You were called by God to be cheerleaders for your brothers and sisters.

Steve Brown:
You were called by God to be cheerleaders for your brothers and sisters. Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you’re sick of guilt and manipulation, and if you’re looking for an honest and thoughtful presentation of Biblical truth, you’ve come to the right place. This is Key Life with the founder of Key Life Network, Steve Brown. Keep listening for teaching that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible, turn to the first eight verses of the first chapter of Philippians as we get into this small and very powerful book. We were looking at what is the family of God all about? What is the church all about? And if you were listening yesterday, I mentioned the point, and we’re going to talk about it more today. But the first thing you ought to note about those first eight verses, and thus about the entire Book of Philippians, is that the real church, the real family of God, is a place of praise, Philippians 1:3.

I thank my God every time I remember you.

And I said yesterday, and I’m going to say it again, there are three things you ought to note. First, Paul praises God. And secondly, he praises God for his brothers and sisters. And thirdly, he tells his brothers and sisters that he praises God for them. And so, you have praise of the people of God, by the people of God, for the people of God. Most of you know about Calvin and Luther and the reformation, but most people really don’t know much about Huldrych Zwingli. Let me tell you what he wrote.

If only my writings were read by all, I would prefer that my name would once again pass into oblivion.

I appreciate that. I appreciate, you know, his heart, from which he spoke that. I appreciate his humility and his willingness to be nobody, but it doesn’t work. You can’t live that way. If you don’t have somebody tell you sometimes you’ve done good, you’re in the wrong place and you’ll die, spiritually, and you’ll die emotionally. It’s important that we begin to look for those places where we can praise each other. Now, we should hold each other accountable, too. That’s a part of it, and we’re going to see it as go through Philippians. But the praise is so very important. There was a best selling book written a number of years ago called The One Minute Manager. And in that book, the author, and I had a chance to meet him and liked him. The author said.

That managers ought to look for people doing good things and tell them.

I’ll tell you where he got that, he got it from Scripture cause that’s why God created the church. Not to throw rocks at each other, but to be cheerleaders for each other. Did you know that you would never have heard the name Sir Walter Scott if it had not been for Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet. One of the churches I served, we had a Bobby Burns night. He was just, we were waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity so Robert Burns could take his place. We, at the Robert Burns night, and I’m from the mountains of North Carolina, I had never tasted Haggis, and I didn’t even know what it was, but at the Bobby Burns night, the Haggis was piped in with the pipers. And it was a grand and glorious time, until they told me what was in that. That’s not something you really want to eat. But at any rate, Robert Burns was responsible for Sir Walter Scott. Scott, by the way, was crippled and very backward and shy. He often was looked down on by his teachers, and he sat in the place of the dunce. Bashful, backward, those were the words that would be used to describe him. One time, Scott was at the home where a number of famous literary people were gathered. Among them was Robert Burns. Burns was looking at a painting, and under the painting was a couplet, a poem, a stanza from a poem. And Burns wondered out loud who wrote that. And very timidly, Scott came to the famous poet and said, Sir, me, I wrote that. And then he quoted the poem in its entirety. When he finished, this is what Burns said to Scott. Ah boy. You will be a great man in Scotland someday. Those words changed Scott’s life. Your words can do that too. That’s why God put us together. So, when somebody sings a solo, We can say that was so good. When somebody gives a good witness, we can go, Yay! You done good! When people, by shame are undefiled, we can pat them on the back and say, You go, bro! You go, sister! We can be the cheerleaders for the people of God. And that is something that is commissioned by God himself to the people of God. Listen to me, I’m here for you. And you’re here for me. We should teach each other. We should admonish each other. When necessary, we should be critical of each other in love, but gentle. But the most important thing we can do is to be cheerleaders in the parade of God’s people. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
The pom poms are optional, but being a cheerleader for each other is not. Thank you Steve. More in our exploration of Philippians tomorrow. Hope you’ll join us. Well, if you’ll recall in John 11, Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that Lazarus is dying and Jesus, real talk here, Jesus takes his time getting there, and by the time he finally arrives, Lazarus is dead. And the sisters accused Jesus. Oh, but there is so much more happening in this moment than they can see. Steve spoke about this in a moving sermon called When Tears Are All That’s Left. Take a listen to part of that talk, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer. Here’s Steve.

Steve Brown:
You remember the 11th chapter of John? Jesus is doing what Jesus does, and then he gets a message from Mary and Martha who says, The one, your brother, Lazarus. The one you loved is dying, and Jesus shilly shallies. And Lazarus dies, and then he decides to go to Bethany and be with them. Martha says to Jesus, if you had been here, this wouldn’t have happened. And then she realized who she was talking to and she said, but it’s going to be okay. And then Mary didn’t even correct it. If you had been here, he wouldn’t have died. And then Jesus goes down to the graveyard. And then Jesus said, come forth. And that dead man got up out of the grave and he walked. You should have been there. But I want you to see the tears of Jesus . In Luke 19, Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem, and I’m a patriot too, and I understand. And the only other time in all of Scripture where Jesus weeps is in the text that I just read to you. And the question before the house is this, how come? I mean, he was God. Lazarus didn’t have to die. And even if he died, Jesus was going to call him out of the tomb. The dead man was going to get up and walk. Why in the world was Jesus crying? He was going to fix it. I read The Shack. Have you read that book? You ought to read it. That book will get to you. Or if you read Eldredge’s books, if you read those books, what they do for our minds is they break us out of the mold and we learn to see there’s something behind the something that we thought was there. Now, this is an interesting description of what goes on with Lazarus. But what’s really going on, I’ll tell you, it’s a foretaste of a battle. If you had stood on Calvary and your spiritual blindness had been removed, you would have gone, Whoa! Wow! Because there would be a cosmic battle going on, one that Jesus and his legions won. And this is a foretaste of that. You know what’s happening in the graveyard, in Bethany? Jesus! The Savior is doing battle with old man death. I talked to a woman in Dallas this week, in fact, last night, who’s husband died. They thought he’d been killed and then they discovered he committed suicide and she’s devastated. And all he did was talk about Jesus. He’s been faithful all these years. He’s loved his family. He’s been faithful to the church. He’s given so much. And they were very generous to Key Life, and we wept together on the phone. And I thought about Bethany in the graveyard, where Jesus made an obscene gesture at death, and said, Death, be not proud! Leave this place! And death fled! And Lazarus got out of the grave and he walked. And I think that is way cool. You afraid of death? Well, if you’re not, you’re a fruitcake. You wake up in the middle of the night and say, it’s not my brother or my sister. It’s me. It’s one out of one. And I’m going to die. Some of young people don’t do that often, but I’m old and cramming for finals. And I don’t even like that thought. The good news is you’re going to heaven. The bad news is you’re going on Thursday. I’m not happy, but I think of the graveyard in Bethany when Jesus did battle with death. Death, be not proud.

Matthew Porter:
If you’ve ever accused God of being unfair or struggled to find real comfort, understanding, and encouragement, you need to hear this sermon. We’ll send it to you on CD for free today. Just call us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the U.S. and Canada. Just ask for the free CD called When Tears Are All That’s Left. And hey, before you go, if you value the work of Key Life, you can join us in that work through your financial support. Giving is easy. Just 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. 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.