July 13, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Romans 12:3-9 and following. For the rest of the book of Romans, I don’t want you to forget this word: “Therefore.” Everything I’m preaching from here to the end of the book of Romans is a therefore. And if we forget therefore, because everything I’m going to preach from here to the end of Romans is how we should live. All right? Which is what preachers like to preach. We love to tell people how they should live.
You know, new preachers, they just want to get up and tell people how, you know, you need to fly, right, and pray more, and read your Bible more, and, you know, come to church more, and all that kind of stuff, all right?
But that’s not how Paul writes his letters. Paul writes his letters by telling us in great detail what God has done for us. And then he puts this little word in Greek, big word in English, therefore in English, dia in Greek. And he’s saying therefore because of everything I’ve told you, this, then, is how you respond. This, then, is how you dance with God, who is the leader.
Even the Ten Commandments, you think, well, look it, God gave Israel the Ten Commandments. You better live this way. No, read the Ten Commandments again. That’s not how the Ten Commandments start.
The Ten Commandments start this way. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and delivered you from slavery and brought you through the Red Sea. Then, therefore. Therefore, this is how, this is your part of covenant relationship, right? You know, there’s a therefore in every relationship. This person has, you know, done this, therefore you do this, right? Like the Johnson’s marriage. Stevin, you married Jamie. Therefore, do what she wants. That’s the therefore. That’s how it works. It’s a pretty simple covenant. I’ve heard that a time or two. Your instructions aren’t difficult. Just do what she wants. Figure that out. Oh, well, maybe it’s not as easy as we thought. Yep.
All right, so therefore, here we go. Verse 9:
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. 10 Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. 11 Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. 13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. 18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. 20 But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. 21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good. (Romans 12:9-21, CSB)
And God, 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 acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalms 19:14, CSB)
Most of us, if we’ve been Christians for a while, are pretty familiar with 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. I referenced it last week when we talked about spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 is the longest place Paul elaborates on spiritual gifts. And 1 Corinthians 13, if you’ve gone to a wedding in evangelical circles in the last 30 years, you’ve heard 1 Corinthians 13. It’s the love chapter. All right? It’s the love chapter.
Well, 1 Corinthians or Romans 12 is the exact same pattern as 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. Romans 12, Paul talks about spiritual gifts, and then he gives an even longer description of love. Or at least he packs more into this. He adds more elements to it than even 1 Corinthians 13. In 1 Corinthians 12:9 and following, he talks about love. And remember, we talked about spiritual gifts as God’s tool belt for love. How do we love each other? We exercise our spiritual gifts. If you have spiritual gifts, you exercise them not to exalt yourself, but to love God’s people in the power of the Spirit. It’s how God’s love flows from heaven through us to other people.
So it’s all about love. I’m pretty convinced. You know, we’re reading this book on near-death experiences, and we’re all going to meet Jesus, and we’re all going to have a life review. And Jesus, we’re going to talk about our lives. And I’m pretty convinced. I could be wrong, but you know, well, yeah, I could be wrong, but I think I’m right. That’s why I’m saying it. I’m pretty convinced that when we get there, God is not going to ask us, what was your position on predestination? Or how did you feel about superlapsarianism or dispensationalism versus Covenant theology? Or were you a premill, postmill, Amill? And if you were premill, were you pre-trib, post-trib, or mid-trib? And did you believe in soul sleep? Or did you believe in immediate glorification? And did you believe in two stages of heaven, the intermediate heaven and the new heavens and the new earth? And what was your view on the subordination of Christ? Was it simply temporary when he was on earth? Or is Christ always, though fully God, subordinated to his Father? What? Explain to me your theological musings on these points.
I just don’t think that’s going to be the line of questioning. I could be wrong. So I’ve read lots of books to be prepared. Believe it or not, everything I just said, I have opinions on, if you can believe that. But I think the question is going to be this: How well did you love?
How well did you love? Let your love be sincere, he says. Let it be without hypocrisy. In other words, not a cheap, words-based love, all right? I love you. But you do nothing to prove it. You use those words, in fact, to manipulate and control other people. I love you, therefore, do what I want. You try to buy their favor or flatter them.
No. Love, sincere love, is not cheap words, but sacrifice and commitment. I love you means I will work my best for your best. I will work hard for your best.
When you have a child, you love that child. How do we know it could not be kept alive but for you. And you sacrifice greatly to keep that child alive. You sacrifice sleep in most cases. All right? Any of you, you know, thinking about having babies, well, there’s only two of you in this room that qualifies for. So, Isaiah, Sophia, if you’re thinking about having babies, just ask yourself this. Do I like to sleep? Because that’s gone for years. And money, you like money? Those little leeches are going to take all your money, and they’re going to think you owe it to them. Mom, give me a sandwich. It’s like, you got to feed me. Why don’t you pay for that sandwich? What? No, you got to feed me. You got to keep them alive till they’re 18. Well, you know, if you want to, the law says just till they’re 18. So there you go.
But, yeah, then they have grandchildren. They want to pawn those off on you, which is great. It’s no problem. But it’s commitment. It’s price. Love is cost.
God so loved the world in this way. He looked down at us and said, oh, I love you. No. He stretched out his arms upon a brutal cross and took nails. Let your love be the love of commitment. Let your love be the love that pays the price for the best of the other person. I want your best. So you get my time, you get my investment, because I want what’s best for you. Let it not be cheap and hypocritical.
But also let it be discerning. One of the things both Romans says and Corinthians says, which is at odds with our present culture, is that love hates evil. Love hates evil.
Our current culture has defined love this way: accept everything or you’re unloving. Except the people who say that don’t accept people who disagree with them is the irony of it. But accept everything or you’re unloving.
No, it’s not true. Listen, you have to accept people as they are. They’re living their authentic selves. People say, I’m living my authentic self. Dear ones, the Bible never says, live your authentic self. Listen, you do not want to see my authentic self. My sister saw my authentic self growing up. Sarcastic, a relentless tease, mean, always angling for my way, always looking to get out of work, not caring if they had to work as long as I got out of work. My authentic self was selfish, was greedy, was mean spirited. That was my authentic self. You’re going, we know, Kevin. No, Jesus got a hold of me. Hopefully I’m not all that anymore. Thank you, Sophia. At least one person gave me a little affirmation there. Everybody’s like, well, you know . . .
Listen, do not, do not believe that love means saying broke is fixed and wrong is right. If your kids are on drugs, you don’t love them by buying more heroin. That’s called codependent enabling. You do everything you can to help them get free of that, even if it means very painfully letting them hit bottom. Love detests evil. So don’t be bullied by a culture that says when you call right and wrong that you’re a bad person, that you’re just mean and you’re a hater. You’re a lover if you have boundaries.
Now, people can do that meanly. People can do that self-righteously. Don’t do that. All right? Don’t be like that. But exhort, you can do better. Encourage. Hey, you did better. Way to go. Exhort and encourage.
My son playing baseball years ago, playing catch with dad. He wanted to be a good baseball player. So we’re playing catch. I threw the hardball at him, tipped off his glove, hit him in the face. What did I do? Well, as a good dad, I went over and comforted him. All right? Said, you okay, bud? You all right? Holding back. Yeah, I’m okay. Said that hurt, huh? He goes, yeah. And then I said these words. You might think, well, that’s mean, but these are the words I said. I said, son, that’s what the glove’s for.
You see, if you don’t want to get hurt again, if you don’t want to get hurt again, I’m going to give you some great advice. Keep your eye on the ball and catch it. That’s love, actually, right? If I’d have just said, hey, buddy, don’t worry about it. Be lazy and catching the ball again and see how many other times it hits you in the face. No, that’s what the glove’s for, boy. I mean, I wasn’t mean I comforted. Oh, you okay? I bet that hurt. Catch it next time, won’t hurt as much. That’s love. That’s exhorting and encouraging.
All right? Listen, if all that boy got was comfort during that baseball game, he would have simply had two mothers. I was dad. You got me, Stevin, right? There you go. Am I right, Brian? See, Dads? Yep, there you go.
I read that, my wife, we have this comment; we have this little debate going on when our grandsons come over, and they want to play checkers or something. Every time they play grandma, they win. Every time they play grandpa, they learn how to be better checkers players.
And my wife says, why don’t you let them win? I say, why don’t you beat them once in a while? I would let them win once in a while if you beat them once in a while. But if you’re going to let them win all the time, I got to teach them the other half of the equation. It’s interesting when they come over to play checkers, it’s like grandma, will you play checkers with us? I’ll play with you. No, no, thanks. But she showed me this meme she found. She said, if you always let your kid win, he has two mothers.
So love exhorts and encourages.
Love is family love. It is full of affection. And affection is what we call familiar love. Why is it good to hang out in church together? Because we get familiar love. Alright? We begin to know each other’s quirks. We begin to know the inside jokes. You know, why did I know to say, just do, just do what she wants, Stevin? Because I’ve heard that about 20 times. All right. Because we’re family now. We’ve been hanging around a long time.
Yeah, I remember I almost lost Sophia one time on my watch. But she made it. She’s still here. We’re family. All right? You know, why do I know Brian Miller likes corny dad jokes? Because we’re family. He’s liked corny dad jokes for as long as I’ve known him. I like corny dad jokes too. All right? We’re family.
So it’s the good old love. There’s good old so and so. All right? Marilyn walks into church like, is it warm enough for you? Because she’s cold a lot. And I’m glad when it’s warm enough for you. Yeah. Growing up and you live a lot of time in Hawaii, you know, cold in Washington.
All right? Do we got family knowing. That’s affection. That’s affection. There can even be gentle teasing in that kind of affection. All right? That’s what families kind of do. And teasing comes from what? Knowing. And you know where you can tease and you know where you can’t tease. And it’s affection. It’s good old, when you see somebody and say, oh, there’s good old so and so. When you guys walk into this room, I well up with affection. Every single one of you. When you walk into this room, I have this feeling of, oh, it’s so good to see them. I actually like seeing every single one of you. I like your children.
You know, it’s just there’s affection there. And so the Bible says have affection and affection because affection is the kind of love that grows over time. It takes endurance. We can’t skedaddle out of the relationship the first time something annoying happens. We got to hang in there with each other. And the more we get to know each other, the more there’re going to be times we’re going to rub each other the wrong way. And we got to just kind of hang in there and have endurance because endurance produces that long distance affection.
I have this, this sense that in heaven, my mansion is going to be next to people that annoy me the most on earth. And that’s not God’s punishment. That’s God going to be, He’s going to show me. It’s like, see how good they were? You know, you had them, you had them all wrong. They’re part of your family. You can love them. You can love them.
Now, if we get to heaven and you’re my next-door neighbor, that’s not true. Alright? I was wrong on that theory. That’s not like, oh, I must have really annoyed Kevin. It’s like, no, it’s not true. All right.
Honor. We’re to honor one another. Again, we’re to have family affection for one another. We’re to honor one another. The Bible is full of, when Paul talks in these lists about the church, about the people of God, he uses this phrase over and over again. One another, one another, one another.
I can’t tell you how many people, especially men I’ve met over the years who say things like this to me. Well, you know, preacher, I don’t go to church, but I watch Dr. So and So on TV. Like, that’s the same thing. It’s not the same thing. It’s not the same thing.
Now, I will say for men, we have feminized church to the point that it’s hard for men to go to church sometimes. All right? And so, you know, I meet with this group of guys on Tuesday night, and some of those guys don’t go to church, but they love that group we meet with on Tuesday night, a bunch of guys. And we, we talk government, guns, motorcycles, and God. But they’re getting church. They don’t even know it. They don’t call it church, but they’re getting church there because they’re getting the one anothers.
But the one anothers need to be more than your own gender. You need to learn how to worship God with men and women. You need to learn how to worship God with young and old.
When I was a new Christian, I did a lot of Young Life, and Young Life was kind of my church. But the problem with Young Life being my church is I was just hanging around with a bunch of reformed hippie, Jesus movement hippies who are now trying to lead teenagers to Christ. Great, great fellowship. But I lost the benefit of mentors, of fathers in the faith. And I had a bunch of immature, we were a bunch of immature, stupid kids giving a bunch of immature, stupid kids immature, stupid advice. And we had nobody to say, this is especially true with guys.
Listen, I don’t know, there’s something about men, like, they have a level of stupidity. And you get two of them together, and that level of stupidity begins to grow exponentially. And you get four of them together, and it’s just, you know. And it was like, I saw Nate Bargatze, and he talked about they used to box baboons, or not baboons, orangutans. Yeah, they did. In my life in the 80s, people would go, and they’d go into rings, and they’d fight orangutans. And the orangutans would always knock them out, right?
And universally, I think, without exception, no woman ever went in to fight an orangutan because not a woman in the world would say, I think I can knock that thing out. Even one who flies jet airplanes wouldn’t go, like, yeah, give me a shot at that. But you get three guys together, one of them is saying, you guys should fight that orangutan. The other two are saying, okay, okay, yeah.
So guess what? We need one another for greater wisdom and greater insight and greater understanding. And so the body of Christ we’re to honor one another. No solitary Christianity. We honor one another because the other person in the house is a child of God. And C.S. Lewis says in his great essay, “The Weight of Glory,” if we were to see that person in their exalted state, we would be tempted to worship them.
If I saw my brother Isaiah in his exalted state, in his glorified state, shining and brilliant, the brilliant glory of heaven, it would be hard for me not to kneel before him, even though he’d say, don’t kneel before me, Kevin. Only kneel before God. But his exaltation and his glory would be so overwhelming. That’s who we’re dealing with here. These are not ordinary people in this room. These are sons and daughters of the Most High God, and therefore honor one another.
And even unbelievers we’re to honor, because even if they’re not yet sons and daughters of the Most High God, the first book of the Bible says they’re created in the image and likeness of God. They’re destined. God desires them to be his eternal children.
And so we honor one another above ourselves. Always look for the strengths in other people. Finding weaknesses is as easy as falling off a log. It’s so easy to find weaknesses in people. But to look for the gold in people and to honor them is a great trait.
One of the things I love about my wife is she has this practice. We just had our 44th anniversary. Here’s a practice to stay married 44 years: Don’t get out of bed until you thank God for three things about your spouse. My wife does that every morning. She thanks God for three things. Some mornings I wonder why she’s not getting out of bed. It’s like, honey, everything okay? Yeah. I’m at two. I’m at two. I’m circling the airport. I’m thinking, I’m thinking. I’m looking for number three.
All right, but that’s honor. That’s honor. Honor your spouse. Remember why you love them, not their shortcomings. Listen, you married a less than perfect person. Deal with it. Because you know what? So did they. So did they. All right? So deal with it. But honor them. Honor their strengths. Tell them what they’re good at. Remind them of what they do great.
Then he says, be zealous for God. Doggone it, people, we need to be zealous for God. We need some hallelujah worship. We need some praise God worship. We need some praise God worship.
I don’t know, man. Okay, I’m going to get racial here. Why are we white people so emotionally constipated? You know, when I was a kid, we’d watch black worship. We had African American worship. We’d go, that looks fun. Watch these Pentecostal. They’re dancing and hallelujah and praising God. And the preacher is just getting all into it and saying God with multiple syllables. And we go, that looks great. And then we go to church and be like, what’s up? What’s up with that? What’s up with that? All right? Let’s get some white hankies out. Well, well, preach. Hallelujah. Is there a glory hallelujah in the house? Amen.
There’s nothing wrong with being zealous. Emotions are a gift. They’re not an enemy. We think they’re an enemy, but they’re not.
Imagine on my 44th anniversary, if I would have said to Jill, dear, I have no emotional feelings for you anymore. But rationally, we have a good partnership going and we’ve raised our children, we have grandchildren. There’s no pitter patter in my heart. You know, we’re both growing old. We just have to admit it. But doggone it, buddy, thanks for the 44 years.
How do you think that would have, don’t think that have flown? You don’t think that have been like, oh, be still my heart? No, no. And in fact, that’s not true.
I’ll tell you the truth. After 44 years, my heart still skips a beat when she comes in the room. I think she’s adorable. I love her. I think she’s a wonderful grandmother, a wonderful mother. She’s hard working, she’s loyal, she is smart, she’s funny.
You know, I told her that one time, she walked in the room, I gave her like 12 things right off the top of my head. This is why I love you. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You know what she said? Thank you.
Karen, what am I looking for here?
Yeah, yeah, that’d be nice. A little reciprocation there. Well, yeah. When she tells God three things she’s thankful for, she doesn’t remind me of those things. Yeah, let me know what you told God.
So finally, I just look at her like, well? She’s like, oh, oh, oh. And then I get this. You make me laugh. I thought it was because I was so charming and handsome. She goes, see, there you go. You’re making me laugh. It’s rough, guys. I know. But passion is good.
It’s interesting that the Bible calls the church his bride. Jesus calls the church his bride, not his wife. There’s a difference in connotation there, isn’t there? There’s a difference in connotation. Not that a wife is bad, but there’s something about a bride that’s passionate. Right?
It is okay to be passionate. Be zealous. In fact, the Bible says, be zealous. Be passionate for spiritual gifts. Do you think when David wrote the Psalms, how long, O God? By golly, how long? No, I think it was how long, Oh, God?! Have you ever prayed to God like that? What’s going on?! I need you! I need to hear from you. Or hallelujah! Thank you, God. I give you praise.
Now, what is evil? Emotions aren’t evil. Emotionalism is evil. That’s being controlled and manipulated. Working up your emotions in a false way and living for emotional highs. No, that will lead you into deception. Emotionalism is not good. But just because you cry at church doesn’t mean it’s emotionalism. Hey, you think it might be the Holy Spirit? Might be the Holy Spirit?
I used to pray for people, and the joy would break out, and holy laughter would break out, and people would get offended by that. It’s like, oh, that’s just fake. They’re just faking it. Say, really? Because people in Walmart don’t do that. It’s not a normal human response. Right?
And you, you know, and then when people have relationships in church and their family, and that happens to one of their friends who they know, that’s not how they behave. Something’s happening. And it’s okay to have experiences and passion and zealousness for God.
In fact, it’s hard to maintain a relationship without some zealousness. It’s hard just to do things all the time, duty only, right? There are times you got to do. You just got to do what you got to do, right? There’s times, 3 o’clock in the morning, the baby’s crying. You got to change the diaper. But you know why God makes babies cute? Because it makes it, makes it more willing to do it. You’re more willing to do it because they’re cute and you just giggle when you see them. And you have passion, and there’s an affection that grows up in you toward them, and so you’re able to put up with the other side of children. I was going to use words like evil and satanic, but dark’s good.
All right, dear ones, let your love be sincere. Don’t wear out on your zeal. And then he says, be patient. Be patient. He says, hope. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in affliction. Pray with persistence. All three of those have to do with patience.
Rejoice in hope is a choice because life does not always give you the things that make you happy, but joy, joy is that deeper assurance, to use Kevin’s words, we’re playing a game we’ve already won, that this story ends well. This chapter is rough. This is hard, but this story ends well. You know, the Bible doesn’t recommend we rejoice always. It commands we rejoice always.
16 Rejoice always, (1 Thessalonians 5:16, CSB)
But the Seahawks just lost. Rejoice. Rejoice. The Broncos just lost. Yeah, I’m a sports fan, alright? I pastor two little churches. Nobody loves sports like me in these two little churches. It is just so hard to preach to y’all because I yell at the TV. I’m one of those guys, all right? You know, the guys who yell at the TV. It’s like, catch the ball. That’s what you get paid for. My wife’s like, why do you watch it if it makes you mad? I stay with you and you make me mad. You know, that’s what relationships are like, all right?
And when my team loses, I’m sad. But it does not touch my joy. And if it touches my joy, I have an idol. See? Happiness is when my team wins. Happiness is when I get the raise. Happiness is when my kids do well. Sadness, grief, mourning is when those things don’t turn out well.
But even, but he says what? Even in affliction, be patient. I love what we covered in Romans 8, where Paul said, in this world, suffering and glory are inseparable. And we all know that to be true, right? We all know that the glory and the good times have also come with, we’re all old enough to have experienced deep sadness in life. We’re all old enough. I mean, one of the great things about pets and kids who love their pets, and I this is just hard to say but those pets die. And guess what? Little Junior just learned something. Everything you love in this world is going to die. Some of it tragically, way before it should.
And yet the glory of God is revealed and comes to us in the midst of suffering. The cross and the resurrection are inseparable. But then that’s Romans 8:17. Romans 8:18 says this. And you’re just going to get tired of me saying this over the years, but this is a new one. This is just going to keep showing up.
Glory and suffering are inseparable, but they are also incomparable. For I am convinced that the sufferings of this present time cannot be compared to the glory to be revealed to you.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18, CSB)
That hope gives us the endurance to persist in affliction, to have patience in affliction. And, dear ones, that’s why we rejoice. And that’s why we choose to hope. Not because everything’s hunky dory.
You know, there are good days, there are bad days, there are great days, and there are horrible days. But we sang it tonight. Jesus is Lord over all. And the fact that Jesus is Lord is good news for those of us who believe. It’s great news. We’re playing a game we’ve already won. So don’t quit. Be persistent in prayer. Be persistent in prayer. Keep praying. Keep talking to God. Keep the relationship going and just–
Listen, one of the reasons we have afflictions is because we wouldn’t talk to God without them. God wants to have a relationship with us. And when everything’s going well, how’s our prayer life going? Catch you later, God. Then bad stuff happens. What do we do? God, why did this happen to me? Well, glad you’re talking to me, son.
I tell you, here’s a real breakthrough in your Christian maturity. Here’s a breakthrough in my Christian maturity, your Christian maturity. When we let gratitude drive us to prayer over affliction. Why not let gratitude be your motivation for prayer?
I’ve been really trying to hone in on gratitude lately because I grumble, and the Bible doesn’t speak well of grumbling. But, you know, traffic, you know. I’m the, you know, I told you this grumpy old man. Get off my lawn, kid. You know, my wife says I’m gruff. I don’t think I’m gruff. I think I’m warm, and I think I’m like a koala bear. I think I’m warm and fuzzy. She says I’m gruff. I mean, she says, she caught me today, all right? When, I don’t know.
Oh! I say please and thank you all the time. But I guess when people say thank you to me, I don’t say you’re welcome or my pleasure. I say, all right. Mark says, thank you, Kevin. I go, all right. That’s kind of gruff. So I looked at her and I went, all right.
But I’ve been trying to be thankful because I don’t want to be grumpy. And man, last week was a great opportunity. I was at church in Bremerton. I was the last person. I’m always the last person out. I locked the door. I remember locking the door. I didn’t have my car. I had my daughter’s car, and she has this huge keychain. And I got in her truck and I drove it home.
And I got home and because I had my daughter’s car, I didn’t have my garage door opener. So I had to get my key out so I can unlock the front door. Because my wife is a compulsive nut about locking doors. I mean, you know, she, like, she’s locked me, I tell people she’s locked me out watering the lawn. I’ll go outside and move the water, and I’ll come back, and it’s like, Jeez, what? McCormick Woods in the middle of the day? She works at 911. There’ve been no break-ins there. She drives me nuts.
So anyway, I got to go in. I got my key. I can’t find my key. Well, my house key’s on my same keychain as the church key and my mail key. And I look everywhere in the car. You know, I always just, you know, I put it in my pocket.
I thought, oh my gosh, I know I locked that door at church. And I just started, what if I left that key in the door of the church and all the homeless down there? And I think I’m going to go back there, and our sound equipment’s going to be stolen again, or that key is going to be missing, which is going to be like, even I’ll have anxiety over that. It’ll be like, all right, we got to make, got to get a new lock. And not only that, but I’d have to go get a chain to chain the door for that night until we could get in. It just like, it was just driving me nuts. And I’m like, God, you know, why didn’t you. Why did I lose my key? Like it’s his fault. Yeah.
And all of a sudden it just hit me. Be grateful. All right. God, I thank you that we have a church building to worship in that’s only been robbed once. That’s great. And I got a house who locks my, I got a wife who locks my house up so tight it’ll never be robbed. And Lord, I got a truck and I didn’t lose the keys to the truck. And I can hop in this truck and I can drive back to that church. I didn’t want to drive back to that church. All right? I want to take a little nappy nap between Bremerton and Poulsbo. But I have to drive back to that church. And Lord, I just thank you that those keys are going to be there.
And sure, I drove down to that church, and I went around that corner, and I looked at that door, and my keys were not in the lock. Oh, Lord, I thank you anyway.
And I drove six feet further up, and right next to where I had parked, just shining. They were shining. The sun was just hitting them perfectly. They were just shining bright. There were my keys. They were there.
And I picked them up, and I came to Poulsbo. We were happily ever after.
And I told my wife, I lost my keys, but I found them. And she goes, are you sure somebody didn’t pick those up and make copies? You need to retire from 911, woman. You need to quit your job. You are, you’re over the edge.
All right. Let gratitude drive you to persistence in prayer.
Be generous. I always brag that I’m not a pastor who talks about money. I’ve talked about money the last three weeks in church. But it’s in the Bible. I will talk about money when it’s in the Bible, all right? I won’t, not every church is going to be tithe Sunday, but when it’s in the Bible, I’ll talk about money. Be generous. you’re going to be happy if you’re generous. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. The happiest people are the generous people.
When I was young, I had a rough tithe sermon, man. I had a rough tithe sermon. The title of my tithe sermon was “Tithe or Go to Hell.” Yeah, it was very seeker sensitive.
But here was my point: If God doesn’t own your wallet, he doesn’t own your heart.
But now, even though I’d say I’m getting grumpy, actually on this subject, I’m much more gentle and kind. My tithe sermon now is, never met an unhappy giver. Never met an unhappy tither. They’re the happiest people on the planet.
People who give are happier. People who get, it is true! It’s actually true. It’s not a thing we tell our kids to get them to share. It’s actually true. You realize it when you get older. It is more blessed to give than receive.
35 In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” (Acts 20:35, CSB)
I got great happiness as a kid getting gifts that I would play with for three days and then long for the next Christmas to be here. I get much more happiness as a grandpa watching my kids on, watching my grandkids unwrap those gifts. I’m telling the truth!
Jill’s dad, he delighted in being Santa Claus. He would, in September, he would have this little yellow, you know, legal paper in his front pocket, and the grandkids would show up and he’d put it out and go, I’m making my list. In September!
And when he died, they all remembered that at his funeral, how much delight he took in giving to his grandchildren at Christmas.
Dear ones, it’s so fun to give. And I’m not a prosperity preacher. I don’t say, you know, that you give so God will give to you. You give because God has already given to you. All right? You already been blessed.
But I will say this, and you can argue with me on this, but I will say this. In my experience, you cannot out give a generous God. I dare you to try. I dare you to try.
Your daddy’s rich, your daddy’s good, your daddy will meet your needs. You don’t have to be afraid. I can’t tell you the number of times an amount, a money amount has been put on my mind to give to some ministry or something else. And my first thought is, can’t afford that. Can’t do that.
And now, you know, my wife and I, we’ve been part of a couple church building funds. Church building funds always work this way. Ask the Lord what he wants you to give to build this new church, you know, above and beyond your tithes and offerings. Now, faithful people do that. My wife and I would do that, and we’d come back, and we’d say, what number did you get? Every single time, we got the exact same number. And every single time was like, we can’t do that. We can’t give away that much money. Every single time, we did.
I just want you to look at me. Do I look emaciated? Can you see my ribs? Have you been to my house? Have you seen my car? I mean, I’m not, I’m not filthy rich according to this culture, but according to the world, I am. I’m probably in the top 3%. So are you, by the way. You make more than $35,000 a year, you’re rich. There are poor people in America with Netflix, lots of them.
Dear ones, just be generous. Be generous with your time. Be generous with your treasure. Be generous with your talent. You’ll be happy, you’ll be happier. You can’t out give a generous God.
Pursue hospitality along the same lines of generosity. Make others welcome in your space. Make others welcome in church.
I was so grateful. You know, this is so true at small churches especially. Big churches tend to be less hospitable than small churches. Big churches have to train people to be nice. They’re called greeters. Small churches are so desperate for people, when somebody shows up and we don’t know them, pack of dogs on a three-legged cat.
You know, Jamal got so greeted last week. Stevin invited him to men’s Bible study. I mean, you know, this one young man shows up in church. He left during the middle of church. But it wasn’t because he didn’t get greeted. Oh my gosh, we all went up and, you know, he walked in the door and Ats and Stevin and I are, hey, let’s take your pulse. He’s alive! Come on, join us!
But I went to a large church, large Presbyterian church. Not picking on the Presbyterians. 40 years ago. 40, 50 years ago. A long time ago. It wasn’t 50, but 40 years ago. And I decided to do a little test. A friend of mine was associate pastor at that church. I decided to do a test. It was a nice church in Northern California. So coffee hour was outside in the sun. Yes, that is the strange yellow orb we’ve been experiencing these last few weeks here in Washington. It’s more of a frequent occurrence down there.
And so I’m standing outside and I intentionally, very like obtrusively, because I know churches and I know Presbyterians. They’re coming out of that church, they’re taking a right-hand turn, and they’re heading for that coffee table and those goodies. And I got out of church first and I planted myself right in the middle of that stream. Just stood there, newcomer, not scowling, just . . . Every one of them walked by me. Excuse me, pardon me, got to get my caffeine.
And finally, one guy, 40 years ago, I still remember his name. “Well, hi, I’m Bill Jihy.” Bill Jihy.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Kevin Clancy.”
“I don’t reckon I’ve seen your face. You’ve been here before?”
“First time, Bill.”
“Well, man, I’m so glad you’re here. Hey, we got a men’s Bible study on Wednesday morning. I’ll come by and pick you up if you want.”
Bill Jihy, just, you know, just my friend, associate pastor, said, “Well, how was your experience at church?” I said, “Music was great, sermon was great, church was great,” I said, “but here’s what I did.” I said, “I planted myself between the coffee and the people. I stood there obtrusively,” and I said, “nobody said hi to me but one guy.” She goes, “Bill Jihy.” I go, “You got it.” She knew. She knew.
But you know what? In the church of a couple hundred people, there needs to be more than one Bill Jihy. Here’s what happens at church. Big churches, small churches, not so much. Big churches, we form cliques.
And it’s not bad. People always, oh, they’re just cliquish. Here’s what cliques are. They’re the people you like to go to church with, and so they’re your friends, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You look forward to seeing them, right? And so, of course, you hang out with them. There’s nothing wrong with that.
It only becomes wrong when you become oblivious to the stranger. Instead, invite the stranger into your group.
I had a guy in church, and he didn’t have a great memory, but he was very extroverted, very warm. So he would go up to people and say, “Well, I’m Richard and I’m so glad to see you. I don’t think I’ve seen your face before.” And the guy said, “Well, actually, I’m Tony, and we had this conversation two weeks ago, Richard.” And Richard had come to me, goes, “Oh, I hate doing that.” I say, “Richard, that mistake is a hundred times better than the other one.” That mistake is a hundred times better than the other one.
Make people feel welcome in your church. Make people feel welcome in your home. And I’ve always, I’ve already talked about people in this church who have made me feel welcome in their home. Pursue it. Make others welcome. Pursue hospitality. It’s a big deal in the Bible. Who knows that you don’t show hospitality? The Bible says you could entertain angels. You could entertain angels. Show hospitality.
And then have goodwill towards your enemies. In your prayers, in your actions, give up the right for vengeance. Pray for your enemies and then actually do nice things to them. Give up the right to get even.
You ever just want to give somebody a piece of your mind? You know, and we Christianize it. For their own good, they need to hear. This is an exhortation. It’s not an exhortation. You’re not saying it for their own good. you’re saying it because they hurt you and you want to hurt them back.
And you have just, you know, one of the great things is I have never lost one of those arguments or one of those conversations in the shower in my life. I’ve won every single one of them. Man, I put that person in their place. Yeah, that’s right. I won that argument. Woohoo. They didn’t have an answer for that.
And then the little voice of the Holy Spirit comes into my head and says, you know you’re never going to say that to them, right? I go, yeah, I know, I know.
Lord, bless them, make them happy, move them forward. And you know what? If they don’t repent? Leave justice into the hands of God. He’s better at it than you. He knows all the extenuating circumstances. You don’t.
One of the worst things we can say is, I know why they did that. No, you don’t. You have no idea why they did what they did.
I know why that person cut me off. They’re just a rude driver. No. Their child’s in the hospital, and they’re totally distracted. How about, what if that’s true? Or what if they have early stages of dementia, and they probably shouldn’t be driving? Good thing you don’t. There was not an accident. I mean, there could be a hundred reasons they cut you, I’ve, I’ve cut people off because I didn’t see them. I wasn’t being rude. I wasn’t trying to get there before them. I wasn’t trying to win the race to the stoplight. You know? I just didn’t see them. I drive a Camaro. It’s got terrible blind spots, so. But I’m sure when you cut somebody off in a Camaro, it’s like, oh, that guy thinks he’s so that this, like, you know, you gotta watch those Murano drivers though.
All right. Have empathy. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Don’t be jealous of or envy other people’s good outcomes. You both work at the same job, you work hard, you play it by the rules. They’re a kiss up. They’re always being, they’re always kissing up to the boss and always showing off, and they get the promotion. Rejoice. Rejoice in other people’s good outcomes.
I’m a pastor. Pastors don’t compete. We’re so godly. We are good, godly, humble people. And so we go to pastors’ conferences. And unlike, you know, other conferences where they ask, you know, you know, what’s your budget? How much money do you make? Or whatever. Here’s what, here’s the question. At pastors’ conferences, you all know what it is, right? Oh, how big is your church? How big’s your church? Big enough. Shut up. Shut up.
I used to love that question when I pastored a church of 500-600 people. I mean, it wasn’t a megachurch, but that’s still impressive. That’s still in the top echelon. Oh, we got about five or six hundred people coming. Yeah, we got about five or six hundred people. Now they ask, how big is your church? I say, well, I know everybody’s middle name. What’ll that tell you? What will that tell you?
New Life, they’re the big one, right? They’re the big fish in town, right? New Life, they’re the big church.
So one Easter, I hear through the grapevine don’t know if it’s true at Olympic High School, they baptized 400 people. But you know what us pastors think? Oh, they’re cheapening the gospel. They’re making it easy for people. They’re watering it down with their seeker sensitive. Those aren’t real converts. You know, the reason we don’t have as many people is we don’t try to manipulate and control people with fancy schmancy programs and entertainment. We’re the true hardcore disciples of Jesus. So we only make two converts a year, but they’re the real thing.
No, no. You know what you say when somebody says, new life baptized 400 people? What do you say, Jamie? Hallelujah. Praise God. Our team wins. Our team wins. Team Jesus wins in Kitsap County when a big church baptizes a bunch of people, team Jesus wins. And we rejoice with those who rejoice. Then we mourn with those who mourn. It’s empathy, which is a great quality.
When people meet disaster in their life, great pain, they typically do not want theology. “Well, you know why God did this . . .” Or “They’re in a better place.”
Now, sometimes people will ask you questions. Do you think my daughter went to heaven? Yeah, I think your daughter went to heaven. That’s fine to say that, but what people really need is they need you to cry with them. They need you to cry with them.
Young lady, deeply wounded by a youth pastor at 13, became an alcoholic and really a bipolar Christian. She’d be on fire for Jesus, and then she’d go on these drinking binges full of promiscuity and, you know, just the dark side. Then she’d come back, have this repentance, and come back to Jesus. Everything’s fine. And then she’d go off the deep end again and again. She had this pattern in her life. Her parents were dear people in my church, and in her agony, in living this kind of life, she had tried to take her life a few times. Always failed until the last time, where she had just gotten out of rehab. And on her way out of rehab, she was molested or raped. Not sure the full story. And so she stepped in front of a train and did it. And I got the message. Her mother and father, her daughter, who her parents were raising, had not gotten the message. So guess who gets to deliver the message?
And so I get up to the friend’s house, and the friends had left a message with the dad: come down to our house. He came down to our house. He saw me. And he goes, “She’s dead, isn’t she?” “Yeah, she’s dead.”
The mother came home with the daughter, and she got to the door, and her husband said, take the daughter down the hill to the neighbors. And the mother, I don’t know why I do this all the time now, but I do. The mother took the daughter downhill to the neighbors. She drove back up the hill to her house, opened the door, and she just looked at both of us and she said, “She did it.”
And I said, “Yes.” And I went and I braced her, and we just… We fell to the floor. And we wept. And that’s mourning with those who mourn.
And we’ve all had moments like that, just not. Pastors aren’t the only ones who have to do that, right? We all. We all got to do that. It’s life. We have friends that that kind of stuff has happened to, but we rejoice with the, we have empathy.
You know, I didn’t look at her and say, well, you know, she’s released from her pain and she’s in a better place. She’s a Christian. She knows those words. She didn’t need those words. She needed to cry on a shoulder. And it was probably helpful for her that the person she was crying on was crying, too.
And that’s, the rubber meets the road, people. It’s real. Love is real.
Harmony. We work toward peace. I love what Paul says. He says, as much as is within my power, I live at peace with all people.
I love that phrase. That’s one of my favorite phrases in the Bible because it doesn’t say, I live at peace with all people. There are people who are impossible to live at peace with. There are people who are impossible to live at peace with. And they will try to manipulate you. They are evil people. They’ll try to say, if you want peace with me, you have to do A, B, C, D. And you have to lose your boundaries. You have to accept this or you have to do this.
No, you don’t. They just made it impossible to be at peace with them. All right? Somebody who’s abusive to you, it’s like, “Hey, you can’t talk to me that way.” “Well, if you want to have this relationship, you just have to put up with it.” “I do want to have this relationship, but not on those terms. When you’re willing to have other terms, let me know.”
As much as it is possible. Don’t opt for lowest common denominator harmony. It isn’t worth it. Don’t be controlled by evil for the sake of peace.
Years ago, there was a move toward church unity. You know, the World Council of Churches, and the people who led the World Council of Churches were deceptive. They said we all need to get along. And lots of us, “Yeah, absolutely, let’s get along.”
They say, okay, and then they laid out the rules. Here’s how we all get along. You can’t be insistent. You can’t call God his Father because that’s patriarchal. You can’t be insistent because Jesus is Lord. That’s exclusive. We’ve got to affirm the Buddha. We’ve got to affirm all world religions as equal. And then all of us in this room can get along. And that’s what I said, Brian. It’s like, nope, not going to do lowest common denominator unity. We are united in Christ.
Now, I can get along with people in Christ who have all sorts of different opinions. I can get along with pre-trib, premillennial, Jesus-is-coming-back-next-Tuesday Christians. All right? I can get along with them just fine. I get along with Calvinists. If they’re not too ornery. All right? I can get along with cessationists. Listen, I realize not everybody has perfect theology like I do, and therefore I can be gracious toward that, right? We all think our theology is perfect because it’s our theology. And we all hopefully have enough humility to admit probably not.
But when you start putting conditions on us getting along that ask me to consort with evil or lies . . . Now, I’ll still have peace with you. I won’t kill you over that. You know, I’m definitely over the period of the church where we burn heretics at the stake. All right? I don’t want to burn anybody at the stake, and there’s only a few I want to give death by lethal injection to. Should that be on tape? Should that be recorded? Should that be streamed. It’s a joke, people. It’s a joke. All right?
Don’t sacrifice the truth or your values and have the wisdom to pick your battles. Not everything needs to be a fight. Not everything needs to be an argument. Sometimes, many times, the wisest course of action is to listen, not speak.
There’s been many times when people have said stuff to me, and I’ve wanted to correct them. And, you know, the Holy Spirit just says, hold your tongue.
You know, this has nothing to do with theology or religion or anything, but you would be surprised how many imbeciles go to baseball games. And they always sit behind me, and they’re trying to impress their girlfriend with knowledge about baseball. I know. And they start getting stuff wrong, right and left. And it is so hard for me not to turn around and say, “Dear, if baseball is important to you, you need to get a smarter boyfriend.” You know, I just want to say, “Actually, that’s not true.”
I did it at a high school football game. This guy. “Why did they call that play?” “Well,” I said, “holding in the end zone is a safety.” “Holding in the end zone is not a safety.” “Yeah, it is.” “Well, it’s not in college or pros. I watch college and pros all the time. It’s not a safety.”
It’s like, yeah, it’s a safety. Holding in the end zone is a safety. And this guy, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Okay, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Turn to my wife and said, “Holding in the end zone is a safety.” Just telling you, look in a rule book.
Pick your battles. You don’t need to be right all the time. Sometimes you need to talk. Sometimes you need to be quiet. Have the courage to speak when it’s time to speak. Have the patience and endurance to be quiet when it’s time to be quiet. And pray to God for the wisdom to know the difference.
And as much as it is possible, live at peace with all people.
And finally, humility, not false humility, that just goes around. Oh, I’m just the worst. I’m a scumbag. I’m a loser. Nobody likes to hear that. Stop it. All right. In fact, don’t talk to yourself that way either. That’s the devil. You’re just repeating what the devil yes, you’re a sinner. You’re also saved by grace, and you’re a child of God. Alright? So whenever I hear those voices in my head, I just tell the devil to shut up. Alright? Be quiet. you’re fired. You don’t get to say that to me anymore. I know I’m a sinner, but I also know that I’m forgiven and saved.
And I need to be honest about my real struggles and my weaknesses. All right, we’re all vague about our sin. “I’m a sinner.” Well, tell me how. “Well, yeah, I’m not going to share that with you.” But you need to have people you can share that with.
I used to have a friend named Mike. And he struggled with same-sex attraction. He struggled with homosexuality. He was a Christian. He knew he couldn’t live out his life that way, and so he was making a commitment to celibacy. But if he happened to, you know, have an attraction toward women, he was open to that idea.
And so Mike and I would go for these walks in the morning, and we would just talk. And Mike, there was a big billboard outside of town. This is back in the day when they had all these billboards on freeways. I guess they still do. And this one was advertising cigarettes. Now, cigarettes are really bad for your health. And so how do you advertise cigarettes? By showing pictures of really healthy people.
And so the couple, they had a couple on this billboard, they said smoke these cigarettes. And completely unrelated, they had this beautiful young couple on the beach. A guy, tanned and muscular in his little shorts, and this really smoking hot girl in a bikini. And you know, if you smoke, then the implication was if you smoke cigarettes, you’ll look like them, alright?
So Mike’s talking to me. He goes, “You know that billboard outside of town with that couple in their bathing suits?” I go, “Yeah, I know that billboard.” He goes, “Do you ever look at that guy?” And I go, “You know, Mike, no, I don’t. That’s not my struggle. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t even envy him, you know. I don’t look at him and go, ooh, he’s got a hot. I just don’t look at the guy. I mean, I know there’s a guy there, barely, but I don’t look at him.”
He goes, he just kind of sighed. He goes, “Man, I struggle with that.” I go, “I understand.” I said, “Want to know how many stripes are on that bikini? Because I know that. I know that.” And I said, “Here’s the deal, Mike. Let’s go to the altar, and I will pray for you and your homosexual struggles, and you can pray for me and my heterosexual struggles.” All right? We all got struggles. We don’t need to share those with everybody. Everybody’s not safe. But you need to have people that you can talk about what’s going on in your life to and be honest about your struggles and weaknesses. That’s humility.
But really, what humility boils down to is thinking more about God and more about others and just not dwelling on yourself. Oftentimes, people think shy people are really humble. Actually, shy people are not always real humble. Shy people sometimes are often very selfish. Now, if you’re shy, I’m not saying you are. I’m just saying there’s no, there’s no, shyness does not give you the upper hand on humility.
Because really, what we talk about, shy people, they’re shy. And we ask, why are you shy? They say, what? I’m very, what? Self-conscious. That’s the opposite of humility. If you’re always worried about what everybody else is thinking about you, you got a problem. You’re thinking about yourself too much.
Listen, when I was young, I was so concerned with what other people were thinking about me. And then I got to be middle-aged, and I thought, maybe it doesn’t matter that much. And now that I’m my age, I realize they weren’t thinking about me at all. They didn’t even have an opinion.
You know, “Hey, back in the day, what did you think about me?” “Who are you again?” “Okay, got it.” All right.
Two ways to grow in humility. Worship God. Worship means to bow down to somebody who’s greater than you. Worship God every day. However you worship God. Doesn’t have to be in singing. It could be in verbal praise. It can be in studying your Scriptures. It could be just kneeling when you pray. But in some way acknowledge every day that God is God and you’re not and you’re good with that.
And then serve others without looking for recognition. This is a great test for my humility. When I do something, because I’m not great on acts of service, but when I do something behind the scenes that nobody notices, I can tell my humility level by how much I really hope I get caught doing it.
One of the best nights of my life, my wife worked at 911, and most of the time when she worked at 911, I’d be in the TV room watching a ball game or something, not doing anything. Or maybe I’d be reading or doing something productive.
But this one night, I just, I just, I usually would do the dishes, but I was doing the dishes, and she came home on her break and caught me doing the dishes. How good was that? She came home and said, “Oh my!” It’s like whoo. Yeah. So I try to time it, right? Well, all sorts of nights I do the dishes, and she didn’t come home and catch me. I never got any oh mys for those.
You know, the other day the floor was a mess. I don’t care. I can get, you can, I got a high mess threshold. There could be more crumbs on that floor than there were. But I also know my wife; crumbs were bothering her. I could tell it reached that level. I knew the level.
So by golly, she’s at work, and I just took that broom and I just swept that floor. And she got home the next day and I’m just looking at that floor like a nice looking floor. She didn’t say nothing and it bothered me.
That’s not humility, is it? It’s not even love, alright? Love is whether she notices or not. She’ll be happier with a clean floor, and I just want her to be happier.
And so, dear ones, a great way to train yourself in humility is to do behind-the-scenes things that you don’t get recognized for. You just say, well, it’s just the right thing to do, and I’m glad I did it.
And you know who does actually recognize it? God. And He says, you’ll even be rewarded for that. He says, not a cup of cold water given in my name will go without recognition.
I do some nice things, and now I’m doing, I’m bragging about it. But no, I do some nice things for homeless people. You know, they’re Bremerton, and I always wish somebody at the church was there to catch me doing it. But you never are. And I don’t do it all that much. I don’t, you know, I’m not that great of a guy. But that shows, you know, that there’s still what that thing in me, that that is living for the approval of men instead of just to humbly serve others and serve God.
But practice that and recognize it in yourself. I’m being truthful with you. Recognize it in yourself and it will make you more humble. You’ll recognize. No, I’m just doing this because it’s the right thing to do. And God is good and I’m grateful. And who cares who notices? Who cares how many atta boys you get?
You know what? Attaboy or atta girl is really going to work and it’s going to heal you infinitely more than all the praise you get on this earth? Well done, good and faithful servant.
Live for that and let everything else go. You do not need the praises of men. You do not need the adoration of people. Just please God. Doesn’t that simplify your life? I just have to make one person in this whole universe happy. And He already likes me. He already likes me.
Be humble. I want to say one more thing. I know this has been long, but you know what? Paul put a lot of stuff in here, so it’s his fault. Paul, why did you make Pastor Kevin preach so long?
It’s impossible to do these things. There’s 12 things. I counted them. 12 things. Paul says this is how you love other people. Do these 12 things.
I just told you it’s pretty much impossible to humbly serve without yearning for recognition. It’s impossible to do these things, but it’s not. Because He who began a good work in you will bring it unto perfection. And the God of the universe, Jesus who walked on the earth, lives inside of you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I just want to look at this list once again. Not going to preach through the whole thing, just list it.
Sincere love. Let your love be sincere and without hypocrisy. Jesus loves sincerely without hypocrisy.
Let your love be discerning. Detest what is evil and love what is good. Jesus detests what is evil and loves what is good.
Let your love be full of family affection and endurance. Jesus loves with family affection and endurance.
Let your love be full of honor. Jesus is full of honor.
Let your love be passionate for God. Jesus was passionate for His relationship with the Father.
Let your love be patient. Jesus is patient with you. And me.
Let your love be full of joy and hope and persistent in prayer. Jesus was persistent in prayer.
Let your love be generous. God is generous. Jesus is generous.
Let your love show hospitality. Hello? You’re invited to his table tonight. He always makes us feel welcome.
Let your love have good will towards your enemies. Well, who taught us to do that? Jesus taught us to do that.
Let your love have empathy. God knows that we’re made of dust. Listen, God is the most empathetic being in the whole universe. How do we know? He became one of us. Talk about empathy. “I know what it’s like to be a human being,” the God of the universe.
Work for peace, work for harmony. Jesus wants to bring us together into his everlasting family, full of peace and love.
And be humble. Christianity is the only religion in the world, dear ones, with a humble king. Allah didn’t become a baby in a manger and poop in his diapers. Sorry to be graphic, but I want to make the point.
The God of the universe nursed at a woman’s breast, slept with donkeys, grew up in a dusty, desolate, enslaved town to the Roman Empire, got splinters in His hand working at His father’s carpenter shop, and took nails from the people He loved.
We have a humble king. We have a humble king.
And so, can we do these things? I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.
Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus. These great characteristics of love that overwhelm us. I can’t do that. I’m not that good of a person. Holy Spirit, make us more like Christ. We ask you, make us more like Christ. Let the love that was in Christ be in us.
And let church and our family, our neighborhood, our workplace, be the place where we work that out, exercise it, train in it, and grow in it. Whether my wife and kids realize it, Lord, make me love them more. Whether I get rewarded for it or not, whether the churches realize it, Lord, make me love them more.
Jesus loved to the uttermost, and they nailed him to a cross.
But because of that, He is highly exalted. What does the Bible say? Humble yourself and you will be exalted. Exalt yourself and you will be humbled. Dear Jesus, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Father, in Your grace and power, make us like Him. In His Name we pray, Amen. And you’re invited to his table tonight because he loves you. You don’t even have to be dressed up. You’re invited. Come and eat and say thank you if you got a mind to. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to do. Thank you, Jesus.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
