Ego will kill you.
OCTOBER 7, 2024
Steve Brown:
Ego will kill you, and I’ll tell you why on this edition of Key Life.
Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus in the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Because life’s hard for everyone, grace is for all of us. Our host is seminary professor and author, Steve Brown.
Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. I hope you guys had a great week-end, and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. I’ve told you, I’ve started a movement, and I go to speak in a lot of different places, and almost every time, one or more persons will come up to me and say, Hey, Brown. Last Sunday, my pastor’s sermon was better than your pastor’s sermon. But I never had it happen in the church that I attend until this past Sunday, and one of our members came up and said, Brown, my pastor’s sermon was better than your pastor’s sermon. And I said, no, it wasn’t. We have the same pastor, both of our pastors, the same one preached a sermon better than anybody else. But at any rate, hope you had a great time of worship. If you’re just joining us, we’re studying the Book of Philippians, and we’re looking at Philippians 1:18b through 26. Let me read that to you, and then we’ll get down and study it. The subject is joy and how you get it. And this is what Paul writes.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now, as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For me to live as Christ, and to die is gain. If I’m to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what I shall choose I don’t know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain. And will continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you, again, your joy in Christ Jesus, will flow on account of me.
Hermes called Christians children of joy. And that’s what we’re talking about last week and this week on Key Life. We have seen, and if you were listening, you know this, the joy comes from knowing the powerlessness of isolation. It’s the dark places where Jesus brings the light. When Paul refers to the Holy Spirit giving him joy, he’s talking about what happens when you’re by yourself and you’re down and you’re scared and Paul was in prison. We’ve seen the irrelevance of circumstances. And I changed that because circumstances are important, they’re not totally irrelevant, but more irrelevant than we think. Joy is something that comes in the strangest places with the weirdest and most painful circumstances. And we saw that joy, the danger of safety, and it comes when you’re not safe, when you’re willing to risk. There was a great Roman battle and I can’t remember the man who fought it, but one of his friends was not involved and when he came back to Rome, he said, you missed it. It was a glorious time and you missed it. That’s what we miss sometimes when we fail to risk for Jesus Christ. All right Let me show you something different. Joy comes from knowing the superficiality of ego, Philippians 1:20b.
But will have sufficient courage so that now, as always,
I’ll be famous. Doesn’t say that. So now, as always, you will rise up and call me blessed. Doesn’t say that. Now, as always, all of Rome will know my name. It doesn’t say that.
Now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body.
Fred Smith, my late mentor was an amazing man. He was the wisest man I’ve ever known. And if you want to check him out, cause some people think I made him up to say some strange things, go to BreakfastWithFred.com and Fred, by the way, just barely if he at all finished high school and he was one of the most important and sought after business consultants all over America. He was one of the movers in the oil industry and people looked up to him and they paid him a lot of money to be a consultant in those places. And I asked him one time, Fred, you weren’t trained for that, you didn’t read books on it. How in the world have you come to such prominence by being a consultant to major industry? You know what he said to me? He said to me, it’s simple. You could do it too. When you go to a business, or a church, or a club that is having problems, look for the ego. And when you’ve found the ego, you have found the problems. My friend Haddon Robinson in a speech he gave once talked about the Walt Kelly comic strip where Pogo is fishing in the swamp. Along comes a duck and sits next to him. The duck says, Have you seen my cousin? Your cousin? Pogo asked. Yes, my cousin. He’s migrating north by kiddy car. By kiddy car? Pogo asked. Yeah, the duck replies. He’s afraid of flying. He’s afraid he’s going to fall. Pogo says, then why doesn’t he swim? Well, the duck explains, he don’t like swimming because he gets seasick. Pogo says, when your cousin decided to be a duck, he chose the wrong business. Haddon gives this lesson.
Blessed is the duck, who when he decides to be a duck, does what a duck is supposed to do. Blessed is the Christian, who when he or she decides to be a Christian, does exactly what a Christian does.
You know what we do? It’s not about us. It’s about Him. We’re not to be glorified, we’re to glorify Him. We’re not good, He’s good. We’re weak, and He’s powerful. We tarry but just a little while, and He is eternal. And our business is simply to point to Him and lift him up and to do something for God’s sake about our ego. Howard Hendricks one time said to a student who told me about this.
Son, you can’t exalt yourself and Jesus Christ at the same time.
And I can’t exalt Howard Hendricks and Jesus Christ at the same time. We were created to exalt Christ, that’s the reason for our existence. When we do that, we are acting the way a Christian is supposed to act. Just when a duck migrates, the duck is migrating the way a duck is supposed to do. Do that in your business, in your home, in your life. Pray, Father, today I want to lift up Jesus in all I do. Help me not to be phony and religious. But help me to be aware that this is yours, it’s not mine, and give me the grace, please sir, to exalt you.
Blessed is the duck, when he decides to be a duck and does what a duck is supposed to do.
One time, a lady came up to me at a conference. And said, Oh, could I talk to you a minute? And I said, yes. And she said, your ministry has changed my life. She said, could I introduce you to my friend? And I said, of course, I’d love to meet your friends. So, she called her friend over. And she turned to me, and you know what she said? I am so embarrassed. I’ve forgotten your name. You say, Steve, that was good for you. Yeah, it really was. But it reminded me that my name is not important. But the name of Jesus Christ should be lifted up. You think about that. Amen.
Matthew Porter:
You can’t exalt yourself and Jesus Christ at the same time. Thank you Steve. That was Steve Brown resuming our unhurried tour through the Book of Philippians. It’s an encouraging series for a discouraging time. Speaking of discouragement, you may be experiencing some right now. Maybe you would even describe it more accurately as suffering. Well, Jesus did tell us that in this world we will suffer, but He also promised He would be with His people, with us, in that suffering. Well, Steve wrote about this in a mini-book called Suffering: When Life Falls Apart. And we’d like to send it to you for free. So, 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 mini-book. Or to mail your request go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the U.S. and Canada. Just ask for your free copy of the mini-book called Suffering: When Life Falls Apart. And finally, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing through your financial support? Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950. And as always, if you can’t give right now or maybe God’s just not telling you to do that, no worries. But pray for us, would you? 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.