything about them that would prohibit them from getting married, go talk to them or go talk to the clergy, et cetera.
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And then after a couple of weeks notice, then it would be fine to get married. Well, we don't do that, but I do like to read the bands at the wedding because I'm old school and I like to have a pregnant pause there, looking around, waiting.
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Sometimes the bride is looking like, are you going to keep going? Is anybody going to say anything? Also speaking of the persons who are to be married, he, the minister, shall say,
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I require and charge you both as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it, for be ye well assured that if any persons are joined together otherwise, then as God's word doth allow, their marriage is not lawful.
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Who talks like that? No wonder they call it the solemnization of matrimony.
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The minister then says, wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy state of matrimony?
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Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, keep thee only under her so long as you both shall live?
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Of course, we know this. Here's my take. We don't hear this language anywhere anymore in evangelical circles.
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We only hear it from the movies. This is how movie preachers talk, because they don't know where else to go.
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What do they do? Go to like Seeker Sensitive 101 Church Manual and find out what they say?
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No, they go here. Wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in holy estate of matrimony?
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What about this part right here? I'm going to get kicked off the air. Wilt thou obey him and serve him, love, honor and keep him in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, keep thee only under him as long as ye both shall live?
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And the woman shall answer, I will. Anyway, what I thought I would do is just say hello on this show.
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Thanks for praying. Back into action. There's stuff here about burial of the dead. There's talk about here prayer to be used at sea.
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Fascinating thing. Family prayers. What should we pray in the family? The Psalters included here.
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How to ordain and order deacons. Consecrations of churches.
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And then at the very end, something that's very interesting is the articles of religion. So the
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Anglicans had the 39 articles, and that's my homework for you, is to read the 39 articles and you will say, you know what?
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That's not too bad. 39 articles would be better statement of faith than probably 90 % of the churches in evangelical
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America. I don't think it's as good as 1689 Westminster. I don't think it's as good as those statements of faith, but it is good.
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It isn't bad at all. And if you think Anglicans on the good side, think of J .C.
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Ryle, Anglican. What's the name of the book? It's just the Book of Common Prayer. So pull it up online.
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It's free. This happens to be an old one that I got, but it's just the Book of Common Prayer. And I find it more than anything else fascinating, interesting, and of course our world has been affected by this in so many ways.
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39 articles of Christian religion, Anglican statement of faith. This is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.
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See you next time. 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 6. 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.