November 16, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey

Transcribed by Beluga AI.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and His great mercy. He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3, CSB)

Easter is our day, people. You say, well, why are you talking about Easter on this rainy November? You should be talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving and Christmas are great. You know, they’re great. Thanksgiving, always give thanks. Christmas, the Incarnation is wonderful. But Easter’s our day. That’s our day.

And the reason we worship on Sundays instead of traditionally on the traditional Sabbath of Saturday, you know, you’ve heard people say, “Oh, it’s this conspiracy. It’s this pagan conspiracy.” Everything’s a pagan conspiracy. Christmas is a pagan conspiracy. To use a good English term, poppycock. No, it’s not.

The reason why is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Christians got together and they would honor the Sabbath. The Jews, especially, would honor the Sabbath. But then they started honoring the Lord’s Day. They would call it the Lord’s Day, the day of His resurrection.

And the Lord’s Day, as the gospel continued to spread, became a day of great celebration where, on a weekly, regular cyclical basis, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our enemies were defeated: death, Satan, the flesh. All those things were defeated at the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. History pivoted, took a great turn, and we are now on that trajectory in this world of struggles.

And yet we have a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So Easter is our day. Sunday’s our day, so good to be here with you on a Sunday.

I’ll tell a story, and it’s my story when I was 16 years old. I think I probably told the story before, but it’s worth repeating. I was a high school kid, and like all high school sophomores, awkward, thinking I was a, you know, a complete loser. And nobody liked me, even though I had lots of friends. Outwardly, I’m sure there were kids who envied my life. And I played basketball. I was an athlete, and I was pretty—you know, I didn’t have to study that hard to get good grades, you know. There were lots of kids who really got mad at me because I’d just show up and take the test, and they’d have to study. It’s like, well, tough to be you, you know. I don’t know what to say.

But I wasn’t happy. I didn’t look at those things, and I wasn’t—I should have been grateful for those things. But I just thought, well, you know, there must be something wrong with me. And I desperately, you know, desperately wanted a girlfriend. I don’t know why I wanted a girlfriend, but, you know, I guess the affirmation of somebody liking you.

And I was going to catechism. Was brought up in a Catholic home, religious. I was going to catechism. It was a drag. Didn’t get it. I had followed all the rules.

And my sister, my older sister, who was a varsity cheerleader and had a bunch of cute varsity cheerleader girlfriends, started going to this thing called Young Life. And she invited me to go to Young Life, and my mom, in her wisdom, saw my struggle and she thought Young Life was a good thing. And so she said, “If you go to young Life, you don’t have to go to catechism.” So I made a very difficult decision: going to dumb, boring catechism or going with my sister in a car with all the varsity cheerleaders to Young Life.

Okay, that is the definition of no brainer, right? It’s like, “Oh.” And they would say nice things to me. They’d rub the top of my head, “Oh, you’re Kathy’s little brother.” I’d be like, you know, like a dog, you know, getting rubbed into the chest.

But anyway, I went to Young Life. And then mostly, it was fun, and they gave a little God talk that never really, at that point, didn’t really connect. But, you know, they’d give a, you know, a five-minute God talk. It was a lot of fun and a lot of cute, popular kids there. And so, you know, that was good.

And then they had this camp, and they said, “You need to go to camp.” And I said, “Why do I need to go to camp?” And they knew. They knew exactly why I was going to Young Life. They said, “Well, there’s two girls there to every boy.” And I said, “I need those odds. Those could work in my favor.” And so I went to camp.

When I went to camp, man, I heard it. I heard the invitation. I heard the gospel. And this God who I had always believed in—I wasn’t an atheist by any means—this God, who I always believed in, but who I thought with my upbringing was this huge cop in the sky, you know, keeping score on me, waiting for me to mess up, kind of like the guys parked on Highway 3 and 16 when I drive past them coming up to Poulsbo to come to church. I’m always driving too fast, and they’ve never come out after me. I think they like it if you slow down when you see them. I think they have a secondary speed limit. That’s what—I’m operating on that premise, because I’m always going over 60, but I’m never going over 70. So I think I’m in that area where they’re like, “Eh, it’s not worth it. Even if it is a red Camaro.” In fact, they probably… “Well, for a red Camaro, he’s showing restraint. So got to give him that. Yeah, got to give him that.”

So anyway, but, you know, that’s who I thought God was. I thought he was the Washington State Patrol waiting to clamp down on me if I got out of line and maybe giving me a few goodies if I behaved well. But here I came to hear that God was a loving Father who sent His Son into the world that He might have a relationship with me and that I might be His child, that He might invite me into His family.

And there was a—man, there was a pull on that. There was a pull on that. And the speaker quoted Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, opens the door, I’ll come in and sup with him and him with me.”

20 See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20, CSB)

And he said that “sup,” that’s a relational word. You know, all of a sudden, God wasn’t going to come in and spank me for not being good enough. He was going to come in and sit down with me and have fellowship with me. And there was a huge draw.

But I also knew I was—I don’t know if this may come as a surprise to you, but I was a contrarian, argumentative kind of person. There’s a shocker. And so my poor young life counselor. It was his first camp with kids, and he only had two of us. The other kid was just sweet as could be, Danny Pedersen. Just the sweetest guy. Already a Christian. So, you know, I would just argue with him. We’d have our nighttime little quiet times. “Well, what did you think about the talk?” And I would just argue with the guy. It wasn’t, you know, mean-spirited or anything, but I just, you know, I had an answer for everything.

And so the last night, when he gave the last talk, he took me to another room. My counselor is probably 21, so he took me to another room with a much more experienced counselor who, it was his third camp, and he was 22, and so he thought, “Well, this counselor can crack this kid.” And I go to that, and he’s got his six boys and us, me and Danny, in there with the two counselors. And they finally go around and say, “Okay, this. This weekend we’ve talked about Jesus. What do you say?”

And all the boys in that room were either already Christians, or that night they gave their life to Christ.

But then it came to me, and I thought, “No way, man. This camp is a setup, right? They’re trying to get me to cross this line. The girls, the talk, the music, the games, the food, you know.”

And I’m 16, I figured out, “Oh, this is a—this was their whole deal all along.” Yeah, no kidding. So I said, “No, no, I’m not stepping across the line.” And I thought, you know, my two counselors would be really disappointed and, you know, say, “Well, that was stupid, man. Why don’t you do it?” But the older, more mature counselor came up afterwards and shook my hand, and he said, “You know, with everybody saying ‘yes,’ I imagine there was a lot of peer pressure to say ‘yes,’ but if you weren’t ready, you know, it’s good that you said ‘no.'”

But he said, “I want you to keep thinking about this. You know, don’t just leave it. If something’s touched you here, don’t just walk away.” And he didn’t know anything had touched me, but I had been touched.

Then we went outside, and I hear my counselor talking. They’re around the corner, so they can’t see me. I hear my counselor talking to the other counselor, and he doesn’t mention my name, but I hear him say, “I don’t know what to do with this kid. He’s got an argument for everything.” I know who that kid is. The other guy goes, “Man, that’s just far out. He’s seeking. Let’s go pray for him.”

And so my two hippie counselors went off, and I was—that shook me. Why do these two guys who have known me, one guy for two, three hours, another guy for a weekend—why are they… why do they care? Why are they going off and praying for me?

So I went off and I said, probably at that point in my life, the most honest and sincere prayer I ever said. I said, “God, if this is real—I know, you know, I’m pretty sure you’re real. But if this whole Jesus stuff and all this is real,” I said, “the guy said, ‘I stand at the door. You’re standing at the door knocking.’ If this is a setup, fine. But if you’re really knocking, then when I get home, don’t stop knocking.” And that was my prayer.

And I got home, and every day for two weeks, something would happen during the day, just a random event, but it was kind of a surprising random event. And all of a sudden I’d hear this voice. And this voice would go off in my head, saying, “I’m knocking. I’m knocking.” And I still wouldn’t budge off my… “Well, you know, maybe. Maybe that’s just residual from that camp.”

And, you know, people say, you can’t get scared into heaven. The gospel of love was preached to me. All right? I was attracted to “Behold, I stand at the door. I want to come in and sup with you and with me.”

But I’m probably the only person old enough in here. Maybe, maybe. Maybe somebody else is… Brian.

But anyway, remember “The Night Stalker” with Darren McGavin? Okay, that’s all right. It was a TV show, and it was about this reporter, and it was kind of a horror TV show. He would go examine, like, paranormal events as a reporter and stuff, things that people couldn’t explain. I’d never seen the show before. And after about two weeks of knocking, I’m watching that show one night, first time I ever saw it. And it was about vampires.

And this wasn’t about cute vampires who fall in love with each other in Western Washington. It wasn’t about that. Wasn’t that vampires. These were like, you know, these were scary vampires. And they showed this girl who got bit and turned into a vampire. And, you know, and I got scared watching. That was shocking. You know, it was scary.

And I went to bed and I had a nightmare of these vampires chasing me. And I woke up from this nightmare and I’m kind of like, shaken. And this little voice that has been saying—the same voice that has been saying, “I’m knocking, I’m knocking,” now says this: “That’s what hell’s like.”

You know what? All of a sudden, all my arguments gone. I’m in. I’m in right there. That night—”Jesus come into my life, man.” And it just became clear to me that I don’t want a future filled with evil and darkness and wickedness when light and love and beauty is being offered me.

And all by myself, I gave my life to Jesus. And that was 50 years ago, and the jury’s still out, but I think it took. So that’s my story.

And that ties into what we’re going to look at tonight. You have a story, right? You have a story. So anytime you want to tell me—I love hearing stories about how Jesus came into people’s lives and reached into their lives. They’re great stories.

Isaiah 55: God’s invitation to revival. “Come…” There it is.

1 “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost! 2 Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods. 3 Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live. I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David. 4 Since I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples, 5 so you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you.” 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord ‘s declaration. 9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, 11 so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.” 12 You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will come up; this will stand as a monument for the Lord, an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed. (Isaiah 55:1-13, CSB)

And God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and 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)

Some of the passages in the prophets that delight me—this is just a complete aside—are, you know, the mountains will skip with joy and talks about like nature coming to a greater life than it has now. And of course, I’ve always read that poetically and, you know, metaphorically and symbolically. But wouldn’t it be great in the new heavens and the new earth if you’re out taking a beautiful walk one day and you see a mountain range skipping with joy and trees start to sing to you? You know, who knows? Eye has not seen or ear heard what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him.

Anyway, God alone is our heart’s desire. You’ve heard me say it a million times, that’s probably an exaggeration, but a bunch of times. Who have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God, you are the strength of my life and my portion forever. God alone is what our hearts desire. Augustine, I believe it was the one who said, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”

God alone. We look for all—we look for love. There was a popular song back in the 70s or 80s and it was called “Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places.” We look for love in all the wrong places, and Isaiah 55 says, why do you do that? Why do you spend money on what will not satisfy? Why do you buy food that does not satisfy? Why are you investing yourself in things that don’t bring what you’re looking for? And we do it all the time, but God alone is the one who satisfies.

And He says, “Listen. To all who are thirsty, come.” That’s the invitation. Are you thirsty?

I was thirsty as a 16-year-old boy. I was looking for life. What is life about? It’s got to be more than, you know, being a subpar basketball player, and you know, it’s got to be more than this. And there’s got to be more to this life.

I was looking, I was thirsty, and you are here because there is a thirst in you. You want something that will satisfy. We know that money doesn’t do it.

One of the great things about growing older is you just realize that, yeah, the empty promises of this world, the empty promise—and it doesn’t mean that the things we have and the things we’ve accomplished don’t have any value or they’re worthless. But it’s like that didn’t work. Fame didn’t work.

I remember when I was a young preacher, I used to just crave so much the affirmation, not of God, but of the people. You know, I just wanted to hear them say, “Oh, you’re such a wonderful preacher.” You know, they’d come and say, “Oh, that was such a great sermon.” It’s like, “Yeah,” you know?

But then I came to realize, pretty soon on, I came to realize, like, “Well, that didn’t work.” That made me feel better for about 30 seconds. And then this other voice would come in saying, “No, you’re not.” That old familiar voice would just come in and say, “They’re just trying to be nice to you” or “They don’t really know you. They don’t know who you are. They don’t know the things you do in secret. You know, they think you’re some holy man. You’re nothing but a hyp-,” you know. You know the voice. You’ve heard that voice, haven’t you? A bad voice. It’s a mean voice.

All right. That didn’t satisfy. I’ll tell you what will satisfy. And I live for this. Well done, good and faithful servant. Anybody else got a feeling that drink is going to be really satisfying? That’s going to be a good drink, and live for that. That’s what God says. Why are you living for this? Come to me if you’re thirsty, and I will satisfy.

And it’s free. It’s free. You don’t have to be good enough. You don’t have to be smart enough. You don’t have to be born of the right family. You don’t have to give enough money. You don’t have to, you know, you just… There’s no entry requirement. There’s no SAT here, all right? Just come. Come as you are. Come as you are. I will take you as you are.

We just read in Imagine Heaven, Howard Storm’s book and how he was just a wretch of a selfish, you know, man just living for his own pleasure and his own fame and. And yeah, he had some loving relationships. You know, he wasn’t nearly—he probably wasn’t as evil in that sense as he painted himself out to be. But he said, “As I died, I was going down the toilet because I was garbage. And I was going where garbage goes.”

And he called out, and this little voice said, “Pray to God.” And he called out. He called out to Jesus, and Jesus came at the point of death and saved him with pure love. And it’s like, he’s like, “I don’t”—yeah, he’s pretty clear—”I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve this. It’s free.”

Now, it will cost you. It’ll cost you. It’ll cost you all those other things that you were living for that were worthless. You got to lay those things aside to get the pearl of great price, but it’s still free because those things—you know what the value of those things was? Nothing. They were worthless.

And so it’s free. And He will satisfy. We taste it in this life. We taste the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We just see it time and time again. And yet there’s more. There’s more.

Our lives find their place in Him. And that is the invitation to revival: come. That is the invitation we give to the world: come. Come and see. Come and find out.

I love the fact that those young life leaders were so persistent, getting me to that camp and coming out on my high school campus. Why should they come out on a high—? They weren’t getting paid for that. They just come out on high school campus and start hanging around with a bunch of kids that they’re barely… And they’re pretty much kids themselves. Just so they could say, “You know, I’ve tasted something and I want you to taste it, too.” He will satisfy.

He also is the one who gives purpose. You know, we’re looking for purpose. How do I spend my time? What do I do with my life? Do I spend it chasing money? Do I spend it chasing pleasure? Do I spend it being legalistically responsible and religious, you know, trying to earn favor with some distant and angry God? What is the purpose of my life?

And Jesus tells us what the purpose of our life is in the Lord’s Prayer: my kingdom come, my will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10, CSB)

I used to think when I first became a Christian, that was a prayer for Jesus to return for His second coming. Let your kingdom come. Until I realized, oh, His kingdom did come. His kingdom is not waiting for the second coming. His kingdom came in the first coming. He established His kingdom, all right? He rose from the dead, right? He established His kingdom.

And now that prayer has changed for me. I’m not so much praying for the second coming and for the final consummation of His kingdom. I’m praying right here, right now. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done right here on earth as it is in heaven.

And listen, that’s why there’s not more hell on earth. You know, we look at the bad stuff and go, well, there’s hell on earth, and there is. There’s pain and suffering and agony and cruelty and all these things, but there’s also a lot of heaven on earth. There’s also, you know, family thanksgivings and laughter and joy and good marriages and mothers holding their healthy babies in their arms and smiling and cooing at them, and friendships and laughter and, you know, there’s a goodness, there’s a goodness that comes on the earth, and that goodness is all of God’s kingdom.

When somebody comes, like I did as a 16-year-old boy, and—I’ll never forget, when I told my young life leader, I blew him away, you know, because he wasn’t there. He just heard all my arguments. And like a couple weeks after I had asked Jesus in my life, I said, “Uou know, Dave, I did it.”

“Did what?”

“I asked Jesus into my life.”

Like, “What?” You know, it’s like, hey, (it) paid off, man, (it) paid off.

I remember my sister, who was way worse than me. She wasn’t, she didn’t have an argument for everything. She was just a partier. And, you know, she was an incredible—she just, she flirted with every boy, and you know, I’d have friends over and she’d walk out in her bathing suit. “Oh, is my bathing suit too short?” It’s like, go back. My friends are like, “Hey, hey, Kevin, let’s go to your house.” Yeah, you should meet her.

But the Lord got a hold of her, and her young life leader actually told her, he said, “Of all the kids, you were the last one I thought…” That’s how good God is. That’s how good God is.

So, all right. He will satisfy. He will give us purpose. Our purpose, our destination is the new heavens and the new earth. Our purpose is to bring heaven to earth.

I don’t know how much heaven to earth we can get, but I always—here’s my belief: I don’t know how many people can get healed, I don’t know how many people can get delivered, I don’t know how many people can get saved, but I bet one more. I bet there can be one more breakthrough. I bet we can—I always think we can get more. More of heaven on earth. And now that is our life’s purpose.

You think, “Well, that’s a hard thing to do.” No, it isn’t. Isaiah 55 says we’re endowed with splendor. What’s the New Testament equivalent of “endowed with splendor”? Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Holy Spirit, God Himself dwelling inside of us.

How dare we say I’m not equipped to bring the goodness of the Lord into the land of the living. Who are you carrying? Who are you carrying?

This prayer is answered 100% of the time for me, these three words: Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, come. Even when I’m not praying for somebody, even right now, I say those words. And it’s like, whoa, there he is.

Holy Spirit, come. He is always present.

A woman this morning came up, and she said, “Pray for me.” And I said, “Okay.” She gave me no specifics, and I started to pray for her. Then I prayed the 23rd Psalm over her, and I get done. She’s got this big smile.

And I prayed, “Holy Spirit, come.” And then I prayed that. And I ended up praying the 23rd Psalm. That wasn’t on my mind before she was up there. Wasn’t on my mind until I took her hands, prayed, “Holy Spirit, come.” And then it’s like, oh, she needs, you know, something—she needs to hear the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. I just quoted and prayed the 23rd Psalm over her.

And I get done, she goes—I love people who don’t have Christianese language down. She didn’t say, “Oh, that was prophetic.” No, she used the world’s term. It was so cool. “You’re psychic.” Yeah, you can call my hotline. “You’re psychic.” I said, “No, I’m not psychic.” I said, “That’s prophetic.”

She goes, “When I come up here, I just said, ‘God, I’m just going to ask him to pray and see if he knows what’s going on in my life.'” And, of course, I didn’t, but that prayer must have struck the nerve, because she was like, “You’re a psychic.”

Holy Spirit, come. What does that mean? Empowered with splendor. The whole point is, I’m not psychic. It was God. There was no innate ability in me, no mysterious birth thing that I have these wavelengths going off in my brain.

I am one of the least intuitive, observant people on the planet. I would make a terrible cop. I would step over a dead body and go, “Well, there’s a murder here.” “Where?” I’d be like—it’d be right behind me—”Oh, I guess so.”

You are equipped to do His will. The Bible says this. You have gifts. And listen, it doesn’t have to be spectacular. I love—never, never, ever underestimate the little things. The little act of love that nobody sees. Mothers, you do this a million times for your kids. Fathers, too. You know, you get up in the middle—you do whatever, you know, and you make these sacrifices for your children. And there’s no applause. Your kids certainly aren’t, “Oh, Mother, thou art wonderful.” They’re like, “What took you so long?” You know, “I don’t want to eat.” You know, you cook all day. “I don’t want to eat this.”

And yet not a cup of cold water is given in His name that doesn’t lose its reward. Never underestimate the simple, small acts of love. It is actually the thing that builds us for the greater things.

Never expect to show great character in crisis unless you’ve deeply ingrained the habit of following the Holy Spirit and exhibiting character in the little things of daily life. Courage is not going to all of a sudden explode on you in crisis until you have the courage to get up at three o’clock in the morning and change a diaper. Never—just… I mean this with all my heart. Do the little things. Do the little things. And then, if the big things come, you’ll find yourself prepared.

And every time you do the little thing in the Name of Jesus, His kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Every time you love a less than lovable person, every time you don’t insist on your own way, every time you put your hands on somebody and pray for them in faith in the Name of Jesus, you are empowered with splendor. The Spirit of the God of the universe lives inside of you. Let Him move. God gives you the ability. That’s what Isaiah says. You’re endowed with splendor.

God alone is our source of love and mercy. And we all need mercy, and we’re all looking for love.

I don’t know if you have these. Probably do. I think most people have these. And I call them the cringe moments. You know, the cringe moments? Just getting along with your regular day, and all of a sudden, you remember something you did 30 years ago, something you said, and you go, why’d I do that? Why’d I say that? Well, you know, that was so self-seeking or so blah, blah, or this or that. You just cringe.

Or my wife experienced this. She went to a training event, and she didn’t question the speaker, but it was the speaker’s first time. She was talking about a subject my wife was impassioned about. My wife, you know, spoke up on it. This other girl came up to the speaker afterwards, saying, “Hey, you did a good job, even if you did feel attacked.” Jill thought, “Oh, that was me.” She was crushed. She was devastated. I didn’t mean to attack her.

And she called her, she emailed her, and that lady said, “Oh no, you were fine,” you know? But she had speaker’s remorse. And she goes, “Kevin, do you ever get speakers remorse?”

“No, never.” I’ve never had that where I get up and speak in front of a group of people and five minutes later going, “Why’d you say that? What’s wrong with you?”

So we need mercy. Sometimes those things are not the things we really need mercy for. Those are things that aren’t, you know, the devil’s jumping on and weren’t even that bad.

But there are other things we need mercy for. I mean, I can’t believe it, but in two years, my 50th high school reunion’s coming up. I have no intention of going. I went to my 25th. It was fine, but I have no intention of going.

One of the reasons—but, you know, if I went, I think I would stand up and say, “Everybody, I’m sorry.” You know, “I’m sorry. I was mean, sarcastic…” And they’d probably go, “Oh, you were fine.” But I’d be like, I don’t feel like I was fine. I feel like I need mercy.

And God gives mercy. He freely forgives. His mercy is there. We all need mercy. God alone is our source of love and mercy. Don’t let the invitation pass you by. My assumption here is you all have received that initial invitation to open the door and let Him come in and sup with you and you with Him. But, you know, once you do that, you realize there’s continual invitations, right?

There’s continual invitations, like, “Hey, leave your secure home in Southern California and go to a place where it rains all the time.” There’s an invitation there, and you go, “Okay, we’ll do that. That’ll be fun.” Yeah, you’ll live in a camper for two years. It’ll be great. It’ll be great. And then, you know, Ats is going to get his dream farm, and Aiko will be going, “What the…?” See you out there churning butter, the music to “Little House in the Prairie” playing in the background. Be great.

All right. You know? Say ‘yes’ to the invitations.

And listen, the invitations won’t always make sense because God sees the big picture. God has a timing for things, and our knowledge is limited.

So I want to say two words about common sense. One pro and one negative. All right, so, Stevin, this is for you and my wife. Common sense is great, and people would save themselves. Brian, you too. I love you common—you’re a common sense guy. Common sense is great, and people would protect themselves from all sorts of misery if they just followed common sense.

There are people, you know, all over the United States of America, the richest country in the history of the world—incredible opportunity, bucket loads full of money. People don’t feel that way, but there is. And they are in financial distress and in huge debt because why? They didn’t follow just this simple, simple mathematical equation. You’re right. You don’t need algebra to do anything as an adult. You just need to add and subtract. And here it is: spend less than you make. It will work out well for you. That’s common sense.

And yet millions of people can’t do it. We get these little plastic credit cards. We go, “I want it. I want it. I want it. I want it.” We go on these dopamine hits, and you know, and it’s like, why do we do this? Why do we do this?

And I didn’t do it for a lot of years of my life. I spent more than I made. Make a mess of your life not following common sense. Make a mess of your life. My wife the other day, she said, why do you have 14 cigar lighters? I said, “Because 15 is too many. What, do you think I’m weird?” I said, “There’s actually three reasons: I have insomnia, a credit card, and Amazon exists.”

“Oh, that looks like a…” But, you know, she can’t talk too much. Why do we have a cupboard full of coffee mugs and neither one of us drink coffee? Good question.

So common sense. “Oh, I love him. And if he just changes a little, we’ll be happily ever after.” Don’t do it, darling. Not gonna change.

“She’s so hot. I don’t care if she has the IQ of a gnat and the personality of a witch. She’s hot.” Don’t do it, dude. Don’t do it. Ruin your life.

Now let me say the other word on common sense. Oswald Chambers, who wrote the great devotional My Utmost for His Highest, says in one of his devotions, “Never deify common sense.” It’s one of the ways, but not the exclusive way that God speaks.

And it’s true. If you read through the Bible, there’s no great—show me a great hero in the Bible who got to be a great hero in the Bible by strictly following common sense. They all, at one point or another, had to do what made no sense.

“Abram, leave your retirement.” All right, what are we going to do? “I’m going to take you to a land.” Great. “You’re going to have babies at 75.” Where’s this land? “I’ll show you.” And you know what the Bible said? So Abraham went. That’s not common sense.

“Moses, leave your shepherding job. Remember those Israelites you thought you were going to save?” Yeah, that didn’t work out well, God. They chased me away. Pharaoh wants to kill me, and they want to kill me. “Yeah. Go back.” Go back? But I st- st- stutter. “Don’t worry. I’ll send Aaron.” He’s an i-i-i-idiot. “I’m going to send you before Pharaoh, the most mighty man in the world. And you’re going to demand of him that he lets my millions of people leave his service and go to that promised land I promised your ancestor Abraham. Go do it.” I- I- I don’t want to. “Go do it.”

Okay, so you’re sending me with Aaron. “Yeah, but not only Aaron. I’m giving you a stick.” That’ll show him. That’ll show him. Parted the Red Sea, didn’t it? Drowned the whole Egyptian army.

“Paul, remember those Gentiles you wanted to kill?” Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. “Yeah, now go save them all.” “Remember that zealous Jew that you were?” Yeah. “Trying to kill those Gentiles?” Yeah. “Now I’m going to sic all those jealous Jews on you. But in the meantime, you’re going to change history.”

“Hey, Son. Leave your comfortable throne. Be born out of a woman into a dirty, dusty stable, into a poor life in Nazareth. Grow up as a peasant on planet Earth, the King of heaven. And then be turned upon by the political power, abandoned by your friends, lied to and betrayed by one of your closest friends. And then the people that we have called and created and loved and nurtured for thousands of years—you and I, Son—are going to turn on you. Go do that, and Abraham’s promise will be fulfilled in you, that you won’t be able to count the number of brothers and sisters you have. More than sands on the seashore and the stars in the heaven.”

God is bigger than you. God is smarter than you. My ways are not your ways. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord ‘s declaration. (Isaiah 55:8, CSB)

As you rightly follow the Lord by living just a common sense, practical life and following the obvious rules, never deaden yourself to that voice that will call you deeper into the purpose that God has for you.

Now, the flip side of that. I know some pretty crazy Christians who think that every thought that runs through their head is the voice of God. It’s not. Learn to know the difference. Learn to know the difference.

Finally, God is the only one who brings transformation. God makes bad people good. There are two kinds of people who go to church generally, and they’re the people who are humble and willing to be molded. And God makes bad—and those people, God makes bad people good. And you are a witness to Jesus wherever you go. You are a light in the workplace, in the home, in the marketplace, among your friends. You don’t even know how bright your light shines.

There are other people who aren’t willing to experience the pain of letting those things die and God make them good, and so they use religion as a blanket to stay bad, but appear good. They are not good witnesses for Jesus. Don’t be that person. We have our quota. All right? Don’t be that person.

But the truth is, God makes bad people good. The Spirit of God really transforms us, and it begins to write new patterns in our life.

One of my greatest hopes and one of my regular prayers is that I would be an encourager. I want to encourage people. I’m trying to do that tonight. Trying to encourage you, all right? Trying to give you courage to live in a broken world, in a hard life, trusting in God.

One of the ways that I was a bad person was I had a quick wit, and I could make fun of people easily. And I wasn’t big and I wasn’t strong, so I couldn’t parade myself in that way. I don’t know why I didn’t get beat up more. I should have, being a small smart aleck, I should have. I had big friends or my sister protected me or something. I should have gotten beat up more.

But, yeah, like I said, if I went back to my high school reunion, I would: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I got a laugh at your expense. And you know what? I think God’s made me better.”

I still tease people. I don’t know if you knew that. I still tease people, but I think mostly, hopefully, it mostly lands on them, almost hopefully, universally lands on them as affection.

Because I want to encourage you. I know life isn’t easy, and so God’s made you better. God’s made you better. Some of you struggled with immense anxiety and perfectionism, and you’re able to just kind of go, “Hey, nobody would call me laid back, but I’m better than I used to be. I’m better than I used to be.”

You know, you don’t have to be perfect, but I want to be more like Jesus 10 years from now than I am now. You know? “Honey, am I more like Jesus?” “What?” “Bring me my teeth.” Tell you I used to make that joke and say, “40 years.” Yeah, 10 years. 10 years.

I told my wife, I said, “You know, one of the things we don’t want to lose is our independence, right?” And so I told my wife, I said, “I’m hoping by the time I get that old”—you know, they’re already, the technology is already pretty much there that they’ll have self-driving cars, so I don’t have to, you know, I don’t have to be an old person worrying about driving. And like, you know, in Florida, they actually have guards in front of the Walmart because people regularly drive through the front of the store because, you know, all the retired, they miss their brakes and stuff.

So I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to, you know, be a hazard. But I don’t want, you know, I don’t want to have to rely on my kids. Maybe they’ll have self-driving cars. They’ll be perfected. I’ll just get in the car and say “Walmart,” it’ll take me to Walmart. “Home,” it’ll take me home.

And we’re talking about, “That would be great, that would be great.”

But her dad got Alzheimer’s, and he would go out. He didn’t have his car anymore, and he’d go out with his little suitcase out into the parking lot at the retirement home, looking for his car because he had packed his bag to go see his brother and his father, who were in New Jersey and also dead for 50 years.

I thought, “Yeah, that’d be great. Except with your dad, he would have been in New Jersey. He’d have gotten into the car. ‘Take me to New Jersey.'” Where’s dad? He’s on Highway 90, man. He’s heading to Jersey. It’s like, oh well, yeah, there might be a problem even with the self driving cars. So there you go.

God makes powerless people powerful. God makes powerless people powerful.

I’ll never forget Julie’s words from Jesus. “The prayers of many righteous have come before me, so I’m healing you. I’m healing you.” We didn’t heal her. The church in Bainbridge didn’t heal her. But the prayers of many righteous, those prayers were powerful on her behalf. Those prayers were powerful on her behalf.

And so, as I already said, there’s never a time where I don’t feel the Holy Spirit come upon me when I pray. And when I prayed for people’s deliverance and other things, not all those prayers are answered. They’re certainly not answered the way I want them to be all the time. But I’ve seen power. I’ve seen the power of God operate.

And you know, this ex-Mormon was coming to church in Oakdale, and he had a bad shoulder. He came up for prayer, and I prayed for him. He fell back, and he got up. He said, “What is that?” “That’s my hand, man. I got super hands.”

No, it’s nothing. This is just, this is just the softest hand. This is a softer hand than any real man ought to have. Just saying. All right? There’s no calluses from hammers or anything, you know. Paper cut, maybe. Worst kind of pain.

So the power flows through this hand. Just like yours, right? Just like yours. I didn’t get a bigger Holy Spirit than you did because I went to seminary. In fact, there’s evidence now… I won’t go there.

Having said that, Jamie, you still should go to seminary. I don’t think it’ll ruin your faith. And it will—it won’t even satisfy your curiosity. It’ll just make you curious about a whole new realm of things. Things that are less relevant than the things you’re curious about now. Maybe you shouldn’t go.

I’ve had demons shut up. Eternal, everlasting, you know, not eternal backwards, but much older than me, with much more knowledge than me. And I’ve told them to be quiet in the Name of Jesus. And they were quiet.

“You can’t—” “Be quiet. I’m talking to her in the Name of Jesus.” Shuts up.

Wow, it’s—I mean, it’s bizarre to say, but demons obey better than children.

He’ll make you, He’ll give you power, as I already said, to be from a bad person, to become a good person. He gives you power to do two things: to become like Jesus in character, and then to partner with Jesus in His ministry. Power to work miracles, speak in tongues, prophesy. Power to administrate, to extend mercy, to serve. He’ll give you power to do what is required.

And finally, He gives hopeless people hope. He gives hopeless people hope. I remember there was a lounge singer, kind of a bluesy singer who was popular back in the day, and her name was Peggy Lee. And her song was, her big hit song was “Is that All There Is?” It’s just this bluesy song about is that all there is to love?

I met Barry Maguire, and he was a 60s rock star who became a Christian in the Jesus movement. If any of you are familiar with “Bullfrogs and Butterflies,” I think he wrote that. But he wrote like “On the Eve of Destruction,” which was a big hit in the late 60s. He came to our church, and he spoke, and he gave a couple of stories that I’ll always remember.

One was before he was a Christian. He’s still a rock star. And they’re all doing drugs. He’s doing drugs with these other guys in this house. And there’s a poster of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin on the wall who had both just very recently overdosed and killed themselves. And he said, he said, “Here’s how powerful, you know, here’s how powerfully denial works. I’m snorting cocaine. I look up those pictures and I go, ‘I wonder if this is bad for you.'” Like, they’re dead. And he goes, “Nah, I’m all right. I’m under control. I got it, I got it.”

But he came to Christ, and he says he remembers a story once where he was in Palm Springs. There were a bunch of stars there. He went around the corner and saw a semi-drunk Frank Sinatra. This was Frank Sinatra, you know, in his 60s, king of entertainment, just a huge star, money, everything.

He said, “Frank Sinatra didn’t see me. He thought he was all alone. But I saw him, and he was actually hitting his head against a pole and saying, ‘I’m so lonely. I’m so lonely.'” Which is the ultimate outcome of doing it—Frank Sinatra’s song: “I Did it My Way.” I did it my way.

There’s no hope. There’s no hope. Is that it? Is that what life is? Just spend a short 60, 70, 80, 90 years on this rock trying to swallow up as much pleasure as you can in a world of woe and then nothingness? A grave?

I tell you, the biggest difference I ever experienced between Christians and non Christians is doing a funeral. You go to a non-Christian funeral, and it’s all deer in the headlights, man. “I hope he’s in a better place.” Yeah, I bet you do. But, man, at a Christian funeral, it’s like, “We’re sad, death’s an enemy. We’re gonna miss her, but she’s good. And we have hope. This is not goodbye; it’s see you later, see you later.”

And dear ones, we have hope for this life, and we have hope in the life to come. Paul says if Christ does not raise from the dead, we’re fools and our hope is in vain. Our faith is in vain. But indeed, Christ has been raised from the dead. Therefore, death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

55 Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55, CSB)

I’m amazed as we read this book on NDEs. The first thing most NDEs say as they kind of leave their body is they always say the same thing. I never felt what? More alive. I never felt more alive.

Dear ones, I don’t deny that death is an enemy. God never intended it. Adam and Eve weren’t meant to die. They were meant to move from glory to glory. But they did. And now death has entered the human scene. And God’s answer to death is not “Tough to be human. Grab all you can in this world. You only live once.” No, God’s answer to death is resurrection. Resurrection in Jesus.

And so there ought to always be a bounce in our steps, hope in our hearts. And you know, the things we put our hope in in this world, one of the things is, you know… just as you grow, you just go, “Well, that, that didn’t really pan out.” Right? That didn’t pan out.

You know, I spent a life—and we’re not, we’re not filthy rich, but we’re Americans and both worked. And toward the end of our life, at least we spent less than we made. But in the process of that, we’ve accumulated a lot of stuff. You know what that stuff is now? It gave us a quick dopamine hit when we got it and maybe served some purpose, you know, but now it’s just stuff in our garage.

We go, “We got to get rid of this, we got to get rid of this stuff. Anybody want stuff?”

I heard there was a scam going on. I don’t know if this is true, but you know how you hear. Could be urban legend, but I heard there was a gang. They’re gangs that were actually going around and opening garage doors. I guess there’s a limit. There’s not an infinite number of codes to garage doors, so if you have a garage door opener or a couple of them, you steal a couple of garage door openers, and they go around and, you know, you might get lucky, and one might open. They would go around in moving vans, and they would open garage doors and just go in and steal stuff and take off.

When I heard that, I said, “Do they have a phone number? Can I make an appointment?” I’ll take the two things in that garage that I want, put them in the house, and say, “Somebody’s got to clean my garage for free in 10 minutes. Dude, I’ll leave them a tip. Like, here, there’s another $200. Knock yourself out.”

Yeah, the stuff didn’t work. And you know, you’re young and you’re alive, you go, “Oh, I’m going to climb mountains and I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this.” And then, you know, your body starts going, “Eh, you know, I don’t know, I don’t know.”

There was a 30-year-old in church this morning, and he had been doing some rock climbing and mountain climbing. He said, “Oh yeah, my shoulders are so sore.” I said, “Shut up. You don’t know sore. Have you hurt yourself sleeping yet? Shut your mouth. You know nothing.”

Guess what? Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10, CSB)

Jesus is going to heal my back in this world, or He’s going to heal it in the next. But I’m not going to live for eternity walking like Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show. “Honey, I’ll loosen up in a minute.” It’s not going to happen.

I have hope. I have hope. I’m not going to live forever being tempted by the devil. I’m not going to live forever living with the broken tracks that still push me in the wrong direction. I’m not going to live forever experiencing the grief of other people’s pain.

One day we’ll look at each other and say, “How you doing?” And we’ll say, “Fine.” And we’ll mean it 100%, we’ll mean it. And I have that hope. And until that hope is ultimately realized, I want to bring as much through the power of the Holy Spirit working in me, endowed with splendor, extending the invitation of God into the world in which I live. That’s my purpose. That’s my purpose.

And so God makes an invitation to you tonight. Just this is so apropos, right? My story. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I’ll come in and sup with him and him with me.”

20 See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20, CSB)

And now Jesus says, “Sup with me.” See that little white grape juice stained table? That’s a holy place, people. No ornate altar in the world could improve upon the invitation of Jesus to that table to come and share in His body and blood and just receive fully His invitation to fellowship with Him and allow Him and His glory to dwell in us.

As you go to that table tonight, just be full of gratitude for His life in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

27 God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27, CSB)

Dear ones, that hope is sure. That hope is sure, and you’re walking in it. So go home happy tonight, even if life is hard. Amen? Amen. Come and be thankful.

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