Trinket Christianity

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I just turned down Steve Cooley's microphone.

Why? Because Steve Cooley is not here. Today it's just me, so I will take complete responsibility for what

I say, how I act, what I do, and everything else. Well, I have received many, many, many emails.

Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I'm very happy for that. I just had to ask someone else to help write some of the answers.

I'm pleased that you're listening, pleased that you're forwarding it on. One person said to me the other day that they're even listening to my show and getting behind on Todd Friel's wretched radio.

So Todd, that is what you get for calling me a loser. So there you go.

My name is Mike Abendroth. We have a show called No Compromise Radio Ministry. I think my wife actually came up with the name of the show.

Pretty much she is the creative genius in my household. And my wife—actually,

I haven't had my wife on the air one of these days. Wouldn't you like to get to know Mrs. No Compromise, Mrs.

NoCo? NoCo each day keeps the confusion away. No cowards, no compromise.

And so one of these days I'm going to have Kim Abendroth on the show and we're going to talk ministry, no compromise things.

She's a lady who knows the scriptures and puts up with me every single day.

So at the show we talk about things that are interesting, something that wants to pull you in, makes you listen.

So they say you've got to catch people right away. I'll catch you in just a second. Today's going to be a wild show. But I want to talk about things from a biblical perspective, biblical worldview.

How do you analyze things from the Bible? How do you examine things? How do you hold on to something good, cling to something good, white knuckle the good things?

And then how do you look at error? I mean, like it or not, most people don't like it in our culture today. You have to say no to error.

You have to examine things, judge things, look at things properly, biblically like a librarian, and say no to those things.

And the things that are good, you've got to say yes to them and cling to them and keep them close to you.

And so that's no compromise radio ministry. I think we've done about 400 shows is my guess.

Sometimes it's more difficult now to do shows than early on because lots of the topics that I just know and I've studied, we've already done.

So I'm always looking for new frontiers. This is the final frontier. By the way, with Star Trek, remember

Star Trek, the old series, and then the new series, Star Trek the

Next Generation, there was one extra person on the, not on deck, what do they call it?

I don't know. In the headquarters, a little area there. What is that? The bridge. One person on the bridge. Extra.

One role that was in addition to the original. So you've got, you know,

Navigator and you've got Sulu and you've got Uhura the communicator and you've got Chekov and all these different people.

But in the newer one, the Star Trek the Next Generation, which isn't new anymore at all, they had what?

The counselor. And so we live in a psychological, therapeutic age.

As one man called it very well, moralistic, therapeutic deism.

And so today on No Compromise Radio, it has nothing to do with moralism, has nothing to do with deism. It has to do with trinkets.

Today's show is called Trinket Christianity, the trinketization of Christianity.

Man, that was hard to say. I should have spelled that out. You know, you have one of those Bibles, you have to pronounce people's names from the

Old Testament and they're phonetically assisting you in some of the Bibles.

And so, by the way, speaking of Bibles, Bible .is is an app you need to get. If you have

Droid or iPhone, like you should have an iPhone, you need to get Bible .is and you can get it

ESV, Dramatic Reading, Non -Dramatic Reading. I've been doing the Dramatic Reading and I love,

I don't read it, but I mean, I've been listening to the Dramatic Reading. I love that app because it just helps you listen to the Scriptures wherever you are.

So that is Bible .is. Today Trinket Christianity. I'm at the church today,

Bethlehem Bible Church. We'd love to see you on a Sunday. Make sure you come up to me and say, I heard about you on No Compromise Radio.

By the way, since we have been doing No Compromise Radio, the people that visit the church, we have a higher retention level.

Now we don't have a scientific study, there's no kind of empirical study, but the old days people would just come and visit, it's a

Baptist church or it's a Bible church or it's an Evangelical church and they would stay and they'd hear me preach and then they would run for the doors.

Now, if they've listened to No Compromise Radio and have attended, they'll probably stick around because they know who

I am. They know my strengths, my weaknesses, my style. I have a different kind of preaching style, but you hear that on Mondays here, don't you?

And so that's been one good thing about No Compromise Radio. The eggs in my car, that's kind of been a bad thing.

Just kidding. So at church here, Bethlehem Bible Church, I get a lot of emails from people who are all kinds of mail.

So sometimes, even though it's the secretary's job to go up and get the mail, I like to just walk up there, take a break and see what kind of junk mail

I get, see if there's any money sent to No Compromise Radio. It's the end of the year, we can't make ends meet, it's a love offering.

No, I'm so freed to have the S. Lewis Johnson philosophy that we don't talk about money except when

I blast others who talk about money. It's called Living Grace, this little magazine I received, January 2011, affordable church supplies since 1948.

And so it's a nice little color magazine, catalog rather, 64 pages, and it is hilarious.

It's not trying to be funny, but isn't it true when people aren't trying to be funny, they seem to be more funny?

It's this kind of dry humor. And so today, although I'm not going to teach you a Bible verse and do exposition,

Rx of Jesus, I am going to use this theme. When Jesus isn't enough, nothing's enough.

People come to this church, they want to be my best friend, they want to have a youth group, they want to have a

Hot Wheels group on Tuesday night for their kids. They want to have a Wii Fitness group on Monday mornings.

They'd like to have karaoke things on Saturday afternoons. They want all these things.

It's a consumer mentality people have, sadly. Not everybody, but many do. And so they're looking for things at churches.

And I like to say, if you love Jesus and his word, you'll love this church. But if you want all the other stuff, you're probably not going to get it.

Because A, I can't get around everybody and be their best friend. And B, we're here to offer you

Jesus Christ. It's not about me. It's not about other people. We want to lead you and serve you and minister to you.

But we're here to tell you and point to you, Jesus Christ is the King of Kings. And there's good news.

I have an announcement. Announcement is Jesus Christ saves sinners. And the announcement is not how to be born again, because nobody can do it.

You must be born again. Jesus is not saying you have to do that. It's just a statement of fact. In John 3, you must be born again.

And so when the Bible is not enough and books about the Bible aren't enough, you got to have all the other stuff.

Now, I will commend this place for many good things. If you need communion cups and you need wafers, there are some things that you need.

A bunch of snow just fell off the roof. It was like an avalanche. It's like an earthquake. That was God giving an exclamation point to No Compromised Radio.

So, you go to a bookstore and you ask them, what percent of the profits do you receive from books versus some of the trinkets?

And you'll be surprised. You can just look at floor space. What floor space do they devote to music, trinkets, and books?

And you'll see where they make the money. So, today is just going to be kind of comedy. Living Grace, affordable church supplies.

And I was surprised some of the things they had. Right away, I looked at, you can get crown of thorns, six inch diameter.

You can get them boxed. Sale, $9 .99. And it's literally a crown of thorns.

I don't know. Maybe you jam it on the deacon board leader's head. I'm not sure.

You can get palm crosses, $0 .99 each. Palm fronds, you can get them for Palm Sunday, April 17th.

Just because Palm Sunday never fell on a Sunday in the Bible. That's no big deal. We have to celebrate on Sunday anyway.

And you get some of the fronds and you can wave them. And I remember when I got to the church and we didn't hand out palm fronds that Sunday.

People became apoplectic practically. That's what liberals do. They like to hand out these things.

It's all touch. It's all sensitive, tactile kind of response. And so, you can get your little palm crosses here for $0 .99.

Cheaper ones, you can get for $0 .59. It's actually made from real palm leaves. Now, we've got tote bags on the same page.

Maybe you got a lot of palm fronds or palm crosses or crowns of thorns. And you can put them in your

Salvation little tote bag. It's called Salvation.

He nailed it. And it shows a cross made out of two nails. And you can get that tote bag. They're normally $2 each.

You can get this for $0 .99. You can get wristbands, you know, like the Livestrong. This is just a, it looks like a rubber band.

I don't think it says anything. It's invisible. Wristbands you can get.

And you can get all kinds of lint things. Here's an interesting thing that you can buy. This is

He is Risen Easter egg assortment. So, see how we're kind of redeeming Easter. And you got stickers, crosses.

And then when you dye your eggs, you can put Jesus crosses on there. Now, when we were having younger kids, there's not a sin to dye with a

Paz Easter egg dyer. That's not a sin to do. We just did that on Saturday.

So, and did any kind of Easter stuff on Saturday. You know, Resurrection Sunday was its own day.

And we didn't want to talk about rabbits on Sunday. All right, I'm turning the page. Now, this is one of my all -time favorites.

Mike Ebenroth here, No Compromise Radio. There are a thousand Christian trinkets. I wonder what Paul would think.

Peter, John, John the Baptist. I think John the Baptist had one of these because he was into fasting, wasn't he?

Kind of that ascetic life out there down by the Dead Sea. This is a fasting prayer cube.

So, it looks like a dice. It has as many sides as a dice would have. How many sides does a dice have? Six sides.

And these are on the six sides. And it's a fasting prayer cube. And so, you take the die and you roll it.

And whatever comes up to the top, that's what you do. I guess maybe you can keep it in your office or maybe down in your tool area.

Fast from anger and hatred. So, you roll the dice and you think, ah, shoot, I can't get mad anymore.

And I'm going to fast from being angry and hating people. Of course, the

Bible doesn't know anything about those kinds of fasts. It says, stop it, repent from that, put off.

Fast from judging others. Maybe no compromise needs one of those. And I roll it and then people can say, judge not lest you be judged.

Maybe no compromise needs one of these die. And we roll it and I'll roll it. And if it's got a certain number, that's how much money you have to send to the ministry here.

Or, you know, if I roll it again, you have to send a certain amount of money and it's under the table. So, we, you know, don't have to declare it.

Fast from discouragement. Fast from complaining. Fast from resentment or bitterness.

Fast from overspending. See, if you wouldn't have overspent in 2010, you'd have more money for giving to no compromise.

Hey, here's the good news. We never ask for money and we never get it.

So, there you have it. Um, anyway, uh, maybe that should be a seven -sided die.

And one side should be a fast from stupid games like this. But if they're only 99 cents, you could also get

Lenten prayer cubes. It's a wooden die and it has a prayer for Lent on one side, prayer for forgiveness on another side, etc.

So, I thought that was kind of neat. You know, we could get these kind of trinkets and who cares about Bible study, sanctification, reading

J .C. Ryle's book on holiness. All the money you waste on these trinkets would you save up and buy

J .C. Ryle's book on holiness. The old Anglican preacher.

That's what you need. Not the new J .C. Ryle that's, you know, it said Jesus was anointing the

Beatles for their music. Not that one in Colorado with the Promise Keepers Association with Bill McCartney.

But J .C. Ryle, the Anglican preacher. And then you don't need things like eight -piece resurrection set.

And here Jesus is on top of the tomb with his arms out. He's got kind of the beard. And there you've got

Mary. You've got some angels. I don't know why angels always look like women. Women angels, when all the angels in the

Bible have masculine pronouns and masculine names. Okay, we're talking about how easily we can be distracted from Jesus Christ.

Paul said, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He had to make a conscientious, thoughtful, planned, kind of super glued in his mind, riveted in his mind.

I cannot be deviated from this message. Jesus Christ, the crucified Messiah.

Of course, he was later raised from the dead. But this, he is the one. He is the Messiah. He's the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

And it's easy to be deviated into politics, into economics, into church growth.

And here too, by the way, you've got to have these next things, but I just find it fascinating. Living grace communion cups.

You know, these little disposable plastic cups. Years of testing and research went into producing this cup.

The smooth, even lip won't cut or cause discomfort. Made of crystal clear grade cup, raw material for that.

And then here's the big one. I don't know. I want to ask you, is this Christian or not? Does not include reground, low -grade plastic used by our competition.

You can get a thousand of these for 14 bucks. You can get a thousand of the ones that cut your lip for $3 .99.

All right. We move on communion bread and hosts. Now these hosts, they say are guaranteed.

Cavanaugh hosts are guaranteed fresh for one full year. So you can just buy a bunch now and you can just save.

You can just save them up for an entire year. All breads have carefully have a molded seal.

That's not M -O -L -D. That's M -O -U -L -D. There's mold in the seal.

Which prevents crumbs. Now, if you're a Roman Catholic, this is especially important because you wouldn't want to drop the body of Jesus on the floor in the green shag carpet that's up at the altar of your building.

But this, we have no crumbs here and you can get actually things imprinted upon the hosts.

Now, see, we don't call them hosts because there's nothing inside of them. There's no kind of parasitic relationship.

We call them elements because there's nothing in them. There's no grace in them like a Roman Catholic would believe.

So I'm only calling them hosts because Cavanaugh hosts call them hosts. You can get them white or you know what you can get them as?

Wheat. You can get wheat hosts guaranteed for a year. And you know, their bakery is subject to inspection by the

FDA and Rhode Island Department of Health. I don't know if you knew that or not. You would never know these things if I would tell you.

Here you've got fancy crosses imprinted upon them. A lamb for those who are kind of extra stout.

You have double thick wheat ones. No crumble design, cross embossing, sealed minutes after baking.

You can order those. Puffed breads if you like puffed breads. You've got puffed white, puffed soft, white flat.

Okay, so let's just keep going. My name is Mike Ebendroth and I just tell you that people have all kinds of trinkets.

You know there are communion servers which are nice. There are chalices that are gold plated.

I guess if you want to drink from these things you can. There's nothing that says you have to have your own cup for hygienic reasons.

I prefer my own cup. You can get actually posters and kind of cloth decorator banners.

They have worship banners here. And the one that I particularly like is on page 18. By the way, it's

No Compromise Radio and my name is Mike Ebendroth and we're looking at how Christians sometimes spend their money on everything else except what is really good for them like the

Bible and books like R .C. Sproul's book, Grace Unknown, or J .C.

Ryle's book. I meant to say J .C. Ryle so I just had to throw in that book by R .C. Pick Chosen by God if you have to pick one R .C.

book. And we get distracted and so I'm just saying look at the lunacy of all this.

I know some of this is fine and I'm just doing this for a funny radio show but a worship banner.

Now does this help you if I walk into a church and does this assist my worship? If I have a banner maybe it says

He is risen. You know that's not bad if it's a Sunday for Resurrection Day or something. This is my body.

He is risen just as they said. I think we even have a couple of those up. But the one that's got a picture of Jesus.

A cheerful heart is good medicine. Proverbs 17 22 and it's Jesus laughing.

Now I'd first walk into a church and say I don't know if their pictures of Jesus are right or wrong.

I mean I have my own ideas theologically. You can buy children's books with no pictures of Jesus.

You can watch The Robe and the great thing about The Robe is you can't really tell what Jesus looks like but you know it's Jesus. I'm not really against pictures of Jesus.

Maybe as much as I should be. But Jesus that's laughing that looks like Keith Green. It doesn't help me with worship.

These are worship banners. I take things face value worship banners. Here's Keith Green laughing.

Maybe it's supposed to be Keith Green but I don't think his wife is getting any of the money. She actually wrote a book called

Of All Things What No Compromise. I wonder if we have our show trademarked and maybe we could sue them because I'm sure the

Keith Green legacy has a lot of money. No first Corinthians 6 1 date can't do that. We have offering bags.

That is interesting. I think they've got a special bag here where you you know you hold the wooden sturdy handle and then you put your money in and if you try to grab money to pull it out it won't let you.

Candles. You can get reserved little cloths. Say reserved so the pastor can sit there up at the front.

I like to have one that's got a little tassel. These weighted pew ropes. And then it says no lady in this row.

That's what I like. James 2 embroidered underneath. We've got pulpits. And by the way these pulpits

I commend anybody that still has a pulpit in our day and age. They're kind of I don't know kind of lectern -y for me though.

So I don't really go for that too much. What else do we have in here? When Jesus isn't enough everything else you need.

Oh you know what? I won't ask for money on no compromise radio but would you someone out there please send me

I'm getting short on funds. Would you please send me a two pocket short sleeve clergy shirt as low as $19 .99

and it's got that kind of white thing that modified collar and you can put those washable inserts in there that white stuff and I think that might be nice.

I'm probably an extra large so you can get I'm not going to make this part up.

Embroidered baptismal bibs. Velcro closure suitable for babies special no scratch.

Now do you not want to scratch the baptismal font or do you not want to scratch the baby? That would be my question.

I have confirmation prayer cubes. More of these wooden die that you roll and then you pray those things for the confirmed people.

I have necklaces and little wristbands. I have called you by name.

God rocks. I think I'm gonna get one of those God rocks ones for Pastor Dave here. Pastor Dave you know he's very serious and very joyful but you know he's a man's man and I think he needs a

God rocks one and I'll put it around his Saved by Christ fake Starbuck travel tumbler for coffee.

That would be good and all these things. You know what I only have a couple minutes left so I better jump straight to the good stuff.

These t -shirts got God. I think that defames who

God is. I can see if a junior high kid wears them or some kid's got you know instead of Red Bull it's the

Red Sea or instead of Sprite it says Spirit God loves a cheerful giver.

Maybe we should hand that soda out at church. Here would you like a Sprite? Spirit God loves a cheerful giver.

Perfect one instead of Pepsi one. Mountain dew due to others as you would have them do to you

Luke. You've got Seagram's seven gifts of the Spirit. So we basically will take alcohol containers and turn them into Christian.

I don't like this stuff. Sunkissed Christ. Coca -Cola

Jesus Christ. I think that stuff is lame profane and it's just too earthy too gutter like for me to just change it into some kind of advertising slogan.

What are people going to do? See that you're drinking a Red Sea drink and say oh by the way why is it

Red Sea instead of Red Bull and you say well let me tell you about Jesus. You could do it but you can do it without that.

And so we've got inspirational bandages. Jesus heals. Maybe that's pretty good actually.

Jesus heals. Please Jesus is enough. We don't need all the trinkets.

If you'd like to order some communion cups that don't cut or you want to go cheaper and buy some that do you can.

This is a free country but this is also no compromise radio ministry. And so Easter banners probably have their place but I'd rather have you take the money if you're a church and why don't you buy

Holiness by J .C. Ryle and hand it out to everybody in the church for this year. I think they'd be blessed.

I think you'd be blessed. I have something that I have in my mind to do and that is to try to teach the congregation at Bethlehem Bible Church about the deep things of Scripture, the totality of God's revelation focused upon the person and work of the risen

Savior Jesus Christ the Lord. And I don't want to spend time teaching them how to scratch their neighbors back because we're living in a lost and dying world and I'm teaching for them and the next generation as R .C.

Sproul would say. And so scratching back stuff they know how to do that on their own. I want to teach them the depths and riches of forgiveness found in Christ Jesus alone.

You don't need trinkets. You need Jesus Christ. Him crucified. The resurrected King. Mike Abendroth here.

Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org

or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.