Worry - The Respectable Sin - Part 4

Welcome, welcome, welcome to No Compromised Radio Ministry. My name is Michael Lee Abendroth. Junk mail comes to Michael Michelle Hafferhorf.

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The timing there, timing was perfect. Master, master DJ, Mike Abendroth here. You can write me, us, Mike at NoCompromisedRadio .com. You can also write us at info at NoCompromisedRadio .com. You can go to the website and we've got some help from one of the listeners on the new website.

It should be coming up pretty soon and it'll have updates with, uh, you know, shop, swag, books, Venmo. If Ray were alive, he would hate that. Ray Johnson, my dear friend, went home to be with the Lord.

I don't know, three and a half years ago is my guess. And he was the one behind No Compromised Radio. What happened was, this is kind of a fun little story and we'll get into our topic. What happened was I was asked to do a radio interview here in Worcester.

And I believe it was Tom Krause who had the Daily Radio Show for two hours, answering questions, teaching the Bible. He was a pastor in, I think, First Congregational Hopkins. No, I don't know. It's somewhere down by, on the way to Hartford.

I can't remember the name, but anyway, I was a guest on the show. And then the people at the radio said, well, he's going to be gone for two weeks, and Tom and the folks at the radio said, would you do the 10-day show, two hours a day live?

I said, okay. Drove down to the studio every day. It's right on the Auburn Worcester line. It's A-U-B-U-R-N, Auburn, but we pronounce it here in New England, A-W-B-I-N, Abendroth, and so I did the radio show.

And that was hard, two hours live. It wasn't my own show. Then they said, the radio people, how'd you like to have your own show, 3 .30 to 4 o 'clock or 3 to 3 .30 every day, Monday through Friday? And I thought, great.

Then they said, well, here's how much it costs. And I think it was 12 grand, 10 grand at the time or something like that. And there's a variety of stations here, 760 AM, 92 .1, which comes out of maybe New Hampshire, and I think it was only on 760 WVNE.

Well, that station typically has Swindoll, MacArthur, J. Vernon McGee.

Did you know J.

Vernon McGee was still alive? It's funny when people finally realize some of these guys are not alive, right? Chuck Swindoll's pretty old, but he's still alive. Charles Stanley with the Lord, John MacArthur with the Lord.

I dreamt about John MacArthur the other night. John has meant so much to me in life and ministry. I dreamt he was still alive. That was interesting. I also dreamt that Vodie Bauckham came over to my house and wanted to talk.

So you could tell that was a dream, right? Because they're both would not want to waste their time with me now as they are in glory. Well, back to the thing, and I'll get going with our topic for today.

Ray Johnson said, I'll pay for that. And you, whatever you need for equipment, I think these are some of the same music stands he purchased. We've got a, since a new soundboard that I had to buy since he's gone, he just said, whatever you need.

So for a few years he paid for the radio time and everything else. And he just said to me, I'll do that. But you know, don't tell people it's me and don't ask for money, right? It's that time of year again.

Now you just get on there and you teach the truth and don't ask for money. So Ray's gone. There's a Venmo and a Patreon. Early on on the website, there wasn't even a way to give if you wanted to. Now there's a Patreon and Venmo.

I think there's $130 given per month for Patreon, which I'm thankful for because there are some bills here. Not a whole lot of bills, but there's a few bills here. So all that to say, my name is Mike Ebenroth.

This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. And 18, 19, 20 years ago when we started, the Lord has blessed this show, millions of downloads, and lots of people write in and say, thank you, and I'm appreciative for that, and so back up to daily radio.

And we're going to try to get this thing off the ground again after I essentially wanted to quit feeling so bad. I didn't want to feel that bad, obviously, but taking Venetoclax and Alkalbutanib for the CLL leukemia, it just is a slow grinding mentally, physically, spiritually, et cetera.

But to God be the glory, we feel better now. We're talking today about worry. What about worry?

Do you worry?

Do you worry about your children, your parents, your finances, the world, moral decline, your sports team? I mean, how dumb does that sound? All kinds of things we could worry about. So how do we overcome worry?

Jesus said for certain that it is a sin to worry. He said in Luke 12, 22, do not worry about your life, or don't be anxious about your life, divided. He didn't say, don't work hard. He didn't say, don't plan for the future.

He didn't say, don't chop firewood today in the summer for December. He just said, don't worry about the major things in life, about your soul, translated properly, life, as to what you will eat. Think about those days, no Costco, no fast food.

Nor for your body as to what you will put on, for life is more than food and the body more than clothing. So let's not worry about those things because the Heavenly Father provides for us. Now, it doesn't say Father in this next section, but he does say Father in Matthew 6.

Consider the ravens, or in Matthew 6, observe the birds, look at the birds. For they neither sow nor reap. They have no storeroom nor barn like that foolish person in the section just before that in verses 13 through 21.

The man's storing up, right? He has many goods and he's building larger barns and tearing down other barns and storing all his grains and his goods. And what shall I do? I don't have enough storage for all my crops.

I think it was maybe Matthew, Henry or someone like that that said, maybe it was Augustine that said the bellies of poor people would have been good places to store some of the excess. And again, I'm not criticizing planning.

I have a retirement account and I think that's smart, right? I've paid into Social Security so that I could take that out. I have to have things to live on. It's actually an unbeliever, worse than an unbeliever, who wouldn't take care of his family.

And so part of that is, how do you do things for long term? When you're young and you can work hard, you save some extra for those rainy days, i .e. retirement. And now that my health is so bad and I'm so old, I can't have life insurance.

I better have some other type of plan to take care of my wife. Right. My son knows, and of course my daughters would help, but my son knows if I die, your mother is your responsibility. Right. And I'm not trying to say I'm Jesus or anything like that.

You know better. I know better. But in a similar fashion, Jesus on his proverbial deathbed, he's on the cross, no bed, no luxury there, but he's on the cross and he, with great pain, I'm certain, because it's hard to talk when you're getting crucified, tells John to take care of his mother.

So anyway, all that to say, fine, plan, save 401k, but we're not to worry, right? Let's just say you've got, for argument's sake, a million in your 401k when you retire. I think they say you're supposed to have 2 million, 1 .5, 2 million or something.

I don't have that. If you'd like to contribute, if you'd like to have better equality, no go. Um, let's just say for sake of argument that 1 million, and then they say, well, you should be drawing 6 of that million every year.

So hopefully, let's just say you earn 6%. Uh, and so you don't lose any principal. And so you earn $60 ,000 a year. So now you have $60 ,000 a year to live on. And Massachusetts, by the way, is very expensive.

I think we have the highest cost of electricity in all the 48 continental states. I think Hawaii is more expensive. I don't think Alaska is. And then you have a housing prices and all the liberal stuff that goes on here with money just being thrown at every corner, but not to the corner of longstanding residence.

So what about that? So let's say you make another $25 ,000 on social security. Now we're up to $85 ,000. You get a part-time job and you make $25 ,000. And now you're up to $110 ,000, $120 ,000, somewhere around there.

And can you live on that? Well, maybe if your house is paid for, but I think my house, and it's not a very deluxe house at all. It's a split level ranch with a little addition to the front, a nice size addition to the front of one room, upstairs, downstairs.

I think I pay $900 a month in property tax. For that, I get clean water. I guess if the fire department, you know, police come by once a week and make a little spin around the cul-de-sac. And then if there was something on fire, the firemen would come.

I don't know what else I get for that. Ambulance service, I think I have to pay for that. So what else do you get? I already own the property. So that's why some of these states, I think something like Tennessee or one of those states, no property tax.

All that to say, planning's good, but worry's bad. So when you worry even about retirement, and I'm tempted to worry about retirement, then what do we do? We have to say that's sinful and the Lord doesn't want us.

He cares for us and he knows what worry does. And it divides our mind. Literally the word worry is to be divided and split. And so we don't have enough time then to properly love God and love neighbor, two great commandments.

We don't get to reflect on the care that God has for birds. That's why Jesus said, consider the ravens and how God takes care of them. And you're much more valuable than they are. God is their creator, but he's your father.

And so start thinking about providence and care and sustenance and what fathers do, provide, pity, protect, chase, and care for. And when you begin to think about worry, it's all inwardly driven. And that's why you're supposed to go outside or look out the window and observe, look, fix your mind on, and start thinking about birds.

What size, what shape, how did they get food? Wait, there's no barns. Hey, God takes care of them. And if you have animals and children, I guarantee you that if you feed your animals, you're going to feed your children.

By the way, you're going to feed your children first. But the point is, if you fed birds in a cage, you'd feed your five-year-old. Right? Unbelievers even do that, let alone the great heavenly father who's hallowed.

His name is hallowed. His name is holy. His name is different, transcendent, wonderful, above. Jesus says also, you know what? It's not going to do any good to worry. We saw this last time. You can't add time to your life and you can't add inches to your height.

We don't know exactly which one that is, but both are true. Whether it's adding a cubit, that is 18 inches in height, or adding an hour to your life, you're not in control. So why worry? Why worry about other things?

If you can't do something that little, I mean, one hour, that's pretty little to your entire life. You can't add one hour. And why are you worried about these other things? And then he says, I want you to look at the lilies of the field.

Hey, they grow.

They don't toil nor spin. But Jesus said, I tell you, in Luke 12, 27, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. I mean, you get out the magnifying glass and you go over to some lilies or some other plants.

You just see how marvelous and how intricate and how lavishly wonderful these flowers are, whether the magnifying glass or not. And by the way, God clothes the grass of the field, grass, flowers, other things.

Today it's alive, and then when it dies, what do you do? You use it as kindling, thrown in the furnace. Aren't you worth more than flowers? Well, they're not even animate objects. They don't have a soul either.

They're not image bearers either, and they're not even a living animal. And therefore he, Jesus said, oh man of little faith, faith and worry go together, faith goes down, worry goes up, faith goes up, worry goes down.

The opposite of anxiety is trust. I said that to my daughters over and over and over, and I have to say it to me. He gives some more positive things to do. If you're not to live in worry, watch God's providential care as a father.

And then it says, make sure you're seeking the right things. Verse 29, don't seek what you will eat and drink and keep worrying. I mean, don't make this the overriding thing in life. I mean, you're going to have to say, I've got to go to the supermarket.

I have to go hunt or whatever. For all these things, the nations of the world eagerly seek. This is something that pagans, unbelievers, think that this is the end of everything is what they own. He with the most toys wins, or the most barns and grain or gold.

But seek his kingdom, verse 31, and these things, food, clothing, life will be added to you. Isn't that great? Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you his kingdom.

He's not a begrudging giver. He's not white-knuckled giver. He's chosen gladly to give you his kingdom. And if he gives you his kingdom, he gives you everything else to live in the kingdom. The greatest gift, salvation, living in God's kingdom, won't he give you other things so then that you can keep living in the kingdom until your day is done?

I'll even drink bad coffee to that. Seek his kingdom first. So let's just talk shop a little bit, dear listeners. Does that describe you? Are you all about gospel ministry? I'm not talking if you're only a pastor or an elder or pastor's wife, elder's wife.

We had a men's study at our home. We are having a men's study. Last night was number six of eight, I think. And we talked about priorities in life and what we want to teach our children. And I just said to the men, having different guys lead it, but I think I was leading that one or chiming in.

I wanted to make sure our children knew what was the most important thing for the Abendroths and to the Abendroths. Now, many times we failed, many times we didn't do the right thing. But overall, consistently, the children probably wouldn't remember the inconsistencies.

I remember those, many of them. But just overall, we tried to make sure that the children knew that the most important thing to mom and dad, Mike and Kim, was Jesus. OK, the triune God. And when the most important thing is God, then His Word is most important.

Right? God and His Word. We don't disassociate the two, God and then His Word, secondarily. So God is a speaking God. And so God and His Word, the glory of God, is the highest priority of our family. Once again, we didn't always live in such a way that that showed, but that was our desire.

And so how do we show that to the children? Well, we have—and it's not just because I'm a pastor—we have a love for God's Word. We want to read God's Word. And we would do that around the dinner table.

We would do that at nighttime before we would go to bed. We would do that on the couch. We read other books, certainly. But it was a priority. Sunday morning was a priority. Sunday morning worship with other saints that aren't perfect, that have dogged us, that is called Daddy, Unabomber, Stalin.

I never was called Satan. I never was told that I had a demon, at least that I can remember.

Can you imagine?

They said, Jesus, you've got a—he's got a demon. So what's the most important thing to the Ebendroths? It's Jesus and the Bride. So people are important. Even if they burn us, we are going to serve them and love them, right?

So that's one of the things that we wanted to try to show. And that was part of seeking His kingdom. And as we did that, everything else was taken care of. I left corporate America and came to be a pastor here in 1997.

And for years, I didn't hardly make any money. Looking back at it, I should not have come. I took their word for it that they would provide me a salary so I could live here. And I basically had to live in debt off a credit card.

And guess what? Grandma died. I got 25 grand paid off the credit card. And my point is, I lived. Everything worked out just fine. I think you should pay your pastors. And of course, Bethlehem Bible Church now does pay and they take care of me so I can go ahead and prepare sermons and preach and minister.

But my point is, seek His kingdom and everything will be added to you. And I can tell you the story of not being able to afford a Christmas tree in 1997, 1998. I think they were 25 bucks at the time. Cut your own around here.

And I remember just telling Kim, who really wanted a real tree, honey, sorry, you can't have a tree this year. It costs too much money. The car I was driving was a car that used to be underwater. But this company would take cars that were underwater, right?

They drive on the ice and then sink. And now you've got to go run a cable underneath the car and bring it up. I think they actually run it through the cab of the car, roll down both windows, passenger side, regular side and run the cable through, bring it up.

And I'd have to warm up the car, the scraper in the morning. I'd push against the car seat and then push it against the accelerator to warm up the car because otherwise it would die. I'd have to warm up for 10 minutes so I could drive off.

And all those things get pulled over by the cops. I'm driving this old windbag. I mean, Windstar. Police pull us over. Where are you going?

Goodwill.

And those are the days, too. I remember one family, they kept asking for money because they needed it from the deacon's fund. And I knew their children shopped at Nordstrom's. I mean, they were wearing all these clothes.

We're shopping it at Goodwill. And actually, those are actually good memories about how God provided and how you're out in ministry for money or anything like that. I'm thinking, why do you need money when your kids shop at Nordstrom?

I mean, come on. Not even Nordstrom Rack. But my point is you seek his kingdom and he's going to take care of you. And with all this, maybe you think I'm complaining, but it's all worked out great and I'm very thankful now.

He took care of the Ebendroths in spite of the Ebendroths. How about that? You make dumb decisions. Maybe you invested wrongly. Maybe I didn't vet the church enough and figure out cost of living before I moved here.

You know, the list goes on and on and on. But he still took care of us because he's a heavenly father. And my kids don't have to be perfect for me to take care of them and feed them. You didn't perfectly obey today.

So no supper for you, pal. I mean, I guess there's a time where a child should miss dinner because of some disobedience or something like that, right? We could talk about scenarios. But here, the Lord takes care of us, even when I don't do everything well, because he is a good father and he adds these things.

And therefore he says in verse 32, Jesus does, do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. So you can be generous, sell your possessions, give to charity, make yourselves money belts which you do not wear out, unfailing treasure in heaven where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And so it's not a matter of you have to sell everything. You just have to make sure you guard your heart.

Where's your treasure?

Be after eternal things. Be cheerful giver, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Be a sacrificial giver, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Jesus was a sacrificial giver. You be a sacrificial giver above and beyond. Tithe is a good place to start.

Ten percent is a good place to start. If God's going to take care of you, he gives you a body and mind and hands to figure out how to make money. He's going to take care of you in every way, shape or form.

So seek his kingdom, seek the king of the kingdom, seek the kingdom's citizens that the king purchased and died for and laid his life down for. And God's going to take care of you. I'm certain almost every pastor that you'll talk to will say.

Yes, I could make more money elsewhere, but the Lord has taken care of me in those lean times. And then there'll be other times as time went on, then the church made sure to take care of everything I needed.

And even more, and even saying, you know what? We want to make sure the pastor is taken care of. And so to God be the glory. Well, my name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. We're talking today about worry.

And one of the best things you can do when it comes to worry is focus on God's sovereign, providential care for creatures less than you, like birds and like lilies, not seeing they're created beings, not creatures.

And then you want to seek the Lord. Keep seeking the things above if you've then been raised with Christ, Colossians 3, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Keep seeking, keep trying, keep pursuing, keep having this purpose in life, have a priority in life.

And the Lord knows you need these other things, and so He's going to provide those. I mean, don't be trying to have these things as idols like the Gentiles do. They're eagerly seeking in ways that are not good.

But the Father knows best. And as one little poem says, though I know not what awaits me, what the future has in store, yet I know the Lord is faithful, for I proved Him off before. Remember the psalmist?

Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. So, seek the kingdom. Does that describe you? That describe you? Say, well, I've got a regular job, but we're trying to serve in ministry and serve the local church and serve the people in the church, and it's important for us to have our lives revolve around Lord's Day worship, Jesus the King, and the citizens in the kingdom.

Way to go. Good job.

So don't worry.

Keep trying. Keep doing what you need to do. Keep knowing that God's providentially going to take care of you and going to take care of your children. Maybe you don't have the $2 million, 401k, well, join the club.

I don't either. I don't know what's going to happen. The Lord could come back tomorrow, won't need any of that, right? I could die soon, and then I've got some money for Kim. She'll have some Social Security, and she'll have four children who will make sure that she's provided for, and a church.

When I was in the hospital thinking I was going to die from COVID, I don't know what day it is, day 13 or so, day 12, I said to Pastor Steve, Steve Cooley, I said, number one, thanks for everything. Let's see if I can remember these.

Number two, I love you, thanks for loving me. Number three, no mask policy at BBC for COVID. And number four, take care of Kim.

That was it.

Not crying, but could probably cry. Well, Kim might die sooner than I do. Her life insurance policy, I think, is up too. So then what do you do? Right now, I still have my mind, contrary to maybe what you're thinking, but I have my mind, I'm still ministering, finished 29 years, so going into the 30th year.

I hope to preach another five, 10 years, something like that. I guess there's a decline in life, right? But I right now don't really notice much of a decline mentally. Maybe I'll tell the same story twice or something, but it's like, okay, I've said that story on Sunday morning.

I've said it to my discipleship group. I said it to the Founder Seminary group that Evan Burns had me Zoom the other day. I said it to the people in Poland for the preaching class. I said it to the intern, Austin.

I said it to, I mean, it's that kind of stuff that I'm thinking, oh. But anyway, why worry? The Lord could come back, I could die, and so we plan. We think about the future, but not in a worrying way.

There's a way to do it that's not a worrying way. Well, my name's Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. You can write me, mike, at nocompromiseradio .com. My father died of cancer, non-smoking lung cancer, when he was 55, and he kind of lost his voice about six months before he died, so he could only whisper like that.

So I've forgotten what my dad's voice is like. I can't find an old video with his voice. I did find some old pictures, big tattoos on his arms of a dragon, of a black panther. I found those, but I don't remember my dad's voice.

And so I'm thankful that if I do die anytime soon, my children will have 4 ,800 nocos to listen to. I hope that they listen to the ones later when I'm a little more Christ-centered. And there's plenty of sermons they can listen to so they'll know their dad's voice.

Thanks for all the encouragement and emails. If you've been listening and have learned something or encouraged, why don't you write me? I could always use the encouragement, and I might read your email on the air.

God bless you.