We’re Gonna Talk about Bruno

1. Read: Colossians 4:6

2. About the Text:

1) The number one song in the U.S. is “We Don’t Talk about Bruno.”

2) The song is about a family’s struggle with a family member, Bruno.

3) Bruno is a son, brother, and uncle, but he has “disappeared.”

4) He disappeared because of his awkward gift and the way that it is perceived by others.

5) People believe that his predictions are only of bad things, and so they try to avoid him.

6) People don’t want to talk about Bruno, but they do anyway to blame him and justify their own irresponsibility.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. People are born into a world of diversity.

1) Some diversity is good – personalities, talents, families, for example.

2) Some diversity is bad – moral diversity, contradictions to truth.

3) Some diversity is neutral – eye color, hair color, age.

4) “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).

2. Satan uses sin and diversity to create hatred and division.

1) “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).

2) People believe Satan’s lies about other people.

3) This creates problems and results in people ostracizing others.

4) Satan takes advantage of this by devouring those who have been isolated.

5) “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

3. It results in a situation where “We don’t talk about Bruno” where Bruno represents the people that are ostracized and isolated.

4. Jesus wants people to have loving unity apart from Satan’s influences and practices.

1) This is what the church is designed to be.

2) “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

1. When we stop talking to people, we begin talking about them.

2. Gossip is one of the tools Satan uses to ostracize people.

1) In the song, “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” the family members gossip about all of the bad things that Bruno allegedly did and said.

2) Gossip assumes the worst and spreads falsehoods and lies about others.

3) It tears down relationships instead of building them up.

4) “A whisperer separates the best of friends” (Proverbs 16:28).

5) “He who repeats a matter separates friends” (Proverbs 17:9).

3. Creates blame, anger, envy, and strife.

1) Gossiping is often a substitute for not taking responsibility.

2) In the song, Bruno gets blamed for someone’s pet goldfish dying, another man growing a gut, and someone losing their hair.

3) It is a lot easier to blame others than self.

4) Talking about other people produces envy.

5) Strife is the result of such attitudes.

6) “For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults” (2 Corinthians 12:20).

7) “But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there” (James 3:14-16).

4. Results in self isolation.

1) A person who finds himself the butt of jokes and ridicule will remove himself from such circumstances.

2) He may even go to the extreme of self-isolation.

3) “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment” (Proverbs 18:1).

4) Bruno ends up isolating himself from everyone because he fears he creates bad things for people.

1. We should assume the best of others, not the worst.

1) Gossip assumes the worst and makes it worst.

2) Good communication seeks to edify, build up, and encourage.

3) “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another” (Romans 14:19).

2. We must learn to talk to others in a good and productive way.

1) “The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, And his tongue talks of justice” (Psalm 37:30).

2) “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Colossians 4:6).

3) “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29).

3. We should work on problems together, but limited to only those involved.

1) “Debate your case with your neighbor, And do not disclose the secret to another” (Proverbs 15:9).

2) “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established’” (Matthew 18:15-16).

1. It is hard work and may be very difficult to talk through issues.

1) We may find ourselves asking “Why did I talk about Bruno?”

2) We may uncover secrets and problems that we were not expecting.

3) It could take months or years of talking about things.

4) It is worth it if we can bring everyone back together.

5) “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

2. Those who are different from us are not wrong just because they are different.

1) Bruno was different, but he was still part of the family.

2) Isaiah prophesied of a time when God would gather all the outcasts together.

3) “The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, Yet I will gather to him Others besides those who are gathered to him” (Isaiah 56:8).

3. God wants the church to be a place of understanding and acceptance based on truth.

1) God is working to bring everyone together in Jesus Christ.

2) “that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him” (Ephesians 1:10).

3) “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23).

4. Christ has accepted us; we must accept one another.

1. Talking about Bruno means talking about . . .

1) The Issue of Diversity

2) The Problem of Gossip

3) The Need for Communication

4) The Place of Acceptance

2. Invitation