Don't Sleep On Me | Parker McClellan & Thomas Donnegan

This Next Gen Sunday, we're celebrating all God has been doing in the lives of the next generation! Join Thomas Donnegan and Parker McClellan as they share a powerful message from Acts 20, reminding us not to overlook, underestimate, or "sleep on" the younger generation. Whether you're young or simply investing in those who are, this message will challenge and encourage you to step into all God has for you.

Are you ready to step into all God has called you to be through our Christ-Like Leader Pathway? There are so many ways to start, and we're here to walk with you every step of the way.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come on, excited to be here this Sunday. Let's get more to Jesus. Let's pop it up for Jesus. Five more seconds. Come on, five more seconds. Let's pop it up for Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

You guys can take your seats. I am fired up to be here. Been spending so much time on these praying, crying out for us as a church family, praying and crying out for the next generation. As Pastor Earl said, I get the honor of being the junior high director, and I'm gonna be able to step in to some more youth-related things. Shout out my youth over here, 6th through 12th grade. We're gonna be sitting together every single Sunday, and we're gonna start our gatherings on Wednesday nights, actually, from 7 to 9. So looking forward to that. Before I get started, I want to honor our amazing, amazing pastors. They wish they could be here, but let's clap it up for them. They love you guys so, so much. Every Monday morning we have prayer as a church family, and they are on their knees crying out to God on behalf of each and every single one of us. I also want to honor my favorite person in the room, my beautiful wife, Angel. We have been married for seven months. It has been the best seven months of my entire life. Okay, she is awesome. I love you so, so much. You're anointed, you are called, you are gifted. If you hear anything in this message and you're like, man, that is good. It's probably because she put it in my notes, okay? So love you so, so much. Want to welcome our online family too. So let's clap it up for them. Everybody that is watching online, we are so excited that you are here. Uh, I want to set the tone and I want to say that this is not about me. This is not about my name. This is not about glorifying my story. This is all about glorifying Jesus. And that is my goal and my aim as we are reading these scriptures together. That I would not be pointing you to myself, but instead, I'd be painting a beautiful picture of the cross and how Jesus is pursuing each and every single one of us. If you came in here this morning, you went straight to the balcony because you did not want to be noticed. I want to tell you that God sees you. If you came in here this morning and your marriage is on the brink of ending, and you are wondering if there can be reconciliation. God sees you. If you came in here this morning, you almost turned around because of all the anxiety that was in your mind telling you not to come to church. I want to tell you that God sees you, He loves you, He has a plan and a purpose for you. We're gonna open up the Bible this morning. I am excited, and we are going to be in Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, this is New Testament. We're gonna be in verse 7. Acts chapter 20, verse 7. On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people, and because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. He was yapping. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. If you are taking notes this Sunday, the title of this message is Don't Sleep on Me. Turn to your neighbor, tell him, Don't sleep on me. Turn to your second choice, tell him, don't sleep on me. Don't sleep on me. This is what Jesus is saying to each and every single one of us this morning. If we are wondering if we're too far gone, if God is still a miracle working, God, Jesus is saying, don't sleep on me. If you feel like alone and abandoned, Jesus is saying, Don't sleep on me. I want all of us to have a fire in our belly in a hunger for the gospel where we are not falling asleep, but we are wide awake to witness and see all the amazing things that God is doing. Parker Pratt was up here. He was one of my close friends during that worship moment, and he was talking about all the amazing things that we have going on in the next generation. And as you guys know, we just had youth camp. It was amazing. God's presence was there. Jesus met us in a mighty and powerful way. And we saw sixth graders bringing pornography to the altar and saying, God, I'm gonna give this to you. We saw seniors bringing their negative body image to the altar and saying, God, I'm gonna give this to you. We saw leaders going to the altar and saying, God, I'm tired of being on the sidelines. I want to be all in for you. Everybody was locked in. Everybody was trying their best to stay leaned in and awake. But you see here in this story, this young man named Eudicus falls asleep. If you are a Bible nerd, I know Thomas is. I know I consider myself a little when I'm studying biblical literature right now. I kind of fake graduated in May. They let me walk the stage a little bit early. I'm still taking classes, though, so uh I love these little details. But Eudychus' name, it means lucky or fortunate. But the thing that happened to him is quite the opposite. You see, here Eudychus finds himself in this upper room, and he's hearing Paul preach the good news of Jesus Christ. He's hearing Paul preach that Jesus was a real man, God that put on flesh and was walking the earth. He was walking the thing he created on, and he was healing the sick, he was bringing good news to the poor, all these amazing things. And Paul is preaching about this in Eudychus decides to sit in the window. Not only does he decide to sit in the window, but since Paul is preaching on and on and on and on and on, Eudychus begins to fall asleep. I don't think sleeping is a sin. I love sleep, and I think it's funny that when you're a kid and your parents tell you, hey, it's time for nap time, you're like, I'm not going to bed. Okay, you're throwing a fit. You do not want to take a nap. But the older you get, the more you start to desire a nap time. I'm only 21. The students they call me unk, so I cannot imagine the parents in the room that you're like, man, what I would do to get a nap in. Need a nap. It's funny how we go through these different stages of sleep. It's sleeping is not a sin in itself. But what's interesting is where Eutychus decided to sleep. See, Eutychus decided to get comfortable in a place of danger. And although the text does not explicitly say this, I believe that Eudychus chose being comfortable instead of choosing proximity to the Word of God. Because you see here the Bible says that Paul was preaching, and he was preaching for hours and hours and hours, and instead of being on the front lines, leaned in, locked in about hearing the good news of Jesus Christ and how he is risen and how the tomb is empty and how he ascended to seat at the right hand of the Father, Eutychus decides to take a step back. He says, Paul, I know you're preaching about the good news of Jesus Christ, but I might have heard this message before. He decides to play it safe. Want to challenge all of us this morning. We do not want to play it safe when it comes to our faith. We want to have a faith that if somebody is in a conversation with us, they're asking us, Parker, why do you have so much joy when you walk around? You can say, man, it's because Jesus is living on the inside of me. When you're in your workplace and people are asking you, hey, why aren't you gossiping about our boss? What are you doing? You can say it's because Jesus has taught me to speak honor. It can be, man, when you all of your friends are going out and they are drinking, they're asking you, Parker, why aren't you going out and drinking anymore? You can say with confidence, it's because Jesus died on the cross, so that I could have an intimate relationship with him, not so that I could run away from him. So many of us find ourselves in these window seals. We find ourselves in these places of danger that we never meant to happen. We never wanted it to happen, but all of a sudden it gets out of hand. This story resonates with me for multiple reasons. I feel like I've been in the windowsill before, but I've actually literally fallen out of a window before, too. If you look at my arm, you'll see uh some scars on my arm here. These are stitches I got when I was like nine or ten years old. This is the beginning of the church. My parents' church planning, they're at like a serve team night or something, they're out of the house, they leave us with a babysitter. It's me and Kemi Well Stokes. Kemuel is on staff at Shoreline, he's awesome. He's at our O'Cliff Bishop Arts campus. And the way that this house, yeah, shout out O'Cliff, bro. Shout out O'Cliff. Shout out O'Cliff. The way that we are playing right now, and the way that my old house was set up, is there was a stairwell that led up to the master bedroom. And alongside that stairwell, there were like five or six windows. So this is on the first floor, but I find myself bored, I find myself with not really any supervision, and I find myself with a beanbag. So with all of this combination, it is the perfect concoction for me to be able to experience flight. So I take this beanbag, I put it at the foot of the stairs, I am climbing the stairs, I am jumping supermanning onto the beanbag from the top of the stairs. I'm doing this for hours and hours. Okay, this is so much fun. My parents they never allowed trampolines. I think it's because Camuel and Mia they broke like 55 bones jumping on trampolines, so they're like, no trampolines. I'm like, I'm getting my fix through this. So I'm jumping from the top staircase onto the bottom over and over and over again in my landing on this beanbag. Well, Camuel is playing right next to the beanbag. He has his little hot wheels and he's playing on the ground right next to the beanbag. So I'm jumping over and over, and one time I miss the beanbag. I land on Cemuel's back. Simultaneously, as I land on Camuel's back, he stands up and I go flying out of the window. It was crazy. It was like slow motion in my mind. I still remember it looking at my arms, being like, screaming. It was such a scary situation, but it did not start like that. My intention was never to fly out of the window. My intention was never to have permanent scarring. My intention was not to bleed. My intention was not to have a negative memory associated with something that I thought was fun. I just wanted to have fun. But you see, where I chose to have fun, that was the dangerous part. I chose to play by the window. Ended up falling out just like this young man. He chose to be comfortable in the window. But his intention did not start like that. And oftentimes when we go through day-to-day life, if we find ourselves wrapped up in sin, uh the chains, it started with something little. It started with just one little compromise, it started with just one little click, it just started with curiosity, or it just started with one drink, or one smoke, or one sneaky thing, or one lie. It started as this little thing. And this is backed by scripture. If you look in James chapter 1, verse 14 through 15. I'm gonna read it right now. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Verse 15. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to death. Now, if you can keep this scripture on the screen, I'll I want to walk us through this real quick. So you have desire, that desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to death. Do you see the progression here in this passage of scripture? That it started with just a little compromise, but it ends in spiritual death. What windowsills are we sitting in? What compromises are we taking? What little things are we doing that nobody knows about, but we know it's not the right thing? I want to encourage all of this morning. Zero compromise in this room where we are 100% committed to the cause of Christ. We are 100% running after him. And my aim and goal is to not bring any guilt, to not bring any shame to us that for those of us that are wrapped up in sin. Because the reality is, is Jesus is our hope. The story does not end with Eutychus on the ground dead. We find out later that Paul stretches his arms over Eutychus and reminds him, hey, Eutychus, I know you're asleep right now, but God is telling you to wake up. I am so thankful for the people in my life that they they knew I was wrapped up in sin. They knew I thought I was too far gone. They knew I was hiding things from my parents. They knew all these things, but they're calling me on the phone every night saying, Hey, Parker, I know you're asleep right now, but I need you to wake up. And can this be the sound of our house right now, where Jesus is calling each and every single one of us? And he's saying, Son and daughter, I know you're wrapped up in pornography right now, but I need you to wake up. He's saying, son and daughter, I know alcoholism has been kept keeping your family in bondage for years, but I need you to wake up. He's saying, I need you to push past your circumstance, focus your eyes on me and wake up this morning. I love that the story does not end there. I love that my story did not end in that pit. And somebody that played a giant instrumental part in my story, we are about to hear an amazing message from. So I want you to put your hands together for the Thomas Donnegan.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Come on, dude. Great message, bro. Can we get up for Parker, guys? Can we give it up for Parker for that word? Man, I love, love, love. Number one, how honoring this house is. It makes it feel like you can do anything when you got people who got your back supporting you in spaces like this. But what's awesome is I've gotten to be a part of Parker's life since Parker was in J High. I was his J High leader. He was in my Connect group, acting a fool all the time. Just kidding. He actually was a really, really great kid. But Parker and I walked through all of these different seasons together, and the thing was, is I found like being consistent in Parker's life. God used something in Parker's life. And now Parker's standing up here preaching to all of us about what God has done in and through his life, about how God can bring dead things back to life. And I'm just here today to encourage you. I'm not really an old head, I'm like 30 right now, but um, but I just want to remind you like, don't sleep on the younger generation. Don't sleep on the next generation. You see, I think sometimes as uh, and I find myself recently starting to do this, which is how I'm like, oh no, am I turning in my father? Um I'm like, the younger generation, they just don't have the same work ethic that we did. Or, you know, like no, you guys, none of you guys relate to that, obviously, right? Like, none of y'all. A lot of young people in the room right now, too, which is great. Shout out to all of our high school and junior high students back there. We love you guys. Just got back from youth camp. You know, I think sometimes we can believe this lie, like, oh, the the younger generation, they have it easier than we had it. Oh, like they they just get more handouts than we got, or oh, it's it's easier to be uh a young person, or maybe you're on the flip side of the coin where you're saying, you know, like um it's actually really hard because of social media and the way the economy is set up right now. It's really difficult for the next generation. And while each generation has their positives and their negatives, as the older generation, it's our job to raise up the next generation. It's who we're called to be as leaders. And so it doesn't matter, you know, if you're in the room, if you're online, or wherever God has called you to, you have influence in the younger generation. So I just want to ask you a question, because I think all of us at some point, some way, shape, or form, we sleep on the younger generation. So my question for you is where are you sleeping on the younger generation? Where are you sleeping on the generation coming after you? Because I think the truth is, is I I know in my own life, the people who have most impacted my life, it wasn't the people who were complaining about the handouts that I was given. The people who impacted my life most weren't the people who complaining about how easy I had it. It was actually the people who laid their life down for me. Those people impacted my life. And so today I've gotten to serve here at Shoreline City on the next gen team for seven years of just showing up week in and week out, even when I didn't feel it, even at youth camp when I got like two hours of sleep a night, showing up and being consistent, just like Paul is, just like Christ is, is actually what impacts the next generation. Where are you sleeping on the younger generation? I'm gonna actually continue where we were at in this verse of scripture, like Parker was talking about. So in uh Acts 20, verse 9, seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. But Paul went down, he threw himself on the young man and he put his arms around him. Do not be alarmed, he said. He's alive. Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. Like Parker was saying, Paul in this moment is yapping. Like he's he's it's probably an amazing sermon. And like Parker was talking about, Eutychus gets comfortable and he sits back in a windowsill. But I wonder what it would have looked like if someone saw Eutychus sitting in the windowsill, and the older generation was like, No, no, no, no, no, bro. We're not falling asleep up here. Come closer. God has something in store for you over here. What would it have looked like if someone decided to not sit in their own comfort and wonder, oh no, Eutychus is probably fine. Like, he's probably got this, and was like, No, no, no, no, brother, I've got something big greater in store for you. Come closer. God has something greater in store for you in this moment. It's not a one-time thing for the way that Paul lives his life either. Because Paul, while his yapping doesn't move Eutychus, him going from the top floor all the way down to where Eudychus was at, laying his life down, that's what impacts Eutychus' life. He doesn't say, you know what, I'm just gonna keep preaching my message. Eutychus should have known better. He's like, no, no, no, no. I'm actually gonna go to where Eudychus is at, and I'm gonna speak words of life over him, and he comes back to life. He in this moment doesn't say, you know what, there's enough people serving in exgen. Nah, I'm good. No, no, no. He stops what he was doing and he goes and he serves where God's people need him to be serving. Paul's not idling, right? Like it's not like a one-time thing where he's coasting. And I I'm gonna say something that could be uh controversial, but I don't think retirement is a biblical principle. You see, if God originally created us in the garden to work, and we see in Revelation that we will also be working and our worship will bring glory to God, I don't think that retirement is a biblical principle. Now you can stop taking like an income, right? And and and I totally think that that's beautiful, but don't just take your foot off the gas. In that season, there's a younger generation coming after you who needs what God has placed on the inside of you to grow and become all that God has called them to be. But if you take your foot off the gas in that season, the people behind you falter. We actually just as a church finished for Summer Strong, finishing the book of Joshua. One of the craziest things about Joshua's life is when you look at Joshua, Joshua never raised up another leader after him. And the Israelites, because of it, fall into the same patterns of sin, fall asleep again and again and again because Joshua fell asleep on the next generation. Don't sleep on the next generation. Paul's actually pouring it all out. Actually, if you go a little bit later in chapter 20, Paul is talking about how he feels compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem and what's waiting for him in Jerusalem: death, slavery, being put into bondage, but Paul's not slowing down. Troaz, where he's preaching right now, is just a stopping place. For him, it's like the coffee shop. Yet he's still preaching to the next generation in that space. He doesn't miss a moment. He doesn't wait and say, you know what? I'm gonna wait till the younger generation comes to me. I'm gonna wait till Eutychus gets up off the ground. I'm gonna wait till he comes back upstairs because it's on him. No, no, no, no, friends. He goes exactly where the people are, lays his life down on Eutychus, and Eutychus comes back to life. In the same way, guys, we need you serving in next gen. We need you in Biggs. We need some moms and dads and aunties and uncles who are a little bit crazy because Biggs is a little bit crazy, but also who bring structure to a space. We need you to step in as a grandma and grandpa and be a prayer warrior on behalf of the next generation of leaders. We need you serving in high school and junior high because these kids do not have it all together, and nor do any of us, but they need to know that God is still on the throne even when we don't have it together. Paul doesn't sit back and wait, he goes and gets. He doesn't sit back and wait, he goes and gets. And the truth is that more than anything else, this generation, the younger generation, just needs a friend. They need someone who loves them enough, who's gonna show up, who's gonna be like, you know what? I'm gonna host a Kinect group. And my house, God has given me this beautiful home. I'm just gonna cook a home-cooked meal for kids. Let them come over with all the youth leaders and hang out at the house. We're gonna open up our space and just go and pray over every single kid. We're gonna lead an FCA at a school that our kids are a part of already. We're gonna be a host family. We're gonna be the ones who go above and beyond. We're gonna give generously. Because youth camp doesn't happen without your generosity. Big Sbash doesn't happen without your generosity. There's really practical steps, and quite simply, if you haven't gone through join yet, we need you. This generation needs you as a friend, and I know this because in a study done in 2023 by the APA, 30% of young adults, to like all of our six-aged young adults, shout out to the six. Everyone who goes to six at, let's go, let's go. That's our young adult service happens every Tuesday night, 7 p.m. 6 7. Um it's next gen Sunday, so I can say that. Okay. Uh-oh. Hey, come on, shout out. You had to be there to know it, okay? No, but in this study, 30% of young adults, sixth-aged young adults, experience loneliness on a daily basis. 30% on a daily basis. That number is probably even higher than that for a weekly basis, and probably even higher than that from a monthly basis. Imagine you're a young adult. You're trying to kick all of these old habits, you're trying to leave that old friend group. You feel alone and isolated already, and now you're trying to step into something new. What would it look like if you started a connect group for young singles? We're just like, hey, come, let's hang out, let's do a Bible study together. What do you already do? What are you already passionate about? Is it lifting weights? Great! I got a connect group at lifetime on Wednesday mornings. Come slide to it. It's fun. What has God placed already in your hand? You don't have to add something new because I think sometimes we think, oh, but Thomas, I have too much on my plate already. Thomas, I've got such a busy work schedule, but don't allow the lie to be told to you that you don't have time to serve the next generation. Because Paul is in the middle of his message, stops, goes and lays his life down and says, you know what? This is more important. Watching kids go from death to life is more important than the money in your bank account. Watching kids come back, their families be restored. Guys, at youth camp, it is the most beautiful thing on planet earth to watch high school students pray over junior high students. Because it just clicks, it just makes sense because it's how God set us up to be. And the reason I'm so passionate about the next generation, the reason that I'm so passionate about bringing them back is because in my own life, my grandmother did the very same thing for me. This Bible right here, uh, I had to get it like redone once because uh the pages were like falling off and the cover was completely gone. But um, when I was in college, I was at the lowest point in my life. Talk about loneliness, like I just felt nothing. And I was at this place where I was seriously contemplating taking my life for the third time. Failed twice. Praise God, God had completely restored me. And what was crazy is while I wasn't really walking with the Lord, I knew what name I could call on because of the faith of my grandmother and my parents. And my grandmother had put this Bible. Well, she actually given me this Bible in 2004. Um, she passed away with leukemia, and so when I was in college, 10 years later, I'm sitting in my dorm room at TCU and I'm just praying, Jesus, if you're real, show me something. And I audibly heard God tell me to go open up my desk drawer. My mom had put this Bible in my desk drawer. I didn't even know it at the time. The Bible pages were still crinkly, you know when like the pages are still crinkly when you get a new Bible. And so I like, I like opened up to a random page and I opened up to 2 Corinthians 12, 8, and 9. And it said, three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more of my weaknesses that Christ's power may rest in me. My grandmother wasn't even alive. She's alive in heaven, if you know what I'm saying. But she wasn't alive here on earth, yet God was answering her prayers ten years later. The prayers that my grandmother was praying, the consistency of just showing up in my life, let me know that even though I didn't know him yet, I know whose name that I could call on in that moment. We need you to show up. We need you to be consistent, we need you to serve. Not because we need something from you, but because the next generation needs the story that God has placed on the inside of you. Don't let the enemy tell you you're disqualified because you've walked through X, Y, or Z. Maybe the next generation needs to hear that story so they can feel equipped to know God's not done with you yet, so God's not done with me yet. If God did it in your life, he can do it in my life too. And so I just want to encourage us like, get practical with it. Go through join. Host a connect group. Jump in a summer strong summer party. Show up to the six. Even if you're an old head, we'd love to have you serve. Because here's the thing is that just like my grandmother, I don't want to go into the gates of heaven with anything still left in my tank. I want to go into the gates of heaven with Jesus saying, Well done, good and faithful servant. You poured it all out for the next generation, and I can't wait to see all the parkers on the other side of my yes, who are gonna be standing on platforms just like this, declaring the goodness of Jesus Christ here in the land of the living. But it starts by getting in community, it starts by getting plugged in, it starts by actually making Jesus your best friend. Because here's the thing is that at the end of the day, Paul knew how to lay his life down, right? Like I picture it like this, right? Eutychus falls out of the window, he's laying on his back, he's completely dead. And Paul saw Christ, his arms stretched wide on a cross, laying his life down for every single one of us. And Paul said, if Jesus could do it then, I can do it now. And he lays his life, literally his body, down on top of Eutychus, his arms stretched wide, just like Christ. And Eutychus comes back alive. Our God is in the business of resurrecting dead things. And so, even today, I want to encourage you like there is a God who's not distant, he's not far away, he's actually close, he's near to the brokenhearted, and he wants to restore a relationship with you so that you can live in eternity with him. So I just want everyone in the room to just bow your heads for just a moment. Focus and fix your eyes on Jesus. He loves you so much that he came down and he laid his life down for you. And all you have to do is just say, Jesus, I'm choosing you and I'm putting you first. So today. If you want to make Jesus number one in your heart and in your life, maybe you've been walking with Jesus for a while. Maybe you walked away from him, but you feel him drawing you back home and you want to rededicate your life to Christ today. Or even if you're gonna make Jesus first for the very first time. On the count of three, I just want you to boldly raise your hand up in the air, and as you're raising your hand, you're just saying, Jesus, I'm putting you first. Ready? One, two, three. If everyone wouldn't mind just putting your hand over your heart, just repeating 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. But today, I give you my heart, I give you my life, give me the power to live for you in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen, amen, amen.