Westside Baptist and Loving Yourself

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.

Self-Love as a Different Religion

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Take four, thanks to Steve and his cough. Where�s the cough button around here?

Well, let�s see in next year�s budget.

No Compromise Radio does have an okay budget. That is to say, okay for the Stone Age. Just kidding. Thankfully, we�ve been on the air for over two years, two and a half years, and the Lord has graciously seen fit to pay all our bills.

Do you know, No Compromise Radio owes no man, no thing. We are debt-free. By the way, if you want to go to the website, you can order the book, �The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. It�s my second book, and it�s discounted there, speaking of money and debt.

It�s discounted $10. That includes shipping, and I looked at Amazon the other day. They were sold out. Sold out? Yeah. I guess they carried two, and somebody ordered three.

Well, you know what? Right now, if you order �Killing Lincoln you get a free copy of the. No, that�s not true.

See? That would work out really well. Here�s the idea for the book, that if you understand God as a king, especially a king with the power and authority that they had back in Bible days, that you�ll better understand who Jesus is.

I guess it would be fair to say, Steve, that if you like me, you�ll probably like the book. You�ll love the book. And if you don�t like me, don�t order the book.

Or order two copies so that you can like him even more.

A couple people have said, �Could you please sign the book before you send it That will be $19 .99.

And, you know, it�s just me signing it anyway. Yeah.

Yeah. Steve signs it with his left hand because then he can scribble better. And I spelled his first name wrong. Here's the scoop today. We are talking about self-love. Now, I have a question for Pastor Steve, the venerable Tuesday guy.

Steve, do you love yourself? More than I ought to. Steve, I was in Nebraska last weekend doing a conference for the gospel, which I was super happy to do. Plus, my family is from Nebraska. My family is from the gospel.

And we were driving by a big church. And, you know, sometimes I don�t say things about churches because I don�t want to shame people all the time or always criticize or cut down or say something negative.

You don�t want to be a hater. Hey, haters. But I will say that when you do something as egregious as what I�m just going to say, you deserve to be called out. And so here�s the scoop. There�s a church called West Side Baptist Church.

In Omaha, Nebraska. And guess what side of town it�s on? I�m going to guess East Side. Yeah, I don�t know why they named it that. Anyway, it is on Dodge Street. I don�t know what and Dodge, 130th and Dodge, 140th and Dodge.

You type in West Side Bible Church, I think affiliated with Southern Baptist Convention. You type that in and you�ll find out all about them. And so they�re doing a sermon series now. And when we were there, we drove past the sign.

There�s a sign out front. My brother and I were driving past it. And the sign said, �Loving yourself. That�s the name of the sermon.

Now if it said, �The problem is loving yourself. What if they had a question mark at the end?

Yeah, that�d be good. So my brother and I took pictures of ourselves out there, because obviously we loved ourselves. But we did the whole self-hug thing, like you�re hugging yourself.

Are you going to post those on No Compromise? I want to.

Josh, when you listen to this, get on that and post these things on No Compromise so they can see it, at least on Facebook. Don�t you think? Yeah, that�d be good. I think we should tweet it. I think Pat tweeted his.

Pat Abendroth�s tweetage. Does he have a radio show? They actually take his sermons and play them on the local Christian show.

But he does have a cool show like No Compromise. I think it�s Truth That Transforms.

I think Grace Church stole the conference name from his radio show. Did they really? Actually, I spoke out in the middle of Nebraska, and this conference was called the Gospel Network or something like that.

But the conference I did there earlier in the year, it was called the No Compromise Conference. Not because of me, but they stole it, and I�m going to have to sue them. So anyway, today on No Compromise Radio, I was thinking about self-love, and if you click on West Side Bible Church�s link, the pastor talks about how worthy you are, that�s why Jesus died for you.

And Steve, you know what I thought when I drove past that and then listened to the sermon? This is a different religion.

Well, yeah. I mean, it sounds like Oprah to me. In fact, was she the guest preacher that day? Loving yourself by Oprah.

I couldn�t believe it. I thought how, A, unbiblical, B, I don�t need to go. Let�s go into my court mode for a minute on the White Horse Inn, and you can be Rod Rosenblatt if you�d like. Okay. I�d love to be Rod Rosenblatt.

I don�t need a sermon to be reminded of how to love myself. I already excel at that. Don�t we need to preach about things that people tend to forget, that they need to have a new perspective on? I don�t mean justification, but I can�t say those.

Steve, the good words in our life have been taken. Authenticity, conversation. How about this for John Newton? Here�s what John Newton said. Young Christians think little, think themselves little. Growing Christians think themselves nothing.

Full-grown Christians think themselves less than nothing, unless you�re at West Side Bible Church.

Well, I mean, isn�t that exactly, you know, the message of Paul when he said, you know, I�m the chief of sinners, the foremost of sinners, basically made himself out to be the poster child for sin. It wasn�t because he thought, you know, I just have a bad self-image.

If I only thought higher of myself, everything would be better. He understood that in light of all that Christ had done for him, he was filthy.

See, I think it�s the bell curve deal. That�s probably why we like people like Jeffrey Dahmer and Osama Bin Laden and other people, because if there are other wicked people, then somehow in comparison, we�re good.

But what does Jesus say in Matthew 22? Let�s look at that passage today, Matthew 22, verses 36 and following, talking about the great commandments. And so what this guy did, I won�t call him a pastor because it was so shameful.

I thought it was like a comedy routine. It was Saturday Night Live or something.

And here�s� Live from Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha, Nebraska, loving yourself.

And here was the premise, that there are three great commandments. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I�m going to have Pastor Steve read this in a minute. To love your neighbor and then love your neighbor as yourself, because how can you love yourself if you don�t� How can you love your neighbor if you don�t know how to love yourself?

And so, as you listen to Pastor Steve read this, I�d like you to have a Sesame Street moment. Here�s a Sesame Street moment. Count. Remember Count Chocula, the Count, he counts things. Kind of Baron Von Roschke, vampire-like, Bram Stoker, Count Von, too.

See how many commands you can count in this pericope of Jesus. Read from verse 36 to 40, please. Yeah, that�s where I was going to start, 36. Yeah, because I think Jesus names them. I think he gives us an ordinal number at the end, and I don�t think it�s three.

A lawyer is asking this, and he says, �Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law And he, being Jesus, said to him, �You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

Well, if we had, �You�ve got to learn to love yourself that would be number three. But Jesus tells us second, and then he says, �On these two commands. What is Jesus really telling people there? What's he telling that man?

Isn�t he telling him something like, �You already love yourself, so with that same intensity, with that same desire, with that same focus, love your neighbor

But, Pastor, you can�t love others unless you love yourself. So many of us have a negative self-image and have been told that we�re utterly worthless. Until we turn that around, we can�t possibly love other people.

Well, to quote the theologian Whitney Houston, �Learning to love yourself is the greatest.

Love of all. Oh, boy, that is the biggest trope of all. I mean, that is rubbish. I need to learn to love myself. No, you do love yourself. You know, that is the essence of sin, putting yourself before God.

Steve, could you tell me some of the favorite preachers of all time that you love who helped us learn about self-esteem and three commandments that are great instead of two? Who are your favorite all-time preachers?

Well, in our home, there's only one, Rev. Bob, Rev. Bob Shuler.

I mean, he was really the modern-day catalyst for this, but I guess my point, Steve, is if I think of my favorite preachers in the world, and some days I have different preacher favorites than others, but if I look back at Jonathan Edwards or George Whitfield or John Knox or some missionaries, Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, who left here from Salem, Massachusetts, as the first missionary sent from the American soil, the list goes on.

Not one of them taught this hocus-pocus stuff. Yeah.

I mean, there's no call. I mean, you will not find anywhere in the Bible where it says, think more highly of yourself than others. You know, have this attitude among yourselves. Think of yourself first.

Have this attitude. Well, the Philippians 2 on its head.

Absolutely. How about Shuler? When I talk about that church preaching a different religion, this is why I say it, fueled by what Shuler said. The most serious sin, by the way, this is in his book, the self-esteem book, New Reformation.

What's it called? New Reformation. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. The most serious sin is the one that causes me to say, I am unworthy. For once one becomes, once one believes he is unworthy sinner, it is doubtful if he can really honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus Christ.

That is so terrible. That is another religion. Yeah.

You know, I have a great respect for Reverend Bob. In fact, we used to, when I was, I used to work in a jail and they handed all this. Oh, this is so bad.

Just imagine how this is all going to coalesce. I have respect for Reverend Bob. I used to work in a jail. Now you guys know where Tuesday guy is going to go with this. They handed out this book.

I mean, they brought him in by the caseload. Believe in the God who believes in you. And I, and a Christian friend who also happened to be a deputy sheriff, we used to like during the wee hours of the morning, just have fun opening the pages blindly and seeing who could find a heresy first on the page.

It was loads of fun because it's upside down. This version of so-called, well, it's a perversion, perversion of Christianity in which you love yourself and God is most pleased when you love yourself the most.

I mean, it could not be more wrong.

Well, Steve, I found three books that I think West Side Baptist probably carries or should carry. Now I haven't, this is not empirical. I didn't go into the building called the church. I didn't do any more research of the book table, but if I might make a humble suggestion, there'd be three books.

These should be books that they sell. I mean, yeah, yeah. They should carry these and sell them because it goes with the theme. You don't want to practice what you don't preach. There are three books.

Mm-hmm. Peter McWilliams, he authored Love 101 and the subtitle is, it's kind of a healthy thing, Steve. To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

Oh, that's so sweet. I thought he was going to say, you know, to love oneself is the beginning of wisdom. Oh yeah, that's right.

That'd be good. That was Solomon's bad son. Here's what Peter said. Who else is more qualified to love you than you? Who else knows what you want precisely when you want it and is always around to supply it?

The church of me. Oh, and that sells too, by the way. It's packed. The parking lot's packed. It's a big building. Let me tell you, the second book that I think West Side Baptist should carry is Melanie Beatty's author of Codependent No More.

And I really like her one chapter, Steve. But wait, I have to confess something.

Before I got saved, honestly, I owned that book and I read it. Uh-oh.

First, it's I love Reverend Bob and I worked at a jail. Now it's before I got saved, I own this book. Well, I want to know if you remember this chapter. Have a love affair with yourself.

I think I've blocked it all out of my head. I was codependent. I once had a friend tell me, you know, you can't love other people until you love yourself. And, you know, it seemed you can't be happy until, you know, you can't make other people happy until you're happy.

And it seemed so wise. And you know, funny thing happened. God saved me and I realized how foolish I was. And then God saved that friend of mine.

So Luther was right. There's another Tuesday guy snortage there. Luther was right. Sin makes us curved in on ourselves. That's the problem. We've been made to worship our creator. We've been made to give him honor and glory.

Think about what goes on in heaven now, where Jesus Christ, the lamb that was slain, stands and is the center. He is at the very epicenter of the world, the universe of all heaven, to receive the glory and honor due him.

Why? Because he's God, he's a creator, he's eternal. The list goes on and on, sacrificial, substitutionary atonement, resurrection. And then what does sin do? If we're made to praise Jesus, then I wonder what sin might do.

You know, this is actually, as we're talking, this is getting me a little bit angry because I'm thinking, you know, that is a right picture of heaven, but this religion of me would almost have you believe that when we get to heaven, that the reverse is going to be going on.

We're the ones going to be getting worshiped. And it just could not be more wrong. God is not in love with us because we are inherently good. He set his affection on us, not because we were good, but because it was his decision to make us good.

There's nothing good in us. The religion that says we are fallen, depraved, foolish, and sinful is the religion found in the Bible, authored by God. The other religions say things according to their religious rabbis called Rogers and Maslow, humanistic psychologies where people are good.

Now, how can they both go together? That's what I want to know, Steve. These are mutually exclusive. This is like law and gospel or oil and water.

They can't. I mean, this is the very essence of Psalm 1. You know, I mean, there's a way, there's the righteous way, and then there's the scoffing way. You know, we're going to sit in the seat of scoffers.

We're going to listen to them. We're going to learn from them. We're going to, you know, all truth is God's truth. And so what these Maslow and Rogers and these other psychologists say, it must be true.

No, no, it's not.

Steve, you know what? I think maybe your problem is you've got a bad self-image. Well, yeah, I do. Yeah.

There's no doubt about that. There's no doubt about that. Yeah. I have a really bad self-image, and it started on the day when I realized who Christ was and who I was, and that, you know, and my self-image from that moment was transformed.

Can you imagine Paul in Philippians chapter three reflecting on who he was, who he is, the greatness of Christ? And I think he realized, like Isaiah did when Isaiah saw Jesus, woe is me. That's the response.

When he's rehearsing all the things that, you know, were true about him, and then he says, you know what? And on that basis, I think I'm pretty good. I think I'm good. I'm good enough, and people like me.

And I think, you know, I think God's just going to I mean, really, you know, here's the worst part of that whole religion of me thing. God's just going to have to accept me the way I am. If he doesn't like it, then he's got a problem.

Who was the sociologist that talked about religions that we make up ourselves, and so a lady named Sheila, she has her religion of Sheilaism. Was that Al Franken? Oh, no.

Probably. Was it R .C.? I think that's an R .C. story.

Well, you know what? I think it might be quoted by Horton. It's not Christian-Smith therapeutic moralistic deism, but he does talk about Sheilaism quite a bit. Horton. Paul is talking in Philippians chapter three about his resume, his CV of all the things that he thought would earn him salvation, whether it's being an Israelite or a tribe of Benjamin person, Pharisee, et cetera.

Then he said in verse seven of Philippians three, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing myself.

Wow. He just really gave up his self-image there.

Of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. You put that in the balance and it just doesn't even weigh. There's just nothing to compare.

But are you saying, Pastor Mike, that it's wrong to have a high view of yourself, to care about yourself, to worry about how you view yourself and how other people might even think about you?

What about your self-image, self-esteem? I think self-esteem is a sin, especially in these days. Look at Steve. Steve's self-image is now being deflated, shattered. Second Timothy three, in the last days.

How do we typify these last days? Nuclear armament.

People will be lovers of God in the last days. Occupy Wall Street.

That's at the top of the list. Lovers of self. Self? Oh, okay. I know. But you know what? Before we forget, because I don't want West Side Baptist Church to go without some good books in their theological, psychological bookstore, because they want to have things consistent.

Here's one final book. Yeah, what's the next book? Brimstone and Fire? Jackie Schwartz, in her book, Letting Go of Stress, she said that you should write a love letter to yourself and tell yourself, quote, all the attributes you cherish about yourself, the things that really please, comfort, and excite you, end quote.

You know, if I did You know.

When Steve says, Reverend Bob, and then I was in jail, are you know, you just, it's.

Trained caboose. If I was to write a letter like that, and then, you know, like hide it under my pillow for a month, I don't know where I would hide it, but if I hid it someplace for a month and then I open it up, I would think to myself, I must have written this when I was unsaved or I have lost my marbles.

This is the craziest thing ever.

That's just dumb. Steve, how about these people that try to excuse behavior, sinful behavior, based on a lack of self-esteem? I think they even did it with Saddam Hussein. He did what he did because he had a low self-image.

Well, you know what? Having worked closely with the criminal element for a number of years, I can just tell you this. No one in jail, no one who robs, steals, rapes, murders, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, does it because they have a low self-image.

They do it because they have a very high self-image. They see other people as less worthy than them. They do not need the things that they have or the person who's taking them needs them more. They always put themselves over other people.

And it is completely inverting things to come up with these kind of self-love philosophies. It's wrong from the beginning.

Do you think Occupy Boston has a proper view of self-esteem?

Oh, I think they have a very high view of themselves. I mean, they're worth what everybody else has. I don't want to get too political here, but I hate that whole thing. All right. All right.

How about this? Romans 12, verse three. How would you translate this, Steve, into the self-esteem West Side Baptist Church? I'm very good at this. Okay. Okay. For through the grace given to me, I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.

Well, and I would say that's right. You ought not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but you ought to think of yourself very highly. Okay. That's right. You know, there's a little asterisk there.

And if you look down at the bottom of the page, I think that was clearly Paul's intention.

Okay. That was the Western manuscripts. Yeah. It wasn't Byzantine or Alexandrian. It was Western. How about blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?

Well, that just means that you recognize you're helpless over your own problems and you appeal to a higher power that's poor in spirit.

By the way, if you're an AA and you think it's the best thing going, ask your AA leaders if self-esteem is good or not. That's a little challenge. Now, this is not the only deductive way to determine if AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, is a good thing.

But I just want you to know, this is a test, not the test, but a test. Just say, I'm struggling with self-esteem. Do I need more or do I need less?

And what do you think they're going to tell people? More. More. You know, the reason you struggle with your substance, with whatever your issue is, for me, allegedly, it was codependency, you know, is that you have a low self-esteem.

Minus Diet Coke and some kind of fruit juice. Allegedly.

Keep going. Keep talking. Well, can I give you one? You know, these are red letters, so I know that they're really valuable. So, John 15, Jesus said, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

So, I wonder if Jesus had a good self-esteem.

Well, I don't know. I mean, he allowed himself to be put to death for others. I don't think he thought very highly of himself.

Isn't it amazing when Jesus talks to other people about what they should do? And when you read 1 John, for instance, all the Johannine writings, loving others, love them, love them, love them. Not to earn God's favor, but because it mimics God.

And so, God favors people by loving them, laying down his son's life for them, sacrificial love. There's no greater love than that, to lay down your life for a friend.

I think in 1 John, he says, you know, no one who loves, if you love, it's because God first loved you and you're in Christ, and it's all these kind of, that's exactly right. All the imagery is because God has loved you, therefore, love one another, love others.

Okay, Steve, we have one minute left.

But never love yourself. Let me give you two more verses, and I tell you these verses, and you can just say whatever you want for like 15 seconds each. Okay. Romans 7, wretched man that I am.

Paul, you know, was at the apogee of his, well, or the nadir of his depression. At this point, he was struggling. That just means the height or the depth. I know what it means. Well, I'm just, you know, getting back to the Mark Driscoll thing, I just, you know, I wanted to make sure I was explaining my terms.

I didn't want to make it seem like I was really smart. That's more than 15 seconds, by the way. 2 Corinthians 12 .10, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Well, you know, this would be when you're feeling weak and you go to a 12-step meeting and you come out feeling very strong. Okay, I lied.

One more. John 12 .25, he who loves his life, loses it, and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.

Well, you know, there might be some wisdom in there, but I think, you know, I really have no answer for that.

Well, we want you to read Luke chapter 18, and you just ask yourself which one of those two people, the Pharisee, the tax gatherer, had the most self-esteem. Yeah, it's not a tough one. All right. God bless you.

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 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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