If you never change your mind, you’re probably dead.

0:00If you never change your mind, you're probably dead. Talk about it on Key Life. 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. Thank you, Matthew. Hope you guys had a great weekend, and I hope your pastor, Sermon, was as good as my pastor, Sermon. We're in the end almost a couple more weeks of a series on the basics of the Christian faith. And this week, and probably next week, and the week after, we're going to talk about the church. And I'm big on the church. And then we're going to talk about the difference it makes when you know the future.

1:05First, let's pray as is our practice, and then we'll study. Father, we come into your presence, rejoicing and surprised that we're here. Father, we didn't earn this. We didn't do a thing to be able to have a pass into the throne room of the universe. We certainly aren't smart enough, and we're not good enough, and we're not faithful enough. But we remember the day when you said you come and you're welcome. And we rejoice in the blood of Christ that gives us a pass into the castle of the king. Father, you know everyone who's listening to this broadcast. Some are going through really difficult times and some are fine.

2:05And you're in charge of both a God who is sovereign and good all the time. Remind us of that often and remind us to run to you because you're sufficient. Father, as always, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast. Forgive him his sins because there are many. We would see Jesus and Him only, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Before we do anything else, I have a confession to make. If you've been listening as we're doing this series, you know that I'm using as a guide, a book I wrote a lot of years ago. It's called Welcome to the Family, a handbook for living the Christian life. Now, last week, I dealt with a subject which was a subject of the book.

3:09The responsibility of the Christian. I read over that chapter and I decided I don't like that at all. I don't like what I've written at all. I sound like a legalist. I sound like I'm beating people over the head with stuff that I'm not even doing. And so I truncated that entire chapter into a couple of days and talked about grace and mercy and the responsibility of the Christian. And I didn't tell you, I did that. So if you have that book, go to that chapter, get a razor blade and cut it out of the book. I have a similar problem with what we're calling around here, the vault. In fact, I want you to hear something.

4:10Whoa, this place is huge! Welcome to the Vault, your home for classic sermons from Steve from the 90s, the 80s, even all the way back to the early 70s. The Vault is a one-of-a-kind online experience where you can explore more than three decades of grace-filled messages. Get the details and check out our free audio sample at keylife.org slash vault. That's keylife.org slash V-A-U-L-T. I'm sorry, I just, but I wanted to give you an idea of what some of the staff have planned here. Now I didn't have anything to do with it. But they decided that they were going to take everything that I've said, and most of the time, if I burp, they were recorded, and they're going to put it in a vault, digitalize it. In fact, the producer of this program is working on that right now.

5:11So all of these sermons and things that I've done over the years are going to be in the vault. And when I tell you that, I win. And let me tell you why, because I've changed my mind. Because over many years, grace was always the center of it. But in the early years, I was very much afraid of the subject. If I tell them what I really believe about radical grace, I'll give them permission to then. So I was one fourth legalist in that time. And I want you to remember that, if you have welcomed to the family as a book, when you get to the chapter on the responsibility of a Christian, don't forget grace and mercy, because it stands at the very heart when you're responsible and when you're not.

6:16And that's the reason I skipped that chapter and said some other things that I had learned over the years. The truth is, God is growing me. I look back over a long life of ministry and teaching and preaching and writing. And I think to myself, I wish I hadn't said that. I wish I'd said that differently. Lord, you've taught me so much. I wish I could go back and fix, visit the churches that I serve, the conferences where I spoke, the books that I wrote. And then I thought, you know, that's a good thing. It's a good thing when God teaches us and grows us. And we become more aware than we ever have been. The gates are saying, the longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows, and that's true.

7:21But the longer I serve Him, the more I see of His grace and mercy, His forgiveness and His kindness. And I thought, I ought to say that, couldn't hurt. You probably ought to get to the main subject, which is the church. I'm a big church guy. And you're thinking you're crazy, especially if you're one of the nuns that's N-O-N-E-S. Those are people who are none of the above. If you've left the church, if you are no longer a part of the church or you're thinking about leaving, you're saying, Steve, are you out of your mind? Listen, I know more negative stuff on the church and of experience more than you will ever know or experience I've been doing as a long time.

8:23I listen to stories of people who have been hurt by the church and I say, I am so sorry. Me too. And that's true. The church is, as Augustine said, a prostitute, but she's my mother. But she's more than that too. She is the wife of Jesus. I have a friend, a colleague of mine, at the seminary where I taught, and he was preaching for chapel, and he said, I was complaining about the church. And Jesus said, be careful, that's my woman, and she is the church is. And because she's all of that, she is the instrument I'm talking about the church, whereby God does amazing and wonderful things always has is right now and will into the

9:29future of eternity, because the church is loved by Jesus. The church is the bride of Christ. The church is the instrument that God has chosen in his sovereignty to use to bring the kingdom. And I know all the problems, but I know the good things too. How many pagans build hospitals? How many atheists feed the hungry? How many unbelievers reach out to their neighbors and prepare food when their neighbors are going through a different time, a difficult time? How many institutions that are not Christian, that you know, that give themselves for others? Basically, that's what the church does. It goes without saying that in the church, there are a lot of turkeys.

10:33In the church, somebody said, I don't want to join any club that would accept me as a member. And I kind of feel that about the church, and you should do, we're not good people getting together and telling each other how good we are, and saying that our mission in the world is to make people good like us, that's not what the church is about. The church is a hospital for people like you and people like me, sinners, great sinners who have a great savior who is Jesus Christ. Hey, you think about that, I mean. The church isn't perfect, but it is loved by Jesus. What a good reminder that is. As Steve mentioned, we are rounding the corner on this teaching series, hey, might be a good time to share it with a friend or relisten to some past episodes.

11:33And we have made it easy to do both, just swing by keylife.org slash family. In the last church I served, I did what everybody said a pastor should do. I left and cut off relationships. Anna and I started attending another church, and I made a point not to contact the people I loved in the church, where I had been the pastor. One Sunday as we drove to church, Anna said, you look sad. What's wrong? I feel lonely. I replied, I feel really lonely. Well, that's from an article by Steve that you can find in the latest keylife magazine. This edition features articles from Steve, Matt Heard, Justin Holcomb, and Barry Smith, plus a whole lot more. And it's yours when you call us at 1-800-Keylife. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at Keylife.org to ask for the magazine, or to mail your request go to Keylife.org slash contact to find our mailing addresses. Just ask for your free copy of Keylife magazine. Finally, would you join in the work of Keylife by giving?

12:34It's easy, just charge a gift on your credit card, or include a gift in your envelope. And of course, you can give by text. Just text Keylife to 28950. That's Keylife 1-2, doesn't matter. Text that to 28950. Keylife is a member of ECFA in the States and 4C in Canada, and Keylife is a listener-supported production of Keylife Network.