How to grow roses…and people.

Steve Brown:
How to grow roses…and people. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. I’m Matthew, executive producer for the program, and our host is author and seminary professor Steve Brown. The church has suffered under do more, try harder religion for too long. And Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible, turn to the first chapter, and I’m going to read verses 9 through 11 as a part of our continuing study in Philippians. This is what Paul writes.

And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and the praise of God.

Now, if you’ve been listening, yesterday we finish looking at the first verses of the first chapter of Philippians. We saw what you ought to see among the people of God. And Paul said he prayed for them. And for the next week or two, we’re going to look and see what it was that Paul prayed for. You know something I’ve always wanted to be. I’ve always wanted to be a farmer. I just, and it’s probably a pipe dream, but it’s my recurring dream of being a farmer and working the land. I had a roommate in college who was a farmer. And he said, Steve, you’re crazy. You don’t want to do that. If you’ll come home with me on vacation, I’ll let you do some of the work with the hay and the digging and the dirt and it will cure you forever. Well, I never went home with him, so I never tried it, and the dream went on. But I did try to grow roses. In fact, I decided I was going to be a world class rose grower. And I got the most expensive rose plants that you can possibly get, you know, they kind of stick up from the ground. I planted them, I used gravel, I put it in the right place so they would get just the right sun. I used some of the growth things you get at nurseries, I watered them faithfully, I prayed over them and I could hardly wait to see my roses. Do you know what happened? They didn’t even try. I mean, there was not even a leaf on it. They didn’t even try. And that’s when I gave up my dream of farming. Because I like to eat and if I can’t grow anything, I can’t make that happen. And I was thinking about that when I was looking at this text. And I thought, if God were frustrated with us, and He’s not, because we haven’t surprised Him about anything, It would probably be in the area of growth. He knows. But as I said yesterday, when we looked at Philippians 1:6, quit worrying about it.

He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.

And the beginning of it is the promise of its completion. Now, I wish that we were quietists, that’s a 17th century heresy, founded by a Spanish monk that said, you don’t do anything, you just sit around and you wait. Well, you don’t do that. The Christian faith is never passive, but you need to know there’s some things that Paul talks about that are really important to growing. And the first thing you ought to note is the basis of growth is love. When I’m afraid I don’t grow. Calvin said that when I’m intimidated by other people I don’t grow, when I’m challenged to be better than I am I don’t grow, when I’m loved I grow. And that contradicts everything that we know. The greatest motivational force in the world is love. Let me say it again. And apply it to your kids, and your business, and your neighborhood, and your church. The greatest motivational force in the world is love. That’s why, for instance, God entered history. Not as a policeman, not as a potentate, not as a magician, not as a judge, God entered history as a lover. Someone tells about the time when a student of Leonardo da Vinci came to him with what the student thought was a masterpiece. It was a painting of Jesus and his disciples. And the famous artist examined the painting for a few moments, and then he turned to the young man and said, Son, you don’t love him. What do you mean I don’t love him? Asked the student. Because, Da Vinci said, if you loved him more, you would paint him better. Does that make you feel guilty? Well, stop it. That is not what this thing is all about. You don’t love him more, except insofar as you accept his love, which was given to you. We love him, John said, because He first loved us. And He continues to love us no matter what. How would your life be different if you knew that He loved you no matter what? No matter where you went, no matter what you did, if you knew that He loved you no matter what. You say, man, I’d go out and sin. Well, maybe at the beginning, but it wouldn’t last. I wouldn’t try to be good, maybe at the beginning, but that won’t last, because love changes people. You think about that. Amen.

It’s Wednesday, and sometimes on Wednesdays when I have a little bit of time, I take the time to answer one or two questions. As you know, Pete Alwinson will be in on Friday, and we spend the whole broadcast answering questions on Fridays, and we love to get your questions. You can ask them by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE, following instructions and recording your question. And sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can write to

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if you’re in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada

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or you can e-mail your question to [email protected] and if you can help us financially, those are the places where you could do it. We understand if you can’t, but if you can, I promise that we’ll squeeze every dime for the glory of God. And you will make a difference in others lives. If you can’t, do say a prayer for this ministry.

Okay, let’s turn to a question. This is an e-mail. What is the significance of the blood sacrifice in terms of Jesus Christ? And I should answer that in just three or four minutes, right? Can’t be done. If I had three or four hours, we could talk about it a lot more, but it is significant because God said it was significant. And not only did God say that blood sacrifice is significant, he teaches it throughout the Bible. And not only that, it is a part of every culture, historically, in the world. Everybody knows and everybody has taught through various religious statements, all kinds of rituals and liturgy that without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. Now, if I were God, I maybe would have picked something else. Something a little more acceptable. But God decided and taught it throughout the Old Testament in the sacrificial lamb, the blood that was shared and given for the sins of the people. And then when you get into the New Testament, you read a statement that will take your breath away.

The Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the earth. The Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

And so, the blood of Christ becomes by God’s ordained will, the way you are forgiven, the way you are justified, a vicarious sacrifice for you, the way you stand pure before the holy judge of the universe. And why that’s true, I don’t know, but God ordained it. And everywhere you turn in history, you will find it. God prepared for his grand act. There are two themes of history. One is Judeo Christian, and one is Greco Roman. And they ran in parallel ways to each other, until one time in all of human history, they crossed. And at that very moment, Jesus of Nazareth was born. God prepared, he prepared with thought forms, he prepared with belief systems, he prepared with philosophy, he prepared with words and the word, and he prepared by having every culture on the face of the earth have rootage in an idea that without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. And so, how important is it? It’s very, very important and it’s very, very important because God decided that it would be very, very important. A sacrificial system is not man’s idea. It’s God’s idea. And God has planted that in the DNA of every culture on the face of the earth, and so that’s the significance. It’s significant because he made it significant and created it so we would, too. Got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.