September 7, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
I speak the grace and mercy of God over you tonight. Let His mercy wash over you. You are loved, and you are forgiven. Jesus came into the world to seek and save that which was lost. And He found you. Hallelujah. Found me. Hallelujah. And His mercy cleanses us and brings us into a New Covenant relationship with God. So we are His eternal children.
Lord, for your great mercy and for your grace that makes it all possible. We were talking about words earlier tonight, and these words are the best we’ve got, but they don’t express the depth of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
God has been merciful to you. Hey, we sang a song for you tonight, Brian. Resting in His presence, that was just for you. You stayed awake during it, so that’s good. But thought about you when we were singing that.
Sunday afternoon, man, I took a long nap today. Sunday afternoon is a great time to take a nap. That is honoring the Sabbath. So never feel guilty about taking a nap, all right? It’s a good thing to do.
We are going to finish Romans tonight. When did we start? Did we start at the beginning of the year? Was it January? So it’s taking us nine months here or eight months? All right, well, we’re going to finish tonight. As my dad used to say, good Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise.
Romans, we’re going to do all of chapter 16 tonight. It’s kind of filled with greetings, but it also has some instruction as well.
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae. 2 So you should welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever matter she may require your help. For indeed she has been a benefactor of many and of me also. 3 Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their own necks for my life. Not only do I thank them, but so do all the Gentile churches. 5 Greet also the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked very hard for you. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews and fellow prisoners. They are noteworthy in the eyes of the apostles, and they were also in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. 11 Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. Greet those who belong to the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. 12 Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother and mine. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who are with them. (Romans 16:1-14, CSB)
Greet Something like that. And Julia, Neris and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints who are with them.
Greet one another.
And if you want to go ahead and do this, you know, if it’s appropriate in your relationship, greet one another with a holy kiss. There you go. All right.
15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings. (Romans 16:15-16, CSB)
All the churches in Christ send you their greetings. By the way, I stumbled a little, but here’s Clancy’s rule for when you come across passages in the Bible with a list of names, Greek and Roman names or Hebrew names, or you come across a list in the Bible with a list of geographic regions. When you read them out loud, pronounce them boldly and with confidence. It doesn’t matter if you massacre the pronunciation. Nobody knows and you’ll just sound smart. All right, so don’t like go, “oh ” Just, just run over it like you’re, like nobody’s business. That’s how you get through that’s, you know, that’s, that’s a little Bible study tip for you.
You know, I watched, I watched Tim Mackey on what’s the Bible Project, and he pronounces all these names differently than I do and it’s like I just watch it and go, “Oh, you think you’re so smart. You’re just making that up just like I do.” But maybe he knows. He is smart.
17 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them, 18 because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words. 19 The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. 21 Timothy, my coworker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen, greet you. 22 I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. 23 Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you. 25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ to him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 16:17-25, CSB)
Amen. And that Paul concludes his letter.
And so what do we make of all these greetings? First of all, this. Life is 100% about relationships. Life is 100% about relationships. Not 95%, not 98%. It is 100%. We make life often about stuff, about accomplishments. But those are empty drinks. Those are empty drinks. We need stuff. There’s nothing wrong with having stuff. We need cars that run and houses that protect us from the Washington weather. By the way, I have made the official pronouncement. It’s just official to me, but I made it nonetheless. When I got up yesterday morning, Saturday, September 6th, and looked outside, I said, “Alas, summer is over.”
So now we have two months of fall, eight months of winter, and then a month of spring and two months of summer. That’s 13. Maybe we just have seven months of winter. I don’t know. But enjoy the two months of fall and then it’s on.
So. But it was a fine summer, wasn’t it? Wasn’t that, wasn’t too hot, you know, for Washingtonians. I think we had one or two days over 90 where people, you know, were, you know, fearing that their neighbors might have heat stroke. And anybody get heat stroke? You’re good? All right. Glad to hear it. Glad to hear it. You know, we have the fewest days in the Pacific Northwest of any heavily populated area in the United States of over 90 a year. You know that? Yeah. Yuma, Ari in the contiguous United States. Probably Anchorage, maybe, I don’t know. But yeah, we have one to two days a year over 90 on average in this area. Yuma, Arizona is like 180 days a year over 90, so Do I say this too much? Don’t whine about it being hot up here. Just don’t do it. We got, yeah, Washington. We are like Kevin. We have it so good. We have it so good up here.
All right. Life is 100% about relationships, not about the weather. Alright? It’s about relationships.
As a pastor, when I first, my first job at Visalia United Methodist Church as associate pastor was the pastor of visitation. I was supposed to make 40 visits a week, five days a week, that’s eight visits a day. That’s a lot. And I had this little form to fill out. I had to go just knocking on people’s doors. We had a big church, but I was supposed to visit everybody in the congregation, and I was supposed to do 40 a week: hospital visits, home visits. It was hard to do 40 visits a week, I’m telling you.
But it was interesting because one of the things I discovered, especially visiting the older members of the congregation, is oftentimes their happiness and their joy was directly connected to how many pictures they had on the wall of children and grandchildren and beloved family members. And I think Jordan Peterson says this. He talks about, he says you know, you live a narcissistic life and you live onto yourself and you don’t make the sacrifices.
Boy, having kids is a lot of work. It is a lot of work having kids. My grandkids were out. I watched my daughter and son-in-law and you know, and every time they had a chance like, “Hey, can we go get a coffee, and you guys watch the kids?” And we’re like, “Yes.” And they’re like, “Hallelujah, this is the greatest gift ever.”
You know, it’s just a lot of work. And you think, why would anybody subject themselves to this misery? And yet people want to do it. And I’ll tell you why. Because life is 100% about relationships. At this point in my life it’s those family relationships and these relationships in this room, and I go to Grace Covenant conferences and I have the friendships there. It’s all about those relationships that give my life fulfillment and meaning. Life is 100%. And the gospel brings us into those relationships.
And Paul has all these greetings without social media. He wasn’t Facebook friends with any of these people. They didn’t Instagram together. But all these people he knows or knows of, and he has relationships through letters and communications and meeting each other on the road for the gospel. He has relationships with all of them, and he loves them.
And in this passage in Romans, there is great diversity. There are Greeks, there are Romans, there are Jews. We have Jewish names, we have Greek names, we have Roman names. Rome was a cosmopolitan city. It’s where people gathered. And there’s great diversity, and there’s great diversity in culture. Paul’s writing the letter to Romans, in Romans, primarily to Jewish Christians in Rome, but also to Gentile Christians. And the point he makes, the whole point of Romans nine months we’ve been going through Romans the whole point is the mystery of the gospel, that through faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is now accessible to the Gentiles. And we are all one in Christ.
And that’s what it is here. We’re all one in Christ. All right? We all come from different backgrounds. It doesn’t matter. Culture, sex, status, all these things are flattened in the gospel. We become brothers and sisters in Christ and one in Him. And there’s great diversity.
When I go to Africa on a missions trip, one of the things that I discovered as I started doing missions trips is a vast difference as I would go to these cultures, and even maybe a difference in how they express their Christianity. And yet you could recognize immediately, “Aha, you know him, too.”
I remember when I was a student at Chico State, walking around campus, and I was, and I was a religious studies major, and not everybody who took religious studies classes at a secular university are Christians. And certainly none of the professors. Well, one. Maybe one of the professors was. You know, it’s not a Christian education. But I remember just one class. I was just in one class, first class of the day, and we were just chatting it up, and, you know, I asked the professor a few questions and whatnot, and we walked out, and this girl walks up and she goes, “You’re a Christian, aren’t you?” And I thought, “Does it show?” And she goes, “Oh, yeah, I can spot them. I can spot them.” I’m glad it shows. I’m glad it shows. So, yeah, you’re one of those.
And I go to different cultures, and it’s like, yeah, I remember down in Mexico, and I was teaching on healing, and I was, I was studying a lot under John Wimber and the vineyard movement and their healing method. Their healing method kind of dialed down the Pentecostal enthusiasm of healing. Like, they wouldn’t slam their hands on people and shout, you know, “In Jesus’ Name, be healed!” I called it California Mellow Heal.
Wimber would wear a Hawaiian shirt and sandals, and he’d go, “Oh, you got cancer. Well, man, in the Name of Jesus, cancer, be gone. Yeah, just leave ’em, cancer. Yeah.” They just touch them and they fall. “Oh, look at that. He fell. That’s awesome.” You know, it’s California Mellow Heal.
And I thought, that’s the way to do it. You know, I’m a Cal I was a California hippie. Let’s do California so I go down to Mexico, and I’m talking about healing people and praying for people. I said, “You know, when you pray for people to be healed, they’re not deaf, unless you’re praying for that. And, you know, God’s not deaf. You don’t have to shout and get all loud and enthusiastic and stuff. You can just do it kind of mellow.”
And then I set them loose to pray for each other. And everything else I talked to them about, they took to heart, but not that. “EN EL NOBRE DE JESUS, GLORIA A DIOS !” And I just thought, “Oh, my gosh.” And I realized telling these people, telling these Pentecostal Mexican Christians to dial it down is like telling them to take rice and beans out of their diet. And I thought, big deal. It’s a cultural thing. And so I would start praying for them.
In fact, the word for “nine” and “new.” Anybody speak Spanish? “Nine” and “new” are very similar. Nueve and nuevo. What is it? Nuevo. Yeah. And I preached a sermon on Jesus being new wine. And then I called people forward. I was laying hands on them, and I was praying, you know, “In the Name of Jesus, new wine, new wine.” And they would look at me kind of like, startled, and then they would fall. They would look at me kind of startled, and then they fall.
After about four of them, my translator goes. She goes, “You know, you’re praying for the nine wine anointing.” In the Name of Jesus, nine wine, whatever. I said, “Yeah, that’s a new, that’s a new little thing going on in California. You know, we got the nine wine anointing going on.”
But the differences collapse. One of the things when I’m in those different cultures is, yeah, you know the same Jesus I know. You know the same Jesus I know. And the more close you are to Jesus, the less even those differences, you know, the less Presbyterian, Catholic, Pentecostal, whatever makes, makes less of a difference. Just the closer you are to Jesus, it’s like He is the center.
The gospel is a great unifier. It unifies us in our need. Every one of you is in this room tonight because you’re a sinner in need of God’s grace and in need of God’s mercy. We are united in that. When we come to this table, we all admit, “I need this.” We just sang the song about it. Only the blood of Jesus. There’s not a medicine out there. Chemotherapy is not going to do it. Radiation is not going to do it. Vitamin supplements aren’t going to do it. Vaccines aren’t going to do it.
The only thing that’s going to do it, the only thing that’s going to really fix what ails me, is the medicine that God brings: the blood of Jesus over my life. The mercy of God poured over my life, where I enter into a New Covenant relationship with Him. And I need it.
I remember I was debating with my uncle one time years and years ago, and I was a young Christian, and he was debating. We were just talking about I come from a family where a lot of them love to argue. And arguing typically isn’t a fight. Arguing is, you know, throwing out ideas and trying to prove the other guy wrong and you be right. It’s kind of a competition because, you know, we all want to be right. And nobody in that family ever admitted they were wrong, but we would still argue amicably mostly.
And so we were debating Christianity. And later he kind of became a Christian. But at this time, you know, I was telling him about my faith. And my family’s view this was my mom’s side of the family my grandpa had been burned by church, and so he was against it. And I think the family view was, well, you know, if it’s good for you, you know, if there’s probably some good in it, teach us good morals or whatever.
But I’m talking about him, and I’m talking about my dependency on Jesus. And he said, “What? Sounds to me like your religion is just a crutch.”
And immediately, I felt like the Holy Spirit said, no, tell him it’s not a crutch. I said, “It’s not a crutch. It’s an ambulance. I don’t need no stinking crutch. I need the zappers on my heart, you know? I’m a dead man walking. I need a Savior, not a helper.”
I think it shocked him because I think he was going to say, “No, I’m just as good as you. He’s like, “No ” Yeah. We are unified in our need. This is the hospital for sinners, not the hotel for saints. This is a place where broken people come to be you know, I pray it all the time, that we would be more like Jesus when we walk out that door.
Why do I pray that? Because we need to be more like Jesus. We’re not there yet. At least most of us aren’t there yet. Some of you, I got a feeling, are pretty close. Some of you, you know, you’re closer than me, but you’re still not there yet. All right? If you are there yet, raise your hand right now. All right, good. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t offending anybody. All right, if you’re closer than me, raise your hand. No, I don’t want to know. Yeah, Kev. That’s pretty obvious, you know.
All right, we’re unified by His grace and His mercy. We are all in need, and we have all received grace, which is His power to transform us, to draw us to Himself in His mercy, which proclaims that our sins are forgiven. We are all the forgiven ones. And so we’re all here with hearts of gratitude.
We are unified by a shared mission. We are to make disciples. We are to make disciples. We all do it in different ways. Some of us have profound ministries of intercessory prayer. Some of us have bold witness to people. Some of us do acts of kindness on a regular basis. Some of us encourage other people who are great disciple makers. Some of us, you know, if we have children, it’s our job to make disciples of our children. It’s not all your fault if they don’t become disciples. They have their own free will, alright? And so, you gave birth to an original sinner. You gave birth to a knucklehead. But you know, it’s because of that, now you’re the first line of God’s defense to the rest of us. Right? You gave birth to a wicked person. Protect us, you know, make them better. And so that’s our job as parents.
We live in neighborhoods. We have workplaces. We have context in which we live, and we share a mission. You’re all missionaries. Maybe some of you are called to a foreign land, but you’re called to the land you’re called to Poulsbo, you’re called to Kingston, you’re called to Silverdale you’re called to the land in which you live.
And then we are shared, we are unified by belonging to a new, eternal family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are related. We’re going to spend forever together. And so, you know, this is a great place to get to know, to get to love one another. This is a school of love. This is where we learn to love one another. And because none of us are perfect in churches, we’re prickly. We can rub each other the wrong way, we can annoy each other.
How long have you guys been coming to the Firehouse Church? Since Sophia was just a little girl, fifteen years or so. With a, with a, with a hiatus in Hawaii. Right? I’m sure there have been people at the whole, at the Firehouse Church I’m sure that I have, though I find it hard to believe, but I’m sure that I have annoyed you or offended you at a time or two or 20 or 30. I don’t know. But, you know, we do that. We do that.
And one of the things that really bothers me is when people get offended and leave churches. It’s like, what do you think? You’re going to another church? What do you think? It’s not going to happen there. Figure it out. Stick around and figure out how to resolve conflict. Figure out how to deal with difficult people.
Now, I know there’s times where difficult people don’t want reconciliation. They don’t want to be right with you. There’s times to move on. I get that. I’m not saying there’s not, but I’m just saying, you know, if you leave because you don’t try to resolve conflict, that’s crazy, because it’s everywhere.
You know, quit your job. You ever notice the guy with I noticed this early in my ministry. Guys who, you know, went from job to job and they just had a series of bad bosses. You know, “Oh, that boss was no fair. This boss was a jerk. This boss was this. And this boss ” And I just had this sneaking suspicion that, huh, what is the common denominator in all your broken relationships? You know, could it be that you’re a part of the problem? Maybe, just maybe, that you’re a part of the problem? Could be.
But we’re being knit together as God’s new eternal family.
I got a feeling my heavenly address is going to be with the people, the Christians whose theology and practice annoyed me the most. They’re going to be my neighbors. Be hanging around those guys just because God’s going to say, “Look who your brothers are. Look who your sisters are.” And it’ll be delightful. We’ll get along really well.
All right. We’re God’s eternal family. God’s forever family. So you know what? you’re not going to get rid of each other. You’re not going to get rid of each other.
It’s like the dear old man and his wife died. He’s pretty old, and they put her in the coffin, and all of his pallbearers were old. They were all these old guys, and they’re all carrying this coffin. They walk, and they’re walking her out of the church after the service, and one of them trips, and the casket slides a little bit and bumps into the wall. When it bumps into the wall, they hear this groan and they open up the casket. “It’s a miracle she’s alive!”
And so they take her out of the casket, and she’s alive. And then, sadly, two years later, she dies again. They do the service of the church. Now, these pallbearers are two years older. They’re taking it out of the church. And as they’re walking out, the guy goes, “Hey, look out for that corner.” Not going to get rid of her. She’ll be waiting for you.
We’re God’s family. Get used to it, get used to it. Learn to love one another. This is the school of love. Those are things that unite us.
And then Paul warns, he says, “But beware of people who are divisive.” And there’s two kinds of divisiveness that I have noticed. One and they’re both theological. There’s also, there’s a third kind, and that’s just people who are just really contentious people in heart, you know, and they just, they like to cause division, they like to cause strife. You ever notice there’s some people just love drama? They just love to create it, love to so, you know, gossips and, you know, it’s like, and, and those people, if you don’t play their game, you don’t have to kick them out. They’ll leave if you just don’t dance their dance. Because they’re looking for people to dance their dance.
But there are other people and one is people who divide over being too particular over non-essential issues. Gavin Ortland wrote a good book on spiritual triage. He calls it theological triage. And he talks about first level things which we have, as Christians, we all hold to. And then he talks about second level things, which are differences we have, unfortunately, that maybe divide us in the church we attend. For example, I would have a really hard time going to a reformed cessationist church. But with those reformed cessationist Christians, I agree with them on all first level issues. Jesus is the Son of God. The Bible is the authority. Jesus rose from the dead. God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Sin’s a big problem. Everybody’s got it. Jesus is coming back. There’s going to be eternal judgment. You know, all these things. The church is God’s instrument to bring forth the gospel in the world. All these things we agree on.
And yet there are things we disagree on. The use and function of spiritual gifts in the church we disagree on. Free will versus determinism we disagree on. Maybe styles of worship we disagree on. Maybe complementarian versus egalitarian we disagree on. And it might make it difficult to regularly worship at that church, but it doesn’t make it, but if Greg Laurie was coming to town to do a crusade and they were in on it, and we were in on it, those things would not, I would not separate from that. You follow?
That’s first level, second level. Third level just doesn’t matter. I mean, I shouldn’t say it doesn’t matter. All theological issues matter. Of all people, I think that more than most people. So why would I say that? But they just don’t matter in terms of separating, all right? They just don’t matter. Are you a futurist, a preterist, a historicist, or an idealist? And you’re like, “I don’t know. I don’t know what any of those words mean.” There are four different ways of interpreting the book of Revelation. Listen, we are all pan millennial. It’ll all pan out in the end. We’re all pan millennial. It’ll all pan out in the end.
And then there’s fourth level issues. And churches actually divide over fourth level issues. The color of the seats. I heard a church that got offended the men in the church, men typically don’t get as offended over these kinds of issues, but they got offended because the church ordered pink urinal cakes, and they didn’t want to pee with pink urinal cakes. They wanted a manly color.
I’m thinking, are you kidding? You take time to notice those things? Anyway, and you know, somebody got upset and said, “We need to get, you know, I’m going to leave this church unless we get new urinal cakes.” Like, oh, brother. No, don’t be divisive over non-essential issues. Augustine said in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things love.
Now the other is, though we must divide from those who depart from those first level issues, who depart from the apostolic faith. I don’t mean divide from them that they can’t be our friends, we can’t have a relationship with them, but we can’t be in Christian fellowship with them.
Now that doesn’t mean people can’t come to church if they don’t hold the apostolic faith. We want people who don’t hold the apostolic faith to come to church, to come and seek it out and hear it and learn about it. But ultimately, you’re not going to be on the leadership of the Firehouse Church if you’re like, “Yeah, Kev, church is cool. I really love this church. I mean, Jesus didn’t rise from the dead or nothing. I don’t believe in that hooey. But, you know, but yeah, I’m good with budgets and stuff. You want me?” It’s like, no, I mean, I want you at church, but I don’t want you making decisions. I want spiritual people.
I left a mainline Protestant denomination, and in my process of, you know, going out the door, I just finally asked my district superintendent straight up. And I got to give him credit; at least he answered straight up. Usually, these guys would obfuscate. They would usually, like one church asked the bishop, “Do you believe Jesus Christ literally rose from the dead?” He said, “I don’t need to answer that. I’m an elder in good standing in the Methodist Church.” It’s like, well, that’s not what we asked you.
Now my district superintendent, to his credit, I asked him two questions. I said, “Do you believe Jesus Christ literally bodily rose from the dead?” He said, “I don’t know, I wasn’t there.” This was my Christian boss.
The second question, I said, “If you had a Buddhist friend, would you try to lead him to Christ?” He said, “No, I would simply help him be the best Buddhist he could be.” And I concluded he does not share the apostolic faith. So why am I raising money for this guy? Why am I taking my directions from this guy? You have to separate from people who don’t hold to the apostolic faith.
Yes? Three things. Biblical, Christological, ethical. We also have creeds. I think I’m creedal. I think the Nicene and the Apostles Creed are helpful, though they don’t define the whole apostolic faith. Most denominations, most churches have statements of faith which, though they may not, they may include more things than the many statements of faith include secondary issues, but most statements of faith at least can include primary issues as well.
Grace Covenant has a statement of faith, though it doesn’t include all primary issues. It could be more thorough in my view. But does the Bible talk about it a lot and clearly? “I don’t know if Jesus rose from the dead. I wasn’t there.” Read the book of Acts and see what the apostles, the first century church, the apostles preached. They preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul says very clearly if Christ is not raised, your faith is in vain. I mean, it’s not an ambiguous, “Hey, this could be It could be a spiritual resurrection. It could be ” No, it is very clear. You can believe it or not believe it, but it’s very clear what the Bible is teaching is a literal, physical resurrection.
Another non-negotiable: is, in fact, the Bible authoritative? Is that where we get our information about what the apostolic faith is? Do we get it from the Bible? Do we get it from the Holy Scriptures? Properly understood, I get we can have disagreements about the Scriptures. People say the Bible is clear. It’s not all clear. It’s not all clear. That’s why we have disagreements. But some things are clear.
You know, somebody once asked Jack Deere, they asked Jack Deere, “Which translation of the Bible should I read?” He says, “The one that tells you to love your enemy.” That’s pretty clear in Jesus’ teaching, right? NLT, love your enemy. King James, love your enemy. Greek, love your enemy. It’s there. I think the Jehovah’s Witness even got that one in there right. Love your enemy.
So there are things that are clear. Christological. That’s where the creeds come in. The creeds try to hammer out this concept of God. And when I mean Christological, another word in there might be trinitarian. Who is Jesus Christ? Because once we discover that Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God, then the doctrine of the Trinity emerges.
And so I use the term Christological because that’s what the early church was trying to define. Is He part God, part man? Is He all God and posing as a man? Is He all man and simply what liberals say today has a higher God consciousness than most of us did? But Jesus makes some pretty bold claims about being God.
And yet he also is very clearly makes claims and identifies himself as a man. And so who is Jesus Christ? And the apostles say, John says, if you don’t believe that Christ came in the flesh, you are who? It’s a bad name. Everybody thinks there’s one and he’s coming. But this is in the first century. He said, there are many out there already. And these are the people who don’t believe Christ came in the flesh. They are what? Antichrist. Antichrist. All right? They’re Antichrist.
It also says if you can’t confess Jesus as Lord.
So what does that say? He came in the flesh. He’s man. Jesus is Lord, He’s God. Fully man, fully God. If you don’t believe that, you’re outside of the apostolic faith.
And as fully man and fully God, what does He reveal? He reveals He’s in relationship with the Father, and He reveals that when He ascends, He’s going to send His Spirit. Well, His Spirit can’t be less than God. It’s His Spirit, for goodness sakes. So
And finally, ethical. It doesn’t mean you have to have perfect ethics. It means you have to agree with the Bible ethics. And when you break it, you have to call it sin. And if you have a propensity to break it, you have to say that you’re sinful. In other words, you don’t call broke fixed and wrong right. And we live in a culture that puts a lot of pressure on us to define love by calling broke fixed and wrong right. Only the people who do that do it very inconsistently. Because if you don’t agree with them, you are evil and wrong.
Have you ever noticed that the most intolerant people are the tolerant? The most exclusive are the inclusive. They don’t even notice it themselves. It would be funny if it wasn’t pathetically sad and annoying. No, tolerance is not saying “I tolerate your sin.” Tolerance is saying, “I love you even though you sin because you love me even though I sin. And God loves us both even though we sin.” But we don’t call our sin okay to make one another feel better about our sin. That’s the opposite of love.
And if you’re a parent, you know that. If you love your kids, you put a nix on their bad behavior. And if you think your kids don’t have any bad behavior, you’re a bad parent. Your kids are little stinkers. They’re bullies to their siblings. They’re defiant to your authority. They rebel against you and they rebel against God. In fact, when they rebel against you, they are rebelling against God because you represent God in their lives.
Nothing drives me more crazy than parents in the grocery store with a terrorist 3-year-old, and they’re letting the terrorist win the argument. It’s like you think this is going to make your life easier when they’re 13. I don’t think so. “Listen, if you’ll just be quiet. If you’ll just be quiet and stop throwing a fit, I’ll give you the candy later. You win by throwing a fit.” That’s not love. That’s the opposite of love. You’re destroying that kid’s life.
I’ll tell you what love is. Love is what? Old school. “You’re crying over not getting candy?” What do you say after that? “I’ll give you something to cry about. You think not getting candy is bad? Listen, this behavior is leading you down a path that’s going to be a lot worse than not getting candy.”
I saw a dad, he was doing a great job and he apologized and I just said, “You’re doing, you’re doing it right, man.” He’s taking this kid out of the store, and this dad is actually giving the kid options. “Do you want to sit in the front seat or the back seat?”
“I want to go in and get !”
“No, you already lost that privilege. But now I’m still giving you power. You want to sit in the front seat or the back seat? But you’re going to the car because you’re not behaving this way in the store.” And he’s like, “I’m sorry.” And I said, “Good, dad.” I don’t want to deal with that kid in the store. I don’t want to hear that. Take him out to the car. And he wasn’t yelling, he wasn’t beating on the kid. He was just very calm, very authoritative. But it’s like, guess what? You’re three, I’m 33. I’m the dad. You’re not.
That’s love. Don’t believe that just caving in to the world’s ethical system is love. It’s not. However, neither is being self-righteous and condescending. “I would never do that.” No, but you’d do worse. You’d do worse.
I’ve told you about my gay friend that we used to walk, and we’d walk and talk, and he asked me one time, he asked me, he said, “Listen ” there was a big billboard outside of town with an attractive couple on it. And they were selling cigarettes because, of course, if you want to be young and attractive, smoke cigarettes. And it’s a huge billboard. And on the billboard is a guy in a bathing suit, a well-built guy in a bathing suit, and an attractive young woman in a striped bikini.
And he said, “You know that billboard on Highway 99 outside of town?” I go, “Yeah, yeah, Mike, I know it.” He goes, “Do you ever look at the guy?” I go, “No, I don’t.” I said, “That’s not my deal. I just don’t. I’m not tempted to look at the guy.” He kind of sighed like, “Oh, I’m alone in my sin,” you know? I just looked at him and said, “Mike, I can tell you how many stripes are on that bikini.” All right? I said, “So I’ll tell you what we do. I will meet you at the altar and I will pray for your homosexual struggle and you can pray for my heterosexual struggle. We’re not going to call either one of those things right, but we’re going to love each other in the midst of it and grow as brothers in Christ.” That’s love.
And so ethics matter. Don’t cheat on your wife. Don’t cheat on your husband. Don’t lie. Don’t murder. Don’t character assassinate. Don’t gossip. Don’t steal. It’s not yours, don’t take it.
Stevin, you probably like this. You know, they got the door, the door dashers, the people, you know, they follow the Amazon truck and take around Christmas time? So Jill just thought, “Oh, you know, I just, I hate theft. I just want to get them.” I said and I don’t, I’m not as just as crazy as she is, but I thought, “Well, here’d be a fun way. Let’s go collect all the dog poop in the neighborhood, put it in an Amazon box, and leave it on our doorstep and just see if they take that. That’d be like ” She goes, “Oh, that would be so good.” Yeah, that would be fun. They open it up and there’s all this dog poop in there. That’d be great. Merry Christmas. Does that sound good, Stevin? Yeah, or that stuff that explodes and gets blue paint all over you. Yeah, there you go.
Don’t steal. Jill and Stevin say, don’t steal. Don’t run away from the cops, or they might have to set the dogs on you. And if you get bit, stupidity should be painful.
All right, so that’s how we know, Karen.
Then finally, Paul gives a benediction. He says, you are going to have victory. I love this. I love how the Bible contrasts words so powerful. He says, I want you to know that the God of peace. The God of peace. The God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet.
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Romans 16:20, CSB)
Isn’t that great? Because sometimes to get peace, it involves violence. Sometimes to get peace, it involves violence. But here’s the good news. That the God who loves you will perfect the work He has begun in you.
And one day, those enemies that tempted you and tortured you and, you know, we all experience the same thing. The devil tempts us to sin. And then we sin. And then the very one who is telling us, “Hey, it’s no big deal. It doesn’t matter. Everybody does this. Don’t worry about it.” And then we go ahead and do it, right? And then the minute we do it, his tone completely changes. “Oh, and you call yourself a Christian? You’re not even saved. you’re terrible. A real child of God would you’ve did that before. You think God’s gonna just keep forgiving you?”
Guess what you get to do to that cockroach who’s been whispering those things in your head all those years? He gets crushed underneath your feet. I’ve told you this before. I’ll tell you it again. It’s the only time I think it’s appropriate to use these words. One day, we will judge angels. I don’t think we’re gonna judge our guardian angels. Like, “Dude, what about when I got in that accident? What were you doing?” You know, I don’t think we get to do that. Your guardian angel’s like, “You have no idea. You have it so good. I was your guardian angel. Believe me, you have it so good.” Jill will be like, “See, even the guardian angels know.”
No, but I think we get to judge those fallen angels who have tortured us. And it’ll be the only time Aiko, you can actually say this. You can say it. You can look at those little critters and say, “Go to hell.” Don’t practice on Ats, all right? Don’t do that. You can just know that someday you get to say it. All right? So the God of peace will give us the victory, and our enemies and His enemies will be destroyed. And we actually take some kind of process. We join him in that process, and for that, we attain eternal peace.
And so we are to stand firm in the gospel. Dear ones, you cannot lose if you do not quit. Don’t quit. Stand firm in the gospel. Everybody I know who has walked away from their faith gives intellectual reasons for walking away from the faith. “I don’t believe it’s true because of all the suffering in the world” is the number one reason. You know, if God was good, why are there children cancer wards?
It’s like, well, if children cancer wards are such a troubling thing for you, why aren’t you down there volunteering instead of accusing God? There’s a thought. Or donating your money. There’s a thought.
But no, that’s not the reason people don’t believe in God. Here’s the reason people don’t believe in God. They had a besetting sin, which is hard. They were dealing with something that they couldn’t get victory over. And so they finally just caved and said, you know what? I’m just giving into this. I’m going to go ahead and cheat on my wife. I’m going to go ahead and leave. I’m going to go ahead and be greedy with my money. I’m going to go ahead and lie at work to get ahead and be a dishonest business person to move ahead. I’m going to go ahead and do what I feel like doing.
And therefore, to escape any kind of condemnation, I’m going to have to unload this Christianity thing, and I’m going to have to come after clever answers of why I did so my believing friends won’t be able to, you know, come back at me.
That’s how it works. That’s how it works. You know, my friend Josh D’Intinosanto, he talks about one of his friends that he went to Bible college with. And this friend no longer believes in God, has all these intellectual reasons for no longer believing in God.
And I said, what do you think the real reason was? He said, “Oh, he didn’t want to give up pot.” And, you know, there was a conflict there.
Now, I got no condemnation for somebody who struggles with addiction. My deal is don’t quit struggling with the addiction. I said it wrong this morning. I said, “Listen, if you struggle with drugs, don’t quit.” And then people said, “What?” Struggling with the struggle. Don’t quit the struggle. Quit the drugs. Don’t quit the struggles. Do your best to quit the drugs.
Stand firm in the gospel. You haven’t been argued out of the gospel. You haven’t discovered that it’s ontologically, that it’s not true. You haven’t been proven that Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead or that God didn’t really create the universe. None of those things have been revealed to you. Science has not concluded that this is all folly. No, you gave it up because there was something else that was in conflict with Him that you didn’t want to give up, and you committed idolatry. You made that thing your God, and so now you can’t follow this one.
“Well, I just didn’t want to be a hypocrite.” Really? Because we all are. Look at, there’s simply, there are only two kinds of people in the world: people who lower the standard or people who don’t live up to the standard but still own it. And those, those people are typically called hypocrites, right? I believe in loving your enemy, and yet there’s still people out there I think are scumbags and I want to punch. Well, does that make me a hypocrite? In a way, yeah. I’m supposed to love those people, but at least I own it and say, “God, help me love those people. I know you’re right and I’m wrong and I’m not going to quit so then I can give myself permission to hate my enemies and feel good about it.”
Listen, if you don’t want to be a hypocrite, yeah, lower the bar, right? You know, we do this all the time, right? We just find people who are worse than us. At least I don’t do that. At least I don’t do that. Well, that’s like, big deal, you know? I hate my enemy, but at least I’m not. I don’t kill him. Well, Jesus says in your heart you’re a murderer. We actually have a word for it if you talk about them, right? What do we call it? Character. What? Assassination. Character murder.
So stand firm in the gospel. Embrace the struggle. Embrace the struggle and don’t quit. Turn to somebody next to you, say, “Don’t quit. Have the courage to keep going.” Have the courage to keep going. That’s my problem with suicide. You took the coward’s way out. You took the coward’s way out. Don’t quit. Run the race to the finish line.
And here is the mystery of the Gospel. The New Testament talks about this all the time, and we miss it because it’s not a big mystery to us anymore because it’s been around for 2,000 years, but it was a huge mystery to first-century people. And what is this? That the Jewish Messiah is actually the Messiah for all the world. The mystery of the gospels: Jews and Gentiles are now one. And they all come to God on the same terms: faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is the answer not just for the Jews. Christ is the answer not just for this culture or that culture. Christ is the answer for humanity. And this gospel is for all of humanity. It is for all of humanity.
I am not, I cannot hold to the doctrine second tier doctrine, I’ll give you that, second tier doctrine I can’t hold the doctrine that God has picked some to go to heaven and others not to. And I don’t think we went through Romans I don’t think that’s what Romans 9 is saying or Romans 8 is saying. I don’t think he’s saying that at all.
I think that this message goes to all the world. People can reject it, but the mystery is that He is the Messiah for all. He is the Messiah for all.
Are you saying that all have been predestined? You bet. All have been predestined to be His children. Some just don’t enter into their inheritance. So be it.
But God loves all. He came for all. And this gospel, that God’s love is for all, that He has gone to great lengths through Jesus Christ, through His life, death, and resurrection to bring about this hope for being a part of His eternal family and being made whole and being made like Him and restoring earth and bringing back Eden and having His ultimate desire and His ultimate victory, this great story brings glory to God. No kidding.
And we said it earlier tonight, we don’t have the words. “Thank you” is too small, right? I just don’t know of another thank you a lot. You know? Maybe if I spoke in 15th century English where they used, where they had vocabularies of 54,000 words where I think Modern English, our average vocabulary is like 3,000 words. Maybe I’d have better words to thank God. Maybe that’s why people appreciate the old hymns as they have these glorious poetic words, but even those words fall short.
But it brings glory to God, and that’s our lives. We are to reflect His glory. I want to be this has happened to me a couple of times, and I’m not bragging because it’s true of you. If He lives in us, He’s going to leak out but I want to be that guy where people say, for good or for ill, “I knew you were a Christian. I knew you were one of His.” I want it to show. I want it to show and give Him glory. It’s like, wow.
I have an aunt who doesn’t believe. But my life’s made an impact on her because she knew me when I was a teenager. I was talking to her a couple of years back, and I said, “You know, Aunt Sandra, I was in a bad way.” And she goes, “Oh, yeah, I knew. I know. We were concerned for you.” And I said, “And then it was Jesus that turned me around.” And she said, “Yeah, that was when it started happening for you.” I’m like, “Well ?” But she, you know, yeah. Yeah, she’s like, “You’re not as rotten as I thought you were going to turn out to be. I saw you headed up and, you know, got better. You’re not perfect.” It’s like, “No, I’m not, but ” There you go, there you go.
Everybody’s always like, they’re like, “Well, you can’t be that bad. I mean, Jill married you, and she’s wonderful.” I go, “I know. I have it so good.”
All right, dear ones. Only the blood of Jesus.
On the night that He was betrayed, He took bread and He broke it. And He said, “My body is going to be broken for you. Just like that lamb had its body broken, my body’s going to be broken, and my blood is going to be shed just like that lamb. And just like that, that blood on the doorpost made the sign of the cross, my blood is going to be spilled out upon a cruel cross. But in that blood is going to issue forth the forgiveness of sins and New Covenant. And humanity is going to be healed. And this is the love of God.”
God loved the world in this way. If you want God, how did you demonstrate your love? Here it is. He loves you and you are not perfect. And He loves you when you sin. And He loves you when you’re good and kind and gracious. And tonight, I want you to be reminded of that, and I want you to be fed by that. He wants you to be reminded of that and be fed by that. So come and eat.
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