Love Never Fails // Pastors Earl and Oneka McClellan

hey we love you guys so much and everyone who was a part of shoreline city I just need you to know we love you and care for you so so much I can't wait to see everyone together again we really do but in the season that we're in right now it's been beautiful to see God bringing so many new family members that are now a part of shoreline city I'm thinking about our friends in Costa Rica that we love so much I'm thinking about a new young lady that just started joining us from Virginia Moore again I'm thinking about our friends in Atlanta Hannah Lee and Ryan and Kelly and friends up in Michigan California all over the place individuals Antigua people are jumping on this journey and we just want you to know you're a part of this family you're already in tell us you're here log in the chats talk to it let us know your story if any any prayer requests at all let us know those prayer requests but I'm really excited about the future because I really think God is doing something special and you don't have to just be in the building in order to be a part of this church we're all a part of this church right now and we love you a ton now last week honey our we spoke together I'm going to do it again this week tag-teaming again and I'm excited about this because whatever onii-chan's next to me it just everything looks better is better because you're so so wonderful but we mentioned her hair last week we mentioned her hair now it looks beautiful looks amazing as does mine actually obviously it doesn't but my wife's hair you know she's a sister right okay tell myself yes into our kitchen I'm about to show you guys a picture but listen do not screenshot it honey you are I can't even believe you're doing this because again your hair looks amazing now but you know we've all been in shelter-in-place so we haven't been able to go out to get anything done total first world problem total first world problem but my wife needed her hair washed em can I say what else I did you can say it all okay we had to dye a little bit of it okay so we're doing the mass we're doing the social distancing all the things so what does that mean when a sister needs her hair did I got in there and we put who I had this was who is in my corner and I'm like baby time to get in the game put the gloves on the game face war paint sister needs some help and as you can see I don't do hair okay he does even have hair I don't do it now Here I am I am dying Amica said we have our hairdresser on the FaceTime here she tells me everything to buy on Amazon I'm doing it I'm doing I got the brush out I'm doing a little love's on he's super serious and intense because he wants to get it right I don't want to mess it I don't want her coming out bald you again if you're bald no problem we love you in the Kovach streets so I go ahead we diet then we wash it yep condition it okay so I'm in there you know just a quick little timeout for anyone who's not familiar with sister hair well family do not be alarmed my husband is dying my hair yes it's gotten to that level of serious sister hair is awesome it's a gift I'm grateful for it but it takes some work wer cake work work work work work work so I'm now done my mom is over at the house and my mom says hey let me go ahead and mom's like let me in put me in coach I tagged in I mean I tagged her in I go back I don't know I'm watching something Onika comes into the room about an hour and a half later I think everything's supposed to be done when she walks in this is what I see yep I saw that I saw her hair I was like a troll my hair was out 50 and it wasn't cute like some of you can do that with your hair and it's like a vibe and it's a mood and you're like look at me natural embracing my natural I can't embrace now you can see from the picture it was so my first initial response I'm a good husband I'm trying to be a good husband because even today is actually what our anniversary okay no problem honey we're talking way too long about this we're gonna get to the Bible just a second she comes in her hair is massive we got these 23 years we've been married now her hair is out to here but I tell her I say hey you look beautiful because that's what she'd do as a husband and she says whatever she said I lost it y'all I am on the ground I tears are rolling down my cheeks I'm laughing so hard you see the before and after you see my hair straight but come to find out this is why I was laughing so hard it wasn't finished it still had to be Flatiron and that is some encouragement for all of us today before we jump into the Bible right now it's not finished yet that's why your life looks the way it looks that's why that's why your marriage looks the way it looks that's why your finances look the way they look that's why your leadership in this season looks the way it looks that's why your friendships or your dating relationship looks the way it looks it's just not finished yet so we're gonna take some time out today we're gonna get better we're gonna Flatiron our lives are gonna flatiron our purpose that we're gonna see god help us become all that we've been destined to be but honey just so you know your hair is now laid it looks beautiful hey turn with us today to first Corinthians chapter 13 as we begin or start this message love never fails in the game hey Aubrey that's a whole nother story for another day we're gonna read first Corinthian chapter 13 beginning in verse number one and as we begin to process through these verses and what we're gonna be going through today we're believing that God's gonna be something significant all of our hearts and our lives so after a little bit of a laugh let's see our hearts and lives transform for the cause of Christ honey you want to begin reading first Corinthians chapter 13 verse number one I would love to here we go if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have faith that can move mountains but I do not have love I have nothing I am nothing verse three if I give all to possess the poor if I give all I possess to oh yes if I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love I gain nothing hear this I know some of us maybe have only heard this verse of scripture at a wedding or maybe it's the first time you've ever even saw the context of this verse of scripture because we're about to go through love is love is love is and the Apostle Paul who wrote this portion of the Bible inspired by God to write these words he's saying if I do all these massive things but I don't have love I'm nothing if I give everything I have to the poor and I don't have love it's nothing if I have faith that can move mountains but I don't have love I have nothing if I can build an amazing company but I don't have love it's nothing if my family looks great on a Christmas card but I don't have love I have nothing if my body is ripped and I'm looking so fly and I'm ready for the summer yeah thank you honey that is definitely not the case but covetous hid covetous hit their McLellan house but if I have all of that stuff in place and I don't have love I've got nothing so here it is for all of us here we're not we're not really all that concerned about how many Bible verses you have if you don't have love we're not all that concern without articulate or theological you might be if you don't have love we're not all that concern about how good your skills are in this industry or that industry if you don't have love because love is the thing that really is going to last so continue to read here honey in verse number four love is I love this love is patient love is kind it does not envy it does not boast it is not proud verse five it is not dishonor others it is not self-seeking it is not easily angered it keeps no records of wrong love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth it always protects always trusts always hopes always perseveres love never fails that is the title of today's message the title of our timing of a theme around today's talk because we want to see this love propelling us this love of God propelling us to be all that he's called us to be as we were praying through this and processing through this this message today we knew it was going to be a Mother's Day but we didn't feel that we wanted to do like just a Mother's Day message yes but it definitely happily happy Mother's Day to all the moms we wanted to make sure we're doing something that was going to push all of us forward making sure this is not just something for moms but this is something for daughters and sons it's something for single people and married people something for older people and younger people because all of us want to be loved all of us want to be better at loving and as we were preparing this here is the the phrase the word we felt God laid on our hearts for every last one of us and that's this God is after your heart not your hands God is after your heart and not your hands does that mean God does not want your hands of course he wants your hands but but first and foremost he wants he wants your heart and many of us are thinking that God is just after our hands now if our heart represents love and our hands represents what we do we all tend to think about a relationship with God based on everything that we do but we're trying to take it a step back and say hey it's not about what you do before it is God grabbing a hold of your heart because if he gets your heart he gets your head if he gets your love he gets your hands if it gets your passion then it gets your hands and God is more interested in you and I having a loved drenched relationship with him then he is and you and I just checking a bunch of things off of a box so we can make ourselves feel better about ourselves we've got these great kids that we love a ton they are a blast it is loud and wild in the house it can be a little bit all over the place and in a little bit when we turn to John 14 so that's why I was turning there but in our house our boys love fort night right I mean we our 15 year old loves fortnight and our nine-year-old they love fortnight shoot maybe our daughter even might like for it yes she is rowdy it's so much fun so our boys left fortnight it's like a drug I mean parents you know this how does parents single dudes right now you know what I'm talking about I mean you you play call of duty modern warfare you know for hours on end and here we've got our sons and they're like hey I want to play fort night I want to play for tonight I want to play fort night I wish we wish they'd clean their rooms with as much passion exactly as they play fortnight or cleared the table after dinner or empty the dishwasher yep just something but literally fortnight will drive them it will motivate them it will motivate them so so if we say to our sons hey go clean your room of course they're great young men they go and they do it but that's not a ton of enthusiasm I'm trying to think of a time we like to play fortnight never but we have to remind them to clean their room yes empty the dishwasher when they leave the home I want them to make us proud yeah that's exactly how to clean so here we are we've got two things going on we got fortnight and we've got cleaning the room or emptying the dishwasher or whatever if we say to them hey you can play as much fortnight as you want if you clean your room the enthusiasm that they have was cleaning their room oh my goodness it's it's and span you see him out there with gloves cleaning off baseboards you see them scrubbing the floor you see them fluffing the pillows and the blankets I mean they are all in why because they love fortnight's so much because since they love for tonight it impacts what happens with their hands and what we feel is there's too many followers of Christ that are trying to make up their bed trying to keep everything perfect in their life trying to cross every T and dot every I and there is not enough love that is motivating you so it's like a burden it's like something you don't want to do it's like a chore and you and I be followers of Jesus was never designed to be a chore this is the joy of a lifetime because the God of heaven forgave you and forgave me gave us a brand-new start took away our guilt and our shame put us on a firm foundation our home is in heaven the Holy Spirit is in us we are empowered to make a difference in the world what can you believe that God even knows our name this is our motivation and when we're consumed by God's love when we're consumed with flying more in love with him when we're consumed with saying father fill me up to overflow then the life we leave it comes out of that excess love that we have for God so it spills over but when we try to live life like robots or like I must learn my spouse I must be a good roommate I must be a good mother I must be a good father and it comes out that way but when we're consumed with God we say God fill me up to overflow I can do nothing without you I'm desperate for a touch desperate for your presence desperate for you to leave me as I walk into the Xoom call desperate for you to leave me as I have this intense conversation would you go before me and when my words come out of an overflow of a relationship madly in love with you we approach life that way when that's our posture then we get to see that love never fails that is so so good we we want to submit to you that the problem you think is your problem might not actually be your problem it's a symptom yes so you think about somebody with giving save giving finances or giving time or giving whatever like man I got a hard time with giving maybe you don't have a hard time with giving maybe it's you have a hard time loving Wow because if you love you give maybe maybe you think your problem is procrastination man I just procrastinate procrastinate man I got to do this thing I want to do this thing but I just procrastinate maybe it's not a procrastination problem maybe maybe procrastinating is not the issue maybe loving is the issue because when you and I love something it's amazing how we get the energy and the passion to be able to do the thing that we love to do I love musicians and artists there's so much fun to be around they bring so much beauty to the world and there are times you can kind of be get stuck you know on a project or doing some certain thing and you're like man I got no creative juices flowing I can totally happen but man if somebody brings you something that you love it's amazing how your whole mind and heart comes alive and you're able to produce something sometimes incredibly quick just because you love it so much you love the project you love the people you're working with you love the people you're working for you love it so something flows so it is with the teams that you lead at your job so it is with your family so it is with your friends it's just it's just interesting how love has a way of pushing us forward and getting us to do with our hands what some people think they need to be manipulated to do love actually makes it flow out of you naturally we don't want to live manipulated lives neither does God want us living manipulated lives and that takes us to John chapter 14 verse 23 you want to read this one you want me to read it something okay verse 23 24 beautiful jesus replied anyone who loves me will obey my teaching my father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching these word you hear are not my own they belong to the father who sent me Wow this right here is Jesus you know I love your reading voice - voice yep so Jesus here anyone who loves me will obey my teaching can I just say a lot of us have read that and they feel they've read it wrong they read it like if you love me it's kind of like text messaging you know when you're texting someone and you can't do tone of voice and text message and you're just saying something fast but it can come out like you're matter upset but really you're just saying something fast yeah that's exactly right and so we have no emojis here you know Jesus can't do a little praise hands you know there is no praying there is no smiley face there none of those things are added into the original language when the Bible was not translated with emojis so now you and I have to understand the heart of Jesus we have to understand the person of Jesus we have to understand who God is and how he communicates and the type of relationship that he wants with us so that we can read this properly so if this was a text and you read it you could think oh this guy's mad who's he think that's right he's manipulative he is harsh that's right you can think any of those things but what you and I need to understand is that when Jesus is saying this here he's talking about heart and hands he said hey you know a few if you love me you obey right but like if you love the obedience flows from the love it's not you better obey me so you can prove to me that you love me that's not the spirit and the Heart of Jesus just so you know he's not begging you and I to become his followers he is high and lifted up mighty strong he is when he returns he's coming back on a white horse with a robe dipped in blood with tattoos on his thighs what revelation the book of Revelation tells us I mean Jesus is mighty and powerful defeated death hell and the grave our Savior is not anemic and weak and and fearful that he he is after every single one of our hearts but it's not him like oh please will you will you please receive me into your heart please no no our Savior he is saying hey I've got life for you you need what I have you need my forgiveness you need my restoration you need my brand-new start and because you do hey let me give you the pass for this it's love and if you love I'm telling you obedience it just falls into line a whole lot easier and I feel like that scripture that we all talk about many of us in Hebrews you've been surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses I feel like that's a spirit of this scripture I feel like it's like you can do it it's in you I believe in you I gave my life for you I see you I love you I died for you go go go you can do it you can do it not the slave driver way but the way of love which is oh my goodness watching you do this brings me extreme joy and I'm so proud of you that is so so good so you know love is this is a mysterious thing sometimes in our world in our generation because we tend to think it's about like goose bombs or you know feelings and and we just don't we don't believe that we think love you bring me he brings in my coffee every morning but I'm gonna be honest with you that it's not like he thinks oh my gosh I can't wait to bring your coffee some days some day every time no not all the time every day not because you wake up and you feel like twirling and dancing I'm singing Psalms over me you do it because you know them better I'm a better human and love is not a feeling love is a choice love is not a feeling love is a choice so what we have decided we've chosen each other it's not we're waiting for the feelings so that we sometimes you just don't feel like it those of us who are a single and you're like man I can't wait to have a great marry one day you don't have a great marriage based on feelings you have a great marriage based on obviously the grace of the power of God showing up and choosing that one over and over again I choose you I choose you I choose you this is what this is the the strength and the power that we find in love now obviously love is not the only thing and because we need you know you need food and you need air and I get all of that and we're not trying to say it is the right motivator and there's too many of us that are thinking our motivation needs to come from another direction that we need to strive towards something my friends we're not like striving per se we are living out of the overflow of a life that has been impacted by the cross of Jesus Christ and we feel like as pastors sometimes we have done a disservice not us maybe in particular maybe at times we have but overall the church is painted a picture at times that you have to somehow muster up enough strength and you need to get enough courage and you need to figure it out and if you don't figure it out then you know you're going to hell and all that stuff is not the way that we feel like Jesus is painting a path and a picture for us to follow him and as we have all these new folks that are joining our shoreline City and jumping on the journey our Creed says it's so well I am loved by God I cannot earn it I cannot lose it we are declaring and fatica ly that what God has given us is this glorious free gift and we are now living our lives empowered by the spirit out of the love that he gave us so with that being said here and love is a is a feeling not a choice it reminds us of Ross and Lisa and how beautiful they are have an amazing couple in our church who we love Ross and Lisa Burch phenomenal couple and they decided newlywed couple they've only been married for a couple years and they decided you know what we're gonna be unselfish because I think this is such an unselfish act to become foster parents and so what they do is they take in precious sons and daughters roll out the red carpet for them decorate bedroom for them slay out beautiful tables for them and pour out their unconditional love taking care of them as if they're going to have them forever but knowing at some point they're gonna have to give them back mm-hmm and this my friends is another picture of love being a choice now Ross and Lisa are so much fun they are a wild couple I'd be so full of life or so thankful for them but this couple here is choosing to love and I think it would be really easy to say well I'm gonna be guarded I'm gonna hold back I think of two precious girls that they took care of recently and it would have been so easy to say I'm not gonna really pour it all out because I know that this isn't it for everything but I love it they weren't moved by their emotions they were moved by the faithfulness of God moved by an overflow of a relationship with God that was like what would Jesus do Jesus would pour it all out if it was for five minutes or five years or a lifetime and that's what they're doing even this passive scripture that we just read Jesus is responding to his disciples here and he's talking to them with a question they just asked and you and I both know what some of the disciples left and ran in his darkest moment and still Jesus is loving and serving and here you have Ross and Lisa and there's other couples in the church and other single people in the church and older people and younger people that are not only at the physical locations but the online community that have decided hey love is a choice and since God gave me so much love I'm going to share and give to others out of the love that he gave me I think about our connect group leaders so before when we all had church together at our multiple locations we would have connect groups in our homes we had open up our homes come home from a busy day at work set out snacks and then invite people that are sometimes strangers that end up becoming family into our homes but even now that we're on shelter in place our connect group leaders shout out to connect group leaders and if you don't know to connect group is basically it's like a Bible study with a small group of people and you treat and lows of life and you say I'm with you but I think about the love that has never failed with our connect group leaders in this season even no we can't meet at homes online there are hosting groups you can find them on our website and you can get in community and see this unconditional McGowen Carina are in Costa Rica and they are jumping in on a connect group so no matter where you're from you can jump in on a connect we got married one single ones men women all types of groups we'd love for you to join in now with that being said we're just about to be done here we wanted to give you just a couple of practicals you've heard all the this become the spirit of what we're talking about here about how do you grow in love we just got three things they're all teas to make it easier maybe to remember the first tea is time the second one is train and the third one is thanks okay time train thanks how do I grow in love time this is almost self-explanatory exactly I think of it as a seed I want to think of some of my girlfriends who are newlyweds and sometimes they'll say encouragement does not come naturally to me like I'm an encourage or I love to encourage people I don't have to try it just kind of pours out of me but there's other things that do not come naturally to me like working out but that's another story but love you but some of my friends say I struggle with encouragement so then our encouragement if you struggle with encouragement or there's something that you want to do for someone in your life a roommate a co-worker a family member a spouse it's a seed and it takes time it doesn't turn into this like beautiful garden overnight it's not like magic grow it literally is something that you just have to take one step and watch it over time and then it will develop and I love with you you saying this to the shrink is you're even confusing the time and the training it's like these two things are together because as you're training yourself it's like I might not want to do this but I'm gonna keep on doing this thing that I don't even want to do and then it's something beautiful that happens and you and I choosing to do it so again how do you how do you grow for 23 years 23 years today see I I feel like I just met you and you're 18 years old coming by my college dorm room and here we are it goes by so fast and I do feel like with a very strong marriage it's not a perfect we don't have it all together we get on each other's nerves at time we're trying our best just like you but at the end of the day it is time it is faithfulness it is not giving up it is practicing it is making mistakes admitting our failures in our weakness to one another but it takes time so be patient do not be so hard on yourself but you going to try it first before you see the time you do it even even mentioning this next week Oni can die or me or Anika we'll see we're going to do a little to weaker on relationships because we're all about to start kind of immersing back into society you know some of the different states are opening up and we'll see you know all that the coming weeks hold for us but as you're starting to be around people again a lot of us haven't been around folks how are we gonna simulate well back into not only the workplace but just being in each other's space again so I can't wait to do that for just a couple of weeks together but you got time you got the training and then you got thanks remember those things like girl said time training and thanks so with that being said what is thanks that that's the gratitude that's you and I appreciating what God has done for us you and I appreciating the people that he has in our life if nothing else during this kovat season you and I have understood a lot better how much we care and appreciate people and I'm sure some of us have been burned at different times and we've had individuals that have hurt us even in this season and maybe some of you are like man I'm ripping my hair out but there's some things that you're learning that man III took that for granted I didn't value that like I should have I didn't value being able to just go to the gas station I didn't value being able to go get my hair done all right I didn't value being able to go to the gym I didn't value being able to spend this time with my friends or my family with my kids I didn't value just being able to go to the park there's some things I didn't value and if and if nothing else I pray all of us have grown in a measure of Thanksgiving and gratitude and this impacts your love it does it changes how you treat people as you and I have received this unconditional love of God can this become our motivator can this become the thing through which we live our lives the filter through which we see and we interact with others if it does I have a feeling that our world will never be the same I have a feeling that the Grace and the power of God will impact our communities and our neighborhoods and our schools and our friendships and our relationships and ways we never thought possible I have a feeling that we'll see heaven come to earth and that's why we're here in the first place to make it on earth as it is in heaven if you would mind friends bow your heads for just a moment we want to pray for you those of you who are listening today and maybe you've never even heard a message like this about a God that loves you maybe you have a whole lot of chatter going on in your head right now thinking this is probably good too good to be true I'm just letting you know it's not too good to be true it is really too good but it is true and it's that God's arms are open wide to you right now and what happened in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus is you and I now have access to this free gift called salvation the beautiful grace of God that gives us a brand new start so if you're under the sound of our voice whether you're a teenager a young adult you're single or married whether you're in America or you in another part of the world this is your moment to surrender your heart and your life to Christ do you know God is not waiting for you to get cleaned up first that his arms are open wide right now let his love be the thing that helps you get cleaned up you don't have to do it on your own so everyone who's with us today if you wouldn't mind put your hand over your heart those of you who are ready to surrender your life to Christ to make them first in your life to get on the path that's following him I'm gonna ask you to repeat this prayer out loud after me it's just vows that you're saying to God just some words from from your heart to his you're gonna say dear Jesus I asked you to forgive me of all my sins I admit I've made mistakes and today I give you my heart and I give you my life give me the power to live for you in Jesus name Amen amen while we celebrate this moment we're so incredibly excited hey friends if you decided and responded to the grace of God in this moment we would love to know about it would you mind texting SC connect to 97,000 we want to celebrate with you we want to know what what's going on in your heart right now why did you know this was the moment to take this next step we want to help you on your journey to become all that God has called you to be honestly we talked about the connect groups there are a piece of that just being in community helps us continue to develop and grow you don't have to do it alone and you don't have to have it all figured out you don't have to know where the book of John is or the book of first Corinthians you don't have to know any of that stuff you know Jesus and that's what you need and now will be a part of this journey to help us understand we're gonna grow in the Grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and become all that he's called us to be honey am I missing anything before we sign off here today I don't know that we are I don't think we have anything else so since we don't why don't you go ahead and pray over his pray a prayer blessing a prayer of encouragement as Onika mentioned earlier she is encouragement it was out of her it's so true I've been in an incubator of encouragement and let me honor you in front of everyone and just let you know you're the best wife a guy could ever ask for I know you're not perfect obviously I'm not perfect but thanks for being on this journey with me you're making everything better for sure I love you time to go ahead and pray a prayer of blessing over all of us wow that got me almost made me start crying let's pray love you church so much father God we thank you so much for every person joining us today we think if the Spirit of the Living God is with us if we're in our living rooms if we're on our front porch if we're hiding from the kids in a closet somewhere just trying to get filled up if we're on a job we thank you that your presence is with us leading us guiding us strengthening us and transforming us and would you remind us that you have a plan for our lives would you remind us of the purpose that you've called us to remind us that you have not forgotten us but you'll never leave us or forsake us no matter where we find ourselves even our friends there in hospitals right now with your presence bring comfort bring peace would you give favor to every doctor and nurse every frontline person in this season would you bless them would you protect us would you fill our homes with Thanksgiving would you fill our homes with praise and would you remind us that you're just getting started bless every person who is with us today under the sound of my voice in Jesus name and we all said amen amen hey we love you so much again happy mother's day we can't wait to see you in a connect route but we also can't wait to see you next week invite your friends bring them on in all around the world let's go ahead and make it on earth as it is in heaven together

Channel: Shoreline City Church

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Id: tuBNpi5-iKA

Length: 36min 21sec (2181 seconds)

Published: Mon May 11 2020