Bad things happen to good people. So, deal with it.

Steve Brown:
Bad things happen to good people. So, deal with it. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. I’m Matthew, executive producer of the program. Our host is Steve Brown. He’s an author and seminary professor who teaches that God’s amazing grace is the key to a life of radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness to Christ.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hope you guys had a great week-end. As always, I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. If you’re just joining us, we’re studying the Book of Philippians. And this is Paul’s favorite church. I mean, he liked all of his churches because he created them, and God had used him in the lives of a lot of people. But if he had to pick one church, the one where he would join, where he would have his church letter, it would be the church at Philippi. And so, we’re spending some time, and we’re noticing his love for these people. They stood with him when nobody else would. And in fact, when he wrote this letter, he was in jail. And the theme of the letter, if you had to pick one, is the theme of joy. Now, if you were listening last week, we spent a good deal of time looking at the first few verses. Or starting at, not the first few verses. We already did that. We looked at verses 8 through 11. And we saw that the apostle Paul gives us a step by step process of growth. Now, I don’t want to go over it again much, but let me just bring it up. Paul says that it starts with love. So, don’t leave until you’ve been loved. And then it moves from love to knowledge. Study to show yourself approved and then if you want to grow, it moves to insight and wisdom. And then it moves to purity and transparency. And then it moves to action. And then it also moves to the receiver of the growth. Why grow anyway? So, you can give the flowers to Jesus, Philippians 1:11.

Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and the praise of God.

Someone, C.S. Lewis, I believe speaks of a gravestone over the grave of an atheist. The epitaph read as follows.

All dressed up, with no place to go.

That’s sad. Growth is half the fun. Not so we can be self righteous, but so we have flowers to offer to Him. Okay, enough about that subject. Let’s turn to another subject, and look at Philippians 1:12 through 18a. We’ve already seen that Paul was in jail when he wrote this letter, but this is what he writes to his beloved friends in Philippi. Start at the 12th verse.

Now, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, as a result it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill, the latter do it in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition and not sincerely supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I’m in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true motives, Christ is preached because of this I rejoice.

Now, what we’re going to do as we look at this particular text is we’re going to talk about what you do when bad things happen, but let me go down just one side road. Note if you will, the necessity of defending the gospel. Paul says it twice in the words I just read to you in the seventh verse and the second part.

Defending or confirming the gospel.

Philippians 1:16b.

I am put here for

what?

the defense of the gospel.

We have some idea that if people say bad things about Jesus, about what we believe, call us silly and try to cancel us, we need to take it the way Jesus would take it and not say anything, smile and love them back. Well, you ought to love them back, but you shouldn’t be silent. We had a Born Free seminar that we taught all over the country years ago. And I think a couple of books came out of that. Before I taught it because I’d spent so much time putting it together and didn’t want it to be spurious or anything silly or superficial or not Biblical or a part of what the church had already taught, even though it sounded like. I wanted to make sure that I was in the channel of Orthodox Christianity. So, we invited a bunch of people to join us in Atlanta before we did the seminar. Half of them were psychologists or counselors. And the other half were Biblical scholars. And we went over every word of the seminar to make sure that it was together. One of my friends said, Steve, you’ve got to be careful with some of this stuff, because it is pretty scary to some people. It was called Born Free. And I was telling him, the reason he said that to me, we were in California, and we were having lunch together, and his wife was with him, he was a pastor. He said, what are you working on? I told him about the Born Free Seminar and some of the things we were going to be teaching. And I noticed that his wife started crying. And I said, I hope I didn’t say anything to offend you. And he said, oh no. And that’s when he said, you have to be careful about this material. And so, at the beginning of the seminar, we made sure there were counselors there to make a difference. And God used that, and we didn’t lose too many. I made it clear when people came to the seminar, if you’re not a Christian, this is not going to work for you. And if you will ask for your money back, we’ll give it to you. There won’t be any questions, and you won’t be embarrassed. During the first break, just go to one of the staff people and say, look, this is not what I thought it was. And we’ll immediately return, and it wasn’t very much. We’ll immediately give your money back, but God used it, and he used it. But a part of that seminar was assertiveness training for Christians, and you have no idea what that did in terms of criticism about what we were doing. Assertiveness training, are you crazy people would say, Christians don’t need to be trained in assertiveness. We’re supposed to be humble, and quiet, and loving, and nice. And I said in that God didn’t send his Son to die for you so you would be a nice Christian. And sometimes I would even use what Paul said in the text that we’re talking about, in that 7th verse and the 16th verse. We are called to stand, we’re called to be counted, and we’re called to not remain silent. One of the things Paul says in this text that the fact that he was in jail had encouraged other Christians to be bold, to stand up, and to be counted. My friend Norm Evans, I Love this story and I probably told you about when he was in college there was a lineman who went to the coach and said the opposing lineman keeps pulling my helmet down over my over my eyes, what should I do? And the coach said, son, don’t let him. Don’t let him. Well, Christians are called to do that too. Now, there’s a way we do it. We’re not supposed to beat people over the head with a Bible, to get out a gun and say repent or I’m going to shoot it. We’re not supposed to be pains. We’re not supposed to be jerks. But we’re supposed to make sure that people know the one to whom we belong. And one of the interesting things about living in a postmodern culture is that if you’ll do that, and do it without self-righteousness or condemnation, maybe even confess some of your sins. If you’ll do that, you’ll find that the defense of the gospel to which you have been called will be quite effective. So, the next time an unbeliever says something dumb, tell them it’s dumb, and laugh when you do. The next time an atheist says that the faith you hold is silly and obscurantist, don’t be quiet about it. Tell him that the fool has said in his heart there’s no God, but do it with kindness and love, because we’re not created to be silent about the gospel. Don’t be a jerk about it, but don’t just sit there, speak up. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Jesus didn’t die to make us nice. Thanks Steve. That was Steve Brown resuming our unhurried tour through the Book of Philippians. And today our text was chapter one: verses 12 through 18. More to discover tomorrow, hope you will join us then. So, here’s an intriguing question that borders on provocative. Are we weak by God’s design? If so, what does that mean for us? Well, that’s the subject we recently discussed with author Eric Schumacher, whose latest book is called The Good Gift of Weakness: God’s Strength Made Perfect in the Story of Redemption. We put that entire conversation on CD and we would love to send it to you today, for free. Just call us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE, that’s 1-800-539.5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. To mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Just ask for the free CD featuring Eric Schumacher. And finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your financial support? Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or pick up the phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950, then follow the instructions. And of course, if you can’t give right now, or maybe you’re not called to, all good. But pray for us, alright? Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.