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What’s mine is mine and…

What’s mine is mine and…

AUGUST 25, 2021

/ Programs / Key Life / What’s mine is mine and…

Steve Brown:
What’s mine is mine and… Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening, and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God, because of his radical grace, free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible, open it to the last paragraph of the fourth chapter of Acts, as we continue with our study in Acts. Beginning at the 32nd verse and going to the end of that chapter. Now tomorrow, or yeah, probably tomorrow, we’re going to move into the next chapter and we’re going to talk about discipline and discipleship and how that is important, even if you believe in radical grace. But right now we’re kind of looking through the window of the early church, to see some really cool things. And we saw yesterday that Luke, the writer of Acts says in that 32nd verse.

Those who believed were of one heart and soul.

Oh man. And, I gave you a Wesley’s quote.

If your heart be as my heart, give me your hand.

We need as Christians to recognize that everybody who belongs to Jesus, belongs to everybody who belongs to Jesus. And as we do that, then something happens in the church. My late friend, Harold John Ockenga, and he was the pastor at Park Street Church in Boston, when I was a young guy and was kind to me in so very many ways. But Dr. Ockenga said something one time that I’ve never forgotten.

When we are unified, then awakening takes place. When we’re not unified, division is the mark of the church and of the culture.

In other words, if you pray for revival and awakening to take place, and Jesus said this in John 17 in the high priestly prayer. If you pray for awakening and revival in the church and awakening and repentance in our culture and our country, what should you do? Well first, and this sounds over simplified, but it’s taught in this paragraph in Acts and it’s taught throughout Scripture. Let God love you. And then, when he is loved you sufficiently and you have that much love, go out and love your brothers and sisters in Christ. And God says, the world will notice. And know that we belong to him, because we are of one accord, same heart, same love, because of Jesus. I pray for that. I pray for a revival and awakening every day of my life, but I’ve learned also to pray for unity in the body of Christ. That we learn to join hands and walk together, in a world where we are not liked or praised or lauded anymore. If we don’t stand together, not only will there be no awakening, if we don’t stand together, and you like it the way it is, then get a gun and shoot your brothers and sisters in Christ. And I’m speaking metaphorically, so don’t send me letters. And they had all things in common. In other words, they supported each other. You know, there’s some Christians doing some stuff that absolutely, it blows me away. I mean, God is honoring their ministry. God is making a difference in their ministry. And I don’t like them, frankly, they are kind of irritating. And I have repented and asked God to fix me, for the sake of the nation, for the sake of the church. Did I ever tell you about Dan Yeary? The late Dan Yeary, Baptist pastor, whom I love more than you can possibly imagine, but it wasn’t always that way. He was the pastor of a church in a city where I was also the pastor, and his church was growing incredibly and mine wasn’t. I mean, we were growing okay. But I mean, he was being blessed in amazing ways. And very slowly and almost without me knowing it, I grew jealous of my friend, Dan Yeary. And, I decided I ought to confess it to somebody. So, I confessed it to another friend, Larry Poland, and Larry said, that’s not enough. You’ve got to go tell him. I said, you’re crazy, I ain’t going to do that. And he said, not only that, I’m going to keep you accountable, until you do. So, I called Dan and I said, can we have a lunch? And he said, oh yeah. And we got together. And I remember the waitress that came up and I said, young lady, leave us alone. There’s something we need to talk about. And as soon as she left, I said to Dan, I got to confess something to you and you don’t have to say anything. But I’ve been praying for your death regularly, and I’ve been so jealous of your ministry and I’m so sorry, please forgive me. And Jesus is going to change me. And he was shocked and he started to say something. I said, don’t say anything, let’s eat. And the waitress came and we made our order and we became very close friends. And in that encounter, in that time of unity, God brought great and amazing things to God’s people. And also to the city where we were both serving that’s an illustration of Acts 4 and an important one. You want to see a change? Let God love you. And then when you’ve got enough, go love somebody else. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thanks Steve. And we will continue in our journey through Acts tomorrow. Please make sure join us then, wouldn’t be the same without you. So, in addition to this show, Key Life, our Bible teaching program, we have a weekly talk radio show, it’s called Steve Brown Etc. And we have been told over and over that some of our best episodes are when it’s just us, no guest. Now, some would call that a humble brag, but I disagree, not humble at all. Anyway, we recently had one of those shows and we took the entire show to talk about guilt, what it means and how to overcome that. Take a listen to part of that episode. Then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

Matthew Porter:

On our YouTube channel, youtube.com/keylifenetwork. Thanks for asking, we have all these cool videos or sermons. There’s this show, but there’s also like a little social area, where we post photos or ask questions or whatever. And so, about two weeks ago, we put up a thing, and just put up multiple choice to say, Hey, what’s what’s going on with you? What do you need most help with right now? There’s a few options, coming in at 10%. I’ll go from the least to the most, people said faith and culture, would like to hear more about that. How to reconcile the two. Tied at 14%, people said I could use help with learning how to forgive and more about theology. And then, second place at 22%, is people saying I could use some more hope for the future. But far and a way out, in first place, with 39%, almost 40% of people responding said I could use some help with learning how to overcome guilt.

Steve Brown:
That’s surprise you guys, you know, early on, before we even had Key Life, I was a pastor. I did that for a lot of years. Early on, I always knew I was screwed up. I always knew that I was a sinner. I’m the most honest person, you know, with himself. I just don’t talk to others about it. These are my secrets and I’ll keep them to myself. And, but I knew about me, but I thought maybe that I had been called to pastor a church of really good, kind, nice, pure and obedient people. And the reason God put me in front of them is because I was the worst of the bunch. And that was the only way he could keep me straight, by putting me in front of the people, so they could watch me. Very soon, I began, for instance, in the first year at the church I served in Miami, I got more suicide calls than I had gotten in all of my years of ministry on Cape Cod and in Boston. I listened to more confessions than you would believe. And then years later, for some reason I began to meet people who are pretty famous in Christian circles. I was on the board of Christianity Today for over 20 years. And all my heroes were there, Billy Graham and a bunch of others that you would know. And I used to sit there and think, I can’t believe that I’m a part of this. But one of the things I began to understand, and I think it happens because people think you can’t get any worse than Brown, so I can tell him anything, was to listen to confessions of famous Christians. And all of a sudden it hit me, we’re all the same. And the place where we’re mostly the same, is exactly what our survey showed, almost 50%. And I think it’s 80%. In fact, it may be higher than that. Early in my ministry, you know, I’ve said this a lot since then, but I remember the first time I said it to a conference. I said, everybody in this room has secrets and we don’t share them with other people. And that’s one of the problems in the church, is that we really do think that we’re the worst of the bunch. And one of the reasons Key Life is designed the way it is, is because we’re aware of that in us. And we’re aware of that, in you. And the more we’re aware of it, and we’re honest about it, the more free we get and the more power we have.

Matthew Porter:
So, are you struggling with guilt? If so, could you use that kind of encouragement? If so, then let us send you that whole show for free on a CD. Just call 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] and ask for that show CD. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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

If you’re in Canada, send your request to

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

Just ask for your free copy of the CD called The Gang’s All Here. That’s just what we ended up calling that show. Also, if you’re able, would you please give to Key Life? You could charge a gift on your credit card. You can include a gift in your envelope. Or make it easy, just grab your phone right now and text Key Life to 28950. 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.

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