Christian Conferencing

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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.

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Mike Abendroth here with some older technology, but we're upgrading. Are we? We are.

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Steve, did you know we are on KAGV 1110 AM? And we're also on KFGR?

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Well, those are my favorite stations. Alaska and Wyoming. What does that tell us about our demographic?

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The people in the great wide open really like this show. I mean, it's about time. I mean, notice what's not on the list.

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Miami. Los Angeles. Philadelphia. Okay, well, it's okay.

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We're coming to the big cities. I think the only thing we're missing is maybe Montana. That kind of fits this.

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Wyoming. It does. Right? Yeah. Alaska. Yeah. Colorado would be on that list except they've got too much dope there.

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True. What about Tijuana? Tijuana. Steve, before we talk about our topic today,

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I was in Walpole, New Hampshire a couple weeks ago, taking my wife out to see the fall colors.

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Driving around, she said, let's go up there. Walpole, New Hampshire. I believe Ken Burns lives in Walpole.

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Is that right? Did you stop by to say hi? Yeah. I did. I put a couple Steve Cooley for state senators signs on his lawn.

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Nice. I'm not running for state senator, but thanks. And so there was a place to get lunch and there was one of those boards that have all kinds of business cards on there.

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People soliciting their services. Yeah, I believe they're called business boards. Okay. Good. I don't know.

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That's why you're here. Yeah. And so the one that you see in my hand, it shows a lady with a face covered by a mask, right?

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A COVID kind of thing. And it says, whose fault is it that we have COVID -19?

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Clearly it's her fault. I know. It's not N95. It's not sealed. She didn't use it. She used it once.

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She's the problem. And that kind of thing made me interested. And so, Steve, I picked it up.

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You can see the little pin mark there and I turn it around and what do you guess I'm going to find? Um, I don't know.

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The Wuhan virus lab. I turn it around and it says, whose fault is it that we have

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COVID -19? Some blame Trump, Obama, China, the WHO, the

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CDC, and the NIH. It is new. Who do we blame? Do you want to know the truth?

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We are all to blame. If we think death is new, we believe a lie. It's an old problem.

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Death exists because we are all sinners. All of us. And then it goes on to talk more about the

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Bible. And then it gives the number at 1 -800 -WUHAN -LAB.

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I don't know if it's got King James in here, if it's kind of a Chick track kind of thing. It does say we need a savior,

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Jesus Christ, the blameless son of God, bore the sins of his people, even though he was perfectly innocent, 1

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Corinthians 15, 3 -4. He's holy, but he died for sinners. Did you get that? For sinners, not victims.

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It might be hard to hear, but you are not a victim in the eyes of God. He sees you as a criminal, an enemy of God through the wicked, through wicked works, your lies, sexual immorality, blasphemy, murder, abortion is murder, disobedience to parents, et cetera.

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And you act on Sunday as if God does not exist. It goes on to say some stuff. Now, my only question is at the very end,

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I wonder what it says. But Jesus conquered death and rose from the dead. Who else do you know who has done that?

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Not bad, huh? Yeah, it's a good line. Uh -huh. Repent of your sin and trust in Jesus alone to save you. Yes, you will still die, but you will be in the presence of God with whom there is fullness of joy.

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And then it gives it, Acts 2 -24. Don't waste your quarantine. That's the last line. Is it really?

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Don't waste your quarantine. Any personal updates or anecdotes you want to give before we get to the show?

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Personal updates or anecdotes. Well, you know, there was, no, I don't have any. Personal updates or anecdotes.

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No. Okay. Any books you're reading that are interesting to you, either secular or sacred, if we believe in that bifurcation.

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They're all sacred books. Tell our listeners about Rainbow Six. You and I were talking about that offline.

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I thought, you know, I need to go reread that. Can you give me the 30 -second Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy? 30 seconds.

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Okay, go. It's ostensibly about terrorism, but terrorism is only a side measure in the book.

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It's really about a corporation. It's Malthusian in nature, which means they think the problem with the world is too many people.

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They develop a virus to rid the world of most of the population, and then they come upon a plan to actually deliver it at an

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Olympics game, where it will be, everybody will take it back to their home place and all that.

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But it really has a lot, you know, written 20 years ago, has a lot of impact about today.

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Okay. You know what? I should have timed you. Discipleship classes, I time people for the 60 -second testimony.

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I thought you were going to. I thought you were going to. Okay. Today, Steve, I'd like to talk about conferencing.

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Is that a gerund? Teleconference. Let's talk about Christian conferences, and we want to give our opinion and advice, and should people spend the money?

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Is it a good thing to do? What about local church conferences? What about the big ones? Why don't some of these exist anymore?

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Your general thoughts on conferencing, and then we'll tighten the focus. I think conferences are good.

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I think they're fun. I think they're, you know, I've been to a lot of them. Are they a great way to meet other

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Christians? They're as good a way as going to churches. In other words,

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I know people here that, they go, well, I've been here for 10 years, and I don't know anybody.

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Well, whose fault is that exactly, you know? And the same thing happens at conferences.

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If you don't try to meet people there, you won't meet anybody. So yeah, but I like conferences.

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Well, Steve, I don't know what's been happening, but the big conferences that I go to as an attendee, I just wear these, like, mirrored glasses, and I have a hoodie on, and I have my headphones on, and I don't really seem to meet anyone.

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Okay, you're a bummer. Do you think conferences take away from local church means of grace,

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Sunday morning worship service? Is there a downside to this, Steve, where people would say, yeah, you know, my pastor, he's not one of these big speakers, and our church services are, you know, kind of middle of the road, not the best quality music.

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I go to conferences that are the A -list speakers. It's beautiful music, and that's where I really get my boost compared to just ordinary means on Sunday.

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Well, I don't know, you know, does Disneyland take away from your family? I mean, it's kind of like,

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I mean, you know, conferences are not the real world, right? I mean, if you're, because we were at one of the churches where, you know, a big conference happens, and you see the conference, and you realize the conference is even more special than your normal church services, and your, you know,

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I'm talking about grace, their normal church service is not a normal church service, right?

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They do things that, you know, they'll have an orchestra on Sunday morning, and a choir every Sunday morning, and they'll have a professional, you know, like Christopher Parkinon come in and play guitar.

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That's not normal. You know, most churches can't bring in Jubilant Sykes on Sunday morning to sing.

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So these are not typical, normal church services. And so, like, the

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Shepherds Conference is even over and above that. So I would say if you're at any church,

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I don't care what church it is, if it's St. Andrews, or it's Grace Community Church, or wherever it is, if you're there long enough, and you get to see behind the scenes, you know that it's not perfect.

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You know that it's just an institution ultimately governed by the

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Bible, but it's run by men, so it's going to have cracks and faults. Steve, maybe it's just because of I'm older, or...

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Yes, you are. Whose fault is it that we have COVID -19?

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But when I go to a conference, so I think this coming year, instead of going to the Shepherds Conference...

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And he goes to a lot of conferences as a speaker. I'm going to go to the Westminster Escondido Conference.

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And so whether you're a Baptistic or Presbyterian, you know,

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Paedo -Baptist, you know, conferencing, I never say to myself, this is in lieu of Sunday, this is better than Sunday.

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I think, you know what, it gives me a good excuse to go meet some other Christians, to sit under the

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Word. I mean, we could go shoot guns together, we could go to a restaurant together, but we just happen to have it revolving around the

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Word of God by speakers that know what they're talking about, and I can sit and listen, and it's just an extra to me.

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And it really is. I mean, when I was talking about Disneyland, it's not that far off. It's like going to Six Flags, it's like going to, you know,

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Knott's Berry Farm or whatever. It's just kind of an extra thing, right? It doesn't take the place of church, like you said, but it's a special event where you just kind of get to go and just, you know, as pastors, it's kind of nice to go to these things and just think,

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I have no responsibility here. You know, I'm just like, I'm, in some ways,

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I'm just a congregant, you know? So true. I have been to some of those bigger conferences, and at the

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Shepherds Conferences, Steve, early on, I would go there, and as a seminary student, well, you just show up, and you talk to some of your friends.

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Then you're a pastor for a few years, and you show up, and you think, I need some encouragement. I'm going through some very difficult times, and there are other men who have been through the same thing, and then they could help.

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Then sometimes I would go, and I'd say, Lord, it's a pretty good season at the church, and would you give me somebody to encourage?

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So there's a lot of that going on behind the scenes. I know some are so anti -conference. Would they be anti, let's go to a jazz festival?

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Right. Well, I just decide to take a few days off, and the church pays for it, so I could sit around and talk to other godly men about situations.

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It's ministry behind the scenes, but it is a break from the local church. Well, you know, if I could just share this with you,

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Mike. I already know when Steve does that, what's coming. There's really nothing in the

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Bible about conferences. That's right. You know, there were no conferences for essentially hundreds of years, thousands of years.

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Zero conferences. You didn't go, you know, you're like Sergeant York, you didn't go over those mountains over there until the war.

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I really don't think they're biblical at all. Steve, I do think that church conferences, local church conferences, held by a church with an outside speaker who's probably going to say the same thing that the pastor does, but just it's another voice.

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I actually like those better than the mega -conferences. Well, I do too, but I think, you know, because we've had some of those, many of them, and to me they're kind of funny because people act like they've never heard this stuff before.

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You know, I usually leave those things going, I guess I really am chopped liver, you know?

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And then when we think about it properly, we say, Lord, at least they learned it, right? The congregants at least got that.

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It wasn't through me that I've said it every single day for a year. Oh, wow.

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I didn't know there's hope in the book of Ecclesiastes. You know, our guest speaker just told us that. Wait a minute.

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God's sovereign? I know. I've never heard this doctrine of, how did he say it again, e -lection?

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What? I think, Steve, I like those local ones better. We're going to have

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Steve Meister, Lord willing, here in the spring of 2023, we'll have him come talk about a topic that he knows well, and then it's just an encouragement for a local church.

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I mean, why could that be? What could be wrong about that? Nothing. You know, what topic does

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Steve know well? I don't know. He's charging like 10 grand just to show up. Is he? Yeah. I couldn't believe.

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Is it a cashier's check? Cashier's check. Casual. Venmo. We were going to do

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PayPal, but PayPal did some dumb stuff. We had to cancel it. So now it's Venmo. Let's talk about some of the conferences in the past,

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Steve, that I guess are kaput, right? They don't exist anymore. T4G, it's run its course.

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Comments about T4G, how it started, how it ended, pros, cons. Can anything good come out of Louisville?

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Well, that's a double -edged pronged sword. You know, we went to what, did we go to the second one?

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Is that where we went to? I don't know. I thought it was the first one. Was it the first one? I think so. Huh. It took us so long to get out of Newark Airport that it seemed like it was the second one.

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Yeah. And you know what? I mean, there were some pluses and some minuses.

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I mean, I did like the music. We were just talking about that before we went on the air.

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I still like the music. I think, you know, the topics were awkward. I don't think there was enough at the conference we went to.

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There wasn't enough Bible there. It was expensive. Louisville was hard to get to. So you know, it wasn't my best conference experience.

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So let's put it this way. We never went back. So no, it wasn't our best conference experience. And I think probably what has happened over the years, you have watched some of the drift there and then they had the

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MLK pre -conference and you've got David Platt doing his Amos shtick and by the way,

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Amos would be a good name for a grandson, don't you think? I think it'd be an awesome name. If I were going to have another grandson,

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I'd want it to be Amos. So what I'm not saying is the book of Amos would be bad to teach from, but similar to oh,

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Luke 19, Zacchaeus, sycamore tree, Jesus, this is all about restitution and reparations and see what happens.

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And when you, when you, have you ever heard that before? It's not about that? It's not. You're saying it like that's wrong,

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Mike. Therefore I think, okay, it probably ran its course. It was over, who were the first four people?

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And they all invited like a friend. So Dever, of course, was the leader of this whole group. I said once to Dever on the phone, it seems to me that you're the leader.

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And he said, your assumption would be correct. So it's Dever and then he would invite somebody and it was somebody at the beginning, like Tabidi or someone like that.

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Then Moeller and Moeller was in good graces with MacArthur in those days. So he would invite John Mahaney and he would invite

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Piper and then Ligon Duncan and who was he inviting? I mean,

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I can't remember who the other guy was. R .C. Sproul, probably. Something like that. Boy, I don't think it was

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Sproul at that conference. If it was, I think I probably would have had fonder memories of it, just thinking, oh, those were pretty good speakers.

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What I do remember is, I won't name any names, but - Kevin DeYoung. He invited

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Kevin DeYoung, yeah. Like I said before, I think the last day of the conference, you said to me, because we were rooming together, you said,

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Steve, aren't you going to bring your Bible? And I said, why? We haven't had to open it yet. And I mean, I wasn't kidding.

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But I also knew that we were getting a Bible that morning, so I figured either way I was covered.

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Steve, I don't think it would sell as many tickets maybe, but for me as a pastor,

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I'd like to go to one of those conferences, and instead of a general exposition, and some of the guys, it's always good to sit under the word, but I would like to have a topic where we can kind of dig in more.

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More of a seminary type of class than a homiletician up there, you know, Votie Baucum, saying such and such.

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I would rather have it be, okay, what's a current issue? Current issue today is the

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Trinity. What about eternal functional subordination? What about, can we use Aquinas in simplicity, and all this other stuff?

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Wouldn't that be good, and get down into some of the real details at a high level? That could probably pack 150 people in, and that'd be, wow, dude, bring it.

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I mean, come on. There were like, what? Like I... 6 ,000, I think. Yeah. I mean, just packed in there.

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And I'm like, if you say, yeah, it's going to be on the Trinity, there'll be 300. You know, it just wasn't...

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That's not a... Let's just dig into it. It wasn't a pastor's conference. I mean, excuse me, there were women there.

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You know, it was a mass market event meant to, you know, together for the gospel, let's just sweep aside all of our differences, and let's just focus on the gospel, and then they don't get around to actually preaching the gospel for most of the three days.

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Sliding, then, to the Shepherd's Conference, Steve, since that is billed as a pastor's conference, although they're probably, my guess would be, and I'm sure

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I'm wrong, 25 % of the people there are lead pastors, right? Whether they're tent makers or not, a lot of deacons, a lot of, you know, we'd bring a lot of people who just would like to go there and learn, and I think what they probably do at Shepherd's Conference, if you want the detailed stuff, it's a breakout session, but the main sessions are still kind of these sermons.

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I still would like to switch that around. I'd like it to be a topic, or it could be several topics, right? Every year it could be, what are the issues in evangelicalism, and we're going to bring a panel of other men who are experts in this and talk about that at a higher level.

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Yeah, yeah, and that'd be fine, but again, I think you're going to find that a conference like that is going to be substantially smaller.

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You know, you'd probably wind up, instead of, you know, overselling and getting 5 ,000, note, hint, asterisk, you'd probably wind up with 750, 800, something like that.

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Well, then what about another conference to do just that, where, you know, I think they had the Puritan Conference, and now they have another conference that it's essentially maybe a winterum, a class, where these are the issues that people can come in, or what about a preaching tune -up, where you preach for a while, and you go back and take some homiletics classes?

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I mean, it'd be good if, you know, on the application it said, I am a pastor, yes, no. If no, you may not attend, you know, just kind of, if yes, you may continue, you know.

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Because this is probably shame on me, I don't...I think the last Shepherds Conference, I didn't go to one session, right, because, oh, there are sermons that are kind of the sugar sticks of these preachers, and I think, well,

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I've already heard that, or I know that, or it's more valuable for me to talk to my friend who's struggling in ministry in another country than me to sit there and listen to another sermon.

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Okay. I mean, I... How many did you go to? Probably two. And, you know...

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Well, I'm two out of, like, 25, so Steve and I are pretty close. He's looking at me like I'm the loser.

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Well, because it's true. I mean, I remember another conference I went to, and there was a speaker

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I really wanted to hear, and then I wind up talking to somebody who, you know, wants to talk, and they want to help, and what do you do?

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You know, you're just like, hey, sorry, bro, I gotta go catch this... I guess we could.

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Yeah, we could. But it just, it doesn't really seem right to do that.

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I know. With the time we have left, Steve, a couple of other things. G3's big now. They're probably the biggest conference.

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Thoughts about G3, the conference, speakers, do they have a...

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Is it just the newest thing, or do they have a certain take that makes them special, or what do you think?

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Well, I went last year, and, you know, I've probably said this before, but I just think in terms of organization, probably the best event

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I've been to. Not, you know, Shepard's Conference is the most deluxe, because they just roll out the red carpet, and there's lots of free, free, free, free, free stuff, and, you know, lots of people there serving you and all that, but G3 is just so well -run organizationally.

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It's like, I don't know how else to describe it other than it is a machine. I mean, everything is just perfect.

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That said, I mean, it's kind of almost too much, too much perfect.

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All right. How was it being one of the main speakers there last time? Well, you know, it was fine until they put me on a panel with all these other, you know, these guys, and they're giving their answers, and I thought, my answer's so much better.

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Why don't they just go sit? I was not a speaker at a national conference. Steve, how about the...

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People are smarter than that. I'm surprised, and maybe it's coming, but I'm surprised Moscow, Canon, Press Plus, whatever the app is called now,

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I'm surprised they don't have some national conference, because it is so popular. They could fill that thing full of a bunch of patriarchal, post -mil, federal vision.

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I have a title, too. Home school curriculum. They should call it Your Own Private Idaho Conference.

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Well, you know, some people don't pronounce their V's well. They pronounce them as W's and W's and V's, just different parts of the world, and I think it could be called federal vision.

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Yeah. Federal vision. I can't even say that. Well, maybe they do have big conferences and home school stuff and curriculum.

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I have no idea, but it seems to me that the big players now, the movers and shakers,

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G3 and Moscow. Yeah. I looked at Canon Plus the other day, and just the videos and the curriculum and the

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YouTube and the printing press. It's definitely a movement. Maybe they can call it the grape shot.

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You know what a grape shot is? No. It's kind of like - Like buckshot? Yeah. Yeah, only you load it into a

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Canon. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. How about G3?

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They've got publishing now. They've got sub -specialist preaching little workshops.

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Yeah, I mean, it almost gets to be like a corporation, doesn't it? I mean, some of these things are really huge.

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I think they have staff now, right? It's almost like, you know, we could have talked about Together for the Gospel, but to me they're so, with a few random articles aside, they're so progressive anyway, it doesn't matter.

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They have a national conference. I've never been - To G3? Yeah. Not a note to G3, nor Together for the

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Gospel national conference. What do you mean? Oh, sorry, sorry. Excuse me. The Gospel Coalition. Oh, Gospel Coalition.

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There's so many of these letters. Yeah, it's hard to keep them all straight. Yeah, I've never been to a Gospel Coalition. What does

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G3 even mean? I think guilt, grace, gratitude, but I know that's wrong. It's like glory, something else.

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What is it? What is G3? I think one of them is gourmet. Gourmet. Well, we're going to surely get invited to speak at G3 after that.

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I'll be up on that dais, for sure. I think they're having a conference this year. Are you going? G3? I'm thinking about it still.

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All right. All right. Well, today is a day about conferencing. Mike Gabendroth, Steve Cooley. You can come to the

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Steve Meister conference in April of 2023. The real Steve Meister, not Steve Cooley Meister.

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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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.