November 17, 2024, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
All right, so, dear ones, we’ve been going through. If you don’t know, we’ve been going through the Bible in a year. Yeah, we’ve been reading chronological. We all got chronological Bibles last year for Christmas, and so we’ve been reading through the Bible chronologically.
And then on Sunday nights, I’ll preach from one of those passages that we read through. So we’re getting to the end. We’re down to the home stretch, dear ones. And tonight we’re in Paul’s Epistles. We finally made it into Paul’s Epistles. Anybody know what the word epistle means? Epistle, letter. You are correct.
However, there’s another meaning. There’s a deep spiritual meaning. An epistle is the wife of an apostle. No, just kidding. You were right the first time when you said letter. You were right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I just. I heard a great dad joke the other day. You know, I just traveled to Denver, and so I found out that a number two pencil can be made as sharp as a knife, but you can get a number two pencil through airport security.
So I told the guy at TSA, I said, do you know you can make a number two pencil as sharp as a knife? And he just looked at me and says, hey, man, you got to draw the line somewhere. Come on. All right, all right.
So we’re going to be in Paul’s Epistle to First Thessalonians, chapter 5. And I got a question for you before I read this passage. How many of you ever wondered what God’s will was for your life? Anybody ever wondered? Okay, tonight that question will be answered. How is that?
How cool is that? All right, here it is. Ephesians 5:16. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances. Here it is. For this is God’s will for you who belong in Christ Jesus. Boom, there you go. God’s will for your life right there.
16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NLT)
Let’s go a little further, because I think this is included. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit or do not quench the Holy Spirit’s fire. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good and stay away from every kind of evil.
19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not scoff at prophecies, 21 but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, NLT)
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 Redeemer.
We were talking tonight in Bible Study about these all-inclusive words in the Bible, you know, all these times, all and all and every and oftentimes. It means it’s hyperbole. It means a lot. But whether this is 24/7 or a lot, it amazes me that those first three commands are so big. Not rejoice sometimes. Not rejoice most of the time. Not rejoice when you’re feeling good. Rejoice always.
Not pray for five minutes a day. Not pray when you’re in crisis. Not pray when, you know, in the hospital. Not pray that the Seahawks would beat the Niners, which they did.
I imagine Ron’s pretty thrilled the Broncos whooped on the Falcons today. You guys gotta move. Well, don’t move. We like you here. Yeah. Kansas City lost. I know. Kansas City lost. The Niners lost. The Seahawks beat the Niners, the Bills beat Kansas City, and my fantasy football team won.
It was a good Sunday of football. I’m just saying, but all. All right. Pray without ceasing. Rejoice always, give thanks in all circumstances, and then this is God’s will for you. Well, how do you. How do we approach that? How do we get there?
Be joyful always. Well, you know what? It’s hard to be joyful always, because sometimes life stinks. Sometimes life is just hard. And sometimes it’s. You know, I’m just not talking about, you know, it’s just, you know, we were talking earlier. There’s always something, right? There’s always somebody in a family.
There’s always some conflict. There’s always something not happening right in the world. You know, there’s always a car breaks down. There’s always something. I’ve never, 65 years, almost 66 years on this planet, haven’t had a perfect day yet.
I’ve had some days better than others. I’ve had some really hard days, had some pretty nice days. But there’s never been a day where it’s like, zippity doo dah, zippity day. Nothing wrong today. Everything’s fine. There’s always something.
So how are we joyful always? Because joy is not based on those circumstances.
As followers of Christ, our joy is an unshakable assurance of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. And so joy, rejoicing is remembering. Rejoicing is remembering. I lost my job. Yeah, but Jesus rose from the dead.
The doctor gave me bad news. Yeah, but Jesus rose from the dead. My wife said she was fine. Yeah, but Jesus rose from the dead. All right, Jesus, we remember. This book is a book of remembrance, and it’s a book that spells out not human bravery and grandeur. It spells out God’s faithfulness with broken people.
God’s faithfulness with broken people. And we just constantly. One of the reasons you come here on Sunday night, whether you know it or not, is to remember.
One of the reasons life falls apart is when we stop going to church, when we stop reading our Bible, when we stop practicing spiritual disciplines, when we stop receiving this. I mean, Jesus said of this meal, remember.
Remembering is so important. And when we remember, we rejoice. Because we are playing a game we have already won. We are playing a game we’ve already won.
I used to go for the Kansas City Chiefs because I got a lot of friends in Kansas, not as my top team, but, you know, I had a lot of friends in Kansas City, and they’d lost a lot of heartbreaking games over the years. They’d gotten so close.
And when they won that first Super Bowl, I was like, yeah, all right. You know, and I was happy for all my friends in Kansas City. And I told them that now that they’ve won, like, three, they are now the Patriots to me.
They are the Patriots to me. So I just, I tell my friends in Kansas City that. I said, yeah, you got yours. I’m not rooting for them anymore. All right? They’re just, they’re gone.
And so I watched the Seahawks game this afternoon between services. I get to watch most of the afternoon game between Bremerton and Poulsbo, and the Chiefs game was going on simultaneously, so I couldn’t watch that. I was watching the Seahawks Niners game.
But you know what I’m going to do partly tonight, depending on how long I can stay awake.
And then tomorrow I’m going to watch the Bills beat the Chiefs, and I’m just going to enjoy it. Why? Because when it looks like Mahomes and those guys are going to come back one more time, I just know they’re not playing a game we’ve already won, playing a game we’ve already won.
And therefore, we can rejoice. We can rejoice in the great salvation in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
First Peter 1:3.
Praise be to the God and Father, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, (1 Peter 1:3, NLT)
Dear ones, we just have hope. It’s interesting. 40 years. I’ve been 40 years. I can remember just, it seems not too long ago, these old pastors saying, oh, we’re just glad you young pastors are being raised up. And that just seemed like yesterday.
And now I’m one of those old pastors going, oh, you know, it’s like 40 years I’ve been doing this. And sadly, one of the things that’s sad is sometimes I can’t tell the difference between Christians and non-Christians.
But, you know, where the difference. One of the places where the difference has been most stark in my years of ministry. Funerals. Buried a lady yesterday or did a funeral for our people. Don’t like the word funeral anymore, but a celebration of life or whatever, but, you know, she’s dead.
But Pat loved Jesus and she had joy in her life. And she was in her 80s and late 70s or 80s, and in the room were believers and non believers. And it’s one of the places that you can tell the most deer in the headlight look.
In non believers and believers, it is entirely possible and appropriate and right to grieve and rejoice simultaneously. We grieve because I loved Pat. She was a great encourager. I just loved, you know, she just started coming to the Firehouse church fairly recently and already had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
And we prayed for her healing and believed for her healing. And of course, you know, she got her ultimate healing. We get that. But, you know, we wanted to see thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We didn’t get to see it this time, but she was such an encourager, and I just. I loved her. And yet, you know, I’m going to miss her. I’m going to miss her and. But there’s hope and joy in the faces of Christians at funerals and unbelievers. It’s just like.
It’s kind of like they want to hope, and so they make up things like, oh, she’s an angel now. Which is like, I love the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, but that’s really dopey theology. All right? We’re not resurrected as angels. We don’t get our wings. All right? Clarence is a delightful character, but he’s fictional. All right?
So remember, and then rejoicing is discipline. What you see, the word discipline always conjures up in our mind getting punished for something. And actually, if you were disciplined by loving parents, that is a reason to rejoice, because you’d have made a wreck of your life without that.
Zach, get used to that, because one day you’ll be married and you’ll be sitting next to your wife, and the preacher will say something, and you won’t get the hand. You get the elbow. I call it the Holy Spirit elbow from the wife. It’s like, pay attention. He’s talking to you now. All right. Just rejoice that your mother is. Yeah. Protect yourself. Good luck. All right.
So discipline is intentionality. It’s the same. It’s the word that discipleship comes from. And if you want anything in life, if anything in life is to matter to you, there has to be intention. There has to be intention.
If you want a good marriage, there has to be intention. One of the worst things our culture has done that has actually destroyed marriage is it has idolized romance. It’s made romance into an idol. And listen, romance is great. Infatuation is great, man.
When Jill and I first met, we were all just, you know, we couldn’t go any place without holding hands. She was always—it felt so great—she was always excited to see me, you know.
You know, she used to comment, you know, later on in life, she said one of the reasons I like dogs is the greeting, you know, the greeting dogs give you. I told her, I’ll give you that. You want that? I’ll give you that greeting.
I’ll run up and lay on the ground and wiggle around and let you rub my belly. If that’s what you want. If that’s what you want, I’ll do that.
But when you’re infatuated, the greeting’s just natural. I mean, I can just remember. Just couldn’t wait to see her. And what made me feel even better was she couldn’t wait to see me.
But we turn that thing into an idol, and we think if that thing goes away, the marriage is lost. And the reason we do that is because we have not been taught intentionality.
You have to prepare yourself for when the infatuation runs out. And you have to be intentional about loving the person that you promised you were going to stay with the rest of your life. And that makes for a good marriage.
When you’re intentional about that, when you say, what is it that makes this person feel loved? My goal then is to. My goal is to be so intentional about that that when this person. When I go to the grave or this person goes to the grave, they’ll be able to say, that person loved me.
Just be intentional. You want to be an athlete, you got to be intentional. You got to work out. You want to be a scholar. It ain’t going to happen unless you ain’t. My wife hates it when I use the word ain’t. It’s not going to happen. It’s not a very scholarly word, is it? It’s not going to happen if you don’t read books.
Whatever you want in life, you have to be intentional. You want to be a disciple of Jesus. There is great rejoicing in the intentionality of being a disciple of Jesus. Study.
We have 2,000 years of history. We don’t have to invent this. Christians have gone before us and they said these are the normal ways that we grow as disciples, not as legalism. Legalism won’t work. You don’t earn something from God by reading your Bible.
You don’t earn something from God by saying your prayers. You don’t earn something from God by joining in corporate worship. You don’t earn something from God by caring for the poor, serving others. But you meet him there. You meet him there.
And Christians have told us for 2000 years, this is the normal. The Bible tells us this is the normal way to step into his presence and meet him.
So I always tell people at church, you probably don’t hear this from very many preachers.
You come here, I’ll just tell you, you don’t have to read your Bible, you don’t have to say your prayers. You don’t have to serve the poor. You don’t have to go to corporate worship. You see, there’s joy in discipline.
One of the things I found out in marriage was as you became intentional about loving each other, there’s a deeper kind of love, that infatuation that enters in. And it’s joyful when you’re intentional about how you raise your children. My goodness.
We live in a world where people let a broken, corrupt culture raise their children, but be intentional about how you. And there’s joy in that. There’s joy in that. And got a lot of intentional parents in this room. And I commend you for it. Good for you.
So there’s rejoicing and discipline. There’s rejoicing fueled by worship. Worship is one of the aspects of remembering. And worship is basically remembering, both privately and publicly, that God is God and you’re not. We’ve taken the word worship to mean singing in church.
Singing in church is a means of worship. But singing in church is not worship. Worship is living a bowed down life and acknowledging God is bigger than you, God is smarter than you, and you don’t have to run the universe. You don’t have to fix every problem.
God is good and he is great, and he is faithful, and therefore he is worthy to be worshiped. And dear ones, you were made to worship. You were made to worship. And people who don’t worship God still worship.
Just already told you I’m a sports fan, right? 60,000 people fill stadiums and they get on their feet and they adore young athletic males doing feats that they cannot do. It can become an idolatrous form of worship or it can become joyful entertainment. All depends on what you want it to be.
But I’ll tell you, everybody worships something. The atheist worships oftentimes their proud view of their own intelligence, their own autonomy. The pagans worship demons. But everybody worships.
Rejoice, and let your rejoicing be fueled by your worship of the true and living God. He likes it when we worship, and it’s not because his self-esteem needs to be built up. God’s not up there in heaven going, man, it’s hard being those people think they have it tough. I got to run the whole universe. This is rough. And they disobey me. And it’s hard being God. No.
Oh, Stevan Johnson sang a song and said it was great tonight. Thanks, Steven. I needed a little pick me up there. Way to go. I appreciate it.
No, that’s not it. Here’s the deal. We become like that which we worship. Whatever you set your heart on, you are drawn into that thing. And I always say I want to be more like Jesus when I leave this place than when I came in.
Well, how does that happen? Worship. And there’s rejoicing in that. And so that’s how we rejoice always. How do we pray without ceasing?
Well, we have an ongoing relationship with God. Again, prayer is not legalism. Prayer is not Muslim prayer, where at certain hours of the day we have to do it this particular way. And if we don’t do it that particular way, if we don’t do the magic formula, Allah is not pleased with us and we’re going to get punished.
No, we have. Jesus walked with his disciples, all right? They walked all over the countryside. I love the chosen and how they show the interaction and the relationship that’s regularly going on.
And we have an ongoing relationship with God. I always tell you the best prayer to pray is help. Pray in your car. And listen, driving, there are very few things in life that will. That will reveal our spiritual condition more than driving.
And I say this, and I’m not saying this to pick on you because it applies to me, but my irritation at how other people drive their cars says more about my spiritual condition than their driving ability. Just saying it. Just saying it. All right.
So when somebody tailgates me and I’m already going over the speed limit and I passive aggressively slow down to self righteously teach them patience, that’s not good. That doesn’t speak well of my holiness. All right, that’s me saying, I’ll get even with you for making me uncomfortable.
So apply that as you will. You may have a perfect attitude when somebody zips in and out of traffic, or the opposite for you tailgaters out there, when obviously that person doesn’t know that 35 miles an hour really means, in the state of Washington, 50 miles an hour.
And if they really knew that it was okay to go 15 miles over the speed limit, they would be because I’m in a hurry. And so I’m going to get up on their tail to help teach them that the law is just what a suggestion. And they ought to get a move on.
Whatever it is, it says more about us than it does about them. All right, dear ones. I don’t know what that has to do with an ongoing relationship with God. Oh, I know. Yeah. Pray in your car. Be a Christian when you drive.
Praying in your car is one of the best places to pray. Pray the prayer help. When you’re in a difficult situation, it is the best prayer you can. Pray, help, Lord, help.
How many of you have had. This is one version of the help prayer, the find it prayer. The find it prayer is so awesome. Every time I say that in church, people go, yeah, I know the find it prayer.
There are two ways to find something you’ve lost. Use the find it prayer or men. Ask your wife because you look like a man.
She looks like a rational person would look for something. You just open a cover. I can’t find it. It’s not there. She’ll open it and lift up one piece and go, oh, it’s right there. Yeah. So that’s our deal.
But if your wife’s not around or if you don’t want her to be right one more time and you wrong, try the find it prayer and God will help you. Without her to find it, it’ll be awesome. Because God answers the prayer help. He answers the prayer help.
Troy, I am handyman capped. I can’t fix a thing. I can’t fix a thing. The only place where I could feel manly, in fact, is in the cities of Seattle and Portland, because I can change a tire and kill a spider. And in those two cities, if you can do those two things, you’re practically Thor.
But anywhere else in North Dakota, I would not be a manly man. But there are times where I’m forced to have to fix something. And it’s very frustrating to me because I’m not good at it. I don’t know what tool to use.
I don’t even know where to find the tools. I don’t know where my wife hides the tools anyway. But it’s been amazing how many times I’ve been frustrated and stuck, and I can’t fix something. And I’ll say, Lord, I just need your help. It’s amazing how often then, oh, that bolt that wouldn’t get loose all of a sudden breaks loose. Or I realize, oh, yeah, it’s lefty loosey, righty tighty. I forgot that. Yeah.
And I start actually trying to open it the right way and then be mad at myself that I just spent 15 minutes tightening it more because I was going the wrong way. No, it’s pathetic. You should see me. It’s just sad.
So, all right, ongoing relationship, then. Disciplined prayer. How do we pray without ceasing? Have a disciplined prayer. In other words, have a quiet time where you’re intentional again, about praying. I recommend you do it on a daily basis.
And listen. We tend to think. This is my next point. Spontaneous prayer. We tend to think our disciplined prayer needs to be spontaneous prayer. We need to come up with our own prayer list in our head, and we need to pray out of our own head for, you know, we make a commitment.
Lord, I’m going to pray to you 15 minutes a day, or a half an hour a day or 10 minutes a day. And we begin to pray, and we get done with our prayer list in about two minutes. And our mind wanders. And then we think we’re complete failures.
I’ll tell you what, that’s not how people prayed in the Bible. They read the Psalms. You have read Paul’s letters. In almost all of his letters, he opens them with prayer, and they are marvelous prayers for the people of God and the church of God. Pray those prayers over the people of God.
The disciples asked Jesus to teach us to pray, and he did. And we don’t do it. We don’t use the Lord’s Prayer. That’s a great prayer outline. I don’t mean use it religiously or legalistically.
Again, I mean, take that and use it as a prayer outline. Lord, I don’t know how to pray. Well, Lord, teach us to pray. Pray like this. God came down to earth and said, pray like this. That’s a good starting place.
Pray the Lord’s Prayer every day as a prayer outline. Here’s what I do. I always have a plan. So there have been times where I’ve used the Lord’s Prayer on a regular basis as a prayer outline. There are times I’ve used Paul’s prayers, and I pray them for the Church of God.
What I’m doing right now in my life, every morning, every day, I’m not always morning again. I’m not a highly structured person. I don’t have to do it every day at 8:30. Within a 24-hour period, I get her done.
And every day I spend 20 minutes listening to praise music and praying in tongues. And then when I’m done with that, I pray, typically out loud, three Psalms a day. And it’s amazing how many times I find myself in those Psalms, how relevant they are.
And then after I do that, I move on to spontaneous prayer. What does that mean? I bring out the list. Okay. God help my wife recover from her hip surgery. There are people in church who are struggling, and I begin to pray for them by name.
The world, the elections, whatever it is, whatever missionaries, whatever it is. And I just began. Then I do that thing where I pray out of my own mind. The things that are on my heart. I do. 1 Peter 5:7. Cast your cares upon him, for he cares for you.
7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:7, NLT)
But somehow in our evangelical culture, we’ve come to believe that that is the only way to pray. And we do it silently. And if we do it out loud, we insert the word just as often as we can.
You ever been in one of those prayer meetings? Lord, you’re just so awesome. We just love you and we just want you to come and meet us. you’re just so good and we just want you to meet someone. It’s amazing, the language.
I just think there’s nothing wrong with that, by the way. Nothing wrong with that. I just get a kick out of it. It’s like, you know, I’m sure I have verbal tics that you all notice and that probably annoy you. you’re free to tell me, but you’re also free to remain silent.
Give thanks in all circumstances. Remember, God uses everything for our good. Romans 8:28. For God causes all things to work for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:28, NLT)
So give thanks in all circumstances, good and bad, because God is at work and he is smarter than us and bigger than us.
I remember years ago when I was in the Methodist Church and I’d been an associate pastor for three years. Wonderful senior pastor, wonderful church. There’s nothing wrong with. There’s no reason with the situation I was in that made me Want to leave, but I just wanted.
I wanted to lead a church. I wanted to preach. I wanted to do, you know, I didn’t want to be associate pastor. I want to be a senior pastor. And in that situation, the bishop tells you where you’re going to go, you don’t go out and apply for jobs.
You just tell your district superintendent, who’s the arm of the bishop, that you’d like to leave, and here’s what kind of church you’re looking for. And then they would itinerate the preachers and move them around. And so three years in, I said, I told my district superintendent, hey, find me a church, man. I’m ready to go. Didn’t do it. They didn’t do it. Said, I’m gonna stay another year. Okay, fair enough. Fourth year, went back, hey, you know, find me a church. I’m ready to go. Oh, yeah, we’ll get you to church this year.
And there were several churches that are on my list. One of the churches that were on my list, and it was getting late, and they hadn’t called me yet, and they hadn’t said I was going to go, and I was getting concerned about it.
But one of the churches that was on my list was about 45 minutes down the road. And I got a call from one of my best friends, and he called me and he said, Kevin, I just wanted to tell you because I know you’re going to be disappointed.
So I wanted you to hear it from me, not the D.S. They’re sending me there. And he had told the D.S. he didn’t want to move. And I told the D.S. I did want to move, and that church would have been.
We were pretty much the same theologically, the same age, you know, there was no reason in my mind why he would have been sent there, and I wouldn’t, but that’s what they did. And I was so bitterly disappointed. Bitterly disappointed. I had to wait another year. But a year.
But two things happened that next year, the next year I did get appointed to another church. And far and away in the big picture of things 100 times better than if I’ve gotten pointed to that first church. The other thing that happened is that fifth year when I was the associate pastor, that was far and away my most productive and fruitful year serving at that church. And I came out of that experience realizing what I knew theologically, but it kind of made kind of was more profoundly true that God’s smarter than me.
God is smarter than me. You know, he is. And about many things in life, you’re smarter than me. All right. There are many things in life where you’re smarter than me. In most things in life, my wife is smarter than me. And it’s okay. It’s okay.
And with my grandchildren, it’s not true, but they think they’re smarter than me. My children used to think they were smarter than me, too, but they weren’t. All right, focus on blessings, not problems. And that changes us. You can turn your head either way.
You can grumble and complain about what’s wrong, or you can count your blessings and give thanks for what’s right. But the Bible says, be grateful in all circumstances.
I’ve never had a perfect day, but for the last 43 years, most days I get to wake up next to Jill Clancy. Thank you, Jesus. I got a beautiful, wonderful wife. My three kids love Jesus. They married people who love Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
Do my kids got problems? Yeah. Do they annoy me sometimes? Yeah. Do they ask me too much to be a babysitter for their kids? Yeah. Do I love my grandkids? Absolutely. And my kids are raising my grandkids to love Jesus.
Last week I was not here because I was in Denver attending the dedication and babysitting my kids all week, but attending the dedication of my six-month-old grandson, James. And I got to pray over him and his church at his dedication, at my kids’ request. Thank you, Jesus. What an incredible blessing. What an incredible honor. God, my cup overflows.
I get to see you all on Sunday nights. Listen, I’m excited to do that. I like you all, not just Zach. I like the rest of you, too. All right? I like Mark. I like to tell Mark jokes and like to hear his stories, hear about the gross food he eats at Boy Scouts. All right?
Focus on the blessings. And that’s how we give thanks in all circumstances. Then he goes on, he says, don’t resist the Holy Spirit. Here’s what I’ve come to believe. I’ve come to believe that eschatologically, people are very fearful of the end times and they think there’s going to be all this deception out there.
There is deception out there. When the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witness come to your door, it’s deception. All right? When progressive Christians say that what the Bible teaches about human sexuality is not true, that’s deception. All right?
When the Unitarians say that, or even the Pope apparently say that all religions lead to the same truth, that’s deception. Dear ones, if you’ve read your Bible just a little bit and been to church just a little bit, it isn’t that hard to smell out. But I’ll tell you what.
If you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Son of God, rose from the dead, that God, though being one, exists as Father, Son, Holy Spirit, that he inspired a book, that he is coming back in some way.
Premillennial, amillennial, post millennial, pre trib, post trib, pantrib. I don’t care what you believe about that. I just care. Is it going to wind up well? Is he coming back? Then your heart is as my heart.
If you believe that speaking in tongues is for today, I’m with you. If you believe that speaking in tongues isn’t for today, that doesn’t mean you’re not my brother in Christ. It just means you think I’m wasting 20 minutes every day. I can live with that.
Dear ones, our fear of deception has often become the deception. And so we’re afraid to walk into the things of the Spirit because that might be deceived.
I remember I started praying for people, and there came a time where people. I didn’t pray that this would happen, but where people started falling out in the Spirit. Not everybody, but some people.
When I would pray for them, they would fall. The Holy Spirit would come upon them, come upon me, come upon them, and they couldn’t stand anymore, and they would fall.
And people would say, oh, that’s deception. That’s the devil who’s doing that. And I would say, well, here’s the deal. I pray in the name of the Father through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Holy Spirit, come and give this person a fresh touch, and they fall. If that is a deceptive prayer, good luck with travel mercies and guide the surgeon’s hands.
Those prayers aren’t in the Bible. You know, people say, where is falling in the Bible? Actually, it’s there. It happens. John fell before Jesus in the book of Revelation. Daniel fell before the angel in the Book of Daniel.
There’s lots of fallen. There’s fallen in the Bible, there’s trembling in the Bible. There are physical manifestations in the Bible, all right, but people would often say, where’s that in the Bible? And I’d say the same place that talks about Sunday school.
Now, is Sunday school unbiblical? No, Sunday school is very biblical because the Bible doesn’t teach us to do Sunday school. It teaches us to teach our children. And Sunday school is a means we use to fulfill the biblical mandate. That’s very biblical.
Mission sending organizations. The Bible doesn’t talk about mission sending organizations. Antioch sent out Paul and Barnabas, but they weren’t an official mission sending organization that had an administration and a budget. All right, but the Bible. But that’s a way we do that. It says go into all the nations. Well, we want to be organized about it.
We want to be smart about it. We want to do it efficiently. We want to help the poor. Right. Samaritan’s purse. We create these organizations to fulfill what God has told us to do.
And God doesn’t spell those out. He doesn’t spell out. He says, do this. We go, well, how? Well, just do it. you’ll figure it out. And so, dear ones, don’t be so afraid of deception that you quench the Spirit. One of my biggest concerns, I believe in discernment.
But man, the level of pride and fear in what are called discernment ministries online is troubling to me. It’s troubling to me. I even thought about starting my own deal to argue back with those people. And I thought, no, the Internet does not need more argument. I’m not going to do it. But you’ll hear me complain about it once in a while. All right.
The Spirit will lead our hearts. God gave you the Spirit. He gave you the Bible. Guess what? It’s not an either or the same spirit he gave you is the same Spirit who inspired the Bible.
Listen, if you’re a charismaniac and you don’t pay attention to the Bible, all you go on is what your feelings are telling you. You will be deceived. All spirit, no word. You will be deceived by other spirits and you will blow up. But if you make the mistake of making a false Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Book, you will dry up. But if you have the Spirit and the Word, you will grow up.
In fact, that’s the very foundation of the firehouse church. For God did not give us second Timothy 2, chapter 1, verse 7. God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a power, love, and a sound mind. You can have power and a sound mind. You can have a sound mind and you can have power.
And you better add love to all of them, because that’s the most important. And the Book and the Spirit will lead you there. Don’t despise prophecy. This one’s tough. This one’s tough.
Because listen, not everybody who says, thus saith the Lord is speaking for the Lord. We have a great example before us in American evangelical or Pentecostal or charismatic culture in 2016. Long before the election took place, there were prophets who were saying Donald Trump was going to get elected president when nobody else believed Donald Trump was going to be elected president.
And they were right. Amazingly right. Startling right. Stunningly right. So right that those prophets in 2020 began to prophesy again that Donald Trump was going to serve not two terms, many of them, but two consecutive terms. And you know what? They didn’t say he was going to win the election, but it was going to be stolen. They didn’t say, they didn’t prophesy that. They prophesied he’s going to serve two consecutive terms.
And you know what? They were amazingly wrong. And they didn’t back down. A lot of two of them that I know, two high profile prophets I knew apologized. They came out and said, we got it wrong. I respect those two guys. A lot of the rest of them just doubled down. Oh, well, wait till 20. Wait till January 20. Well, I waited till January 20, and they inaugurated Biden and Harris. You know what I did on January 20? I prayed for my president Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, because that’s what the Bible tells me to do.
But some people say, no, it’s going to get overturned in March. No, it’s going to get overturned in April. No, it’s going to get overturned in August. Four years later, it didn’t get overturned.
Now, for those people who prophesied not two consecutive terms, but that Donald Trump would serve two terms, I’m still impressed. I’m still impressed. But they were the minority.
And what I’m saying with that is the Bible says, don’t despise prophecy. Sometimes it’s hard because not everybody who says thus saith the Lord are speaking accurately.
Now, I’m not saying we should stone those people. I don’t think that’s what the Old Testament means. I think it meant in that context when somebody was prophesying for you to follow another God beside Yahweh.
And so I think we’re all learning and growing. And so I have grace for people who get stuff wrong. And all sorts of people have spoken all sorts of words over my life, and some have been amazingly right. And a lot haven’t. I recently had somebody prophesy to me that I was supposed to retire.
And so I prayed into it. Right, you pray into those things. All right. I’ve prayed it a hundred times, as a matter of fact, ever since, I prayed a lot.
And it’s not that I want to retire. I just, I look at the firehouse, church, and Numbers wise. Neither in Poulsbo or Bremerton is it thriving. It’s like, not a lot of people coming.
And so, Lord, is there somebody out there better? Do I need to step aside? And my hearing is not infallible, but every time I pray it I feel like I hear, don’t quit.
I haven’t called you to quit. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. And so this person said I should retire. So I went back to the Lord and I prayed it. I said, Lord, should I retire? And he said, don’t quit.
I got a leadership team. I’ve told them, listen, I know you’re all my friends. I know you’re nice to me, but tell me the truth. You know, I’ve asked them, I said, is it time for somebody else? And they said, no.
Okay, so I’m not quitting. So I don’t see anybody out there. Well, you should. Really, I don’t know. But I do know, at least to the best of my ability, that wasn’t a word from the Lord that it was time for me to retire. It may have been a well-intentioned word. The person wasn’t trying to do me harm, but it wasn’t from the Lord.
And so prophecy is difficult. We have to listen, and we have to listen with our heart. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. We have to take things to God, and we have to put it to the test.
First of all, there’s the doctrinal test, all right? If somebody prophesies to you something that is clearly not scriptural, you know what? You need to start preaching that there are many ways to heaven and many gods. Yeah, that’s not the voice of the Lord.
You need to preach. You need to start preaching that Jesus is a lesser God than God the Father. No, you need to preach. You need to start teaching that the Holy Spirit is a force, not a person. No, you know, put it to the test. Does it acknowledge Jesus as Lord?
Does it acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh? Does it hold true to the Scriptures? That’s why if you want to be good at prophecy and good at receiving prophecy, the best discipline you can have is being a good student of the Bible. Second, do the fruit test.
Who is this person prophesying to me? Are they accurate? Are they a deeply committed Christian? Do they have another agenda? Do they want to look like a big deal spiritually? What’s going on here?
Now, having said that, I also want to say that sometimes you can get a word from the Lord, from an unlikely source, from somebody who’s none of those things. They’re not accurate. They’re not really a great disciple. They’re kind of a flake and a fruitcake.
And they say something that’s like, wow, God just used them. If God can speak through Balaam’s donkey, he can speak through that person. And so that’s why it’s so difficult. Right. But let me give you. Besides the doctrine test, let me just say this.
There are three ways that I typically handle prophetic words that are given to me, me. And the first way is, yep, yep. That is spot on. you’ve maybe you’ve had this experience where you. You met somebody, they didn’t know about your circumstances or what was going on, and they begin to read your mail.
I’ve had that happen where somebody says, well, this what I believe. The Lord’s saying, this is what’s going on in your life. And this is what’s going on in your life. This is what’s going on in your life. And this is what.
This is where he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, it’s just a confirmation. It’s just boom. And they. And there was. And there’s no way that they knew that beforehand. And there are other words that are just given. It’s like, yep. I mean, everything in my spirit says, that’s God.
The majority of words that I’m given fit in the second category. Maybe, maybe not. And you know what I do with those? I don’t flush them. I don’t jump right into them. I pray about them. I pray about them, and I wait.
The third kind of word I flush, it’s like, nope, you got that one wrong. And you just know it. You just know that, you know, good try. Good try this one.
Who said you should retire? I went home, I prayed about it for about 10 minutes, and I flushed it like, no, that wasn’t the Lord. I like this person. I’m not going to hold it against them. They had no ill intention. They just missed it. You flush.
You know, life’s too short to carry baggage, to carry stuff. We do way too much baggage carrying. Right. We do way too much carrying. Spiritual stuff we don’t need to carry. That’s why I don’t argue with people online at the sermon. The Lord showed me that’s baggage.
That’s not your call. That’s baggage. You can do it. you’d make enemies. You might even get a bigger following, but it’s baggage. For some people, maybe it’s not, but for me, it’s baggage.
My wife and I have been married 43 years. We now have no children at home and for some reason live in the biggest house we’ve ever lived in. Makes no sense. I like our house.
But here’s the law. In a society that accumulates, in a society that has the means to accumulate, you will fill the space you have.
And now we’re looking at downsizing. And it’s like we have so much baggage, we have so much stuff. I’ve made it a commitment. If I ever get a new piece of clothing, somebody gives me a piece of clothing, I get rid of two pieces of clothing.
In fact, anything new I get, I try to get rid of two things now because I just. And that’s not even going to do the trick. I mean, the only thing that’s going to do the trick is when we move to a smaller house and have to and get a big dumpster, that’ll do the trick.
But spiritually we do that over years. We accumulate. And sometimes it’s just so good to simplify and say, here’s who I am, here’s what I’m doing for God now. Boom. And we just get rid of the rest.
And the other thing I want to say before I finish with prophecy and the whole deal is I touched on it, but learn to wait. My goodness. We live in the most immediate and therefore impatient culture in the world.
Who won the World Series in 1942? I’ll tell you in about two minutes, right? You hungry? Great. All those drive-thru lines are 24/7. You don’t got to hunt your food. You don’t got to prepare your food.
You can be eating a taco from Taco or from Jack in a Box or Taco Bell in just a matter of minutes. And it’s not evil. I’m not saying it’s evil. I’m saying it’s trained us to be impatient.
You want to be entertained. There are, I don’t know how many channels available we have with our assortment of little streaming services and whatnot. And ladies, I just want to tell you something about the man you’re with. He doesn’t want to know what’s on TV. He wants to know what else is on TV.
That’s why you’ll come in the room. you’ll start to watch it with him. you’ll get involved. And just as you start to get involved, he’s doing what? It’s just who we are. All right, so.
But so much of the Bible is about waiting. Abram and Sarai go to a land I will show you, and I’ll make you a great nation. And even though you’re past childbearing years, I will give you a child, and that child will be your descendant to make a great nation. Great. We’ll do it, God. All right. When’s it going to happen?
It’s been a year. Yeah. Still working some stuff out. It’s been two years. Yeah, I’m still working some stuff out. 25 years. And they were old when it started.
Moses, take these people into the promised land. Great. I’ll take them into the promised land now. They got there in two weeks, but they whomped out. 40 years. He wandered the desert for 40 years, eating the same meal with a bunch of grumbling people. It’s like taking your kids on a road trip. 40 years.
David, I’ve anointed you as king. Great. When do I get to become king? Well, you’re going to get chased all over the countryside for years and years and years by Saul. And you won’t be able to go anywhere because the Philistines will hate you, too, and they’re your nearest neighbors. And you’re going to be hiding out in caves, living with a band of mighty men who are all fugitives, just like you.
You’re going to be a fugitive, destitute, nearly starving, no land, no flocks, having to sell yourself out as a mercenary before you enter your kingdom. Israel, I’m going to give you a Messiah, said the prophets about 1,000 years before it happened.
Paul preached to the Gentiles. All right, when do I go? Well, you need to go to the desert for about 14 years. Jesus saved the world. And spend 90% of your life as an obscure carpenter in a little dusty town occupied by the Romans, an invisible one Jew among millions, just making chairs.
And in three years, you’re going to change all of human history. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31, NLT)
One of my verses that I quote often is, I would have lost hope for this, that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And I pray that for revival. I pray, Lord, I want to see an outpouring in America. I want to see a revival.
I want to see a great awakening. And I have dreams about it. And it’s just so much a part of who I am. And that.
Psalm 27:13, you know what verse 14 is? Be courageous and wait and wait. Wait for the Lord.
14 Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. (Psalm 27:13, NLT)
Dear ones, learn patience. One of the things, somebody gives you a prophetic word on Sunday and it doesn’t come past by Tuesday, don’t throw it away. Put it on the shelf and pray and do it. Put it on the shelf and pray into it.
God is not in the same hurry as those people who are tailgating me. Let them try to tailgate God. See what they get.
Learn to wait, dear ones. God is good and he is not slow. I love what he says when Jesus comes. I love what the Bible says when Jesus comes. It’s such a great phrase. In the fullness of time. God answers in the fullness of time.
And I’ve told God about my passion to see a great awakening in the land that I live in. I’d love to see it in the world. It’s happening in places in the world, but this is my home. I just want to see it happen in my home.
I want to see it happen in the Pacific Northwest. Because people think the Pacific Northwest is so spiritually dead. And it wouldn’t give glory to God if God began to burn wet wood. You know, if this place got spiritual fire. Fire. And I pray for it. And I put in my request, I say, God, I believe it’s going to happen. And here’s my request.
I want to see it happen in my lifetime, and I want to play in it. And I’ve had pictures and visions of it happening. But I’ve also told God this. I told God, you’re smarter than me. And if someday I’m in heaven and it happens through the anointed preaching of Micah Kagawa. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
You know, retired baseball player, he has a bunch of adoring fans. And he begins. And he starts a career as a revivalist preacher. Praise God. Right? Praise God. And Emmy can say, that’s my little brother.
I taught him everything he knows. God is smarter than me. He’ll do it his way and in his time. You can make your request known. Israel did for years, for a thousand years, just send the Messiah. Send them today. But it wasn’t what the fullness of time. God is smarter.
So, Lord, teach us the patience in a broken world where we don’t have all the answers and there’s injustice and confusion. We pray for some and they get miraculously healed. We pray for others and they die. We pray for deliverance and see somebody miraculously set free.
We pray for deliverance, and somebody seems to remain in their condition. We pray for our prodigals, and they seem to get more prodigal. But you’ve assured us that you’re going to bring them home.
And so, Lord, teach us to faithfully, not grumbling, but faithfully wait. For this is God’s will for you. In Christ Jesus, rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.
Because on the night you were betrayed, where all seemed to be lost to your disciples because they didn’t have the big picture.
But even before that, you prepared them, and you had a meal, and you prepared them. You said, listen, this Passover that you’ve observed for thousands of years, it has a deeper meaning than even the Exodus. It is about the exodus from sin and death and hell and Satan.
It’s about the freedom that God is going to extend to the human race. And it’s going to be purchased with my body and my blood. And your sins, though they are scarlet, will become white as snow. And I will establish a New Covenant with you.
And so from this point on, instead of just having the Passover once a year, when you understand the resurrection, when you understand who I am, I want you to gather together, and I want you to do this.
And don’t forget my great salvation. Feed on it. And let this meal feed you as my spirit dwells within you. Thank you, Jesus. As we wait for our prayers to be answered, as we wait for the goodness of the Lord in the land of. We’ve seen plenty of it. I’m not complaining, man.
I got a million things to be thankful for. But I want to see more. I want to see more heaven on earth. And as I wait for it, I will continually come to your table with thanksgiving and hunger for the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Amen.
Come and eat, people.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
