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We’re not God. Deal with it.

We’re not God. Deal with it.

JULY 27, 2020

/ Programs / Key Life / We’re not God. Deal with it.

Steve Brown:
We’re not God. Deal with it. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
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 penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering. That grace is what Key Life is all about.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. You ought to know Matthew. He is one great guy. The guy’s incredibly gifted. You just hear his voice on this thing. You don’t see all the stuff he does. He’s an award, an award winning, it’s the microphone. He’s an award winning film producer and he’s incredibly gifted. And, uh, he works in video and audio here at Key Life and he does amazing things. He writes scripts for our, uh, talk show and I could go on and on. So thank you, Matthew, for taking your time each week to be the announcer on this program. Uh, we have a great producer since I’m saying this and I’m looking at him through the little glass booth, uh, that would be Jeremy and Jeremy, something else too. You know what he does? Uh, he can play 18 different instruments, speak 40 different languages and spin plates at the same time. And Jeremy takes his time to come into that little cramped booth with all the controls and stuff to oversee this program. Boy, God has been that’s cause he likes me more than he likes you. God has put wonderful people around me and I’m quite thankful for that and quite aware of it. If you’re just joining us, we’re finishing up and I will, I promise this week sometime finish talking about dryness of the soul, dark night of the soul, boredom with Jesus, Acedia. We’re talking about as we land the plane, what good is it? If everything has a purpose and it does. And I gave you a lesson in sovereignty of God 101, everything has a purpose. If it does, what in the world is the purpose of my dryness and my boredom and my hard places in my life. And so I’m taking the time to tell you. Before we get back to that, it’s our practice to pray before we study, let’s do that. Father, we come into your presence and we come into your presence, aware that we don’t have any right, except the right that you gave us to be in the presence of the throne room of the God, of the universe. We worship you, cause that’s amazing. We are blown away with your kindness. Father. you have been so good. You sent your son, you oversaw our lives from birth before we were born and throughout all of eternity, you know our name and you know where it hurts and you’ve loved us and you’ve forgiven us and you showed compassion to us, but father, if you had never done any of that, you’re still big. You’re still, as Jesus said, the God who is in heaven, you’re still the creator and the sustainer of all. And the ruler of all that is. And as such, you are God and worthy of our worship. But father you’re our father and we praise you and thank you. Now, as always, we pray for the people who listen to this broadcast and we pray for the one who teaches on it, forgive him his sins because there are many, we would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. If you were with us last week, as we’re looking at this last section in our discussion of Acedia and what the Bible says about it. Um, we are talking about what good is it? But we’re looking at Second Corinthians 1:8-11, where Paul writes as follows.

For we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For, we were utterly burdened beyond our strength so much so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings, granted us through the prayers of many.

Now, if you were listening last week, we saw a couple of things and I’m going to test you on this, so make sure you take notes. We saw that a loss of passion, boredom with Jesus and Acedia, reminds us that we live in a fallen world and that we’re not home yet. And then we saw not only does it do that, it reminds us that we’re not fixed yet. We still get cancer. We still sin. We still fail. We still mess things up. And then let me show you something else. Acedia and the loss of passion reminds us that we’re not God yet. And we never will be God. Second Corinthians 1:9-10.

Indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not only on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such deadly peril and he will deliver us on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

Kathleen Norris once said:

I’ve found therapy to be of limited usefulness, constrained in ways that religion is not because it consistently falls short of mystery by which I mean a profound simplicity that allows for paradox and poetry. In therapy, I’m likely to be searching for explanations, causes and definitions. Information that will help me change my behavior in helpful ways. But wisdom is the goal of spiritual seeking and it is religion’s home.

It really is. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about God. It’s not about me. It’s not about you. Now, it is about us. I mean, that’s what the cross was about. It’s about his love for us. It’s about his forgiveness of us. But bottom line, it’s not. It’s about God. You ever heard that thing about a man falling into a pit. Let me share it with you, if I haven’t. A man fell into a pit and he couldn’t get himself out. A subjective person came along and said, I feel for you down there. An objective person came along and said, well, it’s logical that somebody would fall into that dangerous pit down there. A Christian scientist came along and said, you only think you’re down there in that pit. That’s not real. A Pharisee said only bad people fall down into pits. That’s why you’re in that pit. If you would repent and you were faithful and obedient, you wouldn’t be down in that pit. A Calvinist said, if you were of the elect, you never would have fallen down in that pit or alternatively falling down in that pit was from a sovereign God who decided you would fall down in that pit. John Wesley came along and said you were saved and you still fell down in that pit. A charismatic said, just confess that you’re not in that pit and you won’t be down in that pit anymore. A realist came along and said, now that’s a pit. A geologist came along and told him to appreciate the rock strata of the pit. An IRS man came and asked him if he had paid taxes on the pit. A County inspector asked him if he had a permit to be down in that pit in the first place. A timid person came along and avoided the subject all together. A self pitying person said you haven’t seen anything yet. Let me tell you about my pit. An optimist said, you know, it could be a lot worse. A pessimist said things are going to get a lot worse. And Jesus seeing the man in the pit loved him and reached down and took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit. Oh my, you know, when you can’t fix a world and when you can’t fix yourself and everything is dark and it hurts deep and you’re bored with religion, it gives you one alternative. And that is God and you go to him and you realize that you’re not called to be God, that’s his job. You’re called to run to him. The source of all help. Hey, you think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. That was Steve Brown, continuing to explore the subject of Acedia and teaching us from Second Corinthians 1:8-11. We will wrap up this series tomorrow. So, sure hope you’ll join us then. You know that whole thing Steve read about the pit. I thought that was great. There’s something powerful about how truth can be delivered through humor. That’s kind of the niche of Brant Hansen. If you haven’t met him, Brant is a radio host and author of a new book called The Truth About Us: The Very Good News About How Very Bad We Are. It’s surprising and funny look at how we fool ourselves. We spoke with Brant recently on Steve Brown Etc., and now we have that whole conversation on a CD. And just because we like you, we’d be happy to send you a copy of that for free. Just call 1-800-KEY-LIFE, right now. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email [email protected] and ask for the CD. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

If you’re in Canada, send your request to

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Just ask for the CD featuring Brant Hansen. And one more thing. If you’re able, would you consider supporting Key Life financially? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. And if you can’t give, all good. But do reach out for that CD, it really is free. Key. Life is a member of ECFA in the States and 4C in Canada, both of those organizations assure financial accountability. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.

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