Pet Peeves (Part 2) (rerun)

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 ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and I�m your host. I am the pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church for the past 14 years. I am the husband of Kim Abendroth for the past almost 22 years.

I am the father of Haley, 18, Luke, 14, Maddie, 11, and Gracie, 9. And I am thankful to be on the radio station WVNE 760, iTunes, NoCompromiseRadio .com, etc. If you are in the Nebraska area and you�ve got a teenager, you need to send them to a conference I�ll be speaking at.

It�s called No Compromise Weekend. You can go to NoCompromiseWeekend .org to find out all the information, how much it costs. This is technically not a No Compromise Radio ministry conference, but I do like the title.

And so I was asked to speak, and I�ll be speaking there. I think it�s kind of a mini Resolve conference, except it�s in Nebraska. And you can go there to NoCompromiseWeekend .org, I�m going to be preaching the gospel there.

And basically what I�m going to do is I want to challenge the young students there, the young people, young adults, challenge them to place their faith in Christ Jesus. That is to say, to talk about saving faith.

Lots of those kids, I�m sure, especially a Fellowship of Christian Athletes, they are not ignorant of the fact that Jesus is the God-man, that he�s the sin-bearer, that he was raised from the dead, that Easter is true, Resurrection Sunday, virgin birth.

They know those things, is my guess. But like me, when I was 16, 17, 18, what you know doesn�t necessarily translate into saving faith. There is a faith that does not save. You can believe all kinds of things intellectually and still not have saving faith, similar to what the demons are, the predicament the demons are in, in James chapter 2.

You can have an emotional experience, intellectual experience, but still not have saving faith. So I want to talk to the kids there about saving faith, and you say, �Oh, they�re not kids, they�re adults.

Well, that�s true, but to me, at 50 years old, the 16 -18-year-old people are kids. Actually, I�m bringing my daughter Haley, so there�s one more kid there. So pray for that, No Compromise Weekend, nocompromiseweekend .org for more information.

And also Danny Akin will be here for the Marriage and Family Conference. If you�re in the Worcester area, in Massachusetts, in Central Mass, in New England, here�s the six states in New England, and if you put a pen mark in the very center, you�ll probably put a pen mark of Bethlehem Bible Church.

I don�t know if that�s just coincidence or luck or serendipity or fortune or the sovereign will of God, insert chuckle there, but we�d love to have you. So New Hampshire, all around, we�d love to have you learn about godliness at home and godliness in your marriage.

That�s found at Bethlehem Bible Church. It�s website, bbcchurch .org, and you can register online. You need to be there. So we�re picking up part two on pet peeves. Pet peeves, things that just kind of rub me the wrong way, and maybe you can identify with it.

I think it makes interesting radio. And then there�ll be some spiritual truths that we can talk about as well. Sometimes I just talk about a passage. Here�s Luke 8. Look at how great Christ is. Here�s repentance.

Here�s confession. Here�s an issue. Here�s a book. Today I want to do something a little different, and that is follow-up on pet peeves, pet peeve part two. And I was going to do 11, and I think I�m up to 13 now.

So it could continue to grow. You never know. This is, you know, pet peeves just seem to grow. There�s like rabbits in the springtime. You�re just really not sure how many you�re going to get. And so let me give you the pet peeves that I talked about last time, and then hopefully we�ll finish it up this time.

I do have my quotation book here, though. Oh, I just hit the microphone. Once in a while I like to just open up the quotation book at random, kind of like how people open up the Bible to study, and then just see what it might say.

My flocks feed not, my ewes breed not, my rams speed not, all is amiss. Shakespeare. There you go. That was sure stupid. I won�t do that again anytime soon. I should plant these things. I should tell you it�s random opening, and then there was some really cool quote there.

But I actually had to keep my word and say something, and say the right thing. I�m looking for more quotes. Oh, here�s a good one. All right. Here�s one. Dwight Moody. �Character is what you are in the dark.

Okay, there you go. Let�s close in prayer. Pet peeves, number one, lottery tickets. Pet peeve number two, advertising your church via saying something like, �Come casually. What to expect when you get here on the website

Number three, �God told me. Outside the revelation of Scripture and the corpus of God�s Word, God told me. Number four, �I�m a visual learner. I don�t know why I have to say it that way. By the way, I have this kind of screen in front of the microphone so I don�t spit.

Some of the dip thongs don�t thong so much when I dip them. When I say that, I have to put my chin up really close, and my beard almost gets stuck in the screen here. I�m a visual learner. Number five, a ministry is a beg for money, the incessant clang of, �Gimme, gimme, gimme.

I almost said, �Gimme, gimme, shock treatment but that would be Joey Ramone. So we�re up to number six, pet peeves on No Compromise Radio, and again, as I said last week, you always have to give the caveat because people freak out if you don�t.

Some of these we might disagree on. Some of these brand-new Christians believe in. There are such things as immature Christians, mature Christians, weak Christians, strong Christians, and so I want to throw these out as a challenge, and I want it to be interesting radio.

That�s what we�re after. I want you to say, �I can�t stop tuning in. I don�t like this. You can even put me down as, �I don�t like. Can you do that on Facebook? Don�t like? We do have a Facebook on No Compromise Radio.

If you want to listen on Facebook, you can. I don�t personally have an account because there are probably too many don�t likes. Pet peeve number six, horrible Bible translations that pastors use during their sermons.

First of all, I hate horrible Bible translations like the original RSV, the Revised Standard Perversion that would say, for instance, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, �All Scripture which is inspired is profitable et cetera, meaning some isn�t God-breathed, some is, and so that was taken out after the first edition.

But I�m talking about the Message Bible, the New Century Good News Bible, and so here�s what happens. Here�s my pet peeve. You go to church, and you don�t really need to bring the Bible because we�ll put up the verses on the screen, on the really cool screen, and then you can just sit there, and you don�t have to bring anything.

I mean, how are you going to bring a Bible when you got to carry your Pete�s coffee and Starbucks coffee and your little goldfish for the kids and all that and crayons? So you don�t need to bring your Bibles.

So they just throw up a verse, and of course it�s out of context, but they try to pick the verse that�s the most felt needy, if I could say that, that�s the most intuitive, the most emotional, and it�s usually something like the Message.

The Message Bible, get it in your mind now, it�s no translation. It is one man, Eugene Peterson, who�s a smart man. It is his idea, his kind of contextual, cultural translation, I guess, with a small �t.

But it�s horrible. When you read Psalm 32, how lucky is the man instead of how blessed is the man, it just denigrates the word. Now sometimes he has a good translation, and I�m not saying everything in it is blasphemous, but I am saying I would never use it.

I don�t respect anybody that does, and it is a total pet peeve of mine when people go to, for instance, Psalm 1 and talk about, �You don�t go to smart-mouth college and you don�t sink down into sin saloon.

That�s not a translation. That might be some running application, running commentary, some man�s thoughts about it, and it could be all true in terms of application, but I want a translation. I want to know what God said so then I can understand, and then the Spirit of God applies to my life what I know about the Scriptures, and then I can then work out the application, spirit-driven application.

Excuse my hiccuping or something. And so that�s one of my major pet peeves. It teaches the people, when you put up the Bible verse at church, it teaches the people you don�t need your Bibles, you don�t see the context, you don�t understand what came before or after, it�s just stuff thrown up.

It�s like the Purpose Driven Life book, where every chapter starts off with some verse out of context, it�s watered down with some nasty mistranslation. I hate that. I want you to have a good Bible translation.

I want you to have something that you can trust and say, �This is the Word of God. This is not the voice of God, this is not the idea of God, this is not the big picture of God, this is not the broad view of God, this is exactly what God said.

It is written. It stands written. The very words of Jesus, the very words of Paul, the very words of God Almighty as He moves men to write exactly as they would write even though still in their own bodies with their own personality.

And so when you have some kind of Bible church or church that doesn�t say, �Bring your Bibles I think there�s something wrong with that. My friend Steve Nelson says he likes to go to a church and sit in the parking lot and see if everybody brings a Bible in because that�s a sign of a good church.

It�s not the only sign, but it�s a sign of a good church. And so one of my pet peeves is nasty Bible translations that are thrown up for verses in some kind of seeker-sensitive kind of series. Well, I think I�m going to have to add one right now.

Number six, we could be up to 14. Pet peeve number seven. Let�s pick up pet peeve number seven. That�s going to be my new pet peeve is seven, so now our list is getting bigger. Pet peeve seven. That is, churches that pretty much do their sermon based on some kind of series of extreme makeover and it�s some kind of culturally relevant thing, something popular, some kind of sorcerer deal, some kind of Red Sox deal, something else, extreme makeover.

And then they pick about a four-part series for that and then they just ramble on with some kind of man-centered, lowbrow sermon series based on that theme because that�s the way these big shots do it.

And so these smaller churches, and you�ve probably got some in your area, we�ve got some here. Hundreds of people go to them. Big churches, hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds, watered-down felt-need services, watered-down felt-need sermons, and then you wonder why the churches are falling apart.

I don�t mean by numbers because those places always attract the numbers, but just godly living and godly lifestyles and sanctification and theology. That drives me crazy when that happens, and it�s the same church that has the same pet for me, and that is we teach our people just the basics of felt-need stuff, the stuff that the unbelievers really like on Sunday morning, but we have the big feeding, the good feeding, the extra wholesome grain of the Word.

That�s on a Wednesday night. That�s on a Thursday night. And you�ve got hundreds and hundreds of people who go to these churches and they say to themselves, �I�ll listen to a good sermon online later, but I need to go to bring my kids or something there because my kids like it.

Maybe that�s another pet peeve of mine, taking your family to a church because the kids like it. If it is for the good reasons they like it, fine. Your kids are godly and they�re saved and they want Bible teaching and healthy fellowship and biblical worship.

Well, that�s great. But if you say, �Well, you know what? I could go to a better church that taught the Bible better, higher view of Christ, higher view of the Word, higher view of the Spirit of God, higher view of the Father, higher view of corporate worship, but you know what?

My kids like this. They like to put peanut butter on their face and have Cheetos thrown at their face during game time. Friends, it�s time to grow up. You need to go to the Danny Akin Family Conference is what you need to do and fathers, you need to lead.

�Oh, but my kids might not like it if I go someplace else. I can feel my mouth is getting close to this screen again. �My kids won�t like it. Well, you�re probably the same kind of parent that makes your wife cook four different meals every night because you can�t have enough intestinal fortitude to tell your kids what your wife puts, what your mother puts on the plate you eat.

�Well, my kids only like pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs. Well, they�re your kids and you�ve basically planted corn and corn is growing. That�s your own fault. That�s your own problem. And so it�s the same thing.

�Well, my kids won�t like that church service. Well, would you like them to be happy or would you like them to be holy? What�s really the issue? �Without happiness, no one shall see the Lord. Hebrews 12, verse 14.

Is that true? No. Without holiness, you need to go learn about the Word of God because the Word of God tells you about the standards of God and His righteousness and His holiness and His law and His transcendence.

You need to go to a church that teaches the Bible so then you can learn about the One who did keep the law in our place, the One who understood who God was and because He was God and He perfectly lived as a human because He needed to be our representative.

You need to learn about the substitution and atonement, perfect atonement, perfectly reconciled, redeemed, propitiated the sins of the ones that the Father had given Him and that was all confirmed and declared true by the resurrection.

That�s what you need to teach our kids, �happy, no holy. Well, I�ve lost track of how many numbers I�m up to so I�m just going to go to the next one. I have a pet peeve here at No Compromise Radio Ministry and that is when people confuse bass guitar and drums with the Holy Spirit.

Boy, that�s a pet peeve of mine. Isn�t it yours? They�ll say, �Well, you know what? I don�t really like the worship at the church you�re at. Translation, they don�t understand that worship is giving, singing, praying, baptism, Lord�s Supper, and preaching.

They think worship is singing. They think worship is singing with the coffeehouse rock band. By the way, there�s nothing wrong with the coffeehouse rock band, there�s just something wrong with it on Sunday morning.

The bands or the musicians should accompany congregational singing. That should be their focus. And so people say, �Boy, you know, I really felt the Spirit of God. You know when they feel the Spirit of God, quote unquote, it�s when it�s rock music, up-tempoed, good bass, and some nice drums.

Up go the hands. You know, I rarely, I think probably to this day, I�ve never seen a hand go up when someone was singing �Faithful Head Now Wounded. I�ve never seen a hand go up when we have kind of a minor key kind of song, like, �Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.

Excellent songs, great theology. Where are the hands going up then? Where are the hands? The hands go up when it�s rock and roll and they feel the beat, and off they go and they feel it�s a Spirit-led church.

Friends, is that the Spirit? Is a bass drum and a bass guitar, is that the Spirit? Is that really the Spirit? And does the Spirit have different kinds of songs in our sacred psalm book? Aren�t there laments?

Aren�t there joys, joyous celebrations? Aren�t there all kinds of songs that we are to sing? And so it�s one of my pet peeves when people confuse worship with music, and then subset of that is confusing worship and being Spirit-led just because you�ve got an up-tempo bass guitar.

Usually when that happens, I just think to myself, �Immature. That�s a kid, a kid does that. A kid�s immature. And again, there�s nothing wrong with immaturity as long as you are growing and that you have already, you know, nothing wrong with immaturity if you�re just a new Christian.

But if you�re an old Christian and you�re immature, then there�s something wrong with that. Let me give you another pet peeve of mine, and that is ministries, quote-unquote, that give platform, they give a platform to false teachers.

That�s a pet peeve of mine, ministries that give platforms to false teachers. So if the radio station or a bookstore, local bookstore, or a bookstore that�s a bigger bookstore, if they sell things that are not wholesome, of course there has to be some disagreement and maybe they�re going to sell an R .C. Sproul book and a MacArthur book, one believes in believer�s baptism, the other believes in infant baptism, but they both have the right view of salvation.

I don�t mean you have to isolate, but when you sell things that are spiritual strychnine, like Joyce Meyer, like Benny Hinn, like Roman Catholic doctrine, then whether you�re CBD, Morningstar, WVNE, you go right on down the list, whoever you are, if you do that.

CBD does it and Morningstar does, but WVNE does not. Then there�s a problem, and that means you�re in it for the money. So don�t call yourself a ministry. Well, we have to sell some of those. You don�t have to sell anything.

I�d rather have you closed and at least have enough class to say, �Well, you know, we�re not going to do that. Over my dead body I�m going to sell Brian McLaren and Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn and all the other lying heretic dogs that are out there because we�re not going to do it for money.

We�re not going to do it. Well, you know what? We give wholesome food to most people, but if people want to buy a little strychnine and some poison and some arsenic, we just give them a little carbon monoxide and they pay for it, then that�s fine.

That is a pet peeve of mine, and so I know my friends, well, they probably don�t think I�m their friend, and Morningstar or CBD or these kind of places, it�s a very simple solution. Just stop selling those things.

There�s no reason. There�s no gun to your head. The government�s not trying to tell you to do it. The system�s not trying to tell you to do it. You answer to the Lord. And so just, you know, if you think you�re in ministry, fine.

Some of the people in the store probably are ministering, but sell the stuff that is good and wholesome. There are so many. It�s not like you can�t find enough books. You�ve got so many books. So pick the Chuck Swindoll books.

Pick the MacArthur books. Pick other books. I don�t care what they are, but when they start telling you the wrong view of salvation and the wrong view of the Spirit of God and the wrong view of the Bible, etc., that is a major pet peeve of mine, and the simple answer is stop it.

Next, we have the insistence upon the U .S. flag in the sanctuary in churches in America. There are some people that just insist we have a U .S. flag inside a sanctuary for corporate worship in America.

That�s a pet peeve of mine. Now, I wish I would have served in the military. I honestly wish I would have. I checked in to look in to serve the military and the nation and the National Guard, but I couldn�t get six weeks off when I first got here to go do that, and I never served.

My father served, etc., and I think I�m fairly patriotic, and if they�re going to play the national anthem, I�ll put my hand on my heart, etc., and I love the country, especially after my international travels.

I really love America. But here�s my question. By the way, and if you�re at Faneuil Hall, you want to put a flag, you want to put your flag out for Flag Day, that�s fine. But when people insist, like they did here at this church years ago, they insist upon having a flag in the corporate worship service, my question is this, why?

Why? What if we have some people from Iran here and Libya and other places, and they see America as some kind of Western imperialistic, you know, demagogue kind of country, and that symbol to them isn�t what it is to us?

Well, you say, tell them to grow up, this is America. Here�s what I would say. We are saved by the blood of Christ, the man who was a God, who was God and man, and the man who was a Jew, and the man who represented human beings, every tribe, tongue, and nation, and we are singing in heaven, or will be singing in heaven, worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

It has nothing to do with America. America and worship, the flag and worshiping Jesus Christ, those things don�t go together. Now, if you want to have a flag for a ceremony for Iowana in your church building, that�s fine.

If you want to put one in there, I�m not even saying you can�t have one in there. I wonder if I walked in the sanctuary if we�d have a couple flags in there, probably in the back for Iowana. But the insistence upon, you�ve got to have, it�s a public building, therefore you�ve got to have the flag up, I just think it�s silly.

And when I took the flag out of the church years ago here, somebody wrote to John MacArthur to say, you know what, your guy here has taken that flag out of the sanctuary. What does the flag have to do with worshiping Jesus Christ?

It has nothing to do with it, nothing at all. And I wonder what the flag is going to have to do with worshiping Jesus Christ when the same leaders we have now, 15 years flash forward, are going to persecute the church for standing up against unrighteous behavior like homosexuality.

How�s that all going to work out then? I�m getting beyond what I want to talk about, but I will say this, you want to be patriotic, God bless you, I think you should be. But to insist upon a flag in the local church, I think you�re thinking in a cloudy fashion.

All right, we�re doing pet peeves on No Compromise Radio Ministry. Let me give you another pet peeve. I�m going to run out of time. Christian diet books. I�ve got one here in my hand, it�s called The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast, Christian Fiola.

Any of those kind of books, you know they�re going to take you back to Old Testament Mosaic Law. If you look at Mark chapter 7, Jesus declared what? All foods clean. Now, you might say some are clean, but some will make you fat.

Well, that�s true. But putting people back into Mosaic Law, I haven�t even read this book, but I can pretty much tell you what it�s going to be like. Here we have on the back, it says, explains the origins of the Daniel Fast and why it can change your life.

21 devotionals based on the Word of God to help you feed on God�s truth. Opportunity for anyone who is hungry to know the Lord in a deeper way. Deny yourself certain foods such as sugar and processed ingredients.

Now see, we go back to asceticism, we go back to Mosaic Law, we go back to things that give me major pet peeves. My name is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. I wonder if you have any pet peeves.

Maybe your pet peeve is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry, and how V &E can let that guy stay on. And if that�s the case, you need to write to V &E, the management, why don�t you write to Manny and tell them we don�t like that guy, we need him off the air.

He�d be free to do that. Or you can write and say, we�re really glad he�s on the air. And even though we don�t agree with everything he says, at least he�s got a few of those pet peeves right. I am thankful to be on the radio station and to minister to you and your family and anyone else.

Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Write me your pet peeves. Write me anything else. But don�t go on a Daniel Fest.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WV &E, its staff or management.