Receive it and say, “Thank You”.

Steve Brown:
Receive it and say, “Thank You”. Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
That was Steve Brown. He doesn’t want to be your guru and he’s not trying to be your mother. He just opens the Bible and gives you the simple truth that will make you free. Steve’s a lifelong broadcaster, author, seminary professor and our teacher on Key Life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’re talking and about the proper care and feeding of new Christians in the church, amongst the people of God and the family of God. And that’s what Paul is doing here in this text in the fourth chapter of Galatians. He’s talking to, and he calls them, “My little children”. In other words, he’s aware that he’s got some people here who haven’t been walking with Christ very long and now they’re in trouble and he’s reaching out to them. And we have seen that Paul, tells us that we’re the model for new Christians, become as I am. And that’s different than being perfect. And identify with them, new Christians should be able to say, “you too?”. And we are to accept ministry from them, that’s Galatians 4:14. And we talked about it yesterday. That is so important because it’s so very hard. New Christians are just filled with excitement. And they are learning things, you wouldn’t believe. I have a friend, and she led, the lady who lived across the street. They were both mothers of small children, she led this lady to Christ and man, she was so excited. And one day my friend was standing in her kitchen and she saw her neighbor, the new Christian running across the street and saying, Mary, Mary, I want to show you something I’ve discovered. You’re not gonna believe this. And she opened her Bible, and she read John 3:16 to my friend.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son.

And my friend said, I started to say, you just discovered that? or I memorized that when I was seven years old or every Christian, no, she didn’t, she said by God’s grace. I said, you’re kidding? That is so good, I can hardly stand it. What was going on? She was accepting ministry from a new Christian and God designed it that way. I had a new Christian come into my study. This has been a good while ago and I was, it was an interruption, I was doing something. I used to say to God, Lord, I could do this job, if it weren’t for these people, God would always say your job is those people. They’re my lambs, deal with it. Well, this person came in at the wrong time and I was irritated and I couldn’t hide it. And he knew it and I just felt miserable about it when he left. And so, I dropped him a note and said, I am so sorry. Sometimes, I think I’m never going to get any better. And you know what he said to me, he said that was a gift Steve, to me. It was important that I see that you’re human, and it helps me to pray for you better. What did I say to him? What are you crazy? You’re a new Christian. God’s not going to listen to your prayers. And he said, but I didn’t, I sat there and said, Lord, you are so good to allow this young man to minister to me. That’s what we’ve got to do for new Christians. We’ve got to allow them to minister to us, because that’s what the body of Christ is all about. And that’s how new Christians grow in Christ, by doing ministry. And let me tell you something, this is a secret and I can’t find it in the Bible, but I believe it’s true. I think God listens to new Christians more than he does old Christians. I mean, if you have a need and you don’t have a concern for evangelism, do it anyway. Out of a selfish motive, so you can ask the new Christian to pray for you, because God listens to new Christians. So you lead them to Christ and say, alright, the first thing that you’ve gotta do, is to pray for me. And you’ll see that God listens to those prayers. And in doing that, I’m being kind of facetious, but. there’s some truth in this, in doing that, you are allowing them to minister to you, and that’s one of the keystones of how one does proper care and feeding of new Christians. Let me show you something else, this is number four of your counting. Not only are we the model for new Christians and identify with them and accept ministry from them, we’re also to be honest with them, Galatians 4:16.

Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Now there are all kinds of implications to that. And I’m going to take it a little bit further than what Paul actually meant when he said that. He was saying, look, I told you the truth and it wasn’t pleasant, but you’re a bunch of turkeys. And somebody needs to tell you that because you’re getting out of a line and you’re losing it. So that kind of truth is really important. And we need to be honest with new Christians, if they are getting off the road or going in directions that they shouldn’t be going. And we should tell them so, and tell them at the same time that we’ve been there, done that and sometimes we’ll go there. We got to speak truth, but the truth has got to be about us too. There’s too much lying going on in the church and you and I both know it. How you doing? I’m fine. That’s not true. Tell people the truth. Hey, how’s your walk with Christ. Oh man. Jesus and I had such a wonderful time together. this morning. I recommitted my life to him and I’m walking it. That’s not true. Maybe you should say, you felt like Jesus had gone on vacation to Bermuda this morning. And I, it’s that kind of honesty and truth, spoken with gentleness and with clarity, but truth spoken to one another. New Christians need to be built up in truth. How are they built up in truth? By watching mature Christians tell the truth. The truth about themselves, the truth about each other, the truth about the church, because that’s how God grows his church. And so please note, he spoke the truth. I remember a church I spoke to not too long ago, and an elder in the church told me a great story. He said I was a new Christian and I really loved the Lord. That was good. But, this was bad, I wanted to do and be everything. I figured that the most spiritual people in the world were pastors. And I decided that I wanted to be a super Christian and I wanted to be a pastor. And do you know what my pastor said to me? He said, forget it. You don’t have what it takes to be a pastor. You are one of the most successful business people in our community, and God has called you that, anointed you for it, gifted to you for it. Why don’t you stay there, unless God writes in the sky in Hebrew, go preach. He said that hurt, but it was the best thing he ever saw. I would’ve made a horrible preacher, a horrible pastor. And he told me, I’m really good at business. That’s where God called me. And I’ve been able to touch so many people to Christ. What was going on? The truth was spoken, got to speak truth to new Christians. Then they’ve got to learn the habit of preaching and speaking truth to one another. Let me show you something else. Not only are we to model for new Christians and the identify with them and accept them and be honest with them. We are to protect them. Now I’m running out of time here and I’m not going to have time to go into it. We’ll go into it some more tomorrow, but look, Hey Galatians 4:17.

They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

Who’s Paul talking about? He’s talking about the Judaizers, the ones who didn’t buy into the gospel, salvation by Christ, faith in Christ alone. They wanted to add stuff to it. And Paul didn’t mince words. What did he do? He said you’ve going to watch these folks. They are dangerous and they are dangerous, and in the first chapter of Galatians you’ll remember that Paul didn’t mince words about them. He said some of the harshest things ever been said in the Bible well about others. You say, well that doesn’t sound Christian, oh yeah it is. It’s Christian, because it’s protective, because it becomes the call of every Christian, to protect other Christians from the turkeys. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Steve Brown there teaching us from Galatians about taking care of new Christians, though as we learned today, they care for and minister to us old Christians as well. I hope you’re enjoying this exploration of Galatians. I know I am. Even more good stuff tomorrow, please make sure you join us then.

I’ve been thinking about death a lot lately. In the span of two weeks, there have been four deaths in my orbit. Their lives ended well.

Those words began a fantastic article written by Robin DeMurga called Living in the In-Between. If you’ve been looking for some hope, amidst the hard times, you really need to read it. You can find it in the new 2021 edition of Key Life Magazine, along with some other great articles by Chad West, Chris Wachter and of course Steve. Grab your free copy right now, by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email [email protected] and ask for the magazine. If you would like to mail your request, send it to

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