Where did I go wrong stay tuned and I'll tell you on this edition of key life This is key life with Steve Brown a program designed to make a positive difference in your daily life Open your Bible and let's go to it Steve
Thanks Mike. Hope you had a great weekend, and I hope you were time at your church was a wonderful Celebration as mine was and that your pastor sermon ministered to you in the way mine did to me If you're just joining us what we're doing right now is that we're spending some time on the problem of pain and Suffering and evil and bad stuff and broken ropes. You say that sounds like fun I think I'm gonna listen to a music station now to stay with us because this is stuff that we all need to remind ourselves About what the Bible says to those of us we're going through difficult times, and so we're taking a few weeks Primarily the material for this series is from my book when your rope breaks You can get that at your local bookstore or from us at key life and by the way I don't get anything for these books so I'm not hustling a buck at all coast to key life But but I'm adding some things to that as we go through what the Bible says about it And this is a break from our regular Old Testament survey We were up to the book of Jeremiah when we decided to set that aside for a little while and spend some time on this particular subject So have your Bible open if you're in a place where you can open it I'll be referring to the Bible as we go along. It's our practice on Mondays before we study the book to go before the throne So let's do that Father, we praise you and we worship you. Sometimes that's hard to do when it hurts and it hurts bad But remind us that we don't praise you and worship you just because of the good stuff that you have done for us We do that because that's the reason we were created We do that because you're God and because you're worthy But father even knowing that you know our frame and you know how weak we are and you know how simple we are and you love us anyway And so we're here to thank you for being faithful for your grace for the fact that because of what Christ did You're not angry at us anymore and we praise you and we thank you for that Father, you know everybody who's listening to this broadcast You know the hard places where some people live the times when people wonder if you're there if you care if you love If you love them So father we're here because there's no other place to go and you are sufficient teach us to trust you in the dark with the things that you taught us in the light and Then father heal and cleanse and change and motivate Send us out that the world may hear of the laughter of the redeemed And then father as we study your word this week on key life we pray for the one who teaches they calling Reverend and he's not much We would see Jesus and him only and we pray in Jesus name. I'm in I'm going to pretty much finish this subject that we started last week today The question is where did I go wrong because Christians are by and large guilt-ridden and because we buy in large or Neurotic well, maybe not you but me I have a tendency every time something bad happens in my life to say you know It must have been because I stole a quarter from my mother's pocket book when I was 13 years old Listen guys. I want to spend and spent last week saying that's from the pit of hell and it smells like smoke The truth is that's simply not true the whole book of Job and we quoted Job 9 21 through 24 and Job 11 6 13 through 14 and 16 through 17 To show that the teaching of the book of Job is that bad stuff happened to Job When he was a good man. I don't know about you I don't want any of this stuff going on in heaven where Satan comes in to see God and says and God says had you seen my servant Steve? I want to be good But I don't want to be that good because I saw what happened to Joe But the whole purpose of the book of Job is that He's that he was a good man. He hadn't done anything wrong Certainly nothing deserving all the bad stuff that happened to him So I want you to set aside that false Spurious unbiblical idea that there is a direct correlation between how bad you are and how bad things are If there were a direct correlation, we would all be dead now I did spend some time talking about chasening First John 3, 2 and then he brews 12 and we talked about that does happen But it always happens with the loving hand of a God who isn't out to destroy us We talked about natural consequences second Samuel 12 13 through 14 We talked about the fact that broken ropes are not the result of your sin We talked about what I just said from Romans 3 10 through 12 that if we got what we deserve We would have it a lot worse. We talked about bad people and how they prosper and then I want to continue talking about that a little bit today I have a have a dear friend Cleve Bell in Miami heads up Riverside house And I love Cleve and Cindy Moore that I can tell you and they've met more to my life than I can tell you I used to love when I lived in Miami to go to prison and to watch Cleve work He his ministry and it's so profound and prisoner's lives Absolutely would bless me and he never reaches he dialogues one time. I was sitting with him and I just I don't do anything And I go with Cleve I just sit back and watch God do his thing now God isn't cleave God uses it's cleave But he dialogues one time his old man and a young man were in a small group in the chapel where Cleve was speaking Young man got up and he testified that he had become a Christian and Cleve said that is so good and I'm so glad And it's gonna make such a difference in your life didn't the old man got up and he said he had been serving the Lord for almost two years I noticed and this is cleave. He said He said and he's kind of harsh. I kind of winced. He said I noticed Sam that you're up for parole next week What are you gonna do if they don't let you out? Think and sit. Oh, Cleve. It'll be okay. I can serve Christ wherever I am. He chooses to leave me here. I'll serve him. You're in prison Then Cleve said and I was shocked. He said you have to do more than that Same said what what else do I have to do? And this is what Cleve said you have to repent of the example you gave to some of these young men and any Pointed that the one had given his testimony every time they looked at you you had a check on your arm gold on your wrist And you are driving a big expensive car There are a lot of people are in jail or on drugs right now because of the example you gave them before they were put in prison It didn't that old man did something. I'll never forget He walked up to the young man who had just become a Christian and his voice trembled with emotion and you can see the tears in his eyes And he said he said son I want to ask your forgiveness for giving you the wrong model you You needed someone to tell you the truth and I lied to you by letting you see my money and my women and my cars And I'm so very sorry Cleve being he hugged that old man and we all rejoiced in the obvious reality of his commitment to Christ But as a matter of fact that man is a good example of the point I make in spite of his sin He had everything he wanted. I love the comment of Willie Sutton who was asked why Rob Banks He said cuz that's where the money is if there were no money in robbing banks Nobody would rob banks if drug pusher didn't do well nobody would push drugs if sin had no payback Nobody would ever sin. We all know that it does can we talk I? Mean I mean I haven't been a Christian so long I've forgotten the payback it was the fun It was to be a pagan if you think you're broken rope and you're pain and your suffering has to do with your sin You ought to look around you might do better by sending more Sometimes the wicked do prospering you know it's the truth and I know it's the truth There's one thing to think about If you believe that you're in pain because you've done something wrong do you believe that God forgives you The Bible says first John one nine if we can theft our sins He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness If God were still exacting a price for your sin In other words correlating your sin with your broken rope then the cost of Christ was a farce and you weren't forgiven Until you work it off and they lied to you I have a friend who was unfaithful to his wife more than 20 years ago Came to me saying that everything bad that had ever happened to him had happened to him because of his unfaithfulness When I ask him if he had confessed it before God He answered not a day has gone by in the last 20 years that I have not confessed that particular sin to my wife and to God We talked about it and And Then I said to him the first time you confessed it was forgiven and I know your wife First time you confessed it to her it was forgiven and And I think we need to say that to us over and over again It's an example of what Martin Luther said that we got to preach the gospel to each other less we become discouraged I don't know about you. Can we talk? I'm not I'm not a good person. I'm a religious person. I'm a lot more religious than you are I have doctorates. They call me doctor brand. I write books. I Teach in the theological seminary. I'm preaching church. I was a pastor for 30 years So I'm a lot more religious than you are, but I'm not a good person and When I think about what I'm capable of doing and what I have done I'm absolutely blown away and Satan loves to use that God He's gonna get you God is gonna get you I Have learned because I'm an old guy to say leave me alone. You're a liar And I'm gonna believe God You think about that I mean Hey, listen if you don't have our winter magazine and I love this entity It's absolutely free a couple of articles our God reigns when things go bad Don't forget him and crosses and crowns when the pain becomes imbarable. What do you do with it? There's a question and an answer column a lot of good information on our late Barclay fellowship this year Hope you can come. We're gonna have a great time a lot of good resources to get you and those you love home with freedom and joy and Faithfulness to Christ as you're counting achievement It's for a give us a call 1-800 key life 24 hours a day or you can write key life post office box 5,000 Madeleine Florida 327-94 or key life Canada post office box 321-5-0 Cambridge Ontario in 3H 5 and 3 are you gonna email us at Steve at key life dot org and ask for the magazine We'll send you free as long as supplies last hey listen if you can help us financially I've never turned the contribution down yet. I realize this only can't but when you do You help your brothers and sisters and Christ's thousands of them who can't afford to give for any contribution Of any size when you requested I'll send along as my thank you the cassette teaching new gears Examination a good way to measure and be love So so help us if you can Introduction and Mastercard Visa are discovered are I got to go key life is a listener supported production of key life network