The Choice Is Mine | Pastor Earl McClellan

it's not become uh oh no no it's their fault and it's their fault and if i had my dad and my mom and hey all of us got a story okay all of us got some trauma all of us got some things that we've been through but at some point in time we gotta say god i thank you for who you are and what you did on that cross and i am asking that i live my life for your glory in the midst of my brokenness and my pain in the midst of all the tears and me not having it all together give me the grace that i need to keep on moving forward first samuel chapter one if you have your bibles first samuel chapter one if you didn't bring your bible gonna put the verses on the screen so you can follow along with us first samuel chapter one see if i can find it here too i didn't know we're gonna spend all this time in first samuel when we when these messages first started coming to me but i'm excited i've been i've been growing first samuel chapter one oh let's go to verse number three and then we're going to go to chapter two of first samuel first samuel chapter one verse number three says year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the lord almighty at shiloh where hafni and fanehas and fanehas the two sons of eli were priests of the lord hafni and fanehas they were what of the lord they were priests of the lord okay go with me to first samuel chapter two skip down with me to verse number 22 now eli who was very old this is their father this is the son's father who was very old heard about everything his sons were doing to all israel and how they kept watch this and how that's rather rather how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meaning so he said to them why do you do such things i hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours no my sons the report i hear spreading among the lord's people is not good here you have these two priests these two sons and these priests are not acting like priests they are their behavior it would be completely opposite of what you think a priest behavior should be we're told in chapter one this is their title and then we're told in chapter two what their behavior looks like and it's not matching in this day uh these priests were responsible to be the mediator between god and god's kids there was a level of purity there was a level of holiness there was a level of set-apartness there was a level of this mattered it was a level of honor that came with it and these guys are taking their position they're taking their title and they're spitting in god's face they're spitting in the face of god's kids and they are taking something that is holy and they are treating it as common stepping on it

stomping on it disrespecting it and they're sleeping with all the women at the church and their father hears about it and he confronts them and he says guys you better cut this out this is not right i'm hearing all these wicked things that you are doing now the problem is these guys are priests that means they are at church so what do we learn here we learn really quick that external proximity is not the same as internal devotion that you can be next to the place you can be in church you can be even doing church things and not have a heart that has been captured by the grace of almighty god and living for his glory you they got the title but they haven't been transformed they've got the stuff that looks the it looks right on the outside but on the inside they are full of dead man's bones there is a disconnect between what they have been called to do and how they're actually living and i'm afraid that we're living in a day like that today yes sometimes with priests and pastors and preachers yes but definitely it's happening happening with individuals who are just living life and going through the motions of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I don't have any indictment on, I can't judge per se whether or not a person has given their heart and their life to Christ. I won't make that final judgment. That's up to the Lord to make those final judgments. I can, however, see that there's something that seems to be happening with our level of devotion and it seems to be deteriorating to a place that we don't really want it to be. There seems to be some lies that we are believing that is squelching the life of God on the inside of us. Can I have, Jamal, can I have my VR? One of my kids, well, my sons, my daughter was too young at the time. We went to, there was this VR place at North Park Mall.

I don't know if it's still there, but walked in and found out how expensive it was when I got in there. I was like, oh. I tried to, you know, moonwalk out, but my son's like, come on, Dad, come on, Dad, come on. I'm like, all right, we'll do it. Who needs to go to college? So we go in and they take us into a small room. We're in a small room first, and in this small room, we put on a vest, and then we have these glasses that they give us. We put them on, then you kind of gotta dial them in, you know, a little bit. You dial them in so you can kind of see right, and then they take you into another room, and when we get into the next room, all of a sudden, we're in a jungle. It's crazy in this jungle. In this jungle, there's like lava and cliffs and trees, and there was even a car that we're driving in. I mean, and some of the cliffs you go to, you would stand there, you got the goggles on, you stand there, and you would see, like, oh my goodness, if I don't make it over this cliff, I'm gonna fall into the lava. So you're kind of hyping yourself up, like, come on, come on, and you jump over, and you're like, yeah, I made it. And then I'm like, Earl.

There's no cliff. But the goggles are telling me there's a cliff. So I'm like, Earl, just take, just walk, Earl, walk, walk. Just walk, just walk. And you got to kind of fight with yourself because your brain is getting a message, but you know if you took the goggles off, you're just in this regular old box. The goggles are tricking you into thinking something is real that's not actually real. Can I say, I think this is a little bit of the day that we are living in, that there are some VR goggles that we need to take off that are telling people, you're a follower of Jesus, you're a Christian, but I'm telling you, you're not a Christian for that reason. That's goggles stuff. Okay, let me see, let me see if I can help us here. Let me give this to you, sir. Let's talk about cultural Christianity, political Christianity. Let's talk about religious Christianity, okay? Y'all. I love y'all, okay? We're in this together, okay? What's cultural Christianity? This is when somebody is like, oh, I believe in God. Yeah, I believe in God. Oh, awesome, me too. Oh yeah, I got baptized, I got baptized, I got baptized.

Oh, really, when? Oh, I was like four, I got baptized. Okay, great, great. Man, powerful moment, what did that mean to you? Oh, I didn't really, I mean, I just kinda, kinda just felt like I kinda needed to do it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Talk to me though, like talk to me about what Jesus has done in your heart and in your life. No, no, no, I'm not really like, it's not Jesus, man. Not really Jesus, I just kinda did it. Okay, oh, you didn't understand what baptism is. This is not like a, I just wanna kinda do something cool and fun to have goosebumps. This is you recognizing that you were lost and without the grace of God in your life, without the finished work of Jesus Christ on that cross, you are gonna be separated from him, but you, you in your place of lostness. your place of depravity and sin, your place of disconnectedness from God, Jesus still loved you and saw you and said, I'm saving you regardless. And he pulled you up out of that pit and he put you on a firm foundation and he gave you a brand new soul and heart. And what baptism is, is you're going public, letting the world know Jesus Christ is my everything. I'm no longer living for myself. I'm living for the glory of God.

I didn't do that. I just did, I just kind of, my friends were doing it. I believe in God. My youth pastor said to me, this is years ago, years ago. He said, going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car. Yeah. It's old, but I thought, I think we might need to hear that today. Because I think we might be dumbing down the standard a little bit. And there's this cultural Christianity that's not, it's just goggles. How about political? Come on, let's go. Like, because of how I vote, I'm a Christian. Wait, how you vote? Shoot, I'm pro-life, that means I'm a Christian. I'm pro the poor, I believe, I stand for the poor. I got their back, I'm a Christian. I used a red and a blue thing for both of y'all. Okay, okay, it's both sides. And they go, oh, I'm a Christian because of this stance. No, you're not. I totally believe in life starts at conception. Yes, and without a shadow of a doubt, I totally believe that we're supposed to advocate for the poor. I believe all of this stuff is in the Bible, but that's not what saves me.

The only thing that saves a man and a woman is the free gift of salvation through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I can vote or I can post a certain way, but voting and posting are not the same thing as receiving forgiveness of my sins and living in the way and the path of Jesus Christ. Take off the goggles. Religious Christianity. This is where I do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. I do, do, do, do. I'm doing, I'm doing, I'm doing, I'm doing. See, see, I'm a Christian. What am I doin'? What am I doin'? Look what I'm not doin'. What am I not doin'? What am I not doin'? What am I not doin'? I do, do, do, do. I don't do, I don't do. I do, do. I don't do, I don't do. And that means I'm a Christian. Look, look what I do. Look what I don't do. Look what I do. Look what I don't do. That means I'm a Christian.

And I'm saying whoa, whoa, don't you dare dumb down your Christian life to what you do and what you don't do. You are not called to do's and don'ts. You are called to relationship with the living God. And intimacy and a connection and a rhythm. But in our day and age, I think the standard is kind of being muddied. And now we're starting to judge ourselves against other people going, well, I'm kind of better than them, so I guess I'm good. And I don't want you judging yourself against somebody else. I want you to look at the beautiful, wondrous cross and say, man, did he really save me? Did he really give me a brand new life? Did he really make me new? And if all of that is true, am I living my life in accordance with that type of sacrifice? Or am I living my life selfishly and making it all about me? Because I don't want to live my life about me. I want to live it for the glory of God, for the person of Jesus, and to bring hope and life and light to the world around me. This is what we're being called into, but I am concerned that these VR goggles

are tricking us. And we think, yeah, yeah, I'm doing it. Somebody told me the other day, I don't know if this is true, and I don't know if this is true of our church, but somebody told me, oh, most people nowadays only go to church once a month. Those who go to church. Only go once a month. I was like, really? And so, you know, we're not taking attendance, you know, here, obviously. I might start. No, you know, this travel, and, you know, different things come up. You know, there's no, not putting guilt on anybody. But just when you hear that, you go, wait. Is that me? Because I don't think in my head like that. But what have I, how have I reoriented my life around the things. of God, and the house of God, and the people of God, and is this impacting who I am as a person at all? All of these, this cultural Christianity, and religious Christianity, and political Christianity, all of these things, I just want to, I want to get back to like the real thing. I want to get back to like Jesus at the center. I want to get back to like, I've been so changed and transformed from the inside out, not that I'm perfect, because none of us are perfect, but man, I'm pursuing Jesus, I'm not working for Jesus, I want to walk with Jesus, I want my whole life to be centered around Him.

And y'all, I'll be honest with you, for me even as a pastor, my world can be very Christian. Very Christian. I can be around Christian people all the time, and I mean, I am a Christian person, so I like them, it's great. You don't usually, most of y'all don't work in a spot where it's all Christians. Most of y'all work in a spot where people are like, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, I don't do that. When I'm at the church offices, there's nobody cussing. Wait. Nope, there's nobody cussing. I'm not around that. I got to be intentional to make sure I don't live in some bubble. So I got to make sure my life is not just so insulated from real people that are going through real things. I was talking to some of the guys that are aligned in Bible study on Thursday, telling them how we're believing God to get some more guys on the valet team, what used to be called the parking team, but on the valet team, because we're going to get our parking in order here at our Dallas campus. We're going to get this thing sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp, but I need about 20, 40 more guys to jump on the team to start serving. And I was sharing that with them, and I was saying, at our valet team, they experience people flipping them off all the time in the parking lot and cussing them out. Now, some of you are like, they saw me? Caught you on 4K? Busted you? We have people who come here who don't know the rules, whatever those are. They're everyday people. I love this. If we stop having people that cuss at this church, then something is wrong. We got too sanitized, we're too sanctified, and we're not going after the lost the way

I think we're supposed to be going after the lost. You got to have some people around that'll call you or something. I like that. With that being said, when they get here, what version of Christianity are they going to see? Because now they're trying to figure out what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and they're looking at you. When they look at you, do you want them mimicking you? Would the body of Christ, would the kingdom of God move forward if they copied everything that you did? If you were reproduced in them, would the world look more like heaven or more like hell? This is where we have to hold on and take some responsibility. The title of this message is The Choice is Mine. The choice is mine. We can try to give other people the strength and the permission to make the choice for us, but they don't get to do that. The choice is yours. It's in your hands. It's not become, oh, no, no, it's their fault, and it's their fault, and if I had my dad and my mom, and hey, all of us got a story, okay? All of us got some trauma. All of us got some things that we've been through, but at some point in time, we got to say, God, I thank you for who you are and what you did on that cross, and I am asking that I live my life for your glory in the midst of my brokenness and my pain, in the midst of all the tears and me not having it all together. Give me the grace that I need to keep on moving forward. Go with me to the gospel of Luke real quick. Go with me to the gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, we're talking about the cultural and the political and the religious Christianity.

I think Jesus really deals with these things beautifully in the gospel of Luke, and if you go to chapter 10 and get to verse number 30, he's sharing this parable. This one maybe you've kind of heard before called the Good Samaritan. This is where it is. In verse number 30, in reply, Jesus said, was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They're mugging him. It's a carjacking that is happening. He's attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and then they went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, this is another guy who's a church guy, the Levite. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Verse 33, but a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expenses you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, go and do likewise. I don't even have the time to get into all of the ramifications of this. When Jesus is using a priest and a Levite who would be in the in crowd, and then he uses a Samaritan, this would be somebody that would be on the out crowd, and he makes a Samaritan the hero. That's why the expert in the law doesn't even say the Samaritan. He says, the one. He can't even bring himself to let those words out of his mouth. That's how much Jews disrespected Samaritans, and that's who Jesus made the hero in the story. I've got the title of priest, church member, church goer, but how I'm living, it's not matching with what I'm saying. There's another level. There's another level, okay? There's another level. I don't want us to be people that just keep making excuses because we're kind of judging ourselves based on, oh, well, they're kind of lukewarm. Well, they're living together, too. Well, they're doing, well, they're, okay, so I must be good. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not your standard. Let's get back to the scripture and get back to the person of Jesus being our aim,

and God, shape me and mold me into who you call me to be, but in Luke chapter 10, he doesn't stop there. Right after this story with the good Samaritans, look at the very next verse, verse 38. As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. That's what Mary's doing. She's sitting at the Lord's feet listening to what he said, but Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Verse 41, Martha, Martha, the Lord answered. You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed, only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. I'm working for you, Lord, I'm working, I'm working, I'm working, I'm working, I'm working. This is a religious Christian. I'm working, I'm working, I'm working, I'm working, I'm working. This text is not saying work doesn't matter. It's reprioritizing work. It's making sure that work doesn't go first.

Intimacy goes first. Intimacy first, then the work comes out of the intimacy. It's birthday month, you know, for my wife. So we got a lot, we're cooking, okay, we're cooking. We got birthday, anniversary, I told you all this. Mother's Day is a lot, okay? And there have been times, and Onika knows this, Onika knows this, there's been times for birthday month, I was excited to honor her, but also dreading it. Because I'm like, I don't know if I'm, I've got too many things on my brain. So I'm doing all the things for her, but I'm not doing it with a heart of gratitude. Well, here's your party, here's your birthday party. You happy? Okay, good, okay, okay, here's your gift. Here's your gift, you happy? Okay, good, good. Okay, hey, hey, hey, here, here's our date night. Okay, you happy? No, I'm not. I'm anxious. Because the energy that you're giving here, it's not coming from a place of care, kindness, concern, love. You cherish me. It's coming from checkbox, checkbox, checkbox, checkbox, checkbox, checkbox, checkbox. I don't want our version of Christianity to be checkbox, checkbox, checkbox, checkbox.

I went to church, Lord, I went to church, Lord, I tithe, Lord, I tithe, Lord, Lord, look, look, I invited my neighbor over, Lord, look, I'm leading a connect group, Lord, look, I'm serving, Lord, look, checkbox, checkbox, check, he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, chill. I wanna know you, and I want you to know me, and then as we know each other, all that other stuff flows out of that. Come on, we're breaking down some walls here today, okay? We're taking off our goggles today. Go back with me to First Savior. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, go to Luke 11. Let me just give you this real quick. I just wanna get some more context, because it goes, good Samaritan, to the Martha and Mary story, and now look at Luke 11. All of this is just one story here, because the chapters and verses weren't there. Luke is just painting a picture for us. Look at the context of all of this. One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, I want you to teach us to pray. Just like John taught his disciples. We're looking at your prayer life, wow, teach us to pray. He said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone

who sins against us, and lead us not into temptation. This is what many of us know as the Lord's Prayer. Do you see here that the gospel writer, Luke, has this arc, this trajectory, this story that he's telling. It says, hey, it's not just about your title. It's not just about what you do. It's about an authentic connection that you have with your Savior. So we're not praying just God, we're praying Father, who are in heaven. Yeah, he's still holy, but he's Father. He's Abba, he's Dad, and this is what we're being invited into. Now go back with me to 2 Samuel, 1 Samuel. Okay, so we're in 1 Samuel here. I wanna do a little bit of comparing, contrasting real quick. If the sons, this Hophni and Phanehas, if these two sons had a path that they were on, Samuel had a path that he was on. And I think today, all of us are being invited to choose which of these paths do you want. Now I know which one you really want. I just know also what we're being sold in our culture. Here's a son's path. This is 1 Samuel chapter two, verse number 17. This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord's sight for they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt. Verse number 18, here's Samuel's path. But Samuel was ministering before the Lord.

Go down with me to verse number 25 of 1 Samuel chapter two. This is the dad when he's rebuking his sons. He says, if one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender. But if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them? His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke. For it was the Lord's will to put them to death. Verse number 26, and the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people. Here are some, a little compare and contrast. The sons here have a whole lot of activity, but they don't have intimacy. But you take Samuel over here, he's got a different path. He's got not just all the activity without intimacy, what he has is dedication with devotion. Which do you want? The sons over here. They get rebuked, but they don't turn. There's no repentance. They're like, we're staying in our ways. But that's not Samuel. Samuel here is growing in favor, in influence. There's a grace and a connection on his life. This verse actually matches beautifully with Luke chapter 2, verse 52. So Samuel is really a type and shadow of Jesus in this moment. Increasing in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. You're being invited into one of these two things. I know which one you want.

But family, we're going to have to choose it. And the choice is yours. Me, Eric, and Lucas, we're all taking a trip together. We're going somewhere, I don't know, conference or something. And Eric, who's our campus pastor here at our Dallas campus. And Lucas does a little bit of everything. Lucas is over all of the tech stuff for not just his Dallas campus, but also all the locations. And so we're all traveling together. I love these guys so much, but Eric gets to the airport first. So Eric's at the airport first. And he's like, hey, I'm here. You guys want any breakfast? There's a Chick-fil-A right next to our gate. We're like, say less. So Lucas sends in his order. I send in my order. I'm like, I'm going to get one of those biscuit breakfast sandwiches. So I text him. And Eric's like, bam, got it. Get there. We get in line to get on the plane. Get on the plane. We're all not sitting together. I sit down. I'm so hungry. I'm like, ooh. It was an early flight, early flight. I'm like, I can't wait. I can't wait. And I got this Jesus chicken in the morning.

I'm so excited about this. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. So I'm doing the wrapper. I'm opening it up, feeling bad for the person next to me. I'm like, sorry. I'm opening it up. Man, I open it up, y'all. I open it up. There's the biscuit. And just biscuit. There's no meat in the biscuit. I'm like, I'm checking the text. I'm like, what did I say to Eric that would make him think that I just want to have a biscuit? Bro, just give me a biscuit. That's all I want. I just want a biscuit. That's it. No, no. I want the meat too, OK? I want the bread, and I want the meat. I want it all together. So like, man, I'm crying laughing. I can't believe it. And I'm crying. Because it's going to be like, you know, maybe some, I don't know what they're going to give on the plane. Pass me my Wonder Bread. Some of y'all don't know what this is, OK? You're too bougie for this, OK? Real ones know.

Real ones. My kids don't even know what this is. I am a little bit concerned that we're living in a day with bread. No meat. I'm going to get rid of this. Give me the sourdough. Give me the sourdough. Y'all are sourdough people. Y'all are sourdough. I got my starter. I know, I know, OK. Your sourdough. Oh, no, no, no. I got sourdough. I got my sourdough. You can't just live on bread. If you try to just live on bread, you don't get the protein you need. You don't get the vitamins you need. You don't get the nutrients you need. And we live in a day that we're OK with a whole bunch of bread. No meat. No meat. We live in a day that we will curate our quiet time. Put it on the gram. Put it on TikTok. Coffee and pen. And then we got the Bible open in our journal. And we'll spend more time curating that picture than we will actually spend in God's word letting him change and transform us. I don't care if you want to post a picture. problem with that at all. Go right ahead. But just make sure you and I aren't so passionate

about the angles in this picture and we're not as passionate about letting the grace of God change and transform us from the inside out. There's too much bread and not enough meat. You will not grow if you don't have meat. You will not build muscle if you don't have meat. You won't have the vitamins and the nutrients you need if you don't have meat. So every... Now, if you want to let it be tofu, let it be tofu. I don't care. But you need some protein in order to grow. Every one of us need it. So this is what God's inviting us into today. Another level. Another level of intimacy, connection, devotion. That's not checkbox, checkbox, checkbox. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Intimacy first. And then my doing comes out of my being. That I don't want God to have my hands but not have my heart. I want Him to have my heart first. Then my hands and my life follow. If you and I can get to this place, and I'm talking to single people, married people, teenagers, older, younger, those who know the Bible, those who feel like you're brand new at it, I'm talking to all of us here. Giving us a picture. Which path do you want? Samuel ministering before the Lord? Or these two sons that are saying the right things but living a whole nother way? The grace of God is available to all of us today. Fresh start. New beginning. Brand new focus. Goggles removed. Meat in the bread. What's the meat? It's Jesus. If you keep trying to put yourself in the center, no, no, no. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, His Word, His truth, the Spirit of God. I can't wait to see what the rest of this year looks like as we draw closer. Not with just frantic energy, but in like heartfelt devotion to our King and our Lord. Bow your heads, if you wouldn't mind, at every location. Bow your heads. Man, if you're under the sound of my voice today and you've never given your heart and your life to Jesus, you've never made Him first, never made Him number one, and you're like, man, I don't want to go my own way anymore. I want to go His way. And something that was said today, something that was in that song today captured my heart. I know I'm going my own path. I don't want to go my own path. I want to go His path. I want to go the way of Jesus. Maybe there was a day you were following Jesus, but you've slipped away. You've gone another direction. You're saying, I don't want to go my own way anymore. I want to go His way. I want to rededicate my life to serving Jesus on the count of three. I want you to do something simple, but something bold. I just want us to throw our hand in the air and say, yes, that's me. I want

to give my heart and my life to Jesus Christ. Ready? One, two, three. Just lift your hand up. You're saying, yep, that's me. This is beautiful. We've got friends all over. You're saying, yep, that's me. I want to give my heart and my life to Christ. You're saying, I don't want to go my own way. I want to go His way. This is that moment of turning. Man, the grace of God is here and the love of God is here, and God's the one that brought you to this moment on purpose, online, in the room. He brought you here on purpose. I'm going to ask everyone to do me a favor. Put your hand over your heart right now if you would not mind. Now, I want everyone to 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 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.