Launch Night | Fall 2026 | Keenan Clark

Well, it is a thrill to be in the house of God. There is no other place I'd rather be on a Friday night. Come on. Some of you, you used to be up in the club and now you up in the house of God on a Friday night. Bless God. Tell the truth and shame the devil. Man, it is a ridiculous thrill. And I have so much on my heart that I intend to fully bring with everything I've got, and, but real quick, I would be absolutely remiss if I did not take a moment to do what the Scripture is, not just mandate people in my position to do, but they mandate each and every single one of us to do. And that is we are to show honor to whom honor is due. Come on, so if you love Pastor Jay, come on. If you love Pastor Clay, if you love Pastor Cole, if you love everybody who's making this thing happen, I need you to raise your voice. I need you to clap your hands. Come on, we love you. We honor you. We're grateful for you. Ms. Miley, everybody involved. We're just so grateful today. I've just been honestly very enriched just by the little bit of time we've been able to spend together a couple of months ago. I guess it was then latter part of June, just getting to spend time together in Myrtle Beach.

And as Clay said, this was a calendar day. He was looking forward to. It has been for me as well. God moved back in June, and I'm expecting him to move this evening. I have my wife and my two boys watching by livestream. Right now, so I don't know a camera I'm on. But baby, I love you. Love you boys. Can't wait to see you in the morning. But right now, I am listening to me. At the stage of ministry that we are at now, my pastor gave me some-- I have a pastor, by the way. I'm not just some guy running church to church. We're part of an incredible church in Huntsville, Alabama. Amen. And my pastor gave me incredible prophetic advice at the end of last year. And he said, Keenan, at this place that God has you, you need to start only saying yes to things you feel or a legitimate assignment from God. Invitations are just kind of coming quicker than we can say yes. And so for the better part of all of this year, we have only said yes to things that we have felt are an assignment, which meant we said no to about 75% of everything that came in for the year. And my being here, my presence here tonight, should tell you what I am on tonight.

I am on an assignment tonight. I feel like I got a word. And I feel like God wants you to hear it. If you have a Bible with no further ado, I don't know what a do is. So I am not going further in it, all right? My mom taught me not to play with stuff. You don't know what it is. With no further ado, if you have a Bible, I'd like you to go with me to Matthew 23. Matthew 23, the gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 23. We will read two verses of Scripture, verses 37 and 38. By the way, anybody got a paper Bible with them tonight in the house of God? Anybody got a paper Bible? Come on, that's a lot of paper. The trees hate to see you coming. Come on, I love it. Anybody got like a digital Bible? Your Bible's on your phone, okay? Anybody got a digital Bible? All right, all of you guys, you can fend off the digital demons, the rest of us. We got the real ones, okay? Listen, I'm on a mission to get people back to paper. You know why? I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but everything I used to deem a conspiracy is now my everyday life, okay? Which means it's not too far-fetched for me to imagine

that if the only Bible you have is on your phone, you could wake up tomorrow and not have a Bible. Or the Bible you have could slowly be corrupted over time and you not even know it. I've never been tempted by anything I saw on this thing. I've never been distracted by anything I saw on this thing. I've never got an ungodly call on this thing. Come on, I'm on a mission to get the Church of Jesus Christ. Back to paper, I am preaching better than you're shouting on a Friday night. I am what they call a Hollerback preacher, by the way, which just means I preach better and shorter the louder you are, okay? Amen, you got excited over that. I said shorter and we got some amens. It's gonna be a massive altar call in Jesus' name. Matthew 23, trying to stall, for those of you who don't know where it is, first book of the New Testament, Matthew 23, in my Bible this is written in red, which means these are the words of my Lord and my Savior Jesus Christ. Start at verse 37, Jesus says this. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers. How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a mother hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but notice these five words, but you wouldn't let me. But you wouldn't let me, I didn't write it, I just found it. Don't shoot the messenger. But you wouldn't let me, look at this, verse 18.

And now look, you're, excuse me, 38. Now look, your house is abandoned in desolate. It was so short, I'll read it again. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. how often I've wanted to gather your children together as a hen would protect your chicks beneath their wings. But you wouldn't let me. I'm gonna borrow a title straight out of that text right there. I am calling this message, but you wouldn't let me. But you wouldn't let me. If you're a no taker in the house of God tonight, I want you to title this message, but you wouldn't let me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you now for the couple moments we are going to share coming around your word. Lord, I thank you that tonight your word is gonna be what it has always been, and that's sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even to the very dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, judging the very thoughts and incense of our heart, not our neighbor's heart, our heart tonight. Lord, I pray that every single one of us would get hit by your word in the way that we need to be hit by your word. May we not leave saying, man, that was a good church service. May we leave encountering a risen king,

and it is in the mighty name of Jesus that I pray, and everybody said, amen and amen. I am 31 going on 32, which means by the looks of it, a lot of these people probably call me "unk," okay? And I will rebuke you if you do. Thank you. This girl is like, no, we ain't gonna do that. There's some respect in the house of God tonight. I appreciate that. 31 years of age, but I'll never forget whenever I was a freshman in high school. Some of you, I came out here and I could already tell, you're looking at me with like a little bit of a side eye. Look at me like, this dude's a tad odd. You know why? I went to private Christian school my entire life. All right, if you're looking at me with a side eye, just blame it on that. Private Christian school, closest I've ever been to communism, by the way. Everyone at the same haircut were the same thing. Everyone was the same, okay? I went to private Christian school, never forget, I had his best friend growing up, his name's Jonathan Huffman. Jonathan came out to me in ninth grade, and he told me, Keenan, there's this girl. And I want to get on radar, man. And I was like, okay, Jonathan,

here's what you need to do. Like, well, first I ask, who is this girl? 'Cause I'm like imagining she goes to our school, right? 'Cause like, that's kind of like the pool in which we had to pull from, okay? And Jonathan's like, oh, she don't go to our school. I was like, oh, like, she must go to our youth group, right? Which girl in the youth group is that? He's like, oh, she don't go to our youth group. I'm like, Jonathan, this might be a demon, okay? This is a figment of your imagination, okay? This girl doesn't exist, all right? Jonathan's like, no, she's real. I'm like, okay, here's what you need to do. You need to find her on Facebook, okay? Facebook was brand new when I was in the ninth grade. Instagram came out my junior year of high school, but all we had was at the time was Facebook. And so Jonathan gets on Facebook, and he types her name in the search engine, and Jonathan's just staring at her profile on Facebook, and he's like, okay, okay, Keenan, what I do? I said, you're gonna have to take that mouse. That was this thing that used to be attached to the computer, for those of you who don't know, you had to like grab it and literally manually click it. Jonathan has to take the mouse. I said, Jonathan, you're gonna have to send her a friend request. That's how this thing works.

Send her a friend request. So Jonathan clicks, send friend request. And now we've gotta wait to see what this girl is gonna do with the friend request. So we go and lead our boring ninth grade lives. We come back the next day to see what she has done. And how many of you know? When you send someone a friend request on Facebook and you are waiting on them to accept it, it will say, friend request pending, okay? This did not say friend request pending. It said, send friend request. Some of you are picking up what I'm putting down. That means she declined. The friend request. Yesterday, she chopped it down. She's like, no, I don't just have, I just don't even want you in my friend zone. You're not even worthy of my Facebook friend zone, all right? She declined the friend request. So Jonathan's like feeling very rejected. He looks at me and he's like, Kena, what do I do? I'll tell you what you do. Send it again. No, you send that dang thing again, okay? You may be delayed, Jonathan, but you will not be denied in Jesus' mighty name. So Jonathan's like, okay. So he clicks, send friend request.

We come back the next day. It says, send friend request. She had declined it again. And Jonathan's ready to walk away. And I said, Jonathan, trust me, I know women. All right, ninth grade, Kenan. Chili Bowl haircut. I said, Jonathan, I know women. She's playing hard to get. That's what she's doing. She's wanting you to chase her a little bit. All right, Jonathan, send her another friend request. He sends a friend request. No word of a lie. We did this for one week straight. Every day, coming back, she had declined it. So we would send her another friend request. And it was about day seven. Jonathan looked at me and he said, Kenan, we're starting to look a little desperate. I said, what do you mean we? Like, my name ain't attached to any of this. She has no idea I'm in your ear right now. All right, and I'm like, Jonathan, you passed desperate six. floating around with your name on it, somewhere, right? So it's then that moment, Jonathan made the call to you. Throw her back into the ocean of his love life and sheep, swam away, never to be seen again, okay? Listen, I tell you this ridiculous story about my friend

because I think this is exactly what Jesus is hinting at here in Matthew 23, you have to understand, nothing was gonna happen between Jonathan and this young lady until she, on the other end, accepted what was being sent her direction. Nothing was gonna take place until she grabbed on, until she received what had already been sent. And what I wanna call your attention to here in Matthew 23 is Jesus is not saying, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I'm sorry, I can't get a profit to come by. He's not saying, hey, I don't know why, I'm sorry, Jerusalem. Every time I put Jerusalem on the tour dates, they go around it. Some ends up happening, the bus runs out again, no one will come to Jerusalem. That's not what Jesus says. He says, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that no matter how many times I send the message your way, you keep killing them. You keep chopping it down. The problem isn't that you ain't heard the good news. The problem is you haven't fully received it yet. Some of you, you're upset with God. If you were to get honest on that, you're upset with God because you think you're sitting around waiting on God. When if you could peek behind the curtain, you would find God is in fact waiting on you. Satan is the one who possesses God partners. Like that's the truth. Satan will full on possess you.

You give him enough yeses and eventually he will fully take over. By the way, I still fully believe in demonic possession. If you don't believe in demonic possession, you're a prime candidate for it. That's just the truth. Satan will possess you. God wants to partner. He gave you a free will. He's not trying to usurp you of it. He wants you to give it back. He wants you to use it to lean into his truth and in fact trust that his ways, they're higher than yours. His thoughts, they're higher than yours. Maybe the problem isn't that God isn't moving. Maybe the problem is God is waiting on you to accept what he's already given. Now, some of you in the room, you're going, Keenan, good word, but kind of the wrong room, don't you think? Like this is a revival service. Some of you can be like Keenan, this is a really good message but you should really go to like the bars in Annapolis and preach this outside of there. You know the people who are overtly rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like while you go to a street corner, Keenan, preach this out there. You're all kind of here on a Friday night. We gave up our precious sacred Friday night to come to a revival service.

Keenan, I don't know the ones that need to hear this. Oh, contrary. Listen, you know why I know this? It's because I know the context of Matthew 23. If you were to understand the context of Matthew 23, you'd find yourself in Jesus' crosshairs. Let me explain the context of Matthew 23. In this moment, it is about Tuesday or Wednesday of what we have now come to call Holy Week. Holy Week, it's the last week of Jesus' earthly ministry. Before he will be arrested, inevitably crucified and later praise be to God, resurrected from the grave. This is the last week of Jesus' earthly ministry. May I remind you how that week started? It started with something you and I call Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday, some of you, it's like Facebook, Sunday. You're like, "Forgot to go to church." Palm, Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday starts a little something like this. Jesus is coming into Jerusalem. He is riding in on a donkey that had never been ridden. That's not just some random little detail. That is Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. Jesus riding in on a cult that had never been ridden is him fulfilling something the Old Testament said was a criteria of the Messiah. Jesus is riding in on this donkey and listen, at the city gate of Jerusalem, everyone's gathered, people are busting at the seams. There's this entire entourage waiting to welcome Jesus

and the Bible would say this. They're shouting things like, "Hosanna, "blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Like, yeah, that means, "Hosanna means save us now, "we pray." That's what that means. They're saying, "You're our guy. "You're the man. "You're the one we want. "Please come to us." The Bible would say this, they don't just say stuff. They're getting physically involved. The Bible would say some of the men, they started taking their jackets off and they laid them on the ground for Jesus' donkey to walk across. The Bible said some of the men that didn't have jackets, you know what they did? They didn't settle and go, "Oh, darn it, I didn't bring a jacket." They went and found a palm tree And they peeled palm... for Jesus' donkey to walk across. They have literally laid out the red carpet for Jesus. So Jesus could triumphantly enter the city of Jerusalem that Sunday, fast for the clock, not five years, five days from Palm Sunday to what you and I have come to call Good Friday. And many theologians would tell you, it's likely the exact same crowd who showed up on Sunday.

They're now standing before a man named Pontius Pilate. And to Pontius Pilate's right is a man named Jesus of Nazareth, and to his left is a rebel, a leader of an insurrection, a complete gangster, a thug named Barabbas. And he's looking at these people and he says, who do you want? You want Jesus of Nazareth, the miracle worker? The guy who never did nothing bad to you? Or do you want Barabbas, the guy who tortured your cities? And they say, give us Barabbas. And he says, well, what do you want me to do with Jesus? And so they demonically, at the top of their lungs, begin to shriek, you want, you need you to crucify him. Crucify him. It is the same crowd, five days later. It's not like they've mischarged in the month of Sundays. A Sunday has not transpired. Since they sat at the city gate, welcoming him, rolling out the red carpets. It's not like they've had five years to be brainwashed by TikTok, and have, you know, their entire belief system picked apart, they've had five days, and they go from Hosanna to crucify him almost overnight. And here's why I read Matthew 23. Because Matthew 23 takes place directly in the middle. You know what this means? Jesus has heard them shout Hosanna. He has not physically heard them yell crucify him,

but he ain't duped. Because Jesus stands there, having only ever heard with his physical ears, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We want you, come on in. And he looks at people, he's only heard praise him. And he says, no, no, I know what you guys are made of. Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The city that kills prophets, not welcomes them. You kill them, and you stone God's messengers. Listen, this just to show you, Jesus was not duped into his death. It wasn't like Jesus got all the way to Pontius Pilate. It was like, guys, I thought you were with me. I can't believe you do this. No, Jesus knew darn well what he was walking into. And this is what I want to show you. You know what he did? He rode in anyway. If that ain't the gospel, I don't know what is. Jesus knew what he was riding into, and he rode in anyway. I've got news for you refuge. Jesus knew what he was walking into tonight. And he rode in anyway. Jesus knew, and there are many of us here tonight, and I'm not trying to cheapen your praise. I'm just trying to give you a holistic picture of you. Because there is revival you,

and then there's the part of you that needs revival. Like there's the part of you that loves when we're getting in, and we're doing the melodies of the songs, we're blending songs together, and it's time to lift up your own praise to the Lord. All of a sudden there's a part of you that awakens, but then there's the two AM on Saturday night, you two. Those are real realities. You go to war with. Spiritually skits a phrenic to a degree. And Jesus is not duped. Jesus is not duped by the veneer of Hosanna you walked in here with. He knows there's a quiet crucify him still bubbling somewhere down in there. And guess what? He came tonight anyway. That's the good news. Listen to me, listen to me. You serve a God who doesn't demand that you like, you climb out and the Bible says this. Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? Only they with clean hands and a pure heart. I've got news for you. You can't clean yourself. Like when God gave us the law through Moses, it wasn't so that you could get an idea of what you needed to do. Like, hey, this is kind of possible if you can adhere to these 613 laws.

Like you might be able to muster it together. The law was never actually just a list of things you needed to do. The law was a mirror. You trying to make yourself righteous by the law? It's like seeing yourself in a mirror with a bad hair day and ripping the mirror off the wall and trying to fix your hair. It's like not gonna work. It's just show you you need to find someone who can do something about that. You need to find something, you gotta address something. That's what the law was intended to do. It's to show you you could never measure up. Like, imagine if we thought righteousness was who could jump from this side of the stage to that side of the stage? Like, you'll be righteous if you can get a running star and you can jump clear across, never touching this middle piece, and you can make it in it over here with one felt swoop. It would be hard to find them, but there are people on planet earth who could do that. Long jump. They can make it. And all of a sudden we see a couple of guys do, we're like, "Oh man, they're righteous." They got it all together, they measure up. And then all of a sudden God comes and he's like, "Yo, let me tell you a little P-brane something."

The measurement of righteousness is not who can jump from one side of the stage to the other. It's who can jump across the Grand Canyon. And we're like, "Oh." All of a sudden the guy who looked real righteous a second ago, it doesn't matter that you jumped 20 feet further than me. We both fell to our death, buddy. Like who's hooping and hollering that as you are plummeting to your death at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, that's what the law was intended to do to show you none of us measure up. There's none righteous, no not one. So Jesus comes and does for you what you could never do for yourself. It's the greatest lie, Satan will ever tell you, is one laced in religion. Some of you, you're eaten up with the spirit of religion. The spirit of religion seems as though it's serving God, but it's actually a covert operative of hell itself. Because it uses the word religion. So all of a sudden we've got a secret agent among us duping us, we've got a sleeper cell called religion. And listen to me, there is a good form of religion. But there is something called the spirit of religion that's trying to put the onus on you and make it act, make it act like, hey, you can do enough, you can cross enough tees, you can adopt enough ties, you can say enough prayers,

you can donate enough dollars. And then you'll be let in. And Jesus comes and says, no, I see right through it. But guess what I'm writing in to your Jerusalem, your canapulas, I'm writing in anyway. Listen, is this not the whole overarching narrative of scripture? Like, hey, listen, let me help you out. If you want to study the Bible, you can't just flip it and pick it. Like, that's one of the worst ways to study the Bible. You can't just like, one of the worst things we've ever done is teach people that they can live off the verse of the day. We are literally teaching people what's called isegesis. That's where you isolate a scripture and you say, I know what it means. And you don't know what it means. And you end up a heretic with a one-way ticket to hell. It is a bad way to read the Bible. If listen to me, if you want to understand a concept in scripture, this is a very helpful theological law. It's called the law of first mention. It's exactly what it sounds like. When you want to understand a concept, you go in the Bible to where it is first mentioned. And if you want to understand how God interacts with sinners, you got to go to the very first ones he ever interacted with. He ever dealt with. It's called Genesis 3, the fall of man.

Now, I'm not trying to insult anybody's biblical intelligence and prowess tonight, but listen, I don't want to leave anybody out. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And eventually, he would make man in his own image. And then out of man, he would fashion a help mate for him called woman. And the Bible would say that he would walk with them in the cool of the day. Fellowship, bliss, utopia is what they lived in. Paradise, the Bible says that one day a serpent comes slithering in and seduces Eve. She then seduces Adam. And humanity falls headlong into sin. And guess what? When humanity fell into sin, you know what we didn't do? We didn't go, I got to go to the altar. I better go get right. I better go confess. You know what they did? They hid. Kind of like you. They run and they hide. And you know what God does? You know how God responds to a bunch of sinners hiding in their sin, thinking that their stupid fig leaves could do something about it? You know what he does? He goes, looking. He says, Adam, Adam, where are you?

Now we have to ask a very important question. Is God asking Adam because God is ignorant of where Adam is at? Nah, guess again. God is asking Adam where he's at to get Adam to admit where he's at. Anytime God asks the question, you are the beneficiary of it. It's to your benefit, not his. He's all knowing. God says, Adam, where are you? No, I'm not trying to go light on sin tonight. Don't you try to label me because I said that as some mamsi pamsi preacher. God still had to put an angel with a flaming sword in front of the garden of Eden. God still banished them out of that garden. God still said, "Adam, you're going to have to work that ground by the sweat of your brow. Eve, childbearing is going to be rough on you. There's real consequences to your sin." But his initial response is, "Where are you in it?" That's what God's doing tonight. He came to this room where we all have the veneer of righteousness. We got a veneer of Hosanna and he says, "No, I'm here to deal with your crucifying Him. I'm here to deal with that thing you would like to pretend is not there, but I know it is." See, religion, listen to me. Religion won't even just isolate you to one verse. It will only let you read half a verse. How many of you were ever told by somebody, "The eyes of the Lord are too holy to look upon sin." I was told that. Listen to me. You know what they were doing? They were telling you the truth. The Bible says, "The eyes of the Lord are too holy to look upon sin." The only problem with that is that's only half the verse. This is a back at chapter 1 and verse 13 if memory serves me right. The rest of the verse, the whole verse is this. The eyes of the Lord are too holy to look upon sin and then Habakkuk goes, "So why do you?" That's the verse. God's eyes are too holy to look upon sin. So why do you keep doing it? Why do you keep looking at sinners? Why is your heart fixated on them? Like the prophets were prophesying accurately yet perplexed at the same time? Why? Because the fullness

of the God had bodily, Jesus of Nazareth, had not broken through. This is why you're going to be confused if you've not met Christ yet you're trying to prescribe to Christianity. You're fighting a losing battle when the battle has already been won. This is what religion will do. It makes you think that God's God would, the last thing He wants is to meet with you. It's to save you. It's to redeem you. It's to be a refuge for you. Listen, I'm not here to preach a God who winks that sin. No, no, no, no, no. You know how serious God takes sin? Look at Jesus on that cross. Think about Jesus on the cross and tell me you don't feel something. Think about His beaten to shreds body. The passion of the Christ was a cute depiction. It's not cute, but it's cute compared to what the scriptures describe. Isaiah, the prophet, you know how he described the crucifixion when he was prophesying by the Spirit? He said that the Messiah would be beaten to the point you would not be able to tell the difference between Him or an animal. That's how severely Jesus's beard was ripped out. He wasn't up there with a loincloth. He was up there fully exposed. Mel Gibson couldn't do that. But Jesus did it. Why? So He could fully identify as the propitiation for your sin. So He could be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's who He is. Listen, I know this is so simple. And so many of you who showed up to revival service, you're like, Kena, we get the gospel. I don't think you do if you're trying to get me to move on. The gospel needs to get you every day of your life. The Bible says, "They that endure to the end shall be saved." I'm not trying to get you to raise your hand at the end of my message for two seconds and then live like it never happened. I'm here tonight so we can introduce you to the real Jesus, not the Jesus of the left or the Jesus of the right. I'm not here preaching left or right. I'm preaching up and down, heaven and hell, eternity. That's what I'm prescribed to. When you meet the Jesus of the Scriptures, not the Jesus of your grandma, when you meet the Jesus of the Bible, listen to me. You have no choice. You're like Peter and John 6. You say, "Where else can I go?" Only you have the words of everlasting life. I'm a pastor's kid. It means I grew up in this thing. I come by this honestly. I jokingly tell people had God not called me into the ministry, I probably would have just volunteered. This is the only life I know. At one point, listen to me, I knew Bible verses. I had never seen with my own eyes. That's pretty churchy. You know Bible you've never read. Some of you, that describes you. The only Bible you

know is the Bible you hear preached from the stage and no wonder demons keep besting you because you can't borrow his oil. You've got to go and buy some of your own. You know, when you're a kid, you're not thinking about the etymology of words, right? You're not thinking about like what words really mean. You're just like, oh, that's just the way the Bible sounds. That's kind of bibly, right? That's kind of the way I thought. When certain verses would come across, I'm like, that just sounds like the Bible to me. Then I got older. You know, my frontal lobe fully developed six years ago. It's been great. It's worked wonders for my marriage. (congregation laughing) And all of a sudden, I was like, wait a minute. I would read passages in the scripture that I knew. And I was like, that's kind of a strange word to use. Kind of a weird word choice there. For instance, one of those was Psalm 136. Psalm 136 and verse one says this. If you have a Bible turn there, Psalm 136, verse one says this. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. Now I wanna pause there for a second. Why in the world are we giving thanks to God for being good? Here's why. It's because God is still good even when you're not. You know what God doesn't do?

God does not respond to you in like spirit. That's what you do. Let me describe what that is. You responding in like spirit is when you go to eat tonight after the service. Maybe, I mean, honestly, the Lord is gonna move and the restaurants will be shut down in Jesus' name. But listen to me, you go to eat after the service and all of a sudden your waitress has a toot and so now all of a sudden you have a toot. That's called responding in like spirit. All of a sudden your spouse has a little edge and all of a sudden you got a little bitch. That's called responding in like spirit. God doesn't respond in like spirit. He stays in His spirit and His spirit is good and good all the time. We give thanks to God for being good because God's good even when I struggle to be. That was for free. That's not even what I wanna show you. That's for free. Psalm 136 verse one, give thanks to the Lord for He is good. Listen to this, his love endures. What a weird word. His love endures. Like when I was a kid that didn't throw me for a loop. I could even quote in the King James, his love endureth. You get some street cred with that. A little lisp on the end

and all of a sudden you're a theologian. His love endures forever. Listen, that's kind of a weird word. You know why it's a weird word? 'Cause I only whip out the word endure when I'm talking about things that frustrate me. When I'm talking about things that won't work with me. When I'm talking to things that will not subject themselves and bend to my will. When I'm talking about things that I don't exactly enjoy. Like for instance, if I had brought my precious wife, Beth tonight, which I wish I had, I love her. She's my better half. If I brought my wife Beth here tonight and after the service we're standing in the altar, we're talking to people. And she's standing about five feet away and all of a sudden somebody comes up to her and they go, hey Beth, I have a question. What's it like being married to Keenan? If I was talking to you, I would immediately check out of our conversation and I'd be eavesdropping on that conversation. I wanna hear what she's gonna say. And I have to tell you, it would be a catastrophic failure to me as a husband. If I overheard her say, (breathes deeply) Well, I endure it. (audience laughs)

But that would be a catastrophic failure. I don't want Beth saying she endures being married to me. I want her saying she enjoys being married to me, but I came to Annapolis with some good news. God didn't just sign up for the seasons he finds you enjoyable. God didn't say, hey remind me when you're being pleasant, I'll come around then. Until then, I'm checking out. No, God says even when I can't enjoy what you're doing, I will shift out of enjoyment and I will endure through all the seasons. You keep walking in habitual sin. You keep subjecting yourself to the lie of the enemy. Yet again, I will shift out of a place of enjoyment and I will endure the things you are subjecting us to. And here's what I wanna ask you. Listen, listen, listen, here's what I wanna ask you. How long are you gonna force God to endure you when he built you to enjoy you? (indistinct chatter) How long are you gonna make God endure your life? And so he can have what he made you for which he was mutual enjoyment. God's called us to walk in a place where we can enjoy one another, but I've got good news, God will endure. He will shift into that place when you are unable to shift on your own marriage. And listen, if I can have somebody come and play on the keys,

it will pressure me to close. I'm not gonna, it's just gonna apply the necessary pressure or I will preach until Christ returns. I don't have a problem talking about him. [BLANK_AUDIO] but the place that is hot on my heart tonight, listen, listen, listen. The place that is hot on my heart tonight, the enduring love of God, shows up in a way that, listen, I think many members of the body of Christ here in the West, in the American church, have never even heard. I think that there's a place in the Old Testament where the enduring love of God shows up in an undeniable way. And the problem is many American Christians don't even realize this is in their Bible. You know why? Because we want to sanitize the Scriptures for you. We want to, we want to only preach things that keep butts and seats and direct deposits coming twice a month. So we don't want to go to the challenging parts. We don't want to give you the serrated edge, because that might ruffle you the wrong way. And then you go find, looking for another church, and there's plenty of churches in this neck of the woods. Listen to me, we rob you when we decide what you're capable of digesting. You need an even balance of the Word of God. The parts that comfort you and the parts that send a shiver down your spine. You need both. You need both. Listen, the place I want to take you to tonight, it is, if it were a movie, listen, it would be PG-13 at minimum. It is a racy portion of Scripture. And I'm going to do my best. I understand that there are little ears under the sound of my voice.

So I am going to do my best to make sure I'm honoring families while I am still honoring the Word of God at the same time. Listen, the enduring love of God shows up on full display 750 years before Jesus would come through a virgin womb. I want to pause right there. Some of you, you have this erroneous idea that Jesus' story starts as a baby in a manger. Nah, you're wrong. If Jesus' story starts as a baby in a manger, that's a cute and humble beginning. Let me remind you of where his story starts. It doesn't. He's the uncreated God. You want to argue? John chapter 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. Some people are like, "Oh, Jesus was the very first creation of Yahweh." Then that would mean that John chapter 1 is saying, "Jesus somehow made Jesus." Because it says, "Without him was not anything made that was made." How does Jesus make Jesus? Some of you are like, "Oh, Colossians chapter 1 verse 15 says, "He's the image of the invisible God." But it says, "The firstborn of all creation." That means he's the firstborn. He's the first creation. Oh, contrary. Then why does Psalm 89 and verse 27,

why does God look and say, "Hey, David, I'm going to make you the firstborn king of all the earth." I've got news. Not only was David not the first king of the earth, he wasn't the first king of Israel, and he ain't even in the oldest of his family. He's number eight. This clearly cannot be talking about the chronology associated with your birth. It's talking about the supremacy associated with your name, that you are above it. You are preeminent over it. And 750 years before Jesus would come to this world, through the Virgin Moon of Mary, the enduring love of God shows up in a way many have never heard. And it shows up through a minor prophet named Hosea. And now listen, we do not separate major prophets and minor prophets because the majors had really cool revelations and the minor ones, there's what kind of lame. That's not how we separate them. Major prophets just means they are longer books. Minor prophets means they are shorter. And listen, Hosea is a minor prophet, but in it we get a major picture of the love of God. 750 years before Jesus would come to this planet, the enduring love of God before we throw any scriptures on the screen, 750 years before Jesus would come to this planet through the Virgin Moon,

the enduring love of God shows up through the prophet Hosea. God comes to Hosea one night and he says, "Hosea, I have an assignment for you. "If you would dare accept it, I will want you "to marry a prostitute." That's what God says. He didn't stutter. I want you to marry a prostitute, a woman of boredom the ESV would say. This is the craziest part to me. You read the text, it doesn't seem like Hosea bats in eye. You know what I believe? I believe that's what walking with the Lord for some time will produce in you. You will have a yes coming out your mouth before you've even heard his question. I'm down, whatever you want. Sign me up. Hosea doesn't bat an eye. God says I want you to marry a prostitute. I want my people to see what it's like for me to be in relationship with them. That's the whole point of this. So the Bible would say that Hosea finds a prostitute to marry a named Gomer. They live together, the Bible doesn't, isn't clear. Now listen, I wanna be very honest. I am a Bible teacher and preacher, so I wanna make this very clear. There are some stories in the Bible that are very linear,

meaning A happened, B happened, C happened, D happened, and it tells you that. There are some passages you have to use your sanctified imagination to fill in the gaps. This is one of those. The book of Hosea is not just prophetic, it's very poetic. So we're all going to use our sanctified imagination using what the scriptures give us to fill in the gaps. The Bible would say they get married and they go on to have a baby boy. They have a baby girl. They end up having another baby boy. They've got three children. This is like, this is miraculous. A prophet and a prostitute are somehow making a prosperous household. So all of a sudden you can imagine one night Hosea wakes up and leans over to see if Gomer's awake and they're shocked and surprised Gomer's not in bed. He gets slightly concerned. Probably rummages through the house. Maybe one of the kids is sick. No, the kids are where they should be. Rummages through the kitchen. I don't think she ain't there. Rummages through the whole house. Until finally, the reality he just woke up to settles in. She's gone. I'll take a step further. She left it.

He's now a single dad with three kids. And to add insult to injury, still the prophet of Israel. Listen, he is not the image of the invisible God, but his face is the face closest associated. With the voice of God in his generation, he's the prophet. People associate Hosea's face with righteousness. And Hosea can't even keep his wife at home. Can you imagine the thoughts? Can you imagine the imposter syndrome that probably settled in in this moment? Like I'm supposed to keep the nation in the direction of God. And I can't even keep my wife at home. I'm sure he had some dark moments, some dark thoughts. And so the Bible finally would tell us that God comes back to Hosea. And he says, "Hosea, I have another assignment. "If you dare accept it, I, well here it is, "I will go find her. "Go find her, yep, go find her." And by the way, when you do, marry her again. Again, yep, marry her again. So Hosea goes. He's looking high, he's looking low. He's checking her favorite boutiques, cafes. And so finally, there is nowhere left to look, but the place he had found her all those years ago.

Hosea's gotta go to the other side of the tracks, if you will. Back to that part of town. Listen, Hosea's face is associated with God and he's gotta go perusing that righteous face where it should never be seen. Does that sound like anyone you and I may serve? Jesus put on skin and bone and he came to our, listen, he didn't just come to bad people, he came to a broken, fallen planet. The whole thing is cursed. That's why the ground works against us. That's why the animals wanna eat us. That's why natural disaster is trying to wipe us out. The whole thing fell into sin and Jesus comes perusing his sacred face in a place that's unworthy of it. Hosea is wandering that part of town. Now listen, it's not too far fetched for me to imagine. He probably has to interact with some people who are no doubt in that lifestyle or possibly in that neck of the woods to spend a little loose change. Listen, a man is only in that neck of the woods for one thing. It's got loose change and he wants to have a loose night. Can you imagine, my husband's in the room. Can you imagine having to interact with men asking if they've been in bed with your wife recently? Like, hey, bro, I'm looking for my wife, her name's Gomer.

The second this guy here's Gomer, guilt, paranoia, anxiety. Fills his body, he's like, what, a what? Yeah, I know that name. Well, I'm looking for, have you seen her? He's like, bro, I don't know how to tell you, but like, yeah, it was a couple nights ago. A few streets down, but don't worry, a pater. Jose is probably, I don't care if you pater and I don't need to know about a few nights ago. I'm looking for her right now. He eventually rounds a corner and he walks up on what no scholars would believe to be a sea of people This sea of people are no doubt all pressed in around a platform much like the platform I'm standing on now and who is on that platform But go for herself Now listen again I want to keep this like I want to keep this honoring of families while I'm honoring the word What what hosea walked up on this moment is an auction It's an se x auction and being sold to the to the highest bidder at top dollar is his wife Now listen this would have been a rough moment because in this moment this crowd wants to know what their money's getting them So Gomer in this moment would have been completely exposed For these men to then yell out a dollar amount after they survey her body that they think she's worth Can you imagine hearing this as a husband? Men yelling out a dollar amount. They'd give for a moment with your wife I would go ballistic Jose begins to push through Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me until finally he makes his way to the edge of the platform work Gomer the auction your stand. He says sir, sir. I Don't know if you realize this, but that's my wife. I Don't know who you think she is

But currently she's mine She's for sale Here's the price Does hosea have to have to outbid other guys like who knows? until finally we see this that the Bible would say this that hosea ends up paying 15 pieces of silver and Five bushels of barley now if you're just trying to be a goody - to choose Christian and blaze through your Bible You will miss the potency of what you just read Because it's 15 pieces of silver and it's five bushels of barley all of this holds deep theological significance 15 is a theological number that represents divine rest look it up Divine rest while five is a number that theologically represents grace Listen, it goes deeper because it's not just 15 and five. It's silver and it's barley in this moment silver Doesn't just represent silver it represents something of infinite worth Something of a divine nature something of another world while barley represents something of earth it represents man Listen to me. Jesus is both God and man what he did on that cross brought us rest from trying to work for our Owner righteousness and grace because no matter how hard we worked we could never do it What I'm trying to say is the gospel is on full display if you'll slow down the Bible's not boring you are Hosea is prophetically paying for his wife was something he doesn't even have the wherewithal is symbolic of Jesus Now listen had I had the privilege of rolling with Hosea in this moment I'd have been down like had Josea come up to me He said keen and I got a tall order from the Lord. I need I need you to have my six I'd have been like bro. I've got your six. I've got your back. It's police talk I ain't a police officer, but I've been around Got your back and I'd have been cool I'd have let him take the lead but it's right about now that I would have piped up Right as he's going to pay for his wife I would have piped up and I said time out hosea real quick. Let me remind you of something She's your wife Like news flash that means she already belongs to you

But we have to understand is what hosea didn't know But God didn't know Was that 750 years later? God would send his son to our planet to purchase back what already belonged to him Would already belong to my Bible says this that you and I we are made in the image of God You bear his image. You may live nothing like it But you bear his signature you you you you bear his image and God is committed to Redeeming that which he made in his image You know this is why I get sick and I get tired of the devil pillaging the church of Jesus Christ Priorizing the church of Jesus Christ making you think oh today. He loves me tomorrow. He doesn't he loves me. He loves me Not he loves me. He loves me not ridiculous Listen if you are a blood-bought son and daughter of the most high God You don't just belong to him once you belong to him twice You are doubly gods, which it is what it's why it's ridiculous for you to entertain demonic ideologies You got to it and you know, 830, then all of a sudden he's done with you. You're doubly his. You're first his by design and now you're his by purchase. I want somebody to leave. Listen, I get people telling me of other, you know, like religious persuasions. You can't know that you're going to heaven. Bet. The Bible does not say that you better work your butt off, Keenan, there's no way you can know. The Bible doesn't say you can know you can go to heaven. Then what did I read in 1 John 5 and verse 13? John says, "My children, I write these things "so that you may know you have eternal life." (congregation applauding)

The problem is you don't know the word. So you're getting bested by demons every day of your life. Some of you use one scripture and it doesn't seem to work. So then all of a sudden you're like, "Oh, I guess we need to look like a modern day new ageism. "Oh, I guess I better than bust out my crystals. "I guess I better go read my horoscope. "You know, I'm a Sagittarius. "My neighbor's in asparagus. "We gotta get together." You know what Jesus did? Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and he looks at Satan, he says, "It is written." He fires at Satan with the word. And you know what Satan had the audacity to do? Come at him again. If Jesus had to reload, who are you to think you won't have to reload? Jesus said, "I got another scripture for that one." He didn't change the ammunition. He kept firing the way. Listen, the Bible says he is the word of God. Anything he would have said in that moment would have been the word. But he says, "No, Deuteronomy will suffice." He could have made up any of these things. He's like, "Ah, no, it's already written, bud." There it is, Deuteronomy. Some of you didn't even know Deuteronomy was in your Bible.

Jesus used it against Satan. He purchased his pack something that already belonged to him. In this moment, it's the auction year probably goes, "Soul to Hosea, the highest bidder." All of a sudden they grab a blanket and they roll it around Gomer and they begin to escort her to the edge of the platform where Hosea eagerly awaits his reunion with his wife. Now, for a brief moment, we must park being in the mind of Hosea and we now need to enter into the purview of Gomer. Because listen to me, Gomer never dreamed Hosea would come here. Let alone, if he did in her wildest imagination, that he would pay the price of the auction. She's probably thinking, "Okay, he's been as nice as he's gonna be. "He's about to let me have it. "He's about to give it to me." You can imagine Gomer begins to emotionally brace herself for the tongue-lashing and rebuke she knows she has come in. But here's what I want you to see. Where you and I would expect to see a stern, gut-riching in-your-face rebuke. You know what we find? We find Hosea chapter three and verse three. Turn there. Hosea chapter three and verse three says this, "And I, the highest Hosea said to her, "You must dwell his mind for many days."

Notice, Hosea doesn't say, "Hey, we're gonna take this on a trial run. "Oh, we're gonna take this on a day-by-day basis. "And if you can toe the line. "Like, if you can show me, you really mean it. "Then maybe you can stick around. "Give us six months to trial run." No, he says, "You're gonna dwell his mind for many days." Notice, he says, "You'll not play the whore. "This is what I love. "Hosea does not pull the punch." Why? 'Cause Jesus came full of grace and truth. Anyone that isolates Jesus to just one of those is a caricature and a heresy. It's no wonder like there's nothing, there's no real power to it. Because Jesus, he's not 50% grace and 50% truth. He is somehow the embodiment of 100% grace, yet 100% truth at the same time. Hosea doesn't bat an eye. He says, "You're not gonna have to play the whore anymore." You know, that's who you've been. You've been a whore. We've become a whore to our lusts. When we become a whore's after the American dream, some of you become a whore for ministry. You become a whore for accolades. You become a whore for your last name. I'll do anything. It's a night your hosea comes and he does the unthinkable,

but he does not let you duck under the weight of what he's actually saving you from. (gentle music) Notice this, so will I also be to you. You know what that is? That's Hosea renewing his vows to her. You know why this is crazy to me? Hosea is not the one who broke the vow. Yet Hosea is the one renewing it. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of Romans chapter 5 verse 8. But wow we were still sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. My Bible says we love only because he first loved us. Like you didn't talk God into this thing man. You were not in church tonight on a Friday night trying to earn brownie points. Trying to get him to look your way. The only reason you showed up wasn't to cry out to him. It's because he's been crying out to you. That's why you're here tonight. That's why some of you who honestly you're on the edge of being turned over to a reprobate mind. Because you're satisfied with looking like a Christian and living like the devil. Eventually listen to me. You can live that way long enough and God just hand you over to your sin. That's Bible. Don't shoot me. That's the Bible. He will turn you over to your own lusts. To where you don't even want it. So many people will ask me. Keenan do you think if I keep sinning God will revoke my salvation? I tell them wrong question. That's you wondering if God's character is going to change. It's not God's character we got to worry about but a better question is if you keep sinning will you still be a person who wants to be saved? Because sin changes you. That's what we think. What are the greatest lies sin will tell you is you got to wait with it last time. Therefore you can get away with it again. That's one of the biggest downfalls to getting away with sin is you learn I can do this. I'm a functioning addict. I'm a functioning sinner. And tonight you're hosea much like Jesus come writing him to Jerusalem knowing darn well what he would find. Your hosea has come writing in saying are you ready to drop the facade? Like literally imagine if hosea had done all this and gomer refused to come off the platform. Everything's been done. The price has been paid. I'm ready to take you back. I've renewed my vow and she says no. Either I'm so ashamed I can't come with you or I love my sin too much. I won't let you have me. Which one are you? You know the Bible describes people and hell and some people they get all mad and they're like how would a good God? How would a good God allow people to go to hell? You know how good God is if you go to hell you're gonna have to step over his son's

dead body to get there. That's how badly he doesn't want you to go. The Bible describes people and hell it says there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those are two different responses. Weeping is a response of someone in hell who recognizes the chance they had to put their faith in Christ but the eternity is sealed now. Because you only have this life to give your life to Christ. Hebrews says this it is appointed once for man to die. Then comes the judgment. When the judgment comes it's too late. It is too late. The book is sealed. Your name is either in it or it's not. And some of you tonight if you make your if you make your bed in hell, if you should find yourself in hell your response would be weeping. Weeping over the fact that I had the opportunity to trust him. It was all real. That preacher wasn't yelling for nothing. And you'll weep for eternity over the opportunity you missed in 75, 85, 95, maybe years he gave you. But then there's another one. There's not just weeping. It says there's gnashing of teeth. This is someone in hell who is so arrogant that they're still mad at God that he would put them there. How I deserve better than this. I honestly think that matches some Christians. We did all these things in your name. It's Matthew 7. Lord, Lord, look at all that I did. He says, "Depart from the worker of lawlessness." I know you're not. And for eternity you gnashed your teeth at him. Why? Because it was only you were only rooted in your own righteousness. And your righteousness, my Bible says, is as filthy rags before the Lord. It's an abum. Hebrews chapter 12 says we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. They're all watching to see what will you do when your hosea comes to tell them.