We’re here for them.

Steve Brown:
We’re here for them. Let’s talk about it, on this edition of Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God because of His radical grace, free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Let me give you a verse. It’ll sort of introduce the subject of the Holy Spirit’s involvement in evangelism. Evangel is the good news. Evangelism is sharing it with somebody else. You ever wonder why you’re still here? I mean, if the doctrine of eternal security or perseverance of the Saints is true, and it is, He’ll never let you go. Once we come to Him, have been redeemed, why doesn’t He just take us home? It would save a lot of trouble and a lot of pain, and the reason he doesn’t do that is because we’re here for them. Acts 1:8, this is what is clearly a commandment.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me

Jesus says

in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Please note in that verse that Jesus says.

The Holy Spirit will come on you, and then you will be my witnesses.

It is very important, before we leave this subject of the Holy Spirit, that we’ve studied the last few weeks. It’s very important that we see the Holy Spirit’s work in evangelism. To be honest with you, I grow tired sometimes of trying to explain the gospel, the good news, to people who just don’t believe it. I one time, and I’ve probably told you about this, I one time was speaking at a church and I opened the sermon by saying, Millions of people are lost for all of eternity, and I don’t give a rip. I don’t, I don’t know their names, I don’t know their children’s names, I don’t know where they live, they’re not my friends, so I don’t care. And the congregation was shocked. And then I said, the only reason I’m saying this, is as a confession to ask you to pray for me. And they did. And in a kind of miracle, God began to work on my heart. And now, and this has been years later, now when I think about the lost, I can get teary eyed. When I think about those who have turned away from Christ and for eternity will be lost to what He has promised, it breaks my heart. I have a friend with whom I went to seminary. The seminary was a liberal place and Jesus didn’t have much to do with it, to be honest with you. I was not a Christian, or at least a committed Christian in those days. And my friend wasn’t either. He had been a judge and I a production manager, disc jockey, and news person on commercial radio. He and I had a great time at that seminary. There is, by the way, a great time to be had if one doesn’t have to worry about Jesus. We were roommates and I suspect that if people knew we were in seminary, they would have been shocked. After seminary, Jesus found me. And my friend divorced his wife, went back to the practice of law, and was making a lot of money. We would get together occasionally. Generally in bars, cause he said he met all of his friends in bars. And I would try to communicate what had happened to me. But he had been to seminary. He knew all the words. He figured I was just looking for a soft place and that I would grow out of it, and we both decided that we’re going to have to love each other and stay away from discussions about Jesus. Some 25 years later, I was a pastor of a church in the Miami area, and a flight attendant, who was a member of that church, came up to me after the morning service. And she said, Steve, I met a friend of yours on one of my flights last week. And I said, yeah, who was that? And she told me his name. And I said, did he hit on you? Oh no, she laughed. Nothing like that. He said for me to give you a message. And he made me repeat it, so I would get it right. He told me to tell you, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. She didn’t understand the tears that came to my eyes, the emotion in my voice, the joy I felt in my heart, because my friend, my friend that I loved like a brother from another mother. My friend had let me know that he had run to Jesus and that we were now in the same place. Great sinners, loved by a great Savior. Actually, I do care now about the lost. It keeps me awake at night because I think of my friend and so many others that I’ve known. And the great thing about the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit shares the concern that I have. And becomes my partner in telling others. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
We’ve been talking about the power of the Holy Spirit, and yes, that includes the power to soften our hearts. Thank you Steve. We’ll continue exploring that subject tomorrow. Do hope you’ll join us. Why does God allow bad things to happen? Is he really a loving God if he allows suffering? Those questions fall under a category called theodicy, and guess what? We’ve all asked them. Want some answers to those questions? Well, Steve spoke about this in a classic sermon called When Bad Things Happen. Take a listen to part of that sermon, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer. Here’s Steve.

Steve Brown:
I want you to see the fact of control. Philippians 1:12.

Now I want you to know, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

What’s Paul saying? Paul’s saying there’s a God who’s sovereign over everything that is, and he has his parameters and his control over all the bad things that are going on right now. You know what I believe the most difficult thing is about being a Christian? It’s not discipline. That’s hard. I don’t do it too good sometimes. That’s hard, but that’s not the most difficult thing about being a Christian. Holding up to temptation and being pure, that’s hard too. Don’t do that all the time. But I know how hard it is, but not the most difficult thing about being a Christian. You know the most difficult thing about being a Christian? Allowing God to be God. Letting go of the control in your life. You all know that I’m afraid of flying. Spend most of my life on airplanes, I hate them. I would think about, you know, crashing and getting my blood all over the place and what it’d be like to be burned up. Jim Green says that when he goes through an airplane accident, he’s going to be helping the other people. Well, he’s the eternal optimist. When I go through an airplane accident, I’m going to be the people that people like Jim Green are going to be helping. And I’m going to have a leg over here and a hand over here and a head, and I used to think that was the thing that made me frightened of flying, but it isn’t. You know what makes me frightened of flying? I’m not in control. You know why I don’t like my wife driving the car? I’m not in control. You know why I don’t like my daughters driving the car? Because I’m not in control. When I get on the airplane, I can’t even see the pilot. I don’t know if he’s messing with a stewardess or south out of his mind up there. I don’t know what he’s doing. And my life is out of control. He’s in control. You know the reason that the Christian church reacted so harshly to the charismatic movement when it first came? I’m not charismatic in the sense that we define that today. In other words, I don’t speak in tongues. But boy, when that first started happening in the church, started in the Zula Street revival that took place a lot of years ago, and then began to sweep across the church, you still see that hostility. Man, we told them it was either of the devil or the flesh. It certainly couldn’t be of God. And we yelled at them, and we disciplined, and we did everything we could. You know why we did that? Let me tell you. Because we couldn’t control it. And boy, pastors don’t like something you can’t control. People in this church are always telling me, we’re going to have a revival here. I don’t want a revival here. You know the reason I don’t want a revival here? Can’t control a revival. See, when God’s Spirit begins to move in a church, you find out you can’t hold on to it anymore. The issue is control. Harold Myra and Paul Robbins are the two chief executive officers of of a group of magazines on which I serve the executive committee and the board of those magazines. They were down here, and we spent the morning together, and I’ve been wanting to ask them a question for a long time. They are so alike when they’re criticized. They’re so open to criticism, and they really try to change when they are criticized. And I said to those guys at breakfast, I said, I’ve noticed that when the board jumps on you, you really try to do it different. You don’t seem to ever get uptight about this whole thing. Now, millions of dollars are coming in, a lot’s resting on their shoulders. It’s a very difficult position to be in. And you know what they both said almost simultaneously? They said this, We know that God gave it to us. It belongs to God if he takes it tomorrow, it’s cool. See, what they had done is they had given up control of those magazines. I think I told you about the time Sam Rowan called and asked us to pray for Sammy. Then he called the next day and said, Steve, God was faithful, Sammy’s well. And then he said, long pause, and he said, you know, if God, if Sammy had died, God would still be faithful. Giving up control. Are you willing to give up control to a sovereign God who loves you? Control of your children? Control of your business? Am I willing to give up control of this church? Are you willing to give up control of your wife or your husband? The constant manipulation, recognizing that in the midst of bad things, that God has his hand on the bad things and he’s in control.

Matthew Porter:
So good. And by the way, how old is this sermon? Three words, the Reagan administration. Yeah, listen, we want to send you that entire sermon on CD 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 CD. To mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD called When Bad Things Happen. Finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your financial support? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or simply text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950, then follow the instructions. 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.