They said I would grow out of it, but I didn’t.

Steve Brown:
They said I would grow out of it, but I didn’t. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
That was Steve Brown. He’s an author, seminary professor, and our teacher on Key Life, a program all about God’s radical grace. We’re committed to bringing you Bible teaching that’s honest, straight-forward, and street-smart. Keep listening to hear truth, that’ll make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’re talking about the Holy Spirit. And I talked about how the Holy Spirit brings us into belief. I believe if we argued about it and you were not a believer and I was, I would win the argument. You know why? Cause I talk good. I would win the argument because I think well on my feet. I would win the argument, because, well, this is what I do. But the truth is, I don’t believe because of those arguments. I believe because I believe because I believe. And I suggested yesterday that that sounds kind of dull and boring, that the Holy Spirit keeps our nose above the water. It’s more than that. He gives us power. Power that is sometimes overwhelming and amazing. You know what happened to me the first time I ever preached? It was a little church in the mountains of North Carolina, and I had never done it before. I stood before the congregation, I had practiced that sermon over and over again, I had three pages of notes. And it would take about 25 minutes. I got through the first page in about 30 seconds, flipped to the second page and it wasn’t there. Something happened to the second page of notes. Do you know what I did? I just stood there and grinned at the congregation. Now, this is some 50 or 60 years later. If that should happen to me again, I would keep on talking until something came to mind. But the truth is, when I left that pulpit that day I thought at least God hasn’t called me to be a preacher. But he did. He brought me to the end of myself, and then over all of these years, I found that God has taken what I have taught from His Word and applied it to the lives of a lot of people. My early mentor when I was a young pastor on Cape Cod, After I preached my first sermon at that little church in East Dennis, I said to him, and his name was John Stanton, and he had been the pastor of one of the flagship churches of his denomination, and had retired in that little village on Cape Cod. And I’ve been convinced my whole life that he was there because of me. And I remember saying to him, Dr. Stanton, I told them everything I knew this morning. What in the world am I going to do next week? And he said, son, come with me. And he took me to the back room of his rambling Cape Cod house. And there were stacks of trunks in that room. He opened one of them and he said, this one is filled with sermons. And the others are too. And when I preached my first sermon, I thought, good heavens, I told them everything I knew. What am I going to say next Sunday? And God has been faithful all these years, and He’ll be faithful to you too. I have a friend who told me once that the only reason God allowed me to do what I do was that I would be an example to other Christians. Well, the exact comment was, we can all now say, if Steve can do it, anybody can do it. The older I get, the more I realize that my friend’s facetious, I think, comment was absolutely true. And if you think I’m naturally a spiritual example to the flock, you need to know that I always wanted to be the pastor of a big church. And God said, no. I wanted to be entirely sanctified. And God said, you’ve got to be kidding. I wanted to go through life without pain and was angry at God when my kid brother died so young. I have failed so often that I blush to think about it. My sin is so real that there were times I simply couldn’t believe that I even belonged to Jesus. Do you know what God was doing? He was bringing me to the end of myself. He did that with Paul, and he does that with every Christian. And when you get to the end of yourself, that’s when the doctrine of the Holy Spirit stands up and sings the Hallelujah Chorus, because in your weakness, in my weakness, God’s power is made perfect. There are of course lots of explanations, theological justifications and philosophical paradigms whereby one can deal with the problem of suffering and sin and pain, but do you know what I think? I think that in the dark, in the pain, in the fear, in the loneliness, in the loss, God is in the business of bringing us to the end of himself. End of ourself, not the end of himself. He is busy bringing us so that we see that if anything ever happens through us, it will be him and he will get credit for it. That’s what Paul meant when he said, and this is Galatians 2:20.

I’ve been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

What’s Paul describing? He’s describing the wonderful, amazing, fantastic work of our Lord, the Holy Spirit. Maybe you’re saying, man, that’s great. What do I have to do to get it? Nothing. That’s right, nothing. When you go in for surgery, how much do you help the surgeon? You guide him or her hands? Do you try to stay awake so you can tell them where it hurts? Do you read all the books you can find on surgery so you can advise the surgeon? Of course not. You submit to the anesthesia and you let the process take place until the surgery is finished and you’re well. It’s the same with the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. All that bad stuff is bringing you to the end of yourself. You can’t force it, hurry it along, or make it better. But in the end of the end, the Holy Spirit has a wonderful gift for you, and it’s His power made perfect in your weakness. Now, there’s one other thing, and then I’m going to spend some time talking a little bit about the Holy Spirit’s involvement in the work of evangelism. But one other thing before we get off this subject. It is this, the trouble with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar. One doesn’t come to the ultimate end of oneself in a moment. It isn’t an act. It isn’t something that happens and then when it happens you are entirely sanctified. In fact, we slip into the darkness. We often run as fast as we can. We’re like the prodigal. We go spend our inheritance in things that have nothing to do with God and we come back. But remember this. You are loved, and you always will be, and that in the power of the Holy Spirit. When you believe that, then you’ve got it. People always tell me, Steve, you’re encouraging sin. I’m not encouraging sin. I don’t have to. You were doing fine before I came along. But those who don’t know the power of the Holy Spirit, when you’ve come to the end of yourself, when you’ve messed up and you’ve sinned and you’ve run, those who don’t know they can come home and be forgiven and nothing will change, they always come home. Those who have tried and failed sometimes stay in the dark. And that’s so tragic I can hardly stand it. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. You come on home. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
God’s power made perfect in weakness. It is a process and a messy one at that. Thank you Steve. We’ve been studying the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and tomorrow we’ll take a look at Acts 1:8 and what it means in our lives. Hope you’ll hang out with us for that.

Every calling, every life’s purpose, every dream and goal and desire and life plan boils down to two things. Love God, love people. Both can be unimpressive. Both are usually extremely untidy. Both can be discouraging at times. Both are often hidden from the applause of the world. Both bring peace and joy and actual authentic fulfillment, but not if we’re constantly looking for our calling to be extraordinary.

Well, that was from an article by Kendra Fletcher called, What if I Can’t Find My Calling? You’ll find that piece in the 2024 edition of Key Life magazine. Claim your free copy right now by calling us at one 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for the magazine. To mail your requests, go to keyllife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of Key Life magazine. Finally, if you value the work of Key Life, you can 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 simply text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that 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.