Do you want to grow? Ask Jesus and he’ll help.

Steve Brown:
Hey, you want to grow? Ask Jesus and he’ll help. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God because of His radical grace, free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’re just joining us, we’re looking at the first chapter of Philippians. And we’re looking at a kind of step by step process to getting better. I’ve said that I’ve never met a Christian who didn’t want to be better than he or she was. And by the way, that’s one of the reasons we can be assured of our salvation. Not that you are better, or that you stop sinning, or that you are pure and faithful all the time, but you want to be. And that wannabe is a sign of God’s Spirit in the life of the believer and one of the reasons for assurance. I don’t know about you, but I want to be better than I am. I really do. I want to please God. I want to love people better. I want to stop saying things that hurt people. I want to be an obedient follower of Jesus Christ, and even if I’m not, that desire is a sign of God’s Spirit in me and in you. Now, we’re looking at the process that Paul lays out in this first chapter of Philippians. We’ve noted that the basis of growth is love. Don’t leave until you’ve been loved. And if you don’t feel loved by God, don’t do anything, just sit there and say, do you love me? And would you show me? And don’t try to be some kind of spiritual giant, cause we’re not. Just say, God more than anything, even more than I want to be good, I want to be loved, I want to be cherished. I want to be held by you, I want to know that you’re my friend, that is so important. If you start somewhere else, you’re going to hurt and you’re going to hurt other people. But the balance of growth is in knowledge. You need to study to show yourself approved. You need to know what the Bible says is true and what the Bible says is not true. You need to know, especially on a cold night when you’re thinking about running, you need to know that you can’t run any more than you can stop believing in the multiplication table. These things are true, and they’re true eternally, and they’re true right now in your life. You’re forgiven. Why is that? Well, study the Scriptures and find out the process that led to your forgiveness. You’re going to get home before the dark, quit worrying about it. How do you know? Study the Scriptures and find out what the Scriptures say about it. And I could go on and on. The basis of growth is love. The balance of growth is knowledge. The beacon of growth is insight. And the benefit of growth is honesty, and purity, and transparency. We looked at the word that is used for purity in that 10th verse.

So that you may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.

And purity means transparency, something you can look through. And we talked yesterday about how you can come to those places of purity. You’ve got to know you’re forgiven. And you’ve got to know that there is less dirt now than there was a year ago. That’s called perseverance and it’s happening in your life right now. Sometime when you’re praying and especially down because you’ve done something bad. Say, God, show me a place in my life where there’s no explanation except from you. Transparency, it is said, and transparency is something that happens naturally, by the way. Planned transparency is not transparency. Planned purity is not purity. Purity, in the sense that Paul is talking about, is something that happens in the life of the believer. It is said that the famous sculptor Dannecker spent most of his early skills in making statues of Greek gods and goddesses. And then later in his life, he determined to do a statue of Christ. He tried twice and failed, and finally on the third try, he created a magnificent statue of Jesus. It was so beautiful that one could look on it and always feel awe. Later, Napoleon sent for him and said, Come to Paris. and do a statue of Venus for the museum in Paris. And Dannecker’s reply was classic. Sir, the hands that carve the Christ can never again carve a heathen goddess. I have a friend who defines sin as something you enjoy. If you enjoyed it, it’s not a sin. The closer I move to Christ, I find that I enjoy my sin less and turn to him more. And it’s a natural occurrence of growth. So, ask Jesus to show you and he will. But there’s one other thing and I’m going to mention it and then we’re going to talk about it tomorrow. You ought to note that if you’re trying to grow, that the basis of growth is love, the balance of growth is knowledge, the beacon of growth is insight and transparency, the benefit of growth is purity, note that the byproduct of growth is action, Philippians 1:11.

Filled with the fruit of righteousness.

What’s the fruit of righteousness? That’s doing stuff. Purity is the absence of something, righteousness is doing something. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. That was Steve Brown continuing to lead us through the Book of Philippians. Today we touched on the idea that the byproduct of growth is action. And tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at that concept found in Philippians 1:11. Hope you’ll join us for that. Well, recently on Steve Brown Etc. we spoke with one of our favorite guests, Preston Sprinkle. His latest book concerns the first century church and what it can teach us today about politics. Take a listen to part of that conversation, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

Preston Sprinkle: About 85 to 90 percent of the book is just Bible. It’s going through the Bible and asking the question, how did the people of God view themselves politically in relationship to the various nations and empires that they were living in? You know, at one point in the Old Testament, Israel was a nation, then they were exiled to Babylon, then you turn the page to the New Testament, and now you have the early church living underneath the Roman Empire. And I think there’s a lot throughout the Bible that can help us kind of view ourselves politically in light of the various nations that the global church finds itself scattered among. So, it is not a defense of either right or left or middle of the road political viewpoints. It is, again, just trying to build a Biblical theology of how should we be ourselves in light of the nations we’re living under.

Cathy Wyatt:
Preston, I know what Ecclesia means. It means church. Back in the New Testament times, it was a very political word. So, it’s almost like the church kind of stole it.

Preston Sprinkle: Yeah. You know, that’s a good way to put it. And honestly, as I talked later on in the book that most of the traditional or most of the language that you find in that the church uses to describe itself or even the language they use to describe Jesus and the language they use to describe their own community, the church, the Ecclesia. Most of these words that we think are just religious or spiritual, they’re very political in nature. Even the term Kingdom of God was a profoundly political concept in the first century. So, the word Ecclesia translated church. It was widely used in the Greco Roman world all the way back in the times of Athenian democracy, the days of Aristotle and so on. They would have an Ecclesia, which was a gathering of male citizens. And they would gather 40 times or so a year and form their Ecclesia. And they would talk about political issues, when the Christian community chose that term to describe its community, they were sending a message, we’re not a hundred percent sure exactly what they were getting at, but if anything, they viewed themselves as a sort of political entity. Going to an Ecclesia in the first century was a radical thing because at that Ecclesia they confessed that Jesus is King and Lord. And that got the early church into some hot water because everyone in the Roman empire knew there was one King, one Lord, and his name was Caesar or his title was Caesar. And so, when the early Christians gathered together at their Ecclesia, which is again, a kind of political term and confessed Jesus as the true King and Savior, that sent a message and it got them into hot water, as we see throughout the New Testament. Jeremiah 29, written to the literal exiles in Babylon, he said.

Stay here, plant vineyards, build houses, seek the good, seek the welfare of the city, like be a good citizen where you are.

And in the New Testament we have Romans 13 says.

To submit to governing authorities.

I Peter 2 talks about that. All throughout the Book of Acts the Christian church they raised a lot of havoc in society, but they never actually broke any known laws by Rome, like they good citizens, but they did embody a very counter cultural way of life. And that’s what kind of ruffled a lot of feathers, but they were good citizens. There weren’t violently trying to overthrow Rome, they prayed for the leader. And in light of the Roman Empire that they were living under. Again, they were good citizens, but they saw themselves as really a distinct political entity. They had their own King, they had their own Kingdom, they had their own politic, their own kind of way of life. And so, while they were good citizens under the Roman Empire, they didn’t give their allegiance to that empire. And that kind of opens up questions, I think, for how we’re to live today.

Matthew Porter:
Just a very thoughtful and winsome guy, that Preston Sprinkle. Hey, we put that whole show on a CD. Can we send it to you for free? Yeah, well then call us right now 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 for the U. S. and Canada. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD featuring Preston Sprinkle. And before you go, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your financial support? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can now give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950. 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.