Pastor Earl McClellan // Not Exactly

all right I pray that you're ready for a great great day today thank you so much for joining us again if you're with us for the first time we're really really glad to have you and hope you feel like you with family with some people that genuinely care about you we do we've been praying for you and we're believing that the best days for your life are still ahead we're about to open up this beautiful Bible that can be a little bit mysterious for some of us but this love letter that God has written to all of humanity to reveal who he is the reveal the truth about his character and to point us to Jesus Christ I'm telling you today we are going to grow and be encouraged in our walk with God so I'm really really excited about today I've got some fantastic kids my wife and I we've got we've got three of them and our middle son Gracie and I'm gonna talk about a little bit later is incredibly a creative everything from dance to art the guy is just fantastic there are some times I try to copy some of his dance moves and and I'm not gonna try any right now why would I why would I hurt you and hurt myself okay I've got a little bit of pride and I'm not gonna put myself on blast like that oh but but for tonight is obviously all over the world and there are all these dance moves connected with for tonight and my son can do almost all of them and he tries to teach them to us so being a good father I try to jump in there without throwing my back out and I try to do some of these dance moves there was a day there was a day that I I was legit I mean I was I love it back in the day was legit now I'm a dad and I'm not legit anymore it's over those days are done but I'll try to do a dance move and Grayson he'll say this to me rather often I'm like Grayson is that right would you think about that he goes not exactly in the head not exactly it hurts my feelings so I say not exactly you're not eating tonight just kidding I've never done that one time never one time I always feed my kids not exactly is what he says to me and that's actually the title of our time today our talk our message today is not exactly because has anyone asked you like a house 20:20 been for you has it been your best year yet not exactly I don't know about you but this year I almost said something I can't say in church okay it can go it can go back to wherever it came from 20 20 was not supposed to be like this it has turned our world upside down I would still believe that God is in control but right now I'm looking at things I'm like this is not what we had all planned when we saw 20/20 all those years ago to norman's me the book the book of Acts chapter 27 we're gonna start reading in verse number 13 Acts chapter 27 verse number 13 the book of Acts is the birth of the church the church was God's idea this was not just some man-made institution it was an organism that God designed and destined to be his representatives in the world in the Old Testament you see it being the children of Israel and then God begins your births from that nation this other family that now is to be his representatives his ambassadors his hands and feet throughout the entire world that's why your life is not insignificant right now you're part of something a whole lot bigger than you the one that has been called we are the ones that are called to be God's representatives on the earth his ambassadors we are the ones that people will look at and think about the goodness of God and the grace of Jesus Christ think about his death his barrel in his resurrection you and I have been given the opportunity to the love bearers of God in the earth and the book of Acts is about the church being birth about this organism growing there was a lot of messiness there was a lot of confusion there was a lot of miracles there was a lot of unity there was a lot of disunity there were a lot of even killings there was so much that went on but in the midst of all of it you see this beautiful bride the Bride of Christ the church being birthed and what God had destined for Humanity was coming to life there are a lot of different players in the book of Acts players meaning individuals that were a part of it not like players you know but individuals that were there that God used to help bring this mission about Paul was one of them and this Apostle Paul is going from place to place the man was actually someone that in our day and age we would have canceled in all honesty in our day and age we wouldn't have given him an opportunity to speak because he was actually persecuting the church he had papers in his hand to take women and children and men and to throw them in prison because they in his opinion were preaching something that were that was opposite of what God wanted to be done in the earth and on his way with these papers in hand Jesus shows up knocks him down blinds his eyes as son I've got a plan and a purpose for your life I need you to know that no matter how far off you might be or your friend might be or your family member might be they are never too far for the grace of God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to reach them so here is this man that would have been on the other side but but God said I'm taking somebody from the other side and I'm bringing them to my side and I'm gonna transform him from the inside out he does this with Paul cuz God is able to transform and change people he's traveling from place to place and you can see all of his different journeys that he took now he's on this this and he's on his way to a very very important meeting that he's supposed to have that God has destined for him to have but I want you to see this in verse 13 when a gentle south wind began to blow they saw their opportunity go like this go if your breath sinks then the people next to you are mad right now brush your teeth but gentle you when you read the verse it feels like you're on a beach I'd like to be on a beach right about now it just feels it feels calming feels so encouraging a gentle South the wind began to blow we saw our opportunity so now they're on this boat and they're going to begin to set sail ah isn't that what your 20/20 started off like like a gentle south wind ah my senior year I can't wait to graduate ah I'm gonna get engaged ah I'm gonna get married oh I can't wait for this new opportunity all the doors are gonna be open 20 20 it's my year oh it's my year it's my year in 2020 was like haha you don't even know what I got for you twenty twenty decided that now it's not gonna be gentle south wind the whole time it's about to be what we find in verse number fourteen look at verse number 14 it says there at that point in time before very long a wind of hurricane force called the north eastern ur swept down from the island so you got a gentle south wind and we're thinking everything's gonna go great and then all of a sudden out of the blue a hurricane shows up I like the Bible it doesn't to sugarcoat what happens in life and it definitely doesn't seem to sugarcoat what can happen in our lives has anyone felt like a hurricane came in and started to blow I mean it was like windy for a little while and then all of a sudden was a tropical storm now I'm a meteorologist and now it's a hurricane and people are taking food off of the shelves and individuals can't get jobs and people are losing their jobs and people all of a sudden can't go where they want to go and people are grabbing all sorts of toilet paper how many all still got toilet paper in your house I mean we this world it like went crazy in a moment it was a gentle south wind it was beautiful it seemed like we were all just holding hands and skipping and walking and dreaming about the future and but before long a hurricane comes in and this hurricane many of us have been feeling it many of us have been experiencing this emotionally experiencing the hurricane in our marriages some of us have been around our spouses more than we've been around our spouses and years it's a hurricane some of us are feeling this in our finances without a shadow of a doubt there are people that are trying to figure out i i've been furloughed i haven't been able to find another job or they cut my pay i'm glad i still have a job but things aren't what i thought they were going to be and i know this is not everybody's story but all of us probably know somebody that this is their story and they're like what in the world just happened it's like a hurricane came out of the blue so this storm is going crazy right and and things are all topsy-turvy and they start doing what we did they start taking toilet paper off the shelves and they start locking down and they start you know not letting people in and i mean they are they are battening down the hatches on this you can read it a little bit later we're not gonna go through every verse here but cuz I got some important things like I want to share with all of us what they're going through all of the things that they need to do they're throwing things overboard they're getting rid of they're trying to hold on to things that taking ropes and they're they're tying ropes underneath the ship to try to keep the ship together and verse number 20 look at this when neither Sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging we finally gave up all hope of being saved underlined that if you have your Bibles we finally gave up all hope of being saved I'm never going back to church I can't trust politicians well III don't I don't even know what's going on in our world media is this and let me blame that person and this isn't real and that is real and then we got obviously we've got all the the racial injustice is that are taking place not just even in America but around the world and in ethnic battles that are happening all around the globe and now we are a church that's not just in Dallas or just in Guatemala but a church that has people that are watching from all across the world and there are issues taking place everywhere and some of those issues have been going on not for just a couple of weeks but for a couple of centuries and people can go you know what I just finally gave up oh ho it ain't getting better it's not going to turn around we're not going to be able to come together as one we're gonna continue to fight with each other we're gonna continue to tear at each other some of your families right now you've got some a loved one that you care about deeply that you want to see their life turn around and you're like I've been praying for a long time I don't know how they're gonna get off drugs I don't know how they're gonna get out of cancer I've got a family member right now we've got somebody in our church their dad is in the ICU and has been there for over ten days on a ventilator battling kovat and uh where are you are you at the point where it's like I don't know if we're going to be able to get through this give up all hope of being saved when you battled alcohol for a really long time than the rehab maybe multiple times when you battle pornography or you've battled insecurity for a long time and you feel like you've gotten out of it then all of a sudden you're having the same body image issues that you had before I mean it's like the enemy can jump in there in those moments in the middle of the storm when it feels like you haven't seen Sun or stars for a whole lot of days and you tempted to give up all hope of being saved I hope I didn't down I didn't hope it's not too much of a downer okay I'm just trying to talk to where some of us are happy 4th of July oh man iiiiii I didn't I didn't come to church today to be discouraged well you're not gonna leave discouraged because look what happens here Paul stands up the guy was talking about earlier he stands up and he says this in verse 22 and I pray this drop so deep in your heart I pray this gets so deep in your soul I pray that this gets louder than every lie that the enemy is trying to throw at you right now I pray that you feel this to your very core I pray that your mind is shaken with the word and the truth of God's Word I pray that this touches you all the way down to your toes Paul stands up and he says I urge you but right now I urge you to keep up your courage I urge you I know what's going on around and I know it's going to look like it's going to be like this way forever and I know your family feels like it's falling apart and I know it feels as if there is no way out and I know it feels like you're a climbing an uphill battle and I know it feels like we're gonna be stuck in this spot forever because I don't see us getting out of this but I know it can feel like that I know it can feel like the drug addiction the meth addiction I know it can feel like the insecurity the fear the doubt the depression I know it can feel like the politicians or the preachers are somehow going to squash the hope that you have only inside of you but let me tell you this from God's Word Paul stands up and he says but right now I urge you I implore you I encourage you I speak to your heart I beg of you keep up your courage don't throw this away don't throw it away come on I know you thought about throwing in the towel but God wanted to bring you to this message today even maybe you're watching it years later so he can remind you keep up your courage keep up your courage when you lost all hope of being saved a marriage is never gonna get better he brought you here today this day but right now I urge you to keep up your courage if you've got a child that is calling the wrong direction and you don't think they're ever going to come back because they don't like you they don't like God they don't like the church and you and you've now given up hope but I urge you I urge you right now to keep up the courage I know some of you or your body is still riddled with cancer and it came back it went into remission but it came back and I am encouraging you right now do not give up hope I urge you right now to keep up the courage just keep on reading here because he says some things that I really really like this idea behind behind courage is important because if you have to keep up courage then there is a way to keep down courage and that's what we call being discouraged and this is when the idea behind discouraged I was looking it up in in the Bible and and it carries with it the idea that you're like thrown to the ground like you're prostrate like you can't get up maybe some of you have seen the movie Creed or maybe you want like the UFC or you like any rocky maybe some of your old school you go all the way back to rocky back in the day and there are some times you you take punch after punch after punch and you tempted to stay down you tempted to stay on the mat and you can almost hear your family counting you almost can hear your haters counting 1 Q 3 and you're like get to 10 fine I'll just be out and maybe you came to church today and this was your last time to thing if if if somebody if God can speak to my heart just one more time maybe I won't kill myself if God would speak to my heart just one more time maybe I won't throw in the towel on my marriage if God would speak to my heart one more time then maybe I keep on marching if God would speak to my heart one more time then maybe I'll get that business off the ground of God which speak to my heart one more time I'll put those pills away if God would speak to my heart just one more time I'll put the bottle away and I know I have fought for many years and my soul is tired but if I can encourage you today to get up off that mat and to encourage yourself in God I am asking you like Paul did here he urged them I urge you now right now right now to keep up your courage let me keep on going here cuz I got some give me give me seven more minutes seven ten twenty ten more minutes verse 25 so keep up your courage he says it to him again we got the sweatshirt on them up here preaching my guts out is my head all shiny or what is my head all shiny that's about okay okay you know my pocket I don't know how long this tissue has been in my pocket I'm gonna go ahead and use it I don't know who uses tissue but I'm believing this tissue is cleansed in whole in Jesus name so keep up verse 25 keep up your courage men and women why for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me okay man Earl calm down here let me talk to myself calm down I like this how in the world how in the world are you and I gonna keep the cars last week we talked some about this about how the strengthen yourself in the Lord my wife was next to me what she's is such a fantastic preacher and leader and woman of God and mom and on all the things together I should have had her up here again this week cuz she's just she's just the absolute best you might remember some of the three things that we talked about to keep yourself strengthened in the Lord we talked about turning off the noise and turning on your praise remember this and remember remember we talked about don't don't talk your way out of repentance or reason your way out of repentance we talked about the fire burning in you needs to be greater than that fire that's burning around you but how how are you and I how are you and I going to keep up our courage he says it here the first thing he says is so keep up your courage men and women for I have faith in God I have faith in God say that out loud at home say I have faith in God come on say say I have faith in God I have faith in God I don't have faith in faith I don't have faith in me I don't have faith in the economy I have faith in God I was talking about Grayson earlier Grayson's really really handsome a very very buff as well he's nine years old just about to be ten and but he has a sensitive skin okay since there's got this beautiful you know caramel skin handsome young man it's really sensitive skin and um this is a number of years ago man probably five years ago or so four years ago he had this rash over like his entire torso like these really tiny bumps and I'm like what's going on here my wife's but we're trying to figure out what happened is he eating something we're trying to figure out trying to figure it out can't figure out anything and then this rash flares up again one night matter of fact the Scots were over Andrew and Hannah Scott or over our house or our campus passes our White Rock campus in Dallas and they were over the house and Grayson comes downstairs after I put him to bed and and he's his skin is all flared up and I'm like man what is going on here he's not scratching it a bunch but it's all red and all these bumps everywhere and and I bring them upstairs to kind of give him a little warm bath just to kind of try to help him you know calm down and see if that's gonna take away some of the inflammation and put him in the bathtub and there I see it I see a bottle of soap that is very very fragrant it's the kind of soap he's not supposed to use we used of smooth skin we hear he had some other stuff I don't know how I got in there I think we had somebody stay over the house and maybe they use it but Grayson was using this when he took a shower so this is why his body was all inflamed and I'm sitting there I'm I'm trying to let Grayson I'm so sorry I kept this out there and he was so sweet he goes daddy it's okay you didn't mean it it's okay I still remember that conversation he was so kind to me okay there's about three days of him having that rash three days let's say he just want to be ten years old okay so there's 365 days in the year 365 times ten do the math 3000 come on 600 50 that's right you got it you got it 3650 so we got 3,600 50 days that he's been on this earth about right leap years don't get technical on me people so 300 650 days that he's been on the earth for three of those days I don't feel like I did right by him so Grayson can take the three days and let that Trump the other three thousand six hundred forty seven days that I've been faithful because he has never gone without food he's always had a roof over his head how many times has his mom and I brought him to some park or brought him to some event how many times we paid for him to be in some Swami we have provided for him day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day and I feel like there's too many of us that have had three bad days with God and we've taken those three bad days all those three bad years all those three bad months over the 45 years that you've been you've been alive and you're saying you're gonna let those three years from all the breath that God has put in your lungs all the times that he has carried you all the times he's put food on your table all the times he's sustained you when you could not sustain yourself all the times that he wiped tears from your eyes all the times he gave you strength to put one foot in front of the other the friends that you have the church that you have the provision that you have how good has God been in your life have faith in God because he's been faithful he's been faithful have faith in God okay next one next one next one next one I'm still sweating I'm so sweating have faith in God next one that it will happen come on that it will happen that it will happen just as he told me that it will happen just as he told me what did God tell you was gonna happen in your life what did God speak over your life what promise did God give you well when I was 16 I felt this when I was 17 I had this vision when I was seven I felt this nudge what vision did God give you I'm telling you he who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ if you're not dead God's not done we say it all the time because we believe it one of our other things that we believe is we believe that we see with eyes of hope eyes of hope eyes have hope this is one of our twelve stones this is one of the reasons this is one of the the founding principles of our church family is we see with eyes of hope come on church we see with eyes of hope even when we're discouraged even when it doesn't make sense even when Jesus can look at the tomb of a dead man and he'll cry but he still speaks the Lazarus to come on out of that grave I see the death but he says I am the resurrection and the life and my life Trump's that death so he speaks to something impossible it will happen it will happen but ok I told you I asked for 10 minutes I got about another three and let me end it with this friends let me end it with this yes you gotta have faith in God and yes we got to believe it will happen we're talking about building up our courage here thirdly this is important write it down broken is the new beautiful broken is the new beautiful broken is the new beautiful here they are on this ship and there is craziness going on all around them and the Apostle Paul says hey everybody sit down verse 35 after he said this watch he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all then he broke it and began to eat if you go with me to verse 41 and 44 let's go to 44 just for the sake of time the ship gets broken in pieces verse 44 the rest who were on board they were to get to the shore on planks or on other pieces of the ship so here it is in the story I couldn't help but see some things being broken even the thing they were seated on that they thought was their security got broken but the broken pieces they were able to grab ahold of to help bring them to the shore so you and I think when everything is breaking all around us that it's over and God is saying I'll take even the broken pieces and I'll use those things to carry you to the place that I want you to go so I'll take a broken relationship I'll take a broken mindset I'll take a broken marriage I'll take a broken pass I'll take broken emotions I'll take broken relationships I'll take broken things because broken it's the new beautiful it's not lost on me that Jesus said something just like this when he was feeding the 5000 he took bread he gave thanks and he broke it it's not lost on me that Jesus when he's having his last supper with his disciples said hey this is my body that was broken for you broken isn't he beautiful perfect is not the new beautiful having everything together is not the new beautiful getting your eyebrows in tip is not to do beautiful getting your lashes on it's not the new beautiful six-pack is not the new beautiful swole shoulders that's not the new beautiful mercedes-benz that's not the new beautiful a brand-new house that's not the new beautiful and I pray that you get blessed with everything that you could possibly be blessed with but I want you to know the new beautiful for the for the child of God is that God can take the weak things for broken things and he can use those things for his glory so where is it you need courage what is it you need courage to do what do you need courage to face have faith in God it will happen and broke him is the new beautiful would you bow your heads with me friends if you're under the sound of my voice right now and you've yet to surrender your heart and your life to Jesus Christ you get to make them first you've yet to make him number one he's yet to put him in charge of your life I'm not asking do you believe in God I'm not asking do you think you're a religious person I'm not even asking do you think you're good you're good Nizar relevant in this moment what's relevant is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf in mind that we could not be good enough in and of ourselves to connect with God so God said I'm gonna come to you God with us Emmanuel and Jesus it's present in this moment saying son daughter I want you to give your heart in your life to me see if you've never been a follower of Jesus or maybe at one point in time you were but you slipped away you've gone another direction maybe Church hurt you were passed to hurt you a friend or you life hurt you but you're seeing now how God can redeem even the broken pieces this is your moment of salvation your moment of a fresh start your moment to turn from your own way and to get on the path of Jesus I'm gonna ask everyone to do me a favor put your hand over your heart 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've 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 hey you can lift your heads up friends I celebrate what God is doing in your life and in my life we're all on this journey together hey if you prayed that prayer today maybe it was the first time you ever prayed to or rededication of your faith I want you to know we want to be a part of the journey to help you become who God is calling you to be your next step honestly is to get immersed in a family a community of believers are gonna help you become who God is calling you to be so we don't want you to be on the peripheral we don't want you just to be a spectator we want you to be a passionate follower of Jesus Christ now this church family is not perfect at all but our arms are open wide and we are all allowing the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ help us become who God has called us to be so I'm gonna ask you to jump on this journey with us keep on coming back get ready to go through growth track as a matter of fact if you have any prayer requests at all you can text s-see connect to 97,000 or you put Jesus first in your life text se connect to 97,000 we'd love to know about it and also anybody who is a part of shoreline city or your your loving this minister your loving what God is doing through this church I want to encourage you you can go ahead and partner with us to make it on earth as it is in heaven there multiple ways for us to give so let's just make sure we keep putting God first so we can get this message of hope and love and redemption and Reconciliation till the entire world because God is not done with any of us yet

Channel: Shoreline City Church

Views: 7,821

Rating: 4.952569 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: pGzFVkcFnWY

Length: 34min 45sec (2085 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020