The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA

The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA
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Truth. Power. Love.

Episodes

  1. Nov 2

    2026.11.1 TFHC – The Permanence of Love | 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

    November 1, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI. Lord, Moses worshiped you, knew you face to face. God, we want that level of intimacy with you. We want that level of love, that we are fully known and that we fully know. And so we long for that day, and we press into it tonight. We thank you for your omnipresence. We thank you that your presence is here. But Lord, we'd ask that we would hear your voice and your Spirit would move and shape us by our community, by our prayers, by the Holy Communion, and by the Word that is spoken. We ask it in Jesus' Name. And God's people said Amen. All right, we're going to continue talking about love. So, 1 Corinthians 13, Part 2. Verse 8. "Love never ends." And that's what we're talking about tonight. Love never ends. This is the permanent thing. This is the thing that lasts. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:8-13, CSB) And so I want to talk tonight about the permanence of love. And Paul, in the first part of 1 Corinthians 13, describes the characteristics of love, what it is and what it isn't. He does a great job of that. I just want to summarize. Love is that kind of committed, persistent pursuit and desire for the ultimate best of the beloved. It's not the warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies, which our culture kind of describes as love—warm, affectionate feelings or romantic feelings—are a great aid to love. It's easier to love when you have affection. It's easier to love when you're infatuated. It's easier to make sacrifices for, and to make commitments to, and to serve another person that you really feel affectionate toward. Or it's really easy to do that kind of stuff when you really feel attracted to a person. You know, you'll do anything to get—to get that attraction back. But that's not what love is. Those things are simply aids to love. Love, in fact, is doing those things even when we don't have that affection or that attraction. Love is that commitment to do the best on behalf of the beloved consistently and faithfully. And therefore, it's patient and kind and, you know, not boastful and proud and not envious or rude, and all the things that Paul talks about. And love, in connection with—and this is what 1 Corinthians 13 is about—Paul is connecting it with spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12, you remember, he's talking about spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 14, again, he's going to be talking about spiritual gifts in the life of the church. And so love is sandwiched between talking about spiritual gifts in the life of the church. Why? Because the church is the school of love. Here's where we learn to love. All right? And spiritual gifts are the tool belt that God has given us in the Holy Spirit to serve the purposes of love. That's Paul's point to the Corinthians: they were using spiritual gifts, sometimes the way we use spiritual gifts now, to serve the purpose of showing off, of showing everybody how spiritual I am. "Look at me, I've got a great prophetic ministry." Or "Look at me, I heal the sick." Or "Look at me, I speak in tongues." But that's not the point of spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are submissive to the service of love. And Paul says that spiritual gifts are transitory. They're going to go away. When the perfect comes, we won't need spiritual gifts anymore. Now, some of you may come from old dispensational cessationist views that taught that "the perfect" was the canonization of the New Testament. Exegetically that's nonsense in this context. We know it because he says, "then I'll know face to face." The perfect is when we meet with Jesus. When we meet with Jesus, we won't need to prophesy anymore. When we meet with Jesus, we won't need to speak in tongues anymore. When we meet with Jesus, we won't need to heal the sick anymore. When we meet with Jesus, we won't need to use our gifts to lead the church in administrative skills. When we meet with Jesus, we won't need to extend mercy to the sinners. There won't be any left. And so spiritual gifts serve us now, but they're temporary. They're not permanent; they are not lasting in the new heavens and the new earth. Spiritual gifts, again, are God's tool belt of love. God called me to be a pastor, and as a pastor, it's very important that I'm a good prayer. Here's the problem with that: I'm a bad prayer. I'm not a good prayer. I am a left-brain rationalist. All right? I analyze everything. It's hard to get into a really flowing, wonderful, loving conversation with God, spending hours interceding for the saints, if you just are overthinking everything. I don't mean overthinking in the way my wife overthinks everything. I mean just trying to, you know, break everything down logically. Not to insinuate that my wife's overthinking isn't logical, but it's of a different nature. As my daughter says, "I do the stupid logic thing." That was her comment as a teenage girl when I tried to fix one of her problems. As only an 18-year-old girl could do, she clicked her tongue, sighed, and rolled her eyes audibly. You could hear her eyes roll. And she looked at me and said, "Dad, are you going to do the stupid logic thing again?" Broke my heart. So I couldn't pray because of the stupid logic thing. And my guardian angel—this is how I picture it—my guardian angel went to the Father and said, "You know, that boy came to Jesus, and I know you want him to preach, but that boy can't pray a lick." God says, "I know he stumbles over that. He's not good at that." And the angel said, "What are we going to do, God?" "Well, see those Pentecostals down the street? I'm going to get one of his friends to take him over to their house, and I'm going to have my daughter and my son lay hands on that boy, and they're going to lay hands on that boy, and that boy is going to get a gift. He's going to get a gift of praying in a way that his mind isn't overanalyzing everything. I'm going to give him a whole new language so he can't even think about it." So that's why I pray in tongues. I tell people I don't pray in tongues because I'm spiritually elite. I pray in tongues because I was spiritually deplete. I needed help. Well, I won't need that help later, all right? We won't need these spiritual gifts. They won't be a part. They are transitory; they are passing away. And so, Paul says, "Don't put spiritual gifts ahead of love." They serve love, not vice versa. The point isn't that you have spiritual gifts. The point is that I've given you spiritual gifts to love one another. You're not going to need them ultimately. They are the tools of a child. But when we come face to face with Jesus and we reach telos, we reach perfection and we're in that eternal state, we can put away these elementary things. We can put away these childish things. They're not childish in the sense that they're immature. They're childish in the sense that they are building blocks that we learn and practice to get to something better. How many of you enjoy reading? All right. How many of you enjoyed learning the alphabet or learning rules of grammar and spelling? All right, we got a few nerds. All right. But those weren't ends in themselves. Those were means to an end, so you could read and enjoy literature later on in life, so you could read your Bible and benefit and profit by it. We're not relearning the alphabet. We're not relearning grammar and spelling. Now we've put that away, and we enjoy comprehension and reading. And so love serves this. He says, "We're looking now in a mirror that is muddled, but we will see face to face." You need to understand, in the first century, mirrors aren't what they are today. They weren't, you know, these pieces of glass that give a very accurate, though reverse, representation of what you're looking at, two-dimensional, not three-dimensional. But it wasn't that. It was a polished piece of bronze, and so it wasn't a perfect reflection. Well, what does he mean, "we're looking in a mirror"? It means that right now, our relationships, our love relationships, our relationship with Him, our relationships with one another are muddled. How many of us follow Jesus? And we know enough to follow. We're like, Peter, "I know you have the words of eternal life; Lord, I'm following you." And yet how many of us don't understand what God's doing, don't understand what's happening in our lives, can't make sense of why some of our prayers get dramatically and quickly and remarkably answered, and others just seem to hang out there? And we seem to pray the same way for both circumstances. And it's confusing and it's hard, and we don't know the… You know? And even look at St. Paul. How many times does St. Paul say in his letters, "I hope I've not run this race in vain"? Here's a man who shaped Western civilization more than anybody except his Master, Jesus, but, as a servant of Jesus, is probably historically the leading servant of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he goes to his death going, "I hope I haven't run the race in vain." And 2,000 years later, we're reading his letters. He didn't know that. He didn't know a brilliant mind like Isaiah Miller would be studying these letters 2,000 years later and benefiting from them. Paul didn't know that. It was muddled. He

  2. Oct 26

    2026.10.25 TFHC – The Armor of God | Ephesians 6:10-20

    October 25, 2026, Message by Stevin Johnson Transcribed by Beluga AI. We exalt your name, King Jesus. We exalt your name, Ancient of Days, Wonderful Father. We exalt your name, Wonderful Counselor. The Come-Alongside-One, the Comforter. Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this place. We welcome you upon the reading and the teaching of Scripture, and as Stevin brings the Word, Lord, may it be infused—just as you inspired the Scripture from which it comes, would you just inspire your servant, Stevin, and then also, Lord, would you awaken our hearts that your Word would make a home in our hearts tonight so that we would get not just Bible information, but Bible transformation? And so, use your servant to deliver, but Lord, open up our hearts to receive. We pray it in Jesus' Name, Amen. Small crowd, but, you know, I am going to read some Scripture, and then we're going to talk about this small crowd here who are a bunch of heavenly warriors and about getting ready, getting battle ready, putting on our armor and going forth and doing what we've been called to do. Going to start out with Psalm 34, and this—showed Kevin at men's group… I got my new new Bible. Yeah, right there. Just the flop open and, you know, easy read. All right. Psalm 34. 1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. 2 I will boast in the Lord ; the humble will hear and be glad. 3 Proclaim the Lord 's greatness with me; let us exalt his name together. 4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant with joy; their faces will never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them. 8 Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him! 9 You who are his holy ones, fear the Lord, for those who fear him lack nothing. 10 Young lions lack food and go hungry, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing. 11 Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 Who is someone who desires life, loving a long life to enjoy what is good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech. 14 Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry for help. 16 The face of the Lord is set against those who do what is evil, to remove all memory of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. 18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit. 19 One who is righteous has many adversities, but the Lord rescues him from them all. 20 He protects all his bones; not one of them is broken. 21 Evil brings death to the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be punished. 22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants, and all who take refuge in him will not be punished. (Psalms 34:1-22, CSB) I got a few Scriptures here. We're going to kick off before we get going too far. But again, we're talking about the armor of God tonight, and I pray—you know, I follow Kevin's prayer, which I totally agree with, that the meditation of our hearts and the words of my mouth will be delightful to the Lord, who is our Rock, our Redeemer, and in His name we're praying tonight, and we're studying His Word. So, I'm going to start with reading you Isaiah 59:15-21. 15 Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil is plundered. The Lord saw that there was no justice, and he was offended. 16 He saw that there was no man— he was amazed that there was no one interceding; so his own arm brought salvation, and his own righteousness supported him. 17 He put on righteousness as body armor, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. 18 So he will repay according to their deeds: fury to his enemies, retribution to his foes, and he will repay the coasts and islands. 19 They will fear the name of the Lord in the west and his glory in the east; for he will come like a rushing stream driven by the wind of the Lord. 20 "The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression." This is the Lord's declaration. 21 "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the Lord: "My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children's children, from now on and forever," says the Lord. (Isaiah 59:15-21, CSB) All right. Ephesians 6:10-20 is one of my many go-to Scriptures. It reminds me of who's really in charge and who's really our protector. 10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. 14 Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, 15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit —which is the word of God. 18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. 20 For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should. (Ephesians 6:10-20, CSB) So, like I said, Paul was writing this to the Ephesians in Ephesus while he was a prisoner in Rome. So, Ephesus was a city in Asia Minor with an estimated population of about 250,000 people. And a very small portion of that were Christians that Paul had relation with and knew about. He was writing to them to encourage them. Because in Ephesus, you know, they were pagans, so Artemis was who they worshiped. It's who the silversmiths and the vendors made money selling idols to the Ephesians, to worship Artemis. And now you got this group of people amongst them who are preaching that there is this one true God, and it's disrupting everything. So the city is kind of going against them. They're not happy about them; they're persecuting them. And Paul's writing to encourage them to remember what they've been taught and to be prepared to do spiritual warfare, which is pretty much what's going to happen and is happening from then and even to now, because of the powers and the evil forces that are in the world. They're in the midst of the enemy, and he's telling them about the weapons that they have available to them. And that's kind of what I want to talk about tonight. And as I kind of led in, you know, we're a small crowd here, and anybody who might be listening on Rumble or YouTube, there's a group of mighty warriors in this room who are all equipped for battle and who all know a lot of this. But sometimes we need to be reminded. I know I need to be reminded that I have this really—it's kind of an invisible armor. But we all are armored up. And there are other things that Paul mentions in here about who the enemy is. All right, so… initial orders. Having spent a lot of time in the military, both on the offensive side and then in the planning, operations side, the commander usually comes out with an initial OPORD, right? And in that, he states, "This is the situation. This is what we're going up against. This is my intention for what you're to do, and this is the outcome that I want." So, though Paul is not the commander, we all work for the commander who's our boss—Jesus. Paul's going out there and he's saying, "Put on the armor of God. Put it on and then stand. This is what I'm telling you to do. Stand against the evil forces, the principalities, and the powers of the earth." 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11, CSB) This message transcends through the thousands of years that this has gone on to us today, too. It's still an OPORD for us to stand. And what does that mean? What does "standing" mean? "Standing" is to do just that. Hold your ground. I'm not giving you permission to back away from what you know, which we don't want to do as Christians, right? We know that Jesus came. He was real. He's our Lord. He told us a lot of good things about what the Father and who the Father is and what believing in Him, the outcome is. We're going to eternal life to live with Him. So, stand. And we're going to be standing in the strength of God, so there's the things that come from that standing. And I was thinking I would do this, but I'll probably just embarrass myself. So I'm not going to do this. But take your best Marvel movie, you know, and how they—I still don't know how they defy gravity. They're superheroes, I guess, but they can drop from the top of the building. Then, you know, they do their stand. "Here I am ready to do battle. I'm not afraid of anybody because I know who I'm fighting for." In our case, we know who we're fighting for. So get your Marvel stance, stand your ground. This one in particular, it takes courage, right? And what is courage? Courage is being afraid and going out and doing it anyway, right? I'm sure these guys

  3. Oct 19

    2026.10.18 TFHC – What Love Is And What Love Isn’t | 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

    October 18, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI. That prayer, "Holy Spirit, come…" If any of you are familiar with the history of the Vineyard movement, that kind of became their prayer. And it started in the 1980s sometime, early in the 1980s, when the Jesus movement… kind of the much-flawed catalyst of the Jesus movement was a young hippie named Lonnie Frisbee. And he, you know, helped Chuck Smith, and they got the Calvary Chapel movement going. And Lonnie and Chuck had their differences, and Lonnie's kind of in and out. He's struggling with his marriage and struggling with his sexuality, but also preaching Jesus and baptizing people in the ocean… And I'll tell you what, revival is messy, and Lonnie Frisbee was messy. But he got invited to the early Vineyard Church—John Wimber was the pastor—to speak at this evening service. They'd been praying for healings and miracles and outbreak and revival, and nothing much had been happening. So they invited, thought, "Well, let's bring this guy. He's been kind of a catalyst for movements. Let's bring him." And I think it was Father's Day. I believe it was a Father's Day that evening he preached, and Wimber was kind of a little nervous. He said, "Well, you know, this guy, he's got, you know, good reputation, bad reputation…" But he invited him to speak, and so he spoke. And as he was speaking, Wimber thought, "Oh, this is a fine sermon." A bunch of young people, just a crowd full of young people, and he's just exhorting the young people to follow Jesus and give their lives to Jesus. And they're like, "Oh, this is good. This is great." Then he said—Lonnie Frisbee said something about, "… and the Spirit of God is grieved because He's been kept out of church too long, and that is about to end." And then he said those words. He said, "Holy Spirit, come," and Wimber said, it was like a bomb went off in the building. People falling and laughing and speaking in tongues, and the mic fell in front of this one kid, and he was speaking things. And Wimber, he thought, "This is not good. This is pandemonium. This is not good." He was really troubled by it. Some people got up and left, but other people were seeming to be incredibly touched. All night long, Wimber was struggling with that, and he just was struggling. He looked in his Bible, and he tried to find the prayer, "Holy Spirit, come," which, by the way, isn't in the Bible. So therefore, you can't pray it. You know, you also can't pray for "travel mercies" and "guide the doctor's hands," by the way, by that criteria. But hey, there you go. And he didn't sleep a wink that night. He had a friend in Colorado who had a dream, didn't know anything at all about what had happened the night before, but he had a dream about John Wimber. And in the dream—either that or the Lord spoke to him when he woke up in the morning—He said, "Call John in Anaheim, and tell him that was me." He said, "What was you, Lord?" "Just tell him." And so this guy calls him. He's been up all night praying, and that is his specific prayer. "Lord, was that you? Were you doing that or was that the devil?" You know, and he gets this phone call. It's his friend Tom from Denver. And his friend Tom says, "I don't know what this is about, but the Lord said to tell me to tell you, 'That was me.'" And it kind of launched the whole thing. It kind of launched this movement. And then it became—you know, can become kind of a ritual—became almost a ritual in Vineyard whenever you had an altar call to pray, "Holy Spirit, come." But I was actually at a Vineyard conference where the pastor of the largest Vineyard church in the United States, in Ohio, by the name of Rich Nathan. This was way back in the '90s. And he just got up and he had a bunch of people up. He didn't do it dramatically; he didn't shout it or anything. He said, "All right people, we're just going to pray. Holy Spirit, come." And you just see it just like, wow, people just started crying out and falling. And Nathan just kind of very casually goes, "I love it when this happens. I love it when this happens." And a story on that one is—and I think I've told you this story—and I think it happened here. But a few years ago, I was at Grace Covenant conference, and my brother-in-law had finished speaking, and then a Dallas Elder had said, "Kevin, why don't you get up and pray?" And I, you know, I hadn't been thinking about what to pray about and everything. I got up, and I was reminded of that. The Lord just kind of reminded me of that. "Oh, pray, 'Holy Spirit, come.' And then watch what happens. These people are just going to explode in here." And I just got up there and I said, "Holy Spirit, in the Name of Jesus"—full of expectation—"Holy Spirit, come." And they all just stared at me. Nothing. Kind of like right now, just like, "All right, nice prayer." Except on me. When I prayed that, He came. You know where He says, "I can feel you flowing through me." That's a real thing. It doesn't happen to everybody. It doesn't happen all the time, but it can happen where it's like-for me, it's like a 400-pound angel jumps on my back. Except it doesn't hurt, but it's like, "Oh my gosh. Okay, there it is." You know, sometimes I'll be praying for you people, and it's like, "Holy Spirit, come," and it's like, "No, on them, not me." But every time I pray that prayer, it happens. And I don't know, did I do that here? I think I did. One night I just said, "Do that here." So anyway, it's not a bad prayer. Got to try it once in a while. Just, you know, just, "Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, come. Just come." And listen. People react differently. There's nothing wrong if you don't have physical manifestations. There's nothing more holy about you if you do. I just know whenever I pray that prayer, I feel it. Something happens. And so I think that guy in Colorado is right. I think it's the Lord who does that. All right, dear ones, we're going to speak about love tonight because all this other stuff we talk about—we talk a lot about spiritual gifts and miracles and all this kind of stuff, and it's all great. But you know what? It is not the heart. It's not the heart of the matter. The heart of Christianity, the heart of Christian ethics, the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, the heart of what it means to be in relationship with God and relationship with one another… the very center of it, and the thing that matters and the thing that will last for all eternity, is love. It is love. I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. 1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7, CSB) Love never fails. What the world needs now, according to Dionne Warwick and St. Paul, is love, sweet love. What we have done with that word in modern culture in the 20th and 21st century—actually started in the 19th century with a philosophical age called the Age of Romanticism—you know, really made a profound impact on literature. Didn't it make a profound impact on literature, right, Aiko? You know, and nature and romance and feelings all came to the forefront, and we've thrived on that. Media thrives on that; our music thrives on that. We've reduced love to feelings of affection, feelings of warmth, feelings of goo, like, "Ooh, I just feel all gooey." And we hold it up as the highest value, and especially we hold up as the highest value romantic love, that attraction love. And that if you do anything to violate that—you know, heaven forbid you should restrain yourself and practice chastity—you're denying love. Heaven forbid that you shouldn't leave your wife and children and pursue another person because they're your true love. That's the right thing to do, even though you made a promise and you're ruining other people's lives. No, that's not what love is. That is actually one of the symptoms of one of the types of love. And in and of itself, it's not bad. That feeling of being in love is not a bad feeling, alright? It's a good feeling. It's also a trick. That feeling of being in love, that feeling of attraction, is a trick God uses on humanity, so we do a really dumb thing called having babies. You know, immediately after you have babies, it's hard to have that same feeling because what? You now are two people who are totally exhausted and, you know, you both smell like sour milk and it's like, "I love you so much. I love you too. Take a bath." You know? And real life hits. When I did youth group, you know, and kids would be like, "Oh, I'm so in love." It's like you're 16, of course you're in love. You fall in love every week. That's not what love is. That's a piece, that's a small piece of love, and it's a good piece of love. There's nothing wrong with it, except when we discard what real love is in pursuit of that. You follow? And real love is unconditional commitment to the betterment and the best of the beloved. Real love is an unconditional commitment for God's best and highest for somebody besides yourself. Or it's an unconditional commitment and allegiance to another person in loyalty or to God in loyalty. Real love is so much bigger

  4. Oct 12

    2026.10.11 TFHC – 10 Things I Pray For

    October 11, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI. I'm going to tell you ten things I pray for. All right? So, I don't know why these ten. Well, I will share why these are on my heart. I don't know why specifically these ten or ten is just a good number. But as I just sought the Lord in my old age, as I'm growing older, I thought, what do I want? What do I want to be? You know, what kind of man do I want to be? What do I want to be known for? What do I want my grandchildren to experience? What do I want the churches I pastor to experience of Jesus in me? And of course, I want all of Jesus. But for some reason, these five characteristic traits kind of have just struck me as ones that I just want to pray for. And maybe it's because they're ones that I struggle with. I certainly know I struggle with the last two. I'm not sure about the first three, but these are just, when I say my prayers—I don't pray these every day, but I pray these most days, and I pray them almost every Saturday night or Sunday morning before we have these meetings, these two meetings that I pastor. And so, I just want to share these ten. And if you pray for me and you think about it, you can pray for these ten things as well. The first five are character traits. Number one is kindness. Kindness is a manifestation of love. And you know, love is the supreme Christian virtue. And I really see in the world, especially now, with the anonymity that comes with non face-to-face communication on X, TikTok, Facebook, social media, and all this kind of stuff, I really see… And certainly in our political discourse—now, don't misunderstand me. I am not naive to think, "Oh, political discourse is worse now than it's ever been. You know, there's more vitriol, there's more division…" There have been times when the politics of our country have been more conciliatory and times when they've been more divisive. I certainly think media exacerbates it. But I always remember when people say, "Oh, politics have never been this divisive." Well, Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton. So there's that. There's that. And somebody conspired to kill the two Kennedys. There's that. Somebody shot at Reagan. You know, there's that. I mean, Abraham Lincoln got assassinated. It's always been vitriol and high emotion and passion in politics. However, amongst just people, it seems like there can be a lot of name-calling, a lot of just kind of abusive language under the safety of not seeing face to face. I just feel like there needs to be kindness in how we treat our neighbors and how we treat one another. And so I pray that I would be kind to people. The first two, kindness and encouragement, they also have something to do with my youth. I was always witty, but witty and insecure can be a toxic blend. My wit would come out in sarcastic and cutting comments to people. And I know I still tease, but I hope my teasing now is kind and not cutting. And you know, it grieves me that I got a lot of laughs as a young man at other people's expense, at their nerdiness, their physical appearance. I saw a guy at my 25th reunion and I did not take the opportunity to apologize to him. I don't even know that he was—he came up to me, and he's like, "Hey, Kevin, great to see you." And I felt like saying, "You should not say that. You should punch me," you know? And so I pray that my words now would be kind. And along with that, I pray that my words, instead of tearing people down, would build people up, that they would be encouraging. Barnabas is the son of encouragement. N.T. Wright defined that as the ability to equip others to shine, to excel at their highest, that you help others to excel at their highest, and you seem to have that ability. Paul changed the world. One of the reasons Paul changed the world was because he was with Barnabas when nobody else would look for Paul. Remember, it's Barnabas who brought Paul to the apostles and said, "No, his conversion is real." Not only that, it's Barnabas who went to Tarsus to find Saul and bring him to Antioch because that was the first place where Jews and Gentiles were starting to come together in this new community of Messiah-ed ones. Christ ones were coming together. That's the first place they were called Christians. By the way, that's one thing history got right. That's a good name for us: Christians, Messiah-ed ones. We believe Jesus is the Messiah, the King. We're the Christed ones, the anointed ones. It's a good name. Embrace it. All right? Anyway, it was Barnabas who brought Saul there. And it's very interesting. In Luke's account, when they go on the mission field, Luke always says, Paul and Barnabas. When they get back to Jerusalem, he reverses the order and says, Barnabas and Paul. That's not a mistake. That is a rhetorical device. Rhetorical? No. What's the writing word for that anyway? It's a device he uses. Literary device. Thank you. Thank you. Aiko, why'd you let Brian beat you on that? You should have been on that like a pack of dogs on a three legged cat. I mean, come on. We were so impressed with your writing after last week. So, it's a literary device. And the literary devices say, "Who is the prominent one here?" Who is the prominent one? On the mission field, it was Paul. But in Jerusalem, Peter and John and James, the pillars, they'd listen to Paul, and they looked to Barnabas. "Is he okay? Do you agree?" You know, it works that way in churches, by the way. It works that way in churches. When I first got here, I preached at a little Filipino church. It was a very ethnic church. And I would watch. They asked me to be their pastor, and they really didn't want me to be their leader. They wanted me to be their chaplain, which was fine, that's legit. But I didn't want to do that. But I would look around a room, and when they were talking, I would watch and see who they looked at to see if that person was nodding in agreement or had a worried look on their face. It was like, "Oh, he's their leader. He's their leader." I remember at another church, this sweet farmer got up, and everybody respected Harold Fox. Speaking of kindness, he was the kindest man you ever want to meet. But they were having this big argument on whether to buy property and move the church. And of course, all the traditionalists: "No, this has been our church building for years. God never changes, so we'll never change addresses." And then there are the more progressive people. It's like, "No, we're outgrowing this building and the Sunday school class, and it doesn't work anymore. We need a new building." And then there were the fiscal: "We don't want to raise all this money for a church building. We can give that money to the poor." And other people said, "If we raise money for a church building, more people will come to church, and we'll have more money to give to the poor." And they're all arguing everything. Harold got up there and he said, "Well, I've been here so long, I remember when we were having this discussion about this church building, and we decided to buy the property and build this church." And he just looked and he goes, "Nobody lost their salvation over that." And he sat down, and the meeting was over. It was like, "Oh, yeah, we should probably buy that property." Because Harold spoke. He was the leader. He was kind, and he was an encourager. And I think those two kind of go together. I believe God gave me a quick wit and a quick mind, but not to tear others down, but to build others up. And so, I pray for kindness, and I pray my words would be a blessing from heaven, not a curse from hell, that they would build others up and not tear them down, and they would help others be the best they can be in Christ Jesus. So you could pray that for yourself, but if you ever pray for me, pray that for me. Say, "Yeah, Lord, help Kevin be nicer and more encouraging." I want to be that way. I truly do. I don't want to be a grumpy old man. I don't want my grandchildren to see a grumpy old man. I still get grumpy in traffic. But I always remember my Christian comedian. He said, "Remember the kind of people who hate traffic: people with cars. You know, you're entitled. You're living large." So, I just drove halfway across the United States the last three days. Only got in traffic a few places. Not a whole lot of it in Wyoming or Montana. If you don't like traffic, there's your huckleberry right there. A lot of wide open spaces in those places. So anyway. Third, I pray for wisdom. The Bible says this is more precious than silver and gold. This is how to apply the knowledge and information you have in such a way that it actually works well in life. You know, have you ever met somebody who had an incredible memory, an incredible mind, just a wealth of information and knowledge about a particular subject, and yet still, as you looked at them, you thought, "That person's dumb as a bag of dirt? They don't know how to live life." And then you might meet somebody who's uneducated and basically simple. And yet in their simplicity, there is wisdom. It's like they know stuff. They know stuff. Kind of that idea of homespun wisdom. Education does not make you wise. Education has its value, especially if it doesn't get in the way of learning. Learning has more value, and education should be a tool for learning. But more important than education and learning is wisdom. Now, wisdom with a lot of education and learning is great, but I'll take simple wisdom over highly educated any day of the week. Information is knowing that there's such a thing as bridges to cross rivers. Knowledge is knowing how to build one. But wisdom is knowing if we should build one and if we should build it here or there. There's a difference. And the Bible says seek wisdom, pray for wisdom. Here's a great

  5. Sep 28

    2026.9.27 TFHC – Charismatic Emphasis | 1 Corinthians 14

    September 27, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Amen. Thank you for the great gift of your life for our sin on the cross, your righteousness, by the power of your Holy Spirit filling our lives. Thank you, God. In Jesus' Name, Amen. All right. A couple weeks ago I preached on why we are the way we are, or why we are who we are. And I talked about why we are Protestants. Anybody remember that? Good for you, class. So I'm going to do part two tonight. Remember I said it was a two-part sermon? And since we spoke about spiritual gifts last week, this is kind of appropriate. Why is it that the Firehouse Church kind of has what you might call a Charismatic emphasis? I'm going to talk about five things that would indicate that. No, let's say six things. Yeah, let's say—no… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Let's say five things. There we go. We'll do five. Anybody favor five? We'll do five. All right. 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. 2 For the person who speaks in a tongue is not speaking to people but to God, since no one understands him; he speaks mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the person who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation. 4 The person who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 I wish all of you spoke in tongues, but even more that you prophesied. The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be built up. (1 Corinthians 14:1-5, CSB) Let me also read verses 13 through 19. 13 Therefore the person who speaks in a tongue should pray that he can interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15 What then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with my understanding. I will sing praise with the spirit, and I will also sing praise with my understanding. 16 Otherwise, if you praise with the spirit, how will the outsider say "Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may very well be giving thanks, but the other person is not being built up. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you; 19 yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, in order to teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. (1 Corinthians 14:13-19, CSB) Verse 39. 39 So then, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. (1 Corinthians 14:39, CSB) Those touch on two of the things I want to talk about in terms of spiritual gifts. The first one is speaking in tongues. By far, this is—in the 20th century, this particular gift became the distinguishing mark of what would be called Charismatic or Pentecostal Christians. And it was associated with a theology that said you are filled with the Holy Spirit, and the evidence that you're filled with the Holy Spirit is that you speak in other tongues because of what happened at Acts 2. The Holy Spirit came. They were filled with the Spirit and then began to speak in tongues. 4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts 2:4, CSB) If you do a study through the Book of Acts, and we've done this before, of all the times it talks about being filled with the Spirit, speaking in tongues appears. Not in every case, but in many of the cases, lots of things appear. Prophecy appears. Power appears. Release of praise appears. Boldness is pretty consistent, and that appears. Not baldness. Boldness. Yeah. I knew that's why you were laughing. I knew that's why you were laughing. Courage—there you go, Karen—appears. And so, all these things appear. But speaking in tongues… There are two manifestations of speaking in tongues. Both are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14. One manifestation is what happened in Acts 2. They spoke in known languages, and people understood those known languages. So that is, in fact, an interpretation. Somebody could interpret what was being said. They didn't have to interpret out loud, but it was edifying to those people, which is the point of an interpretation, that you speak in tongues and somebody else gets edified because they understand, either through an interpretation or because you're speaking a language, they understand what you're saying. And in that sense, speaking in tongues works like prophecy. It's for the edification of people around you. Why does God sometimes do that, where he'll have somebody speak in tongues and somebody give an interpretation? I don't know. Because He likes to. Because that's the way He wants to do it. He wants to involve many people, maybe, in His process. I don't know why He just doesn't give a prophecy in English, but He gives it in tongues, and somebody interprets it into English. I don't know why that He does that. I know this, though: God's smarter than me, and He can do it any way He wants. And there are many people who say that's the only legitimate use of speaking in tongues. Either it has to be a known language that people understand, or it has to be a language that somebody can interpret so that everybody can understand. There is no other validity to speak it in tongues. To which I disagree, and I think 1 Corinthians 14 disagrees because Paul says when a man speaks in tongues, he edifies himself, but unless there's an interpretation, he doesn't edify anybody else. Does that mean that self-edification is somehow selfish or greedy or bad? No, we do all sorts of things. When you have your quiet time at home and read your Bible, I'm not being edified unless later you share that with me in some kind of teaching. But if you just study your Bible and get built up in Christ during your quiet time, I'm not edified. Well, does that mean that edifying yourself by your own private quiet time and study of the Scripture is a bad thing? No, it's a wonderful thing. And in fact, it does indirectly help me because it helps you be strong. And if you're strong in the Lord, that does in fact impact me and help me. I like to use the example of speaking in tongues devotionally as kind of a spiritual weightlifting. So I watch a lot of football, and in football, you have guys who are well over 300 pounds, basically kind of sumo wrestling with other guys who are well over 300 pounds. And there's another athlete who's not over 300 pounds. He throws the ball really well, but he typically is not a big athlete. He's a smaller athlete. He's called a quarterback. He does not sumo wrestle with people. He is the object that one group of people is trying to get to and smash to the ground. Another group of people, big people, are trying to protect him from getting smashed to the ground so that he can throw the ball down the field to a guy wearing the same colored uniform who will catch the ball, run a certain distance, and my team will get points. We will win and feel vindicated. Now, the person who throws the ball is called the quarterback. The big sumo wrestlers who protect him are called offensive linemen. Does the quarterback want his offensive linemen to lift weights and edify themselves? You bet he does. He will pay them to lift weights. He will do whatever it takes because he definitely wants his guys to be stronger than the guys who are trying to get him. So it's not selfish to edify yourself. It is, however, not helpful to practice that self-edification in a public gathering, especially where there are people who can't understand what you're saying or don't even understand spiritual gifts and tongues. It just is a confusing mess to them. There are churches that still disobey this and do it all the time, and I don't agree with that. I don't know this is a fact, but I know how much I speak in tongues, and so I don't know that I speak in tongues more than all of you, but I do know that I speak in tongues a lot in my private devotional life. It really helps me. It helps me pray, and then I pray in English. I do exactly what Paul says. I pray in the Spirit, I pray in known language, and sometimes I'll just flow back and forth between the two, and it helps me. There are times when people are telling me problems, and I'm trying to listen. I'm trying to listen to them, and I'm trying to listen to God, and I'll multitask. I'll begin under my breath just to speak in tongues, not so as they can hear me and be upset or confused, but it just helps me to listen. How many of you have been in prayer groups where a bunch of people are praying, and your mind starts to wander? I find that if I'm in a prayer group and people are praying, and I gently, under my breath, kind of speak in tongues, my mind doesn't wander nearly at the same rate that it does when I don't do it. I don't know why that's true. My brother-in-law, who's a counselor, and also kind of a Charismatic Christian, says it is hard to fixate on anxious thoughts. You know, people who have high anxiety and obsessive thinking, and they can't, you know, get off the subject?... They just keep going around and around the same thing, and they know they shouldn't be, but they can't stop thinking about it. Their kid has a fever, and it keeps going up, and "Oh my gosh, my kids are going to die. Then the world's going to come to an end, and there's going to be a volcano, and the Russians are coming, and the Chinese are going to take over the world." And my brother-in-law says if you pray in tongues, it's really hard to have obsessive thinking. I haven't struggled too much with obsessive thinking. Most of my obsessive thinking revolves around

  6. Sep 21

    2026.9.20 TFHC – Spiritual Gifts | 1 Corinthians 12

    September 20, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI. Thank you for the divine romance. Thank you for loving us. We just want to say back to you, we love you too. And we are very grateful for the goodness of God. How many of you resonated with that song? "All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so, so good." And man, I don't know if there's any 67 year old alive more grateful than me. God has just been good to me and you guys are a part of that, so I just thank God for you. I thank you, God, for the Lord Jesus Christ and His great love for us, your great love for us. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and with us. Thank you for the Church. Thank you for one another. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for Holy Communion. Thank you for all of it. In Jesus' Name we pray, Amen. All right, we're going to be talking about spiritual gifts tonight. 1 Corinthians 12. I was going to divide this up into two sermons, but it just kind of… it's a unit, man. It just holds together. Actually, 12, 13, and 14 are all a unit. Let me read it to you, and then we'll dive in. So it's going to be, because it's the whole chapter, it's going to be, you know, 31 verses of reading. Because we live in the electronic age, I know that will take more than one or two minutes. I just ask that you will extend your ability to pay attention for a whole 31 verses without looking at your phone, unless you're reading your Bible from your phone. You can do it then. That's not sarcasm toward you; it's sarcasm toward the culture. So I just wanted to let you know that. And I'm a part of it. I look at my phone all the time. 1 Now concerning spiritual gifts: brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led astray by mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person. 7 A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good: 8 to one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit, 9 to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues. 11 One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills. 12 For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 15 If the foot should say, "Because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body," it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I don't belong to the body," it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. 19 And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" Or again, the head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. 23 And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, 24 which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. 26 So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, leading, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way. (1 Corinthians 12:1-31, CSB) 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 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, we're talking about spiritual gifts tonight. There are two enormous gifts of the cross of Christ, of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we receive in the New Covenant. These are the two enormous gifts that the New Covenant bestows upon us. God establishes a covenant with us and says, "Here's what I'm doing. Here's my part of the covenant." And His part of the covenant is: in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. That's an enormous gift. You don't have to kill a ram. You don't have to kill a goat. You don't have to offer a cow. For once and for all, the perfect priest has offered the perfect sacrifice, and our sins are atoned for. We are forgiven before God for our sins, not by trying really, really hard to be really, really good, but by repenting of those sins and putting our faith in Jesus Christ. By agreeing with God that those sins weren't good or right or should continue and turning toward God in faith, our sins are forgiven. Baptism. We look at baptism as the washing away of those sins, as dying to the old sinful man and rising to the new, spiritual, holy, spiritual man. And so, you are—I just want to say this. If you don't hear anything else the rest of your life, hear this. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. My thousands and thousands of sins are forgiven. Karen Miller's two sins are forgiven. The two sins she's committed in her life… Karen, they're both forgiven. Brian's like, "Wait a minute. I got a few more than two." Karen, there's three kinds of people in the world. There's three kinds of people in the world. Those who can count and those who can't. So, your sins are forgiven, all right, dear ones? Second gift. It's not just that God makes you clean on the outside, but He puts His Spirit inside of us so that we… The Son of God, became human so that humans can become sons and daughters of God. The promise is that we get to be like Him. That's the promise of heaven. The promise of heaven isn't the good place. The promise of heaven is that we get to be good. There's not a person who walked through those doors tonight who didn't at some level think, "I want to be a better person." I want to be a better person. You want to be a better person. I've got great news for you. God has put His Spirit in you to make that happen. And He will complete the work He has begun in you. He will not quit. We get to not only live with Jesus, we get to be like Jesus. And so, He makes us like Jesus. And then a subset of that is—so those are the two great gifts: forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit. That's the New Covenant. He makes us like Jesus in two ways. The first way is He makes us like Jesus in character. We call that the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Our character gets changed from sinful, wicked, selfish, me-first human beings to people who actually are filled with the love of God. And we can love God, and we can love others, and our character is transformed. God doesn't love us because we're good, but because God loves us, He is set on making us good. And that's good news. My desire to be a better person will be completed by God's work in me, through His Spirit. So in eternity, in the new heavens and the new earth, I won't be going, "Man, I wish I wouldn't have been so mean to that person," or "Man, I wish I wouldn't have been so selfish," or "Man, I wish I could get over this nagging sin." It's going to be gone. It's going to be gone. And that will be joyful, that will be peaceful, that will be blissful, that will be beautiful. I can't think of a better gift than being like Jesus. And that's the gift that's promised. But we not only get to be like Jesus in character, we get to be like Jesus in power. That is, we get spiritual gifts to do the ministry of Jesus. Spiritual fruit to have the character of Jesus, spiritual gifts to do the ministry of Jesus. And we're asked to do the ministry of Jesus. Jesus is our Lord. And we are told to go make disciples of all the nations. We can't do that. We're bad at that. How do we do that? How has Jesus changed the planet? We're watching in our Sunday school class: Jesus, the Game Changer. Jesus has shaped the world for the last 2000 years, and He's continuing to shape the world. Western civilization was shaped by Jesus of Nazareth, by this crucified carpenter. How did He do that? He did that by this Word, by this gospel, by this goodness spreading to the world through ordinary vessels like you and me. We are the contagious carriers of the goodness of the Lord in the land

  7. Sep 14

    2026.9.13 TFHC – The Lord’s Supper | 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

    September 13, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI. We want to leave this place in more awe of you and more wonder. We want to leave this place more in love with you and more in love with one another. And Lord, all those things are possible by your Spirit. All those things are your intention, by your Spirit. And so work that in us tonight. We ask in Jesus' Name, Amen. Amen, dear ones. Well, Karen, you broke up the boys' club. No, no, no. It's always good to have a rose among the thorns. It's always good to have a rose among the thorns. Look at that. You give your husband a nice little kiss. You're a good wife. Men respond well to that. Men got no problem with that. That's right. Brisket helps. Yes, it does. All right, we're going to dive into 1 Corinthians 11:17, the Lord's Supper. 17 Now in giving this instruction I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. (1 Corinthians 11:17, CSB) Man, he really lays into the Corinthians in this letter just time and time again. 18 For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19 Indeed, it is necessary that there be factions among you, so that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20 When you come together, then, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. 21 For at the meal, each one eats his own supper. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk! 22 Don't you have homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you in this matter! 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 27 So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. 31 If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged, 32 but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world. 33 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another. 34 If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather together you will not come under judgment. I will give instructions about the other matters whenever I come. (1 Corinthians 11:18-34, CSB) God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, dear Lord Jesus, our Rock, our Redeemer, our King. Amen. 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) All right, so first we have divisions over Paul and Apollos and Cephas, and then we have sexual immorality. Then we have—I don't know, what else was he talking about? There's pride in the church. There's disorder. There's disorder in worship. There's immodesty going on and confusion. And now he's talking about their times when they gather together and have the Lord's Supper. In the early church, oftentimes, and it was often the case, even when we started here in Poulsbo, we would come together and we would have a meal before our worship time. We had a facility. We were able to do that. Every Sunday we'd just have a little food and we'd eat dinner together. Then we would have our worship time. The early church would do this often. They would gather for what they called a love feast. And then with the love feast, they would also then celebrate communion. And in Corinth, the love feast had become an opportunity for people to show up early, eat all the food, and get drunk. When the people who had regular jobs and couldn't afford to bring as much food came to the love feast, the rich people were drunk, and all the food was gone. Paul says, "You want me to commend you for this? No, I don't commend you for this. I'm sorry. You don't get commended for selfishness and drunkenness. You just don't. That's not honorable. That's not what we're after. That's not a love feast at all. That is an indulgent party on your own part. And therefore, you're creating a caste system, and you're practicing selfishness and licentiousness, drunkenness." He says, "This is not what the Lord intended by the Last Supper, by the new Passover that we have now." He says, "It's caused divisions among you." In this case, he says, "Let me tell you, there's a silver lining to the divisions, because in the divisions, we're going to find out really who has the heart of God. We're going to find out who the real leaders are." And actually, in our current situation, our current fallen state, though divisions are regrettable, oftentimes divisions help clarify things. We have creeds. We have the Apostles Creed, we have the Nicene Creed, we have all these creeds in the early church. And those creeds were caused by divisions. And the Church had to gather together and say, "What is it we truly believe about…? What is it that is essentially Christian? What is it that is essentially true about the nature of Christ? What is it that we want to, in unity, preach and teach?" And so that happens from time to time. Divisions bring clarity. I think the Protestant Reformation, that was a division, but it brought clarity about certain things that the church had lost clarity on, you know, justification by faith and the priesthood of all believers. We talked about this last week, some of the things that move brought some clarity to, and that's the silver lining. But ultimately, in the mature body, you have no divisions, and you certainly don't squabble over things that are unnecessary. And so here they are. There's drunkenness, selfishness, and class distinctions at the love feast. And Paul says, "No, here is what I'm passing on to you. Here is what was taught to me as I met with the early disciples about the Last Supper, about the true meaning of the Passover, the new Passover. And just as the Lamb was given and just as the blood was shed on the doorpost, so Jesus said, 'I am the fulfillment of that, and I'm the Lamb of God. My body is given sacrificially for you. This is my body. I'm the Lamb of God. I'm the sacrifice.'" Isaiah 53: By His stripes you are healed. "My love is given through my body, given for you." And then He says, "This blood which I'm going to pour out, nail-pierced feet and hands, spear in the side, crown of thorns on the head, whips on the back—this blood that's going to fall on the ground, that's going to spill on the ground, that's going to come out of my body and spill on the ground—this blood is the blood of a New Covenant that God is making. God is making now a New Covenant. You had a covenant with Moses, but now I am the Messiah. I am the fulfillment of the covenant God made with David. And I am making with you now, a new and more powerful and better covenant. And it's going to be demonstrated and sealed and signed and delivered by my blood. This blood is the New Covenant." What do we receive in this New Covenant? We receive the forgiveness of sins. We receive the forgiveness of sins. In the old covenant, how are your sins forgiven? By repeatedly bringing sacrificial animals to the priests, and the priests then would make offerings of these animals, and that's how you were atoned for. That's how you were forgiven, by the blood of these animals. But Jesus says, "That covenant was a picture of a New Covenant, where my blood is so powerful and so pure and so true. I am the spotless lamb. I'm the perfect sacrifice. And I'm the perfect priest to offer the perfect sacrifice, and so this sacrifice can be given once and for all so under the blood of this covenant, your sins are forgiven." You know, we use phrases that gross people out—and I don't recommend using this right away with a person you're trying to share Christ with. Don't ask them if they've been "washed in the blood of the Lamb." They won't get it. But we get it. We get that that blood shed is the doorway for forgiveness of sins. And by faith in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. Now, you're all sinners. You've all committed sin. Even Micah, young as he is. There have been times he's probably been a little stinker, I'm guessing. Ats isn't shaking his head "yes" or "no," but, you know, he's got a smile on his face. There's been times your dad's been a stinker, Micah, and Stevin and me and Isaiah, and Brian and, believe it or not, even Karen. No, Paul already claimed that. Paul already claimed that. You're second. All right. Yeah, even Karen. And I want to tell all of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you come to Him in faith, your sins are forgiven. That's the benefit and the blessing of the New Covenant. The second benefit and blessing of the New Covenant, the second thing God does with this covenant—this is what God is saying… God's saying, "I'm going to give this to you. This is my side of the covenant. I'm going to give this to you like the old covenant." He said, "This is what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to be your God. You're going to be my people. I'm going to give you a land flowing with milk and honey. I'm going to

  8. Aug 31

    2026.8.30 TFHC – Propriety In Worship | 1 Corinthians 11:1-16

    August 30, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI. Amen. So we sang songs about the name, the Name of Jesus, and we talk about there's this power in that Name. There's power. It's not magic, but when you believe, there is power in that Name. I'll tell you a story. Very young follower of Jesus… I was a very young follower of Jesus. I was a Young Life leader. I was going to college, went to camp, and there was a very… you know, I took some boys from our club to camp, but some boys from another area also came to camp, and they didn't have a leader, so they threw them in my cabin. So I was in the cabin with these other boys I knew nothing about. One of those boys was very significantly troubled… had a very rough background… abusive stepfather. You know, I didn't know the whole story, but he was carrying a bunch of baggage. And so, I have these boys, and they're in my cabin, and they're just being high school boys. They're a handful, but, you know, and I don't know, there are about five or six of them. This guy really didn't hang out with the rest of them. I tried to spend time with him at camp. And one night as we're sleeping, I'm in my bunk right here, on the lower bunk. He's on the upper bunk, kitty corner from mine up here. And I have a terrible nightmare. Only the nightmare was not, you know, monsters or witches or being chased. It was just this deep, inky, black, dark heaviness descending upon me and holding me down in my bed, stifling my words. And it just kept increasing and increasing. This blackness, this heaviness just kept increasing on me. And I'm struggling against it. And this is all in my sleep. And then I just shout out. Just finally I get it out, and I just shout out, "Jesus!" And it broke. And I woke up and literally, that boy is on this bed up here, and he is flopping like a fish that's just been caught. Yeah, it was bizarre. I didn't know what to do with that. So I think I did the smartest thing a young, young life leader can do with that when the devil is making a boy flop like a fish in your room. I prayed and I used that Name again and again. And after a while, he calmed down. He went back to sleep. I, however, did not go back to sleep for quite a while. Had a little adrenaline going on that night. But I'll never forget that the Name broke that blackness, and then the Name calmed that situation. It is a powerful Name. He is a powerful God. So when you don't know what else to do, say, "Jesus." You learned it in Sunday school, right? If you don't know the answer to the question, go, "Jesus." You got a chance of being right. You got a chance of being right. All right, we're going to look at a very difficult passage because it is a little culturally obscure to us, but it also contains some things that aren't obscure but are controversial in our day and age, and so we'll look at those things as well, and controversial in the church. The church argues about these things and what these things mean for us today. And so we'll look at some of those things. 1 Corinthians 11:1-16. Let me read them to you. 1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ. 2 Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head. 5 Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since that is one and the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman doesn't cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her head be covered. 7 A man should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God. So too, woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman came from man. 9 Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. 10 This is why a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, and man is not independent of woman. 12 For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman, and all things come from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her as a covering. 16 If anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other custom, nor do the churches of God. (1 Corinthians 11:1-16, CSB) And 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. Amen. 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) Well, that is so abundantly clear and easy to follow that we'll just move on from there. But basically, Marilyn did good tonight. She has her head covered. Ats, obviously very disgraceful. There you go. The rest of you women, you're just… I don't know what you're doing. You're just coming here. You haven't prayed or prophesied. Maybe you're doing all right. I don't know. So what is Paul talking about here? Well, before we get to what Paul is talking about on those controversial parts, there's actually another controversial part right at the beginning, and people really get offended with Paul at saying this, but I just admire his confidence. He says this: 1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1, CSB) Imitate me as I imitate Christ. I always tell people, the two most important people and the two people I respect most, both have the initials J.C.: Jesus Christ and Jill Clancy. And I say that in that order. I said, if everybody just listened to Jesus and did what Jesus said, the world would be perfect. But I said, listen, if that's too hard for you, just listen to Jill and what she says, and the world would be much better. I'm convinced of that. All right? So, imitate me, Paul says. What's he saying there? He's saying, "I have walked with Christ for a while. I have suffered persecution. I have a daily walk with Jesus. And I know Jesus is no longer here. And I know how human beings function. Human beings need leaders." And Paul says, "Follow me as I follow Jesus." My dad used to say, "Do what I say, not what I do." But it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. And so, Paul is saying, "Imitate me. Why? Because I am imitating Christ." And, dear ones, as we walk this life of discipleship out, it's important to find people who are imitating Christ, who we can imitate. I realize that I have been—I look for this… I still look for this. I've looked for this every day as a Christian. I'm looking for people, I'm looking for men and women who follow Jesus so intimately and so well that I can glean something from them, that I can learn something from them. I look for it in people I know. I also look for it in people who have written things. And I also look for it from Christians from history. And so I have all sorts of heroes that have helped me in my walk with Christ. But I have to say this—and this was something that truly discouraged me earlier in my Christian life—is that I began to discover one after one after one of my heroes had feet of clay. They all blew it somewhere. Except Jesus. They all said something stupid, did something stupid. They all were, in my humble opinion, mistaken at a certain point of their theological understanding, whatever. And so, none of them were perfect. And what we do in our culture, unfortunately, is we all, we love heroes, but the minute we find that they're not perfect, we love to throw them out. What I've learned to do, or what I at least have tried to learn to do, is called "eating the meat, but not the bones." Throwing out the bones. I remember the first time I realized I disagreed with C.S. Lewis. I was devastated. How can I ever read another one of his books? Well, I gleaned so much from reading his books. Why would I throw that all away just because the smartest man I ever read obviously wasn't as smart as me, because he was wrong on this point, though, perhaps more humble? And the same has been true of every spiritual leader that I have followed. And I've learned that the best way to do it is to just benefit from how they most reflect Christ and then have compassion and understanding for the fact that they're just like me; they're less than perfect. I wanted to be a great example for my kids as a follower of Jesus, and yet my kids could tell you I was a less than perfect Christian man, a less than perfect father. My wife could tell you I'm a less than perfect Christian man, a less than perfect husband. You can say, "He's a less than perfect Christian man, he's a less than perfect pastor," but you don't throw it all away. Maybe, maybe tonight you'll glean something. If God can talk through a donkey, you'll get something. The second thing is, why not set it your goal to be a person who can say, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ"? Why not be that kind of person? Why not be the kind of person, not who's bragging, but the kind of person that others can imitate? I'm self-deprecating. I try to be self-deprecating. But I do remember one time, this was one of the best things I ever heard from anybody's mouth. And there was just a couple that I knew, and we were just friends with them. And years ago, they said, "Kevin, whenever around you, we feel closer to God." Man, I would love that to be true of me. I would love that for people to be able to say, "Whenever we're around you, we feel c

  9. Aug 24

    2026.8.23 TFHC – Guard Yourself, Guard Your Neighbor | 1 Corinthians 10:14-33

    August 23, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI. All right, dear ones, we're making it through Corinthians. For years I didn't preach much on Paul, and it wasn't a bias on my part. I just found myself really caught up in the Gospel and Acts and other places… the Psalms. But I think I've done my due diligence here. I went through Romans a year ago, and going through 1 Corinthians this year. I don't know, we might dive into 2 Corinthians after we get done with 1 Corinthians. We'll see where we go. We'll see where the Spirit leads us. But we're in 1 Corinthians 10. We ended with no temptation has befallen me, but what is common to man. And God is faithful. He'll not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will provide the way out so that you will be able to bear it. You'll be able to walk out of it, bear it. 13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13, CSB) And now he's going to talk about the temptation toward pride—pride in your freedom and to idolatry, committing idolatry in your Christian freedom. And so, starting at 1 Corinthians 10:14. 14 So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I am speaking as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I am saying. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, since all of us share the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons! 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons. 22 Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? 23 "Everything is permissible," but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible," but not everything builds up. 24 No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person. 25 Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, without raising questions for the sake of conscience, 26 since the earth is the Lord's, and all that is in it. 27 If any of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions for the sake of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, "This is food from a sacrifice," do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience. 29 I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person's. For why is my freedom judged by another person's conscience? 30 If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I criticized because of something for which I give thanks? 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, 33 just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved. (1 Corinthians 10:14-33, CSB) 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) All right. Idolatry is a big problem. It's a big problem throughout the Bible. I've been going through the Bible, now—a couple years ago, if you remember, we went through the Bible chronologically and probably was about three chapters a day. We had to probably read about three chapters a day to kind of keep up with that. So now I'm going through the Bible a chapter a day. And so it's going to take me a little more than three years to finish. I'm about a year, a little more than a year in, about a year and a quarter in. I'm in Chronicles, and I'm just going through Chronicles. And I'm going through this period of Israel's history—and this is not going to end in my Bible reading. I understand this. I got two Bible studies going on on Thursday. One we're going through Jeremiah, and the other we're going through Isaiah. You know, I'm doing a Bible study with Isaiah and with Isaiah, I'm going through Jeremiah and with the other people, I'm going through Isaiah. You know, you just complicate things. You just do. You're not simple. So that's all right. That's one of the reasons we all like you so much. But one of the things I think Ats and Stevin, Isaiah and myself, we can all say is, boy, those prophets talk a lot about idolatry. That's a big problem. And it's not that Israel or Judah ever gave up entirely on Yahweh, but it was always a mixture. And Paul says in this passage, "Are you provoking the Lord to jealousy?" God is a jealous God. The Bible says that. He's a jealous God. Now when we use the word jealousy—this is an unfortunate way language works; translations don't kind of come across smoothly because 99 people out of 100, when you use the word in English, "jealousy," they immediately go to what we would call petty jealousy. You know, that the guy at the park… "You talking to my wife? What are you talking to my wife for, man?" Because I want to invite her to grow close to Jesus, you know? My wife's standing right next to me. You know, it's like, I'm not hitting on your wife. What are you, a knucklehead? You know? And we think of that kind of jealousy, that kind of childish… Two sixth grade girls, and then a third sixth grade girl enters the picture. And you know, these two sixth grade girls have been besties forever. Then this third girl… and this other one of the girls starts kind of being a semi bestie with that other girl. So the girl whose bestie is leaving her for another girl, what does she do? She goes on TikTok and says she's fat and she has zits, you know, or she does it more subversively than that. And you know, it's this petty kind of jealousy that takes place. That's not what the Bible means when the Bible says God is a jealous God. What the Bible means is God is fiercely protective of that which is His by right. "Israel's mine. Israel, you're mine. Don't go worshiping other gods." Listen, I do not have to... My wife is a jealous wife. She guards our marriage jealously. She's not jealous in a petty sort of way. If I hold a woman's hands and pray for her, my wife has no problem with that. If I lay hands on her head and pray for her, she has no problems with that. And my wife is fully committed to the doctrine of non-divorce. She says divorce is not an option. And she says, "Kevin, if you ever cheated on me, I would not divorce you. I would kill you." She's clear on that. Divorce is not an option. "I said, 'Till death do us part and you would die.'" And she's fiercely jealous about that commitment, one to another. That is a rightful kind of jealousy. She's not pettily jealous. You know, as a pastor, women seek counseling. I talk to all kinds of women all the time about very personal details of their lives. My wife trusts me in that. She's good with that. But she's jealous about the thing that matters, that union that we have as man and wife. There's a great movie made years ago about a famous basketball player. I think it was Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas was a point guard for the University of Indiana and then for the Detroit Pistons. And, you know, he was a Hall of Fame point guard. He's small for a basketball player, 6'1". He's a tiny guy, quick as a… quick as a… Yeah. Small basketball players are different than small human beings. If you're 6'4" and you play in the NBA, you're tiny. Not currently in the NBA. Mugsy Bogues. Mugsy, yeah, he was quick. Spud Webb was 5'7". But those are by far the outliers. Isaiah Thomas was considered small at 6'1". Anyway, the story goes, Isaiah was a… was big family, lots of brothers and sisters, single mom in the hood. I don't know if it was Detroit or one of those Midwestern cities. He was growing up in the hood. He was a basketball prodigy. You know, anybody who's that good in their 20s usually are that good at 10 and 11. Everybody goes, "Oh, this kid's different. This kid's different." And everybody knew Isaiah, you know, had a chance to go somewhere in basketball. The only thing that could derail him was the neighborhood. Drugs, gangs… And sure enough, the gangsters came around when he's about 12 years old trying to recruit him. That's what they did to every boy in that neighborhood. "We're your family. We'll protect you. We'll look out for you. We look out for one another. Those guys across the cross on the other part of town… they come gunning for us, we come gunning for them. You know, life is dangerous. You be with us. You be with us. We'll teach you how to be a man." Because not a lot of people out there teaching them how to be men. And so they're recruiting young Isaiah, and Isaiah's listening to them. And all of a sudden, this little woman comes out of the house with her hand behind her back—Isaiah's mom. She's got her arm, she's got her right hand behind her back. She comes out and says, "You boys get out of here. You leave my boy alone." And they cuss her. They say, "Shut up, woman. Go back in the house. None of your business." You know, cuss words and this and that. And they're just like, "We're taking your boy." And all of a sudden, with the guy who's doing the most talking, standing closest to her, from behind her back comes a sawed-o

  10. Aug 10

    2026.8.9 TFHC – Proverbs 3:1-12

    August 9, 2026, Message by Stevin Johnson Transcript coming soon. The post 2026.8.9 TFHC – Proverbs 3:1-12 appeared first on The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA.

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