We are here for each other.

Steve Brown:
We are here for each other. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life with our host, author, and seminary professor, Steve Brown. He’s nobody’s guru. He’s just one beggar telling other beggars where he found bread. If you’re hungry for God, the real God behind all the lies, you’ve come to the right place.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible, we’re looking at the first chapter of Philippians and this is a part of a multi-week, multi-month study in the Book of Philippians and the text we’re looking at is Philippians 1:12 through 18a. And I’m not going to read it to you again, but if you have a Bible and you’re in a place where you can open it, you might want to do that. We’re talking about when bad things happen to good people, mainly when bad things happen to Christian people. What should we remember? What should we do? It’s the advantage that we as Christians have over unbelievers. It’s going to happen, stuff happens, and it’s hard sometimes, but there’s a difference. And the difference is God has given us clear instructions, clear truth on how to deal with it when things turn dark. At the end of the broadcast yesterday, I talked to you about a friend of mine. We were talking about the principle of communication. And my friend has two sons, one became addicted to a prescription drug and couldn’t get out of it. He was a young preacher, and he just couldn’t survive it, and he took his life. And his brother, a year later, who loved his brother deeply, couldn’t deal with it and he took his life. And then my friend’s wife and he’s a pastor, by the way, my friend’s wife was dealing with cancer and I call him and say, man, I don’t get this and I am so sorry and I taste the salt of your tears. And then yesterday he told me he and his wife were thinking about writing a book so that others would know, they are amazing. And they have been something else to watch because of that principle of communication. They have laid their lives bare, there isn’t anybody in their church, or anybody they encounter, who can talk about their hard time without my friend saying, we’ve been there, we’ve done that, we have the t shirt. And now, they’re going to write a book, and when it’s out, I’m going to tell you about it. Because it’s the kind of thing that Christians are called to share. We’re called to communicate that, that’s what Paul meant in Philippians 1:13.

As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

How about that? All right, let me show you something else. Not only do I want you to note the principle of commonality, the fact of control, and the necessity of communication. I want you to note also the reality of community. We had a great interview not too long ago with an Australian pastor that we love a lot, was on our talk show it’s Steve Brown Etc. And if you go to keylife.org you can get all the information and you can find out where you can watch the talk show or listen to it. And we talked to a lot of great people on that show. And yesterday we talked about the book Honor, how we build each other up. We love the church and how God honors that in people’s lives. And it was a great time and I thought about that as I was writing some things I’m teaching at the Cove at a seminar. That’s the Billy Graham Training Center. And I thought about what I discovered. The Bible is clear that we’ve got to love people who are unbelievers. They’re called our neighbors and we’re to love them as we love ourselves. That goes without saying, I mean, duh, of course, we’re called to do that. But did you know there is far more in the Bible about loving each other, our brothers and sisters in Christ, than there is about loving them, the outsiders? Do you know why that’s true? Well, it’s because of a principle. The more God talks about something, that’s because the problem needs more to be talked about, it’s because the problem is a bad problem. And you’ll find throughout the New Testament, and in the Old Testament too, that God says that God’s covenant people are responsible for God’s covenant people. And the reason God says it so often is that it’s so hard, and you know it’s true. I don’t have a bit of problem loving my pagan friends. I mean, I like them, I like being with them. I mean, it’s really cool because they don’t believe anything and we don’t fight. But when it comes to the church, we believe something. And we believe that with all of our hearts, and you want to cause division, start by having convictions and thinking that you’re right about everything. Plus, the church is a place where, I think it was Chuck Swindoll said, porcupines come in the middle of a storm and try to hug each other. I mean, we are sinners. We are people who are difficult to live with. We are sometimes unlovable and God says that’s my laboratory, that’s the place where you go to learn how to love. And the place you do it is in community, Philippians 1:14.

Because of my chains, most of the brothers

Now, he just talked about the palace guard. I mean, he was supposed to do it for them too, but then he says.

most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.

In Philippians 1:16

The latter preach Christ in love, knowing that I am put here to serve for the defense of the gospel.

We belong to each other and our responsibility is to encourage each other. We do it by example. We do it by prayer. We do it by looking for things that we can compliment our brothers and sisters on. We are called to encourage each other. The mules and the mustangs are attacked by wolves, they react in different ways. The mustangs form a circle with their head facing in and start kicking hard. You know what the mules do? They form a circle with heads out and they start kicking one another. And we do that in a church, don’t we? In the movie Rocky, you remember the girl Rocky’s in love with has a brother and the brother asks Rocky why he loves his sister. And Rocky says gaps. Gaps! That’s why, we fill each other’s gaps. That’s exactly what we do. Paul Stuckey said when singing.

When friends by shame are undefiled. How can I keep from singing?

I love it when brothers and sisters stand strong. I have often said, when I’m speaking at a conference, we’ll probably never see each other again, but I want you to know my name may come up and if it does, I give you permission to ask. I remember that old guy, he spoke for a conference where I was attending. How’s he doing? And they’ll say, well, he’s still kicking. And you should say, I don’t mean that, is he still walking with Christ? Is he still serving Christ? And if they say yes, that is the gift that I give to you. And I have permission to ask the same thing about you. How’s Sam doing? How’s Sarah doing? How’s Helen doing? How’s Bill doing? Well, they’re doing all right. No, I don’t mean that. Are they still walking with Christ? Have they not run? And when I hear yes, that is the gift that you give to me, because we have been called to be an encouragement to each other. I want you to know that that’s not always positive stuff. The encouragement comes when I’ve failed, when I’ve sinned, and I need to tell you that too. You need to speak to me a word of the gospel, that God’s grace is bigger than you ever thought and you’re worse than you ever thought you were. That’s what the Christian faith is all about. And so, there’s a principle of commonality, the fact of control, the necessity of communication, but don’t forget the reality of communication. As a matter of fact, God, when he calls one person, always calls a bunch. And he does that because he knows that one person won’t stand, that one person will cave, that one person will run, that one person will give up. You put two together, it gets better. You put 10 together, even better. You put a church together and the powers of hell cannot stand against it. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve, for that encouraging word about encouragement. The text we’ve been studying is Philippians 1:12 through 18a, and we will continue our exploration of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi tomorrow. Well, if you’ve read Paul’s letters, you’ve certainly seen him confounded by believer’s sins. But chances are, no one is as frustrated at your own sins as you. At times, you may wonder why things are so hard. You may wonder why you struggle so much, why you still feel guilty, but you probably already know the answer to that. It’s that we are weak and needy people, and so when we run to Jesus, we find the power we’re lacking on our own. Well, Steve spoke about this in a message called, When Being Bad Isn’t Bad Enough, and it’s going to encourage you in a big, big way. We’d like to send it to you on CD for free. So, call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also drop an e-mail to [email protected] to ask for that CD. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Just ask for your free copy of the CD called When Being Bad Isn’t Bad Enough. And finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your giving? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or simply pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life 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.