Key Life Network

Steve Brown: Your dreams are not necessarily God's promises. Let's talk on Key Life.

Matthew: Being adopted into the family of God is not about doing more or trying harder. It's about being welcomed by God because of his radical grace, free from the penalty of sin and never alone in your suffering. That grace is what Key Life is all about.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. If you're just joining us, I'm sharing a book with you and the book isn't out yet. In fact, it's not going to be out until next month. The 14th is the release date and just so you know, the title of the book is *God’s Not Mad at You: Confronting the Lies of Guilt and Shame and Fear and Regret*.

We have over the last few weeks started looking at some of those lies, using the manuscript for the book that isn't out yet as a kind of guide to talk about these issues. Jeremy, who is our producer for this broadcast, often is the one I ask to pray before we record.

He prayed, "Lord, you know the book isn't out yet and this is different," and he asked that God would come and be present in the teaching. We trust that that's true. Speaking of prayer, first, I hope your pastor's sermon was as good as mine this past week. Now, let's pray.

Father, we come into your presence aware that you're big and we're small, that you're infinite and we're finite, that you're eternal and we tarry but just a little while. But with all of your greatness and all of your power, you bend down low and listen to the sound of our tears as they strike the ground.

Father, you know everybody who's listening to this broadcast and in some, there are tears. Difficult times, hard places. Come alongside and keep their tears in your bottle. Remember where they are and remind them that you're sufficient.

And then there are others where it's laughter. Come alongside them and laugh with them. We are glad that you have invited us to walk with you for our entire lives.

And now, Father, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast, that you would forgive him his sins because they are many. We would see Jesus and him only. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

As I said, we've been going through a number of lies that I've written about in this book. Lies that charm us, cheat us, define us, confuse us, defraud us, exalt us. But there are some lies that test us. This week and probably next week, we're going to spend some time talking about that.

I introduced it the last time we were together, but let me say a couple of things. This is a good text. It's 1 Peter 4:12: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you."

The lie that we sometimes believe is that our dreams are always God's promises. Now, sometimes they are, but a lot of times they aren't. I spent a long time, a number of years, as a seminary professor. I still do that on occasion.

That, by the way, is insane. I ran away from kindergarten and I struggled with education for the next 20 years. It was even more insane. My colleagues—and they're still friends and we still talk on occasion—but they all have PhDs from Harvard and Cambridge and Oxford and Duke, etc.

While they call me Dr. Brown, and I have more doctorates than they do, all of my doctorates are phony. I didn't earn them. I spoke for a university or college and they would pay me—well, they pay Key Life, I don't get anything for it—and then they would make me a doctor, and I'm not even a nurse.

But it was useful. While most of the other professors prepared for their academic careers, I was a pastor dealing with the everyday problems of being an undershepherd in the church. Someone had to teach students what to do if a cigar fell into the communion cup or how to hold a baby without dropping the baby on his or her head. What to do at 2:00 AM on Sunday? Lord, do you know what time it is when you're looking at a blank page and it's just not happening?

Once during a faculty meeting, the subject of pastoral burnout came up. We talked about several former students who had left the ministry and what had happened to them. Probably at no time in recent church history has it been harder to be a pastor.

If you've been listening to this broadcast almost every Monday, I say, "I hope your pastor's sermon was as good as my pastor's sermon." My pastor preaches great sermons, by the way. But the reason I say that on this broadcast is so that you would say the same thing about your pastor by way of encouragement.

Sometimes when I'm speaking for a conference or church somewhere, somebody will come up and say, "Hey Brown, my pastor's sermon was better than your pastor's sermon last Sunday." So I'm starting a movement because being a pastor is hard.

Those in that faculty meeting that we talked about who had left the ministry having been chewed up by the demands of ministry, not knowing what to do with critical parishioners who wanted them fired or how to weather controversy in the church. So, I was told to let them know how to deal with those things.

At that faculty meeting, I was charged to prepare students for the reality of ministry. And so, I designed a course that included politics in the church, on winning battles without losing one's soul, and how to remedy dysfunctional church boards and programs. I determined that when the students finally finished their education, they would not be surprised at what they discovered in the church.

The seminary students believed that if they were faithful to scripture, loved people, and learned the skills of preaching, counseling, and administration, they would be reasonably successful. My job was to tell them that if they believed that, they were crazy.

I brought pastors into the class who told their stories of going through the fire. I showed them how to understand and weather politics in the church. I even told them how to get rid of those members who were acid to God's people.

Frankly, the students weren't happy with me. They said that what I was teaching was manipulative and beneath what a pastor ought to be. I always said, "Look, I'm going to test you on this material, so listen up and take notes. One day, you're going to call me and thank me. One day, you're going to rise up and call me blessed."

And they did rise up and call me blessed. You wouldn't believe all the former students who have called, written letters, or emailed or texted me thanking me for saving their ministry. They would often apologize for being so critical of what I had taught them in class.

Actually, I had just disabused them of false expectations. That's what I'm going to do for you. I'm doing it in the book, I'm doing it on this broadcast, and we're doing it for the next week or so.

By the way, we do as Christians sometimes have expectations that have been given to us by teachers who told us that God always wanted us happy and healthy and wealthy, and that's not true. Jesus said that the road was hard. Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me." Jesus said, "If they hated me, they will hate you."

This isn't a fun subject, but it's important. Because when the bad stuff happens, you don't have to cuss and spit. You can see God's loving and gracious hand in it. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew: Thank you, Steve. This week we're getting back into our ongoing teaching series based on Steve's new book called *God’s Not Mad at You*. By the way, you can now preorder that book at a special price at keylife.org/notmadbook. Tomorrow we'll continue digging into 1 Peter 4:12 and exploring the lies that test us. Hope you'll join us.

Grace, freedom. We love both of these things, but we often get them wrong, don't we? Steve spoke about that in a sermon called *Grace in Freedom*, based on Matthew 12:1-14. We put that entire message on a CD that we would love to send to you in the mail for free. You're welcome.

Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at steve@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 called *Grace in Freedom*.

Last thing, if you believe in the work of Key Life, would you give today to help continue that work? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can simply text "keylife" to 28950, then follow the instructions.

And if you can't give right now, hey, we get it. Have you seen the price of gas? But if you have an extra minute, would you please pray for us? Always needed, always appreciated. Thanks. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the states and CCCC in Canada, and Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.