August 24, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
All right, dear ones, we’re going to finish up Romans. We’re not quite finishing it up tonight, but this is the second to the last, so we’ve made it through Romans.
So I’m really praying about where to go next. And so I was thinking… I think I already mentioned this to you. I’m thinking about Revelation, also thinking about Genesis. I’ve kind of got the Bible bookended there, beginning or end. But I think maybe what I’ll do is I’ll start Revelation in the beginning of 2026, or Genesis at the beginning of 2026. And I was thinking maybe I’ll do a series. This is kind of a foolish name, but Kevin’s Greatest Hits. You know, just like some of my favorite passages, my favorite Scriptures and stuff. Just kind of…
Then I was thinking maybe around Christmas time, I thought maybe a sermon series on angels. See, yeah, that got the same reaction as—funny, a few oohs and ahs. Ooh, angels. That’d be interesting. Ooh, angels. And everybody’s like, “Oh, yeah, do Revelation. Do Revelation.” But, you know, here’s what everybody wants when you do Revelation. They want me to, you know, take the newspaper and say, see, this is happening, and this is happening, and this is happening. And you know me well enough to know, no, that’s not what we’re going to get. So probably won’t be as, you know…
All right, talk to Isaiah. He’s getting it down. Yeah, he’s got Revelation pretty well. He’s got the first eight chapters pretty well figured out. So, yeah, just sit down with Isaiah for breakfast and say, “Explain to me the first eight chapters of Revelation.” He’ll be able to do it.
All right, here’s the book of Revelation explained to you right here. Jesus is God. The devil is doomed. We win. All right, there you go. All right. So there you go.
All right. But now let’s back to Romans. Romans 15:14:
My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness. Man, he must be talking about this church filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. See, I’m gone and you’re able to instruct one another. You did great.
So nevertheless, I’ve written to remind you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Gospel of God.
God’s purpose is that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I have reason to boast in Christ Jesus regarding what pertains to God. For I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me by word and deed, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, by the power of God’s Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way around Illyrium. My aim is to preach the Gospel where Christ has not been named, so I will not build on someone else’s foundation. But as it is written, those who are not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.
That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you. But now I no longer have any work to do in these regions. I have strongly desired for many years to come to you whenever I travel to Spain, for I hope to see you when I pass through and to be assisted by you for my journey there, once I have first enjoyed your company for a while.
Right now I am traveling to Jerusalem to serve the saints because Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased and indeed are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual benefits, then they are obligated to minister to them in their material needs. So when I have finished this and have safely delivered the funds to them, I will visit you on my way to Spain. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayers to God on my behalf. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, and that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you.
May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
14 My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 Nevertheless, I have written to remind you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel of God. God’s purpose is that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I have reason to boast in Christ Jesus regarding what pertains to God. 18 For I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me by word and deed for the obedience of the Gentiles, 19 by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, and by the power of God’s Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. 20 My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, so that I will not build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but, as it is written, Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand. 22 That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you. 23 But now I no longer have any work to do in these regions, and I have strongly desired for many years to come to you 24 whenever I travel to Spain. For I hope to see you when I pass through and to be assisted by you for my journey there, once I have first enjoyed your company for a while. 25 Right now I am traveling to Jerusalem to serve the saints, 26 because Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. 27 Yes, they were pleased, and indeed are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual benefits, then they are obligated to minister to them in material needs. 28 So when I have finished this and safely delivered the funds to them, I will visit you on the way to Spain. 29 I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. 30 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayers to God on my behalf. 31 Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 and that, by God’s will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you. 33 May the God of peace be with all of you. Amen. (Romans 15:14-33, CSB)
So that kind of sounds like a benediction, and it kind of is though. And then he’s going to go on in chapter 16 and send out a lot of greetings and give some more instructions and another benediction, and we’ll make sure to cover that as well.
But this is really a summary of Paul’s ministry, not just his ministry to the Romans, but his ministry as he was called by God on the road to Damascus. And later, he and Barnabas were sent out by the Church in Antioch. His ministry to the Greek-speaking world, to the Roman world—a Jewish Pharisee converted by Christ and converted with the mission to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles. And this is just a summary of that ministry that Paul had.
He talks about the Church being fully equipped in Rome, and yet he also wants to see them; he wants to visit them, which he hadn’t at this point. We know that Paul did make it to Rome. He made it to Rome in chains. We don’t know whether or not he died in Rome. We don’t know whether he was released from those chains for a while and actually made it to Spain. Some scholars think that Paul made it to Spain. Most scholars don’t think he made it to Spain. And on that first imprisonment in Rome, he stayed there until he was put to death under Nero. Others think he was released, went to Spain, then came back to Rome, was rearrested, and then martyred under Nero. We just, we don’t have clear history on that. But his desire was to go to Rome, and he made it there. Whether or not he made it to Spain, we do not know.
Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles was a priestly ministry. If you grew up Catholic like I do, you have a certain perception of a priest as one who administrates the sacraments, brings the absolution of God through confession, and that really, you don’t have very much access to Christ without that particular priest and his ordination.
But in fact, the New Testament teaches that we all, once we come to Christ, are priests and priestesses. The word priest literally means “bridge builder,” somebody who connects one side to another side. What Christ has done is He has connected, through His incarnation, broken humanity, and through His divinity, with the eternal God, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And His work on the cross is even a good picture that His arms stretched out create this bridge between humanity that has left God, and then God brings them back to Himself through the high priest, Jesus Christ, portrayed in the Old Testament with the high priest offering the sacrifices for the people. And Jesus, of course, being both the perfect priest to offer that sacrifice and in Himself, the perfect sacrifice.
But then the Bible says we are a royal priesthood. How are we a royal priesthood? We now represent Christ in this world, and there still is a mission between bringing broken humanity back to God, and we serve in that priestly function. And so, you are a priest; you are a bridge builder. You are a person who is connecting a lost world to a saving God. When you share Christ with your love and with your words, with your friends, when you raise a family and you bring your kids to church, and you pray for your kids that they might follow you in their faith and know Christ. You are serving as a priest for your children. And that’s a very important ministry, by the way, because your children need to get saved. They need to come to a personal faith. God has no grandchildren, all right? And when you and your husband and you and your wife got together and made a baby, you created a sinner. All right? Now you got to, now you got to raise them right and get them to know Jesus so that you can protect the rest of us from that thing you made. Alright?
So I appreciate the fact that you guys have worked hard on your kids, and we don’t have to be too afraid of them. Little scared of Sophia, but I think, you know, she’s all right. Just, you know, Stevin just said what a good shot she was, you know, so it’s like, don’t want to make her mad.
Anyway, you’re a priest in the workplace. You know, there have been many times people… I’m a pastor. When people think, you know, well, you really must be special and holy, and of course, you all know better than that. But, you know, people will tell me their issues and their problems and their brokenness, and I always think, “Oh, man, you need help. God, you need to send somebody to help this person.” And I always get the same answer. You know, that’s kind of like the instinctive thing. “Man, they need help. God, you need to send some Christians into their life.” And He’s like, and God’s always like, and I’ve done this more than once. “God, they need a Christian.” And God’s like, “Duh,” you know? Who? Where?
And then it just, you know, the obvious dawns on me. “You! You’re the Christian I’m sending into their life.” And if you’re like me at that moment, you think, “No, God, a better one, a better Christian.” And God’s like, “You’re it, man. Tag, you’re it. You’re the representative of Jesus in this person’s life.”
So step up, step up, people. You represent Christ in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in your home. Wherever you go, you bring about the aroma of Christ, and you serve as that function of a priest. And Paul’s ministry was priestly.
When we intercede for others in prayer, that’s a priestly ministry. That is, you know, we talk about praying for people as “standing in the gap.” God says “nobody to stand in the gap” in the Old Testament. And so when we pray for lost people, we stand in the gap.
We’re reading our NDR book, our near-death experience book, and talked about this young man named Ian, who is a complete pagan surfer playboy, just going after the best high, the best surfing high, the best drug high, the best, you know, chasing girls high.
And he gets stung by this pack of deadly jellyfish. And as he’s dying in the ambulance, she has a vision of his mother praying for him. And he’s wondering about life after death. And his mother was woken up and told, “Your son is dying, pray for your son.” And she began to intercede for her son. And her son ended up crying out to God for the forgiveness of his sins and had an encounter with Jesus before he came… And I’ve seen this guy interviewed and he’s, now he’s serving the Lord, a New Zealand surfer hippie, and he’s serving the Lord. His mother served as a priest, crying out to God for him to be saved.
So we connect a world, a lost world, to a saving God. That was Paul’s ministry. And Paul’s ministry was directed. He had a call to bring the gospel to the Gentiles, this Jewish Pharisee. And yet he’s called to bring the Jewish Messiah to the Gentiles that at one time he despised. And then the battle, the Jewish legalist, who at one time he was, and he says, “I was the best of all of them. I was the most devout.” And you saw it, right before he met Christ, he’s persecuting the Christians because he saw them as a threat. And then he does a complete 180 and he preaches the gospel to the Gentiles.
Let me tell you something, you have a call on your life. And when I say this, people mistake call. Because the calls in the Bible are often so dramatic, right? Moses at the burning bush. But actually Moses had that call before the burning bush. He was born with that call. And so we tend to think that these calls of God are dramatic.
But you have a call to the mundane things also. You have a call, but it’s a call from God, and you need to take that call seriously. You’re on earth for a reason. You’re on earth maybe for several reasons.
I remember when, just as a young boy, I wasn’t even a Christian yet, but I was in church with my mother. There was a father over in church, and he was pastoring. He was raising his kids right in church. He was touching them, he was talking to them, he was encouraging them as they worshiped God. I saw this another place. I went to my son and daughter-in-law’s church. There was a father there who was passionately worshiping God, but his children were also passionately worshiping God. And he would look down on them and kind of encourage them. I went up afterwards and I thanked him. I said, “Man, you don’t know how much that blessed me to see a father teaching his kids to worship God.”
I remember when my mother pointed out this father in church when I was just a boy and said, “Look at that man. He is being a good father to his kids.” You know, he just didn’t drag him to church and ignore him and then hope the church did its job. He was there as a priest in his family, you know, trying to raise his kids. And my mother just noticed that. I remember the minute she said that, something hit me. I was like, I want to be a good dad. I want to be a father. I want to have children and love them and be a good father.
And later, when I met Jill, one of the most attractive things about her to me, besides a hundred other things, you know, was that I knew—the Lord had actually spoken this to me, but it was also fairly obvious—that she would make a wonderful mother. And I thought, “Well, one of the things, if you want to be a good father, one of the best things you can do is pick a wife who’ll be a good mother.” Right? And so that was, you know, so I had this call on my life to be a father. And that helped shape, you know, who I married and how I spent my life and my time.
Anyway, there are other calls on my life. There was certainly a call, a very clear call, to move to Washington and to plant churches in Washington.
You know, ever want to hear God’s voice? You know, it’s not the same for everybody. But worked for me… was driving through Bakersfield, outside of Bakersfield, California, on Highway 99. Anybody ever been there? Highway 99, Bakersfield, California? Right? Okay. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s the same zip code, all right? It’s, you know. So if you’re ever gonna, you know, God speaks to people in the desert. There you go. Right outside of Bakersfield. They have a really nice suburb of Bakersfield. It’s called Oildale. How’d you like to live in Oildale? So anyway.
But God spoke to me and He said, “You’re gonna…” You know, I was raising up these young men and couldn’t get Washington off my heart and thought, I’m going to send one of these young men to Washington to plant a church. And man, as clear as I ever heard God in my life. I felt like He said, “You’re not sending one of those boys. You’re going to go.” And six months later, I was here.
So there are calls on your life. Ask God. Just ask God. Lord, what’s my assignment? Don’t expect it to be dramatic. Most of them aren’t. Most of you are not going to— you’re going to ask God, what’s my assignment? He’s not going to say, you know, “Move to the North Pole and evangelize the Inuit, you know, in the furthest point of Alaska.” You know, most of you aren’t going to get that.
You’re going to get something probably very much about where you are. But there might be a person that will come to mind and say, you know what? I want you to be a priest to that person. I want you to begin to pray for that person specifically, or whatever. There might, but there will be… Or he’ll give you a region. He’ll say, “This neighborhood.” Or “I want you to be a priest to this middle school and to begin to drive by that middle school and walk the grounds and intercede for it.”
But the Lord has a call on your life. He had a call on Paul’s life to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will what? Direct your paths.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6, CSB)
So live a life with a directed path. Don’t just kind of waft through life, tossed to and fro by the waves. Ask God to direct your path, and He will do it.
Paul’s ministry was to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. He says that all the time. And he was a ministry of power. He said this Gospel is fully proclaimed when it’s proclaimed with signs, wonders, and miracles. And the Church in the West lost the idea of the power of God and began to proclaim God only with reason, knowledge, exegesis, teaching—all good things, but lacking the power. And therefore, opened the door for theological liberalism, which used all those other things as well and really hurt the church because we became cessationists. We became people… That was one of the downsides of the Reformation.
And arguing against, the Catholics would say, “We have this whole list of miracles which proves that our theology is better. You don’t have any miracles.” And they argued, “No, your miracles are false miracles. And God doesn’t do that anymore.” Not all of them, but many of them. That was their argument.
Listen, a lot of those miracles in the tradition of the ancient church are fanciful and superstitious and not real. But a lot of them are real. God’s never been out of the miracle business. He has never ceased. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s never stopped. Eddie Hyatt wrote a great book, professor at Oral Roberts, called 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity. He just traces church history, and I love it.
Anytime I quote, I mention a book, who do you think is immediately writing down the name and the author of that book, right? Yeah. You know, Stevin. You’re an A student, Jamie. All right, don’t want to embarrass you, but she’s like, “Ooh, another book to read.” Good. 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity by Eddie Hyatt. Got it. All right, good. I expect you to read it. And I want a book report by Christmas. Gives you some time. Single spaced. If you need help writing it, Aiko’s a great writer. She could be your ghostwriter. Yeah, she could rock it.
All right, so Paul came with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. Now, the power of God never converts people. What it does is it gets their attention. It gets their attention. You see, when you just argue with people, you might have the best arguments, but people really can argue back. But the power of God gives people an invitation. What are you going to do— it’s kind of like God saying, “What are you going to do about that?”
My favorite example is the paralyzed man that was let through the roof by his four friends. And Jesus, rationally, because He’s God and knows this is why He came to earth, looked at the paralyzed man, realized that somehow his paralysis was not his primary problem. His primary problem was the guilt of his sin. And looks at the man and shocks everybody and says, my sins are forgiven. Immediately, the Pharisees reasoned in their hearts, accurately, by the way, this is accurate reasoning. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Good point. Your point is true. Nobody can forgive sins but God alone.
7 “Why does he speak like this? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7, CSB)
And then Jesus, noticing them, reasoning in his heart, says, “Why do you reason such in your heart? To show you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, get up and walk. Pick up your mat and walk.”
6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —then he told the paralytic, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.” (Matthew 9:6, CSB)
And afterwards, He didn’t say this, but I felt like He was going to say, “What are you going to do with that, suckers?” See, it’s an invitation. And that’s exactly what the invitation is. What are you going to do with that?
I remember we were at the Assembly of God church here in Silverdale. Not when we worshiped there, but when I was the, you know, back in the day. Only the Johnsons remember that day. Sophia was like three or something like that. So.
And I was pastoring there as an interim, and I remember I did an altar call and was praying for people, and they were falling. They were just dropping, you know, and literally, I just prayed for about 10 people. And they’re all on the ground, some of them are shaking. Just, you know, in the Name of Jesus. Fire. Fire. Fire. One of those kinds of things. This young guy goes up, he goes, “How do I know God is real?” And I felt like saying, “Well, dude, look around, people don’t do this at Walmart. You know, this is an invitation.”
And the invitation, when you see a miracle or experience the supernatural, here’s the invitation. God is saying, “I’m here, I’m alive, pay attention. Ask me something, engage with me. Don’t just go, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ Or be critical like, ‘Oh, I think they’re all faking.'”
That used to drive me nuts. People say, “Oh, I think all those people are faking.” People that they knew. “I have the Spirit of discernment.” No, you don’t. You have the Spirit of fear and control. I’m not doubting people can fake. I’m just saying I knew all those people, you know, and they weren’t faking. And so something’s happening. You got to ask, is this psychosomatic? Is this the devil? Or is it, in fact—and by the way, those are legitimate questions, but there are answers to those questions. But there’s a third answer that people are loathe to go to. Wow. God is really alive and present. And maybe I need to perk my ears up and open my heart. The power of God is an invitation.
And so it is good for the church to find power again. God heals. We’ve had testimonies of healing. I just came upon another one. In fact, this lady, I didn’t give her your information, but she asked, she said, “I want to talk to that couple you told me about who are from Japan” because she’s a Japanese native. Her name is Yoshiko Hanks. She married Lanny Hanks, who was an American Navy man, and moved to the United States. She became a Christian and started a ministry with Japanese students, where she built a business bringing exchange students over.
But she’s very upfront with the families. “I’m a Christian lady. I’m going to put these kids in Christian households, and they’re going to go to Christian churches when they’re here in America.” And a lot of the families are like, oh, good, good. We want them to experience American culture, and we know that’s part of American culture.
So the kids would come, and they would meet with Christian families. They go to Christian churches. A lot of them would get converted. And then she’d go back to Japan and try to find good churches for these kids. And, you know, she was the one who just kind of opened my heart to praying for Japan. And anyway, I saw Yoshi just last week when I was in California. Her and her husband Lanny, they came out.
And I still remember, I don’t remember if it was before I left and was just visiting or before I left or after I left and was visiting, but I remember the phone call I got from Lanny, and it’s like, “Yoshi has cancer. It’s a rare carcinoma, and she wants you to come pray for her. And the doctors are saying six months to a year.” That was somewhere before 2010. And I just saw Yoshi this last Sunday.
And you don’t know. You don’t know. Listen, we are due for an onslaught of people because every time I go to California, all these people always say to me, “We, oh, we’re going to come up and see you, Kev. We’re going to come up and see you.” You know, so one of these days, you know, if they all come up the same Sunday, man, we’re going to be packed. All right? You can, you can meet the, you know… I know, I know that you’re my fan club, but you can meet the other half of my fan club. It’s like, all right, these people like him, too.
All right, so maybe Yoshi and Lanny will come, but she actually wants to talk to you guys about Japan or something. You know, “I want—” I think I mentioned you to them, and she’s like, “I want to meet that couple. I want to talk to that couple.” But I didn’t give her, like, your phone number and stuff.
But anyway. All right, Yoshi, healed of cancer. That’s another one. Every time I start to think about this, you know, I think, okay. You know, I always go, Nick Yamo, Julie, you know, okay, do we have… And then the Lord just reminds me, it’s like, oh, yeah, Jamie’s sitting there every Sunday, Yoshi, and it’s just… And then I start to think…
And then the other one is, here is what’s more common than these dramatic, diagnosed, you know, cancers and heart diseases. Here’s what’s more common. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had this experience where somebody will just come and said, “I went to the doctor and there was something not right. There was a mass. They don’t know what the mass is. And so, what? We’re doing more tests, and I’m nervous about the more tests.” And so we pray for the more tests, and then the people come back and go, well, so, you know, did they get healed of cancer? I don’t know. All I know is there was something the size of a tennis ball that isn’t there anymore. Or a grapefruit. Not a grapefruit. I haven’t had a grapefruit disappear. But, you know, that’d be a good one.
Here’s the one I want. I’ve seen this. I’ve seen this on video. I don’t know how real this is or not, but, you know, we got obesity in America. You know, we’re the generation raised on fast food and sugar. It’s very addictive. And so a lot of us really, it’s like, we don’t want to be this way, but we’re this way. And I’ve seen, I’ve seen video on TV where guys are walking, people are walking up the front of the church and they’re holding their britches up because they instantaneously lost like 40, 50 pounds. Yeah. How cool would that be? Yeah. You guys want to lay hands on me for that one? I’m down. I got suspenders too, so it wouldn’t be too dangerous. That could be an embarrassing miracle. All right. Yeah, dance around in my Hanes ephods.
God of miracles, come. We just sang it. Don’t give up on power. Just because it doesn’t happen all the time doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Keep praying. Keep praying. Paul’s ministry was a ministry of power. You know, throughout the Book of Acts… anybody know, there’s one place that Paul went, only one place he went in the Book of Acts, where no miracles are recorded. Anybody know where that is? Bueller? Anyone? Athens. Acts 17. He goes to Athens and he argues with the Stoics and the Epicureans and the philosophers on Mars Hill.
And it’s very interesting in modern evangelical culture, there was a whole church planting, you know, called Mars Hill. And that’s fine. And there’s another movement called Mars Hill. And Mars Hill is kind of held out because Paul gives such a great, great apologetic for the church. And yet, when you look at the Book of Acts, all the places he went in the Greek-speaking world, where did he have the least fruit? Athens. You know, a few. It was very discouraging.
And it’s kind of like, I think, when signs and wonders are not present, you’ve preached the gospel, but you haven’t preached—that’s what Pentecostals used to call themselves, right? Full gospel preachers. Didn’t mean they ate a lot at the buffet after church. They preached the full gospel, which includes the ministry of power. So do not back away from power. You can’t make it happen, but man, you can ask for it to happen, and God will show up in power.
Paul’s ministry is a pioneering ministry. He was an apostle, was an apostle, one who was sent, usually one who is sent to a region that has not yet, the church has not yet been established. If you notice in Paul’s ministry through the Book of Acts, he didn’t stay any place very long. He’s not a pastor. He doesn’t hang out with the people and nurture them and guide their spiritual growth. He is there to ignite something and start a work and raise up leaders, and then he moves on.
And so he is a pioneer. He starts new works, he establishes, he takes new ground. And so it is an apostolic work or a pioneering work. He doesn’t want to build on somebody else’s foundation. That doesn’t mean that’s an unworthy call. Churches exist today because people build on someone else’s foundation. One of the reasons I like planting churches is because I like responsibility and accountability. When I was in the Methodist Church, and all us Methodists, we get appointed to these churches that have, you know, had dozens of other pastors before us. And it was great because when there were problems in the church, what could you do? I mean, politicians do this all the time, right? You just blame the previous administration. Like, well, you know, they, you know, I’m just trying to undo all the bad stuff they did. And, you know, you get around, you talk with other pastors and they’d be like, “Well, you know, so and so did this.” You know, it’s always the previous administration.
Well, when you plant a church, it’s like, you can’t blame the previous administration. You know, you got accountability and responsibility. “Remember that? That didn’t work. Yeah, we did that. That was us. That was on us.” So I kind of like that. I kind of like, you know, just, all right, do it, do it. It’s up to you.
Paul was that way. Paul was that way. He didn’t want to build on somebody else’s work. We need pioneers. We need people. There still are unreached peoples. There still are unreached people. Every generation, we need pioneers. We need pioneers to reach generations of new people, of young people, because old people don’t necessarily speak the language.
And so, you know, I’ll never forget the book I read about the Jesus movement called God’s Forever Family. And this guy Ted, who kind of was the point man. It wasn’t, what’s his name, Lonnie Frisbee. This guy named Ted was the point man of the Jesus movement. I forget his last name, but he was in Haight Ashbury, and he came to the Lord and he started going to this real conservative Baptist church. You know, the suit and tie crowd, the short hair. And this was back in the 60s, so even more conservative than we would…
But the pastor was a good man. And he saw, wow, you know, and he walks, he walked Haight Ashbury with Ted, and a lot like Chuck Smith, you know, when he would walk the beaches. And it’s like, man, these kids need Jesus. And he looked and he didn’t think, oh, these kids are stupid. They need a bath, they should go home, they should clean up. He really, he said, “They need Jesus.” But he told Ted, he said, “Look it, man, I will teach you about the gospel, but you got to reach these kids. You know, they’re not going to listen to me. They’re going to listen to you.”
And so there’s a part of that. We need pioneers in every generation to speak to a new generation. And we need spiritual mothers and fathers who will mother and father them and help them to do that. And that’s how it works. So Paul’s ministry was a pioneering ministry. One day, again, I will have a pioneering ministry. It’ll be at the old folks home, and it’s like, “Do you know Jesus?” You know? I’ll just be wandering around the halls, and I don’t know. I don’t want to speak that into being.
But anyway, wherever you go, you’re a priest and sometimes you’re a pioneer, right?
Paul’s ministry was to the ends of the earth. Spain, for Paul, was the ends of the earth. That was the furthest. That was the place that kind of the Jewish diaspora had gone out to. That was the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire. Jerusalem is on the other side of the empire. And Paul’s going to Jerusalem, desires to go to Rome. And he wants to go to Rome and get help to go to Spain. And so Paul took the Great Commission seriously.
We are to disciple nations. Go and make disciples of all nations. Of all nations. And so we are to reach all nations.
One of the reasons I have an optimistic eschatology is because I can’t imagine Jesus giving us an assignment to do, giving us the Holy Spirit to do that assignment, and then saying, “Oh, yeah, you’re not going to be able to do it. You’re not going to be able to disciple nations.” I think we are to disciple nations. I think the Western world, largely during the Middle Ages and the Protestant Reformation, etcetera, was discipled by Christianity. It wasn’t completely won by Christianity. But today we still are swimming, and you’ve heard me say this a hundred times, we’re still swimming in Christian waters. We’re still swimming even though we look at it and go, oh, the secularists and the wokeism and all this stuff. No, no, no. Even those arguments have an underlying Christian foundation.
Now, we may be losing ground and people being converted to Jesus. We may be losing ground in those waters that we’re swimming in. But to a large extent, Western civilization was built upon Christianity. And now it’s happening in Africa, it’s happening in Southeast Asia. A hundred years from now, those cultures are going to be swimming in Christian waters. And I pray that God will send revival back into Europe and America, so we will also still be swimming in Christian waters and that this thing will grow and we will disciple nations. That nations will be founded on Christian principles and will live by these principles taught from a Jewish carpenter and a converted Pharisee.
We’re to make disciples, followers of Jesus in every language and every people. Paul’s heart was to do that. He wanted the Gospel to reach the ends of the earth. Paul’s ministry was held up through prayer. You read his epistles and he’s always telling people, “Pray for me.”
I remember a Korean student in seminary. We didn’t know his name. It was a Korean name, tough for us to pronounce. So he just, you know, like you Ats. He just said, “All right. Atsuro. Too hard. Ats.” All right, and what’s your first name? Aiko, what’s your name? But what, you’re what? Lori. Okay, so you go by Aiko. So, yeah. I thought for some reason you had a more difficult name to pronounce. Okay, so Aiko. Good. You’re good.
But, you know, some people have… They go into cultures and they have different… Like my nephews, my great nephews, my niece’s three sons in California. I just visited them. For some reason, they had a hard time pronouncing the name—you know, when Dylan, who’s now 6, was 4 years old. He’s 8. Anyway, he had a hard time pronouncing the name Kevin. And my sister, his grandma, “This is Uncle Kevin.” “Uncle Kleiben Klebben.”
And so finally, you know, we’re in In-N-Out Burger, where holy transactions happen. And I said, “Just call me Uncle Genius.” And it stuck. And now, two, three years later, I come to their house and I take these boys out for Slurpees and stuff. And they love me. And it’s like, and it’s like, “Uncle Genius is here! Uncle Genius!” And their mother, my niece, will say, “You know, actually, his name is Uncle Kevin.” And they argue with you. “No, it’s not. It’s Uncle Genius.” How cool is that? I’m Uncle Genius.
So, you know, names are, names are hard. Sometimes names are hard to pronounce. I don’t know where I was going with that. People pray for me. Yeah. Why is it… why am I saying that anyway? I don’t know. Paul’s always asking. Oh! Moses! Yeah, I got it.
See, I brought that rabbit back in from the rabbit trail. Come here, bunny.
And so, yeah, Moses was Korean, and we couldn’t pronounce his name in seminary. And so he just always said, “Call me Moses. Call me Moses.” And Moses, one of those Korean students at seminary that American students both love and hate because he was a delightful man and he loved the Lord. He was full of zeal. It’s easy to be inspired by him. But our first test in Greek, I was thrilled to get in the upper 80s on that test. It’s like, oh, good, a B plus, a minus in Greek. Moses got a 99 and a half. And he was arguing with the Greek professor that the Greek professor was wrong, that he had a hundred. And I think he was right.
But you would see Moses. I would see Moses coming out of the library. I never saw Moses in the library because I never went in the library. But I would see Moses come out of the library with a pile of books. He’d say, “Kevin!” I say, “Moses!” He says, “Pray for me. Pray for me.” I said, “No kidding, I’ll pray for you. You gonna read all those books?” You gotta, you know… But he had a passion, you know, to bring the gospel to his culture.
And so it’s, you know, people get this false humility. Say, “Oh, you know, I don’t want to ask people to pray for you.” Ask people to pray for you.
These little ladies down in California, you know, my old friends, they’ll come up to me and they say, “How you doing?” And I’ll say, “Pray for me.” And I love these ladies. They go, you know, they came up to me later and said, “I don’t, I take this seriously. What do you want me to pray for you about?” And I was ready for them because I knew these ladies. And I gave him a list of six things. I said, “Here you go.” Six things. Boom, boom, boom, boom with these two ladies, said, “We will pray for those six things.”
Now, you know these ladies. These six things are going to happen. All right? Pray for me.
Paul’s ministry. Why was Paul’s ministry so successful? He was brilliant. That’s true. He was tenacious. That is true. He was deeply converted. That is true. the Spirit of God was upon him. That is true. And guess what? The churches prayed for him.
Every effective ministry is, that’s part of the problem with the Western church. We have gone to formulas and programs, cleverness and demographics, and those things aren’t evil, and you can use those things. But oftentimes, in my experience, the tail wags the dog, and we need to have a prayer-driven, spirit-driven ministry or Kitsap County will continue to be one of the most unchurched counties in the United States. Pray for me.
And finally, Paul’s ministry was one of love. And we’ll see this as we finish in chapter 16. He just lists so many names from the church in Rome that he hasn’t visited, and yet he knows these people. This is before social media, right? They weren’t Facebook friends. He just knows so many people. And wherever he goes, he loves the churches that he plants and he loves…
And when he writes these churches, even though, like to Corinth, he writes stern letters, and Galatians, he writes a stern letter, to Philippians, he writes a very warm, affectionate letter. Even his sternness in those letters is what? It’s born out of love.
You realize, of course, that love does not mean, as our culture thinks it seems to mean, being nice. Sometimes love involves being nice. It’s nice to be nice. It’s good to be nice. We ought to be nice. We ought to be kind. But if you’ve raised children, you realize as a parent that the loving thing is not always, according to the child, a nice thing. If you do the nice thing for your children all the time, you will destroy their lives. They will die from diabetes because they’ll get ice cream for dinner every night. All right?
Kids will, you know, “You’re so mean.” I remember my kids at various times telling Jill and I we were mean. And Jill would be a little stung by that, and I would always take it as kind of a badge, like, “You want to see me? And I’ll be, I’ll be meaner.” You know, it’s like, you got it so rough. You got it so rough.
I remember one time, my kids in high school, I said, “Look at, I’ll be the nicest dad in the world. I will say yes until you give me a reason to say no. But if you give me a reason to say no, the hammer is going to fall.” I don’t know where I came up with that. It’s just kind of like one of those things popped into my head. The hammer is going to fall. And my daughter said, like, later I found out, she asked her brother, my son, “What do you think the hammer is?” “I don’t know.” I’m glad they didn’t ask me because I had no idea what the hammer was either.
But it was a good phrase, wasn’t it? Hey, you cried. You know, I… I’ll be the nicest dad in the world. But you violate that trust, the hammer will fall.
That’s love, actually. Love. Here’s what love is. Love is not being nice. You want to be nice, but it’s not being nice. Love is behaving in such a way that you are sacrificially pursuing the best life and outcome for the beloved.
You know what? Nice parents, they’re lazy because it’s easier to give in to a three-year-old. They’re terrorists, they’re persistent. They’re, you know, “You can’t have that candy bar.” “Why?” “Because it’s bad for you.” “Why?” “Because it has sugar in it.” “Why? Why is sugar bad for you?” “Well, science has found that.” “Why?”
Why? And finally, you tell them what you swore when you were a kid because it aggravated you, you would, you know, you would never tell them. Why? Because I said so. I said so. And that’s love. I am protecting you from destroying yourself with love. That’s what love does. That’s what the love of God does.
That’s why God has commandments, Stevin. That’s why there are rules. The rules are there for our benefit. They’re there for a reason. That’s why we only drive 60 miles an hour. Because if you drive 70 miles an hour, everybody’s going to crash, and cars are going to burn up, and it’s going to be chaos everywhere. You know? My wife, you know, she doesn’t, we don’t even know what they are. We just know that if people break too many rules, whatever they are, the amoks are going to run. Yeah, things are going to run amok. I don’t even know what amoks are, but I know they better not be let out to run.
And so, but it’s true. That’s why we have boundaries. Boundaries actually are our friend. They protect us. And so Paul’s ministry is a ministry of love. God’s ministry is a ministry of love.
We, in our rebellion, we chafe against boundaries. We chafe against rules, we chafe against obedience. But in fact, obedience is our joy and delight, and it’s where we find our life. And I loved what we were reading, that account of Ian, this rebellious surfer, and he meets Jesus, and as he begins to confess his sin that he’s overwhelmed with shame about, he says before he can get the confession, very much like the prodigal son story, before he can get the confession out of his mouth, waves and waves of love begin to flood over him.
You know, when you meet Jesus in heaven and say, “Jesus, I’m not perfect,” He’s not going to go, you’re not going to get a big sigh and an eye roll. “You don’t have to tell me, man. I saw it all. Whoo. Me and the angels, we had to turn our heads at a few points in your life there, Kevin. Oh, my gosh, what is he doing now?” It’s like, no. He’s going to say, “Your sins are forgiven. And for this reason, I came to Earth that I might love you forever.”
But here’s how good love is. He will not leave us in our miserable, sinful state. He will make us like Him. That’s Paul’s passion. That’s why he can write to the Philippians with such affection and write the end of his letters with such affection and, at the same time, bring stern rebukes and corrections to the church. Because his ministry is a mission of love. And he also passionately loved the lost.
You know, the Gospel of “everybody’s okay and God includes everybody,” the gospel of unity—Unitarian Universalism is not the gospel of love. The gospel of love starts with this word, “repent.” Repent. You’re going the wrong way.
Old movie illustration. “The Poseidon Adventure.” Gene Hackman. Anybody see the movie? Nope. I’m the only old person… you saw it Brian? Brian, you know what? It’s just good having another old guy in church with me.
Yeah, I don’t either, but I remember this one scene. Gene Hackman’s this preacher, and the ship is capsized by a tidal wave, by a tsunami. And so now the ship is upside down. Gene Hackman knows the last part of the ship to sink and the thinnest part of the hull where, if they’re going to get rescued, that’s where the rescue is going to come.
And so he’s leading these people to that place on the ship, on an upside down ship. And then the whole story is about how arduous that is. And he’s a preacher on this cruise ship, and he has a small band, and he’s leading them on this journey. It’s just really a Matthew 7 parable. The door is narrow, and the road that leads to life is narrow, and the road that leads to destruction is broad.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. (Matthew 7:13, CSB)
And he doesn’t make it there. Another parallel to the gospel. He sacrifices his life so that the others can make it to get rescued.
But anyway, halfway through the movie, they reach a wide place, a place of easy travel. They’re going one way, and then there’s a large group of people, much larger than his little band, going the other way, but they’re actually heading to the part of the ship that’s going to sink the fastest. But they’re on a broad path. It’s easy. You know, we think we’re going to get rescued going this way.
And his passionate message to those people is, “No, you are walking to the water. You are walking to drowning. you’re walking to destruction.” And he tells them, “You got to turn around and come with us.” And they refuse, and, you know, they die. And he gets most of his people, you know, get out and get saved. And it’s such a picture of, and everybody’s like, who is this crazy, mean preacher telling us, you know, “You’re going the wrong way”? He’s passionate. “You’re going, no, don’t do it.” He’s not nice.
And so Paul has a message. And yes, God is loving and God is kind, but He came to save humanity, to seek and save that which was what? That was happily skipping its way toward heaven. No, He came to seek and save that which was… lost. Lost.
That message will make us unpopular, but it is the message of love. Now, you don’t have to be mean about it. You don’t have to, you know, smile. “Hey, you’re going to hell. Hope you go there.” You know, don’t be like that.
But why is Paul going to all, why is Paul getting beaten up in every Greek town he goes to and facing robbers and disease? Because God called him to reach this group of people, and when God calls you to reach a group of people, He puts a love for that group of people in your heart, and He went to get them.
So Paul’s ministry is a mission of love. It is a mission of love.
So that’s a summary. Paul’s ministry was priestly directed, powerful, pioneering. It was to the ends of the earth. It was upheld through prayer, and ultimately it was love.
As we read through Romans and as we’ve gone through Romans and we get to the end of chapter 11, into chapter 12, and you know, I keep talking about this, the big “therefore,” and this is how you live your life. Paul just gives this great theological treatise and all these arguments for why Jesus is right and how to put your faith in Jesus and how to get saved and all this kind of stuff.
And then he gets to the “therefore,” how are we to live this out? And really, as you read through Romans 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, so much of it is just about this. How do you live this out?
Love. Love. Love one another, love the lost. Don’t be just selfish. Don’t be just self-absorbed. All right? If you want to learn to love, get married. That’s the first school of love. And you’ll begin to learn to love because you begin to, you know, God will trick you with, if you’re a boy, God will trick you because she will have cute, she’ll be cute. And you’ll think, “Oh, great, I’m going to live with cute. That’ll be wonderful.” It’s a trick. It’s a trap. All right?
And women, God will trick you. I don’t know how He tricks you because guys aren’t cute, they’re kind of doofuses. But there’s something that tricks you. It’s something like, “Oh, he’s so handsome and he’ll take care of me and…” you know, and all this kind of stuff. And it’s like, and you get married, it’s like, he’s a knucklehead, you know. Then you got to learn to love him.
And then you just start to get that down. Then you make a child and you have a 24-hour selfish need machine on your hands. And then for some reason, we make more than one, most of us. We make several of them. Like, it’s going to get better? You know, let’s roll the dice again. This one kind of didn’t work. Let’s try it again. All right?
And home is the school of love. And we build a little community of love. Husband, wife, children. Then we say, “Well, let’s go to that other, let’s go to church.” We go to church and all these people know Jesus and they’ll be wonderful. You go to church and you meet these people in church and it’s like there’s something wrong with all of them. They all got their problems. Why aren’t these people in church perfect? And I thought the pastor would be perfect. And oh my gosh, he’s not perfect. It’s like, oh, what do we do here?
We love. Wherever we go, the workplace, the neighbor. I’ve always looked for that utopia, you know, I’ve always looked for that perfect place or that perfect mentor or that perfect— And now I just realized they’re just not there. It’s Jesus. Everybody else is a work in progress, just like I am. And here’s the goal. Love them. Love them. Don’t make yourself the center of the universe, but instead get the heart of Jesus and love the people around you.
And I really think that’s the final, I think that’s the, if we do have a test score, I don’t think it’s going to be on perfect theology. I think, you know, it’s going to be, how well did you love? How well did you love?
And so God, I pray in the Name of Jesus that you would give us the grace to love. Give us the grace to love the less than perfect people who live under our roof. Give us the grace to love the less than perfect people that we work with, that we live next to. Give us the grace to love people who disagree with us politically and worldview wise. Give us the grace to love our enemies. Give us the grace to love people who inconvenience our lives, like maybe the homeless. But Lord, give us the grace to love.
And dear ones, if you want to know what love is, here it is. On the night that He was betrayed, all right, He gave His life. And He said I desire to have this meal with a bunch of men, a bunch of brave fishermen who are going to run away and one who was going to just utterly betray Him.
And He said, “I want to have this meal with you because I want to tell you something. As you put your faith in me, this meal will feed you. This Passover will be transformed from just a memorial to what happened in Egypt to now a message of what’s going to happen tonight on the cross.”
That the God of the universe himself is going to become the high priest for His people and build a bridge that all hell can’t tear down. And that by us broken people, not by obeying 613 commandments, but us broken people simply putting our faith in Him we’ll forever be restored to God and will ultimately be made like Him. He said, “When you gather together, remember my love. Feed on my love. Take it and eat and know your sins are forgiven.” And He is perfecting the work that He has begun in you.
So I invite you to come and take and eat.
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