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Announcer: Are you thriving or merely surviving? Let's talk about it on Key Life.

Steve Brown: This is Key Life. We are here to communicate the freeing truth that God's not mad at his children. Steve invited our friend Pete Alwinson to teach us all this week. Pete is a former pastor, founder of forgodstruth.com and the author of Like Father, Like Son.

Pete Alwinson: Thank you, Matthew. Hello, Key Life. It's Pete Alwinson with you this week and it's been so good to be with you. It's Wednesday. I hope your week is going well, especially at work.

Some of you still are involved in corporate America and have a corporate America job. Somebody sent me the other day the laws of survival in corporate America. Some companies are really difficult to work with. Here are some of the laws that seem to be at play in corporate America.

Number one, if you cannot get your work done in the first 24 hours, then work nights. Number two, a pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the rear. Have you ever been fired?

Number three, don't be irreplaceable. If you cannot be replaced, you cannot be promoted. Number four, when you do not know what to do, walk fast and look worried and carry a clipboard.

Number five, no matter how much you do, you never do enough. That's how I feel sometimes. Number six, the last person that quit was fired or was fired, will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong. Oh, and then the seventh law of corporate America, to err is human, to forgive is not our policy.

That's so much the way it really is in the work world. I hope that's not your experience. One of the great things to know is that those principles don't apply to those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ. In other words, don't let anybody shape our identity or who we are more than God does through Christ.

We have been talking about flawed but faithful, called to boldness in our life. We are focusing on one of the truly great men of the Bible, who everybody knows, his name is Moses.

One of the things that occurs to me is that even as Christians, sometimes we think of ourselves more as flawed than as forgiven. We think of ourselves as so flawed, for instance, that it's hard to think that we could be faithful and be usable.

Some relationships that we are in seem to emphasize that we are so flawed that I am just a worm. Some churches specialize in the worm theology that all Christians are always bad. We have been saved by grace and our status has been raised to a new level.

Our adversary the devil loves to criticize us just like our worst enemies in this world. The reality is that in Christ, we are flawed, but because of his grace, we can become faithful. Because we have been preserved and raised up for a divine purpose, just like Moses. We can decide to live up to our Christ identity, not our cultural identity, just like Moses.

So, if you are emphasizing more that you are flawed than forgiven, and think, "I cannot be really faithful because I am such a bad person," then you need to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to yourself again.

I was talking to a man the other day, and he had just admitted to his wife that he was struggling with pornography, and yet he was working on it and seeking to get away from that addiction. He was going to counseling and getting some progress, making progress in that whole area. At first, she was understandable, but then a couple of days later, she said, "I just want a divorce. I want out of here."

He is doing everything that he could do. He had to move out of the house for a while. He is doing everything he could do. He has confessed to her his issues. She is a professed Christian, and she doesn't forgive, and she is not forgiving. He is flawed. He never could be faithful again. I have seen that on the flip side too.

A man who wasn't willing to forgive his adulterous wife and give her a chance to repent and start over. In Christ, we do have that chance to start over and live an incredible life. That is the third point that I want us to get from Moses today, that because of God's grace in Christ, we can look ahead to a full life even when we think we have blown it so much, just like Moses.

His story in Exodus chapter 2, verse 11 is so powerful. One day when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that and saw no one. He struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

Moses had become quite entitled as the stepson of the king of Egypt and the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh. He thought he could do whatever he wanted, and so he stepped in and he killed that Egyptian soldier that was beating a slave, beating a Hebrew.

In committing that murder, Moses threw a hand grenade into his elite and privileged lifestyle. I mean, it was over. He had no one to blame but himself. Have you ever been there? You did something, and you said, "It's all me. I cannot blame anybody else."

The story is interesting because he went out the next day, and he saw two Hebrews fighting with each other, and he said, "You guys are brothers. Why are you fighting?" And one of them said, "You are going to kill one of us like you killed the Hebrew?" And he goes, "Like the Egyptian?"

Moses realized, "Okay, it's out. The truth is out. The word has spread. It's only a matter of time." Pharaoh heard about it, and Moses had to take off. He traveled the text of scripture tells us 300 to 700 miles all the way over to Midian. Midian was kind of a spread out territory. But it took him a long time to get there. I mean, he had to go through hot and dry deserts, and it was tough country. But he got there, and he had a lot of time to think.

When we read the story of Moses in Exodus, in the second phase of his life from 40 on, we see that really he did have an opportunity to start over. He was not defined by how he blew up his life by killing that Egyptian soldier.

We see that he got a good job as a shepherd. He had an outdoor life with plenty of exercise. He had a good boss. It was his father-in-law. He got a wife, the boss's daughter, and two incredible kids. He had a lot of time to think. Here's the truth: by the grace of God, Moses had the ability to start over. By the grace of God, we do too.

When we can come and own our own sin and own where we have messed up, we have the opportunity to start over. Romans 8:28 really is true. All things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose.

It's also true that even though we start over, that we confess our sins, that we have a new master, and we are setting a new course in life. It's true that some people in our life who we have hurt may never accept that we are different. They may never forgive us as God has forgiven us. They may never allow us to change, but God will allow us to change and set a different trajectory for our life.

So, really, Moses sets an example for accepting our sin and seeing it for what it is and not blaming other people. I remember when I did that as a young man, saying, "I didn't get what I needed in childhood, but I own everything that happened to me and everything that I become."

It's me, it's on me. I own it. I have got to work on my temper. I have got to work on all of this stuff. By the grace of God, I am going to go forward, no matter what others will think of me. Jack Miller put it right. He said, "Cheer up, you are a worse sinner than you ever imagined. And cheer up, you are more loved than you ever dared hope."

That is the Gospel of Grace. That's what Jesus Christ has done for us. So, it's important for us as we move ahead in our lives to own those issues that we bring into our lives and not blame other people. We need a dose of reality therapy every day of our life.

Moses blew up his life, and then by the grace of God, he became one of the most impactful men, the impactful persons in all of redemptive history. He was used by God in spite of his temperament, in spite of his unwillingness, his lack of desire to be a public speaker or a leader. He allowed God to develop him in every way.

The fact of the matter is that when we think of our own lives, we know that we have been raised up and preserved for a divine purpose, just like Moses. We can decide to live up to our Christ identity, not our cultural identity, just like Moses. We can look ahead to a full life when we think we have blown it, just like Moses. Okay. Where do you need to look ahead? What does God want to do with you? You think about that.

Steve Brown: Thanks, Pete. All this week, we have been learning more about Moses and how we too can be flawed but faithful. We have one more day with Pete tomorrow, so be sure to join us for that. Have you been to keylife.org lately? We have some exciting new features that I've mentioned once before, but I think it bears repeating.

First, there's the Key Life Podcast Network at keylife.org/podcastnetwork. More voices, more grace, more to love. There's even a new podcast with Jeremy and me.

Guest (Male): That's right.

Steve Brown: That's keylife.org/podcastnetwork. Then we have new Key Life gear: T-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, even onesies. The perfect gift for you or the Key Life fan in your life. Go to keylife.org/merch to check that out.

Our latest print magazine. It's filled with powerful articles, plus some exciting new offers and news. Get your copy of that by going to keylife.org/freemagazine.

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