Mental Hygiene

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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

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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."

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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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

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

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That was kind of nice music in the background there, the English beat near the bathroom. Do you like that, Steve? I hate it.

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I hate it. I hate it. With a holy passion, with a seething holy passion.

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You know, sometimes, Steve, you bug me, but sometimes you really make me happy. Well, you know,

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I do what I can. For those of you that are just tuning in, my name is

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Mike Abendroth, and with me is Steve Cooley. He's the Associate Pastor here at Bethlehem Bible Church, and he is on most

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Tuesdays. And if he's not on a particular Tuesday, I get emails about it. Which is the way things ought to be.

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That is the way things ought to be, that's right. Who says that this is the way things ought to be?

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Is there some news guy that says that? I think it was Rush Limbaugh. I don't know. Oh, you know what? Maybe that is.

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He wrote a book, right? Why is your microphone gold? I'm behind the golden truth in Bible microphone, the

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T -N -I -V. Oh, the T -N -I -V, golden microphone, gender neutral, cuts corners, substitutionary atonement.

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We just celebrated Easter slash Resurrection Sunday recently at the church.

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You probably did as well. And I noticed in Christianity Today, by the way, the subtitle on the website now,

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Steve, I don't know if you noticed that, A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

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Well, at least it doesn't say A Magazine of Felony Conviction. Especially coming from the sheriff,

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Cooley. What do you call it if someone—give me a code for something.

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If somebody's stealing a police car, what's that code? You know what?

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I'm not even prepared to talk about that. Let's see. I think it's 487, but, you know.

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Wow. So they have a code for that. Well, not for stealing a police car. It would be for stealing any car. Okay. I always thought it was stupid when people stole police cars.

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Yeah. It's kind of hard to get away with that. Yes. Especially nowadays, because you know what? They have those

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LoJack things, and they can find you in a heartbeat. That's a one -atom LoJack. Well, that's so we don't hang out at the police station.

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Yeah. Or at the donut office. Now, I saw here on Christianity Today, a resurrection prayer,

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Steve, post -Easter reflection. And so I'm just going to read you three lines.

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Is it good to pray after Easter? Yeah, and it's good to pray during Easter, before Easter.

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By the way, I really—you know what? I sound like a fundie, but I really don't like Easter, the word.

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I like the holidays. I think it's the ashtara. Yeah. You know what?

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I'll try not to blow cigarette smoke into your face during the interview today, and we'll be— Excellent. Excellent. We're off to a flying start then.

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You know what? When I first got saved, Steve, I never would say Easter, because I was just in rebellion against it.

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Now, once in a while, I do, but it's because I'm compromising. It's like drinking vinegar, though.

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It is true. Smoke to the eyes. Yes. Vinegar to the teeth. Here's the resurrection prayer in Christianity today.

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Oh, risen Lord, be our resurrection and life. So far, so good? Yeah. That's fine. Be the resurrection and life for us and all whom you have made.

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Okay. I like that. That's like Psalm 117, kind of a prayer for the nations. We'd like to see people get saved.

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Sure. Yeah. Okay. Now, here's the third line that made me feel a little woozy.

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A little bluesy. A little uncomfortable. Because it's a doozy. Okay. Go ahead. Be the resurrection and life for those caught in the grip of sin.

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So far, so good? Mm -hmm. And addiction. Hmm. Yeah. And how do you differentiate between those two, by the way?

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Now, when we brought up this prayer in our recovery care group here. And we don't just have a 12 -step group.

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It's a 24 -step group. Well, actually, it's 12 ,000 times the 12 tribes.

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So this is the real 144 ,000. Church growth through recovery care. No, we're not big into recovery care.

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We want you to recover, but it's through a different fashion. Be our resurrection and life for those caught in the grip of sin and addiction.

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Why do we have to talk that way? Because we've adopted a lot of the world's language.

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You know, I mean, addiction. Where exactly is it? I guess you could be not addicted to much wine, right? That would be a biblical in English term, right?

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I think that is in the NAS, not addicted to much wine. Doesn't sit next to wine for a long time. But how about addictions?

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Isn't this relabeling bad for the local church, Steve? Quite bad, actually.

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Bad theater. Steve and I have this running thing back in the old Saturday Night Live days when

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Dan Ackroyd... Dan Ackroyd. I didn't know. Didn't you know that? No, my father is... Pops Ackroyd.

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When he'd do bad theater. What was it called? Bad Playhouse or something? Yes, I think it was. Okay. It was really funny.

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That's quite bad. Appallingly bad. For us today on No Compromise Radio, we want to remind you that if you relabel things with unbiblical descriptions, then you hurt yourself for the biblical cure.

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That is to say, if you have a problem with... Let's see what would be a good problem. Let's just stick with this one here.

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If you have a problem with drunkenness and then you recognize drunkenness is a sin, how can

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I think about the Savior Christ Jesus who can save me from my sins for the penalty of sin, that is hell, but also because of the power of Christ Jesus and the power of the resurrection, he can help me with the power that goes along with the alcohol, overcoming that.

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That's the way to go. Don't relabel your sins. Well, I just so dislike the 12 -step,

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I'm helpless over my addiction and I just surrender it to a higher power as if we have no say in the matter, that this substance unbeknownst to us crept into our bodies and hopefully unbeknownst to us will leave our bodies.

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That's just not the way it is. It's an addiction, at least in the very beginning, it begins as a choice.

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It is a willful choice to do what people do and then after that, sure, can the substance kind of take control of you?

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Yeah. It does. In talking to Bill Shannon the other day as you and I were talking off air, Steve, sin does enslave people and it wraps its coils around people and then you become addicted and you think to yourself, you know what,

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I can't go through life without another drink, but I don't call it addiction,

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I call it enslavement. That's right. Steve, I noticed there's a psychiatric hotline that's now available and it's got the following numbers to use if you want to call this psychiatric hotline.

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If you are obsessive compulsive, please press one repeatedly. If you are codependent, please ask someone to press two for you.

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Are you mocking people who are codependent? No, we're trying to tell them they have hope. This is funny though,

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I think. If you have multiple personalities, please press three, four, five, and six.

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A couple more. If you are paranoid delusional, we know who you are and what you want.

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We are tracing your call. If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.

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Press one now. And lastly, if you are delusional and occasionally hallucinate, please be advised that the thing you are holding up to the side of your head is alive and about to bite your ear.

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Friends, we have a great Savior and His name is Christ Jesus. And He can save you from all kinds of sins, all sorts of sins, all manner of sins.

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And so we don't want you to relabel your sins. We want you to have hope. And the passage

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I'd like to take you to is Proverbs 28, 13. Steve, you want to go there? Proverbs 28, 13.

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And this is one of the best verses that you can ask the

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Lord to use in your life to help you through things that trouble you, things that ail you, sins, diseases, syndromes, whatever you want to call them.

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Let's just call them biblically accurate words. And I think God will use that to help you.

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Steve? Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

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That's Proverbs 28, 13. And how does that apply to this situation with diseases, addiction, syndromes,

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I'm born this way? Well, I mean, when you call something other than what it is, when you say it's an addiction, when you say you're powerless over it, when you say all these other things, you're really concealing it.

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You're trying to cover it up. You're trying to make an excuse for it. And what we ought to be saying instead of I have a syndrome is that I'm a sinner.

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I sin. I have allowed myself, I've caused myself to come under the control of a substance and I need to look at it rightly.

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I need to look at it as God does, and that's what it says there. But he who confesses, that is the one who admits what the problem is and who has the same mindset as God does about that sin and then forsakes it, will obtain mercy, will receive the grace of God.

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That's what we want you to have. We want you to have compassion, a mercy, the grace of God as you say, yes,

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I believe this is what God says it is. And isn't that what confession means? To agree with, to say the same thing as God, you call this a sin.

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I call this a sin. God help me. You're a wonderful Savior of sinners. And so help me with this sin.

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That's a lot better than saying, you know, help me with my addiction. I've got a disease.

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I guess you could ask help for that and probably God in his mercy does help, but it's much better to say, please help me repent.

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Well, would you say, Pastor Mike, it would be wrong to go to, say, a pastor or someone that you know that doesn't struggle with this issue and try to get them to help you?

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Well, I think all sinners should only go to the other kind of sinners that experience the same problem to get help from them.

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Oh, okay. So then I want to find somebody else laying in the gutter and go, hey, pal, can you help me out?

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Well, Steve was trying to give me the slow ball, but I about choked on my Rangoon that I had earlier here today.

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It's a very common thing in churches that if there's a pornography problem that someone experiences, then let's have a porn recovery group.

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And then everyone who experiences that kind of problem or has a weakness in that area, they all get together.

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But I've got a problem with that. What's my problem with that? You know me, Steve. Birds of a feather flock together.

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Well, yeah, well, that is a problem. What else? Well, wouldn't it make more sense to have the stronger brother help the weaker brother?

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In other words, specifically in a given area, we might struggle, but we would want to hook up men to help other men or women to help other women who have overcome those issues or never had them to begin with,

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I guess would be even better. In other words, I want, let's say a wife struggles, this would be biblical,

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Titus 2, a wife struggles with loving her husband and her kids. So why not have her discipled by someone who excels at that, a woman who excels at that?

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Same kind of thing. I love that. And then the wife who excels at loving her husband and loving her children probably struggles with other things.

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Let's say she's not content or she has another issue. Then she's helped by the person who's also a

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Christian, but it goes both ways. In other words, we have, both Steve and I each have a wife, right?

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Yes. It's not the same lady, different ladies. And so I'm married to Kim, you're married to Janet.

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And why would God put us together? Well, he would put us together because we can glorify the Lord better together.

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And as I cover Kim's weaknesses, she covers my weaknesses, my strengths help out, her strengths help out, and together we're better because of the covering and the helping.

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Same thing in your marriage, right? Well, yeah, except for my wife has no weaknesses. Well, the way the

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Lord has arranged that is when the husband really has double weaknesses, a double anointing, a double blessing, then you get the perfect wife.

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That's right. And that's why I'm so blessed. So if you struggle with a sin, we want you to know there's hope for you.

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If you're a Christian, you have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you. And there's a hope through the ministered word, and there's hope for you as a

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Christian. You don't have to die with this disease, this syndrome, these other kind of words that people come up with.

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But the help is found in the context of a local church. Is a Bible study, a men's group, just as good as divorce recovery?

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Is it just as good? That is to say, if somebody's divorced and they said, you know what, Bethlehem Bible Church has no divorce recovery care group.

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Can you help me? Or should I go to a church that has a divorce recovery? Yeah. I don't even know. Again, I think we're just getting back to the basic issue.

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To have a divorce recovery group or program is basically just saying, we're going to steal ideas from the psychological world, and we're going to slap a

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Christian label on them and pretend like we're coming up with something that is going to help.

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What people need is not to be focused—and you say this often—not so focused on their problems, they need to be focused on their

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Savior. They need to glance at their problems, focus on Christ instead of—what these people do, what some

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Christians do who want to have these kind of recovery groups is they want to wallow in their problems.

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They want to be reminded over and over and over again of their failures, of their weaknesses. And that's just not how we ought to go about living the

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Christian life. And Steve, in my mind, it never, ever ends because then the labels and the groups, they multiply so fast.

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I have a piece of paper in front of me and it talks about overeaters anonymous, sex addicts anonymous, gamblers anonymous, spenders anonymous, debtors anonymous.

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How about this one? Fundamentalist anonymous? Would this be a bad time to bring up my idea for a new 12 -step group for BBC?

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I mean, we don't normally bring you guys behind the elder curtain and stuff like that. Yes, this is only a subcommittee.

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I want to have a recovery group for those who are addicted to recovery groups. You know what? I like that.

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That's kind of like Robert Palmer, Addicted to Love. Yeah, we're going to have it. It's going to be 12 Steps Anonymous.

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I think Carmen had a song called Addicted to Jesus. I'm not really familiar with it. Workaholics anonymous, shoplifters anonymous.

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My favorite disease group, quote -unquote disease group. My favorite addiction group is

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Messy's Anonymous. I just can't seem to clean up.

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I got a disease. Well, the Bible makes it clear that when you have a problem, you are to put off and to put on.

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So for instance, and Steve, let's talk about this for a minute. In Ephesians chapters 1, 2, and 3, here's who you are in Christ.

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Here's how God has chosen you. The Father, in his mercy and in his love, predestined you.

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The Son redeems you and dies in your place, grants you forgiveness, gives you justification, et cetera, is raised from the dead to confirm that fact.

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The Spirit of God then saves you in time, and because of who you are, then stop doing this and start doing the opposite.

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So don't, and Steve's good at quizzes, so we'll just quiz Steve here. Stop lying.

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What should you do instead? Tell the truth. Yeah, there you go.

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So I'd rather have, instead of a drunkard's kind of celebrate recovery, don't drink anymore, than what would be the opposite of not drinking?

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Well, I mean, there are a lot of things you could do, serve, work, because basically when you're a drunk, what happens?

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Your whole life falls apart. For the most part, you can't hold down a job. You can't keep your family together.

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You don't serve in the local church, because who wants to be around a drunk all the time? It destroys your life. So I mean, basically a drunkard, when they stop drinking, there's a whole world of opportunities for them, because they've got a lot of time that they didn't have before.

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And everything was focused upon themselves, and so now we need to focus on others. So good point, Steve, with the service.

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They would be lazy, they would be self -consumed, they would try to spend their money on these kind of things, and now let's do the positive.

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And so, if people are lazy, they're not to be lazy, but they are to work.

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And so that's what we want you to do. You can break your addiction, if you want me to use your terms.

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You can have recovery, if you want me to use your schtick. Here's what we do, though. It is found always in the context of the local church.

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Why is the local church context important for recovery, Steve? Well, because it's the place where the

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Word is ministered, and where basically you live out your

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Christian life, where you serve. And just getting back to that, so many people occupied with all these different issues, and what they really could be doing is finding some way to serve others, whether it's at a rest home ministry, whether it's a

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Juana, whether it's just cleaning up the place after service on a Sunday morning. I mean, you should see our church after a

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Sunday morning. Just run around and pick up the programs that get left behind, and the coffee cups and other things like that.

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I mean, that would be a service right there. And Steve's talking about just below his seat. You should see the rest of the place. Steve, how about this term that I saw the other day?

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Psychoengineering. That you go to the psychologist, and then they help you through psychoengineering, or here's another one, psychocosmetology.

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You know what that sounds like to me? They're going to change your mental makeup. That sounds like that's expensive.

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We do psychoengineering here. I love what Bill Shannon said the other day. You mean to tell me that Jesus Christ, the

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Jewish man, came to die for sinners and was raised from the dead, and the church had to wait 1 ,800 years for another

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Jewish man who hated God to come up with a solution for people's psychological problems?

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Yeah, Dr. Freud. Dr. Freud. I got a really cool shirt in Israel, and I haven't worn it at the office yet, but I'd like to,

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Steve. Okay. And it's got a picture of Freud on the cover, his face, but he's pink.

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And then with the right font, it says above it, Pink Freud.

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It's hilarious. Pink Freud. No Compromise Radio, if you've got a salutation, you write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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If you'd like to complain, you can write Steve at info at nocompromiseradio .com. And in the subject line, just put, meet me on the dark side of the moon.

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Yeah. That's right. I would say this, Steve. Do you like this?

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Here's my contention. Psychology is more of a religion than it is a science. It absolutely is.

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And why is that? Because it, first of all, it's not a science because they don't really know what's going on.

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They guess at a lot of these things, they make it up as they go along. I mean, I've sat, you know, I'll tell people, before I got saved,

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I saw the shrink. And you know what he would do? He would tell me things that I really either already know or already knew or should have known.

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And basically, it's just a bunch of babble. It's no science. If it was a science, they could actually demonstrate to you on a piece of paper, you know, if this happens, then that, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

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There's nothing of the sort. It is a total experiment and a sham. And when you talk about it being a religion, well, it is because it's a fundamentally different way of understanding mankind.

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It says, psychology says, that man is good, that the answers are within him.

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And that was Freud's whole message. We don't need God. We just need ourselves. We need to understand ourselves better.

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That's a religion. Steve, excellent point. And if you are listening today and you go to a psychologist or a psychotherapist, we want to remind you, and we're no doctors, we're not going to tell you you can't go or you shouldn't go, but we want to put this into your brain, that their view of man is fundamentally flawed.

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They think man is not totally depraved. He's not an enemy of God if he's unregenerate.

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And the list goes on and on and on. A fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And that's the key for psychology.

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They do not recognize man as depraved. And if you're depraved, you're going to need a savior outside of yourself, aren't you?

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But wait, what about a Christian psychologist? Aren't there Christian psychologists, Pastor Mike?

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Well, there's also something called Christian science. It's not Christian, it's not science. There are some

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Christians who are psychologists, but for the most part, they will give you more psychology than they will give you

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Christianity. And one of the things I was thinking about, Steve, as you were saying, it's like a religion. If psychology and psychotherapeutic methodology is true science, why are there over 500 brand -name psychotherapies on the market?

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Shouldn't there just be one? If it's a science... We're ultimately too complex to be confined to one therapeutic methodology.

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Thank you. Wow, I sounded pretty smart for a minute. You go back to 1 Corinthians, and the Corinthians thought they were really wise.

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And according to the world, they had wisdom. According to Plato, they were wise. What's that guy's name?

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Socrates? Socrates, they were wise. But Paul said there's a different wisdom for you.

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Wisdom incarnate, who gives you righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

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We want to push you to Christ Jesus. He has the answers, and it's not Jesus plus Freud.

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What's wrong with Jesus plus psychology? Well, what's wrong with Jesus plus anything? I mean,

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Jesus plus psychology, there's never... It's like mixing a little bit of poison with your steak.

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You might not know the difference immediately, but sooner or later, it's going to hit you. And psychology ultimately being founded upon anti -Christian principles.

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You can't weld the two together. It's like Psalm 1. You are mixing the wisdom of God with the wisdom of men, and it just cannot be done.

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See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

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For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And in Him you have already been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.

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Colossians 2. Well, Psalm 1 says, you know, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.

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Well, what is psychology? Founded by wicked men, and then you're going to live your life according to the precepts that these men lay down.

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That is just a direct violation of the Word of God. Either the Bible is sufficient or it's not.

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And psychology says it's not enough. How about this, Steve? Jeremiah 17. Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength.

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Well, I think that applies. You get no argument from me. Totally. Well, we at No Compromise Radio know you are out there listening, and I know some of you take psychotropic drugs, and some of you see psychologists.

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We're not trying to tell you to stop. What I'm trying to tell you today is to consider, to think, does the local church have everything you need for life and godliness through the

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Word of God? As long as they're preaching and teaching the Word of God, they absolutely have everything you need. And if you say they don't have everything there, then you need a different church.

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Preach it. Thanks for listening to No Compromise Radio. NoCompromiseRadio .com We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.