Luke Abendroth Interview

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.

Opening the Show and Introducing Luke Abendroth

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and as you know, we have a format here at the show. I think we�re 1 ,500 shows in. That format�s always the same. We have a little slogan, �Always Biblical, Always Provocative, Always in that Order.

And we�re trying to point you to the Bible so you can think clearly, properly, correctly, Christianly, is that a word? And I like to have guests in the studio when I can or via phone on Wednesdays so we can pick the brain of people and theologians and students and other folks.

And so, today, it�s a cool day for me. It�s a special day. Instead of talking to, well, I like to talk to Carl Truman or Phil Johnson or people like that. That�s neat. But my son, Luke Abendroth, is in the studio today.

Luke, welcome to No Compromise Radio. Thank you. Luke, I think you are the future voice of NoCo Radio. What do you think? I don�t think so. So, Luke, tell us a little bit about yourself, how old you are, where do you go to school, what do you like to do?

Just talk.

Okay. I�m 18 years old. I�m a student at the Master�s College. It�s a small Christian liberal arts school about 25, 30 minutes outside of LA. So, I�m a political studies major there. I attend Grace Community Church.

I�m hoping to become a member pretty soon after I go back in a few days for this next semester. So, I love to surf, skateboard, snowboard, hang out with the family, pretty much any board sport.

All right. So, that�s what I like to do. Luke, I remember the day you were born. It was just over 18 years ago. And I don�t think you remember that day, do you? Barely. Barely. And so, I just think about the work of God in your life.

Kim and I, we had another, we had a daughter, Haley. She was about four. You were born. I was going to go teach a Bible study class. You happened to be born super sick. They showed us your face. You were kind of bluish.

They said you�re Apgar. Apgar. Do you know what Apgar is, Luke? It�s one of those, like, tests for babies, how healthy they are. I want to say eight or ten is a good score. I think you were negative 20.

They said it was going to affect your IQ in the future. It probably did. And anyway, you were really sick, off to NICU, and we didn�t know what was going to happen. And so, the Lord was very good and gracious.

I was thinking about how providentially kind He is. And so, then you got out of the hospital. You�re healthy. And you�re a dad�s delight. And so, here I see you 18 years later. So, tell us about what it�s like growing up in a pastor�s home.

There�s going to be lots of people listening, and they probably have kids or maybe some pastors listening. What are the upsides of living in a pastor�s home?

I think there�s a lot of upsides. I mean, there�s obviously a few downsides, but I hear a lot of people complaining that are pastor�s kids about how they have so much extra pressure and all these things.

But, I mean, looking back now, I can kind of welcome that because I think even when I wasn�t a Christian and I was in a Christian home, I had a love for you guys, you mom and dad. Just, I wanted to please you guys.

Even if I wasn�t a Christian, I never wanted to do anything that would dishonor you or bring you shame or cause people to be able to talk about you behind your back and say, �Oh, look at Luke, and look at how he�s been raised by Mike Ebendroth, and then now he goes off and does these stupid things.

So, I think even when I wasn�t a Christian, that extra accountability actually helped me. It didn�t hurt me at all. I never felt like I was pressured or had to do better outside of mom and you guys just pushing me, which I think was a good thing.

So, I think that�s one of the upsides. And then also, just being able to have a lot of things in common with other pastor�s kids around the world. When we went to Europe, we were able to talk to the Czech Republic pastors and the German pastors and their kids, and you kind of have an automatic bond with people that also grew up in a pastor�s home.

So, I think it�s really cool to be able to just travel the world with you and be able to go to South Africa and Germany and out to California all the time and back here in Massachusetts and you preaching in Santa Cruz and just all over the world and me being able to go and I just kind of came along for the ride.

So, I think those are the two big things.

Luke, it�s interesting because it is kind of a hassle to be a pastor�s kid sometimes and you�re always at the church and people do expect maybe more out of you than others, but then you get the bennies, you know, the traveling around the world, that kind of stuff.

South Africa, surf trip, surf one day, and the sharks. That�s right.

Salvation, Legalism, and a Testimony of Grace

So, Luke, when I think of testimonies of salvation and how God has saved us, I, you know, in the old days, I would think if you�re a heroin addict or you�re a prostitute or, you know, you�re an abortion doctor and then God saves you, it�s this dramatic testimony.

And of course, every testimony is dramatic because death unto life, darkness unto light, you know, unsaved to saved, enemy of God, friend of God, everyone is dramatic. Of course, it�s miraculous. It�s supernatural.

It�s the work of God and God alone, monergistically. But Luke, these days, I think it�s almost a more wonderful testimony of the grace of God, for God to save someone like you, a young person like you, out of morality, out of self-righteousness, out of, you know, I�m good basically compared to everybody else civilly, civically, and then all of a sudden God saves self-righteous pastor�s kids.

I think that�s almost more miraculous in my eyes. Yeah. I don�t know.

I think you�re probably right. It�s interesting to me to look back at my life before and think, even though I would have known legalism is wrong and theologically and in my brain, I know, okay, you don�t earn your salvation, it�s not by work so that no man can boast.

But I think that was still my mindset kind of underneath the surface, even though I wouldn�t have put that into a conscious thought. I think I still thought that way thinking, oh, well, I can do this thing and God can be pleased by that or the Lord will be pleased by all these things that I�m doing.

But then back in Isaiah, it says even like our best deeds are looked at as filthy rags. So I think that�s kind of the way I was living and then just legalism and just trying to do things to please you and just distracting myself as much as possible from the reality of my sin and my lack of salvation.

So Luke, it�s exciting as I think about your life and my goals for you are just to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He would have you serve. It doesn�t have to be in ministry per se. I want you to be able to minister and of course serve the local church.

But this Sunday you�re going to get baptized. So in real time, in no co-time, you�ve already been baptized. Excellent testimony, by the way, when you�re baptized. But in real time, you�re going to get baptized in a few days.

Tell us a little bit about your testimony and what you wrote for the baptismal requirement of writing out your testimony.

I think I just, I mean, I obviously wrote about, I mean, I just watched your video recently, the testimony or testifony, there�s some kind of no code 90 thing. I mean, I watched it after I wrote it, but you were talking about how you should talk about how you were and then I think it was what was changed or how the Lord changed you and then how you live now or what you want to do now.

So I think even though I didn�t necessarily watch that video, I�ve lived with you for 18 years, so I kind of know what you want and I think I was able to think about it that way in the right way and not just write about all my sin and, �Oh, look at how sinful I was.

Even though I was a great sinner, but the real glory obviously goes to the Lord just because of Him saving me, not the greatness of my sin and then somehow I worked my way out of that pit of sin or whatever, like with Jesus as my little grappling hole.

So I don�t think that that was what I just wrote it about, but I think I just talked about my sin and especially my sin of hypocrisy because I would live my life basically how I wanted to live it with certain boundaries so that I wouldn�t dishonor you or mom or the family or the church, but kind of live the life that I wanted to live and then on Sundays just try to act like a Christian, to sing like a Christian, to pray like a Christian, just to do things like a Christian would, but I don�t think I had a true saving faith just because looking at my motivations and my actions and my desires.

So one of the things I talk about in my testimony is the reason that I want to be baptized now, obviously because of my salvation, but I have had what I believe now to be like false professions of faith just growing up in a Christian home wanting to please you guys.

I remember coming out after listening to the Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, one Sunday night we listened to that and I couldn�t fall asleep and I came out and we talked about things.

So I remember talking about that and being scared of hell, but I notice a real change in my life now. I want to be around other Christians. I want to please the Lord. I can see a change in my desires and even in my actions.

Obviously, I�m still sinful, but I think there�s a change in my actions that can kind of validate my testimony. So I�ve obviously been really blessed by being raised in a Christian home. I�m so thankful that even though obviously you couldn�t save me, you�re able to teach me about the Bible and give me a basic biblical knowledge that I can now apply to my life and the things that I want to do.

So even though none of those things would save me, I think it�s important that other parents do what you did and teach their kids about the Bible, because then once you are saved by the grace of God, or if you are saved by the grace of God, then you can use those things.

Evangelism, Religious Affections, and the Master’s College

We�re talking today to Luke Avendroth, my son here on No Compromise Radio. It was kind of fun to get up this morning and say, �Luke, let�s go down to the studio, record a show. And Luke was wondering what kind of questions would I ask.

And I wanted to show up just to find out questions I would ask, because I have no paper in front of me with a list of questions. But a couple things have just popped into my mind. Luke, before I ask you those questions, you were talking a little bit about what would be called a few hundred years ago, �religious affections, spiritual affections.

And so you don�t like what you used to, but now you like other things. You like godly things and spiritual things. Tell us about the evangelism outreach at Masters College. Some of you get together and go out and preach the gospel.

That�s an affection now. God has given you a desire.

For proclaiming Christ and talking to the lost. Yeah, I think that�s probably a huge change that I can really see in my life and kind of grasp at. I just think before I was a Christian, there was absolutely no desire.

I mean, there�s a desire to evangelize, so I could be like, �Oh, yeah, Dad. I just preached the gospel to somebody. He was really good. I saved him. I�m just kidding. He�s smiling, by the way. No, but I think that that�s a big change in my life, the desire to proclaim the gospel to other people.

And even though I sometimes still see in my life all the time a fear of man, that I�m ashamed of that fear of man sometimes, but it�s cool to be involved in a program at Masters College. We go on Monday nights, Thursday nights.

I usually only go on Mondays, but we go to the local community college and just go walk up to random people and just start preaching the gospel to them. So probably the most awkward part is just walking up to someone.

People have these different tricks and little tips that they give you to try and approach somebody, but I usually just walk up to them and say, hold out my hand and say, �Hi, I�m Luke. It�s a little awkward, but it works.

Well, tell us about step two after you say, �Hi, I�m Luke. And then you ask them, what�s that follow-up question? Have you ever read the Message Bible?

No, we usually just say, is Jesus knocking at your heart and are you going to let him in with.

A special door? Well, maybe you sing a free will song or something, you know. Freedom to choose. So Luke, for those listeners who want to know a little background about you and what it�s like growing up in a pastor�s home, you can be afraid of hell, but not love the Lord.

And certainly parents can help instill some of that. People shouldn�t be afraid of hell. And so can I tell the story about sitting around the house and the fire? Yeah, okay. So we were trying to do family devotions and you know how kids compete.

Luke has two sisters that are younger, one that�s older. What do you want to talk about today? And Luke said, Moses. And Haley said, Jesus. And back and forth, Moses, Jesus, Moses, Jesus. And finally Luke said, I hate Jesus.

And he didn�t really know what he was saying, although it would be true, right, for any unregenerate kid. And so it was a cold New England day. And we had a fire going in the house, that house over there in Sterling that we had.

Home of Mary had a little lamb, right? Anyway, long story short, I picked up Luke by the ankle upside down. And I remember carrying him over by the fire. Now, prepositions are important, right? Right?

Prepositions are the difference between heaven and hell, right? Luke, are you saved through faith or are you saved because of your faith? Saved through faith. Yeah, right. So see, even a preposition, we are not saved because of faith, something of our own doing.

We�re saved through faith. It�s a non-meritorious instrument. And so I want our listeners to pay attention. I didn�t put Luke over the fire.

See, maybe it�s just my own twisted memory from my sinful nature that I can�t remember things the right way, but I remember it being over the fire. Back then, that�s what I remember. And that�s the way that I tell a story.

It kind of adds a little bit of zest to it.

I think maybe the Statue of Limitations, have they expired by now or something? Well, it�s hard to put a kid over a fire if it�s in the fireplace, right? So, how can I?

You can go over the screen. You can go inside the screen at least. Obviously, you can�t go over the fire, but there�s the screen that protects the fire and you can go over the screen.

Anyway, I just held Luke upside down and said, you know, hell is the place for people who hate Jesus. And, you know, fire reminds us of hell. And so, he was dangling upside down and then began to shout out, I love Jesus!

I love Jesus! I love Jesus! And so, to think, you know, in our vain attempts to try to teach our children, the Lord, to use more prepositions, in spite of me and my sins and my failings, the Lord has been gracious to you, Luke, and I�m encouraged that you�re at Master�s College.

Tell us a little bit about the Master�s College. What do you do there?

Do you have a job? Yeah. So, I�m an admissions intern. I basically just help out the admissions counselors at Master�s. So, assist them with the admissions process and things like that. And then I also give tours of the college and stuff like that.

So, when you give a tour of the college,.

What are some of the things that the parents want to know? I mean, you know, how far away is.

The cafeteria or describe what you do. Well, you know, one of the questions that I have been asked before is, �Are you Mike Gabendroff�s son So, that was pretty cool. I was walking down and, �Oh, yeah.

I listen to your dad on NoCo. So, that was interesting. No, but usually they just want to know different things about the school and majors. One of the things that a lot of people want to know is if the school is accredited.

Obviously, it�s really important to make sure that the school has an accreditation because if they don�t, it�s pretty much like if I write down a transcript with a crayon on a napkin and I can give it to a job and that�s how they�re going to look at it.

So, you want to make sure your school is accredited. We�re actually accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. So, it�s the big one out there and we have the highest accreditation.

So, they received it in 2009 and it lasts until 2019. So, I think it�s really cool just to see that how a secular organization that goes around looking at schools and making sure that they provide a good education can look at a place like the Master�s College where even the motto is, �For Christ in Scripture� and see that they were founded on biblical truths and want to do everything for the Lord Jesus, and then they can still recognize that you get a great education from a secular standpoint as well.

Chapel Life, Speakers, and Israel Semester at Master’s College

Pete Luke, I am so happy and thankful to the Lord that he has you there at the Master�s College. Tell our listeners a little bit about some of the chapels. I mean, I just love it when you give me a little text or you Skype me, �I saw Steve Lawson today at the chapel or Alistair Begg.

Luke. Yeah, the chapels are awesome. It�s probably one of my favorite things. It�s usually, it�s Monday, Wednesday, Friday. There�s three chapels a week. They�re actually, they�re mandatory chapels. So, I think you get like six chapel misses every semester.

So, you get a few if you want to go, you know, wake up in the morning and surf or something, but, or if you�re actually sick, whatever, it doesn�t matter. Pete. You could worship God at the ocean. Luke.

That�s right. You can. You can worship God while you surf. I think I used to worship surfing and then now I can worship God while I surf. So, anyways, yeah, we�ll have like John MacArthur. He�s the president of our school.

So, he�ll obviously come and speak quite a bit. And they kind of have like almost a joke where it�s like a package deal where when you come and teach it at Grace Community or you come and teach at the Master�s Seminary, the Master�s College is kind of tacked on there.

So, Monday morning, before you leave, Monday morning, you got to come to Master�s and do the chapel there. So, that�s really cool to get all the kinds of speakers there. Alistair Begg, like you mentioned, John MacArthur, Vodie Bauckham�s come before.

There�s all kinds of really great, great preachers that are able to come and teach there. And it�s just cool. I think great worship music and stuff. So, I really like chapel there.

Pete Luke, you�ve been to the Master�s College now just only one semester. They have a program where you can go overseas to a few different places, but the one that they�re known for the most is Ibex over in Israel.

You get to study for a semester there. How great is that going to.

Be? Luke. Yeah, I�m super excited. I�m planning on going next fall. So, the Ibex program is in Israel. It�s called the Israel Bible Extension Program. That�s what it stands for. And it�s where you can actually spend a semester in Israel.

We have our own campus there, our own professors that have lived there for many years. So, you spend a semester there and it�s really cool because the professors kind of have the inside scoop there. And I think probably the coolest thing is there�s no extra tuition.

The extra cost is the plane ticket to Israel. So, that�s probably one of the reasons that I can go. But I�m super excited to go. I�m trying to figure out a way to stay overseas for the next semester as well and maybe study somewhere else.

So, next fall, I�ll be going to Israel and then maybe somewhere else for the spring semester.

Ministry Goals, Military Service, and Preaching in the Church

Pete. Well, my goal for you, as I have told you in person, has been to faithfully minister the Word of God, not necessarily as a pastor. I�ve never wanted to try to push you to be a pastor, but I want you to be the kind of man that if you�re at a local church, let�s say you are in the military because I know that is something you want to pursue, that the pastor�s gone and you�re elder qualified and you can stand up in the pulpit and preach a sermon so the pastor can take a break.

That�s, to me, kind of the ultimate goal I have for you, to be a godly man in a local church, able to fill Sunday school when needed or the pulpit.

Ben Yeah, yeah, I�d love to be able to do that. I want to kind of start to take some more. I mean, there are mandatory Bible classes at Master�s, but I would like to take some more, maybe for extra Bible electives, like a preaching class, an exposition class or something like that to go through some of those things, or I could take some kind of Southern Baptist class with you.

Luke That�s right. Ben I don�t know how that works, though. I teach skiing and snowboarding when I�m here at the local ski resort here, and for some reason the family doesn�t really like to listen to the instructor, so my sisters don�t want to listen to me when I tell them how to ski.

Luke. Well, it�s kind of like physician, heal yourself, I think is a Bible verse. Luke, tell us about the life at Master�s College a bit more. Small classes, the teachers are Christians and godly people.

What�s the social life like? Are there any, you know, girls who are regenerate that are, you know, pretty, or how does that all work? Ben.

Oh, yeah, I think there are some girls that are regenerate and pretty.

Luke I told you, you can find regenerate girls who are pretty. See how that works? Ben.

I didn�t believe you, but I�m just kidding. Yeah, so the social life there, I mean, it�s like anywhere else, you kind of have to, there�s like the triangle where you have social life, good grades, and sleep, and the joke is you have to pick two of the three, so I think that kind of applies a little bit.

It�s just about the balance between whatever you�re doing, so obviously I kind of, like for the beginning of the semester, I, you know, did a little bit too much probably with my friends and stuff, going out surfing, skating, just hanging out late at night and stuff, and then you kind of figure it out as you go along.

So I think there�s plenty of opportunities and fun things to do. I think people automatically, at least unbelievers, if you say you�re at a small Christian school, they�re like, oh, okay, Christian school, how�s the nightlife, how are the parties, and you kind of just go, I mean, obviously they don�t understand anything about your changed life and new desires and things, but I think it�s almost, I think I can have more fun as a Christian and just fellowship with other Christians and people that want to please the Lord, and you don�t have to worry about hanging out with other guys, what they�re going to say next, am I going to have to turn the conversation away from this next topic or leave the room.

I mean, obviously there�s still things going on. People are still in sinful bodies, but I think for the most part, I see in other people there a real desire to please the Lord, and it�s been, I mean, I think I�ve been able to grow in that and just really be challenged by other people that are.

Solid guys. Luke, on Sundays, you go down to Grace Community Church, which is just kind of a drive to get there from the Master�s College. The Master�s Seminary is on campus at Grace, but the college is off campus.

And you have gone from Mike Avendroth as your pastor to John MacArthur. Now, that is quite a role reversal from my wife, your mother, Kim Avendroth. She had John MacArthur as a pastor and now she has me.

I�m not searching for a compliment, but tell me what it�s like to have John MacArthur as the pastor, and he stands up there and preaches every Sunday. What�s that like?

Luke� I think it�s awesome. I mean, I hear people, a lot of people that love to listen to John MacArthur, obviously, and I�ve listened to John MacArthur on my own before, and I still do. And I just, I love being there at the church.

He�s going through John, right? We just finished John 12. It�s just super awesome just looking at that and just being under his teaching. He�s obviously just, I mean, people, he�s obviously not the evangelical pope or anything.

People put him on a pedestal sometimes, but he�s just a godly man that has proclaimed the truth for many years and has an international influence. I think I just heard, I mean, I don�t know if it�s 100 true, but I just heard that on the Twitter, on the tweeter, whatever they tweet on the twits, John MacArthur was like the third trending for the day that he had that Q &A session or whatever.

So I thought that was pretty interesting, just his scope and his influence with the Chinese study Bibles and the, I think there�s an Arabic study Bible. All those things is just, I think he�s just such a godly man that, from what I�ve heard, just really lives up to, really acts the same way in and out of the pulpit.

Favorite Teachers, Books, and Closing Remarks

So today we�re talking to Luke Abendroth, my son. He�s a master�s college freshman and desiring to be in the military and wants to serve the Lord as a military man. Luke, we�ve only got about 45 seconds left.

Anything you want to tell our listeners, you know, you love, I think, like Francis Chan, Tim Keller, and those kind of guys, right?

It�s CS Lewis. CS Lewis is my favorite theologian so far, so.

Who do you like to study? We�ve just got about 30 seconds left. Who are your favorite people to.

Read? I just, I love John MacArthur, obviously. I think because I�m a new believer, I haven�t been reading too many things outside of the Bible yet, honestly, but I love Spurgeon so far. I�ve been reading some of the Valley of Vision devotionals and just a book, actually a book called, what is it called?

Tim Keller, what is it called? Oh, Engaging with Keller. Engaging.

Tim Keller. All right, I�ve got to cut you off, Luke. Thanks so much for being on the radio. I love you. I�m proud of you. If I was your dad, I�d be proud of you. You make me joyful.

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 bbcchurch .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.