Show & Tell // Freedom & Flow // Pastor Earl McClellan

give it up for our north family give it up for everybody online as well love all of you so very much antigua guatemala as well is with us today and we are all joining in this series called freedom and flow we have been in this series i don't know is it two weeks three weeks four weeks five weeks i don't know how long it's been but i do know that my heart has been very very encouraged as we've been opening up the bible and trusting for god to push us forward and to help us walk more fully and the plans and purposes that he has for our lives the title of today's message is show and tell show and tell turn your neighbors say show and tell put it in the chat show and tell show and tell if if this is your first time you i wouldn't want to encourage you go ahead because this again like i said i think it's week four or three or five or something like that but you don't want just one ingredient when you're making cookies you want you want all the ingredients so i want to encourage you don't just hold on to this message go back listen to the other ones so you can you can get all of this in your heart and we're going to allow the grace of god the word of god to change us and transform us if you have your bibles turn with me to hebrews chapter 11 hebrews chapter 11. we're going to begin reading in verse number 6. hebrews 11 6 and says without faith it is impossible to please god because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him without faith it's impossible to please god uh this word faith the biblical faith i'm gonna put the definition on the screen for you for those of you who like to take notes and just so you know jesus likes you a little bit more than people who don't that's not even true it's not biblical it's it's not accurate but i wanted to say it uh go ahead and write this down here is uh here is the definition of biblical faith it's a reliance upon god a trust in god it's like a constant outlook of of trust and dependence toward god it's it's belief it's it's conviction it's dependence it's faithfulness again it's trust if you look it up this is what the word means matter of fact anytime you see that word faith uh you can really insert that word trust i want us to have a trust in jesus and we find out here that without faith without this trust you can't even please god but not only can you not please god you actually can't even be saved without faith don't go with me to ephesians chapter two i got a bunch of verses here you can follow along with me ephesians chapter two uh verse number i think it's eight that we're looking at ephesians chapter two verse number eight it says for it is by grace you have been saved through what through faith and this is not from yourselves it is the gift of god go with me now to galatians chapter two galatians chapter two i don't want us just to be uh i want us to be a bible literate church too okay i want i'm just knowing these scriptures here i want you just knowing my opinion i want you knowing these scriptures here okay galatians chapter 2 verse number 16 i believe we're looking at 16 know that a person that means you me is not justified by works of the law but by faith in themselves that's not what it says by faith in the school they went to or they're justified by faith in their bank account they're justified by faith in their marital status no no no it doesn't say any of that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in jesus christ so we too have put our here's the word again faith in christ jesus that we may be justified by here it is again in christ and not by the works of the law because by the works of the law no one we'll be justified i i gotta pause here for a quick second all right because uh you're you're good people okay you are you know i'm proud of you you're good people even the ones online i haven't met yet you're good people okay um and we even have a bunch of individuals uh that watch from prison as well they're they're behind bars right now and i want you to know that god knows you by name and loves you so much and even you even you people maybe forgot about you god has not forgotten about you but what we tend to think is we we think we get made right with god by good behavior it's not true okay if it is true then i would ask you how much good behavior how good do you have to be in order to be made right with god if it's up to your behavior i think it's important for us to figure out what that line is what i find when i have friends that tell me man i'm a good person and i'm like i'm glad you're a good person but usually you think you're good because you're comparing yourself to somebody who's not as good and if you get around enough really good people you go oh my gosh i'm scum i'm scum you ever meet those people they're like really nice people like oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh we've got some people like that on our staff team they're like oh my hannah scott you ever met hannah scott hannah scott she's at our white rock campus you meet hannah scott she's just smiling and she's so kind building can be on fire she's like ah it's okay i love you i love jesus i want to make you some food from she makes like eight pies from scratch in like 30 minutes i mean she can just do anything she just oozes kindness kind you meet these people you're like oh my i'm i'm a terrible person i i'm looking at i'm talking to you right now and i realize i'm terrible i'm going to hell you you get around enough really good people and the good people remind you oh i don't i don't measure up so now you and i are in a conundrum if you will if it's up to our goodness for us to have to be made right with god then how good do you have to be we find out here that it's not up to your goodness it's not up to my goodness it's not up to our behavior it's not up to our works us being made right with god we are made right with god through faith through trust in jesus christ not made right with god through trust in our works it does not matter if the dallas cowboys win or lose i pray they win i pray they win i pray we go all the way to the super bowl okay those who are watching other parts of the world you understand there's a cult there's a cult called dallas cowboy fans we're not a part of it we're on the outside of it but we do cheer them on this you and i are not made right based on some team based on our behavior based on how our kids act come on parents and thank you jesus that it's not based on how our two-year-old behaves or how our teenager behaves we are not made right with god based on the grades that we get in school we are not made right with god based on the ring if we have a ring on our ring finger or not we are not made right with god based on the neighborhood that we live in we are not made right with god based on the number of likes that we have on instagram or on twitter or repeat or repost or pokes or whatever people do on facebook i don't even know what your tick tock video and whatever it is that you are doing and you're jumping from thing the thing to think none of that stuff makes you right with god what makes you and i right with god is what jesus christ did for us on the cross it was his perfection not our perfection that makes us right with god and he had to be perfect because we couldn't be so if you keep beating yourself up for not being perfect understand that god is not looking at you going dang i'm so disappointed you're not perfect he's actually looking at you going why are you putting so much trust in your behavior when i put skin on and my behavior made you right stop letting the world judge whether or not you're worthy based on your skin or your gender or your bank account or where you live you are made right with me because of what jesus christ has done for you and his sacrifice was sufficient you can't add a thing to it and you can't take anything away from it you can't sin too much and you can't be good too good all you and i can do is say god i put my faith in the finished work of jesus christ now i'm right with you i got another verse to go along with that romans romans romans some of you also aren't believing me matthew mark luke john acts romans i think i'm going to romans chapter 5 romans chapter 5 verse number one look at this this is so good i can't even believe this is in the bible therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with god let me just pause for a second right here and i just want to allow the words of this verse to soak into your soul because of faith because of faith in jesus you have peace with god his fist is not balled up his face is not all scrunched up but my daughter my six-year-old she she looks at me sometimes and uh i don't even know what i'm doing she goes daddy what what's wrong with your face because maybe i got a text message i'm supposed to be playing barbies but i got a text message so i'm not a perfect dad you know you're playing tech you're playing barbies and you're like you know you check you're checking your text and you see something you go oh daddy what's wrong with your face i'm like what do you mean what's wrong with my face oh and many of us when we look at god we think his faces but through faith in jesus you now have peace with god i'm gonna keep on reading here let me keep i can't even believe this in the bible look like i said we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ through whom we have gained access by what by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we boast in the hope of the glory of god so you can see here you and i please god with faith hebrews 11 6 you and i get saved by faith you and i have are justified by faith you and i have peace with god through faith in jesus christ this faith thing is a big deal it's not a side issue this is not something we get to kind of skip over we want to get this one right you want to nail this one okay go with me though to luke let me try to make this even more practical the gospel of luke chapter 17 uh verse number one luke chapter 17 verse number verse number one because if if faith is so important how much of it do you need because you want to have enough like i don't want to like be short now you ever go and you're about to pay for something some of y'all don't know about this okay you never lived this life uh but you're gonna you're gonna swipe your debit card and you know last time you looked at your account it was like 17.48 but you got to get some gas she like how much can i get so you put it in by faith type in that pin approved bam you get get that gas as quick as you can close it up get out of there you you're you know you know you want to have enough to cover what you want to do so if faith is so important i just want to make sure i have enough i want to have enough so that i can do what god is asking me to do be the leader god wants me to be the be the husband and the father who wants me to be the be the friend that he wants me to be i want you to have enough for the boardrooms that you walk into i want you to have enough for the for the dreams that god has put on the inside of you i want you to have enough for the family that he's called you to lead i want you to have enough faith when you are faced with incredible obstacles and barriers that you feel like there's no way i can get around this i want you to have enough as well so how much do we need luke chapter 17 verse number one jesus said to his disciples thus me and you all right he's talking to us now he's talking to us things that cause people to stumble are bound to come this is not starting off good but woe to anyone through whom they come it would be better verse number two it would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble here's jesus putting in measurable worth and value on this the next generation if you will he says so watch yourselves if your brother or sister sins against you rebuke them i'd love to stop it right there you know when somebody offends you and you pull out this verse i'm just doing what jesus told me to do and i'm rebuking you i mean when you see someone post on facebook or instagram or they say something you're like oh oh you oh so you're a follower of jesus and you're gonna post that you're okay okay we're gonna go to church together you're gonna sit next to me and then you're gonna post that okay okay and you go ahead and you just like i'm i'm tell i'm telling y'all right now if i see another church person post and fill in the blank i want to rebuke i want to rebuke want to rebuke but you got to keep on reading because jesus is like hey uh i'm just not into you being happy i'm into my kingdom so he says here if your brother or sister sins against you rebuke them if they repent oh shoot forgive them how many times though well he says okay i know what you're thinking even if they sin against you seven times in a day this is not going well for us even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying i repent you must forgive them is there anybody that likes i i know it's in the bible but i don't like it stop looking at me like that yo like wait can you say that yeah it's there i'm glad jesus said it i want to walk in it but man i don't like this now i don't want to paint any picture that those of you who are in like some nasty abusive relationship and some guy keeps coming back to you ladies saying oh i'm so sorry i repent and he's hurting you i mean please yeah you can forgive but you don't have to get back into that relationship okay so the forgiveness brings freedom but you don't have to have that same intimacy with that person that's an extreme scenario but it definitely happens i just want to make sure we put that little caveat there i'm not talking i don't even think jesus is necessarily talking about all of that i think he's just talking about life and people because life would be easy without them no people smooth sailing those of you who are neat freaks and you're uh you're pregnant just so you know life as you know it is over it's over okay it's over and you can if you want to try to fight to keep everything neat and tidy go ahead go ahead and do that okay but we will see you at the altars weeping here in a few weeks asking for prayer over and over and over again because it's like a virtual impossibility go ahead and sterilize all your pacifiers right now go ahead but there will be a day you will pick it up yourself lick it lick it yourself [Applause] and stick it right back in your child's mouth that will that day will come you know oh no not me not me yeah yeah you you life is ju it's just crazy there are people that get on our nerves you work with them right now some of them you're thinking about thanksgiving some of us and you're like oh my goodness lord give me covet so i don't have to go home to be with my family members i'm not trying to make light of covert at all i know it's serious but you're like lord give me the mild i want the mild covet lord give me a cough just give me a cough and i can say it's covered i think i lost my taste i think i lost my taste i think i i can't i can't y'all i wanted to be there this year i wanted to be there the people oh man they could be so frustrating the disciples hear the standard the disciples hear the standard and they go okay i'm supposed to forgive seven times in a day i'm supposed to honor the the young people and in that day and age young people did not carry worth and value i'm supposed to honor marginalize i'm supposed to honor someone that can't fight for themselves i'm supposed to give worth and value and dignity to them the disciples hear this in verse number five this is what they say the apostle said to the lord if that's the standard increase our faith i'm going to need you to help me jesus because seven seven times in a year would be hard seven times in a day increase our faith increase our faith increase our faith because i wanna walk like you're calling me to walk jesus i wanna forgive the way you're calling me to forgive i wanna love the way you're asking me to love i want to honor the way you're asking me to honor i want to be the person that you're calling me to be but the standard that you set it's so ridiculously high i just need you jesus to increase my faith and if you increase my faith i'll do it i'm all in i just need you to increase my faith and then jesus's response is interesting verse number six jesus replied if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and plant it in the sea and it will obey you wait jesus sets the standard the disciples hear this and say okay increase our faith and jesus says the small amount of faith you have is already enough to do what i've called you to do wait wait wait wait wait wait as long as you and i think that we need more faith in order to obey what god is asking us to do we give ourselves permission to continue to disobey because we're waiting on him to increase our faith if you always think you need more then you will never think you have enough and jesus says here hey i just want to cut off every excuse i want to take away every single loophole i want to let you know you right now have what you need to obey me because as long as you and i think we need an increase of faith in order to obey we will keep putting the onus on god and god i'm just waiting for you to have give me one of those moments when i'm crying i'm waiting for the goosebumps i'm waiting for the preacher to say the right thing at the right time and we keep waiting for god to give us something and god is like i already gave you exactly what you need to do the thing that i'm asking you to do and it does not have to be huge matter of fact it can be small and small faith is able to do something that will absolutely blow your mind small faith can do big things small faith can do big things and you got to speak your words of faith jesus is saying here and he says you got to be specific with your faith now some of us may have been have come from some some thoughts and some backgrounds where this this kind of talk can be really really tainted and i don't want to be painted with a brush of some theology that is out there that i i don't agree with but i don't want to remove the words of scripture because some people have abused verses like this i want to take this verse and i want to bring it back to what jesus was trying to say to us because this is a critical piece for you and i to walk a lit and live a life of surrender and obedience to our glorious savior who gave himself for us he says here small faith can do some massive things you do not have to wait for some day where you can pray like your connect group leader or you go to bible college or you have a whole bunch of verses memorized or you can cross every t and dot every i i am telling you right now you've already put your faith in jesus and the same faith you put in jesus it's the same faith that you need to be able to speak to a mulberry tree and to tell that thing to be uprooted and throw itself in the sea and it will obey you jesus is letting you know that right now teenager right now seven-year-old right now 37 year old right now you have the amount of faith that you need for the impossible to happen in your life you can pray that i would increase my faith but you go ahead and trust me that right now i've given you what you need to do what i've called you to do but i want you i want you to know that faith has a sound you gotta say something come on you gotta say something i i was so convicted when i was when i was studying this this past week because i feel like this is one of the things that's messing with our freedom and flow one of the things that's messing with our relationship with god and us doing all that god has called us to do for his glory is you and i are not taking steps of faith that honor god we're taking steps of faith that make us feel safe steps of faith that we can control so it looks like faith but you know if god don't show up i got this and i just i don't want to live like that i don't want to live a life that i can try to control everything we weren't called to live a life where everything rises and falls on us we're called to live a life where it's about us and the capacity and the strength that we have and if we can't do it then it can't be done it's just that's not the life we were called to live as a matter of fact we put it this way last week i'd rather be a water walking sometimes sinking disciple rather than a disciple that never gets out of the boat that we want to be a people that are saying god i'm going to go ahead i'm going to put myself not just myself i'm going to put you out there because god is not even about me it's about you and you and i are living with so much fear of man and woman so much concern about what people are going to say about us i wish you would have a burden to live a life that's like god i don't care what people say i want to live a life where you look at it you're like yeah you go girl yeah that's my man right there go ahead and put yourself out there because you trust me for the impossible because everybody else will try to tell you it can't be done there's no way that can happen that marriage can never be restored they can never come back together you could that could never be fixed those kids are always going to look like this i just said god i want to start asking for things that people say is is impossible things like racism being gone things like sexism being gone things like sex trafficking being gone things like poverty being gone things like god saving entire nations things like people coming together that people thought could never come together i want to ask god for some things that if it fails it's not up to me it's on him i want us to be your church that says god we ask you to pick up trees and put them in the sea and we know that you're able to do it and i don't need big faith for that i need small faith for that small faith can do that now understand our faith our faith and jesus is not for our comforts right it's not for our comforts it's too not for our comforts to increase but rather for his kingdom to increase so i don't want us being a people i just all about our comforts all about our comforts all about our comfort and yes i want you to be comfortable i really do i pray i pray you are i it's no fun when you don't know how you're gonna pay your electric bill okay and if you don't know anything about that i'm so happy for you but some of us are like oh yeah i'm in that right now i pray that we don't have to live paycheck to paycheck to paycheck i don't want us living like that and at the same time i don't want us just praying prayers about paychecks when god has nations on his heart so i want i want your paycheck to be taken care of i want your electric bill to be taken care of i want your family to be taken care of but i also don't want the blessing of god to stop with you and i i want the blessing of god to go beyond you and i where we are salt and light in the earth okay i gotta keep on going here you guys are pulling too much out of me matthew uh matthew chapter eight go to matthew chapter eight write these down matthew 8 26 and matthew 14 31 these are two verses right here okay in these two verses jesus says something interesting and those of you who are a little bit nerdy you might be like well you're talking about small faith well what about in these other verses where jesus chastises his followers for little faith okay he chastises them for having little faith again go to go to matthew chapter 8 and jesus says that you of little faith it's not a positive it's not a positive why are you so afraid matthew 14 this one peter's walking on the water and it begins to sink and jesus jesus says to him you have little faith why did you doubt the reality is we can all give reasons why we doubt because we prayed and some things haven't happened this is not heresy here y'all you know sometimes like god will you do this and he doesn't do it the way you want him to do it in the time frame we wanted to do it in that's why i doubt i doubt because it didn't happen and now you and i can end up living a life of little faith and not small faith what's the difference i'm i don't i'm trying not to be too nuancy i'm not trying to split hairs but i feel like this is an important piece for us to understand little faith sees the obstacles as bigger than god small faith sees god as bigger than the obstacles this is the difference between the two so when peter's walking on the water he gets his eyes off of jesus and puts him on the storm once his eyes go from jesus to the storm he goes from small faith which will have you walking on water the little faith that will have you sinking even when jesus is standing right there with small faith small face sees possibilities and problems but little faith it's these problems and possibilities what i have discovered is that we we under the umbrella of keeping it real we live in little faith because a little faith has a sound how do you know if you've got small faith a little faith it has a sound little faith sounds hopeless little faith sounds impossible little faith sounds like it can never happen and i am okay with us having some moments where we we are real and we open up our hearts and we take off our masks and we're like man this is hard this is difficult i don't know what's going on i feel like god has forgotten about me i think it's a-okay to have those moments as a matter of fact it's healthy and good go to your therapist go to your connect group go to your friends open up your heart please do that but understand you were never designed to live in the town of little faith you visit that town you live in the town of small faith and little faith is a town of it's never going to happen but small faith is a town of god all things are possible to those who believe in you that's where small faith lives little faith is a town of it's hopeless and it's never going to turn around and i recognize some of us are in that situation even today but you can visit there but in this church in this house i want you to understand that we're going to try to take you out of that that little village and bring you to the small faith village where we will say the world tells you it cannot happen but god is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask think or even imagine i see the problem i just see god is bigger i see the problem i just see the possibilities small faith and little faith they have a sound listen to your speech i'm just about done here okay i'm just about done this is my this is my last one they don't just have a sound but they also have some action here luke chapter five luke chapter five luke chapter five luke chapter five oh man i like this verse right here these verses this is a good one luke chapter five verse 17. look at this jesus says one day though the bible says one day jesus was teaching and pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there they had come from every village of galilee and from judea and jerusalem and the power of the lord was with jesus to heal the sick he still does this today some men carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and they tried to take him into the house to lay him before jesus verse 19. watch this when they could not find a way when they could not find a way is there anything in your life where you cannot find a way when these men had their friend on the mat they got to the house they could not find a way there was no way there was no way in the crowd was too big this is what these guys did come on this is what these guys did this is what these guys did this is what these guys they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of jesus verse number 20 when jesus [Music] he saw their faith [Music] they come to the house there's no way in obstacle problem hurdle impossible we came all this way for nothing you know what small faith does there's a way there's a way little faith would say well this always happens to us we always get always to this point and then then it ends and there's no way in for us this always happens that's what little faith says and little faith stops turns around and goes back home but small faith finds a way small faith rips a hole in a roof small faith says you know what that we got let's go up let's go up let's find some way around this and let's just go ahead and tear a roof in this house i just want y'all to know i'm i'm not perfect i know you're not perfect but we surely serve a perfect savior and he is calling you and i to get to a place where we are living in this small faith rip a roof off of the ceiling type of faith where you and i are not stepping back and we're not taking no for an answer but we're believing god to do things that are beyond anything we can ask take or imagine rip a hole in the roof rip a hole in the roof rip a hole in the roof rip there's no it just can't happen it rip a hole in the roof i've i just found myself being okay with little faith language oh it's not gonna happen we tried everything let's just go ahead and turn away and i just don't want to be okay living in that space anymore say god i trust you because faith faith not only has that that sound but you can you can see it too you can see faith [Music] you can see faith james tells us without you can you can say you have faith but you know faith just by itself is just empty without putting some action behind it so i ask all of us where are you saying you have faith but not showing you have faith in what relationship in your mindset with your money i don't know your family [Music] if we can step into a new level of by new level am i talking oh my goodness i'm some person that's on some platform and i'm floating no no new level of oh i i realized i got comfortable living and little and god asked me to live in small so my eyes aren't on the problem but my eyes are on him and the possibilities of what he can do what would your marriage look like what would your business look like what would your life look like what would your friendships look like what would the world look like the church began to live with this mustard seed faith that talks to mulberry trees tells them to be uprooted and throw themselves in the sea if you would mind friends online in the room by your heads for just a moment if you're under the sound of a voice you've never given your heart and your life to christ you never made them first you've never made them number one but you know right now the god of heaven is knocking on the door of your heart and you are ready to make jesus christ first in your life whether to give your heart to him for the first time or rededicate your life to serving him on the count of three i do want you to do something simple but something bold i want you just 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 put your hand in the air you're saying yes that's me i want to give my heart and my life to christ we got friends all over the room i'm sure friends online right now you're saying yes i want to go the way of jesus i don't want to go my own way anymore i want to go his way 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 were not mine 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 and amen can we lift our heads uh what an incredible day what an incredible service yeah yeah i do want to say if you have made the decision to put jesus first in your life please let us know you can text jesus first one word to 97 000. we would love to follow up with you and help give you some really practical steps to walk out your christian faith for sure and you might be thinking again what are those practical steps yep and your next practical step is growth trends in growth track you're going to learn about the vision and the mission of shoreline city but you're going to learn so much about who god has created you to be we have it every single wednesday at 8 00 pm central time we would love to see you there and i want to once again just remind us church family we are a generous church this is who we are and there are so many lives being affected from all the different things that are happening maybe in our nation or natural disasters to kenya i mean a21 is an organization that we partner with i just want to let you know people are hearing the gospel and being saved because you're saying yes with your finances so just thank you so much church family but we love you so much we pray you have the best week ever and god bless

Channel: Shoreline City Church

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Id: YlHdS2_m1oo

Length: 39min 58sec (2398 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 10 2021