August 31, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
We give you thanks and praise tonight, Lord God Almighty, for your saving acts through your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you for your holy Scriptures, Lord, that reveal Jesus to us. We thank you for your Spirit, and we pray that as we open up your Word, your Spirit would speak and enliven our hearts with your truth.
God, we want to leave this place more like Jesus than when we came in. And we ask that you would do that in us and through us. In His Name we pray, Amen.
Amen! All right, dear ones, good to be here. I told you the golf joke last week, didn’t I? Alright, so I won’t do that one again.
All right. This morning we did baptism. So we talked about baptism this morning. I’m going to talk about something else tonight. I’m not going to give you a baptism sermon. But we went down to the Sound and did the baptism, down to the Sound. And with Discovery Fellowship with Steven Olson and Discovery Fellowship, we’ve now done that three times.
One time we went to the Sound, and we couldn’t baptize on the Sound because of the algae, the red, whatever it is. That’s when we baptized Karen that night in Silverdale. Remember that, Brian? Yep. And we baptized Karen and Brandy D’Intinosanto. It was a wonderful night.
Then another time, you know, we did it this morning with the Discovery Fellowship. Two years ago, we went to Discovery Fellowship, and we baptized them in the Sound. And it was great. We didn’t have any baptism at the Firehouse, but they did at Discovery. And Stephen Olson baptized his son. It was wonderful. He baptized his son in the Sound.
Anyway, so, you know, we did that and we almost got done, and then, you know, Bremerton. So, you know, this, like, guy, I don’t know if he was drunk, if he was high or whatever. He just came running out in the water and says, “I want this. I want this.” And so it’s just exciting.
So Stephen grabbed him and he dunked him in the water and he pulled him up and he said, “Have you found Jesus?”
And he goes, “No.”
He dunked him again. He pulls him up. He says, “Have you found Jesus?”
He goes, “No.” He dunked him a third time. You know, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, dunked him a third time. Pulled him up, “Have you found Jesus?” The guy goes, “No! If you tell me where he went under, maybe I can help.”
So it’s not a true story. It’s a good baptism story.
All right, so we’re not going to talk about baptism. I could talk about, I could give the same sermon I gave this morning, and I talked about baptism. I’m not doing Romans. We got one more sermon in Romans. But I thought, I’ll do it together. We’ll do it in Bremerton next week. Do it here next week.
So I thought, let’s just go to the end of the Bible. All right. Let’s just go to Revelation 22. Just, let’s just jump right to the end. Let’s do it.
All right. So we’re going to talk about eschatology, the study of last things. And we’re in Revelation 22:1-7. Let me read that to you.
1 Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, 3 and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will be no more; people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever. 6 Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” 7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” (Revelation 22:1-7, CSB)
May the words of my mouth, meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our Rock, our Strength, and Redeemer.
So I want to ask a question. Obviously, we read Revelation 22, and we think, oh, this is a picture of heaven. And it is. It’s a picture of the new heavens and the new Earth. But I have a question, and the question is it’s a rhetorical question; you don’t have to answer it necessarily what does the word “soon” mean? Twice, He says, “Soon, I am coming. These things will take place soon.”
And if this is only about the last days, this is only about the new heavens and the new earth. I guess you could say, well, it came soon for everybody in that generation because they died and maybe experienced a picture of this. But it seems like He’s talking about something else. He’s talking about that this is going to happen soon. And so we struggle with that. And in fact, that’s how the Book of Revelation starts, right? Revelation 1:1. Jesus appears to John on the island of Patmos, and He says, “I have come to show you things that are going to happen soon.”
Now, I understand completely that God’s timing is not our timing. God has a different kind of frame of reference for time. But I also think if He’s writing something to reveal to His people, something about Himself, it seems to me that the word “soon” loses most of its meaning if we mean by “soon” 20, 100 years. Just doesn’t click with me.
I mean, when the prophets began to speak of the Messiah coming the first time, they never used the word “soon.” Isaiah didn’t say “He’s coming soon,” and then they had to wait for a thousand years. I can’t think of any of the prophets that say the Messiah is coming soon.
Jews expected him soon. Throughout that period of time, they’re always expecting him soon as they’re being persecuted. When’s the Messiah going to come? Is he going to come soon? But the word “soon” doesn’t I could be wrong, if somebody knows one place in the prophets that said he’s coming soon, but he just, he’s coming. But here in the Book of Revelation, we have “soon.”
Well, if this is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth and the end of all things, what does “soon” mean? And I think we have the answer in what we call, what theologians call “the now and the not yet.” Actually, theologians call it realized eschatology because they like to take simple words and make them big.
So realized eschatology, the now and the not yet, that this is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth. But what I think the Bible is telling us is that when we put our faith in Jesus and we look forward to the new heavens and the new earth, it’s kind of like there’s an attraction. And the new heavens and the new earth start to break into this world. It seems to me that’s a lot of the teaching of the New Testament. Jesus comes and teaches us to pray.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10, CSB)
There’s a future reality that we’re all yearning for, a future hope that we all are craving. And God says, “As you look to that future hope, guess what? That hope is going to break in to this world. Heaven on earth is going to come.” And some people think, “Well, it’ll all be heaven on earth.” I don’t know. I don’t think it’s all heaven on earth. I don’t think this is as good as it gets. I hope it’s not as good as it gets. I hope it gets better. However, is it the case that ever since Jesus came, there’s a crack? I mean, that’s what Jesus’ baptism says, right? It says, heaven opened up.
All right, have you ever had a pair of jeans? I know now they sell them this way. Cracks me up. They sell them with rips already in them. All right, when I was growing up, that was a bad thing when your jeans ripped. Your mother and if you were poor, you know, your mother didn’t you’re not going to get new jeans. She’s going to, you know, sew on or not sew on, but iron on one of those stupid looking patches. But the last thing we do is go to school with our legs hanging out.
I see these girls, mostly girls, walking, you know, walking around and they got these jeans and they all got all these holes in them. It’s like, “Honey, do you need money? Do you need to buy a new pair of jeans? You know, is something wrong here?” But no, this is the way it looks. We want to look like poor people. It’s never been so expensive to look like a poor person. “Look, I’ve got bad jeans. They cost me $300.” All right, well, just go out, play football with your friends for a few days and you can get that look. We had it as kids.
What was my point on that? I have no idea. What’s that? World’s getting better. Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know what my point was at all on those jeans.
However, here’s the point I want to make: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That the “soon” is upon us. The “soon” is upon us. And so this is a picture of the heavenly reality. But that heavenly reality is breaking into the here and now.
John sees a river. All right? This river is flowing from Jesus and from the throne. Well, some people ask, where in this picture of heaven is the Trinity? You have the throne of God. You have Jesus standing there. Where is the Spirit? Right here. The Spirit is the river of God.
In Ezekiel 47, we have a river that comes, that flows from the temple of God, and it brings life. It’s the Spirit of God. Jesus look at, you think, “Oh, no, no, you can’t say the river is the Spirit of God.” Yes, you can. Jesus says in John 7, “All who believe in me, out of their belly, out of their life will flow what streams of living water.”
38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” (John 7:38, CSB)
And then it says this is the Spirit who he was referring to. This is the Spirit of God. And “soon” began to happen at Pentecost.
And so when the Bible says “soon,” it means when the Spirit is present. The future reality of New Covenant, eternal, new heavens and new earth is breaking into the now.
John sees a river. It is pure and it is clear. It is holy. It’s the Holy Spirit. It’s not a muddied river. Anybody been to the Grand Canyon? you’ve seen the Colorado river and the Grand Canyon. Yuck. Nobody wants to drink out of that. It’s just nothing but flowing mud. It’s brown. Unless you imagine it’s chocolate. But it’s not. It’s not.
I remember my brother-in-law. We went to a wedding, and this was before these things were popular. Now you see them all the time. But it had one of those you’ve seen those chocolate fountains and it had strawberries and stuff. And you dip the strawberries in the chocolate. He just came back to our table, and he says, “There’s a fountain over there flowing with chocolate.” He was like, all right, that’s soon, that’s realized eschatology for my brother-in-law right there, a fountain flowing with chocolate. It’s like, that’s heaven on earth. All right?
But John sees a river that is pure and clear. It’s flowing from the Father and the Son. And this water cleanses us. The Holy Spirit cleanses us. This water refreshes us. The Holy Spirit refreshes us. This water brings life. The Holy Spirit brings life.
I am talking a little bit about baptism right now. Because when we submit to the waters of baptism, our sins are forgiven, we’re cleansed, we’re refreshed. We, it brings life. We are buried into death, and we rise into new life. And then the Holy Spirit fills us with the life of heaven, the life of eschatology now, the life of heaven on earth. And we are refreshed. And so it’s both. Revelation 22 and, in fact, the life we are living here on earth as disciples of Christ, is both heaven now and heaven not yet.
I was engaged for a long time. Jill and I got engaged, and let’s see, we got engaged in February, and then we got married in July a year later. So March, April, May, June, so 4, so 12, so 16 months. We had a 16-month engagement. All right, that was a long engagement. I was away at school. And it’s interesting, when you’re engaged, right? When you’re engaged, you’re not married. You know? But I went away to college, and she was still at home. And I’m a young guy at college, and I’m not married. What does that mean? I’m single. Well, no, I’m not. I’m engaged.
I got my first job when I went up there. I had at Round Table Pizza in Chico, California. They had Round Table Pizza back then. Chico, California. And I was, I’d just turned 21, and then I went in for a job. It was, it was really, it was, it was a blessing, right? My mom dropped me off. I’m sitting there. I’m all alone in my new apartment, and she bought me a ton of groceries. But I’m just like, you know, I’m just sitting here all alone, and college is starting. And it kind of hit me, you know, you’re gonna experience this. You’re just there.
And I thought, I shouldn’t do this, I don’t have any money, but I’m gonna go out and get a pizza. I’m not gonna, you know, make some food that my mom bought me. I’m gonna go out and get a pizza. I rode my bike over to Round Table Pizza, and lo and behold, they had a help wanted sign. And I said, “You guys are looking for help?” And they said, “Well, you got to be 21. We’re looking for somebody who’ll pour beer and wine.” I said, “I’m 21. I’m your guy.”
And so I got a job at Roundtable, you know, and I was working the bar. A couple of young ladies started showing up at the bar. I had no idea, all right? I was clueless. I had no idea. They just would, they were just nice gals. And we just, I’d pour them their beer, and they’d have their pizza, and we’d chat it up. And it was all good.
And I had this little studio apartment, and then right there in the middle of my one room is a big picture of Jill.
And one day I get a knock on the door, and these two ladies are at my apartment. I don’t know which one was on the prowl, but it never dawned on me. I just thought they liked beer and, you know, were friendly. But they show up at my apartment. It’s like, well, how did you find out? You know, they had to do some stalking to find out where my apartment was. And, you know, it’s kind of like, “Oh, well, hi. Hi. Hi.” You know, I said, “Well, come on in.” And immediately, I mean, the first thing you see, and immediately, one of them just stepped in the room. “Who’s that?” I go, “That’s my fiance.” Never saw those two girls again. They disappeared. Why? I wasn’t single. I wasn’t married, but I wasn’t single.
That’s us. We’re not there. But we got a foot in both worlds now. We got the now and the not yet. The Holy Spirit brings heaven to earth. And I tell people this all the time. I had a friend who said, “Well, you know, there’s this church and they’ve got an over-realized eschatology. You know, they expect too many miracles from God.” I say, how do you have an over-realized eschatology? I want to have an over-realized eschatology. I don’t know how much heaven we can get on earth. So I tell people all the time, I don’t know how much heaven we can get on earth, but I don’t know, I want more and I think we can get more. That’s just my hope, that’s my optimism. I think that river is flowing now and it’s flowing in the lives of people who are going to experience it forever.
What does John see in this heavenly vision? He sees the tree and the trees of life, the fruit that brings life and the leaves that heal the nations.
2 down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, (Revelation 22:2, CSB)
That’s another thing. If this is all about heaven, why do you need leaves that heal nations in the new heavens and the new earth? You know, are we still going to be having peace talks in the Middle East in the new heavens and the new earth? Are we going to be sitting down with Russia and Ukraine and saying, “Come on guys, we’re in heaven now, let’s get along?” You know, I think the bombs are going to stop flying at some point. But here He says there are leaves for the healing of the nations. That’s a now word. The nations need to be, and it’s a heavenly word. It’s kind of prophesying that the nations ultimately will be healed. There will be no more war.
But there’s fruit that brings life, there’s healing for the nations. And so we have a job. And our job isn’t to wait around to get raptured and to get as many people in the lifeboat as we can. Yes, we want people to be born again. Yes, we want people to be saved. Yes, we want people to come to faith in Christ. But our job is to bring the goodness of the Lord you’ve heard me say it, Psalm 27:13 the goodness of the Lord into the land of the living, to bring that reality into this reality because that reality now lives in us. That reality now lives in us. And so it’s a Now and not yet. There’s no more curse. There’s complete restoration. The curse has been broken. We’re going to sing a song in a minute that talks about the curse is broken.
My family. My dad was an alcoholic. His dad was an alcoholic. All my uncles were alcoholics. I’ve gone back a little bit into the family history. My dad’s grandpa was an alcoholic. They were all alcoholics. They all attended church. They were nominal Catholics, but they were all alcoholics. And I come along and I just like, I don’t want any alcohol. You know, I just saw it in my family line, you know? As I was rolling a joint, I made the decision, I’m not going to drink. Oh, well, you know. But Jesus came into my life, and I gave up the alcohol. I gave up, you know, I didn’t take on the alcohol, and I didn’t, and I gave up the marijuana. And guess what? The curse is broken.
I was concerned about my kids because, like, well, genetic, you know, are they going to be predisposed? And my kids? Nope. They are not teetotalers. I’m a teetotaler. I don’t drink at all because I just don’t need another monkey on my back. But my kids can have a glass of wine or a beer or something like that. None of them have any inclination to drink compulsively. None of them. I’ve never seen any of them drunk. They’re sober. The curse is broken. God brings about restoration. If there’s a curse in your family line, it can be broken with you. That heavenly life can come. There will be no more curse there. But He’s breaking curses now.
There is a throne in their midst. That means there’s perfect administration. Jesus is king. Politics is not evil. Evil politics are evil. I got news for you. You might think this is bad news, but there will be politics in heaven. There will be policy. There will be Stevin, I got great news for you. There will be order. There will be rules. There will be structure. It will be good. It’s not just going to be a free for all. All right? But it will be a perfect administration. Even my wife will have to say, “That’s even better than I could do.”
By the way, in the political administration of our house the other day, we have grandkids and I’m watching TV. My wife’s not watching TV, I’m watching TV. Little two-year-old grandkid walks in the room and says, “I want to watch Daniel Tiger.” And my wife’s not watching TV. I’m watching TV. Now, I would have said, “Of course, honey.” And I would have switched off the sports I’m watching and let her watch Daniel Tiger.
But I didn’t have a chance to do that. There was politics that went on. There was a policy that was administered that I didn’t know was to be administered at the time. And my wife, who was not watching TV, it was not her decision, said, “Of course.” And changed the channel. To which I, I think very reasonably, raised an objection. Not that I would have done it differently. I wouldn’t have, but it’s like, I don’t think that was your call. And I was informed by the policy, I guess, the policy of our household. I was informed. “You have it so good.” That was her answer. I have it so good. Okay, so I guess I have it so good. Even though I can’t decide whether I want to turn off the show that I’m watching or not. I have it so good.
I’m lucky that I don’t have that power. So all day today, I’ve just been telling her, this one’s got to get, this one has legs. It’s going to live a while. I have it so good. I have it so good.
There are politics in my house. There is an almost perfect administration in charge of my house. But there will be a perfect administration. There is a throne in their midst. Servants shall serve. There will be meaningful work there. Guess what? Heaven’s not going to be just sitting around worshiping Jesus forever. There will be farms, Ats. All right? Aiko, there will be bunnies to raise who do not die. There will be horses, Stevin. There will be, there will be buildings to build. I don’t know if there’ll be preaching to do. I hope so. I hope I have something to do. Otherwise, I will be a heavenly sportscaster or Ats recommended, maybe a heavenly stand-up comic. I don’t know, whatever. So I’ll do something, you know, an eternity of jokes about Jill I think would be apropos, you know, because I have it so good. That could happen.
All right. But we will have meaningful work. Well, guess what? We have meaningful work now. We have the now and not yet. We serve the kingdom now. You have meaningful work now. And dear ones, everything you do that is honest work, that is not evil work, you know, you’re not a mobster out there. You’re not, you know, pimping out prostitutes or, you know, involved in, you know, you know, selling drugs or anything. Everything you do with your hands as you do it unto the Lord is holy and sacred work. And you’re serving Jesus. If you’re a mechanic and you are serving your customers to the best of your ability and not taking advantage of their ignorance of motors, but being an honest, good, true mechanic, you are serving the Lord.
Whatever you do, you are representing that heavenly reality of meaningful work. Your vocation is holy. One of the biggest errors the church has ever made is the two-tiered vocation, right? The holy men of God, the priests and the pastors and all that. And then all the rest of you. And I, you know, I make fun of that with my joke. You know, I’m paid to be good; you’re good for nothing. You know, and that’s meant to be, you know, an actual, I’m being facetious about that to bring out the point that there isn’t this two-tiered thing. There isn’t this two-tiered thing.
What I’m doing now is holy work. Guess what? What you do is holy work. Making cabinets is holy work, Ats. Doing it to the best of your ability to serve your customers and to serve your employer is holy work. Everything, being a student, Sophia, is holy work. All right? Growing a garden, Isaiah, is holy work. Everything we do with our hands unto the Lord, we will serve forever. There will be meaningful things to do, and there are now.
We shall see his face. We are transformed by glory. We sang the song tonight. It’s your presence, Lord, I seek. Do we get the full-on presence of that face-to-face encounter with Jesus that we’re going to have one day? No, but guess what? Even now we can experience His presence. Even now. I mean, Christians all over are like, “Well, man, God really showed up at that meeting tonight.” What do they mean by that? He’s an omnipresent God. He’s always, He’s everywhere at all yeah, but every once in a while we all have these experiences.
Sometimes it’s when we’re reading the Bible, sometimes it’s when we’re praying, sometimes we’re in a worship service. But all of a sudden, it’s like that veil between heaven and earth gets thin, and we begin to experience His glory.
I love that feeling, you know, that little addict in me that refuses to be an alcoholic. I’ll tell you what, I could be a glory-aholic. But even then, God won’t let you. He’ll take you there, but He’ll take you out of it and say, “Now get to work. You’re no good just lying on the floor 24 hours a day. You know, it’s time to get up. It’s time to get up and go about your work.”
But you’re transformed by those encounters. You’re transformed by his glory. Your identity is restored. Names are on people’s foreheads. Your identity is restored.
One of the things that delights me is this idea that the book of Revelation puts forth, that we all get an individual name that fits us perfectly. When I grew up, my parents named me Kevin because they fell into the trap. Many of you named your kids the same way. Hey, there’s not a lot of kids named like this. And a couple million other parents are thinking that exact same thought in that exact same generation, you know, Megan, Michael, and Kaitlyn.
Michael was a given. He was a lot of names. And by the way, just to show you I have it so good, here’s another policy that was established. We get pregnant. By we, I mean she. But, you know, I was there, and we’re thinking about naming the kids, and I’m throwing out names, and it’s like shooting skeet. It’s like, I throw out a name Pull! (gunshot sound) I say, “What’s the deal?” And she says, “Here’s the deal. You give them the last name, I give them the first.” Was a policy.
I have it so good. So I know she’s not here. I make her look terrible. She’s delightful. She’s a wonderful woman. What? Yeah, same policy. You have it so good. Way to go, though. Stand up for your manhood. I caved. I caved. All right. Good for you. And your kids have wonderful names. Don’t complain. You have it so good. Don’t complain. We both married rule people.
All right. But the Bible says we will have a name that fits us. We will have a perfect name. What does that mean? Oh, and I grew up. So I grew up. And there were three Kevins in each of my classes. There’s Kevin Zumwalt, Kevin Vance, and Kevin Clancy. First grade, second grade, third grade. Every class I was in, they were just Kevins because nobody named their kid Kevin. All right? And so I remember for a while there, in the 80s, it was boys were given the J names. There were a lot of Joshuas, Jeremiahs, Jacobs, you know, a lot of the J names were going around.
And I remember this one lady, she didn’t know the Bible too well when she named her kids, and she named him Jacob. And then read about Jacob in the Bible, and she goes, “Oh, brother.” You know? And, you know, your Jacob turned out all right. But this kid was a Jacob. He was quite the kid.
So anyway, you get a name. You have a unique identity with God. I don’t know how many snowflakes have fallen on the face of the earth, but by best, best guess, I mean science can’t prove this. We haven’t seen every snowflake, but every snowflake we have seen, we’ve never seen a duplicate. We’ve never seen a duplicate.
We’re the same. We’re a lot alike. And yet God sees each of us as an individual. I mean, Jesus says that, right? He says, “The hairs on your head are numbered. I know you in that kind of detail.” We try to find our identity in our relationships, in our success in work or whatever. When we find our relationship in Him, we are truly the most
I was dealing with this young lady one time, and she had this really shallow view of heaven. She wasn’t a Christian. And she says, I think we were talking about the LGBT issue. And I was saying, you know, it’s a mistaken identity. It is a mistake. And to make your identity your sexual orientation, what a sad thing. That’s who I am. Like, you’re so much more than that. And she says, “Well, in heaven, won’t we just all be the same?” And I thought, oh, you’ve got it 180 degrees wrong. In heaven, we will be more us. You know, you’ll be more Brian than you are now. Yeah. And it’ll be good. It’ll be good.
And we’ll all be more wonderfully unique in him as we find our identity in Him. CS Lewis points this out. He says, if you look throughout history, you’ll notice that all the tyrants are pretty much the same. He says, but if you look at the saints, they’re remarkably diverse. They are remarkably different. We have our identity in Him. Find your identity in Him. God is light. There’s perfect illumination. There’s no more night.
As we just sang that song, when the night is holding on to me, God is holding stronger. He is holding on to me. And so, dear ones, you know, the nighttime has always been the time when bad things happen, and there’s fear, and kids get nightmares. I was tortured as a child by nightmares from 3 years old till 11 years old. I had nightmares on a regular basis because my parents let me watch “The Wizard of Oz,” and that witch became a reality in my life. On a regular basis, that would appear.
I remember just getting out of my bed and running down that hallway because I knew she was behind that door or that door or that. Never under the bed. People get the under the bed thing. I didn’t have the under the bed thing, but she was behind one of those doors. I’d run past those doors so fast. And I would jump into bed between my parents. Bam. And my mother would comfort me, and my dad would pray. How did I know my dad would pray? When I landed on that bed, the first words out of his mouth were the Lord’s name. And he would speak the Lord’s name.
And for years, but the night fears are going to be gone. The darkness is going to be gone. Well, do we have that now? Yes, we have the illumination of God’s word, the illumination of His Spirit.
Didn’t you experience when you were born again? Like, wasn’t one of your experiences when you were born again, like somebody turned on the lights? That was my experience when I came to Christ, or I’m old enough here was how I described it. It was like we had this old black and white TV, and then we got our first color TV, and it’s like, whoa, hey, look at that. Football uniforms, you know? And it was like that. It was like all of a sudden, what was black and white just became color. Everything was illuminated. And I began to see the world completely differently than I had before.
And finally, we’re reigning forever. We have responsibility and royalty, and we are co-heirs with Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus says, right? “You’re responsible over a little. you’re faithful. I’ll give you responsibility over much.”
Some of you may be over cities, you know, so you may, you may, you know, you may go visit Atsville, you know where Ats is over this city or whatever, you know, and we get there, you know, we leave Sophia Town and go to Atsville. Be a boss of a town, Sophia. Be a benevolent boss. Be a nice boss.
All right, but we’ll reign. Well, guess what? Now we already begin to share that royalty. We already begin to share that authority we have in Christ. We begin to reign and rule over our own environments.
And though there are politics and though there is governance in our culture, we also realize because King Jesus is our king, that we even rise above that. We submit to it. We’re told to submit to it. But we also know this doesn’t own us. This doesn’t own us. Nothing in this world holds our ultimate allegiance and authority. We belong to a different world. And because our king has told us to serve this world with faithfulness, we do it. But we do it with royalty. We’re princes and princesses incognito on this planet. We are always caring about us in our very presence, this other stronger, bigger, eternal kingdom. And wherever we go, even in submission, in fact, most often in submission, we are actually dispensing that kingdom life which is so above the life we’re serving here.
Does that make sense? Does that make sense? You’re already royalty. I love again what C.S. Lewis says in The Weight of Glory. He says if we were to see each other in our exalted states, we would be tempted to worship. You know, if we saw Isaiah in his exalted state, we’d go, “Whoa, Isaiah!” It would blow us away.
But in fact, that’s who we are already. Little Firehouse Church, Poulsbo. Little Firehouse Church. Three families. Every time you gather here on Sunday night, you’re in the presence of greatness. You’re in the presence of God’s eternal children. You’re in the presence of co-heirs with Christ.
Man, we better treat each other well. We better treat each other well. This is, you know, I’m blown away by who I’m hanging out with tonight. Whoa!
Already, we carry it, and we carry it best in service and humility. That’s where it shines the brightest. Not in exalt not how, the world exalts that kind of stuff, right? I remember, I’ll never forget a life lesson in ministry. I was a part of a major denomination, and we had a new bishop. The new bishop sent out and it’s fine. It was, you know, protocol. And he assumed we’d want him to visit. He said, “When I come and visit you, here is the protocol for a bishop.”
And it was like, I don’t know, it’s like the queen of England or something. You know, “Here’s how I proceed in. Here’s what we do. Here’s all the proper protocol.” And I suppose it was, there was a politeness in it. It’s like, “Hey, I just want you to know this is how you know you’re supposed to do it,” I guess. But it came across to me, it’s like when I saw it, it’s like, oh, I have a solution for this. I won’t invite you to come. It just came across really pompous, like “I’m the bishop.” Anyway, I don’t know if it was pompous. I’ll give him grace.
But at the same time, we were having a ministry, a broad international ministry, come to present at our church. I don’t know if any of you remember Walk Through the Bible. Anybody ever do Walk Through the Bible? It was a wonderful ministry, you know, taught you the Bible real quickly, kind of put everything in place real quickly through mnemonic devices. It was fun, it was interesting.
And so we were having Walk through the Bible come to our church. And I was calling the guy who was going to come present, their presenter. I had just read this thing from the bishop and was kind of put off by it. And I called this guy who was going to come to be the presenter, and I called him up and I said, “Hey, you’re going to come do walk through the Bible at our church.” And the first words out of his mouth were this: “Well, hi, Pastor Kevin. How can I serve you? I’m coming to your church. I’m going to do a walk through the Bible. But tell me about your church. Tell me about your specific needs. How can I serve you and your church now?”
Now for sure, he was selling merch there. He was doing his thing. They were doing their thing. But the first words out of his mouth. And I thought, which model of ministry do I want? When Pastor Kevin comes actually, you can call me Pastor Kevin. And if you want to teach, you know, some people, it’s like a cultural thing that hey, let’s not, let’s not be casual, you know, and be respectful of adults. And I get it and I’m good with that. But on the other hand, I’m always more comfortable with Kevin. You can call me Pastor Kevin if that works for you, and I’ll receive it, but I’m just more comfortable with Kevin. Rev Kev. Hey, you. You know, whatever.
I just, the glory is carried in humility. It’s not in titles and positions and certificates and degrees and promotions. It’s simply beautiful, simple, humble service communicates to this world the royalty of Christ. And you carry it. You carry it. And I just want to encourage you because we’re a small church. I know you all see every week. I see it in each one of you. I see the glory. I see the royalty of Jesus. And it actually humbles me to speak the Word of God to you. It’s like, who am I to talk to God’s kids, you know? Who am I to talk to God’s I’m not worthy to wear your shoes into church. You know, I don’t pray like Aiko. I don’t serve like Stevin. You know, I don’t study and work like Brian. You guys are all better than me. I don’t serve all the mothers of families of Kitsap County, say, hey, there’s a better way to teach, raise your kids. Better way than sending them into the government machine.
You know I love a good rebel. Yeah. Defy the man. Defy the man. That’s right. That’s right. It’s just the kind of people that marry rule keepers. But let me tell you, Jamie, we got it so good. I’ve been informed by a high authority that I have it I know we didn’t know, but we have it so good.
All right. We reign forever. Responsible royalty, coheirs with Christ. That’s who we are. And here’s proof of it. He invites us to His table. It’s real simple. Isn’t it perfect that the King of all the universe invites us to His table and He says, “One day there’s going to be a feast. But now it’s the most simple of all meals for my simple, humble glory bearers. Just a simple meal of bread and juice. But in the simplest of all meals, I’ll feed you with my life, and you’ll continue to carry my glory in the now that’s not yet, but it’s now.”
So, Lord, may the goodness of the Lord come through us into the land of the living. As much of heaven as we can carry. As much of heaven that can flow through us. As much as that beautiful new garden, heavenly new heavens, new earth. Reality can make its way in us and then can make its way out of us to just shed that beautiful light and glory in this world. Lord, we ask for it. And Lord, would you feed us tonight with this simple meal that we might be more like Jesus and be carriers of the now and the not yet.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
