Key Life Network

Narrator (Male): Hey, you’re getting better. You really are. Let’s talk on Key Life. That was Steve Brown. He doesn’t want to be your guru and he’s not trying to be your mama. He just opens the Bible and gives you the simple truth that will make you free. Steve’s a lifelong broadcaster, author, seminary professor, and our teacher on Key Life.

Steve Brown: If you were listening yesterday, I talked about what God had done. He’s taken away the power of the law to make us guilty and afraid and ashamed and regretful. The law’s lost its power because we’re forgiven. Not only that, but those who love to beat us over the head with the law have lost their power too. And Satan, the accuser, can be told to go where he belongs.

Do you see what God did? In our rebellion, God took away anything about which to rebel. He simply says, "I love you. Is that okay?" There’s an old story about a priest who played golf, but on his first hole, he blew the drive, topped the ball, and the ball rolled about ten yards in front of the tee. At that point, an eagle flew down and, to the priest's surprise, picked up the ball, flew to the green, and dropped the ball on the green. And then a rabbit pushed the ball into the hole. "Please, Lord," the priest said, looking up into the sky, "I’d rather do it myself."

That’s what we do. We all do that. We would rather do it ourselves, or at least we want to help. The problem is that it’s already been done. You can’t make yourself more forgiven, more righteous than Christ’s righteousness, or freer than you in fact already are. And then something else happens, and it’s so good I can hardly stand it. Something happens to my desires, my goals, my plans and actions that has nothing to do with my purity or my efforts. It has to do with a human principle: we gravitate to those who love and appreciate us and are pleased when we do something that pleases them.

Let me repeat that because it’s an important principle on the reason that we’re getting better. It’s important. We gravitate to those who love and appreciate us and are pleased when we do something that pleases them. I’ve said it before and every time I do, I wince because it sounds so pious. Nevertheless, it’s true. I’m not always a good person. Sometimes my sins are first degree in the sense they’re intentional and planned. But there are times when my thoughts and actions would surprise and offend those who think of me as spiritual. But with all of that being said, you’ve never met a man who wants to please God more than I do.

It’s the reason I’m getting better. There other methods for getting better and I’ve tried them all. Listen to me: they don’t work. His love almost always does. One of my favorite biblical texts is Luke 7, where a prostitute crashes a dinner party of Pharisees to get to Jesus. She was not—and this is an understatement—she was probably not their most welcome guest. But Jesus praised her and, in one of the most radical statements Jesus ever made, he said, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little."

That’s Luke 7:47. The implications of that are plain incredible. It explains why some of the worst sinners are the best preachers. Why some of the most rejected and despised people are the best witnesses. Why the most rebellious often become the most faithful, and why cool kids are not so cool. The uncool are. Why the least qualified are the most qualified, and why so many of God's choices seem to be weird choices. It also explains why your sin and my sin isn't the thing that prevents us from getting better; it's why we do get better.

Last night, my wife Anna and I went grocery shopping. We bought a number of items and the cost was kind of steep. In a kidding way, I said to the young woman behind the cash register, "Okay, what’s the bad news?" She looked at me, started grinning, and said, "Sir, there is no bad news." It turned out that the man ahead of us paid what he owed and then paid what we owed. Not only that, he had left the store and we couldn’t find him to thank him or do something to him in return.

I don’t receive gifts very well. Frankly, I wanted to return the favor by buying him dinner or sending him a gift, but I couldn’t do that because he was gone. It wasn’t possible. Listen, that’s what God did in Christ. As it were, he’s paid your bill, and you can’t return the favor. Anybody who says that you can has misunderstood. All right, that’s how we get better. It really is. We don’t get better by trying harder and working more, memorizing more scripture, going to more church services and conferences, reading more books, even this one. We get better by being loved, and it becomes the reality of our lives and we wake up one day and say, "Son of a gun, I’m better."

All right, let’s turn to another subject and let me introduce it and then we’ll talk more about it tomorrow. We’re talking about lies that Christians sometimes believe, and sometimes they’re lies that manipulate us. Philippians 1:15-17 says this: "Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry... out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment." As I said, Philippians 1:15-17. The lie is this: "God told me to tell you."

As you know, I do Christian radio. And for years, I was a broadcast on secular radio, a news reporter and a disc jockey. They paid me a lot more money than Jesus did, but their retirement policy left a lot to be desired. And the many commercials I did for products on a regular basis couldn’t touch the commercials I do for Jesus. There’s no comparison between promoting a new car or restaurant and promoting forgiveness and grace and eternal life.

When I first started on religious radio, I had a media agent who thought I was wonderful. Whenever I was around him, he told me how much Christ and the world needed my voice. He told me that my broadcasts were profound and wise and life-changing to those who heard them. I was becoming a Christian celebrity and it felt good. Whenever I doubted that, all I had to do was have lunch with my agent. He was refreshing. He was also hustling me too.

I don’t think he was willfully lying, but it was a fact that the more stations where he could air my program, the more money he made. A friend of mine pointed out, not unkindly, that my agent’s vested interest should make me wary of anything he said. "You’re not half bad, Brown, with your radio ministry, but you’re not nearly as good and wonderful as he says you are." That’s a good thing for us to remember. We get manipulated by people who give us compliments in order to get what they want. And we get manipulated by those who make us feel guilty to get what they want. Don't let them do it. You think about that.

Narrator (Male): Thanks, Steve. If you’re just joining us, we’re currently in a special teaching series exploring the biblical basis of Steve’s new book called *God’s Not Mad at You*. You can order your copy now at keylife.org/notmadbook or find it on Amazon. Tomorrow, we’ll get into the topic of manipulation. Hope you’ll join us for that.

Hey, if you’re tired of pretending you have it all together when it comes to your faith, then I’d like you to meet Drew Hensley. He’s a pastor, author, and host of a podcast called *Still Becoming*. Drew points out that following Jesus isn’t about having arrived; it’s about staying open to the work he’s still doing. We had a great conversation with Drew recently on our talk radio show, *Steve Brown Etc.* We’ll send you that entire episode on CD for free. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE and let us know where to send it. Again, that number is 1-800-539-5433.

You can also email Steve@keylife.org to order that CD, or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing address. Again, just ask for the CD featuring Drew Hensley. Hey, and before you go, if you’ve been blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others by giving as generously as you can? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope.

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