We’re stuck with each other. Deal with it!

Steve Brown:
We’re stuck with each other. Deal with it! Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Because life’s hard for everyone, grace is for all of us. Our host is seminary professor and author, Steve Brown.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. I hope you had a great week-end, and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. If you’re just joining us, we’re pretty much at the beginning of our study in the Book of Philippians. And we’re looking at Philippians 1:1 through 8 where Paul writes.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you, in my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart, for whether I’m in chains or defending and confirming the, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

All right, let’s pray and then we’ll get down and study. Father, we come into your presence so glad that you wrote it down. You know we would have gotten it wrong if you hadn’t given us your written word. Thank you for the saints in Philippi and what we learned from Paul and his letter to them. Thank you for your word, always true in a world where people lie to us. Thank you for the rock that you have given your people. Father, you know everybody who’s listening to this broadcast. You know the hard places and the soft places, remind us that you’re sovereign in both and sufficient for both. And then Father, as always, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast, forgive him his sins cause there are many. We would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen. Now, if you were listening last week, we got into this text as kind of a mirror of what ought to really be going on in the real church. There are some people who play church. There are some people who say they’re a church and they’re not a church. And there are some people who are church because they reflect the reality that is revealed in Scripture in general and in Philippians in particular. Now, I’m assuming some things as we look at these marks of a true church, and that is that truth is proclaimed, that certain doctrinal standards are maintained, that Christ is lifted up and honored and present. But there’s some other things that are a part of a true church that we don’t often mention and we’re looking at those. If you were looking last, or listening last week, we saw that the church, the real family of God is a place of praise, Philippians 1:3.

I thank my God every time I remember you.

Praise at the center of the people of God. And then secondly, in the real family of God in the church, you ought to note not only the place of praise, but also the place of joy. We have seen the number of times that Paul refers to rejoice or joy in this particular book. Over and over again he uses that word because you always find joy and I might say laughter among the people of God. If I am speaking in a new place and they never laugh, then I know that Jesus has left the building. And then let me show you something else, and this is new. Thirdly, in the real family of God, the church, you ought to note not only the place of praise and joy, but also note the priority of partnership, Philippians 1:4b through 5.

I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

And then look at the seventh verse of that first chapter.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart, for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.

In other words, there are no John Waynes in the body of Christ. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like John Wayne. When I’m in California and I go to the airport where his statue is, I kneel in front of it cause I’m a big John Wayne fan. I just hope he’s a Christian and I get a chance to meet him in heaven. But there are no John Waynes in the body of Christ. It is a partnership and in fact God and this drives me nuts sometimes has so designed what I have as a gift and what I don’t have as a gift in such a way that I can’t do without you. And not only that, he’s done the same thing for you. I have certain things that you can’t get along without, except you get along with me. That’s the way God set it up, because it’s a partnership. I was very much involved in the founding of Young Life in the Boston area when I was a pastor there. Young life had no work working with teenagers there. And so, they sent a staff member and he met in my study at First Presbyterian Church on the South Shore where I was the pastor with about 10 other people. And we prayed for him and we planned and we talked about how we were going to see revival taking place among the teenagers in the Boston area. You know what happened? It bombed, that’s what happened. The guy just burned out. You can only deal with teenagers for so long, and then you better have some gasoline that comes from somewhere else. And that whole ministry that had started so well, never got off, never took off like a plane. It just sat there in the runway. Three or four years, Young Life decided to try it again. But this time, they sent a team. And the impact they made with that team was astounding. What was the difference? There aren’t any John Waynes in the body of Christ. This is a partnership and it is a team effort. Fred Smith taught me this about how important friends are, how important partnership was. He had a friend, and he did this for me later, but he had a friend. And Fred was my mentor for 35 years. And he had a friend who had been charged legally and looked like he was going to jail. And Fred called him. And friends started talking about he was innocent. And Fred said, I don’t even want to hear that. I don’t want to hear whether you’re guilty or not, I just want to know if you want me on the next plane. That was so good. And when my brother died, Fred did exactly the same thing. He called me up and said, I’m sorry, so sorry for Ron’s death. I’m on the next plane for Miami, would you meet me at the airport? And Fred walked with me, and I walked with him for years, and that made an impact on me and on him, believe it or not, that made all the difference in the world. I spoke for his memorial service in Texas, and he showed up. Have I told you this? He recorded a video a short time before his death to be played at his funeral. It was a big church and there were a lot of people there and there were screens all over the place. And just before I got up to speak, I looked up and there was Fred grinning at everybody. And he said, it’s so good to see so many people here. And he said, but for those of you who you don’t know Christ, I hope you get that straight. If not, I wanted to say goodbye and I loved you. The importance of partnership in the body of Christ, there are no John Waynes to be found there. Hey, you think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
And that was Steve Brown resuming our tour through the book of Philippians. Today, we took a look at chapter 1: verses 1 through 8 exploring this idea that there are no John Waynes in the church, good stuff. And yet, there’s still even more gold to mine from these eight verses. And that’s exactly what we’ll do tomorrow. Hey, are you feeling stressed or worried right now? Maybe pain, physical or otherwise. Well, did you know that Jesus identifies with you in that? We know this is true because in John 11, Jesus weeps for the loss of Lazarus. But why did he weep? Well, Steve spoke about that in a powerful sermon called When Tears Are All That’s Left. Can we send you that sermon on CD for free? Then 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, just ask for your free CD called When Tears are All That’s Left. And finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your financial support? Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950. And of course, if you can’t give right now, or maybe you’re not called to, we get it, totally. But if you think about it, please do pray for us, would you? Always needed and always appreciated. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And as always, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.