God's Faithfulness in Europe

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said,.

But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Travel Update and Conference Ministry in Europe

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I think I have not recorded a new show for approximately four or five weeks, so sorry for the reruns. I just was in Vienna, Berlin, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

That would be two cities in two countries. But technically, there are four countries that I just was visiting. Super encouraged for the ministry over there. And so, I hope you'll be back recording some shows.

Steve will be in the studio soon. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com. Trying to upload some new NoCo 90s, although unless they're controversial, they only get about 250 hits, so I could go for more controversial, except the pastor in me doesn't want to go too crazy.

But anyway, we'll give it a shot. What else is happening? I just submitted the manuscript to Zondervan for Discovering Romans, Spiritual Revival for the Soul, the S. Lewis Johnson commentary on Romans that I adapted.

So I'm super excited about that, and then the things that go bump in the church should be out soon. So, just a lot of things happening. Super blessed. Glad to be alive. Speaking of which, here on No Compromise Radio, let me just give you kind of the overview of what was going on over there.

Many of you pray for the ministry and Facebook comments. Where were you in Poland or the Czech Republic? And so I think this serves us well to just rehearse what kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him, speaking about Christ Jesus in Matthew 8, the power of God to save us from little faith, increasing our faith and discipleship through a demonstration of the power of God and the might of God.

And so I flew over to Vienna, because it was the closest spot to where I needed to go in the Czech Republic. And I went up and talked to some of the students there, college students, oh, they're 20-ish was the age, and I was expecting about 20 young people for a No Compromise, Bez Kompromisu was the name of the conference.

And so I went there and I was going to speak about four times. It was a youth conference, and I thought there would, like I said, be 20 people. There were about 200, 250, 300 at times, depending on the session.

And so my topics were things like No Compromise the Bible, No Compromise Temptation, No Compromise the Gospel, No Compromise Jesus. And I basically understood that from the Baptist Union, they have conservative churches and liberal churches.

And a lot of the liberals didn't even send their young people because they knew the conference was hosted by a couple of my friends, Louisa and Lance and Roddick, and I'll include Marcus as well. So anyway, I went there and was glad to preach, and it's exciting.

I mean, I would say 80 of my comments were understood by a lot of the young people. They speak English there. Their English is much better than my Czech, the Slavic languages. I finally was figuring out a few things.

One thing I appreciated about the Polish language, every vowel makes the same sound. So that made it easier, but still, it's the Slavic language family. And for guys like me, that's difficult, especially when I'm as old as I am.

Well, anyway, I was very thankful to preach there. I think some people, some of the leadership in the Baptist Union, weren't that happy with me because I was calling the young people out in repentance and faith and telling some of them I didn't think that they were saved after all their 300 people.

I'd say that if it was a breakout session at Grace Church, for that matter, calling people to believe and rehearsing the gospel and talking about the riches of God in Christ Jesus alone and dealing with issues that would come up for young people.

Well, I preached there, and it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and then Monday night drove to a small city outside Brno, B-N-R-O. I'm sure I'm pronouncing it wrongly, and just enjoying fellowship with Roddick and his wife and it was probably midnight by now, and they have all kinds of funky foods out, you know, things that I don't know anything about but like to try, and, you know, the strudel that seemed like they imported that from Germany, that was good.

They had little kiwi fruits that were the size of a grape, and so you just ate the whole thing, and they called them Czech kiwis. So I like those, I was just popping those in my mouth. And then, and this was all, of course, with the afterglow of being able to do some gospel ministry, and I was thinking about Matthew 28, go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the singular name of God.

God is one, yet God subsists in three persons. The Father, definite article, and the Son, definite article, and the Holy Spirit. So we have a singular name, and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, one God, each person being God, and yet the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father.

So, it's a great Trinitarian call, and I was so happy to minister and to preach, and of course, I'm a nobody, but I have a great message, not because it's my message, it's been given to me by the Lord in His Word, and you think about Mark chapter 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you just open up your Bibles to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John and start reading, and I say, impressive, I say, worthy of praise.

What man do you know of who's worthy of praise? The older I get, the fewer people are on that list. Actually, there's only one on that list. So it was good to go there and tell the folks about it, relaxing.

I now receive about three or four days off because the two conferences, the one in Czech Republic and the one in Poland are both over the weekends, so I'm just going to travel up to, fly from Vienna to Berlin, see some of the folks at the EBTC there, Christian Andresen, and some of the folks, Teo Mateus, and then work my way over to Poland through, I think it was through a car, I didn't want to take a train ride in Poland, it was going to take too long, too many layovers.

Anaphylactic Reaction and the Czech Hospital

So I'm sitting there eating kiwi fruit in the Czech Republic, and then they had other snacks that were there, and, you know, kind of local snacks, and had a bunch of hazelnuts in a bowl. And I eat Nutella sometimes, some hazelnuts in, I don't know, Raffaello candies, those white candies, maybe some other things, muesli, I'd have some hazelnuts there.

So there's a big bowl of hazelnuts, I thought I'd try them. That was a Pete's Coffee break, no Pete's Coffee in Europe, lots of espresso, but in Slavic countries, not as much espresso as you would see in Italy, or Germany, or elsewhere.

But anyway, we found some, I actually got some Nespresso, instant espresso. And so, you know, they have do a lot of instant coffee there. Actually the Polish folks, some do instant coffee, and some take coffee grounds that you would use with your filter and just put them in a bowl, and then pour the hot water in, not a bowl, cup, the thirsty ones put it in a bowl, and then they pour in the water, and then let the coffee grounds sink to the bottom, then drink it.

It's very popular there. So hey, it's caffeine. I can't remember how to say caffeine, but it looks like coffein, cofina, or something like that. So this is all a big buildup to the sovereignty and supremacy of King Jesus.

This is a big buildup to, I ate the hazelnuts, and it was about midnight, and before you know it, I think, you know what, maybe I have one stuck kind of in my throat. I have swallowing issues in my throat, it's not very large, and the opening, I'm always choking on food, and that's kind of like one of my things, I think, I'm going to die choking.

So I swallow a little water, everybody's in bed by now, it's midnight. I then check my face, it seems like my eyes kind of puffy. And so, okay, fine, I'm just, you know, it's a little allergic reaction.

So I continue to pack my stuff, because the next day I take a bus down to the airport and then take the flight. And then I think, you know what, wait a second, it's kind of hard to swallow. So I had some antihistamine in my travel bag, and quickly took some of that, and then looked at my face again, it's starting to puff up like Halloween costume.

And now what do you do? Do you wake up your guest? We are 15 minutes from the larger city, there's no hospitals in the city that I'm in. And do you go to the clinic? Do you go to the ER? What do you do?

I mean, I don't want to make a big deal about this. Some hypochondriac guy. But I also don't want to die in the Czech Republic. I don't really want to die at all. But if I had to die, I'd prefer to die here in America.

You know, maybe family around me, we're going to miss you, dad, that kind of stuff. So I finally, I look up on the internet, I've got Wi-Fi there, hazelnut reactions, allergic. What to do? Now it's getting a little harder to breathe.

So I woke up my guest. He gave me another antihistamine. And I said, I can't swallow. It was everything swelling up. So I just tried as hard as I could, forced it down. He said, you want me to call the ambulance?

I thought the ambulance in the Czech Republic is like a stagecoach or something. But I'm an action guy. So let's go for it. Let's get in the car. So I get in the car. He's praying, flying through red lights.

And then we get to this Czech Republic hospital in Brno. And it looks like it's, you know, communistically built in the 1940s and sterile, cold, hard, hardly anybody around. And in hospitals that I would think would be around, let's say in Germany, the Krankenhaus and the sick house, you know, you go up and there's the doors that open and people there can help you right away.

I'm walking in through the halls and the tunnels and around and Eroticus is holding my arm, you know, are you going to be okay? Can you breathe? And I'm just trying to say to myself during this whole time, you ask yourself what's going through your mind?

Well, I wasn't afraid to die because I knew my sins were paid for by Jesus. And so this is where theology comes in. I knew, in fact, that Jesus had paid for my sins and that I was born again and I was a different person.

I was a new creature in Christ Jesus, oh, practically far from perfect, but I have a desire to honor the Lord and worship Him and I'm banking on Jesus' death, Jesus' life, Jesus' resurrection. I'm all in from the human perspective.

But I was thinking about my wife and kids and I know the Lord is sovereign. I know the Lord can take care of my family better than I can. But there still would be the sadness of losing your father. You know, every time I travel, I kiss my wife and kids goodbye.

And maybe one of my kids, you know, early on in the travel days, she had a cheer and now it's kind of, oh, daddy does this, we'll see him soon. But one day there's not going to be one of those days because something like this can come up.

So I, you know, life is hardy, but life is also fragile and life is a vapor. So having this anaphylactic reaction, I've never been allergic to anything before like this in terms of food allergies. So I didn't see it coming.

Again, 53 years old, Laura said to me, I should have told you that lots of people were allergic to hazelnuts. She said, I almost did. But I said, well, it wouldn't have mattered because me and my pride, I would have just said, I can eat anything, you know, no big deal.

So I'm praying and Lord, you know, I'd like to live, but, you know, I submit to your plan. And then I had my phone. And so I thought, you know, my wife is such a prayer warrior, James chapter 5, the effective prayer of a righteous woman accomplishes much.

And she reminds me of her grandmother who was a prayer warrior, literally, and a godly righteous woman who would pray. And when you wanted a prayer answered, you would go to Grandma Evie. Well, Kim's the new Grandma Evie, except I can say this now because Grandma's in heaven.

On earth, my wife, Kim, is a much better theologian. So you've got Grandma Evie on theological steroids. And so I texted my wife, I can't really talk, so I can't call her, texted my wife and it's probably 6 p .m. in Massachusetts.

And I said, having allergic reaction to hazelnuts on my way to the ER, I'm sorry to make you worry, but please pray for me. I love you, XXOO, send. I could cry thinking about it. So we go up into the hospital.

This is Mike Ebenroth, by the way, No Compromise Radio, the life and times of the faithfulness of God in the life of a frail man. That's today's show. And so anyway, we make it to the hospital. They ask for my ID, and so they Xerox it.

They size me up pretty quickly. I've got a translator, Rodick is a native. And you know, what are you allergic to? They don't know what doxycycline is, you know. So they're just like, okay, fine. Lay down on that table over there on your stomach, and we'll give you the injections.

So they gave me one injection, was a steroid, and the other injection was adrenaline, EpiPen kind of thing. They put two band-aids on me and said, okay, you can go. Oh, no, wait, wait. I had to settle the account.

So the good news is it wasn't like India or someplace where you have to pay ahead of time. So they treated me, and then afterwards, it was the equivalent in croons, that's the money. Is it denomination?

Is that like a Lutheran? They're not in the Euro, although they probably want to be. So I paid the equivalent of $15 in croons, then they gave me a receipt, and it's time to go. I thought to myself, this is Obamacare, this is medical care coming to a hospital near you in the U .S.

So they said in about two hours, I'd feel the maximum benefit, but I could already feel I could breathe a little bit better. And so I just said to Roddy, can we just sit in the car for a while? I mean, aren't I supposed to be under observation?

Because there's already somebody else in the hall, and I don't know. I didn't see any blood. But anyway, I was super thankful that I wasn't out in the middle of the desert. I was close to a hospital, and as much as I joke around about this older hospital, I've been in a lot of old hospitals in the Los Angeles area, and so I'm just glad they've got the stuff, right?

Helga and Svetlana had the goods, and they gave me the injections, and it was fine after that. So then I went to Poland, and my face was still a mess for about a week, but I got an EpiPen there. And the interesting thing about the EpiPens in Poland, they're called Adrenalina.

And so the EpiPens in the U .S., I got a couple yesterday, and you know, you take the blue cap off, and then just even through your jeans, you just jam it into your thigh, count to 10 seconds, and then seek medical help.

And so they give you a couple of those. I got one in Poland, which I was super glad for, and again, I'm not complaining, but I got the cheaper one, and it just is a syringe filled with adrenaline, 0 .3, and then it's not really easy to carry, you know, the ones here are all concealed and sturdy case and stuff like that.

But I was super glad my friend Tomek in Poland helped me get one, because you need a prescription there as well. So that one, I think it was like $20 worth of Zlatis, I don't even know how to pronounce their currency.

Denominations. Why did I say denominations? That was, you know, that's the numbers. This is the currency, that's what I was after. So anyway, back to the story. So I now get ahold of my wife on the way home after we waited for a while out in the parking lot, and my throat's slowly getting better.

And I said, you better stop off and get me a Magnum bar or some ice cream or something, make sure stuff is going okay. I'm on this crash Auschwitz diet, as Ghouli calls it. Might as well have some fun.

If I'm going to die, I have a little ice cream, no sense being on the diet. Oh, and while I was packing, I thought, you know, I'm having this allergic reaction, but I still continued to kind of pack because I need to get it done.

I didn't know if I'm gonna have to go to the hospital or not, and I thought, how stupid is that? I'm gonna have to pack, my wife's gonna have to fly out here and get the body, I'm dead. So, finally got ahold of my wife and she said, I was at the track running and working out and praying for you and your health and God would give you rest and he'd keep you safe.

And then I was also praying for you at the moment that all this was happening, when I was at the track, that the Lord would allow us to be grandparents together. And I thought about this story a couple times, I could even cry thinking about it now.

And so, it made me think of many things. It made me be happy for my life and, you know, whatever I have from here on out, it's kind of gravy. I got hit head on by a car once on a bicycle and, you know, it changes your thinking for a while and then you just fade back into the beige, oblique, growl, gray life of not living in the eminent return of Christ Jesus in light of that or your own death.

And you think about it, you start losing your breath and it starts getting darker, darker, darker, you're struggling, you're losing oxygen, darker, darker, things become very dim, things aren't very loud anymore, it's darker, darker.

And then for the Christian, you die when it's the darkest and then it's the blazing light and glory of the Shekinah of God in heaven. And so, that's going to be a fascinating day, it's going to be a wonderful day, it's going to be a fabulous day, but I just didn't want it to happen then, you know, who wants to happen anytime?

But then I thought in the providence of God, as all these things are concurring with one another and how God uses prayer, I don't think prayer changes God's mind. I think God has His people praying and for whatever reason, it is certainly, I know, pleasing to the Lord, but He's having my wife pray for me at the exact time that I'm needing the prayer.

Erotic was praying for me in the hospital, you know, in the car, and he had his eyes open because he's flying down the street, and I was thankful that it was midnight, that it all happened. But my prayers were kind of stunted.

My prayers were, I'm thinking about something else, and so, Lord, help me just to breathe, and I don't want to panic, it's like with a kid in an asthma attack, I don't want to panic. And I also was thinking of Wesley's words, at least attributed to Wesley, that Christians die well, and so I didn't want to panic because it wouldn't be good for me physically, but I also didn't want to panic because it wasn't going to be good for me spiritually.

I wasn't trying to impress Roddick, I just thought, you know what, if you're going to die, you might as well, and since you're going to die, of course, you might as well die well trusting in who God is.

Counting the Cost and Following Jesus

So remember those people that approached Jesus, and Lord, you know, permit me first to go and bury my father, and the scribe that came, and I'll go wherever you want to go, foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

Remember, Jesus is talking to them, and basically says, count the cost, and then he says, follow at any cost. And it's interesting, when he got in his boat, into the boat, his disciples followed him. So the scribe and the other disciple didn't have enough faith to follow, but these disciples, these apostles, they had enough faith to follow.

It was little faith, because he goes on to say, after they screamed out in the boat, when the sea waves were covering the boat with a great storm, save us, Lord, we are perishing. Not theologically saved, but physically save us.

And then Jesus said, why are you afraid, you men of little faith? They had faith enough to follow, but still it was small enough, and the faith that results in discipleship was bolstered. Jesus uses his greatness to increase their faith.

He rebuked the winds, the sea became perfectly calm, and the men were amazed. What kind of man is this? So the men say, what kind of man is this? And earlier, of course, we know from Matthew chapter 8, it's the son of man, Daniel 7.

What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? So I'm not trying to say that I now, I have so much more faith, and look at me. I just will say that God's faithfulness in the Czech Republic, in a hospital that seemed antiquated in a place that was far away, God was faithful to me.

God was powerful, and I want to have more faith in him. When you think about your children, when you think about your wife, when you think about ministry, Jesus is trustworthy. And he is the God that can still seize and wins, and so therefore he's all-powerful, whether that is the Red Sea, whether that is Noah's flood, God is creator.

So I was very, very thankful, and then drove up to Berlin, then over to Poland, and ministered in Borna, it used to be Gross-Borna when the Germans had it. And actually the conference there, No Compromise conference, Bencompromiso, I think it was that one, was held at a place that used to be the dining hall for the German Wehrmacht.

So we had the German army, used to dine there. Then when the communists came in and took over, the Germans left, the communists took it over, and then it was a place for them. And now we have Bible teaching from the Polish, Pastor Tomek there, and David, and Peter.

So anyway, my name is Mike Ebenroth. Today is the life and times of Mike Ebenroth in light of the sovereignty of God. I'm glad I preach it, I'm glad I believe it, because God has revealed it to me in Scripture.

I look back in my life and think, okay, I don't need miracles, signs, and wonders to be impressed with God. Well, I'm impressed with His real miracles, signs, and wonders in the Scripture. But in my own life, I'm most impressed with God as I look back.

I can't see the future, I can't read the tea leaves of the future, but I can look back and see He's been faithful all the way. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. And if I had a desire to have my kids have a dad on earth and my wife have a husband and care for them, how much more does God care for me?

Why are you afraid, you men of little faith? Jesus rebukes the winds and the sea, they become calm, and then the men say, what kind of man? Mankind says, what kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?

My name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com or you can go to nocon90 .com for some YouTube 90s. Nocompromiseradio .com. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text. Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.