When You Do Not Know (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Apendroth, Abendroth, Hafferhorf at No Compromise Radio.

We are dedicated to talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Duplex gratia,

Christ for pardon, Christ for power. You can email me mike at nocompromiseradio .com

and if you like this song you should tell me because it's gonna be in your life as a no -co -listener for quite some time.

Anyway, we're glad to have you and we have been around I think now 14 years. Monday to Friday shows,

Monday's a sermon, Friday's a rerun. Disclaimer, my theology has grown, changed, morphed, trajectorized, and I don't believe exactly the things that I believed 15 years ago when the show started, 14 years ago.

And you say, that is amazing. How could that happen? Well, wouldn't you hope that I would learn and grow?

And maybe some of you who believe what I used to believe think that I'm not getting more mature but devolving.

It's a devolution. Anyway, even if you disagree with me on many things,

I still think we can talk shop and we can talk like brothers or brother and sister in Christ.

Lots of you have emailed me over the years. The email used to be, number one email was, how do

I find a good church? Now the most emails are, why do you use this music?

No, the one now is, how do I find a law gospel church, a Christ -centered church, not just a good

Bible -teaching church? You know, there are certain searches that ministries put out where you can find like affiliates, and I think you can still do that and probably find some good churches that way.

But, you know, just because something's on Nine Marks doesn't mean it's good nor bad, really.

I mean, at least it helps you. It's a starter. And I think the best way to do it is if you know what

Nine Marks is about and you go to that search engine, then you get an idea of kind of what to look for, pros and cons.

If you go to master's seminary alumni, you can go, oh, what's a typical master's grad do and talk about?

And you can decide if that's you or not. But anyway, here on No Compromise Radio, we like to talk about many different topics, and sometimes

I include my sermon prep with you being the guinea pig.

I have been working through the book of Ecclesiastes, and I haven't done every show. I don't think I've done one of these since like chapter 5 or something.

But sometimes I come into the study, and I'm in here today. It's Friday. It's December 9th.

It's 2 .32 p .m. Eastern Standard Time. And tonight we have a

Christmas concert, an outreach concert. We have a Christmas Eve service coming up, a candlelight service at 4 .30

p .m. because it gets dark here at whatever, 3 .45. Then people can go home and do what they do.

And then we have, of course, a Christmas service because it's the Lord's Day, and that's at 10 .15

on December 25th. If you're local here in the area and you're at a good church,

I don't want you to come to Bethlehem Bible Church. Serve where you are. Minister. Listen to the show.

That's fine, but we are not trying to pull people from other churches. That's the last thing I'd want to do because I know how it feels.

Air quotes, feels. But if you're at a church here locally and your church isn't going to have a

December 25th service because it's Christmas, I mean, it's not gonna have a service on the 25th because there's a gas leak or the water shut off or the building's burned and you don't have time to find a backup or something like that.

I mean, I guess there are some exceptions, so I better be careful. But if the leadership says stay home with your families on the

Lord's Day, celebrate Christmas, read a Bible verse, and pray, and we'll see you in a couple weeks, that's not a church.

So, you may leave and come to Bethlehem Bible Church. What are people thinking?

They're not. It's the Lord's Day. I mean, come on. Do we even have to think about this?

Is this really even that? I heard that I said that on Twitter and I got posted on Facebook and I don't follow

Facebook really, and I guess there are hundreds of comments about that simple statement.

If you are at a church that doesn't have a December 25th worship service, maybe you can't get the building until the nighttime, so it's a p .m.

service. Okay, fine. But it's just because the pastors are theologically dorky, theologically backward.

They don't understand things, and they're like, well, let's just follow kind of like...I think Andy Stanley does this.

I'm not sure if he does it this year or not. So, I don't want to say anything that I don't know to be true, but people like that.

You don't need to go to church. It's Christmas. I mean, especially if you're a man, lead your family.

You do not say to your family, should we go to church today, Christmas night, Christmas Eve? Do you think we should go to church tomorrow, kids, or should we stay home and open presents?

Well, if your kids are older and they're wiser, they'll say, well, let's go worship first, then go home. I mean, it's just crazy to me.

I do want to also say we are on KAGV, 1110 a .m. in Anchorage, Alaska.

What's the two -letter abbreviation in the postal service for Alaska?

You'd think it was AL, but that'd probably be Alabama, right? So, it's AK, Alaska. And we are also on KA...did

I already say KAGV? I think I already said KAGV. We are also on KFGR, Trinity Bible Church, Powell, Wyoming, 88 .1

FM. How about that? tbcwyoming .com.

So, we've got KFGR, and we've got KAGB. So, you can tell they're

West, because when I grew up, it was KFAB, 1110.

I was on the radio back in those days, just as a guest. I won something, and they gave me a transistor radio. Today, we're in Ecclesiastes 11.

I don't know. I don't know. You don't know. What's the future hold? Fallen world, under the sun, striving after wind, bad things.

We're uncertain. It's unpredictable. What do you do, verses 1 to 6? You trust

God anyway and walk by faith. We can't even figure out how babies knit together in the womb of a mother.

How can we figure out the providential workings of God? Well, we can't. And so, instead of being passive, locking ourselves up, moving down to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, becoming

Amish, becoming a monk, becoming a hermit, isolating yourself, you know what?

You need to walk by faith. I think this even applies back as we look over the last couple of years.

People were so worried about COVID that some people don't go out. These verses would be against that.

Obviously, there are some people that are homebound because they really can't get out. They can't even drive. They're old and frail and can't see, can't get out.

I'm not talking about seniors who are legitimately homebound. I'm talking about people who are so afraid of a virus that they won't go worship.

That's what I'm talking about because we don't understand God's plan. And part of Ecclesiastes is you don't understand what

God's doing and life is difficult, unpredictable. There's going to be disasters. There's going to be all kinds of things.

We don't know the future, but we know the one who holds a future, so we walk by faith. You're not going to die one minute before or one minute after you're supposed to die.

You don't need to go around looking for sickness, and you don't need to go around trying to say, well, kind of like with the kids when they're little and you have a,

I don't know, you have a measles party. Is it measles that people have measles parties and they want everybody to get the measles early or something?

I don't know. I don't think it's smallpox. I think it's measles. Whatever you're trying to get your kid exposed to early on better than later, you need to walk by faith, right?

And the people, if you're listening and you like NOCO radio and you don't go to church because you're on a ship someplace, you can't, military or something, okay, fine.

But if you're able to and you don't go because of COVID and you don't want to get sick, friend, you have to live.

You have to repent and get going. That's exactly what Ecclesiastes 11, 1 to 6 is all about.

You don't know. I understand that. But God knows, and He's called you to work and to minister and to use your gifts.

And if you're sitting home and you still haven't gone back to church after COVID, you want to really say to yourself, how do

I call myself a Christian? What kind of Christian am I? There's no

Christianity divorced from the local body. If I had to redo all the COVID stuff over the last two years, it would have been a lot different.

I would have been more focused on that. Anyway, what else does

Solomon say? Wisdom literature says walk by faith even though you don't know the future, a future full of disasters, difficulties, trials.

I mean, every time I hear my voice, I think, okay, that was last year for me. I still haven't completely covered, recovered.

I'm able to do most things and work out and everything else, but not to the same level. And you can even hear it in my voice.

I just don't have the strong voice that I used to have. Okay, whatever. Solomon also goes on to say, when life is difficult, you don't know the future.

Okay, number one, we saw the first six verses. You can listen to the last two shows. Walk by faith in the risen

Savior, object of your faith, Jesus, and then rejoice, verses 7 through 10.

Joy, happiness, rejoicing. I mean, can you imagine today as the day that the

Lord has made? Let us rejoice and be glad in it. God gave you today. He gave you lungs today, eyesight today, taste buds today.

You can actually have joy in all that. It's from the gift. It's a gift from God's hand, from God's hand alone.

How do I act? I mean, grumpy? I mean, left to myself, sometimes

I'm pretty grumpy. What do they call people? The grumpasaurus, right? You don't want to be that.

That's awful. One guy even said grumpiness is a sin. I haven't seen it on the deadly list of seven sins, but who wants to be around grumpy?

Some kind of Snow White and the Seven Grumpies. Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun, verse 7.

So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in all them, or in them all, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.

All that comes is vanity. Days of darkness, light is sweet.

What's he saying there? Are you glad to be alive, or you'd rather be dead?

You are alive today. You're listening to the show. Aren't you glad you're alive?

Okay. Difficult, pain, sin, sorrow, fallen world, difficult, fleeting, vexing, but you are alive, especially if you're an unbeliever today.

You want more data to repent. It is David Gibson I found it here.

Grumpy rather than grateful. Grumpiness is a sin. I think it is particularly endemic among males.

It's the kind of sin we tolerate and smile at, the kind we indulge as we return to the castle of our home and find it not to be completely to our liking.

The days of darkness are coming, right? When you die, you'll be still alive, and you'll be awake as an unbeliever in the presence of God.

But from the earthly perspective, under the sun, it's a day of darkness. It's the day of death. That will really be, from the earthly perspective, a vain day.

From the Christian perspective, that'll be the happiest day of your life, the second after you die, right? We're under the sun, and we can focus on joys that maybe aren't under the sun, but in the

Savior who controls everything under the sun. I mean, ultimately, in the eternal kingdom, the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the

Lamb is its light, Revelation 21, 23. Oh, yes, to live is

Christ and to die is gain. And when we are alive, we see this metaphor of light and alive, and we're thinking about, we get to know the one who's the light of the world.

We get to know the one who created light and saw that it was good. We get to be enthusiastic about life and excitement when it comes to children being born or grandchildren, taste buds and music and the ability to listen to things, fellowship.

Did I mention food? You are to live a life of faith and joy, even though you don't know the future and even though you know bad things are going to happen in the future.

That's pretty fascinating to think about. I mean, he's commanding it. Light is sweet, that's interesting, and pleasant.

Life is sweet and pleasant. I mean, you want to understand what a life of rejoicing looks like?

It's sweet and it's good. It's sweet and it's pleasant. What's the opposite of sweet?

Bitter. What's the opposite of good? Bad. This is really theologically insightful, isn't it?

The many years he gives you, knowing that the days of darkness are gonna come, what do you do?

I'm passive. I'm grumpy. I'm not gonna do much. Life is so difficult.

Life is so hard. Have you ever been around those people? I mean, I've been that person. I am that person. I don't want to be.

But in particular, there are people that, whenever you talk to them, I mean, whenever, you know, church people, maybe others, maybe grandparents, when you talk to them, it is downer every time.

It is everything that's wrong in the world. I mean, they probably live in MSNBC, Fox News worlds, and that's all they see.

You know, it's a drudge report. It's just everything is awful all the time. And you rarely hear them praise.

I have a discipleship group here on Sunday mornings at 845, teaching some men to be preachers and Bible teachers, and sometimes

I'll say today, let's go around the room. First, we'll start off. I'll start. I didn't look at porn this week.

Around we go, and then I'll say, I'd like to have each one of you guys give a praise. Men need to learn how to praise.

Praise is befitting. It becomes someone, and it's becoming of people, and I would like you to give a praise.

Start off with, I praise God for, and then say something that you're praising God for.

That's how we need to talk. That's how we need to act. These people that, you know, they suck you into the black hole, the vortex of just pain and misery, deep, dark depression, excessive misery.

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Number two calls, BR 549. It's hee -haw stuff.

If you don't know what hee -haw stuff is, you can look it up. It was a TV show. To rejoice.

Verse 9, rejoice, O man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart, your mind control, he's not saying follow your heart, and the side of your eyes, but know that after these things,

God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart, put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

He wants you to rejoice. He wants you to obey. He wants you to walk in a wise way, and think, you know what, this is, you know,

I'm gonna be judged, not for my sins, but I'm gonna have rewards, and judged for my 2

Corinthians 5, 10 things done in the body, whether good or worthless, slash bad.

While I'm young, I'm gonna be looking for joy. I'm gonna be joyful, and I'm gonna have an eye to the judgment of God.

I'm gonna have an eye toward the fear of God. For Paul, he says rejoice, always, and again

I say rejoice. How can he say that in jail? Well, because in chapter 3, he's got a lot of the things that he's thankful for, because he used to put confidence in the flesh, and he used to say,

I'm gonna stand before God based on my circumcision on the right day. I'm of the nation of Israel. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.

I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee. That's why I'm standing before God of what I've done, as to a zeal, persecutor of the church, as to righteousness, which is found in the law, blameless.

I'm gonna do all that for my standing. And how would you ever rejoice? That's called a crabby person who thinks that.

They're called a self -righteous person who thinks that. I mean, I can identify with all that. But whatever things,

Philippians 3, 7, were gain to me, I thought those things were gain. Those things I've counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

I'm gonna say, you know what? It's in the wrong ledger. I thought they were gain, and they're really loss, because of who

Jesus is. I met Jesus on the Damascus Road, and He shattered me. He shattered me.

And indeed, I count everything as loss, because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For His sake, I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. That's what

He's after, the surpassing value of knowing Christ. Christ's matchless name.

Not Christianity, but with Christ Jesus my Lord. Intimate relationship between Lord and Son.

And compared to everything else, what I've got on my plus side, it's just rubbish. It's scooble on it.

It's just, it doesn't matter. It's just garbage. It's waste. What I'm after is this, verse 9 of Philippians 3.

And to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know

Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.

That's right. That's what we're after. This great God of light, the

Lord of light, God is light. He deserves our praise. He deserves our joy. For me, most days,

I take life for granted. Then you get really sick, and you're like, huh, probably shouldn't do that.

But it's been long enough now. It's been 14 months since I almost died, kind of back to the same old thinking.

When you're young, don't be like those old people that complain all the time. Don't be like that.

Again, I know people in my life, they're since deceased, where you just think, they're just bitter old people.

No, rejoice. This is the day. We worship you,

O Lord Christ, our Savior and our King, when Him writes to you our youth and strength adoringly we bring.

So fill our hearts that all may view your life in us and turn to you.

That was my stomach. George Bernard Shaw, youth is such a wonderful thing.

It's a shame to waste it on young people. What he's saying here, in essence, is when you're young, have joy.

Enjoy today. You're not guaranteed of anything else. Really, that's the context, right? Life is unpredictable.

Life is difficult. There are going to be trials in the future. So instead of saying, I'm in junior high, I want to be in senior high.

And when I'm in senior high, I want to be in college. When I'm in college, I want to go to a grad level school.

When I'm in grad level school, I want to get my doctorate. When I get my doctorate, I want to get my such and such. I used to be a youth pastor.

Now I'm an associate pastor. I'm just waiting to be a regular pastor. I was single, and now I'd like to be married.

And no, no, today you rejoice. Today. You're commanded to rejoice.

What about you? Complainer, grumbler, worrywart, self -righteous.

Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. Lord, please forgive me. And he talks a little bit about putting pain away from your body.

One guy said, here's the application. You ready for some conviction? Who said we're lawless around here?

Stop complaining about your health problems. When I read that,

I thought, oh, ouch. I got the breathing problems. I got the

GI problems. I got all this stuff. I'm like, oh, I got the blood problems. I got the prostate problems.

I got some new skin deal here, some epidural problems. Epidural, epidermis.

Oh, especially if you're young, don't complain about it. Especially if you're young, don't be crabby.

Be full of joy. Somebody said, when we complain, 90 % of the people don't care and don't want to hear it.

The other 10 probably feel secret satisfaction that we're getting what we deserve. So don't complain.

Enjoy life. Yes, with a view to I'm going to be judged for these things, not for sins.

Never, you're never judged for sins, dear Christian. No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Celebrate it as a festival to the

Lord, Exodus 12, 14. If that's what Passover was, how much more for us?

Jesus is alive. He is risen. I mean, who wants vexation?

Who wants difficulty? Who wants all that? No, no. We need to find a resting place in the

Lord Jesus. And we need to say, eating and drinking and everything else is from the hand of God.

Living life to the fullest. Enjoying life as a gift from God. Did you know that?

Did you know God gave you life? Did you know God gave you eternal life? Do you know every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the

Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow? Do you know your job is a gift? Do you know your spouse is a gift?

Do you know your kids are a gift? Do you know your grandkids are a gift? Do you know your church family is a gift? Do you know your tastes, buds, and all your senses are gifts?

You know, life is a gift. What do you deserve? What do you deserve? Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall.

If you tarry till you're better, you'll never come at all. Not the sinners, excuse me, not the righteous.

Sinners came to call. We have been saved by grace. God has sought us and bought us with his redeeming love.

And now how do we want to respond? With grateful hearts, with thankful hearts. That's what we want to do.

We don't want to be those people. You know those people. Don't be those people. Lord, please forgive me for being those people.

Those people. Which one? What's this button do? Let's see. There's another button up here.

Oh, that's a record scratch. I'm keeping that one. This one I think I don't like.

That reminds me of Presby -Cast. I have to do my own things.

My name is Mike Avendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. I'm the pastor, the happy pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts, just north of Worcester, 50 miles outside of Boston.

And I've been here 25 years, thankful to see the church learn and grow. Hopefully they see the progress in me that's evident as Paul talks about to his legate

Timothy. You can always email me, as I said, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. If you've got other questions, you can ask

Spencer, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Spencer is one of those hard workers around here that just is always in the background, does all the work, gets no credit for it.

But Spencer, Spencer's SPOP, SKPOP. This show today is dedicated to the one