Getting Counsel Regarding Major Decisions

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.

The Need for Counsel in Major Life Decisions

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. This is Mike Abendroth, and it's Tuesday. And since it's Tuesday, that means I like to pool my ignorance. And I like to garner other people's opinions. So then by relative contrast, we can see how much better my opinions are.

Well, you've chosen well today, Pastor Mike.

And I like to pick Steve, or pick on Steve, when especially he's taking some antibiotics for his...

His hearing. I can't hear what you're saying, so it sounds great to me.

You know, dead air's a very valuable... Commodity. Commodity on a radio show. Yeah. Listen, here's what we're... Highly prized. Here's what we're gonna do today. We are going to talk about a variety of subjects that just come to us as God would speak to our hearts with a small, still voice.

I think maybe I'd like thunder today. You know, sometimes when God speaks, they say, it sounded like thunder. This is my beloved son in whom I am well-placed. By the way, Steve, true story. A guy was getting baptized, a man's son, and the son was about 18 years old, and he was gonna get baptized, immersion baptism.

And he got baptized. The pastor pulled him up out of the water, and you know, the church was clapping, and then the guy said, true story, the dad yelled out, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well-placed.

There are scripture twisting everywhere you go.

Yeah, that would not be something I would wanna do, yeah.

What do you think, Steve, pastorally, because we have to deal with pastoral issues all the time, what do you think about people that don't ask for advice when it comes to major issues of their life? They just kinda do what they wanna do, they hold themselves up, they cut themselves off from any other input, and they just say, you know, I've got a major life decision, but I'm not gonna ask anybody for any input.

To be charitable, it's foolish. And that's the charitable side of me. That sounds no-compromise stuff. I mean, the truth is, I mean, it really is, may I say, without compromising, arrogant. You know, it's this kind of, well, I have freedom to do what I want, so I'm going to do what I want, and you know what, other people's opinions don't really matter because I have my own opinion.

Well, sometimes people, what they'll do instead is they'll go around and ask people for advice, and they'll disregard all the advice until they hear what they wanna hear. And then they think, oh, you know, there's, in a multiplicity of counselors, there's wisdom.

Yeah, there's victory even, yeah. So I'll just go around and maybe do a survey and then conclude that all the answers were in conflict and so I can do whatever I want.

What would be some of the major things in your life that you might wanna consult somebody about?

Well, let's see, how about changing jobs, buying a house, getting married? I mean, these are pretty much, as you said, life-changing, life-altering, kind of forever, well, for as long as you live, sort of changes.

Steve, you'll agree with me as I quote this verse applied to this context, Proverbs 21, verse two. Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. Now, an application of that verse, a truth that stems out of that verse is we all think we do the right thing.

We all think that we are the compass, the moral compass, and we evaluate things based on our own input, who we are, and we think we're right.

Well, I mean, think about it. If you didn't believe that, for example, if I thought moving to Idaho was a bad idea, I wouldn't do it. So naturally, when I decide to make that move, I think, oh, that's really a wise idea.

I've really got it going on. I wouldn't change careers thinking, oh, this is really stupid, but I'm just gonna do it anyway. You know, you do. We convince ourselves, you know, the heart is deceitful above all else, and so even when it's a good thing, well, decisions are not always bad.

Sometimes they're good, but even when it's a bad thing, we convince ourselves it's good so that we can do it.

Would you say that it's a truthful and trustworthy statement, deserving all acceptance, that Well, then yes, I will say. That smart people can make very dumb decisions. I think they can, and you know, I believe that they are such, they're so good at rationalizing that their strength, that is a high IQ, or their street smarts, it gets in their way because they can get to the answer that they wanna get to.

Well, I mean, you just convince yourself, well, you know what, I'm gonna make this move, and no, I haven't really planned it out, but my motivation for doing it is a good one. You know, I'm going to evangelize family in that area.

I'm going to establish a ministry for this, that, or the other thing. You know, we convince ourselves that we have good motives, but we don't think through the practicalities, and so I guess what we're driving at today is it's good to kind of get that bucket of water thrown on your head, as it were.

Go to somebody who has some wisdom. What if I'm a Presbyterian? Well, then you just wanna be sprinkled, but I digress. Thanks for that setup, by the way.

We didn't work this well when we first started the Tuesday routine.

It's taken a while to get into, you know, early morning drive routine.

Well, I think, Steve, what I'm gonna interrupt you for a second, I've got to excuse myself in the middle of the broadcast because I've convinced myself that if I win the lottery, then I'll give a lot of that money to the church, so my motives are good.

People do that.

I remember a guy did that in, I won't mention the state, it was West Virginia. He convinced himself that that's what he was gonna do, and of course, it just led to other issues. I mean, we, you know, you can even convince yourself of sin and we're not necessarily talking about sin issues here.

You know, should I move to this state? Should I change to this job? Should I marry this person? These are all wisdom issues. They're not necessarily sin issues, although, you know, even changing jobs could be a sin issue.

You know, I'm going to go from being a librarian to facilitating sin by, I don't know, being a bartender or something like that. You know, I mean, not the best choice that you could make. Unless you were a Holy Ghost bartender.

Like Rodney Howard Brown, and then it would even be worse as sin. I can hear John Gershner, sin, lady, no more sin. Steve, would you like this statement that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but decisions made in isolation corrupt more absolutely?

Well, I, again, I just, I, we, you know, we deal with so many different situations and, you know, you hear about other situations, certainly when we were in Los Angeles Grace Community Church with a, you know, huge church and so many people, and the more people you have, the more mistakes people make, you know, the more foolish decisions you make.

But, I mean, if you're going to make a life-changing decision, why would you not go to somebody who has some biblical wisdom, maybe has some, certainly has some years on them. You want somebody who has a few gray hairs, who's lived life a little bit to just kind of analyze what you're telling you and, or what you're telling them and say, you know what, that is a good idea, or you know what, that's about the most lame idea I've ever heard in my life.

Well, I completely agree with you. And the reason why I said absolute power corrupts absolutely is people realize that not one person should govern and have all the power. It goes without saying in our United States government, we have three branches of power, judicial, executive, legislative, and they check each other.

In a local church, you have a plurality of elders. In a marriage, you have a husband and a wife. There are built-in systems to make sure that if you have a sinful heart, a corrupt heart, which everyone does, that there are checks and balances because we can't trust ourselves.

And I'm sorry for all you Disney movie soundtrack likers, that's not good English, but it's so true. You can't trust yourself.

Oh, and there's a certain, well, there's a great deal of wisdom in saying, you know what, I'm not sure I'm making the right decision. I'm not sure I should marry this person. I'm not sure getting married right now is the best.

I'm not sure, for example, I'm not sure getting married right now is the best since I don't have any way of supporting my wife and we don't know what church we're gonna go to and I don't know where we're gonna live and I don't know and I don't know and I don't know.

You know, there are a few too many I don't knows there. You might wanna wait a little while.

Well, and that's where these old, wiser Christians that so many churches just toss out of the back of the bus or throw under the bus, we've got these gray-haired people that have wisdom in life, and if they're Christians, wisdom as Christians, to come alongside and say to these young folks, this is what you ought to do.

Wait, learn, pray, et cetera. You don't have to go around and make every decision based on what the group think will say, but it helps for you to get wisdom outside yourself and, of course, asking God for wisdom.

You know what, Pastor Mike?

I really don't like my job and I'm just gonna quit.

Well, I guess that would be your loss and my gain because the way we work it here at the church is the salaries are paid to the church staff and then if you leave, then I get your salary too. And you know what?

Actually, the tithing will go up because I'll have to tithe off of that and I can just make my decisions that way. Hey, it wasn't that long ago, Steve, where I had a big decision and I ask you elders, hey, here's what I'd like to do and here's this place I'd like to get or I'd like to buy this house and like to do this or that.

All those kind of things, I'm not bound to do what other people say, but I like to know, am I thinking properly? And the other person doesn't even have to say, I agree with you and I will do that. I would do it if I were you, but they can at least say, did you ever think about this other thing maybe you're not thinking about?

You're too close to it and so we need wisdom. Isn't it, at the end of the day, prideful and, like you said, arrogant to say, it's me and my Bible and I've got the Spirit of God and I don't need anybody else to tell me anything.

I'm an island and, friends, we are needy people. We're created and we have to rely on the Spirit of God, the Word of God, and what the Word of God says through the Spirit of God is, you need wisdom from other people.

Well, you know what, if you're 16 in high school and you wanna go from working at McDonald's to Burger King because there's a better pathway for advancement, well, fine, whatever. But if you are, let's say, 28 years old and you are supporting a family and you go, you know what, I just don't like my job.

I think I'm gonna quit. What are you thinking? Somebody has to pay the bills. Somebody has to provide for that wife and the children and whatnot, and that's your responsibility. And who do you think you are to quit?

You know, you might convince yourself, I've got a bad boss, I've got a bad this, I've got a bad that, but you ultimately are accountable to a higher authority. You are accountable to God, not to the dictates of whatever you want.

And, you know, sometimes we just have to, as you were saying earlier, wait. It's not always the best thing to just jump into things. Sometimes we have to wait, wait for opportunities. And in this economy, I'd say, if you have a job, that is a very valuable thing and you are a fool to just quit it.

You know, if you have something else set up, fine, but no one should just outright quit.

If I were to lose my wife and I was thinking about marrying another girl, or for those of you who are not married and you're dating somebody or courting or something like that, I would definitely use the church, have the church help me decide whether this girl was godly or not.

I would want my church elders, my church deacons and my church family to say, we love that young lady. Or in my particular case, it'd have to be an older lady, but we love that lady and she's godly. We've spent time with her.

That is a good decision. Now it's ultimately my decision, but don't you want to have help? Isn't that why we have fathers today who need to guard their daughters and say, you know, I'm going to help you because emotions get involved.

In the particular case of marriage, hormones are involved. And I assume that since you don't have the gift, you want to marry, so I don't think you probably have the gift of singleness. And since you don't want to stay chaste, celibate your whole life, I understand that, but we're here to help the people.

Well, and it's like, you know, people have, there's a truism that says love is blind. Well, it's not only blind, it's also often deaf and, you know, not too bright either. I mean, we can just, again, the heart is deceitful.

We can see something and ignore it. We can see something and, you know, just kind of write it off or whatever. We can hear something and it doesn't really register with us but other people who are not emotionally attached to a situation, and this could be marriage, it could be buying a piece of property, whatever.

You know, you might fall in love with a particular house and someone else might look at it and go, well, this is all well and good, but you can't afford this.

Avoiding Numerology and Bible-Text Proofing

Steve, I looked down on the tape here and it said 1344. We are 13 minutes and 44 seconds in. And so since I'm into numerology, I thought of Matthew 1344 in that great parable. See, when you see numbers, you quick look up verses for that.

I knew one guy in Los Angeles. He's at my home Bible study. He was one of the few people that actually threatened me with bodily harm and to kill me. I did not. And he would do things like, I love John 3 .16, so far so good.

And 1 John 3 .16, that's really a good one too. Now let's go through the entire Bible and find all the 3 .16s and develop this kind of 3 .16 theology. That would be very bad. That would be as unwise as getting married without wisdom from other people.

Christian Weight Loss and Misusing the Mosaic Law

Steve, I have in front of me here to change gears, Mike Ebendroth with Steve Cooley, No Compromise Radio. I have something about Christian weight loss. Oh yeah. And it's a secret. Okay. I guess we can't say it.

It's only known. Now, before we get into the secret, I'm going to be away on holiday for a little while and you're going to be filling in solo here at No Compromise Radio, Pastor Steve Cooley, the one and only Steve Cooley, at least here in Massachusetts.

What are you going to talk about when I'm gone? I don't know, but it kind of sounds like,.

We're both on an airplane and you're just going to jump out and leave me up in the air without a parachute?

I think so. I'm just going to get a one-way ticket to California.

Well, I have a few things in mind. You know, I want to talk about biblical happiness,.

What that really means. If you want to be happy for the rest of your life.

Well, because there's so much emphasis on it in our world. And sadly, I think in our churches where people make decisions based on what makes them happy. Why did you get divorced? Well, I wasn't happy, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I'm going to like that show. Yeah, we'll talk about that. We're going to talk about, or I hope to talk to a chaplain recently returned from Afghanistan, a man that I've known for many years. And I think that'll be a good show for us.

And we'll have many other fascinating things along the way. In other words, I have no idea. Sounds like a really big show.

Really big shoe. Well, I've got a magazine in front of me and it's a, I hate to say this because we're trying to be positive today, but it's a horrible magazine. And it's called Is it burnable? You know what?

This is burnable. That recent email I got from the guy in Norway, he said, I like that kind of burning book deal. So maybe they're just so cold there, they've got to have kindling of all shapes and sizes.

Here it is, Charisma Magazine. And what would you say about this strange publication? I'd say it's very attractive. Well, it is attractive. It's very well laid out. It's got a lot of nice colors. It's very ecumenical.

Yeah, jihad. That's an insides thing there. And it's got an article. It's not, I don't even think it's an article. It's an advertisement. Yes, it is an ad. And it's called, first, it's from First Place, The Bible's Way to Weight Loss.

The proven weight loss secret shared by over half a million Christians just like you. When I see weight loss stuff for Christians, the first thing, oh, by the way, Steve, you're going to like this. Let God be your personal trainer.

Tired of diets that don't work, don't last, or just don't live up to the hype? Then there's a better idea. Let God be your personal trainer. I mean, does he shout and sweat?

Can we turn up the reverb so I can say, get out of bed.

10 more sets, you pansy. When I see these kinds of things, I have a little bet, and I just, it's a side bet, because I don't really want to exchange money. With yourself. Yeah, yeah, that would be bad.

Don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing. I mean, it's biblical, of course. I know for certain, 98 probability that it's going to put New Testament Christians, that's the only kind of Christian there is, it's going to put Christians underneath the Mosaic Law.

Yeah, yeah, let's journey back to Leviticus and find out what God's plan for our life really is.

Now, if you'd like to have some Ezekiel 4 -7 bread or 4 -9 bread, great.

Ezekiel 4 -9. Bread, yeah. You know that? Yeah, you can go to the store. You can go to the store and buy it, as a matter of fact. I think Whole Foods actually,.

Pretty soon you can't have a Bible verse allowed in the store either, and so they're going to say, you know, it's going to have to be Hezekiah 16 bread. Same ingredients, just updated, the new Coke. Hezekiah.

Here, let's see right here. But as for you, Ezekiel 4 -9 bread, take wheat, prime ingredient, barley, beans.

Do you like beans in your bread? Lentil beans, yeah, lentil, bean bread.

Well, this is, that was something else because the next ingredient is lentils. Lentils, okay. So your beans and lentils are different, unless it's a double portion. It's Charisma Magazine, so they could have a double portion in there.

Okay, millet, what's a millet? I have absolutely no idea.

It's a hairstyle. Robert Millet writes books, I think. Oh, I thought it was a hairstyle.

That was really long in the back and short in the sides. That's mullet. Oh, okay. And spelt, S-P-E-L-T. Put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself.

I'm sure that's not a typo, shouldn't it be smelt?

And make them into bread for yourself. You shall eat it according to the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days. Now, using the principles of hermeneutics, of course, if you eat bread lying on your side for 390 days,.

You are going to have to lose some weight. Yeah, well, and you're going to have some bed sores too. I mean, this is

And I think God, your personal trainer, would tell you, roll over to the other side. You're causing an imbalance.

We really need a reverb button on this thing, you know, so we can let God be your personal trainer.

If you want to diet, we're for that. We know what the Bible says. Some people are overweight because of thyroid problems. Some people are overweight because they're lazy. Some people are overweight because of their metabolism.

Some people are overweight because they're gluttons. There's a lot of reasons why people are overweight. Disability. Disability, exactly right. We live in a culture that's a lazy culture. It's not an aggregarian culture.

We sit around a lot, et cetera. But what I don't want you to do is I don't want you to run to the Old Testament to think, you know, if I eat what Moses told the people to eat, then I'm going to be healthy.

Because much of the Old Testament had nothing to do with health. It had to do with separation from pagans for spiritual health. Wouldn't you agree?

Yeah, I mean, the whole idea, you know, what they now call kosher, the whole idea was to create, we're told in the New Testament, to create enmity. That's what the law did. Every little bit of the law.

You're not going to live like these people around you. You're not going to eat like them. You're not going to dress like them. You're going to have nothing in common with non-Jews.

Ephesians chapter two is a great chapter that talks about people who are in Christ. And when Jesus Christ makes peace at Calvary, he also makes peace between Gentiles and Jews because God had wanted them to be separate.

And now it says he made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.

So my point here is theologically, if you were going to say you're going to be under the Mosaic law and separate yourself, you're trying to undo what Jesus did. The Messianic Jews that are out there and anybody else, Seventh-day Adventists, they want to get put under the Old Testament law.

That divides people. It divides me with them, and we should be united if we are true Christians.

Of course, there's some things they don't want to do. Like when they have rebellious teenage kids, they don't take them out and stone them. You know, I mean, in other words, they like, well, I don't know why anybody would want to go back under the law when Paul just writes so fervently against it.

You know, all this don't, I almost said don't ask, don't tell. All this don't touch, don't eat, don't do all these things, these are just wrong. You know, this whole idea of there's some food that's unclean and some food that's clean,.

Not a New Testament concept. Well, you can tell people are so desirous to lose weight, they'll even follow, remember Gwen Shamblin? I think the Weigh Down program, and she doesn't even believe in the Trinity, but it works, so let's follow her, and who cares that she takes all these verses out of context?

If you have a weight problem, there's ways to go about it, and if you want to memorize scripture and meditate on scripture, and I don't know what you do, but I just don't think you need to get the risk-free first place membership kit today available at bookstores everywhere.

Well, I was thinking about starting a company and calling it Second Place. Second Place, yes. Well, if there's a first place, first place is already taken. Well, you're to love your neighbors yourself, and so we're to take the back seat.

If somebody walks into the assembly and goes to the front, and then you say, sit back here, see, it all relates. Now, I could just do something else. So I'm going to take this magazine. We have about a minute to go, and I'm going to open it up randomly.

Oh, that was the wrong page. Here we have NFL superstar Napoleon Kaufman traded in his Oakland Raiders jersey in 2001 and became a pastor.

Wow, and you know he was in the U .S. Navy before he was with the Raiders.

That's right, maybe he's in the new movie Facing the Giants or something, I have no idea,.

But this is an old magazine. But you know, whether it's losing weight or whatever, I mean, look, it gets back to wisdom again. How? Because if you go to somebody and you say, somebody older, wiser, more mature in the Lord, and you say, here's my game plan for losing weight.

I'm going to put myself into the Old Testament law. What are they going to say?

The older people are going to say, A, it's not going to work, but more importantly, why would you try to put yourself under the Mosaic law if you are not ethnic Israel? Yeah. And do you want to be under the sanctions of the law too?

There are penalties to the law. We just talked about this before the show. There are penalties to the law. Who wants to be put back under the law.

And have the penalties too? Not me. Not interested. Not interested. Jesus fulfilled the law. That's the truth. That's the good news.

We don't live under the law anymore. Amen. He put to death the enmity, and we are men and women who are free in Christ now. Eat what you want, have a big steak this afternoon.

Ministry Information and Legal Disclaimer

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 six. 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.