I Can't Stop Now | Pastor Earl McClellan

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you have your Bibles, I want you to open up with me to the book of 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter number 1. 1 Samuel chapter 1. This is an old, a book in the Old Testament. Right after the book of Ruth. It actually back in the day used to be one big book with 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2nd Kings. But it was too long for all the scrolls way back in the day. So it was broken down into these multiple books. 1 Samuel chapter number 1. I got a bunch of unique names I need to read here. So work with me on this one, okay? Let's see if we can get through a couple of them. It says, There was a certain man from, here's the first one. Ramathiam, I'll call that, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was El Khinah. We got El Kinah, that's a good one. Son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuf, which is kind of a tough name. An Ephraimite. He had two wives. That's a problem. This guy was obviously dumb. Uh, one wife is all a man needs. He had two wives. One was called Hannah, and the other, Pananiah. Pennaniah had children, but Hannah had none. Year after year, this man, Alkana, went up to his town of worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh. Shiloh was actually the name of the daughter of our campus pastors in San Antonio, Andrew and Hannah, where Hapni and Fenehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came, I'm now in verse number four. Whenever the day came for Alkinah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Hananiah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her. And the Lord had closed her womb. Because the Lord had closed her womb, closed Hannah's womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Alkinah would say to her, and here he is about to say something stupid. Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? To that, she's like, no. If you're taking notes, you can uh you can jot this down. This is the title of today's message is I can't stop now. I can't stop now. This uh book of the Bible here, again, first Samuel, um, is is interesting to me when I was studying it this week because in the book of First Samuel, um you don't even hear anything about Samuel in the very beginning of the book. Right here, for all these first few verses, we get all these different names, but you don't get the name Samuel at all. You get Samuel's dad, mom, you get the the dad's wives' names, you get the name of the town that they're going to, you even get the dad's dad's name and the dad's grandfather's name, and you get all these other names, but you do not get Samuel's name at all in the beginning, the first few verses of this book. What the writer is doing here is we're getting the backstory of Samuel's life. We're getting a little bit of where is he from? What's he, what's kind of his history? What does he navigate it through? And I like hearing about his backstory because all of us have one. Every single one of us has a backstory. We have some things that we've navigated, some things that we've walked through, some things that we have dealt with in our lives. Every one of us, if I gave you an opportunity to grab this microphone, you would be able to tell me something that you have walked through in life. Now, what's difficult in our day and age is we like to judge people based on where they are right now. People will look at you and they'll say, I know you, I know all that you're about. Look at you. I see the car you're driving, I see the house that you live in. I see your Instagram, I know your past, your present, and your future. And we sum up a person's life based on this one moment where we just met them and we think we know everything about them. But really, you don't know everything about them at all. You don't know their history, you don't know the pains and the difficulties that they've navigated, you don't know all the trials that they've walked through, you don't even know all the tears that they've shed. It is so easy to sit next to a person, see the shoes that they're wearing, and go, huh. Or go, huh. I bet you you are, and you fill in the blank on that person's life. I don't want us filling in the blank on people's lives that we have not yet sat with and talked to and connected with to find out what brought them to the place they are at right now. There are some people that we will look at and go, oh, you went to that school, that means you're this, or you you work in this industry, that means you're this. Or you went to where what neighborhood do you live in? That means this about you. But you have no idea that 15 years ago they could never have afforded that neighborhood, they could have never made it to that point in time. You're looking at somebody now carrying a baby, and you think, oh, your family's perfect. You don't know all the miscarriages and the difficulties and the times in the hospital that that person had to navigate. And here we are summing people up and not even knowing their backstory. Even today, we shared this beautiful video about Cultivate Conference, which I cannot wait for. And here is Miranda that we've known. I mean, she again, she was a part of the church when we were just at the very, very beginning, and you see her talking, and you're like, Oh, I think I know her. I see her hair slick back, I see the earrings that she's wearing, I see her friends, I know her, but you had no idea that she was dealing with postpartum depression and could not even get out of the house. But the grace of God met her in her time of need. The moment she shared some of her backstory, it got even more human. In that moment, stop judging her, and you listen because she has a story, and every one of us has one, every one of us, parents, and some of our parents were great, some of our parents weren't so great. Some of us grew up in a wonderful home, and others of us grew up in a home that we would not wish on anybody. As a matter of fact, that's why some of us are working so hard for our families, is because we don't want them to experience anything that we experience. And you can look at them and think, you I know why you're working so hard. You don't know me. You don't know why I do what I do, but in all these ups and downs of life, I have discovered, and without a doubt, Samuel is going to discover that God's hand is guiding and guarding and watching over. Like when you look at your backstory and you're like, oh my goodness, I cannot believe I made it through all those things. In the moment when you're going through the difficulty, you're thinking, why in the world would God let something like this happen? And then maybe years later, you can look back on that season of life and say, I thought I was alone, I thought I was forgotten. I thought God did not hear my prayers, I thought I was abandoned, but little did I know that God was sending the right people to me at the right time to bring me to this place so I can have strength that I never thought I could possibly have, but have. But had I not gone through what I went through, I would not have the strength to stand here today in the midst of all the trials and the tears and declare the goodness and the grace of God, his hand was with me, even in my backstory. When you look through the Bible, friends, I'm still I wish it was a clean book. I wish there were no problems in this book, but you read through it and you see person after person with brokenness and difficulty and pain. You look at Esther, her parents weren't there. You look at David, the most important moment in the family's life. This is gonna be the most important family meeting. And David's father does not even invite him to the meeting. He's considered the run. Forget about him, keep him out there with all those sheep. He's not the one that Samuel's gonna pick because he doesn't even matter, he's not even invited. Look at Joseph. The man was sold into slavery by his brothers, and not only that, he's at a job doing well, second in command in the job, and he gets accused of something he did not do, and not only loses his job, but is thrown in prison as a result of it. Moses, his mom, had this was put in an impossible situation, had to send him down a river. All of these people have had stories just like you when your parents weren't there, or this addiction, the prescription medication, or alcohol, or drugs, or or somebody stabbed you in the back, or somebody disrespected you, or somebody did not care for you the way you ought to have been cared for. But in the midst of all of that, here is God saying, I will lead and guide and protect and sustain and complete the good work that I started in you. I'm talking backstory here. I'm talking about your story, and I'm letting you know that God is the one that even brought you to this place right now by his grace and by his mercy, because this is what our God does. I want to invite out our our our um the band for just a quick second, okay? Because I I was working on this this week and and and and something came uh to my brain. I I hope it works. Hope it works. We'll see. Okay. So so I uh was thinking about all of our different lives and all the different backstories that we have. And I know if I gave this microphone to people online or any of our locations or any services, I mean, there would be a bunch of people that could testify. Oh, you look at me now, let me tell you my story. You you think I'm clean now? Let me tell you my story. You're looking at my marriage now, and you're like, oh, this is a perfect marriage. Let me tell you my story. Person after person. Difficulty after difficulty, but the grace of God has carried them. So I was I was thinking about all of our different lives, okay? And uh, so I asked the the band here to play some like different notes in chords, okay? Uh I I think I what was my small one? My small, my small uh chord. No, Eddie, you got that from me? Okay, so that's just kind of uh a small, small note. Uh give give uh uh who's has the big one? Okay, Eric, hit me.

unknown 12:50

That's the big one.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Okay, okay. Uh who's the pretty one? Oh, Taylor's the pretty one. Pretty, that's pretty. Okay, okay, that's good, that's good. And I guess, Cameron, you're the odd one. Sorry, Cameron. Put that play that odd one. This is some of y'all. You know it. You're like, yeah, I'm odd. God's got somebody for you. Uh all of us can kind of find ourselves that we feel like uh I'm kind of small. Some of us, man, I'm I'm kind of big. Some of us like uh I'm pretty. Some of us feel a little odd. So you take all this, uh just throw it all together. Watch it, we can throw it all together, and it's sometimes not right. Okay, okay, throw it all together. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. It's it's not right. It kind of hurts a little bit. It kind of goes, lean away. But if you get the right conductor, a music director, get the right one, can take odd and small and big and pretty, and somehow he's able to put it all together.

unknown 14:43

Go.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

This is what God does with your life. You feel like it's like, man, this season was hard and this season was smaller than I wanted to be. These notes, you can uh you can have some moments that it feels like harm, a season that feels like harm, but then you put something the right thing on the end of it, it can change harm into something else. If you actually put a O and Y on harm, it goes from harm to harmony. This is what God is able to do with every single one of our lives. It's what he is doing right now. You got a backstory. But God's fingerprint is all over that thing. If you'll pause for a moment and look back, you'll see he's been working. He's been working. Okay, when you keep when you keep reading this story, you see that uh the two wives are are battling, but not Hannah, it doesn't really say Hannah's battling at all. It says Pananiah is the one that is that is opposing her. It's like she's pointing at her over and over and over again. I like the detail the Bible gives. It doesn't say it happened once, year after year. So she's always pestering her, always disrespecting her, always reminding her, you're not enough. You don't have any kids, I do. I'm better than you. So over and over again, she's getting this. Hannah's got this coming at her. Year after year after year after year, so much so that she weeps. So much so that it's breaking her heart. And then again, her dumb husband's like, hey girl, ain't I enough for you? It's like get on my face with that fool. Uh uh. I'm going through something right now. You got this wife in your house that's just tormenting me. It's coming over and over and over again. Now, this is the thing that's uh interesting. Again, what's the name of the book? What's the name of this book we're studying right now? Samuel. Samuel hasn't brought been brought on the scene yet. Hannah is the mother of Samuel. She's the one who's going to bring Samuel into the world. She doesn't know that. All she knows is that I've got this woman coming at me, provoking me, disrespecting me, hurting me, tearing at me. But she doesn't know that God actually has designed and ordained for her to bring this prophet and judge into the world. I want to submit to you that the opposition that Hannah is experiencing is about her, but is also about who's supposed to come through her. And can I say for the opposition that you're experiencing, I know we like to make it all about us. And yes, you're involved, but just maybe it's not all about you. Maybe there's some life that's supposed to come through you. There's some dream and some idea and some purpose and some destiny that's supposed to come through you. And in order to stop that thing from going coming through you, the enemy is trying to kill you. Man, okay, let me make it practical. You ever see Terminator? Okay, Terminator, first one. This is back in the day. I can't recommend this movie. I don't know. I can't, I think it was R, so I can't remember what was in it. Um, so common sense media before you watch it. But in this movie, uh AI, Claude, ChatGPT, they've taken over the world, okay? That's why I was told be nice to AI, because you don't know if they might take it over. So I'm like, hey chat, love you. Claude, appreciate you. Thank you for all your help, man. It's wrong information, but thank you for what you gave me. But in the future, the machines, as they're calling the movie, have taken over the world, and a guy named John Connor steps up to lead a revolt against the machines. And John Connor is leading this revolt against the machines, and the machines are so concerned, so intimidated, so upset, the machines decide we got to do something about this, so they send a terminator back in time. Okay? So they got time travel. Back in time. The terminator shows up back in time not to kill John Connor, but to kill Sarah Connor. Sarah Connor is the mother of John Connor. Now, John hasn't been born yet, but the machines are thinking if we can kill Sarah, then we can kill John, and then the revolt never happens. Can I talk to you about your Terminator? Who comes to steal, kill, and destroy? And I know the devil is not omniscient. And I know the devil is not omnipresent. What I do know is he's about stealing, killing, and destroying. And every single bit of destiny that God has for you to bring into the world. The enemy is interested in trying to kill you and attack you and take you out so that you don't give birth to the revolutionary idea or child that's supposed to come into this world. So that's why Hannah could not stop when she was experiencing this opposition. Because if she had quit, then we never would have received Samuel. And then if we didn't get Samuel, then Samuel wouldn't have anointed David. And I can go down the line. But God the whole time was weaving together a story. So even though she's experiencing hell, she had to keep moving forward. I need a church that's willing to keep moving forward. I know the pressure's real. I know the tears are real. I know when you don't have money to pay your bills, or you're not sure what you're supposed to do, or is this a step I'm supposed to take? I'm really confused right now. I mean, all of that stuff is real. You can't quit. You can't. You can't. Even when you hear those lies about just take your life. Just take your life. Just just go. Hey, take your life. No one's gonna miss you. No one will miss you. Just go ahead and take your life. That little whisper? Those ideations. This is not just for broke people either. These lies come into wealthy people's lives. So again, don't try to judge somebody based on what they look like on the outside. You got these lies that'll seep into your ears. And here is the enemy trying to stop not just you, but what's supposed to come through you. Because this world will sometimes make you feel like junk. Because you don't have a ring, because you don't have kids. Because you don't have a certain amount of money in your account. Because you don't look a certain way. Because of your hair or your height or your age or your whatever fill in the blank. And the lie is you don't even matter. Just quit right now. No one will care. And I just I'm on assignment today to remind you. I think there's a Samuel in you. I think there's a Samuel in you. Some of you are literal, you're like, in me right now. No, no, no, not like that. No, no. Figuratively speaking. There's something in you. Some of y'all have uh an ability to lead. It's a gift that God has given you. It's a beautiful gift. And when you have this ability to lead, what the devil does, because again, he's not omnipresent, not not omniscient, uh not all powerful at all, what the enemy has done is created a broken system. Sin is in this world. And this broken system of sin that you and I are born into, what ends up happening is if you have a gift to lead and you are living in this broken system, is you experience hurt, disappointment, pain, and it sometimes causes us to retreat. I'm gonna step back because I don't want to experience that hurt or pain anymore. So let me step back. So because of the system of sin and brokenness that's in the world, we step back, and your leadership gift is now hidden, and what's supposed to come through you is not shared with the world. Some of you have a gift to make money, it seems to just follow you. So some of y'all are like, really? Yep, that's a gift. You're like, I want that gift because right now I got the gift of it leaving, it runs from me. But some people have they just have a gift, ideas, thought, I mean, they have a gift, they have a gift, it's beautiful. Well, when you have that gift and you're in this sin-stained, broken world, the enemy throws at us greed, temporary pleasures, and he throws all this at them, and as we get at us, and as we get caught in the system of this world, we end up not using our resources for kingdom purposes. We can sometimes try to hold on to them for our identity, or we waste them sometimes in things that don't matter as much. Fill in the blank of your gift. As many people as are online at all of our locations and here at Dallas, that's how many different gifts there are. And God has given you these things. But you and I are in a very broken world. Do not allow the brokenness of the world to stop you from releasing what God has called you to bring into the world. I'm so glad Hannah did not stop. I don't know if she saw what was on the other side, but after she gave birth to Samuel, she saw that miracle. It reminds me of Jesus. How Jesus had a picture of some joy that was before him, and it gave him the strength to push on through. Go with me to the book of Hebrews. Let me show you this. Hebrews chapter 12. Y'all still with me? Hebrews chapter 12. It can be a unique book to find sometimes. Hebrews, like is it before James, after James? If you're in Revelation, just keep going back the opposite direction. Hebrews chapter 12. I'm gonna start in verse number one. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Okay, let me stop there at verse number one. Therefore, therefore, uh, maybe you heard the old preacher joke, uh, it or maybe not joke, a saying, if you see in the Bible the word therefore, you want to ask yourself what it's there for. So stupid. I can't believe I wasted my humor on that joke. Early, you're better than that. Therefore. So you see, we're since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, so now we know that this thought here is connecting with a different with another thought that came before it. So we're gonna go back to Hebrews chapter 11. Go up with me to verse number 32. This is like the chapter of faith. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, about David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Pause for just a moment. This, these are some mighty testimonies here. Some amazing people of faith that have experienced miracles. Shutting the mouths of lions, women receiving their dead back to them again, administering justice, routing foreign armies. I mean, this is an Instagram reel of Instagram reels. This is highlight after highlight. I love it. This is beautiful. The passage of scripture doesn't stop here though. Continue on with me in verse 35. The second part of it says, There were others, everybody say others. There were others who were tortured. There were others refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. There were others that faced jeers and flogging. And there were others that even had chains and imprisonment. There were others that were put to death by stoning. There were others that were sawed in two. There were others that were killed by the sword. There were others that went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us. This text tells us that there's some people that had some crazy mountaintops, and there were others that experienced some crazy pain. And both of them are in this hall of faith. I heard a lie when I was young that if you had faith, no difficulties would come your way. And every time I had a trial or a pain, I thought something was wrong with me, was wrong with my faith. It's not scriptural and it's not true. The best person had the worst thing happen to him, and Jesus lived by faith. So do not think there's something wrong with your faith because you're going through pain. But I recognize that under the sound of my voice today, there's some people you've had like verse 32 through 35A kind of life. It's been like victory after victory after victory, and then there's others who have had like 35b through 39 kind of life, defeat after defeat after defeat. But for most of us, it's been a mixture of 32 all the way through 39, where I felt like an other, and I felt like I've been on the mountaintop. But in the midst of all of that, we are encouraged to throw off every single weight and sin that hinders us and to run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, not looking to ourselves. Here is the kicker, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and then sat down at the right hand of Almighty God. This is what you and I are invited into. This is the calling and the destiny and the life that's flowing through your veins as a follower of Jesus. So you can't stop now. Sorry, business leader, you can't. Sorry, single person, you can't. Sorry, married couple, you can't. Sorry, one who's confused, you can't. Sorry, the one that is feeling great, you can't, and the one that is feeling terrible, you can't. I'm sorry, you can't because just like Jesus had some joy set before him, which was the glory of God, and every single one of us being changed and transformed by that powerful cross and glorious resurrection. There are some lives that are on the other side of your yes. You have to stay the course. If you wouldn't mind, family, bow your head for just a moment. I ask you to bow your head not because it's mystical or magical, but just so that you can focus for a second. Let's pray the grace of God overwhelms you. That you sense his love, you sense his power, even sense his correction if you need to. But you and I are not alone. As your heads are bowed, if you have never given your heart and your life to Jesus Christ, you've never made him first, you've never made him number one. Or there was a point in time you were following Jesus, but you slipped away and you've gone another direction, and today you're saying, I don't want to go my own way, I want to go his way. If there is, if in your heart right now you know I don't want to live my life for myself, I want to give my whole heart and my life to Jesus. On the count of three, I want you to do something simple but something bold. The Bible uses the word repent. You're turning and you're saying, God, you can have all of me. You can have my heart. If that's you, you've never done that, or one point in time you didn't, you slipped away. And today you're ready to give your heart and your life to Jesus. I want you to do, 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 lift your hand up high. You're saying, Yeah, that's me. I want to give my heart and my life to Jesus. This is beautiful. We got friends, balcony floor. Come on, you're saying, yeah, this is me. I don't want to go my own way anymore. I want to go the way of Jesus. We celebrate this moment. This is so beautiful. I'm gonna ask everyone to do me a favor, put your hand over your heart right now, if you would not mind. And then when everyone repeat this prayer out loud after me, say, Dear Jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all my sins. I admit I made mistakes. And today, I give you my heart, I give you my life. Give me the power to live for you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Can we lift our heads up, clap our hands, come on with joy and enthusiasm as we celebrate what God is doing in people's lives right now?