Esteeming Self or Others (Part 1)

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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. Mike Abendroth here at the helm, in the bridge.

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Maybe that's what we should call this. A lot of Christians have youth groups called the bridge.

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And now I set in No Compromise, the bridge. So today on No Compromise Radio, I wanna finish what

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Steve and I started the other day, talking about our image. Not No Compromise's image, not my personal image, not

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Steve's image, that's for sure. But the image we have as Christian people, or in general, how should you view yourself?

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The world is piping in at rapid velocity. You should look at yourself positively.

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You should look at yourself highly. You should value yourself. You should esteem yourself.

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You should love yourself. Again, talking about West Side Baptist Church. I use church with a small c.

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West Side Baptist Church in Omaha, Nebraska, the service was about, sermon was loving yourself.

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And the person who was talking, I didn't say a pastor who was preaching.

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The person who was talking was discussing how valuable you are since Jesus died for you.

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Since God died for you, you must have been worth something because if you were worth nothing, then why would

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God die for you? And so everything in our world is just mixed up. It seems wrong side up.

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It is tilted. It is angled. And so No Compromise Radio Ministry, we like to talk about things so we can see things clearly, see things biblically properly.

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Now, if you'd like to write me, you can, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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You can ask questions. You can raise some concerns. And I just appreciate it if you actually sign your name.

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If you want to do something anonymously, translation, cowardly, then just don't even bother writing.

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But if you want to put your name to it, you can. I'm a big boy. I can take critique. You want to say something, that's fine by me.

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You can go to the website as well. If you like the ministry and you can get the new book that I wrote,

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The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. And we have a special author discount there that we're passing along to the

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No Compromise Radio Ministry. I think we passed along most of it. We're passing along some discount.

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Anyway, instead of the $15 list, you can get it for $10 and no shipping.

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So including shipping, and some people have asked, would I sign it? And the answer is for an extra $5.

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No, I'd be happy to do whatever. The King Jesus. How do you understand Jesus as King?

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I think in our world, we have lots of discussion about Jesus as friend, Jesus as brother.

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Our hymns these days are Jesus as lover, the lover of my soul, Charles Wesley said.

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There's some truth to that, of course. But anyway, this is Jesus as King. And so on the cover, we have a crown and a scepter, and it's on day one.

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Publishing out of England, and you can get it on Amazon, you can get it at Barnes and Noble. Do they still have borders anymore?

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I don't know. Books are about done, it seems like, at bookstores at least.

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People order online. And also, according to Sting, the rock musician

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Sting, CDs are done. So you can get the Sting app for that. We got an app for that.

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So what about Christian self -esteem? What about Saddam Hussein struggling, according to the

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Bakersfield California newspaper, back in 91, Saddam has a particularly despicable personality, accompanied by a lack of self -esteem.

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Now, one of the things I love about WV &E 760 AM Worcester, radio station, that's the station we're on here, at least one of the stations.

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One of the things I like about WV &E is the lineup of guests.

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Although I might not agree with every decision for every person on, but I do like it that the fact that the station management and ownership don't have a lot of quote unquote

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Christian psychologists on. Back in the day, back in the early 90s, mid 90s, back in Los Angeles, KKLA, I think it was a

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Salem station. They were so full of psychologists. It was

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Minerth Meyer, John Jollof, David Stoop, James Dobson, and a whole list of other people who were more psychologists than they were

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Christian. And certainly, you know, people can do whatever they want.

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I know radio costs money, and so there's the tension between ministry and money in local programming,

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I get that. But they were just dominated by self -esteem talk, psychology talk, self -actualization talk, cloaked in the livery, cloaked in the garb, cloaked in the verbiage of Christianity.

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But it was just, it got tiring. I thought when I turned on Christian radio that I would hear preaching, that I would hear

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Bible teaching. And there was some of that, but there was a lot of the other stuff. And so I'm glad when you look at the lineup today in November of 2011, you're going to have people like, who, just kidding,

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R .C. Sproul, he's on there. John MacArthur, the venerable

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John MacArthur. We have Chuck Swindoll. Who else do we have on there,

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Alistair Begg, those kind of people. So I'm very, very glad for that. You got Lars Larson. So if Lars is on, you know the

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Bible's being taught. I don't think I've ever, I don't think Lars has ever got up and said, let's talk about your healthy self -esteem.

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But maybe he has. If he has, you can call me. Or why don't you just call Lars? I think he gives his personal number out, which is also amazingly great.

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Can you imagine? I would never do that. I would never say, this is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Here's my cell phone.

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But Lars does it. Kudos to Lars. Well, on No Compromise Radio today, I was thinking about self -esteem because in the paper today,

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I know you won't listen to this for a few days, but in the paper today, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Anaheim -ish,

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California, is going to be sold to the Orange County Catholic Diocese.

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And so Chapman University wanted to get ahold of that thing, that behemoth, that monster, that, as Robert Schuller called it, something like a sanctuary with 3 ,000 money -making seats.

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I think he said that in a candid moment. You can go there for Easter, by the way, and I don't know, you pay $80 to see flying angels and hear no gospel.

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So I guess that makes sense in our world. Whoever knows how much it costs anymore.

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It used to be 40. Probably it's a lot more. But Crystal Cathedral, with Schuller's book, the

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New Reformation about self -esteem. Self -esteem, the New Reformation. It's amazing to think that the lyrics for Amazing Grace at Crystal Cathedral, I don't know if they still do this, but they used to sing, "'Amazing

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Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a soul like me.'"

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Well, that's not much amazing about grace if we're not very bad. If we're good, if we're worthy, to get back to the earlier conversation, then grace isn't so great.

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Grace isn't so amazing. Grace isn't so wonderful. You think of the song, The Wonderful Grace of Jesus.

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So anyway, it was just on my mind again to think about this whole idea of self -esteem, how we think of ourselves.

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Now, the way we live in our world today, you always have to say, well, what I'm not saying is,

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I'm not saying that we should never say encouraging things to our kids.

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You're a worm. That's all they get from their parents. I don't do that. I tell the kids how valuable they are to me and how much

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I consider them to be part of the family and who they are in the Ebendroth household, and I wanna try to encourage them and lift them up.

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But my goal is not to encourage their self -esteem. My goal is to encourage them as people.

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And I don't think you should go around telling yourself you're a worm all the time. Those kind of people need to keep reading.

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And so in Romans 7, it talks about wretched man that I am. So you need to remember to read chapter 8.

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Paul doesn't stop in 7. And he says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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Some people live in Romans 7 their whole lives. I'm just wretched. And then others just live in Romans 8.

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There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. When real Christianity, Pauline Christianity teaches, there's no difference between real and Pauline because they're the same.

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Oh, but you know, remember that old phrase? Paul, Norman Vincent Peale, who was the precursor to Robert Schuller.

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Peale's doctrine, Norman Vincent Peale's doctrines are appalling, but Paul, the

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Apostle's doctrines are, any guesses? Appealing, there you go. That one's for free.

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So we live with the tension of both Romans 7 and Romans 8. We are not condemned.

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The penalty of sin, penalty of sin is gone. The power of sin is broken.

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And eventually the presence will be gone when we are glorified. So it's interesting to me that the

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Roman Catholic churches will band together in the diocese and then by the

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Crystal Cathedral, unless there's some 900 foot Oral Roberts Jesus who shows up with a bunch of money to bail them out, bail them out, that is the

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Crystal Cathedral. And it's just one Pelagian system to another. You've got the

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Pelagianism of self -worth and be good, man -centered, man isn't so bad.

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That's the main problem with self -esteem is it ignores the fall and sin and depravity and corruption and human inability and ignores monergistic regeneration,

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God alone making us alive. He is the one who bears us again.

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He causes us to be born again, 1 Peter 1. And so you go from that system, man -centered, to another man -centered system,

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Roman Catholicism. And so I was just thinking about self -esteem and lack of it.

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I'm not trying to tell people they ought to cut themselves, they ought to hurt themselves, they ought to look at themselves in the mirror and say negative things of themselves all the time.

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But once in a while, I don't think that's a bad thing. Lots of times, I don't necessarily look in the mirror to do this because I don't need to see my own face to hear my own voice,

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I say things like this. You probably say things like this due to the radio, but I don't know if it's good for you to say, but certainly it's good for me to say.

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I'll say things like this, Mike, speaking to me and about me, you're an idiot. Mike, that was stupid.

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Mike, how could you do that? That was sinful, that was a sinful thought. That was a sinful action. That was a foolish train of thought.

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Mike, stop it, get in line, repent, start thinking properly again about the cross and who

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Jesus is, and then get yourself in line. I say that all the time. I'm an idiot.

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I've had to say that to people before. I am a real idiot. I am really foolish.

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I was really sinful. Do you think you have it in your heart to forgive me? And so I'm not running around with some self -imposed ultra worm theology.

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I'm so bad, I'm so bad, I'm so bad. But I just realize the lingering effects of my sin, the flesh as the

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New Testament would call it. And so listen to what Robert Shuler said. He said,

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I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence counterproductive to the evangelistic enterprise than the unchristian, this is

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Bob Shuler, uncouth strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.

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Call it uncouth, call it boorish, but I call it biblical.

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That's exactly what we're supposed to do to both unbelievers and believers is we remember the bad news so we quickly get to the good news.

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There is no good news without the bad news. The good news without the bad news is just irrelevancy.

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No wonder the gospel these days is so clipped of its effectiveness because there's nothing people think they need to be rescued from like the wrath of God, sins, the fury of God upon sinners.

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People don't know about sin, then they don't know about the good news. And I'm not saying the good news, well,

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I don't know what I'm saying today. I'm gonna have a cup of Pete's coffee. Here it is, I have my Pete Nicks coffee here, hold on. I think that is house blend.

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But anyway, Pete's coffee is where it's at. Especially for you New Englanders, you can go to Lexington, I think, and get a cup of Pete's or maybe

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Boston. So there is a problem in the local church today and the church has a high view of self.

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And I don't think the New Testament teaches that. We've come a long way. Listen to the missionary, the missionary, the great missionary,

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William Carey. Here's his tombstone. I like to go see tombstones. Matter of fact, through my window right now at Bethlehem Bible Church, I'm looking at a

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Catholic cemetery. And I like to take the men up there and have them preach to the tombstones so they get an understanding of what it's like to preach to people unless God works.

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It's like preaching to the dead. And then when God is pleased to add life to the preaching of the gospel, the dead rise.

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So here's William Carey and his tombstone says this. We've come a long ways, by the way. As Virginia Slim's commercial back in the 70s, you've come a long way, baby.

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Trying to get women to smoke cigarettes. William Carey, born August 17th, 1761.

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Died June 18th, June 18th, June 1834. And then it says this.

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A wretched, poor, and helpless worm. On thy kind arms

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I fall. Now, William, Bill, Billy Boy, Willie Boy, come on, you've got low self -esteem.

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You need a higher self -image. You need a positive self -image. You need to be thinking more properly.

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I mean, this is, you know, we live in a society today where people have said, quote unquote, Christian psychologists, one of them committing adultery, one of the counselees and the

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Christian psychologist saying that the source of adultery is the lack of self -esteem. I mean, it just doesn't get any crazier.

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No Compromise Radio, it just operates on its own because I don't even have to think of this stuff. It is absolutely crazy.

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Do children and adults really need self -esteem? No. Does low self -esteem lead to serious life problems?

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No. Should parents build self -esteem in their children? No. Does the Bible encourage self -esteem?

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No, it does not. It criticizes self -esteem. It condemns self -esteem.

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The fall has made us think too highly of ourselves and our own pleasures and our own person.

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No, we don't want to do that. Lee Strobel is wrong when he says Jesus identifies

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Madonna's problem as self -esteem. No, I don't think so.

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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the great and foremost commandment.

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The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments, depend the whole

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Law and Prophets, Matthew 20, there's only two that we have. Only two commands.

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Love God, love your neighbor. We don't have a third command that says love your neighbor is the second command and then the third one is love yourself.

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That is not a command. Loving yourself is not a command. We already do it.

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So stop doing it. Listen to Philippians 2. Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.

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That is to say, let each of you esteem one another as more important than self.

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That's others' esteem. Do not merely, Philippians 2 goes on to say, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

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Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Here's what we should do instead. Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

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And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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So in No Compromise Radio Ministry today, we're talking about how we view ourself and our boasting shouldn't be in ourselves, should it?

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Our accolades shouldn't be of ourself and because of ourselves. Our praise shouldn't be directed inward.

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Let not, Jeremiah 9 says, a wise man boast of his wisdom and let not a mighty man boast of his might.

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Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts, boast of this, that he understands and knows me.

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Can you imagine that we know God? That I am the Lord, Yahweh, who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth.

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For I delight in these things, declares the Lord. Can you imagine God delighting in us?

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Not boasting in ourselves, not boasting in what we've done, not boasting in what we own, not boasting about other people, not boasting about anything else.

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God delights in us boasting about him. And that's what I want to do on No Compromise Radio Ministry. I want to boast about Jesus Christ, the eternal

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God. Can you imagine the eternal God, the immutable God, cloaking himself with humanity because he loves us and wanted to redeem us and did redeem us, of course.

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Galatians 6, but may it never be that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

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If you want to boast, go ahead and boast, but boast in the Lord. Let's think about it this way with self -esteem.

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If people are really good and you stroke their self -esteem, what does that do to evangelism? What does that do to evangelism?

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I'll tell you what it does. It destroys evangelism because the gospel, the good news, is for people who have already understood the bad news and then are convicted by the bad news and who feel miserable about themselves.

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If you're a good person, a basically good person, you don't think you need anything else.

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Hey, I'm basically okay. I'm okay, you're okay. And I need to get my needs met.

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But Jesus came, according to Mark chapter two, not to call the righteous, but sinners, but sinners.

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And you think about Luther, Luther had bad self -esteem. Luther had a conscience that was tormented because of his sin and because of understanding

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God's just and holy and righteous demands that would exact perfect conformity to God's moral character.

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Yet Luther knew he failed and had fallen short. Who may ascend into the hill of the

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Lord or who may stand in his holy place? Psalm 24. Answer, he who has clean hands and a pure heart.

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And so Luther threw up his proverbial hands and then who can be saved? Here's what

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Luther said. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement that the just shall live by his faith,

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Romans one. Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through mercy and sheer grace,

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God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.

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The whole of scripture took on a different meaning. And whereas before the justice of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet and great love.

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This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven. Well, on No Compromise Radio Ministry, we don't want you to have yourself actualized.

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We want you to deny yourself. Jesus said to the disciples, Matthew 16, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up the cross, his cross and follow me.

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For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it.

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In those words in Matthew 16, do you see anything about affirm self, gratify self, actualize self?

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You know, we're really good at that by ourselves. And so why would Jesus have to come to die in the cross and be a propitiatory sacrifice, atoning sacrifice for the wrath of God, have himself raised from the dead?

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The third day, why would he have to do that if we are already doing the right thing?

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We do what we think is right. Everyone does what's right in his own eyes, but that's the wrong thing when it comes to a holy

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God. So our only hope is throwing ourselves on the mercy of God, like the tax gatherer,

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God be merciful to me, the sinner. And then Luke 18 records

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Christ's words. I tell you this man, the one who was having the declaration,

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I'm sinful. This man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.

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We today on No Compromise Radio are saying to you that you're all in all should be in the person and work of Christ Jesus.

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And look to yourself, every time you look to yourself, look to Christ three or four times.

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We live in our own bodies. We love ourselves. We take care of ourselves. We can't extricate ourselves from ourselves.

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And so just realize who we are and then what God has done. Christ Jesus, the

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King, and he's the one we should boast. When was the last time you said, God, you're great, or told somebody else about the greatness of Christ?

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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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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.