God created you for the gift that he gives you.

Steve Brown:
God created you for the gift that he gives you. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God because of his radical grace free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible open it to the 16th chapter and we are looking at the first few verses of that, and we’re talking about spiritual gifts. And we’ve seen that you don’t get a spiritual gift if you’re not a believer. It surprises me that people who are not believers, listen to this broadcast. I don’t know why? I have no earthly idea why? Maybe they like my deep voice. I got a letter from a lady one time and said, I don’t like you. I don’t agree with anything you teach, but you have the most pleasing voice I’ve ever heard. So, I put on your sermons at night when I go to sleep and I sleep soundly because of your voice. I don’t know why people that aren’t believers listen to this broadcast, but we get letters and e-mails from them. And you need to know that what I’m teaching now doesn’t apply to you. We’re talking about supernatural gifts, which are the exclusive ownership of believers. And so, what’s important to see that Timothy was not a pagan. He was a disciple, a covenant child whose mother and grandmother and father and grandfather were Christians. And then the second thing, we mentioned this yesterday, is that God doesn’t go against natural proclivities. I mean, he’ll probably never ask me to be a singer, that won’t be my gift. And let me tell you something, he’s not going to ask me to be the treasurer of the church either. I cannot balance my own checkbook. In our house, that’s what Anna does, my wife. There was a time in counseling, when I was meeting with a lot of couples and sometimes women were using their control of the money to control their husband. They would say here’s 50 cents and you can go and buy such and such. And I’m only giving you enough money so you can buy such and such. Now, I don’t, it’s not sexist, but I had a real problem with that. And so, I wanted to become an example to those couples. And so, I said to Anna, look, let me do the books for a while. Let me keep the finances in our house. And I’ll be careful with it. And you can look over my shoulder, but I want to kind of be an illustration of what needs to happen with some of these couples. You know what happened? We almost went bankrupt. That’s what happened. I made such a mess out of it that Anna could barely get it back together. That’s not where I’ve been called. I will never be the treasurer of a church, but I’m a, a good talker. And I was that long before I became a Christian. I remember in high school, history. I mean, my voice changed when I was in high school. In junior high school, I was a soprano. In high school. I sounded like this. And boy, it surprised everybody including me. And a history teacher, and I was trying to think of her name, and I can’t, said to me, Stephen, let me tell you something. You have to be careful what you say because people are going listen to you. I’ve thought about that a lot. And I’ve tried to be kind of careful with what I say. And you say, well, it doesn’t sound like it. Well, it sounds like I’m just letting it go with whatever’s in my mind, but it’s not, I’ve spent a lot of time on this, to make sure that what I’m teaching, what I’m preaching is stuff that is Biblical, that makes a difference in people’s lives. So, when you look at the text, you’ve got to say the natural talents generally don’t contradict the supernatural talent that God puts on the top of it. I was one time involved with a Step Foundation. And they were and still do make a tremendous difference in cities. And one of the things they do is they say, we’re going to send people into the inner city to do what they do best, not what we think they ought to do. And so, they didn’t send the doctor to build a house. They sent a doctor to do medical things in this city. And that was a very, very wise move. And those were Christians. God prepared the doctor before he became a physician, but he also gave that physician a gift that didn’t contradict the natural proclivities that he has. I have a son-in-law, who’s a physician and who’s an elder in his church. Now, he was smart, he became a physician because he was smart and he loved medicine, but he’s also an elder in his church. And so his practice is his ministry because he has a supernatural gift that is applied to what he was prepared for before he got there. Now, I have a lot more to say about that, but that’s enough. I remember, did I tell you about Fred Smith, my late mentor, who wanted to be an opera singer? You know, I’m running out of time, so I’m not gonna be able to tell you the whole story, but I’ll tell it to you tomorrow cause it’s a really good story if you haven’t heard it, but for now think about what I’ve been teaching. I’ve been teaching that if you’ll look at your life and the things that God has created in your life, the things you like to do, the things you’re good at, there is a very good chance, when God endows you with a spiritual gift, that it won’t be something you hate. It will be something you love. And for which he has prepared you. You think about that. Amen.

It’s Wednesday and sometimes on Wednesdays, I take some time to answer a couple of questions. And, when I have the time and I have some time today, so we’ll look at one or two questions. We do love to get your questions, by the way. You can dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, record a question, and sometimes we put those on the air, your actual voice. You can send your question to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
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in Canada, it’s

P.O. Box 28060

Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

or you can e-mail your question to [email protected]. And, we’ll take your question seriously because we do. And the only dumb question is the one you don’t ask. And those, by the way are places where should you decide to help us financially, you can contact us and do that. And if you do, we’ll rise up and call you blessed. And I promise that we’ll squeeze every dime for the glory of God. All right. Let’s turn to some questions. The first question is this. A friend has just lost a loved one, what can I say or do that would be of help? Nothing. Just be there. A hug would be appropriate. A comment like, I’m so sorry. This has got to be so hard, would be appropriate, but don’t try to give Scripture verses. Don’t try to fix the mourning, God designed the mourning and the grief. Don’t decide that you’re going to give a theological explanation of death and immortality, that is not appropriate. The most important thing you can do when a brother or sister or a friend is going through a tragedy is to be there. Sometimes, aside from death and a hug, when there are other tragedies that are happening, I say to my friend, the time will come and they’re asking questions. The time will come when we’ll sit down and we’ll talk about your questions and we’re going to see what the Bible has to say about it. And frankly, I have some answers, but right now your heart is broken. And any answers that I had will not speak to a broken heart. Sometime, you’re going to be at a place where you need to think and perceive and look at what God is doing, but this is not a good time. So, if your friend lost a loved one, Go to your friend and say, I’m so sorry, if I could fix it, I would, but I’m here. Okay. This is an e-mail question. How are we as Christians to live in a world where lying, cheating, stealing, and adultery have actually become not only the norm, but seemingly acceptable. Well, the first thing you do is that you speak truth. Even when it’s uncomfortable, you speak truth, you speak it kindly and lovingly and you speak it with one provision. Listen, I don’t know anybody who’s worse than I am. I’m a sinner badly in need of God’s grace. But before I can say that to you, I have to know what sin is and what sin isn’t. And I have received unbelievable forgiveness and mercy and grace for my sins. And if you want to know how that works, then let me know. And I will tell you. Guys, we have been prevented in two areas, the first prevented from speaking the truth, we’ve been intimidated by bullies. So, don’t let them do that to you. But secondly, we’ve been intimidated by the Pharisees into pretending that we’re better than we are. So, we don’t have a message for the world that desperately needs it. Do we live in a sinful world? What are you a fruitcake? Of course we are. It’s awful. It’s always been that way and we are a part of it. And the message is God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness. Once we get that, we sometimes even become a little bit better. Hey, I’ve got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.