“Should I pray like David?”

Steve Brown:
Should I pray like David? The answer to that or other questions on this edition of Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Life’s hard for everyone, so grace is for all of us. But there is a lot of confusion about how grace applies to real life. So here’s seminary professor and author, Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson to answer your questions.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hello Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
How you doing man? Are you preaching this week-end?

Steve Brown:
This pandemic is really cutting into my schedule.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
I was talking to Buddy Greene the other day. And, his pastor was in the automobile accident and died and he was going through a tough Sunday. But as some of, you know, Buddy is a Nashville recording artist and travels with us pretty much and a friend of years. But he said Nashville was a very dark place because of pandemic because musicians and their gigs have been cut back. Their travel’s been cut back. They haven’t been able to do concerts. And he said, it’s just now beginning to get them back. Same with me, in terms of preaching. And I suspect your travel too.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Right. I’ve got a couple coming up, but that’s it, one’s a wedding and one’s a seminar, but it hasn’t been much.

Steve Brown:
Well, I went to the, you know, to the Billy Graham Center this summer.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And I go up there. But, you know, I’m different than you, you like to travel and see the world and meet people. And I don’t, I don’t want to go to the drug store. I just want people to leave me alone. That’s Pete Alwinson and I’ve told you a thousand times. So listen to me this time, go to a www.ForgeTruth.com and you will be amazed at the teaching that you will find there. And if you are in the central Florida, there are three different, that’s right, right?

Pete Alwinson:
Yes sir.

Steve Brown:
Three different men’s meetings in different areas of the city. And, you would rise up and call me blessed for telling you about it, if you want to be a part of it. Go to www.ForgeTruth.com check out the times and the places and try it out. See what happens. You might be surprised. As you know, Pete comes in and we answer questions on Fridays. And we love to get your questions. And I really mean that, we take you and your question seriously. You can pick up the phone 1-800-KEY-LIFE dial it anytime, and record your question. And sometimes we put that on the air. You can write to

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

In Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
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Or you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And if he can help us financially and you’ll get three free sins, well, that’s not good. If you don’t, you’ll get that fever and die. Both of those statements are manipulative and I don’t want them to be, if you can pray about it, help us. If you can’t, say a prayer. Oh. And by the way, if you want to give, you can do it on your phone now. Text Key Life at 28950 that’s 28950 and follow the instructions. Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and we’ll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Alright. Our great God, we come to you this week-end and just are so thankful that we can come in prayer. And for just a second, we come into your presence and we ask that you would continue the process of developing us as your children, but help us right now just to enjoy the fact that all week you have been large and in charge. You are God, there’s no limit to who you are, you’re loving, you’re gracious. And we’ve seen so much of your powerful grace in our lives this week. We thank you for things that didn’t come the way we wanted them to come into our lives. We thank you for how you turn bad to good, how you turn many situations into opportunities that we never imagined to spread your name. And so, we thank you for who you are, but Lord, we have needs and you know them, the bills that need to be paid, the relationships that need to be restored, the direction that we need to get in our life for decisions that have to be made. We seek your face, open your word to us, Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us and lead us even this week-end in worship and be with our leaders who will bring us into your presence. And now we commit this time of Q&A to you and ask that you would be honored and glorified in it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. This is an e-mail, Pete. This is a good question. I read a Psalm daily and during my devotions, it occurred to me just how open and genuine David was with God. But, and he or she puts in, but duh. David was way before the crucifixion and the resurrection. So, how did David come to think that he could so freely go to the Father, so boldly in prayer. I’m so grateful he did, the Psalms are a great source of comfort, and make our own prayers easier by praying them back to the Father when we are in times of great emotion.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. That, that was great. That is a very great comment. And it’s true.

Steve Brown:
Oh. It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
How do you account for the fact that pre Christ, he had such a genuine, easy approach to God?

Steve Brown:
Because it’s the same God and the same teaching. Believe it or not, nothing is taught in the New Testament, that at least partially is not taught in the Older Testament. We have this dichotomy that there’s the Old Testament with a mean God and the New Testament, where there’s this nice God. That’s from the pit of hell. It’s just not true. And you know, you read something like Hosea 11 and the facets of God’s love, you begin to see, or you look at the day of atonement, Yom Kippur. You begin to see the sacrifice, the understanding of sin, God’s patience, his compassion, his forgiveness, and David knew he needed that, and better more than most people cause he had enough power to do some really bad things. So, he knew, and I think he had an intimate relationship with God. And it’s the same intimate relationship that this person who wrote the e-mail, senses also when they go to Psalms.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. So what you’re saying between the lines, you’re saying that David probably had a more balanced Old Testament faith and relationship to God then we see commonly put forth. And, you know, you think about him out in wilderness areas at night with the sheep alone and how he cultivated that. So, in another sense, he not only knew who God was, but he cultivated that relationship with him. And, we can learn so much as this brother, sister brings up.

Steve Brown:
And he’s called a man after God’s own heart.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And when you use the word heart, in the Scripture, you’re not talking about mine, you’re talking about something that’s far deeper, more emotional, and more total than just the mind. His heart was bent in the right direction. And he knew God, not as the sovereign Creator, Ruler and Sustainer of everything. He of course knew that, but he knew him as Father.

Pete Alwinson:
As a covenant Father, a covenant God. Yes.

Steve Brown:
You might know, you might say he knew Jesus. He didn’t just know his name, didn’t just know his name.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. And I love that. And he’s a good model for us. Of course, he is also a type of Christ to come. And so he models so much for us.

Steve Brown:
That right. I hadn’t thought about that. Right on. Yeah. That’s true. Good question. I have a question about the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. When the Prodigal returned to his father, all was given back to him, including a future inheritance. In Luke 15:31, the father tells the older son everything I have is yours. Do you believe the younger son received an additional inheritance?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, you know, it seems to me when he says, when the father says, everything I have is yours. Basically, he’s saying, Hey, listen, you’re here with me now. And you always have been, you didn’t run away. And, and so everything I have practically speaking is yours. I mean, these cattle, this food, this land, everything, it’s all ours. It’s all yours, now. Don’t bemoan the fact that I’m being generous to your brother. That’s kind of how I look at that.

Steve Brown:
You’re right on. And, you know, the economy of God is counter intuitive too. You know, the question kind of implies that if I were his father, you spent it Buster, it’s gone, deal with it.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
But that’s not, I mean, the whole radical nature of the Prodigal Son is unbelievable.

Pete Alwinson:
It really is. And it reminds me of the Pauline text that says, out of the riches of God’s grace.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
In other words, God has never diminished as he is generous to us.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
And, that as modeled in the Father.

Steve Brown:
That’s so good. That’s it. And it really is. And that story that Jesus taught was supposed to and was designed for just the kind of question that was asked. I mean, we look at it and we’re puzzled. How could he do that? What is, he doesn’t have that much money. He can’t just be free and easy with it, but that was the point that Jesus was making. And I’m, I don’t know about you, but I’m glad.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, Tim Keller’s book, The Prodigal God.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, how in a sense, how wasteful God is in giving his generosity. That is the idea, how generous.

Steve Brown:
So good. Listen, this is, we answer it a number of times, so we can keep it fairly short. But can salvation be lost? If the Holy Spirit stops pursuing an unsaved person, can they still accept God’s grace, or is it too late? Why is there such division between church and theologians on eternal security, when it is arguably the most important aspect of the Bible?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Interesting, well key doctrines cause that kind of conflict, but account salvation cannot be lost. It’s a gift. It’s sealed in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, in our view, we can’t lose something that was given and sealed in us.

Steve Brown:
And those who are theologically minded, who would not accept what you just said. Certainly do not think, if you can lose your salvation, that you can lose it easily. You know, they think that others can lose their salvation, but they can’t lose theirs. So, they’re close to the truth, they just need to come the whole way. And say, absolutely God does not get rid of his own. And he never does that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Well, and I’m glad, I’m glad that he holds us and holds us very, very close.

Steve Brown:
Alright. We have about 35 seconds. There’s no way, we’re going to answer a question. And you want to sing for us.

Pete Alwinson:
And you know, and we’ve, we basically made a decision that singing was out on this program. This is, this is not an AM radio station, in that respect.

Steve Brown:
I would ask you to close in prayer, but I know you you’ll pray for the missionaries and you’ll go overtime.

Pete Alwinson:
I will go overtime. It’s just not even possible. Ask a pastor to preach. He’s going to go over.

Steve Brown:
Well, we filled that time adequately. And we’re outta here. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.