Stephen Altroggeon Greener Grass Conspiracy

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.

Introducing the Guest and the Book on Contentment

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Avendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church. My name is Mike Avendroth, and I'm your host, and today is Wednesday. As you know, on Mondays, it's usually one of my sermons preached at Bethlehem Bible Church on First Corinthians.

Tuesdays, I meet with Pastor Steve, and we talk about issues in the local church, usually controversial issues, provocative issues. Wednesdays, we talk to authors, and today is no different. Today we have on the line, Steven Altrogi, and he is the author of The Greener Grass Conspiracy, a great crossway book, subtitled, Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence.

Steven, welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Thanks for having me, Mike. Great to be with you. I hate to ask the typical question, the trite question, but I think it's important for our listeners.

Why did you write the book, and give us the quick overview before we dig into the details.

I wrote the book, it started mainly with my own experience a couple years ago. I just became aware of just discontent with even little things like how my schedule was working, and lots of just areas where I was content, which led me to study Philippians 4 a lot, which is where Paul just has this incredible verse where he talks about learning to be content in all circumstances.

And that passage, it just seemed like God kept pressing that passage into my heart and using it in my life, and just the promise of being content in every circumstance was pretty incredible. And that just got me thinking about it a lot.

And once I start thinking about something a lot, I like to write about it. And so that was kind of what led me to write about it.

Discontentment, Depravity, and the Fleeting High of Possessions

Steven, I always remember when I would be in the car after maybe a little shopping spree, and we're not super rich, so it was a relatively smaller shopping spree, but we've got all the bags in the car, and my wife and four kids, and typically coming home from Marshalls or TJ Maxx or someplace like that, and everybody in the car on the way home is looking at their purchases and there's a sense of euphoria.

And then about a day later or about two hours later, we're back to reality again. And if you think about contentment in an unbiblical fashion, it's just fleeting. You can never catch it. And so I appreciate the book, and I especially appreciate your talk about depravity and your discussion about depravity early on.

How is that related to this whole topic of the greener grass conspiracy?

I think that you're right on when you're talking about how there is something in us that's perpetually... It seems like in my own life, and this is as I've talked to other people, it seems like really no matter what circumstances, we find ourselves in for something more and for something better and for something different.

And we just have the ability always to imagine that we're indifferent, which then leads us to just be always discontent right where we are, and to be unhappy right where we are, and dissatisfied right where we are.

And the reason I think, and I think what the Bible would say, is because there is sin starting.

Place. Well, Stephen, just yesterday we were at the beach as a family, and we're a surfing family, and we were watching down the beach in York Beach in Maine. And those waves, just 100 or 200 yards down the beach, they seemed a lot bigger.

And similarly, we have the greener grass conspiracy. I like it, Stephen, that you discussed the solution, and you talked about the gospel when it comes to dealing with contentment. Tell our listeners why this book isn't a how-to book, it's not a moralistic book.

The problem, diagnosed, lack of contentment, grumbling, complaining, it's solved by the gospel. And I'll just quote the sentence that you wrote on page 72, and then you can launch. When we complain, we loudly are saying that the blessings of the gospel aren't enough.

The Gospel as the Only Answer to Grumbling and Complaining

I think that if we really get a grasp and understand in the gospel, and the incredible blessings of the gospel, if we get that, and if we really understand that, and I don't think it's enough to just tell people to listen, don't worry, be happy.

That doesn't really work, actually. I think what we need to ask God to help us grasp the incredible blessings, through the blood of Jesus, we have access to God himself. We have access to the real presence and fellowship of God, which is the most incredible, astonishing blessing.

That alone should go, I mean, it just keeps going in the gospel. In the gospel, we have reconciled relationships with other people. In the gospel, we've given to us, and it just goes from starting place.

It's not a list of how-tos.

This is No Compromise Radio. We're talking to Stephen Altrogi today, and he is a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church in Indiana, and an excellent writer, published a book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy. You can go to crossway .com, you can go to Amazon and all the retailers, I'm sure Westminster books, etc., and you can pick up this book to help you with contentment.

Stephen, has anyone told you that this is the modern-day equivalent to Burroughs' book on contentment, the Puritan Classic?

No one has told me that, but I would hope that it would be. You have told yourself that. I would hope that it would be. I don't think it's anywhere as good as that book. I think that if anyone can read, you know, if they have a choice between reading my book or reading Jeremiah Burroughs, I would say read Jeremiah Burroughs.

The only thing that I realize is, as a pastor, you know, I realize that reading Puritan authors can be tough. Those guys, they were incredible thinkers, but sometimes their writing, it's just not as accessible for everyone.

And I just, I get that, I understand that. And so what I was hoping, I really was hoping to try and make some of the things that Jeremiah Burroughs and another guy named Thomas Watson, just trying to make what they have already said accessible to the people in my church, the people like me who aren't super smart.

I just wanted to make those guys who had really mined the depths of the Bible and of contentment, I was trying to make it accessible for people and try and take maybe a little more easily understandable.

So thanks for that compliment, though.

Idolatry, Good Gifts, and Diagnosing Discontentment

Well, you know, one of the things that I was thinking about, Stephen, is, you know, Jeremiah Burroughs is not going to say something like this, like you did on page 13, but it is perfectly appropriate for our society.

And you said, it doesn't matter if it's pornography or community service, as long as it's not God. And so that's the issue of idolatry. And lots of times we think in Christian circles, well, it's pornography, it's this, it's all these excesses, all these negative things.

But good things can replace God as well when it comes to our idol-making hearts. Tell our listeners what that means and how to do a self-diagnosis, maybe, if you would.

Yeah, I think, actually, I think most of the time the things that tempt us to be discontent are good things in and of themselves. And it's funny how that works. But I think that God, you know, he gives us many wonderful gifts, many just blessings.

And so, you know, you have things like the gift of marriage, man, what a blessing that is, or children, or a new job, or a house, or friendships. Those are all wonderful blessings and gifts from God that I think, right, we should enjoy, we should be grateful for, we should thank God for them.

Because, though, because we're sinful, we'll often have our hearts put them in the place, and in a sense we turn them into idols that we worship. You know, we, in our society, we're probably not going to be bowing down to some golden statue in our, you know, back room or something like that.

We have more sophisticated versions of idols, relationships, or having enough money of God, and we give our affections to them and our love to them in a way that really only should be given to God. And so I think that realizing that sometimes a good thing can become an idol is helpful in understanding discontentment.

And I think that we can identify when we're discontent. For example, like if I feel like I absence probably a sign that gives me this thing, whatever does I want, whether that be job promotion, whether that be a certain relationship, whether that just be a good night's sleep.

If I feel like I can't be smoke, you know, there's fire. Anytime you see grumbling, grumbling about something, it's a pretty surefire sign that—.

I say to myself often when I diagnose my own sinful heart and grumbling heart, if I buy the world's recipe for life, that is to say, if I put my hand way above my head, I deserve this because I'm special and I'm wonderful.

I deserve that, but I don't get that. I would put my hand down lower to the ground and say, you know, I've been given this lot in life and I don't get all the things that the world promises me. The difference is grumbling, complaining, depression.

But if I realize what I deserved, what I earned, what I merited, hell, and put my hand down really low and then think of the joys that I have in the gospel and forgiveness and reconciliation and in thy presence is fullness of joy.

That to me helps me with joy and contentment and happiness. Why do so many Christians buy the world's recipe for happiness?

The World’s Recipe for Happiness Versus God’s Sovereignty

Well, I think the reason we buy into it is because it's all around us. And I think if you watch television at all, or you listen to the songs on the radio, or you really take in any form of media at all, it's everywhere.

And Oprah Winfrey just spent 25 years trying to tell people how to find self-actualization and self-fulfillment and self-empowerment and how to make your best life possible. And everyone around us tells us that we exist for us.

I think that plays right along with our sinful desires. We want to be our own God. He can do whatever he wants. He can do whatever he pleases with us. We belong to him. We're his creation. He made us to do with us what he wants, which is so counter to everything to tell us.

But that's what the Bible says is that God is God. So as we come to grips with that, I think that's one of the starting places for contentment is realizing that we may not have what we want, but that's really helpful to remember.

Gospel-Minded Thinking in a Busy World

Stephen, it just popped in my mind as I was listening to you. To what extent do you think a lack of thinking contributes to discontentment? In other words, the world is so busy. We are so busy, and it's eye buds in the ear, radio on, rushing hither and thither, pell-mell.

We are so busy that we rarely stop and think. And if we rarely stop and think and do what you call gospel math, well, no wonder we have so much grumbling in our life. Is there a connection between the two, do you think?

Yeah, I'm sure that there is, because I think a curated world that we need to find happiness in a zillion different places other than God, and if we don't stop, and if we don't let our thinking be conformed to the Word of God, I'd say that's the crucial thing.

If our thinking isn't conformed to God's Word, then we're definitely going to be discontent. In fact, there's no way we can be content, I would say, unless our thinking is—and if we're not taking time to take in God's Word, think about God's Word, apply God's Word to our life, then absolutely, we're just going to be shaped by what we're hearing, we're going to be shaped by the world, and we're going to be discontent.

Writing for Today, Not for the Distant Future

We're talking to Stephen Altrogi from, well, he's from Sovereign Grace Ministries, but he's written the book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy. Great crossway book. We're talking to him today. Stephen, I like the way you write.

It's chock-full of Puritan quotes, it's chock-full of pop culture anecdotes. I like the style. Do some people, though, think, well, with that style and with some of the pop culture references, it would be dated sooner than it should be?

Have you received any criticism for that? Because what I do when I preach, I'll never forget the time when I was told not to give a Star Trek illustration in preaching class. And somehow, for irresistible grace or effectual call, I always have to talk about the Borg, and you will be assimilated.

But I don't know if anyone listens to me in 100 years if they'll know what I'm talking about. So what's your thought on that?

I haven't, you know, I thought about that as I was writing it. One of my thoughts was to just be dated. And yet I also, I feel like, well, first of all, I have, you know, I have no, I don't necessarily think that I'm going to even, that anyone's even going to care about me in 100 years.

And, you know, my main job, I feel like, is to be serving people right now and serving my church right now and connecting with them, right, the things that are all around us. These are, you know, Star Trek, Star Wars, whatever.

That's what people are thinking about, you know, thinking about what's going on right now, what's going on on television right now, what they're reading right now. Now, maybe it'll be dated. But main job and thought and all this was how can I serve people right now?

How can I connect with people right now? How can I help people battle this? Can tell you some of it where as long as it helps people today, I'm okay with that. Sounds like you're pretty content with that.

So I just, I'm trying to, just to give the listeners an idea of your writing style that I just was talking about. You said, according to renowned psychologist, Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If I don't receive food, shelter, love, sex, self-esteem, self-actualization, and the NFL Sunday ticket from DirecTV, I'd be a very unhappy person who spends his days panhandling for change on street corners.

See, that is, I was almost going to say classic. It's not classic, but it's brilliant.

I guess I, you know, I feel like a lot of times we just, sometimes we take ourselves too seriously too. And so I try to talk in a way that, you know, I'm not, I'm very serious about Jesus and following Jesus.

I'm very not serious about myself. There's just too much to laugh about with me. And so I do try to incorporate things that are somewhat humorous, lighthearted, because I think that, I think humor also works to keep us, keep our guards down.

And if we start taking ourselves too seriously, then I think we, we can miss what God has for us. So I think talking and writing in ways like that as a way of helping stay on the same page as people, not losing people and sort of, it sort of disarms people that, you know, I don't take myself too seriously, but I do take the Bible really seriously.

David’s Honest Prayers and Bringing Requests to God

Excellent. Stephen, help us with this concept. If people read some of the Psalms and they hear David pouring out his heart, and I don't want to say rehearsing some of his problems, but bringing his problems to his father.

Like a young boy would to his dad. Is that complaining or is that something different? And walk us through that. Can we take our request and our issues before God in such a way that would not be dishonoring to him?

Yeah, absolutely. I think that what we see in the Psalms is we see David bringing his problems to God, but I think what, and I think that's actually very helpful because it shows us, hey, here's King David who wrote some of the Bible, and man, it seems like his life was pretty messed up a lot of the time, so it gives me hope for my life.

But I think what we also see is David, he brought his requests, his thoughts, his prayers to God, and he was very honest and open with God. He wasn't trying to be pretentious with God, and I think what we see is he did it in a way that wasn't demanding from God.

And I think that's the key, is we can tell God these things that we desire. We can tell God these struggles that we're having. We can tell him, you know, Lord, I would really like this thing. I think that what's most important is the way we communicate this to God.

Are we doing it like a demand, like God owes us this, like he must give it to us? Or do we just humbly say, Lord, I want your... See, in the Psalms, as we see David just sort of pouring out his heart to God, but at the end of most of the Psalms, you see him turning to God in faith, faithful to me.

Through difficult times, you're going to sustain me, and it's going to grumble. I think that's... So I think we should be...

Contentment in Marriage to an Unbeliever

Excellent advice from Stephen Altruge. Stephen's book, you can get it on Amazon, or you go to CBD or a variety of different places, Crossway, The Greener Grass Conspiracy, here on No Compromise Radio.

Stephen, we only have about a minute and a half left. If you can do this in a minute and a half, if there's a woman out there today or a man married to an unbeliever, how can they have joy when the closest companion they have on earth is not a believer?

That's a very challenging situation. I guess what I would want to just say to them is, and I hope they wouldn't take this as being too simple advice, but simply to press into Jesus, because ultimately, our deepest fellowship isn't even with our spouse, as wonderful of a gift that is, but God wants to give us our deepest, most abiding joy in Him.

Church I've seen, I would just want to encourage them through the fellowship to press into Jesus.

Excellent advice. Thank you, Stephen, for being on the radio show today. Thank you for the book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy. Next time, just have something about the waves are bigger down the other side of the beach, all right?

The bigger wave conspiracy. That is exactly right. Thank you. God bless you. NoCompromiseRadio .com, if you'd like to pull up the podcast. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth 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.