He’s there and you can count on it.

Steve Brown:
He’s there and you can count on it. Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life is a radio program for struggling believers sick of phony religion and pious clichés. Our host and teacher is seminary professor Steve Brown. He teaches that radical freedom leads to infectious joy and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’ve been listening, we’re looking at the supernatural things that Paul mentions that can only be explained in terms of the supernatural. It’s one of the great witnesses that the church has for the world. Now, we have noted the supernatural joy. People don’t know where that comes from. And we also noted a supernatural reaction. The justice behind the justice. But let me show you a supernatural relationship, and we mentioned it yesterday. Philippians 4:5b through 6.

The Lord is near; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God.

There’s a great story, and I I think it’s true about a pastor who was on vacation when one of his church members, Jim, was taken to the hospital in a really bad accident. As soon as he got back, the pastor, from his vacation, he went to the hospital to visit Jim. And when he walked into the hospital, he noticed something was different about the nurses. And different about people there, there was a kind of peace, a kind of joy that he had not experienced in that particular hospital before. He asked the administrator, where is Jim? And she said, third floor. How’s he doing? Said, well, you ought to go and check. So, he went up to the third floor, walked in, and Jim was in his bed recovering. And he said, Jim, I think you’ve made a difference around here. What is going on? And Jim said, well, Pastor, every day at noon, I would go by the church. And you’ve seen me there, and you asked me a question about it, stay for a minute, and then I would leave and go on about my business. And when you asked me, I told you that I’d go into the church, and I stand in front of the cross, and I say, hey, Jesus, It’s Jim. And I just stand there in the quietness, and eventually I leave, and I feel better. Well, Pastor, let me tell you what happened here. It was noon when Jesus came into my room, and he smiled, and he said, Hey Jim, it’s Jesus, and I’m better. There is that relationship that every Christian has. There’s another old story about a man who was going through a very difficult time, and when his pastor visited, the man said, I don’t sense that God is here. And the pastor said to him, let me tell you what to do. Picture Jesus sitting in the chair where I’m sitting. After I leave, picture him doing that, and then you’ll begin to sense his presence. The next morning, he got a call from the daughter of the man. And she said, Pastor, my father died last night. I had prepared dinner for him, took it in, and he was eating when I left. When I came back, he was gone. And the pastor said, I’m sorry, he’s home now. And he adds an attraction to heaven. And then the pastor said to the daughter, did you notice anything different? And she said, oh yes. Everything was the way I left it, except his hand was on the chair beside the bed. It’s a supernatural reality. It is a reality that makes all of the difference in the world, wherever you go, whatever you do, however much it hurts, he’s there. He’s there. Sometimes you sense his presence and sometimes you don’t, but he promised and he never lies. Now, let me show you something else. I would have you note, not only a supernatural joy, a supernatural reaction, the justice behind the justice, and relationship. I want you to note a supernatural resource, Philippians 4:6.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God.

Don’t be anxious about anything because you have a resource. It’s kind of a joke around the Billy Graham Association. Mr. Graham made a lot of decisions over a very long ministry that resulted in the coming to Christ of millions of people. Sometimes in my prayers, I think of Cliff Barrows and Beverly Shea and Mr. Graham, and I’m thankful for the gift that was to the church. But sometimes Mr. Graham, not knowing, had made some pretty big mistakes. And he always, every time, ended up on his feet. And the staff of the Billy Graham Association used to kid, and they would kid him about it, that when he wrote his book on angels, and it’s one of the best Bible studies on angels ever written, that he was writing a thank you note. Do you have thank you notes to write to him? Because you thought you wouldn’t survive, and you did. You thought you were going to die, and you didn’t. You thought you couldn’t do it, but you did it. Have you got thank you notes written to the God who is always there and the resource of everything that happens to you without any exception. I didn’t say that, he did. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you notes to God. Maybe today’s a good day to write one of those. Thanks Steve. We’ll wrap up this week’s study of Philippians tomorrow. Do be sure to join us for that. Well, it’s almost here, Easter. But Easter can bring up some challenging questions. Like, why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t there have been another way? If Jesus had lived to a ripe old age, wouldn’t he have had more time to teach us? Well, Steve addressed these very questions in a sermon called Why Jesus Had to Die. Take a listen to part of that message, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer. Here’s Steve.

Steve Brown:
When you’re old, you forget names, but you remember the tears and the pain. I was a young pastor, it was three o’clock in the morning when I got the call and I rushed to the home of a family that I loved and the flames were coming out of the roof. They all escaped except the father. I remember the teenage girl, as she saw me coming, ran into my arms and wept. And I remember what she said. She said, Pastor, why did my father have to die? It was years later in Boston, I probably was saved, I just didn’t know Jesus. When another teenage girl in my study said, Mr. Brown, I don’t understand, why did Jesus have to die? You know what I did, I gave her a book, cause I wasn’t exactly sure. But I never saw those teenage girls, I don’t remember their names. I keep thinking that maybe they’re grown now with their children and they’ll be in some conference where I’m teaching, maybe in a church service like this one, because I found some answers and I would like to share them with them. I was invited back to that first church for their hundredth anniversary and I always wanted to go there because I’d found some things that I didn’t know when I was serving as their pastor. It was a little church and you visited a hospital there was never more than one there. And then you could fish and play golf the rest of the time All they wanted you to do was talk for 15 minutes, and I’ve always been able to do that. So, I’d stand in a pulpit talk for 15 minutes, and then Jesus came and screwed it up. He’s been doing that with my life, but I always said, Lord, let me go back and tell him the truth. I got to go back. And I said, I know what I taught you and I know what I said. And, but listen carefully because I’ve got some corrections to make. But let me tell you, there were a thousand crosses. Jesus wasn’t the only one. There are people who died with more pain and suffering than Jesus ever experienced, that’s not the issue. It wasn’t the length of the pain, it was the person who faced the pain. It wasn’t a little Jewish rabbi hanging spread eagle on crossbeams on the town garbage heap, it was God entering time and space. And you go, I can’t believe that. God did that for me? You’re going to die. Most of you, it’s going to be a quiet slipping away. Some of you are going to struggle, and if it’s commensurate with sins, I’m going to die in great pain. Cause I’m going home, and it’ll be over. But a lot of people die, we all die, big deal. But when the eternal omnipotent omnipresent omniscient God of the universe enters time and space and hangs spread eagle on crossbeams between two thieves, that is something else. He did, the cross. Why? Why did he have to die? Couldn’t he have done it another way? It seems to me reasonable. I think that teenager had it right. He could have lived longer and loved us more and taught us more profoundly. I mean, we could have understood the answers to our questions if he just stayed around. How come he died so soon? We got four little books and that’s all. We ought to have volumes and volumes. As John said, we ought to know, he could have, why did he have to die? Well, I got four or five reasons I’m going to share with you very quickly.

Matthew Porter:
We would love to send you this full sermon on CD for free. Get it right now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail Steve@keylife.org to ask for that CD. Or if you’d like to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Just ask for your free copy of the CD called Why Jesus Had to Die. And, hey, one last thing before you go. If you’ve been blessed by the ministry of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your giving? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card, or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 then follow the instructions. And please remember that big or small, ongoing or one time, every gift matters and every gift helps. 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.