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Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew.

If you were listening yesterday, I was illustrating kickers. I'm not finished yet. You know, I was giving you scripture and then how people come along, maybe with the best of intentions, and say things that give the gospel with one hand and take it away with another. It's for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you like sons.

Woman, neither do I condemn you. For we know the law is spiritual, but I'm of the flesh, sold under sin, for I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want. The very thing I don't want to do. What I hate is what I do.

And then well-meaning Christians come along and say, well, let me interpret that for you. And in the interpretation, they take away the joy and the laughter and the dancing that is an essential part of the Christian faith. And I gave you a bunch and I'm not through yet. Let me give you another.

This is Romans 3:10. None is righteous. No, not one. The kicker. Okay, but sanctification means that we're becoming more righteous, and sometimes we become all righteous. And the result, if I don't get better and better every way, every day, I'm probably not saved.

Now, I don't want to take away from the reality that sanctification is something that takes place in the life of every Christian. I'm better than I was, just not much.

I'm better than I was and I know where that came from. I'm better than I was not because I worked at being better than I was, but because Jesus died for me and made it possible for me to be better than I was. And frankly, I thought I'd be a whole lot better than I am by now, and sometimes I'm not.

And what I just did is that I took away the kicker from the kicker and told you the truth about the Christian faith. Let me give you another one.

This is John 1:17. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The kicker. Yeah, yeah, that's true, but the law is very important and we must obey it all of it. A result, I stay under the law and I find it impossible to obey the law, and eventually I turn and walk away into the dark.

That makes me angry. That's not what is being taught here. When the scripture says that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, that means amazing grace. The truth about God's mercy. The reality of being forgiven forever came through Jesus Christ.

Well, let me give you another one. For freedom, this is Galatians 5:1. I know, and I'm going to stop in a minute. Maybe I'll make this the last one. Galatians 5:1. For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. The kicker. Freedom isn't what you think it is.

It's freedom not to sin. It's freedom to be obedient. It's freedom to follow him. Certainly not freedom to sin. A result, we've once again submitted to the yoke of slavery.

Actually, freedom is freedom. If you don't have the freedom to do bad and to do good, it's not real freedom. If you don't have the freedom to be obedient and not to be obedient, it's not freedom. It's the law. If you don't have the freedom to be faithful or not be faithful, then you've reverted to the slavery of the law, and the kicker has taken away the good news of the gospel.

Now, do we become more obedient? Yeah, most of the time. Sometimes not. Do we become more faithful and more obedient? Yeah, sometimes, but maybe not. And I could go on. I'm going to stop. I just have to stop because I'm running out of time. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The word gospel means good news.

It's from the Anglo-Saxon term meaning good story. And the word evangelism comes from a Latin word meaning the sharing of good news. The Christian faith is just that. But remember, but sometimes because of the kickers, you wouldn't think so.

Several books have described why so many people are leaving the church and the Christian faith. In almost every case, the people who leave didn't leave the Christian faith. Instead, they left. Listen up. They left what some well-meaning people, and I include myself, thought and taught was the Christian faith.

What a difference if you know without any kicker that you're loved, forgiven, valuable, accepted and eternal, period. You think about that. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Steve. That was Steve Brown continuing to shine a light on the lies that threaten to steal our joy. Today, we looked at lies relating to sanctification, staying under the law and freedom. And in case you need them again, the text we examined were Romans 3:10, John 1:17 and Galatians 5:1.

Well, in case you didn't know, in addition to this radio show, we have a talk radio program called Steve Brown, etc. Recently on that show, we spoke with author Drew Hensley about invisible grief. That's a phrase he coined to describe the pain of losing what never was, like a miscarriage, singleness or an unrealized dream.

Take a listen to part of that conversation, then I'll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

Guest (Male): I think a lot of times when we think about grief, we think about it in terms of a physical loss. We lost someone that we loved, we lost something that we love. And when we do that, we also tend to put a timestamp on it. That there's going to be a certain amount of time that goes by and then we're going to have closure. We're going to have resolve. Not only do we do that, but the people around us do that.

And so there's this expectation that, okay, you've had two weeks to grieve this loss, you've had a month to grieve this loss. Now let's move on. Invisible grief, it really is the pain and loss that comes from what has never been and what may never be. And that's why it's termed invisible.

So that takes so many different categories. That could be wanting to have the child that never comes. It could be a great desire for marriage and that spouse doesn't come, or it doesn't come in the timeline that you think it will, right? Or a future that you thought would be and you hoped for and you dreamed of and it hasn't happened.

And with this type of grief, what I've found in myself and in others, is it doesn't have a time clock. No, no grief really does, but we try to put one on. And it's often long-haul grief. It's either a long season or maybe it's a lifetime.

And along with that, a lot of people may not even know that you're going through it because it might not be outwardly seen, right? There's no obituary to not having a child. There's no obituary to not getting, you know, to there's nothing that gets put out that says, well, I'm not married. And so I think that's the difference, not physical loss, but a real loss.

Steve Brown: You you began by telling your own story. I found that very moving. Tell us about your personal story of grief.

Guest (Male): Yeah, for myself and my wife, you know, we were young in our 20s. We had this opportunity to move to Seattle to help plant churches. We were ready for a new adventure and along with that, we were ready to start having a family.

And after about a year of trying and that not happening, you know, we made the appointments, we went to the doctors, we had the tests done and all of a sudden this new thing called infertility got dropped in our laps. And then I and I'm very honest in the book. It was on my side, right? My body didn't work and still doesn't as it was supposed to. That's just reality.

Had a few procedures, essentially nothing worked. And so this wasn't going to change. We were faced with the reality that I was never going to come home from work and my wife was never going to greet me at the door with those amazing words, we're pregnant.

And it was painful and it was hard. And I didn't know what to do with it for a long time. Lori didn't know what to do with it. You know, occasionally we might open up about it, but for both of us, I think we started dealing with it in different ways and, you know, come to find out those ways weren't necessarily the healthiest, but we didn't even know how to put language to it.

We just knew that year after year, as things stretched on and we watched everybody else, you know, that that wanted to and even some that didn't expect it, have children, grow families. We felt like we were isolated. To be honest, we felt like we were in a bit of exile.

And that came with a myriad of emotions and feelings and just walking through something incredibly painful that didn't exist. But it still felt so incredibly weighty. And so for us, that's our invisible grief, infertility.

And I would say that that's really where the book came from is not only experiencing ourself, but then walking alongside a lot of other people who experienced some form of this.

Guest (Male): If you or someone you know has ever experienced that invisible grief that Drew's talking about, I think you'll appreciate this conversation. We'll send it to you for free on CD. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEYLIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to order that CD, or go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada.

Again, just ask for the CD featuring Drew Hensley. And just one more last thing before you go. If you're blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? We've made giving pretty easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope.

And of course, now you can give safely and securely through text. Just take out your phone and text KEYLIFE to 28950. That's KEYLIFE, one word or two, doesn't matter. Just text that to 28950, then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and for C in Canada, and Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.