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Matthew: What in the world happened to us? Let's talk about it on Key Life. It's for freedom that Christ set us free and Key Life is here to bring you biblical teaching that encourages you to never give into slavery again. Our teacher on Key Life is Steve Brown. He's an author, broadcaster, and seminary professor who's sick of phony religion.

Steve Brown: Thank you Matthew.

If you've been listening this week, I've taken a lot of time to go through a lot of scripture and I hope you took notes. I gave you scripture. And then I took the time to show you how some Christians, mostly neurotic ones, and I'm one of them, use a kicker to change what is clearly taught in scripture.

And we went over a number of scripture passages, illustrating how somebody comes along when the text teaches the source of joy and happiness and peace and add a kicker, and the kicker takes it away from you. What a difference.

If you knew you were loved, forgiven, valuable, accepted, and eternal, period. What if there were no kickers? What if there were no qualifiers? What if there wasn't any small print? No yes, but.

It would be a major step in dealing with guilt and shame and fear and regret. But some Christians continue, and I do on occasion too. Some Christians continue to qualify the truth. What in the world happened to us?

How did we get this? How did that happen? Where did it come from? There are times, I got to say, because I know me, when kickers are just neurotic, and the result is guilt, shame, fear, and regret.

I have a friend who publicly sinned as a Christian pastor. He was disciplined and fired from the church where he served, and he accepted the discipline that was given by his denomination. After over two years of discipline, my friend told me he didn't think his denomination would ever restore him.

And then he said to me, "Steve, I'm going to leave. I'm going to start a church for people like me." He did, and later when he asked me to preach at his church, I did.

I was surprised to discover that he sounded kind of like those, this makes me so sad, he had reverted and was sounding like the people who had disciplined him in his previous denomination. The kickers were everywhere.

That is, that's puzzled and saddened me for years until I started working on this book. When I mentioned my friend, my assistant said, "I know what happened."

Her name's Kathy, and she said, "I know what happened. He sinned so horribly and was burnt so harshly by the leaders of the old denomination that he either consciously or unconsciously decided that it would never happen again and then devoted himself to making sure that it didn't."

Kathy said she had noticed that when people sin in public ways and pay the price for it, they either become advocates of mercy, radical mercy, grace, amazing grace, or compassion. Or, on the other hand, they become Pharisees.

They're sometimes like former smokers who become Nazis about smoking. Some Protestants leave Protestantism for Roman Catholic churches, and some Catholics leave Catholicism for Protestantism, and then become fanatics in their condemnation of the place they left. Others remember their roots and what they learned from their past and are thankful.

So, sometimes the guilt and the fear and the shame and the regret become, listen up, the very cause of more guilt and fear and shame and regret.

That's that's sad in itself, but so often those people who have fled and found themselves in the arms of the monster from whom they fled, then become leaders and teachers of others.

And while we're talking about the neurotic causes for kickers, some like kickers because the kickers are the way they think God keeps them in line. I once spoke for a conference and said, "God, if you're a Christian, God isn't angry at you and he never will be."

I used the line from my friend Michael Kelly Blanchard in that song, a young woman who had done bad things, looks at a picture of Jesus on the wall in her grandmother's house. And the lyric says this, "He looked like he just saw a little girl fall and he don't look angry at all."

And then, as I often do in conferences, we had a question and answer period. A man, I can close my eyes and I can see him and I loved him. A man stood up and he said, "I'm glad God is angry and I disagree with you because his anger is what keeps me being obedient."

I don't remember what I said, but something probably pastoral like, "Sir, you're a fruitcake. What's wrong with you?" But I didn't. I understand what he's saying. And I even affirmed his desire to be better than he was. But his way simply didn't work.

I knew that. I had repeatedly tried it and I was still attracted to it from Psalm 103:8 and Romans 2:4 and other scriptures. I tried to explain God's goodness and kindness to make us better, and it was not his anger.

But this man would have none of it. The kickers are sometimes an effort, God bless their hearts, to be obedient. But listen to me, kickers end up making us worse, a whole lot worse, and certainly not better.

Then some major kickers kick out of a sincere effort to make sure the truth is understood. If you're familiar with the ministry of Key Life, you know that the purpose of our ministry is to tell believers that God isn't angry with them.

If you go to our website, the first thing you will see, and it's on our stationary, and you'll see it on our talk show, and it rings true in our minute thinks spots on music stations, "God is not mad at you." There's a problem with that, given that scripture says, "For those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there shall be wrath and fury." "There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil to the Jew first, but also the Greek." And that's Romans 2:8-9.

Aside from the fact that Paul is setting up an incredible message of forgiveness and mercy and grace for those who are unrighteous and do evil or self-seeking who don't obey the truth, there's a scary truth about the wrath of God.

For many years, I've taught, "God isn't angry at you." And then I got some thoughtful criticism. So, I'll listen to what my friend said and I would say, "If you're a Christian, God isn't angry at you." But if you're not, you're in trouble. Then I thought, "I don't want to send that message. I want people to see a good and kind God."

And so, finally, I just use the message that God's not angry at you. And if I needed to, I said, "And if you, if you're a Christian, that's true. And if you're not and you run to Jesus, it will be true of you too."

And then if you go to our website, there's a statement of faith that makes the issue clear. You have to be careful. I understand those who want to make sure that the word of God is clear and what's right is clearly taught and what's wrong is clearly expressed so that people will know.

But you have to be very careful, or you'll rob people of the good news. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew: Thanks, Steve, and that wraps up this week of our new series. You can stream all of these episodes at keylife.org/notmad. Also an easy way to share it with a friend. Next week, boy, we have something really special for you. This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. So, we're going to go through an entire classic sermon from Steve called, "Is Pentecost Reproducible?" And of course, hope you'll join us tomorrow for Friday Q&A when Steve and Pete address this intriguing question: was everyone originally Jewish? Don't miss that.

Do you want the gospel to impact every nook and cranny of your life, not just your destiny when you die? Then think of the gospel not only as a set of powerful propositions, but also as a plot, a story having four chapters which flow into one another: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

Well, that excerpt is from an article by Matt Heard and you can find it in the latest edition of Key Life Magazine, along with pieces from Steve, Justin Holcomb, and Barry Smith, plus a whole bunch of new and exciting features and products. It's yours when you call us at 1-800 Key Life. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to ask for the magazine or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Just ask for Key Life Magazine.

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