Luke Abendroth Interview 2017 part 2

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Bodies In The Wilderness: An Object Lesson For The Church (part 3) - [Hebrews 3:7ff]

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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 apostle
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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
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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. Mr. Steve Cooley is not in the studio today in beautiful downtown
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Burbank, but Luke Abendroth is. Speaking of Burbank, you were born in Burbank, California.
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Welcome to No Compromise Radio. That�s true. I remember that. Actually, when
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I consider God�s faithfulness, I was reading Hebrews this morning. Jesus is a faithful and merciful high priest, quite opposite of some of the unfaithful and unmerciful priests even found in 1
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Samuel. I was thinking to myself, wow, the Ebenezer and God�s been faithful thus far.
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When Luke was born on, let�s see if I can remember the date, I have four children and a wife so I have to remember a lot of birthdays.
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When he was born on September 23rd, 1996, is that right?
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That�s right. Right on. I got it right. Are you an Aries or what? I�m just kidding. When you were born on that day,
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I think I had to teach a Bible study that night and you know, you�d already been through, we�d already been through one child born,
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Haley was four. We had a babysitter and I was just going to have, you know, you�re going to be born and I was going to go teach the class, mom would be in the hospital with you, go teach the
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Bible study, come back, and the Lord had different plans. You were born, you had like a negative 92 for the
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Apgar score. I have no idea what that is. Apgar, I think it�s like eight is the best, you know, you can�t have a negative 92.
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But if you�re blue or you�re not breathing or whatever, you don�t have these certain scores. And so you had a low
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Apgar and they�re basically, here�s your son, and then they whisk you off to the NICU, to the
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NICU. We didn�t know if you�re going to make it. And then a couple of days later, you�re still in the neonatal intensive care unit and we had to drive home without the baby.
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And I�m sure some of our listeners had to do things like that and worse, but the Lord had different plans and you were healed through the doctor�s work, through good providence, and I�m glad you�re here.
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Welcome to the show. I�m glad to be here. This is show number six for Luke Avendroth.
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What have you learned from the first five shows? Anything? I only remember the last one. I think last year when you were on the show, we talked about Israel some.
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Probably. You had a desire to go to Israel for the master�s, now university, and you spent the summer there.
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Any thoughts that come to your mind even a year later? I�d love to go back. I think it�s probably my favorite place in the world to visit.
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We�ve been able to go some places with you and stuff. But I love Israel. It�s an awesome country and I think it�s just cool.
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It�s crazy that they�re there, that they exist, with all the stuff going on right now with the � well, right now in real time.
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You got all the � UN passed that resolution about the settlers and stuff.
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It�s interesting. Luke, you said you�d like to go back. You don�t need any tour guides or anything like that.
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You just want to go back and where do you stay, like at some kind of KOA or something or a youth hostel? Yeah, you could say youth hostel or I have a buddy who grew up in Israel and you can just � there�s any public property in Israel, it�s legal to camp on.
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There�s no campsites or anything like that. So you can just sleep wherever you want. Is it safe? Yeah. What does it take to have a gun permit in Israel, I wonder?
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It�s pretty liberal. So I don�t know if you can get one. I doubt it. Right. Military though. I remember going to certain sites and where was
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David running from, Saul? In Getty? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I remember going there and you�d see little children going for a school trip, a field trip and you go to the
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Boston Aquarium and they go to Getty and you�d always see an armed guard with them.
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Yeah. They all have guns and they�re like these 16 -year -old girls or whatever. Oh, yeah. In the army, yeah. Machine guns. Yeah. I know.
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So Luke�s here. He�s home for Christmastime and then he�ll be back to the Master�s College.
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Luke, last time we were talking about the whole Christ a little bit. This time, what would you like to talk about?
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Is there anything on your mind that you�re dying to talk about or when I die, will you take over the show? Are you like the
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NoCo Jr.? I always call you NoCo Jr. I have at least 15 or 20 years left hopefully.
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So then after that, what will you do? We�ll see when we get there. Now, I will tell the listeners that when
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Luke walked in here to my study last week, he looked around at all the books and he thought, �One day,
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I�m going to get all these.� That�s true. That�s true. Well, the nice thing is though now is you have the development where you start off.
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You like some kind of guy that you think is dopey now and then you like him for 15 years, figure out he�s dopey.
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But I just get to start where you left off. So it�s nice. Luke and I have had serious talks about not just a father�s legacy.
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That�s not the point. But you have men who are in ministry and by the grace of God, they have run their race with fidelity and not with perfection but with fidelity.
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Then their sons come along and then they just fumble. So Luke, I do not want you to fumble. I�ll try.
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Well, yeah. Virgin birth is not that important. What do you think about that whole thing with Andy Stanley now?
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You�re a young man at 20 and of course a lot of young people are at that church. What�s the draw?
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From your perspective, Luke, why do a lot of people like that kind of Christianity where, �Hey, it�s the resurrection.
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It�s not the virgin birth.� I have no idea. It doesn�t sound like Christianity. Okay, so then how is
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Jesus a sinless God? How does he enter the world? Yeah, yeah. How is he protected in the womb, right?
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The spirit of God overshadowing. And if Jesus comes back from the dead, why can he not be born a virgin?
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Well, you think about, Luke, supernaturalism and you�ve got the Machen book. I don�t know. I know
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I made you read it when you were an unbeliever. Have you read the Machen book, �Christianity and Liberalism as a Believer ?� No. It was funny.
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Well, this part, maybe it�s not that funny. Luke would take all my discipleship classes that I teach the other men and I�d make them read �The
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Reformed Doctrine of Predestination� by Lorraine Bettner. And he�s like, �Oh, I haven�t read that as a Christian.�
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Or when you said, �Oh, I liked the Shepherd�s Conference even when I wasn�t a Christian.� That�s true. It was fun. There�s a bunch of your friends and all the seminary guys too.
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You know, I always thought they were fun and liked to do funny stuff. You know, Russell Honig. You guys like kicking stuff off the ceiling, over the cars, in the parking lot, scaring people as Janitors of Grace.
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As a Calvinist, I want to have a lot of fun. I want my Arminian friends to do this thing. That�s fundamentalism. That�s exactly right.
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And now, at the Shepherd�s Conference, I see you but not that much because you�re serving as a college student, helping out the
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Shepherd�s Conference. And you�ve got one of those little earbud, you know, secret service deals because you�re
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Mike Mahoney�s right -hand man and you�re a big shot now. Yeah, only for three days last time.
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Not really, just to go for. Well, it makes me get a better seat so I don�t have to run with the rest of the crazy people running to the front.
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You lose your sanctification, you get the spots. How does that work? Do they tell you behind the scenes as a staff person, a helper, a volunteer?
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Now, there�s going to be a lot of people running like the people that live in New Mexico or Mississippi or something like that,
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Fred Butler�s friends in Arkansas. They�re all going to be running. What do they tell you about the runners?
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I don�t think they say much. Yeah, they just kind of like shake their head. SMH kind of thing.
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So now that Luke�s a big shot, I just go sit up with Mark Gwynne and Mark McArthur and stuff like that over there in the
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Scott Ardabanna section. I just walk in, saunter in. I think you can do that anyways. Well, technically now that I�m adjunct faculty at the
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Master�s Seminary, I should be able to. That�s right. You should use that. I had to fill out all the forms and stuff like that, prove
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I was a legalized resident and then when I cast the check, there was money taken out of it for the
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Uncle Sam. I like that. Get some new shoes. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com
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if you�d like to email us. Remember, we have a new email. Luke doesn�t even know about this and this is true though. Henno at NoCompromiseRadio .com
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if you�ve got a weird story out there that you�d like us to talk about. Henno at NoCompromiseRadio .com.
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We�re going to Germany and you can go with us and that is – what is it?
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May 20th through 30th, 2017. I also had a nice phone call from a man named
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Robert in Nashville and he was looking to give some money to No Compromise Radio and I thought that was nice that he would call and try to track us down.
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So, I don�t know if the donate buttons work or not but there are listeners out there that help support the ministry.
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I really appreciate it. Luke, I always joke, you know, we�re not asking for money, just, you know, we�re asking that you tell your friends about the show.
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But last year I switched it in 2016. If you�re a millionaire, we�d like you to give. Yeah, I�ll add another thing.
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If you�re a millionaire or you�d like to help out a poor college student, you can give too. Just direct to my email.
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PayPal. Do you have a PayPal account? Yeah. Well, Luke, we always like to say since we�d like to be biblical around here that we�d like you to – if you�re a millionaire to give according to your riches, not out of your riches, right?
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So God is a great giver according to his riches, not out of. You know, it might just be, you know, a dollar or two spiritually, but if he gives according to the riches found in Christ Jesus, that�s a lot.
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So if they�re a millionaire, we at least get one million. Yeah, yeah. That�s right. According to.
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All right. So, Luke, are you going to Israel again or would you encourage people to go back to Israel?
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Oh, you know what? Let me interrupt my own questions. Tell our listeners a little bit about the Master�s University now that it�s a university.
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I know you worked at admissions there. What�s going on? Would you encourage people to go, et cetera? I would, yeah.
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So I�ve been – I�m a junior at Master�s. I have three semesters left. I�m a business major with an emphasis in management.
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I might switch to something – some other emphasis in the next semester or so. But yeah, it�s a really – it�s a great school and I think, you know, a lot of people hear the
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Master�s and they know Master�s Seminary and they know about John MacArthur�s ministry. John MacArthur is the president of the school. And yeah,
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I mean, it�s a small school, about 1 ,200 students, but really just a great education.
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And I think one of the things that, you know, that maybe Master�s is doing a better job of now is really just advertising the quality of an education you get there.
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So, you know, even for like our accounting program. So for passing the CPA exam, the Certified Public Account Exam in California, Master�s is number one.
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Number two is Stanford. Number three is UCLA or USC or something like that. So you really just –
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I mean, and that�s just our accounting department, but like you really just see the quality of education you get there.
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Like that is crazy. I mean, the University of John MacArthur School is better at accounting than Stanford. So, I mean, maybe
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Stanford is not known for their accounting, but still, and they�re number two in California. So Stanford is.
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So it�s really – the business program is great. We have awesome professors. And I mean, I�m kind of just on the business –
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I�m on the business side of things, but one of the great things I love about the business department is we have professors in the business department that are way – they�re working at Master�s.
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They�re working like way below kind of their level of education and experience because – and the reason they do that is because they�re believers.
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So you have people that have been like uber successful in the business world, just really done well for themselves and their families.
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And then they come to Master�s and are willing to teach just because they�re believers and they want to help other believers out who can then make money and give to the church and stuff like that.
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So it�s really cool to see because you know, you�re not going to have some guy that did really well in the business world working at any school – like at any school that these guys will be around the campus,
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John MacArthur quite often. Is it rare to see him from your perspective or when you see him, do you ask him theological questions or what does he talk to you about and how nice is it that John�s just around the campus?
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You know what, I love John MacArthur and his ministry and his faithfulness and you know, you see him around campus sometimes or just through Grace Church people and stuff.
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You see him and I think it�s really – I�ve asked him – I haven�t asked him too many theological questions but I think
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I really appreciate him and his ministry and he comes and preaches in chapel and all kinds of things like that so it�s definitely good to see him around campus and I think for a long time,
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I think he knows more now but I think the only thing he really would talk about if he knew that you know, somehow you came up or somehow he found out
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I was your son or something would be you ice skating on the pond at the old house in Sterling, Massachusetts and he thought it was crazy and I think he said that to me multiple times in my first couple of years at Master�s.
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Oh, your dad is out there. Yeah, he�s also been a pastor for a long time.
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I had to excuse myself when John was speaking. I told him ahead of time because I was his driver and taking him around here in Massachusetts in 1999 and I said,
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John, I have to excuse myself. We have ice time booked at this rink and it�s like 10 o�clock at night.
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There�s a bunch of Master�s Seminary students in this hotel room, it�s like 10 o�clock.
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John just said, have fun playing hockey tonight for everybody. So I think that�s what happened there.
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What theological questions did you ask him? What did I ask him? I�ve heard this one sermon he preached recently at Master�s a couple of times.
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It was about, just you know, he did his whole ministry by talking about people that aren�t really believers.
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You know, people that later deny the faith and then he talked about Chuck Templeton and Billy Graham. Chuck Templeton was a famous preacher who was probably a better preacher than Billy Graham, more charismatic in the good sense of the term.
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We have well -informed listeners, so they got that. I know I like that. There�s this preacher and he basically, what happened was one day, he got up in a week and read all these bad philosophers and then said,
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I don�t believe in God. I forget what the name of his book that he wrote was, but it was basically why
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I don�t believe in God or whatever anymore. Then he went on to be a famous journalist and did well.
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When he was dying on his deathbed I remember something he said. He said, I miss Jesus or something like that.
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That was one of the examples he gave. The whole sermon was just about apostasy from the gospel. I think
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I just asked him, do you think people know that they�re deceivers, they know that they�re not believers and they�re just in it for whatever reason, the money, the look good, the fame, all this stuff and I think he basically said on a more personal level pastorally he said to me if you know that you are playing the game and you�re a hypocrite and you�re doing all these things for the wrong reasons
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I think he basically thinks it�s more of you kind of know the whole time or you�re doing it for the wrong reasons you�re in it for the money or whatever.
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You�re going to wake up tomorrow and be like an apostate preacher. Well the power of these other philosophers is great and there have been times
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I picked up Nietzsche or somebody like that or to say it correctly Nietzsche and thought you know what
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I don�t want these men to influence me negatively I didn�t think I�m going to lose my salvation or something but it�s just like yikes when you first went two years ago to the college now university
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I gave you basically two rules besides you know righteous living and don�t make the
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Avendress look stupid and you know a variety of those things I gave you two and one was no dating until you�re ready to get married and then the other was you have to go to Grace Church there are lots of churches locally and I�m sure there are some fine ones and some less than fine ones but I�d like you to go to Grace Church because I want you to hear
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MacArthur I want you to be on campus I want you to keep Fred Butler and Edwin Seidman in line all that stuff so what do you think about those rules in retrospect and how do you process all that I think they�ve you know both are good and I think
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I probably wouldn�t end up at Grace Church anyways I appreciate the preaching there obviously and all that stuff so yeah
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I think both have been good and I don�t know I�ll probably end up maybe getting a job near Masters and keep going to Grace Church for a while and stuff and that�s where you were for a long time and it�s a good foundation and the way they just had a lot of experience organizing a church and a lot of resources and opportunities to serve and stuff like that and then you know the dating thing it�s alright whatever
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I�m just kidding well you know what you have the means now and we�ll talk about that off the show
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I�m just kidding that�s right you know any kind of names that I think of girls you might be interested in I�ll keep the names off the air too yeah yeah
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I think there�s like 15 or so you can tell well you know and whoever listens and contacts me then
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I�ll know that�s God�s sovereign way of telling me I actually think I probably did you a favor because the first year
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I said no dating and if you you know are trying to date people and you know do all the romance thing you know
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I think girls get that vibe but if you come across as like you know I�m not really interested in that I�m not the guy who�s after the girls then it�s almost in a weird way you�re probably more attractive because then they�re gonna try to win you over it�s like Sean Connery what do you mean
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James Bond some kind of Sean Connery all right tell me what you�re reading now
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I saw an orange book in your hand I think it was my book not that I wrote but Ordinary by Michael Horton give me the scoop there you got a lot of young people that you associate with at the
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Masters University and live radical lives Platt kind of thing and now you�ve got Horton writes
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Ordinary and what�s your perception and your take of young students and their attraction to basically asceticism yeah you know
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I think the Ordinary book�s really good and you know he says in the book it�s not specifically you know polemical against a specific person but it is
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I�m just kidding no it�s not but he does you know he does talk about the radical stuff and that book by David Platt is really influential
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I�ve never read it but I know about it and I know who David Platt is and I know the general premise and all that kind of stuff and you know it just I think you know the
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Bible does talk about live a quiet life I think it�s second Thessalonians or first I think it�s second
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Thessalonians yeah this is the veggie tales Thessalupians fruit loops chapter 3 is it chapter 1 verse 2 yeah so anyways just kind of that idea that like you know even though of course
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God has worked you know even in creation you know the trinitarian work of creation and then redemption and the covenant of redemption and eternity past and all these just glorious ways that God delivers to Egypt he parts the
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Red Sea all the plagues kills the firstborn of Egypt like saving Israel over and over and over again and just you know all this crazy stuff throughout the
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Old Testament and then in the New Testament Jesus the God man comes down to earth to save sinners dies on the cross and comes back from the dead gloriously and ascends into heaven seated at the right hand of God all this stuff of course
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God works in glorious ways but then even just and then even in the apostolic ministry you see all this all this stuff is happening they're speaking in tongues there's all this you know just this crazy stuff going on healing people they just touch the robe
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Peter all this stuff but then now he basically talks about how Michael Horton does about how you know the baton's been handed off from even even when you see it handed off from Paul to Timothy you just see here's this is just it's just there's the ordinary means of grace like it's a very reformed way of talking about it just the faithfulness of just just to preach the gospel the written word and then you know just in within the church just the fellowship of the church and just how that is
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God's way now of saving people it's not through you know revelations of Jesus walking down the road in West Boylston you know on the sidewalk and he stops you and you're blind for a couple days and then now you're the new
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Paul it's not like that it's God just using people like us you know ordinary people like you dad
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I mean you're just in New England faithful for I mean I can say this because I'm your son so you can't say it about yourself but faithful for 20 years and just faithful to preach the text verse by verse and there's just sweet people here in New England small church but there's just sweet people and there's the fellowship there and there's just the men that have been trained up in this church you know
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I came I get to do the plug for my dad now on the show I come in to the discipleship class and it's like a bunch of lay guys sitting here probably you know what 12 13 lay guys all talking about Christ centered preaching about how to preach
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Christ in every message without while being faithful to the text but without just adding on at the end and you know just like we're all sinners in this passage and Jesus is the way to say it but just how do we preach
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Christ and be faithful to the text in every sermon and just like you don't go to many churches I don't think and you hear the lay guys all talking about that and then they're all going to get up and preach this month so I just I'm really just encouraged by even your faithfulness in that just that the ordinary means of just preaching the gospel and the local church and obviously
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I'd probably disagree on some of the you know more Presbyterian ideas but it's just it's just kind of sweet to see that just the day in day out faithfulness that just God you can just use the conversation that you have in passing with someone in a grocery store and he's not necessarily going to like you know he's not going to like reveal himself on the street to somebody so 2
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Thessalonians chapter 3 it was Luke ok good comments there about ordinary Luke I'm encouraged because for me personally as a pastor here's a little town of 5000 people we have a little church
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I'm thinking to myself I'm getting older now there's more time in my past than in my future for ministry and I'm thinking it was
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God's will for me to be here in central Massachusetts and that's where he had me planned all along here's what
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I would do teach to people week in and week out it's just faithful not fabulous as my wife would say as your mom would say and then how about the listeners though you're like ok doing dishes and doing laundry and you know housewife stuff where you go just day in and day out how can you live a radical life where you're just in response to the promises of God just faithful day in day out truck drivers we have truck drivers who listen postal you know carriers who listen and you go okay this is what
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God has for me and I can live an ordinary life but be the child of a king yeah and you know what the reformation coming up the 500 year anniversary of the reformation you guys should all come to Germany with us but that's something that was you know reclaimed like the vocation you know there's
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God has sovereignly appointed each person to their positions in life and their call to be faithful in those positions and it's not like the pastor is some higher calling or some ultimate priest
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Roman Catholic dude it's everybody can be faithful and do things in the glory of God so I think that's just been encouraging
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Mike Abendroth with my son Luke Abendroth here on No Compromise Radio if you'd like to get in touch with Luke or ask him questions about the
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Masters College just write me mike at no compromise radio dot com I'll forward them to Luke again he's in the admissions department and would answer any questions maybe you've got a college student and you're wondering about the
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Masters College I'd be happy to forward those to Luke and I'm sure he'd be happy to answer them in his ordinary way and you can always email him and ask for my
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PayPal account you better get one man No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston Bethlehem Bible Church is a
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Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through first by first exposition of the sacred text please come and join us our service times are