It’s a good deal. Don’t turn it down.

Steve Brown:
It’s a good deal. Don’t turn it down. Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
That was author and seminary professor Steve Brown. And this is Key Life. We’re all about radical grace, because of what Jesus has done, God’s not mad at you. Keep listening and that message will set you free to live a life with joy and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you, Matthew. We’re looking at some of the themes in the first 10 verses of the book of Galatians, which is our Bible study, until Jesus returns. Well, it’s going to be a long time. I’m not in any hurry. We’re going to take our time with Galatians and I’m going to tell you, by the time we finish studying this book, everything I know about this book, And a lot that I didn’t know that I found out while we were going through the book of Galatians. And it is so good, I can hardly wait to tell you about it. We saw that as Paul sets up his, uh, his major themes for this symphony he’s writing, which is the book of Galatians, he talks about truth and how important that is, then believe it or not, he talks about authority. And we’re in a culture where authority is spawned at every place and rejected in the same places. I mean, because I said it, that’s why you’ll do it. A parent who says that needs, well, maybe not always, but at least sometimes to sit down and explain it. In a very lovingly, pastoral, parental way, as in you’re going to do it, or I’m going to break your face kind of thing. But authority is important, we talked about it yesterday. Let me show you something else. In this setting up of the themes, Paul talks about what a horrible thing to reject the Gospel. Look at Galatians 1:3-4

Grace to you and peace from God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of God our Father.

Mmm. When I was in seminary, there were five or six of us who lived on Cape Cod. And we went to Boston university every day. And that was a long drive. It was about 120, 130 miles every day. And I couldn’t do that today, but I was young in those days. And that was during the Vietnam war. Some of you remember that and we had one guy in our carpool and they were in interesting guys. One had been a judge, I’d been in news and a disc jockey. Another had been a psychologal counselor another had been a teacher. So we were a varied bunch. And we learned to love each other over those years and to love each other deeply. But anyway, one of our guys was so anti Vietnam war that he preached on it every Sunday. And the interesting thing about where his church was. We all serve student churches on Cape Cod. And the interesting thing about where his church was is that he was right near an air force base, and very often, and one time would have been enough for him, but often jet planes would fly over his church and you could hear them during the sermon and it drove him nuts. And so he called the head of the air force base and said, look, I’m a pastor. And during the worship service of God, you fly your planes over my church. And the general said, uh, Reverend, would you rather have theirs than ours? And I want you to know my friend couldn’t even talk, man. He was just sputtering. But one of the things we used to kid about was, you know, when this war is over, and it will be over. What in the world are you going to preach on? I mean, you got a hammer and everything looks like a nail, and that’s all you talk about the Vietnam war. Do you think maybe you ought to try talking about Jesus on occasion. What are you going to preach on when the war is over? Well, I’ll tell you, what’s going on here is the very central point of the book of Galatians. And that is that we are great sinners. And that Jesus is a great savior. Um, and I don’t do this very often, cause I’m not an evangelist. I’m a teacher of God’s people. It’s my job. And I’ve been called and I don’t like it sometimes, but I’ve been called to teach the Bible, after I study it to Christians who know Christ. But when you do a broadcast like this, and you have a lot of people tuning in on our website, some of them are not Christians. And so let me say something to you, and very kindly, are you crazy? This, this is a good deal. You can live forever. You don’t have to feel guilty ever again. You’ll get God’s grace. You’ll meet. You’ll be a part of a family. That’s just incredible. They’re porcupine sometimes, but they’re incredible. You’ll be able to, and it goes on and on and on. You’ll have meaning in your life. You’ll have a flag to follow. And all you gotta do is run to Jesus. That’s what Paul’s saying in this book of Galatians. And because he said it, I’m saying it to you, if you’re not a Christian. And you say, maybe you’re thumbing across the dial and you heard this deep fog horn voice and you thought, well, that’s insane, but he sounds reasonable. He sounds like he’s, well that’s because maybe God’s spirit is speaking to you right now. Do you, let me give you a checklist. How’s it working for you? Is it working well? And you say no. Check. Are you a really, really good person? I mean, if you were to stand before God and he should ask you why he should allow you into heaven, do you have a long list of good things that you could give to him that would balance out the bad. And you say, no. Check. Let me ask you something else. Would you like to live forever? Check. Would you like to have meaning in your life? Albert Camus said the only thing a thinking person thinks about is whether or not he should commit suicide. Would you like to have meaning in your life? Check. Alright, listen to me. I’m going to pray a prayer. You listen to it. And when I give you a space to say, yes, you say yes. And then later on you let me know that you did. Father, there are some listening right now who like those in the book of Galatians had just turned their back on the reality of your love and your Gospel. And some, right now at this moment, want to tell you that they’re not good. That they’ve fallen short of your glory, that it’s not going well, that they can’t fix it. And they want to turn to Jesus who died on a cross in their place. If that’s you? Say yes. And father at this very moment, because you’ve never lied. We have a birthday of some new people. A new part of our family and we thank you for it. And that is what happened by the way. If you acceded to that prayer, you now are my brother. You now are my sister and you need to find a church and you can drop me a note or an email. [email protected] and I’ll give the address or Matthew will and let us know, and we’ll give you some material that will help. Alright. That’s not something I do very often, but I feel when the opportunity is available, that it’s important to speak the Gospel. And by the way, I don’t think that you ought to go out and beat people, if you’re a Christian. And beat people over the head with a Bible and make yourself obnoxious and insufferable with the Gospel. But you can’t duck. Wherever you go, whatever you do, be aware for the questions, be aware of those who are looking, be aware of those who are going through hard times. Cause you’ve got some answers and you’re not it. You’ve got some answers and they’re not hard to understand. You’ve got some answers and you don’t have to go into a theological dialogue to give them. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. And Jesus loves you, this I know for the Bible tells me so. So let him. That’s the Gospel. And we need to share that with everybody that we know, when God opens the door and we have an opportunity to share the Gospel. And so whatever you do, don’t shilly shally, don’t be a fanatic. You’re not that good. Don’t pretend to be better than you are, you’re still a sinner. Don’t pretend to have all of the political and sociological answers in the world. You don’t. But you do know him and he likes you and he wants you to tell others. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Of course, that was Steve Brown, continuing to explore the themes that make up the symphony that is the book of Galatians. And in case you missed the reference earlier, Steve spoke to us today from Galatians 1:3-4. Well, if you didn’t know, the 2020 edition of Key Life Magazine is out and available to you for free. In this new edition, you’ll find an article called Christians Are Right. It speaks about believing the right truth in the right way, and the importance of sharing truth with love and compassion. You’ll also find new pieces from Jenni Young, Chad West and Traylor Lovvorn. Just call 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email [email protected] and ask for the magazine. If you’d like to mail your requests, send it to

Key Life Network
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If you’re in Canada, send your request to

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Just ask for your free copy of the 2020 edition of Key Life Magazine. And hey, if you prayed that prayer with Steve earlier, awesome. Do let us know. Okay? Just drop us a line through any of the methods that I just mentioned. And because we have bills, here’s the part where we ask for money. If you’re able, would you please give to Key Life? As the costs of producing the show on the radio go up, your donations really do help. You could charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. Both of those organizations assure financial accountability. And as always Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.