2026.5.24 TFHC – Salt and Light | Matthew 5:13-16

2026.7.12 TFHC – Love Over Knowledge | 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

July 12, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI [https://easycloudai.com/beluga/]. So, 1 Corinthians 8. > 1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. 4 About eating food sacrificed to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him. 7 However, not everyone has this knowledge. Some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food sacrificed to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not bring us close to God. We are not worse off if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat. 9 But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? 11 So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. 12 Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won’t cause my brother or sister to fall. (1 Corinthians 8:1-13, 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 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) So, Paul is dealing with a series of issues in the Corinthian Church that he planted and spent 18 months there. And so he introduces each issue with these words: “Now about…,” “Now, concerning…” And so the first issue, if you remember, were divisions in the Church—”I’m of Apollos, I’m of Paul, I’m of Cephas.” The second has to do with sexual morality and what marriage means and what it means to be husband and wife and marriage and divorce and singleness and all that. The Corinthians were saying first, there were divisions. Second, they were saying, “Since we have liberty in Christ, we can still go to the temple prostitutes and indulge there with the prostitutes. But, you know, we’re free in Christ to do that. We don’t worship those idols anymore. But we still…” And Paul says, “No, you can’t do that. You can’t join your body, which is joined to Christ, to that of a prostitute. And don’t you know, in God’s ideal of marriage, one man, one woman… It’s found in Genesis… one man, one woman. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, be united to his wife, not his wives, and the two will become one flesh.” > 5 and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? (Matthew 19:5, CSB) And that is strongly reinforced then in the New Testament. I know in the Old Testament they practice polygamy. There are reasons for that, historical reasons. There’s reasons God allowed it, mostly for the protection, safety, and care of women. But God’s ideal has always been to represent His covenant love with His people, with the picture of marriage. And so that he reinforces that to the Corinthians. Now, the third issue he’s bringing up is food offered to idols. And you think, well, if the Bible is ever irrelevant, it’s this. I mean, none of us today are in a quandary over—you know, we went to Safeway, and we were looking in the meat aisle and said, “I don’t know if this food has been offered to idols or not. I don’t know whether I should get it or not.” You know, when I went over to Brian’s house and he would graciously barbecue up for us burgers and brats, I never—my conscience was never smitten with—”I wonder if, you know, Brian dedicated these brats and burgers to idols before he put them on the grill.” I just ate them. They were good, you know, and when Stevin cooks something up, same thing, it’s like, it’s good. But there are analogies in our modern world. And the basic point Paul is making here is don’t let your Christian liberty, or as he calls it, your knowledge—and he uses that sarcastically with the Corinthians. Oh, your knowledge allows you to do this? Well, does your knowledge allow you to destroy another brother or sister in Christ who has a conscious qualm about this thing? And yes, you think their consciences are weak and you’re strong, but when you wound them, when you hurt them, you’re doing a great disservice. And so he starts by just being very clear up front. Knowledge puffs up, love builds up. And so this section is about simply this: the primacy of love over knowledge. The primacy of love over what you know or think you know. And so he deals with that because the Corinthians thought that they had arrived. They were a young church, but they were an arrogant church. They were all that. And later we’ll get to this issue on spiritual pride when he talks to them about spiritual gifts. You know, they use spiritual gifts in the wrong way. They use spiritual gifts to elevate their status. Look, I speak in tongues, you know, a lot… And I prophesy a lot… I’m more spiritual than you… I’m free to eat meat offered to idols… I’m more spiritual than you. And he’s saying, “You’re not spiritual at all. You’re destroying your brothers and sisters. You’re not spiritual at all.” Knowledge can only lead, he says here, to being puffed up and the sin of pride. Does that mean don’t study? No. The Bible says study to show yourself approved. Does that mean be willfully ignorant? No, don’t be willfully ignorant. But one thing’s true. There are very few areas in human life that are more prone and more dangerous to the sin of pride than intellect. And I always preach to myself. When I preach, I just don’t preach to you. And this one applies to me, man, because I love, love, love, love to win the argument. And part of that is… I think part of that is a gift. You know, I think logically, I think reasonably—I think I do—and I think things through, and I can articulate them. And that, I think that helps me be a teacher, but it also can make me a jerk. And I’ve done this. Now, some people are not offended because when I basically debate somebody theologically—not just theology, by the way, baseball versus sailing, for example, which is kind of a no-brainer—but, you know, I’ll debate people about all sorts of things, and I’m very opinionated. I’m very opinionated. And actually only a handful, not all sorts of things. There’s only a handful of issues I think I know anything about. You know, I would not debate Stevin about horses. Like, you’re the guy. I know nothing about horses. It’s just that they’re big, and I don’t want to get on anything that big. When I have a car, why would I? But I’ll trust you that there’s fun and joy in that. I’ll trust you with that. You know, I wouldn’t debate Brian about anything to do at all with math or engineering. I easily concede, you know way more than me about all that stuff. You know way more than me about bicycle repair, you know, you know way more than me. But when it comes to, like, the three or four issues that I think I know something about, you know, there we go. And some people like that interchange, and they’re not offended by it. Other people, when you’re just talking about things and say, “Well, what about this opinion? What about that?” And you think you’re just bringing stuff up, actually they see that as an attack. It took me a long time to learn that. People are like, “Why are you attacking me?” I’m not attacking you. I’m actually helping relieve you of your stupidity and ignorance in my humility and brilliance. I’m your friend here. Other people are fine with it. Other people are fine. You know, I got in an argument online with Josh D’Intinosanto, who’s our one Calvinist at Firehouse Church, and we were debating online. We were going at it, you know, it was on Facebook. And we had friends—I had friends interject and say, “Now, now boys, be good to each other.” And neither Josh nor I were the least bit offended. I mean, you know, I called him a gravy-sucking, determinist Calvinist, and he called me a semi-Pelagian, heretic wimp. And we were fine with that. It was like, all in love and so… But other people get offended by that sort of thing, and so you got to be careful. And so there was another guy I was debating with online, and the Lord just really—it was during COVID, and he was stating the principle, he’s a Christian man, and he was stating the principle that out of Christian love all Christians should get the vaccine because if you love your brother and your sister, you will get the vaccine so you won’t get and transmit the disease. And I said, “I concede that point if the data showed that the vaccine stopped you from getting and transmitting the disease.” But very quickly after the vaccine got going, the evidence seemed to suggest that the primary benefit of the vaccine was that it prevented people who had comorbidities and got Covid from nearly a serious case of COVID. And I thought, well then great, let my 80-year-old mother-in-law get the vaccine. I’m entirely in favor of it, but I don’t want my, you know, 30-something-year-old pregnant daughter to get it. And I certainly don’t want my grandsons to get it because I’m not sure what this thing does. You know, if you’re 80, 85 and it does something a little cattywampus to your body, yeah, you’re good. You’ll be all right. So, you know, we started arguing on Facebook over this, and we started going at it, you know. And at one point, you know, the Lord said, “Kevin, you’re not gonna change his mind. He’s not gonna change your mind.” He said, “It’s his page. Let him have the last word.” And I realized at that point, my pride. It’s like, because he had just said something that I had a perfect comeback to. “No, that point doesn’t make sense because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Touche. And the Lord said, “I want you to let him have the last word.” I said, “Okay, after I write this paragraph, then he can write the last word.” And it was very clear. The Lord said, “No, you keep that paragraph to yourself. Stop it.” And there have been several times since then where the Lord has just said to me, “No, you don’t have to have the last word. You don’t have to win the argument.” I got a feeling when I die and meet Jesus, He’s not going to say to me, “Hey, how many of those Calvinists did you put in their place? Hey, how many of those woke liberals did you show how wrong they were?” Oh, this is a big one for me. I’m at a baseball game, and some guy behind me is trying to impress his girlfriend, telling her stuff about baseball that is just wrong. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know the rule. He doesn’t know what the play means, you know, but he’s like talking like, “Yeah, baby, I’m a baseball guy.” There’s everything in me that just wants to turn around and nicely say, “Actually, that’s not true. This is what the rule is. This is why this happened.” And of course, I never do it because the Holy Spirit says, “Nobody cares about your opinions.” But the real principle is it’s better—being right is the booby prize of eternity. Loving people is the eternal reward. Love builds the body of Christ. Arguments do not. Debate does not. I’m not saying that truth doesn’t matter. I’m not saying there isn’t a time to stand for truth. But there are many things we divide over and get angry over that are really tertiary issues. And it’s fine to have an opinion, and it’s fine in the right context, with the right people to share those opinions and express those opinions. Like I said, I love that kind of environment. But many times it is wrong. And I love this: If you think you’re smart, if you think you have knowledge, you probably don’t. And I’ve actually discovered this the more—and anybody who studied any subject deeply has discovered what? The more you know, the more you know you, you don’t know. You know a ton more about farming, Ats, than you did five years ago. And not of her own wishes, so does Aiko. But one of the things you probably realize is, oh my gosh, there’s so much to this. There’s so much about raising pigs I don’t know. You know, there’s just so much, there’s so much stuff about owning, you know, and starting a farm. The minute you begin to think you know something, the minute you realize, oh my goodness, there’s all sorts of intricacies in this and there’s all sorts of… And so really intelligent people, really well-informed people are often very humble about, you know, the vast amounts of information and knowledge that are available. And that’s a great attitude because God knows so much more than we do about everything. We have such an infinitesimal grasp of reality. And so Paul says, you know, the more you know, the more you don’t know. And if you think you really know a lot, you’re probably ignorant. Then he says this, which I love. “But if you love God, then you’re known by God.” I don’t know about you, but the most scary Scripture in the Bible comes from Matthew 7, where Jesus says to those who come before him and say, “Didn’t we cast out demons in your name? Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we do miracles in your name?” > 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ (Matthew 7:22, CSB) And he says, “Depart from me.” And he doesn’t say, “You never knew me.” What does he say? “I never knew you.” > 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers! ‘ (Matthew 7:23, CSB) But here Paul says, “If you love God, you’re known by God.” Let me tell you something else because the Bible is very clear on this. John is very clear on this, as well as the rest of Scriptures. If you love God, you’ll love your neighbor. Why? Because He does. The most dull, uninteresting, boorish, annoying, obnoxious, mean-spirited person is loved by God. I saw a great meme. So funny. That’s the one value of social media. It’s not arguing as much as I, you know, would like to indulge. The one great thing about memes is humor. My wife and I always say, “Look at this.” We’ll show each other stuff. “This is a crack up.” And this one was just hilarious, this little cartoon. And Jesus is speaking, you know, He’s preaching to a bunch of people, like Sermon on the Mount. He says, “Love everybody.” And then the little voice bubble comes from the crowd: “Even Charlie?” Another one: “Yeah, Charlie’s a jerk.” “Yeah. Do we have to love Charlie?” And Jesus, kind of exasperated, goes, kind of sighs, goes, “That’s what everybody means. Yes, love Charlie.” Then you see another from a guy standing off on the side, another little bubble says, “That’s right! Suck it, losers.” And Jesus has got His hand on His head. “Charlie, you’re not making this easier, you know.” Love everybody. Who’s your neighbor? Whoever you’re in contact with, whoever you have road rage at, or whoever has road rage at you. Whoever is that government employee at the department of licensing who is going through a bunch of ridiculous bureaucratic questions that are just eating your time and life away. And you just have to smile and realize this is their job. This is what they’re trained to do. It’s not their fault, you know. And love them. Be kind. And be kind. Be kind to your wife and be kind to your husband, even at the times they annoy you. And just love the person you’re with. And just be kind and be compassionate and be patient and allow the love that you have for God to fill your soul. And love other people. God is not going to ask me how many people I won the argument with. I do think He’s going to ask me, “How many people did you love well?” And this is Paul’s argument. “I don’t care if you know that meat sold in the idol market is okay to eat. If your brother thinks it’s wrong, don’t sit in front of him and say, ‘Well, I have liberty in Christ and you just are a weak brother.’ Just eat something else that night.” Because eating food does not make you spiritual, and it doesn’t make you unspiritual. An idol in and of itself is nothing. A piece of wood, a gold statue. They’re nothing. They’re created things. Now, there are many impostors. There are spiritual powers that are behind those idols. Paul says, “There’s only one God,” but he says, “Then there are many gods, many lords, smaller case, G and L.” What’s he talking about? Well, remember when we read Michael Heiser and talked about the supernatural realm, the reality of the watchers, the reality of the principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness? Those are real things and they seek the worship of human beings, and they do that through the presentation of idols. But if you don’t believe that that idol is anything and you know that that power is real, but you acknowledge one God, one Lord, then that thing is powerless over you, and that meat has no power over you. Listen, demons work the demonic realm. The hellish realm only works through the agreement and invitation of others. In other words, if you believe the lie, the lie has power over you. If you don’t believe the lie, the lie has no power. There have been times where I’ve been doing a deliverance, and the demon has been kind of hard and snarky and resistant. And I’ll finally just say, “Wait, my boss rose from the dead. And your boss and all of those who work with you, all of hell, could not hold Him in the grave. you. You know that and I know that. And you have no authority here because of that.” See, the power is in knowing and believing the truth. And so Paul says, “Your knowledge is right. You can eat meat offered that has been offered to the idols and now is being sold at the market.” That’s what was taking place, by the way. They would offer these sacrifices at these idol temples, these idolatrous temples to these false gods. And then, because there was extra meat left over, they would just sell it at the meat market. And so people would buy it, and people would eat it. And Paul says, “That’s fine. I don’t care. I don’t care. If they got the best prices on ribeye this week, knock yourself out. But if you’re inviting a brother over to dinner who used to be heavily involved in idol worship, and that’s a stumbling block for him, eat vegetables. Eat vegetables.” Why? Because the principle of love is greater than the principle of knowledge. Those kinds of things, eating or drinking, do not make us more spiritual. But not everybody knows that. In our culture, it’s a few other things, right? I was an interim pastor at a denomination, and the denomination had a 16-statement statement of faith. And that was a good Christian denomination. I agreed with 14 out of the 16. Well, because I was working for that denomination or at least one of their churches, I never mentioned the two that I didn’t agree with. They were off the table. They’re tertiary issues. They’re not matters of, you know, first-level issues. Did Jesus rise from the dead? Is He our Lord? Is He our King? Did He rise from the dead? We all agreed on those things. We all agreed on the big things. But they had two things in their statement of faith that I was like, yeah, this is why I’m not that denominated. That’s why I’m not a pastor in that denomination. I couldn’t sign on to those things. And I feel like if you’re going to be a pastor and represent a group and they say, “This is what we believe,” I feel like you got be about 100% there. That’s just one of my scruples. I have friends who don’t believe that. I have friends in that denomination who actually have at least one, sometimes both, of the disagreements that I had, and they said, “Yeah, I just kind of held my nose and signed the paper.” I have scruples about that, right? That offends me. I can’t do that. But you know what? That’s my business, not theirs. Anyway, at this church, I didn’t know—it’s not in their statement of faith, but it is in their code of practice—that this church is officially teetotalers. All drinking is wrong. Now, I just want to confess to you. I’m a teetotaler. My father was an alcoholic. My grandfather was an alcoholic. All my uncles were alcoholics. Clancy family as far as… and on my mother’s side, too, plenty of them. You know, why did God invent whiskey? Why did God allow whiskey to be invented? So the Irish wouldn’t rule the world. All right? And we’re all Irish. I don’t know if it’s a genetic thing or some cultures are more prone or it’s a cultural thing, but I just grew up culturally just infused with drunkenness, and it was repulsive to me. And so I just didn’t… I remember the last time I took a drink, it was like early 1990s, and my wife and I went out to dinner. She went to the restroom, and I’m watching a ball game on TV, and I order a rum and Coke. It was kind of tasty. It was like, I usually didn’t like alcohol anyway, but like, oh, that’s kind of nice. And I know from my previous medical experiences of getting, you know, pain shots—you know how some people just hate those and they hate that feeling? I love that feeling. I could so easily be a heroin addict. Like, yeah, take me to the floaty place. And so I knew that that addictive propensity was in me, and I didn’t only know it from that one time. One time, I smoked marijuana… for seven straight years. So I knew. I knew I was prone to addiction. And I thought, I’ve seen this monkey on people’s back. I don’t want it. And so that night, the first time I really liked what alcohol tastes like, that night, that scared me. And I said, “That’s it. I’m not gonna have another drink.” And I haven’t since like 1992 or whatever it was. However, I’m not a teetotaler. In principle, if I went to your house and you had a glass of wine or you had a beer, I would not be the least bit offended or upset. If we smoked a cigar… Oh, there’s another one. But if we smoked a cigar out my backyard and you even brought a little bourbon with you, or whiskey because you like to pair it, as long as you didn’t get drunk, I’m good with it. That’s something people do; that’s something people enjoy. It’s fine, go ahead. Anyway, I preached at that church. I preached my view of alcohol, making sure to tell them I was a—I didn’t know their principal. And oh my gosh, you would have thought I said to at least some of those people, you’d have thought I said, “You know, it’s not really wrong to sacrifice your children to demons.” You know, I had brought up demon drink, and I realized that I offended some. And so instead of arguing my case when they came in and said that they were hurt by that, offended, I said, “I’m sorry I was ignorant of your denominational stance. Please accept my apology. I should have never preached that.” I was right, in my view of my view. But I was wrong because inadvertently I violated the principle of love. That should have been off the table. I could preach lots of things besides, “Hey, it’s okay to drink.” There is Christian liberty. Paul says, “Big deal, we all have liberty. But if you feel guilt about it, don’t do it. If you feel guilt about it, don’t do it. If your brother or sister feels guilt about it, don’t do it and tempt them to sin.” AA, meeting right over there. You know, it would be wrong for us on somebody’s first week of sobriety to say, “Hey, brother, I really… You know, Sunday night, man, it’s great, and it just culminates my week. And before I go home, I just like to go down to this little pub and just grab a beer. Why don’t you join me?” No, no, don’t do it. Jesus says, “Better that a millstone be casted around your neck and thrown in the depths of the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” > 6 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6, CSB) Your brother’s well-being, your sister’s well-being is more important than our precious right to Christian liberty, our being right. It’s better to deny your liberty than to cause someone else to stumble. You don’t have to flaunt it. Who cares if you’re right? Who cares if you’re right? I remember the first time in my life I was humbled. And God has not stopped ever since. I guess I need a lot of humbling. But I remember the first time, I was 3 years old and I had a tricycle. I would ride this tricycle, and I would ride it vigorously. Oh, I would ride it. Adults, trying to be kind and build you up, would overinflate their compliments on my bicycle riding speed. “Oh, Kevin, you’re just the fastest bicycle rider ever.” I took them at their word. “Wow, I’m the fastest bicycle rider ever.” So we had at a park by our house, in summer, there was a bicycle bicycle festival day. We all decorated our bicycles, got ribbons and streamers. We all did up our bicycles and we showed them off, and they graded that. I didn’t care if I won that competition. I didn’t win that competition. I didn’t care. But I knew the last competition… oh baby, it was going down. The last competition was a bicycle race. Never dawned on me at 3, 4 years old—this is one of my earliest memories—never dawned on me that 10 or 12-year-old boys with 10 speeds would probably win the race over me and a tricycle because I am the fastest bicycle rider ever. That was deeply ingrained in me. And boy, these, these kids are in for a schooling. They’re going to be so impressed with how fast I go on my tricycle. So, “On your mark, get set… Go!” Zoom, zoom, zoom. I think I came in third to the last. Two other small kids… I think one of them was crippled. You know, I was like, I was devastated. I thought I knew something. That day I learned I knew nothing. Now it’s a shame that God has had to teach me that lesson over again. But I am committed, at 67 and a half years old, I’m committed to being able to stand before Jesus and not get any accolades or how clever I was, how smart I was, however I was, whatever. I don’t think He’s going to be impressed. My wife’s not impressed, amazingly enough, with how many baseball stats I know. In fact, when I start to bring them up, I get an eye roll. Can you imagine? I spent years accumulating this information. It’s like, “Honey do you want to know what OPS means?” And she’s like, “Never, never.” Oh, man. That’s on base percentage plus slugging percentage as an indicator of how good a hitter really is versus batting average, which is a way overrated stat. Aren’t you glad I shared that with you now? Aren’t you glad you have that piece of information that will help you with Micah? “Well, Micah, what’s your OPS?” You know, so… No, what I want when I stand before Jesus, all kidding aside, is I want Him to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, because you gave a cup of cold water to the homeless person outside of the church in Bremerton. Because you shut up and listened to somebody with an opinion other than yours. And you were kind and you loved them. Because you delighted in traveling halfway around the world to see a group of people who are, by this world’s standards, infinitesimally less blessed than you are. And you were delighted and humbled to be in their presence and to see their delight at handing Bibles to them.” And your church didn’t really have anything to do with that. But you glommed onto this mission trip, and you were delighted with the pastor and the people of that other church at the good work that their church did, because guess what? That’s my church, too. One church. I told Peter, I said, “This is a win for City Chapel.” And then I looked and said, “It’s a win for the church of Bremerton.” And it was, Bill. It delights me even now to see, to just remember the light in those people’s eyes as we handed them their Bibles. It humbles me. It humbled me to sit and talk to those pastors and realize these men are facing trials that I never have to deal with. And they’re doing it faithfully and prayerfully, and they probably do not know the ontological arguments for the existence of God. And they’re miles ahead of me at being good pastors. So, dear ones, love looks out for one another, not just ourselves. It’s as simple as that. What is love? It’s not a gooey feeling. I mean, I remember when Jill and I first started dating. It’s like, oh, my gosh, I couldn’t, you know, just wanted to see her all the time. She wanted to see me all the time. We had that, you know, that infatuation going on. Nope. Love is—by the way, yesterday, 45 years. Thank you for your applause. Really applaud for her. Applaud for her. That’s why you didn’t clap. You all were thinking, “Wow, Jill’s an amazing person. That’s incredible.” I’m just saying, in five more years, if I’m still around and still preaching to you guys, I want a big blowout. You know, I want gift certificates for bacon cheeseburgers or something. I want a few cigars. I want something big. So… Yeah, you should try one before you knock it. Wednesday night, my house. She used to, when she was fun. Yeah, I think it was when, you know, she used to like baseball and cigars when she was in that twitterpated phase and wanted to impress me. And now, 45 years later, like, “That stinks.” We’re happily married, though. She’s a delight. All right, dear ones, love looks out for one another, not just ourselves. On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus Christ took bread and He broke it. He said, “This is my body, which is given for you, and this is my blood, which is shed for you.” > 19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19, CSB) There is nothing that has ever happened on planet Earth more revolutionary, more transformative than the God of the universe coming to earth in Nazareth as an obscure carpenter in a poor, occupied country and dying the worst, most humiliating form of death because of His great love. Nobody before Jesus and even people after Jesus. This is scandalous. Even today, Muslims think this is scandalous. Scandalous. We just sang, “How great is our God.” A great God would never do that. A great God would come as a conquering king. Guess what? He’s coming back as a conquering king. But He came first to demonstrate His love as a humble servant. And so with His beloved disciples, He tells them, “Never forget that when you come together, I want to invite you to my table, and I want you to do this and be bonded to one another and be bonded to me in this shared meal.” Don’t come with your opinions on what it means. You know, me, I have opinions on, you know, the communion debate and what it means. But I love what my hero, C.S. Lewis says. You know, “After all, the command was take and eat, not take and understand.” I’ll take communion with an Anabaptist who just feels this is just straight symbolism, nothing more, and a Roman Catholic who thinks it’s literally the body and blood of Christ, and me who think it’s spiritually partaking in the body and blood of Christ, but not physically or literally. And we can, even if we can do it peacefully, we can even sit down after church and talk about what that means. But here, right now, all I care is my King never said going—He never said, “Sing songs every week.” He never said, “Listen to a guy go on and on talking every week.” Though I think those are great exercises. He did say, “Do this when you gather together.” So, dear ones, what a great privilege that the King of the universe, the humble King who transformed the world with a sacrificial death, not with a sword and bombs and an army—the humble King, now in His great love, invites us to His table. So be nourished tonight. Come and take and eat. The post 2026.7.12 TFHC – Love Over Knowledge | 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 [https://thefirehousechurch.com/2026/07/16/2026-7-12-tfhc-love-over-knowledge-1-corinthians-81-13/] appeared first on The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA [https://thefirehousechurch.com].

2026.6.7 TFHC – Being Filled With The Spirit | Acts 2:1-13

June 7, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcript coming soon. The post 2026.6.7 TFHC – Being Filled With The Spirit | Acts 2:1-13 [https://thefirehousechurch.com/2026/06/07/2026-6-7-tfhc-being-filled-with-the-spirit-acts-21-13/] appeared first on The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA [https://thefirehousechurch.com].

2026.5.31 TFHC – Called by Name | Isaiah 43:1-2

Message by Ats Kagawa Transcript coming soon. The post 2026.5.31 TFHC – Called by Name | Isaiah 43:1-2 [https://thefirehousechurch.com/2026/05/31/2026-5-31-tfhc-called-by-name-isaiah-431-2/] appeared first on The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA [https://thefirehousechurch.com].

2026.5.24 TFHC – Salt and Light | Matthew 5:13-16

Message by P. Thomas Omenta Nyangau Transcribed by Beluga AI [https://easycloudai.com/beluga/]. So this evening we have as our guest Thomas Omenta, and he is a pastor in Kenya, East Africa. I’ll be going in a couple of weeks to visit Thomas and see the ministry there. He is doing Bible translations with our friend Eric Roberts for Wycliffe Associates, translating Bibles. Well, he’ll share with you. Translating Bibles basically into the heart language of the different tribal communities in Eastern Africa, helping get those projects going. He’s also working on planting churches. He’s going to share some stories tonight of some of the things God has done through that ministry. I met Thomas over a year ago. He was out again visiting Eric, and Eric and I were planning a Bible study at his house on a Saturday night that Thomas was there. Dallas Elder, the ministry director for Grace Covenant, also happened to be visiting me that same weekend. So, Dallas and I drove down and met Eric for dinner before the Bible study. Thomas was there, and we met Thomas and we went out and we had some barbecue. Very few things bond like good barbecue, so we bonded over barbecue. And I don’t know if it was the barbecue or the fellowship, but Thomas thought, “I like these guys.” We went to the Bible study together and we prayed together. Afterwards, Thomas kind of approached Eric and said, “You know, I haven’t found for the ministry I do I haven’t found a covering in Africa that I’m comfortable with. Would the Grace Covenant consider being my covering?” Eric called us and said, “What would you guys think about that?” I know Dallas is very, very cautious about that. He doesn’t want to just give it. Many times in Africa and other places, Americans have gone in and said, “Oh, yeah, we’ll cover you.” And it has not been a good relationship. The Americans weren’t invested in the relationship. They just wanted numbers. They wanted, “Oh, we’re doing this in Africa,” to have bragging rights. And for the Africans, oftentimes it was like, “Well, you know, Americans got all the money. We just want all the money.” And so, you know, the relationship started on a bad footing in both places. So with Grace Covenant, when we, you know, develop ministries in different countries, we lead with, not money and resources we lead with relationship because that’s what a spiritual covering means. We’re invested in you and your family, and you’re invested in us, and we try to get together. And of course, travel makes it difficult, though we live in a marvelous day and age where you can actually Brian, can you imagine this? You don’t have to ride a bike to Africa. It would take a while even for you. You don’t have to get on a boat with sails and trust the wind. Hopefully, you don’t get swamped by a storm and capsize in Paris in the ocean. It takes you eight months. I was complaining about the plane flight that I’m going to take, that it’s going to be 24 hours and hours in the airport. Then I thought, well, I could be going to Africa 300 years ago and it would’ve been a little harder. So anyway, the world we live in and the technology where Thomas and I can communicate over WhatsApp and etc . And we can travel back and forth as time and resources permit. This makes it easier to establish those kinds of relationships. So we commissioned Thomas as a Grace Covenant pastor. He now serves in that capacity in Kenya, in Thika, which is right outside of Nairobi, the leading industrial city in Kenya. He and his wife and three children are working, as I said, in Bible translations, planting churches, and training and equipping pastors. We are honored to have Thomas here. He is a good brother. And so, can we welcome Thomas here with more than a golf clap? Come on, you can do more than a golf clap. Good evening. Okay. Okay. So, thank you, brother. Thank you. It’s such a privilege and a wonderful honor to be here this evening, to have the privilege to share the Word of God with you. Thomas is my name. I come from Kenya. I’m married. I’m blessed with a family of three. My wife is called Masa Washuka, and my firstborn daughter, six years old, is called Solani Kellen. My son is called Jonathan Baraka, and my last born daughter, Tahila Imani. The Lord has been gracious to us. The last born is 15 months, and together as a family, we serve the Lord. He’s called us to do this work together. We serve with different organizations on Bible translation, both the written, audio, and visual. Now we are using Tango Technology. There is animation that we are using to bring the Bible to the communities so that those who have not gone to school can be able to hear and see the pictures. It is such an amazing experience. This evening, I want to share with us the Word of God from the book of Matthew 5:13-16. And I’ll read: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It shall then be good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. “You are the light of the world. And a city is set on a hill. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” > 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16, CSB) And this is, to me, a very profound portion of Scripture that really encourages me and reminds me every day who I am and what I’m supposed to do. We live in a world where there’s a lot of decay: decay in marriage, decay in society, and a lot of hopelessness, a lot of propaganda, and everything. It seems like everything is dark, and there is so much hopelessness around us. What do we do in those moments as Christians? Do we join and say, “Oh, yes, we are hopeless”? What do we do? One of the things why I love this verse, 13, is that it specifically talks about salt. Salt is found everywhere. It’s very simple, but it has very profound and tremendous benefits. Pastor Kevin shared that we had a barbecue. I’m imagining if that barbecue didn’t have salt, how sweet could that be? You can’t enjoy that food. Imagine having cooked that nice meal that you love enjoying, and you don’t have salt in it. You would not enjoy it. Salt has different things to do with our lives. And part of those things that salt has been presented to us is to help us preserve so that we don’t decay. As we live through life, so many things seem to be falling apart. But Jesus here is talking to this crowd, this part of the Sermon on the Mountains, reminding them, even when there is all this darkness, remember, you are the salt. He is telling you, you are the standard. The world is looking up to you. When everybody around you seems to be losing hope, you are the hope. And this has been the thing that has been me as a missionary has encouraged me to keep going every day to the field to do the work that we do. One of the stories I was sharing this morning I’m gonna go to it. Don’t worry, I’ll keep moving up, back and forth. This story is about a community in northern Kenya called Elmolo. It’s a thousand people only. So being a small community anywhere, that means economically, it’s not very viable. So it’s not mostly taken seriously. For a long time, they have had a drought because of the place where they live. Cattle are dying, and they are losing everything. They have no food. And the media can only say a bit of it. And after that, they leave it on their own. But we kept having this call: “Kindly, can we get help?” And one of the times I talk to Pastor Eric and say, “Hey, Eric, there’s this community up with the north. They are really, really suffering. And the deaths and all these, the pictures we are seeing and nothing’s been done. Can we do something about it?” Because it keeps reminding me: I am the salt, as a Christian. I don’t need to impact the whole world, but as salt, I can impact that section that God has given me. And Eric got a way of us getting some funds, and we went out there, gave them food, but we realized a small, greater need. They don’t have water. For a long time, they’ve been drinking water from the lake, which has very heavy metals, and children who are 15 years old, they don’t have hair because of the heavy metals in the water. The majority of them are sick because of the kind of water they’ve been drinking. And then we went up there and put up these wells. This is the first time those kids came to us when we were doing the pump testing, to come and just pray over the water. That was great joy for them, having clean water that they can drink. Not just clean water they can drink. Because of the presence of the heavy metals in this area, we had to put a reverse osmosis machine to make sure that they have clean water that is safer for them to drink. And when we went there, we did not just do the wells. We finished the wells, and the wells gave birth to a church that is now growing because they saw the love that was shown to them, and they wanted that Christ. And now in this area, we are having a very thriving church. And these wells are continuing, and these people now have an opportunity to gather, not just to get water, but also to share Christ. They are growing. Now, because of that, even other ministries are coming on. I was sharing this morning, the ministry, the Catholic Church has come in and built a school and also the part of the sanctuary. This community now has hope. Why? Because God has called us as a church to be the salt of the world, to go heal the wounds. You know, when we grew up and if I went out and played and I was hurt, my mom could wash me with salt before we go to the hospital. And you feel if you put salt in the wound, it stings it’s not nice, but it heals. And that’s what God has called us to, that we see our brothers and sisters who are wounded out there emotionally wounded, financially wounded, who just need help, who need somebody to talk to. In our offices, people have lost hope. Some of us have lost jobs because of how the economies of the world may be. Even in the darkness of the economies of the world, we have been called to be the salt and the light. You have been called to be the salt and the light, even when the doctor said, “There’s no hope.” But we know one thing: that our hope is in Jesus Christ. It’s not in what the doctor said. We believe in medical science; we honor that. But still, we know one thing: We will still put our hope in the Lord because He has called us to be the light and the salt of this world. Where there’s confusion, to be able to show direction. And that’s what all of us have been called to. This community has grown to be one of the most encouraging points that I’m people that I’m not related to, that you are not related because people gave money for these wells. They have never seen them, and they may never know them. But one of the things that they have given life. They have given light and hope to our people in generations to come. Now, because this community has started an irrigation scheme, they can now grow their own food. Because they have clean water that they can drink, their children now can continually go to school because of this act. That’s what God has called us to. And this is what Jesus is telling the disciples on this Sermon on the Mountain. You are the salt of the world. You and me. He’s addressing us directly and telling us we are the salt of the world. That neighbor that is hurting from something. It’s our duty to reach out and check on one another. That co-worker in the office that we feel everybody feels weird about, and everybody keeps staying away from them. Run into the world and be the light. And this has been the thing that has kept me going every day. Apart from that community, there’s this group called the Sanya community that we started their translation in 2023. The Sanya is in the south coast of Kenya, in an area called Witu near the Somali border. They are the farthest of us, and these are a Muslim community, all through a Muslim community. We had around 15 Christians in it, and we decided to do a Bible translation. I know when we asked for that opportunity to do a Bible translation, all the question was for only 15 people. Yes, Christ loves the 15 people in that community. They are the light of that community, and they are passionate, and they want to have the Bible in their own language. And Wycliffe has allowed us to start that. When they came, they brought an old man. This old man here. And this is the same man here. You see, the guy is 93 years. They brought him for the Bible translation, and he could not sit well on the seats. To me, I was very confused because he’s an imam. He’s not just an ordinary member of the mosque he’s the head of the mosque. And we kept asking them, “How did you do that? This is a Bible, and these two things don’t go together.” “He’s the only one who can help us explain the language better, because he knows the language better.” We made him sign documents that he’s gonna keep the integrity of the Bible. But we said, “We are going to keep checking because we have guys in your group who will keep the checks and the balances.” They did some work, left, and went home. This mango tree is now Grace Covenant Church of 35 people that came out of the Bible translation. They went home and started translation under this mango tree on the road in the village. So that as they every day they met to translate, people could pass and say, “What are you guys doing here?” “Oh, we are translating the Bible.” They joined the discussion. They joined the discussion. But the most amazing part of this is that this man, when they got the Book of John, he called the chairman, said, “I want this Jesus.” That was the turning point. All because the Christians in the community showed him love during the translation. They became the light, and they became the salt. They were never throwing stones at them. Even the ones who came during the translation under the mango tree, they showed them love and welcomed them to come and listen. And when they brought in their opinion of how the Word is supposed to be, they didn’t tell them, “Oh, keep quiet. You’re not Christian. You don’t know these things.” No, they allowed them and gave them an opportunity, and they felt important and they felt accepted. Dabbo gave his life to Christ one morning, the day before they went for the translation because he said, “You know, one thing I’ve been explaining back to you about this Jesus, I want him.” They led him to Christ. He gave his life to Christ. And he said not him alone. He also wants his friends. He invited some few old men who are Yeah, he invited this one, this one here, this one is the one here, and this one. And they are all leaders of the mosque. They gave their life to Christ, and that became a turning point for the community. We had so many people come to Christ because now this guy is telling them about Christ. He has known because he has been hearing and explaining the Scriptures to the team members to write it in their language. The Scripture has been doing something in him because when the Word of God gets into us, it brings transformation. And they gave his life to Christ. Not only him, but he brought many people to Christ through his testimony. Not only that, and he said, “All I’m asking for, please help me hold the Bible in my hands before I die.” We requested for special aspect of getting funds to move quicker, and we got that privilege. And last year we had a privilege 2024, we had a privilege of launching the New Testament of the Sanya community. And you can see the old man, he’s here holding it and with all his friends. And one of his friends, when we did this, he said for him now, he has done God’s work and is ready to go. And God is so gracious. This man, after two days of the lounge, went to be with the Lord, but with great joy. All he said, “Please keep loving my sister. My sister has not given her life to Christ. Show her the love.” Until today, the pastor of this church goes every week to just read the Bible for her, not to tell her to turn into Christianity because she just wants to hear the gospel. And that’s what God has called us to. You may not have the courage, the privilege of knowing a lot of theology to go and explain. Just go read and share. Just go tell somebody Christ loves them, and that causes and transforms a lot. We are the salt whenever we are. We have been called not just to come to church, not to be just members of a congregation, not to just give only, but also be the example. Show love, stretch our hands and help the strangers, stretch our hands and be kind to the neighbors, be compassionate to one another. Because that’s what being the salt means, that that neighbor needs just compassion to feel cared for, feel seen. And that’s what God is calling us to. And I can tell you a lot of stories and how I’ve seen this transform lives of people. This is a community called the Kiptani down in the Kerio in Kenya. We started that translation there in 2023, towards the end. This area has been having a lot of tribal clan clashes for a long time because of cattle rustling. Communities that keep cattle love stealing from one another. Some of this stealing is because of traditions for marriage. During the season for marriage, they steal to go and pay dowry. In the season for circumcision, they will steal so that they can prove to be warriors that have taken enough. And that’s the practice in this area. Because of that, there’s a lot of castle rustling, and it doesn’t end well. People die because of cows. People die because of goats for so many years. And it has grown into a great bitterness that has been passed from generation to generation. There are fathers telling the sons, “Remember, they kill your brother. And remember ” And then that goes down in generations. And we grow as a bitter generation and community. And for a long time, that’s what has been happening. So when they left the translation one of the communities called the Kiptani as they were going home, they were attacked by the neighbors, and two of the four of them were injured. They called, and they were taken to hospital. We helped out with that. Then they asked, “Will it be possible for you and Bishop Atanas to come along and help us with a mediation process?” I was like, “No, I’m not a mediator. I’ve never mediated anything.” And then I was 33 years. I’m like, “No.” And then I tell Pastor Eric, and Eric is like, “God has given you an opportunity. You better take it.” And anyway, we got an opportunity to go down there. But I went there with a lot of questions. I’m like, “Is this the wise thing to do? What am I going to tell them?” And one of the things I just told God, “You know, one thing, as you said I’m the salt. Help me bring favor as we go to that place. Help me bring the healing.” And we went to one person from our board, and we drove and sat there. This was our first meeting with the elders of that community. Not only one, all of them, they came together. The first time we had some, around five goats killed. We ate together. And after eating, now we can talk. And we had a huge conversation. We asked ourselves, “Is this how we want the generations to be for all the years? It’s over 20 years, the same senseless killing happening and stealing and hurting one another. Is that what we want to do?” And after that, the chief said, “We are going to gather together and start having meetings.” And they started having their own meetings. This is them now having their own meetings. And keep asking ourselves what we’re going to do. One of the meetings, they decided to say, “No. It’s high time we tell each other the truth.” This is what the gospel can do. They’re telling each other, “Now we’re going to tell each other the truth. We know who’s stealing. We know whose son is stealing. We know whose grandson did this.” And they wrote down all the names. And we advised them, “Don’t go to the authorities. Just try to mediate this within the community.” And they were summoned and they were told, “We know you and if this is going to happen, this is what’s going to happen. We will take action as a community. Now, because it’s either we, all of us, keep quiet and keep dying, or we take action and live by peace.” And after a while, they made a decision. “We will start returning the cows.” No questions asked. In this area, cows and all the animals every family has their own symbol. So the skin of the cow, with a hot iron, they put a mark on it. So I will know this belongs to that one. This mark is that family. That’s how they are marked. And this picture here, these are not cows being grazed. These are cows being returned because of the gospel. Now the community, after being told, “All the cows that you have that don’t belong to you, return them to the chief’s camp and we will nobody’s going to ask you a question.” These were returned, and I was told that last month 20 more were returned. And they’re doing until now. When anybody’s stealing, they’re like, “No, they don’t belong to you. And I’m not going to be the cause of lack of peace and the death of other people.” These cows have been returned, and they brought a lot of peace among the community. And we did not need to stop there. Then we decided to do this as an organization. We went out and decided to bring the youth together for a youth tournament. And this was fun. For a few months, we made them have their own competition in their own villages, form their own community team that you compete with the other communities. And the one who wins will go home with a prize, and we give them football, and we had a great time together with them for a whole month where we did this. And we did not only do this. In the process, in the field, the young people were greeting one another and saying, “We are sorry for what we have been doing. We have been hurting one another. You are just like me.” They realize they are one. They realize that just the things that have been passed through generations they have been told of the stories of how bad the neighbor is. That has kept them away from seeing the true person that is with them. And this group, as we did this tournament, has brought the youth together. And now they can talk together. And we did not stop there. By God’s help, we got an opportunity to have wells in this community. And we put them along the edges of the communities, so that two communities we share, three communities we share. So that now there are even more reasons to meet every morning and say, “Good morning, good evening,” because they share the water point. And that’s what God has called us to do, because we are the light and we are the salt. Where the people are wounded, go and heal. Where there is darkness, go and show light. Where there is hopelessness, go and give hope, because Christ is the hope of glory in us. And we who are the representative of Christ here, it’s our duty to go out there and share to that neighbor, share to that person on the street, share to that person who lives under shed, share with that person in the hospital who feels it’s over and there’s nothing more for me. There is something more. Because He lives, we can face tomorrow. It doesn’t matter what we may be going through. Because Christ lives, even when things are tough, He is our hope of glory. And I’ve seen this transformation, and it keeps reminding me I am the salt of the world. In my own area, I am the salt. You are the salt of your world where the Lord has put you. And all of us, we are able to bring favor and bring healing and preserve the decaying aspect of the world. Then we are able to heal the world in our own ways. So we don’t need to join the world when everybody is saying, “Oh, we are doomed. Everything is bad.” Yes, things may seem so dark, but we are the lights. Things may seem so hopeless, but we have the hope in Christ. When the world says, “It’s over,” until Christ says it’s over, it’s not yet for us. Let’s go into the world and give hope. Let’s go out there and show them love. Because that’s what God has called us to be. Now we have these young men who have hope of glory, who are showing love to one another because somebody took a step to tell them, “You are better than this. You don’t need to hand your life that way, dying by a spear because of a cow. You don’t need to carry the bitterness of your fathers that you do not know how it started. It’s high time to build a new way, a new path of your life.” And they’re doing that. Last year we’re not able to do this tournament, and they’re trusting God this year that we are able to do this again and bring them together again, that they may have time to share. And when we were doing this, we didn’t just do football. We had guys among them who were sharing Christ. From this group, I remember well, we had around 66 young men give their life to Christ. In the field as they were doing this, we had guys from communities that don’t greet each other, greet each other in the football. We had this fear one of it being that we feared that if they lose, they’re gonna fight. They lost with grace. We were like, “Maybe it’s gonna be bad.” We were like, “If so and so lose, we may find ourselves in trouble.” But the truth is they lost, but they went and greeted their opponents with hugs and joy and say, “Thank you, that was a good game.” And that’s what we are called to do, that we can reconcile that group and that group that is fighting together and bring them. Because that’s what Jesus has come to do. Bridge the divide and give grace to each one of us. What are we doing in our own area? You are the salt in your office. You are the salt in a business. You are the salt in your community, the salt in whatever you’re doing. Are you adding flavor to that community? You are the light. Are you shining it out there, or are we putting it under the table and saying, “You know, I’m shy, I don’t know how to speak well”? Oh, no, you’re just light. That’s all the light can do. And the Lord will do the rest for you. Let’s be the salt and be the light that God has called us to be. Touch one person at a time, one individual at a time, and we will all change the world. You may not go to all these places, you may not go to Somalia, but you may touch the person around you who will be in Somalia tomorrow to transform their lives. I’m telling Pastor this year when he comes for a pastor’s conference, we are trusting God to do this year in December. We want to do this tournament during that time. Now I want to have him come and see the joy that these young people have together. And you could not believe that a few years ago, these people could not see one another. There are communities that could not come together. But because of the gospel and because of taking that step, that we are the salt just to go heal the wounded, now they can talk to one another, they can meet with one another. And the chiefs are still meeting monthly, continuing to keep the process alive and saying, “Hey, what is going on? How are we doing?” And making sure that the peace process, because it takes a while. One of the things now they’re asking is, how do we start doing a women empowerment program to be able to enable the women to have some economical training on doing things together. These are the things that God has called us to do. Go out in the process of bringing them together to do this, we have a definite opportunity to share the gospel. Like in this tournament, we had an opportunity every day. We had a speaker to speak from the grassroots. Every day, our pastors in this community had an opportunity to share the gospel daily with a crowd that had gathered to come and watch football. They could take 30 minutes and share Christ with them. The crowd listened to them, bowed down, prayed, and rejoiced during the game. It brought the community together. That’s what the gospel does. We are the light, and we are the salt. Let’s go out there and give hope to the hopeless world. May the Lord bless you. Thank you. Okay, Pastor, thank you. Thank you. So thank you, Thomas, for sharing that. Three great stories. An impoverished community without drinking water, and Jesus comes in with water and the water of life. And a Muslim community and isn’t God’s way wonderful? Who can translate the Christian Bible into this language? Oh, the imam. Wait, we can’t have the imam do it. And in the process of doing the translation, the imam says, “I want this Jesus.” And then he invites the other imams and says, “You want this Jesus.” And then, in a community filled with violence and bitterness, filled with vengeance you know what an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leads to? A blind and toothless world. I mean, when that commandment was given, it wasn’t given to say it was given, actually, to withhold over extreme, you know, “you take one of my teeth, I take two of yours” kind of justice. But this is what forgiveness brings. And so, just wonderful stories of the power of the gospel. So thank you for sharing those three stories. Appreciate it. Tonight, Jesus is the salt and the light, and we are here to keep being salty. Turn to somebody next to you and say, “You’re pretty salty. You are salty.” All right. And so, yeah, some of you think you’re salt, but you’re pepper. So I don’t know what that means. The Bible says, “Refresh yourself in the Lord, strengthen yourself in the Lord.” The way we do that is by in faith, not in legalism, but in faith, we just practice the spiritual disciplines. We practice walking with God. We’re intentional about it. We read our Bibles, we say our prayers, we serve the poor. We give our money, and we receive this meal. And so I invite you to strengthen yourself in the Lord with the food from heaven. Manna was the food from heaven. This is our manna. It’s our provision to keep us on our feet in Christ. And so I invite you to come at the invitation of Jesus to His table and to receive His grace. So, dear ones, come. The post 2026.5.24 TFHC – Salt and Light | Matthew 5:13-16 [https://thefirehousechurch.com/2026/05/26/2026-5-24-tfhc-salt-and-light-matthew-513-16/] appeared first on The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA [https://thefirehousechurch.com].

2026.5.10 TFHC – Sexual Immorality and Why It Matters | 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

May 10, 2026, Message by P. Kevin Clancey Transcribed by Beluga AI [https://easycloudai.com/beluga/]. Amen. Okay, dear ones, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Last week I had a question for you: Are any of you suing other Christians? And you all said no. Good. This week, this is another important question: Any of you sleeping with prostitutes? No. All right. There’ll be principles in this sermon that will apply, but the specifics, I think you’re free and clear from. So that’s what Paul’s dealing with here. Oh, by the way, I am an encourager, I hope. I pray to be an encourager. I believe flattery is a sin. So I believe telling people things that are lies about them to make them feel good for the purpose that they will think well of you is a bad thing for human beings to do. I think encouragement is a good thing to do. So what I’m saying right now, I believe to be true. I’m not saying this to flatter so that you think, “Oh, what a nice guy Kevin is.” I’m saying this because I think it’s true. And the mothers that are in this room, I highly respect you as mothers. I think you’re doing a great job. I think your kids are blessed to have you. And the devil beats up mothers. I just want to say you’re wonderful. You’re doing great. Your kids are just You all obviously love your children and work tirelessly for them, and I commend you for that. I commend you for that. So now just go home and tell everybody, “Kevin’s a nice guy. He says strange things, according to Karen, but he’s a nice guy.” All right, so 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Let’s go there and read it. > 12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will do away with both of them. However, the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Don’t you know that your bodies are a part of Christ’s body? So should I take a part of Christ’s body and make it part of a prostitute? Absolutely not! 16 Don’t you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says, The two will become one flesh. 17 But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. 19 Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:12-20, CSB) And God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock, our Strength, and 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) Amen. All right, so Scripture is taken out of context. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, eat right and exercise. That’s not what this means. It’s not what this means. Now, can we make other arguments for eating right and exercising? Absolutely. You’ll be in better shape. You can serve the Lord better. Paul says bodily exercise has some profit. But Paul also says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” And I’ve never seen how those two things are compatible. So I don’t know how to make that work. Yeah, you know, but anyway, that’s not what this passage is about. This passage is 100% about sexual morality. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that’s what Paul’s talking about. And this is not Paul’s first letter or first correspondence with the Corinthians. We get clues about that all the time. And here’s one of the clues: “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but I will not subject myself to the authority of anyone.” > 12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12, CSB) And so, “everything is permissible,” obviously, is something they’re quoting to him. “We can do this. You said it, Paul. You said ” He goes, “Wait, time out.” I don’t know if your kids have ever done this to you. Like, you said something and then they turn it on you. “But you said I could do this, you know, so that means I can do this.” You’re like, “No, those are apples and spaceships. They’re different. All right?” And so Paul had this debate in the early church around the Judaizers and things like circumcision and then dietary laws. The big crux, the thing that brought the dietary laws to a head, was meat offered at pagan temples as sacrifices and then sold in the meat market. There was a group of Christians who were saying, “You cannot eat that meat. That’s participating in pagan idolatry.” And there were other groups of Christians that said, “No, those are the best prices for meat. That’s where we get it. That’s the bargain shopping place for meat. And so that’s where we get our meat to eat.” And so, Paul’s argument is, “You can do that because that meat is you give thanks to the Lord and it’s sanctified. It is not taking part in pagan idolatry.” But he says, “If someone has a strong conviction about that, then don’t flaunt your Christian liberty. Because if somebody eats that meat, violating their conscience, then you’re actually causing them to sin. Though eating that meat in particular is not the sin, but violating their conscience is the sin.” You get it? And so out of Christian love and charity, you say, “All right, tonight we eat vegetables.” And so you don’t eat that meat. And that’s the argument that the church always had trying to walk the balance between liberty and license. A modern example would be, there are denominations… I got in trouble when I was preaching at the AG Church. For a year and a half I was the interim pastor at an AG Church, and I tried very hard. There are things I disagree with in the AG, but I tried very hard just to avoid those subjects. I felt like I needed to honor them. You know, I’m speaking in an AG pulpit. I should honor their position. I didn’t know, though, that they were total teetotalers. I didn’t know that was a position in the AG, that drinking is a sin; don’t drink. And the argument is, again, a lot of those holiness groups will say that the wine that Jesus talks about in the Bible wasn’t fermented wine; it was grape juice, et cetera, et cetera. I’m not convinced of that argument. But there is an argument to be made against drinking, and that is: drinking causes so much harm in our culture. Drunkenness causes so much harm in our culture that, you know, the world probably would be better if just nobody drank. On the other hand, Jesus drank, I think. And I think the Christian principle is very clear on these things. Very clear to me. Moderation. “I will not subject my body to be under the authority of anything.” In other words, I will not be a slave. Gluttony is a sin. What you eat is not. Jesus declared all foods clean. And, you know, one of the greatest benefits of the New Covenant is bacon. We had Mother’s Day brunch with my daughter and my wife today. We went over to their house at Mother’s Day brunch. We had French toast and bacon and eggs, and I ate mostly bacon. It was wonderful. And that’s how this argument was being used. Paul was saying, “You can eat bacon, you can eat food sacrificed to idols. Jewish dietary laws do not everything is permissible for me; not everything is beneficial. There’s times to refrain from it, but it’s permissible.” So, they were turning this argument on him, saying, “Well, if it’s okay to eat meat sacrificed to idols, it’s also okay to sleep with the temple prostitutes. Everything is permissible to me. Not everything is beneficial.” And he’s saying, “Hold on. Now you’re taking your Christian liberty and using it as a license to sin. Now you’re taking your Christian liberty and using it as a license to sin.” Because the Bible is very clear that thou shall not commit adultery. Sleeping with temple prostitutes, I think most everybody would agree, comes under the heading of adultery if you’re married, and certainly comes under the heading of fornication if you’re not married. And so, Paul is saying to them, “No, don’t.” And again, this general issue of liberty and license, Christians have struggled with for 2000 years, trying to figure out how to walk the golden mean between liberty and license. You know, and the holiness groups will fall off on legalism, you know? They’ll fall off on legalism and kind of denounce Christian liberty. Don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t chew, don’t go with don’t go to movies. And it just becomes hypocritical at some point. I knew a denomination, you know, they would not go to movies. That was forbidden to go to the theater, but they would rent movies back in the day when you had Blockbuster. “Well, if we go to movies, it’s a bad witness.” Well, isn’t it the same if you rent movies? I mean, if somebody’s working at the counter and they’re seeing you rent the movie You know, it’s like And we build fences around sin and think those fences will prevent us from sin. And we’re going to see that some of those fences actually work and others don’t. We’ll talk about that in a minute. But listen, the point is not to sin. But the point is also that you don’t have to make unnecessary rules that Jesus got rid of. Having sex with prostitutes is a sin. And Paul is saying food and sex they’re not the same thing. You can eat what you want. Jesus declared all foods clean. But Jesus also strongly upholds the one man, one woman bond. This is the standard for Christian believers. One man, one woman, monogamous union, till death do them part. That’s the standard, you say? Well, wait, the Bible allows for multiple marriage partners. It allows for polygamy in the Old Testament. Yeah, there are reasons for that in the culture that those people were living in, but God never endorses it. And if you look at the Bible, it never works out well. There’s not one positive case. You got Rachel and Leah. That was a mess. I’m reading through the Bible, and I just finished the story of King Solomon, who started so incredibly well and ended so bad. And what is the Bible’s reason that he ended so bad? His wives led him astray. Listen, one wife might lead you astray, but you might stand a chance. But 700? You’re sunk, dude. You’re sunk. “Solly, build us a temple for our God. Solly, don’t you love me? Solly, build me a temple. You built her a temple. Build me one, too. I want one, too, Solly. Come on, honey. Build me a temple. Come to my temple with me. I don’t like going alone. Come with me.” He destroyed everything. Now, it’s not his wife’s fault. It’s his fault, you know, but he destroyed it. So it never works. Genesis says, “For this reason, a man will leave his mother and father and be united to his wife.” And what? The two not the 700 and the one the two will become one flesh. And then the New Testament reaffirms that. Jesus reaffirms it time and time again. Jesus takes a stronger stance against divorce than the legalistic Pharisees of His time. And Paul says if anyone desires a role of leadership in the church, he must be married to how many people? Must be the husband of what? One wife, one wife. And so the Bible upholds the one man, one woman bond. This is an issue on the mission field, by the way, where Christians are evangelizing Muslims who have multiple wives. And when that Muslim man comes to the Lord, the question is, you know, what do you do with them all? And I think that you walk the balance here between legalism and license. I think the legalistic answer is divorce every one of them but one. I think that’s actually cruel because those women are relying on those men, and their children are relying on that man for their livelihood. I think the best, the wisest answer is, teach your sons that this ends now. This is the last generation of polygamy. Christians ought to be monogamous. And then I think it’s also probably wise, out of your seven wives take care of all seven, but pick one. She’s the real wife now. The other six are going to get mad at that. Or maybe they’ll be relieved, like, “Yay, I get supported and don’t have to do anything.” I don’t know. But pick one. It’s a question that missionaries are dealing with this very day. What do you do with polygamous converts? Because the Christian standard is the one man, one woman, till death do them part. It is irrelevant what kind of food you eat. Yes, it will impact your biological health. And it’s pretty hard to eat a lot of sugar and not be addicted to it and not be mastered by it. You notice Paul says, “I will not come under the authority of anyone.” What happens when you have illegitimate sex with somebody is you come under their authority because you become one with them. In a sense, they own you. They own you. And so food shouldn’t own you, sex shouldn’t own you, tobacco shouldn’t own you, alcohol shouldn’t own you, drugs shouldn’t own you, money shouldn’t own you. But none of these things are necessarily wrong. The problem is when you you cannot have casual sex because sex will always own you. You can eat, and food won’t own you. You follow? You can eat, and food doesn’t necessarily you can become addicted to food, but food won’t necessarily own you. Sex will always own you because that’s how God designed it. Food is for the stomach; the stomach’s for food. Food keeps you on your feet. Sex bonds you with another human being. And we think we have a choice in that. We do not. Our bodies are united with Christ, and we become one with whoever we have sex with. And I’ll tell you, it’s a reason we call it “getting intimate” with somebody. It is the most profound act of intimacy that human beings can experience. And it means you’re connected to that person, even if you divorce them, even if you weren’t married. And you go, you know, you sleep with a dozen people before you get married. Guess what? On your wedding night, there’s 13 of you in bed with that person. You brought all those partners with you because they become a part of your very soul, and it’s hard to get rid of them. I was married a virgin. I’d never slept with another woman. Never have in my life. I’m a one man, one woman guy. However, in high school and college, I made out with a few girls. I kissed a few girls. I’m not going to tell you about whatever base. I don’t know. I’m not even clear what the bases are. Probably a couple times got more than a single. I don’t know. But I tell you, I went to my 25th high school reunion, right? A lot of old friends, a lot of people. There were two girls in that room that I’d kissed. Two women now, 25 years. And when we looked at each other, you know what happened? There is a knowing. Oh yeah, yeah. It’s just a reality. It’s just a reality. And therefore we unite our bodies who belong to Christ with something in an act that Christ has not condoned, does not want to be united with. We take our bodies and give them over. It is more pagan idolatry to sleep promiscuously than to eat meat offered at an idol. As I said, there’s no such thing as casual sex. There’s no such thing as recreational sex. It is all intimate sex, whether you want it to be or not. A one night stand is a lifetime bondage. It’s a lifetime connection. And so don’t do it. We have no right to join our bodies with anyone but our spouse. That’s it. That’s it. And inside of that relationship we’ll talk about this more next week. Sorry, this is only sex talk 101 A. There’s going to be 1 Corinthians 7:1, which talks about marriage. So we’ll talk about it some more next week. I really don’t think I’m preaching to a congregation of rabid, sexually promiscuous people. But I do think I’m preaching to a congregation of people, 100% of you, who have sinned sexually, if you take Jesus’ definition and you’ve ever lusted in your heart. I have never met a human being who was free from that. At least I’ve never met a human being of my gender who is free from that. But I think it’s also true of females. So we have no right to join our bodies with anyone but our spouse. And then the Bible says, “Flee sexual immorality.” Well, wait, doesn’t Paul say, “Resist the devil and he’ll flee from you?” Yes, resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. > 7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7, CSB) You can beat up the devil in the authority of Jesus. It’s your flesh that’s weak. And so there are sins of the flesh and there are sins of the spirit. And let me define the two. You know what a sin of the flesh is, right? It’s where we indulge our flesh to feel good with something outside of the will of God. All right? Be it drug, alcohol abuse, sexual immorality, gluttony, whatever. And Paul says, “Your flesh is weak. You can’t withstand too long of a temptation of those things. So run away, flee it.” If you were to make a bet with me, “Kevin, Sluy’s Bakery in Poulsbo is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I want you to go in there with $100 in your pocket, sit there for 12 hours and not buy a thing.” I will not take that bet. I will lose. I will lose within an hour because I’ll see people buying bear claws, cinnamon rolls and apple fritters and pecan rolls and slices of cake. And within an hour I’ll go, “I gotta get me some.” So how do I avoid the temptation of Sluy’s Bakery? I don’t go there. Except on special occasions. I just don’t go there. I was a drug addict. I was a marijuana addict for years as a young man. I haven’t smoked pot in 40 years. There are all sorts of pot stores that have opened up. This is how I know I’m an addict. I know where all those stores are. When I drive by them, my brain marks them. Just marks them automatically. I don’t try to mark them. My wife was saying, “Oh, I’m going to the fabric store.” I go, “We got a fabric store?” “Yes. It’s really huge. It’s right by Fred Meyer. You go to Fred Meyer. How have you never seen it?” Because I don’t give a patootie about fabric stores. I don’t care about fabric stores. I’m so glad my wife isn’t crafty and makes me go to the craft store with her. That would be horrible. But I know where bakeries are, I know where hamburger joints are, and I know where all the pot stores are. And so what have I done with all the pot stores? I’ve been curious a few times. I wonder what the prices are. I wonder what they’ve done with marijuana. I wonder if, you know, they have different strains that produce different effects, and sometimes I have a hard time getting to sleep. I wonder if there’s a kind of strain that’ll help put you to sleep. And, you know, I could just use it I don’t go in them. I’ve never set foot in one, and I’m not gonna. Why? I don’t need that monkey on my back again. I don’t need that monkey on my back. I flee. Now, what about sins of the spirit? Sins of the spirit is when the voice of the devil comes against you and accuses you or God of something that’s not true. It’s the lies that we believe that destroy our lives. So I’m walking I’ve used this example before, but you guys forget stuff, so I’m walking to seminary. I’m in seminary. I’m studying God’s Word. And I’m calling myself just a bunch of bad names, right? We’ve all probably done this. I’ve done it compulsively in my life. “You’re such a loser. You’re such a jerk. You know, you’re no good.” Here’s the one. I’ve actually said this before I even thought about it. I’ll just say it. This one, even, I don’t believe, all right? Loser, jerk yeah, sometimes I succumb to that. But this one I don’t even believe. But I said it. I’ve said it. I’ll say, “Kevin, you’re the worst person ever.” Anybody get that one? Or am I the only guy that bad? All right? Nobody else. Nobody else. Ats? All right, brother, we’re united. You’re not the worst person ever, all right? And neither am I, all right? I told people in Bremerton this morning, “I’ve actually heard I’m the worst person ever.” I said, “You guys really think I’m the worst person ever?” And again, like you guys, there wasn’t a rousing support saying, “Of course not.” It was just kind of, “Six, seven, I don’t know.” But I’m calling myself these names. I’m walking to seminary calling myself these names, and I hear the voice of God. Here’s how I know the difference between the voice of the devil and the voice of God. The devil says, “You’re the worst person ever.” Or the devil says, “Take that bet up at Sluy’s Bakery. You’re the worst person ever.” God says, “Kevin.” He uses my first name. Often when I hear God, He uses my first name. He speaks to me as a son. “Kevin, you know my book, don’t you?” I’m on my way to seminary to study His book in the original languages. Like, “Yes, I study your book. I’m, you know, I’m trying to become an expert on your book. I know your book.” He says, “Do I ever call you those names in my book?” I say, “No, you don’t.” He says, “What do I call you?” “Son. Royal priesthood. Holy Nation. Bride. That one’s a little weird, but I get it. We’re all part of the Church. Friend.” He goes, “Where do you think those names are coming from?” And then Dana Carvey from Saturday Night Live, the old church lady skit, flashes in my mind. “Could it be Satan?” And so when I hear I’m a loser, jerk, worst person ever when those thoughts come into my head, I don’t run away from that battle. I don’t say, “No, be quiet. Don’t tell me those things.” I say, “No, that’s not true. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, here’s who I am. Here’s who I am in Christ.” Several years ago, I had a recurring dream where I was working under a tyrannical boss. And you could never please this boss. And in my dream, I’m always discouraged. Stevin, in one of my dreams, I was working at a horse stable. Yeah, like that would ever be anywhere near the reality with me. Like, oh, yeah, I want to shovel poop for a living. Great. But anyway, you know, the boss isn’t I know when he comes, you know, the inspection is never good enough. And all the dreams was a different occupation, but it was always under this tyrannical boss that you absolutely could not please and you were never good enough for. And so if you have a repeated theme in a dream, chances are that’s a spiritual dream. That’s a significant dream. And so I prayed about it and said, “God, what’s this dream about?” And it took a while. You know, it’s not like I talk about these things and you think, “Oh, it happened immediately.” It took a couple of months. And finally, I have one of those dreams one night, and I’m at a Grace Covenant conference, and we’re getting together for worship. And as we start worshiping, the Lord says, “You’re the boss. Who’s the tyrannical boss whose oppression you’re under?” And God said, “It’s you. You’re the perfectionist that you cannot please because you believe the lies of the devil that everything has to be perfect to please me or whatever.” But He said, “You’re that boss.” And when I told the people at Grace Covenant that, they go, “Well, yeah, that’s obvious.” It wasn’t obvious to me the last two years I’ve been having these dreams, but the minute I said it, it was like, oh, yeah, yeah. I thought about it. You know, I thought, I’ve never had a boss like that. Dallas Elder you know, he’s not like that. My wife’s not like that. Nobody’s like that to me. The leadership team is not like that. I’ve never had a boss like that, except one. Right? And so I started praying. The dream, the interpretation, now the application. What do I do about that? And again, didn’t happen right away. I said, “Okay, Lord, what you want me to do about that?” And about two or three days later, I hear what He says again. He says, “Fire him.” “Fire who?” “Yourself. Don’t be that boss anymore. Fire the demonic voice. And actually, fire the demonic voice behind that, you know, that tyranny.” And so, I felt like the Lord said, “Say it out loud. Say it now.” And I just spoke into the space. I said, “In the Name of Jesus, you’re fired.” And now whenever I feel, you know, whenever that lack of perfection comes and I feel like, oh, my gosh, I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough, whatever. I just say, I just repeat it. I say, “In the Name of Jesus, you’re fired. You’re fired.” Resist the devil. Resist the temptations of the spirit. You get the difference? Flee the temptations of the flesh. This will help you. Because a lot of people try to resist the flesh, and then they fall time and time again. You know? “I’m convinced I’ve overcome drinking. You know, my AA group’s really working. I’m going to go hang out at the bars.” No, that’s why you go to the AA meeting. You’re learning a new pattern that you find your community there, not at the bars. But when you run away from the devil, that just empowers him. Gotcha. Does that make sense? Flee sexual immorality. All right? But stand your ground and resist the devil. All right. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. The temple is the place where God dwells with His people. The whole story of the Bible is God wants to walk what does God do to Adam and Eve in Genesis? He walks with them in the garden. God wants to dwell with His people. The story of Revelation is what? “I will be your God and you will be my people. And you won’t need the sun or the moon.” Why? Because God and the Lamb are with you, and they will illuminate the city. God is with you. God is with you. When God saves the world. How does God save the world? He comes and dwells with us. “Tabernacles” is the word. When the Word became flesh and dwelt with us, that word, “dwelt” is “tabernacles.” Well, what do you think when you think of the word “tabernacle”? You think of Exodus, the Tabernacle. What was the Tabernacle? The Tabernacle was the forerunner of the Temple. The Tabernacle was the place where you had the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt. And it was the place where God made atonement so that man and women could have fellowship with God. God is the one who wants to have fellowship with us. It’s not like God’s up there begrudgingly saying, “All right, I’ll let you go to the Good Place if, you know, you accept my Son.” No. God does everything He can so that He can dwell with us and we can dwell with Him. And here’s what He does. Before we go to the Good Place, before we get the new heavens and the new earth, what does He do? He says, “I so want to dwell with you, and I can’t wait for you to get here. I’m going to fill you with my very Spirit so that your very body becomes now what the Temple was in the Old Testament, the dwelling place of the Holy God.” And when we come to Him in the name of and in the presence of the Lord Jesus, we find grace and mercy because He dwells with us. He says, “Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, don’t bring a prostitute into the Holy of Holies. Don’t desecrate the Holy Place.” What we do with our bodies is holy. This is not all a spiritual game, right? What we do with our bodies matters. The Bible is full of instructions on what to do with your body. “Lift your hands,” “lift your heads,” “bow and worship.” When He comes near, we tremble. I tremble. Your body matters. It is now what Michael Heiser would call sacred space. That’s why the holiest thing you encounter in this world is another human being who’s indwelt by God. Don’t despise Christians. They are holy places even if the temple’s in disrepair and the paint’s not good and whatever. Therefore, use your body to glorify God. Use the physical energy you have, use the mind, the brain, your muscles to glorify God. Your intelligence it’s all part of our body. Use your sexuality to glorify God. How do you do that? By uniting with your wife and uniting with your husband and therefore representing, in the very act of your home, the intimate connection between Christ and His church and living that out in an enacted parable of love, faithfulness, intimacy, connection. Listen, what does God want from us? Faithfulness. He wants faithfulness. We’re saved by faith. What does that mean? Allegiance to Yahweh. Commitment, allegiance, faithfulness, fidelity. What’s the biggest sin of the Old Testament? What does Israel get judged for time and time again? Yeah, it’s not rocket science, people. It’s in your Bible. You’ve read it. Idolatry. Idolatry. And what does God call it? Spiritual adultery. Duh. You get the connection? Why is sexual morality so important? Because sexual morality is about union, connection, intimacy, faithfulness. These are the things God longs for from us and marriage, what we do with our bodies in marriage is training ground. How do I learn about faithfulness? I made a promise to this person and I’m keeping it. I’m being faithful. I told my wife, you know, old person mind wanderings every old person has had this thought: “You know, I really just want to die peacefully in my sleep.” And I just said that to her. I just said, “I want to die peacefully in my sleep.” And she says, “Got it.” What does she mean by that? My wife has told me. She said, “Divorce is off the table. I will not divorce. You said if you commit adultery, I will murder you, but I will not divorce you.” So hopefully it’ll be a pleasant death, though I think she’d be pretty mad. It might not be. It might not be. Yeah, I might die in my sleep, but it might be with a pillow over my face. I don’t want to get too morbid here, but, you know, “Got it.” Is the life insurance paid? So it matters. Now, a lot of us can think, “Well, I’ve done that. You know, I didn’t have premarital sex, and I’ve been faithful to my spouse and all that. I haven’t sinned sexually.” And then Jesus comes along, and he ruins it. He says, “If you’ve lusted in your heart, you’ve already done it.” And so, whatever your level of sexual immorality is, I want you to know two things. I want you to know there is mercy. God is looking for your faithfulness, and He’s looking for your faithfulness whatever level you’re at He’s looking for it to start now. Will you be faithful to Jesus and faithful to your spouse? And if you’re not married, will you be faithful to your future spouse? Because premarital sex is committing adultery on your future spouse. And then there’s grace. There’s grace to walk out that process. And if you don’t walk it out perfectly, you go back and repent and are forgiven. Dust yourself off and keep pursuing faithfulness. And there is grace and mercy for you. But don’t quit. Don’t call broke, fixed and wrong, right. Don’t justify your sin and say, “Oh, if my wife was just more affectionate, I wouldn’t do this.” Or “If my husband cared for me, I wouldn’t do ” You know, “This other man loves me, my husband, he ignores me. Blah, blah, blah, blah.” Don’t justify your sin. Don’t justify your sin. Just repent. And then put the right foot in front of the left and the left foot in front of the right and keep going. We’re in the school of holiness. We’re in the school of faithfulness. I don’t know that anybody here’s perfect. I just want to be better 10 years from now than I am now. I want to be more like Jesus at 77 than I am at 67. You know? I want to be more like Jesus at 87 than I am at 67 or 77. “I’m like Jesus.” I want to be there. And the only thing that’ll defeat us is quitting. And so, put your right foot in front of the left, your left foot in front of the right. I can’t think of a better way to practice putting your right foot in front of your left, than your left foot in front of your right, than doing something physically with your bodies tonight. And that is putting your right foot in front of your left and your left foot in front of the right, and walking up to this table of grace and mercy, and once again receiving physically through bread and the fruit of the vine, physically receiving the reassurance of that grace and mercy of God’s covenant with you. So I invite you to use your bodies, not just your mind and your spirit, but to use your bodies to worship God and to walk up here and receive this meal and thank God for whatever. Thank God for the dear person you’re married to and the dear person you’re going to be married to, you know, if you’re unmarried, Isaiah. Or, you know, if you’re expecting your spouse to die soon, Jill, just thank God for that. I don’t think but, you know, now, if I die in my sleep, it could be natural, but there could be a suspect. All right, I’m just saying there could be. You might want to tell the police. All right. Anyway, dear ones, come and eat. The post 2026.5.10 TFHC – Sexual Immorality and Why It Matters | 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 [https://thefirehousechurch.com/2026/05/10/2026-5-10-tfhc-sexual-immorality-and-why-it-matters-1-corinthians-612-20/] appeared first on The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA [https://thefirehousechurch.com].