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2025.11.09 TFHC – God’s Promise and Vision of Revival | Isaiah 54
November 9, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
You’ve shown me the path of life. In your presence is the fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Thank you Jesus. Your name is worthy. For a great salvation, we are so very grateful tonight. In the midst of the struggles, the trials that we face in this world, Lord, still we are overwhelmingly grateful for the love that sought us and found us.
In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen. Amen.
My father-in-law was one of those guys, his generation, very quiet about his religion and all that. Started hanging out more and more with us. As he got older, he got a little more boisterous, and he would give out—every once in a while he’d just give out this kind of loud, “Amen!”
Toward the end of his life, he had dementia, and he was in the hospital. What’s that disease, infection. They did septic, but no, it wasn’t sepsis. But anyway, you know, it’s what killed him.
And he was in the hospital, and it was during COVID. I had to put on this white hazmat-like suit to go visit him. I’m in there, and he’s non-responsive. I get down by his ear and say the Lord’s Prayer, you know, “Our Father who art in heaven…” I get done. All of a sudden, I hear this, “Amen.” I think this is the last, that’s the last word I ever heard him speak. Amen. Amen.
So we’ve been going through Isaiah. Starting in Isaiah 40, the book turns.
Just a note about the prophets of the Old Testament. Here’s what the prophets are. If you’ve read the prophets in the Old Testament, it can be kind of discouraging because they keep bringing bad news to Israel. And then at the end of most of the prophets, there’s this hint of hope. There’s this kind of messianic hope that shows up, nowhere more so than in the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah has like 26 chapters that kind of turn and focus on the hope.
And those chapters are a lot about the restoration of Israel from Babylon back to their homeland and the building of the second Temple. But then it also has application for us today because it reveals the nature of God and His desire to bring a Messiah who will bring hope and restoration to a fallen world.
And the prophets, like I said, there are a lot of bad news and here’s the reason why. They are actually what I would call covenant lawyers. The prophets are covenant lawyers. What does that mean? God establishes a covenant with Israel. You can read all about it at the ending chapters of Deuteronomy. All right? Moses goes over Deuteronomy, the second law. Moses goes over the whole covenant that God has established with Israel.
And basically, you know, the covenant breaks down this way: if you follow this covenant, things will go so well for you, you won’t be able to believe it. You’ll live in the land that I give you. Your crops will be blessed, your children will be blessed. All the nations will leave you alone. They’ll fear you. You’ll be the, you know, you’ll be a light on a hill.
And then He says, but if you don’t follow this covenant, and then the—that list is pretty discouraging. You know, your crops are going to fail, your enemies are going to pursue you, blah, blah. And it just. And, you know, and ultimately I will take you out of this land and put you into exile.
And so one of the reasons the prophets are so grim is they are—you know, it’s not like this is out of the blue, like God said, “Well, you haven’t been good, so I’m going to punish you.” He’s actually just, through the prophets, reiterating—they’re the prosecuting attorneys—this is the case God has against you.
And so that’s what the prophets are in the Old Testament. They are God’s prosecuting attorneys that talk about Israel’s violation of the covenant. And God is just keeping His word. He’s saying, “Remember I told this to you, you know, and y’all said, when Joshua read it, y’all said, you know, Joshua said, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ And y’all said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what we’ll do.’ Every time the covenant got ready. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what you do.’ Of course, within a generation, you stop doing it.”
And so that’s why the prophets are so, so kind of dim and difficult.
But there’s always this word of hope. And like I said, nowhere more than in the prophet Isaiah does He offer hope for Israel returning from exile and for Him establishing a New Covenant with His people. And that He is a God of compassion, He is a God that has a good plan, and He will accomplish it.
And so I think the covenant, the second half of Isaiah, has application for us. Not only does it teach us about God’s interaction with Israel, but whenever it teaches us about God’s interaction with Israel, it reveals His character, it reveals His plan. And I think what His plan was for Israel writ small, is now for His kingdom, His New Covenant people writ large.
And so let’s look at Isaiah 54: God’s vision and promise for revival.
1 “Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. 2 “Enlarge the site of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your ropes, and drive your pegs deep. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities. 4 “Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; don’t be humiliated, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood. 5 Indeed, your husband is your Maker — his name is the Lord of Armies— and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of the whole earth. 6 For the Lord has called you, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” says your God. 7 “I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion. 8 In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love,” says the Lord your Redeemer. 9 “For this is like the days of Noah to me: when I swore that the water of Noah would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. 10 Though the mountains move and the hills shake, my love will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate Lord. 11 “Poor Jerusalem, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I will set your stones in black mortar, and lay your foundations in lapis lazuli. 12 I will make your fortifications out of rubies, your gates out of sparkling stones, and all your walls out of precious stones. 13 Then all your children will be taught by the Lord, their prosperity will be great, 14 and you will be established on a foundation of righteousness. You will be far from oppression, you will certainly not be afraid; you will be far from terror, it will certainly not come near you. 15 If anyone attacks you, it is not from me; whoever attacks you will fall before you. 16 Look, I have created the craftsman who blows on the charcoal fire and produces a weapon suitable for its task; and I have created the destroyer to cause havoc. 17 No weapon formed against you will succeed, and you will refute any accusation raised against you in court. This is the heritage of the Lord ‘s servants, and their vindication is from me.” This is the Lord ‘s declaration. (Isaiah 54:1-17, CSB)
And God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock, our Strength, and our Redeemer.
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)
And so He uses the image here of a deserted wife or a divorced wife. It’s a common image that God uses for Israel, and also in this case, a barren wife. And He says, “Rejoice, shout for joy, give praise, for those who have not been in labor. For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. “Enlarge the site of your tent. Let your curtains be stretched out. Do not hold back. Lengthen your ropes and drive your pegs deep.”
1 “Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. 2 “Enlarge the site of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your ropes, and drive your pegs deep. (Isaiah 54:1-2, CSB)
God’s kingdom is meant to advance. God’s kingdom is meant to advance. He said in Isaiah, earlier in Isaiah, He said, “Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.” And though you might feel barren in the sense of His kingdom advancing, though you might feel childless, and the church is not growing and this and that, know for sure that God promises to His New Covenant people that His kingdom will advance.
And listen, our vision is myopic. We might look at Washington and the Pacific Northwest and say, “Well, what’s the church doing? Is it growing? Is it expanding?” And in some places it is, but around the world it most certainly is. And think about it. Twelve disciples run away. Jesus dies nearly alone on the cross. Let’s see, John comes back and the women are there, but Jesus dies nearly alone on the cross. And this whole movement that He started, preaching and feeding to the 5,000, it seems like it’s all turned on Him. And they all say, “Crucify him.” And this hero, this one who is going to bring hope and restore Israel, is now brutally killed at the insistence of the Jewish leaders and at the hands of the Romans. And it seems like all is lost.
And yet today, on a planet with 8 billion people, approximately 2 billion, 1/4 of the planet claims the Name of Jesus. Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end.
As we talk tonight, the conversion rate for Christians around the world is outstripping the birth rate. Means every day that you’re on this earth, the percentage of people who follow Jesus is greater than it was the day before. Africa, as we speak, under great turmoil, under great persecution, because the devil always fights this. But under great turmoil, great persecution, Africa, as we speak, is becoming the Christian continent.
And Southeast Asia, under great persecution in places like India—you heard Troy and Marsha talk—in places like India and in China, under great persecution and great oppression, Christianity is rapidly growing. In Cambodia, it is rapidly growing. We support missionaries in Cambodia, and they are converting. We buy Bibles for the Sunrise Children in Cambodia. And that ministry keeps growing and growing, and more and more children… They’re converting Buddhist priests to Jesus.
And so we are meant to grow and advance. But it starts with what? Rejoice, burst into song, and shout. It flows from worship.
If you go to Matthew 28, the Great Commission, “Go into all the world, make disciples.” Oh, we’re to evangelize and make disciples. Yeah, but, you know, it says two verses earlier, the disciples met him on the mountain and did what? They worshiped Him. You see, you’re not going to make disciples of Jesus, you’re not going to evangelize Jesus if you don’t bow down before Him and acknowledge that He is Lord and king.
Nobody does this for their own benefit. Well, some people might do it for their own gain. But the idea is the kingdom of God is growing, and it’s growing through us, those who worship Jesus. It starts with worship, and then it happens through evangelism, church planting, and missions. It happens through—
And when you say the word “evangelism,” people think of awkward conversations or they think of mass evangelism. You know, Greg Laurie, or, you know, one of these guys, Charlie Kirk, who goes on campuses and debates with people, Frank Turek, other people like that. They think maybe of apologists or the late Billy Graham or the late Reinhard Bonnke. They think, you know, that’s evangelism. Nope.
I mean, it is, but far and away is not the most effective evangelism. Research has been done on this. Study after study has been done on this. The most effective evangelism is caring, loving Christians inviting their friends and family into a relationship with Jesus and inviting them to a local church. Number one way.
A new family came to church today in Bremerton. A family that moved to Eugene—the two women were best friends, and she was back up visiting them. And they’re saying, “You know, hey, we’re out of church. We can’t really find a church.” She said, “Go to the Firehouse Church. We love the Firehouse Church. We loved it. We had a great time there.” Simple as that.
You say, “Well, I’ve invited several people. They never came.” Well, invite several more. Invite several more. You know, Shohei Otani has pictures everywhere in Japan, right? He’s successful three out of 10 times he bats. Three out of 10 times. If you count a walk, maybe four out of 10 times. And he’s the best player in baseball. 60% failure rate. Just do it.
What do you got to lose? “Well, I might be rejected.” Oh, poor sweet baby. Sorry your feelings got hurt.
Wait, was that compassionate enough? What? Try again. Come on, you can try again. You can do it.
Just take them to church. If it’s morning, take them out to lunch afterwards. If it’s evening, take them to dinner beforehand or make an appointment with them during the middle of the week. But just love on people and just invite them. It’s the number one way you can do evangelism.
Well, what about, do I have to talk to him about Jesus? Yes. And guess what? You’re here because you have a story about you and Jesus. You have what’s called a testimony. That’s a religious word for it. It’s a story, and it’s a true story about how Jesus has impacted your life. And it’s the best means of evangelism.
People say, “Well, I don’t know the Bible well enough. What if they ask me questions?” And you know what I’m going to say to that? If you don’t, you know, most of you know the Bible plenty well. Go home and research it and find the answer and come back to them with answers.
You know, non-Christians respect “You know, I don’t know. Let me dig into that and we’ll talk next week.” What’d you just do? You just established another meeting to talk to them about Jesus.
Or like I always say, you bring them here, bring him to me and say, “Well, I don’t know, my pastor might know the answer to that. Let’s go ask him.”
“Oh, your pastor, is he intimidating?” Oh, terribly so. Yeah, he’s, he is like, he wears a suit. Yeah, he’s, he’s pretty scary.
But you can do this. You can do this. And you might not have success in what you deem as success, but most research indicates it takes seven touches. So you might not be the finishing touch. You’re just one of the touches.
I love watching football and you know, in the NFL, you know, wide receivers are the divas of the NFL, alright? They’re the ones with the big personalities, and they love—they catch a touchdown pass, and they dance in the end zone. And now they do choreograph. The whole team gets there, and they do a little dance, all that.
And I’m old school. It’s like, you know, come on, just act like you’ve been there before. But you know, it’s entertainment. I realize it’s entertainment, so let them have their fun, let them dance. But you know, that wide receiver, he catches that ball in the end zone, and there’s a big celebration.
But he never would have caught that ball had the quarterback not stood in the pocket, taken that hit from the rusher, and delivered that ball just on time and right on target to get him.
And the quarterback never would have been able to throw that ball had the linemen not mostly done their job and protected him from those people, 300-pound monsters who were trying to destroy him.
And you know what? The coaches looked at hours and hours of film, and they drew up that play for that situation because they recognized the tendency in that defense to react this way. They thought, you know, if we call this play on 3rd and 5 from the 20-yard line, based on their tendencies of hours and hours of film study, we have determined that that receiver is going to be open in the corner of the end zone.
And the general manager drafted that receiver out of college because he saw the potential in him as well as the quarterback.
In other words, what am I saying? And the owner, by the way, wrote all the checks, and you, the fan, paid for it with your tickets to the game, your subscription to YouTube TV, and your purchase of beer. Mostly your purchase of beer or other items that they sell.
So guess what that wide receiver dancing in the end zone, “Look what I did”? A lot of people were involved. I’ve led hundreds of people to Christ. I’ve prayed with them in my office, and inevitably—after I say the prayer and I’m dancing in the end zone, “Hey, Jesus, I led somebody to Christ. Ain’t I a good evangelist and pastor?”—inevitably, I’ll ask them, “Tell me about your, you know…” and they say, “Oh, I got this really cool friend and he’s a Christian man. And you know, I always give him a hard time, but you know, he’s like the real deal. And he, you know, and oh, my grandmother, oh my gosh, she took me to church when I was a kid and she was always praying for me.”
And I realized I’m like that wide receiver. The linemen were blocking, the quarterback threw a perfect pass, the coaches drew up a perfect play, the GM drafted the right people. In other words, I was one of many touches. And just because of my job, sometimes I get to be the diva. And I think, you know, I can do that role well. I can gloat, I can dance. I’m good.
So evangelism, church planting. New churches make new Christians. New churches make new Christians.
When I moved up to Washington, the Lord didn’t tell me to plant a church. He told me to plant churches. So we’ve, you know, Poulsbo, we’ve successfully done that. It’s plural. But I think there’s more. I think there’s more that are going to be planted, maybe during my lifetime, maybe not, but the roots, the seed that it’s going to be a church planting movement.
I’m a firm believer in that my way of doing Christianity is not the only way because there’s just a variety of personalities out there. There’s people who like smells and bells and candles. There’s people who like laid back. There’s people who like traditional music, there’s people who like contemporary music. There’s people who like, you know, lots of program and of entertaining things. There’s people who have no patience for that. And all of them are open doors. All of them are open doors.
When my wife and I first moved here, we had about six months before we started the church and we just visited a bunch of churches in Kitsap County. And a lot of times I’ll, you know, I’ll hear people and they’ll talk about, “Well, these other churches, we’re the only ones doing it right.” It’s kind of that attitude, right? “We are the, at least if we’re not the ones, we’re the tip of God’s arrow.” And it kind of just drives me a little bit nuts when I hear that. It just really does.
And my wife and I went to all these different churches and I recognize two things. These people are good-hearted people trying to serve Jesus well, and they’re on my team. And second, I got a little different twist on things, and so there is a niche for us. I didn’t know the niche would be 11 people. Thought it might be a little more. But there’s a niche. There’s something for us. You know, we’ve got a corner on the market.
And so, dear ones, church planting… and finally missions. As I said, when you give money here at the Firehouse Church, some of that money goes to the Dominican Republic, some of that money goes to Nepal, some of that money goes to Africa, some of that money goes to Cambodia. So that money is going all over the place. All over the place.
Like I said, in Cambodia, we’re buying Bibles for kids who give their lives to Christ. We did it in Africa. In Togo, Pastor Sonte—Dallas told this story years ago, but—he went into a village. He goes and evangelizes in villages. And it’s different in Africa. In America, the hotbed of Christianity is in the rural neighborhoods. In Africa, the hotbed of Christianity is in the cities. But the rural neighborhoods that are unreached tend to be still very animalistic, very pagan in their belief system.
And so he went into this little village, and there’s a chief there, and there’s a witch doctor, the whole bit, right? And the village has been having a drought. And so the witch doctor sought his advisors. And his spiritual advisor said, “We need a sacrifice.” And they chose a boy. And they were going to sacrifice this boy in three days. And Sonte comes into this town and he finds out what’s going on. He says, “Don’t do it. It’s terrible. Don’t do that.” And the chief said, “Well, you pray to your God, and if your God sends rain, we won’t do it.” And so Sonte said, “Okay.” And he began to pray. And three days later, the rain started. And it rained steady for a week. You know, it just rained. And the drought was broken.
And the chief comes back to him, and the witch doctor, they come back to him and say, “Hey, we think your God is stronger than the gods we’ve been following. Tell us more about your God.” And so he told the chief and the witch doctor about Jesus, and they both converted and got baptized. And the whole village converted and got baptized.
And so they speak French in that country. And so you bought them Bibles. You bought them French Bibles that came from you and other Grace Covenant churches. We supplied that village with Bibles.
And so it’s personal evangelism, it’s church planting, it’s world missions. But the gospel expands, and it expands through us. We’re the A team. There is no B team. God does not have another plan.
Now, this does not simply mean “butts in pews.” That’s what BIP is up there. Butts in pews. All right?
There is a tendency to put the cart before the horse or let the tail wag the dog, to use a couple of old metaphors. There is a tendency to think that if we can do something that’s entertaining enough, that’s clever enough, that’s sharp enough, that programs are slick enough—now, none of those things, by the way, are evil. But when their goal ultimately becomes church growth, not discipleship, they miss the mark. It’s very easy to slip into that. Very easy to say, “Well, you know, we must be doing the right thing, because we got a big crowd.” No, make disciples. Make disciples.
And I’m not being harsh on big churches. I have no judgment there. I have no idea. I don’t know what churches are doing well at this and what churches aren’t. But I know there have been some churches that have come around and said, “You know what? We really missed. We missed. We got off track. We did everything for BIP, and what we got was a lot of people coming to our building. But we didn’t get sold out disciples of Jesus Christ, or we got very few of them.”
So it’s not about BIP; it is about the advance of His kingdom. What does the advance of His kingdom mean? He’s king.
There’s a debate. I don’t know if you’ve heard there’s a debate about lordship. This Lordship, this discipleship, you know, can you be saved if you don’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord? He’s just my Savior, but not my Lord.
I’m on the lordship side of that. I don’t think it’s an authentic conversion to simply say a prayer, buy your, you know, get your eternal life insurance, and not acknowledge Jesus. I’m not saying you’re saved by works or you have to, you know, just live this perfect life after that. But the idea is to follow Him. You know, if you don’t like Him here on earth, you’re not going to like Him in heaven.
And so we want to make—Jesus told His disciples to go and make what? Disciples. Go and make disciples.
And Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And confessing with your mouth again isn’t just saying the magic words. Confessing with your mouth is an acknowledgment that He is my Lord.
And so you follow Jesus. And we try to, we seek to help other people follow Jesus.
Now, it’s hard. Life is hard. But don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid of intimacy with God because He’s your husband. Your maker is your husband. Church, God is intimately connected to us, intimately invested with us. He is our Redeemer. He has bought us back. The story of Hosea in the Bible, how the wife is a prostitute and Hosea will not let her go. He keeps buying her back. That’s God. He restores Israel. He sends a New Covenant. He keeps pursuing. He keeps looking for us. He keeps seeking us. He keeps finding us. He is our Redeemer. And therefore, nobody is on your side like God is on your side.
I often have to remind myself as a parent, as I get concerned for my children and my wife gets concerned for our children. I often have to remind myself, oh, there’s somebody much more powerful than me that loves them much more than I do. Isn’t that great news? You worry about your kids, right? Guess what? You would, you know, you think, what sacrifices would I make for my kids? And man, you would. You’re all good parents. You would. Well, God made a sacrifice for your kids, too. He sought them with a love and power that we do not possess. He sought us with a love and power that we do not possess.
Therefore, we can have faith in God’s unfailing love and faith that He has peace for us.
I seek, like all people, I seek a peaceful existence through circumstances.
My wife and I have this ongoing debate. You know, you marry opposites. My wife is a servant and a helper, which are great gifts. They’re great gifts. But as a servant and a helper, she just goes to the nth degree to make stuff special for people.
I, on the other hand, it’s not that I don’t love people. I, on the other hand, really value simplicity. I think with simplicity, it gives you much more time to just get to the nitty gritty and what’s important in people’s lives.
So, like, when it comes to buying presents, my wife will research and, you know, wrap it extravagantly and make it a big deal. And of course, I gotta admit, the grandkids love it.
You know what? Here you go, kid. Gift certificate. Go get what you want. Simple. And they would love that, too. Listen, I’ve given kids money before. They like that. Actually, sometimes they like it better than the well-thought-out present because the well-thought-out present may miss the mark. Maybe not what they wanted.
Anyway… just differences in how we love people.
All right, so we look for peace in circumstances. And sometimes, you know, we just go overboard trying to control our circumstances to get peace. But real peace does not come through circumstances. Real peace comes through simple faith in a good God. Peace is peace in the midst of circumstances.
One of the great authors of the 20th century was Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and he wrote a little novel about his experience in the Gulags. He uses a fictional character, Ivan Denisovich. And Ivan Denisovich is a doctor who’s imprisoned by the communists because he didn’t fall in line in some particular way, and he goes off to the most horrible place you can imagine, a Siberian prison camp.
In the Siberian prison camp, this atheist Dr. Ivan Denisovich, who represents Alexander Solzhenitsyn himself, discovers there’s a bunch of Baptists, Russian Baptists, in this prison. The Baptists had smuggled in small pieces of the Bible, torn-off pages. And he said at night, around candlelight, they would break out from under their pillows and hidden wherever they could hide them—they would break out these little fragments of the Bible, and they would read them and pray together in the candlelight at night, hoping that the guards wouldn’t break in and find them.
And then here’s why Solzhenitsyn, one of the reasons Solzhenitsyn became a Christian and later came to America and was an apologist, both an avid anti-communist speaker and an apologist for the Christian faith.
And I’ll never forget this. I read it in high school. All right, so 50 years ago I read this, and I just remember this quote from the book. He said the troubles of prison life were like water on a duck’s back to the Baptists. That’s peace. The worst place you can be on a planet. And yet every other prisoner is looking at the Baptists going, “Why are those crazy people…? They’re supposed to be miserable.”
That doesn’t mean that prison wasn’t hard and horrible, but it means that they had a peace that Paul says in Philippians surpasses human understanding. You know what we’re supposed to be anxious for? No thing, nothing. But by prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God, and the peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
God is our Maker, God is our Redeemer. Paul says, if God is for us, who can be against us? Who can be against us?
I wish with all my heart, I wish you would walk in here on Sundays, and I would be able to tell you, because you read your Bible, because you say your prayers, because you come to church, because you’ve given your life to Jesus, because you’re a disciple and you’re trying to follow Jesus—I just want to tell you that your life is going to be hunky dory. But there’s neither hunk nor door. There’s trouble.
And the Bible doesn’t shy away from that. Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart. Why? I’m bigger. I’m bigger. And you win. I won. I rose from the dead. I’m taking you with me. And I will be with you in the troubles of this world until I bring you to that land where, in fact, the circumstances are no trouble anymore. There’s no trouble in the circumstances.
For a little while, we share in his sufferings so that in eternity He may show us His incomparable kindness and glory.
So when you come here, I don’t tell you that life will be hunky dory. I do tell you, hang in there. You’re playing a game you cannot lose. Yeah. Just don’t quit. No weapon formed against you will prosper. Right? Paul says that neither death nor life… Doctor says you’ve got blah, blah, blah.
Oh, got another one, by the way. Brad, who goes to church in Bremerton, a chiropractor from Silverdale, was talking about a woman that he knows through his practice—this couple he knows through his practice—and this woman had stage four breast cancer that had metastasized into her bones. Stage four cancer that’s breast and bones. Sounds like a death sentence, right?
So just recently, you know, they go to a little Baptist church. Not a Charismatic church, not a church that’s big into healing, but, you know, the people were praying, and they go to this little Bible church. And just recently, she went and had a PET scan, and no cancer in her body. No cancer in her body. So that’s two in two years. Two stage four, gonna die of cancer. No cancer in her body.
No weapon formed against you will prosper. God will give you protection in life and in death. God will rebuild what has been torn down. The human race was torn down in the Garden of Eden. The human race was torn down by human rebellion. And the human race is going to hell in a handbasket. We were cruel. We were barbaric. We were wicked. We still are. But you know what? Less so. Less so.
Isaiah and I were reading a book about revival, Firefall, last year. And in that book, what struck us both was how mean Christians were to other Christians who weren’t of their stripe. You know, how much the Catholics killed the Reformers, and then the Reformers killed the Anabaptists. And the only ones who didn’t kill anybody were the Anabaptists. They were on the bottom of the food chain. They didn’t burn anybody at the stake or drown anybody.
And so it was horrible. And then you look at the church divisions today that I already talked about, you know, my way, you know, very exclusive, my version of Christianity is the best. And all you other guys…
But you know what? We have debates with people about those issues. We don’t kill each other. Calvinists aren’t killing Arminians anymore. Catholics aren’t killing Protestants anymore. It’s just not happening.
And so what does that mean? I think it means that God’s kingdom is still advancing. People say, “Well, you know, the good old days…” No, come on, you just forgot. “Oh, the Roman Empire was glorious.” Forty percent of the Roman Empire were slaves. And now slavery, though practiced in the world still—every time I bring this up, people say, “Well, people are still slaves.” Yes, but 2,000 years ago, the number of people who objected to slavery, you could probably count on one hand. Everybody just thought it was a normal part of life. Yes, some people are lucky, aren’t slaves. Other people are unlucky. They’re slaves.
Now, that’s completely reversed. The percentage of the world population that believes slavery is okay is the minority by a long shot, and the percentage that condemn it, at least publicly, is a majority. Why? Because of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
God will rebuild what has been torn down. He will rebuild what has been torn down. Tyranny will not rule over us. Only God will rule over us. That doesn’t mean there won’t be tyrants, but they won’t be our king.
We live in a democratic republic where we vote for representatives. And those representatives, in our best interest, shut down the government and don’t pay people while they still get paid because they’re public servants on our side. And forgive the cynicism.
But there are good ones. There’s some good ones. I’m not, I won’t even get into that.
But the reason we live in a democratic republic, and the genius of it, isn’t because we’re all so good, we all deserve a voice in our government. It’s because we’re all so bad that we have to break it up in as many tiny pieces as possible so there’s no accumulation of power in a king. Because history has told us that most kings who have an accumulation of power aren’t good. But my dad always taught me growing up, he said, “Well, our government is the best that humans can do.” But he said, “The real best form of government is a benevolent dictator, a benevolent sovereign.” It’s much more efficient, right? You have a good guy, you know, he’s not going to shut down the government. You say, “Oh, this is what’s best for the people. I have all wisdom, I have all power. I can do what’s best. And I love these people and I care for these people.” And you don’t have to go through, you know, have to go through courts, we don’t have to go through votes.
Just like the problem is you can’t find a benevolent sovereign, except one. Isaiah 54. He is compassionate. He is a good God.
And so no matter what a government says over your life, you always have this freedom because you are a citizen of heaven. They may take your life, they may put you in jail. So? They can’t take your soul, they can’t touch it. It’s untouchable.
No weapon formed against you will prevail. No king will rule over you, except King Jesus. Terror will not overcome you.
There are things worthy of terror. There are things you know, there are things that are terrifying. I had child terrors. I had nightmares continually from three years old to 11 years old. And a lot of kids are afflicted with that, you know, where sleep is not a good thing.
And my night terror started when at three years old I watched “The Wizard of Oz.” And a lot of people got freaked out by the monkeys. Not me, that witch. And that witch started visiting me in my dreams. For eight years that witch visited me in my dreams, and I would have witch nightmares, and I’d wake up terrified from the witch nightmare.
And my room was at the end of the hall, and my parents’ room was at the other end of the hall, and I realized I did not want to be in my bed alone because that witch was going to come get me. So I had to make it to my parents’ room, but I didn’t know where she was hiding. She could be under my bed, so when I leave my bed, I got to take a good leap out because I don’t want her to grab me. More than likely she’s behind one of those doors between my parents’ room and my room, so I got to go by them really fast so she doesn’t come out and get me.
You might say, “Well, by the time you’re 10 or 11, you should have enough rational thoughts to know that that’s not true.” I had plenty of rational thoughts that said that wasn’t true. But that witch was there just waiting for me.
And so I would leap out of my bed, so just in case she was under the bed, she wouldn’t get me. Then I would race down the hall, flying past all those doors. My parents had been married long enough that they no longer spooned, so they’re always in their big king-size bed. There was always a gap between them.
I’d get to the end of that bed running full speed, and I’d take an Olympic jump. And I would land right between them. Boom. My dear mother knew that I’d had another nightmare, and she would comfort me. And my dear father, I assumed he was praying because almost every time I did it, I did hear the Lord’s name. So I assume my dad was praying for me.
And talk about prophetic, talk about the goodness of God. This is such a biblical dream. I was delivered from terror. I was delivered from those nightmares. One night I had a dream and the witch was chasing me and I don’t know why, it was a bank. I just remember to this day it was a bank that was on fire over to my left. And then my father, my father appears in the dream, and he grabs the witch and he throws her in the fire. It wasn’t a lake of fire, but I took it.
Now that I’m like, oh, oh, my father. No weapon formed against me, no terror will overcome me. And from that moment on till 66 years old, 55 years, that witch…
A few times after that, as a boy, she reappeared in my dreams. There was no terror. It’s like, “Nah, my dad threw you in the fire.” In the dream, there was a certainty. It’s like, you know, initial shot—there, she… oh, that’s a memory. My dad threw you in the fire. That’s a deliverance. God will deliver you from terror.
We were talking today with Jamie and Stevin about martyrs who die these horrible deaths. And you wonder how Christians were able to sing being devoured by the lions. I think I know. Grace. I think it’s God gives people grace to die. Even terrible deaths. God gives people unimaginable courage.
And no matter how you leave this world, I believe God will give you grace to die. You know, we all have our list, right? And at the top of the list is “Comfortably in my sleep, Lord,” you know, comfortably in my sleep. And that happens, rarely. It happens. But whatever happens, there will not be terror.
I’ve listened to hospice nurses talk about their experiences of the dying. And they have some horrifying experiences of angry, mean, you know, self-pitying, unbelieving people who are railing against the universe. And they talk about, you know, these horrible, agonizing deaths these people experienced. And they see terror sometimes in their faces.
Then they talk about people who have faith, who believe. And inevitably they say, before they left, the room was filled with peace.
And I just think there’s grace to face any terror that comes your way. Attacks will come, but God will vindicate. God will vindicate you. And a lot of our problem comes when we try to vindicate ourselves because doggone it, they were wrong, and I want to be, I’m going to be right. And the only thing, like, you know, men vindicate themselves usually by a fist fight, right? All right, let’s take this outside.
Well, you know what? That ain’t my game. I can’t pick a fight. I would just lose, you know, all the time. Ah, but if we made a rule, who can argue and insult the best? I think I’d be in the top 10%, maybe top 3%. I like to argue.
And man, you might not hear it—sometimes you might hear it. Hope you don’t hear it too much. Sometimes there is a really snarky, sarcastic, cutting edge that used to come out of my mouth a lot. And I gotta confess to you, it still comes up the screen. Still comes up on the screen a lot. And it’s like, I mean, I said one today about your… and it was a good line, wasn’t it? They’re there all the time. But every time, you know, I hear the Holy Spirit say, “No, no.”
And I’m the same as you. I have those debates with people that I’m in a fight with or in a disagreement with when I’m in the shower or in my car. And I am undefeated in those inner debates in my head, arguing with that person. I always put them in their place. They always admit to me, “You’re right, Kevin, I was wrong.” I don’t know why that doesn’t work on social media with my clever arguments. It just doesn’t. They never come back and say that. I don’t understand why, when I’m obviously right and they’re obviously wrong. And I usually present it in such a humble, self-effacing way, and there’s no hint of passive-aggressive pride in there or anything like that.
You recognize when I’m being facetious, right? Okay. Just want to make sure.
And the Lord has just been teaching me for years now, “Don’t say everything that comes up on the screen. And Kevin, just keep your mouth shut, and I will vindicate you. I will vindicate. I’ll take care of it.”
And you know what? When He takes care of it, I don’t burn bridges. I don’t make lifetime enemies. I’m not mean and hurtful. I don’t speak out of ignorance. There’s a lot of times I think, exactly, I know what that person’s thinking and why they’re doing what they’re doing. And oftentimes later I found out, oh my gosh, I was completely wrong.
Yeah, just relax and let God vindicate you. 1 Peter 5:7. Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.
God has a vision for revival. He has a vision to expand His kingdom, and He invites us into that vision. He does it through us. He does it in us. The church is His plan, and there is no other plan. We’re it, Tag, you’re it. Everything flows from us worshiping Jesus and acknowledging Him as king in our lives.
And when we do that, there is opposition. But if God is for us, who can be against us? And of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end.
And here is my prayer. And you’ve heard me say this before. I know. I pay attention. I’m a world Christian. I’m not just a Pacific Northwest Christian. I know what God’s doing in the world, and it thrills me. But this is my home. And so my prayer on a regular basis is that old spiritual. It has to do with personal salvation, but I apply it to revival. I say, “God, while on others thou art calling, do not pass us by.”
And years ago, the Lord spoke to me as I was sitting in a November rainstorm early on in my stay in Washington, like my second or third year. And I’m thinking, does this happen every year? And yes, it does. It starts raining in November. It doesn’t stop for a long time.
I said, “Lord, I’m praying for a revival in this wet, soggy place. And people don’t, people are depressed, and they don’t go to church. And, you know?” And the Lord spoke. He said, “Kevin, do you believe wet wood can burn?”
And I said, “Yes, Lord, if you light the fire. If you light the fire.” And so I still pray. Sometimes I get discouraged, but I still pray, “Lord, let the United States have such a deep move of your Spirit that you will rebuild what has been torn down in our culture. It will so impact your church that it will actually transform our culture.”
That’s a big revival. A lot of revivals transform churches. A lot of revivals get churches out into evangelism. But when revival hits big enough, it transforms. The Jesus movement, transformed a segment of our culture. But when a revival hits, it can transform culture.
The First and Second Great Awakening transformed culture, and I pray for a revival so deep that it will transform culture. I pray it’ll happen in America. But then I get more specific. I say, Lord, let it happen in Washington. Let it happen in Kitsap County, the sixth or eighth, according to stuff I’ve heard—I don’t know if it’s factual, but it’s not the most churched county in America—I’ve heard it’s the sixth to eighth most unchurched county in America. I used to hear that 10 years ago. I don’t know if those numbers are the same. I don’t even know if that’s true. I do know Washington is one of the 10 most unchurched states in America.
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass us by. And Lord, ignite this wet wood. Ignite it. Not literally, Lord. We don’t need forest fires. But, Lord, we need revival fires. And God, you come and vindicate our message. The world thinks we’re fools. The world calls us names. They completely try to turn the tables, 180 degrees around, that we’re the haters and we’re the bigots. And Lord, we just want to argue back. And there’s a time for that. There’s a time to speak the truth. And there are people who do that really articulately.
But in the meantime, we have a neighbor, a family member, somebody we work with who needs Jesus. And they’re not interested in any of those cultural arguments. They just want to know if their friend loves them. And when you do, they want to know where that came from.
And of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. That’s the New Covenant. It was in His blood that it was established.
So on the night He was betrayed, He took bread and broke it, gave it to His disciples and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.” In the same way, after supper, He took the cup, poured it out, gave it to His disciples and said, “This is my blood which is shed for you.”
It’s shed for the forgiveness of sins. That’s the entry into the New Covenant. That’s the starting point. It’s not the ending point. Your sins are forgiven. That’s great news. Now we’re free to follow Jesus forever.
And so tonight, come once again and feed your soul on Jesus. He is our life, He is our peace. He is our Lord. He is our Redeemer. He is our husband, and He is the victor. So you’re on the winning team. How about that? You’re on the winning team. Lift up your heads. You’re on the winning team. Smile. Lift up your heads. You’re on the winning team. You’re on the winning team, all right? You’re not a—let’s see if I do it right, because this way is this way, right? You’re not a “L.” You’re a winner. Yeah. All right.
The post 2025.11.09 TFHC – God’s Promise and Vision of Revival | Isaiah 54 appeared first on The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA.
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By The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WANovember 9, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
You’ve shown me the path of life. In your presence is the fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Thank you Jesus. Your name is worthy. For a great salvation, we are so very grateful tonight. In the midst of the struggles, the trials that we face in this world, Lord, still we are overwhelmingly grateful for the love that sought us and found us.
In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen. Amen.
My father-in-law was one of those guys, his generation, very quiet about his religion and all that. Started hanging out more and more with us. As he got older, he got a little more boisterous, and he would give out—every once in a while he’d just give out this kind of loud, “Amen!”
Toward the end of his life, he had dementia, and he was in the hospital. What’s that disease, infection. They did septic, but no, it wasn’t sepsis. But anyway, you know, it’s what killed him.
And he was in the hospital, and it was during COVID. I had to put on this white hazmat-like suit to go visit him. I’m in there, and he’s non-responsive. I get down by his ear and say the Lord’s Prayer, you know, “Our Father who art in heaven…” I get done. All of a sudden, I hear this, “Amen.” I think this is the last, that’s the last word I ever heard him speak. Amen. Amen.
So we’ve been going through Isaiah. Starting in Isaiah 40, the book turns.
Just a note about the prophets of the Old Testament. Here’s what the prophets are. If you’ve read the prophets in the Old Testament, it can be kind of discouraging because they keep bringing bad news to Israel. And then at the end of most of the prophets, there’s this hint of hope. There’s this kind of messianic hope that shows up, nowhere more so than in the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah has like 26 chapters that kind of turn and focus on the hope.
And those chapters are a lot about the restoration of Israel from Babylon back to their homeland and the building of the second Temple. But then it also has application for us today because it reveals the nature of God and His desire to bring a Messiah who will bring hope and restoration to a fallen world.
And the prophets, like I said, there are a lot of bad news and here’s the reason why. They are actually what I would call covenant lawyers. The prophets are covenant lawyers. What does that mean? God establishes a covenant with Israel. You can read all about it at the ending chapters of Deuteronomy. All right? Moses goes over Deuteronomy, the second law. Moses goes over the whole covenant that God has established with Israel.
And basically, you know, the covenant breaks down this way: if you follow this covenant, things will go so well for you, you won’t be able to believe it. You’ll live in the land that I give you. Your crops will be blessed, your children will be blessed. All the nations will leave you alone. They’ll fear you. You’ll be the, you know, you’ll be a light on a hill.
And then He says, but if you don’t follow this covenant, and then the—that list is pretty discouraging. You know, your crops are going to fail, your enemies are going to pursue you, blah, blah. And it just. And, you know, and ultimately I will take you out of this land and put you into exile.
And so one of the reasons the prophets are so grim is they are—you know, it’s not like this is out of the blue, like God said, “Well, you haven’t been good, so I’m going to punish you.” He’s actually just, through the prophets, reiterating—they’re the prosecuting attorneys—this is the case God has against you.
And so that’s what the prophets are in the Old Testament. They are God’s prosecuting attorneys that talk about Israel’s violation of the covenant. And God is just keeping His word. He’s saying, “Remember I told this to you, you know, and y’all said, when Joshua read it, y’all said, you know, Joshua said, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ And y’all said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what we’ll do.’ Every time the covenant got ready. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what you do.’ Of course, within a generation, you stop doing it.”
And so that’s why the prophets are so, so kind of dim and difficult.
But there’s always this word of hope. And like I said, nowhere more than in the prophet Isaiah does He offer hope for Israel returning from exile and for Him establishing a New Covenant with His people. And that He is a God of compassion, He is a God that has a good plan, and He will accomplish it.
And so I think the covenant, the second half of Isaiah, has application for us. Not only does it teach us about God’s interaction with Israel, but whenever it teaches us about God’s interaction with Israel, it reveals His character, it reveals His plan. And I think what His plan was for Israel writ small, is now for His kingdom, His New Covenant people writ large.
And so let’s look at Isaiah 54: God’s vision and promise for revival.
1 “Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. 2 “Enlarge the site of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your ropes, and drive your pegs deep. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities. 4 “Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; don’t be humiliated, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood. 5 Indeed, your husband is your Maker — his name is the Lord of Armies— and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of the whole earth. 6 For the Lord has called you, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” says your God. 7 “I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion. 8 In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love,” says the Lord your Redeemer. 9 “For this is like the days of Noah to me: when I swore that the water of Noah would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. 10 Though the mountains move and the hills shake, my love will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate Lord. 11 “Poor Jerusalem, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I will set your stones in black mortar, and lay your foundations in lapis lazuli. 12 I will make your fortifications out of rubies, your gates out of sparkling stones, and all your walls out of precious stones. 13 Then all your children will be taught by the Lord, their prosperity will be great, 14 and you will be established on a foundation of righteousness. You will be far from oppression, you will certainly not be afraid; you will be far from terror, it will certainly not come near you. 15 If anyone attacks you, it is not from me; whoever attacks you will fall before you. 16 Look, I have created the craftsman who blows on the charcoal fire and produces a weapon suitable for its task; and I have created the destroyer to cause havoc. 17 No weapon formed against you will succeed, and you will refute any accusation raised against you in court. This is the heritage of the Lord ‘s servants, and their vindication is from me.” This is the Lord ‘s declaration. (Isaiah 54:1-17, CSB)
And God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock, our Strength, and our Redeemer.
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)
And so He uses the image here of a deserted wife or a divorced wife. It’s a common image that God uses for Israel, and also in this case, a barren wife. And He says, “Rejoice, shout for joy, give praise, for those who have not been in labor. For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. “Enlarge the site of your tent. Let your curtains be stretched out. Do not hold back. Lengthen your ropes and drive your pegs deep.”
1 “Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. 2 “Enlarge the site of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your ropes, and drive your pegs deep. (Isaiah 54:1-2, CSB)
God’s kingdom is meant to advance. God’s kingdom is meant to advance. He said in Isaiah, earlier in Isaiah, He said, “Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.” And though you might feel barren in the sense of His kingdom advancing, though you might feel childless, and the church is not growing and this and that, know for sure that God promises to His New Covenant people that His kingdom will advance.
And listen, our vision is myopic. We might look at Washington and the Pacific Northwest and say, “Well, what’s the church doing? Is it growing? Is it expanding?” And in some places it is, but around the world it most certainly is. And think about it. Twelve disciples run away. Jesus dies nearly alone on the cross. Let’s see, John comes back and the women are there, but Jesus dies nearly alone on the cross. And this whole movement that He started, preaching and feeding to the 5,000, it seems like it’s all turned on Him. And they all say, “Crucify him.” And this hero, this one who is going to bring hope and restore Israel, is now brutally killed at the insistence of the Jewish leaders and at the hands of the Romans. And it seems like all is lost.
And yet today, on a planet with 8 billion people, approximately 2 billion, 1/4 of the planet claims the Name of Jesus. Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end.
As we talk tonight, the conversion rate for Christians around the world is outstripping the birth rate. Means every day that you’re on this earth, the percentage of people who follow Jesus is greater than it was the day before. Africa, as we speak, under great turmoil, under great persecution, because the devil always fights this. But under great turmoil, great persecution, Africa, as we speak, is becoming the Christian continent.
And Southeast Asia, under great persecution in places like India—you heard Troy and Marsha talk—in places like India and in China, under great persecution and great oppression, Christianity is rapidly growing. In Cambodia, it is rapidly growing. We support missionaries in Cambodia, and they are converting. We buy Bibles for the Sunrise Children in Cambodia. And that ministry keeps growing and growing, and more and more children… They’re converting Buddhist priests to Jesus.
And so we are meant to grow and advance. But it starts with what? Rejoice, burst into song, and shout. It flows from worship.
If you go to Matthew 28, the Great Commission, “Go into all the world, make disciples.” Oh, we’re to evangelize and make disciples. Yeah, but, you know, it says two verses earlier, the disciples met him on the mountain and did what? They worshiped Him. You see, you’re not going to make disciples of Jesus, you’re not going to evangelize Jesus if you don’t bow down before Him and acknowledge that He is Lord and king.
Nobody does this for their own benefit. Well, some people might do it for their own gain. But the idea is the kingdom of God is growing, and it’s growing through us, those who worship Jesus. It starts with worship, and then it happens through evangelism, church planting, and missions. It happens through—
And when you say the word “evangelism,” people think of awkward conversations or they think of mass evangelism. You know, Greg Laurie, or, you know, one of these guys, Charlie Kirk, who goes on campuses and debates with people, Frank Turek, other people like that. They think maybe of apologists or the late Billy Graham or the late Reinhard Bonnke. They think, you know, that’s evangelism. Nope.
I mean, it is, but far and away is not the most effective evangelism. Research has been done on this. Study after study has been done on this. The most effective evangelism is caring, loving Christians inviting their friends and family into a relationship with Jesus and inviting them to a local church. Number one way.
A new family came to church today in Bremerton. A family that moved to Eugene—the two women were best friends, and she was back up visiting them. And they’re saying, “You know, hey, we’re out of church. We can’t really find a church.” She said, “Go to the Firehouse Church. We love the Firehouse Church. We loved it. We had a great time there.” Simple as that.
You say, “Well, I’ve invited several people. They never came.” Well, invite several more. Invite several more. You know, Shohei Otani has pictures everywhere in Japan, right? He’s successful three out of 10 times he bats. Three out of 10 times. If you count a walk, maybe four out of 10 times. And he’s the best player in baseball. 60% failure rate. Just do it.
What do you got to lose? “Well, I might be rejected.” Oh, poor sweet baby. Sorry your feelings got hurt.
Wait, was that compassionate enough? What? Try again. Come on, you can try again. You can do it.
Just take them to church. If it’s morning, take them out to lunch afterwards. If it’s evening, take them to dinner beforehand or make an appointment with them during the middle of the week. But just love on people and just invite them. It’s the number one way you can do evangelism.
Well, what about, do I have to talk to him about Jesus? Yes. And guess what? You’re here because you have a story about you and Jesus. You have what’s called a testimony. That’s a religious word for it. It’s a story, and it’s a true story about how Jesus has impacted your life. And it’s the best means of evangelism.
People say, “Well, I don’t know the Bible well enough. What if they ask me questions?” And you know what I’m going to say to that? If you don’t, you know, most of you know the Bible plenty well. Go home and research it and find the answer and come back to them with answers.
You know, non-Christians respect “You know, I don’t know. Let me dig into that and we’ll talk next week.” What’d you just do? You just established another meeting to talk to them about Jesus.
Or like I always say, you bring them here, bring him to me and say, “Well, I don’t know, my pastor might know the answer to that. Let’s go ask him.”
“Oh, your pastor, is he intimidating?” Oh, terribly so. Yeah, he’s, he is like, he wears a suit. Yeah, he’s, he’s pretty scary.
But you can do this. You can do this. And you might not have success in what you deem as success, but most research indicates it takes seven touches. So you might not be the finishing touch. You’re just one of the touches.
I love watching football and you know, in the NFL, you know, wide receivers are the divas of the NFL, alright? They’re the ones with the big personalities, and they love—they catch a touchdown pass, and they dance in the end zone. And now they do choreograph. The whole team gets there, and they do a little dance, all that.
And I’m old school. It’s like, you know, come on, just act like you’ve been there before. But you know, it’s entertainment. I realize it’s entertainment, so let them have their fun, let them dance. But you know, that wide receiver, he catches that ball in the end zone, and there’s a big celebration.
But he never would have caught that ball had the quarterback not stood in the pocket, taken that hit from the rusher, and delivered that ball just on time and right on target to get him.
And the quarterback never would have been able to throw that ball had the linemen not mostly done their job and protected him from those people, 300-pound monsters who were trying to destroy him.
And you know what? The coaches looked at hours and hours of film, and they drew up that play for that situation because they recognized the tendency in that defense to react this way. They thought, you know, if we call this play on 3rd and 5 from the 20-yard line, based on their tendencies of hours and hours of film study, we have determined that that receiver is going to be open in the corner of the end zone.
And the general manager drafted that receiver out of college because he saw the potential in him as well as the quarterback.
In other words, what am I saying? And the owner, by the way, wrote all the checks, and you, the fan, paid for it with your tickets to the game, your subscription to YouTube TV, and your purchase of beer. Mostly your purchase of beer or other items that they sell.
So guess what that wide receiver dancing in the end zone, “Look what I did”? A lot of people were involved. I’ve led hundreds of people to Christ. I’ve prayed with them in my office, and inevitably—after I say the prayer and I’m dancing in the end zone, “Hey, Jesus, I led somebody to Christ. Ain’t I a good evangelist and pastor?”—inevitably, I’ll ask them, “Tell me about your, you know…” and they say, “Oh, I got this really cool friend and he’s a Christian man. And you know, I always give him a hard time, but you know, he’s like the real deal. And he, you know, and oh, my grandmother, oh my gosh, she took me to church when I was a kid and she was always praying for me.”
And I realized I’m like that wide receiver. The linemen were blocking, the quarterback threw a perfect pass, the coaches drew up a perfect play, the GM drafted the right people. In other words, I was one of many touches. And just because of my job, sometimes I get to be the diva. And I think, you know, I can do that role well. I can gloat, I can dance. I’m good.
So evangelism, church planting. New churches make new Christians. New churches make new Christians.
When I moved up to Washington, the Lord didn’t tell me to plant a church. He told me to plant churches. So we’ve, you know, Poulsbo, we’ve successfully done that. It’s plural. But I think there’s more. I think there’s more that are going to be planted, maybe during my lifetime, maybe not, but the roots, the seed that it’s going to be a church planting movement.
I’m a firm believer in that my way of doing Christianity is not the only way because there’s just a variety of personalities out there. There’s people who like smells and bells and candles. There’s people who like laid back. There’s people who like traditional music, there’s people who like contemporary music. There’s people who like, you know, lots of program and of entertaining things. There’s people who have no patience for that. And all of them are open doors. All of them are open doors.
When my wife and I first moved here, we had about six months before we started the church and we just visited a bunch of churches in Kitsap County. And a lot of times I’ll, you know, I’ll hear people and they’ll talk about, “Well, these other churches, we’re the only ones doing it right.” It’s kind of that attitude, right? “We are the, at least if we’re not the ones, we’re the tip of God’s arrow.” And it kind of just drives me a little bit nuts when I hear that. It just really does.
And my wife and I went to all these different churches and I recognize two things. These people are good-hearted people trying to serve Jesus well, and they’re on my team. And second, I got a little different twist on things, and so there is a niche for us. I didn’t know the niche would be 11 people. Thought it might be a little more. But there’s a niche. There’s something for us. You know, we’ve got a corner on the market.
And so, dear ones, church planting… and finally missions. As I said, when you give money here at the Firehouse Church, some of that money goes to the Dominican Republic, some of that money goes to Nepal, some of that money goes to Africa, some of that money goes to Cambodia. So that money is going all over the place. All over the place.
Like I said, in Cambodia, we’re buying Bibles for kids who give their lives to Christ. We did it in Africa. In Togo, Pastor Sonte—Dallas told this story years ago, but—he went into a village. He goes and evangelizes in villages. And it’s different in Africa. In America, the hotbed of Christianity is in the rural neighborhoods. In Africa, the hotbed of Christianity is in the cities. But the rural neighborhoods that are unreached tend to be still very animalistic, very pagan in their belief system.
And so he went into this little village, and there’s a chief there, and there’s a witch doctor, the whole bit, right? And the village has been having a drought. And so the witch doctor sought his advisors. And his spiritual advisor said, “We need a sacrifice.” And they chose a boy. And they were going to sacrifice this boy in three days. And Sonte comes into this town and he finds out what’s going on. He says, “Don’t do it. It’s terrible. Don’t do that.” And the chief said, “Well, you pray to your God, and if your God sends rain, we won’t do it.” And so Sonte said, “Okay.” And he began to pray. And three days later, the rain started. And it rained steady for a week. You know, it just rained. And the drought was broken.
And the chief comes back to him, and the witch doctor, they come back to him and say, “Hey, we think your God is stronger than the gods we’ve been following. Tell us more about your God.” And so he told the chief and the witch doctor about Jesus, and they both converted and got baptized. And the whole village converted and got baptized.
And so they speak French in that country. And so you bought them Bibles. You bought them French Bibles that came from you and other Grace Covenant churches. We supplied that village with Bibles.
And so it’s personal evangelism, it’s church planting, it’s world missions. But the gospel expands, and it expands through us. We’re the A team. There is no B team. God does not have another plan.
Now, this does not simply mean “butts in pews.” That’s what BIP is up there. Butts in pews. All right?
There is a tendency to put the cart before the horse or let the tail wag the dog, to use a couple of old metaphors. There is a tendency to think that if we can do something that’s entertaining enough, that’s clever enough, that’s sharp enough, that programs are slick enough—now, none of those things, by the way, are evil. But when their goal ultimately becomes church growth, not discipleship, they miss the mark. It’s very easy to slip into that. Very easy to say, “Well, you know, we must be doing the right thing, because we got a big crowd.” No, make disciples. Make disciples.
And I’m not being harsh on big churches. I have no judgment there. I have no idea. I don’t know what churches are doing well at this and what churches aren’t. But I know there have been some churches that have come around and said, “You know what? We really missed. We missed. We got off track. We did everything for BIP, and what we got was a lot of people coming to our building. But we didn’t get sold out disciples of Jesus Christ, or we got very few of them.”
So it’s not about BIP; it is about the advance of His kingdom. What does the advance of His kingdom mean? He’s king.
There’s a debate. I don’t know if you’ve heard there’s a debate about lordship. This Lordship, this discipleship, you know, can you be saved if you don’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord? He’s just my Savior, but not my Lord.
I’m on the lordship side of that. I don’t think it’s an authentic conversion to simply say a prayer, buy your, you know, get your eternal life insurance, and not acknowledge Jesus. I’m not saying you’re saved by works or you have to, you know, just live this perfect life after that. But the idea is to follow Him. You know, if you don’t like Him here on earth, you’re not going to like Him in heaven.
And so we want to make—Jesus told His disciples to go and make what? Disciples. Go and make disciples.
And Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And confessing with your mouth again isn’t just saying the magic words. Confessing with your mouth is an acknowledgment that He is my Lord.
And so you follow Jesus. And we try to, we seek to help other people follow Jesus.
Now, it’s hard. Life is hard. But don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid of intimacy with God because He’s your husband. Your maker is your husband. Church, God is intimately connected to us, intimately invested with us. He is our Redeemer. He has bought us back. The story of Hosea in the Bible, how the wife is a prostitute and Hosea will not let her go. He keeps buying her back. That’s God. He restores Israel. He sends a New Covenant. He keeps pursuing. He keeps looking for us. He keeps seeking us. He keeps finding us. He is our Redeemer. And therefore, nobody is on your side like God is on your side.
I often have to remind myself as a parent, as I get concerned for my children and my wife gets concerned for our children. I often have to remind myself, oh, there’s somebody much more powerful than me that loves them much more than I do. Isn’t that great news? You worry about your kids, right? Guess what? You would, you know, you think, what sacrifices would I make for my kids? And man, you would. You’re all good parents. You would. Well, God made a sacrifice for your kids, too. He sought them with a love and power that we do not possess. He sought us with a love and power that we do not possess.
Therefore, we can have faith in God’s unfailing love and faith that He has peace for us.
I seek, like all people, I seek a peaceful existence through circumstances.
My wife and I have this ongoing debate. You know, you marry opposites. My wife is a servant and a helper, which are great gifts. They’re great gifts. But as a servant and a helper, she just goes to the nth degree to make stuff special for people.
I, on the other hand, it’s not that I don’t love people. I, on the other hand, really value simplicity. I think with simplicity, it gives you much more time to just get to the nitty gritty and what’s important in people’s lives.
So, like, when it comes to buying presents, my wife will research and, you know, wrap it extravagantly and make it a big deal. And of course, I gotta admit, the grandkids love it.
You know what? Here you go, kid. Gift certificate. Go get what you want. Simple. And they would love that, too. Listen, I’ve given kids money before. They like that. Actually, sometimes they like it better than the well-thought-out present because the well-thought-out present may miss the mark. Maybe not what they wanted.
Anyway… just differences in how we love people.
All right, so we look for peace in circumstances. And sometimes, you know, we just go overboard trying to control our circumstances to get peace. But real peace does not come through circumstances. Real peace comes through simple faith in a good God. Peace is peace in the midst of circumstances.
One of the great authors of the 20th century was Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and he wrote a little novel about his experience in the Gulags. He uses a fictional character, Ivan Denisovich. And Ivan Denisovich is a doctor who’s imprisoned by the communists because he didn’t fall in line in some particular way, and he goes off to the most horrible place you can imagine, a Siberian prison camp.
In the Siberian prison camp, this atheist Dr. Ivan Denisovich, who represents Alexander Solzhenitsyn himself, discovers there’s a bunch of Baptists, Russian Baptists, in this prison. The Baptists had smuggled in small pieces of the Bible, torn-off pages. And he said at night, around candlelight, they would break out from under their pillows and hidden wherever they could hide them—they would break out these little fragments of the Bible, and they would read them and pray together in the candlelight at night, hoping that the guards wouldn’t break in and find them.
And then here’s why Solzhenitsyn, one of the reasons Solzhenitsyn became a Christian and later came to America and was an apologist, both an avid anti-communist speaker and an apologist for the Christian faith.
And I’ll never forget this. I read it in high school. All right, so 50 years ago I read this, and I just remember this quote from the book. He said the troubles of prison life were like water on a duck’s back to the Baptists. That’s peace. The worst place you can be on a planet. And yet every other prisoner is looking at the Baptists going, “Why are those crazy people…? They’re supposed to be miserable.”
That doesn’t mean that prison wasn’t hard and horrible, but it means that they had a peace that Paul says in Philippians surpasses human understanding. You know what we’re supposed to be anxious for? No thing, nothing. But by prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God, and the peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
God is our Maker, God is our Redeemer. Paul says, if God is for us, who can be against us? Who can be against us?
I wish with all my heart, I wish you would walk in here on Sundays, and I would be able to tell you, because you read your Bible, because you say your prayers, because you come to church, because you’ve given your life to Jesus, because you’re a disciple and you’re trying to follow Jesus—I just want to tell you that your life is going to be hunky dory. But there’s neither hunk nor door. There’s trouble.
And the Bible doesn’t shy away from that. Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart. Why? I’m bigger. I’m bigger. And you win. I won. I rose from the dead. I’m taking you with me. And I will be with you in the troubles of this world until I bring you to that land where, in fact, the circumstances are no trouble anymore. There’s no trouble in the circumstances.
For a little while, we share in his sufferings so that in eternity He may show us His incomparable kindness and glory.
So when you come here, I don’t tell you that life will be hunky dory. I do tell you, hang in there. You’re playing a game you cannot lose. Yeah. Just don’t quit. No weapon formed against you will prosper. Right? Paul says that neither death nor life… Doctor says you’ve got blah, blah, blah.
Oh, got another one, by the way. Brad, who goes to church in Bremerton, a chiropractor from Silverdale, was talking about a woman that he knows through his practice—this couple he knows through his practice—and this woman had stage four breast cancer that had metastasized into her bones. Stage four cancer that’s breast and bones. Sounds like a death sentence, right?
So just recently, you know, they go to a little Baptist church. Not a Charismatic church, not a church that’s big into healing, but, you know, the people were praying, and they go to this little Bible church. And just recently, she went and had a PET scan, and no cancer in her body. No cancer in her body. So that’s two in two years. Two stage four, gonna die of cancer. No cancer in her body.
No weapon formed against you will prosper. God will give you protection in life and in death. God will rebuild what has been torn down. The human race was torn down in the Garden of Eden. The human race was torn down by human rebellion. And the human race is going to hell in a handbasket. We were cruel. We were barbaric. We were wicked. We still are. But you know what? Less so. Less so.
Isaiah and I were reading a book about revival, Firefall, last year. And in that book, what struck us both was how mean Christians were to other Christians who weren’t of their stripe. You know, how much the Catholics killed the Reformers, and then the Reformers killed the Anabaptists. And the only ones who didn’t kill anybody were the Anabaptists. They were on the bottom of the food chain. They didn’t burn anybody at the stake or drown anybody.
And so it was horrible. And then you look at the church divisions today that I already talked about, you know, my way, you know, very exclusive, my version of Christianity is the best. And all you other guys…
But you know what? We have debates with people about those issues. We don’t kill each other. Calvinists aren’t killing Arminians anymore. Catholics aren’t killing Protestants anymore. It’s just not happening.
And so what does that mean? I think it means that God’s kingdom is still advancing. People say, “Well, you know, the good old days…” No, come on, you just forgot. “Oh, the Roman Empire was glorious.” Forty percent of the Roman Empire were slaves. And now slavery, though practiced in the world still—every time I bring this up, people say, “Well, people are still slaves.” Yes, but 2,000 years ago, the number of people who objected to slavery, you could probably count on one hand. Everybody just thought it was a normal part of life. Yes, some people are lucky, aren’t slaves. Other people are unlucky. They’re slaves.
Now, that’s completely reversed. The percentage of the world population that believes slavery is okay is the minority by a long shot, and the percentage that condemn it, at least publicly, is a majority. Why? Because of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
God will rebuild what has been torn down. He will rebuild what has been torn down. Tyranny will not rule over us. Only God will rule over us. That doesn’t mean there won’t be tyrants, but they won’t be our king.
We live in a democratic republic where we vote for representatives. And those representatives, in our best interest, shut down the government and don’t pay people while they still get paid because they’re public servants on our side. And forgive the cynicism.
But there are good ones. There’s some good ones. I’m not, I won’t even get into that.
But the reason we live in a democratic republic, and the genius of it, isn’t because we’re all so good, we all deserve a voice in our government. It’s because we’re all so bad that we have to break it up in as many tiny pieces as possible so there’s no accumulation of power in a king. Because history has told us that most kings who have an accumulation of power aren’t good. But my dad always taught me growing up, he said, “Well, our government is the best that humans can do.” But he said, “The real best form of government is a benevolent dictator, a benevolent sovereign.” It’s much more efficient, right? You have a good guy, you know, he’s not going to shut down the government. You say, “Oh, this is what’s best for the people. I have all wisdom, I have all power. I can do what’s best. And I love these people and I care for these people.” And you don’t have to go through, you know, have to go through courts, we don’t have to go through votes.
Just like the problem is you can’t find a benevolent sovereign, except one. Isaiah 54. He is compassionate. He is a good God.
And so no matter what a government says over your life, you always have this freedom because you are a citizen of heaven. They may take your life, they may put you in jail. So? They can’t take your soul, they can’t touch it. It’s untouchable.
No weapon formed against you will prevail. No king will rule over you, except King Jesus. Terror will not overcome you.
There are things worthy of terror. There are things you know, there are things that are terrifying. I had child terrors. I had nightmares continually from three years old to 11 years old. And a lot of kids are afflicted with that, you know, where sleep is not a good thing.
And my night terror started when at three years old I watched “The Wizard of Oz.” And a lot of people got freaked out by the monkeys. Not me, that witch. And that witch started visiting me in my dreams. For eight years that witch visited me in my dreams, and I would have witch nightmares, and I’d wake up terrified from the witch nightmare.
And my room was at the end of the hall, and my parents’ room was at the other end of the hall, and I realized I did not want to be in my bed alone because that witch was going to come get me. So I had to make it to my parents’ room, but I didn’t know where she was hiding. She could be under my bed, so when I leave my bed, I got to take a good leap out because I don’t want her to grab me. More than likely she’s behind one of those doors between my parents’ room and my room, so I got to go by them really fast so she doesn’t come out and get me.
You might say, “Well, by the time you’re 10 or 11, you should have enough rational thoughts to know that that’s not true.” I had plenty of rational thoughts that said that wasn’t true. But that witch was there just waiting for me.
And so I would leap out of my bed, so just in case she was under the bed, she wouldn’t get me. Then I would race down the hall, flying past all those doors. My parents had been married long enough that they no longer spooned, so they’re always in their big king-size bed. There was always a gap between them.
I’d get to the end of that bed running full speed, and I’d take an Olympic jump. And I would land right between them. Boom. My dear mother knew that I’d had another nightmare, and she would comfort me. And my dear father, I assumed he was praying because almost every time I did it, I did hear the Lord’s name. So I assume my dad was praying for me.
And talk about prophetic, talk about the goodness of God. This is such a biblical dream. I was delivered from terror. I was delivered from those nightmares. One night I had a dream and the witch was chasing me and I don’t know why, it was a bank. I just remember to this day it was a bank that was on fire over to my left. And then my father, my father appears in the dream, and he grabs the witch and he throws her in the fire. It wasn’t a lake of fire, but I took it.
Now that I’m like, oh, oh, my father. No weapon formed against me, no terror will overcome me. And from that moment on till 66 years old, 55 years, that witch…
A few times after that, as a boy, she reappeared in my dreams. There was no terror. It’s like, “Nah, my dad threw you in the fire.” In the dream, there was a certainty. It’s like, you know, initial shot—there, she… oh, that’s a memory. My dad threw you in the fire. That’s a deliverance. God will deliver you from terror.
We were talking today with Jamie and Stevin about martyrs who die these horrible deaths. And you wonder how Christians were able to sing being devoured by the lions. I think I know. Grace. I think it’s God gives people grace to die. Even terrible deaths. God gives people unimaginable courage.
And no matter how you leave this world, I believe God will give you grace to die. You know, we all have our list, right? And at the top of the list is “Comfortably in my sleep, Lord,” you know, comfortably in my sleep. And that happens, rarely. It happens. But whatever happens, there will not be terror.
I’ve listened to hospice nurses talk about their experiences of the dying. And they have some horrifying experiences of angry, mean, you know, self-pitying, unbelieving people who are railing against the universe. And they talk about, you know, these horrible, agonizing deaths these people experienced. And they see terror sometimes in their faces.
Then they talk about people who have faith, who believe. And inevitably they say, before they left, the room was filled with peace.
And I just think there’s grace to face any terror that comes your way. Attacks will come, but God will vindicate. God will vindicate you. And a lot of our problem comes when we try to vindicate ourselves because doggone it, they were wrong, and I want to be, I’m going to be right. And the only thing, like, you know, men vindicate themselves usually by a fist fight, right? All right, let’s take this outside.
Well, you know what? That ain’t my game. I can’t pick a fight. I would just lose, you know, all the time. Ah, but if we made a rule, who can argue and insult the best? I think I’d be in the top 10%, maybe top 3%. I like to argue.
And man, you might not hear it—sometimes you might hear it. Hope you don’t hear it too much. Sometimes there is a really snarky, sarcastic, cutting edge that used to come out of my mouth a lot. And I gotta confess to you, it still comes up the screen. Still comes up on the screen a lot. And it’s like, I mean, I said one today about your… and it was a good line, wasn’t it? They’re there all the time. But every time, you know, I hear the Holy Spirit say, “No, no.”
And I’m the same as you. I have those debates with people that I’m in a fight with or in a disagreement with when I’m in the shower or in my car. And I am undefeated in those inner debates in my head, arguing with that person. I always put them in their place. They always admit to me, “You’re right, Kevin, I was wrong.” I don’t know why that doesn’t work on social media with my clever arguments. It just doesn’t. They never come back and say that. I don’t understand why, when I’m obviously right and they’re obviously wrong. And I usually present it in such a humble, self-effacing way, and there’s no hint of passive-aggressive pride in there or anything like that.
You recognize when I’m being facetious, right? Okay. Just want to make sure.
And the Lord has just been teaching me for years now, “Don’t say everything that comes up on the screen. And Kevin, just keep your mouth shut, and I will vindicate you. I will vindicate. I’ll take care of it.”
And you know what? When He takes care of it, I don’t burn bridges. I don’t make lifetime enemies. I’m not mean and hurtful. I don’t speak out of ignorance. There’s a lot of times I think, exactly, I know what that person’s thinking and why they’re doing what they’re doing. And oftentimes later I found out, oh my gosh, I was completely wrong.
Yeah, just relax and let God vindicate you. 1 Peter 5:7. Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.
God has a vision for revival. He has a vision to expand His kingdom, and He invites us into that vision. He does it through us. He does it in us. The church is His plan, and there is no other plan. We’re it, Tag, you’re it. Everything flows from us worshiping Jesus and acknowledging Him as king in our lives.
And when we do that, there is opposition. But if God is for us, who can be against us? And of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end.
And here is my prayer. And you’ve heard me say this before. I know. I pay attention. I’m a world Christian. I’m not just a Pacific Northwest Christian. I know what God’s doing in the world, and it thrills me. But this is my home. And so my prayer on a regular basis is that old spiritual. It has to do with personal salvation, but I apply it to revival. I say, “God, while on others thou art calling, do not pass us by.”
And years ago, the Lord spoke to me as I was sitting in a November rainstorm early on in my stay in Washington, like my second or third year. And I’m thinking, does this happen every year? And yes, it does. It starts raining in November. It doesn’t stop for a long time.
I said, “Lord, I’m praying for a revival in this wet, soggy place. And people don’t, people are depressed, and they don’t go to church. And, you know?” And the Lord spoke. He said, “Kevin, do you believe wet wood can burn?”
And I said, “Yes, Lord, if you light the fire. If you light the fire.” And so I still pray. Sometimes I get discouraged, but I still pray, “Lord, let the United States have such a deep move of your Spirit that you will rebuild what has been torn down in our culture. It will so impact your church that it will actually transform our culture.”
That’s a big revival. A lot of revivals transform churches. A lot of revivals get churches out into evangelism. But when revival hits big enough, it transforms. The Jesus movement, transformed a segment of our culture. But when a revival hits, it can transform culture.
The First and Second Great Awakening transformed culture, and I pray for a revival so deep that it will transform culture. I pray it’ll happen in America. But then I get more specific. I say, Lord, let it happen in Washington. Let it happen in Kitsap County, the sixth or eighth, according to stuff I’ve heard—I don’t know if it’s factual, but it’s not the most churched county in America—I’ve heard it’s the sixth to eighth most unchurched county in America. I used to hear that 10 years ago. I don’t know if those numbers are the same. I don’t even know if that’s true. I do know Washington is one of the 10 most unchurched states in America.
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass us by. And Lord, ignite this wet wood. Ignite it. Not literally, Lord. We don’t need forest fires. But, Lord, we need revival fires. And God, you come and vindicate our message. The world thinks we’re fools. The world calls us names. They completely try to turn the tables, 180 degrees around, that we’re the haters and we’re the bigots. And Lord, we just want to argue back. And there’s a time for that. There’s a time to speak the truth. And there are people who do that really articulately.
But in the meantime, we have a neighbor, a family member, somebody we work with who needs Jesus. And they’re not interested in any of those cultural arguments. They just want to know if their friend loves them. And when you do, they want to know where that came from.
And of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. That’s the New Covenant. It was in His blood that it was established.
So on the night He was betrayed, He took bread and broke it, gave it to His disciples and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.” In the same way, after supper, He took the cup, poured it out, gave it to His disciples and said, “This is my blood which is shed for you.”
It’s shed for the forgiveness of sins. That’s the entry into the New Covenant. That’s the starting point. It’s not the ending point. Your sins are forgiven. That’s great news. Now we’re free to follow Jesus forever.
And so tonight, come once again and feed your soul on Jesus. He is our life, He is our peace. He is our Lord. He is our Redeemer. He is our husband, and He is the victor. So you’re on the winning team. How about that? You’re on the winning team. Lift up your heads. You’re on the winning team. Smile. Lift up your heads. You’re on the winning team. You’re on the winning team, all right? You’re not a—let’s see if I do it right, because this way is this way, right? You’re not a “L.” You’re a winner. Yeah. All right.
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