How to Remain a Spiritual Pygmy (Part 4)

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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, a ministry. My name is

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Mike Abendroth, and today we are looking at spiritual immaturity. I have a goal for you, and that goal for you is that you would mature in Christ Jesus.

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As I've said, I think, on the first show of this series, or maybe the second or third, that spiritual immaturity should not be frowned upon in youthful Christians.

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That is to say, if you meet a brand -new Christian, of course they will be immature, but it is similar in the natural realm that when you learn, that you should learn and grow.

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You expect babies to learn and grow and become more coordinated and learn how to walk and learn how to talk, and we expect

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Christians to mature as well. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when you read the

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New Testament, growth is good, maturity is good, and so I want you to grow. I want you to see

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Christ Jesus in all His splendor and majesty, and I want you to look upon Him and remember what

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He had to do, that is, the great condescending work of Christ Jesus, the humiliation, the incarnation, how

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He would, in Philippians chapter 2, humble Himself with the great kenosis as He would add human flesh, emptying by addition, that is the addition of human flesh.

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And so I want you to see Christ in all His glory and learn and grow into your position. Your position is in Christ, you are mystically united with Christ Jesus, the great

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King of the universe, and that as time goes on, you become more like the person you are.

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Your practice begins to match more closely your position, and so you want to have, like the slogan says, conduct befitting an officer.

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You want conduct befitting a person who has been made a Christian, who has been caused to be born again by God.

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And so I want maturity, and so today we're looking in a backhanded type of fashion, part four on how to stay spiritually immature.

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I'm doing that just as a rhetorical device, a learning device, a prodding device, a goading device.

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Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order, and that's what I'm after. And here I really am after your growth, and I want you to learn and grow.

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Sometimes we take false teachers to task. That's not what I'm after here. I'm after real growth, growth so that you can say yes more often to righteous behavior with good motives, and to say no more often to selfish behavior, unrighteous behavior, ungodly behavior that would, of course, have bad motives.

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And so that's what we're after, and when you see Jesus as Titus chapter 2 proclaims him, you will begin to deny ungodliness, and you will begin to put on righteousness.

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So today, part four, spiritually immature. If you'd like to write us, it's info at nocompromiseradio .com,

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and right now we're on WVNE. Once in a while we play around with some ideas. Do we go to other stations?

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But I think most of you are on podcast, and so it doesn't really matter where we are locally. I do think,

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I don't know why this is, but I think if you're actually on a radio station, it lends more credibility.

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I guess anybody can grab a couple microphones, and a mixer, and a digital recorder, and have a podcast.

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That's basically what we have here, but there must be extra credibility lent, at least in the eyes of people when you're on the radio, and I don't know if that's true or not.

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I know it costs a lot more to be on the radio, but we are glad to serve the community locally here in Worcester.

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My GPS, by the way, doesn't say Worcester. It's got an R in it, W -O -R, and my

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GPS lady says Worchester, and so we always know when people are out from out of town.

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Of course, I'm still a California person, so I don't say Worcester, I say Worcester, and keep the end of the last letter,

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R, on that word. But sometimes I do say, I dear, after all I've been here 14 years. Well, I haven't really spoken much today, so my voice sounds deep.

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I feel like I have a radio voice. So we are up to number 10 on how to stay spiritually immature.

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Remember my goal. I want you to grow in Christ Jesus and the grace and knowledge of Christ Jesus. First, no, not the second letter, written by Peter, chapter 3, grow in the grace and knowledge of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity, and I think you will give

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God more glory if you grow in Christ Jesus. That's what we're after.

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And so number 10, if you'd like to stay spiritually immature, major on subjective mystical experiences.

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Major on subjective mystical experiences. Bruce Waltke said in his book on decisions, which

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I think actually is pretty good, reliance on special signs from God is the mark of an immature person.

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Someone who cannot simply believe the truth as presented, but must have special miraculous signs as the symbol of authority from God.

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And so that would be a sign of immaturity. I would agree with Bruce Waltke.

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And of course you've heard on this show, if you've listened for any time at all, that I really bang the drum against living your life with the engine, with the driver of subjective mystical inner light,

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Quakeristic leadings and leanings and inner light.

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And the reason why I'm so against that, and so why I'm for the inspired

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God breathed revelation from outside of us, extra nos revelation outside of us, is because man is depraved.

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I do not believe what George Fox taught in Quakerism, that every human soul has a certain amount of light implanted in it, and we can experience

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God through that. I do believe we experience God. I'm not saying we shouldn't experience

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God, but we do not believe we get ideas about God, revelation from God, truth concerning God from the inside out.

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That's why we had to have God reveal himself first in nature, but because of the fall, that was not enough to save, it was only enough to condemn.

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There had to be special revelation, there had to be God speaking through prophets and through Jesus and through apostles.

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And now we have the inscripturated word of God. And did you know what? There's not even a hint, not even a suggestion of looking to find

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God's voice outside of scripture. Never, MacArthur said, never, the

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Bible never commands us to tune into any inner voice. We're commanded to study and meditate on scripture,

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Joshua 1 .8, Psalm 1 .1, but we're instructed to cultivate wisdom and discernment,

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Proverbs 4. We're told to walk wisely and make the most of our time. And so I want you to focus on the word of God.

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Show me a mature person, I'll show you a person who really knows the word of God. Now certainly you can know the word of God well, you could memorize it as a pagan and not be godly and not be mature in Christ.

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You might not be growing up spiritually, but you need the word of God.

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You need the word of God. You cannot let, if you're listening today, experience be your guide.

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You cannot validate truth because you have an experience. You can have experiences and have them not be true.

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For instance, heaven is for real with the Berpo son and father who wrote the book along with whoever that lady was, a

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New York Times bestseller writer, bestselling writer. And so you can say you've been to heaven and experienced something, but it's not true.

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As a matter of fact, we see in second Peter chapter one, Peter, James, and John did see a real

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Jesus become transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration. And they said, as you know, this is almost our life verse, there's something that's more sure than that.

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And so I'll read those verses in a moment. I want you not to have to go outside of God's word to experience

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God's direct leading. That is to say, if he wants to lead you, he will do it through his word.

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And of course he uses other things providentially, but you're not going to be able to interpret those in front of you.

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You will be able to interpret those behind you. As you look back in time, you'll see the specific ways

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God's almighty, providential, gracious hand has guided you all the way. For those of you that are married, it doesn't take long to look back and say that God could bring these two people together.

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They would meet, that they would get to know each other, they would fall in love, they would get married. That's an amazing thing.

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And maybe you just decided to happen to go down to that store that day and that's where you met your wife at the grocery store, etc.

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But looking forward, you can't discern because your discerner is crooked and that is to say your heart is not, even if you're a

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Christian, is not totally pure. So you can't trust yourself. That's the tragedy of Disney movies, trust yourself, trust your heart.

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You can't do that. That has gotten many people in a big amount of trouble because, for instance, an unbelieving young lady can woo a believing young man and if that man trusts his heart, he might love her and want to run away with her, but he should know what the

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Scripture teaches about marrying unbelievers. Someone sent me, Christy sent me,

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I think she lives in Maine, Christy sent me an email and she said, did you know that there was a

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Facebook application where you can get daily messages from God? Daily messages from God.

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Now it's interesting, if these things were verses, then I'd be fine. You know, how do you know

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God said it? Well, chapter and verse. If somebody says, God told me, and I said, excuse me, what's the chapter and verse?

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If they could give it, I would say, yes, in a way God did tell you. It wasn't new to you. He's told us for 2 ,000 years, but the

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Spirit of God is applying that verse to your life and to your situation. Isn't that great? Isn't God good? God did not leave us rudderless.

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We have another of the same kind of Jesus, that is, we have the

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Holy Spirit. He himself will help us and guide us. And like the apostles, unlike the apostles, he won't help us write

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Scripture, but he will lead us and guide us through the Word as he illuminates it and uses it to convict us and confront us and encourage us, etc.

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So did you know, today we're talking on No Compromise Radio about a Facebook application, daily messages from God.

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Now, I'm going to read you a few of these, and you tell me regarding these samples, if you think this is actually God speaking, or do you think it's got the underlying mystical, subjective, experiential,

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I saw the light and the light is in me, etc. On this day,

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God wants you to know, and then it's got a dot, dot, dot, that when you feel down, look at yourself through God's eyes.

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I can't read any farther. When you feel down, look at yourself. You know, when you're down, you've been looking at yourself too much.

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When you're down, you've been looking at others too much. When you're down, you need to get your gaze upon the Almighty God.

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My grandmother -in -law, Grandma Evie, who has been brought to glory just a few short months ago, always said, life is bad when you gaze upon your problems and circumstances and trials on this earth, including yourself, and only glance occasionally at the greatness of God.

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But when you glance at your problems, I mean, you're in this world and in your body, so you have to deal with your problems.

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It's not like you can ostrich, you know, ostracize your problems. Did you get that word?

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Ostrich size? But then you gaze upon the Lord. And so here, when you feel down, look at yourself through God's eyes.

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There are many times when, no matter how hard you try, according to the daily messages from God, Facebook application, you just cannot accept yourself as you are.

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During such times, I think this is daily, it's like Stuart Smalley or whatever that guy was on Saturday Night Live.

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This is psychology. During such times, think of how you look to God's eyes. How does that, what does that mean?

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How you look to God's eyes, how you look in God's eyes. So now we have a message from God with improper grammar, and we don't have the right preposition.

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I think God knows how to use prepositions. In God's eyes, there is no judgment. There's only acceptance.

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God sees your light when all that you can see are your shadows. God loves you more than anyone could ever love you as you really are.

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Well, of course, God, especially if you're a Christian, God loves you. Not just as a creator does he love you, but he loves you as his bride.

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He's adopted you as a son or a daughter. And I am thankful for the love of God. But this love of God that says he loves you as you are and unconditionally, that just has a tone to it.

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It smacks of not mystical union with Christ, not in Christ, not justification and imputed righteousness.

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It is psychological in its nature. And so if you'd like to stay immature, just get daily messages from God on Facebook application that have nothing to do with the

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Word of God. It's contrary to the Word of God and contrary to proper English. On this day,

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God wants you to know, here's another example, that it's time you stopped hiding from life and said yes to the adventure of being alive.

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I'm good enough and I'm smart enough and God and dog gone it.

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I'm loved. Whatever. I can't remember what he said. Enough of the routine already. That's interesting way that God talks.

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Enough of the routine already. One Adam 12. Go on, have an adventure, comma, dash.

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So we've got still bad grammar here. Do what you always want to deep within your heart.

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See that's exactly what I'm talking about. No, don't do that. Now there is some truth to Psalm, well, there's all truth in Psalm 37, but there's some truth to taking

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Psalm 37 and say, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. And if you're walking in the

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Spirit by the Spirit's power, if your mind is flooded with scriptures and you're dwelling on the word richly and you have certain desires that are godly and you do those, those are planted by God.

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I get that. But what brings you alive, comma, and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.

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Do what brings you alive. We don't need the comma there. So there's another deal there that's wrong. And the universe will open doors where there are only walls.

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Maybe Joshua, Joshua six. Maybe he had that philosophy. I'm not sure, but I'm sure he didn't have

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Facebook. Friends, if you'd like to grow into the grace and knowledge of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, you need the word. Read Psalm one, read Psalm one about delighting in the word of God and, and, uh, just meditating on the word of God and ruminating upon it and just chewing it over and over and over like a cow chews the cud to suck out every bit of nutritious, um, nutrition, nutritious nutrition.

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All right. Let's see what else God wants me to do. We're still on no compromise radio.

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We're talking about, uh, you will be spiritually immature if you fall for things like this. This is Christian fortune cookies.

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That's exactly what that is. This is a Christian fortune cookie. And for us and our family,

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I think the best thing to do when you get a fortune cookie, they are so ludicrous. They are so generic. They are so inane that you read the fortune cookie and then afterwards you have to say in the bathroom.

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And so you make a pause and then say in the bathroom because it shows how ludicrous it is. And if you say that when you get these,

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I think you'll like them. So the next time you go to a Chinese restaurant, just read the fortune cookie and then afterwards say in the bathroom.

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And you'll be reminded that there's no such thing as fortune, chance, luck, or anything else.

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On this day, God wants you to know that there are no accidents so far. So good. Hoorah. What you think of as accidents are simply your conversations with God that you haven't yet been able to understand.

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Here I go laughing alone again in this studio. That's what an accident is.

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Your conversations with God that you haven't yet been able to understand. Well we call our conversation with God, our part, prayer, we call his part speaking to us through the word.

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This Facebook application says, but take heart, all happens in God's will and in every conversation has deep meaning for you.

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So it's interesting that God can speak with improper grammar, but I guess he can speak through a donkey as well.

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Let's look at another one. These are kind of fun. I'm not going to get very far on the show today, but it all serves a purpose on No Compromise Radio that if you abandon the word of God as your sole source of correction and comfort and rebuke and training in righteousness and everything else, you are lost in the sea of mysticism and relativity and you're not going to grow.

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I want you to grow. As tough as I can be on some people when they teach things that add to the grace of God, I want you to grow.

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This is a positive, encouraging Caleb moment right here. I want you to learn. I want you to grow. That is my great desire.

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That is how I get satisfaction in life, one of the ways. When I see people at Bethlehem Bible Church learn and grow and mature, and then as they begin to mature, guess what happens to mature saints?

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Mature people reproduce and mature saints reproduce as well. That is to say, God uses them to preach the gospel, to evangelize, to speak well of Christ Jesus, to disciple other people.

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That is a great joy. You want to give your pastors joy? Well, then you grow in the grace and knowledge of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. On this day, according to the Facebook application, Daily Messages from God, God wants you to know that there is no need to obsess over a decision.

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Is that an abscess? To abscess over a decision? Instead, you must lance it.

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No, I'm kidding. God has more in store for us than we can ever predict.

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And what we fear are bad choices frequently turn out for the best because our hidden aspirations know better where we are going than our rational minds.

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Well, again, maybe the best benefit that I could give this person here who's claiming to be

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God, who's, you know, don't mind the man behind the curtain, is that they are having

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English as a second language. Maybe that's the scoop. Maybe they really speak fluent another language, but that was just horrible grammar, wasn't it?

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Now you say, well, Mike, you have some horrible grammar faux pas as well. Well, that's true. I do have those, especially if you're on live radio or close to live radio and we just talk and you're going to make mistakes and so do you.

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And you correct yourself. You know, it is I, it is me. And you say, okay, you and me went to the store.

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You and I went to the store. Now, which one is it? I went to the store. You and I went to the store. And you do things like that. But if you write them down and then you put them out under the guise that this is

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God speaking, I think you should probably be more careful. Although I'm actually thankful because if anybody could put two and two together, they'd realize

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A, this is not theology, B, it's not biblical, and C, it's poor grammar. And so it must not be from God.

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On this day, God wants you to know that you are asked for very little, that you were asked for very little.

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Nobody asked for me. Just the totality of your being. I don't have any idea what that is.

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Just think if you tried to live your life by this, you're like, well, what does he actually mean by that? God demands the totality of your being, that you invest all yourself, capital

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S, into celebrating the glory and the preciousness of being alive right now. No holding back and saving for later.

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Should be a dash, not a comma, period at least. I think that's the last thing

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I have to write or read there for daily messages from God. One thing

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I notice, nothing about a mediator, nothing about Christ Jesus, nothing about a high priest,

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I know what God wants you to know, and God wants you to know that everything pertaining to life and godliness is found in his holy scriptures.

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And when you study the holy scriptures, you will see that the scriptures are replete with Christ Jesus, the great

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Savior and King and Lord. And even in the Old Testament, you will see the trajectories pointing toward the

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Messiah. And you'll get the early on inklings in Genesis chapter three. You'll get messianic

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Psalms, you'll get Redeemer Kinsmen, you will get all kinds of issues with King priests like Melchizedek.

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And you will begin to formulate in your mind as you read the Old Testament, if you never knew the Old Testament, a great

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King is coming, a great priest is coming, a great prophet is coming. The prophet, priest, and king,

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King Jesus, priest Jesus, prophet Jesus is going to be God's chosen one, and he will come down to earth and cloak himself with human flesh and be

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God with us. And so if God is telling you things on a regular basis without the high priest and mediator,

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Jesus Christ, it's a different God. That's not God speaking. That's someone trying to psychologicalize, let's see, that doesn't make sense either, to make psychological what

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God says to people so the people's self -esteem goes up, so they feel better about themselves. I don't see anything, and maybe this is just a select group that is not representative of everything else, but we need to hear about repentance and faith and trust and hope in the object of Christ Jesus.

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Repentance from our sins and turning to Christ Jesus. Even for Christians, Christ needs to be the focus, and any ministry that's a real ministry will focus on Jesus Christ.

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I've determined to know nothing among you, Corinthians 2, verse 2 in the first book, except Jesus Christ, even the crucified one.

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He is the one. How do you solve problems in a local church like Corinth? You press the gospel to them in Christ Jesus.

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How do you answer questions in the book of Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 7 -16? You push

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Jesus Christ. He is the one. He's the answer. He is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last.

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He answers the questions that we need answered, and he answers them eternally and finally, and so if you'd like to grow up, then focus on Christ Jesus.

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Go buy the book, Cross of Christ by John Stott. That would be a good, helpful book. Go buy another book,

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Martin Lloyd -Jones, The Cross. Those men will help point you to Jesus Christ, and it will help you, and then it will help you grow into the only way

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I can look for help and guidance is in the scripture. Phil Johnson said, to whatever degree you seek private messages outside his word, you abandon sola scriptura.

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I don't want experiences to be your guide. I don't want you to think you need a mystical thing like God audibly speaking to you.

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I don't want you to leave the guidance of the polar star to follow a jack -o' -lantern, like Edward said, leaving the word of God to follow impressions.

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You don't want to do that. You don't need to do that. My name is Mike Avendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. How to stay spiritually immature?

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Focus on impressions and yourself. How to grow up? How to mature? Focus on the word of God, which preaches from beginning to end,

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Jesus Christ, the Lord. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth 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 6. 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.