September 21, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
You know where revival starts, right? Draw a circle around yourself and step into that circle. Can’t expect God to revive somebody else if you don’t want him to revive you.
So, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, send your fire on the Firehouse Church, send your fire on me. Holy Spirit, come. Okay. Holy Spirit, come. Thank you.
All right, all right. I told you. I told you the story of the As-, when the Asbury Revival was happening, I went to our Grace Covenant Conference. One guy got up to speak, and he spoke as good, was my brother-in-law, actually, did a good job. Then a Dallas Elder, who was here last week, and our ministry director with Grace Covenant, just spontaneously asked me, “Kevin, could you close out this session in prayer?” I wasn’t expecting it, but it’s all right. You know, I used to have an old mentor of mine when I was a young pastor. He said, “Boys,” we were all boys back then; he said, “boys, always be ready to preach, pray, or die.” All right? So, you know, he just asked me to pray. So that’s probably the better of, you know, it’s not the worst of those three options, not the toughest.
Anyway, so I get up—and the old Vineyard, the Vineyard, when it, when the Vineyard started and God started moving through the Vineyard and John Wimber and all that, it started when Lonnie Frisbee prayed at a meeting, and he just prayed, “Come, Holy Spirit.” And the place exploded. God just came in power. And I thought, “Oh, okay.” So I get up in front of this group of people, and the Asbury Revival’s hitting, and there’s just an atmosphere of expectancy, and “I know what I’m going to pray.” And I prayed, “Come, Holy Spirit.” And I thought the room would just, you know, explode. And what happened was I ended up on the floor, and everybody else was just kind of looking at me like, “Well, look at that.” It’s like, okay, He came on me.
And then I came back to Bremerton, and I did the same thing that next Sunday. I said, “Holy Spirit, come.” And again, it’s like, “Okay, there it is. There it is.” And I came here and did the same thing. And every, every time now, every time I pray that prayer, it happens on me. So I don’t take responsibility for you. It’s up to you. All right. It’s up to you. You guys… Yeah, yeah, you know? It is. I love you, but you got to do what you’re going to do.
All right. Notice the theme in those three songs. Revival. Yeah, revival. And it just is on my heart. And so as I just finished going through Romans, I thought, “Well, what am I, where am I going to go next?” And been meandering with some thoughts. And there’s a book I read years ago, and it’s from Nicky Gumbel, the founder of Alpha. And it’s on, he preached a series of sermons on revival through the prophet Isaiah, the second half of Isaiah, Isaiah 40-66.
Isaiah is clearly divided into two halves, so much so that some scholars think there are actually two Isaiahs, two different authors. But I don’t think that. But I do think that the book has a clear mark of demarcation at the end of chapter 39 to chapter 40. And chapter 40 tells us this. It starts with these words:
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of hard service is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord ‘s hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2, CSB)
Up until those words, Isaiah 1 through 39, there’s not a lot of comfort in there. There’s some messianic promises, there’s some hope in there. But a lot of Isaiah 1:39 is a lot of what we run into with the prophets, and that is the prophet saying to Israel, “Look, I gave you a covenant, I brought you out of Egypt, I gave you a land flowing with milk and honey, and I told you if you would simply walk in covenant obedience with me, that you would be blessed, your children would be blessed, your land would be blessed, my blessings would overflow upon you. I promised you this. And yet all you’ve done since you got into that land—and you said, ‘Yeah, Lord, we’re in, we’re in.’ Joshua said, ‘As for me and my house, we’ll serve the Lord.’ And you all renewed the covenant with Joshua. He said, ‘We’re in.'”
And then the Book of Judges happens. Within a generation or two, you’re spiraling downwards until the Book of Judges ends with this, you know, chilling word, “And every man did what was right in his own eyes.” That’s not living in covenant relationship with God.
And then they want a king. God sends them Samuel to bring reformation. They say, “N, we don’t want a prophet, we want a king.” And here’s why they wanted a king: the very thing God said you don’t want to do. We want a king so we can be what? Like the other nations. And God had called them to be what? Not like the other nations. You’re to be a light. And God says, “Fine, I’ll give you a king, but it’s not going to go well for you. You know, a few of your kings are going to be good and then it’ll go well for you, but most of your kings are going to be rotten. It’s not going to go well for you.” “That’s all right. We want a king anyway.” So they get a king.
And so, for about a thousand years of Israel’s history, God is wrestling with this people who He delivered, brought into a land, gave them incredible victories, and blessed. And occasionally, when they enter into seasons of repentance and obedience, they experience His blessing again. But time and time again, they break the covenant. And they break the covenant primarily in two ways.
There’s all sorts of legal things. You know, “God’s so detailed in the Old Testament, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.” Yeah, but here’s the complaint that the prophets bring against Israel. It wasn’t that you cut your hair wrong. The complaint that the prophets bring against Israel is: you have worshiped other gods and you have oppressed the poor. In other words, you haven’t loved God and you haven’t loved each other.
And people say, “Well, God’s so harsh in the Old Testament.” Well, that’s because you read it one day at a time and you don’t realize that it’s like you’re reading a thousand years. God sent prophets for a thousand years to warn His people, “Hey, you’re breaking the covenant. Remember what I said? If you break the covenant, I’m going to bring other nations, and they’re going to exile you.” “Oh, yeah, yeah. But we got the temple now. The temple will protect us.” Yeah, read Jeremiah and Ezekiel about how well the temple protected them.
And then, by the way, they get back to that same attitude when Jesus is there. “Oh, we got the temple. We got the temple.” 70 A.D. what happened? No more temple. The Romans came? No.
So prophets, I said this, prophets are covenant lawyers. They are the prosecutor. They’re God’s prosecuting attorney, and they lay out the case to Israel and say, “This is where you’ve broken the covenant. Here’s what the covenant says. Here’s what’s going to happen to you… for a thousand years—”
Some people say, “Well, God’s so violent.” God’s pretty patient. My kids growing up in my house, they didn’t get a thousand years. They got three, right? Anybody grow up, get the three? When I grew up, I got the three. And so I thought, “Well, that worked.” So sometimes you parent like your parents. Hopefully sometimes you figure out some things you can do better or whatever. But you know, I gave my kids three. “Hey, we told you to go to bed. You haven’t gone to bed. You’re messing around. You need to go to bed.” “Well, I mean—” “One, two…” Listen at my house, no two and a half. Sorry, no two and a half. If two hits and you’re not moving, three is coming, alright? Not a thousand years, you got three.
And so these prophets are covenant lawyers. And Isaiah 40 changes from Isaiah 39. All of a sudden, God now is speaking to a people that have been exiled. He’s speaking restitution. Because whenever you have judgment in the Bible, it is always followed by mercy. There’s only one case where judgment is not followed by mercy in the Bible, and that’s the final judgment. Everywhere else, judgment is intended to bring about repentance so that God can show mercy.
Here, God speaks mercifully.
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of hard service is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord ‘s hand double for all her sins.” 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of hard service is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord ‘s hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:2, CSB)
There’s a voice crying out. We sang it.
3 A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. 4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 40:3-5, CSB)
A voice cried out, saying, what should I cry out?
6 A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.” 9 Zion, herald of good news, go up on a high mountain. Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise your voice loudly. Raise it, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Lord God comes with strength, and his power establishes his rule. His wages are with him, and his reward accompanies him. 11 He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. He gently leads those that are nursing. 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure or weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on the scales? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or who gave him counsel? 14 Who did he consult? Who gave him understanding and taught him the paths of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? 15 Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered as a speck of dust on the scales; he lifts up the islands like fine dust. 16 Lebanon’s cedars are not enough for fuel, or its animals enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before him; they are considered by him as empty nothingness. 18 With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with him? 19 An idol?—something that a smelter casts and a metalworker plates with gold and makes silver chains for? 20 A poor person contributes wood for a pedestal that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not fall over. 21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not considered the foundations of the earth? 22 God is enthroned above the circle of the earth; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He reduces princes to nothing and makes judges of the earth like a wasteland. 24 They are barely planted, barely sown, their stem hardly takes root in the ground when he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble. 25 “To whom will you compare me, or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. 26 Look up and see! Who created these? He brings out the stars by number; he calls all of them by name. Because of his great power and strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you assert, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my claim is ignored by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding. 29 He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless. 30 Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, 31 but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:6-31, CSB)
And God, may the words of my mouth, the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalms 19:14, CSB)
Isaiah is calling out to Israel, and God is calling out to us today. Where are you looking? Have you put your hope in the Lord? Or is your hope and is your vision still consumed with the things of the world? Have you stopped wanting to be like the other nations? Have you stopped wanting to create idols? Have you stopped wanting to live this short life where you wither and die in just a short period of time for your own pleasure, for your own purpose?
Or have you looked to God? “Have you not seen,” he says twice, “have you not heard about who this God is?” There is life in him. And we look to the wrong things. And so The Bible, Isaiah 40, is calling us to look back to God.
So here are some of the wrong things we look at. We look to the news. We look to the news. The news is designed—look at the news is not terrible. The news, well, it is evil because it is designed to make us fearful and angry. Those are the well-intentioned intentions of the news.
I saw this clearly. I had two relatives watch, and we turned on the news. It was the conservative bent, and they watched that. The first story came on, and person number one said, “Oh, that makes me afraid. That’s scary.” They said, “Oh, that’s scary.” Then we watched another story, and person number two said, “Man, that makes me mad.” Like bingo. Fear and anger. Now, it doesn’t mean there aren’t scary things in the world. It doesn’t mean there aren’t things in the world worth getting angry about. It just means that the news is designed to elicit those two responses in you because they’re kind of addictive. They’ll get you addicted to fear and anger.
I love what Bill Johnson says. He says, “I’ll watch the news,” he says, “but whenever that reality becomes a bigger reality to me than Jesus Christ in the room with me, I shut it off.”
I’ll tell you what, I think you can do a lot of harm to your soul looking at pornography, but I think you can do a lot of harm to your soul looking at the news. Not that we don’t need to be informed, but there’s places to get informed that don’t make you fearful and angry. You just look up data. Or some of you can handle it. Some of you can watch the news and not get fearful and angry. You can eat the meat and throw out the bones. You can get rid of the manipulation and just gather the facts. Good for you. I’m not saying that watching the news is sinful. I’m simply saying that if you look at it for your inspiration, you’re looking at the wrong thing.
If you look at others for your inspiration, if you look at others and worship heroes… now it’s not bad to have role models, it’s not bad to have people— But here’s the thing. As a young man, I desperately. And I became a Christian. I desperately started looking for theological pastoral role models that I could look up to. People who would just be perfect in their theology, in their behavior, in their attitude. I just started looking, and I just spent 20 years of my life being disappointed. And I remember telling a friend that I said, “Man, all these preachers and all these theologians and all my seminary professors and all these people, eventually they let me down.” It was funny because it’s such an obvious answer. I said, “Will I ever find one who won’t?” He says, “Well, yeah, yeah.” Oh, that’s right. Yeah. Could it be Jesus? There you go.
And stop putting these guys on such a high—it’s unfair to them, let alone to you. You know, if you come here thinking Pastor Kev’s the answer, and most of you have long learned that ain’t true, you’re like, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If you come here thinking, “You know what? God is so good He can even speak through that man,” then you’ll be pleasantly surprised. All right? I hope. Hope you walk away here saying, “Well, you know, there was some gold in them there hills.”
Don’t look to others, look to Jesus. Yes, look to others, but not as perfect heroes, but as flawed people who can help you on the way. There are admirable things about others that we learn from. Don’t just dismiss them. But what we do with heroes in our culture is we lift them up to the status of idols, and then one small hiccup, we tear them down to the pit of devils.
I’ve experienced this as a pastor over the years. I’m always afraid of people who come to church, and they come to church and say, “Oh, man, you’re just what we’re looking for. you’re the best ever.” Man, when I was young, I used to love that. I said, “Oh, boy, that’s great.” You know? “I feel so good.” But I found out that what happened is those people were looking for a perfect—they were looking for a Jesus. And eventually, you would step on a landmine that you didn’t even know was there, some kind of trigger in their life, you know? You weren’t the perfect daddy. You know, they’re looking for a perfect daddy, and they think you’re him. And it’s like, and you, and you, and I have literally—this is not an exaggeration—literally, in five minutes, I’ve gone from Jesus to Satan in people’s eyes. I really have. And I just tell people all the time, “I’m not Jesus. And I’m not the devil. I’m not as good as one or as bad as the other.”
But people are looking for heroes. Well, you can look for heroes, but do it with moderation. You can watch the news, but do it with moderation. Those are not your answers. Those are looking to the wrong things.
Don’t look to other people to compare yourself. That will lead to one of two sins. You will compare yourself to people who seem to be, who seem to have everything that you want and you can’t get it, and you will enter into the sin of envy.
We have whole cultures and a whole political movement that is wicked and it’s based on envy. We have a name for it. It’s called socialism. We hate the poor because-, we hate the rich, because they have what we don’t, and we deserve it. It’s entitlement and it’s envy.
Now, there’s a good side to that. The good side is oftentimes the rich do exploit the poor and we need to pursue justice for the poor.
But envy is wicked. And it’s a part of the cultural shift that’s happening right before our eyes, today even, where that cultural shift is on, people. And that culture of envy, culture of identity politics, culture of lifting up the outcast to the point where you exalt deviance and sin. That King is being exposed for having no clothes, even as we sit here tonight. I just want to tell you that.
That’s why I’m preaching on revival. I think a revival is coming to America. I could be wrong because I’ve been preaching this a long time, and it hasn’t happened yet. There have been snippets of it, but I think a revival is coming to America that will be so deep, it will bring about a cultural reformation. That is my hope, and that is my prayer.
And so comparison will lead to envy. They’ve got it. I want it. What about me? Why not me? I—oh, these words I just, and advertisers use, “You deserve. You deserve.” It’s like, yeah, you know why I deserve to be rich and famous? Because I’m sitting on my tush watching TV. Yeah, I deserve. You know?
Let me tell you the other thing that comparison will do. Envy is a terrible sin. You know what else is a terrible sin? Pride. So you compare yourself to others—and we do this all the time, too—”Well, at least I’m not that. I’m better than them.” I joked this morning, I said, “You know, I go to Walmart? Because I go to Walmart and go, ‘I ain’t so fat. Look at that person. They’re wearing sweatpants too. Not only am I not fat, I’m actually better dressed than somebody, which my wife thought would be impossible.'”
I don’t know. Any of you other men have this problem? You put on clothes, and you get this disparaging look. You may not get the words. You know, many women have learned not to use the words, but you’re about to go out and you get this look. And this look says the words. And the words are, “You’re gonna wear that?” It’s like, how do you answer that? “You’re gonna wear that?” No, I just put it on so you’d have something to criticize. You wouldn’t be happy until you picked on me. So I picked out these ghastly clothes. But, you know, all I have to do is take my wife to Walmart and she’s like, “Well, you know, it’s not so bad.”
Actually, comparison will work in your favor sometimes. Because my wife used to go to this group with a bunch of women at the church and they had bad husbands, a couple of them, had really rough marriages and some bad husbands, which, as a loving pastor, I should have been concerned about. And I was. I wanted those guys to be better husbands. I wanted those marriages to work better.
But actually, whatever level of disappointment my wife had in me when she went to that woman’s group, she came back and I had scored high on the curve. And it was kind of like she came back. It’s like, “Hi, honey, I love you.” It’s like, “Oh, Richard’s being a jerk to his wife again? Great. No, wait, that’s not great.” How do I figure that one out?
Anway. Comparison can bring pride. “I’m better than them. I’m not like them. We’re not like that.” Don’t compare. Just live humbly and do your part before Jesus. Walk humbly with your God.
We look to idols. That’s what Israel’s problem was. We want great crops. Well, God says, “Obey the covenant. I’ll give you great crops.” “No, but over there, they got great crops, and they sacrificed their children to the gods of Baal and Molech and Asherah, and they have orgies. Hey, wouldn’t that be great if we could get great crops with orgies?” There they go. And God says, “What are you doing?” “Well, they have good crops.” Them devil crops. Those aren’t good.
But we worship idols. We chase, we look for success. We look for love in all the wrong places. And we have idols today. We typically don’t make little wooden statues, but we turn religion into idols. We think religiosity, the temple, the going through the motions, the ritual, replace an accountable relationship with God.
My wife and I just did a wonderful road trip through Idaho. And, you know, I got into Idaho, Brian, I got into Idaho and it was like, blue state, blue state, blue state. Welcome to Idaho. Ah, freedom. Freedom. You feel it. It’s like the oppression lifted… as well as the gas, and the gas prices went down. It’s like, great. Can afford a road trip in Idaho. Can’t afford one in Washington. Before we left Idaho, I said—we had three fourths of a tank in—and I said, “I’m gonna stop for gas.” My wife said, “Why?” “I want to get another quarter of a tank of cheap gas before I drive through Washington.”
And, you know, so we’re in Idaho, and we get down to southern Idaho. If none of you know what southern Idaho is like, you know, it’s not the Rocky Mountains. It’s not the beauty. It’s dry, it’s barren, and it is northern Utah. Southern Idaho is northern Utah, all right? It’s Mormon. And, you know, we were looking at these towns. We went to Shoshone Falls, which was gorgeous, and went to Twin Falls, Idaho. I loved it. It wasn’t beautiful, but it was suburbs, baby. You know, I am not the snooty city person who likes just the vibe of the city. And I’m definitely not the rugged rural person who, you know, that’s—I’m a Pillsbury Doughboy. I need conveniences nearby. Suburbs are for me. Free parking, big malls. Love it.
So we’re in these suburbs. And I said, and every, every time we go someplace, I always tell my wife, “We could live here. We could plant a church here.” So I’m in Twin Falls, Idaho. I said, “We could, we can live here. We could—you know, it’s halfway between our grandkids. We could do it, do this.” And my wife, my wife, her rule is we have to be not halfway between our grandkids. We have to be 30 minutes away from some grandkid. That’s the rule. She who must be obeyed has said 30 minutes. And the older we get, that distance, you know, we get, “We need to get closer. We need to get closer.”
So anyway, I’m trying to, I’m lobbying for Twin Falls. Twin Fall Falls is okay. It’s 25% Mormon. Then my wife looked at Idaho Falls. “This is pretty. Idaho Falls is pretty.” I like the stats. 81% Mormon. I ain’t moving there. I can’t handle it. I can’t handle it. She says “Mormons need…” They’re the hardest people to convert. Why? The idol of religion. They have enough. It’s like they’re vaccinated against the real thing. Did you say it? I heard it. That’s what I grew up in. I grew up in Catholicism.
And I’m not saying Catholicism isn’t Christian, but I’m saying in my growing up of it, the whole thing was dance the dance, take the magic bath, eat the magic food, go to the priest and get the magic word spoken over you. Then do your duty and say the right prayers at the altar and let them deal with Jesus. And you just dance the dance. And it becomes an idol.
Now, lest you think you’re safe, Charismatic evangelical Protestants, you can create idols. The non-Charismatic branch of the Evangelical church in certain sectors has actually created an idol out of this: “Oh, you’re talking against the Word of God?” No, I love the Word of God. The problem is there is a false trinity out there called the Father, Son, and the Holy Book. People worship the Bible, not the author of the Bible.
I’ve heard people say this, “I can’t live without the Bible.” Well, Christians did for 1500 years. Why? Because they had God. They have a Holy Spirit. I’m not saying the Bible’s not a great aid. I’m just saying. So you’re saying somebody who’s illiterate can’t be a Christian, can’t be born again, can’t get saved? “The Bible is sufficient.” No. The blood of Jesus is sufficient. The indwelling spirit is sufficient? Yes, the Bible is a wonderful, nearly, nearly indispensable—in fact, for the church, an indispensable aid. I’m a Protestant. It’s an indispensable aid for the church, but nobody’s going to be saved because they had, they could quote the most Bible verses.
Charismatics, we create idols. I’ve seen it. I’ve been around, I’ve been hanging around these revivalists now for a long time. I love them. I love their hunger for God. I love the manifestations. I love the power. I love the openness to God’s spirit. But they create formulas. They create formulas and put God in the box of their formulas. And they also step outside, sometimes, of the bounds of Christianity for the sake of experience.
“You got to pray this way. You got to use these magic words to get somebody delivered.” I’ve been involved in deliverance ministries and you have to… it’s very scripted. “You have to say this. You have to say this. You have to pray this. You have to do this to get people free from demons.” And then I look at Jesus, and it’s like, man, Jesus was terrible at exorcism. He didn’t know your formula. Man, you should have gone back, you should have taught Jesus your formula. He’d have been better at it.
Jesus’ formula was, “I carry the authority of heaven, and you know who I am.” And I found in doing deliverance that the books are helpful. They help you kind of get into stuff. But it’s not the formula that works.
The first time I did a significant deliverance, I had no formula. And I’ve told you the story before. This little 15-year-old girl, this demonic voice is coming out of this 15-year-old girl. I’m holding her hand so I can pray for her and deliver. And this voice, not hers, another voice comes out of her and says, “I’m going to hurt you now.” And she started digging her fingernails into my hand. I did not have a formula at that time to exorcise the fingernail digging demon. I hadn’t read that chapter in the book yet, and I just said, “In the Name of Jesus, stop it.” I thought it was an important time to pray that. And her hand went limp in my hand.
And my next prayer, my next thought anyway, was: “Glad that worked.” How about that? The authority of Jesus worked. I didn’t need a formula.
Jesus heals people without a formula. He heals at a distance. He heals by laying on hands. He heals by casting out demons. He heals by chastising their people or His disciples about their lack of faith. He sometimes heals by just telling people, “Go show yourself to the priest.” “Hey, heal me.” “Go away. Show yourself to the priest.” Really? You’re not going to do any, you’re not going to like lay hands on me or recite? “No, just go show yourself to the priest.” Heal my son. “Okay, bring him to me.” And this is the good guy. This is the Roman. He says, “Hey, I don’t even have to bring him to you. I know who you are.” And He says, “You got it.” Heals at a distance.
He spits on people. He spits on people to heal them. Listen, I’ve been in churches where people get upset that people fall down in the power of the Spirit. Wait till the spitting revival happens. See how people handle that one. “Pastor, lay hands on me.” “Nope, not going to do it.” Listen, you want the anointing, sit in the front row. It might happen accidentally. Is that why you’re all back there? Listen, it never goes that far. It usually is restricted to the front row. You’re safe in the second row until I start doing this.
I’ve actually seen it. I’ve actually seen it come out and land on my sister one time. Just landed on her arm. It’s like… and you know, you’d think, “Oh, you intentionally spit on your sister.” No, I didn’t. But it was still nice. And she behaved really well. She didn’t make a scene or nothing.
All right, don’t make an idol out of your religiosity. Don’t make an idol or don’t worship nature. You think, “Well, we don’t worship nature.” Yeah, we do. And some of you think, “Oh, new age, you know, tree hugger.” No. You know how we worship—that’s true, there are people out there like that. But you know how we worship nature? By worshiping science. Science is the worship of nature. When you worship science, you worship nature because science is… what does science study? Nature. Naturalism. That’s what it’s called. That’s what the worship of nature, the atheistic worship of nature is called. Scientific naturalism or scientific materialism. In other words, all there is in the universe is material and nature, and so we study that, and that’s where we get all our answers. And so you worship nature.
And then we have experts in everything, and their expertise is based on what they have deduced from nature. Now, here’s one of the things about these priests and priestesses of nature. And I believe in science. I love science. I love the data. I have benefited greatly from science. I love the fact that I can go on a road trip with my wife through Idaho and I don’t have to ride a donkey or a horse. That’s so nice. I love driving through beautiful scenic places.
I go with my son. I said, “Isn’t this beautiful?” He says, “Yeah, dad, let’s get out and hike.” I go, “Why? I’ve never been chafed driving. I’ve never,” you know. He says, “Well, there’s other beautiful sights.” “These are fine. They build the roads right through these beautiful sites. It’s great. You don’t have to get out and walk. There are mosquitoes out there. There’s bugs, there’s bears. This is great.”
But we worship, you know? I drive. Yay. Medical technology. I’ve been blessed by it. I’m so pro science. What I’m not pro is arrogant scientists who think they know it all because they got a degree. And I’m not pro our culture bowing at their feet. And I see it all the time. I’ll turn on my, you know, social- I’ll turn on my computer and I’ll, I’ll go online, I’ll get my homepage, whatever it is—I don’t even know, who Google or somebody shows me—and inevitably there’s an article that starts with these words: “Experts say…”
Well, I was a little skeptical before COVID, but now it’s like “Experts say…” Here’s the deal. Now whenever I see “expert,” in my mind, I translate that to “some guy with a degree.” Usually “some guy with a degree, some gal with a degree says…” Doesn’t mean I discount it, just means blah, blah, blah.
I’m not an anti-climate crisis guy. I’m not a pro-climate crisis guy, but color me skeptical. Why? I grew up in the 70s, and what did experts tell me in the 70s? I remember. “We’re entering a new ice age.” Then I went through the 80s, and what did experts say in the 80s? I remember two things they said. One is, “acid rain is going to destroy all our crops.” It didn’t. The other thing they said is, “population growth is going to get out of control, and it’s going to lead to mass starvation.” Population is as high as it’s ever been, and actually, food security is as high as it’s ever been on the planet, in the history of the planet. There’s about 80 to 90% food security on the planet. What does that mean? That only 10 to 20%, which is a lot, but 10 to 20% of the people are dealing with where they’re going to, you know, if they’re going to be able to eat.
And I’ve been in those places. I’ve been to Haiti, I’ve been in those places where that is true. However, 200 years ago, the 80, 90% number applied to food scarcity for everybody on the planet. You’re a farmer in North Dakota in 1850 and the locusts decide to come through that year, you better hope dad’s a good hunter or you’ll starve to death. And people did.
What am I saying? The experts were wrong. Their scientific projections said, based on the amount of food we produce today, a great number of people are going to starve if we have a great number of people. But you know what else science did? That’s why I’m pro-science as well as skeptical. You know what else science did? It discovered ways to produce more food on less plots of ground. Yay, science.
Guess what? Expert experts were wrong. Al Gore, he’s an expert. He won a Nobel Prize for being an expert on climate issues. He also, you know, theoretically, you know, he backed off this, but, you know, he didn’t invent the Internet. He was significant in the Internet. Maybe he was. I don’t know. But as an expert, as a Nobel Prize winner—you can look it up—he said major cities in the world, we’re going to be underwater by 2034? 2044? 2024? No, 2014. Here we are. Here we are. None of Bremerton has disappeared yet. Now, do I know whether that’s going to happen? I don’t know. I try to study, but I don’t just study one side of it.
And I don’t believe it based on one political view of it either. Listen, most of you are conservatives. Guess what? Conservatives can be wrong, too. What? Yeah, yeah.
But we worship at the feet of experts. We worship at the feet of celebrities. Oh, my gosh. Why do we care what the political opinions of people who get awards at the Grammys? I so appreciated the atheist who mocks Christians, but he doesn’t spare his mocking on others as well. Ricky Gervais, when he hosted the Oscars or something like that, and he said, “Listen, when you get up here, thank your girlfriend, thank your wife, thank your mother, thank your producer. But you know what? Don’t give us your latest political rant.” He said, “Nobody cares. What makes you think you know more? What, because you made a movie about it?” “I was in the movie the Handmaid’s Tale, so I know how men treat women.” No, that movie is a dystopian fiction. I know of no women who are living that life now. It’s just not happening. “Oh, but experts say it will.”
All right, all that to say we’re looking at the wrong things. Kevin, quit ranting and talk about the Bible. Really? I can’t just rant for another hour?
All right, where do we look? Where does Isaiah 40 say we look? Look to God, look to God, look to his Word. We have—again, just because people worship the Bible doesn’t mean I’m disparaging of the Bible. I love the Bible. Spent my whole life studying the Bible. I learned, for a while I could read the Bible in Hebrew and in Greek. Not so much anymore, but, you know, I spend tons of time studying and reading the Bible, and I want to bring to you sermons that are faithful to the Bible because I do believe the Bible is God’s inspired text.
I do believe the Holy Spirit inspired the Bible so that we have this deposit and we can look to God’s Word. And in God’s word are promises and hope for us, and it feeds us. And so we can look to his word.
Time after time, people will come into my office for counseling for problems, because pastors are supposed to know stuff because we’re experts. People come in, and I’ll just be honest with you, you know, now you’re going to come in, and you’re not going to have so much confidence. “Pastor Kevin, I got this problem going on,” and I’m thinking, here’s what I’m thinking. I’m not thinking, “Oh, I know the answer to that.” Here’s what I’m thinking: “Man, that’s a big problem. You should go talk to an expert.” Then I pray. Not out loud. I just pray. Maybe quietly or in tongues. Again, not really out loud. It’s hard when somebody says, “Man, I don’t know what to do with my husband.” “I’m going to [prays in tongue].” That doesn’t work. That’s not a good counseling technique.
Though I do find when cars are pulling out on the right and you think they’re going to come out in front of you, just rebuke them in tongues. And it’s, it’s my whole life I’ve done that. Never had a car come out from the right and hit me. It just works all the time. Some car comes out, and it looks like he’s gonna come out and go [prays in tongue]. And my wife goes, “Oh…” I go “It works every time. They always stop. They always stop.”
By the way, praying on public streets also keeps pink rhinoceroses away. Just try it. They never show up.
All right, where was I at? Oh, people in my office. And I’ll pray. It’s like, “Lord,” under my breath, I just pray, “Lord, this person needs help. Help me help them.” And the Lord will speak to me a word that brings encouragement, hope, wisdom, mercy. And you know what that word is nine times out of ten? A Bible verse I memorized years ago.
“Pastor, why should I memorize the Bible?” Because you’re giving the Holy Spirit ammunition. You’re giving the Holy Spirit ammunition. You want to wake up in the morning and start your day off right? Wake up with a Bible verse. “Well, which Bible verse should I wake up with?” Well, memorize a few. God will bring one to mind. God brings verses to my mind all the time. The one He brings most mornings—and I’ve said this many times, and I say it here many times, you heard me say it—who have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God, you’re the strength of my life and my portion forever.
There are probably not 90%, maybe 80% of the mornings, I don’t get out of bed until those words have come out of my mouth. Not a bad way to start the day, right? Well, guess what? You know why that’s in there? Because by the help of God, I put it in there. I memorized it. “Well, Pastor, I don’t have a good memory.” What’s my name? Okay, you got my name. You memorize stuff that’s important to you. You know how to get home, right? You memorize stuff that’s important to you. Memorize the Bible.
Look at His power. Have you not seen? Have you not heard? Isaiah keeps saying look at his power. Look at his creation. Look at his wonder working miracles. We had Sandy Guillamo today in church and some of you know Sandy. She and her husband Nick attended the Firehouse for years before they moved to Arizona. Nick has an incredible healing testimony. He’s passed on since then, but he lived five more years. He was dying of heart failure.
I remember the night he was ashen gray. I was at a conference, and it was late, and somebody gave a word of knowledge. What sort of word of knowledge? God gave some information: there’s somebody out there with pain in their heart. Nick said, “That’s me.” He was taking nitroglycerin. The doctors had said, “You only have a certain amount of time to live. You need open heart surgery. But we can’t do open heart surgery on you because if we do open heart surgery on you, you’ll die on the table. So you’re either going to die on the table as we’re trying to heal your heart, or you’re going to die from your heart.” He had the death sentence, all right? Until Julie’s testimony, my best healing testimony, alright?
But it’s right up there because Nick walks up with his cane, ashen gray, and Georgian Banoff prays for him, and the team, and Georgian actually beat on his chest. There’s a guy with a sore chest and the guy starts hitting it. George, “I don’t remember doing that,” but he did. He just boom, boom, boom.
And you literally from where I was sitting—I didn’t know Nick and Sandy at the time. I got to know him later as they became part of the Firehouse Church—literally from where I was sitting, you can see the color rising back into his face. And he walked back to his seat, not using the cane, with a little spring in his step. He drove home that night for the first time, went back to see his internist. His internist actually wrote a letter saying his heart is completely healed. He had a heart this big. Now it’s normal size. He’s had two open heart surgeries. First normal EKG in 23 years. And it says, “According to what we can see, not only does he have a healthy heart, it looks like he has a heart that’s never been ill.” He got a new heart.
Then you say, “Well, he died of a heart attack five years later.” Yeah, but it wasn’t a prolonged sickness. It was instant. He just, like, it was afib. It just boom. So. And during those five years, he did prison ministry, led thousands of men to Christ. You know? People say, “Well, you know, God didn’t—he died five years later.” Yeah, Lazarus died a few years later too. You know, poor Lazarus, he had to die twice. Studying all these near-death experience people, they got to go through it again.
All right, look at His power. You know, it amazes me when I came back from a conference in 2003 and I started praying for people at our gently Charismatic church in Oakdale, California. And all of a sudden the gentle got taken away. People started being slain in the Spirit. They started laughing in the Spirit. All these revival manifestations started to break out, and people just got offended by that. I was the same pastor, and I was delighted by it. But people would just say, “Oh, those kids,” because a lot of young people were experiencing this, “they’re just faking that.” It’s like, well, how do you know? “I have discernment.” No, I think you have fear. I think you have control.
I’m not saying people can’t fake that. I’m just saying so many people, in my experience, so many people, we had like little Presbyterian people—not picking on Presbyterians—but very structured church backgrounds come up, and before I would lay hands on them and pray for them, they would say things to me like, “Don’t be disappointed. I never fall.” I said, “Well, I’m not praying for you to fall. I’m just praying.” And here’s what I would pray. “Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus, Holy Spirit, come.” It’s a pretty orthodox Trinitarian prayer. I don’t see any heresy in that prayer. So I’d pray, “Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, come.” Or Holy Spirit fill, fresh filling, fresh fire, something like that.
And these people would come to me. “I never fall.” “Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit.” Well, until now. There they go. All right? These aren’t people who are faking it. These aren’t people who grew up in revival cultures and that was the expected thing to do. That they were—and then people would come to me and say, “Where’s God in this?” Well, I don’t know. You think the devil did that? I prayed, “Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, come.” How did the devil get into that prayer? If the devil got into that prayer, good luck with “God, guide, guide the surgeon’s hands” or, you know, “give us travel mercies.” Nice, safe evangelical prayers. Nothing wrong with those prayers. If I go for surgery, I want guided hands. If I go on a trip, I want travel mercies.
But guess what? If God answers your safe prayers, maybe He’ll answer prayers that you don’t understand what He’s doing. And now you have an invitation and a choice, and your invitation is to say, “I’m not going to limit God to my understanding, and I’m going to let God be God.” Or “I’m going to restrict God in my life only to what I can explain, instead of being amazed by His power.”
I mean, literally, I had a young man. People are just dropping like flies. Boom, boom, boom, boom. The power of God’s breaking out. This young man comes up to me and he goes, “I don’t know. I don’t know if there’s a God. Where’s the evidence that there’s a God?” And I’m like, “I don’t know. It looks like a war zone here. You know, your friends are, they never, they don’t do this at Walmart, do they? This is not a normal behavior for them, right? They don’t go to Walmart and just like all of a sudden drop on the floor and start shaking. They did that in response to prayer, maybe.”
Well, you know why that person couldn’t find evidence? He didn’t want to stop sleeping with his girlfriend. That’s where he couldn’t find evidence.
Dear ones, look at God’s power. His power in creation, His power in miracles, His power in church history.
Look at His care, His care of people in the Bible. Isaiah 40 talks about it. I’m a comforter. I’m a shepherd. Constantly God says, “I’m a shepherd. I care for you.” You have a history of God’s care. That means the next time you face a crisis, you have a history of remembrance, that God did not fail me then, He won’t fail me now.
The older I get—I’m not that old—but the more I think about death, and not in a morbid sense. I don’t think, you know, “Oh, my gosh, I’m going to die tomorrow.” I might, but, but that was true when I was 20. I might. But the more I think about it, reflect on it, and here’s what I know: every difficulty I’ve gone through in my life, God has cared for me and brought me through. Why would His nature change at that one? Will He meet me with His grace there and beyond as He’s promised? The track record says what? He’s faithful.
My little daughter, three years old, we’re swimming. She’s got her floaties. She wants to take off her floaties. She’s learning a dog paddle. Now she wants to jump inside of the pool, jump off, and jump to dad. And she gets to the side of the pool, she doesn’t have her floaty, she doesn’t have her security on, and she’s ready to jump.
And all of a sudden, she stops and asks a very profound question. “Daddy, will you catch me?” That’s a heck of a good question. We might think, “Silly question.” No. She’s facing life and death, right? I mean, maybe she could dog paddle to the side, but this is scary. Will you catch me?
There is evidence of my care for the first three years of her life. That says I will, right? Me and my wife have kept her alive. We have not killed her. There have been times she’s deserved it. The wages of sin is death. Anybody who doesn’t know that’s true. you’ve never had a three-year-old.
“Will you catch me?”
“Yes, honey, I’ll catch you.” How do I know? Two ways. One not for certain, the other for certain. The one not for certain I just mentioned. There’s a history of care. You can trust me. I love you. I’ve demonstrated that love to you.
Then there’s the only way you can really prove it without a doubt. Jump. Lord, how do I know you’re out there? “Take a leap of faith.” But what if you don’t? Rough on you. But what if I do? You’ve stepped into the abundance of all life. You discover God’s care when you walk by faith. You have a track record of it.
But guess what? No matter where you are in your life, I just want to tell you this. The challenges have not ended. There will be other tests of faith. Lord, we’re sending our kids off to college. How do I know you’ll take care of them? “Well, who do you think is better at it, me or you?” Well, God, let me think about that. No, you. We cast our cares upon Him, 1 Peter 5:7 says. Why? Because He cares for us.
We look at His creation. Isaiah 40 says, “Look at His creation.” There’s a song, Vineyard—not Vineyard—Bethel used to sing, and it’s called “Never Lose the Wonder.” Never lose the wonder. I love little boys chasing lizards because a lizard’s an amazing thing. Or watching butterflies or fireflies or looking to the stars. Never lose the wonder. That’s why I love driving through scenic places. I’m filled with wonder. “Wow. That’s a great thing.” My son: “Let’s take a hike. Now, I can wonder from my car. You hike, boy. Pick you up later. Never lose the wonder.
The results: when we look to God, we are comforted in every time of trial, and times of trial come. I love comfort. But I have come to this conclusion after 66 years: God’s main priority in my life is not my comfort, not my ease. He wants to give me eternal happiness. And for that, occasionally I have to sacrifice temporal happiness. And I’m okay with that because of His track record, because of His faithfulness.
Charlie Kirk didn’t know he was going to be martyred, but he knew it was a possibility. That’s why he had a security team. His life had been threatened. And if you were to ask him today, was it worth it, he would say, yes. And his dear wife, who is suffering the greater loss than he did, would say, “I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t change it.” All right?
What? Yeah, sure. Yeah, absolutely. Because he was threatened. He was threatened.
But we are comforted in life’s trials, and we are strengthened for life’s trials. Isaiah 40: “Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They’ll walk and not faint.”
31 but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31, CSB)
Lois was dying of emphysema. I was the associate pastor at a Methodist church in California, and I went to visit Lois in the hospital. Her breathing was troubled, and she was very sick.
And I walked into the hospital, and I grabbed her hands, and said, “Lois, the Scripture is on my mind. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.” And she started shaking and crying. And I finished the verse. “They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. Walk and not faint.”
And I was pretty insecure back then. It’s like, “Oh, man, did I just blow it? Did I say something stupid? What is it, Lois? What is it? What’s wrong?”
And she said, “Last night”—she could barely get the words out—”last night, last night” because she’s crying and she’s not getting a lot of breath. “Last night,” she goes, “it was so hard, and I was here alone.”
And Lois’s husband, I don’t know what went wrong with him, but he did not care for her. When she died, he emotionally withdrew. And some guys just can’t take it, or I don’t know what the deal was, but it was sad for her. It was sad for all of us to watch that.
Anyway, and she said, “And in my worst moment, I cried out to God, and I said, ‘Help.’ And immediately, you know what came to my mind? Isaiah 40:31. And then I fell asleep peacefully, and I wake up this morning and you’re here, and the first words I hear were the words that gave me comfort last night.” That’s a great coincidence. It gets better.
The next day, the senior pastor went to visit her. Harry went to visit her. And Harry comes back, he goes, “Kevin, you’ll never guess what happened.” I said, “What happened?” He goes, “I went to pray for Lois, and,” he goes, “you know me when I go to the hospital.” And Harry was structured. He had a way of doing things. I was, you know, loosey goosey, but Harry’s pretty structured. He had a way of doing things.
He went to the hospital, he said, “You know me, I’m a Jeremiah 29 man. When I go to the hospital, I quote Jeremiah. ‘I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for your welfare, not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.'”
11 For I know the plans I have for you” —this is the Lord ‘s declaration—”plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11, CSB)
Harry just goes to the hospital. He’d speak that over people. He goes, “So I’m going to visit Lois, and I’m going to Jeremiah 29 her.” You know, I didn’t know if you thought, you knew pastors had these things, but, you know, he was going to pull a Jeremiah 29 out of his holster and just lay it on her.
And he says, “I’m about ready. ‘I know the plans I have for you…’ And the Lord stops me. And all of a sudden, out of my mouth, I hear, ‘Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.'” And he goes, “You know what happened?” I go, “She started shaking and crying.” He goes, “Yep. You know why?” I said, “Yeah, because she dri-, she spoke that. I spoke it and you spoke it.” “That’s right!” “God is good.” Here he goes, “He is.”
And he looked at me, says, “You know, Kevin, He is good, and ‘I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord.” He had to get Jeremiah 29 out, you know, somewhere, so he laid one on me. So that’s good. I took it. I took it.
So what does this have to do with revival and awakening? I want to tell you something, we sang those songs. “I can feel it in my bones.” I don’t know if it’s 30 years off, but I don’t think so. I saw 300,000 people today—80,000 fit in an auditorium, another 220,000 outside—to celebrate Jesus and to celebrate a man who spoke for Jesus and spoke for a cultural reformation and shift in America. That is a testimony to Charlie Kirk. But more, that wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago.
I’ll tell you what’s happening. It is on. For 30 years, America has been bullied and enslaved by a culture that’s gone astray. And if you spoke against that culture just reasonably, compassionately, you are a homophobic idiot, hater, terrible, worthy to be canceled.
And you know what it did? It silenced a lot of people. And for me, I remember I spoke out against that culture in a mainline denomination for years. And it just, what it did is just chased me out. It’s like, “Hey, I’m not going to spend my life fighting these knuckleheads.”
But I found out I couldn’t escape the knuckleheads. They’re all around me. And it aggravated me that you couldn’t have a reasonable conversation. And then, and I’m just going to speak—I don’t speak politically very often. I’m not a big Trump guy, which some of you don’t like. And others of you, you know, but… And others of you, if… But I’ll tell you what—and because he says things that just make me cringe, you know. It’s like, golly, you know, making fun of handicapped people. It’s like, stop it. You know, he’s like a fifth grade bully sometimes, but that’s what he is. He’s a bully.
And here’s why he got elected twice, maybe three times, because he was bullying the bullies. And the people who were being bullied recognized it. They said, “That’s our champion.” People have talked about him, you know, “Is he this or is he a that?” Well, he’s not a Messiah. And based on some of his theology, I don’t know that he’s even born again. But that’s other people—that’s his concern, other people’s concern.
But other people have said this: he’s a wrecking ball. And he was a wrecking ball to that worldview, and they hated it. And then a whole generation—and then he gave spine to people—and then a whole generation of young people who were more articulate than he is are raised up. Charlie Kirk was one of those people. J.D. Vance is another one of those people, in my estimation. There are others who have been raised up. And he’s given people spine to speak against the evil that leftism has become.
Listen, we need Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We do not need Pride Month. We need to have compassion on people who struggle with homosexual orientation and feelings. We need definitely to have compassion. That’s a hard struggle for people to deal with, and we need to embrace people and say, “You are welcome in the church, and we will walk alongside you in that struggle. We love you. Please be here.”
Guess what? Your struggle is not—we all struggle. And I got struggles and you got struggles. And don’t feel isolated because of that struggle. Please come to church. “Will you be nice to me?” We’ll be extra nice to you. But what we won’t do is codependently call broke, fixed and wrong, right.
And now, if you want to call us haters for that, go ahead. But the world’s waking up that that was a wicked bullying technique that actually really motivates unhinged people to do things nobody should like.
And because of that, that’s what Charlie Kirk represents. That’s what the reaction to Charlie Kirk represents, is that wicked cultural force is losing its grip, and they are squealing like stuck pigs because nobody likes to give up power.
But there is a cultural reformation that’s happening, and it’s driven by Christians. It’s not exclusively Christians who are involved in it, but it is driven by a Christian worldview and that, people, I feel like, is the beginnings of revival. I feel like that’s the beginnings of revival.
I feel like five years ago when a man got killed, maybe by an over-aggressive cop, maybe by fentanyl, maybe by both, cities were burnt down in “mostly peaceful..”, right? It was horrible. And the Left just sat by and said, “Well, we had the Summer of love back in ’69.” What?
And now another man gets assassinated, shot for simply wanting to have conversations, and the response is prayer vigils and revival services and his bride standing before a couple hundred thousand people saying, “I forgive that young man.” There’s a difference. There is a cultural difference.
And have hope because Jesus is on the throne and because we have prayed for it. It’s shifting. It’s an aircraft carrier, all right? Culture is an aircraft carrier. It’s not a little dinghy that just turns on a dime. It takes a while to turn one of those things around. But mark my words—I could be wrong, I’ve been wrong before. But I’m… And it’s not, Charlie Kirk isn’t the catalyst that brought about the change. The change has been happening, but he is definitely an accelerant to that change, and I don’t know Charlie Kirk, but if you were to ask him during his life, “Would you give your life that America might be transformed to a Judeo-Christian worldview and nation again?” I think he would unhesitantly say, “Yes.” I would say yes. I’m not 31 and I don’t have little kids, but at 66, I’d still say yes.
In fact, a bullet shot that kills me instantly? Aim well. Aim well. I don’t want to limp away from this, man. Bang. Hi, Jesus. I’m good with that. I’m not prophesying it, Lord, you don’t have to do it just to prove a point. I’m not speaking it into being. But all I’m saying is there’s a price to this thing.
The price I’ve paid up to this point has been 20 years of prayer and disappointment and discouragement, and then not giving up, having friends like Isaiah come and say, “I’m with you, Kev. I’m praying for this with you.” Young men like Isaiah praying with me on that. Appreciate you. Appreciate you helping keep me, keep me keeping my feet moving forward.
Firehouse, church man. I came up here because the Lord spoke, “Revival. I’m gonna bring revival.” I told my wife, “We gotta get up there. We gotta get up there. We’re gonna miss it.” Twenty years later, it’s like, “All right, big crowd tonight—16. All right, we’re, we’re cracking it. We’re cracking…” You know what? Here’s my promise. I will see it in my lifetime and I will pray to steward it well. Or if I don’t see it in my lifetime, I’ll die praying for it. I promise you today I’m not going to quit. And you shouldn’t either.
Psalm 27:13, I would have lost hope but for this: that I will see the goodness of the Lord, the land of the living. Be strong, take courage and wait for the Lord.
Lord, I pray you would fill us with hope in Jesus’ Name.
This is a meal of hope. You know what? You know what? Appetizers. You know what appetizers… Appetizers are meant to give you hope. You order an appetizer, you go, “This is good. Wow. What’s the main course going to be like?” You know what communion is? It’s an appetizer. It’s a meal that God gives us, and He says, “The next time you eat with me is going to be at the wedding Feast of the Lamb. So you think gathering in church together and feeding on the life of Christ is great? You just wait. It gets better.” But this is a food of hope. Your sins are forgiven. Jesus is with us. He invites you. Not me. The Firehouse Church does not invite you to this communion meal. The Lord Jesus invites you to this meal. And so come and eat and be grateful.
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