June 30, 2024, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Lord, tonight we want to say thank you for your presence, for the gift of the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the gift of one another.
These dear and precious people in this room with us, Lord, who carry you and who were created in your image and likeness and have been set apart, saved, sanctified, filled with your spirit, and reflect you, and together we reflect your body.
So we thank you for that.
Lord, release your gifts tonight, that your body would be edified and that we would leave this building more like Jesus than when we came in.
Thank you for scriptures. Thank you that you inspired a book so that we could dive in and hear your voice. We pray for biblical transformation, not just biblical information. And we pray you would open our eyes and our hearts to you tonight.
We love the church, God, the whole church, the big part, the little part, the real part, which is the person next to us. That’s the church.
It’s not some vague, ambiguous thing. It’s that person sitting to your right and to your left. And we love the church, and we’re thankful for it. And, Lord, let us love one another and magnify you. In so doing, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
All right, dear ones, we’re going through the Bible chronologically. We’re in the prophets. Prophets are tough sledding. I know I’ve said it a few times in the Old Testament. You know, Leviticus, tough sledding. Prophets can be tough sledding. Here’s why. The prophets are tough sledding, all right?
The prophets are tough sledding because the prophets basically are covenant lawyers. What do I mean by that? God made a covenant with Israel. And the covenant, you can read about it. It’s Deuteronomy. It’s in Exodus, Leviticus. God makes covenant with Israel. And basically, the covenant just lays down these stipulations and says, all right, I delivered you out of Egypt. I’ve chosen you to be my people.
So the covenant starts with grace, right? Covenant doesn’t start with a bunch of rules. Covenant starts already with the amazing acts of a merciful, saving God.
I delivered you out of Egypt. In fact, if you read the Ten Commandments, it says, I am the Lord your God, who delivered you out of Egypt.
Oh, okay, then the Ten Commandments are the. So what? So here’s how you dance with me. Here’s how you live in relationship with me. That’s the covenant.
And he went to Israel a couple times with Moses, twice with Joshua, went to Israel and said, you guys good with this? And of course, Israel said, yeah, we’re all in. We’re all in. We’re signing up with the covenant.
And then for the rest of their history, they break the covenant. And God doesn’t even hold them accountable for the little things.
All the prophets come and they say, look at you, made this covenant with Yahweh, and you’re burning your kids alive to Baalje. You’re prostituting yourselves to these foreign gods, these idols. And behind these idols are demonic powers. You’re prostituting yourselves and selling yourselves to them.
I told you that you were to be a people unto me, not like the other nations.
And all you do is run after the other nations and try to be like the other nations. I told you several times that if you do that, I will abandon you and hand you over to the other nations.
That’s what the prophets say. They say it poetically, they say it graphically, they say it with word pictures. I mean, they say it with actual actions in history, as we’ll see tonight as we look at Hosea. And that’s what the prophets do.
And people say, well, you know, I got this gal that I correspond with on social media. She comments on my stuff, and she’s an atheist or something like that. I try to be a good Christian, and she said, I think Jesus is real cool, but Yahweh in the Old Testament, he’s just a jerk, you know, and all that.
It’s like, no, no. A thousand years. A thousand years, these covenant lawyers come and say, hey, you know what, guys? Yahweh wants to tell you something. A thousand years, they break covenant.
I think I told you guys last week in my house, it wasn’t a thousand years. It was one, two, three, right? Anybody get the one, two, three as a kid? So, you know, it’s not a thousand. God’s a thousand years.
And so here, one of the earliest prophets is the prophet Hosea, and he’s a prophet in the northern kingdom, Israel. And they’re the first of the two kingdoms that gets exiled. They get exiled in 722 BC by the Assyrians. And Hosea says, the Assyrians are coming to exile you. And here’s the illustration.
God wants you to see why this is happening. He says, Hosea, marry a prostitute. Marry a promiscuous woman. In fact, I’ll read it for you, Hosea 1:1-2:1.
1 The Lord gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri during the years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. 2 When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.” 3 So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son. 4 And the Lord said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence. 5 I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.” (Hosea 1:1-5, NLT)
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And that’s exactly what happened. The Assyrians broke their power in the Jezreel Valley.
6 Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah—‘Not loved’—for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. 7 But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies—not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God.” 8 After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son. 9 And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi—‘Not my people’—for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God. (Hosea 1:6-9, NLT)
That’s bad news. Those are three curses. You’re going down in the valley of Jezreel. Judgment’s coming. You’re no longer loved. You’re not my people.
But then, right here in verse ten, it turns right around and says,
10 “Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore—too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.‘ 11 Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be—the day of Jezreel —when God will again plant his people in his land. (Hosea 1:10-11, NLT)
1 “In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’ (Hosea 2:1, NLT)
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, our strength, and our redeemer.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalms 19:14, NLT)
All right, Jezreel. These three children get these terrible names, these prophetic acts, and Jezreel is the first. The whole point of Hosea is that he marries a prostitute, he marries an unfaithful woman. It’s a picture of Israel chasing after other gods, not being faithful to Yahweh.
The first son, the name is Jezreel. Jezreel is the place of bloodshed and injustice in the Old Testament.
It’s a place of bloodshed and injustice. The first story of Jezreel is when wicked King Ahab and his wife Jezebel conspire against a simple man, Naboth, just a simple farmer.
The rich, powerful king, who has all sorts of land and all sorts of prosperity and all sorts of riches, wants Naboth’s vineyard. Well, Naboth’s vineyard is his family’s vineyard, and it’s not his to give away. First of all, the Lord, that’s his inheritance, and that goes to his children, and that’s his vineyard. And Ahab wants it. And he tries to make a deal.
He says, sell me your vineyard. I’ll give you another one. And Naboth says, no, this is my family’s inheritance. In Israel, kings just can’t do that.
Well, Jezebel doesn’t understand that. She’s not of Yahweh. She’s a foreign wife. So Jezebel says, what are you doing, Ahab? You’re the king. You can take whatever you want. She devises this plot to frame Naboth as a blasphemer of God and get him killed. Ahab then takes his vineyard. It is a bloody, treacherous act of the powerful, perpetrating injustice on the vulnerable.
And King Ahab takes the land. And the prophet Elijah comes to Ahab and says, God saw that. Dear ones, I got news for you. God saw that. God saw that. What nobody else saw, what you thought you did in secret, what you thought you did behind closed doors, God saw that, all right. His eyes don’t miss anything. He saw that.
And Elijah comes to Ahab and says, God saw that. And you’re going to lose your kingdom. Jezebel is going to be killed. They’re not even going to be able to bury her.
Before they bury her, the dogs are going to eat her. Happened. Your family line is going to come to an end.
And then Jehu is commissioned to do the work. And Jehu faithfully executes God’s judgment on Jezebel and on Ahab’s family. It was actually the armies that finished off Ahab. But Jehu comes in and he does the rest.
But then Jehu doesn’t stop. Jehu now has power.
And instead of honoring Yahweh as putting him in that position, what Jehu does is he begins to massacre everyone, as kings often would do in those days who appeared to be a threat to him. Everyone who appeared to be a threat to him, he began to kill.
And it was just the beginning of Jehu’s reign. In fact, Jehu’s whole reign was nothing but blood and violence. And so the valley of Jezreel is a valley of injustice and a valley of violence.
And God is saying, because of your injustice, Israel, there is going to come violence upon you in the valley of Jezreel, and you will be taken away.
And then the second child is not loved, Israel, not loved anymore. Now we have to understand the word love. In our culture, when we say the word love, we immediately jump to feelings, right? I just love somebody. You know, all of our media is about being, what, young and in love, falling in love.
And frankly, I remember when Jill and I fell in love. I loved that.
I loved the way she looked at me, you know, it was just great. But that’s not what love is. That’s not the deepest meaning of love. The deepest meaning of love isn’t falling in love.
By the way, when you’re 16, 17, 18, falling in love is not hard. It’s not hard. It’s pretty easy to do, all right, you know, it’s pretty easy. But 43 years of marriage, 50 years of marriage, that’s love. That’s love.
My wife has often said the difference between cute and annoying is time, right? She used to think things I did were cute.
She was highly structured, deeply organized, didn’t like mess, liked things in their place. Who made her the goddess of what places things belong, you know? This drives me nuts. Where’d you put that? I put it in its place. Oh, I’m sorry, high priest of placeness. I thought its place was where I left it.
Forty-three years, we haven’t resolved that one. So anyway. But she looked at me and said, you know, I could be a little more relaxed, I could be a little more kicked back. I need this in my life.
And I was completely relaxed and kicked back. I averaged going to school three out of five days a week. I mean, the beach was close, it was California, the sun was out. Why go to school?
You know, any teachers? You know, there’s always the kid that gets this lecture all the time, right? This was the lecture I always got. I wasn’t ADHD, I wasn’t like, oh, if you just sit still. I wasn’t that kid. I wasn’t the bully. Why are you picking on people? I was the kid that got this lecture. If you only. What?
Applied yourself? I said, I am applying myself. I’m applying myself to basketball. I’m applying myself to chasing girls. I’m applying myself to rock concerts. I’m applying myself to smoking marijuana. I got lots of things I’m putting my efforts into, just not trigonometry.
So I was applying myself, but I looked at Jill and I thought, you know, here’s a straight A student. She studies hard. She shows up for work on time. She follows all the rules, and you know, she’s beautiful. And I could use a little order in my life. That’s falling in love.
A few years into marriage, she’s thinking, mister laid back. I could use a little laid back, relaxed in my life. That boy’s a lazy pig. And I’m thinking, this woman’s a Nazi who keeps hiding my stuff. That’s love.
But here’s what the Bible says. Love is the active interest on behalf of another. All right? When you love somebody, you are actively pursuing their best. There could be feelings involved, there could be not feelings involved, but you are actively doing your best not for your behalf, but for their behalf. That’s love. All right.
03:00 in the morning. The child needs. The baby needs to be fed. You don’t get out of bed because you’re hungry. You get out of bed because the baby’s hungry and you feed the baby. That’s love.
When God says, Israel, you’re not loved. He’s saying, what? I’m leaving you to your own devices. You wanted the baals, have them. It’s a scary thing. Romans says that. Romans 1 says, so God gave them over. That’s what happens with Pharaoh. God says to Pharaoh, oh, you’re not going to serve me?
You’re going to throw my babies into the Nile River. Then I will use you by hardening your heart. I’ll give you over. In other words, I will stop actively pursuing your best.
I can’t think of anything more scary than to not be loved by God. It’s very interesting. In the prophets, the definition of love as affection shows up. God never loses his affection for Israel. He says things like, this breaks my heart, but I’m turning you over.
Parents sometimes have to do that, you know? We call it tough love, right?
My friend I talked about earlier with the strong-willed daughter, he was a terror himself. At 18 years old, his mother was a wonderful woman, beautiful Christian woman, terrific lady. And he was just. He was just an out-of-control wild boy.
On his 18th birthday, he got out of bed probably hungover, and he gets up and what he sees on the front door is a suitcase packed. His mother didn’t say, “I didn’t love you,” but she said, I love you dearly, but our family can’t live this way.
Bye. He says the best thing ever happened to him because it shocked him. Like what? There are consequences for my behavior. Israel, God will turn you over and then you lose your identity.
The last child wo ami. You’re not my people. You had this special privilege of all the nations on the earth, that the one true God had chosen you to be a reflection to the rest of the world of his nature, of his power, to be his source of light in a dark world.
You had that one special privilege, and you’re throwing that identity away, and it’s just so sad. You’re going to be judged. God’s going to leave you over to your own devices, and you’re losing your identity as the people of God.
And then in an instant, it changes. It turns around and says, but wait, there’s going to come a day when the place of Jezreel will be redeemed. It won’t be a place of injustice and bloodshed. It’ll be a place of mass population of who? People who are loved by God.
And once again, the people of God. And this is what the prophets do. The prophets prophesy doom and gloom, but not ultimate doom and gloom. The only place in the Bible where there is judgment that is not ultimately intended to bring mercy is the very end. The lake of fire. It’s the only place.
Every other place there’s judgment. The desire of the heart of God is that people would turn and walk in covenant relationship with him because he is rich. Listen, Psalm 16: You have shown me the path of life.
In your presence is the fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. We sang it tonight. For you are good, for you are good, for you are good to me.
Well, why does God judge people? Because there is no goodness outside of him. Don’t ask. C.S. Lewis says, don’t ask for peace and happiness apart from God. There is no such thing. He is peace and happiness. He is goodness, he is love, he is light.
And when we walk out of covenant relationship with him, when we think we have a better plan and we use our independence and our freedom to rebel against God, it is only pain, suffering, and misery.
And so he tries to fence us in and hem us in and bring us back. And he says to Israel, there’s going to come a day when there’s going to be a leader that’s going to rise. And in every prophet, there is this messianic hope, this hope of this day. Some prophets barely hint of it.
Prophets like Isaiah are all over it. But it’s never just clearly specific. It’s always veiled. And as we studied Michael Heiser’s book, we realized he’s hiding it from the powers and principalities, from the spiritual forces of wickedness that are behind all these idols.
And what’s going on is a battle, a battle for humanity, a battle for the souls of men and women, a battle for planet earth, a battle for the universe. And God says, listen, there’s going to come a day when there’s going to come a leader, and all this is going to turn around.
The places that were, places of injustice and violence are going to be places of gathering and peace and joy. And the people who are called not loved. God is going to again turn his affection and his attention to them, and they will be loved.
And the people who are not my people are going to become once again my people. They’re going to get their identity restored. And if you want to read Hosea, the two places in Hosea where this, I’m not going to read them tonight, but read Hosea 11 and Hosea 14.
Those are the prophetic promise places in Hosea where he talks about this coming messiah. All right. And those are the places of hope.
And dear ones, there is hope. And I want to spell to you, I want to teach you tonight how to spell hope. J e s u s. Hope has a name. That’s the leader. That’s the hope. That’s the one who transforms places of violence and bloodshed and injustice into places, into valleys of prosperity and peace and abundance.
That’s the one who takes the not loved and brings them under the care and the attention of God. And they are loved.
That’s the one who takes people without identity and gives them new identity. Jesus is the answer. Jesus is who the prophets are pointing to. They don’t even know it. They know a messiah is coming. They know God’s got something big in store. And God gives them these words, and they speak these words.
I don’t think they knew what their words meant, but they knew something’s up with Yahweh. And this judgment isn’t the final answer.
And so Jesus brings justice. How does Jesus bring justice? He pays for our sins. He pays for our sins.
Listen, there’s stuff that I’ve done that I can’t undo, right? There’s not enough apologies. There’s not enough restitution. I’ve hurt people. I’ve hurt people that. And sadly, this is how it works, right? You hurt the people closest to you. You hurt the people you love the most.
I’m a joker, I’m a kidder, I’m a teaser, and I think most of that.
I wish 100% of it would be heard and received as family familial love because that’s its intention. But I don’t realize the context of families that people grow up in.
And there have been times in my little joking and teasing and kidding that that has not been interpreted as familial love, but as an attack. And it breaks my heart. And that’s why I pray every Sunday.
You may not believe I pray this. You may think this prayer needs to work better, but I pray every Sunday.
Set a guard over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips. Let my words be a blessing from heaven, not a curse from hell.
I’ve said things to my kids. I’ve said things to my wife. You’ve all done this, right? You’ve all done this. You’ve all almost seen the words coming out of your mouth. And as they’re coming out of your mouth, you’re going, no, come back.
As the words are coming out of my mouth, I’m looking at my wife’s face and I’m thinking, this will not end well.
That was not the right thing to say. And it’s like, no mulligans. You don’t get a mulligan on that. You don’t get a take back. You can even say, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, which is good. That’s a good thing to say.
But you know what? It would have been way better had you not said it and then said, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.
And dear ones, I got a confession to make. All that I just said, I’ve done, I’ve done.
I know some of you have never said a foolish or hurtful thing in your life, but I have. I have. I cannot do it. In fact, I was really mean as a young boy, before I met Christ. I was sarcastic. I was the king of the cut, and I was funny. And so everybody else would laugh, except maybe the one kid that was the target.
And with all my heart, I wish I could go back to every one of those kids and just say, oh, man, I am so sorry. I can’t.
And I got to stand before God, but here’s what God’s going to say. Yeah, I was wrong, Kev. I forgive you.
I just watched season four, episode two of The Chosen. Spoiler alert. Should I do it? Okay, I won’t do it. But it’s about forgiveness. It’s about forgiveness. It’s great. It’s a great scene about forgiveness.
All right. Jesus says on the cross, it is finished. He says, your sins are forgiven. What you can’t make right, he’s made right. What you can’t undo, he has covered. The other way he brings justice is through just people.
He brings justice on earth. You might think, oh, man, there’s so many problems on earth. Politics are so corrupt. You know, everything’s, everything’s wrong. Well, you watch the news and that’s the feeling you get.
I gotta tell you, the world’s a much better place than it was 2000 years ago. You did not want to live in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. Women, you did not want to live in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago.
Men, unless you were one of the few men that were free, man, definitely you did not want to live in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. You were a slave. All right? It was not a good life for the vast majority of the population.
And besides that, they didn’t have hot showers and indoor plumbing. They didn’t have baseball, Mick. Yeah. Who would want to live before baseball? So it was rough.
The world’s better. I’ll tell you why the world’s better. Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
And ever since that time, the goodness of his kingdom has been spreading over the earth. And people who have been infused with the spirit of God imperfectly, yes, with many mistakes and failings, yes, have been expanding justice and goodness on the earth. They’ve been expanding justice and goodness on the earth.
All right. You know, we get so wrapped up in the history, it’s like, oh, you know, I’ve endured this and my ancestors endured this. My ancestors endured that. They did. But you know what? You didn’t. Why didn’t you? Because things have changed.
Why did they change? Because God’s at work. God’s at work. Jesus brings justice everywhere there’s an advancement.
And I’ve said this before, and it maybe is a little controversial, but even in politics, even in what we call our culture war, both sides are basically arguing from Christian premises. Some of those arguments, in fact, I think in many cases, both sides of those arguments are often distorted Christian, but they start with Christian premises.
You can give me any culture war argument, and I think I can articulate the side that I don’t agree with and say, but I get where they’re coming from. From a Christian point of view, I get it. I think it’s wrong. I think they’ve twisted it, but I get it.
Why is that? Because Jesus rose from the dead, the goodness of the Lord is advancing on the earth, and guess why? It’s because of you. You’re part of the solution. Before, you were part of the problem.
Before, with my mean-spirited, sarcastic talk, I was a part of the problem. But now that I pray, set a guard over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips, and let my words come from heaven, not from hell, I think, on balance, I’m a part of the solution.
I think I bring more words of encouragement than cursing people. I need an amen here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I didn’t want to look up and say people. I didn’t want to look up, and people say, you know, it’s about 50-50.
Kevin, come on, help me out here. Help a poor boy out. Help a poor boy out. All right. Thank you, Kathleen. I mean, I’m not as good as you. I’m not as encouraging as you or as humble. Listen.
And in the end, he brings ultimate justice. In the end, he brings ultimate justice. And we’ll all be able to go, okay? My wife and Stevin will be able to go, okay? The scales are balanced. It is good. It is good. It is.
Well, all you justice lovers out there, all right? You’ll be able to go.
Thank you, God. I’ve told you, my wife is such a justice lover. Oh, my gosh. I. She. Oh, she just hates when people do bad things. She hates when people steal and hurt people. It’s like, why do they do that, Kevin? And she loves it when they get caught. She really does. She’s like a 911 call, man. We caught the bad guys tonight. It was so great. We caught the bad guys.
And I think I’ve told you this before. She loves it when the bad guys get caught and they try to run away from the police dogs and get bit. That’s how much of a justice lover she is.
She’s like, did you have a good night, honey? Oh, yeah. There’s this idiot who, you know, stole from this store, and he ran away. The cop said they had a dog, and he kept running. She said, I had to call for medical aid for a dog bite. And then she kind of giggles.
It scares me a little bit, I gotta tell you. It scares me a little bit. You know when she says, I want a dog? Maybe not. Maybe not. Yeah, I know. I don’t want to. I don’t want. How about a cat? Cats are. Cats are dogs. Dogs are, you know, so much better. But cats are a lot less maintenance. There are a lot less maintenance. And, you know, so I tell you, here’s what I want. Here’s what I just want.
These have been.
The four words have been the reality of my household for a number of years. And they’re just wonderful words. They are beautiful, heavenly, terrific, great words. Four words. No pets, no kids.
Honey, you want to go? Sure, let’s go. We don’t have to board anything. We don’t have to find a babysitter. We don’t have to pay somebody to watch our children or watch our dog or our cat. We just go, no pets, no kids.
Grandkids come over. They’re great kids on loan. They’re fun. They make me so happy when they come over.
And then their parents come and take them away, and they make me happy again. It’s great.
But Jesus will judge all creation. There will be justice, and history will end as we know it, and eternal history will begin. And you may think it’ll be terrible that, you know, people are cast into the lake of fire and demons, but I got to tell you something. Nobody at the end of the day will ever be able to say to God that was not fair. God will always do the right thing.
Now, many, every single one of us in this room are going to be able to say to God that was merciful. God will never be less than fair. But God, in many cases, will be more than fair.
You know, I’ve heard people say, boy, I want God to be fair. I’m thinking, no, thank you. God, I want you to be fair with me. No, God. I know what I’m going to say. God, I want you to be merciful to me. I don’t want to get what I deserve. I want to get what Jesus deserves.
And that’s the exchange, right? That’s what he gives you. All right. Jesus brings love, not loved. Now you’re loved. We’re not left to our own devices.
There is no single act in history that more clearly says humanity is not left to its own devices than Christmas, the incarnation of the Son of God. God became flesh. How more can he say you’re not left to your own devices? He’s not a deistic God who wound up the universe and said, go for it. He is a God who is actively involved.
He came to seek and save the lost. He loves the world. He has not given up on the world. God became a man. That would be like you owning an ant farm. Anybody as a kid ever own an ant farm?
All right, did you, Sydney, see, one of the things I really like about you is you are just so curious. I love your curiosity. You know, he gave it a whirl. You gave it a whirl. But suppose you had this ant farm. You absolutely loved your ant farm and your ant farm. You actually.
It wasn’t in one of those little glass cages. You actually had trained the ants to live in your backyard, and they never came in the house. You had this nice ant hill, and you just would go out and look at your ants every day. You loved your ants.
Then you discovered that from the local zoo, a giant predatory anteater had escaped and was heading in your direction. You wanted to warn the ants: go deep. Get away. Save yourselves. Destruction is coming. The anteater is coming. And so you just.
You’re above the ant farm and you’re just yelling, hey, hey, it’s coming. It’s coming. Get away. You know, hideous. The anteater’s coming. It’s terrible. And the ants just ignore you. He’s saying, how am I going to communicate with these ants? You think, I know I’ll become an ant.
That’s the incarnation. God became one of us. To say, hey, you’re headed the wrong way. Follow me. Turn around. Repent. And we said, oh, thank you. We’ll kill you now. And he said, I’ll even turn that around.
God has not actively given us over. He loves us.
He proves he loves us because he is still actively involved in history and actively involved in our lives.
You know what? If you ever read the Bible and you’re troubled by what it says, that’s great. That means God hasn’t given up on you yet.
I always tell people, people say, pastor, I’m concerned that I’ve committed the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And I said, the fact that you’re concerned about it is proof that you haven’t. It’s proof that you haven’t. Your conscience is still alive.
Any activity of the Holy Spirit in your life, anytime the Bible speaks to you, anytime you hear the voice, anytime God acts and answers your prayer and the coincidences and details of your life, God is saying this: My Holy Spirit is my guarantee, my deposit of my love, and the constant reminder that I am still.
What? I have not turned you over to your own devices. I am actively engaged in your life. He loves you, and he loves you to the point of death, even death on a cross. Even his enemies. Father, forgive them.
The ones who sped on me, the ones who are mocking me, the ones who beat me with the whip, the ones who slapped me and placed the crown of thorns on my head, the ones who took the hammer and nails and drove them through my flesh. Those, Father, those. Forgive them, Father.
Even at this point of agony, death, torture, and humiliation, I will not withdraw my active love from them. The love of God is demonstrated in Jesus Christ, and then he fills us with the spirit of love. Listen, you’re changed.
You’re better because God lives in you. I know I’m better because God lives in me. Because I know what I was, and I know I ain’t much. But I’m better. I’m better. I’m more like Jesus. Amen.
To what? I’m not much or I’m better? Okay, both. You could say both. That’d be fine. All right. I pray that man. I pray when I pray that we’d be more like Jesus when we walk out that door. When we walk in. That’s not a cute prayer. That’s honest. Why would we do this if that wasn’t our goal?
Why would we give up an hour and a half of our Sunday night when we could be watching sports or napping if we didn’t want to be more like Jesus?
I want to be more like Jesus so bad. So good. What’s the best word to use there? So much. The only problem is I know it involves suffering. I don’t want to suffer. But guess what? If I don’t want to be like Jesus, that also involves suffering. So might as well. If you’re going to suffer, might as well make some ground on it, right?
But he fills us with the spirit of love.
One of the ways I know Jesus is in me is when I want to be vindictive, I hear a voice that says, don’t be vindictive. When I don’t want to forgive somebody, I hear a voice that says, forgive them anyway. When I don’t want to serve, I hear a voice and say, do what needs to be done and serve. I hear that voice, and it’s counter my flesh, and I realize that’s the spirit of love.
That’s God calling me out of my own selfishness, my own pettiness, my own smallness into his bigness, into his heart.
And here’s the thing: actually, in those things that oftentimes I don’t want to do is actually the place where I find joy, right? And in my selfishness is actually the place where I find that didn’t. That wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.
So he fills us with the spirit of love, and finally, Jesus makes us family. He gives us a new identity. Oh, my gosh. Can I say that? That’s a replacement word.
Oh, my goodness. Are we living in a culture that is desperate for identity? I mean, we try to get our identity by our gender, by our lack of gender, by our ethnicity, by who we want to have sex with, by what political values we align ourselves with.
You know what’s the most important thing about you? I’m gay, I’m trans, I’m republican, I’m Democrat, I’m black, I’m white. No, no. What does God say? God says to all those who believe on him, he has given the right to be what? Children of God, your family.
That’s where identity. You know why we’re in a culture that’s desperate for identity? Because we’re a culture that has lost family. That’s where you get your identity, right? As a. In the natural. That’s where you get your identity, right?
My family knows. My sisters know who I. Oh, that’s Kevin. And they know. They got all sorts of stories about Kevin. I got all sorts of stories about my sisters. We have identity in our family, all right? I. Your kids have identity, right? You could sit around. In fact, I was over at last week, Jamie.
I was over at your house, and Steven was showing pictures, and I saw some great pictures of Sydney and Sophia as babies that I would think would make great blackmail material at any future date. But anyway, I got to see all those pictures, girls.
Well, Sydney was there. She saw me anyway. But that’s identity, Manda. That’s identity. Yeah. And dad jokes. Why is there such a thing as dad jokes? Because there’s identity. There’s identity. Dads do those kind of jokes. And, you know, we get around for holidays and people just. Oh, yeah, that’s so mom.
Oh, that’s so dad. Oh, that’s so this. That’s so that. Why? We know each other. We have identity. Well, God says, I want forever family.
I had one gal. She told me, what does it matter about all this and that that you make a big deal about in terms of sexual faithfulness and being married? Aren’t we all going to be the same in heaven? And I just. I almost screamed in my email, no, you will be more you than you ever were. Everybody gets a new name.
When I was a kid growing up, you couldn’t.
Now Kevin’s very unpopular. Nobody names their kid Kevin anymore. But when I was a kid growing up, man, Kevin was popular. My dad named me Kevin because he didn’t think there’d be a lot of Kevins. I had three Kevins in every class growing up through school.
You know, you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a Kevin, all right? Lots of Kevins. No Stevans, but lots of Stevens. But you got a unique one, all right? But anyway, you got a name in heaven that’s yours.
You are going to be so you and I’m going to be so me, and it’s just going to be billions upon billions of souls. And they’re not going to be all, like, walking around in white robes, like heavenly zombies, all looking the same and chanting the same mantra.
If you find yourself there, you miss the boat, all right? If there’s a bunch of people in white robes singing boring songs while playing harps on clouds, you’re in hell, not heaven, all right?
But if people are jamming and having a blast, and praising and dancing, and going to outdoor barbecues, rib eye steaks growing on meat trees from my orchard, and having rich fellowship, and laughing at deep jokes, and saying things like, oh, that is so Stevan. We just know Stevin. He is so. There’s nobody like him. There’s nobody like him. And nobody’s like Sophia. Oh, my goodness. Well, we already know that anyway. But, you know, you know, and Kathleen will be just around, just like smiling and dancing and just making everybody happy. And we’re already happy.
And it’s like she’ll just come down the street and make everybody happier, and they’ll be Mick, and we’ll be laughing at his jokes, and they’ll be Brian, and we’ll just go. He’ll be riding his bike everywhere, you know, it’d be like a heavenly bike. It’ll be heavenly bike trails. It’ll be awesome.
But you’re just going to be you, only more you and our identity. Dear ones, here’s the deal. Find your identity in Christ and listen. There’s a battle in your soul for identity. And I know it.
I know it by the names that bounce through our heads. The devil works. I don’t know if the devil works harder at anything than giving us the wrong identity. At least me. This is like, probably the primary battle or has been in my life: identity.
Because for decades, loser, jerk, failure, idiot, fool, dummy has been thrust upon me to embrace as my identity. And years ago, man, the voice of my good, good father said, that is not your identity. You stop that. You tell that to stop.
Well, just for years, I just would stop. And then what I would do, and here’s what I’m going to recommend you do tonight, is replace it with the true identity that the Bible speaks about you.
But what I did a few months ago, based on a dream that I had, or a recurring dream that I had, is I actually fired it. I told it, you’re fired. And now whenever I hear that voice, I say, oh, you’re fired. You don’t work here anymore.
But then it’s one thing to reject that
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12, NLT)
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Then look at what the Bible says to all those who believed upon him. He gave the right to become children of God, co-heirs with Christ.
What? I mean, we think too small. Lord, I just want to be saved. I just want to go to the good place, not the bad place. Oh, would you like to reign with Jesus? Just give me a small little corner lot in heaven. I’m good. That’s all I want. 32, 35 horses. That’s all you want? Just a corner lot? He says, no, you’re going to reign with Christ.
You’re going to be like him. You’re a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a chosen people. Listen. The promises in the New Testament, the identity in the New Testament. Together you’re the bride of Christ. You’re the crown of God’s creation. You’ll be higher than angels. Eye has not seen nor ear heard what the heart of God has planned and prepared for those who love him.
We need to start embracing identity now. There’s one segment of the body of Christ, and they love embracing this part of the identity. Well, I’m a wretched sinner, and that’s true.
That’s part of the identity. I will grant you that you’re a wretched sinner. Wretched does not mean horrible; it means pitiable. You’re a pitiable sinner. You’re worthy of pity.
But if you take that as your identity and you don’t add the others, you’re limping. You’re walking with a limp. And here’s the other thing. If you want to say that over yourself, you can. Paul says that I’m the worst of all sinners, but Paul completes that. He says, but God had mercy on me.
So if you say that, if the devil says you’re a loser, say no, I am a sinner. And then just throw this last one in there. Saved by grace, forgiven with mercy. Never end with that. Never end with that. That’s like being cancer-free for six years and still saying, I have cancer. I had cancer. Doesn’t mean you’re not still a sinner, but you’re saved by grace.
So here’s my assignment. We’re exactly halfway through the year. All right? January 1. Lots of people make New Year’s resolutions. I want you to make a half year’s resolution.
July 1, midnight tonight. Half year. You got half a year left. I know New Year’s resolutions don’t work. This one’s going to work. All right?
I want you to make the resolution that every time the devil speaks a negative identity toward you in your mind—I’m a lousy husband, I’m not a good mother—that you immediately step in and speak a biblical identity over yourself. I’m a royal priesthood. I’m loved by God. I’m forgiven of my sins. I’m a child of God. I’m a part of the bride of Christ. I’m a co-heir with Christ.
Just try that for half a year. I love, you know, I came to the Lord through the Jesus movement. All right. The Jesus movement was messy. It was not perfect. Certainly, the leaders of the Jesus movement weren’t perfect, etcetera, etcetera.
But, you know, I won’t talk about the bad things that came out of Jesus, but I’m talking about the good. One of the best things that came out of the Jesus movement was the music, for sure.
But one of the best things that came out of the Jesus movement was one of the identities that the Jesus movement quickly came because it was the first post-World War II generation that had experienced no-fault divorce, had experienced television, had experienced modern culture, and there was a real.
It was the first wave of the breakdown of family. And one of the statements that the Jesus movement, the hippies made is we are God’s forever family. That’s one of the strongest things that came out of the Jesus movement. We are God’s forever family.
That’s our identity. That’s our identity. And that is so biblical. That is.
Why did God create people? I think the best answer is he wanted family. He wanted family. He wants you. He wants you in his family. He’s got a big family.
I just was talking to a gal. She came to church last week. She comes from a family of 15. She married a guy who came from a family of six, and he thought, I came from a big family. His wife says, let me tell you something, all right? 15. That’s like an 1890s family, right?
And family of 15. But you know what? God wants a big family, and He can handle it, and we’re part of it. You are my brothers and sisters forever. You know who else, you know who our big brother is? Jesus. He’s a good big brother, and we got a good, good Father, and that’s our identity.
And so, dear ones, live in that. Live in that. You’re not a loser. You’re not a bad Christian, you’re not a terrible mom. You’re not a failure as a father. Have you made mistakes? Yes. Have you sinned? Yes.
Are you forgiven? Yes.
Is God making all things new? Yes.
Are you a child of God? Yes.
Does this story end well? Yes.
Are you a co-heir with Christ? Yes.
Are you God’s forever family? Yes.
Are you a holy nation? Yes.
Are you a royal priesthood? Yes.
Are you a chosen person? Yes.
Do you have the power of the Holy Spirit to heal the sick and prophesy and raise the dead and cast out devils? Yes.
Do you have the power of the Holy Spirit to give you love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control? Yes.
Are you more than a conqueror? Yes.
Does Christ live in you? Yes.
Will you reign forever? Yes.
Will the devil be defeated? He already is.
Dear ones. Amen. You got a good identity.
Turn to somebody next to you and say, I didn’t know I was sitting next to somebody so special. I didn’t know I was sitting next to somebody so special.
So what I just said, you will forget.
According to statistics, within 20 minutes on your drive home, you will forget. And somebody will say, what was the sermon about? And you’ll say, ah, Hosea married a whore. And Kevin said, we got a better identity, or something like that. Yeah. I don’t know. There was a prophet. Yeah. I forget.
Jesus says, don’t forget. He doesn’t say, don’t forget Kevin’s sermons. That’s fine. You can forget Kevin’s sermons. You know, when I preach, I’ll give you a half an hour. All I want is one thing to land. I fire out a lot of shotgun.
I shot a lot of pellets. But just if one of them lands, I’m good. All right. If just one thing goes, yeah, that’ll help me be more like Jesus when I walk out that door. That’s all I want. All right. If nothing landed tonight, I can keep going. All right. Anything. Land. You should probably say yes. Yeah, he probably says yes. All right. All right. Good. Good.
So Jesus says. Jesus says, you’re a new covenant people. Your sins are forgiven.
On the night that he was betrayed, he took bread. He took the Passover meal and he broke it. And he said, you know what Moses did thousands of years ago? Guess what? It’s pointing at me. That lamb, that first night, pointing at me. That blood pointing to me.
For 1,300-1,500 years you’ve been celebrating this, Israel. It is consummated. Tonight, this is what it all meant. And tomorrow you’re going to see me hang on a cross. You’re still not going to understand, but after I rise from the dead, you’re going to get it.
This is my body. I am actively involved in loving you to the point of death. And this wine is my blood. And this blood seals the new covenant that starts with the forgiveness of sins and gets better after that.
And whenever you gather together, you might sing some songs about me. You might hear a guy talk about me for 30 minutes. By the way, he never says do those things every week. I think there’s biblical precedent, biblical argument to do those things. But you know what he does say do all the time.
This, he says, when you gather together, don’t forget who you are. Don’t forget your identity. You come to my table at my family meal as my childhood and partake of my life because you’re mine. Nothing says you belong to Jesus like this. So come and eat and be grateful.
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