Sometimes faithfulness will cost you.

Steve Brown:
Sometimes faithfulness will cost you. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
That was author and seminary professor Steve Brown, and this is Key Life. We’re all about radical grace. Because of what Jesus has done, God’s not mad at you. Keep listening, and that message will set you free to live a life of joy and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’re just joining us this week, we’re studying Philippians and we’re talking about faithfulness from the second chapter of Philippians. And if you have been with us, you have noted that we’ve talked about the contrast of faithfulness, the gift of faithfulness, and the reward of faithfulness. That’s when Jesus said, you did really good. There is no better feeling on the face of the earth. But note, and by the way, he’ll love you when you didn’t do good. The only people who do good are those who know that if they don’t do good, that God will love them anyway. At any rate, let me show you the sacrifice of faithfulness. You’ll find it in the 17th verse of the 2nd chapter of Philippians.

But even if I’m being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and serve coming from your faith, I am glad and I rejoice with you.

What? He’s saying I’ve been faithful. He’s saying I did good. He’s saying they’re going to kill me. How about that? And I even rejoice in that. Now, that doesn’t seem fair to me. It seems to me that if you do good, good things ought to happen to you. If you do good, you ought to be healthy and wealthy and wise. If you do good, you ought to be rewarded for it. And Paul says, they may kill me, that might be the sacrifice of my faithfulness, after I’ve already sacrificed so much. I don’t like that very much, now that I think about it. You know, everything in life is built on this, you do the right thing, you get rewarded for it. When you were in school, and you studied, and you prepared yourself for the exam, and you did well on the exam, everybody thought you were wonderful, especially your mother and your teacher. If you are working in a business and turning out a product and you work hard and come early and stay late, the boss is going to pat you on the head and you may even get a raise. If you are nice and good to your neighbors, they will be nice and good to you. And what the Christian faith does is that it turns everything around. It turns it around in that we don’t get what we deserve. We’re never good enough. We’re never pure enough. We’re never faithful enough. And God loves us anyway. And when we are good enough, it requires sometimes even more sacrifice. And so, deal with it. Don’t have expectations that are too high. High expectations in the spiritual realm are sometimes what will destroy you in the spiritual realm. In other words, when you do good, when you’re faithful, God may require even more of you. And that’s what Paul has said. Paul had been faithful, and now they were going to kill him. I don’t like that very much, but we’re not home yet, try to keep that in mind. And then I have one other point as we talk about faithfulness. I want you to note not only the contrast, the gift, the reward, and the sacrifice of faithfulness. I want you also to see the pleasure of faithfulness, it’s Philippians 2:17b through 18.

I am glad and rejoice with all of you, so you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

Now, there are two things that Paul is saying here, as he talks about the pleasure of faithfulness. When you are faithful, when you don’t leave, when you do the best you can and it’s enough, there is joy inside that you can’t get any other place. But there is more than that. There is also the joy inside of your friends who see your faithfulness are Christians and rejoice with you. Paul says those two things have to do with faithfulness. When you’re faithfulness and when you’re faithful, you sleep better at night. When you’re faithful, you offer a gift not only to unbelievers, but to your brothers and sisters in Christ who rejoice in your faithfulness. I had a, when I was a young pastor, I don’t think I’d ever shared my faith, ever had done one on one evangelism. And the first time I did it, it was at a beach in Wollaston, Massachusetts, in the middle of the winter, and there was one car parked there, with his windows rolled up and his heat turned on. And my friend who was a staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ knocked on the window and I kind of hung back and the guy cracked his window, he said sir, could we talk to you for just a minute? I represent an international Christian organization, and this is my friend Steve, and we’d love to talk to you. Found out later that the man was sitting there contemplating suicide. And my friend, Jay, got about halfway through a presentation of the gospel and then turned to me. I was in the back seat and couldn’t get out. And he said, Steve, tell him. And so, I did. And the guy received Christ. And man, I, that made my day. But let me tell you something else. I lost track of Jay over the years. A lot of things happened in my life. I went to be the pastor of another church and I lost track of my friend Jay. And I was speaking for a conference somewhere and somebody came up to me and told me they were friends of my old friend, Jay, and that Jay said to say hello. And I said to this man who came up to me, How’s Jay doing? He said, Oh, he’s doing fine. I said, I don’t mean that. Is Jay still walking with Christ? And he said, Oh, yeah, he really is. He’s so faithful, he drives me nuts. And the guy didn’t understand the tears in my eyes and the joy in my heart to hear that my friend was still being faithful. Listen, I owe you and you owe me. What do you mean about that, Steve? I owe you my faithfulness. Now, if you’ve been listening as we’re talking, we’re little lights, we’re not a big deal, and we fail a lot, but we’re still here. And I owe you my doing that, because that’s where you find joy when you find out that Steve is still hanging in. He’s wounded, he limps sometimes, sometimes he does it wrong, sometimes he does it really wrong, but I’m still doing it. And that ought to make you feel good, and your faithfulness does exactly the same thing for me. I told you earlier this week that we get a lot of criticism at Key Life. And that sounded like whining, and I’m sorry, because we get a lot more praise from a lot of people, then we get criticism. And I get letters from so many of you saying, Hey, Steve, let me tell you a story, and they’ll tell me a story where they were faithful in their family, in their business, in their university. And when I read those stories, and Presbyterians don’t do this, I want to speak in tongues. I want to laugh and dance before the throne of God because the pleasure of faithfulness is the pleasure that Christians give to other Christians by not leaving, by being faithful, by speaking truth when it’s hard, by standing when nobody else would stand, by not backing off, by pointing to Jesus with every chance we get. And so, during these teachings on faithfulness, I’m not telling you to change the world by being so pure. You can’t pull that off, but I am saying, don’t leave. Speak truth, speak it with gentleness, and the truth is we’re great sinners, and we have our Great Savior. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Faithfulness can cost you, sometimes a lot. And yet, as Steve just explained, there’s so much more to the story. Thanks Steve. We’ve been digging deep in the second chapter of Philippians, specifically verses 14 through 18. But tomorrow we’re moving forward again. So, hope you’ll join us for that. 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1. No, it’s not a countdown to the new year, that’s time running out to get your copy of our 2024 print magazine. As in today, today is the last day. And believe me, this issue is worth the price of a free 1-800 call. It’s bigger and better than ever with a redesigned format and new pieces from Steve, Chad West, Alex Early, and Kendra Fletcher. Claim your free copy right now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for the magazine. To mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of Key Life Magazine. And finally, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can now gift 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 Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.