Phil Foley Interview

No Compromise Radio

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February 8, 2018

00:01: Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
00:08: 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
00:16: 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.
00:24: In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.
00:30: 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
00:41: King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is
00:46: Mike Abendroth, and probably you know the format by now. Mondays, a sermon
00:51: I have preached at Bethlehem Bible Church, bbcchurch .org. We�ll play that, either half of it or in its entirety.
00:58: I�ve been preaching through the book of Hebrews lately, so it�s just been great, �The Supremacy of Jesus the
01:04: High Priest.� Tuesdays, I like to talk to my associate pastor, Pastor Steve Cooley.
01:10: We deal with issues in the church. It could be from what is church discipline to how do we do the one another�s.
01:16: Thursdays, talk about something more educational. We�ve been going through the series �Sovereignty of God and Human Responsibility.�
01:24: And then Fridays, I usually go after somebody, maybe kind of �Woodshed Friday.� But on Wednesdays, I like to talk to pastors, theologians, authors, celebrities, and other folks.
01:37: And so today, I have Phil Foley. Pastor Phil Foley online from California. Phil, welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.
01:45: Thank you, Mike. Did you fall into that celebrity category? Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, maybe
01:50: I do. Pretty amazing. You would call me a celebrity. Well, Phil, we've known each other not that long.
01:59: I mean, in passing, maybe we've seen each other a long time ago. But we ran into each other recently in Wittenberg, Germany.
02:06: That's kind of a good place to rekindle a friendship, don't you think? Absolutely. Phil is the pastor, preaching pastor, lead pastor at Community Bible Church, and that's in Vallejo, California.
02:19: And if you want to go to the website to hear some of Phil's verse -by -verse expositions, it's simple,
02:26: C -B -C -Vallejo .org, C -B -C -V -A -L -L -E -J -O .org,
02:33: and you can pull up the sermon series there. I know the answer to this question, Phil, but our listeners don't.
02:39: What are you preaching through these days, and why are you excited about it? Yes, I've been preaching through the book of Acts.
02:46: It has been such a joy every week to just be reminded of our mission of preaching the gospel, seeing the effects of the gospel, both good and opposition.
02:59: I mean, it constantly is the same thing. You're preaching Christ, people are getting saved, praise God, but there's always a very strong negative reaction, and yet these men kept going because of their love for Christ.
03:12: So just to be reminded of that, reminded of God's sovereignty, God's power, that Christ is building
03:18: His church, nothing's going to stop Him. Oh, it's refreshing week after week, and it just reminds us in our church of what we're supposed to be doing.
03:26: Phil, I read Acts 28 the other day, the last—contrary to the
03:31: Acts 29 people—no, I'm just kidding. Acts 28's the final chapter in the book of Acts, and regularly we will say that John chapter 5 and Luke 24, when our
03:43: Lord Jesus talks about seeing Himself in the Old Testament, those are two great passages, of course.
03:50: But it's fascinating, Paul, it says, he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.
04:03: What a great way to end the book of Acts. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, the
04:08: Bible is about Jesus, isn't it? And he has said that, and you know, that's one of the things that I love about the
04:16: Bible, it's about Jesus, it gets you focused on Christ, and you don't have to look far to find Him. He's everywhere.
04:23: And the Christian life really is Christ, isn't it? Phil, it seems like we go to the
04:29: Old Testament so often, and we want to learn about a character, and Esther's resolve, let's say, or Nehemiah's, you know, building skills and leadership.
04:40: You know, I guess there's a place to see Joseph, and he fled from sexual immorality.
04:45: But what if we only look at characters, and we forget to just step back for a moment and see how, in fact,
04:51: Jesus is in the law of Moses and the prophets? Yes, He is.
04:58: And that's, you're right, Mike, you have to step back and look at the big picture. And yes, those are wonderful stories that we read.
05:08: But the whole narrative of the whole Old Testament is looking forward to Christ and pointing us to Him.
05:16: And if you don't see Him there, then you've missed the real meaning and the real point of the
05:23: Old Testament and where it's going. Phil, you got saved, according to your bio, in 1984.
05:29: Probably some of our listeners weren't even born then. You are old. Tell our listeners how the
05:37: Lord saved you. Sure. I started attending Community Bible Church, the church
05:42: I'm now pastoring. I have to stop you right there just for a second. That's pretty amazing if you just stop, listeners, and let that sink in.
05:50: I got saved at the church I'm now pastoring. That is fascinating and wonderful and good of God, isn't it?
05:58: Yes, absolutely. Still, I mean, obviously, when I came to this church,
06:03: I had no idea I would be pastoring it someday. I wasn't even a Christian. And I just,
06:10: God drew me here. I mean, just looking back, He drew me here. I started going through, we have discipleship program and where we go through, you know, the first step of discipleship is, who is
06:22: Jesus? And I started learning the Bible and learning who Christ was, and a couple of brothers just really invested in taking time to just take me through that, answer my questions, and then through that,
06:33: God saved me. So was Steve Fernandes the pastor at the time? Yes, he was, yeah, he was the founding pastor, and he had started the church in 1980.
06:44: All right. So it's fascinating. You have Phil Howard that begins to preach, and then
06:49: Community is started, and Steve's the pastor there now, was there when
06:56: Phil sent him there, and then you're the pastor now. Tell our listeners a little bit about the transition from Steve to you, because I think it speaks of God, especially in the book of Acts, God is building
07:07: His church, and we love our pastors and our friends and our father and fathers and mothers, but when someone dies, then the church keeps going, right?
07:18: And so it's fascinating for me to watch God's hand in the midst of Steve's passing, and then you taking the mantle.
07:27: Tell our listeners about that. Sure. I was serving in the church for many years and felt
07:33: God call me to ministry, and so in 1996, the church, the elders called me to be the associate pastor.
07:43: So I was working with Steve for many, many years, and just a dear brother, his associate, and then about five years ago,
07:51: Steve found out he had a brain tumor, and over a period about six, seven months, the
08:00: Lord finally took him home, and we have a fairly large church, and so it was just a time of transition, and the
08:09: Lord had really just prepared me to step in His shoes, which were big shoes to fill, but the
08:19: Lord just really transitioned our church through that whole process. I had been here many years. I had trained most of our leaders
08:27: I had done the training of, and so I knew all the men, the elders, the leaders of our church.
08:33: And so we didn't have, I don't think one person left our church. It was amazing, just a smooth transition, and we had people on the outside saying, man,
08:42: Phil, it doesn't look like Community Bible Church is any different, and I said, well, I don't think it is. It's just a different guy preaching every
08:48: Sunday, and that was just a testimony to, you know, I think my pastor, just investing in men, training men, discipling men, and then just our church kind of thinking that way, that we're always, you know, my pastor used to say we're all replaceable parts.
09:04: Someday the Lord's going to move us on or take us home, and we need to be thinking about training up the Timothys behind us, and he did that, and so kind of ingrained that,
09:12: I think, in us and our leadership, and so we have continued on. And in fact, Mike, it's amazing, most of the pastor's chair and staff got saved here.
09:23: Well, as you were talking, Phil, I thought to myself, there's certainly nothing wrong or sinful or unrighteous about a church hiring from the outside.
09:32: I mean, that happens all the time, and that's just the way things go these days. But I think it's better when something like this happens, and I knew
09:40: Steve, and Steve dies, and then the baton is passed to you. You know the people.
09:46: The people know you. You know the men and women, and you already have relationships, and it just seemed, at least to me from the outside, oh, that was normal.
09:55: We pass the baton to Phil, and I'm sure there were times where you were, you know, probably having your knees shaking, but you just...
10:04: Oh, you know what? Tell our listeners, and see, you beat me on this one. What's the largest congregation or group of people that you've ever preached to?
10:14: And give our listeners the background, because that's a good testimony of God's grace, too. Sure.
10:21: When Steve found out he had a brain tumor, the same week, a California Highway Patrolman in our church was killed on the job.
10:31: And so they had his funeral the following week, and Steve was supposed to do it, and he told me,
10:37: Phil, I can't do it. He was limping because of the tumor was affecting his... And so he couldn't get up on the stage, and so I had the opportunity to preach the gospel in front of our governor,
10:48: Governor Brown, Lieutenant Governor, and in the room was about 4 ,000 police officers from all over the states, not just California.
11:00: There was an overflow room of about 1 ,500, and other people were sitting outside. It was all...
11:06: So it was probably at least 6 ,000 people there, and it was on live TV, which I didn't know. But people in our church were like, man, we saw you on TV preaching the gospel, because they were showing it live everywhere.
11:16: So I don't know how many people, but what a joy to be able to tell people who are putting their lives on the line every day and facing danger every day that you need
11:29: Christ. You don't know when your life will be over, and you need
11:34: Christ. And so it was a joy to be able to do that. Phil, I'm sure the believers in the audience made their way over to you and said thank you, and people of the church, thank you for being faithful and preaching the gospel.
11:48: Did you get any pushback? Why did you talk that way at a funeral? No, actually, the
11:56: CHP had told one of our deacons beforehand they wanted me to be politically correct, and this particular deacon was a ex -sheriff, and he said, well, the
12:11: CHP officer that was killed believed this, and he shared with him the gospel, and he says, and that's what my pastor's going to preach.
12:16: Anybody got a problem with that? Nobody said anything, he said, good. So God kind of took care of that beforehand, and they gave me ten minutes, and so I took twelve and preached the gospel.
12:28: Amen. CBCVallejo .org, if people like to go and learn a little bit more about the church,
12:34: Pastor Phil Foley. Phil, tell us a little bit about the seminary. There's a seminary on campus,
12:40: Cornerstone Seminary. Tell us about how it started, and why it's particularly unique for those listeners in Northern California that don't know about it.
12:50: I want them to know about this seminary, Cornerstone Seminary. Sure. Yes, a number of years ago, my pastor
12:58: Steve and I just, we were burdened. We had a Bible college here, and we had trained many people.
13:05: I myself went to the Bible college, and we had a number of men just keep asking us, when are you going to start a seminary?
13:10: Because what was happening was, guys would go away to seminary, and then never come back, and so we were losing our best men.
13:18: So a lot of the churches up here, there wasn't really a good solid seminary here in Northern California, and so we started the seminary,
13:29: I believe back in 2004, and we started with seventeen men. It was amazing, and some of our distinctives are just a passion to be
13:39: Christ -centered, to help men see that what we're doing, the
13:44: Christian life is Christ, and what we mean by that is, you know,
13:51: Paul says that we see the glory of God in the face of Christ.
13:57: And so it's not, we're not, Christ -centeredness is not a neglect of the Father or the Spirit. No, we believe the
14:03: Father wants us to exalt the Son. The Spirit has come to glorify the Son, and so that's one of the distinctives, is help men see the importance of Christ -centeredness, that the
14:13: Christian life is centered around Him. We read our Bibles because we want to see Christ.
14:18: Our marriages are centered around Christ. Raising our children is unto the Lord, and we work unto
14:25: Christ. And so when you, when Christ becomes that focus, it's just, it's a relationship, a love with Him, and so that's one of the things we try to model and emphasize with the students.
14:38: And then the other thing I think that's real key to our seminary is we have pastors who train pastors.
14:45: I mean, if you think about any field, if I'm going to be a doctor, if I'm going to be an electrician, whatever it is,
14:51: I'm going to be trained by someone who's a specialist in that field. And yet, sadly today, you could go to a seminary and never be trained by a pastor.
15:00: That shouldn't be happening. And so our, the guys that come to our seminary, they get trained by guys who are pastors.
15:08: We have, you know, 20, 22 guys who come and teach, and they're all full -time pastors who come and train and teach them in.
15:16: And so they're learning theology in a context of, oh, this is how it applies to the person in your church.
15:23: It's not just learning theology. So really helpful for these men, and it prepares them to actually become pastors.
15:29: And so we're all thankful for this and for this ministry, and it's a joy to be a part of this.
15:36: Phil, when I took both Greek and Hebrew at seminary, pastors taught me those.
15:42: Pastor theologians, pastor teachers, and seminary teachers. It's amazing because, you know, we're learning verbs and participles and things like that.
15:52: And of course, we have to do that. But I almost like the class better, even the language classes, when the particular pastor would see something in that passage, and that would spark interest in ministry or something about the
16:05: Lord, and he would go on and on. And I thought, you know, that's why you take Greek and Hebrew classes from a man of God at a seminary, because it's just not about the data.
16:15: It's even how you learn in a Christian way, don't you think? Absolutely. Absolutely.
16:21: Go ahead. I'm sorry. Please. No, go ahead. I was just going to say, Sunday morning, you have a service, and then you have kind of, since you're a dinosaur, you're a troglodyte, you're a cave dweller, you have a
16:32: Sunday night service. Many churches have kind of folded Sunday night services. What's your philosophy on Sunday nights, and how have you been able to continue on with Sunday nights with so many churches closing on that night?
16:46: Yeah, when my pastor Steve started the church in 1980, they started with a Sunday night service, and we have done that since the beginning.
16:55: And we believe the Lord's Day is the Lord's Day, and it's the whole day.
17:02: And so we just encourage God's people to come, and it's smaller than mornings, obviously, but we have a real good group on Sunday nights.
17:13: And we love to preach Christ and fellowship, and we love to sing.
17:18: You've been to our church, Mike. We love to sing and worship our God, and people come.
17:24: They want to come and be encouraged, and I think our leaders really love it. And Sunday nights seems to even be more family, really.
17:34: It's the people who really want to be there. And so they're really joyful times. And honestly, if I miss
17:42: Sunday night, I feel like I've missed something really special. So I think a lot of people feel that way. They just want to be there and to be encouraged.
17:49: Well, when I was there on a Sunday night last year, I was very encouraged, and it didn't have any kind of Sunday night feel that is foreign to a regular worship service, or this is where you just, it's kind of Bible study.
18:03: No, it was praise songs and singing and Scripture reading, and it was a wonderful service.
18:08: And I was thankful to be part of that. I'm on the website, Pastor Phil, and tell us about some of the resources.
18:17: One of the things that you and Steve have done over the years with the staff, great materials online for discipleship, preaching.
18:28: I'm talking if you are a smaller church, a smaller church pastor, or even a larger church pastor, or a larger pastor.
18:38: There's some Christian dieting books. No, there are so many resources. You don't have to reinvent the wheel.
18:43: Just take these, and you can kind of cut and paste. Tell us about the resources and the philosophy behind offering all those.
18:50: Sure. We, my pastor was, Steve was really just instrumental,
18:57: I think, in just writing a lot of pamphlets that are just helpful, and then I've kind of done that as well.
19:03: And I just, I think a lot of it is, like I mentioned earlier, just our discipleship, just the burden for that.
19:09: And so we have a lot of discipleship material. I do a leadership development, a leadership training that I do, a two -year program that I do that we put on there.
19:18: I constantly am getting pastors asking me, hey, Phil, give me your material on this. And so we thought, hey, we just need to, we'll give them the syllabus, and then if they have more questions, they can talk to me.
19:28: So we make that available because it's so important to be training up leaders and investing in men and learning how to do that.
19:36: And so we just want to make those things available to people. They're out there. And then you could always call here or talk to somebody here, and we can get that out to you.
19:48: And I'm, Mike, I'm really, I'm not very creative. If somebody's already done something,
19:55: I just take it and kind of tweak it to fit us. And then we just go do it. So I think most of this stuff we've just borrowed from other people, tweaked it maybe a little bit to suit us.
20:04: And we're happy to give that out and let others do that as well. Well, I'm telling you, there are so many great articles, many
20:10: I have read. I'll just read a few here so the listeners can get an idea, because I want them to go to cbcvallejo .org,
20:17: not only to listen to sermons, but to get some of these articles. Missions and the Glory of God's Name.
20:23: You guys are known for missions and how to do it well. God -designed marriage, exalting
20:29: Christ in life or death. This is your church, a sufficiency of Scripture and money, and the list goes on.
20:38: A lot of resources. So you've got the college, the seminary, you've got these resources.
20:44: You also have a conference that I thought I'd talk about a little bit, and I'm particularly interested in the conference and if there are green
20:52: M &Ms in the green room for the speakers. We will get you some, brother.
20:59: We have a pastors conference that we've been doing for 10, 12 years now.
21:05: Every fall, we do it right after Labor Day, and it's Exalting Christ Pastors Conference.
21:12: It's also for leaders. We have missionaries come from all over the world and people from all over the states, but mainly it's geared to really encourage pastors in Northern California.
21:23: And we love doing this. We feel like part of our responsibility as a church is to just encourage other pastors.
21:33: I mean, guys, they're in the trenches, as you know, brother, week after week, and you're dealing with all kinds of issues that you need to get around other pastors.
21:42: Just to be encouraged, just to pray, just to maybe talk to somebody and have time to just kind of unload or whatever you need.
21:49: And so that's what this is designed for. It's a few days just to get away, rest, and enjoy the beautiful Bay Area here.
21:56: I mean, there's a lot of beautiful sites all around. And so it's a time just to get guys to enjoy not only some good preaching, but hopefully just a few days to rest and get rejuvenated, get back to the pulpit and preach.
22:09: That's September, right? Every year. September every year, yes. Okay. Now, Phil, I know you, our listeners probably don't know you as like I do.
22:19: When you're in ministry and you're preaching and discipleship and counseling, very, very intense.
22:27: I like you because you're an intense man. But then you also, when you don't need to be intense, you can just have fun.
22:34: What do you like to do? You and Becky like to do kind of what? How would we, if I drove past your house, what would
22:39: I see you doing for fun? Ballroom dancing? What would I see you do? Oh, man, I wish I could do that.
22:45: I haven't had time to figure that one out yet. But, oh, I just love working with my hands, working on the house.
22:52: Becky and I love to get away by the coast, and we like to just walk, and we love to read.
22:58: So those are the things we like to do. Those are really relaxing because my life is so busy as a pastor.
23:05: If I could just get away and go for walks on the beach or read a good book, I'm happy.
23:11: Okay. Speaking of good books, anything you've read lately that you'd like to tell our listeners about? I just read some books on leadership.
23:21: My dear brother, John MacArthur, has got the book on leadership. I read that. It just really resonated well with me.
23:27: It's been a while ago since he wrote that. But, oh, it just refreshed me. I needed some refreshing on that.
23:35: And so, of course, Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders, a classic, really good book.
23:45: Amen. Well, time is fleeting, and we've only got a few more minutes to go.
23:52: Phil Foley here on No Compromise Radio. Vallejo is, how would we, you know, it's close to Oakland and San Francisco.
24:01: How do you tell people where you are for those that don't know the Bay Area? Sure. And we are in the
24:09: Northeast Bay. Okay. And so are people there like Golden State fans,
24:16: Warrior fans? Oh, yeah, yeah. So we are strategically located about an hour from Sacramento, about an hour from San Jose.
24:25: We're right in the middle, which is a good location to be. We draw people from those areas to our school and conference.
24:33: And so it's just that God has put us in a great location. Vallejo is kind of known as more of a tough town.
24:40: It was a Navy town for 150 years. And so it kind of has that reputation, and we don't mind that people here need the gospel.
24:48: So we're glad to be here. Do you ever say to yourself, I'm in an area that's pretty, you know, there's some rough parts of Vallejo, and then you say to yourself, you know, oh,
25:03: Bel Air or Central Park, you know, West, Upper East Side.
25:09: And for me, Phil, what I do, I almost called you Steve. What I do, Phil, is
25:14: I think to myself, God has perfectly made me in the sense providentially for the particular spot that I'm at.
25:22: I don't mean I'm perfect. I mean, but He's made me in a certain way. Do you think that same thing applies to you and the people there?
25:30: I mean, I'm not trying to call you roughneck or anything, but I mean, God made you to be the pastor there in this kind of tougher town.
25:37: Yeah, and I agree with that. Beck and I have been here since we were married 32 years ago, and we wouldn't want to be any other place.
25:48: We love being here, love the people, love our city, and it desperately needs Christ, and we're glad we're here preaching the gospel.
25:55: Now, see, I don't know about you, so I'll speak about me. If I was in Georgia or something or some
26:00: Southern place, I'd probably get kicked out. I'd be too mean, too ornery. I don't know. You might be too intense for these people over in Alabama.
26:09: I don't know. I think we better keep you in Vallejo. Yeah, I'm glad to stay here. So one day you will die, get brain cancer or something, and then the next man will take over.
26:20: Are you practically working through those issues now in terms of we need to raise up the next generation so when
26:27: I leave, the next man will just take over? Absolutely. Got wonderful men on staff and great men of God, and working with them, and it's a joy, and I couldn't ask for a better team of men to work with.
26:45: As we wrap up, Phil, anything that you said earlier in the day, I hope Mike asked me such and such, and I didn't ask you.
26:53: Is there anything you want to say? I mean, this is like nationwide radio here. This podcast permeates.
27:02: Brother, I think you have covered it. What a joy it is to serve Christ. I mean,
27:09: I'm just happy to be able to do that. I'm just amazed that our Lord allows us to proclaim
27:15: His name. What joy we have, brother. No greater thing that we can do than preach the excellencies of Christ.
27:22: Amen. And you know what I think would be good for the folks that are listening? Phil, you have experienced many hardships in ministry, and you've seen lots of things behind the scenes with people and church, and church burns people and pastors and everything else.
27:37: When I meet folks that say, you know what, I'm done with the church because people are ornery and hypocritical and everything else,
27:43: I want to say in my flesh, well, I could tell you worse stories, and I'm not done with the church because this is the bride of Christ.
27:51: What do you tell people who say, you know, too many hypocrites, I'm done? Yeah, you know, you got to get your focus on Christ.
28:01: Everybody's a hypocrite to some extent. And you got to get your eyes back on Jesus.
28:08: He will never forsake you. He will never leave you. He's your shepherd. Look to Christ and pour your heart out in serving
28:16: Him. Paul, I mean, you look at Paul's life and so many hardships, so many.
28:24: And you ask yourself, what kept him going? And he tells you, I get to preach
28:29: Christ. And to me, to live is Christ. And if you get your focus back on Him, you know, the wounds, the hurts don't go away.
28:39: The hypocrites don't go away. But it makes it a lot easier because you're focused on Him. You're looking heavenward.
28:46: You're reaching out to the prize. You get your focus off other people. You look straight ahead.
28:51: You look to the finish line. I'm pursuing Christ. I'm going to see Him face to face. Amen.
28:58: Acts 28, verse 30 and 31, the final two verses of Acts. He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the
29:10: Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. What a great
29:15: Lord we serve. Pastor Phil Foley, thank you so much for being on No Compromise Radio. Thank you, Mike.
29:21: I really appreciate it. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
29:28: 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.
29:38: Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.
29:45: You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.