Leadership Thought: What I Learned about Grace from a 50-Year-Old Sermon by Steve Brown

Dear Friends,

One of my favorite preachers is Steve Brown who was formerly a pastor at the Key 
Biscayne Presbyterian church in Key Biscayne Florida, Steve is an author, speaker, and now a seminary professor.

If you have ever heard Steve on the radio, you will never forget his voice as he was a radio disc jockey before he got saved.

I have always loved his teaching, and for a number of years I received his weekly sermons which I carefully  filed away.

Recently I have been re-reading his expositional messages on 1 Peter. which he taught in 1974. I have each of some 25 messages (hand typed and mimeographed-that dates me) that he taught 50 years ago. 

To provide you with a flavor, I share with you a part of a message he taught on "Helpful Hints for Holiness" (Part 2) October 27, 1974."

Steve writes, "The Christian view of sin is a radical view. Jeremiah 17:9, goes against the American folk religion. it says the heart is deceitful above all things." 

The Christian view of God's grace is a radical view. 

Ephesians 2: 8,9. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God... not because of works, lest any man should boast."

"The central theme of the Bible is that God has done it all... that there is nothing you can do to achieve your salvation. You can't be good, or pure, or righteous, or loving, or kind enough; you can't promise God on a stack of bibles that you'll be the finest father coming down the pike. You can't do any of those things, because your salvation is totally, absolutely free."

"The Christian desires to live a holy life not for salvation, but to please the one who, in spite of his radical sin, acted with radical grace. In other words, we try to be good, holy, set apart, different, righteous, not so that God will love us. He already loves us. We do it so that we might please the One who loves us so much." 

Steve writes, "In Pittsburgh this week, the pastor was talking about a friend, and he was trying to illustrate a point, and his son was sitting in the congregation. 

He said, " Robert, stand up." The boy almost died, but he stood up. 

The pastor said " Robert, are you my son?"

And Robert said, "Yes, dad, of course I am your son."

And the pastor said, "Robert, are you always doing the right thing?"

Robert grinned and said, "You know, daddy, I don't do the right thing all of the time."

And the father said, "Do I love you when you do the wrong thing?"

Robert said, "Of course you do, dad."

The father asked, "When you do the wrong things, are you no longer my son?"

The boy smiled and said, "Of course not, dad."

And his dad said, "Do you ever lose your sonship because of the wrong things you do?" 

Robert said, "Of course not."

"Then son, what you must do, since you are so secure in your sonship with me, is to go out and do all kinds of bad things."

And the son broke in, "Oh no, dad, I couldn't do that."

The father asked, "Why not?" 

The boy paused a moment and then said, "Because, dad, you know I love you."

Steve had it right. We love and continue to love because He first loved us.

Holiness is our goal, because God has called to be holy, but even when we fail to be what He has called us to be, He still loves us, and it is that love that keeps us coming back to him.

God's grace is the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world. We can't earn it. We don't deserve it. It's abundant and never runs. And even when we abuse and ignore His grace, we find Him standing on the front porch, scanning the horizon, always looking and longing for his prodigal child to return home. 

Now that's Good News!

Yours in faith and friendship,