To Cliche or not to Cliche (Part 1)

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.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry I�m trying not to laugh. Welcome to the studio,

Mr. Steve Cooley. I�m just practicing the seven promises of a promise keeper. That�s good.

Steve said that because in front of me we have, you know, more rules from the Holy Club questions.

Holy Cub, that would be, is that like a Piper Cub? Holy Cub, man! What�s a Cubby? That�s an

Awana kid. Are they still called Hubbies? I have a couple of Cubbies. Yeah. Hubbies, Cubbies. Hubbies are, you know.

I think we�re both Hubbies. Well, we�ll go over this Holy Club questions later. Did I go to bed on time?

Did I disobey God in anything? This is like � Did I go to bed on time?

Well, is that more holiness give me? Am I proud? Do I make

God proud? So, Steve, what I�d like to do today is there was a blog on Christian cliches.

And so, we�ve done shows similar to this before, but I think it makes good radio and people ask me, �Why do you do what you do ?�

One lady wrote, and she said, �I love no -compromise radio ,� but some of the joking around stuff distracts and takes away from some of the biblical content.

Especially if you�re trying to drive blindfolded while listening to the show. Yes, if you�re going to pray while you�re driving, listening to NoCo Radio, we advise that you keep your eyes open.

Keep your eyes peeled. Now, why would they ever say that? Keep your eyes peeled. I don�t know. It sounds ugly, though, doesn�t it? I mean,

I�m like wincing just thinking about that. Steve, before we go into these cliches, can you give me any old cop story that you�ve experienced that would lead us into some biblical truth, some analogy, some figure, some kind of comparison?

Something happened in the cop world, interesting. You pulled over somebody and they were doing something weird.

Well, I mean, I have all kinds of stories, you know, like, you know, one of my favorite ones is scripture says, �No man has ever hated his own flesh ,� right?

And I watched a guy chew on his arm. So how about that one? I mean, I don�t want to get too graphic, but it was pretty ugly.

Wow. Chewing on his own arm. Yeah. Was he trying to get out of a bear, bear trap?

No. Was he stuck between two rocks when he was mountain climbing? No. All right.

Well, did you put gloves on or something so you didn�t get any blood on you? I didn�t actually have to touch him.

I was supervising the situation. We did manage to control him without any further damage to either him or anyone else.

And we didn�t have to use OC spray, which I was very happy about. Okay. And OC would stand for? Oleoresin capsicum.

It�s pepper spray. Okay. All right. Well, when I watch cops, I watch them tase people.

And most people, they fall down, you know, pretty fast, but some get tased and they still keep going. And they just say, �Don�t tase me, bro.�

Some clich�s. Now, this particular article was 2012 by Christian Piatt, P -I -A -T -T. Do we know him?

I think he used to play� I have no idea. All right. Well, let�s just, you know, here�s the good news.

I just handed Steve this list, and then I hit record, and so off we go. So that�s the good news, because it just, it just�

It�s okay. I�ve been fully prepped by our writing team and our protection team. They gave me a real good briefing on this.

Behind the scenes we were talking about is because of preposition or not. Yes, we are.

And I think it�s, I think we�re both right. Yes, it can be both a preposition and a conjunction, depending on its use.

That�s right. All right. In no particular order, everything happens for a reason. Now, do we like that phrase?

Should you go into the hospital and somebody has had jaw surgery, and we say to them, you know, first things first, everything happens for a reason.

Well, there are a lot of untimely uses of that. For example, a loved one passes away, and you walk up to the bereaved and say, well, you know, everything happens for a reason.

That�s very touching. That would be bad. That would not be a very good use of that. Steve, do most people use this phrase when something good is happening in their lives?

You receive some money from an aunt that you didn�t know existed, and it�s a $20 ,000 check in the mail.

And then your friend comes along, as you have said to them, I got $20 ,000 in the mail tax free, and they respond to you with, everything happens for a reason.

Everything happens for a reason. We tend to use this phrase when people are going through tough times.

It�s a fallen world, and of course, we contribute to this fallen world by our own sin.

Steve, reading this morning in Romans chapter 5, it says, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God�s love has been poured into our hearts through the

Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Now, we know that�s true, how God uses suffering to mold us into the image of Christ and transform us and to sanctify us.

What�s a good way to introduce that kind of thinking to someone that�s hurting so we don�t just, you know, walk into the room and just rudely just throw that little bromide at them?

Well, you know, I think first we need to empathize. You know, I mean, the first thing, you know, we need to show people that we really do care about.

In other words, I don�t really think it�s usually enough to just kind of say, you know what, you�re not thinking rightly about this.

Let me just tell you how you should be thinking about it. Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials. You know, come on, slap yourself out of it.

Because sometimes things in life just hurt, and we need to bear one another�s burdens, we need to share their sorrows, we need to weep with those who weep.

But then we need to kind of, after we�ve comforted them, then we need to get their eyes focused on what they should be focused on, which is the

Lord Jesus Christ. Steve, when I go visit people in the hospital who are really sick or on their deathbed, or I know when you go visit, we end up talking about the

Bible in some way, shape, or form. I end up saying to people toward the end of my conversation, even if it�s, could

I please pray for you? Could I please read to you Romans 8 or, you know, a psalm? But early on when

I go into the rooms, the deathbed rooms or the hospital room, I don�t say a whole lot.

I just usually knock on the door, �Hi, it�s Pastor Mike.� They say, �Please come in.� I walk in and I just give the people hugs.

And if the person who�s sick is semi -lucid or conscious, I�ll say hello to them.

But I don�t lead with these kind of slogans and sayings. Even though I want to say something to make it better,

I just know it�s much more loving to just be there first and we�ll talk in a little bit.

Pete I mean, can you just imagine walking in a room where, let�s say something unexpected has happened, a car accident, something like that, and someone�s on the verge of death and you walk in to comfort the other people in the room and you say, well, everything happens for a reason.

Wrong. That�s just� Isn�t there a time and place to say certain things?

And, of course, there is a time to say something like this. I even preach it to myself. Why did this happen?

You know, something bad happened. There�s some kind of issue going on. It is happening for a reason.

So then I can reanalyze the situation. Is there something in my life that should change? How should

I pray about this? It gives me the hope for heaven. It does happen for a reason because God is sovereign and he is not moving things in a cyclical fashion.

History is not cyclical. It�s linear. And so it does happen for a reason, but it�s just when to say this and how often.

That�s right. And I would say sparingly. Well, yeah, Christian on the blog says never say it.

But I think there�s probably time to say it. Maybe we should say it to ourself. Yeah, I mean, I think a more biblical thing to say and to think, especially when things come into our own lives, is

God is working all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose, Romans 8, 28, rather than thinking, you know, everything happens for a reason.

Yeah, Steve, maybe we can redeem this by saying, you know, if you want to say everything happens for a reason, that�s like saying it�s raining outside.

It�s very passive. Yes. A deist could say it. An unbeliever could say it.

An agnostic could say it. So God is in charge of all these things. And we might not know why.

We might not know the reasons. But we do know that the Heavenly Father sends good things and difficult things, but he�s still with us.

And when Jesus said in the Great Commission, �Lo, I�m with you always.� And when Hebrews 13 talks about, �I�m never going to leave you nor forsake you.�

Even though this is happening, we know God is with us. That�d be better. I agree. All right. Number two, if you died today, do you know where you�d spend the rest of eternity?

Now, why would he say you should never use that? I talk about that, especially when people are on their deathbeds.

Why would he say, well, I guess his attitude is, you know, that nobody knows because God�s the only judge, you know, or something along that line.

I just think it�s a good thing. Listen, if I�m on my deathbed and somebody asks me this question,

I�m not going to be offended. I�m going to be thankful that they�re thinking rightly, you know, and thinking, well, even if I know where I�m going, it�s good to have somebody concerned that I know where I�m going.

And hopefully, in the future, they�ll talk to other people like this. If I�m dying, I have no problem with somebody preaching the gospel to me again.

That�d be fine with me, you know, so. What if you�re in your hospital room and your family steps out and the chaplain comes up because you marked down �Christian� on your form when you went into the hospital, and you are dying, you are in your deathbed, and a believing evangelical comes in, and he, the chaplain, begins to preach the gospel to you because he doesn�t know if you�re saved or not.

I would not be mad. Pete Right. And I might say something like, could you call my family back in here?

Pete You�d preach to them. Pete Yeah. Yeah. Anybody who�s not saved, I want them all to hear this, you know, so. Pete Who sang the song, because you�re

Mr. Song Guy. You�re the jukebox guy. Pete I�m the song guy. Pete Uh -huh. Do you know where you�re going to?

Do you? It�s one of my worst songs of all time. Life is showing you where you�re going.

Yeah. It�s Diana Ross. Pete It is? Pete I thought it was some kind of, you�re a poetry man, kind of nonsense.

Pete No, that�s Joni Mitchell. Pete Yeah. I don�t go for that either. Who�s Joan Baez? Pete That was Bob Dylan�s ex -girlfriend.

They were way back when. Pete Seriously? Pete Yeah. She wrote Diamonds and Rust about him. Pete Diamond Dogs.

Who wrote that? Pete That was David Bowie. Come on. Come on. Let�s be serious here. Pete All right. Number three.

He or she is in a better place. Of course, my guess is Christian is talking about if you talk to a loved one about it.

My feel for this clich� deal with Christian Piette is he is less than, he�s not really where we are in terms of dogmatism and, uh�

Pete Because he�s talking about don�t really know and it�s arrogant. Tell me the downside for saying automatically if someone dies, he or she is in a better place.

In other words, Steve, I hear this often from unbelievers, about unbelievers, and I hear it often from unthinking believers about unbelievers when they die.

Steve Well, you know what I do because we run into this quite a bit, you know, just in terms of funerals, especially for unbelievers or whatnot, and here�s what

I never do. I never agree and I never disagree. I just don�t address that because it�s immaterial.

I am not the judge. You know, if someone dies, and as far as I know, you know, their life and their profession, there was nothing about them that would commend them to me in terms of their belief.

I don�t need to address that because my concern is for the living, not for the people. I can�t do anything.

Whether that person�s in heaven or whether that person�s in hell, I can�t change it by anything that I say.

So, I need to focus on the people who are still there. And you know, if I confront them and I say, �Oh, no, that person�s not in a better place.

They�re, you know, suffering the eternal wrath of God right now.� Well, the anger that results from my comment will probably stop them from hearing anything positive,

I have to say, including the gospel, so I don�t want to do that. I�m not going to lie, but there�s no sense in unnecessarily,

I don�t want to be the offense is what I�m saying. Pete� And we don�t know at the last second if the

Lord in his kindness, like he did with the thief on the cross, would regenerate and make alive on the deathbed, and so we hope some of those pagans who die, of course, are in heaven, and so we don�t know.

And I would say, Steve, that sometimes I do say this, and I�ll give you an illustration. Last Saturday, it was my mother�s birthday.

She would have been, I think, 70. She died eight or nine years ago, and I just was, you know,

I often think of her like we think about our family and loved ones, and you think about your dad and stuff. And I thought, you know what,

I wanted to be able to tell Mom, �Hey, S. Lewis Johnson book came out.

You know, who do you talk to like that ?� I mean, oh, yeah, there�s the Twitter promotion and this, that, and the other, but it�s like, you know,

I just would have loved to tell my mom. And then I said to my wife, my mom didn�t know any books I read. She didn�t know I went to school for my doctorate.

She didn�t know these things that you just want to call your mom and tell them. You want to call your dad. And then I thought, and I said it out loud to my wife,

I didn�t say, �She�s in a better place ,� but I said to myself, �You know what? She�s happy.

She�s joyful. She is in the Lord�s presence, and she has other things going on, and who knows? What if the

Lord did tell her? I mean, I have no idea, and I don�t need to know, but I know my mom is in total bliss right now.

She is in a better place. And here�s the thing, even if she could find out somehow, she wouldn�t be any happier than she is.

Yes. The new knowledge would not make her happier. Yeah, it�s just not possible, but, you know,

I mean, something you said about Twitter or whatever, I just thought, you know, if you had 40 million Twitter followers and you could tell them about, you know, the book coming out or, you know, your kid graduating college or whatever.

Your grandkid. It wouldn�t mean anything compared to, you know, being able to tell your mom or your dad or whatever.

So, yeah. I know. Well, so if you�ve got a mother, I hope you�re thankful. If you�ve got a father around,

I hope you�re thankful. All right, number four, we�re going through a list by Christian Piat on No Compromise Radio.

You can email us at info at nocompromiseradio .com. Twitter, it�s at NoCoRadio or at TheTuesdayGuy.

At TheTuesdayGuy. Yes, and then there�s a NoCo YouTube channel and stuff like that.

Speaking of which, Steve, here�s maybe a slogan people can stop saying. I did a video about suicide, and there�s been suicide in my family, and what

I was trying to do was trying to be pastoral and trying to say that here�s how we minister to people, family members who have had this happen in their family.

And then, of course, I wanted to talk about how Christians� sins are forgiven, right?

Past, present, future justification. If a Christian dies while they�re worrying, they still go to heaven while they�re lusting any sin, including the awful, heinous, selfish sin of suicide.

And so somebody didn�t like that. And so I usually let the comments� You just let it ride.

Let it ride, yeah. You call it BTO. Quoting 1973, I had that eight track.

And that�s funny. That brings back a lot of memories. So, you know, some kind of fog hat or something, you know, is going through my mind now.

Don�t even start me on fog hat. I know. Yeah, terrible. So, anyway, they said, in one of the comments that�s since been deleted, that I was an old man, and I didn�t know what

I was talking about, and that I should kill myself to find out. Well, old, yes. And Steve, I have to tell you,

I was more upset about the calling me an old man than I was that he said I should kill myself.

Then he went on to quote scripture about your body�s a temple. And I thought, you know, that�s probably not the best way to go about an argument online.

Maybe he was trying to say you use steroids. You old man, just go kill yourself. All right.

Number four, can I share a little bit about my faith with you? Now, I don�t know what his comments are after that, but let�s just use that as a talking point.

It�s terrible because he should say, may I? It�s so funny because on the

No Compromise radio desk here in front of us, we have Patricia T. O�Connor�s book subtitled,

The Grammar Phobes Guide to Better English, In Plain English, Woe is I? And you know it�s good because Garrison Keillor is endorsing it.

And so, yeah, can I? Yes, I can, obviously, that�s classic. When you�re sitting next to someone on the airplane, what�s your strategy,

Steve? How do you go about talking to them? Yeah, well, I don�t know if I have a said strategy.

You know, step number one, though, is see if they�re wearing headphones, because that�s usually a clue that I may not get the opportunity.

But you know, anytime I have the opportunity to talk to somebody, you know, my goal is always to get it to the gospel one way or another.

I don�t know how that happens. I don�t, like I said, I don�t always have a said strategy, but I�ll kind of, you know,

I�ll see where the conversation is going and then just steer it based on whatever we�re talking about.

We�ll get to the gospel. You contextualize her, Steve. Yes, I am. Steve, here�s my strategy.

So I walk in and I try to get there if my zone is called first or my area or my group number or my seating number is called first, because they do that even now with non -Southwest flights, you know, zone

B. So I try to get to the front of zone B and get everything situated and settled in, like a good

Christian should, you know, loving others and settling in. Onward, Christian soldiers. Onward. And then

I sit down, and so there�s usually no one seated next to me at the time. And so my strategy is this. I begin to pray that the

Lord would let no one sit there so I could have a little more elbow room. That�s the evangelism strategy.

But seriously, I, when someone wants to get, I�m usually seated in an aisle, so if someone wants to get into the middle seat or the window seat, if it�s a lady and they�re trying to put something in the head room space, whatever it�s called up there, the upper echelon area, upper deck.

Yeah, the overhead. Overhead, yes. You duck and cover. Well, I usually say, �Could I help you ?� because I figure it�s going to be,

I want to be kind, because if I�m going to talk about the Lord later, I should probably be the message.

Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. So, anyway, I usually don�t say, �Can I share ?�

I usually talk to people in ways that get me to the gospel, and regularly and often,

Steve, they ask me the question, �Well, how did that happen? How did you become a Christian? How did you become a pastor ?�

And then I�m off and running. But I like the can and the me. Number five, �You should come to church with me on Sunday.�

Is that something you should never say? Yeah, I don�t know about that one. I don�t really have a problem with it.

If somebody, you know, for example, somebody could say, self -identify as an evangelical, as we were talking about on another show, you know, and you ask, �Well, where do you go to church ?�

And they say, �Well, I don�t really go, you know, I�ve never really found one.� Well, then I think it would be perfectly fine to say, �Why don�t you come to church with me on Sunday ?�

You know, but I think the problem is people typically use this as an alternative to preaching the gospel, because this is easier.

You know, it�s easier to say, �Oh, gee, why don�t you come to church with me on Sunday instead of preaching the gospel ?�

Because to me, that really is a cop -out. I don�t really find this super offensive.

Steve, I guess I now know Christian is a pastor because he says underneath this clich� that he doesn�t like to use, �My wife

Amy and I started a new church eight years ago founded on the principle of earning the right to invite. Now, maybe he�s just writing theological shorthand.

I would never found a church on that particular principle. I would never even have that principle. But anyway, he has, and it says, �Invest in people first.

Listen to their stories. Learn their passions, their longings, and share the same about yourself. Then after you�ve actually invested in each other, try suggesting something not related to church to help you connect on a spiritual level.�

Now, if I could summarize all that into a clich� form, that�s something that I would never say. Yeah, I would agree with that.

So, that, I mean, that�s pretty, I, this is,

I mean, it�s a friendship evangelism by another name, you know, get to know them and then they get to know you and then you�ve earned the right to invite them to church.

We earn it. And Steve, how about this one? I would agree with him here. �Have you asked

Jesus into your heart ?� No, but I�ve asked him into my lungs.

What, what is that? Have you asked Jesus into your heart? Yeah, that�s bad.

I mean, that�s He lives, he lives. You asked me how I know he lives. He lives within my, okay.

That�s just, it�s bad theology. And, you know, it�s really kind of a dopey way to evangelize people.

So, yeah, I agree with that. How about, this could be the end of days, number eight. This could be the end of days.

Eight, not for our listening audience, but eight on this list here. This is one of my favorite, well,

I don�t This could be the end. Well, you know, to be fair to the author here, I do hear people phrase it differently.

You know, like, don�t you feel like the world�s coming to an end? You know, that kind of thing. And doesn�t it seem like things are just getting worse and worse?

Don�t you just wish God would come and straighten everything out? You know, that kind of thing. See, now, Steve, on this list, there�s things that we�re kind of just using and arguing with, but I hope somewhere down the line here on these 40, there are things like God told me.

That would be better to be on the list. Well, for this one, I would like to say, you know, did you, let�s see, instead of end of days, do you ever think what it�s going to be like to face

God as judge? That would be a nice, that would be a nice conversation starter.

Hey, consider your souls, right? We�re talking about eternity. What about this one, number 12?

We see some of the wiggle room and the weasel words coming into Christian�s list here.

The Bible clearly says, Christian says two points on this one. First, unless you�re a biblical scholar who knows the historical and cultural context of the scriptures and can read them in the original languages, the

Bible isn�t clear about much. That is awful. That is an awful kind of emergent, humility, hermeneutic saying.

And the Bible does clearly say. The Bible is simple. Pete That�s the kind of statement, though, that really makes me want to pull out my hair and gouge my eyes, you know.

Now, what I didn�t say is it�s simplistic. But the Bible can be simply understood. We have the

Holy Spirit illuminating. We have the perspicuity of scripture, the clarity of scripture. And once we start doing this, then

I�ve got a big problem. Pete Well, and the question, you know, I would have for Christian is, you know, if we look at 1

Corinthians 2, does it say you have to be a biblical scholar or does it say that you need the Holy Spirit to understand the

Bible? Mike Well, my name is Mike Avendroth. We�re here with Steve Cooley. You can write us at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com

or TheTuesdayGuy. Is it TuesdayGuy or TheTuesdayGuy? Pete You always ask me that and I never know. I think it�s on Twitter.

I think it�s TheTuesdayGuy. Mike I think so. Out of all the Tuesday guys, you are TheTuesdayGuy. Pete I�m probably the only one in the universe because who else?

I mean, nobody ever says, �Oh, I�m so thankful it�s Tuesday.� Mike I know. And the weird thing is we record some

Tuesday shows on a different day. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth 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.

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