Pastor Earl McClellan // Don’t Forget The Promise

everyone who is online i'm excited about today because i know that god is going to meet us and change us and transform us and push every one of us forward can you believe it is the first weekend in june of 2021 i how did this happen it has flown by do you remember when we all thought we were going to die in 2020 in 2020 it literally felt like there were 74 years all wrapped up in one year last year and as i was uh preparing uh for today and and this weekend i know i recognize online you know someone could be watching this in the year 2028 or the year 3042 i don't know if i'll still be here at that time but this to be at this point halfway through 2021 i i could not help but just pause and just say thank you god i mean just thank you god i uh my eyes were filling up with tears actually a little bit as i was processing through it because a lot of our friends i mean we've had individuals that have been beat up and bruised and many of us in this room or north or antigua are online right now been beat up been bruised but you you've made it this far i mean how many times do we think i'm done i i can't take another step forward i i don't have the strength to put one more foot in front of the other i don't i don't have the ability i i somewhat i want to muster up the last bit of strength i have and that last bit of strength you thought you had what you thought would keep you all the way in 2020 but god in his grace and his mercy has sustained you and me and he's brought us all the way to the halfway point of 2021 look at the goodness and the grace of god through every house amazing grace go through every danger toil and stare i have already come i mean it was grace that brought me safe thus far and grace is gonna leave me home it's been the grace of god that's been sustaining you it's been the grace of god that's putting breath in your lungs when the grace of god that has given you the strength to put one foot in front of the other i mean it's okay to cry it's okay to be upset it's okay to cuss a little bit if you're not cussing a little bit you're not doing it right but with that let our mouths also be filled with gratitude let our mouths also be filled with thanksgiving let our mouths also be filled with god you've been good god you didn't leave me god you didn't quit on me god i thought i was over i thought i was done i didn't think i could make it but you kept on sustaining me thank you thank you thank you gratitude is one of the sounds of heaven when jesus was standing in front of the none of this is my sermon but when jesus was standing in front of the tomb of lazarus he's standing in front of death and he pauses you can read it he says thank you god that you hear me i mean he's standing in front of death and he begins to thank god i i know some of you might be standing in front of death in your mental health or in a marriage or with your business or with your physical body or with your school whatever it might be but i want you to know in the midst in front of that death you can still stand and say god i thank you i thank you that you're good i thank you that you're faithful i thank you that you're gonna bring me through this i thank you that you're not done i thank you that you're stronger than i think you are i thank you that you're gonna keep on sustaining me i thank you that you haven't forgotten me i thank you that you hear every prayer i thank you that you if you just keep that in your mouth even through tears even through the heaviness you watch how god will continue to carry you he is faithful and he's a good good father the title of today's message is don't forget the promise don't forget the promise don't forget the promise matter of fact turn to your neighbor and say don't forget the promise first corinthians chapter three first corinthians chapter 3 we'll begin reading in verse number 6 first corinthians chapter 3 verse number 6 i planted apollos watered but god gave the increase i planted apollos watered but god gave the increase if you're joining us maybe halfway through the year maybe you only been with us for a couple of weeks here at shoreline city at the beginning of the year we started off with just the word that we feel god lays on our heart and the word for this year was increase this word increase i won't go through all the definitions you can go back and check on youtube the beginning of the year and all the sermons that we had there but i felt it necessary for us to remind ourselves what god was speaking over us because some of us right now are not seeing the increase but i don't want you to think because you're not seeing the increase god's not working when you read this verse of scripture this is the truth i want you to hold on to it there is a process to the promise there is a process to the promise and all of us want the promise but very few of us want the process so so i i have here i thought i was going to have really pretty gloves these are not pretty gloves i thought i was going to have gloves that were filled with flowers and stuff but i i appreciate this if you remember or you don't i'm not a gardener at all uh but you can see the dirt here i can move this this is kind of heavy oh that was not heavy for me uh [Laughter] a little flex a little flex right there a little humble flex let me go ahead and pick this up and just move it over here real quick now this this here is a bunch of soil and and the scripture here is teaching us that that one came along and planted another came along and watered but god is the one that makes things grow i i i know we always want to celebrate the growth and i i think god is into growth we're going to look at a number of scriptures matter of fact we can see here that god brings the increase it's not it's not a bad thing increase and growth is not a bad thing at all for you to grow and develop a spiritually is a great thing you know that god does not want you to see a baby christian forever that he doesn't want you just for the rest of your life not understanding uh salvation and understanding justification wants you to understand his word his truth wants you to have a life-giving relationship with the holy spirit because that's the one who who sealed your salvation in the first place that you and i are ought to be growing and developing god does not want any one of us staying the same but one comes in and plants somebody else waters but god's the one that gives the increase he's the one that makes things grow i i like i like that the apostle paul who wrote this here i like that he talked about dirt because we all have this in our lives we all have parts of our lives that we look at and we're like that's just what am i supposed to do with that that's dirt if you don't have any air of your life that is like this you're lying okay that's what i think you're lying all of us have some area of our life can we agree that we look at it we go oh man this is dirt this is gross this is nasty what what can happen with us i'm gonna keep my gloves on for a second uh what what can god do with this how how can anything good come out of this if those of you who are theologians your bib your mind might be going to genesis chapter two uh verse number seven in genesis 2 7 and says the lord god formed man from it's the dust and dirt that god used to make you dare i say that god still uses dust and dirt to make you like think about the things in your life that have been the hardest that's the stuff that's made you some of us are in the middle of the dirt right now we're like i don't want to be made i i don't want to deal with this i don't want to go through this and i i pray that thing does not crush you and i pray that thing does not take you out whatever that thing might be and if you're 16 years old it might be one thing and if you're 66 years old it might be another thing but what i do know is how god used dirt in the beginning to make man god still uses dirt today to make man and woman it's the hard stuff it's the difficult stuff that you and i have gone through that have made us it's the stuff that made us strong and we see somebody walking through something we're like hey hang on baby you're going to get through it i thought that would kill me too but god still carried me and sustained me he used the dirt to make us i'm grateful for this beautiful church family that god has put together it is miraculous it is amazing as i look and think about everybody who's online and everybody who's in antigua and up north right now it's beautiful to see how god has continued to grow this church family but my wife will tell you building and growing and being a part of this church family and seeing what god was doing the pressure has been real okay especially going through 2020 and we got black people and white people and latino people and asian people and we got every which way and i'm trying to i'm trying to pastor you but don lemon's also trying to pass to you and sean hannity's trying to pastor you and npr's trying to pass to you and i'm trying to tell you keep your eyes on jesus and on his word but they're trying to tell you keep your eyes on your skin and i'm saying no you got to keep your eyes on jesus first and then all the skin stuff comes underneath that i it the dirt made me i'm telling you this past year don't make me want to cuss up in here this this is how it goes though some somebody's got a plant somebody's got a water but it's god who gives the increase uh if you have your bible term well you don't have to turn that i just put the scripture on the screen genesis uh not genesis uh john john chapter 12 john chapter 12 i think it's verse 24 am i getting this right yeah uh very truly i tell you this is jesus speaking here very truly i tell you that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed but if that thing dies if that thing is put in the dirt it can produce many now all of us want to produce many but we don't want the dirt and i'm just trying to i'm just reminding us i i feel like god was trying to remind us that if you feel like you are in this right now it's part of the process for you becoming who god has called you to be this is part of your development this is part of your maturity don't you you can hate it but you and i always don't get to go around it you got to go through it you got to feel it you got to walk in it go with me to uh galatians i believe it's my lap next first galatians uh chapter six galatians chapter uh galatians chapter uh six uh verse number seven through nine galatians chapter six verses 7 through 9. if i can get there in my bible turn the page earl get there take a lot of time yeah just turn one page at a time earl that'll work perfect galatians chapter 6 verses 7 through 9 do not be deceived god cannot be mocked a man or a woman reaps what he or she sows whoever sows to please the flesh from the flesh will reap destruction whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not what if we do not give up increase it is not a passive act it will require our participation it will require you and i being engaged with the work of the spirit i do not want to paint a picture that it all centers in on us i don't want to paint that picture at all okay that that is a very it's not gospel okay because we recognize that all of this starts with jesus it starts with his work it starts with him working in our lives drawing us closer it starts with him uh but since it starts with him and also ends with him in god's divine plan i don't know if that i would have done it this way but i'm not god he said hey now i want you to participate with me in making it on earth as it is in heaven i want you to participate with me in your growth and development i want you to participate with me in bringing justice into the earth i want you to participate with me and making it on earth as it is in heaven i want you to participate with me and getting the company off the ground i want you to participate with me with your marriage becoming what it's supposed to be i want you to participate with me when you're trying to raise your kids you know i there's a lot of new dads a lot of any new dads any new guys let me hear your new dad let me hear your new dad new dad okay yeah we got we got a bunch of new dads man i love being a dad okay i love it it's awesome and amazing now now i got you know 16 which is a lot of fun i get to play basketball you know with parker which is a blast i got uh our 11 year or 10 year old about to be 11 year old grayson he is awesome and so much fun and can just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and i sit there and i'm like okay yeah yeah but i i practice talking with him a lot now so that when he's 16 he'll talk with me then so i'm trying to get him used to it like yeah yeah you can trust me you can trust me now you can trust me now uh then i got l who's about to lose her first tooth and we're excited about that and it's dangling by a thread right now she's about to be the cutest little six-year-old you know on the planet i love being a dad but it was very intimidating to become a father my dad might be watching uh right now and i love you uh so much dad and he and i have had uh this conversation a number of times but he was figuring out what it meant to be a father when i was being raised and and wasn't as present as he would even like to have been uh when i was growing and now relationship has been restored it's been beautiful and he's got a great wife and it's great to see all that god has done but i was i was concerned i was concerned i don't want to mess it up i mean i had a puppy but but i've never been a dad i mean i mean what do you do i mean when they're crying what do you do when that diaper has to be changed what do you do when you can't feed them because mom's the one with the stuff to feed them and you don't have the stuff to feed them you can try it but it doesn't work okay that's weird if you ever try that just so you know but sometimes they're crying so much you're willing to do almost anything okay yeah i don't know if it's going to work honey but i'm going to do it i'll take one for the team i i i didn't i didn't know but one thing i do know is that god called me to be their father okay so dads don't don't be afraid don't don't be i can say don't be afraid i'm don't let your fear you don't let your fear stop you from being engaged don't let your fears stop you from participating you can't just lay the kid there and trust for him or her just to turn out all right you're gonna have to participate god actually put that kid in your life to help you and to help them become who god wants them to be so now you gotta you gotta get your hands in the dirt you gotta be apart you gotta wake up at 2 30 in the morning knowing you can't help but change the diaper and sometimes you gotta sit there like honey you got this i believe in you you do your thing and you're falling asleep and you're like hey i believe you guys got you i remember walking the floor at 2 37 and 3 45 a.m and my kids are just crying but i know i got to participate i got to participate i just got to i got to be there i got to be a part of the journey i don't i'm i'm not trying to give this over to my wife i i'm called to be the dad that's what i'm called to participate i want to be involved in this thing it's not a passive thing if you want to raise a world changer it's not a passive thing if you want to raise a man or woman of god it's not a passive thing if you want to raise a kid that's going to honor god all the days of their life it's not a passive thing and sometimes our kids go the wrong direction we recognize that but still i'm going to keep on being there i'm going to keep on praying i'm going to keep on covering there's always going to be an open door there's always going to be a seat at the table if you want something to increase you're going to need to participate with what god is doing let me keep on let me keep on going here go with me go with me to joshua the book of joshua book of joshua chapter 5 joshua chapter 5. i need a little tissue too here i feel like i gotta oh thank you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you my little my little td jake's tissue it's not it's like a like i'm not a full hanky like his it's a little tissue i'm not on this level quite yet i'm gonna be there one day bishop get ready get ready get ready right now and now it's just joshua chapter 5 verse number 10 on the evening of the 14th day of the month while camped at gilgal on the plains of jericho the israelites celebrated the passover the day after the passover that very day they ate some of the produce of the land unleavened bread and roasted grain the manna the manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the from the land there was no longer any manner for the israelites but that year they ate the produce of kanan okay some of you are like this makes nothing to me at all you might as well been reading you know latin to me but some of you are nerds and you know latin so let me paint you're like yeah i am uh the children of israel they were in bondage for uh hundreds of years hundreds of years okay they've been in slavery for hundreds of years and moses goes in and moses if you've ever seen the prince of egypt then you're you know you're basically caught up to speed on this right moses uh goes in he's like hey let my people go there's a bunch of singing and nile river turns into blood and frogs and locusts and a bunch of stuff and he's like okay they can leave so they leave with moses and they get over to the red sea the red sea parts they walk over on dry ground uh they're supposed to go into the promised land it's supposed to be just a short journey it ends up taking them 40 years it takes them so long because these folks chose to complain and murmur we looked at some of these things early in first corinthians chapter 10 you can go back a number of weeks first corinthians chapter 10 a number of the things that kept them out of the promised land the sexual immorality the idolatry the the murmuring the complaining the testing the lord these are different things that kept them out of where god was trying to take them so they've been traveling around for these 40 years that generation has died off and now a new generation has has arisen and this generation those who raised in church they're called the joshua generation so the joshua generation is the one now joshua is the leader moses has died off all these people that were in the wilderness that were wandering around none of them had the sign of the covenant in their body the sign of the covenant this is real it's in the bible i remember asking my youth pastor about this like when they say this word is it the word that i think it goes yes it is none of them were circumcised just put that out there they're at gilgal and god says i want the sign of the covenant to now be on their bodies so they're cut and they have to heal at gilgal they're cut then they have to heal they're cut then they have to heal they're cut then they have to heal some of us have been cut but we haven't taken the time to heal some of us been wounded we haven't taken the time to heal what we're doing is we're trying to enter into our promised land but god what he what he told them is yes after i cut i want you to heal i want you to slow down i want you to pause for just a second i'm about to take you into another place but i don't want you to take you into that new place with the old mindset and i felt like god was trying to was telling me to tell all of us my kids have been trying to make things normal when i'm trying to make things new my kids have been trying to get back to like some other place but i'm trying to make something new i'm trying to take them to a new place i'm trying to take them out of wandering into the in the wilderness and i'm trying to bring them into a new season and so many of us are looking back going i wish i was in egypt so many of us are looking back going i wish it was 2018. so many of us are looking back saying i wish it was this day or that day but god is like no girlfriend son boyfriend i need you to open up your eyes here i'm trying to do a new thing i'm trying to take you from wandering i'm trying to bring you into your promised land and the dirt and the increase and the growth and the process and the participation is all a part of this thing and also what's a part of it is sometimes some things have to be cut off of you and sometimes you have to pause and and heal you have to heal you have to heal so you've got to go to therapy it's okay there's no shame in that yeah get in your connect group and talk and share your heart go ahead you got to do that it's part of your healing it's part of your development you got to be in your bible you want to be i'll encourage you to journal you're allowing the holy spirit to heal to wash over you got to cry sometimes you're allowing him to heal you don't want to bring the same stuff from when you are wandering into your promised land you got to heal so go through this healing process and then something interesting i wish i could time time to talk about the passover i i don't right now uh but but but what happens is the bible says the manna stops now some of you all like what's the man i don't even know what the mana is okay let me tell you what the matter was god there was doordash there was uber eats every single day favor driver showed up blue shirt on bowtie showed up and if you don't know what favor is cause you're in another part of the world just google it they show up food shows up on the ground every day it's called manna the word mana actually means what is it because the first time it showed up they were like what is it and that became what they ate every day what is it what is it what is it what is it but they ate they had it every day every day every day every day every day mana mana every day every day they did not they weren't hunting for their food they were not growing any crops because they were wandering sometimes the cloud would go this way and they'd have to go that way sometimes they'd go another way they'd have to go that way they have to load up some of you have moved a whole bunch of times you've been used to this you're like in a spot you're not in the spot long enough you got to get up and move you got to go someplace else they've been moving and moving and moving and moving so there's no crops they're not planting anything they're just getting this manna every single day manna everything it's a miracle that is happening every single day it's like daily bread for them some of you remember the lord's prayer it's like daily bread that is happening for them every single day manna is showing up like clockwork if they take too much of it it goes bad they got to take just enough for their family and over the weekend they take a little bit more and god would preserve it all the way over the weekend manna every single day for 40 years god has been dropping food from the sky every single day for 40 years and then they get into the promised land and it stops stops that year they ate from the produce of canaan they ate food from the lamb can i have my have my popcorn thank you so much yeah yeah let me have it all yeah hook me up perfect thank you okay you all know about skinny pop [Applause] i'll i'll demolish a whole bag of skinny pop uh some of y'all know mike microwave microwave popcorn yes i mean this is great we got a little uh room in our house our family room that we call it got a you know big screen a tv or maybe we're watching uh the logan paul and uh mayweather fight later today who knows and he said you're like i cannot believe you i don't care uh so i am i got i'm gonna have my on my stuff and what we do in our family is onika always asks for skinny pop and usually me and the kids we like to grab you know the microwave uh popcorn this stuff is quick this this is what god was doing for them for a whole for 40 years just dropping it dropping it dropping it dropping it dropping it dropping it dropping it dropping it then the day they get in the promised land it stops now we love this picture for marriages for building businesses we love this picture for getting our bodies in shape we love this picture for getting our finances in order just drop it lord just drop it give me give me 250 000. just drop it just drop it hey fix him fix her just drop it just that's not how it usually works you know how it usually works see i don't even know what this is okay there is corn under here y'all this is the husk this you got to plant this and then you go look i got it's getting messy up here look at this look at this i i googled how do you get popcorn like the old-fashioned way plant seed popcorn in four or five short rows about 36 inches apart to ensure pollination plant corn seeds one inch each inch deep and six inches apart when the plants are five inches tall thin them to 12 inches apart fertilize lightly in mid-summer just before rain to give them an added boost when the stalks are about knee-high hill them up six inches by scraping soil from between the rows healing adds nutrients and support to the growing plants i don't even know what they're talking about let the hust that cover the ears turn brown before harvesting if you can press your thumbnail into a kernel it's not ripe yet somebody took a lot of time with this harvest all ears before the first hard frost shuck the ears and let them dry for a few weeks then shell the kernels and store them in airtight containers in the refrigerator now just pop and enjoy a whole quart of popcorn has less than 100 calories so even wastewaters can afford a dribble of melted butter god give me increase i got it for you i've got it for you i've got it for he's got it for you it just might look different than you and i think it's supposed to look you and i are going to have to plant something see something watered and then watch god make it grow if you and i can be okay with this process and this is not our day is a popcorn day it's a microwave day it's a god give me the whole bag kind of day that's the day we live in but the way that god is wanting to develop you and grow you and develop me and grow me is to go through the process if you plant you watch somebody else water and god will make it grow is it you believe is going to grow in your life i know some of us are are battling in some relationships right now i know that relationships with friends relationship with kids relationship with our spouse i know that i've been praying for so many of you i believe god has increased for you and i would love i i would love for him to drop manna i'd love for him to i'd love for him just to give you a bag of popcorn and everything be great but what i have discovered is even on great sundays or tuesdays or whatever day somebody is watching this when you have those moments when something drops you still have to cultivate what god started in your life and if you and i keep trying to go just from drop to drop to drop to drop i want you to know that is not promised land living that's wilderness living it was in the wilderness that they had to get to manna every day in the promised land they ate from the fruit of the land that meant somebody had to plant somebody had the water and god made it grow when you are planting and watering do not think god is against you god is for you he has brought you into another season and that season is promised land season [Applause] okay i planted apollos watered but god gave the increase this is what he has for your life in mind north antiqua online white rock this is what he has for our lives increase i felt god speaking to my heart my kids might be thinking increase is not their inheritance because they're getting lost in the process and i just wanted to lift up your eyes and give you a little bit of hope and remind you that he who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it until the day of christ jesus he will not leave you or forsake you he will not leave you high and dry if you wouldn't mind by your heads for just a moment up north antigua balcony and on the floor if you're under the sound of my voice right now and you have you've never made jesus christ first in your life you've never made them number one you've never made them the boss of your life you never put them in charge of your life i'm not asking do you have a bible i'm not asking do you think you're a good person and i'm not asking uh do you think you know were you baptized were you confirmed at some point in time i'm asking is jesus christ first and foremost in your life if he is not i know he is drawing you to his heart right now he's saying son daughter it's time to come on home you don't have to be perfect you don't have to have it all together as a matter of fact jesus was that colonel that fell into the ground and died and he rose so that you and i can have new life in him if that is you you've never given your heart and your life to christ or at one point in time you did and you've slipped away and you've gone another direction and today you're saying you don't want to go your own way you want to go his way on the count of three i want you to do something simple but something incredibly bold i literally want you to throw your hand in the air and say yes that's me i want to give my heart and my life to christ ready one two three just throw your hand in the air you're saying yep that's me i want to give my heart and my life to christ this is awesome i know friends up north in at white rock online right now you're saying yes this is me antigua you're saying yes this is me i want to give my heart and my life to christ anybody else raise your hand right now you're saying yes that's me only give my heart and my life to jesus i'm gonna ask everyone to do me a favor put your hand over your heart if you would not mind every person and repeat this prayer out loud after me say dear jesus i ask you to forgive me of all my sins i admit i made mistakes and today i give you my heart i give you my life give me the power to live for you in jesus name amen and amen can we lift our heads up clap our hands come on at every location i told you it's going to be a great sentence yes you did you didn't lie to us i didn't lie i wasn't you're the truther you're a truther i'm not gonna lie to you i'm not gonna do it hey if you made the decision to make jesus first in your life we want to encourage you to let us know yeah take jesus first to 97 000 we would love to follow up with you and give you some clear next steps yes and we also want to come alongside of you in your journey i mean even we talked about a little bit today being a christ-like leader makes it on earth as it is in heaven we want to see that lived out in your life so head on over um to girl track but i also want to remind us of the opportunity that we have to be generous yeah there are literally so many people on the other side of our generosity and actually i feel so honored that i get to be here online with every single one of you because it had not been for the generosity of the people that were able so we could get mics or we could be online or cameras and be connected with you wherever in the world um we wouldn't have this opportunity and so just want to honor every single one of you there's multiple ways that you can give yeah you can give online yeah through our app we have a shoreline city app which is absolutely wonderful i think we still do text to gift we do yeah we do and you can also give online through our website i think that's all of the ways yeah there's so many different ways but if there's another way let us know yeah but we also have links below for you to click if you're like what did crystal and eric just say i'm still on a high of that sermon and that worship and all the things but hey we love you all we love you so much it's gonna be an incredible week okay tune in next week because it's gonna be connect group live sunday bye

Channel: Shoreline City Church

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Length: 38min 52sec (2332 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021