Necessity is the mother of invention…and other things.

Steve Brown:
Necessity is the mother of invention…and other things. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life is a radio program for struggling believers, sick of phony religion and pious cliches. 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 have your Bible open to the last part of the second chapter of Acts, as we continue with our study in Acts. And it’s really interesting after all the big and amazing and unbelievable things that have been happening in the book of Acts up to this last paragraph in the second chapter. I mean, that’s an amazing, that’s when the church pulled up her skirt and began to go, I mean, run, to change the world, Pentecost, gosh, God poured out his power and his Spirit in an amazing and wonderful way. Transformation, of the people from very cowardly, afraid into some of the strongest and most powerful voices the world had ever heard. Jesus was taken into, I mean, a lot of big, big things are happening, then all of a sudden we got a meal. And you go, Luke, what are you doing, man? I was really grooving with you until this last paragraph. And then you say, they’re together and they had a party and they were family. What are you doing? He was doing something that may have been even bigger than what had gone on before. He was illustrating what Jesus thought so clearly about the love that should take place within the body of Christ. He was illustrating what Paul said in Ephesians 5, about the church. He was illustrating where we’ve got to be. And if we’re not there, we’re sunk. Now, if you were listening yesterday and you never listen to me, we spent a good deal talking about belief being the basis of brotherhood and family and sisterhood, those who believed Luke said were together. That’s important that it starts there, as Wesley said.

If your heart is like my heart, give me your hand.

Now, let me show you something else. Look at this text. And I would have you notice that necessity is the impetus of real family. Look at the 46th verse. And day by day, attending the temple together. No, no. It’s the verse before that 45.

And they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all as any had need.

Oh, necessity. Necessity is the mother of invention, but it’s also the mother of family. You know, I think in the past, the necessity certainly didn’t seem to be as raw and in your face and as scary as it is in our time. I’m old enough to remember what it was like when the church had major power and a lot of money and a lot of influence and Jesus took it away. People are always sending me these dumb surveys about why people aren’t going to church. I don’t care. I mean, they’re constantly telling me about living in a post-Christian era. Frankly, I don’t care. They’re constantly rubbing it in my face, like you once had it, now, you don’t have it. I don’t care. You know why? Cause we’re getting down to the muscle. And not only that, we’re beginning to see the necessity. When everything is going well, you got a lot of money and a lot of power and a lot of influence, you don’t need anything else. You certainly don’t need other people. You can do this yourself. Thank you. But then all of a sudden we turn around and everything is changed, and that’s bad. No, that’s good. Because all of a sudden we see the necessity of family. I’ve given you that quote several times from John Wesley. And it’s one of my favorite.

If you’re a heart be as my heart, give me your hand.

I would add to that. And I recognize that one should not have had to the sayings of famous people like John Wesley. But if you’re scared as I am, give me your hand. If you don’t like what they’re saying about us as much as I don’t like what they’re saying about us, give me your hand. If you look at our world and it looks like it’s going to you know where in a bucket and that doesn’t bother you, you’re crazy. But if it does, give me your hand. If sometimes you wonder if the Christian Church is going to survive all of this, give me your hand. Necessity becomes the mother of invention and also the mother of family. I Corinthians 12 teaches, and you know, it’s all over the Scripture. Ephesians 5 teaches it. Romans 12, I think, it could be 11 or 13. All of those teaches the idea of spiritual gifts. And it’s fun to look at the different gifts, the gift of discernment and tongues and healing and teaching and all that. But you know what bottom line, the most important thing about that particular teaching is of gifts, is that if you don’t use your gift, I’m lost. And if I don’t use my gifts, you’re lost. It’s the way God made it. And he made it that way so that when we walk together, we are complete and when we don’t walk together, we are incomplete. Jeremy is the producer of this broadcast. And he sits as I teach in a little glass booth, with all the controls. And you ought to hear the conversation that takes place between some of these programs. But Jeremy has had his fingers in a lot of pies, from the faith movement, the reform theology, the charismatics, the everything you can name. And he said, you know what it taught me? It taught me this thing is bigger than I thought, and that we all need each other and we need each other bad. Hey, you think about that. Amen.

It’s Wednesday. And sometimes when I have time on Wednesdays, I answer a question or two. We get a lot of questions from you guys. And then Pete will be in on Friday. And as you know, we spend the entire broadcast answering some of the questions, and you guys have a lot of questions and we love it. We love your questions and we love for you to ask them. And we try to be as honest and as right, we possibly can, when we answer the questions. By the way, you can ask a question, 24 7. You can just dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE anytime you want to, and record your question. And then sometimes, we’ll place your actual voice on the air, as we answer the question. Or you can send your questions to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

If you live in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Or you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And, by the way, if you can help us financially, those are places where you could do that. Oh, have I told you, you can, if, if the Spirit moves and you want to help us out financially, you can do that from your phone. You can just text Key Life at 28950 and follow the instructions. And we realize that all of you, most of you can’t do that. And, you say a prayer for this ministry, but if you do help us, we’re a not-for-profit organization. And I promise that we’ll squeeze every dime for the glory of God and rise up and call you blessed. This is an e-mail, you have rightly said over and over that when God said it is finished, that meant all of it. It included old sins in the past, present and future. So, if we’re already forgiven, why do we need to ask God to do what he is already done? Because that’s called repentance and you do it for your sake and not his sake. How many times do I have to say that, repentance is not change, it’s the way God changes us. And we need to live lives of repentance. And we, when, when John says.

If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He already has, but we need desperately, for our own sake to remember who we are and what we’ve done and the violations we have committed and the sins, and we need to bring them to the father and to bring them to him regularly. Because he speaks the gospel to us, the way we’re supposed to speak the gospel to one another. He says, you’re forgiven. And we need to hear that over and over again, you’re forgiven. And the only way you can do that is to do what the Bible says, confess your sins, so you can hear him say forgiven. What a wonderful word. I love that word. And I hear it often. This is an e-mail too, how do I reconcile God is not angry with me with the Biblical examples of where God and Jesus was not pleased with his people, or in acts of his people. God can still be displeased with us, right? No, because he’s never surprised. He’ll never be angry at you. The examples of anger that you find in Scripture, have to do with the non-covenantal actions of people who were not under the grace of God. And the complete message of the New Testament is, that if you’re a believer and that’s a provision that’s very important. If you’re a pagan, I’d be careful if I were you, you don’t want to mess with God, but if you’re a believer, he will never be angry at you and he won’t be displeased, because he knew you before you were ever born. He knew the places where you would mess it up, the places where you would hurt people, the places where you would manifest something other than Christ in me. So, no, I don’t think God is mad at his people. At a conference one time, a man in the front row during the Q and A said, I think you’re wrong. He is mad at me, and I’m glad that he is, in a very pastoral, kind way, sir, you a fruit cake, there’s something wrong with you. You, if God’s not mad at you, then you’ve got it made. If he is, you’ve got a big problem. Hey guys, I got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.