August 3, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
All right, Romans 15:1-13 tonight. We’re getting there. Romans has 16 chapters. We’re halfway through chapter 15. We’re going to finish Romans before we finish Imagine Heaven. We’re going to finish, we’re going to finish Revelation before we finish Imagine Heaven. We’re going to be in heaven before we finish Imagine Heaven.
All right.
1 Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. 2 Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. 4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. 5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice. 7 Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God. 8 For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, 9 and so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praise to your name. 10 Again it says, Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people! 11 And again, Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples praise him! 12 And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; the Gentiles will hope in him. 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:1-13, CSB)
God, may the words of my mouth, the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight.
All right, we’re still in the “therefore.” We’re almost done with the “therefore.” Remember Romans 1-11. Paul is giving us two big truths.
And the truth is this, that you are not justified by works of the law. You’re not justified by outward observance to the old covenant, that Jesus has come and fulfilled the old covenant, and you are made righteous with God and justified with God by putting your faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. You are justified by faith. You have peace with God by faith. By putting your trust in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, His work for you and His life, death, and resurrection.
And you say, yep, yep, that’s what I need. I need your mercy. Lord, I need you. I’m yours. I’m yours. And God accepts you on that. God accepts you if you believe on Him and trust Him. He accepts you on that. You didn’t have to live a sinless week this week to be accepted by God. In the Name of Jesus, your sins are forgiven. And he says that applies and that was stunning enough for first century Jews. Here’s the second stunner: that applies to the Gentiles equally as it applies to you. Those are the two big truths that Paul is laying out to the Church in Rome.
You are justified by faith. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord by faith. And that is true equally for the Gentiles and the Jews.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23, CSB)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23, CSB)
And you know what the distinction is? None. None. Same. One people of God by faith in Christ. Then he starts with the “therefores.” We’ve been going through the “therefores.” This section continues to “therefores.” And it starts by saying, by reiterating what he says in chapter 14. Those who are strong, bear with those who are weak. All right? How many of you have met or run into obnoxious, annoying, immature Christians? Kathleen has obviously run into a few. All right, and what does he say? Bear with them.
How many of you have run into legalistic or pharisaical Christians? Bear with them. How many of you have run into erroneous Christians? Bear with them. Bear with them. Maybe you’re that one that other people are bearing with. But we are to love and accept one another.
And love is, as we’re looking at all these “therefore” from Paul in Romans, the message kind of just keeps reiterating, oh, it’s love. Oh, it’s love. The big “therefore,” the big application, the takeaway. You know, you always want to have the takeaway. The big “so what?” God has died for us, Jesus forgives us. We are justified by faith. It’s the same for everybody. And then the “okay, well, how do I what do I do with that?” Love. Love. That’s the biggie.
In fact, Paul says in Corinthians there’s three virtues: faith, hope, and love. He says the greatest of these is love. I’ll tell you why. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Well, when we get there, you’re not going to need a truckload of faith. “I wonder if God’s going to move.” Well, Gee, he’s lighting up the sky. He’s everywhere. He’s right before me. I mean, when you’re in heaven, you’re not going to need a great lot. You’re not going to need hope. You’re swimming in it. You’re swimming in the realization of your hope. But you know what lasts? Love. Love lasts.
And love is a virtue. So is hope. We’re going to talk about both of them today.
We tend to treat the three great virtues of the Christian faith faith, hope, and love as feelings or affections. Right? I mean, our whole culture celebrates that sensation of feeling in love. And I will admit to you, it is easier to practice the virtue of love when your feelings are corresponding. It’s easier to be loving toward people that you feel love toward. It’s harder to be loving toward people that you don’t feel love toward. But we’re commanded to do both.
And in fact, you know, the great Jesus says what? Anybody can love their friends. Anybody can love the people who love them. He says love those who can’t pay you back. Love your enemies.
The “therefore” is love. We are to love one another. We are to accept one another. Our model is Christ. The Bible says, Romans says, while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. While we were yet enemies, Christ loved us. The prince of heaven. I bet he had it pretty good in heaven. I’m just thinking, sitting next to the Father on the throne, multitudes of multitudes of angels worshiping you. Elders casting their crowns before you. You know, “Your word is my command.” Everybody up there, “Yeah, your word is my command. That’s the rule. You know, you say it, we do it.”
I mean, I think it’s probably pretty cool for Jesus in eternity. I bet it was a lot more cool for Jesus in eternity than in a woman’s womb or in a smelly cradle or in a poor, impoverished town oppressed by the Romans. Dusty, dirty Nazareth. I mean, He didn’t even have the luxuries of this world. And then He chose 12 fishermen to hang out with. Fishermen have two prevailing characteristics. They stink and they lie. That’s kind of what fishermen are known for. “It was this big!”
So He became like us in every way. And He loved those who nailed Him to the cross. And even then He said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”
Christ is our model of love. Christ is our model of love. That’s what he says. The insults that were meant for you have fallen on me. The curses that were meant for you have fallen on Him.
3 For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. (Romans 15:3, CSB)
And we are now to walk in the way of love. That’s the big “so what”
Now, praise God, we have help doing that. The Holy Spirit comes into our life and sheds abroad the love of God. That’s also from Romans. The Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts.
It is amazing that my affections of love, not only my actions of love, but my affections of love have grown since I’ve been a Christian. And this is true. This is not flattery. This is not. But whenever, 100% of the time, I stand before a group of people and do this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, talk about God from the Bible, I feel strong affections of love for the people I’m talking to. So right now you’re on my good list. All right? If afterwards you complain or gripe about something, it might change by the time I get home. But right now, you’re on my good list. I love you. I love you.
But even if I didn’t feel like it, God gives us the ability. And there are schools of love, right? Hypocrites love humanity. Followers of Jesus love their spouse and their kids. Anybody can love humanity out there. You know, “I love this group of people. I love that group of people.” How about the people you interact with?
I tell men all the time, your job is to love your wife as Christ loves the church. Don’t be selfish. Life is not all about your toys, your money, your pleasure, your happiness, your comfort, your success.
Love your wife. If you want to learn to be like Jesus, love your wife. And I actually have a very simple “how to.” I didn’t bring it tonight. A very simple “How to love your wife.” It’s only the first volume, or actually, it’s 15 volumes. It’s the first publication. It’s 15 volumes, 500 pages a book. And the second is going to come out. I think there’s like 10 of those. And they will give you very specific instructions on how to understand a woman and love her. This is very simple. Just read that and you’ll be good.
No, it’s easier than that. You might not think it’s easier, but it is. And I learned it. I learned. I’ve been married a while and I learned it. Here it goes. I don’t do this every day. I probably should, but I do it several times a week. I look at my wife and I simply say these words: What can I do to help you feel loved today?
Now, she’s a good wife. She doesn’t say some of you are tempted to say she doesn’t say, this is the worst thing to say: If you loved me, you would know. No, he does not know. He’s a man. He’s dumb about these sorts of things. He can be brilliant about other things. You could be amazed at his brilliance about other things. But about how to love you, he’s like, “I don’t know. I said, ‘hello.'” Just tell him. When he asks, just tell him. For years, all right? You know, we’d have people come over. I found out this is pretty universal. People would be coming to our house, right? And my dear, sweet, lovely bride would turn into psycho, clean-the-universe-before-they-come woman. You know, and, you know, “Vacuum everything!”
We have, we have renters. They moved in, they’re moving into our rental house. And I was vacuuming a carpet for the second time after it had been shampooed in the middle of that. The carpet had been vacuumed, shampooed. And I said, what do you want me to do? Vacuum the carpet. I said, “There’s more dirt, you know, in a germ-free lab than there is on this carpet at this point.” But I didn’t say that.
What did I do? I vacuumed a clean carpet, which was actually great because that got me out of doing another job. So that was pretty easy. But I found out, just ask her.
And, you know, when we were first married, I didn’t know this. She would start getting all psycho and clean and everything. I thought the way to help her deal with her OCD is sarcasm, that that would be helpful. That was not for some reason. My humor went unappreciated at those times.
Then I found out a way when I had small children, and this was helpful. Instead of asking her, “What, what can I do?” I would simply tell the children, I said, “Come with me. We’re leaving.”
That made everybody happy because she could clean so much better without the kids there. And me and the kids did not want to be there. And so everybody was like, that was a win for everybody. “Let’s go. We’re leaving, Mom till this house is clean.” It was all good.
Then the kids left, and now I have to, but, but she’s good. She’s figured it out. She doesn’t say because she used to say this, I used to say, I used to, you know, “What can I do? We got people coming over. What can I do?” And she’d say, “Can’t you see?” Right? “Can’t you see what needs to be done?” And I would honestly tell her. I’d say, “No. No, the house seems fine to me.” “What do you mean, it’s fine?”
But now she’s learned. She’s really great. She’s learned. She says “Vacuum and clean the bathrooms.” Great, I’ll vacuum and clean the bathrooms. I’ll do it. And the guests are coming. “Can you help me put the sheets on the bed?” I can do that. I can do that.
Ask! You want to know how to love your kids? They will actually tell you. They’ll tell you. They have a love language. If you have a kid who’s always coming up and either, you know, if it’s a boy always coming up and wrestling with you on the couch or something like that, his love language is touch. “Come on, dad, let’s wrestle.” You know, if you have a kid who’s always like, “Could you help me? Could you help me?” Service, right? “Can you come play with me? Come play with ” Time. Some kids just need words of encouragement, but they’ll tell you.
But that’s home is the school of love. Neighborhood, church, workplace, all schools of love.
But the word love is completely irrelevant until it becomes concretely directed at a human being within your proximity. You follow? That’s the people you love. Those are the people you love. And some of those people are going to annoy you from time to time.
All right. We need endurance and encouragement that come from God. To live in this broken world, we need encouragement and endurance that come from God. We all have experiences that take the wind out of our sails. A bad diagnosis from the doctor, a divorce, a loss of a job, a prodigal child. We all have experiences that take the wind out of our sails.
And we need endurance. We need encouragement. Encouragement gives endurance. It gives us courage. That’s what the word means. It gives us courage to keep going.
And Paul says this endurance and encouragement come from two sources. He says they come from the Scriptures. You know what Scriptures Paul was talking about? The Old Testament Scriptures. How many of you know the Old Testament Scriptures are encouraging? They’re encouraging. If you read them, they’re in, I’ve heard people say, “Well, you know, God’s a big meanie in the Old Testament.” No, Israel’s really stupid in the Old Testament, which is encouraging because God hangs with them and we’re really stupid. And that’s encouraging because God hangs with us.
What we see in the old covenant is Israel being unfaithful and God being incredibly faithful. Will He punish them? After a thousand years. You’re not going to have a thousand years to disobey God. And even then, He brought them back and promised them a Messiah.
The Scriptures bring encouragement. Don’t just listen to me talk about them once a week. Read the Bible, and you will not read the Bible without a plan. Have a plan, and I will tell you. From my experience, everybody’s different, but from my experience, any plan will do. As long as I have a plan, I mean, I got the NIV Student Bible years ago. It has a three-year plan to read through the whole Bible. It has a six-month plan to do a survey of the whole Bible. It has 14 two-week plans to study different topics of the Bible. Three years, six months, 14 weeks. You’re getting on four years of Bible reading. Just checking off little boxes in your NIV Student Bible. You’ll read a lot of the Bible. Well, you read all the Bible.
We had a plan a few years ago, right? We read through the Bible chronologically in a year. How many of you read your Bibles more? You know, we had a plan.
I went through a difficult time a year, two years ago. I was going through a difficult time. I planted myself in the Psalms. I was reading other parts of the Bible. But mostly every day, I just went back to the Psalms, and I just read through 150 Psalms every month. Five psalms a day. Just every month. I just read through the Psalms until I got done, and then I just got done.
Recently, it’s like, “Okay, I got the Psalms. I’ve been reading the Psalms.” I said, “What now, Lord?”
And I said, “I’m going to read through the whole Bible again. Only this time I’m just going to do a chapter a day. Three years. And what I’m going to do is when I finish that chapter, whatever struck me in that chapter, I’m going to pray about that.” That way for the next three years, I’m going to pray the Bible. Yeah, well it’s good. Do it. Try a plan. Get the, get the, get the NIV Student Bible. It’s got little boxes you can check. It’s like, it’s great. Yeah, just make a plan, any plan.
But read your Bible. Read your Bible. It won’t hurt you none. In fact, it will encourage you and give you endurance.
The other thing that Paul says gives us encouragement, endurance is united worship. United worship. Listen, people say, “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.” You do to be a good one. You do to be a good one. “I can read my Bible and I watch so and so on TV.” Yeah, well you’re not rubbing shoulders with any less-than-perfect people on TV, are you? You’re not laying hands and praying for people on TV, are you? You’re not loving real, concrete, flesh-and-blood human beings on TV, are you?
“Well, preacher, I’m not much of a church-going man, but when I’m out in the garden, I talk to God.” Well, good. You’re selfish. “What do you mean I’m selfish?” Well, you’re not in church serving others. “Well, I serve in my community.” Yeah, right. I have never known anybody to have a vital walk with Jesus without being united with And it can be small, it can be big. I don’t care, house church. But without being with the two or three, without being with the “one another’s” The New Testament is stock full of “one another’s.”
John Wesley said the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion. In our evangelical culture, we talk so much about quiet time, which is important. I just said read your Bible, go to your prayer closet, have your one on one time with God on a daily basis. But then what? Gather with the ecclesia. Gather with the people of God.
We need one another. And if you don’t come, one of two things is going to happen. God gave you a gift to impart to somebody else and you selfishly stayed home and they didn’t get that gift. The other thing that happened is God gave somebody else a gift to deliver to you and if you stayed home, you missed it. Let me just ask if anybody else has this experience. The days you want to go the least are often the days where you experience the most from God. Anybody ever have that experience? Like, “I don’t want to go.” I mean, I’m 66 years old, I’m a pastor, I tell my wife, “I don’t want to go to church.” She goes, “Why not?” “Oh, the sermons are too long. You know, they don’t laugh at my jokes.” She says, “Well, they’ve heard them 14 times.” “I know, but you know, there’s not enough jokes to go around.” So anyway.
And she says, “Well, you have to go.” And I go, “Why?” She goes, “Well, because God wants you to go and you’re the pastor.”
And so I go, but it’s those days where oftentimes I am met. And you’ve probably had that experience too. It’s like “I don’t want to go to church.” And you get up and you drag yourself there, and the Lord is there for you.
And what does that mean? It means the devil’s not omniscient. But he knew God had something for you that day, and he was trying to stop it from happening.
Listen, you ought to have a little attitude in your life. You’re not going to let the devil win. All right? Right, Jamie? That’s right. Punch that devil in the nose. I’ll tell you what. I think he’s probably more afraid of you than anybody else in this room. I know Stevin is. Well, you try. Ask her. Just ask her. What do you want? There you go. Or read that 15,000 page. You know that’ll help.
All right. Welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you.
7 Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God. (Romans 15:7, CSB)
Important context here. Paul is talking to Jews and Gentiles here. This is the whole point. He’s saying, “Jews, welcome the Gentiles into the family of God. Gentiles, welcome the Jews into your community and into your life. You have been different. You have been estranged. You have been enemies. And now you are brothers and sisters. Welcome one another.”
Whatever cultural differences we experience in 21st century America pale into insignificance compared to the cultural difference that Paul was dealing with in the first century church when he makes this incredible proclamation that the Jewish Messiah is now the Gentile savior and that they are called to come together at table, at fellowship, at community, and worship Yahweh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together under Jesus, the Messiah.
And it is hard for them to get their heads around. Peter goes to Cornelius’ house and comes back to the church, and they say, “What were you doing?” And he has to say he had a dream. And then they spoke in tongues. “What was I supposed to do?” “Well, I guess so.” And then they were amazed. “God has poured out his spirit on the Gentiles?” They were amazed, Kathleen, it’s like God pouring out his spirit on Yankee fans. They’re amazed. Yeah. “Why did you go into his house? That’s against the law.” God had to give him a dream three times. “Eat the unclean thing.” “God, I’ll never touch what’s unclean.” “What I have called clean is no longer unclean.” And so this is the context.
But what’s the bigger picture for us? We are to welcome one another without regard for race, economy, gender, or age. We are to welcome one another. It just, we are, we are all co-heirs with Christ. We are all brothers and sisters. Black, white. I don’t like those terms. I wish our culture had different terms. We’re all just, we’re all, we’re all, we’re dark brown or light brown, really. You know, some of us are a little pink, but I mean, we’re just listen, all our blood is red. And really there’s, there’s, there’s you can’t find a non-mixed race out there. Everybody’s doing their little ancestry. It’s like, you know, you do your little DNA, you do your little spit in the tube, and you come back and you’re everything. If your family’s been in America for a while, we’ve just co-mingled. We have co-mingled. All right? It is stupid to make distinctions based on race.
Now, there are, race has created cultural differences. So what’s the deal? Welcome people with cultural differences. Other cultures aren’t evil. They’re just not the ones you’re used to.
You do this when you get married. You tend to get married to somebody who’s pretty similar to you in culture, but their family was a different culture than your family was, right?
Do you know that there are actually barbarian, heathen, heretic, horrible people who celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve? It’s like, what kind of family did they, what kind of degenerate family do they grow up in? You celebrate Christmas on Christmas morning like good, normal Americans. But there are people who do it.
Then there are people like me. You know, my wife, she’s a Christmas is the day. She’s getting better about that. But you know, her family, big deal. December 25th, Christmas, big day. And I’m like, well, we’re busy the 25th. Let’s do it the 27th. It’s like, “What are you saying? Did you just say Jesus isn’t God? What are you saying?” “No, I said the 27th.” You know, it’s like, “Is that all right?” I don’t know.
The churches have cultures. I remember I pastored this church, Oakdale Community United Methodist Church. If there was ever a name to yawn at. So I’m a new young pastor. I’m sitting there with all these people who’ve been a part of Oakdale Community United Methodist Church since the generation after the flood. And as a new young pastor who thinks he’s got great ideas, it’s like, “Hey, let’s change the name of the church to something more appealing.”
And you’d have thought I said, “Hey, let’s boil your grandchildren and eat them for Thanksgiving.” They’re like, “Change the name of the church?” Oh, my gosh. I thought I was going to get canned that night just for that suggestion. And I was at least smart enough to know that’s not a, you know, that was not a I was, “Fine, the name stays. We’ll keep the name. We’re good.”
But people are different. Accept one another.
Economics. One of the biggest divides in churches today in America is economics. You know, there are rich neighborhoods and there are poor neighborhoods. There are rich denominations and there are poor denominations. All right? I blew it going out of seminary. Episcopalian, Presbyterian, those guys live well. Good pensions there. Methodists are okay, but the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians, they did the best. All right? Grace Covenant? No, we’re not well, never mind. Sad story. All right. But there are economic differences.
One of the reasons we dress down in American church is because we used to dress up. And people wouldn’t come to church because they didn’t, they couldn’t afford to meet the dress code.
It’s been very interesting to me in the late 20th century and now in the 21st century that people with affluence tend to dress down for church and poor people tend to dress up. And both of their motives are right. The people who dress down do so because they don’t want to put up a barrier from somebody coming to church by wearing expensive jewelry and clothing. The people who dress up who are poor do so because in their poverty, they want to present before God their best. And so it’s funny, when I preach here, you know, I can wear a T shirt and sweatpants and I’ll be good. And I go to Haiti, and it’s a white shirt and a tie.
And here’s what I’ve discovered. The instincts of both those are right. The motives of both those cultures are right. It doesn’t matter if you dress up or dress down. What matters is, is your motive for how you dress loving people? And in both those cultures, that’s what it is.
All right. Gender. There’s no male or female. All right? Now, not to get into the popular There is male and female. God made two, male and female. But in terms of Christ’s view on people, we are just like Jew and Gentile, male and female. How do men get right with God? By putting their faith in Christ and believing upon Him. How do women get right with God? By obeying their husbands. No, by putting their faith in Christ. Same thing. Same thing. You’re not a Mormon, ladies. You don’t have to hope your husband makes it to the highest heaven so you can get there, too. You can just pass him by. You just, “Hey, you don’t want to pray, you don’t read your Bible. I’ll pray for you. I’ll pray. God get you. But I’m not holding back my spirituality because of you.” And then, you know, at night when he falls asleep, you know the prayer, right? Holy Spirit, in the Name of Jesus, sic him, sic him. Get him. Get him. Get him. Get him. Get him. All right. Let God do the work.
I’ll tell you what. Christianity has, for centuries, Christianity has by and large been the church of the poor and the church of the women. It’s been the church of the people who traditionally do not have power in culture. The humble.
Age, age, old and young, your young men and your young women. I will pour out my spirit on your young men and your young women. Even your old men will dream dreams. I have made, since I’ve been a pastor, I don’t know, there’s just I’ve had this deep commitment, and I see it, and it drives me crazy. I see places, oftentimes, churches I visit other times. I see places where it appears to me that kids are seen as a nuisance and not as people and not as potential disciples of Jesus. And I’ve seen people who’ve had my job, who work really hard building relationships with the adults, but don’t invest in building relationships with the kids. And it’s driven me nuts. I have always felt like, man, kids are people. What? No junior Holy Spirit? No.
And kids, when kids get the Holy Spirit, they’re, like, unafraid. I mean, they get words of knowledge and prophesy and pray for people. I want every kid that comes to the Firehouse Church, I want every kid that grows up in the Firehouse Church not to have these memories when they’re old like, “Oh, church. That grumpy old pastor, he was a fuddy duddy.” And, you know, “That time I, you know, stuck my tongue out at him.” Not that anybody would. Not that any child would do that, but, you know, just in case one did, you know, “he didn’t come back with anger or hatred. He just stuck his tongue back out at me, you know, to you, too.”
So, no, I want And I want people who are old to be honored and not put aside and seen for, and be seen for the wisdom, beauty, and grace with which they’ve lived their lives. We want, you know, and we’re not just after the rich, young, energetic, successful.
I remember being a part of a youth ministry when I was a kid, and the youth ministry that I was a part of intentionally targeted the jocks and the cheerleaders. Their strategy wasn’t evil. Their strategy was, if we get them, if we get the popular kids, the rest of the kids will say, “oh, that’s cool,” and they’ll come, too. So I get it.
But it never, it just didn’t rub me right. You know, when I’m walking over to the most popular kid in school and there’s the lonely nerd over there, and I’m just like, “Why don’t you go talk to that kid?” “Well, but if he comes, other kids aren’t going to come. He’s not going to bring the whole football team with him.” There’s something about that. It’s like, yeah, but he matters. He matters to God.
And so age, you get the picture, Jew and Gentile falls to the ground. All these social, theological, all these things fall to the ground before Christ. And that gives us encouragement and endurance.
And finally, the thing that gives us encouragement and endurance, Paul says this in the final verse. And this verse kind of sums up Romans. The rest of Romans is just greetings and Paul explaining his ministry. But this verse kind of sums it up. In fact, this sounds very much like a benediction, doesn’t it? Romans 5:13.
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13, CSB)
That’s kind of what we prayed for tonight. This is a benediction. Paul is saying He is the God of hope. And again, hope is a virtue. Hope is something we lay hold of. Hope is something we practice when we have no hope. Hope is something we practice when we get, you know, when we get the bad diagnosis. Hope is something we practice when, when the wind is taken out of our sails by some event, and we hold on to hope. And hope is the assurance of good things, that we’re playing a game we’ve already won.
Therefore, hope gives joy and peace. Circumstances give happiness, but hope gives joy and peace. You cannot take my hope away. And because you can’t take my hope away, you can’t take my joy away. You can’t take my peace away.
I love what one Christian teacher said about martyrs. He says, “You know, if the world gets so angry at us, they threaten to kill us. It’s like what? You’re trying now to threaten me with heaven. You can’t threaten me with heaven. I have joy and I have hope, and I have God in the midst of all circumstances. And therefore, I can have peace. And because I have joy and peace, I can have endurance.” And that’s what this thing requires. This side, this world requires endurance.
And I’ll go back again to one of the most powerful things that hit me as we’ve been studying through Romans was Romans 8:17-18, where Paul says in Romans 8:17 that we are co-heirs with Christ. Great hope. So long as we share in his sufferings. Oh bummer, Paul. What a buzzkill that was. So suffering and glory are co-joined. You don’t get one without the other in this world.
But then Romans 8:18 says this.
But I consider the sufferings of this present life to not be compared, cannot be compared, with the glory to be revealed to us.
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)
So they’re inseparable, but they’re incomparable. And I will hold on to this. And if I’m wrong in heaven, you can tell me I’m wrong. But I will tell you till the day I drop: the troubles of this world which I do not want to belittle, which I do not want to say are insignificant, which I do not want to say you don’t feel and don’t experience, and I don’t feel and I don’t experience. And they’re not heart-rending and struggles and the whole bit. But I want to tell you this, that there is going to come a day, and that day is fast approaching, when all those troubles will seem like a gnat’s eyebrow compared to the glory that you will drink in forever.
Believe it. It’ll change your life. Other people will look at you and say, “How do you stay on your feet during this?” I have hope. I choose hope. I believe in hope. Therefore, I have endurance and encouragement.
And dear ones, our hope is real. It’s real. I tell people all the time, I’m living for a real hope. If not, guess what? I die a happy idiot. But our hope is real. I’ve had too many stories, too many stories in this book. I believe. I really do. I believe it. I believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I believe He’s the Son of God, the creator of the cosmos, became a man, lived a sinless life, took nails, bled, and somehow that blood affected me and cleansed me. And now I’m His son. I’m the brother of Jesus and the son of God the Father. And I’m a co-heir with Christ.
I think it’s all real. I think it’s true. I think every ache and pain, every mental problem that we have, every, every, every struggle that we have is going to be stripped away in the light of that presence and the beauty of that glory.
And then I believe that our big enemies, sin, Satan, and death, the trifecta of evil, my propensity to sin, my propensity, as Paul says in Romans 7, to do the things I hate to do and not to do the things I like, I should do and feel guilty about it. I don’t know if that, is that true for anybody else? Anybody else feel guilty about not being a perfect Christian? All right. Or some of you made it. Some of you got perfection going on. All right? I still got, you know, it’s gonna be gone.
And that little voice in my head, you know, that little voice in my head, “Go ahead, Kevin, do that. Go ahead, Kevin, do that. Go ahead. God, God will forgive you. Go ahead, do it.” Then I go ahead and do it. And then that voice just switches like that. “Oh, and you call yourself a Christian? You’re a scumbag. You’re a loser. You’re pathetic. How do you pastor a church? You should quit. What’s wrong with you? You got no reason to be on this planet.” I hear all those things.
You know what? One day, the Bible says, He’s going to put that little cockroach under my feet. I’m going to do a little Holy Spirit dance. What you saying now, little Kevin-torturing demon?
Sin, Satan, death. You go in there and hospice is there, and they got you hooked up to machines, and your breathing is slowing down, and your blood pressure is dropping. And all of a sudden that veil between this world and the next gets thinner and thinner and thinner. And all of a sudden, you have not lost one ounce of consciousness. You’re more conscious than you’ve ever been before. And for somehow you’re sitting up on the roof looking down at people crying over somebody that vaguely looks like you, but they don’t look well. And then all of a sudden, it hits you. It’s like, “Oh, I died. And yet I’ve never felt more alive. My brain has stopped functioning, yet my mind is more energized and alert than it’s ever been before. Oh, you know what dying meant because of what Jesus did, I live into all that I was created to live into, and all my brothers and sisters were created to live into. Our enemies are defeated, and we will be like him. We’re a new creation. Life with God as it always has been intended. God is re-Edening the earth. We’re going back to the garden.” Anybody remember Crosby, Stills, Nash and young? Back to the garden. All right. No? Okay, Brian? Yeah, all right. I got it on my computer. I can play it for you later. All right.
But anyway, we’re going back by going forward, we’re going back. It’s very interesting. The Bible begins in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 in a garden. Genesis 2 and 3. It’s in a garden. Guess how it ends in Revelation 22? In a garden. Everything God intended, He’s getting back. Everything God intended, He’s getting back.
And we are, and here’s what the Bible says. God wants family. He wants a big family. You know, He wants a big family. I remember There’s something about big families, you know, small families a little easier, but there’s something about you go into a big family where there’s love and there’s all this chaos, right?
There’s a great movie. It’s an old one, I don’t know. It’s called “While You Were Sleeping.” Anybody see that movie? It’s a rom com, right? But it’s about this lonely girl without family and she saves a guy’s life who she has a crush on who doesn’t even know her, and then she lies that she’s his fiance.
And this big loud family that love each other, and they all have these personalities, adopt her into the family, and then she falls in love with the other brother, anyway and all that. But it’s beautiful to see just the, the. They have Christmas, they have meals together, they argue, they go back and forth. But it’s just beautiful to see the chaotic love in that family. And it’s wonderful. And they get that movie right. It’s wonderful to see how a lonely person just goes, “Oh, my gosh, this is a drink that I’ve wanted my whole life. This is what I’ve wanted my whole life, to be a part of a family.”
And we’ve got that in our homes. We got the nuclear family, we got it at church. But God is going to have a forever family. Jesus is our big brother and God the Father is our Father. And we will be like Him.
And dear ones, that’s, that’s, forever is a long time. And we’re going to enjoy it for a long time. We’re going to enjoy it for a long time, you know? I know I’m going to be in the neighborhood with all the discernment ministry, reformed pastors. I know that’s where I’m going to be. And God’s going to “See, you got to love these guys.” It’s like, “Okay, okay.” You know, I’ll be walking down the street, “Hey, John! How you doing, RC? What you doing?” And all those guys, we’ll be hanging out. It’ll be good. All right.
I’m reading through the Bible in a year or three years. Just finished last night. Very appropriate, the Passover.
There will be blood. There will be blood.
There’s something about blood. I don’t know what it is, but I remember when my second child was born and Jill was having the C section, and we’ve been going through labor, harder on her than me, but still exhausting. And they nicked something. We never got the report, but it was scary. And I’m seeing this blood drip on the floor, my wife’s blood. And the lights in the operating room are shining on that blood, and it’s glistening. And all of a sudden they go, “Oh, we need to get you out of here.” I don’t think they got me out of there because I was feeling woozy. I think they got me out of there because
But she came back. She was in shock. The baby was healthy. She was fine. She came out of it fine. We looked later for a report on what happened. Disappeared. Disappeared somehow they lost the file. But anyway, all’s well that ends well.
But there was something about that, right? I don’t know if you’ve ever seen, you know, when one of your kids is bleeding. It’s like there’s something about that.
Jesus poured out his blood. There’s something about that. He said take the blood of the Lamb and make what over the door? The sign of the cross. That’s basically what it was when they put the lamb’s blood on the doorpost, was one horizontal, one vertical. Yeah. But the top extended past the sides. And so you’ve got a cross, and so you’ve got the blood of the Lamb.
And then Jesus, celebrating the Passover with His disciples, pours out wine and says, “Let me tell you about blood. This is my blood. It’s going to be poured out, and in its pouring out, because I’m the Son of God, the sins of the world, sin, Satan, and death will be atoned for, swallowed up, and defeated in my resurrection.” And He said, “When you get together, remember the blood.”
And so, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who bled and died, I speak the blood of Christ over you and the mercies of God over you and your household. May your household be covered, protected by that blood, over your extended household, over your kids who have left home. I pray it in Jesus’ Name. The blood. Come and eat and be grateful.
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