Pastor Earl McClellan // Freedom and Flow // Part 1: White Flag

today today today today we're starting a brand new series i'm fired up about this it is titled freedom and flow freedom and flow and i can i have such high expectations you always need to know i'm already kind of jumping out of my skin because i can sense i believe i know that no matter where you are on your journey with god whether you're just kind of getting started or you've been a follower of jesus for a long time that god wants to meet you and wants to change and transform you i'm believing that the word of god the spirit of god the grace of god is going to propel all of us to new levels of freedom and flow you know when you're driving down the road and um you're used to like a bunch of lanes and then all of a sudden you find out that in the middle of rush hour traffic for whatever reason they've decided to cone off a bunch of streets you would think someone would really think that through a whole lot better can we just talk to our city officials for a second we're fine with 2 a.m we're fine with 3am but why at five why at five are we going all the way down to this one lane i i feel like this is something that has happened in a lot of our hearts and souls god has a five-lane highway and you and i have allowed some cones to be set up that is now bottle bottlenecking the purpose and the destiny and the call and the dreams that he wants to do in us and through us and some of you have been in relationships and you feel like that's created a bottleneck or you have in your thought life it's created a bottleneck or the way you see the world or the way you see god it's created a bottleneck and i'm believing whether you're in the balcony or on the floor or wherever someone might be around the world that today's a day that the freedom and the flow is going to come back to freedom to be who god has called us to be to do what he's called us to do the flow for us to trust people again the freedom for us to step fully into the purpose and the plan that god has for us and then the flow for you and i to do what god has called us to do no matter where we are the title of today's message is white flag white flag white flag matter of fact turn to your neighbor and say white flag say white flag then tell them tell them tell them don't wave it tell them don't wave it don't wave it don't wave it white flag white flag if you have your bibles you can turn with me to the book of numbers the book of numbers chapter 13. and if you don't have your bibles we'll put the scriptures on the screen so you can follow along i like bringing my bible uh to church and i like uh also taking notes but if you're too add to do all of that just go ahead and follow along and you can even watch this later numbers chapter 13 beginning in verse 26 they came back to moses and aaron and the whole israelite community at kadesh in the desert of paran there they reported to them into the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land they gave moses this account we went into the land to which you sent us and it does flow with milk and honey here is its fruit verse 28 but the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large we even saw a descendants of ainak there the malachites live in the negev the hittites jebusites and amorites live in the hill country and the canaanites live near the sea and along the jordan then caleb silenced the people before moses and said we should go up and take possession of the land for we can certainly do it but the man who had gone up with him said uh-uh we can't attack those people they are stronger than than we are and they spread among the israelites a bad report about the land they had explored they said the land we explored devours those living in it all the people we saw there are of great size we saw the nephilim there the descendants of anac come from the nephilim we seem like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them let me give us a little bit of history okay on the bible here and if you're a theologian you're going to love this stuff if you don't know much about the bible then you'll be like okay you're going to feel like you got a little bit of a of a lesson uh there's this guy in the old testament his name is abraham abraham uh if you grew up in church there was a song about him father abraham with many sons okay okay many sons had father abraham i am one of them so are you so let's just praise the lord right off okay okay good okay we got some of y'all i wasn't sure we have so many people in this church who've done so many drugs that i wasn't sure if anybody knew any of these old church songs but but this guy abraham god picked him god picked him and he picked him just because he wanted to it was god's choice abraham had righteousness given to him not because of works but because of faith and abraham was going to be the father of many nations god was going to bless the world through abraham later on abraham has some kids and you'll read in the bible over and over again the god of abraham isaac and jacob abraham isaac and jacob abraham isaac and jacob these are abraham's kids his his lineage is beginning a jacob of one of his his grandson this jacob uh ended up having his name switched to israel and then later on you find out you have the children of israel this is the jewish nation the jewish people these jewish people this jewish nation the children of israel were always designed by god they were picked by god not because they were the best and not because they were the most amazing matter of fact they're very small and insignificant and god said i want to use something i want to use someone to express my glory and my life throughout the world so i'm not going to pick the best i'm going to pick kind of i'm pick raggedy and ghetto so everybody knows it's me so whatever you use by god don't think it's because oh i'm so amazing it's like no i just wanted to let the world know i could use anyone that's definitely my story so here uh you have god he picks the children of israel and says i want you to be my billboard i want people to look at you and i want them to think about me i want them to see your life and i want them to think i want the world to think about the glory of god the goodness of god the forgiveness of god the power of god the supremacy of god that's what i want so god uh so the children of israel were essentially god's facebook ad if you will they were his instagram ad so anytime you were scrolling and you saw them you would go wow god is good but even though god picked them they didn't always pick god they decided they wanted to do their own thing go in there or go their own way does that sound like any of us god is extending love and kindness and grace towards us and you and i say no i want to do things my own way i want to go my own direction this happens over and over and over again throughout the bible and the children of israel would find themselves in places of bondage and pain and exile as a matter of fact one of the most popular verses in the bible is found in jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11. and it says for i know the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future but do you know this verse was spoken to the children of israel to give them hope because they were in exile in bondage in a place of difficulty so this verse was not for the good times this verse was a reminder for the bad times because over and over again they kept turning their backs and saying god i want my own way i want to do my own thing you made me but i still know best for my life it's the same plague that's in humanity today so over and over again they find themselves turning their back on god this is uh later on they find themselves in bondage for hundreds of years in egypt they are under the the oppression of egypt they are being bound by egypt and god has heard the cries of the prayers of his chosen children and he raises up this man named moses and moses goes in and he has an announcement and we read that announcement in exodus chapter 5 verse number 1 moses shows up to the king of egypt and he says god sent me to tell you let my people go and he shouts us at the powers that be letting them know that you have something that does not belong to you you're oppressing someone that does not belong to you and you've kept them in bondage for a long time but god said the time is up let my people go i can't tell you but i feel that in my heart as well i felt like an announcement that god was saying over every single one of us every person online every person in the room god is saying let my people go and whether it's depression or anxiety or whatever it is that might has been that has been plaguing you god is announcing over you let my people go jesus was a type of moses he came into the world and said let my people go what he did on the cross was an announcement let my people go sin and shame and brokenness will not be their identity i'm making them new in me let my people go and i'm believing that god is speaking out over all of us to get us to a new place of freedom and flow so we can be who he's called us to be and do what he's called us to do let my people go but today we're gonna focus in on just one cone if you will one issue that's bottlenecking and messing with our freedom and flow and that is this issue this problem this giant called fear fear it's it's a big one this is a big one this one right here is running rampant this one right here is messing with families and messing with minds some of you have not asked somebody to marry you because of fear some of you said yes out of fear some of us are are plagued and burdened whether you're a teenager or you're a young adult or you're married or single wherever you might be there's this fear that is has crept in and it is suffocating the earth this fear is keeping us disconnected from each other this fear is making us judge people before we ever have the opportunity to connect with them this fear is keeping us isolated it's causing us to hide it's pushing us into corners and this fear is stopping us from the freedom and the flow that god would have for us because he did not call us here and did not make us for our life to be about us our life what was always designed to be about him and there are things he wants to do in us and through us so he can express his love and his mercy and his grace to the world but you and i have so much fear that is that is holding us down and weighing us down there we're not taking the steps god is calling us to take we're going to attack this today and we're going to believe that the grace of the power of god is going to change us and transform us in numbers chapter 13 these these beautiful individuals went to go spy out the land that god had promised abraham there's 12 leaders that went to go spy out the land and these 12 leaders of the 12 tribes of israel they they went to go spy uh the land just to find out what was happening there what was going on you know ladies whenever you have a uh you see a guy and you think he's cute but you don't want to go up and talk to him so you send your girlfriend come on you know you said him go hey find out if he's single so your girlfriend goes over there for you and it's like hey what's your name how you doing uh okay where you from you name anybody and then she reports back to you this is what's happening in scripture the 12 spies were going out and they were going to report back here's what's going on in the land so the twelve go out and this is what they say verse number 27 they gave moses this account it's good news in the beginning we went into the land to which you sent us and it does flow with milk and honey here is its fruit but then fear clicks in verse 28 but the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large numbers uh 13 verses 32-33 and they spread among the israelites a bad report they spread the fear because fear can be more contagious and covert they they spread they spread the fear a bad report about the land they had explored they said the land this land it's gonna it devours everyone living in it all the people we saw there are of great size we seem like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them before there was ever a fist thrown before they ever had to fight in hand-to-hand combat their first fight was with fear that was their first fight their first fight was with this giant that you can't see but it tries to torment all of us their first fight was not with these but with fear and this fear was trying to them and stop them from something that god had promised them stop them from something that god had said i set aside for you stop them from something that god said i actually designed this to be your inheritance but fear stepped in and said no you can't have this they started waving the white flag before they ever even fought they never even played the game they never even took the step let me put in our language they never even applied for the job they decided before before they could even click submit on indeed.com they decided no that's not for me they're probably going to tell me no anyway they decided before they ever had the opportunity to figure out might we win this thing fear told them sit down shut up you know your place and they listened and now i i'm kind of not mad at them i mean i'm mad but i'm not totally mad i think i can understand it because understand these people have been in slavery for hundreds of years all they know is bondage all their family knows his bondage oh their grandfather was was a slave their father was a slave their great-grandfather their mother was a slave their great-grandfather was in but their great-grandmother was in bondage everybody they know was in bondage they don't even know anyone that personally that took land they don't know anyone personally that took possession of something that god was promising them they don't know anyone personally they looked at moses but they kind of pushed moses aside and they were like in my whole life my whole journey i grew up in egypt i have lived in egypt and all i know is this brick and this mortar and working for these other people i don't know taking land i don't know taking steps of faith i don't know doing all that god has called me to do so i'm almost not upset at them and some of y'all you haven't taken steps because all you know is divorce in your family and all you know is lack and all you know is brokenness and all you know is people start off good but they end bad and all you know is you can't trust anybody and all you know is people always turn on you and all you know it this is all you've ever seen so it makes sense to me that fear would be able to you but i felt god telling me let my people go i've got something for them [Applause] why would they keep letting fear be the reason they're not going to step into who i call them to be now i understand i understand why they would be thinking that but i also feel like they shouldn't be thinking that and here's the reason they were in egypt and god miraculously brought them out of egypt now he wants to bring them from the wilderness into their promised land the same god that brought them out of egypt and brought them to the wilderness is the same god that can take them from the wilderness into their promised land this is what they did they downplayed how did i write this down they what they ended up doing is they they downplayed their current blessing and overplayed their future problem you see this they downplayed their current blessing but they overplayed their future problem they shouldn't even have been where they were you shouldn't even have the marriage that you have you shouldn't even have the job that you have you should even have the blessings that you have in your life right now the blessings you have in your life are miracles you didn't think were possible and now you are living in the miracles that you didn't even think was possible the same god that gave you the miracles that you thought were impossible then is the same god that'll give you the impossible in the future why in the world do we forget how far god has brought us he has been so faithful and so good over and over again and we want to discount how gracious and kind and loving and powerful he's been uh when we first started this this church i remember we were in uh the angelica movie theater and not the one up north our north campus currently meets in the angelica movie theater up north this was one uh here uh in dallas not too far from smu right on uh central 75 in mockingbird lane and we were meeting there and you know set up and tear down and and then uh we had this opportunity to buy this building not the one we're currently in this other building it was sat like 250 people and we were like oh my goodness if we could have a building that would be amazing and this opportunity came and then we found out the building was 900 000 and we had like maybe 100 people in the church at that time most of them college students which we love college students they just happen to be broke so so these beautiful college students who have not yet maximized their earning potential they will one day we come to them and say hey god has blessed us there's a building he wants us to buy it's nine hundred thousand dollars we need to raise a hundred eighty thousand dollars in six weeks who's with us and everybody clapped and i remember going this ain't happening but it was amazing it was beautiful to see college students be going to sacrifice seeing married couples be willing to say i'm going to say no to this and we're going to come together because we believe this miracle is is what we're supposed to say we're supposed to take it was amazing to see parents of college students coming in saying man this church has transformed my kids life i don't even know what's going on here so let me help and let me be a part of this miracle and before we knew it there was a hundred eighty thousand dollars that we were sitting on we were able to buy this building i was i was blown away well now i know at our white rock campus we need a new building here we are at the 10 30 service i switch service times to create more space and i'm looking going dang you filled it back up everybody this is a problem the best kind of problem to have i l i love this problem but the same god that was faithful back then to give us a building that we didn't know was even for us is the same god that's going to give us another building in the future and the same god that brought you together as a husband and a wife is the same god that can keep you together and the same god that gave you the first job of the same god that can give you another job of the same god that forgave you of that last sin is the same god that can forgive you of your new sin and the same god that brought you out of that bond is the same god that can bring you out of the next bondage that you find yourself in my friend stopped down playing what god has brought us through he has been so incredibly faithful surely he can take us into the promised land we've got too many things messing with our freedom and our flow and it's because fear talks then it talks and it talks to you not with some nasty sinister voice no no it sounds like wisdom fear talks you in a voice that you can connect with talks she talks to you in a voice that you recognize it talks at you to you in a voice that you feel comfortable with you go oh yeah yeah yeah that makes sense that makes sense fear fear talks to you it tells you don't don't go all in for god don't go all in for god you know you'll lose all your friends right fear will tell you oh no don't don't give your time don't give your money you got to keep that for yourself there won't be enough left for you if you give that fear will tell you you better not forgive because you'll be hurt again and it sounds so right but if you and i could look beyond the suit or the smile you and i would see there's a diabolical plan to mess with your freedom and flow and to hinder what god is trying to do in you and through you go with me to genesis chapter three genesis chapter three i'm telling you i'm telling you fear talks genesis chapter three verse number one it says now the serpent verse number one with the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the lord god had made he said to the woman did god really say did god really say skip down with me to verse number 10 here's adam answering god when god is looking for me adam anthony said i heard you god i heard you in the garden and i was afraid because i was naked so i hid this is the first time fear shows up in scripture and the first time fear shows up in scripture there's a connection between them being afraid and what they listen to see i wonder i wonder what is it you are listening to what is it that's getting in your ear over and over and over and over again what is it that is coming your direction what is it that you are allowing to mess with your head because we'll have everything to do if you're running and hiding from god and running and hiding from the things that god has called you to do and accomplish in the earth this word fear those of you who like to take notes i it's a hebrew word it shows up hundreds of times in scripture i hope i'm saying it right i think it's and it means this to be in a state of feeling great distress and deep concern of pain or of unfavorable circumstances it's a dread of impending distress or misfortune are any of us feeling that maybe this is the reason we're still on a peripheral at the church still kicking the tires the reason some of us don't want to step up to be a connect group leader the reason some of us haven't started another job the reason some of us haven't written a book the reason some of us have not invited a friend or prayed for someone that we know needs prayer it's just because we've got this fear this dread this emotional foreboding that's happening on the inside of us fear talks but i i i want to go back to the numbers again and i want you to see how how this fear began to manifest itself through god's kids in numbers chapter 13 again verse 33 he they say we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them i was like wait wait wait it's one thing to decide how you look to you it's a whole other thing to decide how they see you here are these amazing leaders they are 12 leaders strong people strong men they have stepped up they've got god's hand on their life they've been called by god and now they are announcing i look like a grasshopper and we look like grasshoppers to them how do they know what they look like to those other people do they ask him do they walk up and say hey hey giants giants giants hey hey hey giants i just wonder i i feel like a grasshopper do i look like a grasshopper to you how dumb is it that any of us would ever go to our giant to find our identity why would we ever go to something or someone that did not make us and did not fashion inform us in our mother's womb to find out who we are why are we negotiating with our giants and allowing them to be the ones that tell us who we are hey my friends if god says you're a grasshopper then you're a grasshopper but if god says you have been fearfully and wonderfully made and you've been called for such a time as this i don't care what any giant says i'm going with what god says about me but i find this all the time negotiating with giants i find this all the time going back to our family members what do you think and what do you say and can i and should i and what and you and i i'm fine with getting counsel i think that's smart i think that's good i think you ought to do it but there comes a point in time where you got to get with god and get on your knees and ask him father how do you see me because if you see me as this man or woman that's been called to make a difference in this world then i'm going to do what you call me to do and be who you call me to be and take the step you called me to take and even if everybody else around me says i'm done as long as you say take the step i'm taking the step so i'm fine to believe god for miracles [Applause] because my identity comes from him i feel like a grasshopper in my own eyes and we look the same to them i don't care what they say i don't care what they say teenagers they do not decide your destiny women they do not decide your destiny men they do not decide your destiny i'm just i'm just trying to let you know that there will be all these giants that will be announced telling you how far you can go and what you can do and it sounds so right until god steps up and says hey you've been you've been living in a prison [Music] you you've been allowing someone who did not make you to make your world so i need you to see yourself the way i see you i uh i'm actually okay with us being small i'm okay with that i'm okay with us recognizing that we are grasshoppers i'm fine with that i think god creates moments in our lives we can remember that we're small i think i think he allows all that to happen where you and i are like i don't know what to do i've got a bunch of money in the bank but my soul is still uh sad that you and i are reminded that our life is but a vapor i think god does that on purpose to help us recognize i think i think we i think god will say i'll let you get a a clear picture of you so you can get a clearer picture of me i'll let you see how small you are so you can know how big i am with all this being said i i'm looking at this and i'm like man i'm not gonna allow the fear to stop me from doing what god has called me to do my uh my oldest our oldest son uh parker uh he was uh i i don't have my stuff please like my oldest son parker he he's like seven years old right now he's 16 so you do the math you know about nine years ago or so he he and i were coming in from outside playing and we came in from outside and when we came in there was this bug and um one of those big bugs you know those um those texas roaches that fly if you didn't believe in hell and the devil just see one of those and you know it's real and i i saw one of those bugs and i like you know you start just i killed that thing in uh parker like i said he's about seven years old i'm like hey parker um squash that bug and then go put it in the trash and he looked at me he was like i'm not doing that dad and when i looked at him though it wasn't disobedience it was fear i saw it parents you know you you know you can see you can just see this is not this is not i'm being obstinate this is he was afraid of that bug and i just felt in that moment you gotta attack this you gotta attack this right now attack it right now so i'm like parker you need to uh you you need to you need to step on this bug and put it away and uh he's like dad i i can't i'm like parker you you need to step on this bug but i can't i can't i like to tell you it was five minutes it was not five minutes let me tell you it was 15 minutes it was not 15 minutes i did not yell this is true true story right parker i did not yell at all i was patient because i recognized what god was trying to do was trying to kill this fear on the inside of him so fear would not be the thing that would run his life for the rest of his life so so i felt the grace as a dad in this moment to be leaned in to my son and say son i'ma stay right here by your side this entire time i need you to stomp on this thing and he and i are going back and forth and then i'm like okay okay parker let me go get you some boots and i went and i got a pair of my boots and i brought them out there to them i was like okay put these on i know i wear 13 and you were a size i don't know 5 6 7 at that time but put them on and he puts on he puts on the boots and then he takes his foot and he puts it over the bug he's got it over but he won't he won't drop he won't drop it and i can feel i can feel them fighting on the inside makes you cry thinking about it i can feel it because you know what this is like when you need to take a step and you you know you need to take it but you there's just something in you that won't let you it just won't let you and i don't know what the voices are telling you and i know something was talking to parker but i was trying to talk louder and i felt like this was a great picture of god with us saying hey i already squashed it i already killed it i just want you now to take a step so the fear doesn't keep you in bondage for the rest of your life and i remember i remember parker just i remember him just i remember he dropped he dropped that foot and i pray over him and i pray over you and i pray over your sons and daughters and your brothers and sisters that you will have the faith that by by the grace that god provides to drop that foot and to take the steps god has called you to take because he wants to unlock the freedom and the flow on the inside of you so you can be who god has called you to be and do what he's called you to do he reminded me of romans chapter 16 verse 20 that the god of peace will soon crush satan [Music] underneath your feet may the grace of our lord jesus be with you that's what i'm praying over you may the grace of our lord jesus be with you but god can't crush it if you won't walk so i'm just praying this is a day that we just okay yeah [Music] the grace that god provides and if you got to do it scared do it scared you don't have to wait for the feeling let's take a step of faith and i trust you god believing that this freedom coming to everybody online everybody in the room anybody who listens to us at any point in time we're going to be who god has called us to be and do what god has called us to do if you wouldn't mind bow your heads for just a moment by your heads for just a moment if you're under the sound of my voice you've never given your heart and your life to christ you've never made them number one online come on you're with me as well in the room you're with me you're saying i i've never given my heart and my life to christ i've never made them first i've never made them number one but you're under the sound of my voice you're saying i don't want to go my own way anymore i want to go his way on the count of three if you're ready to give your heart to jesus for the first time or rededicate your life to serving him i want to do something simple but something bold on the count of three i just 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 yeah that's me i want to give my heart my life to jesus this is beautiful this is beautiful this is a moment of transformation a new beginning i'm going to ask everyone to do me a favor every person under the sound of my voice put your hand over your heart if you would not mind and i want you to 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 amen come on whatever thank you so much for that message i do want to say if you have made the decision to put jesus first in your life please please let us know you can text one word jesus jesus christ we would love to follow up with you and give you some really clear next steps in your walk it's literally the best decision that i've ever made eric and his family has ever made and now that you have made and we want to come alongside of you even in those next steps and like we talked about before service if you miss it be sure to tune in early every single week so we can give you a download of what it looks like but we want to invite you to growth track so you can learn a little bit more about how god has created you and put passion and purpose on the inside of you we want to see you be the business leaders you're called to be the parents and friends and siblings that you're called to be so head on over to grow track every single wednesday at 8pm central time we'd love to see you there i do also want to say we celebrate generosity and i just want to thank you so much shoreline city family for your generosity your continued generosity you can give online yep you can give to our app through our website via text to give thank you so much thank you well we love you so much we will see you in connect groups and then back again next weekend we love you

Channel: Shoreline City Church

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Length: 39min 57sec (2397 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021